Britten and Bernstein side by side (without Sondheim) in Suffolk

Aaron Copland & Leonard Bernstine

Bernstein & Britten: BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, John Wilson; Aldeburgh Festival
Reviewed by Tony Cooper on 8 June 2018 Star rating: 5.0 (★★★★★)
Britten, Bernstein and America surveyed in three concerts from John Wilson and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

The ongoing theme in this year’s Aldeburgh Festival (the 71st edition) focuses on Britten and America reflecting the year of 1948 when the festival laid down its roots not only enriching the cultural life of Suffolk and its environs but the country as a whole. Three concerts from John Wilson, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the John Wilson Orchestra in Snape Maltings Concert Hall gave us a wide variety of music by both composers, including Britten's Sinfonia da Requiem, Seven sonnets of Michaelangelo (with Robert Murray) and Diversions for piano Left Hand and Orchestra (with Pavel Kolesnikov), and Bernstein's Symphony No. 2 - 'The Age of Anxiety' (with Cédric Tiberghien) and music from his musicals.

Britten in the mid-1960s, by Hans Wild

Without a shadow of doubt, Britten and Bernstein (the centenary of whose birth falls this year) were both towering figures in the world of music working not just as composers, pianists and conductors but also as educators at a time when education was in its infancy in the creative world.

Both men were celebrated and revered like no other and here their music can be heard side by side. Many connections resonate across this festival including the likes of Peter Grimes, W H Auden, the Revd Walter Hussey and their bosom friend, Aaron Copland, whom, incidentally, Britten met for the first time at the 1938 ISCM Festival in London where Copland's El Salón México and Britten's Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge were played at the same concert.

And in the opening concert at the Snape Maltings Concert Hall, Copland was on the bill with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under the baton of John Wilson on top form delivering a sensitive, atmospheric and compelling reading of Quiet City, a work heavily featuring soloists from the orchestra, Mark O’Keeffe (trumpet) and James Horan (cor anglais). A mellow and inviting work offering an ode to New York, Quiet City was composed for Irwin Shaw’s play of the same name which, unfortunately, never made it above preview performances.

Bernstein’s Symphony No. 2 ‘The Age of Anxiety’ - the title emanating from W H Auden’s poem of the same name - regally followed. Completed in March 1949 in New York City, the work was dedicated to and commissioned by the Russian-born conductor, Serge Koussevitzky, who was preparing to end his 25-year career conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1949.

Celebrating 30 years of Big Screen presentations

Tonight (12 June) the Royal Opera House celebrates its 30-year partnership with BP bringing big screen presentations of opera and ballet to the UK, from Aberdeen to the Isle of Wight.  Free outdoor screenings which enable audiences to see live performances and picnic too

This evening's live presentation of Liam Scarlett's new production of Swan Lake launches the 2018 season of Big Screen presentations of live performances from the Royal Opera House.

Swan Lake is showing at Canada Square in Canary Wharf, Trafalgar Square, General Gordon Square, Woolwich (all London), Tattershall Lakes Country Park (Lincolnshire), Bristol Millenium Square (Bristol), Sandy Balls Holiday Village (New Forest, Hampshire), Portsmouth Guildhall Square (Portsmouth), Exmouth, Swansea Castle Square (Swansea, Wales) and The Piazza, University of Warwick (Warwick).

Further ahead, the Big Screen presentations are Puccini's La Boheme (26 June 2018) and Mozart's Don Giovanni (12 July).

Full details from the Royal Opera House website.

Young Artists performance of La Traviata at Opera Holland Park

Verdi: La traviata - Opera Holland Park (Photo Robert Workman)

Verdi La traviata; Alison Langer, Stephen Aviss, Aidan Edwards, dir: Rodula Gaitanou/Cecilia Stinton, cond: Harry Sever; Opera Holland Park
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 11 June 2018 Star rating: 4.5 (★★★★½)
A highly satisfying account of Verdi's tragedy from the Young Artists, with a poised performance in the title role

Stephen Aviss, Harry Sever, Alison Langer
(Photo Robert Workman)

This year's Young Artists Performance at Opera Holland Park was Rodula Gaitanou's production of Verdi's La Traviata [see my review of the original production] on Monday 11 June 2018. The performance featured Alison Langer as Violetta, Aidan Edwards as Giorgio Germon, Emma Stannard as Flora, Mike Bradley as Gastone, James Corrigan as Barone Douphol, Felix Kemp as Marchese d'Obigny and Aaron O'Hare as Dottore Grenvil. Young Artist alumnus Stephen Aviss sang Alfredo (he sang Rodolfo in the Young Artists performance of Puccini's La Boheme in 2016, see my review, and gives two performances as Alfredo in the main cast of La Traviata). The Young Artists director was Cecilia Sinton and the conductor was Harry Sever.

Returning to the production after a gap of two weeks, I found there was still a great deal to enjoy and that the production was as satisfying as ever. With a different cast and associate director, I also noticed further details which added to the story, such as the Barone's flirtation with another young woman at the end of Act One.

Having cast an outstanding Violetta as part of the main cast (Lauren Fagan), Opera Holland Park was equally gifted with Alison Langer who sang Violetta for the Young Artists. Langer sang the New Queen in the Opera Story's premiere of Snow [see my review] but perhaps her most visible achievement to date has been to duet with Dame Josephine Barstow whilst playing Young Heidi in the National Theatre production of Stephen Sondheim's Follies [see my review].

Langer made a poised and moving Violetta, bringing out the character's youth, moving successfully from the brilliance of Act One, through the tragedy of Act Two to a powerful final scene.

Musical beauty: new production of Lohengrin at Covent Garden

Wagner: Lohengrin - The arrival of the swan - (Photo ROH/Clive Barda)

Wagner Lohengrin; Klaus Florian Vogt, Jennifer Davis, Christine Goerke, Thomas J. Mayer, dir: David Alden, cond: Andris Nelsons; Royal Opera
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 10 June 2018 Star rating: 5.0 (★★★★★)
Moments of great beauty in a lithely dramatic account of Wagner's last Romantic opera

Klaus Florian Vogt, Thomas J Mayer - (Photo ROH/Clive Barda)

David Alden's new production of Richard Wagner's Lohengrin at Covent Garden replaces Elijah Moshinsky's 1977 production, which could hardly have been expected to last so long. Whereas Moshinsky took a semi-abstract neo-pagan approach, Alden has set his in the context of a fairly specific place and time in the early to mid 20th century.

We caught the second performance, on Sunday 10 June 2018, with Klaus Florian Vogt as Lohengrin, Jennifer Davis as Elsa, Thomas J Mayer as Friedrich von Telramund, Christine Goerke as Ortrud, Georg Zeppenfeld as King Heinrich and Kostas Smoriginas as the Herald. Sets were by Paul Steinberg, costumes by Gideon Davey, lighting by Adam Silverman, video by Tal Rosner and movement by Maxine Braham. Andris Nelsons conducted.

From the opening notes of the prelude (played with the curtain down), it was clear that Andris Nelsons' way with the score was going to be something special. He drew ravishing textures from the orchestra, creating moments of great beauty and real transparency. Even the more bombastic sections, with all the extra brass, seemed brilliant rather than heavy. This combined with a lithely dramatic, flexible approach to the piece gave it a fluency which it does not always have.

Mary's Hand: Composer Martin Bussey introduces his new opera

Martin Bussey

Composer Martin Bussey has written a new opera, Mary's Hand, on the life of Queen Mary I, to a libretto by Di Sherlock. Prepared for the company McCaldin Arts, the opera has its first performance in Chester on 21 June and then in London on 1 & 2 August as part of the Tete a Tete opera Festival. Martin answered some questions about his work and the piece as an introduction to his music. 

You have a number of strings to your musical bow. What do you consider your principal musical occupation?
Nowadays my principal occupation seems to have become composition. For a long time this sat in the background during years as a singer and a teacher. I wrote for forces at my disposal during that time, for example my piece about Ivor Gurney, Severn Meadows, composed for Chester Bach Singers. Or I wrote works which were rather conceptual, e.g. what I would write if I had a large chorus and symphony orchestra to hand - which I didn’t! Song and choral music have always been the focus of my musical performing life, and they have taken centre stage in my compositional life.

Your work in music is very native, working with English groups on British repertoire, composing your own settings of English texts and helping in the running of a association (The Finzi Friends) whose existence is a component of Englishness. Is it the culture or is it specifically the music?
I have always been captivated equally by the English language and by music.

Discover les Salons en Musique at the Institut français

To celebrate the restoration of its Pleyel piano, the Institut français in London is launching a new series of chamber music in its renovated Salons. 

Les Salons en Musique, a chance to discover a new series of chamber music concerts at the Institut français featuring a compendium of world-renowned chamber music performers. The series opens with the Nash Ensemble in Debussy, Saint-Saens and Ravel, and the young French ensemble Trio Métral celebrates Bastille Day with Haydn, Rachmaninoff and Mendelssohn. Further ahead there is the  Concert de l’Hostel-Dieu in a programme of Baroque female composers and poets , and the pianist Célimène Daudet in Liszt and Debussy.

From 28 June to 29 Nov at the Institut français, further details from the website.

A little bit of magic: Miah Persson in Richard Strauss's Capriccio at Garsington

Richard Strauss: Capriccio - Gavan Ring, Miah Persson, Sam Furness, Caspar Singh, Nika Gorič, Hanna Hipp, William Dazeley, Andrew Shore - Garsington Opera - (Photo Johan Persson)

Strauss Capriccio; Miah Persson, Sam Furness, Gavan Ring, Andrew Shore, William Dazeley, Hanna Hipp, dir: Tim Albery, cond: Douglas Boyd; Garsington Opera
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 9 June 2018 Star rating: 4.5 (★★★★½)
A strong cast and a radiant account of the title role show that music and art do matter in Richard Strauss's final opera

Miah Persson
Garsington Opera (Photo Johan Persson)

Tim Albery's production of Richard Strauss' Capriccio, a collaboration between Santa Fe Opera and Garsington Opera, debuted in Santa Fe in 2016 [see my review], and it has now reached Garsington with an entirely new cast and conductor. We caught the 4th performance on Saturday 9 June 2018; Douglas Boyd conducted with Miah Persson as the Countess (her role debut), William Dazeley as the Count, Sam Furness as Flamand, Gavan Ring as Olivier, Andrew Shore as La Roche and Hanna Hipp as Clairon.

Tobias Hoheisel's spectacular set consisted of a modernist, Mies van der Rohe-style house with the panelling from an 18th-century room at its centre, like a collected object. The rear wall was glazed and looked out onto a terrace (at Santa Fe this gave a view of the hills beyond the opera house, but in Garsington, this was simply evoked with lighting). Costumes were loosely 1940's with Miah Persson wearing a pair of extremely striking outfits which seemed somewhat later in date than the rest of the costuming.

Premiered in Munich in 1942, Strauss' final opera completely avoids any sense of the war and the troubles which lay behind life at the time and can seem a somewhat sweet confection, a group of aristocrats arguing about music, words and art. But for Strauss, this was a subject which really mattered, and for the opera to work we have to believe that these people really do care intently about art, that it is one of the most important things in their life. The opera is very wordy, very conversational and there is always a limiting factor when hearing it in German with surtitles (like Intermezzo there is a good argument for performing the opera in the language of the audience).

Albery's very physical production had the virtue of making us believe that these people really did care, that what went on in this room mattered. All concerned were highly involved and there was a strong sense of competitive dialogue. Strauss filled the opera with jokes (often musical ones), though we do not always laugh at performances nowadays this one was funny, in the right way. Though at times, the performance veered towards physical comedy especially in the scene were Olivier and Flamand gang up on La Roche and try to decry his old-fashioned ideas for staging opera.

Gavan Ring, Sam Furness - Garsington Opera (Photo Johan Persson)

This physical aspect combined with a performance from Douglas Boyd and the Garsington Opera Orchestra in the pit which created a robustness to the music, pushing it from the conversational to the more conventionally operatic. The big moments tended to flower as dramatic, operatic moments rather than flow as pure conversation. Yet the result was to convince us that these people really meant it.

The big plus for the production was the Countess of Miah Persson, elegant, stylish and completely at ease with the sheer wordiness of the role. The Countess might have one of Strauss' most ravishing scenes in the closing pages of the opera, but to get there the singer must cope with two hours of complex dialogue. Persson made it all seem natural and elegantly intense, as she showed a vivid sense of the words and the dialogue going on around her. Persson was not the flirtiest of Countesses (that palm has to go to Felicity Lott whom I heard in the role in Brussels and at Glyndebourne), in her scenes with Sam Furness (Flamand) and Gavan Ring (Olivier) she created more a sense of muse than a potential mistress. The relations between herself and the two men mattered deeply, but you felt that for this Countess it was art that really drew her in rather than any flirtation leading to a possible sexual relationship.

Coloured lights: Kander & Ebb's The Rink makes a triumphant return

Gemma Sutton and Caroline O’Connor in The Rink, Southwark Playhouse. Photo: Darren Bell

Kander & Ebb The Rink; Caroline O'Connor, Gemma Sutton, dir; Adam Lenson, cond: Jo Bunker; Southwark Playhouse
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 8 June 2018 Star rating: 4.5 (★★★★½)
Kander & Ebb's 1984 musical makes a triumphant return as a powerful two-hander

Kander & Ebb's 1984 musical The Rink made it's not very successful West End debut in 1988 (at the Cambridge Theatre), but then again the musical's original Broadway run in 1984 had not been much of a success either, despite the presence of Chita Rivera and Liza Minelli in the cast. The strange thing is that the piece seems to have created more of an effect when playing in smaller theatres. The new production of The Rink at the Southwark Playhouse (the musical's first London appearance since 1988), directed by Adam Lenson with musical director Joe Bunker, completely re-focussed the show. Lenson and his designers Bec Chippendale and Libby Todd concentrated on the relationship between the two women, mother Anna (Caroline O'Connor) and daughter Angel (Gemma Sutton), creating effectively a strong two-hander. Not that the large-scale numbers were neglected, we did have dance (and roller-skate) numbers from the ensemble of six, Stewart Clarke, Ross Dawes, Michael Lin, Elander Moore, Ben Redfern and Jason Winter.

Jason Winter, Michael Lin and Ross Dawes, The Rink, Southwark Playhouse. Photo: Darren Bell

I did see the original 1988 production and my main memory of it is the way the piece got rather lost in the huge set of the dilapidated roller-skating rink.

Genial conversations with old friends

Alexandra Harwood

Prokofiev, Smirnov, Harwood, Glinka; I Musicanti; St John's Smith Square
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 3 June 2018 Star rating: 4.5 (★★★★½)
Alexandra and the Russians - I Musicanti on a Sunday afternoon

This was the last in Leon Bosch’s wonderful Sunday afternoon series at St John’s Smith Square. I reviewed the first one in September [see Ruth's review]. The programmes have been made up of Russian pieces for flexible instrumental forces, around a new work from Alexandra Harwood and played by Bosch and his friends. On Sunday 3 June 2018, Leon Bosch and I Musicanti performed Prokofiev's Quintet in G minor Op. 39, Dmitri Smirnov's Dialogue in the Dark and Glinka's Septet in E flat, plus the world premiere of Alexandra Harwood's Ever After.

The first piece today was Prokofiev’s G minor Quintet with its original scoring for oboe, clarinet, violin, viola and bass. It was written for a circus-inspired ballet that was hardly performed as intended. In its surviving form it gives us a colourful, precarious world with a ‘band of [instrumental] misfits’, starting out with central Asian melismas, via Russian Orthodox bells with a cheeky andantino to finish.

Writ large: Tallis Scholars in Thomas Tallis' Spem in Alium

Thomas Tallis

White, Sheppard, Sutton, Tallis; The Tallis Scholars, Peter Phillips; Cadogan Hall
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 7 June 2018 Star rating: 4.5 (★★★★½)
Glorious Tudor polyphony from the Eton Choirbook to Tallis' 40-part motet

The 10th Choral at Cadogan series at Cadogan Hall came to a striking conclusion on Thursday 7 June 2018 when an expanded Tallis Scholars, conductor Peter Phillips, peformed Thomas Tallis' 40-part motet Spem in Alium as part of a programme which explored richly texture polyphonic music from the Tudor period, moving from the early Tudor period with John Sutton's Salve Regina (from the Eton Choirbook), through John Sheppard's Missa Cantata written during the reign of Queen Mary when large-scale polyphonic music came back, and finally Robert White's Domine, quis havitata and Magnificat from the Elizabethan period, with the final flowering of Tallis' 40-part motet.

Apart from the Tallis, many of the works in the programme were for six or seven voices but often composers sub-divide the parts at times to create a greater richness of texture. The Tallis Scholars performed most of the programme with a group of 12 to 14 singers, expanding to 40 for the final item.

One of the fascinating things about the programme was the use of melisma. The early Tudor composers like Sutton made extensive use of melismatic passages, so much so that at times the music seems to become divorced from the text as there are whole pages on a single syllable. Different composers have different approaches, but this sort of extreme melisma often disappears from the later Tudor period.

Premiere of Alex Woolf's Requiem

With a history of polyphonic settings of the Missa pro defunctis going back over 500 years and with so many Requiem settings freighted with so much history, deciding to create a new Requiem Mass is a significant hurdle for any young composer. 

Alex Woolf has risen to the challenge and written a new Requiem to mark the centenary of the end of the First World War. The work uses the traditional Latin text of the Missa pro defunctis, plus new poetry by Gillian Clarke, national poet of Wales, and is written for choir, solo tenor and solo cello.

Alex Woolf's Requiem receives its premiere on Saturday 9 June 2018 at a concert at Holy Trinity Church, Sloane Street, Chelsea, in aid of Children & the Arts. Alex Woolf conducts the Vox Luna chamber choir with tenor Nicky Spence and cellist Laura van der Heijden. The programme also includes James MacMillan's Miserere, John Tavener's Svyati for choir and cello and music by Purcell, Parry and Richard Rodney Bennett.

Alex Woolf was BBC Young Composer in 2012, and studied at Cambridge with Tim Watts. He is currently studying for a master's degree at the Royal Academy of Music where he has studied with David Sawer and Huw Watkins, as well as receiving tutelage from Oliver Knussen and Colin Matthews.

Further details from the concert's EventBrite page.

Somewhere for the weekend: Looking ahead to the Lammermuir Festival

St Mary's Church, Haddington

The Lammermuir Festival takes place in an around the Lammermuir Hills in East Lothian, just an hour from Edinburgh but the location for some stunningly beautiful venues and countryside. 

This year's festival is the 9th, and it runs from 14 to 23 September 2018, with concerts in and around Haddington, East Linton, Gladsmuir, Dirleton, North Berwick, Whitkirk, Musselburgh, Pencaitland, Port Seton and Dunbar, places that if you don't know them already you should think about visiting.

This year, composer and clarinettist Mark Simpson is artist in residence, performing with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and with the Red Note Ensemble in music by Nielsen, John Adams and Mozart, plus Mark's own music. Stuart MacRae, the festival's composer in association, has written a new work for the Hebrides Ensemble with tenor Joshua Ellicott and harpist Emily Hoile. The piece is the second of three that MacRae is writing for the festival, based on the Prometheus myth.

Scottish Opera will be visiting the festival for the first time, bringing a semi-staged production of Britten's church parable The Burning Fiery Furnace. There is also a specially commissioned community opera by composer Matthew Rooke involving over 150 people from the communities of Dunbar and East Lothian, performing alongside professional singers, and instrumentalists of Music Co-OPERAtive Scotland. Called An Cadal Trom (an old Gaelic song meaning A Deep Sleep), it is conducted by Sian Edwards and directed by Jack Furness.

Other visitors include soprano Anna Stephany with pianist Sholto Kynoch, the jazz pianist Jason Rebello joins the Prince Consort, the Danish String Quartet making a welcome return to the festival, the piano trio of Magnus Johnston, Guy Johnston and Tom Poster, and Stile Antico who will be bringing the festival to a close.

Full details from the festival website.

A visit to 1760s London: Ian Page & The Mozartists' Mozart in London

Mozart, J.C.Bach, Arne, Duni, Arnold, Pescetti, Rush, Bates, Perez, Abel; Rebecca Bottone, Eleanor Dennis, Anna Deven, Martene Grimson, Ana Maria Labin, Helen Sherman, Ben Johnson, Robert Murray, Steven Devine, The Mozartists, Ian Page; Signum Classics
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 6 June 2018 Star rating: 3.5 (★★★½)
An illuminating glimpse at the music Mozart heard in London during his visit in 1764/65

This two disc set from Ian Page and The Mozartists on Signum Classics is the fruits of their festival Mozart in London in 2015, held as part of their on-going Mozart 250 celebrations. The festival commemorated the 250 anniversary of Mozart's visit to London in 1764/65 with programmes of music written by Mozart during his visit (his first symphonies, and his first concert aria), alongside the music that Mozart would have heard in London, notably J.C. Bach and Arne but also Duni, Arnold, Pescetti, Rush, Bates, Perez and Abel.

Now I have to confess that I have a relatively limited appetite for Mozart's early symphonies, amazing though they are as the work of an eight or nine year old. But the advantage of this set is that besides Mozart's three symphonies and one concert aria, there is a wealth of material by other composers including 10 premiere recordings.

It is one thing to read how much the young Mozart was influenced by the music of J.C. Bach (who had been resident in London since 1762), but it is an entirely different thing to hear for one's self.

Poetry & Lyrics Festival at Kings Place

Daguerreotype taken at Mount Holyoke, December 1846 or early 1847,
the only authenticated portrait of Emily Dickinson after childhood.
The original is held by
Amherst College Archives and Special Collections

The Poetry and Lyrics Festival 2018, produced by Poet in the City, runs at Kings Place from 8 to 9 June 2018, and in the mix is an eclectic programme of live music, talks, readings and workshops. The festival is celebrating its third year with a theme of ‘Legacy and Subculture’.

Soprano Claire Booth will be joined by pianist Christopher Glynn to perform Aaron Copland's song-cycle Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson. Completed in 1950, the cycle represents Copland's longest work for solo voice, and each of the songs is dedicated a composer friend. Copland would later orchestrate eight of the songs.

Other performers at the festival include Cerys Matthews who is presenting an evening of Blues music, Jehnny Beth, Anthony Joseph and Richard Scott.

Poet in the City, which curates the festival, is a national arts charity that brings poetry to life beyond books, producing classic and contemporary poetry performances taking on major ideas, issues and people.

Further information from the Kings Place website.

France Musique launches English language website

If you ever fancied a change from BBC Radio 3 and BBC iPlayer, then France Musique has the answer. The French broadcaster has launched an English language website https://www.francemusique.com/ which provides a welter of on-line resources and concerts.

There are videos of concerts as well as videos of live studio sessions, plus a series of themed on-line radio channels. There are currently 1,600 archived concerts on the site, and more are promised. Not to mention useful articles.

The only thing I couldn't find on the site was a search function, so exploring is a bit of a lucky dip.

Summer in the City

Ironmongers Hall

Spitalfields Music's Summer in the City series launches on 8 June 2018 with a rush-hour concert from the Marsyas Trio in the Ironmongers Hall with a programme of music by female composers including Amy Beach, Louise Farrenc and Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel. The series continues with a lunchtime concert in the Drapers Hall from soprano Heloise Werner, mezzo-soprano Lucy Goddard and harpist Anne Denholm on 20 July.

Further ahead, there is are free outdoor concerts from Big Smoke Brass ensemble and from jazz pianist Ashley Henry. Other performers include the Camilli String Quartet, and soprano Katherine Watson with lutenist Elizabeth Kenny in 17th century music by female composers.

Full details from the Spitalfields Music website.

Bye-bye Maida Vale

Mock-up of the BBC Stratford building

So the BBC is planning to move out of the Maida Vale Studios and into a custom-built music hub in East London. The Maida Vale Studios, a former skating rink converted to studios in the 1930s, is one of the BBC's oldest buildings and there are lots of strands of musical history involved in it from popular to classical and beyond.


The new site promises a state of the art music recording and rehearsal studios and will provide a purpose-built base for the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus and the BBC Singers, as well as being used regularly by the BBC Concert Orchestra, and will enable the BBC to record and broadcast more live music than before. As ever with new projects like this, there is an education element too. In East London, the BBC will run music sessions in local schools and connect with music hubs, as well as making digital music resources available to schools everywhere. The BBC will also partner with local education groups on other music projects, and there is a promise to have a significant impact on music in the area.

It is not just classical that will be moving of course, BBC Radio 1, 1Xtra, Asian Network, Radio 2, Radio 3, 6 Music and BBC Introducing will all curate and broadcast performances regularly from the site.

All very brand new, exciting and shiny, but part of me feels sad at bidding good-bye to so much history at Maida Vale even though it is, evidently, riddled with asbestos which makes any upgrade a rather costly procedure. I have never recorded in the Maida Vale, my main memories of it are rehearsing in studio one when I sang with the London Philharmonic Choir (and the rather good canteen at the time, this was the 1980s), but I returned a few times to do interviews. I wonder what is going to happen to the old building, it would be sad if it disappeared.


The new facilities are promised for 2022/23, so a little way ahead.
More information from the BBC website.

Philosophical re-thinking: White Light from Hugo Ticciati & O/Modernt

White Light, Part, Vasks, Tavener, Lennon & McCartney; Hugo Ticciati, Matthew Barley, Soumik Datta, Sukhvinder Singh Pinky, O/Modernt Chamber Orchestra; Signum Classics
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 06 June 2018 Star rating: 5.0 (★★★★★)
Hugo Ticciati's eclectic programme combines both Western and Indian musics into an thoughtful and seductive whole

White Light, on the Signum Classics label, is the first disc from violinist Hugo Ticciati and his O/Modernt Chamber Orchestra. They are joined by Soumik Datta (sarod), Gareth Lubbe (harmonic singer), Matthew Barley (cello), Sukhvinder Singh Pinky (tabla) for an eclectic programme which mixes Arvo Part's Silouan's Song and Cantus in memoriam Benjamin Britten, Peteris Vasks ' Tala Gaisma, with improvisations and music by John Tavener, John Lennon and Paul McCartney.

The structure of the disc, formal composed material linked by improvisations with juxtapositions of composers from strikingly different backgrounds and a combination of both Western and Indian classical musics, reflects the philosophy of Hugo Ticciati and O/Modernt's programming [see my interview with Hugo].

Philosophy is important to Ticciati and part of the inspiration behind this programme is Ticciati's interest in meditative Indian philosophies. The title of the disc White Light comes from a quotation from Arvo Part 'I could compare my music to white light which contains all colours. Only a prism can divide the colours and make them appear; this prism could be the spirit of the listener'.

This reflects another part of Ticciati and O/Modernt's approach, the encouragement of active listening in the audience; the juxtaposition of diverse elements to make you think about them differently (such as a recent programme at Kings Place which mixed Vivaldi with arrangements of Metallica!).

Rhondda rips it up!

Lady Rhondda by Solomon J Solomon
credit Private Collection

Welsh National Opera's Summer tour involves not an opera but a cabaret-style vaudeville, Rhondda rips it up!, which will tell the story of the remarkable suffragette, Margaret Haig Thomas (Lady Rhondda), who tirelessly campaigned for equal rights for women. 

The show premieres in Haig Thomas’s hometown of Newport before touring Wales and England during summer and autumn 2018. Marking the centenary of the 1918 women's suffrage bill, Rhondda rips it up! features music by Elena Langer [see my interview with Elena], with a libretto by Emma Jenkins, and the all-female cast and creative team will be led by director Caroline Clegg and music director Nicola Rose. Soprano Lesley Garrett is Master of Ceremonies and Madeleine Shaw is Lady Rhondda, with women of the WNO Chorus performing all the other roles, male & female.

On the opening day of the tour, Thursday 7 June, WNO will host a symposium in Newport on the challenges faced by women in the classical music world. The tour will also be accompanied by extensive programme of free community and youth projects on protest, rebellion and human rights and an ambitious digital project bringing Lady Rhondda to life through a Mixed Reality (MR) installation.



Full details from the WNO website.

Purcell's Welcome Songs for King Charles II

Royal Welcome Songs for King Charles II; The Sixteen, Harry Christophers; Coro
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 28 May 2018 Star rating: 4.0 (★★★★)
Fine music spiced with some 17th-century politics, Purcell's music for Charles II

Royal Welcome Songs for King Charles II, on the Coro label, is another of Harry Christophers and The Sixteen's discs to arise out of their residency at the Wigmore Hall, performing Purcell. This disc follows a concert given in March 2016 [see my review] and gives us a pair of Welcome Songs written for King Charles II, Welcome Viceregent of the mighty King and Fly, bold rebellion, both from the 1680s, plus a mixture of sacred and secular material from the same period including the catch Since the Duke is returned, the verse anthem Let mine eyes run down with tears, the song Sleep, Adam, sleep, and take thy rest, the motet Beati omnes qui timent Dominum, the verse anthem O sing unto the Lord, and the hymn Great, God and just.

Christophers uses a vocal ensemble of eight singers, with many of the smaller items performed one to a part, and the ensemble using one male alto, with three tenors one of whom sings the high tenor alto parts. The instrumental ensemble is 12 strings plus theorbo, harp and organ/harpsichord. This is certainly not a luxuriant lineup, after all, Purcell had the Twenty Four Violins of the King at his disposal for the Welcome Songs, and certainly, Robert King and the Kings Consort use bigger forces in their complete Purcell Odes and Welcome Songs.

But certainly, Christophers and his team do not sound undernourished, anything but. By using consort singers with solo experience we get a very vibrant yet intimate sound. Even at its biggest, this is more richly characterised vocal consort than a choir, and that suits the music very well indeed.

Purcell's Welcome Songs still tend to be a bit neglected, partly I think because the texts are frequently rather trivial (with couplets like 'Welcome, Viceregent of the mighty King / That made and governs everything') and the subject matter (the need to laud the reigning monarch) a bit difficult to stomach sometimes.

Baltic Sea Philharmonic celebrates 10 years.

The Baltic Sea Philharmonic & Kristjan Järvi on Waterworks tour in Copenhagen 2017
(Photo: Baltic Sea Philharmonic / Peter Adamik )

Today (4 June 2018) the Baltic Sea Philharmonic celebrates its 10th anniversary. On 4 June 2018, the then Baltic Sea Youth Philharmonic, conductor Kristjan Järvi, [see my interview with Kristjan] gave a concert in Riga, Latvia. The ensemble brings together young musicians from all 10 Baltic countries. Since 2008 some 700 musicians have played in almost 100 concerts in 47 cities in 14 countries, with collaborators such as Gidon Kremer, Julia Fischer, Valentina Lisitsa, David Geringas and Angela Gheorghiu. The orchestra's 2017 Waterworks tour included the orchestra's debut at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg [see my review].

Looking ahead, the orchestra will be taking its Waterworks programme to the United Arab Emirates in November 2018, and in July 2018will give the world premiere the Violin Concerto by Lithuanian composer Gediminas Gelgotas [see my interview with Gediminas] and the orchestra is a co-commissioner of a major new work by Steve Reich, Music for Ensemble and Orchestra.

The orchestra’s international touring was paralleled by its education programmes, ranging from the specialist coaching for its musicians to workshops for young conductors and composers, and concerts for schools. In 2013 the Baltic Sea Music Education Foundation was created to consolidate these activities and to develop a sustainable education strategy for the Baltic Sea region.

Further information from the Baltic Sea Philharmonic website.

An Introduction to Opera

A new on-line course Inside Opera: Why does it matter? has been developed by The Royal Opera House, the Victoria & Albert Museum and King’s College London. Available from today (4 June 2018), the course is led by Dr Flora Willson, a specialist in 19th century opera and Lecturer in Music at King’s College, London. The course is open to all and no prior knowledge is needed. Running for four weeks, it will give students an insight into the main musical and dramatic features of opera, the major roles in a production, the technological developments within the genre, opera around the world, how opera has changed over the past four centuries and what opera has to offer to 21st century audiences. The course is intended to encouarage discussion about opera and how it continues to develop and diversify as an art form.

Full details from the Inside Opera: Why does it matter? page at FutureLearn.com

Songs and duets from Carolyn Sampson and Iestyn Davies at the Wigmore Hall

Carolyn Sampson (photo Marco Borgreve)

Songs & duets by Purcell/Britten, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Quilter; Carolyn Sampson, Iestyn Davies, Joseph Middleton; Wigmore Hall
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 2 June 2018 Star rating: 4.0 (★★★★)
A programme of duets highlighting beauty of tone and fine artistry

Soprano Carolyn Sampson, counter-tenor Iestyn Davies and pianist Joseph Middleton released a disc of duets last year on the BIS label, and on Saturday 2 June 2018, they brought a programme of songs and duets to the Wigmore Hall, featuring many of the items on the disc. 

The evening opened and closed with English song, first Britten's realisations of Purcell, and the songs and duets by Roger Quilter to close. In the middle, we heard duets written by Felix Mendelssohn and Robert Schumann, a chance to hear repertoire which does not always feature in the concert hall.

Iestyn Davies (photo Marco Borgreve)

Britten's realisations of Purcell, created mainly for his own recitals with tenor Peter Pears, bring Britten's personal voice into the mix in the way that he did with the folk-song settings so the results can vary significantly from the way a contemporary keyboard player might realise the accompaniments, even on the piano. It is this melange of voices which is the interest of these pieces, and I have to confess that I remain conflicted about the results. Sometimes the effect works beautifully, but at other times Britten's own voice seems a little too dominant in the accompaniment.

Whatever I thought of the music, there was no doubting the beauty of the performances with Carolyn Sampson and Iestyn Davies providing a finely balanced pairing which seemed to make them ideal for these modern re-interpretations of Purcell; both singers with great period experience as well as more recent repertoire. And Joseph Middleton played Britten's creative piano parts with real love.  We heard the duets Sound the trumpet, Lost is my quiet and No, resistance is but vain along with two solo songs If music be the food of love from Sampson and Music for a while from Davies.

The centre-piece of the programme, spanning the interval, was a sequence of songs and duets by Felix Mendelssohn and Robert Schumann demonstrating the way these two incorporated the duet form into their lieder output. What was noticeable about the duets from both composers was how the two rarely moved away from the format of two voices moving together (homophonically) over a rippling piano accompaniment. Beautiful as these songs were, you sometimes longed for a more imaginative texture and I did wonder whether the need for the music to be accessible to and popular with the printed music buying amateur was a factor in this.

Swan Lake at the Royal Ballet

Royal Ballet - Swan Lake - © 2018 ROH. Photograph by Bill Cooper

Is it really over 30 years since the Royal Ballet debuted Anthony Dowell's production of Swan Lake at Covent Garden (13 March 1987). I attended one of the early performances and was bowled over by the combination of choreographic textual fidelity (based on the Stepanov notations of the ballet brought out from Russia in 1919 by Nicholas Grigorievich Sergeyev), and designs by Yolanda Sonnabend which hardly looked like ballet at all. 

Now the Royal Ballet has revealed a new production created by Liam Scarlett  with designs by John MacFarlane. We caught the performance on Friday 1 June 2018 with Marianela Nunez as Odette/Odile, and Vadim Muntagirov as Siegfried, conducted by Koen Kessels. 

The new production has links to the 1987 one, both are set in early 20th century Russia. John MacFarlane has supplied some stunningly painterly designs for Acts One, Two and Four, with a startlingly realistic and very over the top marble and gilt interior of Act Three. Within this, Scarlett has re-thought the dramaturgy so that for Act One the prince's tutor has gone, and we have Prince Siegfried's friend Benno and Von Rothbart, disguised in human form and acting as advisor to the Queen. It makes a great deal more sense of the drama.

Within this Scarlett has created a very, very Romantic Swan Lake. Tutus are back (they were dropped in favour of something longer in the 1987 production). This, in itself, gives the white acts their very, very traditional look.

Royal Ballet - Swan Lake - © 2018 ROH. Photograph by Bill Cooper

The music that forms the basis for Swan Lake is in fact not Tchaikovsky's original score, but the score as arranged and adjusted by Riccardo Drigo to suit the requirements of Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov's new production in St Petersburg in 1895.

90th birthday celebration - my interview with composer Thea Musgrave

Thea Musgrave (Photo Bryan Sheffield)

The Scottish-born, USA-based composer Thea Musgrave is celebrating her 90th birthday. There are musical events in many places, and last weekend she attended a concert in New York which celebrated the wide range of her music from recent choral pieces to excerpts from her operas. Thea studied music in Edinburgh in the 1950s, before going on to spend four years studying with Nadia Boulanger, not to mention a summer working with Aaron Copland at Tanglewood. I was lucky enough to be able to interview her by Skype last weekend to talk about her music and her career.

With such a long career, and with so many works, I was interested to find out what were Thea's personal highlights. Her response was immediate, her opera Mary Queen of Scots. Thea points out that not only was Mary a woman but she received a lot of her education in France as did Thea, which Thea found good credentials for writing the opera.  Mary Queen of Scots was premiered in 1977 by Scottish Opera at the Edinburgh International Festival with Thea conducting. (Thea adds as an aside that she was at the first Edinburgh Festival in 1947 and remembered the electric tram lines being decorated with flowers).

After the work's premiere, the opera received its USA premiere in 1978 in Virginia with her husband, Peter Mark's Virginia Opera. The live recording of this performance, with Ashley Putnam, was issued on disc, and Thea is pleased to note that the recording is available again on Lyrita [available from Amazon]. The opera was also performed in New York, and San Francisco (where Thea conducted it). Despite this, the opera does not seem to have received any recent performances and Thea feels that there is a need to get the opera-going again and is pleased that the live recording is now available.

Comedy and pathos: Mozart's Cosi fan tutte at Opera Holland Park

Mozart: Cosi fan tutte - Opera Holland Park (Photo Robert Workman)

Mozart Cosi fan tutte; Eleanor Dennis, Kitty Whately, Nick Pritchard, Nicholas Lester, Sarah Tynan, Peter Coleman-Wright, dir: Oliver Platt, City of London Sinfonia, cond: Dane Lam; Opera Holland Park
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 31 May 2018 Star rating: 4.0 (★★★★)
Comedy and a serious message mix with 18th-century style

Kitty Whately, Eleanor Dennis - Opera Holland Park (Photo Robert Workman)

Having given us a stylish period production of Verdi's La traviata for the opening opera of the season [see my review], Opera Holland Park (OHP) continued to buck the trend with Oliver Platt's 18th-century-set production of Mozart's Cosi fan tutte, which opened on Thursday 31 May 2018. Eleanor Dennis and Kitty Whately were the sisters Fiordiligi and Dorabella, with Nick Pritchard and Nicholas Lester as their lovers Ferrando and Guglielmo, plus Sarah Tynan as Despina and Peter Coleman-Wright as Don Alfonso. The production was designed by Alyson Cummings with lighting by Rory Beaton. Dane Lam conducted the City of London Sinfonia.

This production can be seen as one of the fruits of Opera Holland Park's support for young artists, as conductor Dane Lam, director Oliver Platt and tenor Nick Pritchard are all alumni of OHP's young artists scheme.

Dane Lam and Oliver Platt collaborated on last year's production of Don Giovanni [see my review], whilst that was given a 20th-century gloss, this new production of Cosi fan tutte was firmly 18th century. Alyson Cummings' basic set was a stage within a stage which formed the centre of all the action, a gentleman's outfitters for the opening scene and then the sisters' drawing room for the remainder of the action. But the set opened up so that for the later scenes it developed more into an orangerie. The wider OHP stage was used for the chorus scenes and set pieces, but some of the action spread out as well. However, it was clear that the aim was, sensibly, to keep the main performance within quite a tight area.