Gareth Wilson & choir of Girton College, Cambridge return to the richly textured music of Marc'Antonio Ingegneri for a second disc on Toccata Classics

Marc'Antonio Ingegneri: Missa Voce mea a 5 and Double Choir motets; Choir of Girton College, Cambridge, Historic Brass of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Jeremy West, Gareth Wilson; TOCCATA
Reviewed 6 July 2022 (★★★★½)

Girton Choir's second disc of music by Ingegneri reveals a wealth of hitherto unknown music, the rich textures amplified by the participation of historic brass to superb effect.

In 2019, Gareth Wilson and the choir of Girton College, Cambridge, did a tour to Lombardy culminating in a performance at Cremona Cathedral where Marc'Antonio Ingegneri was director of music until his death in 1592. Following this tour the choir recorded a disc of Ingegneri's music for Toccata Classics [see my review]. For the past few years this has been the pattern, that the choir tours a programme in the Summer and then records it, having gained familiarity with the music. This whole pattern was shattered by the events of 2020 and no recording ensued. Thanks to a considerable amount of fancy footwork, a tour (of sorts) was undertaken in 2021 and thankfully Wilson and the choir were able to make a second disc of Ingegneri's music. A remarkable achievement.

The second volume of Gareth Wilson and the choir of Girton College, Cambridge's recording of music by Marc'Antonio Ingegneri on Toccata Classics sees them collaborating with the historic brass of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, leader Jeremy West, on Ingegneri's Missa Voce Mea and a selection of his double-choir motets. All are first recordings.

Celebrating the culmination of its five15 project, London Oriana Choir presents its Women Composers Festival

London Oriana Choir's five15 project launched in 2016 to support and champion women composers through commissioning new works, increased concert programming, workshops, recordings and more, aiming to create a paradigm shift in people’s perceptions of a typical composer. Through a series of composers in residence, Hannah Kendall, Anna Disley-Simpson, Jessica Curry, Rebecca Dale, and Cheryl Frances-Hoad, the choir has commissioned 15 new pieces as well as championing the work of other women composers in their programmes.

The project now culminates in a celebratory Women Composers Festival concert at the Southbank Centre's Queen Elizabeth Hall when Dominic Ellis-Peckham conducts the London Oriana Choir and they are joined by three guest choirs, The Edinburgh Singers, Southern Spirit Singers and Archer Academy student choir. The programme features works commissioned by London Oriana Choir from all five of their composers in residence, along with works by Judith Weir, Mia Makaroff, Annie Lennox, Kate Rusby and Sarah Quartel.

London Oriana Choir and Dominic Ellis-Peckham have recorded all the five15 a cappella commissions for an album for nonclassical which will be issued in 2023/24, and to celebrate their recording of Anna Disley-Simpson's In the blue is released as a single [on Spotify]. Disley-Simpson won a competition in 2019 organised under the five15 umbrella amongst composers aged under 25.

Full details of the concert from the Southbank Centre's website.

Beyond the Garden: Developing an Opera

Stephen McNeff & Aoife Mannix: Beyond the Garden - Susan Bickley at premiere of the work (Photo Slovenian Chamber Music Theatre)

Stephen McNeff and Aoife Mannix' opera Beyond the Garden (subtitled When the past is not how you want to remember it…) was commissioned by Slovenian Chamber Music Theatre and premiered by them in Slovenia in 2019, but prior to then Stephen had presented excerpts in a workshop that I was lucky enough to be able to attend. 

Now the work is receiving its UK premiere, with performances at the Lichfield Festival on 14 July [ticket details] and at the Three Choirs Festival on 25 July [ticket details], with mezzo-soprano Susan Bickley as Ottilia (a role she created at the opera's premiere), and soprano Alison Rose as Klara, with Gemini, conducted by Dominic Wheeler.

Stephen McNeff and Aoife Mannix have made some changes to the opera since its first performance, and in this article, Stephen explores the processes by which they developed the work.

South Moravian Winter Landscape (Photo Stephen McNeff)

It’s to the great credit of Slovenian Chamber Music Theatre that two years ago in the middle of the pandemic they took advantage of a lull at the end of August to push ahead – under strict social distancing conditions – with the premiere of Beyond the Garden. Since then, the opera has been performed several times, each time subtly developing as the experience of performance sharpened the emphasis. Most recently in the Czech Republic in Brno, Olomouc and Prague, audiences and critics (and of course the fantastic contribution of the performers) helped Aoife Mannix (the librettist) and I discover more about what we wanted to say. They helped to pin down what the work is really about.

Beautiful Music in Beautiful Places: The Lammermuir Festival returns with 35 live performances across 16 historic venues in East Lothian

Haddington - St Mary's Parish Church (Photo Robin Mitchell)

The Lammermuir Festival's tagline is Beautiful Music in Beautiful Places and this year's festival, which runs from 8 to 19 September 2022, certainly proves that. The festival is offering 35 live performances across 16 historic venues in East Lothian and alongside festival favourites such as Holy Trinity Church and St Mary's Parish Church in Haddington, there are new venues such as The Big Shed near Musselburgh, North Esk Parish Church, Sancta Maria Abbey at Nunraw, and Dunglass Collegiate Church.

Scottish Opera will be giving what is thought to be the Scottish premiere of Massenet's 1907 opera Thérèse in a semi-staged performance at St. Mary’s Parish Church, Haddington, conducted by Anu Tali with mezzo-soprano Justina Gringytė in the title role. Set during the French Revolution, the opera is a rare excursion into more Verismo territory than usual for Massenet. The title role was written for the mezzo-soprano Lucy Arbell who created a number of roles in Massenet's later operas (including Dulcinée in Don Quichotte) and who had a 'close relationship' with the composer. Interestingly Arbell was the grand-daughter of Sir Richard Wallace of Wallace Collection fame.

Coffee Concerts at Holy Trinity Church in Haddington feature pianist Malcolm Martineau performing all of Duparc's songs with singers Jennifer Johnston, Joshua Ellicott, Sarah Fox and James Newby, plus performances from pianist Till Fellner, violinist Viviane Hagner, French oboist Armand Djikoloum, and pianist Danny Driver.

Pianist Jeremy Denk was artist in residence at the 2021 festival and he returns to perform five programmes with repertoire ranging from Bach's Violin Sonatas with violinist Maria Włozczowska to Ravel and Miss Mazzoli to Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, conductor Rory MacDonald. Denk closes the festival with the Royal Northern Sinfonia, conductor Dinis Sousa, in Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4, plus music by Ives and Mendelssohn.

The newly formed National Youth Choir of Scotland Chamber Choir makes its debut live performance conducted by Christopher Bell in James MacMillan, Caroline Shaw and Britten's Hymn to St Cecilia. The Dunedin Consort returns to the festival for its 13th consecutive year when John Butt directs a performance of Mozart's Mass in C minor with a cast including Lucy Crowe and Anna Dennis.

Other visitors include Baroque ensemble Spiritato which will make its Festival debut alongside The Marian Consort, The Quatuor Agate in their Scottish debut, Quatuor Mosaïques, Sansara, and The Orlando Consort.

Full details from the festival website.

Frothy fun: Johann Strauss' unaccountably neglected operetta Blindekuh

Johann Strauss II: Blindekuh; Robert Davison, Kirsten C Kunkle, Martina Bortolotti, Roman Picher, James Bowers, Andrea Chudak, Daniel Schliewa, Emily K Byrene, Julian Rohde, Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus, Dario Salvi; Naxos

Written a few years after Die Fledermaus and unaccountably neglected, Strauss' operetta proves a work of great charm in this revival from Sofia

Johann Strauss the younger completed some 15 operettas over a span of over 25 years (1871 to 1897). All but one, Ein Nacht in Venedig were premiered in Vienna. Yet only one has made a regular place in the repertoire, Die Fledermaus (premiered in 1874), whilst two others make it as also-rans, Ein Nacht in Venedig (1883) and Die Zigeunerbaron (1885), both more common in German speaking areas than elsewhere. The commonly accepted reason for this is the poor quality of Strauss' librettos. Certainly most of the plots of his operettas are based on ideas of Boulevard comedies with disguise and mistaken identity a central feature. But the plot of Die Fledermaus is hardly a model of lucidity and the basic premise of the plot requires a degree of explanation. 

It is curious how some operas have become accepted, despite limitations of libretto whilst others are shunned. Sometimes this is certainly related to that almost unquantifiable element, the composer's engagement with the libretto, but sometimes it can be down to other elements. Gustav Mahler raised the artistic status of Strauss' Die Fledermaus by performing it at Hamburg Opera House, and this feeling that Die Fledermaus is more 'operatic' might be the reason for its greater popularity.

Strauss' Blindekuh (Blind Man's Buff) premiered at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna in 1878. It had a respectable run and then a run of performances in Budapest, and then evidently, very little. The libretto is based on a comedy by the German actor and playwright Rudolf Kneisel (1832-1899) and one of the complaints charged against the operetta was that the plot was too complex. Certainly, it seems to have taken much of Kneisel's mistaken-identity farce rather too literally. There is the feeling that there are rather too many characters and rather too much business and that a sure hand with the scissors might have helped things along. 

Yet, for the Strauss enthusiast (and for others), there is plenty of delightful music. That is where recordings come in. In 2019, Dario Salvi conducted the Sofia Philharmonic and Chorus in a recording of Johann Strauss' Blindekuh for Naxos with Robert Davidson (Scholle), Kirsten Kunkle (Arabella), Martina Bortolotti (Waldine), James Bowers (Adolf), Daniel Schliewa (Kragel), Andrea Chudak (Betsy), Emily Byrne (Elvira), Julian Rohde (Johann) and Roman Pichler (Hellmuth).

Celebrating its fifth anniversary, Waterperry Opera Festival promises a delightful and entertaining season all round! Tony Cooper reports

Audiences picnicking at Waterperry Opera (Photo Robert Workman, 2019)

Waterperry Opera Festival - celebrating its fifth anniversary this year - runs from Friday 12 to Saturday 20 August at their delightful home at Waterperry Gardens on the Waterperry Estate just a stone's-throw away from Oxford. Interestingly, the Gardens were established by the English horticulturist, Beatrix Havergal, in 1932. Here Ms Havergal ran a residential horticultural college for women and when she retired in 1971 the college shut down. A year later the School of Economic Science purchased the Waterperry Estate including Waterperry Gardens which it runs to generate revenue for the school.

In total there are eight rich fertile acres of landscaped ornamental gardens comprising an alpine garden, formal knot garden, herbaceous borders, riverside walk, rose garden and water-lily canal. There are also five acres of orchards and two collections of saxifrages which are accredited with ‘plant heritage’ under the National Plant Collection Scheme.

Stories inspired by the Queen of Science

Painting of Mary Somerville by Thomas Phillips (1834)

Astronomer and mathematician Mary Somerville (1780-1872) is not a well-known figure but Electric Voice Theatre's event Songs and Stories from the Somerville Connexion at the Stroud Green Festival on 24 July 2022 is aiming to change all that. 

They explore Somerville’s personal connections through music by 19th century composers who were close to her circle, revealing Italianate arias by Jane Bianchi, Scottish Melodies by Isabella Scott Gibson, devotional verses by Eliza Flower and an astute parlour song, which appears to echo Somerville’s early life, by one of her dearest friends, Lady Dufferin. 

One of her mathematics students, Ada Lovelace (1815 – 1852), became a figurehead for generations of women developing computer technology up to the present day, and inspired composer Cheryl Frances-Hoad to write a solo work using her words. There are further settings of the words of several of the protagonists by composers Lynne Plowman (setting Mary Somerville) and Frances M Lynch (setting astronomer Caroline Herschel). 

Somerville College, Oxford, is named after Mary Somerville. She and Caroline Herschel were elected in 1835 as the first female Honorary Members of the Royal Astronomical Society. Somerville's 1834 book, On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences, in which she described the interdependence of astronomy, physics, chemistry, geology and mathematics, and explained the latest scientific thinking of the day in language directed to her "country-women", was one of the best-selling scientific books of the 19th century. When Somerville died in 1872, The Morning Post's obituary declared  "Whatever difficulty we might experience in the middle of the nineteenth century in choosing a king of science, there could be no question whatever as to the queen of science"

Full details from Electric Voice Theatre's website.

American pianist/composer Conrad Tao makes his Wigmore Hall

Conrad Tao (Photo Brantley Gutierrez)

At 28, the American virtuoso Conrad Tao is making a name for himself both as a pianist and as a composer, and is one of those artists who successfully transition from child prodigy to mature artist. Yet his recitals always include an element of the surprising. On 13 July 2022 he makes his Wigmore Hall debut with a programme that moves from Bach and Beethoven to Schumann's Kinderszenen to John Adams' China Gates as well as music by jazz pianist Fred Hersch, a work by Jason Eckardt written for Tao and some of Tao's own pieces, and the whole recital begins with one of Tao's improvisations. Quite a feat. Full details from the Wigmore Hall website.

As an indication of his quirky but imaginative approach to music, here is a sample of his collaboration with tap-dancer Caleb Teicher on the Aria and Variation I from Bach's Goldberg Variations:

Evoking the Ancien Régime: grandeur & imagination in Jean-Joseph de Mondonville's Grands Motets

Jean-Joseph de Mondonville Grands Motets; Choir and orchestra Marguerite Louise, Gaétan Jarry; Chateau de Versailles Spectacles
Reviewed 29 June 2022 (★★★★)

The 18th century composer's approach to this grandest of grand French sacred music genres is full of drama, imagination, rich timbres and striking textures

The French grand motet was a rather diverse genre very much associated with the Ancien Régime. Originally created in the 17th century, these large-scale choral settings were used in the very grandest of services, those in the King's chapel and the works sit somewhere between the motet and the oratorio in terms of style, though this could vary. Jean-Joseph de Mondonville is perhaps not a name that people conjure with, but a new disc of his highly dramatic grands motets seems to bring his music to life. 

Jean-Joseph de Mondonville wrote 17 grands motets between 1734 and 1755, of these just nine survive, partly because those written for royal use were not allowed to be published. This disc from Gaétan Jarry and the Chorus and orchestra Marguerite Louise on Chateau de Versailles Spectacles' own label features four of Mondonville's grands motets spanning virtually the whole of the composer's career, from Dominus regnavit of 1734 to Coeli enarrant gloriam of 1749 to In exitu Israel of 1753.

Haydn day at Wigmore Hall curated by pianist Roman Rabinovich

Roman Rabinovich

Pianist Roman Rabinovich has been exploring Haydn's keyboard music since 2016 when he played a six-recital series at the Lammermuir Festival, followed by a series of ten all-Haydn recitals comprising 48 Sonatas at the Bath Festival in 2017, as well as numerous single recitals all over the world. And he has issued two volumes of Haydn sonatas on First Hand Records. I chatted to him back in 2016, just before the Lammermuir Festival concerts, see my interview.

On Saturday 9 July 2022, Rabinovich is curating a three-concert Haydn day at Wigmore Hall (originally scheduled for 2020 but inevitably postponed). There is a morning concert where Rabinovich joins the Heath Quartet for a piano sonata, the String Quartet in F minor Op. 20 No. 5 and Piano Trio in F sharp minor HXV/26. Then in the afternoon, Rabinovich joins members of the Heath Quartet and mezzo-soprano Helen Charlston for a selection of Haydn's songs along with the cantata Arianna a Naxos and a late piano sonata dedicated to the pianist Therese Jansen Bartolozzi whom Haydn met in London. Finally, in the evening Rabinovich explores a selection of Haydn's piano sonata. Full details from the Wigmore Hall website.

And on Wednesday (6 July 2022), Rabinovich will be giving a lunchtime recital at the Cobbe Collection at Hatchlands, performing on the piano that Haydn took back to Vienna with him from London in 1795.

Rabinovich is also a cartoonist, as you can see below:

Childhood Lyrics and Songs of Summer

In 1973, London Concord Singers and Malcolm Cottle premiered Five Childhood Lyrics by John Rutter at the Southbank Centre's Purcell Room. The work was written for the choir and they are delighted to be bringing it back for their Summer concert on 7 July 2022, in advance of its 50th anniversary next year.

Conducted by Jessica Norton, London Concord Singers are giving a programme entitled, Childhood Lyrics and Songs of Summer with Rutter's work alongside Vaughan Williams' Five English Folksongs and music by three other 20th-century English composers John Gardner, Michael Tippett and Alan Bullard whose Summer Garland was originally written for the Queen's Silver Jubilee and is most appropriate for this, her Platinum Jubilee year.

Alan Bullard - Summer Garland
John Rutter - Five Childhood Lyrics
John Gardner - Five Partsongs to Poems by Wallace Stevens
Ralph Vaughan Williams - Five Partsongs
Michael Tippett - Plebs Angelica

The concert is at 7.30pm on Thursday 7 July 2022 at the Church of St Bartholomew the Less, West Smithfield. Tickets are £15 (under 25s £5). Full details from EventBrite

Added depth: Julien Van Mellaerts & James Baillieu mix Die schöne Müllerin with the poems not set by Schubert, read by Christopher Purves, to remarkable effect

Schubert: Die schöne Müllerin - James Baillieu, Julien Van Mellaerts, Christopher Purves - Opera in Song at Opera Holland Park

Schubert: Die schöne Müllerin; Julien Van Mellaerts, James Baillieu, Christopher Purves; Opera in Song at Opera Holland Park
Reviewed 2 July 2022 (★★★★½)

Combining Schubert's song cycle with Müller's original poems gives added depth to a finely engaging and moving account of the young poet's journey

This year's Opera in Song at Opera Holland Park included performances of the three great Schubert song-cycles, each taking a slightly different approach. on Friday 1 July 2022, baritone Roderick Williams and pianist Ella O'Neill performed Winterreise in Jeremy Sams' English version, Winter Journey, and on Sunday 3 July 2022, mezzo-soprano Ema Nikolovska and pianist Kunal Lahiry performed Schwanengesang in the original German with songs from Errollyn Wallen's new commission, The Lake interpolated throughout.

On Saturday 2 July 2022, we caught baritone Julien Van Mellaerts (co-curator of the Opera in Song series) and pianist James Baillieu perform Schubert's Die schöne Müllerin  (in German) with baritone Christopher Purves reading those poems from Wilhelm Müller's original poetic cycle that Schubert did not set, using Bryan Benner's English translation. This meant that we got Müller's prologue and epilogue, along with three poems from the main cycle that Schubert omitted but which add depth to the story.

Arun Ghosh's The Canticle of the Sun at the Spitalfields Music Festival

Arun Ghosh: The Canticle of the Sun - Arun Ghosh & ensemble - Spitalfields Festival at St John on Bethnal Green

Arun Ghosh: The Canticle of the Sun; Arun Shosh, Irini Arabatzi, Seaming To, Camilla George, Sarathy Korwar, Ruth Goller, Davide Mantovani; Spitalfields Music at St John on Bethnal Green

Eclectic and powerful, Ghosh's style of composed jazz fused many different elements in his setting of St Francis' original Umbrian dialect text

Clarinettist and composer Arun Ghosh's spiritual jazz reimagining of St Francis of Assisi's The Canticle of the Sun premiered at this year's Norfolk & Norwich Festival, when Tony heard it and reviewed it for us [link]. Produced by Sound UK, the work was a co-commission between the Norfolk & Norwich Festival and Spitalfields Music. On Friday 1 July 2022, we caught Arun Ghosh and his ensemble giving the London premiere of The Canticle of the Sun at St John on Bethnal Green as part of Spitalfields Music's Summer festival. 

Ghosh set St Francis' text in the original Umbrian dialect, sung by Irini Arabatzi and Seaming To, accompanied by Arun Ghosh on keyboards (with some guitar and clarinet), Camilla George on alto saxophone, Sarathy Korwar on drums and percussion, Ruth Goller on electric bass and Davide Mantovani on double bass. Lighting was by Brendan Clarke with sound by Tim Hand.

New ways of working: composer Andrew Chen has two contrasting pieces at this year's Cheltenham Music Festival

Andrew Chen

London-based Australian composer Andrew Chen has two pieces being premiered at this year's Cheltenham Music Festival, the Gould Piano Trio are giving the first performance of his new trio, and he has written a piece for Merton College Choir, conductor Benjamin Nicholas, to be performed as part of a classical mixtape concert. Andrew is on the Royal Philharmonic Society Composer Programme for 2021/22 and won the 2021 Dankworth Prize for Jazz Composition. His commission for the Gould Piano Trio arose out of the RPS Composer Programme whilst the Merton College Choir piece was commissioned directly by the festival. I caught up with Andrew last month to chat about his new works, jazz, improvisation and more.

Unsung Heroines: Lauren Fagan & Opera Holland Park Young Artists in a celebration of women composers and more

Lauren Fagan

Unsung Heroines: Clara Schumann, R. Strauss, Ilse Weber, Stefania Turkewich, Graciane Finzi, Bachelet, Rachmaninov, Madeleine Dring, Undine Smith Moore, Smythe, Dvorak, Rebecca Clarke, Stravinsky; Lauren Fagan, Lucy Anderson, Olivia Boen, Phillip Costovski, Gary Matthewman; Opera in Song at Opera Holland Park
Reviewed 29 June 2022

A last minute replacement forced programme changes, but Lauren Fagan gave us an engaging and imaginative programme, supported by Opera Holland Park's Young Artists in an eclectic and unusual mix of songs

The second of Opera Holland Park's Opera in Song recital series, curated by Dylan Perez and Julien Van Mellaerts, was Unsung Heroines on 29 June 2022. Planned to be recital of works by female composers sung by Louise Alder, in the event soprano Lauren Fagan (Violetta in Opera Holland Park's La traviata, see my review) stood in at the last moment. Lauren Fagan was joined by three of this years Young Artists, soprano Lucy Anderson, soprano Olivia Boen, and tenor Phillip Costovski, with pianist Gary Matthewman for a programme of music by Clara Schumann, Richard Strauss, Ilse Weber, Stefania Turkewich, Graciane Finzi, Alfred Bachelet, Rachmaninov, Madeleine Dring, Undine Smith Moore, Ethel Smythe, Dvorak, Rebecca Clarke and Stravinsky, and the event was a benefit for Solace Women's Aid.

Edinburgh International Festival celebrates its 75th anniversary with 35,000 free tickets

Ukraine Freedom Orchestra © 2022 

Edinburgh International Festival is 75 and to celebrate it is giving out 35,0000 free tickets to four large-scale events, including circus and physical theatre, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Ukraine Freedom Orchestra and an immersive light and sound experience.

The festival opens with Macro at BT Murrayfield, presented as part of the UK/Australia Season 2021-22, Macro features circus and physical theatre company Gravity & Other Myths, First Nations dance company Djuki Mala, the National Youth Choir of Scotland and Scottish musicians including Aidan O’Rourke, Brìghde Chaimbeul, Lauren MacColl and Kathleen MacInnes.

The Philadelphia Orchestra, led by conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin, (in residence at the festival) present Thank You, Edinburgh – a free concert given as a big thank you to the city and residents of Edinburgh at the Edinburgh Playhouse on Saturday 27 August at 3pm and it will also be relayed live to the Ross Bandstand in Princes Street Gardens. 

Dreamachine, part of UNBOXED: Creativity in the UK, is a free immersive experience at Murrayfield Ice Rink using light and sound to explore the potential of the human mind. Created by Collective Act, presented by Edinburgh Science, and bringing together Turner Prize-winning artists Assemble, Grammy and Mercury nominated musician and composer Jon Hopkins, and a team of leading technologists, scientists and philosophers. 

The festival and the Scottish Government are partnering to welcome the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra for a free concert at the Usher Hall on Saturday 6 August 2pm. The orchestra includes recent refugees, Ukrainian members of European orchestras and leading Ukrainian musicians and performers including soprano Liudmyla Monastyrska and pianist Anna Fedorova. Led by Canadian-Ukrainian conductor Keri-Lynn Wilson, the special concert sees invitations extended to the Ukrainian community in Scotland and organisations leading efforts in the resettlement of Ukrainian refugees.

Full details from the festival website.

Shaping the future of opera together: Opera UK's Changemaking Conversations

The professional membership organisation for Opera in the UK has announced a series of online events, taking place in July, to help shape the future of Opera in the UK. From 4 to 7 July there will be a series of on-line Changemaking Conversations, bringing together individuals and companies from the UK’s opera sector to explore three pressing issues for the opera sector: environmental sustainability, greater diversification in leadership, and advocating for opera. All events will be participatory, with attendees offered opportunities to ask questions and join discussions with speakers and fellow attendees.

Speakers include directors of leading opera companies, renowned stage performers, those at the top of  national sector-support bodies, and those working on the ground in companies such as Welsh National Opera and Glyndebourne, in areas from technical production to stage direction. Contributors include, amongst others, Mark Pemberton (Chief Executive, Association of British Orchestras), Annilese Miskimmon (Artistic Director, English National Opera), and Elizabeth Llewellyn MBE (Soprano and Trustee, Into Opera).

Opera UK, whose tagline is “shaping the future of opera together”, began life in October 2020 as a response to the sector’s challenges during the Covid-19 pandemic. Its strategy was informed from the outset by its founding members, and the organisation’s member-led approach continues to be central to its work.

Full details from Opera UK's website.

From Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre to Jörg Widmann: Dunedin Consort's new season

The Dunedin Consort's 2022/23 season includes a new partnership with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra (RSNO) with them residence at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, and the two orchestras will play side by side in Jörg Widmann's clarinet concerto Echo-Fragmente with Widmann as soloist, conducted by Elim Chan. Another partnership with Cumbernauld Theatre in Lanternhouse offering relaxed concerts, open rehearsals and more in a year-round residency. The ensemble's residency at Wigmore Hall continues with celebratory concerts for Christmas and New Year.

They will be giving the UK premiere of Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre's Cantates bibliques in a staging produced in partnership with Mahogany Opera and HERA. John Butt will be directing performances of Mozart's Mass in C minor in a new completion by Clemens Kemme.

Guests include soprano Nardus Williams in an all-Handel programme conducted by Benjamin Bayl, Peter Whelan directing the ensemble for the first time in a Haydn symphonies and a CPE Bach Cello Concerto with principal cellist Jonathan Manson as soloist, and Nicholas Mulroy directing Hail, O Queen a programme of a cappella Marian music across the centuries with singers from the ensemble's professional development programme, Bridging the Gap.

The ensemble is creating a new international mentoring scheme, Intrada,  in partnership with Concerto Copenhagen and B'Rock Orchestra. Intrada will be for early career instrumentalists in historical performance. The ensemble's Learning and Participation continues with instrumental and voice-clinics for non-professional musicians, choral workshops for all ages and abilities, open rehearsals, schools workshops, a children's Messiah and on-line workshops.

Full details from the Dunedin Consort's website.

Fifth Door Ensemble returns with a double bill of Bartok's Bluebeard and Weill's Seven Deadly Sins

Last year, tenor Charne Rochford's Fifth Door Ensemble made its debut at Opera Holland Park with a performance of Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde (with Jennifer Johnston and Charne Rochford, conducted by Thomas Blunt) in Rainer Riehn's completion of Schoenberg's chamber arrangement. Now Fifth Door are back at Opera Holland Park for a double bill of Bartok's Duke Bluebeard's Castle and Weill's The Seven Deadly Sins, again in innovative smaller-scale versions. 

In the Bartok, Jessica Cottis will conduct Eberhard Kloke’s arrangement for 26 players (this version's UK premiere) with David Stout as the Duke and Gweneth-Ann Rand as Judit. In the Weill, Julia Riley sings Anna with Charne Rochford (Father), Tom Randle (Brother), Grant Doyle (Brother) and Robert Winslade Anderson (Mother) as her family, all conducted by Thomas Blunt using HK Gruber and Christian Muthspiel’s 15 player arrangement.

Charne formed Fifth Door last year as a specific response to the pandemic. When the music stopped, it seemed that the first thing to come back would be concerts and using reduced orchestrations seemed a way of making them viable. 

He confesses himself obsessed by Bartok's Bluebleard and of course that is where his ensemble gets its name. The orchestral arrangement they are using is by the German conductor and composer Eberhard Kloke; it still uses 26 players which is quite a lot, and the requirements include some relatively obscure instruments. Of course, there is no role for Charne in the opera, but being as he has been obsessed with it since seeing it at Covent Garden (in a double bill with Schoenberg's Erwartung) he can sit back and enjoy it.

Charne is, of course, singing in the Kurt Weill, as Father in the quartet of family members. The role of Anna calls for singer and a dancer; the singer is Julia Riley and whilst the performance is unstaged they will be using a dancer too. There is a lot of musical exposition in the work, so Charne feels it needs a dance element and the dancer will be interacting with Julia Riley's Anna on-stage. The work will be performed in Brecht's original German with W.H. Auden's English translation used for surtitles.

Bluebeard will be more stand and deliver, but the work will be performed in Hungarian (with English surtitle). David Stout has sung the title role in Hungarian, whilst Gweneth-Ann Rand had success with Judit (in English) at Stone Nest for Theatre of Sound.  And the prologue will be delivered in Hungarian.

They are giving two performances, both on Sundays (21 August and 28 August) at 6pm.

Charne's reasons for creating the company was both as a response to freelance artists not working as a result of the pandemic, but also a response to the feeling that companies were not listening to freelancers. Before all this happened Charne had no experience of being a producer, and this year's programme is more ambitious than last year's. With what is going on in the world, he admits the producing opera like this feels rather luxurious, but he sees it as important to entertain people as well as providing paid work for freelance artists; he just had to get up and do something.

Earlier this year Julia Riley, Charne and David Stout presented a recital at the 1901 Arts Club including a four-handed version of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring alongside music by Wagner, Ravel, and Brahms and they have a recital series planned at Chelsea Arts Club later this year. Also next year, they will be back with another large-scale work in a reduced orchestra version, this time more Mahler.

More about Fifth Door from their website, and tickets are available via Opera Holland Park's website.

Premiere of James MacMillan's Mass of St Edward the Confessor at Westminster Abbey as part of celebrations for the Feast of St Peter

Yesterday (29 June 2022) was the Feast of St Peter, Apostle and Martyr. St Peter is also the Patron of Westminster Abbey and so there was a rather special sung Eucharist at the Abbey. The preacher was the Very Reverend Dr David Hoyle, Dean of Westminster and James O'Donnell directed Westminster Abbey Choir. The music at the service include the world premiere of James MacMillan's Mass of St Edward the Confessor, and Palestrina's Tu es Petrus, with MacMillan's Toccata as the closing voluntary. I was lucky enough to be seated in the historic Quire [see my photo on Instagram] so had a perfect sight and sound of a very special service.

James MacMillan's mass is, I think, his seventh setting of the ordinary, the first being a Missa Brevis written when he was just sixteen. There are at least two congregational settings, but perhaps the best known setting is the wonderful, and complex, Mass (for choir and organ) written for Westminster Cathedral for the Millennium, and equally complex is the Missa Dunelmi (for eight-part choir) written for Durham Cathedral in 2011. His Mass of Blessed John Henry Newman (for cantor, congregation, organ with optional brass & timpani) written for Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the UK in 2010.

Mass of St Edward the Confessor, commissioned by Thomas and Mia Harding and dedicated to Westminster Abbey Choir School, is written for unaccompanied choir. James O'Donnell directed a full-strength Westminster Abbey Choir (16 boys, 12 men), and we heard the Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus & Benedictus and Agnus Dei. MacMillan's use of polyphonic textures in the piece referred to a tradition that dates back to the early Tudor period, but the sound-world sometimes also evoked the music of a 20th century figure like Kenneth Leighton (who was MacMillan's teacher), but at the end of the day the music was very much his own with plenty of distinctive finger-prints in the shapes of phrases and the approach. Often, the music was surprisingly thoughtful, but with passages of crunchy harmonies and almost violence, yet it is the quieter moments that stick in the memory, the lovely opening Kyrie and the surprisingly intimate final pages of the Gloria. The Sanctus was suitably rhapsodic with some lovely melodies evoking chant and Gaelic psalm singing, whilst the Agnus Dei featured a superb tenor solo.

Palestrina's glorious Tu es Petrus is a motet that I have sung on many occasions, and always a firm favourite, here it was superbly performed during the administering of communion. And at the end of the service we had MacMillan's Toccata which was premiered at Gloucester Cathedral in 2019.

New season at St Martin in the Fields

The church of St Martin-in-the-Fields has announced its Autumn season, continuing the venues development of its role as a significant concert location. Headline performances include Harry Christophers and the Sixteen in their choral pilgrimage for 2022 including Parry's Songs of Farewell, Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the Monteverdi Choir in Bach's Christmas Oratorio, Gardiner also conducts the English Baroque Soloists in music by Mozart and Haydn with Isabelle Faust (violin) and Antoine Tamestit (viola) , the BBC Singers in Durufle's Requiem, and La Serenissma in a concert exploring the life of English violinist and composer Nicola Matteis the Younger, whose Italian father was a close friend of Henry Purcell but who spent most of his career in Vienna. Other visitors include Polyphony, Fretwork, The Gesualdo Six, Rodolfus Choir and London Mozart Players in Judith Bingham's Clarinet Concerto with Jonathan Leibovitz

Baritone Benjamin Appl starts his residency with a concert devoted to the extraordinary life of Holocaust survivor and refugee Éva Fahidi, combining her words with music that was important in her life. The evening includes music by (amongst others) Schubert, Bach, Eisler, Krása, Schumann and Mahler. Equally challenging, SANSARA joins forces with the United Strings of Europe and Syrian oud player Basel Saleh for Music of Solidarity and Sanctuary, featuring music by Icelandic composer Hildur Guðnadóttir, Caroline Shaw and  the world premiere of The Journey by Lebanese composer Houtaf Khoury.

St Martin’s Voices, the Church’s own professional vocal ensemble, begins a new series of six hour-long concerts each with a distinguished guest speaker. Songs of Justice features musical responses to injustice by James MacMillan, Philip Moore, Cecilia McDowall, Ērik Ešenvalds, Jessica Curry and Rhiannon Randle with human rights lawyer Philippe Sands the guest speaker.

In the crypt, for Halloween, mezzo soprano Lotte Betts-Dean and young artists from City Music Foundation present Death Speaks with music by Purcell, Dowland, Schubert and the UK premiere of David Lang’s Depart, originally conceived as an installation for the morgue in the Raymond Poincaré Hospital in Garches, France, and performed live by St Martin’s Voices. Other young artists include tenor James Way and The Assembled Company, an ensemble uniting top-level period and modern instrument performers, in a programme of Handel cantatas and his German Arias sung by Rowan Pierce.

Full details from the church's website.

An exciting rediscovery: Mercadante's Il proscritto proves far more than a museum piece in this thrilling revival from Opera Rara

Mercadante: Il proscritto - Iván Ayón-Rivas & Ramón Vargas - Opera Rara at the Barbican (Photo Russell Duncan)

Mercadante: Il Proscritto; Irene Roberts, Ramón Vargas, Iván Ayón-Rivas, Elizabeth DeShong, Sally Matthews, Goderdzi Janelidze, Opera Rara Chorus, Britten Sinfonia, Carlo Rizzi; Opera Rara at the Barbican
Reviewed 28 June 2022 (★★★★★)

Mercadante's opera revived after a gap of 180 years proved thrilling and remarkably innovative, with gripping drama from all performers. 

Mercadante is the nearly man of Italian opera, with a successful career lasting from 1819 to the 1860s yet never quite achieving the level of prominence, or historical endurance, of his contemporaries. Opera Rara has already espoused three of his operas over the years and last night (28 June 2022) the company presented Mercadante's Il proscritto at the Barbican Hall, following recording sessions. Carlo Rizzi conducted the Britten Sinfonia and Opera Rara Chorus, with Irene Roberts, Ramón Vargas, Iván Ayón-Rivas, Elizabeth DeShong, Sally Matthews, and Goderdzi Janelidze.

Il proscritto dates from 1842, when it was premiered Naples where he was Director of the Naples Conservatory. The premiere was not a great success, and the manuscript lay in the conservatory's library until 2020 when Carlo Rizzi, artistic director of Opera Rara, discovered it and the company decided to revive the work. A new edition has been created by Roger Parker and Ian Schofield, which is available via Casa Ricordi.

During the 1830s, Mercadante had produced a series of works which are regarded as 'reform operas', aimed at changing the structure of Italian bel canto operas and their reliance on the soloists as vehicles for display. He was partly spurred on to this after witnessing the premiered of Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots in 1836, and Mercadante would write "varied forms, cabalettas banished, crescendos out, vocal lines simplified, fewer repeats, more originality in the cadences, proper regard paid to the drama, orchestration rich but not so as to swamp the voices, no long solos in the ensembles", though contemporary critics complained about the resulting works' lack of melodic invention.

Mercadante: Il proscritto - Elizabeth DeShong, Irene Roberts & Carlo Rizzi - Opera Rara at the Barbican (Photo Russell Duncan)

By the 1840s, Mercadante seems to have walked back from this point to some extent. Il proscritto does have cabalettas, including one that is pure Rossini, but the three act finales are remarkably innovative and daring, and his approach to the orchestra and to the dialogue was new and pointed the way forward. As a point of comparison, 1842 would also see the premiere of Verdi's Nabucco, it would be another decade before Verdi wrote his trio of masterpieces, Rigoletto, La traviata and Il trovatore, and would start his own innovations in operatic structure.

The Military Wives Choirs is celebrating ten years of bringing women in the military community together

Laura Wright with the Military Wives Choirs (Photo Rosie Powell)

This year the Military Wives Choirs celebrates ten years since the charity was first created, bringing together women in the military community to sing, share and support. The first Military Wives Choir was formed in 2010 by a group of women whose loved ones were deployed in Afghanistan, and since the founding of the Military Wives Choirs charity in 2011 an incredible community has been built of nearly 2000 women in over 70 choirs across the UK and internationally. In celebration there is a series of five concerts alongside soprano and Ambassador Laura Wright.

The first concert, on 18 June 2022 at St Albans Cathedral featured nearly 200 choir members from 15 Military Wives Choirs, including individuals from overseas choirs, whilst the next concert, on 22 July 2022 at Winchester Cathedral features 160 members from 13 Military Wives Choirs, and the concert will be live-streamed. Further concerts are at Lincoln Cathedral (2/9/2022), Exeter Cathedral (24/9/2022) and Greyfriars Kirk, Edinburgh (29 October 2022).

The Military Wives Choirs connects women in the military community and creates a support network through the power of singing. As both an independent charity and a subsidiary of SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity, the Military Wives Choirs works collaboratively with SSAFA in their mission to provide support to our Forces and their families.

Full details from the Military Wives Choirs website.

Over 4,000 young people to come together to perform at Music for Youth National Festival in Birmingham

The annual Music for Youth National Festival is in Birmingham this year, on 8 & 9 July 2022 when over 4,000 young people will come together to perform at Symphony Hall, the Town Hall and the CBSO Centre. Tickets for all the concerts are free as a 'welcome back' gesture by organisers after a challenging couple of years for the arts. This year’s theme is A Festival For All and will feature performances from the very best young musicians across jazz, brass, classical, folk, choral, pop, rock and everything in between. Every corner of the UK will be represented, from Truro to Glasgow and Newport to Sunderland.  

There will be a showcase evening on Friday, July 8 at the Town Hall to promote the level and breadth of music education across the UK. And to support the celebration of live music, the festival will feature exciting new digital elements and live streams. A dedicated ‘takeover’ stage will be open for anyone under the age of 21 to apply to perform and there will be non-performance roles available, including event and marketing assistants, and workshops and panels with leading industry experts, including representatives from TikTok and Universal Music. 

Further information from the Music for Youth website, and tickets are available from B:Music.

Voices of Power: Luke Styles' new oratorio at Three Choirs Festival

Three Choirs Festival Youth Choir (Photo: Michael Whitefoot)

Having had his saxophone concerto Tracks in the Orbit premiered by BBC National Orchestra of Wales at Hoddinott Hall in Cardiff in April of this year, composer Luke Styles is back with another large-scale premiere at this year's Three Choirs Festival. On 28 July 2022 at Hereford Cathedral, Samuel Hudson conducts the premiere of Luke Styles' Voices of Power with contralto Hilary Summers, the Three Choirs Festival Youth Choir and the Philharmonia Orchestra at a concert which also includes music by Judith Weir, Sarah Kirkland Snider and the 17th century Italian nun Peruchona.

Styles' new work is an oratorio setting text by poet and author Jessica Walker which contemplates the nature of power across the centuries. The protagonists of the piece are seven powerful women stretching over two millennia, from Roman times to the present day: Boudica, Elizabeth I, Catherine the Great, Margaret Thatcher, Eleanor Roosevelt, Hillary Clinton and Jacinda Ardern. The work was written specifically for Hilary Summers and the young voices of the Three Choirs Festival Youth Choir, whose members are aged 14 to 25.

In July 2021, I chatted to Luke about his new opera at the Cheltenham Music Festival, see my interview 'Exploring big themes'.

Full details from the festival website.

The Telling's Empowered Women

The Telling

The Telling are taking three of Clare Norburn's concert plays on tour under the title, The Empowered Women Trilogy, from 23 July to 18 September 2022 in places that often miss out on touring networks including Wolverhampton, South Cumbria, Manningtree, Folkestone, Conwy (North Wales) and Lympstone (Exmouth), as well as London, Lewes, Cardiff and Liverpool.

Directed by Nicholas Renton, and starring actors Teresa Banham, Suzanne Ahmet and Anna Demetriou alongside the singers and musicians from The Telling, the three plays Into the Melting Pot, Vision and Unsung Heroine tell the stories of three very different Medieval women (two real, one imagined) who take their lives into their own hands. In the Melting Pot is the story of Bianca, a Jewish woman facing expulsion from Spain and setting sail for an uncertain future as ordered by the Spanish Catholic Monarchs in 1492. Vision is the imagined testimony of the composer and mystic Hildegard of Bingen. Set in Provence in the 12th century Unsung Heroine is the story of female troubadour Countess Beatriz de Dia.

Back in 2020 I chatted to Clare Norburn about her concert plays and her work with The Telling, see my interview.

Full details from The Telling's website.

A new song festival on the edge of the Cotswolds: Shipston Song

During lockdown, pianist Ian Tindale produced a fine series of recital films from the music room in a house in the Cotswolds [see my article]. And now the project has extended, into a full blown live festival. Shipston Song takes place from 23 to 25 September 2022 at a private venue on the outskirts of Shipston-on-Stour.

The festival opens with Julien van Mellaerts (baritone), Moloko Letsoalo (soprano, Shipston Song Rising Star) and Ian Tindale in Richard Rodney Bennett's Songs before Sleep (his wonderful re-inventions of nursery rhymes), Eleanor Alberga's The Soul's Expression, which gives the recital its name, songs by Brahms and then Schumann's Dichterliebe. On Saturday 24 September, Harriet Burns (soprano), Jess Dandy (contralto) and Ian Tindale present 'My songs are my diary’: Discovering Josephine Lang, which will include songs and duets by the German composer Josephine Lang (1815-1880) along with music by her friends and mentors, Felix Mendelssohn, and Clara Schumann.

The final concert of the season will feature James Gilchrist (tenor), Daniel Barrett (baritone, Shipston Song Rising Star), Ensemble Kopernikus and Ian Tindale in a programme centred around RVW's On Wenlock Edge plus the Songs of Travel, songs by Rebecca Clarke and the piano trio by Percy Miles (who was Clarke's harmony teacher at the Royal Academy of Music)

Full details from the festival website. 

Love in Bloom: for its Pride concert, the Fourth Choir explores the subject of love

Stone Nest

Under guest conductor Ben Horden, the Fourth Choir is presenting Love in Bloom at Stone Nest on Shaftesbury Avenue on Saturday 9 July 2022 as the choir's Pride Celebration. The subject of the concert is Love, with contributes from both Kate Rusby and Michel Le Grand, Shakespeare and Shelley, as well as music by Cecilia McDowall and Judith Weir, plus Britten's Hymn to St Cecilia, his setting of words by W.H. Auden that ask whether love should be chaste or sexual - St Cecilia or Aphrodite. All that plus choral arrangements of pieces from Rent and West Side Story.

Stone Nest of course used to be the scene of the Limelight, London’s most hedonistic nightclub in the 1980s, perhaps we can still feel the aura of Boy George, Bob Geldof, George Michael and the international glitterati who used to hang out there!

The Fourth Choir is London's LGBT + chamber choir for non-professional singers. Focusing on performing great choral works from early music to contemporary masterpieces, the Choir was formed in 2013 with the aim of representing the LGBT+ community on London's classical music scene.

Full details from the Fourth Choir's website. 

Michael Bakrnčev's Calm

Australian composer, Michael Bakrnčev's Calm – Trio for Flute, Violin and Harp, was written a wedding gift for Michael’s wife, and performed on their wedding day in 2017. Bakrnčev has now released the work as a single, performed by Heline Fay (Flute), Peter Voronov (Violin) and Mercedes Bralo (Harp).

Born in Melbourne in 1989, Bakrnčev's family had migrated from Macedonia in the 1960s and brought with them a rich tapestry of their country’s folklore, religion, traditional cuisine, dance and music. Following studies at the Queensland Conservatorium – Griffith University, Bakrnčev's music began to intertwine Macedonian folk music with modern classical music practice.

Calm is available online [LinkTree]

An afternoon delight: Anna Morrisey's inventive production of Rossini's The Barber of Seville at Nevill Holt Opera, in a finely musical performance conducted by Dinis Sousa

Rossini: The Barber of Seville - end of Act One - Nevill Holt Opera 2022 (Photo Genevieve Girling)

Rossini: The Barber of Seville; Liam Bonthrone, Michel de Souza, Sarah Champion, Grant Doyle, Andri Björn Róbertsson, Janis Kelly, director: Anna Morrissey, Royal Northern Sinfonia, conductor Dinis Sousa; Nevill Holt Opera
Reviewed 26 June 2022 (★★★★)

Anarchic, inventive yet well-observed production of Rossini's comic opera, in a crisply engaging musical performance

For its Summer season this year, Nevill Holt Opera is back in its regular theatre, the lovely modern space inserted into Nevill Holt's historic stables. The first opera of the season was Puccini's La boheme, and on Sunday 26 June 2022, we caught Anna Morrissey's production of Rossini's The Barber of Seville. Dinis Sousa conducted the Royal Northern Sinfonia, with Liam Bonthrone as Almaviva, Michel de Souza as Figaro, Sarah Champion as Rosina, Grant Doyle as Dr Bartolo, Andri Björn Róbertsson as Don Basilio  and Janis Kelly as Berta. Peter Davies played the fortepiano continuo. Designs were by Alex Berry, with lighting by Jamie Platt.

Morrissey's production was modern dress with Berry's set designs being a symphony of pink (surely an ironic gesture given Bartolo was a surly curmudgeon). There was a strong 1980s feel about everything, perhaps as a genuine setting but possibly to suggest that Dr Bartolo was rather stuck in a time-warp, certainly Grant Doyle's Bartolo with his beard, greasy long hair and dodgy suit seemed somewhat stuck in an image of his youth. As with many modern performances, the production was less about Count Almaviva's disguising himself to his his elevated status and more about the attempts to release Sarah Champion's Rosina from her prison. Shorn of its historic, Iberian context, Bartolo's immuring of his ward seems even more arbitrary and cruel, and this inevitably skews the perception of this plot. Every generation re-interprets the classics, and different perceptions come and go. What counted here was not so much the dramaturgy as Morrissey's very inventive approach to the production.

Rossini: The Barber of Seville - Sarah Champion, Michel de Souza, Liam Bonthrone - Nevill Holt Opera 2022 (Photo Genevieve Girling)