Autumn season at Stoller Hall: from Steven Isserlis to Mozart Made in Manchester to Azeri composer and pianist Isfar Sarabski

Stoller Hall in Manchester's Autumn season features an eclectic mix of events including cellist Steven Isserlis, making his Stoller Hall debut as part of the Manchester Chamber Concerts Society Series, the latest instalment of the Manchester Camerata's Mozart made in Manchester series, solo percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie and even the 1970s folk-rock pioneers Lindisfarne!

Manchester Camerata return with conductor Gábor Takács-Nagy for their series exploring Mozart's piano concertos. With soloist Jean-Efflam Bavouzet they perform numbers 26 and 27, along with a trio of Mozart's operatic overtures, and there is a pre-concert talk by Professor Simon Keefe of the University of Sheffield.

Steven Isserlis is joined by pianist Alasdair Beatson for a programme of Mendelssohn, Schumann, Moscheles and Chopin, and Italian neo-classical composer and pianist Fabrizio Paterlini will be performing a programme of his own music. Contralto Jess Dandy and pianist Martin Roscoe will be performing music by Amy Beach, RVW, De Falla, Ravel and Strauss. Pianist James Willshire is performing a nature-inspired programme (as part of the hall's Sounds of Nature programme) with Couperin, Debussy, Messiaen, Ravel and Liszt.

The Heath Quartet performs music by Purcell, Britten and Schubert, whilst the Brodsky Quartet will be performing Borodin, Shostakovich, and Barber. Clarinettist Emma Johnson and friends including Martin Roscoe and horn player Ben Goldscheider will be performing RVW, Beethoven and Brahms.

Isfar Sarabski is an Azeri composer and pianist, currently studying at Berklee College of Music, will be exploring the relationship between jazz and mugham, Azerbaijan’s traditional music. Sarabski is the great-grandson of Huseyngulu Sarabski, the celebrated Azerbaijani opera singer, actor and one of the founders of Eastern opera. Evelyn Glennie will be joining forces with Scottish improvising ensemble Trio HLK, whose music pulls apart jazz standards into fragments that are at times shimmering and cerebral, at others thunderous and visceral. 

The musicians from Chetham's School of Music put in a number of appearances, not only the Chetham's Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, conducted by Timothy Redmon in Walton's Henry V, Shostakovich's Cello Concerto and Dani Howard's Coalescence, but there are concerts from the Chetham's Big Band and the Chetham's Chamber Choir, who are directed by Marcus Farnsworth in a programme for Armistice Day. And musicians from the orchestra will be participating in Professor Lightbulb's Marvellous Inventions, a family programme exploring inventions of the last 50 years.

Full details from the hall's website.

The National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain celebrates its 70th birthday with an exciting and challenging programme conducted by Martyn Brabbins

Members of NYBBGB rehearsing during Easter residency (Photo Joy Newbould)

The National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain (NYBBGB) is celebrating its 70th anniversary with a concert at the Royal College of Music on 6 August 2022. Conducted by Martyn Brabbins, (whose earliest musical training was in a brass band), eighty young brass players from across the UK – all aged between 14 and 19  – will come together to perform two of Brabbins' works for brass band, John Pickard’s 1995 symphonic suite Men of Stone, and the world premiere of a piece commissioned for the anniversary, Hyperlink, by Scottish composer Peter Graham. Also in the programme will be masterpieces of the 20th-century brass band repertoire by Eric Ball, Derek Bourgeois and John Ireland, plus a selection of Canteloube’s Songs of the Auvergne with guest soloist Nardus Williams. 

The celebratory concert begins a new chapter in the history of band under the new leadership of CEO Mark Bromley and Director of Artistic Planning Dr Robert Childs, whose recent appointments follow the unexpected death of the band's long-standing administrator Philip Biggs in 2019 and the standing down due to ill health of Artistic Director Bramwell Tovey in 2020.

Remarkably, the band has already achieved a balance in gender equality, with equal numbers of girls and boys generally participating in its Easter and Summer courses, shattering commonly-held perceptions that brass playing is still a male-dominated preserve. It is also working to nurture more female conductors in the sector, including Anna Beresford, who is working alongside Martyn Brabbins in preparing the band for this concert.

Full details from the band's website.

Someone else asks the questions: my interview with Expressive Audio

For once, it was my turn to be asked questions and the other week I did a lovely interview with the people over at Expressive Audio about blogging, writing music, what audio equipment I have and much more. See the results on their blog.

https://expressiveaudio.com/blogs/expressive-audio/an-interview-with-robert-hugill

Telling tales of love: Ailish Tynan and James Baillieu at Wigmore Hall

Grieg, Schubert, Hahn, Richard Strauss; Ailish Tynan, James Baillieu; Wigmore Hall
Reviewed 10 July 2022, (★★★★½)

An evening of favourite songs on the theme of love, from the freshness of Grieg, to Hahn in seductively Venetian mode and the magic of Strauss, with Schubert in the middle

Soprano Ailish Tynan returned to Wigmore Hall on Sunday 10 July 2022 with pianist James Baillieu with a programme of favourite songs by Grieg, Schubert, Hahn and Richard Strauss where the theme was love, both sacred and profane. Central to the recital were three important song sets, Grieg's Opus 48 began the recital and Strauss' Opus 27 ended it with Hahn's Venezia in the middle.

For his Six Songs, Opus 48, Grieg returned to setting German texts for the first time in 20 years (though the songs were also produced versions with Norwegian translations. The songs come between the Holberg Suite and books three and four of the Lyric Pieces, and whilst in the songs Grieg turns somewhat to the German lied, the songs retain the freshness of his other works of this period. 

An Evening by the Sea: the National Scout and Guide Symphony Orchestra and the National Scout and Guide Concert Band in Coventry and Birmingham

The National Scout and Guide Symphony Orchestra and the National Scout and Guide Concert Band

After a 2 year gap due to the pandemic, the National Scout and Guide Symphony Orchestra (NSGSO) and the National Scout and Guide Concert Band (NSGCB) are holding their first ever joint concert in Coventry Cathedral on Friday 5 August 2022. Titled An Evening by the Sea, the concert will feature Rimsky Korsakov's Scheherazade, Handel's Fireworks Music, Arnold's Cornish Dances and more.

There will be over 160 youth  members of the Scout Association and Girlguiding performing, aged 12-25 and all proficient to a minimum of grade 4 in an orchestral or concert band instrument. There will be further concerts at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire on Saturday 6 August 2022.

The orchestra is now in its 47th year and its membership is over 80 players, whilst the band was reformed in 2016, also totally 80 players. Both courses offer an intense week of rehearsals and workshops with a professional conductor and sectional tutors, culminating in concerts in the Birmingham area. The team of tutors are all professional instrumental teachers and musicians, helping them to get the most out of their instrument. Scout and Girl-guiding activities are also provided by a dedicated group of Scout and Guide leaders who coordinate and lead the week; these leaders are based all around the country.

Further information from the orchestra and band website.

We play to transform the world: Sistema Europe Youth Orchestra in Madrid

 Sistema Europe Youth Orchestra with Nicola Benedetti
in Birmingham in 2019 (Photo Ivan Gonzalez)

On  Thursday (14 July 2022), more than 140 young musicians from 17 European countries will take to the stage at the Auditorio Nacional de Música in Madrid as part of Sistema Europe Youth Orchestra (SEYO). The orchestra will be conducted by four conductors, Ron Davis Alvarez, Lara Diloy, José Ángel Salazar, and Jhoanna Sierralta, in a programme of Bach, Sibelius, Holst and Mussorgsky.

The concert is the culmination of the orchestra's sixth Summer residency, taking place in Madrid this year, where 140 young musicians aged between 12 and 20, and their teachers from different parts of the continent all meet up. All are part of programmes in their countries of origin inspired by El Sistema, a learning programme that focuses on generating equal opportunities for children and young people through music.

Since its inception in 2013, Sistema Europe Youth Orchestra has performed around Europe, including the Graffenegg festival, La Scala in Milan, the ancient Odeon of Herodes Atticus in Athens, and most recently Birmingham’s Symphony Hall and London’s Royal Festival Hall in 2018, with the participation of musicians such as Nicola Benedetti, Jessica Cottis, Joyce DiDonato and Gustavo Dudamel. 

Full details from the Sistema Europe website.

Dutch director Annemiek van Elst brings a very different ethos to the comedy of Britten's Albert Herring for St Paul's Opera

Britten: Albert Herring - Alex Akhurst, Owain Gwynfryn & ensemble - St Paul's Opera (Photo Ali Wright)

Britten: Albert Herring; Alex Akhurst, Rosalind O'Dowd, Jenny Samuel, Patricia Ninian, Robert Byford, Peder Holtermann, Ross Fettes, Owain Gwynfryn, Alexandra Dinwiddie, Deborah Holborn, director: Annemiek van Elst, St Paul's Sinfonia, conductor Panaretos Kyriatzidis; St Paul's Opera at St Paul's Church, Clapham
Reviewed 9 July 2022

My local opera company returns for its Summer production, an engaging performance of a highly imaginative take on Britten's Albert Herring 

St Paul's Opera is my local opera company based at St Paul's Church, Clapham. Co-founded in 2013 by soprano Patricia Ninian, who is the artistic director, the company presents an annual Summer opera as well as events throughout the year. This year's opera was Britten's Albert Herring, which was presented in a fully staged production on 8 and 9 July 2022, preceded on 7 July 2022 by a cover performance with piano. The casting was a mixture of students, early career singers and more mature ones, some of whom were familiar from performances such as Fulham Opera's (now Regents Opera) fine production of Richard Strauss' Die ägyptische Helena. In the past St Paul's Opera productions have used chamber arrangements of the accompaniments, but here they used Britten's full orchestration.

St Paul's Opera presented Britten's Albert Herring at St Paul's Church, Clapham (seen 9 July 2022) in a production directed by Annemiek van Elst with Panaretos Kyriatzidis conducting the St Paul's Sinfonia (based at St Paul's Church, Deptford). Rosalind O'Dowd was Lady Billows, with Jenny Samuel as Florence Pike, Patricia Ninian as Miss Wordsworth, Robert Byford as Mr Gedge, Peder Holtermann as Mr Upfold, Ross Fettes as Superintendent Budd, Owain Gwynfryn as Sid, Alexandra Dinwiddie as Nancy, Alex Akhurst as Albert and Deborah Holborn as Mrs Herring. Costumes were by Karen Elliott, movement by Rachel Wise.

I have seen quite a number of productions of Albert Herring ranging from Scottish Opera to Glyndebourne (original 1985 production and a revival, plus the touring company) to English Touring Opera to Buxton Festival and the Grange Festival, and each of these took an essentially naturalistic view of the comedy, presenting it as observational with the characters creating comedy because they do not realise they are funny. 

Britten: Albert Herring - Ross Fettes, Robert Byford, Patricia Ninian, Deborah Holborn, Jenny Samuel, Rosalind O'Dowd, Alex Akhurst - St Paul's Opera (Photo Ali Wright)

Style and substance: a fascinating & engaging account of The Yeomen of the Guard at the Grange

Gilbert & Sullivan: The Yeomen of the Guard - The Grange Festival (Photo Simon Anand)

Gilbert & Sullivan: The Yeomen of the Guard; Ellie Laugharne, Nick Pritchard, Nick Haverson, Angela Simkin, Nicholas Crawley, Heather Shipp, Graeme Broadbent, John Savournin, dir: Christopher Luscombe, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, cond: John Andrews; the Grange Festival
Reviewed 8 July 2022 (★★★★½)

A sympathetic and stylish account of the most serious of the G&S operas, combining fine singing indeed, plenty of words and some remarkable physical theatre from Nick Haverson's superb Jack Point

Gilbert and Sullivan wrote an apparently effortless sequence of Savoy Operas that trace an arc of development from The Sorcerer through to The Mikado and Ruddigore; when the run of one opera came to an end, there was another one waiting. However, Ruddigore was not a success on opening night and only after changes, including removing some of Sullivan's more serious music, did it achieve a respectable run. And when it closed, for the first time in their partnership there was no new opera ready. The work that did appear, in 1888 was Yeomen of the Guard, the most serious of Gilbert and Sullivan's collaborations. It is not the serious, grand opera that Sullivan wanted, but Gilbert's plot includes hardly any element of topsy-turveydom and the comic elements are woven into a serious plot. Sullivan responded with some of his most developed music, the two act finales in particular move well away from the familiar comic patter. As such, the opera responds well to performance by operatic voices, and it has the slightly dubious distinction of being the only complete Gilbert & Sullivan opera to be performed at the Royal Opera House (when Sir Charles Mackerras conducted the forces of Welsh National Opera in 1995). Whilst there have been more recent productions from Carl Rosa Opera Company and at the International Gilbert & Sullivan Festival, there has not been a major opera house or festival production this century.

So it welcome news that Christopher Luscombe directed Gilbert & Sullivan's Yeomen of the Guard at the Grange Festival when we caught the final performance (8 July 2022). John Andrews conducted the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, with John Savournin as Sir Richard Cholmondeley, Nick Pritchard as Colonel Fairfax, Graeme Broadbent as Sergeant Meryll, David Webb as Leonard Meryll, Angela Simkin as Phoebe Meryll, Nick Haverson as Jack Point, Ellie Laugharne as Elsie Maynard, Nicholas Crawley as Wilfred Shadbolt and Heather Shipp as Dame Carruthers. Designs were by Simon Higlett, lighting by Paul Pyant and choreography by Ewan Jones.

Gilbert & Sullivan: The Yeomen of the Guard - 'Hereupon we're both agreed': Nick Haverson, Nicholas Crawley - The Grange Festival (Photo Simon Anand)

The opera has a very specific setting and the dramaturgy is the sort of complex mechanism that directors tinker with at their peril. Simon Higlet's striking set was an attractive depiction of Tower Green, and as such completely timeless. Luscombe (who directed the stripped back Pagliacci at the Grange in 2020, see my review, and the delightful 1950s-set Falstaff in 2019, see my review) introduced one significant innovation, the work was set in July 1919. Colonel Fairfax's supposed crime was spying during the war, whilst Jack Point and Elsie Maynard became musical hall comedians. It worked very well, with few if any disjoints and only slight adjustments (I think) to the dialogue. It also allowed director and cast to have fun with some of the stiffer elements of Gilbert's dialogue. So that the Act One dialogue between John Savournin's Sir Richard Cholmondeley and Nick Pritchard's Colonel Fairfax was given in the wonderfully clipped stiff-upper-lip tones of 1930s British cinema, whilst in Fairfax (as Leonard) wooing of Elsie, Pritchard and Ellie Laugharne really channelled Brief Encounter.

Growing up with Hildegard: Voice trio on the importance of Hildegard of Bingen's music to them alongside contemporary pieces

Voice (Victoria Couper, Clemmie Franks and Emily Burn) in Hildegard Transfigured, with visual artist Innerstrings: Chris Tomsett

Voice is a long-established trio of three female singers, Victoria Couper, Clemmie Franks and Emily Burn. The group has a strong association with the music of Hildegard of Bingen, and their latest disc on the SOMM label, Hildegard Portraits, combines the music of Hildegard with contemporary works inspired by Hildegard by Stevie Wishart, Ivan Moody, Marcus Davidson, Emily Levy, Laura Moody and Tim Lea Young. I recently met up with Victoria, Clemmie and Emily to talk about combining new and old music, and growing up with Hildegard of Bingen's music.

Performing Hildegard of Bingen's music alongside contemporary pieces is something that the group has been doing for so long, that it feels normal. This combination started some 15 years ago when the composer Marcus Davidson heard them singing music by Hildegard and he wrote them a new piece using similar long lines to Hildegard. They enjoyed the combination and performed more contemporary music. Stevie Wishart, with whom the three have a long association, was performing her own music music alongside Hildegard's music with her group Sinfonye, and she wrote them a piece.

Voice (Victoria Couper, Emily Burn and Clemmie Franks) 

When I ask why the music of Hildegard of Bingen, they respond that it was more a case of Hildegard choosing them. They met whilst they were still at school; though they attended different schools, they were all members of Oxford Girls' Choir and would rehearse with them every Saturday. Stevie Wishart, who was doing her PhD at Oxford, came to the choir as she was looking for children to join Sinfonye. This was because, whilst performing Hildegard's music, she wanted to re-create the sound of the original nunnery with children singing alongside mature women and older ones. 

Conway Hall's Autumn season of Sunday concerts returns on 2 October 2022 with eleven concerts and two pre-concert talks

Greenwich Piano Trio (Photo Peter Searle)

Conway Hall's Autumn season of Sunday concerts returns on 2 October 2022 with eleven concerts and two pre-concert talks (one by yours truly), with repertoire that stretches from the 18th century to the present day. The season opens with the Primrose Piano Quartet in two masterpieces of the genre, Mozart's Piano Quartet in E♭ K.493 and Faure's Piano Quartet in C minor Op.15 plus music by Jean Francaix and Saint-Saens. This is followed on 9 October by the Minerva Piano Trio celebrating the release of their new album on SOMM, in a programme which pairs Stravinsky's Pulcinella Suite, in an arrangement by the group's cellist Richard Birchall, with one of Birchall's own piece. They programme also features two classics of the repertoire, Haydn's Gypsy Rondo Trio and Beethoven's Ghost Trio, plus music by Caroline Shaw.

This year is RVW's 150th birthday, so in Seeking Utopia violist Shiry Rashkovsky, pianist Viv McLean and author/narrator Jessica Duchen will be exploring the friendship between RVW and violist Lionel Tertis, including RVW's Suite for viola plus music by Holst, Rebecca Clarke, Delius, Bloch and Korngold.

On 23 October, the Greenwich Trio will be performing music by Clara Schumann, Fenny Mendelssohn, Felix Mendelssohn and Brahms, preceded by a pre-concert talk by Katy Hamilton discussing he personal and professional relationships that brought about the composition of the music in the programme. My own pre-concert talk takes place on 27 November when the Barbican Quartet play quartets by Haydn, Schumann and Bartok, and beforehand I talk about Bartok's development of the string quartet

Other highlights include include Trio Havisham, recent winners of the CAVATINA Intercollegiate Chamber Music Competition, making their Conway Hall debut. 

Full details from the Conway Hall website.

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.