A lovely way to begin the Christmas season: Handel's Messiah from Laurence Cummings & Academy of Ancient Music at Barbican Centre

The chapel of the Foundling Hospital where Handel performed Messiah annually

Handel: Messiah; Amanda Forsythe, Jess Dandy, Thomas Walker, Ashley Riches, Academy of Ancient Music, Laurence Cummings; Barbican Hall
Reviewed 16 December 2022, (★★★★½)

A richly rewarding account of Messiah were words and character were to the fore, yet there were plenty of dazzling rhythms and fabulous passagework

Handel's Messiah is one of those works which has developed its own performance traditions, almost independent of the composer's original intentions. Handel's performances were all relatively small-scale, but before the end of the 18th century the tradition of large-scale festival performances had grown up with led to the huge explosion in big choral Messiah performances which still have echoes in the modern choral society Messiahs. But more recently new traditions have grown up, as chamber choirs and chamber orchestras rediscovered the idea of Messiah with smaller forces, and then in 1979, Christopher Hogwood recorded Messiah complete on period instruments with the Academy of Ancient Music, and another tradition was born. That recording focused on a particular date and time, as Hogwood used the material from Handel's Foundling Hospital performances of Messiah, where we not only have the original parts but the accounts survive, thus telling us exactly how many musicians we used. 

But, frankly, we still know so little about the exact nitty-gritty of most of Handel's oratorio performances that there is plenty of room for ensembles to be creative. The Academy of Ancient Music was back performing Messiah on Friday 16 December 2022 at the Barbican. Their music director Laurence Cummings directed the performance with soloists Amanda Forsythe [last seen in Handel's Amadigi di Gaula from Boston Baroque, see my review], Jess Dandy [whom we caught at Wigmore Hall in August, see my review], Thomas Walker [last seen in Bach's Ascension Oratorio with Gabrieli, my review] and Ashley Riches [who was in Handel's Solomon at this year's BBC Proms, my review]. The latter two soloists replaced Stuart Thomas and William Thomas. 

The version used was very much the traditional one (which is probably a good thing given the last-minute change in soloists). But in terms of performing forces, this was Messiah very much in the style that Handel might have recognised. A chorus of 18 singers (women sopranos and altos), an orchestra based around an ensemble of 14 strings (led by Bojan Cicic) plus two oboes, bassoon, trumpets and timpani. For the continuo we had Cummings on harpsichord plus Stephen Farr doubling harpsichord and organ, and William Carter on theorbo.

Making ancient music sound modern: Franck-Emmanuel Comte on Le Concert de l'Hostel de Dieu's mixing old & new music, collaborating with beatboxers, hip-hop and more

Rehearsing the 50/50 programme: Le Concert de l'Hostel de Dieu with Martyn Harry (Photo Florent de Gaudemar)

Franck-Emmanuel Comte and his period instrument ensemble Le Concert de l'Hostel de Dieu released a new disc on the Aparté label in September, 50/50, a project where the ensemble performs a mix of music by Lully and by Purcell alongside works inspired by Purcell by the contemporary French composer David Chalmin and music inspired by Lully by the British composer Martyn Harry. Franck-Emmanuel founded Le Concert de l'Hostel de Dieu in 1992 when he was still a student. The ensemble's early association was with the medical complex, L'Hôtel Dieu in Lyon, hence the name. They recorded their first disc in 1997, of Handel's Alceste and more recent discs have included one devoted to Handel's diva La Francesina, Elisabeth Duparc, recorded with soprano Sophie Junker. Other recent projects have seen the ensemble collaborating with urban artists including beatbox, slam and hip-hop, and with the contemporary choreographer Mourad Merzouki.

Franck-Emmanuel Comte (Photo: Julie Cherki)

So, the 50/50 project does not come out of nowhere. Franck-Emmanuel is keen to demonstrate that ancient music can be new, and not just for a specialist audience, it can be for everyone. He feels that by collaborating with other contemporary artists and composers, they have more chances of convincing young people to listen to Baroque music. Their new creations involving hip-hop, dance and video give rise to a new type of Baroque concert. 

Alongside their regular period performances, each year Franck-Emmanuel and the ensemble do a project with guest artists. Talking to Franck-Emmanuel it is clear that he feels passionate about the need to make ancient music sound modern, to bring different colours to the repertoire and to mix languages and inspirations.

Franck-Emmanuel originally met composer David Chalmin because Chalmin wrote a piece, Sept Particules (2018), for the French-American harpsichordist Justin Taylor. Chalmin is quite an eclectic composer and has written in styles as diverse as classical, minimalism and pop, even writing for Madonna. After hearing Justin Taylor performing Chalmin's piece, Franck-Emmanuel spoke to the composer and asked him to write a work for Le Concert de l'Hostel de Dieu. One of Franck-Emmanuel previous programmes with the ensemble had been called The French Connection [see on YouTube], putting English music of the late 17th century by Purcell, Locke and Humphrey alongside music by their French contemporaries Lully, Cambert and Grabu, to show the influence of Versailles on the late 17th century English court.

20 Christmas pieces by 19 women composers from the 20th and 21st centuries: Somerville College Choir's The Dawn of Grace

The Dawn of Grace: music for Christmas: Somerville College Choir, Oxford, Will Dawes, Luca Morgante; RESONUS
Reviewed 15 December 2022 (★★★★)

An imaginative Christmas programme that features 20 pieces by 19 women contemporary composers woven into a satisfying recital by the young voices from Somerville College

Somerville College, Oxford was founded in 1879 in order to give women and non-conformists the ability to come to Oxford to study, and the college choir sings in the only non-denominational college chapel in Oxford. So, what to record for the choir's first Christmas album. The answer is a disc of contemporary carols and Christmas music by 19 female composers, including eleven world premiere recordings.

The result, on Resonus Classics, is The Dawn of Grace: music for Christmas from Somerville College Choir, Oxford and conductor Will Dawes, with organist/pianist Luca Morgante, with music by Cecilia McDowall, Abbie Betinis, Anna Semple, Pamela Decker, Cheryl Frances-Hoad, Kerensa Briggs, Sarah Cattley, Judith Bingham, Joanna Marsh, Errollyn Wallen, Yshani Perinpanayagam, Shruthi Rajasekar, Sarah Quartel, Jeanne Demessieux, Tamsin Jones, Judith Weir, Janet Wheeler, June Nixon, and Ghislaine Reece-Trapp. Apart from Jeanne Demessieux (1921-1968), all living composers with birth years ranging from 1942 to 1997.

Well-known tunes feature in some arrangements, but mainly the disc is about new classics. The approaches are largely tonal and traditional, but within these, there is a lot of imagination being brought to bear, and many of the pieces show great ingenuity in the ability to vary the textures.

Based on a true story sparked by a quest for answers about his absent father & Mexican ancestry: Nathan Felix's Santa-Alamada

Santa-Almada is a new choral symphony by Mexican-American composer Nathan Felix, and Felix has released a new live recording of Santa-Almada featuring the Inversion Ensemble, conductor Trevor F Shaw, recorded live at the work's premiere in Austin, Texas in May 2022.

Santa-Almada is based on a true story sparked by a quest for answers about Felix’s absent father and Mexican ancestry, revealing the existence of two half brothers and a sister, also having been abandoned by their mutual father. Felix contacted his father after a gap of 27 years and an ensuing one-hour phone sparked the beginnings of 'Fathers & Sons', the first movement of the symphony.

Santa-Almada is written in six movements with themes of personal exploration, discovery, loss, and deep reflection. It was important to Felix to have the world premiere of the work in Austin where it could be shared with his family and closest friends.

In 2004, Felix founded the indie rock band, The Noise Revival Orchestra, then in 2013 he moved into writing for orchestra with his first symphony, The Curse, the Cross & the Lion. 

Santa-Alamada on Spotify, and on Bandcamp.

To enter White's world is to enter a parallel universe: Alastair White's opera Rune recorded live on Metier

Alastair White: Rune; Patricia Auchterlonie, Simone Ibbett-Browne, Ben Smith, Joseph Havlat, Siwan Rhys; Metier

Reviewed 14 December 2022 (★★★★)

On dazzling form, Alastair White's new opera, recorded live, creates seductive, virtuoso textures from just two singers and three pianos

Alastair White's Fashion|Opera Rune debuted at the Round Chapel in Hackney as part of Tête-à-Tête: The Opera Festival and a live recording has appeared on Métier, with soprano Patricia Auchterlonie and mezzo-soprano Simone Ibbett-Browne and an ensemble of three pianos played by Ben Smith (music director), Joseph Havlat and Siwan Rhys.

Setting White's own text, the opera appears at first sight to be a complex, cosmological, Science-Fiction fantasy. The libretto's argument goes thus, 'On a planet where history is forbidden, a young girl dares to tell her story. A voyage across galaxies and millennia, hers is a tale of the archipelagos of Khye-rell and their matterwork, through transdimensional canals and sea lanes to the RUNE of the universe’s origin. This song, her story – through the very act of being told – will have consequences beyond imagining'

Live Music Now Scotland announces a new creative learning initiative

Emma Martin with children from Invergarven School in Girvan

Live Music Now Scotland (LMNS) has announced a striking new creative learning initiative whereby LMNS musicians Emma Martin (singer/songwriter), Sophie Rocks (harp), Sally Simpson (fiddle) and Neil Sutcliffe (accordion) have been placed in five additional support needs schools and units in South Ayrshire and East Ayrshire, to work collaboratively with teachers and senior leadership teams to identify ways to teach the curriculum creatively through the medium of music.

The project is a combination of training created in response to the teachers' and musicians’ needs and music delivered through collaborative learning. The musicians will make 40 visits over the two years, collectively delivering 720 workshops.

The project is in partnership with South Ayrshire Council’s Creative Learning Network, thanks to funding from the Paul Hamlyn Foundation’s Teacher Development Fund. The hope is that, in the long-term, similar initiatives can be rolled out more widely and help encourage further investigation into the benefit of this model of artists and teachers working and learning together and the impact that teaching the curriculum through the arts subsequently has on improving communication and language skills, and aiding overall learning in an additional support needs setting. 

Manic energy and musical vision: Alex Paxton's ilolli-pop on nonclassical

Alex Paxton - ilolli-pop, Sometimes Voices, Corncrack Dreams, Mouth Music; Alex Paxton, Dreammusics Ensemble; nonclassical
Reviewed 12 December 2022

Welcome to the wonderfully imaginative, manically energetic world of Alex Paxton, music that never seems to sit still, taking us on journeys across myriad brilliant textures and timbres 

Composer and improvising trombonist Alex Paxton's new disc on nonclassical, ilolli-pop features a selection of Paxton's recent works all performed by Dreammusics Ensemble and Alex Paxton (improvised trombone solo, keyboards), James Larter (drum kit). The central work on the disc is ilolli-pop which Paxton wrote for Ensemble Moderne and which they premiered in 2020 and it was subsequently nominated for the 2022 Gaudeamus Composer Award. Alongside this are three shorter works, Sometimes Voices, originally commissioned by Hyper Duo and winner of the Chamber Music category in the 2021 Ivor Novello Awards, Corn-Crack Dreams, originally commissioned by the Nevis Ensemble and nominated for a 2021 Ivor Novello Award in the jazz category, and Mouth Music Take I.

How Cold the Wind doth Blow: songs by RVW, friends and pupils at Wigmore Hall

Jack Liebeck, William Vann, Mary Bevan, Nicky Spence at Wigmore Hall (Photo courtesy of William Vann)

How Cold the Wind doth Blow: Vaughan Williams, Holst, Thomas Dunhill, Ireland,  Rebecca Clarke, Grace Williams, Elizabeth Maconchy, Ina Boyle; Mary Bevan, Nicky Spence, Jack Liebeck, William Vann; Wigmore Hall
Reviewed 11 December 2022; (★★★★★)

A lovely way to round off the RVW celebrations with a selection of his finest folk-song arrangements alongside songs by his friends and pupils

On Sunday afternoon (11 December 2022), Wigmore Hall continued its RVW celebrations with How Cold the Wind doth Blow, a programme of songs and duets by RVW and his friends and pupils including Gustav Holst, Thomas Dunhill, John Ireland, Rebecca Clarke, Grace Williams, Elizabeth Maconchy and Ina Boyle, performed by Mary Bevan (soprano), Nicky Spence (tenor), William Vann (piano) and Jack Liebeck (violin).

Vaughan Williams and Gustav Holst met as students at the Royal College of Music and remained friends until Holst's death in 1934. They bonded over a love of literature, both developed an enthusiasm for folksong, the relationship was punctuated by long walking tours and each showed the other virtually everything they were writing.

A tricky relationship: the friendship of Benjamin Britten and W H Auden examined in London Song Festival's final event of the season

W H Auden and Benjamin Britten

Benjamin Britten and W H Auden; Charlotte Bowden, Harry Grigg, Nigel Foster; London Song Festival at Hinde Street Methodist Church
Reviewed 9 December 2022

Britten's W H Auden settings placed in a biographical context make for a revelatory evening exploring the important yet tricksy relationship between poet and composer

Benjamin Britten would have a close relationship with the poet WH Auden for around seven years, from 1935 to 1942 and their collaborations include song cycles, film music, an operetta and choral works. Only six years older than Britten, Auden was more self-confident both as an artist and in his sexuality. The last of Nigel Foster's Friends and Lovers season at the London Song Festival focussed on the relationship between Britten and Auden. At Hinde Street Methodist Church on Friday 9 December 2022, Charlotte Bowden (soprano), Harry Grigg (tenor) and Nigel Foster (piano) performed Britten's settings of Auden, including On this Island, the Cabaret Songs, music from Our Hunting Fathers, Ballad of Heroes and Paul Bunyan, and a new version of the soundtrack to the film Night Mail. Interspersed with these, David Mildon read extracts from Britten's letters and diary.

The concert was arranged chronologically from 1936 to the last song, though the songs from On this Island were spread out throughout the whole evening. What was fascinating was hearing the way song and life intertwined, with Britten's comments about the genesis of songs, their reception or other life events that impacted on his art. Perhaps one thing to point out, for the majority of songs we heard during the evening, the words came from poems that Auden had written rather than Auden specifically writing lyrics for Britten. The songs split roughly into two types, the cabaret type ones and the more consciously arty ones. 

Persephone: young film composer Veronika Hanl's lockdown project began as the stripped-back telling of a classic tale from Greek mythology

Veronika Hanl

Veronika Hanl is a London-based Austrian-born composer and producer who has been working in film and television along with producing and amongst her recent projects is working with Isobel Waller-Bridge for the Apple TV series Roar, starring Nicole Kidman and Alison Brie. 

Veronika has been based in the UK for the past five years. She describes it as getting crazy expensive, but she fell in love with the city. It is the city to be. In Spring 2022, Veronika released one of her own projects, an EP Persephone created with Julia Romana, and Lowpines. It was something of a lockdown project, arising in 2020 with the singer/songwriter Lowpines (Oli Deakin), a British friend of Veronika's who is based in New York. It began simply with her, Oli and a ukulele telling a story about Persephone and Hades. They decided to make an acoustic version, and it turned out that the recording engineer, Tom Addison, was a pianist too so they made duo and trio acoustic versions of the piece.

Veronika describes the music as melancholic (she is a film composer and her work often has lots of drama), but it tells a sort of love story with Persephone and Hades as ships that pass in the night, two lovers who really want to be together. The collaboration began with Veronika creating instrumentals and vocal ideas, she then sent the result to Lowpines. He was stuck in the UK during the first lockdown and listened to Veronika's ideas on the beach in Brighton. He thought the instrumentals reminded him of waves, which led them to Persephone, and they built the piece together from there. Veronika is hoping that the two might collaborate again, she sees their styles as compatible and a low of Lowpines music is used on soundtracks. But collaboration will be trickier now that he is back in New York and she is in London.

'I am he who kisses his comrade lightly on the lips at parting, and I am one who is kissed in return' - creating my cantata Out of the Shadows

During Lockdown in 2020, I had a tendency to reread old books and revisit old musical projects. One project resulted in the creation of my cantata Et expecto resurrectionem as I returned to an early, incomplete musical project [see my article 'In search of eternal life']. 

One of the books I was re-reading, a history of gay life during the 19th century set me thinking. When reading books, if texts draw me in and elicit musical ideas, then I tend to scribble in the book. In this case, I accumulated a selection of texts which seemed to tell a story of the gradual emergence of gay men into society. The idea of a song cycle was born.

Usually, when writing song cycles, I put the texts into some sort of order and then simply start work on the music. My music writing tends to be instinctive; I simply see what happens and whether I like it. But this time, I reflected on the way the distinguished song composer Ian Venables commented to me that he tended to plan song cycles to ensure structural coherence and variety. I decided to see what happened if I did this.

I assembled five texts and assigned them a particular musical mood and rough tempo. The result would have, I hoped, a satisfying sort of symphonic layout in terms of Introduction, Allegro, slow movement, scherzo and finale. At the same time, I planned the allocation of parts.  My cantata Et expecto resurrectionem had developed into a single continuous work for tenor, baritone and piano with little in the way of independent solo moments. For the new piece, which would become Out of the Shadows, I decided to alternate ensemble moments with solos.

I am never very good at sticking to plans for pieces of music, but by and large, Out of the Shadows remains true to this initial plan. 

• I myself am such a man sets text from Carlus Pontus Wikner's Psychological Confessions (1879) for both soloists as a slow introduction, reflecting Wikner's rather anguished admission of same-sex attraction. 
• They lived together and seldom parted sets text from Friedrich van Ramdohr's Venus Urania (1798) as a tenor solo which has a slightly skittish element to the description of two rather naive young men who are horrified to realise their mutual attraction. 
• The Ideal Friend sets a text by Joe Ackerley from My Father and Myself (1968) for both soloists. This is actually a 20th century description of cruising, but it takes place at a time when homosexuality was still proscribed and probably is equally true for 19th century gay men. This was intended to be the slow movement, but ended up rather more walking pace rather aptly as Ackerley's text describes his protagonist (Ackerley himself) walking along observing a young man to whom he is attracted.
• The Bath House takes text from Mikhail Kuzmin from around 1905. This was intended as a baritone solo, a sort of scherzo but as I set the text, I decided to give the bath house attendant his own life and brought in the tenor soloist to, I hope, comic effect.
• For the final movement, I wanted a text that had an element of positive affirmation about it. I ended up with Walt Whitman's To what you said, perhaps best known from Bernstein's setting in Songfest. They are words which Whitman penned to a female admirer but which contain a real affirmation of what it was to be a man loving men, 'I am he who kisses his comrade lightly on the lips at parting, and I am one who is kissed in return'

Out of the Shadows will be premiered by Ben Vonberg Clark (tenor), James Atkinson (baritone) and Nigel Foster (piano) at Hinde Street Methodist Church on Friday 3 February 2023 as part of a concert of my vocal music which also includes the premiere of Et expecto resurrectionem and a retrospective of my songs. Further details from EventBrite.

Dartington Music Summer School celebrated 75th anniversary in 2023 with Dame Thea Musgrave as composer-in-residence and much more

Dartington Music Summer School returns in 2023 with four weeks of courses and shared music-making from 22 July to 19 August 2023 curated by artistic director Sara Mohr-Pietsch. And 2023 also celebrates a double anniversary, 75 years since the Summer School was founded and 70 years since it found a home at Dartington Hall in Devon.

For 2023, Thea Musgrave will be composer-in-residence, and conductor Anna Lapwood (in her Dartington debut) will be directing Musgrave's Missa Brevis. There will be new courses in a wide range of composition for amateur musicians, with film composer Isobel Waller-Bridge, composer/performer Héloïse Werner and singer-songwriter Ana Silvera, whilst composer Cevanne Horrocks-Hopayian leads a composition course in writing for historical and newly-devised instruments and electronics, and cellist Matthew Barley explores improvisation.

During lockdown, Robert Hollingworth and I Fagiolini produced a series on YouTube, Singing the Score and they will be returning to Dartington with live, interactive version.  John Butt and the Dunedin Consort will be leading a performance of Bach's Mass in B Minor.

There will also be coaching from sopranos Mary Bevan and Mhairi Lawson, tenor James Gilchrist, pianist Anna Lapwood, conductor Alice Farnham, Black Voices and ensembles Mediva, Fretwork, Magnard Ensemble and Leonore Piano Trio

Conductor Grace Rossiter will direct the Big Choir in a performance of Rossini’s Stabat Mater. Composer Robin Haigh and recorder virtuoso Tabea Debus will be leading OUR DEAR FOREST, a large-scale outdoor installation performance in Dartington’s Deer Park, co-created with recorder players of all ages and abilities.

Full details from the Dartington Music Summer School's website.

A dislike of plastic elves and glowing Santas spewing out rainbow snowmen in every direction

Martin Green

Composer (and one-third of the innovative folk band, Lau) Martin Green has created two new works for Opera North exploring the meanings behind our festival rituals. Green is a self-confessed Christmas curmudgeon, "I'm not what I’d call a Christmas person", he admits. "I love people, music, doing stuff — but do I love Christmas? I’m not sure", and his two new works explore different sides to the festival.

At Harewood House, his new sound installation Tannenbaum takes an old tune and explores the way it is used for the carol, O Tannenbaum (O Christmas Tree) and The Red Flag, using recordings from a folk session at the Waverley Bar in Edinburgh. The installation can be experienced as part of Harewood House's Long Live the Christmas Tree display.

Then on 17 December 2022 at the Howard Assembly Room (and 22 December at Sage Gateshead), Green's Lighting the Dark knits together folk tunes, songs and carols with the story of a spiritual journey from despair in the queue at Argos to a blazing, brass-led epiphany about the meaning of the season and its traditions. To perform it, Green will be joined by friends including Irish fiddle player Ultan O’Brien of the band Slow Moving Clouds and a brass trio comprising composer and improviser Laura Jurd (trumpet);, Danielle Price (tuba), and the brilliant young Glaswegian trombonist Anoushka Nanguy.

Full details from Opera North's website.

London Philharmonic Orchestra to perform Gavin Bryars’ Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet in a contemplative event at St John’s Waterloo

Gavin Bryars

In January 2023, the London Philharmonic Orchestra will be giving a pair of performances of Gavin Bryars' Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet in a contemplative event at St John's Waterloo including a relaxed performance and other activities for homeless community groups supported by the church.

At the core of Bryars's composition is a 26-second recording of an unknown homeless man singing the refrain, Jesus' blood never failed me yet, this one thing I know, for He loves me so.Bryars came about the man in 1971 whilst working with a friend on a film about people living rough in the Elephant and Castle and Waterloo areas of London, where the concerts will be taking place. The audio clip of this particular man did not make it in to the final film but Bryars was given all the unused tapes. He soon discovered that the man’s singing was in tune with his piano and decided to add a simple accompaniment which grows in strength throughout the eventual 30-minute piece. Unfortunately, the man’s name was not captured and Bryars' efforts to locate him again were not successful. Attempts to place the song he sings have also proved inconclusive, meaning there is a possibility this was the man’s own composition.

On Wednesday 11 January 2023, the London Philharmonic Orchestra will be giving a pair of performances of Bryars' work at St John's Waterloo. During the day there will be a community performance and the invited audience will consist of guests from the homeless communities served by St John’s Waterloo. It will be a relaxed, reflective and gentle event with lunch provided. 

Then at 6.30pm there will be a public performance in the church, designed to be a contemplative event, creatively lit by Intersection, and the orchestra in the middle of the space, surrounded by the audience. The concert will be followed by a panel discussion with Bryars, who celebrates his 80th birthday a few days later, and others. There will be a retiring collection at the end of the public performance in aid of the homeless charities the church works with.

Full details from the LPO's website.

The 10th edition of the Khachaturian International Festival is currently underway in Yerevan in Armenia

Armenian State Symphony Orchestra, artistic director Sergey Smbatyan

The 10th edition of the Khachaturian International Festival is currently underway in Yerevan in Armenia. The festival was established by the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra, artistic director Sergey Smbatyan. This year the orchestra opened the festival on 6 December 2022, performing Prokofiev's Symphony Concerto for Cello and Orchestra, with soloist Sevak Avanesyan, and music by Glinka and Borodin, conducted by George Pehlivanian

There are four more concerts in the festival, which runs until 20 December 2022 and music includes Khachaturian's Piano Concerto with soloist Massimo Spada and the Concerto for Cello and Wind Orchestra by Austrian pianist and composer Friedrich Gulda (1930-2000). Gulda wrote the work in 1980 and it combines Gulda's two main interests, classical music and jazz. Festival performances also include Dvorak's Violin Concerto with soloist Carmine Lauri (co-leader of the London Symphony Orchestra), plus music by Bernstein, and Rimsky Korsakov.

Full details from the orchestra's website.

Rachel Duckett and Thando Mjandana announced as winners of the Voice of Black Opera

Rachel Ducket with WNO Orchestra and Matthew Kofi Waldren (Photo Dan Knott Event Photography)

British singer Rachel Duckett was announced as the winner of the Voice of Black Opera (VOBO) competition which took place on Monday 5 December 2022 at Birmingham Town Hall.

Rachel Duckett [who was in Northern Opera Group's film of Viardot's Cendrillon, see my review] takes home the Sir Willard White Trophy as well as a £10,000 grand prize, repertoire coaching with music staff of Welsh National Opera, and a forthcoming concert appearance with the WNO Orchestra.

South African Thando Mjandana [who we saw as Nemorino in Waterperry Opera's production of Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore, see my review] received the Samuel Coleridge Taylor Award, which included the prize of £5,000 and three forthcoming performances of a specifically commissioned new work by Daniel Kidane for voice and ensemble with Birmingham Contemporary Music Group (BCMG).  

Thando Mjandana, WNO Orchestra, Matthew Kofi Waldren (Photo Dan Knott Event Photography)

Music that barely survived, brought back to life: Ensemble Pro Victoria's Tudor Music Afterlives

Tudor Music Afterlives: Taverner, John Sheppard, Jacob Clemens non Papa, Jacotin Le Bel (or Claudin de Sermisy), Philip van Wilder, Orlande Lassus, Robert Parson, John Taverner and Christopher Tye, Ensemble Pro Victoria, Toby Ward, Toby Carr, Magnus Williamson; Delphian
Reviewed 6 December 2022 (★★★★)

A fascinating disc that examines the diverse after-lives of the pieces of Tudor music that were overlooked, forgotten or discarded, all in stylish and vibrant performances

This new disc from Toby Ward and Ensemble Pro Victoria on Delphian has the somewhat confusing title of Tudor Music Afterlives, and on it, the ensemble performs music by Tallis, Nicholas Ludford, John Taverner, John Sheppard, Jacob Clemens non Papa, Jacotin Le Bel (or Claudin de Sermisy), Philip van Wilder, Orlande Lassus, Robert Parson, John Taverner and Christopher Tye.

The idea behind the disc is to look at the wide variety of ways Tudor music survived, to go beyond the seeming monolith of the works that have a secure history to those that have only partially survived, survived in another form or have been reused.

In a piece of rare late, late Offenbach, New Sussex Opera proves exemplary in their grasp of staging operetta with charm, energy and style

Offenbach: Belle Lurette - Cameron Mitchell, Tristan Stocks, Michael Ferguson, Monica McGhee, Robin Bailey, Kristin Finnigan, Paul Featherstone - New Sussex Opera

Offenbach: Belle Lurette; Monica McGhee, Kirstin Finigan, Paul Featherstone, Robin Bailey, Files Davies, Michael Ferguson, Cameron Mitchell, Tristan Stocks, director David Foster, St Paul's Sinfonia, conductor Toby Purser; New Sussex Opera at the Bloomsbury Theatre
Reviewed 6 December 2022 (★★★★)

Offenbach's last operetta, incomplete at his death, shows the master still on form in this engaging and stylish revival

In 2021, New Sussex Opera delighted us with a revival of a rare Offenbach operetta, La princesse de Trébizonde [see my review]. And this Autumn the company returned to this territory with the first production in the UK for over 140 years of Offenbach's last operetta. Belle Lurette. Both operettas are in Offenbach's later, more sentimental vein. Following the upsets of the Franco-Prussian War and the Paris Commune, when Offenbach returned to Paris, he largely abandoned satirical operetta for something more sentimental and lyrical. His output included works written for the Opera Comique, and Belle Lurette is in this vein. Unfinished at Offenbach's death, Delibes completed the work and provided the orchestration.

We caught New Sussex Opera's final performance of Offenbach's Belle Lurette at the Bloomsbury Theatre on Tuesday 6 December 2022. Toby Purser conducted St Paul's Sinfonia; the production was directed by David Foster and designed by Victoria Gillians. Monica McGhee was Lurette with Kristin Finnigan as Marceline, Paul Featherstone as Malicorne, Robin Bailey as the Duc de Marly, Giles Davies as Belhomme, Michael Ferguson as Campistrel, Cameron Mitchell as Merluchet and Tristan Stocks as Cigogne. The operetta was sung in a new English version by Paul Featherstone, with a new orchestration by James Widden (leader of the St Paul's Sinfonia).

Offenbach: Belle Lurette - Cameron Mitchell, Michael Ferguson, Tristan Stocks - New Sussex Opera

At the time of his death, Offenbach was actually working on three different pieces, Les Contes d'Hoffmann, Belle Lurette and Moucheron. Belle Lurette was largely finished but Delibes had to tidy it up and provide the orchestration. Whereas La princesse de Trébizonde was described as an opéra bouffe, Belle Lurette was an opéra comique, more a sentimental comedy that comic opera. The plot concerns a Parisian laundress, Belle Lurette, and her liaison with an aristocrat, the Duc de Marly. It is a work full of engaging tunes, Offenbach still on great form, but the work is not without problems.

I wanted music that would hold the listener’s attention throughout: Kristjan Järvi's Nutcracker: A Dramatic Symphony from the Baltic Sea Philharmonic

Kristjan Järvi and Baltic Sea Philharmonic recording Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker
(Photo: Siiri Kumari / Sunbeam Productions)

Christmas for many people is epitomised by Tchaikovsky's ballet, The Nutcracker. For all the work's ubiquity (and its terrific tunes), as a dramatic ballet The Nutcracker is somewhat unsatisfactory. The original production, in St Petersburg in 1892 (with choreography by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov) was not a success. 

Since the ballet's debut, countless choreographers and dramaturgs have worked on the complete ballet to give it a more satisfying form, frustrated that Tchaikovsky's final ballet should be coupled with such an unsatisfactory dramatic structure. The ubiquity of the ballet at Christmas is very much a post-war phenomenon. The first complete performance of The Nutcracker ballet outside Russia did not take place until 1934 when Ninette de Valois invited Nicholas Sergeyev to stage it in England. 

Before the work's premiere, Tchaikovsky had extracted a suite for orchestra, and this was an instant success, and in this orchestral guise, The Nutcracker remains immediately recognisable as one of the composer's best-known and most-travelled works.

Having released his own symphonic versions of Tchaikovsky's other two ballets, Kristjan Järvi and the young players of his Baltic Sea Philharmonic Orchestra have just released a disc devoted to The Nutcracker. Järvi has created a dramatic symphony from the ballet. Rather than simply presenting a suite of the well-known music, he wanted to give these musical bonbons a greater degree of context and to show that there is other fine music in the ballet. He comments, "When creating this Dramatic Symphony version, I didn’t make musical choices according to the popularity of certain movements. Instead, my choices were based on what material and movements I thought would be most interesting and riveting to listen to in sequence. I wanted music that would hold the listener’s attention throughout, so I reorchestrated and rewrote some elements, and created new transitions"

The orchestra's live concerts are usually dramatic events, with the players often playing from memory and the music accompanied by lighting and dramatic staging. The recording took place in Tallinn in September 2022, following the orchestra's tour of Germany and Estonia, and the atmosphere of a live concert was recreated in Estonian Public Broadcasting Studio 1. With no music stands, the musicians were mostly standing up, spread out and not in their sections, free to move and even dance to the music. Gertrud Leopard, an Estonian percussionist in the orchestra who was familiar with the studio in Tallinn, having recorded there twice before, says: "Recording from memory is a unique experience for me. It means I can focus more on the music, without having to concentrate on the score. With the special atmosphere in the studio, it really feels like we are performing, and we are building a unique connection within the orchestra."

Kristjan Järvi and the Baltic Sea Philharmonic's Nutcracker: A Dramatic Symphony is released on Sony Classical [see link tree], the orchestra's fourth disc on the label following The Ring: An Orchestral Adventure (2016), Stravinsky and Glass Violin Concertos (2020) and Sleeping Beauty (2020).

For Unto Us a Child is Born: Handel from Slovenia

Here is a familiar chorus from Messiah recorded by a Slovenian youth choir and Baroque orchestra, singing in highly creditable English and with great style. And they really look as if they are enjoying themselves.

'For Unto Us A Child Is Born' from Handel's Messiah performed by the Megaron Baroque Orchestra and Megaron Choir, conductor Gary Graden, recorded live from the Church of the Assumption of Virgin Mary, Koper (Capodistria) in Slovenia.

One of the best European youth choirs, Megaron Chamber Choir was founded in October 2003 from former students of the Diocesan Classical Gymnasium (School) at St. Stanislav’s Institution in Ljubljana. Since its founding the choir has evolved into a high-quality ensemble performing regularly in Slovenia and abroad.

The video director was Primož Zevnik, who shared the video with me.

Sleep, Jesus, Sleep: Roxanna Panufnik's new version of the Ukrainian carol features an Afghan tabla player in support of Refugees

Composer Roxanna Panufnik and Signum Classics have released a new single in support of the Refugee Council. Sleep, Jesus, Sleep features gospel choir Soul Sanctuary, Ukrainian soprano Inna Husieva and Afghan tabla player Sulaiman Haqpana in Panufnik's arrangement of a traditional Ukrainian carol. 

As to why she has included an Afghan tabla in the mix, Panufnik explains "since Putin commenced his ‘special operation’ in Ukraine, the many thousands of Afghan refugees that we airlifted out of Kabul in August 2021 seem to have been all but forgotten. Thousands are still waiting to be housed (often with families to one hotel room). The Refugee Council will spend the money raised helping refugees of all nationalities to find their feet in the UK."

The single can be streamed [link tree] and every penny from both Panufnik and Signum's revenue from this will go to the Refugee Council.

Because the version on the disc is somewhat specialised, Panufnik has also created a conventional choral arrangement and there are over 40 live performances planned so far. [see her website for impressive details]. If you are interested in getting a copy, then contact Roxanna Panufnik via Twitter, or Facebook

You can also donate via her GoFundMe page.

Swirling, static energy: Ruthless Jabiru & Decibel New Music Ensemble at Brunel Museum

Cat Hope, Kelly Lovelady, Decibel and Ruthless Jabiru at Brunel Musem (photo: Billie Tün, courtesy of Ruthless Jabiru)

Kaija Saariaho: Neiges, Lindsay Vickery: Bascule (European premiere), Tansy Davies: Feather and Groove, Pedro Alvarez: Intersperso-Ultradiano (European premiere); Julius Eastman: The Holy Presence of Joan d’Arc; Cat Hope: Never at Sea (World premiere); Decibel New Music Ensemble & Ruthless Jabiru at Brunel Museum
Reviewed by Florence Anna Maunders, 2 December 2022

Two exciting ensembles of Australian musicians unite under the Thames

The exotically-monikered Ruthless Jabiru are a chamber orchestra of Australian musicians who live and work in London, under the leadership of their artistic director – Kelly Lovelady. In this London concert, held in the unique ambience of Brunel's first tunnel under the Thames at the Brunel Museum (2 December 2022), they were joined by the Australian Decibel New Music Ensemble, in the UK as part of a European tour, to create a large, and intriguingly bass-heavy, musical group performing music by Kaija Saariaho, Lindsay Vickery, Tansy Davies, Pedro Alvarez, Julius Eastman and Cat Hope.

Bringing the Christmas spirit with classical, rap, gospel, grime, disco, Disney and more: Brixton Chamber Orchestra's 2022 Christmas Estates Tour

Brixton Chamber Orchestra (BCO), director Matthew O'Keeffe, really makes good on its aim to be a real community orchestra. Twice a year, BCO goes on tour of the various estates in an around Brixton. This year's Christmas Estates Tour runs from 9 to 18 December 2022, when O'Keeffe, a 25-piece orchestra and guest vocalists will be doing 12 shows at 12 different venues. All free!

As ever, the repertoire is eclectic, from Classical to Rap, Gospel to Grime, Disco, Disney, Christmas music and more.

As well as concert appearances across the borough, BCO is joining Brixton Seventh Day Adventist Church for a service on 17 December 2022, and at Stockwell Park Community Centre on 14 December 2022, BCO will be presenting an extended Grime Orchestrated set with an open mic for rappers of all ages.

You can find a handy map of the tour's locations on Google, with full details on the BCO website.

The Ligeti Quartet announces a new first violin and looks forward to György Ligeti's centenary

The Ligeti Quartet (Photo Ed Miles)

After nearly twelve years of quartet life, Ligeti Quartet founding member, violinist Mandhira de Saram, has made the decision to focus on the other creative parts of her career. Her musical friendship with the quartet will be continuing, however, and the Ligeti Quartet is premiering a new composition by her next year.

Freya Goldmark has been announced as the Ligeti Quartet's new first violin. Goldmark has been working with the quartet over the past year including on one of their UK tours and performed with the quartet during their first performance at Aldeburgh Festival last year.

After starting violin lessons aged four, by her mid teens Goldmark had performed across the UK, Europe and Asia and made her concerto debut aged just 13 at the Rachmaninov Institute in Russia. At 19, she founded Stamford International Music Festival, a chamber music festival which takes place each year in the town in which she grew up.

Nextyear is set to be an exciting one for the Ligeti Quartet. 2023 is the 100th anniversary of György Ligeti’s birth and the quartet's celebrations include 14 new commissions supported by Britten Pears Arts, BBC Radio 3, and Montreal’s Bourgie Hall.  The quartet also looks forward to its first concert in the new formation at the BBC Radio 3 New Music Show, which will be performed and recorded live in Sunderland on 20 December 2022 and broadcast on 7 January 2023.

Full details from the quartet's website.

Barely registering on the historical record, Vincente Lusitano's music proves a richly rewarding experience

Vincente Lusitano: Motets; The Marian Consort, LINN Records
Reviewed 5 December 2022; (★★★★★)

This disc from The Marian Consort presents a little more than a third of the total surviving output of a composer who virtually disappeared from the historical record. A glimpse into a richly imaginative work, performed with luminous clarity

Like many Renaissance composers, we know frustratingly little about the life of Portuguese composer Vincente Lusitano. Even his name isn't a help, it simply means Portuguese. He appears in the historical record for around a decade, then disappears again. Later sources fill in some background, but a manuscript by João Franco Barreto written in the mid-seventeenth century provides one important key. João Franco Barreto describes Lusitano as ‘pardo’, a Portuguese term used to denote a mixed-race person of European and African parentage. Thanks to the significant slave trade in 16th century Portugal, there was a significant population of people of African descent. Lusitano was a priest, and whilst mixed-race men did become priests the salaried posts were all reserved for white men.

Thanks to the publication of his book of motets in Rome in 1551, Lusitano becomes the first published Black composer. During the 1550s, Lusitano was the music tutor to the son of the Portuguese ambassador to the Holy See, and the book of motets is dedicated to the ambassador, so it is presumably him that we can thank for the book's production. Unlike some composers, Lusitano's music does not seem to have been spread by word of mouth with manuscript copies circulating. His reputation during his lifetime was mainly as a theorist rather than as a composer, and some of his music was created to demonstrate these theories.

So, what do we have of Lusitano? Well, there is the published book from 1551, Liber primus epigramatum containing 23 motets, plus a published treatise and another manuscript treatise both of which are concerned with improvised counterpoint. The manuscript treatise includes one of Lusitano's motets as a demonstration. There is also one, intriguing survival, one of Lusitano's motets in a book from the ducal court in Stuttgart, dated 1562. The historical record for Lusitano stops at 1561 when he seems to have converted to Protestantism, married and was seeking a post in Germany.

This disc of Vincente Lusitano's motets from The Marian Consort, artistic director Rory McCleery, on Linn Records, provides us with something of an overview. The ensemble presents ten of Lusitano's motets, performed by a vocal ensemble of 15 singers.

Poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar celebrated at the London Song Festival including songs by Coleridge Taylor, Florence Price, William Grant Still & the premiere of one of my settings

Paul Laurence Dunbar

A celebration of the 150th anniversary of the birth of Paul Laurence Dunbar - Samuel Coleridge Taylor, Adolphus Hailstork, John Rosamond Johnson, Florence Price, William Grant Still, Betty Jackson-King, John Carrington, Charles Lloyd, Robert Hugill; Gweneth Ann Rand, Ronald Samm, Nigel Foster, Michael Harper; London Song Festival at Hinde Street Methodist Church
2 December 2022

The friendship between Dunbar and Coleridge Taylor thrown into relief by the diverse settings of Dunbar's poetry alongside other poems in a wonderfully engaging programme

On Friday 2 December 2022, the London Song Festival, artistic director Nigel Foster, celebrated the 150th anniversary of the birth of the poet Paul Laurence Dunbar with a concert at Hinde Street Methodist Church where soprano Gweneth Ann Rand and tenor Ronald Samm, accompanied by Nigel Foster (piano), performed settings of Dunbar's poetry, with further poetry read by Michael Harper. The programme included Samuel Coleridge Taylor's African Romances, Op. 17, plus songs by Adolphus Hailstork, John Rosamond Johnson, Florence Price, William Grant Still, Betty Jackson King, John Carrington and Charles Lloyd, and the premiere of my own Dunbar setting We wear the mask.

From Super Nintendo to a dialogue with Debussy: Swedish composer, Martin Skafte's Preludes

Jonas Olsson and Martin Skafte at the recording session for Skafte's 24 Preludes for Piano

In December, Toccata Classics issues a recording of Swedish composer Martin Skafte's 24 Preludes for Piano, played by Jonas Olsson. This is music directly referencing Debussy's 24 Préludes. Martin, who trained at the Gotland School of Music Composition and the Academy of Music and Drama in Gothenburg, has also written piano solos based on Chopin's Mazurkas, and a group of pieces to be played with Beethoven's Bagatelles.

Martin's Preludes started as a group of twelve, based on Debussy's first book of Préludes, but then Martin realised that this was the most fun he'd had composing and so he went back for the second book after a couple of years. Each of Martin's preludes is based on a different idea, and for the first book, the preludes start quite close to Debussy and gradually move away. Martin sees his preludes as being in dialogue with Debussy. At the centre of the first book is The Girl with the Flaxen Hair, where we can hear Debussy quite clearly. Martin's idea in the preludes is that we hear the music trying to rebuild itself based on the memory of Debussy's music 100 years after it was written, allowing for the normal shortcomings of the human mind.

The preludes originally came about because Martin was not happy with what he was composing and decided that if he could learn from anyone, then Debussy was his first choice of composer. Martin sees his preludes as being somewhat in place of a dialogue with the composer, he wanted to get the essence of Debussy's works as a starting point for his own musical language.

Riveting showpieces: Benjamin Grosvenor, Philharmonia and Joana Carneiro in Anna Clyne, Chopin and Bartok

Bela Bartok in 1927

Anna Clyne, Chopin: Piano Concerto No. 1, Bartok: Concerto for Orchestra; Benjamin Grosvenor, Philharmonia Orchestra, Joana Carneiro; Royal Festival Hall
Reviewed 1 December 2022 (★★★★½)

An evening of contrasting showpieces, held together by some superb music making and a striking sense of balance between control and freedom. 

It has been something of a Bartok week, here on Planet Hugill. On Sunday we heard the Barbican Quartet performing Bartok's String Quartet No. 4 at Conway Hall [see my review] and at the pre-concert talk, I spoke about Bartok's six mature string quartets. Then last night (Thursday 1 December 2022), Joana Carneiro and the Philharmonia performed Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall as part of a concert that included Anna Clyne's This Midnight Hour and Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1 with soloist Benjamin Grosvenor.

Portuguese conductor Joana Carneiro, who was principal conductor of the Orquestra Sinfonica Portuguesa at Teatro Sao Carlos in Lisbon from 2014 until January 2022, has appeared with ENO and Scottish Opera, as well as guest conducting a number of UK orchestras. Her performance of this programme in Bedford was her debut with the Philharmonia.

My song 'We Wear the Mask' premieres tonight, as part of London Song Festival's celebration of poet Paul Laurence Dunbar

 

This year is the 150th anniversary of the birth of Paul Laurence Dunbar, the first African-American writer to achieve international recognition. To celebrate this, tonight (2 December 2022), Nigel Foster and the London Song Festival are exploring Dunbar's work through settings of his poetry, from his important friendship with Samuel Coleridge Taylor to other composers such as Florence Price. The concert will include the premiere of my setting of Dunbar's We Wear the Mask [read more about Dunbar and my song]. The performers are tenor Ronald Samm and soprano Gweneth Ann Rand, both of whom are currently appearing in Jake Heggie's It's A Wonderful Life at English National Opera.

Full details from London Song Festival website.

Russell Pascoe's Secular Requiem from Truro Cathedral

Russell Pascoe: Secular Requiem; Catherine Wyn-Rogers, Julien Van Mellaerts, Truro Cathedral Choir, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Christopher Gray; Regent Records
Reviewed 30 November 2022 (★★★★)

A wonderfully ambitious project from Truro recording Pascoe's fascinating contemporary requiem, determinedly secular yet powerfully expressive and very thoughtful

Many composers write sacred music for liturgical purposes even though the composers themselves may not be a believer, in a sense this simply reflects the composer's role as a provider of useful music. For some composers, their belief is a core part of their expression, and a setting of any sacred text has a sense of identification. But if a composer is an unbeliever and wishes to explore the themes implicit in some of the great liturgical texts, then they are presented with a problem or a challenge. Composer Russell Pascoe has risen to this challenge by creating Secular Requiem. 

In a hugely ambitious project, Christopher Gray (recently announced as the new director of music at St John's College, Cambridge) conducts Truro Cathedral Choir, BBC National Orchestra of Wales and soloists Catherine Wyn-Rogers and Julien Van Mellaerts in Russell Pascoe's Secular Requiem, plus his Threnody for Jowan and A Sequence for Remembrance on Regent Records. Recording for the project began in 2019, but was held up by COVID and the requiem was not recorded until 2022.

Pascoe wrote his Secular Requiem in 2012, discussing the project with the poet (and retired clinical academic) Anthony Pinching who helped assemble the texts. The libretto falls into five sections, The Proposition, The Recognition, The Reaction, The Transition, and The Accommodation which mirror the five stages of grief. The texts are varied, John Donne, Wilfred Owen, Thomas Hardy, Robert Louis Stevenson, Dylan Thomas, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro, Thomas Moore, Stephen Anderton, Rabindranath Tagore, Walt Whitman and Anthony Pinching. It is a selection that is somewhat measured, there is contemplation, reflection and humour, and whilst there is some anger, Dylan Thomas' 'rage against the dying of the light', this is not an angry work. You feel that if Pascoe had been impelled to write a setting of the liturgical text, he would have omitted the Dies Irae, like Faure and Durufle.