Original and best?

We were lucky enough to visit Grange Park Opera for 2 years running before they rebuilt the theatre. Whilst the new theatre is a wonderful achievement and a perfect space for staging small to medium scale opera, I am still glad we experienced the smaller, more difficult (no wings, no backstage), more intimate theatre.

Similarly with Garsington. I imagine that the existing out-door theatre has a multiplicity of disadvantages, so that when they move they will hopefully transfer to an improved location. So experiencing the existing theatre in Ottoline Morrell's garden in starting to come high on the list of things TO DO. Next year they are staging Fidelio, La Cenerentola and Mirandolina (Martinu). The Martinu will be the opera's UK premiere.

Vivaldi

Vivaldi's operas seem to be in the air at the moment. Garsington have premièred his comedy, L'Incoronazione de Dario, to rather mixed reviews. Fiona Maddocks in the Evening Standard (always a critic whose opinion I respect), made an interesting comment about the work. She enjoyed the music but seemed in two minds about the opera, though she added that we still did not quite understand how to stage these operas. That we are in the position with Vivaldi which we were in with Handel 30 years ago. So expect more experimental Vivaldi productions and more articles about whether his operas are theatrically viable.

That they are is confirmed by a sparkling new DVD of Ercole s'ul Termodonte from the Spoleto Festival, directed by John Pascoe and conducted by Alan Curtis (with his Complesso Barocco in the pit). It is an intelligent and imaginative re-thinking of a traditional staging of a baroque comedy which takes the work serious and does not resort to broad comedy or slapstick. The fact that Zachary Stains, in the title role, spends virtually the entire opera naked is entirely a bonus!

What is it about this time of year? Our diaries for the next few weeks are full of exciting events: we've just seen Andreas Scholl (review to follow), the Chelsea Festival is happening (we're off to see I Fagiolini next week), on the horizon are RVW's The Pilgrim's Progress at Sadlers Wells, La Fanciulla del West and Rusalka at Grange Park Opera and Don Carlo at the Royal Opera House.

But despite this, there are numerous events that we wont be going to through lack of time. Its still uncertain whether we will manage to catch the exciting new production of Weill's Street Scene at the Young Vic. For yet another year we won't be going to Garsington, despite their brave revival of Vivaldi's L'Incoronazione di Dario - note to self, we must find time to go before they move.

We won't be getting to the Buxton Festival, again. This year we are missing the triple bill which includes RVW's Riders to the Sea and Handel's Samson. We will, however, be going to the Verona Arena for the first time. My choir, London Concord Singers, are doing a couple of concerts in the Verona and Lake Garda area so this means that we can see Tosca at the Arena as well.

And for the first time in a long time we are going to a slew of Proms, its the first time in a few years that I've felt inspired by the programming. The presence of so much RVW is a draw, not only the symphonies but the Piano Concerto (always high on my list and a work I've never yet heard live). Plus some other interesting bits and pieces such as a Stanford Piano Concerto. Unfortunately we'll miss Ethel Smyth's concerto for horn and violin, but thanks to the BBC's listen again facility we will manage to catch it.

So all in all, a plethora of lovely events - only why are they all compressed into a couple of months!

From this Month's opera

Gleanings from this month's Opera magazine.

In an interview with Stephen Langridge and his father Philip, Stephen makes the interesting comment that when young and going to concerts sung by his father he was exposed to either 'really wacky modernism or Schütz, Scheidt and Schein.'. Later, when SL was doing work experience at Opera Factory he was living in a squat and used to phone singers to tell them when their call was for the next day from a payphone with the help of a bag of 10p pieces given him by the stage manager.

In another interview, Ferrucio Furlanetto comments that in 1977 when he got his first big break, as Don Giovanni, it was almost unheard of for a 27 year old to be cast in this opera. Whereas nowadays it is getting increasingly difficult to hear older singers in these roles. That said, he comments that he is no longer doing Figaro on stage, having seen a 55 year old colleague on stage looking like a 55 year old Figaro.

Evidently Furlanetto with be singing in Verdi's Don Carlo when the new Hyntner production is revived in 2010. He also sang in the French version in the previous Luc Bondy production, though as native Italian speaker he prefers singing the work in the Italian translation rather than the original French. The article goes on to comment that scholars (and some listeners!) prefer the French whereas singers prefer the Italian translation.

One of the few roles that Furlanetto has yet to do which he'd like to is Baron Ochs, now that's an interesting idea.

Still on the subject of age, 85 year old Franco Zefirelli is evidently miffed that the Met. plan to replace some of his productions. Having seen his over-cooked, over decorated La Traviata I'm surprised they've lasted so long.

The controversy surrounding the completion of Turandot continues. One letters correspondent comments that there is still a need for an authentically Puccinian solution which refers to the Puccini sketches which Alfano did not use. Oh well, we can but hope. I have only just recently heard the full Alfano completion live, thanks to Midsummer Opera, and this confirms me in my belief that full Alfano is preferable to the truncated Toscanini/Alfano currently in use.

There is now also a new conclusion by Han Weiya, but Julian Budden does not sound as if he was too impressed when he heard it in Beijing. And Shang Hai opera are going to be the first Chinese company to tour an original language Western opera to the west (to Dalhalla and Savolinna). At the performance in Shang Hai the company omitted the organ, which gave an interesting slant on Verdi's orchestration in the storm scene.

La Forza del Destino in Vienna, with Preziosilla as a Las Vegas cow girl! Still in Vienna, the first performance of Marin Marais's Alcione since 1771 - amazing what treasures are still remaining to be found. Gluck's Orfeo made it to Stockholm in 1773, only 11 years after its first performance. The opera has just returned, in Berlioz's 1859 version (with a cadenza by Saint-Saens written for Pauline Viardot) with Orfeo portrayed as an elderly, paunchy figure (production by the choreographer Mats Eck).

And in Berlin, an American Aida which had the 2nd Act danced by cheer leaders and the triumphal scene as an apple-pie eating competition.

And in Antwerp, a new opera by Luc Van Hove based on Fellini's La Strada, why try to improve on something like Fellini's film.

CNN opera has found its way to Chile, where a new piece by Sebastian Errazuriz bases itself on a 2005 tragedy where 45 soldiers died in a mountain storm.

Mixed reviews of the new production of Herold's Zampa from the restored Opera Comique in Paris. I have happy memories of playing the overture in the school orchestra and would have great curiosity to see the complete opera.

More curiosities. Leoncavallo's Edipo Re performed with Cav. in Thessaloniki - its not a hidden masterpiece evidently. And Gounod's La Nonne Sanglante performed in Osnabrück - evidently an opera worth investigating, based on an episode from Lewis's Gothic novel, The Monk.

And in Chicago a revival of Il Barbiere included the rarely performed final aria for Almaviva, something I'd love to hear live.

In New York, Martin Bernheimer seems less than enamoured of Satyagraha, his comments echoing my thoughts on the opera.

Christopher Morley in his review of L'Incoronazione di Poppea from Birmingham Conservatoire admits something which no-one seems to want to say; that the opera has stretches of tedium within the score.

In We hear that.. I see that Jonas Kaufmann is doing his first Lohengrin next year. And that Colin Lee will be singing Argirio in Tancredi at the Theater an der Wien.

Review of Der Rosenkavalier

My review of Der Rosenkavalier in David McVicar's new production at the London Coliseum is here, on Music and Vision.

Review of Bluebeard

My review of Grange Park Opera's new production of Offenbach's Bluebeard is here, on Music and Vision

Grange Park Opera 2009

We were at Grange Park last night for the first night of Bluebeard in Stephen Langridge's Bond themed production, a review will appear shortly. We'll also be returning later this month for Rusalka and La Fanciulla del West.

Next season's plans for the Festival sound exciting. Clare Rutter is singing Norma; the other two staged operas will be The Cunning Little Vixen and Cavalli's Eliagabalo, with male soprano Michael Maniaci in the title role. Plus a concert performance of The Flying Dutchman with the Welsh National Opera orchestra.

Opera North 2008/09 season

Having premiered Jonathan Dove's Pinnochio this season, Opera North are continuing their roll and presenting a further premiere next season. This new seasons completes their Shakespeare season and continues to extend the company's repertoire. In the see-saw world that is UK opera, Opera North seem to be on a winning streak as compared to Scottish Opera's brave work clawing their way back to success. November 2008 will also see the completion of work on the Grand Theatre, Leeds, with the restoration of the front of house features and the re-instatement of the Assembly Rooms as a small scale venue. This is definitely an exciting time for Opera North.

David Sawyer, whose first opera From Morning to Midnight was presented by ENO in 2001, is writing an operetta to a text by Armando Iannuci. It is a comedy set in a cosmetic surgery and is described as a darkly-comic satire. The new work, Skin Deep will be directed by Richard Jones and stars Geoffrey Dolton and Janis Kelly.

Sawyer's first work was promising, but seemed to have spent a little too long in the ENO workshops with a dramaturg. Hopefully this new piece will have a streak of unpredictability thanks to Iannuci's comic genius.

In October 2008 they are concluding their Shakespeare season with a new production, by Orpha Phelan, of Bellini's Capuleti e Montecchi with Sarah Connolly and Sara Tynan. Definitely a production to look out for, it tours to Leeds, Newcastle, Nottingham and Salford in the Autumn.

The other two new productions are a pairing of Gershwin's Of Thee I Sing with Let em Eat Cake. Of Thee I Sing is premiered in the Autumn to co-incide with the American Presidential elections (the subject of the operetta), then both pieces will be performed together in the Spring. Both productions will be directed by Caroline Gawn and will start William Dazely as Wintergreen, a part he sang in Opera North's semi-staged production in 1998. The pairing tours to Sadlers Wells Theatre in February.

The final new production of the season is The Abduction from the Seraglio, sung in English in a production designed and directed by Tim Hopkins.

Also in the new season, a revival of David Pountney's production of Shostakovich's Paradise Moscow, revival of Christopher Alden's production of Tosca with Takesha Meshe Kizart in the title role and Tim Albery's production of Don Carlos making its first appearance since 1998. The Don Carlos is being recorded for the Chandos/Peter Moores Foundation Opera in English series. Julian Gavin sings the title role, Janice Watson and Susannah Glanville share Elisabeth, Alistair Miles repeats his Philip II and Richard Farnes conducts. This is definitely a performance to catch and tours to Leeds, Salford, Nottingham and Newcastle in June 2009. I caught the production in the 1990's and have always been very taken with Albery's claustrophobic take on the piece, with Hildegard Bechtler's strikingly stylish designs.

The company is also giving concert performances of Elektra with Susan Bullock in the title role with Richard Farnes conducting. Rebecca de Pont Davies takes the role of Klytemnestra.

Including these concert performances, the orchestra of Opera North will be giving an impressive 24 concerts during the season in a variety of venues around the company's core areas.

RVW Royal Festival Hall

Saturday 31st May saw the second concert of the Philharmonia's Ralph Vaughan Williams festival at the South Bank, an event which lasts from now until November and encompasses all the symphonies, staged performances of The Pilgrim's Progress at Sadler's Wells and a number of smaller scale events and talks. In addition to the complete programme being presented in London, large portions of it are being given in various other locations around the country. All of the concerts are being conducted by Richard Hickox.

The Festival opened with the Sea Symphony and the Sinfonia Antarctica, Saturday's concert presented the 2nd and 8th Symphonies, plus The Lark Ascending with Andrew Marwood as the solo violin.

I have always found RVW 8 and 9 rather puzzling and one of the benefits of this series was that I will get to hear both of them live, something that I have never been able to do before. The Philharmonia performance of RVW 8, with all its tuned percussion and Bartokian type division of the middle 2 movements into one for the wind and one for strings, was coherent and convincing, it certainly didn't feel like a work rarely played. Hickox relished the score's unusual colours and brought out its strain of mysticism.

Marwood's performance of The Lark Ascending was ravishing.

After the interval came the 2nd Symphony, the London Symphony, in the original version. Hickox brought out the multifarious continental influences in the score, so that this was well and truly a symphony to sit beside continental models such as Mahler.

The original version, which is some 20 minutes longer than RVW's preferred revised version, has some stunningly lovely passages though it does ramble a little. At around an hour the symphony is long, but Hickox and the Philharmonia never made you feel they lingered unnecessarily and Hickox had a good feel for the overall structure. His performance always seemed to be going somewhere. There were one or two moments when the symphony took me by surprise as a familiar passage led to enchanting but unfamiliar details.

The Royal Festival Hall wasn't full but there was a very large and very enthusiastic audience including rather more young people than I would have expected. The next instalment in the festival is The Pilgrims Progress in June.

Review of Cendrillon

My review of Chelsea Opera Group's performance of Massenet's Cendrillon is here, on Music and Vision.

So it isn't just me

On Saturday morning, Berta Joncus discussed recent Handel recordings on the CD Review programme on BBC Radio 3. Here selection of recordings included Handel's Alcina from the Bavarian State Opera under Ivor Bolton and Danielle de Niese's recent recital record with William Christie and Les Arts Florissants. Joncus played de Niese's account of Tornami a vagheggiar and compared it with the same aria from the Bavarian State Opera recording. She complained that de Niese's version was slower and heaver than the Bavarian account, suggesting that de Niese sang this music with an essentially 19th century type technique, adding that on stage de Niese's personality was dazzling so that you forgave her these musical issues, but that on disc the problems were more noticeable.

It was interesting to hear somebody articulate what I had felt about de Niese's singing. As soon as Joncus made her comments I realised that it made a great deal of sense to me. There are number of singers on the circuit, David Daniels is another, who often seem to attach the baroque repertoire in the same way that they would sing Rossini. It seems that for much of the time this goes uncommented.

Scottish Opera new season

Scottish Opera's 2008/09 season does not contain anything quite as exciting as their evening of short contemporary operas, but it is still a creditable and interesting season. There are 5 operas, 2 are relatively small scale - Cimarosa's The Secret Marriage and Smetana's Two Widows. The Cimarosa opera has a strong cast which includes Rebecca Bottone as Caroline; the opera will be sung in English which makes a great deal of sense in this character driven comedy. Smetana's comedy will star Kate Valentine and Jane Irwin as the two widows and will be conducted by Scottish Opera's new musical director, Francesco Corti; it is being designed by Tobias Hoheisel and directed by Hoheisel in tandem with Imogen Kogge so should be striking and stylish.

David McVicar is doing a new production of La Traviata, he is very much becoming a house flavour both here and at the London Coliseum, but it is good to see that he is continuing to support the Scottish company, even though they can hardly be paying him the sort of top level fees that he could surely command elsewhere. McVicar and his designer Tanya McCallin promise an authentic take on the opera, with a 19th century setting. Carmen Giannattasio and Federico Lepre sing the lovers.

McVicar re-appears in Cosi van tutte as his Opera National du Rhin production is revived in Scotland for the first time. Marie McLaughlin gives us her sparkling Despina and Peter Rose is Don Alfonso, Caitlin Hulcup sings Dorabella.

The other big new production is Massenet's Manon. This is being directed by choreographer Renaud Doucet and conducted by Francesco Corti (Corti is in charge of 2 of the 5 operas in the season). Doucet is a choreographer and we are promised a very full version with choreographed ballet scenes. Anne Sophie Duprels sings Manon and Paul Charles Clarke sings Des Grieux so this should certainly be a production worth catching. Scottish Opera are performing it in Glasgow, Inverness, Aberdeen and Edinburgh.

South Bank Centre new season

Is it only me, or do other people find the London SouthBank Centre's publicity system rather annoying. First of all, their leaflets are now published on horrible, thick paper (I know, I'm being petty). Secondly, we no longer seem to get the Monthly digests giving ALL the concerts which are one, now its just a monthly newsletter. Instead there is a hugely thick book, detailing all the Classical Music for 2008/09. Like the Barbican, they seem to have gone for multiple series and each series opens booking in advance so that we are considering booking for concerts next year.

That said, there are some tempting morsels hidden amongst the rather standard classical orchestral repertoire (no I don't plan to do any Mozart, Brahms, Beethoven or Rachmaninov).

The Sixteen are bringing their programme of music dedicated to the Virgin Mary (from Palestrina to Elgar by way of Grieg, Liszt and Cornysh), but I can't help thinking that hearing them do it in a Cathedral would be more fun. Then next year the Sixteen reappear with a program which mixes music by Purcell and James MacMillan, including his O Bone Jesu, which was written for the Sixteen (as a companion to Robert Carver's motet).

There seems to be something of a Tchaikovsky event. The Moscow Conservatory Chamber choir are bringing Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom. The London Philharmonic are doing Iolanta and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment are giving his orchestral pieces an authentic look, performing both the first and last versions of Romeo and Juliet.

RVW comes in for quite a lot of platform time. The Philharmonia under Richard Hickox doing two concerts covering symphonies 3,4,5 and 9. The Bach Choir under David Hill are doing Sancta Civitas, definitely a concert to note as this lovely work is rarely done (it needs too many choirs), they are being joined by Westminster Cathedral Choristers and Winchester College Quiristers. The concert also includes Howells' Sir Patric Spens and Howells's Te Deum.
The Bach Choir crop up again next Easter with the annual St. Matthew Passion, Evangelist being James Gilchrist. I must confess to being old enough to remember these performances with Robert Tear and Dame Janet Baker, under Sir David Willcocks.

The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment are also doing a Matthew Passion with Mark Padmore as the Evangelist. They have spent quite some time doing the John Passion together, so expect some interesting insights. Listing simply gives 8 singers, no choir so I am unclear whether this is going to be a solo ensemble performance or one with a larger ripieno group of singers.

Other unusual choral repertoire includes the LPO doing Dvorak's Requiem with Neeme Jarvi and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment doing Haydn's The Return of Tobias with Sir Roger Norrington.

Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment under Robin Ticciati are doing an early Romantic programme, with Schumann's enticing Konzertstuck for 4 horns (one of my favourite pieces), Mendelssohn's 3rd Symphony and a rare, rare, rare outing for Sterndale Bennett's overture The Naiads.

Opera Rara are sponsoring 2 concerts with the LPO, Donizetti's Parisina with Patrizia Ciofi and Jose Bros and Rossini's Ermione with Carmen Giannatasio, Patricia Bardon and Colin Lee. I look forward to both recordings!
Zurich Opera are bringing Handel's Agrippina with a good cast including Vesselina Kassarova, Marijana Mijanovic and Malin Hartelius; I only wish they were giving us a more unusual opera, or one of the more serious, bigger boned mid-period London ones, there seems to have been quite a glut of Handel's slightly comic operas.

Philippe Jaroussky is doing a song recital of music by Faure, Massenet, Debussy, Saint-Saens and Chausson - quite an interesting mix for a counter-tenor.

Finally, in June next year Mark Padmore is doing Winterreise directed by Katie Mitchell in a programme which will include Samuel Beckett's poetry. Padmore will be singing the Schubert in a new translation by Michael Symmons Roberts.

Wigmore Hall new season (2)

Continuing our brief survey of the Wigmore Hall's new season.

They open the new year with a complete delight, tenor Jonas Kauffmann in a programme of Schubert, Britten (Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo and Strauss. Then the Classical Opera Company, under Stephen Page, are giving us a survey of Handel's London Operas - a single concert seems far too short for so many riches!

Still in early mode, Anna Caterina Antonacci with the English Consort are doing a programme which includes Monteverdi's Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda. And in February, the Gabrieli Consort give us Acis and Galatea. Further ahead in April, Carolyn Sampson and the Kings's Consort are mixing Handel cantatas and trio sonatas, unfortunately the selection of cantatas restricts itself to the well known ones.

Andrew Carwood and the Cardinall's music are mixing RVW's Mass in G minor with music by Taverner, Tallis and Gregorian Chant.

In a concert entitled Nash Inventions, the Nash Ensemble perform music by James Macmillan, Huw Watkins, Michael Berkley, George Benjamin and Mark-Anthony Turnage, some pieces are world premieres. Definitely a concert to note in the diary.

Towards Easter, the Chilingirian Quartet are pairing up with the Hilliard Ensemble to do Haydn's Seven Last Words and Les Talens Lyriques are doing Charpentier's Lecons de tenebres

Inevitably so far ahead, a number of programmes are not yet fixed but names include Solveig Kringelborn with Malcolm Martineau, Toby Spence, both Christopher Maltman and Mark Padmore in Brahms with Graham Johnson, Felicity Lott, Bernada Fink (in Schubert), Alice Coote,

Recent CD Reviews

My review of Mayr's opera L'Amor conjugal is here.
Not a masterpiece but strong and interesting ...

And my review of a disc of choral music by Christian Heinrich Rinck is here. Both reviews are on MusicWeb International.
Fascinating, confident, stylish performances of Lutheran music from the early 19th century ...

Recent CD Review

My review of Handel's Ode for St. Cecila's Day, from the Handel FestSpiel Halle in 1982 is here, on MusicWeb International.
An attractive enough performance but you’ll be missing out on the extra special touch that other singers bring to this music ...

City of London Festival

The City of London Festival kicks off on 20th June. This year's festival has a number of themes running through it.

First off, of course, is RVW. His Mass in G minor is given by the choir of St. Pauls, under Andrew Carwood, at the Festival's opening service. Ronan Collett includes his Songs of Travel in a recital which also includes Holst's Vedic Hymns and a group of lieder setting words by Goethe.

Goethe is another thread running through the Festival. There are a pair of concerts entitled Goethe and the Lied, Goethe's poetry crops up in songs features in a number of recitals, and Richard Stokes gives a lecture. Extending this theme, Samuel West and David Owen Norris give a Byron themed programme which mixes Byron's poems, music by Liszt, Mendelssohns (both), Schumann and Judith Bingham with a new melodrama featuring Byron's words and Aidan Andrew Dun's music and Alberto Venzago's photography.

Another thread is West-East, a thread which links neatly into Holst's Vedic Hymns. His choral versions of these crop up in a BBC Singers concert which includes Messiaen's amazing Cinq Rechants and music by Param Vir and Jonathan Harvey. Param Vir (again a West-East feeling here) is one of the composers featured in a recital by Patricia Rozario, Rohan de Saram and Julius Drake entitled a West-Eastern Divan, which mixes exotica by Schubert and Mendelssohn with Param Vir, John Tavener and Heinz Holliger. It is here that multiple threads link as one of the pieces features Goethe's östlichen Divan.

The Swiss influence continues with a new melodrama by Edward Rushton based on the writings of Sir Arnold Lunn, the reciter is Eleanor Bron.

Emily Beynon and Cedric Tiberghien perform George Benjamin's FLight amid a programme of Ravel, Messiaen and Couperin. Messiaen and Carl Rütti appear in an organ recital by Greg Morris; Maxwell Davies, Alexander Goehr and Pavel Haas feature in a recital by the Pavel Haas Quartet and percussionist Colin Currie. John Tavener and Peter Maxwell Davies crop up in a programme from St. Paul's Cathedral Choir which also includes Britten's Rejoice in the Lamb, Bernstein's Chichester Psalms and a new piece to words by Andrew Motion celebrating the 300th anniversary of St. Pauls.

And for those of you that yearn for something bigger, Valery Gergiev is doing Mahler's 8th Symphony with the LSO, with both the London Symphony Chorus and the Choral Arts Society of Washington. Apart from Ailish Tynan, the soloists have a distinctly Slav cast to them which should give an interesting slant to the performance. This takes place, of course, at St. Paul's Cathedral.

ETO Autumn Tour

Yet more information about plans for the Autumn. English Touring Opera's Autumn tour commences at the Hackney Empire on 9th Oct. Their tour programme is, perhaps, a tad less exciting than others; they are doing a pairing of Dvorak's Rusalka with the Peter Brook/Bizet La Tragedie de Carmen. Rusalka will be sung by Donna Bateman who took the title role in Susannah in their Spring tour; the new production will be directed by James Conway. Carmen will be sung by Leah Marian Jones and the production will be directed by Andrew Steggall.

I have always been in two minds about Peter Brooks's reworking of Bizet, though I must admit to have never heard it live, only on TV. I suppose that if you are planning a small scale production of the opera, Brooks's version is a logical choice. Another thought - could we consider that Brooks's re-working of the opera is truer to its real heart than Sally Potter's recent re-working at ENO?

Corsham Festival

This year's Corsham Festival (21st June - 28th June) again impresses with the way this small festival manages to fit in some challenging and interesting musical programmes. This year the festival includes a concert from a new Mandolin quartet.

A very enterprising programme by Radius features Birtwistle's Lied, Ian Vine's Gesso (world premiere), George Crumb's rarely performed Eleven Echoes of Autumn, Tim Benjamin's 1 act music drama The Rosenhan Experiment (world premiere) and Thomas Ades's Catch.

The Norwegian ensemble, asamisimasa, give a programme which features music by Emil Bernhardt, Michael Finissy, Trond Deinholdtsen, Chris Dench, Mattew Shlomowitz, Sven Lyder Kahrs, Joanna Baillie and James Saunders. They promise a mixture of slapstick humour, melancholic alienation, disoriented signs and funky riffs! Sounds fascinating.

Irish Pianist Mary Dullea performs in tandem with videos by Julia Bardley; she will be performing music by Stphen Montague, Rolf Hind, Pavel Szymanski, Andrew Poppy, Joe Cutler, Benedict Mason and George Crumb.

Twin cellists Pei-Jee and Pei-Sian Ng will be performing a programme of music for 2 cellos which mixes music by Jean Barriere and David Popper with contemporary pieces by Daniel Kidane and Elen Kats-Chernin. Finally the London Sinfonietta perform music by Takemitsu, Emily Hall, Britten, Birtwistle, Messiaen and Debussy - though don't be fooled this is no ordinary orchestral concert but features music for a variety of solo instruments in different combinations.

There is also a strong Jazz vein to the Festival and numerous lively events. Definitely worth making a detour for.

John La Bouchardiere's film The Full Monteverdi featuring I Fagiolini's ground breaking Monteverdi performances will also be performed.

Wigmore Hall new Season (I)

The Wigmore Hall's new season brochure has just hit my letterbox, and as usual it is so full of goodies as to be almost intimidating; most years I intend to book a series of concerts and never do as the simple act of organising all the information and actually deciding is far too complex!

The season opens with Joyce di Donato and Julius Drake doing a concert of Vivaldi opera arias, plus songs by Chausson, Turina, Copland and Arlen - so they are definitely not taking the easy route. Joan Rodgers and Christopher Maltman give a concert of songs by RVW, Finzi and Howells - the first in a year long series celebrating RVW and English song. Still in September, Angelika Kirschlager returns with a Schubert, Korngold, Weill recital.

In October the Academy of Ancient Music are doing Purcell's Dido and Aeneas in tandem with a group of works by 17th century composer Christopher Gibbons, all taken from recently discovered manuscripts. Another visitor, the wonderful Veronique Gens, is doing Berlioz, Debussy and Offenbach for a BBC lunchtime recital. Then a group of performers are celebrating Michael Berkeley's 60th birthday.

On a slightly more off-beat note, Colin Currie is doing a percussion and piano recital with music by Birtwistle and John McLeod. Later in the season, Thomas Ades crops up as pianist, with Stephen Isserlis in a wide ranging programme which includes some of Ades's own music.

Come November, we have Diana Damrau to look forward to, again with the ubiquitous Julius Drake. They are doing a programme of Berg, Barber, Strauss and Ian Bell's Daughters of Britannia. The King's Consort celebrate St. Cecilia's day 8 days early with a group of Cecilia inspired Purcell pieces plus a couple of his Welcome Odes, a brilliant opportunity to hear some of his lesser performed pieces in the genre.

Graham Johnson is doing a series entitled Brahms, His Friends, Rivals and Contemporaries; I must confess that this is a series I will be giving a miss.

The Britten Sinfonia crop up at another Lunchtime Concert in December, with a programme which includes music by Charlotte Bray and Colin Matthews. Then another ensemble, The Nash this time, do a Czech programme which includes Smetana's Der Fischer for reciter and ensemble with Eleanor Bron.

The Early Opera Company celebrate Christmas with Messiah, a lovely chance to hear it performed with just 12 singers and 14 players. Carolyn Sampson is taking a break from Bach and Handel and doing a programme of lute songs by Dowland and his contemporaries, with lutenist Matthew Wadsworth.

2008 finishes with a New Year's Eve concert from the King's Consort, this time an All Bach concert featuring an early version of Suite No. 4, 2 cantatas, the Motet Lobet den Herrn and the Harpsichord Concerto in A