Henze double bill at the Guildhall School

Final scene of Henze's Phaedra
photo credit Clive Barda

Henze Ein Landarzt and Phaedra; Dir: Ashley Dean, cond: Timothy Redmond; Guildhall School of Music and Drama
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Jun 12 2015
Star rating: 3.5
Brilliantly performed double bill of Henze's first and last operas

The Guildhall School of Music and Drama has certainly been giving its students some interesting and varied operatic challenges recently, with operas by Jonathan Dove, Arne, Stradella, Dvorak, Donizetti and Malcolm Arnold not to mention Wolf-Ferrari in the Autumn. For the school's final production of the year it presented a double bill of operas by Hans Werner Henze, Ein Landarzt (A Country Doctor) and Phaedra. Both were directed by Ashley Dean, conducted by Timothy Redmond with designs by Cordelia Chisholm. 

Martin Hässler in Henze's Ein Landartztphoto credit Clive Barda

Effectively the double bill gave us Henze's first and last operatic thoughts. he originally wrote Ein Landarzt in 1952 and Phaedra was premiered in 2007, five years before Henze's death. Ein Landarzt was written as a radio play and is a word for word setting of a short story by Franz Kafka. Henze produced a stage version in 1964 as a solo vehicle for the baritone Dietrich Fischer Dieskau. It tells the story of a country doctor who gets called out in the night and becomes involved in strange supernatural (and ultimately unexplained) events and is not helped by his patients.

It is a strange and unsettling work lasting 30 minutes. The music is Henze in Bergian mode, with some ravishing orchestration and a vocal solo which grabs you at the beginning and does not let go. The solo part is a challenge, a monologue lasting 30 minutes in which the singer narrates and acts out the events. Martin Hässler gripped from the very opening, combining vibrant tone, strongly vivid words and a securely involving sense of narration.

Baltic Sea Voyage from Kristjan Järvi and the Baltic Sea Youth Philharmonic

Baltic Sea Voyage, music by Nielsen, Stenhammar, Grieg, Sibelius, Gelgotas, Pärt, Kalnins, Kilar, Stravinsky, Wagner; Kristjan Järvi, Baltic Sea Youth Philharmonic; naive
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Jun 05 2015
Star rating: 4.0
Brilliant youth orchestra from the Baltic region take us on a vivid and varied sea journey

The Baltic Sea region was a highly unified area in the age when sea travel was the logical and most direct means of transport. So the Baltic Sea united what, in our modern land based view, can seem a slightly disparate group of countries: Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Russia, Germany. But all share a common heritage, and the Baltic Sea Youth Philharmonic aims to bring together young musicians from the Baltic Sea region. Founded and conducted by Kristjan Järvi, the orchestra consists of 100 musicians aged between 18 and 28 from conservatoires in the Baltic region and has a regular programme of touring. 

Kristjan Järvi and the Baltic Sea Youth Philharmonic

On this disc from naive, they explore the music of the region with a work by a composer from each of the 10 countries under the title of Baltic Sea Voyage. The varied journey takes in Carl Nielsen's Overture to Maskerade from Denmark, William Stenhammar's Mellanspiel from Sangen op.44 from Sweden, Edvard Grieg's At the Wedding from Peer Gynt op.23 from Norway, Ballade from Jean Sibelius's Karelia Suite from Finland, Gedminas Gelgotas' Never Ignore the Cosmic Ocean from Lithuania, Arvo Part's Cantus in memoriam Benjamin Britten from Estonia, Imanats Kalnins' Rock Symphony No.4 from Latvia, Wojciech Kilar's Orawa from Poland, Sacrificial Danse from Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring from Russia, and Brunhildes Opfertat fom Henk de Flieger's Richard Wagner arrangement The Ring: An Orchestral Adventure from Germany.

The works on the disc are a varied and disparate group, with the more traditional items, spiritual minimalism, dynamic folk-lore inspired pieces and the more popular inspirations for some of the modern items. The disc encourages you to listen half-blind as we are supplied with little information about the pieces beyond their titles.

Fabulous early bird offer at Tête à Tête: The Opera Festival

If you book before 21 June 2015, then tickets for performances at Tête à Tête: The Opera Festival are £5. 

What better way to explore a cornucopia of new opera. The festival runs from 21 July to 9 August 2015 at a number of venues in and around the King's Cross area, including the Egg London, the New Diorama, The Place, RADA, Regent Theatre, and Kings Place. They are presenting over 40 operas, all new, covering a huge range of subjects and with performances appealing to all ages. The works are all relatively compact (and some are positively shot) and festival is designed and priced so you can enjoy at least three opera performances on any given evening or afternoon. You can mix and match at leisure, and take advantage of free foyer performances too.

Start exploring now!

Mini-explosion in Stroud Green

K'antu Ensemble

Based around Holy Trinity Church, Stroud Green, the Stroud Green Festival is a local mini-explosion of early music, classical music, jazz and poetry in North London running from 18 to 28 June 2015. If you live within travelling distance of N4, then there are plenty of events work considering. Distinguished soprano Emma Kirkby performs lute songs with lutenist Jacob Heringman and they will be joined in the concert by a pair of young artists, soprano Gwendolen Martin and lutenist Toby Carr.

Also in the festival are the early music ensemble The Telling, with Climb Every Mountain 13th century style with lively 13th century Spanish music for pilgrims, Spiritato in Sound the Trumpet with music by Purcell, Corbett, Rebel and Matteis, and K'antu Ensemble will be bringing their distinctive mix of early music and world music. Concerts also include Pergolesi's Stabat Mater, as well as virtuoso violin sonatas, English 18th century pastoral music and a Summer evening of Jazz.

Stroud Green Festival is run by a team of local volunteers, including Tamara Romanyk and Clare Norburn who co-founded and built up the Brighton Early Music Festival. Further information at tickets from Eventbrite.

Towards an immersive experience - an encounter with pianist Christina McMaster

Christina McMaster

To describe pianist and curator Christina McMaster as a force of nature could seem to be lazy journalism and rather unflattering, but the term reflects the remarkable power and fertility of her creative interests. Trained as a pianist, she is more than someone who sits at the piano, as she draws fashion and other creative arts into the mix. In person she is petite, long-haired and stylish, but having spent an hour or so with her, I can only marvel at her welter of ideas and projects, not to mention the energy with which she pursues them. We met over coffee and cake to catch up on her latest concerts and forthcoming CD, Pinks and Blues.

Christina trained as a pianist at the Purcell School, Trinity Laban (with Yonty Solomon and Douglas Finch) and at the Royal Academy of Music (with Joanna MacGregor). She had what she described as 'on the surface a traditional career'. Her parents were not pushy and she had many interests including training seriously in gymnastics. It was going to the Purcell School which made her really work at the piano and Joanna MacGregor, at the Royal Academy of Music, who introduced her to a wide range of music including the American school of composers such as Henry Cowell, Charles Ives and John Cage, whose work features significantly in her programmes.

She has recently spent time studying with Bernard Flavigny, a 90 year old pianist who was the protégé of Alfred Cortot, Walter Gieseking and Olivier Messiaen, and thus can trace his pianistic lineage back directly to Debussy. This link with the past is clearly something which inspires here, and she talked of Bernard Flavigny with great admiration, mentioning his still playing for five hours per day. She worked with him on Debussy, on finding a particular, rather fluid, character in playing the music. Audiences will get a chance to hear this in her forthcoming recital at St John's Smith Square on 25 June 2015, when she is performing some of Debussy's preludes.

When she was first studying, as her outside interests developed she found she enjoyed bringing them together with music. Her mother is an artist and she herself is interested in fashion and art; Christina constantly seeks out the possibilities for an immersive experience. Interested in extending the concert or CD beyond the mere notes, she looks both for connections between the musical works and non-musical connections and links too. This extends both to immersive experiences, for example wearing clothes related to the music, and using multi-media. She talks of being inspired by figures like Sonia Delaunay (1885-1975), one of the key figures in the Parisian avant-garde (Tate Modern currently has a retrospective) and a prime example of someone who worked in multiple mediums and collaborated with both artists and scientists.

Vibrant conclusion - Nicky Spence in RVW songs with string accompaniment

Vaughan Williams

Ralph Vaughan Williams Merciless Beauty: Three Rondels, Phantasy Quintet, Four Hymns, Nocturne and Scherzo, On Wenlock Edge; Nicky Spence, Benyounes Quartet, Sara Roberts, William Vann; London English Song Festival at St George's Church, Hanover Square
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Jun 11 2015
Star rating: 5.0
RVW's works for voice and strings in this climax to the London English Song Festival

William Vann

William Vann's exploration of the complete songs of Ralph Vaughan Williams in the eight days of the London English Song Festival at St George's Church, Hanover Square,  came to a vibrant conclusion last night (11 June 2015) with a concert given by tenor Nicky Spence, the Benyounes Quartet, viola player Sara Robert and William Vann, piano. They performed RVW's Merciless Beauty: Three Rondels, Phantasy Quintet, Four Hymns, Nocturne and Scherzo and On Wenlock Edge, a programme which mixed the performers in a whole variety of chamber combinations.

Nicky Spence

RVW's Merciless Beauty: Three Rondels is a setting of three poems attributed to Geoffrey Chaucer which RVW wrote in 1921 for the unusual combination of tenor, two violins and cello. The three poems use the rondel form which Chaucer introduced from France, and RVW set them in their original Chaucerian English. Almost vocal chamber music, the performers treated them as such with Nicky Spence sitting with the three instrumentalists Zara Benyounes, Emily Holland, and Kim Vaughan. The first two were full of lyric melancholy, with the poet enslaved by his Beauty. RVW makes the vocal line interweave with the strings. Nicky Spence gave us a beautifully modulated and shapely line, sung with great lyrical intensity and wonderful attention to the words. The songs were quite spare in their scoring but had a certain radiance to them. In the final one, the poet is free and the tempo quickened accordingly with lively rhythms and much charm.

Flight of Angels: The Sixteen's 2015 Choral Pilgrimage

Chancel of Croydon Minster

Flight of Angels - sacred music by Guerrero and Lobo; The Sixteen, Harry Christophers; Croydon Minster
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Jun 10 2015
Star rating: 4.0
Lovely exploration of music from the Spanish Golden Age

I caught up with Harry Christophers and The Sixteen’s 2015 Choral Pilgrimage at Croydon Minster on 10 June 2015, the 10th stop on their 15th Choral Pilgrimage which continues around the country until 7 November 2015. Entitled Flight of Angels the programme explored music from the Spanish Golden Age with music by Francisco Guerrero and Alonso Lobo, including movements from Guerrero’s Missa Surge propera, Missa de la batalla escoutez and Missa Congratulamini mihi, and Lobo’s Missa Maria Magdalena, and Guerrero’s Duo Seraphim clamabant, Laudate Dominum, Maria Magdalene and Vexilla Regis, and Lobo’s Libera me, Domine, de morte aeterna, Ave Regina caelorum, Ave Maria and Versa est in luctum.

Francisco Guerrero (1528-1599) was long-lived and associated for much of his life with Seville Cathedral. He had studied with Morales, one of the greatest Spanish composers of the early 16th century, who had himself spent 10 years in the Papal Choir in Rome. Guerrero has the unusual distinction of being one of the few composers who made the pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Alonso Lobo (1555 - ) assisted Guerrero at Seville Cathedral. He moved to Toledo Cathedral as as maestro de capilla, before returning to Seville as maestro de capilla there.

Guerrero’s Duo Seraphim clamabant seems to be his only 12 part motet, written for three unequal choirs. Slow unfolding with intertwining lines and dialogue between the choirs, this is gorgeous music designed for the acoustic of a large cathedral, rather than a large parish church, but the beauty of Guerrero’s music still counted.

The programme was structured around the ordinary of the mass, but taken from different settings by Lobo and Guerrero. We started with the Kyrie from Lobo's Missa Maria Magdalene, based on Guerrero's motet Maria Magdalene which finished the first half. This was rich, slow moving polyphony using six voices.The choir made a big full sound (there were 18 of them, with six sopranos and with a mixture of men and women on the alto line) in the music's spacious textures.  Lobo's Libera me, Domine, de morte aeterna was more sober, and more homophonic with choral sections alternating with chant. The music was vigorous and rather more direct than the polyphony we head so far heard. The music has not survived in a version with text, and this edition was by Bruno Turner.

Rosenblatt Recitals 2015-16

Jessica Pratt and Vincenzo Scalera at their recent Rosenblatt Recital at Wigmore Hall - photo Jonathan Rose

Rosenblatt Recitals has announced the plans for the 2015/16 with a strong season of recitals by a mixture of returning artists and those new to Rosenblatt Recitals. There will be Rosenblatt Recital debuts from Gianluca Buratto, Russell Thomas, Sumi Hwang and Charles Castronovo, and returning artists include Bryan Hymel, Javier Camarena and Ekaturina Siurina, Juan Diego Florez gives a recital at the Royal Albert Hall, whilst Leo Nucci gives a recital at the Cadogan Hall.

The Wigmore Hall season is opened by tenor Russell Thomas, who made his UK debut as Lazarus in ENO's production of The Gospel According to the Other Mary. His recital includes arias from The Damnation of Faust and Fidelio plus songs by Brahms, Tosti and Barber (21 September). Leo Nucci and the Italian Chamber Orchestra perform Rossini, Verdi, Bellini and Donizetti. at Cadogan Hall (13 October).

At the Wigmore Hall, Korean soprano Sumi Hwang performs a programme including Puccini, Schubert, R. Strauss and Berg (28 October). Hawaiian baritone Quinn Kelsey, who made his UK debut in ENO’s Rigoletto, sings Mussorgsky’s Songs and Dances of Death and music by Tchaikovsky, Massenet, Finzi and Copland (11 November). Mezzo-soprano Dorottya Láng, who is joining the ensemble of Hamburg State Opera, performs music by Wolf, Liszt, Schubert, Berlioz and Gounod (1 December).

In 2016, performances include bass Gianluca Buratto making his Rosenblatt Recital debut (12 January 2016), Charles Castronovo and Ekaturina Siurina (16 March 2016) and Javier Camarena returns by public demand following his thrilling, and last minute debut last year. (14 April 2016). American tenor Bryan Hymel returns to the Rosenblatt Recital series for the first time since 2009 (25 February 2016). Juan Diego Florez returns to the Royal Albert Hall for his second Rosenblatt Recital there (his first was in 2012), and he gave his first Rosenblatt Recital in 2001.

Anne-Sophie Mutter portrait

Anne-Sophie Mutter and the Mutter Virtuosi

In another of the Edinburgh International Festival Portraits on YouTube, violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter talks about music as a social tool, musicians are there to share music with the audience irrespective of cultural heritage and religious beliefs and she feels that music reminds us that we have a soul. Again the portrait lasts just under 5 minutes and is simply Anne-Sophie Mutter talking to camera, and much that she has to say is absorbing and it includes comments on acoustics and helping the audience tune in. You can see the video after the break.

Anne-Sophie Mutter will be performing Vivaldi's Four Seasons at the Usher Hall on 26 August 2015, with her own group, the Mutter Virtuosi, also performing Bach's Concerto for Two Violins and the world premiere of Andre Previn's Nonet (Further information of the festival website).

May on Planet Hugill - throat singing in Tallinn, Wolf-Ferrari in Bratislava

Welcome to May on Planet Hugill, where we were off to Cardiff, Tallinn and Bratislava in addition to our usual London haunts.

Opera both near and far

Szymanowski's King Roger got a rare, and satisfying outing at Covent Garden. ETO launched Shackleton's Cat by Russell Hepplewhite, their new opera for young people. Justina Gringyte made a vibrant debut in the title role of Bizet's Carmen at ENO. And we saw Wolf-Ferrari's The Jewels of the Madonna in Bratislava, Slovakia.

At the Wigmore Hall

John Beard, Handel's favourite tenor was incarnated by Allan Clayton, with Classical Opera. The English Concert and Trevor Pinnock, with Lucy Crowe, Tim Mead and Alison Balsom, did a late night gig. Jessica Pratt provided bel canto delight at her Rosenblatt Recital.

Gasparini's 'Il Bajazet' rediscovered

Gasparini Il Bajazet; Leonardo de Lisi, Filippo Mineccia, Giuseppina Bridelli, Ewa Gubanska, Antonio Giovannini, Auser Musici, Carlo Ipata; Glossa
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on June 02 2015
Star rating: 5.0
Brilliant rediscovery of an opera best known for its influence on Handel

In 1723 Handel was writing a new opera for the King's Theatre in London, to be premiered in 1724. It was based on the libretto Il Tamerlano by Agostin Piovene which has been performed in Venice in 1711 set by Francesco Gasparini. Handel's cast included a new member of his company, the star tenor Francesco Borosini. According with the conventions of the day, Borosini would not be playing a leading role but the heroine's father, the captive Sultan Bajazet. Borosini had played the role before in both Gasparini's 1711 Il Tamerlano and in Gasparini's 1719 version of this opera, Il Bajazet. Borosini seems to have travelled to London in Autumn 1723 with the score of Il Bajazet in his luggage.

The combination of a star tenor, with strong musical and dramatic skills, and Gasparini and Piovene's remarkable treatment of the role of Bajazet in Il Bajazet seem to have inspired Handel to radically revise his plans for Tamerlano and introduce a major new scene for Bajazet, the character's on-stage suicide. The role of Bajazet would be the largest, most significant tenor part Handel wrote in a dramatic work until his oratorios written for John Beard.

Raffaele Pè (Leone), Ewa Gubanska (Irene),
Filippo Mineccia (Tamerlano), Antonio
Giovannini (Andronico), Leonardo De Lisi (Bajzet)
and Giuseppina Bridelli as Asteria
Gasparini - Il Bajazet - Opera Barga 2014
photo credit Rudy Pessina

 
This new recording of Gasparini's Il Bajazet from Carlo Ipata and Auser Musici on the Glossa label presents us with the opportunity to discover Gasparani's remarkable 1719 original, with tenor Leonardo De Lisi as Bajazet, counter-tenor Filippo Mineccia as Tamerlano, mezzo-soprano Giuseppina Bridelli as Asteria, mezzo-soprano Ewa Gubanska as Irene, counter-tenor Antonio Giovannini as Andronico, alto Benedetta Mazzucato as Clearco, counter-tenor Raffaele Pe as Leono and soprano Giorgia Cinciripi as Zaida. The recording was made in 2014 following staged performances at Opera Barga in Italy.

Francesco Gasparini (1661-1727) was a generation older than Handel and his writing is very forward looking, though there is an inevitable late 17th century feel to aspects of the work. In fact her wrote three Bajazet/Tamerlano settings in 1711 (Venice), 1719 (Reggio Emilia), 1738. The 1719 version is the one that Borosini took with him to London and by sheer chance it is this one which survives in full score. We have only arias from the first and third versions so cannot tell how much Gasparini's music for one is indebted to the other, but the libretto for the 1719 version was radically altered from Piovene's original by Ippolito Zanella, radically expanding the role of Bajazet.

New Russell Hepplewhite piece helps St Cyprian's Singers on their way to NY

Russell Hepplewhite

St. Cyprian's Singers, director of music Julian Collings, gave the premiere of a new setting of O Magnum Mysterium by Russell Hepplewhite at a concert on 16 May 2015 at St Cyprian's Church, Clarence Gate, London  NW1 6AX. The concert was being given by the choir as a fundraiser for their tour to New York this summer, and the programme also included Frank Martin's Mass for double choir, and music by Tallis, Sheppard, Bairstow, Howells, Macmillan and Whitacre.

The choir was formed in 2012, mainly from former Oxbridge choral scholars, and provides music for services at St Cyprian's Church. Russell Hepplewhite is the choir's composer in residence. Russell will be best known to readers of this blog as the composer of the wonderful sequence of children's operas for English Touring Opera including the recent Shackleton's Cat and the award-winning Laika the Spacedog.

RVW and MacMillan oboe concertos

Vaughan Williams Oboe Concerto, James MacMillan One and Oboe Concerto, Britten A Time There Was; Nicholas Daniel, Britten Sinfonia, James MacMillan
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on June 03 2015
Star rating: 4.0
Imaginative pairing of three very different British composers

Ralph Vaughan Williams wrote concertos and concertante works throughout his life, though not all are as well known as they should be (see my review of the recent recording of the Violin Concerto from Tamsin Waley-Cohen), but his Oboe Concerto has made a place for itself in the repertoire thanks to the effortless lyricism of the writing and the challenging solo for the oboe. RVW's writing always has some sort of folk music influence deep in its DNA and this new Harmonia Mundi disc from oboist Nicholas Daniel, the Britten Sinfonia and conductor James MacMillan pairs up the work with a very different folk-song related work, Benjamin Britten's Suite on English Folk Tunes: A Time There Was, written like the RVW rather late in the composer's career. James MacMillan also conducts two of his own works, One and the Oboe Concerto which was written in 2010 for Nicholas Daniel.

The disc opens with the RVW concerto, and here Nicholas Daniel is doing double duty as both soloist and musical director. Perhaps for this reason the three movements are all imbued with a sense of steadiness and pastoral calm. To say that speeds are slow is wrong, they are not, but throughout Nicholas Daniel's oboe seems unhurried even in the fast sections, and the whole has a lovely serenity about it.  There is great lyrical beauty to the opening Rondo Pastorale with a lovely mellow tone from the solo oboe, and Nicholas Daniel plays with a singing line with the flurries of notes nicely fluid. The middle movement, Minuet and Musette is full of perky wit and charm but with a serious tint. Whilst the closing Finale (Scherzo) has some wonderful fast flurries of notes from both oboe and orchestra. There is a nice toe-tapping wit and poise here, but still with a sense of lyrical serenity despite the flurries of anxieties in the middle. Perhaps this is not the most impulsive of performances, but there a lovely sense of maturity and thoughtfulness.

UN musicians in support of Syrian refugees

Khatia Buniatishvili

The Georgian pianist Khatia Buniatishvili will be performing in Geneva on 13 June 2015, with the UN Orchestra conductor Antoine Marguier, at a concert to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the United Nations. All proceeds from the concert will go towards the benefit of the Syrian refugees in Jordan in co-operation with the United Nations Refugee Agency. Khatia Buniatishvili will be donating her services at the concert. The concert programme includes Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 2 and Dvorak's Ninth Symphony.


The United Nations Orchestra was founded in 2011. It is mostly composed of musicians working in international organizations and it supports, through music, those who have fallen victim to humanitarian crises. It has raised more than CHF 120,000 to date, benefitting organizations in the disaster relief, children’s welfare and education, and public health sectors, the Orchestra represents a symbolic bridge bringing together the international community and the residents of the city of Geneva.

Tickets are available on-line

Learning to Make an Oud in Nazareth

My choral setting of Ruth Padel's powerful poem Learning to Make an Oud in Nazareth will receive its premiere on 3 July 2015 in a rather special one-off performance to celebrate our 60th birthdays.

Alistair Dixon - Chappelle du Roi

Robert Hugill: Learning to Make an Oud in Nazareth (World Premiere)
William Mundy: Vox Patris Caelestis
Philippe De Monte: Super Flumina Babylonis
William Byrd: Quomodo Cantabimus
Motets by Tallis & Mundy

Plus Middle-Eastern Music from
Kalia (Nay, Voice) & Nikos Ziarkas (oud)

Friday 3 July 2015 7.30pm

St Vedast alias Foster, Foster Lane, London EC2V 6HH

Ruth Padel's poem, Learning to Make an Oud in Nazareth in a new choral setting by Robert Hugill, alongside renaissance choral music, and Middle-Eastern melodies for voice, nay and oud.
Tickets price £10 available on-line from EventBrite

Not quite as planned, but very satisfying - Nicky Spence, Julius Drake and the Doric String Quartet

Nicky Spence

Having not heard the work live for some time, this week I planned to hear RVW's song cycle, On Wenlock Edge twice. On Thursday 11 June 2015 Nicky Spence was singing it with William Vann and the Benyounes Quartet at the London English Song Festival, whilst on Monday 8 June 2015 Toby Spence was singing it with Julius Drake and the Doric String Quartet at Middle Temple Hall for a Temple Song concert. 

But when we arrived at Middle Temple Hall last night (8 June), it was to find that Toby Spence was unable to sing. He had been replaced that afternoon, at very short notice, by his namesake Nicky Spence (who reputedly had forgone the Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett concert at the Royal Albert Hall). Because of the coincidence of repertoires of the two concerts, Nicky Spence was able to sing both the planned RVW items. Toby Spence's intention to continue to sing Britten's song cycle On this Island was prevented by his voice giving up entirely, so Nicky Spence and Julius Drake performed a group of Britten's folk-song arrangements which they 'cobbled together during the interval' as Nicky Spence put it. Not that it sounded that way, in fact none of the programme did.

The Doric String Quartet

The final programme as performed consisted of RVW's Four Hymns, for tenor, viola and piano, Elgar's Piano Quintet in A minur, Opus 84, folk-songs Can ye sew cushions, Ca' the yowes, Wee Cooper O'Fife and Oliver Cromwell, and RVW's On Wenlock Edge, performed by Nicky Spence (tenor), Julius Drake (piano) and the Doric String Quartet (Alex Redington, Jonathan Stone, Hélène Clément and John Myserscough), at Middle Temple Hall.

The programme opened with tenor Nicky Spence, and viola player Hélène Clément (from the Doric String Quartet) and pianist Julius Drake in RVW's Four Hymns. Written between 1912 and 1914 these set four hymn texts by various writers, Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667), Isaac Watts (1674-1748), Richard Crashaw (1613-1649) and Robert Bridges (1844-1930). In the songs RVW expanded on the style which he had developed in the Five Mystical Songs (1911), and they inhabit the same mystical, ecstatic sound-world. Nicky Spence's performance belied the last minute nature of the arrangements, and he sang with a firm tone and a lovely directness, producing some lovely hushed moments in the third song. In all of them he conveyed a vivid (at times fervent) sense of engagement with the texts and their meanings, projecting a sense of strongly muscular Christianity. He was finely complemented by the elegant playing of Hélène Clément, in a viola part which complements and comments rather than accompanying the voice, and the sympathetic accompaniment of Julius Drake.

Magnus Lindberg conducts four world premieres

Magnus Lindberg

Composer and conductor Magnus Lindberg will be conducting members of the London Philharmonic Orchestra and members of the Foyles Future Firsts development programme at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on Wednesday 10 June 2015, in a concert which combines his own Aventures with new works by Jonathan Brigg, Sergio Cote, Peter Longworth and Paulina Zalubska, who are members of the LPO Young Composers Scheme.

The LPO Young Composer Scheme allows four unpublished composers the chance to develop, workshop and compose a piece for a 30-piece orchestra, made up of players from the LPO and the Foyles Future Firsts. For 2014/15 Magnus Lindberg is composer in residence and composer mentor on the scheme. The Foyles Future Firsts Development Programme is a scheme for 16 young players, designed to bridge the gap between college and professional life, and the young players perform with the LPO and study with them as well as being mentored.

Further information from the LPO website.

Hunting: Gathering with the Duke Quartet

Kevin Volans -  Photograph: Nick Miller/PR

Kevin Volans, Gavin Bryars, Max Richter, John Metcalfe, John Tavener; The Duke Quartet; Kings Place
Reviewed by Hilary Glover on May 22 2015
Star rating: 4.0
A programme around Kevin Volans second string quartet

Last night (22nd May) the Minimalism Unwrapped series at King's Place continued to unfold with the Duke Quartet's exploration of Kevin Volans' 1987 work 'String Quartet No. 2 Hunting:Gathering' and supporting works by Gavin Bryars, Max Richter, their own John Metcalfe, and John Tavener.

The quartet consists of Louisa Fuller (violin), Rick Koster (violin - also Smith Quartet who performed the European Mavericks at Kings Place last month), John Metcalfe (viola), and Sophie Harris (cello). They have been playing together for more than 17 years and play across Europe, and the world, working with contemporary composers including Kevin Volans, but they have also collaborated with pop musicians such as Morrissey, The Pretenders, Blur, Catatonia, Simple Minds, The Cranberries, Pete Doherty, and The Corrs, and with the dance company Rosas.

Their 2002 album of Volan's compositions ('Hunting:Gathering') received a Gramophone Award nomination, and their latest CD includes Steve Reich's 'Different Trains' which they performed last year at King's Place – a review can be found here.

Country house wedding Cosi fan tutte

Cosi fan tutte - Garsington - photo Mark Douet

Mozart Cosi fan tutte; Andreea Soare, Kathryn Rudge, Robin Tritschler, Ashley Riches, Lesley Garrett, Neal Davies, dir: John Fulljames, cond: Douglas Boyd; Garsington Opera at Wormsley
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Jun 7 2015
Star rating: 3.5
Country-house wedding hi-jinks redeemed by superb musical performances

Mozart and Da Ponte's Cosi fan tutte provides little in the way of background or back story for the plot, thus allowing directors to set the piece in a variety settings. Though the opera is extremely popular, modern taste has problems with the deliberate artifice of the theatrical concept used and many directors nowadays choose to adjust the ending, moving the plot towards greater realism. For his debut production at Garsington Opera, director John Fulljames chose to set the Cosi fan tutte (seen 7 June 2015) in a milieu which would be familiar to many of the audience, a contemporary country house wedding. The lovers were played by a nicely balanced quartet of young singers, Andreea Soare, Kathryn Rudge, Robin Tritschler and Ashley Riches, with Lesley Garrett as Despina and Neal Davies as Don Alfonso. Designs were by Dick Bird, lighting by Bruno Poet and choreography by Tim Claydon. Douglas Boyd, artistic director of Garsington Opera, conducted the Garsington Opera Orchestra.

Andreea Soare, Kathryn Rudge
photo Mark Douet

The opera opened with something of a visual coup, the wedding breakfast at a country house wedding. The men, including the groom, were largely from Ferrando and Guglielmo's regiment, including Don Alfonso who seemed to be their colonel. The bride and most of the young women were in fancy dress, in elaborate 18th century costumes. During the overture the party broke up and dancing, formal at first, started.

This was the context for the whole production. John Fulljames and Dick Bird might have re-set it in modern Britain, but had clearly read the libretto and the entire action took place within one day. This was one of those weddings from hell which go one interminably and everyone gets drunk, with much hi-jinks from the young men of the regiment. For the second act, the marquee had been re-configured slightly but this was a simple and elegant solution to creating a fluid flow of scenes within Garsington Opera's rather limited stage facilities. And the production did flow. John Fulljames ensured that the action moved along, and scenes flowed into each other, whilst Douglas Boyd's speeds with crisp to the point of briskness.

However, John Fulljames gave the opening pair of scenes an entirely new context by having them played ensemble. The discussion and wager between Don Alfonso (Neal Davies), Ferrando (Robin Tritschler) and Guglielmo (Ashley Riches) played out in front of the whole company including Fiordiligi (Andreea Soare) and Kathryn Rudge (Dorabella). The two women's scene (intended by Mozart and Da Ponte as a complementary pair to the first) was played almost as a revenge for this, with Ferrando and Guglielmo acting as unwilling, live portraits. This, combined with Neal Davies' slightly aggressive manner as Don Alfonso, put rather a nasty, knowing edge on the whole construct.

Thereafter the action unfolded pretty much as the libretto requested, except that very rarely were people alone; this was a wedding so much wandering about happened and the principals tended to constantly eaves drop on each other. Lesley Garrett's Despina was more wedding planner than maid, and the mesmer scene at the end of Act 1 was played straighter than usual with Lesley Garrett as a St John's Ambulance woman wielding a defibrilator.

Flight takes off at Opera Holland Park

Flight - Opera Holland Park - photo credit Robert Workman

Jonathan Dove and April de Angelis Flight; James Laing, Jennifer France, Jeffrey Lloyd-Roberts, Ellie Laugharne, Lucy Schaufer, Kitty Whately, George von Bergen, Nicholas Garrett, Victoria Simmonds, John Savournin, dir: Stephen Barlow, cond: Brad Cohen; Opera Holland Park
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Jun 06 2015
Star rating: 5.0
Wonderful ensemble performance with great heart, of this still under-rated opera

James Laing, John Savournin
photo credit Robert Workman

Having performed two contemporary operas (including commissioning Will Todd's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland) as part of their family friendly strand, Opera Holland Park ventured into contemporary opera on their main stage last night (6 June 2015) when, rather amazingly, they gave the first professional London performance of Jonathan Dove and April de Angelis's 1998 opera Flight. At Opera Holland Park, the work was directed by Stephen Barlow with Brad Cohen conducting the City of London Sinfonia. James Laing sang the Refugee, with Jennifer France as the Controller, Jeffrey Lloyd-Roberts as Bill, Ellie Laugharne as Tina, Lucy Schaufer as the Older Woman, Kitty Whately as the Stewardess, George von Bergen as the Steward, Nicholas Garrett as Minksman, Victoria Simmonds as Minkswoman and John Savournin as Immigration Office, with lighting by Richard Howell, movement by Sam Spencer-Lane and video design by Jack Henry James.

Flight was commissioned by Glyndebourne, and premiered by Glyndebourne on Tour in 1998 with it going on to receive a main stage production in 1999. Glyndebourne revived the work in 2005 and British Youth Opera performed it in 2008 (in a production by Martin Lloyd Evans with Andrew Radley as the Refugee, Nicky Spence as Bill and Duncan Rock as the Steward). But rather amazingly this was the first time that a professional company had staged the work in London; a long overdue debut.

Jennifer France
photo credit Robert Workman

One of the beauties of Flight is that April de Angelis's witty libretto is quite traditionally structured and is unashamedly an opera (rather than trying to pretend it is play where the characters happen to sing). So it is in three acts, with entrance arias for each of the characters, and a great use of ensemble. Reading a summary the piece could almost be a libretto for one of Rossini's comedies. But within this Jonathan Dove's music brings an accessible, yet contemporary resonance to everything. And though April de Angelis's characters are simply archetypes, Jonathan Dove's music fleshes them out and gives them humanity.

One of the strengths of Stephen Barlow's production was that it took the whole piece seriously, so that each member of the cast created a naturally believable and real person. Yes, some parts were funny. Achingly so in the case of Kitty Whately and George von Bergen (Stewardess and Steward) with their tryst in the lift, with the lift doors repeatedly flashing open to reveal yet more flesh (this was definitely NSFW) and a more exotic pose; poignantly so in the case of the bickering of Jeffrey Lloyd-Roberts and Ellie Laugharne (Bill and Tina), a couple whose marriage is going on the rocks. But clearly the whole cast had great fun and the other strength of the production was that this was a real strong and balanced ensemble.