A weekend of German romanticism with James Gilchrist and Carolyn Sampson

Anna Tilbrook and James Gilchrist

A Poet's Love: Schumann and Mendelssohn is an immersive weekend of concerts of German romanticism with music by Schumann and Mendelssohn at St John's Smith Square on 26 and 27 June 2015. The weekend will include tenor James Gilchrist and pianist Anna Tilbrook in Schumann's Liederkreis Op.39, Liederkreis Op. 24 and Dichterliebe, and James Gilchrist will be joined by Carolyn Sampson for Schumann's Myrten Op.25 and selected songs and duets. There is also chamber music by Schumann and Mendelssohn played by Ensemble Elata and viola player Philip Dukes, including Schumann's Piano Quartet and Piano Quintet, and Mendelsson's Octet. There is a concert on Friday evening, and then four concerts spread throughout the day on Saturday, along with a pre-concert talk where James Gilchrist will be talking to Richard Morrison.

Blow your trumpets, Angels.

The City of London Choir, conductor Hilary Davan Wetton, is joined by Royal Philharmonic Brass and organist Stephen Farr for an evening of music for choir and brass at St John's Smith Square on 25 June 2015. The evening will combine the grand 16th century Venetian poly-choral music by Giovanni Gabrieli and by Heinrich Schutz, with the London premiere of Philip Moore's At the round earth's imagined corners, plus music by Holst and John Rutter.

A sequence of 16th century polyphonic written for St Mark's Basilica in Venice will culminate in Giovanni Gabrieli's 19 part Buccinante neomenia tuba. Whilst Philip Moore's new piece is a contemporary setting of John Donne's poem which uses trumpets sounding from the four corners of the building.

Further information from St John's Smith Square's website.

Robert Fayrfax at the Wigmore Hall

Robert Fayrfax, John Tavener, Richard Davy, John Merbecke, William Cornysh, Thomas Tallis; The Cardinall's Musick, Andrew Carwood; The Wigmore Hall
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Jun 20 2015
Star rating: 5.0
Vibrant conclusion to the Andrew Carwood's series devoted to the music of Robert Fayrfax

Andrew Carwood and the Cardinall's Musick finished their short series of concerts at the Wigmore Hall celebrating the music of Robert Fairfax on Saturday 20 June 2015 with a look at the music of Fairfax and his contemporaries. The subtext of the concert was the influence of Cardinal Wolsey, one of the great figures of the age. Robert Fairfax's younger contemporary, John Tavener was the first Informator Choristarum at Wolsey's new Cardinal College in Oxford, whilst Richard Davy was Informator Choristarum at Magdalen College in Oxford when Wolsey was attached to the college. We heard two of Robert Fairfax's major pieces, the Agnus Dei from his late, large-scale Missa tecum principium and Maria plena virtute plus one of his secular pieces, Alas for lak of her presens, alongside John Tavener's O Wilhelme pastor bone, Sospitate dedit aegros and Mater Christi sanctissima, Richard Davy's Ah blessed Jesu how fortuned this, and music by three of Fairfax's younger contemporaries John Merbecke's A virgin and mother, William Corynsh the Younger's Woefully arrayed and Thomas Tallis's Euge caeli porta.

The Cardinall's Music comprised ten singers, two sopranos, two altos (one man and one woman), two tenors, two baritones and two basses, reflecting the predominant rich layout of the larger scale music of this period. Andrew Carwood introduced the items, combining history and musicology with great wit, managing to convey a remarkable amount in a short time and in a way which was both informative and amusing.

Fiddler on the Roof at Grange Park Opera.

Bryn Terfel and ensemble, Fiddler on the Roof, Grange Park Opera - photo credit Robert Workman

Jerry Bock, Sheldon Harnick, Joseph Stein Fiddler on the Roof; Bryn Terfel, Janet Fullerlove, Charlotte Harwood, Katie Hall, Molly Lynch, Rebecca Wheatley, Anthony Flaum, Jordan Simon Pollard, dir: Anthony McDonald, cond: David Charles Abell, BBC Concert Orchestra; Grange Park Opera
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Jun 21 2015
Star rating: 4.0
Star turn and brilliant ensemble, in this revival of the 1964 classic musical

Bryn Terfel, photo credit Robert Workman

The advantage of seeing a musical like Jerry Bock, Sheldon Harnick and Joseph Stein's Fiddler on the Roof at Grange Park Opera, is that they perform without amplification, and using full, original orchestrations. On 21 June 2015 we caught up with the production, which has the additional attraction of starring Bryn Terfel in the main role of Tevye. Directed and designed by Anthony McDonald, with costumes by Gabrielle Dalton, choreography by Lucy Burge, the cast included Janet Fullerlove as Golde, Charlotte Harwood as Tzeitel, Katie Hall as Hodel, Molly Lynch as Chava, Rebecca Wheatley as Yente, Anthony Flaum as Motel, Jordan Simon Pollard as Perchik, Cameron Blakely as Lazar Wolf and Craig Fletcher as Fyedka. David Charles Abell conducted the BBC Concert Orchestra.

I have to confess that I had never seen Fiddler on the Roof before, and had only seen bits of the 1971 film with Topol. But, as with many great musicals, the songs have taken on an independent life of their own and I knew many of them already, but it always improves a song to hear it in the correct context.

The musical is based on stories by Sholem Aleichem, and his creation of Tevye the Milkman who lives with his wife and five daughters in a shtetl in Russia in the early 20th century had already generated a large number of stage adaptations before the 1964 musical. It is a slightly curious choice for a musical, in that there is only one major solo role, Tevye. His wife Golde gets only a couple of duets, and the rest of the cast (his daughters and their suitors) each have a moment, but the twin thrust of the musical remains Tevye and the whole ensemble of the villagers. Like a number of musicals from the 1950's and 1960's, there is no big finish; instead the work ends with the Jewish villagers being forced to leave the stetl as a result of the 1905 pogroms and seek a new life elsewhere.

The main dramatic and comic impulse of the piece is the struggle with tradition. Elkan Pressman, who was the production's consultant on Jewish traditions, suggests in his article in the programme book that Tevye's village, Anatevka, may be modelled on Sholem Aleichem's own village which was near Kiev; if so, then the style of Judaism practised was what we call Hasidic. Within this strictly regulated society, Tevye's three elder daughters struggle to bring in the modern world and each one takes a suitor further and further away from their father's wishes. The ending can be seen in this context, making the whole work a long arc as the secure boundaries (physical and mental) of the stetl and its faith are gradually dismantled.

Cheltenham Music Festival - 70 years and counting

70 years after the first Cheltenham Music Festival, the festival returns this year with artistic director Meurig Bowen's 8th festival running from 30 June to 11 July 2015 in venues around Cheltenham. As ever, contemporary music as at the festival's core with 22 premieres at this festival including a deconstruction of 1970s Disco by Graham Fitkin, Rolf Hind’s new work for contemporary Gamelan ensemble inspired by recent travels in Bhutan, Entanglement, a one-act chamber opera by Charlotte Bray about Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be executed in Britain, new pieces by Joe Cutler and Thomas Strønen for Trish Clowes' ensemble the Emulsion Sinfonietta, and works by Peter Wiegold, Jonathan Dove and Matthew Martin. But mainstream is well represented too with Rachmaninov's Second Symphony and Mahler's mammoth Third Symphony.

Artists appearing at the festival include Edward Gardner, Sarah Connolly, Alina Ibragimova, Jean-Guihen Queyras and Marc-André Hamelin as well as emerging artists like conductor Ben Gernon, pianist Martin James Bartlett, accordionist Ksenija Sidorova.

The year 1945, the year of that first festival, is one of the festival themes with works from that year by Richard Strauss, Britten, Poulenc, Howells, Tippett, Shostakovich and Messiaen. Other themes include Paris, and films performed with live soundtracks. This latter theme will present 1928 silent film Jeanne d’Arc with live music from the Orlando Consort, and Hitchock's Psycho with Bernard Hermann's iconic score performed by the Britten Sinfonia. A further theme, dance, gives us New English Ballet Theatre’s first performance outside of London with music by Glass, Mussorgsky, Villa-Lobos, Beethoven and Janacek, and a performance by accordionist Ksenija Sidorova of her contemporary tango project with Rambert dancer/choreographer Kirill Burlov.

Full information from the festival website.

Choral showcase: Voices of London Festival opening

Siglo de Oro

Festival Launch Day - A Choral Showcase
Siglo de Oro/Patrick Allies, Sinopia, In the Smoke
Voices of London Festival at St James's Church, Sussex Gardens
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Jun 19 2015
Three contrasting vocal groups in this lively festival opening

With any new festival, it is often the second one which is the difficult hump to get over, recapturing the energy, enthusiasm and commitment which made the first successful. Judging by last night's (19 June 2015) Festival launch for the second Voices of London Festival at St James's Church, Sussex Gardens, then they are all set for a winner again this year. Organised by a group of young choral conductors, the festival aims to celebrate choral singing and bring together a wide variety of singers, from youth choirs and office choirs to renaissance ensembles and a cappella groups, including a new choral commission as festival finale.

At the Festival launch on 19 June 2015, we heard three very different groups; the ten person vocal ensemble Siglo de Oro, conducted by Patrick Allies, who sang a mixture of 17th century and contemporary music by Robert Ramsey, James MacMillan, Sebastian de Vivanco, Thomas Weelkes, Ed Rex and John Tavener; the female vocal trio Sinopia made up of three young opera singers whose programme ranged from Mozart and Verdi, through Gilbert and Sullivan to Andrews Sisters style arrangements of classics like Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy and Chattanooga Choo Choo; and In the Smoke, a ten person a cappella group who combine singing their own close-harmony, doo-wop arrangements of popular classics such as Kelis's Acapella and Peter Gabriel's Sledgehammeer with lively choreography.

Patrick Allies and Siglo de Oro performed a selection of items from a longer programme, Eternal Light: Musical tributes & Elegies, starting with Robert Ramsey's When David heard written in the early 17th century on the death of Prince Henry (Charles I's elder brother). A grave and rather moving piece, the ensemble sang it with an expressively vibrant sound. Singing in a half-circle with the voice types mixed up, they are not afraid to use full voice. James MacMillan's A child's prayer was written after the Dunblane massacre and uses two soprano soloists against the darker backdrop of the rest of the ensemble. A rather austere piece, it wove its magic as gradually the textures grew more complex. Sebastian de Vivanco was a contemporary of Vittoria's in Avila, his Versa est in luctum was wonderfully rich with some strongly characterised singing to make a really meaty performance. In Thomas Weelkes' madrigal Death had deprived me, written on the death of his colleague Thomas Morley, the singers really brought out the piece's sense of harmonic instability, with its chromatic shifts, and strikingly wide vocal range. Sung in English, the group were rather fighting the church's resonant acoustics and not all the words were audible. Ed Rex is a young composer who is a contemporary of many of the singers in the group. His Do not stand at my grave and weep was tonal, and chromatic with a very clear melodic sense and very effective use of close harmony. But, for me, the words cast rather a vein of sentimentality over the piece which the music could not quite lift. Finally John Tavener's Song for Athene, quite a challenge with just ten voices but they displayed fine control and the performance really paid off great dividends.

Sinopia

The vocal trio Sinopia, accompanied on piano, did two short sets. First they gave us the more operatic fare with Mozart's three ladies from The Magic Flute, Mendelssohn's Ye Spotted Snakes from A Midsummer Nights Dream, the witches from Verdi's Macbeth, Gershwin's Summertime, and finally two Gilbert and Sullivan items Poor Wandering One from Pirates of Penzanze and Three Little Maids from The Mikado. All three singers are young women with an opera training background, and they certainly showed that they could move  confidently between styles. So that the three ladies had a nice sense of comic irony, the fairies a lovely purity of tone and the witches, sung in Italian, a remarkably vivid and dark timbre. Perhaps Summertime was a stylistic leap too far, but they were spot on with the pair of delightful G&S numbers. And the items were not just sung, but staged in a nicely discreet manner which brought out the essentials of the music, they seemed adept at creating real characters on stage, and my only complaint is that they should be looking at some more imaginative repertoire.

After the interval, they returned now wearing 1950's dresses for a set of close harmony numbers. Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy seemed to owe as much to Bette Midler as to the Andrews Sisters, but I'm gonna sit right down and write myself a letter and A Nightingale sang in Berkeley Square were both brilliantly in Andrews Sisters territory with the three vibrant voices combining in terrific fashion (and all sung unamplified too). I did feel that the essential simplicity of Jerome Kern's Just the way you look tonight was lost  in turning it into a trio, and Pete Schmutte's arrangement of Chattanooga Choo Choo was too clever for its own good, though the three singers really sold it superbly.

Finally another ten person unaccompanied ensemble, but a very different one. In the Smoke do their own close harmony arrangements, with an extensive use of beat box and doo-wop styles and combine them with imaginative stagings. Again, singing without amplification they were adept at ensuring that the solo lines (taken by a number of different singers in the group) were spotlit, and often using two voices in octaves for reinforcement. Perhaps there was something slightly unnerving about their carefully choreographed, smiling demeanour in the bright lights of a church. But there is no doubting their talent, and the imagination that went in to the presentations and arrangements, with a set which included Kelis's Acapella, Leona Lewis's Brave, Peter Gabriel's Sledgehammer, Seasick Steve's Walkin Man, the Sugarbabes' About You Now, the Temptations Get Ready, Tom Waits' Martha finishing with a very different, uptempo version of Gershwin's Summertime. There is a chance to catch the group again in their Summer Extravaganza on July 31 at the Greenwood Theatre, SE1.

The Voices London festival continues throughout this week at St James's Church, Sussex Gardens. Today (20 June) there is a chance to hear seven different youth choirs, tomorrow Patrick Russill directs Festival Evensong, then on Tuesday you can hear two different chamber choirs, De Profundis and The Joyful Company of Singers, with Friday being devoted to Workplace Choirs (eight different ones), and finally the festival finale with a new commission Jamie Brown's A Cornish Requiem. Full details from the Voices London website.

Elsewhere on this blog:

• Mesmerising: Mark Padmore & Roger Vignoles in Britten & Schubert - concert review
• Last Russian sacred music written in Soviet Russia: Maximilian Steinberg Passion Week - CD review
• Beginnings and endings: Director Paul Curran on Death in Venice at Garsington - Interview
• From Mexico with style: Jesus Leon Bel Canto - CD review
• Storm! Choral music of Judith Weir from the BBC Singers - CD review
• First and last: Henze double-bill at the Guildhall School - opera review
• Brilliant showcase: Baltic Sea Youth Philharmonic and Kristjan Järvi - CD review
• Towards an immersive experience: An encounter with pianist and curator Christina McMaster - interview
• Vibrant Conclusion: Nicky Spence in RVW at the London English Song Festival - concert review
• Sheer musical gorgeousness: The Sixteen on pilgrimage in Guerrero and Lobo - concert review
• Rediscovering Handel's inspiration: Gasparini's Il Bajazet - Recording of the Month
• Intriguing pairing: Vaughan Williams and James MacMillan oboe concertos - CD review
• Home

RCM String Fantasia at the Wigmore Hall

String players from the Royal College of Music are coming together at the Wigmore Hall on Sunday 21 June 2015, for a concert showcasing a whole variety of string talent, including a double bass solo, and music for four violas.

Delights include Bottesini's Fantasia Cerrito for double bass, York Bowen's Fantasy for four violas, Wieniawski's Fantaisie brillante sur des motifs de l’opéra ‘Faust’ de Gounod op 20, Schumann's Fantasiestücke op 73 for cello and piano and Schubert's Fantasy in C major D 934. Also in the programme will be the UK premiere of Paul Patterson's Fantasia for harp and string quartet.

Further information from the Royal College of Music website.

Christopher Maltman in revival of Kasper Holten's production of Don Giovanni

The Royal Opera in Don Giovanni © ROH / Bill Cooper 2014

Mozart Don Giovanni
Christopher Maltman, Albina Shagimuratova, Dorotea Roschmann, Rolando Villazon, Alex Esposito, Julia Lezhneva, dir: Kasper Holten, cond: Alain Altinoglu; Royal Opera House
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Jun 19 2015
Star rating: 3.5
Revival of Kasper Holten's video inspired production

Having missed Kasper Holten's production of Mozart's Don Giovanni when it received its first outing at Covent Garden, we went along to the Royal Opera House on Thursday 18 June 2015 to catch the production during its run this time. Christopher Maltman sang the title role, with Alex Esposito as Leporello, Albina Shagimuratova as Donna Anna, Eric Halfvarson as the Commendatore, Rolando Villazon as Don Ottavio, Dorothea Roschmann as Donna Elvira, Julia Lezhneva as Zerlina, Nahuel di Pierro as Masetto and Charlie Blackwood as Donna Elvira's maid. Kasper Holten directed, with Amy Lane as revival director set designs by Es Devlin, video designs by Luke Halls, costumes by Anja Vang Kragh, lighting by Bruno Poet, choreography by Signe Fabricius (revived by Miles Hoare), with Alain Altinoglu conducting.

One of the most striking things about the production is that Es Devlin's two story set is used as the backdrop for a series of video projections by Luke Halls. Whilst the set does rotate and provides immense flexibility, on top of this the visual setting is constantly in flux with the video. Some of these are stunning and others distracting, starting with the gradual projection of Leporello's list during the overture. Ultimately, I found the busy visual overlay a little distancing, and it did not help that by using the cube structure of the set as the location for the action Kasper Holten rarely had the singers coming all the way down-stage so the musical image had a certain distance too.

Kasper Holten takes what we might call a modern view of the opera. Donna Anna is clearly complicit, and during the opening scene can clearly see who Don Giovanni is, so that the piece becomes about her conflicted feelings rather than simple vengeance. At the end, the ensemble is omitted leaving Don Giovanni alone in a mental hell of his own makings. Though set in a non-place, there was a very clear visual distinction between the gentry, the servants and lower classes which is essential to the piece but often missed nowadays. Ultimately, you felt that not only was Kasper Holten not charmed by Don Giovanni, but there was a hint of puritan disapproval. The set is inhabited by what seem to be the ghosts of the Don's previous conquests. And I certainly felt uncomfortable in the fact that the only person to disrobe in the entire opera, was Donna Elvira's maid (Charlie Blackwood) who disrobed instantly after one look from the Don!

Mark Padmore and Roger Vignoles at the Wigmore Hall

Mark Padmore
photo by Marco Borgrevve

Britten Sechs Hölderlin-Fragmente, The Holy Sonnets of John Donne Schubert Atys, Ganymed, Strophe aus 'die Götter Griechenlands', Am Strome, Des Fischers Liebesglück, Der Jüngling an der Quelle, Der Schiffer, Die Mutter Erde, Im Abendrot and Die Taubenpost; Mark Padmore, Roger Vignoles; The Wigmore Hall
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Jun 17 2015
Star rating: 5.0
Two intense Britten song cycles contrasted with Schubert songs in mesmerising performances

At a packed Wigmore Hall on Wednesday 17 June 2015, tenor Mark Padmore and pianist Roger Vignoles performed a programme of Britten and Schubert. Britten's song cycles Sechs Hölderlin-Fragmente and The Holy Sonnets of John Donne were performed alongside two groups of Schubert songs, Atys, Ganymed, Strophe aus 'die Götter Griechenlands', Am Strome, Des Fischers Liebesglück, Der Jüngling an der Quelle, Der Schiffer, Die Mutter Erde, Im Abendrot and Die Taubenpost.

Roger Vignoles - Ben Ealovega

The recital opened with a trio of Schubert songs on classical themes, Atys dealing with the tragic tale of Atys and Cybele, Ganymed and Strophe aus 'die Götter Griechenlands', a single verse lamenting he lost world of Hellenic beauty. Atys was deceptively simply, but sung with a seductive line full of different colours, and Mark Padmore and Roger Vignoles brought out the songs sense of yearning, contrasting with the violence at the end when Atys commits suicide. Ganymed had a lovely rhythmic lightness in the accompaniment, contrasting with the beautifully floated vocal line. But the words were clear too, as Mark Padmore made the drama vivid as it progressed. Strophe aus 'die Götter Griechenlands' had a slow calm beauty, poignantly evoking a lost world.

The next group all used the natural world as a symbol for something more; in Am Strome, the poets longing for a better world, in Des Fischers Liebesglück the fisherman's successful wooing of his love, in Der Jüngling an der Quelle consolation from failed love, in Der Schiffer a struggle with a mighty storm. Am Strome had a lovely sense of the music flowing, conveying the poet's longing with intense drama in the middle verse. Des Fischers Liebesglück was a wistful barcarolle, which Mark Padmore and Roger Vignoles made touching and rather magical. I loved the way Mark Padmore kept the high vocal leaps up still floated within the line. In Der Jüngling an der Quelle both piano and voice create a delicate hushed rippling. Der Schiffer was brisk and bold, full of swagger.

Mark Padmore has a very particular way with Schubert, floating a beautifully expressive line and always attentive to the words. His vocal tone caresses the music so much, I have never heard so much quietly expressive singing. The results are not bland, but have a mesmerising intensity. He was matched throughout by Roger Vignoles, and when the two did offer vivid drama or intense violence it told even more.

The Western Playland (and of Sorrow)

Ivor Gurney

On Wednesday 17 June 2015, I heard my third setting of AE Housman’s Is my team ploughing? in less than two weeks. Having already heard both RVW and George Butterworth’s settings (sung by Nicky Spence and by Johnny Herford), I caught up with Ivor Gurney' setting. At an afternoon concert at the Royal College of Music the young baritone Mark Nathan performed Ivor Gurney’s setting of the poem as part of a complete performance of Ivor Gurney’s song cycle The Western Playland (and of Sorrow) which formed part of the programme for Mark Nathan’s final recital as part of his degree at the college. 

Mark Nathan

Accompanied by Paul McKenzie, Mark Nathan gave a programme of songs loosely themed around war. They started with the premiere of Paul McKenzie’s The Charge of the Light Brigade, and then moved on to two of Hugo Wolf’s Morike-Lieder before they were joined by a string quartet made up of Wilford Goh, Jessica Coleman, Anastasia Sofina, and Andrew Harsely, to perform the Gurney cycle.

After Ivor Gurney had heard RVW’s On Wenlock Edge in 1919, he was impressed enough to write his own song cycle setting AE Houseman for the same forces, tenor, piano and string quartet. The cycle was Ludlow and Teme, and the work was met with an enthusiastic reception, so Gurney decided to follow the cycle up with another one. This time setting AE Housman for baritone, piano and string quartet, combining new songs with re-workings of songs he had already written. The cycle did not seem to meet with the same success as the previous one. It had its first performance at the Royal College of Music in 1920, and a manuscript exists in the RCM archive, and it finally reached publication in 1926 by which time Ivor Gurney was already in a mental institution. The two versions have significant differences, and Mark Nathan used a recent edition which takes elements of both. What is interesting about the cycle is the way that Gurney’s use of tonality is far more unstable than in his earlier music and some passages are almost Bergian. In fact, chatting to Mark after the recital he was saying that it is a work which does rather polarise people with some not liking the work at all. It is a fascinating cycle and certainly would seem to be worth more of a regular airing.

Maximilian Steinberg - Passion Week

Maximilian Steinberg Passion Week; Cappella Romana, Alexander Lingas
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Jun 13 2015
Star rating: 4.0
The last major work of Russian sacred music written in Soviet Russia

The booklet to this CD of Maximilian Steinberg's Passion Week, includes a photograph taken in 1908, of the composer Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov at home with his daughter Nadezhda and two of his closest pupils, Igor Stravinsky (and his wife Ekaterina) and Maximilian Steinberg, who was soon to marry Nadezhda Rimsky-Korsakova. Igor Stravinsky and Maximilian Steinberg were classmates, pupils of Rimsky-Korsakov. But at the revolution, Stravinsky left Russia whilst Steinberg stayed. Thereby their paths diverged.

Igor Stravinsky, Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov,
Nadyezhda Rimsky-Korsakov, Maximilian Steinberg,
Ekaterina Stravinsky, 1908.

Maximilian Steinberg wrote his Passion Week, Op.13, in 1923. It was one of the last major Russian sacred choral works to be written in Soviet Russia. Not fully performed in his lifetime it seems to have been almost lost to sight. This world premiere recording from Capella Romana, on the choir's own label, is conducted by their founder Alexander Lingas. They pair the Steinberg with a selection of Rimsky-Korsakov's chants for Holy Week.

Maximilian Steinberg was born in 1883 in Vilnius (then in the Russian Empire). He came from a cultured Jewish family, and moved to St Petersburg to study. Study with Rimsky-Korsakov led to closer contact, he became the composer's assistant and his son-in-law. This latter by marrying Nadezhda in a Russian Orthodox Service, so presumably he converted to Christianity.

His interest in Russian sacred music seems to have come rather late, well after the glory days. It was only in 192 that he started work on Passion Week. At this time Mikhail Klimov and the Imperial Court Capella (renamed Petrograd People's Choral Academy) were still active performing Slavonic chant and Russian sacred music. Ironically a near total ban came only after Steinberg finished the work. (The history of Russian sacred music in Russia after the Revolution is complex and beautifully elucidated by Alexander Lingas in his article in the CD booklet). Passion Week was published in Paris, and seemed to have had some partial performances in France.

Christina McMaster in Debussy and Ruth Crawford-Seeger

Christina McMaster

British pianist Christina McMaster (whom I interviewed for this blog recently) is giving an exciting lunch time recital at St John's Smith Square on Thursday 25 June 2015. The centrepiece of the programme is a sequence of preludes by Debussy and by the 20th century American composer Ruth Crawford-Seeger. Ruth Crawford-Seeger's career as a composer stretched from her roots in modernism, right through to her work in folk-music. But despite her importance as a contemporary modernist composer her work is still under represented. It will be intriguing to hear her rather dark preludes played side by side with those of Debussy. Also in the programme is music by Harrison Birtwistle, Satie, John Cage, Sofia Gubadulina and Richard Mundy.

Further information from the St John's Smith Square website.

Beginnings and Endings - An encounter with Paul Curran, director of Death in Venice at Garsington

Britten's Death in Venice in rehearsal at Garsington Opera

We do not get to see the work of director Paul Curran very frequently in the UK, so the new production of Britten's Death in Venice at Garsington Opera is a double cause for celebration; a chance to see both Paul Curran's work and Britten's late masterpiece. Paul Curran will be directing the new production at Garsington Opera at Wormsley which opens on 21 June 2015, designed by Kevin Knight, choreography by Andreas Heise, conducted by Steuart Bedford with Paul Nilon as Aschenbach and William Dazely in the baritone roles.

Paul Curran - credit John Snelling

This is very much a production of beginnings and ending. Benjamin Britten's final opera is receiving its first production at Garsington Opera, conducted by Steuart Bedford who conducted the work's premiere in 1973, and it will be Paul Curran's first production of the opera and Paul Nilon's debut in the title role.

I spoke to Paul Curran by telephone in a gap between rehearsals, to find out more about the production. Paul Curran has directed a lot of Britten operas and he quotes 13 Midsummer Night's Dreams, eight Peter Grimes and Rape of Lucretia. None of these, it might be added, in the UK. But when I suggest that taking on Death in Venice would enable him to tick another opera off his Benjamin Britten list, he was quite emphatic that he had never been that sort of box ticking type of directer. In fact he had nearly refused the job, saying that he felt it was a monstrously difficult piece and that he had been rather apprehensive about it.

But he has loved the Thomas Mann novella since he was a teenager, and the sheer challenge of doing Death in Venice at Garsington attracted him. Much of the first act of the opera is set in misty, evocative Venice, so Paul Curran and designer Kevin Knight needed to evoke this in the theatre at Garsington where the late afternoon sun streams in through the transparent sides of the auditorium. Their solution is to use a series of gauzy curtains which Paul think will help create the right atmosphere.

Lovescapes: A Musical Exhibition

The Hermes Experiment - credit Thurstan Redding

The contemporary music ensemble The Hermes Experiment is collaborating with photographer Thurstan Redding to present Lovescapes: A Music Exhibition. Taking place on 20 June 2015, at 8pm at the Crypt on the Green, Camberwell, the evening will combine contemporary music and photography as ensemble will perform five new works, by Ed Scolding, Freya Waley-Cohen, Josephine Stephenson, Kate Honey and William Cole, each of which was written in response to Thurstan Redding's specially commissioned photographs, which will be exhibited on the evening. This is very music Pictures at an Exhibition for a contemporary age. The evening will be framed by DJ sets by Tom Rose from Slip Imprint. 

The Hermes Experiment is made up of Anne Denholm, harp, Oliver Pashley, clarinet, Marianne Schofield, double bass, Heloise Werner, soprano/co-director, Hanna Grzeskiewicz, co-director and their programmes innovative programmes involve collaborating with composers to provide a dramatic presence for contemporary music.

From Mexico with style - tenor Jesus Leon in opera arias

Arias from Donizetti L'elisir d'amore, Don Pasquale, Roberto Devereux, Lucia di Lammermoor, La figla del reggimento, Bellini I Puritani , I Capuleti e i Montecchi, Verdi Rigoletto and Falstaff; Jesús Leónn, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Toby Purser; Opus Arte
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Jun 11 2015
Star rating: 4.0
Highly stylish performances from this young lyric tenor

On this stylish new disc from Opus Arte, the young Mexican tenor Jesús León makes his claim in the bel canto tenor stakes. He sings a selection of arias from Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore, Don Pasquale, Roberto Devereux, Lucia di Lammermoor and La figla del reggimento, Bellini's I Puritani and I Capuleti e i Montecchi, and Verdi's Rigoletto and Falstaff. He is accompanied by the Royal Liverpool Phiharmonic Orchestra conducted by Toby Purser.

Do we need another bel canto tenor, you might ask, particularly as this is quite a straightforward selection with none of the more unusual operas that he might have performed. The disc is squarely set in the centre of the market, but Jesús León clearly has a strong sense of what shows his voice off. On this disc he gives a series of highly shapely, polished and a lovely sense of style. Jesús León has quite a narrow bore, fine-grained voice which has a lovely surface sheen (it works well live, as I saw him in Bellini's I Puritani at Grange Park Opera in 2013, see my review). In timbre it has elements in common with a tenor like William Matteuzzi who devoted his career to the early 19th century Italian operas (and I love his recording of Bellini's I Puritani will Mariella Devia). But in overall terms, the tenor I was most reminded of was Alfredo Kraus; Jesús León has the same stylish feel and the same care not to push the voice beyond its natural limits.

Bellini - I Puritani - Grange Park Opera 2013

Jesús León trained in his native Mexico and in the USA (including the young artist programme at Los Angeles Opera), he also studied with Mirella Freni. He has made a number of appearances in the UK. In addition to Grange Park Opera, he sang Alfredo in La traviata with Scottish Opera, and Don Ottavio at Garsington. During 2015 he will be performing I puritani in Catania, La sonnambula at the Ravenna Festival and in Ferrar, and Anna Bolena in Cagliari.

Una furtiva lagrima from Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore is sung with a lovely sense of line and real style. He positively caresses the melody at times, giving us some fine mezza-voce. This is continued with the cavatina from Bellini's I puritani, La mia canzon, and Povero Ernesto from Don Pasquale. All three have a shapely, long-breathed feel to them, and the aria from Don Pasquale has a stylish trumpet so to match. Perhaps the three are not quite as well differentiated as they might be in terms of character. It is melody rather than words which seems to concern him, but that said he brings a nice ardent (and self pitying) feel to Ernesto's aria from Don Pasquale which sets is apart from the previous two. This aria also gives us a chance to hear that Jesús León's way with the music works in the faster sections too.

The eyes have it - Lied in London, further explorations with surtitles.

Johnny Herford

Last night (15 June 2015) we went along to one of pianist Gary Matthewman's Lied in London recitals. Gary Matthewman accompanied baritone Johnny Herford in a programme of songs by Schubert, Carl Nielsen, Hugo Wolf and George Butterworth. Perhaps the most notable thing about the evening, over and above the superb performances, was the fact that Gary Matthewman continued his experiments with using surtitles instead of giving the audience printed word sheets.

The advantage of this, from the performers' point of view, is that the audience is actually looking at the performers rather than having their heads buried in the printed copies. The surtitles were projected on the wall above the singer's head so that we could take in both the text and Johnny Herford's facial expressions.

Gary Mattheman
© Johan Persson

And there was a lot to take in. Johnny Herford's performances were not at all operatic, but he used his face and eyes a great deal to enliven and characterise the songs. He has a lovely flexible lyric baritone with a fine sense of line, allied to great diction, so that the German lied really did sound like sung poetry. Rather impressively the four Nielsen songs in Danish were sung from memory, as was the whole programme, which certainly aids communications. Chatting to Johnny afterwards I gather the Nielsen songs took a 'disproportionate' amount of rehearsal time, but it was worth it to hear them in the original. For the English songs, we did not have surtitles and certainly did not need them.

The first group was all Schubert, with the long Waldes-Nacht at the centre of a group consisting of Auf dem See; Wandrers Nachtlied I; Das Fischermädchen; Dass sie hier gewesen!; Waldes-Nacht; Im Abendrot; Lachen und Weinen; An die Musik; Die Taubenpost; Wandrers Nachtlied II. Thus giving us a variety of moods and durations, with some profoundly beautiful moments. Johnny Herford and Gary Matthewman's control of structure was superb in the long Waldes-Nacht and throughout performances were finely involving and superbly crafted.

The Nielsen songs were from Vise og vers Op 6, one of his early song sets. Here the two performed Genrebillede; Seraferne; Silkesko over gylden Læst!; Vise af „Mogens”. They are varied and charming songs, disarmingly sung in performances which made us want to get to know more.

After the interval we had a sequence of Eichendorff settings by Hugo Wolf, all about the various different trials of love, Erwartung; Das Ständchen; Der Scholar; Nachtzauber; Liebesglück; Der Soldat I; Unfall; Seemanns Abschied. Not all were well known, and both performers brought out the remarkable complexity and modernism of Wolf's sound-world in vividly characterised performances.

Finally we had George Butterworth's Six Songs from A Shropshire Lad - Loveliest of trees; When I was one-and-twenty; Look not in my eyes; Think no more, lad; The lads in their hundreds; Is my team ploughing? Where Johnny Herford showed that the same virtues which had shone through in the Schubert, applied in English too. A finely burnished vocal line with highly expressive words, these were poignantly moving songs. We finished with an extra, RVW's Silent Noon.

Youth and experience join forces in Wagner

Young Musicians Symphony Orchestra

On Wednesday 24 June 2015, there is a chance to hear one of the finest dramatic sopranos of our day, Susan Bullock, singing in Wagner at St John's Smith Square. Susan Bullock joins the musicians of the Young Musicians Symphony Orchestra, conductor James Blair in a programme which includes the Prelude and Liebestod from Wagner's Tristan und Isolde and Siegfried's Rhine Music, Siegfried's Funeral Music and Brunnhilde's Immolation  from Wagner's Gotterdammerung, plus music by Humperdinck.

The Young Musicians Symphony Orchestra is Britain's leading orchestra for young musicians on the threshold of their professional careers. It provides experience to those who are studying or have recently completed their training, but are not yet established in the profession.

Further information and tickets from the St John's Smith Square website.

Storm - choral music of Judith Weir

Judith Weir All the Ends of the Earth, Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis, Missa del Cid, The Song Sung True, Storm; BBC Singers, Endymion, Choristers of Temple Church, David Hill; Signum Classics
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Jun 08 2015
Star rating: 4.0
Survey of Judith Weir's intriguing and approachable choral music

I was familiar with a number of Judith Weir's choral works, but some performed on this new disc from Signum Classics were new to me and the disc has enabled me to come to know the full range of works this Scottish composer's repertoire. This disc is the latest in the BBC Singers admirable single composer discs, conducted by David Hill they are joined by Endymion and the choristers of Temple Church, to perform All the Ends of the Earth, Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis, Missa del Cid, The Song Sung True, and Storm.

Born in 1954, Judith Weir has developed her own distinctive voice in contemporary music. Whilst much of her music is tonal and approachable, there is distilled aphoristic quality to it which can make it challenging to fully apprehend. This is music which warms on knowing.

Judith Weir - © Suzanne Jansen

All the Ends of the Earth was written for chorus, percussion and harp for the BBC Singers to perform on 1 January 2000 as part of a Europe-wide radio broadcast celebrating the music of Perotin. Judith Weir has based the work in Perotin's Viderunt omnes but she has kept only the cantus firmus, (sung by the tenors and basses reinforced by tuned percussion) taking only certain 'pillar-like' syllables between which the music for sopranos and altos sets the Alleluiatic sequence.  Judith Weir's polyphony for the female voices is lively with lots of widely spaced intervals, with a medieval feel to the harmonies. It is sung here with a lovely energy, contrasting with the static massiveness of the men. Gradually the two come together in an ending full of very appealing yet complex textures and vivid energy. I heard the BBC Singers perform this live at St Giles Church, Cripplegate and was very taken with it then and am delighted to encounter it again on disc.

Opportunity alert - Helios Collective's Formations

The Helios Collective has an amazing opportunity for composers (with a closing date of Saturday 20 June 2015). This coming November they are offering three composers the opportunity to create a 15-20 minute piece for flute, clarinet, violin, cello and piano and up to four voices. 

The works will be workshopped and developed with the aid of Kasper Holten (director of opera at The Royal Opera House), the conductor David Parry, Stephen Barlow (artistic director Buxton Festival) and Stephen Unwin (former artistic director of The Rose). They will also be providing direct contact with composers too to act as mentors. It will be a two week programme, the first working with a director and conductor to develop the works and the second in The Arts Theatre, Great Newport Street, London with the industry professionals. The event will conclude with a final performance on Friday 13th November in The Arts Theatre and a feedback session from the whole panel. 

The opportunity is open to all composers, send your pitch, CV and samples of your work to helioscollectiveinfo@gmail.com by 11pm on 20 June 2015.

Voices of London Festival

The Voices of London Festival launched in 2014, returns this year from 19 to 27 June 2015 with a programme of choral and vocal music from young performers and ensembles at St James's Church, Sussex Gardens, Paddington. The festival is intended to celebrate the enormous range and diversity of vocal and choral music in the capital, with ensembles of all sizes and types from small profession ensembles to large community choirs. Participants include the Joyful Company of Singers, the vocal trio Sinopia, the London Youth Choirs, Siglo de Oro and many more. You can see the full range on the festival website.

The festival finale will include the premiere of Jamie Brown's A Cornish Requiem which was commissioned for the festival and will be performed by a choir of participants from all over London to create the festival chorus. As some of the work is in Cornish, I suspect that they have their work cut out.

You can find full information at the Voices of London website.