Bye-bye Maida Vale

Mock-up of the BBC Stratford building

So the BBC is planning to move out of the Maida Vale Studios and into a custom-built music hub in East London. The Maida Vale Studios, a former skating rink converted to studios in the 1930s, is one of the BBC's oldest buildings and there are lots of strands of musical history involved in it from popular to classical and beyond.


The new site promises a state of the art music recording and rehearsal studios and will provide a purpose-built base for the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus and the BBC Singers, as well as being used regularly by the BBC Concert Orchestra, and will enable the BBC to record and broadcast more live music than before. As ever with new projects like this, there is an education element too. In East London, the BBC will run music sessions in local schools and connect with music hubs, as well as making digital music resources available to schools everywhere. The BBC will also partner with local education groups on other music projects, and there is a promise to have a significant impact on music in the area.

It is not just classical that will be moving of course, BBC Radio 1, 1Xtra, Asian Network, Radio 2, Radio 3, 6 Music and BBC Introducing will all curate and broadcast performances regularly from the site.

All very brand new, exciting and shiny, but part of me feels sad at bidding good-bye to so much history at Maida Vale even though it is, evidently, riddled with asbestos which makes any upgrade a rather costly procedure. I have never recorded in the Maida Vale, my main memories of it are rehearsing in studio one when I sang with the London Philharmonic Choir (and the rather good canteen at the time, this was the 1980s), but I returned a few times to do interviews. I wonder what is going to happen to the old building, it would be sad if it disappeared.


The new facilities are promised for 2022/23, so a little way ahead.
More information from the BBC website.

Philosophical re-thinking: White Light from Hugo Ticciati & O/Modernt

White Light, Part, Vasks, Tavener, Lennon & McCartney; Hugo Ticciati, Matthew Barley, Soumik Datta, Sukhvinder Singh Pinky, O/Modernt Chamber Orchestra; Signum Classics
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 06 June 2018 Star rating: 5.0 (★★★★★)
Hugo Ticciati's eclectic programme combines both Western and Indian musics into an thoughtful and seductive whole

White Light, on the Signum Classics label, is the first disc from violinist Hugo Ticciati and his O/Modernt Chamber Orchestra. They are joined by Soumik Datta (sarod), Gareth Lubbe (harmonic singer), Matthew Barley (cello), Sukhvinder Singh Pinky (tabla) for an eclectic programme which mixes Arvo Part's Silouan's Song and Cantus in memoriam Benjamin Britten, Peteris Vasks ' Tala Gaisma, with improvisations and music by John Tavener, John Lennon and Paul McCartney.

The structure of the disc, formal composed material linked by improvisations with juxtapositions of composers from strikingly different backgrounds and a combination of both Western and Indian classical musics, reflects the philosophy of Hugo Ticciati and O/Modernt's programming [see my interview with Hugo].

Philosophy is important to Ticciati and part of the inspiration behind this programme is Ticciati's interest in meditative Indian philosophies. The title of the disc White Light comes from a quotation from Arvo Part 'I could compare my music to white light which contains all colours. Only a prism can divide the colours and make them appear; this prism could be the spirit of the listener'.

This reflects another part of Ticciati and O/Modernt's approach, the encouragement of active listening in the audience; the juxtaposition of diverse elements to make you think about them differently (such as a recent programme at Kings Place which mixed Vivaldi with arrangements of Metallica!).

Rhondda rips it up!

Lady Rhondda by Solomon J Solomon
credit Private Collection

Welsh National Opera's Summer tour involves not an opera but a cabaret-style vaudeville, Rhondda rips it up!, which will tell the story of the remarkable suffragette, Margaret Haig Thomas (Lady Rhondda), who tirelessly campaigned for equal rights for women. 

The show premieres in Haig Thomas’s hometown of Newport before touring Wales and England during summer and autumn 2018. Marking the centenary of the 1918 women's suffrage bill, Rhondda rips it up! features music by Elena Langer [see my interview with Elena], with a libretto by Emma Jenkins, and the all-female cast and creative team will be led by director Caroline Clegg and music director Nicola Rose. Soprano Lesley Garrett is Master of Ceremonies and Madeleine Shaw is Lady Rhondda, with women of the WNO Chorus performing all the other roles, male & female.

On the opening day of the tour, Thursday 7 June, WNO will host a symposium in Newport on the challenges faced by women in the classical music world. The tour will also be accompanied by extensive programme of free community and youth projects on protest, rebellion and human rights and an ambitious digital project bringing Lady Rhondda to life through a Mixed Reality (MR) installation.



Full details from the WNO website.

Purcell's Welcome Songs for King Charles II

Royal Welcome Songs for King Charles II; The Sixteen, Harry Christophers; Coro
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 28 May 2018 Star rating: 4.0 (★★★★)
Fine music spiced with some 17th-century politics, Purcell's music for Charles II

Royal Welcome Songs for King Charles II, on the Coro label, is another of Harry Christophers and The Sixteen's discs to arise out of their residency at the Wigmore Hall, performing Purcell. This disc follows a concert given in March 2016 [see my review] and gives us a pair of Welcome Songs written for King Charles II, Welcome Viceregent of the mighty King and Fly, bold rebellion, both from the 1680s, plus a mixture of sacred and secular material from the same period including the catch Since the Duke is returned, the verse anthem Let mine eyes run down with tears, the song Sleep, Adam, sleep, and take thy rest, the motet Beati omnes qui timent Dominum, the verse anthem O sing unto the Lord, and the hymn Great, God and just.

Christophers uses a vocal ensemble of eight singers, with many of the smaller items performed one to a part, and the ensemble using one male alto, with three tenors one of whom sings the high tenor alto parts. The instrumental ensemble is 12 strings plus theorbo, harp and organ/harpsichord. This is certainly not a luxuriant lineup, after all, Purcell had the Twenty Four Violins of the King at his disposal for the Welcome Songs, and certainly, Robert King and the Kings Consort use bigger forces in their complete Purcell Odes and Welcome Songs.

But certainly, Christophers and his team do not sound undernourished, anything but. By using consort singers with solo experience we get a very vibrant yet intimate sound. Even at its biggest, this is more richly characterised vocal consort than a choir, and that suits the music very well indeed.

Purcell's Welcome Songs still tend to be a bit neglected, partly I think because the texts are frequently rather trivial (with couplets like 'Welcome, Viceregent of the mighty King / That made and governs everything') and the subject matter (the need to laud the reigning monarch) a bit difficult to stomach sometimes.

Baltic Sea Philharmonic celebrates 10 years.

The Baltic Sea Philharmonic & Kristjan Järvi on Waterworks tour in Copenhagen 2017
(Photo: Baltic Sea Philharmonic / Peter Adamik )

Today (4 June 2018) the Baltic Sea Philharmonic celebrates its 10th anniversary. On 4 June 2018, the then Baltic Sea Youth Philharmonic, conductor Kristjan Järvi, [see my interview with Kristjan] gave a concert in Riga, Latvia. The ensemble brings together young musicians from all 10 Baltic countries. Since 2008 some 700 musicians have played in almost 100 concerts in 47 cities in 14 countries, with collaborators such as Gidon Kremer, Julia Fischer, Valentina Lisitsa, David Geringas and Angela Gheorghiu. The orchestra's 2017 Waterworks tour included the orchestra's debut at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg [see my review].

Looking ahead, the orchestra will be taking its Waterworks programme to the United Arab Emirates in November 2018, and in July 2018will give the world premiere the Violin Concerto by Lithuanian composer Gediminas Gelgotas [see my interview with Gediminas] and the orchestra is a co-commissioner of a major new work by Steve Reich, Music for Ensemble and Orchestra.

The orchestra’s international touring was paralleled by its education programmes, ranging from the specialist coaching for its musicians to workshops for young conductors and composers, and concerts for schools. In 2013 the Baltic Sea Music Education Foundation was created to consolidate these activities and to develop a sustainable education strategy for the Baltic Sea region.

Further information from the Baltic Sea Philharmonic website.

An Introduction to Opera

A new on-line course Inside Opera: Why does it matter? has been developed by The Royal Opera House, the Victoria & Albert Museum and King’s College London. Available from today (4 June 2018), the course is led by Dr Flora Willson, a specialist in 19th century opera and Lecturer in Music at King’s College, London. The course is open to all and no prior knowledge is needed. Running for four weeks, it will give students an insight into the main musical and dramatic features of opera, the major roles in a production, the technological developments within the genre, opera around the world, how opera has changed over the past four centuries and what opera has to offer to 21st century audiences. The course is intended to encouarage discussion about opera and how it continues to develop and diversify as an art form.

Full details from the Inside Opera: Why does it matter? page at FutureLearn.com

Songs and duets from Carolyn Sampson and Iestyn Davies at the Wigmore Hall

Carolyn Sampson (photo Marco Borgreve)

Songs & duets by Purcell/Britten, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Quilter; Carolyn Sampson, Iestyn Davies, Joseph Middleton; Wigmore Hall
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 2 June 2018 Star rating: 4.0 (★★★★)
A programme of duets highlighting beauty of tone and fine artistry

Soprano Carolyn Sampson, counter-tenor Iestyn Davies and pianist Joseph Middleton released a disc of duets last year on the BIS label, and on Saturday 2 June 2018, they brought a programme of songs and duets to the Wigmore Hall, featuring many of the items on the disc. 

The evening opened and closed with English song, first Britten's realisations of Purcell, and the songs and duets by Roger Quilter to close. In the middle, we heard duets written by Felix Mendelssohn and Robert Schumann, a chance to hear repertoire which does not always feature in the concert hall.

Iestyn Davies (photo Marco Borgreve)

Britten's realisations of Purcell, created mainly for his own recitals with tenor Peter Pears, bring Britten's personal voice into the mix in the way that he did with the folk-song settings so the results can vary significantly from the way a contemporary keyboard player might realise the accompaniments, even on the piano. It is this melange of voices which is the interest of these pieces, and I have to confess that I remain conflicted about the results. Sometimes the effect works beautifully, but at other times Britten's own voice seems a little too dominant in the accompaniment.

Whatever I thought of the music, there was no doubting the beauty of the performances with Carolyn Sampson and Iestyn Davies providing a finely balanced pairing which seemed to make them ideal for these modern re-interpretations of Purcell; both singers with great period experience as well as more recent repertoire. And Joseph Middleton played Britten's creative piano parts with real love.  We heard the duets Sound the trumpet, Lost is my quiet and No, resistance is but vain along with two solo songs If music be the food of love from Sampson and Music for a while from Davies.

The centre-piece of the programme, spanning the interval, was a sequence of songs and duets by Felix Mendelssohn and Robert Schumann demonstrating the way these two incorporated the duet form into their lieder output. What was noticeable about the duets from both composers was how the two rarely moved away from the format of two voices moving together (homophonically) over a rippling piano accompaniment. Beautiful as these songs were, you sometimes longed for a more imaginative texture and I did wonder whether the need for the music to be accessible to and popular with the printed music buying amateur was a factor in this.

Swan Lake at the Royal Ballet

Royal Ballet - Swan Lake - © 2018 ROH. Photograph by Bill Cooper

Is it really over 30 years since the Royal Ballet debuted Anthony Dowell's production of Swan Lake at Covent Garden (13 March 1987). I attended one of the early performances and was bowled over by the combination of choreographic textual fidelity (based on the Stepanov notations of the ballet brought out from Russia in 1919 by Nicholas Grigorievich Sergeyev), and designs by Yolanda Sonnabend which hardly looked like ballet at all. 

Now the Royal Ballet has revealed a new production created by Liam Scarlett  with designs by John MacFarlane. We caught the performance on Friday 1 June 2018 with Marianela Nunez as Odette/Odile, and Vadim Muntagirov as Siegfried, conducted by Koen Kessels. 

The new production has links to the 1987 one, both are set in early 20th century Russia. John MacFarlane has supplied some stunningly painterly designs for Acts One, Two and Four, with a startlingly realistic and very over the top marble and gilt interior of Act Three. Within this, Scarlett has re-thought the dramaturgy so that for Act One the prince's tutor has gone, and we have Prince Siegfried's friend Benno and Von Rothbart, disguised in human form and acting as advisor to the Queen. It makes a great deal more sense of the drama.

Within this Scarlett has created a very, very Romantic Swan Lake. Tutus are back (they were dropped in favour of something longer in the 1987 production). This, in itself, gives the white acts their very, very traditional look.

Royal Ballet - Swan Lake - © 2018 ROH. Photograph by Bill Cooper

The music that forms the basis for Swan Lake is in fact not Tchaikovsky's original score, but the score as arranged and adjusted by Riccardo Drigo to suit the requirements of Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov's new production in St Petersburg in 1895.

90th birthday celebration - my interview with composer Thea Musgrave

Thea Musgrave (Photo Bryan Sheffield)

The Scottish-born, USA-based composer Thea Musgrave is celebrating her 90th birthday. There are musical events in many places, and last weekend she attended a concert in New York which celebrated the wide range of her music from recent choral pieces to excerpts from her operas. Thea studied music in Edinburgh in the 1950s, before going on to spend four years studying with Nadia Boulanger, not to mention a summer working with Aaron Copland at Tanglewood. I was lucky enough to be able to interview her by Skype last weekend to talk about her music and her career.

With such a long career, and with so many works, I was interested to find out what were Thea's personal highlights. Her response was immediate, her opera Mary Queen of Scots. Thea points out that not only was Mary a woman but she received a lot of her education in France as did Thea, which Thea found good credentials for writing the opera.  Mary Queen of Scots was premiered in 1977 by Scottish Opera at the Edinburgh International Festival with Thea conducting. (Thea adds as an aside that she was at the first Edinburgh Festival in 1947 and remembered the electric tram lines being decorated with flowers).

After the work's premiere, the opera received its USA premiere in 1978 in Virginia with her husband, Peter Mark's Virginia Opera. The live recording of this performance, with Ashley Putnam, was issued on disc, and Thea is pleased to note that the recording is available again on Lyrita [available from Amazon]. The opera was also performed in New York, and San Francisco (where Thea conducted it). Despite this, the opera does not seem to have received any recent performances and Thea feels that there is a need to get the opera-going again and is pleased that the live recording is now available.

Comedy and pathos: Mozart's Cosi fan tutte at Opera Holland Park

Mozart: Cosi fan tutte - Opera Holland Park (Photo Robert Workman)

Mozart Cosi fan tutte; Eleanor Dennis, Kitty Whately, Nick Pritchard, Nicholas Lester, Sarah Tynan, Peter Coleman-Wright, dir: Oliver Platt, City of London Sinfonia, cond: Dane Lam; Opera Holland Park
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 31 May 2018 Star rating: 4.0 (★★★★)
Comedy and a serious message mix with 18th-century style

Kitty Whately, Eleanor Dennis - Opera Holland Park (Photo Robert Workman)

Having given us a stylish period production of Verdi's La traviata for the opening opera of the season [see my review], Opera Holland Park (OHP) continued to buck the trend with Oliver Platt's 18th-century-set production of Mozart's Cosi fan tutte, which opened on Thursday 31 May 2018. Eleanor Dennis and Kitty Whately were the sisters Fiordiligi and Dorabella, with Nick Pritchard and Nicholas Lester as their lovers Ferrando and Guglielmo, plus Sarah Tynan as Despina and Peter Coleman-Wright as Don Alfonso. The production was designed by Alyson Cummings with lighting by Rory Beaton. Dane Lam conducted the City of London Sinfonia.

This production can be seen as one of the fruits of Opera Holland Park's support for young artists, as conductor Dane Lam, director Oliver Platt and tenor Nick Pritchard are all alumni of OHP's young artists scheme.

Dane Lam and Oliver Platt collaborated on last year's production of Don Giovanni [see my review], whilst that was given a 20th-century gloss, this new production of Cosi fan tutte was firmly 18th century. Alyson Cummings' basic set was a stage within a stage which formed the centre of all the action, a gentleman's outfitters for the opening scene and then the sisters' drawing room for the remainder of the action. But the set opened up so that for the later scenes it developed more into an orangerie. The wider OHP stage was used for the chorus scenes and set pieces, but some of the action spread out as well. However, it was clear that the aim was, sensibly, to keep the main performance within quite a tight area.

Beethoven's Piano Concerto no. 3 arranged for Piano and Strings

Simon Callaghan and the London Mozart Players

Vinzenz Lachner (1811-1893) is one of those composers who have disappeared into the mists of time. He was the younger brother of the composer/conductor Franz Lachner (whose main claim to fame now is adding recitatives to Cherubini's Medea). Vinzenz spent 37 years as the court conductor in Mannheim, his students included Max Bruch and Hermann Levi. Vinzenz's arrangement of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor Op. 37 for piano and strings is starting to get some currency, and there is a rare chance to hear it live on Sunday 3 June 2018 at the Conway Hall.

Pianist Simon Callaghan (artistic director of Conway Hall Sunday Concerts) joins principal players from the London Mozart Players to perform Vinzenz Lachner's arrangement of Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor Op. 37 . The programme is completed by Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik K525, Bottesini's Elegy No.1 in D and Haydn's Symphony No. 102 in B flat Hob. I/102.

GIovanni Bottesini's Elegy was originally for double-bass and piano, and was written just a year before Bottesini (1821-1889) conducted the premiere of Verdi's Aida in Cairo!

Haydn's Symphony No. 102 is the 10th of Haydn's 12 London symphonies. Completed in 1794, it is from a group of symphonies written in Vienna for Haydn's second London visit and it is now believed by many scholars to be the symphony at the premiere of which a chandelier fell from the ceiling of the concert hall in which it was performed.

Full details from the Conway Hall website.

Elegie: Rachmaninoff, a heart in exile

Elegie: Rachmaninoff, a heart in exile; Lucy Parham, Henry Goodman; Deux-Elles Records
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 28 May 2018 Star rating: 4.0 (★★★★)
Lucy Parham's latest composer portrait looks at Rachmaninoff, his exile, longing for home and his music

Elegie: Rachmaninoff, a heart in exile is the latest of Lucy Parham's composer portraits, here recorded with actor Henry Goodman for the Deux-Elles label. Parham plays a selection of Rachmaninoff's piano music, Elegie Op.3 No.1, Polchinelle Op.3 No.4, Prelude in G Op.32 No. 5, Prelude in C sharp minor Op.3 No.2, Prelude in E flat Op.23 No.6, Etude Tableau in E flat Op. 33 No.2, Moments Musical No.3 in B minor, No. 4 in E minor, No.5 in D flat, No 6 in C Op.16, plus music by Tchaikovsky, Chopin and Scriabin, and Rachmaninoff's own arrangements of The Star Spangled Banner and Kreisler's Liebesleid. Whilst Goodman gives us a narrative based on Rachmaninff's own words, looking back over the composer's life and interleaving life, art and music.

Lucy Parham's previous composer portraits have all looked at composers' love lives, but Rachmaninoff's was relatively uneventful, he was happily married throughout his life. Instead, Parham focuses on the man and his longing for Russia whilst in exile folloing the Russian revolution. That Rachmaninoff wrote so little music after he left Russia causes few problems because the style of his earlier pieces is so melancholy and full of longing. [see my interview with Lucy Parham].

Sparking opener: Verdi's La Traviata at Opera Holland Park

Verdi: La traviata - Opera Holland Park (Photo Robert Workman)

Verdi La traviata; Lauren Fagan, Matteo Desole, Stephen Gadd, dir: Rodula Gaitanou, cond: Matthew Kofi Waldren, City of London Sinfonia; Opera Holland Park
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 29 May 2018 Star rating: 4.5 (★★★★½)
Vocal fireworks and an intelligent period production make La traviata move and sparkle.

Ellie Edmonds, Lauren Fagan - Opera Holland Park
(Photo Robert Workman)

Opera Holland Park's 2018 season opened on Tuesday 29 May 2018 with Rodula Gaitanou's new production of Verdi's La traviata with Lauren Fagan in the title role, Matteo Desole as Alfredo and Stephen Gadd as Germont. The production was designed by Cordelia Chisholm with lighting by Simon Corder. Matthew Kofi Waldren conducted the City of London Sinfonia.

Period productions of La traviata are becoming a relative rarity, with a tendency for companies to place the action in the present or recent past. But the setting for the opera needs to capture the essential moral dichotomy of the piece, that the courtesan is rich and successful whilst remaining a shunned part of society, that the men who patronise her will ignore the dubious morality of enjoying courtesans whilst supporting a system which sees them as fallen women.

Perhaps rather daringly, Gaitanou and Chisholm have chosen to set the opera period; not the 1850s of the opera's composition (so no crinolines) but around 50 years later which is an equally potent period in the moral quagmire. Chisholm's fixed set was a winter garden, a long row of mirror glass doors with a rotunda at one end, which could successfully be dressed as a Parisian salon or the conservatory of Alfredo and Violetta's country retreat. It created quite a long shallow playing area, which Gaitanou used deliberately in some of the ensemble scenes (in the Act 2 party we end up with Alfredo and Violetta at opposite ends of the stage). This long narrow playing area clearly caused a few ensemble problems which had not quite been ironed out yet, though I am sure they will.

Whilst Gaitanou did not alter the mechanisms of Verdi's opera, after all there is no need, she had clearly been re-thinking some ideas. We started not with the prelude but with the sound of breathing, rather unnerving and really focussing out attention on Violetta's malady, this continued during the prelude as Violetta got ready but started coughing blood onto her white gloves. At the end of Act One, Matteo Desole sang his second interruption to  Lauren Fagan's 'Sempre libera' from on-stage so the two sang the finale together and dashed off stage at the end, their intentions very clear! A number of the women of the chorus were dressed as men so that the balance between women and 'men' in both the party scenes very much favoured men, which is just what you would expect at salons held by courtesans.

Focus on Gounod - Palazzetto Bru Zane's Sixth Paris Festival

Charles Gounod in 1859,
the year of the premiere of Faust.

Charles Gounod is the focus of Palazzetto Bru Zane's Sixth Paris Festival which runs from 1st to 29 June 2018. Christophe Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques with soloists Véronique Gens, Jean-François Borras, Jean-Sébastien Bou, Andrew Foster-Williams, Juliette Mars, Ingrid Perruche, and Jérôme Boutillier are giving a concert performance of Gounod's 1859 version of Faust, this is the original version with spoken dialogue (and no ballet) which was premiered at the Théâtre-Lyrique, having been rejected by the Paris Opera as not sufficiently 'showy'. By the time the work did reach the Paris Opera, it had sung recitatives, a ballet and more, becoming a full grand opera.

Another rarity is Gounod's opera La nonne sanglante which is being staged at the Opera Comique by David Bobée with Laurent Equilbey conducting Accentus Choir and Insula Orchestra, with soloists Michael Spyres, Vannina Santoni, Marion Lebègue, André Heyboer, Jodie Devos, Jean Teitgen, Luc Bertin-Hugault, Enguerrand de Hys, and Olivia Doray. This an early work, a five-act grand opera staged at the Paris Opera in 1854, it sets a libretto rejected by a number of composers, including Berlioz. It will be interesting to see whether it can live again on the stage!

Other composers are featured too. There a double bill of Offenbach's Les Deux Aveugles and Herve's Le Compositeur toque, both works date from the 1850s and were intended as short curtain raisers before full length shows, and the composers were bitter rivals at the time. There is also a staging of Messager's Les p'tites michu, which dates from 1897.

Full details from the Palazzetto Bru Zane website.

Summer Music in City Churches

Since the demise of the City of London Festival in 2016, the City has lacked a music festival which puts the focus on the City's historic buildings. A new festival Summer Music in City Churches aims to change that. From 21 to 29 June 2018, the festival is presenting a range of concerts in historic City churches, as well as throwing a spotlight on the Diocese of London's new project aimed at re-asserting the central role of music in the life of its churches; https://www.musicianschurch.org/

The festival opens on 21 June 2018 at the church of St Giles Cripplegate with the City of London Choir, conductor Hilary Davan Wetton, performing Durufle's Requiem, Holst's Nunc Dimittis, and music by Elgar. And the choir returns for the festival close on Friday 29 June 2018 with baritone Roderick Williams and the London Mozart Players, in a programme English music from the period of World War I, including Williams' own orchestration of Butterworth's A Shropshire Lad

Other concerts include the brass ensemble Septura in a secular requiem with arrangements of music by Brahms, Handel, Parry (his Songs of Farewell) and Shostakovich (his String Quartet no.8), a Weimar cabaret from soprano Mary Carewe, Holsts' The Planets in the composer's transcription for two pianos performed by John York and Fiona York, a lunchtime recital from pianist Adrian Brendle inspired by Dame Myra Hess's wartime recitals at the National Gallery, Farewell to Arms a recital from tenor Richard Robins, pianist Guy Morgatroyd and story teller Jo Blake Cave.

Full details from the Festival website.

The Dark Lord's Music

Jakob Reys, Du Gast, Robert Johnson, John Dowland, Daniel Batcheler, Diomedes Cato, Gauthier, Henri de l'Enclos, Cuthbert Hely, Despond, Edward Lord Herbert; Martin Eastwell; Music & Media
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 13 Mar 2018 Star rating: 3.5 (★★★½)
Music from a 17th century lute book created for, and by, Lord Herbert of Cherbury

The Dark Lord's Music: The Lutebook of Edward, Lord Herbert of Cherbury, Martin Eastwell (lute), Music & Media MMC117 (released 1 June 2018)

Lord Herbert of Cherbury (1582-1648) is perhaps best-known at the moment for his portrait by Isaac Oliver which was purchased by the National Trust in 2016 to enable it to remain at Powys Castle in Wales. Edward, Lord Herbert was a soldier, diplomat, courtier, philosopher, poet, historian and musician, writing not only one of the earliest autobiographies in English but also De Veritate a book which led to Lord Herbert being known as the "father of English Deism". De Veritate was placed on the Roman Catholic Church's Index of Forbidden Books, and remained there until 1966.

Worth seeking out: Verdi's La Traviata from Hampstead Garden Opera

Verdi: La Traviata - Hampstead Garden Opera - (photo © 2018 Laurent Compagnon)

Verdi La Traviata; Eleanor Ross, Alex Aldren, Lawrence Wallington, dir: Sophie Gilpin, cond: Sam Evans; Hampstead Garden Opera at Jackson's Lane Theatre
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 25 May 2018 Star rating: 3.5 (★★★½)
1960s Parisian setting shows off Eleanor Ross's fine Violetta

Before kick-off, this Friday, May 25, 2018, at Jackson's Lane Theatre the outgoing Chairman of Hampstead Garden Opera, Roger Sainsbury, gave a heart-felt restatement of the company’s aims to present affordable top class opera whilst supporting the next generation of artistes with the pleas for more public support. It hadn’t escaped my notice that this production of Verdi's La Traviata had been handsomely sponsored by an anonymous local donor. Good for them. Who can argue with the pursuit of excellence?

This evening’s cast of young operatic talent was led by Eleanor Ross as the demi-mondaine Violetta. As Germont Père e Fils were Lawrence Wallington and Alex Aldren. Sam Evans, Head of Vocal Studies at Highgate School, conducted, in a production directed by Sophie Gilpin and designed by Anna Bonomelli.

After a striking opening Prelude, the lights rose on a pool-side party. If I’m entirely honest I’m not convinced that Sophie Gilpin’s decision to set the action in Paris’ swinging 60’s helped to bring any great clarity to the narrative.

George Benjamin & Martin Crimp's Lessons in Love and Violence

Stéphane Degout and Gyula Orendt in Lessons in Love and Violence,
© 2018 ROH. Photograph by Stephen Cummiskey

George Benjamin, Martin Crimp Lessons in Love and Violence; Stéphane Degout, Gyula Orendt, Barbara Hannigan, Peter Hoare, dir: Katie Mitchell, cond: George Benjamin; Royal Opera House
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 26 May 2018 Star rating: 4.5 (★★★★½)
A powerful and thought-provoking study in the complexity of human relations

Barbara Hannigan & Peter Hoare
© 2018 ROH. Photograph by Stephen Cummiskey

George Benjamin and Martin Crimp's new opera Lessons in Love and Violence is a significant departure from the previous two (Into the little hill and Written on skin) for a start Crimp's language is more direct without any of the third-person obliqueness of the previous two operas, and the subject matter is based on history rather than fable. But, as with the previous two, Lessons in Love and Violence packs a powerful and concentrated punch.

Katie Mitchell's production of Lessons in Love and Violence, designed by Vicki Mortimer, debuted earlier this month and we caught the last performance. George Benjamin conducted, with Stéphane Degout as the King, Barbara Hannigan as Isabel his Queen, Gyula Orendt as Gaveston, Peter Hoare as Mortimer, Samuel Boden as the boy / young King and the actor Ocean Barrington-Cook as the girl.

Loosely based on the story of Edward II and Piers Gaveston, Crimp's libretto gives us seven terse scenes (lasting around 90 minutes without an interval) in which we witness the disintegration of the King's power owing to Gaveston's unpopularity, Gaveston's death, Isabel's growing relationship with Mortimer, and the young King's ultimate triumph in killing Mortimer.

It is a bleak, rather terrible work with a clear-sighted view of human frailties. None of the people involved is particularly admirable and whilst Crimp and Benjamin enable us to see different points of view (this is certainly not a narrative which puts Edward II and Gaveston at its centre), I don't think that we ever really like any of them.

The King and Gaveston's relationship is an intense one, yet seemingly based on pain, whilst it is clear early on that while little is made of Gaveston's sex (the main complaint is the way he and the King spend money), Mortimer is clearly troubled by the same-sex element. And despite the many strides we have made, it was still very powerful seeing two mainstream opera singers depicting and unashamedly same-sex relationship on the Royal Opera House stage, including a number of remarkable clinches (would that directors were a bit more daring in period operas such as Verdi's Don Carlos)

A heart in exile: pianist Lucy Parham talks about her latest composer portrait

Lucy Parham (Photo Sven Arnstein)

Pianist Lucy Parham is known for her composer portrait evenings, combining music and spoken word and presented in collaboration with distinguished actors, with portraits of Robert & Clara Schumann, Chopin, Liszt and Debussy. Her fifth portrait, Elegie: Rachmaninoff, a heart in exile, with actor Henry Goodman, has just been issued on the Deux-Elles label.

She explained that the Rachmaninoff portrait differs from her previous programmes in that Rachmaninoff did not have a turbulent love life around which to base the evening (he was in fact happily married to his cousin Natalya). Having played a lot of Rachmaninoff's music Lucy was struck by its inherent pathos and sadness, so that with Elegie, Lucy looks more at the soul of the man.

Elegie: Rachmaninoff - A Heart in Exile

When I comment that much of Rachmaninoff's music seems to be gloomy, Lucy laughs and adds that this is an understatement; yet it is something she bore in mind when planning the programme. A lot of Rachmaninoff's music was written before his (self-imposed) exile, but there is still a deep sadness to it. Yet, in his recordings, Rachmaninoff himself played it in rather a cold detached way, concerned that the music might speak for itself. We agree that Rachmaninoff would not like the modern 'heart on sleeve' way of performing his music and Lucy feels that we pull the music about at our peril, commenting that it is like adding extra whipped cream to a chocolate sundae.

Lucy has always loved Rachmaninoff's music, ever since she first heard Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto as a girl and thought 'goodness, can I every play that'; in fact, she did and has chalked up around 20 performances. And it isn't just the piano music, she loves the songs and symphonies and refers to the clarinet solo in the second movement of the Second Symphony as 'something out of heaven'.

Rachmaninoff was very classically trained as a pianist, his teacher Nikolai Zverev was very very strict; the young pupils (only six of them, all young boys) were up at six am and training was full of physical discipline. Zverev did not just teach them piano, he provided general tuition too. And he could not understand why Rachmaninoff wanted to be a composer so that Rachmaninoff left Zverev when he was 16 which led to a complete breakdown in their relationship.

W B Yeats-inspired Sally Beamish premiere from Mathilde Milwidsky at St John's Smith Square

Mathilde Milwidsky (Photo Donald van Hasselt)

On 31 May 2018, as part of her as part of her place on the St John’s Smith Square Young Artist Scheme, violinist Mathilde Milwidsky will be giving a recital with pianist Huw Watkins. The centrepiece of the programme is a new work written for Mathilde by composer Sally Beamish (herself a string player). Sally Beamish's new piece, rather intriguingly is based on W B Yeats poem The Wild Swans at Coole. Beamish started from a recording of actor/writer Peter Thomson reading the poem, and she then notated the speech patterns and from this developed the violin and piano piece, which she describes as ' in effect, a setting of the poem for violin and piano. The work explores themes of loss, in contrast to the constant renewal of nature.'

Also in the programme is work by another female composer, Clara Schumann, her Romances Op. 22, alongside music by Beethoven, Elgar and Sarasate.

Full details from the St John's Smith Square websiite.