12:40

12 new arias, 40 creative artists, 1 production, 3 performances

The National Opera Studio has commissioned 12 new arias from contemporary composers and librettists and these are being presented in a showcase production at Hoxton Hall for three performances from 14 to 15 June 2018, directed by David Sulkin with costumes showcasing the work of fashion designer Margaret Howell, who has generously donated all the clothes worn by the singers and repetiteurs. 

Each aria was written for a particular singer currently at the National Opera Studio, with the singer being involved in the creative process and the results intended to demonstrate their individual talents. Composers involved include Tom Randle, Bushra El Turk, Philip Venables, and Sally Beamish.

Further details from the National Opera Studio website.

Programme

'I lace my boots' from SCRUM: A method for restarting Play by Na'ama Zisser and Samantha Newton

'The Undeniable Loneliness of Whale Evolution' from Indus by Cameron Dodds and Ruth Mariner
'Sole nell' ombra' from Black Sun by Tom Randle and Bechara Moufarrej
'Rosina' from Fallout by Bushra El Turk and Cordelia Lynn
'Alice' from an opera as yet untitled by Philip Venables and Ted Huffman
'Howell's Decision' from Keeping the Light by Lewis Murphy and Laura Attridge
'Hiraeth' from Hiraeth by Hannah Kendall and Tessa McWatt
'Nobody Cries' from Salvage by Benjamin Tassie and Jacqueline Saphra
'The Handbag Aria' from Loitadora ("Fighter") by Samantha Fernando and Rebecca Hurst
'The Frog Prince' from Alchemy by Sally Beamish and Peter Thomson
'Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat Mengirimkan Pesan Kepada Raja Muda' ("The People’s Council Sends a Message to the Viceroy") from Bagaimana Sang Insinyur Agung Minus Teh Bersama Sultan, Dan Apa Yang Terdengar Oleh Bayangan Mereka Yang Memanjang ("How The Great Engineer Took Tea With The Sultan, And What Their Lengthening Shadows Heard") by Christian Mason and Oge Nwosu
'Where No Bell Tolls' from The Barefoot Dancer & The Demon of the Belfry by Rosabella Gregory and Dina Soraya Gregory

Looking ahead: St Marylebone Festival

Lord Byron, one of the local connections celebrated
in the St Marylebone Festival

Celebrating both the community and the rich heritage of the area, the St Marylebone Festival runs from 21 to 27 July 2018. Based around St Marylebone Church, the festival's programme has been devised by Festival Artistic Director & Director of Music at St Marylebone Parish Church, Gavin Roberts and The Revd Canon Stephen Evans, Rector of St Marylebone. The festival kicks off on Saturday 22 July with a come and sing event with distinguished composer and choral conductor John Rutter, and on Sunday 22 July there is a festal Eucharist showcasing music by women composers.

Other highlights of the festival include a focus on Marylebone-born Ethel Smyth with contralto Lucy Stevens with pianist Gavin Roberts Grasp the Nettle which tells Smyth's story and showcases her music. There will also be a talk on the composer by Lewis Orchard of the Surrey History Society. James Robinson (tenor), Adam Sullivan (tenor), David Jones (baritone) and Gavin Roberts (piano) will be celebrating the life of Australian pianist Noel Mewton-Wood, who studied at the Royal Academy of Music. Mewton-Wood enjoyed an illustrious performing career and was friends with Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears, but tragically he was to take his own life following the death of his lover William Fredrick.

Another Marylebone connection is Lord Byron, who was baptised in the parish church, and Amanda Pitt (soprano) and Gavin Roberts (piano) will celebrate his legacy with a programme of song and readings. Another resident was RVW, and there is a free screening of the film Scott of the Antarctic for which RVW wrote the music, and Scott features also on James Way (tenor) and Gavin Roberts (piano) Scott and Schubert – A Winter Journey which combines Schubert's Winterreise with readings from Scott's diary.

Jill Kemp, recorders and Claire Williams, harpsichord, present a colourful programme containing many musical delights that may have been heard in the original Pleasure Gardens of Old Marylebone.

Full details from the festival website.

Showcasing the chorus: Opera North's Berlin to Broadway with Kurt Weill

For the last few years, as part of its Summer season, Opera North has presented a show which showcases the talents of the company's chorus. This year, in collaboration with the West Yorkshire Playhouse, they are presenting Berlin to Broadway with Kurt Weill at the City Varieties, Leeds from 15 to 21 June 2018. 

An ensemble of singers from the chorus of Opera North will be performing a range of Kurt Weill's songs stretching from his Weimar Republic collaborations with Bertolt Brecht, through his Broadway shows to his Broadway opera Street Scene and his final work, Lost in the Stars based on Alan Paton's book Cry the beloved country.

Members of the chorus of Opera North rehearsing for 'Berlin to Broadway with Kurt Weill' (Photo Opera North)

The show is directed by Giles Havergal with Martin Pickard as musical director, designer is Catherine Morgan and the choreographer is Darren Royston. You can read more about the performers thoughts on Kurt Weill and his music in a blog at the Opera North website.

Further details from the Opera North website.

Io la Musica son: Francesca Aspromonte in Prologue

Prologues - Monteverdi, Caccini, Cavalli, Landi, Rossi, Cesti, Stradella, Scarlatti; Francesca Aspromonte, Il pomo d'oro, Enrico Onofri; Pentatone
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 13 Mar 2018 Star rating: 5.0 (★★★★★)
A wonderfully engaging exploration of the prologue in 17th-century opera, full of vivid detail and vibrant performances

The prologue in the earliest 17th century Italian operas was a way to introduce and explain the opera, rather than plunging straight in. So that in Monteverdi's L'Orfeo, the figure of La Musica explains that she has come down from Parnassus to tell the story of Orfeo. In these early operas, there was also the need to glorify, compliment and otherwise flatter the patrons and commissioners of the operas. Whilst opera in Italy changed quite a bit during the 17th century, the prologue remained something of a fixture. On this lovely new disc from Pentatone, soprano Francesca Aspromonte joins Il pomo d'oro, director Enrico Onofri, for a programme of prologues starting with Monteverdi, working its way through Cavalli, Landi, Rossi, Cesti and Stradella to Alessandro Scarlatti.

Monteverdi's prologue to L'Orfeo is the classic of the genre, and rightly Aspromonte opens with this, preceded by the Toccata. She has a focused, forward soprano which has an expressive directness to it. She and Onofri perform with great fluidity and flexibility, words are paramount with Aspromonte really shaping the lines to the words.

The earliest operas were highly fluid in their attitude to text and music and this really shows in this performance. In all the pieces Aspromonte combines a vibrancy of attitude with a vividness of detail which really engages, and she brings a fine range of colour to the voice. As a result, it is quite surprising how engaging and engrossing this programme is.

We hear two of the earliest operas, Monteverdi's L'Orfeo (1607) and Giulio Caccini's L'Euridice (1602), where the prologues serve to introduce and explain, very necessary with such a brand new and unusual art-form.

Britten and Bernstein side by side (without Sondheim) in Suffolk

Aaron Copland & Leonard Bernstine

Bernstein & Britten: BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, John Wilson; Aldeburgh Festival
Reviewed by Tony Cooper on 8 June 2018 Star rating: 5.0 (★★★★★)
Britten, Bernstein and America surveyed in three concerts from John Wilson and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

The ongoing theme in this year’s Aldeburgh Festival (the 71st edition) focuses on Britten and America reflecting the year of 1948 when the festival laid down its roots not only enriching the cultural life of Suffolk and its environs but the country as a whole. Three concerts from John Wilson, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the John Wilson Orchestra in Snape Maltings Concert Hall gave us a wide variety of music by both composers, including Britten's Sinfonia da Requiem, Seven sonnets of Michaelangelo (with Robert Murray) and Diversions for piano Left Hand and Orchestra (with Pavel Kolesnikov), and Bernstein's Symphony No. 2 - 'The Age of Anxiety' (with Cédric Tiberghien) and music from his musicals.

Britten in the mid-1960s, by Hans Wild

Without a shadow of doubt, Britten and Bernstein (the centenary of whose birth falls this year) were both towering figures in the world of music working not just as composers, pianists and conductors but also as educators at a time when education was in its infancy in the creative world.

Both men were celebrated and revered like no other and here their music can be heard side by side. Many connections resonate across this festival including the likes of Peter Grimes, W H Auden, the Revd Walter Hussey and their bosom friend, Aaron Copland, whom, incidentally, Britten met for the first time at the 1938 ISCM Festival in London where Copland's El Salón México and Britten's Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge were played at the same concert.

And in the opening concert at the Snape Maltings Concert Hall, Copland was on the bill with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under the baton of John Wilson on top form delivering a sensitive, atmospheric and compelling reading of Quiet City, a work heavily featuring soloists from the orchestra, Mark O’Keeffe (trumpet) and James Horan (cor anglais). A mellow and inviting work offering an ode to New York, Quiet City was composed for Irwin Shaw’s play of the same name which, unfortunately, never made it above preview performances.

Bernstein’s Symphony No. 2 ‘The Age of Anxiety’ - the title emanating from W H Auden’s poem of the same name - regally followed. Completed in March 1949 in New York City, the work was dedicated to and commissioned by the Russian-born conductor, Serge Koussevitzky, who was preparing to end his 25-year career conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1949.

Celebrating 30 years of Big Screen presentations

Tonight (12 June) the Royal Opera House celebrates its 30-year partnership with BP bringing big screen presentations of opera and ballet to the UK, from Aberdeen to the Isle of Wight.  Free outdoor screenings which enable audiences to see live performances and picnic too

This evening's live presentation of Liam Scarlett's new production of Swan Lake launches the 2018 season of Big Screen presentations of live performances from the Royal Opera House.

Swan Lake is showing at Canada Square in Canary Wharf, Trafalgar Square, General Gordon Square, Woolwich (all London), Tattershall Lakes Country Park (Lincolnshire), Bristol Millenium Square (Bristol), Sandy Balls Holiday Village (New Forest, Hampshire), Portsmouth Guildhall Square (Portsmouth), Exmouth, Swansea Castle Square (Swansea, Wales) and The Piazza, University of Warwick (Warwick).

Further ahead, the Big Screen presentations are Puccini's La Boheme (26 June 2018) and Mozart's Don Giovanni (12 July).

Full details from the Royal Opera House website.

Young Artists performance of La Traviata at Opera Holland Park

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

Verdi La traviata; Alison Langer, Stephen Aviss, Aidan Edwards, dir: Rodula Gaitanou/Cecilia Stinton, cond: Harry Sever; Opera Holland Park
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 11 June 2018 Star rating: 4.5 (★★★★½)
A highly satisfying account of Verdi's tragedy from the Young Artists, with a poised performance in the title role

Stephen Aviss, Harry Sever, Alison Langer
(Photo Robert Workman)

This year's Young Artists Performance at Opera Holland Park was Rodula Gaitanou's production of Verdi's La Traviata [see my review of the original production] on Monday 11 June 2018. The performance featured Alison Langer as Violetta, Aidan Edwards as Giorgio Germon, Emma Stannard as Flora, Mike Bradley as Gastone, James Corrigan as Barone Douphol, Felix Kemp as Marchese d'Obigny and Aaron O'Hare as Dottore Grenvil. Young Artist alumnus Stephen Aviss sang Alfredo (he sang Rodolfo in the Young Artists performance of Puccini's La Boheme in 2016, see my review, and gives two performances as Alfredo in the main cast of La Traviata). The Young Artists director was Cecilia Sinton and the conductor was Harry Sever.

Returning to the production after a gap of two weeks, I found there was still a great deal to enjoy and that the production was as satisfying as ever. With a different cast and associate director, I also noticed further details which added to the story, such as the Barone's flirtation with another young woman at the end of Act One.

Having cast an outstanding Violetta as part of the main cast (Lauren Fagan), Opera Holland Park was equally gifted with Alison Langer who sang Violetta for the Young Artists. Langer sang the New Queen in the Opera Story's premiere of Snow [see my review] but perhaps her most visible achievement to date has been to duet with Dame Josephine Barstow whilst playing Young Heidi in the National Theatre production of Stephen Sondheim's Follies [see my review].

Langer made a poised and moving Violetta, bringing out the character's youth, moving successfully from the brilliance of Act One, through the tragedy of Act Two to a powerful final scene.

Musical beauty: new production of Lohengrin at Covent Garden

Wagner: Lohengrin - The arrival of the swan - (Photo ROH/Clive Barda)

Wagner Lohengrin; Klaus Florian Vogt, Jennifer Davis, Christine Goerke, Thomas J. Mayer, dir: David Alden, cond: Andris Nelsons; Royal Opera
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 10 June 2018 Star rating: 5.0 (★★★★★)
Moments of great beauty in a lithely dramatic account of Wagner's last Romantic opera

Klaus Florian Vogt, Thomas J Mayer - (Photo ROH/Clive Barda)

David Alden's new production of Richard Wagner's Lohengrin at Covent Garden replaces Elijah Moshinsky's 1977 production, which could hardly have been expected to last so long. Whereas Moshinsky took a semi-abstract neo-pagan approach, Alden has set his in the context of a fairly specific place and time in the early to mid 20th century.

We caught the second performance, on Sunday 10 June 2018, with Klaus Florian Vogt as Lohengrin, Jennifer Davis as Elsa, Thomas J Mayer as Friedrich von Telramund, Christine Goerke as Ortrud, Georg Zeppenfeld as King Heinrich and Kostas Smoriginas as the Herald. Sets were by Paul Steinberg, costumes by Gideon Davey, lighting by Adam Silverman, video by Tal Rosner and movement by Maxine Braham. Andris Nelsons conducted.

From the opening notes of the prelude (played with the curtain down), it was clear that Andris Nelsons' way with the score was going to be something special. He drew ravishing textures from the orchestra, creating moments of great beauty and real transparency. Even the more bombastic sections, with all the extra brass, seemed brilliant rather than heavy. This combined with a lithely dramatic, flexible approach to the piece gave it a fluency which it does not always have.

Mary's Hand: Composer Martin Bussey introduces his new opera

Martin Bussey

Composer Martin Bussey has written a new opera, Mary's Hand, on the life of Queen Mary I, to a libretto by Di Sherlock. Prepared for the company McCaldin Arts, the opera has its first performance in Chester on 21 June and then in London on 1 & 2 August as part of the Tete a Tete opera Festival. Martin answered some questions about his work and the piece as an introduction to his music. 

You have a number of strings to your musical bow. What do you consider your principal musical occupation?
Nowadays my principal occupation seems to have become composition. For a long time this sat in the background during years as a singer and a teacher. I wrote for forces at my disposal during that time, for example my piece about Ivor Gurney, Severn Meadows, composed for Chester Bach Singers. Or I wrote works which were rather conceptual, e.g. what I would write if I had a large chorus and symphony orchestra to hand - which I didn’t! Song and choral music have always been the focus of my musical performing life, and they have taken centre stage in my compositional life.

Your work in music is very native, working with English groups on British repertoire, composing your own settings of English texts and helping in the running of a association (The Finzi Friends) whose existence is a component of Englishness. Is it the culture or is it specifically the music?
I have always been captivated equally by the English language and by music.

Discover les Salons en Musique at the Institut français

To celebrate the restoration of its Pleyel piano, the Institut français in London is launching a new series of chamber music in its renovated Salons. 

Les Salons en Musique, a chance to discover a new series of chamber music concerts at the Institut français featuring a compendium of world-renowned chamber music performers. The series opens with the Nash Ensemble in Debussy, Saint-Saens and Ravel, and the young French ensemble Trio Métral celebrates Bastille Day with Haydn, Rachmaninoff and Mendelssohn. Further ahead there is the  Concert de l’Hostel-Dieu in a programme of Baroque female composers and poets , and the pianist Célimène Daudet in Liszt and Debussy.

From 28 June to 29 Nov at the Institut français, further details from the website.

A little bit of magic: Miah Persson in Richard Strauss's Capriccio at Garsington

Richard Strauss: Capriccio - Gavan Ring, Miah Persson, Sam Furness, Caspar Singh, Nika Gorič, Hanna Hipp, William Dazeley, Andrew Shore - Garsington Opera - (Photo Johan Persson)

Strauss Capriccio; Miah Persson, Sam Furness, Gavan Ring, Andrew Shore, William Dazeley, Hanna Hipp, dir: Tim Albery, cond: Douglas Boyd; Garsington Opera
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 9 June 2018 Star rating: 4.5 (★★★★½)
A strong cast and a radiant account of the title role show that music and art do matter in Richard Strauss's final opera

Miah Persson
Garsington Opera (Photo Johan Persson)

Tim Albery's production of Richard Strauss' Capriccio, a collaboration between Santa Fe Opera and Garsington Opera, debuted in Santa Fe in 2016 [see my review], and it has now reached Garsington with an entirely new cast and conductor. We caught the 4th performance on Saturday 9 June 2018; Douglas Boyd conducted with Miah Persson as the Countess (her role debut), William Dazeley as the Count, Sam Furness as Flamand, Gavan Ring as Olivier, Andrew Shore as La Roche and Hanna Hipp as Clairon.

Tobias Hoheisel's spectacular set consisted of a modernist, Mies van der Rohe-style house with the panelling from an 18th-century room at its centre, like a collected object. The rear wall was glazed and looked out onto a terrace (at Santa Fe this gave a view of the hills beyond the opera house, but in Garsington, this was simply evoked with lighting). Costumes were loosely 1940's with Miah Persson wearing a pair of extremely striking outfits which seemed somewhat later in date than the rest of the costuming.

Premiered in Munich in 1942, Strauss' final opera completely avoids any sense of the war and the troubles which lay behind life at the time and can seem a somewhat sweet confection, a group of aristocrats arguing about music, words and art. But for Strauss, this was a subject which really mattered, and for the opera to work we have to believe that these people really do care intently about art, that it is one of the most important things in their life. The opera is very wordy, very conversational and there is always a limiting factor when hearing it in German with surtitles (like Intermezzo there is a good argument for performing the opera in the language of the audience).

Albery's very physical production had the virtue of making us believe that these people really did care, that what went on in this room mattered. All concerned were highly involved and there was a strong sense of competitive dialogue. Strauss filled the opera with jokes (often musical ones), though we do not always laugh at performances nowadays this one was funny, in the right way. Though at times, the performance veered towards physical comedy especially in the scene were Olivier and Flamand gang up on La Roche and try to decry his old-fashioned ideas for staging opera.

Gavan Ring, Sam Furness - Garsington Opera (Photo Johan Persson)

This physical aspect combined with a performance from Douglas Boyd and the Garsington Opera Orchestra in the pit which created a robustness to the music, pushing it from the conversational to the more conventionally operatic. The big moments tended to flower as dramatic, operatic moments rather than flow as pure conversation. Yet the result was to convince us that these people really meant it.

The big plus for the production was the Countess of Miah Persson, elegant, stylish and completely at ease with the sheer wordiness of the role. The Countess might have one of Strauss' most ravishing scenes in the closing pages of the opera, but to get there the singer must cope with two hours of complex dialogue. Persson made it all seem natural and elegantly intense, as she showed a vivid sense of the words and the dialogue going on around her. Persson was not the flirtiest of Countesses (that palm has to go to Felicity Lott whom I heard in the role in Brussels and at Glyndebourne), in her scenes with Sam Furness (Flamand) and Gavan Ring (Olivier) she created more a sense of muse than a potential mistress. The relations between herself and the two men mattered deeply, but you felt that for this Countess it was art that really drew her in rather than any flirtation leading to a possible sexual relationship.

Coloured lights: Kander & Ebb's The Rink makes a triumphant return

Gemma Sutton and Caroline O’Connor in The Rink, Southwark Playhouse. Photo: Darren Bell

Kander & Ebb The Rink; Caroline O'Connor, Gemma Sutton, dir; Adam Lenson, cond: Jo Bunker; Southwark Playhouse
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 8 June 2018 Star rating: 4.5 (★★★★½)
Kander & Ebb's 1984 musical makes a triumphant return as a powerful two-hander

Kander & Ebb's 1984 musical The Rink made it's not very successful West End debut in 1988 (at the Cambridge Theatre), but then again the musical's original Broadway run in 1984 had not been much of a success either, despite the presence of Chita Rivera and Liza Minelli in the cast. The strange thing is that the piece seems to have created more of an effect when playing in smaller theatres. The new production of The Rink at the Southwark Playhouse (the musical's first London appearance since 1988), directed by Adam Lenson with musical director Joe Bunker, completely re-focussed the show. Lenson and his designers Bec Chippendale and Libby Todd concentrated on the relationship between the two women, mother Anna (Caroline O'Connor) and daughter Angel (Gemma Sutton), creating effectively a strong two-hander. Not that the large-scale numbers were neglected, we did have dance (and roller-skate) numbers from the ensemble of six, Stewart Clarke, Ross Dawes, Michael Lin, Elander Moore, Ben Redfern and Jason Winter.

Jason Winter, Michael Lin and Ross Dawes, The Rink, Southwark Playhouse. Photo: Darren Bell

I did see the original 1988 production and my main memory of it is the way the piece got rather lost in the huge set of the dilapidated roller-skating rink.

Genial conversations with old friends

Alexandra Harwood

Prokofiev, Smirnov, Harwood, Glinka; I Musicanti; St John's Smith Square
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 3 June 2018 Star rating: 4.5 (★★★★½)
Alexandra and the Russians - I Musicanti on a Sunday afternoon

This was the last in Leon Bosch’s wonderful Sunday afternoon series at St John’s Smith Square. I reviewed the first one in September [see Ruth's review]. The programmes have been made up of Russian pieces for flexible instrumental forces, around a new work from Alexandra Harwood and played by Bosch and his friends. On Sunday 3 June 2018, Leon Bosch and I Musicanti performed Prokofiev's Quintet in G minor Op. 39, Dmitri Smirnov's Dialogue in the Dark and Glinka's Septet in E flat, plus the world premiere of Alexandra Harwood's Ever After.

The first piece today was Prokofiev’s G minor Quintet with its original scoring for oboe, clarinet, violin, viola and bass. It was written for a circus-inspired ballet that was hardly performed as intended. In its surviving form it gives us a colourful, precarious world with a ‘band of [instrumental] misfits’, starting out with central Asian melismas, via Russian Orthodox bells with a cheeky andantino to finish.

Writ large: Tallis Scholars in Thomas Tallis' Spem in Alium

Thomas Tallis

White, Sheppard, Sutton, Tallis; The Tallis Scholars, Peter Phillips; Cadogan Hall
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 7 June 2018 Star rating: 4.5 (★★★★½)
Glorious Tudor polyphony from the Eton Choirbook to Tallis' 40-part motet

The 10th Choral at Cadogan series at Cadogan Hall came to a striking conclusion on Thursday 7 June 2018 when an expanded Tallis Scholars, conductor Peter Phillips, peformed Thomas Tallis' 40-part motet Spem in Alium as part of a programme which explored richly texture polyphonic music from the Tudor period, moving from the early Tudor period with John Sutton's Salve Regina (from the Eton Choirbook), through John Sheppard's Missa Cantata written during the reign of Queen Mary when large-scale polyphonic music came back, and finally Robert White's Domine, quis havitata and Magnificat from the Elizabethan period, with the final flowering of Tallis' 40-part motet.

Apart from the Tallis, many of the works in the programme were for six or seven voices but often composers sub-divide the parts at times to create a greater richness of texture. The Tallis Scholars performed most of the programme with a group of 12 to 14 singers, expanding to 40 for the final item.

One of the fascinating things about the programme was the use of melisma. The early Tudor composers like Sutton made extensive use of melismatic passages, so much so that at times the music seems to become divorced from the text as there are whole pages on a single syllable. Different composers have different approaches, but this sort of extreme melisma often disappears from the later Tudor period.

Premiere of Alex Woolf's Requiem

With a history of polyphonic settings of the Missa pro defunctis going back over 500 years and with so many Requiem settings freighted with so much history, deciding to create a new Requiem Mass is a significant hurdle for any young composer. 

Alex Woolf has risen to the challenge and written a new Requiem to mark the centenary of the end of the First World War. The work uses the traditional Latin text of the Missa pro defunctis, plus new poetry by Gillian Clarke, national poet of Wales, and is written for choir, solo tenor and solo cello.

Alex Woolf's Requiem receives its premiere on Saturday 9 June 2018 at a concert at Holy Trinity Church, Sloane Street, Chelsea, in aid of Children & the Arts. Alex Woolf conducts the Vox Luna chamber choir with tenor Nicky Spence and cellist Laura van der Heijden. The programme also includes James MacMillan's Miserere, John Tavener's Svyati for choir and cello and music by Purcell, Parry and Richard Rodney Bennett.

Alex Woolf was BBC Young Composer in 2012, and studied at Cambridge with Tim Watts. He is currently studying for a master's degree at the Royal Academy of Music where he has studied with David Sawer and Huw Watkins, as well as receiving tutelage from Oliver Knussen and Colin Matthews.

Further details from the concert's EventBrite page.

Somewhere for the weekend: Looking ahead to the Lammermuir Festival

St Mary's Church, Haddington

The Lammermuir Festival takes place in an around the Lammermuir Hills in East Lothian, just an hour from Edinburgh but the location for some stunningly beautiful venues and countryside. 

This year's festival is the 9th, and it runs from 14 to 23 September 2018, with concerts in and around Haddington, East Linton, Gladsmuir, Dirleton, North Berwick, Whitkirk, Musselburgh, Pencaitland, Port Seton and Dunbar, places that if you don't know them already you should think about visiting.

This year, composer and clarinettist Mark Simpson is artist in residence, performing with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and with the Red Note Ensemble in music by Nielsen, John Adams and Mozart, plus Mark's own music. Stuart MacRae, the festival's composer in association, has written a new work for the Hebrides Ensemble with tenor Joshua Ellicott and harpist Emily Hoile. The piece is the second of three that MacRae is writing for the festival, based on the Prometheus myth.

Scottish Opera will be visiting the festival for the first time, bringing a semi-staged production of Britten's church parable The Burning Fiery Furnace. There is also a specially commissioned community opera by composer Matthew Rooke involving over 150 people from the communities of Dunbar and East Lothian, performing alongside professional singers, and instrumentalists of Music Co-OPERAtive Scotland. Called An Cadal Trom (an old Gaelic song meaning A Deep Sleep), it is conducted by Sian Edwards and directed by Jack Furness.

Other visitors include soprano Anna Stephany with pianist Sholto Kynoch, the jazz pianist Jason Rebello joins the Prince Consort, the Danish String Quartet making a welcome return to the festival, the piano trio of Magnus Johnston, Guy Johnston and Tom Poster, and Stile Antico who will be bringing the festival to a close.

Full details from the festival website.

A visit to 1760s London: Ian Page & The Mozartists' Mozart in London

Mozart, J.C.Bach, Arne, Duni, Arnold, Pescetti, Rush, Bates, Perez, Abel; Rebecca Bottone, Eleanor Dennis, Anna Deven, Martene Grimson, Ana Maria Labin, Helen Sherman, Ben Johnson, Robert Murray, Steven Devine, The Mozartists, Ian Page; Signum Classics
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 6 June 2018 Star rating: 3.5 (★★★½)
An illuminating glimpse at the music Mozart heard in London during his visit in 1764/65

This two disc set from Ian Page and The Mozartists on Signum Classics is the fruits of their festival Mozart in London in 2015, held as part of their on-going Mozart 250 celebrations. The festival commemorated the 250 anniversary of Mozart's visit to London in 1764/65 with programmes of music written by Mozart during his visit (his first symphonies, and his first concert aria), alongside the music that Mozart would have heard in London, notably J.C. Bach and Arne but also Duni, Arnold, Pescetti, Rush, Bates, Perez and Abel.

Now I have to confess that I have a relatively limited appetite for Mozart's early symphonies, amazing though they are as the work of an eight or nine year old. But the advantage of this set is that besides Mozart's three symphonies and one concert aria, there is a wealth of material by other composers including 10 premiere recordings.

It is one thing to read how much the young Mozart was influenced by the music of J.C. Bach (who had been resident in London since 1762), but it is an entirely different thing to hear for one's self.

Poetry & Lyrics Festival at Kings Place

Daguerreotype taken at Mount Holyoke, December 1846 or early 1847,
the only authenticated portrait of Emily Dickinson after childhood.
The original is held by
Amherst College Archives and Special Collections

The Poetry and Lyrics Festival 2018, produced by Poet in the City, runs at Kings Place from 8 to 9 June 2018, and in the mix is an eclectic programme of live music, talks, readings and workshops. The festival is celebrating its third year with a theme of ‘Legacy and Subculture’.

Soprano Claire Booth will be joined by pianist Christopher Glynn to perform Aaron Copland's song-cycle Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson. Completed in 1950, the cycle represents Copland's longest work for solo voice, and each of the songs is dedicated a composer friend. Copland would later orchestrate eight of the songs.

Other performers at the festival include Cerys Matthews who is presenting an evening of Blues music, Jehnny Beth, Anthony Joseph and Richard Scott.

Poet in the City, which curates the festival, is a national arts charity that brings poetry to life beyond books, producing classic and contemporary poetry performances taking on major ideas, issues and people.

Further information from the Kings Place website.

France Musique launches English language website

If you ever fancied a change from BBC Radio 3 and BBC iPlayer, then France Musique has the answer. The French broadcaster has launched an English language website https://www.francemusique.com/ which provides a welter of on-line resources and concerts.

There are videos of concerts as well as videos of live studio sessions, plus a series of themed on-line radio channels. There are currently 1,600 archived concerts on the site, and more are promised. Not to mention useful articles.

The only thing I couldn't find on the site was a search function, so exploring is a bit of a lucky dip.

Summer in the City

Ironmongers Hall

Spitalfields Music's Summer in the City series launches on 8 June 2018 with a rush-hour concert from the Marsyas Trio in the Ironmongers Hall with a programme of music by female composers including Amy Beach, Louise Farrenc and Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel. The series continues with a lunchtime concert in the Drapers Hall from soprano Heloise Werner, mezzo-soprano Lucy Goddard and harpist Anne Denholm on 20 July.

Further ahead, there is are free outdoor concerts from Big Smoke Brass ensemble and from jazz pianist Ashley Henry. Other performers include the Camilli String Quartet, and soprano Katherine Watson with lutenist Elizabeth Kenny in 17th century music by female composers.

Full details from the Spitalfields Music website.