A Life On-Line: Norma from the Met, visceral Verdi from the LSO, multi-tracking and more.

Pianist Tom Poster and violinist Elena Urioste on Instagram

Musical life continues on-line in some remarkable ways. On Instagram, clarinettist Peter Cigleris has been multi-tracking Bach to striking effect, and Matt Sharp has been channelling Sondheim whilst cooking, and still on Instagram, dancersdiary shared a delightful and imaginative film from the Mikhailovsky Theatre, whilst Finchcocks has been running its piano courses remotely.

Over on Twitter, Peter Whelan, artistic director of the Irish Baroque Orchestra, not only multi-tracked but multi-instrumented to give us the 'Quoniam' from Bach's Mass in B minor, whilst oboist Peter Facer has been multi-tracking The Corrs! Madeleine Pierard, meanwhile, has been discovering her inner baritone.

And on Facebook you can see a beautiful rendition of Rusalka's 'Song to the moon' from Dvorak's opera, performed by three clarinettists from the English National Opera orchestra. Music without Quarantine is now giving regular concerts from musicians homes, check out their Facebook page.


Pianist Tom Poster and violinist Elena Urioste are whiling their time by taking requests, filming themselves and posting the results. I was rather taking with a multi-tracked version of Glen Miller's Moonlight Serenade involving kazoos, but visit their website for many more.

Our listening and watching has included Gianandrea Noseda conducting the London Symphony Orchestra in a stirring performance of Verdi's Requiem from the Barbican Centre [originally performed on 18 September 2016, see Ruth's review 'Visceral Verdi'] with a striking quartet of Italian soloists, Erika Grimaldi, Daniela Barcellona, Francesco Meli and Michele Pertusi. Whilst language is, perhaps, not what you immediately think of when listening to this work, hearing three Italians singing it, relishing the Latin as much as their own language,  was terrific.  And still with the LSO, we caught up on Simon Rattle's outrageous and outstanding performance of Stravinsky's first three ballets for Diaghilev, Firebird, Petrushka and The Rite of Spring, terrific stuff.

David McVicar's new production of Bellini's Norma was streamed from the Metropolitan Opera, [see Anthony's review, 'Baffling and emotionally constipate', of the Live in HD video transmission] with Carlo Rizzi conducting Sondra Radvanovsky, Joyce DiDonato, Joseph Calleja, and Matthew Rose. Performances were very fine, with Radvanovsky as very much a bel canto Norma, without any of the dramatic heft we often associate with this role. McVicar's production was handsome and traditional, which meant that in Act Two, Norma's 'primitive hut' was somewhat ridiculously palatial, and McVicar did not seem to have been able to stop some of the singers simply standing and giving hand signals.

Then last night on YouTube, we caught up with Opera North's recent revival of Alessandro Talevi's striking production of Britten's Turn of the Screw, with Leo McFall conducting Nicholas Watts as the prologue and Peter Quint, Sarah Tynan as the Governess, Eleanor Dennis as Miss Jessel, Heather Shipp as Mrs Grose, Jennifer Clark as Flora and Tim Gasiorek as Miles. Often with the operatic version, the sheer presence on stage of singers as Peter Quint and Miss Jessel means that we take it as read that the ghosts exist (in Henry James' original story it is far less clear cut). But Talevi's production, with very imaginative sets from Madeleine Boyd, set the whole piece in the Governess' bedroom, and you were never sure where reality stopped and her imagination took over. Watching on TV (the film was originally streamed live, but this version had more post-production work done on it), I did wonder whether the production would work for someone who was not familiar with the story. But this was a dramatic, and sometimes scary take with some terrific performances.

On the radio, BBC Radio 3 broadcast both Bach's St John Passion and Bach's St Matthew Passion, whilst the Leipzig Bach Fest broadcast an on-line version of the St John Passion which involved just three performers plus singers from all over the world, and a suggestion that we might join in at home.

But I leave you on a lighter note, with the Louloubelles in Billy Joel's And so it goes.

Everything comes from the words: composer Ian Venables talks about his approach to song writing

Allan Clayton and Ian Venables at the recording session
for Love Lives Beyond the Tomb

The composer Ian Venables has a new disc of his songs out on Signum Classics, the fourth disc on the label to include his songs, an impressive testament to Ian's significant voice as a writer of contemporary British art song. The disc, Love Lives Beyond the Tomb features the cantata Remember This setting a poem by Andrew Motion, the song cycle Through These Pale Cold Days which is inspired by World War I, and a selection of solo songs, performed by Mary Bevan (soprano), Allan Clayton (tenor), the Carducci String Quartet and Graham J Lloyd (piano). Earlier this year, I met up with Ian to chat about the works on the disc, and about his approach to song writing in general.

We started by comparing notes about our approaches to setting and selecting text; Ian's choice of poet for the songs on the disc is quite diverse, Sir Andrew Motion, Jennifer Andrews, Francis St Vincent Morris, Wilfred Owen, Robert Nichols, Isaac Rosenberg, Siegfried Sassoon, Geoffrey Anketell Studdert Kennedy, John Drinkwater, James Joyce, Edward Thomas, and John Clare. Ian enjoys poetry and reads a lot of it, but the hunt for suitable texts for songs takes up a lot of his time.  Many of Ian's texts come from 20th century and 19th century poets, and he admits to finding a lot of contemporary poetry somewhat too conceptual to use for song, a point that we come back to later in our discussion.

This means that the centrepiece of the disc, the cantata Remember This, is relatively unusual in Ian's output as it uses a contemporary poem. The work was written in 2011 and came about somewhat by accident. Ian met Andrew Motion at the Ledbury Poetry Festival. They got on, and Ian asked Andrew if he was interested collaboration. The answer was yes, but unfortunately the projected commission did not bear fruit. Then Ian was seriously ill for a year, and whilst recovering he started reading more of Andrew Motion's poetry, and discovered the poem Remember This in the book Public Property.

Ian's cantata, Remember This was premiered in 2011 at the Cheltenham Music Festival by Allan Clayton and Caroline McPhee, both BBC New Generation Artists at the time, and the Elias Quartet [You can read a review from the Gloucester Echo on Ian's website]. Afterwards Allan Clayton said how pleased he was with the piece and offered to record it, but as can happen 'things got in the way'. And it is only now that the recording is being released, and that has taken nearly three years to bring to fruition. The cantata was chosen for this disc partly because it has not been recorded, and as Ian commented, most composers are keen to have their work documented. The other works on the disc were chosen both to complement Remember This (providing solo items for both Allan Clayton and Mary Bevan), and to record works of Ian's that had not so far been recorded.

What appealed to Ian about Andrew Motion's poem Remember This was its structure; into a narrative based on two line couplets, Motion inserts a series of sonnets, and as you read on you only gradually become aware of the subject of the poem. For Ian, it was the final line, 'with a wave of your hand' which confirmed the poem was about Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. Ian enjoyed the fact the poem dealt with metaphysical ideas but was rooted in history, using the Queen Mother to explore eternal ideas.

Ian refers to Remember This as a cantata, rather than a song cycle, because it has a single narrative and every movement is linked, you could not take a single one out and perform it separately. The result is a work which takes the listener on a journey, from beginning to end, something which is relatively unusual in Ian's output.

Sonoro - for Easter and for Help Musicians UK

Sonoro and Neil Ferris

The London-base choir, Sonoro, and artistic directors Neil Ferris and Michael Higgins have come up with a remote recording project for Easter to raise money for Help Musicians UK. The choir has recorded three choral classics, via their phones with help with a bit of production magic.

Maurice Durfle's Ubi caritas was released on Maundy Thursday, with Crux Fidelis by John IV of Portugal on Good Friday, and a further track to come on Easter Sunday.

The tracks are available via Sonoro's Facebook page,

Taking Zarathustra on-line: orchestra of Opera North from their homes in Yorkshire join conductor Tobias Ringborg in Sweden for Strauss' epic tone poem

When the orchestra of Opera North's concerts at Leeds Town Hall and Huddersfield Town Hall with conductor Tobias Ringborg were cancelled, the players in the orchestra were, to put in mildly, annoyed. Two players, Daniel Bull (cello) and Lourenço Macedo Sampaio (viola), had the idea to continue on-line, so conductor Tobias Ringborg conducted the first five minutes of Richard Strauss' Also sprach Zarathustra (one of the works due to be performed) in an empty church in Stockholm with just a piano, then 40 individual players from the orchestra recorded their own contribution to be added. The results are remarkable, and can be seen on YouTube.

Whilst we look forward with anticipation to Opera North's 2020/21 season (booking for which has just opened), we can look back on previous productions available on-line,  including Wagner's complete Ring Cycle and the recent revival of Alessandro Talevi's production of Britten's Turn of the Screw.

The 17th century opera by an Italian composer, premiered in Vienna with a Spanish libretto: Antonio Draghi's El Prometeo

Antonio Draghi El Prometeo; Cappella Mediterranea, Choeur de Chambre de Namur, Leonardo Garcia Alarcon; Alpha Classics
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 8 April 2020 Star rating: 4.0 (★★★★)
Something of a delightful curiosity, a 17th century opera in Spanish, composed by an Italian for performance in Vienna

Now this is a real curiosity, an opera written by an Italian composer, premiered in Vienna with a Spanish libretto. Antonio Draghi's El Prometeo (Prometheus) premiered in 1669, and is here revived on Alpha Classics by Leonardo Garcia Alarcon, Cappella Mediterranea and choeur de chambre de Namur with soloists Fabio Trumpy, Scott Conner, Mariana Flores, Giuseppina Bridelli, Borja Quiza, Zachary Wilder, Ana Quintans, Damil Ben Hsain Lachiri, Victor Torres, Anna Reinhold, Alejandro Meerapfel, and Lucia Martin-Carton. The final act of the opera does not survive, so has been completed by Leonardo Garcia Alarcon, and the recording was made following performances at Dijon Opera in 2018.

The composer Antonio Draghi was born in Rimini, Italy where his initial career was as a singer, and he sang in operas by Monteverdi and Cavalli, including in the premiere of Cavalli's Erismena. He arrived in Vienna in 1658 and spent the rest of his life in Imperial service, first as precentor in the Imperial chapel, then writing opera libretti and finally writing operas. He wrote some 160 dramatic works - operas, theatre pageants, ballets, oratorios. Most of these are unpublished, and like a lot of composers in Imperial service, once the work was performed the manuscript went into the Imperial library and works very rarely got further circulation (something that equally applies to the operas of Caldara).

Draghi was probably the brother of Giovanni Battista Draghi who was brought to London by King Charles II in the 1660s, and who pops up in Samuel Pepys' diary when G.B. Draghi sang to Pepys an Italian opera of his own composition

Draghi: El Prometo - Opéra de Dijon (PHoto © Gilles Abegg - Opéra de Dijon)

The discovery of this particular opera was thanks to the realisation that the title of the piece was actually El Prometeo (Spanish) rather than Il Prometeo (Italian). The complete libretto survives, but unfortunately the music for the final act has still not been found in the Viennese archives, so in order to be able to perform the work Leonardo Garcia Alarcon wrote the final act.

The opera was mounted in 1669 at the Hofburg in Vienna in honour of the birthday of the Queen of Spain.

Notes from Musicians' Kitchens

One thing that most of us are doing, thanks to the present crisis, is cooking more, at least to judge from my Instagram and Twitter feeds. Now the mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnston has come up with a way to develop this, to extend our love of cooking to help musicians affected by the crisis.

Notes from Musicians' Kitchens is a collection of recipes collected from musicians all over the world, and each has a story attached. A subscription-only digital recipe resource, with a £10 one-off access fee, of which 100% goes to Help Musicians UK. The aim is also to publish a cookbook which will hopefully be sold worldwide.

Whilst we are all in isolation, Notes For Musicians’ Kitchens is a means of digitally breaking bread with each other, of sharing and appreciating our diverse food cultures, of creating new memories. And once lockdown is over, just think of all the new recipes you will have ready to share with friends.

For those that would like to contribute more, there is a JustGiving page to raise funds for Help Musicians.

Scala Radio Presents Beethoven: The Basics with Andy Bush is a new 4-part series coming to Scala Radio on Sundays at 1pm from the 12th April.

Titlepage of ms. of the Eroica Symphony, with Napoleon's name scored through by the composer

Scala Radio is presenting a new series exploring the music of Beethoven, as part the general Beethoven explosion for the 250th anniversary. The series, which debuts on Sunday 12 April 2020 (Easter Sunday) at 1pm, is called Beethoven: The Basics with Andy Bush and is intended to explore Beethoven and his music from the point of view of 'an absolute beginner'. 

Presenter Andy Bush is a radio broadcaster, writer and illustrator known for his love of indie music and comedy scene but here he is exploring a developing passion for Beethoven and his music. Bush will be finding out more from broadcasters, musicians, composers and other self-confessed Beethoven fans, and there will of course be plenty of Beethoven's music, well-known and lesser-known gems.

You can read more about the series in an interview with Andy Bush on the Scala Radio website.

Art Saves Us: concert support the NHS staff on Good Friday

Art Saves Us is a new on-line art, music and poetry hour launched to support the work of the NHS staff, and supported by cellist Julian Lloyd Webber. The second concert will take place at 3pm (BST) on Friday 10 April 2020 (Good Friday) on Zoom.

The line-up includes British poet and librettist, David Harsent, Chinese soprano, Yao Hong (Vice President of the China National Opera House), American-Serbian pianist, Ivan Ilic, opera singer and actor Zhang Jun (noted for his expertise in the ancient Chinese opera art of ‘Kunqu’ and recipient of the UNESCO Artist for Peace Award), Chinese cellist, Jiaxin Lloyd Webber and Royal Academician, painter and printmaker, Chris Orr, who has generously donated a painting to be auctioned to raise money for the cause.

Art Saves Us was founded by Shanghai-born, London-based Kailan Lucas, who is an American lawyer, and her creative focus is on Sino-European cultural exchanges in the worlds of art, literature and music.

Further events are planned for 17 and 24 April with more to be added in due course as the current health crisis unfolds. Event access will be a nominal £1 to help support the NHS.

Link to access event: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ziNjmaMPS7qSGA2RjSTsyQ

Exquisite sketches: songs by Reynaldo Hahn from Anastasia Prokofieva & Sergey Rybin on Stone Records - L'heure exquise

L'heure exquise - songs by Reynaldo Hahn; Anastasia Prokofieva, Sergey Rybin; Stone Records
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 5 November 2019 Star rating: 3.0 (★★★)
A Russian duo brings a lightness and freshness to Hahn's lovely melodies

Despite a considerable musical output covering works for the stage and large-scale orchestral works, it is for his songs that Reynaldo Hahn is best known. There is a handful of well-known ones, melodies which singers love to bask in, but there are plenty more which repay investigation.

On this new disc of Reynaldo Hahn's songs L'heure exquise on Stone Records, soprano Anastasia Prokofieva and pianist Sergey Rybin given us a wide selection, from Si mes vers avaient des ailes! which was an instant success in 1888 (when he was 14!) right through to Au fil de l'eau and Mon reve etait d'avoir.. from the 1934 film La Dame aux Camelias, to a pair of songs from 9 Mélodies retrouvées published posthumously in 1955.

The selection casts its net widely though the majority of songs date from before 1914, which reflects Hahn's output which declined partly because he served during World War I, and then after the war devoted time to conducting, being general manager of Cannes Casino Opera House and writing criticism for Le Figaro. But it is also because Hahn belonged to the pre-World War One world, to the beau monde, and as he got older and Paris belonged to Stravinsky and Les Six, musically Hahn did not move and stayed true his revered teacher at the Paris Conservatoire, Massenet.

The CD booklet includes an excellent essay by Richard Stokes which provides plenty of background on the songs and their texts, but in fact gives us no hint of the criteria for selection, or for arrangement. Certainly Prokofieva and Rybin ignore the published order of the songs, selecting individual songs from collections, but then everyone does.

Hahn was renowned as a performer, there are recordings of him accompanying the soprano Ninon Vallin, but also he was notable for accompanying himself (you can hear a selection on YouTube), and he made enough recordings to fill three CDs (once available but now no-longer). He had a small but useful voice, and listening to him perform makes you consider what is the most important factor in these songs. A number of singers quite clearly enjoy luxuriating in the sheer beauty of some of Hahn's melodies.

Daily on-line music lessons from the Benedetti Foundation

Violinist Nicola Benedetti at a workshop

The Benedetti Foundation, created by violinist Nicola Benedetti, aims to unite the world of music education through uncovering and sharing its best practices, and celebrating its greatest advocates. With concerts, workshops and schooling shut down because of the current crisis, the foundation is going on-line. Every day at 12pm BST, one of its team of tutors will be on-line with workshops and music lessons for anyone, and the sessions are hosted on the Benedetti Foundation Facebook page for those unable to watch live.

Nicola herself will be hosting Live at Five across her social media channels on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. On Tuesdays she will discuss a topic on her YouTube channel, on Thursdays Technique with Nicky will present a topic from what has polled on Tuesday and this will be hosted on Facebook and on Sundays Dinner with Nicky will be hosted live on Instagram and feature an interview with a special guest sharing dinner and drinks, thoughts about the current situation, music making and much, much more.

The Benedetti Foundation on Facebook and on Instagram.
Nicola Benedetti on Facebook and on Youtube

Pay it forward - free concert tickets at St John’s Smith Square for NHS staff

St John's Smith Square

Whilst St John's Smith Square is closed for performances it is looking forward to the time when the hall is able to re-open, and has started a fundraising campaign to help fund free concert tickets for NHS staff, inspired by the 'clap for our carers' initiative. 

With an initial target of 500 tickets, gifts received during the four-week campaign will be used to create an NHS free tickets fund. When the hall is able to reopen to the public, NHS workers will be invited to register for the free tickets scheme and redeem their tickets for a concert of their choice at St John's.

St John's Smith Square Director Richard Heason comments:
"The current situation has left many of us feeling quite helpless yet wanting to do something positive to let NHS staff know how much we appreciate all that they are doing for us. As an organisation that lives and breathes music, we wanted to give people a way of saying thank you through music".


Full details from the Crowdfunder page.

At Home in the World: the Bagri Foundation inviting submissions for five new on-line public commissions.

The Bagri Foundation, which was founded in 1980 with a mission to realise unique, unexpected ideas that weave traditional Asian culture with contemporary thinking, is inviting submissions for a brand-new online commissioning series entitled At Home in the World.

Artists, writers, musicians, curators, film-makers, researchers and academics are being invited to submit proposals to be one of five new online public commissions, to be presented across the foundation's online platforms.

The title At Home in the World is inspired by the Vietnamese philosopher and Buddhist Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh’s collection of autobiographical stories which impart mindfulness teachings, insights and life lessons.

Proposals can be submitted by single artists or artist collectives that meet the below criteria:

• Artists must be from an Asian country or Asian diaspora as per the Foundation’s remit.
• Applicants must have experience conceiving and executing works or projects
• The work submitted must not have already been exhibited publicly
• The work must be able to be shared digitally
• The work must fit into one or more of these five identified categories:
  • Visual Arts – painting, sculpture, artists video, photography
  • Film – short films in any genre, filmed performance such as dance or performance art
  • Sound – music, sound art, podcasts
  • Written Word – poetry, essay, fictional narrative
  • Lectures/Courses – workshops, talks and courses delivered virtually and ideally participatory

The Foundation has a strong interest in traditional arts and culture of Asia and its influence on contemporary practices, and therefore would love to see proposals that embrace this.

Full details from the Bagri Foundation website.

There in spirit: English Touring Opera's St John Passion on-line with extra contributions from performers around the country

Bach: St John Passion - English Touring Opera
at the Hackney Empire (Photo Andreas Grieger)

The cancellation of English Touring Opera's current tour meant not just the loss of its performances of Mozart's Cosi fan tutte, Handel's Giulio Cesare and Bach's St John Passion, but also the voluntary choirs all over the country that were scheduled to join in the Bach performances by singing the chorales would no longer get the chance to perform. So on Easter Sunday (12 April 2020) at 4pm, English Touring Opera will be broadcasting its archive video of the St John Passion performance at the Hackney Empire [recorded on 5 March 2020, see my review] but with a difference. 

Blended into the recording in the chorales will be performances recorded in their own homes by choirs from Keswick to Truro (and by company members) so that the broadcast performance will in some way reflect the participation of all those singers who have been unable to perform live.

Subscribe to English Touring Opera's YouTube Channel to see the St John Passion on Easter Sunday.

Not just Monteverdi's teacher: the choir of Girton College, Cambridge explores the sacred music of Marc'Antonio Ingegneri

Marc'Antonio Ingegneri Missa Laudate pueri Dominum a 8; Choir of Girton College, Cambridge, Historic Brass of the Guildhall School and the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Gareth Wilson; Toccata Classics
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 6 April 2020 Star rating: 4.0 (★★★★)
This latest project from Girton College reveals Monteverdi's teacher to have been a not inconsiderable talent with a programme of sacred music which ranges from five to 16 parts

Marc'Antonio Ingegneri is mainly remembered as the teacher of Claudio Monteverdi, with Ingegneri's own music being almost ignored. On this new disc from Toccata Classics, the choir of Girton College, Cambridge, and the Historic Brass of the Guildhall School and the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, conductor Gareth Wilson, perform Marc'Antonio Ingegneri's Missa Laudate pueri Dominum a8 plus a selection of his motets.

Girton College Choir first performed Ingegneri's music in 2018 as part of a Palestrina-based project, and this led to the choir extending its 2019 tour to Milan and surrounding area (celebrating the college's 150th anniversary) to include Cremona Cathedral and to perform Ingegneri's music there, where he was maestro di capella.

The CD booklet includes a fascinating article by Giampiero Innocente on the impact of the Council of Trent (1545-1563) on the music of the church and the way the council encouraged churches to use music to celebrate the Church Triumphant as a way to counter the Protestant Reformation. In Cremona, the attitude of the canons and the clergy of the cathedral changed and music moved from purely Gregorian chant to something more developed. In 1573 Marc'Antonio Ingegneri became the cathedral's maestro di capella. He was born in Verona but had lived in Cremona since 1570. Ingegneri thus transformed the music at the cathedral, including the introduction of instruments, and much of the repertoire focuses on the idea of celebrating the Church Triumphant.

We start with a terrific triple choir motet, Cantate et psallite domine which combines instruments and singers into a glorious mix, the three choirs singing separately and coming together to celebrate the greatness and power of the creator. Like many of the motets, the music is written in homophonic blocks, so there results are glorious but the text is relatively clear.

With Ingegneri's mass, we go down to 'just' eight parts.

Riot Ensemble announces programme of on-line commissions in response to the performance shutdown

Riot Ensemble/Zeitgeist composers (clockwise from top left): Xue Han, Alexandra Dubois, Ailie Robertson,   Àngela Gómez Vidal, Leonardo Marino, Soosan Lolavar, Raphaël Languillat

The Riot Ensemble has announced a creative response to the current crisis, creating a series of on-line commissions in the face of the performance shutdown. The ensemble, whose recent annual call for scores drew a record 437 submissions, has launched the commissions in partnership with Zeitgeist, the on-line gallery of contemporary work.

The Zeitgeist Commissions will be a series of solo commissions, with works by seven young composers forming the first group, to be released on the ensemble's newly established YouTube Channel. The composers will each write a solo work for one of the Riot Ensemble musicians, as follows:

Xue Han (China/Canada) for Andrew Connington (trombone)
Alexandra du Bois (USA) for Pétur Jónasson (electric guitar)
Ailie Robertson (Scotland) for Louise McMonagle (cello)
Angela Gómez Vidal (Spain) for Ausias Garrigos (bass clarinet)
Leonardo Marino (Italy) for Goska Isphording (harpsichord) 
Soosan Lolavar (Iran/UK) for Sarah Saviet (violin)
Raphaël Languillat (France) for Sam Wilson (percussion)

The ensemble has also transformed its residency at Southampton University into student composer Zeitgeist Commissions, inviting student composers to write solo pieces for the ensemble's members which will be recorded and included in the sequence of commissions. The Riot Ensemble is also inviting other university music departments to take part in the scheme.

Looking forward to a time when live music performance is possible again, the ensemble has announced a pair of commissions as a result of the recent Call for Scores. From the 437 entries received from 49 countries, Jenny Hettne (Sweden) and Alec Hall (Canada/US) will be commissioned to write new works for the ensemble.

The Other Cleopatra: Queen of Armenia

The Other Cleopatra: Queen of Armenia, Vivaldi, Hasse, Gluck, arias from Il Tigrane; Isabel Bayrakdarian, Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra, Constantine Orbelian; DELOS
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 4 April 2020 Star rating: 3.5 (★★★½)
The young Canadian-Armenian soprano explores three Baroque operas based on the same libretto set in historical Armenia

In 1710, the librettist Pietro Andrea Bernardoni wrote a libretto for an opera in Vienna by Antonio Maria Bononcini, the plot for which was taken from Armenian history. As is the wont with these things, the libretto would travel and be set by a variety of composers, including Antonio Vivaldi (in a joint effort, an act each, with Benedetto Micheli and Nicola Romaldi), Johann Adolph Hasse and the young Christoph Willibald Gluck. One of the fascinating things about the opera is that the heroine is called Cleopatra, with no link to the Queen of Egypt.

On her new recital disc, The Other Cleopatra, the USA-based, Armenian-Canadian soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian explores Cleopatra's arias from the operas Il tigrane by Hasse, Vivaldi and Gluck, with the Kaunas City Symphony, conductor Constantine Orbelian, on Delos, with the music by Hasse and by Gluck being recorded for the first time.

The titular Cleopatra on this disc is Cleopatra of Pontus (110-58 BCE), the daughter of Mithridates VI of Pontus, who married King Tigranes II of Armenia, regarded as the greatest king in Armenian history, for which his wife made no little contribution. The plot of the opera, though has no basis in history as it presents Mitridate and Tigrane as enemies, so that Tigrane becomes that epitome of Baroque opera the noble hero undergoing testing times.

The disc gives us a fascinating glimpse of how three composers handled the same subject, whilst also showing us some of the period's operatic practices, whereby librettos were adapted for each production so that a different composer might use different aria texts for the same scene.

Jess Gillam's Virtual Scratch Orchestra

Saxophonist Jess Gillam is inviting performers to join her Virtual Scratch Orchestra which will debut on 17 April 2020. The idea is that performers will play David Bowie's Where are we now? from Gillam's debut album, Rise, each recording their performance at home and the results will then be mixed together.

Jess Gillam said: ‘For me, music is all about people! People uniting, people sharing and people listening. At a very difficult time, when it is not currently possible to be physically together to share and make music, hopefully this is a way in which we can create something together from afar. ‘Where Are We Now?’ is one of my favourite songs by David Bowie. It’s hauntingly beautiful and seems very appropriate as we all reflect on the world and what is happening around us. This is the first song he released after a long period of silence in 2013.’

There are full instructions, parts to download and a click track, on Jess Gillam's website. You have to have sent the recordings in by Friday 10 April 2020 at 6pm, and the results will debut on Gillam's Instagram page at 6pm on Friday 17 April 2020.

Bach, the Universe and Everything on-line: Can Bacterium Compute?

The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (OAE) has a regular Sunday morning series, Bach, the Universe and Everything at Kings Place which combines the performance of a Bach cantata with a science lecture, a slightly surprising combination but one that works.

The concert for Sunday 5 April 2020 (Palm Sunday) was cancelled but nothing daunted, the OAE and Professor Susan Stepney from the University of York have gone on-line to present the concert, with each member of the OAE recording their part separately and the results then being mixed together. Stepney's talk looks at how harnessing the power of bacteria might lead to exciting new developments in the future of computing, alongside Bach's Cantata BWV 172 'Erschallet, ihr Lieder', with soloists Zoe Brookshaw, Sinead O'Kelly, Laurence Kilsby and Dominic Sedgwick, directed by Steven Devine, and there is also music by Buxtehude and Lassus.

You can see the event at the OAE's YouTube channel, and also download a programme (PDF).

Music without Quarantine

Music without Quarantine is offering on-line concerts, where a number of performers come together each in their own home. There are regular concerts at 6pm (UK time, 7pm European time) on Wednesdays. On 8 April 2020, the on-line event will feature harpsichordist Diego Ares (from Basel), pianist Danae Doerken (from Berlin), cellist Benedict Klockner (from Paris), pianist Mario Pri-suelos (from Madrid), violinsit Ivan Pochekin (from Madrid), Evgeny Serebriany from Moscow, pianist Kiveli Doerken (from Berlin) and violinist Mikhail Pochekin (from Salzburg), in a programme of music by Soler, Couperin, Paganini, Ysaye, Chopin, Suk, Ares and the contemporary Spanish composer Tomas Marco.

Then on Good Friday, 10 April 2020 (at the same time, 6pm UK time, 7pm European time), there is a special concert of music by Bach with Danae Doerken in the Partita in A minor BWV 827, Benedict Klockner in the Suite in C minor BWV 1011 and Mikhail Pochekin in the Sonata in A minor.


Full details from the Music without Quarantine on Facebook.

The first woman to conduct the First Night of the Proms, Karina Canellakis, appointed principal guest conductor at the London Philharmonic Orchestra

Karina Canellakis (Photo Chris Christodoulou)

In 2019, the young American conductor Karina Canellakis made history by becoming the first woman to conduct the First Night of the Proms [she conducted the BBC Symphony Orchestra in Janacek, Dvorak and Zosha di Castri, see my review], and now the London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) has announced that Canellakis will be its principal guest conductor from September 2020.

Canellakis made her debut with the LPO in October 2018, in Sibelius, Dvorak and Bartok. She won the Sir George Solti Conducting Award in 2016, and is currently chief conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic and principal guest conductor of the Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Berlin. In fact, she began her career as a violinist, training at the Curtis Institute, then playing n the Berlin Philharmonic as a member of its Orchester-Akademie, playing regularly with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and appearing as guest leader with orchestras like the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra. She studied conducting at the Juilliard, and made her professional conducting debut in 2013 with the International Contemporary Ensemble in New York.

Canellakis will conduct four concerts during the London Philharmonic Orchestra's 2020/21 season at the Royal Festival Hall, with repertoire including Beethoven's Symphony No. 8, John Adams' concerto for string quartet, Absolute Jest, Komanov's Fall by Brett Dean (the LPO's composer in residence), Brahms and Beethoven. She will also conduct one of the orchestra's FUNharmonics family concerts.

Full details from the London Philharmonic Orchestra's website.