Bradford Festival Choral Society & the Yorkshire Symphony Orchestra join forces for Mozart's Requiem in one of the UK's oldest concert halls

Bradford Festival Choral Society

St George's Hall, Bradford was opened in 1853 and is still in use, which makes it one of the oldest functioning concert halls in the UK. German Jewish wool merchants who had moved to Bradford because of its textile industry, partly financed the building of St George's Hall, and were instrumental in its construction. 

Bradford Festival Choral Society was founded in 1856 to perform in the hall, and the choir is still going strong. Since 2008, their music director has been Thomas Leech. They give four major concerts throughout the year, while also being heavily involved in community work, running 'learn to sing concerts', and the city's choir for refugees and asylum seekers, Bradford Friendship Choir. 

Bradford Festival Choral Society will be back at St George's Hall on 29 April 2023 when they join forces with the Yorkshire Symphony Orchestra for Mozart's Requiem. Thomas Leech and Ben Crick conduct a programme which also includes music by Handel and Elgar, with soloists Lorna James, Hannah Mason, Joseph Doody, and James Creswell. The orchestra will be led by David Greed, who recently retired as concertmaster of the Orchestra of Opera North.

The orchestra was originally founded in 1953, but disbanded in 1958 and was reformed under conductor and composer Ben Crick in 2021 to support a talent pool of first-rate northern musicians and provide a cultural voice for the North.

Further information and tickets from Bradford Theatre's website.

March on Planet Hugill: rare opera from Ethel Smyth, Tchaikovsky, Donizetti, Rossini; Manchester in Focus; Tosca in Leeds

Our latest newsletter, March on Planet Hugill has just gone out to subscribers. A handy digest of all the month's reviews, interviews and features on Planet Hugill, if you don't already subscribe then do sign up at MadMimi.

Borka & Pandora: new operas for young people from London Youth Opera and Ignite

Stuart Hancock and Donald Sturrock's The Cutlass Crew with W11 Opera (now London Youth Opera) in 2017

It's all go in the world of opera for children. After two online productions, W11 Opera is back with a new commission and a new name, London Youth Opera, whilst their former artistic director, Sue Moore, has formed her own company, Ignite, 

W11 Opera is now called London Youth Opera, which gives a far clearer idea of the company's aims, and they remain the only opera company exclusively staging original commissions written for, and performed exclusively by, children. For 2023, they have commissioned a new opera, Pandora's Box to be premiered in December 2023 at the Susie Sainsbury Theatre in the Royal Academy of Music. Pandora's Box is being written by Stuart Hancock (composer) and Donald Sturrock (librettist), the duo responsible for the popular W11 Opera productions, Raindance (2010) and Cutlass Crew (2017), whilst Stuart Hancock is perhaps best known for his scores to BBC’s Atlantis and the animated movie adaptation of We’re Going On A Bear Hunt [see my 2020 interview with Stuart]. Pandora's Box will be directed by Valentina Ceschi.

It will be a modern take on the Greek myth, exploring and satirising themes around 21st-century family life with fabulous characters - from gods to mortals and the three sins Greed, Envy and Vanity - driving the drama's turmoil. Pandora's Box is being performed by London Youth Opera on 16 & 17 December 2023, further detail from their website.

Sue Moore's new company, Ignite, uses professional performers to create opera, theatrical narrated concerts and music theatre for young people and family audiences. For their 2023 production, they are performing Borra by Russell Hepplewhite (composer) and Tim Yealland (librettist), based on the book Borka: The Adventures of a Goose with no Feathers by John Burningham which celebrates its 60th anniversary this year. 

Borka was premiered by English Touring Opera in 2014 [see my review], in fact with Sue Moore as one of the singers. Ignite's production, directed by Sue Moore, previews at The Cockpit on 20 & 21 May 2023, and it premieres on 29 May 2023 at the Hay Festival and further tour dates will be announced, see Ignite's website.

Glossop Music Festival celebrates its 10th birthday

Viv MacLean & the Glossop Festival Orchestra

Glossop is a former mill town in Derbyshire some 15 miles East of Manchester. It is the home of the Glossop Music Festival which this year is celebrating its 10th birthday with five days of musical events from 2 to 6 May 2023. There is a Glossop Festival Orchestra which makes two appearances at the festival, directed by violinist Sophie Rosa in a Baroque programme with music by Purcell, Bach and Vivaldi, and at the festival's closing concert where Chloé van Soeterstède conducts Beethoven's Symphony No. 4 and Mozart's Coronation Piano Concerto with pianist (and festival vice-president Viv MacLean). A rather apt programme given that the closing concert is on 6 May!

Other events include a pop-up pub gig, a family concert, a late-night event with a quintet of folk musicians led by local legend Sam Partridge, and a community choral workshop led by Hallé choral staff. 

Full details from the festival website, and under 18s go free

Hindemith & beyond: Trio Brax's debut disc takes the Trio for Viola, Tenor Saxophone & Piano as starting point for an imaginative recital

Paul Hindemith: Trio for Viola, Tenor Saxophone and Piano, music by  Kjell Habbestad, Håvard Lund, Helge Iberg; Trio Brax; Lawo Classics
Reviewed 5/4/2023

Hindemith's sonata is the focus for an imaginative recital pairing it with three contemporary works by Norwegian composers for the same line-up of viola, tenor saxophone and piano, resulting in an engaging and sometimes seductive disc

Paul Hindemith wrote his Trio for Viola, Tenor Saxophone and Piano in 1928. Originally for the semi-obsolete heckelphone (a kind of baritone oboe), Hindemith endorsed the replacement of the heckelphone with a tenor saxophone, substituting one unusual combination of instruments with another hardly less rare.  And Hindemith thus left performers with a challenge and a problem, what to pair his work with?

For the Trio Brax, a chamber ensemble based in Tromsø in North Norway, the answer was to ask three Norwegian composers to write companion works for the Hindemith. So, for their new disc on Lawo Classics, Trio Brax (Julia Neher, Ola Asdahl Rokkones and Sergey Osadchuk) perform Hindemith's Trio for Viola, Tenor Saxophone and Piano alongside Kjell Habbestad's Tres flores, Op. 97, Håvard Lund's The Magpie & I and Helge Iberg's Ut a stjaelehester.

Trio Brax's name comes from a combination of bratsj (the Norwegian for viola) and saxophone.

Ryedale Festival 2023: 17 days of fine music across historic venues in North Yorkshire

Rievaulx Abbey

The Ryedale Festival this year runs from 14 to 30 July 2023, with artistic director Christopher Glynn's programme presenting a remarkably rich variety of musical events across the region's historic venues. Things open with tenor Nicky Spence, Krystal Tunnicliffe piano, Ryedale Primary Choir, Ryedale Festival Community Choir and Kirkbymoorside Town Brass Band in Give to me the Life I love, community song cycle by Bernard Hughes and Hazel Gould based on RVW's Songs of Travel . Spence is one of the festival's artists in residence and he is also featured in recital with pianist Christopher Glynn in Britten's The Holy Sonnets of John Donne, and Tippett's Songs for Ariel as part of an eclectic programme including music by Quilter, Poulenc, Schubert, Purcell, Haydn, Byrd, Argento, Geoffrey Bush, Mervyn Horder, and John Dankworth. And Spence is also giving a masterclass.

Other artists in residence include organist Anna Lapwood, who gives two recitals, conducts her choir, the Choir of Pembroke College in a programme exploring how plainsong has inspired composers, and invites all to join her in open-access Come and Sing and Discover the Organ events. Also in residence is Korean violinist Bomsori Kim, and pianist Mishka Rushdie Momen.     

Visitors include countertenor Hugh Cutting, in a programme inspired by Michael A. Singer’s best-selling book The Untethered Soul, accordionist Ryan Corbett, the Mithras Trio in Mozart and Korngold, the King's Singers and Fretwork in a programme of William Byrd and Thomas Weelkes, both of whom died in 1623, violinist Roberts Balanas in a programme mixing Ravel and Arvo Pärt with his signature arrangements of Radiohead, Vulfpeck and Stevie Wonder, and the premiere of Balanas' Blurred Paths. Robert Schumann's Myrthen is explored by Harriet Burns, tenor Nick Pritchard and pianist Christopher Glynn in a programme that mixes the songs (in Jeremy Sams' new English version) with new poems by Kate Wakeling.

Anniversaries celebrate include the fact that William Byrd died the year Shakespeare's First Folio was published and there are candlelit concerts with the Ryedale Festival Consort, conductor Eamonn Dougan in Byrd's masses alongside readings from Shakespeare. Rachmaninoff's 150th is there too, with pianist Boris Giltburg.

Ryedale Festival Opera presents a pop-up production of Blow's Venus and Adonis, conducted by Eamonn Dougan, directed by Monica Nicolaides, whilst violinist Bomsori Kim joins the Orchestra of Opera North, conductor Jonathan Bloxham for a programme that includes Brahms' Violin Concerto and Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4.  There is more Tchaikovsky with the Dudok Quartet performing all his quartets across three Russian-themed programmes.

The Ryedale Primary Choir is a new initiative for children aged 7-11, run by Caius Lee and launched this year in collaboration with the Richard Shephard Music Foundation. Children are having fun attending free music sessions in school holidays, where they meet and sing with professional musicians, especially Ryedale Festival Young Artists. The choir will make its festival debut by appearing on stage with The King’s Singers, having earlier worked with them in a masterclass. 

Full details from the Ryedale Festival website.

Imaginative programme & unusual repertoire: The Fourth Choir's The Only Planet at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse

The Only Planet - The Fourth Choir, Dusty Francis - Sam Wanamaker Playhouse
(Photo: Kathleen Holman)

The Only Planet: Jean Ritchie, S M Denson, William Billings, Adolphus Hailstork, Stuart Beatch, Dale Trumbore, Samuel Barber, Elisha West, Jaakko Mäntyjärvi, Judith Bingham, Vaughan Williams, Cooper Baldwin; The Fourth Choir, Dusty Francis; Sam Wanamker Playhouse
Reviewed 3 April 2023

An imaginative programme about the beauty of the Earth and the failure of man's tending of it, with music stretching from 18th-century America to contemporary

Founded in 2013 and celebrating its 10th anniversary later this year with a concert at the Barbican, The Fourth Choir is an LGBT+ chamber choir whose focus is on classical repertoire, its name arose because there were already three other LGBT choirs in London, mostly focusing on more popular repertoire. The choir has just appointed a new music director, Jamie Powe, and is currently working with a series of guest directors.

For The Fourth Choir's concert at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at Shakespeare's Globe, they were conducted by Dusty Francis, an American conductor and bass-baritone currently living in London where he is the choral director at the American School. The programme was entitled The Only Planet and inspired by the song Now is the Cool of the Day by the Appalachian songwriter and folk musician, Jean Ritchie. In the song, Ritchie urges us both to admire this garden of Earth and to look after it. The concert was divided into three sections, each preceded by a verse of Ritichie's song, If you keep the grasses green, with works about the full cycle of life, If you will feed my lambs, and If you keep the waters clean where the maritime theme shaded into foreboding, death and disaster.

It was an intriguing concept and one that brought a degree of coherence to the sort of mixed programme beloved by choral directors. Here we had over a dozen works ranging from the 18th century to the contemporary with a strong North American theme. This meant hearing music and composers whose work is not so well represented in the UK. So there were pieces by William Billings (1746-1800) and Elisha West (1756-1832), American hymns from the early 20th century, music by Samuel Barber and Augustus Hailstork and contemporary pieces by Stuart Beatch, Dale Trumbore, and Cooper Baldwin. In the final section of the programme there was also a small European contingent, with music by RVW and contemporary pieces by Jaakko Mäntyjärvi and Judith Bingham.

The Only Planet - The Fourth Choir, Dusty Francis - Sam Wanamaker Playhouse
(Photo: Kathleen Holman)

Living up to their name: Steel City Choristers at former steelworks

Steel City Choristers (Photo Chris Caroe)

The Magna Science Adventure Centre is an educational visitor attraction, appealing primarily to children, located in the former Templeborough steelworks in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England. Last week, the Get up to Speed with STEM (GUTS) event at Magna was designed to introduce, inform and inspire students, parents and teachers on the world of work with an emphasis on Science, Technology, Engineering & Manufacturing sectors (STEM). Over 4,500 school children visited.

Living up to their name, Steel City Choristers provided entertainment at the event at Magna, singing music ranging from Thomas Tallis to Bob Chilcott and Louis Armstrong.  Some of the choristers also had fun in a photo shoot at the former steelworks

Steel City Choristers (photo Chris Caroe)

Steel City Choristers is a choir that brings boys and girls aged 6-18 together with experienced adult singers. The group was founded in July 2020 following the unexpected closure of Sheffield Cathedral Choir.

Full details from the choir's website.

The Land of Might-Have-Been: a new musical merges the story of Vera Brittain with songs by Ivor Novello

Vera Brittain

Buxton International Festival and Norwich Theatre Royal join forces in producing a delicate, moving and deeply intense show about love, life and hope during the First World War. Norwich music writer, Tony Cooper, reports  

A new musical The Land of Might-Have-Been - which promises an intriguing, unforgettable and thought-provoking show - is coming our way next month through a fruitful partnership being forged between Norwich Theatre Royal and Buxton International Festival. The book and lyrics have been written by Michael Williams, co-creator of the UK Theatre award-winning opera, Georgiana, a work surrounding the goings-on of Lady Georgiana Dorothy Spencer.  

The eldest daughter of John Spencer, 1st Earl of Spencer and Georgiana Poyntz, makes Lady Georgiana the great-great-granddaughter of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough. By all accounts, a flamboyant and highly controversial woman, she did not respect the conventional mores of her day and embraced the teachings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and free love.   

In stark contrast to the goings-on of this free-spirited aristocrat, The Land of Might-Have-Been focuses on a very different kind of person, Vera Mary Brittain, an educated, fair and strong-minded individual with her feet most definitely on the ground. But unlike Lady Georgiana, Vera Brittain did respect the order and conventions of her day but, of course, was faced and frustrated with the prejudices and conventions of her day, too, like so many of her peers.  

Although The Land of Might-Have-Been is admirably built around the songs of Ivor Novello, who, incidentally, was born in the same year as Vera Brittain in 1893, the scenario is strongly based on the early lives of Vera and her brother Edward before and during the First World War.  

Reclaiming Handel's first thoughts: Peter Whelan directs Irish Baroque Orchestra in the Dublin version of Messiah

The Great Music Hall in Fishamble Street, Dublin, where Messiah was first performed

Handel: Messiah (1742 version); Hilary Cronin, Helen Charlston, Anthony Gregory, Edward Grint, Irish Baroque Orchestra, Peter Whelan; Wigmore Hall

A wonderfully vital and compelling account of Handel's original version of Messiah where the performers' sheer sense of joy came over in every note.

Handel's Messiah has become so ubiquitous at Christmas that we can often forget that the work encompasses not just Christ's birth, but his passion and resurrection, and that Handel's oratorios were typically performed during Lent or Eastertide. The premiere of Messiah took place some three weeks after Easter in Dublin in 1742, at the Great Music Hall, Fishamble Street, Dublin. Only the entrance arch of this building survives, so we have no idea of size, but we have to assume that it was rather closer to the Wigmore Hall than the Royal Festival Hall. 

So, the performance of Handel's Messiah at Wigmore Hall on Sunday 2 April 2023 (Palm Sunday) by the Irish Baroque Orchestra, directed from the harpsichord by Peter Whelan, is not so strange after all. The performance used Handel's original 1742 version of Messiah, with a small instrumental ensemble (nine strings, organ, harpsichord, no woodwind, trumpets & timpani) and a vocal ensemble of 12 including the soloists Hilary Cronin, Helen Charlston, Anthony Gregory and Edward Grint.

In an age when we seem to love investigating the original versions of things, it seems strange that the original version of Messiah remains so very rarely performed. It gives us Handel's first thoughts, written, unusually for him, before he knew who his soloists were. The work is completely recognisable, yet there are differences, moments in recitative which would become arias, versions of arias which would be replaced and some missing items like 'Their sound is gone out' (which was added in 1743). I remain rather fond of the original, triple-time version of 'Rejoice greatly' and the alto duet version of 'How beautiful are the feet'.

Korngold looks back: the lushness & extravagance of fin-de-siecle Vienna evoked in The Dead City at English National Opera

Korngold: The Dead City (Die tote Stadt); Rolf Romei, Allison Oakes, Sarah Connolly, Audun Iversen, director: Annilese Miskimmon, conductor: Kyrill Karabits; English National Opera at London Coliseum
Reviewed 31 March 2023

Korngold's phantasmagorical opera for the first time at ENO in a highly theatrical production with strong performances 

Korngold's Die tote Stadt has not appeared much in London, this production was English National Opera's first presentation of it, here called by its English translation, The Dead City. The UK premiere was, amazingly, in 1996 (a concert performance with Russell Keable conducting the Kensington Symphony Orchestra) whilst the Royal Opera's production in 2009 was the UK stage premiere.

At ENO, Annilese Miskimmon directed Korngold's Die tote Stadt, with set designs by Miriam Buether and costumes by Nicky Gillibrand. Rolf Romei was Paul, Allison Oakes was Marietta/voice of Marie, Sarah Connolly was Brigitta and Audun Iversen was Franz.

A work of music-theatre by a Viennese composer based on a German translation of a major work by a Belgian Symbolist. Fascinatingly this rather tortuous description can be applied both to Arnold Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire and Erich Korngold's Die tote Stadt. Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire was based on the poetic cycle Pierrot Lunaire by Belgian Symbolist poet Albert Giraud. Schoenberg set a total of 21 poems in German translations by Otto Erich Hartleben, whose translations were also set by Joseph Marx. The fascination for the work of the Symbolists can be understood in the wider context of Austrian expressionism, in music moving from the tonal experiments of Strauss to Schoenberg to Webern and Berg. And an artistic context this links to the Vienna Secession movement (1890s to 1914)

Korngold: The Dead City - Allison Oakes - English National Opera (Photo Helen Murray)

Korngold's Die tote Stadt has similar origins; it was based on Bruges-la-morte, a short novel by the Belgian author Georges Rodenbach, published in 1892 and regarded as the archetypal Symbolist novel. Korngold and his father's libretto for the opera was based on a German translation by a friend of Korngold's father of Rodenbach's own play based on the book.

The difference between the two, however, is that of date. Pierrot Lunaire premiered in 1912, at the height of the Vienna Secession, whilst Die tote Stadt came after the horrors of the First World War. Neither work actually premiered in Vienna, one in Berlin, the other in Hamburg. 

In a way, you feel that in Die tote Stadt, Korngold's first full-length opera (he was 23 at the time of its premiere) was harking back to the earlier era. So that musically, the work seems to relate to Richard Strauss' two early hits Salome (1905) and Elektra (1909), with the size of the orchestra, the lushness of the orchestration, the romantic language and the huge demands made on the lead singers/

Every phrase has a story behind it: Gábor Takács-Nagy on conducting Mozart and more.

Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, Gábor Takács-Nagy & Manchester Camerata at The Stoller Hall

During my recent visit to Manchester, various people said of conductor Gábor Takács-Nagy (music director of the Manchester Camerata) that he was a born story-teller. I was lucky enough to spend time with Gábor after his rehearsal with the Manchester Camerata the night before the latest concert in their series Mozart, Made in Manchester at The Stoller Hall. Even after a three-hour rehearsal, he was eager to communicate, to talk to me about making music.

Gábor Takács-Nagy was perhaps best known as one of the founding members of the distinguished Takács Quartet, but for the last 20 years, he has been notable as a conductor. He became the music director of the Manchester Camerata in 2011 and is also the music director of the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra, an ensemble of young professionals with whom he has recorded all the Beethoven symphonies (to be issued on disc in May on Deutsche Grammophon).

He first conducted Manchester Camerata in 2010 and the collaboration was fruitful, he found them friendly and enjoyed their playing. He took over as music director in 2011, though they took time to adjust to each other, he comments that he psychologically learned what to say (and what not to say) and now they have a responsive relationship, everyone wants to play. He feels that the orchestra's response to the problems engendered by COVID showed what great people they are, he always likes coming to Manchester and feels that it is a creative joy rather than work. And he adds that his wife was born in Burnley.

Gábor Takács-Nagy

BCMG in Bloom: celebrating cherry blossom time

Photography by Anthony Crutch at Cherry Blossom Concert 2022

It's cherry blossom time and on Sunday, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group (BCMG) will be celebrating with an outdoor concert in Oozells Square, Brindley Place, Birmingham on Sunday afternoon, 2 April 2023. 

Hanami, or flower viewing, is the Japanese tradition of celebrating the transient beauty of the cherry blossom. Every year, flocks of people join together for outdoor parties beneath the boughs of the blooming trees. So, BCMG will be performing a selection of music by Charlotte Bray, Hollie Harding, Dai Fujikura and György Ligeti to provide a distinctly contemporary music take on this celebration of Spring.

Tickets are free, and we are promised an hour-long, sensory event for all ages. Full details from the BCMG website.

Handel in Rome: Nardus Williams and the Dunedin Consort at Wigmore Hall

Palazzo Doria Pamphilj in Rome, built by Cardinal Pamphili's father
with interiors partly created by Cardinal Pamphili 

Handel in Rome - Handel: Overture to Admeto, Ero e Leandro, Concerto Grosso Op. 6 No. 6, Tra le fiamme, arias from Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno and La Resurrezione; Nardus Williams, Dunedin Consort, Matthew Truscott; Wigmore Hall
Reviewed 30 March 2023

The Dunedin Consort takes us to the homo-erotically charged, hothouse atmosphere of Handel's Rome in 1707 and 1708

The Dunedin Consort's Handel in Rome programme has been touring to Glasgow, Edinburgh and London, with Saffron Walden to come tonight. It was planned to feature Benjamin Bayl's debut directing the ensemble, but as it turned out that was not to be. So, on Thursday 30 March 2023, we caught the Dunedin Consort at Wigmore Hall in Handel in Rome, with soprano Nardus Williams, directed from the violin by Matthew Truscott (the ensemble's leader since 2021), with Stephen Farr on harpsichord.

The programme featured two of Handel's cantatas from his Italian period, Ero e Leandro and Tra le fiamme, plus arias from his two Italian oratorios, Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno and La Resurrezione, and two later instrumental works, the overture from Admeto and the Concerto Grosso in G minor, Op. 6, No.6.

Jasdeep Singh Degun releases single Aapki Khushi with Ashnaa Sasikaran from Opera North and South Asian Arts UK's Orpheus

Opera North and South Asian Arts UK's production of Orpheus was one of the runaway successes of last year. Based on the opera by Monteverdi, but featuring both Western classical and Indian classical performers, the production mixed Monteverdi's music with that of award-winning Leeds-based sitarist and composer Jasdeep Singh Degun, with Degun as co-music director of the performance alongside classical musician Lawrence Cummings.

Now, part of the opera has been released as a single on Peter Gabriel's Real World Records. Aapki Khushi 'Your joy is my joy' was written for young British Tamil singer Ashnaa Sasikaran by Degun. Sasikaran played Euridice in Orpheus and was the first thing Degun composed for the opera; in the song/aria Euridice expresses her love for her new husband, Orpheus.

The lyrics were translated from the original Italian text of the opera and rewritten by Degun’s sitar teacher Ustad Dharambir Singh and Orpheus percussionist Shahbaz Hussain. The string arrangements for the song are by Ashok Gupta, the Orpheus ensemble's assistant music director and harpsichordist.

Though the piece might feel distinctly contemporary, the song is rooted in the ancient musical tradition of Indian classical raags that composer and singer share. Aapki Khushi is on YouTube and can be downloaded [LinkTree]

The video features Ashnaa Sasikaran - vocals, Kirpal Panesar - esraj, Vijay Venkat - flute, R.N. Prakash - kanjira, Kayam Hussain - tabla, Glenn Sharp - guitar, Deepa Shakthi & Jasdeep Singh Degun - backing vocals, Céline Saout - harp, Cristina Ocaña Rosado & Susannah Simmons - violin, David Aspin & Katie Jarvis - viola, Liz Hanks - cello, Damián Rubido González - double bass, with music by Jasdeep Singh Degun, and string arrangements by Ashok Gupta.

Jasdeep Singh Degun in the control room, Aapki Khushi session, Chairworks Studio Castleford (Photo Opera North)

Jasdeep Singh Degun will tour his debut album Anomaly in the UK and Europe in May and June. Like Orpheus, it is built on his command of both Western and Indian classical traditions, and I can highly recommend it. Full details of the tour on his website.

A joy in telling stories in music: the Manchester Camerata, the Monastery & music

Manchester Camerata's Music Cafe at the Monastery (Photo Duncan Elliott)

If you visit Gorton in Manchester today, it is something of a puzzle why E.W. Pugin's gloriously exotic church, now known as The Monastery, even exists, surrounded as it is by desolation and modern housing estates. Built at the height of Manchester's 19th-century expansion, abandoned and nearly demolished in the 20th century it has been re-invented as a community hub and resource, as well as the home to one of Manchester's liveliest ensembles, the Manchester Camerata.

In the mid-19th century, Gorton was a hive of industry, home to a number of industrial plants. The growing population needed religious support and a group of Belgian Franciscan friars came over and in the 1860s built a church as their base. Technically it was a friary, but it became known locally as the Monastery. When we were students in Manchester in the 1970s we called it the rocket ship, and it was in the then deeply unfashionable Victorian gothic style, designed by E.W. Pugin, son of the more famous A.W. Pugin.

The last friar left in 1989 and what followed is a typical story - sale to a rogue developer, abandonment, vandalisation, desolation. In the early 21st century a former choir boy and his wife rediscovered it and made it their mission to restore it and find a use. Now fully restored, missing buildings re-built and operating as a wedding and event venue, its rooms are let out for office space and Manchester Camerata is among the tenants. The money made from such commercial operations goes to the building's support and to funding the Monastery's many community activities including an important listening service.

The Monastery, Gorton, Manchester (Photo: Cnbrb/Wikipedia)

After Byrd: HEXAD Collective launches its concert series exploring hidden music for voices

The HEXAD Collective at Holy Trinity,
Minchinhampton, December 2022

Piers Kennedy, William Cornysh, Anna Semple, William Byrd, Raffaella Aleotti, Claudio Monteverdi; HEXAD Collective; Crypt of the Priory Church of the Order of St John
Reviewed 28 March 2023

Launching its After Byrd series, the young vocal ensemble pairs Byrd with contemporary works and more in vibrant, engaged performances

The HEXAD Collective, a seven-strong vocal ensemble founded in 2019 by Daniel Gethin, went underground last night (28 March 2023) to launch its concert series, After Byrd: hidden music for voices. In the Crypt of the Priory Church of the Order of St John, HEXAD (Danni O'Neill, Anna Semple, Daniel Gethin, Gopal Kambo, Sebastian Hill, Simon Grant, Piers Kennedy) were joined by Hugh Cutting (countertenor) and Daniel Murphy (lute, theorbo) for a programme of Piers Kennedy, William Cornysh, Anna Semple (whose work featured on the 2022 Christmas album by Somerville College Choir, see my review), William Byrd, Raffaella Aleotti, and Monteverdi.

The crypt is the only surviving Medieval part of the Priory Church. Originally part of the home of the Order of St John in Clerkenwell, the church survived the order being disbanded at the Reformation but was badly damaged during World War Two. The surviving elements have been partially restored above ground, but below ground, the crypt is a wonderfully evocative space with a fine acoustic (though the temperature was a bit challenging). You can explore further at the modern museum on the adjacent site.

Crypt of the Priory Church of the Order of St John (Photo Museum of the Order of St John)

HEXAD is an eight-person vocal ensemble which includes two composers Anna Semple and Piers Kennedy, so their repertoire moves between Early Music and contemporary works written for them. The programme was book-ended by a pair of works by Kennedy and Semple from a project last year that HEXAD did around psalm texts first sung at the 1953 Coronation; intended as a Diamond Jubilee celebration, the project has taken on more resonance.

The go-to place for information about opera performances across the globe: we chat to Operabase's new CEO, Ulrike Köstinger

Operabase CEO, Ulrike Köstinger

Since its founding in 1996 by Mike Gibb, the Operabase website has become somewhat ubiquitous in the opera world, providing the go-to place for information about opera performances across the globe, both for audience members and professionals. In 2017, Operabase was bought by Arts Consolidated, a Danish company that also owns Cue TV. Operabase has a new CEO, Ulrike Köstinger, who took over at the beginning of this year though she has been with the company for over two years and was previously chief content officer.

Blake performs Blake: join composer Howard Blake for an 85th birthday celebration

The composer Howard Blake is still perhaps best known for one single piece of music, The Snowman. His famous song ‘Walking in the Air’ from it was the chart success that launched Aled Jones in 1985, whilst the concert version for narrator and orchestra is performed world-wide and the full-length ballet for Sadler’s Wells runs for a season every year in London. But Blake's extensive output is far more varied than this would lead you to believe. 

For the early part of his career he wrote numerous film scores, including The Duellists with Ridley Scott, A Month in the Country, and of course The Snowman. But his output stretches from a Piano Concerto commissioned to honour Diana, Princess of Wales, large-scale choral works and chamber music. 

I first met Howard in 2013 at a celebration for his 75th birthday at which he accompanied the brilliant young cellist Benedict Kloeckner in three works for cello and piano, two of which were created for Kloeckner. Now, ten years later, Howard and Benedict will be joined by Julian Trevelyan (piano), Lana Trotsovek (violin), Ian Byrne (viola), Boris Bijak (flute) and Andrew Marriner (clarinet) for a birthday celebration at St John's Smith Square on 10 May 2023 which includes three of trios, Violin Sonata and Piano Quartet.

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

47th St Magnus Festival

Hoy Kirk

Spanning a week across around midsummer, the 47th St Magnus Festival takes place from 16 to 23 June 2023 in and around Orkney. The artistic director is Scottish composer Alasdair Nicolson, and his multi-genre programme spans the world premiere of David McNeish’s new play, Thora, directed by Gerda Stevenson, Scottish Ballet’s festival debut, its first major outdoor installation from Architects of Air, and a strong music line-up. Venues include the Pier Arts Centre, St Magnus Cathedral, churches nestled scenically on the coast, Stromness Town Hall, The Writing Room at Kirkwall Hotel and the Pickaquoy Centre.

The musical events include a pairing of young Scottish stars accordionist Ryan Corbett and trumpeter Aaron Akugbo, the Hebrides Ensemble in Ravel’s orchestral works in new arrangements by Nicolson, and a strong Dutch contingent including pianist Nikola Meeuwsen, baritone Maarten Koningsberger and the Ragazze Quartet including Winterreise in an arrangement by Dutch violist Wim ten Have.

Other performers include Florilegium in three programmes, 18th-century French music, Bach and his contemporaries at the Café Zimmerman, and Telemann's Tafelmusik, Scottish cellist Findlay Spence in two innovative programmes from Bach to Berio in venues across Orkney, and an ensemble of accordions from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, The Magnificent Squeezebox

The Festival’s own Chorus, a community choir that comes together under the direction of Paul Rendall for the Festival, will perform Faure's Requiem at St Magnus Cathedral accompanied by an ensemble of visiting performers, conducted by Matthew Hamilton, the new director of the Hallé Chorus in Manchester, with soprano Hilary Cronin and the Dutch baritone Maarten Koningsberger. 

Full details from the festival website.