Classical Pride at the Barbican

In what seems to be something of a first for a major classical music organisation, Oliver Zeffmann will be conducting the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in a concert at the Barbican celebrating Pride. Classical Pride, on 7 July 2023, will feature music by LGBT composers and celebrate diversity with performers including pianists Pavel Kolesnikov and Samson Tsoy, soprano Ella Taylor, tenor Nicky Spence, and bass-baritone Davóne Tines, plus an LGBTQ+ Community Choir.

The the concert features by LGBT composers including Bernstein's overture to Candide, Poulenc's Concerto for two pianos, Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet, Caroline Shaw's Is a Rose and the world premiere of Julian Anderson's Echoes.

The concert is being presented in partnership with ViiV Healthcare and GAY TIMES and proceeds will go to the charities, Terence Higgins Trust, Amplifund and Rainbow Railroad.

Full details from the Barbican website.

Meditating, listening & letting the music unfold: Syrian composer & musician Maya Youssef on the inspirations behind her music

Maya Youssef

The Syrian composer and musician Maya Youssef released her second album, Finding Home, last year. Now based in the UK, the loss of her Syrian homeland is a subject that imbues both the new album and her first album, Syrian Dreams. Maya and I had plans to meet up last year, but these never managed to come to fruition so it was with great delight that we finally managed to meet for coffee in London in April 2023 to talk about the inspirations behind her albums, the idea of finding home, the importance of teaching, explaining the Arabic system of modes using Lego and much more.

The qanun is her instrument, this is a 78-stringed instrument from the zither family, and she plays the strings with her fingers. Her index fingers have rings and plectrums on them, which makes for a more resonant sound, but she plays with all her fingers in a manner akin to a harp. 

She describes her music as Arabic chamber music, but she grew up in Damascus surrounded by lots of different music. Her father was a writer who wanted to be a musician but unfortunately, he was tone deaf, so he collected records, and growing up there was Western classical, jazz, fusion and other weird combinations for her to listen to. She studied at the conservatoire for children, and both there and at high school both Western classical and Arabic classical music were studied. When she graduated from high school she played Vivaldi's Winter from The Four Seasons.

Cautionary Tales: the current cohort of Young Artists from the National Opera Studio in an evening of contemporary opera

Cautionary Tales - National Opera Studio with Opera North at Wilton's Music Hall (Photo Malcolm I Johnson)

Cautionary Tales: Judith Weir, Tom Coult, Tansy Davies, Steven Mackey, Elena Kats-Chernin, Soren Nils Eichberg, Jonathan Dove, Errollyn Wallen; National Opera Studio with Opera North; Wilton's Music Hall
Reviewed 3 May 2023 by Florence Anna Maunders

Dramatic contemporary operatic excerpts from a cohort of exceptional young voices in Whitechapel's historic Wilton's Music Hall

Whitechapel's battered monument to a theatrical past, the crumbing and wonderful Wilton's Music Hall, was the setting for Cautionary Tales, this fascinating partnership between the fresh enthusiasm of the National Opera Studio's Young Artists, and the brilliantly responsive and highly experienced Orchestra of Opera North, conductor Gary Walker. Over the course of eight 'bleeding chunks' of contemporary (mostly British) opera, by Judith Weir, Tom Coult, Tansy Davies, Steven Mackey, Elena Kats-Chernin, Soren Nils Eichberg, Jonathan Dove, Errollyn Wallen, the eleven vocalists demonstrated their abilities across an enormous range of emotions, musical styles and narrative approaches. The performers were sopranos Sarah Seunghwa Chae, Beren Kader Fidan, Hasmik Harutyunyan and Samantha Quillish, mezzo-sopranos Laura Fleur and Emma Roberts, tenors Phillip Costovski, Rhydian Jenkins and Felix Gygli, basses Jack Holton and Smelo Mahlangu, directed by Olivia Fuchs.

Cautionary Tales - National Opera Studio with Opera North at Wilton's Music Hall (Photo Malcolm I Johnson)

Introducing Gayathri Khemadasa:

Gayathri Khemadasa

Gayathri Khemadasa, a renowned Sri Lankan composer, has made history by winning an international award for her music in the 2020 film The Newspaper. In June 2022, she won the category for Best Music at the Ceylon International Film Festival in Santa Barbara, California and this marks the first time that Sri Lanka has won an international award for film music.  

Khemadasa's talent for creating innovative music has also caught the attention of the University of Portsmouth Choir in the UK. Her choral work, written to the text of a poem by Rabindranath Tagore, Freedom, was performed by the choir in what is a first for the university, which had never performed the works of an Asian composer before.  Freedom was performed by University of Portsmouth Choir, conducted by George Burrows, at St Mary's Church in Portsmouth, on Saturday 25 March, 2023

Born in Colombo, she studied music at the Prague Conservatory and Masaryk University, Czech Republic. She began performing in public in 2005, in order to raise money for the victims of the 2004 Asian tsunami.

Khemadasa's unique blend of Western classical music and traditional Sri Lankan music has garnered her critical acclaim and numerous awards. Her passion for music and the arts has also led her to found several organizations and initiatives aimed at promoting and supporting the development of music and the arts in Sri Lanka.  In 2011, she was awarded a Fulbright Professional Scholarship and became a visiting scholar at Wesleyan University where she began writing an opera on Phoolan Devi. In 2015, at the Derana Film Awards, Khemadasa became the first Sri Lankan woman to win a national award for Best Original Score with the film Thanha Rathi Ranga.

Gayathri Khemadasa's contributions to music and the arts continue to be celebrated both nationally and internationally, and her innovative approach to composition is sure to inspire and captivate audiences for years to come.

Full details from her website.

The Flying Dutchman reinvented: OperaUpClose tours radical new version of Wagner's opera

OperaUpClose, artistic director Flora McIntosh, is touring a radical new look at Wagner's The Flying Dutchman. From 28 June to 23 July, the company will be performing The Flying Dutchman at Turner Sims, Southampton, SS Great Britain, Bristol, Worthing Pavilion, Worthing, Grand Junction, London, Trinity Market, Hull and Invisible Wind Factory, Liverpool.

Directed by Lucy Bradley with music director Timothy Burke, the production features a new libretto by Glyn Maxwell and an orchestration for eight-piece chamber orchestra by composer Laura Bowler (in association with associate music director Robin Wallington) performed by the Manchester Camerata.

The production steers clear of traditional 'end-on' performance to immerse the audience in a haunting political tale exploring the displacement of people and the psychology and realities of living on an island with hardening borders. The cast includes Philippa Boyle, Timothy Dawkins, Carolyn Holt and Pauls Putnins, as well as pre-recorded voices from a national network of community choirs.

The Flying Dutchman is touring with We two were lovers – The Sea and I. A musical and poetic journey that addresses themes around the movement of people, island mentality and humanity’s complex love affair with the sea. Work is centred around Toria Banks’s new, contemporary version of Arianna a Naxos, Haydn’s dramatic cantata.

Full details from the OperaUpClose website.

Temple Song: Kate Royal, Christine Rice & Julius Drake in Brahms, Schumann and Weill

Middle Temple Hall in its wisteria
(Photo courtesy of Julius Drake)

Brahms: Zigeunerlieder, duets by Brahms and Schumann, songs by Kurt Weill; Kate Royal, Christine Rice, Julius Drake; Temple Song at Middle Temple Hall

From Brahms in exuberant gypsy mode, to intimate duets from Brahms and Schumann, to Kurt Weill demonstrating his brilliant versatility

The Temple Music Foundation's Temple Song returned to Middle Temple Hall on Tuesday 2 May 2023 with its first song recital of 2023. Pianist Julius Drake was joined by soprano Kate Royal and mezzo-soprano Christine Rice for a programme of songs and duets by Brahms, Schumann and Kurt Weill.

We began with Brahms' Zigeuner Lieder. These were originally written in 1888 as a cycle for quartet and piano, setting German translations of Hungarian folk songs. Such was the work's popularity that Brahms recast eight songs for solo voice, the version we heard at Middle Temple Hall. The music is only vaguely Hungarian, belonging to the category of 19th-century composers appropriating the styles of the Hungarian gypsy musicians who could be found in Vienna. Brahms ate regularly at the Gasthaus Zum Roten Igel where gypsy musicians could usually be heard. In its original format, Zigeuner Lieder's lively exuberance proved popular, hence Brahms' recasting for solo voice. 

The St Teilo Organ comes to Lincoln Cathedral as part of its Byrd 400 celebrations

The St Teilo Organ

As part of Lincoln Cathedral's Byrd 400 celebrations this year, commemorating the 400th anniversary of Byrd's death, the St Teilo Organ is coming to the cathedral as part of the celebrations. The organ was built in 2001 by organ builders Goetze and Gwynn using traditional materials and techniques and is based on an original Tudor soundboard found at Wetheringsett in Suffolk in 1977. The oak case is covered in decoration, including murals depicting the Annunciation and Adoration of the Shepherds on the doors. The organ is entirely mechanical, with power provided by a set of manually operated bellows. 

The St Teilo organ will be on display in the Cathedral during normal opening hours and will also be used during services, concerts and lectures as part of the Byrd 400 Festival.

 William Byrd was Master of the Choristers at the Lincoln Cathedral from 1563 to 1572, during which he composed much music for the relatively newly translated services of the Church of England. For Byrd 400, which takes place at the cathedral from 30 June to 4 July 2023, Byrd's music will feature at cathedral services sung by the cathedral choir, the Choir of Merton College Oxford and the Tallis Scholars. There will be a series of concerts and recitals including viol music from the Arculo Viol Consort and keyboard music from Friederike Chylek, culminating in a late evening performance of some of Byrd’s most beautiful music by the cathedral choir and the Tallis Scholars. There will also be an academic symposium.

Full details from the Lincoln Cathedral website.

Hail, O Queen

The Dunedin Consort's associate director, Nicholas Mulroy, directs the group in a programme of Marian music on a tour to Aberdeen, Perth, Edinburgh and Glasgow from 11 to 14 May 2023. These concerts will also see young musicians from Dunedin Consort’s Bridging the Gap programme — Laura Coppinger (soprano) and Joshua McCullough (bass) — make their first professional appearance with the a cappella consort.

The programme mixes Renaissance music by Palestrina, Jean Mouton, Tomás Luis de Victoria, Vicente Lusitano, Carlo Gesualdo with Hildegard of Bingen, more recent works by Bruckner and Rebecca Clarke and contemporary pieces by Arvo Pärt, Giles Swayne, Cecilia McDowall, Kerry Andrew, Joanna Ward, and Cheryl Frances-Hoad.

Nicholas Mulroy explains, "Some pieces seem explicitly linked to the Renaissance music we’ll sing, and others take their influences from further afield, and ask what a choir can do and how one might display devotion in music. I hope that for performers and listeners alike, it’s telling to breathe air into new and old music side by side, hearing new voices for perhaps the first time, and old things anew".

Full details from the Dunedin Consort website.

Silence, texture and atmosphere: music by John Luther Adams, Kaija Saariaho, Judith Weir, and Gary Carpenter at Royal Academy of Music's Fragile Festival

Stones and Light: John Luther Adams, Kaija Saariaho, Judith Weir, Gary Carpenter; Bridget Yee, Tiago Soares Silva, Oona Lowther, Aisha Palmer; Angela Burgess Recital Hall at Royal Academy of Music
Reviewed 2 May 2023

Four contemporary chamber works inspired by the natural world, explorations of silence, texture and atmosphere in terrific performances

The Royal Academy of Music's Fragile Festival, created in association with The Listening Planet, is a week of events inspired by the natural world. Events opened with a lunchtime concert on 2 May 2023, Stones and Light in Angela Burgess Recital Hall when Bridget Yee (piano), Tiago Soares Silva (violin), Oona Lowther (cello) and Aisha Palmer (harp) played John Luther Adams' Tukiliit (The Stone People who Live in the Wind), Kaija Saariaho's Light and Matter, Judith Weir's Night and Gary Carpenter's Azaleas.

London Sinfonietta in Enfield

The London Sinfonietta is heading to Enfield for a residency at St Ignatius College, Enfield in May, marking the beginning of a longer-term relationship with the Enfield area which will build towards work with the wider community. 

From 22 to 25 May, London Sinfonietta musicians and staff, as well as the 2023 cohort of the London Sinfonietta Academy, will work alongside students of St Ignatius College in Enfield to offer the opportunity to compose, film and learn the inner workings of a professional ensemble. 

The ensemble is performing at the Southbank Centre on 25 May, presenting Fireworks, a programme of virtuosic pieces by Augusta Read Thomas, Dai Fujikura, Tania León, and György Ligeti. They will be rehearsing for the concert at St Ignatius College and students from the college will be invited to attend both rehearsals and the concert. 

The ensemble has an existing connection to the Borough since 2019, collaborating with Enfield Music Service to deliver Composition Challenge workshops in primary schools and involve their young instrumentalists in the Sound Out project and concert.

The London Sinfonietta Academy, the ensemble's annual programme that recruits young musicians across the UK to train as a Sinfonietta-sized ensemble, will also be involved in composition workshops during the residency.

Full details from the London Sinfonietta's website.

Shipston Song 2023

Pianist Ian Tindale's Shipston Song is returning for a second celebration of song in the Cotswolds from 22-24 September. Set in an intimate venue on the edge of the Cotswolds, the festival weekend features recitals and masterclasses from mezzo-soprano Helen Charlston, tenor Laurence Kilsby, and baritone Roderick Williams with pianist Ian Tindale. 

Four Shipston Song Rising Stars, soprano Henna Mun, baritone Sam Hird, tenor Dafydd Jones and pianist Francesca Lauri, representing the emerging generation of song interpreters, will be in residence for masterclasses and performances, working alongside the main artists throughout the weekend.

Composers represented during the weekend include Tippett and Rachmaninoff, both of whom have anniversaries this year. The festival has made a commitment in 2023 to programming an equal number of songs by male and female composers, as well as featuring contemporary song in all recitals, commitments which will culminate in the world premiere performance of a new cycle by Anna Semple.

The weekend begins with Laurence Kilsby and Henna Mun in Tippett's Boyhood's End, and songs by Rachmaninoff, Lili and Nadia Boulanger, Purcell arranged by Britten and Tippett, folksongs arranged by Britten and Josephine Stephenson. Helen Charlston and Sam Hird's recital combines Mahler's Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen with songs by Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, Clara Schumann, Alma Schindler-Mahler, Amy Beach, and Wilhelm Stenhammar, plus songs by Joshua Borin and Richard Barnard from the Isolation Songbook.

Roderick Williams and Dafydd Jones conclude the festival with The Elements featuring Tippett's Songs for Ariel, plus songs by Anna Semple, Gerald Finzi, Ina Boyle, Joan Trimble, Dilys Elwyn-Edwards, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Francis George Scott and Rebecca Clarke.

Full details from the festival website.

As The Sun Brightens, The Shadows Deepen: Neil Hannon's new work for the Ulster Orchestra is inspired by his late father's role in a 1963 film on the development of Derry~Londonderry

Image from Terence McDonald and John Hume's film A City Solitary

On Friday 5 May 2023, the Ulster Orchestra will be giving the premiere of a new piece by Neil Hannon (of The Divine Comedy), As The Sun Brightens, The Shadows Deepen, in a programme conducted by Matthew Owens and David Brophy at Ulster Hall, Belfast, called Dwellers in Time and Space, which features music by Khachaturian and Vaughan Williams alongside another work by Hannon.

The roots of Hannon's new piece lie in a short film by Terence McDonald and John Hume called A City Solitary, based on Hume’s research for his thesis on Derry~Londonderry and made in 1963. The film charts the development of the city and, perhaps unexpectedly, is narrated by Neil Hannon’s father, the late Bishop Brian Hannon, who was then a curate in the city. 

As the 25th Anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement is commemorated, this glimpse of Derry~Londonderry on the cusp of all that was to come is a fascinating moment in time, additionally made personal for Hannon by hearing the voice of his father as a young man. As The Sun Brightens grows from these roots into a meditation on history and place that ultimately has a message of hope for a shared future. The full film is viewable at https://digitalfilmarchive.net/media/a-city-solitary-2121

Neil Hannon comments: "Until quite recently I’d only been dimly aware of the film, A City Solitary, and my father’s role in it. Then, not long after his funeral, a particularly resourceful niece tracked it down on the internet. I was entranced. I love those little historical/societal documentaries of the 40s and 50s; here was one about the city of my birth, narrated by my Dad! And this just happened to coincide with the Ulster Orchestra asking me for a new piece about the north. It was all strangely perfect."

Full details from the Ulster Orchestra's website.

Casta Diva: trumpeter Matilda Lloyd showing just what her instrument can do with elegant yet dazzling accounts of Italian bel canto arias

Casta Diva: Donizetti, Viardot, Arban, Rossini, Bellini; Matilda Lloyd, Britten Sinfonia Soloists; Wigmore Hall
   Reviewed 27 April 2023
Casta Diva: Operatic arias arranged for trumpet - Mercadante, Bellini, Arban, Ricci, Rossini, Viardo, Donizetti; Matilda Lloyd, Britten Sinfonia, Rumon Gamba; Chandos Records
   Record Review

An elegant sense of line and some nice bravura moments make trumpeter Matilda Lloyd's recasting of Italian bel canto arias a surprising delight

French cornet player, pedagogue and composer Jean-Baptiste Arban (1825-1889) was the first virtuoso of the cornet à pistons. When the valved cornet developed using piston valves in Paris in the 1830s it gave players access to a full chromatic range and Arban, inspired by the example of violin virtuoso Paganini, demonstrated that the cornet could be a virtuoso instrument. His complete method was published in 1864. Trumpets were slower to adopt the modern valve technology, hence some mid-19th century orchestral works have parts for both trumpets and cornets. But now, Arban's method is regarded as the trumpeter's bible.

At the back of the book are 12 sets of variations on well-known melodies. One of these, Alban's Variations on Bellini's 'Norma' (Casta Diva), suggested to trumpeter Matilda Lloyd the idea of a disc of Italian bel canto operatic arias transcribed for trumpet. 

It is not that the trumpet and cornet were not in the opera house, but the technology available to the instruments in early 19th-century Italian opera houses was limited, the instruments' use was restricted. But outside the opera house, they were let loose in bands playing arrangements of popular operatic airs.

Matilda Lloyd has joined forces with arranger William Foster, the Britten Sinfonia and conductor Rumon Gamba to record a disc, Casta Diva: Operatic airs transcribed for trumpet on the Chandos label. This features transcriptions of arias from Mercadante's Zaira, Bellini's Beatrice di Tenda and I Capuleti e Montecchi, Rossini's Semiramide, and Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore and Don Pasquale, plus Arban's Variations on a Cavatina from Bellini's 'Beatrice di Tenda' and Variations on Bellini's 'Norma' (Casta Diva), a tarantella by Luigi Ricci, two songs by Pauline Viardot and Rossini's Prelude, Theme and Variations.

To launch the album, Matilda Lloyd and the Britten Sinfonia Soloists (Hannah Perowne and Miranda Dale, violins, Daisy Speirs, viola, Caroline Dearnley, cello, Joseph Cowle, double bass, Tomos Xerri, harp) performed a selection from the album at Wigmore Hall on Thursday, 27 April 2023.

Stop Motion Music: Edinburgh-based composer Neil T. Smith chats about his new disc, exploring the smaller-scale works he has written from the last eight years

Neil T. Smith

Edinburgh-based composer Neil T. Smith has an album out, Stop Motion Music on BandCamp. His debut album, it explores works that he has written in the last eight or so years. In that time, Neil has written either large-scale orchestral works or smaller chamber ones, so economic necessity has meant that this, his first solo disc, explores the smaller-scale works with performers Carla Rees (flute), Delia Stevens (vibraphone), Simon Roth (drums), Justyna Jablonska and Duncan Strachan (cellos).

The main work on the disc is the title track, Stop Motion Music for the intriguing combination of three flutes and vibraphone. This had its origins in a long-ago conversation with a friend who ran his own ensemble, and they talked about the idea of putting small speakers in a vibraphone. The friend totally forgot about the conversation, but with Neil, it stuck. He is also a flute player and had written a flute trio in 2012 as well as playing flute in other ensembles. This suggested to him the idea of combining the flute with the purely mechanical silvery sound of the vibraphone. It is not a narrative work, but a series of scenes.

For the recording of the new disc, he was just doing the fundraising when COVID began, so the plans involved considering what music could be recorded with a minimum number of people. This means that for Stop Motion Music, flute player Carla Rees has multi-tracked the three flute lines alongside vibraphone player Delia Stevens. Carla Rees plays a Kingma System flute, which has a full quarter-tone capability (on a regular flute quarter tones can be uneven). This capability came in very useful when multi-tracking Stop Motion Music. The work is a single piece, some 26 minutes long, but for the convenience of listening Neil has split it into four tracks.

Henryk Górecki's Symphony of Sorrowful Songs at ENO in an astonishing visual treat from Isabella Bywater

Górecki:Symphony of Sorrowful Songs, third movement - Nicole Chevalier - English National Opera (Photo: Clive Barda)

Henryk Górecki: Symphony of Sorrowful Songs; Nicole Chevalier, director: Isabella Bywater, conductor: Lidiya Yankovskaya; English National Opera at the London Coliseum

Górecki's moving symphony given a treatment that is less a dramatisation and more a poetic visual meditation on the music

For its last new main stage event of the season, English National Opera (ENO) made the intriguing choice to present a staging of Henryk Górecki's Symphony No. 3 'Symphony of Sorrowful Songs'. Symphony of Sorrowful Songs opened at the London Coliseum on 27 April 2023 in a production directed and designed by Isabella Bywater. Lidiya Yankovskaya conducted the orchestra of English National Opera with soprano Nicole Chevalier who was joined on stage by six actors - Christian Flynn, Alessandro Gruttadauria, Malik Ibheis, Owen McHugh, Ryan Munroe, Ben Owara. 

Video design was by Roberto Vitalini, lighting by Jon Driscoll with Dan O'Neil as movement director. The work was sung in the original Polish. The staging was ENO's first adhering to the Theatre Green Book, with costumes sourced from charity shops.

Górecki:Symphony of Sorrowful Songs, first movement - Nicole Chevalier - English National Opera (Photo: Clive Barda)

It wasn't an opera as such, but a music theatre piece that verged on being an installation, but Bywater and Vitalini came up with some astonishing images to accompany the music.

Hooray for summer and all that it has to offer! Tony Cooper reports on this year’s BBC Proms, the world’s largest classical-music festival

And summer has a lot to offer for classical-musical aficionados wherever they are with the BBC Proms running this year from Friday 14th July to the famous Last Night on Saturday 9th September. Therefore, there’s a feast of music over a wonderfully packed eight-week season offering more than 84 concerts featuring over 3000 musicians thus making the BBC Proms the largest festival of its kind in the world.

Remember, too, that the Proms reaches far beyond the Royal Albert Hall and this year for the first time the Great Yarmouth Hippodrome (often referred to locally as ‘Norfolk’s mini-Albert Hall’) is one of the chosen venues to be used outside of London. And for the first time, too, most of the concerts will be available on BBC Sounds for 12 months while BBC television and BBC iPlayer will broadcast 24 programmes including the First and Last Nights. These will also be available to watch on iPlayer for a period of 12 months.

The BBC orchestras and choirs, the ‘backbone’ of the Proms, will perform at 32 Proms including 14 premières while the BBC Singers will perform five Proms including the First and Last Nights plus a Late-Night Prom showcasing their broad range of repertoire while Sir Simon Rattle and Jon Hopkins have their own Late-Night Proms showcasing their huge range of repertoire, too.

BREMF's Autumn Festival is back, for the first time since 2019.

Secret Byrd - the Gesualdo Six (Photo Mark Allen)

For the first time since 2019, the Brighton Early Music Festival (BREMF) is presenting an Autumn festival, across two weekends from 13 October to 28 October 2023.

The festival opens with Secret Byrd, the Gesualdo Six and Fretwork in an immersive music drama based around Byrd's masses performed by candlelight. And continuing the theatrical theme, Whispering Dome will be a large scale multi-media event involving BREMF choirs, local schools and musicians from Morocco and West Africa, devised by Jeremy Avis

The Fieri Consort is presenting a programme based around the music of two Renaissance women, Maddalena Casulana, the first female composer to have had a whole book of her music printed and published in the history of western music, and Barbara Strozzi, who published eight volumes of her own music, and had more secular music in print than any other composer of the era. And continuing the female theme, Musica Secreta & Celestial Sirens present Mother, Sister Daughter, music and stories of women.

Other visitors include mezzo-soprano Helen Charlston and lutenist Toby Carr in their Battle Cry: She Speaks programme, and La Fonte Musica from Italy in a programme entitled Musical Enigmas.

There will be a BREMF Live! Showcase featuring emerging early music ensembles as well as a BREMF  Live! Clubnight.

The festival ends with Buxtehude's Membra Jesu nostri performed by the BREMF Singers & Players and the Arculo Consort of Viols.

Full details from the BREMF website.

Leipzig 1723: we know Bach won, but the fascination of hearing the application cantatas for the Thomaskantor position from Telemann, Graupner and Bach in superb performances

Leipzig 1723: Application cantatas for the Thomaskantor position - Bach, Telemann, Graupner; Ælbgut, Capella Jenensis; Accentus

Cantatas from the top three composers who applied for the position ultimately taken by Bach in 1723; beyond the historical fascination of the programme, this a most musical and rewarding performance.

In 1722 the composer Johann Kuhnau died, after 21 years of service as St Thomas Cantor in Leipzig. The role was a municipal one, the St Thomas Cantor was the music teacher at the most famous boarding school in Protestant Germany, as well as being required to arrange for his students to sing at the four Leipzig churches, perform his own cantatas at the two largest churches using the said students, and be director of music for Leipzig. Kuhnau had been much beloved, and the city councillors were on the lookout for a replacement, someone who could fulfil the role including writing good church music which would reflect well on the city.

The search was a protracted one. One complication was that the candidate had to be able to teach Latin, though, in fact, two of the candidates gained permission to use a substitute. First choice was Georg Philipp Telemann, but his existing employer (the city of Hamburg) increased his salary and he withdrew. Second choice was Christoph Graupner, but he was kapellmeister at the Darmstadt court and Graupner was not released by the court. Finally came Johann Sebastian Bach, who was Kapellmeister in Köthen, and as we all know, the role went to him. Each composer came to Leipzig for an audition, performing two new cantatas at a service. Only one cantata by Telemann survives.

On this fascinating and enterprising disc from Accentus, Leipzig 1723, Ælbgut and Capella Jenensis perform the five surviving cantatas, Bach's Jesus nahm zu sich die Zwölfe, Graupner's Lobet den Herrn alle Heiden, Telemann's Ich muss auf den Bergen weinen und heulen, Graupner's Aus der Tiefen rufen wir and Bach's Du wahrer Gott und David's Sohn. Ælbgut is a chamber music ensemble founded by soprano Isabel Schicketanz, alto Stefan Kunath and bass Martin Schickentanz, and these three singers are joined on the disc by tenor Florian Sievers. The period instrument ensemble, Capella Jenensis features 21 players on the disc led by concert master Yves Ytier.

Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment's 2023/24 season: from community Purcell and complete Bach to Mendelssohn and Sibelius

Clockwise from left: Masaaki Suzuki, Sir András Schiff, Peter Whelan, Louise Alder, Riccardo Minasi, Maxim Emelyanychev, Alina Ibrigamova. 

With the various press announcements for the 2023/24 season coming out, it is noticeable that many organisations are opting for safety, and the mixture as before. So, it is heartening that some organisations are continuing to programme with imagination and daring (do check out the Scottish Chamber Orchestra's tempting 2023/24 season plans). The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment has recently announced plans for its season at the Southbank Centre, and very tempting they are too.

The season opens with a concert directed by violinist Matthew Truscott that includes Haydn's first and last symphonies, along with Symphony No. 51 and the Sinfonia Concertante in B flat major, lovely to see Haydn being put squarely in the centre rather than tucked in behind someone else.

Masaaki Suzuki returns to conduct a complete performance of Bach's Christmas Oratorio, spread over two evenings alongside other choral works by Bach. Easter sees Bach returning, with Peter Whelan conducting the Easter Oratorio. 

Conductor James Redwood and writer Hazel Gould have been applying their imagination to the problem that is Purcell's The Fairy Queen, and have come up with The Fairy Queen: Three Wishes, a new community opera which will include students from Acland Burghley, primary schools in Camden and the orchestra’s musical communities around the country. Redwood and Gould transform Purcell’s 1692 opera into a magical adventure for the whole family. 

Acland Burghley School, the North London comprehensive, is the base for the orchestra’s offices and library, a number of in-school programmes - such as Musical Connections, supporting students with special educational needs and disability, and the Dreamchasing Young Producers funded with support from former F1 boss Ron Dennis’ foundation - as well as community performances and rehearsals. 

Riccardo Minasi conducts the orchestra in an all-Mozart programme featuring soprano Louise Alder arias from Così fan tutte and Le nozze di Figaro plus two concert arias. Maxim Emelyanychev, principal conductor of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, conducts a programme centred on Sibelius' Symphony No. 5 with music by Glinka, Rachmaninoff and Grieg. Definitely one for the diary to hear how a historically informed approach changes the sound world in Sibelius.

The season ends with Sir András Schiff joining the orchestra for another one of his marathons. This time it is Mendelssohn. At first, this does not feel like pushing the boat out, but we still take Mendelssohn for granted; when was the last time you heard all his symphonies. Schiff, directing and playing, will be giving us all four symphonies, two piano concertos and the Violin Concerto with Alina Ibragimova.

The OAE recently announced its new cohort of Rising Stars of the Enlightenment. During the 2023/24 season at the Southbank Centre, the Rising Stars will appear as soloists in the Easter Oratorio and the Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 4 ‘Lobgesang’. The Rising Stars for 2023 - 2025 are: Madison Nonoa (soprano), Frances Gregory (mezzo-soprano), Rebecca Leggett (mezzo-soprano), Laurence Kilsby (tenor), Malachy Frame (baritone) and Florian Störtz (bass).

The OAE’s 2023/24 activity in London doesn't stop here and plans also include OAE Tots concerts at the Southbank Centre and Acland Burghley School, another series of Bach, the Universe and Everything at Kings Place - in which Bach’s cantatas meet astronomy - and The Night Shift will return to pubs and bars around the capital.

50th anniversary: Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Maxim Emelyanychev celebrate with a diverse and imaginative season

Scottish Chamber Orchestra & Maxim Emelyanychev (Photo Christopher Bowen)

The Scottish Chamber Orchestra is celebrating its 50th anniversary with its 2023/24 season led by principal conductor Maxim Emelyanychev, who has extended his contract through to 2028.

Emelyanychev and the orchestra launch the season with a Grand Tour of Scotland, Beethoven's Symphony No. 3 'Eroica' performed in seven different locations across the country, from Perth to Aberdeen and Craigmillar to Ayr, along with a new piece by SCO Associate Composer Jay Capperauld, The Origin of Colour, which tells a surrealist tale of the creation of colour on Earth. Emelyanychev returns to conclude the season with Mendelssohn's Elijah with Carolyn Sampson, Roderick Williams and the SCO Chorus, a performance that is also coming to the BBC Proms.

There is more Mendelssohn during the season as Emelyanychev conducts Benjamin Grosvenor in the Piano Concerto No. 1. He also conducts the orchestra's official 50th birthday concert, with Elena Langer's Suite: Figaro Gets a Divorce alongside music by Mozart and Haydn, and in March 2024 there is a celebration of The Auld Alliance with Berlioz' Rob Roy and Le mort de Cleopatre, with Karen Cargill, the premiere of James MacMillan's Composed in August, setting Robert Burns, and Maxwell Davies' Orkney Wedding, with Sunrise.

The MacMillan features the SCO Chorus, and the chorus will also be premiering Jay Capperauld’s The Night Watch, a setting of Niall Campbell’s poem, as part of their Christmas concert. The chorus will also be joining Richard Egarr and the orchestra for Bach's Mass in B Minor.

Violinist Pekka Kuusisto returns for typically eclectic programme mixing Respighi and Tarrodi with Vivaldi's The Four Season interspersed with Nordic folk tunes.  In another concert he directs music by Erkki-Sven Tüür and Rautavaara as well as the UK premieres of Helen Grime’s It Will Be Spring Soon and Anna Clyne’s violin concerto Time and Tides, which was written for him. And he is the soloist in Magnus Lindberg's Violin Concerto No. 1 in a programme conducted by Emelyanychev that includes music by Faure and Shostakovich.

Andrew Manze conducts a concert including Ravel's Piano Concerto with Steven Osborne and an all-RVW programme including the Concerto Grosso with young string players from the SCO Academy. Thomas Ades conducts a programme that moves from Haydn to Judith Weir, including new orchestral version of his own The Origin of the Harp. Ryan Bancroft conducts a programme that mixes Ives and Copland with the premiere of Errollyn Wallen's Dances for Orchestra.

The orchestra is introducing a series of Matinee concerts, three full-length programmes performed at 2pm, meaning audiences who prefer not to come out at night are still able to enjoy the orchestra’s work. Building on the SCO’s Reconnect programme for people with dementia, and developing the orchestra’s ongoing partnership with Alzheimer Scotland, the SCO presents three dementia-friendly concerts in the season. The performances are designed especially for people living with dementia, their friends and carers.

Children and families can experience the orchestra live in action in Perth, Edinburgh and Glasgow with the world premiere of Jay Capperauld’s The Great Grumpy Gaboon, a new musical adventure written in collaboration with children’s author and illustrator Corrina Campbell and inspired by the SCO’s very own musicians. 

The SCO’s community residency in Greater Craigmillar, Edinburgh, enters the half-way point of its five-year programme later this year. Their most substantial community project to date with cross-artform workshops and performances for children, young people, families and adults to explore their musical potential and help celebrate their creativity. So far, a regular programme of seven music and cross-arts projects have been delivered each year, with 232 workshops, 375 people involved in the regular programme, and over 700 people attending SCO performances.

Full details from the SCO website.