Organ recitals, orchestras Ukraine, Hungary, India, China, and the Czech Republic: Fairfield Halls' new season

Fairfield Halls

Fairfield Halls in Croydon has announced a busy season ahead. Its International Orchestra Concert Series 2023/24 is headlined by a visit from the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine as part of as series that brings orchestras from Hungary, India, China, and the Czech Republic. And before then, the hall's 2023 lunchtime Organ Recital Series gets underway.

Fairfield Halls' International Orchestra Concert Series 2023/24 launches on 12 September 2023 with a concert from Concerto Budapest, conducted by Andras Keller, in Liszt's Rhapsody No. 2, Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 2 (soloist Mihaly Berecz) and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5. Other concerts in the series include the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine (18 October), as part of its largest UK tour for 100 years, in Symphony No. 2 by Ukrainian composer Boris Lyatoshynsky (1895-1968) plus music by Strauss, Beethoven and Sibelius, the  Symphony Orchestra of India, conductor Zane Dalal (5 December) in Khachaturian's Violin Concerto (soloist Marat Bisengaliev), plus music by Rossini and Tchaikovsky, the China Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra, conductor Daye Lin (22 March 2024) in Chausson's Poeme and music from Tan Dun's score for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, with violinist Tamsin Waley-Cohen. And the series ends with the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, conductor Ilya Mashkevich (16 May 2024) in Smetana, Bruch and Dvorak.

Tomorrow, 8 June 2023, Fairfield Halls' Croydon launches its 2023 Organ Recital Series with a Coronation-themed recital from Andrew Scott, managing director of Harrison & Harrison Organ Builders and director of music at St Michael & All Angels, Croydon. There are further recitals at lunchtimes on Thursdays across the year (29 June, 13 July, 21 September, 9 November) with organists including Jonathan Holmes, Norman Harper, Marilyn Harper and Herman Jardaan. Tickets are only £5 (with free tickets for under 18s) and attendees at events can enjoy a free cup of tea or coffee, which will be available from The Cube Café starting from 12:00pm, along with a 20% discount on food purchases in the café, allowing them to indulge in a delightful light lunch before the recital.

Full details from the Fairfield Halls website.

Flooding Pimlico with Music: Pimlico Music Foundation presents Britten's Noye's Fludde with 200 local school children

The Pimlico Musical Foundation (PMF) is presenting a performance of Britten's Noyes Fludde at St Gabriel's Church, Pimlico on 5 July 2023.  The project features 200 school children from five local schools, and PMF is using the event not just to teach them some wonderful music, but also to help them think about climate change. PMF will be running workshops in the schools, in which the children will write their own lyrics for some of the opera’s traditional hymns, reflecting the local area as well as environmental issues. They will also decorate costumes for the performance and help build the set.

The performance will involve a community chorus of children from all five partner schools, members of the PMF’s Foundation Scholars programme, a team of world-class opera singers in principal roles including Gareth Brynmor John as Noye and Felicity Buckland as Mrs Noye, and a community orchestra supported by young professionals from the Southbank Sinfonia. It will be part of SouthWestFest 2023, the annual cultural community festival for south Westminster.

PMF Artistic Director James Day says "The Pimlico Musical Foundation exists to provide high-quality, free musical education to the children of Pimlico. Britten’s Noye’s Fludde is a masterwork and gives us a framework to teach key musical concepts while exploring an issue important to all members of our community".

Full details from the PMF website.

Opera Rara and The Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama collaborate on fringe events for BBC Cardiff Singer of the World

The ongoing partnership Opera Rara and The Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama (RWCMD) continues this month with an exhibition that delves into The Foyle Opera Rara Collection, one of the finest collections of manuscripts, letters and memorabilia relating to 19th-century Italian bel canto opera (10-18 June), plus two lunchtime concerts by mezzo-soprano Kezia Bienek (13 June), tenor Julian Henao Gonzalez (14 June) and pianist James Southall, Interim Music Director of the David Seligman Opera School at RWCMD, include restorations of Donizetti songs from the collection. The concerts and exhibition are part of RWCMD’s programme of fringe events complementing the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition, which takes place from 10 to 18 June 2023.

The Foyle Opera Rara Collection, now held at RWCMD, was created by Patric Schmid and Don White who founded Opera Rara and the collection reflects their interests in the Italian bel canto tradition. The close partnership between Opera Rara and RWCMD also continues through conductor Carlo Rizzi, who as well as being Artistic Director of Opera Rara, is RWCMD International Chair in Conducting.

Full details from the RWCMD website.

Spitalfields Music is back with its Summer Music Festival

Spitalfields Music is back with its Summer Music Festival running from 30 June to 12 July 2023 in historic venues in and around Spitalfields. The festival features 16 premieres, including new works from Michael Finnissy and Rasmus Zwicki in a programme inspired by Hans Christian Anderson, Ian Wilson's musical exploration of his father's battle with Alzheimer's, the English premiere of a piano quintet by James MacMillan, Klaus Lang, Catherine Lamb and , plus the English premiere of Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre's Biblical cantatas, performed by the Dunedin Consort, some 300 years after they were first performed in Paris.

The three masses of William Byrd will be performed by The Odyssean Ensemble at the Church of St. Peter ad Vincula, Tower of London, 400 years after Byrd’s death. Set against a backdrop of Byrd’s struggles during the Reformation when many persecuted Catholics were imprisoned at the Tower of London, the music will be juxtaposed with prose and poetry highlighting more recent examples of persecution of and by religious groups, including Afghan women under the Taliban.

Six new works by emerging composers will receive their London premieres performed by harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani and violinist Fenella Humphreys as part of the ongoing partnership between Spitalfields Music and Cheltenham Music Festival. Also featured in the festival will be Eleanor Alberga's String Quartet No. 2, and Libby Larsen's opera Try Me Good King.

An evening of protest songs will feature music by Schubert, Strauss, Britten, Boulanger, Wallen and Kit & The Widow performed by Roderick Williams, Nardus Williams, and Allyson Devenish, narrated by poet Rommi Smith.

Full details from the Spitalfields Festival website.

Hogarth's Garden

London Early Opera is launching its new vocal consort with a new programme Hogarth’s Garden at St Nicholas Church, Chiswick, on on Friday 23 June 2023. The church's cemetery is the resting place of the artist William Hogarth who inspired much of the artwork at Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens and was a governor and supporter of the Foundling Hospital where Handel performed.

The concert is based on Hogarth’s works and his inspiration for 18th-century London including music from Handel’s Foundling Hospital Anthem  and L’Allegro, plus catches and cantatas connecting themes of paintings in Handel’s own collection to musical masterpieces, along with music inspired by Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens. Curated by artistic director and conductor, Bridget Cunningham, the evening features narrations from Lars Tharp, Hogarth enthusiast and ceramics historian (BBC Antiques Roadshow).

Bridget Cunningham and London Early Opera have already recorded two discs of music written for the 18th century Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens and the currently have a GoFundMe appeal to raise money to record a further disc of the music from the concert.

Full details from EventBrite.

Earth, Water, Air and Fire: synaesthesia, music and art from Music@Malling

Deborah Pritchard with painting by Maggi Hambling (Photo: Matthew Holley)

Music@Malling's Summer concert series, Earth, Water, Air and Fire, explores synaesthesia, music and art, in a series of concerts from 9 to 11 June 2023 presented by Chamber Domaine and conductor Thomas Kemp in historic venues in Kent including All Saints' Church, Tudeley and St Mary's Church, West Malling.

The series features performances of eight synaesthesia-influenced works by Deborah Pritchard with inspirations including Marc Chagall (with a performance in All Saints' Church, Tudeley which has a complete set of Chagall windows), and Maggi Hambling, who has very recently created a painting in response to Deborah Pritchard's piece Light, for which they were collaborators, which will be displayed at the festival in June. The concerts also feature Handel's Water Music and Music for the Royal Fireworks.

The main Music@Malling Festival runs from 22-30 September 2023, and will include premieres by Gavin Bryars, Brian Elias, Deborah Pritchard, and Judith Weir, plus an installation by Anish Kapoor with music by Brian Elias.

Full details from the Music@Malling website.

Because: in a slightly unlikely but completely seductive pairing, countertenor Reginald Mobley is joined by jazz pianist/composer Baptiste Trotignon

Because - spirituals, gospel, Florence Price, Harry Burleigh; Reginald Mobley, Baptiste Trotignon; Alpha Classics

A profoundly lovely, imaginative and highly sympathetic take on spirituals and gospel

A disc of spirituals, gospel, and art song recorded by a counter-tenor and a jazz pianist/composer might seem a somewhat counter-intuitive project. But Because with Reginald Mobley (countertenor) and Baptiste Trotignon (piano) on Alpha Classics is a disc that I will treasure. It starts with the design, featuring striking photographs of Mobley by Richard Dumas.

The disc moves from spirituals to gospel, songs by Florence Price and Harry Burleigh, to a song by Trotignon and even a Motown number. Throughout them all, Mobley sings with a lovely warm, focused tone bringing a purity to the line which is complemented by Trotignon's jazz-based accompaniments. The result is a striking and engaging sound-world. This is late-night listening, which is how we first heard the disc.

Dennis & Gnasher: Unleashed at the Orchestra: A more than enjoyable event celebrating The Beano with Colin Currie and the BBC Concert Orchestra

Gavin Higgins: Beano Concerto - George Jackson, Colin Currie, BBC Concert Orchestra - Royal Festival Hall (Photo: BBC / Mark Allan)

Dennis & Gnasher: Unleashed at the Orchestra - Gavin Higgins: Beano Concerto, Ravel, Dobrinka Tabakova, Nancy Galbraith, Prokofiev, Arturo Marquez; Colin Currie, BBC Concert Orchestra, George Jackson, Nadia Wadia, Asha Sthanakiya; Royal Festival Hall

Let's face it any concert that fills the Royal Festival Hall with families enjoying the premiere of a new concerto by one of Britain's most talented young composers has to be a good thing.

I have to confess that I always feel a bit of a fraud when I go to family-oriented classical music events. Having no children of my own and not being able to borrow any for the occasions, usually, I am a lone adult in a sea of parents and children. This was even more the case on Saturday 3 June 2023 when there were celebrations at the Southbank Centre for the 85th anniversary of The Beano, with a focus on the character of Dennis the Menace (and his dog, Gnasher). Now, whilst I have never seen the popular CBBC animated series Dennis & Gnasher Unleashed, the original comic was certainly a firm part of my childhood. But the Dennis of the film series is rather different from the Dennis of my memory, more modern and very streetwise.

Before the concert, the Clore Ballroom was awash with children enthusiastically making music for massed improvised percussion inspired by characters from The Beano, alongside lots of other drop-in activities. Then, for Dennis & Gnasher: Unleashed at the Orchestra in the Royal Festival Hall, conductor George Jackson and the BBC Concert Orchestra, with percussionist Colin Currie, performed Gavin Higgins' Beano Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra (which had received its premiere that morning at the first iteration of this concert), alongside music by Ravel, Dobrinka Tabakova, Nancy Galbraith, Prokofiev and Arturo Marquez. And there was music from the animated series, Dennis & Gnasher Unleashed too, in arrangements by Stephen Whibley.

Gavin Higgins: Beano Concerto - George Jackson, Colin Currie, BBC Concert Orchestra - Royal Festival Hall (Photo: BBC / Mark Allan)

When all is said and done, His passport simply says that he is a musician: I chat to composer & multi-instrumentalist Richard Harvey about his new disc of choral music

Richard Harvey

Composer Richard Harvey's Easter Songs were released as an EP on the Altus label earlier this year. Settings of poetry by George Herbert, Christina Rossetti and Joseph Mary Plunkett, they were recorded by the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, conductor Jérôme Kuhn, with an instrumental ensemble of two violins, cello and harp. Richard has had quite a diverse career. Now known both as a composer of classical music and a composer for film and TV, his early career encompassed playing in the pioneering Early Music ensemble Musica Reservata and the progressive rock and folk band Gryphon, and working with film composer Jean-Michel Jarre. Richard wrote his 1995 Concerto Antico for guitarist John Williams and his 2009 Concerto Incanto for recorder player Michala Petri.

The recording of the Easter Songs came about originally because the Swiss conductor, Jérôme Kuhn asked Richard for choral music for an Easter-themed concert. So, he went looking for texts, preferably something older (for copyright reasons), and either not used or not used to death. He found himself inspired by Christina Rossetti's writing, finding her poetry very singable and having set one poem of hers, he is resolved to look at her more, in the future. A further choice was the poetry of Joseph Mary Plunkett. Richard finds him a very interesting man, an Irish revolutionary, he was a passionate Republican but also very creative, yet was executed in 1916 when he was still in his 20s. Again, Richard found his texts very singable. The third piece came about because Jérôme Kuhn brought two of his choirs to London earlier this year, and they gave a concert at St James' Piccadilly, and for that, Richard wrote a further Easter piece. He had enjoyed setting George Herbert's poetry before, finding him very celebratory and open-hearted.

Last August (2022) Richard had a recording slot with the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir (EPCC) and decided that he would record all three of the Easter Songs ahead of the premiere of the third one. He describes it as a rare treat to work with the choir and when they come up, he grasps the opportunity to work with the choir with both hands. Along with the EPCC, he drew on a pool of fine instrumental players who are at home in a variety of styles, and understand what he is after.

Richard Harvey (Photo: Paramet Odd Lerdkasem)

An intimate, chamber production of Wagner's Die Walküre from Regents Opera

Wagner: Die Walküre - Justine Viani (Sieglinde), Catharine Woodward (Brünnhilde), the Valkyries  - Regents Opera 2023 (Photo: Steve Gregson)

Wagner: Die Walküre; Brian Smith Walters, Justine Viani, Gerrit Paul Groen, Keel Watson, Catharine Woodward, Ingeborg Novrup Børch, director: Caroline Staunton, conductor: Ben Woodward; Regents Opera at the Freemasons' Hall
Reviewed by Florence Anna Maunders, 27 May 2023

Reduced forces, but heightened drama from the second instalment of Regents Opera's Wagner in the round

Regents Opera returned to the Freemasons' Hall for Caroline Staunton's production of Wagner's Die Walküre (seen 27 May 2023) with Brian Smith Walters as Siegmund, Justine Viani as Sieglinde, Gerrit Paul Groen as Hunding, Keel Watson as Wotan, Catharine Woodward as Brünnhilde, and Ingeborg Novrup Børch as Fricka. This was the second instalment of musical director Ben Woodward's new arrangement of Wagner's tetralogy, with the orchestra reduced to just 22 players, including organ. Combined with the staging, which thrust the action into the centre of the room, surrounded on three sides by the audience, the overall effect was to create an intimate, chamber production of Wagner's most intimate chamber opera, which rarely has more than two characters on stage at a time.

Wagner: Die Walküre - Keel Watson (Wotan) - Regents Opera 2023 (Photo: Steve Gregson

Style, imagination & not a little daring: a new staging of Handel's Saul at Berlin's Komische Oper

Handel: Saul - Rupert Charlesworth, Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen - Komische Oper, Berlin (Photo Barbara Braun)

Handel: Saul; Luca Tittoto, Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen, Rupert Charlesworth, Nadja Mchantaf, Penny Sofoniadou, director Axel Ranisch, conductor David Bates; Komische Oper Berlin

An international cast bring Handel's oratorio to vivid and striking life in an evening of musical and dramatic pleasures.

Over the Whitsun weekend, the Komische Oper Berlin had something of a Handel festival on with revivals of Barrie Kosky's production of Handel's Semele and Stefan Herheim's production of Handel's Serse, plus a new production of Saul.

Axel Ranisch's staging of Handel's Saul opened on Saturday 27 May 2023 with David Bates conducting. Luca Tittoto was Saul with Rupert Charlesworth as Jonathan, Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen as David, Nadja Mchantaf as Michal and Penny Sofoniadou as Merab. Stage design and videos were by Falko Herold and costumes by Alfred Mayerhofer.

The work was sung in English and was, perhaps inevitably, cut. Bates conducted the Komische Oper orchestra with the addition of Baroque harp, Baroque trumpets and Baroque timpani (duplicating the special low timpani that Handel borrowed from the Tower of London) plus two harpsichords, organ and two theorbos.

Before the music started, we heard a German voice whispering the plot so far (quite a complex one) to accompany Herold's vivid animation of the story. The orchestral sound, from the outset, was crisp and vivid, with historically informed string articulations accompanying an equally striking stage picture as the chorus appeared, rejoicing, in multi-coloured clothes (modern with a nod to hippie-chic).

Handel: Saul - Komische Oper, Berlin (Photo Barbara Braun)

No ordinary evening: Christof Loy directs Zandonai's Francesca da Rimini at the Deutsche Oper Berlin with Sara Jakubiak & Jonathan Tetelman

Riccardo Zandonai: Francesca da Rimini - Sara Jakubiak, Jonathan Tetelman - Deutsche Oper Berlin (Photo: Monika Rittershaus)

Riccardo Zandonai: Francesca da Rimini; Sara Jakubiak, Jonathan Tetelman, Ivan Inverardi, Charles Workman, director: Christof Loy, conductor: Ivan Repusic; Deutsche Oper Berlin
Reviewed 26 May 2023

Loy's modern look at Zandonai's over-blown classic featured stunning performances from the two lovers and an intelligent approach to the drama, creating a remarkable evening in the theatre

Riccardo Zandonai's reputation rests almost entirely on his 1914 opera Francesca da Rimini, a work that retains a toehold on the repertoire. A somewhat overblown romantic tragedy based on a play by Gabriele d'Annunzio, the work would seem an unlikely fit for the stage of the Deutsche Oper Berlin under director Christof Loy's forensic eye. Yet the Deutsche Oper has evinced a fascination for operatic byways, witness its sequence of Meyerbeer productions, whilst Loy has proved highly effective in reviving romantic rarities, witness his powerful production of Weber's Euryanthe at the Vienna State Opera. And Loy's last appearance at the Deutsche Oper was for Korngold's Das Wunder der Heliane, another late Romantic.

Christof Loy's production of Zandonai's Francesca da Rimini debut at the Deutsche Oper Berlin in 2021 as a live stream without an audience. Thus the production's revival this month (with substantially the same cast) was the first performance with a live audience. We caught the performance on Friday 26 May 2023, conducted by Ivan Repusic, with Eva-Maria Abelein as revival director. Designs were by Johannes Leiacker with costumes by Klaus Bruns. Sara Jakubiak was Francesca with Lexi Hutton as her sister Samaritana and Kyle Miller as her brother Ostasio. Jonathan Tetelman was Paolo with Ivan Inverardi and Charles Workman as his brothers Gianciotto and Malatestino.

Riccardo Zandonai: Francesca da Rimini - Sara Jakubiak - Deutsche Oper Berlin (Photo: Monika Rittershaus)

Zandonai's style is lushly romantic, somewhere between Verismo (Mascagni was one of his teachers), Massenet (a big influence on the composers of Puccini's generation) and the inevitable nod to Wagner's Tristan und Isolde. But unlike Wagner, Zandonai does not keep his passions under control. If Tristan und Isolde is one long-delayed orgasm, then Francesca da Rimini is a whole sequence of musical climaxes.

The story is 40 years old but nothing much has changed about women's rights in the region: Bushra El-Turk on her opera Woman at Point Zero which comes to Covent Garden next month

Bushra El-Turk: Woman at Point Zero (Photo Nika Prokopenka Transparant-AllArias)

Bushra El-Turk is a composer who brings immense cultural richness to her works. Born in the UK to Lebanese parents, her musical practice can involve other musical cultures and traditions. Her opera Woman at Point Zero is being performed at the Royal Opera House's Linbury Theatre (28 to 30 June 2023) as part of Shubbak Festival and Aldeburgh Festival 2023. It is a multi-media piece, created by Bushra, with writer Stacy Hardy, director Laila Soliman and film designer Bissane Al Charif, with an instrumental featuring both Western classical instruments and traditional instruments from other cultures.

Bushra El-Turk (Photo Ben McDonnell)

Woman at Point Zero is a co-production between LOD muziektheater, All Aria's festival (deSingel Antwerp, Opera Ballet Vlaanderen, Concertgebouw Brugge & Transparant), Royal Opera House, London, Shubbak, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, Britten Pears Arts and Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg, supported by ENOA Creative Europe programme of the European Union, Fedora and the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (AFAC). It premiered at Aix en Provence Festival last year and toured to Antwerp, Ghent, and Brugge, and the production will be presented at the Grand Théâtre de la Ville de Luxembourg (7 June 2023). 

The opera is based on Nawal El Saadawi's 1975 novel which Bushra describes as just landing in her lap whilst she was writing her first opera, Silk Moth, in 2015. It dawned on her that El Saadawi's novel needed to be staged, and its story chimed in with Bushra's interest in stories about imprisonment and what it means. Woman at Point Zero features two women, Fatma, an activist imprisoned for manslaughter and Sama, an ambitious documentary filmmaker. Its dialogue form is very interior, just two women whose discussion constantly questions things, freedom today and power dynamics.

The director of Woman at Point Zero, Laila Soliman, who is Egyptian, was already looking into women prisoners and inserting documentary work into her theatre works. With Woman at Point Zero, they decided to take the work into the present day by introducing voices of women imprisoned for killing their husbands, voices of today from the real-life prison where Fatma is imprisoned.

Norwich-based music writer, Tony Cooper, offers a glimpse to the 2023/24 season of Norwich Chamber Music opening in September.

Alim Beisembayev(Photo: Nabin Maharjan)

Curated by Misha Donat - writer, lecturer and a senior music producer for BBC Radio 3 for more than a quarter of a century where he collaborated with many of the world’s leading musicians - the forthcoming season of Norwich Chamber Music offers classical-music aficionados another great, grand and exuberant feast of chamber music from a coterie of distinguished international performers.

The opening concert on Saturday, 16th September (7.30pm) falls to Kazakhstan-born pianist, Alim Beisembayev, playing Bach, Schubert, Debussy and Ravel. A pianist of extraordinary talent, Beisembayev’s career took off at an alarming rate after winning First Prize at the Leeds International Piano Competition in September 2021 performing Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra under Andrew Manze.  

Regents Opera's new production of Wagner's Die Walküre: a photo essay

Wagner: Die Walküre - Keel Watson (Wotan) - Regents Opera 2023 (Photo: Steve Gregson

Regents Opera's new production of Wagner's Die Walküre opened at the Freemason's Hall, London, on 21, May 2023, with further performances on 23 & 27 May. Ben Woodward conducts his own arrangement for 21 piece orchestra, Caroline Stanton directs, with Brian Smith Walters as Siegmund, JustineViani as Sieglinde, Gerrit Paul Groen as Hunding, Keel Watson as Wotan, Catharine Woodward as Brünnhilde and Ingeborg Novrup Børch as Fricka, and you can read Ingeborg's article, From Psychic Shellfish to a leading role in Wagner's Ring Cycle: Ingeborg Børch's Regents Opera journey on this blog.

We are pleased to present a selection of Steve Gregson's photographs of the production,

Wagner: Die Walküre - The Valkyries - Regents Opera 2023 (Photo: Steve Gregson)

Ein Sommernachtstraum in Essen: Jérémie Rhorer and Le Cercle de l'Harmonie

Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel & Wilhelm Hensel

Ein Sommernachtstraum - Felix Mendelssohn, Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel; Jacquelyn Wagner, Valentina Stadler, Le Cercle de l'Harmonie, Jérémie Rhorer; Philharmonie Essen

An imaginative evening combining music by Felix and Fanny with the texts that inspired them, along with the magical timbres and textures of the period instruments.

Beginning our journey to Berlin and Hannover with a stop over in Essen to visit the Folkwang Museum, we happened upon an imaginative concert given at the Philharmonie Essen on Sunday 21 May 2023 by Jérémie Rhorer and Le Cercle de l'Harmonie. The centrepiece of the concert was Mendelssohn's overture and incidental music to A Midsummer Night's Dream (Ein Sommernachtstraum). Rhorer and Le Cercle de l'Harmonie were joined by soprano Jacquelyn Wagner, mezzo-soprano Valentina Stadler, members of the Aalto Kinderchores and the Women's Choir of the Philharmonic Choir, Essen, plus actor Wolfram Koch. The remainder of the programme focussed on the idea of music and telling tales, with Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel's Szene aus 'Faust II' from 1843, and her Hero und Leander from 1831.

For A Midsummer Night's Dream Wolfram Koch gave us not a plot summary but speeches from the play, whilst before each of the works in the first half we heard extracts from the works by classic German authors that inspired the music, Grillparzer, Goethe and Schiller.  The result was to place the siblings' musical inspiration rather more firmly in a literary context than usual.

The festival connects you with opera's good side: Wexford Festival Opera's principal guest conductor Francesco Cilluffo on the joys of operatic rediscovery

Halevy: La Tempesta - conducted by Francesco Cilluffo at Wexford Festival Opera 2022 (Photo: Clive Barda ArenaPAL)

Conductor Francesco Cilluffo is the principal guest conductor at Wexford Festival Opera where he conducted Halevy's La Tempesta in 2022 [see my review] and he will conduct Marco Tutino's La Ciociara at Wexford this year in a new production directed by Wexford's artistic director Rosetta Cucchi [see my 2022 interview with her]. In the UK last year, Francesco conducted Opera Holland Park's Delius/Puccini double bill [see my review] and Verdi's Macbeth at the Grange Festival [see my review]

La Ciociara is based on the 1957 book of the same name by the Italian novelist Alberto Moravia, probably best known in the 1960 film adaptation (Two Women) starring Sophia Loren, which was directed by Vittorio de Sica and won Loren an Academy Award for Best Actress, making her the first such winner for a non-English film. Marco Tutino's opera premiered in 2015 at San Francisco Opera with mezzo-soprano Anna Caterina Antonacci, and the European premiere at the Teatro Lirico di Cagliari followed in 2017 in the same production, also with Antonacci. For the Wexford performances, Tutino has produced a new, revised orchestration.

Francesco has a long-standing relationship with Tutino in Italy, working with him for the first time in 2011 on a production of Tutino's opera The Servant (also with Rosetta Cucchi directing). Francesco has conducted more of Tutino's work in Italy including the premieres Le Braci at the Festival della Valle d'Itria in Martina Franca in 2015 and Miseria e Nobiltà at the Teatro Carlo Felice di Genova in 2018, also directed by Rosetta Cucchi. And whilst Francesco has no experience of La Ciociara as a performer, he heard much of the music whilst it was being composed. He also caught the television broadcast of the Italian premiere of the work. 

Francesco Cilluffo

Young musicians awards, a final and three winners

Owen Spafford & Jacob Jordan, winners of the 2023 National Centre for Early Music Young Composers Award

The final of the John Fussell Award for Young Musicians is coming up on 14 June at the Taliesin Arts Centre, Swansea University, whilst in Yorkshire the winners of the 16th National Centre for Early Music Young Composers Award, presented in partnership with BBC Radio 3, were announced. And over in Manchester, The Hallé announced the latest winner of The Terence Judd-Hallé Award, in partnership with BBC Radio 3's New Generation Artists.

The John Fussell Award is funded by a Trust set up in memory of John Fussell, a well-known figure in the South Wales music scene from 1970 until his death in 1990. Four finalists currently attending a music college and in their final or postgraduate year are competing for a first prize of £2,500 to enable them to continue their studies in music.  To be eligible for the competition all competitors must have either been born or raised in Wales, have Welsh heritage or studied in Wales. 

This year the finalists are Cardiff-born Grace Hope-Gill (soprano), Samuel Willsmore (oboe) who is currently studying at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Vale of Clwyd-born Dafydd Jones (tenor), and Pembrokeshire-born Anna Phillips (harp). The final is free to attend, at the Taliesin Arts Centre, Swansea University on 14 June 2023 at 7.30pm.

The final of the 16th National Centre for Early Music Young Composers Award, presented in partnership with BBC Radio 3, took place on Friday 12 May at the National Centre for Early Music (NCEM) in York. Aspiring young composers were invited to write a new piece for the acclaimed virtuoso period instrument group The English Cornett & Sackbut Ensemble. This year, young composers were invited to base their work on a popular tune from the Spanish 'Golden Age' of the 16th and 17th centuries and create a new piece in the same spirit, using the melody as a starting point for their musical ideas. 

This year's winner in the 19 to 25 years category is Owen Spafford, with Bog Bodies. The winner in the 18 years and under category is Jacob Jordan with A Ceremonial Dance for Mice. Their works will be premiered by The English Cornett & Sackbut Ensemble at The Stoller Hall, Manchester on 9 November 2023, when the concert will be recorded by BBC Radio 3's Early Music Show, for broadcast on Sunday 26 November. Details from the awards website. 

Tom Borrow, winner of The Terence Judd-Hallé Award.

The Hallé has announced that BBC Radio 3 has selected Israeli pianist Tom Borrow as the latest winner of The Terence Judd-Hallé Award. The remarkably talented pianist, Terence Judd, tragically passed away in 1979 at the age of just 22. A trust was subsequently established in his name and an award has been presented in association with the Hallé for over 40 years. Notable past recipients include Stephen Hough, Nikolai Lugansky, Elisabeth Brauss and last year’s beneficiary, Alexander Gadjiev. Now presented in association with the BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists scheme, each year an outstanding young pianist approaching the end of the scheme is selected by the BBC to receive the award. 

Tom Borrow will receive support and professional development including at least one concerto performance with the Hallé, a chamber recital with Hallé musicians at Hallé St Peter’s, a solo recital as part of the Manchester Mid-Day Concert Series and a cash prize. Tom Borrow’s Hallé debut takes place on 21-25 February 2024 with five concerts in Manchester, Hanley and Sheffield. Tom has chosen to perform Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.3. Full details from the orchestra's website.

Songs of heartbreak and loss: American counter-tenor Randall Scotting explores 17th-century song from Dowland to Purcell, Étienne Moulinié to Antonio Cesti

Lovesick: William Lawes, Étienne Moulinié, Henry Purcell, John Blow, Antonio Cesti, Henry Lawes, John Dowland, Daniele da Castrovillari, Pierre Guédron; Randall Scotting, Stephen Stubbs; SIGNUM CLASSICS

A programme of songs of heartbreak and loss from the American counter-tenor, exploring a wide range of traditional and 17th-century song in a finely music and expressive performances

I interviewed American countertenor Randall Scotting in October last year, when he released his debut recital disc, The Crown: Heroic Arias for Senesino recorded with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Lawrence Cummings and released on the Signum Classics label [see my interview]. Having made his Royal Opera House debut in 2019 (in Britten's Death in Venice), Scotting's 2022 appearances included the Metropolitan Opera, New York, and his Bavarian State Opera debut, in Georg Friedrich Haas' Thomas. On 28 May 2023, Scotting will be creating the role of Adone in the world premiere of Italian composer Salvatore Sciarrino's Venere e Adone (Venus and Adonis) at Staatsoper Hamburg, with soprano Layla Claire as Venere, conducted by Kent Nagano.

Randall Scotting's latest disc, with lutenist Stephen Stubbs on Signum Classics, is called Lovesick and was released, most appropriately, in time for Valentine's Day this year. It is a programme of anti-Valentines, songs of heartbreak and loss from the 17th century featuring music by William Lawes, Étienne Moulinié, Henry Purcell, John Blow, Antonio Cesti, Henry Lawes, John Dowland, Daniele da Castrovillari, and Pierre Guédron, along with a selection of Gaelic, Scottish, Irish and English traditional songs. 

From Psychic Shellfish to a leading role in Wagner's Ring Cycle: Ingeborg Børch's Regents Opera journey.

Wagner: Das Rheingold - Ingeborg Børch as Fricka, Keel Watson as Wotan - Regents Opera 2022 (Photo Steve Gregson)

On Sunday 21st May 2023, Regents Opera presents its new production of Wagner's Die Walküre, the latest instalment of their new Ring Cycle, directed by Caroline Staunton and conducted by Ben Woodward. Here, in this guest article, we hear from Ingeborg Børch, who sings Fricka.

As a little girl with pig-tails and a habit of turning every single roll of toilet paper in the house into a white, lush gown and bossing everyone around with a metre-long veil dragging after her, mezzo-soprano Ingeborg Børch was lovingly referred to by her parents as "their little Valkyrie". It was partly to do with her obvious desire to express herself, partly loving all kinds of competitions and challenges (she was later a high-level figure skater), and partly the family business.