Zermatt Music Festival premières a new octet by David Philip Hefti

Scharoun Ensemble Berlin

This year’s Zermatt Festival (running from Friday 8 to Sunday 17 September) will première a new octet entitled Des Zaubers Spuren (Traces of Magic) written by Swiss-born composer/conductor, David Philip Hefti, who is also the festival's composer-in-residence. The work will be performed by Scharoun Ensemble Berlin comprising members of the Berliner Philhamoniker; the ensemble founded the festival, based in the Swiss mountain resort of Zermatt, in 2005. 

Born in St Gallen, Hefti enjoyed good company as a student studying composition, conducting, clarinet and chamber music with the likes of Wolfgang Rihm, Cristóbal Halffter and Wolfgang Meyer in Zürich and Karlsruhe while he's a winner all the way it seems. For instance, he took top honours at such prestigious composition competitions as Gustav Mahler, Vienna, Pablo Casals, Prades and George Enescu, Bucharest. He was also awarded the Hindemith Prize, the Ernst von Siemens Composers' Prize and the Composer Award of the International Classical Music Awards. 

In respect of his new work for Zermatt this is what he had to say: "I have frequently performed Schubert's Octet as a clarinettist over the course of my music studies therefore I'm delighted that my new octet Des Zaubers Spuren written for the Scharoun Ensemble will punctuate the year when they're celebrating their 40th anniversary. 

"It has been a great privilege writing my new Octet, a companion piece to Schubert's Octet, for the Scharoun Ensemble and, therefore, I'm looking tremendously forward in working on and premièring the piece with such a gifted and gallant bunch of musicians especially in the peaceful, tranquil and spiritual setting that surrounds the famous Matterhorn". 

As composer-in-residence, Hefti will be featured in a variety of concert formats with a couple dedicated and performed by the young bloods from the Zermatt Music Academy. They'll play Hefti's Gallicinium: Musik zur vierten Nachtwache für Bläserquintett (Gallicinium: Music for the Fourth Night Watch for wind quintet) dating from 2021 and an earlier work entitled Monumentum for string sextet from 2014. 

Incidentally, the German première of Des Zaubers Spuren will take place at the Berlin Philharmonie on Wednesday 27 September thus marking the auspicious occasion of the Scharoun Ensemble's 40th anniversary. Cake all round! 

Full details from the Zermatt Festival website.

David Philip Hefti's concerts programmed for this year's Zermatt Festival 

Tuesday, 12th September, English Church
Zermatt Music Academy Ensemble
David Philip Hefti: Gallicinium: Musik zur vierten Nachtwache für Bläserquintett 

Wednesday, 13th September, St Mauritius-Pfarrkirche
Zermatt Music Academy Ensemble
David Philip Hefti: Monumentum für Streichsextett 

Friday, 15th September, St Mauritius-Pfarrkirche
Scharoun Ensemble 
Zermatt Festival Orchestra
David Philip Hefti (conductor)
Christiane Karg (soprano), Wolfram Brandl (violin/concert master), Jonathan Kelly (oboe)
Bach: Concerto for Violin and Oboe in C minor, BWV 1060.
David Philip Hefti: Des Zaubers Spuren, world première, commissioned by the Zermatt Festival for the Scharoun Ensemble
Alban Berg: Seven Early Songs (Sieben frühe Lieder) (c.1905-08), (arr. Reinbert de Leeuw). Early compositions of Alban Berg written while he was under the tutelage of Arnold Schoenberg.
Schubert: Symphony No. 4 in C minor, D 417 (the Tragic) 

Saturday, 16th September, St Mauritius-Pfarrkirche
David Philip Hefti (conductor)
Zermatt Festival Orchestra
Christiane Karg (soprano)
Mozart: Così fan tutte (arranged for wind octet by Andreas N. Tarkmann)
Berlioz: Les Nuits d'été (Summer Nights), Op. 7
Strauss: Metamorphosen for 23 solo strings 

Sunday, 17th September, Kapelle Riffelalp
Scharoun Ensemble 
Christiane Karg (soprano)
Zermatt Music Academy Ensemble
Beethoven: Wind Octet in E flat major, Op. 103
David Philip Hefti: Five Scenes for Gustav - String Quartet No.6  
Mahler: Rückert-Lieder for high voice and string quartet (arr. David Philip Hefti) 

info@zermattfestival.com 

00 41 21 721 13 14 

 

 

 

The Elixir of Love: Wild Arts brings Guido Martin-Brandis' enjoyably characterful production of Donizetti's opera to the Thaxted Festival

Donizetti: The Elixir of Love - Alex Jones - Wild Arts (Photo: Bonnie Britain)

Donizetti: The Elixir of Love: Galina Averina, Thomas Elwin, James Atkinson, Alex Jones, director: Guido Martin-Brandis, conductor: Orlando Jopling; Wild Arts at the Thaxted Festival
Reviewed 2 July 2023

Stylish performances and an emphasis on character make this small-scale yet inventive production wonderfully engaging.

As well as presenting opera at its own festival at Layer Marney Tower, Wild Arts, artistic director Orlando Jopling, takes its annual Summer opera production on tour. This year, as well as four performances at Layer Marney, Guido Martin-Brandis' production of Donizetti's The Elixir of Love was being performed at the Thaxted Festival, Childerley Hall, Cambridgeshire, and Hever Castle, Kent. We caught the production in Thaxted at the Parish Church on Sunday 2 July 2023. Orlando Jopling conducted, with Galina Averina as Adina, Thomas Elwin as Nemorino, James Atkinson as Belcore and Alex Jones as Dulcamara, plus Sofia Kirwan-Baez, Rebecca Milford, Harry Jacques and Robert Garland in smaller roles. Designs were by Sophie Lincoln, and the work was sung in a new translation by Joseph Morris. The accompaniment was an instrumental ensemble of string quartet, double bass, accordion, clarinets and trumpet in a new orchestration by Hamish Brown.

Donizetti: The Elixir of Love - Galina Averina, Thomas Elwin - Wild Arts (Photo: Lucy J Toms)

This was a remarkably compact production, Sophie Lincoln's designs consisted simply of a blue-sky backdrop, a pair of deck chairs and some bunting, but there were evocative 1950s-period costumes and plenty of amusing 1950s-style props for Dulcamara's sales routine. This was one of those lovely productions that had no axe to grind, Martin-Brandis and Lincoln were not interested in showing how clever they were by fitting Donizetti and Felice Romani's opera into a new setting. Romani's libretto is perhaps one of the best that Donizetti ever set, and the opera stands on its own without help.

Norfolk Into Opera Festival returns to Little Plumstead with Carmen, new opera by and for children, Lynne Plowman's Captain Blood's Revenge and much more

Norfolk Into Opera Festival at the Octagon Barn, Little Plumstead

Norfolk Into Opera Festival returns for its second year, transforming the beautiful Octagon Barn in Little Plumstead into what they describe as 'their own mini- Glyndebourne' and presenting an array of events from 6 to 16 July 2023 including a production of Bizet's Carmen.

Carmen will be performed in English (in David Parry's translation), directed by Genevieve Raghu and conducted by Olivia Clarke with Georgia Mae Bishop as Carmen, Alexander Robin Baker as Don Jose, Kieran Rayner as Escamillo and Katherine Crompton as Micaela.

Into Opera is a Norfolk-based charity whose aim is to get more people into opera, founded by artistic director Genevieve Raghu. As well as Bizet's popular, the festival is presenting three fun, new operas written especially with and for children. Three local primary schools have collaborated on the project: The Bawburgh School, Sprowston Junior School and St Francis of Assisi Catholic Primary School. The schools have spent five months developing these operas, There’s a Dinosaur in the Playground!, The School for Explorers and The Books that Disappeared with composer Michael Betteridge and librettist Genevieve Raghu. Still on the theme of young people, to launch the the festival on Thursday 6 July, primary schools are invited to a Finding Your Voice: Big Sing on the field of the Octagon Park. 

And for family audiences there is also a mischievous pirate opera called Captain Blood’s Revenge by the composer Lynne Plowman. This opera, originally commissioned by Glyndebourne, is a brilliant introduction to opera in a staging which will playfully immerse the audience in the story. Other family events include Party in the Park, an opportunity to get involved in dance workshops, craft making activities, and to sit in the grounds and enjoy live music over a picnic.

The closing gala concert Opera Unwrapped features conductor John Andrews, the National Symphony Orchestra, mezzo soprano Katie Bray and baritone Grant Doyle in a wide range of music from classic operas, plus a preview of music by Norfolk-based composer Patrick Hawes from his new family opera, Gobbolino the Witch’s Cat, commissioned by Into Opera and based on the story by Ursula Moray Williams. 

Full details from the Into Opera website.

Mendelssohn, Schumann and a Noah Max premiere: Emma Abbate & the Tippett Quartet at the Thaxted Festival

The North Porch, Thaxted Parish Church

Mendelssohn, Noah Max, Holst, Schumann; Emma Abbate, Tippett Quartet; Thaxted Festival
Reviewed 1 July 2023

A programme that contrasted the classicism of the early Romantics with the premiere of Noah Max's highly visual quartet, along with a short work by the festival's founder

The Thaxted Festival is in full swing, presenting concerts in Thaxted's glorious Parish Church (built 1340-1510). The festival can trace its origins to 1916 when Gustav Holst moved to the village and started a Whitsuntide Festival. 

On Saturday 1 July 2023, the Tippett Quartet, John Mills, Jeremy Isaac, Lydia Lowndes-Northcott, and Bozidar Vukotic, performed a programme of Mendelssohn's String Quartet No. 1, Op. 12 in E flat, the premiere of Noah Max's Quartet No. 2, Gustav Holst's Phantasy Quartet on British Folksongs, Op. 36 and Schumann's Piano Quintet with Emma Abbate.

Mendelssohn's String Quartet No. 1 might date from Mendelssohn's 20th year (1829) but by then he was a seasoned composer. The young Mendelssohn extensively studied Beethoven's quartets and this quartet is inspired by Beethoven's Harp Quartet, Op. 74. The first movement began with a graceful slow introduction, very inflected by Beethoven, and played with a lovely unanimity of phrasing. The fluid Allegro had a rather classical outline, full of shapely phrasing but the music was very focused on the first violin line, played with a singing tone by John Mills. The Canzonetta was delightful, all light textures with a middle section reminiscent of Mendelssohn's fairies on speed. The expressive Andante featured rich tone from all four players, but the music still focused on the passionate first violin line. The finale was, at first, all vivid energy but reminiscences of the opening movement led to the quartet's intriguingly downbeat ending.

Noah Max's Quartet No. 2 was inspired by works of visual art. In three contrasting movements, Max describes it as like a Medieval triptych with inspirations ranging from paintings by Joan Miro and Piet Mondrian to sculptures by Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth. Whether this knowledge is helpful to listeners is arguable, but it is always intriguing to hear about a composer's inspirations.

New season, new festival programme, new music director - music news from North of the Border

Lammermuir Landscapes

The Lammermuir Festival, whose strapline is 'Beautiful Music in Beautiful Places' returns with 36 performances across 12 venues in East Lothian during September. The Dunedin Consort, who are performing at the festival, have also announced their 2023/24 season with everything from a new guitar concerto, to Heiner Goebbels to celebrating the 300th anniversary of Bach's appointment in Leipzig. And National Youth Orchestras of Scotland (NYOS) has announced Catherine Larsen-Maguire as new Music Director of the NYOS orchestras. 

Scottish Opera returns to the Lammermuir Festival for the Scottish premiere (!) of Richard Strauss' Daphne (premiered in Dresden in 1938) in a concert staging conducted by Stuart Stratford. Festival patron, pianist Steven Osborne is making three appearances this year, a duo concert with violinist Alina Ibragimova, a lecture recital What does music mean? which includes a performance of Schubert's Sonata in A major, D959, and finally Osborne joins the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Ryan Wigglesworth for Tippett's Piano Concerto. Harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani returns as artist-in-residence with five programmes including a Coffee Concert and four of Bach's Harpsichord Concertos with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Other visitors include the Maxwell Quartet, teaming up with baritone Roderick Williams and pianist Christopher Glynn for a programme of Elgar and Vaughan Williams, the Royal Northern Sinfonia and Dinis Sousa in Beethoven and Schumann, the National Youth Choir of Scotland and conductor Christopher Bell, soprano Harriet Burns, tenor Nick Pritchard, and pianist Christopher Glynn in Berlioz' Les nuits d’été, before performing Myrtles, an English translation by Jeremy Sams of Schumann’s Myrthen.

Further information from the Lammermuir Festival website.

The Dunedin Consort has announced its 2023/24 season, which includes a visit to the Lammermuir Festival. The ensemble returns for its 14th consecutive year with music by neglected women composers of the 17th and 18th centuries, such as Barbara Strozzi. The remainder of the ensemble's 2023/24 season is exciting indeed. The centrepiece of the new season is a new guitar concerto by Cassandra Miller for guitarist Sean Shibe. Other highlights include: SONATA, a collaboration with the award-winning choreographer Marc Brew that brings together disabled and non-disabled dancers to explore baroque music’s roots in dance; a new commission by the Grammy award-winning Caroline Shaw for next year’s choral tour; the Scottish premiere of Heiner Goebbels’ Songs of War I Have Seen, performed side-by-side with the musicians of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra (their second partnership with the RSNO); conductor Sofi Jeannin’s debut appearance with Dunedin Consort for Bach’s Matthew Passion; new collaborations with Phantasm viols, countertenor Hugh Cutting, and violinist Bojan Čičić, and two programmes celebrating the 300th anniversary of Bach’s appointment in Leipzig, including performances of the John Passion directed by Nicholas Mulroy as the Evangelist.

Further information from the Dunedin Consort website.

Catherine Larsen-Maguire is the new Music Director of the NYOS orchestras. This newly created post, inspired by two critically acclaimed NYOS performances conducted by Larsen-Maguire in Spring 2023, will see her lead the orchestras from 2024 for a three-year tenure. Born in Manchester, and now based in Berlin, Catherine Larsen-Maguire read music at Cambridge University and studied the bassoon at the Royal Academy of Music in London and the Karajan Academy in Berlin. After ten years as principal bassoonist at the Komische Oper Berlin, she turned her focus exclusively to conducting in 2012, and has since become a sought-after conductor, and she made her NYOS debut in 2018 conducting NYOS Senior Orchestra in spring and summer concerts. In April 2023 she brought a fantastic warmth and energy to the Symphony Orchestra as the young musicians rehearsed and performed Mahler’s Symphony No.7 alongside Lotta Wennäkoski’s Susurrus. Outside the rehearsal room, Catherine Larsen-Maguire shared insights into her practice and inspirations during a special Q&A, helped members of the orchestra get hands-on with a conducting workshop, and even joined the band during the end of course ceilidh.

Further information from the NYOS website.

Delving into her Greek background: Lisa Archontidi-Tsaldaraki's debut recital places 20th-century Greek composers alongside Bartok, Szymanowski and Ravel

Pianist Panayotis Archontides and violinist Lisa Archontidi-Tsaldaraki

London-based Greek-Australian violinist Lisa Archontidi-Tsaldaraki has just finished her final year at the Royal Academy of Music, when we spoke she had recently given her final recital, and next year moves on to the MA course. She has recently released her debut disc, Rhapsody: 20th Century Violin Masterpieces, a recital of 20th-century music with pianist Panayotis Archontides on the Convivium label where alongside works by Bartok, Szymanowski and Ravel there are works by two 20th-century Greek composers, Manolis Kalomiris and Yannis Constantinidis.

Manolis Kalomiris (1883-1962) is the founding father of the national Greek school. He trained in Vienna at the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien (1901-06), returned to Greece in 1916 and founded the Hellenic Conservatory in 1919 and the National Conservatoire in 1926 . His fearsomely difficult Violin Sonata, written in 1948, features on Lisa's disc in its first international recording (the two previous recordings were issued only in Greece). Also on the disc are works by Kalomiris' younger contemporary, Yannis Constantinidis (1903-1984), his Petite Suite on Airs from the Dodecanese (1947).

Lisa loves 20th-century music and was keen for the recital to have a collection of pieces that are her favourites, so Britten's early Suite Op. 6 for Violin and Piano, Szymanowski's Nocturne and Tarantella, Op. 28 and Ravel's Tzigane are there. But she also wanted to delve into her Greek background, which provided a target for the project.

Meet the staff! Music from Franz Doppler in a new video from the staff of Peregine's Pianos

Well, this is a lovely bit of fun that popped into my in-box. In the video, the proprietor and two staff-members at Peregine's Pianos put to good use one of their instruments and one of their rooms available for hire by playing a delightful trio by the flamboyant Austrian flute virtuoso and composer Franz Doppler (1821-1883). So here are Dawn Elizabeth Howells (Proprietor, Piano), Barbara Toth (Assistant, violin), Carina Udriste (Assistant, flute) play the Andante et Rondo. Videographer Selah Hennessy.

Peregrine's Pianos  is the exclusive dealer in London for two German piano manufacturers - August Förster and Schimmel. Their new venture, Little Peregrine, adjacent to the main showroom on Grays Inn Road, is home to preowned and hire pianos and already contains a fine selection of competitively priced instruments from various manufacturers.

Francesco Pirrone's Shadow Era

Francesco Pirrone, the Italian media composer, has featured on the blog before. He now has a new single out, Shadow Era, he describes it as it "a little different than usual because it was commissioned specifically for a fantasy video game and it's a shorter composition, also simpler and a bit more mainstream." It is the original music for the cross-platform trading card game Shadow Era, it showcases his signature orchestral sound and his style with influences from fantasy music and 90's film soundtracks. 

With seven releases under his belt, Pirrone has received tens of thousands of streams, he has over 25 thousand followers on TikTok, for his activity as an up-and-coming media composer he was awarded the Premio Troisi 2022 and the Premio Antonello da Messina 2023, and he's also a brand ambassador for Vienna Symphonic Library.

Further information from https://ffm.to/bvokzvn  

Francesco Pirrone on YouTube, on TikTok, and Instagram

I have rarely heard Bach's Mass in B minor performed with such consistency of style, integrity and sheer musicality: Vox Luminis at Wigmore Hall

Autograph score of the first page of the Credo of Bach's Mass in B minor

Bach: Mass in B minor; Vox Luminis; Wigmore Hall
Reviewed 29June 2023

Bach's crowning achievement performed with a strength of purpose and superb style, what I came back to was the consistency of phrasing and the sense of line

Bach's Mass in B Minor began life as a Missa, consisting of just Kyrie and Gloria, a work that would be acceptable in both Roman Catholic and Lutheran liturgies, and thus ideal to be presented to Augustus III in 1733, the new Elector of Saxony and King of Poland. It worked, and Bach ultimately got a Dresden court title. The mass setting was grand and large-scale, certainly not suitable for Leipzig but Bach may have heard it in Dresden (his son Wilhelm Friedemann Bach became organist at the Sophienkirche, Dresden's main Protestant church, in June 1733).

When Bach expanded the work into a full mass, his only setting of the complete Ordinary of the Mass, he can surely have had no performance in mind and the entire mass is far too long for liturgical use. This leads us to wonder what his idea of the performance was. There was the Lutheran tradition of using single voices, the cantatas work successfully this way and even the Passions do so, but the Missa was written, surely, for the forces of the Dresden Hofkapelle, which had choir and soloists. These latter included such luminaries as soprano Faustina Bordone, wife of Johann Adolph Hasse the court Kapellmeister, which leads to the unlikely but wonderful speculation of Handel's leading lady singing in the first performance of Bach's Missa!

For their performance of Bach's Mass in B Minor at Wigmore Hall on 29 June 2023, Vox Luminis, artistic director Lionel Meunier, used almost minimum forces. Ten singers and 19 instrumentalists still made a whopping 29 performers on the platform. Soloists were from the ensemble and most sang a solo at some point. The ten singers were lined up across the front of the platform throughout the performance and rather remarkably all was achieved without a conductor (Meunier sang bass including the 'Quoniam to solus sanctus' solo).

London Philharmonic Orchestra's 2023/24 season celebrates 60 years of being resident in Eastbourne

Congress Theatre, Eastbourne

The London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) has residencies at Brighton's Dome Theatre, Saffron Hall in Essex and at Eastbourne's Congress Theatre and the 2023/24 season celebrates the orchestra's 60 years as resident orchestra in Eastbourne. The theatre is the largest on the South Coast, the present theatre was built in 1963.

The first concert in Eastbourne was on 23 September 1934, just two years after the orchestra was established, and founder Sir Thomas Beecham conducted a programme of Rossini, Handel, Beethoven, Wagner and Borodin. Since then, the Orchestra has played over 350 concerts, including during the Second World War, performing much loved repertoire with many soloists and conductors soloists and conductors.

The LPO's 2023/24 season in Eastbourne will feature Alessandro Crudele conducting Mendelssohn’s Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage, Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto with Chloë Hanslip, and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4. Other performers featuring in the season include one of the inaugural LPO Fellow Conductors, Charlotte Politi, conductors Bertie Baigent, Gabriella Teychenné, Kahchun Wong, and Gemma New, LPO’s Principal Clarinet Benjamin Mellefont is the soloist in Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto, and other soloists include pianist Samson Tsoy, cellist Laura van der Heijden, violinists Francesca Dego and Randall Goosby.

The LPO is bringing its BrightSparks schools’ concerts to Eastbourne for the first time. These performances are an opportunity for Key Stage 2 children to experience the thrill of hearing a full orchestra, possibly for the first time. The orchestra is also launching LPO Music Makers with two Eastbourne schools, a new project for Key Stage 2 children and teachers inspired by the music and musicians of the LPO. Encouraging a lifelong love of music begins in the classroom and the aims of LPO Music Makers are to build teachers’ confidence teaching music in school, inspire school communities through close-up access to world-class musicians, enable children’s musical skills and knowledge, and support schools in embedding music into their wider culture. 

Full details of the Eastbourne season from the LPO website.

The LPO also has seasons and community activity at Brighton's Dome Theatre, and Saffron Hall.

300 children celebrate the joys of music-making at Richard Shephard Music Foundation's Make Music Day 2023

Richard Shephard Music Foundation's Make Music Day 2023 (Photo: Duncan Lomax, Ravage Productions)

Last week Make Music Day was on 21 June; Make Music Day is the UK’s largest single-day music festival, encouraging musicians, producers, promoters and music lovers to collaborate and organise in-person and online performances in and for their communities. 

Richard Shephard Music Foundation's Make Music Day 2023 (Photo: Duncan Lomax, Ravage Productions)

As part of the events, Primary School children from across Yorkshire were invited to take part in a special celebration of all things musical run by the Richard Shephard Music Foundation, the charity set up to remember the late composer Dr Richard Shephard. Over 300 children spent the day singing, playing instruments, and composing music in the Chapter House of York Minster and the Creative Centre at York St John University.

Richard Shephard Music Foundation's Make Music Day 2023 (Photo: Duncan Lomax, Ravage Productions)

Since its creation in 2021, 5,000 children have been receiving weekly music lesson within their schools, subsidised by the Richard Shephard Music Foundation. 

Is a Rose

On 30 June Platoon releases an EP of Caroline Shaw’s orchestral song cycle Is a Rose which features text by Robert Burns, Shaw herself and British poet Jacob Polley, recorded by the Philharmonia, conductor Oliver Zeffman and soloists Nicky Spence (tenor), Davoné Tines (bass-baritone) and Ella Taylor (soprano). Also included as a bonus track is a new arrangement of Renaissance, the theme to the second season of the HBO's The White Lotus.

The EP is released to accompany Classical Pride at the Barbican on 7 July 2023, conceived and curated by conductor Oliver Zeffman, presented by broadcaster Nick Grimshaw, this will be the first time any major arts organisation or orchestra in Europe has given a classical concert for Pride. Zeffman will conduct the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, an LGTBQ+ community chorus in an imaginative programme to celebrate the profound contribution that the LGBTQ+ community makes to classical music, featuring Pavel Kolesnikov, Samson Tsoy, Nicky Spence, Davóne Tines and Ella Taylor.

Is a Rose - Link tree
Classical Pride - Barbican website

Music of such engaging variety and imagination: Richard Boothby's 'Music to hear...' exploring Alfonso Ferrabosco's 1609 book of music for solo lyra viol

Music to hear... - Alfonso Ferrabosco: Music for the Lyra Viol; Richard Boothby, Asako Morikawa; Signum Classics

The lyra viol is a type of small bass viol that was popular in England in the 17th century and for which a specific repertoire was created. Viol player Richard Boothby has already recorded the complete lyra viol music of William Lawes and here, on a new Signum Classics disc Music to hear..., Boothby turns his attention to pieces from Alonso Ferrabosco's Lessons for 1, 2 and 3 viols. The majority of the works on the disc are for solo viol, but Boothby is joined by Asako Morikawa for some.

Despite his exotic name, Alfonso Ferrabosco (1575-1628) was English. His father, Alfonso Ferrabosco, the Elder was an Italian composer, born in Bologna, who ended up in England working for Queen Elizabeth I. Marriage to an English woman followed, but then he returned to Italy leaving his son as security with a flute player who played for the Queen. The elder Alfonso never returned to England, but his son flourished under both Queen Elizabeth and King James I. An association with the playwright Ben Johnson began in 1605 when he wrote the music for the Masque of Blackness – designed by Inigo Jones, and then for next year’s Twelfth Night celebrations, Hymenaei, which Jonson praised highly. He also composed music for Jonson's plays.

The first mention of the lyra viol is in one of Jonson's plays, from 1600, and the idea behind the instrument and repertoire was that it evoked the Ancient Greek lyre. The instrument used a whole variety of tunings, and Ferrabosco uses three different ones in his collection of pieces. Apart from a handful, all the pieces in Ferrabosco's 1609 publication are dances Almaines, Galliards, Corantos and Pavans, printed in pairs with each Almaine, Galliard or Pavan having a short Coranto following it. 

A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Figure’s Musical Director Frederick Waxman introduces their upcoming Shakespeare/Mendelssohn production at Opera Holland Park

Frederick Waxman conducts Handel’s Serse at Opera Holland Park, June 2022

After the success of their “fantastically detailed” (The Guardian) production of Handel’s Serse last year, acclaimed historical performance ensemble Figure return to Opera Holland Park this week, from Thursday 29 June – Saturday 1 July with a production of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, accompanied by Mendelssohn’s enchanting incidental music. 

In a new, highly-physical production directed by Sam Rayner (listed in The Guardian's Readers' Favourite Shows of 2022 and The New York Times' Critics' Picks of 2023), Figure is joined by a fantastic cast including RSC Associate and Harry Potter actor Ray Fearon as Oberon, comedian and star of Netflix series Shadow and Bone Anna Leong Brophy as Titania, and T. S. Eliot Prize-winning author and performer Joelle Taylor as Puck, as well as a children’s chorus from Theatre Peckham and soprano soloists Rowan Pierce and new OAE Rising Star, Madison Nonoa.

With Midsummer’s eve descending, four young lovers and a troupe of am-dram artisans venture into the woods, but little do they know of the amorous shenanigans about to ensue – or is it what they always dreamed of?

Here, Figure’s Musical & Co-Artistic Director, Frederick Waxman introduces the production:

Carmen comes to Clapham as St Paul's Opera celebrates 10 years

My local opera company, St Paul's Opera (SPO) has been celebrating its 10th anniversary. There was a gala concert in April and now the company is presenting staged performances of Bizet's Carmen from 29 June to 1 July 2023 at St Paul's Church, Rectory Grove, Clapham, SW4 0DZ. Eleanor Burke directs with designs by Raphaé Memon, and John Paul Jennings conducting. Eleanor Burke directed HGO's terrific production of Janacek's Cunning Little Vixen (see my review)

Abbie Ward is Carmen (we caught her in HGO's Dido & Aeneas last year, see my review) with Roberto Abate as Don Jose (who was in Pegasus Opera Company's double bill of Philip Hageman opera last year), Benoît Déchelotte as Escamillo (Belcore in Longhope Opera's L'elisir d'Amore last year) and Lizzie Ryder as Micaëla (whom we caught as Röschen in The Opera Maker's enterprising performance of Ethel Smyth's Der Wald, see my review), and there is a full cover cast too.

The company has also been taking Carmen into into four state primary schools in and around Clapham, giving children a taste of opera with one of the most favourite titles in the operatic repertoire. These workshops introduce the world of opera through singing and music making, story-telling and role play. They are run by members of the SPO cast, many of whom work with children’s choirs and music groups in London and across the UK. Here are just a few of the comments received during the school workshops:

“Carmen is funny, but clever”

“Do you use your head to make that voice?”

“He looked like a tomato when he sang!”

“LOUD!”

“I want to be an opera singer - how do I do that?”

There is also a children's matinee performance of Carmen on 1 July 2023. This will be a performance of favourite arias and ensembles from the opera, including the children’s chorus, which will be prepared by the pupils as part of the schools workshops. The matinee cast features a number of the cover cast inclulding Elora Ledger - Carmen, Robin Whitehouse - Don José, Manuela Baranik - Michaëla, Alexandra Dinwiddie - Mercédès, Sophie Price - Frasquita, Peder Holtermann - Le Remendado, Thomas Litchev - Le Dancaïro, Julien Debreuil - Escamillo with Fr Jonathan Boardman as Narrator.

Full details from the St Paul's Opera website.

Le roi de Lahore: Dorset Opera Festival give Massenet's first major success its first stage outing in the UK since 1879

Design by Philippe Chaperon for Act V of Massenet's Le roi de Lahore at the Paris Opera in 1877

Massenet's Le Roi de Lahore was the third of his operas to be produced in Paris. The production, at the Palais Garnier in 1877, gave him his first major success and spawned performances across Europe. Despite being performed and recorded by Joan Sutherland (in 1977), the opera has never reached the modern-day popularity of some of Massenet's other operas and remains something of a rarity. Chelsea Opera Group performed it in 2015 [see my review], the first London performance in over a century and now the Dorset Opera Festival, artistic director Roderick Kennedy, is giving the work a rare stage outing. Ella Marchment directs and Jeremy Carnall conducts with a cast including Seljan Nasibli, Kezia Bienek and Amar Muchhala. Performances are on 26 and 27 July 2023 at Bryanston, Blandford Forum.

Dorset Opera has history with Massenet, it gave the UK stage premiere of Le Cid in 2018 (an opera known to people, if at all, from its recording) to great effect, and further back I remember seeing Massenet's Herodiade there in 2006 (with Rosalind Plowright in the cast).

It has to be admitted that the plot is a flimsy thing, which seems to be the bastard off-spring of Delibes' Lakme (1883) and Bizet's Les Pecheurs de Perles (1863). It is one of a group of operas that Massenet wrote using the old-fashioned five-act grand opera format, complete with ballet (where there is a duet for two saxophones). Massenet took full advantage of the resources the Paris Opera had to offer, so that the large orchestra included four horns, two trumpets, two cornet, three trombones and a cimbasso, with four percussion players and timpani. But he would quickly move away from this format, and explore all manner of operatic genres.

Massenet's Le roi de Lahore has not been staged in the UK since 1879 so this should be quite an event. The opera's orientalism remains a problem and it will be interesting to see what creative solutions Ella Marchment (always an imaginative director) comes up with along with a cast that features Azerbaijan-born soprano Seljan Nasibli, Bombay-born tenor Amar Muchhala and mezzo-soprano Kezia Bienek (British born, of Mauritian and Lithuanian heritage). Certainly don't expect anything like the image at the top of this post!

Full details from Dorset Opera Festival's website.

A refreshing sense of lightness: Chichester Cathedral Choir & the Rose Consort of Viols in sacred music by Chichester Cathedral's 17th-century organist, Thomas Weelkes

What joy so true: Anthems, Canticles and Consort music by Thomas Weelkes: Choir of Chichester Cathedral, The Rose Consort of Viols, Charles Harrison; Regent Records

Recorded by the modern successors to Weelkes own choir, this disc brings a lovely freshness and naturalness to a highly imaginative survey of the composer's sacred works from large-scale anthems to intimate consort music

Thomas Weelkes moved to Chichester Cathedral in 1601 or 1602 to take up the post of organist and informator choristarum (instructor of the choristers), he was still in his mid-20s (he may have been born in 1576). Weelkes would remain at Chichester until his death in 1623, though his time there was not uncomplicated. Only one volume of his sacred music was published during his lifetime and we are dependent on manuscript sources for the majority of his sacred repertoire, with part-books surviving incomplete. 

It is rather appropriate, then, that a disc from Regent Records celebrating the 450th anniversary of Weelkes' death comes from Chichester Cathedral. Charles Harrison directs Chichester Cathedral Choir, with Timothy Ravalde (chamber organ), Thomas Howell (organ solos) and the Rose Consort of Viols. 

A rarity of piano pleasure! Jonathan Biss and Mitsuko Uchida performing Schubert’s four-hand music in London.

Mitsuko Uchida & Jonathan Biss

The outstanding American pianist Jonathan Biss is touring Europe this summer with the equally outstanding Japanese-British pianist Mitsuko Uchida stopping off in London for a couple of concerts at the Wigmore Hall on Friday 8 September and Sunday 10 September following on from appearances at San Sebastian, Salzburg, Gstaad and Dublin. They’ll be offering a special four-hands programme devoted to the works of Schubert comprising Lebensstürme: Allegro in A minor D.947, March in E flat minor D819/5, Rondo in A major D.951, Divertissement à la hongroise D.818. 

"Schubert’s four-hand music is a treasure trove and largely neglected" emphasised Biss. "These works have every quality that makes Schubert’s music so uniquely affecting - the lyricism and tenderness, the loneliness and terror. But they require two pianists with a deep attunement to one another. Therefore, when I play with Mitsuko, I feel that our ears are pointed towards the same things and that the same events in the music speak to us most deeply. She has been an essential presence in my life for 25 years - first as a mentor, then as a close friend and colleague and always a source of inspiration."

Known for his international concert activities, Biss is also known for his versatility as an artist and musician. Besides travelling round the world performing he also enjoys writing about his concert repertoire, too, and has already published four audio and e-books including UNQUIET: My Life with Beethoven.

Since 2018, Biss has been joint artistic director of the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont where he has spent 15 enjoyable summers. Founded in 1951, Marlboro’s acclaimed for developing the artistry and enriching the lives of generations of musical leaders and for initiating the explosion of interest in chamber music not just in America but abroad as well.

His close collaboration and connection with Uchida (who has been joint artistic director of Marlboro since 2013) lines up with this sentiment. Every summer musicians of all ages spend up to seven weeks at the festival with the exchange of ideas and the intensive rehearsal of a wide variety of chamber-music works and perform them in weekend concerts.

Without a shadow of doubt, Biss is a wonderful, charismatic and enterprising pianist who channels his deep musical curiosity into performances and projects in the concert hall and beyond. In addition to performing with today’s leading orchestras, he continues to expand his reputation as a teacher, musical thinker and one of the great Beethoven interpreters of our time.  

In addition, Biss is passionate about new music and has commissioned concertos from Sally Beamish, Timo Andres, Caroline Shaw, Salvatore Sciarrino and Brett Dean for his Beethoven/5 project for which he asked each composer to write in response to one of Beethoven’s five piano concertos.  

Another commissioning project will launch next year with new solo piano works from Alvin Singleton, Tyshawn Sorey and Tyson Davies. Jonathan also led a massive open online course via Coursera, reaching an international audience of over 150,000.  

During this and the next season, Biss gives solo recitals in cities including Cologne, New York, Philadelphia, Milan, Singapore, Jerusalem, San Francisco, Boston and Sydney. Recently, he performed Beethoven trios with Midori and cellist Antoine Lederlin in Cologne, Hamburg, London and Tokyo and appeared as soloist with the Atlanta Symphony and Concerto Budapest as well as with the New York String Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. Performances with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestre de Chambre Paris and St Louis Symphony Orchestra are also in the pipeline.

Coinciding with the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth in 2020, Biss concluded over a decade-long immersion in the composer’s music which included concert series, recordings, writings, lectures and commissions of Beethoven-inspired works. Through the course of his Beethoven study, Biss recorded the composer’s complete piano sonatas and offered insights to all the composer’s 32 landmark works. Orchid Classics released the nine-disc sonata cycle box set in March 2020. And in the same month, Biss performed Beethoven’s last three piano sonatas in a virtual recital for an online audience of more than 280,000 people. This was followed by a daily video series of selections from the Beethoven sonatas presented via Biss’ Facebook page over the course of several weeks.

More information can be sourced on jonathanbiss.com and on his YouTube channel. See Wigmore Hall's website for details of Jonathan Biss and Mitsuko Uchida's concerts.

Through the Looking Glass with the LSO, Queen Mary University of London and composer Paul Rissmann

The London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) and Queen Mary University of London have launched The Alice Sound, a set of cross-curricular learning resources for young people, schools and teachers that based on Lewis Carroll's  Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, with everything available through a dedicated website, The Alice Sound.

Inspired by Lewis Carroll's books, composer Paul Barnes wrote two musical suites which were premiered at the Barbican by the LSO in 2015 (Alice in Wonderland) and 2022 (Through the Looking Glass) as part of the LSO Family Concert Series. The success of these concerts and enthusiastic response to the material precipitated the extension of the partnership between the LSO and Queen Mary University of London to develop further interactive learning content.

The resources for The Alice Sound are the result of a collaboration between Paul Rissmann, project director Kiera Vaclavik, Professor of Children’s Literature & Childhood Culture at Queen Mary University of London, and the London Symphony Orchestra. 

Most of the downloads can be used by children with little to no adult assistance, however the creative music projects are aimed primarily at teachers. These resources will also support Key Stage 2 curriculum learning on the Victorians. 

Users can:

• Watch full performances of concert suites by Paul Rissmann, inspired by Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass
• Delve into the books with Professor Kiera Vaclavik
• Explore the music with composer Paul Rissmann
• Learn to sing the songs of the suite with soprano Emily Dickens
• Sing and play along with the world-famous London Symphony Orchestra
• Download a range of free resources to use in school or at home
• Create own music, drama, art and writing inspired by Lewis Carroll’s magical worlds

The resources feature performances by the LSO, conducted by Lee Reynolds, with Emily Dickens (soprano), Joanna Harries (alto), Richard Pinkstone (tenor), Neil Balfour (bass)

Paul Rissmann is an award-winning composer who specialises in transforming children’s literature into symphonic scores. His creative projects have received awards from the Royal Philharmonic Society and Royal Television Society. He won a British Composer’s Award in 2012 and was nominated for an Ivor Novello Composer Award in 2020. Kiera Vaclavik is Professor of Children’s Literature & Childhood Culture at Queen Mary University of London. She is the author of Fashioning Alice: The Career of Lewis Carroll’s Icon 1860-1901 (Bloomsbury 2019) and curated The Alice Look at the V&A Museum of Childhood in 2015.

Making a big noise: through the noise announces expansion of its crowd-funded noisenights

Audience at noisenight nine (Photo: Evie Redfern)

After two years of sold-out shows, through the noise announced that they are expanding their crowdfunded classical gigs to 22 venues across the UK. By the end of the year it is expected that over 25,000 people will have been to a noisenight after growing demand from a young fanbase. 

This Autumn’s newly announced line-up features Fatma Said, Manchester Collective, Abel Selaocoe & The Bantu Ensemble, Alexandra Whittingham, Misha Mullov-Abbado, Thibaut Garcia, Lodestar Trio, Junyan Chen, Braimah Kanneh-Mason and Jeneba Kanneh-Mason. Among the venues hosting classical shows for the first time are Camden’s iconic KOKO, the Tyneside warehouse where Stephenson’s Rocket was built, and a wind turbine factory in Liverpool’s dockside.

This is a significant milestone for the community-led organisation, which began less than two years ago in grassroots venues around London. Building on the success of their sold-out tour last year with Sheku Kanneh-Mason and Harry Baker, through the noise are now launching regular noisenights in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool, Birkenhead, Newcastle, Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester, Brighton and London. Between October and December through the noise will take no less than five projects on tour around the UK.

Full details from through the noise's website