Britten Pears Arts' Friday Afternoons celebrates its 10th anniversary with 10 new songs and an anniversary Big Sing

The Big Sing 2022 - Snape Maltings, November 2022 (Photo: Patrick Young / Britten Pears Arts)

Friday Afternoons is the name Britten gave to a collection of songs that he wrote for his brother's prep school. Britten Pears Arts took the name for its singing project conceived as the culmination of the worldwide 2013 Britten centenary celebrations. Since 2013, a new collection of songs and additional resources has been made available annually, with Friday Afternoons projects being run in schools all around the UK and across the world.

To celebrate the project's 10th anniversary Britten Pears Arts is releasing a collection of ten commissioned songs for young people, focusing on a theme of identity and exploring the thoughts and experiences of young people today. Seven of the songs will be premiered as part of the Big Sing on 17 November 2023 on Britten Pears Arts' YouTube channel. 

The ten commissioned composers are Alice Zawadzki, Alexander Campkin, Ayanna Witter-Johnson, Ben Parry, Charlotte Harding, CN Lester, Kerry Andrew, Roderick Williams, Shruthi Rajasekar and YolanDa Brown. All songs and resources from the 10th-anniversary collection will be available on the Friday Afternoons website. A new set of resources and pathways will launch in January 2024, inaugurating a program where music will be created and performed by young people, fostering a sense of ownership and pride in their musical creations.

The 10th-anniversary celebration of Friday Afternoons culminates in the Big Sing on Friday 17 November 2023 at Snape Maltings Concert Hall in Suffolk, led by Jenny Trattles and Charles MacDougall. Young people from schools across the county will come together to form a massed choir and perform a selection of songs and the event will be live streamed on the Britten Pears Arts' YouTube channel.

Engagement, exploration & discovery: London Handel Players return to Handel at Home for Total Eclipse

Total Eclipse: Handel at Home, volume 2; London Handel Players; SOMM
Reviewed 7 November 2023

Contemporary chamber arrangements of popular Handel movements give a real feel for the way many in the 18th century experienced his music, here in performances full of engagement and enjoyment

When 18th-century composers wrote music, relatively few people would actually hear it live. In the early 18th century there weren't such things as regular concert series, and when these did develop they were aimed at the relatively compact audience of aristocrats and gentry. The same applied to opera, where the events were as much social as artistic. 

So, unless you were so privileged, to hear a piece of music in such circumstances you had to have it played in your own home (or in that of one of your musical friends). Publishers cottoned on to this early and the money was made from publishing works that could be played by good amateurs at home. This was true even as late as the 1790s when Haydn's reputation in London (and his concomitant invitation to visit) arose from the popularity of the publication of his music in editions for amateurs to play. It was even more the case during Handel's day. During his initial period in London, he seems to have been uninterested in publishing and John Walsh pirated several editions before the composer took a hand and involved himself in the works being published.

The London Handel Players' Handel at Home series on SOMM explores this approach to the music. The ensemble, Rachel Brown flute/recorder, Adrian Butterfield, Oliver Webber and Naomi Burrell violins, Rachel Byrt viola, Gavin Kibble cello, Carina Cosgrave double bass, Silas Wollston harpsichord, has returned to Handel's music in chamber arrangements, both contemporary and their own. On this second volume, Total Eclipse we have music from Rinaldo, Radamisto, Samson, Giulio Cesare and The Choice of Hercules plus a Sonata a 5, in arrangements for ensemble or in transcriptions for harpsichord.

Highlights of the 2024 Three Choirs Festival in Worcester: but don't just listen, why not join in?

Vaughan Williams: The Pilgrim's Progress - British Youth Opera,  Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Three Choirs Festival Youth Choir, Charlotte Corderoy at the Three Choirs Festival 2023 (Photo Dale Hodgett)

The Three Choirs Festival returns to Worcester next year, from 27 July to 3 August 2024, under artistic director Samuel Hudson, director of music at Worcester Cathedral. The full programme will be released in March 2024, but highlights will include Elgar's The Kingdom, music commemorating 100 years since Stanford's death, premieres of two new festival commissions from Nathan James Dearden and Paul Mealor, and music inspired by the natural world including Bob Chilcott's The Angry Planet, and Sarah Kirkland Snyder's Mass for the Endangered.

Besides simply going and listening, there are many ways to get involved with the festival with opportunities to volunteer, auditioning for the Three Choirs Festival Chorus, joining Three Choirs Festival Voices or Three Choirs Festival Youth Choir, or performing on the Bandstand. 

The Three Choirs Festival Chorus is drawn from auditioned singers in and around Gloucester, Hereford and Worcester, with the largest contingent each year coming from the host city. Amateur choral singers have been taking part in the festival since the middle of the 19th century to augment the cathedral choirs of boy trebles and male altos, tenors and basses. In 2010, the Three Choirs Festival Youth Choir was established for singers aged 14-25, and the choir made a terrific contribution to this year's performance of Vaughan Williams' Pilgrim's Progress [see my review]. The Three Choirs Festival Voices is new for this year and is open to everyone, with no audition required and a reduced rehearsal period in comparison to that of the Chorus. Find out more at the festival website.

‘My Songs Are My Diary’: Discovering Josephine Lang at Conway Hall

Josephine Lang

Why don't we hear more of the songs of Josephine Lang? 

Mentored by Felix Mendelssohn and supported by Clara Schumann, Josephine married a poet with whom she would write songs and unusually continued her career after marriage. And not only are there are over 300 songs, but piano pieces and more.

On Sunday 19 November 2023 there is a chance to explore Josephine Lang's song output when the Conway Hall presents ‘My Songs Are My Diary’: Discovering Josephine Lang with soprano Harriet Burns, contralto Jess Dandy and pianist Ian Tindale. Giving us a chance to hear 20 of her songs along with songs by contemporaries, plus extracts from her letters.

Josephine's father was a violinist at the Munich court, and her mother was a singer at the Court Theatre, and Josephine's brother was an actor. Josephine received music lessons from her mother, and early on it was clear that she was talented musically. 

Her godfather was the court painter, Joseph Stieler and through his contacts she was exposed to some of the greatest artists of the time. Both Felix Mendelssohn and Ferdinand Hiller took an interest in her, and Mendelssohn gave her lessons and urged her parents to let her study in Berlin, but her father refused owing to the expense.  Lacking any formal training at a conservatory, Lang was unable to get teaching posts at universities or conservatories, and she relied on private pupils. 

A happy marriage with six children slowed Josephine's rate of composition down. Her husband was Christian Reinhold Köstlin, a lawyer who wrote poetry under the name Christian Rheinhold. Unfortunately he died in 1856, and to support her family, Josephine returned to song-writing and teaching. 

‘My Songs Are My Diary’: Discovering Josephine Lang is at Conway Hall at 6.30pm on Sunday 19 November, full details from the Conway Hall website.

Plenty of food for thought & some terrific singing: Oliver Mears' staging of Handel's Jephtha at the Royal Opera with a towering performance from Allan Clayton in the title role

Handel: Jephtha - Jennifer France - Royal Opera House (Photo: Marc Brenner)

Handel: Jephtha; Allan Clayton, Alice Coote, Jennifer France, Cameron Shahbazi, Brindley Sherratt, director: Oliver Mears, conductor: Laurence Cummings; Royal Opera House
Reviewed 10 November 2023

An incandescent performance by Allan Clayton in the title role with superb support the other soloists anchors the imaginative if flawed dramatic recreation of Handel's final oratorio

In adapting the story of Jephtha from the Bible for a dramatic work for Handel, the librettist Thomas Morell had to use quite a bit of imagination, to create a three hour drama out of the relatively curt Biblical references. A fine classicist, Morrell introduced elements from Greek drama, creating a work that it is tempting to see as naturally having a place on the stage. Concert performances of Handel's Jephtha are relatively common and I have seen many fine incarnations of the title role including John Mark Ainsley at the London Handel Festival, James Gilchrist with The Sixteen, Nick Pritchard with the Academy of Ancient Music at the London Festival of Baroque Music, Allan Clayton with Scottish Chamber Orchestra at the BBC Proms. 

But I have seen only been two significant stagings of the work, Frederic Wake-Walker's highly abstract one at the Buxton Festival in 2012 with James Gilchrist [see my review], and Katie Mitchell's highly realistic one which was widely shared with Mark Padmore in the title role [see my review of WNO's 2012 revival with Robert Murray]. These two took highly contrasting routes to solving the work's dramatic problems, because make no bones about it, staging a Handel oratorio is a challenge. Handel's imagination was a dramatic one, whatever he was writing, but writing oratorio meant that he no longer needed to worry about pesky dramatic conventions. His oratorios often compress the drama, strip the linking dialogue down to a minimum, and then have moments of complete dramatic stasis.

Handel: Jephtha - the Ammonites in Act One
Royal Opera House (Photo: Marc Brenner)

It was thus with great interest that we caught the second performance of Oliver Mears' new production of Handel's Jephtha at the Royal Opera House. Laurence Cummings conducted the orchestra of the Royal Opera House with Allan Clayton as Jephtha, Alice Coote as Storge, Jennifer France as Iphis, Cameron Shahbazi as Hamor, and Brindley Sherratt as Zebul. Sets were by Simon Lima Holdsworth, costumes by Ilona Karas, video by Sander Loonen, lighting by Fabiana Piccioli and movement by Anna Morrissey. In fact, Mears was working with the same team as his production of Verdi's Rigoletto.

A shadow land where ideas of what music could be are changed: Nwando Ebizie on her new work for London Sinfonietta's Writing the Future

Nwando Ebizie (Photo: Dimitri Djuric)

London Sinfonietta's Writing the Future scheme offers early-career music creators opportunities to nurture their talents and to develop a new piece. The final instalment of its fourth series of Writing the Future sees multidisciplinary artist Nwando Ebizie turn the traditional concert experience on its head. Nwando's Fall and then Rise on a Soft Winter's Morning premieres on 15 November 2023 at Colour Factory, Hackney Wick when London Sinfonietta is joined by Chisato Minamimura dancer, Nat Sharp art director and Chloe Rooke conductor. 

By creating a multisensory and accessible experience, the concert aims to give d/Deaf audiences a fulfilling experience equal to that of hearing audiences, including performed theatrical British Sign Language (BSL), alongside physical elements such as haptic amplifiers, large balloons which the audience will be encouraged to touch in order to feel the vibrations of the music, and a recreation of sound through movement.

Nwando intends the event to be a music experience that broadens out what such performances can mean for D/deaf people. Many love music and experience it in different ways. As a multi-disciplinary Nwando wants to enable people to connect with more than one sense by creating an immersive environment. There will be the music performed by the London Sinfonietta, the text (which she has written) spoken by her and danced BSL to interpret the text. Nwando is a dancer and a composer, she wrote the music to fit with the dance piece. The concert environment also connects to the piece, in the gaps between the music people can explore this.

London Sinfonietta (Photo: Orlando Gili)

The Christmas Gap

Polyphony, Stephen Layton, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (Photo: Simon van Boxtel)

The week running up to Christmas is often a time when we look forward to catching some serious music in a loosely Christmas theme, whether it be Messiah or the Christmas Oratorio or perhaps Bach's Christmas Magnificat or some other imaginative programme exploring Christmas past. But something seems to have happened to the programming during the week before Christmas this year. Most of the serious programming seems to be earlier in the month on from Monday 18th, there are carols galore, plenty of Christmas programmes and a few presenting the serious side Christmas carols, but beyond that is rather slim pickings.

If you want a large scale oratorio, then it seems to be St John's Smith Square where the annual presentations of Handel and Bach as part of the Christmas Festival remain in place, and also at St John's you can catch the Tallis Scholars, whilst at the Barbican there is a celebration of Gavin Bryar's 80th birthday, and Sansara are at Kings Place with a typically thoughtful selection. And the junior department of the Royal Academy of Music are giving a lunchtime showcase at St James's Piccadilly.

I went looking around the major venues for events during the week 18 to 23 December, and this is roughly what I found (and apologies if I have managed to miss anything interesting)

St John's Smith Square is holding its annual Christmas Festival, and that week they have visits from the Choir of Clare College, the Choir and Orchestra of the London Choral Sinfonia, the Choir of Westminster Abbey, the choir of Christchurch Oxford, Ibex Brass, and the Tallis Scholars celebrating their 50th anniversaries. There are two oratorio performances, Stephen Layton conducts Polyphony, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and a fine array of soloists in Handel's Messiah and Bach's Christmas Oratorio (parts 1 to 3)/

The Southbank Centre seems to have given up on classical entirely as they are presenting a 'playful reimagining' of The Nutcracker, the comedian Reuben Kaye, Pussy Liquor's Christmas Party and the family show The House with Chicken Legs. 

Over at the Barbican Centre there is plenty of theatre with Told by an Idiot's Get Happy and the RSC production of My Neighbour Totoro, but beyond that we have lone beacons of Gavin Bryars celebrating his 80th birthday with the Gavin Bryars Ensemble, and a visit from King's College Choir who are joined by the Crouch End Festival Chorus, plus Love Actually with live orchestra, and candlelit carols.

Kings Place has just three shows that week, columnist and broadcaster, Steve Richards' Rock 'n' Roll Politics, Tim Edey's Celtic Christmas, and the wonderful Sansara's The Waiting Sky which is a seasonal sequence, exploring the poignancy of Christmas in war-torn Ukraine and seeking consolation and new hope.

Cadogan Hall is in real Christmas mood with carols from The Bach Choir and London City Brass, the City of London Choir and Orchestra in John Rutter and Christmas favourites, A Dickensian Christmas and Candlelit Carols. At St Martin in the Fields it is the Kings Singers who are keeping the festival spirit going. St James's Piccadilly also has lots of carols, but the fine choir Sonoro will be presenting their Christmas programme including the premier of Winter Nights by Michael Higgins and a guest appearance from Andy Hamilton. And the Junior Department of Royal Academy of Music's lunchtime showcase is another highlight.

So what are we doing this year? Well, so far, we will be catching our local ensemble, the ever-wonderful Brixton Chamber Orchestra!

Never a dull moment: Edward Lambert's Masque of Vengeance, a taut and driven new opera based on Thomas Middleton's 17th-century play, The Revenger's Tragedy

Edward Lambert: Masque of Vengeance - The Music Troupe (Photo: Claire Shovelton)

Edward Lambert: Masque of Vengeance; The Music Troupe, David Edwards; The Cockpit
Reviewed by Florence Anna Maunders, 9 November 2023

Based on a Thomas Middleton play from 17th century, Edward Lambert's new opera proves to be pacey, and exciting production, with an excellent and committed cast 

Composer Edward Lambert and his company, The Music Troupe presented Lambert's new opera, Masque of Vengeance, at the Cockpit Theatre from 7 9 November 2023, directed by David Edwards with Lelia Zanette, Charles Johnston, Francis Gush, Lawrence Thackeray, Will Diggle, Mae Heydorn,  Laure Meloy, Christopher Foster and Madeline Robinson, plus Alex Norton and Adrian Salinero on piano.

The opera is based on Thomas Middleton's 1606 play, The Revenger's Tragedy. Set in a fictitious Italian court, Middleton's farcical play pits ambitious factions against each other in a backstabbing bloodbath of revenge and trickery worthy of an episode of Game of Thrones. 

In adapting the text into his opera, prolific composer Edward Lambert has trimmed a dozen minor characters, extended the importance of the female roles and compressed the action into a taut and driven eighty minutes in which there is very little dead time. Powered along by a dynamic, pulsating score for piano duet, with soaring bel canto vocals and dramatic recitatives, there was never a dull moment to be experienced.

Edward Lambert: Masque of Vengeance - The Music Troupe (Photo: Claire Shovelton)

Flute explorations: lesser-known Schubert, early Beethoven and the father of Swedish music

Exploration: Schubert, Blahetka, Beethoven, Borne; Noémi Győri, Suzana Bartal; HUNGOROTON
To the Northern Star: Johan Helmich Roman; Flauguissimo and friends; RESONUS
Reviewed 7 November 2023

Two imaginatively different approaches to expanding the flute repertoire. From Hungary comes a disc that explores lesser known Beethoven and Schubert alongside a rarity and familiar showpiece, whilst from the UK comes a disc exploring an 18th-century London-trained Swedish composer writing music of great elegance

The flute was a popular instrument in the 18th and 19th centuries with plenty of fine players and a wide array of repertoire, much of it however aimed at the domestic market. What flute players lack are the pieces of the stature of, say, Mozart and Brahms' works for clarinet. This means that players need to be a bit more creative, to explore the highways and byways.

Two discs came to my attention this year, both exploring repertoire that is not always obvious. On Exploration from Hungoroton, flautist Noémi Győri and pianist Suzana Bartal present pieces by Beethoven and Schubert alongside works by Leopoldine Blahetka and Francois Borne. Whilst To the Northern Star on Resonus Classics from duo Flauguissimo (Yu-Wei Hu flute, Johan Löfving theorbo & baroque guitar) and friends (Magdalena Loth-Hill violin, Emily Atkinson soprano, Henrik Persson viola da gamba) explores the chamber music of the 18th-century Swedish composer Johan Helmich Roman.

Győri and Bartal's disc is deliberately playful and light, involving the variation form in all its guises. They begin with Schubert's Introduction and Variations on 'Trockne Blumen' from Die schöne Müllerin, op. posth. 160, D. 802, written in 1824 for a flute-playing friend, Ferdinand Bogner,  a professor at the Vienna conservatory and back in 1815 the two had played together in the amateur orchestra for which Schubert had composed his second, third, fourth and fifth symphonies. They remained close friends, and in the 1820s were members of the same musical and social circle. Perhaps most importantly Bogner had arranged performances of Schubert's songs. The piece begins all sober and serious, intent like the original song, but then Schubert lets himself loose, and great fun is had all round.

Celebrating 17th-century Venice as a place of tolerance for gay artists - Infinite Refrain: Music of Love's Refuge

Infinite Refrain: Music of Love's Refuge: Monteverdi, Cavalli, Boretti, Melani, Castrovillari; Randall Scotting, Jorge Navarro Colorado, Academy of Ancient Music, Laurence Cummings; Signum Classics
Reviewed 3 November 2023

A wonderful album that celebrates Venice as a place of tolerance for gay artists in the 17th century, with music by Monteverdi and Cavalli, alongside modern-day premieres by the little-known composers Boretti, Melani, and Castrovillari

During the 17th and 18th centuries, Venice had a reputation, particularly during the Carnival, where people could wander around masked and all sorts of activities could take place. Exciting things that would not be possible elsewhere. Tourists flocked, and entertainment for them stretched from the lucrative trade of prostitutes right through to the opera. It was fun for young heterosexual men, of course, women were far more available, but it was even bigger a draw for gay men.

Thanks to disputes between the Venetian authorities and the church, there was greater separation between church and state in the city, and the Venetian church was robustly independent. The result was a place where gay men could go and be far more open than anywhere else in Europe. These attitudes were reflected in the opera, where there were numerous coded references to gay and bisexual relationships in operas full of masks, cross-dressing, and sexual ambiguity.

This new disc, Infinite Refrain from Signum Classics is very much a passion project for the two singers, American countertenor Randall Scotting [see my 2022 interview with Randall] and UK-trained Spanish tenor Jorge Navarro Colorado,. They are joined by the Academy of Ancient Music, conductor Laurence Cummings for programme of 17th century arias and duets all with a Venetian link. But more than that, the programme leans into the idea of two men, two gay men, singing love duets and love-lorn arias. It can be read as a tale of two men in love (the lively photography, with the two singers holding flowers, encourages this) and the disc culminates in the ravishing duet, 'Pur ti miro, pur ti godo' which concludes Monteverdi's L'Incoronazione di Poppea.

The programme opens with Monteverdi's duet, Vorrei baciarti from his Settimo libro de madrigali and also from that volume come the duets Perchè fuggi, Soave libertate, and Tornate, o cari baci, plus the two solo Lettere Amorose. There are arias by Cavalli, Misero, così va from Eliogabolo, and Stradella, two arias from Il Trespo Tutole. Plus by composers not so well known, Jacopo Melani, Daniele da Castrovillari and Giovanni Antonio Boretti.

Remembering Keel Watson

Puccini, arr: Burke: Toscatastrophe! - Gwenneth-Ann Rand, Keel Watson - Tête à Tête: The Opera Festival 2018

With the sad news of the passing of bass-baritone Keel Watson, I thought I would look over some of the remarkable and diverse roles that we have seen him in over the years, in everything from Gilbert & Sullivan to Wagner, he had a remarkable, Derek Hammond Stroud-like ability to inhabit a role whether it be comic or serious.

One of my favourites moments was his wonderfully louche Scarpia in Tête à Tête's Toscatastrophe! in 2018, a comic reworking of Puccini's Tosca with Gwenneth-Ann Rand and Ronald Samm [see my review] and the last role we saw him in was also in the comic vein, a wonderfully pointed (and political) Private Willis in Gilbert & Sullivan's Iolanthe at English National Opera last month [see my review], whilst in 2018 he managed to dominate proceedings as the Usher in Gilbert & Sullivan's Trial by Jury in a semi-staged performance at Alexandra Palace at the BBC Proms with Jane Glover conducting the BBC Concert Orchestra [see my review]. He was also a laid-back Mars in Emma Rice's heavy-handed version of Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld with ENO in 2019 [see my review]

Verdi: Don Carlo - Fulham Opera 2018 (Photo Robert Workman)

But Keel's finest achievement must surely be his wonderful sequence of roles for Fulham Opera (now Regents Opera). I missed his Dutchman and Falstaff (in 2015), but his Hans Sachs in Die Meistersinger (2019), one of the largest roles in the repertoire, was a stupendous work in progress [see my review]. He was Wotan in their 2022 Das Rheingold, whilst in Die Walküre earlier this year Florence Ann Maunders described his Wotan as 'dominating the stage with his powerful voice and physical presence, and bringing a welcome humanity to his role' [see Florence's review and my photo essay]. 

He created the role of the Caterpillar in Will Todd: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland at Opera Holland Park in 2013 and continued in the role with their subsequent revivals, and was a complete delight as the Blues-singing, weed-smoking Caterpillar in IF Opera's production this Summer [see my review], and joined Opera Holland Park on the 2015 recording [see my review]

Lesser known operas included a wonderfully inebriated turn in Rimsky-Korsakov's Christmas Eve with Chelsea Opera Group in 2017 [see my review] and Cilea's 'other' opera, L'Arlesiana at Opera Holland Park in 2019 [see my review]. 

Back in 2009 he was a remarkable Iago in Verdi's Otello with Birmingham Opera Company, which we caught online in 2020 [see my article]. In 2015 at Holland Park he played the King in Verdi's Aida [see my review], Another Verdi role deserves mention, I don't know whether he ever sang the full role, but his incarnation of the title role in Macbeth with English Pocket Opera in 2015 was thrilling and mesmerising [see my review]. But one of his finest achievements was his remarkable incarnation of Philip II in Fulham Opera's performance the 1886 five-act version of Verdi's Don Carlo, which is described as 'simply remarkable, a highly physical performance where Philip's martinet nature was embodied in every gesture. This was also highly detailed, and it was wonderful to watch the play of emotions on Watson's face as scenes played out, particularly intense encounters'. [see my review]

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

He was also a lovely man, I had the pleasure of sitting next to him at a Opera Holland Park gala dinner a few years ago and he was delightful company.

Keel Watson (1964-2023) - more information and some wonderful pictures at Steven Swales Artist Management website.   

The Monarch's Music: recorded as part of Queen Elizabeth's Platinum Jubilee celebrations and released to serendipitously celebrate the 2023 Coronation

The Monarch's Music: Walton, Parry, Vaughan Williams, Elgar, Britten, Adrian Batten, Laurie Johnson,  Saint-Saens; the Band of the Household Cavalry, the Choir of St George's Chapel, Windsor, organist Luke Bond, conductors Major Paul Collis-Smith and James Vivian; crd
Reviewed 1 November 2023

Recorded as part of Queen Elizabeth's Platinum Jubilee celebrations and released to serendipitously celebrate the 2023 Coronation, this disc combines two ensembles strongly linked to the monarchy in disc which brings a lovely sense of freshness to the repertoire

With 2023 seeing the first Coronation for generations, it is not surprising that choirs and record companies seek to capitalise in various ways, to celebrate, to explore and yes, to make a bit of extra money. From crd comes the enterprising The Monarch's Music, except that is was recorded amidst the Platinum Jubilee celebrations for Queen Elizabeth II in 2022. On the disc, the Band of the Household Cavalry joins forces with the Choir of St George's Chapel, Windsor and organist Luke Bond, under conductors Major Paul Collis-Smith and James Vivian, for programme that moves between the tried and trusted Walton, Parry, and RVW to the more unexpected Elgar, Britten, Adrian Batten, Laurie Johnson and Saint-Saens.

The choir consists of 13 boys on the top line, along with 14 women and men on the lower lines, the alto line taken by a mix of women and men, whilst the band is a military band, mixing brass and woodwind, over 40 players in all. What makes the disc work is the extraordinary high level of musicianship displayed on the disc, along with a lovely sense of freshness. Partly that comes from the sheer clarity of the choral textures, but also the sophistication and musicianship of the band arrangements.

The Band of the Household Cavalry and Major Paul Collis-Smith at Wellington Barracks

First Person: soprano Holly Brown on rehearsing the Guildhall School's current double bill of Respighi operas

Respighi double bill in rehearsal - Guildhall School (Photo: David Monteith-Hodge - Photographise)

The Guildhall School of Music and Drama is currently performing a double bill of Respighi's Maria egiziaca and La bella dormente nel bosco. In this First Person article, Holly Brown reflects on her experiences rehearsing for the production.

My name is Holly Brown and I'm a soprano in my second year of Opera Studies at Guildhall School of Music & Drama. In the Respighi double bill, I am singing Maria in Maria egiziaca (8 and 13 November) and I'm playing La Fata Verde (the Green Fairy) in La bella dormente nel bosco.

I have wanted to be an opera singer probably for longer than the average performer; initially making the decision at eleven. My love for opera and singing began at school when my classmates started having singing lessons and I wanted to join in and try it too. When my sister decided that she wanted to be a doctor, all the conversations at home were about the steps she would need to take to do it. I think some part of me wanted the focus to be on my future career too and at that point I thought that singing sounded fun enough to do for a job. I’ve never re-evaluated that choice and fifteen years later, here I am. 

I had heard of La bella dormente nel bosco before, having watched the Guildhall Opera production online a few years ago (this was during the pandemic when students couldn’t give live performances). However, I had absolutely no knowledge of Maria egiziaca. I’d never heard of it before, and when Dominic [Wheeler] announced the production, it took me a while to find recordings online because I couldn’t work out how he was spelling it! When both opera casts were announced to our year group, I was quite concerned to find out that I had a speaking role for La bella dormente nel bosco – it’s a bit of a surprise when after seven years of music training and you get a part that doesn’t require singing! When Dominic announced my role as Maria in Maria egiziaca, it all started to make a bit more sense. From that point on, preparations began and the excitement (and nerves!) started to kick in.

I think the most rewarding part of performing in productions at Guildhall School is to the chance to collaborate and perform with your friends and classmates. We get the opportunity to work together for a really long time and to develop our relationships. I’m finding rehearsals for La bella dormente nel bosco incredibly enjoyable – you have frogs, fairies, a great big spindle - all sorts! As the Green Fairy, I get to be the ‘evil’ one playing opposite the ‘good’ Blue Fairy, performed by Yolisa Ngwexana. During the production, Yolisa and I engage in a sort of Fairy Wars, having to fight each other in the middle of the opera. During rehearsals, we’ve been holding conductors’ batons and pretending that CGI is going on around us, making it look a lot more epic than it actually is! It’s become such a notable moment in rehearsals that it’s even known as Fairy Wars on the call sheet… 

Maria egiziaca is different and the subject is far more serious. It’s a religious piece and a profound story. The source material doesn't necessarily give you a lot of laughs, so it has felt fairly important in the rehearsal room to try and keep the mood light, finding moments of relief where we can. 

Out of both operas, I have fallen in love with the romance of La bella dormente nel bosco - it's really perfect fairy-tale music. One of my particular highlights is the second aria sung by Yolisa as the Blue Fairy, who is singing these beautiful, high sparkly coloratura lines - it just sounds like pure magic. There are some beautiful chorus moments in Bella as well, each portraying different roles– they are mourners, stars and frogs (to name but a few!). The versatility of the chorus and the beauty of the music really brings these special moments together. The music of Maria, however, is a different story entirely. It’s difficult to imagine that the same composer has written both operas. Maria egiziaca’s music is also very beautiful, but there are moments of true pain in there, and dissonance. 

I think what I love most about the staging is that we have the most beautiful set [made by designer Laura Jane Stanfield] that houses both operas in creative and stunning ways. Victoria Newlyn, our director, has an incredible vision for this production. Newlyn’s approach made us question the imagery of both fairies and religious icons – it’s easy to look at them and not quite see the reality they are meant to portray, but on stage, it’s what you have to create; you have to show the audience someone they connect with on a human level. Mary of Egypt might be a holy saint now, but at one point she was a real woman, with lived experiences. The characters in Bella aren’t taken from history, but they still experience love, loss and pain like we do. All through the rehearsal process, Victoria has been reminding us of this and pushing us to see all these characters as real flesh-and-blood people, not just beautiful pictures in a storybook or church window. I hope that this will come across to our audiences and that, while experiencing some beautiful music, they might also recognise the humanity in the stories we're telling.  

I think audiences can expect to feel a range of emotions from the evening - from the gorgeousness of the fairy tale in Bella to the discovery and transformation found in Maria – both are human stories with a wide scope of emotion.

Performances of Respighi's Maria egiziaca and La bella dormente nel bosco directed by Victoria Newlyn and conducted by Dominic Wheeler are at Guildhall School of Music & Drama from 6 – 13 November. Details from the Guildhall School's website.

Liverpool Philharmonic's new partnership with Barrow-in-Furness

On Saturday 20 January 2024, Domingo Hindoyan will conduct the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra in Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 as part of the orchestra's concert at the Forum Theatre, Barrow in Furness. The concert is the opening event in a three-year partnership between the orchestra and Barrow-in-Furness. In collaboration with Westmorland & Furness Council, Cumbria Music Education Hub and the cultural, learning and community partners across Barrow, the project will produce a series of concerts, community events, music-making projects and educational activities, giving more people the opportunity to enjoy live music.

There will be the offer of visits and inspirational performances to every primary school in Barrow, co-designed creative residencies with secondary schools, supporting young people as music creators.  In addition, Cumbria Music Education Hub and Liverpool Philharmonic will work collaboratively to embed a singing culture in all primary schools and to boost group singing for children and young people across the town.

Other events coming up include By the sea (26/3/2024), a dementia-friendly concert, and Party Time (27/3/2024) for the under 5s from members of the orchestra at Barrow Library. The strings of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra return on 7 June 2024 for Four Seasons of Buenos Aires ­at the Town Hall lead by violinist and Liverpool Philharmonic Artist in Residence Simone Lamsma. The orchestra will be performing at Saint Mary's Church on 21 June, and at the Forum Theatre on 30 June.

Further information from the orchestra's website.

Walküres take flight at St John’s this November

Fans of Wagner’s epic tale of love, feuding families, betrayal and retribution are in for a treat this Saturday 25 November. The London Opera Company, which has been delighting Wagner fans and critics since bursting onto the scene in 2020, returns to St John's, Smith Square, for what promises to be a memorable concert performance of Die Walküre.

Die Walküre features a world-class cast of singers and musical direction by Peter Selwyn, who has assisted on Bayreuth and Royal Opera House productions of Der Ring des Nibelungen.

The London Opera Company orchestra brings together a carefully chosen core of professionals alongside talented semi-professional musicians from London’s leading music colleges. And this performance will also deploy the Royal Opera House’s famous Wagner horns to achieve that authentic and stirring Wagnerian sound.

An equally impressive cast includes much-celebrated singer Sarah Pring, who starred as mentor and coach in Sky Art’s Anyone Can Sing, and fresh from performing with ENO at the BBC Proms, Gweneth Ann Rand, who returns as Sieglinde following last year’s rave reviews. They join experienced Wagnerian singers, some debuting roles for the first time including gifted tenor Ben Thapa as Siegmond.

The London Opera Company is a not for profit organisation dedicated to bringing audiences world-class performances at an affordable ticket price. They performed Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, conducted by Peter Selwyn, at St. John's Smith Square in October 2022 having given Die Walküre in a chamber arrangement in 2021.

The London Opera Company will perform Die Walküre at St John's Smith Square on Saturday 25 November 2023, full details from St John's website.

The London Opera Company at St John's Smith Square

Cast List

Siegmund - Ben Thapa
Sieglinde- Gweneth Ann Rand
Hunding- Simon Wilding
Wotan- Simon Thorpe
Fricka- Harriet Williams
Brünnhilde- Cara Mchardy
Gerhilde - Nina Bennet
Helmwig - Sky Ingram
Ortlinde - Philippa Boyle
Waltraute - Harriet Williams
Schwertleite - Mae Heydorn
Roßweiße - Sarah Pring
Siegrune -  Carolyn Dobbin
Grimgerde - Katherine Taylor Jones

Cyrillus Kreek: Sacred Folk Tunes - an iconic work by one of the founders of Estonian music recorded by a fine Estonian choir

Cyrillus Kreek: Sacred Folk Tunes; Collegium Musicale, Endrik Üksvärav,  Jaak Sooäär; ERP
Reviewed 16 October 2023

Cyrillus Kreek's important and iconic collection, Sacred Folk Tunes, getting a rare complete outing on disc in fine performances that add an element of contemporary guitar into the mix

There isn't that much music in the record catalogues by the Estonian composer Cyrillus Kreek (1889-1962) but you only have to listen to some of his choral music to understand the essential role he plays in Estonian music and hear the influence on later Estonian composers. Kreek's iconic collections are the Sacred Folk Tunes from 1916-1918, the Psalms of David (1923) and Requiem (1929). Whilst only the Sacred Folk Tunes are explicitly arrangements of existing folk material, all of Kreek's choral music is imbued with Estonian folk song.  [for more on Kreek, see my article]

Previous discs have cherry picked Kreek's music, so Vox Clamantis, conductor Jaan-Eik Tulve, on The suspended harp of Babel on ECM Records [see my review] mixes music from the Sacred Folk Tunes and the Psalms of David along with free improvisations. For their new disc on Estonian Record Productions (ERP), Collegium Musicale, conductor Endrik Üksvärav record both books of Kreek's Sacred Folk Tunes. That is a total of 18 tracks, all in some way linked to the Lutheran chorale, and in order to provide a change in texture and style, on some of the tracks the choir is joined by Jaak Sooäär on electric guitar as he improvises on the material, and sometimes improvises over the choral contributions.

From the venue that we didn't know we needed to vibrant arts hub, Kings Place celebrates 15 years

Kings Place from the Regents Canal (Photo: Nick White)

Kings Place is 15! The venue opened in 2008, the brainchild of Peter Millican who conceived the idea of office building founded on an arts centre, a hub for a multitude of arts charities, where business events supported the artistic programme, with spaces and galleries open and free to the public. It was a space that we didn't know we needed and became a cultural beacon in the development of the Kings Cross area.

Over 500 world and UK premieres have been performed at Kings Place since 2008, and the programming each year continues to prioritise new music and the support of contemporary composers. Kings Place has commissioned and co-commissioned 19 works, including pieces by Nico Muhly, Space Afrika/Jack Sheen, Hauschka, Cassie Kinoshi, Tansy Davies, Thomas Adès, Oliver Leith and Judith Weir. Looking ahead to 2024, the venue will see a diverse range of premieres and commissions from Anna Meredith, Jasdeep Singh Degun, LVRA, Donald Grant, Aileen Sweeney, Ninfea Crutwell Reade and Helen Grime. 

The venue's annual Unwrapped series has become increasingly imaginative, after Unwrapping Mozart, Bach and Beethoven, Minimalism Unwrapped (2015) won Kings Place’s first RPS Award and since then there has been Cello Unwrapped, Time Unwrapped and Venus Unwrapped with Sound Unwrapped in 2023 featuring Hannah Peel and Space Afrika as artists in residence, and next year sees Scotland Unwrapped with Karine Polwart as artist in residence and Jackie Kay and Aidan O’Rourke as guest curators.

Full details from the Kings Place website.

A timely reminder of an alternative way: the West-Eastern Divan Ensemble at the Southbank Centre

Michael Barenboim and the West-Eastern Divan Ensemble

The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra was founded by the Palestinian author-scholar Edward W. Said and Israeli conductor-pianist Daniel Barenboim as a result of discussions on music, culture, and humanity and the realisation the urgent need for an alternative way to address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, aiming to bring young Israeli and Arabic musicians together in shared endeavour. Sadly, the orchestra's ethos seems to be even more needed than ever. 

To celebrate the orchestra's 20th anniversary, violinist Michael Barenboim (son of Daniel and the orchestra's concertmaster) founded the West-Eastern Divan Ensemble which draws on players from the orchestra, and the group made its first tour in 2020.

On Saturday 11 November 2023, the West-Eastern Divan Ensemble appears at the Southbank Centre's Queen Elizabeth Hall in a programme that mixes old and new. Alongside joyful charm of Mendelssohn's String Quintet No. 2 in B flat, Op. 87 and Beethoven's early Septet in E Flat, Op. 20 (where the instrumental line-up will include horn player Ben Goldscheider), the ensemble will also be playing a pair of grittier works by Elliott Carter (1908-2012), his  Au Quai for bassoon and viola (from 2002) and Duettone from Tre Duetti for violin and cello (2009), both works from the composer's late, late period.

Full details from the Southbank Centre's website.

Escape to the Country: Rachmaninov at Ivanovka

Sergei Rachmaninov at Ivanovka, proofing his third piano concerto in 1910

Escape to the Country: Rachmaninov at Ivanovka; Alexandra Dunaeva, Iestyn Morris, Nigel Foster, David Mildon; London Song Festival at Hinde Street Methodist Church
Reviewed 3 November 2023

Rachmaninov in full focus, twenty of his marvellous songs from 1890 through to 1916 alongside readings from his letters

Rachmaninov wrote over 90 songs, the earliest dating from 1890 when he was still studying at the Moscow Conservatory through to 1916. When he left Russia in 1918, his compositional output dropped considerably and he stopped composing songs, his concept of the genre being so linked to the Russian language and the Russia that had passed. After 1918, he composed piano pieces, related to his career in the West as a soloist, the fourth piano concerto and Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Symphony No. 3 and Symphonic Dances, and Three Russian Songs for chorus and orchestra, just 17 works written from 1918 to 1941.

But 1890 also marked another important event in Rachmaninov's life, it was the year he first started spending his Summers at Ivanovka, the estate belonging to his Aunt, Varvara Satina and her husband Alexander. Rachmaninov would marry the Satina's daughter, Natasha in 1902, and from 1890 to 1917, every Summer was spent at the estate and when it came into his possession he spent much of his income on it. Ivanovka was an important factor in Rachmaninov's life, it was where he had the right conditions to compose. But when he visited in 1917, the estate was in some chaos and the danger from the Social Revolutionary Party caused Rachmaninov distress. That, after 1918, he never returned to Russia is partly attributable to the fact that Ivanovka loomed so large in importance in Rachmaninov's life and without it, Russia was not the same.

For their programme celebration the the 150th anniversary of the composer's birth, Escape to the Country: Rachmaninov at Ivanovka, Nigel Foster and London Song Festival were joined at Hinde Street Methodist Church on Saturday 3 November 2023 by soprano Alexandra Dunaeva, countertenor Iestyn Morris and actor David Mildon for a programme of 20 Rachmaninov songs interleaved with readings from his letters.

The Triptych Singers premiere Awake! my soul

A lovely concert last night at St Mildred's Church, Croydon in aid of their organ fund given by the Triptych Singers, conductor Jim Jelley. As part of the choir's 50th anniversary celebrations, my anthem Awake, my soul! was commissioned for them and it received its first performance as part of the concert.

The evening also included a terrific performance of Ginastera's Danzas Argentinias by the church's organ scholar, Ben Abraham. A lovely evening all round, and many thanks to everyone for their hard work.

The organ fund is aiming to raise money to rehome a fine, 1906 Lewis & Co organ, originally from St Paul's United Reformed Church in Croydon, to St Mildred's. The Lewis organ is one of only two in Croydon to hold an Historic Organ Certificate (the other being the Hill organ at Croydon Minster). Find out more and donate at the project website.