The New Voices Singing Competition returns to the Northern Aldborough Festival in North Yorkshire for its third edition this year

2024 New Voices Singing Competition: judging panel - Sir Andrew Lawson-Tancred, Robert Ogden, Edward Gardner OBE, Sholto Kynoch, Judith le Breuilly, George Ireland, Sir John Tomlinson; winners -  Clara Orif and Jack Redman

The New Voices Singing Competition returns to the Northern Aldborough Festival in North Yorkshire for its third edition this year. The New Voices Competition was launched in 2023 in response to the funding cuts the classical music sector faced, to provide a platform for emerging talent. Winners get the chance to perform at next year’s Northern Aldborough Festival alongside paid recitals, funded by the Yorkshire Music Future Fund, at Leeds Lieder and Harrogate International Festivals.

This year's judging panel features baritone Thomas Allen, conductor Jane Glover, and pianist (and artistic director of Oxford International Song Festival) Sholto Kynoch along with the Northern Aldborough Festival's artistic director Robert Ogden, himself a former professional countertenor.

The competition is open to soloists, duos, and ensembles of up to eight participants with a focus on singing. Participants must be aged from 18 to 32 to enter and be UK or Irish residents or nationals. Deadline for entries is Friday 18 April, 2025.

Full details from the festival website.

To create modern culture through the thoughts of the past: George Petrou artistic director of the Göttingen International Handel Festival introduces this year's festival

Atsushi Sakai (viola da gamba) and Bruno Helstroffer (theorbo) at PS.Halle, Einbeck for the 2024 Internationale Händel Festspiele Göttingen

This year's Göttingen International Handel Festival takes place from 16 to 25 May 2025, once more under the artistic directorship of George Petrou, who has extended his contract as director until 2031. This year's theme is fame and honour, power and glory, and the main events at the festival are a new production of Handel's Tamerlano, Handel's oratorio Solomon which will be performed in Göttingen and at the Elbphiharmonie in Hamburg, and a gala concert with the mezzo-soprano Ann Hallenberg. Tamerlano features Lawrence Zazzo in the title role with Louise Kemény as Asteria, Juan Sancho as Bajazet, and Yuriy Mynenko as Andronico, whilst Solomon features Lena Sutor-Wernich in the title role and Francesca Lombardi Mazzulli in the three soprano roles plus James Way as Zadok.

George Petrou (Photo: FreddieF)

But there is lots more Handel in the festival as well, and concerts showcasing what George Petrou refers to as their wonderful orchestra, the FestspielOrchester Göttingen. There is ensemble freymut in Couperin's Les Nations, the Calmus Ensemble exploring both Byrd and birds, Mayumi Hirasaki, Christoph Dangel and Kristian Bezuidenhout in a chamber music tour of Italy, viol virtuoso Hille Perl and her period instrument ensemble Los Otros take us to the French court, Tra Noi give us music from those in the circle of Cardinal Ottoboni including of course George Frideric, but also Domenico Scarlatti, Arcangelo Corelli, Alessandro Scarlatti, Antonio Caldara and Antonio Vivaldi. The festival's former artistic director, Nicholas McGegan returns to celebrate his 75th birthday and amongst the lunchtime concerts there is the chance to heard George Petrou displaying his keyboard skills. There is also the excitement of the eighth annual Göttingen Handel Competition which invites young ensembles from around the world to compete.

In addition to various venues in Göttingen, a number of events will also take place in the region of southern Lower Saxony, in Duderstadt, Friedland, Scheden, Einbeck, Herzberg am Harz and Hann. Münden, and we know from our experiences last year that many of these places are visually and historically engaging too.

The choice of works is partly the way things worked out and partly deliberate choice. Last year, the festival presented a modern pasticcio, Sarasine, as the main operatic work. The idea was to create a drama our of the various arias rejected by Handel which were never revised or recycled. This was something of a novelty, an experiment and this year George Petrou felt it would be good to go back to one of Handel's major operas. For George, Tamerlano stands above everything that Handel did and its dramatic approach goes beyond the 18th century, looking forward to operatic developments in the 19th century. The big dramatic scene at the end of Act Three, when Bajazet dies on stage in front of the other protagonists, does not recur in Handel's later operas, and both the dramatic approach and sound-world look forward to Romantic opera. For George, this is genius at its best, eternal and not restricted to one era. And for this years opera, not only are they returning to Handelian basics but presenting one of his crowning achievements.

Another crazy day: Joe Hill-Gibbins' production of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro returns to ENO reinvigorated, full of engaging performances

Mozart: The Marriage of Figaro - English National Opera, 2025 (Photo: Zoe Martin)

Mozart: The Marriage of Figaro; Mary Bevan, David Ireland, Nardus Williams, Cody Quattlebaum, Hanna Hipp, director: Joe Hill-Gibbins/Jenny Ogilvie, conductor: Ainārs Rubiķis; English National Opera at London Coliseum
Reviewed 5 February 2025

Barely seen first time around, Joe Hill-Gibbins production makes a welcome return, telling the story with humour, yet not missing the essential serious elements and with a strong ensemble of vivid performances

Director Joe Hill-Gibbins production of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro debuted in Wuppertal in 2019 and then English National Opera presented it at the London Coliseum for a single performance in March 2020 [see my review] then COVID closed theatres down; the activities of La folle giornata, the crazy day at the Almaviva's palace perhaps an apt metaphor for our crazy times. Now the production is back, with a largely new cast.

We caught the opening performance on 5 February 2025 of English National Opera's revival of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro directed by Joe Hill-Gibbins with Jenny Ogilvie as associate director/movement director, conducted by Ainārs Rubiķis. Mary Bevan was Susanna, David Ireland [whom we recently saw in the role at Garsington, see my review] was Figaro, with Nardus Williams as the Countess, Cody Quattlebaum as the Count, Hanna Hipp as Cherubino, Neal Davies as Dr Bartolo, Rebecca Evans as Marcellina, Hubert Francis as Don Curzio/Don Basilio, Ava Dodd as Barbarina and Trevor Eliot-Bowes as Antonio. Sets were by Johannes Schütz with costumes by Astrid Klein. The English translation was by Jeremy Sams.

Mozart: The Marriage of Figaro - David Ireland, Mary Bevan - English National Opera, 2025 (Photo: Zoe Martin)

Schütz' set is a basic white box which has the advantage of providing the right sort of aural support for the singers. That it has an array of doors is an indication that Hill-Gibbins takes the farce elements of the opera seriously, this is a production with a lot of opening and closing of doors, as well as hiding behind them. The advantage is that in the Act One and Act Two finales, the action can be fast, furious and funny whilst being just on the right side of unbelievable. These scenes are tricky to make work if you aim at pure realism.

My Heart's in the Highlands: the debut recital from tenor Glen Cunningham mixes Stuart MacRae's new songs with other composers with 'Scotland in Mind'

My Heart's in the Highlands: traditional, Schumann, Stuart MacRae, Liza Lehmann, Hahn; Glen Cunningham, Anna Tilbrook; DELPHIAN
Reviewed 5 February 2025

For his debut recital, the young Scottish tenor takes us back to the Highlands of the imagination with music that moves from Stuart MacRae's new songs to Schumann setting Burns, Lehmann and Hahn setting Stevenson in an engaging and imaginative recital.

The recent disc from tenor Glen Cunningham and pianist Anna Tilbrook, My Heart's in the Highlands on Delphian explores not so much Scottish music as the idea Scotland, what Roger Fiske in his book Scotland in Music refers to as 'Scotland in Mind'. So we have the premiere of Five Stevenson Song by Scottish composer Stuart MacRae (also from the Highlands, evidently), alongside art-song arrangements of Scottish songs, Robert Schumann's Robert Burns settings from Myrthen and songs by Liza Lehmann and Reynaldo Hahn. Lehmann, Hahn and MacRae all set words by Robert Louis Stevenson which adds another thread running through the disc.

The Scottish songs are spread throughout the disc so we start with Ca' the yowes to the knowes arranged by Claire Liddell who also provides the arrangements of Ye banks and braes and Wee Willie Gray, with Ae fond kiss arranged by Alfred Moffatt and My heart's in the Highlands in a version transcribed a 1962 Kenneth McKellar recording! Cunningham and Tilbrook make these art song, not folk song, but Cunningham (who was born in the Highlands) does not shy away from the language, thankfully.

Cunningham studied at the Royal College of Music's Opera Studio and at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. He was a member of the Opera Studio of Opera national du Rhin and was a Scottish opera Emerging Artist and performed the title role in Britten's Albert Herring with Scottish Opera earlier this season.

Anna Tilbrook & Glen Cunningham recording Delphian's My Heart's in the Highlands in St Mary's Church, Haddington

It comes as something of a surprise to find that Robert Schumann wrote some 20 settings of Robert Burns, in translation of course but something in Burns' directness must have appealed to him. Here we hear the eight Burns settings from Myrthen which form an interesting group, all about love and loss (including love lost), and lamenting in tone. As Lucy Walker points out in her fine booklet article, the political overtones of Burns' writing will have passed over Schumann's head, but we can enjoy his engagement with the subject.

Side by Side: Figure return to Stone Nest with Baroque masterpieces contrasted with contemporary works

Our Mother - Rowan Pierce, Emma Kirkby, Alexandra Achillea Pouta - Figure at Stone Nest in 2024 (Photo: Kristina Allen)

Following their performances of Our Mother, the staging of Pergolesi's Stabat Mater alongside music by Alex Mills, [see my review], Frederick Waxman's ensemble Figure is returning to Stone Nest on 15 February 2025 for Side by Side an up-close performance of baroque masterpieces by Corelli, Handel and van Wassenaer, contrasted by contemporary compositions by Caroline Shaw, Edmund Finnis, Freya Waley-Cohen and a specially commissioned world premiere by rising star Joanna Ward.

The evening will feature concerto grossos by Corelli and Handel, Vivaldi's Concerto in D 'Madrigalesco' and the Concerto Armonico No. 4 by the Dutch 18th-century composer Unico Wilhelm van Wassenaer. Alongside these will be Finnis' The Centre is Everywhere, Shaw's Punctum and Waley-Cohen's Talisman along with the new piece from Joanna Ward.

Joanna Ward studied at the university of Cambridge and then at Guildhall School with Amber Priestly and she was a Britten Pears Young Artist in 2021-22. Her recent work has included a new piece for the Marian Consort and Playing frisbee May 2022 for the trombone quartet, Slide-Action, included on their recent disc [see my interview with Slide-Action].

Full details from the Stone Nest website.

Vanessa Reed, ground breaking former chief executive of PRS Foundation returns to UK as CEO of Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Society

Vanessa Reed

For 11 years, Vanessa Williams had significant impact on the British classical music scene as chief executive of the PRS Foundation. But since 2019, she has been President and CEO of New Music USA, a New York based national resource which supports music creation and performance across the US. The good news is that she is now bringing her expertise back to the UK and taking over as chief executive of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Society, taking up the position in June this year. As such, she will lead an organisation that includes Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir, Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool Philharmonic Youth Company, and an extensive learning and community programme.

During her time at the PRS Foundation, Williams tripled its resources for organisations, composers, songwriters and artists by introducing a suite of national and international programmes including the Momentum Music Fund, created in partnership with Arts Council England (2013), New Music Biennial, which began as a programme of commissions for the UK’s Cultural Olympiad (2012), and Women Make Music, which was set up in response to the gender gap in music.

In 2017, she initiated Keychange in collaboration with Musikcentrum Öst in Sweden and Reeperbahn Festival in Germany, a programme that sets out to challenge gender imbalances in the music industry and create a global movement for diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility.

Williams already has significant links to Liverpool. She was a board member of Royal Liverpool Philharmonic between 2016 and 2019, was an Ambassador for the University of Liverpool and collaborated with Liverpool City Council to support emerging musicians. Her love for Liverpool stems from her father who studied law at Liverpool University in the 60s, loved the Philharmonic Hall, and inspired her and her family to support one of the city’s football teams. 

She is married to a Liverpudlian, Eddie Berg who founded the Foundation for Art and Creative Technology (FACT), a Liverpool-based agency for the exhibition, support, and development of artists’ film, video, and new media projects. 

Full details from the Liverpool Philharmonic's website.

The cello concerto by Austrian composer & contrabass virtuoso Johann Matthias Sperger gets its first modern performance

Schloss Ludwigslust where Johann Matthias Sperger was based from 1789 until his death
(Photo: Matthias Süßen - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0)

Johann Matthias Sperger (1750-1812) was a name that was new to me. He was a distinguished Austrian contrabass virtuoso and composer with a significant body of work to his name. Born in Feldsburg in what was then Austria but is now Valtice in the Czech Republic, his name may well originally have been Jan Matyáš Sperger.

He studied in Vienna and may have been a pupil of Albrechtsberger. From 1777 he worked for the Archbishop of Pressburg (now Bratislava). He then went on extended concert tours that made him famous as a contrabass virtuoso and composer, both at home and abroad. In 1789 the court of Archduke Friedrich Franz I in Ludwigslust (a Baroque palace some 40km south of Schwerin) appointed Sperger to the position of principal contrabass in the Mecklenburg-Schwerin Court orchestra, where he remained the rest of his life.

Sperger produced some forty symphonies and numerous instrumental concertos, including eighteen for double bass. There is a chance to hear one on 23 February at Kings Place when Leon Bosch directs The Hanover Band in the first modern performance of Sperger's Cello Concerto in C with soloist Sebastian Comberti in a programme that also includes Cimarosa's Oboe Concerto (with soloist Geoff Coates) and symphonies by Haydn and Mozart.

Full details from Kings Place website.

Night through dreams tells the myths forgotten by the day: Le Sommeil's new EP, Semele reflects a new project

Le Sommeil, collective of musicians originally from the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, has released a new EP and two videos to herald their upcoming debut album, featuring works by George Frideric Handel, Marin Marais, and John Eccles, drawn from operas inspired by the myth of Semele,

Building on their previous programme, which delved into the relationships between dreams, myths, and archetypes inspired by Carl Jung's philosophy, Le Sommeil continues to bring a distinctive perspective to Baroque music. Their motto, "Night through dreams tells the myths forgotten by the day" (C. G. Jung), encapsulates their mission: to revive stories and emotions that resonate universally yet remain hidden beneath the surface.

The performances feature Margarita Slepakova - mezzo-soprano, Elena Abbati and Soko Yoshida - violins, Giulio Padoin - cello, Pablo FitzGerald - archlute, Cristiano Gaudio - harpsichord. The videos were filmed by award-winning cinematographer Wawrzyniec Skoczylas and produced by Slepakova, in an abandoned Alsatian synagogue, now a vibrant art centre called le ventre. Founded by artists Mimi von Moos and Willem Mes, this historic venue bridges tradition and contemporary art.

The video above, O Sleep is available on YouTube,  and you can also catch their video, No, no I'll take no less on YouTube. The Semele EP is available from BandCamp.

Photo Essay: Annabel Arden's new production of Wagner's The Flying Dutchman at Opera North connects with those who have lived experience of seeking refuge

Wagner: The Flying Dutchman - Robert Hayward as The Dutchman and Edgaras Montvidas as Erik/ Steersman - Opera North (Photo: James Glossop)

As Opera North's new production of Wagner's The Flying Dutchman opened at the Grand Theatre, Leeds on Saturday 1 February 2025, we present a series of images from the production. The conductor is Garry Walker and the director is Annabel Arden with set, costume and video design by Joanna Parker, and lighting designer by Kevin Treacy. Robert Hayward is The Dutchman with Layla Claire as Senta, Clive Bayley as Daland and Edgaras Montvidas as Erik/ Steersman. (At the first night, Layla Claire walked the role and Mari Wyn Williams sang from the side of the stage, though Claire will be back in harness for the remainder of the performances).

Wagner: The Flying Dutchman - Robert Hayward as The Dutchman with the Chorus of Opera North - Opera North (Photo: James Glossop)

Described by The Guardian as 'thought provoking and moving', director Annabel Arden and designer Joanna Parker's production reimagines the action to take place on our ‘ship of state’: the Home Office.

January on Planet Hugill: Our newsletter is out on Mailchimp

The Dead - Niamh Cusack, The Fourth Choir, Jamie Powe - Wilton's Music Hall (Photo: Kathleen Holman)

January on Planet Hugill
Handel in 1749, Mozart in 1775 and Schubert's 228th birthday

Our newsletter January on Planet Hugill, is out, looking back at a month when we took time to recharge batteries, but also managed to hear both of Handel's oratorios from 1749, eavesdrop on Mozart's sound-world from 1775 as well as celebrating Schubert's birthday at Wigmore Hall. Interviews this month included a feature on Vaughan William's Riders to the Sea, getting a rare outing in February, and a deep dive into the world of composer Steven Daverson's mix of orchestra and live electronics.

Our record reviews this month include rarities such as sonatas by JS Bach's 'other' composer son, Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach, Ethel Smyth's earliest orchestral work, one of the other concertos for Left Hand commissioned by Paul Wittgenstein, Walton's complete songs (there aren't many but they are terrific) and the final symphony by Canadian composer Jacques Hétu.

Read more on MailChimp.

Unbearable intensity: a musically strong revival of Janáček's Jenůfa at the Royal Opera with incoming music director Jakub Hrůša on searing form in the pit

Janáček: Jenůfa - Corinne Winters, Karita Mattila - Royal Opera (Photo: Camilla Greenwell/RBO)

Janáček: Jenůfa; Corinne Winters, Karita Mattila, Nicky Spence, Thomas Atkins, Hanna Schwarz, director: Claus Guth/Oliver Platt, conductor: Jakub Hrůša; Royal Opera House
Reviewed 1 February 2025

With the company's incoming music director in the pit and a strong ensemble cast, this was an evening to remember with powerful performances from both soloists and orchestra, despite Claus Guth's somewhat disappointing production

Claus Guth's production of Janáček's Jenůfa returned to the Royal Opera House for the first time since it was new [see my review from 2021] with many of the same cast. We caught the final performance in the run on 1 February 2025. Oliver Platt was the revival director, with Jakub Hrůša, the company's incoming music director, in the pit. Corinne Winters sang Jenůfa, with Karita Mattila and Nicky Spence returning as the Kostelnička and Laca, plus Thomas Atkins as Števa, Hanna Schwarz as grandmother, James Cleverton as the foreman, Jonathan Lemalu as the Mayor and Marie McLaughlin as the mayor's wife.

One noticeable, and welcome thing about the casting was its use of distinguished older female singers encompassing Karita Mattila, Hanna Schwarz and Marie McLaughlin with birth dates varying from 1960 through to 1943.

Seen second time around, Guth's production remains somewhat disappointing. In the first act there is little sense of who these people are, of community. If one reads the play on which the opera is based, set in an isolated Moravian community, then Jenůfa would face death by stoning if her pregnancy was discovered, not simply social embarrassment. 

Guth, however, relies not on character but on symbols. Do we really need the blood-covered young boy walking across the stage at the beginning of Act Two, and as for the large crow which appears during Števa's scene in that act, what is that for. And whilst first time around, I found it imaginative the way the Kostelnička's house was made from the iron bedsteads from Act One, this time I simply grew frustrated that we watched the singers' faces through a gauze of metal mesh.

Janáček: Jenůfa - Thomas Atkins, Corinne Winters - Royal Opera (Photo: Camilla Greenwell/RBO)

What made this revival special were the performances. Key amongst these was that of Jakub Hrůša and the orchestra. Because Hrůša is Czech we cannot simply assume that he has the music in his DNA but certainly that applies here. Always in Janáček's operas the orchestral contribution is key, but here Hrůša turned them into another character, one that brought every scene to life. There was a particular intensity about the playing, not excessively loud, yet wonderfully alive and powerful. The moments of lyrical tenderness, the few that there are, were finely done, the final melody when Jenůfa and Laca were alone at last was achingly beautiful yet not sweet. Superb stuff, and I cannot wait to hear what Hrůša does next with the company.

Konstantin Krimmel in overwhelming form for Schubert's Birthday at Wigmore Hall, with a welcome group of Carl Loewe too

Schubert Birthday Concert - Ammiel Bushakevitz, Konstantin Krimmel - Wigmore Hall (Image from Live Stream)

Schubert Birthday Concert: Schubert, Loewe; Konstantin Krimmel, Ammiel Bushakevitz; Wigmore Hall
Reviewed 31 January 2025

Schubert's Birthday at Wigmore Hall with the young German baritone Konstantin Krimmel on overwhelming form in some of Schubert's most powerful and knottiest pieces, including Prometheus, Totengräbers Heimweh, Gruppe aus dem Tartarus and Erlkönig from Schubert and Loewe

Friday 31 January 2025 was Schubert's 228th birthday, and the celebrations at Wigmore Hall featured baritone Konstantin Krimmel and pianist Ammiel Bushakevitz in a programme of songs by Schubert and Carl Loewe. First we heard Schubert's Der Wanderer D489, An den Mond D193, Hoffnung D637, Der Jüngling an der Quelle D300 and Auf der Donau D553, then Carl Loewe's Herr Oluf Op. 2 No. 2, Der du von dem Himmel bist (Wandrers Nachtlied II) Op. 9, Erlkönig Op. 1 No. 3, Geisterleben Op. 9, and Der Totentanz Op. 44 No. 3, then finally Schubert's Prometheus D674, Am Bach im Frühling D361, Der König in Thule D367, Totengräbers Heimweh D842, Gruppe aus dem Tartarus D583, Nachtstück D672, and Erlkönig D328.

It was a meaty programme with some substantial and powerful pieces, including a compare and contrast between Schubert and Loewe's Erlkönig settings alongside other large-scale works that showcased Schubert far from the simply lyrical. And it was welcome to hear a substantial group of Loewe's songs, including the first performance of Der Totentanz at Wigmore Hall.

Throughout the concert, it was impressive the way Krimmel brought so much character and intensity to the songs without ever distorting or breaking the vocal line. His darkly focused tone was finely fluid with intensity to it throughout, a great lower register and admirably easy top whilst the range of colours and timbres he brought to the music was enviable.

Bruckner's obsession with death, Scottish Gaelic folk poetry & a grumpy gaboon: I chat to Scottish composer Jay Capperauld, currently the Scottish Chamber Orchestra's associate composer

Jay Capperauld (Photo: Euan Robertson)

The Scottish composer Jay Capperauld is currently the Scottish Chamber Orchestra's (SCO) Associate Composer and this month he has two sets of performances of his works. On 19 February SCO premieres Jay's new piece, Bruckner's Skull in Dumfries with performances in Edinburgh and Glasgow. Written as a death-mask homage to composer Anton Bruckner in the 200th Anniversary year of his birth, Bruckner’s Skull is inspired by Bruckner’s obsession with death, and in particular the two alleged occasions when Bruckner cradled the skulls of both Beethoven and Schubert when their bodies were exhumed and moved to Vienna’s Central Cemetery in 1888.

Before then, SCO revives Jay's work for children, The Great Grumpy Gaboon, and later in the season, they will premiere Jay's Carmina Gadelica for wind dectet, inspired by the Gaelic incantations, hymns, and songs collected by Alexander Carmichael in his work of the same name.

Bruckner's Totenmaske (Death Mask), 1896

Jay admits that he is rather drawn to strange stories and is interested in story-telling in music, the challenge of how to create a musical narrative with a story in wordless form. Bruckner's Skull is inspired by the great composer's deathly fixations. Some of the stories are anecdotal, but Bruckner did spend time in a sanatorium for what we would now call OCD. The symptoms of OCD manifest in a way in which a person experiences uncontrollable, intrusive, distressing and recurring thoughts (obsessions) which are alleviated by engaging in repetitive behaviours and actions (compulsions) that are attributed to a specific fear of dire consequences (to themselves, loved ones or others) if those behaviours and actions are not completed to a perceived satisfactory degree.

Bruckner's reported fixations included giving specific instructions on his own burial under the organ that he played at St Florian Monastery and the keeping of lists of his female students to whom he would continually propose well into his old age. The duality in his hyper-religious grandiose sense of divine musical purpose coupled with his extreme shyness and debilitating low self-esteem. Jay is interested in these fixations, not only how to convey the story in music but also what does it say about Bruckner himself. Who was the man and how do we deal nowadays with the more problematic elements of his fixations?

Jay intends his piece to humanise Bruckner and get to the crux of the man from a more empathetic perspective. Musically, Jay is interested not so much in what is happening but in why, for instance, the oboe interacts in the way it does. For Bruckner's Skull, Jay uses snippets of Bruckner's music which he treats in a hyper-fixated way, making the music feel as if we are hearing it through Bruckner's obsessive qualities. Through the compositional process, Jay tries to reflect Bruckner's mind.

Letter from Florida: a study in contrasts, Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette at Palm Beach Opera

Charles Gounod: Roméo et Juliette - Long Long, Kathryn Lewek - Palm Beach Opera, 2025

Charles Gounod: Roméo et Juliette Kathryn Lewek, Long Long, Bernardo Medeiros, director: Tara Faircloth, conductor: David Stern, Palm Beach Opera; Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, Palm Beach, Florida
Reviewed by Robert J Carreras (24 January 2025)

Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette maintains a solid place in the operatic repertoire, brought consistently back by an audience who judges it on its merits. At Palm Beach Opera (PBO), Robert J Carreras in his latest Letter from Florida, finds strong performances from Kathryn Lewek's deeply affecting Juliette and Long Long's ardent Roméo make the production well worth a visit.

For all the success of Charles Francois Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette, the work has always been considered inferior to his first great music drama, Faust. Therein lies the rub in a wider sense; for all its success, Roméo et Juliette suffers from a reputation of being dramatically deficient, and not wholly accepted as music drama. 

This is especially so in contrast to the direction opera took in the late 19th century, in the German works, and those of the verismo period. Combined with the fact that acting performance standards hadn’t veered much from overblown on the one hand and remaining static throughout the first part of the 20th century on the other, and Roméo et Juliette is hardly among the works contemporary artist’s look at to put on display and stretch their acting prowess.

Charles Gounod: Roméo et Juliette - Kathryn Lewek - Palm Beach Opera, 2025

No one seems to have told this to Kathryn Lewek. She made the most of what Gounod, Barrier, and Carre (composer and librettists) give Juliette; Lewek kept up the synergy of her significant artistic resources, from her note one to her note fin, three hours later. Her stage manner is as affecting as it is natural. It appears Ms. Lewek has not performed Juliette much out there, and it is a rare thing to exhibit such depth of knowledge of a role in such few attempts. Finally, you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who truly looks the part of a love-struck teenager more.

Saffron Hall celebrates World Piano Day with classical, jazz, film, the winner of The Piano, and a chance to Do It Yourself

Martin James Bartlett

World Piano Day is celebrated on the 88th day of the year to honour the 88 keys of the piano, so Saffron Hall is planning a celebratory Piano Day on Saturday 29 March 2025 with a variety of piano from classical to jazz to DIY in an around the hall.

Brad Kella, known for winning Channel 4's The Piano, will be giving to free concerts at Saffron Walden Town Hall. Martin James Bartlett, winner of the 2014 BBC Young Musician of the Year, is giving an afternoon concert at Saffron Hall performing music by Bach,  Schumann, Debussy and Gershwin, plus a selection of Schubert's Impromptus and ending with Ravel's La Valse.

Back at Saffron Walden Town Hall, jazz pianist and composer James Beckwith brings his unique blend of innovation and artistry to a relaxed evening of jazz. Whilst at Saffron Saffron in the evening, there is a showing of the film The Pianist, based on the autobiographical book The Pianist (1946), a memoir by the Polish-Jewish pianist, composer and Holocaust survivor Władysław Szpilman.

Throughout the day, there are open sessions giving people the opportunity to play the Steinway at Saffron Hall or the piano at Audley End House.

Full details from the Saffron Hall website.

Ellie Slorach appointed to the new role of Associate Conductor with the Royal Northern Sinfonia

Fantasy, Myths and Legends prom - Ellie Slorach, Royal Northern Sinfonia - The Glasshouse (Photo: TyneSight Photographic Services))

Ellie Slorach has been appointed to the new role of Associate Conductor with the Royal Northern Sinfonia, kicking off an exciting new chapter in the orchestra’s work, including concerts aimed at schools and families across Gateshead and the wider North East. 

Her first project in her new role is BBC Ten Pieces in Concert with Royal Northern Sinfonia and presenter YolanDa Brown on 4 March 2025. This event invites young people to step into a musical time machine at The Glasshouse, discovering pieces that inspire hope, break boundaries, and make people want to dance. Her family-friendly events with the orchestra include performances in October of the film How to Train Your Dragon with live orchestral music and in December she will also reprise her conducting roles in Christmas at the Glasshouse and The Snowman in Concert.

Ellie Slorach is the Founder and Artistic Director of Kantos Chamber Choir, which has an artistic partnership with Manchester Camerata. She is also Engagement Conductor of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and she will conduct the Royal Scottish National Orchestra for the first concert performances of Jonathan Dove's new opera Uprising in Saffron Walden, Glasgow and Edinburgh in collaboration with Glyndebourne [see our article]. Highlights of the previous season included her debut at the BBC Proms at The Glasshouse Gateshead with the Royal Northern Sinfonia as well as debuts with Matthew Bourne’s ballet production of Edward Scissorhands at Sadler’s Wells.

Further details from the Glasshouse's website.

1775 - A Retrospective: Ian Page & The Mozartists on terrific form in a deep dive into the sound-world of Mozart's 1775

Benda: Medea - Alexandra Lowe, The Mozartists, Ian Page at Cadogan Hall (Photo: Martin Kendrick)

1775 - A Retrospective: Ordonez, Hasse, Mozart, Benda: Medea, Haydn: Symphony No. 67; Alexandra Lowe, Alessandro Fisher, The Mozartists, Ian Page; Cadogan Hall
Reviewed 29 January 2025

As Mozart 250 reaches 1775, we explore music Mozart wrote for other people's operas, a Haydn symphony that tantalised with a sense of a hidden story and Benda's highly influential and unfairly neglected melodrama for an engrossing evening

Ian Page and The Mozartists have reached 1775 in their Mozart 250 project. Later this year, the group will be performing Mozart's La finta giardiniera (written for Munich in 1775), but on 29 January 2025 at the Cadogan Hall, they were joined by tenor Alessandro Fisher and soprano Alexandra Lowe for music from 1775. There were three arias Mozart wrote for insertion into other people's operas, pieces that it is always tricky to programme, plus an aria from Haydn's oratorio Il ritorno di Tobia and an aria by Hasse (born 57 years before Mozart), as well as symphonies by Ordonez and Haydn. Perhaps the most unusual work in the programme, however, was a scene from Benda's melodrama Medea, its form of spoken drama with music rather preventing the work having the sort of performances it deserves.

Alessandro Fisher, The Mozartists, Ian Page at Cadogan Hall (Photo: Martin Kendrick)

We began with the Symphony in G minor by Karl von Ordonez (1734-1786), the Viennese-born illegitimate son of lower nobility who seems to have taken his mother's Spanish surname. His working life was devoted to his job at the Lower Austrian Regional Court so his composing was part-time, but he wrote two operas, plenty of church music, 27 string quartets and 73 symphonies. His G minor symphony was scored for strings and oboes. The first movement was engagingly lyrical with dramatic moments and a sense of the melody coming in waves. The slow middle movement's gracious melody included the violas getting a rare moment in the spotlight, and the final movement was vivid and brisk with great onward energy.

Canadian composer Jacques Hétu's remarkable final symphony in a stunning new recording resulting from the collaboration between three of Canada's major ensembles

Jacques Hétu: Symphony No. 5; Canada's National Arts Centre Orchestra, Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, Alexander Shelley; Analekta
Reviewed 29 January 2025

Premiered three weeks after his death, Canadian composer Jacques Hétu's massive symphony is a remarkable reflection of the acuteness and refinement of his ear, and his striking reinvention of the symphony as a 21st century form, looking forward and back

The Canadian composer Jacques Hétu became one of the country's most esteemed and frequently performed composers, with a catalogue of some 70 works, including symphonies, opera, choral and chamber music, and concertos. His Symphony No. 5 was commissioned by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and premiered at the 2010 New Creation Festival. Sadly, Hétu died just three weeks before the premiere. Though there is a selection of Hétu's work in the catalogue, there seems little in the way of his symphonies. So there are plenty of reasons to welcome the innovative new release of his final symphony.

On this new disc from Analekta, Canada's National Arts Centre (NAC) Orchestra and the Orchestre Symphonique de Québec (OSQ) join forces with the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir under the baton of Alexander Shelley (musical director of the NAC Orchestra) to perform Hétu's Symphony No. 5. Under the title The Two Orchestras, One Symphony project represents a partnership between the NAC Orchestra and the OSQ, who joined forces for the first time to bring Hétu’s masterwork to life with over 100 instrumentalists and 114 singers.

Hétu's musical studies took him from Canada, to Tanglewood (where he worked with Lukas Foss) and finally Paris where he worked with Henri Dutilleux and Olivier Messiaen. Dutilleux encouraged Hétu to pursue his own style in composition and not be influenced strongly by current trends and rather than exploring serialism or atonality, Hétu moved towards tonality and his Symphony No. 3 from 1971 represents his definitive return to having a tonal core to his compositional technique. Evidently, this did not always go down well with his more avant-garde fellow musicians but he commented, "I handled the ostracism thanks to performers who played my music or commissioned works from me".

Jacques Hétu: Symphony No. 5 - Canada's National Arts Centre Orchestra, Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, Alexander Shelley - Southam Hall, Ottawa (Photo: Curtis Perry)

GBSR Duo: the first ever portrait concert devoted to Wlesh composer/violinist Angharad Davies and startling the Wigmore Hall audience with vocal ensemble EXAUDI

GBSR Duo, made up of two of the UK's finest young contemporary chamber instrumentalists, George Barton, percussion and Siwan Rhys, piano, has become known for its boundary-crossing performances, combining exceptional interpretations of the existing piano-percussion repertoire and committed performances of ambitious new commissions including works from Eva-Maria Houben, CHAINES, Christopher Fox, Angharad Davies, Oliver Leith, Tim Parkinson, and Laurence Osborn, plus European and UK premieres of works by Nicole Lizée, Barbara Monk Feldman, Lisa Illean, and Eric Wubbels.

On Saturday 8 February, GBSR Duo will be collaborating with Welsh composer and violinist Angharad Davies for a programme of Davies' music. This event will be the first ever portrait concert devoted to her compositions, showcasing works from 2012 to the present day. The industrial-inspired Empty Spaces II, originally commissioned by Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, uses samples of Angharad Davies’s violin playing (recorded in empty rooms of a disused building) to allow Siwan Rhys to ‘play’ the absent soloist. Rydal Mount (for GBSR and Davies) is a piece rooted in the familiar task of house emptying  – in this case the score is constituted by a series of photographs of items discovered and collected by Davies while clearing a relative’s house. Finally, Davies' solo, Solo Violin and Four Bass Amps is an incredible deconstruction of her instrument.

Davies grew up in Welsh musical household, playing in brass bands alongside her brother and father. She studied at the Royal Northern College of Music and in Düsseldorf. She s known for her free improvisation, exploring beyond the sonic confines of her instrument, her classical training and performance expectation

The performance takes place at Arnolfini in Bristol and will be GBSR Duo's debut there. Full details from the Arnolfini website.

Two weeks later, GBSR will be at Wigmore Hall on 22 February, collaborating with vocal ensemble EXAUDI for premieres by Linda Caitlin Smith, Alex Tay, Cassie Kinoshi and Joe Bates. GBSR Duo commented "There's no one with whom we'd rather startle Wigmore with this extraordinary smorgasbord than EXAUDI, a remarkable collective of vocal talent who combine musical commitment and contemporary expertise".

Full details from Wigmore Hall's website.

William Vann & the Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital return to the studio for more Elgar gems on SOMM

Elgar wrote a remarkable amount of choral music ranging from the small-scale to the huge oratorios. Most choral singers will be familiar with his remarkable unaccompanied choral gems, Owls and There is Sweet Music, but there are plenty more for those wanting to explore and William Vann and the Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital are keen for us to hear them.

In 2022, they released The Reeds by Severn Side on SOMM, a selection of 18 gems (including six first recordings) ranging from his juvenilia such as the 16-year-old Elgar’s Credo on Themes from Symphonies 5, 7 and 9 by Beethoven (in James Olsen’s completion) and Drake’s Broughton, through his Roman Catholic and Anglican liturgical music to Queen Alexandra's Memorial Ode (So many true princesses who have gone) from 1932.

Now they plan to return to the studio for a further selection including five world premiere recordings, the hymns Stabat Mater and Praise ye the Lord, Psalm 51, and two versions of O Salutaris Hostia, along with major sacred choral works including Great is the Lord and two choruses from The Light of Life, plus more of his major part songs.

They have a CrowdFunder going to help cover recording costs, see CrowdFunder website for details.