Not just a vanity project: Sophie Gilpin introduces HeadFirst's Festival of Love, Death and Sex

Samuel Pantcheff & Elizabeth Roberts rehearsing for
HeadFirst Productions new production of Mozat's Don Giovanni

HeadFirst Productions is presenting Mozart's Don Giovanni at the Pleasance Theatre (Carpenters Mews, North Road, London N7 9EF) as part of a Festival of Love, Death and Sex. Intriguingly Don Giovanni is being presented by an all-women team with director Sophie Gilpin (founder and artistic director of HeadFirst Productions, conductor Sonia Ben Santamaria and designer Anna Bonomelli. I recently met up with Sophie Gilpin, the day before the start of rehearsals, to find out more about what we can expect.

Having a female-led team is important to Sophie, she comments that frequently she notices she is the only woman in the room and this imbalance seems to have become the norm on operatic projects. Yet at networking events for under 30s arts professionals there are fare more women and Sophie feels that this reflects the disparity which there is between people running high level arts organisations and lower level ones, with women far more prevalent in the latter.

And Don Giovanni is such a male-orientated story, where women can be seen as passive playthings telling Giovanni's story. So Sophie wants to approach the work from the other way round, with the Don telling the women's story; strong independent women who can't help but be attracted to something in Giovanni. Sophie plans to start from there and explore; she promises 'nothing too mad', and adds that it is a very tough opera.

The setting will be contemporary, but there will be no technology on stage (so no iPhones). They have avoided a specific date, partly because in a specific setting the supernatural element can become a bit of stretch. Sophie feels that the dramatic stakes are only high if Don Giovanni's descent to hell is the real end-game, that Leporello's fear has to be genuine so that there is something upsetting about it.

Albion Quartet residency at Kings Place

Albion Quartet Rosalind Ventris, Tamsin Waley Cohen,
Emma Parker, Nathaniel Boyd

On Sunday 22 October 2017, the Albion Quartet (violinists Tamsin Waley-Cohen and Emma Parker, violist Rosalind Ventris and cellist Nathaniel Boyd) begins a residency at Kings Place. The quartet will be giving four concerts across two seasons at the venue, as part of London Chamber Music Sundays. Each programme will link British and European music via a common theme. For the first concert, Folk, the quartet plays Schubert’s String Quartet No.13 in A minor D804 ‘Rosamunde’, Elizabeth Maconchy’s String Quartet No.3 and Dvořák’s String Quartet No.10 in E flat Op.51 'Slavonic'.

The second concert of the series, on Sunday 25 February 2017, Hymns will include Peter Fribbins; String Quartet No.2 ‘After Cromer’, Haydn's String Quartet No.3 in C, Op.76 ‘Emperor’, Suk's Meditation on the Old Czech Chorale ‘St. Wenceslas’, Op.35a, and Dvořák's String Quartet No.12 in F, Op.96 ‘American’. 

Full details from the Kings Place website.

Norwich chamber music: the Neave Trio in French piano trios

Roussel, Fauré, Debussy, The Neave Trio; The Chapel, Park Lane, Norwich
Reviewed by Tony Cooper on Oct 15 2017 Star rating: 4.0
A piano trio of maturity, subtlety and substance

The Neave Trio - which, incidentally, derives its name from the Gaelic word ‘niamh’ meaning ‘bright’ and ‘radiant’ - lived up to this description inasmuch as their performance at The Chapel, Park Lane, Norwich on Sunday 15 October (as part of Norfolk & Norwich Chamber Music), was bright and radiant and, indeed, lively and entertaining. The programme included Roussel's Piano trio in E-flat major, Faure's Piano Trio in D minor and Debussy's Piano Trio in G major.

And in this vibrant and highly-talented ensemble, formed just seven years, a trio of nations come together with American-born violinist, Anna Williams, Russian-born cellist, Mikhail Veselov and Japanese-born pianist, Eri Nakamura.

Regally, they follow in the footsteps of such famous trios as the Istomin/Stern/Rose Trio (whom I had the great privilege of seeing in the Usher Hall at the Edinburgh Festival in the 1970s) and the Beaux Arts Trio as well as the Florestan Trio and the Gould Trio who have both performed in Norwich under the auspices of the Norfolk & Norwich Music Club. In fact, the Gould Trio return to Norwich early next year to treat Music Club audiences to the complete piano trios of Beethoven over three concerts at the John Innes Centre on Saturday/Sunday, 20/21 January 2018.

A globe-trotting outfit, that’s for sure, the Neave have performed all over the show including New York’s Weill Recital Hall (the chamber hall of Carnegie Hall) and now The Chapel in Norwich (a wide contrast in venues, may I add!) by invitation of Roger Rowe, a champion of classical music and opera across the board. He has just retired as programme director of the Norfolk & Norwich Music Club after enjoying an immensely-successful 20-year tenure.

Rising stars: Christophe Rousset directs Handel's Semele with an emphasis on youth

Handel Semele; Louise Alder, James Way, Catherine Wyn-Rogers, Ashley Riches, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Christophe Rousset; Royal Festival Hall
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Oct 18 2017
Star rating: 4.5
Christophe Rousset directs a predominantly young cast in Handel's opera/oratorio

Handel's Semele was the focus of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment's (OAE) concert at the Royal Festival Hall on Wednesday 18 October 2017. Marking the launch of the Rising Stars of the Enlightenment (the OAE's young artists scheme). Christophe Rousset conducted a cast which included three of the present tranche of young artists, Rowan Pierce as Iris, James Way as Jupiter, Ciara Hendrick as Ino, plus Louise Alder as Semele, Ashley Riches as Somnus and Cadmus, Ray Chenez as Athmas and Catherine Wyn-Rogers as Juno, plus the OAE and Choir of the Age of Enlightenment.

This was a concert performance, but all concerned brought a sense of humour and character to the performance which helped to nullify the effect of the Royal Festival Hall's large open spaces on a work which demands a level of intimacy. The OAE and choir were expanded somewhat to take account of the space, with 28 strings and 33 singers, though I rather suspect that Handel would have increased the number of oboes and bassoons too. In the tutti passages the woodwind sound did rather get lost.

Christophe Rousset's interpretation certainly took no prisoners and from the overture onwards, fast speeds were really fast. Not only did he elicit impressive crisp passagework from the orchestra but his soloists, notably James Way and Louise Alder, showed an impressive turn of speed (and accuracy) in their passagework. Rousset drew some very vivid playing from the orchestra, which ensured that the work was engaging and exciting rather than driven, though I have to confess occasionally wishing he would take let the music ease up. But, despite some fine individual performances, the rather tricky first act did not really catch fire until the final aria.

Louise Alder made a delightful Semele.

Independent Opera, new fellowships, sponsorship and a new oratorio

Peter Kellner

Independent Opera has been busy this last month. 26 year old Slovakian bass Peter Kellner was announced as the winner of the 2018 Wigmore Hall/IO Voice Fellowship, receiving a two-year award of £10,000 as well as professional mentoring from Independent Opera and the Wigmore Hall. Peter is currently a member of Oper Graz in Austria.

Independent Opera's 2016-17 Voice Scholars, sopranos Samantha Clarke, Charlie Drummond and Nika Gorič; and mezzo-sopranos Katie Coventry and Jade Moffat, gave a showcase concert at the Wigmore Hall accompanied by James Baillieu. Voice Scholars receive scholarships which provide them with £5000 towards their final year of study, and they additionally receive professional mentoring from Independent Opera’s Creative Director Natalie Murray Beale.

Looking ahead, Independent Opera will sponsor the 2019 Wigmore Hall International Song Competition, and Joby Talbot has been commissioned to write a major new oratorio to be premiered in 2019. The new piece will be inspired by Queen Victoria’s diamond and sapphire coronet designed for her by Prince Albert. The coronet was acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum thanks to a gift from William and Judith Bollinger, and in 2019, the coronet will be the centre-piece of the newly-refreshed William and Judith Bollinger Jewellery Gallery, at the museum.

Bach the Universe and Everything

Bach’s Cantatas will mix with talks from some of the UK’s leading physicists in a new Sunday morning series from the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and The Institute of Physics at Kings Place starting on Sunday 22 October. A deliberate departure from the typical concert format, each performance will combine a mind-expanding lecture with the immersive atmosphere a Bach cantata performance. And afterwards there is a chance to bond with fellow music lovers over coffee and cake.

The first event in the series combines Bach’s Ich glaube, lieber Herr BWV 109 directed by Robert Howarth with Helen Charlston (alto) and James Way (tenor), with a discussion on the birth of galaxies from Professor Carlos Frenk. A winner of the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 2014, Frenk has played a key role in the development of Cold Matter Theory, the current model for the formation and evolution of cosmic structure.

With so many Bach cantatas to choose from, it is an intriguing idea pairing them with a 'relevant' talk on physics, plenty of fun hours of speculation! Future talks in the series include What is Light? with Professor Sir John Pendry (26/11), paired with Wachtet! Betet! BWV 70 and Antimatter Matters with Professor Tara Shears (17/12), paired with Darzu is erchienen BWV40.

Full details from the OAE website.

Lieder von Orient - Benjamin Appl and Graham Johnson at the Oxford Lieder Festival

Graham Johnson & Benjamin Appl at BBC Radio 3
lunchtime concert at Wigmore Hall (photo BBC Radio 3)

Lieder vom Orient, Schubert, Brahms, Schumann, Loewe, Wolf, Strauss; Benjamin Appl, Graham Johnson; Oxford Lieder Festival
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Oct 17 2017 Star rating: 4.5
A wonderful exploration; inspired by Middle-Eastern poetry, German poets provided 19th century composers with striking material

Benjamin Appl and Graham Johnson's recital devoted to Lieder vom Orient in the Holywell Music Room at the Oxford Lieder Festival on 17 October 2017 came at the end of a day of concerts & lectures devoted to late Brahms (see my review). So Appl and Johnson gave us the chance to appreciate a younger Brahms with the 9 Lieder under Gesänge, Op.32 from 1864. These were heard in the context a programme of settings of poems by German poets inspired by Oriental literature, including songs by Schubert, Schumann, Carl Loewe, Wolf, Peter Cornelius and Richard Strauss.

German poets discovered the Oriental (in fact more Middle-Eastern in modern parlance) in the early 19th century, the poetry of Persians such as Hafiz offered the German poets a route to a lightness and formal elegance which did not always come easily in the German language. But if the idea of the 'Orient' suggests a parallel lightness in the music, then nothing could be further from the truth. In the songs particularly from Schubert and Brahms, the poetry was allied to music of remarkable intensity and angst.

Brahms Late Idyll at the Oxford Lieder Festival

Ashley Riches (photo Debbie Scanlan)

Brahms, Schubert, Dvorak, Marx, Zemlinsky; Ashley Riches, Sholto Kynoch, Natasha Loges, Emma Stannard, Louise Demeny, Max Welford, Brian O'Kane, William Vann; Oxford Lieder Festival
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Oct 17 2017 Star rating: 4.0
A day devoted to late Brahms with intriguing links and fine performances

Whilst the songs of Gustav Mahler are the thread running through this year's Oxford Lieder Festival, there is plenty of room for further exploration of fin-de-siecle Vienna, both looking forward and looking back. Events on Tuesday 17 October 2017 were mainly devoted to Johannes Brahms and his late flowering. At lunchtime, Ashley Riches (baritone) and Sholto Kynoch (piano) gave us Brahms' Four Serious Songs Op. 121 (his last songs) alongside Dvorak and Schubert, and in the afternoon Natasha Loges talked about Brahms' late style and accompanied Emma Stannard (mezzo-soprano) in Brahms' songs. Then at the rush-hour concert Louise Kemeny (soprano), Max Welford (clarinet), Brian O'Kane (cello) and William Vann (piano) performed Brahms' late Clarinet Trio Op.114 alongside Zemlinsky, Marx and Schubert's Shepherd on the Rock.

Then, at the end of the day came Benjamin Appl and Graham Johnson's Lieder von Orient recital, giving us a chance to experience a young Brahms (see my review).

At the Holywell Music Room at lunchtime, Ashley Riches and Sholto Kynoch put together a programme considering the sacred and the numinous, with Schubert's Totengräbers Heimweh D842, Nachtstück D672, Seligket D433 and Dithyrambe D801, six of Dvorak's Biblical Songs Op.99 setting texts from the 16th century Bible of Kralice, and Brahms Four Serious Songs Op.121, setting texts from Luther's translation of the Bible and written two years after the Dvorak.

Writing About Contemporary Artists: Challenges, Practices and Complexities

Annie Yim and Christopher Le Brun at Arndt Art Agency, Berlin

An international multi-disciplinary three-day conference at the University of Surrey starting 20 October 2017 will look at the challenges facing scholars, journalists and creative practitioners when writing about living or recently deceased figures. MusicArt London will give a Keynote Concert & Dialogue at the conference, Annie Yim, founder of MusicArt London, will discuss MusicArt London's collaborations and commissions to date and will be joined by Christopher Le Brun, President of The Royal Academy of Arts, to explore their ongoing collaboration. Annie will perform the specially commissioned piano work by Richard Birchall (2015) as well as music by Scriabin, Rachmaninov, Berg, and Debussy.


Keynote speakers at the conference include Professor Björn Heile (Professor in Music since 1900, University of Glasgow), and rhe conference will also feature a complete performance by Nancy Ruffer and Ian Pace of Morton Feldman’s three-and-a-half hour work for flute and piano/celeste, For Christian Wolff (1986), incorporating dance improvisation from in-house student dance company Actual Size.

Full information from the university's website.

Scarcely a problem: Tchaikovsky's Manfred Symphony from Semyon Bychkov & Czech Philharmonic

Tchaikovsky Manfred Symphony; Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Semyon Bychkov; Decca
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Oct 4 2017 Star rating: 4.5
Richly dramatic account of Tchaikovsky's 'problem' symphony from Bychkov

Tchaikovsky's Manfred Symphony is not an early work, it was written three years before Symphony No. 5 and at first the composer thought it was the best thing he'd done, though he later changed his mind. This, and the piece's length, has rather prevented live performance though not recordings. On this new one from Decca, conductor Semyon Bychkov continues his Tchaikovsky Project with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra (part of a wider Tchaikovsky Project the conductor is undertaking). The conductor has also been announced as the orchestra's new Chief Conductor.

The idea to write a symphony based on Byron's poem Manfred almost came to Tchaikovsky by accident. In the wake of Berlioz' visit to Russia in 1867-68, when his performances of his programme symphony Harold in Italie cause a stir, Vladimir Stasov wrote a synopsis for a similar work based on Manfred for Balakirev. Balakirev, feeling it was not suitable for him, put it to one side but many years later brought it to Tchaikovsky's attention. Tchaikovsky declined, but Balakirev persisted and after Tchaikovsky re-read the original poem he started work on the symphony.

The poem might have had intriguing  attractions for the composer. It is commonly believed that the tortured and forbidden relationship between Manfred and Astarte is a reflection of Byron's relationship with his half sister Augusta Leigh, and that the idea of forbidden sexuality might have had its attractions for Tchaikovsky. Simplistic, perhaps, but definitely an intriguing idea.

Kill or cure! Julian Jacobson introduces his 70th birthday series at St John's Smith Square

Julian Jacobson (photo Roger Harris Photography)

The pianist Julian Jacobson is about to turn 70, and has chosen to celebrate with a concert series at St John's Smith Square combining music by Beethoven and Schubert with Prokofiev's war sonatas (the first concert is on Sunday 22 October with Beethoven's Eroica variations, Schubert's Four Impromptus and Prokofiev's Sonata No. 6). I recently met up with Julian to find out more about the series, and my first question was why had he chosen this particular programme for the series. He suggested that it was 'kill or cure', the programme would 'either do for me, or catapult me into a reasonably active 8th decade'!

In fact, Julian had originally conceived of doing a complete cycle of Beethoven's piano sonatas. Such cycles are something for which he has become known, but this time he found he lacked the enthusiasm. Partly because with seven or eight concerts, it would be hard to fill the hall and then there is also the need to find something new to say.

So instead he thought of turning to other composers, though known for his Beethoven he has always loved Schubert but has not played much of his music recently and finds it the 'other side of the coin' to Beethoven. Julian wanted to perform some of the late, great Schubert sonatas (he is performing the Sonata in D, D850 and Sonata No 20 in A, D959). Whilst Julian thinks that Schubert is fully the equal of Beethoven, he finds Beethoven's middle and late sonatas so titanic. Schubert's message would be dissipated if he played the Hammerklavier Sonata, so he has chosen to perform the earlier, popular, Beethoven sonatas.

In addition he decided he wanted to do a major 20th century work. Here the present political climate came into play, with the 'fix we are in' Julian felt that a nod to the 'terrible and heroic things which happened in the 20th century' was appropriate, and this seemed to need Prokofiev's war sonatas (Piano Sonatas Nos. 6, 7, and 8, Opp. 82–84 written in 1939).

Songs and Sounds: Premiere of my W.B. Yeats cycle 'He Wishes...'

Soprano Donna Lennard and pianist Gavin Roberts are giving a recital on 22 November 2017 at Old Paradise Yard, SE1 7LG. Entitled Sounds and Songs: Exploring Contemporary Music the evening will be an informal event where people can relax and enjoy and evening of contemporary song.

Donna and Gavin will be giving the world premiere of my song cycle He Wishes... setting four poems by W.B.Yeats - 'The Poet pleads with his Friend for Old Friends', 'He wishes his Beloved were dead', 'He wishes for the Cloths of Heaven', 'The Lake Isle of Innisfree'. (see my on-line catalogue for details of the printed music).

The programme will also include songs by Cecilia MacDowell, Julian Philips, Stephen McNeff, and Leslie Phillips.

Wednesday 22 November 2017, 8pm
Old Paradise Yard
20 Carlisle Lane / Royal Street corner
Waterloo
London SE1 7LG
Tickets £10 in advance (email tickets.songsandsounds@gmail.com), £12 on the door

A visually flamboyant path to enlightenment: The Magic Flute at the Met

Mozart: The Magic Flute - Metropolitan Opera (photo Metropolitan Opera)

Mozart The Magic Flute; Golda Schultz, Charles Castronovo, Markus Werba, Kathryn Lewek, Rene Pape, dir: Julie Taymor, cond: James Levine; Met Live in HD
Reviewed by Anthony Evans on Oct 14 2017 Star rating: 4.0
Julie Taymor's fairy-tale production in a strong revival at the Metropolitan Opera

Julie Taymor’s kaleidoscopic fairy-tale vision of Mozart's The Magic Flute was broadcast live from the Metropolitan Opera this Saturday (14 October 2017, seen at Barbican Screen One) with Golda Schultz and Charles Castronovo as Pamina and Tamino. Markus Werba was the birdcatcher Papageno, Kathryn Lewek the Queen of the Night and Rene Pape as Sarastro. James Levine, Music Director Emeritus, conducted.

Best known for her production of The Lion King, Julie Taymor’s visually arresting fantasy Flute draws inspiration from more cultures than you can shake a stick at. African masks, oriental puppetry, Euclidian geometry and Chinese opera all rubbing shoulders in whimsical grandeur. The dominant feature, a Plexiglas cube, rotates to reveal the symbols of spirituality (circle) and the physical (square). Contained within a triangle, man, woman and the two halves of our nature are united. Ultimately aligned, the philosopher’s stone is revealed – the Magnum Opus of alchemy.

Occasionally fussily intrusive in close-up, this production is undoubtedly dominated by it’s visuals but thankfully, under the sensitive direction of James Levine, the music is never overwhelmed. The acting wasn’t half bad either; the number of times, in the past, I’ve found myself wishing that they’d just get on with the music. It was a pleasure to hear the dialogue so charmingly and convincingly handled. Indeed the stage was chocker with charismatic performers.

Handel's Neun Deutsche Arien from Penelope Appleyard & Florisma

Handel Neun Deutsche Arien; Penelope Appleyard, Florisma; Convivium Records
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Sep 19 2017 Star rating: 5.0
Engaging and colourful version of Handel's sacred chamber music

Though Handel and Bach had a similar basic kapellmeister training, the two developed different responses to Lutheran sacred music. Handel does not seem to have been entirely comfortable in the musical genres of the Lutheran church though he remained a devout Lutheran (later Anglican). His main essay in the genre is his Brockes Passion which seems to have been performed in Hamburg in 1719. And there is a similar probably Hamburg link with Handel's Neun Deutsche Arien. Composed between 1724 and 1726, they also set texts by Brockes. But here Handel is moving away from the Lutheran liturgy and providing vocal chamber music, different in style but akin to the Italian chamber duets which he wrote throughout his life.

On this new disc from Convivium Records, soprano Penelope Appleyard joins Florisma (Penelope Spencer, violin, Gail Hennessy, oboe, William Drakett, harpsichord/organ, Aileen Henry, triple harp, Hetti Price cello/viola da gamba, Michelle Holloway, recorder) to perform Handel's Neun Deutsche Arien.

The surviving autograph of the arias does not specify the instrumentation, they are simply written for soprano, melody instrument and continuo, and could easily be performed on violin, harpsichord and cello. But though Handel may not have been entirely comfortable with the passion form, he clearly responded to Brockes' texts and each aria has a different and specific character. So on this disc we get a variety of instrumentations with 'Süsse Stille' on tenor recorder and triple harp, 'Das ziternde Glänzen' on oboe, some of the more serious texts use organ and cello continuo and others use harpsichord and viola da gamba.

London, Cambridge, St Petersburg: new production of George Benjamin's Written on Skin

Barbara Hannigan in
George Benjamin's Written on Skin
at the Royal Opera 2012
© ROH/Stephen Cummiskey

With George Benjamin's new opera Lessons in Love and Violence receiving its world premiere at Covent Garden in May 2018, it is exciting that a new production of Benjamin's previous opera Written in Skin is about to take wing. The enterprising young conductor Oliver Zeffman and his Melos Sinfonia (an ensemble Zeffman founded when he was 16) are behind performances of the opera taking place from 19 October in Cambridge, London and St Petersburg.


Directed by Jack Furness with a cast including Lauren Fagan (Anges), Ross Ramgobin (the Protector), Patrick Terry (Boy/Angel 1), Bethan Langford (Marie/Angel 2), and Nick Pritchard (John/Angel 3) the production is being presented at West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge on 19 October (the work's first performance in the UK outside London), at LSO St Lukes on 20 October (in association with the Victoria and Albert Museum's exhibition Opera: Passion, Power and Politics) and at the Mariinsky Concert Hall, St Petersburg on 22 October. This latter performance happens at the invitation of Valery Gergiev, a conductor with whom Zeffman has worked.

Full information from the Melos Sinfonia website.

New recording of Populus Sion from Harmonia Sacra

Peter Leech and Harmonia Sacra's new disc from Nimbus Alliance, Lux memoriaque, is based around contemporary sacred music from Advent, much of it performed at the group's regular Advent Sunday concert at St Thomas the Martyr in Bristol. Amongst the works which the choir has performed over the years are a group of my Advent motets from Tempus per Annum, my cycle of 70 motets for the Church's year (all motets are available for free download on Cpdl.org).

Lux memoriaque includes one of these, Populus Sion, alongside music by Lawrence Whitehead, David Bednall, Jonathan Lee and Peter Leech.

Full details of the disc can be found on the Amazon website.

Little Venice Music Festival

The Berkeley Ensemble and James Baillieu who open the
Little Venice Music Festival on 19 October.

The Little Venice Music Festival returns 19 October 2017, with the Berkeley Ensemble curating the festival for the second time, having taken over from the festival's founder Sylvia Rhys-Thomas in 2016. Based at St Saviour's Church, Warwick Avenue, the programme (which runs to 22 October) showcases chamber music and song with Schubert's Trout Quintet, Brahms String Sextet in G and Schumann's Dichterliebe alongside contemporary works by Thomas Ades, Michael Berkeley, Misha Mullov-Abbado and Rachel Stott. 

Pianist James Baillieu joins the ensemble to perform Schubert's Trout Quintet at the opening concert, and pianist Imogen Cooper performs Beethoven's Piano Sonata in A flat, Op.110 at the closing concert. Baritone Benedict Nelson with pianist Simon Over will be performing programme of Schumann song cycles.

BBC New Generation Artist Misha Mullov-Abbado is Artist-in-Residence this year and will be performing with his Misha Mullov-Abbado Group for the festival's first jazz event, as well as writing a new work to be premiered by the Berkeley Ensemble. A second world premiere is provided by Michael Berkeley who writes a piece for solo double bass in collaboration with the Berkeley Ensemble's double bassist Lachlan Radford. Other works in the festival include Thomas Ades' Darknesse Visible, Rachel Stott's Serendipity and Household Objects

Husband and wife actors, Edward Fox and Joanna David will be joined by their daughter Emilia and son Freddie to read a selection of Tales from Beatrix Potter, specially adapted by pianist Richard Sisson.

The Berkeley Ensemble was formed in 2008 from members of the Southbank Sinfonia, it is a flexible chamber ensemble based around Sophie Mather and Francesca Barritt, violins, Dan Shilliday, viola, Gemma Wareham, cello, Lachlan Radford, double bass, John Slack, clarinet, Andrew Watson, bassoon, and Paul Cott, horn.

 Full details from the festival website

A little bit of magic: Valery Gergiev conducts the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra

Valery Gergiev

Rossini, Stravinsky, Mendelssohn; Roman Simovic, Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra, Valery Gergiev; Oxford Town hall
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Oct 13 2017 Star rating: 4.5
The combination of Gergiev and the Oxford Philharmonic makes for interesting results

How much effect does a major conductor have on an orchestra with which they have not worked regularly; how much is skill of the moment and how much created over a period of time?

Roman Simovic

These were thoughts which occurred to me as I waited for the start of Valery Gergiev's concert with the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra at Oxford Town Hall on Friday 13 October 2017, when they performed a programme consisting of the overture to Rossini's Guillaume Tell, Stravinsky's Violin Concerto  with Roman Simovic, Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 4 'Italian' and Stravinsky's Firebird Suite (1919 version).

Valery Gergiev has conducted the orchestra once before, in 2013, and the Oxford Philharmonic is not a full time orchestra, the players all play in other ensembles as well. So could Gergiev make the magic happen?

Oxford Town Hall is not an idea concert venue. With no podium for the orchestra, sight-lines from the hall were not perfect, and the acoustic is moderately resonant (not to mention the distracting profusion of plasterwork), making me wonder whether the very present quality of the orchestral sound was a factor of venue or conductor. In fact, Oxford Town Hall is not the orchestra's regular home but the Sheldonian, where they give many of their concerts, was in use for the opening of the Oxford Lieder Festival.

The opening of Rossini's overture was striking for the strong, rich tone of the solo cellos and bass, though there were moments which made us realise how exposed the passage is. The storm was full of vivid drama and crisp excitement with very strong brass, whilst there was nice orchestral detail in the pastoral episode. The final galop started crisp, tight and fast, generating real excitement to the end. A striking and perhaps very particular reading of such a familiar piece.

Jonas Kaufmann: Tenor for the Ages: Engaging, thoughtful and candid-seeming profile of the star tenor

Jonas Kaufmann © Gregor Hohenberg

John Bridcut's film Jonas Kaufmann, Tenor for the Ages was broadcast on BBC Four (available on BBC iPlayer) on 15 October 2017 as part of the BBC Opera season. In this engaging 90 minute film we follow star tenor Jonas Kaufmann across  two years of engagements and, thanks to a series of interviews with him, gain insight into his world and what it is like performing at the top level under such intense scrutiny. That the film has such fascination is partly due to serendipity, the engagements covered are Kaufmann's residency at the Barbican when he had just recovered from vocal problems, and then he went on to sing at the Last Night of the Proms and make his role debut as Otello in Verdi's Otello at Covent Garden (the production was broadcast on BBC Four the same evening and is also available on BBC iPlayer).

It is Otello which bookends the programme, it forms the core of the narrative as the cameras follow Kaufmann backstage, front stage and in rehearsal.

Historical context: Lucy Worsley's Nights at the Opera

Lucy Worsley's Nights at the Opera

Lucy Worsley's Nights at the Opera is a two part television series in which the historian takes a look at eight seminal moments in opera history. (Part One was shown on BBC 2 on Saturday 14 October 2017). Linked to the exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum, Opera: Passion, Power and Politics, Worsley takes the same structure, looking at operas in the context of the city where they were premiered (except for Puccini's La Boheme where she considers the city where it is set). So eight operas and six cities: Monteverdi's L'Incoronazione di Poppea (Venice), Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro (Vienna), Beethoven's Fidelio (Vienna) and Verdi's Nabucco (Milan) in the first episode, Bizet's Carmen (Paris), Puccini's La Boheme (Paris), Wagner's Ring Cycle (Bayreuth) and Richard Strauss's Salome (Dresden) in the second.

Worsley is a cultural historian (but, as we found at  Q&A at the preview showing of the programme, she is also a musician), so this is opera from a cultural perspective with remarkable details of the society in which the operas were premiered. But music is not ignored, and Antonio Pappano takes the viewer through some key moments in the operas being considered, and why the pieces work as they do.