Scottish Ensemble in Anna Meredith's Tull

Released today, the first of two specially-commissioned performance films from the Scottish Ensemble with Glasgow production company Forest of Black. The film features the Scottish Ensemble performing Anna Meredith's Tull. The film is on the Scottish Ensemble's YouTube channel, and can also be streamed.

Tull was premiered by Scottish Ensemble in 2014. The three-minute piece is scored for 12 divided strings and presents a variation on the traditional Scots’ tune Tullochgorum. Meredith’s realisation is "fuzzy but energetic".  

Tullochgorum (also known as The Reel of Tullochgorum) is the title of a song, which carries the line 'For blithe and cheery we'll be a'. The words to the song were written by the Scottish poet, songwriter, minister and historian, the Rev. John Skinner in 1776 to the tune Tullochgorum, which is said to have been derived from an older Scottish song tune, printed in Craig's Collection in 1730 (information courtesy of the Scottish Country Dancing Dictionary).

The second film of the Scottish Ensemble's partnership with Forest of Black which will be released in Spring 2024.

Ascent: National Youth Orchestra in Strauss' Alpine Symphony, Debussy & a new work by Dani Howard

National Youth Orchestra

The youth musicians of the National Youth Orchestra return in January 2024 for three concerts, under the direction of Sir Mark Elder, with the title Ascent. Elder will be conducting the orchestra in concerts at London's Barbican Centre (4 January 2024) when the concert will also be live streamed, Nottingham's Royal Concert Hall (5 January 2024) and Warwick Arts Centre (6 January 2024). The programme consists of Richard Strauss' massive Alpine Symphony, Debussy's Rondes de Printemps and a new work by Dani Howard for the NYO's brass and percussion sections.  

The orchestra isn't just about training the young musicians who play in it, but about inspiring teenagers all over. To this end, all the concerts have free tickets for those aged 19 and under, thus encouraging everyone to come and try the magic. The NYO has other initiatives, such as NYO Inspire for teenagers who want music to be a bigger part of their lives but face barriers and lack of opportunity to progress, and NYO Open, to encourage teenagers from all backgrounds to make more of music.

Full details from the NYO website.

An eclectic mix of 18th century opera in vivid performances: Anthony Roth Costanzo and La Nuova Musica at Wigmore Hall

Anthony Roth Costanzo (Photo: Matthu Placek)

Mozart: arias from Mitridate, Re di Ponto and Ascanio in Alba, Ombra Felice; Gluck: arias from Orfeo ed Euridice, suite from Don Juan; Rameau, Boulogne; Anthony Roth Costanzo, La Nuova Musica, David Bates; Wigmore Hall
15 November 2023

Arias from early Mozart operas and from a Gluck's classic in vivid performances from the American countertenor supported by wonderful playing from La Nuova Musica

Debuts all round on Wednesday 15 November 2023, as both countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo and ensemble La Nuova Musica, directed by David Bates made their Wigmore Hall debuts in a concert that mixed arias from Mozart's two early operas Mitridate Re di  Ponto and Ascanio in Alba with the concert aria Ombra felice and arias from Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice, plus instrumental music by Joseph Boulogne, Rameau and Gluck.

It was a programme that seemed to pull in two directions at once, however if we didn't worry about what one piece said to another and simply concentrated on the high level of music making, then there was much to enjoy. The focus was very much on Costanzo with him performing a generous selection of eight arias in total. Whilst the countertenor has a wide range of roles both Baroque and contemporary, he is perhaps best known in the UK for singing the title role in English National Opera's production of Philip Glass' Akhnaten, though he made his Glyndebourne debut singing the title role in Handel's Rinaldo.

In a much-recorded field, they create something memorable: Songs of the Night from Rowan Pierce, Julien van Mellaerts, & Lucy Colquhoun

Songs of the Night: Schubert,  Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann, Clara Schumann, Hugo Wolf, Richard Strauss, Hans Pfitzner; Rowan Pierce, Julien van Mellaerts, Lucy Colquhoun; Champs Hill Records
Reviewed 14 November 2023

A trio of young artists in an engaging and imaginative disc exploring the highways and byways of the Austro-German lied with night ever-present 

Night is an ever present topic in the classic German and Austrian lied repertoire, from evocation of night itself to night as a backdrop for emotional turmoil. A recent disc from Champs Hill Records, Songs of the Night brings together songs by Schubert, Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann, Clara Schumann, Hugo Wolf, Richard Strauss, and Hans Pfitzner exploring the wide range of the subject, and showcasing two young singers, soprano Rowan Pierce and baritone Julien van Mellaerts with pianist Lucy Colquhoun.

The disc is full of good things because Colquhoun has cast her net quite widely. Deliberately avoiding the familiarity of Schubert's Erlkönig, the disc allows us to compare and contrast Schubert's well-known setting of Goethe's Wandrers Nachtlied with Robert Schumann's far less familiar setting, and includes two of the rather underappreciated songs of Hans Pfitzner. The songs are shared out between van Mellaerts and Pierce with the two coming together at the very end for a pair of duets by Mendelssohn.

Songs of the Night recording session - Lucy Colquhoun, Julien van Mellaerts at the Music Room, Champs Hill (Photo: Patrick Allen)

The Cumnock Tryst: Celebrating East Ayrshire's young composers

As part of The Cumnock Tryst's community engagement programme, pupils in the Higher and Advanced Higher Music classes at St. Joseph’s Academy, Kilmarnock have been taking part in a ten-week composition course with composers Gillian Walker and Sir James MacMillan (founder and artistic director of The Cumnock Tryst). Now 20 pupils and their class teacher are penning new pieces for a trio of professional musicians who will perform the works at a concert on 28 November 2023 at St Joseph's Academy.

MacMillan launched his hometown Cumnock as a Centre of Excellence in the Learning and Teaching of Composition in 2020. Since then, the work that he and The Cumnock Tryst have carried out in primary and secondary schools has been replicated around the world as an example of good practice. The project at St Joseph’s Academy will benefit both pupils and teachers: supporting the pupils in composing work that will be recorded and submitted as part of their SQA qualifications, while also helping the teaching staff write a piece alongside their students and provide them with fresh insights into teaching composition as part of the secondary music curriculum.

Gillian Walker, who is leading the project alongside MacMillan, is a composer from Ayr with strong ties to The Cumnock Tryst. She first worked with the festival on a work experience placement while a student of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in 208. Since then, she has twice been commissioned by the Tryst to write music for their annual festival, however, this is the first time Walker has led a Tryst project herself as she takes responsibility for supporting and helping to nurture the next generation of young Ayrshire composers.

Tickets for the concert are free, available from EventBrite.

From sound art in Middlesbrough & 2000 children in the Royal Albert Hall to Brett Dean's Cello Concerto & Brian Irvine's operas: The Ivors Classical Awards celebrating today's classical music

The Ivors Classical Awards - Abel Selaocoe,
Dobrinka Tabakova (winner of Best Community & Participation)
(Photo: Hogan Media - Shutterstock)

The Ivors Classical Awards
BFI Southbank
14 November 2023

Video clips of West Sussex Youth Orchestra, Youth Choir and Young Voices performing Ned Bigham's Together and apart at Chichester Cathedral, the choir and orchestra of Mount St. Mary's College, Sheffield performing Harry Castle's Heroes, the Royal Albert Hall filled with children with the Armonico Consort all performing Toby Young's It takes a city and the reaction of passers by as Olivia Louvel's sound art piece, LOL, was broadcast across the public address system of Middlesbrough's CCTV surveillance network!  

Just a few of the works on celebrate at this year's Ivors Classical Awards ceremony, which took place at the BFI Southbank on 14 November 2023.

The arts, and classical music in particular, might be under threat from budget cuts and the cost of living crisis, but as many of the award winners commented, there was a remarkable amount of creativity in the room. The awards celebrate classical music. Contemporary classical music, that is; everyone at the awards ceremony was involved in some way in either creating or supporting creators. Just as it takes village to raise a child, it takes many people to create music and the ceremony celebrated the creators and their support networks. 

There is plenty to be gloomy about, Tom Gray, the chair of The Ivors Academy, went as far as describing the last 13 years as a shit show. We need positive change, and the energy last night made it seem that change might be possible. The awards have been around, under various names, for 20 years whilst the academy goes back to 1944 when Vaughan Williams helped found the Composers Guild. Next year, The Ivors Academy celebrates its 80th birthday and we are promised more lobbying and campaigning.

Absolutely kaleidoscopic tour de force of collective music making: Hiromi at the EFG London Jazz Festival

Hiromi (Photo: Mari Amita)

Hiromi; EFG London Jazz Festival at the Barbican
Reviewed by Florence Anna Maunders (13 November 2023)

One concert, two strikingly different ensembles. Superstar pianist Hiromi brings her collaborators to the EFG London Jazz Festival

On 13 November 2023, Japanese superstar pianist Hiromi brought two different ensembles to the EFG London Jazz Festival at the Barbican. The first half featured Hiromi:The Piano Quartet with Hiromi, Thomas Gould, Shlomy Dobrinsky (violins), Meghan Cassidy (viola) and Gabriella Swallow (cello), then the second half featured Hiromi's Sonicwonder with Hiromi, Adam O'Farrill (trumpet), Hadrian Feraud (bass) and Gene Coye (drums). 

The main item in the first half was Hiromi's extensive and substantial Silver Lining Suite - a lockdown project that has now toured worldwide and is only now having its London debut. Conceived somewhere between chamber music and jazz, this four movement work for piano and string quartet maintained its drive and relentless forward momentum through forty minutes of wildly varied music.

Celebrating Franz Schmidt: Jonathan Berman's recordings of the symphonies reach completion for the composer's 150th anniversary

Franz Schmidt

The Austrian composer Franz Schmidt was born 150 years ago next year and in anticipation of the event, Jonathan Berman's Franz Schmidt project reaches completion with the boxed set of all four of Schmidt's symphonies being released digitally on Accentus on 17 November 2023 with Berman conducting the BBC National Orchestra of Wales (the physical release is 1 December).

But it isn't just about the symphonies, Berman has been researching Schmidt for some years and his Franz Schmidt Project website presents the fruits of this research along with interviews with  Fabio Luisi, Wayne Marshall, Simone Young and Franz Welser-Möst about Schmidt's music. The website also has an upcoming performances page, though you will have to travel if you want to hear one of Schmidt's symphonies, no UK performance are listed.

Schmidt remains something of an unsung hero, his relatively conservative music is strongly in the Austro-Hungarian tradition. Born in what is now Bratislava (but was then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire) his career was in Vienna as he combined composing, teaching and performing. His four symphonies (1899, 1913, 1928 and 1933) are the centrepiece of his output, but there are also two operas, Notre Dame (1904–6) and Fredigundis (1916–21), and his terrific oratorio The Book with Seven Seals (1935–37), a setting of passages from the Book of Revelation. With hindsight, this latter work seems prophetic, foretelling, in the most powerful terms, the disasters that were shortly to be visited upon Europe.

In 2014, Jonathan Berman became the first Englishman and first conductor to win the Kempinski Young Artist Programme Fellowship, which enabled him to work with Franz Welser-Möst and the Cleveland Orchestra and Michael Tilson Thomas and the New World Symphony, and you can read about Berman's experiences on LinkedIn.

Full details from the Franz Schmidt Project website.

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