From Early Music to contemporary: the Royal Festival Hall organ is 70 and organist James McVinnie is celebrating with a Southbank Centre residency

James McVinnie performing at the Royal Festival Hall organ with Bedroom Community - Sept 2015

The Royal Festival Hall organ is 70. Built from 1950–1954 to the specification of the London County Council's consultant, Ralph Downes, it was restored and re-configured by Harrison & Harrison as part of the hall's reconstruction during 2005-2007 and it was re-inaugurated on its 60th anniversary in March 2014. Now, to celebrate the instrument's 70th birthday, organist James McVinnie has a residency at the Southbank Centre featuring organ recitals including a wide range of repertoire as well as an appearance by the James McVinnie Ensemble.

Though James had played the organ once before the rebuild, he was not familiar with it until he came to play it as part of the 2014 celebrations. But he spent two years as an organ scholar at St Albans Cathedral where the organ was also designed by Ralph Downes and built by Harrison & Harrison (in 1963). James's period at St Albans was incredibly formative for him, as he performed at Evensong every evening, and he learned from the organ. This meant that when he came to play the Royal Festival Hall's organ, everything seemed to be familiar and with both instruments the organist is right up close to the instrument.

Ralph Downes designed the organ to challenge the status quo of what an organ was in the 1950s. Organ building in Britain at the time still adhered to the romantic ideal as evinced by the organs at Westminster Abbey, St Paul's Cathedral and the Royal Albert Hall. But Downes was something of an outsider, when the musical establishment was conservative; Downes was not interested in the tradition of the organ as emulating an orchestra. Whilst Downes' approach was very forward-looking, he used techniques and philosophies from organ building from 200 years previously. At the time, the organ establishment was very dismissive of these 'primitive' organ-building techniques.

James McVinnie (Photo: Graham Lacadao)

Almost an expressionist nightmare: Janáček's Jenůfa at ENO with Jennifer Davis in the title role

Janáček:Jenůfa, Act 3 - Jennifer Davis - English National Opera, 2024 (Photo: © Ellie Kurttz)

Janáček: Jenůfa; Jennifer Davis, Susan Bullock, Richard Trey Smagur, John Findon, Fiona Kimm, director: David Alden, conductor: Keri-Lynn Wilson; English National Opera at the London Coliseum
Reviewed 13 March 2024

A vivid account of tis hard-edged, expressionist production showcasing intense and profound performances from the principals

David Alden's production of Janáček's Jenůfa at English National Opera debuted in 2006 and was last seen at the London Coliseum in 2016 [see my review]. The latest revival of the production is the last fully-staged opera ENO performs this season (two semi-staged performances of Bartok's Bluebeard's Castle are to come), a significant moment when a large amount of 'who knows' seems to hang over the whole enterprise. But this revival, directed by David Alden, with movement director Maxine Braham, seemed to be a stake in the sand, showing what ENO does best. Conducted by Keri-Lynn Wilson, the cast included Jennifer Davis as Jenůfa, Susan Bullock as the Kostelnička, Richard Trey Smagur as Laca, John Findon as Števa and Fiona Kimm as Grandmother Burya. Set designs are by Charles Edwards with costumes by Jon Morrell, lighting by Adam Silverman revived by Gary James. The work was sung in the classic Edward Downes and Otakar Kraus translation.

Jennifer Davis, who sang Jenůfa, is a singer who impressed in the title role of Dvořák's Armida at Wexford in 2022 [see my review]. Armida premiered in 1904 in Prague, just three months after the first performance of Jenůfa in Brno. Janáček was only 13 years younger than Dvořák yet the dramatic approaches of the two operas are worlds apart, the one looking backward and the other looking presciently forward.

Janáček:Jenůfa, Act 1 - Fiona Kimm, Julieth Lozano Rolong, Jennifer Davis - English National Opera, 2024 (Photo: © Ellie Kurttz)

Alden's production transposes the action to a rather grim 1950's Eastern bloc factory. Charles Edwards' designs are neatly observed and Alden fills the stage in Act One with much action, including the sense that many of the men lust after Jenůfa including Darren Jeffery's foreman who clutched his crotch rather a lot. Alden resolutely avoided any sense of the folkloric; the dancing in Act One was little more than drunken celebration, whilst in Act Three the girls' dance was a sort of embarrassed feature of the wedding, their traditional costumes accessorised with leather jackets and such.

Gavin Higgins becomes a Patron of Awards for Young Musicians

Ben Goldscheider, Gavin Higgins & London Chamber Orchestra
at London premiere of Higgins' Horn Concerto
(Photo: Jerome Weatherald)

Composer Gavin Higgins, whose horn concerto was recently premiered by Ben Goldscheider [see my review of the London performance], and who is Composer-in-Association with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, has become a Patron of music charity Awards for Young Musicians (AYM).

AYM aims to ensure that family finances and other obstacles do not get in the way of musical talent by supporting young musicians from low income families, with funding and other help, and supporting music education through training, advocacy and research.

Gavin Higgins was an early beneficiary of AYM, and he describes his new role with the organisation as something of a "full circle moment." Born into a brass-banding family, but a condition of receiving a full scholarship to study at Chetham’s School of Music was that he had to transition from brass-band instrument to French horn. AYM helped Higgins purchase the instrument.

Gavin Higgins' comments "I couldn’t afford my own, so I was playing on the school horn for a long time. It was bashed up, it was dented, there were holes in it, which I had to put Blue Tack in, the water key was broken. I had to put elastic bands around it, and it got to the point where I just needed my own instrument."

The announcement comes in the lead up to the inaugural Arts for Impact campaign. Any donation made to AYM from 12 noon on Tuesday 19 March to 12 noon on Tuesday 26 March will be doubled until they reach their fundraising target of £10,000, see the AYM website for details. 

Young vocal health: St Mary's Music School in Edinburgh launches of two vocal programmes, the only ones of their kind in Scotland and the North of England

St Mary's Music School, Edinburgh

St Mary's Music School in Edinburgh is the only specialist music school in Scotland, and it is also the Choir School of St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral. The has launched two vocal programmes, the only ones of their kind in Scotland and the North of England - Changing Voices Programme and Senior Vocal Programme. Both courses are full time programmes, running alongside academic studies (rather than part time or out of hours lessons/ courses).

Changing Voices Programme is aimed at pupils aged 13 to 15, and arises out of a programme to nurture the boys from St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral choir after their voices break. The programme focuses on classical vocal technique, singers are nurtured and supported to maintain confidence in their vocal ability through specialist classes and teaching on how to use their new voices.

Senior Vocal Programme is designed for pupils aged 15 to 19, preparing young singers for the next stage in their career, and it incorporates acting, movement, stagecraft, and vocal scenes, providing the opportunity for talented young singers to receive top-tier vocal training without the need to travel south of the border.

The courses are the brain-child of the school's Head of Voice, Kate Aitken, herself an experienced opera singer 

Full details from the school's website.

Contemporary music for St Patrick's Day: Belfast-based choir Cappella Caeciliana, musical director Matthew Quinn, makes its London debut

Cappella Caeciliana, musical director Matthew Quinn

The Belfast-based choir Cappella Caeciliana, musical director Matthew Quinn, makes its London debut on Saturday 16 March 2024 presenting a concert of Celtic music at St Paul’s Church, Covent Garden on the eve of St Patrick’s Day. 

Celtic Celebration includes music by Sir James MacMillan and Charles Wood, along with rising stars Seàn Doherty, Eoghan Desmond. Áine Mallon and Anselm McDonnell [read my review of McDonnell's recent disc, Kraina]. The works by Doherty and McDonnell are London premieres, and Quicksilver by choir member Anita Mawhinney is also a London premiere. The programme also includes Philip Stopford's Ave Verum Corpus, composed when he was Director of Music at St Anne’s (Anglican) Cathedral in Belfast as a gift to St Peter’s, the city’s other Cathedral (Catholic), whilst the performance of Dublin-born Charles Villiers Stanford's The Blue Bird commemorates the centenary month of his death.

Full details from St Paul's Church's website.

Out of the Shadows in Clapham and Estonia

Following its successful premiere in February 2023, Out of the Shadows, the evening of my songs will be returning in 2024 with performances for Pride 2024 at the Omnibus Theatre, Clapham, and at the Glasperlenspiel Festival in Tartu, Estonia, during Tartu's year as one of the European Capitals of Culture.

The performers are tenor Ben Vonberg-Clark (precentor at the church of St John the Divine, Kennington and conductor of the London Youth Boys' Choir), baritone Jonathan Eyers (currently a Young Artist at the National Opera Studio), and pianist Nigel Foster (founder and artistic director of the London Song Festival).

As part of 96 Festival, Omnibus Theatre's celebration of queerness and theatre, Out of the Shadows will be performed on 16 June 2024. Then on Friday 5 July 2024, the programme will be presented at St John's Church, Tartu as part of the Glasperlenspiel Festival. The festival is a leading musical event in the Estonian Summer and was founded in 1995 by Estonian composer and music producer, Peeter Vähi.

The programme features two cantatas that take us from the twilight world of the 19th & early 20th century homosexual to a desperate search for eternal life, alongside songs celebrating love in all forms. Out of the Shadows moves from the earliest tentative admissions of same sex attraction, to cruising in a bath house in Imperial Russia to Walt Whitman’s unashamed admission of his sexuality. Et expecto explores the search for eternal life in different forms, from the certainty of the Latin creed, to explorations of cryogenics, the body-snatching of Burke and Hare and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, before resolving in the homoerotic pantheistic transcendentalism of Walt Whitman with its celebration of Death itself.

Alongside these there are love songs and settings of Michaelangelo’s sonnets plus a depiction of an Aids candlelit memorial.

Out of the Shadows

Ben Vonberg-Clark (tenor), Jonathan Eyers (baritone), Nigel Foster (piano)
7pm 16 June 2024 - Omnibus Theatre, 1 Clapham Common Northside, London SW4 0QW
10pm 5 July 2024 - Glasperlenspiel Festival at St John's Church, Tartu, Estonia

Little short of a revelation: Michael Spyres, Les Talens Lyriques & Christophe Rousset explore Wagner's influences with In the Shadows

In the Shadows: Auber, Bellini, Berlioz, Halévy, Méhul, Meyerbeer, Rossini, Spontini, Weber, Wagner; Michael Spyres, Les Talens Lyriques, Christophe Rousset; Erato
Reviewed 12 March 2024

A wonderfully imaginative recital, showcasing both the wide range and variety of Wagner's musical influences as well as Spyres' own virtuosity and adaptability

The mature Richard Wagner would have wanted you to think that his art sprang directly from his imagination, without the influence of other composers, but the reality was more complex. The young Richard was something of a sponge, soaking up influences from all over. For instance, in 1833 Würzburg Theatre staged Giacomo Meyerbeer's Robert le Diable (premiered in Paris in 1831), it was the operatic event of the year. Richard Wagner's brother Albert was singing the title role and had managed to get Richard a job as chorus master at the theatre. 20-year-old Richard rehearsed the choruses of Meyerbeer's opera and this first exposure to the piece made a big impression on him. Another notable opera that Richard rehearsed was Auber's La muette de Portici. Richard would return to this French grand opera repertoire whilst he worked in Magdeburg (1834 to 1836) and in Riga (from 1837).

Tenor Michael Spyres' latest project is designed to explore just such influences. His disc, In the Shadows on Erato features music by Auber, Bellini, Berlioz, Halévy, Méhul, Meyerbeer, Rossini, Spontini, and Weber along with Wagner himself, performed with Les Talens Lyriques, conductor Christophe Rousset.

It's back: Classical Pride returns to the Barbican with a five celebration of LGBTQ+ composers and artists

After a debut last year, Classical Pride, artistic director Oliver Zeffman is back with a five-day festival from 3 to 7 July 2024, showcasing the breadth, diversity and depth of talent of LGBTQ+ composers and artists, past, present and future.

The centre piece of the festival is a concert at the Barbican Hall where Oliver Zeffman conducts the London Symphony Orchestra in programme featuring a new commission from Jake Heggie with soprano Pumeza Matshikiza, Cassandra Miller's Round, Szymanowski’s Symphony No. 3, ‘Song of the Night’, with tenor soloist Russell Thomas and LGBTQ+ Community Choir, Saint-Saens' Piano Concerto No. 2 with Pavel Kolesnikov and music by Tchaikovsky and Copland.

At Milton Court Concert Hall, the Fourth Choir, conductor Nicholas Chalmers will be focusing on the relationship between Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears in My Beloved Man featuring music by Britten, Barber, Imogen Holst, Barber and more.

There is a free performance of Julius Eastman’s Gay Guerilla, in the Barbican’s foyer performed by the Julius Eastman Ensemble assembled by Stephen Upshaw in an arrangement by US composer Jessie Montgomery.

A Proud Future features performers and composers from the LGBTQ+ student bodies of the Royal Academy of Music, Royal College of Music, Guildhall School of Music & Drama and Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in a series of concerts of LGBTQ+ music that has personal meaning for them. 

The festival opens with something a bit different, Classical Drag at Outernet in Soho, to showcase some of the biggest names in drag and classical music.

Classical Pride is non-profit with net proceeds donated to three important LGBTQ+ charities; Rainbow Railroad, Terrence Higgins Trust & GAY TIMES' Amplifund.

Full details from Classical Pride's website.

Lovely Music: Louth CMS annual June celebration features operas by Robert Ashley, Stockhausen’s Stimmung, Linda Catlin Smith & more

Robert Ashley photographed by Mimi Johnson in 1975

Louth Contemporary Music Society will be presenting its annual mid-June festival, Lovely Music, in Co Louth, Ireland on 14 and 15 June 2024. The title, Lovely Music, originated as the ironic, combative title that Mimi Johnson, a New York agent, chose in 1978 for a record label she founded to feature composers she represented, including her husband, the American composer Robert Ashley (1930-2014)  and this year, the festival will be featuring two of Ashby's operas. 

Crash is Ashley's final work, an opera for six singers but as Ashley explained, "All of the singing is very soft vocally, but amplified, and all of the singing of the words is very fast. This is a special kind of vocal sound that the audience will have rarely experienced." Crash is being presented by Varispeed Collective and they join forces with Irish colleagues at the Spirit Store: Sean Carpio, Caoimhe Hopkinson and Steve Welsh for Ashley's The Bar.

Also in the festival is Dirt Road by Canadian composer Linda Catlin Smith, performed by violinist Larissa O’Grady and the percussionist Caitríona Frost. Catlin Smith describes the work thus, "I imagined the two instruments as two travellers, moving along a simple landscape, with all of its slight or grand changes."

Hamza El Din (1929-2006) was Egyptian oud player and composer who moved to California in the early sixties and had a powerful effect on U.S. musicians from the Grateful Dead to Steve Reich. His Escalay (The Waterwheel) will be performed by three exponents of Irish traditional music, Dónal Lunny, Zoë Conway and Inni-k.

The festival ends with a very different approach to music for six voices, as New Vocal Soloists of Stuttgart perform Karlheinz Stockhausen’s exuberant  1968 work Stimmung.

Full details from Louth Contemporary Music Society's website.

Upheaval: cellist Janne Fredens & pianist Søren Rastogi in music by four women composers from the years 1911 to 1918

Upheaval: Henriëtte Bosmans, Dora Pejačević, Nadia Boulanger, Lili Boulanger; Janne Fredens, Søren Rastogi; OUR Recordings
Reviewed 4 March 2024

Four women from three countries with music for cello and piano spanning the years 1911 to 1918 in an imaginative and passionate recital from a Danish husband and wife duo

The four cello works featured on this disc are all major works by women, and written during the period 1911 to 1918. The disc's title Upheaval thus refers both to the women challenging the musical conventions of the day and to the general upheaval happing in Europe at the time. Released on the OUR Recordings label it features the husband and wife duo Janne Fredens (cello) and Søren Rastogi (piano).

Premiere of Eleanor Alberga's piano concerto, commissioned by Royal Liverpool Philharmonic for Leeds Piano Competition winner Alim Beisembayev

Alim Beisembayev (Photo: Nabin Maharjan)

Kazakhstan-born pianist Alim Beisembayev won First Prize at The Leeds International Piano Competition in September 2021, along with the medici.tv Audience Prize and a new prize, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Society Prize for contemporary performance. This led the orchestra to commission a new work especially for Beisembayev, from the eminent Jamaican-born British composer, Eleanor Alberga, who will also be a Jury member of the 2024 Competition later this year.

Alberga's Piano Concerto will be premiered by Alim Beisembayev with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, conductor Domingo Hindoyan on 25 April 2024 at the Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool as part of a concert that includes a suite from Roussel's Bacchus and Ariadne and Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5.

Alberga's concerto, her first piano concerto, has grown from solo works for piano and thematically draws on her life story. I chatted to Eleanor Alberga back in 2022 about her music and her Jamaican heritage, see my interview.

Full details from the Liverpool Philharmonic website.

BBC Ten Pieces celebrated its 10th anniversary last week by announcing a new collection of ten works by women composers across eight centuries.

Sally Beamish, Hildegard von Bingen, Margaret Bonds, Lili Boulanger, Reena Esmail, Cassie Kinoshi, Marianna Martines, Laura Shigihara, Errollyn Wallen, Judith Weir

Building on ten years opening up the world of classical music to 7-14 year olds, BBC music education initiative Ten Pieces celebrated its 10th anniversary last week by announcing a new collection of ten works by women composers across eight centuries. 

The selection features a broad range of orchestral, vocal and gaming music by Sally Beamish, Hildegard von Bingen, Margaret Bonds, Lili Boulanger, Reena Esmail (BBC commission), Cassie Kinoshi (a BBC/ABRSM/Music For Youth co-commission), Marianna Martines, Laura Shigihara, Errollyn Wallen, and Master of the King’s Music Judith Weir.

Nine of the ten pieces were featured across the BBC Radio 3 schedule on Friday 8 March as part of its International Women’s Day celebrations, when the station marked the occasion with 24 hours of music only by women composers.

BBC Ten Pieces aims to open up the world of classical music to 7-14 year olds and inspire them to develop their own creative responses to the music. Recordings of the new repertoire and accompanying resources for 7-11 year olds will be released in the Autumn school term. The aim of this latest phase of the project is to increase the quantity of music by women composers studied and performed by children and young people, and to continue supporting teachers in delivering high quality music education.

Full details and further content from the BBC website.

Something astonishing: Olivia Fuchs' new production of Britten's Death in Venice for Welsh National Opera involved a collaboration with circus arts, NoFit State

Britten: Death in Venice - Mark Le Brocq, Antony César
Welsh National Opera (Photo Johann Persson)

Britten: Death in Venice; Mark Le Brocq, Roderick Williams, Alexander Chance, Antony César, Diana Salles, director: Olivia Fuchs, conductor: Leo Hussain; Welsh National Opera in collaboration with NotFit State; Wales Millennium Centre
Reviewed 9 March 2024

Bringing music drama and circus arts together in Britten's last opera to create something unforgettable anchored by Mark Le Brocq's assumption of the title role

Britten's Death in Venice involves the interaction between two worlds, those of Aschenbach and Tadzio, sung music drama and dance. A metaphor for Aschenbach's artistic and personal journey, the exact nature of these two worlds helps govern our perception of whether Aschenbach's relationship with Tazio is entirely in the older man's head or something rooted in reality.

For Olivia Fuchs' new production of Britten's Death in Venice, presented by Welsh National Opera at Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff (seen 9 March 2024), and then on tour, WNO collaborated with circus arts company NoFit State, so that Tadzio and his family were all played by circus artists. Mark Le Brocq was Aschenbach, with Roderick Williams in the baritone roles, Alexander Chance as Apollo, Gareth Brynmor John as the English Clerk, and Peter Van Hulle as the Hotel Porter. The circus artists were Antony César as Tadzio, Diana Salles as the Polish Mother, Vilhelmiina Sinervo and Selma Hellmann as the daughters, and Riccardo Saggese as the Governess and Jaschiu. The remaining roles were taken by two WNO Associate Artists and 19 members of WNO Chorus. The designer was Nicola Turner, the lighting designer was Robbie Butler, and the video designer was Sam Sharples. The circus consultant was Tom Rack, and the circus designer and director was Firenza Guidi, both from NoFit State. The conductor was Leo Hussain. 

Nicola Turner's set was simple, a basic black space with four pillars used by the circus artists for climbing, but occasionally used by Roderick Williams and Alexander Chance. This was a production that took things upwards. There was a small amount of set dressing, Aschenbach's desk, the hotel lobby, but largely atmosphere came from Sam Sharples' videos, projected onto the rear wall. These were largely evocative details, an oar moving in the water, fragments of Venice, the sea, even a mouth eating a strawberry; they created both setting and atmosphere. Costumes were traditional, early 20th century, and the chorus' physical presence contributed to the look and feel of the ensemble scenes.

Britten: Death in Venice - Antony César, Frederico Saggese - Welsh National Opera (Photo Johann Persson)

Lumen Christi: I chat to Master of Music, Simon Johnson about his first disc with the choir of Westminster Cathedral

Simon Johnson & the choir of Westminster Cathedral recording at Buckfast Abbey

Ad Fontes, the record label founded by Buckfast Abbey, is releasing Lumen Christi on 22 March 2024. A sequence of sequence of music for the Easter Vigil from the choir of Westminster Cathedral, this will be a follow-up to the choir's Vexilla Regis disc on the label. The new disc features plainchant alongside music by Lassus, Andrew Reid, Victoria, Palestrina, Matthew Martin, Jean L'Heritier, Jean Langlais and Martin Baker. But perhaps more significantly, the disc is the first one for the choir under its current Master of Music, Simon Johnson. Simon became Master of Music at Westminster Cathedral in September 2021, following thirteen years as the Organist and Assistant Director of Music at St Paul’s Cathedral.

The choir's disc Vexilla Regis, released in 2019, featured music for Holy Week so the new disc, with its focus on the Easter Vigil Liturgy which takes place on the evening of Easter Saturday, makes a logical follow on. The Vigil, in its full form one of the oldest and most dramatic liturgies, begins between sunset on Holy Saturday and sunrise on Easter Sunday with the kindling of an Easter, the lighting and blessing of the Paschal candle, and continues with the Easter Proclamation, the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of Baptism where baptismal vows are renewed, finally ending with the Liturgy of Communion, the first communion in the church since Maundy Thursday. Simon explains that the structure of the disc relates to the Easter Vigil liturgy and that 80% of the music on the disc is what the choir would perform normally. There are a few extras, such as the setting of the Vidi Acquam by Matthew Martin (this would usually be sung to plainchant) and a few more motets than would be usual in the service.

Simon Johnson & the choir of Westminster Cathedral recording at Buckfast Abbey

The disc is very much a snapshot of the choir's life. The choir has plenty of single composer discs in its back catalogue devoted to composers such as Palestrina and Victoria, but Simon points out that the recording industry has changed significantly and the reasons for doing a disc in 2024 are vastly different to the 1980s. Also, Ad Fontes was keen for the choir to explore recording from a Roman Catholic angle and Simon was happy to do so.

Sounds of Blossom: Kew Gardens' Spring festival offers a full sensory experience with collaboration with the Royal College of Music

Magnolia campbellii 'Pink tulip tree' © RBG Kew

Kew Gardens' Spring festival, Sounds of Blossom, will see visitors not only enjoying the sights and smells of Spring blossom at the gardens but hearing sounds too, as as bespoke compositions emerge from blossom trees thanks to a new collaboration with the Royal College of Music.

Working with students from the Royal College of Music, the festival will feature six bespoke commissions that celebrate Kew’s unique landscape in the spring, with recordings of music emerging from carefully chosen locations, including avenues of cherry blossom and vistas dotted with magnolias, offering the prospect of a complete sensory experience. There will be Spring and blossom-inspired music from six of the college's students, Daniel Musashi, Jasmine Morris, Tymon Zgorzelski, Lucy Holmes, Delyth Field, and Louis Enright.

Kew Gardens' Sounds of Blossom festival runs from 23 March to 14 April. There will be blossom-inspired dishes in the cafes, and a series of free talks from Kew horticulturists and scientists and a programme of wellbeing events, such as Tai Chi and Yoga amongst the cherry blossom.

Full details from Kew Gardens' website.

A vivid account of Szymanowski's rarely performed Harnasie from the LPO, with a visual installation from Wayne McGregor & Ben Cullen Williams that never quite matched the terrific music

Wayne McGregor & Ben Cullen Williams: A Body For Harnasie - London Philharmonic Orchestra, Edward Gardner - Royal Festival Hall (Photo: Mark Allan)

Tania León: Raíces, Ravel: La Valse, Wayne McGregor & Ben Cullen Williams: A Body for Harnasie (based on Szymanowksi's Harnasie); London Philharmonic Orchestra, Edward Gardner, Robert Murray, Vlaams Radiokoor
Reviewed 6 March 2024

Szymanowski's rarely performed late ballet-pantomime in a terrific performance that vividly brought out the work's colour and symphonic depth, with a visual installation that did not always match this

Karol Szymanowski's Harnasie is one of his late, folk-imbued works inspired by the music of the Polish Tatra mountains. Harnasie, the ballet-pantomime which Szymanowski worked on from 1923 to 1931, not only uses the music but sets its story in the Tatra mountains too. It remains, however, an unjustly neglected work. On 6 March 2024 at the Royal Festival Hall, Edward Gardner and the London Philharmonic Orchestra gave us a rare chance to hear Szymanowski's Harnasie as part of a concert that included the world premiere of Tania León's Raíces (Origins) and Ravel's La valse. Szymanowski's music was presented as part of A Body for Harnasie, a work by choreographer Wayne McGregor and designer Ben Cullen Williams that was part installation, part dance and part film, with Gardner and the LPO being joined by tenor Robert Murray and the Vlaams Radiokoor.

Wayne McGregor & Ben Cullen Williams: A Body For Harnasie - London Philharmonic Orchestra, Edward Gardner - Royal Festival Hall (Photo: Mark Allan)

Ben Cullen Williams' installation was suspended over the orchestra, part screen, part sculpture, it descended low enough that part of the stage was taken up, thus leading the orchestra to be awkwardly laid out for the whole concert.

Danza Gaya: Simon Callaghan & Hiroaki Takenouchi play with wonderful elan & relish, clearly having a great deal of fun

Danza gaya: music for two pianos - Madeleine Dring, Dorothy Howell, Pamela Harrison; Simon Callaghan, Hiroaki Takenouchi; LYRITA

Three 20th-century English women composers, thirteen pieces all virtually unknown; Simon Callaghan & Hiroaki Takenouchi take us on an engagingly enjoyable exploration

None of the composers on pianists Simon Callaghan and Hiroaki Takenouchi's new disc are well enough known. Danza gaya on the Lyrita label features delightful music for two pianos by three women from 20th century English music, Madeleine Dring, Dorothy Howell and Pamela Harrison.

Congratulations to all the winners at the 2024 RPS Awards, and a special mention for Jasdeep Singh Degun, the first Indian Classical musician to receive the Instrumentalist award

Jasdeep Singh Degun at the RPS Awards 2024 (Photo: Robin Clewley)

Congratulations to everyone who was involved in last night's Royal Philharmonic Society Awards in Manchester, both the winners and all those terrific names who were nominated. A significant highlight was the Opera and Music Theatre Award, awarded to Ukrainian composers Illia Razumeiko and Roman Grigoriv for their opera Chornobyldorf and they travelled specially from Ukraine for the event. 

Sitarist Jasdeep Singh Degun received the Instrumentalist award. The first Indian Classical musician and the first sitarist to receive this award. Degun was also shortlisted for the Opera award and the Large-scale composition award.

Leah Broad received the Storytelling award for her book Quartet, about  Doreen Carwithen, Dorothy Howell, Ethel Smyth and Rebecca Clarke. Composer Laurence Osborn received the Chamber-scale Composition award for TOMB! written for GBSR Duo and 12 Ensemble. 

Kaija Saariaho received the Large-scale composition award for her final opera, Innocence. Whilst this award is understandable, it seems something of a disappointment to all those composers who wrote fine, large-scale works that are not operas. That two of the four shortlisted works in this category this year were operas seems a mistake.

Lotte Betts-Dean received the Young Artist Award.  Nicky Spence received the Singer award for the remarkable breadth of his work from the BBC Proms and Welsh National Opera to nurturing young talent at Blackheath Halls and Scottish Opera. François-Xavier Roth received the Conductor award, hilighting his work uniting modern and historical practice with the London Symphony Orchestra and his ensemble Les Siècles. 

The BBC Singers received the Ensemble award, reflecting the astonishing quality, style and imagination of their performances. Sara Lee and the Irene Taylor Trust received the Gamechanger award for their creative projects in prisons and their powerful presence in communities. Clare Johnston and Drake Music Scotland received the Impact award for their collaboration, Call to the Mountains, a ground-breaking creative exchange with Kazakhstan’s Eegeru ensemble.

Derwent Brass received the Inspiration award for a non-professional ensemble, Manchester Classical received the Series and Events award.

Full details from the RPS website. 

Ian Venables' intense settings of John Clare at the centre of the Dante Quartet's Conway Hall concert alongside Gurney and Elgar

Brinkwells in the Surrey Hill, where Elgar wrote his Quartet

Beethoven, Ian Venables, Gurney, Elgar; Dante Quartet, Brian Thorsett; Conway Hall
Reviewed 3 March 2024

Venables' quartet of intense John Clare settings for the relatively unusual combination of tenor and quartet at the heart of this concert that often felt like conversation amongst friends

On Sunday 3 March 2024, the Dante Quartet was joined by tenor Brian Thorsett for a concert at Conway Hall that featured Beethoven's Quartet in F, Op. 135, Ian Venables' 1997 song-cycle, Invite to Eternity, four songs by Ivor Gurney in arrangements for tenor and quartet by Ian Venables, and Elgar's Quartet in E minor, Op. 38. Before the concert, I gave a talk introducing the works by Venables, Gurney and Elgar, all of whom have West Country links. The Dante Quartet was founded in 1995, and currently features Zoe Beyers, Ian Watson, Carol Ella, and Richard Jenkinson.

In case you missed it: our latest newsletter, February on Planet Hugill, has just gone out

My newsletter, February on Planet Hugill, has just gone out, a month that took us from Delibes' Lakmé to Wagner's Siegfried to some terrific new music. 

Stephen McNeff's opera A Star Next to the Moon premiered and Stephen also talked to us about the genesis of the work, there was also Gavin Higgin's terrific new Horn Concerto, not to mention music by Helen Grime and Freya Waley-Cohen, not forgetting ENO's revival of Poul Ruders' The Handmaid's Tale. 

Transgender tenor Holden Madagame talked to us about their journey towards singing Mime in Siegfried, and interviews included film composer Eímear Noone, soprano Jenny Stafford on performing Puccini's Manon Lescaut to open English Touring Opera's Spring season, Polish-born, Australian composer Paul Kopetz on his latest disc and composer Jacques Cohen on his Charles Dickens-inspired monodrama, The Lady of Satis House.

You can read the latest issue on MadMimi.

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