Ambrose Seddon is one of the featured composers at the 2025 L'Espace du Son, the international festival of acousmatic music in Brussels

 

The Composers Edition website handily explains the musical term Acousmatic as follows:

A predominately European term Acousmatic simply refers to musical works which exist solely as audio or ‘fixed’ media, now most commonly delivered in high quality digital audio formats such as wav and aiff or on CD or Blu-ray. Created with multiple audio channels they are usually also available in stereo mixes and thus playable in most spaces.

And since 1984 the L'Espace du Son festival has proved to be an unmissable event for acousmatic enthusiasts. This festival returns from 15 to 19 October2025, at the Marni theater in Brussels with a rich and varied programme. This year, seven composers have been invited - Laryssa Kim , Charo Calvo, Theodoros Lotis, François Bayle, Armando Balice, Damian Gorandi, Ambrose Seddon. Each will take a turn at the spatialization desk to present music from their repertoire. 

Ambrose Seddon studied at Goldsmiths College and City University, initially he composed, produced, and performed electronic music, but since 2002 he has focused primarily on acousmatic music composition, although he also creates interactive multichannel sound installations, collaborates on immersive audiovisual projects, and performs improvised live electronic music. He is currently a lecturer in the Media Production Department of Bournemouth University.

In addition there is the "espace du son" competition, where candidates are selected based on their graphical recording of a specified work, this year Inflection Point by Nikos Kanelakis (from the festival's Métamorphoses 2024 competition. This allows a comparison of their playing styles. They will also also play two works drawn at random the day before from the eight works they worked on from a repertoire of around thirty that was proposed to them, as well as a piece of their choice. This competition, now in its thirteenth edition, gives candidates the opportunity to take charge of a repertoire that is rich in 75 years of works.

Entry is free, according to what everyone decides, to immerse oneself in a flow of music and astonishing lights.

Full details from the festival website.

Johann Joseph Abert - A musical portrait

Johann Joseph Abert - Ein musikalisches Portrait; ARS Produktion
Reviewed by Andreas Rey (17 September 2025) 

An ethnic German born in the Sudetenland area of Bohemia (now the Czech Republic), Johann Joseph Abert studied at the Prague Conservatoire and became court kapellmeister in Stuttgart. Of his many symphonies and operas, little has made it to disc and this enterprising new selection of Abert's works provides a tempting starter.

This new disc from ARS Produktion is a portrait of the German composer Johann Joseph Abert, a kind of bait or, rather, bird call for curious music lovers, which explains why this disc contains only excerpts.

A German composer born in 1832, Johann Josph Albert's fame began in 1860. As a composer of chamber music, organ music, lieder, and operas, as this musical portrait shows, he was as much appreciated professionally as he was personally by his peers. A meeting with the singer and composer Pauline Viardot in 1864 led to a life-long friendship and it was Viardot's support that ultimately led to his appointment as court kapellmeister in Stuttgart where he remained until 1888.

Indeed, he has no reason to be ashamed of Brahms and Schuman, whose works he conducted at Wurttemberg, where he was composer and conductor to the royal court. After discovering him here, fans will want another disc of excerpts from his music for large ensembles, as Abert also composed symphonies, masses, overtures, and concertante music.

Photo essay: Cavalli's Pompeo Magno at the 2025 Bayreuth Baroque Opera Festival

Cavalli: Pompeo Magno - Nicolò Balducci (Sesto), Mariana Flores (Issicratea) - Bayreuth Baroque Opera Festival 2025 (Photo: © Clemens Manser Photography)

Cavalli's opera Pompeo Magno (Pompey the Great) was premiered in Venice in 1666 at the teatro S. Salvatore. The work was dedicated to Madama Illustriss. D. Maria Mancini Colonna, Prencipessa Romana, Duchessa di Tagliacozzo, niece of Cardinal Mazarin, who had married Lorenzo Onofrio Colonna in 1661.

Whilst at the French court in her youth Maria Mancini had captured the heart (and more) of the young Louis XIV. He was genuinely in love with her, and wanted to marry her. She was willing to marry him, but the marriage was in direct opposition to the plans of both the king's mother and Marie's uncle and guardian, the Cardinal. So, in 1661 she was sent away from court to marry her Italian prince.

Cavalli: Pompeo Magno - Bayreuth Baroque Opera Festival 2025 (Photo: © Clemens Manser Photography)

Cavaill's opera was performed again, in Bologna in 1692 under the title of Il pompeo. The work was broadcast by BBC Radio 3 in 1975 under the musical direction of Denis Stevens, and opera has experienced a limited renaissance in recent years. The 2025 Bayreuth Baroque Opera Festival presented the work under Leonardo García Alarcón’s musical direction with his Cappella Mediterranea in a production directed by Max Emanuel Cencic who also sang the title role with a cast including Mariana Flores (Issicratea), Nicolò Balducci (Sesto), Sophie Junker (Giulia), Valer Sabadus (Scipione Servilio), and Dominique Visse (Delfo).

Cavalli: Pompeo Magno - Max Emanuel Cencic, Marcel Beekman, Alois Mühlbacher, Valer Sabadus, Nicholas Scott - Bayreuth Baroque Opera Festival 2025 (Photo: © Clemens Manser Photography)

Pompeo Magnuo is one of Cavalli’s final Venetian operas, coming toward the end of an extraordinarily prolific career during which he composed over 40 stage works at the rate of approximately one per year. The opera takes its historical inspiration from the Roman general Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (106-48 BCE), who formed the first triumvirate with Julius Caesar and Crassus. He is the Pompey who appears, only in death, in Handel's Giulio Cesare.

Cavalli: Pompeo Magno - Sophie Junker (Giulia), Valer Sabadus (Servillio) - Bayreuth Baroque Opera Festival 2025 (Photo: © Clemens Manser Photography)

The plot ingeniously combines historical figures with fictional elements, creating a complex narrative of political intrigue, romantic entanglements, and personal vendettas. The opera follows the victorious return of Pompeo to Rome after his third military campaign, where he receives a hero’s welcome from Caesar and other dignitaries. Behind this public display of unity, a “secret war” of love, desire, treachery and jealousy unfolds at the Roman court.

Cavalli: Pompeo Magno - Bayreuth Baroque Opera Festival 2025 (Photo: © Clemens Manser Photography)

The performances in Bayreuth were filmed and along with other events at the festival, the opera is available in the media libraries of ARTE Concert and BR Klassik. Mezzo TV will air the festival in December 2025, with Medici.tv to follow starting in 2026.

Cavalli: Pompeo Magno
Alois Mühlbacher (Farnace), Valerio Contaldo (Mitridate), Mariana Flores  (Issicratea)
Bayreuth Baroque Opera Festival 2025
(Photo: © Clemens Manser Photography)

Leonardo García-Alarcón:
    Conductor and Harpsichord
Max Emanuel Cencic:
    Director
Helmut Stürmer:
    Stage Design
Corina Gramosteanu:
    Costume Design
Léo Petrequin:
    Light
Max Emanuel Cencic, Fabián Schofrin:
    Dramaturgy
Constantina Psoma:
    Director’s Assistant
Chiara d’Anna:
    Movement Coach

Max Emanuel Cencic: Pompeo Magno
Mariana Flores: Issicratea
Valerio Contaldo: Mitridate
Alois Mühlbacher: Amore / Farnace
Nicolò Balducci: Sesto
Sophie Junker: Giulia
Victor Sicard: Cesare
Nicholas Scott: Claudio
Valer Sabadus: Scipione Servilio
Jorge Navarro Colorado: Crasso
Dominique Visse: Delfo
Kacper Szelążek: Arpalia
Marcel Beekman: Atrea
Pierre Lenoir: Primo Prencipe / Genius
Angelo Kidoniefs: Secondo Prencipe
Ioannis Filias: Terzo Prencipe
Christos Christodoulou: Quarto Prencipe

Cappella Mediterranea

Profound, contemplative & meditative aethereal beauties: Vox Clamantis & Jaan-Eik Tulve's birthday present for Arvo Pärt on ECM Records

Arvo Pärt: Nunc dimittis, O Holy Father Nicholas, Sieben Magnificat-Antiphonen, Fur Jan van Eyck, Kleine Litanei, And I heard a voice; Vox Clamantis, Jaan-Eik Tulve; ECM Records
Reviewed 15 September 2025

Jan-Eik Tulve & his ensemble bring their experience with both Arvo Pärt's music, that of other contemporary composers as well as Gregorian chant and early polyphony alongside to create a musical journey of profound beauty and great musicality

Vox Clamantis, artistic director and conductor Jaan-Eik Tulve, is an Estonian vocal ensemble which specialises in performing Gregorian chant and early polyphony alongside contemporary music. Though they have a strong association with the music of Arvo Pärt, in the eight years since I first heard them in Tallinn (at the 2017 Estonian Music Days, see my review) I have experienced their performances of a wide range of music.

Their latest disc, And I heard a voice on the ECM label was issued in time to be a 90th birthday present for the composer. The music on the disc, spanning over 30 years of Pärt's composing life, features Nunc dimittis, O Holy Father Nicholas, Sieben Magnificat-Antiphonen, Für Jan van Eyck, Kleine Litanei and And I heard a voice. The fifteen singers of Vox Clamantis are conducted by Jaan-Eik Tulve and they are joined by organist Ene Salumae in Fur Jan van Eyck.

The recording was made in 2021/22 in Haapsalu Cathedral in the very west of Estonia. Haapsalu Cathedral, which is first mentioned in 1279, is one of the largest single-nave churches in the Nordic and Baltic countries. The recording was produced by Manfred Eicher and from the very first notes of Nunc Dimittis, it has a very particular sound quality. Eicher has surrounded the ensemble by what might almost be termed an aura. Nunc Dimittis is sung with a gentleness and clarity which belies the sheer accuracy and focus of the performance.

Vox Clamantis & Jaan-Eik Tulve performing in Haapsalu Cathedral

The acoustic is not being used to hide behind nor as an all-purpose device. As might be expected from this ensemble the performances have a beauty and a considered naturalness which makes Pärt's music profoundly appealing. They do not bring the sort of edge or welly to the music that the larger forces of the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir does. Instead, we have a tender delicacy allied to pinpoint accuracy and an ability to hammer home where necessary.

Wine, Music & Song in aid of Music in Hospitals & Care

Wine, Music & Song is a fundraising concert in aid of Music in Hospitals & Care which takes place in the glorious 17th century surroundings of St James Garlickhythe Church. 

The varied programme will feature organ, piano and cello music, including a performance by cellist Karen Stephenson and pianist Sophia Rahman of Tales from the 15th Floor by composer Michael Stimpson, reflecting on his own experiences in an NHS intensive care unit. 

The evening will end with a flourish of Liszt on the piano, and a selection of favourite opera arias from Music in Hospitals & Care's Trustee, Welsh baritone Jeremy Huw Williams. Guests can enjoy wine, canapés and an unforgettable night of music in the heart of the City.

Music in Hospitals & Care is a charity dedicated to improving the health and wellbeing of children and adults through the healing power of live music. Every year, their professional musicians share live music with people from across the UK who may not otherwise get to experience it. This includes those living with dementia, who have mental health problems, or who are seriously ill.  

Further details of the concert from the Music in Hospitals & Care website.

Huw Montague Rendall & Joseph Middleton launch the 2025/26 Leeds Song concert season with Die schöne Müllerin at Leeds Conservatoire

On 28 September 2025 at Leeds Conservatoire, baritone Huw Montague Rendall and pianist Joseph Middleton open the 2025/26 concert season of Leeds Song, of which Middleton is the artistic director, with a performance of Schubert's Die schöne Müllerin. 

The full season features seven events leading up to the Leeds Song Festival from 11 to 18 April 2026.

Before then, the concert season in Leeds includes soprano Miah Persson in Berg's Seven Early Songs and a personal selection of Scandinavian song; soprano Ailish Tynan celebrating the anniversaries of Ravel, Caplet and Satie; baritone James Newby in a recital recreating the programme Dietrich Fischer Dieskau and Benjamin Britten performed together at the Aldeburgh Festival in 1972; soprano Hera Hyesang Park, who sings Susanna in Opera North's 2026 production of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, making her Leeds Song debut; and counter-tenor Hugh Cutting in recital in Harrogate. The season also includes a masterclass from Dame Felicity Lott, and a chance to hear the new generation of lieder singers and pianists with Royal Academy of Music Song Circle.

Full details from the Leeds Song website.

Sung poetry: soprano Véronique Gens in subtle & supple form with pianist James Baillieu in French song at Wigmore Hall

Véronique Gens

Gounod, Hahn, Saint-Saens, Ravel, Ropartz, Duparc, Debussy, Canteloube, Louiguy, Marguerite Monnot, Weill, Kern, Willson; Véronique Gens, James Baillieu; Wigmore Hall
Reviewed 12 September 2025

A masterly exploration of highways and byways of over a century of French chanson in wonderfully subtle and supple performances from Véronique Gens and James Baillieu

Whilst soprano Véronique Gens is best known for her recordings of Baroque music, her repertoire stretches far wider, not just French song but a series of French operas for the Bru Zane label including works by Lecocq, Offenbach, Messager, Hahn, Franck, Gounod, Félicien David and most recently Massenet.

It should come as no surprise, then, that Véronique Gens' recital at Wigmore Hall on Friday 12 September 2025 with pianist James Baillieu should also range widely. The first half explored aspects of love from the carefree to the despairing with songs by Gounod, Hahn, Saint-Saens, Ravel, Joseph Guy Ropartz, Duparc and Debussy whilst the second focused on Canteloube's Songs of the Auvergne followed by two Edith Piaf-associated chanson by Louiguy and Marguerite Monnot, and then intriguingly ending with English-texted songs by Kurt Weill, Jerome Kern and Meredith Willson.

Two of the greatest concertos of the 21st century: clarinettist Julian Bliss on his new recording of Clarinet Concertos by Magnus Lindberg and Kalevi Aho

Julian Bliss (Photo: Rebecca Schelldorff)

Clarinettist Julian Bliss' latest album, which came out earlier this month on the Signum Classics label, features him as soloist in the clarinet concertos by Magnus Lindberg and Kalevi Aho, works Julian describes as two of the greatest concertos of the 21st century. For the disc, Julian was joined by conductor Taavi Oramo and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

Born in Helsinki in 1958, Magnus Lindberg studied with Einojuhani Rautavaara and Paavo Heininen in Finland, Vinko Globokar and Gérard Grisey in Paris, while also attending Franco Donatoni’s classes in Siena. He composed his Clarinet Concerto in 2001-2. Kalevi Aho was born in Forssa in the south of Finland. He studied with Einojuhani Rautavaara in Finland and with Boris Blacher in Berlin. He wrote his concerto in 2005for Martin Fröst who premiered it with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, conductor Osmo Vänskä.

Julian was very aware of both concertos before he recorded them; in fact, he is asked to play Lindberg's concerto quite a lot. Both concertos represent a challenge, with a lot of new things in them. But Julian points out that works which were regarded as a challenge when he was young, such as Nielsen's Clarinet Concerto, are now part of the mainstream repertoire. The way playing has developed over the years means that there is a lot of pushing of boundaries.

He admits that he has never heard a concerto quite like the Lindberg. Julian loves what he calls the 'big band orchestral sound' that Lindberg uses in the work, pointing out that often in clarinet concertos, composers use smaller forces so that they do not risk covering the instrument. In the Lindberg with its big orchestral sound, sometimes the soloist fights to be heard. Julian has performed the work a lot, and he loves it.

You Are Loved: Music for Change

On 10 October 2025, World Mental Health Day, some of London’s brightest queer artists will perform at St Giles Cripplegate to shine a spotlight on suicide and drug-related death crisis in the LGBTQ+ community in a charity concert You Are Loved - Music for Change.

Mr Gay Great Britain and mental health ambassador Andy Gardiner will present the show. There will be performances by London Gay Men’s Chorus, London Gay Symphony Orchestra, countertenor Andrew Watts, pianist Gavin Roberts (co-founder of Song in the City), baritone Kang Yang, countertenor Eliran Kadussi, mezzo-soprano Isobel Hughes, baritone Owain Gwynfryn (founder of Big Gay Out) and many more, along with live testimonials about mental health from members of the UK’s queer community.

Music for Change creators Big Gay Out and Song in The City will join the founder of You Are Loved on stage. You Are Loved exists to reduce deaths from suicide and drugs in the LGBT+ community. 

For the first time, rates of suicide and self-harm for people who identify as gay or lesbian, bisexual or another sexual orientation has been examined and revealed to be more than twice as high as for their heterosexual peers. Funds raised through Music for Change will enable You Are Loved to carry out their life-saving work across the queer community in the UK.

Full details and tickets from TicketTailor website.

A restless soul: Matthias Goerne & David Fray in late Schubert

Schubert with friends Johann Baptist Jenger & Anselm Huttenbrenner - Chalk drawing, 1827, by Josef Eduard Teltscher

Schubert: Schwanengesang, Piano Sonata in B flat D960; Matthias Goerne, David Fray; Wigmore Hall
Reviewed 9 September 2025

Matthias Goerne opens Wigmore Hall's new season with a remarkably intense account of Schubert's last song cycle paired with one of the late piano sonatas

Baritone Matthias Goerne was intended to open Wigmore Hall's 2025/26 season in recital with pianist Maria João Pires in a programme of late Schubert pairing Schwanengesang with the Impromptus. This was not to be, and on Tuesday 9 September Matthias Goerne was joined by pianist David Fray for a programme that paired Schwanengesang with Piano Sonata in B flat D960.

On the concert platform, Matthias Goerne proved to be a remarkably intense performer with a restlessness that seemed to suggest a need to express the music in movement as well as vocal gesture. Throughout his performance his body swung wildly from left to right, never fixing his eye on any one spot. There was little sense of operatic staging here and there were only a few moments when you might describe Goerne's performance as operatic. In fact, he had an admirable tendency to sing legato and emphasise a sense of line, somewhat remarkable in a singer whose operatic output stretches to Wagner. He also used the colours and timbres of his voice significantly to articulate the drama in the songs.

We last saw David Fray in 2024, coincidentally in a duet partnership in Schubert but then it was with pianist Elisabeth Leonskaja in a joyful rendering of the late Allegro in A minor at Lucerne's Le Piano Symphonique [see my review]. At Wigmore Hall, David Fray made a poised, sympathetic accompanist. Never imposing himself, Fray had a deceptively relaxed, fluid approach which hid a nervy attention to detail.

Fantasia: Matilda Lloyd & Richard Gowers launch their new disc with music by Richard Barnard, Roxanna Panufnik, Deborah Pritchard & Owain Park

Richard Barnard, Richard Gowers, Roxanna Panufnik, Matilda Lloyd, Deborah Pritchard, Owain Park at St George's Hanover Square for the launch of Fantasia (Photo: Dominik Zaczek)

In July, I met up with trumpeter Matilda Lloyd for a chat about her new disc with organist Richard Gowers, Fantasia on Chandos Records [see my interview, 'New challenge and new repertoire']. The disc is released next week (19 September) with two singles from the album already available.

On Monday 8 September 2025, there was a launch event for the disc at St George's Hanover Square (where Richard Gowers is the music director). At the event, Matilda Lloyd and Richard Gowers were joined by the four composers whose works are premiered on the disc, Roxanna Panufnik, Richard Barnard, Deborah Pritchard and Owain Park. It was a terrific opportunity to hear these pieces live and hear from the composers.

Lloyd and Gowers began with the intriguing sound world of trumpet and organ in the toccata from Bach's Toccata and Fugue BWV 565, the work which first gave Lloyd the idea for performing Baroque music with trumpet and organ back when she was at Junior Guildhall.

Richard Barnard explained that his piece, At the Borders of Sleep arose because he associated the word fantasia with fantasy which led him to the idea of falling asleep and the mind wandering to exotic places. And he commented that at his age (!) napping was important and the initial tune of the piece came to him like that. The initial melody was surprisingly jazzy, and Barnard then put it through its paces using a variety of different mutes (throughout the concert Matilda Lloyd used a selection of instruments and mutes), leading to a climax and then the music evaporating. 

Deborah Pritchard has been inspired by light recently. Her piece The light thereof was written for Matilda Lloyd and the Gesualdo Six for their 2024 disc Radiant Dawn on Hyperion (which also has a piece by Richard Barnard on it). 

For Matilda Lloyd's Fantasia album, Pritchard wrote Light Enkindled. taking the idea of fantasia towards improvisation. The opening saw the trumpet supported by spare sustained notes in the organ, something that Pritchard described as akin to using a piano sustaining pedal. When the organ did join the trumpet, the two had increasingly florid parts, some dazzling writing leading to a climax before evaporating.

Roxanna Panufnik's Echo uses both trumpet and its big brother, the flugelhorn. Panufnik explained that when writing instrumental music she liked to use a text or an image for inspiration. Here she used Christina Rosetti's poem Echo - 'Come to me in the silence of the night', with the piece written very like a song. The solo line contrasted the mellow flugelhorn with the higher, brighter trumpet, accompanied by an organ part that had a slightly exotic feel to it.

Matilda Lloyd has been collaborating with Owain Park and the Gesualdo Six since 2018, though she and Park go back as far as their university days. For his piece, Warm, hazy rain, Park explained that he wanted to capture an image, what it would feel and sound like - 'a person in transit during the summer months, perhaps gazing out of a train window or reminiscing about a leisurely bicycle ride through warm, misty country lanes'. Using the flugelhorn to create a gently lyrical solo which contrasted with the steady forward motion of the rather neo-Baroque organ writing.

We ended with more Baroque music, the bravura flourishes of Giovanni Battista Martini's Toccata.

Fantasia is available to order from a variety of music services - see http://lnk.to/CHAN20345

An album of intimacy: Palestrina 500 from Augsburg Cathedral Boys' Choir

Palestrina 500: Palestrina, Pierre de Manchicourt, William Byrd, Lassus, Victoria; Augsburger Domsingknaben, I Fedeli, Stefan Steinemann; ARS Produktion
Reviewed by Andreas Rey (7 September 2025)

A brotherhood in which noise would be replaced by silence, in which the soul would communicate with the soul, without noise, obligations, or outside crowds.

To mark the 500th birthday of Palestrina, this new disc on ARS Produktion from the Augsburg Cathedral Boys' Choir (Augsburger Domsingknaben) centres on the magnificent eight-part Missa Fratres ego enim accepi, which Palestrina created as an elaborate parody mass based on his motet of the same name. The mass was first published posthumously in 1601. Conducted by Stefan Steinemann, the boys and young men of the choir are joined by the period instruments of I Fedeli. 

The Augsburg Cathedral Boys' Choir is a relatively new choir with a long history. The tradition of a boys choir at Augsburg Cathedral dates back to the 15th century, but by the 1860s the choir was dissolved, to be replaced by a mixed voice choir. In its present form, the Augsburg Cathedral Boys' Choir dates back to 1976. In 2020, Stefan Steinemann became the youngest cathedral choirmaster in Germany, taking over the overall musical direction of Augsburg Cathedral and thus also the artistic direction of the Augsburg Cathedral Boys' Choir.

This is an album of intimacy, an album that is as much internal as it is coming from the inside, an album that is best listened to before dawn disturbs the unfolding of the intimate inner space with its noises, crowds, and obligations. The music of the encounter between the listener's universe and the night that surrounds him or her.

The Great English Anthem: Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital Chelsea at the Chelsea History Festival

From 24 to 28 September 2025 it is the Chelsea History Festival with a wide range of activities at the National Army Museum, the Chelsea Physic Garden and the Royal Hospital Chelsea. On the opening evening, 24 September 2025, William Vann and the Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital Chelsea will be giving a concert, The Great English Anthem. The evening is a chance to hear some favourite English anthems in two historic venues as the event begins in the Great Hall and moves on to the Wren Chapel.

The programme consists of music by Elgar, Gibbons, Handel, Holst, Parry, Purcell, Stanford and Vaughan Williams, along with Imogen Holst, Charles Wood, Samuel Sebastian Wesley and Janet Wheeler. It will include include Handel's Zadok the Priest and Parry's I was glad accompanied on the Wren Chapel’s organ (organist Mark Zang).

The Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital Chelsea is a professional choir that sings Choral Matins in the Wren Chapel at the Royal Hospital Chelsea every Sunday at 11am and provides the music at carol services, weddings and other events at the Royal Hospital. The regular choir of 12 singers is enlarged for major concerts, such as this occasion.

The image on the flyer displayed here is part of Sebastiano Ricci's fine painting of the Resurrection in the half dome of the apse of the Chapel.

Further details from the Chelsea Pensioners website.

A focus on women composers and poets: London Song Festival returns

Nadia and Lili Boulenger, photographed in 1913.

Nigel Foster's London Song Festival returns next month for a season of 10 concerts exploring the work of women composers. As ever, the concerts are at Hinde Street Methodist Church and things kick off on 17 October with Nigel Foster being joined by mezzo-soprano Katie Bray and tenor Guy Cutting for songs and song cycles by Nadia and Lili Boulanger.

Then soprano Francesca Chiejina and mezzo-soprano Lea Shaw explore African American women composers and the struggle for Civil Rights with music by Florence Price, Brittney Elizabeth Boykin, Dorothy Rudd Moore, Margaret Bonds, Jacqueline Hairston, Betty Jackson King and Nkeiru Okoye, and by the Native American composer Martha Redbone. Music and words from Ethel Smyth and the Suffragettes are the subject of soprano Ella Taylor and mezzo-soprano Lotte Betts Dean's recital, 

Subsequent recitals examine the contribution made by women immigrants and refugees to the UK, celebrate of the life and loves of the American poet Sara Teasdale, and give us a taste of the vibrancy and joy of Latin America. Then there are songs from films and shows written by women, including Marguerite Monnot, Mary Rodgers, Amanda McBroom, Kristen Anderson, Dorothy Fields, Betty Comden, Carolyn Leigh, Marilyn Bergmann, Diane Warren, Barbra Streisand and Dolly Parton.

The poet Christina Rosetti is the focus for soprano Susan Bullock's recital with Janine Roebuck as speaker.  A performance of all 27 songs Debussy wrote for Marie-Blanche Vasnier, with whom he enjoyed a 7-year-long affair from the age of 18, will be presented by the winners of the 2024 London Song Festival Schubert Song Prize. Kitty Whately then joins Nigel Foster for Cross-Channel Currents, an overview of songs written in England and in France with words or music by women.    

Full details from the London Song Festival website. 

Making restitution: Sir Arthur Bliss' The Beatitudes returns to BBC Proms after a gap of 60 years

Bliss: The Beatitudes - Elizabeth Watts, Laurence Kilsby, 
BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Singers, Sakari Oramo
BBC Proms (Photo: Chris Christodoulou/ BBC)

Ruth Gips: Death on the Pale Horse, Grieg: Piano Concerto, Bliss: The Beatitudes; Elizabeth Watts, Laurence Kilsby, Lukas Sternath, BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Chorus, BBC Singers, Sakari Oramo; BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall
Reviewed 7 September 2025

Bliss' powerful war-inspired cantata, written for the consecration of Coventry Cathedral and Ruth Gips' 1943 tone-poem with Grieg's concerto as a somewhat unlikely make-weight

Some works recover from a disastrous premiere whilst others simply disappear. Sir Arthur Bliss' large-scale choral cantata The Beatitudes was written for the consecration of Coventry Cathedral in 1962 alongside Britten's War Requiem. Logistics (and perhaps a bit of politicking) meant the premiere of Bliss' piece being bumped to the unsatisfactory Belgrave Theatre. The Beatitudes was performed at the BBC Proms two years late in 1964, but it took until 2012 for it to be finally performed in Coventry Cathedral.

On Sunday 7 September 2025, Bliss' The Beatitudes returned to the BBC Proms alongside another British work arising from the Second World War, Ruth Gips' Death on a Pale Horse. Rather curiously, Grieg's Piano Concerto was sandwiched in the middle and at least one couple in the audience, having listened attentively to the Grieg seem to have decided that the Bliss was not worth returning for.

Sakari Oramo conducted the BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Singers and BBC Symphony Chorus with Lukas Sternath as soloist in Grieg's Piano Concerto and soprano Elizabeth Watts and tenor Laurence Kilsby as soloists in Bliss' The Beatitudes.

Grieg: Piano Concerto - Lukas Stenrath, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Sakari Oramo - BBC Proms (Photo: Chris Christodoulou/ BBC)

Angel of Peace: The Sixteen's 25th Choral Pilgrimage moves from the 12th century to the present day but it is early Tudor polyphony that stays in the memory

Angel of Peace: Hildegard of Bingen,  Arvo Pärt, Will Todd, Anna Clyne, John Taverner; The Sixteen, Harry Christophers, Sarah Sexton; Church of St Martin in the Fields
Reviewed 5 September 2025

The Sixteen's 25th Choral Pilgrimage mixes the contemporary with music from the 12th century, along with two great Marian antiphons that celebrate the florid music of the early Tudor church

The Sixteen's 2025 Choral Pilgrimage, Angel of Peace, has been wending its way around the country since they debuted the programme at Croydon Minster on 17 March. There will be 23 performances in all, ending on 4 October at Chichester Cathedral, along with eight associated choral workshops. Earlier this year I chatted to Harry Christophers about his approach to the Choral Pilgrimage and this year's programme. Read more in my interview, 'Everyone in the group feels strongly it'.

On Friday 5 September 2025 we caught Harry Christophers and The Sixteen in Angel of Peace at St Martin-in-the-Fields. The programme combines Hildegard of Bingen's Ave, Generosa, John Taverner's Gaude plurimum and O splendor gloriae, and Arvo Pärt's Tribute to Caesar, Da pacem Domine and Magnificat, with two contemporary pieces for choir and violin (Sarah Sexton), Will Todd's I shall be an angel of peace (from 2021) and Anna Clyne's Orbits which was a new commission by The Sixteen.

Each half began with verses from Hildegard of Bingen's Ave, Generosa and ended with one of John Taverner's large-scale antiphons. Will Todd and Anna Clyne's pieces formed the centrepiece of each half, paired with Arvo Pärt.

Conductors aren’t born, they’re forged! New choral conducting mentorship programme, Forge, launched

Conductors aren’t born, they’re forged. With this bold statement the Forge choral conducting mentorship has been launched. A mentoring programme for aspiring choral conductors, Forge has been founded by choral conductors Tori Longdon and Greg Beardsall.

Despite the remarkable number of choral conductors in the UK, only two British conservatoires provide postgraduate study for choral conductors, totalling fewer than seven available training places each year. A third programme, previously run by Birmingham University, was discontinued last year due to funding constraints.

As a result many choral conductors learn ‘on the job,’ without peer support or guidance. Any training that is available is either either limited to brief courses, or full-time Master’s programmes that are both costly and difficult to balance with a freelance career.

Forge is a fully online mentoring and development programme designed to support and sustain the choral tradition,  with a 30-week programme that gives aspiring conductors access to a roster of world-class mentors, all of whom teach at conservatoire level, in a flexible, affordable format. Each small cohort of twelve student conductors will meet weekly online to review rehearsal footage of one student working with their own choir, followed by a programme of seminars delivered by the mentor team which will deepen a wide range of leadership skills.

The current mentor team includes: Ben Parry (London Voices), Mariana Rosas (London Symphony Chorus), Anthony Trecek-King (Handel and Haydn Society), Jonas Rasmussen (Royal Academy Of Music, Arhus), Tracy Wong (Wilfrid Laurier University), Sanna Valvanne (Sing & Shine Choirs), and Felix Shuen (Diocesan Boys’ Choir Hong Kong).

Applications will open on the 1st October for courses starting in January, May and September.

Full details from the Forge website.

Music connects all of us, and people can create on all levels: RNS Moves to make its London debut

RNS Moves

RNS Moves, the ensemble made up of professional disabled musicians and non-disabled members of Royal Northern Sinfonia, will make its London debut on 21 September at Kings Place, performing a programme that brings together renaissance choral music, contemporary minimalism and modern experimental.

Improvisation and experimentation lie at the heart of the ensemble, and their performance at Kings Place will see them pair works by Caroline Shaw, Philip Glass, James MacMillan, Julius Eastman and Terry Riley with Tallis and Purcell.

Clarence Adoo MBE co-founded the ensemble after a life-altering car accident left him paralysed from the neck down, meaning he could no longer hold his position as trumpeter in Royal Northern Sinfonia.  Following the accident, German composer-come-inventor Rolf Gehlhaar was asked to create a bespoke instrument for Adoo so that he could continue to play music. The result was the Headspace - an innovative MIDI wind instrument controlled by breath and head movements. Alongside the Headspace, accessible instruments within the ensemble also include the LinnStrument  - a touch based expressive MIDI controller - played by Charlotte Bott. 

The ensemble works hard to promote that it doesn’t matter if someone has a disability – music connects all of us, and people can create on all levels. It meets at The Glasshouse International Centre for Music in Gateshead several times a year to collaborate and create. They invite inspiring and pioneering artists to join them, to bring new perspectives,

The 25/26 season will also see RNS Moves' collaboration with Candoco Dance Company and a new partnership at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. 

Further information from the Glasshouse website.

Britten Pears Arts has embarked on the first phase of a £13.8 million Capital Programme to upgrade facilities at Snape Maltings

Snape Maltings, Britten Pears  (Photo: Britten Pears Arts)

Arts organisation spends lots of money - that ought to be a common enough headline but in today's climate large-scale spending in the arts is becoming rarer. Which is why it is nice to be able to report that Britten Pears Arts has embarked on the first phase of a £13.8 million Capital Programme to upgrade facilities at Snape Maltings. 

Under architects De Matos Ryan, the Britten Pears Building which was originally converted in 1979 will be modernised, with revamped studio and performance spaces, a new lift and a more welcoming environment. Five larger music studios will be created, and all the technical facilities will be modernised.  A new upper floor learning facility will be created and the building will be thermally and acoustically insulated, part of Britten Pears Arts’ ongoing drive for more sustainable buildings.

This transformation will enable the expansion of the Britten Pears Arts Community and Creative Health programmes:

• Residencies which are currently oversubscribed, and the works will allow the organisation to work with more artists.
• Increased opportunities for Artist Development
• Expansion of Britten Pears Arts’ work with adults living with long-term health conditions including
• SkyLarks – Britten Pears Arts’ singing group for people living with Parkinson’s and their companions
• Participate – relaxed and fun music workshops for adults in Suffolk
• Increased activity for Families & Young people including
• Group A – Britten Pears Arts’ vocal initiative for young people in Suffolk
• Aldeburgh Young Musicians – creative and collaborative training for promising young musicians aged 10 – 18
• Mini Music Makers – fun sessions of music and play for 0 – 5 year olds
• Music Makers for 5 – 7 year olds and 8 – 11 year olds

In addition to the upgrades to the Britten Pears Building the Capital Programme includes:

• Work with the Alde and Ore Estuary Trust and East Suffolk Water Management Board to design a scheme to raise the Snape Maltings flood defences to ensure that the Snape Maltings site will be protected
• A series of upgrades to Snape Maltings Concert Hall to improve access, audience comfort, and programming flexibility and to reduce carbon emissions. There will be auditorium seating improvements, upgraded lighting, flexible acoustic baffles, an extra passenger lift, refurbished toilets and better kitchen facilities. Work is due to start in January 2027
• Significantly lowering carbon emissions by installing roof insulation, use of photovoltaic panels, and by connecting the music buildings to a renewable heating system
• Snape Rooms: As well as improvements to existing artist accommodation at Snape Maltings and in Aldeburgh, ten new bedrooms will be created at Snape Maltings for visiting musicians, arts practitioners and visitors. Work is due to start in early 2027
• There will be a new visitor exhibition at The Red House and a Discovery Centre at Snape Maltings, to tell the fascinating stories about the heritage sites

Full details from the Britten Pears Arts website.

BBC Proms: Two tempests, a fire and a swan, Thomas Adès conducts Sibelius, Gabriella Smith & his own music with BBC Symphony Orchestra

Gabriella Smith: Breathing Forests - James McVinnie, Thomas Adès, BBC Symphony Orchestra
BBC Proms (Photo: Andy Paradise/BBC)

Sibelius: The Swan of Tuonela, Gabriella Smith: Breathing Forests, Thomas Adès: Five Spells from The Tempest, Sibelius: The Tempest - Suite No. 1; James McVinnie, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Thomas Adès; BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall
Reviewed 2 September 2025

Mixing his own music with that of Sibelius and the UK premiere of a work written for the organ of the Walt Disney Hall in Los Angeles, Thomas Adès demonstrated a remarkable ear for creating sophisticated shifting palates of orchestral colour

When I spoke to organist James McVinnie last year [see my interview with him celebrating the Southbank Centre organ's 70th birthday], one of the works he mentioned was American composer Gabriella Smith's Breathing Forests so it was with great pleasure that we were able to catch McVinnie's performance in the UK premiere of the work at the BBC Proms.

At the Royal Albert Hall on Tuesday 2 September 2025, Thomas Adès conducted the BBC Symphony Orchestra in a programme that moved from Sibelius' The Swan of Tuonela to Gabriella Smith's Breathing Forests (with James McVinnie on the Royal Albert Hall organ), to Adès' own Five Spells from The Tempest and back to Sibelius with his The Tempest - Suite No. 1.