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Classical music news - Of Being Numerous

Fri, 27 Jun 2025 12:00:00 +0000

The Crossing Choir announces its twenty-first season

An alternative way people can encounter classical music: Baldur Brönnimann & Felix Heri introduce Between Mountains Festival

Fri, 27 Jun 2025 07:14:59 +0000

This summer, the Between Mountains Festival makes its debut on 19 July at Holdenweid in Hölstein, Switzerland. More than just another music festival, Between Mountains seeks to redefine how classical music is presented and experienced by bringing it into conversation with electronic, ambient, and experimental genres. Set against the unique backdrop of a former psychiatric facility turned cultural centre at the foothills of the Jura Mountains, the festival appeals to curious audiences interested in a different classical musical experience.

The festival is the vision of conductor Baldur Brönnimann and cultural manager Felix Heri. Longtime collaborators with a shared mission to challenge traditional classical concert formats, Baldur and Felix have created Between Mountains to bridge divides – between genres, audiences, and generations – and to foster a new kind of musical community in Switzerland. Drawing inspiration from Germany’s Detect Classic Festival, they have tailored this project to resonate with local artists and listeners while maintaining a spirit of experimentation and openness.

In this interview, we speak with Baldur Brönnimann and Felix Heri about the origins of the festival, their ambitions for changing classical music’s cultural landscape, and how Between Mountains invites audiences to encounter music in unexpected ways.

How did the idea for Between Mountains Festival first come about? What inspired you to create a new kind of music gathering in Switzerland?

Baldur & Felix: We worked together for years, sharing the philosophy of breaking up the classical music concert formats and bringing them in tune with 21st-century audiences and 21st-century listening habits. We worked together as a chief exec and as a principal conductor at Basel Sinfonietta, and from that time, we always tried to present classical music in unexpected and non-traditional ways, because we felt that the format often stood in the way of establishing a direct relationship between the listener and the music.

Baldur: In 2021, I worked at the Detect Festival in Germany with the Junge Norddeutsche Philharmonie, and I thought this festival was really an interesting concept. It was a festival that had a younger audience who were looking for a great musical experience without the formalities of a traditional classical concert.

Then, when I won the culture prize of Baselland in 2023, we started to talk to the region about starting a new classical event for new audiences. And there was a political interest. That's when we first had the idea to bring the concept of Detect to Switzerland. We looked at several locations, but finally, Holstein was the ideal place to try and make our first festival work.

How would you describe the identity of Between Mountains in relation to Germany’s Detect Classic Festival? In what ways is it connected, and how does it stand on its own?

Baldur & Felix: A key concept of the Between Mountain festivals is the aspect of not just staging an annual event, but creating a festival that leaves a trace in the region. Something that helps the local musical ecosystem. We give young Swiss artists a platform. We work with a young local chamber orchestra and hope to help the group to grow and to create something sustainable during the year, beyond the weekend of the festival itself. We hope "Between Mountains" will be a constructive factor in the musical landscape around Basel, create a certain identification and resonance with the local collectives. And we want to give the local artists a platform for their artistic future.

The name Between Mountains feels both literal and symbolic. How did you arrive at it? Is it purely geographical, or does it reflect a deeper aspect of the festival’s vision?

Baldur & Felix: Switzerland is one of the countries with the highest density of music festivals in the world. But we wanted to give this festival a completely different feel, because we felt that many classical music festivals cater to a traditional classical audience, and that there is a young, curious public that wouldn't go to Gstaad, Lucerne, or Verbier, because they want a different musical and live experience.

On the one hand, Between Mountains is obviously kind of a geographic definition. It's outdoors, it's in Switzerland, etc. But it's also something symbolic, because as a Swiss, one knows that one can always climb up the mountains, but one has to come down again. So in between the mountains, that's where the people are. And that's where we wanted to be with our festival.

You've mentioned that Between Mountains aims to "break down barriers around classical music and redefine how it's experienced". What specific barriers do you identify, and how is the festival designed to dismantle them?

Baldur: I've been working for 25 years professionally in the field of classical music. And I realize that there is a gap between the interest in classical music and the audience that really comes to concerts.

Between 20 or 30 percent of people on Spotify will listen to some sort of classical music at some stage, or will have classical music as part of their listening habits. But just maybe one or two percent of the audience will ever go to a live classical concert. So this obviously tells us that there is something in the concert format that we have to think about.

I never heard anybody say that they don't like Mozart or they don't like Rossini or Philip Glass. But some people don't. They feel that the traditional concert format is not right for them. That is partly down to a history of artificial, elitist, and academic barriers that go on even today, and that keep people from experiencing classical music in a democratic, friendly, and stimulating way.

And these are the kinds of barriers that we wanted to eliminate. What one calls tradition, very often in classical music, has changed a lot over the years. At the beginning of the 19th century, many orchestras used to play standing up, conductors used to face the audience. People used to clap whenever. Sometimes people would eat and drink during concerts. And these rules changed over time, again and again and again, because of changing social conventions and listening habits.

But Felix and I felt that, in 21st-century classical music, we're still very much stuck in the past: sometimes unintelligible program texts, unquestioned rules and codes in classical concerts, or just simply a feeling of not belonging.

We wanted to create an alternative way people can encounter classical music: in unexpected places, in the middle of the night, in a forest, sharing the experience with friends and blurring the boundaries between life and musical experience.

Given the diversity of genres in the program, how do you define classical music within the context of Between Mountains? Are you trying to expand its definition, or is it more about presenting it in new and unexpected ways?

Baldur & Felix: What we're looking for is presenting music in new and unexpected ways. What we present is... the best historic and new music. We play Mozart, Grieg, Haydn, but also music by living composers, 20th-century music, 21st-century music. But what is really different is the way it's being presented. We short-circuit the traditional classical music format and bring the great classical masters in touch with other musical genres.

How do you approach selecting classical musicians for the festival? What qualities or approaches do you look for in artists?

Baldur & Felix: We select artists from the target group of our audiences because we want to create this identification with classical artists. We also select artists that have a wider interest than maybe some more traditionally focused artists. So we look for people who would fit with and understand the concept of "Between Mountains." And we also look for people who have a broad aesthetic horizon, who are interested in looking further than the standard repertoire and have an unmistakable artistic profile. And of course, we look for local artists because we want to make sure they create this identity of the festival.

Do you see the electronic and experimental artists on the line-up acting as a gateway for new audiences to discover or re-engage with classical music? How do you facilitate that cross-genre discovery within the festival?

Baldur & Felix: The classical and electronic artists that we present share a common trait: they explore the boundaries of their musical genres. They are eager to expand, curious, sometimes experimental, and they cater to a musically diverse audience. That’s where I feel classical music and other genres like electronic music have a synergy: they share a similar audience.

We want to send the message that if you want to hear interesting music, then "Between Mountains" is the place to be, because you'll experience great artists and great music, regardless of the genre. In that sense, we alternate electronic and classical acts in a completely spontaneous way, aiming for people to make absolutely no distinction between the kinds of music they listen to, but simply experience it as one unified event.

A former psychiatric facility transformed into a creative sanctuary is quite a unique setting for a festival. How did you discover Holdenweid, and what initially drew you to this particular estate as the home for Between Mountains?

Baldur & Felix: We were looking for an unusual venue, first of all, one that would give us the possibility to play both outdoors and indoors, and also something completely off the beaten track. We found that we had a lot in common with the people who are converting the old psychiatric facility in Hölstein into a cultural centre, because we share many values regarding sustainability, transformation, respecting the environment, etc.

We visited several venues, but Holdenweide was special. With the ideas of the people behind the transformation of Holdenweide, we could create something meaningful together. We were looking for a partner, and they understood what we had in mind with Between Mountains. There was a basic understanding from the very beginning. That's how this festival ultimately ended up here.

What would you tell a classical music lover who’s hesitant about electronic music to encourage them to come?

Baldur & Felix: We would say, if you're interested in good music, you should come to Holdenweide. It is not just the music itself; you will share this moment with many other people who are curious listeners and who also want a slightly different experience. If you like to be surprised and are open to new musical and aesthetic experiences, "Between Mountains" is the place to go.

Between Mountains Festival - 19 July 2025, further details.

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Ravel 150: The Complete Songs on Signum

Fri, 27 Jun 2025 05:00:00 +0000

Listeners of a certain vintage will have been introduced to the songs of Maurice Ravel by way of Gérard Souzay and Janet Baker. To be sure, neither of them issued a ‘complete’ edition, however, it allowed interested listeners to gain a great introduction to this varied repertoire. Until this new release from Signum, my go-to version was issued by EMI in 1984 (EMI Classics – 5 69299 2). This featured a star-studded cast including Felicity Lott, Teresa Berganza, and Jessie Norman. The piano was played on this album by Dalton Baldwin.

Many years ago, I discovered a good hermeneutic for appreciating Ravel’s vocal music in a remarkable study of the composer by Norman Demuth. He suggested that they can be divided into three “distinct” categories. The first are the Chansons or Mélodies – or art songs, with piano accompaniment. Secondly, settings of found tunes where Ravel provided the piano accompaniment and thirdly, there are a few “elaborate” pieces that are devised for voices and a selection of instruments.

Signum have featured a largely chronological order over two discs, which makes for an interesting exploration of this repertoire. I consider here what for me are the highlights, with a couple of thoughts about one or two numbers that do not work, at least for me.

Ravel’s best known song cycle is Shéhérazade (1903) which takes its inspiration from the Tales of the Arabian Nights. The cycle presents three numbers that conjure up the exotic, mysterious, and sensual qualities of the stories. Ravel has infused them with impressionistic harmonies and a flexible vocal line that points up the evocative lyrics devised by Tristan Klingsor. The first, Asie, looks at the wonders of the orient, the second, La flûte enchantée majors on a woman listening to her lover playing the flute, whilst in the last, L’indifferent, the female singer attempts to gain the interest of a young stranger only to discover that he is gay. The performance here is pure magic. Every nuance of the imaginative and highly charged texts is captured by Paula Murrihy and Malcolm Martineau but not forgetting the evocative flute playing of Lisa Friend.

The Histoires naturelles (1906) caused a considerable scandal at the first performance. It is just not what the audience were expecting. The setting of animal poems by Jules Renard, are complimented by Ravel’s “biting humour and sarcasm.” Flora and fauna explored include The Peacock, The Cricket, The Swan, The Kingfisher, and The Guinea-hen. The vocal technique is typically declamation or conversational speech rather than a conventional singing style. The piano part is demanding with various onomatopoeic figurations such as the chirruping of the cricket and hints of Olivier Messiaen evoking the kingfisher. Baritone Simon Keenlyside gives a stunning performance of this most important offering from Maurice Ravel.

Turning to the folksong settings. The 5 Mélodies populaires grecques (1904-06) were based on anonymous texts translated from the Greek into French by Michel Dimitri Calvocoressi. Here Ravel combines simplicity with elegance, preserving the folk character through modal melodies and creating redolent textures. Also included on this album is the posthumously discovered 6^th Greek folksong, Tripatos (three steps).

The Chants populaires date from 1909-10. Here he set several texts: Spanish, French, Italian, Hebraic, Scottish. Being a Scot, my favourite is Rabbie Burns’s Ye Banks and Braes! Magically, Ravel has caught the traditions and regional characteristics of these songs, applying his own distinctive modernist touch.

The first of the 2 Mélodies hébraïques (1914) seems to be like a liturgical chant rather than a song. The second, although enjoying a rhythmic ostinato in the piano, is spoilt by a vocal line with too many “Tra la las.”

Finally, the Chansons madécasses (1925-26) was a commission from the American philanthropist and patron of the arts, Elizabeth Spraque Coolidge. They include flute, cello, and piano accompaniments as this is what was stipulated. The texts were translations of original Madagascan verse. These tropical songs evoke tender love music, an aggressive war chant which caused a near riot at its premiere, and a sultry vesperal. Ravel’s outstanding lyrical imagination is reflected in Julie Boulianne’s performance.

Stéphane Mallarmé (1842–1898) was a French Symbolist poet whose works profoundly influenced modern literature and art. Known for his intricate, evocative language, Mallarmé explored themes of beauty, mystery, and the abstract. His innovative poem L'Après-midi d'un faune, inspired Claude Debussy’s early masterpiece. Ravel composed his 3 Poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé in 1913, and dedicated them to Igor Stravinsky, Florent Schmitt and Erik Satie, respectively. These poems are hardly straightforward in French or English translation. The liner notes explain that Soupir is a “melancholy poem about autumn,” Placet futile “portrays a lovelorn abbot, who regrets that he will never appear naked on a Sevre teacup and will never become the princess’s lapdog, let alone her lover” and finally, Surgi de la croupe et du bond, a strange meditation on an empty vase that will never contain flowers. Enigmatic these songs may be, but what is not in doubt is the sheer beauty of Ravel’s setting. Mallarme’s elusive imagery is matched with innovative harmonies and flowing vocal lines. An ethereal, other worldly atmosphere is created by Julie Boulianne and the chamber musicians.

The last three songs on this album were also Ravel’s final major composition. Don Quichotte à Dulcinée (1932-33) was originally slated to have been included in a commission for a score for a film exploring the life of the eponymous hero. They were to have been sung by the legendary bass Chaliapin. Sadly, Ravel did not submit them in time and was denied payment. The film company used the services of Jacques Ibert.

Ravel’s songs present a different facet of Cervantes’s knight’s character. Off beat rhythms and a guitar like accompaniment infuse the Chanson Romanesque. The following Chanson épique” with its austere nods to modal melodies and organ like harmonies, may reflect Don Quixote’s chivalric commitment. Finally, the more down to earth Chanson à boire displays strong cross-rhythms and hints at the jota, a Spanish courtship dance revealing the mortal desires of drink and sex. The entire cycle makes a fitting close to Ravel’s career.

Other mélodies that caught my ear include the early Sainte (1896) with its extensive use of seventh and ninth chords, the rhythmically diverse Epigrammes de Clément Marot (1896-99) and the late and valedictory Rêves (1927). Finally, there is an excellent account of Vocalise-étude en forme de habanera (1907), full of Spanish (by way of Cuba) sunshine and anguish.

Interestingly, the new recording does not include the once popular Fascination written for Paulette Darty. There has been debate as to whether Ravel or Fermo Dante Marchetti penned this number. But it would have been fun to have included it here.

The liner notes devised by Richard Stokes, provides the listener with sufficient detail to appreciate these varied songs. The texts are given alongside a parallel English translation. Resumes of the singers and pianist are included. The cover for this 150th anniversary release is boring.

It would be invidious to pick out the “best” performance from this “bumper roster” of artists. The palm must, however, go to the pianist Malcolm Martineau who is busy for most of this album. It was a brilliant idea to have used such a wide range of talent, rather than just rely on one or two singers. Each bring their considerable talents to this repertoire, which is characterised by, as David Cox once wrote, “clarity, fastidiousness, wit, harmonic richness, and melodic subtlety.”

Track Listing:
Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)
CD1
Ballade de la reine morte d'aimer (c.1894)
Un grand sommeil noir (1895)
Sainte (1896)
Epigrammes de Clément Marot (1896-99)
Chanson du rouet (1898)
Si morne! (1898)
Manteau de fleurs (1903)
Shéhérazade (1903)
5 Mélodies populaires grecques (1904-6)
Noël des jouets (1905)
Histoires naturelles (1906)
CD2
Vocalise-étude en forme de habanera (1907)
Les grands vents venus d'outre-mer (1906)
Sur l'herbe (1907)
Tripatos (1909)
Chants populaires (1909-10)
3 Poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé (1913)
2 Mélodies hébraïques (1914)
Trois chansons (1914-15)
Ronsard à son âme (1924)
Chansons madécasses (1925-26)
Rêves (1927)
Don Quichotte à Dulcinée (1932-33)
Lorna Anderson (soprano), Julie Boulianne (mezzo-soprano), John Chest (baritone), Sarah Dufresne (soprano), Dafydd Jones (tenor), Simon Keenlyside (baritone), Paula Murrihy (soprano); Nicky Spence (tenor), William Thomas (bass), Anna Stokes (flute), Julian Bliss (clarinet), Matt Glendening (clarinet), Cara Berridge (cello), Sacconi Quartet, Malcolm Martineau (piano)
rec. 2018-2024 Various Locations

Signum Classics SIGCD870

With thanks to MusicWeb International where this review was first published.

Bantock: The Seal Woman album review – Celtic folk opera that never quite gets its head above water

Thu, 26 Jun 2025 17:34:14 +0000

Howard/Carby/Scottish Opera/Andrews
(Retrospect Opera, two CDs)
Granville Bantock’s story of a Selkie emerging from the sea is a century-old curio whose beauty has faded over the years

Except perhaps in Birmingham, where his memory is still cherished for what he did for the city’s music, including co-founding the CBSO, Granville Bantock (1868-1946) has slipped quietly into the margins of 20th-century British music. But as well as being an academic and conductor, Bantock was a prolific composer, with a work list including four symphonies, five concertos and nine operas, of which the last, the “Celtic folk opera” The Seal Woman, is easily the best remembered now.

The premiere of The Seal Woman in 1924 was the Birmingham Repertory theatre’s first production; librettist Marjory Kennedy-Fraser took the main role of the Cailleach, whose dreams and visions tell the story of the Selkie, seal-people who emerge from the sea every seven years to live on land, shedding their skins to take human form.

Departing On Track 16: Board Here For The Best View Of Odd Liszt Trek

Thu, 26 Jun 2025 16:35:14 +0000

DIGITAL REVIEW – Pianist Leif Ove Andsnes' new recording, in part with the Norwegian Soloists' Choir, is a curious mix. To find immediate reward, I suggest jumping in late for his sublime account of Liszt's Six Pensées poétiques, or Consolations.

The post Departing On Track 16: Board Here For The Best View Of Odd Liszt Trek first appeared on Classical Voice North America.

Philharmonia Baroque, US’s Only Full-Time Period-Instrument Orchestra, Names Its Next Music Director

Thu, 26 Jun 2025 16:06:00 +0000

Peter Whelan, a keyboard player, bassoonist, singer and conductor who currently directs the much-acclaimed Irish Baroque Orchestra, begins his initial term at Philharmonia Baroque in the 2026-27 season. He succeeds Richard Egarr, who resigned in 2024, and Music Director Emeritus Nicholas McGegan (1985-2020). – San Francisco Classical Voice

Just Biber album review – Podger rises brilliantly to these sonatas’ extreme challenges

Thu, 26 Jun 2025 15:37:58 +0000

Rachel Podger/Brecon Baroque
(Channel Classics)
The baroque violinist remains true to the spirit of Biber’s music on a new recording of six extremely difficult sonatas, animal noises et al

Ten years ago, Rachel Podger made a fine recording of Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber’s Rosary Sonatas for solo violin and continuo, each of which portrays an episode in the life of Christ. Now she adds a disc of more sonatas by arguably the most important baroque composer for the violin after JS Bach – five of the collection of eight that Biber published in 1681, as well as the quasi-theatrical Sonata Representivo, which may or may not have been composed by Biber and probably dates from 1669.

The pieces are all characterised by their extreme technical difficulty, and especially by their extensive use of scordatura, when individual violin strings are tuned differently from usual. Podger copes with all these challenges quite brilliantly, including imitating the sounds of animals in the Sonata Representivo; she brings an expressive freedom that never takes too many liberties, but remains true to the spirit of the music. If the works themselves are not quite as startling and vivid as the Rosary Sonatas, anyone who enjoyed Podger’s previous encounter with Biber will surely relish this one, too.

Over Two Dozen Unknown Works By Satie Appear On New Recording

Thu, 26 Jun 2025 13:01:00 +0000

The pieces, for solo piano, were jotted down by the composer in the sketchbooks he carried with him everywhere. The recording, by pianist Alexandre Tharaud, is released this Friday (June 27), ahead of the centennial of Satie’s death on July 1. – The Guardian

Ensemble. Joyful Affirmation

Thu, 26 Jun 2025 12:00:00 +0000

Mike Wheeler encounters The Sixteen and Harry Christophers' Choral Pilgrimage

ListN Up Playlist: Lia Ouyang Rusli (OHYUNG) (June 26, 2025)

Thu, 26 Jun 2025 10:00:00 +0000

ListN Up playlists are commissioned by American Composers Forum. Artists are selected by ACF staff (including I CARE IF YOU LISTEN and innova Recordings). Lia Ouyang Rusli (She/they) is a film composer and makes solo music under the moniker OHYUNG. She produces genre-shifting music that moves between ambient, experimental pop, and distorted noise. In March … Continued

The post ListN Up Playlist: Lia Ouyang Rusli (OHYUNG) (June 26, 2025) appeared first on I CARE IF YOU LISTEN.

The BBC Symphony Orchestra’s visit to this year’s Aldeburgh Festival offered a couple of favourable concerts that stamped the quality and commitment of its fine bunch of players.

Thu, 26 Jun 2025 06:53:41 +0000

Britten: Our Hunting Fathers - Allan Clayton, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Sakari Oramo - Snape Maltings, Aldeburgh Festival (Photo: Britten Pears Arts)

Daniel Kidane: Awake, Helen Grime: Violin Concerto, Strauss: Tod und Verklärung, Vier letzel Lieder; Anu Komsi, Leila Josefowicz, BBC Symphony Orchestra, cond. Sakari Oramo; Snape Maltings Concert Hall.
Helen Grime: Night Songs, Britten: Our Hunting Fathers, Brian Elias: Horn Concerto, Sibelius: Symphony No.5 in E flat; Allan Clayton, Ben Goldscheider, BBC Symphony Orchestra, cond. Sakari Oramo; Snape Maltings Concert Hall
Reviewed by Tony Cooper, 21 & 22 June 2025

The performance by Allan Clayton of Britten’s song-cycle, Our Hunting Fathers, with the BBC Symphony Orchestra proved a highlight of my Aldeburgh Festival weekend

When the BBC Symphony Orchestra turns up on the Suffolk coast, it’s a grand event all round. Blooming marvellous, I say! In their first concert for this year's Aldeburgh Festival (Saturday 21 June), opening with a brilliant performance of Daniel Kidane’s Awake, a 12-minute work written by Kidane in his early thirties when ‘raring to go’ making (and marking) a breakthrough in his blossoming career.

Kidane writes to my liking and Awake (which received its première at the Last Night of the Proms in 2019) offers the listener a host of soaring melodies punctuated by erratic rhythmic patterns and extremely bold harmonies thereby reflecting the composer’s interest in jazz and all the associated ‘spin-offs’ that this musical genre inspires.

There’s no ‘let-up’ for members of the orchestra as from the first to the last bar of this riveting and exciting work of exacting proportions they’re playing at full speed with Kidane’s bright and colourful score constructed round a series of interconnective sections thereby creating continuity and flow.

A brilliant curtain-raiser to the concert the visual and musical aspect of it was highlighted by a member of the percussion department who (proudly standing) circled above his head a ‘wind whistler’ (‘whirly tube’) adding so much to the overall soundscape of an interesting and challenging piece which the audience lapped up.

Helen Grime: Violin Concerto - Leila Josefowicz, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Sakari Oramo - Snape Maltings, Aldeburgh Festival (Photo: Britten Pears Arts)

And if there was no ‘let-up’ for Kidane’s Awake, the same goes for Helen Grime’s Violin Concerto, premièred by Malin Broman and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra in 2016 and now receiving its UK première by Leila Josefowicz. She’s ‘on the go’ from the start playing vigorously right to the very end. An outstanding musician, she delivered an amazing performance.

A strongly-textured and detailed work, it falls into three main sections featuring extensive dreamlike interlinking passages connecting them. Composed in one continuous movement, a style I greatly favour, it keeps one’s mind truly focused and, of course, bypasses the usual pauses between movements.

‘Lovingly’ violent, aggressive and entertaining all wrapped up in one fantastic 22-minute work, Josefowicz, superbly confident and relaxed in her own inimitable performance style, faced a host of difficult runs and intricate chord patterns which she played so effortlessly demonstrating the command and exceptional technical skill she has of her chosen instrument.

There have been so many famed and stunning performers take to the stage of the Snape Maltings Concert Hall - now it numbers Leila Josefowicz who delivered a performance of great magnitude and strength that was more than well received by a discerning (and packed) house that knows the drill.

Interestingly, parental advice guided Josefowicz to her chosen career. Her father encouraged her to take up the violin. And like so many virtuoso violinists, she was a child prodigy receiving her first violin lessons at the age of three and a half using the Suzuki method. She later studied at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. At the age of 16, she was at Carnegie Hall playing Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields under Sir Neville Marriner.

Constantly integrating new music into her programmes, Josefowicz enjoys performing premières of new works. For instance, her interpretation of John Adams’ Violin Concerto with the BBC Symphony Orchestra in 2002 turned out to be a blazing success while her recording of Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Violin Concerto with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra under the composer's baton, nominated for a Grammy Award, received many plaudits.

The second half of the programme was devoted to Richard Strauss: Death and Transfiguration (Tod und Verklärung) and Four Last Songs (Vier letzte Liede) both works scored for a large orchestra and the BBC Symphony on this occasion was, indeed, very large, taking up the length and breadth of Snape Maltings Concert Hall’s vast stage. I’m glad my seat wasn’t in the front rows!

Depicting the final thoughts of an ailing artist nearing the ending of his life, Death and Transfiguration was completed in 1889 at the beginning of the composer’s career when he was 24 years old while Four Last Songs was completed in 1948, a year before his death at 84. The title ‘Four Last Songs’ was provided posthumously by Strauss’ good friend, Ernst Roth, who published them as a single unit in 1950 after the composer’s death in September 1949.

Strauss: Four Last Songs - Anu Komsi, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Sakari Oramo
Snape Maltings, Aldeburgh Festival (Photo: Britten Pears Arts)

The songs, of course, are the composer’s final completed works and they’re suffused with a sense of calm, acceptance and completeness. Apart from ‘Frühling’ they all deal with the subject of mortality and all the settings are scored for a soprano while the songs have prominent horn parts. Interestingly, Strauss’ wife, Pauline de Ahna, was a soprano and his father, Franz Joseph, a horn player - principal horn, in fact, at the Munich Court Opera.

Towards the end of ‘Im Abendrot’ following the soprano’s intonation of ‘Ist dies etwa der Tod?’ (‘Is this, perhaps, death?’), Strauss quotes another one of his tone poems, Death and Transfiguration, written 60 years earlier, quoting the seven-note phrase (known as the ‘transfiguration theme’) seen as being the fulfilment of the soul through death.

One of the last wishes that Strauss made was to the fact that Kirsten Flagstad should be the singer. ‘I should like to make it possible,’ he said in a letter to her, ‘that the songs should be at your disposal for a world première in the course of a concert with a first-class conductor and orchestra.’ That ‘wish’ came true as Four Last Songs received its world première at the Royal Albert Hall on 22 May 1950 featuring Flagstad and the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Wilhelm Furtwängler.

On this occasion, the Finnish-born soprano, Ann Komsi, transported one to a world of peace and tranquillity underlying the spiritually-inspired writings of Hermann Hesse and Joseph von Eichendorff displaying a delicate and well-controlled vocal line but at times I felt that her voice was seemingly far too ‘light’ to fill the expansive realms that Strauss’ richly-textured score deserves and calls for.

However, Maestro Oramo took firm control of his charges, quickly getting to grips with the acoustics of the hall, on a very hot and humid night. As the work progresses towards its conclusion Strauss’ rather grand orchestral writing comes into its own depicting the artist’s life appearing briefly before him before the transfiguration from life to death - the point when the soul departs the body to an eternal life.

The BBC Symphony Orchestra’s second concert in this year’s Aldeburgh Festival (the 76th edition) had at its heart the fifth symphony of Sibelius, commissioned in 1915 by the government of Finland to commemorate the composer’s 50th birthday. The work’s powerful, dramatic and emotional to the core building up to a thrilling and exciting climax.

Turning out to be a popular, powerful and evocative three-movement work, Sibelius Fifth offers a sense of renewal and optimism as well as moments of anxiety and darkness. The second movement, in particular, is so pleasing and refreshing featuring a set of variations on a simple cyclic theme while the final movement conjures up a thrillingly-cacophonous ‘sonic blur’ thus creating an ambiguous unified soundscape.

As an aside, Britten initially found Sibelius’ music unsympathetic but later came to appreciate and admire it. In his youth, he was drawn to the works of Schoenberg, Berg and Webern as well as Stravinsky finding Sibelius’ style less appealing. However, after encountering Sibelius’ Sixth Symphony, Britten began exploring his music with greater interest and found it more interesting than he first thought. In fact, he acquired many of Sibelius’ scores thereby acknowledging this Finnish-born composer as a key figure in music.

Brian Elias: Horn Concerto - Ben Goldscheider, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Sakari Oramo - Snape Maltings, Aldeburgh Festival (Photo: Britten Pears Arts)

The concert, however, opened with a short work by Helen Grime entitled Night Songs written in 2012 in celebration of the 60th birthday of Oliver Knussen. A lovely, tender and satisfying piece, it found the members of the BBC Symphony Orchestra playing so well under the baton of Maestro Oramo while in Brian Elias’ Horn Concerto, written in 2023, comprising three main sections with a coda played without a break, received its world première by Ben Goldscheider, the dedicatee of the work, who delivered a technically-assured and, indeed, relaxed performance.

Completing the programme fell to Britten’s song-cycle, Our Hunting Fathers, set to a text by WH Auden, premièred at the 34th Norfolk & Norwich Triennial Musical Festival in St Andrew’s Hall, Norwich (the ‘home’ of the Triennial since its founding in 1824) on 25th September 1936 featuring the Swiss-born soprano Sophie Wyss and the London Philharmonic Orchestra. The performance, conducted by the composer, went without mishap but left ‘most of the audience’, according to Britten, ‘very interested if not slightly bewildered’.

Widely considered a key work in Britten's early output, Our Hunting Fathers explores themes of humanity's relationship with nature and each other often through a lens of pacifism and social commentary. Both Britten and Auden were, of course, strong-minded pacifists. The piece is known for its challenging vocal writing, complex orchestration and use of musical satire to convey its message and Allan Clayton, a featured artist in this year’s festival, did the work justice, by delivering a brilliant, articulate and utterly rewarding performance.

With such a busy weekend in such salubrious company as the BBC Symphony Orchestra - an orchestra whom I greatly favour - I took in a concert by the Dunedin Consort, led by Matthew Truscott, at Blythburgh Church - once again I found myself in the company of Allan Clayton. This time round he was offering a sprightly rendering of a new work by Tom Coult entitled Black Shuck Lament based on the legend of Bungay’s Black Dog, a ghostly ‘beast’ going by the name of ‘Black Shuck’ who roamed the coastline and countryside of Suffolk terrifying the neighbourhood - or so the tale goes!

The programme also offered a couple of popular pieces by JS Bach - Brandenburg No.5 and Orchestral Suite No.2 in B minor - as well as a ten-minute work by Caroline Shaw entitled Punctum. A mystical, dreamy and atmospheric piece scored for string quartet, Shaw’s inspiration for writing it came from Roland Barthes’ description of the ‘unexpected’ in photographs referencing his description of the elusive ‘Winter Garden’ picture published in his 1980 book, Camera Lucida.

And still I found time to take in a wonderful and fitting tribute to the German master of lieder, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, with a full and exacting programme of songs ranging from Schubert to Wolf not forgetting Britten, Brahms and Barber - and even Tchaikovsky.

Held in the intimacy of the Britten Studio, baritone Benjamin Appl (born in Regensburg, Germany, and a member of the Regensburger Domspatzen, the world-famous boys’ choir of the Regensburg Cathedral) accompanied by the pianist James Baillie, offered a welcoming and pleasant programme appropriately opening (and ending) with Schubert interspersed by readings (amusing, sad, indifferent and melancholic) from former Coronation Street actor, Jamie Newall, tracing and punctuating the singer’s life-story in a poignant, positive and sympathetic way.

For instance, we discovered that Appl became an extremely close friend of Fischer-Dieskau after he attended one of his master classes at the Schubertiade in Schwarzenberg in 2009. He studied with him, too. And just a few weeks before his death in May 2012, Appl was once more by his side - but for the very last time.

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Elsewhere on this blog

Brilliant reinvention & razor sharp take-down: Scottish Opera's double-bill pairs Gilbert & Sullivan with Toby Hession's brand new comedy - opera review
A trio of concerts at this year’s Aldeburgh Festival highlights the diversity of music to be found on the Suffolk coast - concert review
That was quite a party! Paul Curran's production of Die Fledermaus at The Grange Festival is a terrific evening in the theatre - opera review
Modern reson

Unheard works by Erik Satie to premiere 100 years after his death

Thu, 26 Jun 2025 04:00:48 +0000

Pianist Alexandre Tharaud performs previously lost material by experimental French composer on a new album
Twenty-seven previously unheard works by Erik Satie, from playful cabaret songs to minimalist nocturnes, are to be premiered a century after the death of the notoriously eccentric and innovative French composer.
Painstakingly pieced together from hundreds of small notebooks, most of the new works are thought to have been written in the bohemian bistros of Montmartre in Paris where Satie worked as a pianist in the early decades of the 20th century.
Continue reading...

A simply superb Wigmore Hall recital by Nicolas Namoradze

Wed, 25 Jun 2025 22:25:49 +0000

Scriabin, Bach, Beethoven: Nicolas Namoradze (piano). Wigmore Hall, London, 23.6.2025. (CC) Scriabin – Piano Sonata No.10, Op.70 (1912/13); Fugue in E minor, WoO 20 (1892) Bach – Prelude & Fugue in E, BWV 878 (WTC II); Prelude & Fugue in G-sharp minor, BWV 863 (WTC I) Beethoven – Piano Sonata No.29 in B-flat, Op.106, ‘Hammerklavier’ ... Read more

Unforgettable Thaxted recital: place, music, Chance and Carr in perfect congruence

Wed, 25 Jun 2025 22:16:32 +0000

Thaxted Festival 2025 – Love and Loss: Music for Countertenor & Lute: Songs by Dowland, Danyel, Rosseter, Campion, Purcell, Blow and Cynthia Harper. Alexander Chance (countertenor), Toby Carr (lute). Thaxted Parish Church, 22.6.2025. (CC) A stroll through Elizabethan lute song as the sun sets is just the ticket, Especially after Nicky Spence and Dylan Perez’s ... Read more

Thaxted programming at the highest level: Nicky Spence and Dylan Perez’s My Father’s Son

Wed, 25 Jun 2025 22:15:58 +0000

Thaxted Music Festival 2025 [1] – My Father’s Son: Nicky Spence (tenor), Dylan Perez (piano). Thaxted Parish Church, Essex, 22.6.2025. (CC) ‘Although this recital uses the words of others, it might as well be autobiographical,’ said Nicky Spence in an article about this very programme published in Gramophone magazine. An examination of parenthood through the ... Read more

Esa-Pekka Salonen, Krystian Zimerman And New York Phil Tour South Korea This Week

Wed, 25 Jun 2025 19:03:00 +0000

The orchestra is performing in the Republic for the first time in 11 years. More notably, it’s the first time they’re playing with Zimerman in almost 30 years; the pianist has long refused to perform in the United States. – The Korea Herald

Today’s Composers Have More Sounds Than Ever Before To Choose From

Wed, 25 Jun 2025 18:31:00 +0000

The developments in technology over the past 20 years have made it so that composers today can single-handedly (if they choose) record, mix, master and release their music – using a near-limitless combination of real and sampled instruments – at the very moment they are writing it, and effectively say, ‘look, this is what I meant’. – Gramophone

In Hungarian Recording Of Mythic French Opera, Style Reigns With King

Wed, 25 Jun 2025 17:18:38 +0000

DIGITAL REVIEW – This account of Lalo's Le roi d'Ys, another enterprise of the historically meticulous foundation Bru Zane, boasts a fine cast featuring a Dutch soprano and an American mezzo-soprano long adept in French repertoire.
The post In Hungarian Recording Of Mythic French Opera, Style Reigns With King first appeared on Classical Voice North America.

Germany’s Thriving Small-Opera-House Ecosystem

Wed, 25 Jun 2025 16:44:00 +0000

Germany’s smaller opera houses allow up-and-coming artists to hone their craft, giving onstage experience to generations of performers. Smaller houses also allow audiences to get to know a much larger repertoire than what’s usually programmed at leading institutions. – The New York Times

Sense of Place: Ludovico Einaudi is one of the most streamed composers of all time

Wed, 25 Jun 2025 16:22:17 +0000

The Italian pianist and composer returns to his childhood in Turin on his latest album, The Summer Portraits.
(Image credit: Mary McCartney)

An Accomplished Lyric Soprano

Wed, 25 Jun 2025 12:00:00 +0000
Sara Davies writes about her late mother, the British soprano Margaret Neville

Brilliant reinvention & razor sharp take-down: Scottish Opera's double-bill pairs Gilbert & Sullivan with Toby Hession's brand new comedy at Opera Holland Park

Wed, 25 Jun 2025 08:59:04 +0000

Gilbert & Sullivan: Trial by Jury - Jamie MacDougall - Scottish Opera (Photo: Mihaela Bodlovic)
Gilbert & Sullivan: Trial by Jury, Toby Hession & Emma Jenkins: A Matter of Misconduct; Richard Suart, Jamie MacDougall, Kira Kaplan, , Chloe Harris Ross Cumming, Edward Jowle, directors: John Savournin & Laura Attridge, Scottish Opera, conductor: Toby Hession; Opera Holland Park
Reviewed 24 June 2026
A brilliant reinvention of Gilbert & Sullivan's legal satire as 1980s reality show, plus a brand new operetta that featured a razor-sharp take down of contemporary politics.
Having given us John Savournin's somewhat disappointing reinvention of Lehar's The Merry Widow [see my review], Scottish Opera completed its residency at Opera Holland Park with a double bill featuring Savournin's brilliant updating of Gilbert & Sullivan's Trial by Jury alongside a new commission, Toby Hession's A Matter of Misconduct with a razor-sharp libretto by Emma Jenkins and a cast featuring four Scottish Opera Emerging Artists.
On 24 June 2025 at Opera Holland Park, Toby Hession conducted Scottish Opera forces in Gilbert & Sullivan's Trial by Jury and Hession & Emma Jenkins' A Matter of Misconduct, with both operas designed by takis.
John Savournin directed Trial by Jury with Richard Suart as the judge, Jamie MacDougall as the Defendant, Kira Kaplan as the Plaintiff, Chloe Harris as Counsel for the Plaintiff, Ross Cumming as Foreman of the Jury, Amy J Payne as First Bridesmaid and Edward Jowle as the Usher.
Laura Attridge directed A Matter of Misconduct with Ross Cumming as Roger Penistone, Deputy Prime Minister, Edward Jowle as press secretary Hugo Cheeseman, Jamie MacDougall as special advisor Sandy Hogg, Chlose Harris as Cherry Penistone and Kira Kaplan as Sylvia Lawless.

Toby Hession & Emma Jenkins: A Matter of Misconduct! - Ross Cumming, Chloe Harris, Kira Kaplan, Edward Jowle, Jamie MacDougall - Scottish Opera (Photo: Mihaela Bodlovic)
Savournin had reinvented Trial by Jury as a 1980s reality TV show and it was a bit scary quite how well it worked. Gilbert & Sullivan's rancid fantasies becoming a sort of reality with the extremely partial jury, the showboating judge (Richard Suart), the professional bridesmaids, the plaintiff who appears in her wedding dress (Kira Kaplan), the defendant who is hated on sight but who reveals himself to be a two-timing cad anyway (Jamie MacDougall). Chloe Harris was a highly effective Counsel for the Plaintiff with Ross Cumming as the very smitten Foreman of the Jury. Edward Jowle made fine work of the Usher, now charged with making the TV show work, and sometimes fighting a losing battle against a highly active jury/TV audience.
Trial by Jury can sometimes disappoint because the satire feels cosy rather than pointed, but that was not the case here. Under Hession's fine direction the work zipped along, yet Savournin made sure the barbs all told well. It helped that the cast were all excellent. Perhaps Richard Suart's judge was more mannerism than voice, but his way with Gilbert's words was still masterly and the other cast all brought out the words well. Trial by Jury can only ever be an appetiser, but at least this time it was a very satisfying one.

Gilbert & Sullivan: Trial by Jury - Kira Kaplan - Scottish Opera (Photo: Mihaela Bodlovic)
Toby Hession is a former Scottish Opera Emerging Artist and is now on the company's music staff. A Matter of Misconduct is his third opera for the company, he and Emma Jenkins having written short opera scenes for the company's Opera Highlights tours. Jenkins is an experienced librettist, and her credits include Ian Bell's somewhat disappointing In Parenthesis [see my review from 2016] and the rip-roaring fun of Elena Langer's Rhondda Rips it Up! [see my review from 2018], and more recently David Hackbridge Johnson's Blaze of Glory, all three for Welsh National Opera, as well as Ian Bell's The Women of Whitechapel for ENO [see our review from 2019].
Jenkins libretto for A Matter of Misconduct comes over as a combination of Yes, Minister and The Thick of It, as a foul-tongued government special advisor, Sandy Hogg (Jamie MacDougall), handles a 'shit-storm' of misconduct and corruption created by Deputy Prime Minister, Roger Penistone (Ross Cumming) and his wife Cherry (Chloe Harris), which has been badly handled by a hapless press secretary, Hugo Cheesman (Edward Jowle). Lawyer, Sylvia Lawless (Kira Kaplan) is brought in to handle matters.
Whilst all the characters are well drawn, in Sandy Hogg and Sylvia Lawless, Hession and Jenkins created two extremely memorable ones, with a deft combination of words and music. That was the virtue of this piece, it felt like a genuine opera rather than a play sung with music. Hession's style is tonal with effective orchestrations and lively, busy harmony. He can write tunes, but he does not dumb down and has a knack of putting on styles without the final work feeling like pastiche. You sense that Hession has not yet quite fully demonstrated his personal style, but this full-length work was a fine stepping stone.

Toby Hession & Emma Jenkins: A Matter of Misconduct! - Ross Cumming, Chloe Harris - Scottish Opera (Photo: Mihaela Bodlovic)
The work opened with Kira Kaplan addressing us directly, explaining her role in clearly up shit but doing so with loving attention to words combined with gorgeous melisma, this Sylvia Lawless was seductive and fearsome. Along the way we had a hilarious campaign video for Penistone, but it was when the scandal hit that things got fun. Jamie MacDougall had a virtuoso solo where he lambasted the Deputy Prime Minister and his wife for their idiocy, as well as the press secretary for not handling it. This Sandy Hogg was hilariously foul mouthed, with Jenkins finding him many memorable phrases and rhymes. Hession's music took second place here, but was effective nonetheless.
As Cherry, Chloe Harris got a wonderfully sleazy jazz number as she describes the way an Arab Prince talked himself into buying influence through her wellness company, GUSH! This is followed by Sylvia Lawless' solo telling them how she will fix things, where Kaplan was a wonderful combination of fierce and seductive.
Up to this point, Hession and Jenkins got the pacing of the piece just right, hectic farce allied to telling musical moments. But in the final section of the opera they seemed to take their characters too seriously and the pacing slowed. A long scene when it is discovered that the Prime Minister is ill and in hospital led to an ensemble that was perhaps too much, and then Cumming and Harris had a Sondheim-esque duet that was indeed satirical, but ran on too long for the joke. Cumming's mad-scene as Penistone has a breakdown when he realises that the entire day has been recorded, was a nice touch but again seemed over done. The work ended as it began, with Kira Kaplan's brilliant Sylvia Lawless.

Toby Hession & Emma Jenkins: A Matter of Misconduct! - Ross Cumming, Edward Jowle, Jamie MacDougall - Scottish Opera (Photo: Mihaela Bodlovic)
All the cast were terrific and each got a moment to shine. Ross Cumming brought out the right combination of desperation and culpability in Roger Penistone, the best of a bad job as politician, with Chloe Harris spot on as his dim wife whose attempts at glamour fail. Jamie MacDougall was razor sharp as Sandy Hogg, presenting his foul mouthed rant with wonderful verbal dexterity and relish. It was, however, Kira Kaplan who stole the show with her seductive vocal lines and fierce tongue.

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The blog is free, but I'd be delighted if you were to show your appreciation by buying me a coffee.
Elsewhere on this blog
A trio of concerts at this year’s Aldeburgh Festival highlights the diversity of music to be found on the Suffolk coast - concert review
That was quite a party! Paul Curran's production of Die Fledermaus at The Grange Festival is a terrific evening in the theatre - opera review
Modern resonances & musical style: Richard Farnes conducts Verdi's La traviata at The Grange Festival with Samantha Clarke & Nico Darmanin - opera review
Maiden, Mother & Crone: Rowan Hellier on her interdisciplinary project integrating music & movement exploring Baba Yaga - interview
The Merry Widow meets the Godfather: Scottish Opera brings John Savournin's production of Lehár's operetta to Opera Holland Park - review
Enjoyment, exploration & sheer virtuosic fun: Sisters from Karine Deshayes & Delphine Haidan - record review
The earth moves: Antoine Brumel's 12-part Earthquake Mass & Tallis' 40-part motet from Peter Phillips & The Tallis Scholars - concert review
Lieder, songs and sonnets: David Butt Philip in Vaughan Williams, Alma Mahler, Wagner & Britten at Wigmore Hall - concert review
A Visit to Friends: The opening work of the Aldeburgh Festival’s 76th edition fell to Colin Matthews’ first foray into opera - opera review
A sonic portrait of British Jewish families: composer Na'ama Zisser on the JMI Archive - interview
Home

Premiere of Rebecca Saunders’s first opera at the Deutsche Oper Berlin only partially fulfils expectations

Tue, 24 Jun 2025 22:59:05 +0000

Rebecca Saunders, Lash: Orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin / Enno Poppe (conductor). Deutsche Oper Berlin, 20.6.2025. (MB) Having been an avid follower of Rebecca Saunders’s music since my first encounter at the Wigmore Hall in 2012, mostly in Germany (Berlin and Munich in particular) but also in London, I was excited to learn her ... Read more

One Man Has Been Tuning Pianos In The Sydney Opera House For Fifty Years

Tue, 24 Jun 2025 15:15:00 +0000

Terry Harper “started on rehearsal pianos in the backroom, while building up his skills and confidence, before finally taking over when his dad retired a decade later. These days, he can walk into a room and immediately know if the piano is out of tune.” – BBC

David Finckel And Wu Han Will Step Down From Their Chamber Music Festival, Music@Menlo

Tue, 24 Jun 2025 13:36:00 +0000

The cellist-pianist couple, also co-artistic directors of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in New York, founded the Silicon Valley-based summer festival in 2002 and have been its leaders ever since. They will depart after next summer’s event. – The Strad

English National Opera’s Next Music Director Will Also Take Helm At New Zealand Symphony

Tue, 24 Jun 2025 12:32:00 +0000

André de Ridder, currently music director of the opera house and orchestra in Freiburg, Germany, will start work at both ENO and NZSO in 2027. Current principal conductor Gemma New will become the NZSO’s Artistic Partner, a new position. – Limelight (Australia)

Kent Nagano’s superb Tristan und Isolde crowns his last appearance as Hamburg’s General Music Director

Tue, 24 Jun 2025 12:31:05 +0000

Wagner, Tristan und Isolde: Soloists and Chorus of Hamburg State Opera, Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra / Kent Nagano (conductor). Hamburg, 15.6.2025. (DM-D) Production: Director – Ruth Berghaus Revival director – Petra Müller Set design – Hans-Dieter Schaal Costume and Props design – Marie-Louise Strandt Dramaturgy – Sigrid Neef Chorus director – Christian Günther Cast: Tristan ... Read more

Classical music news - Opera and Ballet on Cinema Screens

Tue, 24 Jun 2025 12:00:00 +0000
The UK's Royal Ballet and Opera has announced its 2025/26 Cinema Season

A new work for piano duet: The Clements Prize for Composers 2025

Tue, 24 Jun 2025 09:28:36 +0000

Photo from Art UK
Conway Hall Sunday Concerts is inviting young composers to submit a work for piano duet to The Clements Prize 2025. Up to eight submissions will be selected to be performed by Clíodna Shanahan and Simon Callaghan at the final round in Conway Hall’s Main Hall on 2 November 2025. A workshop involving all the final round composers and the performers will take place at 2pm on the same date. The winner of the first prize will be awarded £1,500.
Alfred J. Clements (1858-1938) was the organiser and secretary of the South Place Sunday Concerts (predecessor of Conway Hall Sunday Concerts) from their inception in 1887 until his death. In the first half of the twentieth century the competition bearing his name encouraged the composition of new chamber works, establishing a tradition which set Conway Hall right at the centre of British contemporary music.
Re-inaugurated in 2021, the present competition aims to continue this work, encouraging the composition of innovative, exciting chamber music and presenting it to a wide audience. Through workshops, social media activity and through enabling interaction with professional performers, the competition furthermore seeks to establish and nurture a community of diverse, young composers and to enhance the chamber repertoire.
Before the final round performance, scores submitted for previous competitions from the Conway Hall Archive will be available via the Conway Hall website and a selection exhibited before the final round performance.
Full details from the Conway Hall website.

A trio of concerts at this year’s Aldeburgh Festival highlights the diversity of music to be found on the Suffolk coast.

Tue, 24 Jun 2025 09:11:02 +0000

Edward Gardner & Royal Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra - Aldeburgh Festival (Photo: Britten Pears Arts)

Daniel Kidane: Sirens, Mark-Anthony Turnage: Refugee, Nielsen: Symphony No.4; Allan Clayton, Royal Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra, cond. Edward Gardner; Snape Maltings Concert Hall, Suffolk

Alex Tay, Mingdu Li, Liucilė Vilimaitė, Hy-Khang Dang, Sam Rudd-Jones, Jasper Eaglesfield, Helen Grime, Mark-Anthony Turnage, Colin Matthews, Goehr, Saariaho; Britten Pears Contemporary Ensemble, cond. Jonathan Berman/Claudia Fuller; Britten Studio, Snape Maltings, Suffolk

Purcell: King Arthur; Gabrieli Consort & Players, dir. Paul McCreesh; Snape Maltings Concert Hall, Suffolk
Reviewed by Tony Cooper: 19-20 June 2025
The concert performance of Purcell’s King Arthur by the Gabrieli Consort and Players would take some beating.
The opening concert of my first Aldeburgh Festival excursion this year featured a storming and high-energy work (faster than an F1 car!) entitled Sirens by Daniel Kidane, born to a Russian mother and an Eritrean father in 1986.
For sure, an energetic and appealing composer, Kidane harbours bright and original ideas and I well remember (and favoured) his orchestral work Awake premièred by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sakari Oramo, when attending the Last Night of the Proms in 2019.
A frenetic and tasteful opener to the Royal Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra’s concert in Snape Maltings as part of the 76th Aldeburgh Festival, Kidane’s Sirens, flamboyantly conducted by Edward Gardner, proved an atmospheric, eclectic and jazz-inspired piece capturing so well the sounds and energy of Manchester’s nightlife by incorporating elements of various musical genres from jungle to dubstep spiced up and mixed with an R&B cocktail for good measure.
Helping so much the musical landscape and feel to the piece was Kidane employment of bowed crotales to create a sustained smooth ethereal sound harbouring rich overtones while the harmonies of the work become more intense and dissonant towards the final bars.
Purcell: King Arthur - Gabrieli Consort & Players, Paul McCreesh - Aldeburgh Festival (Photo: Britten Pears Arts)

One of the four featured artists at this year’s festival, Kidane (a name to be reckoned with!) keeps good company with the likes of tenor Allan Clayton, composer Helen Grime and violinist Leila Josefowicz.
As an aside, Sirens received its world première at Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall in 2016 performed by the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra under Andrew Gourlay. No stranger to the city, Kidane studied in Manchester at the Royal Northern College of Music.
Closing the first half of the programme fell to Mark-Anthony Turnage’s 22-minute orchestral song-cycle Refugee dating from 2017/18 and first performed in September 2019 at Milton Court, Barbican, by Allan Clayton (the soloist on this occasion, too) with the Britten Sinfonia (the commissioning body) conducted by Andrew Gourlay.
Comprising five movements, Refugee, quietly opens with a text by Emily Dickinson ‘These Strangers’ beautifully set to music by Turnage while the middle two sections featured Benjamin Zephaniah’s ‘We Refugees’ and WH Auden’s ‘Refugee Blues’ peppered with jazz-flavoured notation which Turnage so often incorporates in his compositions. The former mentioned nods to ‘gospel’ and the latter pays a tribute to the plight of Jewish migrants in New York City by recalling the gaudy cabaret world of Kurt Weill.
However, it was Brian Bilston’s poem that I found the most harrowing and moving thus summing up the horror and plight of being a displaced person exemplified by these lines: ‘These haggard faces could belong to you and me’ / ‘Should life have dealt a different hand’ / ‘We need to see them for who they really are.’ The text, I feel, mirrors Wilfred Owens’ text in Britten’s War Requiem.
I recall Dickinson’s ‘These Strangers’, too, in as much as my home city of Norwich is well-known for ‘Strangers’ as the city hosted floods of Huguenots (French Protestants) seeking refuge after facing persecution in France notably following the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685.
These so-called ‘Strangers’ played a significant role in Norwich's history through the valuable skills they brought with them especially appertaining to the weaving trade which greatly impacted on the city’s economy and culture. Even today Norwich has a professional/businessman’s club called ‘Strangers’ as well as a museum (Strangers’ Hall) forming part of the Norfolk Museums Service chronicling domestic life in Norfolk.
The concert ended in a grand and imposing style with Carl Nielsen’s Symphony No.4, commonly known as ‘The Inextinguishable’, dating from 1916 and the most recorded of the composer’s six symphonies The name doesn’t really apply to the symphony itself but rather to ‘that which is inextinguishable’ referring to the elemental will to survive over the course of the First World War.
One of the most dramatic and exuberant symphonies that Nielson wrote, the clashes of the first movement reappear in the final movement in which two sets of timpani battle it out from either side of the orchestra dramatically changing pitch while playing full throttle right to the end of a work that was thrilling to hear in the confines of the Snape Maltings Concert Hall.
And without doubt, the youthful, spirited and well-drilled players of Royal Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Edward Gardner were enjoying every minute of it, playing magnificently to deliver an authoritative and accurate reading of this exceptional work offering the audience a fantastic and worthy ending to a memorable and well-planned concert highlighting in so many ways triumph over adversity.
Britten Pears Contemporary Ensemble, Jonathan Berman - Aldeburgh Festival (Photo: Britten Pears Arts)

Time flies! It’s now 33 years since Colin Matthews and Olly Knussen founded the Aldeburgh Composition and Performance Course and well over a hundred composers have taken part. Thomas Adès and Julian Anderson took a bow in the first year while Claire Booth was a course participant in 2000. In recent years, she has returned to supervise the work of three singers each year while the young fledgling composers are now given the opportunity to write for voice as well as for ensemble.
A big change for the course came in 2009 when it was made possible to use the Britten Studio for both rehearsal and performance. Previously, rehearsals were held in the Recital Room (Britten-Pears Building) with the final concert held in Snape Maltings Concert Hall thus allowing very little time for performers to adjust to the radical differences in acoustics between the two performing spaces.
This year a half-dozen young composers entered the fray with their work performed by the Britten Pears Contemporary Ensemble, conducted by Jonathan Berman and Claudia Fuller, to practically a full and admiring house. The Britten Studio was hyperactive with some excellent writing coming from a fascinating bunch of young, aspiring and intelligent composers who excelled in their respective pieces all receiving their world premières.
The concert featured Alex Tay’s britmod, a chamber symphony set to a text by Emily Dickinson, Mingdu Li’s Time, Temp (text by the composer), Liucilė Vilimaitė’s Kosminė Cenzūras (Cosmic Censorship) with a text by Marija Mazula, Hy-Khang Dang’s Sur l’emploi du temps (text by Seneca), Sam Rudd-Jones’ Baseline (text by Pedro Juarez Rosello) and Jasper Eaglesfield’s No Garden, No Flowers.
All the works (each about five minutes’ in length) were exciting, adventurous and captivating employing various permutations of the Britten Pears Contemporary Ensemble ranging from three/four players to full ensemble while the engaging personalities of singers Jennifer Kreider (soprano) and Joanne Evans (mezzo-soprano) shone through while they were totally confident and professional in their chosen pieces.
Complementing the work of the course participants were exciting and adventurous pieces comprising Helen Grime’s Prayer (‘Eight Songs from Isolation 2020’), Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Eulogy, Alexander Goehr’s idėes fixes and Kaija Saariaho’s Miranda’s Lament (The Tempest) with Colin Matthews contributing a couple of items to the programme with Two Tributes dating from 1998 comprising ‘Little Continuum’, a present for Elliott Carter on his 90th birthday and ‘Elegeia’ written in memory of the renowned cellist, Christopher van Kampen, in which the cello remained silent.
Purcell: King Arthur - Gabrieli Consort & Players, Paul McCreesh
Aldeburgh Festival (Photo: Britten Pears Arts)
The performance of Purcell’s five-act semi-opera, King Arthur (or The British Worthy), set to a text by John Dryden, roused the senses and filled the mind whilst also filling Snape Maltings Concert Hall to the brim. An excited audience was treated to a prime and exacting performance by the Gabrieli Consort and Players under the direction of Paul McCreesh. The work contains some of Purcell’s most lyrical and charming writing whilst employing the most adventurous harmonies of his day.
Paul McCreesh is the best and picks the best therefore the audience was lapping up the artistry (and flashy showmanship) of such fine sopranos as Anna Dennis, Mhairi Lawson and Rowan Pierce while the high tenor voices of Jeremy Budd and Christopher Fitzgerald-Lombard hit the mark, too, with Matthew Long and Tom Castle’s tenor voices complementing very well the rich and deep-sounding bass voices of Marcus Farnsworth and Ashley Riches. Perfect harmony all round!
A simple plot, the scenario’s based on the battles between King Arthur’s Britons and the Saxons rather than the legends of Camelot. A Restoration spectacular, the work includes such supernatural characters as Cupid and Venus plus references to the Germanic gods of the Saxons: Woden, Thor and Freya.
A well-loved story, the scenario centres on Arthur's endeavours to recover his fiancée, the blind Cornish Princess Emmeline, who has been abducted by his arch enemy, Oswald, the Saxon king of Kent. It is widely thought that Dryden wrote the original libretto in 1684 to mark the 25th anniversary of King Charles II’s Restoration the following year.
There are so many exhilarating and formidable scenes in King Arthur played out in five supreme acts. For instance, the frost scene in the third act, one of Purcell's most famous achievements, harbours bold contrasts of style with the masterly piling up of the music to a climactic ending with the chorus joyously engaged in a terrific rendering of ‘Tis Love that has Warmed us’ while the art of pantomime came to the fore in Act II (‘Philidel and Grimbald in an enchanted wood in the Kentish countryside’) witnessing Philidel and the Chorus running wild prancing all over the show in ‘Hither this way’ - which way, Anne Hathaway!
And in Act V (‘A masque for Britannia and St George’) Comus and the Peasants went overboard with the men of the Gabrieli Players rustically singing their hearts’ out in ‘Your hay it is mow’d’ as if on a stag night out quietly followed by Anna Dennis as Venus calming things down a bit by delivering a fine and detailed rendering of ‘Fairest Isle, all isles excelling’ with the whole show wrapped up by ‘New Song and Chorus for Britannia and St George: Sound Heroes, your brazen trumpets sound! - Let all rehearse.’
Paul McCreesh and his lot have been performing King Arthur for a very long time but this fine (and memorable) concert performance of Purcell’s famous and exuberant work forming part of the 76th Aldeburgh Festival would take some beating. Full stop!
As an aside, I lovingly recall a memorable staged version of King Arthur produced by the English Opera Group featuring the Thames Chamber orchestra, conducted by Philip Ledger, in St Andrew’s Hall, Norwich, as part of the 1970 Norfolk & Norwich Triennial Festival - my ‘home’ festival.
Directed by Colin Graham a star cast included Benjamin Luxon (Arthur), Robert Tear (Oswald), David Hartley (Guillamar), Denis Dowling (Merlin), Paul Wade (Conon), Michael Rippon (Aurelius), April Cantelo (Emmeline), Norma Burrowes (Grimbald) and Annabel Hunt (Philidel). Optimistic and hopeful: how lovely it would be to see the English Opera Group brought back to life next year on the 50th anniversary of Britten’s death. Over the past few years Aldeburgh has built up a repertoire of chamber operas that would surely fit the company’s rebirth. Watch this space!
Reviewed by Tony Cooper

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That was quite a party! Paul Curran's production of Die Fledermaus at The Grange Festival makes for a terrific evening in the theatre - review
Modern resonances & musical style: Richard Farnes conducts Verdi's La traviata at the Grange Festival with Samantha Clarke & Nico Darmanin - opera review
Maiden, Mother & Crone: Rowan Hellier on her interdisciplinary project integrating music & movement exploring Baba Yaga - interview
The Merry Widow meets the Godfather: Scottish Opera brings John Savournin's production of Lehár's operetta to Opera Holland Park - review
Enjoyment, exploration & sheer virtuosic fun: Sisters from Karine Deshayes & Delphine Haidan - Johann Strauss: Die Fledermaus - The Grange Festival (Photo: © Richard Hubert Smith)
Johann Strauss: Die Fledermaus; Sylvia Schwartz, Andrew Hamilton, Ben McAteer, Ellie Laugharne, Claudia Huckle, Trystan Llŷr Griffiths, Darren Jeffery, Myra DuBois, director: Paul Curran, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, conductor: Paul Daniel; The Grange Festival
Reviewed: 22 June 2025
With cross-dressing chorus, all-singing, all-dancing soloists and chorus, this was a terrific evening in the theatre
Johann Strauss II's Die Fledermaus is about a party, isn't it? With productions of Strauss' best-known operetta, it is often difficult to remember that amidst the rollicking good tunes and party antics is an actual plot.
Strauss did not have much luck with his librettists. It is fascinating to discover that Offenbach was thinking about adapting the play, Le Revéillon by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, a project prevented by the Franco-Prussian war. Instead, Richard Genée and Karl Haffner adapted it as a German libretto for Johann Strauss. The best libretto that he set.
The virtue of Paul Curran's new production of Strauss' Die Fledermaus at The Grange Festival was that as well as giving us a rattling good party in Act Two, Curran never let us forget that there is actually a plot too.
We caught the 2nd performance of the production on 22 June 2025, Paul Daniel conducted the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra with Sylvia Schwartz as Rosalinde, Andrew Hamilton as Eisenstein, Ben McAteer as Falke, Ellie Laugharne as Adele, Claudia Huckle as Orlofsky, Trystan Llŷr Griffiths as Alfred, Darren Jeffery as Frank, Isabelle Atkinson as Ida, John Graham-Hall as Dr Blind and Myra DuBois as Frosch. Designs were by Gary McCann.
Johann Strauss: Die Fledermaus - Ellie Laugharne, Andrew Hamilton, Sylvia Schwartz - The Grange Festival (Photo: © Richard Hubert Smith)

Act One played out like a 1930s drawing room comedy, and after all Noel Coward did write Operette! Gary McCann's stylish circular set owed something to the Courtaulds' Eltham Palace. Act Two was a far more ritzier setting, the two-tiered circular set used to great effect by the chorus, dressed here in high gender fluid style. Yes it was one of those parties. Act Three played out against ranks of cells, but the presiding genius here, and I use the term advisedly, was Myra DuBois as Frau Frosch. Myra DuBois being the drag name of comic Gareth Joyner.
The text was given in John Mortimer's English version which was commissioned by the Royal Opera in 1989. This worked well in the first act, but the busier numbers in the remaining two acts Mortimer's limits as a lyricist showed, words and music did not always fit well. But the cast were all admirable both in making the words count and in delivering the dialogue without any hint of over-emphasis.
Proponents of this opera would have you think that the piece is a masterly take-down of late 19th century Vienna, but this rarely comes over in production as what little plot there is in Acts Two and Three evaporates in a welter of fun. Here, Curran brought an edge to the fun with elaborate cross-dressing for the chorus. This was dressing up for fun and more.
Johann Strauss: Die Fledermaus - Ben McAteer, Isabelle Atkinson, Myra DuBois, Ellie Laugharne, Darren Jeffery - The Grange Festival (Photo: © Richard Hubert Smith)

Sylvia Schwartz made a poised Rosalinde, very much channeling Maria Aiken in Noel Coward in Act One. All brittle charm and knowing looks, whilst in Act Two she made the Czardas a creditable cabaret number, though perhaps this lacked the spine-tingling element. Around her buzzed the three men, and you could well understand their fascination.
Andrew Hamilton as Eisenstein played the silly ass to the hilt. This works because to make the plot work, Eisenstein has to be dim. Hamilton brought an effortless charm to the role and lightness too. He and Schwartz made easy pickings of the business with the repeater watch, never over-egging it.
Ben McAteer's Dr Falke was full of a sort of camp glee. His delight at the cleverness of his ridiculously complex plot being an excuse to repeatedly let us know about it. But McAteer brought appealing comic timing to the role whilst the sheer campness suggested a homoerotic strand to his relationship to Eisenstein, which the production hinted at but did not explore.
Trystan Llŷr Griffiths as Alfredo seemed to spend a large part of the opera singing fragments of popular operas and wearing little more than a pair of black boxer shorts. He did both admirably, and played the buffoon intelligently whilst managing to look good in the process.
Ellie Laugharne was a charming and very knowing Adele, masterfully over-done in Act One and getting away with murder in Act Two in a glittery barely-there dress. Her laughing aria was delightful whilst her Act Three number was a real show-stopper.
Claudia Huckle was a very gender-fluid Orlovsky in an over-the-top costume which she combined with wonderfully gurgly relish in her overdone accent, and great aplomb in her solo.
Johann Strauss: Die Fledermaus - Ellie Laugharne
The Grange Festival (Photo: © Richard Hubert Smith)
The other roles were well taken. Darren Jeffery made Frank funny but less of an idiot than usual and managed to rock a leather daddy costume for Act Two (harness and leather trousers), whilst his and Hamilton's cod-French dialogue was less toe curling than usual. Isabelle Atkinson was all poised elegance as Ida and John Graham-Hall was luxury casting as Dr. Blind.
In the opening scene of Act Three, Myra DuBois gave a masterclass in how to bring a pre-existing act into this show. Channelling the late Dame Edna Everage, DuBois managed to insult the audience (to their delight), work in the plot elements and raise plenty of laughs, whilst breaking down the fourth wall to such an extent that later in the act McAteer's Falke addressed us as if it was the most natural thing in the world.
Act Two had the Tritsch-Tratsch Polka added for good measure, but then does anyone ever perform this opera as Strauss actually wrote it? Curran's production did not try to disguise the fact that most of the plot runs out well before the end of Act Two, and he did rather over-egg things towards the end of the act. We aware this was the case, but what the hell, it was bloody good fun.
The soloists were an impressively all-singing, all-dancing lot and I was impressed with the way the entire cast combined music and movement in the ensemble numbers in Act One as well as at the party in Act Two. The chorus worked damned hard, constantly on the move and all seeming to enjoy both their outrageous costumes and their dance moves.
Paul Daniel's way with Johann Strauss' music was to keep things moving and emphasise the vivid colours. There were moments in some ensembles when Daniel's speeds and Mortimer's words seemed a tricky mix for the soloists but overall this was intoxicating stuff, classily played by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.
Paul Curran and his team did not convince me that Die Fledermaus is the masterwork that some claim it to be, but certainly this was a terrific evening in theatre.

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The blog is free, but I'd be delighted if you were to show your appreciation by buying me a coffee.
Elsewhere on this blog
Modern resonances & musical style: Richard Farnes conducts Verdi's La traviata at the Grange Festival with Samantha Clarke & Nico Darmanin - opera review
Maiden, Mother & Crone: Rowan Hellier on her interdisciplinary project integrating music & movement exploring Baba Yaga - interview
The Merry Widow meets the Godfather: Scottish Opera brings John Savournin's production of Lehár's operetta to Opera Holland Park - review
Enjoyment, exploration & sheer virtuosic fun: Sisters from Karine Deshayes & Delphine Haidan - record review
The earth moves: Antoine Brumel's 12-part Earthquake Mass & Tallis' 40-part motet from Peter Phillips & The Tallis Scholars - concert review
Lieder, songs and sonnets: David Butt Philip in Vaughan Williams, Alma Mahler, Wagner & Britten at Wigmore Hall - concert review
A Visit to Friends: The opening work of the Aldeburgh Festival’s 76th edition fell to Colin Matthews’ first foray into opera - opera review
A sonic portrait of British Jewish families: composer Na'ama Zisser on the JMI Archive - interview
The one where Dido kills Aeneas: Oliver Platt radically refocuses Purcell's opera at Guildhall School - opera review
Redefining "Success" as a Classical Musician - guest posting
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Gordon Jacob: Festival Overture (1965)

Tue, 24 Jun 2025 05:00:00 +0000

Gordon Jacob (1895–1984) was an English composer and teacher known for his prolific output and expertise in orchestration. Born in London, he studied at the Royal College of Music under Charles Villiers Stanford and Ralph Vaughan Williams. His early life was marked by service during Queen’s Royal Regiment during the First World War, where he was taken prisoner in 1917. After the war, he pursued music, eventually becoming a professor at the Royal College of Music, where he taught from 1924 to 1966.
Jacob composed over seven hundred works, spanning orchestral, ballet, chamber, and wind band music. His orchestral works include two symphonies, concertos for various instruments, and numerous arrangements of works by other composers.

Beyond composition, Jacob was a respected author, authoring books on orchestration and musical technique, including Orchestral Technique (1931) and The Elements of Orchestration (1962).

Eric Wetherell, in his biography of Gordon Jacob (1895-1984) has reminded readers that 1965 was the year of composer’s 70th birthday. He outlines the various celebrations. The Royal College of Music had an afternoon concert on 7 July including student performances of Jacob’s chamber works. The same evening saw a concert of music presented by former pupils of the composer, including the first performance of his Six Miniatures for flute, oboe, harpsichord, and harp. Other commemorative events included a review of Jacob’s life on the Third Programme ‘Music Magazine’ programme presented by the pianist Jean Mackie. The BBC gave performances of his Overture for Brass and the Suite in B flat played by the Fairey Brass Band under their director Harry Mortimer. The BBC Home Service included his Elegy for cello and piano as well as his Piano Trio. Ruth Gipps and her Chanticleer Orchestra performed the Oboe and the Flute Concertos at the Wigmore Hall on 8 July. There was a concert of chamber music at Jacob’s hometown of Saffron Walden on 10 July.

The only orchestral piece that seems to have been performed during the anniversary year was the Festival Overture at a Promenade Concert on 21 August 1965. It opened the evening programme which included Cesar Franck’s Symphonic Variations, Mendelssohn’s ‘Italian’ Symphony, and Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker Suite. Except for the Overture, the BBC Symphony Orchestra was conducted by Malcom Sargent.

The Festival Overture was originally composed for the Essex Youth Orchestra in 1963 and was first performed by them on 23 October 1964 under the composer’s baton at a Festival of Music and the Arts held in Saffron Walden. It was played on their Continental tour, conducted by their regular, Raymond Leppard.

The overture is scored for a large orchestra, consisting of triple woodwind, full brass with three trumpets, harp, and strings. There is a large array of percussion instruments. The composer provided the programme note for the Promenade Concert: -

“As befits the title, the music is animated throughout except for one quieter section near the middle. It is built out of three main themes, of which the first, heard at the outset, is characterised by strongly marked, often syncopated rhythms. The opening phrase plays its part in the development of the work. The second-subject material comprises two themes, one a tune over an ostinato-like bass in quavers, the other consisting of contrasting remarks from strings and brass. After this material has been enlarged upon and a big climax built up, the quieter section makes its appearance. Here the oboe is prominent until the strings take over.

The recapitulation differs from the exposition in detail, though all the themes are heard again in it, including a very fully scored version of the first of the second subject themes during which three trumpets in unison provide a kind of fairground effect. A short coda brings the overture to a resounding finish.” G.J.

Eric Wetherell has added that there are “no concessions” to the “relative inexperience” of the young players in the Essex Youth Orchestra. The players are presented with material that is “wholly practical” but still “pushing the instrumentalists to their limits.”

In his review this work for MusicWeb International Rob Barnett has written that “A Festival Overture is another cracking British concert overture which would be happy in any anthology. In fact, a dedicated record company could easily assemble a whole CD of Jacob overtures of this type… Someone has claimed that the overture sounds like Malcolm Arnold. I don’t see it. There is certainly a touch or two of E J Moeran and perhaps Reizenstein in this, but Arnold would have been even more over the top and raucous.”

Gordon Jacob’s Festival Overture (1963) was released on the Classico record label (CLASSCD204) coupled with the same composer’s Symphony No.2 in C major and ‘A Little Symphony.’ This performance has been posted on YouTube, here.

Brash, Brassy Schuller Ignites Season Finale Capped By French Flair

Tue, 24 Jun 2025 04:28:07 +0000

SEATTLE – The Seattle Symphony's 2024-25 season closer, under conductor emeritus Ludovic Morlot, may have been entitled "Ravel Boléro," but in sum it showcased this tandem shining light on both new and well-established repertoire.
The post Brash, Brassy Schuller Ignites Season Finale Capped By French Flair first appeared on Classical Voice North America.

Choral works by Brahms and Stravinsky from BBC NOW in Cardiff

Mon, 23 Jun 2025 22:45:24 +0000

Brahms, Stravinsky: BBC National Chorus and Orchestra of Wales / Ryan Bancroft (conductor). Hoddinott Hall, Cardiff, 20.6.2025. (PCG) Brahms – Schicksalslied, Op.54: Serenade No.2 in A minor, Op.16 Stravinsky – Symphony of Psalms, K052 The choral works of Johannes Brahms’s mentor Robert Schumann are slowly beginning to reassert themselves after decades of almost total neglect. ... Read more

Music’s Mainly Mozart, Musicians Are All Stars, Sum Is Unmixed Delight

Mon, 23 Jun 2025 21:50:40 +0000

LA JOLLA – The 21 musicians on stage for Mainly Mozart's first 2025 concert personified the allure of the festival's "all-star orchestra" concept: largely concertmasters or principals representing some of the top ensembles from across the U.S.
The post Music’s Mainly Mozart, Musicians Are All Stars, Sum Is Unmixed Delight first appeared on Classical Voice North America.

Modern resonances & musical style: Richard Farnes conducts Verdi's La traviata at the Grange Festival with Samantha Clarke & Nico Darmanin

Mon, 23 Jun 2025 18:09:45 +0000

Verdi: La Traviata - Samantha Clarke - The Grange Festival (Photo: Richard Hubert Smith)
Verdi: La traviata; Samantha Clarke, Nico Darmanin, Dario Solari, Annie Reilly, director: Maxine Braham, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, conductor: Richard Farnes; The Grange Festival
Reviewed 21 June 2025
An impressively fully realised account of the title role from Samantha Clarke in a period production that pulled no punches, with a strongly balanced cast and terrific Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in the pit.
Verdi intended La traviata to be a reflection of contemporary moeurs but censorship prevented that and the first performance was set in the 17th century. That the opera's plot has resonance for modern audiences is in no doubt but dramaturgically the piece works best when set in the 1859s.
At the Grange Festival, director Maxine Braham (who directed Verdi's Macbeth there in 2022, see my review) and designer Jamie Vartan kept the 1850s setting, paying the audience the complement of not underestimating their intelligence. [seen 21 June 2025]. The festival assembled a strong international cast with Australian/British soprano Samantha Clarke as Violetta [we caught her as the Countess in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro at Garsington last year, see my review], Maltese tenor Nico Darmanin as Alfredo, and Uruguayan baritone Dario Solari as Giorgio Germont. Richard Farnes conducted the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.
Verdi: La Traviata - Nico Darmanin - The Grange Festival (Photo: Richard Hubert Smith)

The setting might have been traditional but the look was stripped down whilst there was a stylisation to Braham's direction. Dancers (as servants) made great physical play with setting and resetting the furniture on the stage. In Act One, the revolve brought extra chaos to the party, but freezing the ensemble place Clarke's Violetta and Darmanin's Alfredo at the fore. In both parties, licentiousness and physicality threaded their way through the action.
The work began with a young girl, and she appeared at key moments, an indicator of the youthful Violetta perhaps. But though intriguing, no quite enough was made of this. Another theme was indicated through Violetta's fondness for pictures including a rather kitschy one that we learned, eventually, was a portrait of her as the penitent Magdalene, something only fully indicated in the last act when Violetta washed Alfredo's feet.
Violetta is a role the Samantha Clarke has sung in Australia (including at Sydney Opera House), and this was an impressively fully realised account of the the role with plenty of vividly telling detail. In Act ONe, she brought poise and charm to her public persona, yet also suggested Violetta's experience, this was no ingenue. The moments of doubt were there, but she was never frail of mind. Clarke's coloratura and ease with the challenges of Violetta's final scene in Act One were impressive, especially as the fioriture was there for expression, not sheer display.
In Act Two, her public mask dropped somewhat, but you did wonder whether Darmanin's self-deluded Alfredo ever saw the real Violetta. In the long scene with Dario Solari's Germont, the mask returned briefly, though Clarke brought fine emotionalism here too, yet stayed within style, there were no extraneous vocal histrionics, thankfully. And this continued in the last act were Clarke was visibly ill yet never over-wrought, and she was not afraid of using her full voice when required. This was a consummate and moving performance whose detail benefited the smaller theatre.
Verdi: La Traviata - Samantha Clarke - The Grange Festival (Photo: Richard Hubert Smith)

Nico Darmanin is known for his stylish performances in bel canto, notably Donizetti and Rossini, and he brought a similar sense of elegance to Alfredo. There was real style to his Brindisi and in his duetting with Clarke's Violetta in Act ONe. Darmanin was both elegant and ardent, always with a lovely sense of line. We are used to hearing this role sung by tenors who cut their teeth on Puccini and Verismo, but Darmanin demonstrated another way, with his voice developing a sense of silvery steel under pressure. His opening aria in Act Two as done as poetic soliloquy, and in Act Three, he joined Clarke in using the music to its utmost, giving us some thrilling moments. But there was another vein to this Alfredo, a sense of violence. In Act One, he seemed repressed rather than shy, and after meeting Alfredo's father in the shape of Dario Solari in Act Two, we understood why. This Alfredo reacted with remarkable anger both at the end of the first scene of Act Two, and in the wonderfully climactic scene at Flora's party.
Dario Solari's Giorgio Germont was so stylish that, at first, I thought there was a danger that he might be under-powered. But for this man, manners were all, yet there was an implacability to him too, it was my way or nothing. He failed to even consider the consequences of his actions with Violette, nor did he comprehend his son's reaction.
The remaining seven role were all taken by members of the chorus, demonstrating both the quality of the singers and the festival's support for young artists.Annie Reilly was an engagingly personable Flora, a winning personality allied to a lovely voice. Isobel Garcia Araujo's was a supportive and very traditional Annina, discreet and never over-stepping the mark.
Jamie Vartan's costumes were admirable in the way he used medals, military uniform and costume to helpfully differentiate, the Marquis, the Baron, the Doctor and Gastone. Peter Edge made a wonderfully uptight Baron Duphol with a real vicious edge barely help in check. Sam Marston was warmly supportive as Gastone with Leo Selleck as the upright Marquis. Peter Lidbetter's Dr Grenvil was a wonderfully watchful presence in both party scenes before his final, sympathetic appearances in Act Three. Sam Kibble was Giuseppe in Act Two.
Though there were three male dances, the chorus was hard working, giving both party scenes great physicality as well as an engaging choral sound. The entertainment sequence at Flora's party was imaginatively staged with Braham making terrific use of her forces and coaxing some impressive dancing from her singers.
Verdi: La Traviata, Act 2, Scene 2 - The Grange Festival (Photo: Richard Hubert Smith)

Having Richard Farnes in charge of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in the pit was real luxury indeed. Farnes drew a lovely fluidity and flexibility from the orchestra. This was a performance where time could stretch sympathetically yet there was always a sense of overall shape and momentum..
Musically this was a strong performance, but Maxine Braham had clearly helped her cast to be interested in a sense of character too. By the end, the modern resonances of the story were perfectly clear and we certainly did not need them signposting.

Never miss out on future posts by following us
The blog is free, but I'd be delighted if you were to show your appreciation by buying me a coffee.
Elsewhere on this blog
Maiden, Mother & Crone: Rowan Hellier on her interdisciplinary project integrating music & movement exploring Baba Yaga - interview
The Merry Widow meets the Godfather: Scottish Opera brings John Savournin's production of Lehár's operetta to Opera Holland Park - review
Enjoyment, exploration & sheer virtuosic fun: Sisters from Karine Deshayes & Delphine Haidan - record review
The earth moves: Antoine Brumel's 12-part Earthquake Mass & Tallis' 40-part motet from Peter Phillips & The Tallis Scholars - concert review
Lieder, songs and sonnets: David Butt Philip in Vaughan Williams, Alma Mahler, Wagner & Britten at Wigmore Hall - concert review
A Visit to Friends: The opening work of the Aldeburgh Festival’s 76th edition fell to Colin Matthews’ first foray into opera - opera review
A sonic portrait of British Jewish families: composer Na'ama Zisser on the JMI Archive - interview
The one where Dido kills Aeneas: Oliver Platt radically refocuses Purcell's opera at Guildhall School - opera review
Redefining "Success" as a Classical Musician - guest posting
From kazoo & harpsichord to electronically-augmented ensemble: Alex Paxton's Delicious is a multi-layered maximalist delight - cd review
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Pygmalion's Bach, Timothy McCormack

Mon, 23 Jun 2025 14:47:34 +0000

Bach's Colossus. The New Yorker, June 30, 2025.

Classical music news - China NCPA Orchestra

Mon, 23 Jun 2025 12:00:00 +0000
The orchestra of China's National Centre for the Performing Arts makes its first ever European tour

Voices lead the way in Verdi’s Requiem at San Francisco Symphony’s season-ender

Sun, 22 Jun 2025 22:04:11 +0000

Verdi, Mozart, Getty: Rachel Willis-Sørensen (soprano), Jamie Barton (mezzo-soprano), Mario Chang (tenor), Morris Robinson (bass), San Francisco Symphony Chorus (chorus director: Jenny Wong), San Francisco Symphony / James Gaffigan (conductor). Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco. 20.6.2025 (HS) Mozart – ‘Ave verum corpus’, K.618 Gordon Getty – ‘Intermezzo’ from Goodbye, Mr. Chips; ‘Saint Christopher’; ‘The Old ... Read more

Speaking for many

Sun, 22 Jun 2025 17:38:55 +0000
Emily Witt on the resistance to fascistic thuggery in LA: "The public reaction to the presence of the ICE agents is often hostile. One morning, I followed a Unión del Barrio alert to an Army Reserve center in the city of Bell, which, that morning, immigration agents were using as a staging area. A veritable hive of officials with covered faces was loading into a fleet of American-made vehicles with temporary license plates and dark windows, and rolling out into the city for their day of work. Outside, helpless to stop them, someone pulled up and simply leaned on his horn. Others tried to block the driveway with their cars, but the agents had another exit. One person shouted profanities. In the video of Nancy Urizar’s father, the anger of the strangers observing what was happening in the parking lot is also palpable. 'Fuck every single one of you motherfuckers,' one person says. 'Fuck every single one of you.'"

Penarth chamber music festival review – scaled-down Mahler’s Fourth Symphony emerges as if newly minted

Sun, 22 Jun 2025 12:04:37 +0000

All Saints Church, Penarth
The joy and anarchy of Mahler were brilliantly captured, alongside wild Shostakovich and mellow Brahms
Mahler had been dead for just 10 years when, in 1921, his Fourth Symphony was arranged for chamber ensemble by Schönberg’s pupil and assistant, Erwin Stein, to be played at one of their weekly Society for Private Musical Performances in Vienna. The least monumental of the symphonies, though still clearly long, it lent itself well to being scaled down, with each of the 14 instruments plus soprano in the last movement treated as soloists and the listener being given a new aural perspective on even the most familiar passages.
In the hands of the top players that David Adams and Alice Neary bring together for their annual Penarth festival, the clarity and eloquence both of Mahler’s flowing contrapuntal writing and of his harmonies seemed to emerge newly minted. Schönberg himself had conducted that first concert; here, Ryan Bancroft was a quietly animated presence, alert to the teeming detail and to the irresistibly dancing lilt. Yet, in what is sometimes only characterised as the child-like innocence of this symphony, lurks the grim reaper figure, said to have been inspired by Arnold Böcklin’s self-portrait, the scordatura mis-tuning of the violin giving death’s devilish waltz its grotesque edge. And even in the last movement’s setting of Das Himmlische Leben from Des Knaben Wunderhorn, always Mahler’s conscious destination for the work, the litany of saints have a delicious touch of anarchy about them. Soprano Rebecca Evans captured both the mischievous excitability of the child’s vision of heaven and also the ethereal joy.
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The Music Industry Can’t Stop The AI Onslaught

Sun, 22 Jun 2025 12:00:00 +0000

But the industry has new tools to help companies track down what songs are ‘made’ by software, and what are human-created. The focus could “enable more precise licensing, with royalties based on creative influence instead of post-release dispute.” – The Verge

Classical music news - June 2025 Obituaries

Sun, 22 Jun 2025 12:00:00 +0000
Our summary of those the classical music world has lost this month

CD From Hell: Erratic Nielsen from Davis and the LSO

Sun, 22 Jun 2025 04:11:29 +0000

There were some interesting moments in these performances that originally […]

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NY Philharmonic Nielsen Cycle Concludes on a High Note

Sun, 22 Jun 2025 04:06:29 +0000
Nielsen was a high energy composer, perfectly suited to a “muscle” orchestra like the New York Philharmonic. Listening to these two performance we are reminded how the world of classical recordings has been taken over by orchestras of the second rank–professionally adequate, ambitious, able to fund their own recording programs and often to get released […]

Major Discoveries: Gounod’s Music For Pedal Piano–Great Stuff!

Sun, 22 Jun 2025 04:05:44 +0000

This is Volume 62 in Hyperion’s epic and seemingly endless […]

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Nielsen: String Quartets/Oslo Quartet

Sun, 22 Jun 2025 04:02:00 +0000
This first volume in what promises to be a complete traversal of Danish composer Carl Nielsen’s four string quartets ought to make many new friends for the music. Though well known as a symphonist of imposing stature, Nielsen is rarely recognized for his chamber music, with the single exception of the wind quintet. There’s no […]

Gounod: Faust/Angeles, Gedda, Christoff

Sun, 22 Jun 2025 04:01:00 +0000
This 1953 recording, in good, re-worked mono sound, still has much to recommend, but it remains somewhat problematic as well. The Marguerite of Victoria de Los Angeles is beautiful in its purity, and her voice is in peak condition–easily produced, girlish, free at the top. Nicolai Gedda’s Faust is a model of how the role […]

Generally, it is a fine cast in Valencia’s Roberto Devereux though a disappointing production

Sat, 21 Jun 2025 20:42:16 +0000

Donizetti, Roberto Devereux: Soloists, Generalitat Valenciana Chorus, Comunitat Valenciana Orchestra / Francesco Lanzillotta (conductor). Palau de Les Arts, Valencia, 18.6.2025. (JMI) Valencia’s Palau de Les Arts has concluded its opera season with this work by Gaetano Donizetti. It is the final opera of the Bergamo composer’s so-called Tudor Trilogy, which also includes Anna Bolena and ... Read more

Classical music news. Summer Music in Tuscany

Sat, 21 Jun 2025 12:00:00 +0000
The Chigiana International Festival and Summer Academy runs from 9 July until 2 September 2025