Planet Hugill

Following its centenary celebrations last year, the Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra becomes resident at Brighton Dome

2026-09-29T11:26:29.972+01:00

Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra, music director Joanna MacGregor

The Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra, music director Joanna MacGregor, opened its 2026/27 season at the Brighton Dome at the weekend with a programme mixing Rachmaninoff, Gershwin, Piazzolla and Janacek. This season marks a new development in the relationship between orchestra and venue as it has now been announced that the Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra has become the resident orchestra at the Dome.

Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra was founded in 1925 and first performed on Brighton Dome’s Concert Hall stage in 1928. It has been a fixture of the venue’s event seasons ever since, most recently celebrating its centenary last year. Sir Thomas Beecham became its first President in 1932, a position later held by Vaughan Williams and Benjamin Britten. The orchestra has a rich tradition of championing living composers; in 1946 Francis Poulenc performed his own concerto at Brighton Dome, while recent seasons have included music by James MacMillan, Gwilym Simcock and the upcoming premiere of Eric Vloeimans' new work.

Joanna MacGregor, CEO and music director of Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra commented: "To become Brighton Dome’s Resident Orchestra is a wonderful recognition of BPO’s vibrant performances over the last century, and cements an already close partnership. We’re looking forward to developing ambitious, world class programmes and exciting artistic collaborations for Brighton audiences."

Further ahead, the orchestra pairs Stravinsky's Symphonies of Wind Instruments, and Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments with Mozart's Gran Partita (11 October).

Full details from the Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra's website.

The Continuo Foundation awards £108,000 in its 12th round of grants

2026-09-29T09:48:12.024+01:00

The Continuo Foundation recently announced its 12th round of grants, awarding £105,000 to 28 Early Music Projects, supporting 68 concerts in 46 locations along with five recordings. Since being founded in 2020, the Foundation has raised and awarded £1.3 million, supporting 885 concerts in 289 different locations across the UK, alongside 63 recording projects, with 40 albums released so far.

Five emerging ensembles received first-time awards, and projects include a period-instrument Passion in Northern Ireland, a pioneering female composer of string quartets and music from Anne Boleyn’s manuscript.

All five of the first-time recipients are emerging ensembles, formed since 2020, and are among ten recently formed groups supported in this round which collectively received 40% of the total funding. Alongside opportunities to perform, the awards fund recordings and creation of video material that can help young musicians establish a professional presence and secure future work.

A grant makes possible the Ulster Consort's ambitious plan to performing Bach’s St Matthew Passion in Northern Ireland, where opportunities to hear this masterpiece are scarce and relatively few local period-instrument players are available. Also in Northern Ireland, the grant awarded to Sestina Music will bring Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 to Belfast, combining Early Music specialists with its Next Generation Artists and, for the first time, local choristers from St George’s, St Polycarp’s and St Peter’s church choirs.

The Cambridge String Quartet’s Tales of Maddalena turns to little-known composer Maddalena Lombardini, whose six quartets appeared in 1769, while the genre was still taking shape. At King’s College, Cambridge, a display of first-edition parts will accompany the music. The grant will help pay for professional filming, giving the performance a further life as material with which the quartet can introduce its work to promoters and audiences. Fontanella Recorder Quartet’s A Falcon Fallen follows Anne Boleyn’s turbulent life through music from the manuscript associated with her, held at the Royal College of Music.

Ardour Baroque’s world-premiere recording of trio sonatas by Antonio Luigi Baldassini, will place the little-known Roman composer alongside Corelli and Handel. Queen Victoria’s Consort and the West Gallery Music Association will be recreating English parish music from around 1840, using instruments including the serpent, keyed bugle and English bass horn.

Full details from The Continuo Foundation's website.

Bass Brindley Sherratt to be artistic director of The Grange Festival following Michael Chance's retirement

2026-09-29T09:21:04.895+01:00

Brindley Sherratt (Photo: Film and Star)

The Grange Festival (which is based at The Grange, Northington in Hampshire) has announced that the bass, Brindley Sherratt will be stepping up to take the reins as artistic director of the festival following the retirement of Michael Chance at the end of this year's festival. Michael Chance had led the company since its formation in 2016 (in succession to Wasfi Kani's Grange Park Opera which was founded at The Grange in 1998, departing after the 2016 season).

The Grange is a country house in the style of an ancient Greek temple designed by William Wilkins. The house is an important example of the Greek Revival style in England. The house was subsequently extended by Robert Smirke and Charles Robert Cockerell, but for much of the later 20th century was effectively a roofed ruin. The opera house was created in Cockerell's orangery turned art gallery under Wasfi Kani's auspices.

The Grange, Northington in 1870

Sherratt, who is about to sing Gurnemanz in Covent Garden's new production of Wagner's Parsifal (which opens on 1 October), is known for roles such as Sarastro in Mozart's The Magic Flute, Claggart in Britten's Billy Budd and Ochs in Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier. In 2025, Sherratt's second gala for the Meath Epilepsy Charity was held at The Grange. I chatted to him in 2024 on the release of his first recital disc, see my interview 'A bit topsy turvey' Last year we caught him as Cadmus and Somnus in Handel's Semele at Covent Garden [see my review] and as Boris in Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk at the BBC Proms [see my review]

Sherratt will continue to perform internationally alongside his role as artistic director but will be more selective with his engagements to ensure he can fulfil his commitments. He commented: "It is an exciting prospect to be investing in British opera at such a crucial moment in this art form’s history. The Grange Festival provides a much-needed platform for the next generation of artists. I’ve benefitted from the support of the local community in so many ways – being a resident of neighbouring county West Surrey - I have seen first-hand the impact that the local audiences can make. In my most recent performance on The Grange’s stage, I held a fundraising gala with a roster of our greatest opera stars in aid of The Meath Epilepsy Charity, where my daughter, Amy, is a resident. Together with The Grange’s generous community, we raised over £180,000 for our cause.

As a performer, I feel extremely lucky to have taken on roles I could have only dreamed of. Up until now, this role too was a dream, and I am looking forward hugely to working with the creative and administrative teams, as well as all the incredible line-up of artists who appear each year at this wonderful festival."

Sherratt begins his role next month, and full details of the 2027 Festival including its 10th anniversary celebrations will be announced shortly.

In other news, the Festival's chief executive, Tyler Stoops is stepping down after three years in the role, and the Festival's chief financial officer, Sheila Wye has been announced as interim chief executive.

Full details from The Grange Festival's website.

Recorder player Tabea Debus joins York Early Music Festival as guest artistic advisor

2026-09-28T12:25:29.564+01:00

Tabea Debus (Photo: Kaupo Kikkas)

Recorder player extraordinare Tabea Debus is joining York Early Music Festival as guest artistic advisor. She joins the current team of artistic advisers Lindsay Kemp (music writer and producer), Peter Seymour (emeritus professor of music at the University of York and director of Yorkshire Baroque Soloists & Choir), John Bryan (emeritus professor of music at the University of Huddersfield and member of the Rose Consort of Viols) and guest adviser Mark Seow (violinist, musicologist, writer and broadcaster). Tabea Debus has been appointed to support the 2027, ’28 and ’29 festivals and steps into the musical shoes of mezzo soprano Helen Charlston.

Born in Würzburg, Germany, Tabea Debus studied at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts and at the Royal Academy of Music. In 2023, Tabshe ea joined the recorder quartet Palisander, whose theatrical concerts are devised for audiences of all ages and backgrounds. Palisander have performed regularly at the National Centre for Early Music where they also led workshops for children and young people.

Tabea Debus commented: "I am absolutely delighted to be joining the team of Artistic Advisers and honoured to be working alongside these wonderful colleagues to contribute to the creation of the world-renowned York Early Music Festival. I can’t wait to spend the summer festival season in beautiful York in the coming years, delighting in concerts by fabulous musicians from across the UK, and beyond."

The York Early Music Festival was established in 1977 and is designed to celebrate York’s myriad of medieval churches, guildhalls and historic houses through historically informed music-making of the highest international standard. The festival is a central part of the National Centre for Early Music’s (NCEM) annual programme.
The York Early Music Festival returns next year, 2027, from 2 to 9 July. Further information from the NCEM website.

Collaborative music & art residency: Burgh House & Chamber Studio join forces with The Cosman Keller Art & Music Trust

2026-09-28T10:03:51.795+01:00

Trio Musae

A new partnership between Burgh House, in Hampstead, and Chamber Studio will create a residency programme for emerging chamber ensembles at Burgh House. Selected string quartets and trios will take part in a series of residencies at Burgh House, where they will reunite with leading chamber musicians for masterclasses before sharing the results of their work with audiences in intimate evening performances.

Among the ensembles taking part in the inaugural residency programme are Trio Musae, Talland Quartet and Quartet Concrète – three of the UK's most exciting emerging chamber ensembles. The first season will comprise three events taking place in October, December and February. Each residency will feature a free daytime masterclass followed by a ticketed evening recital in Burgh House's historic Music Room, offering audiences a rare opportunity to witness the creative process behind chamber music performance before experiencing the finished interpretation in concert.

The residency programme is funded by The Cosman Keller Art & Music Trust and builds on Chamber Studio's acclaimed Hans Keller Forum, an intensive mentoring programme for outstanding chamber ensembles who are at UK conservatoires.

Alongside the residencies, Burgh House will present a complementary exhibition celebrating the work of Milein Cosman. One of Britain's most fascinating twentieth-century artists, Cosman was renowned for her expressive depictions of musicians, writers and artists, including Benjamin Britten, Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore. Featuring important recent acquisitions from The Cosman Keller Art & Music Trust—many on public display at Burgh House for the first time—the exhibition will be accompanied by curator-led talks.

Moira Lascelles, Director, Burgh House comments, "By bringing together chamber music, visual art and the shared legacy of Hans Keller and Milein Cosman, this exciting new partnership perfectly reflects Burgh House's role as a home for artistic collaboration. It creates opportunities to nurture the next generation of musicians while celebrating Hampstead's remarkable cultural heritage. Hans Keller and Milein Cosman were central figures in the area's artistic life, and we are delighted to honour their legacy through this collaboration."

The first events as part of the residency are a masterclass (21/10) and recital (22/10) with Trio Musae. Full details from the Burgh House website.

A fresh take: youthful Daniel Dorn releases his debut album of Bach's Cello Suites in May 2027

2026-09-28T08:51:35.203+01:00

The young German-American cellist Daniel Dorn (born 2008) has just started studying at the Royal Academy of Music with Guy Johnston. He began playing the cello at the age of three, and at ten, he made his orchestral debut as a soloist in Vivaldi’s Cello Concerto in D major (RV 403). Away from music, in 2020, together with his twin brother Max, he was awarded first prize in the Jugend forscht competition in the category Mathematics / Computer Science for their research on twin primes.

In May 2027, Evidence Classics will release Daniel Dorn’s debut album, a journey through three of Bach’s Suites for Solo Cello. The album will present Suites Nos. 1, 2, and 3, while also offering listeners a rare musical curiosity: Robert Schumann’s accompanied version of the Second Suite, performed with Korean pianist Ji-Hwan Hong.

Daniel Dorn plays a Jacob Stainer cello from 1645, and on the video of the Sarabande from Suite No. 2, his "gentle, fluid, and introspective" [Frederik Hanssen, Der Tagesspiegel] style gives a somewhat Romantic take on Bach's music.

Stream the EP [link tree]

Britten's War Requiem: Edward Gardner takes an uncompromising & severe view softened by the poetic attention to the words from soloists in London Philharmonic Orchestra's season opener

2026-09-27T11:16:25.413+01:00

Britten: War Requiem - Edward Gardner, Benjamin Appl, Paul Appleby
London Philharmonic Orchestra (Photo: Andy Paradise)

Britten: War Requiem; Natalya Romaniw, Paul Appleby, Benjamin Appl, London Philharmonic Choir, Tiffin Boys Choir & Girls Choir, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Edward Gardner; Royal Festival Hall
26 September 2027

Edward Gardner emphasises the austerity of Britten's sound world in a performance that contrasted austerity with poetry and only brought warmth and reconciliation in the final moments

London does not have a venue completely suitable for the full forces of Britten's War Requiem (and part of me wonders what the sound was like at that first performance at Coventry Cathedral). But the revitalised Royal Festival Hall now has the requisite space and an acceptable acoustic. So, the massed forces of the London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO), London Philharmonic Choir and London Symphony Chorus filled the Royal Festival Hall stage on Saturday 26 September 2026 for the opening of the LPO's 2026/27 season. Edward Gardner conducted them in Britten's War Requiem with soloists soprano Natalya Romaniw, tenor Paul Appleby and baritone Benjamin Appl, plus the Tiffin Boys Choir and Girls Choir (conductor James Day).

Paul Appleby was standing in for Allan Clayton at short notice; Appleby recently appeared in John Adams' Antony & Cleopatra at the Met in New York, and he has appeared at Glyndebourne as Jonathan (in Handel's Saul, 2015, see my review), Benedict (in Berlioz's Beatrice et Benedict, 2016) and Tamino (in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, 2024).

There was a stark quality to the work's opening with very pointed delivery from the chorus contrasting with the strength of the low instruments in the orchestra, until 'Et lux perpetua' was really hammered out. The children's choir's entry following the climax highlighted one of the limitations of the hall; placed in the balcony their sound was assured but very present. In 'What passing bells', Paul Appleby revealed a vibrant lyric voice, his intent and intense performance placing strong emphasis on the words. In the unaccompanied 'Kyrie' that followed the chorus was magically quiet, but the sound was very present.

Britten: War Requiem - Natalya Romaniw, London Philharmonic Orchestra (Photo: Andy Paradise)

The chorus's delivery opening the 'Dies Irae' was again very marked, and there was a real hard edge to the orchestra. In 'Bugles sang', Benjamin Appl brought stark severity to his lyric line, then Natalya Romaniw made you shiver with her vibrant tone and firm, uncompromising line in 'Liber scriptus'. Appleby and Appl brought out the Kurt Weill echoes in 'Out there, we walked quite friendly up to death' with their vivid rhythms and marked emphasis. The women of the chorus gave a sense of warm line to 'Recordare' contrasting with the way the men spat out 'Confutatis'. Appl was stark and strong in 'Be slowly lifted up' again emphasising the words. A fierce choral outburst for 'Dies irae' led to Romaniw' keening 'Lacrimosa' with a striking use of portamento. This contrasted with Appleby's bleak account of 'Move him, move him' making it all the more profound. The final choral 'Pie jesu' was austere.

Gardner's approach to the work seemed to emphasise the uncompromising qualities of Britten's setting, with much of the performance being strong and stark. He did not dwell, keeping speeds fleet and bringing impetus and energy.

The children were very upfront in 'Domine Jesu Christe' with plenty of attack, then the chorus complemented that with their own terrific vigour along with rhythmic attack in the orchestra for 'Sed signifer sanctus' and 'Quam olim Abrahae'. For 'Isaac and Abram', Appleby and Appl combined vigour with a real sense of developing bitterness and anger at the end, giving a profound contrast with the children's reprise of 'Hostias et preces tibi'.

Britten: War Requiem - Tiffin Boys Choir & Girls Choir, Alex Hamilton (organ), James Day (conductor) - (Photo: Andy Paradise)

The Sanctus began with Romaniw, her delivery vibrant, stark and then the vivid muttering of the chorus leading to a stirring climax. Gardner kept the pace moving for the Benedictus, with Romaniw really hypnotic here, yet still with vibrant tone. Appl's account of 'After the blast of lightning' was uncompromising and very concentrated, again focusing on the words.

In the Agnus Dei, Appleby's account of 'One ever hangs' was intense, with the high tension in his upper register adding to the striking strength of his delivery. There was an eerie start to 'Libera me', the starkness of just chours, bass line and drums building to a terrific climax, the chorus intent and intense. Romaniw was urgent and anxious in 'Tremens factus', then the chorus brought a profound edge to 'Dies illa', leading to a climax of sheer noise and focus, yet with all the details present. Gardner's view of the work might emphasise its concompromising quality, but he drew all the threads in a way the ensured everything was heard. Appleby began 'Strange meeting' with very present tone, intent with a sense of high tension in the voice, and words to the fore. Appl continued with mesmerising bleakness, giving just the right weight to the crucial words 'I am the enemy you killed, my friend'.

Britten: War Requiem - Edward Gardner, London Philharmonic Choir, London Symphony Chorus, London Philharmonic Orchestra (Photo: Andy Paradise)

Britten's War Requiem is never a comfortable work, but here Gardner seemed to bring out a particular uncompromising and severe view, emphasising the austerity of Britten's sound world. All this played into the dryness of the hall's acoustic, there was no comfortable acoustic aura to warm the sound. Yet the two male soloists utilised this to bring out the poetic quality of Britten's word setting, with the final section of the work finally allowing a degree of peace, warmth and reconciliation.

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Elsewhere on this blog

Relishing the challenge: mezzo-soprano Samantha Price on singing her first Dido in Purcell's opera on tour with English Touring Opera - interview
Not quite the sum of its parts: starry casting with Carmen Giannattasio, Saimir Pirgu & Bryn Terfel fails to lift Oxford International Opera's debut with Puccini's Tosca - opera review
A sassy Carmen from Katie Bray: Blackheath Halls Opera's celebratory 20th anniversary production of Bizet's opera - opera review
Between Breath and Brass: Hearing the Sheng in Contemporary London - guest posting
Fogli d'album: Anna Bonitatibus & Adele d'Aronzo explore the barely tapped wealth of Rossini's occasional pieces - record review
Unassuming charm & surprising sophistication: Bampton Classical Opera in the Italian version of Grétry's take on Beauty & the Beast - opera review
Rehearsal studio, study, office, entertaining suite: Handel Hendrix House's celebrates Handel's Brook Street residence - exhibition review
Choral music is flourishing in Taiwan: composer Will Todd on his collaboration with Soochow University Alumni Chorus in Taiwan - guest posting
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Misha Mullov-Abbado on harp, Belgian roots & Finizi anniversaries: CD launches this week

2026-09-26T11:41:19.107+01:00

It has been a busy week for live CD launches. On Wednesday harpists Oliver Wass and Lise Vandermissen had a joint launch at St Pancras Clocktower for Wass's Musica per arpa on Tactus and Vandermissen's Our Roots on Etcetera. Then on Friday, tenor Nick Pritchard and pianist Ian Tindale launched their disc of songs by Gerald Finzi, The Dance Continued on Signum Classics, at St Clement Danes.

Wass and Vandermissen's launch event was a delight because it involved two harps, both played on a modern harp but Vandermissen also played some repertoire on a 1911 Erard. For her latest disc, Our Roots, Vandermissen has turned to her own roots as she is Belgian, with a disc of music by Belgian composers Jeanne Adrienne Kufferath (1874-1919), Felix Godefroid (1818-1872), Jacqueline Fontyn (born 1930) and Vandermissen's own pieces. The styles proved interestingly varied with Kufferath's more salon-like pieces alongside Godefroid (known as the Paganini of the harp!), Fontyn's piece (which was had direct from the composer) which was a catalogue of advanced harp techniques and Vandermissen's own more personal works.

By contrast, Wass's two-disc set on Tactus, Musica per arpa, contrasted three large pieces by Misha Mullov-Abbado with mainly Italian Baroque works by Travaci, Palestrina, Cacini, and Barbara Strozzi, along with works by Tarrega and Elsa Respighi, plus a concerto by Luigi Molinom with Wass being joined by his Pelleas Ensemble (Oliver Wass - harp, Henry Roberts - flute, Luba Tunnicliffe - viola), and Ensemble APM (Luca Vacchetti - conductor).

Mullov-Abbado has written three pieces for Wass over the years and all three are heard on the disc. At the launch we heard Red Ruth for solo harp along with a work for the Pelleas Ensemble, Three Meditation Songs which was written for the ensemble some ten years ago. The Pelleas Ensemble also played two Barbara Strozzi vocal works in imaginative and free arrangements by the ensemble's viola player, Luba Tunnicliffe. As a finale, Wass and Vandermissen gave us a taster of a future project with a work by Oliver Davis for two harps which was written for them.

Earlier this month I chatted to tenor Nick Pritchard and pianist Ian Tindale about their latest disc, Gerald Finzi: The Dance Continued [see my interview] on Signum Classics reflecting the fact that this year is a double Finzi anniversary.

So it was a delight to hear some of the music from the disc performed live at St Clement Danes (in an event supported by Finzi Friends). The church is now the central church of the Royal Air Force, a rather apt venue as Gerald Finzi's friend, the composer Howard Ferguson served in the RAF during the war.

After Finzi's death (in 1956) Ferguson and Finzi's wife Joy created the posthumous song cycles Till Earth outwears Op. 19a and Oh fair to see Op. 13b both of which Pritchard and Tindale performed at the launch. The disc also includes Finzi's 1933 cycle A Young Man's Exhortation, both this and Till Earth outwears are settings of Thomas Hardy.

By contrast Oh fair to see features settings of hardy, Ivor Gurney, Christina Rossetti, Edward Shanks, Robert Bridges and Finzi's close friend Edmund Blunden. The cycle ends with Finzi's last song, a setting of Robert Bridge's Since we loved. But alongside this are two very early songs, and more early songs feature on the disc, all unpublished. All five of these were included in the recital. As Ian Tindale explained, the songs are unpublished for a reason but sufficient time has elapsed that we can explore how these songs reflect both Finzi before his style fully developed along with the moments that look forward to his mature style.

Relishing the challenge: mezzo-soprano Samantha Price on singing her first Dido in Purcell's opera on tour with English Touring Opera

2026-09-26T10:06:17.272+01:00

Purcell: Dido & Aeneas in rehearsal - Michael Lafferty (Aeneas), Samantha Price (Dido) & ensemble - English Touring Opera (Photo: Craig Fuller)

As part of English Touring Opera's (ETO) Autumn season they are performing Purcell's Dido and Aeneas in a double bill with Elena Langer's 2002 opera Ariadne. Ariadne is directed by Anna Morrisey with Jessica Cale in the title role. Dido and Aeneas is directed by Rebecca Meltzer and conducted by Alex Robinson with Michael Lafferty as Aeneas and Samantha Price making her role debut as Dido. A graduate of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and a former Harewood Artist at English National Opera, Samantha sang the role of Romeo in ETO's 2025 production of Bellini's The Capulets & the Montagues [see my review].

When I spoke to Samantha, she was just at the beginning of rehearsals with ETO. Whilst she has not sung the role of Dido before she is familiar with the opera. Not only did she learn the aria (as most young mezzos probably do), but she sang the Sorceress in a production of the opera on the opera course at Dartington Hall (when Dartington College of Arts still existed). She comments that it feels a long time ago. She loves the role of Dido and relishes the challenge of it, particularly as the opera is so well known. She was introduced to the aria early and as a young singer found it useful having something in English.

The production of Dido and Aeneas (which is designed by Alex Berry) will be sharing the set with Ariadne and there is an element of keeping it abstract. The production is not specific to Roman mythology and they are aiming for a timeless feel. They want to present the plot as clearly as possible, particularly as there is not a lot of story. Rebecca Meltzer is working on unpicking the layers of myth and storytelling in the piece. Samantha points out that it is a short opera and Dido does not sing a great deal, with only two arias. There are important recits too, and though these are short they are very dense in plot. The story is very much part of the zeitgeist at the moment what with the release of Christopher Nolan's film, The Odyssey, and the popularising of mythology. This is something that they have been talking about in rehearsals, making the audience feel the sense of the work.

Bellini: The Capulets & the Montagues - Samantha Price (Romeo) - English Touring Opera 2025 (Photo: Richard Hubert Smith)

By contrast, the role of Romeo (which she sang with ETO last year) is massive and far more strenuous. That the two roles presented different challenges to Samantha is something she really enjoys. Based on her experience with Romeo, Samantha is really looking forward to ETO's tour. Dido & Aeneas is being performed in seven venues from 9 October to 21 November. This is rather different to performing in a single venue, where you can get more comfortable with the environment and the logistics, and develop a routine. Samantha thinks that the touring element keeps you on your toes, you have to be extra organised and allow plenty of time on the day.

Every theatre is different and each requires a sound check, and some might need the set to be adjusted. But there is only so much that can be done in the hour or so they have, and she admits that sometimes you find problems in the middle of the show. That said, Samantha quite likes a challenge and feels that it keeps you alert, making sure that you check in with the conductor and colleagues. There is certainly no opportunity to get comfortable and bored.

That ETO brings opera to the whole country is amazing, making it accessible; she feels it is well worth the challenge. It enables her to see such different auditoriums, rather than setting set in the same few theatres. Her tour with ETO last year was the first time she had been in Buxton Opera House.

For Dido, Samantha has been focusing on the storytelling. She feels you need to hone in on the psychological aspect of the role, the change that Dido goes through in order to justify what happens at the end. Samantha wants the audience to be able to see how Dido gets there. She has just gone to see The Odyssey film, and she enjoys delving into the classics. She has been doing a lot of research on the backstory, reading Virgil. For her, this is necessary because the opera's action drops you right in, assuming the audience knows the backstory - what happened to Dido and to Aeneas before the opera, which means also picking apart the opera.

Purcell: Dido & Aeneas in rehearsal - Samantha Price (Dido), Michael Lafferty (Aeneas) - English Touring Opera (Photo: Craig Fuller)

There are reasons why Dido is not in a good place at the start of the opera! Her father died, her brother was murdered and her husband died. In Virgil's poem she takes an oath not to marry again, her Queendom is her priority. All these events make complete sense of what happens in the opera, why she does not initially trust Aeneas. He comes with certain risks, but she is persuaded by the court. Yet he is charming, too good to be true. If these ideas are clear than you have all the more understanding why his betrayal hits her so hard.

At ETO the director has logistical challenges in putting together the staging as they are sharing rehearsal spaces and time schedules with ETO's other production this Autumn, Gluck's Orpheus & Euridice, and some singers are in both operas!

The last few years have seen Gilbert & Sullivan being something of a focus for Samantha, with performances in Princess Ida with National G & S Company, The Yeomen of the Guard at Opera Holland Park [see my review], and Iolanthe at English National Opera [see my review]. She has enjoyed working with artists such as John Savournin (both as singer and director), and regards Cal McCrystal (who directed Iolanthe at ENO) as a genius, he understands exactly what the audience enjoys. Performing in Princess Ida in Buxton was eye-opening for her, as she came to appreciate the Gilbert & Sullivan Festival's loyal fanbase.

But she admits that she just loves performing. She did not grow up with G&S; if anything it was Rodgers & Hammerstein, so G&S is not in her blood. But it is a world that she has enjoyed exploring and which she has a lot of fun with. She enjoys comic acting and singing in English. She regards herself as an actress who loves to sing and enjoys the challenge of dialogue, something you don't get to do in a lot of other opera.

Bizet: Carmen - Samantha Price - Waterperry Opere Festival 2023 (Photo: © Ellie Kurttz)

In 2023 she sang the title role in Bizet's Carmen for Waterperry Opera Festival. The director was Anna Morrisey, who is directing Ariadne for ETO. This summer, Samantha returned to Waterperry for an early evening one-woman show based on the writings and the music of Hildegard of Bingen, directed by Rebecca Meltzer (who directs Dido & Aeneas for ETO). This was an immersive piece, Living Light, using using recordings of Hildegard's writing, atmospheric lighting and more in the church at Waterperry. This wasn't music she had sung before, but they tried to put together an emotional journey, bringing in a bit of calm to busy modern day life.

English Touring Opera's double bill of Elena Langer's Ariadne and Purcell's Dido & Aeneas opens in Sheffield on 9 October and tours to the Hackney Empire (17 October), Buxton Opera House (24 October), Snape Maltings (31 October), Barnstaple (2 November), Malvern (14 November), and Saffron Hall (21 November). Further details.

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

Not quite the sum of its parts: starry casting with Carmen Giannattasio, Saimir Pirgu & Bryn Terfel fails to lift Oxford International Opera's debut with Puccini's Tosca - opera review
A sassy Carmen from Katie Bray: Blackheath Halls Opera's celebratory 20th anniversary production of Bizet's opera - opera review
Between Breath and Brass: Hearing the Sheng in Contemporary London - guest posting
Fogli d'album: Anna Bonitatibus & Adele d'Aronzo explore the barely tapped wealth of Rossini's occasional pieces - record review
Unassuming charm & surprising sophistication: Bampton Classical Opera in the Italian version of Grétry's take on Beauty & the Beast - opera review
Rehearsal studio, study, office, entertaining suite: Handel Hendrix House's celebrates Handel's Brook Street residence - exhibition review
Choral music is flourishing in Taiwan: composer Will Todd on his collaboration with Soochow University Alumni Chorus in Taiwan - guest posting
Be still, and know that I am God: Choral Contemplations - Sacred Introits & Duets from Phoenix Consort on Convivium Records - record review
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An exploration of how songs and music can have the unique ability to bring humans and cultures closer together: Sinfonia Cymru's Songs We Carry

2026-09-25T15:20:13.926+01:00

Songs We Carry - Patrick Rimes, Ana Silvera, Saied Silbak - Sinfonia Cymru

Ladino song, Arabic music and Welsh folksong: Songs We Carry, Sinfonia Cymru's latest cross-cultural project brings together singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Ana Silvera, composer, singer and oud player Saied Silbak and Welsh composer and fiddler Patrick Rimes with four Sinfonia Cymru musicians to bring Welsh music into dialogue with Ladino, Arabic, Turkish and European influences.

The programme arises out of an earlier Songs We Carry project where Silvera, and Silbak together explored their inherited music, the stories it carries and its power to connect people across cultures [see review of their 2024 show on The ArtsDesk]. The programme was inspired by family history: Ana Silvera's family history as Jewish refugees of the Spanish Inquisition, who resettled in Aleppo (then part of the Ottoman Empire) in the 18th century, and Saied Silbak's journey from his Palestinian hometown of Shafaa’mr in the Lower Galilee to London.

The new programme includes new arrangements by Patrick Rimes of Ana Silvera and Saied Silbak’s music, performing the Ladino and Arabic songs alongside Rimes' Welsh folksongs. Together, it creates a powerful celebration of our diverse and shared musical traditions and the beauty of cultural exchange. An exploration of how songs and music can have the unique ability to bring humans and cultures closer together.

Ana Silvera explains: "My ancestors were Jewish refugees, and our Ladino songs had almost disappeared. The Ladino language is now recognised by UNESCO as an endangered language. Songs We Carry was my opportunity to share Ladino music and language with new audiences, revealing its beauty and its power to connect us. I’m excited to bring it to Wales, a country that’s home to a thriving minority language, and a nation that is so passionate about sharing its Welsh language and story through song"

Songs We Carry opens at Riverfront, Newport on 7 October and then tours to The Globe, Cardiff, Mwldan, Cardigan, Theatr Clwyd, Mold, and Wiltshire Music Centre, Bradford-on-Avon with dates in London and Southampton next year.

Full details from the Sinfonia Cymru website.

Not quite the sum of its parts: starry casting with Carmen Giannattasio, Saimir Pirgu & Bryn Terfel fails to lift Oxford International Opera's debut with Puccini's Tosca

2026-09-25T13:08:25.362+01:00

Puccini: Tosca (Act Three) - Carmen Giannattasio, Saimir Pirgu - Oxford International Opera (Photo: Chris Christodoulou)

Puccini: Tosca; Carmen Giannattasio, Saimir Pirgu, Bryn Terfel, director: P Burton-Morgan, Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra, conductor: Marios Papadopoulos; Oxford International Opera at New Theatre, Oxford
Reviewed 24 September 2026

The debut performance of a new company proves rather a frustrating experience. Star casting and strong individual performances fail to cohere into a satisfying overall operatic drama

Oxford used to be a regular stopping off point for Glyndebourne Touring Opera (remember them?) and Welsh National Opera, but now home-grown professional companies are springing up to fill the voice. Oxford Opera Company debuted in 2018 (with Tosca) and now has an annual production focusing on young artists. Now they have been joined by Oxford International Opera (OIO).

OIO launched under the auspices of the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra (OPO) and its musical director Marios Papadopoulos, with Sir Bryn Terfel as artistic director. And Terfel's name seems to have attracted other star names too. The company's debut production is Puccini's Tosca at the New Theatre Oxford (seen 24 September with a second performance on 26 September). P Burton-Morgan directed and Marios Papadopoulos conducted the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra, with designs by Anthony Lamble. Tosca was Carmen Giannattasio, Cavaradossi was Saimir Pirgu, Scarpia was Bryn Terfel with Jamie Woollard as Angelotti, Sion Goronwy as the sacristan and Peter van Hulle as Spoletta.

The setting was resolutely contemporary with Bryn Terfel's Scarpia wandering around with armed heavies. The set for Act One seemed to evoke the designs of Italian brutalist architect Carlo Scarpa (1906-1978) and the sets for the remaining acts utilised the same basic structure. One theatrical element: a false proscenium containing lights that changed colour at crucial moments in the action.

Puccini: Tosca (Act One) - Bryn Terfel - Oxford International Opera (Photo: Alex Brenner)

Burton-Morgan's production seemed to create a different mood in each act. In Act One relations between Tosca (Carmen Giannattasio) and Cavaradossi (Saimir Pirgu) were played quite lightly and many of the histrionic outbursts from Giannattasio's Tosca provoked laughter in the audience, something I have not come across before. Yet in Act Two we seemed to have moved on to Hollywood Noir with both Giannattasio's Tosca and Terfel's Scarpia seemingly encouraged to over-act of at least up the histrionic quotient. Act Three was more abstract, a solo clarinettist appeared on stage during Pirgu's 'E lucevan le stelle'; the shepherd boy having sung his aria carrying a red balloon, this launched into the air after Tosca's death; her death itsef was shied away from, we saw Giannattasio mount the balcony then black, though something red did fall. The result seemed conceptual and rather leaned into the fragmented nature of this act.

The New Theatre does not have a significant pit and OPO (at full strength with 40 strings) spilled over into the stalls. The orchestra was a significant visual factor in the evening. From the opening chords it was clear that Marios Papadopoulos loved Tosca, perhaps too much. He had a tendency to linger longingly over phrases and for all the beauties of his approach the performance lacked real impetus. Speeds were slow, and whilst this gave space for the soloists, the dramatic portions of this most dramatic of operas lacked urgency. Ultimately we ended up with a series of strong solo performances that did not cohere into a drama.

Carmen Giannattasio was a relative light-voiced Tosca. but her voice and her strong stage presence always told. Though she has done projects with Opera Rara, Giannattasio is not a regular enough face in the UK and her last Covent Garden appearance was in 2017, so her appearance as Tosca was most welcome. In Act One she was less the diva and more the jealous girlfriend, light and appealing but dangerous. In Act Two her histrionics counted against her and it is a shame that we did not have a stronger directorial hand to encourage her to realise that less is more. However, 'Vissi d'arte' was very fine indeed, beautifully sung, and the ending of the act moving In Act Three, her eager manner returned to poignant effect.

Puccini: Tosca - Saimir Pirgu, Carmen Giannattasio - Oxford International Opera (Photo: Chris Christodoulou)

Saimir Pirgu made a lithe and engaging Cavaradossi. In Act One his devil-may-care attitude played against Giannattasio's histrionics to create the sense of comedy. His voice blossomed at the big moments and in Act Two he made sure to gives us plenty of tone for 'Vittoria' (along with the requisite tenorial staggering), before going on to mix defiance with devil-may-care. In Act Three, 'E lucevan le stelle' was musical, and he made the death believable.

There was a real sense of malign glee to Bryn Terfel's Scarpia and I had a horrible feeling it was supposed to evoke Donald Trump (complete with suit and red tied). His delivery felt too over-emphatic, too contrived. Perhaps in a period setting with strong atmosphere this might have worked. But in the contemporary setting this Scarpia veered too far towards the comicbook villain.

Vocally he was impressive in the Te Deum, though his vibrato is now far wider than it used to be, yet overall the performance did not bring shivers down the spine. In Act Two, he and Giannattasio sparred with each other in an over-the-top manner worthy of Hollywood greats. Burton-Morgan's production had many thoughtful and interesting details, and Terfel's Scarpia was a highly detailed performance, especially in Act Two (though having him constantly fiddling with his phone did not really add anything). But I had rather wished that Burton-Morgan had had a firmly hand with her performers.

The smaller roles were all well taken. Peter van Hulle (replacing Colin Judson) as Spoletta was a vividly nasty character, very much the apparatchik sidekick. Jamie Woollard made Angelotti rather touching and he did not overdo the physical representation of his distress, keeping it in the voice. Sion Goronwy was a deliberately comic Sacristan, using his bulk to comic effect in a series of vivid, yet overdone interactions with Pirgu's Cavaradossi, Terfel's Scarpia and the choirboys (Radley College Choristers). Misha Gerko was the boy treble Shepherd Boy. His voice was miked, which was a mistake and you rather regretted that the production had not used a female soprano as Puccini expected. Blaise Malaba was a suitably nasty Sciarrone, taking on some of his master's glee, with Robert Winslade Anderson as the jailor.

Anthony Lamble's set for Act One might have looked terrific but it meant that the ending of the act was frustring in its lack of liturgical logic. This left the OIO Chorus rather lacking purpose here (and you wondered whether anyone on the OIO production team had ever attended a Roman Catholic service). However, the chorus did make a strong musical contribution to proceedings. The Radley choristers were a lively bunch, however they rather lacked volume or projection in their crucial scene.

At full strength, the OPO's contribution to the evening certainly was not negligible. Yet it is not an opera orchestra and collectively Tosca would be an unfamiliar score. This told in many small details. Yet they have a strong relationship with Marios Papadopoulos and for better or worse responded to his direction.

Puccini: Tosca - Saimir Pirgu - Oxford International Opera (Photo: Chris Christodoulou)

This was a somewhat frustrating evening. There were many good elements to the performance, interesting ideas and strong individual performances yet overall the results did not quite coalesce into a satisfying whole. The company boasted a strong rota of covers (Paula Sides, Luis Gomes and Eddie Wade) and it was a shame that they could not benefit from a performance too.

OIO will be back in May 2028 with Beethoven's Fidelio. Let us hope the company learns to focus more on cohesive drama and less on star names.

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Elsewhere on this blog

A sassy Carmen from Katie Bray: Blackheath Halls Opera's celebratory 20th anniversary production of Bizet's opera - opera review
Between Breath and Brass: Hearing the Sheng in Contemporary London - guest posting
Fogli d'album: Anna Bonitatibus & Adele d'Aronzo explore the barely tapped wealth of Rossini's occasional pieces - record review
Unassuming charm & surprising sophistication: Bampton Classical Opera in the Italian version of Grétry's take on Beauty & the Beast - opera review
Rehearsal studio, study, office, entertaining suite: Handel Hendrix House's celebrates Handel's Brook Street residence - exhibition review
Choral music is flourishing in Taiwan: composer Will Todd on his collaboration with Soochow University Alumni Chorus in Taiwan - guest posting
Be still, and know that I am God: Choral Contemplations - Sacred Introits & Duets from Phoenix Consort on Convivium Records - record review
Seeing & hearing: Ben Goldscheider plays Brian Elias's Touching the Quick as part of Anish Kapoor exhibition at Hayward Gallery - concert review
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A sassy Carmen from Katie Bray in Blackheath Halls Opera's celebratory 20th anniversary production of Bizet's opera

2026-09-24T07:51:52.152+01:00

Bizet: Carmen - Katie Bray, Oliver Johnston - Blackheath Halls Opera (Photo: Julian Guidera)

Bizet: Carmen; Katie Bray, Oliver Johnston, Meeta Raval, Chuma Sijeqa, director: Harry Fehr, conductor: Christopher Stark, Blackheath Halls Opera; Blackheath Halls
Reviewed 22 September 2026

Blackheath Halls Opera celebrates 20 years by returning to the first opera they performed, Carmen, with Katie Bray making her role debut as terrific, sassy Carmen and Oliver Johnston a powerful Don Jose.

For its 20th anniversary production, Blackheath Halls Opera returned to the work they first started with, Bizet's Carmen. The work has a meaty part for the chorus, but Blackheath has never been lacking in ambition nor the ability to enable amateur chorus members (and orchestral musicians) to rise to the challenge.

The production was directed by Harry Fehr who has a long association with the company [he directed the 2024 production of Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana with Oliver Johnston as Turiddu, see my review]. The conductor was Christopher Stark, the company's musical director. Set designs were by Elliott Squire, with costumes by Alice McNicholas. The movement director was Victoria Newlyn. We caught the second performance at Blackheath Halls on 22 September 2026.

Katie Bray was Carmen, Oliver Johnston was Don Jose, Chuma Sijeqa was Escamillo, Meeta Raval was Micaela, Grant Doyle was Zuniga and Tom Butler was Morales. Frasquita, Mércèdes, Remendado and Dancaire were Clare Mariotti, Ilona Nastase, Jacq Herbots, and Zac Conibear, all vocal students at Trinity Laban. The company was made up of the Blackheath Halls Chorus, Blackheath Halls Orchestra and Blackheah Halls Opera Youth Company, all three community enterprises.

Bizet: Carmen - Meeta Raval - Blackheath Halls Opera (Photo: Julian Guidera)

The opera was sung in Christopher Cowell's English translation first produced for ENO (for Calixto Bieito's production). Rhyming yet with plenty of demotic elements, the language proved to be direct and not too contrived. All concerned seemed to project the words admirably.

The opera comique version was used, so Guiraud recitatives, though Fehr had cut the dialogue to the bone (as often happens). Instead, there had clearly been a lot of work with the singers on interaction and body language. When Katie Bray's Carmen threw the flower at Oliver Johnston's Don Jose there was none of the usual flirty language, and instead it was all in the eyes and body language. Similarly Grant Doyle's Zuniga used his body to impress himself on all and sundry.

The orchestra was place on the hall's stage and was beautifully lit by Malcolm Richards so that they formed a lovely backdrop to the action. The main set was an amphitheatre with colonnade around the top, yet any element of grandeur was undercut by the profusion of street art covering it, including Carmen's name and we learned during the production that Don Jose was responsible for this. The fixed set formed a flexible setting for all the opera and allowed Fehr space for the chorus. At the end of Act Four they remained on-stage to sing the off-stage choruses whilst Don Jose and Carmen had their final confrontation. A challenge that the chorus members did not all quite manage to bring off.

Bizet: Carmen - Oliver Johnston, Meeta Raval - Blackheath Halls Opera (Photo: Julian Guidera)

In many ways it was a spare production, without an excess of props and scene setting. It was more about people and things. Costumes were largely modern day and the soldiers were in uniforms that suggested the setting was Spain rather than the UK, but the Spanish elements were played down except for Chuma Sijeqa's Escamillo and that is something hard to avoid. Fehr very effectively transferred the action to the modern day without any particular violence to the drama, and some of his details were very effective. The soldiers in Act One were distinctly violent with the populace and the factory workers were hardly different. As I have seen in other productions recently, the opening chorus from Act Four was omitted jumping straight to the chorus reacting to the parade.

The choreography by Victoria Newlyn avoided hackneyed Spanishism but there was dance when needed in Act Two. The three women successfully suggested movement and the need to dance to the music, developing into an expressive solo for Katie Bray where movement and music mixed.

Katie Bray made a rather sassy Carmen. Elegant yet feisty, there was something controlled about her. Bray's use of body language and stillness was striking and you felt that this Carmen enjoyed disconcerting people and watching. For instance in moments such as her initial (wordless) encounter with Oliver Johnston's Don Jose was telling. Fehr and Bray sidestepped the issue of the character's projection of rampant sexuality by bringing into the mix the idea that Carmen is a singer. There was something performative about the Habanera, whilst the opening of Act Two was done as a cabaret number. Yet, Bray sang with such elegance and passion that this hardly mattered. Whilst her Carmen was feisty and fought when necessary, I was also reminded of a description of Victoria de los Angeles in the role, that she was wonderfully elegant but you knew she had a stilletto concealed in her garter. The card scene was done completely seriously, yet you never felt a lurch in atmosphere, it was all part of the same character arc.

We saw Oliver Johnston as Don Jose at Opera Holland Park in 2022 [see my review] and his traversal of the role remains powerful and highly musical. Johnston has the heft in his voice to encompass the role's big moments, and the climaxes were indeed terrific, but he can also fine his tone down. Perhaps lacking a little in subtlety but that is the point, this Don Jose is an ordinary (and rather dim) man who gets caught up. What Johnston projected was the way Don Jose was ill equipped to deal with complex emotions. This Don Jose was rarely violent but given Johnston's stature and the difference in size to Katie Bray's Carmen and you had a potent force. Their confrontation in Act Three was powerful, though perhaps not gut wrenching, whilst Fehr staged the opera's final scene with maximum and shocking violence. This Carmen really fought back.

Bizet: Carmen - Chuma Sijeqa - Blackheath Halls Opera (Photo: Julian Guidera)

Chuma Sijeqa made an engaging Escamillo, this character radiated bonhomie and clearly loved the attention his celebrity brought him. It helps that Sijeqa has the voice for the role with a vibrant yet flexible top and a lower register that does not disappear. Ideal in many ways and very much part of the drama. Meeta Raval was a demure Micaela, yet with a sense of innate strength underneath which was underlined but the power in her voice. For much of the time, this Micaela was wound up tight as a string. Raval and Johnston made the Act One duet rather less tentative than usual and in Act Three Raval's demeanour seemed slightly at odds with the intensity of her voice.

In some productions, Zuniga barely contributes to the drama but Grant Doyle made him vividly alive and definitely something of a boor. Body language alone ensured that we understood Zuniga's fixation with Carmen and her disinterest. Something that made the events of Act Two more obvious. Tom Butler's Morales was a similarly strong presence, made all the more significant as Butler sang in Blackheath's youth chorus as a boy.

Frasquita, Mércèdes, Remendado and Dancaire were all played by Trinity Laban Vocal Students - Clare Mariotti, Ilona Nastase, Jacq Herbots, Zac Conibear - which meant that they looked significantly younger than the principal characters and Fehr's production really leaned into this. Mariotti and Nastase made a terrific double act as Carmen's friends, looking up to her, and then in the card scene their engaging chatter made just the right contrast with Bray's serious drama. Herbots and Conibear played the smugglers with dead-pan seriousness. There was no hint of Opera Comique comedy here and no silly accents though their dialogue still felt as if it needed a bit of work.

Bizet: Carmen - Chuma Sijeqa, Katie Bray - Blackheath Halls Opera (Photo: Julian Guidera)

The chorus part was challenging not so much for the music as for the way the chorus has to play multiple roles. The Blackheath chorus grasped all this with vivid enthusiasm, and made a distinctly strong presence. There was some fine singing, and I was particularly taken with the men's incarnation of the soldiers in Act One. There were two women tenors who formed very effective guards in Act One, and a male alto who proved to be the factory women's gay best friend.

The youth chorus was equally engaging, and in Act One they were just as badly behaved as the adult characters, to great effect. There were roles for individual chorus members too. Stella Paskins was Lillas Pastia who got to shoot Grant Doyle's Zuniga (off stage). Carolyn Williamson was Manuelita, the factory worker fighting with Carmen, and Philippa Keogh was Micaela's guide.

If Christopher Stark's speeds sometimes felt a tad steady, then this was understandable. The orchestra entered into the music with a will and there were some fine instrumental solos.

This year marks another watershed for the company as Rose Ballantyne, their long-time producer, is retiring. Blackheath Halls Opera is a community and social enterprise and the celebrations for their 20th anniversary bring home quite what strong affection those involved have for the company. It isn't just about getting people singing, though that is a very big part of what they do, but also the wider company enterprise. But in the theatre, none of this mattered and what the company gave us was a terrific evening in the theatre, showcasing some fine performances from the principals.

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Elsewhere on this blog

Between Breath and Brass: Hearing the Sheng in Contemporary London - guest posting
Fogli d'album: Anna Bonitatibus & Adele d'Aronzo explore the barely tapped wealth of Rossini's occasional pieces - record review
Unassuming charm & surprising sophistication: Bampton Classical Opera in the Italian version of Grétry's take on Beauty & the Beast - opera review
Rehearsal studio, study, office, entertaining suite: Handel Hendrix House's celebrates Handel's Brook Street residence - exhibition review
Choral music is flourishing in Taiwan: composer Will Todd on his collaboration with Soochow University Alumni Chorus in Taiwan - guest posting
Be still, and know that I am God: Choral Contemplations - Sacred Introits & Duets from Phoenix Consort on Convivium Records - record review
Seeing & hearing: Ben Goldscheider plays Brian Elias's Touching the Quick as part of Anish Kapoor exhibition at Hayward Gallery - concert review
Gerald Finzi: The Dance Continued - tenor Nick Pritchard & pianist Ian Tindale on their love for a composer whose work has followed them since their early collaboration at college - interview
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Beyond the concert hall: NYCOS Singing Time launches in primary schools & NYCOS BSL Youth Choir makes debut at opening ceremony of Scottish Parliament

2026-09-23T07:42:28.135+01:00

Primary Fours in West Primary School, Paisley with NYCOS Artistic Director and Founder Christopher Bell (with the hat), NYCOS Singing Time presenter Holly Clelland (with the red hair) and acclaimed Scottish tenor Nicky Spence (with the red tie)

This year the National Youth Choir of Scotland (NYCOS) celebrated its 30th anniverary, the choir launched a variety of intiatives that go well beyond the concert all.

As NYCOS Singing Time launched in primary schools across Scotland from September, providing free access to songs, singing games and teaching resources designed to bring the joy of singing into classrooms nationwide, NYCOS Artistic Director and Founder Christopher Bell, NYCOS Singing Time presenter Holly Clelland and Scottish tenor Nicky Spence joined Primary Fours in West Primary School, Paisley to celebrate the launch.

Created as the centrepiece of NYCOS's 30th anniversary celebrations, the initiative brings together three decades of expertise in youth singing, musicianship and music education. Featuring 15 songs and accompanying singing games, the resource is designed to help children experience the joy of singing while developing musical understanding through play. The films were directed and edited by Lewis Landini and feature three young presenters – Connor Going, Holly Clelland, and Tawana Maramba.

The launch comes at a time when many teachers report feeling less confident about teaching singing and music in the classroom, while opportunities for young people to sing together have declined. NYCOS Singing Time aims to remove those barriers by providing a free, easy-to-use resource that can be accessed by any primary school, regardless of musical experience or budget.

Based on the Kodály principles that have shaped NYCOS's educational approach for three decades, the resource uses games, movement and age-appropriate repertoire to help children absorb musical concepts naturally and joyfully. The songs span a range of traditions and languages, including English, Scots and Gaelic, reflecting both Scotland's cultural heritage and NYCOS's belief that singing should be open and accessible to all.

On 16 September, NYCOS launched a new Glasgow Regional Choir, expanding its network of regional choirs and creating opportunities for even more young people to sing regularly in their local communities.

Earlier this year, the organisation launched the NYCOS BSL Youth Choir bringing together Deaf and hearing young people from across Scotland in what is believed to be the first ensemble of its kind in Scotland. Developed in partnership with leading accessible music practitioner Paul Whittaker OBE, the choir enables young British Sign Language users aged 14-18 to experience the creativity, connection and shared expression of choral performance through sign language. The ensemble made its debut at the Opening Ceremony of the Scottish Parliament on 27th June 2026.

NYCOS BSL Youth Choir in a landmark performance at the Opening Ceremony of the Scottish Parliament on Saturday 27 June 2026 (Photo: Andrew Cowan/Scottish Parliament, © Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body)

The celebrations culminated with NYCOS's 30th anniversary tour and a landmark gala performance at Edinburgh's Usher Hall on 13th September. At the heart of the programme was Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana, a work that holds a special place in NYCOS history as the first major piece performed by the choir when it was founded in 1996, then comprised of only 60 singers. In August 2026, the choir performed the work in Paisley, Aberdeen and Perth alongside regional choirs from across the country. The gala performance at Usher Hall will bring together 170 young singers with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

Between Breath and Brass: Hearing the Sheng in Contemporary London

2026-09-23T07:33:00.538+01:00

Julia Luo playing the sheng at the
London International Chinese Music Festival

The sheng is mouth-blown reed instrument that is one of the oldest Chinese instruments with images of it dating back to 1100BCE.

It is an instrument that can look deceptively still. Held vertically in front of the player, its pipes rise from a small wind chamber; the hands move, but often without the immediately visible physical drama of a string player’s bow or a percussionist’s attack. Yet the sound it produces is anything but static. It breathes, bends, overlaps and changes colour with remarkably small adjustments from the player.

For Julia Luo, a Chinese musician now developing her performance practice in London, learning to hear those details has involved moving between two rather different instrumental worlds.

Luo originally trained as a euphonium player at Xinghai Conservatory of Music before completing postgraduate study in music education in Britain. The sheng entered her musical life alongside that Western brass training, rather than replacing it. She studied the instrument with Luo Qixuan, a representative inheritor of Guangdong Han music, and over time the two instruments began to shape the way she approached one another.

At first sight, the pairing seems improbable. The euphonium belongs comfortably within the architecture of the Western wind band and brass tradition: long melodic lines, controlled projection, blended ensemble sound and a highly standardised relationship between notation and execution. The sheng, one of China’s oldest free-reed instruments, carries a different history of sound and musical gesture.

But both begin with breath.

That common physical principle has become increasingly important in Luo’s work. On the euphonium, breath supports a phrase and gives it direction. On the sheng, breathing is part of the instrument’s continuous mechanism: sound can be produced through both inhalation and exhalation. The result is a different sense of musical continuity. A line does not necessarily have to stop where a brass player expects to breathe.

This difference becomes particularly interesting when the sheng moves into contemporary ensemble music.

In August, Luo performed as part of the fourth London International Chinese Music Festival, appearing with the UK Chinese Orchestra in programmes that placed traditional Chinese instruments alongside new and recent composition. Among the works performed was Michael Ellison’s Curve, receiving its UK premiere.

Ellison’s music provided a useful example of a question that extends well beyond a single piece: what happens when an instrument carrying its own performance traditions enters a contemporary score?

For the performer, the answer is not simply a matter of playing the written notes.

The sheng has a vocabulary of pitch movement, articulation and ornament that does not always map neatly onto Western notation. A grace note on the page, for example, may identify an event without fully describing its weight, speed or relationship to the principal note. Similarly, a curved or sliding gesture can suggest movement between pitches, but the musical character of that movement depends on how the player shapes the breath and how the instrument responds.

This is where rehearsal becomes part of the creative process.

Julia Luo with composer Michael Ellison
London International Chinese Music Festival

Luo was not the soloist in Curve; she played within the sheng section of the ensemble. That position is significant. Much of the encounter between musical traditions happens not through spectacular solo moments but through the quieter business of balancing colour, articulation and timing inside an ensemble.

A sheng player reading a contemporary score is constantly making small decisions. How prominent should an ornament become? Should a pitch movement sound decorative, structural or almost vocal? How sharply should a note speak? How should a traditional instrumental gesture behave when it is surrounded by a completely different harmonic and timbral environment?

None of these questions necessarily requires abandoning notation. Rather, they reveal where notation stops being the whole story.

For Luo, this is also where her euphonium background becomes unexpectedly useful. Years of orchestral and wind-band playing created habits of listening horizontally across an ensemble: matching attacks, balancing chords, finding a place within a section and responding to a conductor’s larger conception of the music. The sheng asks her to bring those habits into contact with another set of instincts — ones concerned with ornament, flexibility of pitch and a different relationship between breath and musical gesture.

The interesting territory lies between the two.

It would be easy to describe this simply as “fusion”, but that word can flatten the process. What is happening in rehearsal is often less about combining two finished musical systems than about musicians learning how another instrument thinks. The productive moments are frequently small: a composer asking what a gesture can physically do; a performer finding that a familiar notation produces an unfamiliar result; an ensemble adjusting its balance because the sheng occupies a different acoustic space from the instruments around it.

London provides an unusually active setting for these encounters. Chinese instruments can now be heard not only in programmes devoted to traditional repertoire, but increasingly in new works, mixed ensembles and projects where their presence is not treated as an exotic interruption. For performers, that creates both opportunity and responsibility. The instrument has to retain enough of its own identity to remain meaningful, while also becoming flexible enough to participate in musical situations its earlier repertoire could never have anticipated.

Luo’s own path between euphonium and sheng makes that negotiation particularly tangible. The two instruments do not need to be reconciled into a single style. Instead, each sharpens her hearing of the other. Brass training makes her attentive to ensemble architecture, breath planning and projection; the sheng makes her more conscious of the spaces between written symbols and performed sound.

Perhaps that is the more interesting form of cross-cultural exchange: not the moment when two traditions are declared to have merged, but the slower process by which one way of listening begins to alter another.

For a sheng player in contemporary London, that process is still unfolding — one rehearsal, one new score and one breath at a time.

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Elsewhere on this blog

Fogli d'album: Anna Bonitatibus & Adele d'Aronzo explore the barely tapped wealth of Rossini's occasional pieces - record review
Unassuming charm & surprising sophistication: Bampton Classical Opera in the Italian version of Grétry's take on Beauty & the Beast - opera review
Rehearsal studio, study, office, entertaining suite: Handel Hendrix House's celebrates Handel's Brook Street residence - exhibition review
Choral music is flourishing in Taiwan: composer Will Todd on his collaboration with Soochow University Alumni Chorus in Taiwan - guest posting
Be still, and know that I am God: Choral Contemplations - Sacred Introits & Duets from Phoenix Consort on Convivium Records - record review
Seeing & hearing: Ben Goldscheider plays Brian Elias's Touching the Quick as part of Anish Kapoor exhibition at Hayward Gallery - concert review
Gerald Finzi: The Dance Continued - tenor Nick Pritchard & pianist Ian Tindale on their love for a composer whose work has followed them since their early collaboration at college - interview
BBC Proms: Bach's Mass in B minor writ large as Arcangelo give us choral bravura at Royal Albert Hall - concert review
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London Opera Company returns to Smith Square with full-scale performance of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde

2026-09-22T09:55:56.171+01:00

Wagner's Die Walküre - The London Opera Company at Smith Square Hall in 2023

Following sold out performances of Götterdammerung, Die Walküre [see my review] and Siegfried [see Tony's review], the London Opera Company is back at Smith Square Hall on Sunday 18 October 2026 for a performance of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde. The cast includes Neal Cooper as Tristan, Cara McHardy as Isolde, Simon Thorpe as King Marke, Harriet Williams as Brangäne and Ronald Samm as Melot.

Peter Selwyn conducts. Selwyn conducted Der fliegende Holländer at Opera Holland Park last year [see my review] which featured Neal Cooper (London Opera Company's Tristan) as Erik. Cooper also sang the title role in Siegfried in Grimeborn Festival's production of Wagner's opera in 2022 [see my review]. Cara McHardy who sings Isolde, has performed Brünnhilde and Isolde for London Opera Company.

The cast will be joined by an orchestra led by Katherine Shave made up of a core of professionals playing alongside the best post-graduates from London’s top music colleges, and passionate Wagner-loving players from London’s top amateur orchestras. The 25-strong chorus also mixes professionals and amateurs, with Lindsay Bramley as chorus director.

Full details from the Sinfonia Smith Square website.

OutLoud! a new company amplifying queer stories launches with fun, campy production of Humperdinck's Hansel & Gretel

2026-09-22T09:16:24.598+01:00

Mae Heydorn as the Witch (Photo: Julian Guidera)

A new opera company is presenting its inaugural production at the Cockpit in Marylebone next month. OutLoud! is performing Engelbert Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel on Saturday 17 and Sunday 18 October. The family friendly production is reduced to 60 minutes duration (interval free) and sung in English. Hansel and Gretel is directed by William Byram and the musical director is Adam Dickson, with designs by Jackie Crier.

The production features Rozanna Madylus as Hansel, Anna Gregg as Gretel and Mae Heydorn in the triple role of Mother, Witch and Sandman. There will also be 11 young artists from BWA Performing Arts, a South London dance school. The result is planned to be a 'fun, campy production'!

This production marks the launch of a new opera company that aims to amplify queer stories through reworkings of the canon and the performance and commission of new works by LGBTQ+ composers, writers, and creative teams.

Full details from the Cockpit's website.

Fogli d'album: Anna Bonitatibus & Adele d'Aronzo explore the barely tapped wealth of Rossini's occasional pieces

2026-09-22T08:48:25.928+01:00

Rossini - Fogli d'album; Anna Bonitatibus, Adele d'Aronzo; Prospero
Reviewed 22 September 2026

Rossini's occasional pieces, each dedicated to a friend and patron, brought together in a wonderfully fulfilling recital that wears its learning lightly

Rossini's Guillaume Tell premiered at the Paris Opera in 1829. The effort of composing it left him exhausted but within a year he was planning an operatic treatment of the Faust story. However, the revolution of July 1830 ushered in a new regime under Louis Philippe I and Rossini's lifetime annuity was cut. Any thought of new opera was on hold. This combined with persistent ill-health meant he never returned to large-scale operatic composition.

His years of retirement in Paris with his new mistress, Olympe Pélissier, left Rossini's wife, Isabella Colbran in Italy where she ended up living with Rossini's father and dying in 1845.

Rossini's didn't give up large compositions altogether and we have the Stabat Mater (begun in 1831 and completed in 1841), and the Petite Messe Solennelle (from 1864), plus his cantata Giovanna d'Arco (written in 1832 for Olympe and revised in 1859). But his main compositional activity was smaller pieces, collected together in Les soirées musicales (1830-1835) and Péchés de vieillesse, an astonishing collection of some 150 vocal, chamber and solo piano pieces.

Though the late 1830s and 1840s were something of a fallow period, compositionally, it seems that he never really lost the habit of composition. In addition to the above there are a myriad of other pieces, largely songs and piano works, often quite short.

This new album from mezzo-soprano Anna Bonitatibus and pianist Adele d'Aronzo on Prospero, Rossini - Fogli d'album explores the barely tapped wealth of Rossini's occasional pieces. The disc draws together some 34 pieces, largely vocal and some very short, which Rossini dedicated to musicians, friends, politicians, artists, noblemen and noblewomen. Some 26 of the pieces are first recordings, and the performers aimed to be faithful to the autograph source or earliest printed source available.

The songs are performed in chronological order, where possible, so we begin in 1801 in Bologna and end in Paris in 1867 where the elderly composer was editing a piano piece, La plainte by Ninette Nicolo (1814-1876) whose father, the composer Nicolo (1773-1818) was admired by Rossini. In between we have a mixture, pieces written for friends alongside those dedicated to performers and to Royalty. Tutta Forza, a pieno Petto, senza Freno, for instance, is dedicated to the Bolognese tenor Giovanni Solieri, a mere four bars written in Florence in 1851/52. (Solieri had been in the choir for the premiere of the Stabat Mater in 1842).

There is nothing particularly operatic here, and any coloratura is kept firmly within bounds. But some pieces have operatic links. The arietta Quai voci, qui note (1813), dedicated to Adelaide Malanotti (the first Tancredi), features verses by Luigi Leche in whose archive it was found alongside a new finale for Tancredi. Rossini even includes little pointers to the opera. Infelice ch'io son (from 1821, Naples) uses a theme from Maometto II (1820, Naples) and judging by the writing may have been written for Colbran. And there is a second setting, dating from Rossini and Colbran's time in Vienna in 1822. La separazione (from 1851-1856) is dedicated to his pupil the contralto Corinna De Luigi (a specialist in trouser roles) who premiered it in Paris in 1856.

Un'empia mel rapi (from 1824, London) recycles a moment from Ermione. This opera premiered in Naples in 1819 and failed, though Rossini returned to the music and recycled it. The text is by the librettist of Ermione, Andrea Tottola, and the autograph appears in an album of the celebrated pianist and composer Maria Szymanowska (1789-1831). A later version (undated) was dedicated to the French composer Auguste Vincent (1829-1888).

A setting of Mi lagnero tacendo is evidently written as a humorous response to a setting of the text by Neapolitan composer Michele Carafa (1787-1872) with whom Rossini collaborated on Mose in Egitto. Francesca da Rimini (from 1848-1855, Florence) sets lines from Dante and dedicated to 'Milord Vernon', probably the Dante scholar Lord John Warren Vernon (1803-1866) and the piece appeared in Vernon's edition of Inferno (published in 1865 in London and Florence). A tiny eight-bar Mi lagnero tacendo (from 1850s) seems to be dedicated to Giovanni Pacini (1796-1867) with whom Rossini wrote Mathilde de Shabran. A further Mi lagnero tacendo (from 1857, Passy) is dedicated to the soprano Dolores Nau who sang in Berlioz's French version of Weber's Der Freischutz and Urbain in Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots.

La passagietta (from 1831, Madrid) is dedicated to Her Majesty Maria Cristina of Bourbon and was written in Spain where Rossini met the royal family. Odia la pastorella (from 1836, Paris) is dedicated to the Crown Prince of Sweden and Norway, Oscar Bernadotte (1799-1859). Setting Metastasio (from Issipile, 1732) the canzonetta was seeming written for the prince to sing.

A Waltz is dedicated to the pianist Charlotte de Rothschild (1825-1899) who was a pupil of Chopin, and Rossini had a long friendship with her banker father and arts patron mother. The piece reuses a theme from an earlier waltz, dedicated to Eugenia Puerari who might be from the Puerari banking family

One curiosity is the settings of a text by Metastasio, Mi lagnero tacendo of which there are many on the disc. The text comes from Siroe (1726), it is not known why the verses took such a hold of the composer.

I can think of no-one better to perform this repertoire than Anna Bonitatibus and Adele d'Aronzo. The two have already recorded Rossini's Giovanna d'Arco as part of their Monologues disc on Prospero [see my review]. The canvas is smaller here [Giovanna d'Arco last 17 minutes] but no less vivid. When coloratura is needed, Bonitatibus gives it space and vibrancy, yet she is good on the small scale too. Each song, no matter how short, is full of vivid character. In many of these, we have to admit that Rossini's music hovers between salon and opera house. Yet the music is never trivial and for all the composer's charm, there is much of interest.

An impressive amount of work has gone into this disc and it should not be discounted, particularly the degree of travail needed to locate the primary sources for all these pieces. Anna Bonitatibus provides extensive notes which are a joy to read, elucidating each song. This means that the recital provides a lovely travelogue as we follow Rossini on his peregrinations and marvel at his impressive connections. On the other hand, the resulting programme is engaging and engrossing. Simply as a recital, this works wonderfully and listening at one sitting is very fulfilling.

Rossini - Fogli d'album
Anna Bonitatibus (mezzo-soprano)
Adele d'Aronzo (piano)
Recorded: 19–20 November 2024; 23 April 2025 Fazioli Concert Hall, Sacile (PN), Italy
Prospero Classical PROSP51137 1CD [56.46]

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Elsewhere on this blog

Unassuming charm & surprising sophistication: Bampton Classical Opera in the Italian version of Grétry's take on Beauty & the Beast - opera review
Rehearsal studio, study, office, entertaining suite: Handel Hendrix House's celebrates Handel's Brook Street residence - exhibition review
Choral music is flourishing in Taiwan: composer Will Todd on his collaboration with Soochow University Alumni Chorus in Taiwan - guest posting
Be still, and know that I am God: Choral Contemplations - Sacred Introits & Duets from Phoenix Consort on Convivium Records - record review
Seeing & hearing: Ben Goldscheider plays Brian Elias's Touching the Quick as part of Anish Kapoor exhibition at Hayward Gallery - concert review
Gerald Finzi: The Dance Continued - tenor Nick Pritchard & pianist Ian Tindale on their love for a composer whose work has followed them since their early collaboration at college - interview
BBC Proms: Bach's Mass in B minor writ large as Arcangelo give us choral bravura at Royal Albert Hall - concert review
The engaging Mr Polly: tenor Robin Bailey shines in the title role of Edward Longstaff's new opera based on H.G. Wells at Tête à Tête - review
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Unassuming charm & surprising sophistication: Bampton Classical Opera in the Italian version of Grétry's take on Beauty & the Beast

2026-09-19T10:51:28.573+01:00

Grétry: Zemira e Azor - Gwilym Bowen (Azor), Ffion Edwards (Zemira) - Bampton Classical Opera

Grétry, Holzbauer, Jomelli: Zemira e Azor; Ffion Edwards, Gwilym Bowen, Samuel Pantcheff, Andrew Irwin, Sian Dicker, Rachel Roper, director: Jeremy Gray, CHROMA, conductor: Andrew Griffiths; Bampton Classical Opera at Smith Square Hall
Reviewed 18 September 2026

A rare opportunity to experience one of Grétry's best known operas in an even rare version, with Bampton's young cast bringing out the work's charm and melodic felicity in an engaging and imaginative production

Born in Liège in 1741, André Ernest Modeste Grétry made his career in opera in Paris, writing mainly opéras comiques. He wrote over 50 operas from his first success in 1768 through to his final opera in 1803 (he died in 1813). Though successful in the Ancien régime and despite losing property during the Revolution, he endured. The republic made him an inspector of the conservatoire amd Napoleon granted him the Légion d'honneur and a pension.

His best known operas are Zémire et Azor (from 1771) and Richard Coeur-de-lion (from 1784). Based on a text by Jean-François Marmontel, Zémire et Azor was enormously successful (over 120 performances during its first year) and remained in the French repertory until at least 1820. As with later French operas with spoken dialogue, the work underwent modifications when performed abroad. For performances in 1776 at the court of the Elector in Mannheim, the work was Italianised. The poet Mattia Verazi provided a new libretto, with recitatives by the Elector's kapellmeister, Ignaz Holzbauer. Verazi had been a friend and collaborator of the composer Niccolo Jommelli (who had died in 1774) and presumably at his suggestion two arias by Jomelli were added to the mix. Zemira e Azor was performed at the Elector's summer court theatre in Schwetzingen.

Grétry: Zemira e Azor - Ffion Edwards (Zemira) - Bampton Classical Opera

Mozart owned a score of the work, and his sister-in-law, Aloysia Weber, performed the role of Zémire in Vienna in 1784. The French version was a favourite with Sir Thomas Beecham, but the last UK performance seems to have been at the Camden Fetival in 1980! The 1776 Italian version seems to have languished until it was revived at the Schwetzinger SWR Festspiele in 2023.

It was the 1776 Italian version of Grétry's Zemira e Azor that Bampton Classical Opera chose for their 2026 production, sung in a new English translation by Gilly French and Jeremy Gray. Having performed the work in Oxfordshire and the Cotswolds this summer, the production was brought to Smith Square Hall on Friday 18 September 2026. The director was Jeremy Gray, and Andrew Griffiths conducted CHROMA, with the ensemble placed at the back of the stage. Costumes were by Pauline Smith and Anne Baldwin with visuals (including two electronic screens) by David Hudd and Keith Farr.

Samuel Pantcheff was the merchant Sandro with Andrew Irwin as Sandro's servant Ali. Ffion Edwards, Siân Dicker and Rachel Roper were Sandro's daughters Zemira (Beauty), Fatima and Lesbia. Gwilym Bowen was Azor (the Beast). The harpsichord continuo was played by Alex Norton.

Grétry: Zemira e Azor - Gwilym Bowen (Azor), Ffion Edwards (Zemira), with Samuel Pantcheff (Sandro), Rachel Roper (Lesbia), Sian Dicker (Fatima) in the 'magic mirror' - Bampton Classical Opera

Marmontel's original libretto was based on two French storiesby Mme Villeneuve and Mme Beaumont. Neither names the characters and the names are Marmontel's, taken from exotic names in another fairy romance.

The story unfolded in two locations, depicted either side of the stage, the palace of the Persian prince, Azor and Sandro's home in the Strait of Hormuz (!) As the opera opens, Sandro is travelling with Ali trying to recover wealth lost due to shipwreck. Having failed they find themselves in an apparently empty palace (Azor's home) where a meal mysteriously appears. Sandro plucks a rose as a present for his youngest daughter Zemira, incurring Azor's wrath. Azor condemns Sandro to death and only releases him when Sandro agrees one of his daughters will return. Back home, Sandro regrets his deal with Azor and plans to return but Zemira prempts him and goes to Azor with Ali.

The action so far covers the first two acts (half the opera) with Zemira and Azor's engagement compressed into a single act, the centrepiece of which is Zemira's showpiece aria about a bird, where she emulates birdsong. Missing her family, Azor allows her to return home, cue a quartet for the family before Zemira returns to a despairing Azor. Her love releases him from his curse, and the happy ending is interwoven with the fairy's explanation.

The setting was loosely modern day, and much use was made of the two electronic screens to display varied evocative videos helping to set the scene. These also formed the magic mirror that Azor produces in Act Three to help Zemira see her family. In Sandro's home, much use was made of a lovely pop-up book telling the fairytale of Beauty and the Beast.

Grétry: Zemira e Azor Andrew Irwin (Ali), Samuel Pantcheff (Sandro) - Bampton Classical Opera

The first half of the opera was, frankly, rather slow. We encountered Gwilym Bowen's Azor once, with a terrific aria at the end of Act One. As usual with the story of Beauty & the Beast (see the Disney cartoon), the imaginative design for the Beast made him interesting rather than scary. Ffion Edwards's Zemira got to do little but be charming. The other two daughters, Sian Dicker as Fatima and Rachel Roper as Lesbia, were rather evocative of Rossini's take on Cinderella's sisters! But the focus was on Samuel Pantcheff's warm, thoughtful Sandro and the comic servant of Andrew Irwin's Ali. This is a role that may have influenced Mozart's Papageno.

In Act Three, Bowen and Edwards interacted thoughtfully, doing their best to cram their developing relationship into a sequence of recitatives punctuated by Edwards's spectacular aria. With her returning home, Act Four opened with a quartet for Pantcheff, Edwards, Dicker and Roper which provided a vastly different texture, before all ended happily, with Andrew Irwin doubling as the fairy at the end (a spoken role in the French original).

The production wisely did not try to make the piece more than it was and this proved to be an engaging evening in the theatre with a familiar story charmingly told. The singers' diction was excellent and the text came over well which is important in an unfamilar story.

Grétry: Zemira e Azor - Rachel Roper (Lesbia), Sian Dicker (Fatima) - Bampton Classical Opera

Gwilym Bowen made a fine Azor, bringing a heroic edge to his voice along with an element of bravura in the arias, though it was a shame that his big aria opening Act Three, when he despairs of his fate, was delivered from the balcony high above us and we wished he was closer. Even when the Beast, Bowen brought out the character's kindness and dignity. Ffion Edwards made a charming Zemira, moving from her care for her father to determination and dignity in the face of the Beast. Then her delivery of her big aria in Act Three was nothing short of spectacular, no wonder Bowen's Beast fell in love!

Pantcheff made a warm and thoughtful Sandro, despite not being a success in his business enterprises his care for his daughters came over. As Ali, Andrew Irwin had a significant role to play as the character seemed to be permanently scared of something! Irwin clearly relished opportunities and challenges, though his voice seemed somewhat under pressure at the top in his arias. As the other two sisters, Dicker and Roper bickered and ganged up on Edwards in an engaging manner. Yet each had an aria, both by Jomelli, which deepend their characters. These pushed things in a somewhat more serious direction, but both Dicker and Roper gathered up the opportunities given.

Andrew Griffiths and the orchestra gave a fine account of the work's substantial overture, far more complex than we might have expected. There was plenty for the players to do with flutes, oboe, bassoon and horns alongside strings, plus Alex Norton's admirable continuo.

Grétry: Zemira e Azor - Andrew Irwin (Ali), Sian Dicker (Fatima), Samuel Pantcheff (Sandro), Rachel Roper (Lesbia) - Bampton Classical Opera

There is definitely a role for this version of the opera, enabling companies to give Grétry's work without the need for extensive spoken dialogue. This unassuming yet imaginative staging from Bampton managed to bring out the work's charm with a cast of young voices who made their roles work. Grétry's Zémire et Azor is not quite a forgotten masterpiece, but it is a work worth reassessing and as usual Bampton did sterling work enabling us to do this.

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Elsewhere on this blog

Rehearsal studio, study, office, entertaining suite: Handel Hendrix House's celebrates Handel's Brook Street residence - exhibition review
Choral music is flourishing in Taiwan: composer Will Todd on his collaboration with Soochow University Alumni Chorus in Taiwan - guest posting
Be still, and know that I am God: Choral Contemplations - Sacred Introits & Duets from Phoenix Consort on Convivium Records - record review
Seeing & hearing: Ben Goldscheider plays Brian Elias's Touching the Quick as part of Anish Kapoor exhibition at Hayward Gallery - concert review
Gerald Finzi: The Dance Continued - tenor Nick Pritchard & pianist Ian Tindale on their love for a composer whose work has followed them since their early collaboration at college - interview
BBC Proms: Bach's Mass in B minor writ large as Arcangelo give us choral bravura at Royal Albert Hall - concert review
The engaging Mr Polly: tenor Robin Bailey shines in the title role of Edward Longstaff's new opera based on H.G. Wells at Tête à Tête - review
Scotland's tragic queen: Louisa Petaï & Louis Mander's Eight Days evokes the last days of Mary, Queen of Scots at Tête à Tête - opera review
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Manfred Honeck to become Philharmonia Orchestra's seventh principal conductor following on from Santtu-Matias Rouvali

2026-09-18T12:39:23.399+01:00

Manfred Honeck (Photo: Todd Rosenberg)

The Philharmonia Orchestra has announced that Manfred Honeck will be its next principal conductor. Honeck will take up the post from September 2028, following on from Santtu-Matias Rouvali, who has been principal conductor since 2021. Manfred Honeck is music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra where he is now in his 19th season and his contract was recently extended through the 2032–2033 season.

Born in Austria in 1958, Manfred Honeck completed his musical training at the Academy of Music in Vienna. His many years as a member of the Vienna Philharmonic and the Vienna State Opera Orchestra have had a lasting influence on his work as a conductor. He began his conducting career as an assistant to Claudio Abbado and was subsequently engaged by the Zurich Opera House. He maintains a distinguished profile as an opera conductor: most recently, he returned to the Salzburg Festival in summer 2026, conducting Ersan Mondtag's new production Ariadne auf Naxos with the Vienna Philharmonic where the musical values were the best thing about the evening. [see my review]

He will become the seventh principal conductor the Philharmonia Orchestra and it is planned that the appointment will become his artistic anchor in Europe whilst he maintains strong links with Pittsburgh.

His appointment marks a shift in the Philharmonia Orchestra's artistic leadership, coming as it does after two Finnish conductors, Santtu-Matias Rouvali and Esa-Pekka Salonen, perhaps returning to the Austro-German style of Christoph von Dohnányi (who preceded Salonen as principal conductor). And Honeck's tenure from 2028 coincides with Paavo Järvi taking over from Edward Gardner as chief conductor and artistic advisor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, meaning significant artistic change at the Southbank Centre. Rouvali remains principal conductor for the next two seasons, with a substantial programme of performances in London and beyond, and his close relationship with the Philharmonia will continue beyond the conclusion of his tenure.

Honeck’s next performance with the Philharmonia comes this November, when he returns to the Royal Festival Hall with his longstanding musical collaborator, pianist Emanuel Ax, for Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 25. The programme also includes Johann Strauss’s Die Fledermaus Overture and Honeck’s own arrangement of the symphonic suite from Richard Strauss’s Elektra.

Manfred Honeck commented: "It is an honour for me to contribute to shaping the Philharmonia’s unique sound identity and to share it with audiences globally at major international venues, as well as in local communities. London is a capital of classical music and a melting pot of cultures. I look forward to playing my part in enticing audiences to experience the full spectrum of traditional and innovative orchestral music we can offer."

Further information from the orchestra's website.

Rehearsal studio, study, office, entertaining suite: Handel Hendrix House's new exhibition celebrates Handel's Brook Street residence

2026-09-18T12:03:13.332+01:00

Ledger of subscribers to Handel's Twelve Grand Concertos from 1740 (Handel Hendrix House)

Hallelujah House: Inside Handel's HQ: Handel Hendrix House
Reviewed 17 September 2026

A fascinating & thought-provoking exhibition celebrating both 25 years since Handel's house in Brook Street opened to the public and the way the house was central to Handel's musical life

It is 25 since Handel's house in Brook Street opened to the public and to celebrate Handel Hendrix House has opened a new exhibition, Hallelujah House: Inside Handel’s HQ which runs until 14 March 2027. Handel lived at Brook Street from 1732 until 1759 and the house was central to his music, both the writing of works and the production of them. It was his rehearsal studio, study, office, entertaining suite and much more.

How to reflect this? Exhibition curator Olwen Foulkes has brought together objects from the museums collection and from loans which tell the story of the remarkable extent to which Handel's music spread across London, and the varied uses to which the house was put. The exhibition is not a single room of objects but more of a trail around the whole of Handel's house, making you view the spaces somewhat differently. But this isn't simply an exhibition about objects, each object evokes a story and these are told not via extensive captions but via online resources (via Bloomberg Connects).

She explains: "Handel was not just a creative genius, but someone who could organise, entertain, network and work ferociously hard to produce his brilliant music. The story of a creative entrepreneur working hard from home feels very relevant to today, and we are thrilled to be bringing together so many inspiring works of art and objects from museums and our own collections to bring this story vividly to life."

There are the great occasions from Handel's career celebrated, so we see engravings of the Royal Fireworks, the rehearsal for the music for this would give Handel one of the biggest audiences of his career. This rehearsal was at Vauxhall Gardens, so there is a portrait of the impresario Jonathan Tyers and his family (painted by Francis Hayman), as Tyers was an immense supporter of Handel's work and enables his music to be spread to a wider audience via Vauxhall Gardens, which became famous for its musical events.

Of course, such musical events needed rehearsal and we have various accounts of rehearsals in Handel's home. Intriguingly he rehearsed the Royal Fireworks Music there, presumably just the principals but this event was once commemorated at Handel Hendrix House with a mass performance by 100 school children! Handel's friend, Mrs Delaney, went to "Handel's house to hear the first rehearsal of the new opera Alcina. I think it the best he ever made... Whilst Mr. Handel was playing his part I could not help thinking him a necromancer in the midst of his own enchantments."

Delaney was also particularly fond of Handel's early oratorio Deborah, attending several rehearsals. This piece used a huge orchestra with three organs, possibly small 'bureau' organs and the exhibition includes one such by John Snetzler made in 1754, small enough to be portable and suitable as a piece of furniture (hence the 'bureau').

Smaller, quirkier performances are reflected as well. There is a portrait of Thomas Britton (1644-1714) by Jonathan Wollaston. Britton was a coal merchant but a music lover too and put on music performances in an attic space above his shop. It was grim, the space was tiny, access rickety and visitors would get smudges of coal on their clothes. But he attracted musical luminaries, including Purcell and, later, Handel. He had a significant collection of music and the exhibition also had on display a violin associated with Britton. Handel's early attendance at these events probably helped him widen his musical circles in London. One of the things the exhibition tries to bring out is what a furious networker he was.

More subtly are the manuscript traces. There is a manuscript from the collection of Handel's friend, Elizabeth Legh that is in Handel's own hand. A skilled harpsichord player and a collector of Handel's music, much of her collection has links to Handel's close relationship with her (including manuscripts where he adds ornaments), suggesting she may even have been a pupil (her parents' London house was in nearby Hanover Square). More securely documented is Handel's teaching of Royal pupils, reflected in the exhibition by Philippe Mercier's The Music Party depicting the Prince of Wales and his sisters playing.

There is a letter by Handel (and not that many of those survive) asking Charles Jennens for feedback on Messiah. This would, eventually, lead to a break between them as Jennens had strong ideas and became annoyed when Handel did not simply do what he said! A reflection of the composer's distinct independence of mind. Handel's wider charitable impulse is displayed somewhat obliquely. There is a portrait of him by Thomas Hudson in an ornate circular frame depicting bulrushes, presumed to refer to the finding of Moses and hence to Handel's significant support of The Foundling Museum via his annual Messiah performances.

But music was a business too. Handel's downstairs parlours would be used to receive people interested in his music. An engraving of Handel by Jacobus Houbraken was produced to be included as a gift with the sheet music for Handel’s Ode Alexander’s Feast sold, like many of Handel's publications, by subscription from the room. Displayed also is a ledger detailing everyone who signed up for the 1740 publication of Twelve Grand Concertos. The list includes fellow musicians, authors, surgeons, merchants, military personnel, lawyers and several music societies, most of whom would have come to Brook Street to pay their guinea and sign up.

At times, the house in Brook Street must have been a hive of activity. Not just rehearsals, but when a printed publication was ready the music books had to be despatched to all those who had signed up. And then, before a work could be performed the music had to be copied. And we know that Handel's copyists included his secretary, J.C. Smith (Schmidt) and Smith's son, along with other regulars.

Rather touchingly, there is a pair of spectacles from the 1750s (of a type that were tied with ribbon so they went around your wig), reflecting Handel's increasing sight problems. (And nearby is displayed a replica wig, made of yak hair!). Alongside these is a book by notorious quack John Taylor who performed unsuccessful eye surgery on both Handel and J.S. Bach.[The writer Samuel Johnson said of Taylor that his life showed "an instance of how far impudence may carry ignorance."]

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

Choral music is flourishing in Taiwan: composer Will Todd on his collaboration with Soochow University Alumni Chorus in Taiwan - guest posting
Be still, and know that I am God: Choral Contemplations - Sacred Introits & Duets from Phoenix Consort on Convivium Records - record review
Seeing & hearing: Ben Goldscheider plays Brian Elias's Touching the Quick as part of Anish Kapoor exhibition at Hayward Gallery - concert review
Gerald Finzi: The Dance Continued - tenor Nick Pritchard & pianist Ian Tindale on their love for a composer whose work has followed them since their early collaboration at college - interview
BBC Proms: Bach's Mass in B minor writ large as Arcangelo give us choral bravura at Royal Albert Hall - concert review
The engaging Mr Polly: tenor Robin Bailey shines in the title role of Edward Longstaff's new opera based on H.G. Wells at Tête à Tête - review
Scotland's tragic queen: Louisa Petaï & Louis Mander's Eight Days evokes the last days of Mary, Queen of Scots at Tête à Tête - opera review
Reinventing the semi-opera: Vache Baroque & Out of Chaos turn The Tempest into an evening of fun, modern theatre - opera review
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Kazuki Yamada & CBSO launch 2026/27 season with Mahler's Resurrection Symphony celebrating the CBSO Chorus's 1000th performance

2026-09-17T12:26:12.529+01:00

CBSO Chorus (Photo: Andrew Fox)

Tonight (17 September 2026), the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, conducted by music director Kazuki Yamada launches their 2026/2027 season at Symphony Hall in Birmingham with a performance of Mahler's Symphony No. 2 'Resurrection' with soprano Anna Patalong. The performance is part of Yamada and the orchestra's ongoing Mahler cycle which continues with Mahler's Symphony No. 3 in June 2027 [see my article on the CBSO's 2026/27 season]

Tonight is notable also for it being the CBSO Chorus's 1000th performance. Founded in 1973, the 180-strong choir made up of singers from Birmingham and the Midlands, 18 years and above, whose day-jobs range from students to nurses, teachers and pilots. The choir has been led by chorus director Simon Halsey since 1983. They performed Mahler's Symphony No. 8 at the opening of the Sydney Olympic Arts Festival in 2000. Later the year they celebrated the centenary of Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius which premiered at the Birmingham Music Festival on 3 October 1900 in Birmingham Town Hall. In June 2007 the chorus took part in the 150th Anniversary of Edward Elgar's birth by performing The Dream of Gerontius, The Apostles and The Kingdom over three days with Sakari Oramo and the CBSO, going on to perform The Apostles at the BBC Proms that year.

To mark Britten's centenary in 2013, the CBSO and CBSO Chorus performed The War Requiem in Coventry Cathedral. On Remembrance Day 2026, Remembrance Day, Kazuki Yamada conducts Britten's War Requiem at Coventry Cathedral where the work premiered in 1952. The soloists are tenor Andrew Staples, soprano Irina Lungu and baritone Christian Gerhaher with the CBSO Chorus, CBSO Youth Chorus and Trinity Boys Choir in a performance that also marks 50 years since Britten's death

Further details from the CBSO website.

Choral music is flourishing in Taiwan: composer Will Todd on his experiences collaborating with the Soochow University Alumni Chorus in Taiwan

2026-09-17T11:52:06.452+01:00

Will Todd & Soochow University Alumni Chorus

Composer Will Todd has been collaborating with a choir in Taiwan, the Soochow University Alumni Chorus, first performing his Mass in Blue in 2024 then writing a commission for them and then creating what he considers his third jazz oratorio (after Mass in Blue and Passion Music). Todd and the choir performed it me twice in Taiwan and again in the summer touring to Japan. In this article, Will Todd talks about his experiences being in Taiwan, Taiwanese choral music and his new Christmas-themed oratorio, The Promise written for the Soochow University Alumni Chorus.

Choral music is flourishing in Taiwan with beautiful performances of Western music and excellent newer compositions from contemporary Taiwanese composers. There are choirs all over the country and several top class choral conducting and singing programmes at Taiwanese Universities. I know this because I have experienced it first hand having had the good fortune to work there over the past three years. Beginning with an invitation from Soochow University Alumni Chorus to perform my jazz choral work Mass in Blue I travelled there in 2024 where the choir gave a brilliant performance, with guest jazz musicians at the National Concert Hall of Taipei. And it was packed out with nearly 2000 concert goers! Also on the programme were works by Taiwanese composers some of whom had been commissioned by Soochow University Alumni Chorus. Among these modern compositions, sometimes reflecting Chinese folk music traditions as well as skilfully weaving in more lyrical western harmonic elements and setting Chinese and Taiwanese texts, we heard, among others music by Weng Ching-hsi, Tianhao Ran, Shen-Hsien Liu and Yu Chung-yuan. I also visited the Soochow University and was privileged to direct a masterclass with a group of excellent up and coming young composers, their emerging styles often blending pop and classical genres and showing a real enthusiasm for choral music.

Following on from the performance of Mass in Blue the Soochow Chorus commissioned me to write a similar scale work leaving the theme and words up to me. I was thrilled as it was another opportunity to work with them and I knew I’d be getting an excellent performance. They were super committed to the process and as well as an early workshop in London we had a full week of rehearsals in Taiwan four months before the premiere to iron out problems, make improvements and develop the work. It’s so wonderful when that can happen - it connects the commissioning choir more to the work and it definitely helps the composer!

I have wanted for a long time to write a Christmas-themed oratorio and this seemed like the perfect chance to explore this idea more fully. Thus, the new multi movement piece, The Promise, began to come to life. There is of course an abundance of wonderful Advent and Christmas texts and I wanted initially to set so many! In the end the structure is 10 movements, where the 10th is a reprise of material from movement 7th, a concept I use both in Mass in Blue and my other extended jazz choral work, the Easter-themed Passion Music. Other texts include the Advent Responsory I look from afar, Adam Lay Y bounden, The Angel Gabriel, verses from the Magnificat, A Rose Has Sprung Up and words from Isaiah, ‘the people who walked in darkness…’. Two Latin texts O Oriens and Conditor Alme Sidernum and a poem of my own entitled The Promise complete the approximately 40 minute work.

Scored for piano bass drums sax and a second keyboard providing organ patches (traditional and electric) with a vibrant soprano solo a la Mass in Blue, the styles mix driving and funky grooves with more lyrical and balladic material and the focus is on the choir who are crucial to the impact of the whole piece. Soochow University Alumni Chorus did a magnificent job of the December 2025 premiere at the National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts which they repeated again at the National Concert Hall in Taipei in January 2026 [see performance on YouTube]. Having taken the piece to Japan in the summer they will finally come to the UK in January to do 2 performances, with the UK premiere taking place at St Martin in the Fields in January 2027 where they will collaborate with the St Martin’s Chamber choir, the Will Todd Ensemble and soprano Lorna James conducted by the fabulous Chie-Fen Weng. The Taiwanese choir will also present some of the wonderful Taiwanese choral music I mentioned earlier, in the first part of the concert.

Will Todd & Soochow University Alumni Chorus

This year also saw a commercial recording with St Martin’s Voices which will be released in October by Signum Records [further details] alongside a new recording of my Jazz Carols, which St Martins commissioned in 2014. With workshops at Leith Hill Festival later this year and at the Association of British Choral Directors in February 2027 I’m hoping choral directors and choirs in the UK will fall in love with this new piece of which I’m super proud. The scores are available from Boosey and Hawkes from November and you can hear it live in London on 15th January and again on the 16th January in Cambridge.

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Elsewhere on this blog

Be still, and know that I am God: Choral Contemplations - Sacred Introits & Duets from Phoenix Consort on Convivium Records - record review
Seeing & hearing: Ben Goldscheider plays Brian Elias's Touching the Quick as part of Anish Kapoor exhibition at Hayward Gallery - concert review
Gerald Finzi: The Dance Continued - tenor Nick Pritchard & pianist Ian Tindale on their love for a composer whose work has followed them since their early collaboration at college - interview
BBC Proms: Bach's Mass in B minor writ large as Arcangelo give us choral bravura at Royal Albert Hall - concert review
The engaging Mr Polly: tenor Robin Bailey shines in the title role of Edward Longstaff's new opera based on H.G. Wells at Tête à Tête - review
Scotland's tragic queen: Louisa Petaï & Louis Mander's Eight Days evokes the last days of Mary, Queen of Scots at Tête à Tête - opera review
Reinventing the semi-opera: Vache Baroque & Out of Chaos turn The Tempest into an evening of fun, modern theatre - opera review
Here Comes Everybody: Alastair White begins Finnegans Wake project with an overture at London Irish Centre with Ensemble Exposé & Roger Redgate - concert review
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Takemitsu, Ravel & The Blue Guitar: Music@Malling opens ten days of music in historic venues in Kent

2026-09-17T08:29:04.065+01:00

Marc Chagall's East or Memorial Window for Sarah d'Avigdor Goldsmid,
at All Saints' Church, Tudeley
By Ian Alexander - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0

Music@Malling brings outstanding musicians to historic venues in and around West Malling in Kent. The festival opens tomorrow, Friday 18 September and runs until 27 September, this year featuring the music of Tōru Takemitsu alongside that of Ravel, Debussy, Stravinsky, Messiaen and Miles Davis. Another feature of the festival is the juxtaposition of old and new. New music is set alongside older composers, Dowland to Huw Watkins; Purcell to Deborah Pritchard and Mendelssohn to Radiohead. All performed in historic venues including Malling Abbey - founded in 1090; Pilsdon - a medieval tythe barn; Ightham Mote - an 800 year old manor house; St.Mary’s Church, West Malling built by Gundulf of Rochester in the 11th century. A particular feature is All Saints’ Church, Tudeley with its stunning series of Marc Chagall windows.

The festival opens with pianist Peter Donohoe in Ravel and Debussy, then the following evening James Pearson, artistic director of Ronnie Scott's, puts a jazz spin on classical pieces from across the festival programme. There is more Ravel from the Sacconi Quartet and they are joined by horn player Ben Goldscheider for a new work by Huw Watkins, and the Fidelio Trio present Ravel's Piano Trio and Debussy's La Mer in an arrangement by Sally Beamish alongside Tōru Takemitsu.

The Smith Quartet perform a programme inspired by minimalism with music by Phillip Glass, Gavin Bryars and Arvo Pärt, alongside Stravinsky's Three Pieces was inspired by the famous music hall star, Little Tich who grew up in Cudham, Kent and performed in many local pubs. Cello and piano duo Cloud Chamber perform music by Gavin Greenaway alongside film music from Takemitsu, Morricone, Hans Zimmer, and more.

The festival's artistic director, Thomas Kemp directs his ensemble Chamber Domaine in a programme of English music highlighting the influence of early music on composers such as Britten,Tippett, Ades and Warlock, plus the premiere of a piece by Iran-born, UK-based composer Atifeh Einali. Whilst Intesa Duo mix 17th century music with Radiohead, the Beatles, the Killers and more.

Guitarist Craig Ogden plays Tippett's The Blue Guitar, Takemitsu, Leo Brower and Walton, all alongside the Chagall windows at Tudeley.

Cellist Guy Johnston and pianist Melvyn Tan explore the music of siblings Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn alongside Beethoven and Schubert. Both Mendelssohns' music features also in a programme from soprano Ruby Hughes, pianist Huw Watkins and violinist Thomas Kemp, alongside Haydn, Schumann, Schubert and Brian Elias. But perhaps the real draw of this concert is that it is in the Drawing Room at Ightam Mote and Watkins will be playing the room's 1830 Stodart piano.

The singers and lutenist of Dowland's Foundry commemorate the 400th anniversary of Dowland's death with a programme of his songs. Period instrument ensemble Apollo's Cabinet present Apollo's Jukebox where the audience chooses the music from a menu of 18th century tunes!

The Marian Consort joins Chamber Domaine for a programme mixing sacred music by Arvo Pärt with contemporary voices from Deborah Pritchard and Rosemary Shapes. Thomas Kemp then conducts the London Sinfonietta in a programme putting Takemitsu alongside Debussy, Cage and Webern. And the festival ends with James Pearson leading a tribute to Miles Davis.

Alongside this there is Inside Colour, an immersive exhibition of Music Maps by composer and artist Deborah Pritchard at Ightham Mote, and talks including ones on poetry and music in the 19th Century drawing room, and spying for Queen Elizabeth I.

Outreach includes a series of workshops, informal concerts and playlists for Spadework - a local charity that supports adults with mental and physical disabilities, dementia and mental health issues; Side-by-Side with Chamber Domaine and The Marian Consort; Music@Malling Scratch Orchestra; creating Music Maps at Ightham Mote with local primary and secondary schools.

Full details from Music@Malling's website.

Be still, and know that I am God: Choral Contemplations - Sacred Introits & Motets from Phoenix Consort & Adam Whitmore on Convivium Records

2026-09-16T07:53:22.994+01:00

Choral Contemplations - Sacred Introits & Motets: Peter Blumson, John-Paul Bowman, Rosemary Broadbent, David Fletcher, David Goymour, Adrian Green, Bruce Ramell, Derek Saunders, Noel Skinner; Phoenix Consort, Adam Whitmore; Convivium Records
Reviewed 14 September 2026

Music that arises from Christian contemplation on a disc bringing together music written by musicians who would never have considered themselves professional or 'trained' composers to create a disc that by turns encourages contemplation and exploration

Choral Contemplations: Sacred Introits & Motets from the Phoenix Consort, conductor Adam Whitmore, on Convivium Records. The nineteen pieces on the disc, written by nine contemporary composers, have a distinct musical aim. Adrian Green, managing director of Convivium Records and one of the composers featured on the disc, explains, first quoting the Benedictine monk, Cyprian Smith:

"'Everything which lies between' poses a philosophical question and is the subject of being present in life and being ourselves. In some ways it is the most natural thing in the world to be present, but to do this as a creative artist means letting go of all the thoughts and ideas and feelings which take up our mental mindscape, so that there can be space for music to arise from within us which isn’t about our ego."

Most of this music has been written by musicians who would never have considered themselves professional or 'trained' composers. They have all in some way been influenced by the teaching of Leon MacLaren who was a self-taught polymath. MacLaren established a Music Group, under the aegis of the philosophy school he founded, The School of Philosophy and Economic Science as it is known today. Leon MacLaren’s interest in music and sound extended to an exploration of systems of tuning and modes and their different effects. His approach to, and understanding of just intonation, he termed the "Natural Octave". It was a tuning system which all composers involved in this project have been introduced to and studied. Three in particular, Bruce Ramell, David Goymour, and David Fletcher, have continued to develop Leon MacLaren’s ideas here, and this can be heard in the way they have avoided problematic tuning issues of just intonation - music which they have termed 'modist'.

Derek Saunders is a music teacher at the London Oratory School and is also director of music at St Mary with St Alban Church in Teddington. Ask, Seek, Knock, his setting of a text from St Matthew's Gospel begins with strong choral lines and spare textures, with Saunders having an interesting use of contrast between open harmonies and rich textures. Adrian Green is the managing director of Convivium Records and Convivium Singers, and a tenor lay clerk at Portsmouth Cathedral. O most merciful, his setting of a text by Reginald Heber (1783-1826), was originally written for men's voices of Portsmouth Cathedral Choir. It is a quiet, intimate piece with lush harmonies.

David Fletcher (1931-2024) trained first as a picture restorer and studied at Chelsea Art College, before returning to his first love at Guildhall School of Music & Drama. His setting of Set me as a Seal from the Song of Solomon begins in a rather touching manner. There are moments of strength and moments of delicacy, with fine word setting throughout. The setting of Laurence Binyon's well-known text, For the Fallen was originally written in the mid-1980s for two voices and organ by Noel Skinner (1947-2019), who studied with Leslie England at the Royal Academy of Music. It is here presented in a choral arrangement by Matthew Coleridge that moves from just two sopranos to full romantic harmony. I rather wanted more focus on the text, but the ending was touching.

David Goymour worked as a journalist and studied philosophy, with his music benefiting from the application of the latter. O Oriens sets one of the O Anthems with Goymour creating a striking yet useful piece, moving from a single line to robust choral textures. John-Paul Bowman studied at the Guildhall School before moving into teaching alongside his composition. His setting of the text from St John's Gospel, A new commandment, was written for his own wedding in 2019. It mixes strong lines and vigorous counterpoint with spare textures. In Rama a voice is heard, David Fletcher's setting of texts from the Gospel of St Matthew and Jeremiah is for upper voices, creating a striking austere effect with a lovely use of spare harmonies.

Rosemary Broadbent read Music at Oxford University and has spent her career in music education, most recently as a tutor at the Junior RNCM. Commissioned in 2002, And he arose sets text from St Luke to rather strong effect. My beloved spake, David Fletcher's setting of text from The Song of Solomon comes from a larger cantata The Song of Songs based on the Biblical text which premiered in 1997. There is a nice flexible flow to the word setting with interesting use of question and answer leading to a stirring conclusion.

Peter Blumsom (1942—2026), known professionally as Pete Dello, was an English singer-songwriter who was popular during the 1960s and 1970s, most notably as lead singer of the band Honeybus. What is man? his setting of a text adapted from Psalm 8 was commissioned for a large Christian Trade Union conference held at Westminster Abbey. The original version included guitar accompaniment so in later years, Noel Skinner penned a piano accompaniment which allowed for performances by children at St James Schools in the 1990s. Blumson displays a real melodic gift in the song which with its flowing piano comes over as a sophisticated worship song.

Bruce Ramell turned to teaching in his 30s, combining music and mathematics, up as headmaster of a London prep school. To Cecilia, his setting of an anonymous 17th-century text, was composed in 2022 as part of the Modists’ Songbook (a project to produce a number of pieces of music to extol the unique characteristics of specific modes). It proves to be rather a touching part-song. Adrian Green's The Absorbeat, setting a prayer traditionally attributed to St Francis, was commissioned in 2020, to celebrate the 800th anniversary of St Francis of Assisi founding the Third Order in 1221. It begins with a striking use of high voices leading to the full choir alternating rich harmony with spare lines, gradually becoming rather interestingly multilayered.

Adam Whitmore

Derek Saunders' Be still, and know that I am God, a setting of Psalm 46, was written in 2020, during the Covid crisis and makes a strking use of single voices in chant-like melody over humming. Noel Skinner's The earth is the Lord’s sets text from Psalm 24. This piece was discovered after he died and is unlikely to have been performed prior to this recording. Written for upper voices it creates a striking, upfront impression. Adrian Green knew the words from James 1:17-20 from school and his setting, Every good gift, was written in 2025 after the death of the headteacher from his time at school. It begins with a solo voice in a flexible, chant-like melody before the choir joins, with Green creating interesting textures from the mix of choir and solo chant.

Ramell's setting of the O Anthem, O Adonai comes from the Modists' Songbook project. It begins in touching, hymn-like fashion before developing real strength. John-Paul Bowman's Dum Medium Silentium was written in 2011 while Bowman was at university. Studying the works of Vytautas Miškinis, whose setting of the same Latin text is quite lively, he was inspired to write a piece that used silence. It does indeed start almost from nothing, combining sustained lines alongside short rhythmic motifs and developing into a substantial piece with intense, expressive harmonies, yet always quiet.

Setting text from Psalm 81, David Fletcher's Sing we merrily dates from 2021 and there is an appealingly vigorous neo-Medieval feel to the music. The disc ends with Lighten our darkness, David Goymour's setting of the Third Collect, for Aid against all Perils from Evensong. It begins with a striking use of upper voices, creating something rather touching, before the full choir comes in restrained manner.

Adam Whitmore originally founded the Phoenix Consort at Durham Univerity. It consists of young artists, and has expanded to a UK-wide network of exciting young choral musicians. Here they bring a lovely choral tone and sympathy for the composers' intentions to a selection of works that deserve to be better known.

In one way, this disc makes a lovely contemplative listen, the music is not demanding yet really repays close attention. But the disc is also useful in the sense that the music here would provide plenty of suitable repertoire for amateur choirs.

Choral Contemplations - Sacred Introits & Duets
Phoenix Consort
Adam Whitmore (conductor)
Recorded St John’s, Upper Norwood, London, 20-21 February 2026
CONVIVIUM RECORDS CR130 1CD [50:30]

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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

Seeing & hearing: Ben Goldscheider plays Brian Elias's Touching the Quick as part of Anish Kapoor exhibition at Hayward Gallery - concert review
Gerald Finzi: The Dance Continued - tenor Nick Pritchard & pianist Ian Tindale on their love for a composer whose work has followed them since their early collaboration at college - interview
BBC Proms: Bach's Mass in B minor writ large as Arcangelo give us choral bravura at Royal Albert Hall - concert review
The engaging Mr Polly: tenor Robin Bailey shines in the title role of Edward Longstaff's new opera based on H.G. Wells at Tête à Tête - review
Scotland's tragic queen: Louisa Petaï & Louis Mander's Eight Days evokes the last days of Mary, Queen of Scots at Tête à Tête - opera review
Reinventing the semi-opera: Vache Baroque & Out of Chaos turn The Tempest into an evening of fun, modern theatre - opera review
Here Comes Everybody: Alastair White begins Finnegans Wake project with an overture at London Irish Centre with Ensemble Exposé & Roger Redgate - concert review
BBC Proms: By turns illuminating & compelling, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra on terrific form in Britten & Vaughan Williams - concert review
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Chromatica Orchestra returns for third season at Battersea Arts Centre with newly appointed principal conductor, Oliver Cope

2026-09-16T07:23:01.231+01:00

Oliver Cope (Photo: Amanda Protidou / TSSO)

When Chromatica Orchestra opens its 2026/27 season at Battersea Arts Centre (its third season at the venue) they will be conducted by the young (age 27) British conductor Oliver Cope who has been appointed the orchestra's first ever principal conductor.

Cope is a First Prize winner of both the Koussevitzky International Conducting Competition and the International Athens Conducting Competition, and took a prize at the 2026 Gustav Mahler Conducting Competition. He has already conducted the Hallé, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and the Bamberger Symphoniker, and returns to Bamberg this season for a studio recording with BR-KLASSIK.

He has conducted Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin and Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia with Hampstead Garden Opera (HGO), and this summer conducted British Youth Opera in Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress at Battersea Arts Centre.

Cope's first concert as principal conductor with Chromatica Orchestra features Bernard Herrmann's suite from Psycho (1960), Shostakovich's Symphony No. 9 (1945), and Korngold's Violin Concerto (1945) with South Korean violinist Sarang Seohyun Kim, the youngest ever winner of the Tibor Varga International Competition. Further ahead, concerts feature music by Golijov, Poulenc and Daniel Soley's Accordion Concerto with Ryan Corbett, who premiered the work, in November and then a Christmas concert in December and a family concert in February 2027.

Chromatica Emerging Conductor Tess Jackson and Leader Maren Bosma perform Carnival of the Animals at Battersea Arts Centre February 2025 (Photo: Monika Jakubowska)

Founded by Peter Manning in 2024, Chromatica Orchestra made its debut at Battersea Arts Centre. The orchestra is dedicated to nurturing the next generation of musical talent, bringing together outstanding emerging orchestral players with brilliant soloists. Players who have worked with Chromatica Orchestra have gone on to win positions with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Philharmonic, the BBC Concert Orchestra and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.

Support for young musicians runs through established partnerships with the Music in Secondary Schools Trust (MiSST) and Bobby Moore Academy, and new collaborations with several South London music hubs. The orchestra's work in this field is centred around empowering secondary school-age musicians and giving them autonomy over their own musical experiences, with a particular focus on conducting opportunities for students from a range of backgrounds. Activities will include side-by-side opportunities, conducting workshops and coaching, family concerts, and creative composition sessions.

Full details from Chromatica Orchestra's website.