Category Archives: In concert

In concert – Three Choirs Festival: Three Choirs Festival Chorus, Philharmonia Orchestra / Adrian Partington – Howells Hymnus Paradisi & Bliss Mary of Magdala

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Rebecca Hardwick (soprano), Dame Sarah Connolly (mezzo-soprano), Michael Bell (tenor), Malachy Frame (baritone), Three Choirs Festival Chorus, Philharmonia Orchestra / Adrian Partington

Howells Paradise Rondel (1925)
Bliss Mary of Magdala (1962)
Howells Hymnus Paradisi (1936-38)

Hereford Cathedral
Wednesday 30 July 2025

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse Photos (c) Dale Hodgetts (Dame Sarah Connolly, Festival Chorus), James O’Driscoll (Hereford Cathedral, Rebecca Hardwick, Adrian Partington)

Interesting that all three works comprising this concert were premiered at the Three Choirs in Gloucester or Worcester but they were, for the most part, admirably suited to the less opulent while always spacious ambience of Hereford Cathedral in what was a welcome retrospective.

Upsurge of Arthur Bliss performances in this fiftieth anniversary of his death continued with Mary of Magdala, essentially a cantata albeit with an element of operatic scena in the intense characterization of its title-role. Compiled by Christopher Hassall (the last collaboration with Bliss before his untimely death), its text finds Mary approaching the sepulchre where Christ’s body has been placed after crucifixion only to find it gone – Christ having assumed the guise of a gardener who bestows his blessing upon this most maligned yet most loyal of his circle.

The main part was given by Dame Sarah Connolly (above) with her customary fervour and insight, not least in the final stages after recognition when the music exudes a radiant gentleness rarely, if ever, encountered in Bliss hitherto. Malachy Frame drew an understated strength from the brief yet crucial role of Christus, but excessively large choral numbers rather compromised the relative intimacy of the music. Not that it seriously undermined the conviction of a timely revival for what is one of the least known though inherently personal among the composer’s later works.

It stayed under-wraps for over a decade after completion, but Hymnus Paradisi has long been the best known of Herbert Howells’s larger pieces and something like a ‘sacred text’ in Three Choirs culture. Written after the death of the composer’s son, it is avowedly music within the English choral tradition; not least that Gerontius-like aura of a Preludio (actually written last) whose yearning theme pervades what follows. The Requiem aeternam further intensifies such introspection, and if a setting of Psalm 23 tends towards the discursive, even generalized, that of Psalm 121 has a rapture that builds on an effervescent Sanctus in what is the most arresting section. A ruminative setting from The Burial Service precedes the impulsiveness of that from Salisbury Diurnal, with the return of the Requiem aeternam bringing about a fatalistic repose.

Something of a staple at these festivals it might be, Hymnus Paradisi is never an easy work to sustain in performance and tonight’s was a notable though not unqualified success. The vocal parts were well taken, Rebecca Hardwick’s occasional shrillness ostensibly a price to be paid for surmounting those often dense choral textures and Michael Bell making up for in accuracy what he lacked in personality. The sizable orchestral forces of the Philharmonia proved more than equal to the task, not just of balancing but in opening-out the expressive power of choral writing where the Three Choirs Festival Chorus was wholly in its element. Adrian Partington secured an interpretive focus that gained in conviction as the performance unfolded, making for an account which underlined the strengths yet also the weaknesses of this singular work.

It was the earlier and uninhibited Howells which ushered in proceedings. With its translucent orchestration and, at times, almost concertante-like piano part, Paradise Rondel makes for as irresistible a curtain-raiser as it no doubt was evoking that Cotswold hamlet of a century ago.

Published post no.2,615 – Sunday 3 August 2025

In concert – Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir / Tõnu Kaljuste @ BBC Proms: Arvo Pärt at 90

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Annika Lõhmus, Yena Choi (sopranos), Toomas Tohert (tenor), Geir Luht (bass), Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Kadri Toomoja (organ) / Tõnu Kaljuste

Arvo Pärt Da pacem Domine (2004/6); Veni creator (2006); Magnificat (1989); The Deer’s Cry (2007); Für Jan van Eyck (2020) (UK premiere)
Galina Grigorjeva Svyatki – ‘Spring is Coming’ (2004)
Rachmaninov All Night Vigil (Vespers) Op.37 (1915): Slava v vyshnikh Bogu; Bogoroditse Devo
J.S. Bach Motet: Ich lasse dich nicht, BWV Anh.159 (1713)
Arvo Pärt Peace upon you, Jerusalem (2002); De profundis (1980)
Tormis Curse upon Iron (1972, rev. 1991)
Arvo Pärt Vater unser (2005/11); encore: Estonian Lullaby (2002)

Royal Albert Hall, London
Thursday 31 July 2025 (late night)

Reviewed by Ben Hogwood Photos (c) BBC / Chris Christodoulou

The music of Arvo Pärt is ideal for the special atmosphere of a late-night Prom. Yet this was no ordinary concert, being a celebration of the Estonian composer’s forthcoming 90th birthday in September, given by his close friend and collaborator Tõnu Kaljuste, conducting the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir.

This combination of performers have been mainstays of the Pärt discography, forming a celebrated partnership with the ECM label that began with the landmark Tabula Rasa album of 1984, a cornerstone for Pärt’s critical and commercial success.

Pärt is often referred to as a ‘holy minimalist’, to which the response should be that his music is not ‘wholly minimal’. The substantial orchestral works attest to that, though here we heard much slighter but equally meaningful pieces for choir, most given unaccompanied by the 25-strong Estonian ensemble. The Proms audience were commendably quiet, leaning in to appreciate both the delicacy and crystal purity of the voices. The program was well-thought, realising the expressive potential of Pärt’s music alongside that of Bach, Rachmaninov and fellow Estonians, Veljo Tormis and Galina Grigorjeva.

The solemn Da pacem Domine and open-air Veni creator made an ideal opening couplet, the choir projecting with striking clarity rather than volume. For silence, too, plays a critical role in Pärt’s music, and Kaljuste ensured the spaces between the notes were every bit as expressive.

The Magnificat revealed its hidden power, while The Deer’s Cry was perfectly phrased, Pärt’s lilting cadences casting a spell. Für Jan Van Eyck, setting the text of the Agnus Dei, found the ideal balance between the reduced choir and Royal Albert Hall organ, where Kadri Toomoja had the ideal registration. Peace Upon You, Jerusalem, for female voices, contrasted silence with brightly voiced choral statements, while the solemn De profundis, for male voices, began from a small cell, maintaining rapt concentration while punctuated by organ and percussion.

Galina Grigorjeva’s Svyatki was a beautiful meditation, led by the heavenly voice of soprano Yena Choi, her voice with a remarkable bell-like clarity. Bach’s motet, previously attributed to his son Johann Christian, was impeccably voiced and phrased, but while the two excerpts from Rachmaninov’s All-Night Vigil were arguably less successful, they reflected a familiarity with listening to big choirs perform this music, rather than the subtleties of a chamber choir. Purity proved ample compensation for volume here.

This was emphatically not the case in Curse upon Iron, a remarkable setting from Veljo Tormis, of words from the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala, translated into Estonian. Describing the horrors of war, it sends a chill down the spine right from the primal call to arms of the shaman drum, struck by Kaljuste himself, then from the restrained urgency of the choir, like a coiled spring. While listening it was impossible not to think of the current plight of Ukraine and by extension in fear for the Baltic states, especially as Tormis’ writing was brought to a horrific climax. This was realised through the elemental power of tenor Toomas Tohert, bass Geir Luht and the choir, turning from side to side with watchful dread but then erupting in barely concealed anger. It was a remarkable performance, which will live long in the memory.

After this emotionally shattering encounter, the balm of Vater unser, Pärt’s German setting of The Lord’s Prayer for Pope Benedict, was just what was needed, its simplicity all the more affecting for what went before. As an encore, Kaljuste found just the right complement in the choir and piano version of Estonian Lullaby, its pauses near the end the musical equivalent of drooping eyelids. It was a most effective end to a special concert, Arvo Pärt’s musical essence distilled for a most appreciative audience.

You can listen back to this Prom concert on BBC Sounds until Sunday 12 October.

Click to read more about the BBC Proms

Published post no.2,608 – Sunday 27 July 2025

In concert – BBC Scottish SO / Ryan Wigglesworth @ BBC Proms: Birtwistle Earth Dances & Beethoven ‘Eroica’ Symphony

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BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra / Ryan Wigglesworth (above)

Birtwistle Earth Dances (1985-6)
Beethoven Symphony no.3 in E flat major Op.55 ‘Eroica’ (1802-4)

Royal Albert Hall, London
Monday 28 July 2025

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse Photos (c) BBC / Mark Allan

The emphasis on Ryan Wigglesworth’s activities may have changed during recent years, but this is certainly no hardship when his conducting of so broad a repertoire is as convincing as in his brace of concerts from this year’s Proms with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

Performed three times at the Proms during its first decade of existence, Sir Harrison Birtwistle’s Earth Dances tonight reappeared after 31 years. Much may have changed over that time (not least the passing of the composer), though this piece remains a sure highpoint of his output as of British music from the period. Premiered by the late Peter Eötvös before being taken up by Christoph von Dohnányi, Peter Boulez and Simon Rattle, it has now found an ideal advocate in Wigglesworth who surely gets to the heart of this particular matter like no-one before him.

Essentially this is about finding a balance between the facets of its title – those often densely arrayed yet always sharply differentiated strata of the orchestral texture, allied to a rhythmic fluidity which keeps the music moving forward even during its most intricate passages. Not an easy task such as previous exponents have conveyed with varying degrees of success, but Wigglesworth had the work’s measure from the beginning. Rather than a set of more or less complex episodes that follow on sequentially, what came across was a series of interrelated layers fused in an audible process of continual variation – one, moreover, in constant motion to a point at which it did not so much end as disperse into silence. Almost four decades after its premiere, Earth Dances has now emerged as that multi-faceted masterpiece it always was.

It likely took at least as long for the Eroica to be rendered, rather than merely recognized, as such – which could be a factor with their being juxtaposed in the same concert. Whatever the case, it made for judicious programming with Wigglesworth and the BBCSSO rising to their comparable challenges. First performed at these concerts 129 years ago then subsequently in almost every season, Beethoven’s Third Symphony is a testing assignment conceptually and interpretatively – as was not shirked by this involving though often understated performance.

An understatement evident in the opening Allegro, with its subtly modified exposition repeat, the more involving for rendering this movement as an unbroken while cumulative continuity through to an affirmative if not wantonly triumphal coda. Even finer was the Marcia funèbre, its steady undertow flexible enough to accommodate the lilting counter-theme as well as the intensifying fugato at its centre on route to a conclusion the more affecting for its emotional deftness. Nor was this latter quality absent from a Scherzo whose shimmering outer sections found ideal contrast in the trio, its incisive part-writing for three horns buoyantly articulated. The Finale was all of a piece with what went before, its variations on the ‘Prometheus’ theme enticingly characterized but with a keen underlying momentum toward the joyous apotheosis. While no single account of so trail-blazing a work could possibly convey all the answers, this was impressive in its formal focus and expressive balance as saw the symphony whole. Make no mistake, Ryan Wigglesworth now numbers among the finest conductors of his generation.

You can listen back to this Prom concert on BBC Sounds until Sunday 12 October – or listen to recommended recordings of the two works from the Cleveland Orchestra on Tidal here

Click on the artist names to read more about the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and their chief conductor Ryan Wigglesworth. Click also for more on the BBC Proms

Published post no.2,613 – Friday 1 August 2025

In concert – Augustin Hadelich, BBC SO / Sakari Oramo @ BBC Proms: Stravinsky, Mendelssohn, Anthony Davis & Richard Strauss

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Augustin Hadelich (violin), BBC Symphony Orchestra / Sakari Oramo

Stravinsky Le chant du rossignol (1914/17)
Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64 (1838-44)
Anthony Davis Tales (Tails) of the Signifying Monkey (1997) [European premiere]
Richard Strauss Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche, Op. 28 (1894-5)

Royal Albert Hall, London
Thursday 24 July 2025

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse Photos (c) BBC / Mark Allan

Now in his second decade as chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Sakari Oramo can be relied on for innovative Proms programmes; tonight’s framing a staple of the concerto repertoire and an unfamiliar orchestral work with influential symphonic poems. In the case of The Song of the Nightingale, Stravinsky recycled sections from the latter two acts of his opera Le Rossignol into an illustrative sequence no less successful when heard in abstract terms. As exhilarating as are those earlier stages with their depiction of the bustling Chinese court, it is what follows – arrival of the mechanical nightingale, illness of the emperor then return of the real nightingale to restore his health – that proves most memorable. Above all, that plaintive song of the fisherman – heard on solo trumpet and rendered with due pathos by Niall Keatley.

Oramo has worked with Augustin Hadelich on numerous occasions and this evening’s account of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto confirmed their rapport right from the outset. Not its least attraction was the deftness of orchestral response in music as wears its Romanticism with the lightest of touches, with Hadelich’s handling of the first movement’s central cadenza no less assured than Oramo’s ushering in of its reprise. The slow movement had no lack of eloquence, nor the finale of that genial humour wholly typical of its era as it headed toward its engaging close. Hadelich responded to the (rightly) enthusiastic applause with his own arrangement of Por una Cabeza – originally a song penned by Carlos Gardel and Alfredo Le Pera, and which has latterly become a favourite addition to film-scores whenever a tango element is called for.

Although he is best known for his operas, notably X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X which has enjoyed several revivals since its Philadelphia premiere four decades ago, Anthony Davis has written numerous concertos and orchestral works with Tales of the Signifying Monkey the final part of a triptych that can be played together or separately. Inspired by an African fable about how the monkey uses its innate guile to keep lions and other predatory animals at bay, this proceeds as a stealthily cumulative entity in which elements of jazz and even swing, are prominent within the stylistic mix. An aura of anticipation, frequently with an ominous tinge, is always apparent and if the outcome is at all anti-climactic, it could well another take on the maxim of travelling in hope. Certainly, the BBCSO seemed to enjoy making its acquaintance.

Usually encountered at the beginning of a concert, Richard Strauss’s Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks is no less effective (and perhaps even more so) when heard at the close. So it proved tonight with a performance which, while eschewing the uproarious humour often instilled into these increasingly scatological events, was always adept in its conveying of the music’s capricious demeanour. Composed in the wake of his ill-received first opera Guntram, the present work was a ready incentive for that orchestral virtuosity which was Strauss’s metier – above all, its climactic confrontation between its protagonist and the judiciary that results in the former’s execution. The real Till likely survived to old age, only to expire during the Black Death, but his fictional self is doubtless more appealing when characterized so judiciously as it was here.

You can listen back to this Prom concert on BBC Sounds until Sunday 12 October.

Click on the artist names to read more about Augustin Hadelich, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and their chief conductor Sakari Oramo – as well as composer Anthony Davis. Click also for more on the BBC Proms

Published post no.2,609 – Monday 28 July 2025

In concert – Alexandre Kantorow (piano), Scottish Chamber Orchestra / Maxim Emelyanychev @ BBC Proms: Rameau, Saint-Saëns, Capperauld & Beethoven

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Alexandre Kantorow (piano), Scottish Chamber Orchestra / Maxim Emelyanychev

Rameau Les Indes galantes – suite (1735)
Saint-Saëns Piano Concerto no.5 in F major Op.103 ‘Egyptian’ (1896)
Capperauld Bruckner’s Skull (2024)
Beethoven Symphony no.5 in C minor Op.67 (1807-08)

Royal Albert Hall, London
Friday 25 July 2025

Reviewed by Ben Hogwood Photos (c) BBC / Mark Allan

This colourful program marking the Scottish Chamber Orchestra’s BBC Proms visit began with music written nearly 300 years ago. Rameau’s characterful ballet score Les Indes galantes looks introduce French sophistication to the culture of exotic destinations overseas. After an elegant Entrée there were boisterous dance encounters in the Rigaudons, with the extremities of loud and quiet, and a colourful Chaconne to finish. The SCO were on fine form, their affectionate performance complemented with tasteful harpsichord contributions from Jan Waterfield. Percussionists Louise Lewis Goodwin and Iain Sandilands were joined by conductor Maxim Emelyanychev himself, wielding a side drum in the Danse du grand calumet de paix (below). Unfortunately the Royal Albert Hall acoustics ensured the beat of his instrument was slightly ahead of his colleagues, but it matter little, adding to the outdoor feel of a performance that left the audience wreathed in smiles.

Saint-Saëns wrote his Piano Concerto no.5 in F major in Luxor, Egypt, where temperatures were surely similar to those on a summer night in the Royal Albert Hall! Taking us back to north Africa was pianist Alexandre Kantorow, with a dazzling account showcasing his virtuosity but also his musical acumen. The picture painting in the rhapsodic second movement was vivid, the quiet playing exquisite, while the orchestra provided the heat haze to the decorative homespun themes. Here Kantorow provided the overtones, evoking North African piped instruments. The concerto’s outer movements were a little more strait-laced in their musical language, but soloist and orchestra had fun here too, Saint-Saëns’ push-pull figurations lapped up and delivered with aplomb. For his well-chosen encore, Kantorow held the audience in the palm of his hand for a delicate arrangement of the composer’s most famous aria, Mon coeur s’ouvre à ta voix, by none other than Nina Simone.

After the interval, the SCO first violins began Jay Capperauld’s Bruckner’s Skull with a line akin to that from Bernard Herrmann’s score to Hitchcock’s Psycho. There was something kind of ‘Eeew’ about the newly orchestrated version of this piece, less a homage to Bruckner than an account of his morbid fascination with death. Bruckner is alleged to have held the skulls of both Beethoven and Schubert after their exhumations, and Capperauld reflected these events in a score quoting from both composers, subjecting the music to ghostly twists and turns. This was in effect a musical exhumation, laced with dark humour and a touch of madness. With Bruckner’s own death mask staring out of the Proms programme, the piece wore a haunted expression throughout, a ghoulish but enduring tale.

There were ghostly outlines, too, in Beethoven’s Symphony no.5 in C minor, notably at the memorable transition between scherzo and finale that marked the high point of this performance. This was a fine account indeed, launched before the audience were fully settled back in their seats but on the front foot from then on. The lean interpretation, such as chamber orchestras can bring to this work, was heightened by a relative absence of vibrato in the strings. Some of the heft of Beethoven’s climaxes was missed, particularly in such a large venue, but the four double basses ensured the lower end of the frequency spectrum was amply covered.

With fine woodwind solos, springy timpani and tightly focussed strings, the rhythmic insights were strong. The slow movement did not linger, and was less affectionate as a result, but Kenneth Henderson and Anna Drysdale took an assertive lead on their natural horns in the scherzo. Then the magical moment, Emelyanychev drawing the orchestra back to a barely audible pianissimo, the launch pad from which the finale sprang forward. Now the music wore a resolute smile, its struggle ultimately won.

You can listen back to this Prom concert on BBC Sounds until Sunday 12 October.

Click to read more about the BBC Proms

Published post no.2,608 – Sunday 27 July 2025