by Ben Hogwood, photo courtesy of Wikipedia (c) Dutch Simba
There was only one way Arcana could sign off for Christmas 2025 – with a tribute to the sadly departed and much-missed Chris Rea.
Before the inevitable finale, I wanted to share a couple of favourites from his considerable collection of excellent songs – this beauty from 1983:
The song Josephine has become something of a Balearic anthem, and is a sun-soaked beauty:
Speaking of sunshine, I had to include On The Beach, another dreamy song that proved versatile enough to be worked into a late 1990s trance hit:
And of course, finally, the ubiquitous Driving Home For Christmas, one of the staple Christmas songs with its wistfulness, charm…and patience!
With many thanks to all Arcana readers this year for your input and support, as well as gratitude for our fine writing contributions from John Earls and Richard Whitehouse. Arcana will return in the first full week of the New Year, but for now have a wonderful and peaceful Christmas, and all very best wishes for 2026 when it comes.
Ben Hogwood, editor, Arcana
Published post no.2,758 – Wednesday 24 December 2025
On 16 January 2026, Johnston will give the world premiere of Joseph Phibbs’ Cello Concerto at the Barbican with the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Clemens Schuldt. In 2021,Johnston previously premiered Joseph Phibbs’ Cello Sonata, partly based on an Elizabethan pavane found in the archive of Hatfield House.
Phibbs (below) says about the work:
“This concerto is in five movements, the first and last scored for cello and strings only. The work opens softly with a short Invocation – a type of prayer – which leads without a break to an ebullient and at times abrasive Aubade, the cello moving from its lowest to highest range. The subdued central Elegy hones in on the celebrated lyrical qualities of the cello, before an agitated Notturno presents an unsettled, ever-shifting dialogue between the cello and orchestra, with a virtuoso cadenza featuring towards its close. A short Vocalise, adapted from a sonata Guy commissioned several years ago, ends the work on a note of resolution.
As one of the very finest cellists of his generation, I wanted to bring out Guy’s extraordinary expressive qualities as well as his dazzling technical prowess. The result was music which is often lyrical and emotionally direct sitting alongside that which is harder-edged, and at times frenetically virtuosic.”
This concerto appearance is part of a wider cello odyssey to record the major British cello repertoire. Following the digital release of the Bliss Cello Concerto with the RLPO on Onyx Classics in July 2025, Guy recorded Tavener’s The Protecting Veil with Britten Sinfonia in St Sophia’s Greek Orthodox Cathedral in October 2025 to be released on Signum in 2026. Early 2027 will see a physical release of the Britten Cello Symphony coupled with the earlier recording of the Bliss Cello Concerto with the RLPO on Onyx Classics. Also to be released in 2027 are recordings of Walton’s Cello Concerto and Barber’s Cello Concerto with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.
The 2025-2026 season coincides with Johnston’s returns to the Royal Academy of Music as a Professor of Cello. This role will see him offer bespoke tuition to cello students throughout the year. Johnston started out as a professor at the Academy in 2011, later becoming visiting professor. The appointment follows Johnston’s recent relocation back to the UK following his tenure at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY, from 2018 to 2024.
published by Ben Hogwood from the original press release. Photo above (c) unknown
The programme for the 77th Aldeburgh Festival takes place from Friday 12 to Sunday 28 June. Aldeburgh Festival has always been a place where music is made in full view of its past and its future; where composers, performers and audiences meet in the “holy triangle” Britten believed was essential to artistic life. In 2026, fifty years since Britten’s death, Britten Pears Arts reaffirms that principle as a living manifesto. 1976 marked an ending, but also a beginning: the moment the care, curiosity and exacting standards Britten and Pears brought to nurturing young artists became the enduring thread of the Festival and this organisation’s identity.
The 2026 Festival convenes artists who know one another’s work deeply—musicians who share a language of trust, risk and detail. Featured Artist Ryan Wigglesworth leads a circle of collaborators including Vilde Frang, Sophie Bevan, Steven Osborne, Lawrence Power and Nicolas Altstaedt. They come not simply to perform, but to pass on what they have learned: forming chamber groups, standing side by side with young players, and allowing music to reveal its meaning through shared attention.
In 2026 James Baillieu and Ryan Wigglesworth begin a 3-year tenure as Associate Directors of the Britten Pears Young Artist Programme. The aim is to build academies in which young, aspiring artists can flourish alongside their mentors and be celebrated in Aldeburgh Festival programmes, and to consider how important this venture is at a difficult time for the arts.
At the heart of this commitment is the new Festival Academy, directed by James Baillieu with Lise Davidsen, Caroline Dowdle, Julia Faulkner and Nicky Spence as faculty. Their work, and the Summer Academy that will follow it for instrumentalists and led by Ryan Wigglesworth, continues the legacy Britten and Pears established and marks a new way for the Young Artist Programme to work, enabling young artists to flourish when surrounded by the very best musicians, challenged, nurtured and invited to experience the generosity of audiences at Snape Maltings.
Pelléas et Mélisande, directed by Rory Kinnear with designs by Vicki Mortimer and lighting by Paule Constable, and performed by Sophie Bevan, Sarah Connolly, Jacques Imbrailo, Gordon Bintner, John Tomlinson and alumni of the Britten Pears Young Artist Programme, opens the festival with a work of delicacy and depth. Alongside Britten’s own late works, music by Feldman, Crumb, Kurtág and Henze sits beside 11 new works by Lera Auerbach, Tom Coult, Tansy Davies, Brett Dean, Lisa Illean, Natalie Joachim, Freya Waley-Cohen, Ryan Wigglesworth and others, maintaining Britten Pears Arts’ commitment to the composers of today and the artists who bring their work to life.
Andrew Comben, Chief Executive, Britten Pears Arts commented, ‘Aldeburgh Festival 2026 draws its joy from the energy of the musicians who gather here and the future they help reveal. At the heart of this is Ryan Wigglesworth, who I’m delighted to welcome as this year’s Featured Artist. His long association with the Festival will be reflected in performances as conductor, pianist and composer, joined by many of his closest artistic collaborators. 2026 marks fifty years since the death of our Founder, Benjamin Britten. His and Peter Pears’ commitment to supporting young artists remains central to our purpose, and the Festival and Summer Academies – led by James Baillieu and Ryan Wigglesworth – strengthen that legacy by placing outstanding young performers alongside world-class musicians as a core part of our programming. The Festival opens with a semi-staging of Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande, with an all-star cast and creative team, followed by a wide-ranging programme of opera, orchestras, choirs, chamber music, song, film, talks, walks and a fascinating visual arts programme featuring Ryan Gander, Ffiona Lewis and Kate Giles. Set across Snape Maltings, Aldeburgh and other Suffolk locations it continues to offer a beguiling combination of music, landscape and creative possibility. We really look forward to welcoming everyone in June.’
Ryan Wigglesworth this year’s Featured Artist commented, ‘Making music at Snape Maltings over the past 25 years has been one of the great pleasures of my life. From the start, it felt like home – a place where the most important friendships were forged, a place to grow and develop artistically. So, the invitation to be “Featured Artist” for the 2026 Aldeburgh Festival was a very special and joyous privilege. A strong sense of “family” has always been central to the spirit of the Aldeburgh Festival and accounts for why so many musicians feel drawn to put down artistic roots here. And what bliss it has been programming concerts involving so many of my dearest friends and colleagues:
Nicolas Altstaedt, Sophie Bevan (literally family!), Sarah Connolly, Jacques Imbrailo, Rory Kinnear, Vicki Mortimer, Steven Osborne, Lawrence Power, John Tomlinson, as well as all the members of the two orchestras I’m lucky to be associated with: the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the Knussen Chamber Orchestra. (the latter itself a legacy of my “thanks-to-Snape” friendship with the late, deeply missed Oliver Knussen). It allows me the rare opportunity to wear all my hats under one roof, as it were: playing chamber music and song, premiering my new piece for Lawrence Power and the KCO, and conducting works that mean a great deal to me personally – none more so than Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande. It really is a great honour.’
James Baillieu, Associate Director, Britten Pears Young Artist Programme commented, ‘I am deeply honoured and delighted to be appointed, alongside Ryan Wigglesworth, as Associate Directors of the Britten Pears Young Artist Programme for 2026–2028. The Britten Pears Programme played a formative role in my own development as a young artist, and it is a profound privilege to return in this new capacity to contribute to its future. This appointment represents a deeply meaningful opportunity to help nurture the next generation of musicians within the creative and inspiring context that Britten and Pears established. I am excited to bring my experience, connections, and ideas to the role, and to be part of an ambitious new chapter in the life of this distinguished programme.’
published by Ben Hogwood from the original press release. Photo above (c) Christopher Heaney
The Ulster Orchestra is delighted to announce that Anna Handler will be its new Chief Conductor from September 2026.
Joining an impressive and venerable list of conductors who have worked with the Orchestra including Vernon Handley, Bryden Thomson, Yan Pascal Tortelier and, more recently, Rafael Payare and Daniele Rustioni, the German-Colombian conductor Anna Handler is at a stage in her own career that makes a partnership with the Ulster Orchestra a dynamic prospect – just last week making her Boston Symphony Orchestra subscription series debut at short notice, with violinist Joshua Bell. Handler, a former Gustavo Dudamel Fellow and current Assistant Conductor at the Boston Symphony Orchestra, also began her tenure as Kapellmeister of Deutsche Oper Berlin in September 2025.
During her tenure, Anna looks forward to working in partnership with the Orchestra to grow the artistic identity of the organisation in breadth and depth, taking the level of performance to new heights on the international stage. Her leadership, which is founded on respect for shared musical roots, staying curious and opening the Orchestra’s sound to the future, is inspirational and the Ulster Orchestra is excited for this new phase of its development.
Reflecting on the appointment, Anna Handler says;
“Over the next three years, we’ll ask what it means to be an orchestra that belongs to now: alive, questioning, connected. Every phrase a conversation, every silence a choice. We’ll play as if it were the first or the last time – because real music doesn’t perform; it becomes. I feel deeply honoured to lead this journey – together, with the Ulster Orchestra musicians and the wider team. I feel grateful for their trust to have been chosen as their new chief conductor – a responsibility I carry with joy and curiosity.”
Anna Handler with Ulster Orchestra players (l to r) Gongbo Jiang, Wizz Bannan and Rich Cartlidge, backstage at the Ulster Hall (c) Thomas Jackson
Auveen Sands, Ulster Orchestra Chief Executive and Patrick McCarthy, Artistic Director, commented;
“Of Anna’s many remarkable qualities, her ability to genuinely connect with musicians and audiences is what makes this such an exciting appointment. That ability was immediately evident in a recent concert in Derry~Londonderry’s Guildhall, bringing a new energy and collaborative spirit to the Ulster Orchestra’s superb music making. We’ve already agreed on some exciting and deeply meaningful programmes for next year, and can’t wait to share them with audiences in Northern Ireland, and beyond.”
Ciaran Scullion, Head of Music at the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, added:
“Anna Handler’s creativity, knowledge and extensive experience will bring a further rich dimension to the Ulster Orchestra’s work, identity and output over the next 3 years. The Arts Council established the Ulster Orchestra in 1966 and has been its principal public funder ever since. We are delighted to see Anna join as Chief Conductor at a time when the Orchestra’s artistic profile and reach continue to rise.”
Anna Handler’s first concert as Chief Conductor of the Ulster Orchestra will be the opening concert of the Orchestra’s 60th anniversary Season, in the Ulster Hall on Friday 25 September 2026.
Published post no.2,731 – Thursday 27 November 2025
published by Ben Hogwood from the original press release
This December, Wigmore Hall focus in on a pianist famed for winning the prestigious Victoires de la Musique Classique award on five separate occasions, most recently in 2022. Described by the Guardian as ‘a remarkable musician, no question’, Chamayou caps off his short residency with an unmissable evening of the complete Ravel pianos works. Before that, the pianist joins forces with the thrilling Belcea Quartet and accompanies soprano Barbara Hannigan for her Wigmore Hall debut.
The programme with the Belcea Quartet on Thursday 4 December is of extra interest, for in addition to Chamayou’s appearance in the rarely-heard Piano Quintet in E major of Erich Korngold, the quartet will mark the 80th anniversary of the world première of Britten’s Second String Quartet at Wigmore Hall.
Chamayou’s programme with soprano Barbara Hannigan is typically adventurous, the pair reaffirming their Messiaen credentials with a performance of the Chants de terre et de ciel, before Chamayou looks at late Scriabin in the form of the Poème-nocturne Op. 61 and Vers la flamme Op. 72, before the two take on John Zorn’s song cycle Jumalattaret, written for Hannigan herself.
Chamayou’s third appearance will see him perform the complete works for solo piano by Maurice Ravel, whose birth in 1875 is being marked with 150th anniversary celebrations this year. The concert begins at 7pm, with the programme as follows:
1875-1937 Prélude Miroirs Menuet in C sharp minor Sonatine A la manière de Borodine Gaspard de la nuit
Interval
A la manière de Chabrier Valses nobles et sentimentales Menuet sur le nom d’Haydn Sérénade grotesque Jeux d’eau Menuet antique Pavane pour une infante défunte Le tombeau de Couperin
For more information on all the Wigmore Hall concerts, click on the links highlighted above.
Published post no.2,730 – Wednesday 26 November 2025
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