by Ben Hogwood. Image by Leopoldo Metlicovitz, courtesy of Wikipedia
On this day in 1926, the first performance took place of Puccini’s three act opera Turandot. The work was left unfinished at the composer’s death in 1924, but its premiere took place in the La Scala opera house in Milan, under the baton of Arturo Toscanini.
Turandot includes one of opera’s most famous arias, Nessun Dorma (None shall sleep), sung at the beginning of Act 3. With no spoilers for the plot, you can listen to a famous recording conducted by Herbert von Karajan below:
Fleur Barron (mezzo-soprano), City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra / Carlo Rizzi
Puccini arr. Rizzi Tosca – Symphonic Suite (1900, arr. 2020) Respighi Il Tramonto (1917-18) Puccini arr. Rizzi Madama Butterfly – Symphonic Suite (1904, arr. 2020) Respighi Pini di Roma (1923-4)
Symphony Hall, Birmingham Thursday 16 April 2026
Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse Photo of Fleur Barron by Victoria Cadisch
Carlo Rizzi has long been a familiar presence in Birmingham – though as music director (for 13 years) at Welsh National Opera rather than conducting the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, with whom his rapport was nevertheless undoubted as tonight’s concert confirmed.
The theatrical essence of Puccini’s operas inevitably detracts from their orchestral mastery, but there is no reason why their music cannot be adapted for the concert hall – as Rizzi duly demonstrated with these two ‘symphonic suites’ created during the COVID lockdown. The incentive had come earlier when conducting the suite from Richard Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier, and anyone familiar with that rather crassly assembled concoction will surely concur that Rizzi has performed a much greater service for two of the Italian composer’s most famous operas.
As regards Tosca, its unwavering concentration makes it difficult to extract purely orchestral passages of any length – thereby vindicating making Rizzi’s decision to adapt this music as it stands and not ‘instrumentalize’ the vocal lines. Centred on the ill-fated lovers Tosca and Cavaradossi, his suite pivots between high emotion and fraught pathos while still managing to encompass the extent of the drama throughout the two hours of its unfolding. Put another way, those unfamiliar with this opera would be left in little doubt as to its dramatic potency.
If the overtly discursive quality of Madam Butterfly makes it less amenable for being distilled in this way, its score offers an abundance of orchestral finesse and local colour of which Rizzi has made the most. Here the emphasis comes even more on the eponymous heroine, her main set-pieces diminished only incrementally when shorn of their vocal component. Nor does this suite overlook the searing cruelty of the denouement, achieved here through a shattering burst of orchestral violence which felt scarcely less visceral than in operas from Janáček and Berg.
In between these high-octane encapsulations, a modicum of restraint (though hardly serenity) was conveyed by The Sunset. When setting Shelley’s typically over-wrought poem from 1816, Respighi was evidently guided by the disjunctive if not necessarily jarring transition between its rapt initial stages and its anguished continuation towards an ending of fatalistic repose. Its richly enveloping string-writing was fastidiously rendered – an apposite context for Canadian mezzo Fleur Barron (above) to project vocal writing no less suffused with radiant emotional warmth.
Respighi in more familiar guise concluded this programme. His Pines of Rome was accorded an insightful reading – whether in the raucous animation of those ‘of the Villa Borghese’, the sombre opulence of those ‘near a Catacomb’, the enfolding ecstasy of those ‘at the Janiculum’ (pre-recorded nightingale ascending headily through the expanse of Symphony Hall) then the surging majesty of those ‘of the Appian Way’, with its overwhelmingly cinematic peroration. Music expressly intended to bring the house down, which was certainly true on this occasion.
It set the seal on an imaginatively programmed and superbly played concert, making one hope that Rizzi will soon be returning. Next week, however, brings music of a very different nature when Ryan Wigglesworth takes the podium in commemorative music by Purcell and Brahms.
To read more about the CBSO’s 2025/26 season, visit the CBSO website. Click on the names for more on conductor Carlo Rizzi and mezzo-soprano Fleur Barron
Programme including pieces by Mozart, Gluck, Johann Christian Bach, Johann Christian Fischer, Tommaso Giordani and Thomas Arne. Full repertoire list at the bottom of this review
Wigmore Hall, London, 9 March 2026
by John Earls. Photo credits John Earls
Giusto Ferdinando Tenducci (c. 1735-90) may not be a name on many people’s lips but he was something of a superstar in his day (his portrait was painted by Gainsborough twice). The Siena-born soprano castrato (who were the pop stars of their time) was not just a successful singer but his celebrity also featured a colourful life that included spells in a debtors’ prison and a scandal involving him marrying his teenage singing pupil Dorothea (Dora) Maunsell – the couple met in Dublin in Ireland but eloped to Cork, where he was also jailed for a time (the marriage was later annulled).
This concert explored the world and music of Tenducci and his time in Ireland (he spent the early part of his career touring Italian and German cities and came to prominence in London and Ireland in the late 1750s and early 1760s). The Irish Baroque Orchestra released the album The Trials of Tenducci: A Castrato in Ireland (Linn Records) in 2021 and a number of its pieces featured tonight, although there were some compositions too. On the album the singer is Irish mezzo-soprano Tara Erraught. Tonight’s singer was British countertenor Hugh Cutting, a BBC New Generation Artist (2022–24) and the first countertenor to win the Kathleen Ferrier Award. Cutting impressed me as Arsace in English National Opera’s recent surrealist production of Handel’s Partenope, and he made a very strong impact in this performance.
In a nice scene setter, the concert began with Mozart’s Symphony no. 1 which the composer wrote when he was just eight years old, about the time when Tenducci met him in England in 1764. The first set also included two arias from Mozart’s third opera Mitridate: re di Ponto: Già dagli occhi and Venga pur Minacci (which closed the first half) seeing Cutting give rein to his strong stage presence and in the latter, an, at times, literally pointed delivery.
The rest of the first set featured Thomas Arne’s Vengeance, O come inspire me! from Alfred (a forceful opener from Cutting with lively, bright accompaniment from the orchestra) and Water parted from the sea from Artaxerxes (which ran for some 33 performances in Dublin in 1765-66), delivered with clarity by Cutting (not so much the audience member who coughed loudly at the end).
Another first set highlight was the orchestra’s performance of Johann Christian Fischer’s Gramachree Molly with variations from the Oboe Concerto No. 7 which spotlighted some gorgeously expressive and fluent oboe playing by Emma Black.
The young Mozart’s Symphony no. 4 opened the second half followed by three pieces from Gluck’s opera Orfeo ed Euridice. Here the orchestra was in full command for Dance of the Furies with the two horn players holding their instrument’s bells upright for maximum impact. Cutting’s singing on Ahimè! dove trascorsi! and Che farò senza Euridice? was clear and passionate.
There then followed a piece where the orchestra absolutely shined. Tommaso Giordani’s The Celebrated Overture and Irish Medley to The Island of Saints saw Emma Black working oboe magic again, beautifully accompanied by plucked strings, for Shepherds I Have Lost My Love. The Irish Medley was given a joyous performance of its selection of Irish folk melodies featuring some fantastic fiddle playing. It was rewarded with rapturous applause – a perfect early Saint Patrick’s Day celebration. There was more Giordani of a different sort next with Caro mio ben, with Cutting’s vocals hanging confidently and elegantly.
Johann Christian Bach’s Vo solcando un mar crudele from Artaserse W.G 1 was a crisp, rousing finale giving full expression to Cutting’s virtuosity. A repeat of Caro mio ben served as an encore and was even more glorious than the first time round.
This was a mesmerising evening with a wonderful programme that highlighted that baroque music in Ireland goes further than the celebrated premiere of Handel’s Messiah in Dublin in 1742. Hugh Cutting and the Irish Baroque Orchestra are an outstanding combination. I hope there is more to come.
Hugh Cutting and the Irish Baroque Orchestra performed the following repertoire:
Mozart Symphony No. 1 in E flat major K16 Arne Vengeance, O come inspire me! from Alfred Mozart Già dagli occhi from Mitridate, re di Ponto Johann Christian Fischer Gramachree Molly with variations from Oboe Concerto No. 7 Arne Water parted from the sea from Artaxerxes Mozart Venga pur Minacci from Mitridate, re di Ponto; Symphony No. 4 in D major K19 Gluck Dance of the Furies; Ahimè! dove trascorsi!; Che farò senza Euridice? from Orfeo ed Euridice Giordani The Celebrated Overture and Irish Medley to The Island of Saints; Caro mio ben; Johann Christian Bach Vo solcando un mar crudele from Artaserse W.G 1
Marianna Crebassa (mezzo-soprano), The Mozartists / Ian Page
Mozart Lucio Silla K135 (1772): Dunque sperar poss’io…Il tenero momento Haydn Symphony no.34 in D minor Hob.I:34 (1765) Mozart Idomeneo K366 (1781): Ah! qual gelido orror; La clemenza di Tito K621 (1791): Parto, parto; Lucio Silla K135: Ah! se morir mi chiama; Le nozze di Figaro K492 (1786): Voi che sapete che cosa e amor Haydn Symphony no.26 in D minor ‘Lamentatione’ (1768) Mozart La clemenza di Tito K621: Deh, per questo istante solo
Wigmore Hall, London Thursday 26 February
Reviewed by Ben Hogwood Photo (c) The Mozartists
It was a matter of time before Marianne Crebassa and Ian Page appeared together on the same stage. Indeed, as Page confided in the pre-concert talk, the French mezzo-soprano was top of his ‘wanted’ list for performing with his band, The Mozartists. With dates aligned, the pair constructed a typically stimulating programme.
Page’s eye for historical and orchestral detail proved the ideal foil for Crebassa’s characterisation of four operatic characters from early, middle and late in Mozart’s career, with each role written for castrato singers. Supporting these operatic excerpts were two symphonic examples from Haydn’s ‘Sturm und Drang’ period.
Diving straight in at the deep end, Crebassa embraced the many twists and turns of the 10-minute epic Dunque sperar poss’io…Il tenero momento, from Mozart’s teenage opera Lucio Silla. Her lower range notes were sumptuously delivered with impeccable poise, while Crebassa’s upper range was thrilling in the exposed virtuoso passages, delivered with a flash of the eye and a smile.
‘Enjoyment’ was a key word for this concert, as players, conductor and singer alike shared musical asides with obvious pleasure – not always the case in the concert hall! Some of the biggest smiles were reserved for Crebassa’s coy account of Voi che sapete, from Le Nozze di Figaro, subtle but winsome. Meanwhile the tragic Ah! qual gelido orror, from Idomeneo, had the appropriate gravitas and a weighty orchestral tone to match. A second aria from Lucio Silla, Ah! se morir mi chiama, was given with exceptional voice control and attention to detail from Page, including tasteful harpsichord continuo from Steven Devine.
Crebassa also triumphed in two arias from Mozart’s final opera La clemenza di Tito, hailed by Page as a long-underrated masterpiece. In Parto, parto her accomplice was basset clarinettist Emily Worthington, taking the part of Mozart’s friend (and Clarinet Quintet dedicatee) Anton Stadler. Player and singer engaged in a compelling sequence of musical cat and mouse, Worthington projecting well from the back of the stage. Meanwhile Deh, per questo istante solo found Crebassa drawing the audience in with its dynamic contrasts, high on drama. As a considerable bonus she gave a serene account of Qui d’amor from Handel’s Ariodante as an encore.
Complementing the Mozart selection were two examples of Haydn’s invention from early on in his tenure as Director of Music at Esterházy. Both D minor works share a weighty tone, and the earlier work, Symphony no.34, began with a heavy heart. The sparse tone of the orchestra was a stark contrast to the Mozart, only briefly relenting as the first movement developed its ideas. Even when D major appeared as the key of the resulting Allegro the music still bristled with anxiety, expressed through the violin tremolos. The Minuet and Trio – with lovely tone from oboists James Eastaway and Rachel Chaplin – eased the strain with brighter tones, as did the finale, in spite of its brief minor key recollections.
One of few Haydn symphonies to receive a nickname from the composer himself, Symphony no.26, the ‘Lamentatione’, took us to church in an interpretation reaching profound emotional depths. Page and the Mozartists moved from the brio of the lean first movement to rapt concentration in the second, where the music has a similar gait to the chorale of J.S. Bach’s famous cantata Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme. Page gave the phrasing appropriate room for contemplation. Haydn’s wit and invention made a welcome reappearance beneath the surface tension of the Minuet and was expressly felt in the syncopated trio, where oboes and horns excelled.
This was a memorable evening of music making, captured by microphones – presumably for broadcast on BBC Radio 3 or recording. Either way, a memento is well worth seeking out!
You can listen to the music from this concert in a Tidal playlist, including some of Marianne Crebassa’s own Mozart recordings made for the Erato label.
by Ben Hogwood picture courtesy of Colbert Artists Management
Last week we learned the sad news of the death of the great Belgian baritone, José van Dam, at the age of 85. A suitable obituary can be read at the Presto Music website
van Dam’s discography is extremely impressive, and the Tidal playlist below taps in to a number of elements of it, not least his many recordings made with the Berliner Philharmoniker and Herbert von Karajan. Yet there are landmark recordings of French opera and melodies too, which are also included – with music by Massenet, Ibert and Ravel:
Arcana.fm 