Tag Archives: classical-music

In concert – St. John’s College Choir Cambridge / Christopher Gray – Christmas Carols @ Wigmore Hall

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Choir of St. John’s College Cambridge / Christopher Gray

Beamish In the stillness (2007)
Rutter There is a flower (1986)
Parsons Ave Maria (c1560)
Hassler Verbum caro factum est (1591)
Britten A Hymn to the Virgin (1930, rev. 1934)
Walton All this time (1970)
Trad/German arr. Pearsall In dulci jubilo
Hieronymus Praetorius Magnificat quinti toni (pub. 1622)
Daley Love came down at Christmas (2004)
Poston Jesus Christ the Apple Tree (1967)
Kirbye Vox in Rama (c.1620)
Anon Coventry Carol
Dove The Three Kings (2000)

Wigmore Hall, London
Monday 15 December 2025

Reviewed by Ben Hogwood

What a lovely idea to bring a concert of Christmas Carols to the last of the BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concerts held in the Wigmore Hall in 2025. The Choir of St. John’s College Cambridge, suitably attired, were led in a stirring yet thought-provoking programme by their conductor Christopher Gray, who have just released O Holy Night, an album of Christmas carols, on Signum Classics.

Yet much of the selection here went beyond the album’s component parts, exploring responses old and new to specific parts of the Christmas story. In a curious twist, the oldest music heard proved to be the most adventurous and emotive.

The concert began with an account of Sally Beamish’s In the stillness which was notable for its crystal clear intonation and enunciation, features the choir would display throughout the concert. John Rutter’s There is a flower fared equally well, the anthem he wrote for the choir leading with a touching treble solo, before the complexities of Robert Parsons’ masterful Ave maria were aligned in commendable phrasing. Similar qualities befell the lively exchanges of counterpoint in Hans Leo Hassler’s Verbum caro factum est, before the remarkable invention of the teenage Britten was found in A Hymn to the Virgin, music that looks simultaneously forward and backward.

The choir performed these carols in carefully arranged sequences, ideally programmed for tonality and emotive impact. Walton’s exuberant All this time began the second sequence, the choir enjoying the push-pull rhythms, after which In dulci jubilo switched on its ever-beautiful light in the darkness, casting a spell in spite of a slightly ragged second verse. The clever text setting of Hieronymus Praetorius – not the normally performed Michael! – was especially enjoyable in his Magnificat setting, before the clarity of carols from Canadian composer Eleanor Daley and Brit Elizabeth Poston was beautifully achieved. The latter’s Jesus Christ The Apple Tree was particularly moving in the simplicity with which its paragraphs end.

The mood darkened appreciably for George Kirbye’s lament Vox in Rama, the inconsolable Rachel weeping for the loss of her children in the massacre ordered by King Herod, while the Coventry Carol too sounded sombre in this company. All the more reason to end with a characterful account of Jonathan Dove’s The Three Kings, brilliantly characterised by the trebles especially.

Two encores followed – a breathless and exciting arrangement of Adam lay ybounden by Laura Sheils, then a close-harmony version of We Wish You A Merry Christmas, channelling Cole Porter to show-stopping effect. It was the musical equivalent of a mince pie with extra brandy, the ideal way to send the Wigmore Hall audience humming into the afternoon!

You can listen to the concert on BBC Sounds here, and explore the choir’s recent discography at the Signum Classics website.

Published post no.2,750 – Tuesday 16 December 2025

In concert – Jonathan Kelly, CBSO / Kazuki Yamada: Richard Strauss – Tod und Verklärung, Oboe Concerto, Also sprach Zarathustra

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Jonathan Kelly (oboe), City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra / Kazuki Yamada

Richard Strauss
Tod und Verklärung Op.24 (1888-9)
Oboe Concerto in D major AV144 (1945)
Also sprach Zarathustra, Op.30 (1896)

Symphony Hall, Birmingham
Wednesday 10 December 2025

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse Picture of Jonathan Kelly (c) Stefan Hoederath

Richard Strauss is among a relatively select number of composers, the range and breadth of whose output makes it suitable for a whole programme – as was evident from this evening’s concert by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and music director Kazuki Yamada.

Never one to miss such an opportunity, Strauss had evidently conceived his tone poem Death and Transfiguration in the wake of illness only to extend its remit accordingly. Yamada duly had its measure: whether in the not so stark fatalism of its opening pages, the tussle with his approaching demise audibly relished by the protagonist then emergence of that transfiguring state which, after the brief and rather jarring interjection of earlier angst (no more convincing here than almost any other performance) sees this work through to a fervent culmination then on to its beatific close. Not consistently more than the sum of its best parts, and with internal detail sometimes obscured in the onslaught of its vehement tuttis, this was still an involving account – lessened not a jot by its underlining Strauss’s enjoyment of his emotional strivings.

Onward 46 years to the Oboe Concerto the ageing composer wrote at the promptings of US army corporal and professional oboist John de Lancie. Much the finest of those concertante pieces from Strauss’s ‘Indian summer’, its three movements merge into the finely balanced continuity that Jonathan Kelly (above) – making a welcome return to the orchestra of which he was solo oboist during 1993-2003 – relished throughout. The elegance of its initial Allegro here abetted by a degree of nonchalance, as was the poise of its Andante with deftest pathos, his reading came into its own in a Vivace whose cadenza passages were as eloquent as the coda that Strauss duly extended to make this movement an unerring fusion of scherzo and finale. Kelly understandably offered no encore, but he returned to join the CBSO after the interval.

That second half consisted of Thus spake Zarathustra – if not the most ambitious of Strauss’ tone poems in size then surely in scope, whether or not the depths of Nietzsche’s existential musings are really plumbed. The indelible ‘Sunrise’ treading a fine line between profundity and portentousness, Yamada charted its idiosyncratic journey toward spiritual enlightenment with a sure sense of where this music was headed – no matter that the outcome felt as much   a glorification of orchestral power and opulence as of anything more intrinsically humane.

Highlights during its course included the sustained emotional force in ‘Of Joys and Passions’, the textural unanimity of the strings across their fugal writing in ‘Of Science and Learning’, and suavity then mounting animation of ‘The Dance Song’ with leader Eugene Tzikindelean in his element – before ‘Song of the Night Wanderer’ brought proceedings down from their orgiastic heights into that sombre repose whose tonal inconclusiveness may be an indicator  of Strauss’s own perspective; the certainly of those opening bars left pointedly unresolved.

Its pizzicato chords on lower strings made a telling farewell for Eduardo Vassallo, principal cellist throughout much of the past 36 seasons. His broad sympathies including Argentinian tango, and a characterful Don Quixote to boot, leaves players and listeners alike in his debt.

Published post no.2,747 – Saturday 13 December 2025

For more on the CBSO’s season for 2025/26, head to the CBSO website – and for more on the artists in this programme, click on the names to visit the websites of conductor Kazuki Yamada, oboist Jonathan Kelly and principal cellist Eduardo Vassallo

In concert – Ryan Wang, CBSO / Pierre Bleuse: Ravel, Liszt & Bartók

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Ryan Wang (piano), City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra / Pierre Bleuse

Ravel Ma mère l’Oye – ballet (1910-11); Rapsodie Espagole ((1907-08)
Liszt Piano Concerto no.1 in E flat major S124 (1849, rev. 1855)
Bartók The Miraculous Mandarin BB82 – suite (1918-24)

Symphony Hall, Birmingham
Thursday 4 December 2025

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse Photo of Pierre Bleuse (c) Marine Pierrot Detry

His marking the centenaries of Berio and Boulez at this year’s Proms confirmed Pierre Bleuse (music director of the Ensemble Intercontemporain) as a conducting force to be reckoned with, duly reaffirmed by this afternoon’s concert with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.

The CBSO has an association with the ballet incarnation of Ravel’s Mother Goose stretching to Simon Rattle and beyond to Louis Frémaux. After an evocative Prelude then a winningly nonchalant Spinning-Wheel Dance, Bleuse (above) brought out the plaintiveness in Pavane of the Sleeping Beauty’ then the subtly nuanced humour in Conversation of Beauty and the Beast; pointing up the piquancy of Tom Thumb then the whimsicality of Laideronnette, Empress of the Pagodas. Interpretively as well as musically, the best was saved until last – the deftest of transitions leading into a Fairy Garden of artless eloquence. Throughout this memorable performance, woodwind playing was consistently beguiling – not least during that approach to an apotheosis such as benefitted from Bleuse’s refusal to overstate its emotional rhetoric.

Nothing wrong with an all-Ravel first half, even if Rapsodie Espagnole may not have been the ideal continuation. Yet that sultry aura exuded by Prélude à la nuit felt almost tangible, as was the ominous unease of Malagueña and the rarefied elegance of Habanera, before the mounting excitement of Feria carried all before it. Bleuse successfully brought out the nostalgic resonances at the centre of this finale, and even if the closing bars lacked a degree of visceral excitement, the sense of a cohesive or cumulative whole could hardly be denied.

After the interval, a welcome hearing (less frequent these days than might be imagined) for Liszt’s First Piano Concerto. Executed with the right panache and an absence of histrionics, its formal succinctness and cyclical ingenuity are its own justification; not least as rendered with such attention to detail or expressive impetus by Ryan Wang (above). The winner of last year’s BBC Young Musician competition, he evidently has technique to spare while being equally capable of a delicacy and understatement ideally suited to the pensive ‘slow movement’ or the teasingly playful ‘scherzo’. The opening section was enhanced by a poetic contribution from clarinettist Oliver Janes, while the ‘finale’ headed to an exhilarating peroration. Wang duly acknowledged the applause with his leonine rendering of Chopin’s ‘Heroic’ Polonaise.

The programme ended with the suite from Bartók’s pantomime The Miraculous Mandarin. This is music which all too easily descends into overkill, but Bleuse kept a firm grip on its progress from the frenetic opening evocation of urban traffic, via its mounting anticipation with the arrival of the three ‘clients’, through to a bewitchingly shaped encounter between the mandarin and the woman. Nor was there any absence of virtuosity in a climactic chase-sequence, even while the emphasis on its rallentando markings proved a little too intrusive.

Most surprising, however, was a relatively prolonged silence after its explosive ending. Was the audience nonplussed by its once-infamous scenario, or was it unaware of this supposedly familiar music? Whatever, the performance assuredly seal the seal on an impressive concert.

For more information on the 2025-26 season head to the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra website. Click on the names to read more about soloist Ryan Wang and conductor Pierre Bleuse

Published post no.2,740 – Sunday 7 December 2025

News – Anna Handler to become Ulster Orchestra’s new Chief Conductor

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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

News – Bertrand Chamayou residence @ Wigmore Hall, including Ravel’s complete piano music on Sunday 7 December

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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