Tag Archives: Wigmore Hall

In concert – John Holiday & Kevin Miller @ Wigmore Hall

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John Holiday (countertenor), Kevin Miller (piano)

Programme from album Over My Head including pieces by H Leslie Adams, Theodore Morrison, Robert Leigh Morris, Carlos Simon and George Gershwin. Full repertoire list at the bottom of this review

Wigmore Hall, London
Friday 13 November 2026

by John Earls. Photo credits (below) John Earls

John Holiday has a voice and personality that radiates warmth and conviction. The American countertenor, who performs on both opera and concert stage, has recently released his debut classical album, Over My Head, accompanied by pianist and best friend Kevin Miller. It’s an album that in his sleeve notes he advises “has been a long time in the making” with the music “carefully chosen for its powerful messages of hope, love and resilience”.

Looking resplendent in a striking green jacket, electric blue trousers and black spangled boots as he comes on stage at the Wigmore Hall for a lunchtime performance of the album (or at least most of it) with Miller, it’s clear from the outset that we are in the company of someone who also exudes brightness.

The set opens, as does the album, with Hall Johnson’s composition of the traditional spiritual text I’m Gonter Tell God All O’ My Troubles in which Holiday gives a real sense of yearning for inner peace and an early indication of the depth and range of expression in his singing.

That depth and range is also apparent when Holiday uses his voice to communicate without words in the two piano-accompanied textless vocal pieces in the programme, Carlos Simon’s Vocalise I and II, the latter giving a sense of contentedness and assurance (Vocalise III from the album was not performed due to time constraints).

There then follows Theodore Morrison’s 5 Songs on poems by James Joyce which highlights Millar’s deft piano playing such as on No. 1 Strings in the earth and air, with floating notes to Holiday’s soft singing and the twinkling accompaniment in the final section of the beautiful and mournful No. 4 Now, O now in this brown land. Things are brisker in the short No. 3 Lightly come or lightly go and vigorous No. 5 I hear an army with its urgent start and finish.

In a change to the album’s running order the next section features four pieces from H Leslie Adams’ Nightsongs: Prayer is delicate and beautiful, The Heart of a Woman sombre and meaningful, Night Song contains some dramatic closing piano flourishes, and Sence You Went Away, a real highlight of the concert, is exquisite in its sadness and sense of loss with exceptional timing and delivery in the second verse.

“At my core, I am a church boy,” says Holiday in the programme and album notes and we move on to what he tells us is his “gospel set” and three pieces from Robert Leigh Morris’s Lyric Suite starting with the jaunty Humoresque. Holiday then leaves the stage to emerge from the side door and sing the glorious Gospel Blues whilst walking up and down both aisles of the hall singing, “Oh my lord, what shall I do?”. It’s a powerful and affecting four minutes before he returns to the stage for the bright Juba: Ev’rytime I Feel the Spirit.

Holiday then sits solo at the piano to sing and play his own arrangements of three songs starting with George Gershwin’s Summertime from Porgy and Bess which is bouncy and well received, and then a moving rendition of Abel Meeropol’s Strange Fruit. Limited time means we don’t get to hear his arrangement of Bart Howard’s Fly Me to the Moon which is a jewel on the album.

Finally, there is the traditional Over My Head and Amazing Grace with Holiday encouraging the audience to sing the phrase “praise love” in the middle and for the next verse he changes the opening line from “So, over my head, I hear music in the air” to “I just heard music in the air”. His singing of “Somewhere! I believe there is a God somewhere” conveys a certainty of faith in the existence of a God with an uncertainty of whereabouts.

There is just time for a short encore, with Holiday conducting more audience participation for the gospel song This Little Light of Mine.

On a wintry November day and in a cold Wigmore Hall (where the audience kept their coats and scarves on) Holiday and Miller spread warmth and joy in this fantastic lunchtime recital.

They performed the following repertoire:

Hall Johnson I’m Gonter Tell God All O’ My Troubles
Carlos Simon I. from Vocalise
Theodore Morrison Chamber Music: 5 Songs on poems by James Joyce – No. 1 Strings in the earth and air • No. 2 O cool is the valley now • No. 3 Lightly come or lightly go • No. 4 Now, O now in this brown land • No. 5 I hear an army
Carlos Simon II. from Vocalise
H Leslie Adams from Nightsongs – Prayer • The Heart of a Woman • Night Song • Sence You Went Away
Robert Leigh Morris from Lyric Suite – III. Humoresque • II. Gospel Blues • V. Juba: Ev’rytime I Feel the Spirit
Gershwin arr Holiday Summertime from Porgy and Bess
Meeropol arr Holiday Strange Fruit
Traditional Over My Head; Amazing Grace
Gospel song: This Little Light of Mine (Encore)

Over My Head by John Holiday with Kevin Miller is released by Pentatone. For more details visit the Pentatone website

John Earls is Director of Research at Unite the Union and posts at @johnearls.bsky.social on Bluesky and @john_earls on X. You can subscribe (free) to his Hanging Out a Window Substack column here: https://johnearls.substack.com/

Published post no.3,079 – Sunday 15 November 2026

In Concert – Mark Padmore & Jonathan Biss @ Wigmore Hall: Schubert & Schumann

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Mark Padmore (tenor, above), Jonathan Biss (piano, below)

Wigmore Hall, London
Thursday 24 September (lunchtime)

Schubert Der Wanderer an den Mond D870 (1826), Im Freien D880 (1826), Der Einsame D800 (1825), Der Winterabend D938 (1828)
Schumann Kerner Lieder Op.35

Reviewed by Ben Hogwood Photo credits Marco Borggreve and Benjamin Ealovega

Storytelling is of course an essential part of any Lieder recital, but the extent to which Mark Padmore and Jonathan Biss brought the seventeen songs of this BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert to life was a joy to behold.

Padmore is one of Britain’s finest tenors, a versatile artist at ease in contemporary music as he equally is in Bach or Britten, for instance, with one of his strongest qualities an elegance to the delivery that suited these brighter examples of Schubert’s song output. So, too, did the pianism of Jonathan Biss, finding and projecting all of the composer’s countermelodies with consummate ease.

The pair began in the moonlight – naturally – Der Wanderer an den Mond beginning in strident fashion before the brighter light of its major key second half. Biss then led the phrasing for a beautifully poised account of Im Freien, before the chirpy crickets of Der Einsame raised a smile. In a magical account of Der Winterabend, from the early part of Schubert’s final year, time was taken to evoke the long evening and the slowly falling snow, with a memorable turn towards blissful peace, as tenor and pianist found themselves in easy, slow moving alignment.

The calm repose cast by this song was rudely broken by Schumann’s arresting Lust der Sturmnacht, the switch from sonorous B flat major to turbulent E flat minor something of a jolt. In his Kerner Lieder, Schumann writes less of a thematically linked cycle, but a common thread to the songs are their capture the feverish passions, good and bad, of his new marriage to Clara. Though there is union and delight in the potential happiness ahead, some of the songs are fraught and wracked with worry, making the group ripe for dramatic concert performance.

Padmore and Biss (above) homed in on the drama of Justinus Kerner’s verse, the tenor allowing his voice to fray a little when the emotion of the song demanded it. Such moments occurred towards the top of the register in Stille Liebe and Stirb’, Lieb’ und Freud’!, where earlier in the song he had clasped his hands in reverent prayer.

Auf das Trinkglas eines verstorbenen Freundes was a captivating centre piece of the cycle, majestic and sombre in equal turn, while the rousing Wanderung had the musical effect of putting on boots and coat for a long walk. Heights of expression were found in the devotional love expressed in Sehnsucht nach der Waldgegend, a Christmas present for Schumann’s new wife in the year of composition.

The extremes of movement made the stillness of Alte Laute all the more affecting, Padmore’s control held to perfection while Biss ensured once again that the phrases of Schumann’s countermelodies were beautifully sculpted.

As Padmore said, few encores could be entertained in the light of such a moving musical paragraph, yet one fitted perfectly – Schubert’s Frühlingsglaube, D686, lightening the mood without changing the tonality or elegance of delivery.

Padmore and Biss continue to finish each other’s sentence in this ideally matched partnership, at ease in each other’s company to forego obvious gestures other than the musical – which in this case resulted in a very special hour of music indeed.

You can listen back to this concert until 4 November on BBC Sounds

Published post no.3,039 – Tuesday 6 October 2026

In Concert – Chiara Skerath & The Mozartists / Ian Page @ Wigmore Hall: Sturm und Drang

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Chiara Skerath (soprano), The Mozartists / Ian Page

Kraus Symphony in C minor VB142
Gluck Dieux puissants que j’atteste…Jupiter, lance la foundre (from Iphigénie en Aulide)
Jammelli Ombre che tacite qui sede (from Fetante)
Mozart Vorrei punirti, indegno (from La finta giardiniera K196)
Traetta Ombra cara, amorosa…li resti sempre a piangere (from Antigona)
Haydn Amore nel moi petto (from Lo Speziale)
Haydn Symphony no.45 in F# minor ‘Farewell’

Wigmore Hall, London
Thursday 24 September 7:30pm

Reviewed by Ben Hogwood Pictures (c) Bertille Cascio

Ian Page and The Mozartists continued their remarkable and revealing turning over of scores from the 18th century at the Wigmore Hall. Their exploration of Sturm and Drang marked 250 years’ use of the phrase, since title of a play by the German Friedrich Maximilian von Klinger – and also the Mozartists’ fourth album exploring music written in this feverish mood.

Three of the composers here are virtually unknown today, while Haydn – whose Farewell symphony closed the program – is the one most associated with the phrase. More of him later, for the early part of the concert belonged to Joseph Martin Kraus. The Frankfurt-born composer, who relocated to Sweden in 1778, wrote a Symphony in C minor of some stature five years later, its power sufficient for me to check there were only 20 players on the Wigmore Hall platform. Page marshalled a performance with poise and drama, the lean tones of the Mozartists’ strings complemented by wonderfully grainy woodwind and a fulsome horn quartet who stood to play, two either side of the stage. The solemn counterpoint of the introduction harked back unexpectedly towards the slow movements of Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos, before the urgent Allegro raced ahead in dramatic fashion. The striking Adagio was initially pared-back but blossomed in the wind section, before the sharply defined third movement returned to the cut and thrust of the first. With lively dialogue and fierce energy, this was a performance to savour.

So, too, was the Haydn with which the concert ended, though at times Page appeared to be pressing too hard on the accelerator, with some phrases in the first movement of the Farewell needing more time to breathe. There was considerable tension here though, as there was in the second movement, albeit expressed through austere colours and stretched phrases. The Minuet was lightly defined but offered little relief, while the finale, surely one of the first examples of instrumental protest music, was brilliantly done. The players left the stage incrementally as Haydn requested of his Esterházy musicians, so at the end we were left with just violinists Matthew Truscott and Daniel Edgar. Typically Haydn’s humour was retained, but this time with a darker edge.

Between the symphonies lay five well-chosen arias, themselves a history lesson – in excellent performances from soprano Chiara Skerath (above), standing in for the indisposed Alexandra Lowe. She immediately seized the audience’s attention with Clytemnestre’s aria from Gluck‘s Iphigenie et Aulide, her horrific realisation that her husband Agamemnon was thinking of sacrificing his own daughter. This was a dramatic a, a dramatic affair, with appropriately sharp interjections from the orchestra. The aria Ombre che tacite qui sede, from Niccolò Jammelli’s Fetante, breathed much cooler air, the soprano low in her range at times, before the concert’s only fleeting reference to Mozart himself. Here we returned to the minor key for an aria from composer’s first mature opera, La finta giardiniera. Skerath’s communication with both orchestra and audience was captivating, revealing the extent of Arminda’s anger at the arrival of her fiancée’s former lover.

The next composer to prove his worth as a dramatic scene setter was Gluck’s Italian contemporary Tomasso Traetta, the cold introduction to Ombra cara balanced by beautiful control from Skerath. We then had a rare outing for the stage music of Haydn himself, keeping the theme of G minor tonality. The humour on show in Amore nel moi petto may not have been as immediate as his wit in the symphonies, but Skerath’s expression gave it the best chance.

As ever, Ian Page deserves enormous credit for an imaginative and entertaining program, balancing education and entertainment. By bringing fresh insight to the familiar repertoire and a chance to shine for the lesser-known names, he has made the ensemble’s Wigmore Hall series an unmissable date in the calendar. The players clearly enjoy it, too, as their encore – a palette cleansing major key slow movement from English composer Carl Friedrich Abel – was wreathed in smiles.

Published post no.3,029 – Saturday 26 September 2026

In Concert – Zee Zee @ Wigmore Hall: Schubert & Liszt

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Zee Zee (piano)

Schubert arr. Liszt Der Müller und der Bach from Die schöne Müllerin S565/2 (1846); Liebesbotschaft from Schwanengesang S560 (1839)
Schubert Piano Sonata no.19 in C minor D958 (1828)
Liszt Les jeux d’eaux à la Villa d’Este (from Années de pèlerinage, troisième année S163) (1877-82) ; Tarantella (from Venezia e Napoli S162) (1859)

Wigmore Hall, London
Thursday 24 September (lunchtime)

Reviewed by Ben Hogwood

Facing the end of his life at the age of just 31, Schubert dug deep to deliver a series of remarkable late works, with a speed of composition whose quality and quantity was truly remarkable. Among the celebrated works delivered were three large scale piano sonatas, the first of which – the Piano Sonata no.19 in C minor D958 – formed the centrepiece of this lunchtime recital.

Zee Zee (the stage name for Chinese-American pianist Zhang Zuo) delivered a commanding performance, stern in expression but always allowing room for the dance that is never far from the surface of Schubert’s music. Even before the sonata began she established the atmosphere, taking a minute for performer and audience to fully settle before the first notes were delivered. It was a highly effective tactic, typical of a deeply felt and carefully planned account that has matured over time since Arcana last reviewed her interpretation in 2015. Zee’s left hand was notable for its melodic clarity, the right delivering the second theme of the first movement with attractive, balletic phrasing. The turbulent development section often chased the restless right hand but Zee Zee was sure in her direction, contrasting the warmth of the second theme when in C major with the chill wind as things turned sour in the minor key.

The Adagio was intimate, yearning for the lighter moments that appeared like shafts of light in Schubert’s unexpected switches of tonality, though these were ultimately snuffed out and earthbound by the ideally paced closing pages. The serious Menuetto – its trio dancing in spite of the musical weight upon it – was fluently played, leading without a break into the finale. Here Zee Zee’s definition of the repeated notes was crystal clear, the agile left hand ably supporting the Tarantella theme at every turn, before an emphatic signing off to seal a most impressive account.

The Schubert was framed by four watery Liszt pieces – beginning with well-studied accounts of two of his many Schubert song transcriptions. The temptation with Liszt is often to show virtuosity at the expense of musicality, but here the blend between the two was perfect. Zee Zee told the story through the wordless singer’s lines, dressed with exquisite accompaniment.

The first of the two Liszt originals brought the Fountains of the Villa d’Este to life, the rush of water evident in the brilliant right-hand figurations, adding colour but leaving room to define the left-hand melody through the spray. Again the technique was impeccable, with well-chosen ‘rubato’ ensuring the music breathed as it should. The sparkling Tarantella was a study in pace, poise and power, delivered with the minimum of fuss but with no mean virtuosity. Zee Zee’s octave work – so critical in Liszt – was without blemish; equally her quiet playing was also beautifully rendered.

This was a superb recital, with one more feather in its cap in the shape of a beautifully flowing encore, the Intermezzo from Schumann’s Faschingsschwank aus Wien. Zee Zee will hopefully return to the Wigmore Hall before long, for as this healthy lunchtime audience appreciated, pianist and venue are a great match.

Published post no.3,028 – Friday 25 September 2026

Wigmore Hall – Monday lunchtime concerts returning next week

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posted by Ben Hogwood

Next week sees the start of Autumn programming for classical concert venues – among them London’s much-loved Wigmore Hall.

Once again they will be presenting a series of weekly Monday lunchtime concerts, broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 and featuring much-loved international artists and young, up-and-coming performers from the BBC New Generation Artists scheme.

Starting on Monday 14 September, the series can be viewed on the Wigmore Hall website but is spearheaded by an opening concert of Mahler and Tchaikovsky, from mezzo-soprano Alice Coote and pianist Sergey Rybin.

Further highlights include Barry Douglas playing Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, recitals by pianists Elisabeth Brauss and Richard Goode and performances from tenor Mark Padmore and pianist Jonathan Biss, wife-and-husband duo Elena Urioste and Tom Poster, the NOVO and Modigliani Quartets, the Orsino Ensemble, cellist Steven Isserlis and pianist Connie Shih, mezzo-soprano Helen Charlston and pianist Sholto Kynoch, violinist Bomsori Kim and pianist Thomas Hoppe, the Leonore Piano Trio and Lawrence Power, clarinettist Olga Shebeta-Dragan and pianist Kristoffer Hyldig and finally a Christmas carol music from The Cardinall’s Musick. And that’s just for starters!

Published post no.3,010 – Monday 7 September 2026