Highly engaging performance of Tarney's effective Lux Stellarum from The Choir of Royal Holloway

It’s a crowded field these days for new choral music, which is good news for the genre, but it does make it harder for composers and their compositions to stand out from the rest. Thankfully, this new recording by The Choir of Royal Holloway, directed by Rupert Gough of Oliver Tarney’s (b.1984) Lux Stellarum is a welcome addition, with its combination of familiar and less familiar texts, and use of varied choral textures. This is assisted by the strong showing from the choir here, with Andrew Dewar on organ. Tarney was new to me, but he clearly already has a body of music behind him, with several recordings of his works also already in the catalogue. Lux Stellarum is a short requiem for choir and organ, which he wrote for the choir of the American Cathedral in Paris, and biblical passages are mixed with texts by John Donne and the Canadian writer Marjorie Pickthall. With its focus on light, the stars and the universe, it sits in the more positive, hopeful camp of requiem interpretations – no hell and damnation here, but more reassurance in perpetual light and eternal rest. And so to the music. Tarney writes smooth lines and mixes use of plainchant melodies with fuller choral settings, and soaring intertwined soprano voices open the first section, followed soon by the organ heralding the full choir. The setting of the Requiem text is confident, with plainsong elements reminiscent of Duruflé, followed by more rhythmic writing for the Amos text. The Kyrie is gentler, and the choir’s diction here is exemplary, as well as the purity of the high sopranos. The third section sets a Pickthall poem focussing on the vastness of the stars above. The setting is clear, and once again the choir’s diction allows the text and Tarney’s word painting to come across effectively. There’s a beautifully controlled high chord on ‘soft infinite’, and the harmonic shift for ‘unafraid’ stands out within the otherwise relatively straightforward harmonic language. There’s a bit more movement in the Sanctus, and the Hosanna is warmly joyful, ‘excelsis’ ringing out. The Agnus Dei is the most effective of the movements for me, with the combination of chant of the psalm text interspersed with the Agnus Dei text, with more and more layered, falling lines. The lower voices also get more of a showing here, with a particularly strong tenor chant section, but attention returns to thinned out upper voices for the conclusion. The final section, with the In paradisum text combined with John Donne, contains some of the most crunchy harmonic writing, delivered with impressive blend from the choir here. There’s a hefty, powerful organ solo, and rich tonal chords spread out into more complex textures. Sometimes full albums of choral music, especially from one composer, can mean that works get lost within a homogenous soundworld, however well written. With just the one work here, at just under half an hour, this is a short release, but this allows this effective piece to stand out on its own, leaving us wanting to hear more from the composer rather than less. Gough and The Choir of Royal Holloway also deserve credit for their clarity and rich blend, as do the team from Convivium for their generously warm recording. 

Tarney. O. 2025. Lux Stellarum. The Choir of Royal Holloway, Andrew Dewar, Rupert Gough. Compact Disc and Download. Convivium Records. CR111.

Hugh Shrapnel shares thoughts on his music, influences, and life as a composer

Hugh Shrapnel

Having reviewed three albums of composer Hugh Shrapnel’s music now, it was a pleasure to have the opportunity to sit down with him recently and discuss his music, his influences, and his life as a musician and composer.
 
We began discussing what pointed Hugh in the direction of music and composition in the first place. He was born in Birmingham in 1947, but grew up in Stockport (as, coincidentally, did I). His father Norman Shrapnel was a journalist with The Guardian, his older brother John an actor and their mother Myfanwy an artist. Norman Shrapnel was a great music lover and good amateur violinist, often playing chamber music with friends. Hugh began playing the recorder aged seven, went on to play the oboe from the age of 13, and then began to play the piano in his mid-teens.

Hugh Shrapnel
credit: Phoebus Apostolide

Composition came early - he was inventing tunes as a boy, and he remembers a marching tune that he used to sing all the time, driving his mother mad! He started composing seriously at around fourteen, and was fascinated by modern music, inspired by hearing a performance of Schoenberg’s Serenade on the radio and Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. So he already knew he wanted to be a composer at that time. His father, and Mary Stott, a musician friend and fellow Guardian journalist (the founder of the paper’s women’s page) encouraged him, although initially, academic studying of music took a back seat to his keenness for listening to new music and writing. He went to the Battersea College of Technology for a year, studying with Hans Heimler, the Austrian composer and musicologist, who had studied with Berg and Weingartner. From there, he went on to the Royal Academy of Music, where he initially studied composition with Norman Demuth, whose main interest was French music. Shrapnel’s interest lay in avant garde, serial music, so he moved to study with Cornelius Cardew, and this was a better fit, opening many opportunities for him in experimental music. He joined Cardew’s Scratch Orchestra, and they took their experimental music out of the concert halls, touring in the North East, Wales and Cornwall. ‘What they thought of what we were doing is something else!’, says Hugh, but he says that their mission was partly to rebel against the musical establishment of the time. 

 

Collaborating with other musicians has always been important for Hugh, from those early days with Cardew and other important British experimental composers such as John White, Chris Hobbs and Alec Hill, with whom he formed the quartet, the Promenade Theatre Orchestra, right through to more recent piano duetting with fellow composer John Lewis. This led to Elements of London, the first recording of his work (and Lewis’) by the Ivory Duo Piano Ensemble. It’s also worth mentioning that Cardew directed many of those early experimental pioneers, including Hugh, in the UK premiere in 1968 of Terry Riley’s In C. Along the way, Hugh’s compositions have often been for the musician friends around him, and unusual combinations of instruments have always interested him. On mentioning in conversation that I had played the euphonium at school, Hugh immediately referred to his piece for euphonium and two electric keyboards, West Pier, and he’s currently working on completing a long cycle of pieces for accordion, trumpet, piano, percussion and cello. Other collaborators include the BBC Radio 3 presenter and pianist Sarah Walker and composer pianist Robert Coleridge (who passed away in 2019), who recorded his South of the River suite of piano duos in 1998, and have been great supporters of his work. The Cornelius Cardew Concerts Trust, led by composer Michael Chant has been also very significant, with Hugh’s compositions receiving frequent performances at their Morley College concerts.

 

Promenade Theatre Orchestra, 1972

Aside from the South of the River suite, and a 1972 Promenade Theatre Orchestra recording, the more recent Convivium Records albums are the only available recordings of Hugh’s work. However, there are a number of performances of some of the earlier experimental works on YouTube, including several of Raindrops, a work ‘for any number or kind of tuned and untuned percussion, guitars and other plucked strings’. These include one for flutes, guitars and keyboards, as well as one for glockenspiels. Following those early experimental years, like a lot of other composers, Hugh gradually moved towards more ‘conventional’ music, as he describes it. ‘It (experimental music) had run its course, and I wanted to write tunes again. Looking back on the experimental music, it was a short-lived phenomenon’. Whilst he has still performed such works more recently, it now somehow ‘feels like going back in time’.

Raindrops (1970) by Hugh Shrapnel

performed by Jost Nickel et al.

Hugh says he rarely starts from a purely musical idea when composing, but often more  of a poetic image. He describes such pieces as ‘descriptive, of a mood - poems in music, if that’s not too pretentious’. It is that ability to capture this in small form, distilling an image, a thought or an idea, that is so impressive in his work. There is a clear thread of connection with local environment, community and political issues in much of his work. ‘During the experimental time, it was all to do with concepts, in its own little world’. That’s not to say that politics weren’t important then too. Hugh played oboe in the Peoples’ Liberation Music, a political music group in the 1970s, playing folk and ‘agit-pop’, and they often played on demonstrations against cuts, supporting the miners’ strike, the Irish Struggles and anti-fascism. 

Hugh feels rooted in the geographical area of South East London, where he has lived for most of his life. He moved from Stockport to Blackheath when he was 12, and apart from a few years in Birmingham, he has remained in the area. Why? ‘Well, force of habit. But I like it – there are lots of parks and open space, and I’ve always loved the countryside and nature’. Oxleas Wood, the first piece in South of the River, was written in support of a successful local campaign against a motorway being carved through this ancient wood. Like many, composing has not been his sole profession from necessity. In the 70s and 80s he taught music in schools and further education colleges, but then spent many years working part time in a council housing department. Teaching was demanding, with marking and preparing eating into his time. The housing job, whilst demanding in its own way, it gave more free time for composition, but it also brought him into the outside world. New music circles can become somewhat isolationist, whilst Hugh feels that music is very much ‘to do with everyday life’. He thinks more and more about the idea of music being expressive, in contrast to the earlier experimental view of music as pure sounds. In essence, he is ‘more and more concerned with melody’.

 

With three recordings of his music on Convivium Records under his belt, a fourth is on the way. Following on from piano duos, solo piano works and wind chamber works, the new album will be music for strings, including a new work for string quartet. He’s also working on orchestrating some of his earlier works, including the South of the River piano duets. So there’s still more to come, and I for one will be looking forward to hearing more very soon.

At the Rivoli by Hugh Shrapnel, 

performed by the Ivory Duo Piano Ensemble

Recordings of Hugh Shrapnel's music on Convivium Records:

Various. 2020. Elements of London. Ivory Duo Piano Ensemble. Compact Disc. Convivium Records. CR055.

My review here.

Shrapnel, H. 2023. Hugh Shrapnel: Piano Works. Ivory Duo Piano Ensemble. Compact Disc. Convivium Records. CR087.

My review here.

Shrapnel, H. 2025. Chamber Works. Camarilla Ensemble. Compact Disc. Convivium Records CR097.

My review here.

Playful Coleridge-Taylor contrasting with dramatic Mahler from the Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra

Elena Urioste
 © Chris Gloag

Elena Urioste (violin)

Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra

Alice Farnham (conductor)

Ruth Rogers (leader)

2.45pm, Sunday 19 October 2025

Dome Concert Hall, Brighton

★★★★

Coleridge-Taylor, Samuel (1875-1912): Violin Concerto in G minor, Op. 80

Encore:

Arlen, Harold (1905-1986): Over the Rainbow (?arr. Poster, Tom (b.1981))

Mahler, Gustav (1860-1911): Symphony No. 5

For their latest programme, ‘The Romantics’, the Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra presented two highly contrasting works, with Mahler’s mighty Symphony No. 5 following the lighter offering of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Violin Concerto in G minor, Op. 80. Ben Gernon was originally scheduled to conduct the concert but was replaced by Alice Farnham, whose combination of precise direction and energy made for a highly engaging afternoon’s programme. Of course it shouldn’t be worthy of note, but it’s great to see an all-female roster (for the second time this season) of conductor, soloist (Elena Urioste) and leader (Ruth Rogers) – with Music Director Joanna MacGregor the overall driving force. 

Elena Urioste
© Nick Boston

Violinist Elena Urioste was born in the US, and has an established solo career, performing with orchestras around the world. She is also a committed chamber music, with her Chamber Music by the Sea festival in Maryland celebtrating its tenth anniversary this year. She also co-founded with her partner, Tom Poster, the Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective, frequent performers at the Wigmore Hall and at the most recent Coffee Concert at Brighton Corn Exchange. She first performed Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Violin Concerto with Chineke! in 2019, recorded it with them in 2022, and has become a strong advocate for the somewhat neglected work. It’s an open-hearted piece, full of lyrical invention and plenty of opportunity for a virtuoso soloist to shine. Born in Croydon, of mixed Sierra Leonean and English heritage, Coleridge-Taylor originally intended to use spirituals for the melodic material of his Violin Concerto, but wasn’t happy with his attempts, deciding instead to use his own thematic ideas. Of course, Dvořák’s take on ‘American’ music also must have had an influence to bear here too, but the resulting work has a great sense of fun and individual style, which Urioste communicated here with great enthusiasm. 

Following the brassy stately opening from the orchestra, Urioste launched with a flourish into the first melodic idea, and from there, delivered each episodic entry with panache, at one point dancing her line over the accompanying pizzicato strings, and elsewhere injecting just enough bite to point up her dotted rhythms over the full orchestra. That dotted rhythm featured highly in her impressive cadenza, leading to a dramatic conclusion from the orchestra. The second movement is unashamedly lyrical, and the BPO strings set up just the right kind of muted accompaniment to allow Urioste to sing the silky lines above them. Orchestral ensemble was kept tight by Farnham through the ebb and flow of the rubatos whilst Urioste’s tender solos roamed effortlessly. The sprightly finale is once again packed with thematic invention, and Urioste and Farnham drove on through with playful energy (accompanied by frequent audible foot-tapping from Urioste). Virtuosic downward scale passages and skittering runs were aplenty, and weighty tuttis from the orchestra made for a brightly dramatic conclusion. In stark contrast, Urioste gave a simple yet highly tender rendition of Over the Rainbow by Harold Arlen (arranged I believe by Tom Poster), with gentle double-stopping providing some harmony, but the emphasis being on the beauty of the melodic line, delighting the Brighton audience.

 

Alice Farnham & the Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra
© Nick Boston

In contrast to the light-hearted ease of the Coleridge-Taylor, Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 was of course a completely different matter. The funereal opening movement immediately takes things in a darker direction, and the challenge for the orchestra is equally weightier. There is a great deal of pressure on many soloists from the orchestra, chiefly the trumpet and horn, and on the whole, the BPO acquitted themselves very well. It has to be said, however, that the overall strike rate today of brass splits was relatively high, which was a pity. The first movement’s woodwind dance had finesse, with some wild car-chase strings to follow, and Farnham steered the orchestra through with great clarity, although the latter part of the movement lost a little forward momentum. The screaming opening of the second movement had great drive, and the concluding brass chorale gleamed brightly, although the central marching section could have taken a bit more bite. The Scherzo had lilt and swagger, although at times a little too precisely measured, and once again, it was the woodwinds that shone the most, with the pecking bassoon and delicately precise oboe proving most noteworthy. The Adagietto was beautifully shaped by Farnham, with warm and tender playing from the strings, and sumptuous playing from harpist Alex Rider. The finale raised the mood, with precise horn and woodwind solos leading to the cellos deftly setting off the playful fugal section that followed. The orchestra appeared more in their element now, and the brass climaxes, swaying strings and woodwind interjections were knitted together with momentum by Farnham, with the final accelerando racing to a spectacular finish. So if not the most precise Mahler 5 at every point, Farnham and the BPO certainly delivered a performance with high energy and many great moments. 

'A New World' - Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra kicks off their 101st season in style

Junyan Chen

Junyan Chen (piano)

Joanna MacGregor (conductor)

Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra

Ruth Rogers (leader)

2.45pm, Sunday 28 September

Dome Concert Hall, Brighton

★★★★

Rachmaninov, Sergei (1873-1943): Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30

Encore: 

Gershwin, George (1898-1937): The Man I Love, arr. by ?

Ravel, Maurice (1875-1937): La Valse, poème chorégraphique pour orchestre

Bartók, Béla (1881-1945): Suite from The Miraculous Mandarin, Sz.73

Joanna MacGregor

After a cracking 100^th season, the Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra are back for their 101^st (my season preview is here),and there’s no sign of Joanna MacGregor letting up on the imaginative programming we’ve now come to expect. So whilst there was a big hitting concerto for the first concert of the new season, they went for Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 3 – popular of course, but not as well-known as the second. And rather than the usual overture-concerto-symphony sandwich, the Rachmaninov opened the concert, bold and up front, with Shanghai-born pianist Junyan Chen at the keyboard. A former pupil of MacGregor’s, Chen has performed with the BPO previously, and last year won not one but three prizes at the Leeds International Piano Competition, including the Silver Medal.

Right from the steadily rolling opening of the Rachmaninov, it was clear that Chen was in control here, setting the pace with incision and steering progress through the frequent rubatos at the ends of phrases. The orchestra were a little slower to get going, with a somewhat muted response, and MacGregor’s occasionally uncertain beat meant that in solo-free passages there were a few hesitant cadences. Woodwind solos were strong, however, with a particularly fine moment from the bassoon alone with the piano. Flute, oboe, clarinet and horn all got a chance towards the end of the movement, and all acquitted themselves well. The muted strings in the slow movement could have still had a little more weight in their sound, but their ensemble was tight, giving secure support to Chen’s swirling romantic solo. The movement’s conclusion was authoritative and arresting, with the finale following at a healthily steady pace. Once again, Chen drove the tempos, and apart from the odd uncertain pickup, the orchestra followed obediently. Chen demonstrated some particularly seductive, slinky playing here, with impressively virtuosic solo passages, and a glorious surge to the finish, here matched with a rich, full sound from the full orchestra. She then treated the appreciative Brighton audience to a sensual arrangement of Gershwin’s The Man I Love (possibly Art Tatum’s arrangement?), with its seductive outer thick chords beautifully contrasted with the brief vamping central section. Definitely a pianist to watch, and hopefully we’ll be treated to a return visit in Brighton sometime soon.

 

Junyan Chen & the Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra
© Nick Boston

Ravel’s La Valse is a wonderfully anarchic unravelling of the Viennese Waltz, originally intended as a ballet for Diaghilev. He turned it down, souring their relationship for good, even though Diaghilev acknowledged it as a musical masterpiece. As well as a reflection on the dying world of the waltz, was it also a comment on political decay in Europe, post-World War I? Well Ravel said not, but it is hard not to read some sense of the end of an era into his wildly evocative picture of the opulent ballrooms of Vienna gradually swirling out of control into chaos. MacGregor and the BPO gave us a suitably dark opening, with slithering glissandi from the violas and an ominous cor anglais solo. MacGregor steered through the frequent rubatos and Viennese holdups, although these felt occasional a little mechanical rather than fully felt. As things built to the inevitable climax, timing unravelled ever so slightly, and the seasick surges from the orchestra needed even more, but MacGregor punched through to a suitably wild finish. 
 

Joanna MacGregor & the Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra
© Nick Boston

Then came the most intriguing programming choice of the afternoon. Bartók’s The Miraculous Mandarin Suite is not performed as often as it should be, but when it is, at just over twenty minutes, it often appears as the warm-up act. But this densely imaginative and exciting score deserves more attention, and by ending their concert with it, the BPO were able to show off its dramatic and unsettling power. Described as a ‘pantomime ballet’, the original full work, with its shocking tale of tramps forcing a girl to entrap men so they could rob them, was in fact too shocking for audiences of the day, and it had to be withdrawn after its premiere. Bartók’s concert suite was however performed in his lifetime, perhaps because the ‘action’ now stops at the point when the mysterious Miraculous Mandarin, the tramps’ third victim, chases the girl, and avoids the ensuing failed attempts by the tramps to kill him, as well as his sexual union with the girl, before he finally dies. Nevertheless, the Suite still contains the darkness of the drama, right from the opening raucous cityscape to the chase scene, via the increasingly complex characterisations of the three victims, all portrayed via clarinet solos. MacGregor and the BPO were in their element for the opening bustling cacophony, with trombone car horns and swirling, whistling woodwinds. Principal clarintettist James Gilbert’s solos were full of the necessarily individual character, and with mournful turns from cor anglais and oboe, brittle col legno strings (hitting with the wood of the bow), trombone slides and glassy celesta combined with high flutes, they delivered much of the atmospheric detail of Bartók’s score with enthusiasm. MacGregor’s direction was also more confident throughout here, and the slowing up into the final finish was well judged, making for a thrilling conclusion to their assured performance of this exciting work. Once again, MacGregor and the BPO showed that taking risks with more adventurous programming choices pays dividends, as evidenced by another almost full and highly appreciative Brighton Dome audience.

An impressive debut recording from Birmingham's chamber choir, The Elgar Scholars

The Elgar Scholars describe themselves as Birmingham’s newest pre-professional chamber choir, and is conducted by co-musical directors Jim Bate and Laura Bailie. Bate & Bailie are both graduates of The University of Birmingham’s choral conducting masters programme, and the singers are students and alumni from the university, the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and elsewhere. As you would expect, therefore, they produce a sophisticated sound, with precise tuning and clear diction a given. What is more interesting perhaps on their short debut recording is the variety of contemporary styles across just eight tracks. 

One piece gives a nod towards their name, in John Cameron’s arrangement of Elgar’s ‘Nimrod’, as ‘Lux Aeterna’, but otherwise all the other pieces are by living composers. Starting with the Elgar, they take this at a good pace, avoiding any self-indulgence that can creep in, and they  keep their powder dry until the big climax, when the ringing sopranos really burst out of the texture, before retreating to deliver a touchingly fragile ending. There are two works here by ex-King’s Singer and composer Bob Chilcott (b.1955). Firstly, there is Even Such is Time, a setting of a Walter Raleigh text, with a falling repeated pattern that here leads towards a rich, full homophonic sound from the choir, and a beautifully pure-toned soprano solo line from Alice Martin. The other Chilcott piece comes from his Song of Harvest. Gratitude is a prayerful hymn, with a warm blend from the singers here. Judith Weir (b.1954) is represented here by Drop Down, Ye Heavens, From Above, her setting of the Rorate Coeli text, often set to plainsong for Advent matins. Weir starts with a bare sound of just two lines, then adds lines to the texture, building to a thicker homophonic texture, with a particularly richly dense chord on the word Fear. There is an eery wedding anthem, And I Will Betroth You, from Michael Zev Gordon (b.1963), once again relatively homophonic in texture, but with closely clashing parts requiring precision of tuning and balance from the singers, and they sustain the long-held chords with impressive steadiness. The album’s title, Finding Your Home, comes from Millicent B James’ work, which was commissioned by the National Youth Choir. James was a member of their Young Composer Scheme in 2023, and this piece demonstrates a highly impressive command of a variety of choral techniques, moving from jazzy close harmony into a more playful rhythmically driven style, with improvisatory solo lines and finger-clicking creating a joyful and richly textured celebration, and the singers clearly had fun with this one. 

But the two highlights here for me include Laura Mvula’s (b.1986) own choral arrangement of her song Sing To The Moon, originally composed with Steven James Brown who sadly passed away in 2024 for Mvula’s debut studio album in 2013. Mvula also studied composition at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, and this choral arrangement was performed by the BBC Singers at the Last Night of the Proms in 2019. The choruses have simpler, thicker harmony, with a glorious solo rising above from soprano Evelyn Byford, whilst the verses allow for more interesting textures from individual lines and falling figures from the sopranos. And my other highlight is Jonathan Dove’s (b.1959) In Beauty May I Walk. It was written as a present for Anthony Whitworth-Jones on leaving Glyndebourne Festival Opera, where Whitworth-Jones had been General Director and had commissioned various works by Dove, including his opera Flight. It uses anonymous Navajo text, translated by Jerome K Rothenberg, and Dove expertly combines chanting with repeating figures and layering of parts to create a haunting piece. Here The Elgar Scholars basses rise up slowly beneath the busier upper parts, their slow scale underpinning the build to the work’s climax, before falling away to a quiet, delicate conclusion. It is in these more complex works, the Dove, Mvula and James pieces in particular, that The Elgar Scholars demonstrate their assured command, and conductors Bailie and Bate have clearly worked hard with them to create a highly accomplished choir that I look forward to hearing more from.

Various. 2025. Finding Your Home. The Elgar Scholars, Jim Bate, Laura Bailie. Compact Disc & Download. Convivium Records CR110.

 

Beauty of sound dilutes the passion in Welser-Möst and the Vienna Philharmonic's Tchaikovsky

Franz Welser-Möst
© BBC/Chris Christodoulou

Vienna Philharmonic

Franz Welser-Möst (conductor)

BBC Proms
7.30pm, Sunday 31 August, 2025
Royal Albert Hall, London

★★★

Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus (1756-1791): Symphony No. 38 in D major, K504 'Prague'

Tchaikovsky, Pyotr Ilyich (1840-1893): Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op. 74 'Pathétique'

The Vienna Philharmonic at the BBC Proms
© BBC/Chris Christodoulou

'It almost goes without saying that the Vienna Philharmonic sounded exquisite at all times, the orchestra never knowingly emitting anything uneasy on the ear'.

Mozart:

'Welser-Möst was the epitome of restrained poise, with razor-sharp ensemble from the offbeat violins, before they fizzed in the Allegro'.

'Despite impressive agility from the woodwinds ... and skittering violins, there was not much to get the heart racing here'.

Tchaikovsky:

'Welser-Möst kept a lid on things until build to the climax, with violins and woodwinds swirling into the tutti march, one of the evening’s first truly spectacular moments'.

'At least a handful of grit in the mix would have better captured the symphony’s “Pathétique” essence'.

Read my full review on Bachtrack here.

Bampton Classical Opera have fun with Salieri at The Barn, Old Walland

Siân Dicker (Mirandolina) & Samuel Pantcheff (Fabrizio)
© Bampton Classical Opera

Andrew Griffiths (Conductor)
Jeremy Gray (Director/Designer)
Harriet Cameron (Assistant Director)
Karen Halliday (Movement Director)

Pauline Smith, Anne Baldwin (Costumes)

Ian Chandler (Lighting)

Alex Norton (Répétiteur)

Siân Dicker (Mirandolina)

Samuel Pantcheff (Fabrizio)

Rosalind Dobson (Lena)

Osian Wyn Bowen (The Baron Ripafratta)

David Horton (The Count of Albafiorita)

Aidan Edwards (The Marquis of Folimpopoli)

The Orchestra of Bampton Classical Opera

Bampton Classical Opera

6.00pm, Saturday 6 September, 2025

The Barn at Old Walland, Wadhurst

★★★★

Antonio Salieri (1750-1825): La locandíera (The Landlady)

(libretto by Domenico Poggi () after Carlo Goldoni (1707-1793), translated by Gilly French and Jeremy Gray) 

arr. Giorgio Croci, by arrangement with Casa Musicale Sonzogno di Piero Ostali

Osian Wyn Bowen (Baron Ripafratta) & Siân Dicker (Mirandolina)
© Bampton Classical Opera

My third visit now to Bampton Classical Opera in the beautiful setting of The Barn at Old Walland, deep in the High Weald, was once again a delight. On a lovely late summer evening, BCO brought their joyous production of a hitherto unknown (to me) jolly romp by Salieri, La locandiera (The Landlady), having given three other performances at Bampton and Westonbirt, with one more to come at Smith Hall, London on 16 September.

In the 200^th anniversary year of Salieri’s death, it is a good point to be reassessing a composer who was remarkably successful and popular in his lifetime, yet pretty universally neglected thereafter. Pushkin’s play Mozart and Salieri and of course, Peter Shaffer’s play Amadeus and its film version, did a great deal to embed the myth of Salieri’s jealousy and even murderous conspiracy to bring down his young rival, despite there being no real evidence for this. And despite Salieri’s subsequent reputation for being more pedestrian than the younger ‘genius’, it’s interesting to note that in La locandiera, Salieri is exploring the somewhat revolutionary territory of servants getting one over on the noblemen that Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro is credited with, some thirteen years earlier than his rival.

 

So in La locandiera, we have the strong female lead, landlady Mirandolina, getting one over on not just one but three noblemen. The Count and the Marquis are straightforward suitors, whilst the Baron claims to eschew all women, immediately riling Mirandolina with his misogynistic behaviour and demands. Mirandolina resolves to trick him by winning him over, before ultimately unmasking him as a fool. Understandably this confuses her servant Fabrizio, who is in love with her, and he becomes enraged as she turns her charms on the Baron. After three acts of shenanigans, all is resolved, and Mirandolina chooses Fabrizio over the three supposedly ‘better prospects’. Now of course the behaviour of the male characters is made fun of, and ultimately they are defeated – but there still a sense that their unwanted approaches, bordering on harassment, are just a bit of fun. And despite her strength and rejection of their misogyny, Mirandolina still ends up with Fabrizio, who has exhibited several outbursts of red-flag jealousy. But putting these twenty-first century qualms to one side, it is still the women that come out clearly on top at the end, with even the maidservant Lena getting a final opportunity to take charge of her fate. 

 

David Horton (Count) & Aidan Edwards (Marquis)
© Bampton Classical Opera

Gilly French and Jeremy Gray, BCO’s artistic directors, provided the translated libretto, and it was full of their playful humour that I’ve seen in previous productions here. Lots of great rhymes (custard/flustered, behaviour/gave ya, bile/style – not quite sure about chicken/kick-in though…) support the humour, and memorable lines emphasise the subversion. The Baron likes ‘her forthright manner’, which ‘disturbs the status quo’, and Mirandolina is given the strong statement ‘I’m a woman and women are tough’.

 

Siân Dicker excelled as the feisty Mirandolina, her powerful voice suiting the larger-than-life character, filling the small space. Yet Mirandolina isn’t one dimensional, and in her Act 2 aria, when she repeats that phrase ‘I’m a woman and women are tough’, Dicker shifted between angry confidence and moments of self-doubt, as Salieri’s music also shifts into darker harmonies. Samuel Pantcheff’s Fabrizio was also multi-dimensional, portraying well confusion and jealousy at Mirandolina’s actions, as well as genuine warmth and affection, and Pantcheff & Dicker’s final love duet was touchingly beautiful. Pantcheff also had great fun with the sight gag of delivering ever more ridiculous eggs for the Baron in Act 1.

 

Osian Wyn Bowen’s Baron was suitably uptight and pernickety, and his clear-toned tenor gave us a range from initial arrogance, through to softening warmth as he succumbed to Mirandolina’s charms (with a particularly lyrical aria in Act 2), then finally to angry frustration and humiliation. Aidan Edwards’ Marquis and David Horton’s Count formed a great double act, Horton’s wiry tenor and wily confidence contrasting well with Edwards’ warm baritone and comic buffoonery. Their non-sensical sporting costume changes (tennis/table tennis, to golf, to croquet?) added a fun counterpoint to the Baron’s natty formal dress. Rosalind Dobson’s Lena was lightly playful, her bright soprano and her mischievous asides providing dashes of additional humour, particularly in the final moments. Ensemble pieces had great energy and fine-tuned balance, and the sextets at the end of Acts 2 and 3 were highly impressive.

Rosalind Dobson (Lena)
© Bampton Classical Opera

The production was tight and pretty polished, considering the limited space they had in The Barn. When the full cast of six were all on stage, it was more than a little cosy, and there were one or two props that almost came a cropper. But despite this, they made convincing use of the one set, which shifted between serving as the Baron’s room and other spaces in the inn. Costumes were simple yet bright, and lighting equally straightforward, with just occasional shifts of tone and colour. 

 

Andrew Griffiths conducted the 11 piece band with energy and elegance, and the balance was mostly assured, with the horns off to one side avoiding overly dominating the light strings. Alex Norton on harpsichord gave delicate support in the recitatives, and Griffiths kept everything moving along at a jolly pace throughout.

 

BCO have talked about focussing on semi-staged and concert performances in coming years. Here’s hoping that these lightly staged yet joyful performances at The Barn continue to be a part of their offering in the future.

Bampton Classical Opera
© Nick Boston

The Barn at Old Walland
© Nick Boston

Musical resilience from Pekka Kuusisto and Katarina Barruk at the Proms

Pekka Kuusisto &
members of the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra
© Andy Paradise

Katarina Barruk (vocals)

Arnljot Nordvik (guitar)

Christer Jørgensen (drums)

Norwegian Chamber Orchestra 

Pekka Kuusisto (violin/director)

BBC Proms
7.30pm, Sunday 31 August, 2025
Royal Albert Hall, London

★★★★

Katarina Barruk
© Andy Paradise

Barruk, Katarina (b.1994): Ruhttuo intro

                                          Miärraládda (arr. Sonstad, Øystein (b.1970)/Nordvik, Arnljot)

                                           Niäguoh (arr. Stangness, Christo, orch. Sonstad, Øystein)

                                           Sådna jahttá - Part 2: Maadter-aahka (arr. Nyman, Marzi (b.1979))

                                           Ij gåssieke (arr. Sonstad, Øystein/Nordvik, Arnjlot)

                                           Dállie (arr. Buene, Eivind (b.1973))

Tippett, Michael (1905-1998): Divertimento on Sellinger's Round - A Lament (2nd movement)

Philip Glass (b.1994): String Quartet No. 3, 'Mishima', 5. Blood Oath (arr. Kuusisto, Pekka (b.1976))

Kendall, Hannah (b.1984): Weroon Weroon (UK premiere)

Bach, Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750): Chorale prelude 'O Mensch, bewein dein Sünde gross', BWV 622 (arr. Reger, Max (1873-1916))

Shaw, Caroline (b.1982): Plan & Elevation, 5. The Beech Tree (arr. Murphy, Ben/Shaw, Caroline)

Pärt, Arvo (b.1935): Fratres - version for solo violin, string orchestra and percussion

Shostakovich, Dmitri (1906-1975): Chamber Symphony, Op. 110a (arr. of String Quartet No. 8 by Barshai, Rudolf (1924-2010))

Encore:

Lennon, John (1940-1980): Imagine (arr. Kuusisto, Pekka)

Katarina Barruk
© Andy Paradise

Barruk:

'Barruk’s striking voice shifted from pure tone to nasal growls, then high and wispy, across a huge range'.

'Barruk’s voice rose high over lamenting strings, then fell into low creaks, with a clear exhortation to never surrender'.

Kendall:

'Kuusisto’s glassy rapid tremolo buzzed and scraped, emitting strange harmonics, and rising and falling in dynamic, before grinding to a halt, adding to the evening’s diversity of sound worlds'.

Pärt:

'NCO moved together with instinctive ensemble, the violins swaying as one. Kuusisto’s solo variations sang out with clarity and improvisatory expression'.

Shostakovich:

'Kuusisto and the NCO let rip with the fourth movement’s violent stabbing knocks ... The second movement's DSCH motif and wild dance and the third's macabre waltz were suitably terrifying'.

Read my full review on Bachtrack here.

Pekka Kuusisto & the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra
© Nick Boston