The BBC Singers at full throttle at Milton Court

The BBC Singers with Sofi Jeannin at Milton Court
© BBC/Mark Allan (2022)

Emma Tring (soprano)

Albert Soriano (tenor)

Iain Farrington (organ)

BBC Singers

BBC Concert Orchestra

Sofi Jeannin (conductor)

7.30pm, Thursday 26 February 2026

Milton Court Concert Hall, London

★★★★

MacMillan, James (b.1959): Who are these angels?

Shaw, Caroline (b.1982): To the Hands

Weir, Judith (b.1954): My Guardian Angel

Rautavaara, Einojuhani (1928-2016): Die erste Elegie

Howells, Herbert (1892-1983): Hymnus Paradisi (orch. Farrington, Iain (b.1977))

'There was much to celebrate in this evening’s demonstration of this outstanding group of singers’ virtuosity, under the assured direction of Sofi Jeannin as she approaches the end of her tenure as Chief Conductor'. 

Shaw:

'The BBC Singers upper voices in particular demonstrated their command with pure and precise onsets in the third section, and all voices communicated the emotion and intent of Shaw’s message with affecting immediacy'.

Rauavaara:

'The BBC Singers were impressively on top of its challenges, from shrieking tenors at the opening to high sopranos emulating violins, and faultless tuning and pitching of leaping intervals'.

Howells:

'The BBC Singers relished the opportunity for much full-throated singing here'.

'This was an impressive performance and a strong showing of the BBC Singers’ continued command and expertise'.  

Read my full review on Bachtrack here.

Emma Tring, Albert Soriano, Sofi Jeannin,
he BBC Concert Orchestra & the BBC Singers
© Nick Boston

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.

 

O Magnum Mysterium - The Baroque Collective Singers with the Lewes Festival of Song

The Baroque Collective Singers

The Baroque Collective Singers are performing in a Christmas fundraiser concert to support the Lewes Festival of Song at St. Anne’s Church, Lewes on Friday December 14th at 8pm.

John Hancorn

Following their successful festival finale last July, The Baroque Collective Singers are once again conducted by their Director, John Hancorn.  They will be performing 'O Magnum Mysterium', a candlelit, radiant seasonal programme of familiar and unfamiliar music, with some beautiful carols for the audience to join in. The programme includes highly contrasting settings of O Magnum Mysterium by Victoria, Poulenc and Ola Gjeilo.  There will be music by contemporary composers such as James MacMillan, Judith Weir and Ed Hughes, as well as works by Holst, Britten and Tavener.  

Guest cellist Sebastian Comberti and pianist and festival director Nancy Cooley will be playing too.  Tickets are £15 (under 16s £7.50) with proceeds going towards a new piano for the festival. Mulled wine and refreshments by donation. Get tickets here.

Sebastian Comberti

Nancy Cooley

  

Vote 100: Celebrating Women Composers

Saturday 17 November, 7.30pm, St George's Church, Brighton

Vote 100: Celebrating Women Composers marks the centenary of some women gaining the vote. A specially commissioned new work - ‘Lead On’ - by Lucy Pankhurst, a relative of leading suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst, will be performed and music by a diverse range of women composers, with Caroline Lucas MP as a key speaker.

Artists include soprano Polina Shepherd, vocal/instrumental group HEARD Collective, choir Women of Note, guitarist Brian Ashworth, flautist Rebecca Griffiths and pianists Evgenia Startseva and Yuri Paterson-Olenich plus multi-pianist ensemble the Zongora Piano Group and the Appel Trio. 

Featured composers include Norah Blaney, Rebecca Clarke, Avril Coleridge-Taylor, Lilian Elkington, Shena Fraser, Augusta Holmès, Ethel Smyth plus present-day composers Litha Efthymiou, Cecilia McDowall and Master of the Queen's Music, Judith Weir.

'Norah Blaney (right) and her partner Gwen Farrar first met in 1917, entertaining troops in a concert party. Gwen played the cello and Norah was a classically trained pianist who had also studied composition at the Royal College of Music. Several of the songs she wrote were published while she was still in her teens and 'Are You There Mr Bear?' is still in print over 100 years later.

Norah and Gwen appeared in the 1921 Royal Command Performance at the London Hippodrome. They went on to star in revues at the Vaudeville, Prince of Wales and Savoy Theatres, becoming household names in 1924 for their recording of 'It Ain't Gonna Rain No More'. They lived together as lovers in a house in the King's Road Chelsea, where they entertained Noel Coward, Tallulah Bankhead, Radclyffe Hall, Dolly Wilde (Oscar's niece) and the lesbian action hero Joe Carstairs, to name just a few'.  
(with thanks to Alison Child).

Alison Child is currently writing a biography of Norah Blaney and Gwen Farrar, Tell Me I'm Forgiven (with cover design by Andrew Kay) which will be available in the Autumn of 2019.

Book tickets here.

Strikingly dramatic Weir in a convincing première from the BBC Singers and the Nash Ensemble - Proms at Southwark Cathedral

© BBC/Mark Allan

BBC Proms at ... Southwark Cathedral

Adrian Thompson (tenor)
Charles Gibbs (narrator)
Stephen Farr (organ)

BBC Singers
Nash Ensemble
David Hill (conductor)

Saturday 12 August, 2017
Southwark Cathedral

★★★★

David Hill (© BBC/Mark Allan)

Palestrina: 
Motet 'Confitebor tibi, Domine'
Missa 'Confitebor tibi, Domine'

Judith Weir:
'In the Land of Uz'

Palestrina:
'Hill shaped the rising and falling lines carefully'.

'Hill began this with some beautifully soft singing, warming for those final chords'.

 

Adrian Thompson & the BBC Singers
(© BBC/Mark Allan)

  Weir:
  'Adrian Thompson characterised the 
  role of Job with great presence'.

  'A powerful performance of a highly   
  effective, dramatic piece, with great
  variety, strong choral writing, and
  imaginative and unusual use of 
  instruments'.


  Read my full review on Bachtrack here.