Atmospheric performances from Vox Luminis at St John’s Smith Square

The week-long St John’s Smith Square Easter Festival concluded with a rare appearance by the Belgian early music ensemble Vox Luminis, offering choral gems from two masters of the German…

The Academy of Ancient Music bring Bach’s St John Passion, of 1725, to the Barbican

There are four versions of Bach’s St John Passion.  The first was heard on Good Friday 1724, in the St Nicholas Church in Leipzig, during Bach’s first year of employment…

Thrilling sounds from the Choir of King’s College Cambridge

On the surface this new disc from the Choir of King’s College Cambridge presents mainly standard repertoire for Holy Week and Easter.  Some might consider the compilation a little too…

London Handel Festival at St John’s Smith Square

On Wednesday 14 April 2022, two London festivals came together when the London Handel Festival brought a programme of Baroque sacred music to St John’s Smith Square’s Easter Festival. Adrian…

Impressive Mahler from Bychkov and the Czech Philharmonic

Any new recording from Semyon Bychkov is to be eagerly anticipated, not least the launch of this first disc in a new Mahler cycle, a recent collaboration with Pentatone.  Judging…

The Handmaid’s Tale at English National Opera

‘I don’t want to be a dancer, my feet in the air, my head a faceless oblong of white cloth.  I don’t want to be a doll hung up on…

Alexander Chance announced as winner of International Handel Singing Competition

On Friday 8th April 2022, countertenor Alexander Chance was announced as the winner of the International Handel Singing Competition following the final which took place at London’s St George’s Church, Hanover Square.  Alexander Chance was also awarded the Audience Prize and fellow…

Tête à Tête‘s wider season for 2022 sees the company continue to develop artists on a national level

Tête à Tête has unveiled its wider season for 2022, which will see the outlandish opera company continue to ferment and mature artists across the country to show talented theatre-makers what is possible…

Pacific Opera Project Iolanta: Love Is Blind

Estimable Pacific Opera Project (POP) does not always take such bold, bald chances as it has with producing the West Coast staged premiere of Tchaikovsky’s long one act, Iolanta. Far…

Technically accomplished Marian Consort at Turner Sims

In a concert that could have been titled ‘Towards Bach’, the Marian Consort fashioned a themed programme that linked two towering German composers: Heinrich Schütz and Johann Sebastian Bach. They…