The Irish/British composer Robin Haigh is having a busy year with performances of all four of his major orchestral works. Jessica Cottis conducts Luck, his trumpet concerto for Matilda Lloyd and Britten Sinfonia on the opening night of this year's Aldeburgh Festival on 15 June 2024 [full details], and Matthew Halls conducts the UK premiere of Robin Haigh's Concerto for Orchestra with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra on 3 November [full details] In a guest article for Planet Hugill, Robin describes his continuing evolution in writing for orchestra. Robin Haigh (Photo: Michael Ca ..read more

Stéphane Fuguet & Les Épopées (Photo: Pascal Le Mée) In June 2024, harpsichordist, conductor and director, Stéphane Fuguet and his ensemble, Les Épopées are releasing their recording of Monteverdi's L'Orfeo on the Château de Versailles Spectacles label with tenor Julian Prégardien in the title role. This is the second of the ensemble's survey of Monteverdi's operas on disc, they released Il ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria in June 2022, and L'Incoronazione di Poppea will follow in April 2025. In March 2024 the ensemble released, also on the Château de Versailles Spectacles label, the fi ..read more

Samantha Clarke (Photo: Benjamin Ealovega) Mozart in 1774 - Mozart: Symphonies Nos. 28 & 30, Bassoon Concerto, music from La finta giardiniera, music from Paisiello's Andromeda; Samantha Clarke, Jane Gower, The Mozartists, Ian Page; Wigmore Hall Reviewed 2 May 2024 Ian Page and his ensemble explore the symphonic music Mozart wrote in 1774, along with a superb contribution from bassoonist Jane Gower and soprano Samantha Clarke in outstanding form In 1773, Mozart returned from his long journey to Italy and for the next four years was based in Salzburg. The new Archbishop took t ..read more

Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Maxim Emelyanychev in Aberdeen (Photo: Christopher Bowen) The 2024/25 season sees Maxim Emelyanychev returning for his sixth season as principal conductor of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra (SCO) with nine concerts, both as conductor and as soloist. Andrew Manze takes up a new role as SCO's principal guest conductor, directing three concerts during the season from Scandinavian contemporary music to Mozart to Faure's Requiem. The SCO will be giving seven premieres during the season including Bruckner’s Skull by Jay Capperauld, the SCO's asso ..read more

European Union Chamber Orchestra King's Lynn Festival's annual celebration of all things Early Music, its Early Music Day will be returning to St Nicholas' Chapel on Saturday 20 July featuring a lunchtime organ recital with Harvey Stansfield, a concert with the European Union Chamber Orchestra and a late-night recital with harpsichordist Masumi Yamamoto. The day begins with a recital by the organ scholar at Peterborough Cathedral, Harvey Stansfield. He will play the Henry Willis organ at St Nicholas' Chapel, the last instrument on which Father Willis worked on before his death i ..read more

Melodrama as a dramatic musical genre has a somewhat patchy history. Whilst Mozart would say of Georg Benda's melodramas 'I love these two works so much that I carry them with me', and indeed works like Benda's Medea [recorded in 2021 by Cappella Aquileia on Coviello Classics, see my review] influenced Mozart's use of speech with music. Melodrama as a tool in the opera composers armoury does pop up, but the exploration of simple speech with music is still relatively rare. The development of post-War music-theatre works has meant that contemporary composers shy away from it rath ..read more

Willem Wissing (1656-87) - Mary II (1662-94) when Princess of Orange c.1686-87 (Photo: Royal Collection Trust RCIN 405643) A Choral Celebration of Queen Mary II: Clarke, Blow, Purcell, Handel;  chapel choir of the Royal Hospital Chelsea, the Old Royal Naval College Trinity Laban Chapel Choir, Brandenburg Baroque Soloists, Ralph Allwood, William Vann; Chapel of St Peter and St Paul, Old Royal Naval College Reviewed 30 April 2024 A celebration of Queen Mary II's birthday brings together the choirs of two institution she was instrumental in founding, mixing professionals with s ..read more

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra's 2024/25 season is its third with chief conductor Ryan Wigglesworth. Wigglesworth will be directing Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius and a new work by Helen Grime, along with playing the solo part in Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 17. There will be a further premiere from Ricardo Ferro, plus works by Donghoon Shin, Errollyn Wallen, Gabriela Montero and the orchestra’s Composer-in-Association Hans Abrahamsen. Ilan Volkov conducts percussion concertos with Scottish virtuoso Colin Currie, including a UK premiere by Olga Neuwirth and a concerto by Andy Aiko. Othe ..read more

Spitalfields Music Festival returns with events in iconic spaces across East London from 27 June to 10 July 2024. The festival opens with soprano Nardus Williams and lutenist Elizabeth Kenny in In the Shadow of the Tower, exploring East London's cosmopolitan history in a recital at St Peter ad Vincula in the Tower of London. The concert features a new work by Roderick Williams, one of 14 premieres being presented at this year's festival. And we return to St Peter ad Vincula for Sing Joyfully: Tudor and Jacobean Music for the Chapel Royal performed by Choir of the Chapels Royal ..read more

An urban myth tells of how, one evening, Stalin made a surprise phone call to Radio Moscow demanding the urgent delivery of a record: a Mozart piano concerto played by Maria Yudina. Unfortunately, radio companies at this time did not always preserve their broadcasts for a future release or even for their own archive. But rather than say 'no' to Stalin, Radio Moscow gathered together Yudina and their orchestra in the middle of the night and made the recording from scratch, ready to be delivered to the Kremlin the following morning. In the version of the myth as told by Shostakovich, it was th ..read more