choral music
TUKS Camerata, Voces8 Live from London online review - a diverse choral selectionTuesday, 30 August 2022
The Voces8 Live from London, now in its seventh iteration, has progressed from streaming choral chamber music from an empty studio to an 80-strong visiting choir in a packed Christ Church, Spitalfields. In doing this the festival has retained its... Read more... |
Quo vadis, Three Choirs Festival review - a hundred minutes of smug serenity and flowing pietyTuesday, 26 July 2022
Once upon a time the Three Choirs Festival conjured up a single image, that of the English Oratorio – the grand choral solemnification of everything that was most profound in Anglican thought (though ironically its greatest exemplar, Elgar’s Dream... Read more... |
Bevan, Williams, Bebbington, RPO, Davan Wetton, Barbican review - Vaughan Williams celebratedWednesday, 04 May 2022
Amid the warm familiarity of a programme of established Vaughan Williams favourites, presented at the Barbican by the RPO and the City of London Choir, what really drew me in was the chance to hear his Fantasia on the “Old 104th” Psalm Tune,... Read more... |
Albums of the Year 2021: Eliane Elias - Mirror MirrorMonday, 03 January 2022
After watching so many gigs through a computer screen, it was a joy to hear live music again in familiar haunts – from Ronnie Scott’s and the Southbank to Grand Junction, Paddington – in 2021. It made you appreciate anew not only the high-wire... Read more... |
Classical CDs: Christmas 2021, Part 1Saturday, 11 December 2021
Michael Praetorius: Es is ein Ros Dresdner Kammerchor/Hans-Christoph Rademann (Accentus)Oliver Geisler’s witty booklet note makes the case for Michael Praetorius (1571-1621) as “one of the best unknowns in the history of music.” Reading the... Read more... |
Monteverdi Vespers, La Nuova Musica, Bates, Wigmore Hall review - small venue, huge impactWednesday, 27 October 2021
I last heard Monteverdi’s Vespers of the Blessed Virgin, published in 1610, at Garsington Opera as the summer light of the Chilterns slowly dimmed across an airy auditorium dotted with singers who bathed us in scintillating meteor-showers of sound.... Read more... |
The Creation, Academy of Ancient Music, Cummings, Barbican review - back to choral paradiseThursday, 30 September 2021
Whatever the upsets and uncertainties of this musical season, the return of choral works at full scale and full power has been an unalloyed joy. And sheer, exhilarated, heaven-storming joy branded the Academy of Ancient Music’s reading of Haydn’s... Read more... |
Hallenberg, Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists, Gardiner, BBC Proms review - a vindication of voicesThursday, 02 September 2021
Choral singers have suffered more than most from erratic and irrational Covid prohibitions while riskier mass pursuits have gone ahead. So when one of the world’s great choirs returned to the Proms with the conductor who has guided them for over... Read more... |
Voces8 Live from London Summer online review - choral excellence and more besidesTuesday, 17 August 2021
There is much to love about the latest Voces8 Live from London online festival. It goes beyond having a purely choral line-up, embracing instrumental music for the first time, while maintaining its focus on vocal performances of the highest standard... Read more... |
Echo Vocal Ensemble, Midlands Arts Centre review - fresh and fun approach to choral singingSaturday, 07 August 2021
After meeting on the Genesis Sixteen Young Artist Scheme, this vibrant vocal ensemble has been rapidly gaining momentum since their debut at St John’s Smith Square in 2017. Under the direction of conductor Sarah Latto, the final concert in their UK... Read more... |
Tenebrae, Short, Saffron Hall review - from dark shadows to bright heavensMonday, 28 June 2021
While the big choral societies are asking, with good cause, why they remain silenced when it’s OK for football fans to sing on the terraces, the top voices of smaller ensembles are being heard again by select audiences. Not so small, in the case of... Read more... |
London Bulgarian Choir, Kings Place review - dark Slavic tales in waves of soundTuesday, 25 May 2021
So, blinking, after too much isolation, into a spring evening for a first live indoor gig for over a year was always going to be exciting, if just for novelty value. But for a gentle breaking-in to live music, the London Bulgarian Choir was an... Read more... |
