Concert Reviews

York Early Music Festival

~ Andrew Benson-Wilson

York Early Music Festival
3-11 July 2026

The 2026 York Early Music Festival celebrated its 50th birthday with a week of performances from Monteverdi’s 1610 Vespers to Bruhn’s/Keiser’s St Mark Passion, including a commemoration of the 400th anniversary of John Dowland. I was there to review the closing event of the festival, the two days of informal concerts and the final of the biennial York Early Music International Young Artists Competition (reviewed here), but managed to take in a few of the festival events.

By far the most important of the festival concerts I attended was the final one, on 10 July in The Quire of York Minster, when Solomon’s Knot presented their version of a St Mark Passion. This was composed in Hamburg around 1700, copied out by Bach in the early 1710s, and revived ot exactly 400 years ago in Leipzig on Good Friday 1726. This is the version performed, although Bach also adapted it for a performance in the mid-1740s. Originally billed in the Festival as by Bruhns (not the earlier North German organist, but the music director at Hamburg Cathedral), but more usually referred to as by Kaiser, the far more likely composer. The link to the programme notes for this, and other festival concerts, can be found here. Whoever composed it, it is a remarkable piece, with fascinating insights into the Passion tradition in North Germany during Bach’s youth. It also raised interesting aspects of performance in a huge space like York Minster.

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2026 York Early Music International Young Artists Competition

~ Andrew Benson-Wilson

2026 York Early Music International Young Artists Competition
National Centre for Early Music
York, 9-11 July 2026

The biennial York Early Music International Young Artists Competition was founded in 1985. It takes place in the National Centre for Early Music (NCEM) in the impressively restored and extended former church of St Margaret’s, Walmgate in York. It forms the conclusion of the annual York Early Music Festival, celebrating its 50th birthday this year. A few events from the Festival are reviewed here.The theme for the festival was Beyond Borders, which perfectly sums up the focus of the Young Artists Competition, with its international cohort of performers presenting music from around the world, ranging from the Middle Ages to the nineteenth century, using historically informed playing techniques, instruments and stylistic conventions. The competition is open to ensembles of at least three people, with performers aged 36 years or under, with an average age of 35 years or under on the day of the final. During the two days before the final, the nine ensembles gave informal concerts, with no judges present, all compared by Steven Devine. The final was livestreamed and recorded by BBC Radio 3. Highlights will be broadcast on the Early Music Show on 30 August at 5pm, and will be available afterwards on BBC Sounds.

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Mozart 250. “Ronald Brautigam plays Mozart”

~ Andrew Benson-Wilson

Mozart 250
“Ronald Brautigam plays Mozart“
The Mozartists, Ian Page, Ronald Brautigam
Cadogan Hall, 30 June 2026


Serenata notturna, K.239
Piano Concerto No. 6 in B flat major, K.238
Piano Concerto No. 8 in C major, ‘Lützow’, K.246
Divertimento in D major, K.251

The Mozartists’ innovative MOZART 250 project travels 250 years back in time to follow the chronological trajectory of Mozart’s life, works and influences. Starting on the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s childhood visit to London in January 2015, the project is now following Mozart’s musical life, year by year, up to 2041, the 250th anniversary of his death. Ronald Brautigam is one of the world’s leading fortepianists, with an award-winning discography of the complete concertos and sonatas of Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven. For this, his twice Covid delayed début with Ian Page and The Mozartists, he performed two concertos that Mozart wrote in Salzburg during the first half of 1776, bookended by two other pieces from 1776: the Serenata notturna K.239 and the Divertimento in D major, K.251. Playing a reproduction of an 18th-century Viennese Walter fortepiano (by Paul McNulty), this was a rare opportunity to experience the sound-world of the 20-year-old Mozart.

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In the Belly of the Beast 

~ Andrew Benson-Wilson

“In the Belly of the Beast“
Élisabeth Claude Jacquet de La Guerre: Cantates Bibliques
Carolyn Sampson, Mariana Rodrigues
Liam Burne, Lynda Sayce, Alice Earll
Metronome London, 27 June 2026


London’s latest record-breaking heatwave, combined with the lack of air conditioning at the previous evening’s venue, turned this into the opening event of this year’s Spitalfields Festival. The air conditioning at this event in Metronome London (a small black-box venue forming part of a new building that seems to house elements of various out-of-London universities) certainly made itself felt, to the bizarre extent that the organisers emailed attendees to warn them to bring additional clothing, something that was apparently easier than anybody actually turning the air conditioning down! The concert featured a staging of three of Élisabeth Claude Jacquet de La Guerre’s Cantates françoises sur des sujets tirez de l’Écriture à voix seule, et basse-continue, published in two volumes in 1708 and 1711, sometimes referred to as Cantates Bibliques.

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The Four Seasons for Percussion & Strings

~ Andrew Benson-Wilson

The Rhythm of the Seasons
Vivaldi’s Four Seasons for Percussion & Strings
Figure Ensemble, James Larter, Frederick Waxman
The Great Hall, Barts North Wing. 25 June 2026

This was Vivaldi, but not as you know it – an arrangement by James Larter and Frederick Waxman for a small Baroque orchestra and an impressive array of percussion instruments. It was first performed last year and has been recorded for release next year. As well as the music, I was also attracted by the chance to see the newly restored Great Hall of Barts North Wing and its spectacular Hogarth staircase, part of a 1730 redesign by architect James Gibbs.

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AAM: Handel Serse

~ Andrew Benson-Wilson

Handel: Serse
Academy of Ancient Music, Laurence Cummings
Barbican Hall, 19 June 2026

Perhaps one day somebody will compose an opera about a magalomaniac world leader wreaking havoc on the state of Persia (aka Iran), while constructing vast self-promotional construction projects at home. If so, that might trump the storyline of Handel’s Serse, an opera based on the antics of Xerxes I, the successor of Darius the Great of the Achaemenid Empire, first performed in London in April 1738. Xerxes was depicted in Aeschylus’ play The Persians, first performed in 472 BCE, shortly after Xerxes ill-fated invasion of Greece. The play presents him as an effeminate figure whose “hubristic effort to bring both Asia and Europe under his control leads to the ruin of both himself and his kingdom”. Later commentators describe him as “a power-crazed despot, inept, ridiculous, self-serving, self-loving, narcissistic ruler of the free world, with claims to be a god-king”.

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English Baroque Soloists: Haydn in London

~ Andrew Benson-Wilson

Haydn in London
English Baroque Soloists
Peter Whelan, Christophe Coin
St Martin-in-the-Fields, 18 June 2026

Charlotte Spruit, leader of the English Baroque Soloists

Haydn: Symphony No. 100 in G major (Military)
Haydn: Cello Concerto No. 2 in D major
J.C. Bach: Symphony in G minor
Haydn: Symphony No. 104 in D major (London)

Haydn is a little outside my usual early music reviewing radar, apart from the occasional Creation, which I’m afraid always gives me the giggles. So an evening with three major Haydn pieces was a bit of an eye and ear opener for me. Part of the 300th anniversary celebrations of St Martin-in-the-Fields, this concert from the English Baroque Soloists featured music written and first performed within a stone’s throw of the church. A pre-concert talk by historian Katherine Alcock set the historic scene, with conductor Peter Whelan joining for a discussion on the evening’s music.

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Rune. Lost in Contemplation: Saints and Miracles

~ Andrew Benson-Wilson

Rune
Lost in Contemplation: Saints and Miracles
St. Bartholomew the Great, Smithfield. 26 May 2026

Rune, the five-strong group specialising in music “from 700 years ago and beyond”, completed a UK tour at their home base of St. Bartholomew the Great in London’s Smithfield, one of the finest medieval buildings in London, where they are Medieval Ensemble in Residence. Their concert was based on four stories of miracles, each illustrated by sequences of music, sacred and secular, ranging from 12th century Occitan Troubadour songs to the 15th century polyphony of Machaut, with birdsong-related and Marian music in between. The four stories were narrated by the members of the group, to the varying degrees of comprehension allowed by the microphone and loudspeaker situation.

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A Venetian Coronation 1565

~ Andrew Benson-Wilson

A Venetian Coronation 1565
Gabrieli, Paul McCreesh
Temple Church, 19 May 2026

photo: Frances Marshall, from 2022 St John’s, Smith Square rehearsals

Under the auspices of Temple Music, Paul McCreesh’s Gabrieli (formally Gabrieli Consort) brought their large-scale liturgical reconstruction of the 1595 Coronation Mass for the Venetian Doge Marino Grimani. This was first performed in St John’s, Smith Square, in 1990 and has since been recorded twice and performed numerous times around the world, most recently in London in 2022 in a return to St John’s, Smith Square. I have heard this on several occasions, including the 2022 performance and during the reopening of Christ Church Spitalfields in 2005. The big advantage of those performances was the layout of the churches, both having galleries running the full length of the church, allowing the multidimensional aspects of the event to be portrayed in a manner that could be considered close to the original performance. That was in St Mark’s, Venice, the Doge’s private chapel as well as the state church of Venice. The music for such ceremonial events would have been focused on the central seats for the Doge and his entourage rather than the wider audience spaced around the rest of the church. Organs, instruments and singers were positioned on galleries on either side of the Doge’s central space.

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AAM/Wave. Rhythm Across Time

~ Andrew Benson-Wilson

Rhythm Across Time
Academy of Ancient Music, Wave Quartet, Bojan Čičić
Milton Court, 14 May 2026

Bertali: Ciaccona in C major
Geminiani: Concerto Grosso No 12 ‘La Folia’, after Corelli Op 5
Handel: Chaconne in G major HWV 435
Bach: Concerto in A minor BWV 1065 (arr for marimbas and strings)
Piazzolla: Concerto ‘Aconcagua’: Moderato, Presto
Festa: Variations on ‘La Spagna’ – Contrapunto 46, 88, 77 and 108
Bach: Harpsichord Concerto in C major BWV 1061 (arr for marimbas and strings)

The Academy of Ancient Music (AAM) continued its innovative sequence of concerts during its 2015/16 Cambridge and London season, a collaboration with the Wave Quartet of four marimba players, based in Vienna. In their pre-concert talk, mention was made of a shared Austro-Hungarian Empire heritage between the Croatian AAM director Bojan Čičić and the Romanian founder of Wave, Bogdan Bacanu, although the fact that the Dual Monarchy ended in 1918 suggests that the cultural link was perhaps not so strong. It could be argued that the same applied to this concert, where, I suggest, there were several cultural clashes. The catalyst for this concert was a similar combined event in 2019, also in Milton Court.

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Baroquestock. King Arthur

~ Andrew Benson-Wilson

Baroquestock Festival
Purcell: King Arthur
Istante Collective, Matthew Brown, Natalie Coury
Heath Street Baptist Church, Hampstead. 10 May 2016

Under the title of “Possible Planets, Musical Spheres”, the latest annual Baroquestock Festival has been bringing the crowds into Hampstead’s homely Heath Street Baptist Church, notably for two performances of Purcell’s King Arthur. The original was first performed in May 1691 in the form of the very English Restoration genre of semi-opera, combining a spoken play with a series of musical masques at intervals during the play, reflecting aspects of the play, but usually without any of the principal roles of the play. Although it is usually performed just as a musical suite, this innovative production included enough elements of the spoken text and action to get a feel of a 17th century performance, aided by some impressive acting from the five singers, and real acting and narration from Christopher Hunter and dance from Tamra Hinson.

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MOURN: Figure, Alkanna Graeca

~ Andrew Benson-Wilson

MOURN
Figure, Alkanna Graeca
Frederick Waxman, Alexandra Achillea
Stone Nest. 17 April 2026

Event promotional photo: “Nyx (the night),” 2019 by Ioanna Sakellaraki

Stone Nest is not a typical early classical music venue, and this wasn’t a typical early classical music concert. A former Welsh Presbyterian church, since 1982 it has been a nightclub, a pub, a squat, and, since 2012, a new (work in progress) home for performing arts in central London. The smoke-filled space prevented me from appreciating the architecture of the internal space, but gave a clue as to the nature of the performance to come. That was a joint production between Frederick Waxman’s “forward-thinking” historical performance ensemble, Figure, who are “committed to reaching new and existing audiences through immersive musical experiences”, and the three singers of Alkanna Graeca, specialists in polyphonic music from the Balkans, the Mediterranean, and the Black Sea, blending “raw folk traditions with soundscapes and improvised sounds”. Their programme brought together these seemingly disparate strands in an extraordinary musical-theatrical exploration of the experience of loss, imaginatively staged by Alkanna Graeca’s Alexandra Achillea‍ and Konstantina-Maria Spyropoulou‍, with musical direction by Frederick Waxman.

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AAM: The Chosen One

~ Andrew Benson-Wilson


‘The Chosen One’
Academy of Ancient Music, Laurence Cummings
Rowan Pierce, Helen Charlston, Nick Pritchard, Ben Kazez
Milton Court. 16 April 2026

Christoph Graupner: Lobet den Herrn, alle Heiden
Christian Friedrich Rolle: Es wurden aber auch and Verdammliche Bosheit
Georg Friedrich Kauffmann: O ich elender Mensch, wer wird mich erlösen?
Georg Philipp Telemann: Ich muß auf dem Bergen weinen und heulen
Johann Friedrich Fasch: Concerto for Flute and Oboe
Johann Sebastian Bach: Du Wahrer Gott und Davids Sohn

The story behind Bach’s eventual 1723 appointment as Leipzig Thomaskantor is well known, but the details of the appointment process are perhaps less so. This programme aimed to shed a closer light on the appointment process by playing the music that some of the candidates performed during their audition. The post of Thomaskantor consisted of far more than the title implies – its official title was Cantor et Director Musices, which better describes the twin roles. As Cantor, he was responsible for directing the music in Leipzig’s four Lutheran churches: the Thomaskirche, Nikolaikirche, Neue Kirche, and Peterskirche. He also had important responsibilities at the Thomasschule, including selecting pupils, and teaching music and Latin. As the Director Musices, he was the principal musician of Leipzig, with civic responsibilities for providing music for official occasions, together with music for the university, usually at the Paulinerkirche. He reported to the city council, the Thomasschule rector, and the Thomaskirche superintendent, but it was the former who ran the auditions and made the decisions on the appointment. 

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Vox Luminis: Johann Sebastiani & Agostino Steffani. Music for the Passion

~ Andrew Benson-Wilson

Johann Sebastiani & Agostino Steffani. Music for the Passion
Vox Luminis, Lionel Meunier
Jacob Lawrence, Sönke Tams Freier, Tessa Roos
Wigmore Hall, 1 April 2026

Johann Sebastiani (1622-1683): Das Leyden und Sterben unsers Herrn und Heylandes Jesu Christi nach dem heiligen Matthaeo
Agostino Steffani (1654-1728): Stabat mater

The adventurous Belgian early music ensemble, Vox Luminis, directed by Lionel Meunier, brought their enchanting programme of music for Holy Week to the Wigmore Hall, focusing on music for Passiontide by two little-known composers active in Germany in the mid-17th and early 18th centuries, one Calvanist, the other Catholic. The key work was Johann Sebastiani’s Das Leyden und Sterben unsers Herrn und Heylandes Jesu Christi nach dem heiligen Matthaeo a Matthew Passion in all but name. Sebastiani was born in Weimar and may well have studied in Italy. In 1661 he became Kantor at Königsberg (now Kaliningrad) Cathedral and later Court Kapellmeister to the Elector of Brandenburg. Königsberg was part of the Hohenzollern’s Duchy of Prussia. When Sebastiani arrived, Frederick William (the “Great Elector” of Brandenburg) had just taken full control over the duchy, bringing with him the Calvinism that presumably dates back to his early years in the Netherlands during the Thirty Years’ War.

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AAM. Gambarini: English Impresaria

~ Andrew Benson-Wilson

Gambarini: English Impresaria
Academy of Ancient Music, Bojan Čičić, Mhairi Lawson
Milton Court. 15 March 2026

Handel: Judas Maccabaeus: Overture; Pious orgies; Come, ever-smiling liberty; March. Occasional Oratorio: O liberty. Joseph and his Brethren: Prophetic raptures

Gambarini (arr. Rachel Stroud): Orchestrated music from Op. 1;
Behold and Listen; Se mai fosse la mia forte; Minuet in A major

Geminiani: Concerto Grosso Op.7 No. 6

Tessarini: Ouverture in D major, Op. 4 La Stravaganza; Violin Concerto, Op. 1 No. 7

The search for little-known female composers has been the focus of many concerts in recent years, and Elisabetta de Gambarini (1731- 1765) deserves discovery, helped by this concert from the Academy of Ancient Music put together by the AAM’s resident Research Fellow. She was prominent in 18th-century England as a composer, singer, and harpsichordist. Her career started aged just 16 when she sang in Handel’s Occasional Oratorio. That clearly went well, because Handel then selected her for Judas Maccabaeus (as the Israelite Woman) and Joseph and his Brethren and, seemingly, also for Samson and Messiah.

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OAE. Mozart’s World: The Last Symphonies

~ Andrew Benson-Wilson

Mozart’s World: The Last Symphonies (1788)
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Robin Ticciati
The Anvil, Basingstoke. 25 February 2026

The final few years of a composer’s life can often be a time of reflection, a re-evaluing of a lifetime’s work and, often, a burst of new compositions or revision of earlier works. However, with Mozart, it appears that his final years were not as well-planned. Did he realise that the 1788 Symphonies 39, 40 and 41 would be his last? How would we view them if they turned out to be the culmination of what might be called Mozart’s “middle period”? Would they have achieved the status they now have?

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Solomon’s Knot: George Jeffreys

~ Andrew Benson-Wilson

Solomon’s Knot
George Jeffreys & the Birth of the English Baroque
Jonathan Sells, William Whitehead, Federay Holmes
Wigmore Hall, 24 February 2026

George Jeffreys: Lost Majesty – Sacred Songs & Anthems
Prospero Classical. PROSP0086. 2CDs, 46’53 & 39’08

George Jeffreys (c1610-1685) was, in 1643, very briefly organist to Charles I during his time at Oxford during England’s Civil War, presumably based in Christ Church where Charles was living. That, as far as the public record of this mysterious composer is concerned, would seem to be the pinnacle of his musical career. Other records of his life only refer to his time as steward to the Hattons of Kirby, with responsibility for running the Kirby Hall estate while Christopher Hatton (Lord Hatton) was busy acting as comptroller of the royal household to Charles I before moving to France during the Commonwealth and, after the Restoration, becoming a rather unsuccesfull governor of Guernsey, as was his son, Viscount Hatton. In the meantime, George Jeffreys combined his estate management duties at Kirby with absorbing and copying what was then the largest collection of Italian music in the country, helpfully housed in Hatton’s library at Kirby.

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Academy of Ancient Music: Songs of Love & War

~ Andrew Benson-Wilson

Songs of Love & War
Academy of Ancient Music
Laurence Cummings, Ed Lyon, Anna Dennis
Milton Court, 12 February 2026


In a programme that has its roots in the first interaction between a post-grad singing student (tenor, Ed Lyon) and his tutor at the Royal Academy of Music (Laurence Cummings), the Academy of Ancient Music (AAM) presented a programme of Monteverdi’s 1738 Eighth book of madrigals, Madrigali guerrieri et amorosi (Madrigals of Love and War). Lyon had asked to do Monteverdi’s Eighth Book, a request that Cummings wasn’t able to fulfil – until now. Further musical links between Cummings and Lyon also involved soprano Anna Dennis, making for a wonderful vocal pairing for this inspiring concert.

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The Mozartists:Mozart Birthday Concert

~ Andrew Benson-Wilson

Mozart Birthday Concert
The Mozartists, Ian Page
Zheng Jiang, Alexander Semple
Cadogan Hall. 27 Januarys 2026


Mozart: Entr’acte from Incidental Music to Thamos, König in Ägypten, K.345
Mozart Concert Aria, “Ombra felice… Io ti lascio”, K.255
Haydn: Symphony No. 69 in C major, ‘Laudon’
Mozart: Two Entr’actes from Incidental Music to Thamos, König in Ägypten, K.345
Haydn: Three arias from Die Feuersbrunst
Mozart: Symphony from Serenade in D major, K.250, ‘Haffner’

The Mozartists‘ continued their ambitious MOZART 250 project, now entering its 12th year, with a 270th birthday concert featuring music composed during 1776. On his 20th birthday, Mozart was in Salzburg, as he would be for the whole of 1776, for the first time since he was five. By his standards, it was to prove a relatively quiet year, although it is worth remembering that he had by then already composed more than thirty symphonies, around half of his operas and all of his violin concertos! It does seem as though 1776 represented a valuable stage in his artistic development, with one writer commenting (in reference to the Haffner serenade that concluded this concert), “1776 sees the full blossoming of his rarest gifts of music and poetry.”

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OAE. Mozart’s World: A Little Night Music

~ Andrew Benson-Wilson

Mozart’s World: A Little Night Music
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Kati Debretzeni, director, Katherine Spencer, clarinet
The Anvil, Basingstoke. 20 January 2026

Kati Debretzeni

Juan Crisóstomo de Arriaga:  Overture in F minor Op. 1 (1817)
Mozart:  Clarinet concerto
Michael Haydn:  Divertimento in G (1780)
Mozart:  Eine kleine Nachtmusik

The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment is opening its 40th anniversary year with a short tour of a fascinating programme that, in inevitable OAE style, merges well-known pieces with little-known gems. They started their tour in the excellent acoustic of Basingstoke’s Anvil concert hall, a space that, although large, coped with the modest chamber-sized band with an appropriate intimacy. The three composers were linked by time, birthdays and friendship. Two of Mozart’s best-known pieces were balanced by music from his friend Michael Haydn and the extensively monikered Basque composer, Juan Crisóstomo Jacobo Antonio de Arriaga y Balzola, born in Bilbao 50 years to the day after Mozart. He was known as the ‘Spanish Mozart’ in honour of his prodigious talent, the birthdate link, and his tragically early death, just before his 20th birthday. Another link, which the concert organisers may not have noticed, is that both Arriaga and Mozart shared the same first two baptismal names (based on their birthdays being the feast of St. John Chrysostom, although Mozart’s first names of Joannes Chrysostomus didn’t last much beyond baptism.

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The Gesualdo Six: Death of Gesualdo

~ Andrew Benson-Wilson

Death of Gesualdo
The Gesualdo Six, Owain Park, Concert Theatre Works, Bill Barclay
St Martin in the Fields, 16 January 2026


Billed as a “theatrical concert”, this follow-up to the 2023 Secret Byrd (reviewed here) featured The Gesualdo Six (director Owain Park) again pairing with Concert Theatre Works for a staged reflection on the life (and death) of the extraordinary madrigal composer, Carlo Gesualdo (1566-1613). Co-commissioned by St Martin-in-the-Fields to mark its 300th anniversary, The National Centre for Early Music in York and Music Before 1800 in New York City, this was the first performance before a short tour to York (Sunday 18 and Monday 19 January and New York’s St. John the Divine (Friday 13 February 2026. It was described as a “Stations of the Cross” for the composer’s tortured conscience, and sought to show “how the life and music of this enigmatic prodigy function”.

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Bach: Christmas Oratorio

~ Andrew Benson-Wilson

Bach Christmas Oratorio
The Hanover Band and Chorus, Andrew Arthur
Philippa Hyde, Tim Morgan, Bradley Smith, Edward Grint
Kings Place, 22 December 2025

Bach’s Christmas Oratorio (Weihnachtsoratorium, BWV 248) is a collection of six cantatas performed in Leipzig on six separate occasions over the 1734 Christmas period. Each cantata was performed twice, in the Thomaskirche and the Nikolaikirche. They were performed on December 25th, 26th, and 27th, New Year’s Day, the first Sunday in the New Year, and finally Epiphany (6 January), covering the complete Lutheran Christmas season. Despite the separate nature of the performance schedule, it seems clear from the autograph title page that Bach saw the six cantatas as a unified whole. There is a logical sequence of keys, moving from D major, G, D, F, A and back to D, and the first and last cantatas are connected by Bach reuse of the chorale melody of Part I’s Wie soll ich dich empfangen for the last chorus of Part VI, Nun seid ihr wohl gerochen. That choral melody is the same as the Passion Choral in the St Matthew Passion. The different instrumentation would have made it difficult for Bach to have performed them all as a continuous whole, as is usually done nowadays in concert performances. On this occasion, as is usually the case, the 4th cantata, for New Year’s Day (the circumcision and naming of Jesus), was omitted.

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Medieval Carols by Candlelight

~ Andrew Benson-Wilson

Medieval Carols by Candlelight
Angela Hicks
Patricia Hammond, May Robertson, Louise Anna Duggan, Jean Kelly
St Giles Camberwell, 11 December 2025


The vast church of St Giles Camberwell was packed with an enthusiastic audience for a magical concert of Medieval Carols by Candlelight given as part of a UK-wide tour arranged and directed by singer Angela Hicks with Patricia Hammond, voice, May Robertson, fiddle and voice, Jean Kelly, harp, and Louise Anna Duggan, percussion, all playing under the banner of Ancient Music Promotions. Their wide-ranging choice of music covered most of the genres of medieval music, ranging from the 12th-century mystic Hildegard von Bingen to the mid-17th-century, together with the music for a 15th-century poem set to music specially for this tour by the group’s percussionist, Louise Anna Duggan.

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AAM: Messiah

~ Andrew Benson-Wilson

Handel: Messiah
Academy of Ancient Music, Lawrence Cummings
Nardus Williams, Reginald Mobley, Thomas Walker, Ashley Riches
Barbican Hall, 15 December 2025


The Academy of Ancient Music (AAM) has a long and distinguished history with Handel’s Messiah, not least in being one of the first period instrument orchestras to record the piece in anything like the form, and with the soundworld of the original performance. After a stunning Messiah performance last year in the same Barbican venue, they returned for another sell-out performance with a new line of soloists Nardus Williams, Reginald Mobley, Thomas Walker, and Ashley Riches. I was impressed with all four of the coloists, although I did find the vibrato of the soprano a little disturbing, not least because the persistent pulse interfered with semiquaver runs. But, as with her colleagues, she expressed the words clearly and with meaning. The 18-strong choir similarly impressed, again with very clear diction and impressive consort. All four soloists excelled in adding historically appropriate ornaments and embellishments to the musical text. Of course, Messiah has no recognisable characters, as would be the case in an opera, so each recitative, accompagnato, and aria is a projection of the words, an essential component of Laurence Cummings’ interpretation, which he describes as a ‘Theatre of the Mind’.

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Un niño nos es naçido – An Iberian Christmas

~ Andrew Benson-Wilson

Un niño nos es naçido – An Iberian Christmas
The Renaissance Singers, David Allinson
St Sepulchre-without-Newgate (Holy Sepulchre), 13 December 2025


J.G de Padilla Christus Natus Est
C. de Morales Sancta et immaculata virginitas
F. Guerrero Missa Sancta et immaculata
C. de Morales Ave Maria, gratia plena

T.L. de Victoria Ecce Dominus veniet
R. de Ceballos O Virgo Benedicta
A. de Silva Alma redemptoris Mater
P. Ruimonte Luna que reluces
F. Guerrero Al resplandor de una estrella; Niño Dios d’amor herido; Alma mirad vuestro Dios
Diego José de Salazar ¡Salga el torillo hosquillo!

This imaginative programme from the always excellent Renaissance Singers aimed “to dispel the cynicism of modern Christmastide with a mixture of superb motets, mass music and villancicos drawn from the Spanish golden age”. Most of the music was based on musicians of Seville’s Cathedral, Santa Maria de la Sede, notably the composer Cristóbal de Morales and his pupil Francisco Guerrero, whose Missa Sancta et immaculata was the focus of the first half of the concert.

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HGO: Monteverdi – Poppea

~ Andrew Benson-Wilson

Monteverdi: Poppea
HGO, Seb Gillot, Ashley Pearson
Jacksons Lane. 15 November 2025


Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea explores themes of power, ambition, greed, intrigue, toxic relationships, vengeance, moral decadence and, viewed with modern eyes: mental health. Busenello’s libretto adopted a relaxed approach to historical facts in a manner that would likely result in several lawsuits if the protagonists were still alive to launch them. The events of seven years are compressed into a single day’s action and the characters are adapted to suit the plot. which, shorn of direct historical relevance, allows a focus on the characters and their interaction with each other. Much about the opera is conjecture, including how much of it was actually composed by Monteverdi. It was his last opera, and was first performed in Venice shortly before his death in November 1643. A revival in Naples in 1651 was the last known performance until the late 19th century. It is now considered as one of the most important 17th-century operas. Following HGO’s well-reviewed 2017 production, this was a new staging, directed by Ashley Pearson with musical direction from Seb Gillot.

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London International Festival of Early Music

~ Andrew Benson-Wilson

London International Festival of Early Music
Double Book Launch, Dorothee Oberlinger & Peter Kofler
Blackheath Halls. 13 November 2025


What is now the London International Festival of Early Music has been through several incarnations since its inception in 1973. Originally housed at the Royal College of Music, it moved to the Royal Horticultural Halls and then to the sumpuous surroundings of the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich as the Royal Greenwich International Early Music, which then moved to Blackheath Halls, eventually changing to the current name. Run by the Early Music Shop, the main focus is on the three-day exhibition of instrument makers, retailers, publishers, record companies, early music forums, the National Early Music Association and other related societies, which combine with concerts of various types. Every other year, it hosts a solo recorder competition.

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London Festival of Baroque Music

~ Andrew Benson-Wilson

“Immortal Harmony”
London Festival of Baroque Music
Arcangelo, Spiritato, Les Demoiselles Couperin,
Choir of New College Oxford, Ensemble Marguerite Louse Versailes,
Smith Square Hall, 1, 7 & 8 November 2025

The London Festival of Baroque Music was founded in 1984 as the Lufthansa Festival of Baroque Music by conductor Ivor Bolton and musicologist Tess Knighton, its Artistic Director until 1997. Kate Bolton was Artistic Director from 1997 to 2007, succeeded by Lindsay Kemp. The first concerts took place at St James’s, Piccadilly, before settling into the fine Baroque church of St John’s, Smith Square, now renamed variously as Smith Square Hall or Sinfonia Smith Square. This year’s festival was given the overall title of “Immortal Harmony”. I attended the first and final three concerts, featuring Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos, Bach’s Leipzig legacy, vocal music by Couperin, and ceremonial music by Purcell, Lalande, and Charpentier.

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Gabrieli: Purcell – Fairy Queen

~ Andrew Benson-Wilson

Purcell: The Fairy Queen
Gabrieli Consort & Players, Paul McCreesh
St Martin-in-the-Fields. 7 November 2025

The Fairy Queen is one of Gabrieli’s calling cards, with many performances over the years. I last reviewed them in 2018 at St John’s, Smith Square, shortly before they recorded it (SIGCD615). Several of the singers and players from that recording remain for their latest London performance in St Martin-in-the-Fields.

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Mozartists: Mullova plays Mozart

~ Andrew Benson-Wilson

Mullova plays Mozart
Mozart 250: 1775
The Mozartists
Viktoria Mullova, Ian Page
Cadogan Hall. 4 November 2025


Haydn: Symphony No. 68 in B flat major
Mozart: Violin Concerto No.3 in G major, K.216
CPE Bach: Symphony in D major, Wq.183/1
Mozart: Violin Concerto No.4 in D major, K.218

The Mozartists‘ enterprising MOZART 250 project has reached its 10th anniversary, with concerts this season focusing on the year 1775, when Mozart turned 19. The project started in 2015 on the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s childhood visit to London and follows Mozart’s musical life and that of his contemporaries year by year until the 250th anniversary of his death in 2041. It has been described as a “journey of a lifetime”, and will probably outlive many members of current classical music concert audiences. Following their Wigmore Hall concert in June (reviewed here), when Rachel Podger played two (2 & 5) of Mozart’s five violin concertos, this concert in the larger Cadogan Hall featured the other two concertos composed during 1775 (3 & 4) performed by Viktoria Mullova, making her debut with The Mozartists.

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