Rossini’s Petite messe solennelle
Monteverdi Choir, Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, Jakob Lehmann,
Robyn Allegra Parton, Natalie Lewis, Petr Nekoranec, Bogdan Talos
Alexandra Palace Theatre, 18 October 2026

This event was a musical revelation! Billed as “the first performance in modern times on period instruments” of the orchestrated version of Rossini’s Petite messe solennelle, this concert made it abundantly clear why it is so important to hear music played with the sound that the composer and early audiences would have heard. On this occasion, it was the orchestral forces of the appropriately named Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique with the Monteverdi Choir, brilliantly led by the very knowledgeable conductor Jakob Lehmann who had very obviously done a lot of research into the score and the musical background and performing conventions of the time. The venue was the enormous theatre in the Alexandra Palace complex with a surprisingly good acoustic for these musical forces, all enlivened by the sparse remains of some delightful wall decorations, all in a state of arrested decay.

Continue reading →