Recordings
Our headline story this month features an album of German song made by a trio of Samling Artists. Soprano Rowan Pierce, baritone Julien van Mellaerts and pianist Lucy Colquhoun appear together on ‘Songs of the Night’, exploring different aspects of night as seen by the great German poets and Lieder composers. The album is Lucy’s debut recital disc and includes songs by Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, Clara Schumann, Felix Mendelssohn, Richard Strauss and Hugo Wolf. It was included in pianist Tom Poster’s pick of new releases on Radio 3 Record Review on Saturday 23 September, with Wolf’s ‘Der Tambour’ and Strauss’s ‘Rote Rosen’ featuring on the programme.
Photo: Julien, Lucy and Rowan recording ‘Songs of the Night’. Photo credit: Patrick Allen.
Pianist Lana Bode has a new album with soprano Samantha Crawford. dream.risk.sing: elevating women’s voices tells unheard stories about womanhood, through women’s own words and music, reminding listeners of the constraints that still exist in many women’s lives. As part of the project, Lana and Samantha commissioned a new song cycle from Charlotte Bray and new arrangements of two songs from Judith Weir’s cycle woman.life.song.
William Vann conducts the London Mozart Players in the first ever recording of Hubert Parry’s secular choral work Scene’s from Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound, with soloists including David Butt Philip. The album is Gramophone Magazine’s Recording of the Month for October, and William discusses the work in a podcast with Gramophone editor Martin Cullingford.
gramophone.co.uk/podcasts
chandos.net/products
In another premiere recording, Claire Barnett-Jones and Morgan Pearse appear in Ethel Smyth’s Der Wald with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and BBC Singers conducted by John Andrews.
resonusclassics.com
House and Role debuts
Carolyn Dobbin writes to tell us that this season she makes house and role debuts at Wexford Festival Opera, singing La Marquise de Berkenfeld in La fille du régiment and Lene in a new orchestration of La ciociara by Marco Tutino. She will also give a lunchtime recital of her Northern Irish song project.
www.wexfordopera.com/
Filipe Manu makes his debut in a leading role at Glyndebourne as Nemorino L’elisir d’amore in the new autumn season that replaces their previous tour. The season also includes Don Giovanni with Alexandra Lowe (Donna Elvira), Sam Carl (Leporello) and Nico Darmanin (Don Octavio), Haydn’s The Creation with William Thomas and Handel’s Messiah with Benjamin Hulett.
glyndebourne.com/autumn/glyndebournes-autumn-2023-programme-announced/
Filipe will also make his Opéra de Paris and role debut in 2024 as Eduardo in The Exterminating Angel by Thomas Adès, with the cast also including Nicky Spence in his debut as Edmundo de Nobile.
operadeparis.fr
Luis Gomes makes his Finnish debut in a staged version of Verdi’s Requiem with Finnish National Opera and Finnish National Ballet.
oopperabaletti.fi
Natasha Page makes her role debut as Fiordiligi Così fan tutte at the Celebrate Voice festival in Guildford with performances from 20 – 28 October.
celebratevoice.co.uk/cosi-fan-tutte.html
Samling Artists in the North East
Annabel Kennedy and Andri Björn Róbertsson are soloists for Newcastle Bach Choir’s performance of Handel’s Israel in Egypt at King’s Hall on Saturday 25 November, along with former Academy Singer Patrick Owston.
newcastlebachchoir.org.uk
Other news
Congratulations to Miranda Wright who takes up a new role as a vocal professor at the Royal College of Music alongside her work in the North East. Miranda will be joining us again as a Samling Academy leader in October.
Helen Sherman has joined Patrick Togher Artists’ Management, one of the leading management companies in Australia and New Zealand.
patricktogher.com/helen-sherman
Nicky Spence appears alongside other famous names as a sitter in the annual Sky Arts ‘Portrait Artist of the Year’, with broadcasts starting 11 October.
www.skygroup.sky/article
Benjamin Appl presented BBC Radio 3’s Inside Music programme on Saturday 16 September, exploring a wide variety of new and familiar music, sharing his personal experiences of the musicians he collaborates with and talking about how the pieces he has chosen work ‘from the inside’. You can also find out what he listens to when cleaning the house. Listen again until 30 days after the broadcast.
bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001qfp9
