Peace concert in Coventry with the English Symphony Orchestra

By Arthur Keegan-Bole, 21 November 2011

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Reviewed at Coventry Cathedral, Coventry on 12 November 2011

Pärt, Da pacem Domine

Mozart, Symphony no. 41 in C major, "Jupiter”, K551

Mozart, Mass no. 18 in C minor "Great", K427 (K417a)

Saint Michael's Singers

English Symphony Orchestra

Helen-Jane Howells, Soprano

Zoë Bonner, Soprano

Joseph Cornwell, Tenor

Roger Barlow, Bass

Paul Leddington Wright, Conductor

English Symphony Orchestra brings transparency to Strauss and Mahler

Simon Cummings, 2nd December

Kenneth Woods directs a compelling, revelatory concert featuring chamber versions of Strauss’ Four Last Songs and Mahler’s Ninth Symphony.

****1

Philip Sawyers' powerful new symphony at SJSS

Gavin Dixon, 28th February

Philip Sawyers’ Third Symphony imposing but tightly argued, and given a compelling first performance by Kenneth Woods and the English Symphony Orchestra.

****1

World première of Joubert's Jane Eyre

Pamela Nash, 25th October

John Joubert's opera setting of Charlotte Brontë's masterpiece received its long-awaited world premiere by the English Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Kenneth Woods, with a luminous central performance by soprano April Fredrick.

*****

No fairies but lots of magic

Jane Shuttleworth, 12th February

A career woman, a femme fatale, a shop girl, an actor, a teacher, an idler, a biker, a priest, a bank clerk and five circus acrobats. These are not the figures that come to mind when we think of Purcell’s Fairy Queen.

****1

More gold than corn: María Dueñas plays Korngold at the Barbican

Mark Pullinger, 22nd May

The young Spanish violinist proves an ardent advocate for a work originally dismissed as a “Hollywood Concerto” as the BBC Symphony Orchestra closes its Barbican season.

****1

The ears have it: Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas on the Cutty Sark

Mark Valencia, 21st May

Come away fellow sailors, your anchors be weighing! All board the Cutty Sark for a semi-staging of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas with the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists.

****1

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Arthur Keegan-Bole

Arthur is a composer currently focusing on opera. His desire to promote contemporary music led him to set up and co-edit The Octogenarian, a light-hearted classical music review pamphlet distributed in Bristol and to curate the annual CMV series of concerts.