New Beginnings and a message of hope in London Handel Festival opener

By Mark Pullinger, 24 March 2022

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“the explosion of joy when the young choir burst in was palpable”

Reviewed at St George's, Hanover Square, London on 23 March 2022

Handel, Coronation Anthem no. 1: Zadok the priest, HWV 258

Handel, Organ Concerto in F major "The Cuckoo and the Nightingale", HWV 295

Handel, As pants the hart; Chandos Anthem No. 6, HWV 251b

Handel, Royal Fireworks Music, HWV 351

Clyne, In Thy Beauty

Handel, Concerto Grosso in A major, Op.6 No.11, HWV 329

Handel, Ariodante, HWV33: Dopo notte

Handel, Coronation Anthem no. 2: The King shall rejoice, HWV 260

Anna Starushkevych, Mezzo-soprano

Freya Barker, Soprano

National Youth Choir of Great Britain Chamber Choir

Academy of Ancient Music

Laurence Cummings, Director

Cummings and the AAM win ‘Leipzig's Got Talent’

Nick Boston, 16th April

The Academy of Ancient Music poses the question what might have been in Leipzig with stunning performances of Bach and his competitors to be the new Thomaskantor.

*****

Freudian slip: Handel’s Tamerlano recast as Trumpian tantrums

Mark Pullinger, 26th March

Opha Phelan’s staging presents the action as a grand, Freudian social experiment. It’s a risk – but the production is lifted by outstanding performances from the cast and the Academy of Ancient Music.

***11

Ed Lyon excels in Monteverdi’s Songs of Love and War

Stephen Pritchard, 12th February

Tenor Ed Lyon fulfils a long-held ambition to sing Monteverdi's Eighth Book of Madrigals, conducted by his former teacher, Laurence Cummings at Milton Court.

*****

Strong team for a Good Friday St John Passion

Roy Westbrook, 18th April

The greatest music of the 18th century – no arguments, please – is given a fine reading at London's Barbican.

****1

Academy of Ancient Music delivers a majestic Messiah

Charlotte Gardner, 16th December

Laurence Cummings and the AAM serve up Messiah-shaped serenity at the Barbican.

****1

Actéon and Pygmalion: three transformations for the price of two

Roy Westbrook, 9th October

Ovid’s Metamorphoses makes an ideal curtain-raiser to the Academy of Ancient Music's new season, with works by Charpentier and Rameau conducted by Laurence Cummings... who also sings!

****1

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Mark Pullinger

Mark has been a Bachtrack editor since 2014. He is also an experienced critic, writing hundreds of reviews for the site, as well as a freelancer writing for other magazines and newspapers. He also writes programme notes and blogs on Substack. Mark has a particular passion for the operas of Verdi as well as Russian and French repertoire. Outside the concert hall and opera house, Mark enjoys cooking and travel and is probably at his happiest let loose in a French patisserie or a Viennese coffee house.