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

Helen Charlston, Rowan Pierce, Nick Pritchard and Ben Kazez with the AAM

Rachel Brown and Leo Duarte with the Academy of Ancient Music

By Nick Boston, 17 April 2026

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“Cummings directed from the harpsichord with clarity and energy”

Reviewed at Guildhall School of Music & Drama: Milton Court Concert Hall, London on 16 April 2026

Graupner, Lobet den Herrn alle Heiden

Rolle, St Luke Passion: Es wurden aber auch

Rolle, St Luke Passion: Verdammliche Bosheit

Kauffmann, O ich elender Mensch, wer wird mich erlösen?

Telemann, Cantata "Ich muß auf dem Berge weinen", TWV 1:851

Fasch, Concerto in B minor for flute and oboe, FaWV L:h1

Bach, Du wahrer Gott und Davids Sohn - Cantata, BWV23

Rowan Pierce, Soprano

Helen Charlston, Mezzo-soprano

Nick Pritchard, Tenor

Ben Kazez, Baritone

Leo Duarte, Oboe

Rachel Brown, Flute

Academy of Ancient Music

Laurence Cummings, Conductor

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

Academy of Ancient Music are inspired in Handel's Orlando

Roy Westbrook, 30th June

“A concert performance with neither scenery nor action would be a sacrilege,” wrote one authority of this opera. Nobody told the Academy of Ancient Music...

****1

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Nick Boston

Nick has an MA in Music, specialising in performance and repertoire. His particular passions are choral music, chamber music and opera, with a particular interest in early music. He sings in a number of choirs in the south east of England, plays the piano and occasionally dusts off the violin. He writes about music here.

Cummings, a team of crack soloists and the AAM win ‘Leipzig's Got Talent’