Rutter conducts Rutter: Colston Hall's Summer Gala Concert

By Alexandra Hamilton-Ayres, 22 June 2015

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Reviewed at Bristol Beacon: Beacon Hall, Bristol on 20 June 2015

Rutter, Mass of the Children

Dove, There was a Child

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

City of Bristol Choir

Exultate Singers

Bristol Schools Chamber Choir

Sir John Rutter, Conductor

David Ogden, Conductor

Toby Spence, Tenor

Erica Eloff, Soprano

Red Maids' School Choir

Bristol Youth Choir

Westbury-on-Trym Parish Choir

Dove and Middleton's Odyssey wins hearts in Bristol

David Karlin, 28th January

The refurbished Beacon stages a world premiere of a large choral work which imbues complete empathy for one migrant and his story.

*****

Exultate Singers celebrate the splendours of Venice

Alexandra Hamilton-Ayres, 29th March

The Exultate choir played alongside His Majesties Sagbutts for an evening of music from St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice, some of which hadn't been heard for over 400 years.

***11

The divine and the worldly: Exultate Singers at St George's Bristol

David Fay, 23rd February

Choral concerts often have programmes that read like compilation CDs. I don’t mean this negatively: there are countless reasons why a greater number of contrasting pieces is required – timbral, textual, temporal, contextual, historical, and so on.

****1

Exultate Singers in Roxanna Panufnik Premières

Paul Kilbey, 19th May

Contemporary religious music can seem to exist in a different world to the rest of contemporary music, and rarely since Messiaen was in his prime has there been much evidence of it as a really progressive wing of composition.

***11

Charting new waters: Flying Dutchman brings Wagner back to Ireland

Andrew Larkin, 23rd March

Ireland’s first Wagner opera in over a decade dazzles with a captivating production by Rachael Hewer for Irish National Opera.

****1

Sir Bryn Terfel anchors The Royal Opera's Holländer revival

Dominic Lowe, 29th February

Terfel's performance as the legendary sailor is stronger than ever and, one or two issues aside, this revival of Tim Albery's production is a compelling account of Wagner's first mature work.

***11

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Alexandra Hamilton-Ayres

Alexandra Hamilton-Ayres is a Bristol-based film composer and classical electronic artist. Alexandra's passion in scoring and as a performer lie in the duality between the classical and electronica worlds, moving picture and her love for the piano. Her music has been described by The White Room Magazine as “majestic, at times monumental…the force and vastness of nature”.