Carolyn Sampson steps in as Cleopatra to save Wigmore season opener

By Mark Pullinger, 08 September 2022

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“Cleopatra’s great ‘Se pietà’ was sung with tremendous dignity... and daringly scaled back dynamics”

Reviewed at Wigmore Hall, London on 8 September 2022

Graun, Cleopatra e Cesare: Sinfonia

Handel, Giulio Cesare in Egitto, HWV 17: Da tempeste

Legrenzi, Antioco il grande: Se tu sarai felice

Handel, Giulio Cesare in Egitto, HWV 17: Overture

Scarlatti, Marc’Antonio e Cleopatra: Antonio, e qual destino ... Vò goder senza contrasto

Vivaldi, Concerto for strings in G minor, RV 156

Vivaldi, Il Tigrane RV 740: Squarciami pure il seno

Hasse, Antonio e Cleopatra: Sinfonia

Scarlatti, Marc’Antonio e Cleopatra: Lascia, Antonio, deh lascia

Hasse, Antonio e Cleopatra: Quel candido armellino

Geminiani, Concerto Grosso in D minor "La Follia", Op.5 no.12

Handel, Giulio Cesare in Egitto, HWV 17: Se pietà di me non senti

Hasse, Antonio e Cleopatra: Morte, col fiero aspetto

Handel, Rinaldo, HWV 7: Lascia ch'io pianga

Carolyn Sampson, Soprano

La Folia Barockorchester

Zsuzsanna Czentnár, Violin, Director

Röstfrisch im Café Central: Theodora am MusikTheater an der Wien

Snapdragon, 23rd October

Stefan Herheim legt Händels Oratorium ins Wiener Café Central – verführerisch wie die Kuchenvitrine.

****1

Gestatten, Polon: Robin Johannsen bei den Arolser Barock-Festspielen

Jens Klier, 29th May

Wie vor Jahrhunderten bleibt es dabei: man feiert gebührlich; neu aber: in Arolsen mit einer Sopranistin, deren Name dank Johannsen und dem La Folia Barockorchester wieder strahlte.

****1

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

From chaos to joy: Haydn’s The Creation in Birmingham

Simon Cummings, 26th February

Kazuki Yamada and the CBSO and Chorus weave Baroque and Romantic allusions into Haydn’s Classical masterpiece, in a superb, at times operatic, performance at Symphony Hall.

*****

Promenading on Golgotha: BCJ perform the St John Passion

Roy Westbrook, 19th August

In its 300th anniversary year, Bach's St John Passion returns to the BBC Proms, with Masaaki Suzuki leading the Bach Collegium Japan.

***11

An outstanding Elijah from SCO and Maxim Emelyanychev

David Smythe, 9th May

An outstanding Elijah from the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Chorus with Maxim Emelyanychev, headed up by Roderick Williams, with Carolyn Sampson, Rowan Pierce, Anna Stéphany and Thomas Walker.

*****

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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.

Carolyn Sampson steps in as Cleopatra to save Wigmore Hall season opener