Classical

Preview St Peter's Singers perform Bach's Mass In B Minor

The Leeds Parish Church-based chamber choir bring a baroque masterpiece to Halifax Minster on 3rd March

Bach’s B Minor Mass is one of the supreme masterpieces of the Baroque, indeed of any, era. Despite this, its exact purpose remains a monumental mystery. During his last decade, the composer had written the great works that would be his instrumental legacy: the Goldberg Variations (1741), The Art of Fugue (1742) and the Musical Offering (1747). To finish this sequence with a full setting of the High Mass, to be sung in Latin in the Catholic manner, seems perplexing. The composer, of course, was Protestant, and was employed from 1723 by church and town in Leipzig, a major centre…

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News Wolfgang Manz Take up the Role of Visiting Professor at Leeds College of Music

Internationally acclaimed German pianist will be leading students at the Leeds college

Wolfgang Manz, an internationally acclaimed German pianist, officially took up the position of visiting professor at Leeds College of Music last week. The college is first education institution in the UK to welcome a world renowned pianist in an official teaching capacity, and Manz began his tenure in style with an exclusive recital of works by Beethoven and Liszt on the College of Music’s new Steinway Model D Concert Grand.

The recital on 20th November honoured the college’s recently acquired status as an All-Steinway School – the only English conservatoire to hold such a title. Earlier this year Manz’s…

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Interview Adrian McNally, The Unthanks

The songwriter and pianist from the North Eastern folk 10-piece tells us about their collaboration with Brighouse and Rastrick Brass Band that's coming to Leeds Town Hall on 15th September

"I think that in some respects we are one of the most traditional acts in folk music," says Adrian McNally, "and in other respects we’re one of the most sonically adventurous." It’s hard to argue with his claim.

The Unthanks – based up in the North East and previously known as Rachel Unthanks & The Winterset – have over the course of four albums expanded from a five-piece traditional folk act into a 10-piece mini orchestra, included clog dancing as percussion on their records, covered acts as diverse as Robert Wyatt, Antony & The Johnsons and Nick Drake and rooted…

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Feature Opera North & Yorkshire Sculpture Park Launch New Partnership

Two of Yorkshire’s leading national arts organisations join forces for their Four Seasons project

Four Seasons sees Opera North and the Yorkshire Sculpture Park collaborate on a series of four chamber concerts to celebrate each of the four seasons.

The opening concert was held on 9^th April at the Chapel at YSP, a Georgian Grade-II listed building recently re-opened as a unique performance and exhibition space. There, a quartet performed music by Italian baroque composer Antonio Vivaldi and Argentinean tango composer Piazzolla, who both wrote compositions on the four seasons, as well as Austrian composer Franz Schubert and 20th century composer Charles Ives. The one-off 80-minute performance featured highly acclaimed cellist Matthew Sharp and…

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Review Leeds Festival Chorus & Northern Sinfonia

Tom Goodhand watches a magnificent performance of two works by Mozart at Leeds Town Hall

For most people of my generation, classical music just isn’t something we do. It’s what your parents, and maybe your gran, listen to. However, the preconceptions that surround the music do nothing to reflect the sheer variety of styles lumped under the ‘classical’ banner, or the magnificence of actually sitting back and watching quality ensembles perform some of the greatest works of music ever written.

We visited the wonderfully ornate Leeds Town Hall to see Leeds Festival Chorus and the Northern Sinfonia perform two works by Mozart – Symphony No 40 and Great Mass in C minor. The audience lives…

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Review Kate Royal and Malcolm Martineau – A Lesson In Love

Multi-award winning soprano comes to Howard Assembly Room with a tragic romance

Since graduating from the National Opera Studio in 2004, Kate Royal has gone on to receive a clutch of awards including the Kathleen Ferrier Award in 2004 and the Royal Philharmonic Young Artist Award in 2007 – and it is easy to see why she is so highly rated.

Since graduating, Royal has performed with Glyndebourne Festival Opera, the Royal Opera, ENO, the Paris Opera and at the New York Met. Royal first came to wider attention when she understudied and played the role of Pamina in Glyndebourne’s 2004 production of Die Zauberflöte to critical acclaim,…

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Review Angelika Kirchschlager Recital

The internationally renowned mezzo-soprano makes her debut performance in Leeds and a very rare appearance in Britain outside of London

Austrian singer Angelika Kirchschlager, often billed as one of the greatest mezzo-sopranos of her generation, made her début Leeds performance last week at Opera North’s Howard Assembly Room. It is further proof of the venue’s increasing status within the touring circuit that it has managed to attract such a highly regarded artist.

She is renowned for her interpretations of the operas of Mozart and Strauss and gave an excellent performance as Hansel in Humperdinck’s Hansel und Gretel at the Royal Opera House a couple of years ago. For this Lieder recital, she chose a selection of songs (described in the…

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Review The Endellion String Quartet

Tom Goodhand is moved by this well-respected quartet

The Endellion String Quartet are widely regarded as one of the finest string quartets in Britain. Formed back in 1979, they have regularly toured around the globe, worked with the BBC, won the Royal Philharmonic Society Award for Best Chamber Ensemble and also talke plaudits from the likes of the Daily Telegraph and the Guardian.

The quartet have been visiting Leeds as part of Leeds International Concert Season and playing a series of performances for a number of years now. Their dates in Leeds are regularly sold out, with many opting to book for all four of their dates and…

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Review The Hebrides Ensemble – Les Jongleurs de Notre Dame

A rare chance to see a performance of Peter Maxwell Davies’ 1978 musical comedy at the Howard Assembly Room

The short first half of a night featuring the compositions of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies began with his sombre arrangement of Bach’s ‘Prelude and Fugue in C# Minor‘. Featuring the harpsichord, violin, cello, flute, clarinet and marimba it was ably performed and featured a different set up than normally heard for this piece. The first half continued with seven short Renaissance Scottish dances set to much livelier music – it is also the first time I’ve ever seen anyone play a set of keys as an instrument!

The second half of the concert was a performance of Le Jongleurs De…

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Review Mark Padmore – Dichterliebe

The highly acclaimed tenor and lieder singer makes a very rare appearance in the wonderfully intimate Howard Assembly Room

We were quite excited about this concert and had been looking forward to it for quite some time. It is a tribute to just how well the Assembly Room has done in the relatively short time since it has opened that it can attract a world class artist like Mark Padmore – a performer who, without doubt, would never have come to Leeds to perform a solo recital if it wasn’t for this fantastic venue.

Mark Padmore was joined by pianist Simon Lepper in this almost entirely Schumann programme. Padmore began the concert by introducing the programme and explaining a…

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