theartsdesk in Kraków - Easter music with a British focus

THEARTSDESK IN KRAKOW Dowland in a salt mine and Edinburgh's Dunedin Consort in residence

Edinburgh’s Dunedin Consort in residence at one of Poland’s flagship music festivals

Held annually every Holy Week, Kraków’s Misteria Paschalia is one of the continent’s most vibrant early music festivals. With an increasing focus on international collaborations, the 2018 edition welcomed Edinburgh’s Dunedin Consort as artists in residence, and their director, Professor John Butt, as Resident Artistic Director.

Sonoro, Ferris, St Botolph-without-Bishopsgate review - intriguingly programmed launch concert

★★★★ SONORO, FERRIS, ST BOTOLPH-WITHOUT-BISHOPSGATE New choir on the block delivers the promised passion and polyphony

New choir on the block delivers the promised passion and polyphony

Launched into an already crowded choral scene in 2016, the professional choir Sonoro has marked its second birthday with the release of a debut CD. Last night was the launch concert, featuring items selected from the disc. On the evidence of both CD and concert Sonoro is a very welcome new addition to the roster of excellent London choirs, with its own distinct sound and ethos.

Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Milton Court review - Arvo Pärt plus

★★★★ ESTONIAN PHILHARMONIC CHAMBER CHOIR, MILTON COURT REVIEW Arvo Pärt plus

Startling masterpieces by Jonathan Harvey and Veljo Tormis follow a familiar first half

Make Arvo Pärt the bulwark of any concert and you can surprise as well as delight the full house he’s likely to win you with the rest of your chosen programme. This was a beautifully planned showcase for the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir under its Latvian conductor Kaspars Putniņš, poised between the introspective and the extrovert both within the all-Pärt first half and what followed after the interval, where Estonian composers no less precious than Pärt to their compatriots framed the late Jonathan Harvey’s mesmerising seraphics.

Bach Cantatas - not just for Christmas

BACH'S CANTATAS Plan a year of listening to the greatest music known to man

Plan a year of listening to the greatest music known to man

Faced with yet another new work premiered by the Borodin Quartet, Shostakovich asked a daunting question: "but have you played all of Haydn's quartets yet?". Of course they hadn't, and felt justly rebuked.

Coates, Tenebrae, Short, Kings Place review - effective meeting of cello and choir

★★★★ COATES, TENEBRAE, SHORT, KINGS PLACE Effective meeting of cello and choir

Delightful programme of old and new music is a refreshing Christmas treat

This time of year lots of choirs give lots of Christmas concerts that are more or less the same: traditional repertoire perhaps sprinkled with a few novelties. But Tenebrae’s concert on Saturday at Kings Place broke the mould with some imaginative programming, giving us just enough Christmas but no more, and some quite stunning choral singing.

Prom 46 review: Gurrelieder, LSO, Rattle - gorgeous colours, halting movement in Schoenberg's monsterpiece

★★★★ PROM 46: GURRELIEDER, LSO, RATTLE Karen Cargill and Thomas Quasthoff provide the tingle quotient in a Proms spectacular

Karen Cargill and Thomas Quasthoff provide the tingle quotient in a Proms spectacular

From sunset to sunrise, across aeons of time, usually flashes by in Schoenberg's polystylistic epic. Not last night at the Proms: Simon Rattle is too much in love with the sounds he can get from the London Symphony Orchestra - here verging on a Berlin beauty - to think of moving forward the doomed love of Danish King Waldemar and the beautiful Tovelille.

Proms 37 / 38 review: Latvian Radio Choir, Gavrylyuk, BBCSSO, Dausgaard - numinous Rachmaninov triptych

★★★★ PROM 37 / 38: LATVIAN RADIO CHOIR, GAVRYLYUK, BBCSSO, DAUSGAARD Symphony, concerto, chants and Vespers combine for a vintage night at Royal Albert Hall

Symphony, concerto, chants and Vespers combine for a vintage night at Royal Albert Hall

So it was Rachmaninov night at the Proms, but with a difference: a trinity of works sacred and profane, the first two introduced by the Latvian choir due to perform the third singing harmonised Russian Orthodox chants of the kind on which the composer based so many of his supposedly late-romantic inspirations. That was bound to enliven a bog-standard programme of the Third Piano Concerto and the Second Symphony.