Autumn preview: an accidental music festival
A selection of this autumn’s concerts, including five glorious days of early music from The Sixteen, I Fagiolini and English Touring Opera.
24 Sep 2017
Personal previews about things I’m going to see, or things I’d like to see. For full event listings, please see the what’s on page.
A selection of this autumn’s concerts, including five glorious days of early music from The Sixteen, I Fagiolini and English Touring Opera.
Fresh from the first rehearsal for an exciting new transcription of Walton’s ‘Belshazzar’s Feast”, my preview of DurhamBRASS 2017 focuses on two major concerts for choirs and brass instruments.
Royal Northern Sinfonia with Nicholas McGegan and six Samling Artist soloists bring a Handel oratorio to Durham Cathedral in Holy Week. But it’s not Messiah. I’ve been finding out more about the technicolor glories of Handel’s “Israel in Egypt” .
The first Durham Vocal Festival starts at the end of January with a week of choral music of all shapes and sizes, from the exquisite close harmony of the King’s Singers to a large scale project from Durham Choral Society, and a chance to hear the recently crowned BBC Choir of the Year, North East Voices of Hope.
A run-down of some of the concerts taking place in Durham over the next few months, including one of the world’s greatest early music groups, baroque opera, Messiah, Royal Northern Sinfonia at Ushaw, and a world premiere performed by Orchestra North East.
Durham’s second Festival of the Arts, bringing together the university’s leading musical and theatre groups, begins on 3 June with a gala concert in the Cathedral. I’ve picked out a few of my highlights from the wide-ranging list of musical events on their programme.
Durham has a new orchestra! I’ve been finding out more about Orchestra Cipriani, and the music that they’re playing for their debut concert.
There are always lots of student concerts on at this time of year, after exams are done, and this year they have come together to create the first Durham Festival of Arts. There’s lots going on, and the major music events are previewed here.
If you didn’t manage to get tickets for English Touring Opera’s La Bohème, or if you’re being good and going to choir practice instead, you could give their other Durham production a go – I previewed Donizetti’s The Siege of Calais for NEMM Blog.
Music in Durham brings you classical music listings, previews, reviews and news for Durham, with a bit of random blogging thrown in. The concert listing pages bring together classical music events from across the City and the University, so whether you’re looking for a great concert to go to, or if you’re planning something and want to avoid clashes, this is the place to look.
