Sophie Bevan News
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2024-04-25
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2024-03-26 08:10:00
A radical new look: full line-up for Nevill Holt's 2024 festival
[…] first full-length commission and we are promised a tale of superstition and sacrifice rooted in English folklore, concerning a child, a rabbit, a devil, a druid and their mysterious connection to a celebrated dolmen.Britten Sinfonia will also be giving a concert featuring music by Benjamin Kwasi-Burrell and Sergey Akhunov, plus Max Richter's version of Vivaldi's The Four Seasons, accompanied by David Yarrow photography. There are recitals from pianist Benjamin Grosvenor, tenor Nicky Spence, soprano Mary Bevan & pianist Joseph Middleton, mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly & pianist Imogen Cooper, and pianists Pavel Kolesnikov & Samson Tsoy (including Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring).Alexis Ffrench will be performing music from his latest album, Michael Morpurgo will be reading passages from his novel War Horse with musical accompaniment from Ben Murray, Anton Lesser will read excerpts from Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall with music by Debbie Wiseman played by Katherine Rockhill. Cécile McLorin Salvant and pianist […]
The Boston Musical Intelligencer
2023-12-19 16:22:40
Locke’s List for 2023: Notable Operatic Recordings Plus
[…] “Goose Market” that some of Handel’s first operas were performed. Keiser’s operas have mostly not survived, but Ulysses has, and now it has gotten a spiffy reading. The work is mostly in German, but some of the arias are in Italian, as was common at the time in Germany (and occasionally in France). Handel’s oft-performed Serse (i.e., Xerxes), entirely Italian, is treated this year to a splendid recording that features two utterly marvelous sopranos, Mary Bevan and Lucy Crowe, under the responsive baton of Harry Bicket. Other Baroque operas that proved entertaining and enlightening were L’Idalma by Bernardo Pasquini (best known for his “cuckoo” piece for organ, gloriously orchestrated by Respighi in the Ancient Airs and Dances), Cavalli’s L’Egisto (featuring two remarkable and distinctive tenors: the lighter Zachary Wilder—a favorite of Boston audiences—and the darker Marc Mauillon), Lully’s Psyché (which is full of colorful details, including music for giants hammering […]
2023-12-19 09:41:00
Nevill Holt refocuses as a multi-arts festival for 2024 under guest festival director James Dacre.
[…] Holt Festival in 2024 is being curated by guest festival director James Dacre, artistic director of Northampton's Royal & Derngate Theatres from 2013-2023. There will be a festival opera, Mozart's The Magic Flute [ironically, or deliberately, the first production from Nevill Holt Opera in 2013] created in association with the Britten Sinfonia. Other musical events include performances from mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly and pianist Imogen Cooper, pianists Jeneba Kanneh-Mason, Benjamin Grosvenor, Pavel Kolesnikov & Samson Tsoy. Tenor Nicky Spence, soprano Mary Bevan and pianist Joseph Middleton bring their celebratory Noel Coward programme, the Britten Sinfonia will perform Max Richter's Vivaldi re-write alongside a world premiere, and Cécile McLorin Salvant and Dan Tepfer will premiere A French Affair as an evening of chansons exploring their shared French heritage. In the wider arts, there will be an Anthony Caro exhibition across the Nevill Holt estate alongside an outdoor sculpture collection including work by Antony Gormley, Rachel Whiteread, Allen Jones, Conrad […]
2023-12-17 12:44:34
Bevan/BBCSO/Wigglesworth review – intensely personal and panoramic Magnificat from husband and wife team
Barbican, LondonConducting his own setting, dedicated to wife and soloist Sophie Bevan, Ryan Wigglesworth captured the scale and scope of a text that spans ‘the history and future of humanity’. Bevan was also glorious in a tantalising fragment of MonteverdiSettings of the Magnificat, the Marian hymn taken from Luke’s gospel, are a regular part of the Christian liturgy, but versions intended primarily for the concert hall are much less common. Even the most famous versions, such the two included in
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