Venue of the month
The UK’S best concert halls
26. Holkham Hall
Where: Wells-next-the-sea,
Norfolk
Opened: 1734-64
Seats: c.150
Marble Hall, the magnificently opulent pride and joy of Holkham Hall, isn’t quite what its name suggests – though it undoubtedly looks marbly, it is in fact largely constructed of pink Staffordshire alabaster, a softer, more pliable stone.
It’s an impressive space, surrounded by Ionic columns and boasting a 15m-high gilded ceiling inspired by, respectively, the Temple of Fortuna Virilis and Pantheon in Rome. Dotted around the room are statues of ancient Greek and Roman gods.
On regular occasions, the hall echoes to the sound of songs, sonatas and much besides, as this is where the Holkham Hall chamber music series takes place. Performers to have visited this corner of north Norfolk in 2019 have included the Doric Quartet and mezzo Tara Erraught, while pianist Yevgeny Sudbin and the Chiaroscuro Quartet are on the schedule this year.
Holkham Hall itself is a fine 18th-century pile, originally the home of the First Earl of Leicester and set in a 25,000 acre estate. And, situated near the North Sea coast and several miles away from the nearest large town, it is undoubtedly one of the UK’S most peaceful venues.
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
The Anvil, Basingstoke, 31 October
Tel: +44 (0)1256 844244
Web: www.bsolive.com
Sibelius and John Adams go head-to-head under the baton of Kirill Karabits. Prefaced by Sibelius’s one-movement Symphony No. 7 and the Violin Concerto played by Valeriy Sokolov, City Noir is Adams’s symphonic love letter to 1940s California dreamin’.
EAST
Britten Weekend
The Maltings, Snape,
18-20 October
Tel: +44 (0)1728 687110
Web: www.snapemaltings.co.uk
This year’s ‘Weekend’ celebrates the friendship between Britten, Shostakovich and cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, culminating in a recreation of the 1960 concert that first brought them together. Along the way, Alban Gerhardt plays the Cello Symphony, while Laura van der Heijden tackles Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 1.
Yevgeny Sudbin
Holkham Hall, 19 October
Tel: +44 (0)1328 713111
Web: www.holkham.co.uk
The pianist includes his own transcription of Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Fantasyoverture in a recital bookended by Scriabin and Ravel’s kaleidoscopic Gaspard de la nuit.
MIDLANDS,
NORTH AND WALES Janá ek’s The Cunning Little Vixen
Millennium Centre, Cardiff, from 5 October
Tel: +44 (0)29 2063 6464
Web: www.wno.org.uk
With Jo Davies’s new production of Carmen and Verdi’s Rigoletto safely launched, Welsh National Opera turns to David Pountney’s much-loved staging of Janácˇek’s tale of vixen Sharp-ears’s adventures. Fellow countryman Tomá Hanus has the music in his bones and conducts a cast headed by Aoife Miskelly.
The Hallé
Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, 5 October
Tel: + 44 (0)161 907 9000
Web: www.bridgewater-hall.co.uk The Berlioz anniversary continues to resonate in Manchester as Sir Mark Elder conducts Roméo et Juliette, a ‘symphonie dramatique’ inspired by the composer’s first encounter with a staging of Shakespeare’s tragedy in 1827. Laurent Naori sang Méphistophélès in last season’s La Damnation de Faust and returns with Hallé associate artist, mezzo Alice Coote.
English Touring Opera
Opera House, Buxton,
11,12 October
Tel: +44 (0)1298 72190
Web: www.englishtouringopera.org.uk Having opened at Hackney Empire, English Touring Opera takes to the road with Mozart’s Abduction from the Seraglio and Kurt Weill’s The Silver Lake, a searing study of survival completed just before Weill fled the Nazi’s accession to power.
Brecon Baroque Festival
Brecon, 24-28 October
Tel: +44 (0)1874 611622
Web: breconbaroquefestival.com There are Bohemian rhapsodies aplenty in violinist Rachel Podger’s feast of Baroquerie championing Biber, Muffat and Schmelzer. The In Echo ensemble tracks Habsburg hegemony, while Robert Hollingworth and soloists from I Fagiolini are parachuted in for Zelenka’s Missa Dei Patris.
Ex Cathedra
Town Hall, Birmingham, 27 October
Tel: +44 (0)121 780 3333
Web: www.thsh.co.uk
Bach’s B minor Mass and St John Passion plus Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis are three of the four choral masterworks buttressing the Birmingham choir’s 50thbirthday season. But conductor Jeffrey Skidmore opens with an a cappella flourish: Rachmaninov’s All-night Vigil.
SCOTLAND
AND N IRELAND
Cumnock Tryst
Trinity Church, Cumnock, 3 October
Tel: +44 (0)141 332 5057
Web: www.thecumnocktryst.com There are two premieres to launch The Cumnock Tryst, both spotlighting US composer Michael Murray. The concert introduces Mr Mcfall’s Chamber, the festival’s artists-inresidence, who look to Poland with Penderecki prefacing Bacewicz’s Piano Quintet No. 1.
Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Caird Hall, Dundee, 3 October Tel: +44 (0)1382 434940
Web: www.rsno.org.uk
Vienna’s fin de siècle golden age is one of the new season’s strands dovetailing neatly with Thomas Søndergård’s ongoing Mahler symphony cycle. Here he conducts No. 1, pairing it with Berg’s Seven Early Songs performed by mezzo Karen Cargill. The concert, repeated in Edinburgh and Glasgow, opens with Strauss’s Don Juan.
Ulster Orchestra
Ulster Hall, Belfast, 4 October Tel: +44 (0)28 9033 4455
Web: www.ulsterorchestra.org.uk Elgar’s expansive Symphony No. 2 crowns a programme bathing in the glow of Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder sung by mezzo Christianne Stotijn. Jac van Steen also conducts the Northern Ireland premiere of Howard Skempton’s Lento.