Portsmouth Cathedral, 29 October The recording of the Rachmaninov Vespers by Alexander Sveshnikov and the State Academic Russian Choir, from 1965, is described as ‘bone-chilling’ by one reviewer. It isn’t taken from the shelves to be played as much as...
- November 1, 2022
It’s always a capacity crowd, and more, for the CSO’s lunchtime turn. There are more friends and family, of course, than for a soloist but the full orchestra is a rare treat for lunch and they never let you down....
- October 26, 2022
The Rosamunde Trio played Schubert and Tchaikovsky at the Chichester Music Society concert on 18 October at the University of Chichester. This was an evening to remember where the beauty of the music was absolutely matched by the technical expertise...
- October 23, 2022
The Chichester Music Society concert on 4 October was a marvellous presentation of baroque music played by the Continuum Quartet. In fact, the programme was completely about the music of the Bach family, from J S Bach to his sons, W...
- October 21, 2022
Steinway Concert, Portsmouth Central Library, Oct 8 It was a gala occasion this afternoon in Portsmouth’s Menuhin Room, marking the resurrection of the Steinway grand, ‘widely regarded as the finest instrument along the South Coast’ and, we must earnestly hope,...
- October 10, 2022
If there were only sunlight on water was the first line of a little-known, otherwise untitled 1990’s poem, little known because it was by me. Whereas the poem moves on to other ideas, Patrick Hemmerlé’s 50-minute set in Chichester today explored...
- October 9, 2022
Diolch yn fawr, thank you very much, to Steffan Watkins for bringing his wonderful Welsh Choir to sing for us at Holy Trinity today. It was, as always, delightful, very moving and a joy to hear. The music programme included...
- October 9, 2022
CCC welcomes its new president, Simon Crawford-Phillips, international pianist, chamber musician and conductor, to open its 2022/23 season on 6 October in duo with one of today’s most in-demand violists, Lawrence Power. Read more in the Chichester Observer.
- September 30, 2022
At the opening of the CMS autumn season we welcomed Paul Guinery, well known to radio 3 listeners, to share his love of popular English music of the late nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries. Paul has a varied career, apart from...
- September 29, 2022
Programming is everything sometimes. Beginning with Scarlatti and Mozart, Olive Murray was agile and resonant but I wasn’t tuned in properly. Three Schubert songs included Nacht und Traume which was crepuscular, almost velvety in Christopher Foreman’s accompaniment, and although it’s not explicit...
- September 25, 2022
I usually prefer to have the whole story – the complete symphony if not the Complete Symphonies or the Collected Poems rather than the Selected. Christopher Johnston’s programme in Chichester today was made of ‘excerpts from’ sets of pieces but the benefit of that was that...
- September 13, 2022
Summer is a fine thing in fiction, poems or in Vivaldi but for me it need not stand upon the order of its going. The first signs of autumn are most welcome, the drop in temperature, the nights drawing in...
- September 8, 2022
St Paul’s Church, Chichester, 9 July 2022 After a hiatus of several years on my part it was a delight to be able to attend the evening concert given by the Chichester Symphony Orchestra in the 2022 Festival of Chichester....
- July 12, 2022
The Renaissance Choir, Protest Against Oppression, Church of the Holy Spirit, Southsea, July 9 The range of music on this evening’s programme in Southsea served among other things to be indicative of the wide range of oppression suffered throughout history,...
- July 11, 2022
There could be no better way to mark the tenth anniversary of the Festival of Chichester than this heady mix of Elgar, Tchaikovsky, and an aperitif of Beethoven at Chichester Cathedral. Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra are old friends of the Festival,...
- July 9, 2022
The Festival of Chichester is well underway and Elena Toponogova returned to the Cathedral with some friends to present more of her Russian repertoire (lunchtime concert 5 July). She began alone at the piano with an extra item, the traditional...
- July 7, 2022
“Israel in Egypt” with Portsmouth Baroque Choir and The Consort of Twelve, St. Paul’s, Chichester, Sunday 3 July Not everything Handel wrote was an immediate success. Israel in Egypt was rested after only its third performance in April 1739 but...
- July 4, 2022
Ralph Vaughan-Williams would have been 150 this year had he lived and so we’ve not been short of programmes marking the event. Ensemble Pastorale has given it some thought, though, and gave a rare outing to some lesser-heard pieces. Soprano,...
- July 1, 2022
Portsmouth Choral Union presented a workshop and semi staged performance of Gilbert and Sullivan’s ever popular ‘HMS Pinafore’ at St. Mary’s Alverstoke. The choir was delighted to welcome the many additional singers who joined them for the workshop part of...
- June 16, 2022
Giulia Semerano and Filippo di Bari, Chichester Cathedral, June 14. Guilia Semerano and Filippo di Bari began preparing their four-handed Pagine di guerra by Alfredo Casella before Putin’s sinister intentions were made obvious. They became appallingly relevant in performance, as...
- June 16, 2022
The Solent Male Voice Choir had a busy May. It all started with a Lunchtime Concert in St Faith’s Church, Havant. The concert, on May 4th, was in aid of the St Faith’s Big Build Fund. On 19th May, SMVC...
- June 10, 2022
James Kirby, Portsmouth Cathedral, 9 June Portsmouth cathedral’s piano absolutely sparkled as James Kirby set off into the Allegro moderato of Haydn’s Sonata in E Flat, Hob XVI:52. That is Haydn aged 62 and still at the height of his...
- June 10, 2022
Fumi Otsuki and Sarah Kershaw, Portsmouth Cathedral, May 26 The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new. I had to admit, I’d run out of opening lines from famous novels to adapt in concert reviews and so, unrelated...
- June 3, 2022
On Wednesday May 11th Chichester Music Society welcomed a return visit from Bradley Creswick, violin, and Margaret Fingerhut piano, it was a treat! The overall theme of the music was Pleasure of the Natural World, very appropriate for a sunny...
- June 2, 2022
Chichester Cathedral, 17 May 2022 The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there. One thing that Chichester Cathedral did was employ an organist, more than once, having dismissed him in-between times, for drunkenness and blasphemy but if...
- May 19, 2022
If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where it was, and what it was like. St. Peter’s is in the Square in Petersfield which, on a sunny May lunchtime like...
- May 12, 2022
Last night I dreamt I went to Chichester again. And then today I did. It’s been 11 weeks and that seems a long time. The last time David Alexander played Chichester it was by video link only so the usual...
- May 10, 2022
As well as promoting first-class concerts and lecture-recitals, CMS is proud of its tradition of supporting the musical careers of students at the University. Since 2004 over £90,000 has been awarded in prizes, instruments, and bursaries. The University Music faculty...
- May 2, 2022
Concert at St. Mary’s Portsea, 2 April All happy composers are alike; each unhappy composer is unhappy in their own way. Earlier in the week, the wireless had Mendelssohn’s Quartet in F minor, Op 80 as the second half of...
- April 13, 2022
Petersfield Musical Festival paid a handsome tribute to Ukraine last week, proving the power of music to express support for its beleaguered people. Chairman Philip Young introduced the Petersfield Orchestra’s flagship concert last Thursday by announcing it would commence with...
- April 12, 2022
The Festival ended on a high note on Saturday 26th March with another concert celebrating the power of music. The concert featured two major choral works: Felix Mendelssohn’s Hymn of Praise and In Praise of Singing by Jonathan Willcocks, the...
- April 11, 2022
Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, accompanied by a string quartet and continuo, was interspersed with several Marian Motets by Parsons, Victoria, Guerrero and Palestrina. Last night’s concert was excellent on several fronts. I thought the choice of music which punctuated the Stabat...
- April 7, 2022
Visit the concert page. Ours is essentially a tragic age, so we refuse to take it tragically. C20th composers could hardly be expected to write music as confident as that of the Age of Enlightenment. Bach and Handel don’t bring...
- March 28, 2022
“Lunchtime Live!” 17 March 2022 It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a musician in search of a career, must be in want of a composer to play. It seems like only yesterday, but it is 18 months ago, when...
- March 18, 2022
St. Faith’s is an attractive little church that wouldn’t look out of place nestling in the English countryside rather than Havant’s workmanlike town centre. Today (16 February) it hosted Matteo Bisbano Memmo’s first UK recital to a good-sized audience and...
- February 21, 2022
Did any other age spend so much time with the music of so long ago? In the C18th, audiences turned up in numbers to hear C18th music – Handel, Mozart and Haydn. David Hepworth has written about how quickly rock...
- February 9, 2022
David Price, Portsmouth Cathedral’s own organist, provided a diverse programme of English music in anticipation of the 70th anniversary of the Queen’s accession at lunchtime today. Some might say Purcell is England’s greatest composer and I’d be one of them...
- February 4, 2022
La muse oubliée is Antonio Oyarzabal’s project highlighting female composers. One day, it is to be hoped, no such theme might be necessary but there are centuries of concert programming to make up for in which it was almost unthinkable...
- February 3, 2022
I’m sure this was originally listed as being Haydn and Beethoven when I first booked it. It’s not a problem at all that last night it had turned into Schubert but it means the world will have to wait for...
- January 19, 2022
Peter Gould treated us to a superb recital today: one that certainly set the bar very high for recitals at Holy Trinity in 2022! His music programme was diverse and included music he has never played before, because he likes...
- January 18, 2022
The end of our 2021 Season ended not with a bang but with a truly enjoyable evening to the sounds of beautiful music and followed by the sounds of convivial talk amongst members and their friends over a glass of...
- December 22, 2021
Bach is big. One might contrast him with Pergolesi, composer of the luminous Stabat Mater by which he is almost only known with the unfortunate corollary that he died aged 26. The Stabat Mater is less than a quarter of...
- December 12, 2021
Ensemble C are made up of four parts, as was their programme at St Mary’s. As a string quartet without violins they could be compared to Abba without Agnetha or The Stylistics without Russell Johns Jnr but in fact it...
- December 7, 2021
At their recent Lunchtime Live! recital at Portsmouth Cathedral, Solent Baroque had unforeseen problems with their harpsichord which was a shame for those in search of ‘authenticity but the show must go on and I can’t say it caused any...
- December 6, 2021
Simone Tavoni’s piano recital today might be seen as two halves, one ‘classical’ and the other ‘romantic’. Four pieces from Clementi’s Mon Ferrina, op. 39 were, he explained, by way of preparation for a competition. The first was light, the...
- December 3, 2021
A large audience welcomed the Petersfield Orchestra back for their first full-scale concert since before Covid struck in 2020. It has been a tricky time for performing musicians with few rehearsal opportunities until September and this, combined with the lively...
- December 2, 2021
Today was a musical mystery tour. I didn’t know what Myles Tyrrell was going to be playing but it was a chance worth taking. I can’t remember the last time a lunchtime concert in Chichester, Portsmouth or Havant was a...
- December 1, 2021
Havant has joined the local lunchtime concert circuit, wisely doing Wednesdays, and is most welcome. We are especially lucky to have Thomas Luke, the piano section winner from this year’s delayed Young Musician of the Year, in the area and...
- November 26, 2021
Performers in Chichester Cathedral at present have an imposing Moon to play under, Luke Jerram’s Museum of the Moon, which the likes of Pink Floyd might have envied. One might have thought it fitting to gaze at such a thing...
- November 22, 2021
The Chichester Music Society welcomed back Marino Tirimo and Atsuko Kawakami to the 10 November Concert at the University of Chichester. The two pianists had come last in lockdown a year ago and had played to an empty hall, apart...
- November 21, 2021
Mozart somehow found himself in the unaccustomed role of support act last time I was in Chichester. That wasn’t likely to happen twice. The Chichester Symphony Orchestra gave great value for whatever money one chooses to donate by comparing and...
- November 11, 2021
Marcia Fielden loved the day’s singing, after an eighteen-month wait. At last! Not only was the Autumn Workshop allowed to go ahead, despite dire predictions, it was a wonderful success. Throughout this second Plague Year, and especially when the Delta...
- November 10, 2021
Portsmouth Choral Union and David Gostick were so pleased to be back performing live that they began by applauding the audience. They deservedly got that back with interest at the end. They had packed a lot into an hour, beginning...
- November 7, 2021
The Chichester Music Society was delighted to welcome the Sacconi Quartet with Emma Abbate on piano on 13 October 2021. Their intriguing programme included two of the world’s most celebrated twentieth-century piano quintets, and their performance did not disappoint. The...
- November 2, 2021
The conductor, Peter Gambie, dedicated this concert to those who had been damaged by the pandemic. It was the first event by the choir since the lockdown and was well-attended. The lavishly illustrated programme detailed Italian Renaissance Masters’ work, both...
- October 24, 2021
Lunchtime Live! is underway again in Portsmouth which is some of the best news we’ve had for some time. A shrewd move to put the concert space up in the more intimate St. Thomas Chapel made for a warm, full...
- October 9, 2021
Finally! Live music and the Solent Symphony Orchestra (SSO) are back! After nearly 19 months of silence, it was marvellous to see again so many musicians in one place, at Portsmouth Cathedral plus a good size audience, despite the weather!...
- October 6, 2021
The Champagne Quartet was welcomed by the Chichester Music Society on 15 September 2021 at the University of Chichester as their opening autumn concert. The Quartet is an operatic vocal quartet established in 2016, made up of graduates of the...
- September 23, 2021
Today’s concert can only be described as ‘a triumph’ for Music and the Arts at Holy Trinity! Catherine Bilton, soprano, brought us great joy this afternoon: to listen to her remarkable voice is a joy in itself and we were...
- September 8, 2021
We thoroughly enjoyed Anthony’s ‘All-Organic Musical Menu’ yesterday and feasted on his choice of music: the ‘Main Course’ by ‘the greatest composer of all time’, Bach, in particular, was complex and challenging, and the Henri Mulet was clearly a favourite...
- August 19, 2021
Today’s concert was billed as our Annual Organ Celebration and, thanks to Charles Francis, that is precisely what it was! We loved his music programme – after 18 months of silence I for one could feel my brain coming alive...
- August 3, 2021
Regular music-making returns to Holy Trinity, Gosport! We welcomed Fumi Otsuki (violin) accompanied by Sarah Kershaw (piano). What a ‘come back’ concert we had! It was a superb programme: just right for the time of year and beautiful setting. We...
- July 19, 2021
The Stradivarius Piano Trio of Andrew Bernardi Jonathan Few and Maria Marchant performed a brilliant evening of music in Chichester as part of the celebrations. With a carefully constructed programme including pieces by some female composers, Joanna Gill, Rebecca Clarke...
- July 11, 2021
The first weekend of July this year saw Ports Fest return to the city in the form of a three-day festival, comprising mainly of outdoor and free events to suit the current climate. Highlights included the face of the 2021...
- July 10, 2021
A wonderful concert from Mid Sussex’s Ensemble Reza underlined the importance of live music tonight to a delighted audience at the Festival of Chichester. Their Russian Dreams programme in the Assembly Room in the Council House in North Street was...
- July 3, 2021
See associated Noticeboard item. The Chichester Music Society had their first 2021 Concert that finally had a live audience, and as usual the Society met at the University of Chichester, where 30 members and guests attended on 9 June. The...
- June 19, 2021
For much of the past year Portsmouth Choral Union has been holding weekly Zoom rehearsals, with a few live practices just before Christmas. For their final session before the Easter Break, a lively and informative ‘Covid Island Discs’ interview was...
- April 10, 2021
AChoired Taste / Hampshire Guitar Orchestra The Rio Grande and Carmina Burana Mark Dancer Family Concert Festival of Young Composers 2015-16 saw the fourth biennial Festival of Young Composers, run in conjunction with the Festival’s Michael Hurd Memorial Fund. Composers...
- March 20, 2021
Chichester Music Society was pleased to welcome David Owen Norris on 9 December at the University of Chichester when he gave his lecture-recital entitled “Beethoven at the Piano – a Path of his own Discovery.” This concert was live-streamed courtesy...
- December 23, 2020
Chichester Music Society [CMS] was able to continue holding concerts in this second lockdown thanks to Chichester University’s willingness to live stream the concert from the University’s Chapel on 11 November. Martino Tirimo was originally going to be part of...
- November 25, 2020
Like almost every other festival this year, Petworth’s annual summer music festival, which normally takes place in July, fell victim to the restrictions imposed in response the coronavirus pandemic, but rather than cancel this year’s festival altogether, its organisers sensibly...
- October 20, 2020
Chichester Music Group welcomed back Erin Alexander [soprano] and Nick Miller [piano] on 29 September to the Society’s first “socially distanced” concert at the University of Chichester, which was also live-streamed. This was a new experience for both the performers...
- October 7, 2020
Encore Chichester Community Orchestra has managed to come together musically – while keeping its distance – to produce its very own lockdown song: Ku’u Pua I Paokalani. Appropriately, the piece was written by the Queen of Hawaii from the time...
- April 9, 2020
From the dramatic opening of Beethoven’s Leonore Overture and the rising scale of the full orchestra, the warmth of the string playing was immediately evident with the solo flute cutting through the orchestra beautifully. The pace then changed, introducing the...
- March 12, 2020
Nathan James’ On Windover Hill: Music of the Sussex Landscape was recently given its première at Boxgrove Priory as part of a programme of music, poetry and dance to a full house. The concert celebrated the South Downs as a...
- March 9, 2020
Yesterday’s concert was a remarkable reminder of just how fortunate we are at the Holy Trinity Church Tea-Time Concerts and Recitals. Nigel Willoughby and Teresa Foster played sublimely and the programme was equally inspiring: we thanked them for including the...
- March 3, 2020
The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra’s latest Guildhall concert was full of some of the best-known tunes in the classical repertoire. In an age of iPads and iPests, live classical music is a real treat and the BSO is showing the way...
- February 28, 2020
The Funtington Music Group were thrilled with the performance that the London Bridge Trio gave on 12 February at the University of Chichester. This was the first visit of the Trio and it certainly won’t be its last! The Chairman...
- February 28, 2020
Matthew Coleridge’s Requiem is a recent composition from a young British composer. He says that that he didn’t set out to write a Requiem, but gradually pieced one together from various musical ideas that kept appearing in his head. It’s...
- February 14, 2020
Following the resounding success of his opera, The Marriage of Figaro, Mozart was commissioned to write Don Giovanni, the overture from which a slow and dramatic introduction contrasts vividly with lively and spirited music to follow. Indeed, this very opening...
- February 12, 2020
