{"id":525951,"date":"2025-10-25T01:17:26","date_gmt":"2025-10-25T01:17:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/525951\/"},"modified":"2025-10-25T01:17:26","modified_gmt":"2025-10-25T01:17:26","slug":"michael-whites-classical-news-london-guitar-festival-shostakovich-peregrine-voices-errolyn-wallen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/525951\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael White\u2019s classical news: London Guitar Festival; Shostakovich; Peregrine Voices; Errolyn Wallen"},"content":{"rendered":"

Helen Charlston [Benjamin Ealovega]<\/strong><\/p>\n

THE world of the guitar always feels like a self-contained department of classical music, set apart, with its own composers, repertoire and fan base. But from time to time everything tumbles out of the shadows, into a general spotlight. And one of those times is the arrival of the London Guitar Festival that runs annually at Kings Place.<\/p>\n

For a few packed days around a weekend, you get concerts by classical players, jazzers, young artists\u2019 platforms, new commissions, masterclasses\u2026 And it\u2019s happening this year Oct 24-26: an immersive experience like no other. Details: kingsplace.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2022 When Vladimir Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine there was a lobby \u2013 quite successful for a while \u2013 to stop performances of Russian music. Personally I thought it was absurd, as though long-dead composers like Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky bore responsibility for what was happening. And thankfully it didn\u2019t last \u2013 permitting the avalanche of Russian music that happens to sweep London this week, led by two high-profile Shostakovich concerts.<\/strong><\/p>\n

On Oct 25 at the Barbican, the BBCSO play his 8th Symphony alongside work by one of the leading Russians of the next generation down, Alfred Schnittke. And at the same venue, Oct 30, the LSO play Shostakovich\u2019s 1st Violin Concerto, alongside music by his prot\u00e9g\u00e9 Sofia Gubaidulina, and Stravinsky\u2019s ballet, The Firebird. barbican.org.uk<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, there\u2019s a perfor\u00admance of one of the most cele\u00adbrated items in Russian keyboard repertoire, Mussorgsky\u2019s Pictures at an Exhibition, played by Benjamin Grosvenor at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Oct 24. If you don\u2019t know the piece, it imagines a leisurely stroll around a gallery of paintings, and ends with an image of the \u201cGreat Gate of Kiev\u201d: a monument happily unaffected by Putin\u2019s bombs because it never existed beyond the artist\u2019s fantasy. Booking: southbankcentre.co.uk<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2022 Talking of buildings, if you like to hear music in places off the beaten concert-hall circuit, there\u2019s an accomplished amateur group, Peregrine Voices and Orchestra, performing core English repertoire on Oct 26 at St Augustine\u2019s Kilburn: one of the great jewels of Victorian Gothic Revival architecture. peregrineorchestra.org.uk<\/a><\/p>\n

Playing in another fabulous church \u2013 the Arts & Crafts emporium that\u2019s Holy Trinity, Sloane Street \u2013 Crouch End Festival Chorus sing Mass settings by Bruckner and Stravinsky, Oct 25. cefc.org.uk<\/a> And Hampstead Parish Church has a song recital, also Oct 25, in which baritone Geoff Clapham sings Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov (more Russians!) alongside a dancer whose contribution to the proceedings is unclear but \u2013 well, I guess she dances. Booking: fom.org.uk<\/p>\n

\u2022 The composer Errolyn Wallen lives in a lighthouse on the northern coast of Scotland: an extreme measure in search of peace and quiet. But since she was made Master of the King\u2019s Music, she spends half her life on the train to London. And she\u2019s at Wigmore Hall for a lunchtime concert, Oct 27, that reveals her in one of her other guises: as a pianist, accompanying soprano Ruby Hughes in songs by Britten, Ives, and Wallen herself. wigmore-hall.org.uk<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

And another song recital of note comes Oct 30 when the must-hear mezzo of the moment Helen Charlston sings Handel, Dowland, Charpentier at the JW3 arts centre, Finchley Road. Done in scrupulous period style, accompanied by lute and viola da gamba, it has the makings of an event. jw3.org.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Helen Charlston [Benjamin Ealovega] THE world of the guitar always feels like a self-contained department of classical music,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":525952,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,26018,393,4884,257,170593,18394,18395,16,15,18396],"class_list":{"0":"post-525951","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-classical","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-london","13":"tag-michael-white","14":"tag-the-camden-new-journal","15":"tag-the-islington-tribune","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom","18":"tag-west-end-extra"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115432171079287641","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=525951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525951\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/525952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=525951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=525951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=525951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}