Tag: Dame Imogen Cooper

Posted on

What’s On in Ryedale, York and beyond. Hutch’s List No 41, from Gazette & Herald

Joanne Shaw Taylor: Promoting new album Black & Gold at York Barbican

FROM blues guitar to saxophone solos, culinary festivities to Friends on song, Charles Hutchinson finds the ones to entertain you.

Blues guitarist of the week: Joanne Shaw Taylor, York Barbican, Thursday, 7.30pm

DISCOVERED by Eurythmics’ Dave Stewart at 16, and now 39, West Midlands blues rock guitarist, singer and songwriter Joanne Shaw Taylor showcases her tenth studio album, Black & Gold, on her return to York Barbican.

Known for her blazing guitar work and soulful voice, Shaw Taylor fuses blues, rock, soul and pop into her live set of new songs such as Hell Of A Good Time, fan favourites from past albums and nods to blues greats. Support comes from Ferris & Sylvester. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Skosh chef-proprietor Neil Bentinck: Cookery demonstration at St Crux Hall on September 27 at 1pm at York Food & Drink Festival

Festival of the week: York Food & Drink Festival, cooking until September 28

HIGHLIGHTS of this autumn’s York Food & Drink Festival include 70 street food and produce stands in Parliament Street; the Entertainment Marquee on Parliament Street, serving a bill of Live for St Leonard’s Hospice music acts; more live music in St Sampson’s Square, and demonstrations, events, tastings, and sampling at St Crux Hall.

Further events will be two taste trails; Bedern Hall Pork Pie Competition; the Food Factory in St Crux Hall and Museum Gardens; Chocolate Bar Challenge; Jorvik Viking Centre’s activities with an historic twist and the Meet The Makers drinks fair. For the full festival programme, head to: yorkfoodfestival.com.

Katie Spencer: Introducing new album What Love Is at Kirk Theatre, Pickering. Picture: Tom Arran

Folk gig of the week: Friday Folk Night presents Katie Spencer, Kirk Theatre, Pickering, September 26, 7.30pm

RAISED in the East Yorkshire flatlands on the fringes of Hull, Katie Spencer’s music is influenced by the landscapes that shaped her. Her songwriting and guitar playing reflect a sense of space and movement, drawing inspiration from Joni Mitchell, James Taylor and Michael Chapman.

New album What Love Is will be released on October 3. Produced by Matt Ingram, known for his work with Laura Marling, its ten compositions explore themes of love, introspection and personal growth. Her live performances are peppered with humour and storytelling. Box office: 01751 474833 or kirktheatre.co.uk.

Tom Little: Headlining Hilarity Bites Comedy Club bill at Milton Rooms, Malton. Picture: Alexis Dubus

Comedy gig of the week: Hilarity Bites Comedy Club presents Tom Little, Seeta Wrightson and Kieran Lawless, Milton Rooms, Malton, Friday, 8pm

TOM Little, 2015 Leicester Mercury Comedian of the Year winner and BBC Radio New Comedy Award finalist, plays the well-read fool, taking on diverse facts but refusing to deal with them conventionally.

Bradford-born Seeta Wrightson, 2025 Female Pilot Club winner, spins engaging stories with wit, drawing on her dual Asian and British heritage. From humble beginnings, she has wandered through life wondering exactly where she fits, having adventures aplenty figuring it out.  Nothin’ Butt Funny Comedy award winner Kieran Lawless is an Irish comedian based in Manchester. Doors and bar open at 7pm.Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.

Snake Davis: Sax to the max at Helmsley Arts Centre

Saxophonist of the week: Snake Davis Band, Helmsley Arts Centre, Friday, 7.30pm

STILL highly in demand as a session player, cheering up records by Olly Murs and Shania Twain lately, and playing to  crowds of up to 70,000 with Japanese rock god Eikichi Yazawa, saxophonist Snake Davis gains most joy from performing warm, friendly venues such as Helmsley Arts Centre.

Leading his four-piece band, featuring guitar, bass guitar and drums, Davis plays “the floaty to the danceable”, from soul to jazz, Northern Soul to pop and world, original material to classic sax pieces such as Baker Street and Night Train. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.

Dame Imogen Cooper: Piano concert at Helmsley Arts Centre on Saturday. Picture: Sussie Ahlburg

Classical concert of the week: Dame Imogen Cooper, Helmsley Arts Centre, Saturday, 7.30pm

AFTER playing St Peter’s Church, Norton, at July’s Ryedale Festival, pianist Dame Imogen Cooper returns to Ryedale this weekend to play Bach’s Nun Freut Euch, Lieben Christen G’mein, arranged by Kempff;  Bach’s chorale-prelude Nun Komm’ der Heiden Heiland, arranged by Busoni and Schubert’s Four Impromptus, D. 899 (Op. 90). Post-interval, her programme continues with Beethoven’s Seven Bagatelles (OP. 33) and Schubert’s Four Impromptus, D. 935 (Op. posth. 142). Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.

Alicia Belgarde (Monica), left, Daniel Parkinson (Chandler), Enzo Benvenuti (Ross), Eva Hope (Rachel), Amelia Atherton (Phoebe) and Ronnie Burden (Joey) in Friends! The Musical Parody, on tour at Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Pamela Raith

The one where they sing: Friends! The Musical Parody, Grand Opera House, York, September 30 to October 4, Tuesday to Thursday, 7.30pm; Friday, 5.30pm and 8.30pm; Saturday, 2.30pm and 7.30pm

NEW York and Las Vegas hit Friends The Musical Parody is a musical comedy packed with iconic moments from all ten seasons of the beloved television series, complemented by an original musical score. Join Rachel, Ross, Monica, Chandler, Joey, and Phoebe, the world’s most famous group of twenty-somethings, as they navigate love, friendship and life’s ups and downs in 1990s’ New York City.

“Whether you’re in a love triangle, trying to make it as an actor, or just can’t quit your day job, you’ll be laughing, crying, and quoting your favourite lines all night long,” the show promises. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Sue Ryding, left, recalling her 40-year comedy partnership with the late Maggie Fox (inset) in LipService in Funny Stuff at Pocklington Arts Centre

Reflections on grief: LipService in Funny Stuff, Pocklington Arts Centre, October 2, 7.30pm

SUE Ryding is one half of legendary satirical duo LipService. In March 2022, her comedy partner, York actress and writer Maggie Fox, died and Sue was left with a shipping container full of 40 years of stage props, costumes, wigs, hats, shoes, sheep, you name it.

This show looks at all the “stuff” we accumulate, hoard and hate to let go in her humorous and creative response to grief, wherein Sue struggles to part with a life-sized stuffed sheep, a badger onesie, some ruby slippers, a sinking bog, Charlotte Bronte’s knickers and a host of soft toys. Touring anecdotes are combined with archive footage from LipService shows. Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.

Posted on

REVIEW: Martin Dreyer’s verdict on Ryedale Festival, Dame Imogen Cooper, St Peter’s Church, Norton, July 26

Dame Imogen Cooper: “Held her audience in rapt admiration”. Picture: Sussie Ahlburg

BEETHOVEN’S last three piano sonatas represent the most free-wheeling in the classical repertory and there is no performer better suited to them than Dame Imogen Cooper. On the penultimate evening of the festival she held her audience in rapt admiration.

There is a special intimacy to these three works. Their early movements lure us into their web before finales that explore the very depths of emotion. Cooper caught at once the rhapsodic feel of Op 109 in E major, with its tempo changes but – as so often in this programme – managing all the while to maintain its overarching melodic contour, no easy feat.

There was immediate drama, too, in the Prestissimo that follows: she took this as her scherzo, although for Beethoven it was no joke. Only Beethoven would think of ending with a slow theme and variations, but Cooper brought to it a wonderful serenity, and when the theme returned in all its simplicity at the close, it was hard to hold back the tears.

The songful opening of Op 110 in A flat is marked con amabilità (sanft), an oddly bilingual statement. She took its ‘gentle amiability’ to mean something personal and allowed it to breathe, almost to excess, in her pauses and rests. But there was compensation in the way she attacked the second movement, balancing its percussion with its melody. Her measured arioso was followed by an equally smooth fugue

Beethoven’s final word on the piano sonata, Op 111 in C minor, is a kaleidoscope of contrasts, not least between minor and major. Cooper was alive to every nuance. The angry three-note motif emerged trombone-like in her left hand at the start, contrasted by the ethereal effect of the delicate high traceries in the closing Arietta and variations.

In between, she had plenty in reserve for when the going got active, including remarkable clarity in the fugue. National treasure is an overused title but Imogen Cooper undoubtedly qualifies.

Ryedale Festival, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra/Chloe Rooke, Hovingham Hall, July 27

Oboe player Helena Mackie: “Breath control to spare”

HAVE we reached a watershed where we can acknowledge the female of the species as at least as potent as the other half of humankind? At the very moment when the Lionesses were bringing home the bacon in Basel, two equally gritty young ladies were carrying all before them right here in Ryedale.

Chloe Rooke conducted a chamber orchestra of members of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra with immense verve and boundless conviction. Her partner as soloist in Mozart’s Oboe Concerto was the RLPO’s principal, Helena Mackie, who showed similar confidence and enthusiasm. Both are still in their twenties.

Rooke positively bounced onto the platform for Mendelssohn’s Fourth Symphony (Italian) and it showed in her brisk conducting. What mattered, however, was that the orchestra responded to her with precision that spoke volumes for her direction.

There was a suspicion of deceleration when the dynamic level subsided but equally a renewal of tempo with every crescendo. But her acceleration towards the end was absolutely right.

The slow movement has sometimes been called the “Pilgrims’ March”; certainly there is a plodding character to its first theme. But the suaveness of the second theme suggested some happy walkers, topped off by the serenity of the closing pizzicato. The minuet was notable for the superb ensemble of horns and bassoons in its trio.

It is doubtful whether even Italians could dance the whirling saltarello at Rooke’s lightning pace. But the gutsy strings gave it their all and hung on gamely, a sure sign of their respect for her commands.

Mozart’s only surviving oboe concerto does not get the currency it deserves, perhaps because it may have been originally intended for the flute and is more often heard in that guise. But if Helena Mackie continues to promote it, that may well change. Her very opening phrase dazzled by its sheer length: she had breath control to burn. The first cadenza brought a pin-drop moment, so captivated was the arena.

There was a lovely cantabile to her line in the slow movement, which remained untrammelled when she engaged in dialogue with the orchestra. The closing rondo really danced, thanks to her twinkling fingers. With the orchestra keeping in close attendance, this was a thoroughly delightful adventure for which we had our two young ladies to thank.

The second half was French. After a calm, rather stately account of Fauré’s Pavane, without the optional chorus, it was left to Poulenc’s Sinfonietta, a full symphony in all but name, to round off the festival.

Poulenc’s endless capacity for fun, for pulling off tricks and pulling our legs, makes him a modern-day Haydn. Rooke captured the first movement’s jack-in-the-box quality right away. Poulenc’s colourful orchestration lent a Falstaffian quality to the scherzo, where the timpanist had a field day.

There was a nice lilt to the slow movement, alhough the woodwinds were allowed to upstage the strings. They, however, had their revenge in the finale, delivering pronounced rhythms among the circus thrills and spills. Its two themes were cleverly contrasted in the coda. Rooke may be an “Emerging Artist” in Holland but on this showing she has already emerged.

Reviews by Martin Dreyer

Posted on

Ryedale Festival opens today for feast of classical, jazz, folk & literary performances

Yorkshire soprano Bibi Heal at Ryedale Festival location Castle Howard. She will perform Songs That Move on July 18 at Helmsley Arts Centre at 2pm and the National Centre for Early Music, York, at 5pm. Picture: Rob Cook

THE 44th Ryedale Festival begins today, inviting audiences to experience 58 performances in 33 spectacular locations across North Yorkshire until July 27. 

Castalian String Quartet and one of the festival’s 2025 artists in residence, violist Timothy Ridout, open the festival with a coffee concert this morning at 11am at St Mary’s Church, Lastingham, performing Mendelssohn’s  Quartet  No 5 in E-flat and Brahms’s String Quintet No. 2 in G.

Ryedale offers a diverse programme that extends beyond classical music to embrace jazz, folk, poetry and participatory events. These performances unfold against Yorkshire backdrops ranging from historic castles and abbeys to market towns and ancient churches. 

Castalian String Quartet: Opening the 2025 Ryedale Festival today at St Mary’s Church, Lastingham. Picture: Kirk Truman

This year’s festival welcomes a multitude internationally renowned musicians, among them Ridout’s fellow artists in residence, trailblazing saxophonist Jess Gillam, Grammy-winning composer and conductor Eric Whitacre and Royal Philharmonic Society Singer of the Year Claire Booth.

They are joined by two ensembles in residence, the Austrian string quartet Quatuor Mosaïques and vocal ensemble VOCES8. 

Look out for distinguished visiting artists such as pianists Sir Stephen Hough and Dame Imogen Cooper and organist Thomas Trotter, while the orchestral highlights will feature the Royal Northern Sinfonia, Orchestra of Opera North, Arcangelo and the festival debut of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. 

Dame Imogen Cooper: Playing Beethoven at St Peter’s Church Norton, on July 26 at 8pm. Picture: Sussie Ahlburg

The festival champions new music too, topped by the Yorkshire premiere of Gavin Higgins’s major song cycle, Speak Of The North, exploring northern identity.

Co-commissioned with Britten Pears Arts, the work takes its cue from the music of Grieg and poems by Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë in a “sprawling journey through physical and imagined northern landscapes” that includes songs about the Peak District, Manchester as seen from above, Northumbrian folk heritage and coal mining landscapes – plus an argument between Hadrian’s Wall and the Sycamore Gap tree.

Fifty years after Arthur Bliss’s death, composer Philip Wilby has honoured Bliss’s original vision for his passionate post-war Viola Sonata, transforming it into an orchestrated concerto to be performed by Timothy Ridout with the Orchestra of Opera North, alongside Elgar’s Enigma Variations.

The festival also retrieves music that has slipped through history’s fingers, including a rare UK performance of Michael Tippett’s joyful and unjustly neglected chamber cantata Crown Of The Year, revived by an outstanding group of musicians and Tippett biographer Oliver Soden, alongside other works by Tippett that have not been performed for decades.

Soprano Claire Booth: Royal Philharmonic Society Singer of the Year and Ryedale Festival artist in residence, performing Speak Of The North with violinist Tamson Waley-Cohen and pianist Christopher Glynn tomorrow at All Saints Church, Hovingham, at 8pm, and Kafka Fragments with Waley-Cohen at Helmsley Arts Centre on July 13 at 9.30pm. Picture: Sven Armstein

Beyond classical offerings, the festival integrates jazz and folk, such as Ronnie Scott’s music director, reeds player Pete Long, vocalist Sara Oschlag and an all-star band saluting Duke Ellington and Barnsley folk singer Kate Rusby showcasing her new album, When They All Looked Up, with her Singy Songy Session Band.

Literary events include Dame Harriet Walter’s theatrical retelling of Pride And Prejudice, to mark the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth, in a drawing-room setting, accompanied by violinist Madeleine Easton and pianist Melvyn Tan’s performance of Carl Davis’s score for the 1995 television adaptation.

In a new commission designed to reflect on the relationship between words and music, poet and playwright Caroline Bird reads poems she has chosen and written to accompany cellist Joely Koos and Ryedale Festival’s Waverley Young Artist, pianist Firoze Madon, at the Schumann’s Suggestion coffee concert on at the Wesley Centre, Malton, on July 24 at 11am.

Kate Rusby: Performing her new album, When They All Looked Up, at a sold-out Milton Rooms, Malton, on July 25 at 7pm. Picture: David Angel

The Ryedale Festival believes music is for everyone, offering Concerteenies events for families and children, and Bibi Heal’s Songs That Move for individuals with conditions such as Parkinson’s. Participatory events, such as workshops and Come and Sing sessions led by VOCES8 andEric Whitacre, actively invite public involvement in collective music-making. 

BBC Radio 3 will broadcast five concerts from the festival, including a recital by BBC New Generation Artists, featuring German pianist Julius Asal, American violinist Hana Chang, Estonian flautist Elizaveta Ivanova and Uruguayan-Spanish tenor Santiago Sanchez.

In parallel, the festival’sYoung Artist Platform, relaunched this year in association with the Waverley Fund, offers performance, mentoring and career-shaping opportunities for exceptionally talented performers at the beginning of their careers. This year’s Young Artists are guitarist Jack Hancher, pianist Firoze Madon recorder player Hassan Marzban, pianist Ethan Loch and the Fibonacci Quartet.

Dame Harriet Walter: Theatrical retelling of Pride And Prejudice by Jane Austen biographer Gill Hornby, with pianist Melvyn Tan and violinist Madeleine Easton, at Wesley Centre, Malton, on July 20 at 7pm

The festival continues to demonstrate its commitment to reaching the widest possible audience. More than 2,000 heavily discounted tickets will be made available through the Ryedale Rush scheme, while anyone under the age of 25 can attend nearly all events for £5 or less.

The festival takes place in beautiful and historic Yorkshire locations, and among the new venues this year are Ripon Cathedral, Skipton Town Hall, Malton’s Wesley Centre and All Saints Church in Northallerton, complemented by a return to Selby Abbey and a Troubadour Trail by mandolinist Alon Sariel that brings music to tiny and remote country churches across the county.

Festival artistic director Christopher Glynn says: “Festivals matter. They connect communities, spark creativity, support local economies and enhance lives.

Alan Soriel: Leading Troubadour Trail to remote Ryedale churches. Picture: Suzette Vorster-Van Acker

“They bring great music and top international performers to beautiful and historic places. They keep faith with live music in an age of digital overload. And they offer a warm welcome and sense of community, showing that classical music isn’t just something to listen to, but something to be part of.

“And in a world where screens so often replace shared experiences, festivals remind us of something irreplaceable: live music. The energy, the spontaneity, the buzz of a live audience and musicians responding to each other in the moment – nothing else compares. Shaped by the players, the listeners and the space itself – a genuine, unrepeatable encounter of hearts and minds.”

“This summer we invite audiences to step into beautiful North Yorkshire locations and meet extraordinary performers not as distant figures on a stage, but as fellow humans sharing something vital.”

For the full festival programme and tickets, go to: www.ryedalefestival.com. 

Ryedale Festival artistic director and pianist Christopher Glynn

Posted on

Northern Aldborough Festival opens today. Who’s playing, where & when, until June 21?

Dame Sarah Connolly and Dame Imogen Cooper: Playing the Olav Arnold Memorial Concert at St Andrew’s Church on June 19

THE  31st edition of the Northern Aldborough Festival, in the North Yorkshire village of Aldborough, near Boroughbridge, opens with this evening’s 6.30pm concert by Fantasia Orchestra, conducted by Tom Fetherstonhaugh, at St Andrew’s Church, fresh from their Proms debut.

Violinist Tamsin Waley-Cohen will be the soloist for Vaughan Williams’s The Lark Ascending and other works include Elgar’s Serenade for Strings and Dvorak’s Nocturne and Serenade for Strings.

2025 sees the festival celebrate the artistry and power of the human voice, centred on the annual nationwide hunt for the UK’s best classical singing talent in the New Voices Singing Competition, now in its third year, with a star-studded judging panel of Sir Thomas Allen, Dame Jane Glover, Sholto Kynoch, festival director Robert Ogden and Sir Andrew Lawson-Tancred.

Fantasia Orchestra with conductor Tom Fetherstonhaugh: Opening the festival this evening at St Andrew’s Church

Semi-finals take place at St Andrew’s Church at 4pm and 6pm on Sunday, followed by the Monday’s final on Monday at 7pm in the 14th century church with a prize fund of £7,000.

Further highlights include jazz vocalist Jacqui Dankworth & Her Trio, at The Old Hall, North Deighton, tomorrow, 7.30pm; opera company Wild Arts, in a semi-staged performance of Donizetti’s The Elixir Of Love, conducted by Orlando Jopling, at St  Andrew’s Church, on Sunday, 7pm, and two musical Dames, mezzo soprano Dame Sarah Connolly with Dame Imogen Cooper on piano, at St Andrew’s Church on June 19, 7.30pm.

French horn player Ben Goldscheider: Playing with The Heath Quartet at St Andrew’s Church on June 17

In the programme too will be the Thanda Gumede Trio, (vocals, piano and bass), at The Old Hall, North Deighton, tomorrow, 11am;  French horn player  Ben Goldscheider, playing  with The Heath Quartet,  St Andrew’s Church, June 17, 7.30pm; An Evening With Matthew Parris, the journalist and former  MP, St Andrew’s Church, June 18, 7.30pm, and Armonico Consort, playing Rachmaninov’s The Vespers, directed by Christopher Monks, St Andrew’s Church, June 20, 7.30pm.

Mezzo-soprano Judith le Breuilly will be accompanied by pianist George Ireland at St Andrew’s Church on June 16 at 11am; the Young Artists Showcase will be held there on June 18 at 11am, and The Asteria Trio (flute, harp and viola) will be led by Harrogate-born harpist Megan Humphries at Farnley Hall, near Otley, on June 19 at 11am.

Vocalist Thanda Gumede: Leading his trio at The Old Hall, North Deighton, tomorrow morning

Aldborough’s late-night venue, The Shed,  returns for concertgoers who want to continue festivities after the evening concerts in a relaxed environment, with a variety of live entertainment and refreshments.

The Last Night Outdoor Concert,  in the grounds of Aldborough Manor, features The Killerz Tribute, performing the hits of The Killers, supported by singer-songwriter Pearl Natasha, on June 21 when gates open at 6pm.

Running from today to June 21, the full programme, performance times and booking details can be found at aldboroughfestival.co.uk. Box office enquiries can be made to festival@aldborough.com . Tickets are on sale at 01423 900979 too.

Robert Ogden, director of the 31st Northern Aldborough Festival, outside St Andrew’s Church, Aldborough