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The Durham Music Service Showcase event at Sage Gateshead was a wonderful opportunity for young musicians to perform, and showed just how lucky we are here in County Durham when it comes to music education.
I changed the look of the site a little while ago, and this week during the snow-days I’ve been making a few more tweaks and updates which I hope will be useful to visitors and concert organisers.
The Clerks bring a fascinating story of how an unknown English composer revolutionised church music, illustrated with effortlessly beautiful and expressive singing
Opera dei Lumi returned to Handel’s original version of Messiah, as performed in Dublin in 1742, giving a dramatic and expressive performance that was full of surprises.
Harpischord superstar Mahan Esfahani comes to the Durham Musicon series, playing Bach’s Goldberg Variations and exploiting the full emotional and tonal power of a beautifully restored harpsichord.
Chor Semiseria, from Durham’s German twin city Tübingen have been visiting this week, meeting local choirs and singing in Durham Cathedral with Cobweb Orchestra and Durham County Youth Orchestra. I met them when they came to a joint rehearsal with Durham Singers, and then heard them in action singing Mozart’s Requiem.
It’s been a couple of weeks now since I sang Monteverdi Vespers, and the concert of a lifetime was followed by a rather spectacular holiday too, so this final blog post in my Vespers diary comes after a bit of time to reflect. Thank you everyone who has put up with this year’s Monteverdi obsession: here are the final words on the subject.
Handel’s Giulio Cesare is a sumptuous feast of an opera, with one ravishing aria after another. I’m absolutely thrilled that ETO have chosen it for this autumn’s production, coming to Durham for two nights in October, and to introduce you to my favourite Handel opera, I’ve put together a summary and playlist of the best arias.
When I’m learning big pieces of music, I like to submerge myself in recordings so that I have a deep sense of how my part fits in with everything else that’s going on. Normally, picking a recording is quite a straightforward process, but choosing which version of Monteverdi’s Vespers to listen to has been a bit more of an adventure.
Music in Durham brings you classical music listings, previews, reviews and news for Durham, with a bit of random blogging thrown in. The concert listing pages bring together classical music events from across the City and the University, so whether you’re looking for a great concert to go to, or if you’re planning something and want to avoid clashes, this is the place to look.
