Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert

3 March 2026

Our Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert at Spinney Theatre last Saturday featured four pieces by American composers, all written in the 1930s and 1940s, celebrating The Jazz Age and The Golden Age of Hollywood. We opened the concert with Aaron Copland's 'Quiet City' - a remarkable piece for string orchestra with solo parts for trumpet and cor anglais, brilliantly played by NSO members Terry Mayo and Harriet Brown. William Grant Still's 'Symphony No 1: Afro American' was the first symphony by an African American composer to be performed by a major orchestra ion the USA (in 1931). It's a lovely work which pairs up-beat jazz with achingly emotional blues-inspired melodies. I particularly loved the gorgeous slow opening of the final movement with its powerful descending bass line in the tuba. The composer Ferde Grofé is now best remembered as the orchestrator of 'Rhapsody in Blue' by George Gershwin and for his popular 'Grand Canyon Suite'. I hadn't previously encountered his suite '6 Pictures of Hollywood' and enjoyed discovering this comic peak backstage at the making of an imaginary 1930s film musical. Our finale was 'Porgy and Bess: A Symphonic Picture' - Robert Russell Bennett's medley of the classic songs from George Gershwin's folk opera. It's a great arrangement which revels in the wealth of Gershwin's melodies (including 'Summertime', 'Bess, You is My Woman Now', 'I Got Plenty of Nuttin' and 'It Ain't Necessarily So') and toys with the listener - three times sounding as if it has come to a conclusion, only to segue into yet another famous tune. For our celebration of American Voices the NSO was swelled by three harps, four saxophones, banjo and an impressive array of percussion. Our Conductor John Gibbons wonderfully slotted the many jigsaw pieces together on the day: in the concert I think all four pieces were the best we had performed them. But this concert belonged to Terry and Harriet - not only playing their beautiful solo parts in 'Quiet City' but appearing to dominate the rest of the programme too. Both the 'Afro-American Symphony' and 'Porgy and Bess' open with cor anglais solos (followed by a trumpet solo in the Gerswhin) and these and the Grofé feel like showpieces for the trumpets. This really was a fun concert and the cheer from the audience at the end of 'Porgy and Bess' felt well-deserved. 

'Willows' by Pekka Kuusisto, Sam Amidon and the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra

27 February 2026

Regular readers will know of my long-standing enthusiasm for all things Finnish, so I was immediately intrigued by the new album 'Willows' featuring the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra and the brilliant Finnish violinist and conductor, Pekka Kuusisto. This is, in part, a poignant reflection on grief and loss following the death of Pekka’s brother Jaakko in 2022. Ellen Reid’s 'Desiderium', a visceral howl for solo violin, is dedicated to him and is a deeply moving experience. The centrepiece of the album is Ralph Vaughan Williams’ 'The Lark Ascending'. When the Northampton Symphony Orchestra performed this delicate English work in 2013 (reviewed here in November 2013), I was struck by its aching poignancy. Kuusisto’s interpretation is fascinating: he describes his approach not as “deleting notes” but as “deleting ketchup”. By stripping away the lush romanticism often associated with the piece, he reveals its essential roots in the English folk tradition. The album also features Caroline Shaw’s 'Plan & Elevation', an orchestral version of her 2015 string quartet that maps out Washington DC’s Dumbarton Oaks estate. To close, Sam Amidon (who impressed me at the WOMAD Festival, reviewed her in August 2022) adds vocals, guitar, and banjo to six traditional American folk songs arranged by Nico Muhly. 'Willows' is a beautiful, compelling collection that blends classical and folk traditions. 

'The Rose Field' by Philip Pullman

18 February 2026

It's now more than 30 years since the publication of 'Northern Lights', Philip Pullman's first novel recounting the story of Lyra Silvertongue. We followed Lyra and her companions through the three novels of the 'His Dark Materials' trilogy, and now with 'The Rose Field' (which I've just finished reading as an unabridged audiobook, narrated by Michael Sheen), Pullman's second Lyra trilogy 'The Book of Dust' is complete. Following on directly from 'The Secret Commonwealth' (reviewed here in December 2019), 'The Rose Field' picks up Lyra's journey east across Europe in search of the Red Building and a doorway to another world. Where 'The Secret Commonwealth' felt like a Cold War spy thriller, 'The Rose Field' returns to more fantastical themes, introducing flying gryphons and other mythical creatures. I found it satisfying how many references there were back to the original three novels, bringing the story full circle. But I could have done with more recap of the events from 'The Secret Commonwealth'. There's so much in this final novel that the plot gets quite confusing at times. The characters, however, - particularly Lyra and Malcolm and their daemons, and the wonderful Abdel Ionides - are beautifully drawn, sympathetic and entertaining. And the audio book is worth listening to purely to hear how much fun Michael Sheen is having performing the dramatic events of Lyra's final chapters. If this is the last we see of Lyra, it's been an amazing 30-year journey. And I've enjoyed it all the way. 

'Hamlet' by Aneil Karia

12 February 2026

On Tuesday we were at Cineworld in Milton Keynes to see Aneil Karia's new film of 'Hamlet'. Set in contemporary London around a wealthy British Indian family, it's a clever take on Shakespeare's play - rooting it in the real world with very believable contemporary characters, but still using the Shakespearean text (albeit with much of the original play omitted and the cast thinned down to a few principal protagonists). Riz Ahmed is excellent as the Prince, a very realistic performance with him whispering his soliloquies as if genuinely speaking to himself. It's an interesting contrast with Robert Hastie's National Theatre 'Hamlet' that we saw recently (reviewed here in January 2026). Although we saw that production on screen at the cinema, it was clearly a theatrical production, and Hiran Abeysekera's Hamlet frequently broke the fourth wall to engage the audience directly. Here Riz Ahmed resists any temptation to look at the camera, very focused on his inner turmoil. And the close-up handheld camera shots show every twitch of his facial muscles revealing his thinking and agony. The rest of the cast are also very strong with Art Malik's Claudius the most Shakespearean sounding. Sheeba Chaddha as Gertrude, Timothy Spall as Polonius, Joe Alwyn as Laertes, and Morfydd Clark as Ophelia (who also takes some of the absent Horatio's lines) are all excellent. Cutting the play to focus on the main story and to compress the action into a suitable length for a film, writer Michael Lesslie has removed all the comic relief leaving this a very grim, dark version of 'Hamlet'. But it's a brutally realistic, thrilling tragedy. The scene in which Polonius is killed is viscerally shocking. This is a clever, gripping, dark, contemporary take on 'Hamlet'. 

'A' Chailleach' by Kim Carnie

5 February 2026

I've been really enjoying the 'A' Chailleach', the new album by the young Scottish Gaelic singer Kim Carnie. She calls it "a concept record rooted in female folklore, spell work and hidden histories". Lom Carnie was awarded Gaelic Singer of the Year 2021 and this is her second solo album, following her 2022 debut 'And So We Gather'. Her gentle, catchy Gaelic folk/pop reminded me a lot of the music of Julie Fowlis (reviewed here in February 2006, April 2007 and May 2014), who features as a guest on one track here. I was particularly interested to hear of her cross-cultural collaborations with West African musicians and there is a track on this album featuring the Senegalese musician Sekou Keita (on kora and vocals). These are beautiful new songs by Kim Carnie, but rooted in the Gaelic folk tradition. 

Bedford Sinfonia concert

27 January 2026

On Saturday I was at All Saints Church, Queens Park, Bedford to play in the Bedford Sinfonia concert, conducted by Ian Smith. It's more than 10 years since I last played with the orchestra (accompanying a Bedford Choral Society concert, reviewed here in November 2015). Saturday's concert was a programme of pieces by female composers. We started with Ethel Smyth's Overture 'The Wreckers' - which was, for a long time, the only orchestral piece by a female composer in the repertoire of many orchestras. I enjoyed discovering the 'Gaelic Symphony' by Amy Beach (whose piano concerto we played with Northampton Symphony Orchestra a couple of years ago, reviewed here in July 2024). The second half of the concert featured the 'Overture' by Fanny Mendelssohn, followed by 'Symphony No 1' by Florence Price - the first work by a Black woman composer to be performed by a major US orchestra. I had seen a performance of the symphony by the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Edinburgh Festival (reviewed here in September 2022) and it was great to get the chance to play it. I hadn't played any of the four pieces in Saturday's concert before. It was an interesting and entertaining programme - though quite a long, tiring concert to play. 

'Hamlet' by William Shakespeare

26 January 2026

On Thursday evening we were at the Odeon in Milton Keynes to see the NTLive screening of Hamlet, recorded at the Lyttelton Theatre in London. This National Theatre production, directed by Robert Hastie, stars Hiran Abeysekera as a fast-talking ,mischievous Hamlet who spends much of the performance breaking the fourth wall. It's an entertaining and compelling performance. The production emphasises the humour of the play with Geoffrey Streatfeild's Polonius less a bungling old fool than a court jester performing to the king (complete with ukulele) and Francesca Mills' performance as Ophelia straying close to clowning at times, which makes her descent into madness a bit of a handbrake turn. But Alistair Petrie as Claudius and Ayesha Dharker as Gertrude provide a serious center to the story, both making their characters realistic, believable, and surprisingly sympathetic. And Tessa Wong is moving as a caring and emotional Horatio. The last Hamlet we saw was Rupert Goold's incredible production at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford last year, setting the whole play on the deck of a ship (reviewed here in February 2025). This new production was always going to struggle to match that wow moment. But while in Stratford Luke Thallon was a brilliant, restless, twitchy Hamlet, it's Es Devlin's magnificent set that I remember, whereas this Hamlet definitely belongs to Hiran Abeysekera.