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RAYFIELD ARTISTS LATEST NEWS 
Rayfield Artists at the Edinburgh FestivalThree Rayfield Artists singers appear at this year’s Edinburgh International Festival, which ranks as one of Europe’s biggest and best cultural events. Countertenor Robin Blaze and bass-baritone Matthew Brook sing of fire and brimstone, leaping frogs and buzzing flies as they lead the Children of Israel to the Promised Land in Handel’s epic oratorio Israel in Egypt. Emmanuel Haïm conducts the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, in this sold-out performance on 13 August in Usher Hall. Matthew Brook performs again with John Eliot Gardiner and the Monteverdi Choir as soloist in Brahms’ Requiem and Schütz’s Musikalische Exequien in another sold-out performance in Usher Hall on 19th August. Kate Valentine enjoys her third successive appearance at the Festival and a leading role in Smetana’s The Two Widows. This flagship co-production between Scottish Opera and the Edinburgh International Festival runs at the Edinburgh Festival Theatre 9th, 11th and 12th August. For more information, Click here to visit the Edinburgh International Festival website. _______________________________________________________________ 
Rayfield Artists at the Three Choirs FestivalThe Three Choirs Festival is one of the oldest music festivals in the world, but Worcester Cathedral has a brand new organ, which Dame Gillian Weir plays in recital on Friday 8th August in a programme ranging from Bach chorale preludes to Messiaen's L'Ascension. Gothic Voices feature too, in a programme of medieval love songs by Machaut and Solage in Great Whitley Church on Wednesday 6th August. For more information, Click here to visit the Three Choirs Festival website. _______________________________________________________________  Scottish Opera lead role for Kate ValentineKate Valentine stars in her first leading role for Scottish Opera this month, whilst also making her third successive appearance at the Edinburgh International Festival. Kate made her Festival debut in 2006 in Vaughan Williams' Serenade to Music with David Jones and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, and appeared again last year as Second Women Dido and Aeneas under Nicholas McGegan. This year, Kate sings the eponymous role of Karolina in Smetana's The Two Widows, a tale of two young widows and their games of love and jealousy, conducted by Francesco Corti in his first producton as music director of Scottish Opera. For more information, visit the Edinburgh International Festival website. _______________________________________________________________ New Artist: mezzo-soprano Louise Winter Rayfield Artists is delighted to announce the addition of British mezzo-soprano Louise Winter to its roster of artists. Louise has performed at many of the world's major opera houses, including Glyndebourne, the Royal Opera House, English National Opera, Toronto, Berlin, Frankfurt, Brussels and Barcelona, and her career encompasses concert performances with the world's leading orchestras and conductors, and numerous appearances at the BBC Proms. Look out for further information on this superb artist, coming soon to the Rayfield Artists website. _______________________________________________________________  Patricia Rozario opera première at Riverside StudiosPatricia Rozario premières Andrew Gant's one-women opera Don't go down the Elephant after Midnight at the Riverside Studios this weekend. Recently acclaimed by Gramophone, "a voice of liquid gold" and The Independent, "intensely musical", Patricia stars as Pat, a Mozart-obsessed taxi driver who makes a surreal journey through contemporary London with The Marriage of Figaro as her constant companion. Don't go down the Elephant plays at the Riverside Studios on Saturday 2nd August (8.30pm) and Sunday 3rd August (6.00pm). For more information and tickets visit the Tête à Tête Opera Festival website. _______________________________________________________________  Gothic Voices perform Medieval Songs by Royal CommandGothic Voices was honoured to perform in front of the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall during the royal visit to The Commandery in Worcester on Tuesday 10th June. The ensemble sang whilst the company awaited the Royal couples' arrival and then sang a piece in their presence. After performing, the group was introduced to Prince Charles and his wife, whom they presented with a signed copy of their CD The Unknown Lover - "for the car journey home." Gothic Voices is performing later this year in the "Three Choirs Festival" at Great Witley Church on Wednesday, 6th August. For mor information please visit the Three Choirs Festival by clicking here _______________________________________________________________  5-star review for Patricia Rozario - "a voice of liquid gold"Reviews for Patricia Rozario's latest disc confirm her renown as an international artist and consummate performer of Sir John Tavener's music. Patricia performs three song cycles including To a Child Dancing in the Wind, and Melina for unaccompanied soprano, all reissued by RCA (RCA 88697217612) along with instumental work The Repentant Thief. Praise from critics has been unanimous: ***** Performance "To a Child Dancing in the Wind is performed with (…) loving devotion by soprano Patricia Rozario (…) Lamentation, Last Prayer and Exaltation achieves far more than seems possible with just solo voice and handbells" - Stephen Johnson, BBC Music "Patricia Rozario floats effortlessly with a voice of pure liquid gold, supported by particularly vivid and detailed recorded sound" - Marc Rochester, The Gramophone "The cycles of Yeats settings here - To a Child Dancing in the Wind and A Mini Song Cycle for Gina - are beautifully poised, unforced lyrics from the 1980s, lusciously sung by Patricia Rozario" - Andrew Clements, The Guardian "this rewarding disc (…) features the ravishing Patrizia Rozario in Yeats's song cycles To a Child Dancing in the Wind and the touching Mini Song Cycle for Gina , in which she is accompanied by the composer at the piano" - Stephen Pritchard, The Guardian _______________________________________________________________  Berlin Staatsoper debut for Andrew RadleyAndrew Radley has just made his operatic solo debut at the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin in an ambitious staging of Handel's Belshazzar conducted by René Jacobs, with the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin. The production will go on to the Festival 'Aix-en-Provence and the Innsbrucker Festwochen der Alten Musik. He will also sing Nireno Giulio Cesare this month, also for Jacobs and with the Freiburger Barockorchester, with performances in Paris, Madrid, Valladolid, and Castellon. In addition, he will take part in two more exciting operatic productions: this September he performs the lead role of Refugee in Jonathan Dove's Flight for British Youth Opera, and in 2009 he develops his international profile yet further with a return to the Göttingen Händel-Festspiele for their production of Admeto. _______________________________________________________________ Dame Gillian Weir's landmark Messiaen still tops the pollsDame Gillian Weir's landmark recordings of the complete organ works of Olivier Messiaen (Priory PRCD921/26), first released in 1994, are still acclaimed as the finest performances of Messiaen's organ music committed to disc. The Gramophone (July 08) hails "the superlative Weir" as its must-have essential recording of the complete works alongside that of Messiaen himself. BBC Radio 3's Building A Library (31 May) hails her La Nativité du Seigneur (Priory PRCD921) as its first choice recommendation of the work; Jeremy Thurlow, comparing all available recordings, comments: "From the dazzling range of colours she produces, you can hear exactly why she chose the magnificent Frobenius organ at Aarhus Cathedral. Every movement is full of intensity, and when you hear her playing you can really feel the music bubbling over with an irrespresible sense of joy". Gillian Weir's ongoing contribution to the Messiaen centenary celebrations make for a busy year, with participation in the International Messiaen conference in Birmingham, Montreal's Messiaen Festival and Competition, and Messiaen recitals at Stanford University, Durham Cathedral and Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, Music at Oxford in Christ Church Cathedral, and many others. Gillian Weir is delighted to have been invited to open the Westminster Abbey Organ Festival as part of the South Bank Centre's Messiaen Festival with a performance on July 15 of Méditations sur le Mystère de la Sainte Trinité, selected by The Gramophone as one of July's best events worldwide. Don't miss the chance to hear Gillian talk live about her recital on BBC Radio 3's 'In Tune' on Monday July 14. _______________________________________________________________  Rayfield Artists at the PromsRayfield Artists singers will make a very strong showing at this years BBC Proms season, with four artists taking part. Robin Blaze returns after a highly-acclaimed performance of Bach cantatas last year with Suzuki and the Bach Collegium Japan: "The discovery of the evening was Blaze's perfect little fragment of a solo cantata" (The Times). He performs the alto solos in Bach's St John Passion with Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the Monteverdi Choir in Prom 51 on 24 August. Sharing the stage as bass soloist in the St John Passion is Matthew Brook, who made his Proms debut in 2007 with Gardiner and the Buskaid Soweto String Ensemble in Campra's Requiem, and won high praise for his Christus in the Dunedin Consort's recent recording of the St Matthew Passion: "the outstanding Christus of Matthew Brook… is little short of masterful with the range of colour, risk and gentle courtesy he brings" (The Gramophone). Patricia Rozario makes her impressive 8th appearance at the Proms in the UK premiere of Sir John Tavener's Cantus Mysticus with the London Sinfonietta in Prom 56 on 27 August. With texts by Goethe and Dante, culminating in an ecstatic celebration of the Divine Feminine, this performance marks another landmark in the unique relationship between Rozario and Tavener, who has written over thirty works for her. Also in Prom 56, David Wilson-Johnson performs Tavener's early cantata The Whale, first heard 40 years ago under the baton of David Atherton in the London Sinfonietta's inaugural concert, and performed with Atherton again this year to celebrate the orchestra's 40th anniversary. _______________________________________________________________ New staff at Rayfield Artists Following intensive interviews, Rayfield Artists has appointed two new administrators, Elisabeth Fleming and Matthew Ross. They are both Cambridge graduates, and between them they speak fluent French, German and Italian and have over ten years of arts administration experience which will prove invaluable to the growth of the agency. Liz currently manages English Voices, a professional choir which works regularly with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Academie für Alte Musik Berlin, and Concerto Vocale, and Liz has also been the company manager for the Cambridge Handel Opera Group for the past six years. Matthew is currently the Personal Assistant to internationally renowned conductor Ivor Bolton, and previous positions include manager of Clare College Choir in Cambridge and Planning Assistant at the OAE. We are delighted that Liz and Matthew have joined the Rayfield Artists team. _______________________________________________________________  Matthew Brook's "masterful" St Matthew PassionFollowing glowing reviews last year of Matthew Brook's bass solos in the Dunedin Consort's Messiah for Linn Records (Gramophone Award Winner 2007), the same collaboration sees his "powerful Jesus" (The Independent) take centre stage on their new recording of Bach's St Matthew Passion (Linn CKD 313). Jonathan Freeman-Attwood rates his interpretation of the final bass aria, 'Mache dich, mein Herze, rein', as "little short of masterful with the range of colour, risk and gentle courtesy he brings to this superlative emblem of unswerving faith" (The Gramophone). Brook captures the essence of the work in his "forthright, very human" (The Daily Telegraph) representation, and the interaction between Evangelist and Christus is of the highest level: "… it is Mulroy's identification with the outstanding Christus of Matthew Brook which raises the stakes in this performance. The timing between the two and the realism of the musical choreography is both remarkably patient and animated" (The Gramophone). Future engagements this season include performances in major concert halls all over Europe, with notable debut appearances with the Tonhalle-Orchester, Zurich (an all-Bach programme for conductor Marcus Creed) and the Edinburgh International Festival (two performances: Handel's Israel in Egypt under Emmanuelle Haïm and a Schütz/Brahms concert with the Monteverdi Choir and Sir John Eliot Gardiner), as well as a BBC Prom (St John Passion, also with the Monteverdi Choir and Sir John Eliot Gardiner). _______________________________________________________________  Three World Premieres in one night for Kate ValentineKate Valentine, recently signed to Rayfield Artists, has wowed critics with performances in Scottish Opera's innovative opera project Five:15. Kate garnered praise across the board for her performance as deaf and dumb Grizel in The King's Conjecture: "a starry central performance from Kate Valentine" - Financial Times; "the remarkable Kate Valentine" - The Stage; "the finest performance came from Kate Valentine, whose vibrant soprano, crisp diction and ardent presence lent several of the drabber pieces a degree of glamour they did not merit" - The Independent; "a beautiful soprano aria, a highly charged climax and a starry central role for Kate Valentine, who has developed in leaps and bounds since her Rosalinde for Scottish Opera's Fledermaus" - Opera. She also turned heads with her expressive characterization as Maria in Gesualdo, set to a libretto by number-one best selling crime novelist Ian Rankin: "Valentine again shone in the smaller part of Maria, this time as much for her histrionic charisma as for her personable soprano" - Opera. This season for Scottish Opera Kate sings Karolina in Smetena's The Two Widows at the Edinburgh International Festival and covers Alice Ford in Falstaff. Next season bring the exciting prospect of two company debuts: First Lady in The Magic Flute for ENO and Constanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail for Opera North. _______________________________________________________________  New Artist: Fitzwilliam String QuartetRayfield Artists is delighted to announce the addition of the legendary Fitzwilliam String Quartet to its artist list. The quartet, which celebrates its 40th anniversary in 2009, has a long history of collaborations with leading composers and musicians - most notably its personal association with Dmitri Shostakovich, for whom it gave the Western premières of his last three quartets, before becoming the first ever group to perform and record all fifteen. Its extensive repertoire encompasses not only all the great masters but also many works by contemporary composers, and its performances, invariably infused with a refreshing combination of depth and vitality, have been heard in major concert halls across Europe, Russia, North America, Africa, and the Far East. It is the only quartet equally at home performing on both period and modern instruments, a tribute to the extraordinary technique and flexibility of the players. The quartet has an enviably wide-ranging recording catalogue: its complete cycle of the Shostakovich Quartets for Decca Records won the first ever Gramophone Award for Chamber Music in 1977 and later a coveted Penguin Record Guide rosette, and it remains pre-eminent having been recently included in Gramophone's "Hundred Greatest-ever Recordings". The quartet's current collaboration with Linn Records is proving very fruitful - its first recording with the company of Haydn's Seven Last Words received nothing but the highest praise ('A chaste, inward reading [of the Seven Last Words], deeply musical and thoughtfully articulated......I'll stick with this beautifully balanced new recording.' - The Gramophone) and was followed by equally well-received discs of the Brahms Clarinet Quintet and a disc of 20th century English songs with piano quintet (including Vaughan Williams's On Wenlock Edge), in which it collaborated with James Gilchrist and Anna Tilbrook. Future plans include recording string music by Purcell, the Bruckner String Quintet, and the complete quartets of Tchaikovsky for Linn Records as well as invitations to perform all around the UK, and in the USA, South Africa, Switzerland, Denmark, Greece and Turkey. _______________________________________________________________  Outstanding reviews for Julia Sporsén's Donna AnnaJulia Sporsén's recent début with English Touring Opera has met with outstanding success. Her fiery portrayal of Donna Anna is inspirational and persuasive, and a tribute to the dramatic qualities of this rising star. Critical acclaim has been unanimous: "Julia Sporsén's gorgeously sung Donna Anna" - The Independent; "Julia Sporsén showing great promise as Donna Anna" - The Daily Telegraph; "Julia Sporsén makes Donna Anna an avenging fury, with steely tone and menacing coloratura" - The Sunday Times; "Julia Sporsén's Donna Anna…sings with a full-blooded intensity" - The Times. The tour continues throughout April and May. For more details please visit the ETO website by clicking here _______________________________________________________________  New Artist: soprano Mhairi LawsonRayfield Artists is delighted to announce the signing of one of the UK's most sparkling baroque sopranos, Mhairi Lawson. Mhairi has just started rehearsals at New York City Opera in the Mark Morris production of Purcell's King Arthur in which she made her ENO debut in 2006 to excellent reviews ("…'Fairest Isle' sung here with immense poise by Lawson…" - The Independent; "...Mhairi Lawson shone in 'Fairest Isle'.." - The Telegraph; "The work’s best-known number, 'Fairest Isle', is delivered beautifully by Mhairi Lawson in a tableau all the more effective for its stillness." - The Evening Standard). More information and performance dates can be found on the NYCO website. Mhairi continues to perform regularly in opera houses and concert halls worldwide with such ensembles as Les Arts Florissants, The Gabrieli Consort and The Scottish Chamber Orchestra, and with many leading conductors such as William Christie, Sir Charles Mackerras, Paul McCreesh, Jane Glover and Sir John Eliot Gardiner, and she has a specially close relationship with the virtuoso baroque band La Serenissima with whom she has made several recordings of Vivaldi arias. _______________________________________________________________  Gramophone Editor's Choice and Radio 3 Record of the Week for Rebecca OutramRebecca Outram's latest recording of Handel's Esther on Somm Records has been receving the highest critical plaudits, including the Record of the Week on BBC Radio 3's CD Review programme, as well as Editor's Choice in the January issue of Gramophone, where James Inverne said "Handelians will be flocking to this one, but so should everybody...An exciting, important and touching recording." Rebecca sings the role of Israelitish Woman in an all star cast that includes Rosemary Joshua and James Bowman, with the London Handel Orchestra under Laurence Cummings. Rebecca will be in the studio again next month recording Handel's Il Parnasso in Festa with the King's Consort. _______________________________________________________________ New Artist: Kate ValentineRayfield Artists is delighted to announce the signing of another very exciting young talent, soprano Kate Valentine. Kate graduated from the National Opera Studio in 2006, and has already sung the Countess for Glyndebourne On Tour, Rosalinde for Scottish Opera and a particularly successful Donna Anna for the Samling Foundation directed by Sir Thomas Allen. Having just finished covering Konstanze for Scottish Opera, she will remain with the company for the rest of the season covering the role of Alice Ford, and singing in two new short operas (Grizel in The King’s Conjecture and Maria in Gesualdo) as part of the five:15 chamber opera series as well as one of the title roles (Karolina) in Smetana's The Two Widows. _______________________________________________________________  Two important new Bach CD releasesfor Robin Blaze Robin Blaze continues to feature as a star soloist in Masaaki Suzuki's ongoing Bach recording project with the Bach Collegium Japan for BIS records. The two latest releases mark a high-point for Robin's contribution. The first is the monumental Mass in B Minor, and Gramophone has already described his contributions as follows "...the 'Et in unum Dominum' (with the admirable Carolyn Sampson and Robin Blaze) reveals its expectant delights, as does Blaze's heart-stopping 'Agnus Dei'." You can hear the entire Agnus Dei track by clicking here. The second release is a complete disc of Bach's solo cantatas for counter-tenor, featuring the cantatas Gott soll allein BWV169, Vergnügte Ruh BWV170 and Geist und Seele BWV35. Gramophone magazine was again effusive in its praise: "this accounts to a reading of some substance...Witness more golden Blaze in the last cantata to cap a disc of especially committed and engaged performances." Berta Joncus, on Radio 3's CD Review programme went even further saying "[Robin Blaze] just shines literally throughout this disc...Blaze is an extraordinary interpreter when it comes to sensitivity to text. I don't think I've ever heard such a seductive, limpid beauty of tone that has so much emotion behind it". For more information please click here. _______________________________________________________________  New Artist: David Wilson-JohnsonRayfield artists is delighted to have taken over the exclusive UK management of British baritone David Wilson-Johnson. David continues to enjoy a busy concert diary, and performances this season include Handel's Theodora with the SCO, Schumann's Das Paradies und die Peri with Simon Rattle and the OAE, Berlioz's L'Enfance du Christ with Ivor Bolton in Salzburg, Tippett's Child of our Time with Andrew Davis and the RPO, and a BBC Prom of Tavener's The Whale with the London Sinfonietta and David Atherton. His discography continues to grow, and his latest CD of Handel's Solomon with Daniel Reuss and the Akademie fur Alte Musik Berlin has inspired glowing reviews. |
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