Anna Joubert

Our seductive Bosch-themed concert with @colla-voce.bsky.social is on Friday 10 October! Wonderful music including James MacMillan, Thea Musgrave, John Joubert, Anselm McDonnell, Agneta Sköld, Pizzetti, Cardoso, Vivanco and much else! Tx www.londinium-voices.org.uk/events

Thanks for the *whole* Young Person’s Guide, Tom!

JANE EYRE review by thespyinthestalls at Arcola Theatre review of JANE EYRE | Arcola Theatre | thespyinthestalls | 5 stars | Green Opera’s production of John Joubert’s Jane Eyre turns the best

Opening night of Jane Eyre was pretty special. Can't wait for my two remaining perfs on Fri and Sat (tix available). Great to see this 5* response.Experience an inspired and immersive staging. Congrats Eleanor Burke and the whole cast, crew and orchestra
thespyinthestalls.com/2025/08/jane...

Hope so! Thank you.

Preview | Jane Eyre at the Arcola Theatre This summer, John Joubert’s final opera is fully staged for the first time. Director Eleanor Burke tells us how memory, music, and sustainability converge in a radical reimagining of Brontë’s classic ...

www.gramophone.co.uk/opera-now/fe...

Piece from The Yorkshire Post about the final performance of the Yorkshire Symphony Orchestra on 30 July 1955 – 70 years ago. It includes a photograph of a sign that had been hung over the entrance to the players’ dressing room on the night they played their final concert. It reads: ‘Wreaths made to order’. Also a photograph taken by me during the COVID19 pandemic in 2020. It’s of the War Memorial in Leeds with Leeds Town Hall in the background on a day of bright sunshine, crystal clear air and fair weather clouds. Wreaths of poppies lie around the base of the memorial. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04v381r

Last concert of Yorkshire Symphony Orchestra 30 July 1955 ended with March to the Scaffold from Symphonie Fantastique by Berlioz.
A trumpeter blew 'The Last Post' in the pub.
Brass instruments saw off conductor Norman del Mar at Leeds station.
Death of an orchestra: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b...
3/3

Adopting this one and bringing her home next week!

Roger Norrington must have been 25 when he sang tenor in this 1959 concert. I found the programme amongst Dad’s things. A very enterprising line up of music!

One of the best!

Which one are you reading?

Looking forward to Jane Eyre - my Dad’s last opera - at Grimeborn in August:

Page 1 of a typed letter, with manuscript salutation: The Red House, Aldeburgh, Suffolk. 16th February, 1961. My dear Mr Fischer-Dieskau, Please forgive me for writing to such a busy man as yourself - you can be sure that if i did not feel very strongly I should not be troubling you! Coventry Cathedral, like so many wonderful buildings in Europe, was destroyed in the last war. It has now been rebuilt in a very remarkable fashion and for the reconsecration of the new building they are holding a big Festival at the end of May and beginning of June next year. I have been asked to write a new work for what is to us all a most significant occasion. I am writing what I think will be one of my most important works. It is a full-scale Requiem Mass for chorus and orchestra (in memory of those of all nations who died in the last war) and I am interspersing the Latin text with many poems of a great English poet, Wilfred Owen, who was killed in the First World War. These magnificent poems, full of the hate of destruction, are a kind of commentary on the Mass; they are, of course, in English. These poems will be set for tenor and baritone, with an accompaniment of chamber orchestra, placed in the middle of the other forces. They will need singing with the utmost beauty, intensity and sincerity.

Page 2 of a typed letter, with manuscript signature: Peter Pears has agreed to sing the tenor part, and with great temerity I am asking you whether you would sing the baritone. You may not, I fear, be free (the dates of the two performances are May 30th and June 1st, with rehearsals the few previous days), and above all you many not feel inclined to do this, but I am earnestly hoping that you may be free and willing; in which case the direction of the Coventry Festival will write to you direct to make all practical arrangements, and I will send you the music when it is written, which will be at various stages during the year. Peter Pears joins with me in sending warm greetings. Please forgive me for troubling you, Yours sincerely, Benjamin Britten

Embarrassed to have missed the actual date, but 48 hours late: Wednesday was the centenary of the great baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, one of Britten's trusted collaborators. Here's Britten asking him, tentatively, to take part in the first performance of the War Requiem, if he's not too busy.

It was great to see you and hear you in ‘Paddington’s First Concert’. It was brilliant to play!

In #Worcester for @elgarfestival.bsky.social

It’s not there any more..It was the Adrian Boult Hall at the old and now demolished Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. The conservatoire is in newer premises.

Oh yes, do get one! I’ve just sent her your piece. We’ve been in touch over the last few days. She shares a birthday next week with my Mum. Mum on left Monica on right 🥰

1/3. It is with great sadness that we share the news that our dear colleague and friend David Watkin has passed away.
David was one of the finest cellists of his generation - a master soloist, chamber musician, orchestral leader, and conductor.

Do you know if John’s wife Monica has seen this? I can forward it to her. I know she’d be pleased to see it.

Some of Dad’s covers were designed by Richard Shirley Smith. I’ve just looked him up and pleased to see he’s still alive aged 90. www.richardshirleysmith.co.uk

Petition: Make the arts part of UK National Renewal | Campaign for the Arts The Chancellor is reviewing all public spending from scratch. The arts make our lives happier and our communities stronger. Now is the moment to invest in them.

The UK Chancellor is reviewing all public spending from scratch. Please sign the @campaignforthearts.org petition to remind the UK Govrenment that the arts make our lives happier and our communities stronger. Now is the moment to invest in them. www.campaignforthearts.org/petitions/sp...

Very sad indeed…

When scores had individually designed covers - in colour!

Yes it did, thank you! Next time - and bring a cushion?

A beautiful symmetry at Pitville Pump Rooms #Cheltenham before our concert today @englishsymphony.bsky.social

Oh, that’s lovely. Thanks so much.

John Joubert: St. Mark Passion, Missa Wellensis & Locus Iste John Joubert: St. Mark Passion, Missa Wellensis & Locus Iste. Resonus Classics: RES10198. Buy CD or download online. Peter Auty (tenor), Benjamin Bevan (baritone), Richard May (cello), David Bednall (...

Yes, and it’s reduced at the moment! www.prestomusic.com/classical/pr...

A stroll through the churchyard at St Nicolas, Kings Norton #Birmingham in the sunshine - en route to the dentist…

Sorry to have missed you again. One day I’ll be able to stay for the second half!

In Composer of the Week each day 4pm @BBCRadio3 Donald Macleod explores the life & work of French composer Mel Bonis. The series was produced by our much-missed friend & colleague Johannah Smith, who died earlier this year. We broadcast it in her memory. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...