Thursday 21 June, 7pm
St Giles-without-Cripplegate
Storm and Refuge
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Press Reviews
June 2025: Eternal Light
The Trout Quintet
Mark Bebbington, Principals of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Thursday 19th June, St Giles-without-Cripplegate
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"When the temperature in London is higher than Naples at its grimiest, taking refuge within some mediaeval stone walls is a delightful thought. In truth, the interior of St. Giles without Cripplegate was still quite warm enough on 19 June, but at least the steam was not rising from its floor. The solution was to apply mind over matter and fuse with the trout in Schubert’s great quintet as it luxuriated in a mountain stream.
That was the culminating work in the second concert from ten days of Summer Music in City Churches, now in its seventh season. The series is imaginatively curated, combining a succession of choirs with players drawn from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and various singers and chamber soloists. It opened with the venerable Sir John Rutter conducting Fauré’s Requiem and ends with the rather astonishing edition by Richard Blackford of the Requiem by Verdi, whose massive orchestra is reduced to two pianos, an organ and a selection of percussion. St. Giles is the main venue, but in between the festival migrates to a few of those churches with magnificently resonant names: St. James Garlickhythe, St. Mary Abchurch and St. Botolph-without-Bishopsgate. It’s amazing how many saints had to do without in the City of London. St. Giles has to do without a bridge over the lily pond to the Barbican Hall, which has always seemed a pity.
The programme on Thursday reflected the ethos of the artistic directors; slightly spiritual in a gentle way, with a well-known classical work balanced by a couple of slightly less obvious ones…[the festival] fills a hole in London’s artistic life as the main concert season draws to a close and before the BBC Proms take over. The series receives no public funding (mind you, after the recent parsimonious set of grants to the arts, precious few good music organisations do) and it is a success. When the staff start having to put out extra chairs, it’s always an encouraging sign."
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​Simon Mundy, Eye on London
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***To see the full review, please click here***
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June 2024: Love's Labours
From Russia with Love
Tier3 Trio
Thursday 13th June, St Giles-without-Cripplegate
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"The ten day-long enterprise [Summer Music in City Churches] is proving ample consolation for the much-missed City of London Festival, which once captivated audiences in the Square Mile for three weeks and offers music of equal range and imagination."
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"Pianist Daniel Grimwood successfully evoked Orpheus’ lyre, while Jonathan Ayling’s burnished cello sound probed in counterpoint to Joseph Wolfe’s violin [Saint-Saëns little-known arrangement of Liszt's symphonic poem Orpheus]."
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"Here the arrangement was just right – balanced, elegant and fiercely dramatic towards the end. Clarity of line was secured through sensitive pedalling from Grimwood, the trio using the resonant acoustic to their advantage, while the individual cadenzas were brilliantly played." [Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto no. 2]
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"The balletic second movement Scherzo demands much of the piano, but Grimwood was its equal, sparkling passagework from the right hand dressed with twinkling figures for cello and piano. The emotional centre of the trio was in the slow movement, with a heartfelt tribute to Davidov in Ayling’s first solo, while the finale rounded everything up in a highly satisfying payoff, a return to the first movement’s profound theme capped with an emphatic closing section." [Arensky's Piano Trio no. 1 in D minor]​
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"These were very fine performances from a trio at the top of their game, navigating the resonant acoustic of St Giles with power and precision."​
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Ben Hogwood, arcana.fm
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***To see the full review, please click here***
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June 2023: Legends & Heroes
In Memory of a Hero
Tier3 Trio
Friday 9th June, St Giles-without-Cripplegate
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"Summer Music in City Churches is a week-long festival in London’s Square Mile, bringing a wide range of classical music to the capital’s audiences in a format that brings fond reminiscences of the much-missed City of London Festival."
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"St Giles’ Cripplegate played host to the Goliath of piano trios, the Tier3 Trio bringing us Tchaikovsky’s sole but very substantial essay in the genre...The balance between the instruments was ideal, thanks to Daniel Grimwood’s sensitive and clear phrasing at the keyboard, as well as careful attention to dynamic detail from violinist Joseph Wolfe and cellist Jonathan Ayling."
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"Early on there was brilliant virtuosity from Grimwood, the tumbling variations of the third variation giving it a balletic quality. These led into a passionate cello solo from Ayling, immediately contrasted by celesta-like sonorities from the upper range of the piano. An appropriately heroic seventh variation led to a fugue of impressive clarity and dexterity, before the figurations of the ninth variation unexpectedly conjured the vision of flowers falling onto a coffin."
"​This was an extremely fine performance of a piece whose impact remains considerable, an outpouring keenly conveyed to the St. Giles’ audience by players relishing the experience. As an encore Tier3 made a most imaginative and suitable choice, giving us a the fourth of Widor’s short Pieces en Trio. Titled Sérénade, it was a charming complement to the sunshine outside."
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Ben Hogwood, arcana.fm
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***To see the full review, please click here***
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June 2019: Words and Music
A Midsummer Night's Serenade, Words and Music (2019)
London Mozart Players, City of London Choir, Hilary Davan Wetton, Tama Matheson, Rebecca Bottone, Maya Wheeler-Colwell
Friday 9th June, St Giles-without-Cripplegate
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"This year’s festival had the theme of Words and Music and offered an enticing programme of recitals, talks and walks, focusing on English music through the ages, and finding enterprising ways of combining solo performers with resident ensembles the London Mozart Players and the City of London Choir. The closing concert showcased works inspired by Shakespeare plays, presenting them alongside Shakespeare’s words, spoken by actor Tama Matheson."
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Bernard Hughes, The Arts Desk​​
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***To see the full review, please click here***
June 2018: Swords & Ploughshares
Gathering Storm Clouds
Mark Bebbington, Rebeca Omordia, Irene Loh
Wednesday 27th June, St Giles-without-Cripplegate
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​"...[Mark] Bebbington generously shared the limelight with Rebeca Omordia and Irene Loh, as duet partners...revealing a wonderful range of pianistic colour. All the participants, and the organisers, are to be congratulated on the this out-of-the-ordinary concert."
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Monica McCabe, Musical Opinion Quarterly (Oct-Dec 2018)
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***To see the full review, please click here***
Flowers of the Field
Roderick Williams, City of London Choir, London Mozart Players (leader, Ruth Rogers), Hilary Davan Wetton
Wednesday 27th June, St Giles-without-Cripplegate
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"A new festival has been launched, Summer Music in City Churches, here commemorating the centenary of the First World War, with an emphasis on British composers affected by the Great War. This programme was carefully constructed to present an elegiac nostalgia for simpler times."
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*****
Amanda-Jane Doran, Classical Source
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***To see the full review, please click here***
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Storm and Refuge, Swords & Ploughshares (2018)
City of London Choir, Marta Fontanals-Simmons, Mark Williams, Bozidar Vukotic, Hilary Davan Wetton
Thursday 21st June, St Giles-without-Cripplegate ​​
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"…a fine start to the festival, which promises many good things…"​
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****
Ivan Hewett, Daily Telegraph
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***To see the full review, please click here***