🖼️🤔👓 As part of @wigmore-hall.org.uk’s 125th anniversary festival, @carolynsampson.bsky.social @josephmiddleton.bsky.social gave a recital of songs dating back to 1901. A sensitive performance, full of warmth & joy. More enthusiasm in my write-up here… artmuselondon.com/2026/06/05/m...

An hour of pure pleasure from @carolynsampson.bsky.social @josephmiddleton.bsky.social in this superbly programmed & dazzlingly performed recital, taking us back to 1901, @wigmore-hall.org.uk’s birth-year. Find it on BBC Sounds (search for 'Wigmore Hall 125' for this & other gigs in the series).

A new recital from @carolynsampson.bsky.social @josephmiddleton.bsky.social is always a red-letter day: every song here dates back to 1901, when @wigmore-hall.org.uk opened. So, a gratuitous day off for me, heading into town, then via the 'record shop route' to the venue. Looking forward!

Well done to my barber, who has once again successfully located my face.

Applause for Lise Davidsen & James Baillieu after their Wigmore Hall recital this evening.

Happy birthday @wigmore-hall.org.uk - we’re here to celebrate by hearing Lise Davidsen sing Schubert to us from the middle distance! Caresser of the keys: James Baillieu. Looking forward!

Ma & Pa Specs. (Meal out for Mum’s birthday in the noisiest restaurant on the planet! I think Dad has heard 4.5 words all evening…)

The splendid Toyah takes Epsom. A joyous evening: headspinning anecdotes dovetailing with thrilling renditions of some of her greatest songs. An unstoppable force!

Two captivating evenings @unionchapeluk.bsky.social with @thehandsomefamily.bsky.social, celebrating one of their finest albums. ‘Singing Bones’, along with highlights from the other Family albums. I have loved this band for 30 years & they never fail to thrill & intrigue.

Well, we’ll remember when we said ‘goodbye’. The wonderful Emmylou Harris on her ‘Farewell Tour’ @royalalberthall.bsky.social last night, in fine fettle & splendid voice. A majestic set with more than my fair share of personal favourites. 👏👏👏

Thrilled with the results of this recent photo session with the remarkable @joquailcello.bsky.social - thank you, Jo! 🙏💐

😔 David Burke. youtu.be/dsN9m_djbwg?...

The brilliant @barbjungr.bsky.social listens intently to another sublime solo from Simon Wallace at tonight's birthday show at Crazy Coqs. How she turns these songs inside out until they are hers is a mystery I'm happy never to solve. A wonderful evening, as ever.

First time seeing [Ahmed] - won’t be the last! Full-throttle set launching their new ‘Play Monk’ album & ‘Writing’ book @cafeotodalston.bsky.social this afternoon.

Messiaenic magic & mayhem superbly harnessed by Simone McIntosh & Nathaniel LaNasa this afternoon @wigmore-hall.org.uk. 'Harawi' - totally new work for me but instantly engaged by the duo's obvious craft & commitment to the piece. (A recording would be most welcome... 🙏)

Saying farewell to Hamburg today. 😔 Fantastic trip.

Applause for ‘Elektra’ at Staatsoper Hamburg. A full-on, furious production; a magnetic, menacing cast & and a raging orchestra testing the acoustic to its limits. Brilliant.

“Aga-MEM-non!” Our 1st visit to Staatsoper Hamburg for ‘Elektra’: looking forward! (Guest thumbs: Mrs Specs.)

😍 Mrs Specs, Hamburg.

Hamburg: great city in glorious weather.

First morning in Hamburg.

Pair of Specs, Hamburg, on train from airport to hotel. Here for: ✅ Handel’s ‘Brockes Passion’ @elbphilharmonie.de ✅ Miniatur Wunderland ✅ ‘Elektra’ at Staatsoper Hamburg Looking forward! - now off out to explore…

Let the head scratching, biro chewing, & diary scrambling begin! Especially excited for the English National Opera season as ever but enticing stuff from RBO, Proms - & (Wig)more!

Me, with a cough.

Well, this is exciting.

Another extraordinary residency by The Necks at @cafeotodalston.bsky.social. So inventive & inspiring. 3 days, 4 gigs: 8 new pieces lived, loved & now lost. The memory of how exhilarated they make you feel remains.

Upstairs, downstairs… two superb visits to Royal Ballet & Opera for ‘Siegfried’ (main stage) & ‘The Turn of the Screw’ (Linbury) - more enthusiasm in my write-up for ArtMuseLondon here… artmuselondon.com/2026/04/06/t...

Some Specs-tras making a cameo appearance…

Wozzecco. The Gospel According to the Other Bloody Mary. The Turn of the Screwdriver.

Lots to unpack from the governess’s suitcase in RBO’s ‘Turn of the Screw’: water metaphors, horror film homages, doppelgänger imagery - but it all gelled to fill the Linbury with otherworldly suspense. The amazing cast made it real & sang us into the next world.

Flying solo tonight at RBO for 'Turn of the Screw' in the Linbury. Quite quiet up here when everyone else is already in 'Mayerling'!

👏👏👏 for a beautiful St Matthew Passion yesterday evening @barbicancentre.bsky.social with Arcangelo & a fine line-up of soloists: Nick Pritchard, Alex Rosen, @carolynsampson.bsky.social, Hugh Cutting, Hugo Hymas & Thomas Bauer. Wonderful.

#RBOSiegfried: possibly the most super-charged 4.5 hours of opera I’ll see in some time. Just a brilliant night out: Kosky’s visual inventiveness; a relentlessly physical, high-energy cast; Pappano & the orchestra filling the space with drive & detail. C’mon ‘Götterdämmerung’!

Pair of Specs back in the amphi for #RBOSiegfried. Currently 1st interval & the sparks are flying!

[Pair of Specs staring at general knowledge crossword.] Me: ‘Do you know the answer to the one about the ancient Greek city? Seven letters.’ She: ‘Reckon it’s Corinth.’ Me: ‘Gah! Can’t be. We know it starts with D.’ She: ‘Dorinth.’

Rounding off @africanseries.bsky.social @wigmore-hall.org.uk this evening in dazzling fashion: the great Tunde Jegede leading his NOK Orchestra & colleagues through latest album ‘Invocation’ (& more). Another fascinating, uplifting festival (🙏 curator @rebecaomordia.bsky.social) - back on 27 June!

Onward with @africanseries.bsky.social @wigmore-hall.org.uk: Gweneth Ann Rand & Allyson Devenish’s special performance (the first, in fact) of Fred Onowerosuoke’s ‘12 African Songs’ cycle in its entirety plus William Grant Still’s remarkable ‘Songs of Separation’. Electrifying. Back at 7.30pm!

Spellbinding @africanseries.bsky.social morning set from Rapasa Nyatrapasa Otieno singing & playing nyatiti with Rowland Sutherland guesting (plus a great solo number) on flute. Back in at 3pm! @wigmore-hall.org.uk

It begins! Back @wigmore-hall.org.uk for @africanseries.bsky.social - I’m here for all 3 gigs today, Mrs Specs doing morning & evening. Looking forward!

Going nocturnal @wigmore-hall.org.uk this evening: a thoughtfully programmed & beautifully performed recital by @jjohnstonmezzo.bsky.social & Malcolm Martineau. 🙏

An illuminating and fascinating workshop at the Imperial War Museum as part of the Resettling the Colonial Lens project led by University of Nottingham

Hello! I thought this account would be a nice opportunity to share a bit more about the collections and work going on at Kew Gardens' Library and Archives. Here is a beautiful spring-like image of a Narcissus and a Fritillaria from a work by Sebastian Schedel known as the Calendarium

It’s @africanseries.bsky.social time again - three concerts this Saturday @wigmore-hall.org.uk. Chamber, song & large band: something for everyone so come along & get involved! Book for any (or all - you know you want to) of the gigs here: www.wigmore-hall.org.uk/search?term=...

A joyous afternoon of Handel in the company of Gabrieli, @carolynsampson.bsky.social Laurence Kilsby et al at @sinfoniasmithsq.bsky.social. Such life-affirming singing & playing: almost 3 hours of music & I would have happily stayed for 3 more. Energy, emotion, élan!

Pair of Specs, in shock decision to pop into London for some culture!

🖼️🤔👓 Treated to a restorative wallow in Dowland’s melancholy at Milton Court last week courtesy of Fretwork, featuring Ian Bostridge & Elizabeth Kenny. More enthusiasm in my write-up for ArtMuseLondon here… artmuselondon.com/2026/03/10/t...

The Sixteen, following a lovely evening of Bach & Byrd @wigmore-hall.org.uk last night.

🖼️🤔👓 Weill away a few minutes with my write-up for ArtMuseLondon of the recent knockout ‘Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny’ at ENO… artmuselondon.com/2026/03/04/q...

“Well, really, R2. Out drinking again?”

As expected, a beautiful concert. Fretwork, Ian Bostridge & Elizabeth Kenny take their bows at Milton Court.