Name: Ema Nikolovska mezzo-soprano; Jonathan Biss piano
Start: 2026-09-17T19:30:00
Location: Wigmore Hall

Jonathan Biss

Ema Nikolovska

Wigmore Hall

In 2026, Jupiter celebrates John Dowland on the 400th anniversary of his death. Born in 1563, the composer and lutenist left us one of the most complete repertoires for his instrument, as well as numerous lyrical pieces contained in songbooks: the Songs of Ayres. Following the recording of Songs of Passion, an album released in September 2025 by Warner Classics and devoted in part to the composer’s passion arias, the ensemble honours him with a major programme that will include several excerpts from the songbooks and Lachrimae – compositions for viol consort – at the crossroads of poetry, lyricism and instrumental music. It will be performed by four singers, five gambists and lutenist Thomas Dunford, for whom ‘John Dowland was the John Lennon of the 16th Century.’ The popular dimension of his compositions is thus honoured, with a desire to highlight the different characters of music that is at once joyful, playful, mysterious, introspective, meditative and even amorous...

Thomas Dunford artistic director, lute; Jupiter Ensemble

The Elias String Quartet marks Sally Beamish’s 70th birthday year with a performance of two of the three quartets the group commissioned from her, each of which takes one of Robert Schumann’s string quartets as its point of creative departure. Its programme also includes a sequence of folk songs arranged by Donald Grant, Elias Quartet violinist and a master of the Scottish fiddle tradition.

Elias String Quartet

Internationally acclaimed British violinist Alex Redington leads The Purcell School Chamber Soloists in a performance of George Enescu’s monumental Octet. Redington is Head of Strings at The Purcell School of Music and is widely known as the founding first violinist of the Doric String Quartet, as well as for his distinguished solo and teaching career.

The Purcell School Chamber Soloists; Alex Redington director

A special showcase celebrating Samling Institute’s 30th anniversary. This recital brings together all the strands of Samling’s internationally recognised expertise in training young voices and pianists and features a glittering line-up of alumni from across the decades in an evening of song.

Samling Showcase

Yellow Barn’s Showcase continues with a compelling double bill. Ligeti’s 3 Pieces for 2 pianos, composed in 1978, opens with the thunderous chords of ‘Monument’ and includes the pulsating rhythmic energy of ‘Self-Portrait with Reich and Riley (and Chopin is there, too)’. The concert concludes with the eight movements of the Quatuor pour la fin du temps, composed and first performed in 1940, while Messiaen was a prisoner-of-war.

Yellow Barn Showcase Day

The Sunday Times praised the Jerusalem Quartet’s ‘immaculate, spirited playing’ in its recording of Mozart’s ‘Hunt’ Quartet, while The Times wrote of the ensemble’s ‘gold blend’ of ‘passion, precision, warmth’. It sets Mozart alongside the last of Bartók’s six quartets, completed shortly before its composer found refuge from war-torn Europe in the United States, before turning to Ravel’s ravishingly beautiful String Quartet in F.

Jerusalem Quartet

Vermont’s Yellow Barn, based in the heart of Putney Village Historic District, has become a chamber music haven, where international artists gather to work together with extraordinary rising talents and engage in a lively exchange of ideas. Wigmore Hall trains the spotlight on the Yellow Barn’s adventurous programming with a concert that explores the nature of spiritual transcendence and intercultural dialogue, complete with sounds from The Golden Record, two copies of which began their interstellar journey on the Voyager spacecraft in 1977.

Besides being one of the finest baritones of his generation, a natural successor to his great teacher, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Benjamin Appl is among the most thoughtful of programme builders. He opens his recital with the Jerusalem Quartet with Robert Schumann’s melodramatic Belsatzar, a spine-tingling ballad recalling Belshazzar’s feast from the Book of Daniel, and ventures into the world, past and present, and beyond into the infinite cosmos of dreams.

Benjamin Appl baritone; Jerusalem Quartet

Louise Farrenc’s Nonet raised its composer to celebrity status, propelled by the ovations with which the four-movement work was received at its première in 1850. Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective, described by Strings Magazine as being like ‘A big, glorious house party with a long and fabulous guest list’, brings the French composer’s sonorous score to life alongside Mozart’s Quintet in E flat, with its beguiling blend of instrumental sonorities and dazzling array of themes.

Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective

Steven Isserlis’s programme recalls the musical powerhouse of Leipzig in the mid-1800s. Mendelssohn, so impressed by the works of William Sterndale Bennett, invited the young English composer to the German city, where he met and became friends with Robert Schumann. Bennett’s gift for melodic invention shines in his Sonata Duo, written in 1852 for the virtuoso cellist, Antonio Piatti, as does Mendelssohn’s in his Bach-inspired Second Cello Sonata of 1842.

Steven Isserlis cello; Connie Shih piano

Patricia Brennan’s septet brings the vibrant sonic world of Breaking Stretch to the stage, weaving rhythmic invention with taut ensemble interplay. A milestone recording, Breaking Stretch was named the 2025 Downbeat Critics Poll Album of the Year, comprising detailed compositions shaped by Caribbean and Latin inflections, textured horns and dynamic percussion.

Patricia Brennan Septet

Lara Downes is a devoted champion of classical music by women composers and Black Americans, and an equally unequivocal advocate for the cause of democracy and freedom. Her programme today stems from her Pentatone release Love at Last, a collection of works that span generations, continents and cultures, united in a stubborn belief in the possibility of humanity, brotherhood, peace, compassion and the everlasting power of love. The inspiration comes from a poem by the 19th-century Odessa-born poet Shaul Tchernichovsky.

Lara Downes piano

From supernatural imagery and unsettling feelings of desire to the hope in darkness of Blondel zu Marien and the deathbed scene of Abschied von der Erde, Ema Nikolovska’s recital probes a nocturnal world of shadows and complex emotions. The mezzo-soprano, an alumna of Deutsche Oper Berlin’s renowned Opera Studio, is joined by Jonathan Biss, ‘a natural musical poet’, according to Gramophone.