Name: James Newby baritone; Joseph Middleton piano
Start: 2026-10-13T19:30:00
Location: Wigmore Hall

James Newby

Joseph Middleton

Wigmore Hall

Nadine Sierra, hailed by the Guardian for her ‘vocally breathtaking’, ‘sensationally good’ Lucia at the Royal Opera House in 2024, opens Wigmore Hall’s Season with a delightful musical voyage that begins in the dazzling world of Belle Époque Paris, where seductive melodies enchanted opera and salon audiences alike. The American lyric coloratura soprano then turns her captivating blend of vocal beauty and agility, musical artistry and charismatic stage presence to works infused with Latin passion and soul.

Nadine Sierra soprano; Bryan Wagorn piano

During the Renaissance musical composition flourished, but it was a time of great change, fuelled by religious division. This programme traces music written by some of the English Renaissance masters over a period of 200 years, encompassing florid medieval-sounding pieces by Pygott and Cornysh, intricately woven polyphonic works by Tallis and Byrd, and the beautiful simplicity of Mundy and Tomkins.

The Gesualdo Six

Johann Sebastian Bach’s timeless art, Beethoven’s readiness to demolish the boundaries of convention and the young Schubert’s debt to Beethoven provide the threads that bind Víkingur Ólafsson’s compelling programme. The superstar Icelandic pianist follows his spellbinding performances of Bach’s Goldberg Variations at Wigmore Hall in 2025, acclaimed by The Times as ‘breathtaking’ in its five-star review, with works charged with the power to beguile and, in the case of Bach’s Partita and Beethoven’s Op. 109, shock with their sheer audacity and inventive brilliance.

Víkingur Ólafsson piano

Jean-Guihen Queyras has formed a profound relationship with Bach’s towering masterwork for his instrument over many years and recorded the composer’s complete Cello Suites twice. Countless subtle details, an exquisitely fine expression of shifting emotions and a sense of effortless flow run through the French cellist’s entrancing interpretations of all six suites.

Jean-Guihen Queyras cello

Friendship and common bonds of artistic curiosity and empathy unite the outstandingly fine players of Trio Zadig. The Paris-based ensemble, who recently received a coveted five-star review from Diapason magazine for its Mendelssohn Legacy album, opens with an impassioned miniature by Lili Boulanger before traversing two mighty four-movement works from the 1840s, Robert Schumann’s intensely romantic Piano Trio No. 1 and Felix Mendelssohn’s dramatic Piano Trio in C minor.

Trio Zadig

Hailed by BBC Music Magazine as ‘one of the most brilliant ensembles on the early music stage today’, il Pomo d’Oro brings incendiary energy and electrifying verve to the historically informed performance of music from the Baroque and Classical periods. Named for Antonio Cesti’s eponymous opera, the period-instrument and vocal ensemble often works under the direction of its chief conductor, Maxim Emelyanychev, or its leader, Zefira Valova, to bring fresh life to everything from Handel’s operas and oratorios to the symphonies of Mozart.

il Pomo d’Oro; il Pomo d’Oro Choir

Tchaikovsky and Mahler, though possibly divided by cultures or language, revered and championed each other in life. Their music, unafraid to release potent feelings or ask our biggest spiritual questions, still unites us all across borders, political conflicts and war in reminding us of our souls’ shared fragility and humanity.

Alice Coote mezzo-soprano; Sergey Rybin piano

Allan Clayton and Paul Lewis marked Schubert’s birthday last season at Wigmore Hall with a performance of Winterreise deeply rooted in the work’s penetrating study of the human psyche. They turn to another great landmark of Lieder in the form of the composer’s Die schöne Müllerin, 20 songs that chart a lover’s journey from boundless hope to crushing despair.

Allan Clayton tenor; Paul Lewis piano

Christian and Tanja Tetzlaff, consummate solo artists and devoted chamber musicians, are joined by their regular partner Kiveli Dörken, founder and artistic director of the Molyvos International Music Festival on the Greek island of Lesbos. They bring two remarkable works to life, opening with Smetana’s Piano Trio in G minor, written as a memorial to the Czech composer’s young daughter, and Tchaikovsky’s Piano Trio in A minor, an impassioned elegy for the life of his late friend and frank critic, Nikolai Rubinstein.

Christian Tetzlaff violin; Tanja Tetzlaff cello; Kiveli Dörken piano

Mishka Rushdie Momen’s recording of works by 16th- and 17th-century English and Dutch composers, aptly titled Reformation, captured the hearts of open-minded critics and listeners. Described by The Times as ‘one of the most thoughtful and sensitive of British pianists’, she breathes fresh life and colours into works by the great French composers for harpsichord in a programme rich in spirit and expressive diversity.

Mishka Rushdie Momen piano

Angela Hewitt, praised by the Guardian for the ‘wonderfully controlled expressive focus’ of her artistry, and members of the Dunedin Consort form an ideal partnership with an enchanting programme to match. The Canadian pianist, having given her first UK performance on fortepiano at Wigmore Hall in 2024, returns to the instrument for two contrasting concertos, the first an emotionally stormy work from the mid-1740s, the second being one of Mozart’s most intimate compositions for keyboard and ensemble.

Angela Hewitt fortepiano; Dunedin Consort

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Chamber Tots

Young Schubert was swept away by Johann Michael Vogl’s performance as Orestes in Gluck’s Iphigenia in Tauris at Vienna’s Hofoper in 1813. They met for the first time four years later, beginning a creative friendship that inspired Schubert to write some of his greatest songs, Erlkönig and Ganymed among them. James Newby recalls the composer’s debt to Vogl with a programme that reveals the profound depth and enduring legacy of their collaboration.