Special Christmas offer! Two for the price of one!
For our last supper concert before Christmas – Shirley Smart and Dominic Ingham Jazz specials – we are offering a Christmas gift of two tickets for the price of one. Go to the booking page and book two tickets but just make one donation.
6.30pm 27th November – drinks, Jazz with a touch of Bartok – and supper! All only £30. Book here.
London Handel Festival 2025
Public booking for this year’s festival opens on Wednesday – and how can we wait!
Eighteen different events include everything from full blooded Handel operas and choral works (Floridante, L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato and Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno) in St George’s Hanover Square to lunchtime concerts at The Charterhouse and the Handel Hendrix House with baroque chamber groups and young early instrument players.
In between are celebrity recitals (soprano Emőke Baráth), a tercentenary celebration of St George’s itself, the return of the utterly delightful Bjarte Eike and his Barokksolistene, another super exciting production from the Handel Opera Studio (the Tales of Apollo and Hercules) in Shoreditch Town Hall – and of course, the world famous Handel Singing competition.
However, what makes the 2025 programme particularly enticing is the new musical partnerships that the festival has formed. Following the departure last year (after 25 glorious years) of Lawrence Cummings as musical director and principal conductor, the festival is starting a new collaboration with period performance ensemble Arcangelo and its artistic director Jonathan Cohen; they will become the festival’s Principal Ensemble in Residence and Jonathan Cohen Artistic Adviser. Meanwhile, the London Handel Orchestra will have a new conductor in Richard Gowers. All of whom will be nicely bedded in in time for the Festival’s 50th birthday celebrations in 2026!
The festival has set a remarkably high enjoyment bar in previous years – well, in the two years that I have known about it anyhow.
If it is new to you, check out this post about last year’s festival (which included a trip down the the river serenaded by Handel’s Water Music to get to the performance of Aci by the River at Trinity Buoy Lighthouse) – or this post in which I first met the festival at an extraordinary performance of two of Handel’s early cantatas at the hugely atmospheric Stone Nest in the heart of London’s West End.
If you are a festival supporter you will probably already have made your choices and done your bookings. If not, I suggest you get in there quick as some of the smaller venues book out very quickly.
Thank goodness Shoreditch Town Hall is fairly large as I definitely do not want to miss out on the Tales of Apollo and Hercules. This is billed to be ‘a spellbinding evening of mythical and fantastical storytelling through drama and dance – an exploration of the lives of two tragic and divine half-brothers, their quest for love, their battles with choice and anguish, and their acceptance of fate….’ And, going on the Handel Opera Studio’s previous offerings, I am sure it will be spellbinding!
Booking for the 2025 London Handel Festival opens on Wednesday 20th November – all details here.
5th December Lunchtime harp recital
We are delighted to be welcoming Aisha Palmer, one of our Philharmonia MMSF fellows, back at 1pm on December 5th for another harp recital. Her programme will include pieces by Scarlatti, Hindemith, Debussy, Chertok and Fauré.
£15 to include a glass of wine. Book here.
For other future happenings in at Hampstead Lane and elsewhere – see our Upcoming Events page.
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