News
THE GUARDIAN REVIEW – Claire Booth & Tamsin Waley-Cohen at Oxford International Song Festival
Booth/Waley-Cohen review – superb Kurtág
“One of the anniversaries marked in this year’s festival programme is the centenary of the death of Franz Kafka, and the first in a series of events around that theme was a late-evening performance in New College chapel of György Kurtág’s Kafka Fragments by soprano Claire Booth and violinist Tamsin Waley-Cohen. The hour-long song-cycle is Kurtág’s most substantial concert work and arguably one of his greatest, made up of 40 settings of scraps from his diaries and letters that run the gamut from everyday trivia to anguished confessions, and present enormous virtuoso challenges for both performers. Booth and Waley-Cohen met those challenges quite superbly, matching each other’s intensity; though it’s a work that is sometimes staged, as they showed, it really needs no theatrical extras to make a shattering impact.” Andrew Clements
THE TIMES REVIEW – SOLO VIOLIN ROADTRIP PAYS OFF
“Tamsin Waley-Cohen’s performance married steadiness and regularity with skittishness and passion”
Following Tamsin’s duo and solo performances with pianist Cordelia Williams for Music at Paxton, The Times reviews her programme featuring music of “fiendish difficulty, but played with focus and easy beauty that at times almost bordered on insouciance”.
MUSIC AT PAXTON WITH CORDELIA WILLIAMS
Following a interview with Scala Radio and BBC Radio 3 In Tune on 18 July 2024, Tamsin and Cordelia Williams are excited to perform a series of three concerts entitled ‘Dusk’ featuring music to be enjoyed at different times of the day. Works include Bach’s early F minor sonata which was believed by his son, CPE Bach, to be “among the best works of my dear father” and Arvo Pärt’s profoundly beautiful Spiegel im Spiegel (‘Mirror in the Mirror’) – his last work written before he moved from Estonia to the west in1978. Violinist Joseph Joachim, who premiered Schumann’s 2nd Violin Sonata, declared that the work “overflows with noble passion…one of the finest compositions of our time.” Full details here.
TWO MOORS FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES 2024 PROGRAMME
The 2024 festival theme will explore the daily 24 hour cycle of various lights and darknesses, wakefulness and slumber that we all experience. Highlights include appearances from artists including harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani, baritone Roderick Williams, Stile Antico, pianist George Fu, Tamsin Waley-Cohen, recorder quartet Palisander and brass quintet Connaught Brass, as well as a new song cycle exploring Exmoor folklore through the poetry of Samuel Taylor Coleridge for Roderick Williams and Christopher Glynn by Freya Waley-Cohen. Full details here.
UK TOUR WITH SHENZHEN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA AND CONDUCTOR DAYE LIN
Tamsin kicks off 2024 with an eight concert tour including performances in London’s Cadogan Hall, Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall, and Edinburgh’s Usher Hall performing Chausson’s Poeme for Violin and Saint Saen’s Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso.
tamsin will return to the stage after her maternity leave with a UK premiere at Wigmore Hall
Playing with George Fu, this December Tamsin will present the UK premiere of David Ludwig’s “Swan Song” alongside sonatas by Mozart and Beethoven.
GUEST ARTICLE FOR THE STRAD MAGAZINE ABOUT THE TWO MOORS FESTIVAL PROGRAMME
Tamsin has written an article about how her programming process around the theme of “Home” and her inspirations for this year’s Festival. Read the article here.
TAMSIN OPENS CHELTENHAM FESTIVAL WITH THE CBSO
In Tamsin’s final concert before taking a few months away from the stage to welcome her second child, Tamsin played the iconic Lark Ascending by Vaughan-Williams with Andrew Gourlay and the CBSO. David Truslove for Bachtrack wrote – “No less engaging or quintessentially English were the airborne ruminations belonging to Vaughan Williams’s The Lark Ascending, given an expressive outing by Tamsin Waley-Cohen. She imbued this “Romance” with considerable poise and subtlety, her self-communing notably creating a hall-stilling intimacy towards the close.”
TWO MOORS FESTIVAL PROGRAMME ON SALE
Tamsin is thrilled to present the programme for the 2023 Two Moors Festival. Exploring the theme of “Home” , the programme includes a World Premiere from Deborah Pritchard and contributions from artists including Ailish Tynan, the Maxwell Quartet, the Sitkovetsky Trio, Christopher Glynn, Huw Watkins, Mario Haering, Jack Liebeck, the Swingles, and David Orlowsky. Click here to see the full programme and buy tickets.
TAMSIN JOINS STEPHEN KOVACEVICH AT WIGMORE HALL
Tamsin joins the legendary Stephen Kovacevich for a special concert including Debussy and Beethoven sonatas at the Wigmore Hall.
TAMSIN MAKES WASHINGTON DC AND SAN FRANCISCO DEBUTS
Playing recitals with George Fu and James Baillieu, Tamsin makes her debuts in spring 2023 at both the Phillips Collections in Washington DC and the San Francisco Performances Series to rapturous reception.
NEW DISC AND WIGMORE HALL DATES TO END THE YEAR
The Albion quartet have released their latest disc on Signum Classics of Walton and Shostakovich quartets. Already it has received a 5 star review from BBC Music magazine, and you can hear them playing this repertoire at the Wigmore Hall on the 30th December 2022. Buy the CD here, and tickets for the Wigmore concert here.
TAMSIN STEPS IN WITH THE LARK FOR THE CBSO
Standing in for Pekka Kuustiso, Tamsin played the Lark Ascending by Vaughan-Williams at Birmingham Symphony Hall.
OLiver Knussen day at the Aldeburgh Festival
Tamsin played a number of pieces during the day of concerts commemorating Oliver Knussen, including Reflection written especially for her and Huw Watkins. Richard Morrison wrote in The Times about their Ravel Sonata that day “also gave a staggering good performance of the Ravel Sonata, its perpetual-motion finale fizzing like a firecracker”.
TAMSIN TOURS WITH THE ZAGREB PHILHARMONIC
Tamsin undertook an 8 date tour playing Sibelius concerto, conducted by Jan Latham-Koenig with The Times writing “The finest thing was the Sibelius Concerto, played with colour and energy by the British violinist Tamsin Waley-Cohen. She tailored her sound to every aspect of the concerto’s musical landscape, from the frigid opening to the lumbering finale, conjuring gorgeous tone in the instruments lower register, particularly in the slow movement.”
Tamsin and Huw at the Fidelio Café
Tamsin and Huw will be appearing for four nights at the Fidelio Café in London, playing Beethoven Sonatas 2, 4, 5, and 10. After the concert, Alan Rosenthal will serve special 3 course meal. Limited to 25 tickets a night, you can buy tickets and peruse the whole series here.
Concerts Announced at Wigmore Hall
Tamsin will be playing with the Albion quartet on the 29th of September and with Huw Watkins on the 16th November, as well as joining Stephen Kovacevich for his 80th birthday concert at this special autumn season that Wigmore Hall has planned. The concerts will be live-streamed and recorded by BBC Radio 3.
Two Moors Festival Announces Autumn Concerts
Tamsin is thrilled to be able to announce two weekend of celebratory concerts at the Two Moors Festival this September and October. Read about it and sign up to be the first to able to purchase tickets here.
5 STar reviews in for Beethoven Disc
Chosen by Gramophone Magazine as Editors Choice and BBC Music Magazine as Chamber Music Choice, Tamsin and Huw’s new Beethoven disc has been receiving rave reviews.
BEETHOVEN CD WITH HUW WATKINS IS RELEASED
Out today on Signum Classics – have a listen here!
TWO MOORS FESTIVAL PROGRAMME IS PUBLISHED
Tamsin is really pleased to be able to publish the planned festival programme for this autumn – check it out HERE! Or sign up for the mailing list here to be the first to know when tickets go on sale.
LIVING ROOM LIVE
At the beginning of Lockdown, Tamsin, together with her sister Freya, Freya’s fiance George Fu, and her husband Daniel, started Living Room Live, in an effort to create something positive for musicians and music lovers alike, as months of concerts were wiped from the diary. It is a collaborative sharing platform, and musicians from all over the world invite the listener in to their homes, to experience music the way we musicians live with it. Musicians are paid for their music making, and we invite donations and micropayments to support our online concert series. You can read more about it on our website, as well as watch all our past concerts at livingroom-live.com
ARTISTIC DIRECTORSHIP
Tamsin has been appointed Artistic Director of the Two Moors Festival! More information here – The Two Moors Festival
CPE BACH REVIEWS
The year started off with lovely reviews of the new triple CPE Bach disc with James Baillieu, including receiving editors choice in Gramophone Magazine. We also made a couple podcasts about it, The Classical Pod, and Thoroughly Good. You can of course stream or buy at all the usual places, or purchase it directly from Signum.
EDUCATIONAL CHARITY
With the Albion quartet, we have just launched our new educational charity, Friends of the Albion Quartet working with underprivileged and SEN schools across the country. Read more about it here.