“Love all. Trust a few. Do wrong to none” Helena is convinced that she and wealthy Bertram are #CoupleGoals. He’s not so sure. After engineering their betrothal, Helena will go to any length to bring her idealised version of romance to life. But what happens when the reality of their relationship doesn’t match up to the fantasy? And do the ends always justify the means? Director Blanche McIntyre's offbeat anti-romcom explores the modern resonance of Shakespeare’s enduring dark comedy.

In celebration of the 150th anniversary of the birth of Serge Rachmaninoff, PaTRAM* Institute Male Choir invites you to experience the extraordinary beauty of his choral tour de force, the All-night Vigil, composed in 1915.

The Vigil is a traditional Russian Orthodox evening worship service. Combining the offices of Vespers and Matins, it is celebrated on evenings in advance of Sundays and major feast days. Rachmaninoff’s setting of fifteen fixed texts appointed for Saturday evening services relies principally on traditional chant melodies. The ‘Rachmaninoff in the Holy Land’ project brought together experienced choristers from around the globe to unite as PaTRAM Institute Male Choir.

The album was recorded in the Russian Orthodox Convent Monastery Church of the Ascension, set amidst an olive grove atop the Mount of Olives, in Jerusalem. Inspired by Alexander Gretchaninoff’s arrangement of ‘Glory to God in the Highest’ (hymn 7), the Choir turned to adaptations by Dmitrii Lazarev and Benedict Sheehan for male voice choir of the remaining hymns. Lowering the key of many of the pieces (to fit better with male voices) allowed the eight bass octavists featured on the recording to give an exceptional depth to the Choir’s sound.

*Patriarch Tikhon Russian-American Music Institute

This album marks the culmination of two special Hallé collaborations and includes four major pieces from one of the most distinctive of current British compositional voices. Delyana Lazarova (Hallé Assistant Conductor 2020-23) and composer Dobrinka Tabakova (Hallé Artist in Residence 2022-23) were both born in the historic city of Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Working together for the first time during their time with the orchestra they formed a strong musical connection in which the Hallé musicians displayed a close understanding of the intricacies and dialect of Tabakova’s musical language. This album contains two of Tabakova’s major orchestral works. The three-part Earth Suite, which the composer says was inspired by ‘the overwhelming force of Nature’, recently drew ‘exquisite playing’ from the Hallé (Bachtrack, April 2023).

Orpheus Comet features fast rhythmic material combined with atmospheric transparent orchestrations and a glorious climax featuring quotations from Monteverdi. The two significant concertos for strings and soloists included on this album solidified Tabakova’s reputation as an outstanding contemporary voice and display the composer’s close affinity with string instruments. Ukrainian-British Maxim Rysanov, is one of Tabakova’s longest collaborators who premiered the Concerto for Viola and Strings in 2004, a piece described as being ’saturated with an inner, captivating and natural energy’ (Culture Magazine, Nov 2004). The Concerto for Cello and Strings (whose score was described as ‘gorgeous’ by the Daily Telegraph, Australia) is here performed by Guy Johnson, one of the most exciting British cellists of his generation.