Monteverdi Choir & Orchestra: new season
The following press release has been received from the Montevedi Choir & Orchestra:
Following two landmark performances at the Edinburgh International Festival – including John Tavener’s monumental The Veil of the Temple and a programme of Bach, Handel and Purcell at Usher Hall (also to be performed at Aldeburgh and Greenwich) – the Monteverdi Choir & Orchestras (MCO) return with bold and wide-ranging concerts and tours for the 2025-6 season.
The new season reaffirms MCO’s continued commitment to artistic excellence and innovation in historically informed performances. Collaborations with some of today’s most exciting conductors – many beginning multi-season explorations of a single composer – combine with broader-than-ever repertoire, including MCO’s first foray into the music of Rossini. Ambitious international tours to some of Europe’s most revered venues further signal a season of dynamic evolution and musical breadth.
MCO begins the season with an exciting new relationship with the celebrated Spanish conductor, Pablo Heras-Casado, who joins the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique (ORR) for the first time for concerts in London and Rimini. Joined by soloists Louise Alder, Eva Zaicik, Laurence Kilsby and William Thomas, he leads a programme anchored by Mozart’s Requiem, including Schubert’s Mozartian Symphony No. 5 and Bach’s motet ‘Singet dem Hern’, which famously inspired Mozart himself. (19 & 21 September)
In October, the focus turns in a bold new direction: Rossini. For the first time the Monteverdi Choir and ORR bring the clarity of period instruments and expertise to Rossini, launching a major new exploration of his music under the direction of rising conductor Jakob Lehmann. Renowned for his stylistic insight and emotionally charged, historically informed performances, this programme offers a rare opportunity to hear scenes from the opera Ermione alongside the powerful Stabat Mater, with a stellar line-up of soloists including Beth Taylor in the title role, Ana Maria Labin, Hannah Ludwig, Alasdair Kent and Anthony Robin Schneider at London’s Cadogan Hall. (2 October)
For the first time in more than 30 years, the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists bring their artistry to Handel’s Messiah in a festive tour across prestigious venues in Paris, Milan and Rome. Led by acclaimed Baroque specialist Christophe Rousset, the tour reunites the ensembles with the conductor following his electrifying debut in 2024, when The Guardian hailed the performance as “joyous and immaculate.” The 2025 tour includes Église Saint-Roch in Paris, the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, the legendary Teatro alla Scala in Milan and London’s St Martin-in-the-Fields and features soprano Ana Vieira Leite, mezzo-soprano Dame Sarah Connolly, tenor Andrew Staples, and bass William Thomas. (10-16 December)
Following his much-praised debut with the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque soloists in 2024 with Handel’s oratorio Israel in Egypt, Peter Whelan returns forBach’s St John Passion with top-tier soloists including Nick Pritchard, Konstantin Krimmel, Anna Dennis and Rebecca Leggett. This tours to Palau de la Musica, Barcelona and St Stephen’s Basilica, Budapest as well as a London performance. (6-10 Mar & 3 Apr)
A highlight of MCO’s 2025–26 season is the launch of a new partnership with one of London’s most historic venues: the recently restored Great Hall in the majestic North Wing of St Bartholomew’s Hospital. Completed in 1734, this opulent 18th-century space is one of London’s finest historic spaces and features the iconic Hogarth Stair, decorated with murals by the celebrated artist William Hogarth. Following a £9.5 million restoration led by Barts Heritage, supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the building reopens to the public in October 2025 with upgraded facilities and meticulously conserved architectural detail. MCO marks the occasion with a celebratory concert of Baroque masterpieces on 12 November, inaugurating what promises to be an inspiring new musical chapter for London audiences. [12 November]
Staying with historic spaces, MCO is also planning a site-specific and immersive performance of Purcell’s Dido & Aeneas under the hull of Cutty Sark in May 2026. Moored in Greenwich, where MCO often collaborates with its partner Trinity Laban for regular concerts in the Painted Hall of the Royal Naval College, Cutty Sark is the world’s most famous and only surviving tea clipper and a celebrated icon of Britain’s maritime heritage. Its striking dry-dock setting, where the 19th-century vessel appears to float above the ground, creates an extraordinary, atmospheric space beneath the ship’s hull, offering a dramatic and intimate environment for performance. MCO, under the baton of Jonathan Sells, will harness the unique acoustics and visual drama of the space to reimagine Purcell’s operatic masterpiece in a production that blends music, movement, and staging to immerse the audience in the emotional heart of the story. Full details will be announced in due course.
Throughout 2025-6 season, MCO will also intensify its longstanding commitment to music education, further developing its partnership with Trinity Laban through performances at the Old Royal Naval College and its groundbreaking Apprentice Programme, with its new ambassadors Dame Sarah Connolly and Mark Padmore.
Additionally, MCO’s latest album on SDG is out on Friday 26 September. Charpentier: Baroque Christmas was recorded live in December and features exquisite motets alongside the most famous mass setting by the 17th-century composer. The celebrated conductor Christophe Rousset, who returns for Handel’s Messiah in December, makes his recording debut with the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists.
Forthcoming highlights for Monteverdi Choir & Orchestras include:
Mon 28 July Snape Maltings, Aldeburgh Sing to the Lord a New Song
Sat 2 Aug Usher Hall, Edinburgh International Festival Tavener: The Veil of The Temple
Mon 4 Aug Usher Hall, Edinburgh International Festival Sing to the Lord a New Song
Thu 4 Sept Old Royal Naval College, London Sing to the Lord a New Song
Fri 19 Sept St Martin-in-the-Fields, London Mozart: Requiem
Sun 21 Sep Teatro Amintore Galli, Rimini Mozart Requiem
Thu 2 Oct Cadogan Hall, London Rossini: Sacred & Profane
Wed 12 Nov The Great Hall, St Bartholomew Hospital Sing to the Lord a New Song
Wed 10 Dec Église Saint Roch, Paris Handel Messiah
Sun 14 Dec Sala Sinopoli, Santa Cecilia, Rome Handel Messiah
Mon 15 Dec Teatro alla Scala, Milan Handel Messiah
Tues 16 Dec St Martin-in-the Fields, London Handel Messiah
The next recording on SDG is:
Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists (cond. Christophe Rousset)
Charpentier: Baroque Christmas
Release date: 26 September
Soli Deo Gloria SDG737