On 6th June Liz performed as part of an opera gala, celebrating the 100th anniversary of Stoke-on-Trent becoming a city, live on BBC Radio 3. It featured Liz singing arias and duets by Mozart, Rossini and Puccini, including her first time singing the beautiful Si, mi chiamano Mimì. It is on BBC Sounds for a month at:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002d1kp

In May, Liz performed Mahler Symphony No 4 once again, with the wonderful Residentie Orkest and Jun Märkl in The Hague. The concerts were a huge success and will be broadcast on NPO Klassiek on 24th June.

https://www.npoklassiek.nl

Rather than give flowers at the end of the performance, the Residentie Orkest have commissioned beautiful linocut prints as gifts, as pictured.

After the success of Songs of Nadia Anjuman, which earned Richard Blackford nominations for both the Ivor Novello and Sky Arts Awards, Liz is delighted to be collaborating with this exciting composer again, this time on The Black Lake. Inspired by the great Welsh novel One Moonlit Night, Blackford’s soaring yet poignant work is for full orchestra, chorus, narrators, and soloists, tells the story of a boy’s passage to adulthood whilst growing up in a remote village in North Wales. Blackford’s music captures the beauty, sorrows, elements, and mysteries that surround this community who unite through music and song in times of sadness and joy. It has been commissioned by and will be premiered at The Three Choirs Festival, this year in Hereford. Liz will join the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in a programme which also includes Britten’s Les Illuminations.

Liz has stepped in at the last minute for a recording of Telemann’s fiery and exciting cantata Ino with the baroque ensemble Florilegium. Working without a conductor, Liz had just a few days to prepare, and found herself writing ornaments on the train as well as in the studio! There were many times when Liz said to herself, “I just wish I-knew it” (niche joke, when you know the cantata is pronounced I-know). The whole rollercoaster ride will be released in March, with a Wigmore Hall concert to celebrate the launch.

The Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra’s amazing app and website GSO Play will be releasing the video of my recent Mahler 2 there on 5th February so put it in your diary… You will have 28 days to indulge your senses with the miraculous Andrés Orozco-Estrada conducting and Karen Cargill’s infamous tonsils wrapping a silk glove around Urlicht. The orchestra play with their souls on fire. Not to be missed!

Catch me on BBC Sounds singing Mozart concert arias in Lausanne with the almighty Christian Zacharias. The arias are split over a couple of days and some groups of songs added from a few years back. Here is a link to the first broadcast to get you going… https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0026xs1

Rattle’s Spring Symphony has just won Classica magazine’s Orchestral Album of the Year as part of the LSO’s Britten box set. I was only a very small cog in this wheel but very happy memories of a great project and performance. Bravi tutti!

The recording of Richard Blackford’s acclaimed song cycle Songs of Nadia Anjuman featuring the Britten Sinfonia is now available on CD and on Spotify. The concerts garnered rave reviews and these songs nominated for both Sky Arts and Novello Awards. Listen on Spotify here:

Well, that was fun and people seemed to enjoy it… It was the most wonderful experince to conduct the Britten Sinfonia in this most moving and beautiful piece by Richard Blackford. Here what the reviews said…

“It was superbly performed by the Britten Sinfonia and Elizabeth Watts, who not only sang the solo part with flawless musicality and extraordinary passion, but somehow also managed to conduct the players as well.”
Richard Morrison, The Times

”Watts captured the spirituality of Finzi’s Dies Natalis while a tribute to Afghan poet Nadia Anjuman was sung with overwhelming commitment.”Martin Kettle, The Guardian