Laurence Cummings

Conductor

• Biography
• Reviews
• Repertoire
• Photos

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  Laurence Cummings is one of Britain’s most exciting and versatile exponents of historical performance both as conductor and harpsichord player. Music Director of the London Handel Festival since 1999, he has just completed his inaugural year in the same role at the Internationale Händel-Festpiele Göttingen, as well as acting as Music Director for Orquestra Barocca Casa da Musica Porto and as trustee of Handel House London.

  He has conducted productions for English National Opera, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Gothenburg Opera, Opernhaus Zurich, Garsington Opera, English Touring Opera and at the Linbury Theatre Covent Garden. He regularly conducts the English Concert and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and has worked with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Ulster Orchestra, Handel and Haydn Society (Boston), St Paul Chamber Orchestra (Minnesota), Wiener Akademie, Zurich Chamber Orchestra, Hallé, Britten Sinfonia, Northern Sinfonia, Jerusalem Symphony and Basel Chamber Orchestra.

  His numerous recordings include the first recording of Handel’s newly discovered Gloria with Emma Kirkby, and Handel Arias with Angelika Kirschlager and the Basel Chamber Orchestra for Sony BMG.

  Current engagements include commitments at the London and Göttingen Handel Festivals, collaborations with the London Handel Players, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Royal Scottish National Orchestra and further engagements at Casa da Musica in Porto, Zurich Opera House, Gothenburg Opera and Opera North.

  Laurence Cummings is represented worldwide by Andrew Rosner at Rayfield Allied.
  This biography is for information only and should not be reproduced.

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  • Siroe, Re di Persia
    Göttingen Handel Festival (May 2013)

    This is new artistic director Laurence Cummings’ first opera in Göttingen, and it must count as a high point in the festival’s history... Together, Cummings and Karaman have created an evening of Handel that looks and sounds as fresh as if it had been written yesterday. On the podium, Cummings hits every tempo bang in the middle, so that phrases are light and airy, architecture is solid yet soaring, recitatives feel like free speech, and it is often hard not to stand up and dance. His orchestra is superb. This is both musical discovery and pure joy; this is how Handel should be.

    Shirley Apthorp, Financial Times *****

  • Imeneo, London Handel Festival
    Royal College of Music

    From curtain up, Laurence Cummings and the London Handel Orchestra get the sparks to fly.

    Richard Fairman, The Financial Times ****

    It was a bold stroke for conductor Laurence Cummings to open the London Handel Festival with a production of this rarity by singers from the Royal College of Music. But these singers have excellent comic timing, and under Paul Curran’s direction manage to do full justice both to their characters and to the demands of the score – vintage Handel and, as Cummings and his period-instrument ensemble deliver it, wonderfully rich and varied.

    Michael Church, The Independent

    The evening’s best feature is the playing of the London Handel Orchestra under Laurence Cummings.

    George Hall, The Guardian

    Laurence Cummings and the London Handel Festival Orchestra were able to offer us a musical interpretation of the highest order; in fact the orchestra last night could have given Concerto Köln a run for their money, such was the energy, verve and commitment given to this attractive if neglected score.

    Miranda Jackson, Opera Britannia

    Laurence Cumming’s period London Handel Orchestra gave immense pleasure from the Britten Theatre’s tiny pit, with judicious tempos and forward propulsion where appropriate. All of which meant that Imeneo, in any case one of Handel’s shorter operas, never outstayed its welcome.

    Hugh Canning, Opera Magazine

  • Magnificat in D
    Christ Church Spitalfields

    There was the English Concert’s festival night at Christ Church Spitalfields, when Laurence Cummings directed superbly poised period accounts of Bach’s Magnificat in D and his cantata ‘Schwingt frendig euch empor’, BWV36.

    Paul Driver, Sunday Times Review

  • Messiah
    Opera de Lyon

    Conducted by a long-standing Handel expert like Laurence Cummings, the orchestra, through their adoption of phrases that mirror the specialized training of the music of the era, make the audience completely forget that they are playing on modern instruments.

    Laurent Bury, Forum Opera

  • SALE
    Zurich Opera House

    ...Conductor Laurence Cummings (who sings “Comfort Ye” from the podium), is universally excellent. Cummings has style and lets the phrases breathe; his orchestra plays well. For chorus numbers, the singers are joined by the actors, who can all hold a musical line.

    Shirley Apthorp, Financial Times

    …one of the most surprising and flawless performances comes from the conductor, when he turns around to us and sings the Messiah recitative “Comfort ye my people” in a very fine tenor. Laurence Cummings is an important musical figure in London, and has recently taken over the artistic direction of the Göttingen Handel Festival. His direction of the Zurich baroque band La Scintilla inspires SALE. Whether the music is pensive or stormy, the performance is of a high order. The famous “Lascia ch’io pianga” becomes a wonderfully heartfelt chorus and, thanks to Cummings, even the actors have impeccable intonation here.

    Badische Zeitung

    …It is not surprising that the musicians, quite the contrary to the stage direction team, are rapturously applauded. Leading the way is the in-house Baroque ensemble La Scintilla under Lawrence Cummings. Cummi ngs, new head of the Handel Festival Göttingen , is an experienced baroque specialist who advocates speedy tempos, a bright sound and a thrilling approach.

    Reinhard J. Brembeck, Süddeutsche Zeitung

    Cummings has one of his best nights on this occasion, so that overture, adagio, andante, sonatas, ensembles, duets, trios, arias from various opera and oratorios are performed with great intensity.

    Marinella Polli, Corriere del Ticino

    There is much to admire. Not least La Scintilla Orchestra which displayed entrancing sensuality.

    Peter Hagmann, Neue Zürcher Zeitung

    …One is kept awake by the music…and this is Laurence Cumming’s achievement. Under the baton of the musically and energetically vibrant British conductor, La Scintilla plays with wonderful colour, brilliance and intensity.

    Bruno Rauch, Bündner Tagblatt

    Zurich Opera magazine article on SALE.

  • The Fairy Queen
    Glyndebourne Festival Opera

    The performance at this revival was outstanding. Laurence Cummings...drew consistently beautiful sounds from the OAE, especially from the string section, who were the glory of Purcell’s astonishing score.

    Roger Parker, Opera

  • Judas Maccabaeus
    BBC Proms

    Laurence Cummings conducted the Choir of the Enlightenment and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment...Everything was done with exceptional finesse, from the finely detailed playing to the superbly moulded choral singing

    Tim Ashley , The Guardian [4 ****]

  • L’Olimpiade
    Garsington Opera

    Laurence Cummings’s musical direction...of a new critical edition of the opera, played superbly on modern instruments, was inspired and inspiring throughout.

    Hilary Finch, The Times

  • Riccardo Primo
    London Handel Festival 2012

    It helped that musical standards were expert and rigorous. The orchestral writing, vividly executed by the LHF orchestra, is full of invention, with trilling, bird-like recorders, "royal" horns, trumpets and drums, tempestuous string passages and delicate word painting. The conductor Laurence Cummings kept a fine balance between unforced phrasing and breathless vigour. Now one of the composer's most sought-after champions, he has been LHF director since 1999 and next month takes up the same directorial role at the illustrious Göttingen Handel festival in Germany. His bobbing enthusiasm can turn Handel opera agnostics, myself among them, into wild-eyed converts ready to sign the pledge.

    Fiona Maddocks, The Guardian

• Laurence Cummings Repertoire

  ALMEIDA

  • La Guiditta
  • La Spinalba

  BACH

  • B Minor Mass
  • Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 and No. 5
  • Cantatas 36c & 61
  • Magnificat
  • St John Passion
  • St. Matthew Passion

  BRITTEN

  • St. Nicholas

  CAVERLIERI

  • Rap. di Anima e di Corpo

  ECCLES

  • The Judgement of Paris

  HANDEL

  • Aci, Gallatea e Polifemo
  • Agrippina
  • Alceste
  • Alexander Balus
  • Arias
  • Ariodante
  • Atalanta
  • Athalia
  • Deborah
  • Duetti amorosi
  • Esther
  • Ezio
  • Giulio Cesare
  • Gloria
  • Hercules
  • Israel in Eqypt
  • Jephtha
  • Joshua
  • Messiah
  • Ottone
  • Poro
  • Riccardo Primo
  • Rinaldo
  • Rodelinda
  • Samson
  • Semele
  • Solomon
  • Sorsame
  • Tolomeo

  MONTEVERDI

  • Incoronazione di Poppea
  • Orfeo
  • Vespers of 1610

  PURCELL

  • King Arthur
  • The Fairy Queen

  RAMEAU

  • Dardanus
  • Les Palladins (Suite)

  VIVALDI

  • L'incoronazione di Dario
  • L'Olimpiade
  • La Verita in Cimento

• Photos

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    Photographer: Sheila Rock

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    Photographer: Sheila Rock

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