<img src='' title='Event Category: Crypt Close-Up' alt='' id='templ_icon_' width='' height='' /> Event Category: Crypt Close-Up

Crypt Close-Up: Rachel Podger & Lucie Horsch – Duologues

Baroque violinist Rachel Podger and recorder phenomenon Lucie Horsch play baroque showpieces and British folksongs in a concert to illuminate the Crypt at St Martin-in-the-Fields.

They call Rachel Podger “the queen of the baroque violin”. Lucie Horsch has been described as “the latest big thing in recorder playing” – an artist whose charisma has redefined the 21st century recorder. So put them together in the magical atmosphere of the Crypt of St Martin-in-the-Fields, and it’s safe to say that we won’t be short of illumination! This hour-long Crypt Closeup brings their shared musicianship close enough to touch, with a programme of Baroque delights by Telemann and Bach, as well as the pair’s delightfully fresh take on British folk songs: music as old as time, that always sounds new.

Crypt Close-Up: Ruby Hughes – Amidst the Shades

Such sweet sorrow: lutenist Jonas Nordberg and soprano extraordinaire Ruby Hughes explore four centuries of lute songs, in all their tenderness and passion.

Flow, flow my tears…“I feel often quite drawn to the more melancholic songs” says the soprano and musical explorer Ruby Hughes. “Dowland really understands the human condition; he understands suffering and sadness and loneliness”. Today, though, he’s merely the tender heart of a musical journey into the shade-dappled, endlessly poetic world of the lute song, from Tudor masters to the music of Purcell and Britten. Discover, too, specially commissioned Shakespeare songs from living composers including Errollyn Wallen and Cheryl Frances-Hoad – each inspired by the searching, wonderfully expressive sound of Hughes and her musical soulmate, lutenist Jonas Nordberg.

Crypt Close-Ups: Monteverdi Choir & Orchestras – Apprentices Final Recital

The 18th year of the pioneering Monteverdi Apprentices Programme culminates in a sparkling showcase of the season’s work – led by the scheme’s Ambassadors Dame Sarah Connolly and Mark Padmore alongside choir director Jonathan Sells, and featuring an astonishing array of Italian madrigals, German Lieder, French partsongs and Handel arias.

The Monteverdi Apprentices Programme bridges the gap between formal education and a professional freelance music career, providing a comprehensive platform for emerging artists to thrive under the guidance of some of the most respected musicians in the field. The 2025/26 programme received a record number of applications for just 9 places, resulting in one of the most talented cohorts ever featured.

Over the course of the year these singers have honed their skills by taking part in projects with the Monteverdi Choir & Orchestras, supported by experienced mentors from the Monteverdi Choir. This concert has been prepared through a series of specially-curated masterclasses with experts in a range of musical fields. The Monteverdi Apprentices are the vocal stars of the future, and this wide-ranging recital presents their compelling combination of youthful energy and superlative musicality, refined by an intensive year working with “the best choir in the world” (Trouw).

 

Crypt Close-Up: Quartet XII: Schubert and Cage – At the Edge of Sound

Join Quartet XII – four dedicated members of the 12 Ensemble – for a programme that ventures to the extremes of musical sound and silence.

This is a deep dive into the art of the string quartet, contrasting two works that define the “Edge of Sound.”

The programme begins with John Cage’s FOUR, a piece that embraces luminous stillness and profound concentration. By focusing on sustained tones and long periods of silence, Cage invites the listener to experience the very texture of sound as it emerges and dissolves, pushing the limits of musical expectation.

This meditative experience is dramatically contrasted by Schubert’s very last string quartet. Written in his final years, the quartet is a mysterious work that represents the pinnacle of Romantic expression while probing the extremes of sound, texture, dynamic, and duration.

Experience the enduring power of the string quartet medium as Quartet XII navigates the vast landscape between these two profound and contrasting visions.

 

Crypt Close-Up: Apollo’s Fire: Baklava Bash – A Middle-Eastern Celebration

Step into a Middle Eastern café of 1700 with Apollo’s Fire’s Baklava Bash, a Crypt Close-Up celebrating a fusion of cultures.

Palestinian-American oud master Ronnie Malley and Israeli recorder virtuoso Daphna Mor evoke a Middle-Eastern café in 1700, along with friends Alan Choo ad Emi Tanabe on violin and the American hammered-dulcimer diva Tina Bergmann.

 

Crypt Close-Up: Manchester Collective – Sky with the Four Suns

A vision of the sky in the depths of the earth: mystery, ecstasy and stunning music-making as Manchester Collective takes over the crypt at St Martin-in-the-Fields.

Our Crypt is one of those spaces where the imagination roams free – and when it’s lit by candlelight, music seems to take on a whole new dimension. Cue Manchester Collective, Britain’s most dynamic and adventurous chamber ensemble, and a gig that’s perfect for this extraordinary atmosphere.

The Alaskan wilderness and the Arctic sky is where night and day steadily unfold with a special kind of magic. These horizons stretch far and wide across the nature-infused music of John Luther Adams. His ‘Canticles of the Sky’ for string quartet is stark, bright and expansive. It takes inspiration from sunbeams that hit ice crystals and refract, forming vivid halos and sundogs. To hear it live is to feel the steady, creeping warmth of a frosty day…

On our way to these distant soundscapes, we bask in the radiant purity of Arvo Pärt’s ‘Summa’ and briefly leave Earth behind for alien terrains. Experimental British musician and composer Mica Levi is best known for their disconcerting scores for films like Under the Skin and The Zone of Interest. In a new commission for the Collective, Jasmine Morris manipulates time with her slow-crawling textures and otherworldly sounds.

This is music in which to immerse yourself: delicate, elusive, and alive with emotion at its most intimate. Move around, mingle with the performers, and let the music speak. They promise to create something extraordinary.