John Wilson and Sinfonia of London’s Tour
John Wilson and Sinfonia of London’s Grand June Tour of the UK
During June, John Wilson and his band, the Sinfonia of London, made a grand tour of the UK, with ten performances of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Greatest Hits (and also Rodgers and Hart’s). In less than two weeks in June they hit ten venues, culminating in a packed out 2,000 person audience at the Glasshouse (did nobody recognize that this was the word for a military prison?) in Wilson’s home town of Gateshead. Kate Calder, reviewer of this parish, and I caught the show. It was wonderful – pure joy. For a good review of the Poole Lighthouse performance which describes the content see here: https://whatsgoodtodo.com/john-wilson-sinfonia-of-london-rogers-hammersteins-greatest-hits-at-lighthouse-poole-review/
There is a fascinating interview with John Wilson by Christopher Morley in Midlands Classical Music Making https://www.midlandsmusicreviews.co.uk/2025/06/john-wilson-conducts-rodgers-and.html in which he describes his engagement with these works by Rodgers – whom he described on stage in Gateshead as the greatest song writer of the 20th Century. When asked if he could conduct what Morley calls “two-a-penny contemporary musicals”, he “bowls a googly” and asks if Sondheim counts, because he would like to conduct everything Sondheim has written. Just like the interviewer, I really hope he does. The London Sinfonia now has a partnership with the Glasshouse and Wilson announces a Christmas Concert and one in October when the string section will play music by Vaughan Williams and other English composers. He claims his mother tells him, “John, you’ve got to play music people know” - but he assures us that we will know all of these tunes! I hope to be at both of these concerts. And if we get the promised Sondheim, I will cycle down from Berwickshire if I have to.
Wilson is a great showman. He engages with the audience and with his players in a lovely, straightforward manner, explaining the work and noting at the end of a delightful and difficult solo by the first horn, that he has got it right ten times in a row without ever “knocking it down”. He also shoos a couple of players off the stage during the extended curtain calls explaining to the audience that they have ten minutes to catch a train.
This tour has plainly been a roaring success and it demonstrates that outstanding classical musicians can bridge genres and bring in a wider audience, because it is simply so enjoyable to listen to. It also demonstrates that Wilson is an outstanding musical entrepreneur who can create an organization which works around the timetable of subsidized orchestras (and I wholly approve of subsidies) and draw on wonderful performers to perform the whole range of what an orchestra can do. He also seems to be, in the highest form of Geordie praise, a fully paid up member of the human race – utterly competent, down to earth, and loyal to his place whilst working across the nation and I guess potentially globally. And he’s a fellow cyclist who like me seems to sometimes fall off his bike.