Anne Boleyn

OF all the wronged women in English history, Anne Boleyn stands out; and her execution – charged with five adulteries she almost certainly didn’t commit – remains an endless source of fascination, not to say fodder for TV documentaries in which the details of her life and death get seriously scrutinised.

But among the less well-known things about her is musicality. Brought up at the French court (which needless to say was more cultivated than the English), she loved 16th-century vocal writing. And the treasures of London’s Royal College of Music include a manuscript collection that’s believed to have belonged to her: some of the items possibly penned by Anne herself, some by the hapless lutenist Mark Smeaton who confessed under torture to being one of her lovers, but mostly by leading composers of the time like Josquin and Brumel.

On Feb 17 they get performed by the vocal group Alamire – semi-staged to give some sort of dramatic insight into the surrounding context – at St Martin-in-the-Fields where the church is making a habit of insightfully dramatised vocal music. Only the other week there was an “immersive” semi-staging of William Byrd’s five-part Mass that turned out to be powerfully atmospheric and memorable. This account of Anne Boleyn’s Songbook could be likewise. Details: stmartin-in-the-fields.org

• There are big names, young and old, passing through London this week; and topping the list is Christian Gerhaher, the velvet-voiced baritone who is arguably the world’s leading exponent of German Lieder. At Wigmore Hall on Feb 12 with his regular performing partner, pianist Gerold Huber, he brings a programme of Schumann & Wolf. Always a hot ticket. wigmore-hall.org.uk
Also at the Wigmore are the exalted Jerusalem Quartet – appearing not once but twice, on Feb 13 & 15, and joined on the latter by pianist Elisabeth Leonskaja for Shostakovich’s severe sonic blockbuster of a Piano Quintet.

• As for youth and age, the fast-rising Swedish violinist Johan Dalene has been stock-piling international prizes, aged just 22, and sweeps into the Barbican on Feb 10 to join violist Timothy Ridout in Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante – a double concerto with the LSO providing back-up. barbican.org.uk

• Meanwhile on the same night, Feb 10, but bowing out rather than sweeping in, pianist Christian Zacharias makes what’s billed as his “farewell recital” at the Wigmore. A star back in the 1980s/90s, his career has edged toward conducting in more recent times; and now, at 72, he’s apparently giving up the keyboard altogether. For this poignant farewell it’s Tchaikovsky & Schubert. A landmark event. wigmore-hall.org.uk

• Imagine this: the Pope (who happens to be female) proves so good a Pope that when she dies she’s sent to hell to sort the place out with some radical reforms. Sadly it isn’t real but a comic opera called The Burning Question, written by Edward Lambert and playing at the King’s Head Theatre, Feb 15-18. God knows what to expect, but as the promo-blurb concisely sums it up: “A female Pope? Dead? Holy Smoke.” kingsheadtheatre.com