Jennifer Vyvyan

WALK up Fitzjohn’s Avenue, Hampstead, and at No 59 you’ll see a plaque for the soprano Jennifer Vyvyan which ought to be garlanded with balloons next Thursday, March 13, because that day is her centenary.

Born March 13, 1925, she became one of the most celebrated English singers of her time, associated with Benjamin Britten who wrote major operatic roles for her (the Governess in Turn of the Screw, Tytania in Midsummer Nights Dream…) but also with the stage revival of Handel’s operas in the 1950s/60s. And she was especially famous as the soprano soloist in 1001 performances of Handel’s Messiah – singing it on two landmark recordings, one conducted by Thomas Beecham, the other by Adrian Boult.

According to her diary, Beecham was so pleased with her performance at the recording sessions that he gave her a cigar: an odd gift, given that she didn’t smoke and would have been wise to so since she suffered from a chronic asthmatic condition that prompted her early death, in that Fitzjohn’s house, in 1974.

She’s buried in Hampstead Cemetery, with a headstone that stands out because it’s been recently cleaned! And there are various things happening for the centenary, including a concert in this summer’s Aldeburgh Festival. But closer to home is a recital at the Royal Academy of Music on April 9, celebrating her life and work: ram.ac.uk/whats-on And to know more about her, there’s an all-singing/dancing website: jennifervyvyan.org She deserves to be remembered.

• Another singer of prominence – very much alive and in her prime – is the mezzo Helen Charlston, whose commanding vocal presence was the standout feature of a Matthew Passion I heard just last weekend in Oxford. Suddenly she’s everywhere (and rightly so), with a Wigmore Hall recital of baroque repertoire March 7, and a further Wigmore date, March 11, in a concert that explores the relationship between Bach & Telemann. wigmore-hall.org.uk

• You might not think there’d have been much relationship between Pierre Boulez (strict, unbending high-priest of systematic modernism) and John Cage (free-thinking, jokey advocate of randomness in music). But there was. And a fascinating correspondence that passed between them in the 1950s forms the basis of a London Sinfonietta concert at the Purcell Room, March 9. southbankcentre.co.uk

• Two orchestras from Central Europe visit London this week, as the Czech Philharmonic under Semyon Bychkov play the Barbican on March 7 (Shostakovich) and March 8 (Mozart): barbican.org.uk While the Budapest Festival Orchestra under Ivan Fischer bring a Prokofiev programme to the Festival Hall, March 11: southbankcentre.co.uk

• Big choral dates this week are crowned by King’s Cambridge joining forces with the City of London Choir for Elgar’s rites-of-passage oratorio Dream of Gerontius at the Festival Hall, March 13. southbankcentre.co.uk But there’s also Camden Choir at St Mary’s Primrose Hill, March 8, singing Schubert and Handel: camdenchoir.london And spectacle of every kind when Highgate Choral Society sing Monteverdi’s magnificently gaudy Vespers in the grandeur of All Hallows Gospel Oak, also March 8: hcschoir.com

• Finally, chamber music – by Debussy from a flute, harp & viola trio in the wonderfully intimate Highgate Salon Music series, March 9: salonmusic.co.uk And by Fauré from cellist David Waterman and friends at JW3, Finchley Road, March 12. jw3.org.uk