Easter is coming… along with Bach Passion season

THE pier at Southwold isn’t what you’d call a classic opera venue, but some years ago it housed the premiere of The Original Chinese Conjuror: an operatic fantasy by young composer Raymond Yiu who’d come to settle in the UK from Hong Kong. And like most critics who went to see this curiosity I was stunned, not only by how good it was but by the fact that Yiu was largely self-taught. His day-job was computers. Music was a sideline.

These days he’s a sought-after figure who gets Proms commissions and wins awards. And on March 20 his latest project, a Violin Concerto, premieres at the Barbican, played by the BBC Symphony Orchestra with soloist Esther Yoo.

Like a lot of his work, it grows out of the (hopefully productive) tensions of straddling two cultures, Asian/British. The result tends to be quirky, colourful, disruptive: nothing is routine. And this new piece signals his origins in that it’s inspired by the story of Ma Sicong: a once-famous Chinese violinist targeted by the Cultural Revolution for torture and humiliation, and then forced to flee to homesick exile in America.

Living now in Covent Garden, close to Chinatown, Yiu’s own exile isn’t quite so tragic; but he has mixed feelings about Hong Kong, and has just relocated his parents to Britain where, he says, they feel more secure. Easier, too, for them to watch their son’s success. Details: barbican.org.uk

• Another (UK) premiere this week, also at the Barbican, is James MacMillan’s Fiat Lux: a cantata for orchestra, chorus and soloists originally written for the consecration of a new cathedral in California. The composer conducts the BBCSO. Mary Bevan and Roddy Williams sing. An all-star evening, March 15. barbican.org.uk

• As we ease toward Easter, the Bach Passion season begins – with plenty of the St John setting around because this year is its 300th anniversary. Getting in quickly are St Martin-in-the-fields, March 15 (stmartin-in-the-fields.org); Marylebone Parish Church, March 16 (stmarylebone.org.uk); and St James’s Paddington, March 21 (orlandochoir.org.uk). Alternatively, if you want a Matthew Passion, and with juggernaut forces, the Bach Choir give their traditional Royal Festival Hall reading, March 17 (southbankcentre.co.uk)

• Poor beleaguered English National Opera are eking out their season with a short run of Duke Bluebeard’s Castle: the Bartok psychodrama that demands a big orchestra but only two singers. This semi-staging, March 21-23, may not sound like much. But semi-stagings are a good solution to ENO’s problems, as their recent Gloriana showed, playing to the company’s strengths without overstretching them. And with the magnificent John Relyea as Bluebeard, this could be special. eno.org

• For something more obviously affirmative, life-coach Christina Patterson joins violinist Fenella Humphreys in a words and music evening at Lauderdale House, Highgate, that aims to promote spiritual uplift with a little help from Bach, Ysaye and Peter Maxwell Davies. March 21. Enlightenment assured. lauderdalehouse.org.uk

• Finally, the free daytime concerts at Regent Hall in Oxford Street continue March 22 with two student stars from the Royal Academy of Music: Malaysian pianist Julian Chan and trumpeter Jasmine Ghera suppling a healthier alternative to retail therapy with Mozart and Bach. 3pm. Just turn up.