John Challenger, the newly appointed Assistant Director of Music at Salisbury Cathedral, performs the prestigious Emery Recital on Wednesday 10 October at 7.30pm. The recital, his first on the cathedral’s famous Father Willis organ, opens with William Walton’s Crown ImperialMarch, features music by Buxtehude, Bach, Gibbons, Hollins, Vierne, Messiaen, and concludes with David Briggs’ thrilling transcription of the final movement of the ‘Organ’ Symphony by Camille Saint-Saëns.
For the first time ever the Last Night of the Proms will be screened live in Odeon cinemas on Saturday 8 September. As part of the culmination of an extraordinary British summer, cinemas across the UK will be screening the world’s most famous classical music event in 3D.
This is also the first time the BBC Proms will be available to view in 3D. Eight specialist cameras will give audiences in cinemas the best seats in the house and provide an immersive experience. With key camera positions in front of the conductor, and a remote camera within the orchestra that rotates to 180 degrees and can pan and tilt, audiences will feel that they are actually in the orchestra, with a 3D view of every instrument.
The Last Night of the Proms is the traditional finale to the BBC Proms, two months of the finest music-making at the Royal Albert Hall, broadcast live on BBC Two, BBC One and BBC Radio 3. It’s one of the most popular classical music concerts in the world, watched and listened to by an audience of many millions around the globe. Soloist Nicola Benedetti will perform Bruch’s popular Violin Concerto No 1 in G minor and Maltese tenor Joseph Calleja leads the traditional sing along includingJerusalem andYou’ll Never Walk Alone.
Roger Wright, Director of the BBC Proms, says: “Bringing the Last Night of the Proms to cinemas for the first time is a very exciting way of us reaching more people across the UK to celebrate the end of this extraordinary summer. And delivering the Last Night of the Proms in 3D means audiences will be able to experience the event like never before.”
Audiences across the UK will be able to enjoy the Last Night of the Proms in screenings at selected Odeon cinemas:
Bath
Belfast
Birmingham
Braehead Glasgow Brighton
Cardiff
Colchester Covent Garden
Dunfermline Greenwich
Kingston
Lincoln
Liverpool One
Maidenhead
Manchester Printworks
Norwich
Sheffield
Silverlinks Newcastle Southampton
Swiss Cottage
Trafford Centre Manchester Wimbledon
To buy tickets for the Odeon cinema screenings go to:bbc.co.uk/proms
Town Hall and Symphony Hall Birmingham (THSH) are delighted to announce the appointment of Richard Hawley as Director of Artistic Programming and Projects. He will take up his new position on 12 November 2012.
On the announcement of Richard’s appointment, Andrew Jowett OBE, Director of Town Hall and Symphony Hall, said: “I am delighted that we have been able to appoint Richard to this key role within THSH. He brings with him a range of experience which will enable us to build upon the tremendous work done by his predecessor Paul Keene and ensure that the programme of concerts and events staged at our two world class halls continues to place Birmingham at the forefront of music making and upholds our vision of connecting people to music. Richard will also be responsible for overseeing our Education and Community policy, an integral element of our future development.”
Richard Hawley said about the appointment: “I am thrilled to be joining Town Hall and Symphony Hall at this exciting time and I am very much looking forward to working with artists and audiences alike to further develop the vital contribution these two wonderful venues make to Birmingham’s cultural life.
Richard was born and educated in Brisbane, Australia, where he held a number of positions in the arts before moving to the UK. His first appointment in the UK was as Orchestra Manager for the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, resident at Symphony Hall. Richard then went on to hold the position of Festival Director at the Lichfield Festival. He is a Fellow of the CLORE Leadership Programme and is a resident of Birmingham.
He is currently Director of Arts Administration (Maternity cover) at London’s Southbank Centre.
From 22 to 27 October 2012 at The Warehouse, London
Enterprising and highly spirited contemporary music specialist Odaline de la Martinez and her ensemble Lontano present the Fourth London Festival of American Music at The Warehouse, Waterloo, from 22 to 27 October. The centrepiece of this year’s programme is the UK premiere of Pulitzer prize-winning composer John Harbison’s opera Full Moon in March.
Since its initiation in 2006 the festival has become a biennial fixture in celebration of contemporary American music. The 2012 festival includes works by cardinal figures such as Yehudi Wyner, Bright Sheng, and Milton Babbitt, and by Guggenheim Fellowship winners Shih Hui Chen and Arthur Levering. Lontano will also be performing world premieres of works by emerging composers William Dougherty, Carlos Carrillo and Daniel Thomas David, as well as a new work by Arlene Sierra specially commissioned for the ensemble.
Three evenings of the festival are given to the first UK performance of Full Moon in March (24, 26, 27 October), a 1976 opera by John Harbison, a composer of “sure compositional technique and musical sophistication” (New York Times), and one of America’s finest living composers. Harbison came to world-wide attention with his 1999 opera The Great Gatsby (based on the novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald), commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera. The opera was well received by critics, who saw it as a work that would last into posterity: “the score’s craft and accessibility are strong advocates for an opera that should win an audience in time”, writes Peter G. Davis (New York Magazine). Drawn by the promise that the man who sings most eloquently of his passion will win the queen’s hand in marriage, a swineherd approaches the throne… Two attendants describe the events that unf old. The libretto is a play by Irish poet W. B. Yeats, who envisaged the work set to music. “Compelling… fluid vocal writing… Harbison has devised a score that bubbles in fits and spasms in the pit, while moving smoothly onstage”, writes Richard Pontzious (San Fransisco Examiner). Harbison himself intended the work to form the second half of a concert, and the first half of each evening will include a range of composers of different generations, genders and geographies.
Other highlights of the festival include the opening nights The British Connection, a concert featuring music by composers who live or have lived in the UK, includinga new work by American born UK resident Arlene Sierra called Meditation on Violence,commissioned by Lontano. On the 23 October, the Fidelio Piano Trio take to the stage, performing Piano Trios by Harbison and Wuorinen, and New York City Ballet’s composer in residence Bright Sheng’s Four Movements. On 25 October, Soprano Nadine Mortimer-Smith sings a programme of vocal music, accompanied by pianist Tomasz Lis, including a selection of Gershwin songs, and Samuel Barber’s poetic Knoxville: Summer of 1915
Young composers are invited to take part in a competition to have their music performed at one of Britain’s major English song weekends – The Ludlow English Song Weekend 30 May to 2 June 2013 – and to work with one of the country’s leading composers, Julian Philips.
As well as having their work performed during the festival, winners of the competition will receive prize money of £500 (category A) and £250 (category B). The six finalists will be invited to take part in a workshop with Julian Philips during the Ludlow English Song Weekend.
The judging panel is Julian Philips (Head of Composition, Guildhall School of Music and Drama and recently Composer in Residence and composer of community opera Knight Crew at Glyndebourne), Paul Spicer (one of Britain’ most distinguished and respected choral conductors and composers and Chairman Finzi Friends), Martin Bussey (a noted musician and educationist combining the roles of composer, singer and conductor at places that include Chetham’s School of Music & Manchester University).
The 2013 Ludlow English Song Weekend will be the fifth triennial festival, and, under the direction of artistic director Iain Burnside, is organized by the Finzi Friends who know and care passionately about the genre. As well as recitals by outstanding artists and up and coming talent, there are talks, workshops, masterclasses, and the competition for young composers is a particular high spot. Events take place in the elegant Assembly Rooms in this beautiful border town, so much at the heart of the epic poem-cycle A Shropshire Lad by AE Housman, which has inspired many composers and poets.
The BBC Symphony Orchestra today announced that Semyon Bychkov – who conducts the Orchestra at the BBC Proms this Wednesday, August 8th – will join their roster of conductors with a position created especially for him by the Orchestra. The title of the Günter Wand Conducting Chair was chosen in recognition of the affection and respect that the Orchestra held for the conductor who was appointed their Principal Guest Conductor exactly 30 years ago, and is mirrored in the relationship they enjoy with Bychkov.
Semyon Bychkov said: “I am deeply honoured by the BBC Symphony Orchestra’s gesture. The relationship it had with Günter Wand resulted in many memorable achievements, which live in the minds of those who witnessed them. To be asked to join in this tradition holds a very special meaning to me.”
The Günter Wand Conducting Chair recognises the mutual wish of the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Semyon Bychkov to collaborate on significant projects, and reflects the warmth of their relationship since they first collaborated at the BBC Proms five years ago. Of their magnificent performance of Rachmaninov’s Symphony No. 2, the Guardian commented: “Bychkov’s outstanding interpretation rose above the excitement and heady nostalgia of the piece to uncover underlying tragic nobility. With the BBC musicians playing for him like angels, this was one of the highlights of the season so far.”
Bychkov has subsequently conducted the Orchestra on numerous occasions, both as part of the BBC SO’s Barbican season and, as a guest at the BBC Proms, bringing memorable performances of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 11, Mahler’s Symphony No. 6 and Verdi’s Requiem, as well as many other works. This year’s BBC Prom opens with a performance of Schubert’s Symphony No. 8 followed by the UK premiere of Richard Dubugnon’s Battlefield Concerto, with its dedicatees Katia and Marielle Labèque as soloists. Following the interval, Bychkov conducts a performance of Strauss’ Ein Heldenleben, a composer with whom he is particularly associated – his first recording with WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln was Ein Heldenleben coupled with Metamorphosen (2003) and he made his Covent Garden debut with Elektra (2005).
This year’s Oxford Lieder Festival runs from 12 – 26 October in Britain’s oldest concert hall, the Holywell Music Room, and features an impressive array of artists that reflects the increasing stature of this international Festival. The line-up of singers includes a number of world-renowned names making their first festival appearance: Sandrine Piau (12 Oct); Christopher Purves (16 Oct); Cora Burggraaf (13 & 15 Oct); and Alice Coote (26 Oct). Familiar faces include Florian Boesch (14 Oct), Sarah Connolly (24 Oct) and James Gilchrist (19 Oct). The festival also includes a number of highly talented emerging singers including the winner of the song prize at the Cardiff Singer of the World competition, Andrei Bondarenko (22 Oct).
Lunch-time concerts feature musicians from Britain’s leading conservatoires, and late-night concerts in the romantic setting of New College Ante Chapel including duets with Wolfgang Holzmair (19 Oct) and a special programme looking at Finzi and Hardy, devised by pianist, broadcaster and writer/director Iain Burnside (20 Oct).
Other highlights this year include: Birgid Steinberger (13 Oct), leading a team of top singers in Hugh Wolf’s Spanish Songbook; Lucy Crowe (20 Oct) presenting an intriguing programme of songs written in or about London; Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin sung by Florian Boesch with Malcolm Martineau (14 Oct); Katarina Karnéus (23 Oct); and Stephan Loges & Susanna Andersson (26Oct). Tenor Robert Murray performs Janá?ek’s Diary of One who Disappeared (18th Oct).
There are talks before every evening concert, workshops, masterclasses and a master course for singers and accompaniments, this year led by Wolfgang Holzmair. Dominic Harlan, an exceptionally gifted pianist and communicator, leads an interactive family concert with two outstanding singers (14 Oct). There is an event for everyone in this glorious song festival in the beautiful city of Oxford.
Performances of Welsh National Opera’s critically acclaimed new production of La bohème continue this Autumn Season together with the return of Ben Davis’s seaside-set Così fan tutte and Katie Mitchell’s fully staged version of Handel’s oratorio Jephtha.
WNO’s MAX department take doctor’s orders and bring music to the wards of a hospital for year two of our North Wales residency.
La bohème
Alex Vicens returns as Rodolfo and is joined by Giselle Allen as Mimi in Annabel Arden’s 1913 inspired pre-war production. Highly praised by critics and audiences alike when it opened in Cardiff this summer, these further performances will see La bohème tour extensively in Wales and England. This production also features David Kempster as Marcello, Piotr Lempa as Colline, Daniel Grice as Schaunard and Kate Valentine as Musetta.
Michelle Walton and Shaun Dixon willperform Mimi and Rodolfo at some performances.
Simon Phillippo will conduct, with Andrew Greenwood taking over the baton in Liverpool and Bristol.
Così fan tutte
A young cast features in Ben Davis’s 1960s British seaside version of Così fan tutte with Elizabeth Watts as Fiordiligi, Cora Burggraaf as Dorabella, Joanne Boag as Despinaand Andrew Tortise as Ferrando. In a change to previously advertised casting, Gary Griffiths returns as Guglielmo. Gary, who recently won the chance to represent Wales in the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition 2013, received critical praise for his interpretation of the role when this production was first performed in 2011.
Mark Wigglesworth will conduct all performances except in Llandudno, when James Southall will conduct.
Jephtha
British tenor Robert Murray makes his WNO debut in the title role of this revival of Katie Mitchell’s Jephtha. Set in a war ravaged 1940s Europe, Jephtha sees Fflur Wyn returning to the role of Iphis which she last performed for WNO in this production in 2006. The cast also includes Alan Ewing as Zebul, Diana Montague as Storge, Robin Blaze as Hamor and Claire Ormshaw as Angel. Andrew Radley will perform the role of Hamor in Birmingham.
Paul Goodwin conducts, Thomas Blunt will conduct the performance in Bristol.
Bath’s Mozartfest celebrates its 21st anniversary this year.Events run from 9 – 17 November and teh box office opens from 30 July.
Highlights include Samuel West narrating The Carnival of the Animals and the LPO playing works by Schumann, Mozart and Tchaikovsky. There is also a fine line up of chamber music events throughout the week.
Wexford Festival Opera, renowned for staging rarely-performed or unjustly neglected operas, had hoped to produce Francesca da Rimini by Saverio Mercadante at the 2012 Festival. Although Francesca da Rimini was written in 1831 it had never been performed, as the opera house it was written for burned to the ground before the opera could be produced. While a hand-written manuscript of the opera is in existence, it has never been printed. Attempts by Wexford Festival Opera to have a critical performing edition of the manuscript published in time for the 2012 Festival became fraught with unanticipated difficulties and forced the organisation to change its plans.
However, Artistic Director David Agler has several operas waiting in the wings and is delighted to announce that the rarely-performed Italian opera, L’Arlesiana by Francesco Cilèa will now open the 61st Wexford Festival Opera on Wednesday, 24 October, 2012.
L’Arlesiana is a melodrama in three acts to a libretto by Leopoldo Marenco, first performed on 27 November 1897 at the Teatro Lirico di Milano in Milan. L’Arlesiana tells the story of Federico, a farmer, who is madly in love with a woman from the village of Arles (l’arlesiana) and becomes entangled in a love-triangle. The opera is based on the play L’Arlésienne (1872) by Alphonse Daudet. Soon after its première, L’Arlesiana fell into oblivion but enjoyed a revival in the 1930s when it benefited from political support through Cilèa’s personal contact with Mussolini. While the opera as a whole isn’t well-known, most opera-lovers will be familiar with the tenor aria, È la solita storia.
Wexford Festival Opera will also stage Le Roi malgré lui by Emmanuel Chabrier, sung in French and A Village Romeo and Juliet by Frederick Delius, sung in English as originally announced. Full details of the creative teams and cast will be announced shortly, as will the details of the daytime performances of ShortWork operas, concerts and recitals.
The 61st Wexford Festival Opera is grant-aided by the Arts Council, Fáilte Ireland, and Wexford County & Borough Councils.
61st Wexford Festival Opera
Wednesday, 24 October – Sunday, 4 November, 2012
PRIORITY BOOKING commences Tuesday, 8 May, 2012
GENERAL BOOKING commences Tuesday, 5 June, 2012
L’Arlesiana by Francesco Cilèa (1866 – 1950)
24, 27, 30 October, 2 November
Le Roi malgré lui by Emmanuel Chabrier (1841 – 1894)
25, 28, 31 October, 3 November
A Village Romeo and Juliet by Frederick Delius (1862 – 1934)
YOUNG COMPOSERS’ COMPETITION