Handel Radamisto – 10 February 2013, 6:30pm
Lully Phaëton – 8 March 2013, 7pm
Barbican Centre, London, UK

Renowned for its commitment to historically-informed performances of Baroque music, the Barbican’s classical music season in Spring 2013 features two of the finest interpreters of the Baroque and Classical music repertoire: The English Concert with Artistic Director Harry Bicket; and Les Talens Lyriques, under the directorship of Christophe Rousset. Both present concert performances of lesser-known gems of the operatic repertoire, with a prestigious cast of singers.

On 10 February, Harry Bicket conducts The English Concert in a rare UK performance of Handel’s Radamisto. The story of desire, dictatorship and personal infatuation at the court of the Armenian King Tiridate is the first of a collection of operas that Handel wrote for the newly-founded Royal Academy of Music. Despite being given its premiere at the King’s Theatre, London in 1720, modern revivals have been reasonably scarce, something The English Concert is rectifying; Radamisto forms the main focus of its current season.
Recognised as one of the finest chamber orchestras in the world and celebrated for its inspiring performances of Baroque and Classical repertoire, The English Concert celebrates its 40^th anniversary in 2013. The Barbican performance will see the ensemble joined by a stellar cast of regular collaborators including the American counter-tenor David Daniels in the title role of Radamisto, English soprano Elizabeth Watts, as well as Patricia Bardon, Luca Pisaroni and Brenda Rae.

The following month, distinguished French conductor and harpsichordist Christophe Rousset and his Baroque ensemble Les Talens Lyriques continue their exploration of forgotten masterpieces with a fresh interpretation and first UK performance of Lully’s Phaëton – the story of the son of Helios, the Sun God (8 March).
Lully composed Phaëton when he was fifty years old, at the height of his fame and the peak of his abilities. He was commissioned by Louis XIV (the Sun King) to establish French Opera at the Palace of Versailles and this allegorical tale of the upstart hero Phaëton enjoyed great success at its premiere in January 1683, with following performances including the first opera to be performed in Avignon (1687), at the original Opéra de Lyon (1688) and Rouen (1689). Originally conceived as a theatre work, Phaëton is characterised by the variety of its musical language, splendid choral passages, and increasingly colourful orchestral writing.
Christophe Rousset has a special affinity with Lully and his exciting performances have done much to revive appreciation of this influential composer. In the UK premiere at the Barbican, he champions this revival of Lully’s tragédie lyrique with a cast that includes Emiliano Gonzalez Toro , Ingrid Perruche, Isabelle Druet, Sophie Bevan, Andrew Foster-Williams, Matthew Brook and Benoît Arnould.

International Associate Residency at the Barbican
13–17 March 2013

Supported by the SHM Foundation and the City Bridge Trust

A highly anticipated event in the Barbican’s classical music spring season is the first international associate residency from the Los Angeles Philharmonic and its Music Director Gustavo Dudamel. The residency takes place from 13–17 March 2013 and will include three major concerts of 20th and 21th century music, masterclasses, an open rehearsal conducted by Dudamel involving young musicians and teachers from Los Angeles and East London, and an international symposium.

The Los Angeles Philharmonic, one of the Barbican’s five international associates, performs three concerts during the residency featuring three European premieres. On 14 March the first two European premieres – Graffiti, a new, Barbican co-commissioned work by Unsuk Chin, and Joseph Pereira ’s Concerto for Percussion and Chamber Orchestra – are performed by the LA Phil New Music Group and Dudamel as part of a Green Umbrella concert. Green Umbrella is the Philharmonic’s innovative new music series, and the concert also includes John Adams’ Son of Chamber Symphony.

On 16 March the residency continues with the orchestra and Dudamel giving the European premiere of John Adams’s new oratorio The Gospel According to the Other Mary to a libretto by Peter Sellars, who also directs the performance. Also a Barbican co-commission, the work is based on the New Testament stories of Lazarus and the Passion of Christ, contextualized with excerpts from the memoir of social activist Dorothy Day and poetry by Hildegard von Bingen and by Latin American writers. The Gospel According to the Other Mary was written as a companion piece to the nativity oratorio El Niño, a previous John Adams/Peter Sellars collaboration that presented Biblical tales through contemporary verse. The final concert of the residency on 17 March sees Dudamel conduct the Los Angeles Philharmonic in Claude Vivier’s Zipangu, Debussy’s La Mer and a complete orchestral performance of Stravinsky’s Firebird.

The education focus of the residency is an international symposium Future Play: music systems in the 21st century presented by the Barbican and the Los Angeles Philharmonic from 13-15 March. Bringing together some of the world’s top music institutions, leading artists and educationalists, the symposium explores the impact and need for ensembles, venues and conservatoires in today’s society, and the crucial role they could play in our future cultural landscape. The symposium, which will be opened by John Adams, also includes a keynote speech from director Peter Sellars and panel discussions chaired by Sir Nicholas Kenyon (Managing Director, Barbican Centre) and Deborah Borda (President and CEO, Los Angeles Philharmonic Association). It takes place in partnership with the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Take a Stand initiative – a partnership of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Longy School of Music and Bard College.

The three-day symposium culminates on 15 March in Discover Dudamel, an open rehearsal in the Barbican Theatre. Audience members can witness Gustavo Dudamel rehearsing a mixed-ability orchestra of 100 young people from across London and Los Angeles in Tchaikovsky’s fantasy overture Romeo and Juliet. The young instrumentalists come from the LA Phil’s Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles (YOLA), from the Barbican Young Orchestra, from the Music Hubs of Tower Hamlets, Barking & Dagenham and Hackney in East London, from Junior Guildhall, and from the Centre for Young Musicians.

Between the concerts, members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic will give masterclasses to musicians from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. The sessions on 15 March at the School are open to the public (free but ticketed) and feature a trombone class led by Nitzan Haroz, a harp class led by Lou Anne Neill, a French horn class led by Andrew Bain, and a cello class led by Robert deMaine.

To complement the performances, Barbican Cinema will screen the UK premiere of Mark Kidel’s documentary Road Movie, a Portrait of John Adams on 16 March, and on 17 March one of the most ambitious live recordings ever made: Dudamel Live from Caracas, in which Gustavo Dudamel conducts 1,400 performers from the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela in Mahler’s Symphony No. 8.

As an Artistic Partner of Southbank Centre’s year-long festival The Rest Is Noise – a cultural and musical history of the 20^th century told through 250 events – the BBC Concert Orchestra gives nine concerts exploring key classical works of the last century in the social and political context which shaped their composition.

The BBC Concert Orchestra’s involvement forms part of a BBC partnership with Southbank Centre for the festival which sees BBC Four screen a new landmark three-part documentary series and BBC Radio 3 offering a complementary programme of broadcasts.

From Kurt Weill to Frank Zappa, and Berlin in the 1930s to Britain in the 1980s, the BBC Concert Orchestra travels through time to tell the tales behind the music that helped define the last hundred years, under the baton of its Principal Conductor Keith Lockhart and guest conductors including André de Ridder and Charles Hazlewood.

The journey starts in Britain at the beginning of the century, exploring the cultural resonances of the First World War. In a programme of music and poetry from before, during and after the conflict, the orchestra conveys a nation’s yearning for its unrecoverable past (Death of Nostalgia, 24 February).

Two concerts profile Kurt Weill, creator of some of the most popular and daring musical theatre of his day. Weill’s work is put under the spotlight in performances of his sung ballet The Seven Deadly Sins (3 March) featuring My Brightest Diamond’s lead vocalist Shara Worden conducted by André de Ridder, and a concert highlighting the range of his musical output, from his Symphony No. 2 to a selection of theatre songs (Kurt Weill Berlin to Broadway, 12 April).

The orchestra is joined by the Nu Civilisation Orchestra as it delves into the cultural melting pot of 20^th century America with music from William Grant Still, Henry Gilbert and Duke Ellington. The blues meets orchestral tradition in Still’s “Afro-American” Symphony, which became the first symphony by an African American composer to be performed by a leading American symphony orchestra (Hidden Voices, 24 March).

The role of BBC Radio and British cinema in boosting morale on the Home Front during the Second World War is championed in a programme which includes music from two BBC Radio programmes of the time; Sincerely Yours presented by Vera Lynn and Music While You Work, designed to keep factory workers motivated. Other works include Ireland’s Epic March commissioned by BBC Radio in 1942 and Walton’s Henry V: A Shakespeare Scenario (The Home Front, 7 June).

In the twentieth year since his death, the lasting legacy of rock icon Frank Zappa is celebrated in a UK premiere performance of 200 Motels – The Suites, the orchestral score for his 1971 musical surrealist film about life on the road with a rock band. The music which, according to Zappa, was mostly written in motel rooms whilst on tour with The Mothers of Invention, is given this rare performance by the BBC Concert Orchestra, members of Southbank Sinfonia and conductor Jurjen Hempel (200 Motels – The Suite, 29 October).

The orchestra gives a weekend of concerts in November dedicated to musical theatre legend Stephen Sondheim (Sondheim, 9 & 10 November) and rounds up its journey through the musical life of the 20^th century with a profile of 1980s Britain’s musical landscape (Britain in the 80s, 30 November).