Live choice
Paul Riley picks the month’s best concert and opera highlights in the UK
LONDON
London Piano Festival
Kings Place, 2-6 October
Tel: +44 (0)20 7520 1490
Web: www.kingsplace.co.uk
The Argentinian pianist Ingrid Fliter fires the starting pistol with Beethoven and Chopin; she also joins the six-strong relay powering a two-piano marathon which includes a new work by Jonathan Dove as well as Turnage, Chabrier and Arensky.
50 Years in a Day
Southbank Centre, 6 October Tel: +44 (0)20 3879 9555
Web: www.southbankcentre.co.uk The Harrison Parrott agency celebrates its 50th anniversary with the mother of all parties spread over three concerts drawing on four generations of its artists (see ‘Backstage with’, right). Singers include Barbara Hannigan and Andreas Scholl; Paavo Järvi and Vladimir Ashkenazy are among four conductors at the helm of the Philharmonia; and Peter Eötvös and Harrison Birtwistle works crown a ‘Bach to Birtwistle’ chamber extravaganza.
Birtwistle’s The Mask of Orpheus
The Coliseum, from 18 October Tel: +44 (0)20 7845 9300
Web: www.eno.org
English National Opera’s Orpheus-themed season is nothing if not eye-catching. As well as Gluck and Offenbach, there’s Philip Glass’s Orphée to boot. But stealing their thunder must be Birtwistle’s operatic take embracing a huge orchestra, electronics, puppets and masks. Not seen in London since the Coliseum premiere in 1986, it’s directed by Daniel Kramer and conducted by Martyn Brabbins and James Henshaw.
London Symphony Orchestra
The Barbican, 20, 24 October
Tel: +44 (0)20 7638 8891
Web: www.barbican.org.uk
Dvoˇrák is the tie that binds
Sir John Eliot Gardiner’s two appearances conducting the LSO. In the first, The Golden Spinning Wheel paves the way to Janácˇek’s mighty Glagolitic Mass, while the second enlists Truls Mørk for the Cello Concerto ahead of Suk’s Asrael Symphony.
SOUTH Oxford Lieder
Oxford, 11-26 October
Tel: +44 (0)1865 591276
Web: www.oxfordlieder.co.uk From Norse legend to Greek myth, Oxford Lieder concerns itself with storytelling. Among the storytellers are soprano Dorothea Röschmann, tenor Christoph Prégardien and baritone Jacques Imbrailo; while ahead of a late-night performance of Messiaen’s Harawi the Owen-apekisheva Duo plays his Visions de l’amen for two pianos.
English Concert
Exeter Cathedral, 15 October
Tel: +44 (0)1392 665885
Web: www.twomoorsfestival.co.uk As the Two Moors Festival nears the halfway mark, mezzo Sarah Connolly teams up with Harry Bicket’s English Concert for an enticing evening interleaving excerpts from Handel’s Alcina, Giulio Cesare and arias by Charpentier and Gluck with orchestral Rameau. Also Devonbound are pianist Imogen Cooper and the Elias String Quartet.