Live events
Paul Riley picks the month’s best UK concert and opera highlights
The best opera and concerts across the country
LONDON Handel’s Rinaldo
Barbican, 13 Mar
Tel: +44 (0)20 7638 8891
Web: www.barbican.org.uk
Before it heads to New York via Spain, there’s just one UK opportunity to catch Rinaldo, the latest instalment in The English Concert’s Handel opera-inconcert series. Countertenor Iestyn Davies takes the title role; Harry Bicket conducts.
The Mozartists Cadogan Hall, 15 Mar
Tel: +44 (0)20 7730 4500
Web: www.cadoganhall.com
The four cardinal virtues of Temperance, Prudence, Justice and Fortitude are celebrated in Haydn’s seldom-performed cantata Applausus, composed in 1768 for an ecclesiastical Golden Jubilee. Given as part of Classical Opera’s ongoing survey of Mozart and his world 250 years ago, it’s directed by Ian Page, and paves the way to June’s Mozart La finta semplice.
Ensemble Intercontemporain
Wigmore Hall, 19 Mar
Tel: +44 (0)20 7935 2141
Web: www.wigmore-hall.org.uk France’s flagship contemporary music ensemble configures itself as a wind quintet for a programme that premieres a new piece by Blaise Ubaldini, among works by Harrison Birtwistle, Elliott Carter and John Cage.
London Philharmonic Orchestra Southbank Centre, 24 Mar
Tel: +44 (0)20 3879 9555
Web: www.southbankcentre.co.uk Conductor Andrés Orozcoestrada has two Southbank Stravinsky dates this month. In the first, on 21 March,
Apollon musagète is paired with the Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra. On 24 March, he delves into the Symphony of Psalms and, with soloist Patricia Kopatchinskaja (right), the Violin Concerto. Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms is a delightful coupling.
Holy Week Festival
St John’s Smith Square,
26 Mar – 1 Apr
Tel: +44 (0)20 7222 1061
Web: www.sjss.org.uk
Following last year’s inaugural edition, the Holy Week Festival returns, curated by Nigel Short and his choir Tenebrae. The American Skylark Ensemble makes its UK debut, Paul Mccreesh and the Gabrieli Consort perform JS Bach’s Mass in B minor; and there’s more Bach as Polyphony and Stephen Layton deliver the traditional Good Friday St John Passion.
SOUTH Jean-efflam Bavouzet
Turner Sims, Southampton, 15 Mar
Tel: +44 (0)23 8059 5151
Web: www.turnersims.co.uk
With a much-admired set of Debussy’s complete piano music already recorded for Chandos, Jean-efflam Bavouzet celebrates the composer’s centenary, juxtaposing early rarities such as the Ballade slave and Nocturne with late masterpieces like the 12 Préludes Book II and a selection of the groundbreaking wartime Etudes.
Passiontide at Merton
Merton College, Oxford,
23-25 Mar
Tel: +44 (0)1865 616 724
Web: www.merton.ox.ac.uk
A new setting of the Stabat Mater by Gabriel Jackson performed by The Marian Consort and Bach’s Mass in B minor sung by Merton’s Chapel Choir bookend Oxford’s adroitly programmed answer to Cambridge’s Easter at King’s (see East).
Aurora Orchestra & Tenebrae
St George’s Bristol, 25 Mar
Tel: 0845 40 24 001 (UK only) Web: www.stgeorgesbristol.co.uk Conductor Nigel Short’s crack choir Tenebrae teams up with the Auroras for Arvo Pärt’s
setting of the St John Passion which unusually deploys a vocal quartet rather than a soloist for the Evangelist. The Holy Week theme also targets Victoria’s Tenebrae Responsories and Allegri’s Miserere.
EAST Britten Sinfonia
St Andrew’s Hall,
Norwich, 2 Mar
Tel: +44 (0)1603 630000
Web: www.brittensinfonia.com
American pianist Jeremy
Denk is in a typically eclectic mood as he weaves his own transcriptions of Gesualdo, Byrd and Monteverdi (plus solos by Nancarrow) through a selection of jazz-inspired works. These include Stravinsky’s Concerto for Piano and Winds, Milhaud’s La création du monde and Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue in its original jazz-band incarnation.
Easter at King’s
King’s College, Cambridge, 27 Mar – 2 Apr
Tel: +44 (0)1223 769340
Web: www.kings.cam.ac.uk/easter Bach’s St John Passion featuring the Chapel Choir and Academy of Ancient Music, and Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius performed by the Philharmonia Chorus and BBC Concert Orchestra are this year’s Cambridge choral headliners – both conducted by Stephen Cleobury.
Easter Weekend
The Maltings, Snape, 30-31 Mar Tel: +44 (0)1728 687110
Web: www.snapemaltings.co.uk James Macmillan’s Seven Last Words receives a seasonal outing as part of Snape’s
Easter celebrations, which open with Haydn and Dvoˇrák from the Albion Quartet. The Gabrieli Consort and Players tackle Bach’s Mass in B minor, and the weekend ends with Handel’s Theodora conducted by Christian Curnyn.
MIDLANDS, NORTH & WALES Sinfonia Cymru
Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, Cardiff, 2 Mar
Tel: +44 (0)29 2039 1391
Web: www.rwcmd.ac.uk
Founding violinist of the Takács Quartet-turned-conductor
Gábor Takács-nagy returns to Sinfonia Cymru with prime Mozart – the Sinfonia Concertante, K364 and Symphony No. 40 – framed by folk-inspired music by Huw Watkins and Bartók.
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Symphony Hall,
Birmingham, 7 Mar
Tel: +44 (0)121 780 3333
Web: www.thsh.co.uk
The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra remembers the Debussy anniversary with an invigoratingly programmed two-weekend festival conducted by Mirga Gra inyte˙ -Tyla. First though, Thomas Trotter gives the world premiere of Gerald Barry’s new Organ Concerto. Thomas Adès conducts, setting it beside his own Polaris, flanked by Britten’s Sinfonia da Requiem and Stravinsky’s Symphony in Three Movements.
La Belle Epoque
Crucible Studio Theatre, Sheffield, 9-11 Mar
Tel: +44 (0)114 249 6000
Web: www.musicintheround.co.uk Music in the Round lifts the lid on the complete chamber music of Debussy and Ravel, spearheaded by Ensemble 360 and friends, including harpist Catrin Finch (see Backstage with…, right), baritone James Newby and soprano Ailish Tynan.
Psappha
St Michael’s, Manchester, 22 Mar Tel: +44 (0)161 434 0845
Web: www.psappha.com
The Manchester-based contemporary music ensemble squares up to Boulez’s glittering mid 20th-century classic Le Marteau sans maître – neatly paired with a complementary new work by Tom Harrold, plus music by Takemitsu and Berio. Jamie Phillips conducts.
SCOTLAND & N IRELAND Scottish Chamber Orchestra
City Halls, Glasgow, 2 Mar
Tel: +44 (0)141 353 8000
Web: www.glasgowconcerthalls.com Robin Ticciati stands down as the orchestra’s principal conductor at the end of the month with Dvoˇrák’s Ninth, but ‘New Worlds’ beckon at the start of March as Colin Currie includes the Scottish premiere of Rautavaara’s percussion concerto Incantations in a four-concert tour conducted by John Storgårds. Stravinsky’s
Jeu de cartes raises the stakes.
International Festival of Chamber Music
Belfast, 2-4 Mar
Tel: +44 (0)28 9024 6609
Web: www.belfastmusicsociety.org Accompanied by pianist Iain Burnside, soprano Ailish Tynan launches this year’s annual Belfast chamberfest with a selection of songs by Brahms, Fauré and Debussy. Other Belfast-bound performers include the Armida Quartett, pianist Llˆyr Williams and members of the London Mozart Players – who frame a range of works by Poulenc and Ibert with quintets for piano and winds by Mozart and Beethoven.
Dunedin Consort
Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, 23 Mar Tel: +44 (0)131 668 2019
Web: www.dunedin-consort.org.uk Ahead of repeat on 25 March at London’s Wigmore Hall, director John Butt rustles up his Dunedin Consort forces for the double-choir, double-orchestra demands of Bach’s St Matthew Passion. Tenor Nicholas Mulroy is the Evangelist.