The Bach Choir and David Hill present the first signed performance of Beethoven’s choral masterpiece, Missa Solemnis
On Friday 28 June, The Bach Choir and conductor David Hill create the first signed Missa Solemnis, joined by Sir Richard Stilgoe and deaf musician Paul Whittaker OBE in partnership with the charity Hearing Link. The choir is joined by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and soloists Sarah Fox, Christianne Stotijn, Toby Spence, and Roderick Williams for the concert, which takes place at the Royal Festival Hall. Central to this performance will be the choir’s participation: singers will use British Sign Language in a section of the ‘Credo’ of the Missa Solemnis while they are singing: “I believe in one god, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth and of all that is visible and invisible.”
Read moreThe Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra performs works by Krzysztof Penderecki in honour of his 85th birthday
On Saturday 18 May, the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra celebrate Krzysztof Penderecki’s 85th Birthday in Oxford’s Sheldonian Theatre, performing works including his Viola Concerto with the Orchestra’s own concertmaster Yuri Zhislin, and the UK premiere of his Concertino for Trumpet and Orchestra, with soloist Gábor Boldoczki. The concert will be conducted by Maestro Penderecki’s Assistant Conductor, Maciej Tworek.
Read moreItinéraire Baroque announces 2019 programme
Itinéraire Baroque and Artistic Director Ton Koopman announce the Festival’s 2019 programme, celebrating the diverse Baroque sounds heard across countries and instruments, including concerts devoted to the baroque bassoon, oboe, and Marais’ viol music. Set in the picturesque medieval villages and towns of the Périgord Vert in the Dordogne, the 18th annual Festival runs over an extended weekend this summer from 25-28 July. Visiting artists to this year’s Festival – both new and returning – include Klaus Mertens, Wouter Verschuren, Alberto Rasi, William Dongois, Alexis Kossenko and Fabio Bonnizzoni, many of whom are friends and colleagues of Artistic Director Ton Koopman.
Read moreGöteborg Opera celebrates 25 years in its Opera House with premiere of second opera in Stephen Langridge’s ecologically-sustainable Ring cycle
Gothenburg’s ground breaking Ring cycle, an epic four-year ecologically sustainable project, continues on 1 December as director Stephen Langridge returns to Gothenburg to stage Die Walküre. The 2019/20 season sees Göteborg Opera celebrate 25 years in its cutting-edge opera house, designed by Jan Izikowitz of Lund & Valentin. The House was inaugurated in 1994 by godmother Birgit Nilsson, who wished the company “all its happiness and success on the bountiful ocean of fine arts.”
Read moreChristophe Rousset records the first book of toccatas by Girolamo Frescobaldi, the first great composer for the harpsichord
In a new recording released by Aparté on 29 March, harpsichordist Christophe Rousset turns towards the first published music of the early seventeenth century composer Girolamo Frescobaldi. A keen musical archaeologist, Rousset unearths the treasures of the early harpsichord repertoire under a composer renowned as the first great composer for the instrument.
Read moreLaurence Equilbey and Insula orchestra tour a new phantasmagorical production of Der Freischütz, concluding at the Barbican Centre on 4 November
Laurence Equilbey and Insula orchestra introduce a phantasmagorical new semi-staged performance of Carl Maria von Weber’s Der Freischütz, the famous tale of dark magic and the spectacular, at the Barbican Centre in London on 4 November, following a fully-staged tour to Caen, Aix-en- Provence, Ludwigsburg and Paris, with concert performances in Brussels and Vienna. The orchestra return to London for the first time since performing the music of Louise Farrenc on International Women’s Day in 2018.
Read moreWorld premiere staging of Martinů’s Trois fragments de Juliette held in Gothenburg
On 13 April, Göteborg Opera presents the world premiere staging of Martinů’s rediscovered Trois fragments de Juliette in a double bill with Poulenc’s La voix humaine, directed by David Radok and starring the multi award-winning coloratura soprano Kerstin Avemo, based at Göteborg Opera from 2018-21. The two operas interweave to form two acts of the same surreal love story, exploring questions of memory, illusion, and reality.
Read moreMarios Papadopoulos conducts Le Nozze di Figaro at the Greek National Opera
Conductor and pianist Marios Papadopoulos marks his return to the Greek National Opera from 23 March-12 April, conducting Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro in the new Greek National Opera Stavros Niarchos Hall, in the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center that has housed the Greek National Opera since 2017. Papadopoulos returns in a new production directed by Alexandros Efklidis, 20 years after he first conducted Le Nozze di Figaro with the company.
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