Hungarian violinist Barnabás Kelemen gives the UK première of Bartók’s Rhapsody No 2 for Violin and Orchestra (1929) with BBCSSO
Multi award-winning Hungarian violinist Barnabás Kelemen gives the UK première of Hungarian composer Béla Bartók’s first edition of his Rhapsody No 2 for Violin and Orchestra at Grand Hall, Glasgow on Thursday 22 February with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Thomas Dausgaard. This concert forms part of the BBC SSO’s Bartók ‘Composer’ Roots series and will be recorded for future broadcast on BBC Radio 3.
Read moreThe Manchester Collective kicks off Part 1 of their 2018 season with The Edge of Fantasy
The Manchester Collective, an edgy new group founded last year by Artistic Director Adam Szabo and Music Director Rakhi Singh, launch Part 1 of their 2018 Season with a series of genre-bending programmes at the first concert of their residency at The Stoller Hall. The Collective, equally at home with the classical masterpieces of the Western canon and the avant-garde repertoire of the contemporary music world, launch four touring programmes - The Edge of Fantasy, 100 Demons, Sirocco and Rakhi / Katya – to be performed at a range of non-tradition spaces across the north west, including industrial warehouses, restored steel mills, and Manchester’s flagship new concert hall, The Stoller Hall.
Read moreGothenburg Opera presents a new production of Richard Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos in conjunction with Opera North
In a co-production with Opera North, Gothenburg Opera presents a new production of Strauss’ funny, chaotic romp Ariadne auf Naxos by Greek director Rodula Gaitanou opening on Saturday 3 February. In-house soprano Annalena Persson takes the title role alongside Daniel Frank as Bacchus and Sofie Asplund as Zerbinetta. Conductor Patrik Ringborg returns to the podium to conduct his first production of Ariadne auf Naxos, following previous productions of Strauss’ Salome and the world premiere of Notorious by contemporary composer Hans Gefors.
Read moreChristophe Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques celebrate Couperin Le Grand’s 350th anniversary at the Barbican Centre
Christophe Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques will celebrate the 350th anniversary of Francois Couperin’s birth with a half-day exploration of his music at the Barbican Centre’s Milton Court on 14 January 2018. Titled Lumiere et Ombre, these two programmes explore the dualities of light and dark in Couperin’s works, and evoke the splendor and colour of the court of King Louis XIV. This year Rousset plans to release the complete chamber works of Couperin.
Read moreWorld premiere of Pearl of Freedom by Joanna Marsh in memory of Emily Davison to mark the 100th anniversary of the Representation of the People Act
To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Representation of the People Act, in which women first gained the right to vote, Royal Holloway, University of London has commissioned a new work from Joanna Marsh, which will be premiered by the choir and orchestra of Royal Holloway and the London Mozart Players on 31 January at St John’s Smith Square. Joanna Marsh, who has been resident in Dubai for 10 years and is currently Composer in Residence at Sidney Sussex College Cambridge, has composed a 20 minute cantata - Pearl of Freedom - to a text by David Pountney (librettist and Artistic Director of Welsh National Opera). Pearl of Freedom is a choral retelling of the story of Emily Davison, who famously threw herself under the king’s horse at the Epsom Derby in 1913 in protestation of the treatment of suffragettes.
Read moreLaurence Equilbey and her Insula orchestra markes International Women’s Day at the Barbican Centre
Insula orchestra and its pioneering conductor Laurence Equilbey, whose new concert hall opened in Paris last spring, return to the Barbican on Thursday 8 March to celebrate International Women’s Day. Equilbey dedicates the programme to the rarely-performed music of Louise Farrenc (1804-1875), pairing her Symphony no.3 with Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with violinist Alexandra Conunova, cellist Natalie Clein and pianist Alice Sara Ott.
Read moreBritish soprano Nadine Benjamin celebrates the music of black women and opens doors and opportunities with classical arias
Nadine Benjamin is passionate about performing music by female composers and diverse musicians, and performs a number of concerts across December opening up classical music to everyone. On Friday 1 December Nadine performs Shirley J. Thompson’s The Woman Who Refused to Dance in a concert as part of the Victoria and Albert Museum’s Opera: Passion, Power and Politics exhibition. This is followed by a performance on Tuesday 5 December at Steinway Hall celebrating black woman in song. Nadine will also be supporting Opening Doors London on Friday 8 December, and performing in her annual free concert in Covent Garden on Thursday 14 December.
Read morePalazzetto Bru Zane revives French vaudeville operetta with an exuberant production of Hervé’s Mam’zelle Nitouche
Palazzetto Bru Zane presents the vaudeville operetta Mam’zelle Nitouche directed by Pierre-André Weitz on December 14-20 at the Théâtre Graslin in Nantes. Premiered in January 1883, the semi-autobiographical comedy follows the double-life of a jobbing composer who poses as a convent organist by day and moonlights as a man of the theatre by night. The run will launch the premiere recording of Mam’zelle Nitouche. Weitz’s exuberant production evokes the colours and imagery of Hervé’s Fin de siècle Paris. An Anglophile, Hervé’s Mam’zelle Nitouche is littered with popular English quotations from Shakespeare and English literature and it is likely that his operatic follies were an inspiration to Gilbert & Sullivan.
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