Line up announced for this year's Incontri in Terra di Siena chamber music festival
The 28th Incontri in Terra di Siena - founded in memory of Antonio Origo and his wife Iris, the Anglo-American author of War in the Val d'Orcia returns to mark the centenary of violin legend Yehudi Menuhin, a close friend of the Origo family and founding member of the Tuscan chamber music festival. The week long festival based at La Foce, one of Italy's most enchanting gardens, runs from 29 July to 5 August and will welcome back pianist Jeremy Menuhin who will join Artistic Director Antonio Lysy and Norwegian violinist Henning Kraggerud. Israeli Arab and Jewish musicians from Polyphony Ensemble make a much-anticipated return with pianist Saleem Ashkar to open the summer festivities. The festival has announced the appointment of pianist Alessio Bax as the Artistic Director for 2017.
Read moreProgramme for 2016 Itinéraire Baroque Festival announced
Ton Koopman's Itinéraire Baroque Festival in the Dordogne, set in the picturesque medieval villages and towns around Riberac and Brantôme, returns for its 15th edition from Thursday 28 July to Sunday 31 July 2016. The festival's annual highlight is the Saturday pilgrimage circuit to small forgotten Romanesque churches for five "taster" concerts, following Koopman's uplifting morning recital on the organ.
Read moreKyung Wha Chung opens the 2016 Verbier Festival following Warner Classics signing
Kyung Wha Chung, who has made a sensational return to the concert stage, opens the Verbier Festival on 22 July alongside the Festival's orchestra and conductor Charles Dutoit, with whom she has performed for four decades. Kyung Wha Chung appears twice in the festival, with Brahms' Violin Concerto for the opening concert, followed by a morning recital on 24 July with sonata partner Kevin Kenner in a programme of Fauré, Prokofiev and Franck.
Read moreCharles Owen and Katya Apekisheva announce London Piano Festival
Charles Owen and Katya Apekisheva announce the inaugural London Piano Festival at Kings Place from 7-9 October 2016 as they release their debut duo album of Stravinsky piano ballets today. The festival – co-curated by Owen and Apekisheva – will include performances from some of the world’s leading pianists such as Kathryn Stott, Noriko Ogawa, Stephen Kovacevich and Julian Joseph in addition to a lecture on Liszt From Exuberance to Asceticism by Alfred Brendel. Owen and Apekisheva will perform the world premiere of a new work for two pianos written by American composer Nico Muhly.
Read moreSt Matthew Passion dedicated to families and victims of Brussels atrocity
Klarafestival’s decision for tonight's performance of Bach's St Matthew Passion at the Bozar in Brussels to go ahead has been endorsed by Belgian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Didier Reynders, who will be attending the performance himself. The performance will be dedicated to the memory of the victims, their families and the people of Belgium following yesterday's tragic events.
Read moreAngelo Villani’s launches his debut recording – Dante’s Inferno – to mark the poet’s 750th anniversary
To mark Dante Alighieri’s 750th anniversary in 2016, Australian pianist Angelo Villani released his debut album on 4 February during a concert at the home of Sir Vernon Ellis. Villani’s disc, available for download and on CD through Amazon, is themed around the legendary figures of doomed love - Dido and Aeneas (from Dante’s Divine Comedy inspired by Virgil’s Roman classic The Aeneid), Tristan and Isolde, Paolo and Francesca da Rimini and Dante’s own love for his muse. Both Dido’s Lament and the Tristan Fantasy are world première recordings and were performed exclusively by Angelo Villani on 4 February.
Read moreSir John Eliot Gardiner, the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists present Bach’s masterpiece the St Matthew Passion from memory on tour for Lent, Easter and beyond
Sir John Eliot Gardiner, who has dedicated his career to the performances of Bach’s choral repertoire, takes his multi-award winning Monteverdi Choir and the English Baroque Soloists on tour across Europe in the lead up to Easter to perform Bach’s crowning masterpiece – the St Matthew Passion. Starting in Spain during the Lenten season and continuing to Belgium and Switzerland, they reach Paris on Good Friday, 25 March, and London’s Barbican Centre the following day, the Saturday before Easter. Mark Padmore takes the role of the Evangelist, Stephan Loges Christ, and Hannah Morrison the soprano, joining further soloists from the Monteverdi Choir including Reginald Mobley, Jonathan Sells, Alex Ashworth and Clare Wilkinson. In a true choral tour de force, the entire choir will sing the St Matthew Passion from memory. A different children’s choir is joining them in almost every city. The tour continues to Germany, Braunschweig and Leipzig, followed by a return to Spain and Poland, and finishing in Italy later in the year.
Read moreLaurence Equilbey and her vibrant Insula orchestra tour to Basel in March, followed by a return to Vienna for Mozart’s Lucio Silla at the Theater an der Wien featuring Franco Fagioli
Continuing their touring this season with London in September and Basel in March, French conductor Laurence Equilbey returns with her new ensemble Insula orchestra to Austria for Mozart’s Lucio Silla in a semi-staged performance at the Theater an der Wien on 27 April 2016. Acclaimed countertenor Franco Fagioli stars alongside soprano Olga Pudova and tenor Paolo Fanale in this performance, staged by Argentinian director Rita Cosentino. Insula orchestra is to become the vibrant resident ensemble at the new Paris arts centre - La Cité Musicale de L’île Seguin – under construction on the site of the former Renault car factory on an island in the Seine in the south east side of the French capital. Following their recent Salzburg and London debuts, the 2015/16 season continues to see Insula orchestra take to the international stage. Ahead of their Vienna debut with Lucio Silla, the orchestra takes Beethoven’s Eroica to Basel on 9 March.
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