Best Concerts and Opera in January
The big sounds of Rachmaninov herald an anniversary year packed with his music. Plus, the forgotten Kennedy, and a Wagner fantasy
The big sounds of Rachmaninov herald an anniversary year packed with his music. Plus, the forgotten Kennedy, and a Wagner fantasy
Culture Whisper's favourite instrumentalist of 2022, pianist Sir Stephen Hough, is also a composer. At this remarkable concert today's top singers, including soprano Ailish Tynan and tenor Nicky Spence, perform some of his songs, among them the world premier of Songs of Love and Loss. There are settings of Rainer Maria Rilka, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Oscar Wilde – and Lady Antonia Fraser.
Read more ...This very beautiful production of Mozart's late opera has serious and comic strands. The Queen of the Night's daughter is mysteriously abducted, but joining the search is the hapless bird-catcher Papageno. With starry new casts, this is an uplifting start to the opera year.
Read more ...With the new year comes a suitably youthful concert to inspire the next generation of musicians. At only 16, violinist Leia Zhu (pictured) is the phenomenal young soloist in Beethoven's Violin Concerto. And conductor Leslie Suganandarajah is in his 20s. As was Mozart when he wrote his Symphony No 31 which closes this perfect programme for young music-lovers.
Read more ...In 2023 the musical world marks 150 years since the death of Russian-born Sergei Rachmaninov. The BBCSO under Kiril Karabits is joined by the young Ukrainian pianist Anna Fedorova (pictured) in his romantic Piano Concerto No 3. After the interval, Ukrainian composer Boris Lyatoshinsky’s tempestuous Symphony No 3, written in 1951. 'If Lyatoshinsky had lived in Moscow during Soviet times, instead of staying in Kyiv, his name would stand next to Shostakovich' says Karabits. 'It's just great music. Really great music'. Definitely one to discover.
Read more ...Rosemary, the older sister of President John F. Kennedy, was kept out of the public eye, her mental health issues resulting in a disastrous lobotomy at the age of 23. Designer and video artist Netia Jones also directs Brian Irvine's opera, which etches a searing portrait of 1940s America. Societal taboos, egotistical medics and dubious treatments are examined in this kaleidoscopic score. With Amy Ní Fhearraigh (pictured) as Rosemary.
Read more ...Maybe it was under-rehearsed, maybe the conductor was drunk... Whatever went wrong in March 1897 at the St Petersburg premiere of Sergei Rachmaninov's first symphony, the composer was so traumatised by the terrible reception that it took him years to regain his confidence. Now this sweeping, romantic work is much-loved. Hear it in Rachmaninov's 150th anniversary year when the LPO under Enrique Mazzola (pictured) is joined by Syrian clarinettist Kinan Azmeh in the UK premiere of his own Clarinet Concerto. To open, Amphitheatre by another contemporary player/composer, Brett Dean.
Read more ...If you haven't yet discovered the piano-playing of Isata Kanneh-Mason (pictured), take this chance to enjoy both her musicianship and her fascinating repertoire. There are powerful personal stories behind each of the three works played, by child prodigies Felix Mendelssohn and Ernö Dohnányi, and by Jamaican-born contemporary composer Eleanor Alberga. A really fascinating programme by great communicators.
Read more ...A year-long exploration and celebration of our whole aural world, musical and beyond, brings together sound artists from mainstream music, electronics and more. In this early concert in the series, Harry Christophers' classically-minded singers The Sixteen (pictured) are joined by jazz pianist and BBC presenter Julian Joseph for the musical magic that occurs when upper parts improvise over a bass line.
Read more ...The opera veteran Sir John Tomlinson is renowned as the mighty, flawed Wotan in Wagner's Ring Cycle, and he has also played, on stage, tragic King Lear. He brings both experiences together in The Shackled King, a new sung piece by the British composer John Casken based on Shakespeare’s play. King Lear. The world premiere of this short, powerful work, commissioned by instrumentalists Counterpoise, is scored for bass, mezzo-soprano and ensemble. Rozanna Madylus sings Lear’s daughter Cordelia, her sisters Goneril and Regan, and the Fool. She sings again in Brünnhilde’s Dream (pictured), a sequence of words and music, inspired by Wagner’s opera Die Walküre, in which Brünnhilde speaks for Everywoman while remaining a mythic figure.
Read more ...Fantasy and morality tale combine in Wagner's opera about a ballad singer finding his way in life after a year enjoying the pleasures of Venus. German tenor Stefan Vinke takes the title role in this playful production by Tim Albery, with Norwegian star soprano Lise Davidson (pictured) as his true love, Elizabeth. An all-star cast includes baritone Gerald Finley.
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