2012 was a sterling year for concerts, and 2013 looks set to be even better. With the Southbank Centre’s The Rest is Noise festival dominating my diary and Britten looming large too, here is a selection of the unmissable events of the year.
Not a concert as such, but the live streaming from the Royal Opera House on 7th January promises to be a fascinating look into the day-to-day running of the company. Viewers will be able to tune into interviews, rehearsals and insights from performers and those on the creative team alike. Running from 10:30 am until 9 pm, the broadcast will offer a look into rehearsals from Verdi to Birtwistle, culminating with preparations for the evening’s performance of La bohème.
Witold Lutoslawski celebrates his centenary on 25th January. Fresh from the success of their ‘The Orchestra’ app for iPad, the Philharmonia and Esa-Pekka Salonen bring the Polish composer’s Musique funèbre and Piano concerto to the Royal Festival Hall before a complete performance of Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé on 30th January.
February begins in style with a virtuoso programme on 1st February at Oxford’s Holywell Music Room. Michael Finnissy’s new work ‘Âwâz-e Niyâz’ is performed by the man himself with Christopher Redgate on oboe and lupophone. Also featuring Pasculli, Beeethoven and Triebensee, it is worth arriving at 6:30 pm to hear Finnissy and Redgate’s pre-concert talk.
Another unmissable event is Imogen Cooper’s Schubert recital in St John’s Auditorium on 2nd February. Holding the post of Humanitas Visiting Professorship in Classical Music and Music Education, Cooper will perform the 4 Impromptus, Sonata in A minor, 11 Ecossaises and the Sonata in D major to a rapt audience.
I will hopefully be making the journey from Oxford to London multiple times during February as the Rest is Noise festival turns to Paris. 9th February not only marks the opening of ROH’s Eugene Onegin, but a performance of George Antheil’s eclectic Ballet mécanique by the Aurora Orchestra. 20th February brings some rare gems from Les Six: Les Mariés de la Tour Eiffel arr. Marius Constant for 15 instruments, and Darius Milhaud’s Petite Symphonies Nos. 2 and 3.
The following night, the Royal Festival Hall plays host to twentieth-century music of an entirely different kind, as Unsuk Chin introduces John Zorn’s For Your Eyes Only and Angelus Novus will be performed by players from the Philharmonia under Matthew Coorey. To finish off the week, Andras Schiff and the OAE will be returning to Oxford’s Sheldonian Theatre on Friday 22nd February with Mozart and Haydn.
If their performance in December is anything to go by, the Oxford Bach Choir’s performance of Britten’s War Requiem on 9th March will be gripping. A star-studded list of performers includes soprano Elizabeth Llewelyn, tenor James Oxley and bass Giles Underwood with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Choristers of Christ Church Cathedral under the baton of Nicholas Cleobury. The Oxford Town Hall will be in for a treat!
George Benjamin’s Written on Skin runs from 8th-22nd March in the Royal Opera House. Bleak yet gripping, it is the production which I am most eagerly anticipating. London sees the return of Gustavo Dudamel and the LA Philharmonic to the Barbican Centre. I will be in the audience for the concert on 17th March (a programme of Debussy, Stravinsky and Vivier). Their trip to London will also see them perform Joseph Pereira, Unsuk Chin and John Adams on 14th March, and Adams’ The Other Gospel According to Mary (having received mixed reviews from its premiere performance).
Winner of the 2013 Grawemeyer Award, the Dutch composer Michael Van der Aa will be bringing his intriguingly titled ‘film-opera’ Sunken Garden to the Barbican from 12th April. Featuring a libretto from Cloud Atlas author David Mitchell and the first use of 3D in opera, it will be interesting to see how this multimedia production is received.
After garnering widespread critical praise with their first two CD releases, the Choir of Merton College perform a programme of Tallis, Parsons, Purcell, Tavener, Arvo Pärt and Poulenc on 3rd May. Oxford’s newest choral foundation is always a delight to watch, and a highlight promises to be a new commission by Ola Gjeilo for the Merton Choirbook (in anticipation of the college’s 750th celebrations in 2014).
I suspect that the rest of May will prove to be a write-off due to exams! However, I look forward to exploring the musical offerings in June, not least the UK premiere of Jonathan Harvey’s Wagner Dream by WNO (from 6th June).
The rest of June is focused around Britten, with my highlights based in Aldeburgh. The Aldeburgh Festival (running from 7th-23rd June) promises to rise to the occasion, but it is surely Peter Grimes on Aldeburgh Beach (15th, 17th and 19th June) which will prove the event of the year.
Katy Wright 