Harry Bicket Celebrates 10 Years with the English Concert in a Star
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Harry Bicket celebrates 10 years with The English Concert in a star-studded 2017/18 season including Lucy Crowe, Kristian Bezuidenhout, Iestyn Davies and Andreas Scholl “Next March comes Rinaldo. Book now” The Independent, 5* review of Ariodante, 2017 Harry Bicket celebrates 10 years as Artistic Director of The English Concert with a star-studded 2017/18 season featuring Iestyn Davies, Kristian Bezuidenhout, Lucy Crowe, and Andreas Scholl. The English Concert continue their annual Handel opera-in-concert series this year with Rinaldo. Starring Iestyn Davies, Rinaldo travels to Sevilla, Madrid, London and New York. Following the success of Tom Morris’ Messiah in Bristol, the co-production is revived at Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall (with the Erebus Ensemble) in spring 2018. Kristian Bezuidenhout has been announced as The English Concert’s new Principal Guest Director, exploring not only classical keyboard works, but chamber music as well. “The prospect of working in closer collaboration with The English Concert as their Principal Guest Director fills me with great excitement: what an enormous honour it will be to explore this extraordinary repertoire together” Kristian Bezuidenhout Harry Bicket joined The English Concert as their Artistic Director in 2007, following founder Trevor Pinnock and his successor Andrew Manze. In that time the orchestra has gone from strength to strength, harnessing Bicket’s extensive operatic experience and forging a long-term association with New York’s Carnegie Hall to present an annual Handel opera-in-concert. Previous years have seen performances of Alcina, Theodora, Radamisto, Orlando and Hercules with top soloists Joyce DiDonato, Sarah Connolly and Iestyn Davies. After their acclaimed performances of Ariodante last season, the orchestra takes their latest offering, Rinaldo, to Sevilla, Madrid, London, and of course New York in March 2018. Iestyn Davies appears in the title role, joined by Jane Archibald, Sasha Cooke, Joélle Harvey, Jakub Jozef Orlinski and Luca Pisaroni. “The young composer uses everything in his compositional arsenal to charm and delight; it is no coincidence this was his big arrival piece in London in 1711. The highlight for me is the chance to sing Cara sposa, an aria that even Handel himself claimed was the greatest he ever wrote. I can’t wait to work on this piece again with Harry Bicket and The English Concert” Iestyn Davies Such operatic credentials are brought to the revival of Tom Morris’ staging of Handel’s Messiah (originally performed at Bristol Old Vic last season) which travels to Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall on 29 March 2018. “I felt an active part of the events unfolding in front, above and around me. Perhaps the cheers and whoops at the end suggested others felt that way too”. The Times Watch Harry Bicket on the relationship between Mr Handel and The English Concert in this video: New Principal Guest Director Kristian Bezuidenhout opens The English Concert’s 2017/18 season at the Wigmore Hall on 14 September with a programme of Haydn, Mozart and CPE Bach (also at the Rye Arts Festival on 16 September), and returns later in the season to perform Handel, Telemann, and Bach’s D minor harpsichord concerto at Kings Place. “Steered along by Bezuidenhout’s darting looks and the firm knowledge that The English Concert players would never knock themselves off course” The Times Lucy Crowe joins The English Concert for Bach’s monumental B Minor Mass for the Bath Bach Festival in February 2018 alongside Anna Harvey, Nick Pritchard and Ashley Riches. Crowe’s début recording Il Caro Sassone, a disc of Handel arias made with the ensemble and Harry Bicket in 2011, was greeted with critical acclaim: “Crowe’s delectable singing is complemented by fresh rhythmically buoyant and, where needed, virtuoso playing from The English Concert” (Gramophone). An all-Mozart programme brings the orchestra and Crowe together once again at Milton Court in London, and The Brewhouse in Taunton, during October 2017. Here, The English Concert’s leader Nadja Zwiener is also in action in Mozart’s final violin concerto. Appointed by Harry Bicket, Zwiener similarly celebrates her 10th anniversary with the orchestra, featuring as a soloist throughout the year alongside her fellow principal musicians and on a forthcoming disc due for release next year. In addition to their busy touring schedule, The English Concert appear at the Wigmore Hall a further three times this season: firstly, on 29 November with collaborators Robert Quinney and The Choir of New College Oxford in music by Blow, Purcell and Handel, and secondly in a more reflective programme dedicated to Buxtehude on 8 February with soprano Dorothee Mields and gambist Jonathan Manson. Nadja Zwiener appears as soloist once more on 19 April as the orchestra take in the treasures of Versailles (Rameau), Venice (Tartini), Zelenka (Dresden), and London (Arne) on their ‘European Grand Tour’. The London season also sees the orchestra make their Kings Place début on 6 December in an intimate sonata-filled programme of Corelli, Matteis, Biber and Purcell with Nadja Zwiener, Tuomo Suni, Emilia Benjamin and Tom Foster. A tour to South Korea with acclaimed German countertenor Andreas Scholl draws 2017/18 to a close. After their celebration of Shakespeare in East Asia last season with Tim Mead and Mary Bevan, The English Concert appear in Seoul, Daejeon and Taiwan following a UK performance at Saffron Hall next May with music by some of England’s greatest cultural exports, Purcell, Avison and Handel. SUMMER 2017 9-20 July 2017 | Buxton Opera 11 July 2017 | St John’s Church, House, Buxton Buxton Mozart Lucio Silla The English Concert The English Concert Laurence Cummings director Nadja Zwiener violin Joshua Ellicott Lucio Silla Lisa Beznosiuk flute Fflur Wyn Celia Alfonso Leal del Ojo viola Rebecca Bottone Giunia Joseph Crouch cello Madeleine Pierard Cecilio Karolina Plicková Lucio Cinna Haydn Trio for flute, violin and cello Ben Thapa Aufidio Op. 11, No. 5 Schubert String Trio in Bb D471 Mozart Flute Quartet in C, K285b JC Bach Flute Quartet in C, WB58 Mozart Adagio and Fugue K404 (after Bach) Mozart Flute Quartet in D, K285 SEASON 2017 - 2018 14 September 2017 | Wigmore Hall, London Mozart Divertimento in D K136 16 September 2017 | St. Mary’s Mozart Al Destin (Mitridate) Church, Rye Mozart Ruhe sanft (Zaide) Mozart Ah, se il crudel (Lucio Silla) The English Concert Mozart Et incarnatus est Kristian Bezuidenhout Mozart Violin Concerto in A K219 director/fortepiano Mozart Exsultate Jubilate Haydn Symphony No. 39 in G minor, 29 November 2017 | Wigmore Hob. I:39 Hall, London Mozart Piano Concerto in C major, K415 The English Concert CPE Bach Sinfonia in B minor, Wq. Robert Quinney 182/5 director/harpsichord/organ Mozart Symphony No. 33 in B-flat The Choir of New College Oxford major, K319 Blow Chaconne 25 October 2017 | Milton Court, Blow O sing unto the Lord London Purcell Chacony in G minor Z. 730 26 October 2017 | The Purcell Welcome to all the pleasures Brewhouse, Taunton Z. 339 Handel Organ Concerto in F Op. 4, The English Concert No. 4 HWV 292 Harry Bicket Bach Komm, Jesu, komm BWV 229 director/harpsichord/organ Bach Du Friedefürst, Herr Jesu Lucy Crowe soprano Christ BWV 116 Nadja Zwiener violin 6 December 2017 | Kings Place, 24 February 2018 | Bath Abbey, London Bath Bath Bach Festival The English Concert Nadja Zwiener violin The English Concert Tuomo Suni violin The Erebus Ensemble Emilia Benjamin viola da gamba Harry Bicket Tom Foster harpsichord/organ director/harpsichord/organ Lucy Crowe soprano Corelli Trio sonata in F Op. 3, No. 1 Anna Harvey alto Matteis Prelude for solo violin in A Nicholas Pritchard tenor Biber ‘The Annunciation’, Sonata No. Ashley Riches bass-baritone 1 in D minor from Rosary Sonatas Purcell Trio sonata No. 3 in D minor Bach – B Minor Mass BWV 232 Z. 792 Biber Partita VI in D from Harmonia 10 – 25 March 2018 | Rinaldo Artificiosa Tour Simpson Division for viola da gamba in E minor 10 March | Teatro de la Purcell Sonata No. 3 in D minor Z. Maestranza, Sevilla* 792 11 March | Auditorio Nacional de Biber ‘The Nativity’, Sonata No. 3 in Musica, Madrid B minor from Rosary Sonatas 13 March | Barbican, London Rosenmüller Sonata No. 2 in E 25 March | Carnegie Hall, New minor York Corelli Trio Sonata in A Op. 3, No. 12 The English Concert Harry Bicket director/harpsichord 8 February 2018 | Wigmore Hall, Iestyn Davies Rinaldo London Xavier Sabata Rinaldo (*Sevilla only) The English Concert Jane Archibald Armida Harry Bicket director/organ Sasha Cooke Goffredo Dorothee Mields soprano Joélle Harvey Almirena Nadja Zwiener violin Jakub Jozef Orlinski Eustazio Jonathan Manson viola da gamba Luca Pisaroni Argante Featuring cantatas and chamber Handel Rinaldo music including: Buxtehude Also hat Gott die Welt 29 March 2018 | Bridgewater geliebet BuxWV 5 Hall, Manchester Buxtehude Sonata C major BuxWV 266 The English Concert Buxtehude Herr, auf Dich traue ich The Erebus Ensemble BuxWV 35 Tom Morris director Buxtehude Trio sonata in D BuxWV Susanna Hurrell soprano 267 Catherine Wyn-Rogers alto Buxtehude O fröhliche Stunden Robert Murray tenor BuxWV 84 Marcus Farnsworth bass Handel Messiah 19 April 2018 | Wigmore Hall, 25 May 2018 – 17 June 2018 | London South Korean Tour The English Concert 25 May | Saffron Hall, Saffron Harry Bicket director/harpsichord Walden, Nadja Zwiener violin 13 June | Daejeon 15 June | Seoul Arne Overture to The Judgement of 16 June | Seoul Paris 18 June | Taiwan Rameau Suite from Les fêtes de l'Hymen et de l'Amour The English Concert Tartini Violin Concerto in B minor, Andreas Scholl countertenor D. 125 ("Lascia ch'io dica addio") Zelenka Simphonie a 8 ZWV 189 Purcell Sound the trumpet from Birthday Ode for Queen Mary 14 May 2018 | Kings Place, Purcell Airs and Dances from King London Arthur Avison Concerto Grosso No.