19/20 bbc.co.uk/philharmonic

Adventurous and innovative - the BBC Philharmonic is making bold moves to reimagine the orchestral experience. Discover more about the orchestra with a home in Salford and worldwide recognition… 10. At The Bridgewater Hall Join us in person at one of the finest concert halls in Europe.

18. Omer Meir Wellber 4. The BBC Philharmonic Get to know our new With strong roots in the city Chief Conductor. of Manchester, we can trace our origins back to 1921. We’re proud of our history and we’re energised for our future. 38. Learning & Participation Bringing exciting and innovative musical opportunities to the local community and beyond.

22. Beethoven 250 From February, along with our friends at the Hallé, we’re marking 250 years since Beethoven’s birth.

6. At the BBC Proms 40. On Tour We appear annually at the Performing across the North Royal Albert Hall as part of England and beyond. of the world’s greatest We’ve been everywhere classical music festival. from Sheffield to Shanghai.

8. Research & 42. In the Studio Development Our free studio concerts Discover more about our work across the year reach with BBC North’s pioneering audiences of over 8,000. digital teams.

2 3 The BBC Philharmonic is one of the most adventurous, innovative and The BBC versatile orchestras in Europe. Philharmonic

We’re defined by our dynamism, In these pages, you’ll find details of our reimagining the orchestral experience flagship concert season at Manchester’s by bringing new music, concert-hall Bridgewater Hall. You can also learn rarities and established classics to the more about everything else we do, widest range of audiences across the from our BBC Proms concerts and UK and beyond. extensive recording catalogue to our free concerts in our Salford studio and New music is a key part of our mission our eclectic collaborations: we’ve recently – and so is the creation of new ways to worked with everyone from BBC Young experience it. Through our award-winning Musician Sheku Kanneh-Mason to The learning and participation programme, 1975 and Jarvis Cocker. We hope you can we take music out of the concert hall and join us for some of the 60+ concerts and into schools and community venues around special events in our 2019 – 20 season. the country. And, with our colleagues at BBC Research & Development, we’re pioneering innovative digital technologies to bring you fresh perspectives on the music we perform.

4 5 At the BBC Proms

Our first two Proms in 2019 will be orchestra’s first ever Relaxed Prom Omer Meir Wellber’s first concerts (6 August), suitable for children and as the orchestra’s Chief Conductor: adults with autism, sensory or a varied programme on 23 July communication impairments or learning (broadcast on BBC Four on 26 July), disabilities, or who are deaf, hard-of- and a performance of Haydn’s The hearing, blind or partially sighted. Creation with the BBC Proms Youth Choir on 29 July. John Storgårds, Our Proms concerts on 23 July, 29 July, the orchestra’s Chief Guest Conductor, 4 August and 5 August are broadcast live takes charge for the world premiere of on BBC Radio 3 and are then available Outi Tarkiainen’s Midnight Sun online via BBC Sounds. See page 44 Variations on 4 August (live on BBC for a full list of our Proms concerts. Four; also at The Bridgewater Hall on 21 November), before Principal Guest Every summer, the orchestra decamps Conductor Ben Gernon directs the to London’s Royal Albert Hall for several concerts at the world’s greatest classical music festival: the BBC Proms.

6 7 Research & Development

Through the Philharmonic Lab initiative, listening on headphones. You’ll be able we’ve been working hand in hand with our to listen to these recordings online via BBC R&D colleagues on a host of exciting BBC Sounds. new ways to experience music. And, last but not least, we’ve recently For 2019–20, we’re launching Notes, teamed up with the Royal Northern a new way to discover more about the College of Music’s Centre for Practice music as it unfolds at The Bridgewater and Research in Science and Music Hall. If you’re sitting in a specific part of (PRiSM) to help facilitate research the hall, we’ll beam free digital programme into the future of music – beginning with notes live to your smartphone during composer Robert Laidlow’s exploration the concert. into how composers and musicians could work with Artificial Intelligence (AI) We’ll be recording most of this season’s throughout the creative process. MediaCityUK is one of the most vital Bridgewater Hall concerts in Binaural creative hothouses in the country – and Sound, which creates an extraordinary the BBC Research & Development team three-dimensional effect for anyone is a vital element of that dynamism.

8 9 At The Bridgewater Hall

An outstanding orchestra live in a all Beethoven’s symphonies and a selection world-class concert hall – the BBC of choral music. Sir Mark Elder, the Hallé’s Philharmonic’s annual season at Music Director, will also be joining us for Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall is one night only. one of the highlights of the British concert calendar. Every Bridgewater Hall concert is broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and available The 2019 – 20 season represents online via BBC Sounds. But nothing a new beginning for the orchestra compares with hearing music live in such with the arrival of Omer Meir Wellber, a magnificent concert hall – and with free, our new Chief Conductor. The first of family-friendly Journey Through Music Omer’s three concerts this season will workshops before many of the concerts, open with a UK premiere, one of five programme notes sent live to your world or UK premieres we’re performing smartphone (see page 35) and tickets during the season. from just £3, there’s never been a better time to join us in person. From February to June, we’re marking 250 years since Beethoven’s birth by teaming up with the Hallé to perform

10 11 Saturday 21 September, 7.30pm Thursday 24 October, 7.30pm Kabalevsky Jeffrey Mumford  Colas Breugnon, Within diffuse echoes Overture (5’) … softly spreading Prokofiev (BBC commission: Piano Concerto No. 3 (28’) world premiere) (18’) Coates Mendelssohn Dancing Nights (8’) Piano Concerto No. 1 (19’) Walton Mahler Symphony No. 1 (43’) Symphony No. 5 (68’)

Opening the BBC Philharmonic’s From dawn to dusk, American composer Bridgewater Hall season, John Wilson Jeffrey Mumford’s evocative music pairs light with darkness and sugar with takes its cues from the daily ebbing and spice in a sweeping selection of music from flowing of natural light around and between the wars. The lightness comes upon us. Tonight’s world premiere of courtesy of Eric Coates’s quintessentially within diffuse echoes … softly spreading, English waltz, the spice from Dmitry a BBC commission, is conducted by Kabalevsky’s fizzing operatic overture. Joana Carneiro, who is joined by soloist Prokofiev’s fiery Third Piano Concerto Denis Kozhukhin for Mendelssohn’s is a showcase for virtuoso pianists, dashing, dazzling First Piano Concerto. and Alexander Gavrylyuk has made it a Gustav Mahler’s typically majestic Fifth speciality. Contrast its confidence with Symphony progresses from tragedy to William Walton’s searing, heartbroken triumph in five sweeping movements, First Symphony, written after the collapse including perhaps the most treasured of a passionate affair and now regarded music he ever wrote: the Adagietto, as one of the greatest British symphonies a love note to his wife. ever written. Denis Kozhukhin – piano Alexander Gavrylyuk – piano Joana Carneiro – conductor John Wilson – conductor

See page 35 for details

12 13 Saturday 2 November, 7.30pm Saturday 9 November, 7.30pm Stravinsky Wagner Song of the Wesendonck Lieder (21’) Nightingale(21’) Bruckner Philip Grange Symphony No. 5 (70’)

 Violin Concerto Anton Bruckner waited 20 years for the (BBC commission: premiere of his Fifth Symphony, fell ill, (25’) missed the concert and then died world premiere) without ever having heard it performed. Tchaikovsky From such shaky origins, the reputation of this monumental work has only grown Symphony No. 1, throughout the years – and Australian (42’) ‘Winter Daydreams’ conductor Simone Young, a Bruckner specialist whose 2015 recording garnered Commissioned by the BBC and performed rave reviews across the board, should bring tonight for the first time, Philip Grange’s the very best from it here. Before she does, Violin Concerto takes flight into the soprano Sally Matthews takes on the five- world around us. At times, it’s inspired song cycle of Mathilde Wesendonck poems by massed forces from nature: swarms composed by Richard Wagner, Bruckner’s of bees and murmurations of starlings, musical idol. plagues of locusts and clouds of bats. But, at others, the soloist – violin virtuoso Sally Matthews – soprano Carolin Widmann – is left isolated and Simone Young – conductor alone. Stravinsky’s singing nightingale soars away to the court of a Chinese emperor in his predictably unpredictable ballet, before Tchaikovsky’s bold and beguiling First Symphony heralds the imminent arrival of the fierce Manchester winter.

Carolin Widmann – violin Ben Gernon – conductor

See page 35 for details

14 15 Thursday 21 November, 7.30pm Thursday 28 November, 7.30pm Kalevi Aho Milhaud Theremin Concerto Le boeuf sur le toit (17’) (UK premiere)(32’) Ravel Outi Tarkiainen Piano Concerto  Midnight Sun in G major (22’) Variations (10’) Prokofiev Shostakovich Symphony No. 5 (42’)

Symphony No. 12, The transatlantic relationship between (38’) ‘The Year 1917’ France and the USA has rarely seemed as friendly as it does in Ravel’s Piano A century after its invention, the theremin Concerto, a note-perfect mix of Jazz Age still sounds like it’s just dropped in from energy and classical European grace. another planet. Carolina Eyck is the world’s Two years after their recording won leading exponent – and she’ll be making immense acclaim, pianist Steven Osborne magic from thin air with a concerto written and conductor Ludovic Morlot reunite especially for her by Finnish composer to perform it tonight. It’s preceded by Kalevi Aho. Composed by fellow Finn Outi Darius Milhaud’s crackpot ballet, which Tarkiainen and premiered at the BBC gleefully knits together 30-odd Brazilian Proms in August, Midnight Sun Variations folk melodies, and followed by Prokofiev’s celebrates the endless daylight of the Nordic Fifth Symphony, composed in the shadow summer, before John Storgårds conducts of the Second World War but described a work with a very different inspiration: by its composer as ‘a hymn to free and Shostakovich’s fiercely controversial happy man’. 12th Symphony, dedicated to the memory of Lenin. Steven Osborne – piano Ludovic Morlot – conductor Carolina Eyck – theremin John Storgårds – conductor

16 17 “Just playing very well is not enough – we need to bring something new. Omer Meir To create our own sound identity, built on these musicians in this orchestra playing Wellber in our way and in this moment.”

In every concert, I want to try to tell a and Schumann, and two composers who story. It doesn’t have to be a concrete each had to emigrate for different reasons: story or even one with a clear ending, Schoenberg, who moved to America with but it has to have some kind of a story. the rise of the Nazis, and Paul Ben-Haim, How can we do anything in art without who moved to Israel. stories? A concert hall shouldn’t be like a museum, where things stay the same. We’ll also be performing new music We need to create the feeling, for every and contemporary works. The new Triple member of the audience, that what they Concerto by Sofia Gubaidulina features hear from the stage has something to not the piano, as you might expect, but the do with their life. bayan – a Russian accordion, played within a really specific area. It’s a very personal At the BBC Proms, we’ll be performing work that radiates from a corner of Russia Haydn’s Creation, the start of a huge all over the world. Haydn project we’ll be presenting over the next five years. I cannot wait – there are so I want to bring a real local quality to many jewels to discover, and the freedom the orchestra. Just playing very well is he allows you as a conductor is huge. not enough – we need to bring something new. If we can create our own sound My other BBC Proms concert introduces identity, built on these musicians in more political themes we’ll be exploring this orchestra playing in our way and over the next few years. It features works in this moment, then tomorrow, you can by two composers who stayed and worked turn on the radio and recognise the in their beloved home countries, Mozart BBC Philharmonic.

18 19 Saturday 14 December, 7.30pm Saturday 18 January, 7.30pm Sofia Gubaidulina Anna Clyne Triple Concerto Night Ferry (21’) (UK premiere)(37’) Vaughan Williams Bruckner The Lark Ascending (13’) Symphony No. 7 (66’) Berlioz

Omer Meir Wellber’s first Bridgewater Hall Symphonie (50’) concert as the BBC Philharmonic’s Chief fantastique Conductor opens with a first of its own: the UK premiere of Sofia Gubaidulina’s Anna Clyne, one of Britain’s most exciting compelling Triple Concerto, written for young composers, describes Night Ferry the unprecedented combination of violin, as ‘music of voyages, from stormy darkness cello and bayan (Russian button accordion). to enchanted worlds’. True, but that hardly Greeted with standing ovations on its 2017 captures the thrilling turbulence of the debut, it’s performed here by a trio of world- ride it takes into uncharted waters. class soloists, before another work rich Listen closely and you might hear echoes in vivid orchestral colour: Bruckner’s of the similarly restless Symphonie towering Seventh Symphony, which made fantastique – but in truth Berlioz’s the reputation of the man who is now utterly wild work, written under the twin regarded as one of the Romantic era’s influences of opium and unrequited love, greatest symphonists. is like nothing else. In between, Vaughan Williams’s beloved classic of the English Vadim Gluzman – violin rural springtime injects a welcome note Johannes Moser – cello of tranquillity. Elsbeth Moser – bayan Omer Meir Wellber – conductor Jennifer Pike – violin Ben Gernon – conductor

20 21 The Hallé BBC Philharmonic Tickets from £14.50 (incl. £2.50 booking fee) Tickets from £12.50 (incl. £2.50 booking fee) Beethoven Thu 30 Jan Leonore Overture No. 3 (13’) Thu 6 Feb The Creatures of Prometheus – 7.30pm  Elegischer Gesang (7’) 7.30pm overture and incidental music Ruins of Athens: Overture (5’) (selection) (32’) Christ on the Mount of Olives: Opferlied (7’) Angels’ Chorus (4’) Symphony No. 3, ‘Eroica’ (45’) 250 Symphony No. 9, ‘Choral’ (67’) Jennifer Johnston – mezzo-soprano Giselle Allen – soprano Manchester Chamber Choir Sarah Castle – mezzo soprano Ben Gernon – conductor David Butt-Phillip – tenor Neal Davies – bass Sat 15 Feb Cantata on the Death of Hallé Youth Choir 7.30pm Emperor Joseph II (39’) Hallé Choir Leonore Prohaska – Trauermarsch (6’) RNCM Chorus Symphony No. 7 (38’) Sir Mark Elder – conductor Miah Persson – soprano Kitty Whately – mezzo-soprano Thu 27 Feb Tremate, Empi, Tremate - 7.30pm Trio For Soprano, Tenor Anthony Gregory – tenor and Bass With Orchestra (9’) Brindley Sherratt – bass Symphony No. 8 * (25’) Manchester Chamber Choir Fidelio: Act II (44’) Mark Wigglesworth –conductor Simon O’Neill – tenor Sat 7 Mar Symphony No. 4 (34’) Rachel Nicholls – soprano 7.30pm Mass in C major (42’) Gemma Summerfield – soprano Emily Dorn – soprano Brindley Sherratt – bass Rachel Frenkel – mezzo-soprano Stuart Jackson – tenor Luis Gomes – tenor James Platt – bass Evan Hughes – bass Hallé Choir Dresdner Kammerchor Sir Mark Elder – conductor Omer Meir Wellber – conductor Ben Gernon – conductor * Sat 16 May Fantasia in C minor, ® Wed 11 Mar  Beyond the Score : 7.30pm ‘Choral Fantasy’ (19’) 2.15pm Symphony No. 5 (compl. Barry Cooper) Thu 12 Mar Gerard McBurney – creative director Symphony No. 10 (16’) 7.30pm Gergely Madaras – conductor Symphony No. 6, ‘Pastoral’ * (38’)

Sun 15 Mar Martin Roscoe – piano 4pm Crouch End Festival Chorus Sir Mark Elder – conductor * Thu 9 Apr Symphony No. 2 (34’) Ben Gernon – conductor 7.30pm Christ on the Mount of Olives (54’) Sat 13 Jun Missa solemnis (75’) Hallé Choir 7.30pm RNCM Chorus Lucy Crowe – soprano Sir Mark Elder – conductor Jurgita Adamonyte – mezzo-soprano Allan Clayton – tenor Thu 23 Apr Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage (10’) Roderick Williams – baritone 7.30pm Violin Concerto (41’) Hallé Choir Elegischer Gesang (7’) Mark Wigglesworth – conductor Symphony No. 1 (26’) Antje Weithaas – violin Hallé Choir Hallé Youth Choir Box Office 0161 907 9000 Alondra de la Parra – conductor bridgewater-hall.co.uk 22 23 Saturday 1 February, 7.30pm Thursday 6 February, 7.30pm Rimsky-Korsakov Beethoven The Golden The Creatures of Cockerel – extracts (8’) Prometheus – overture Szymanowski and incidental music Violin Concerto No. 2 (20’) (selection)(32’) Myaskovsky Beethoven Symphony No. 6 (58’) Opferlied (7’)

Tonight, the brilliant Tasmin Little takes Beethoven her final Bridgewater Hall bow before Symphony No. 3, stepping down from the concert platform (45’) this summer. Vassily Sinaisky conducts ‘Eroica’ Szymanowski’s gripping Second Violin The first of five concerts celebrating 250 Concerto before taking on another Eastern years since Beethoven’s birth gets right European masterpiece from between to the point with a landmark in Western the wars. Nikolay Myaskovsky was a rebel music history. If the composer’s genius can in a time and place when rebellion was be captured by just a single piece, it’s the a dangerous game – post-revolutionary indelible, incredible ‘Eroica’ – completed Russia, where a word out of turn could when he was just 33, written in honour of leave you silenced for good. His epic Sixth Napoleon (Beethoven later lost his nerve Symphony is deeply political and intensely and deleted the dedication) and regularly personal, inspired by both the Revolution voted the greatest symphony of all time. and the deaths of his father and aunt. It’s joined tonight by two relative rarities: Opferlied, an almost casually brilliant Tasmin Little – violin piece of choral writing, and extracts from CBSO Chorus The Creatures of Prometheus, Beethoven’s Vassily Sinaisky – conductor only full-length ballet.

Jennifer Johnston – mezzo-soprano Manchester Chamber Choir Ben Gernon – conductor

24 25 Saturday 15 February, 7.30pm Saturday 7 March, 7.30pm Beethoven Beethoven Cantata on the Death Symphony No. 4 (34’) of Emperor Joseph II (39’) Beethoven Beethoven Mass in C major (42’)

Leonore Prohaska – Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony is (6’) Trauermarsch sometimes overshadowed by the unsurpassable Third (see 6 February) Beethoven and the dah-dah-dah-dah familiarity (38’)  Symphony No. 7 of the Fifth, but this is a major work by a composer in the thick of one of his Beethoven’s life was dogged by ill health most creative periods. Premiered the and romantic failure, and his Seventh same year, the Mass in C major was Symphony was written while he was described as ‘unbearably ridiculous’ suffering through both. Not that you’d by the Hungarian prince who financed guess as much from the music, made its creation, an unbearably ridiculous to sound effortless by an artist at the verdict on a work that bridges the church peak of his powers. Beethoven knew it, and the concert hall better than almost too – he rated it one of his finest works. any other. In association with the As counterweights to its life and energy, Dresden Music Festival, tonight’s concert two works marking lost lives: a cantata brings together the BBC Philharmonic, written when Beethoven was just 19, the Dresden Chamber Choir and four and a funeral march inspired by a female outstanding international soloists under soldier who, disguised as a man, joined the the baton of Omer Meir Wellber. Prussian army and was killed fighting the forces of Napoleon. Emily Dorn – soprano Rachel Frenkel – mezzo-soprano Miah Persson – soprano Luis Gomes – tenor Kitty Whately – mezzo-soprano Evan Hughes – bass Anthony Gregory – tenor Dresdner Kammerchor Brindley Sherratt – bass Omer Meir Wellber – conductor Manchester Chamber Choir Mark Wigglesworth – conductor

26 27 Saturday 21 March, 7.30pm Thursday 26 March, 7.30pm Strauss Poulenc Also sprach Sinfonietta (28’) Zarathustra (32’) Shostakovich Mozart Piano Concerto No. 2 (20’) Piano Concerto No. 21, Dvořák K467, ‘Elvira Madigan’ (28’) Symphony No. 7 (37’)

Wagner Antonín Dvorák wasn’t shy about his Tristan and Isolde – ambitions for his Seventh Symphony – (19’) as he wrote to a friend, it ‘must be capable Prelude and Liebestod of stirring the world’. Written to order for the Royal Philharmonic Society, It’s no exaggeration to suggest that the it’s a great leap forwards in the career Prelude to Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde of a true symphonic master. Clemens essentially invented modern music – Schuldt conducts it tonight, along with its influence is such that its stunning two delightful works that helped to lift the opening harmony even has its own post-war gloom. Commissioned in 1947 by nickname, the ‘Tristan Chord’. the BBC’s Third Programme, the precursor Moritz Gnann conducts it tonight, to Radio 3, Poulenc’s Sinfonietta is by turns along with another immense work mellow and giddy, sober and vivacious. with an instantly recognisable opening: It’s followed by Shostakovich’s treasured Richard Strauss’s Also sprach Zarathustra, Second Piano Concerto, written as a gift which soundtracks the sunrise at the dawn for his son Maxim on his 19th birthday. of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. Elisabeth Brauss is the soloist in Mozart’s Simon Trpčeski – piano sparkling 21st Piano Concerto, nicknamed Clemens Schuldt – conductor after the 1960s film in which it plays a starring role.

Elisabeth Brauss – piano Moritz Gnann – conductor

28 29 Thursday 16 April, 7.30pm Thursday 30 April, 7.30pm Brahms Strauss Variations on a Theme  Till Eulenspiegels by Haydn (‘St Anthony’ lustige Streiche (14’) Variations)(19’) Schnittke Mahler Cello Concerto No. 1 (40’)  Des Knaben Shostakovich Wunderhorn – Symphony No. 6 (30’) (40’) selection On 21 July 1985 Russian composer Hindemith Alfred Schnittke was declared clinically dead three times after a colossal stroke –  Symphony ‘Mathis but somehow he survived. Tonight’s Cello (25’) der Maler’ Concerto was the first work he completed after his recovery and is one of the most When the Nazis won power in 1933, intense and astonishing works of the Paul Hindemith was caught in the crossfire: late 20th century. Cellist Jan Vogler joins acclaimed as a model composer by some Omer Meir Wellber and the orchestra for of Hitler’s National Socialists, condemned a programme that also takes in Richard as a degenerate artist by others. His first Strauss’s sassy homage to a German folk response was this Technicolor symphony, hero and Shostakovich’s Sixth Symphony, inspired by the life of a medieval painter written as the storm clouds of the who rebelled against an establishment Second World War were gathering that tried to box him in. The Nazis got the on the Russian horizon. message, banning Hindemith’s music from the concert hall and forcing him to Jan Vogler – cello flee the country. We stay in Germany for Omer Meir Wellber – conductor Brahms’s elegant ‘St Anthony’ Variations and Mahler’s rich settings of traditional German folk poems.

Ashley Riches – baritone Douglas Boyd – conductor

30 31 Saturday 16 May, 7.30pm Thursday 4 June, 7.30pm Beethoven Sibelius Fantasia in C minor,  Tapiola (18’) ‘Choral Fantasy’ (19’) Debussy Beethoven La mer (23’) (compl. Barry Cooper) Tom Coult Symphony No. 10 (16’) Pleasure Garden Beethoven (BBC, University Symphony No. 6, of Salford and Royal ‘Pastoral’ * (38’) Horticultural Society

The BBC Philharmonic and the Hallé’s co-commission: (20’) joint Beethoven celebrations tonight world premiere) present the second part of a unique exchange programme on the podium. Respighi (22’) Following Ben Gernon’s appearance with Pines of Rome the Hallé on 28 February, Sir Mark Elder, the Hallé’s Music Director, returns the Composer Tom Coult heralds the favour, conducting the BBC Philharmonic creation and 2020 opening of a major for one night only in Beethoven’s new North West landmark: RHS Garden sumptuous ‘Pastoral’ Symphony. It’s the Bridgewater, a 154-acre garden at Worsley highlight of a concert that also includes New Hall in Salford. Pleasure Garden Beethoven’s 10th Symphony, assembled by explores how nature can thrive in an Manchester professor Barry Cooper from urban environment, nearly a century after the composer’s sketches, and the Choral Ottorino Respighi considered the same Fantasy, which anticipates Beethoven’s subject in his ode to the Pines of Rome. epic Ninth Symphony in joyful and Also tonight, two more works that take celebratory fashion. the natural world as their inspiration: Sibelius heads into the trees in search Martin Roscoe – piano of Tapio, the mythic Finnish forest god, Crouch End Festival Chorus before Debussy sets impressionistic sail Sir Mark Elder – conductor * on the ocean wave. Ben Gernon – conductor Daniel Pioro – violin Ilan Volkov – conductor

32 33 Saturday 13 June, 7.30pm Beethoven Journey Through Music (25’)  Missa solemnis Journey Through Music concerts feature music that is particularly ‘From the heart – May it return – To the accessible for younger audience heart!’ The spidery handwriting that members. They include pre-concert spells out the dedication on Beethoven’s events and programme notes written score to the Missa solemnis is every bit as specially for children. The pre-concert impassioned as the music that follows. events are a great opportunity for the Five years in the making, this was one entire family to get to know the music. of the last major works Beethoven Enjoy demonstrations from BBC completed before his death, and ‘major’ Philharmonic players, ask questions is absolutely the right word for this and discover more about the music in towering tour de force. Conductor Mark the evening’s concert. The six concerts Wigglesworth is joined by an all-star in the Journey Through Music series quartet of soloists and the Hallé Choir are: 2 and 28 Nov; 18 January; to raise the Bridgewater Hall roof for the 6 February; 21 March and 4 June. orchestra’s final concert of the season.

Lucy Crowe – soprano Jurgita Adamonytė – mezzo-soprano Allan Clayton – tenor Roderick Williams – baritone Hallé Choir Notes Mark Wigglesworth – conductor Notes is an innovative way to experience live music. Bite-sized programme notes are beamed to your smartphone during every concert in the 2019-20 season. The BBC Philharmonic team follows an orchestral score throughout the concert and triggers each programme note at the right moment, giving you timely insights into what you are hearing and seeing on stage. There are specific seating areas for people using Notes, so other audience members aren’t distracted. Book a Notes ticket to experience it for yourself.

34 35 Ticket Prices Concessions Subscriptions How to Book Seating Plan

Ticket Bands Senior citizens & claimants The Bridgewater Hall Telephone 20% discount on all Flexible Series 0161 907 9000 Choir Seats Circle A – £40.50 Alcove ticket bands. (all BBC Philharmonic, B – £32.50 Circle Hallé, Manchester Online Alcove C – £26.50 Disabled patrons Camerata bridgewater-hall.co.uk Stage D – £18.50 50% discount on all ticket and International Concert

bands – please book by Series concerts) In person (R) Gallery Side E – £12.50 phone or in person to 5–15 concerts: The Bridgewater Hall ensure appropriate seats. 15% discount Lower Mosley Street The prices above include 16+ concerts: Manchester M2 3WS The Bridgewater Hall’s (L) Circle Side Students + Under-26s 25% discount Side Gallery (L) Stalls standard online and Tickets £3 (in person) Monday–Saturday 10am– telephone booking fee of or £5.50 (online/by phone) No booking fees apply to 6pm, with counter service Choir Circle (L) £2.50 per ticket. This fee tickets purchased as part until 8pm on concert Side Circle (R) does not apply to tickets You may be asked for ID of a subscription package. nights. Choir Circle (R) bought in person. to prove your eligibility. If your subscription order Sunday (concert nights totals more than £250, only) 12noon–8pm. Closed Notes Groups you can pay by direct debit. on non-concert Sundays. Circle Price band for these seats Groups get generous Simply complete and return will be in line with Band E. discounts across all The Bridgewater Hall direct By post Student and Under-26 ticket bands: debit mandate form no Call 0161 907 9000 to concessions also apply. Groups of 10–29 save 10% later than Friday 19 July request a booking form. Notes seats are available Groups of 30–49 save 15% 2019. You’ll pay in five Gallery in the Side Circle – left Groups of 50+ save 25% equal monthly instalments, and right. starting on or around 1 September 2019. Booking Information

Standby tickets Exchanges Children Subject to availability, If you’re unable to attend Under-14s must be a limited number of a concert and return your accompanied by standby tickets may be ticket(s) to The Bridgewater an adult. available at £10.50 online Hall at least three working

and £8 at the Box Office days in advance, the Box between 10am and 7pm Office will credit your on the day of each concert. account with the face Seat selection will be value of your ticket(s), at the discretion of the minus a return fee of Box Office. £2.20 per ticket. You may use this credit to buy tickets for another concert of your choice. Design and content: Modern Designers Illustration: Aleksandra Morawiak. Words: Will Fulford-Jones Will Morawiak. Aleksandra Words: Illustration: 36 37 Learning & Participation

We start young! Our award-winning Early And, from our Family Orchestra projects Ears interactive performances bring the to our performances for Salford community joy of music to children aged 3–7. For Key groups, our learning and participation Stages 2 and 3, our Schools’ Concerts are programmes also take a much less formal a perfect introduction to the orchestra. tone. Presented before many of our And we run a wealth of projects inspired by Bridgewater Hall concerts, our relaxed, the BBC’s nationwide Ten Pieces initiative all-ages Journey Through Music events for children aged 7–14, from instrumental offer accessible introductions to classical coaching and creative workshops to tailor- music – and, if you’ve got tickets for that made music-training for teachers. night’s concert, they’re completely free.

Our programmes also support those further on in their musical lives. Each year, our Professional Experience Scheme gives From the classroom to the concert hall, students from the Royal Northern College we want to bring orchestral music into of Music invaluable first-hand experience the lives of people who may never have of orchestral life. experienced it before.

38 39 The BBC Philharmonic is one of Europe’s busiest and most On Tour well-travelled orchestras.

Alongside the regular concerts at our We also regularly take our place on the Salford studio and Manchester’s global stage, performing concerts for Bridgewater Hall, we journey far and wide international audiences that are also throughout England, into Europe and broadcast for listeners at home on BBC beyond – inspired by our ambition to bring Radio 3. In recent years, we’ve performed a rich and diverse variety of music to the in Austria, Germany, Romania, Spain and broadest range of listeners. Switzerland, and toured as far afield as China, Japan and the USA. This season, we’ll be leaving Greater Manchester for frequent concerts in the For updates on all our 2019 – 20 tour North of England and the Midlands: dates, visit bbc.co.uk/philharmonic we’ll be at Hull’s Middleton Hall, or see page 45. Leeds Town Hall, the Royal Concert Hall in Nottingham, Sheffield City Hall and Victoria Hall in Stoke-on-Trent. In July and August, we’ll be heading south to London for our annual concerts at the Royal Albert Hall as part of the BBC Proms (see page 6).

40 41 In the Studio

We’re based at MediaCityUK, The Vamps for Blue Peter’s 60th birthday; a dynamic creative hub on the banks recorded acclaimed CDs for Chandos; of the Manchester Ship Canal in Salford. and broadcast on all seven national radio At our very own purpose-built studio, networks, from BBC Radio 1 to BBC Radio we perform around 35 concerts each year 6 Music and the BBC Asian Network, to annual audiences of more than 8,000. along with BBC Radio Manchester.

Here in Salford, anything goes – our Tickets for all our MediaCityUK MediaCityUK concert calendar is defined concerts are free. You can apply for up by its variety. Over the past few years, to two tickets per concert via bbc.co.uk/ we’ve collaborated with artists as varied philharmonic or bbc.co.uk/showsandtours, as Clean Bandit, Aled Jones and with all tickets allocated by random ballot The Wombats; performed previously when each application window closes. unheard music by writer-composer Anthony Burgess in a unique dramatisation of his novel A Clockwork Orange; performed with Sophie Ellis-Bextor and

42 43 BBC Proms Out of Town

2019 2019 2020

Tue 23 Jul M ozart Piano Concerto Sat 28 Sep Middleton Hall, Hull Wed 15 Jan Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham No. 15, K450 Brecht The Mother “Discovering Music” Ben-Haim Symphony No. 1 Vaughan Williams In the Fen Country Schoenberg Five Orchestral Pieces Featuring Maxine Peake Vaughan Williams Symphony No. 6 Schumann Symphony No. 4 and music from Hanns Eisler Stephen Johnson – presenter Yeol Eum Son – piano Fri 4 Oct Victoria Hall, Hanley John Wilson – conductor Omer Meir Wellber – conductor Schumann Symphony No. 3 Sat 8 Feb Leeds Town Hall Mon 29 Jul H aydn The Creation Haydn Cello Concerto in D Sibelius Karelia Suite Tchaikovsky Fantasy-Overture Sarah-Jane Brandon – soprano Sibelius Finlandia ‘Romeo and Juliet’ Christoph Pohl – baritone Edward Gregson Oboe Concerto Ben Hulett – tenor Kian Soltani – cello (world premiere) BBC Proms Youth Choir John Storgårds – conductor Berlioz Symphonie fantastique Omer Meir Wellber – conductor Sat 26 Oct Leeds Town Hall Jennifer Galloway – oboe Sun 4 Aug Rachmaninov The Isle of the Dead Ben Gernon – conductor Outi Tarkiainen Midnight Sun Anna Clyne Masquerade Variations (world premiere) Saint-Saëns Cello Concerto No. 1 Fri 21 Feb City Hall, Sheffield Shostakovich Symphony No. 11 Mahler Symphony No. 5 ‘The Year 1905’ “Discovering Music” Laura van der Heijden – cello Berlioz Symphonie fantastique John Storgårds – conductor Joana Carneiro – conductor Andrew McGregor – presenter Mon 5 Aug Arnold Peterloo Overture Fri 1 Nov Victoria Hall, Hanley Ben Gernon – conductor Rachmaninov Rhapsody Rossini Overture, Thieving Magpie Fri 28 Feb Victoria Hall, Hanley on a Theme of Paganini Mozart Violin Concerto No. 3, K216 Tchaikovsky Swan Lake (selection) Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 1, Beethoven Overture, Coriolan Alexander Gavrylyuk – piano ‘Winter Daydreams’ Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 4 Beethoven Symphony No. 3, ‘Eroica’ Ben Gernon – conductor Ben Gernon – conductor Carolin Widmann – violin Martin Roscoe – piano Tue 6 Aug R elaxed Prom Clemens Schuldt – conductor Rachmaninov Rhapsody Sat 23 Nov Leeds Town Hall Fri 27 Mar Victoria Hall, Hanley on a Theme of Paganini Elgar The Kingdom Tchaikovsky Swan Lake (selection) Smetana The Bartered Bride - Carolyn Sampson – soprano Overture and Three Dances Alexander Gavrylyuk – piano Jane Irwin – mezzo-soprano Ben Gernon – conductor Shostakovich Piano Concerto No. 2 Ed Lyon – tenor Dvořák Symphony No. 7 Gareth Brynmor John – baritone How to book Leeds Philharmonic Chorus Simon Trpčeski – piano Online: bbc.co.uk/proms or royalalberthall.com David Hill – conductor Clemens Schuldt – conductor Telephone: 020 7070 4441 Fri 24 Apr Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham Strauss Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche Bloch Schelomo Bruch Kol Nidrei Beethoven Symphony No. 7 Jan Vogler – cello Omer Meir Wellber – conductor

44 45 Discover the BBC Philharmonic

Chief Conductor Omer Meir Wellber Chief Guest Conductor John Storgårds Principal Guest Conductor Ben Gernon

Keep in touch Web bbc.co.uk/philharmonic Twitter @BBCPhilharmonic Facebook /BBCPhilharmonic Instagram @BBCPhilharmonic