SEPTEMBER 2016 –JULY 2017 Director’s Introduction Frances Marshall Photography One of Britain’s foremost singers, Sarah Connolly, opens the Hall’s new season with regular duo partner Malcolm Martineau, leading listeners through a programme rich in emotional contrasts, poetic reflections and glorious melodies. The recital includes Mahler’s sublime Rückert Lieder, the impassioned lyricism of Berlioz’s Les nuits d’été, the exotic subtle narrative impressions of Debussy’s three Chansons de Bilitis, and a selection of Schumann songs. Mark Padmore’s vocal artistry and ability to extract every drop of emotion from poetic texts have secured his place among today’s finest recitalists. Morgan Szymanski, described by Classical Guitar magazine as ‘a player destined for future glories’ joins him on 12 September. Critical acclaim for Angela Hewitt’s Bach interpretations bears witness to the pianist’s extraordinary ability to connect physically and emotionally as well as intellectually with the dance rhythms and expressive gestures of the composer’s keyboard works. The Bach Odyssey will highlight all of this over the next four years. Canadian soprano Barbara Hannigan performs like a force of nature, captivating audiences with her artistry’s presence and expressive vitality. She joins the Calder Quartet, winner of the 2014 Avery Fisher Career Grant, for the world première of The sirens cycle by Peter Eötvös. Beethoven’s piano sonatas occupied forty years of his life. They offer insights into his development as artist and individual, and stand among the greatest of all his works. Igor Levit, now in his late 20s, drew critical superlatives to his debut recording of Beethoven’s late sonatas and has since established his reputation as a visionary interpreter of the composer’s music. His first Beethoven cycle in a major concert hall stands among the must-hear events of 2016/17. Peter Dazeley I am very pleased that Collegium 1704 will make its UK debut with We celebrate St Cecilia on her annual festival with the greatest of Italian mezzo-soprano Anna Bonitatibus, in a programme of arias, songs Purcell’s Odes. Hail, bright Cecilia, the Ode for St Cecilia’s Day 1692, and other works inspired by the legendary Assyrian queen Semiramis. belongs to a distinctive English tradition of honouring music’s patron Václav Luks and his Prague-based ensemble have secured rave reviews saint. John Butt and his Dunedin Consort, acclaimed for their interpretations for their recordings, Bach’s Mass in B minor among them. of masterworks by Bach and Handel, invariably find fresh ways of bringing Baroque music to life. Known for her passionate devotion to chamber music, as well as her incandescent concerto performances, Janine Jansen has achieved Jonathan Cohen and Arcangelo begin their Wigmore Hall residency worldwide acclaim with music-making of the highest integrity. The Dutch with two of JS Bach’s earliest church cantatas, including the touching violinist, a firm favourite with Wigmore Hall’s audience, is a regular visitor Actus tragicus, perhaps written in 1707 for the funeral of the composer’s throughout the season. uncle, and Telemann’s equally moving funeral cantata, Du aber Daniel, gehe hin. The programme also offers a chance for Arcangelo’s ace Wigmore Hall marks the start of Helen Grime’s term as its first female period-instrument players to shine in the Sixth Brandenburg Concerto. Composer in Residence with a day devoted to her art. The Scottish composer, born in 1981, is known not least for her distinctive creative voice Sonia Prina and Roberta Invernizzi belong to a generation of singers and her music’s lyrical beauty. Our Helen Grime Day, on 15 October, offers blessed with remarkable technical skills, musical refinement and the chance to become deeply immersed in her chamber compositions. emotional freedom. Prina’s sensational agility and ability to mine the depths of the contralto range provide the ideal complement to the Over the past decade Alison Balsom has captivated audiences worldwide crystalline beauty of Invernizzi’s soprano voice. They return to Wigmore with her lyrical playing, exquisite tone and penetrating musicianship. As Hall with Luca Pianca’s stellar Ensemble Claudiana to perform a programme performer, educator and advocate she has done more for her instrument of works associated with Venice, on 29 December. and the wider cause of classical music than many achieve in a lifetime. ‘The Trumpet Shall Sound’, a series of four concerts throughout the Francesco Cavalli’s La Calisto, first performed in Venice in 1651, blends season, offers the chance to experience the full breadth and depth of comedy and tragedy with music of sensuous beauty and irresistible charm. her work. The opera’s libretto is based on the ancient Greek myth of the nymph Callisto as related by Ovid in his Metamorphoses. It will be treated to the Based in Sheffield, Music in the Round is the country’s leading chamber energy and artistic vision of La Nuova Musica and its director David Bates. music promoter outside of London. Renowned for its innovative, informal and engaging performances, we are delighted to welcome its resident Any collection of essential albums of the keyboard works of Bach, group Ensemble 360 to the Wigmore Hall stage for this special weekend, Schumann, Janácˇ ek and Bartók would be impoverished without the which explores the chamber music of Robert Schumann and the ever- recordings of Sir András Schiff. The pianist’s affinity for the music of each youthful compositions of Felix Mendelssohn, alongside composers who composer has matured over many decades, making his three recitals influenced them, and were influenced by them. and three related evening masterclasses one of the highlights of Wigmore Hall’s 2016/17 Season. Shakespeare’s peerless feeling for the music of the English language has inspired countless composers, from those who set the Bard’s verse One of Germany’s greatest-ever singers, Brigitte Fassbaender, returns during his lifetime to musicians as diverse as Britten, Finzi, Korngold and to Wigmore Hall to lead two days of masterclasses, working with a Stravinsky. Ian Bostridge and Sir Antonio Pappano, together with four company of postgraduate students from UK conservatoires. And, of outstanding chamber musicians, delve into the rich Shakespeare legacy course, we continue our survey of Schubert’s entire song output on 14 November. throughout the season. Emmanuelle Haïm’s vocal and period-instrument ensemble, Le Concert It’s impossible for me to mention everything, so please enjoy reading d’Astrée, owns a collective wealth of understanding and practical through the brochure for yourself. I look forward to welcoming you to experience in the performance of Baroque and early Classical music. Wigmore Hall throughout the season ahead. Above all the group takes its lead from Haïm’s imaginative engagement with the bold rhetorical gestures of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century works, John Gilhooly and the absolute conviction of her interpretations. They make their Wigmore Director Hall debut with a beguiling all-Mozart programme, on 15 November. SERIES ATA GLANCE SEPTEMBER – DECEMBER 2016 See pages 6 – 122 for full details of these concerts and page 123 for booking information. Series and Events to look out for… BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concerts Fri 25 Nov Ensemble Modern Page 58 Sat 26 Nov Arditti Quartet 59 Sarah Connolly and Malcolm Martineau 7 Mon 12 Sep Mark Padmore/Morgan Szymanski Page 8 Sat 10 Dec Nash Ensemble/Christianne Stotijn 68 Mark Padmore and Morgan Szymanski 8 Mon 19 Sep Håkan Hardenberger/Roland Pöntinen 14 Sun 11 Dec Belcea Quartet 69 Schubert: 10 –11, 34, 45, 57, 67, 86, 89, 92, 98, 104, 110, Tue 13 Dec St. Lawrence String Quartet 70 The Complete Songs 111, 114, 115, 116, 118, 119, 120 Mon 26 Sep Doric String Quartet 17 The English Concert 12, 76, 90, 114 Mon 3 Oct Steven Isserlis/Olli Mustonen 24 Wed 14 Dec Britten Sinfonia 71 Jeremy Denk 13 Mon 10 Oct Nicholas Angelich 27 Fri 16 Dec Trevor Pinnock 70th Birthday Concert 72 Les Vents Français 14 Mon 17 Oct Vilde Frang/Aleksandar Madžar 31 Tue 20 Dec Balsom Ensemble 73 Freiburg Baroque Orchestra and Kristian Bezuidenhout 16 Mon 24 Oct Nelson Goerner 35 Fri 23 Dec Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin 75 Angela Hewitt: The Bach Odyssey 18–19, 87, 114 Mon 31 Oct Kelemen Quartet 40 Tue 27 Dec Sitkovetsky Trio 75 Max Emanuel Cencic and Il Pomo d’Oro 20 Mon 7 Nov Marie-Elisabeth Hecker 47 Wed 28 Dec Doric String Quartet 76 Barbara Hannigan and Calder Quartet 21 Martin Helmchen Fri 30 Dec Gringolts Quartet 76 Beethoven Cycle: 15, 22–23, 27, 47, 67, Igor Levit 89, 95, 98, 115 Mon 14 Nov Cuarteto Quiroga/Javier Perianes 49 Nathalie Stutzmann and Orfeo 55 24 Mon 21 Nov Garrick Ohlsson 55 Early Music and Baroque Series Anna Bonitatibus and Collegium 1704 26 Mon 28 Nov Ilker Arcayürek/Simon Lepper 59 Janine Jansen Perspectives 28, 91, 113 Mon 5 Dec Boris Giltburg 65 Mon 12 Sep The Brabant Ensemble/Stephen Rice 9 Christian Gerhaher and Gerold Huber 30 Mon 12 Dec Emmanuel Pahud 69 Wed 14 Sep The English Concert/Anna Devin 12 Helen Grime Day 32–33 Matthew Brook/Harry Bicket Le Poème Harmonique 35 Mon 19 Dec Miklós Perényi 73 Mon 19 Sep Classical Opera/Ian Page/Ailish Tynan 14 Schubert in English 34, 46, 68 Rachel Kelly/Kitty Whately/Robert Murray Nash Ensemble: 36–37, 54, 68, Vienna and its Empire 87, 90, 91 Chamber Music Season Thu 22 Sep Freiburg Baroque Orchestra 16 Sophie Karthäuser and Eugene Asti 41 Kristian Bezuidenhout Fri 16 Sep Daniel Hope/Paul Neubauer 9 Alison Balsom ‘The Trumpet Shall