/bɒ̃ viːˈvɒ̃, French bɔ̃ vivɑ̃/ {n}: A person who devotes themselves to a sociable and luxurious lifestyle SEPTEMBER – DECEMBER 2017 Cover image: Mehretu, Julie Aether (Venice) 2011, ink and acrylic on canvas, 179 3/4 x 136" © Julie Mehretu Photo by Ben Westoby, courtesy White Cube BON VIVANT AUTUMN 2017 Dear Friends, It’s no secret that autumn is the most electric time of year when it comes to arts and culture, so we’re especially delighted to be back with the autumn edition of BON VIVANT. We received a great deal of positive feedback on the summer edition format, which included recommendations for the months ahead. We’re therefore doing the same for autumn: instead of monthly updates, we’re providing a full season’s worth of expert recommendations and curated ‘must-sees’. I also wanted to call attention to our new BON VIVANT Spotify playlist for the season. We often struggle to fully convey the excitement of the amazing events and experiences we highlight in BON VIVANT. So we thought: why not create a Spotify playlist so you can easily get a taste of the music that’s on offer this autumn, from opera to bossa nova to alternative rock and pop? I hope this autumn will be as vivacious as ever! Yours sincerely, Rafael Mason Vice President Head of Product, Marketing & Brand American Express, UK CONTENTS Jazz Dance 18 London & UK 34 London & UK 21 Beyond the UK 35 Beyond the UK 23 In conversation with Dee Dee Bridgewater Contemporary & World 26 R&B & Soul 27 Pop & Rock Classical 28 Electronic 08 London & UK 29 World Music 12 Beyond the UK Theatre & Film 42 Theatre: London & UK 45 Theatre: Beyond the UK 48 Film releases 50 Autumn Film Festivals BON VIVANT AUTUMN 2017 Family Food & Drink 66 London & UK 72 Just Opened 74 Best Sushi 76 Italy: Truffle Season 78 Scottish Highlands: A Culinary Journey Art 54 London & UK 58 Beyond the UK Extra: Playlist 82 Autumn Spotify Playlist Art Spotlights 60 Frieze London 61 Venice Biennale CLASSICAL | JAZZ | CONTEMPORARY & WORLD | DANCE | THEATRE & FILM | ART | FAMILY | FOOD & DRINK | SPOTIFY PLAYLIST | CONTENTS BON VIVANT CLASSICAL | JAZZ | CONTEMPORARY & WORLD | DANCE | THEATRE & FILM | ART | FAMILY | FOOD & DRINK | SPOTIFY PLAYLIST | CONTENTS AUTUMN 2017 Classical Classical CLASSICAL | JAZZ | CONTEMPORARY & WORLD | DANCE | THEATRE & FILM | ART | FAMILY | FOOD & DRINK | SPOTIFY PLAYLIST | CONTENTS 08 CLASSICAL LONDON London London — — London Bernard Haitink Mahler — in Beethoven Symphony Nº5 Simon Rattle and Brahms LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA / Arrives SEMYON BYCHKOV BERNARD HAITINK / EMANUEL AX Barbican, 5 October 2017 2017-18 SEASON OPENING CONCERT / LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA INCLUDING EDWARD ELGAR BRAHMS SYMPHONY Nº3 & Mahler’s Fifth Symphony begins with ENIGMA VARIATIONS BEETHOVEN’S ‘EMPEROR’ CONCERTO a doom-laden fanfare, but ends with LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA / Barbican, 10 October 2017 a hymn of triumph. And in-between SIMON RATTLE comes the infinite yearning of the Barbican, 14 September 2017 BERNARD HAITINK / Adagietto, whose floating chords LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA on harp and strings trace the very THE MAKING OF A MAESTRO BRAHMS SYMPHONY Nº2 & limits of human expression. Semyon – FILM SCREENING MENDELSSOHN VIOLIN CONCERTO Bychkov, a conductor known to Barbican, 21 September 2017 Barbican, 15, 19 October 2017 bring out the best in the LSO (and hailed for so often achieving the As Sir Simon Rattle leaves the Berlin For such a great composer, Brahms perfect balance between Classical Philharmonic to become chief conductor did not write many symphonies. But the structure and Romantic freedom and of the London Symphony Orchestra, point is that the four symphonies he did emotion), is sure to find something he has the potential to transform write are all true masterpieces – some new to say in an iconic symphony that British music for a generation. Rattle’s would even say that in them Brahms somehow eludes comprehension. first weeks in London are a celebration perfects the symphony as a form of of unlimited possibilities – a festival art. The Second and Third Symphonies that includes film screenings and are perhaps his most pastoral works, youth projects as well as high octane with the Second conjuring leafy, rolling performances from the LSO and hills, but also vast and troubled skies. Rattle himself. His very first concert At the age of 88, the veteran conductor is a powerful statement of intent, Bernard Haitink understands Brahms’ taking Elgar’s monumental Enigma Romantic vision better than most. Variations as a starting point for a Over these two concerts, he’ll be celebration of the most original voices joined by legendary pianist Emanuel in contemporary British music. Ax in Beethoven and violinist Veronika IMAGE © LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Eberle in Mendelssohn – performances that are sure to add as much to the experience as the symphonies do. IMAGE © HIROYUKI ITO CLASSICAL | JAZZ | CONTEMPORARY & WORLD | DANCE | THEATRE & FILM | ART | FAMILY | FOOD & DRINK | SPOTIFY PLAYLIST | CONTENTS 09 London CLASSICAL — LONDON Classical Tchaikovsky Symphonies Nºs 4 & 6 TCHAIKOVSKY SYMPHONY Nº4 LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Barbican, 29 October 2017 TCHAIKOVSKY SYMPHONY Nº6 LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Barbican, 7 December 2017 Tchaikovsky died only nine days after the first performance of his Sixth Symphony, London and the extraordinary final movement — indeed sounds like the heavy-hearted, lugubrious sighs of an ending. But the Esa-Pekka Salonen swan song that is Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony in many ways begins with does Mahler the Symphony Nº4 – full of the same leitmotifs of masculine beauty, stifled Symphony Nº3 passion, and the sheer power and pain that is love. Don’t miss this exceptional MAHLER SYMPHONY Nº3 opportunity to journey through the PHILHARMONIA ORCHESTRA / arc of Tchaikovsky’s tortured (but ever ESA-PEKKA SALONEN lyrical) late period. To complete the late Royal Festival Hall, 1 October 2017 Tchaikovsky ‘symphony cycle’, head to the Royal Festival Hall on 28 October to The Symphony Nº3 offers one of the see his Symphony Nº5 under Barenboim. most complete musical statements of Mahler’s complex, lyrical and conflicted world view. The monumental symphony occupies the entire concert under London the baton of the always outstanding — Esa-Pekka Salonen. “This is a work of such magnitude,” Mahler wrote, Hilary Hahn “that it actually mirrors the whole world. […] In my symphony the whole of nature in Dvorákˇ finds a voice.” The symphony’s final movement is Mahler’s attempt to express DVORÁKˇ VIOLIN CONCERTO the entire concept of love – not romantic SMETANA MÁ VLAST love, but the love of man for one another HILARY HAHN / (what Mahler referred to as ‘Christian’ PHILHARMONIA ORCHESTRA love) – and with it the composer Royal Festival Hall, 8 October 2017 creates a work of art that is almost unbelievably subtle and profound. Smetana’s Má Vlast isn’t just a series of IMAGE © MINNA HATINEN musical postcards from the composer’s native Bohemia (although its portrayal of the Vltava river is the very definition of an accessible classic): instead, it’s nothing less than a portrait of a nation’s soul – and the young Czech conductor Jakub Hr˚uša has it in his blood. Hilary Hahn, meanwhile, brings star quality to Dvoˇrák’s bittersweet Violin Concerto. IMAGE © MICHAEL PATRICK O-LEARY CLASSICAL | JAZZ | CONTEMPORARY & WORLD | DANCE | THEATRE & FILM | ART | FAMILY | FOOD & DRINK | SPOTIFY PLAYLIST | CONTENTS 10 CLASSICAL LONDON London — Leif Ove Andsnes in Recital London / Paris — BEETHOVEN: ‘TEMPEST’ PIANO SONATA SCHUBERT: 3 KLAVIERSTÜCKE Barenboim: CHOPIN: NOCTURNE Nº17, BALLADE Nº1 Tchaikovsky Symphony Nº5 Royal Festival Hall, 31 October 2017 Leif Ove Andsnes was recently hailed London WEST-EASTERN DIVAN ORCHESTRA / as “a pianist of magisterial elegance, — DANIEL BARENBOIM power, and insight”, but the clarity and TCHAIKOVSKY SYMPHONY Nº5 intelligence of this superb Norwegian Emerson does Royal Festival Hall, 28 October 2017 pianist is something you really have Philharmonie de Paris, 27 October 2017 to witness for yourself. This Royal late Beethoven Festival Hall recital places works by “Extraordinary in every respect” Beethoven, Schubert and Chopin string Quartets was how The Guardian described at the heart of a perfect storm of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra pianistic fantasy and emotion. EMERSON STRING QUARTET the last time it appeared in London. BEETHOVEN LATE STRING QUARTETS Under founder Daniel Barenboim, this St John’s Smith Square classical ‘supergroup’ – uniting young 31 October – 1 November 2017 musicians from Israel and the Arab world – is infinitely more than just another LECTURE: WHAT YOU NEED symphony orchestra. Tchaikovsky’s TO KNOW: BEETHOVEN’S LATE sweeping, semi-autobiographical STRING QUARTETS Fifth Symphony will stretch them to Royal Festival Hall, 29 October 2017 the emotional limit. And don’t forget: if you also catch the LSO tackling The transcendent final vision of a genius Tchaikovsky’s Fourth and Sixth, you grasping at the infinite, Beethoven’s late can get the complete late Tchaikovsky string quartets are among the supreme ‘symphony cycle’ experience. achievements of Western civilisation. IMAGE © STEPHANIE VON BECKER And these performances will be extra special with the legendary New York-based Emerson String Quartet (probably the most acclaimed string quartet the world over) taking on the challenge in the baroque grandeur of St John’s Smith Square. “With musicians like this,” says The Times, “there must be some hope for humanity.” NB: for the intellectual at heart, don’t miss the