2017 / 18 SEASON PREVIEW CREATING A NEW SEASON CREATING A NEW SEASON JOHN GILHOOLY REVEALS THE CREATIVE PROCESS AND HIS THINKING BEHIND THE 2017/18 SEASON, IN CONVERSATION WITH ANDREW STEWART Firstly and most importantly, I want to thank our supporters for their generosity and heartfelt commitment. It is because of them that we are where we are, and that we can plan for Wigmore Hall’s future. I hope this preview of everything to come in the 2017/18 Season demonstrates the great things we can achieve with their ongoing support. We have enjoyed an exceptional decade at Wigmore Hall and now promote almost 500 concerts every season. That’s great news for our audiences, and for musical life in London. Thanks to regular and sustained long-term investment from all of our supporters, our artistic programme remains in good health and its content is rich, diverse and adventurous. John Gilhooly, Director, Wigmore Hall © FRANCES MARSHALL PHOTOGRAPHY Our partnerships with artists meanwhile have never been stronger. Musicians love the “ Musicians love the atmosphere atmosphere in the Hall, they love the intimacy, they love being able to communicate with in the Hall, they love the everyone in the audience. This is reflected in the number of projects they are prepared to intimacy, they love being take on specifically for Wigmore Hall. As well as a great testament to everything we have able to communicate with collectively achieved here, this sets Wigmore Hall apart as an internationally leading venue. everyone in the audience.” This Hall is a place of discovery, open to new names and young artists, fresh interpretations and a constant exploration of all that the repertoire offers. It is also tremendously important that, through our Learning programme and innovative use of digital technology, we can share so much of what we have with the widest possible audience. With this in mind, I hope that music lovers around the world can enjoy everything that our 2017/18 Season has to offer. SEASON PREVIEW 2017/18 1 MAPPING THE FUTURE Plans are shaped and evolve all the time, and our Isabelle Faust “ We know the scope of artistic programme for the next five years is will focus on the repertoire we intend already much more complete than many might Mozart’s expect. The ongoing support from our donors and sonatas for to cover until the end audiences means that we can embrace everything violin and piano of the 2020/21 Season” from Haydn to Jörg Widmann next season, and in three can look beyond as far as 2020/21. Of course concerts with there are lots of gaps to fill as well, which is an Alexander exciting part of being a programmer. Melnikov. Isabelle Faust has been a regular here Wigmore Hall’s five-year programming over the past decade and people have taken structure is invaluable. It will allow us to devise her to their hearts. We welcome her back for series devoted to themes such as the chamber a four-concert residency across the season with Joseph Haydn music and songs of Brahms and Mendelssohn a wide variety of repertoire. Isabelle will focus and an American retrospective including the string on a selection of Mozart’s sonatas for violin and REVISITING THE STRING QUARTET quartets of Ives, Barber and Elliott Carter. We also piano in three concerts over one weekend in WITH HAYDN LEADING THE WAY turn to Poland for the seventeen string quartets of October 2017, in partnership with her close We last looked at Haydn’s chamber and Mieczysław Weinberg. While we have yet to decide collaborator, Alexander Melnikov. instrumental music in 2009, when we these series in detail, we know the scope of the Christian Tetzlaff will be our other programmed his string quartets and piano trios, repertoire we intend to cover until the end of the resident violinist next season. He, too, has a long and Sir András Schiff performed his piano 2020/21 Season. association with Wigmore Hall and is regarded sonatas. Now it feels right to revisit Haydn’s work For example, we are already planning ahead to as one of the great male violinists to come out as the father of the string quartet. The 2017/18 the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth in 2020, of Germany. We will hear him in duo repertoire Season will feature the string quartets from Op. 20 which will be marked with a host of celebrations and as a chamber musician in string and through to the late Op. 103, as well as several of including lecture-recitals on the composer’s piano quartets. the early quartets, Op. 1 among them. thirty-two piano sonatas given by Sir András Schiff. Sonia Prina returns for a three-concert In the way that Schubert’s songs test a young These will be streamed live online, and I hope that Isabelle Faust © FELIX BROEDE residency, comprising two programmes of music singer, so too do Haydn’s string quartets test their millions who love Beethoven will enjoy these videos from the Italian Baroque and a recital with a performers at every stage in their progression. for years to come. RESIDENCIES French flavour as part of our wider survey of We’ve asked the Castalian String Quartet, The conversations we have with our resident the music of France next season. The Nash which I believe is among the best young emerging THIS SEASON IN NUMBERS, SO FAR: artists and those involved in special projects often Ensemble also explores this repertoire with quartets on today’s scene, to perform the Op. 76 extend over several years. The idea of an artist programmes including chamber works by string quartets. I believe the ensemble will achieve 70 Song recitals being resident here is that they should be involved Debussy, Ravel, Fauré and Poulenc. great things in the coming years and want our in every aspect of the Hall’s work, including our Roderick Williams and Iain Burnside audience to share in its development. 50 London Pianoforte Series concerts Learning programme. will perform the three Schubert song cycles in We have so many groups with something Sir András Schiff’s association with Wigmore 2017/18. This is a landmark event, not least special to say about this wonderful body of string 42 BBC Radio 3 lunchtime concerts Hall extends back to 1978, when he made his because Roddy will learn them specially for us. quartets. This includes the Hagen Quartet and debut here with Bach’s Goldberg Variations. He It is a mark of his generosity of spirit that he has Quatuor Mosaïques, who have been performing Chamber music recitals 120 is making a huge contribution in 2016/17, not decided to explore them with students from the Haydn for many decades, alongside others from 45 Sunday Morning Coffee Concerts least with the masterclasses he’s giving to Guildhall School of Music & Drama. As he learns the younger generation, such as the Doric, exceptional students from around the world at each piece he will share the experience with the Elias and the Heath Quartets. 50 Early Music and various stages of their development. Next season singers and song pianists at the Guildhall, and Baroque Series perfomances he will revisit works by Mendelssohn, Brahms, the students will have the opportunity to discuss WIGMORE HALL INTERNATIONAL Bach and Beethoven in three concerts. He their thoughts on his performances. He will write STRING QUARTET COMPETITION 10 Jazz Series and Late Night concerts personifies the spirit of the Hall in so many ways, a blog about the learning and performance We look forward to the next Competition in coming to us first as a young artist to earn his experience as it unfolds, and the entire process, April 2018 when we will welcome leading 10 Contemporary Series concerts chamber music and recital credentials, and which represents a huge investment from Roddy, young ensembles from around the globe. developing his artistry through many concerts since. will culminate here with these three concerts. 2 SEASON PREVIEW 2017/18 SEASON PREVIEW 2017/18 3 LONDON PIANOFORTE SERIES The piano series here has grown from around 20 to 70 recitals a season. There’s a huge appetite for the widest scope of piano repertoire The Heath Quartet will In 2017/18, and pianists at all stages in their careers. perform Jörg Widmann’s Francesco That expansion is underpinned by the generosity cycle of five string quartets Piemontesi will and commitment of many piano-enthusiasts for our focus on his work continue his Mozart in our audience. in 2017/18. piano sonata cycle. We have three outstanding pianists in their twenties among our regular artists. Francesco Piemontesi will continue his Mozart piano sonata cycle, Igor Levit returns with works we have not heard from him before, including Shostakovich, and Daniil Trifonov will perform Rachmaninov and Chopin. We’re lucky to have these three young pianists with different approaches, all filling the house and creating a huge sense of excitement around piano recitals at Wigmore Hall. Igor Levit came to audition for us when he was twenty. We waited until he was a little older to put him in our London Pianoforte Series, and now he is attracting capacity audiences and receiving five-star reviews for his complete cycle of Beethoven’s piano sonatas at Wigmore Hall this season. We’re thrilled to be the first major concert venue in the UK to present Igor’s interpretations Jörg Widmann © MARCO BORGGREVE Francesco Piemontesi © BENJAMIN EALOVEGA of the Beethoven sonatas and to help in his development as an artist. He has a close affinity JÖRG WIDMANN HELEN GRIME – COMPOSER IN RESIDENCE with the music of Frederic Rzewski and will mark Jörg Widmann represents the tradition of the compositions and readily agreed.