!"# APRIL – JULY 2015 Welcome Keith Saunders John Butt and the Dunedin Consort shed fresh light on Bach’s St John Passion in their revelatory recording, hailed by Gramophone for its ‘naturalness and emotional honesty’. They bring their vision of the work to Wigmore Hall for a special Holy Week performance, projecting the vivid drama of Christ’s betrayal and suffering, and the profound humanity of Bach’s response to it. Andreas Scholl has inspired countless new listeners to fall in love with lesser-known works. His artistry reveals the timeless qualities of great music from the distant past, restoring the rhetorical power and emotional impact of pieces conceived for star performers of eighteenth-century Europe. Scholl’s latest Wigmore Hall programme explores the vitality of Italian cantatas by three masters of the genre and frames their work with the seductive songs of Venetian gondoliers. Formed 70 years ago, soon after the Second World War, the Borodin Quartet has become synonymous with the works of Shostakovich and Beethoven. The ensemble’s latest Wigmore Hall series offers a complete cycle of the two composers’ string quartets, works deeply inscribed in the group’s collective DNA. Our season-long Paul Lewis: A Celebration continues when the much-loved English pianist partners Allan Clayton in a work of timeless musical beauty and artistic truth. Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin, which was first performed at Wigmore Hall in 1903, explores a young man’s love, despair, contemplation of death and ultimate recognition of impermanence. Benjamin Ealovega Body and soul are united in Martin Fröst’s intensely focused approach Philippe Herreweghe and his Collegium Vocale Gent became pioneers of to making music. The Swedish clarinettist’s entrancing season as Wigmore the Early Music Movement in the 1970s and remain leaders in the Hall’s Artist in Residence draws to a close this summer with a beguiling interpretation of works written long before the Industrial Revolution. In sequence of concerts over the early May Bank Holiday weekend. this concert they explore the extreme emotions and chromatic twists and turns of the mature madrigals of Carlo Gesualdo, the Italian Two visionary artists, Dorothea Röschmann and Mitsuko Uchida, explore nobleman who turned to composition soon after he took part in the the expressive range and timeless human insights of two of Schumann’s murder of his wife and her lover. greatest song cycles, landmarks of nineteenth-century music. Röschmann’s artistry has deepened and matured since her sensational international Judith Weir recently made headline news following her appointment breakthrough at the 1995 Salzburg Festival, securing her place among as Master of the Queen’s Music, the first woman to hold this ancient the best-loved performers of her generation. She is joined by Mitsuko royal position. The world première of her work, written for Alice Coote Uchida, renowned worldwide for her penetrating interpretations of Mozart, and Aurora Orchestra, is presented in company with two pulsating Schubert, Schumann and Beethoven, and music by composers of the compositions, each marked by bold ideas, intense energy and joy. Second Viennese School, Alban Berg among them. Routine is a word beyond the ken of Hervé Niquet and the musicians of Awards and acclaim have followed the pioneering work of the Monteverdi Le Concert Spirituel. Their vibrant, full-blooded interpretations of baroque Choir and its founder, Sir John Eliot Gardiner. ‘If there were a Nobel prize masterworks arise from a deep understanding of the music’s expressive for choirs, the Monteverdi Choir should be its laureate’, noted Le Monde. gestures and affects, so much so that they restore a sense of the excitement Their interpretations of everything from medieval music and Monteverdi that must have gripped audiences at the time of their first performances. to the great choral works of Bach, Handel, Beethoven and Brahms have set benchmark standards in terms of style and substance, stripping Celebrating reflections of the musical past in the present, Hugo Ticciati’s away anachronistic performance traditions and keeping faith with the pioneering O/MODӘӘRNT festival at Ulriksdal’s Palace Theatre Confidencen original intentions of composers for their music. The ensemble makes a in Sweden explores the relationships between the work of old composers long-awaited return to Wigmore Hall with a programme guaranteed to and the artistic and intellectual creations of modern culture. O/MOD RNT seduce the ear and gladden the heart. comes to the Hall in July to present Monteverdi in Historical Counterpoint. Following the commemoration of Jonathan Harvey’s 75th birthday, the Arcangelo, inspired by Jonathan Cohen’s leadership, has injected fresh Royal Northern College of Music brings the sound of one of the UK’s energy and panache into the performance of Baroque music. The most extraordinary composers to Wigmore Hall. Harvey possessed ensemble’s approach is informed by a deep understanding of the the ability to transform the transcendental and beyond into sound. emotional language and expressive rhetoric of works from the The day culminates in his epic work Bhakti – a mystical exploration seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It also draws from the jaw-dropping of the Sanskrit Hymns of Rig Veda for chamber ensemble and virtuosity of the players and their ability to work in consort as chamber quadrophonic tape. musicians. Arcangelo is joined by the internationally acclaimed French baritone Stéphane Degout, among the most versatile artists of his Our wide-ranging Henry Purcell: A Retrospective, generously spread generation, and Samuel Boden, a seasoned performer of lyric works of the over two seasons, continues this summer with unmissable performances French Baroque, in Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s intense settings of the of his music for the London stage, royal court and private chamber. Lamentations of Jeremiah. Highlights include the composer’s birthday odes for Queen Mary, a selection of works for instrumental consort, Alison Balsom’s survey of I would like to mention more highlights but space is limited, so please trumpet tunes with Trevor Pinnock and The English Concert, and a browse the brochure yourself or look at the At a Glance and the new thrilling community opera based on the legend of King Arthur. Henry Calendar section (on pages 72–73) for an overview. I look forward to Purcell: A Retrospective is made possible thanks to all our contributors welcoming you to the Hall during the Summer Series. to the Wigmore Hall Endowment Fund, whose purpose is to help fund John Gilhooly important artistic projects. Director SERIES ATA GLANCE APRIL – JULY 201 5 See pages 4–71for full details of these concerts and page 75 for booking information. Series and Events to look out for… Song Recital Series BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concerts Bach St John Passion Page 5 Tue 7 Apr Andreas Scholl/Avi Avital Page 6 Mon 6 Apr Meta4 Page 6 Marco Frezzato/Tiziano Bagnati Andreas Scholl 6 Mon 13 Apr Kristian Bezuidenhout 9 Tamar Halperin Mon 20 Apr Miah Persson/Malcolm Martineau 12 The Mozart Odyssey 7, 9, 15, 17 Sun 12 Apr Dominik Köninger/Volker Krafft 8 Birgit Kolar Borodin Quartet Beethoven and 11, 12, 49, 51 Wed 15 Apr Karen Cargill/Simon Lepper 9 Mon 27 Apr Antoine Tamestit 15 Shostakovich Cycle Sun 19 Apr Daniel Behle/Oliver Schnyder Trio 10 Mon 4 May Elias String Quartet 20 Interactive Recital: Tana Quartet 14 Mon 20 Apr Alice Coote/Julius Drake 12 Simon Crawford-Phillips Mon 11 May Sara Mingardo/Giorgio Dal Monte 28 Wed 22 Apr Kathleen Ferrier Awards 2015 13 Garrick Ohlsson Skryabin Focus 16 Ivano Zanenghi Semi-Final Martin Fröst Artist in Residence 18, 20 Mon 18 May Christoph Prégardien/Daniel Heide 32 Fri 24 Apr Kathleen Ferrier Awards 2015 13 Dorothea Röschmann & Mitsuko Uchida 19 Final Mon 25 May Jean-Efflam Bavouzet 34 Mon 1 Jun Tasmin Little/Martin Roscoe 36 Monteverdi Choir & Orchestra 21 Wed 29 Apr Allan Clayton/Paul Lewis 17 Mon 8 Jun Škampa Quartet/Krzysztof Chorzelski 41 Wigmore Lates 23, 24–25, 30, 35, 39, 43, 47, 55, 58, 65 Fri 1 May Miah Persson/Martin Fröst 18 Maxim Rysanov/Roland Pöntinen Mon 15 Jun Gould Piano Trio 45 Jonathan Harvey Study Day 26 Sat 2 May Dorothea Röschmann/Mitsuko Uchida 19 Mon 22 Jun Ailish Tynan/James Baillieu 48 Henry Purcell: A Retrospective 23, 29, 41, 62 Mon 4 May Monteverdi Choir and Orchestra 21 Mon 29 Jun Ilya Gringolts/Ashley Wass 51 Roger Vignoles Masterclass 30 Sir John Eliot Gardiner Mon 6 Jul Jean-Guihen Queyras 56 Tue 5 May Dorothea Röschmann/Mitsuko Uchida 19 Mon 13 Jul Stephen Kovacevich 60 Czech Chamber Music 28, 32, 33 Sun 10 May Claire Booth/Christopher Glynn 27 Ian Bostridge: Schubert Lieder 31 Sun 10 May Werner Güra/Christoph Berner 27 Early Music and Baroque Series 36 10th Anniversary of the Trasimeno Music Festival Mon 11 May Christianne Stotijn/Julius Drake 28 Thu 2 Apr The English Concert/Harry Bicket 4 Collegium Vocale Gent 37 Sat 16 May Ian Bostridge/Julius Drake 31 Terry Wey Elly Ameling Masterclasses 38 Fri 22 May Bernarda Fink/Anthony Spiri 33 Sat 4 Apr Dunedin Consort/John Butt 5 Florian Boesch Residency 39, 41 Fri 29 May Henk Neven/Imogen Cooper 35 Anna Dennis/Clare Wilkinson Nicholas Mulroy/Matthew Brook Judith Weir Master of the Queen’s Music 40 Sun 31 May Gerald Finley/Angela Hewitt 36 Cremona Quartet/Kerson Leong Tue 7 Apr Andreas Scholl/Avi Avital 6 Paul Lewis: A Celebration 17, 42 Marco Frezzato/Tiziano Bagnati Thu 4 Jun Mauro Peter/James Baillieu 38 Tamar Halperin Bracing Change: New British String Commissions