LSO & Simon Rattle
Barbican, 26th June
Simon Rattle takes up his appointment as the new musical director of the LSO in September 2017, but between now and then he’ll be making increasingly frequent visits to conduct the orchestra. One concert worth putting in the diary is the posthumous world premiere of Peter Maxwell Davies’s children’s opera The Hogboon, based on the mythology of Orkney, which was home to the composer for the last 14 years until his death in March.
The opera, involving students from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, is the centrepiece of a programme designed to throw open the doors of classical music to a new audience. Putting storytelling to the fore, Rattle pairs the Maxwell Davies with Berlioz’s phantasmagorical Symphonie Fantastique. Both Rattle and Maxwell Davies have spent their careers championing community music-making and outreach, and this concert will be a fitting memorial for this great English composer. Fretwork at 30 King’s Place, 2nd June Fretwork reinvented Early Music. They might be a viol consort, but that doesn’t mean their concerts are all William Byrd and John Taverner. Here they celebrate their 30th birthday in style, with a programme spanning six centuries, including works by George Benjamin and Tan Dun that they themselves have commissioned. A starry roster of musical friends join the celebrations, including sopranos Emma Kirkby and Susan Bickley, countertenor Michael Chance and lutenist extraordinaire Elizabeth Kenny.
Fretwork at 30 King’s Place, 2nd June
Fretwork reinvented Early Music. They might be a viol consort, but that doesn’t mean their concerts are all William Byrd and John Taverner. Here they celebrate their 30th birthday in style, with a programme spanning six centuries, including works by George Benjamin and Tan Dun that they themselves have commissioned. A starry roster of musical friends join the celebrations, including sopranos Emma Kirkby and Susan Bickley, countertenor Michael Chance and lutenist extraordinaire Elizabeth Kenny.
Jonathan Lemalu & James Baillieu Wilton Church, Salisbury, 5th June
Samoan bass-baritone Jonathan Lemalu has one of the richest and most generous voices around and a personality to match. Normally you’d have to go to Covent Garden to hear this Kathleen Ferrier Award-winner, but this month Lemalu performs a rare recital as part of the wonderfully wide-ranging Salisbury Festival. It’s a beautiful mixed programme of song, including music by Robert Schumann, and Gerald Finzi’s evocative Thomas Hardy settings.
Barbican, 26th June
Simon Rattle takes up his appointment as the new musical director of the LSO in September 2017, but between now and then he’ll be making increasingly frequent visits to conduct the orchestra. One concert worth putting in the diary is the posthumous world premiere of Peter Maxwell Davies’s children’s opera The Hogboon, based on the mythology of Orkney, which was home to the composer for the last 14 years until his death in March.
The opera, involving students from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, is the centrepiece of a programme designed to throw open the doors of classical music to a new audience. Putting storytelling to the fore, Rattle pairs the Maxwell Davies with Berlioz’s phantasmagorical Symphonie Fantastique. Both Rattle and Maxwell Davies have spent their careers championing community music-making and outreach, and this concert will be a fitting memorial for this great English composer. Fretwork at 30 King’s Place, 2nd June Fretwork reinvented Early Music. They might be a viol consort, but that doesn’t mean their concerts are all William Byrd and John Taverner. Here they celebrate their 30th birthday in style, with a programme spanning six centuries, including works by George Benjamin and Tan Dun that they themselves have commissioned. A starry roster of musical friends join the celebrations, including sopranos Emma Kirkby and Susan Bickley, countertenor Michael Chance and lutenist extraordinaire Elizabeth Kenny.
Fretwork at 30 King’s Place, 2nd June
Fretwork reinvented Early Music. They might be a viol consort, but that doesn’t mean their concerts are all William Byrd and John Taverner. Here they celebrate their 30th birthday in style, with a programme spanning six centuries, including works by George Benjamin and Tan Dun that they themselves have commissioned. A starry roster of musical friends join the celebrations, including sopranos Emma Kirkby and Susan Bickley, countertenor Michael Chance and lutenist extraordinaire Elizabeth Kenny.
Jonathan Lemalu & James Baillieu Wilton Church, Salisbury, 5th June
Samoan bass-baritone Jonathan Lemalu has one of the richest and most generous voices around and a personality to match. Normally you’d have to go to Covent Garden to hear this Kathleen Ferrier Award-winner, but this month Lemalu performs a rare recital as part of the wonderfully wide-ranging Salisbury Festival. It’s a beautiful mixed programme of song, including music by Robert Schumann, and Gerald Finzi’s evocative Thomas Hardy settings.
