MOZART DOUBLE PIANO CONCERTO
English Baroque Soloists
Katia & Marielle Labèque – fortepianos
Marc Minkowski – conductor
Tuesday 29 April 2025
St Martin-in-the-Fields, London
MOZART TRIPLE PIANO CONCERTO
Friday 25 April 2025, 7.30pm
Musikverein, Vienna
MOZART DOUBLE PIANO CONCERTO
Tuesday 29 April 2025, 7.30pm
St Martin-in-the-Fields, London
MOZART DOUBLE PIANO CONCERTO
English Baroque Soloists
Katia & Marielle Labèque – fortepianos
Marc Minkowski – conductor
Monteverdi Choir & Orchestras presents All information in this programme was correct at the time of going to print.
Fresh from appearing at the Musikverein in Vienna last week, we are delighted to return to our London home for a concert that traces Mozart’s development from his first symphony – composed at the tender age of 8 – to his 38th, the ‘Prague’, a landmark achievement in the genre. In between we will hear the Concerto for Two Pianos, composed for Mozart to play with his sister Nannerl, and performed tonight by the sibling pianists Katia and Marielle Labèque, making a welcome return with their trademark musical telepathy. Conductor Marc Minkowski, acclaimed for his period-instrument performances of Mozart and bringing French operatic flair to the ballet sequence from Mozart’s opera Idomeneo, makes his debut with the English Baroque Soloists.
The musicians of the EBS will continue their exploration of Mozart’s music unconducted in just a few days: on 3 May the award-winning writer, director and actor Tama Matheson will bring his unique theatrical approach to narrate the Serenade for 13 Winds, better known as the Gran Partita, against the backdrop of the magnificent Painted Hall at the Old Royal Naval College.
MOZART DOUBLE PIANO CONCERTO
MOZART Symphony No. 1, K. 16
MOZART Concerto for Two Pianos, K. 365
interval
MOZART Chaconne from the ballet music to Idomeneo, K. 367
MOZART Symphony No. 38, K. 504 ‘Prague’
MOZART
DOUBLE AND TRIPLE PIANO CONCERTO
Scan to listen on Spotify
PROGRAMME NOTES
Richard Wigmore
Dr Andrew Frampton
MOZART
Symphony No. 1 in E flat, K. 16 Allegro molto — Andane — Presto
Mozart’s father Leopold was an excellent violinist and a more than competent composer. But his difficult personality, his knack for rubbing his superiors up the wrong way, meant that he was never promoted higher than vice-Kapellmeister at the Salzburg court. Frustrated and, as he felt, grossly underpaid, he was quick to see the commercial possibilities in the extraordinary talents of his son and, to a lesser extent, his daughter Marianne (‘Nannerl’). In June 1763 the family duly set out from Salzburg on a European grand tour that would last until November 1766. Having conquered Munich, Brussels and Paris (where Wolfgang played for King Louis XV), the Mozarts moved on to London. A decade after Wolfgang’s death Nannerl recalled that he wrote his first symphony in their ‘country house’ on Ebury Street, Chelsea (now named ‘Mozart Terrace’), in August 1764, while Leopold was convalescing from what he described as ‘a kind of native complaint in England, which they call a cold’.
Nannerl also mentioned that the symphony was scored for ‘all the instruments of the orchestra, especially trumpets and timpani’. As no work answering this description survives, it seems either that Nannerl’s memory was at fault or that the symphony in question
is lost. Instead, the title of Mozart’s first symphony has always gone to the Symphony in E flat, K. 16, dated ‘London, 1764’ and scored for the usual small early classical orchestra of oboes, horns and strings.
While there are few intimations of later glories in this cheerful little threemovement work, the eight-year-old Wunderkind, perhaps with a little help from Leopold, already deploys the Italianate lingua franca of the day with spirit and assurance. The very beginning – a vigorous unison fanfare followed by a series of gentle dissonances, horns to the fore – modestly foreshadows the opening of the great E flat Piano Concerto, K. 482.
Both the first movement and the Presto finale, in lusty jig rhythm, trades on alternations of loud and soft, unison and harmonised passages. Between them, the plaintive C minor Andante, with its unbroken flow of triplets, contains the four-note ‘Credo’ motif which Mozart was to put to momentous use in the ‘Jupiter’ Symphony a quarter of a century later.
MOZART
Concerto in E flat for Two Pianos, K. 365 Allegro Andante — Rondo: Allegro
In January 1779 Mozart returned to Salzburg from his fateful fifteen-month journey to Mannheim and Paris with
nothing to show for his pains. He had failed to secure a permanent appointment (though we sense he didn’t really want one); he had been rejected by his first love, Aloysia Weber; and he had suffered personal tragedy in the death of his mother in Paris. Heavily in debt to his father, he was forced to petition for the post of Salzburg court organist, and for the next eighteen months led a spectacularly uneventful life as court employee and dutiful son.
Since that first Grand Tour of 1763-66 Mozart had spent nearly half of his life touring Europe. Now he was forced to endure a dreary professional and social routine in Salzburg while itching to escape the city’s cloying atmosphere and what he dubbed its ‘coarse, slovenly, dissolute court musicians’. Yet for all his frustrations he produced some superb music in 1779 and 1780, including three contrasting symphonies (Nos 32-34), the ‘Posthorn’ Serenade, the Sinfonia Concertante for violin and viola and the Concerto for Two Pianos. We can safely guess that the Concerto was originally composed for Mozart to play with his sister Nannerl. They probably performed it with reduced orchestra at the family’s spacious new apartment on the Hannibal-Platz (now Makartplatz). Later, in Vienna, Mozart played the Double Concerto in at least two public concerts, in November 1781 and May 1782, with his talented pupil Josepha Auernhammer.
Mozart complements the two soloists with the standard Salzburg orchestra of oboes, bassoons, horns and strings. After the opening tutti, launched by a majestic unison gesture, the orchestra is mainly used as a discreet backdrop to the soloists. Mozart was a natural musical democrat; and in this family affair he
treats the two pianists as absolute equals. The spirit is one of civilised wit, with the players answering and echoing each other, or lightly decorating each other’s lines. Just twice the tone darkens: in a stormy outburst near the start of the development, and at the recapitulation, where E flat major clouds to E flat minor as the soloists reflect on a phrase from the opening theme.
Built on gracefully ornamental dialogues between the pianists, the Andante evokes an Arcadian idyll. There are charming touches of colour from oboes and bassoons, not least in the minor-keyed central episode where the oboes create pungent harmonic clashes against the soloists’ decorative exchanges.
The orchestra plays a more assertive role in the final rondo, whose catchy main theme is always likely to veer off at a harmonic tangent. Amid an atmosphere of cheerful banter is a minor-keyed episode of unexpected power and pathos. As in the opening Allegro, Mozart caps the movement with a cadenza in which the pianists alternately engage in quickfire repartee and show off their dexterity in a flurry of scales and arpeggios. We can imagine Wolfgang’s and Nannerl’s shared delight.
Interval
MOZART
Chaconne from the ballet music to Idomeneo, K. 367 Allegro — Larghetto — Allegro — Largo — Allegretto — Più Allegro
During his prolonged stay in Mannheim in 1777-78, Mozart told the Elector Carl Theodor, ‘To write an opera is my dearest wish.’ There was no scope for
opera in Salzburg, as he lamented to a family friend. Happily, though, a commission from the Mannheim court – which had decamped to Munich after Carl Theodor became Elector of Bavaria – arrived in the late summer of 1780. The subject, probably suggested by the cultivated Elector, was Idomeneo, rè di Creta. Fired by the prospect of at least temporary escape from Salzburg, Mozart immediately plunged into the opera. In November he departed for Munich to supervise rehearsals.
There were inevitable tensions, especially with the novice castrato engaged to sing the role of Idomeneo’s son Idamante. But Mozart’s letters home convey his exhilaration at being let off the leash. Idomeneo, Mozart’s first operatic masterpiece, was premiered in François Cuvilliés’ new theatre on 29 January 1781, two days after the composer’s twenty-fifth birthday. While we only have a cursory newspaper report of the premiere, Mozart’s own reports during rehearsals suggest that the opera was enthusiastically received.
Carl Theodor was an avid Francophile; and the French libretto on which Idomeneo was based included the obligatory ballet sequence. Mozart duly composed an elaborate sequence of dances, choreographed by the court’s French ballet master M. Le Grand and performed either at the end of Act One or (more probably) at the end of the whole opera.
After his exertions on the opera, Mozart evidently found writing what he called ‘those cursed dances’ shortly before the premiere something of a chore. Yet he was far too much of a pro to let his artistic standards slip. Rarely performed
with the opera today, the Idomeneo ballet music fuses the dignity of Gluck with his own dramatic power and harmonic subtlety. The ballet sequence opens with a grand Chaconne, an extensive rondo based on the same descending motif as the celebratory final chorus. Mozart marks the rondo refrain ‘Pour le Ballet’ – i.e., to be danced by the full corps de ballet. Between each of its returns are solo episodes, including a gracious Larghetto and a pompous Largo in the spirit of a French Baroque overture. At the centre of the Chaconne is a magnificently turbulent D minor episode in which Mozart seems to remember the (by 1781) famous Dance of the Furies in Gluck’s Orphée
MOZART
Symphony No. 38 in D major, K. 504, ‘Prague’ Adagio – Allegro – Andante –Finale: Presto
In late 1786, with his popularity as composer-pianist in Vienna waning, Mozart looked to broaden his horizons. A plan to travel to England during the 1787 carnival season was shelved. Mozart did, though, take up an invitation to visit Prague, where Le nozze di Figaro was creating a sensation. Arriving with his wife Constanze on 11 January 1787, Mozart immediately experienced the city’s Figaro craze for himself. ‘Nothing is played, blown, sung or whistled but Figaro,’ he wrote to his friend Gottfried von Jacquin. ‘No opera is drawing audiences like Figaro. Nothing, nothing but Figaro. Certainly a great honour for me!’
A high point of Mozart’s triumphant first visit to Prague was a concert at the Nostitz (National) Theatre on 19 January.
One newspaper reported: ‘On Friday last Herr Mozart gave a concert on the fortepiano...Every expectation one could have formed of this great artist he completely fulfilled.’ While the reviewer made no mention of a symphony, many years later Mozart’s biographer Franz Xaver Niemetschek recalled that the concert included a new symphony in D, completed in Vienna in December 1786. Whether or not Niemetschek’s memory was accurate, the symphony has been dubbed the ‘Prague’ since the early nineteenth century.
The ‘Prague’ Symphony is one of Mozart’s greatest achievements in any genre. In the monumental slow introduction a proud affirmation of D major is quickly undermined by mysterious deflections to related minor keys. When the music later plunges into D minor, dramatic forte-piano alternations, wailing chromatic scales and an ominously stalking bass line evoke the world of Don Giovanni, the opera Mozart would write for Prague later in 1787.
Matching the scale of the introduction, the Allegro is the longest and most imposing in any symphony to date. The principal idea is less a theme than a nexus of motifs which Mozart proceeds to develop with dazzling contrapuntal legerdemain. The quiet opening phrase, sounded by lower strings beneath quivering violin syncopations and later chromatically intensified, creates an incandescent climax in the coda, while the forte answering figure on flutes and oboes initiates the polyphonic splendours of the development. There is also a distinct second theme, a graceful repeated rotating pattern
on the violins that subsequently slips to the minor key, with doleful echoes from bassoons. While this lyrical melody plays no part in the movement’s contrapuntal imbroglios, Mozart subtly alludes to its rhythm in the magical passage of shifting harmonies over a bass pedal that ushers in the recapitulation.
After this high-pressure sonata drama Mozart writes a flowing 6/8 Andante in G major whose spirit and metre recall the mingled sensuality and pastoral innocence of Susanna’s ‘Deh vieni non tardar’ in the last act of Figaro. Again, the music is often contrapuntal and chromatic in texture, as in the enchanting second theme, with its suggestion of musette drones.
Uniquely in Mozart’s Viennese symphonies, there is no minuet. The finale seems to straddle the worlds of Figaro and Don Giovanni. The former is evoked in the mercurial, syncopated opening – akin to the breathless Susanna-Cherubino duet immediately before the page jumps out of the window – and the delicious second theme, fashioned as a series of bantering string-woodwind exchanges. Yet this ostensibly blithe music also has something of the dark, fevered energy of Don Giovanni, above all in the quickfire alternations of thunderous tuttis and manic fragments of the ‘Cherubino’ theme that spill over from the development into the recapitulation.
MARC MINKOWSKI
Conductor
Marc Minkowski first studied bassoon before he began conducting at a very young age and attended the academy of Maestro Charles Bruck. At the age of 19, he founded the ensemble ‘Les Musiciens du Louvre’, of which he is still artistic director today. The ensemble initially focussed on reviving baroque music. Gradually, the repertoire was expanded to include works by French composers, and later also works by Handel, Mozart, Rossini, Offenbach, Bizet and Wagner. Today, Marc Minkowski tours Europe and the world with ‘Les Musiciens du Louvre’.
As a guest conductor, he is regularly invited to all major international theatres, such as the Berlin State Opera Unter den Linden, the Vienna State Opera, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, the Zurich Opera House, the Opéra National de Paris, the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, the Aix-en-Provence Festival and the Salzburg Festival. He has worked with orchestras such as the Vienna Philharmonic, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic, the NRD Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Dresden Festival Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, to name but a few.
Important recent projects include a new production of Giuseppe Verdi’s Don Carlos at the Grand Théâtre de Genève,
semi-staged performances of Jacques Offenbach’s Orphée aux enfers at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, as well as W.A. Mozart’s Mitridate re di ponto, Le nozze di figaro and Don Giovanni at the Staatsoper unter den Linden.
Marc Minkowski’s 2024/25 season began with a staged production of Joseph Haydn’s The Creation at the Cologne Opera. He also continued a European tour with ‘Les Musiciens du Louvre’ with concert performances of Johann Strauss’ Die Fledermaus (Bremen, Baden-Baden, Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Canary Islands). The programme also includes several concerts with ‘Les Musiciens du Louvre’ to commemorate the 150th anniversary of George Bizet’s death, as well as concerts as a guest conductor, including in Chicago and as part of a concert tour with the Basel Chamber Orchestra.
Today, Marc Minkowski can be seen as an active promoter of classical music. In addition to the aforementioned founding of Les Musiciens du Louvre, he founded the Ré Majeure Festival in 2011, was General Director of the Opéra National de Bordeaux from 2016 to 2021, Artistic Director of the Mozart Week in Salzburg from 2013 to 2017 and Artistic Advisor to the Ensemble Kanazawa Orchestra in Japan from 2018 to 2022, with whom he still collaborates regularly.
In 2018, he was awarded the Order of the French Legion of Honour.
KATIA & MARIELLE LABÈQUE
Fortepianos
Katia and Marielle are regular guests with Berlin Philharmonic, Bayerischer Rundfunk, Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus, London Symphony, London Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris , Dresden Staatskapelle, Royal Concertgebouw Amsterdam and Vienna Philharmonic, under the direction of Marin Alsop, Semyon Bychkov, Gustavo Dudamel, Gustavo Gimeno, Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla, Pietari Inkinen, Louis Langrée, Zubin Mehta, Andres Orozco-Estrada, Seiji Ozawa, Antonio Pappano, Matthias Pintscher, Georges Pretre, Sir Simon Rattle, Santtu Matias Rouvali, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Michael Tilson Thomas and Jaap van Zweden.
An audience of more than 33,000 attended a gala concert with the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Sir Simon Rattle at Berlin’s Waldbühne, available on DVD (EuroArts). A record audience of more than 100,000 attended the Vienna Summer Night Concert in Schonbrunn, available on CD and DVD (Sony). Over 1.5 million viewers followed the event worldwide on television.
The Labèques’ label KML Recordings joined Deutsche Grammophon in 2016. They have had the privilege of working with many composers including Thomas Adès, Louis Andriessen, Luciano Berio, Pierre Boulez, Bryce Dessner, Osvaldo Golijov, György Ligeti,
and Olivier Messiaen. At Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, they presented the world premiere of Philip Glass’s Double Concerto with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Gustavo Dudamel. Spring of 2018 saw the world premiere of Bryce Dessner’s Concerto for Two Pianos at Royal Festival Hall with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and John Storgards.
They are working on their new project “SONIC WIRES” with Bryce Dessner and David Chalmin. Their project “Electric Fields” with Barbara Hannigan was premiered at Disney Hall this season, followed by concerts at Aix-enProvence Festival, Elb Philharmonie Hamburg, Budapest Mupa and Zurich Townhalle. They are currently touring their project the “Cocteau/Glass Trilogy” with stage director Cyril Teste and perfumer Francis Kurkdjian after the premiere in Paris Philharmonie followed by Bordeaux, Metz, Andorra, Dublin, London Barbican, Lyon Fourvieres Festival and Ravel Festival.
ENGLISH BAROQUE SOLOISTS
For over 40 years The English Baroque Soloists has been one of the most innovative period-instrument ensembles that has consistently challenged preconceptions to audiences around the world. Equally at home in chamber, symphonic and operatic performances, its distinctively warm and incisive playing is instantly recognisable in music ranging from Monteverdi to Mozart and Haydn.
One of the world’s leading period instrument orchestras, the ensemble has performed at many of the world’s most prestigious venues including Milan’s Teatro alla Scala, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and the Sydney Opera House.
The EBS has recorded for many companies, including the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestras’ own label Soli Deo Gloria. They made the earliest recording of Mozart’s complete piano concertos on period instruments, as well as his greatest operas for Deutsche Grammophon.
The EBS’s current season has seen them expand their repertoire and conductor collaborations, including a deep dive into Charpentier with Christophe Rousset that was toured across Europe in December 2024. These performances were universally greeted with praise including the Guardian describing it as “joyous and immaculate,” while Operawire noted “a fresh sense of artistic renewal”. Scheduled performances in 2025
highlight this drive for new creative challenges with a year that includes Mozart with Marc Minkowski, Bach with Masaaki Suzuki, semi-staged Rossini with Jakob Lehmann, Handel with Christophe Rousset.
This summer, the EBS and the Monteverdi Choir are appearing at the Edinburgh International Festival with ‘Sing to the Lord a New Song’ featuring a selection of works by Purcell, Bach and Handel (including Dixit Dominus) conducted by Jonathan Sells.
In December 2024 the EBS performed Bach and Charpentier with the Monteverdi Choir on a European tour to La Scala Milan, Alte Oper Frankfurt, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg and its London home at St Martin-in-the-Fields. The tour was conducted by renowned French Baroque specialist Christophe Rousset, making his MCO debut.
In 2024 the EBS joined the Monteverdi Choir for performances of Handel’s oratorio Israel in Egypt, conducted by Peter Whelan. As well as a
performance at St Martin-in-the-Fields, the programme toured to the Palau de la Música Barcelona, Philharmonie Luxembourg, Chapelle Royale Château de Versailles, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg and Haus für Mozart, Salzburg.
In 2023 the EBS and the Monteverdi Choir, conducted by Dinis Sousa, performed Bach’s Mass in B minor, as well as Handel’s pastoral ode L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato, on their American tour following a European tour of Bach’s monumental work. In May 2023 the EBS and the Monteverdi Choir were honoured to perform at the Coronation of HM The King.
The ensemble famously took part in the iconic Bach Cantata Pilgrimage in 2000 alongside the Monteverdi Choir, performing all of Bach’s sacred cantatas throughout Europe and recorded for Soli Deo Gloria.
Founded in 1978 by John Eliot Gardiner, the EBS has also participated in major opera productions alongside the Monteverdi Choir in works by Handel, Purcell and Monteverdi.
— Die Presse “ “
The strings created a beautifully earthy sound.”
— New York Times
Intricate and detailed throughout, but in its overall jubilant, assertive, even combative monumentality, it was brilliant.”
ENGLISH BAROQUE SOLOISTS
St Martin-in-the-Fields, London
29 April 2025
Violin I
Peter Hanson*
May Kunstovny*
Miranda Playfair*
Daniel Edgar
Martin
Gwilym-Jones*
Oliver Webber*
Catherine van de Geest*
Iwona Muszynska
Lucy Waterhouse
Naomi Burrell
Violin II
Beatrice Philips
Jayne Spencer*
Bérénice Lavigne*
Beatrice Scaldini
Will Harvey
Sarah Bealby-Wright
William McGahon
Håkan Wikström
Viola
Fanny Paccoud
Oscar Holch
Lisa Cochrane*
George White
Joe Ichinose
Cello
Kinga Gáborjáni
Ruth Alford*
Gavin Kibble
Pedro da Silva
Double Bass
Cecelia
Bruggemeyer*
Markus Van Horn*
Elizabeth Bradley*
Flute
Rachel Brown
Elizabeth Walker
Oboe
Rachel Chaplin*
Mark Baigent
Bassoon
Catriona McDermid
Philip Turbett*
Horn
Anneke Scott*
Martin Lawrence*
Trumpet
Michael Harrison*
Robert Vanryne*
Timpani
Robert Kendell*
*Musicians
MONTEVERDI APPRENTICES PROGRAMME
The Monteverdi Apprentices Programme is a training scheme for young musicians that seeks to bridge the gap between higher education and a professional, freelance music career. By crafting supportive learning environments for talented young artists, providing rewarding performance opportunities alongside our ensembles, and exposing them to coaching from experts in a range of fields, the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestras aim to nurture the next generation of musical talent.
Over the course of their year-long programme, our Apprentices take part in workshops and masterclasses with a focus on historically informed performance practices. Recently, these have been led by leading singers and vocal coaches including Jean-Paul Fouchécourt, Sophie Daneman, Mark Padmore, Matteo Dalle Fratte and Richard Stokes, as well as MCO’s Librarian & Artistic Advisor James Halliday and our conductor, Dinis Sousa.
By the end of each Apprenticeship, we expect to have equipped these young musicians with the skills and experience needed to thrive in their careers, and to work as professionals with the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestras and other similar organisations worldwide. Now in its eighteenth year, the Programme has over 100 alumni, and many former Apprentices still perform regularly with the Monteverdi ensembles. Each Apprentice is also matched
with an experienced member of the MCO, who serves as a mentor, offering personalised artistic and practical support throughout their Apprenticeship. The mentorships provide the Apprentices with invaluable guidance, from navigating project preparation to helping Apprentices integrate into the wider ensemble, whilst also supporting individual growth and development.
The Monteverdi Apprentices are also given the opportunity to perform with our world-class ensembles, and join the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestras for concerts both in the UK and overseas. Our 2023-24 cohort of 10 vocal Apprentices joined the Monteverdi Choir for their spectacular tour of Bach’s Mass in B minor (April 2023), the landmark European tour of Berlioz’s Les Troyens which conquered Festival Berlioz, Salzburg, Versailles, Berlin and the BBC Proms (August-September 2023), and our critically acclaimed performances of Brahms’s Ein
deutsches Requiem with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam (February 2024).
FUTURE MONTEVERDI APPRENTICES
Planning for our next season of the Apprenticeship Programme is well underway, and we are excited to welcome our new group of Apprentices in 2025. Building on the success of previous years, we have designed another enriching programme, filled with learning opportunities to challenge and inspire our next cohort of young artistic talent. Auditions for the upcoming programme are taking place soon, and we are delighted to announce that we have received a record number of
applications. More details about the upcoming programme, including workshops and coaching with artists such as Mark Padmore and Dame Sarah Connolly, are available on our website.
The apprenticeship has exposed me to a level of music making I have never experienced before and continues to inspire me.”
– Joseph Taylor, Monteverdi Apprentice 2023-24
Monteverdi Apprentices rehearsing at The Warehouse in London
SUPPORT THE MONTEVERDI ENSEMBLES
Monteverdi Choir & Orchestras’ (MCO) mission is to bring fresh perspectives, immediacy and drama to historically inspired musical performances around the world. MCO is made up of three internationally-renowned ensembles that lead the field of period performance: the Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists and Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique. Performing regularly in London concert venues, as well as touring worldwide, MCO is in its 61st year of delivering outstanding performances and recordings to global critical acclaim.
As a registered charity with no public subsidy, the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestras rely on the generosity of our supporters to continue planning our ambitious, historically-informed artistic programme. This support allows us to deliver projects without compromising on artistic quality or integrity, to share our concerts with music lovers around the world through top-quality film and audio content, and helps us to nurture and develop the next generation of musical talent.
© Paul Marc Mitchell
WAYS YOU CAN SUPPORT US
JOIN OUR MEMBERSHIP SCHEME
Our membership scheme starts from £250 per year. Members enjoy a range of benefits including a personalised priority booking service for all our concerts, monthly newsletters, and invitations to post-concert receptions. At higher levels, additional benefits include invitations to exclusive open rehearsals and backstage access after our performances.
BECOME A BENEFACTOR
By supporting our charity at this highest level, you will contribute substantially towards our landmark projects, allow us to perform regularly in our London home at St Martin-inthe-Fields, and share our music globally via our filmed concerts.
BECOME A CORPORATE SPONSOR
We can offer creative and collaborative sponsorship packages that enable you to align your business with our work. There are opportunities to sponsor individual performances, or an entire season of concerts at our London home, St Martin-in-the-Fields.
LEAVE A LEGACY
By choosing to leave a Legacy Gift to the Monteverdi Choir & Orchestras, you will play a crucial role in ensuring that the performers and listeners of the future will continue to be enthralled by the power of our music-making.
JOIN OUR AMERICAN FRIENDS
Our American Friends play a valuable part in supporting and championing the work of the Monteverdi ensembles both in the US and beyond. The American Friends of the Monteverdi Choir & Orchestras, Inc is a registered 501(c)(3) organisation and donations to it are tax-deductible for US taxpayers to the extent allowed by law. EIN:31-1651106.
CONTACT US
If you wish to find out more about supporting MCO please get in touch. On our website, you will find the facility to make a donation (which we warmly welcome at any level), purchase one of our memberships, or treat a friend via a Gift Membership. If you would like to discuss becoming a Benefactor, or how your organisation could partner with us, please contact us to arrange a conversation with our General Director.
development@monteverdi.org.uk www.monteverdi.co.uk/support-us
Opposite: The Monteverdi Choir recording Bruckner & Gesualdo, conducted by Jonathan Sells.
MONTEVERDI SUPPORTERS
The Monteverdi Choir & Orchestras gratefully acknowledges the generous support of the following individuals, organisations and Trusts & Foundations:
PATRON
HM The King
PRESIDENT
Carol Grigor CBE
PRINCIPAL FUNDER
Dunard Fund
BENEFACTORS
Michael Beverley
David & Sandra Brierwood
Christian & Myrto Rochat
Sir David & Lady Walker
MEMBERSHIP SCHEME
PLATINUM
David Best
Lord & Lady Burns
Morny Davison
Lord & Lady Deben
Sir Vernon Ellis
Andrey Kidel
William Lock
Sebastian & Flora Lyon
Francis Norton
Yoshi Onodera
Helen & John Skinner
Clare Woodman CBE
GOLD
Lady Virginia Fraser
Sir Stephen Gomersall
Gordon Gullan
Stephen & Victoria Swift
SILVER
Julia & Martin Albrecht
Geoffrey Barnett
Donald & Corrine Brydon
Rosemary Chadder
Peter & Stephanie Chapman
Sarah & Mike Cuthbert
Tony Hales CBE
Yi-Peng Li
Lady Nixon
Mollie Norwich
Stefan Paetke
Nicholas & Christylle Phillips
Professor Richard Portes CBE FBA
Anthony C. Shoults
Professor John Smyth
BRONZE
Tania Bader
Donald D. Campbell
Vanessa Claypole
Dr Carol Cobb
Steve Edge
Jonathan Edwards
Lady Egremont
Nigel Gibson
Jenny Hill
Robert Moreland
Mary Pinnell
Daan Posthuma
Meghan Purvis
Anne Reyersbach
Thomas Richter
Dr Paul A. Sackin
Steven & Olivia Schaefer
Christopher J. H. Thornhill
Jenny & John Wiggins
CORPORATE PARTNERS
Morgan Stanley
TRUSTS & FOUNDATIONS
Dunard Fund
King Charles III Charitable Fund
Garfield Weston Foundation
Mrs F B Laurence’s Charitable Trust
The Rainbow Dickinson Trust
The Thistle Trust
IN MEMORIAM
Roger Chadder
Peter J. Chapman
Ian Hay Davison CBE
Sir Henry Keswick
Judith McCartin Scheide
Nicholas Snowman OBE
Geoffrey Taunton
LEGACIES
The Estate of Donald Gorman
The Estate of Howard Hodgkin
The Estate of Kevin Lavery
AMERICAN FRIENDS
The Negaunee Foundation
William Dudley
Neil Graham
David Kay
Seth Levi
Jai Shekhawat
Rory Walck
With grateful thanks to those who wish to remain anonymous and to the other individuals who give regular donations in support of our work.
MCO TEAM
Dr Rosa Solinas
General Director
Martin Wheeler
Finance & Administration Manager
James Halliday
Artistic Advisor & Librarian
Matthew Knight
Artistic Planning Manager
Jonathan Sells
Choir Director
David Kay Philanthropy Manager
Katie Care Tour Manager
Orlando Jones Administrator
Philip Turbett Orchestra Fixer
Matthew Muller
Stage Manager
Premier Comms
PR & media relations
Big Man Consultancy
Instrument Transport
Fortepianos provided by McNulty Pianos, Thornhill Pianos, and Lucy Russell, and tuned by Paul McNulty and Oliver Saendig
MCO BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Sir David Walker (Chairman)
Christian Rochat (Deputy Chairman)
David Best
Lady Deben
Nicholas Eldred
Virginia Fraser
Sir Stephen Gomersall
Diana Houghton
Andrey Kidel
Francis Norton
Caz Weller Knight
MONTEVERDI CHOIR & ORCHESTRAS
Level 12, 20 Bank Street, Canary Wharf, London E14 4AD, UK info@monteverdi.org.uk
Registered in England & Wales Company No. 01277513 Charity No. 272279
SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER
What’s On | News | Reviews | Media
Scan the QR code or visit: www.monteverdi.co.uk/ pages/newsletter
LISTEN TO MCO
Recordings | Videos | Performances | Podcasts
Scan the Spotify link to listen to the Monteverdi Choir, or buy our recordings at: shop.monteverdi.co.uk
FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Design: Linda Lundin, Park Studio
