Wigmore Series Spring 2014

SPRING14 JANUARY – MARCH 2014 WIGMORE SERIES Online Booking www.wigmore-hall.org.uk · Box Office 020 7935 2141

EUROPE’S LEADING VENUE FOR CHAMBER MUSIC AND SONG

Benjamin Ealovega

Welcome

The award-winning ensemble Apartment House, formed by cellist Anton Lukoszevieze in 1995, is securely established among Britain’s leading specialists in avant-garde and experimental music. It takes audiences on thrilling journeys of discovery, unveiling creative revelations in works chosen from around the world. The ensemble makes its Wigmore Hall debut with gripping new pieces for mezzo-soprano, flute, clarinet, string quartet and piano, including the hypnotic Blank (2002) ‘for any three sustaining instruments’ by Christopher Fox, and Peter Garland’s Where beautiful feathers abound.

Benjamin Ealovega

Since graduating from The Juilliard School in 1997, Canadian violinist James Ehnes has attracted international acclaim as concerto soloist, recitalist and recording artist. He returns to Wigmore Hall for a lunchtime programme on Monday 6 January, playing two works guaranteed to delight all chamber music connoisseurs (Mozart’s Violin Sonata in B flat and Brahms’s Violin Sonata No. 3 in D minor). Watch out too for a host of instrumentalists throughout the spring including celebrated cellists Gary Hoffman and Truls Mørk (and New Generation Artist Leonard Elschenbroich), clarinettist Michael Collins who is very much a fixture here, and Julia Fischer in a superbly cast piano trio with Daniel Müller-Schott and Simon Trpcˇeski.

German pianist and conductor Christian Zacharias, aptly described by The New Yorker as ‘a master of the magnification of the infinitesimal gesture’, presents his thoughts on two contrasting Mozart works, the emotionally intense A minor Piano Sonata and the audacious Piano Sonata in F.

Zacharias crowns his recital with Schubert’s Piano Sonata in B flat D960.

Other piano highlights include Angela Hewitt, Rudolf Buchbinder, Alexander Melnikov, Piotr Anderszewski and the much loved Richard Goode, as well as very welcome return recitals for Alexei Volodin and the outstanding Nelson Goerner, who continues his Portrait Series.

impact and dramatic writing. Issipile marked a change in Conti’s late style, distinguished by substantial arias for high voices, strong female characters, elegant accompanied recitative and vivacious writing for strings. La Nuova Musica and its charismatic music director David Bates are joined by an outstanding cast for the first performance since its year of composition.

Gerald Finley is one of the finest singers of our time, in demand at the world’s leading opera houses to sing everything from Mozart to Wagner, Handel to John Adams. The Canadian bass-baritone’s concern for the expressive flavour and emotional tone of words is matched by his fearless ability to reveal vivid psychological landscapes in song. Finley’s Wigmore Hall Residency opens with a work that might have been made with his voice and spiritual temperament in mind, bringing Winterreise to London as part of an international tour. It continues with works by Sibelius and Liszt before returning to late Schubert at the end of May and a chance to hear this majestic artist’s latest thoughts on Schwanengesang.

The JACK Quartet’s concerts prove time and again that we are now in a golden age of chamber music composition, one in which creative diversity and difference are encouraged and celebrated. This programme, devised

by Wigmore Hall’s Composer in Residence Julian Anderson, opens with a work composed in 1931 by Ohio-born Ruth Crawford Seeger, the first woman to receive a Guggenheim Fellowship, and closes with the longawaited UK première of Horat‚iu Raˇdulescu’s Fifth String Quartet of 1995.

Brian Ferneyhough’s wild Exordium, written in honour of Elliott Carter’s 100th birthday in 2008, stands in bold contrast to Julian Anderson’s Light Music and the world première of a new score by Christopher Trapani, winner of the 2007 Gaudeamus Prize.

Wigmore Hall’s Tippett: A Retrospective progresses with three concerts of works drawn from the lyrical core of the composer’s chamber music output. The Heath Quartet continues its survey of Tippett’s string quartets, and Mark Padmore and Craig Ogden celebrate Tippett’s role in the development of English song in Songs for Achilles, while Steven Osborne explores the composer’s influential contribution to the 20th-century piano sonata literature.

The Venetian contralto Sara Mingardo has helped spearhead the revival of Italian baroque music over the past quarter century, working closely with many pioneering period-instrument groups. Following her critically acclaimed performance of Pergolesi’s Salve Regina, she returns with a programme of vocal pieces from the coruscating repertoire of solo vocal works created in Vivaldi’s Venice. Other vocal highlights include recitals by Angelika Kirchschlager (with Jean-Yves Thibaudet who returns after a long absence) and appearances from Matthias Goerne (in Shostakovich and Mahler with Leif Ove Andsnes), Christoph Prégardien, Sarah Connolly, Luca Pisaroni, Henk Neven, Soile Isokoski, Christian Gerhaher (in Schumann), Matthew Rose, Sophie Bevan, Roderick Williams, Kate Royal, Florian Boesch and the exciting debut recital of tenor Mauro Peter, definitely a young artist to watch! Alice Coote (with the Aurora Orchestra under Andrew Gourlay) performs the world première of a new work by Judith Weir on 9 February, in a concert which includes Britten’s Serenade with Robert Murray. It is a great joy to welcome back legendary mezzo-soprano Brigitte Fassbaender to give two masterclasses as she passes on the fruits of a lifetime’s personal experience and deep thought about the art of singing.

Pietro Metastasio’s three-act tragedy Issipile, partially based on the legend of Jason and the Argonauts, was first set to music by Francesco Conti and performed in Vienna in 1732. Conti’s operas for the Habsburg court were highly esteemed during his lifetime, not least thanks to their direct emotional

Cantus Cölln and its founder-director, lutenist Konrad Junghänel, approach Bach’s work with the minds of musicians steeped not only in the composer’s music but also in the styles of composers who influenced his artistic development. The German vocal ensemble, a world leader in the historically informed performance of everything from the music of Monteverdi to Buxtehude, Schütz and Weckmann, makes its Wigmore Hall debut with an all-Bach programme on 18 February.

The Elias String Quartet’s survey of Beethoven’s complete string quartets begins on 20 February. Also watch out for appearances from the Takács, Belcea, Danish, Endellion, Carducci and Wihan string quartets throughout our Spring Series.

Founded in 1973 as a student group by Peter Phillips, The Tallis Scholars have led the revival of Renaissance and Baroque vocal polyphony ever since. The group’s instantly recognisable sound rests on the foundations of immaculate intonation and a blend so ethereal as to set new definitions for the meaning of tonal beauty. The group returns to Wigmore Hall on 27 February after a long absence with a programme of sacred works spanning more than a century of music history. And be sure to join us on 22 February for the Gramophone Award-winning viol consort Phantasm, founded by Laurence Dreyfus twenty years ago, performing Bach’s The Art of Fugue BWV1080.

There are, of course, many more concerts I could mention but I leave you to explore the brochure for yourself, and will look forward to seeing you at Wigmore Hall during the Spring Series.

John Gilhooly Director

SERIES AT A GLANCE J A N U A R Y – M A R C H

2 0 1 4

See pages 4 – 63 for full details of these concerts and page 67 for booking information.

Series and Events to look out for…

BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concerts

Apartment House

Sat 8 Feb

Angela Hewitt/Julia Schröder Page 28 Andrea Oliva

Mon 6 Jan

James Ehnes /Andrew Armstrong Page 4

Wed 12 Feb

Sergey & Lusine Khachatryan

31

Matthias Goerne ‘A Celebration’

6

Mon 13 Jan

Sarah Connolly/Julius Drake

9

Sat 15 Feb

Nash Ensemble

32

Christian Zacharias

7

Mon 20 Jan

Vienna Piano Trio

15

Sun 16 Feb

Truls Mørk/Christian Ihle Hadland

33

Songlives

10, 19

Mon 27 Jan

Florian Boesch /Malcolm Martineau

21

Thu 20 Feb

Elias String Quartet

39

Gerald Finley Residency

12–13

Mon 3 Feb

Sean Shibe

25

Sun 23 Feb

Takács Quartet/Graham Mitchell

42

14

Mon 10 Feb

Ehnes Quartet

29

Tue 25 Feb

Takács Quartet/Graham Mitchell

42

16, 52

Mon 17 Feb

Angela Hewitt

34

Wed 26 Feb

Scottish Ensemble

41

Mon 24 Feb

Ingolf Wunder

37

Fri 28 Feb

43

Mon 3 Mar

Leonard Elschenbroich Alexei Grynyuk

45

Marc-André Hamelin Anthony Marwood/Martin Fröst

Sat 1 Mar

Brentano String Quartet

49

Julia Fischer/Daniel Müller-Schott Simon Trpcˇeski

46

Mon 10 Mar Mon 17 Mar

Andrei Bondarenko Gary Matthewman

52

Sun 2 Mar

Wihan Quartet

45

Wed 5 Mar

Belcea Quartet

45

Page 5

European Chamber Music Academy Showcase Tippett: A Retrospective Angelika Kirchschlager/Jean-Yves Thibaudet

15

La Nuova Musica

18

JACK Quartet: Julian Anderson Composer in Residence

20

Sara Mingardo/Stefano Montanari

17

Nash Ensemble American Series

22, 32, 47, 48, 58

Mon 24 Mar

Belcea Quartet

58

Fri 7 Mar

Ralph Kirshbaum/Shai Wosner

47

Mauro Peter/Helmut Deutsch

24

Mon 31 Mar

Nina Stemme/Matti Hirvonen

59

Sat 8 Mar

Nash Ensemble

48

ATOS Trio

23

Sun 9 Mar

Brentano String Quartet

48

Music in the Shadow of War

26

Fri 14 Mar

Zehetmair Quartet

50

Judith Weir World Première

30

Wed 19 Mar

Britten Sinfonia

54

Spotlight on Steven Osborne

16, 32

Chamber Music Season Sat 4 Jan

Apartment House

5

Sun 23 Mar

Trio con Brio Copenhagen

57

Piotr Anderszewski

35

Sun 5 Jan

Dante Quartet

4

Mon 24 Mar

Szymanowski Quartet

58

Cantus Cölln

36

Fri 10 Jan

Gary Hoffman/David Selig

8

Wed 26 Mar

58

38–39

Sat 11 Jan

Michael Collins/Michael McHale

8

Phantasm

40

Tue 14 Jan

11

Richard Goode

Renaud Capuçon Khatia Buniatishvili

Nash Ensemble/BBC Singers Nicholas Kok Pavel Haas Quartet

41

Takács Quartet Associate Artists

Fri 17 Jan

Wu String Quartet/Streeton Trio

14

42

Fri 17 Jan

16

The Tallis Scholars

44

Heath Quartet/Craig Ogden Steven Osborne/Mark Padmore

Marc-André Hamelin Artist in Residence

43

Sat 18 Jan

Cuarteto Quiroga

14

Sun 12 Jan

Julia Fischer ‘Perspectives’

46

Sat 18 Jan

Vienna Piano Trio

11

Sun 19 Jan

Rudolf Buchbinder

49

Sun 19 Jan

Nightingale String Quartet

14

Sun 26 Jan

Brigitte Fassbaender Masterclass

50

Thu 23 Jan

JACK Quartet

20

Sun 2 Feb

Christian Gerhaher/ Gerold Huber

51

Sat 25 Jan

Nash Ensemble

22

Sun 9 Feb

Arcangelo

53

Wed 29 Jan

21

Sun 16 Feb

Marino Formenti Paths to a Masterpiece

54

The Endellion String Quartet David Adams

Fri 31 Jan

ATOS Trio

23

Sun 2 Mar

Sat 1 Feb

Steven Isserlis/Janine Jansen Dénes Várjon/Izabella Simon

26

Sun 9 Mar

Carducci String Quartet Razumovsky Ensemble

27

Sun 23 Mar

28

Sun 30 Mar

Elias String Quartet Beethoven Quartet Cycle

L’Arpeggiata Baroque Residency

55

Stile Antico

56

Les Talens Lyriques

60

Wed 5 Feb

64–65

Thu 6 Feb

Contemporary Music Series

2

Fri 28 Mar

59

Sunday Morning Coffee Concerts Sun 5 Jan

Sun 23 Feb

Sun 16 Mar

Navarra String Quartet Guy Braunstein/Ohad Ben-Ari Trio Goya Jennifer Pike/Tom Poster Signum Quartet Gemma Rosefield/Tim Horton Nash Ensemble Apollon Musagète Quartet Benjamin Frith Benyounes Quartet Heath Quartet Bennewitz Quartet Pacifica Quartet

4 9 15 19 23 29 33 37 43 48 52 57 59

London Pianoforte Series

Song Recital Series

Mon 6 Jan

Alexei Volodin

Wed 8 Jan

Christian Zacharias

Fri 17 Jan

Steven Osborne/Heath Quartet Craig Ogden / Mark Padmore

16

Tue 4 Feb

Alexander Melnikov

25

Fri 14 Feb

Steven Osborne

32

Mon 17 Feb

Piotr Anderszewski

35

Wed 19 Feb

Piotr Anderszewski

35

Fri 21 Feb

Nelson Goerner

34

Mon 24 Feb

Richard Goode

41

Wed 12 Mar

Rudolf Buchbinder

49

Wed 19 Mar

Marino Formenti

54

Page 6

Thu 16 Jan

Richard Egarr

11

Wed 22 Jan

La Nuova Musica

18

Fri 24 Jan

Sara Mingardo Stefano Montanari

17

Thu 30 Jan

Classical Opera

21

Sat 8 Feb

Angela Hewitt/Julia Schröder Andrea Oliva

28

Tue 18 Feb

Cantus Cölln

36

Sat 22 Feb

Phantasm

40

Thu 27 Feb

The Tallis Scholars

44

Thu 6 Mar

Florilegium

47

Mon 10 Mar

Gallicantus

49

Tue 18 Mar

Arcangelo

53

Fri 21 Mar Sat 22 Mar Tue 25 Mar Sun 30 Mar

L’Arpeggiata Stile Antico The English Concert Les Talens Lyriques

Apartment House

Thu 23 Jan

JACK Quartet

20

Wed 5 Feb

Britten Sinfonia Voices Roderick Williams

27

Sun 9 Feb

Aurora Orchestra/Alice Coote Robert Murray

30

Brentano String Quartet

48

Wed 19 Mar

Britten Sinfonia

54

Wed 19 Mar

Marino Formenti

54

Wed 26 Mar

Nash Ensemble BBC Singers/Nicholas Kok

58

55

9

Sun 23 Mar

Anna Lucia Richter Christoph Schnackertz

57

Sat 29 Mar

Gerald Finley Julius Drake

13

Mon 13 Jan

Bernarda Fink Hanno Müller-Brachmann Malcolm Martineau

10

Wed 15 Jan

Gerald Finley Julius Drake

13

Fri 17 Jan

Mark Padmore Heath Quartet Craig Ogden Steven Osborne

16

Angelika Kirchschlager Jean-Yves Thibaudet

15

Tue 21 Jan

Christoph Prégardien Michael Gees

Sun 26 Jan

Page 51

Wigmore Hall Learning Sat 4 Jan

Artists in Conversation

5

Thu 9 Jan

Introduction to Music

8

Thu 16 Jan

Introduction to Music

Sat 18 Jan

ECMA Masterclass

14

17

Thu 23 Jan

Schools Concert: Songs of No Man’s Land

61

Katherine Broderick Andrei Bondarenko Malcolm Martineau

19

Thu 23 Jan

Introduction to Music

Sat 25 Jan

Sun 26 Jan

Luca Pisaroni Wolfram Rieger

19

Family Concert: Songs of No Man’s Land

Thu 30 Jan

Introduction to Music

Tue 28 Jan

Mauro Peter Helmut Deutsch

24

Sat 1 Feb

CAVATINA Family Concert: Camarilla Ensemble

Sun 2 Feb

Clara Mouriz Roger Vignoles

25

Wed 5 Feb

Pre-Concert Talk

27

Wed 5 Feb

Wigmore Study Group

27

Britten Sinfonia Voices Roderick Williams

27

Fri 7 Feb

Young Producers Concert

62

Sun 9 Feb

Artists in Conversation

30

Tue 11 Feb

Wigmore Study Group

27

Thu 13 Feb

Wigmore Study Group

27

Fri 14 Feb

Pre-Concert Talk

32

Tue 18 Feb

Half-Term Course: Ignition

62

Wed 19 Feb

Half-Term Course: Ignition

62

Fri 21 Feb

Family Day: Animate!

62

Tue 25 Feb

Pre-Concert Talk

Sat 1 Mar

Come and Sing

Sat 1 Mar

Artists in Conversation

46

Fri 7 Mar

Schools Concert: EXAUDI

63

Mon 20 Jan

Wed 5 Feb Fri 7 Feb Sun 9 Feb

Kate Royal Malcolm Martineau

28

Alice Coote Robert Murray Aurora Orchestra

30

8

8 17, 61 8 23, 61

Soile Isokoski Ilkka Paananen

29

Angelika Kirchschlager Simon Lepper

31

Sun 16 Feb

Christopher Purves Simon Lepper

33

Sun 23 Feb

Royal Academy of Music Song Circle

37

Sun 2 Mar

Pumeza Matshikiza Julius Drake

43

Sat 8 Mar

Study Event: Richard Rodgers, Act III

47

Thu 13 Mar

Brigitte Fassbaender Masterclass

50

Thu 13 Mar

Brigitte Fassbaender Masterclass

50

Thu 13 Mar

Anne Schwanewilms Charles Spencer

50

Fri 14 Mar

Brigitte Fassbaender Masterclass

50

Sat 15 Mar

Family Day: Variations and Mutations

63

Wed 19 Mar

Pre-Concert Talk

54

Wed 26 Mar

Pre-Concert Talk

58

Tue 11 Feb Thu 13 Feb

5

Sun 9 Mar

Sylvia Schwartz Malcolm Martineau

Maximilian Schmitt Justus Zeyen

Contemporary Music Series Sat 4 Jan

Thu 20 Mar

Sun 12 Jan

58 60

Page 6

Matthias Goerne Leif Ove Andsnes

55 56

Christian Gerhaher Gerold Huber

Tue 7 Jan

7

Early Music and Baroque Series

Mon 17 Mar

Fri 14 Mar

Brigitte Fassbaender Masterclass

50

Sat 15 Mar

Christian Gerhaher Gerold Huber

51

Sun 16 Mar

Elizabeth Watts Simon Lepper

52

42 41, 62

3

WIGMORE SERIES S P R I N G S E A S O N J A N U A RY – M A R C H 2 0 1 4

Booking opens (except where stated) to Friends on 8 October, to Mailing List Subscribers on 21 October, and to the General Public/Online on 1 November

January Saturday 4 January 6.00 pm

Sunday 5 January 7.30 pm

Monday 6 January 1.00 pm

Artists in Conversation

Dante Quartet

See page opposite for full details

Haydn String Quartet in F Op. 50 No. 5 ‘The Dream’ Kodály String Quartet No. 2 Schubert String Quartet in D minor D810 ‘Death and the Maiden’

James Ehnes violin Andrew Armstrong piano

Saturday 4 January 7.30 pm

Apartment House See page opposite for full details Sunday 5 January 11.30 am

Navarra String Quartet Mendelssohn String Quartet in D Op. 44 No. 1 Dvorˇák String Quartet in E b Op. 51 Mendelssohn regarded the first of his three Op. 44 quartets to be among his finest chamber compositions.

It’s certainly among his most charming. The fire and energy of Dvorˇák’s ‘Slavonic’ Quartet, unleashed in full measure in its spirited finale, are ideally balanced by the work’s exquisite ‘Romanza’.

Schubert instinctively knew he would never recover after a long stay in hospital in 1823 and recurrent illness the following year. The String Quartet in D minor projects his intimations of mortality.

Few works have confronted life’s impermanence with such honesty and insight as the ill-fated composer’s ‘Death and the Maiden’ Quartet.

The Dante Quartet prefaces Schubert’s masterwork with two scores hallmarked by their thematic simplicity and tunefulness.

Mozart Violin Sonata in Bb K454 Brahms Violin Sonata No. 3 in D minor Op. 108 Since graduating from The Juilliard School in 1997, Canadian violinist James Ehnes has attracted international acclaim as concerto soloist, recitalist and recording artist. He returns to Wigmore Hall for a lunchtime programme comprising two works guaranteed to delight all chamber music connoisseurs. Mozart’s Violin Sonata in B flat, composed during a blaze of creative activity in 1784, makes the ideal companion to Brahms’s darker, more intense final Violin Sonata. £12.50 concs £10

£15 £20 £25 £30

Chamber Music Season BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert

£12.50 concs £10 incl. programme and coffee/sherry/juice

Sunday Morning Coffee Concert

Navarra String Quartet

4

Sussie Ahlburg

Dante Quartet

Giorgia Bertazzi

James Ehnes

Benjamin Ealovega

Apartment House Saturday 4 January 6.00 pm

Saturday 4 January 7.30 pm

Artists in Conversation

Apartment House

Anton Lukoszevieze, founder and director of Apartment House, is joined by members of the ensemble to introduce the evening concert.

Laurence Crane Sparling 2000 Christopher Fox Memento Peter Garland Where beautiful feathers abound Amnon Wolman Dead End Mathias Spahlinger 128 Erfüllte Augenblicke Rytis Mažulis Canon mensurabilis Christopher Fox Blank Reinhold Friedl String Quartet No. 1

£3 Wigmore Hall Learning Event

£15 £20 £25 £30 Booking open

Royal Philharmonic Society Award-winning Apartment House, formed by cellist Anton Lukoszevieze in 1995, is securely established among Britain’s leading specialists in avant-garde and experimental music.

Its programmes take audiences on thrilling journeys of discovery, unveiling creative revelations in works chosen from around the world. The ensemble makes its Wigmore Hall debut with a gripping mix of recent and new pieces for mezzo-soprano, flute, clarinet, string quartet and piano, including the hypnotic Blank (2002) ‘for any three sustaining instruments’ by Christopher Fox, and Peter Garland’s Where beautiful feathers abound. Breath-taking contrasts, dashing virtuosity and tonal beauty belong to this captivating concert’s rich repertoire menu.

Contemporary Music Series

5

January Monday 6 January 7.30 pm

MATTHIAS GOERNE ‘A CELEBRATION’

Alexei Volodin piano Bach Goldberg Variations BWV988 Ravel Miroirs Chopin Andante spianato and Grande polonaise brillante Op. 22 Bach’s Goldberg Variations were reportedly written for the Russian ambassador to Saxony, Count Keyserlingk, an incurable insomniac who required a ‘soothing and cheerful’ work to be played by his harpsichordist Johann Gottlieb Goldberg during the night’s small hours. The aristocrat was delighted by Bach’s work, which stands today among the great landmarks of western art. Alexei Volodin explores two other virtuoso scores in a programme of vivid colours and expressive contrasts. £15 £20 £25 £30

London Pianoforte Series

Matthias Goerne

Marco Borggreve

Tuesday 7 January 7.30 pm

Matthias Goerne baritone Leif Ove Andsnes piano Mahler Ich atmet’ einen linden Duft from Five Rückert Lieder Shostakovich Morning from Suite on verses of Michelangelo Buonarroti Mahler Wo die schönen Trompeten blasen from Des Knaben Wunderhorn Shostakovich Separation from Suite on verses of Michelangelo Buonarroti Mahler From Des Knaben Wunderhorn: Es sungen drei Engel; Das irdische Leben Mahler From Kindertotenlieder: Nun seh’ ich wohl, warum so dunkle Flammen; Wenn dein Mütterlein Mahler Urlicht from Des Knaben Wunderhorn Shostakovich Night from Suite on verses of Michelangelo Buonarroti Mahler Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen from Five Rückert Lieder Shostakovich Immortality from Suite on verses of Michelangelo Buonarroti Shostakovich Dante from Suite on verses of Michelangelo Buonarroti Mahler Revelge from Des Knaben Wunderhorn Shostakovich Death from Suite on verses of Michelangelo Buonarroti Mahler Der Tamboursg’sell from Des Knaben Wunderhorn Intense emotions surface throughout Shostakovich’s Suite on verses of Michelangelo Buonarroti, a potent swansong first heard four months after its composer’s death in 1975. Matthias Goerne and Leif Ove Andsnes highlight Shostakovich’s abiding affinity for Mahler by interweaving a selection of the suite’s movements (sung in Russian) with nine of the Austrian composer’s songs. Goerne’s refined blend of intellect, heartfelt spontaneity and vocal control have secured his place among today’s leading interpreters of art song. His richly endowed partnership with Andsnes harbours the power to rejuvenate even the best-known works, liberate their spiritual essence and burrow deep beneath the surface of music and words. £18 £25 £30 £35

Supported by the members of the Rubinstein Circle Song Recital Series/ Matthias Goerne: ‘A Celebration’

Alexei Volodin

6

Marco Borggreve

Christian Zacharias Wednesday 8 January 7.30 pm

Christian Zacharias piano Mozart Piano Sonata in A minor K310 Mozart Piano Sonata in F K533/494 Schubert Piano Sonata in B b D960 The German pianist and conductor, aptly described by The New Yorker as ‘a master of the magnification of the infinitesimal gesture’, presents his thoughts on two contrasting Mozart works, the emotionally intense A minor Piano Sonata and the audacious Piano Sonata in F. Zacharias crowns his recital with Schubert’s Piano Sonata in B flat D960, completed a few weeks before its composer’s tragically early death in November 1828.

This mighty four-movement work combines moments of great solemnity with lyrical melodies reminiscent of his finest songs. £15 £20 £25 £30 London Pianoforte Series

Photo by Nicole Chuard

7

January

INTRODUCTION TO MUSIC

Friday 10 January 7.30 pm

Saturday 11 January 7.30 pm

Gary Hoffman cello David Selig piano

Michael Collins clarinet Michael McHale piano

Brahms Cello Sonata No. 1 in E minor Op. 38; Sonata Op. 78 (cello transcription of Violin Sonata); Cello Sonata No. 2 in F Op. 99

Brahms Clarinet Sonata in F minor Op. 120 No. 1 Weber Grand Duo Concertant in E b Op. 48 Bernstein Clarinet Sonata Lutosławski Dance Preludes Muczynski Time Pieces Op. 43 Joseph Horovitz Sonatina

Among the blessings of the cellist’s repertoire, few works can match Brahms’s Cello Sonatas for expressive intensity, drama and invention. Gary Hoffman, a regular guest soloist with many of the world’s leading orchestras, and his long-standing duo partner and friend David Selig, have spent countless rehearsal hours shaping their interpretations of both works. They are also passionate and persuasive advocates of the cello transcription of the composer’s sonata Op. 78. £15 £20 £25 £30

Chamber Music Season

Brahms created two clarinet sonatas in 1894 following the death of his close friends, Hans von Bülow and Theodor Billroth. Michael Collins’s recital opens with the first of the pair, exploring its elegiac disposition before dazzling with a collection of virtuoso showpieces. The programme includes Bernstein’s first published piece, written in 1941–2, and the irresistible Sonatina by Joseph Horovitz, a much loved staple of the clarinet repertoire for over three decades. £15 £20 £25 £30

St Basil’s Cathedral, Moscow Thursday Thursday Thursday Thursday

9 January 16 January 23 January 30 January

Chamber Music Season

Shutterstock

5.00 pm – 6.15 pm 5.00 pm – 6.15 pm 5.00 pm – 6.15 pm 5.00 pm – 6.15 pm

INTRODUCTION TO RUSSIAN MUSIC Russia does not possess the same deeply embedded musical culture of many Western European countries, but its relative isolation from the mainstream and the proximity of more exotic influences has produced an astoundingly rich and varied body of music.

We will trace the beginnings of a Russian tradition with Glinka in the early 19th century, visit the great amateurs such as Borodin and Rimsky-Korsakov, the iconoclastic and instinctive Musorgsky and of course the paradigm of popularity in classical music, Tchaikovsky. The 20th century is equally compelling with the great revolutionary exile Stravinsky and the reactionary exile Rachmaninov vying for attention with Prokofiev (partly exile) and Shostakovich who stayed at home and paid the price. In some ways it would be hard to imagine a more disparate bunch but what is very apparent is an ineluctable ‘Russian’ flavour in all their music.

Series ticket price £24 Wigmore Hall Learning Event

Gary Hoffman

8

Bernard Martinez Moyenne

Michael Collins

Benjamin Ealovega

January Sunday 12 January 11.30 am

Sunday 12 January 4.00 pm

Monday 13 January 1.00 pm

Guy Braunstein violin Ohad Ben-Ari piano

Maximilian Schmitt tenor Justus Zeyen piano

Sarah Connolly mezzo-soprano Julius Drake piano

Schubert Fantasy in C D934 Chausson Poème Op. 25 Franck Sonata in A for violin and piano Falla Danza española

Schubert Die schöne Müllerin

Mahler Rückert Lieder Berlioz Les nuits d’été

In 2000 Guy Braunstein became the youngest ever concertmaster of the Berliner Philharmoniker. The Israel-born violinist stepped down from the post at the end of the 2012–13 season to concentrate on developing his already extensive career as concerto soloist and recitalist. He joins forces in this recital with his regular duo partner, Ohad Ben-Ari, a musician of extraordinary versatility and range.

Maximilian Schmitt’s sophisticated musicianship rests on foundations set during childhood years with Germany’s famous Regensburger Domspatzen.

As an adult, he progressed to join the Bavarian State Opera’s Young Ensemble and achieved his international breakthrough at the 2007 Salzburg Festival. He has since won his spurs as a Lieder singer, especially in the great song-cycles of Schubert and Schumann. Don’t miss the chance to hear this distinctive young artist’s thoughts on Die schöne Müllerin.

£12.50 concs £10 incl. programme and coffee/sherry/juice

This concert will be approximately 1 hour 10 minutes in duration, without an interval

Sunday Morning Coffee Concert

£12.50 concs £10

Maximilian Schmitt

£12.50 concs £10

BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert

Song Recital Series

Guy Braunstein

Berlioz originally conceived his famous setting of six poems by Théophile Gautier, collectively known as Les nuits d’été, for voice and piano around 1840.

Each song explores love from different perspectives, their diverse emotions influenced by the ongoing collapse of the composer’s marriage to the Irish actress, Harriet Smithson. Sarah Connolly’s visionary performances of Les nuits d’été have placed her among the cycle’s great interpreters.

Christian Kargl

Sarah Connolly

Peter Warren

9

Songlives Wigmore Hall’s visionary new series, overseen

by Malcolm Martineau with singers chosen by John Gilhooly, continues with programmes devised to cast fresh interpretative light on works drawn from the heart of the Lieder and song repertoire. The artists involved in Songlives own a special affinity for the music in their programmes, each blessed with the spark of imagination required to ignite unforgettable performances.

Monday 13 January 7.30 pm

Sunday 26 January 4.00 pm

Bernarda Fink mezzo-soprano Hanno Müller-Brachmann

Katherine Broderick soprano Andrei Bondarenko baritone Malcolm Martineau piano

bass-baritone

Malcolm Martineau piano SONGLIVES: BRAHMS Der Überläufer; Liebestreu Der Gang zum Liebchen First Maturity Wehe, so willst du mich wieder; Wie bist du, meine Königin; 2 songs from Die schöne Magelone Established in Vienna Dämmrung senkte sich von oben; Regenlied; Ach, wende diesen Blick; Meine Liebe ist grün The last twenty years Therese; Mit vierzig Jahren ist der Berg ersteigen; Sapphische Ode; Kein Haus, keine Heimat; Schön war, das ich dir weihte; Auf dem Kirchhofe; Auf die Nacht in der Spinnstuben; 3 Volkslieder; Denn es gehet dem Menschen; Wenn ich mit Menschen- und mit Engelzungen redete ‘Brahms was capable … of writing a melody that was his own property, right down to the smallest inflection, and yet sounded like a folksong,’ noted the great conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler in 1931. Three outstanding Brahmsians and Wigmore Hall regulars join forces for a programme that encompasses the wide creative breadth and expressive eloquence of the composer’s work. £18 £25 £30 £35

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See page 19 for full details

The early years Heimkehr; In der Fremde; New Paths Ständchen; An eine Äolsharfe;

Bernarda Fink and Hanno Müller-Brachmann begin with Brahms, before Katherine Broderick and the young Ukrainian baritone Andrei Bondarenko turn to the romantic Russian songs of Rachmaninov. The series unfolds later this season when Sarah Connolly and Henk Neven explore the emotional frisson and tonal beauties of Duparc’s songs and Christoph Prégardien returns to his beloved Schubert.

Songs by Rachmaninov

Forthcoming Concerts in this Series Wednesday 23 April 7.30 pm

Sarah Connolly mezzo-soprano Henk Neven baritone Malcolm Martineau piano Songs by Duparc

Wednesday 18 June 7.30 pm

Christoph Prégardien tenor Malcolm Martineau piano Songs by Schubert

Song Recital Series /Songlives

Painting by Caspar David Friedrich

January Tuesday 14 January 7.30 pm

Renaud Capuçon violin Khatia Buniatishvili piano Brahms Violin Sonata No. 2 in A Op. 100 Bartók Violin Sonata No. 2 Sz. 76 Beethoven Violin Sonata No. 5 in F Op. 24 ‘Spring’ Expect sparks of inspiration to fly from the partnership of two utterly compelling performers.

Renaud Capuçon and Khatia Buniatishvili share in common a feeling for music’s psychological depths, for its ineffable ability to touch audiences and transcend mundane troubles. Their programme combines the expressive depths of Bartók’s Second Violin Sonata with Beethoven’s joyful meditation on nature and Brahms’s lyrical Violin Sonata in A major.

Thursday 16 January 7.30 pm

Friday 17 January 7.30 pm

Richard Egarr harpsichord

Mark Padmore tenor Steven Osborne piano Craig Ogden guitar Heath Quartet

Handel Suite No. 3 in D minor HWV428 Bach English Suite No. 4 in F BWV809 Handel Suite No. 5 in E HWV430 Bach English Suite No. 6 in D minor BWV811 Po-faced purism is definitely not among the features of Richard Egarr’s approach to Baroque music.

His innate feeling for the present moment, for the unrepeatable now in performance, brings spontaneity and risk-taking to his interpretations as harpsichord soloist and conductor. For this recital he turns to the music of two supreme keyboard wizards, exploring the stylistic contrasts and coincidences of near-contemporary suites by Bach and Handel. £15 £20 £25 £30

£15 £20 £25 £30

Supported by the Benefactor Friends of Wigmore Hall

Early Music and Baroque Series

Chamber Music Season

ECMA Showcase Friday 17 January 1.00 pm

Wednesday 15 January 7.30 pm

Saturday 18 January 11.00 am – Masterclass

Gerald Finley bass-baritone Julius Drake piano

Saturday 18 January 4.00 pm Sunday 19 January 4.00 pm

See page overleaf for full details

TIPPETT: A RETROSPECTIVE See page 16 for full details

Saturday 18 January 7.30 pm

Vienna Piano Trio Beethoven Piano Trio in D Op. 70 No. 1 ‘Ghost’ Henze Kammersonate Mendelssohn Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor Op. 49 Those familiar with the rich tone, dynamic power and committed artistry of the Vienna Piano Trio will naturally want to hear more of the group’s work. Its latest Wigmore Hall programme, cut from the finest repertoire cloth, is enriched by Henze’s youthful Kammersonate. Beethoven’s friend and pupil Carl Czerny famously observed how the slow movement of his teacher’s Piano Trio Op. 70 No. 1 reminded him of the appearance of Banquo’s ghost in Macbeth, thereby hatching the work’s enduring nickname. £15 £20 £25 £30

See page 14 for full details

Chamber Music Season

Renaud Capuçon

Mat Hennek

Richard Egarr

Marco Borggreve

Vienna Piano Trio

Nancy Horowitz

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Photo by Sim Canetty- Clarke

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Gerald Finley Residency Over the past quarter century Gerald Finley has matured in stature to become one of the finest singers of our time, in demand at the world’s leading opera houses to sing everything from Mozart to Wagner, Handel to John Adams. The Canadian bass-baritone’s concern for the expressive flavour and emotional tone of words is matched by his fearless ability to reveal vivid psychological landscapes in song.

Finley’s Wigmore Hall Residency opens with a work that might have been made with his voice and spiritual temperament in mind, bringing Winterreise to London as part of an international tour with Julius Drake. It continues with works by Sibelius and Liszt before returning to late Schubert at the end of May and a chance to hear this majestic artist’s latest thoughts on Schwanengesang.

Wednesday 15 January 7.30 pm

Saturday 29 March 7.30 pm

Forthcoming Concert in this Series

Gerald Finley bass-baritone Julius Drake piano

Gerald Finley bass-baritone Julius Drake piano

Saturday 31 May 7.30 pm

Schubert Winterreise

Liszt Die Vätergruft; Morgens steh’ ich auf und frage; Anfangs wollt’ ich fast verzagen; Ein Fichtenbaum steht einsam; Die Fischerstochter; La tombe et la rose; Tre sonetti di Petrarca Sibelius Hymn to Thaïs; Älven och snigeln; Jag är ett träd; Näcken; Hertig Magnus; Kom nu hit, död; Die stille Stadt; Jägargossen; På verandan vid havet; Svarta rosor

The dark, death-tinged imagery of Wilhelm Müller’s poetry compelled Schubert to write a song-cycle that was recognised at the time of its publication in 1828 for its originality and symphonic scale. ‘Herein lies the nature of German Romantic being and art,’ wrote one early reviewer.

Winterreise, among the greatest monuments to the creative spirit, offers endless possibilities of nuance and emphasis to interpreters of the work.

This concert will be approximately 1 hour 15 minutes in duration, without an interval

£18 £25 £30 £35

Although known chiefly for their work in other musical forms, Sibelius and Liszt made important contributions to the song repertoire. Sibelius launched his career as a composer with the publication in 1888 of a solo song, Serenade, and attracted wide attention four years later following the appearance of his Op. 13 song collection.

Gerald Finley and Julius Drake survey the song lives of both composers in a programme of compelling contrasts and beguiling variety.

Gerald Finley bass-baritone Julius Drake piano Programme to include: Schubert Schwanengesang

Julius Drake

Sim Canetty- Clarke

£18 £25 £30 £35 Song Recital Series / Gerald Finley Residency

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European Chamber Music Academy Showcase The European Chamber Music Academy (ECMA) was established in 2004 by Hatto Beyerle, co-founder and violist of the Alban Berg Quartet.

Its mission is to promote and nurture today’s aspiring chamber music ensembles, especially string quartets and piano trios. The Academy stands as an association of European music education institutions and festivals, which provides ongoing training opportunities for its young ensembles and offers students a comprehensive mix of theoretical and practical tuition.

Streeton Trio

Wu String Quartet

Nightingale String Quartet

Friday 17 January 1.00 pm

Saturday 18 January 11.00 am

Sunday 19 January 4.00 pm

Wu String Quartet; Streeton Trio

ECMA Masterclass

Nightingale String Quartet

Britten String Quartet No. 2 in C Op. 36 Brahms Piano Trio No. 3 in C minor Op. 101

Artistic Director and founder of ECMA, Professor Hatto Beyerle, gives a masterclass on Mozart’s String Quartet in D K575, with the Wu String Quartet.

Bartók String Quartet No. 2 Op. 17 Beethoven String Quartet in E minor Op. 59 No. 2 ‘Razumovsky’

Wigmore Hall’s vision for chamber music’s flourishing future embraces the encouragement of outstanding young ensembles, not least through its close association with the European Chamber Music Academy. This lunchtime concert brings together two ECMA participants, the Wu String Quartet, winners of the 2012 V.E. Rimbotti String Quartet Competition, and the Streeton Trio, one of Australia’s finest chamber groups.

Wigmore Hall Learning Event

Saturday 18 January 4.00 pm

Cuarteto Quiroga Haydn String Quartet in E b Op. 20 No. 1 György Kurtág Officium breve Op. 28 Mozart String Quartet in E b K428

Cuarteto Quiroga

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Josep Molina

Spain has produced several outstanding string quartets in recent years, nurturing refined qualities of chamber music-making on home soil and encouraging the finest young ensembles to study with leading international teachers. Cuarteto Quiroga’s strong collective artistic character reflects the free spirits and energy of its members. It also bears witness to lasting lessons learned from Rainer Schmidt in Madrid and Hatto Beyerle at the European Chamber Music Academy.

Founded in 2007, the Nightingale String Quartet has won prizes at several international chamber music competitions. The young Danish ensemble has studied with Professor Tim Frederiksen at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen and Professor Hatto Beyerle at the European Chamber Music Academy. The quartet’s name is inspired by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen’s story about the little nightingale.

All tickets £5 each concert Free admission to masterclass (ticket required) The ECMA Showcase has been supported by a gift from the estates of the late Thomas and Betty Elton in memory of Sigmund Elton Chamber Music Season/ ECMA Showcase

January Sunday 19 January 11.30 am

Monday 20 January 1.00 pm

Trio Goya

Vienna Piano Trio

Haydn Piano Trio in A b HXV:14 Beethoven Piano Trio in C minor Op. 1 No. 3 Haydn Piano Trio in C HXV:27

Beethoven Piano Trio in E b Op. 70 No. 2 Mendelssohn Piano Trio No. 2 in C minor Op. 66

Haydn attended the première of Beethoven’s three Op. 1 piano trios at Prince Lichnowsky’s palace in Vienna in August 1795. History records that Haydn ‘said many fine things’ about the young composer’s works; Beethoven, however, took offence at Haydn’s mild reservations about the C minor trio’s complexities.

Trio Goya, performing on period instruments, offers the chance to hear the two men’s work in context in this recital, inviting audiences to consider their piano trios with fresh and open ears.

Beethoven composed his Op. 70 piano trios in honour of Countess Anna Maria Erdödy, perhaps to restore their friendship after a quarrel in the spring of 1809. Carl Czerny claimed that Beethoven was inspired to write the fiery finale of the Piano Trio Op. 70 No. 2 after watching a galloping horse.

The Vienna Piano Trio’s BBC Lunchtime programme pairs this magnificent work with Mendelssohn’s 30-minute Piano Trio in C minor of 1845. £12.50 concs £10

£12.50 concs £10 incl. programme and coffee/sherry/juice

Sunday Morning Coffee Concert

ANGELIKA KIRCHSCHLAGER

Angelika Kirchschlager Nelson Goerner

BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert

Nikolaus Karlinsky Jean-Baptiste Millot

Monday 20 January 7.30 pm

Angelika Kirchschlager

Sunday 19 January 4.00 pm

mezzo-soprano

Nightingale String Quartet

Jean-Yves Thibaudet piano

See page opposite for full details

Brahms Mein Mädel hat einen Rosenmund; Soll sich der Mond nicht heller scheinen; Da unten im Tale; Feinsliebchen; Intermezzo in A (for solo piano); Meine Liebe ist grün; Über die Heide; Der Gang zum Liebchen; Nachtwandler; Versunken; O komme, holde Sommernacht; Therese; Von ewiger Liebe Liszt Im Rhein, im schönen Strome; Vergiftet sind meine Lieder; Über allen Gipfeln ist Ruh; Consolation No. 3 in Db (for solo piano); Es war ein König in Thule; O lieb, so lang du lieben kannst; Die drei Zigeuner; Der du von dem Himmel bist Nature imagery, folksongs, medieval legend and contemplations of love, life and death helped shape the world of Brahms’s songs.

This recital is given by two artists with the sensibility and skills required to bring out the full range of colours and nuanced inflections of works such as ‘Über die Heide’ and ‘Meine Liebe ist grün’, the exquisite melancholy of ‘Nachtwandler’ and the sense of pain and rejection contained within ‘Von ewiger Liebe’.

Their programme also explores Liszt’s Lieder in a second half powered by the emotional force of German Romanticism. £18 £25 £30 £35 Song Recital Series

Trio Goya

Vienna Piano Trio

Nancy Horowitz

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TIPPETT A Retrospective Wigmore Hall’s ‘Tippett: A Retrospective’ progresses with three concerts of works drawn from the lyrical core of the composer’s chamber music output. The Heath Quartet continues its survey of Tippett’s string quartets, arriving at the Fourth String Quartet before pairing his Beethoven-inspired Second String Quartet with Schubert’s ‘Death and the Maiden’. The Heaths conclude this fascinating series with the Fifth String Quartet of 1990–1, a late flower from the composer’s creative Indian summer. Mark Padmore and Craig Ogden also celebrate Tippett’s role in the development of English song in Songs for Achilles, while Steven Osborne explores his influential contribution to the 20th-century piano sonata literature.

Friday 17 January 7.30 pm

Mark Padmore tenor Steven Osborne piano Craig Ogden guitar Heath Quartet* Tippett The Blue Guitar; Piano Sonata No. 4; Songs for Achilles; String Quartet No. 4 Tippett’s musical style and aesthetic outlook evolved to embrace single-movement forms and bold self-quotation during the three decades that separate his third and fourth quartets. The Fourth String Quartet, a masterpiece of thematic concision and concentration, The Blue Guitar (1982– 3) and Fourth Piano Sonata make ideal companions to Songs for Achilles, first performed by Peter Pears and Julian Bream in 1961. £15 £20 £25 £30

The Spotlight on Steven Osborne Series is supported by Dunard Fund * WIGMORE HALL EMERGING T A L E N T Supported by Mayfield Valley Arts Trust

Chamber Music Season / Spotlight on Steven Osborne/ Tippett: A Retrospective

Sunday 16 March 11.30 am

Heath Quartet* Tippett String Quartet No. 2 Schubert String Quartet in D minor D810 ‘Death and the Maiden’ £12.50 concs £10 incl. programme and coffee/sherry/juice Sunday Morning Coffee Concert / Tippett: A Retrospective

Forthcoming Concert in this Series Saturday 26 April 7.30 pm

Steven Osborne piano Heath Quartet* Tippett Piano Sonatas Nos. 2 & 3; String Quartet No. 5

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January Tuesday 21 January 7.30 pm

Saturday 25 January 3.00 pm – 4.00 pm

Christoph Prégardien tenor Michael Gees piano

SARA MINGARDO

Songs of No Man’s Land FAMILY CONCERT based on the book War Game by Michael Foreman

Loewe Der Nöck Schubert Der Zwerg Liszt Es war ein König in Thule Loewe Erlkönig Lachner Die Meerfrau Michael Gees Der Zauberlehrling Liszt Die Loreley Wolf Ritter Kurts Brautfahrt Lachner Der wunde Ritter Wilhelm Killmayer Schön-Rohtraut Lachner Ein Traumbild Loewe Edward Schumann Belsazar Loewe Tom der Reimer Wolf Der Feuerreiter

For age 7 plus Presenter Rus Pearson and musicians from Britten Sinfonia take you on a journey with a group of boys from the east of England who travel to the trenches of northern France. On Christmas Day, 1914 something remarkable happens as the German and British armies stop fighting and meet in the middle of no man’s land. The enemies talk, play football and become friends. But the war isn’t over, the two sides resume fighting and the group of Suffolk lads are ordered to charge across no man’s land ...

Combining existing repertoire and a new commission

by Emily Hall, Songs of No Man’s Land explores the themes of friendship, loss and remembrance which surround the Great War.

Carl Loewe practically invented the art ballad, an epic vocal genre in which supernatural powers and mysterious happenings routinely determine the fate of humankind. Christoph Prégardien’s programme conjures up the extraordinary happenings and narrative twists central to the ballad at its best, placing familiar masterworks by Schubert, Schumann and Wolf in company with rarities by Lachner and more recent works by Killmayer and Gees.

Adults £7 Children £5

In partnership with Britten Sinfonia Supported by Mayfield Valley Arts Trust, The Monument Trust and The Andor Charitable Trust

£18 £25 £30 £35

Song Recital Series

Wigmore Hall Learning Event Wednesday 22 January 7.00 pm NB starting time Saturday 25 January 7.00 pm NB starting time

La Nuova Musica

Sara Mingardo

See page overleaf for full details

Friday 24 January 7.30 pm Thursday 23 January 7.30 pm

Sara Mingardo contralto Stefano Montanari harpsichord

JACK Quartet See page 20 for full details

A programme of Venetian vocal works by Galuppi, Marcello and Vivaldi The Venetian contralto Sara Mingardo has helped spearhead the revival of Italian baroque music over the past quarter century, working closely with such pioneering period-instrument groups as Concerto Italiano, the Accademia degli Astrusi, Ensemble Matheus and the Venice Baroque Orchestra. Following her critically acclaimed performance of Pergolesi’s Salve Regina in September 2012, she returns to Wigmore Hall with a programme of vocal works created in Vivaldi’s Venice.

Nash Ensemble Latonia Moore soprano Kim Criswell mezzo-soprano Roderick Williams baritone Roger Vignoles piano AMERICAN SONG NASH ENSEMBLE AMERICAN SERIES See page 22 for full details

Saturday 25 January 10.00 pm

Joshua Rifkin piano SCOTT JOPLIN RAGS NASH ENSEMBLE AMERICAN SERIES See page 22 for full details

£15 £20 £25 £30 Early Music and Baroque Series

Christoph Prégardien & Michael Gees

Hermann & Clärchen Baus

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La Nuova Musica Wednesday 22 January 7.00 pm NB starting time

La Nuova Musica Lucy Crowe soprano (as Issipile) John Mark Ainsley tenor (as Tonante) Lawrence Zazzo countertenor (as Giasone) Flavio Ferri-Benedetti countertenor (as Learco) Madeleine Shaw mezzo-soprano (as Eurinome) Rebecca Bottone soprano (as Rodope) David Bates director Conti Issipile This concert will be approximately 3 hours 15 minutes in duration, with 2 intervals £18 £25 £30 £35 Early Music and Baroque Series

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Pietro Metastasio’s three-act tragedy Issipile, partially based on the legend of Jason and the Argonauts, was first set to music by Francesco Conti and performed in Vienna in 1732, a few months before the composer’s death. Conti’s operas for the Habsburg court were highly esteemed during his lifetime, not least thanks to their direct emotional impact and dramatic writing. Issipile marked a change in Conti’s late style, distinguished by substantial arias for high voices, strong female characters, elegant accompanied recitative and vivacious writing for strings. La Nuova Musica and its charismatic music director David Bates, known for the passion of their historically informed music-making, are joined by an outstanding cast for the first performance of Conti’s majestic work since its year of composition.

Photo by Graeme Robertson

January Sunday 26 January 11.30 am

Sunday 26 January 4.00 pm

Sunday 26 January 7.30 pm

Jennifer Pike violin Tom Poster piano

Katherine Broderick soprano Andrei Bondarenko baritone Malcolm Martineau piano

Luca Pisaroni bass-baritone Wolfram Rieger piano

Mozart Violin Sonata in G K301 Janácˇek Violin Sonata Dvorˇák Four Romantic Pieces Op. 75 Rózsa Variations on a Hungarian Peasant Song Op. 4 Traces of local and national identity sound in each of the pieces in this Coffee Concert. Jennifer Pike and Tom Poster open with Mozart’s G major Violin Sonata of 1778, complete with German dance rhythms. Janácˇek’s Violin Sonata reflects on the carnage of the First World War and hopes for Czech independence in peacetime, while Miklós Rózsa’s Variations boldly project its Hungarian folksong inheritance. £12.50 concs £10 incl. programme and coffee/sherry/juice

Sunday Morning Coffee Concert

SONGLIVES: RACHMANINOV Rachmaninov At the gates of the holy abode; Oh no, I beg you, forsake me not; Morning; Oh thou, my field; Child, thou art as beautiful as a flower; Brooding; The dream; I wait for thee; The isle; Oh, do not grieve; Fragment from Musset; Melody; Night; There are many sounds; He took all from me; Two partings; Christ is risen; All things pass by; Letter to K.S. Stanislavsky; Discord; To her; A dream Katherine Broderick and Andrei Bondarenko explore treasures from Rachmaninov’s capacious song output, the growth of which began during his student years in Moscow and came to an abrupt halt following his decision to quit Russia in the revolutionary year of 1917. The soul of Russia, romantic yearning, the natural world and nostalgia are among the themes that permeate the composer’s choice of poetry. £12.50 concs £10

Song Recital Series/Songlives

Beethoven La partenza; In questa tomba oscura; Hoffnung; L’amante impatiente Reichardt Canzon, s’al dolce loco; Erano i capei d’oro a l’aura sparsi; O poggi, o valli, o fiumi, o selve, o campi; Più volte già dal bel sembiante umano; Dico ch’ad ora ad ora; Pace non trovo; Di tempo in tempo mi si fa men dura; Or che ’l ciel et la terra e ’l vento tace Brahms Alte Liebe; Sommerfäden; O kühler Wald; Verzagen; Unüberwindlich Liszt Ein Fichtenbaum steht einsam; Anfangs wollt’ ich fast verzagen; In Liebeslust; Wer nie sein Brot mit Tränen aß; Lieder aus Schillers Wilhelm Tell; Die Loreley; Über allen Gipfeln ist Ruh; Wieder möcht ich dir begegnen; Die drei Zigeuner Italian bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni surged to international prominence at the Salzburg Festival a decade ago and is now in demand at the world’s leading opera houses. He arrives at Wigmore Hall having recently starred in productions of Le nozze di Figaro and Anna Bolena respectively at the Royal Opera House and the Vienna State Opera. Pisaroni’s programme includes a fascinating group of Italian songs by Johann Friedrich Reichardt, a close friend of the philosopher Immanuel Kant and firebrand supporter of the French Revolution. £15 £20 £25 £30

Song Recital Series

Jennifer Pike

Eric Richmond

Katherine Broderick

Paul Foster-Williams

Luca Pisaroni

Marco Borggreve

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JACK Quartet This concert forms part of the Julian Anderson Composer in Residence series Thursday 23 January 7.30 pm

JACK Quartet * Crawford Seeger String Quartet Christopher Trapani New work (world première) † Brian Ferneyhough Exordium Julian Anderson String Quartet No. 1 ‘Light Music’ (London première) Horat‚ iu Raˇdulescu String Quartet No. 5 ‘before the universe was born’ (UK première) † Commissioned by Wigmore Hall with the support of André Hoffmann, president of the Fondation Hoffmann, a Swiss grant-making foundation

The JACK Quartet’s concerts prove time and again that we belong to a golden age of chamber music composition, one in which creative diversity and difference are encouraged and celebrated. This programme, devised

by Wigmore Hall’s Composer in Residence Julian Anderson, opens with a seminal work composed in 1931 by Ohio-born Ruth Crawford Seeger, the first woman to receive a Guggenheim Fellowship, and closes with the ˇ dulescu’s evocatively titled Fifth long-awaited UK première of Horat‚iu Ra String Quartet of 1995. Brian Ferneyhough’s wild Exordium, written in honour of Elliott Carter’s 100th birthday in 2008, stands in bold contrast to Julian Anderson’s ‘Light Music’ and the world première of a new score

by Christopher Trapani, winner of the 2007 Gaudeamus Prize. £15 £20 £25 £30 Booking open

Maurice Foxall

Forthcoming Concert in the Julian Anderson Composer in Residence series

Thursday 15 May 7.30 pm

Arditti Quartet Scelsi String Quartet No. 4 Helmut Lachenmann String Quartet No. 2 ‘Reigen seliger Geister’ Luis de Pablo String Quartet No. 4 (UK première) Julian Anderson String Quartet No. 2 (world première)*

Supported by Mayfield Valley Arts Trust

*Co-commissioned by Wigmore Hall and Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival with the support of André Hoffmann, president of the Fondation Hoffmann, a Swiss grant-making foundation

Contemporary Music Series / Julian Anderson Composer in Residence

£15 £20 £25 £30 Booking open

* WIGMORE HALL EMERGING T A L E N T

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Julian Anderson

Photo by Stephen Poff

January Monday 27 January 1.00 pm

Tuesday 28 January 7.30 pm

Thursday 30 January 7.30 pm

Florian Boesch baritone Malcolm Martineau piano

Mauro Peter tenor Helmut Deutsch piano

Schubert Prometheus; Gesänge des Harfners; Grenzen der Menschheit; Wandrers Nachtlied I Wolf Drei Gedichte von Michelangelo; Prometheus

See page 24 for full details

Classical Opera Ian Page conductor Matthew Rose bass

Full emotional engagement with words and music matters to Florian Boesch. The Austrian baritone, a frequent performer at Wigmore Hall, was inspired in his early years by listening to recordings of Hans Hotter and went on to study with the great German bass-baritone’s pupil, Robert Holl. ‘The romantic poets were committed to living extreme emotions, and for them anything else was not valid,’ notes Boesch. ‘So when I perform it’s as if I’m lying alone on a couch and looking into my own soul.’ £12.50 concs £10

BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert

Florian Boesch

Lukas Beck

‘SE VUOL BALLARE’ Wednesday 29 January 7.30 pm

The Endellion String Quartet 35th Anniversary Series

The Endellion String Quartet David Adams viola Beethoven String Quartet in Bb Op. 18 No. 6 Shostakovich String Quartet No. 3 in F Op. 73 Mozart String Quintet in D K593

Haydn Symphony No. 47 in G Haydn Arias: Son vecchio, son furbo from Le pescatrici; Non v’è rimedio from L’infedeltà delusa; Già la morte in manto nero from La vera costanza; Salva, salva ... aiuto, aiuto from La fedeltà premiata Mozart Symphony No. 15 in G K124 Mozart Arias: Ella vuole ed io torrei & Ubriaco non son io from La finta semplice K51; Wer hungrig beider Tafel sitzt & Ihr Mächtigen seht ungerührt from Zaide K344; Se vuol ballare from Le nozze di Figaro K492

The Endellions are joined by their friend David Adams for Mozart’s glorious late String Quintet in D, one of the greatest delights of the chamber repertoire.

Shostakovich’s Third String Quartet speaks to us with profound immediacy and power, his dark unmistakable tones reflecting on casualties of war and the tragedy of life in Stalin’s empire. The creative sparkle, imagination and mastery of Beethoven’s String Quartet Op. 18 No. 6 amount to a wonderful programme opener.

Matthew Rose, one of the most exciting singers of his generation, joins Ian Page and Classical Opera for a delightful programme of Mozart and Haydn.

A diverse array of operatic characters includes a wily old fisherman and a drunken aristocrat who is petrified of women, and the concert concludes with Figaro’s famous ‘Se vuol ballare’. The programme also includes a charming early Mozart symphony and one of Haydn’s greatest middle-period symphonies, whose minuet and trio is an exact musical palindrome.

£15 £20 £25 £30

£18 £25 £30 £35

Chamber Music Season

Early Music and Baroque Series

The Endellion String Quartet

Eric Richmond

Matthew Rose

Clive Barda

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Wigmore Hall Chamber Ensemble in Residence

Nash Ensemble

AMERICAN SERIES Saturday 25 January 7.00 pm NB starting time

Saturday 25 January 10.00 pm

Saturday 8 March 3.00 pm

Nash Ensemble Latonia Moore soprano Kim Criswell mezzo-soprano Roderick Williams baritone Roger Vignoles piano

Joshua Rifkin piano

Study Afternoon

SCOTT JOPLIN RAGS

See page 47 for full details

AMERICAN SONG Copland Old American Songs: The Boatmen’s Dance; Long Time Ago; The Little Horses; At the River Ives Songs: In the Alley; The Greatest Man; The Circus Band Barber Dover Beach for baritone and string quartet Gershwin Songs from Porgy and Bess including: Summertime; My Man’s Gone Now; Bess, You Is My Woman Now; I Got Plenty o’ Nuttin’ Bernstein Broadway Songs from On the Town, Wonderful Town, West Side Story Gershwin Lullaby for string quartet Weill Broadway songs (arr. for voice and ensemble) The Nash Ensemble and an array of guest singers celebrate America in song, with Copland folk song arrangements, songs by the visionary Charles Ives, Samuel Barber’s evocative setting of Matthew Arnold’s Dover Beach, songs from Gershwin’s operatic masterpiece Porgy and Bess, and hit numbers from the musicals of Bernstein and Weill. £18 £25 £30 £35

Chamber Music Season / Nash Ensemble American Series

Joshua Rifkin, the pianist and musicologist whose recordings brought the piano rags of Scott Joplin to the attention of a worldwide audience, gives a late-night recital of a selection of Joplin’s elegant and finely polished gems.

The son of a former slave and a free-born black woman, Joplin punched through the barriers of prejudice and poverty to become America’s greatest ragtime composer. £12.50 concs £10

Saturday 15 February 6.00 pm

Nash Ensemble Marianne Thorsen violin Ian Brown piano Richard Hosford clarinet

with guest soloists A CELEBRATION OF RICHARD RODGERS ON BROADWAY: ACT III Concert selections with narration from the musical Do I hear a Waltz?

See page 48 for full details

Wednesday 26 March 6.00 pm

Pre-Concert Talk See page 58 for full details

Max Steiner, Franz Waxman & Bernard Herrmann

Wednesday 26 March 7.30 pm

See page 32 for full details

Saturday 15 February 7.30 pm

Nash Ensemble Lionel Friend conductor Ian Brown piano Simon Crawford-Phillips piano Copland, Franz Waxman & Leonard Bernstein

See page 32 for full details

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Nash Ensemble David White conductor Kim Criswell mezzo-soprano William Burden tenor

HOLLYWOOD FILM COMPOSERS

MUSIC FOR FILM, THEATRE & DANCE Photo: Brooklyn Bridge and Manhattan skyline

Saturday 8 March 7.30 pm

Nash Ensemble BBC Singers Nicholas Kok conductor NASH INVENTIONS: AMERICAN AND BRITISH MASTERWORKS Carter, John Adams & Birtwistle

See page 58 for full details

January/February

ATOS TRIO

Saturday 1 February 11.00 am – 12.00 noon

Saturday 1 February 7.30 pm

CAVATINA Family Concert: Camarilla Ensemble

Janine Jansen violin Steven Isserlis cello Dénes Várjon piano Izabella Simon piano

For age 5 plus The award-winning Camarilla wind quintet brings you a fun and interactive hour of music, introducing their instruments with a wonderful arrangement of Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf. The members of this young and dynamic ensemble are currently Artists in Residence at the Purcell School of Music, and they receive great acclaim in the many schools that they have visited with the CAVATINA Chamber Music Trust.

Adults £7 children £5 CAVATINA Chamber Music Trust www.cavatina.net

CAVATINA Chamber Music Trust, renowned for bringing chamber music to young people and young people to chamber music, is delighted to present this concert in association with Wigmore Hall.

Supported by Mayfield Valley Arts Trust, The Monument Trust and The Andor Charitable Trust

Wigmore Hall Learning Event ATOS Trio

MUSIC IN THE SHADOW OF WAR See page 26 for full details

Sunday 2 February 11.30 am

Signum Quartet Haydn String Quartet in D minor Op. 76 No. 2 ‘Fifths’ Ravel String Quartet in F The Signum Quartet returns to Wigmore Hall to perform two ‘classical’ works. Haydn’s second Op. 76 string quartet naturally acquired the nickname ‘Fifths’ because of the falling perfect fifths that launch its taught opening movement. Like Haydn, Ravel cast his wistful String Quartet of 1903 in four movements and took infinite care over its formal construction, thematic development and textural contrasts. £12.50 concs £10 incl. programme and coffee/sherry/juice

Frank Jerke

Sunday Morning Coffee Concert

Friday 31 January 7.30 pm

ATOS Trio SCHUBERT BIRTHDAY CONCERT Schubert Piano Trio No. 1 in B b D898; Piano Trio No. 2 in E b D929 Germany’s ATOS Trio, founded in 2003 by violinist Annette von Hehn, cellist Stefan Heinemeyer and pianist Thomas Hoppe, is driven by the desire to apply the spirit and nuance of string quartet playing to the piano trio repertoire. The group appears at Wigmore Hall for the second time this season to explore Schubert’s two great piano trios, written about a year before his death. As companion pieces heard in a single programme, the E flat and B flat trios bear witness to their composer’s remarkable inventive powers and uncanny ability to convey contrasting moods and expressive characteristics. £15 £20 £25 £30

Chamber Music Season Signum Quartet

Irene Zandel

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Mauro

Peter Tuesday 28 January 7.30 pm

Mauro Peter tenor Helmut Deutsch piano Schubert Die schöne Müllerin Over a century after the first British performance of Die schöne Müllerin, given at Wigmore Hall in June 1903, Mauro Peter offers his vision of Schubert’s late masterwork. Peter’s artistry as a Lieder interpreter has evolved in close partnership with his former teacher Helmut Deutsch, with whom he made a sensational debut at the 2012 Schwarzenberg Schubertiade performing Die schöne Müllerin.

This concert will be approximately 1 hour 10 minutes in duration, without an interval £15 £20 £25 £30 Song Recital Series

Photo by Franziska Schrödinger

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February Sunday 2 February 4.00 pm

Monday 3 February 1.00 pm

Clara Mouriz mezzo-soprano Roger Vignoles piano Haydn Arianna a Naxos Duparc L’invitation au voyage; Extase; Au pays où se fait la guerre; Le manoir de Rosemonde Granados La maja y el ruiseñor from Goyescas; Canciones amatorias Spanish mezzo-soprano Clara Mouriz, a member of BBC Radio 3’s New Generation Artists scheme, has captured the affections of Wigmore Hall audiences with her winning combination of vocal artistry, onstage presence and engaging performance style since making her debut at the Hall in 2007. She was awarded an Independent Opera/Wigmore Hall Fellowship and was recently elected Associate of the Royal Academy of Music, her alma mater.

Sean Shibe guitar

Alexander Melnikov piano

Dowland Fantasias (selection) Bach Prelude, Fugue and Allegro in E b BWV998 Henze Drei Tentos Britten Nocturnal after John Dowland Op. 70

Shostakovich Preludes and Fugues Op. 87 (Nos. 13– 24)

Young Scottish guitarist Sean Shibe, a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist, made his Wigmore Hall debut in 2012 in a concert shared with the Cavaleri String Quartet. His work then was praised by Classical Guitar Magazine for its ‘great sensitivity’.

He returns for a solo programme spanning four centuries of guitar composition. £12.50 concs £10

Sean Shibe is a member of Radio 3’s New Generation Artists scheme

In 1950, two years after suffering the humiliation of public denunciation for his ‘formalist’ works, Shostakovich travelled to Leipzig for the bicentenary of Bach’s death. Tatiana Nikolayeva’s performance there of the German composer’s 48 Preludes and Fugues inspired Shostakovich to create his own set of 24 Preludes and Fugues. Alexander Melnikov’s interpretations of Shostakovich’s great keyboard work, on record and in recital, have been acclaimed for their perception, depth and touching empathy.

This concert will be approximately 85 minutes in duration, without an interval £15 £20 £25 £30

£12.50 concs £10

London Pianoforte Series

Song Recital Series

Clara Mouriz

Tuesday 4 February 7.30 pm

BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert

Jose Manuel Bielsa

Sean Shibe

Alexander Melnikov

Marco Borggreve

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Music in the Out of the First World War’s wreckage emerged an all too brief period of creativity in the arts. Many believed they had witnessed the ‘war to end all wars’ and were now at the dawn of a great age of peace and prosperity. The idealistic dream of individual liberty and international cooperation was soon dashed on the rocks of nationalist politics, swept aside by the Great Depression and trampled beneath the aggressive march of Bolshevism and Fascism. Music in the Shadow of War, a concert series devised by Steven Isserlis, evokes the period’s hopes, fears and harsh realities as filtered through the creative minds of composers who lived through one of the most destructive periods in human history.

Saturday 1 February 7.30 pm

Janine Jansen violin Steven Isserlis cello Dénes Várjon piano Izabella Simon piano Stravinsky Easy Piano Duets Poulenc Violin Sonata Martinu˚ Cello Sonata No. 1 Walton Duets for Children Ravel Piano Trio in A minor Europe’s old empires were already at war when Stravinsky crafted his Easy Pieces for piano duet, while the Blitz was about to hit Britain when Walton wrote his Duets for Children. Poulenc’s Violin Sonata, first performed in 1943, reflects its composer’s reluctant coming to terms with the Fall of France and his homeland’s subsequent partition by the Nazis. This programme spans a wide emotional gamut, embracing childhood’s innocence and the melancholy of life under a brutal occupying power.

Forthcoming Events in this Series Saturday 5 April 7.30 pm

Joshua Bell violin Henning Kraggerud violin Rachel Roberts viola Steven Isserlis cello Dénes Várjon piano Suk Meditation on an old Bohemian Chorale (St Wenceslas) Op. 35a Janácˇek Violin Sonata Kodály Duo for violin and cello Op. 7 Elgar Piano Quintet in A minor Op. 84

£15 £20 £25 £30

Supported by The Hargreaves and Ball Trust

Chamber Music Season / Music in the Shadow of War

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Friday 11 July 10.00 pm

Veronika Eberle violin Steven Isserlis cello Michael Collins clarinet Alexander Melnikov piano Programme to include: Messiaen Quartet for the End of Time (Quatuor pour la fin du temps)

February Wednesday 5 February 12.15 pm

Wednesday 5 February 7.30 pm

Pre-Concert Talk An introduction to the lunchtime concert, with Roderick Williams.

WIGMORE STUDY GROUP

Free (ticket required) Booking open

Wigmore Hall Learning Event

Carducci String Quartet Haydn String Quartet in F minor Op. 20 No. 5 Bartók String Quartet No. 4 Beethoven String Quartet in E minor Op. 59 No. 2 ‘Razumovsky’ Bartók’s five movement String Quartet No. 4, written in the summer of 1927, pushed beyond conventional composition to explore the fecund expressive possibilities of whole-tone, pentatonic and other scales and extended instrumental techniques. Experiment and innovation are also present in the emotional interplay between instruments in the fifth of Haydn’s Op. 20 string quartets and Beethoven’s String Quartet in E minor Op. 59 No. 2, in which silence is deliberately deployed in the musical argument.

Wednesday 5 February 1.00 pm

Roderick Williams baritone Joy Farrall clarinet Tom Poster piano Britten Sinfonia Voices Eamonn Dougan director of Britten Sinfonia Voices

£15 £20 £25 £30

Roderick Williams Red Herring Blues for solo clarinet Schubert Partsongs: Der Tanz; Trinklied D75; An die Sonne; Des Tages Weihe (Schicksalslenker); Die Geselligkeit (Lebenslust); Trinklied D183 Schumann Auf einer Burg; Mondnacht Roderick Williams New work for voices, clarinet and piano (London première)* *Co-commissioned by Britten Sinfonia and Wigmore Hall, with the support of André Hoffmann, president of the Fondation Hoffmann, a Swiss grant-making foundation

Britten Sinfonia Voices makes its At Lunch debut in a programme centred on the partsongs of Schubert, a genre that inspired rarely heard works of genius from one of the greatest of all composers for the voice.

Baritone and composer Roderick Williams graces the programme with a new work commissioned by Britten Sinfonia and Wigmore Hall. £12.50 concs £10 Booking open

Song Recital Series / Contemporary Music Series

Chamber Music Season

Hugo Wolf

Lithograph by William Unger (1903)

Wednesday 5 February 3.00 pm – 6.00 pm Tuesday 11 February 3.00 pm – 6.00 pm Thursday 13 February 3.00 pm – 6.00 pm

THE SONGS OF HUGO WOLF For the first time in its history, the Wigmore Study Group at last turns its attention to the extraordinary songs of Hugo Wolf, tied to Angelika Kirchschlager’s recital on 13 February. Wolf has long remained deeply cherished by lovers of the Lied – his songs miraculously assimilating the legacy of Schubert and Schumann with the tonal and motivic innovations of Wolf’s great idol, Richard Wagner, while demonstrating a quite remarkable sensitivity to the deeper psychological resonances of poetic text.

Hosted by composer Julian Philips and pianist Laura Roberts, this Wigmore Study Group will look in detail at Wolf songs over three afternoons with contributions not only from visiting musicologists but also outstanding song performers from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama.

Series ticket price £53 including 3 study sessions and a ticket for the evening concert on 13 February.

Wigmore Hall Learning Event

Roderick Williams

Benjamin Ealovega

Carducci String Quartet

Andy Holdsworth Photography

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February Thursday 6 February 6.00 pm

Friday 7 February 7.30 pm

Saturday 8 February 7.30 pm

Pre-Concert Event

Kate Royal soprano Malcolm Martineau piano

Angela Hewitt piano Andrea Oliva flute Julia Schröder violin

RAZUMOVSKY ACADEMY YOUNG ARTISTS RECITAL The Razumovsky Academy provides an environment in which exceptionally gifted young musicians collaborate closely with some of the world’s finest artists and teachers. This concert offers the chance to hear potential future stars at an early stage in their careers. £6 or free with evening concert (separate ticket required)

Thursday 6 February 7.30 pm

Razumovsky Ensemble Beethoven String Trio in E b Op. 3 Schubert Octet in F D803 Clarinettist Ferdinand Troyer’s commission for a new chamber work for wind and string instruments inspired Schubert to create an abiding monument of the chamber repertoire. His Octet was written in 1824, around the time of the composer’s ‘Death and the Maiden’ and ‘Rosamunde’ quartets. Its mighty scope and scale would be impressive enough, yet it is the richness of Schubert’s melodic invention and formal ingenuity that set the work in a class apart.

Schubert An Silvia; Romanze zum Drama Rosamunde; An den Mond D259; Rastlose Liebe; Heimliches Lieben; Im Frühling; Nachtviolen; An die Nachtigall; An die Musik; Abendstern; Frühlingsglaube; Lied der Delphine Mahler Frühlingsmorgen; Erinnerung; Scheiden und Meiden from Des Knaben Wunderhorn; From Five Rückert Lieder: Ich atmet’ einen linden Duft & Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen Strauss Ich trage meine Minne; Das Rosenband; Einerlei; Malven; September from Four Last Songs Schubert set unshakeable foundations for Lieder composition for a century and more after his death and for the pursuit of romantic themes in song.

Kate Royal journeys through the creative territory of restless love, spring landscapes and the natural world towards abundant awareness of life. The latter arises in Mahler’s ‘Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen’ and again out of the noble lyrical sweep of Strauss’s ‘September’.

Bach Flute Sonata in A BWV1032; Partita No. 4 in D BWV828; Violin Sonata No. 6 in G BWV1019 Bach From The Musical Offering BWV1079: Ricercar a 3; Ricercar a 6; Trio Sonata in C minor Dance and the expressive language of physical movement play a central part in Angela Hewitt’s revelatory Bach interpretations. She is joined by two kindred musical spirits, Julia Schröder, leader of the Basel Chamber Orchestra since 2004, and Andrea Oliva, principal flute of the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. £15 £20 £25 £30

Early Music and Baroque Series/ Chamber Music Season

£18 £25 £30 £35

Supported by the Patron Friends of Wigmore Hall

Song Recital Series

£15 £20 £25 £30

Chamber Music Season

Oleg Kogan (Artistic Director, Razumovsky Ensemble)

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Robert Cassen

Kate Royal

Esther Haase/EMI Classics

Angela Hewitt

Bernd Eberle

February Sunday 9 February 11.30 am

Sunday 9 February 7.30 pm

Tuesday 11 February 7.30 pm

Gemma Rosefield cello Tim Horton piano

Aurora Orchestra Alice Coote mezzo-soprano Robert Murray tenor Nicolas Fleury horn Andrew Gourlay conductor

Soile Isokoski soprano Ilkka Paananen piano

Beethoven Cello Sonata in F Op. 5 No. 1 Dvorˇák Klid (Silent Woods) Op. 68 No. 5 Strauss Cello Sonata in F Op. 6 Since winning the Pierre Fournier Award at Wigmore Hall in 2007, Gemma Rosefield’s chamber music career has flourished with solo recitals and compelling programmes performed together with Sheffield’s Ensemble 360. She returns to Wigmore Hall with her regular duo partner, Tim Horton, to perform early sonatas by Beethoven and Strauss, and Dvorˇák’s ever-popular transcription for cello and piano of his Silent Woods, originally written for piano duet in 1883.

JUDITH WEIR WORLD PREMIÈRE See page 30 for full details

Monday 10 February 1.00 pm

Ehnes Quartet Beethoven String Quartet in E b Op. 74 ‘Harp’ Suk Meditation on an old Bohemian Chorale (St Wenceslas) Op. 35a Bartók String Quartet No. 3

£12.50 concs £10 incl. programme and coffee/sherry/juice

Sunday Morning Coffee Concert

Sunday 9 February 6.00 pm

Artists in Conversation JUDITH WEIR WORLD PREMIÈRE See page 30 for full details

Schubert Four Mignon Songs: Heiß mich nicht reden; So laßt mich scheinen; Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt; Mignon (Kennst du das Land) Schubert Du bist die Ruh; Die junge Nonne Kuula Kesäyö kirkkomaalla; Sinikan laulu; Yö nummella; Suutelo (Kouta) Brahms From Zigeunerlieder: He, Zigeuner, greife; Hochgetürmte Rimaflut; Wisst ihr, wann mein Kindchen; Lieber Gott, du weisst; Brauner Bursche führt zum Tanze; Röslein dreie in der Reihe; Kommt dir manchmal; Rote Abendwolken ziehn Bernstein I Hate Music (A cycle of Five Kid Songs for soprano and piano) Strauss Allerseelen; Schön sind, doch kalt die Himmelssterne; Mein Herz ist stumm; Cäcilie

Scholars widely agree that Beethoven wrote his String Quartet in E b Op. 74 as a tribute to Haydn, who died shortly before the work’s creation in 1809.

Expressions of sorrow and loss pervade the ‘Harp’ Quartet, so called for the pizzicato passages in its opening movement. The Ehnes Quartet explores music’s transformative powers in Bartók’s concise Third String Quartet, which emerges from dark despair into life-affirming joyfulness.

Toivo Kuula became Jean Sibelius’s first composition student in 1908. He created a series of works closely identified with the cause of Finnish independence from Russian rule, including the many songs he wrote for his wife. Kuula, whose family name translates as ‘bullet’, was killed in 1918 by a gun fired in a quarrel during the final days of the Finnish Civil War. Soile Isokoski blends a quartet of his songs together with famous Goethe settings by Schubert, closing her recital with romantic works by her beloved Richard Strauss.

£12.50 concs £10

£15 £20 £25 £30

Song Recital Series BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert

Gemma Rosefield

Marco Borggreve

Ehnes Quartet

Jerry Davies

Soile Isokoski

Heikki Tuuli

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Judith Weir World Première Sunday 9 February 6.00 pm

Artists in Conversation Composer Judith Weir discusses her new commission with Christopher Cook ahead of its world première as part of the evening concert. £3 Booking open

Wigmore Hall Learning Event

Sunday 9 February 7.30 pm

Aurora Orchestra Alice Coote mezzo-soprano Robert Murray tenor Nicolas Fleury horn Andrew Gourlay conductor Programme to include: Britten Serenade Op. 31 for tenor, horn and strings Judith Weir New work (world première)* *Commissioned by Wigmore Hall with the support of André Hoffmann, president of the Fondation Hoffmann, a Swiss grant-making foundation

This concert stands out as a red-letter date for British music, offering the chance to hear a major new composition

by Judith Weir performed by the Aurora Orchestra, winners of the 2011 Royal Philharmonic Society Ensemble Award, and Alice Coote. The programme also includes Britten’s Serenade for tenor, horn and strings, which received its world première at Wigmore Hall in October 1943. Andrew Gourlay, described by the Guardian as ‘an exciting young conductor with tremendous potential’, returns to work with the Aurora Orchestra after their recent success at Sadler’s Wells with Jon Nicholls’s chamber opera Flicker. £15 £25 £35 £40 Booking open Supported by The Hargreaves and Ball Trust Song Recital Series /Contemporary Music Series Photo by Chris Christodoulou

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February Wednesday 12 February 7.30 pm

Sergey Khachatryan violin Lusine Khachatryan piano

JOSEPH MARX SONG SERIES Thursday 13 February 7.30 pm

Brahms Violin Sonata No. 1 in G Op. 78; Violin Sonata No. 2 in A Op. 100; Violin Sonata No. 3 in D minor Op. 108

Angelika Kirchschlager mezzo-soprano

Following their ‘Homage to Ysaÿe’ programme last summer, Sergey and Lusine Khachatryan return to Wigmore Hall to perform all three of Brahms’s Sonatas for violin and piano, originally conceived for the composer’s friend Joseph Joachim. Their sublime interpretations of these masterworks were recorded in the Hall and have since been released on Naïve Classique.

Simon Lepper piano TWILIGHT OF THE ROMANTICS Wolf Auf einer Wanderung; Nimmersatte Liebe; Verborgenheit; Er ist’s; Lebe wohl; Elfenlied Strauss Nichts; Du meines Herzens Krönelein; Das Rosenband; Für fünfzehn Pfennige Marx Die Liebste spricht; Am Brunnen; Sendung; Die tote Braut; Bitte; Hat dich die Liebe berührt Korngold Fünf Lieder Op. 38 Berg Vier Lieder Op. 2 Marx Schlafend trägt man mich in mein Heimatland!; Der bescheidene Schäfer; Lob des Frühlings; Nachts; Ein junger Dichter denkt an die Geliebte; Der Ton

£15 £20 £25 £30

Chamber Music Season

Joseph Marx

Anonymous painting

Over the course of his long and productive career, Joseph Marx (1882–1964) made a major contribution to the musical life of his native Austria as teacher, philosopher and critic. Pianist Simon Lepper’s series marks the 50th anniversary of Marx’s death, underlining the lasting value of his work as composer, setting his songs in their broad cultural context and highlighting his position as an unashamed conservative. The Joseph Marx Song Series offers insights into the heady mix of Austro-German music in the 20th century’s early decades and the distinctive place held by Marx in the wider landscape of song-writing.

Sergey & Lusine Khachatryan

Wilhelm Furtwängler described Joseph Marx as the ‘leading force of Austrian music’. The second concert in Simon Lepper’s Marx series reveals Marx’s fluency as a song composer and underlines points of comparison and contrast with older and close contemporaries. ‘Like his south Styrian compatriot Wolf,’ notes the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ‘Marx was a born song composer’. And it’s equally clear that his compatriot Angelika Kirchschlager is a born singer of Marx’s songs. £15 £20 £25 £30

Forthcoming Concert in this Series Friday 27 June 7.00 pm Soprano to be announced

Christopher Maltman baritone Simon Lepper piano Songs by Marx, Pfitzner, Schoeck, Zemlinsky, Korngold, Reger, Webern, Schoenberg, Strauss, Mahler, Debussy and Delius Song Recital Series/Joseph Marx Song Series

Marco Borggreve/Naïve

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February Saturday 15 February 6.00 pm

SPOTLIGHT ON STEVEN OSBORNE

Wigmore Hall Chamber Ensemble in Residence

Nash Ensemble Marianne Thorsen violin Ian Brown piano Richard Hosford clarinet HOLLYWOOD FILM COMPOSERS Max Steiner Piano miniatures from Gone with the Wind Franz Waxman Four Scenes of Childhood for violin and piano Bernard Herrmann Souvenirs de voyage for clarinet quintet £8 or £4 with evening concert ticket (separate ticket required)

Chamber Music Season/ Nash Ensemble American Series

Steven Osborne

Benjamin Ealovega

Friday 14 February 6.00 pm

Also in this Series

Pre-Concert Talk

Friday 17 January 7.30 pm

Geoffrey Norris introduces the evening concert £3 Wigmore Hall Learning Event

Friday 14 February 7.30 pm

Steven Osborne piano Prokofiev Sarcasms Ravel Miroirs Prokofiev Visions fugitives Op. 22 Rachmaninov Piano Sonata No. 2 in B b minor Op. 36 Steven Osborne’s affinity for the works of Ravel took root during childhood and has since matured to inform his revelatory interpretations of the composer’s music. This programme places the impressionistic Miroirs in company with two adventurous keyboard masterworks by Prokofiev and Rachmaninov’s inspired Second Piano Sonata, originally written in 1913. £15 £20 £25 £30

Mark Padmore tenor Steven Osborne piano Craig Ogden guitar Heath Quartet * See page 16 for full details

Saturday 26 April 7.30 pm

Heath Quartet * Steven Osborne piano *WIGMORE HALL EMERGING T A L E N T Supported by Mayfield Valley Arts Trust

Saturday 7 June 7.30 pm

Alina Ibragimova violin Steven Osborne piano London Pianoforte Series /Spotlight on Steven Osborne

Saturday 15 February 7.30 pm

Wigmore Hall Chamber Ensemble in Residence

Nash Ensemble Lionel Friend conductor Ian Brown piano Simon Crawford-Phillips piano MUSIC FOR FILM, THEATRE AND DANCE Copland Music for Movies (arr. David Matthews) Franz Waxman The Young in Heart and Come Back, Little Sheba from Hollywood Suite for chamber ensemble Grainger Fantasy on George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess for two pianos Bernstein Symphonic Dances from West Side Story (transcription for two pianos) Copland Appalachian Spring (original chamber scoring for 13 instruments) After an early-evening prologue of music by three celebrated Hollywood studio composers, this American programme includes film music by Copland and Waxman, Percy Grainger’s Fantasy on melodies from Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, the suite from Leonard Bernstein’s hit musical West Side Story, and Copland’s popular ballet score Appalachian Spring in its luminous original scoring. £15 £20 £25 £30

The Spotlight on Steven Osborne Series is supported by Dunard Fund

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Chamber Music Season/ Nash Ensemble American Series

February Sunday 16 February 11.30 am

Sunday 16 February 4.00 pm

Sunday 16 February 7.30 pm

Wigmore Hall Chamber Ensemble in Residence

Christopher Purves baritone Simon Lepper piano

Truls Mørk cello Christian Ihle Hadland piano

Handel Vieni, O Cara from Agrippina; I rage, I melt, I burn! – O ruddier than the cherry from Acis and Galatea; Fra l’ombre e gl’orrori from Aci, Galatea e Polifemo Duparc L’invitation au voyage; Extase; Le manoir de Rosemonde; Phidylé Musorgsky Songs and Dances of Death

Grieg Intermezzo for cello and piano Janácˇek Pohádka Prokofiev Cello Sonata in C Op. 119 Sibelius Malinconia Op. 20 Grieg Cello Sonata in A minor Op. 36

Nash Ensemble ˇ ÁK PLUS DVOR Johann Strauss II Waltz: Where the Lemon Trees Bloom! Op. 364 (arr. Max Schönherr for string sextet) Dvorˇák String Sextet in A Op. 48 Tchaikovsky String Sextet in D minor Op. 70 ‘Souvenir de Florence’ A morning full of the glorious sound of six strings in a Strauss waltz inspired by Italy and a late chamber masterpiece by Tchaikovsky written after a visit to Florence, and between them a lovable work by Dvorˇák in the vein of his Slavonic Dances. £12.50 concs £10 incl. programme and coffee/sherry/juice

Sunday Morning Coffee Concert

Handelians are still reeling from their delight in Christopher Purves’s 2012 recording of the composer’s finest arias for solo bass, especially his supreme command of the extreme high and low notes in ‘Fra l’ombre e gl’orrori’ and the vertiginous leaps between them. Beyond the alluring prospect of hearing ‘Fra l’ombre’ performed live, this recital’s magnetic attractions include Duparc’s exquisite Baudelaire setting, ‘L’invitation au voyage’, and Musorgsky’s haunting reflections on death. £12.50 concs £10

Hailed by the Daily Telegraph as a player of angelic grace and purity of tone’, Norway’s Truls Mørk is admired by fellow cellists, critics and audiences alike for his impassioned interpretations. Mørk’s recording of Rautavaara’s Towards the Horizon with the BBC Symphony Orchestra won a Gramophone Award in 2012, while his recent concerto series as resident artist with the Oslo Philharmonic was universally acclaimed. He is partnered with the thrilling young Norwegian pianist Christian Ihle Hadland. £15 £20 £25 £30

Chamber Music Season

Song Recital Series

Nash Ensemble

Hanya Chlala/ArenaPAL

Christopher Purves

Clive Barda

Truls Mørk

Stéphane de Bourgies/Virgin Classics

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February Monday 17 February 1.00 pm

Tuesday 18 February 7.30 pm

Friday 21 February 7.30 pm

Angela Hewitt piano

Cantus Cölln Konrad Junghänel director

Nelson Goerner piano

Haydn Variations in F minor HXVII:6 Beethoven Piano Sonata in A Op. 2 No. 2 Bach Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue in D minor BWV903 Angela Hewitt prefaces her exploration of Bach’s Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue with two significant works from the 1790s. Haydn’s Variations in F minor, one of his final piano compositions, sounds as fresh and original today as it did in 1793. Its qualities were doubtless in Beethoven’s mind when he dedicated his Second Piano Sonata to his famous teacher, the great Haydn.

JESU, MEINE FREUDE See page 36 for full details

Wednesday 19 February 7.30 pm

Piotr Anderszewski piano Repeat of concert on 17 February

See page opposite for full details

£12.50 concs £10

Thursday 20 February 7.30 pm

Bach Partita No. 6 in E minor BWV830 Bartók Szabadban (Out of Doors Suite) Sz. 81 Schumann Études symphoniques Op. 13 (with posthumous Études) Nelson Goerner’s pianism was nourished during his youth with lessons from Maria Tipo, a teaching pedigree that links his work back to Ferruccio Busoni and Alfredo Casella. Goerner’s four-concert ‘Portrait’ series continues with a programme constructed in part around study pieces by Bach and Schumann. The latter’s delightful Études symphoniques were reissued by Brahms in 1890, complete with five movements absent from the work’s second edition of 1852. The Nelson Goerner Portrait Series concludes on Saturday 17 May. £15 £20 £25 £30

Elias String Quartet

BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert

BEETHOVEN CYCLE Monday 17 February 7.30 pm

London Pianoforte Series / Nelson Goerner Portrait Series

See pages 38 – 39 for full details

Piotr Anderszewski piano See page opposite for full details

Angela Hewitt

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Mai Wolf

Nelson Goerner

Brice Toul

Piotr Anderszewski Monday 17 February 7.30 pm* repeated Wednesday 19 February 7.30 pm**

Piotr Anderszewski piano Schumann Papillons Op. 2 Bartók 14 Bagatelles Op. 6 Szymanowski Mazurkas Schubert Piano Sonata in C minor D958 Audiences first took Piotr Anderszewski to their hearts in 1990 during the Leeds International Piano Competition. The Polish-Hungarian artist made his Wigmore Hall debut six months later and has been a regular visitor ever since, captivating listeners most recently with his Szymanowski Focus in 2010, and always delivering pianism of the utmost sensitivity and conviction.

His penetrating interpretations, infused with personal insights and nuance, balance Anderszewski’s famous perfectionism with an intense spirituality that transcends matters of keyboard technique. Small wonder that his recitals around the globe attract capacity audiences and regularly rejuvenate the spirits of even the most world-weary listeners. £15 £20 £25 £30

*Supported by the members of the Rubinstein Circle ** Supported by the Season Patrons who have made a major contribution to the 2013/14 Wigmore Series London Pianoforte Series

Photo by Robert Workman

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Cantus Cölln Tuesday 18 February 7.30 pm

Cantus Cölln Konrad Junghänel director JESU, MEINE FREUDE Motets and early cantatas by J S Bach

Bach Cantata: Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen BWV12 Motet: Lobet den Herrn alle Heiden BWV230 Cantata: Gleichwie der Regen und Schnee BWV18 Cantata: Christ lag in Todesbanden BWV4 Motet: Jesu, meine Freude BWV227 £18 £25 £30 £35 Early Music and Baroque Series

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Cantus Cölln and its founder-director, lutenist Konrad Junghänel, approach Bach’s work with the minds of musicians steeped not only in the composer’s music but also in the styles of composers who influenced his artistic development. The German vocal ensemble, a world leader in the historically informed performance of everything from the music of Monteverdi to Buxtehude, Schütz and Weckmann, makes its Wigmore Hall debut with an all-Bach programme deeply rooted in the traditions of Lutheran worship. Death and mourning, addressed here in Christ lag in Todesbanden and the funeral motet Jesu, meine Freude, are counterbalanced by the tone of comfort and consolation central to the two Weimar cantatas BWV12 and BWV18.

February Saturday 22 February 7.30 pm

Sunday 23 February 4.00 pm

Sunday 23 February 7.30 pm

Phantasm

Royal Academy of Music Song Circle

Takács Quartet Graham Mitchell double bass

A GOETHE PALINDROME

See page 42 for full details

A recital of celebrated Goethe poems set to music

by Beethoven, Brahms, Liszt, Loewe, Mendelssohn, Schubert, Schumann and Wolf

Monday 24 February 1.00 pm

Laurence Dreyfus treble viol, director Emilia Benjamin treble viol Jonathan Manson tenor viol Markku Luolajan-Mikkola bass viol ARTS OF FUGUE See page 40 for full details Sunday 23 February 11.30 am

Apollon Musagète Quartet Prokofiev Visions Fugitives Op. 22 arr. by Sergei Samsonov for string quartet (selection) Stravinsky Concertino for string quartet Beethoven String Quartet in E minor Op. 59 No. 2 ‘Razumovsky’ War-weariness and revolutionary fervour supplied the backdrop to Visions Fugitives. Prokofiev’s work, originally written for piano, reflects its composer’s optimistic hopes for the Russian Revolution and the radical prospects for art in the new Soviet society. Poland’s Apollon Musagète Quartet, BBC New Generation Artists, couple movements from Sergei Samsonov’s arrangement with Stravinsky’s Concertino, an ironically austere reaction to the ‘conventional middle-class’ he encountered during a summer stay in Brittany in 1920.

Rome and Love were synonymous in Goethe’s visionary mind, a closeness underlined by the delicious palindrome provided by the Latin words ‘Roma’ and ‘Amor’. The Royal Academy of Music Song Circle explores Goethe’s passion for all things Italian (and much more besides) with a selection of exquisite song settings created before and after the great German writer’s death. £12.50 concs £10

WIGMORE HALL EMERGING T A L E N T Supported by Mayfield Valley Arts Trust

Song Recital Series

Ingolf Wunder piano Beethoven Piano Sonata No. 14 in C# minor Op. 27 No. 2 ‘Moonlight’ Chopin The Four Ballades Austrian pianist Ingolf Wunder achieved his breakthrough at the 2010 International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw as winner of the Best Concerto and Best Polonaise-fantaisie prizes.

Chopin is his companion once more in this lunchtime concert, with the Polish pride and poetic eloquence of the composer’s four single-movement Ballades suitably prefaced by Beethoven’s evergreen ‘Moonlight’ Sonata. £12.50 concs £10

BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert

£12.50 concs £10 incl. programme and coffee/sherry/juice

Sunday Morning Coffee Concert

Apollon Musagète Quartet

Marco Borggreve

Ingolf Wunder

Patrick Walter/DG

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Elias String Quartet

Photo by Benjamin Ealovega

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Beethoven Quartet Cycle The English mathematician and philosopher A.N. Whitehead proposed that ‘great art is the arrangement of the environment so as to provide for the soul vivid, but transient values’, out of which ‘something new must be discovered … the permanent realisation of values extending beyond its former self.’ Art’s power to reach beyond the individual’s self-concerns to connect with something other burns with fierce intensity in Beethoven’s music. It can be sensed in each of his string quartets, from the refined early Op. 18 to the seven transcendent works of the composer’s final years. The Elias String Quartet’s survey of Beethoven’s complete string quartets comes to Wigmore Hall, continuing a journey of discovery launched by the London-based ensemble in 2011.

‘The Elias played Beethoven … with powerful grit and rough, human edges’ Guardian, July 2011 Thursday 20 February 7.30 pm

Elias String Quartet Beethoven String Quartet in C minor Op. 18 No. 4 String Quartet in E b Op. 74 ‘Harp’ String Quartet in B b Op. 130 with Grosse Fuge Op. 133 Labels attached to Beethoven’s so-called early, middle and late periods can often feel prescriptive, too narrow to account for the originality found within works produced at different times in his creative life. The Elias String Quartet launches its Beethoven cycle with three strikingly complementary works, in which Beethoven used aspects of music’s past to produce scores that would help shape its future. £15 £20 £25 £30

Supported by the Chamber Music Circle

Forthcoming Concerts in this Series Monday 19 May 7.30 pm With Malin Broman viola Thursday 9 October 7.30 pm Saturday 1 November 7.30 pm

Beethoven

Portrait by Joseph Willibrord Mähler

Saturday 10 January 2015 7.30 pm Saturday 7 March 2015 7.30 pm

Chamber Music Season / Elias String Quartet Beethoven Quartet Cycle

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Phantasm Saturday 22 February 7.30 pm

Phantasm Laurence Dreyfus treble viol, director Emilia Benjamin treble viol Jonathan Manson tenor viol Markku Luolajan-Mikkola bass viol ARTS OF FUGUE Bach The Art of Fugue BWV1080 Bach /Mozart 5 Fugues from The Well-tempered Clavier Book II K405 £15 £20 £25 £30 Early Music and Baroque Series

Photo by Marco Borggreve

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For Bach the clear expression of emotions and the delivery of rhetorical argument in music were served by his extraordinarily inventive use of counterpoint. In his final decade, he produced a series of works that surveyed the full catalogue of venerable contrapuntal techniques. The Art of Fugue, published posthumously in May 1751, stands as an exemplary collection of fugal works, most of which are in four parts and all of which are based on one main theme.

The score, unfinished yet monumental, is on a scale only matched in the chamber music repertoire by Beethoven’s Grosse Fuge. Gramophone Award-winning viol consort Phantasm, founded by Laurence Dreyfus twenty years ago, invests its long corporate experience and crystal-clear tonal qualities into the work’s interpretation in this concert.

February/March

Richard Goode

Tuesday 25 February 6.00 pm

Thursday 27 February 7.30 pm

Pre-Concert Talk

The Tallis Scholars Peter Phillips director

See page 42 for full details

See page 44 for full details Tuesday 25 February 7.30 pm

Takács Quartet Graham Mitchell double bass See page 42 for full details

Marc-André Hamelin piano Martin Fröst clarinet Anthony Marwood violin

Wednesday 26 February 7.30 pm

MARC-ANDRÉ HAMELIN ARTIST IN RESIDENCE

Repeat of concert on 23 February

Nelson Goerner Richard Goode

Jean-Baptiste Millot Michael Wilson

Monday 24 February 7.30 pm

Richard Goode piano Schubert Impromptu in C minor D899 No. 1; Impromptu in G b D899 No. 3; Klavierstück in E b minor D946 No. 1; Klavierstück in C D946 No. 3 Chopin Mazurka in B b Op. 17 No. 1; Mazurka in B minor Op. 30 No. 2; Mazurka in A b Op. 41 No. 3; Mazurka in C# minor Op. 30 No. 4; Polonaise-fantaisie in A b Op. 61 Debussy Préludes Book I It would be hard to imagine a more rounded programme of works to suit Richard Goode’s multi-faceted artistry. The great American pianist, who celebrated his 70th birthday at Wigmore Hall last June with an all-Beethoven concert, returns this season to perform music replete with expressive contrasts, romantic lyricism and finely focused creative intelligence. Goode has been compared with Artur Schnabel in his readings of Schubert, the ultimate accolade, and stands among the finest interpreters of Debussy’s Préludes.

The acclaimed emotional force of the pianist’s playing is certain to register in his choice of Chopin’s Mazurkas and, above all, in the chromatic harmonies and imaginative twists and turns of the composer’s late Polonaisefantaisie in A flat.

Friday 28 February 7.30 pm

Scottish Ensemble Jonathan Morton artistic director, violin Sophie Harmsen mezzo-soprano Handel Arias Haas Study for Strings Dvorˇák Love Songs Op. 83 (arr. for voice and strings

by David Matthews) Biber Battalia Suk Serenade for strings in E b Op. 6 Following a series of concerts across Scotland, the Scottish Ensemble makes its way to Wigmore Hall in company with the thrilling young South-African born mezzo-soprano Sophie Harmsen for a concert with a distinctly Czech flavour. Their programme culminates in a performance of one of the highlights of the string repertoire, Josef Suk’s evocatively romantic Serenade of 1892.

See page 43 for full details

Saturday 1 March 10.00 am – 3.30 pm

Come and Sing: Shakespeare Isabelle Adams leads a workshop day for adults exploring some of the many vocal settings of Shakespeare texts. Get to know the music from the inside, develop your singing skills and finish the day with a performance on the Wigmore Hall stage. Everyone is welcome and there is no need to read music. £18 concs £10

Wigmore Hall Learning Event

£15 £20 £25 £30

Chamber Music Season

£18 £25 £30 £35 London Pianoforte Series

Scottish Ensemble

Tommy Ga-Ken Wan

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Takács Quartet Associate Artists Sunday 23 February 7.30 pm repeated Tuesday 25 February 7.30 pm

Takács Quartet Graham Mitchell double bass Dvorˇák String Quartet in F Op. 96 ‘American’ Janácˇek String Quartet No. 1 ‘Kreutzer Sonata’ Dvorˇák String Quintet in G Op. 77 Wigmore Hall’s Associate Artists, the Takács Quartet, continue their journey through the music of Bohemia and Moravia. Although Dvorˇák’s String Quartet in F was written in Iowa during a summer vacation from his teaching duties in New York, the work’s essence belongs to the spirit of Czech folksong and the flavour of Gypsy music. Tolstoy’s novella The Kreutzer Sonata fuelled deep romantic passions in Leoš Janácˇek. Its tale of the disastrous consequences of an extramarital affair clearly touched a raw nerve with the composer, no doubt mirroring the anxieties of his own unhappy marriage. The String Quartet No. 1 of 1923 projects his response to the emotions aroused by Tolstoy’s story. £15 £20 £25 £30

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Tuesday 25 February 6.00 pm

Pre-Concert Talk Anthony Burton introduces the evening concert.

Forthcoming Concerts in this Series

Saturday 10 May 7.30 pm

Takács Quartet

£3

Wigmore Hall Learning Event

Monday 12 May 7.30 pm Tuesday 25 February 7.30 pm

Takács Quartet Graham Mitchell double bass

Takács Quartet Marc-André Hamelin piano Photo by Ellen Appel

Repeat of concert on 23 February £15 £20 £25 £30

Chamber Music Season / Takács Quartet: Associate Artists

February/March

MARC-ANDRÉ HAMELIN ARTIST IN RESIDENCE

Saturday 1 March 6.00 pm

Sunday 2 March 4.00 pm

Artists in Conversation

Pumeza Matshikiza soprano Julius Drake piano

See page 46 for full details Saturday 1 March 7.30 pm

Julia Fischer violin Daniel Müller-Schott cello Simon Trpcˇeski piano See page 46 for full details Sunday 2 March 11.30 am Marc-André Hamelin

Sim Canetty-Clarke

Friday 28 February 7.30 pm

Marc-André Hamelin piano Martin Fröst clarinet Anthony Marwood violin Schubert Rondo in B minor D895 Debussy Première rapsodie Stravinsky Suite from The Soldier’s Tale (for violin, clarinet and piano) Poulenc Sonata for clarinet and piano Debussy Violin Sonata in G minor Bartók Contrasts for violin, clarinet and piano Last season Marc-André Hamelin came to Wigmore Hall with a bold programme of Ives and Brahms. The Canadian pianist and composer, whose mesmerising performances draw on his deep knowledge of the creative process, returns as chamber music partner to two equally inspiring artists.

Benjamin Frith piano Haydn Piano Sonata in C HXVI:50 Mendelssohn Songs without Words: Book 6 Op. 67 (complete) Stanford Three Rhapsodies from Dante Op. 92 Benjamin Frith’s intense focus in performance holds the power to transport audiences far from daily cares. His Coffee Concert programme leads from the dazzling invention of Haydn’s late C major Piano Sonata, written during the composer’s second long stay in London in the 1790s, by way of Mendelssohn’s sixth book of Songs without Words of 1843–5 to Charles Villiers Stanford’s rarely heard Three Dante Rhapsodies, originally written for Percy Grainger a century ago.

Schumann From Myrthen: Widmung; Du bist wie eine Blume; Aus den östlichen Rosen; Lieder der Braut I & II Respighi Notte; Nebbie; Soupir; Stornellatrice Hahn Venezia – Chansons en dialecte vénetien Fauré Au bord de l’eau; Automne; Nell; Toujours; Le secret; Clair de lune Obradors Canciones clásicas españolas South African lyric soprano Pumeza Matshikiza, the winner of the 2010 Veronica Dunne International Singing Competition who has recently signed a record deal with Decca, is able to move and entrance audiences with the intense focus and tonal warmth of her performances. She has appeared at Wigmore Hall as an Associate Artist with Classical Opera and returns with her regular recital partner, Julius Drake, for a recital of songs strikingly rich in melodic beauty. £12.50 concs £10

Song Recital Series

£12.50 concs £10 incl. programme and coffee/sherry/juice

Sunday Morning Coffee Concert

£15 £20 £25 £30

Forthcoming Concerts in this Series Tuesday 1 April 7.30 pm

With Pacifica

Quartet

Monday 12 May 7.30 pm

With Takács

Quartet

Friday 20 June 10.00 pm Chamber Music Season / Marc-André Hamelin Artist in Residence

Benjamin Frith

Pumeza Matshikiza

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The Tallis Scholars Thursday 27 February 7.30 pm

The Tallis Scholars Peter Phillips director Josquin des Prez Motet: Gaude virgo, mater

Christi; Missa ‘Hercules dux Ferrariae’ Gombert Motets: Musae Jovis; Ave Maria Byrd Plorans ploravit; Ne irascaris, Domine; Laetentur coeli; Vigilate £15 £20 £25 £30 Supported by Hutton Collins Partners LLP

Early Music and Baroque Series

Photo by Eric Richmond

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Founded in 1973 as a student group by Peter Phillips, The Tallis Scholars have led the revival of Renaissance and Baroque vocal polyphony ever since. The group’s instantly recognisable sound rests on the foundations of immaculate intonation and a blend so ethereal as to set new definitions for the meaning of tonal beauty. The group returns to Wigmore Hall after a long absence with a programme of sacred works spanning more than a century of music history. Josquin’s Missa ‘Hercules dux Ferrariae’ was probably written in the early 1480s to mark the alliance between the composer’s employer, Cardinal Ascanio Sforza, and the music-loving Ercole d’Este, the Duke of Ferrara. Latin masterworks by Josquin’s artistic heir Nicolas Gombert and William Byrd supply the spiritual substance of the programme’s second half.

March Sunday 2 March 7.30 pm

Monday 3 March 1.00 pm

Wednesday 5 March 7.30 pm

Wihan Quartet

Leonard Elschenbroich cello* Alexei Grynyuk piano

Belcea Quartet

Mozart Adagio and Fugue in C minor K546 Martinu˚ String Quartet No. 2 Schubert String Quartet in G D887 Martinu˚ revised the original finale of his Second String Quartet in haste in Prague’s Café National, creating a rousing conclusion to a work alive with robust energy and vibrant invention. The Wihan Quartet, founded at the Prague Academy of Musical Arts in 1985, prefaces Martinu˚ ’s modernist score with Mozart’s remarkable Adagio and Fugue in C minor, which explores in turn the realms of fathomless mystery and measurable reason.

Schubert’s String Quartet in G D887, completed in just ten days in 1826, comprises four movements of symphonic proportions.

Schumann 5 Stücke im Volkston Op. 102 Mark Simpson New work (world première)* Prokofiev Cello Sonata in C Op. 119 * BBC commission

Leonard Elschenbroich became a BBC New Generation Artist in October 2012, the latest in a glittering array of accolades and opportunities to come the young German cellist’s way since he was presented with the Leonard Bernstein Prize at the 2009 Schleswig-Holstein Festival. He is joined by his friend and regular ensemble partner Alexei Grynyuk.

Programme to include: Purcell Fantasias Nos. 6, 8, 10 & 11 Britten String Quartet No. 2 in C Op. 36 Benjamin Britten’s Second String Quartet was premièred at Wigmore Hall in November 1945 during the first of two concerts given to mark the 250th anniversary of Purcell’s death. ‘Henry Purcell was the last important international figure of English music,’ wrote Britten at the time, clearly conscious of the fact that he was his natural heir. The Belcea Quartet’s programme evokes the spirit of the past in the present, preserved in Purcell’s Fantasias and Britten’s ‘Homage to Henry Purcell’. £15 £20 £25 £30

£12.50 concs £10

Chamber Music Season

£15 £20 £25 £30

*Leonard Elschenbroich is a member of Radio 3’s New Generation Artists scheme

Chamber Music Season

BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert

Wihan Quartet

Wolf Marloh

Leonard Elschenbroich

Felix Broede

Belcea Quartet

Ronald Knapp

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Julia Fischer The violin has been part of Julia Fischer’s life since she was four years old. The Munich-born musician’s mother, an accomplished pianist, influenced her future course by encouraging young Julia to develop awareness of music’s power to touch the soul. Fischer, born in 1985, was only 12 when she won the International Yehudi Menuhin Young Violinists Competition. She has since developed into one of the finest artists of our time, acclaimed for her poetic interpretations as concerto soloist and recitalist and also for her dedicated devotion to chamber music-making. This Season’s Julia Fischer ‘Perspectives’ series offers broad scope to consider the violinist’s beguiling artistry in company with some of her closest musical companions.

Saturday 1 March 6.00 pm

Artists in Conversation Julia Fischer in conversation with Hilary Finch ahead of her evening concert. £3

Wigmore Hall Learning Event /Julia Fischer ‘Perspectives’

Saturday 1 March 7.30 pm

Julia Fischer violin Daniel Müller-Schott cello Simon Trpcˇeski piano Haydn Piano Trio in G HXV:25 ‘Gypsy Rondo’ Shostakovich Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor Op. 67 Brahms Piano Trio No. 3 in C minor Op. 101 The second concert in Julia Fischer’s Artist Residency at Wigmore Hall this Season brings together masterworks of the piano trio repertoire. The German violinist has chosen the intriguing pairing of Haydn’s Piano Trio in G, with its vivacious ‘Gypsy Rondo’, and Shostakovich’s Second Piano Trio of 1943–44, completed as a memorial work following the death of his closest friend, Ivan Sollertinsky. The concert concludes with Brahms’s Piano Trio No. 3, which Clara Schumann described as ‘wonderfully gripping’. £15 £20 £25 £30

Forthcoming Concert in this Series Saturday 24 May 7.30 pm

Julia Fischer Quartet Julia Fischer violin Alexander Sitkovetsky violin Nils Mönkemeyer viola Benjamin Nyffenegger cello Chamber Music Season /Julia Fischer ‘Perspectives’

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Photo by Decca/Uwe Arens

March Thursday 6 March 7.30 pm

Friday 7 March 7.30 pm

Saturday 8 March 3.00 pm – 6.00 pm

Florilegium Ashley Solomon director, flute Geoffrey Govier fortepiano Terence Charlston harpsichord

Ralph Kirshbaum cello Shai Wosner piano

Study Afternoon

CPE BACH CELEBRATION CONCERT CPE Bach Symphony No. 4 in A Wq. 182; Flute Sonata in A minor Wq. 132; Quartet in D Wq. 94; Trio Sonata in C minor Wq. 161 ‘Sanguineus and Melancholicus’; Concerto in E b Wq. 47 for harpsichord, fortepiano and orchestra To celebrate the tercentenary of Carl Philip Emanuel Bach’s birth, Florilegium presents a programme of music exploring the diversity of his music and, above all, its dynamic and affecting ‘Empfindsamer Stil’ (‘sensitive style’). Small-scale and larger works are juxtaposed in this concert, which closes with Bach’s rarely performed Double Concerto for harpsichord and fortepiano in E flat major, a beguiling product of German Empfindsamkeit aesthetics.

Beethoven Cello Sonata in F Op. 5 No. 1 Britten Cello Sonata in C Op. 65 Kodály Sonata for cello and piano Op. 4 Beethoven Cello Sonata in G minor Op. 5 No. 2

With Nigel Simeone and Bert Fink

£15 £20 £25 £30

Richard Rodgers (1902–79) is considered one of the greatest dramatic composers of the 20th century, epitomised in his landmark partnerships with Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II. In the final two decades of his life, Rodgers continued to create sophisticated and often innovative works of music theatre, collaborating with such talents as Stephen Sondheim, Arthur Laurents, Sheldon Harnick, Martin Charnin – and even himself. This often overlooked period in Rodgers’s life is explored in a study afternoon with musicologist and writer Nigel Simeone, joined by Bert Fink, Senior Vice President/Europe for Rodgers & Hammerstein.

Chamber Music Season

£10 concs £6

Ralph Kirshbaum made his London debut at Wigmore Hall soon after winning Moscow’s International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1970.

The American cellist’s remarkable career has since flourished to produce glorious chamber music partnerships with, among others, Pinchas Zukerman, Joshua Bell, Vadim Repin and the Emerson String Quartet. He returns to Wigmore Hall with his regular duo partner, Shai Wosner, pairing two Beethoven cello sonatas with landmarks of the instrument’s 20th-century repertoire.

Wigmore Hall Learning Event / Nash Ensemble American Series

£15 £20 £25 £30

Below: Richard Rodgers. Posthumous portrait (2001) by his granddaughter Kim Beaty. Portrait reprinted courtesy of Rodgers & Hammerstein: An Imagem Company.

Early Music and Baroque Series

Florilegium

RICHARD RODGERS, ACT III: The lesser-known ‘third act’ of Richard Rodgers’s remarkable career

Amit Lennon

Ralph Kirshbaum

J Henry Fair

Richard Rodgers

Painting by Kim Beaty

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March Saturday 8 March 7.30 pm

Sunday 9 March 11.30 am

Sunday 9 March 7.30 pm

Wigmore Hall Chamber Ensemble in Residence

Benyounes Quartet

Brentano String Quartet

Haydn String Quartet in G Op. 76 No. 1 Mendelssohn String Quartet No. 6 in F minor Op. 80

Beethoven String Quartet in D Op. 18 No. 3 Steven Mackey One Red Rose (UK première) Elgar String Quartet in E minor Op. 83

Mendelssohn’s chamber music has gained a fresh lease of life in recent years largely thanks to the advocacy of such perceptive young performers as the Benyounes Quartet. The ensemble, formed at the Royal Northern College of Music in 2007, performs the composer’s Sixth String Quartet, accurately described by the German historian and chamber music connoisseur Wilhelm Altmann as ‘almost throughout an impassioned, agitated lament’. To open the concert, the ensemble pairs the Mendelssohn with a Haydn quartet from his Op. 76 collection, the last set he composed.

Steven Mackey’s fascination with movement and transformation in music surfaces in One Red Rose, his new work for the Brentano String Quartet, written to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

The American composer’s score here stands as a bridge between the introspection of Beethoven’s earliest string quartet, completed in January 1799, and Elgar’s elegiac E minor quartet, heard for the first time at Wigmore Hall in 1919.

Nash Ensemble David White conductor Kim Criswell mezzo-soprano William Burden tenor With guest soloists

A CELEBRATION OF RICHARD RODGERS ON BROADWAY: ACT III Programme to include concert selections with narration from the musical Do I hear a Waltz? with music by Richard Rodgers and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim The Nash Ensemble’s American series goes to Broadway, with a concert devoted to the pre-eminent theatre composer Richard Rodgers. His sixty-year career fell into three parts, ‘Acts I and II’ with lyricists Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II, followed by ‘Act III’, in which he worked with such outstanding lyricists as Martin Charnin, Sheldon Harnick and Hammerstein’s protégé Stephen Sondheim. The programme includes highlights from the show he wrote with Sondheim, Do I Hear a Waltz?, rarely performed and never seen in the West End. Based on Arthur Laurents’s play The Time of the Cuckoo (filmed as Summertime, with Katharine Hepburn), Do I Hear a Waltz? tells the bitter-sweet romantic story of a group of American tourists visiting Venice, its witty, edgy lyrics matched by Rodgers’s ravishingly memorable melodies.

£12.50 concs £10 incl. programme and coffee/sherry/juice

Sunday Morning Coffee Concert

£18 £25 £30 £35

Chamber Music Season/Nash Ensemble American Series

Kim Criswell

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Benyounes Quartet

£15 £20 £25 £30 Booking open

Chamber Music Season /Contemporary Music Series

March Monday 10 March 1.00 pm

Monday 10 March 7.30 pm

Brentano String Quartet

Gallicantus

Shostakovich String Quartet No. 11 in F minor Op. 122 Beethoven String Quartet in E minor Op. 59 No. 2 ‘Razumovsky’

WORD UNSPOKEN A 7

The Brentano Quartet recently reached an audience of millions thanks to the part played by its recording of Beethoven’s Op. 131 in the soundtrack to Yaron Zilberman’s critically acclaimed movie A Late Quartet. The Brentanos, praised by The Times for their ‘seemingly infallible instincts for finding the centre of gravity in every phrase and musical gesture’, turn to the contemplative sound-world of Beethoven’s second ‘Razumovsky’. The ‘Elegy’ of Shostakovich’s Eleventh Quartet, tense and terse in nature, echoes traces of the Funeral March from Beethoven’s ‘Eroica’ Symphony. £12.50 concs £10

RUDOLF BUCHBINDER

Sheppard Libera nos, salva nos I Tallis Loquebantur variis linguis; Miserere nostri; Gloria from Mass Puer natus est nobis; Suscipe quaeso Sheppard Libera nos, salva nos II Byrd Tristitia et anxietas; Vigilate; Tribulationes civitatum; Laudibus in sanctis; Ne irascaris, Domine Gallicantus takes its name from the medieval monastic service held just before dawn at ‘cock crow’. Artistic director Gabriel Crouch and his singers come to Wigmore Hall with a programme of sacred polyphony from one of the most turbulent periods in English history, presenting music written for the Chapels Royal of the Catholic Mary Tudor and her Protestant sister, Elizabeth I. Two intense penitential motets frame a second half of music by Byrd, a loyal Catholic composer at work in a Protestant land. £15 £20 £25 £30

BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert

Early Music and Baroque Series

Rudolf Buchbinder

Marco Borggreve

Wednesday 12 March 7.30 pm

Rudolf Buchbinder piano Beethoven Piano Sonata No. 10 in G Op. 14 No. 2; Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor Op. 57 ‘Appassionata’ Schubert Piano Sonata in Bb D960 The New York Times has praised Rudolf Buchbinder’s Beethoven interpretations for their ‘haunting restraint and mystery’, delivered ‘almost as if he were channelling the music from some cosmic beyond’.

In recent seasons he has performed the composer’s complete sonatas in Berlin, Dresden, Beijing and St Petersburg, exploring aspects of musical space and time in each cycle. For this recital, Buchbinder sets Beethoven’s exquisite early Op. 14 and famous ‘Appassionata’ sonatas in context with Schubert’s Beethoven-inspired last piano sonata. £18 £25 £30 £35

London Pianoforte Series Brentano Quartet

Christian Steiner

Gallicantus

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March

BRIGITTE FASSBAENDER MASTERCLASS

Thursday 13 March 7.30 pm

Friday 14 March 7.30 pm

Anne Schwanewilms soprano Charles Spencer piano

Zehetmair Quartet

Mahler From Des Knaben Wunderhorn: Um schlimme Kinder artig zu machen; Ablösung im Sommer; Ich ging mit Lust; Verlorne Müh Liszt Oh! quand je dors Liszt Lieder aus Schillers Wilhelm Tell S292: Der Fischerknabe; Der Hirt; Der Alpenjäger Liszt Die Loreley Mahler From Des Knaben Wunderhorn: Scheiden und Meiden; Rheinlegendchen; Wo die schönen Trompeten blasen; Lob des hohen Verstandes Strauss Die Nacht; Geduld; Allerseelen

Brigitte Fassbaender

Thursday 13 March 1.00 pm – 4.00 pm Friday 14 March 1.00 pm – 4.00 pm

Brigitte Fassbaender Masterclass

Janácˇek String Quartet No. 1 ‘Kreutzer Sonata’ Schubert String Quartet in E b D87 Debussy String Quartet in G minor Op. 10 Irresistible charm flows naturally from Schubert’s early String Quartet in E flat D87 and from its genial writing for violin. The Zehetmair Quartet, consistently praised for the intelligence of its programming and the revelatory insights of its music-making, places Schubert’s tuneful composition between two works that embody strong sensual experiences. £15 £20 £25 £30

Chamber Music Season

It would be hard to imagine a programme better suited to the consummate artistry of Anne Schwanewilms. The German soprano, one of the world’s finest interpreters of Late Romantic opera and song, probes the imagery and intuitive reflections on life stored within Mahler’s infinitely profound responses to the folk-poetry of Des Knaben Wunderhorn. She concludes with a group of three songs from Richard Strauss’s Op. 10 collection, pieces mature far beyond the years of their young composer. £18 £25 £30 £35

Song Recital Series

Studies with her father, the celebrated German baritone Willi Domgraf-Fassbaender, established enduring foundations for Brigitte Fassbaender’s productive life as singer and stage director. The mezzo-soprano’s career began at the Bavarian State Opera in the early 1960s and expanded over the following decade with acclaimed debuts at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Vienna State Opera and the Salzburg Festival. Her accounts of Richard Strauss’s Oktavian and Johann Strauss’s Orlofsky (both recorded with Carlos Kleiber) won admirers worldwide as did her richly imaginative, psychologically revealing interpretations of Lieder. She returns to Wigmore Hall to pass on the fruits of a lifetime’s practical experience and deep thought about the art of singing to a group of exciting emerging talents. £7 concs £4 per session

Wigmore Hall Learning Event Anne Schwanewilms

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Javier del Real

Zehetmair Quartet

Keith Patterson

Christian Gerhaher & Gerold Huber Saturday 15 March 7.30 pm repeated Monday 17 March 7.30 pm

Christian Gerhaher baritone Gerold Huber piano Schumann From Myrthen: Freisinn; Talismane; Aus den hebräischen Gesängen; Zwei Venetianische Lieder; Aus den östlichen Rosen; Zum Schluß Schumann Liederkreis Op. 39 Schumann Die Löwenbraut Schumann Kernerlieder Op. 35

Any attempt to list the special qualities of Christian Gerhaher’s artistry will inevitably fall short in charting the depths of his imaginative engagement with song texts and the range of vocal colours that he applies to the interpretation of poetic imagery. Wigmore Hall audiences have been blessed in recent seasons with the German baritone’s transcendent readings of masterworks and rare treasures by Schubert. For his latest recital, Gerhaher and his regular partner Gerold Huber turn to Schumann. They begin with songs from Myrthen, the composer’s ‘song diary’, written for his fiancée Clara Wieck, before exploring the Liederkreis and Kernerlieder, pillars of Schumann’s Liederjahr of 1840.

£18 £25 £30 £35 Photo by Alexander Basta/Sony BMG

Song Recital Series

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March Sunday 16 March 11.30 am

Sunday 16 March 7.30 pm

Monday 17 March 1.00 pm

Heath Quartet

Elizabeth Watts soprano Simon Lepper piano

Andrei Bondarenko baritone Gary Matthewman piano

THE NIGHTINGALE AND THE ROSE

Ibert Quatre Chansons de Don Quichotte Ravel Don Quichotte à Dulcinée Sviridov Otchalivshaya Rus

Tippett String Quartet No. 2 Schubert String Quartet in D minor D810 ‘Death and the Maiden’ The Heath Quartet’s survey of Michael Tippett’s string quartets continues with a seminal work in which echoes of the past blend with highly distinctive music of the present. Tippett recalls the rhythmic freedom and metrical subtleties of English and Italian madrigals in his Second String Quartet, which also includes a haunting fugue based on a subject noted down on the opening day of the Second World War. £12.50 concs £10 incl. programme and coffee/sherry/juice

WIGMORE HALL EMERGING T A L E N T Supported by Mayfield Valley Arts Trust

Sunday Morning Coffee Concert/ Tippett: A Retrospective

Strauss Ständchen; Rote Rosen; Wer hat’s getan?; Malven; Befreit Duparc Chanson triste; Phidylé; Au pays où se fait la guerre; Extase; La vie antérieure Britten The Poet’s Echo Op. 76 Granados La maja y el ruiseñor from Goyescas; El majo timido from Tonadillas en un estilo antiguo Guastavino La rosa y el sauce Rodrigo De dónde venís, amore?; Adela Obradors Del cabello más sutil; El vito Intelligent programming and radiant singing are hallmarks of Elizabeth Watts’s recitals. The Norwich-born soprano joins forces with Simon Lepper to explore a thrilling combination of songs that span works conceived in a rich variety of styles and set to poetry of equally broad scope, concluding with intoxicating Spanish songs from the Old and New Worlds.

Ukrainian baritone Andrei Bondarenko, a member of the Mariinsky Academy of Young Singers, reached a global audience in 2011 as winner of the Cardiff Singer of the World Song Prize. His BBC Lunchtime Recital opens with songs written for Feodor Chaliapin to perform in GW Pabst’s 1933 film treatment of Don Quixote’s adventures. £12.50 concs £10

BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert

Monday 17 March 7.30 pm

Christian Gerhaher baritone Gerold Huber piano

£15 £20 £25 £30

Song Recital Series

Repeat of concert on 15 March £18 £25 £30 £35

Song Recital Series

Heath Quartet

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Sussie Ahlburg

Elizabeth Watts

Marco Borggreve

Andrei Bondarenko

Arcangelo Tuesday 18 March 7.30 pm

Arcangelo Jonathan Cohen director, harpsichord, organ Katherine Watson soprano Anna Dennis soprano Tim Mead countertenor Jeremy Budd tenor Benjamin Hulett tenor Callum Thorpe bass-baritone MONTEVERDI MADRIGALS Monteverdi Volgendo il ciel per l’immortal sentiero; Ohimè dov’è il mio ben?; Lamento della ninfa; Hor che’l ciel e la terra e’l vento tace Castello Sonata No. 10 in D minor Monteverdi Oblivion soave from L’incoronazione di Poppea; Altri canti di marte Book 8; Sestina Madrigals £18 £25 £30 £35

Since its foundation in 2010 by the English cellist and conductor Jonathan Cohen, Arcangelo has surged to international prominence with thrilling performances of everything from Bach and Handel to Gluck and Grétry. The ensemble is guided by a determination to treat works of all periods and sizes with the full attention and intensity demanded by chamber music, an approach that has attracted many fine solo recitalists and chamber musicians to its ranks.

Arcangelo’s concert with Anna Prohaska stood among the highlights of Wigmore Hall’s Early Music and Baroque Series in 2012–13.

The group’s latest programme draws on its recent experience of recording Monteverdi to explore music from the composer’s madrigals of ‘love and war’ and other emotionally charged works created in Venice.

Canaletto: View of the Riva degli Schiavoni, Venice

Early Music and Baroque Series

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March Wednesday 19 March 12.15 pm

Pre-Concert Talk An introduction to the lunchtime concert, with William Cole.

Free (ticket required) Booking open

Wigmore Hall Learning Event

MARINO FORMENTI PATHS TO A MASTERPIECE

Wednesday 19 March 1.00 pm

Britten Sinfonia Joy Farrall clarinet Sarah Burnett bassoon Stephen Bell horn Jacqueline Shave violin Clare Finnimore viola Caroline Dearnley cello Stephen Williams double bass A new work by William Cole, winner of the Cambridge University Composers’ Workshop* Beethoven Septet in E b Op. 20 *Co-commissioned by Britten Sinfonia and Wigmore Hall, with the support of André Hoffmann, president of the Fondation Hoffmann, a Swiss grant-making foundation

The youthful and light-hearted Septet could almost be counted as another Beethoven symphony, its content reflecting the engaging melodies and orchestral genius that pervade his later musical output. Jacqueline Shave, Britten Sinfonia’s Leader, directs this programme which also includes the première of a new work by the 2013 winner of the Cambridge University Composers’ Workshop.

Marino Formenti

David Ruano

Marino Formenti’s series brings a fascinating strand to the contemporary music series at Wigmore Hall over the next three seasons. Each recital focuses on a great contemporary work or composer by showing paths that lead to it, its musical ancestors, parents and relatives.

£12.50 concs £10 Booking open

Chamber Music Season/Contemporary Music Series

Wednesday 19 March 7.30 pm

Marino Formenti piano PATHS TO A MASTERPIECE Wolfgang Rihm Zwiesprache; Klavierstück No. 6 ‘Bagatellen’; Klavierstück No. 7; Klavierstück No. 5 ‘Tombeau’ with fragments (unfinished works, drafts and sketches) by Mozart, Schubert, Janácˇek and Schumann Mysterious sound-worlds, multiple layers of meaning, striking intuitions and fleeting metaphors belong to Marino Formenti’s entrancing recitals. Last season, the Italian pianist and conductor brought to Wigmore Hall a captivating programme comprising 21 keyboard miniatures and individual movements by everyone from Liszt to Ligeti, Adams to Sciarrino. He returns with a recital dedicated to the music of Wolfgang Rihm which also includes works and fragments by Mozart, Schubert, Schumann, Janácˇek and others. £15 £20 £25 £30 Booking open London Pianoforte Series /Contemporary Music Series /Paths to a Masterpiece

Forthcoming Concerts in this Series Sunday 8 March 2015 7.30 pm Friday 19 February 2016 7.30 pm William Cole

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Nick Rutter

March Thursday 20 March 7.30 pm

L’ARPEGGIATA

Sylvia Schwartz soprano Malcolm Martineau piano Schumann Songs from Lieder-Album für die Jugend Op. 79 Poulenc Trois poèmes de Louise de Vilmorin Guridi Seis canciones castellanas Turina Tres poemas Op. 81 Toldrá Abril; Maig

BAROQUE RESIDENCY

Sylvia Schwartz attracted warm praise from reviewers following the release of her debut recital recording of Spanish songs, made in company with Malcolm Martineau. The Spanish-born lyric soprano stands among the finest Mozarteans of her generation, a position reinforced by recent performances in Le nozze di Figaro and Die Zauberflöte with the Vienna State Opera and at the Salzburg Mozartwoche. £15 £20 £25 £30

Supported by the Benefactor Friends of Wigmore Hall

L’Arpeggiata

Song Recital Series

Friday 21 March 7.30 pm

L’Arpeggiata; Christina Pluhar theorbo, director Núria Rial soprano L’AMORE INNAMORATO Cavalli Sinfonia from Gli amori d’Apollo e di Dafne; O quam suavis; Arias from La Calisto; Canzon a 3; Arias from Artemisia; Lamento from Egisto; Canzon a 4; Aria from Rosinda; Lamenti from Didone; Aria from Ormindo Francesco Cavalli, born in 1602, was a boy chorister at St Mark’s in Venice under Monteverdi’s direction, and rose to become the Basilica’s principal organist and chapel master. He made a lasting mark outside the church as an opera composer, supplying Venice’s first opera house with nine works and also broadening opera’s public reach as an impresario. Christina Pluhar’s ensemble L’Arpeggiata joins forces with the Catalan soprano Núria Rial to bring fresh life and vital energy to the composer’s operatic arias, instrumental works and sublime sacred motet, O quam suavis et delecto. £15 £20 £25 £30

This concert will be approximately 1 hour 30 minutes in duration, without an interval

Final concert in this series Thursday 10 July 7.30 pm

L’Arpeggiata; Christina Pluhar theorbo, director Philippe Jaroussky countertenor MUSIC FOR A WHILE – MUSIC BY PURCELL £18 £25 £30 £35

Booking for all concerts in this series is open Early Music and Baroque Series / L’Arpeggiata Baroque Residency

Sylvia Schwartz

Enrico Nawrath

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Stile Antico Saturday 22 March 7.30 pm

Stile Antico O RADIANT DAWN Music by William Byrd and James MacMillan £15 £20 £25 £30

Early Music and Baroque Series

Photo by Marco Borggreve

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Stile Antico’s breath-taking artistry is shaped by the deep experience and expertise of its individual members. The early music vocal ensemble effectively works as a chamber music collective, delivering eloquent readings of sacred polyphony without a conductor or single director. Each work in Stile Antico’s large repertoire unfolds in performance like the interior space of a medieval cathedral, vast and transcendent yet exquisitely rich in surface detail. The ensemble’s latest Wigmore Hall programme explores fascinating parallels between two composers working four centuries apart, alternating MacMillan’s Strathclyde motets with Byrd’s dazzling liturgical cycle Gradualia. Crowning this memorable juxtaposition is Byrd’s longest and perhaps greatest work, Infelix ego.

March Sunday 23 March 11.30 am

Sunday 23 March 4.00 pm

Sunday 23 March 7.30 pm

Bennewitz Quartet

Anna Lucia Richter soprano Christoph Schnackertz piano

Trio con Brio Copenhagen

Mozart String Quartet in B b K458 ‘Hunt’ Smetana String Quartet No. 1 in E minor ‘From my Life’ Inspired since their formative time at the Prague Academy of Musical Arts by the rich legacy of Czech string quartet playing, the Bennewitz Quartet’s members have developed over the past 16 years to become one of the leading Czech chamber music ensembles. Their latest Wigmore Hall programme pairs Mozart’s impassioned ‘Hunt’ Quartet, a harbinger of musical Romanticism, with Smetana’s partly autobiographical First String Quartet. £12.50 concs £10 incl. programme and coffee/sherry/juice

Sunday Morning Coffee Concert

Wolf Er ist’s Schubert Im Frühling; Das Lied im Grünen Wolf Frühlingsglocken Schubert Viola Wolf Nachruf; Abendbilder Schubert Auf dem Wasser zu singen; Des Fischers Liebesglück; Der Zwerg Wolf Die Geister am Mummelsee; Waldmädchen Born in 1990, Anna Lucia Richter has made astonishing progress since winning the Felix Mendelssohn and Luitpold prizes at the Bad Kissingen Summer Festival in 2011. The composer Wolfgang Rihm was so beguiled by the young German soprano’s Kissingen performances that he wrote three songs for her. She captured the hearts of many others at Wigmore Hall at the beginning of 2012 when she deputised at short notice in a recital of Wolf’s Goethe and Mörike Lieder, prompting the Guardian to conclude that ‘it is a safe bet that we shall be seeing more of her in the future’.

Haydn Piano Trio in C HXV:27 Mendelssohn Piano Trio No. 2 in C minor Op. 66 Smetana Piano Trio in G minor Op. 15 Korean sisters Soo-Jin and Soo-Kyung Hong and Danish pianist Jens Elvekjaer formed the Trio con Brio Copenhagen in Vienna in 1999 to explore the idea of creative partnerships. The Hongs had played together since childhood, while Jens Elvekjaer and Soo-Kyung Hong (who were subsequently married) had worked together as a duo for many years.

Their close offstage relationships and personal connections feed the honesty, energy and commitment of their music-making, directed here to three magnificent compositions. £15 £20 £25 £30

Chamber Music Season

£12.50 concs £10

Song Recital Series

Bennewitz Quartet

Anna Lucia Richter

Jessy Lee

Trio con Brio Copenhagen

Tue Schiorring

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March Monday 24 March 1.00 pm

Tuesday 25 March 7.30 pm

Wednesday 26 March 6.00 pm

Belcea Quartet

The English Concert Laurence Cummings

Pre-concert talk

Beethoven String Quartet in F Op. 59 No. 1 ‘Razumovsky’ Webern Langsamer Satz Written in the wake of his opera Fidelio, Beethoven’s ‘Razumovsky’ Quartets grapple with the full gamut of emotions and the powerful human drive to overcome adversity. The first of his Op. 59 set moves from the simplicity of its opening theme towards a complex universe of musical invention, in which ideas often appear to be in a constant state of flux. The Belcea Quartet’s long relationship with the work invariably supports fresh revelations in performance. Webern’s passionate Langsamer Satz, inspired by Alpine nature, makes an ideal companion for Beethoven’s composition. £12.50 concs £10

BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert

director, harpsichord JS Bach Orchestral Suite No. 1 in C BWV1066 CPE Bach String Symphony in B minor Wq. 182/5 Telemann Concerto in E for flute, oboe d’amore and viola d’amore TWV53:E1 JS Bach Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D BWV1050 Telemann Suite in B b from Tafelmusik Godfather, Father, Son – this programme contains works by Johann Sebastian Bach, his son Carl Philipp Emanuel, and his friend and colleague Georg Philipp Telemann, who gave CPE Bach his second name and became the boy’s godfather.

Largely self-taught, Telemann was the most prolific composer of his time and among its most original.

Although his published works sold in large numbers during his long lifetime, Telemann’s popularity and industry were held against him by later critics.

The English Concert was an early pioneer in the revival of his work. £18 £25 £30 £35

Monday 24 March 7.30 pm

Szymanowski Quartet

Early Music and Baroque Series / The English Concert 40th Anniversary Celebration

Szamotuł 4 Polish Chorales Haydn String Quartet in B minor Op. 33 No. 1 Szymanowski String Quartet No. 2 Op. 56 Dvorˇák String Quartet No. 13 in G Op. 106

Broadcaster and writer Tom Service, with Sir Harrison Birtwistle, introduces the works to be performed in the evening concert. £3 Booking open

Wigmore Hall Learning Event/Nash Ensemble American Series

Wednesday 26 March 7.30 pm

Wigmore Hall Chamber Ensemble in Residence

Nash Ensemble BBC Singers Nicholas Kok conductor NASH INVENTIONS: BRITISH AND AMERICAN MASTERWORKS Harrison Birtwistle Fantasia upon all the notes for flute, clarinet, string quartet and harp* Carter Enchanted Preludes for flute and cello; Esprit Rude /Esprit Doux for flute and clarinet John Adams Shaker Loops for string septet Carter Mosaic for flute, oboe, clarinet, harp, string trio and double bass** Harrison Birtwistle The Moth Requiem for 12 female singers, three harps and alto flute *Co-commissioned by the Nash Ensemble, the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and Wigmore Hall, with the support of André Hoffmann, president of the Fondation Hoffmann, a Swiss grant-making foundation

Interest in Poland’s early music has surged in recent years, propelled by searching scholarship and the advocacy of native performers. The Warsaw-based Szymanowski Quartet prefaces its recital with four chorales by the 16th-century composer and poet Wacław z Szamotuł, a prominent figure in the Protestant Reformation in Poland. Szymanowski’s Second String Quartet, written in 1927, includes themes based on the distinctive music of the Tatra Highlands, while the strong flavour of Bohemian folksong permeates Dvorˇák’s G major Quartet.

** Commissioned by the Nash Ensemble

The Nash Ensemble’s annual new music showcase is both a final instalment of its American Series – with John Adams’s seminal Shaker Loops and three characteristic pieces by the late, great Elliott Carter – and an eightieth birthday tribute to Sir Harrison Birtwistle, complete with a performance of his entrancing recent work for voices evoking the mysterious world of moths. £12 £18 £22 £25 Booking open

£15 £20 £25 £30

Contemporary Music Series/Nash Ensemble American Series

Chamber Music Season

Szymanowski Quartet

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Marco Borggreve

March Friday 28 March 7.30 pm

Sunday 30 March 11.30 am

Monday 31 March 1.00 pm

Pavel Haas Quartet

Pacifica Quartet

Smetana String Quartet No. 2 in D minor Dvorˇák String Quartet in E b Op. 51 Brahms String Quartet in A minor Op. 51 No. 2

Prokofiev String Quartet No. 2 in F Op. 92 Brahms String Quartet in C minor Op. 51 No. 1

Nina Stemme soprano Matti Hirvonen piano

Making music for the Pavel Haas Quartet involves taking bold risks and staying with strong emotions in performance. The Czech ensemble won the 2011 Gramophone Record of the Year Award for its album of two late quartets by Dvorˇák. The quartet’s artistry owes much to the experience of working on the finest details of interpretation to create the technical freedom required to unlock expressive spontaneity in concert.

Following the critically acclaimed success of its Shostakovich cycle at Wigmore Hall in 2011–12, the Pacifica Quartet turns to Prokofiev’s emotionally turbulent Second String Quartet. The composer began writing the work in 1941 as a wartime refugee in the tiny Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic of Kabardino-Balkar, and used themes from the area’s rich mix of native Balkarian, Kabardian and Cossack folk cultures.

£15 £20 £25 £30

£12.50 concs £10 incl. programme and coffee/sherry/juice

Chamber Music Season

Sunday Morning Coffee Concert

Saturday 29 March 7.30 pm

Sunday 30 March 7.30 pm

Gerald Finley bass-baritone Julius Drake piano

Les Talens Lyriques Christophe Rousset

Schumann Sechs Gedichte & Requiem Op. 90 Wagner Wesendonck Lieder Weill Surabaya Johnny; My Ship; Nannas Lied Swedish soprano Nina Stemme first won the hearts of a large British audience as finalist in the 1993 Cardiff Singer of the World Competition. She has developed since to become one of today’s leading dramatic voices, in demand worldwide to sing roles such as Wagner’s Brünnhilde and Isolde, Puccini’s Turandot and Strauss’s Salome. £12.50 concs £10

BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert

director, harpsichord

See page 13 for full details

Valérie Gabail soprano Gilone Gaubert-Jacques violin Lucille Boulanger viola da gamba See page overleaf for full details

Pavel Haas Quartet

Marco Borggreve

Pacifica Quartet

Saverio Truglia

Nina Stemme

Tanja Niemann

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Les Talens Lyriques Sunday 30 March 7.30 pm

Forthcoming Concerts in this Series

Les Talens Lyriques Christophe Rousset director, harpsichord Valérie Gabail soprano Gilone Gaubert-Jacques violin Lucille Boulanger viola da gamba

Wednesday 16 April 7.30 pm

RAMEAU 250TH ANNIVERSARY CONCERT

Les Talens Lyriques Christophe Rousset director, harpsichord, organ Amel Brahim-Djelloul soprano Judith van Wanroij soprano François Joubert-Caillet viola da gamba

Rameau Pièces de clavecin en concerts; Cantata: Orphée

LEÇONS DE TÉNÈBRES

A new genre emerged in France in the early 1700s, the cantate Française, which owed its style and energy to existing models of vocal chamber music imported from Italy. The French cantata developed into a distinct musical and literary form, one in which clear allegories were set down in verse and enhanced by the power of music. Christophe Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques recreate a slice of French salon life to mark the 250th anniversary of Rameau’s death, a composer no less inventive in his chamber pieces than in his more familiar operas and other stage works. The dramatic range and expressive variety of Rameau’s cantata Orphée match the tragedy of Orpheus and his ill-fated attempt to rescue his beloved Eurydice from the Underworld.

Charpentier & Couperin

£18 £25 £30 £35

£18 £25 £30 £35

Monday 28 April 7.30 pm

Les Talens Lyriques Christophe Rousset director, harpsichord Ann Hallenberg mezzo-soprano ARIAS FOR FARINELLI Broschi, Giacomelli, Porpora & Leo £18 £25 £30 £35

Early Music and Baroque Series / Les Talens Lyriques Series Photo by Jacques Verrees

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Booking for all concerts in this series is open

EVENTS FOR FAMILIES,YOUNG PEOPLE & ADULTS All events listed on pages 61 – 63 will open for booking on 1 November, with the exception of the Family Concerts on 25 January and 1 February, and Come and Sing on 1 March, which go on sale to Friends on 8 October and to Mailing List Subscribers on 21 October.

We are grateful to Mayfield Valley Arts Trust, The Monument Trust and The Andor Charitable Trust for their support of our Family Programme, and to The Samuel Sebba Charitable Trust and The Monument Trust for their support of our Schools Programme.

January/February Thursday 23 January 11.00 am – 12 noon

Saturday 25 January 3.00 pm – 4.00 pm

Songs of No Man’s Land

Songs of No Man’s Land

KEY STAGE 2 SCHOOLS CONCERT

FAMILY CONCERT

based on the book War Game by Michael Foreman

based on the book War Game by Michael Foreman

Presenter Rus Pearson and musicians from Britten Sinfonia take you on a journey with a group of boys from the east of England who travel to the trenches of northern France. On Christmas Day, 1914 something remarkable happens as the German and British armies stop fighting and meet in the middle of no man’s land. The enemies talk, play football and become friends. But the war isn’t over, the two sides resume fighting and the group of Suffolk lads are ordered to charge across no man’s land ...

Combining existing repertoire and a new commission

by Emily Hall, Songs of No Man’s Land explores the themes of friendship, loss and remembrance which surround the Great War.

For age 7 plus A repeat of the Songs of No Man’s Land Schools Concert on 23 January, for families.

Adults £7 Children £5

In partnership with Britten Sinfonia

www.benjaminharte.co.uk

Saturday 1 February 11.00 am – 12.00 noon

CAVATINA Family Concert: Camarilla Ensemble

£2.50

In partnership with Britten Sinfonia

Britten Sinfonia

Harry Rankin

For age 5 plus The award-winning Camarilla wind quintet brings you a fun and interactive hour of music, introducing their instruments with a wonderful arrangement of Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf. The members of this young and dynamic ensemble are currently Artists in Residence at the Purcell School of Music, and they receive great acclaim in the many schools that they have visited with the CAVATINA Chamber Music Trust.

Adults £7 children £5 CAVATINA Chamber Music Trust www.cavatina.net

CAVATINA Chamber Music Trust, renowned for bringing chamber music to young people and young people to chamber music, is delighted to present this concert in association with Wigmore Hall.

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February/March Friday 21 February 10.30 am – 3.30 pm

Saturday 1 March 10.00 am – 3.30 pm

Animate!

Come and Sing: Shakespeare

HALF-TERM FAMILY DAY For age 5 plus Have you ever wanted to make your own animated film? Join workshop leader Rus Pearson, animator Reza ben Gajra and musicians from the Royal Academy of Music for an action-packed day exploring a range of stop-motion animation techniques and creating your own animated characters. Compose a soundtrack to your film and perform it live on the Wigmore Hall stage.

Isabelle Adams leads a workshop day for adults exploring some of the many vocal settings of Shakespeare texts. Get to know the music from the inside, develop your singing skills and finish the day with a performance on the Wigmore Hall stage. Everyone is welcome and there is no need to read music. £18 concs £10

Adults £12 Children £8

www.benjaminharte.co.uk

Friday 7 February 5.30 pm

Young Producers Concert Teenagers from 3 secondary schools in Tower Hamlets have been working with Wigmore Hall Learning as Young Producers to programme this unique concert for young people, by young people.

Keep up to date with developments by visiting www.wigmore-hall.org.uk/young-producers.

In partnership with Tower Hamlets Arts and Music Education Service

www.benjaminharte.co.uk

www.benjaminharte.co.uk

Free (ticket required)

Tuesday 18 and Wednesday 19 February 10.00 am – 3.30 pm both days

Ignition HALF-TERM COURSE For ages 11 – 16 Calling all young musicians! Join Wigmore Hall Learning’s resident ensemble Ignite and fire up your creativity! Our Ignition half-term course will offer you the opportunity to create new music with your instrument and re-imagine old, as well as bringing out your inner composer to write a soundtrack for film clips, and much, much more. Meet new friends, play with professional musicians and even perform your new works on the Wigmore Hall stage! £40 for the two-day course

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Ignite

www.benjaminharte.co.uk

March Friday 7 March 11.00 am – 12 noon

Saturday 15 March 10.30 am – 3.30 pm

EXAUDI

Variations and Mutations

KEY STAGE 2 SCHOOLS CONCERT

FAMILY DAY

Come and experience the magical music of vocal ensemble EXAUDI. Open your ears to new sounds, songs and stories with presenter Isabelle Adams and even help the singers to create a brand new piece of music.

For age 5 plus

£2.50

Join musicians from the Royal Academy of Music for this fun family workshop inspired by Bach’s Goldberg Variations. Spend the day making music together, learning new things, and even performing on the Wigmore Hall stage at the end of the day!

Adults £12 Children £8

In partnership with the Royal Academy of Music

EXAUDI

www.benjaminharte.co.uk

Chamber Zone Ticket Scheme Over the last six years, Wigmore Hall’s free ticket scheme Chamber Zone has reached over 4000 young people aged 8 – 25 years.

Supported by CAVATINA Chamber Music Trust, the scheme aims to provide access to high quality chamber music and to raise musical aspirations through accompanying workshops with professional musicians and composers.

For details on the concerts included in the Chamber Zone scheme and how to book, visit www.wigmore-hall.org.uk/chamberzone CAVATINA Chamber Music Trust www.cavatina.net

Photo: www.benjaminharte.co.uk

63

Contemporary Music Series Wigmore Hall stands as a major supporter of contemporary chamber music and song, as commissioner of new works and champion of living composers. The Hall is determined to bring fresh creative energy to the repertoire, not least through its extensive commissioning programme and promotion of world, UK and London premières.

‘Our commissioning scheme is already the most extensive in Europe for chamber music,’ comments Wigmore Hall Director John Gilhooly. ‘We plan to present up to 20 commissions per season from 2013 and make Wigmore Hall one of the world’s foremost centres for contemporary chamber music.’

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Saturday 4 January 7.30 pm

Sunday 9 March 7.30 pm

Sunday 27 April 7.30 pm

Apartment House

Brentano String Quartet

Ensemble intercontemporain

Laurence Crane, Christopher Fox, Peter Garland, Amnon Wolman, Mathias Spahlinger, Rytis Mažulis & Reinhold Friedl

Steven Mackey

Yann Robin* & György Kurtág

Wednesday 19 March 1.00 pm

Wednesday 7 May 1.00 pm

Britten Sinfonia

Britten Sinfonia

William Cole winner of the Cambridge University Composers’ Workshop*

Brett Dean* & Georg Tintner

Thursday 23 January 7.30 pm

JACK Quartet Ruth Crawford Seeger, Christopher Trapani*, Julian Anderson & Horat‚iu Raˇdulescu

Wednesday 5 February 1.00 pm

Roderick Williams baritone Britten Sinfonia Voices Eamonn Dougan director of Britten Sinfonia Voices Roderick Williams*

Friday 9 May 7.30 pm Wednesday 19 March 7.30 pm

Marino Formenti piano Wolfgang Rihm

The Other Ebène A jazz concert to include songs by Charlie Chaplin, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Sting & Michael Jackson

Wednesday 26 March 7.30 pm

Nash Ensemble BBC Singers Nicholas Kok conductor Harrison Birtwistle*, Elliott Carter & John Adams

Sunday 9 February 7.30 pm

Aurora Orchestra Alice Coote soprano

Sunday 6 April 7.30 pm

Judith Weir*

Toshio Hosokawa*

Momo Kodama piano Monday 7 April 7.30 pm

Colin Currie percussion Elliott Carter, Per Nørgård, Toshio Hosokawa, Bruno Mantovani, Dave Maric, Joseph Pereira & Rolf Wallin*

Monday 14 April 7.30 pm

The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center

Thursday 15 May 7.30 pm

Arditti Quartet Giacinto Scelsi, Helmut Lachenmann, Luis de Pablo & Julian Anderson*

Tuesday 3 June 7.30 pm

Lawrence Zazzo countertenor Simon Lepper piano Iain Bell*

Friday 20 June 7.00 pm

Birmingham Contemporary Music Group Oliver Knussen, Gerald Barry, Colin Matthews, Elliott Carter & more

* Commissioned or co-commissioned by Wigmore Hall with the support of André Hoffmann, president of the Fondation Hoffmann, a Swiss grant-making foundation

Zhou Long*

All events in this series are now open for booking.

Full details of concerts from January to March are provided throughout the brochure in chronological order. The whole series is available to view and book at www.wigmore-hall.org.uk

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WIGMORE HALL EMERGING TA L E N T It remains of the utmost importance for Wigmore Hall to nurture the finest young artists in order to ensure that the demanding standards and values set deep within today’s musical practices live long into the next generation and beyond.

Wigmore Hall Emerging Talent allows us to create essential performance opportunities for some of these artists as they gain experience and broaden their knowledge of the repertoire. Young artists supported by the Wigmore Hall Emerging Talent scheme in 2013/14 are:

Inon Barnatan

JACK Quartet

Pianist Inon Barnatan has rapidly gained international recognition for engaging and communicative performances that pair insightful interpretation with impeccable technique. Described by London’s Evening Standard as ‘a true poet of the keyboard’, he has performed to great critical acclaim all over the world as both concerto pianist and chamber musician.

The JACK Quartet electrifies audiences worldwide with ‘explosive virtuosity’ (Boston Globe) and ‘viscerally exciting performances’ (New York Times).

The Washington Post commented, ‘The string quartet may be a 250-year old contraption, but young, brilliant groups like the JACK Quartet are keeping it thrillingly vital.’ Having studied with the Arditti, Kronos and Muir String Quartets, and members of the Ensemble intercontemporain, the JACK Quartet is focused on the commissioning and performance of new works.

Wednesday 18 September 2013 Monday 16 December 2013

The Sitkovetsky Trio First prize-winners of the International Commerzbank Chamber Music Award 2008 and recipients of the NORDMETALL Chamber Music Award at the Mecklenburg Vorpommern Festival 2009, the members of The Sitkovetsky Trio met and worked together at the Yehudi Menuhin School. They founded the trio in 2007, which has now emerged as one of the outstanding young trios of today, in high demand throughout Europe.

Thursday 19 September 2013

Heath Quartet The Heath Quartet is rapidly emerging as an exciting and original voice on the international chamber music scene. Selected by YCAT in 2008, they immediately went on to win First Prize at the Tromp International Competition in Eindhoven and Second Prize at the Haydn International Competition in Vienna. In 2011 they were awarded a prestigious Borletti-Buitoni Special Ensemble Scholarship and in 2013 were selected for representation by Askonas Holt.

Tuesday 3 December 2013 Friday 17 January 2014 Sunday 16 March 2014

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Thursday 23 January 2014

Royal Academy of Music Song Circle Each year a small group of the Royal Academy of Music’s most accomplished performers of art song are selected to be part of the Song Circle.

Since its inception in 2004, the Song Circle has given more than twenty concerts, and its annual Schubertiade has become a much-anticipated feature of the Academy’s calendar.

Sunday 23 February 2014

WIGMORE HALL EMERGING T A L E N T Supported by Mayfield Valley Arts Trust

Photo by Benjamin Ealovega

BOOKING INFORMATION Booking Dates

Box Office Hours

Car Parking

Saturday 4 January – Monday 31 March 2014

7 days a week: 10.00am– 8.30pm.

Days without an evening concert 10.00am– 5.00pm. No advance booking during the half-hour prior to performance.

Friends – Priority booking form to reach the Box Office by Tuesday 8 October 2013

Telephone Bookings

There is limited street parking after 6.30 pm (Mon – Sat) and all day Sunday in permitted areas.

Alternatively there are public car parks in Cavendish Square, Harley Street and Marylebone Lane, all of which are less than a five minute walk from the Hall.

Wigmore Hall participates in the Theatreland Parking Scheme which gives all Wigmore concert-goers 50% discount on their parking. Please contact the Box Office for further details or visit our website.

Booking Period 2

Mailing List – Priority booking form to reach the Box Office by Monday 21 October 2013 General Public – By telephone/online from Friday 1 November 2013

We strongly recommend early booking for Pre-Concert Talks, Artists in Conversation and Study Events.

Wigmore Hall Box Office 36 Wigmore Street, London W1U 2BP Tel: 020 7935 2141

7 days a week: 10.00am–7.00pm.

Days without an evening concert 10.00am – 5.00pm. There is a non-refundable £2.00 administration charge for each transaction. This includes the return of your tickets by post if time permits.

Please make cheques payable to Wigmore Hall with the amount left open but stating an upper limit, and add an administration charge of £2.00. Tickets will then be sent by post.

Online Bookings

Email: (not for bookings) boxoffice@wigmore-hall.org.uk

Tickets

Online booking is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and you can select your own seat. There is a non-refundable £1.00 administration charge.

Unless otherwise stated, tickets are divided into four price ranges

Tickets for Concessions Where a concession (concs) ticket price is listed these are available to students, senior citizens and the unemployed.

A–D

Restaurant/Bar

T– X

Wigmore Hall has its own restaurant and bars serving pre-concert and interval refreshments.

Visit www.wigmore-hall.org.uk/restaurant or call 020 7258 8292 for further information.

Q– S

N–P STA LL S C– M

Transport

A –B CC BB A AA A

CC BB

PL ATFO RM

A AA A

OXFORD CIRCUS BON D STREET

Group Bookings Discounts of 10% are available for groups of 12 or more, subject to availability.

BALCONY

Full details from 020 7258 8210

Postal Bookings

Online Booking: www.wigmore-hall.org.uk

Stalls C – M: Highest price Stalls A – B, N – P: 2nd highest price Balcony A – D: 2nd highest price Stalls BB, CC, Q – S: 3rd price Stalls AA, T – X: Lowest price

Facilities for Disabled People

Tubes: Bond Street (Central, Jubilee lines), Oxford Circus (Bakerloo, Central & Victoria lines).

Buses: A number of bus routes pass along Oxford Street.

This brochure is available in alternative formats. Please contact the Box Office if this would be of assistance to you.

Telephone: 020 7935 2141 Email: boxoffice@wigmore-hall.org.uk Information in this brochure was correct at the time of printing. The right is reserved to substitute artists and to vary programmes if necessary.

Cover photos by Benjamin Ealovega Cover design by WLP Ltd. www.whitelabelproductions.co.uk Brochure design and production by Peter Williamson

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SUPPORTING WIGMORE HALL If you would like to support Wigmore Hall by becoming a Friend, or by sponsoring a concert or Learning event, please call 020 7258 8230 or email friends@wigmore-hall.org.uk for more information.

The Wigmore Hall Trust is very grateful to the individuals and organisations listed below who have made an investment in our concert, learning and community programmes: Honorary Patrons Aubrey Adams André and Rosalie Hoffmann Donald Kahn OBE Sir Ralph Kohn FRS and Lady Kohn Mr and Mrs Paul Morgan

Season Patrons Aubrey Adams* American Friends of Wigmore Hall Karl Otto Bonnier* William and Alex de Winton* The Hargreaves and Ball Trust David Rockwell and Zsombor Csoma† Cita and Irwin Stelzer* Alisa and Joshua Swidler* and several anonymous donors † Early Music & Baroque Series supporters

Corporate Supporters Capital International Limited (corporate matched giving) Clifford Chance LLP Complete Coffee Ltd Duncan Lawrie Private Banking Hutton Collins Partners LLP Lloyds TSB Private Banking Martin Randall Travel Ltd Rosenblatt Solicitors Rothschild

Donors and Sponsors Mr Eric Abraham and Miss Natasha Abraham* Elaine Adair Tony and Marion Allen* The Andor Charitable Trust David and Jacqueline Ansell* Arts Council England Anthony Austin

BBC Children in Need David and Margaret Beaton Alan Bell-Berry Mr Nicholas J Bez Mrs Arline Blass* David and Mary Bowerman* Alan Bradley* Gwen and Stanley Burnton* Clive Butler Cavatina Chamber Music Trust Charities Advisory Trust City Bridge Trust City of Westminster Clifford Chance Foundation Colin Clark Edwin C Cohen* The John S Cohen Foundation Sonia and Harvey Cole Columbia Foundation John Crisp* Peter Crisp and Jeremy Crouch* Michael and Licia Crystal Celia and Andrew Curran Judy Davies and Kingsley Manning* Anthony Davis* Pauline Del Mar Diaphonique J L Drewitt Dunard Fund Annette Ellis* Vernon and Hazel Ellis The Elton Family Dr C A Endersby and Prof D Cowan Mrs Susan Feakin The Fidelio Charitable Trust Peter and Sonia Field John and Amy Ford S E Franklin Charitable Trust No. 3 Friends of Wigmore Hall Jonathan Gaisman* The Garrick Charitable Trust John Gilhooly

The Wigmore Hall Trust, registered charity number 1024838

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John and Lauren Goldsmith* The Goldsmiths Company Nicholas and Judith Goodison* The Gordon Foundation Charles Green Mr and Mrs Rex Harbour* Haringey Music Service André and Rosalie Hoffmann Pauline and Ian Howat Gay Huey Evans* A bequest from the late Mr J L Hutchinson Graham and Amanda Hutton* Hyde Park Place Estate Charity Simone Hyman* John Lyon’s Charity Marc Jourdren* Donald and Jeanne Kahn* Jerome Karet* David and Louise Kaye* Sir Ralph Kohn FRS and Lady Kohn* The Kohn Foundation Christian Kwek and David Hodges* Maryly La Follette* Su Lesser and Neil Kaplan CBE QC SBS* The Leverhulme Trust Dame Felicity Lott* The Loveday Charitable Trust Simon and Pamela Majaro The Marchus Trust Mayfield Valley Arts Trust George Meyer A bequest from the late Dr Naomi Michaels Milton Damerel Trust The Monument Trust Mr and Mrs Paul Morgan Amyas and Louise Morse* Valerie O’Connor and Jeannette McIntosh Hamish Parker The Geoffrey Parsons Memorial Trust The Piano Fund Dr Clive Potter* Oliver Prenn

Nick and Claire Prettejohn* The Rayne Foundation Gifts to honour Rick Rogers from Beryl McAlhone and Friends Charles Rose* Jackie Rosenfeld OBE, Hon. RCM* Ruth Rothbarth* The Rubinstein Circle The Sampimon Trust The Samuel Sebba Charitable Trust Richard Sennett and Saskia Sassen* Victoria Sharp* Jo and Barry Slavin Sir Martin and Lady Smith* Joe and Lucy Smouha Gill and Keith Stella* John Stephens OBE, Hon. FTCL* Katja and Nicolai Tangen* The Tertis Foundation Allen Thomas and Jane Simpson* Tower Hamlets Arts Music and Education Service John and Ann Tusa* Marina Vaizey* Kathleen Verelst* Robin Vousden* Gerry Wakelin* Marie-Luise Waldeck Andrew and Hilary Walker* Michael and Rosemary Warburg David and Frances Waters* Mrs Mary Weston The Harold Hyam Wingate Foundation Tony Wingate Philip and Emeline Winston* The Wolfson Foundation Worshipful Company of Information Technologists Simon Yates and Kevin Roon* and several anonymous donors * also Rubinstein Circle members

Details correct as at July 2013

Latest Releases on Wigmore Hall Live

Christian Blackshaw piano MOZART Piano Sonatas – Volume I (Double CD)

Available from October 2013

Wolfgang Holzmair baritone Imogen Cooper piano Works by SCHUMANN & REIMANN

Christiane Karg soprano Malcolm Martineau piano Songs by STRAUSS, FAURÉ, DEBUSSY, POULENC, WOLF & BERG

Mark Padmore tenor; Iestyn Davies countertenor Marcus Farnsworth baritone; Julius Drake piano Lucy Wakeford harp; Richard Watkins horn BRITTEN Canticles

CDs priced from £9.99 available to buy from the foyer, www.wigmore-hall.org.uk/live and 020 7935 2141

‘I think the best way to describe Wigmore Hall in a short phrase is “never-ending tradition”…

New artists, established artists, the whole gamut – there’s nothing that doesn’t happen here.’

MALCOLM MARTINEAU, PIANIST

Director: John Gilhooly OBE · 36 Wigmore Street, London W1U 2BP

Box Office Tel: 020 7935 2141 · www.wigmore-hall.org.uk

EUROPE’S LEADING VENUE FOR CHAMBER MUSIC AND SONG