FROM THE STAGE TO THE PIT

While the caution continues for us all, doing this edition’s symphonic picks was really quite difficult. Not for lack of choices, quite the opposite! If performances remain possible then the upcoming concerts in the UK orchestral scene are absolutely mouth-watering. Here are just a few of the best and most interesting programmes I came across, but please do have a look yourselves as there’s undoubtedly something for everyone coming up in the very near future! Also worth noting at the time of going to press, most of the BBC Orchestras and the Ulster Orchestra in Northern Ireland are yet to release their 2022 seasons, so you may want to check them out when they’re announced.

BY JOSH CIRTINA // PRINCIPAL BASS TROMBONE IN THE ROYAL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

SYMPHONIC HIGHLIGHTS

LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA – UNSUK CHIN, SIBELIUS & BARTOK 7.00pm, Thursday, 6 January Barbican, London Here’s one to really get the new year off to a great start. Sir Simon Rattle leads his orchestra through a thrilling programme featuring a world premiere of Unsuk Chin’s new Violin Concerto with the astounding talents of Leonidas Kavakos, followed by Sibelius’ glorious Seventh Symphony and concluding with one of (in my opinion) the greatest works of the 20th Century – Bartok’s simply scintillating Miraculous Mandarin.

LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA – POEMS OF ECSTASY 7.00pm, Saturday, 22 January Royal Festival Hall, London You should be ECSTATIC about this one…Karina Canellakis commands the forces of the LPO in Scriabin’s positively effervescing and abundantly colourful Fourth Symphony (The Poem of Ecstasy), but before this we can enjoy Cédric Tiberghien performing Ravel’s Piano Concerto for the Left Hand, Boulanger’s dreamy D’un sour triste and Wagner’s stunning Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde.

BBC SCOTTISH SYMPHONY AND ROYAL SCOTTISH NATIONAL ORCHESTRAS – HARMONIELEHRE 7.30pm, Wednesday, 9 February Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow A rare event! The BBC Scottish Symphony and the Royal Scottish National Orchestras, conducted by Kevin John Edusei, join forces for what is sure to be a thrilling evening featuring a UK premiere from Carlijn Metselaar, Shostakovich’s First Violin Concerto, performed by Maria Dueñas, and Adam’s absolutely colossal Harmonielehre.

BBC SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA – TOTAL IMMERSION: FRANK ZAPPA From 11.00am, Saturday, 19 March Barbican, London Arguably one of the greatest 20th Century influences on music, Frank Zappa is the focus of the BBC Symphony’s March ‘Total Immersion’ day. Zappa’s music is famed for its huge variety of influences from classical modernism and rock and roll to free improvisation and cultural satire. Worth a listen!

ROYAL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA – WALTON FIRST SYMPHONY 7.30pm, Wednesday, 23 March Royal Festival Hall, London Britten’s timeless The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra opens this concert in style featuring each section of the RPO. Pablo Ferrandez then joins the orchestra for what is considered to be one of the most challenging works for the cello, Shostakovich’s First Concerto. Conductor Vasily Petrenko then takes us back to the tumultuous 1930’s with Walton’s First Symphony, written when he was just 33 (and rather well known for its pretty thrilling brass writing).

ROYAL LIVERPOOL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA – SIBELIUS VIOLIN CONCERTO & PROKOFIEV FIFTH SYMPHONY 7.30pm, Thursday, 31 March Philharmonic Hall The RPLO’s website states: ‘Forged in the crucible of war and premiered to the sound of gunfire, Prokofiev's massive Fifth Symphony is dedicated to “the greatness of the human spirit”.’ If that’s not enough to make you go along then what is? Contrasting with Sibelius’ epic Violin Concerto, performed by Maria Dueñas, and Nielsen’s Overture, Pan and Syrinx this is a seriously great programme, conducted by Domingo Hindoyan.

BOURNEMOUTH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA – SOVIET HERITAGE 7.30pm, Thursday, 31 March Lighthouse, Poole This rather interestingly curated programme features Kirill Petrenko conducting Karayev’s rarely heard ballet The Seven Beauties inspired by Azerbaijani folk music, a world première from Franghiz Ali-Zadeh called Cosmology (also infusing Azerbaijani musical traditions) and Shostakovich’s most violent Twelfth Symphony.

BY BECKY SMITH // PRINCIPAL TROMBONE AT THE ENGLISH NATIONAL OPERA

OPERA PICKS

If you have never been to an opera, I urge you to take the leap and have a night out! There is such a wide variety being performed over the coming months throughout the UK, there is surely something to suit every taste.

Puccini is a great place to start, and probably no better way than to watch Madam Butterfly. The score is glorious with a powerful story. Welsh National Opera is performing this from 30 November through to 14 May, at venues across the country. The Royal Opera House in London is performing Tosca (my favourite Puccini opera, you have to go just to hear the opening few bars!) and that runs from 5 December until 22 February. English National Opera is putting on its classic Jonathan Miller production of La Bohème, another one full of beautiful music, running from 31 January until 27 February.

If you like Verdi (think the Grand March from Aida, the Drinking Song ‘Brindisi’ from La Traviata, the tune from Jean de Florette taken from La Forza del Destino, also used in a Stella Artois ad!), then you have a couple of options to choose from. The Royal Opera House is performing Nabucco, which includes the famous Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves, from 20 December through to 23 January. Opera North is putting on Rigoletto from 22 January through to 1 April at venues throughout the North of England.

If Mozart is more your choice then you could go to the comic opera The Marriage of Figaro, at the Royal Opera House from 9 January until 27 January. Welsh National Opera is performing Don Giovanni, another comic opera of Mozart’s in which the trombones only appear near the end, though not in comedy style but in the Cemetery scene representing a supernatural force! You can see this opera from 18 February through to 13 May at venues across the UK.

A few more highlights of lesser-known operas, but with really fantastic music, that I would strongly recommend are Peter Grimes by Benjamin Britten at the Royal Opera House from 17 to 31 March, Cunning Little Vixen by Janàček at English National Opera from 18 February until 1 March, and finally another Britten work, A Midsummer Night’s Dream performed by Scottish Opera in Glasgow and Edinburgh from 22 February until 5 March. Totally worth making a weekend of! ◆