Wigmore Series Spring 2012 by Wigmore Hall

WIGMORE SERIES

SPRING12 JANUARY–MARCH12

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SO Box ofﬁce 020 7935 2141 Online booking www.wigmore-hall.org.uk

Sussie Ahlburg

WELCOME TO OUR 2012 SPRING SEASON

Our Artist in Residence throughout the 2011/12 season Stephen Hough explores the piano quintet repertoire with some exceptional string ensembles and he also presents a masterclass on 7 March. The European Chamber Music Academy (ECMA) presents its annual showcase on 20, 21 and 22 January, which includes a masterclass from the inspirational Hatto Beyerle. Other chamber music highlights include a 50th birthday celebration for clarinettist Michael Collins on 27 January (which happily coincides with Mozart’s birthday), and the extraordinary pianist Leon Fleisher in the company of the Elias String Quartet for Brahms’s Piano Quintet in F minor in a BBC Lunchtime recital on 30 January.

I can’t think of a better way to open our programme for 2012 than in the company of Maria João Pires, one of the finest musicians of her generation. She is partnered by Antonio Meneses, latterly cellist of the Beaux Arts Trio, whose farewell concerts given at Wigmore Hall in 2007 were very memorable occasions indeed: so do join us on 3 January for a special evening. Our series of Beethoven’s chamber and instrumental music reflects the richly nuanced breadth and depth of one of the most remarkable of all creative lives. A highlight of the Beethoven Series will be the three farewell concerts for the Florestan Trio in early January, as well as appearances from the Belcea Quartet, Pieter Wispelwey, Kristian Bezuidenhout, and Leonidas Kavakos with Emanuel Ax. A happy quirk of programming means that we have some very special performances of Schubert’s Winterreise during the early months of 2012. Alice Coote and Julius Drake join us to record this great work for our record label Wigmore Hall Live and Mark Padmore and Paul Lewis continue their own survey of Schubert’s song cycles. Young singers joining us through the Spring include Julia Kleiter, Malin Christensson, Ben Johnson, Karina Gauvin, Pumeza Matshikiza, Sarah-Jane Brandon, Anna Prohaska, Sylvia Schwartz, the winner of Cardiff Singer of the World 2011 Song Prize Andrei Bondarenko, and members of the Royal Academy of Music Song Circle.

Schubert’s birthday is celebrated in the company of the German tenor Werner Güra and Roger Vignoles, whose ‘Perspectives’ Series celebrates his long association with the hall as a song pianist. Ian Bostridge’s exploration of matters ‘Ancient and Modern’ must be a priority for everybody’s diary, whilst Steven Osborne joins us for Ravel’s keyboard music and masterworks – delightful diversions and picaresque adventures; music of transcendental beauty. Other highlights of the Spring Series include our exploration of the Hugo Wolf Songbooks, Janine Jansen and friends in Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale and our ongoing exploration of Dvor˘ák’s song and chamber music repertoire. Pianist Marc-André Hamelin, who has fashioned a deep impression on the capital’s music scene with his exceptional virtuosity, heroic artistry and innovative programmes, joins us on 6 February and we welcome the French pianist Alexandre Tharaud on 15 February. Belle Epoque France provides the irresistible raw material for Natalie Dessay’s Wigmore Hall debut on 4 March when the lyric coloratura is bound to attract a capacity crowd! And don’t forget the Wigmore Hall London International String Quartet Competition which takes place from 31 March. This competition provides an exciting opportunity to discover the next generation of string quartets, so do please come and support these exceptional young artists. As usual, it is impossible for me to mention everybody, so I will leave it to you to browse the brochure for yourself. John Gilhooly Director

AT A GLANCE JANUARY – MARCH 2012

See pages 3 to 61 for full details of these concerts and pages 62 to 63 for subscription savings and how to book.

Series and Events to look out for ...

Song Recital Series

ANTONIO MENESES & MARIA JOÃO PIRES Page 4 CHRISTIAN BLACKSHAW: MOZART SERIES 5 BEETHOVEN CHAMBER AND 5, 6, 9, 12, 13, 15, 24, 35, 54 INSTRUMENTAL SERIES THE HUGO WOLF SONGBOOKS 8 ALICE COOTE: A CELEBRATION 10, 19 RAVEL 75TH ANNIVERSARY 11, 34 EUROPEAN CHAMBER MUSIC ACADEMY SHOWCASE 14 STEPHEN HOUGH: ARTIST IN RESIDENCE 17, 46 JANINE JANSEN AND FRIENDS 19, 25 ROGER VIGNOLES: ‘PERSPECTIVES’ 22, 23, 24, 28, 38 ˘ ÁK PLUS SERIES DVOR 24, 55 THE BOSTRIDGE PROJECT: ‘ANCIENT AND MODERN’ 33 NATALIE DESSAY & PHILIPPE CASSARD 42 WILLIAM BYRD SACRED MUSIC SERIES 44 – 45 PACIFICA QUARTET SHOSTAKOVICH CYCLE 57, 58

Thu 5 Jan

BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concerts London Conchord Ensemble Hanno Müller-Brachmann Hendrik Heilmann Mon 23 Jan Takács Quartet Mon 30 Jan Elias String Quartet/Leon Fleisher Alexander Melnikov Mon 6 Feb Mon 13 Feb Escher Quartet Mon 20 Feb Alexandra Soumm/Plamena Mangova Mon 27 Feb Nikolaï Lugansky Mon 5 Mar Truls Mørk/Khatia Buniatishvili Mon 12 Mar Boris Giltburg Mon 19 Mar Meta4 Mon 26 Mar Malin Christensson/Simon Lepper Mon 9 Jan Mon 16 Jan

7 12 16 21 27 30 32 38 43 49 52 56

Sunday Morning Coffee Concerts Sun 8 Jan Sun 15 Jan Sun 22 Jan Sun 29 Jan Sun 5 Feb Sun 12 Feb Sun 19 Feb Sun 26 Feb Sun 4 Mar Sun 11 Mar Sun 18 Mar Sun 25 Mar

Aviv String Quartet Quatuor Apollon Musagète Nash Ensemble/Benjamin Nabarro Richard Watkins/Simon Crawford-Phillips Zemlinsky Quartet Anthony Hewitt Praz˘ák Quartet Cecilia String Quartet Panocha Quartet Trio di Parma Milos˘ Karadaglic´ Belcea Quartet/Michael Collins Heath Quartet

7 11 15 20 26 28 31 36 41 48 51 55

Christiane Iven/Hariolf Schlichtig Page 3 András Schiff Tue 10 Jan Julia Kleiter/Christoph Prégardien 8 Julius Drake Sun 15 Jan Christopher Maltman/Christopher Glynn 11 Wed 18 Jan Basel Chamber Orchestra/Julia Schröder 12 Mark Padmore/Olivier Darbellay Thu 26 Jan Alice Coote/Julius Drake 19 Alice Coote/Julius Drake 20 Sat 28 Jan 21 Sun 29 Jan Royal Academy of Music Song Circle Werner Güra/Roger Vignoles 22 Tue 31 Jan Thu 2 Feb Martina Janková/Bernarda Fink 24 Roger Vignoles Sun 5 Feb Malin Christensson/Simon Lepper 26 John Mark Ainsley/Roger Vignoles 28 Fri 10 Feb Sun 12 Feb Ben Johnson/Graham Johnson 29 29 Sun 12 Feb Karina Gauvin/Andrea Oliva Angela Hewitt Tue 14 Feb Mark Padmore/Paul Lewis 30 Thu 16 Feb Mark Padmore/Paul Lewis 30 Sat 18 Feb Pumeza Matshikiza/Sarah-Jane Brandon 31 Dean Power/Dearbhla Collins Mairead Hurley Sun 19 Feb Sophie Karthäuser/Cédric Tiberghien 32 33 Mon 20 Feb Angelika Kirchschlager/Ian Bostridge Aurora Orchestra/The English Concert Sun 26 Feb Ekaterina Semenchuk/Semyon Skigin 37 38 Tue 28 Feb Robert Holl/Roger Vignoles Sun 4 Mar Anna Prohaska/Eric Schneider 41 Natalie Dessay/Philippe Cassard 42 Sun 4 Mar 48 Sun 11 Mar Sylvia Schwartz/Wolfram Rieger Sat 17 Mar Ailish Tynan/Andrew Kennedy 51 Iain Burnside Wed 21 Mar Florian Boesch/Malcolm Martineau 54 Sat 24 Mar Singers from the Mariinsky Academy 55 Andrei Bondarenko/Larissa Gergieva Sun 25 Mar The Prince Consort/Alisdair Hogarth 56 Philip Fowke

London Pianoforte Series Tue 3 Jan Fri 6 Jan Mon 23 Jan Mon 6 Feb Wed 15 Feb Tue 21 Feb Thu 23 Feb Sat 25 Feb Fri 2 Mar Sun 18 Mar Tue 20 Mar

Maria João Pires/Antonio Meneses Christian Blackshaw Nikolai Demidenko Marc-André Hamelin Alexandre Tharaud Danny Driver Steven Osborne Ronald Brautigam Llyˆr Williams Simon Trpc˘eski Martin Helmchen

Box Office 020 7935 2141 Online Booking www.wigmore-hall.org.uk

4 5 16 27 30 34 34 36 40 52 53

Chamber Music Season

Early Music and Baroque Series

Antonio Meneses/Maria João Pires Page 4 Florestan Trio 5 Raphael Wallfisch/John York 7 Razumovsky Young Artists Recital 7 Razumovsky Ensemble 8 Florestan Trio 9 Florestan Trio 9 Nash Ensemble/Martyn Brabbins 10 Alice Coote Tue 17 Jan Zehetmair Quartet 12 Wed 18 Jan Basel Chamber Orchestra 12 Julia Schröder/Mark Padmore Olivier Darbellay Thu 19 Jan Pieter Wispelwey/Kristian Bezuidenhout 13 Trio Atanassov/Quatuor Girard 14 Fri 20 Jan Pieter Wispelwey/Kristian Bezuidenhout 15 Fri 20 Jan Cuarteto Quiroga 14 Sat 21 Jan Belcea Quartet 15 Sat 21 Jan 14 Sun 22 Jan Trio Gaspard Stephen Hough/Juilliard Quartet 17 Tue 24 Jan 18 Wed 25 Jan Britten Sinfonia 18 Wed 25 Jan James Ehnes/Andrew Armstrong Michael Collins/Christine Rice 27 Fri 27 Jan London Winds/City of London Sinfonia Sun 29 Jan Sol Gabetta/Bertrand Chamayou 21 Wed 1 Feb Leonidas Kavakos/Emanuel Ax 24 Janine Jansen and Friends 25 Fri 3 Feb Bennewitz Quartet 26 Sat 4 Feb The Endellion String Quartet 27 Tue 7 Feb 28 Sat 11 Feb Nash Ensemble/Dame Felicity Lott Paul Watkins Fri 24 Feb Scottish Ensemble/Jonathan Morton 35 Lawrence Power Sun 26 Feb Chilingirian Quartet 37 Elias String Quartet/Jonathan Biss 39 Thu 1 Mar Sat 3 Mar Nash Ensemble 40 Stephen Hough/Heath Quartet 46 Thu 8 Mar Amjad Ali Khan/Sudha Raghunathan 47 Fri 9 Mar 47 Sat 10 Mar Vienna Piano Trio 49 Tue 13 Mar Nash Ensemble/Claire Booth Lionel Friend Thu 15 Mar The Kuss Quartet 50 Fri 16 Mar Razumovsky Young Artists Recital 50 Razumovsky Ensemble 50 Fri 16 Mar 53 Wed 21 Mar Britten Sinfonia 54 Thu 22 Mar Belcea Quartet Gould Piano Trio 55 Fri 23 Mar Mon 26 Mar Pacifica Quartet 57 57 Tue 27 Mar Alban Gerhardt/Thomas Larcher 58 Wed 28 Mar Pacifica Quartet 58 Thu 29 Mar Pacifica Quartet Sat 31 Mar Twelfth London International String 58 Quartet Competition 2012: Semi-Finals Sun 1 Apr Twelfth London International String 58 Quartet Competition 2012: Final

Wed 4 Jan

Tue 3 Jan Sat 7 Jan Sun 8 Jan Mon 9 Jan Mon 9 Jan Wed 11 Jan Fri 13 Jan Sat 14 Jan

Thu 12 Jan

Mon 30 Jan Mon 20 Feb Wed 29 Feb Mon 5 Mar Wed 7 Mar

Carolyn Sampson Page 3 Matthew Wadsworth Early Opera Company/Anna Stéphany 9 Hilary Summers/Ed Lyon Marcus Farnsworth/Christian Curnyn Classical Opera Company/Ian Page 22 Sarah-Jane Brandon Angelika Kirchschlager/Ian Bostridge 33 Aurora Orchestra/The English Concert Academy of Ancient Music 39 Alina Ibragimova The Cardinall’s Musick 44, 45 Andrew Carwood Retrospect Ensemble/Matthew Halls 46 Christopher Ainslie/Katherine Manley Robin Blaze

Wigmore Hall Learning Come and Sing: French Song 59 Pre-Concert Talk 10 Birkbeck Study Afternoon: 13 Beethoven and the Cello Sat 21 Jan ECMA Masterclass 14 Tue 24 Jan Birkbeck Study Afternoon: 16 Appreciating Contemporary Music Wed 25 Jan Pre-Concert Talk 18 Thu 26 Jan Wigmore Study Group 19 Fri 27 Jan Schools’ Concert: Bows and Arias 19, 59 Fri 27 Jan Artists in Conversation 19 Wigmore Study Group 19 Tue 31 Jan Thu 2 Feb Wigmore Study Group 19 The Soldier’s Tale: 25, 59 Sat 4 Feb Open Audience Performance Fri 10 Feb Artists in Conversation 28 Wed 15 Feb Practise Makes Perfect: RNIB Study Day 60 Thu 16 Feb Half-Term Course: Music in Motion 60 Fri 17 Feb Half-Term Course: Music in Motion 60 Sat 18 Feb Family Day: Igor and Friends 60 Mon 20 Feb Pre-Concert Talk 33 Introduction to Music 35 Fri 24 Feb Sat 25 Feb Steven Isserlis Legends Interview Series 36 Wed 29 Feb Pre-Concert Talk 39 Schools’ Concert: Sing a Story 40, 61 Fri 2 Mar Introduction to Music 35 Fri 2 Mar Mon 5 Mar Pre-Concert Talk 45 Wed 7 Mar Stephen Hough Masterclass 46 Thu 8 Mar to National Young String Quartet Weekend 61 Sun 11 Mar at Chetham’s School of Music Fri 9 Mar Introduction to Music 35 Sat 10 Mar Family Concert: Sing a Story 47, 61 49 Tue 13 Mar Pre-Concert Talk Fri 16 Mar Introduction to Music 35 Sat 17 Mar Family Day: Musical Characters 61 Wed 21 Mar Pre-Concert Talk 53 58 Thu 29 Mar Pre-Concert Performance Sat 7 Jan Sat 14 Jan Thu 19 Jan

Box Office 020 7935 2141 Online Booking www.wigmore-hall.org.uk

WIGMORE SERIES JAN UARY – MARCH 2012 Booking Opens to Friends on 6 October, to Mailing List Subscribers on 20 October and to the General Public/Online on 2 November. Tuesday 3 January 7.30 pm

Thursday 5 January 7.30 pm

ANTONIO MENESES cello MARIA JOÃO PIRES piano

CHRISTIANE IVEN soprano HARIOLF SCHLICHTIG viola ANDRÁS SCHIFF piano

See page overleaf for full details

SCHUBERT Der Fischer; Fischerweise; Meeres Stille; Der Zwerg BRAHMS Meine Liebe ist grün; Die Mainacht; Unbewegte laue Luft; Auf dem Kirchhofe; Von ewiger Liebe; 2 Songs with viola SCHUMANN Märzveilchen; Muttertraum; Der Soldat; Der Spielmann; Verratene Liebe; Märchenbilder Op. 113 SCHUMANN Frauenliebe und -leben

CAROLYN SAMPSON

Annelies van der Vegt

Wednesday 4 January 7.30 pm

CAROLYN SAMPSON soprano MATTHEW WADSWORTH theorbo

Dramatic storytelling and poetic nuance lie at the heart of Christiane Iven’s recital, qualities powerfully projected in the engrossing tales of Schubert’s ‘Der Zwerg’ and Schumann’s ‘Der Soldat’. The German soprano, acclaimed as a compelling Lied interpreter, joins forces with her regular recital partner András Schiff and former Cherubini Quartet violist Hariolf Schlichtig. £15 £20 £25 £30

Song Recital Series/András Schiff Series

ECHOES OF VENICE MERULA Folle è ben che si crede MONTEVERDI Ohimé ch’io cado, ohimé; Sí dolce è’l tormento PICCININI Toccata VI; Partite variate sopra quest’ aria francese detta l’Alemana; Corrente terza (solo theorbo) STROZZI Rissolvetevi pensieri; L’Eraclito amoroso FERRARI Son ruinato, appasionato STROZZI Che si può fare PICCININI Toccata X; Ciaccona in Partite Variate (solo theorbo) CACCINI Lasciatemi morire KAPSBERGERToccata No. 9; Passacaglia (solo theorbo) STROZZI L’amante segreto Venice was a veritable melting pot of artistic talent, creative thinkers, civic repression, intrigue and scandal throughout the 17th century. What better way to evoke the red-blooded passions and torments of Venetian life than with the exquisite masterworks of three of the era’s most daring composers? The love songs of Francesca Caccini, Claudio Monteverdi and Barbara Strozzi offer a heady blend of poetry and music, as moving to the soul today as they were 400 years ago. £15 £20 £25 £30

CHRISTIANE IVEN

Marco Borggreve

Early Music and Baroque Series 3

Box Office 020 7935 2141 Online Booking www.wigmore-hall.org.uk

Tuesday 3 January 7.30 pm

ANTONIO MENESES cello MARIA JOÃO PIRES piano

BRAHMS Cello Sonata No. 1 in E minor Op. 38 BRAHMS 3 Intermezzi Op. 117 (solo piano) SCHUBERT Arpeggione Sonata in A minor D821 Over four decades since securing worldwide recognition as one of the finest musicians of her generation, Maria João Pires continues to transfix audiences with the spotless integrity, eloquence and vitality of her art. Her abiding concern for music’s poetic shading and expressive concentration invariably draws listeners away from thoughts about the performer’s personality towards the spiritual substance of the compositions in her repertoire. The pianist’s recital is clearly a red-letter event for chamber music connoisseurs, an eagerly anticipated successor to her acclaimed appearance at Wigmore Hall last season. Pires is once again partnered by Antonio Meneses, cellist with the Beaux Arts Trio and artist of great wisdom and imagination. £18 £25 £30 £35

London Pianoforte Series/Chamber Music Season

Antonio Menes photo: Marco Borggreve Maria João Pires photo: Felix Broede/Deutsche Grammophon

Saturday 7 January 7.30 pm

CHRISTIAN BLACKSHAW: MOZART SERIES

FLORESTAN TRIO FAREWELL RECITAL 1 BEETHOVEN Piano Trio in C minor Op. 1 No. 3; Variations in E b on an Original Theme Op. 44; Piano Trio in D Op. 70 No. 1 ‘Ghost’ Biography and creativity merge in the Piano Trios Op. 1, dedicated to Beethoven’s patron Prince Lichnowsky and published in 1794. It appears that Haydn, present at the anthology’s first public performance, told Beethoven that it would have been better if he had not included the C minor trio in his Op. 1 collection. ‘This astonished Beethoven, since he considered it the best, and … to this day it is always considered the most pleasing,’ recalled the composer’s friend and pupil, Ferdinand Ries. £15 £20 £25 £30

CHRISTIAN BLACKSHAW

Herbie Knott

Here begins Christian Blackshaw’s complete survey of Mozart’s piano sonatas, set to run at Wigmore Hall over the next two years and certain to elicit strikingly fresh musical insights. Reviewers were unanimous in their praise for the performer’s full account of these works at St George’s Bristol, a series now spoken of in legendary terms. Blackshaw’s pianism, shaped by studies with Sir Clifford Curzon and at the Leningrad Conservatory, has rightly been hailed for its ‘sheer musicality and humanity’. Mozart’s solo keyboard sonatas contain everything necessary to explore those characteristics and transport listeners to a world of intense contemplation.

Chamber Music Season/Beethoven Chamber and Instrumental Series See Beethoven Chamber and Instrumental Series page overleaf

Friday 6 January 7.30 pm

CHRISTIAN BLACKSHAW piano MOZART Sonata No. 1 in C K279; Sonata No. 2 in F K280; Sonata No. 8 in D K311; Sonata No. 17 in Bb K570; Sonata No. 9 in A minor K310 ‘An ego put entirely at the service of the composer ... [He manages] to illuminate details which often remain hidden’ The Pianist ‘Blackshaw’s playing simply defines class’ Baltimore Sun £15 £20 £25 £30

London Pianoforte Series/Christian Blackshaw Mozart Series Forthcoming concerts in this series Wednesday 23 May 7.30 pm Tuesday 25 September 7.30 pm Saturday 5 January 2013 7.30 pm Booking for all concerts in this series opens to Friends on 6 October, to Mailing List Subscribers on 20 October and to the General Public on 2 November 2011.

FLORESTAN TRIO

Richard Lewisohn

Box Office 020 7935 2141 Online Booking www.wigmore-hall.org.uk

BEETHOVEN CHAMBER AND INSTRUMENTAL SERIES ‘I live entirely in my music,’ Beethoven once observed. The composer’s assessment and the existential questions posed by so many of his late works gave shape to romantic legends about the heroic artist eternally at war with convention and with the world. Wigmore Hall’s Beethoven series unfolds with programmes that reflect the richly nuanced breadth and depth of one of the most remarkable of all creative lives. The Florestan Trio, for long a favourite with Wigmore Hall audiences, is set to illuminate a succession of compositions that grew out of fertile soil prepared by Haydn and Mozart and evolved to deliver the rich sonorities, inventive daring and grandeur of pieces such as the ‘Archduke’ Trio. Beethoven’s artistic development will also be explored in bold detail by a succession of outstanding performers, the Belcea Quartet, Pieter Wispelwey, Kristian Bezuidenhout, Leonidas Kavakos and Emanuel Ax among them. Saturday 7 January 7.30 pm

Saturday 21 January 7.30 pm

FLORESTAN TRIO

BELCEA QUARTET

See page 5 for details

See page 15 for details

Wednesday 11 January 7.30 pm

Wednesday 1 February 7.30 pm

FLORESTAN TRIO

LEONIDAS KAVAKOS violin EMANUEL AX piano

See page 9 for full details

See page 24 for details Friday 13 January 7.30 pm

FLORESTAN TRIO See page 9 for details Thursday 19 January 3.00 – 6.00 pm

BIRKBECK STUDY AFTERNOON: BEETHOVEN AND THE CELLO See page 13 for details

Friday 24 February 5.00 pm – 6.15 pm Friday 2 March 5.00 pm – 6.15 pm Friday 9 March 5.00 pm – 6.15 pm Friday 16 March 5.00 pm – 6.15 pm

INTRODUCTION TO MUSIC See page 35 for details Thursday 22 March 7.30 pm

BELCEA QUARTET

Thursday 19 January 7.30 pm

See page 54 for details

PIETER WISPELWEY cello KRISTIAN BEZUIDENHOUT

Forthcoming concerts in this series

fortepiano See page 13 for details

Tuesday 24 April 7.30 pm

Friday 20 January 7.30 pm

PIETER WISPELWEY cello KRISTIAN BEZUIDENHOUT fortepiano See page 15 for details 6

LEONIDAS KAVAKOS violin EMANUEL AX piano Monday 14 May 7.30 pm Wednesday 13 June 7.30 pm

BELCEA QUARTET

Sunday 8 January 11.30 am

AVIV STRING QUARTET MOZART String Quartet in D K499 ‘Hoffmeister’ TCHAIKOVSKY String Quartet No. 3 in E b minor Op. 30 Mozart’s ‘Hoffmeister’ Quartet, written and named for its publisher, explores emotional contrasts and melodic delights, notably so in its lusty Minuet and contemplative Adagio. Tchaikovsky, meanwhile, confronts mortality in the Andante funebre of his Third String Quartet, completed in 1876 as a posthumous tribute to the work’s dedicatee, Ferdinand Laub, first violinist in the première performances of the composer’s earlier quartets. Since its formation 15 years ago, the Aviv String Quartet has developed an international reputation for the eloquence and conviction of its interpretations of everything from Viennese masterworks to the riches of Russian chamber music, past and present. £12 concs £10 incl. programme and coffee/sherry/juice

Coffee Concert

Sunday 8 January 4.00 pm

RAPHAEL WALLFISCH cello JOHN YORK piano DELIUS 150TH ANNIVERSARY CONCERT DELIUS Romance; Caprice and Elegy; Cello Sonata GRIEG Cello Sonata in A minor Op. 36 Born 150 years ago, Frederick Delius spent much of his life far from his native Bradford. The composer’s artistic development began with studies in Leipzig and was informed by his lasting friendship with Edvard Grieg. It continued following his relocation to France and marriage to the German painter ‘Jelka’ Rosen. For all his knowledge of international trends in music, Delius has been described as one of ‘the most significant and characteristic of English compositional voices’. Raphael Wallfisch has consistently cast fresh light on Delius’s work since first recording his Cello Sonata a quarter of a century ago.

LONDON CONCHORD ENSEMBLE

Patrick Allen, Opera Omnia

Monday 9 January 1.00 pm

LONDON CONCHORD ENSEMBLE POULENC Sextet for piano and wind MOZART Adagio and Rondo in C minor K617 BEETHOVEN Quintet in E b for piano and wind Op. 16 Vienna echoed to the sounds of wind band music in the late 1700s. The city’s wind ensemble, the celebrated Harmonie, supported an outstanding group of players and attracted excellent musicians from the lands of the Habsburg Empire. The London Conchord Ensemble includes one of the finest of all chamber works for wind instruments, Beethoven’s Mozart-inspired Quintet in E flat for Piano and Winds Op. 16. Mozart’s Adagio and Rondo in C minor K617, his final chamber music composition, was originally scored for winds and strings with glass harmonica, the hauntingly beautiful instrument invented by American polymath and political theorist Benjamin Franklin. £12 concs £10

BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert

£12 concs £10

Monday 9 January 6.00 pm

Chamber Music Season

PRE-CONCERT EVENT 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 (not part of subscription scheme) or free with evening concert (separate ticket required)

Chamber Music Season RAPHAEL WALLFISCH

Box Office 020 7935 2141 Online Booking www.wigmore-hall.org.uk

Monday 9 January 7.30 pm

Tuesday 10 January 7.30 pm

RAZUMOVSKY ENSEMBLE

JULIA KLEITER soprano CHRISTOPH PRÉGARDIEN tenor JULIUS DRAKE piano

SERGEI KRYLOV violin MAXIM RYSANOV viola OLEG KOGAN cello MOZART Duo in G K423; Piano Quartet No. 2 in E b K493 BRAHMS Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor Op. 25 Sergei Krylov and Maxim Rysanov join the Razumovsky Ensemble for a programme of rich contrasts, including Mozart’s Duo in G for violin and viola. ‘Each Razumovsky member may be king of their chosen instrument, but they scale the heavens as a team,’ notes The Times, adding that the group’s players ‘open a world of music-making fabulously rich in tone colours, ensemble precision, and lyrical sweep of a kind rarely met this side of paradise’. £15 £20 £25 £30

Chamber Music Season

THE HUGO WOLF SONGBOOKS The Mörike and Goethe Songbooks, two of the great masterpieces of the Lieder repertoire, were written over an inspired twelve months between 1888 and 1889. They are presented complete in four recitals at Wigmore Hall.

THE HUGO WOLF SONGBOOKS WOLF Mörike: Der Knabe und das Immlein; Nixe Binsefuss; Elfenlied; Begegnung; Der Gärtner; An die Geliebte; Der Feuerreiter WOLF Goethe: Ganymed; Die Spröde; Gleich und gleich; Die Bekehrte; Ritter Kurts Brautfahrt; Der neue Amadis; Genialisch Treiben; St Nepomuks Vorabend WOLF Mörike Geistliche Lieder: Neue Liebe; Zum neuen Jahr; Karwoche; Auf ein altes Bild; Gebet; Seufzer; Wo find ich Trost?; Denk’ es, o Seele!; Schlafendes Jesuskind Wigmore Hall audiences have come to savour the work of Christoph Prégardien, with its characteristic elements of tonal light and shade, visionary word-painting and exquisitely spun legato. The German tenor turns his lyric artistry to the interpretation of Hugo Wolf’s Mörike and Goethe songs, including the consummate ‘An die Geliebte’. Julia Kleiter, an acclaimed Mozartian and admired Lieder singer, and the ever-inspired Julius Drake complete this artistic triumvirate. £18 £25 £30 £35

Song Recital Series/The Hugo Wolf Songbooks

Forthcoming concerts in this series Wednesday 25 July 7.30 pm

CHRISTIANNE STOTIJN mezzo-soprano MARK PADMORE tenor JULIUS DRAKE piano Sunday 6 January 2013 7.30 pm

ANGELIKA KIRCHSCHLAGER mezzo-soprano

DIETRICH HENSCHEL baritone JULIUS DRAKE piano Friday 15 February 2013 7.30 pm

SOPHIE DANEMAN soprano IAN BOSTRIDGE tenor JULIUS DRAKE piano JULIA KLEITER AND CHRISTOPH PRÉGARDIEN

Marco Borggreve

Box Office 020 7935 2141 Online Booking www.wigmore-hall.org.uk

Wednesday 11 January 7.30 pm

Friday 13 January 7.30 pm

FLORESTAN TRIO

FAREWELL RECITAL 2

FAREWELL RECITAL 3

BEETHOVEN Piano Trio in B b Op. 11; Piano Trio in G Op. 1 No. 2; Piano Trio in E b Op. 70 No. 2

BEETHOVEN Variations in G Op. 121a ‘Ich bin der Schneider Kakadu’; Piano Trio in E b Op. 1 No. 1; Piano Trio in B b Op. 97 ‘Archduke’

With the success of his ‘Lichnowsky’ trios confirmed by their publication as the composer’s Op. 1 in 1795, Beethoven introduced fresh creative energy to the medium two years later. His Piano Trio in B b Op. 11 was originally conceived for the adventurous combination of piano, clarinet and cello, its memorable music crowned by a set of sprightly variations on the operatic trio from Joseph Weigl’s L’Amor marinaro. The Florestan Trio’s Beethoven series continues with the second of the composer’s Op. 70 collection, a work of sumptuous sonority and noble invention.

Beethoven’s first published piano trio, strong of structure and expansive in its ideas, contains traces of the grandeur that captivated early critics of his ‘Archduke’, the composer’s last full-length trio of 1811. The Florestan Trio explores another of Beethoven’s essays in the genre, the ‘Kakadu’ Variations, based on the melody of an irresistibly charming opera aria by Wenzel Müller.

£15 £20 £25 £30

Chamber Music Season/Beethoven Chamber and Instrumental Music

Thursday 12 January 7.30 pm

EARLY OPERA COMPANY ANNA STÉPHANY mezzo-soprano HILARY SUMMERS contralto ED LYON tenor MARCUS FARNSWORTH baritone CHRISTIAN CURNYN director CHARPENTIER Actéon PURCELL Dido and Aeneas Charpentier’s Actéon and Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, while each lasting less than an hour, pack an emotional punch infinitely mightier than their concise length. Their compelling stories recount the terrible fate of protagonists whose lives are destroyed by the forces of love, power and fate. £18 £25 £30 £35

Early Music and Baroque Series

MARCUS FARNSWORTH

Benjamin Ealovega

ANNA STÉPHANY

Box Office 020 7935 2141 Online Booking www.wigmore-hall.org.uk

ALICE COOTE: A CELEBRATION Only a heart of stone would be unaffected by the visceral commitment, emotional honesty and creative perception of Alice Coote’s mature artistry. She has beguiled international audiences over the past decade, winning plaudits for searching interpretations of everything from Massenet’s Charlotte and Handel’s Ariodante to the songs of Mahler and Berlioz. The Independent praised her for ‘a vocal performance of immense sophistication and unguarded, untiring beauty’ in the recent production of Cendrillon at the ROH. Her recital partnership with Julius Drake has occupied a prominent place in Wigmore Hall’s programming landscape for many years. This season’s special Celebration, complete with unmissable Handel and Schubert recitals, explores compositions guaranteed to reveal the core of Coote’s artistic being. Saturday 14 January 6.00 pm

PRE-CONCERT TALK

Thursday 26 January 7.30 pm (repeated Saturday 28 January 7.30 pm)

£3 (not part of the subscription scheme)

ALICE COOTE mezzo-soprano JULIUS DRAKE piano

Wigmore Hall Learning Event/Alice Coote: A Celebration

SCHUBERT Winterreise

NORMAN LEBRECHT on the songs of MAHLER.

See page 19 for details Saturday 14 January 7.30 pm

Forthcoming concert in this series

Wigmore Hall Chamber Ensemble in Residence

Tuesday 29 May 7.30 pm

NASH ENSEMBLE ALICE COOTE mezzo-soprano MARTYN BRABBINS conductor

ALICE COOTE mezzo-soprano THE ENGLISH CONCERT

BEETHOVEN Quintet in E b for piano and winds Op. 16 MAHLER Rückert Lieder (arr. D Matthews) SCHUBERT Octet in F D803 Romanticism echoes with crystal clarity in Mahler’s Five Rückert Lieder, performed by Alice Coote and the Nash Ensemble in David Matthews’s refined arrangement for voice and chamber ensemble. The romantic spirit likewise governs Schubert’s Octet, a work of springtime freshness and life-affirming verve. £18 £25 £30 £35 (not part of the subscription scheme)

Chamber Music Season /Echoes of Romanticism/Alice Coote: A Celebration Supported by Judy Davies and Kingsley Manning

Photo by Anne-Marie Le Blé

Sunday 15 January 11.30 am

Sunday 15 January 7.30 pm

QUATUOR APOLLON MUSAGÈTE

CHRISTOPHER MALTMAN baritone CHRISTOPHER GLYNN piano

BEETHOVEN String Quartet in C Op. 59 No. 3 ‘Razumovsky’ SHOSTAKOVICH String Quartet No. 4 in D Op. 83 Founded in Vienna in 2006, the Quatuor Apollon Musagète soon attracted critical admiration and earned victories in a succession of international competitions. Apollon Musagète returns to Wigmore Hall with a programme certain to project the ensemble’s characteristic blend of impassioned artistry and exquisitely cultured playing. Shostakovich completed his soul-searching Fourth Quartet in 1949, complete with Jewish folk melodies, but had to wait for Stalin’s death and the resulting ‘thaw’ in cultural life for its first performance. The third of Beethoven’s ‘Razumovsky’ Quartets, published in Vienna in 1808, evokes the spirit of Russian melody in its expansive slow movement. £12 concs £10 incl. programme and coffee/sherry/juice

Coffee Concert

RAVEL 75TH ANNIVERSARY

UNE RARE ÉMOTION – THE SONGS OF MAURICE RAVEL AND HIS CIRCLE RAVEL Deux épigrammes de Clément Marot: D’Anne qui me jecta de la neige; D’Anne jouant de l’espinette RAVEL Ronsard à son âme; Manteau de fleurs; Sainte CHABRIER Lied; L’île heureuse; Chanson pour Jeanne; Villanelle des petits canards RAVEL Histoires naturelles; Deux mélodies hébraïques; Chanson hébraïque from Chants populaires VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Let Beauty Awake; The Water Mill; Silent Noon RAVEL Si morne!; Un grand sommeil noir; Les grands vents venus d’outremer; Don Quichotte à Dulcinée Distinguished baritone Christopher Maltman joins Christopher Glynn to perform some of Ravel’s finest songs, including the cycle Histoires naturelles with its vivid and witty depiction of the lives of five animals. Their programme includes songs by Ravel’s pupil, Vaughan Williams, and one of the French composer’s most vibrant and characterful evocations of his Spanish ancestral home in the form of Don Quichotte à Dulcinée. £15 £20 £25 £30

Song Recital Series/Ravel 75th Anniversary Thursday 23 February 7.30 pm

STEVEN OSBORNE piano See page 34 for full details Forthcoming concerts in this series MAURICE RAVEL

photo @ akg-images

Saturday 16 June 7.30 pm Shy and intensely protective of his privacy, Ravel projected his emotions almost exclusively through music. The composer, who died 75 years ago, flecked the surfaces of his exquisitely crafted scores with traces of personal turmoil and, following his mother’s death in 1917, of profound grief. ‘These little outbursts of flame,’ observed the musicologist and composer H. H. Stuckenschmidt, ‘exert the strongest fascination in the study of a style that almost invariably displays the same spotless and elegant exterior as did the outward appearance of the man who created it.’ This series promises to deliver revelatory reflections on Ravel by artists with powerful affinities for the inner and external landscapes of the composer’s music.

STEVEN OSBORNE piano Tuesday 26 June 7.30 pm

AILISH TYNAN soprano CHRISTOPHER GLYNN piano

Box Office 020 7935 2141 Online Booking www.wigmore-hall.org.uk

Wednesday 18 January 7.30 pm

BASEL CHAMBER ORCHESTRA JULIA SCHRÖDER conductor MARK PADMORE tenor OLIVIER DARBELLAY horn

HANNO MÜLLER-BRACHMANN

Monika Rittershaus

Monday 16 January 1.00 pm

HANNO MÜLLER-BRACHMANN bass-baritone HENDRIK HEILMANN piano SCHUBERT Heine songs from Schwanengesang: Der Atlas; Ihr Bild; Das Fischermädchen; Die Stadt; Am Meer; Der Doppelgänger BRAHMS Es schauen die Blumen; Meerfahrt; Der Tod, das ist die kühle Nacht; Es liebt sich so lieblich im Lenze SCHUMANN Liederkreis Op. 24 A native of southern Germany, Hanno-Müller Brachmann studied with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Rudolf Piernay. The pedigree of the bass-baritone’s training, his ineffable ability to communicate words and their meaning, and the authentic humanity of his performances have attracted critical superlatives and a growing international reputation. He comes to Wigmore Hall for a BBC Radio 3 lunchtime recital programme steeped in musical substance, complete with Schubert’s yearning settings of Heinrich Heine from the composer’s Schwanengesang and Schumann’s sublime Liederkreis Op. 24.

PURCELL Thou wakeful shepherd (A Morning Hymn); Now that the sun hath veiled its light (An Evening Hymn); Let the night perish (Job’s Curse) BRITTEN Serenade Op. 31 for tenor, horn and strings MOZART Horn Concerto No. 2 in E b K417 HAYDN Symphony No. 52 in C minor Since its foundation in 1984, the Basel Chamber Orchestra has developed enthralling combinations of early and modern music. The Swiss ensemble has become a leading cultural ambassador for its home city, regularly appearing with distinguished guest artists and under the direction of its inspirational leader, Julia Schröder. Mark Padmore’s innate feeling for drama and spellbinding command of vocal colour will here be at the service of Purcell and Britten, a natural pairing to complement the BCO’s choice of works by Mozart and Haydn. £20 £30 £35 £40

Song Recital Series/Chamber Music Season

£12 concs £10

BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert

Tuesday 17 January 7.30 pm

ZEHETMAIR QUARTET HINDEMITH String Quartet No. 5 SCHUBERT String Quartet in G D887 After the excesses of Weimar Germany, the tumult of the Nazi 1930s and his escape to exile in the United States, Hindemith returned to the string quartet medium to create one of his finest chamber works. The Zehetmair Quartet’s typically bold programming approach hallmarks its choice of Schubert’s monumental String Quartet in G D887 as companion piece, a late work of symphonic proportions and all-encompassing expressive power. £15 £20 £25 £30

MARK PADMORE

Marco Borggreve

Supported by the Benefactor Friends of Wigmore Hall

Chamber Music Season 12

Box Office 020 7935 2141 Online Booking www.wigmore-hall.org.uk

Thursday 19 January 3.00 – 6.00 pm

BIRKBECK STUDY AFTERNOON: BEETHOVEN AND THE CELLO Thirty-two piano sonatas, ten for violin, nine symphonies – and just five sonatas by Beethoven to enrich the cello repertoire – but more than enough to span his development as a composer. Those of Op. 5 have magnificent piano parts, written to show off the 25-year old Beethoven’s virtuosity. In Op. 102, shorter, more concentrated and concise, minimal musical material is used in an equal partnership. Join ROSS ALLEY to explore the full range of Beethoven’s development through these striking works. £10 concs £6 (not part of subscription scheme) Linked to the Beethoven Chamber and Instrumental Series (see page 6) and the concerts by Pieter Wispelwey and Kristian Bezuidenhout on 19 & 20 January – concert tickets to be purchased separately. In association with Birkbeck, University of London

Wigmore Hall Learning Event/Beethoven Chamber and Instrumental Series

KRISTIAN BEZUIDENHOUT

Marco Borggreve

Thursday 19 January 7.30 pm

PIETER WISPELWEY cello KRISTIAN BEZUIDENHOUT fortepiano BEETHOVEN Cello Sonata in F Op. 5 No. 1; Cello Sonata in C Op. 102 No. 1; 12 Variations on a Theme from Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus WoO45; Cello Sonata in G minor Op. 5 No. 2 ‘Whether singing, dancing, raging or ruminating,’ observed Alex Ross in The New Yorker, Pieter Wispelwey’s playing ‘mimics the contours of human gesture and speech.’ The Dutch musician has likewise been hailed for the full-blooded expression and passionate emotional life of his interpretations of Beethoven’s cello sonatas and variations, both on disc and in the concert hall. £15 £20 £25 £30 Supported by the members of the Rubinstein Circle

Chamber Music Season/Beethoven Chamber and Instrumental Series

PIETER WISPELWEY

Hang-Jin Cho

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EUROPEAN CHAMBER MUSIC ACADEMY SHOWCASE Founded in 2004 by Hatto Beyerle – co-founder and violist of the Alban Berg Quartet – the European Chamber Music Academy (ECMA) is dedicated to promoting and nurturing today’s young, aspiring chamber music ensembles. With a special focus on string quartets and piano trios, the Academy is formed of an association of European music educational institutions and festivals, which provides ongoing training opportunities for the young ensembles. The students receive a mix of theoretical and practical tuition, including instrumental masterclasses, academic lectures, workshops and seminars. ECMA returns to Wigmore Hall showcasing the talents of four of today’s brightest ensembles in a series of concerts throughout the weekend, as well as a masterclass with the inspirational Hatto Beyerle on Saturday 21 January.

Friday 20 January 1.00 pm

QUATUOR GIRARD TRIO ATANASSOV BARTÓK String Quartet No. 2 Op. 17 SCHUBERT Piano Trio No. 1 in B b D898 Trio Atanassov was founded in 2007 by three students at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris. The Quatuor Girard, meanwhile, evolved out of the talents of four siblings, members of the remarkably musical Girard family from Avignon. Saturday 21 January 11.00 am

ECMA MASTERCLASS Artistic Director and founder of ECMA, HATTO BEYERLE, gives a masterclass on the essence of musical rhetoric, working with QUATUOR GIRARD on string quartet repertoire of the late 18th century. Wigmore Hall Learning Event/ECMA Showcase Saturday 21 January 4.00 pm

CUARTETO QUIROGA BARTÓK String Quartet No. 3 BEETHOVEN String Quartet in F Op. 59 No. 1 ‘Razumovsky’ Cuarteto Quiroga returns to Wigmore Hall following its 2010 debut with two works drawn from the fruitful middle periods of Bartók and Beethoven. Named for the polymath Galician violinist, composer and visual artist Manuel Quiroga, the group continues to secure its place among the best of Spanish quartets as resident ensemble at the Fundación Museo Cerralbo in Madrid.

TRIO ATANASSOV

Sunday 22 January 4.00 pm

TRIO GASPARD QUATUOR GIRARD

BEETHOVEN Piano Trio in D Op. 70 No. 1 ‘Ghost’ RAVEL Piano Trio in A minor Soon after completing his mould-breaking ‘Pastoral’ Symphony in 1808, Beethoven began work on two piano trios. While the first of his Op. 70 pair, popularly known as the ‘Ghost’ for its mysterious slow movement’s Gothic eeriness, inhabits a Shakespearean world of contrasting emotions, Ravel’s A minor Piano Trio presents a panoply of innovative tonal shadings and sensuous sonorities within its classically conceived four-movement form.

CUARTETO QUIROGA

All tickets £5 each event (not part of subscription scheme) Free admission to masterclass (only) for Friends of Wigmore Hall TRIO GASPARD

Chamber Music Season/ECMA Showcase

The ECMA Showcase has been supported by a gift from the estates of the late Thomas and Betty Elton in memory of Sigmund Elton

Friday 20 January 7.30 pm

Sunday 22 January 11.30 am

PIETER WISPELWEY cello KRISTIAN BEZUIDENHOUT fortepiano

Wigmore Hall Chamber Ensemble in Residence

BEETHOVEN 7 Variations on ‘Bei Männern, welche Liebe fühlen’ from Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte WoO46; Cello Sonata in D Op. 102 No. 2; 12 Variations in F on ‘Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen’ from Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte Op. 66; Cello Sonata in A Op. 69 Beethoven probably met Mozart and may have received lessons from him during his first visit to Vienna as a teenager in the spring of 1787. The older composer’s legacy certainly left its mark on young Beethoven, who later crafted two sets of variations for cello and piano on arias from Mozart’s hugely popular opera Die Zauberflöte. Pieter Wispelwey and Kristian Bezuidenhout present these joyfully lyrical early works together with the visionary Cello Sonata Op. 102 No. 2. £15 £20 £25 £30

Chamber Music Season/Beethoven Chamber and Instrumental Music

NASH ENSEMBLE BENJAMIN NABARRO violin RICHARD WATKINS horn SIMON CRAWFORD-PHILLIPS piano MOZART Serenade in C minor K388 (arr. Rechtman for wind quintet) MENDELSSOHN Concert Piece in F minor Op. 113 BRAHMS Horn Trio in E b Op. 40 ‘All the classical genres are now ridiculous in their purity,’ wrote the German philosopher and pioneer of Romanticism, Friedrich Schlegel, a sweeping assertion readily challenged by a flood of classically pure yet romantically charged musical works. Wigmore Hall’s Chamber Ensemble in Residence continues its Echoes of Romanticism series with three pieces emblematic of the balance between formal convention and expressive freedom, including Brahms’s lachrymose Horn Trio, a moving instrumental lament created following the death of his mother.

Saturday 21 January 7.30 pm

£12 concs £10 incl. programme and coffee/sherry/juice

BELCEA QUARTET

Coffee Concert/Echoes of Romanticism

BEETHOVEN String Quartet in G Op. 18 No. 2; String Quartet in E minor Op. 59 No. 2 ‘Razumovsky’; String Quartet in C # minor Op. 131 Building on the shoulders of giants, Beethoven assimilated the achievements of Haydn and Mozart in his Op. 18 string quartets before developing the medium’s expressive potential through his Op. 59 ‘Razumovsky’ Quartets. The Belcea Quartet caps the latest instalment in its complete Wigmore Hall Beethoven cycle with the monumental String Quartet in C # minor Op. 131, justifiably described by Donald Tovey as the composer’s ‘most fantastic and revolutionary’ work. £12 £16 £22 £26 The presentation of the complete Beethoven String Quartet cycle by the Belcea Quartet has been made possible with a bequest from the late Mrs Kate Goetz, a longstanding and much missed member of the Wigmore Hall audience.

Chamber Music Season/Beethoven Chamber and Instrumental Music

NASH ENSEMBLE

Hanya Chlala/ArenaPAL

Box Office 020 7935 2141 Online Booking www.wigmore-hall.org.uk

Tuesday 24 January 3.00 – 6.00 pm

BIRKBECK STUDY AFTERNOON: APPRECIATING CONTEMPORARY MUSIC Is the evening concert programme too challenging? It presents unfamiliar works without the perceived ‘relaxation’ of a little Mozart to soften the blows of modernity. However these pieces are all approachable – Feldman’s dance piece, inextricably linked to Merce Cunningham’s choreographic style, Carter’s tightly-planned Quartet, and Liebermann’s popular synthesis of old and innovative are exciting and beautiful. We will discuss how to listen to unfamiliar contemporary music, finding a way to appreciate the new as much as the familiar. With PAULINE GREENE and NICHOLAS O’NEILL. TAKÁCS QUARTET

Ellen Appel

Monday 23 January 1.00 pm

TAKÁCS QUARTET HAYDN String Quartet in D Op. 64 No. 5 ‘The Lark’ ˘ ÁK String Quartet in E b Op. 51 DVOR

£10 concs £6 (not part of subscription scheme) Linked to the 7.30 pm concert by Stephen Hough and the Juilliard Quartet on 24 January – concert tickets to be purchased separately. In association with Birkbeck, University of London

Wigmore Hall Learning Event

Honoured with a Royal Philharmonic Society Award in 2011 for the ‘unique insight, maturity and uncompromising excellence’ of its recent London Beethoven cycle, the Takács Quartet here directs its collective experience and intensely committed artistry to the service of Haydn’s evergreen ‘Lark’ Quartet and Dvor˘ák’s Quartet in F minor Op. 51, infused with the flavour and piquant harmonies of Slavonic dances. £12 concs £10

BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert

Monday 23 January 7.30 pm

NIKOLAI DEMIDENKO piano SCHUBERT 4 Impromptus D899; Drei Klavierstücke D946; Piano Sonata in C minor D958 Almost 20 years have passed since Russian pianist Nikolai Demidenko, a regular Wigmore Hall performer, last programmed Schubert for a recital at the venue. This concert reflects Demidenko’s affinity and admiration for the lyricism of the Impromptus D899, intensely focused creations of the composer’s final year, set here in company with the Drei Klavierstücke D946 and the emotionally charged Piano Sonata in C minor D958.

NIKOLAI DEMIDENKO

Kirill Bachkirov

£15 £20 £25 £30

London Pianoforte Series

Box Office 020 7935 2141 Online Booking www.wigmore-hall.org.uk

STEPHEN HOUGH: ARTIST IN RESIDENCE Deep thinking away from the keyboard, often stimulated by the imaginative shaping forces of literature, visual art and the world of ideas, lies at the heart of Stephen Hough’s music making. The balance between considered reason and spontaneous emotion certainly matter to an artist acclaimed for stripping accretions of sentimentality and layers of tired tradition from familiar masterworks. John Gilhooly invited Hough to present a season of concerts at Wigmore Hall to celebrate the pianist’s 50th birthday year, in part by exploring the piano quintet repertoire in partnership with four exceptional string quartets. Hough’s programme choices, from Byrd’s keyboard dances to the music of Morton Feldman, reflect the considered judgement and sensibilities of an artist at the height of his powers. ‘String quartets and solo pianists have by far the greatest repertoire, both in terms of size and quality. It is no surprise then that when they join forces they form the grandest of chamber music groups – truly an orchestra in miniature. Each concert has a national theme, and the series as a whole shares a common structure: before the interval, solo piano pieces and a string quartet; after the interval, the five players united in four contrasting masterpieces’ Stephen Hough Tuesday 24 January 7.30 pm

STEPHEN HOUGH piano JUILLIARD QUARTET FELDMAN Variations ELLIOTT CARTER String Quartet No. 5 (1995) LOWELL LIEBERMANN Piano Quintet Op. 34 Morton Feldman, who died 25 years ago this September, acquired the status of maverick and guru, a composer whose work offers an aural counterpart to the emotional intensity and formal freedom of New York’s Abstract Expressionists. Feldman’s Variations for solo piano, written in 1951 for an eponymous dance by Merce Cunningham, prepares the ground for two modern American masterworks. Elliott Carter’s Fifth Quartet explores ambiguities of rhythm and pitch in a composition of protean flexibility, while Lowell Liebermann’s Piano Quintet Op. 34 blends tradition and innovation throughout its powerful 30-minute span. £15 £20 £25 £30

Chamber Music Season/Stephen Hough: Artist in Residence Wednesday 7 March 10.00 am

STEPHEN HOUGH MASTERCLASS See page 46 for details Thursday 8 March 7.30 pm

STEPHEN HOUGH piano & HEATH QUARTET See page 46 for details

Forthcoming concert in this series Tuesday 5 June 7.30 pm

STEPHEN HOUGH piano & ENDELLION QUARTET 17

Photo by Grant Hiroshima

Wednesday 25 January 7.30 pm

JAMES EHNES violin ANDREW ARMSTRONG piano TARTINI/KREISLER Violin Sonata in G minor ‘Devil’s Trill’ BEETHOVEN Violin Sonata No. 5 in F Op. 24 ‘Spring’ PAGANINI 4 Caprices from 24 Caprices Op. 1 FRANCK Sonata in A for violin and piano

Free to concert ticket holders (separate ticket required)

Hairs were raised and spines tingled when James Ehnes and Andrew Armstrong performed at Wigmore Hall last February. The partnership’s full-blooded virtuosity and panoramic expressive range ideally meet the demands of the quartet of pieces in their latest programme, from the helter-skelter ride of Tartini’s ‘Devil’s Trill’ to the sublime lyricism of Franck’s Sonata in A, conceived as a wedding present and received as one of the world’s finest works for violin and piano.

Wigmore Hall Learning Event

£15 £20 £25 £30

ELSPETH BROOKE

Alys Tomlinson

Wednesday 25 January 12.15 pm

PRE-CONCERT TALK ELSPETH BROOKE discusses her new work.

Chamber Music Season Wednesday 25 January 1.00 pm

BRITTEN SINFONIA NICHOLAS DANIEL oboe SARAH BURNETT bassoon HUW WATKINS piano HANDEL Trio Sonata ANDRÉ PREVIN Trio for piano, oboe and bassoon ELSPETH BROOKE New Work (London première)* POULENC Trio for oboe, bassoon and piano *Co-commissioned by Britten Sinfonia and Wigmore Hall

Music for the combination of oboe, bassoon and piano may be unusual but is by no means unique. Poulenc’s light and witty Trio, arguably the genre’s best known work, echoes the clarity, balance and simplicity of the French Baroque, a neat companion for the spry energy and jazz rhythms of André Previn’s Trio. Young composer Elspeth Brooke, whose teachers include Alexander Goehr and Simon Bainbridge, extends the ensemble’s repertoire with a new work co-commissioned by Britten Sinfonia and Wigmore Hall. ‘Some of my earliest and happiest chamber music experiences were as part of an oboe, bassoon and piano trio. It’s a wonderful mix of instruments at the heart of whose repertory stands the Poulenc Trio which exemplifies the wonderful colours such a combination can express. The Previn is a good contrast with jazzy rhythms and long elegiac lines. However, the repertoire for such an ensemble is small, so it is with great delight that we welcome the new piece by Elspeth Brooke.’ Sarah Burnett JAMES EHNES

Benjamin Ealovega

£12 concs £10

Chamber Music Season 18

Box Office 020 7935 2141 Online Booking www.wigmore-hall.org.uk

WIGMORE STUDY GROUP

Thursday 26 January 7.30 pm

ALICE COOTE mezzo-soprano JULIUS DRAKE piano SCHUBERT Winterreise Almost four years have passed since Alice Coote and Julius Drake first unveiled their thoughts on Schubert’s inexhaustible song-cycle at Wigmore Hall. Their account of Winterreise was acclaimed then for its ‘searing musical strength’ and for its ‘startling’ insights into the work’s tragic journey through the realms of heartbreak and despair. Those qualities will surely have been magnified by their subsequent explorations of Winterreise elsewhere and deepened by time’s passing. £18 £25 £30 £35

Song Recital Series/Alice Coote: A Celebration

Friday 27 January 11.00 am – 12.00 noon

SCHOOLS’ CONCERT: BOWS AND ARIAS

IGOR STRAVINSKY

Painting by Jacques-Emile Blanche

Thursday 26 January 3.00 – 6.00 pm Tuesday 31 January 3.00 – 6.00 pm Thursday 2 February 3.00 – 6.00 pm

THE SOLDIER’S TALE For the second Wigmore Study Group of the season, composer JULIAN PHILIPS explores Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale, linked to an evening performance of the work on 3 February, with Janine Jansen. Composed towards the end of the First World War and premièred in Lausanne on 28 September 1918, The Soldier’s Tale is a unique synthesis of narration, music and dance, based on the folk-tale The Soldier and the Devil, and conceived as ‘something simple ... whose music would only require a small number of instruments ... and two or three characters’. This Wigmore Study Group will not only explore the remarkable context for the work’s creation, but also its distinctive theatricality and how its striking blend of Russian folk-music, popular dance and jazz opened up new possibilities for the development of Stravinsky’s musical style.

Join cellist GUY JOHNSTON and special guests for this concert of string and vocal music for Key Stage 3 students. The concert will be an interactive introduction into classical chamber music, and will include the world première of a new song. Tickets £2.50 (not part of subscription scheme) Supported by John Lyon’s Charity, The Samuel Sebba Charitable Trust and The Monument Trust

Wigmore Hall Learning Event

Friday 27 January 6.00 pm

ARTISTS IN CONVERSATION MICHAEL COLLINS in conversation with ANNETTE MORREAU £3 (not part of the subscription scheme)

Wigmore Hall Learning Event

Series ticket price £53 including 3 study sessions and a ticket for the evening concert on 3 February (not part of subscription scheme)

Wigmore Hall Learning Event

Box Office 020 7935 2141 Online Booking www.wigmore-hall.org.uk

Saturday 28 January 7.30 pm

ALICE COOTE mezzo-soprano JULIUS DRAKE piano Repeat of concert on 26 January £18 £25 £30 £35

Song Recital Series/Alice Coote: A Celebration

Sunday 29 January 11.30 am

ZEMLINSKY QUARTET BEETHOVEN String Quartet in B b Op. 18 No. 6 SUK Meditation on an old Bohemian Chorale (St Wenceslas) Op. 35a MENDELSSOHN String Quartet in E minor Op. 44 No. 2 Among scions of the Czech chamber music tradition, the Zemlinsky Quartet works tirelessly to promote music and cast light on neglected repertoire by its compatriots. The ensemble’s perspicacious programme connects two works from the Classical canon with Suk’s Meditation, completed in 1914 following the death of his father, a country schoolteacher and choirmaster from a small village in Bohemia. MICHAEL COLLINS

Eric Richmond

Friday 27 January 7.30 pm

£12 concs £10 incl. programme and coffee/sherry/juice

Coffee Concert

MICHAEL COLLINS clarinet, director LONDON WINDS CITY OF LONDON SINFONIA CHRISTINE RICE mezzo-soprano MICHAEL COLLINS BIRTHDAY CONCERT MOZART Parto, parto from La clemenza di Tito; Clarinet Concerto in A K622; Serenade in B b for 13 wind instruments K361 ‘Gran Partita’ British audiences have held Michael Collins tight in their affections since he won through to the final of the first BBC Young Musician of the Year Competition in 1978. The clarinettist’s artistic personality and winning musicianship have set benchmark standards for his instrument, inspiring many composers, John Adams and Mark-Anthony Turnage among them, to create works especially for him. Collins celebrates his 50th birthday as soloist, and in his new role as Principal Conductor of the City of London Sinfonia in an all-Mozart programme on what would have also been the composer’s birthday. £18 £25 £30 £35 ZEMLINSKY QUARTET

Tomás˘ Bican

Chamber Music Season

Box Office 020 7935 2141 Online Booking www.wigmore-hall.org.uk

Sunday 29 January 7.30 pm

SOL GABETTA cello BERTRAND CHAMAYOU piano SCHUMANN Fantasiestücke Op. 73 BEETHOVEN Cello Sonata in A Op. 69 MENDELSSOHN Cello Sonata No. 2 in D Op. 58 SERVAIS Fantaisie sur deux Airs Russes Op. 13

SOL GABETTA

Marco Borggreve

Sunday 29 January 4.00 pm

ROYAL ACADEMY OF MUSIC SONG CIRCLE RUTH JENKINS soprano KATIE BRAY mezz0-soprano STUART JACKSON tenor JOHNNY HERFORD baritone MATTHEW FLETCHER piano SCHUBERT Der Vater mit dem Kind; An die Leier; Im Haine; Der Zwerg; Wehmut; Nacht und Träume; Licht und Liebe; Abendstern; Lied eines Schiffers an die Dioskuren; An die Freunde; Nach einem Gewitter; Iphigenia; Des Fräuleins Liebeslauschen; Fischerweise; Widerschein; Am Bach im Frühlinge; An die Musik; Pilgerweise; Abschied; Der Wanderer an den Mond; Die Männer sind méchant; Die Taubenpost; Schwanengesang D744; Der Jüngling und der Tod Schubert’s native ability to move from joy to despair within the span of a few bars reached extraordinary levels of invention in his songs. The accomplished young members of the Royal Academy of Music Song Circle, always eagerly awaited visitors to Wigmore Hall, present a Schubertiade devoted to songs inspired by the poetry of his friends. £12 concs £10

WIGMORE HALL EMERGING TALE N T Supported by Mayfield Valley Arts Trust

Song Recital Series

Known for the passion and elemental force of her performances, Sol Gabetta has done much to attract new listeners to classical music while connecting with seasoned audiences through the refreshing insight and refined artistry of her interpretations. She pays tribute to François Servais, the ‘Paganini of the Cello’, with his Fantaisie sur deux Airs Russes, programmed here as complement to Schumann’s own ‘fantasy pieces’ for cello and piano. £15 £20 £25 £30

Chamber Music Season

Monday 30 January 1.00 pm

ELIAS STRING QUARTET * LEON FLEISHER piano WEBERN Langsamer Satz BRAHMS Piano Quintet in F minor Op. 34 Tradition and renewal stand as natural companions in the history of music making, a point strongly underlined by the partnership between Leon Fleisher and the effervescent Elias String Quartet. The charismatic American pianist studied with Artur Schnabel, who in turn was taught by Brahms’s close friend Theodor Leschetizky. Fleisher’s lifelong experience meets the searching artistry of the young British-based ensemble in the Piano Quintet in F minor, originally written for strings and later transformed by Brahms into a work of almighty tonal substance. £12 concs £10

WIGMORE HALL EMERGING TA LE N T * Supported by Mayfield Valley Arts Trust

BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert

LEON FLEISHER

Box Office 020 7935 2141 Online Booking www.wigmore-hall.org.uk

Monday 30 January 7.30 pm

CLASSICAL OPERA COMPANY IAN PAGE conductor SARAH-JANE BRANDON soprano KOZELUCH Symphony in G minor MOZART Ah, lo previdi ... Ah, t’invola agl’occhi miei; E Susanna non vien ... Dove sono i bei momenti from Le nozze di Figaro; Bella mia fiamma ... Resta, o cara MOZART Symphony No. 40 in G minor K550 Ian Page conducts a darkly dramatic programme featuring the two magnificent concert arias conceived by Mozart for the celebrated Czech soprano Josepha Dus˘ek. This programme is framed by two remarkable G minor symphonies from the 1780s: one practically unknown, the other among the pinnacles of the Classical repertoire. £16 £22 £26 £30

Early Music and Baroque Series SARAH-JANE BRANDON

Tuesday 31 January 7.30 pm

WERNER GÜRA tenor ROGER VIGNOLES piano SCHUBERT BIRTHDAY CONCERT SCHUBERT Der Wanderer an den Mond; Im Frühling; Alinde; Sehnsucht; Bei dir allein; Der Fischer; Daß sie hier gewesen; Der Schiffer; Willkommen und Abschied; Der Wanderer; Im Walde; Wandrers Nachtlied I; Heine songs from Schwanengesang: Das Fischermädchen; Ihr Bild; Der Atlas; Die Stadt; Am Meer; Der Doppelgänger; It would be hard to imagine a better way to celebrate Schubert’s birthday than with this ideal combination of artists and repertoire. The German tenor Werner Güra’s lyrical warmth and capacity to illuminate words and their meaning have hallmarked his Schubert interpretations over the past decade, the product of vocal refinement and daring musicianship. £18 £25 £30 £35

WERNER GÜRA

Monika Rittershaus

Supported by Michael and Rosemary Warburg in memory of their aunt, the late Mrs Kate Goetz, who loved the Wigmore Hall and attended her last concert with them shortly before her 101st birthday.

Song Recital Series/ Roger Vignoles: ‘Perspectives’

Box Office 020 7935 2141 Online Booking www.wigmore-hall.org.uk

ROGER VIGNOLES: ‘PERSPECTIVES’ Few words could more accurately embrace the artistry of Roger Vignoles than ‘perspective’. He curates a glorious showcase of song under the title at Wigmore Hall this season, revealing the musical ties that connect the pianist so strongly with like-minded singers, those with the desire and ability to extract fresh ideas from cornerstone compositions and communicate every imaginable shade of emotion in works old and new. A glance at the Vignoles record of Wigmore Hall recitals and at his Perspectives series boldly underlines his place among the venue’s great artists, a man inspired by the example of Gerald Moore, taught by Paul Hamburger and imbued with outstanding qualities of his own gift.

Tuesday 31 January 7.30 pm

Forthcoming concerts in this series

WERNER GÜRA tenor ROGER VIGNOLES piano

Monday 2 April 7.30 pm

SCHUBERT BIRTHDAY CONCERT See page opposite for details

JOAN RODGERS soprano RODERICK WILLIAMS baritone ROGER VIGNOLES piano

Thursday 2 February 7.30 pm

Wednesday 11 April 7.30 pm

MARTINA JANKOVÁ

SANDRINE PIAU soprano ROGER VIGNOLES piano

soprano

BERNARDA FINK mezzo-soprano

Friday 13 April 7.30 pm

ROGER VIGNOLES piano

BERNARDA FINK mezzo-soprano ROGER VIGNOLES piano

See page 24 for details Friday 10 February 6.00 pm

ARTISTS IN CONVERSATION

Friday 4 May 1.00 pm

ROGER VIGNOLES MASTERCLASS

See page 28 for details

Saturday 9 June 7.30 pm

Friday 10 February 7.30 pm

CHRISTINE BREWER soprano ROGER VIGNOLES piano

JOHN MARK AINSLEY tenor

ROGER VIGNOLES piano See page 28 for details Tuesday 28 February 7.30 pm

ROBERT HOLL baritone ROGER VIGNOLES piano See page 38 for details

Sunday 17 June 4.00 pm

RENATA POKUPIC´ mezzo-soprano

ANTOINE TAMESTIT viola ROGER VIGNOLES piano Tuesday 19 June 7.30 pm

MIAH PERSSON soprano ROGER VIGNOLES piano

Song Recital Series/Roger Vignoles: ‘Perspectives’

Photo by Benjamin Ealovega

Wednesday 1 February 7.30 pm

LEONIDAS KAVAKOS violin EMANUEL AX piano BEETHOVEN Violin Sonata No. 2 in A Op. 12 No. 2; Violin Sonata No. 3 in E b Op. 12 No. 3; Violin Sonata No. 6 in A Op. 30 No. 1; Violin Sonata No. 7 in C minor Op. 30 No. 2 Beethoven drew inspiration from the Viennese violinist, Ignaz Schuppanzigh, while crafting his Op. 12 violin sonatas in 1798. The composer treated violin and piano as equal partners, a strategy fully explored four years later in his commanding Op. 30 works. Interplay and exchange are central to the three pieces in this programme, qualities guaranteed to trigger mercurial music-making from the entrancing partnership of Leonidas Kavakos and Emanuel Ax, here for their second Wigmore Hall Beethoven recital this season. £15 £20 £25 £30 Supported by an anonymous donor

Chamber Music Season/Beethoven Chamber and Instrumental Music

˘ ÁK PLUS SERIES DVOR As a youngster, Dvor˘ák entertained customers at his father’s butcher’s shop by playing Bohemian folksongs on the violin. Popular melodies are never absent for long in the composer’s scores, often treated to symphonic transformation or developed as part of a grand mix of Romantic ideas and imagery. Dvor˘ák Plus examines the colourful strands of cultural influence at work in his music, notably supplied by Smetana and Brahms, and enhanced in pieces by composers of the following generation. Wigmore Hall’s unmissable series is populated by performers known for their insightful accounts of Czech music, from the Gould Piano Trio and S˘ kampa Quartet to Martina Janková, Bernarda Fink and Roger Vignoles.

MARTINA JANKOVÁ

Lude˘k Neuz˘il

The boundary edges of Wigmore Hall’s Dvor˘ák Plus series and Roger Vignoles ‘Perspectives’ overlap in this revealing programme of creative interconnections, influences and repercussions. Bernarda Fink’s elegant lyricism and poetic sensibility have hallmarked her concert and recorded performances of Dvor˘ák songs with Roger Vignoles. They join forces here with Czech soprano Martina Janková, recognised among the finest Mozartians of her generation and acclaimed for the charm and grace of her song performances. £15 £20 £25 £30

Song Recital Series/Dvor˘ák Plus Series/ Roger Vignoles: ‘Perspectives’ Friday 23 March 7.30 pm

Thursday 2 February 7.30 pm

GOULD PIANO TRIO

MARTINA JANKOVÁ soprano BERNARDA FINK mezzo-soprano ROGER VIGNOLES piano

See page 55 for details

˘ ÁK From thee now; Fly, sweet songster; The pledge of DVOR love; Forsaken BRAHMS Spanisches Lied; Am Sonntag Morgen; Sonntag; Mädchenlied Op. 85 No. 3; Mädchenlied Op. 107 No. 5; Das Mädchen spricht SCHUMANN Bedeckt mich mit Blumen; Sommerruh; from Spanisches Liederspiel: Botschaft; Erste Begegnung BRAHMS Am Strande; Weg der Liebe I & II; ˘ ÁK Give ear to my prayer; Lord is my Die Schwestern DVOR shepherd; I will sing a new song; By the rivers of Babylon; I will lift up mine eyes; The Slighted Heart; Parting Without Sorrow; The Maid Imprisoned; The Modest Maid; The Ring

Tuesday 3 April 7.30 pm

Forthcoming concerts in this series

GOULD PIANO TRIO Friday 13 April 7.30 pm

BERNARDA FINK mezz0-soprano ROGER VIGNOLES piano Wednesday 18 July 7.30 pm

˘KAMPA QUARTET S Box Office 020 7935 2141 Online Booking www.wigmore-hall.org.uk

JANINE JANSEN RESIDENCY Thursday 26 January 3.00 – 6.00 pm Tuesday 31 January 3.00 – 6.00 pm Thursday 2 February 3.00 – 6.00 pm

WIGMORE STUDY GROUP See page 19 for details Friday 3 February 7.30 pm

JANINE JANSEN violin STACEY WATTON double bass LARS WOUTERS VAN DEN OUDENWEIJER clarinet FREDRIK EKDAHL bassoon REINHOLD FRIEDRICH trumpet JÖRGEN VAN RIJEN trombone GUSTAVO GIMENO percussion SAMUEL WEST narrator (subject to availability) STRAVINSKY The Soldier’s Tale While decisive battles raged in the trenches of Flanders and bloody skirmishes defined the course of Russia’s Civil War, Stravinsky was at work in Switzerland setting a timeless parable of the homecoming soldier who sells his soul to the devil in return for a violin. Janine Jansen, Samuel West and an international brigade of outstanding soloists join forces to catch the spirit of the exiled composer’s pioneering work of music theatre. £15 £20 £25 £30

Chamber Music Season/Janine Jansen Residency Saturday 4 February 11.00 am

OPEN AUDIENCE PERFORMANCE For age 8 plus A repeat performance of The Soldier’s Tale by Stravinsky, open to families and children aged 8 and up. The story is based on a Russian folk tale about a soldier who makes a deal with the devil, trading his fiddle for a book that predicts the future. Please note – this is not an interactive concert and is not suitable for younger children. Adults £7 Children £5 (not part of subscription scheme) Supported by Mayfield Valley Arts Trust, The Andor Charitable Trust and The Monument Trust

Wigmore Hall Learning Event/Janine Jansen Residency Photo by Felix Broede

Forthcoming concert in this series Wednesday 16 May 7.30 pm

JANINE JANSEN violin BORIS BROVTSYN violin AMIHAI GROSZ viola MAXIM RYSANOV viola TORLEIF THEDÉEN cello JENS PETER MAINTZ cello SCHOENBERG Verklärte Nacht Op. 4 SCHUBERT String Quintet in C D956 Chamber Music Season/ Janine Jansen Residency

Sunday 5 February 4.00 pm

MALIN CHRISTENSSON soprano SIMON LEPPER piano

BENNEWITZ QUARTET

Soukup-Jezek Production

Saturday 4 February 7.30 pm

BENNEWITZ QUARTET HAYDN String Quartet in E b Op. 33 No. 2 ‘The Joke’ SCHNITTKE String Quartet No. 3 ˘ ÁK String Quartet No. 13 in G Op. 106 DVOR The Prague-based Bennewitz Quartet returns to Wigmore Hall with a strikingly imaginative programme, opening with a musical joke and concluding with a profound masterwork. While Dvor˘ák’s Op. 106 explores vibrant emotional and musical contrasts, Alfred Schnittke weaves together fragments borrowed from other composers in his Third String Quartet with which to draw listeners deep into the work’s concentrated soundworld. Schnittke’s score, complete with loud echoes of Beethoven’s Grosse Fuge, has entered the chamber music repertoire since its first performance almost three decades ago.

SCHUBERT Liebe schwärmt auf allen Wegen; Das Rosenband; Du bist die Ruh; Der Musensohn DEBUSSY Voici que le printemps CHAUSSON Le colibri DELIBES Le rossignol CHABRIER Villanelle des petits canards STENHAMMAR Adagio; I skogen RANGSTRÖM Sommarnatten from Idyll GRIEG Mens jeg venter; En svane; En fuglevise STRAUSS Die Nacht; Ich wollt’ ein Sträußlein binden; Der Stern; Hat gesagt – bleibt’s nicht dabei; Ständchen Swedish soprano Malin Christensson, a BBC New Generation Artist, refined her craft as a student of London’s Royal College of Music and at the Benjamin Britten International Opera School. She returns to Wigmore Hall with Simon Lepper to give a recital of beguiling linguistic breadth and coruscating musical brilliance, complete with songs by her countryman, Wilhelm Stenhammar, Debussy’s sensuous ‘Voici que le printemps’ and an exquisite garland of Strauss Lieder. £12 concs £10

Song Recital Series

£12 £16 £22 £26

Chamber Music Season

Sunday 5 February 11.30 am

ANTHONY HEWITT piano SCHUBERT Impromptu in E b D899 No. 2; Impromptu in A b D935 No. 2 BEETHOVEN Piano Sonata No. 30 in E Op. 109 SKRYABIN Piano Sonata No. 4 in F # Op. 30 CHOPIN Barcarolle in F # Op. 60; Polonaise-fantaisie in A b Op. 61; Polonaise in A b Op. 53 ‘Heroic’ Hailed by Gramophone as a ‘remarkably gifted pianist’, Anthony Hewitt’s work is already well known to Wigmore Hall audiences. His latest concert charts the fleeting moods of two of Schubert’s late works, the vivacious Impromptu in E b D899 and its tender-hearted counterpart in A b major from the composer’s second set of Impromptus. Two piano sonatas, Beethoven’s intimate Op. 109 and Skryabin’s equally concise Op. 30, lead to Chopin’s wistful Barcarolle, his harmonically daring Polonaise-fantaisie of 1846 and the ‘Heroic’ Polonaise in A b, a blazing icon of Romantic music. £12 concs £10 incl. programme and coffee/sherry/juice

MALIN CHRISTENSSON

Sussie Ahlburg

Coffee Concert 26

Box Office 020 7935 2141 Online Booking www.wigmore-hall.org.uk

Monday 6 February 1.00 pm

ALEXANDER MELNIKOV piano BRAHMS Variations on a Theme by Robert Schumann in F # minor Op. 9; Scherzo in E b minor Op. 4; Piano Sonata No. 2 in F # minor Op. 2 ‘What he makes happen with a top-class instrument is Titianesque in colour and grandeur,’ commented one reviewer following Alexander Melnikov’s Wigmore Hall traversal of works by Schubert, Brahms and Shostakovich last season. His all-Brahms programme, comprising three glorious early compositions, harbours all the timbral and emotional ingredients required to create another unforgettable concert. Brahmsian rubato, tonal light and shade, and personal perspectives are certain to be part of the Russian pianist’s interpretative armoury. £12 concs £10

ALEXANDER MELNIKOV

Marco Borggreve

Tuesday 7 February 7.30 pm

THE ENDELLION STRING QUARTET BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert

Monday 6 February 7.30 pm

MARC-ANDRÉ HAMELIN piano HAYDN Piano Sonata in E minor HXVI:34 STOCKHAUSEN Klavierstück IX VILLA-LOBOS Rudepoema LISZT Piano Sonata in B minor S178 Since making his London debut 20 years ago with a mesmerising performance of Alkan’s Concerto for solo piano, Marc-André Hamelin has fashioned a deep impression on the capital’s music scene with his exceptional virtuosity, heroic artistry and innovative programming. The Canadian pianist’s latest repertoire adventure spans almost two centuries of creative history and, in the case of Liszt’s B minor Sonata, a seemingly infinite emotional range. It also highlights points of contact and contrast between the convention defying harmonic turns of Haydn’s Sonata in E minor, the kaleidoscopic tonal shifts of Stockhausen’s Klavierstück IX and Villa Lobos’s pioneering Rudepoema.

HAYDN String Quartet in E b Op. 71 No. 3 WALTON String Quartet in A minor BEETHOVEN String Quartet in C Op. 59 No. 3 ‘Razumovsky’ According to the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, the ‘Endellion is arguably the finest quartet in Britain, playing with poise, true intonation, excellent balance and a beautiful tone. In music of the Viennese Classical composers it has few challengers.’ Two Viennese masterworks from Haydn’s golden maturity and the heart of Beethoven’s middle period frame this concert’s performance of William Walton’s exquisite quartet, which combines his characteristic warm lyricism with incisive rhythmic intensity and brilliance. £12 £16 £22 £26

Chamber Music Season

£15 £20 £25 £30 Supported by Peter and Sonia Field

London Pianoforte Series

MARC-ANDRÉ HAMELIN

Sim Canetty-Clarke

Box Office 020 7935 2141 Online Booking www.wigmore-hall.org.uk

Friday 10 February 6.00 pm

ARTISTS IN CONVERSATION ROGER VIGNOLES in conversation with RICHARD STOKES £3 (not part of the subscription scheme)

Wigmore Hall Learning Event/Roger Vignoles: ‘Perspectives’

DAME FELICITY LOTT

Trevor Leighton

Saturday 11 February 7.30 pm Wigmore Hall Chamber Ensemble in Residence

NASH ENSEMBLE DAME FELICITY LOTT soprano PAUL WATKINS conductor WAGNER Siegfried Idyll (original version) MOZART String Quintet in C K515 STRAUSS Sextet from Capriccio STRAUSS Moonlight Music and closing scene from Capriccio (arr. D Matthews)

JOHN MARK AINSLEY

Mozart’s expansive C major String Quintet here separates music by two other great opera composers. Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll began life as an intimate birthday greeting to his wife, incorporating themes from the opera Siegfried. The Nash Ensemble’s chosen excerpts from Capriccio, Richard Strauss’s radiant farewell composition for the operatic stage, include the moving final scene, with Dame Felicity Lott in one of her classic roles as the Countess.

Friday 10 February 7.30 pm

£18 £24 £28 £32

JOHN MARK AINSLEY tenor ROGER VIGNOLES piano

Chamber Music Season/Echoes of Romanticism

MENDELSSOHN Neue Liebe; Gruß; Allnächtlich im Traume; Morgengruß; Auf Flügeln des Gesanges; Reiselied BRAHMS Sommerabend; Mondenschein; Es schauen die Blumen; Meerfahrt; Der Tod, das ist die kühle Nacht; Es liebt sich so lieblich im Lenze SCHUMANN Dichterliebe

Sunday 12 February 11.30 am

PRAZ˘ÁK QUARTET MOZART String Quartet in D K575 BRAHMS String Quartet in Bb Op. 67

Julius Stockhausen, the celebrated German baritone, became the first singer to perform Schumann’s complete Dichterliebe in concert just over 150 years ago, an innovation considered dangerously experimental by reactionary critics, those wedded to the idea that the Lied should remain a private pleasure for connoisseurs. John Mark Ainsley and Roger Vignoles present a programme of German Romantic song of every shade and hue, from Mendelssohn’s tender ‘Gruß’ to the transcendent final pages of Dichterliebe.

Four students at the Prague Conservatory set about creating a new string quartet in 1972. The ensemble, which took the name of its founding cellist, shot to worldwide attention with a celebrated debut at the Prague Spring Music Festival three years later. Throughout its distinguished history, the Praz˘ák Quartet has upheld and enhanced the great traditions of Czech quartet playing. The works of Mozart and Brahms are also central to the group’s artistic ethos.

£15 £20 £25 £30

£12 concs £10 incl. programme and coffee/sherry/juice

Song Recital Series/ Roger Vignoles: ‘Perspectives’

Coffee Concert

Box Office 020 7935 2141 Online Booking www.wigmore-hall.org.uk

Sunday 12 February 4.00 pm

BEN JOHNSON tenor* GRAHAM JOHNSON piano POULENC Toréador Six miscellaneous Cocteau settings by BERKELEY, SATIE, AURIC, DUREY, HONEGGER and SACRE POULENC Cocardes; Cinq poèmes de Paul Éluard; Miroirs brûlants Songs by SAUGUET LIPATTI L’amoureuse POULENC Tel jour, telle nuit Young British tenor Ben Johnson made headline news five years ago when he broke the firm grasp of female artists on the Kathleen Ferrier Award’s first prize. His stock has risen further since, supported by membership of the prestigious BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists scheme and a clutch of standout performances in opera, oratorio and recital. He joins his illustrious namesake to perform songs of the utmost sophistication and expressive beauty, including Poulenc’s scintillating Cinq poèmes de Paul Éluard. £12 concs £10 ANGELA HEWITT

Bernd Eberle

WIGMORE HALL EMERGING TALE N T * Supported by Mayfield Valley Arts Trust

Sunday 12 February 7.30 pm

Song Recital Series

KARINA GAUVIN soprano ANDREA OLIVA flute ANGELA HEWITT piano HAHN Quand je fus pris au pavillon; Si mes vers avaient des ailes; A Chloris; Le printemps DEBUSSY Chansons de Bilitis JOLIVET Chant de Linos POULENC Sonata for flute and piano FAURÉ Sérénade toscane; Automne; Après un rêve; Nell; En sourdine; Notre amour RAVEL La flûte enchantée from Shéhérazade BIZET Adieux de l’hôtesse arabe; Guitare; La coccinelle; Ouvre ton cœur Angela Hewitt’s French Series turns to the heady harmonies and elevated aesthetics of fin-de-siècle Paris for a programme glorious in its diversity and expressive contrasts, from the nostalgic yearning of Reynaldo Hahn’s matchless ‘A Chloris’ to Debussy’s erotically charged Chansons de Bilitis. She is joined by Québécoise soprano Karina Gauvin, winner of the Maggie Teyte Memorial Prize, and Andrea Oliva, principal flute of the Orchestra of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome. £15 £20 £25 £30

Song Recital Series/Angela Hewitt: French Series BEN JOHNSON

Chris Gloag

Box Office 020 7935 2141 Online Booking www.wigmore-hall.org.uk

Wednesday 15 February 7.30 pm

ALEXANDRE THARAUD piano SCARLATTI Sonata in D minor Kk64; Sonata in D minor Kk9; Sonata in C Kk72; Sonata in C Kk132; Sonata in D Kk29; Sonata in E Kk380; Sonata in A minor Kk3; Sonata in C Kk514; Sonata in F minor Kk481; Sonata in D minor Kk141 LISZT Funérailles S173 No. 7 CHOPIN Piano Sonata No. 2 in B b minor Op. 35 ‘Funeral March’ ESCHER QUARTET

J. Henry Fair

Monday 13 February 1.00 pm

ESCHER QUARTET HAYDN String Quartet in D Op. 76 No. 5 BARTÓK String Quartet No. 5 Heralded by the New York Times for its ‘glowing tone and insightful musicianship’, the Escher Quartet continues to burnish its international reputation as a member of BBC Radio 3’s New Generation Artists scheme. The ensemble draws its inspiration from the interconnected lines and engrossing construction of works by Dutch graphic artist, M.C. Escher, aesthetic elements ideally suited to the thematic intricacies of Haydn’s String Quartet in D Op. 76 No. 5 and the sublimely crafted structures and eerie dissonances of Bartók’s Fifth String Quartet.

Despite a dearth of facts about his life, recent scholarship has revealed the international breadth of influences and multiplicity of stylistic strands at work in Domenico Scarlatti’s music. Alexandre Tharaud’s vivid Scarlatti interpretations embrace the breathtaking variety and colourful musical character of works all too often treated as products stamped from material of the same pattern. The young French pianist’s recent Scarlatti recording was praised by Nicholas Kenyon in the Observer for its ‘wonderfully original reimagining’ of the composer’s sonatas. £15 £20 £25 £30

London Pianoforte Series

£12 concs £10 The Escher Quartet is a member of BBC Radio 3’s New Generation Artists scheme

BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert

Tuesday 14 February 7.30 pm

MARK PADMORE tenor PAUL LEWIS piano SCHUBERT Winterreise In the early months of 1827, Schubert’s friends were profoundly disturbed by the composer’s agitated condition while creating what he succinctly described as a ‘cycle of awe-inspiring songs’. Winterreise examines suicidal despair through the prism of a great artist’s imagination. Mark Padmore and Paul Lewis have charted the work’s oceanic depths in a Gramophone Awardwinning recording and in an evolving concert interpretation saturated with subtle nuance and poetic inflection. £18 £25 £30 £35 Supported by the Season Patrons who have made a major contribution to the 2011–12 Wigmore Series

ALEXANDRE THARAUD

Marco Borggreve

Thursday 16 February 7.30 pm

MARK PADMORE tenor PAUL LEWIS piano Repeat of concert on 14 February £18 £25 £30 £35

Song Recital Series/Paul Lewis – Schubert Series

Song Recital Series/Paul Lewis – Schubert Series 30

Box Office 020 7935 2141 Online Booking www.wigmore-hall.org.uk

Saturday 18 February 7.30 pm

PUMEZA MATSHIKIZA soprano SARAH-JANE BRANDON soprano DEAN POWER tenor DEARBHLA COLLINS piano MAIREAD HURLEY piano VERONICA DUNNE INTERNATIONAL SINGING COMPETITION SHOWCASE Programme to include songs, duets and arias by MOZART, SCHUBERT, SCHUMANN, DEBUSSY and QUILTER. Ireland’s principal showcase for rising vocal talent, the Veronica Dunne International Singing Competition, presents a gala concert performed by the highest placed prizewinners from the 2010 Competition. South African sopranos Pumeza Matshikiza and Sarah-Jane Brandon will appear alongside tenor Dean Power in an imaginative programme of songs, arias and duets, together with Ireland’s leading accompanists, Dearbhla Collins and Mairead Hurley. This concert also serves as the launch event for the next Veronica Dunne International Singing Competition, set to take place in Dublin in January 2013. £15 £20 £25 £30 CECILIA STRING QUARTET

courtesy of the Banff Centre

Song Recital Series Sunday 19 February 11.30 am

CECILIA STRING QUARTET WINNER OF THE 2010 BANFF INTERNATIONAL STRING QUARTET COMPETITION BEETHOVEN String Quartet in F Op. 135 BERG Lyric Suite Whether moving audiences with white-hot performances, inspiring future generations of musicians or extending chamber music’s creative boundaries, the Cecilia String Quartet’s core values are focused by an abiding commitment to excellence and expressive communication. The young Canadian ensemble, winner of the 2010 Banff International String Quartet Competition, makes its Wigmore Hall debut with two works certain to reveal the breadth of its musical and emotional understanding. Berg’s Lyric Suite contains the composer’s famous ‘secret programme’, encoding references to his love affair with Hanna Fuchs in its impassioned music. £12 concs £10 incl. programme and coffee/sherry/juice

Coffee Concert PUMEZA MATSHIKIZA

Chris Christodoulou

Box Office 020 7935 2141 Online Booking www.wigmore-hall.org.uk

Monday 20 February 1.00 pm

ALEXANDRA SOUMM violin PLAMENA MANGOVA piano MOZART Violin Sonata in E b K380 YSAŸE Poème élégiaque Op. 12 STRAVINSKY Divertimento BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist Alexandra Soumm, a protégé of eminent pedagogue and Vienna Schubert Trio violinist Boris Kuschnir, made her mark as 15-year-old winner of the 2004 Eurovision Competition for young musicians. Her achievements since include a series of high-profile concerto debuts, two recordings and critically acclaimed recitals at the Verbier, Schleswig-Holstein and Strasbourg festivals. She joins Bulgarian pianist Plamena Mangova for a Wigmore Hall programme complete with virtuosic display and classical refinement. £12 concs £10 Alexandra Soumm is a member of BBC Radio 3’s New Generation Artists scheme

BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert

SOPHIE KARTHÄUSER

Alvaro Yañez

Sunday 19 February 4.00 pm

SOPHIE KARTHÄUSER soprano CÉDRIC TIBERGHIEN piano FAURÉ Cinq mélodies ‘de Venise‘ MERNIER Dans l’interminable ennui de la plaine; Cythère DEBUSSY Ariettes oubliées FOCCROULLE Le piano que baise une main frêle; Ganymède; De la douceur; Dansons la gigue HAHN From Chansons grises: Tous deux; L’heure exquise HAHN Fêtes galantes Sophie Karthäuser, winner of the audience prize at the 2003 Wigmore Hall Song Competition, has cast her repertoire sights to target everything from early opera to contemporary song. The Belgian soprano’s latest recital programme blends richly concentrated mélodies by Fauré, Debussy and Reynaldo Hahn with the music of Liège-born composer Bernard Foccroulle, director of the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, and his former student, Benoît Mernier. £12 concs £10

Song Recital Series

ALEXANDRA SOUMM

Claves Records

Box Office 020 7935 2141 Online Booking www.wigmore-hall.org.uk

THE BOSTRIDGE PROJECT: ‘ANCIENT AND MODERN’ When John Gilhooly invited Ian Bostridge to devise a series of Wigmore Hall concerts, the tenor responded with a programme rich in potent ideas and clear traces of their creative development over many centuries. His exploration of matters ‘Ancient and Modern’, informed by resonant history and bristling with life, moves into the tantalising terrain of dramatic cantatas, courtly airs and contemporary song-cycles for its second phase. Period performance practices, past and present, give focus to each programme and, as Bostridge observes, allow individual pieces to ‘reflect upon each other’. If you’ve never heard Stravinsky’s rarely performed Cantata, are new to the infinitely nuanced nature of French airs de cour or simply hunger for fresh ways of experiencing familiar repertoire, then every date in The Bostridge Project has to be a diary priority.

Monday 20 February 6.00 pm

PRE-CONCERT TALK BETTANY HUGHES on Socrates £3 (not part of subscription scheme)

Wigmore Hall Learning Event/The Bostridge Project: ‘Ancient and Modern’ Monday 20 February 7.30 pm

ANGELIKA KIRCHSCHLAGER mezzo-soprano IAN BOSTRIDGE tenor AURORA ORCHESTRA NICHOLAS COLLON conductor, harpsichord THE ENGLISH CONCERT LAURENCE CUMMINGS director, harpsichord FIGURES FROM THE ANCIENT

Forthcoming concerts in this series Friday 11 May 7.30 pm

SOPHIE DANEMAN soprano IAN BOSTRIDGE tenor ELIZABETH KENNY lute GRAHAM JOHNSON piano FÊTES GALANTES Programme to include French Airs de Cour, and Mélodies by DEBUSSY and FAURÉ Saturday 7 July 7.30 pm

ANGELIKA KIRCHSCHLAGER mezzo-soprano

BRITTEN Phaedra Op. 93 SATIE The Death of Socrates from Socrate HANDEL Cantata: O numi eterni (La Lucrezia) HWV145 SCARLATTI Cantata: Io son Neron, l’imperator del mondo

IAN BOSTRIDGE tenor THE ENGLISH CONCERT HARRY BICKET director, harpsichord

Artistic responses to the ancient world, to its great myths and tragedies, provide the serious substance of this boldly conceived Bostridge Project recital. The concert opens with Britten’s late masterwork, Phaedra, a ‘dramatic cantata’ written for Janet Baker and explores the cataclysmic, revenge-capped world of Handel’s 20-minute chamber cantata, O numi eterni, a visceral evocation of the rape and suicide of Lucretia. Alessandro Scarlatti’s cantata deals with the corrosive nature of absolute power and its malign hold on Rome’s infamous arsonist and emperor, Nero.

Programme to include MONTEVERDI Duets STRAVINSKY Cantata

Programme to include songs by

£20 £30 £35 £40

BRITTEN, HENZE and KNUSSEN

Song Recital Series/The Bostridge Project: ‘Ancient and Modern’/ Early Music and Baroque Series

Saturday 28 July 7.30 pm

IAN BOSTRIDGE tenor XUEFEI YANG guitar JULIUS DRAKE piano

Photo by Benjamin Ealovega

Thursday 23 February 7.30 pm

STEVEN OSBORNE piano RAVEL Sonatine; Gaspard de la nuit; Pavane pour un infante défunte; Minuet on the name of Haydn; A la manière de … Chabrier; A la manière de … Borodine; Sérénade grotesque; Menuet in C # minor; Jeux d’eau; Prélude; La valse ‘If pianos could purr,’ noted the Independent, ‘then the Wigmore’s Steinway would surely have done so, for Steven Osborne stroked it so affectionately, the strings seemed to ring of their own accord.’ The Gramophone Awardwinning artist marks the 75th anniversary of Ravel’s death with an evening of keyboard miniatures and masterworks, delightful diversions and picaresque adventures, and music of transcendent beauty. His recent complete Ravel recording has been favourably compared to benchmark interpretations by Gieseking and Casadesus. Gaspard de la nuit, Everest-like in its technical challenges, is certainly embedded in Osborne’s musical DNA, eliciting performances that dig deep beneath the surface shimmer of Ravel’s score to reveal the work’s startling imaginary landscapes.

DANNY DRIVER

Tuesday 21 February 7.30 pm

DANNY DRIVER piano

‘Osborne brings transcendental Lisztian virtuosity and an astonishing palette of sonorities to the fiendish Gaspard pieces’ Sunday Times £15 £20 £25 £30

London Pianoforte Series/Ravel 75th Anniversary

BACH Partita No. 1 in B b BWV825 CHOPIN 12 Études Op. 25 LIGETI Etudes BEETHOVEN Piano Sonata No. 32 in C minor Op. 111 Danny Driver has attracted the attention of music lovers around the world with critically acclaimed performances and recordings of rare distinction on the Hyperion label. Peter Reed wrote of his most recent Wigmore Hall recital that ‘the intensity and immediacy was something else – and more than justified the accumulating fuss being made of this fine musician.’ For this welcome return, he leads us from Bach’s first partita to Beethoven’s last piano sonata through the etudes of Chopin and Ligeti. ‘It would be impossible to over-estimate Driver’s impeccable technique and musicianship’ Gramophone £15 £20 £35 £30

WIGMORE HALL EMERGING TALE N T Supported by Mayfield Valley Arts Trust

London Pianoforte Series

STEVEN OSBORNE

Benjamin Ealovega

Box Office 020 7935 2141 Online Booking www.wigmore-hall.org.uk

INTRODUCTION TO MUSIC

how he then broke the mould and introduced innovative form, harmony, range, and spirit into this timeless combination of instruments. Series ticket price £24 (not part of subscription scheme) Linked to the Beethoven Chamber and Instrumental Series (see page 6) – concert tickets to be purchased separately

Wigmore Hall Learning Event/ Beethoven Chamber and Instrumental Series

Friday 24 February 7.30 pm

SCOTTISH ENSEMBLE JONATHAN MORTON violin, director LAWRENCE POWER viola

BEETHOVEN

bust detail by Hugo Hagen

Friday 24 February 5.00 – 6.15 pm Friday 2 March 5.00 – 6.15 pm Friday 9 March 5.00 – 6.15 pm Friday 16 March 5.00 – 6.15 pm

BEETHOVEN STRING QUARTETS In his lifetime Beethoven wrote sixteen string quartets, and these stretch from his earliest pieces to his final sublime works. The Belcea Quartet’s mission to present them all this season gives us the opportunity to look at their development and direction, as well as some beautiful individual works. Taking examples from the early, middle and late quartets, PAULINE GREENE explains the initial lively style – after all, Beethoven was taught by Haydn, the ‘Father of the String Quartet’ – and

HAYDN Symphony No. 44 in E minor ‘Trauer‘ BEDFORD New Work (London première) ALWYN Pastoral Fantasia MOZART Sinfonia concertante in E b K364 A joyful celebration of works by two great musical revolutionaries, this concert connects Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante with the première of a new score from British composer Luke Bedford. As part of the Scottish Ensemble’s ongoing creative dialogue between innovation and tradition, Bedford has created his own work for solo viola, violin and string orchestra, specifically intended to partner the Mozart. The solo lines will be taken up by Scottish Ensemble Artistic Director Jonathan Morton and distinguished viola player Lawrence Power, whose talents will also be featured in William Alwyn’s deliciously tuneful Pastoral Fantasia for viola and strings of 1939. £15 £20 £25 £30

Chamber Music Season

SCOTTISH ENSEMBLE

Joanne Green

Box Office 020 7935 2141 Online Booking www.wigmore-hall.org.uk

Saturday 25 February 11.00 am

Sunday 26 February 11.30 am

STEVEN ISSERLIS LEGENDS INTERVIEW SERIES

PANOCHA QUARTET

STEVEN ISSERLIS in conversation with IDA HAENDEL. For the second in his series, Steven Isserlis is joined by the incomparable violinist Ida Haendel to speak about her life in music, the place of music in her life and her views on the essential spirit of being a performer. ‘I am the violin,’ she declared in a documentary film around the time of her 80th birthday, defining a lifetime’s connection with her instrument and her art. Expect laughter and tears, as well as memorable insights, from this audience with a true legend. £15 (not part of subscription scheme)

Wigmore Hall Learning Event

Saturday 25 February 7.30 pm

MOZART String Quartet in D minor K421 ˘ ÁK String Quartet in F Op. 96 ‘American’ DVOR Seismic events towered over the Panocha Quartet’s origins at the Prague Conservatory in 1968, the year of Czech national optimism and its bloody repression by Soviet troops. The ensemble, coached by members of the great Smetana Quartet, evolved to reach maturity over the coming decade, developing its characteristic blend of tonal refinement, stylistic command and artistic sensitivity. The Panocha Quartet ranks among the elite company of Czech music-makers, a position supported by the visionary leadership and shared experience of its founding members, Jir˘i Panocha and Jaroslav Kulhan. £12 concs £10 incl. programme and coffee/sherry/juice

RONALD BRAUTIGAM fortepiano BEETHOVEN Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor Op. 13 ‘Pathétique’; 15 Variations and a Fugue on an Original Theme in E b ‘Eroica Variations’ Op. 35; Piano Sonata No. 14 in C # minor Op. 27 No. 2 ‘Moonlight’; Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor Op. 57 ‘Appassionata’

Coffee Concert

According to Friedrich Schiller, writing in the early 1790s, the purpose of art is to offer resistance to the inevitable shocks and tragedies of human existence. Beethoven’s ‘Pathétique’ and monumental ‘Appassionata’ sonatas present mighty broadsides and meditative contrasts against life’s turbulent realities, the latter defining the piano sonata genre for generations to come. Ronald Brautigam, described by The Times as ‘the king of fortepianists’, reclaims the composer’s soundworld using a modern copy of a Walter und Sohn instrument of c.1805. £15 £20 £25 £30

London Pianoforte Series

PANOCHA QUARTET

RONALD BRAUTIGAM

Marco Borggreve

Box Office 020 7935 2141 Online Booking www.wigmore-hall.org.uk

Sunday 26 February 7.30 pm

CHILINGIRIAN QUARTET 40TH ANNIVERSARY SEASON CONCERT HAYDN String Quartet in D Op. 76 No. 5 RAVEL String Quartet in F BRAHMS String Quartet in A minor Op. 51 No. 2

EKATERINA SEMENCHUK

Sheila Rock

Sunday 26 February 4.00 pm

EKATERINA SEMENCHUK mezzo-soprano* SEMYON SKIGIN piano

London audiences discovered the Chilingirian Quartet’s dynamic playing and vital musicianship soon after its formation in 1971. The Chilingirians celebrate the 40th anniversary of their formation with a programme of delightful masterworks. Ravel’s String Quartet was famously rejected by the jury of the Prix de Rome and learned professors of the Conservatoire de Paris, but was soon recognised as one of the great works of modern chamber music. Haydn shows his total command of Classical form and free-wheeling ability to subvert its rules in his Op. 76 quartets, while Brahms deals in expansive lyricism and entrancing dance rhythms in the String Quartet in A minor Op. 51. £12 £16 £22 £26

Chamber Music Season

TCHAIKOVSKY My genius, my angel, my friend; Six mélodies Op. 65; Do not believe, my friend; Why?; A tear trembles; None but the lonely heart; The fearful moment; It was in the early spring; Amid the din of the ball; On the golden cornfields; The mild stars shone for us; Frenzied nights; The first meeting; The fires in the room were already out; Does the day reign? ‘Literary activity was then … regarded as a sacred and mysterious occupation in Russia,’ recalls author and broadcaster Zinovy Zinik of his formative years in Moscow during the 1960s. Russian literature’s initial rise to power was propelled by the work of Romantic poets such as Alexei Tolstoy, whose ‘Amid the din of the ball’ and ‘Does the day reign?’ were immortalised in song by Tchaikovsky. Ekaterina Semenchuk’s all-Tchaikovsky programme evokes the artistic world of pre-Revolutionary Russia and the composer’s gift for matching gravid poetry to sublime music. £12 concs £10

WIGMORE HALL EMERGING TALE N T * Supported by Mayfield Valley Arts Trust

Song Recital Series

SEMYON SKIGIN

Box Office 020 7935 2141 Online Booking www.wigmore-hall.org.uk

Tuesday 28 February 7.30 pm

ROBERT HOLL baritone ROGER VIGNOLES piano SCHUMANN From Myrthen: Freisinn; Du bist wie eine Blume; Aus den östlichen Rosen; Was will die einsame Träne?; Zum Schluß SCHUMANN Dein Angesicht SCHUBERT Totengräbers Heimweh; Der Jüngling und der Tod; Der Tod und das Mädchen; Die Mutter Erde; Auflösung SCHUMANN Wer nie sein Brot mit Tränen aß; Wer sich der Einsamkeit ergibt; An die Türen will ich schleichen; Nachtlied MUSORGSKY Songs and Dances of Death

NIKOLAÏ LUGANSKY

James McMillan/Onyx

In February 1840 Clara Wieck wrote to Schumann: ‘Dear Robert; if only I could see you again ... I love you so much it hurts my heart’. Soon after receiving Clara’s letter, the composer asked his publisher to prepare a special binding for a new song-cycle, Myrthen, fit for a wedding gift. Schumann’s unconstrained passion for Clara is ever present in his Op. 25 songs, crowned by what he described as the ‘near worship’ of ‘Du bist wie eine Blume’. Robert Holl’s recital interweaves Schumann’s searing emotions of love, the bitter pain of grief and the terrifying psychodramas of Musorgsky’s Songs and Dances of Death.

Monday 27 February 1.00 pm

£18 £25 £30 £35

NIKOLAÏ LUGANSKY piano

Song Recital Series/ Roger Vignoles: ‘Perspectives’

LISZT Sposalizio from Années de pèlerinage, deuxième année, Italie S161 No. 1 WAGNER/LISZT Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde RACHMANINOV Piano Sonata No. 1 in D minor Op. 28 With Tatiana Nikolayeva as his mentor and inspiration, Nikolaï Lugansky can trace his pedigree in Russian Romantic repertoire back to Rachmaninov’s teacher Alexander Siloti and Tchaikovsky’s close friend Nikolai Rubinstein. The Moscow-born pianist’s artistry is closely bound to his deep study of symphonic and operatic works, a private passion fostered during early concert tours to the West in the final years of the Soviet Union. Liszt’s Sposalizio, with its cumulative power, and his spell-binding transcription of the Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde call on the performer to summon orchestral sonorities and dexterous tonal contrasts from the keyboard. £12 concs £10

BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert

ROBERT HOLL

Winfried Giersberg

Box Office 020 7935 2141 Online Booking www.wigmore-hall.org.uk

Wednesday 29 February 6.30 pm

Thursday 1 March 7.30 pm

PRE-CONCERT TALK

ELIAS STRING QUARTET * JONATHAN BISS piano

ALINA IBRAGIMOVA in conversation with BBC Radio 3’s SARA MOHR-PIETSCH. Free (separate ticket required) (not part of subscription scheme)

Wigmore Hall Learning Event

HAYDN String Quartet in C Op. 54 No. 2 SIBELIUS String Quartet in D minor Op. 56 ‘Voces Intimae’ ˘ ÁK Piano Quintet in A Op. 81 DVOR String quartet movements flowed from young Jean Sibelius like water from a mountain spring. The Finnish composer refined his quartet craft in the 1880s, extended his creative range in the following decade and completed the exquisite ‘Voces intimae’ in 1909 after moving to his country retreat by the shores of Lake Tuusula. The Elias String Quartet and Jonathan Biss also welcome the first day of spring with Dvor˘ák’s folk-inspired Piano Quintet in A major, a cornerstone work of Czech music. £15 £20 £25 £30

WIGMORE HALL EMERGING TA LE N T * Supported by Mayfield Valley Arts Trust

Chamber Music Season

ALINA IBRAGIMOVA

Sussie Ahlburg

Wednesday 29 February 7.30 pm

ACADEMY OF ANCIENT MUSIC ALINA IBRAGIMOVA director, violin MUSICAL REVOLUTIONS: RISE OF THE CONCERTO BIBER Passacaglia from the ‘Mystery (Rosary) Sonatas’ BACH Violin Sonata No. 3 in E BWV1016; Violin Concerto in A minor BWV1041 VIVALDI Concerto in D for violin RV234 ‘L’inquietudine’; Concerto in D minor for 2 violins Op. 3 No. 11 from L’estro armonico RV565 BIBER Battalia BACH Concerto in E for violin and strings BWV1042 Alina Ibragimova, hailed as ‘a new superstar’ in 2011 by BBC Music Magazine, makes her debut with the Academy of Ancient Music in a programme exploring pioneering innovations in violin writing, from Biber’s mighty Passacaglia for unaccompanied violin (among the earliest known solo works for the instrument) to the summit of the Baroque concerto in the hands of Vivaldi and J. S. Bach.

ELIAS STRING QUARTET

Benjamin Ealovega

£18 £24 £28 £32

Early Music and Baroque Series

Box Office 020 7935 2141 Online Booking www.wigmore-hall.org.uk

Friday 2 March 11.00 am – 11.45 am

SING A STORY SCHOOLS’ CONCERT Celebrating our early years outreach programme, Sing a Story is a special concert for children aged 3–7 years and their parents and teachers. Presented by children’s workshop leader ROB ADEDIRAN and involving a host of wonderful musicians, Sing a Story will include lots of singing, dance and percussion and the retelling of many classic children’s stories with a musical twist. Please bring a cushion to sit on.

NASH ENSEMBLE

Hanya Chlala/ArenaPAL

Saturday 3 March 6.00 pm

£2.50 (not part of subscription scheme)

Wigmore Hall Chamber Ensemble in Residence

Supported by John Lyon’s Charity, The Samuel Sebba Charitable Trust and The Monument Trust

NASH ENSEMBLE

Wigmore Hall Learning Event

Friday 2 March 7.30 pm

RICHARD HOSFORD clarinet STEPHANIE GONLEY violin LAWRENCE POWER viola PAUL WATKINS cello IAN BROWN piano SCHUBERT String Trio Movement in B b D471 BERG Adagio from Chamber Concerto ZEMLINSKY Clarinet Trio in D minor Op. 3 (Andante and Allegro)

LLYˆR WILLIAMS piano SCHUBERT Piano Sonata in C D840 ‘Reliquie‘ BRAHMS 7 Fantasien Op. 116 WEBERN Variations Op. 27 SCHUBERT Piano Sonata in A minor D845

£6 or £3 with evening ticket (separate ticket required) (not part of subscription scheme)

Llyˆr Williams turns to Schubert after his recent deep immersion in Beethoven’s complete piano sonatas. The intelligence and imaginative contours of the Welsh pianist’s interpretations bear witness to an artist described by the Guardian as blessed with a ‘sense of wisdom beyond his years’. Schubert’s Piano Sonata in A minor and its unfinished companion piece, the so-called ‘Reliquie’ sonata, serve as tightly argued, albeit lyrical companions to the free-flowing miniature Fantasien fashioned by Brahms in 1892 and Webern’s pellucid Variations of 1935–6. £15 £20 £25 £30

London Pianoforte Series

Chamber Music Season/Echoes of Romanticism

Saturday 3 March 7.30 pm Wigmore Hall Chamber Ensemble in Residence

NASH ENSEMBLE SCHUMANN Märchenerzählungen Op. 132 KORNGOLD Piano Quintet in E Op. 15 JOHANN STRAUSS II Schatzwalzer (Treasure Waltz) (arr. Webern) for piano, harmonium and string quartet SCHUBERT Piano Quintet in A D667 ‘The Trout’ This final double-bill in the Nash Ensemble’s Echoes of Romanticism series trains the spotlight on Vienna. One of the imperial city’s favourite sons, Franz Schubert, is represented by an early trio movement and the irrepressibly tuneful ‘Trout’ Quintet. The cultural and political ferment of later Viennese society, satirised by Karl Kraus and stoked by the city’s Byzantine bureaucracy, is abundantly evident in music by Berg and Zemlinsky, and again the powerful Piano Quintet by the prodigiously gifted Korngold. And there’s even a Viennese waltz! £15 £20 £25 £30

Chamber Music Season/Echoes of Romanticism ^

LLYR WILLIAMS

John Ferri Simms

Box Office 020 7935 2141 Online Booking www.wigmore-hall.org.uk

Sunday 4 March 4.00 pm

ANNA PROHASKA soprano ERIC SCHNEIDER piano SONG OF THE SIRENS DEBUSSY La mer est plus belle HAYDN The mermaid’s song LAWES Slide soft you silver floods SCHUBERT Der Fischer; Am See SZYMANOWSKI Three Songs from Songs of a Fairy Princess MAHLER Phantasie aus Don Juan WOLF Nixe Binsefuss SCHUMANN Die Meerfee MENDELSSOHN Schilflied SCHUBERT Des Fischers Liebesglück FAURÉ La fleur qui va sur l’eau HONEGGER Chanson des Sirènes; Berceuse de la Sirène DOWLAND Sorrow, stay, lend true repentant tears ˘ ÁK Song to the moon from Rusalka DVOR

ANNA PROHASKA

Monika Rittershaus

From the work of Henry Lawes, ‘pistoler’ and Gentleman of Charles I’s Chapel Royal, to Honegger’s chansons, Anna Prohaska’s programme explores a multitude of works written in five languages by composers from seven countries. The English-Austrian soprano, scion of a distinguished Viennese musical family, scored a critical hit as Anne Trulove in Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress in Berlin last season and attracted international media attention with her Deutsche Grammophon debut recital album with Wigmore Hall regular Eric Schneider. £12 concs £10

Song Recital Series Sunday 4 March 11.30 am

TRIO DI PARMA BEETHOVEN Piano Trio in D Op. 70 No. 1 ‘Ghost’ BRAHMS Piano Trio No. 1 in B Op. 8 The Trio di Parma’s training classes and workshops in Italy and at the Salzburg Mozarteum have become essential destinations for students in search of advice on how to preserve individuality while developing ensemble blend and unity. Two contrasting works by Beethoven and Brahms – the former dream-like in its slow movement, the latter intense in its formal focus – promise to ignite the group’s ebullient interplay and dashing musicianship. £12 concs £10 incl. programme and coffee/sherry/juice

Coffee Concert TRIO DI PARMA

Andrea Lasorte

Box Office 020 7935 2141 Online Booking www.wigmore-hall.org.uk

Sunday 4 March 7.30 pm

NATALIE DESSAY soprano PHILIPPE CASSARD piano Mélodies by DEBUSSY, DUPARC, CHAUSSON and CHABRIER Piano works by FAURÉ and DEBUSSY Belle Epoque France furnishes the irresistible raw material for Natalie Dessay’s Wigmore Hall debut, a fitting repertoire for an artist who made her mark 20 years ago as Offenbach’s Olympia. The lyric coloratura soprano turned heads then with her performance in Roman Polanski’s controversial staging of The Tales of Hoffmann at the Opéra Bastille. Her vertiginous vocal range, dazzling displays of bel canto virtuosity and natural acting skills soon opened the door to dates with the world’s leading opera companies. Last season Dessay returned to the Metropolitan Opera in New York to perform one of her signature roles, Lucia in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor. She also sang there in Berg’s symphonic suite from Lulu and performed Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande in concert at the Barbican Centre. Her recordings reflect the breadth of a repertoire that ranges from Handel heroines and Mozart masses to arias by Offenbach and Chabrier. Natalie Dessay has prepared a banquet of mélodies to complement Philippe Cassard’s choice of piano works by Debussy and Fauré for this recital. £20 £30 £45 £60 Booking limited to two tickets only per person

Song Recital Series

Monday 5 March 6.00 pm

PRE-CONCERT TALK See William Byrd Sacred Music Series page overleaf for details

Monday 5 March 7.30 pm

THE CARDINALL’S MUSICK ANDREW CARWOOD director BYRD: THE ENGLISHMAN See William Byrd Sacred Music Series page overleaf for details

TRULS MØRK

Morten Krogvold/Virgin Classics

Monday 5 March 1.00 pm

TRULS MØRK cello KHATIA BUNIATISHVILI piano BEETHOVEN Cello Sonata in C Op. 102 No. 1 RACHMANINOV Cello Sonata in G minor Op. 19 BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist Khatia Buniatishvili, born in Tbilisi in 1987, lists the melancholic nature of Georgian folk music as an enduring influence on her heartfelt approach to performance. The pianist’s artistic development continues in recital here with Truls Mørk, recipient of last year’s Sibelius Prize, whose gloriously warm tone and innate feeling for Russian music place him among the leading interpreters of Rachmaninov’s Cello Sonata. Both works in this programme demand a partnership of musical equals. £12 concs £10 Khatia Buniatishvili is a member of BBC Radio 3’s New Generation Artists scheme

KHATIA BUNIATISHVILI

Julia Wesely

BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert

Box Office 020 7935 2141 Online Booking www.wigmore-hall.org.uk

WILLIAM BYRD SACRED MUSIC SERIES William Byrd’s status among the all-time greats of English music was securely established during his long and productive life and posthumously recalled by the nation’s cathedral and collegiate choirs. Generations of musicians, Henry Purcell among them, studied the illustrious composer’s works, absorbed the craft of his counterpoint and learned priceless lessons about setting words to music from his outstanding example. Although changing tastes and Victorian church reforms pushed Byrd into the shade, his work was revived for the tercentenary of his death in 1923 and subsequently reclaimed by musicians ‘in quires and places where they sing’. Wigmore Hall’s William Byrd Sacred Music Series offers the most extensive celebration of the composer’s art in modern times, delivered under the care of performers steeped in the style and cultural milieu of late Tudor and Jacobean music.

THE CARDINALL’S MUSICK

Booking for this series (excluding the Wigmore Study Group) is now open.

Thursday 17 May 7.30 pm

THE CARDINALL’S MUSICK ANDREW CARWOOD director

Monday 5 March 6.00 pm

BYRD: THE HIDDEN CATHOLIC

PRE-CONCERT TALK £3 (not part of subscription scheme)

BYRD Mass for Five Voices with Propers for the Feast of Corpus Christi; Venite, exultemus Domino; Haec dicit Dominus; Visita quaesumus, Domine; Cantate Domino; Infelix ego

Wigmore Hall Learning Event

£15 £20 £25 £30

ANDREW CARWOOD on William Byrd

Sponsored by Hutton Collins Partners LLP

Monday 5 March 7.30 pm

THE CARDINALL’S MUSICK ANDREW CARWOOD director BYRD: THE ENGLISHMAN BYRD Venite from The Great Service; O Lord make thy servant Elizabeth our Queen; Te Deum from The Great Service; Prevent us, O Lord; Benedictus from The Great Service; Praise our Lord, all ye Gentiles; Magnificat from The Great Service; Turn our captivity, O Lord; Sing ye to our Lord; Come, let us rejoice unto our Lord; Nunc dimittis from The Great Service Religious upheaval and persecution, endemic during the 1540s and 1550s, gave way to greater stability and tolerance under Elizabeth I. Byrd was able to trim his professional sails to the liturgical needs of the Church of England while retaining and covertly practising his outlawed Catholic faith. The composer’s magnificent settings of words from the 1559 Book of Common Prayer, with the exception of The Great Service, appear to date from his time as Organist and Master of the Choristers at Lincoln Cathedral in the 1560s and may have been written to secure a new job in London. The Great Service, written after he joined the Chapel Royal, stands as a masterpiece of Anglican music, an ornament of the first Elizabethan age. £15 £20 £25 £30

Thursday 10 May 3.00 pm – 6.00 pm Tuesday 15 May 3.00 pm – 6.00 pm Thursday 17 May 3.00 pm – 6.00 pm

WIGMORE STUDY GROUP Hosted by composer JULIAN PHILIPS with contributions from distinguished musicologists and visiting musicians, this series of three study sessions explores the breadth of music by William Byrd and the context in which it was written. £53 including three study sessions and a ticket for the evening concert on 17 May

Wigmore Hall Learning Event Thursday 20 December 2012

STILE ANTICO PUER NATUS EST – MUSIC BY BYRD AND TALLIS FOR ADVENT AND CHRISTMAS £15 £20 £25 £30 Tuesday 26 March 2013

STILE ANTICO MISERERE – PENITENTIAL MUSIC BY BYRD AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES £15 £20 £25 £30 Thursday 30 May 2013

STILE ANTICO FRETWORK O SACRED BANQUET – WILLIAM BYRD AND THE FEAST OF CORPUS CHRISTI Programme to include BYRD Mass in Four Parts £15 £20 £25 £30 Early Music and Baroque Series/William Byrd Sacred Music Series STILE ANTICO Coloured engraving of William Byrd by Nicholas Haym. © akg-images

Thursday 8 March 7.30 pm

STEPHEN HOUGH piano HEATH QUARTET * KIRCHNER Selected pieces SCHUMANN String Quartet in A Op. 41 No. 3 BRAHMS Piano Quintet in F minor Op. 34

HEATH QUARTET

Stefano Scheggi

Wednesday 7 March 10.00 am

STEPHEN HOUGH MASTERCLASS Stephen Hough offers ideas from his many decades of performing experience and deep thinking about music to students from London’s conservatoires. He also invites students to bring their technical problems for a series of consultations in his piano surgery, before taking questions from the audience.

Bold strands of High Romanticism, rich in musical allusion and metaphor, connect the works of this engrossing programme. The third of Schumann’s Op. 41 string quartets recalls formal conventions from an earlier age and subverts them with imaginative twists and turns. When Clara Schumann and Joseph Joachim heard the first version of Brahms’s Op. 34, conceived for string quintet, they recognised its significance but criticised its scoring. The revised version for piano quintet so delighted its dedicatee, Princess Anna of Hesse, that she presented Brahms with the two autograph scores of Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 in G minor in return. £15 £20 £25 £30

WIGMORE HALL EMERGING TA LE N T * Supported by Mayfield Valley Arts Trust

Chamber Music Season/Stephen Hough: Artist in Residence

£7 concs £4 (not part of subscription scheme)

Wigmore Hall Learning Event/Stephen Hough: Artist in Residence

Wednesday 7 March 7.30 pm

RETROSPECT ENSEMBLE MATTHEW HALLS director CHRISTOPHER AINSLIE Amadigi KATHERINE MANLEY Oriana ROBIN BLAZE Dardano HANDEL Amadigi di Gaula Working in collaboration with Central City Opera in the United States and the talented South African stage director, Alessandro Talevi, Retrospect Ensemble presents a fascinating opportunity to hear an intimate performance of one of Handel’s operatic masterpieces for the London stage. This ‘knight in shining armour’ tale follows Amadigi and Dardano, both determined to win the hand of Princess Oriana. Obstructed by the potions and powers of the sorceress Melissa and her demonic spirits, true love finally prevails. £12 £18 £22 £25

ROBIN BLAZE

Dorothea Heise

Early Music and Baroque Series

Box Office 020 7935 2141 Online Booking www.wigmore-hall.org.uk

Saturday 10 March 11.00 am – 11.45 am

SING A STORY FAMILY CONCERT A repeat of the concert on 2 March, for families. This concert is aimed at children aged 3–7 years. Adults £7 Children £5 (not part of subscription scheme) Supported by Mayfield Valley Arts Trust, The Andor Charitable Trust and The Monument Trust

Wigmore Hall Learning Event

Saturday 10 March 7.30 pm

VIENNA PIANO TRIO HAYDN Piano Trio in A HXV:18 SCHOENBERG/STEUERMANN Verklärte Nacht arr. for piano trio BEETHOVEN Piano Trio in B b Op. 97 ‘Archduke’

AMJAD ALI KHAN

Dilip Bhatia

Repertoire rediscovery belongs to the Vienna Piano Trio’s long list of cardinal virtues. The ensemble introduced Wigmore Hall audiences to the teenage Leonard Bernstein’s Piano Trio at the end of last season. It returns with the astonishingly sumptuous arrangement of Verklärte Nacht, penned for piano trio by Schoenberg’s pupil Eduard Steuermann 80 years ago but not publicly performed until after its belated appearance in print in 1979.

Friday 9 March 7.30 pm

£12 £16 £22 £26

AMJAD ALI KHAN sarod SUDHA RAGHUNATHAN

Chamber Music Season/Vienna Piano Trio Series

South Indian (Carnatic) vocalist With tabla accompaniment

INDIAN CLASSICAL MUSIC A unique opportunity for newcomers and devotees to experience the two main genres of Indian classical music in the same concert. The vocalist Sudha Raghunathan will introduce noble music from the Carnatic (or South Indian) tradition. Characterised by a strong rhythmic and melodic structure, Carnatic music has its roots in India’s Vedic history. By contrast, Amjad Ali Khan explores ragas from the Hindustani tradition, which emerged as a distinct form out of the Persian and Islamic influences of Northern India. £15 £20 £25 £30

Chamber Music Season/Amjad Ali Khan: Indian Music Series Forthcoming concerts in this series

VIENNA PIANO TRIO

Nancy Horowitz

Friday 15 June 2012 7.00 pm & 10.00 pm Booking for all concerts in this series now open.

Box Office 020 7935 2141 Online Booking www.wigmore-hall.org.uk

Sunday 11 March 11.30 am

MILOS˘ KARADAGLIC´ guitar Programme to include works by BACH, BARRIOS MANGORÉ, VILLA-LOBOS and GINASTERA Gramophone directed readers new to the classical guitar’s soundworld to Milos˘, the eponymous debut recording of Montenegro’s charismatic young instrumentalist. Wigmore Hall audiences have followed Milos˘ Karadaglic´ since his student days at the nearby Royal Academy of Music, recognising the guitarist’s rare combination of tonal refinement and musical panache. Join him for a Coffee Concert exploration of contrapuntal Bach and flamboyant Latin American showpieces. £12 concs £10 incl. programme and coffee/sherry/juice

Coffee Concert

SYLVIA SCHWARTZ

Enrico Nawrath

Sunday 11 March 4.00 pm

SYLVIA SCHWARTZ soprano WOLFRAM RIEGER piano SCHUBERT Die Sterne; Du bist die Ruh; Heimliches Lieben; Versunken; Sei mir gegrüßt; Auf dem Wasser zu singen WOLF From Spanisches Liederbuch: Wer tat deinem Füßlein weh?; In dem Schatten meiner Locken; Köpfchen, Köpfchen, nicht gewimmert; Bedeckt mich mit Blumen; Mögen alle bösen Zungen RODRIGO 4 Madrigales amatorios FALLA 7 Canciones populares españolas

˘ KARADAGLIC´ MILOS

Last season Sylvia Schwartz joined the company of the Vienna State Opera. The lyric soprano’s standing among the finest Mozartians of her generation was subsequently enhanced by her first Viennese account of Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro. She also touched concert audiences across Europe with her crystalline vocal purity and emotional investment in a wide repertoire of song. Schwartz, a graduate of the Escuela Superior de Canto in Madrid, turns to the music of Spain and the darkly-hued, complex reflections on her homeland drawn from Hugo Wolf’s Spanisches Liederbuch. £12 concs £10

Song Recital Series

Box Office 020 7935 2141 Online Booking www.wigmore-hall.org.uk

Monday 12 March 1.00 pm

BORIS GILTBURG piano PROKOFIEV Piano Sonata No. 4 in C minor Op. 29 SCHUMANN Papillons Op. 2 RACHMANINOV Piano Sonata No. 2 in B b minor Op. 36 Virtuosity galore and expressive chiaroscuro rest as complementary companions in Boris Giltburg’s playing. The young performer, whose pianism has already been likened in its expressive intensity and scale to that of Sviatsoslav Richter, returns to Wigmore Hall following his tempestuous reading of Chopin’s Ballades last season with a lunchtime recital programme of works ruled by Romantic passion and introspection.

CLAIRE BOOTH

Sven Arnstein

Tuesday 13 March 7.30 pm Wigmore Hall Chamber Ensemble in Residence

£12 concs £10

NASH ENSEMBLE CLAIRE BOOTH soprano LIONEL FRIEND conductor

BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert

NASH INVENTIONS MARK-ANTHONY TURNAGE Returning, for string sextet* COLIN MATTHEWS The Island, for soprano and seven instruments* ALEXANDER GOEHR Clarinet Quintet PETER MAXWELL DAVIES The Last Island, for string sextet* HARRISON BIRTWISTLE New Work for flute, clarinet, string quartet and harp ** (world première) JONATHAN HARVEY Song Offerings, for soprano and eight instruments * Nash Ensemble commission ** Commissioned by the Nash Ensemble with funds provided by Wigmore Hall and the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation

ANTHONY BURTON in conversation with the composers of the evening concert.

The Nash Ensemble, Wigmore Hall’s renowned chamber ensemble in residence, presents its annual selection of Nash Inventions, consisting of music by a roll-call of Britain’s leading composers. There are revivals of recent works written specially for the Ensemble: Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Returning; Colin Matthews’s The Island, a setting of Rilke’s poem ‘The Island in the North Sea’, Alexander Goehr’s Clarinet Quintet, inspired by Renaissance polyphony; and Peter Maxwell Davies’s The Last Island, an atmospheric evocation of a small island in the Orkneys. These will be joined by two works by senior figures of the highest international standing: a newly commissioned septet by Harrison Birtwistle; and Jonathan Harvey’s 1985 Song Offerings, an ecstatic setting of poems by Tagore which has attained the status of a modern classic.

Free (ticket required) (not part of subscription scheme)

£12 £14 £18 £22

Wigmore Hall Learning Event

Chamber Music Season

NASH ENSEMBLE

Hanya Chlala/ArenaPAL

Tuesday 13 March 6.00 pm

PRE-CONCERT TALK COMPOSERS IN FOCUS

Box Office 020 7935 2141 Online Booking www.wigmore-hall.org.uk

KUSS QUARTET

Neda Navaee

Thursday 15 March 7.30 pm

KUSS QUARTET MOZART String Quartet in C K465 ‘Dissonance’ TCHAIKOVSKY Chanson russe from Album pour enfants Op. 39 (arr. for string quartet) STRAVINSKY Three Pieces for string quartet TCHAIKOVSKY Mélodie antique française from Album pour enfants Op. 39 (arr. for string quartet) STRAVINSKY Concertino for string quartet TCHAIKOVSKY La poupée malade from Album pour enfants Op. 39 (arr. for string quartet) TCHAIKOVSKY Chanson populaire (Kamarinskaya) from Album pour enfants Op. 39 (arr. for string quartet) TCHAIKOVSKY String Quartet No. 1 in D Op. 11 Conventional wisdom stands to be challenged by the Kuss Quartet, whose interpretations repeatedly sweep away the empty gestures of tradition to reveal familiar works in fresh light. Its iconoclastic approach to programme building likewise demolishes artificial boundaries and recital rituals, an artistic strategy potently underlined in the imaginative blend of works concocted for the ensemble’s latest Wigmore Hall concert. Four arrangements of pieces from Tchaikovsky’s Schumannesque piano album for children help bind together Mozart’s ‘Dissonance’ Quartet with Stravinsky’s enigmatic Three Pieces and dashing Concertino and Tchaikovsky’s melancholic First String Quartet. ‘... provocative, driving, impassioned playing ... the purity of sound was almost heavenly’ Houston Chronicle £12 £16 £22 £26

Chamber Music Season

Friday 16 March 6.00 pm

PRE-CONCERT EVENT RAZUMOVSKY YOUNG ARTIST 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) (not part of subscription scheme)

Chamber Music Season

Friday 16 March 7.30 pm

RAZUMOVSKY ENSEMBLE BEETHOVEN Duet in E b WoO32 ‘Augengläsern’ MOZART String Quintet in G minor K516 BEETHOVEN Septet in E b Op. 20 One of the country’s most innovative and versatile ensembles, the Razumovsky Ensemble performs great chamber music masterpieces by Mozart and Beethoven. ‘The extraordinary thing is that no matter who is playing, no matter the repertoire – anything from duos to octets – Kogan and his friends habitually raise the roof, earning astonishing reviews and establishing a devoted following.’ The Independent £15 £20 £25 £30

Chamber Music Season

Box Office 020 7935 2141 Online Booking www.wigmore-hall.org.uk

Saturday 17 March 7.30 pm

AILISH TYNAN soprano ANDREW KENNEDY tenor IAIN BURNSIDE piano ST PATRICK’S DAY CELEBRATION QUILTER Believe me, if all those endearing young charms MENDELSSOHN Der Blumenkranz SCHUMANN Zwei Venetianische Lieder from Myrthen BERLIOZ Le coucher du soleil IVES A night thought MENDELSSOHN Venetianisches Gondellied HUGHES Oh breathe not his name DUPARC Elégie JENSEN Wenn durch die Piazzetta BRITTEN The last rose of summer BARBER Hermit Songs SZYMANOWSKI Four songs to poems by James Joyce Op. 54 IRELAND Tutto è sciolto HOWELLS Flood ORR Bahnhofstrasse BARBER I hear an army; Nuvoletta CAGE The Wonderful Widow of Eighteen Springs MARTIN This is just to say BELL New Work BARRY The Importance of Being Earnest Wigmore Hall celebrates St Patrick’s Day with a globetrotting survey of Ireland’s influence on worlds old and new in words and music. Ailish Tynan’s Irish-themed recordings with Iain Burnside have fast achieved desert island disc status among connoisseurs of fine singing and spine-tingling musicianship. They are joined here by Andrew Kennedy for a programme that reflects everything from Samuel Barber’s visionary Hermit Songs, settings of medieval Irish poems preserved in the margins of illuminated manuscripts, to the rip-roaring wildness of Gerald Barry’s The Important of Being Earnest. £15 £20 £25 £30

Song Recital Series

AILISH TYNAN

Sussie Ahlburg

Sunday 18 March 11.30 am

BELCEA QUARTET MICHAEL COLLINS clarinet MOZART Clarinet Quintet in A K581 BRAHMS Clarinet Quintet in B minor Op. 115 In the revolutionary year of 1789 Mozart created one of his most lyrical and reflective compositions. The Clarinet Quintet in A major was matched in tonal beauty and melodic tenderness by Brahms in his Clarinet Quintet of 1890, works written with the particular talents of two outstanding clarinettists squarely in mind. £12 concs £10 incl. programme and coffee/sherry/juice

Coffee Concert

ANDREW KENNEDY

Benjamin Ealovega

Box Office 020 7935 2141 Online Booking www.wigmore-hall.org.uk

Monday 19 March 1.00 pm

META4 FAURÉ String Quartet in E minor Op. 121 SCHUMANN String Quartet in A Op. 41 No. 3 Finland’s system of music education has produced an astonishing array of internationally acclaimed performers and composers over the past 60 years. Meta4, formed just over a decade ago, continues to fly the flag for Finnish string quartet playing with palpably fresh performances, collective authority and thought-provoking artistry. The former BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists return to Wigmore Hall with a fascinating repertoire mix, Schumann’s songful String Quartet in A and Fauré’s majestic final composition, completed shortly before his death in 1924. £12 concs £10

BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert META4

Antti Hannuniemi

Sunday 18 March 7.30 pm

SIMON TRPC˘ESKI piano SCHUBERT 16 German Dances D783; Fantasy in C D760 ‘Wanderer’ BACH/LISZT Prelude and Fugue in A minor BWV543 LISZT Sonetto del Petrarca No. 104 from Années de pèlerinage, deuxième année S161; Les jeux d’eaux à la Villa d’Este from Années de pèlerinage, troisième année S163; Hungarian Rhapsody No. 11 in A minor S244; Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 in C # minor S244 Liszt, observed Camille Saint-Saëns, ‘began by incarnating on the piano the panache of Romanticism’. The fiendish difficulty of pieces such as the Hungarian Rhapsodies established Liszt’s reputation. Yet the composer balanced his natural instincts as keyboard showman with a sense of reverence and respect for past masters, especially Johann Sebastian Bach. Simon Trpc˘eski explores the complex creative psychology of Liszt in a programme spanning vast expressive dimensions, from the existential pain of the second of his Petrarch Sonnets to the unbridled heroism of the Hungarian Rhapsody in C sharp minor.

SIMON TRPC˘ESKI

Jillian Edelstein/EMI Classics

£15 £20 £25 £30

London Pianoforte Series

Box Office 020 7935 2141 Online Booking www.wigmore-hall.org.uk

Wednesday 21 March 1.00 pm

BRITTEN SINFONIA THOMAS GOULD violin MIRANDA DALE violin CLAIRE FINNIMORE viola CAROLINE DEARNLEY cello HUW WATKINS piano BEDFORD New Work (London première)* FRANCK Piano Quintet in F minor *Co-commissioned by Britten Sinfonia and Wigmore Hall

MARTIN HELMCHEN

Marco Borggreve

Tuesday 20 March 7.30 pm

MARTIN HELMCHEN piano BACH Partita No. 5 in G BWV829 LISZT Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen ‘Präludium nach Johann Sebastian Bach’ S179; Au bord d’une source from Années de pèlerinage S160; Nuages gris S199; Bagatelle sans tonalité S216a; Transcendental Study No. 2 in A minor S139 BEETHOVEN Piano Sonata No. 29 in B b Op. 106 ‘Hammerklavier’ Following the death of his son Daniel in 1859, Liszt turned to Bach for solace. He extracted a theme from the lachrymose opening movement of Bach’s Cantata Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen as the basis for a set of keyboard variations. Martin Helmchen weaves Liszt’s work of mourning together with the saturnine Nuages gris and another late masterpiece, the Bagatelle sans tonalité, a transcendent tone poem for piano. The inexorable force of Beethoven’s ‘Hammerklavier’ adds to the magnetic attraction of Helmchen’s programme.

Franck’s Piano Quintet stands at this programme’s centre. The composition’s 1879 première marked a watershed moment in the history of chamber music, thanks not least to its broad emotional range and abundant passion, possibly inspired by Franck’s infatuation for one of his young students. This concert likewise broadens the repertoire with a new work, co-commissioned by Britten Sinfonia and Wigmore Hall, by Luke Bedford, resident composer at Wigmore Hall. Bedford has been noted for writing music of brooding intensity, in which every note carries maximum expressive impact. ‘I know that Britten Sinfonia musicians are always keen to explore new ways of presenting concerts and this gave me the idea of writing a piece that fits into the gaps between the movements of the Franck Piano Quintet. Just as in art galleries, where one can sometimes make connections between apparently unrelated artists but whose work is side-by-side, I want to create something similar, but within a concert’ Luke Bedford £12 concs £10

Chamber Music Season

£15 £20 £25 £30

London Pianoforte Series

Wednesday 21 March 12.15 pm

PRE-CONCERT TALK Composer LUKE BEDFORD in conversation with JOHN GILHOOLY Free to concert ticket holders (separate ticket required)

Wigmore Hall Learning Event LUKE BEDFORD

Benjamin Ealovega

Box Office 020 7935 2141 Online Booking www.wigmore-hall.org.uk

Thursday 22 March 7.30 pm

BELCEA QUARTET BEETHOVEN String Quartet in F Op. 18 No. 1; String Quartet in C Op. 59 No. 3 ‘Razumovsky’; String Quartet in A minor Op. 132 Haydn completed four collections of string quartets in the decade before Beethoven’s Op. 18 appeared in print, works that clearly influenced the younger man. The String Quartet in F major Op. 18 No. 1 surpasses even Haydn in the motivic economy of its opening movement, presaging Beethoven’s lifelong transformation of the genre. The Belcea Quartet continues its survey of the composer’s consummate creative achievement with an irresistible grouping of early, middle and late works, crowned by the String Quartet in A minor Op. 132 and its vast central expression of thanksgiving for Beethoven’s recovery from illness. £12 £16 £22 £26 The presentation of the complete Beethoven String Quartet cycle by the Belcea Quartet has been made possible with a bequest from the late Mrs Kate Goetz, a longstanding and much missed member of the Wigmore Hall audience.

Chamber Music Season/Beethoven Chamber and Instrumental Series FLORIAN BOESCH

Wiener Konzerthaus/Lukas Beck

Wednesday 21 March 7.30 pm

FLORIAN BOESCH baritone MALCOLM MARTINEAU piano SCHUBERT Die schöne Müllerin Die schöne Müllerin was performed by Raimund von zur Mühlen in the newly built Wigmore Hall, then known as Bechstein Hall, in 1903. Schubert’s narrative cycle of love and loss has been heard here countless times since, although without ever losing its fascination or exhausting its seemingly endless expressive possibilities. Austrian baritone Florian Boesch, admired worldwide for his artistry in the opera house and as a towering interpreter of German song, now offers his multifaceted vision of Schubert’s ‘Fair maid of the mill’. £18 £25 £30 £35 Supported by the Patron Friends of Wigmore Hall

Song Recital Series

BELCEA QUARTET

Ronald Knapp

Box Office 020 7935 2141 Online Booking www.wigmore-hall.org.uk

Sunday 25 March 11.30 am

HEATH QUARTET MENDELSSOHN String Quartet in E b Op. 12 JANÁC˘EK String Quartet No. 2 ‘Intimate Letters’

GOULD PIANO TRIO

Friday 23 March 7.30 pm

GOULD PIANO TRIO ˘ ÁK Piano Trio in B b Op. 21 DVOR ˚ Piano Trio No. 1 ‘5 pièces brèves’ MARTINU ˘ ÁK Piano Trio in F minor Op. 65 DVOR ‘In pure chamber music, I am always more myself,’ confessed Bohuslav Martinu˚ to his biographer. His Piano Trio No. 1, completed in 1930, comprises five pieces that flowed from the Czech composer’s pen in a burst of creative energy. ‘Suddenly, as if it were the work of another hand, I wrote something entirely new,’ he later recalled. Martinu˚ ’s exquisite miniatures are framed by two substantial Dvor˘ák compositions, including the elegiac Piano Trio in F minor, begun in 1883 soon after the death of the composer’s mother. The Gould Piano Trio’s ongoing project to record Dvor˘ák complete piano trios has delivered further strength and fresh insight to its interpretations.

Recent recipients of the Borletti-Buitoni Trust’s special ensemble scholarship, the Heath Quartet’s star continues to rise with the critics and public alike. The ensemble, which performed two complete cycles of Beethoven’s string quartets in Spain and Edinburgh in 2011, devotes its perceptive artistry here to Mendelssohn’s delightful early String Quartet in E b Op. 12 and the altogether more complex expressive territory of Janác˘ek’s ‘Intimate Letters’, a fiery outpouring of love by its 73-year-old composer for his muse, the much younger Kamila Stösslová. £12 concs £10 incl. programme and coffee/sherry/juice

WIGMORE HALL EMERGING TA LE N T Supported by Mayfield Valley Arts Trust

Coffee Concert

£12 £16 £22 £26

Chamber Music Season/Dvor˘ák Plus Series

Saturday 24 March 7.30 pm

SINGERS FROM THE MARIINSKY ACADEMY LARISSA GERGIEVA piano Programme to include Italian and Russian arias, duets, trios, quartets and songs Larissa Gergieva presents five of the best young singers from the Mariinsky Academy of 2011, among them the baritone Andrei Bondarenko, winner of the Cardiff Singer of the World 2011 Song Prize. The Academy of Young Singers stands at the heart of the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg. Artistic Director, Larissa Gergieva, strives to discover and nurture young talent while travelling worldwide as a recital accompanist with artists such as Olga Borodina and Galina Gorchakova, Anna Netrebko, Ekaterina Semenchuk and Daniil Shtoda.

ANDREI BONDARENKO

£15 £20 £25 £30

Song Recital Series

Box Office 020 7935 2141 Online Booking www.wigmore-hall.org.uk

Monday 26 March 1.00 pm

MALIN CHRISTENSSON soprano SIMON LEPPER piano WHITE NIGHTS WOLF Mausfallen-Sprüchlein; Elfenlied; Auf eine Christblume II; Nixe Binsefuss; Das verlassene Mägdlein; Begegnung DEBUSSY Fêtes galantes Book I; Mandoline RANGSTRÖM Flickan under nymånen STENHAMMAR Flickan knyter i Johannenatten; Fylgia ROSENBERG Fullmånen NYSTROEM Jag vänter månen from Sånger vid havet (Songs at the Sea) SIBELIUS Var det en dröm?; Illalle (Till kvällen) ALFVÉN Skogen sover BACHELET Chère nuit

THE PRINCE CONSORT

Richard Ecclestone

Sunday 25 March 4.00 pm

For the second time this season, Malin Christensson and Simon Lepper mine the rich repertoires of German, French and Scandinavian song for hidden gems and acknowledged treasures. Their programme harbours the untameable spirit of Wolf’s late Romanticism, the seascapes of Gösta Nystroem’s Sånger vid havet and the precisely turned imagery of Debussy’s early Verlaine settings.

THE PRINCE CONSORT ALISDAIR HOGARTH artistic director, piano PHILIP FOWKE piano

£12 concs £10

BRAHMS Liebeslieder, Waltzes Op. 52 STEPHEN HOUGH Other Love Songs BRAHMS Neue Liebeslieder, Waltzes Op. 65

BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert

Ensemble precision, individual excellence and innovative programming stand proud on The Prince Consort’s list of terrific traits. The vocal collective’s latest project explores love’s romance, pain and discontents, distilled in the music of Brahms’s twin sets of Liebeslieder and Stephen Hough’s contemporary reflections on the condition. Other Love Songs, commissioned by Alisdair Hogarth for The Prince Consort, stand as eloquent, constantly evolving companions to Brahms’s effervescent compositions. ‘I decided, for the sake of contrast,’ notes Hough, ‘to avoid waltzes, and to avoid setting poems about romantic love between a man and a woman.’ £12 concs £10

Song Recital Series

MALIN CHRISTENSSON

Sussie Ahlburg

Box Office 020 7935 2141 Online Booking www.wigmore-hall.org.uk

Tuesday 27 March 7.30 pm

PACIFICA QUARTET SHOSTAKOVICH CYCLE

ALBAN GERHARDT cello THOMAS LARCHER piano SCHUMANN 5 Stücke im Volkston Op. 102 DEBUSSY Cello Sonata in D minor SCHUMANN Adagio and Allegro in A b Op. 70 (for cello and piano) THOMAS LARCHER New Work for cello and piano (world première) * SCHUBERT Arpeggione Sonata in A minor D821 * Commissioned by Jennifer Roslyn Wingate in Memory of her Parents Mary & David Roslyn

PACIFICA QUARTET

Robin Holland

The Grammy Award-winning Pacifica Quartet launched its chronological cycle of Shostakovich’s string quartets last October at Wigmore Hall with an intensely focused week of concerts devoted to eight works rooted in the composer’s experiences of life in Soviet Russia during the Great Terror, the Second World War and the post-Stalin era. The series continues with the Ninth Quartet, dedicated to the composer’s third wife, explores his so-called ‘quartet of quartets’ (Nos. 10 to 14), and concludes with the profoundly moving, death-tinged Fifteenth Quartet.

Wigmore Hall’s focus on the work of Thomas Larcher launched earlier this season with a star-studded weekend devoted to the Austrian composer’s instantly arresting and lastingly affecting music. He performs here in the world première of a new work written for Alban Gerhardt, the latest in a series of pieces commissioned by Jennifer Roslyn Wingate in memory of her parents. The programme also includes music by expressive influences on Larcher’s soundworld, from the rhythmic energy of Schumann’s rarely heard ‘Five pieces in folk style’ to the expansive lyricism of Schubert’s radiant Arpeggione Sonata. £15 £20 £25 £30

Chamber Music Season

Monday 26 March 7.30 pm

PACIFICA QUARTET SHOSTAKOVICH String Quartet No. 9 in E b Op. 117; String Quartet No. 10 in A b Op. 118 It appears that Shostakovich was inspired to complete his Ninth and create his Tenth String Quartets following the success of a vast festival devoted to his music in February 1964. Following the quiet coup that saw Leonid Brezhnev replace Nikita Khrushchev as leader of the Soviet Union later that year, the Politburo worked fast to limit the freedoms that artists and authors had enjoyed in the past decade. Shostakovich invested much of his waning physical energies in the creation of chamber music, conceived in a private world of personal reflection and contemplation of loss. £12 £16 £22 £26 Supported by American Friends of Wigmore Hall

Chamber Music Season/Pacifica Quartet Shostakovich Cycle See overleaf for details of the remaining two concerts in this series

Wednesday 28 March 7.30 pm

ALBAN GERHARDT

Sim Canetty-Clarke/Hyperion Records

Thursday 29 March 7.30 pm

Box Office 020 7935 2141 Online Booking www.wigmore-hall.org.uk

Wednesday 28 March 7.30 pm

PACIFICA QUARTET SHOSTAKOVICH String Quartet No. 11 in F minor Op. 122; String Quartet No. 12 in D b Op. 133; String Quartet No. 13 in B b minor Op. 138 Three works from Shostakovich’s final cycle of string quartets opens here with a composition of great concision and clarity, written during an increasingly reactionary period in Soviet cultural life and politics. The String Quartet No. 12, completed in 1968, appeared to defy official policy with its daring twelve-note themes, perhaps used by the composer to mirror the soulless dictatorship of the elderly men then in charge of the Soviet Union. Death emerges as the pervading subject matter of the String Quartet No. 13 of 1970, examined over the course of its single dark-hued movement.

WIGMORE HALL LONDON INTERNATIONAL STRING QUARTET COMPETITION 2012

£12 £16 £22 £26 Supported by American Friends of Wigmore Hall

Chamber Music Season/Pacifica Quartet Shostakovich Cycle

Thursday 29 March 6.00 pm

PRE-CONCERT PERFORMANCE Pre-concert performance by quartets who took part in the National Young String Quartet Weekend earlier in March at Chetham’s School of Music.

Wigmore Hall is now responsible for the prestigious London International String Quartet Competition, a very important celebration of the string quartet. The first Competition, held in Portsmouth in 1979, was won by the then unknown Takács Quartet. Saturday 31 March 2.00 pm & 7.00 pm

Free (ticket required)

SEMI-FINALS

Wigmore Hall Learning Event

After performing two different recital programmes during the Preliminary Round, at least six quartets that have been selected by the International Jury will each perform their choice of one of Beethoven’s quartets. At the end of the evening the Jury will select at least three for the Final.

Thursday 29 March 7.30 pm

PACIFICA QUARTET SHOSTAKOVICH String Quartet No. 14 in F # Op. 142; String Quartet No. 15 in E b minor Op. 144 Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 15 stands as the composer’s elegiac farewell to the genre, six slow movements grouped together in a cycle of almost unbearable emotional intensity. A few years before completing the work in May 1974, Shostakovich suffered his second heart attack and a consequent sharp decline in health. The tragic atmosphere of his final quartet, like that of his Fourteenth Symphony, was clearly affected by the composer’s mortal illness and the death of many of his closest friends at the time. The String Quartet No. 14 is concerned with personal reminiscence and reflection, expressed in music of formal clarity and subtle contrasts.

Each session: £10 £14 £18 £20 Book for both semi-final sessions and receive a 20% discount See inside back cover for full booking details

Chamber Music Season Sunday 1 April 6.00 pm

FINAL

£12 £16 £22 £26

The selected finalists will each play their chosen work from the Romantic repertoire, which could include works by Brahms, Debussy, Dvor˘ák, Mendelssohn, Ravel, Schumann, Schubert and Smetana. The concert will be followed by the Awards Ceremony at about 9.00 pm.

Supported by the Season Patrons who have made a major contribution to the 2011/12 Wigmore Series

£18 £25 £30 £35 (Tickets now on sale) See inside back cover for full booking details

Chamber Music Season/Pacifica Quartet Shostakovich Cycle

Chamber Music Season

Box Office 020 7935 2141 Online Booking www.wigmore-hall.org.uk

EVENTS FOR FAMILIES, YOUNG PEOPLE AND ADULTS All events listed on pages 59 – 61 will open for booking on 2 November, with the exception of the workshop on 7 January and the concerts on 4 February and 10 March, which go on sale alongside the other concerts in the January – March Wigmore Series. Family Events are supported by Mayfield Valley Arts Trust, The Andor Charitable Trust and The Monument Trust Saturday 7 January 10.00 am – 3.30 pm

COME AND SING: FRENCH SONG ISABELLE ADAMS leads a day of singing workshops for adults inspired by French song. Learn some new songs, join in with fun vocal warm-ups and finish the day with a performance on the Wigmore Hall stage. Open to everyone – no experience required! All activities will be inclusive and music will be taught by ear. £18 concs £10 (not part of subscription scheme) Linked to Christopher Maltman’s concert on 15 January – concert tickets to be purchased separately

Friday 27 January 11.00 am – 12.00 noon

SCHOOLS’ CONCERT: BOWS AND ARIAS Join cellist GUY JOHNSTON and special guests for this concert of string and vocal music for Key Stage 3 students. The concert will be an interactive introduction into classical chamber music, and will include the world première of a new song. Tickets £2.50 (not part of subscription scheme) Supported by John Lyon’s Charity, The Samuel Sebba Charitable Trust and The Monument Trust

www.benjaminharte.co.uk

Saturday 4 February 11.00 am – 12.00 noon

THE SOLDIER’S TALE OPEN AUDIENCE PERFORMANCE For age 8 plus JANINE JANSEN and friends present a performance of The Soldier’s Tale by Stravinsky, open to families and children aged 8 and up. The story is based on a Russian folk tale about a soldier who makes a deal with the devil, trading his fiddle for a book that predicts the future. Please note – this is not an interactive concert and is not suitable for younger children. Adults £7 Children £5 (not part of subscription scheme) www.benjaminharte.co.uk

Box Office 020 7935 2141 Online Booking www.wigmore-hall.org.uk

www.benjaminharte.co.uk

Saturday 18 February 10.30 am – 3.00 pm Wednesday 15 February 10.30 am – 5.00 pm

IGOR AND FRIENDS

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT

FAMILY DAY

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT DAY FOR BLIND AND PARTIALLY SIGHTED MUSIC TEACHERS

For age 5 plus

This practical study day is an opportunity for blind and partially sighted music teachers to share ideas and best practice in instrumental teaching through masterclasses, talks and workshops. For more information and to apply to take part, contact James Risdon, Music Officer, RNIB on 020 7391 2273 or jrisdon@rnib.org.uk Free, application required (not part of subscription scheme)

Discover the story of Igor! Last year, Wigmore Hall commissioned a fantastic new piece of music from LUKE BEDFORD based on the story of Igor, The Bird Who Couldn’t Sing by Satoshi Kitamura, published by Andersen Press. This workshop for families explores the story and gives you a chance to create some new music of your own! Finish the day with a performance on the Wigmore Hall stage. With POLLY IVES. Adults £12 Children £8 (not part of subscription scheme)

Thursday 16 and Friday 17 February 10.00 am – 3.30 pm

MUSIC IN MOTION HALF TERM COURSE For age 11 – 16 years IGNITE leads this exciting two-day course which explores ideas of creating music based on images of movement. Create and soundtrack some of your own images and perform your new compositions on the Wigmore Hall stage at the end of this half term course. For instrumentalists grade 3 and up. £40 per ticket (not part of subscription scheme) Supported by Arts Council England, Mayfield Valley Arts Trust and The Monument Trust

www.benjaminharte.co.uk

Box Office 020 7935 2141 Online Booking www.wigmore-hall.org.uk

Saturday 10 March 11.00 am – 11.45 am

SING A STORY FAMILY CONCERT For ages 3 – 7 years A repeat of the concert on 2 March for families. Please note the lower age range of this family concert. Please bring a cushion to sit on. Adults £7 Children £5 (not part of subscription scheme)

www.benjaminharte.co.uk

Friday 2 March 11.00 am – 11.45 am

SING A STORY KEY STAGE 1 SCHOOLS’ CONCERT Celebrating our early years outreach programme, Sing a Story is a special concert for children aged 3 – 7 years and their parents and teachers. Presented by children’s workshop leader ROB ADEDIRAN and involving a host of wonderful musicians, Sing a Story will include lots of singing, dance and percussion and the retelling of many classic children’s stories with a musical twist. Please bring a cushion to sit on. Tickets £2.50 (not part of subscription scheme) Supported by John Lyon’s Charity, The Samuel Sebba Charitable Trust and The Monument Trust

www.benjaminharte.co.uk

Saturday 17 March 10.00 am – 3.30 pm

FAMILY DAY: MUSICAL CHARACTERS For age 5 plus

www.benjaminharte.co.uk

Thursday 8 – Sunday 11 March (various times)

NATIONAL YOUNG STRING QUARTET WEEKEND AT CHETHAM’S SCHOOL OF MUSIC If you are in a string quartet at school or college, this is a fantastic opportunity to take part in an intensive weekend of coaching and performance with leading chamber music coaches and the Carducci Quartet. For more information or to apply, contact Ruth Wheal on rwheal@wigmore-hall.org.uk. 61

Inspired by the Pacifica Shostakovich string quartet cycle at Wigmore Hall, this family day will help you discover hidden codes and characters within music! Create your own piece of music to perform on the Wigmore Hall stage at the end of the day. This workshop also takes place at the Royal Academy of Music on Sunday 11 March. In partnership with the Royal Academy of Music Adults £12 Children £8 (not part of subscription scheme)

Box Office 020 7935 2141 Online Booking www.wigmore-hall.org.uk

Booking Information

BOOKING DATES BOOKING PERIOD 2 Tuesday 3 January – Saturday 31 March 2012 Friends Priority booking form to reach the Box Office by 6 October Mailing List Benjamin Ealovega

Priority booking form to reach the Box Office by 20 October

WIGMORE HALL BOX OFFICE

General Public

36 Wigmore Street, London W1U 2BP

By telephone/online from 2 November

Tel: 020 7935 2141 Online Booking: www.wigmore-hall.org.uk

SUBSCRIPTION BOOKINGS

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

WIGMORE SERIES SUBSCRIPTIONS

TICKETS

(excludes Coffee Concerts, BBC Lunchtime Concerts and other events where stated)

Unless otherwise stated, tickets are divided into four price ranges

Subscription I: Book 10 – 11 concerts at a 5% discount Subscription II: Book 12 or more concerts at a 10% discount

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

BBC LUNCHTIME CONCERT SUBSCRIPTIONS Book 10 or more concerts at a 5% discount Book all concerts in any one booking period at a 10% discount

A-D BALCONY

T-X

COFFEE CONCERT SUBSCRIPTIONS

Q -S

Book 10 or more concerts at a 5% discount Book all concerts in any one booking period at a 10% discount

N-P STA LLS C-M

To qualify for a subscription, the same number of tickets need to be booked for each event. Any tickets bought in addition to a subscription series must be paid for at the full rate.

A -B CC BB AA

CC BB

PL ATFO R M

Discounts cannot be combined.

BOOKING INFORMATION 3 January – 31 March 2012

BOX OFFICE HOURS

CAR PARKING

7 days a week: 10.00am–8.30 pm. Days without an evening concert 10.00am–5.00pm. No advance booking during the half-hour prior to performance.

There is limited street parking after 6.30 pm Monday to Saturday 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.

TELEPHONE BOOKINGS 7 days a week: 10.00am–7.00 pm. 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.

RESTAURANT/BAR 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. FACILITIES FOR DISABLED PEOPLE

POSTAL BOOKINGS

Full details from 020 7258 8210

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 Online booking is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. There is a £1.00 administration charge online. You can select your own seat and make subscription bookings online. TICKETS FOR CONCESSIONS Where a concession (concs) ticket price is listed these are available to students, senior citizens and the unemployed. GROUP BOOKINGS Discounts of 10% are available for groups of 12 or more, subject to availability. WESTMINSTER RESCARD Westminster ResCard holders may obtain a 10% discount on ticket purchases of £3 or above. Two tickets per card (not applicable to subscription bookings).

OXFORD CIRCUS BOND 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

TRANSPORT Tubes: Bond Street (Central, Jubilee lines), Oxford Circus (Bakerloo, Central and Victoria lines). Buses: A number of bus routes pass along Oxford Street.

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 aka Brochure design and production by Peter Williamson

BOOKING INFORMATION 3 January – 31 March 2012

Supporting Wigmore Hall Wigmore Hall’s size brings an unparalleled sense of intimacy to every performance and is loved by audiences and musicians alike. However, the limitation that this places on audience numbers means that ticket sales alone cannot meet all our costs. Additional support from individuals, companies and charitable foundations is vital in order to ensure that the world’s finest musicians, together with promising young performers, can continue to appear at Wigmore Hall. If you would like to support the 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 this season: HONORARY PATRONS Aubrey Adams Donald Kahn OBE Sir Ralph Kohn FRS and Lady Kohn Mr and Mrs Paul Morgan

DONORS AND SPONSORS Mr Eric Abraham and Miss Natasha Abraham* Aubrey Adams* † Tony and Marion Allen* American Friends of Wigmore Hall † The Andor Charitable Trust David and Jacqueline Ansell* Arts Council England Anthony Austin Alan Bell-Berry Mr Nicholas J Bez Mrs Arline Blass The Blue Door Foundation Karl Otto Bonnier*† David and Mary Bowerman* Alan Bradley* Nicolas and Hilary Browne-Wilkinson* Rainer and Doreen Burchett* Gwen and Stanley Burnton* Clive Butler A bequest from the late Peter Canter † Capital International Limited (corporate matched giving) Charities Advisory Trust Eric Clause* Café de Colombia Cavatina Chamber Music Trust Clifford Chance LLP Edwin C Cohen* The John S Cohen Foundation Sonia and Harvey Cole Complete Coffee John Crisp* Peter Crisp and Jeremy Crouch* Judy Davies and Kingsley Manning* Anthony Davis* Pauline Del Mar The Dunard Fund The Ellerdale Trust Annette Ellis*

The Elton Family The Equitable Charitable Trust Mrs Susan Feakin The Fidelio Charitable Trust † Peter and Sonia Field John and Amy Ford Foyle Foundation S E Franklin Charitable Trust No. 3 Friends of Wigmore Hall Jonathan Gaisman* A bequest from the late Mrs Kate Goetz John and Lauren Goldsmith* The Gordon Foundation The Lucille Graham Trust Charles Green The Milton Grundy Foundation* Mr and Mrs Rex Harbour* The Hargreaves and Ball Trust The Hobson Charity André and Rosalie Hoffmann Gay Huey Evans* Graham and Amanda Hutton* Hutton Collins Partners LLP Hyde Park Place Estate Charity Simone Hyman* John Lyon’s Charity Marc Jourdren* Donald and Jeanne Kahn* Jerome Karet* David and Louise Kaye* A bequest from the late Peter King Sir Ralph Kohn FRS and Lady Kohn* The Kohn Foundation Christian Kwek and David Hodges* Joy and Geoffrey Lawrence Maryly La Follette* Su Lesser and Neil Kaplan* Lloyds TSB Private Banking Simon and Pamela Majaro Martin Randall Travel Ltd Mayfield Valley Arts Trust Milton Damerel Trust The Monument Trust Mr and Mrs Paul Morgan Amyas and Louise Morse* Valerie O’Connor and Jeannette McIntosh

The Wigmore Hall Trust, registered charity number 1024838

Lionel and Lynn Persey* The Piano Fund The Pidem Fund Dr Clive Potter* Oliver Prenn Nick and Claire Prettejohn* The Rayne Foundation David B Rockwell* † Charles Rose* Rosenblatt Recitals Jackie Rosenfeld OBE, Hon. RCM* Ruth Rothbarth* N M Rothschild and Sons Limited The Rubinstein Circle The Samuel Sebba Charitable Trust Richard Sennett and Saskia Sassen* Victoria Sharp* Lois Sieff OBE Martin and Elise Smith* Sound Connections Cita and Irwin Stelzer*† John Stephens OBE, Hon. FTCL* Joshua Swidler* The Tertis Foundation Allen L Thomas and Jane Simpson ’Scilla and Tony Thornton* † John and Ann Tusa* Marina Vaizey* Kathleen Verelst* Robin Vousden* Gerry Wakelin Marie-Luise Waldeck Michael and Rosemary Warburg David and Frances Waters* Michael Watson Anne and David Weizmann* Mrs Mary Weston Tony Wingate The Harold Hyam Wingate Foundation Philip and Emeline Winston The Wolfson Foundation Worshipful Company of Information Technologists Simon Yates and Kevin Roon* and several anonymous supporters * also Rubinstein Circle members † also Season Patron

Wigmore Hall 2012 London

International

String Quartet Competition

27 March – 1 April 2012

JURY Chair John Gilhooly Christoph Richter Sylvia Rosenberg Simon Rowland-Jones Laura Samuel Barry Shiffman Mark Steinberg Alasdair Tait PRIZES 1st Prize £10,000 2nd Prize £6,000 3rd Prize £3,000

Preliminary Round Royal Academy of Music, Tuesday 27 – Friday 30 March Semi-Finals Wigmore Hall, Saturday 31 March, 2pm and 7pm Final Wigmore Hall, Sunday 1 April, 6pm

Tickets available to buy from 020 7935 2141 or www.wigmore-hall.org.uk Tickets for Preliminary Round, Semi-Finals & Final available from Wigmore Hall from 2 November Ticket prices for Semi-Finals & Final detailed on page 58 Ticket prices for Preliminary Round: Day Pass (all events at Royal Academy of Music on 27, 28, 29 or 30 March) £15 concessions £13 (not part of subscription scheme) Week Pass (all events at Royal Academy of Music 27 – 30 March inclusive) £50 concessions £42 (not part of subscription scheme)

www.wigmore-hall.org.uk/competitions/string-quartet

DIRECTOR JOHN GILHOOLY

36 WIGMORE STREET LONDON W1U 2BP WWW.WIGMORE-HALL.ORG.UK BOX OFFICE 020 7935 2141

SUNDAY TIMES CONCERT HALL OF OF THE YEAR 2010 2010 SUNDAY TIMES CONCERT HALL THE YEAR ‘Wigmore Hall, Hall, that that unregenerate unregenerate refuge refuge of of ‘Wigmore high culture, is a continually stimulating place. high culture, is a continually stimulating place. The easy to start Thebest bestconcert concerthall hallininLondon London,…itit’s approaches its feeling that the Wigmore is London 110th anniversary year as the natural home ofmusic.’ chamber music. SUNDAY TIMES, DECEMBER 2010

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