Wigmore Series Spring 2016 Brochure by Wigmore Hall

Wigmore Series

Spring January--March 2016 Europeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s leading venue for Chamber Music, Early Music and Song

Kaupo Kikkas

Welcome

A standing ovation followed Daniil Trifonov’s Wigmore Hall debut in 2012, creating a bond between player and audience that has deepened with each subsequent appearance. His four-concert Residency this season celebrates the young Russian pianist’s charismatic artistry as a chamber music partner and concludes with a solo recital. A sudden shift of colour or emphasis can make all the difference to the depth of a song interpretation. Christian Gerhaher embraces every nuance of expression to create the deepest imaginable readings of even the most familiar Lieder. His term as Wigmore Hall’s Singer in Residence continues with a beguiling blend of Schubert and Wolfgang Rihm, and includes an unmissable masterclass session.

Benjamin Ealovega

Jörg Widmann’s artistry as composer and performer is already familiar to Wigmore Hall audiences. He began composing as a child and completed his studies with Wolfgang Rihm in Karlsruhe. Alongside masterworks by Ravel and Kodály, Christian and Tanja Tetzlaff present a recent Widmann score. His 24 Duos, completed in 2008, allude to past styles and weave familiar melodies, the James Bond theme among them, into a richly complex musical tapestry. Wigmore Hall has fully absorbed the spirit of Schubert’s songs since it opened almost 115 years ago. Schubert: The Complete Songs offers audiences the chance to experience every one of the composer’s 600-plus Lieder. The series, which runs this season and next, matches outstanding artists to programmes that each present a sequence of works in order of their date of composition.

In 1805, Beethoven, in search of much-needed income, chose to publish two early piano sonatas as his Op. 49. These brief pieces stand at the centre of the latest recital in Llyˆ r Williams’s Beethoven Piano Sonata Cycle, creating space for contemplation and repose between the impassioned romanticism of the ‘Pathétique’ and the Promethean striving and energy of the ‘Eroica Variations’.

The Mozart Odyssey, launched in September 2014, continues as Francesco Piemontesi begins his complete piano sonata cycle, and Alina Ibragimova and Cédric Tiberghien conclude their landmark survey of the composer’s works for violin and piano. Michael Collins and Christine Rice are joined by City of London Sinfonia and London Winds on 27 January when we celebrate Mozart’s birthday in style.

One of the last century’s greatest composers, Béla Bartók left an extraordinarily rich legacy of chamber music. Many of his works, the six string quartets and violin sonatas among them, have become iconic markers for a form of musical creativity alive to influences from folk sources yet powerfully original, timeless and inexhaustibly deep in their expressive richness. We are very pleased to continue our season-long celebration of his music.

Wisdom and curiosity belong to Magdalena Kožená’s arsenal of artistic qualities, reflected clearly in her revelatory approach to programme building and ability to colour and inflect texts in a multitude of languages. The Czech mezzo-soprano shows strikingly different facets of her work in the coming months, spanning more than three centuries of music history and moving from Monteverdi’s Venice to the salons of nineteenth-century Paris, Prague and Vienna.

Acclaimed by the Guardian as ‘one of the world’s outstanding violinists’, Renaud Capuçon appears in company with his regular chamber music partner and close friend, Nicholas Angelich, to pay homage to the concert given at Wigmore Hall in March 1934 by Adolf Busch and Rudolf Serkin. In addition to performing masterworks by Mozart and Beethoven, they are set to reveal the exceptional qualities of Busoni’s Violin Sonata No. 2, which includes majestic variations on the melody of a Bach chorale.

Sound and silence are never segregated in the works of J S Bach and György Kurtág, whose ninetieth birthday falls on 19 February. Signs, Games and Messages, a sequence of fragmentary pieces, drills down deep into music’s nature in search of essential truths, while Bach’s Cello Suites transcend the conventional boundaries of early eighteenth-century dance music. Steven Isserlis brings their two soundworlds together in two utterly compelling recitals.

Described by Gramophone as ‘two deeply thoughtful artists pushing each other ever onwards’, Mark Padmore and Paul Lewis have cultivated one of today’s most visionary and spiritually rewarding Lieder recital partnerships. Their recital on 22 January charts the development of German romantic song and celebrates the vital relationship between verse and music in works by four of the greatest ever songwriters.

Folk dances and popular song fed the imaginations of composers four centuries ago, flowing freely into works created for the aristocratic households and princely palaces of Italy and Spain. Le Poème Harmonique, experts in the rhetoric, rhythmic inflections and poetic nuance of baroque music, show why dances such as the Spanish canario and jacara and the Italian ciaccona and passacaglia proved equally irresistible to refined audiences at court and jostling crowds in the street.

Henri Dutilleux, who died in 2013, nearly lived to celebrate his hundredth birthday. A special concert on 24 January marks the French composer’s centenary almost to the day, its contents chosen to chart the exquisite beauty and refinement of his feeling for sound and to open windows into his radiant imaginary world. The programme begins with Dutilleux’s tribute to the Swiss conductor and musical philanthropist Paul Sacher and includes his Trois Préludes of 1973– 88, works that probe the usually hidden recesses of silence and musical simplicity. Five artists with an innate empathy for tonal light and shade offer their tribute to Dutilleux and also explore the influences of Debussy and Ravel on his distinctive music.

It takes a great artist to break free from interpretative ideas inherited from past performers. Pinchas Zukerman belongs to that rare company of musicians in possession of the all-round experience, heartfelt insight and imagination required to infuse the richest masterworks with revelatory ideas and flashes of personal brilliance. He is partnered by Angela Cheng for a programme of compositions drawn from the core of his repertoire. I look forward to welcoming you to Wigmore Hall during the Spring Series.

The Henry Purcell: A Retrospective series continues as we explore a wide range of the composer’s music, from works written for the Chapel Royal to music fit for domestic settings, by way of Fantasias performed by viol consort Phantasm. Elizabeth Kenny and Theatre of the Ayre, and The Sixteen, under Harry Christophers, complete the host of leading Purcellians we welcome this spring.

John Gilhooly Director

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

2 0 1 6

See pages 4 – 75 for full details of these concerts and page 79 for booking information. Series and Events to look out for…

BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concerts

Benjamin Appl & Graham Johnson

Mon 4 Jan

Christian & Tanja Tetzlaff

Introducing James Baillieu Schubert: The Complete Songs

7, 10, 57, 61, 67 8–9, 11, 28, 38, 39, 52

Llyˆr Williams Beethoven Piano Sonata Cycle

12–13, 61

La Serenissima

Nash Ensemble: Mozart, Mendelssohn and the Italians

16, 32, 50, 63

European Chamber Music Academy Showcase Simon Keenlyside

20 21, 28

Dutilleux 100th Anniversary Concert

Michael Collins Series

Page 5

Wed 3 Feb

Takács Quartet/Aleksandar Madžar

Mon 25 Jan

Armida Quartet

Fri 5 Feb

Gil Shaham

Mon 1 Feb

Alec Frank-Gemmill/Alasdair Beatson

Sat 6 Feb

Nash Ensemble/Richard Hosford

Mon 8 Feb

Escher String Quartet

Wed 10 Feb

Tasmin Little/Martin Roscoe

Mon 15 Feb

Behzod Abduraimov

Fri 12 Feb

Gidon Kremer/Daniil Trifonov

Mon 22 Feb

Denis Kozhukhin

Sat 13 Feb

Scharoun Ensemble

Mon 29 Feb

Nicola Benedetti/Alexei Grynyuk

Wed 17 Feb

Steven Isserlis

Mon 7 Mar

Brentano String Quartet

Thu 18 Feb

Avi Avital/Mahan Esfahani

Mon 14 Mar

Maxim Rysanov/Ashley Wass

Fri 19 Feb

Carolin Widmann

Sat 20 Feb

Doric String Quartet

Sun 21 Feb

Doric String Quartet

Mon 22 Feb

Ensemble intercontemporain

Wed 24 Feb

Britten Sinfonia

Wed 24 Feb

Steven Isserlis

Sat 27 Feb

Apartment House

Mon 29 Feb

Ralph Kirshbaum/Shai Wosner

Wed 2 Mar

Ralph Kirshbaum/Shai Wosner

Sat 5 Mar

Tenores di Bitti/Shaho Andalibi Trio

Sat 5 Mar

Nash Ensemble/Christine Rice Jamie Phillips

Sun 6 Mar

ATOS Trio

Fri 11 Mar

Midori/Özgür Aydin

Jean-Guihen Queyras/Alexandre Tharaud 58

Celebrating Magdalena Kožená

26–27, 53, 69

Mon 28 Mar

Lucy Crowe/Joseph Middleton

29, 30 32

Gil Shaham

La Compagnia del Madrigale

Daniil Trifonov Residency

36, 38

German Song Onstage 1770–1914

Steven Isserlis: Bach & Kurtág

39, 46

Avi Avital & Mahan Esfahani

Chamber Music Season Mon 4 Jan Tue 5 Jan Sun 10 Jan Thu 14 Jan

Christian Tetzlaff/Tanja Tetzlaff Heath Quartet/James Baillieu James Ehnes/Andrew Armstrong

6 7 13

Renaud Capuçon/Guillaume Chilemme 14 Adrien La Marca/Edgar Moreau

40 Sat 16 Jan

Nash Ensemble/Roderick Williams

39, 44–45, 51, 53

Sun 17 Jan

Renaud Capuçon/Nicholas Angelich

Mon 18 Jan

The Endellion String Quartet

Alicia’s Gift Henry Purcell: A Retrospective

Dejan Lazic´

Esther Yoo/Zhang Zuo

Christian Gerhaher Masterclass

Henning Kraggerud/Kathryn Stott

Pavel Kolesnikov

Mon 21 Mar

31, 32, 33, 68

Takács Quartet

Mon 18 Jan

23, 24–25, 30

Christian Gerhaher Singer in Residence

Mon 1 Feb

Page 23

Mon 11 Jan

The Mozart Odyssey Takács Quartet Associate Artists

Alina Ibragimova Cédric Tiberghien

Tue 2 Feb

Bartók Chamber Music

Benjamin Appl/Graham Johnson

Sat 30 Jan

Dunedin Consort Apartment House

Ralph Kirshbaum & Shai Wosner: Beethoven

Wed 20 Jan

Trio Shaham Erez Wallfisch

Sun 13 Mar

The Sixteen Residency

Thu 21 Jan

Mon 14 Mar

Razumovsky Ensemble

ATOS Trio: Beethoven Piano Trios

Lawrence Power/Adrian Brendel Simon Crawford-Phillips

Tue 15 Mar

Mettis String Quartet/Stratos Quartet

Scottish Ensemble/Jonathan Morton Gabriela Montero

The Other Classical Musics

54–55

Midori

Jean-Guihen Queyras Masterclass

Jean-Guihen Queyras Artist in Residence

56, 58

Christian McBride Jazz Series

The Myrthen Ensemble: Songs to the Moon

Susan Graham & Malcolm Martineau

Le Poème Harmonique

Wilton’s Music Hall Concerts Contemporary Music Series

69 70–71

Wed 20 Jan

Fri 22 Jan

Britten Sinfonia

Sat 23 Jan

Stratos Quartet/Arcis Saxophone Quartet 20

Thu 17 Mar

Ensemble Modern

Sun 24 Jan

Meta4

Sat 19 Mar

Sun 24 Jan

Lisa Batiashvili/Valeriy Sokolov Gérard Caussé/Gautier Capuçon Frank Braley

Alina Ibragimova/Antoine Tamestit Matthew Hunt/François-Frédéric Guy Cédric Tiberghien/Colin Currie Sam Walton

Wed 27 Jan

Michael Collins/City of London Sinfonia London Winds/Christine Rice

Tue 22 Mar

Nash Ensemble/Henning Kraggerud Lawrence Power/Craig Ogden

Fri 29 Jan

Magdalena Kožená, Sir Simon Rattle and Friends

Mon 28 Mar

Pinchas Zukerman/Angela Cheng

Wed 30 Mar

Viviane Hagner/Nicole Hagner

Sunday Morning Coffee Concerts Sun 3 Jan

Johannes Moser/Benjamin Moser

Sun 10 Jan

Daniel-Ben Pienaar

Early Music and Baroque Series

Page 4

Endymion

Sun 24 Jan

Cecilia String Quartet

Sun 31 Jan

Alexandra Dariescu

Sun 7 Feb

Quartetto di Cremona

Sun 14 Feb

Jeremy Denk

Sun 21 Feb

Anthony Marwood/Aleksandar Madžar

Sun 28 Feb

Signum Quartet

Sun 6 Mar

Matthew Trusler/Martin Roscoe

Sun 13 Mar

Schumann Quartet

Sun 20 Mar

Callum Smart/Richard Uttley

Sun 27 Mar

Quatuor Zaïde

Tue 15 Mar

Scottish Ensemble/Jonathan Morton Gabriela Montero

Thu 17 Mar

Ensemble Modern

Tue 22 Mar

Nash Ensemble

Tue 29 Mar

Ailish Tynan/Adam Walker Alasdair Tait/James Baillieu

Classical Opera/Ian Page Ana Maria Labin/Benjamin Hulett

Sun 7 Feb

La Compagnia del Madrigale

Thu 11 Feb

Royal Academy of Music Baroque Soloists/Rachel Podger

Tue 23 Feb

Theatre of the Ayre/Sophie Daneman Katherine Watson/Robin Blaze Nicholas Mulroy/Matthew Brook Elizabeth Kenny

Fri 26 Feb

Dunedin Consort/John Butt Sophie Bevan

Christian McBride Jazz Series

Thu 3 Mar

The Sixteen/Harry Christophers

Fri 18 Mar

Mon 7 Mar

Phantasm/Jonathan Rees/Liam Byrne

Tue 8 Mar

Magdalena Kožená/La Cetra Andrea Marcon

World Music Series

Wed 23 Mar

The English Concert/Harry Bicket Katharina Spreckelsen/Nadja Zwiener Ann Hallenberg

Thu 10 Mar

Sat 26 Mar

Le Poème Harmonique

Wigmore Hall Learning

Birgid Steinberger/Daniel Johannsen Benjamin Appl/Graham Johnson

Wed 6 Jan

Christopher Maltman/Graham Johnson

Sun 10 Jan

Anna Huntley/James Baillieu

London Pianoforte Series

Mon 11 Jan

Luca Pisaroni/Wolfram Rieger

Sat 2 Jan

Royal Academy of Music Richard Lewis 14 Song Circle

Tue 19 Jan

Wed 6 Jan

Sun 17 Jan

Magdalena Kožená/La Cetra Andrea Marcon

Tue 8 Mar

La Serenissima/Peter Whelan Adrian Chandler

Maximilian Schmitt/Gerold Huber

Nash Ensemble/Roderick Williams

Page 48

Fri 15 Jan

Sun 3 Jan

Sat 16 Jan

Nash Ensemble/Christine Rice Jamie Phillips

The English Concert Kristian Bezuidenhout

Song Recital Series

Apartment House

Sat 5 Mar Fri 8 Jan

Sun 17 Jan

Sat 27 Feb

Thu 7 Jan

Page 10

Christian Ihle Hadland Michael Roll

4 6

Wed 13 Jan

Llyˆr Williams

Sat 23 Jan

Alexander Melnikov

The Contemporary Music Series is supported by

Christian McBride/Edgar Meyer

The Other Classical Musics

54– 55

Sat 9 Jan

Come and Sing Early Italian Music 10, 72

Sat 16 Jan

Family Day: Musical Explorers

Tue 19 Jan

Pre-Concert Talk

Wed 20 Jan

Pre-Concert Talk

Sat 23 Jan

ECMA Masterclass

Mon 25 Jan

Pre-Concert Talk

Tue 26 Jan

Pre-Concert Talk

Sat 30 Jan

CAVATINA Family Concert: Magnard Ensemble

Thu 4 Feb

Introduction to Music commences

Fri 5 Feb

Christian Gerhaher Masterclass

Tue 9 Feb

Artists in Conversation

Wed 10 Feb

Schools Concert: Marcus Farnsworth

Sat 13 Feb

Study Event: German Song Onstage 1770–1914

Tue 16 Feb

Musical Portraits Band

Wed 17 Feb

Musical Portraits Band

Wed 17 Feb

Wigmore Study Group commences

Thu 18 Feb

Family Day: Fairies and Forests

Sat 20 Feb

Alicia’s Gift: Panel Discussion

Fri 22 Jan

Mark Padmore/Paul Lewis

Mon 25 Jan

Francesco Piemontesi

Tue 26 Jan

Simon Keenlyside and Friends

Tue 9 Feb

Piotr Anderszewski

Sun 31 Jan

Simon Keenlyside/Malcolm Martineau

Sun 14 Feb

Daniil Trifonov/Sergei Babayan

Thu 4 Feb

Christian Gerhaher/Gerold Huber

Sat 20 Feb

Viv McLean/Jessica Duchen

Mon 8 Feb

Christiane Karg/Christian Gerhaher Gerold Huber

Tue 1 Mar

Leon McCawley

Sat 12 Mar

Benjamin Moser

Mary Bevan/Ben Johnson Robin Tritschler/Marcus Farnsworth Graham Johnson

Tue 16 Feb

Ian Bostridge/Graham Johnson

Mon 4 Jan

Christian Tetzlaff/Tanja Tetzlaff

Fri 4 Mar

Paul Appleby/Malcolm Martineau

Wed 20 Jan

Britten Sinfonia

Sun 6 Mar

Benjamin Appl/Graham Johnson

Sun 24 Jan

Sun 13 Mar

Sarah-Jane Brandon/James Baillieu

Lisa Batiashvili/Valeriy Sokolov Gérard Caussé/Gautier Capuçon Frank Braley

Sun 20 Mar

Jonathan McGovern/James Baillieu

Wed 3 Feb

Takács Quartet/Aleksandar Madžar

Tue 23 Feb

Schools Concert: Crash, Bang, Wallop

Sun 20 Mar

The Myrthen Ensemble

Thu 4 Feb

Christian Gerhaher/Gerold Huber

Wed 24 Feb

Pre-Concert Talk

Thu 24 Mar

Susan Graham/Malcolm Martineau

Sat 13 Feb

Scharoun Ensemble

Sat 27 Feb

Family Concert: Crash, Bang, Wallop 46, 74

Tue 29 Mar

Ailish Tynan/Adam Walker Alasdair Tait/James Baillieu

Wed 17 Feb

Steven Isserlis

Fri 4 Mar

Young Producers Concert

Fri 19 Feb

Carolin Widmann

Wed 9 Mar

Young Producers Concert

Christian Gerhaher/Gerold Huber

Mon 22 Feb

Ensemble intercontemporain

Thu 10 Mar

Pre-Concert Talk

Wed 24 Feb

Britten Sinfonia

Sat 12 Mar

Jean-Guihen Queyras Masterclass

Wed 24 Feb

Steven Isserlis

Tue 22 Mar

Introductory Talk

Tue 16 Feb

Thu 31 Mar

We are grateful to The Monument Trust for essential additional support for our expanded vocal series

Contemporary Music Series 6

23, 73

WIGMORE SERIES S P R I N G S E A S O N J A N U A RY – M A R C H 2 0 1 6

Priotity Booking opens on 29 September. Requests should be submitted by 16 October (Friends), and 23 October (Mailing List Subscribers). Booking opens to the General Public on 6 November.

January Saturday 2 January 7.30 pm

Sunday 3 January 11.30 am

Sunday 3 January 3.00 pm

Christian Ihle Hadland piano

Johannes Moser cello Benjamin Moser piano

Maximilian Schmitt tenor Gerold Huber piano

Prokofiev Cello Sonata in C Op. 119 Rachmaninov Cello Sonata in G minor Op. 19

Robert Schumann Der arme Peter Clara Schumann Ich stand in dunkeln Träumen; Sie liebten sich beide; Lorelei Beethoven Marmotte; Wonne der Wehmut; Der Kuss; Resignation; Adelaide Robert Schumann Dichterliebe

Bach Italian Concerto in F BWV971 Beethoven Piano Sonata in A Op. 2 No. 2 Mendelssohn Variations sérieuses in D minor Op. 54 Brahms 2 Rhapsodies Op. 79 Prokofiev Piano Sonata No. 2 in D minor Op. 14 Since making his concerto debut with the Norwegian Radio Orchestra at the age of fifteen, Christian Ihle Hadland has gained a reputation for pianism of the highest insight and imagination. The young Norwegian artist returns to Wigmore Hall with a programme crowned by the fiery passion of Prokofiev’s youthful Second Piano Sonata. £30 £25 £20 £15 £10

The Moser brothers, joint recipients of the 2014 Brahms Prize, come to Wigmore Hall with a programme ideally matched to their virtuosity and poetic artistry. Prokofiev created his Cello Sonata in C against the dark background of his denunciation by the Soviet authorities in 1948. The piece stands with Rachmaninov’s Cello Sonata among the great masterworks for cello and piano. £13 concs £11 incl. programme and coffee/sherry/juice

London Pianoforte Series

Sunday Morning Coffee Concert

Maximilian Schmitt gained his early musical experience as a member of the famous Regensburger Domspatzen. He moved effortlessly from boy chorister to solo tenor, serving as a member of Bavarian State Opera’s Young Ensemble before launching his solo career a decade ago. His programme includes Clara Schumann’s captivating ‘Lorelei’ and her husband’s timeless Dichterliebe. All seats £15

Song Recital Series

Christian Ihle Hadland

Anders Bergersen

Johannes & Benjamin Moser

Uwe Arens & Die Hoffotographen

Maximilian Schmitt

Christian Kagl

Benjamin

Appl Monday 4 January 1.00 pm

Benjamin Appl* baritone Graham Johnson piano Schumann Frühlingsfahrt; Der Einsiedler; Der frohe Wandersmann Mendelssohn Pagenlied; Nachtlied; Wanderlied Brahms In der Fremde; Mondnacht; Parole; Anklänge Pfitzner In Danzig; Der Gärtner; Zum Abschied meiner Tochter Wolf Nachruf; Das Ständchen; Der Musikant; Der Scholar; Der Freund Superlatives are a common feature in reviews of Benjamin Appl’s artistry. The young German baritone, a current BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist, first made his mark at Wigmore Hall in recital with Graham Johnson in 2013. They appear together again, directing their artistic partnership to a programme certain to delight and beguile. £13 concs £11

* WIGMORE HALL EMERGING T A L E N T

Supported by Mayfield Valley Arts Trust Benjamin Appl is a member of BBC Radio 3’s New Generation Artists scheme

BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert

Photo by David Jerusalem

January

CHRISTIAN & TANJA TETZLAFF

Tuesday 5 January 7.30 pm

Thursday 7 January 7.30 pm

Heath Quartet James Baillieu piano

Michael Roll piano

INTRODUCING JAMES BAILLIEU See page opposite for full details

Wednesday 6 January 6.00 pm

Birgid Steinberger soprano Daniel Johannsen tenor Benjamin Appl baritone Graham Johnson piano Christian Tetzlaff

Giorgia Bertazzi

Beethoven 6 Bagatelles Op. 126 Brahms Klavierstücke Op. 76 Schubert Piano Sonata in Bb D960 Michael Roll made his mark as winner of the inaugural Leeds International Piano Competition in 1963 and went on to collaborate with, among others, Adrian Boult, Benjamin Britten and Pierre Boulez. He continues to astonish and delight audiences with a mind keenly aware of the poetic nuances and dramatic contrasts of the works in this programme. £30 £25 £20 £15 £10

London Pianoforte Series

SCHUBERT: THE COMPLETE SONGS See page 8 for full details

Wednesday 6 January 7.30 pm

Christopher Maltman baritone Graham Johnson piano SCHUBERT: THE COMPLETE SONGS See page 9 for full details Tanja Tetzlaff

Giorgia Bertazzi

Monday 4 January 7.30 pm

Christian Tetzlaff violin Tanja Tetzlaff cello Ravel Sonata for violin and cello Jörg Widmann 24 Duos for violin and cello Kodály Duo for violin and cello Op. 7 Jörg Widmann’s artistry as composer and performer is already familiar to Wigmore Hall audiences. He began composing as a child and completed his studies with Wolfgang Rihm in Karlsruhe. Alongside masterworks by Ravel and Kodály, Christian and Tanja Tetzlaff present a recent Widmann score. His 24 Duos, completed in 2008, allude to past styles and weave familiar melodies, the James Bond theme among them, into a richly complex musical tapestry. £30 £25 £20 £15 £10 Booking Open Chamber Music Season/ Contemporary Music Series

Graham Johnson

Malcolm Crowthers

Michael Roll

Mary Robert

Introducing James Baillieu As part of its commitment to developing emerging talent, this season Wigmore Hall trains the spotlight on the work of an exceptional young pianist. Introducing James Baillieu reflects the breadth of his collaborations with instrumentalists and singers, embracing everything from Elgar’s Piano Quintet and early songs by Britten and Schoenberg to a freshly-minted work by Judith Weir. Tuesday 5 January 7.30 pm

Heath Quartet James Baillieu

piano

Mozart Adagio and Fugue in C minor K546 Mozart Piano Concerto No. 12 in A K414 Elgar Piano Quintet in A minor Op. 84 Mozart described the music of his Piano Concerto No. 12 in A K414, conceived for performance either with small orchestra or string quartet, as ‘very brilliant, pleasing to the ear, and natural’. James Baillieu moves from concerto soloist to chamber music partner in the second half, joining the Heath Quartet in Elgar’s Piano Quintet, which received its first public performance at Wigmore Hall in May 1919.

Heath Quartet

Sussie Ahlburg

Forthcoming Concerts in this Series Sunday 10 April 3.00 pm

Johnny Herford baritone

£36 £30 £25 £20 £15

with

Chamber Music Season/ Introducing James Baillieu

Sunday 17 April 7.30 pm with

Julian Prégardien

tenor

Sunday 10 January 3.00 pm with

Anna Huntley mezzo-soprano

Sunday 13 March 3.00 pm with

Sarah-Jane Brandon soprano

Sunday 20 March 3.00 pm with

Jonathan McGovern baritone

Tuesday 29 March 7.30 pm with

Ailish Tynan soprano Adam Walker flute Alasdair Tait cello

Tuesday 31 May 7.30 pm

Wigmore Hall Anniversary Gala Concert Monday 18 July 7.30 pm with

Ailish Tynan soprano Anna Huntley mezzo-soprano Robin Tritschler tenor Benjamin Appl baritone

Photo by Kaupo Kikkas

Schubert: Wigmore Hall has fully absorbed the spirit of Schubert’s songs since it opened almost 115 years ago. Schubert: The Complete Songs offers audiences the chance to experience every one of the composer’s 600-plus Lieder. The series, which runs this season and next, matches outstanding artists to programmes that each present a sequence of works in order of their date of composition. Voices at Wigmore Supporting Schubert: The Complete Songs 2015 /16 and 2016 /17

Wednesday 6 January 6.00 pm

Birgid Steinberger soprano Daniel Johannsen tenor Benjamin Appl* baritone Graham Johnson piano SONGS AND BALLADS OF GOTHIC HORROR Schubert Der Geistertanz (D15) (fragment); Der Geistertanz (D15a) (fragment); Minona; Adelwold und Emma In 1812 Schubert made two bold attempts to set ‘Der Geistertanz’, Friedrich von Matthisson’s vivid depiction of nocturnal spirits at play in a graveyard. The young composer’s feeling for supernatural scenes and Gothic romance also flows through his dramatic setting of the 38 verses of ‘Adelwold und Emma’, remarkable even by the near-miraculous standards of Schubert’s songs from 1815. This concert will be approximately 45 minutes in duration, without an interval All seats £5

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

Song Recital Series / Schubert: The Complete Songs

Portrait of Schubert by Wilhelm August Rieder Background painting by Caspar David Friedrich

The Complete Songs Sunday 15 May 7.30 pm

Sophie Bevan soprano Graham Johnson piano Wednesday 6 January 7.30 pm

Tuesday 16 February 6.00 pm

Wednesday 18 May 7.30 pm

Christopher Maltman baritone Graham Johnson piano

Mary Bevan soprano Ben Johnson tenor Robin Tritschler tenor Marcus Farnsworth baritone Graham Johnson piano

Florian Boesch baritone Malcolm Martineau piano

Schubert Szene aus Goethes ‘Faust’; An den Mond (D193); An die Nachtigall (D196); An die Apfelbäume, wo ich Julien erblickte; Auf den Tod einer Nachtigall (D201); Die Nonne; Die Bürgschaft; Liane; Fragment aus dem Aeschylus; Liedesend; Rückweg; Alte Liebe rostet nie; Zum Punsche FROM THE BATTLEFIELD Schubert An die Leier; Normans Gesang; Das Heimweh (D851); Romanze des Richard Löwenherz; Der Wallensteiner Lanzknecht beim Trunk The teenaged Schubert was inspired by the first part of Goethe’s Faust, which appeared in print in 1808, to create an operatic scene depicting Gretchen’s downfall. This programme also includes an exploration of songs of battle and the romance of chivalry, and concludes with a campaign-hardened knight’s rollicking drinking song. £36 £30 £25 £20 £15

Song Recital Series / Schubert: The Complete Songs

Luca Pisaroni bass-baritone Wolfram Rieger piano Sunday 31 January 7.30 pm

Simon Keenlyside baritone Malcolm Martineau piano

Miah Persson soprano Joseph Breinl piano

Tuesday 16 February 7.30 pm

Ian Bostridge tenor Graham Johnson piano

Friday 10 June 7.00 pm

Angelika Kirchschlager mezzo-soprano

Sunday 6 March 3.00 pm

Julius Drake piano

Benjamin Appl baritone Graham Johnson piano

Wednesday 15 June 6.00 pm

Forthcoming Concerts in this Series Friday 8 April 7.30 pm

Christoph Prégardien tenor Michael Gees piano Sunday 17 April 7.30 pm

Monday 11 January 7.30 pm

Friday 27 May 7.00 pm

Julian Prégardien tenor James Baillieu piano Sunday 15 May 6.00 pm

Ailish Tynan soprano Kitty Whately mezzo-soprano Benjamin Hulett tenor James Platt bass Graham Johnson piano

Ailish Tynan soprano Ben Johnson tenor Benjamin Appl baritone Graham Johnson piano Wednesday 15 June 7.30 pm

Robin Tritschler tenor Graham Johnson piano Thursday 7 July 7.30 pm

Ian Bostridge tenor Lars Vogt piano Saturday 23 July 7.30 pm

Roderick Williams baritone Gary Matthewman piano Further concerts to be announced for the 2016 /17 Season

January Friday 8 January 7.30 pm

Saturday 9 January 10.00 am – 3.30 pm

Sunday 10 January 3.00 pm

The English Concert Kristian Bezuidenhout

Come and Sing Early Italian Music

Wigmore Hall/Independent Opera Voice Fellowship Recital

guest director, fortepiano J C Bach Symphony in E b Op. 6 No. 3 C P E Bach Concerto in C for fortepiano and strings Wq. 20 Mozart Piano Concerto No. 9 in E b K271 Mozart Symphony No. 15 in G K124 Described by the Boston Globe as ‘a vigorously intelligent musician, well equipped with the technique to back up some extraordinary new ideas about old music’, Kristian Bezuidenhout, virtuoso pianist and director, launches The English Concert’s year with a thrilling whistle-stop tour of Europe in the 1770s, a period of transition and experiment, musically speaking, in which the new classical style was created. £36 £30 £25 £20 £15

Early Music and Baroque Series

Isabelle Adams leads a workshop day for adults exploring Italian madrigals, oratorio and early opera. Get to know the music from the inside, develop your singing skills and finish the day with a performance on the Wigmore Hall stage. £25 concs £19

Wigmore Hall Learning Event

Sunday 10 January 11.30 am

Daniel-Ben Pienaar piano Chopin 3 Nouvelles Études; Ballade No. 4 in F minor Op. 52 Schubert Moments Musicaux D780: No. 3 in F minor; Impromptu in Ab D935 No. 2; Piano Sonata in A D959 Rave reviews have followed Daniel-Ben Pienaar’s complete recordings of the piano sonatas of Mozart and Beethoven and Bach’s 48 Preludes and Fugues. The South African-born pianist, currently Curzon Lecturer in Performance Studies at the Royal Academy of Music, presents a programme rich in romantic imagery, technical virtuosity and sublime invention.

Anna Huntley mezzo-soprano James Baillieu piano Brahms Ständchen (Op. 106 No. 1); Spanisches Lied; O kühler Wald; Von ewiger Liebe Schumann Frauenliebe und -leben Gibbs Five eyes Vaughan Williams The water mill Trad (arr. Hughes) She moved through the fair Vaughan Williams Silent noon Weill The Saga of Jenny Flanders and Swann The Warthog William Bolcom Lime jello marshmallow cottage cheese surprise Grand What’s a lady like me Anna Huntley, recipient of the 2011 Wigmore Hall/Independent Opera Voice Fellowship, has developed a close artistic partnership with James Baillieu in recent seasons. Their programme embraces everything from songs of love lost and love found, ‘O kühler Wald’ and ‘The Warthog’ among them, to the taste-bud paralysing excesses of William Bolcom’s ‘Lime jello marshmallow cottage cheese surprise’. All seats £15

Song Recital Series/Introducing James Baillieu

£13 concs £11 incl. programme and coffee/sherry/juice

Sunday Morning Coffee Concert

Kristian Bezuidenhout

Marco Borggreve

Daniel-Ben Pienaar

Uta Knizia

Anna Huntley

Kaupo Kikkas

January Sunday 10 January 7.30 pm

Monday 11 January 7.30 pm

James Ehnes violin Andrew Armstrong piano

Luca Pisaroni bass-baritone Wolfram Rieger piano

BARTÓK CHAMBER MUSIC

Schubert Pensa, che questo istante; Schäfers Klagelied; Erlkönig; An Schwager Kronos; Wie Ulfru fischt; Fahrt zum Hades; Der Schiffer (D536); Auf dem See; Auf der Donau; Das Abendrot (D627); Grenzen der Menschheit; Heliopolis I & II; L’incanto degli occhi; Il modo di prender moglie; Il traditor deluso Schubert From Schwanengesang : Der Atlas; Ihr Bild; Das Fischermädchen; Die Stadt; Am Meer; Der Doppelgänger

See page 13 for full details

Monday 11 January 1.00 pm

Pavel Kolesnikov piano Debussy Préludes Book I; L’isle joyeuse Five-star reviews greeted Pavel Kolesnikov’s Wigmore Hall debut recital in 2014, secured not least thanks to his interpretation of Debussy’s first set of Images. The young Russian-born pianist turns to Debussy once again, exploring the dozen characterful pieces of the composer’s Préludes Book I and devoting his highly developed feeling for tonal colours and textures to L’isle joyeuse. £13 concs £11

Pavel Kolesnikov is a member of BBC Radio 3’s New Generation Artists scheme

LLYˆR WILLIAMS BEETHOVEN PIANO SONATA CYCLE

This programme ideally suits the sonorous warmth and operatic intensity of Luca Pisaroni’s voice. The Italian bass-baritone opens with a song in his native language from 1813 before tackling the tragic drama of ‘Erlkönig’ and addressing mankind’s insignificance in ‘Grenzen der Menschheit’. The recital ends with six matchless Heine settings from Schwanengesang, completed shortly before Schubert’s death. £36 £30 £25 £20 £15

Llyˆr Williams

John Farro Sims

Supported by the Patron Friends of Wigmore Hall

Song Recital Series/Schubert: The Complete Songs

Wednesday 13 January 7.30 pm

Llyˆr Williams piano

BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert

Beethoven Piano Sonata No. 12 in Ab Op. 26 ‘Funeral March’; Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor Op. 13 ‘Pathétique’; Piano Sonata No. 19 in G minor Op. 49 No. 1; Piano Sonata No. 20 in G Op. 49 No. 2; 15 Variations and a Fugue on an Original Theme in E b ‘Eroica Variations’ Op. 35 In 1805, Beethoven, in search of much-needed income, chose to publish two early piano sonatas as his Op. 49. These brief pieces stand at the centre of the latest recital in Llyˆr Williams’s Beethoven Piano Sonata Cycle, creating space for contemplation and repose between the impassioned romanticism of the ‘Pathétique’ and the Promethean striving and energy of the ‘Eroica Variations’. £36 £30 £25 £20 £15

London Pianoforte Series/Llyˆr Williams Beethoven Piano Sonata Cycle

Forthcoming Concert in this Series Tuesday 19 April 7.30 pm Further dates to be announced in 2016/17 Pavel Kolesnikov

Colin Way

Luca Pisaroni

Marco Borggreve

Bartók One of the last century’s greatest composers, Béla Bartók left an extraordinarily rich legacy of chamber music. Many of his works, the six string quartets and violin sonatas among them, have become iconic markers for a form of musical creativity alive to influences from folk sources yet powerfully original, timeless and inexhaustibly deep in their expressive richness.

Chamber Music 12

Sunday 10 January 7.30 pm

Saturday 19 March 7.00 pm NB starting time

James Ehnes violin Andrew Armstrong piano

Alina Ibragimova violin Antoine Tamestit viola Matthew Hunt clarinet Colin Currie percussion Sam Walton percussion Cédric Tiberghien piano François-Frédéric Guy piano

Bartók Rhapsody No. 2 BB96; Sonata for solo violin BB124; Sonatina for violin and piano (arr. E. Gertler with Bartók) BB102a; Violin Sonata No. 1 BB84 Bartók created his Violin Sonata No. 1 with the exceptional talents of the London-based Hungarian violinist Jelly d’Arányi in mind. The piece, which boldly evokes Hungarian and Romanian folksong, unleashes just about every string technique in the book. Canadian virtuoso James Ehnes also performs the fiendishly difficult Sonata for solo violin, written for Yehudi Menuhin in 1944, and the folk-inspired Second Rhapsody and Sonatina.

CHAMBER WORKS, INCLUDING SONATA FOR TWO PIANOS AND PERCUSSION

Forthcoming Events in this Series

£36 £30 £25 £20 £15 Chamber Music Season/Bartók Chamber Music

Friday 6 May 3.00 pm – 6.00 pm Wednesday 11 May 3.00 pm – 6.00 pm Friday 13 May 3.00 pm – 6.00 pm

Wigmore Study Group Wednesday 11 May 7.30 pm Friday 13 May 7.30 pm

Heath Quartet STRING QUARTETS

Tuesday 24 May 7.30 pm

Cédric Tiberghien

piano

WORKS FOR SOLO PIANO

Saturday 11 June 7.30 pm

Barnabás Kelemen violin José Gallardo piano VIOLIN SONATAS

James Ehnes

Benjamin Ealovega

January Thursday 14 January 7.30 pm

Saturday 16 January 7.30 pm

Sunday 17 January 3.00 pm

Quatuor Renaud Capuçon

Wigmore Hall Chamber Ensemble in Residence

Renaud Capuçon violin Guillaume Chilemme violin Adrien La Marca viola Edgar Moreau cello

Nash Ensemble Roderick Williams baritone

Royal Academy of Music Richard Lewis Song Circle

MOZART, MENDELSSOHN AND THE ITALIANS

THE BUSCH PROJECT

See page 16 for full details

Beethoven String Quartet in C# minor Op. 131 Schubert String Quartet in G D887 Four of today’s exceptional chamber musicians join forces to perform two of the greatest of all string quartet works, commemorating the concert given at Wigmore Hall in March 1933 by the Busch Quartet. Beethoven’s late String Quartet in C sharp minor was written following his nephew’s failed suicide attempt, its seven movements reflecting on the miracle of life and its fleeting impermanence. £36 £30 £25 £20 £15

Supported by The Hargreaves and Ball Trust

Chamber Music Season

Sunday 17 January 11.30 am

Endymion Mozart Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor K478 Mozart Clarinet Quintet in A K581 Many of Radio 4’s desert island castaways have named Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet in A K581 among their essential recordings. The work, written to display the talents of the composer’s fellow freemason, Anton Stadler, is prefaced by Endymion’s interpretation of the Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor, among the genre’s earliest and finest works.

Friday 15 January 7.30 pm

£13 concs £11 incl. programme and coffee/sherry/juice

La Serenissima Adrian Chandler director, violin Peter Whelan bassoon

Sunday Morning Coffee Concert

Liszt Vergiftet sind meine Lieder; Freudvoll und leidvoll Loewe Tom der Reimer; Die wandelnde Glocke; Spirito santo; Gutmann und Gutweib Liszt Comment, disaient-ils; Oh! quand je dors Loewe Edward; Hinkende Jamben Liszt Es war ein König in Thule; Der du von dem Himmel bist Loewe Meine Ruh ist hin Liszt Die drei Zigeuner; Die Loreley Loewe Erlkönig Six outstanding young performers from the Royal Academy of Music evoke the vivid images and supernatural narratives of songs and ballads by Loewe and Liszt. Their programme includes Liszt’s early settings of verse by Goethe and Heine, ‘Es war ein König in Thule’ and ‘Die Loreley’ among them, and Loewe’s engrossing ‘Erlkönig’, written in 1817/18 during the composer’s student years.

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

See page opposite for full details

THE BALLADS OF CARL LOEWE AND FRANZ LISZT

All seats £15

VIVALDI: THE FOUR SEASONS

Roderick Williams

Emily Garland soprano Claire Barnett-Jones mezzo-soprano Henry Neill baritone Božidar Smiljanic´ bass-baritone Jâms Coleman piano Jonathan Lakeland piano

Song Recital Series

Benjamin Ealovega

Endymion

Eamonn McCabe

La Serenissima Friday 15 January 7.30 pm

La Serenissima Adrian Chandler director, violin Peter Whelan bassoon VIVALDI: THE FOUR SEASONS Vivaldi Concerto in D for violin ‘in tromba marina’, strings and continuo RV221; Concerto in G minor for bassoon, strings and continuo RV496; Concerto in G for violin ‘in tromba marina’, strings and continuo RV311; Concerto in B b for bassoon, strings and continuo RV501 ‘La notte’ Vivaldi Le Quattro Stagioni – The Four Seasons (Manchester version): Concertos for violin, strings and continuo: in E ‘La Primavera’ RV269; in G minor ‘L’Estate’ RV315; in F ‘L’Autumno’ RV293; in F minor ‘L’Inverno’ RV297

Adrian Chandler and La Serenissima have built an all-Vivaldi programme complete with ‘ghosts, birds, unrequited love, guns, drunks, dogs … and a pimped-up violin’. Their 21st anniversary concert presents the Venetian composer’s famous ‘Four Seasons’ in an edition based on the work’s only surviving manuscript copy. Vivaldi’s adventurous spirit can also be heard in two concertos for the tromba marina, a single-stringed instrument that sounds like a trumpet. Adrian Chandler, luthier David Rattray and Vivaldi expert Michael Talbot have teamed up to recreate this curious and loud instrument from evidence surviving in the archives of the Ospedale della Pietà, the famous foundling institution with which Vivaldi was associated for much of his career. £40 £35 £30 £25 £15

Early Music and Baroque Series Canaletto: The entrance to the grand canal, Venice

Wigmore Hall Chamber Ensemble in Residence

Nash Ensemble Mozart, Mendelssohn and the Italians Saturday 16 January 7.30 pm

Saturday 6 February 7.30 pm

Tuesday 22 March 6.00 pm

Wigmore Hall Chamber Ensemble in Residence

Nash Ensemble Richard Hosford clarinet

Pre-Concert Talk

Nash Ensemble Roderick Williams baritone Boccherini String Quintet in C Op. 28 No. 4 Wolf Italian Serenade in G for string quartet Mendelssohn Songs with piano Mozart String Quintet in G minor K516 One of the graceful quintets with two cellos by the Italian-born, Spanish-based Luigi Boccherini opens this programme; the most dramatic and intense of Mozart’s quintets with two violas closes it. In between come a quartet movement by Hugo Wolf drenched in Italian sunshine and a group of Mendelssohn songs sung by Roderick Williams. £36 £30 £25 £20 £15

Chamber Music Season/Song Recital Series/ Nash Ensemble: Mozart, Mendelssohn and the Italians Painting: View of Amalfi, Italy, in May 1831 by Felix Mendelssohn. Photo © akg-images/De Agostini Picture Lib

Donizetti, Verdi & Mozart

Saturday 5 March 5.30 pm

Tenores di Bitti Shaho Andalibi Trio Sardinian & Kurdish traditional music

Saturday 5 March 7.30 pm

Nash Ensemble Christine Rice mezzo-soprano Jamie Phillips conductor Mendelssohn, Rossini, Dallapiccola & Berio

Berio Sequenzas

Tuesday 22 March 7.00 pm NB starting time

Nash Ensemble Philippa Davies flute Gareth Hulse oboe Lawrence Power viola Lucy Wakeford harp Ian Brown piano Chris Brannick percussion Berio Sequenzas

Tuesday 22 March 8.30 pm NB starting time

Nash Ensemble Henning Kraggerud violin Lawrence Power viola Craig Ogden guitar Puccini, Paganini & Mendelssohn

January Sunday 17 January 7.30 pm

Monday 18 January 1.00 pm

Monday 18 January 7.30 pm

Renaud Capuçon violin Nicholas Angelich piano

Dejan Lazic´ piano

The Endellion String Quartet

Haydn Piano Sonata in Eb HXVI:52 Shostakovich Three Fantastic Dances Op. 5 Schumann Waldszenen Op. 82 Dejan Lazic´ 3 Istrian Dances Op. 15a

Schubert Quartettsatz in C minor D703 Haydn String Quartet in A Op. 20 No. 6 Beethoven String Quartet in F minor Op. 95 ‘Serioso’ Debussy String Quartet in G minor Op. 10

Zagreb-born pianist Dejan Lazic´ is increasingly making his name as a composer, recognised not least for the melodic eloquence of his musical language. His trio of Istrian Dances makes a strong companion to the nine short movements of Schumann’s Waldszenen Op. 82 and ideally complements the breathtaking invention of Haydn’s final piano sonata, written in London in 1794.

Schubert’s dramatic and lyrical ‘Quartettsatz’ opens this programme, followed by a work charged with Haydn’s inventive mastery, complete with a whispered fugue. The Endellion String Quartet also explores the expressive range and tremendous power of Beethoven’s Op. 95, before turning, in contrast, to Debussy’s early masterpiece and revealing his extraordinary imagination for colour and texture.

THE BUSCH PROJECT Busoni Violin Sonata No. 2 in E minor Op. 36a Mozart Violin Sonata in G K379 Beethoven Violin Sonata No. 7 in C minor Op. 30 No. 2 Acclaimed by the Guardian as ‘one of the world’s outstanding violinists’, Renaud Capuçon appears in company with his regular chamber music partner and close friend, Nicholas Angelich, to pay homage to the concert given at Wigmore Hall in March 1934 by Adolf Busch and Rudolf Serkin. In addition to performing masterworks by Mozart and Beethoven, they are set to reveal the exceptional qualities of Busoni’s Violin Sonata No. 2, which includes majestic variations on the melody of a Bach chorale.

£13 concs £11

£36 £30 £25 £20 £15 Booking open

Chamber Music Season BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert

£36 £30 £25 £20 £15

Chamber Music Season

Renaud Capuçon

Nicholas Angelich

Mat Hennek

Stéphane de Bourgies

Dejan Lazic´

The Endellion String Quartet

Susie Knoll

Eric Richmond

January Tuesday 19 January 6.00 pm

Wednesday 20 January 12.15 pm

Wednesday 20 January 7.30 pm

Pre-Concert Talk

Trio Shaham Erez Wallfisch

Leading Mozart scholar Cliff Eisen, Professor at King’s College, London and editor of a forthcoming new critical edition and English-language translation of the Mozart family correspondence, discusses the young Mozart’s travels in 1766 and introduces some of the music being performed in the concert.

An introduction to the lunchtime concert with composer Anna Clyne and Dr Kate Kennedy.

Beethoven Piano Trio in D Op. 70 No. 1 ‘Ghost’ Arensky Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor Op. 32 Rachmaninov Trio élégiaque No. 1 in G minor Op. posth Brahms Piano Trio No. 2 in C Op. 87

Free to concert ticket holders (separate ticket required) Booking Open

Wigmore Hall Learning Event

£4

Wigmore Hall Learning Event

Wednesday 20 January 1.00 pm

Britten Sinfonia Tuesday 19 January 7.30 pm

Classical Opera Ana Maria Labin soprano Benjamin Hulett tenor Ian Page conductor ‘MOZART 250’: 1766 – A RETROSPECTIVE Mozart Symphony No. 5 in Bb K22 Jommelli Aria from Il Vologeso Mozart Per pietà, bell’idol mio K78; O temerario Arbace ... Per quel paterno amplesso K79 Vanhal Symphony in G minor Haydn Et incarnatus est from Missa Cellensis Guglielmi Aria from Lo spirito di contradizione Beck Symphony in D Op. 4 No. 1 (1st movement) J C Bach Ah, why shou’d love with tyrant sway Mozart Or che il dover... Tali e cotanti sono K36; Symphony in G K45a ‘Lambach’ Following last season’s triumphant launch of MOZART 250, Classical Opera continues its unique traversal of the fertile musical landscape of 250 years ago with a fascinating programme of works either written or premièred in the year 1766.

Julia Doyle soprano Nicholas Daniel oboe Jacqueline Shave violin Miranda Dale violin Clare Finnimore viola Caroline Dearnley cello Maggie Cole harpsichord Bach Aria: Gott versorget alles Leben from Cantata BWV187; Aria: Seufzer, Tränen, Kummer, Not from Cantata BWV21 Ligeti Continuum Anna Clyne This Lunar Beauty* (London première) Salvatore Sciarrino Due arie notturne dal campo (arr. of two arias by A. Scarlatti)

Beethoven, as with other genres, raised the bar for the piano trio. ‘Despite the good nature that prevails’, noted E TA Hoffmann in his review of the composer’s Op. 70, ‘Beethoven’s genius is in the last analysis serious’. The Trio Shaham Erez Wallfisch set the famous ‘Ghost’ Trio in company with Arensky’s formidable First Piano Trio and two contrasting works, Rachmaninov’s early Trio élégiaque and Brahms’s genial Second Piano Trio. £36 £30 £25 £20 £15

Supported by the Sir Jack Lyons Charitable Trust

Chamber Music Season

Preoccupation with texture permeates this programme, arising with two arias from J S Bach. Ligeti’s Continuum tests the exhilarating knife-edge between identifying individual notes and hearing continuous sound. A London première from Grammy-nominated composer, Anna Clyne, whose music seeks to explore resonant soundscapes and propelling textures, completes the journey from the baroque to the present. *Co-commissioned by Britten Sinfonia with support from donors to the Musically Gifted campaign, and by Wigmore Hall with the support of André Hoffmann, president of the Fondation Hoffmann, a Swiss grant-making foundation £13 concs £11 Booking Open

£36 £30 £25 £20 £15

Chamber Music Season/Contemporary Music Series

Trio Shaham Erez Wallfisch

Britten Sinfonia

Anna Clyne

Hagai Shaham

Early Music and Baroque Series

Ian Page

Harry Rankin

Javier Oddo

January Thursday 21 January 7.30 pm

Friday 22 January 7.30 pm

Lawrence Power viola, violin Adrian Brendel cello Simon Crawford-Phillips piano

Mark Padmore tenor Paul Lewis piano

Hahn Soliloque et forlane Vierne Le Soir Op. 5 No. 1 Büsser Appassionato Op. 34 Brahms Trio in A minor for viola, cello and piano Op. 114 Suk Elegie Op. 23 Brahms Piano Trio No. 1 in B Op. 8 Technical mastery, tonal warmth and mesmerising musicianship are among the many qualities that make Lawrence Power’s artistry so compelling. Revered by chamber music connoisseurs worldwide for the life-enhancing insights and depth of his playing, he stands both as a wholehearted champion of contemporary work and a grand master of his instrument’s classical repertoire. £30 £25 £20 £15 £10

Chamber Music Season

ECMA Showcase

Saturday 23 January 7.30 pm

Alexander Melnikov piano

Schumann Liederkreis Op. 24 Brahms Es liebt sich so lieblich im Lenze; Sommerabend; Mondenschein; Der Tod, das ist die kühle Nacht; Es schauen die Blumen; Meerfahrt Schubert An den Mond (D296); Meeres Stille; Gesänge des Harfners; An Schwager Kronos Wolf Der Rattenfänger; Spottlied aus Wilhelm Meister; Blumengruss; Gleich und gleich; Phänomen; Anakreons Grab; Ob der Koran von Ewigkeit; Trunken müssen wir allen sein!; So lang man nüchtern ist; Sie haben wegen der Trunkenheit; Was in der Schenke waren heute Described by Gramophone as ‘two deeply thoughtful artists pushing each other ever onwards’, Mark Padmore and Paul Lewis have cultivated one of today’s most visionary and spiritually rewarding Lieder recital partnerships. Their programme charts the development of German romantic song and celebrates the vital relationship between verse and music in works by four of the greatest ever songwriters.

Chopin 24 Preludes Op. 28 Skryabin Fantasie Op. 28; Deux poèmes Op. 32; Piano Sonata No. 3 in F# minor Op. 23; Cinq préludes Op. 74 Alexander Melnikov’s pianism is securely rooted in a deep knowledge of his instrument and the evolution of its repertoire. The Russian artist’s Skryabin interpretations reflect the composer’s early debt to Chopin as well as the individuality of his mature musical language. Melnikov opens with one of the great monuments of nineteenth-century music, Chopin’s 24 Preludes Op. 28. £36 £30 £25 £20 £15

London Pianoforte Series

£45 £35 £30 £25 £15

Friday 22 January 1.00 pm

Song Recital Series

Saturday 23 January 11.00 am – Masterclass Saturday 23 January 3.00 pm Sunday 24 January 3.00 pm

See page 20 for full details

Alexander Melnikov

Lawrence Power

Giorgia Bertazzi

Mark Padmore

Marco Borggreve

Paul Lewis

Marco Borggreve

Josep Molina/Harmonia Mundi

European Chamber Music Academy Showcase

Mettis String Quartet

Arcis Saxophone Quartet

Meta4

Friday 22 January 1.00 pm

Saturday 23 January 11.00 am

Sunday 24 January 3.00 pm

Mettis String Quartet Stratos Quartet piano quartet

ECMA Masterclass

Meta4

Violinist Johannes Meissl, ECMA’s Artistic Director and a member of Vienna’s Artis Quartet, shares his long experience as performer and pedagogue with the Mettis String Quartet in a session that promises to cast fresh light on the fine art of quartet playing and offer profound insights into advanced musical interpretation.

Webern String Quartet Op. 28 Sebastian Fagerlund Scherzic for viola and cello Jouni Kaipainen Sonata for two violins Op. 94 (second movement) Jaakko Kuusisto Play III Beethoven String Quartet in F Op. 135

Lukas Beck

Bartók String Quartet No. 2 Op. 17 Schumann Piano Quartet in E b Op. 47 Since its foundation in 2004, the European Chamber Music Academy (ECMA) has forged a fruitful partnership with Wigmore Hall. The organisation’s annual showcase opens with performances given by two strikingly accomplished young ensembles, the Mettis String Quartet from Lithuania and the Stratos Quartet, comprising musicians from Austria, the Czech Republic and Finland.

Wigmore Hall Learning Event

Saturday 23 January 3.00 pm

Arcis Saxophone Quartet Stratos Quartet piano quartet Ligeti Six Bagatelles Farkas Early Hungarian Dances from the 17th century Fabien Lévy Durch, in memoriam G. Grisey Strauss Piano Quartet in C minor Op. 13

Stratos Quartet

This concert rejoices in the diversity of repertoire for two contrasting ensembles, the piano quartet and saxophone quartet. Ligeti’s Six Bagatelles, originally written for piano, launch the Arcis Saxophone Quartet’s dynamic programme, while the Stratos Quartet takes on the young Richard Strauss’s Brahmsian Piano Quartet Op. 13, a work of monumental scope and rousing audacity.

Noora Isoeskeli

Meta4 has consistently broadened the string quartet repertoire since its foundation almost fifteen years ago. The ensemble returns to Wigmore Hall to take part in this year’s ECMA Showcase, interleaving two Viennese masterworks with a trio of contemporary pieces by Meta4’s fellow Finns, Sebastian Fagerlund, Jouni Kaipainen and the violinist-composer Jaakko Kuusisto.

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

January Sunday 24 January 11.30 am

Monday 25 January 6.00 pm

Cecilia String Quartet

Pre-Concert Talk

Mozart String Quartet in F K590 ‘Prussian’ Mendelssohn String Quartet in E minor Op. 44 No. 2

See page 25 for full details

Named after music’s patron saint, the Cecilia String Quartet has delighted admirers worldwide with the polish and panache of its artistry. The ensemble, which won the Banff International String Quartet Competition in 2010, makes a welcome return to Wigmore Hall with two works famed for their brilliance, classical poise and life-enhancing energy.

SIMON KEENLYSIDE

Monday 25 January 7.30 pm

Francesco Piemontesi piano THE MOZART ODYSSEY See page 25 for full details

£13 concs £11 incl. programme and coffee/sherry/juice

Sunday Morning Coffee Concert Simon Keenlyside

Uwe Arens

Sunday 24 January 7.30 pm

Tuesday 26 January 6.00 pm

Lisa Batiashvili violin Valeriy Sokolov violin Gérard Caussé viola Gautier Capuçon cello Frank Braley piano

Pre-Concert Talk

DUTILLEUX 100TH ANNIVERSARY CONCERT

7.30 pm

Writer Nigel Simeone introduces the evening’s programme. £4

Wigmore Hall Learning Event

See page 22 for full details

Monday 25 January 1.00 pm

Armida Quartet Mozart String Quartet in G K80 Beethoven String Quartet in F Op. 59 No. 1 ‘Razumovsky’

Cecilia String Quartet

Lisa-Marie Mazzucco

Simon Keenlyside baritone Howard McGill woodwind Gordon Campbell trombone Richard Pryce double bass Mike Smith drums Matthew Regan piano Songs by Emmerich Kalman, Irving Berlin, Kurt Weill, Jerome Kern and George Gershwin

The Berlin-based Armida Quartet captivated the hall at the ARD International Music Competition in 2012, where it received first prize, the audience prize and six other special awards. Its successes since, including selection for BBC Radio 3’s New Generation Artist scheme, rest on the group’s intense preparation and the enchanting spontaneity of its performances.

The patterns of music history show that the most creative artists often cluster in particular places at particular times. Simon Keenlyside and five British jazz musicians unlock the energy and heart of songs penned for New York’s Broadway stages and reflect their debt to European traditions of operetta and cabaret.

£13 concs £11

£40 £35 £30 £25 £15

The Armida Quartet is a member of BBC Radio 3’s New Generation Artists scheme

Song Recital Series

Forthcoming Concert in this Series Sunday 31 January 7.30 pm BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert

with Armida Quartet

Malcolm Martineau piano

Felix Broede

Dutilleux 100TH ANNIVERSARY CONCERT Sunday 24 January 7.30 pm

Lisa Batiashvili violin Valeriy Sokolov violin Gérard Caussé viola Gautier Capuçon cello Frank Braley piano DUTILLEUX 100TH ANNIVERSARY CONCERT Dutilleux Trois Strophes sur le nom de Sacher Dutilleux 3 Préludes: D’ombre et de silence; Sur un même accord; Le jeu des contraires Ravel Piano Trio in A minor Debussy Violin Sonata in G minor Dutilleux String Quartet ‘Ainsi la nuit’ Henri Dutilleux, who died in May 2013, nearly lived to celebrate his hundredth birthday. This concert marks the French composer’s centenary almost to the day, its contents chosen to chart the exquisite beauty and refinement of his feeling for sound and to open windows into his radiant imaginary world. The programme begins with Dutilleux’s tribute to the Swiss conductor and musical philanthropist Paul Sacher and includes his 3 Préludes of 1973–88, works that probe the usually hidden recesses of silence and musical simplicity. Five artists with an innate empathy for tonal light and shade offer their tribute to Dutilleux and also explore the influences of Debussy and Ravel on his distinctive music. £36 £30 £25 £20 £15

Chamber Music Season/Contemporary Music Series

Photo of Henri Dutilleux by Laurie Lewis Inset photos (left to right): Lisa Batiashvili by Anja Frers/DG; Valeriy Sokolov by Simon Fowler/EMI Classics; Gérard Caussé by David Arranz; Gautier Capuçon by Michael Tammaro/Virgin Classics; Frank Braley by Marc Ribes

January

MICHAEL COLLINS SERIES

Friday 29 January 7.30 pm

Saturday 30 January 7.30 pm

Magdalena Kožená mezzo-soprano Sir Simon Rattle piano Daishin Kashimoto violin Rahel Maria Rilling violin Amihai Grosz viola Dávid Adorján cello Kaspar Zehnder flute Andrew Marriner clarinet

Alina Ibragimova violin Cédric Tiberghien piano

CELEBRATING MAGDALENA KOŽENÁ See page 27 for full details Michael Collins

Benjamin Ealovega

Wednesday 27 January 7.30 pm

Michael Collins director, clarinet City of London Sinfonia London Winds Christine Rice mezzo-soprano MOZART BIRTHDAY CONCERT Mozart Serenade in Bb for 13 wind instruments K361 ‘Gran Partita’; Parto, parto from La clemenza di Tito; Clarinet Concerto in A K622 Michael Collins and friends celebrate Mozart’s birthday in style, starting with the ‘Gran Partita’, perhaps commissioned by Anton Stadler, for whom Mozart later composed his Clarinet Concerto. Christine Rice joins the party to perform ‘Parto, parto’, one of the glories of Mozart’s final opera, La clemenza di Tito. £40 £35 £30 £25 £15

Saturday 30 January 11.00 am – 12.00 noon

CAVATINA Family Concert Magnard Ensemble For ages 5 plus

Mozart Violin Sonata in Eb K380; Violin Sonata in A K12; Violin Sonata in G K11; Sonata in Bb K570 (version for violin and piano); Violin Sonata in Eb K302; 6 Variations in G K359 ‘La bergère Célimène’; Violin Sonata in A K526 Alina Ibragimova and Cédric Tiberghien complete their five-concert survey of Mozart’s sonatas for violin and piano, presenting two of his earliest works in the genre together with the dramatic twists and turns of the Violin Sonata in E flat K380. They conclude with the Violin Sonata in A K526, widely considered to be the greatest of Mozart’s works for violin and piano. This concert will be approximately 2 hours and 20 minutes in duration, including an interval £36 £30 £25 £20 £15

Chamber Music Season/The Mozart Odyssey

Formed in 2012 at the Royal Academy of Music, the Magnard Ensemble is a vibrant young chamber group committed to delivering high-quality performances and inspirational Learning projects. In this interactive family concert, the ensemble takes you on a tour around the wind quintet, exploring the colours and textures of the different instruments through the music of Haydn, Ibert, Hindemith, Malcolm Arnold and Paul Patterson. Adults £10 Children £8 CAVATINA Chamber Music Trust www.cavatina.net

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

Wigmore Hall Learning Event

Alina Ibragimova & Cédric Tiberghien

Sussie Ahlburg

Chamber Music Season/ Michael Collins Series/ The Mozart Odyssey

Forthcoming Concert in this Series Saturday 28 May 7.30 pm

Michael Collins clarinet Alexander Sitkovetsky violin Laura Samuel violin Krzysztof Chorzelski viola Leonard Elschenbroich cello Lynda Houghton double bass Richard Watkins horn Robin O’Neill bassoon Lucy Crowe soprano Magnard Ensemble

Joseph Shiner

The Mozart The Mozart Odyssey, launched in September 2014, continues as Francesco Piemontesi begins his complete piano sonata cycle, and Alina Ibragimova and Cédric Tiberghien conclude their landmark survey of the composer’s works for violin and piano. Michael Collins and Christine Rice are joined by City of London Sinfonia and London Winds on 27 January as we celebrate Mozart’s birthday in style. The Mozart Odyssey is made possible thanks to all our contributors to the Wigmore Hall Endowment Fund, whose purpose is to help fund important artistic projects.

Portrait of Mozart by Barbara Kraft (1764 –1825)

Odyssey Monday 25 January 6.00 pm

Saturday 30 January 7.30 pm

Forthcoming Concerts in this Series

Pre-Concert Talk

Alina Ibragimova violin Cédric Tiberghien piano

Sunday 24 April 11.30 am

WORKS FOR VIOLIN AND PIANO

Principal Players of Aurora Orchestra

Mozart scholar, Professor John Irving, introduces the first concert in Francesco Piemontesi’s complete cycle of Mozart’s piano sonatas. £4 Wigmore Hall Learning Event/ The Mozart Odyssey

Thursday 4 February Thursday 11 February Thursday 18 February Thursday 25 February

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

Monday 25 January 7.30 pm

Introduction to Music: Mozart

Francesco Piemontesi piano

DIVERTIMENTO FOR STRING TRIO

Friday 17 June 10.00 pm

Principal Players of Aurora Orchestra WIND SERENADES IN E b K375 AND IN C MINOR K388

Mozart Fantasia in D minor K397; Piano Sonata in D K284; Rondo in A minor K511; Piano Sonata in A K331

Wednesday 13 July 7.30 pm

Francesco Piemontesi launches his Wigmore Hall survey of Mozart’s piano sonatas and solo keyboard works with the Fantasia in D minor, a work charged with dramatic pauses, sudden silences and fiery outbursts. The programme also pairs the Rondo in A minor of 1787, audacious and forward-looking in its harmonies, with the equally unconventional Piano Sonata in A K331, famed for its iconoclastic Minuet and ‘Turkish’ Rondo.

Francesco Piemontesi piano PIANO SONATA CYCLE

£36 £30 £25 £20 £15 London Pianoforte Series/ The Mozart Odyssey

Francesco Piemontesi

Julien Mignot

Wednesday 27 January 7.30 pm

Michael Collins director, clarinet City of London Sinfonia London Winds Christine Rice mezzo-soprano MOZART BIRTHDAY CONCERT

Celebrating

Magdalena Kozˇená Wisdom and curiosity belong to Magdalena Kožená’s arsenal of artistic qualities, reflected clearly in her revelatory approach to programme building and ability to colour and inflect texts in a multitude of languages. The Czech mezzo-soprano shows strikingly different facets of her work in the coming months, spanning more than three centuries of music history and moving from Monteverdi’s Venice to the salons of nineteenth-century Paris, Prague and Vienna.

Friday 29 January 7.30 pm

Tuesday 8 March 7.30 pm

Magdalena Kozˇená mezzo-soprano Sir Simon Rattle piano Daishin Kashimoto violin Rahel Maria Rilling violin Amihai Grosz viola Dávid Adorján cello Kaspar Zehnder flute Andrew Marriner clarinet

Magdalena Kozˇená mezzo-soprano La Cetra Andrea Marcon conductor

Chausson Chanson perpétuelle Stravinsky Three Songs from William Shakespeare Ravel Chansons madécasses Strauss Drei Lieder der Ophelia Brahms Ophelia-Lieder; 2 Songs with viola Op. 91 Janácˇek Rikadla (Nursery Rhymes) Dvorˇák My song of love rings through the dusk; The gypsy songman; In pain, my heart often broods; When a maiden was a-mowing; Songs my mother taught me; Come and join the dancing Sir Simon Rattle makes his Wigmore Hall debut as pianist in company with Magdalena Kožená and outstanding musicians from Berlin, Bern and London. Their programme opens with Chausson’s last completed work, offers contrasting responses to Shakespeare’s troubled Ophelia, and embraces songs of Kožená’s Czech homeland, Dvorˇák’s evergreen ‘Songs my mother taught me’ and Janác ˇek’s irresistible Rikadla among them. £100 £75 £50 £30 £15

Booking limited to two tickets per person. We expect exceptionally high demand for this concert. Song Recital Series / Chamber Music Season/Celebrating Magdalena Kozˇená

WORKS BY MONTEVERDI

Friday 8 July 7.30 pm Repeated Saturday 9 July 7.30 pm at Wilton’s Music Hall

Magdalena Kozˇená mezzo-soprano Ondrˇej Havelka and his Melody Makers A BIG BAND PROGRAMME FEATURING SONGS BY COLE PORTER Wigmore Hall has partnered with Wilton’s Music Hall for this extraordinary Wigmore Series programme featuring a Big Band.

See page 69 for details

Priority Booking for all concerts in this series opens on 29 September. Requests should be submitted by 16 October (Friends), and 23 October (Mailing List Subscribers). Booking opens to the General Public on 6 November. Photo by Harald Hoffmann/Deutsche Grammophon

January/February Sunday 31 January 11.30 am

Sunday 31 January 7.30 pm

Monday 1 February 1.00 pm

Alexandra Dariescu piano

Simon Keenlyside baritone Malcolm Martineau piano

Alec Frank-Gemmill horn Alasdair Beatson piano

SCHUBERT BIRTHDAY CONCERT

Beethoven Horn Sonata in F Op. 17 John Casken New work (world première) Kalevi Aho Solo X Schumann Adagio and Allegro in Ab Op. 70

Mendelssohn Variations sérieuses in D minor Op. 54 Fauré Prélude in F Op. 103 No. 4; Prélude in G minor Op. 103 No. 3; Prélude in C # minor Op. 103 No. 2 Chopin Prelude in C# minor Op. 45 Szymanowski Prelude in C minor Op. 1 No. 7; Prelude in Eb minor Op. 1 No. 8; Prelude in B minor Op. 1 No. 9 Tchaikovsky/Pletnev The Nutcracker Suite Op. 71a Chopin Scherzo No. 2 in Bb minor Op. 31

International Piano Magazine recently named Alexandra Dariescu as ‘one of 30 pianists under 30 destined for a spectacular career’, an accolade underpinned by the Romanian-born artist’s increasingly busy schedule. She returns to Wigmore Hall with a programme designed to project her technical brilliance, open-hearted communication and sensitivity to poetic nuance. £13 concs £11 incl. programme and coffee/sherry/juice

Sunday Morning Coffee Concert

Schubert Alinde; Geheimes; Seligkeit; Bei dir allein!; Nachtstück; Der Wanderer (D649); An den Mond in einer Herbstnacht; Herbstlied; Im Haine; Im Walde (D708); L’incanto degli occhi; Pensa, che questo istante; Der Jüngling und der Tod; Strophe aus ‘Die Götter Griechenlands’; Des Fischers Liebesglück (2 verses); Die Sterne (D939); Herrn Josef Spaun, Assessor in Linz; Fischerlied; Der Wanderer an den Mond; Abschied from Schwanengesang More than two decades have passed since Simon Keenlyside made his solo recording debut in partnership with Malcolm Martineau with an album of Schubert songs. He was hailed by Gramophone at the time as ‘the best baritone singer and interpreter of Schubert this country has ever had’. This programme offers an unmissable feast for anyone eager to hear Schubert interpretation at its best.

Alec Frank-Gemmill’s total mastery of his instrument has brought him signal success whether as concerto soloist, chamber musician or performing on the natural horn. His lunchtime recital programme sets two totemic pieces from the classical horn repertoire alongside Kalevi Aho’s dramatic Solo X and the world première of a work written for him by John Casken. £13 concs £11

Alec Frank-Gemmill is a member of BBC Radio 3’s New Generation Artists scheme

BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert

£36 £30 £25 £20 £15

Voices at Wigmore Supporting Schubert: The Complete Songs 2015/16 and 2016/17

Song Recital Series/Schubert: The Complete Songs

Alexandra Dariescu

Adrian Stoicoviciu

Simon Keenlyside

Uwe Arens

Alec Frank-Gemmill

Bill Wyatt

Takács Quartet Associate Artists Monday 1 February 7.30 pm

Wednesday 3 February 7.30 pm

Wigmore Hall Associate Artists

Takács Quartet Aleksandar Madžar piano

Takács Quartet Haydn String Quartet in C Op. 74 No. 1 Shostakovich String Quartet No. 3 in F Op. 73 Haydn String Quartet in G minor Op. 74 No. 3 ‘Rider’ Wigmore Hall’s Associate Artists unleash the white-hot spirit of invention present in works by two of the greatest string quartet composers. Haydn’s Op. 74 quartets, written for the 1793 London concert season, are shot through with appealing melodies and intricate thematic developments, while Shostakovich’s Third String Quartet offers a searing lament for the victims of war and tyranny. £36 £30 £25 £20 £15

Chamber Music Season / Takács Quartet Associate Artists

Forthcoming Concerts in this Series

Saturday 14 May 7.30 pm (repeated Monday 16 May 7.30 pm)

Takács Quartet Lawrence Power viola Photo by Benjamin Ealovega

February Tuesday 2 February 7.30 pm

Wednesday 3 February 7.30 pm

Henning Kraggerud violin Kathryn Stott piano

Wigmore Hall Associate Artists

Grieg Violin Sonata No. 1 in F Op. 8; Violin Sonata No. 2 in G Op. 13; Violin Sonata No. 3 in C minor Op. 45 Grieg’s high reputation as a genial miniaturist can easily obscure the striking force and individuality of his chamber music. Henning Kraggerud, one of Norway’s most distinguished soloists, and renowned pianist Kathryn Stott chart the evolution of the composer’s original style from his early Op. 8 to what Grieg called the ‘wider horizons’ of his Third Violin Sonata of 1886–87. £36 £30 £25 £20 £15

Chamber Music Season

INTRODUCTION TO MUSIC

Takács Quartet Aleksandar Madžar piano Beethoven String Quartet in D Op. 18 No. 3 Timo Andres Strong Language for string quartet* (UK première) Elgar Piano Quintet in A minor Op. 84 *Co-commissioned by Carnegie Hall and Shriver Hall

Raised in rural Connecticut and now resident in Brooklyn, Timo Andres was praised by Alex Ross in The New Yorker for his debut album’s ‘unhurried grandeur’. The young American composer wrote Strong Language for the Takács Quartet to show that ‘longer pieces can actually be made out of less stuff as a way of supporting the weight of their structures’. £36 £30 £25 £20 £15 Booking Open

Supported by the Chamber Music Circle

Chamber Music Season/Contemporary Music Series

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Thursday Thursday Thursday Thursday

4 February 11 February 18 February 25 February

Leopold Bode

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

MOZART As the Classical style reaches its culmination and Enlightenment values penetrate all aspects of cultural and political life, Mozart’s music exemplifies a period in which serenity, rationality, and a sense of proportion and symmetry take centre stage. Using the most simple and direct means, this extraordinary musician seems to capture the whole range of human emotion. This course will explore the enormous diversity of his output and examine the sometimes subversive means that he used to express his musical ideas. As H C Robbins Landon wrote, ‘the Mozartian Legacy, in brief, is as good an excuse for mankind’s existence as we shall ever encounter and is perhaps, after all, a still small hope for our ultimate survival’. Series ticket price £30 Wigmore Hall Learning Event / The Mozart Odyssey

Henning Kraggerud

Observatoriet/Simax Classic

Aleksandar Madžar

Keith Saunders

Christian Gerhaher Singer in Residence A sudden shift of colour or emphasis can make all the difference to the depth of a song interpretation. Christian Gerhaher embraces every nuance of expression to create the deepest imaginable readings of even the most familiar Lieder. His term as Wigmore Hall’s Singer in Residence continues with a beguiling blend of Schubert and Wolfgang Rihm, and includes an unmissable masterclass session. Thursday 4 February 7.30 pm

Christian Gerhaher baritone Gerold Huber piano Programme to include: Schubert Gesänge des Harfners; Sehnsucht (D123); Hoffnung (Schaff’ das Tagwerk meiner Hände) (D295); Wonne der Wehmut; An den Mond (D296); Geheimes (D719); Rastlose Liebe; Nachtgesang (D119); Schäfers Klagelied; Prometheus; Mahomets Gesang (fragment) (D549); Ganymed; An Schwager Kronos Wolfgang Rihm Harzreise im Winter (UK première) Gerold Huber Der Wanderer (world première) Wolfgang Rihm’s multifaceted music has been nourished by his abiding passion for Schubert. This programme explores the correspondences and contrasts present in settings of Goethe by both composers, including Wolfgang Rihm’s ‘Harzreise im Winter’ – written for and first performed by Christian Gerhaher and his regular duo partner Gerold Huber in 2014 – and the questing drama of Schubert’s ‘Prometheus’. £40 £35 £30 £25 £15

Song Recital Series/Contemporary Music Series/ Christian Gerhaher Singer in Residence

Friday 5 February 1.00 pm – 4.00 pm

Masterclass Monday 8 February 7.30 pm with

Christiane Karg soprano Gerold Huber piano

Thursday 31 March 7.30 pm with

Gerold Huber piano

Photo by Jim Rakete/Sony Clasical

February Saturday 6 February 7.30 pm

CHRISTIAN GERHAHER

GIL SHAHAM

Wigmore Hall Chamber Ensemble in Residence

Nash Ensemble Richard Hosford clarinet Donizetti String Quartet No. 13 in A Verdi String Quartet in E minor Mozart Clarinet Quintet in A K581

MASTERCLASS

Two Italian composers famed for their operas are represented in this programme by their string quartets – Donizetti by one of the many pieces he wrote in his youth for quartet meetings in his native Bergamo, and Verdi by the lone Quartet he composed in his 60th year, with its fugal finale looking ahead to Falstaff. The recital is completed by a Nash speciality, Mozart’s mellow Quintet for clarinet and strings. £36 £30 £25 £20 £15

Chamber Music Season/Nash Ensemble: Mozart, Mendelssohn and the Italians

Gil Shaham

Christian Steiner

Friday 5 February 7.00 pm NB starting time

Gil Shaham violin Christian Gerhaher

Hiromichi Yamamoto

Friday 5 February 1.00 pm – 4.00 pm

Christian Gerhaher Masterclass Christian Gerhaher’s art balances matters of metaphysics and poetic imagination with the pressing practicalities of performance. Wigmore Hall’s Singer in Residence shares his thoughts on the nature of fine Lieder singing with outstanding postgraduate students from UK conservatoires, as he works with duos on settings of Goethe's Wilhelm Meister. His masterclass sessions invariably offer insights to participants and audience members alike, lifting the veil on the alchemical process of understanding and interpreting the raw material of notes and words on a printed page. £8 concs £6

Wigmore Hall Learning Event/ Christian Gerhaher Singer in Residence

Bach Sonata No. 1 in G minor BWV1001 Partita No. 1 in B minor BWV1002 Sonata No. 2 in A minor BWV1003 Partita No. 2 in D minor BWV1004 Sonata No. 3 in C BWV1005 Partita No. 3 in E BWV1006 This concert will be approximately 3 hours and 15 minutes in duration, including two intervals

Richard Hosford

Although rooted in the fertile soil of seventeenth-century German fiddle music, Bach’s sonatas and partitas for solo violin stand proud as works of matchless genius. Gil Shaham sets out on an epic journey of musical discovery, creating the perfect conditions to experience the virtuosity, contrapuntal ingenuity and life-enhancing energy of Bach’s Sei Solo. The American violinist’s revelatory readings of the works, recently committed to disc, rest on three decades of close study, thought and performance experience. £40 £35 £30 £25 £15

Chamber Music Season Nash Ensemble

Keith Saunders

K Leighton

February Sunday 7 February 11.30 am

Monday 8 February 1.00 pm

Monday 8 February 7.30 pm

Quartetto di Cremona

Escher String Quartet

Mozart String Quartet in G K80 Beethoven String Quartet in A minor Op. 132

Mendelssohn Andante sostenuto and Variations Op. 81 No. 1; Scherzo Op. 81 No. 2 Schubert String Quartet in D minor D810 ‘Death and the Maiden’

Christiane Karg soprano Christian Gerhaher baritone Gerold Huber piano

Mozart was only fourteen when he began his String Quartet in G K80, among the many accomplishments of his first visit to Italy. Quartetto di Cremona moves from the work’s tuneful warmth to Beethoven’s darkly serious String Quartet in A minor Op. 132, completed in the wake of a serious illness and graced by the composer’s ‘Hymn of thanksgiving to God of an invalid on his convalescence’. £13 concs £11 incl. programme and coffee/sherry/juice

The Escher String Quartet has been deeply immersed in Mendelssohn’s chamber music of late, releasing the first recording in its complete cycle of his works for string quartet in June 2015. The New York-based ensemble opens this programme with the Andante sostenuto and Variations, and the Scherzo, written in the composer’s final year. £13 concs £11

Sunday Morning Coffee Concert

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

Sunday 7 February 7.30 pm

La Compagnia del Madrigale Rossana Bertini soprano Francesca Cassinari soprano Elena Carzaniga alto Giuseppe Maletto tenor Raffaele Giordani tenor Daniele Carnovich bass

Schumann Lieder und Gesänge aus Wilhelm Meister Schumann Die Soldatenbraut; Das verlassne Mägdelein; Tragödie I–III Schumann Myrthen Christian Gerhaher’s way with words and music arises from foundations built on technical mastery, and flourishes thanks to his oceanic imagination. He is joined by another consummate Lieder singer, Christiane Karg, in a programme that includes Schumann’s transcendent Myrthen and the composer’s late Op. 98a songs. £40 £35 £30 £25 £15

Escher String Quartet is a member of BBC Radio 3’s New Generation Artists scheme

Supported by the members of The Rubinstein Circle

Song Recital Series/ Christian Gerhaher Singer in Residence BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert

IO MORIRÒ D’AMORE See page 34 for full details

Quartetto di Cremona

Elisa Caldana

Escher String Quartet

Sophie Zhai

Christiane Karg

Gisela Schenker

La Compagnia del Madrigale Sunday 7 February 7.30 pm Wigmore Hall Debut

La Compagnia del Madrigale Rossana Bertini soprano Francesca Cassinari soprano Elena Carzaniga alto Giuseppe Maletto tenor Raffaele Giordani tenor Daniele Carnovich bass IO MORIRÒ D’AMORE Marenzio Io morirò d’amore Monteverdi Anima mia, perdona Gesualdo T’amo mia vita Marenzio Cruda Amarilli Monteverdi Ecco mormorar l’onde Marenzio Filli volgendo i lumi Gesualdo O dolorosa gioia Marenzio Dura legge d’amor Gesualdo O dolce mio tesoro Monteverdi Ecco Silvio colei Gesualdo Al mio gioir il ciel si fa sereno Monteverdi Dolcemente dormiva la mia Clori Marenzio Vivrò dunque lontano Gesualdo Chiaro risplender suole Monteverdi Cruda Amarilli Gesualdo Moro, lasso £36 £30 £25 £20 £15

Early Music and Baroque Series

So much of the adventurous vocal writing of Marenzio, Monteverdi and Gesualdo challenged convention, breaking with past models by elevating emotional expression above the austere and ancient rules of contrapuntal composition. La Compagnia del Madrigale, founded by a group of seasoned early music performers in 2008, brings visceral energy and embodied sensuality to its interpretations of Italian madrigals, reviving qualities that delighted a devoted following of open-minded connoisseurs four centuries ago. The ensemble makes its Wigmore Hall debut with a selection of works infused with vivid dissonances, heightened emotions and mellifluous melodies, including such impassioned pieces as Gesualdo’s ‘Moro, lasso’ and Monteverdi’s ‘Cruda Amarilli’. Photo by Simone Bartoli

February Tuesday 9 February 7.30 pm

Wednesday 10 February 7.30 pm

Thursday 11 February 7.30 pm

Piotr Anderszewski piano

Tasmin Little violin Martin Roscoe piano

Royal Academy of Music Baroque Soloists Rachel Podger director, violin

25TH ANNIVERSARY OF WIGMORE DEBUT

Beethoven Violin Sonata No. 4 in A minor Op. 23; Violin Sonata No. 5 in F Op. 24 ‘Spring’; Violin Sonata No. 9 in A Op. 47 ‘Kreutzer’

Programme to include: Bartók Fourteen Bagatelles Op. 6 Bach Partita No. 6 in E minor BWV830; Partita No. 1 in Bb BWV825 The meditative intensity of Piotr Anderszewski’s pianism invites audiences to follow a journey deep into the spiritual heart of the works in his broad repertoire. The Polish-Hungarian artist, a favourite at Wigmore Hall ever since his debut twenty-five years ago, prefaces two of Bach’s technically demanding Partitas with Bartók’s pioneering Bagatelles of 1908, works deliberately stripped of artifice and display. £36 £30 £25 £20 £15

Two outstanding British artists launch their recital with works created in the early years of the nineteenth century, contrasting the darkly dramatic atmosphere of Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No. 4 with the optimistic spirit of his serene ‘Spring’ Sonata. Tasmin Little and Martin Roscoe conclude with the ‘Kreutzer’ Sonata, aptly described by Donald Tovey as ‘one of the landmarks of musical history’. £36 £30 £25 £20 £15

Chamber Music Season

FIT FOR A KING’S TABLE Telemann Tafelmusik II Poets of the ancient world wrote of great feasts accompanied by music, connecting with a tradition rooted in distant prehistory. Telemann’s Tafelmusik belongs to a genre first named in the 1500s. The German composer published three sets of ‘table music’ in 1733, the second of which opens with a bold overture and suite for trumpet, oboe and strings, and includes a quartet, concerto, trio sonata and solo sonata. This concert will be approximately 2 hours in duration, including an interval

London Pianoforte Series

£36 £30 £25 £20 £15

Tuesday 9 February 9.45 pm

Early Music and Baroque Series

Artists in Conversation Following the concert, Piotr Anderszewski discusses his life and career with Wigmore Hall Director John Gilhooly. Free to concert ticket holders (No ticket required for this event)

Wigmore Hall Learning Event

Piotr Anderszewski

K Miura

Tasmin Little

Paul Mitchell

Rachel Podger

Jonas Sacks

Daniil Trifonov Residency A standing ovation followed Daniil Trifonov’s Wigmore Hall debut in 2012, creating a bond between player and audience that has deepened with subsequent appearances. His four-concert Residency this season celebrates the young Russian pianist’s charismatic artistry as a chamber music partner and concludes on 9 June with a solo recital. Friday 12 February 7.30 pm

Gidon Kremer violin Daniil Trifonov piano Brahms Chaconne by JS Bach for piano left hand (arr. of Chaconne in D minor for solo violin BWV1004) Weinberg Sonata No. 5 for violin and piano Op. 53; Sonata No. 3 for solo violin Op. 126 Brahms Violin Sonata No. 3 in D minor Op. 108

Gidon Kremer

Daniil Trifonov ventures into violin territory by way of Brahms’s virtuoso left-hand arrangement of Bach’s D minor Chaconne. He also partners Gidon Kremer in Mieczysław Weinberg’s rarely heard Fifth Violin Sonata, written shortly after the persecuted composer’s release from Moscow’s notorious Lubyanka prison in 1953 and dedicated to his close friend Dmitry Shostakovich. £40 £35 £30 £25 £15

Chamber Music Season/Daniil Trifonov Residency

Sunday 14 February 7.30 pm

Daniil Trifonov piano Sergei Babayan piano Forthcoming Concerts in this Series Wednesday 8 June 7.30 pm

Matthias Goerne baritone Daniil Trifonov piano Thursday 9 June 7.30 pm

Daniil Trifonov piano Photo of Daniil Trifonov by Dario Acosta Photo of Gidon Kremer by Kasskara/ECM Records

February Saturday 13 February 7.30 pm

STUDY EVENT: GERMAN SONG ONSTAGE 1770 –1914 How and why did musicians start programming song recitals the way they do now? Join leading figures in the field of Lieder to explore the history of song performance, before a recital of Schumann’s Dichterliebe as it would have been performed by his wife Clara, interleaved with solo piano works. Part of the Royal College of Music’s German Song Onstage weekend. Visit www.rcm.ac.uk for further details.

Sunday 14 February 11.30 am

Scharoun Ensemble

Jeremy Denk piano

Mark Andre E2 (UK première) Mark-Anthony Turnage An Invention on ‘Solitude’ Henze Quattro Fantasie Jörg Widmann Octet Mark-Anthony Turnage This Silence

Bach Goldberg Variations BWV988

Founded in 1983 by members of the Berlin Philharmonic, the Scharoun Ensemble performs everything from baroque music to contemporary works. The core group, comprising clarinet, bassoon, horn, two violins, viola, cello and double bass, bookends its programme with a string duo by French-born, German-based composer Mark Andre and Mark-Anthony Turnage’s hauntingly introspective This Silence.

Jeremy Denk’s thoughtful attitude to making music surfaces in everything from his essays and programme notes to interpretations that pulsate with energy, conviction and originality. His recording of the Goldberg Variations, released on the Nonesuch label in 2013, marked a major milestone in the pianist’s long personal relationship with Bach’s dazzling celebration of the creative spirit. This concert will be approximately 75 minutes in duration, without an interval £13 concs £11 incl. programme and coffee/sherry/juice

Sunday Morning Coffee Concert

£30 £25 £20 £15 £10 Booking Open

Chamber Music Season/Contemporary Music Series

Saturday 13 February 10.00 am – 10.45 am

Talk Song expert Susan Youens discusses the great Lieder singers of Schubert’s day. 11.00 am – 12.30 pm

Workshop Singer-pianist duos from the Royal College of Music work with Christoph Prégardien and Graham Johnson, exploring how programmes for song recitals are put together.

Jeremy Denk

Samantha West

1.00 pm – 2.00 pm

Stephan Loges bass-baritone Graham Johnson piano Schumann Dichterliebe Schumann Selections from Kreisleriana Op. 16 All Day Ticket: £20 Ticket for 1.00 pm concert only: £13 Wigmore Hall Learning Event

Scharoun Ensemble

CAMI

February Sunday 14 February 7.30 pm

Monday 15 February 1.00 pm

Tuesday 16 February 6.00 pm

Daniil Trifonov piano Sergei Babayan piano

Behzod Abduraimov piano

Mary Bevan soprano Ben Johnson tenor Robin Tritschler tenor Marcus Farnsworth baritone Graham Johnson piano

Programme to include: Schumann Andante and variations Op. 46 Rachmaninov Suite No. 1 Op. 5 ‘Fantaisie-Tableaux’; Suite No. 2 Op. 17 Daniil Trifonov’s prodigious natural gifts and far-sighted musical intuition have been nurtured over the years by lessons received from Sergei Babayan, the Armenian-American concert pianist and pedagogue. They share the Wigmore Hall stage in a programme of works for two pianos, complete with Rachmaninov’s sonorous Second Suite and Schumann’s heart-melting Andante and variations Op. 46.

Chopin Ballades Nos. 1–4 Brahms Variations on a Theme by Paganini (Book I) Op. 35 Moments of the most intense intimacy overlap with jaw-dropping displays of virtuosity in Behzod Abduraimov’s performances. The young Uzbek pianist charts the epic emotional landscapes of Chopin’s Four Ballades, among the most technically demanding works in the keyboard repertoire. His lunchtime recital closes with another virtuosic challenge, Brahms’s fiendishly difficult Paganini Variations. £13 concs £11

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

£40 £35 £30 £25 £15

Supported by the Season Patrons who have made a major contribution to the 2015 /16 Wigmore Series

London Pianoforte Series/Daniil Trifonov Residency

BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert

BALLADS FROM OSSIAN Schubert Ossians Lied nach dem Falle Nathos; Shilric und Vinvela; Der Tod Oscars; Die Nacht (D534) Graham Johnson’s early evening survey of Schubert’s ballads, given in company with thrilling young singers, continues with four settings of supposedly ancient Gaelic verse by Ossian, the pseudonym of the Scottish poet James Macpherson. The composer brings Macpherson’s mythic world to life, matching Ossian’s romantic tales of bards, chieftains, love rivals and honour to music of great drama and eloquence. This concert will be approximately 45 minutes in duration, without an interval All seats £5

Song Recital Series/Schubert: The Complete Songs

Sergei Babayan

Christian Steiner

Behzod Abduraimov

Cristian Fatu

Mary Bevan

Christina Haldane

February Tuesday 16 February 7.30 pm

Ian Bostridge tenor Graham Johnson piano Schubert Meeres Stille (D215a); Wandrers Nachtlied I; An den Mond (D259); Wonne der Wehmut; Jägers Abendlied; An Schwager Kronos; Geheimnis; Wie Ulfru fischt; Atys; Einsamkeit; An die Freunde; Freiwilliges Versinken; Der zürnenden Diana; Abendstern; Auflösung; Gondelfahrer (D808); Im Walde (D834); Der liebliche Stern; Auf der Brücke; Im Jänner 1817 (Tiefes Leid); Lebensmut; Im Frühling; Über Wildemann

WIGMORE STUDY GROUP

STEVEN ISSERLIS BACH & KURTÁG

It would be impossible to overstate the attraction of this concert or the appeal of hearing some of Schubert’s most sophisticated songs performed by two great artists. Ian Bostridge and Graham Johnson own the intellectual, spiritual and musical reserves required to give new life to these works and reveal their profound reflections on the human condition. Supported by the Benefactor Friends of Wigmore Hall

Henry Purcell

Painting after John Closterman

£36 £30 £25 £20 £15

Song Recital Series/Schubert: The Complete Songs

Wednesday 17 February 3.00 pm – 6.00 pm Friday 19 February 3.00 pm – 6.00 pm Tuesday 23 February 3.00 pm – 6.00 pm

Steven Isserlis

PURCELL

Wednesday 17 February 7.30 pm

Immerse yourself in the world of the great English composer Henry Purcell. In his lifetime, he was most admired for his vocal music, and in the preface to the collection of his songs, Orpheus Britannicus, Henry Playford described his ‘particular Genius to express the energy of English Words, whereby he mov’d the Passions of all his Auditors’. Instrumental works such as Fantasias for viol consort have become cornerstones of the repertoire, showing Purcell’s fascination with formal counterpoint inspired by English and Italian composers of the Renaissance, and, in turn, we explore the influence Purcell had on the twentieth-century composers Benjamin Britten and Michael Tippett. The sessions are presented by Dame Emma Kirkby and Liam Byrne with composer Julian Philips and pianist Laura Roberts, alongside student performers from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. Series ticket price £60 including 3 study sessions and a ticket for the evening concert on 23 February. Wigmore Hall Learning Event / Henry Purcell: A Retrospective

Ian Bostridge

Jean-Baptiste Millot

Steven Isserlis cello Bach Cello Suite No. 1 in G BWV1007 György Kurtág From Signs, Games and Messages: Hommage à John Cage; János Pilinszky: Gérard de Nerval Bach Cello Suite No. 5 in C minor BWV1011 György Kurtág From Signs, Games and Messages: Az Hit; Jelek 1 & 2 Bach Cello Suite No. 4 in Eb BWV1010 Sound and silence are never segregated in the works of JS Bach and György Kurtág, whose ninetieth birthday falls on 19 February. Signs, Games and Messages, a sequence of fragmentary pieces, drills down deep into music’s nature in search of essential truths, while Bach’s Cello Suites transcend the conventional boundaries of early eighteenthcentury dance music. Steven Isserlis brings together their two soundworlds in a pair of compelling concerts, the second of which takes place on Wednesday 24 February. £36 £30 £25 £20 £15 Chamber Music Season/ Contemporary Music Series/ Steven Isserlis: Bach & Kurtág

Sim Canetty-Clarke

Avi Avital & Mahan Esfahani Thursday 18 February 7.30 pm

Avi Avital mandolin Mahan Esfahani harpsichord Sean Shibe guitar Vivaldi Trio Sonata in G minor RV85 Scarlatti Sonata in G Kk91 Yasuo Kuwahara Improvised Poem for solo mandolin Vivaldi Concerto in A minor Op. 3 No. 8 from ‘L’estro armonico’ RV522 (arr. Mahan Esfahani) Bach Sonata No. 6 in G BWV1019 Powell Recitative and Toccata Percossa for solo harpsichord Ben-Haim Sonata a tre for mandolin, guitar and harpsichord £36 £30 £25 £20 £15

Face value is not acceptable currency to any of this recital’s performers. Avi Avital and Mahan Esfahani inevitably penetrate the surface of everything they play to find the rarest qualities of emotion and feeling. The Iranian-American harpsichordist and Israeli mandolin player, who met through their mutual love of Bach’s music, are joined by Edinburgh-born guitarist Sean Shibe to conclude the programme with a work by Ben-Haim. Chamber Music Season / Early Music and Baroque Series Photo by Simon Jay Price

February Friday 19 February 7.30 pm

Saturday 20 February 7.30 pm

Sunday 21 February 11.30 am

Carolin Widmann violin

Doric String Quartet

Telemann Fantaisie No. 12 in A minor for solo violin TWV40:25 Zimmermann Sonata for solo violin Pascal Dusapin in vivo* (UK première) Bach Partita No. 2 in D minor for solo violin BWV1004

HAYDN STRING QUARTETS OP. 76

Anthony Marwood violin Aleksandar Madžar piano

*Co-commissioned by WDR Witten, Wiener Konzerthaus with the support of Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung, and by Wigmore Hall with the support of André Hoffmann, president of the Fondation Hoffmann, a Swiss grantmaking foundation

Anyone unfamiliar with the music of Pascal Dusapin should prepare to experience the composer’s fascination with tonal beauty, textural contrasts and lyricism. Carolin Widmann presents the UK première of the French composer’s in vivo, which she performed for the first time at the Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik in April 2015.

Haydn String Quartet in G Op. 76 No. 1 Haydn String Quartet in D minor Op. 76 No. 2 ‘Fifths’ Haydn String Quartet in C Op. 76 No. 3 ‘The Emperor’ Haydn has never been far from the Doric String Quartet’s programmes since its foundation in 1998. The acclaimed British ensemble performs the first half of the composer’s Op. 76, giving life to works first published in London in 1799 and famed for their blend of popular melody, sophisticated thematic development, outbreaks of eccentricity and glorious hymn-like slow movements. £36 £30 £25 £20 £15

Mozart Violin Sonata in A K526 Fauré Violin Sonata No. 1 in A Op. 13 Anthony Marwood and Aleksandar Madžar have forged a close artistic union as duo partners over the past decade. Their latest Wigmore Hall programme pairs the brilliance of Mozart’s penultimate Violin Sonata with Fauré’s First Violin Sonata. The latter, observed Saint-Saëns, contains ‘everything to tempt a gourmet: new forms, excellent modulations, unusual tone colours, and the use of unexpected rhythms’. £13 concs £11 incl. programme and coffee/sherry/juice

Sunday Morning Coffee Concert

Chamber Music Season Sunday 21 February 7.30 pm

£30 £25 £20 £15 £10 Booking Open

Doric String Quartet

Chamber Music Season/Contemporary Music Series

HAYDN STRING QUARTETS OP. 76

Saturday 20 February 2.00 pm

Haydn String Quartet in Bb Op. 76 No. 4 ‘Sunrise’ Haydn String Quartet in D Op. 76 No. 5 Haydn String Quartet in Eb Op. 76 No. 6

Viv McLean piano Jessica Duchen narrator

The Doric String Quartet concludes its two-part survey of Haydn’s Op. 76, moving from the exquisite opening, meditative Adagio and boisterous conclusion of the ‘Sunrise’ to the experimental ideas of the String Quartet in Eb, with its ‘Fantasia’ slow movement, fleet-footed minuet and tongue-in-cheek finale.

ALICIA’S GIFT See page 42 for full details

£36 £30 £25 £20 £15

Anthony Marwood & Aleksandar Madžar

Carolin Widmann

Marco Borggreve

Doric String Quartet

Benjamin Ealovega

Chamber Music Season

George Garnier

Alicia’s Gift Saturday 20 February 2.00 pm

Viv McLean piano Jessica Duchen narrator ALICIA’S GIFT: THE CONCERT OF THE NOVEL Author Jessica Duchen and pianist Viv McLean unite to tell the story of a child prodigy pianist trying to grow up, exploring her talent’s effect on her family and her family’s effect on her talent. Jessica’s readings from her novel Alicia’s Gift alternate with Viv’s performances of the relevant music to create a compelling joint narrative in words and music. Chopin Ballade No. 3 in A b Op. 47 Debussy Jardins sous la pluie from Estampes Chopin Étude in C minor Op. 25 No. 12 Granados Quejas, o La maja y el ruiseñor from Goyescas Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue Ravel Sonatine (3rd mvt); Le jardin féerique from Ma mère l’oye This concert will be approximately one hour in duration, without an interval Adults £10 Children £8 London Pianoforte Series

3.30 pm – 4.30 pm

Panel Discussion Child prodigies are a perpetual source of fascination in the musical world, but controversy is never far away from them. What constitutes a true prodigy? What are the pros and cons of starting a musical career this way? How should families and teachers best nurture such a talent? Cellist Guy Johnston, Murray McLachlan, Head of Keyboard at Chetham’s School of Music, and Dr Michelle Casteletti, Artistic Director at Royal Northern College of Music, debate these issues and more, chaired by music journalist and author of Alicia’s Gift, Jessica Duchen, and answer questions from the audience to close. £4 Wigmore Hall Learning Event

Viv McLean

Jessica Duchen Photo of girl at the piano © Alamy/Getty Images / Hodder & Stoughton

February Monday 22 February 1.00 pm

Monday 22 February 7.30 pm

Wednesday 24 February 12.15 pm

Denis Kozhukhin piano

Ensemble intercontemporain

Pre-Concert Talk

Haydn Piano Sonata in D HXVI:24 Brahms Theme and Variations in D minor Op. 18b Liszt Bénédiction de Dieu dans la solitude S173 No.3 Bartók Szabadban (Out of Doors Suite) BB89

Gilles Durot percussion Samuel Favre percussion Hidéki Nagano piano Sébastien Vichard piano

An introduction to the lunchtime concert with composer Daníel Bjarnason and Dr Kate Kennedy.

Denis Kozhukhin attracted accolades as winner of the 2010 Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels, one of the toughest of all tests for young concert pianists. The Russian artist, born into a family of musicians in Nizhny Novgorod in 1986, continues to win admirers with playing that combines technical command and athleticism with open-hearted communication.

George Crumb Music for a Summer Evening (Makrokosmos III) for two amplified pianos and percussion Aurélio Edler-Copes Presence for two pianos and percussion* (world première) Bartók Sonata for two pianos and percussion BB115

Wigmore Hall Learning Event

£13 concs £11

Free to concert ticket holders (separate ticket required) Booking Open

* Co-commissioned by Ensemble intercontemporain, and by Wigmore Hall with the support of André Hoffmann, president of the Fondation Hoffmann, a Swiss grant-making foundation

Born in Brazil in 1976, Aurélio Edler-Copes has written for many of the world’s leading contemporary music ensembles. His latest score for piano and percussion was created for the exceptional collective talents of Ensemble intercontemporain. The programme also includes Bartók’s Sonata for two pianos and percussion, and the work by George Crumb which it inspired.

BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert

£30 £25 £20 £15 £10 Booking Open

Chamber Music Season/Contemporary Music Series Tuesday 23 February 7.30 pm

Theatre of the Ayre Elizabeth Kenny director, theorbo See page 45 for full details Denis Kozhukhin

Ensemble intercontemporain

Wednesday 24 February 1.00 pm

Britten Sinfonia Emer McDonough flute Clare Finnimore viola Lucy Wakeford harp Debussy Syrinx Donatoni Small II Daníel Bjarnason New work* (London première) Donatoni Marches Debussy Sonata for flute, viola and harp Flute, viola and harp may not be the most familiar trio combination, but it certainly lends itself to the rich exploration of colour and harmonies typical of Debussy’s output. A deeply expressive curiosity in soundscapes and association with visual art is also infused in the music of Icelandic composer Daníel Bjarnason, whose new work features alongside Debussy in this programme. * Co-commissioned by Britten Sinfonia with the support of donors to the Musically Gifted campaign, and by Wigmore Hall with the support of André Hoffmann, president of the Fondation Hoffmann, a Swiss grant-making foundation £13 concs £11 Booking Open

Chamber Music Season/Contemporary Music Series

Marco Borggreve

Franck Ferville

Daníel Bjarnason

Henry Purcell: The Henry Purcell: A Retrospective series continues as we explore a wide range of the composerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s music, from works written for the Chapel Royal to music fit for domestic settings, by way of Fantasias performed by viol consort Phantasm. Elizabeth Kenny and Theatre of the Ayre, and The Sixteen, under Harry Christophers, complete the host of leading Purcellians we welcome this spring. Henry Purcell: A Retrospective is made possible thanks to all our contributors to the Wigmore Hall Endowment Fund, whose purpose is to help fund important artistic projects.

A Retrospective Tuesday 23 February 7.30 pm

Theatre of the Ayre Rodolfo Richter violin Clare Salaman violin Alison McGillivray viola da gamba Robert Howarth organ Sophie Daneman soprano Katherine Watson soprano Robin Blaze countertenor Nicholas Mulroy tenor Matthew Brook bass-baritone

Wednesday 17 February 3.00 pm – 6.00 pm Friday 19 February 3.00 pm – 6.00 pm Tuesday 23 February 3.00 pm – 6.00 pm

Wigmore Study Group Thursday 3 March 7.30 pm

The Sixteen Harry Christophers conductor ROYAL WELCOME SONGS FOR KING CHARLES II

Elizabeth Kenny director, theorbo

Monday 7 March 7.30 pm

SACRED THEATRE

Phantasm

Solo songs, dialogues and scenes by Purcell and his contemporaries Anonymous Canon a 3 Laudate Dominum Purcell We sing to him whose wisdom form’d the ear Blow/Humfrey Hark how the wakeful cheerful cock Purcell My song shall be alway of the loving kindness of the Lord; Sonata in Three Parts No. 10 in A Z799; Lord, what is man? Blow Enough, my muse, of earthly things Purcell In the black, dismal dungeon of despair; Sonata in Three Parts No. 11 in F minor Z800; In Guilty Night (Saul and the Witch of Endor); I was glad when they said unto me; Jehova, quam multi sunt hostes; Awake, ye dead, the trumpet calls Carissimi Lucifer, caelestis olim Purcell Sonata in Four Parts No. 6 in G minor Z807 Humfrey Lord, I have sinned Blow Help, Father Abraham Purcell With sick and famish’d eyes; Now that the sun hath veiled its light (An Evening Hymn); Sonata in Four Parts No. 10 in D Z811; The night is come (An Evening Hymn) Clarke All praise to thee my God this night Playford’s Harmonia Sacra, first published in 1688, was aimed at people ‘no less musical’ than those who had a keen appetite for lighter ‘sportings of wit’ but who were more devout. Prospective purchasers were assured that they would ‘feel the breathings of divine love from every line’ and also experience life-and-death sacred drama. Theatre of the Ayre and a stellar team of soloists show how Playford’s anthology brought music fit for the Chapel Royal to intimate domestic settings.

FANTASIAS

Forthcoming Events in this Series Tuesday 7 June 7.30 pm

The Sixteen Harry Christophers conductor ROYAL WELCOME SONGS FOR KING JAMES II Friday 1 July 7.30 pm

Trevor Pinnock harpsichord Sophie Gent violin Matthew Truscott violin Jonathan Manson viola da gamba TRIO SONATAS AND SOLO HARPSICHORD WORKS

£40 £35 £30 £25 £15 Portrait of Henry Purcell after John Closterman

Early Music and Baroque Series / Henry Purcell: A Retrospective

Inset photo of Elizabeth Kenny by Benjamin Ealovega

February Wednesday 24 February 7.30 pm

Friday 26 February 7.30 pm

Saturday 27 February 7.30 pm

Steven Isserlis cello

Dunedin Consort John Butt director Sophie Bevan soprano

Apartment House

See page opposite for full details

Sunday 28 February 11.30 am

Bach Cello Suite No. 3 in C BWV1009 György Kurtág From Signs, Games and Messages: Souvenir de Balatonboglár; In memoriam Ferenc Wilheim Bach Cello Suite No. 2 in D minor BWV1008 György Kurtág From Signs, Games and Messages: Schatten; György Kroó in memoriam Bach Cello Suite No. 6 in D BWV1012 Steven Isserlis completes his landmark survey of Bach’s Cello Suites, surrounding three of them with space for deep absorption in the aphoristic form of pieces from György Kurtág’s Signs, Games and Messages. Bach stands as one of the strongest and most enduring influences on Kurtág’s highly personal, deeply expressive musical language. £36 £30 £25 £20 £15

Chamber Music Season/Contemporary Music Series/ Steven Isserlis: Bach & Kurtág

Saturday 27 February 11.00 am – 12.00 noon

O Duo: Crash, Bang, Wallop FAMILY CONCERT For ages 5 plus Virtuoso percussionists O Duo whizz around the Wigmore Hall stage as you’ve never seen before! With a marimba, vibraphone, glockenspiel, drum kit, African and Brazilian drums and a multitude of handheld percussion, the pair performs arrangements of music by Bach, Phillip Glass and Chopin among others, including a special superhero medley written by O Duo and British composer Andrew Cottee.

See page 48 for full details

Signum Quartet Mozart Adagio and Fugue in C minor K546 Schubert String Quartet in G D887 Established since 2007 in its present formation, the Signum Quartet was recently praised by the Süddeutscher Zeitung for its ‘exquisitely expressive playing’ and ‘awe-inspiring tonal acuity’. The group’s latest Wigmore Hall recital prefaces Schubert’s mighty String Quartet in G D887 with Mozart’s Adagio and Fugue in C minor, the opening of which veers from violent outbursts to moments of mystical reverence. £13 concs £11 incl. programme and coffee/sherry/juice

Sunday Morning Coffee Concert

Adults £10 Children £8

Wigmore Hall Learning Event

Steven Isserlis

Satoshi Aoyagi

Signum Quartet

Irène Zandel

Dunedin Consort Friday 26 February 7.30 pm

Dunedin Consort John Butt director Sophie Bevan soprano Bach Cantata: Falsche Welt, dir trau ich nicht BWV52 Bach Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 in G BWV1049 Handel Cantata: Alpestre monte HWV81 Handel Concerto Grosso in B b Op. 3 No. 2 Handel Gloria HWV deest £50 £40 £30 £25 £15

John Butt’s personal fusion of penetrating scholarship and heartfelt music-making is mirrored in the work of his Dunedin Consort, Scotland’s leading baroque ensemble. Their recordings of great choral works by Bach and Handel, the St Matthew Passion and Messiah among them, have become instant classics, offering interpretative benchmarks and confirming the group’s excellence and artistry. The Dunedin Consort returns to Wigmore Hall in company with Sophie Bevan, known not least for her vocal beauty and readiness to take risks in unlocking the vital expressive energy of baroque recitatives and arias.

Sophie Bevan

Sussie Ahlburg

Early Music and Baroque Series Photo by David Barbour

Apartment House Saturday 27 February 7.30 pm

Apartment House Egidija Medekšaite˙ Pratiksha* (world première) Luiz Henrique Yudo A QUARTET FOR FRANÇOIS MORELLET (UK première) Henning Christiansen Modeller: First Series Op. 33 Leo Chadburn Freezywater* (world première) Martin Arnold Stain Ballad (world première) Luiz Henrique Yudo A QUARTET FOR CLAUDE MOLLET (UK première) John White Newspaper Reading Machine * Co-commissioned by Apartment House and by Wigmore Hall with the support of André Hoffmann, president of the Fondation Hoffmann, a Swiss grant-making foundation

£30 £25 £20 £15 £10 Booking Open Chamber Music Season/Contemporary Music Series

Wigmore Hall’s contribution to contemporary chamber music and repertoire development goes from strength to strength, as this unmissable programme richly demonstrates. Apartment House, formed by cellist Anton Lukoszevieze in 1995, became the first contemporary music ensemble to win the coveted Royal Philharmonic Society Award for Chamber Music and Song in 2012. In this programme for string quartet, piano, percussion and harmonium, the ensemble gives the first performance of Freezywater, a Wigmore Hall commission by Leo Chadburn, known to many as the ‘transgressive pop’ artist Simon Bookish. Works by Lithuanian composer Egidija Medekšaite˙, Toronto-based composer and performer Martin Arnold, and Dutch/Brazilian composer Luiz Henrique Yudo add to the concert’s ear-catching mix of world and UK premières.

February/March Monday 29 February 1.00 pm

Nicola Benedetti violin Alexei Grynyuk piano Beethoven Violin Sonata No. 10 in G Op. 96 Brahms Violin Sonata No. 2 in A Op. 100

RALPH KIRSHBAUM & SHAI WOSNER: BEETHOVEN

Whether speaking up for the fundamental importance of music in education or appearing as concerto or recital soloist, Nicola Benedetti is known for her intoxicating mix of eloquence, receptivity and passion. Her lunchtime programme, presented with regular chamber music partner Alexei Grynyuk, includes Beethoven’s final violin sonata, written under the influence of an intense yet ultimately unrequited love affair. All seats £15

BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert

Ralph Kirshbaum

J Henry Fair

Shai Wosner

Marco Borggreve

Monday 29 February 7.30 pm

Ralph Kirshbaum cello Shai Wosner piano Beethoven 7 Variations on ‘Bei Männern, welche Liebe fühlen’ from Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte Wo0. 46; Cello Sonata in G minor Op. 5 No. 2; 12 Variations in F on ‘Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen’ from Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte Op. 66; Cello Sonata in A Op. 69 Ralph Kirshbaum, loved by cellists and audiences alike, made his professional debut in the late 1950s with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and went on to win the Cassadó Competition and the International Tchaikovsky Competition little more than a decade later. He begins the week of his 70th birthday in company with Shai Wosner to give the first of two concerts of Beethoven’s works for cello and piano. £36 £30 £25 £20 £15

Wednesday 2 March 7.30 pm

Ralph Kirshbaum cello Shai Wosner piano 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 WoO. 45; Cello Sonata in D Op. 102 No. 2 Ralph Kirshbaum is joined again by the inspirational Shai Wosner to perform Beethoven’s heart-warming late Cello Sonatas, exquisitely crafted pieces dedicated to his close friend, Countess Anna Maria Erdödy. They also explore the composer’s early Variations on a Theme from Judas Maccabaeus and the Cello Sonata in F, a strikingly original product of Beethoven’s triumphant concert tour to Berlin in 1796. £36 £30 £25 £20 £15

Chamber Music Season Nicola Benedetti

Simon Fowler/Decca

March Tuesday 1 March 7.30 pm

Friday 4 March 7.30 pm

Saturday 5 March 5.30 pm

Leon McCawley piano

Wigmore Hall Debut

Tenores di Bitti Shaho Andalibi Trio

Haydn Piano Sonata in C HXVI:50 Rachmaninov Prelude in D minor Op. 23 No. 3; Prelude in D Op. 23 No. 4; Prelude in G minor Op. 23 No. 5 Mendelssohn Variations sérieuses in D minor Op. 54 Chopin 24 Preludes Op. 28 Leon McCawley’s lyrical, crystalline playing and expressive daring draw from a teaching pedigree that reaches back to Leopold Godowsky and Artur Schnabel. The British pianist, recently acclaimed by the Washington Post for his ‘erudition, imagination and fastidiousness’, presents works by Rachmaninov in close proximity to Haydn and Mendelssohn, creating an unusual context in which to contemplate their passionate and reflective qualities. £36 £30 £25 £20 £15

London Pianoforte Series

Paul Appleby* tenor Malcolm Martineau piano Lachner Das Fischermädchen Schumann Liederkreis Op. 24 Wolf Das Ständchen; Heimweh; In der Fremde VI; Seemanns Abschied Bridge Go not happy day; Golden Hair; When you are old; Love went a-riding Berlioz From Les nuits d’été: Villanelle; Sur les lagunes; L’île inconnue Villa-Lobos Canção do poeta do século XVIII; Nhapôpé; Evocação; Samba clássico American tenor Paul Appleby, a graduate of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Programme, moves from the Vienna of Lachner and Wolf to the contrasting musical worlds of Bridge, Berlioz and Villa-Lobos in a programme filled with exquisite verse and melody. His recital also includes Schumann’s Liederkreis Op. 24, entrancing settings of nine poems by Heinrich Heine. £36 £30 £25 £20 £15

Wednesday 2 March 7.30 pm

Supported by Mayfield Valley Arts Trust

Song Recital Series

See page 49 for full details

Chamber Music Season

Thursday 3 March 7.30 pm

The Sixteen Harry Christophers conductor

Saturday 5 March 7.30 pm

Wigmore Hall Chamber Ensemble in Residence

Nash Ensemble Christine Rice mezzo-soprano Jamie Phillips conductor

£36 £30 £25 £20 £15

Chamber Music Season/Contemporary Music Series/ Nash Ensemble: Mozart, Mendelssohn and the Italians

See page opposite for full details Tenores di Bitti

Chamber Music Season/Nash Ensemble: Mozart, Mendelssohn and the Italians

Music by Mendelssohn makes up the first half: a new chamber version of the familiar A Midsummer Night’s Dream Overture, and the darkly serious Second Piano Trio. After the interval the Italians take over, with Luigi Dallapiccola’s poetic ‘Little Night Music’ and Luciano Berio’s exuberant makeovers of Folk Songs from around the globe – anticipated in the pre-concert event by folk music in its natural state.

£36 £30 £25 £20 £15

Leon McCawley

All seats £15

Mendelssohn Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream (arr. David Matthews for ensemble); Piano Trio No. 2 in C minor Op. 66 Rossini Overture to Italian Girl in Algiers (arr. Graham Sheen for wind quintet) Dallapiccola Piccola Musica Notturna Berio Folk Songs for mezzo-soprano and ensemble

* WIGMORE HALL EMERGING T A L E N T

Ralph Kirshbaum cello Shai Wosner piano

Traditional music by the Sardinian vocal quartet Tenores di Bitti and Kurdish music by the Shaho Andalibi Trio complement the Folk Songs of Luciano Berio in the evening concert.

Sheila Rock

Paul Appleby

Dario Acosta

Shaho Andalibi Trio

The Sixteen Residency Thursday 3 March 7.30 pm

The Sixteen Harry Christophers conductor PURCELL – ROYAL WELCOME SONGS FOR KING CHARLES II Purcell Let mine eyes run down with tears; Sleep, Adam, and take thy rest (Adam’s Sleep); Beati omnes qui timent Dominum; Since the duke is return’d; Welcome, Vicegerent of the mighty King (Welcome song for King Charles 1680); O sing unto the Lord; Great God and just; Fly, bold rebellion (Welcome Song performed to his Majesty in 1683) £50 £40 £30 £25 £15 Early Music and Baroque Series/ Henry Purcell: A Retrospective / The Sixteen Residency

Harry Christophers is joined by eight singers and fifteen instrumentalists from The Sixteen for the first of two all-Purcell programmes built around uplifting songs of welcome for Charles II. Purcell may have written the anthem ‘Beati omnes qui timent Dominum’ for performance at his own wedding in the early 1680s, while his sublime ‘Let mine eyes run down with tears’ projects a deeply affecting sense of the world’s sorrows into its setting of words from the Book of Jeremiah.

Forthcoming Concert in this Series Tuesday 7 June 7.30 pm

Photo by Arnaud Stephenson

March Sunday 6 March 11.30 am

Sunday 6 March 3.00 pm

Matthew Trusler violin Martin Roscoe piano

Benjamin Appl* baritone Graham Johnson piano

Mozart Violin Sonata in G K301 Franck Sonata in A for violin and piano Tchaikovsky Sérénade mélancolique in B minor Op. 26 Bartók Romanian Folk Dances BB68 (arranged for violin and piano by Zoltán Székely)

Schubert Adelaide; Lied aus der Ferne; An Emma; Abschied (D475); Der entsühnte Orest; Freiwilliges Versinken; Die Mutter Erde; Der Einsame; Lied des gefangenen Jägers; Fülle der Liebe; Sehnsucht (D879); Trinklied (D888); An Silvia; An die Laute; Jägers Liebeslied; Herbst

Matthew Trusler’s probing musicianship, creative flair and emotionally intelligent playing have earned critical plaudits worldwide. The British violinist, who plays on a 1711 Stradivarius, returns to Wigmore Hall in company with regular collaborator Martin Roscoe to perform a typically diverse and engaging Coffee Concert programme, complete with Franck’s fiery Sonata in A.

Benjamin Appl and Graham Johnson present a red-letter date in Wigmore Hall’s ongoing series of Schubert’s complete songs. Their recital begins with the composer’s early settings of poetry by Matthisson, broadens to include his inspired responses to words by Walter Scott and Shakespeare in translation, and ends with the rarely heard gem ‘Herbst’, completed in April 1828.

£13 concs £11 incl. programme and coffee/sherry/juice

All seats £15

Sunday Morning Coffee Concert

* WIGMORE HALL EMERGING T A L E N T

ATOS TRIO

BEETHOVEN PIANO TRIOS

Supported by Mayfield Valley Arts Trust

Song Recital Series/Schubert: The Complete Songs

ATOS Trio

Steven Haberland

Sunday 6 March 7.30 pm

ATOS Trio Beethoven Piano Trio in E b Op. 1 No. 1; Piano Trio in C minor Op. 1 No. 3; Piano Trio in Bb Op. 97 ‘Archduke’ The joy of making music radiates from the ATOS Trio. The ensemble, founded in 2003, regularly appears at the world’s most prestigious venues and also runs its own concert series in Berlin’s culturally diverse Neukölln district, introducing new audiences to the piano trio repertoire. This programme takes wing with the soaring opening bars of Beethoven’s Op. 1 No. 1, explores the personal emotional landscape of the Piano Trio in C minor, and concludes in the spacious nobility of the ‘Archduke’. £36 £30 £25 £20 £15 Chamber Music Season/ ATOS Trio: Beethoven Piano Trios

Matthew Trusler

Sheila Rock

Benjamin Appl

Falk Kastell

March Monday 7 March 1.00 pm

Monday 7 March 7.30 pm

Tuesday 8 March 7.30 pm

Brentano String Quartet

Phantasm

Haydn String Quartet in F# minor Op. 50 No. 4 Britten String Quartet No. 3 Op. 94

Laurence Dreyfus director, treble viol Emilia Benjamin treble viol Jonathan Manson tenor viol Mikko Perkola tenor viol Markku Luolajan-Mikkola bass viol

Magdalena Kožená mezzo-soprano La Cetra Andrea Marcon conductor, harpsichord

Britten’s Third String Quartet, completed just over a year before his death, stands among the twentieth century’s greatest chamber works, comparable in stature to the finest string quartets of Bartók and Shostakovich. The Brentano String Quartet, which recently succeeded the Tokyo Quartet as Quartet in Residence at Yale School of Music, opens with another masterwork, Haydn’s tense and driven Op. 50 No. 4.

Jonathan Rees bass viol Liam Byrne bass viol PURCELL CONSORT MUSIC Gibbons Fantasies a 3 Nos. 1 & 2 Jenkins Fantasias a 5 Nos. 13 & 15; Pavan a 5 in G minor Purcell Fantasias a 4 Nos. 6 & 8 Lawes Consort Sett a 5 in A minor Purcell Fantasia a 4 No. 7; Fantasia upon one note in F Lawes Consort Sett a 6 in G minor Ward Fantasia a 6 No. 7; In Nomine a 6 No. 2 Parsons In Nomine a 5 No. 3; A Song of Trumpets a 6 Purcell In Nomine a 6; In Nomine a 7

£13 concs £11

BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert

Consort music flourished in England in Tudor times and well into the seventeenth century, creating a rich legacy of domestic compositions and presenting young Henry Purcell with inspiration for his own early works. Phantasm joins forces with close colleagues Jonathan Rees and Liam Byrne to explore fabulous fantasias and In Nomines, genres that originated in the mid-1500s, flourished during the Civil War period and were still being composed after the Restoration. £36 £30 £25 £20 £15

Brentano String Quartet

Phantasm

Peter Schaaf

Marco Borggreve

CON CHE SOAVI ACCENTI Uccellini Aria quinta sopra la Bergamasca from Sonate, arie et correnti Monteverdi Disprezzata Regina from L’incoronazione di Poppea Merula Ballo detto Pollicio from Canzoni overo sonate concertate per chiesa e camera Monteverdi Addio Roma from L’incoronazione di Poppea Castello Sonata No. 15 from Sonate concertate in stil moderno, Libro II Berio Sequenza III Vít Zouhar Ariana has a problem, directed by Ondrej Havelka (UK première) Marini Passacaglio à 4 Op. 22 Monteverdi Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda Magdalena Kožená is joined by Andrea Marcon and his Basel-based ensemble La Cetra, musicians dedicated to bringing works from the past to pulsating life in the present. Together they reveal the vitality of musical life in Monteverdi’s Venice, while Kožená fathoms the uncanny possibilities and expressive registers of the human voice in Luciano Berio’s Sequenza III, written in 1965 for Cathy Berberian. £60 £50 £40 £30 £15

Early Music and Baroque Series/Contemporary Music Series/Celebrating Magdalena Kožená

Early Music and Baroque Series/ Henry Purcell: A Retrospective

La Cetra

Peter Schnetz

The Other Classical Musics World Music Series In the walled cities and wide steppes of the Silk Road lands, lineages of master musicians stretching back centuries honed virtuosic vocal and instrumental repertories rooted in local spiritual practices to create profound traditions of classical music. Forcibly westernised and secularised during the twentieth century, these traditions are now being actively revitalised by a new generation of master performers. In collaboration with the Aga Khan Music Initiative, a programme of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, Wigmore Hall is delighted to present Master Musicians from the Silk Road lands in the first series of a new concert strand, The Other Classical Musics.

Photos (left to right) Homayun Sakhi and Rahul Sharma by Jay Blakesberg/Retna LTD; Salar Nader by Jay Blakesberg /AKTC

Thursday 10 March 6.00 pm

Pre-Concert Talk Join ethnomusicologist Theodore Levin and Director of the Aga Khan Music Initiative Fairouz Nishanova, alongside musicians from the evening concert, for a discussion with musical excerpts and a short film to introduce the concert. £4

Wigmore Hall Learning Event

Thursday 10 March 7.30 pm

Homayun Sakhi Afghan rubab Rahul Sharma santur Salar Nader tabla, zerbaghali Sirojiddin Juraev dutar, tanbur Mukhtor Muborakqadamov setar IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF BABUR: MUSICAL ENCOUNTERS FROM THE LANDS OF THE MUGHALS This concert presents a modern-day incarnation of the remarkable synthesis of Persian, Indian, and Central Asian musical arts that flourished under the royal patronage of the Mughal court. The first half consists of instrumental music and folk songs from Northern Afghanistan and Tajikistan, while the second half presents music from the Hindustani raga tradition interpreted by Afghan rubab virtuoso Homayun Sakhi and Indian santur master Rahul Sharma. This concert will be approximately 2 hours in duration, including an interval

The concert will be followed by a Question and Answer session in the auditorium. This is free to concert ticket holders and will take place immediately after the performance. £36 £30 £25 £20 £15

Friday 2 December 6.00 pm

Pre-Concert Talk An introduction to the evening concert. £4

Wigmore Hall Learning Event

Friday 2 December 7.30 pm

A young man playing the lute: a sixteenthcentury miniature in watercolour, gold and ink, adorning the poetry collection of Sultan Ibrahim Mirza. Mashhad, Iran, 1852. © Aga Khan Music Initiative

Wu Man pipa Sanubar Tursun vocals, dutar Basel Rajoub Soriana Project Basel Rajoub saxophones, duclar Andrea Piccioni percussion Feras Charestan qanun Lynn Adib vocals CONTEMPORARY MUSIC FROM THE ENDS OF THE SILK ROAD In this rare musical encounter, the eastern and western ends of the Silk Route are musically joined as Chinese pipa maestra Wu Man, Uyghur singer-songwriter Sanubar Tursun, and Syrian composer-saxophonist Basel Rajoub perform, both separately and together, a repertoire of new compositions, improvisations and arrangements of contemporary music inspired by tradition. This concert will be approximately 2 hours in duration, including an interval

Thursday 14 July 6.00 pm

Pre-Concert Talk

The concert will be followed by a Question and Answer session in the auditorium. This is free to concert ticket holders and will take place immediately after the performance.

An introduction to the evening concert. £4

£36 £30 £25 £20 £15

Wigmore Hall Learning Event

Thursday 14 July 7.30 pm

Sirojiddin Juraev dutar, tanbur, sato Alim Qasimov Ensemble Alim Qasimov vocals, daf Fargana Qasimova vocals, daf Rafael Asgarov balaban Rauf Islamov kamancha Zaki Valiyev tar Javidan Nabiyev naghara CLASSICAL MASTERS OF AZERBAIJAN AND TAJIKISTAN Linked by a millennium-old tradition of classical music known variously as mugham, maqom, and muqam, the celebrated Azerbaijani vocalists Alim Qasimov and his daughter, Fargana, accompanied by their four-man ensemble, are paired with Tajik instrumentalist Sirojiddin Juraev, the leading dutar player of his generation and an influential composer of new tradition-based music.

Sirojiddin Juraev

Sebastian Schutyser

Wu Man

Sebastian Schutyster/AKTC

These concerts are generously presented in collaboration with the Aga Khan Music Initiative, a programme of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (www.akdn.org /music).

This concert will be approximately 2 hours and 10 minutes in duration, including an interval

The concert will be followed by a Question and Answer session in the auditorium. This is free to concert ticket holders and will take place immediately after the performance. £36 £30 £25 £20 £15

AGA KHAN TRUST FOR C ULTURE Music Initiative World Music Series

March Saturday 12 March 7.30 pm

JEAN-GUIHEN

MIDORI QUEYRAS MASTERCLASS

Benjamin Moser piano Debussy Children’s Corner Ravel Gaspard de la nuit Grieg Lyric Pieces: Til våren (To spring) Op. 43 No. 6; Melodi (Melody) Op. 38 No. 3; Sommerfugl (Butterfly) Op. 43 No. 1; Svundne dager (Vanished days) Op. 57 No. 1; Bryllupsdag på Troldhaugen (Wedding Day at Troldhaugen) Op. 65 No. 6 Skryabin Prelude and Nocturne for the left hand Op. 9 Prokofiev Piano Sonata No. 7 in B b Op. 83 Childhood wonder and exotic fantasy flow through the first half of Benjamin Moser’s recital programme. The Munich-born artist, acclaimed by The New York Times for the ‘organic sweep and full-bodied character’ of his pianism, moves from the fiendish technical demands of Ravel’s ‘Gaspard’ to Grieg’s seductive miniatures and the heartfelt angst of Prokofiev’s wartime Piano Sonata No. 7. £36 £30 £25 £20 £15

London Pianoforte Series

Midori

Timothy Greenfield-Sanders

Friday 11 March 7.30 pm

Midori violin Özgür Aydin piano Liszt Soirées de Vienna No. 6 from ‘Valses caprices d’après Schubert’ S427 (transcr. for violin and piano) Elgar Violin Sonata in E minor Op. 82 Schoenberg Phantasy Op. 47 Strauss Violin Sonata in E b Op. 18 Midori stands among the world’s finest violinists, a communicator of the highest order and a performer with exceptional gifts. She has also achieved distinction as an educator and accolades for her work as a community engagement activist, part of a wider experience of life that informs her deeply heartfelt music-making. £36 £30 £25 £20 £15

Chamber Music Season

Jean-Guihen Queyras

François Séchet

Saturday 12 March 2.00 pm – 5.00 pm

Jean-Guihen Queyras Masterclass ‘It is important, especially in a time when so much of what we do is recorded in one way or another, to remember that a performance is about what people experience in the moment’, comments Jean-Guihen Queyras. Wigmore Hall’s Artist in Residence adds that he has learned invaluable lessons from direct experience about the value of spontaneity and focus in making music, and is looking forward to sharing them with the postgraduate masterclass participants. £8 concs £6 Wigmore Hall Learning Event/ Jean-Guihen Queyras Artist in Residence

Benjamin Moser

March Sunday 13 March 11.30 am

Sunday 13 March 3.00 pm

Monday 14 March 1.00 pm

Schumann Quartet

Sarah-Jane Brandon soprano James Baillieu piano

Maxim Rysanov viola Ashley Wass piano

Brahms 8 Zigeunerlieder Schubert Viola Strauss Verführung; Junghexenlied; Das Rosenband; Gesang der Apollopriesterin

Schubert Sonatina in G minor D408 (arr. for viola and piano by Maxim Rysanov) Leonid Desyatnikov Wie der alte Leiermann Sergey Akhunov Erlkönig for viola and piano Dobrinka Tabakova Suite in Jazz Style

Haydn String Quartet in G Op. 77 No. 1 Dvorˇák String Quartet in E b Op. 51 Haydn’s String Quartet in G Op. 77 No. 1, one of a pair of quartets written for Prince Lobkowitz in 1799, opens with what Hans Keller called an ‘anti-march’, a rhythmic movement made lyrical by the refined quality of its melodic themes. The Schumann Quartet pairs the work with Dvorˇák’s String Quartet in E flat Op. 51, created with the sounds of Czech folk melodies in mind. £13 concs £11 incl. programme and coffee/sherry/juice

Sunday Morning Coffee Concert

Brahms, like many others, was attracted to the so-called Hungarian Style, rooted in folk dance and Gypsy music. Sarah-Jane Brandon and James Baillieu present eight of the composer’s original ‘Gypsy Songs’ before exploring the gripping narrative of Schubert’s ‘Viola’ and rapt intensity of four songs by Richard Strauss. All seats £15

Song Recital Series/Introducing James Baillieu

Leonid Desyatnikov’s chamber compositions include the dream-like Wie der alte Leiermann, written for Gidon Kremer in 1996, a stark response to the chill of Schubert’s Winterreise. Maxim Rysanov also performs Dobrinka Tabakova’s Suite in Jazz Style, which he premièred in 2009, together with his own arrangement of Schubert’s delightful Sonatina in G minor D408 and Sergey Akhunov’s reimagining of the Romantic composer’s song ‘Erlkönig’. £13 concs £11

Sunday 13 March 7.30 pm

Jean-Guihen Queyras cello Alexandre Tharaud piano

BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert

See page 58 for full details

Schumann Quartet

Kaupo Kikkas

Sarah-Jane Brandon

Peter Warren

Maxim Rysanov

Irina and Pavel Kozhevnikov

Jean-Guihen Queyras Artist in Residence A glance at Jean-Guihen Queyras’s extensive discography immediately reveals the uncommon depth and breadth of his repertoire and the extent of his musical interests. The French cellist’s international reputation continues to grow thanks not least to his versatility and, above all, the integrity of his interpretations. His season as Wigmore Hall Artist in Residence continues with a masterclass and a beguiling recital with Alexandre Tharaud.

Sunday 13 March 7.30 pm

Jean-Guihen Queyras cello Alexandre Tharaud piano Poulenc Suite française Falla Suite populaire espagnole Stravinsky Suite italienne for cello and piano Schumann Adagio and Allegro in A b Op. 70 (for cello and piano) Shostakovich Cello Sonata in D minor Op. 40 Jean-Guihen Queyras notes how he was introduced to Poulenc’s chamber music by Alexandre Tharaud. The close friends share their thoughts on the composer’s Suite française in company with two other neo-classical gems. They conclude with Shostakovich’s Cello Sonata in D minor Op. 40, hallmarked by its classical form and subtle invention. £36 £30 £25 £20 £15

Supported by the members of The Rubinstein Circle

Chamber Music Season/ Jean-Guihen Queyras Artist in Residence

Other Events in this Series Saturday 12 March 2.00 pm – 5.00 pm

Masterclass Tuesday 17 May 7.30 pm

Lisa Batiashvili violin Antoine Tamestit viola Jean-Guihen Queyras cello Jonathan Biss piano Photo by Marco Borggreve

March Monday 14 March 6.00 pm

Tuesday 15 March 7.30 pm

Thursday 17 March 7.30 pm

Pre-Concert Event

Scottish Ensemble Jonathan Morton artistic director, leader Gabriela Montero piano

Ensemble Modern

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 of their careers. Free (ticket required)

Monday 14 March 7.30 pm

Razumovsky Ensemble Mozart Duo in G K423 Mozart String Quintet in C K515 Tchaikovsky String Sextet in D minor Op. 70 ‘Souvenir de Florence’

Mozart Adagio and Fugue in C minor K546 Villa-Lobos Aria from Bachianas brasileiras No. 5 (arr. for strings by John Krance) Bach Ricercar a 6 from The Musical Offering BWV1079 Piazzolla 3 pieces for piano and strings Osvaldo Golijov Last Round Mozart Piano Concerto No. 14 in E b K449

Brahms Serenade in D Op. 11 (reconstruction of the original instrumentation by Jorge Rotter: nonet of wind and strings) Hannes Seidl New work* (UK première) Michael Quell New work* (UK première) * Co-commissioned by Ensemble Modern, and by Wigmore Hall with the support of André Hoffmann, president of the Fondation Hoffmann, a Swiss grant-making foundation

One of South America’s most innovative performers, award-winning pianist Gabriela Montero, joins Scottish Ensemble for an exploration of works from two very different continents. With her spontaneous, expressive improvisation, the extended sparkling cadenzas of Mozart’s concerto will ring out as part of an invigorating evening of inspired and inspiring music-making.

The young Brahms served as a conductor and teacher at the Detmold court in the late 1850s. His mature chamber compositions owe much to the refined craftsmanship of the two Serenades he wrote there, the first of which can be heard in this recital in its nonet form. Ensemble Modern also performs scores by the experimental composer Hannes Seidl and by Michael Quell, whose recent music has been inspired by interdisciplinary dialogue.

£36 £30 £25 £20 £15

£30 £25 £20 £15 £10 Booking Open

Chamber Music Season/Contemporary Music Series

Creative freedom and joie de vivre appear in the long list of artistic attributes cultivated by the Razumovsky Ensemble. The group, chosen from a team of outstanding chamber musicians, turns its collective expertise and generous spirit to the interpretation of works by Mozart and Tchaikovsky, including the latter’s radiant string sextet, the ‘Souvenir de Florence’. £36 £30 £25 £20 £15

Chamber Music Season

Gabriela Montero

Oleg Kogan Artistic Director of Razumovsky Ensemble

Robert Cassen

Ensemble Modern

Shelley Mosman

Michael Löwa

Christian

McBride Jazz Series Friday 18 March 7.30 pm

Christian McBride double bass Edgar Meyer double bass To begin star bassist Christian McBride’s curatorship of the Wigmore Hall Jazz Series, he and Edgar Meyer, both multiple Grammy-winners, join forces for an evening of duets. Meyer, hailed by The New Yorker as ‘the most remarkable virtuoso in the relatively un-chronicled history of his instrument’, and his long-time friend Christian McBride, together represent the very pinnacle of bass playing. £36 £30 £25 £20 £15

Christian McBride Jazz Series

Forthcoming Concerts in this Series

Friday 8 July 7.30 pm Friday 12 December 7.30 pm

Edgar Meyer

Jim McGuire

March Saturday 19 March 7.00 pm NB starting time

Sunday 20 March 11.30 am

Sunday 20 March 3.00 pm

Alina Ibragimova violin Antoine Tamestit viola Matthew Hunt clarinet Cédric Tiberghien piano François-Frédéric Guy piano Colin Currie percussion Sam Walton percussion

Wigmore Hall Series Debut

Jonathan McGovern baritone James Baillieu piano

Bartók Sonata for solo violin BB124 György Kurtág Hommage à Robert Schumann Op.15d Ligeti Sonata for solo viola Bartók Contrasts for violin, clarinet and piano BB116 Bartók Sonata for two pianos and percussion BB115 This programme, performed by a sensational line-up of artists, includes Bartók’s Contrasts, written in the wake of Hitler’s seizure of power in Austria, and the pulsating Sonata for two pianos and percussion of 1937, together with Ligeti’s deliberately provocative Sonata for solo viola and György Kurtág’s poignant post-modern Hommage à Robert Schumann.

Callum Smart violin Richard Uttley piano

SONGS OF NIGHT

Mozart Violin Sonata in Bb K378 Sir James MacMillan After the Tryst Strauss Violin Sonata in Eb Op. 18 Callum Smart’s sincere musicianship caught the ears of international critics when, at the age of thirteen, he won the string final of the 2010 BBC Young Musicians Competition. He makes his Wigmore Series debut with a brilliant product of Mozart’s early twenties alongside Sir James MacMillan’s virtuosic After the Tryst and the young Richard Strauss’s lyrical Violin Sonata. £13 concs £11

Sunday Morning Coffee Concert

Britten A Song of Enchantment from Tit for Tat Schubert Der Einsame Tchaikovsky At the ball Debussy La grotte Hahn L’heure exquise Strauss Heimliche Aufforderung Schoenberg Erwartung Griffes Mein Herz ist wie die dunkle Nacht Schubert An den Mond (D259) Strauss Ständchen Brahms Wie rafft ich mich auf Schoenberg Warnung Roussel Le bachelier de Salamanque Gurney Sleep Wolf An den Schlaf Rachmaninov In the silence of the secret night

Supported by the Season Patrons who have made a major contribution to the 2015 /16 Wigmore Series

Success in the 2011 Wigmore Hall/Kohn Foundation International Song Competition helped launch Jonathan McGovern’s career. He has since achieved distinction in opera and concert performances, and reinforced his status as a rising star of the song recital. His programme with James Baillieu rejoices in the enchanting words and music of songs of night and the half-light.

Chamber Music Season/Bartók Chamber Music

All seats £15

This concert will be approximately 2 hours and 45 minutes in duration, including two intervals £36 £30 £25 £20 £15

Song Recital Series/Introducing James Baillieu

Alina Ibragimova

Eva Vermandel

Callum Smart

Patrick Allen/Operaomnia

Jonathan McGovern

Benjamin Ealovega

The Myrthen Ensemble Sunday 20 March 7.30 pm

The Myrthen Ensemble Mary Bevan soprano Clara Mouriz mezzo-soprano Allan Clayton tenor Marcus Farnsworth baritone Joseph Middleton piano SONGS TO THE MOON Brahms Der Gang zum Liebchen; Walpurgisnacht; Nächtens; Vor der Tür; Unbewegte laue Luft; Ständchen (Op. 106 No. 1); Der Abend; Vergebliches Ständchen Schumann Unterm Fenster; Mondnacht; Zwei Venetianische Lieder & Die Lotosblume from Myrthen; In der Nacht from Spanisches Liederspiel Warlock The night Maconchy Sun, Moon and Stars Barber Nocturne Szulc Clair de lune Mompou Damunt de tu només les flors Saint-Saëns Guitares et Mandolines Debussy Apparition Chausson La nuit Hahn L’heure exquise Duparc La fuite Massenet Rêvons, c’est l’heure Fauré Clair de lune; Pleurs d’or; Tarentelle

No region of the international song repertoire is off limits to The Myrthen Ensemble. The group, populated by what the Daily Telegraph has described as ‘the crème de la crème of young British-based musical talent’, opens with works by Schumann and his protégé Brahms before surveying works from Britain, France, Poland, Spain and the United States. £36 £30 £25 £20 £15

Song Recital Series

Photo by John Alexander

March Monday 21 March 1.00 pm

Tuesday 22 March 6.00 pm

Tuesday 22 March 8.30 pm NB starting time

Wigmore Hall Debut

Introductory Talk and Concert

Wigmore Hall Chamber Ensemble in Residence

Esther Yoo violin Zhang Zuo piano

Gillian Moore, Director of Music at the Southbank Centre, writer and broadcaster, introduces Berio’s Sequenzas and Naturale.

Bach Chaconne from Partita No. 2 in D minor for solo violin BWV1004 Mendelssohn Violin Sonata in F (1838) Sibelius Violin Sonatina in E Op. 80 Esther Yoo made headlines as the youngest ever prize-winner at the International Sibelius Violin Competition in 2010. The American-Korean violinist, a current BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist, makes her Wigmore Hall debut with a programme carefully crafted to suit her mesmeric technical skills and spellbinding lyricism. £13 concs £11

Esther Yoo is a member of BBC Radio 3’s New Generation Artists scheme

BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert

Wigmore Hall Chamber Ensemble in Residence

Nash Ensemble

Nash Ensemble Henning Kraggerud violin Lawrence Power viola Craig Ogden guitar Puccini Crisantemi Paganini Quartet No. 15 in A minor for viola with violin, cello and guitar Mendelssohn Octet in E b Op. 20

Philippa Davies flute Gareth Hulse oboe Lucy Wakeford harp Lawrence Power viola Ian Brown piano Chris Brannick percussion

The late evening concert comprises an elegiac quartet miniature by Puccini, a Paganini quartet highlighting the viola, and the teenaged Mendelssohn’s astonishing Octet for strings.

Berio Sequenza I for solo flute; Sequenza II for solo harp; Sequenza IV for solo piano; Sequenza VII for solo oboe; Naturale for viola, percussion and tape This Introductory Talk and Concert explore a selection of Luciano Berio’s Sequenzas, instrumental solos requiring a new and advanced kind of virtuosity, and a piece for viola inspired by Sicilian folk music.

This concert will be approximately one hour in duration, without an interval £30 £25 £20 £15 £10 (10% discount when booking for the 6.00 pm and 8.30 pm events on 22 March)

Chamber Music Season/Nash Ensemble: Mozart, Mendelssohn and the Italians

This event will be approximately 2 hours in duration, with a short interval before the concert starts at 7.00 pm All seats £15 (10% discount when booking for the 6.00 pm and 8.30 pm events on 22 March)

Chamber Music Season/Contemporary Music Series Nash Ensemble: Mozart, Mendelssohn and the Italians

Esther Yoo

Marco Borggreve

Lawrence Power

Giorgia Bertazzi

Henning Kraggerud

Robert Romik

March Wednesday 23 March 7.30 pm

Thursday 24 March 7.30 pm

Sunday 27 March 11.30 am

The English Concert Harry Bicket director, harpsichord Nadja Zwiener violin Katharina Spreckelsen oboe Ann Hallenberg mezzo-soprano

Susan Graham mezzo-soprano Malcolm Martineau piano

Quatuor Zaïde

Scarlatti Sinfonia from I dolori di Maria sempre vergine Vivaldi Violin Concerto in C ‘Per la santissima Assunzione di Maria Vergine’ RV581 Albinoni Oboe Concerto in D minor Op. 9 No. 2 Vivaldi Sinfonia al Santo Sepolcro RV169 Ferrandini Cantata: Il pianto di Maria

Le Poème Harmonique

See page opposite for details

Mozart String Quartet in C K157 Haydn String Quartet in F Op. 50 No. 5 ‘The Dream’ Bartók String Quartet No. 5 Tonal symmetry and formal logic support the audacity of Bartók’s invention in his Fifth String Quartet, written in the high summer of 1934. Quatuor Zaïde prefaces the Hungarian composer’s scintillating work with the light-hearted charm and rhapsodic melodies of Haydn’s ‘The Dream’ and Mozart’s youthful String Quartet in C K157.

Saturday 26 March 7.30 pm

See page 66 for full details

£13 concs £11 incl. programme and coffee/sherry/juice

Sunday Morning Coffee Concert

The outstanding Swedish mezzo-soprano Ann Hallenberg returns to Wigmore Hall for her long-awaited company debut with The English Concert in their celebration of an Italian Easter. Leader Nadja Zwiener and oboist Katharina Spreckelsen offer virtuosic outpourings to that source of impassioned inspiration for successive generations of Italian composers, the sufferings of the Virgin Mary. This concert will be approximately one hour and 35 minutes in duration, including an interval £36 £30 £25 £20 £15

Early Music and Baroque Series

Quatuor Zaïde

The English Concert

Neda Navaee

Richard Haughton

Ann Hallenberg

Nancy Glor

Susan Graham Thursday 24 March 7.30 pm

Susan Graham mezzo-soprano Malcolm Martineau piano Songs by Schumann, Fauré, Strauss, Grieg, Debussy, Poulenc, Tchaikovsky, Granados and Berlioz Grammy Award-winner Susan Graham is reunited with her most frequent duo partner, Malcolm Martineau, for a recital that has all the ingredients necessary for creating an unforgettable musical experience, one of those rare occasions that genuinely deserves to be called ‘unmissable’. The American mezzo-soprano, a star of the world’s leading opera stages and consummate interpreter of everything from baroque arias to contemporary music, has chosen works that span the gamut of art song. This programme reflects the singer’s famous empathy for French mélodies and engagement with a multitude of languages and musical styles. £50 £40 £30 £25 £15

Song Recital Series

Photo by Benjamin Ealovega

Le Poème Harmonique Saturday 26 March 7.30 pm

Le Poème Harmonique Vincent Dumestre director, baroque guitar, theorbo Mira Glodeanu violin Lucas Peres bass viol Joël Grare bass drum, castanets Claire Lefilliâtre soprano ESPERAR, SENTIR, MORIR: Street dances and courtly songs in seventeenth-century Spain and Italy Rossi Un ferito cavaliero Monteverdi Si dolce il tormento Marin Recibe adorado ausente Anonymous (Spanish) Canario Moulinié Ay Ay Ay Kapsberger Toccata secunda arpeggiata Merula Hor che tempo di dormire; Folle ben che si crede Sanz Clarin del mosqueteros del Rey de Francia; Rujero; Paradetas; Jacaras Martín y Coll Differencias sobra la Folia Hidalgo Esperar, sentir, morir Folk dances and popular song fed the imaginations of composers four centuries ago, flowing freely into works created for the aristocratic households and princely palaces of Italy and Spain. Le Poème Harmonique, experts in the rhetoric, rhythmic inflections and poetic nuance of baroque music, show why dances such as the Spanish canario and jacara and the Italian ciaccona and passacaglia proved equally irresistible to refined audiences at court and jostling crowds in the street. This concert will be approximately one hour and 20 minutes in duration, without an interval £40 £35 £30 £25 £15

Early Music and Baroque Series

‘Woman Playing the Guitar’ (c.1624) by Gerard van Honthorst (1590 – 1656)

March Monday 28 March 1.00 pm

Tuesday 29 March 7.30 pm

Lucy Crowe soprano Joseph Middleton piano Purcell/Britten Lord, what is Man?; O solitude; I attempt from love’s sickness to fly; Alleluia Head Over the rim of the moon Ireland The trellis; My true love hath my heart; When I am dead, my dearest; If there were dreams to sell; Earth’s call Walton Daphne; Through gilded trellises; Old Sir Faulk

PINCHAS ZUKERMAN

Ailish Tynan soprano Adam Walker flute Alasdair Tait cello James Baillieu piano Caplet Viens! Une flûte invisible soupire ... Ravel Chansons madécasses Caplet 2 petites pièces: Rêverie & Petite valse Saint-Saëns Une flûte invisible Martin Ballade for flute and piano; 3 chants de Noël Judith Weir New commission for soprano, piano, flute and cello* (world première) Berlioz La captive, orientale Fauré Cinq mélodies ‘de Venise’ Gaubert Soir Païen; Nocturne et allegro scherzando

Lucy Crowe’s lyric voice couples warmth with clarity. The British artist’s career has soared over the past decade, propelled recently by show-stopping performances at Glyndebourne, Berlin’s Deutsche Oper and the Royal Opera House. She is joined for this recital by regular duo partner Joseph Middleton, recently described by The Times as belonging to ‘the cream of the new generation’ of song accompanists.

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

£13 concs £11

BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert Pinchas Zukerman

Cheryl Mazak

Although best known today for his orchestrations of Debussy’s music, André Caplet was a prolific composer of songs with imaginative instrumental accompaniments. This recital opens with his early ‘Viens! Une flûte invisible soupire...’, clearly influenced by Debussy, explores rarely performed works by Philippe Gaubert, and by Frank Martin, and includes the première of a new work by Judith Weir.

Monday 28 March 7.30 pm

£36 £30 £25 £20 £15

Pinchas Zukerman violin Angela Cheng piano

Supported by the Supporter Friends of Wigmore Hall

Song Recital Series/Contemporary Music Series/ Introducing James Baillieu

Mozart Violin Sonata in G K301 Beethoven Violin Sonata No. 3 in E b Op. 12 No. 3 Brahms Scherzo from F.A.E. sonata (Sonatensatz); Violin Sonata No. 3 in D minor Op. 108 It takes a great artist to break free from interpretative ideas inherited from past performers. Pinchas Zukerman belongs to that rare company of musicians in possession of the all-round experience, heartfelt insight and imagination required to infuse the richest masterworks with revelatory ideas and flashes of personal brilliance. He is partnered by Angela Cheng for a programme of compositions drawn from the core of his repertoire. £40 £35 £30 £25 £15

Chamber Music Season

Lucy Crowe

Marco Borggreve

Ailish Tynan

Benjamin Ealovega

March Wednesday 30 March 7.30 pm

Thursday 31 March 7.30 pm

Viviane Hagner* violin Nicole Hagner piano

Christian Gerhaher baritone Gerold Huber piano

Bartók Rhapsody No. 1 BB94a Schubert Fantasy in C D934 Debussy Violin Sonata in G minor Saint-Saëns Violin Sonata No. 1 in D minor Op. 75

Schubert An den Mond in einer Herbstnacht; Hoffnung (Schaff’ das Tagwerk meiner Hände); Im Jänner 1817 (Tiefes Leid); Abschied (D475); Herbst; Über Wildemann; Der Wanderer (D649); Der Wanderer an den Mond; Der Zwerg; Abendstern; Im Walde (D834); Nach einem Gewitter; Der Schiffer (D694); An die Nachtigall (D196); Totengräber-Weise; Frühlingsglaube; Nachtviolen; Abendlied für die Entfernte; Wehmut; Der Strom; Der Hirt; Lied eines Schiffers an die Dioskuren; Nachtgesang (D314); Der Sänger am Felsen

The Hagner sisters offer a fascinating programme as they bridge a century of music history with Bartók’s First Rhapsody, built around six Romanian folk tunes, and Schubert’s Fantasy in C, partly based on the melody of one of his songs. They then chart the impressionist complexities of Debussy’s late Violin Sonata and the virtuosity of Saint-Saëns’s First Violin Sonata. £36 £30 £25 £20 £15

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

Chamber Music Season

Lonely wanderers, Gothic horror and the natural world belong to the creative impulses at work in Christian Gerhaher’s selection of Schubert songs. His programme addresses everything from the grotesqueries of ‘Der Zwerg’ and sublime beauty of ‘Nachtviolen’ to the impassioned lyricism of ‘Der Sänger am Felsen’ and unrelenting power of ‘Der Strom’. £40 £35 £30 £25 £15

Song Recital Series/ Christian Gerhaher Singer in Residence Christian Gerhaher

Viviane Hagner

Tim Kölln

Nicole Hagner

Tim Kölln

Gerold Huber

Jim Rakete/Sony Classical

Marion Koell/Avi-Service for music

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Contemporary Music Series Wigmore Hall stands as a major supporter of contemporary chamber music and song, as commissioner of new works and champion of living composers. The Hall is determined to bring fresh creative energy to the repertoire, not least through its extensive commissioning programme and promotion of world, UK and London premières. ‘Our commissioning scheme is already the most extensive in Europe for chamber music’, comments Wigmore Hall Director, John Gilhooly. ‘We plan to present up to 40 commissions per season and make Wigmore Hall one of the world’s foremost centres for contemporary chamber music.’ Visit www.wigmore-hall.org.uk /contemporary for full details of these concerts. Booking for all concerts in this series is now open.

Monday 4 January 7.30 pm

Wednesday 3 February 7.30 pm

Christian Tetzlaff violin Tanja Tetzlaff cello

Takács Quartet Aleksandar Madžar piano

Jörg Widmann

Timo Andres

Wednesday 20 January 1.00 pm

Thursday 4 February 7.30 pm

Britten Sinfonia

Christian Gerhaher baritone Gerold Huber piano

Anna Clyne * & Salvatore Sciarrino

Wolfgang Rihm & Gerold Huber Sunday 24 January 7.30 pm

Lisa Batiashvili violin Valeriy Sokolov violin Gérard Caussé viola Gautier Capuçon cello Frank Braley piano Dutilleux

Saturday 13 February 7.30 pm

Scharoun Ensemble Mark Andre, Mark-Anthony Turnage, Henze & Jörg Widmann Wednesday 17 February 7.30 pm

Steven Isserlis cello György Kurtág

Friday 19 February 7.30 pm

Tuesday 15 March 7.30 pm

Wednesday 27 April 7.30 pm

Carolin Widmann violin

Scottish Ensemble Gabriela Montero piano

Rolf Hind piano

Pascal Dusapin*

Osvaldo Golijov Monday 22 February 7.30 pm

Ensemble intercontemporain

Thursday 17 March 7.30 pm

George Crumb & Aurélio Edler-Copes*

Ensemble Modern Hannes Seidl* & Michael Quell*

Wednesday 24 February 1.00 pm

Britten Sinfonia

Tuesday 22 March 7.00 pm

Donatoni & Daníel Bjarnason*

Nash Ensemble Berio

Rolf Hind, Hans Abrahamsen, Simon Steen-Andersen & Sir Peter Maxwell Davies* Thursday 12 May 7.30 pm

Mark Padmore tenor Kitty Whately mezzo-soprano Ryan Wigglesworth piano Ryan Wigglesworth* Saturday 21 May 7.30 pm

Wednesday 24 February 7.30 pm

Steven Isserlis cello

Tuesday 29 March 7.30 pm

György Kurtág

Ailish Tynan soprano Adam Walker flute Alasdair Tait cello James Baillieu piano

Saturday 27 February 7.30 pm

Apartment House

Augustin Hadelich violin Charles Owen piano David Lang & André Previn Thursday 2 June 7.30 pm

JACK Quartet

Egidija Medeksˇaite˙ *, Leo Chadburn*, Luiz Henrique Yudo, Henning Christiansen, Martin Arnold & John White

Judith Weir *

Saturday 5 March 7.30 pm

Kuss Quartet

Wednesday 22 June 7.30 pm

Nash Ensemble Jamie Phillips conductor Christine Rice mezzo-soprano

Sir Harrison Birtwistle

James Gilchrist tenor Anna Tilbrook piano

Berio

Thursday 7 April 7.30 pm

Wednesday 13 April 1.00 pm

John Zorn, Caroline Shaw & Helmut Lachenmann

Sally Beamish*

Britten Sinfonia Bryce Dessner*

Friday 15 July 7.30 pm

Wednesday 20 April 7.30 pm

Doric String Quartet

Tuesday 8 March 7.30 pm

Magdalena Kožená mezzo-soprano La Cetra Andreas Marcon conductor, harpsichord

Anssi Karttunen cello Nicolas Hodges piano

Vít Zouhar & Berio

Sir Harrison Birtwistle & Sean Shepherd*

Donnacha Dennehy*

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

The Contemporary Music Series is supported by

EVENTS FOR FAMILIES,YOUNG PEOPLE & ADULTS All events listed on pages 72 – 75 will open for booking on 6 November, with the exception of Come and Sing on 9 January and the Family Concerts on 30 January and 27 February, which are included in Priority Booking for Friends and Mailing List Subscribers.

We are grateful to John Lyon’s Charity and Nigel Higgins for their support of our Schools Programme

January Saturday 9 January 10.00 am – 3.30 pm

Come and Sing Early Italian Music Isabelle Adams leads a workshop for adults exploring Italian madrigals, oratorio and early opera. Get to know the music from the inside, develop your singing skills and finish the day with a performance on the Wigmore Hall stage. £25 concs £19

Saturday 16 January 10.30 am – 3.30 pm

Musical Explorers with

Royal Academy of Music

www.benjaminharte.co.uk

FAMILY DAY For ages 5 plus An unmissable opportunity to explore improvisation inspired by musical genres from around the world with music leader and violinist Alison Blunt alongside students from the Royal Academy of Music. The day is linked to the centenary of the birth of the great violinist Yehudi Menuhin, who was himself fascinated with improvisation and music from different cultures. Work with Alison and create new music to perform on the Wigmore Hall stage at the end of the day. This day is delivered in partnership with the Royal Academy of Music, where the 2016 Menuhin Competition will be hosted. Adults £15 Children £10

Benjamin Ealovega

www.wigmore-hall.org.uk/learning 72

January/February Tuesday 16 February 11.00 am – 3.30 pm Wednesday 17 February 11.00 am – 3.30 pm

Musical Portraits Band HALF-TERM COURSE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE WITH AUTISTIC SPECTRUM DISORDERS Following the success of our long-running summer course, there are now even more opportunities for young people with Autistic Spectrum Disorders to be inspired by paintings in the National Portrait Gallery, and to create art works and music with Wigmore Hall Learning’s resident ensemble Ignite. For more information, and to apply for a place, contact Turtle Key Arts on 020 8964 5060 or email ruth@turtlekeyarts.org.uk Free (application required)

In partnership with the National Portrait Gallery and Turtle Key Arts

Magnard Ensemble

Joseph Shiner

Saturday 30 January 11.00 am – 12.00 noon

CAVATINA Family Concert Magnard Ensemble For ages 5 plus Formed in 2012 at the Royal Academy of Music, the Magnard Ensemble is a vibrant young chamber group equally committed to delivering high-quality performances and inspirational Learning projects. In this interactive family concert, the ensemble takes you on a tour around the wind quintet, exploring the colours and textures of the different instruments through the music of Haydn, Ibert, Hindemith, Malcolm Arnold and Paul Patterson. Adults £10 Children £8 CAVATINA Chamber Music Trust www.cavatina.net

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

Marcus Farnsworth

Benjamin Ealovega

Wednesday 10 February 11.00 am – 12.00 noon

Marcus Farnsworth baritone KEY STAGE 2 SCHOOLS CONCERT Music leader Jessie Maryon Davies, baritone Marcus Farnsworth and pianist James Baillieu come together to bring a variety of classical songs to life, exploring the drama and character behind the music in this interactive concert for Key Stage 2 children and their teachers.

Ignite

Benjamin Ealovega

£3.50

www.wigmore-hall.org.uk/learning 73

February

Benjamin Ealovega

Thursday 18 February 10.30 am – 3.30 pm

Tuesday 23 February 11.00 am – 12.00 noon

Fairies and Forests

O Duo: Crash, Bang, Wallop

FAMILY DAY

KEY STAGE 3 SCHOOLS CONCERT

For ages 5 plus

Virtuoso percussionists O Duo whizz around the Wigmore Hall stage as you’ve never seen before! With a marimba, vibraphone, glockenspiel, drum kit, African and Brazilian drums and a multitude of handheld percussion, the pair performs music by Bach, Phillip Glass and Chopin among others, including a special superhero medley written by O Duo and British composer Andrew Cottee.

Spend a day in the enchanted world of Purcell’s opera The Fairy Queen with workshop leader Freya Wynn Jones. Come and explore some of Purcell’s original music, create your own magical stories and songs, and put it all together to make a mini opera to perform on the Wigmore Hall stage at the end of the day.

£3.50 Adults £15 Children £10

Saturday 27 February 11.00 am – 12.00 noon

O Duo: Crash, Bang, Wallop FAMILY CONCERT For ages 5 plus A repeat of the Schools Concert on 23 February, for families Adults £10 Children £8

www.wigmore-hall.org.uk/learning 74

O Duo

March Friday 4 March 5.30 pm – 6.15 pm Wednesday 9 March 5.30 pm – 6.15 pm

Young Producers Concerts What happens when a group of talented young people from London secondary schools programme a concert at Wigmore Hall? Which artists will they choose? What will they play? Find out more about this unique project at www.wigmore-hall.org.uk/young-producers Free (ticket required)

www.benjaminharte.co.uk

Chamber Zone FREE CONCERT TICKETS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE AND SCHOOLS Over the last eight years, Wigmore Hall’s free ticket scheme Chamber Zone has reached over 5,000 young people aged 8 –25 years. Supported by CAVATINA Chamber Music Trust, with ongoing support from John Lyon’s Charity CAVATINA Chamber Music Trust www.cavatina.net

For details on the concerts included in the Chamber Zone scheme and how to book visit www.wigmore-hall.org.uk /chamberzone www.benjaminharte.co.uk

www.wigmore-hall.org.uk/learning 75

Calendar

Fri 22 Jan

Sat 23 Jan

Sun 24 Jan

January Date

Start Time

Event

Page

Sat 2 Jan

7.30 pm

Christian Ihle Hadland

Sun 3 Jan

11.30 am

Johannes Moser/Benjamin Moser

3.00 pm

Maximilian Schmitt/Gerold Huber

Mon 4 Jan

Mon 25 Jan

Tue 26 Jan

1.00 pm

Mettis String Quartet/Stratos Quartet

7.30 pm

Paul Lewis/Mark Padmore

19 20

11.00 am

ECMA Masterclass

3.00 pm

Arcis Saxophone Quartet/Stratos Quartet

7.30 pm

Alexander Melnikov

11.30 am

Cecilia String Quartet

3.00 pm

Meta4

7.30 pm

Lisa Batiashvili/Valeriy Sokolov/Gérard Caussé Gautier Capuçon/Frank Braley

1.00 pm

Armida Quartet

6.00 pm

Pre-Concert Talk

7.30 pm

Francesco Piemontesi

6.00 pm

Pre-Concert Talk

7.30 pm

Simon Keenlyside and Friends

Wed 27 Jan

7.30 pm

Michael Collins/City of London Sinfonia/London Winds Christine Rice

1.00 pm

Benjamin Appl/Graham Johnson

7.30 pm

Christian Tetzlaff/Tanja Tetzlaff

Tue 5 Jan

7.30 pm

Heath Quartet/James Baillieu

Fri 29 Jan

7.30 am

Magdalena Kožená, Sir Simon Rattle and Friends

Wed 6 Jan

6.00 pm

Birgid Steinberger/Daniel Johannsen/Benjamin Appl Graham Johnson

Sat 30 Jan

11.00 am

CAVATINA Family Concert: Magnard Ensemble

7.30 pm

Alina Ibragimova/Cédric Tiberghien

7.30 pm

Christopher Maltman/Graham Johnson

9 11.30 am

Alexandra Dariescu

Thu 7 Jan

7.30 pm

Michael Roll

7.30 pm

Simon Keenlyside/Malcolm Martineau

Fri 8 Jan

7.30 pm

The English Concert/Kristian Bezuidenhout

Sat 9 Jan

10.00 am

Come and Sing Early Italian Music

Sun 10 Jan

11.30 am

Daniel-Ben Pienaar

3.00 pm

Anna Huntley/James Baillieu

7.30 pm

James Ehnes/Andrew Armstrong

1.00 pm

Pavel Kolesnikov

Sun 31 Jan

Mon 11 Jan

7.30 pm

Luca Pisaroni/Wolfram Rieger

10 10, 72

Wed 13 Jan

7.30 pm

Llyˆr Williams

7.30 pm

Renaud Capuçon/Guillaume Chilemme/Adrien La Marca Edgar Moreau

Fri 15 Jan

7.30 pm

La Serenissima/Adrian Chandler/Peter Whelan

Sat 16 Jan

10.30 am

Family Day: Musical Explorers

Mon 18 Jan

Tue 19 Jan

Wed 20 Jan

Thu 21 Jan

February Date

Start Time

Event

Mon 1 Feb

1.00 pm

Alec Frank-Gemmill/Alasdair Beatson

7.30 pm

Takács Quartet

Tue 2 Feb

7.30 pm

Henning Kraggerud/Kathryn Stott

Wed 3 Feb

7.30 pm

Takács Quartet/Aleksandar Madžar

Thu 4 Feb

5.00 pm

Introduction to Music commences

7.30 pm

Christian Gerhaher/Gerold Huber

Thu 14 Jan

Sun 17 Jan

27 23, 73

Fri 5 Feb

7.30 pm

Nash Ensemble/Roderick Williams

11.30 am

Endymion

Sat 6 Feb Sun 7 Feb

3.00 pm

Royal Academy of Music Richard Lewis Song Circle

7.30 pm

Renaud Capuçon/Nicholas Angelich

1.00 pm

Dejan Lazic´

7.30 pm

The Endellion String Quartet

6.00 pm

Pre-Concert Talk

7.30 pm

Classical Opera/Ana Maria Labin/Benjamin Hulett

12.15 pm

Pre-Concert Talk

1.00 pm

Britten Sinfonia

7.30 pm

Trio Shaham Erez Wallfisch

7.30 pm

Lawrence Power/Adrian Brendel/Simon Crawford-Phillips

Mon 8 Feb

Tue 9 Feb

Wed 10 Feb

Page 28

1.00 pm

Christian Gerhaher Masterclass

7.00 pm

Gil Shaham

7.30 pm

Nash Ensemble/Richard Hosford

11.30 am

Quartetto di Cremona

7.30 pm

La Compagnia del Madrigale

1.00pm

Escher String Quartet

7.30 pm

Christiane Karg/Christian Gerhaher/Gerold Huber

7.30 pm

Piotr Anderszewski

9.45 pm

Artists in Conversation

11.00 am

Schools Concert with Marcus Farnsworth

7.30 pm

Tasmin Little/Martin Roscoe

Thu 11 Feb

7.30 pm

Royal Academy of Music Baroque Soloists/Rachel Podger

Fri 12 Feb

7.30 pm

Gidon Kremer/Daniil Trifonov

Sat 13 Feb

Sun 14 Feb

Mon 15 Feb Tue 16 Feb

Wed 17 Feb

10.00 am

German Song Onstage 1770–1914

7.30 pm

Scharoun Ensemble

11.30 am

Jeremy Denk

7.30 pm

Daniil Trifonov/Sergei Babayan

1.00 pm

Behzod Abduraimov

11.00 am

Musical Portraits Band

6.00 pm

Mary Bevan/Ben Johnson/RobinTritschler Marcus Farnsworth/Graham Johnson

7.30 pm

Ian Bostridge/Graham Johnson

11.00 am

Musical Portraits Band

3.00 pm

Wigmore Study Group commences

Steven Isserlis

Thu 18 Feb

10.30 am

Family Day: Fairies and Forests

7.30 pm

Avi Avital/Mahan Esfahani

Fri 19 Feb

7.30 pm

Carolin Widmann

Sat 20 Feb

2.00 pm

Jessica Duchen/Viv McLean

3.30 pm

Alicia’s Gift: Panel Discussion

Mon 22 Feb

Tue 23 Feb

7.30 pm

Doric String Quartet

11.30 am

Anthony Marwood/Aleksandar Madžar

Mon 7 Mar

7.30 pm

Doric String Quartet

Nash Ensemble/Christine Rice/Jamie Phillips

50 52

11.30 am

Matthew Trusler/Martin Roscoe

3.00 pm

Benjamin Appl/Graham Johnson

7.30 pm

ATOS Trio

Brentano String Quartet

7.30 pm

Phantasm/Jonathan Rees/Liam Byrne

Tue 8 Mar

7.30 pm

Magdalena Kožená/La Cetra/Andrea Marcon

Wed 9 Mar

5.30 pm

Young Producers Concert

Thu 10 Mar

6.00 pm

Pre-Concert Talk

7.30 pm

The Other Classical Musics

Fri 11 Mar

7.30 pm

Midori/Özgür Aydin

Sat 12 Mar

2.00 pm

Jean-Guihen Queyras Masterclass

7.30 pm

Benjamin Moser

11.30 am

Schumann Quartet

3.00 pm

Sarah-Jane Brandon/James Baillieu

7.30 pm

Jean-Guihen Queyras/Alexandre Tharaud

Sun 13 Mar

Mon 14 Mar

1.00 pm

Maxim Rysanov/Ashley Wass

7.30 pm

Razumovsky Ensemble

1.00 pm

Denis Kozhukhin

Tue 15 Mar

7.30 pm

Scottish Ensemble/Jonathan Morton/Gabriela Montero

7.30 pm

Ensemble intercontemporain

Thu 17 Mar

7.30 pm

Ensemble Modern

Fri 18 Mar

7.30 pm

Christian McBride/Edgar Meyer

Sat 19 Mar

7.00 pm

Alina Ibragimova/Antoine Tamestit/Matthew Hunt Cédric Tiberghien/François-Frédéric Guy/Colin Currie Sam Walton

11.00 am

Schools Concert: Crash, Bang, Wallop

Theatre of the Ayre/Sophie Daneman/Katherine Watson Robin Blaze/Nicholas Mulroy/Matthew Brook Elizabeth Kenny

12.15 pm

Pre-Concert Talk

1.00 pm

Britten Sinfonia

7.30 pm

Steven Isserlis

Fri 26 Feb

7.30 pm

Dunedin Consort/John Butt/Sophie Bevan

Sat 27 Feb

11.00 am

Family Concert: Crash, Bang, Wallop

7.30 pm

Apartment House

Sun 28 Feb

11.30 am

Signum Quartet

Mon 29 Feb

1.00 pm

Nicola Benedetti/Alexei Grynyuk

7.30 pm

Ralph Kirshbaum/Shai Wosner

46, 74

March Date

Start Time

Event

Tue 1 Mar

7.30 pm

Leon McCawley

Wed 2 Mar

7.30 am

Ralph Kirshbaum/Shai Wosner

Thu 3 Mar

7.30 pm

The Sixteen/Harry Christophers

Sun 20 Mar

11.30 am

Callum Smart/Richard Uttley

3.00 pm

Jonathan McGovern/James Baillieu

7.30 pm

The Myrthen Ensemble

Mon 21 Mar

1.00 pm

Esther Yoo/Zhang Zuo

Tue 22 Mar

6.00 pm

Introductory Talk

7.00 pm

Nash Ensemble

8.30 pm

Nash Ensemble/Henning Kraggerud/Lawrence Power Craig Ogden

Wed 23 Mar

7.30 pm

The English Concert/Harry Bicket/Nadja Zwiener Katharina Spreckelsen/Ann Hallenberg

Thu 24 Mar

7.30 pm

Susan Graham/Malcolm Martineau

Sat 26 Mar

7.30 pm

Le Poème Harmonique

Sun 27 Mar

11.30 am

Quatuor Zaïde

Page Mon 28 Mar

Fri 4 Mar

Tenores di Bitti/Shaho Andalibi Trio

7.30 pm

1.00 pm

7.30 pm

Wed 24 Feb

Sun 6 Mar

5.30 pm

7.30 pm

Sun 21 Feb

Sat 5 Mar

5.30 pm

Young Producers Concert

7.30 pm

Paul Appleby/Malcolm Martineau

1.00 am

Lucy Crowe/Joseph Middleton

7.30 pm

Pinchas Zukerman/Angela Cheng

Tue 29 Mar

7.30 pm

Ailish Tynan/Adam Walker/Alasdair Tait/James Baillieu

Wed 30 Mar

7.30 pm

Viviane Hagner/Nicole Hagner

Thu 31 Mar

7.30 pm

Christian Gerhaher/Gerold Huber

WIGMORE HALL EMERGING TA L E N T It remains of the utmost importance for Wigmore Hall to nurture the finest young artists in order to ensure that the demanding standards and values set deep within today’s musical practices live long into the next generation and beyond. Wigmore Hall Emerging Talent allows us to create essential performance opportunities for some of these artists as they gain experience and broaden their knowledge of the repertoire.

Young artists supported by the Wigmore Hall Emerging Talent scheme in 2015/16 are:

Behzod Abduraimov piano

Jan Lisiecki piano

Paul Appleby tenor

Behzod Abduraimov’s jaw-dropping technical brilliance is complemented by the subtle eloquence of his musicianship. The Uzbek artist, born in 1990, stormed to spectacular success as winner of the 2009 London International Piano Competition. Now an exclusive Decca artist, Behzod’s captivating performances are rapidly establishing him as one of the forerunners of his generation.

Born in 1995, Jan Lisiecki has been described by The New York Times as ‘a pianist who makes every note count’. He began studying piano at the age of five, making his orchestral debut aged nine, and now enjoys a busy international career. He signed an exclusive recording agreement with Deutsche Grammophon at the age of fifteen and was 2013 Gramophone Young Artist of the Year.

Admired for his interpretative depth, vocal strength, and range of expressivity, tenor Paul Appleby is one of the sought-after voices of his generation. An exciting and charismatic presence on the world’s leading concert, recital, and opera stages, he recently graduated from the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Programme, and received the 2012 Leonore Annenberg Fellowship in the Performing and Visual Arts.

Wednesday 16 September 2015 Monday 15 February 2016

Friday 30 October 2015

Friday 4 March 2016

Benjamin Appl baritone

Viviane Hagner violin

Superlatives are a common feature in reviews of Benjamin Appl’s artistry. The young German baritone, a current BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist, first made his mark at Wigmore Hall in recital with Graham Johnson. Benjamin Appl graduated from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, and now continues his studies with Rudolf Piernay. He had the great fortune to be mentored by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.

Munich-born violinist Viviane Hagner has won exceptional praise for her highly intelligent musicality and passionate artistry. Since making her international debut at the age of 12, Hagner has appeared with the world’s great orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic and the Philharmonia, in partnership with conductors such as Abbado, Ashkenazy, Barenboim and Chailly. As well as bringing insight and virtuosity to the central concerto repertoire, Viviane Hagner is an ardent advocate of new, neglected and undiscovered music.

Tamsin Waley-Cohen violin Praised by The Times for her ‘daring and undaunted performances’ and by the Guardian as a performer of ‘fearless intensity’, Tamsin Waley-Cohen’s performances have taken her across the UK, Europe, to the USA and the Antipodes. Alongside regular engagements with the world’s leading orchestras, she is also in demand as a recitalist, and enjoys a duo partnership with Huw Watkins. Sunday 20 September 2015

Escher String Quartet The Escher String Quartet has received acclaim for its profound musical insight and rare tonal beauty. The group was a BBC New Generation Artist from 2010–12, giving debuts at both Wigmore Hall and BBC Proms at Cadogan Hall. In its home town of New York, the ensemble serves as Artists of The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and in 2013 the quartet became one of the very few chamber ensembles to be awarded the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant. Sunday 18 October 2015 Monday 8 February 2016

Monday 4 January 2016 Wednesday 6 January 2016 Sunday 6 March 2016 Wednesday 15 June 2016 Monday 18 July 2016

Royal Academy of Music Richard Lewis Song Circle Each year a small group of the Royal Academy of Music’s most accomplished performers of art song are selected to be part of the Song Circle. Since its inception in 2004, the Song Circle has given more than twenty concerts, and its annual Schubertiade has become a much-anticipated feature of the Academy’s calendar. Sunday 17 January 2016

Wednesday 30 March 2016

Arcangelo Arcangelo, inspired by Jonathan Cohen’s visionary artistic leadership, has injected fresh energy and panache into the performance of Baroque music. The ensemble, whose approach is informed by a deep understanding of the emotional language and expressive rhetoric of works from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, regularly receives invitations to appear at major festivals and concert halls throughout Europe and America. Wednesday 1 June 2016

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

Photo by Benjamin Ealovega

BOOKING INFORMATION Booking Dates Booking Period 2 Saturday 2 January – Thursday 31 March 2016 Priority Booking opens to Friends and Mailing List Subscribers on Tuesday 29 September 2015 Friends – Priority booking closes on Friday 16 October 2015 Mailing List – Priority booking closes on Friday 23 October 2015 General Public – By telephone/online from Friday 6 November 2015

Box Office Hours

Car Parking

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

There is limited street parking after 6.30 pm (Mon – Sat) and all day Sunday in permitted areas. Alternatively there are public car parks in Cavendish Square, Harley Street and Marylebone Lane, all of which are less than a five minute walk from the Hall. Wigmore Hall participates in the Theatreland Parking Scheme which gives all Wigmore concert-goers 50% discount on their parking. Please contact the Box Office for further details or visit our website.

Telephone Bookings 7 days a week: 10.00am–7.00pm. Days without an evening concert 10.00am – 5.00pm. There is a non-refundable £3.00 administration charge for each transaction. This includes the return of your tickets by post if time permits.

Postal Bookings

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

Please make cheques payable to Wigmore Hall with the amount left open but stating an upper limit, and add an administration charge of £3.00. Tickets will then be sent by post.

Wigmore Hall Box Office

Online Bookings

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

Online booking is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. There is a non-refundable £2.00 administration charge.

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

Tickets Unless otherwise stated, tickets are divided into five price ranges 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 highest price Stalls AA, T – V: 4th highest price Stalls W – X: Lowest price

BALCONY

T– V Q–S

N–P STA LL S C– M

Where a concession (concs) ticket price is listed these are available to students, senior citizens and the unemployed. For full details visit www.wigmore-hall.org.uk/concessions.

Under 35s Ticket Scheme Ticket buyers under the age of 35 are entitled to reduced price tickets for selected concerts. For full details visit www.wigmore-hall.org.uk/u35.

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

Transport

A –B CC BB

PL ATFO RM

Wigmore Hall has been awarded the Bronze Charter Mark from Attitude is Everything

Tickets for Concessions

Full information on pre-concert and interval refreshments can be found at www.wigmore-hall.org.uk/restaurant or by calling 020 7258 8292. Table reservations can be made by calling the Box Office on 020 7935 2141.

W–X

AAAA

Full details from 020 7935 2141 or access@wigmore-hall.org.uk

OXFORD CIRCUS BOND STREET

Restaurant/Bar

A–D

CC BB

Facilities for Disabled People

AAAA

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

This brochure is available in alternative formats. If this would be of assistance to you, please email access@wigmore-hall.org.uk or call 020 7935 2141. 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 Hutton Design Brochure design and production by Peter Williamson

SUPPORTING WIGMORE HALL With £1.6 million to raise each season every gift, no matter the size, is important to us. If you would like to support Wigmore Hall by becoming a Friend, or by sponsoring a concert or Learning event, please call 020 7258 8230 or email friends@wigmore-hall.org.uk for more information. The Wigmore Hall Trust is very grateful to the individuals and organisations listed below who have made an investment in our concert, Learning and community programmes:

Honorary Patrons Aubrey Adams André and Rosalie Hoffmann Sir Ralph Kohn FRS and Lady Kohn Mr and Mrs Paul Morgan

Season Patrons Aubrey Adams* American Friends of Wigmore Hall Art Mentor Foundation Lucerne‡ Karl Otto Bonnier* Henry and Suzanne Davis Dunard Fund† The Hargreaves and Ball Trust Pauline and Ian Howat The Monument Trust Valerie O’Connor Hamish Parker David Rockwell and Zsombor Csoma† Ian Rosenblatt Victoria and Simon Robey* Cita and Irwin Stelzer* William and Alex de Winton* and an anonymous donor

Chamber Music Circle Tony and Marion Allen* Karl Otto Bonnier* Judy Davies and Kingsley Manning* Margery Gray The Hargreaves and Ball Trust Pauline and Ian Howat Lord and Lady Lloyd The Marchus Trust ‡ Jo and Barry Slavin The Tertis Foundation Marina Vaizey Kathleen Verelst* Tony Wingate and several anonymous donors

Voices at Wigmore: The Schubert Song Project Tony and Marion Allen* Anthony Austin Geoffrey Barnett Karl Otto Bonnier* Nicola Coldstream Pauline Del Mar J L Drewitt Benjamin Hargreaves The Hargreaves and Ball Trust Julia MacRae* Edith Randall Louise Scheuer

Gill and Keith Stella* Gerry Wakelin* Susan Ward David and Frances Waters* David Evan Williams

Corporate Supporters Capital Group (corporate matched giving) Clifford Chance LLP Complete Coffee Ltd Duncan Lawrie Private Banking Martin Randall Travel Ltd Rosenblatt Solicitors Rothschild

Donors and Sponsors Mr Eric Abraham* Neville and Nicola Abraham Elaine Adair The Andor Charitable Trust David and Jacqueline Ansell* Bernard and Ann Apter Arts Council England The Austin & Hope Pilkington Trust Ben Baglio and Richard Wilson BBC Children in Need David and Margaret Beaton Alan Bell-Berry Mr Nicholas J Bez Mrs Arline Blass David and Mary Bowerman* Sir John and Lady Boyd Alan Bradley* Wolf-Reiner Braun and John Sinclair Nicolas and Hilary Browne-Wilkinson Clive Butler A bequest from the late Peter Cain CAVATINA Chamber Music Trust Charities Advisory Trust City Bridge Trust Colin Clark Eric Clause* Edwin C Cohen Sonia and Harvey Cole John Crisp* Peter Crisp and Jeremy Crouch* Celia and Andrew Curran Anthony Davis* The Dorset Foundation – in memory of Harry M Weinrebe Kate Dugdale In memory of Robert Easton Douglas and Janette Eden Mr Martin R Edwards The Eldering/Goecke Family Annette Ellis* The Elton Family

Dr C A Endersby and Prof D Cowan The Ernest Cook Trust Caroline Erskine Felicity Fairbairn Mrs Susan Feakin Peter and Sonia Field Deborah Finkler and Allan Murray-Jones John and Amy Ford The Foyle Foundation S E Franklin Charitable Trust No. 3 Friends of Wigmore Hall Jonathan Gaisman* The Garfield Weston Foundation The Garrick Charitable Trust The J Paul Getty Jnr Charitable Trust John Gilhooly* John and Lauren Goldsmith* Nicholas and Judith Goodison* Charles Green Barbara and Michael Gwinnell Mr and Mrs Rex Harbour* Peter Hardy The Headley Trust The Henry C Hoare Charitable Trust Malcolm Herring* Nicholas Hodgson André and Rosalie Hoffmann‡ Peter and Carol Honey* Gay Huey Evans* Graham and Amanda Hutton* Hyde Park Place Estate Charity Simone Hyman* The Idlewild Trust Peter and Nikki Jeffcote John Lyon’s Charity* Marc Jourdren* In memory of Donald Kahn Su and Neil Kaplan* Jerome Karet* David and Louise Kaye* Sir Ralph Kohn FRS and Lady Kohn* The Kohn Foundation Christian Kwek and David Hodges* Maryly La Follette* Alan Leibowitz and Barbara Weiss The Leverhulme Trust Tim Llewellyn Dame Felicity Lott The Loveday Charitable Trust Simon and Sophie Ludlam* A bequest from the late John Lunn David Lyons* Sir Jack Lyons Charitable Trust Simon Majaro MBE and Pamela Majaro MBE Mayfield Valley Arts Trust Michael and Lynne McGowan* George Meyer Alison and Anthony Milford Milton Damerel Trust

The Monument Trust Amyas and Louise Morse* Mr and Mrs M J Munz-Jones A C and F A Myer Valerie O’Connor and Jeanette McIntosh The Nicholas Boas Charitable Trust P Parkinson The Piano Fund Dr Clive Potter* Oliver and Helen Prenn Nick and Claire Prettejohn* The Radcliffe Trust The Rayne Foundation Stuart and Bianca Roden Gifts to honour Rick Rogers from Beryl McAlhone and friends Charles Rose* Jackie Rosenfeld OBE, HonRCM* The Rubinstein Circle The Sainer Charity The Sampimon Trust Julia Schottlander* Richard Sennett and Saskia Sassen* Sir Martin and Lady Smith*† Elijah Spies Nigel and Johanna Stapleton* The Peter Stebbings Memorial Charity The Stewarts Law Foundation Derek Sugden Anne and Paul Swain* Alisa and Joshua Swidler* Katja and Nicolai Tangen* The Tertis Foundation Allen L Thomas and Jane Simpson* Professor Christopher Thompson John and Ann Tusa* Robin Vousden* Andrew and Hilary Walker* Professor Janet Walker CD and Professor Doug Jones AO* Sir Siegmund Warburg’s Voluntary Settlement Dame Fanny Waterman* The Harold Hyam Wingate Foundation Philip and Emeline Winston* The Wolfson Foundation Simon Yates and Kevin Roon Youth Music and several anonymous donors * Rubinstein Circle members † Early Music and Baroque Series supporters ‡ Contemporary Music Series supporters

Details correct as of August 2015 THE WIGMORE HALL TRUST Registered Charity Number 1024838

Latest releases on Wigmore Hall Live Mauro Peter tenor Helmut Deutsch piano SCHUBERT: DIE SCHÖNE MÜLLERIN

Christian Blackshaw piano MOZART PIANO SONATAS VOLUME 3

Ian Bostridge tenor Julius Drake piano SONGS BY SCHUBERT VOLUME 2

Available on CD and as digital downloads directly from www.wigmore-hall.org.uk/live or 020 7935 2141

Director: John Gilhooly OBE Wigmore Hall, 36 Wigmore Street, London W1U 2BP www.wigmore-hall.org.uk Box OďŹ&#x192;ce: 020 7935 2141 The Wigmore Hall Trust, Registered Charity Number 1024838