News & Reviews
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What's new at Britten Sinfonia?
BS
performs at the Aldeburgh Festival Service 15 June - recorded for BBC
Radio 4
As well as performing in two
evening concerts at this year's Aldeburgh Festival BS has been specially
invited to perform under the assured direction of Ralph Woodward at the
Aldeburgh Festival Service. The service is on 15 June, the day after our
concert at Aldeburgh with Pierre-Laurent Aimard and will take place at
St Peter & Pauls Church, Aldeburgh. The service will be recorded by
BBC Radio 4, to be broadcast on 29 June at 8.10am.
Bath
Festival concert recorded live for broadcast on BBC Radio 3, 30 May 7.00pm
In a stunning line up featuring
Joanna MacGregor, Dhafer Youssef, Diego Masson, Britten Sinfonia's appearance
at the Bath Abbey as part of the Bath Festival was recorded for broadcast
by BBC Radio 3. The concert took place on Wednesday 28 May and features
a Radio 3 commission from the formidably gifted Dhafer Youssef as well
as celebrating Messiaen's, and indeed the Festival's, anniversary. Tune
in at 7.00pm tonight (Fri 30 May) to enjoy this unique event. If you miss
this then you can listen to the programme online at the BBC website until
Friday 6 June.
Michael Clark
Company Revisited
Following acclaimed performances
at the Barbican in London the Michael Clark Company visits Norwich as
part of the Norfolk and Norwich Fesitval. They will perform the groundbreaking
Stravinsky Project alongside new choreographies to recorded works by Wire,
Iggy Pop, and Sex Pistols. Britten Sinfonia provide live orchestral performance
of Stravinsky's Apollon Musagete and Les Noces. Read
more
Britten
Sinfonia players feature in an interview for hearhere.org.uk
Britten Sinfonia players Nicholas
Daniel and Paul Archibald were interviewed as part of hearhere's ongoing
discussion and debates on listening and music. With other orchestras and
players also interviewed the website is becoming a hot bed of activity
and discussion. Visit here to hear the interview! www.hearhere.org.uk
Insight
into Stravinsky
In Cambridge on Monday 28
April at 6.15pm there will be a special opportunity to learn more about
one of the 20th century’s musical giants, Igor Stravinsky. This will be
in addition to our usual pre-concert talk, which will follow shortly after
at 7.00pm, and the concert at 8.00pm. Read
more details about this event on the concert page.
Britten
Sinfonia on R3's Building a Library
Last Sunday Britten Sinfonia's
latest CD with Polyphony, including Poulenc's Gloria, featured prominently
on BBC Radio 3's Building a Library as it was voted one of the best Poulenc
Gloria recordings of all time. The programme can still be heard on the
BBC
website until Saturday 8 March.
Britten
Sinfonia at Lunch broadcast on BBC R3
We are pleased to confirm that
the four concerts from this season's Britten Sinfonia at Lunch series
will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3 at the following times:
Tuesday 15 April
1.00pm - recording of the concert performed in December
featuring Ravel's Introduction and Allegro, Richard Causton's Divertimento
and Mozart's Clarinet Quintet in A.
Wednesday 16 April
1.00pm - recording of the concert performed in January featuring
Bach's Ricerare, Helen Grime's Into the Faded Air and Brahms'
String Sextet in B flat.
Thursday 17 April 1.00pm
- recording of the concert performed in February featuring Ravel's Mother
Goose Suite, Robin Holloway's Five Temperaments and Beethoven's
Quintet for Piano and Wind in E flat.
Friday 18 April 1.00pm
- recording of the concert performed in March featuring Holborne's Music
for Brass, Oliver Knussen's Masks, Pawel Lukaszewskis' Concertino,
Locke's For His Majesty's Sagbutts and Cornetts and Janácek's
Capriccio.
BBC
Radio 3 The Choir
On Sunday 10 February, celebrated
Cambridge choir Polyphony featured on BBC Radio 3's The Choir. The programme
delves into all things choral with performances and features from leading
performers in the country. Having collaborated extenseivley with Polyphony,
Britten Sinfonia welcomed a mention of our work with them. Our collaborations
include annual Easter choral concerts as well as numerous highly-acclaimed
recordings (see
our discography). Our
next concert with Polyphony is on 28 and 29 March
in Norwich and Cambridge. The programme featuring Polyphony, broadcast
Sunday 10 February is part of series of programmes more information available
from the BBC
website with the most recent edition available to
listen to.
Tour with
Imogen Cooper has audiences delighted
The recent programme featuring
Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto with Imogen Cooper as both soloist and
director was extremely well received at all five venues. The orchestra
received praise from critics and audience alike for the sheer quality
and exquisite and joyful ensemble playing in a programme that united Imogen
Cooper and Britten Sinfonia for the third season in a row.
Four
star review for In the Spirit of Gil and Miles, to be broadcast
Wednesday 28 November, 7.00pm
Our recent concert, In
the Spirit of Gil and Miles, which was performed in London as part
of the London Jazz Festival and now tours to Birmingham, has received
a four star review in The Guardian. BBC Radio 3 recorded the concert and
will broadcast it on Wednesday 28 November at 7.00pm so you can all hear
what John L Walters describes as 'lush ensemble of wodwinds, brass and
strings'. Click here for concert
details
Programme notes now available to download
Concert attenders can now download
programme notes free of charge. Notes will be available on the Britten
Sinfonia website for one week before and one week after each concert.
The programme notes can be found by clicking on Current
Productions (from the homepage) and navigating to
the appropriate concert from the concerts
page.
Britten Sinfonia nominated for two Arts & Business awards
Arts & Business East has just announced the shortlist for its inaugural awards - and Britten Sinfonia appears twice on the list! The awards honour the best collaborations between commerce and culture from the East of England, and will be presented during a celebratory evening at the newly restored Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmonds, on 28 November 2007.
Britten Sinfonia's partnership with Cambridge University Press has been nominated in two categories: the Brand Identity Award and the Technology Award. The nominations recognise the extensive internet-based resources put in place by the two companies around our tour to South America earlier this year.
More information can be found on the Arts & Business East website. You can also visit the South America tour mini-site to see what prompted these prestigious nominations.
SinfoniaCasts
now available
SinfoniaCast
is the name for Britten Sinfonia's new series of podcasts. Presented by
Fiona Talkington of BBC Radio 3 fame, they feature interviews with our
musicians and soloists, and exclusive previews of forthcoming concerts.
You can download the SinfoniaCasts individually, or subscribe to the series
via iTunes. To find out how to take Britten Sinfonia with you wherever
you go, read
more.
Rave
Reviews for new CD featuring Alina Ibragimova
The classical music world is
buzzing with news of extraordinary young Russian violinist Alina Ibragimova.
Aged just 22, her newly-released debut CD, featuring music by neglected
20th-century German composer Karl Amadeus Hartmann, has won stunning reviews
from the music industry’s most respected critics. Named ‘Disc
of the Week’ on BBC Radio 3’s CD Review (1 September 2007),
it is also Editor’s Choice in the September issue of prestigious
Gramophone magazine. Meanwhile, in The Times , critic Geoff Brown awards
her four stars, describing Ibragimova as ‘a scorchingly good violinist
… she brings passion without mawkishness; and the control wielded
at high altitudes is phenomenal’.
The disc is the fruit of an
intense collaboration with Britten Sinfonia, whose playing was also singled
out for special praise. Guardian critic Andrew Clements, writing in BBC
Music Magazine’s September issue, eulogises: 'the way in which the
Britten Sinfonia support and enfold their young soloist's beautifully
nuanced and textured playing is a model of close-knit ensemble playing.'
The good news is that concert-goers
can hear Ibragimova playing live with Britten Sinfonia, in a programme
that includes the very concerto that bowled the critics over, Hartmann’s
Concerto Funèbre , written in 1939 to protest against Hitler’s
occupation of Prague . The programme also includes a Bach violin concerto
and Schoenberg’s luscious string work, Verklärte Nacht .
New Season Launch
Britten Sinfonia is joined
by a host of internationally renowned artists for our 2007-08 season.
The likes of soloists Imogen Cooper, Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Alina Ibrgamiova
will, amongst many others, present works by Beethoven, Birtwistle, Schoenberg
and Stravinsky. In February we will exclusively premiere a new work by
composer Brett Dean.
This season we are offering
fantastic offers for subscribers to our series
in Cambridge, Norwich and London. If you book for all
concerts in the series you not only receive a discount but you enjoy a
priority booking period for the following season. You'll need to hurry, as the subscription window ends on 23 October for Cambridge, 24 October for Norwich and 25 October for London. For more details, contact Cambridge Corn Exchange box office on 01223 357851, Norwich Theatre Royal box office on 01603 630000 or Southbank Centre on 0871 663 2500.
For new music enthusiasts our
popular lunchtime series will again feature a newly commissioned work
in every concert. For further details of our upcoming concerts see Concerts
2007-08 or download the Cambridge, Norwich, London or Lunchtime season brochure.
BBC Radio 3 Discovering Music broadcast featuring Schubert Octet
On Sunday 21 October from 5.00pm until 6.30pm, you will be able to enjoy a broadcast of BBC Radio 3's Discovering Music programme with Britten Sinfonia performing Schubert's Octet in F. Discover the music through a 45-minute presentation given by Stephen Johnson with musicians from Britten Sinfonia emphasizing the points being made musically. The piece will then be played in its entirety.
BS wins prestigious
RPS Music Award
Britten
Sinfonia has won the ensemble award at this year's RPS Music Awards, the
UK's most prestigious recognition in the field of live classical music.
The
award was presented to Britten Sinfonia Chief Executive, David Butcher,
by soprano Dame Josephine Barstow at a ceremony at London's Dorchester
Hotel (8 May) at which members of the orchestra also played live. A
special programme on the RPS Music Awards was broadcast on BBC Radio 3.
The
jury, consisting of some of the music industry's most distinguished practitioners,
made the award to the "innovative" Britten Sinfonia "for its aspirations
in presenting music countrywide in a stylish and accessible manner; for
its exciting and constantly evolving projects from the fantastical Bach
Meets Moondog and its first foray into opera in a premiere by Stuart MacRae
to its refreshing exploration of Beethoven Piano Concertos with Imogen
Cooper - highlights of an extraordinarily varied schedule that embraces
classical, jazz and world music."
David
Butcher comments:
"We are enormously grateful
to the Royal Philharmonic Society for recognising Britten Sinfonia's work
with this magnificent award. For us, making music is a sheer pleasure
so to be rewarded for something so enjoyable feels almost too good to
be true."
"Over the years, Britten
Sinfonia has built a reputation for fearless programming matched by peerless
playing. This award, therefore, really belongs to our players whose talent,
hard work, enthusiasm and boundless thirst for musical adventure have
made us the orchestra we are today. Over the course of the past season,
to stand alongside our work in London , the East of England and across
the UK , we have developed an increasingly strong international profile.
With a new residency in Krakow Poland , concerts in mainland Europe and
a recent first tour of South America , we are looking to the future with
energy and enthusiasm."
You can listen to Radio 3's
broadcast of the RPS Music Awards' presentation up to 16 May, by going
to the BBC Radio 3 website. The broadcast includes comments from the esteemed
RPS judges as well as excerpts of our Moondog - Sidewalk Dances CD.
BS expands
its internet presence
It's always been easy to find
information about Britten Sinfonia on our website, but did you know that
you can also keep up to date with our activities elsewhere on the internet?
Read our blog, see photos and videos from recent events, or get in touch
with us through our MySpace page. Go
to Britten Sinfonia DigiSpace
Recordings
update
Britten Sinfonia has been busier
than ever in the last year, with seven recordings either released or in
the process of being released. New releases include Bruckner's mighty Mass no. 2, recorded by the orchestra and Polyphony in the majestic Cathedral at Ely; and Sidewalk Dances: 14 Moondog pieces, which was performed by Britten Sinfonia, Joanna MacGregor and Andy Sheppard in last year's London Jazz Festival. See details of these and all our recordings here
Nicholas
Daniel's Kaleidoscopes blog
We invited Nicholas Daniel,
soloist in the world premere tour of John Tavener's Kaleidoscopes, to
keep a blog (on-line diary) of his thoughts and experiences. From the
first meeting with the composer, through the rehearsals, the world premiere
and the subsequent performances, Nick's account of the project is an amusing
and thought-provoking read. Read
blog
Sign
up for new email bulletins
Britten Sinfonia is planning
a regular email news bulletin, with highlights of forthcoming events,
snippets of news and useful links. To make sure you're up to date with
everything at BS, go to the Keep
in Touch page on this site to sign up.
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