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• JOHN TAVENER WORLD PREMIERE OPENS NEW SEASON 

• WORLD PREMIERES BY DOMINIC MULDOWNEY AND JOHN WOOLRICH 

• BBC’S 80TH ANNIVERSARY CONCERT

• DANIEL BARENBOIM CONDUCTS BRAHMS SYMPHONY CYCLE

• COUNTER PHRASES – A NEW COMMISSION FROM ECHO

• TICKETS FROM £5 FOR EVERY CONCERT

World premieres, innovative programming and renowned artists are the features of Symphony Hall’s 2002/3 International Concert Season.  The new season sees three world premieres including a Symphony Hall commission from Sir John Tavener to open the season on 12 September with Jessye Norman

Leif Ove Andsnes

and Vanessa Redgrave.  There is also a new piano concerto from Dominic Muldowney, written for the BBC’s 80th anniversary concert, and a new work from John Woolrich.  There is innovative programming too, including a new commission by ECHO (European Concert Halls’ Organisation) of ten silent dance movies and their accompanying music.  Symphony Organ concerts include an improvised accompaniment to the silent movie Phantom of the Opera, (See competition below), the Royal College of Organists Performer of the Year Final and celebrity recitals.

Outstanding amongst the renowned artists visiting this season is Daniel Barenboim who conducts a Brahms Symphony cycle and a particularly strong contingent of pianists including Leif Ove Andsnes and Arcadi Volodos.

Premieres and new music
Taverner to Tavener opens the new season (12 September) and features the world premiere of Tribute to Cavafy, a Symphony Hall commission
 from Sir John Tavener, performed by Jessye Norman and Vanessa Redgrave 

with The Tallis Scholars under Peter Phillips.  The BBC’s 80th anniversary concert includes the world premiere of Dominic Muldowney’s new Piano Concerto performed by Angela Hewitt with Leonard Slatkin conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra (7 November).

Jessye Norman

John Woolrich’s Corelli-inspired Arcangelo is the third world premiere of the season, performed by The Academy of Ancient Music (1 March).  The Brodsky Quartet play a new string quartet by Django Bates (16 February) and the Labèque sisters give the UK premiere of a work for two pianos, live electronics, percussion and drums by Dave Maric (29 October).
(Click here to go to our special feature and competition)

Innovative programming
Staying with new music, ECHO (European Concert Halls’ Organisation) has commissioned Counter Phrases - ten short silent dance movies from Belgian composer and film-maker Thierry de May set to music by ten different composers including Jonathan Harvey, Magnus Lindberg and Steve Reich (3 April).    Meanwhile, The Brodsky Quartet’s concert (16 February) includes, in addition to the new string quartet from Django Bates, Anna and the Moods written by Sjon with music by Julian Nott.  As part of this concert, the Quartet will be working in secondary schools inspiring children to create songs for the quartet, write lyrics and design the stage set, to be performed on the night. 

An unusual collaboration between members of the Royal Shakespeare Company and the City of London Sinfonia, conducted by Richard Hickox, sees a performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream which sets Shakespeare’s play to Mendelssohn’s incidental music (13 February). 

The Symphony Organ
The first Symphony Organ concert of the new season is a Silent Movie Special: Todd Wilson improvises an accompaniment to a screening of the 1925 classic movie Phantom of the Opera starring Lon Chaney (20 September).  Improvisation is a theme running through the organ concerts this season and is 

included in recitals by organists Wayne Marshall (17 December) and David Briggs (18 February).  Finalists of the Royal College of Organists (which has recently announced it is to move its base to Birmingham) compete for the title of Performer of the Year (21 September).  Resident organist of Symphony Hall, Thomas Trotter, who was recently awarded the Royal Philharmonic Society Instrumentalist of the Year, gives a recital on 1 April.

The Choir of King’s College Cambridge conclude the season with works by Kodàly, Janácek and Bernstein (20 June).

Opera and choral
Early music is well represented this season and includes a performance of Handel’s Saul from The Gabrieli Consort and Players under Paul McCreesh (11 October) featuring Neal Davies as Saul and Andreas Scholl as David.  Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas follows (15 November) with The King’s Consort conducted by Robert King and including soloists Lynne Dawson and Michael George.  The Easter weekend includes Symphony Hall’s traditional performance of Bach’s St Matthew Passion (18 April).  Welsh National Opera returns for performances of Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Handel’s Jephtha (27 & 28 June), and Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis is performed by the Philharmonia Orchestra and Chorus under Christoph von Dohnanyi (4 March).  Sir Simon Rattle returns to conduct the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in a performance of Haydn’s Harmoniemesse coupled with the composer’s Symphony No 67 (16 June).

Visiting Artists
Daniel Barenboim makes a welcome return to Symphony Hall in January when 

Daniel Barenboim

he conducts a cycle of Brahms symphonies.  Other internationally renowned artists visiting this season include singers Jessye Norman and Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, conductors Valery Gergiev and Vladimir Ashkenazy, violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter and pianists Leif Ove Andsnes and Arcadi Volodos to name but a

 few. The Celebrity Recital series includes Sarah Chang, Emanuel Ax and Richard Goode, and the Takács Quartet return for a quartet recital.

Booking details

Tickets £5 - £17.50 with reductions
Some £5 tickets will always be available one month in advance of each concert.
General booking now open.

SYMPHONY HALL BOX OFFICE 0121 780 3333
ON LINE BOOKINGS: www.symphonyhall.co.uk/boxoffice
WEBSITE www.symphony.co.uk/symphony

Friday 20 September, 7.30pm
Symphony Organ Silent Movie Special
Phantom of the Opera (1925)
Silent movie starring Lon Chaney, with improvised organ accompaniment by Todd Wilson.
Followed by
Bach    Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565
Bach (arr Virgil Fox) Komm, süsser Tod (Come, sweet death)
Saint-Saëns   Danse Macabre (arr EH Lemare)

One of the ten greatest films of all time, and a moving masterpiece that shocked cinema audiences for decades!  In this, the definitive version of the classic monster fable, Lon Chaney gives a legendary performance as the mad, vengeful recluse seated at his organ in the bowels of the Paris Opera House.  Improvisation is the theme that runs through the Symphony Hall organ concerts this season, and US organist Todd Wilson is renowned for his improvised movie accompaniments.  He is resident organist for the Cleveland Orchestra, and one of the international celebrity organists on the jury of the RCO Performer of the Year 2002.  To conclude the evening Todd Wilson will give a short post-movie recital of Phantom-related organ music: macabre favourites including Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor and Saint-Saëns’ Danse Macabre.  In addition there is a free pre-concert talk at 6.15pm, when Todd Wilson will introduce the concert, talking about The Organ and the Silver Screen.

* * * * * * * * * * * 

See also our special feature on
MAKE FRIENDS WITH MUSIC
A DAY LONG FESTIVAL AT SYMPHONY HALL
SUNDAY 29 SEPTEMBER
Click here for details

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WIN TICKETS FOR 
Katia and Marielle Labèque
Symphony Hall
October 29th
Click here for details