Welcome!
It’s that time of year again… Spring has finally sprung, and along with the promised sunshine we welcome a brand-new season of glorious summer music. This year, festivals around the world have pulled out all the stops to offer a wonderful range of repertoire, from the crowd-pleasing to the obscure, featuring an even more dazzling line-up of artists.
Among the highlights, the UK cathedrals of Norwich and Gloucester host atmospheric performances, while the US mountain ranges of Colorado and Idaho draw such top names as Yo-Yo Ma and Renée Fleming. Not to be outdone, the historic cities of Prague and Amsterdam each muster 50 pianos to stage Georg Friedrich Haas’s 11,000 Saiten. And not forgotten are this year’s birthday boys – Holst, Puccini and Bruckner – who, from Granada to Matsumoto, receive due celebration. Charlotte Smith Editor
United Kingdom
Tectonics
Glasgow, 4, 5 May
Anchored by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Tectonics returns to the Old Fruitmarket and City Halls at the start of a second decade of genrebending brio. Co-curated by conductor Ilan Volkov and Alasdair Campbell, it throws down a gauntlet on behalf of the new, with an international line-up that includes Japanese experimental rock band leader Koichi Makigami, New York vocalist Ka Baird and the world premiere of a piece for orchestra and tape by Charles Uzor. Plus, violinist Ilya Gringolts gives the UK premieres of works by Sciarrino and Mirela Ivičevič.
Brighton Festival
Brighton, 4-26 May
Multi-arts Brighton has invited writer Frank Cottrell-Boyce to be this year’s guest director, and he’s promising ‘a cargo of wonders’ ranging from an installation involving 100 miles of string to mass table tennis participation. Among the musical ‘wonders’, the LSO under Antonio Pappano venture Barber, Ravel and Rachmaninov; at Glyndebourne, harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani and members of Britten Sinfonia are immersed in Bach; and asking ‘What’s so great about opera?’, mezzo Hilary Summers caps ‘I’m a Puccini heroine addict’ with a one-woman bite-sized version of Mozart’s The Magic Flute.
Norfolk and Norwich Festival
Norwich, 10-26 May
Nothing quite says summer like the Chapelfield Gardens’ Spiegeltent where, from Ragroof Tea Dance to South American circus, festival afficionados let their hair down. Chamber Choir Ireland and late-evening Messiaen coloniseto be outdone. As well as a BBC New Generation Artists’ series, Apartment House introduces a new work by Cassandra Miller, and organists James McVinnie and Eliza McCarthy buckle up for the eight-hours duration of Jonny Greenwood’s .
