The Proms, July 18-Sept 13
The capital hosts four music festivals this summer, with the eclectic City of
London Festival, the excellent Barbican-based Mostly Mozart, Spitalfields
and, of course, the BBC Proms, which, under its new director, Roger Wright,
offers stimulating themes and a rich array of star performers. Visiting
orchestras include the Berlin Phil and Simon Rattle, the Chicago Symphony
and Bernard Haitink, the New York Phil and Lorin Maazel, and, not least,
Daniel Barenboim and his West-Eastern Divan Orchestra. There is also the
return of two great musicians, the outré Nigel Kennedy and the
milder-man-nered Murray Perahia, after 22-year absences, and celebrations of
key anniversaries: the 100th of Olivier Messiaen’s birth, the 50th of
Vaughan Williams’s death and the 80th of Karlheinz Stock-hausen’s birth.
Glyndebourne Festival Opera May 18-August 31
Two operas stand out from the crowd at Britain’s best opera theatre this year:
Emmanuelle Haïm conducts the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in Robert
Carsen’s new production of L’incoronazione di Poppea, Monte-verdi’s
masterpiece about love, power and corruption; and a Glyndebourne commission,
Peter Eotvos’s Love and Other Demons, adapted from Gabriel Garcia
Marquez’s novella, is given its world premiere run, conducted by Vladimir
Jurowski and directed by Silviu Purcarete. www.glyndebourne.com
Grange Park Opera June 4-July 9
Three works to look forward to this year at the Grange, a dilapidated
early-19th-century stately home in Hampshire now graced by a purpose-built
530-seat theatre. Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West, directed by Stephen
Medcalf, Dvo-rak’s Rusalka, directed by Antony McDonald and
Offenbach’s Blue Beard, directed by Stephen Langridge. Strong casts for all.
www.grangeparkopera.co.uk
Garsington Opera June 4-July 6
There is an intriguing trio of operas at Garsington Manor’s tented theatre in
Oxfordshire. Vivaldi’s 1717 opera L’incoronazione di Dario will be conducted
by Lau-rence Cummings and directed by David Freeman. Martin André conducts
and Olivia Fuchs directs Stravinsky’s neo-baroque The Rake’s Progress, with
Robert Murray as Tom Rakewell and Christopher Purves as Nick Shadow. And
Steuart Bedford is in charge of a revival of John Cox’s 2004 staging of
Mozart’s Così fan tutte.
www.garsingtonopera.org
Aldeburgh Festival June 13-29
Under the artistic direction of Thomas Adès, Aldeburgh’s programme is nothing
if not wide-ranging. This year the list of performers includes: the Britten
Sinfonia; the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group playing music by Adès and
the featured composer, Gyorgy Kurtag; Exaudi vocal ensemble in music by
Wolf-gang Rihm and Iannis Xenakis; Ian Bostridge and Antonio Pappano in
Schubert’s Schwanengesang; the Arditti Quartet in Birtwistle’s new Tree of
Strings; Imogen Cooper; Steven Isserlis . . . Oh, and a new opera, An Ocean
of Rain, by the British-Cypriot composer Yannis Kyriakide.
www.aldeburgh.co.uk
East Neuk Festival July 2-6
East Neuk, the promontory between St Andrew’s Bay and the Firth of Forth, is
the location of a young, condensed, award-winning festival. This year there
are two resident quartets, the Eroica, playing Mendelssohn and Beethoven,
and the Skampa, playing Czech music, as well as two resident vocal
ensembles, the Orlando Consort and the group of extraordinary Mongolian
throat-singers, Huun Huur Tu. The pianist Llyr Williams charts a path from
Schubert to Debussy, while the Scottish Chamber Orchestra gives a programme
on the theme of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
www.eastneukfestival.com
York Early Music Festival July 3-12
For those drawn to the preclassical repertoire, York is a veritable Mecca.
This year, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment plays music by Johann
Christoph Bach and Karl Friedrich Abel, while home-grown forces – the
Yorkshire Bach Choir and Baroque Soloists – can be heard in Handel’s Israel
in Egypt. There’s the Rose Consort of viols in music by Englishmen abroad
and an enticing series of lectures.
www.ncem.co.uk
Cheltenham Festival July 4-19
Now under Meurig Bowen’s artistic direction, this year serene Cheltenham marks
the 50th anniversary of the death of Ralph Vaughan Williams, while
Messiaen’s centenary is celebrated with performances of his complete organ
works in a day and night marathon by half a dozen local organists. Peter
Maxwell Davies will hear his Eight Songs for a Mad King and a new Piano Quartet.
www.cheltenhamfestivals.com
Buxton Festival July 9-27
Buxton’s lovely opera theatre is graced with an astonishing variety of work.
Harry Christophers will conduct the Orchestra of the Sixteen in a staging of
Handel’s Samson, with Tom Randle in the title role. There is an intriguing
triple bill of English one-acters: Holst’s Savitri and The Wandering
Scholar, and Vaughan Williams’s Riders to the Sea. Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas
and Kurt Weill’s Street Scene also feature.
www.buxtonfestival.co.uk
Three Choirs Festival August 2-9
This year it’s Worcester’s turn to play host to the venerable Three Choirs
Festival, now under the artistic direction of Adrian Parting-ton, organist
at Gloucester Cathedral. Besides the usual plethora of organ recitals and
choral evensongs, there will be a chance to see a double bill of Purcell’s
Dido and Aeneas and Lully’s Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme. There’s also, of
course, grand oratorio in the cathedral in the form of Elgar’s The Apostles,
with the resident Philhar-monia Orchestra, plus much more.
www.3choirs.org
Edinburgh International Festival August 8-31
Musically, Edinburgh continues to be bustling, glitzy and disparate. Valery
Gergiev is a dominating presence, conducting concert performances of
Rachmaninov’s Aleko and Mariinsky Opera’s staging of Szymanowski’s
intoxicating Krol Roger, as well as all seven Prokofiev symphonies. Due
tribute to Messiaen is paid by Ilan Volkov and the BBC Scottish Symphony
Orchestra with a performance of his sublime late masterpiece Eclairs sur
l’au-dela. Visiting orchestras include the Dresden Staatskapelle and the
Budapest Festival Orchestra. Recitalists include pianists Ivan Moravec and
Alfred Brendel and
