Monday 22 April 2013

May at the Barbican - Handel, Muhly, York Bowen and more

The Barbican Centre's May brochure starts David Daniels seducing Catherine Bott, luckily the subject of the article is Handel's Imeneo rather than anything spicier. Daniels stars in a concert performance of the opera (recently seen staged at the London Handel Festival), Handel's penultimate, with Christopher Hogwood conducting the Academy of Ancient Music with a cast which includes Rebecca Bottone and Lucy Crowe(29 May). Other events are equally enticing, with a Nico Muhly weekend, Tippett's First Symphony, a Jonathan Lloyd premiere, Valery Gergiev celebrating his 60th birthday, Ian Bostrige and the Britten Sinfonia going to sleep and a rare outing for York Bowen's Viola Concerto. Not to mention the Guildhall Gold Medal.

Nico Muhly has curated a weekend of events, mixing his musical passions with performances by his friends and contemporaries. (10-12 May). The Marcel Duchamp inspired exhibition The Bride and the Bachelors: Duchamp with Cage, Cunningham, Rauschenberg and Johns is still running. There are events in the art gallery associated with the exhibition including the Calder Quartet (9 May) and Richard Alston Dance Company (7 May).

London-based EC4 Music Choir and Orchestra, conducted by Tim Crosley are giving a fund raising concert for the Prince's Trust. Claire Seaton sings the Strauss Four Last Songs and she is joined by baritone Sam Evans for Brahms's A German Requiem (1 May). The BBC Symphony Orchestra, conductor James Gaffigan perform Tippett's Symphony No 1, plus a new work from Jonathon Lloyd, the world premiere of a Royal Philharmonic Society Elgar Bursary commission. (17 May). And Valery Gergiev celebrates his 60th birthday with a concert with the London Symphony Orchestra, playing Shostakovich, Paganini, Ravel, Saraste and the final act of Berlioz's Les Troyens.

The Guildhall Gold Medal finals take place on 2 May with four singers from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama competing in the final, (2 May)

John Wilson conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in RVW's delightful but rarely Five Tudor Portraits, with mezzo-soprano Rosie Aldridge and baritone Neal Davies. Even rarer is York Bowen's Viola Concerto which has Lawrence Power in the solo part (3 May).

Ian Bostridge and the Britten Sinfonia perform a programme based on sleep and night with three of Detlev Glanert's arrangements of Schubert songs (including two world premieres), and Britten's Nocturne, plus music by Henze and Mahler.(4 May). Magdalene Kozena gives a recital with pianist Malcolm Martineau, performing Ravel, Haydn and Bartok (8 May).  Nigel Kennedy is performing a typically eclectic programme mixing Bach with Fats Waller (14 May).

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