Monday 2 September 2013

Autumn at St John's Smith Square

St John's Smith Square
Autumn at St. John's Smith Square starts with a residency from the European Union Baroque Orchestra and continues with concert series from the Beyounes Quartet and the Songsmiths vocal ensemble. There are three opportunities to catch excerpts from Wagner's Ring Cycle. And the Young Musicians Symphony Orchestra makes two appearances. The season finishes with the St. Johns Christmas Festival with its usual strong line up of names.

The European Union Baroque Orchestra starts a residency with a programme of Handel Coronation Anthems and the Birthday Ode for Queen Anne (which has one of the most beautiful openings in Handel) with the choir of Clare College, Cambridge (3/9). Then Gottfried von der Goltz directs them from the violin in music by Zelenka, Telemann, Vivaldi & Pisendal (17/10). And Stefano Montanari also directs from the violin in by Scarlatti, Razetti, Montanari, Vivaldi & Corelli


Bampton Classical Opera make a visit, accompanied by Chroma, in Mozart's early opera La Finta Semplice (17/9). Le Style Francais and the Eisenach Ensemble are performing music by Purcell and his French contemporaries such as Charpentier (13/9).

At a lunchtime concert, Gweneth Ann Jeffers and Simon Wilding with Peter Selwyn at the piano are performing act one from Wagner's Die Walkure (5/9), and you can catch it with orchestra when Stephanie Corlie and John Llewllyn Evans perform with the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (20/10). Still on a Ring theme, Opera Forge directed by William Relton will be doing scenes from The Ring (26/10)

John Wilson conducts the Young Musicians Symphony Orchestra in a programme of Borodin, Glazunov and Rachmaninov (2/10). The Salomon Orchestra perform a programme of Strauss and Shostakovich with soprano Helena Dix, conducted by their founder conductor Nicholas Braithwaite. (7/10). Ronald Corp and the New London Orchestra celebrate their 25 anniversary (9/10). The Kensington Symphony Orchestra is performing a programme of music by Bartok, Barber and Adams (15/10). The London Mozart Players under Hilary Davan Wetton are performing RVW's Symphony no. 5 plus Warlock and Elgar (6/11).

The Young Musicians Symphony Orchestra returns under James Blair to perform music from films (11/11). St John's eponymous orchestra makes an appearance under John Lubbock (12/11), and the City of London Sinfonia and Polyphony, under Stephen Layton, perform Purcell, Part, Britten and Mozart's Requiem (13/11). The Orchestra of St. John's returns with OSJ Voices to perform Handel's Messiah (6/12).

The Beyounes Quartet starts a concert series with Britten's String Quartet No. 3 along with music by Purcell and early Britten (19/9). They are joined by pianist Jeremy Young for a programme of Britten, Bridge and Shostakovich's Piano Quintet (26/9). And with cellist Philip Higham they are performing a trio of concerts which pair music with Bach's cello suites; Beethoven's String Quartet op 130 including the Grosse Fuge  and Bach's Cello Suite No. 1. (10/10),  Britten's String Quartet no. 2 with Bach's Cello Suite No. 2 (27/10), Schubert's String quintet with Bach's Cello Suite no. 3 (28/11)

The Songsmiths accompanied by Audrey Hyland are presenting a series of concerts. Dusica Bijelic and Jonathan Lemalu  invite us to Take a Walk on the Dark Side with music by Schubert, Finzi, Mussorgsky and Bolcom (24/9). Then Anna Huntley and Marcus Farnsworth offer us Faure in Poeme d'un jour (8/10), whilst Mary Bevan and Gareth Jones invite us to Forbidden Delights with music by Schubert, Britten, Poulenc and Hahn (8/11).

James Gilchrist and Anna Tilbrook are presenting the last of their Britten programmes, with Canticle No. 1 and The Holy Sonnets of John Donne plus music by Purcell, Barber and Schubert (7/11). On November 22, the Elysian Singers and Players present an all Britten concert (22/11)

The season finishes, of course, with the Christmas Festival which includes performances by Ex Cathedra, the Choir of Clare College, the choir of Christchurch Cathedral Oxford, the Tallis Scholars, the Cardinall's Musick, the Brabant Ensemble, the choir of Trinity College Cambridge and Polyphony.

Further information from the St John's Smith Square website.

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