Beethoven piano concertos, Sally Beamish, Amadeus Live - ASMF's new season

Murray Perahia and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields

The Academy of St Martin in the Fields' 2016-17 season is violinst Joshua Bell's sixth as music director. Programmes in London includes a four-concert series at the Barbican with pianist Murray Perahia directing the orchestra from the piano in all of Beethoven's Piano Concertos. At the Cadogan Hall, Joshua Bell will direct Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto from the violin, whilst Martin Fröst is director and soloist in Copland's Clarinet Concerto in a programme which also includes Lutoslawski's Dance Preludes and arrangements of Brahms, Bartok and klezmer. 

The fashion for films with live accompaniment has reached Milos Forman's 1984 film Amadeus and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields and the Philharmonia Chorus will be providing live accompaniment to the film at the Royal Albert Hall, conducted by Ludowig Wicki.

Sally Beamish has been appointed the orchestra's first composer in residence, a partnership which runs until the end of the orchestra's Diamond Jubilee in 2018/19. Sally Beamish was at one time a viola player in the orchestra and her mother was also a member. The orchestra will be exploring Beamish's existing works as well as playing new pieces written for them.

The orchestra's programme includes over 80 concerts spread over 16 countries, with 11 different tours. Full details from the orchestra's website.