Debut with BBC Now, the London premiere of Judith Weir's Oboe Concerto - Gergely Madaras' week

Gergely Madaras (Photo Marco Borggreve)

This is a busy week for conductor Gergely Madaras, as on Tuesday (10 December 2019) he made his debut with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, conducting Tchaikovsky’s First Symphony ‘Winter Daydreams’ and Variations on a Rococo Theme, with Anastasia Kobekina as soloist, and 'A Winter Landscape' from Glazunov’s The Seasons. Then tonight (Friday 13 December 2019) he conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican Centre (replacing Rafael Payare) in the London premiere of Judith Weir's Oboe Concerto with Nicholas Daniel as soloist, Brett Dean's Amphitheatre and Mahler's Symphony No. 1. (further details from the Barbican website).


Judith Weir's Oboe Concerto was premiered in 2018 by soloist Celia Craig with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, conductor Douglas Boyd. Craig gave the UK premiere of the work in September 2019 when she performed it in Cardiff with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, conductor Andrew Gourlay. In her programme note, Judith Weir says of the work, 'Having played the oboe myself as a young person (for about 20 years, starting at age 11) the composition of an Oboe Concerto had an almost autobiographical significance for me. It was also a memory exercise, as I recalled in detail some of the music I had learned so carefully during those years. One important work, the Strauss Concerto, was helpful with my choice of accompanying instruments; just a wind octet plus strings.'

In 2012, Gergely Madaras was the inaugural Sir Charles Mackerras Fellow at English National Opera, a relationship which culminated in Madaras conducting Simon Burney's new production of Mozart's The Magic Flute. In September 2019, Madaras took over as music director of the Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège in Belgium, with concert series in Liège and in Brussels. On 26 January 2020 he conducts them in Bach, Kurtag and Haydn's Symphony No. 104 'London' (further details from the orchestra's website)