Town Hall and Symphony Hall has announced details of the 2015/16 Birmingham International Concert Season. The year long series is one of the largest and most important international seasons of visiting orchestras and musicians in the UK. Bringing the best in the world to perform on Birmingham’s two great stages, the season welcomes orchestras, ensembles, conductors and soloists from Japan, Australia and the US, across Europe and throughout the UK. Alongside artists with established international reputations, the season is enhanced by young musicians in the early stages of their own promising careers, especially those in the ECHO Rising Stars programme.
The season opens on Tuesday September 8 with the return of Sir Simon Rattle conducting the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in a performance of Elgar’s great choral work The Dream of Gerontius. This is a must for anyone who cannot resist the pull of one of the world’s greatest orchestras, three world-class soloists, and a massed choir drawn from the entire UK.
Highlights from international orchestras include: Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra; Gewandhausorchester Leipzig; Mariinsky Orchestra; Philharmonia Orchestra; Moscow State Symphony Orchestra and Dallas Symphony Orchestra.
Symphony Hall’s resident orchestra, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, alongside Ex-Cathedra perform the Good Friday St. Matthew Passion in German on March 25.
Opera comes from The English Concert with a concert performance of Handel’s Orlando, and Strauss’s Salome, performed by Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Karill Karabits.
The Birmingham International Concert Season 2015/16 celebrates notable anniversaries for two renowned Scandinavian composers, Carl Neilsen and Jean Sibelius. The Royal Danish Orchestra and the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra will offer intriguing opportunities to hear performances with an unmatched authenticity, including Neilsen’s Symphony No. 5 and Sibelius’s Symphony 7.
An extensive programme of chamber music includes recitals from some of the world’s greatest soloists, including pianists such as, Stephen Hough, Murray Perahia, Dame Mitsuko Uchida and Maria Joao Pires, violinist Joshua Bell, cellist Steven Isserlis and classical guitarist Miloš Karadaglić.
Pianist Igor Levit (recitalist) returns with a programme that includes Rzewski’s The People United Will Never Be Defeated. Igor won ‘Newcomer of the Year’ at the 2014 BBC Music Magazine Awards.
Concluding the Season with a bang, Edward Gardner conducts the exceptional players of the National Youth Orchestra in Strauss’s Also Sprach Zarathustra and Holst’s The Planets.
Commenting on the Season, Andrew Jowett OBE, Chief Executive of Town Hall & Symphony Hall said, “The 2015/16 Season promises to be one of the best ever – and in our 25th Birthday Season we continue to bring the best in the world of classical music to perform at our excellent venues. This season reflects some of that first opening season in 1991 as well as looking forward. We will have the opportunity to hear one of the world’s great orchestras, conducted by one of its great conductors: the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra with Sir Simon Rattle conducting Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius – I urge you not to leave it too long before booking.”
