Finnish composer Lotta Wennäkoski’s Om fotspår och ljus (Of Footprints and Light – Helsinki Variations) will receive its U.K. premiere with the London Symphony on Feb. 4. Another Finn is on the program: Jean Sibelius, whose Symphony No. 2 will be conducted by Thomas Søndergård. Leif Ove Andsnes is the soloist for Beethoven’s Fifth Piano […]
Conductor Oksana Lyniv leads the U.K. premiere of the Cello Concerto by fellow Ukrainian Victoria Vita Polevá with the London Philharmonic on Feb. 9. Inbal Segev will be the soloist. The program opens with a suite from Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen and concludes with Dvořák’s Eighth Symphony. https://lpo.org.uk/event/oksana-lyniv-conducts-dvorak/
Roland Wood stars as Karl Marx in the U.K. premiere of the comic opera Marx in London! at Scottish Opera. The production, which covers Marx’s time in London in 1871 will be staged in Glasgow on Feb. 13-17 before moving to Edinburgh Feb. 22-24. Conducted by Stephen Barlow and designed by Yannis Thavoris. https://www.scottishopera.org.uk/shows/marx-in-london/
Leonid Desyatnikov is a Ukrainian composer born in 1955. His piano duet Trompe-l'œil will receive its U.S. premiere at a Carnegie Hall recital by pianists Pavel Kolesnikov and Samson Tsoy on Feb. 13. The duo will also play Stravinsky’s four-handed arrangement of The Rite of Spring and Schubert’s Fantasia in F minor, D. 940. https://www.carnegiehall.org/calendar/2024/02/13/pavel-kolesnikov-piano-samson-tsoy-piano-0730pm
Bookended by two Stravinsky works, the London Philharmonic’s Feb. 16 program includes the world premiere of Ciudad sin Sueño, a fantasia for piano and orchestra (featuring Javier Perianes) by Spanish composer Francisco Coll. Under the baton of Gustavo Gimeno, the evening prolongs the Iberian vibe with Villa Lobos’ Nights in the Gardens of Spain. https://lpo.org.uk/event/colour-and-fantasy/
On Feb. 16-17, music director Rafael Payare will lead the San Diego Symphony in two works by Ravel—Le tombeau de Couperin and La valse—and one by Debussy—Images—as well Gabriela Ortiz’s Altar de bronce. The Ortiz, a co-commission by the SDS, will feature guest trumpeter Pacho Flores. This will be the work’s West-Coast premiere. https://jacobsmusiccenter.org/archives/events/ravel-debussy-and-ortiz/
The San Francisco Chronicle has described 32-year-old composer Katherine Balch as “some kind of Thomas Edison” because of the complexity and inventiveness evident in her pieces. The Pittsburgh Symphony has commissioned a new work from her, which will receive its world premiere on Feb. 16-18 in a program conducted by Manfred Honeck. Shostakovich’s First Cello […]
Beta, a world premiere by Deutsche Oper Berlin running Feb. 17-March 2, is investigative music theater exploring not only the potential of digital tools but also the risks inherent in the relinquishing of private data. The opera is by Christiane Mudra (libretto, research, and stage direction and Dariya Maminova (music) and will incorporate CGI and VFX […]
Conductor and soprano Barbara Hannigan will join Orchestre symphonique de Montréal on Feb. 21-22 for the North American premiere of her staged version of Poulenc’s lyric drama La voix humaine, with projections by Clemens Malinowski. The program opens with Hannigan conducting Strauss’ Metamorphosen. https://www.osm.ca/en/concerts/richard-strauss-and-poulenc-with-barbara-hannigan/
On Feb. 22-25, the Dallas Symphony, trumpeter Tine Thing Helseth, and violinist Karen Gomyo will perform the world premiere of Xi Wang’s Year 2020, a double concerto. Saint-Saëns’ Symphony No. 3 will feature organist Bradley Hunter Welch. The program, conducted by Fabio Luisi, will open with Flare by the young German composer Sophia Jani. https://www.dallassymphony.org/productions/saint-saens-organ-symphony/
As part of a program titled Silent Wood, Deep River, the Austin Chamber Music Center will present the world premiere of Daniel Temkin’s Rise for cello and piano on Feb. 23-24. Cellist Annie Jacobs-Perkins and pianist Michelle Schumann will also play works by Gabriela Lena Frank, Louis Ballard, Stratis Minakakis, and Gabriel Fauré. https://austinchambermusic.org/event/silent-wood-deep-river/
Pianist Timo Andres will play the world premiere of one of his own new works at Carnegie Hall on Feb. 23. The wide-ranging program opens with Robin Holcomb’s Wherein Lies the Good and proceeds through works by Ellington, Copland, and Philip Glass, plus the New York premiere of Gabriella Smith’s Imaginary Pancake. https://www.carnegiehall.org/calendar/2024/02/23/timo-andres-piano-0730pm
Throughout the 2023-34 season, the San Francisco Symphony will present its SoundBox series, curated by four musicians on each of four weekends. The small Soundbox space is designed to allow for multi-sensory, interactive experiences. Expect the unexpected. Get ready to see musical experiments in action. The details of the SoundBox programs remain under wraps, but […]
The West Coast will have its first chance to see Robert O’Hara’s new staging of Anthony Davis’ The Life and Times of Malcolm X when Seattle Opera presents the work Feb. 24-March 9. The cast includes Kenneth Kellogg, Joshua Stewart, Leah Hawkins, and Ronnita Miller. Kazem Abdullah conducts. https://www.seattleopera.org/
American composer Mason Bates completed his Violin Concerto in 2012, but it has never been performed on the West Coast. The San Diego Symphony and violinist Gil Shaham will correct that omission on Feb. 24-25 in a program that also includes The Ring Without Words, an orchestral arrangement by Lorin Maazel of highlights from Wagner’s […]
In a program called Spanish Reflections, the Toronto Symphony will give two North American premieres on Feb. 28-29. The first is Francisco Coll’s Ciudad sin sueño: Fantasia for Piano and Orchestra, featuring Javier Perianes. The other is Coll’s orchestration of Falla’s piano work Fantasia Baetica. The program concludes with two suites from Falla’s The Three-Cornered […]
On Feb. 29-March 1, Long Yu will conduct the New York Philharmonic orchestra and chorus in the U.S. premiere of Émigré, a semi-staged oratorio by Aaron Zigman and Mark Campbell about Jewish refugees who fled to Shanghai to escape the Holocaust. The work was co-commission by the NY Phil and the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra. Soloists […]
Ireland’s National Symphony Orchestra, conducted by John Wilson, will present the European premiere of Ligeia, a trombone concerto by Joe Chindamo, with Peter Moore as soloist. The March 1 program will also include Holst’s The Planets. https://bit.ly/3tAbDoI
On March 3 the London Symphony Orchestra will present the world premiere of John Adams’ Frenzy. Simon Rattle conducts this all-American program, which includes Roy Harris’ Symphony No. 3 and Gershwin’s Piano Concerto, featuring Kirill Gerstein. https://www.lso.co.uk/whats-on/sir-simon-rattle-listening-to-america/
