It’s full steam ahead as ensembles and venues usher in a packed new year
COMPILED & WRITTEN BY PAUL RILEY
UK
Royal Opera House
Covent Garden, London, 11-29 September roh.org.uk
A special Gala next May bids Antonio Pappano farewell as he steps down as music director after 23 years at the helm. For his final season he teams up with director Barrie Kosky to inaugurate a new Wagner Ring cycle with Das Rheingold in September. Other standouts include new stagings of Handel’s Jephtha, Strauss’s Elektra and, in the Linbury Theatre, the UK premiere of George Benjamin’s latest opera Picture a Day Like This.
Manchester Collective
Royal Birmingham Conservatoire 14 September manchestercollective.co.uk
With five UK-wide tours between September and May there’s a certain piquancy to the Collective’s first programme, which culminates in Steve Reich’s Different Trains. December turns apocalyptic with Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time while 2024 wraps four world premieres around Morton Feldman’s Rothko Chapel.
Jeremy Denk
Wigmore Hall, London, 15 September wigmore-hall.org.uk
In mid-September the American pianist is joined by the Danish Quartet for a recital combining Ligeti, Britten and Schumann. Brett Dean is composer-in-residence and other ‘residents’ include period instrument ensemble Solomon’s Knot, soprano Louise Alder and Trio Gaspard.
Royal Northern Sinfonia
Sage, Gateshead, 16 September sagegateshead.com
Symphonies by Schuman bookend Dinis Sousa’s second season as the orchestra’s principal conductor, and the September launch premieres a new work by Cassandra Miller alongside Beethoven’s ‘Emperor’ Concerto – performed by the redoubtable pianist Elisabeth Leonskaja. Schumann rarities include his oratorio Das Paradies und die Peri and the unfinished ‘Zwickau’ Symphony.
English National Opera
Coliseum, London, 21 September – 11 October eno.org
Jonathan Miller’s affectionate production of Rossini’s Barber of Seville and a new take on Gilbert & Sullivan’s parliamentary satire Iolanthe leaven a thought-provoking season that yields the UK premiere of Marina Abramović’s 7 Deaths of Maria Callas. Also eye-catching are Ruders’s The Handmaid’s Tale, Janáček’s Jenůfa and Bartók’s Duke Bluebeard’s Castle.
Rachel Podger
Kings Place, London, 21 September kingsplace.co.uk
In a season bristling with lively initiatives including a ‘Composer Focus’ on Oliver Leith, I Fagiolini and guitarist Sean Shibe illuminate the continuing ‘Sound Unwrapped’ strand. And there are recitals by soprano Danielle de Niese and the Chiaroscuro Quartet. Artist-in-fo
