London 2015: Classical Music, Ballet, Dance and Opera (January - June)

 
 
 

Sir Simon Rattle

© Monika Rittershaus

Sir Simon Rattle celebrates his 60th in style, Emma Thompson stars in the English National Opera's Sweeney Todd, and Wayne McGregor presents his new full-length work Woolf Works, Rachel Halliburton has the dance, opera and classical music highlights of 2015. Click here for July to December.

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Introduction

 

There's an extraordinary range of classical music, dance and opera on offer, proving that London remains as much of a magnet for excellent music making as it ever has been. If music be the food of love, then who needs to go on a diet?

 
 
 

Classical: Significant Anniversaries

 

It's a year of significant anniversaries and birthdays in the classical music world, with celebrations to mark Pierre Boulez at 90, Sir Simon Rattle at 60, Michael Tilson Thomas at 70, and Carl Nielsen at 150. Several of the celebratory concerts take place at the Barbican, which looks set to enjoy a particularly dynamic year.

In March and April the arts centre's spotlight will turn on Boulez - argued by many to be the world's most influential living composer - starting off with the BBC Symphony Orchestra's Total Immersion: Pierre Boulez at 90.

Carl Nielsen's anniversary is being marked by the performance of his six much loved symphonies, also by the BBC Symphony Orchestra - two were performed in 2014, and the last four can be heard at the Barbican between January and May (on 16th January, Wednesday 18th February, Friday 10th April and finally on Saturday 23rd May 2015).

 
 
 

Sir Simon Rattle & Michael Tilson Thomas

 

Conductor Sir Simon Rattle's birthday is being celebrated by not one, but two major artistic institutions. This February both the Barbican and Southbank Centre welcome him and the Berliner Philharmoniker to London for a major residence, which will feature at its heart a complete cycle of Sibelius's symphonies at the Barbican.

The American conductor Michael Tilson Thomas's birthday will be celebrated on both sides of the Atlantic, starting in San Francisco this January with a gala concert of the city's Symphony Orchestra. This March he comes to the Barbican to conduct two concerts. The first birthday gala includes Colin Matthew' Hidden Variables and the second Britten's atmospheric Four Sea Interludes among other works.

 
 
 

Classical: Changing Britain & City of Light

 

The Southbank Centre is launching the year with its customary bang. The Changing Britain 1945-2015 festival - a festival of history inspired by the writing of historian David Kynaston - kicks off with a series of BBC Concert Orchestra concerts: Twisting the Dial and Conflict and Healing. Here audiences will be able to hear such diverse classics as signature tunes and short excerpts from the Hancock's Half Hour, Housewives' Choice and William Walton's Coronation March, Orb and Sceptre.

The Southbank Centre will also be continuing the Philharmonia Orchestra's acclaimed series City of Light: Paris 1900-1950 on two consecutive Thursday evenings on 12th February and 19th February 2015. Led by conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen, it explores the cultural history of Paris and will include music from Milhaud's Le boeuf sur le toit to Messiaen's Turangalīla-Symphonie.

 
 
 

Opera: Between Worlds & Alice in Wonderland

 

There are several exciting new works set to premiere in the operatic world. Not least in April, when the ENO presents the operatic debut of composer Tansy Davies. Davies has collaborated with director Deborah Warner and librettist Nick Drake to produce Between Worlds, a haunting work about a group of individuals trapped in one of the Twin Towers. Contemporary music specialist Gerry Cornelius conducts.

On a completely different note, the Barbican will be welcoming South Korean composer Unsuk Chin's startling multi-media operatic adaptation of Alice in Wonderland in March. The production combines the illustrations of Ralph Steadman with interactive animated projections and suitably outlandish costumes.

 
 
 
 

Opera: Royal Opera & Roundhouse

 

The Royal Opera House's programme for the year begins boldly, with former RSC artistic director Michael Boyd staging Monterverdi's Orfeo in January at the Roundhouse. Other new productions include David McVicar's interpretation of Andrea Chenier, Umberto Giordano's exhilarating, passionate opera about the French Revolution.

In March director John Fulljames will present Rise and fall of the City of Mahagonny - Bertolt Brech and Kurt Weill's satire on consumerism. The riot that erupted when this opera premiered in 1930 was the first nail in the coffin of Weill's career in Germany, yet it is generally seen as one of his most brilliant and inventive works.

 
 
 

Opera: ENO's Sweeney Todd & Pirates of Penzance

 

The ENO has some particularly appetising collaborations on this year's menu, which include the return of Bryn Terfel and Emma Thompson in the popular concert staging of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

Acclaimed director Peter Sellars will direct a new interpretation of Purcell's The Indian Queen, with a new text in which the first encounter between Europeans and the Mayans of the New World are observed by a female narrator. This new text is based on The Lost Chronicles of Terra Firma by Nicaraguan author Rosario Aguilar, and the sets are designed by LA-graffiti artist Gronk.

There will also be the chance to see Richard Jones's production of Wagner's The Mastersingers of Nuremberg, which visits London for the first time. With costumes and sets that range freely across the centuries and a witty backdrop at the opening that references the album cover of Sgt Pepper, it promises all the eclecticism and wit for which his productions have become renowned.

All this comes before Mike Leigh arrives at the London Coliseum to direct The Pirates of Penzance. One of the most "eye-catching elements" of the ENO's 2014/15 season, this production from the film maker who recently directed 'Mr Turner' promises to be a stylish, witty interpretation of the Gilbert and Sullivan classic.

 
 
 

Dance: Twerking & BalletBoyz

 

If you're in a mood for a bit of controversy, then why not head to Sadler's Wells this March to see a piece by Francois Chaignaud and Cecilia Bengolea - altered natives' Say Yes To Another Excess - TWERK. This sexually charged work takes a cheekily anthropological look at the history of clubbing, showing styles including vogueing and, as the title suggests, today's twerking.

The venue's year starts with a new full-length production this January from the dynamic company BalletBoyz. Young Men explores the theme of war and the bonds forged between the men whose lives are caught up in it.

 
 
 

Dance: The Great Gatsby & Akram Khan

 

For a more subtle portrayal of hedonism and attraction than twerking, in March Sadler's Wells also welcomes back Northern Ballet's The Great Gatsby, which caused much excitement in 2013.

In April devotees of the Pina Bausch Tanz Wupperthal Company will be able to see the UK premiere of two of her Eighties works Auf dem Gebirge hat man ein Geschrei gehort and Ahnen.

In June Akram Khan and Israel Galvan collaborate on TOROBAKA, bringing together elements of kathak and flamenco to create a genre defying work about the bull and the cow.

And to complete the role-call of big names, in February Wim Vandekeybus and Ultima Vez bring their brutal, controversial 1987 work What The Body Does Not Remember to the venue, while in the same month Hofesh Schechter will present the barbarians in love, a piece inspired by the complex precision of baroque music. (He will also be at the Royal Opera House with The Four Temperaments and Song of the Earth in March and April).

 
 
 

Dance: Wayne McGregor & Ballet Black

 

No year in London's dance calendar would be complete without works from Wayne McGregor. In 2015, Atomos will show off his rigorous, sculptural style at Sadler's Wells, while in May his new full-length work Woolf Works, inspired by Mrs Dalloway and other of Virginia Woolf's novels, will appear at the Royal Opera House.

Ballet Black, the company formed from black and Asian dancers, will appear at the Linbury Studio Theatre in February. And if you want to see the Wayne McGregors and Akram Khans of tomorrow in the dance world, then there's no better chance than at The Place's Resolution! Festival (January/February), which celebrates emerging talent in a bill of over 80 works.

 
 
 
 

Classical: Daniel Barenboim & Denis Matsuev

 

As ever, there will be a whole range of brilliant soloists appearing in the capital this year. Pianist watchers especially are promised a bumper crop. In May and June Daniel Barenboim will perform a cycle of Schubert's piano sonatas at the Southbank Centre on 27th May, 29th May, a Sunday matinee concert on 31st May and concluding on 2nd June. The International Piano Series will also bring soloists such as Maurizio Pollini (March) Ivo Pogorelich (February) and Stephen Hough (28 April) to London audiences.

At the Barbican, the Siberian pianist Denis Matsuev, known as 'the new Horowitz' will perform Prokofiev, Rachmaninov, and Tchaikovsky concertos. And at the Wigmore Hall, Pavel Kolesnikov - who received five star reviews when he performed there last year, will appear alongside his teacher Maria Joao Pires in a programme of Schubert and Beethoven.

 
 
 

Classical: Handel Festival & Simon Bolivar Orchestra

 

If your cultural appetite tends more towards music making in groups, then take your pick. There's the Handel Festival, which begins in March with a performance of Semele at the Queen Elizabeth Hall. The Academy of Ancient Music's second London season at the Barbican continues its three-year-cycle of Monteverdi operas with L'incoronazione di Poppea.

At the Southbank Centre the London Sinfonietta performs the London premiere of James Dillon's Stabat Mater Dolorosa, a work for choir, ensemble and electronics that combines the Latin text with extracts from an essay by radical feminist writer Julie Kristeva, John Donne's A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning and a letter to Picasso from his mother.

London Symphony Orchestra conductor Valery Gergiev will celebrate the UK/Russia year of culture by conducting Russian music by composers including Balakirev and Tishchenko. And Gustavo Dudamel will be flying into town with the Simon Bolivar Orchestra at the Southbank Centre this January.

 
 
 
 
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