bbc philharmonic tour

BBC Philharmonic

The BBC Philharmonic is based at MediaCityUK in Salford and performs an annual season of concerts at Manchester's Bridgewater Hall, as well as regular more...

• Apr 13 Sat Manchester, Bridgewater Hall BBC Philharmonic - Tapas and some French Bon Bons View Tickets
• Apr 20 Sat Manchester, Bridgewater Hall BBC Philharmonic - Viennese Whirl View Tickets
• Apr 27 Sat Manchester, Bridgewater Hall BBC Philharmonic - Nordic Noir View Tickets
• May 03 Fri Stoke-on-Trent, Victoria Hall SOT Classics - BBC Philharmonic View Tickets
• May 18 Sat Manchester, Bridgewater Hall BBC Philharmonic - Spring, the Sweet Spring View Tickets
• Jun 22 Sat Manchester, Bridgewater Hall BBC Philharmonic - Ending on a High View Tickets

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Magnificent Bruckner, exquisite Saariaho: John Storgårds and the BBC Philharmonic

There is a lot of Bruckner about at the moment. In the first four months of 2024 (the 200th anniversary of the composer’s birth) four of his symphonies (and a motet) have been scheduled to be performed at the Bridgewater Hall, starting with the Third, played on Saturday by the BBC Philharmonic under Chief Conductor John Storgårds , in the 1876-7 Nowak edition. This is essentially the version of the first performance in Vienna rather than the original 1873 score, which was not published until over a century later, or the more frequently played 1889 revision. Aficionados may have their preferences for one version over another, but opportunities to hear the symphony live at all are infrequent and we were treated to a glorious performance in Manchester.

From the shimmering strings and the trumpet solo at the beginning, it was evident that we were at the start of a momentous journey. Storgårds maintained momentum without rushing. The build-ups to the mighty climaxes and the releases of tension were deftly handled. Some might see this music in terms of cathedral architecture or natural landscapes; for me it was the musical logic that drove it forward. The first movement brought gradual crescendos and pauses for breath which seemed necessary and natural. The second movement was solemn but grand, suggesting a formal occasion. The Scherzo was energetic and gripping but with threatening undertones. In the Finale there were cheerful episodes contrasting with atmospheric quiet moments and climaxes rising out of nowhere, dominated by the brass. The juxtaposition of the light and serious, the loud and quiet, was startling. The return of the trumpet tune from the beginning brought us full circle and, in the words of the evening’s programme note, “the cathedral floods with light”.

The concert started with Beethoven’s Egmont Overture , the only familiar piece on the programme. In the space of less than ten minutes Beethoven manages to encapsulate the drama of Goethe’s historical tragedy. The BBC Philharmonic gave a rousing performance, with the stirring stings and brass preparing us for the more expansive Bruckner to come later.

This was followed by the Leino Songs by Kaija Saariaho, who died in June last year. These four songs were composed in 2007, setting poems by the Finnish poet Eino Leino from the late 19th and early 20th century. Saariaho uses a very large orchestra to create unusual timbres and moods, glockenspiel, vibraphone and celesta all prominent. The whole orchestra rarely plays together, however, and here never threatened to overwhelm the singer. Often the music was very quiet. Elizabeth Atherton’s clear, bright soprano joined the orchestra almost like another instrument, floating over exotic combinations of instruments to create quite beautiful sounds. The first and last songs ( I watch you and Evening Pr a yer ) struck me as particularly beautiful with sparkling orchestral textures supporting the voice. The second song ( My heart ) was darker and harder to grasp on first hearing. The third ( Peace ) uses low instruments to reflect the text referring to the natural world and sounded quite magical. I look forward to hearing this remarkable work again.  

Peter has been attending concerts and operas enthusiastically since his parents took him to see The Mikado in Liverpool when he was a boy of ten and to a “family concert” given by the RLPO a year or so later. Peter studied Modern Languages at Worcester College, Oxford and Law in Manchester. After spending twenty years as a pensions lawyer in Manchester, he retrained as a teacher of English as a foreign language, which took him to Germany and to Serbia. With the onset of the pandemic he returned to the UK and now works online and frequents concert halls and theatres in the North West of England.

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BBC Philharmonic

The bbc philharmonic has its roots in the city of manchester, since it’s foundation in 1934 as the bbc northern orchestra. in 1982, soon after moving to the bbc’s new building on oxford road in manchester, it changed its name to the bbc philharmonic. in 2011 the bbc moved many of its major departments to a new centre at salford quays. intermusica's relationship with the bbc philharmonic reaches back over the last two decades, with significant tours and close partnership on international touring. concerts have included new year gala concerts in china with vassily sinaisky and a highly prestigious residency at the vienna konzerthaus in 2013 with hk gruber. , the bbc philharmonic is based at mediacityuk in salford and performs an annual season of concerts at manchester’s bridgewater hall, as well as regular concerts in hanley, leeds, kendal and other venues across the north of england. as one of the bbc’s six performing groups the majority of the orchestra’s concerts are broadcast on bbc radio 3. the bbc philharmonic is supported by salford city council, enabling the orchestra to build active links in the local area through a busy learning and community programme. juanjo mena is chief conductor of the bbc philharmonic. hailing from the basque region of spain he has brought his passion for large-scale choral works and the music of his home country to the orchestra since taking up the post in 2011 and his performances have received rave reviews. as an internationally-renowned orchestra, the bbc philharmonic regularly tours in europe and asia. in 2011 the orchestra’s tour of japan was cut short when the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami hit the country; last year they returned to complete the tour dates that were cancelled.  .

Gruber is currently Composer and Conductor in residence with the BBC Philharmonic, conducting several concerts every season since his appointment in 2009. The concerts in Vienna on this tour also feature two of Gruber’s own compositions.

The first concert on 18 March features music by Gruber, Schwertsik and Stravinsky. Opening with Gruber’s Northwind Pictures and Schwertsik’s Nachtmusiken, the concert’s second half features a special performance of Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex with a stellar cast featuring Ian Bostridge as Oedipus and Angelika Kirchslager as Jocasta as well as Intermusica bass Matthew Best as Tiresias. The second concert on 19 March also features Ian Bostridge, who will be joined on stage by horn player Stefan Dohr for a performance of Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings. The concert also features Gruber’s Dancing in the Dark, James MacMillan’s The Sacrifice: Three Interludes, and the Overture and Suite: Three Dance Episodes from Bernstein’s On the Town. Bernstein’s Overture to On the Town was only recently discovered in archives and this performance of the piece will mark its Austrian premiere. Gruber and the BBC Philharmonic also perform together the previous week on 13 March at the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester. In preparation for the two concerts in Vienna, the concert will also feature the MacMillan, the Britten and the Stravinsky with the same cast that will be travelling to Austria.

Performances

18 March 2013 Konzerthaus, Vienna

19 March 2013 Konzerthaus, Vienna

The Orchestra will be joined by pianist Rudolf Buchbinder and violinist Vilde Frang, Young EMI Artist of Year in 2010, for two programmes including Rachmaninov’s and Schumann’s first symphonies, Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto and Brahms Piano Concerto No.2. The tour follows a busy spring for the Orchestra who have been at the forefront of the Mahler in Manchester festival, celebrating the 150th anniversary of Mahler’s birth.

14 May 2010 Wiesbaden Kurhaus

16 May 2010 Mannheim Rosengarten

17 May 2010 Kölner Philharmonie

18 May 2010 Stuttgarter Liederhalle

19 May 2010 Aachen Eurogress

20 May 2010 Philharmonie Essen 

The orchestra and Sinaisky perform at the Great Hall of the People, situated on the edge of Tian'anmen Square, marking the Orchestra and Vassily Sinaisky’s debut performance in China. The varied orchestral programme includes music by Tchaikovsky and Dvořák as well as traditional Chinese works.

30 December 2008 Beijing National Aquatic Centre, Beijing 

31 December 2008 Great Hall of the People, Beijing 

Under the direction of Gianandrea Noseda, who brought the Orchestra to Japan in 2004, they perform in Japan in seven different venues across four cities including Tokyo and Osaka.

Whilst their inaugural tour of Korea includes concerts in Seoul Arts Center, Tongyeong, Daejeon, Gimhae and Gumi. With Hilary Hahn as soloist, programmes will include Stravinksy's Divertimento from A Fairy's Kiss, Tchaikovsky's Symphony No.6, Sibelius' Violin Concerto and Beethoven's Symphony No.7.

12 March 2008 Joetsu Bunka Kaikan, Tokyo

13 March 2008 Suntory Hall, Tokyo

14 March 2008 Joetsu Bunka Kaikan, Tokyo

15 March 2008 Festival Hall, Osaka

16 March 2008 Minato Mirai Hall, Yokohama 

18 March 2008 Tokyo Opera City, Tokyo

19 March 2008 Acros Fukuoka Hall, Fukuoka

21 March 2008 Tongyeung Citizen’s Center, Tokgyeung

22 March 2008 Daejeon Culture and Arts Centre, Daejeon

23 March 2008 Gimhae Arts & Sports Center, Gimhae

25 March 2008 Seoul Arts Center, Seoul

26 March 2008 Gumi Art Center, Gumi  

Peter Ansell Director / Head of International Touring +44 20 7608 9930 [email protected]

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Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie Reunite with Kate Middleton and Prince William's Wedding Singer in London

The royal sisters have a longstanding friendship with Ellie Goulding

Janine Henni is a Royals Staff Writer for PEOPLE Digital, covering modern monarchies and the world's most famous families. Like Queen Elizabeth, she loves horses and a great tiara moment.

Dave Benett/Getty

Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie had a sisters' night out to celebrate their friend Ellie Goulding .

On April 11, Princess Beatrice, 35, and Princess Eugenie, 34, attended an afterparty for the singer's show at the Royal Albert Hall in London with the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra. The royal sisters posed for a photo together, while Beatrice and her husband, Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi , also got together with Goulding for a smiling snap.

Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson ’s daughters are known to share a tight bond with Goulding, 37, and the Grammy Award-nominated singer has long been connected to the British royals. In fact, she performed at Kate Middleton and Prince William ’s royal wedding reception in 2011!

A decade later, Goulding took the stage at Prince William's Earthshot Prize Awards ceremony in Boston in December 2022 and had a chat with the Prince and Princess of Wales backstage.

Samir Hussein/WireImage

In another tie, Princess Eugenie was reportedly the one to introduce Goulding to her ex-husband, Caspar Jopling. According to Tatler , Eugenie knew Jopling, an art dealer, through her career in the art world and even worked with his uncle Jay Jopling during her time at online auction house Paddle8.

Princess Eugenie and her now-husband, Jack Brooksbank , were also spotted on a double date with Goulding and Jopling at a basketball game in New York City, where Eugenie lived for two years while working as a specialist at Paddle8 in 2017. The foursome sat courtside at a Brooklyn Nets vs. New York Knicks matchup at Madison Square Garden.

Goulding and Jopling were guests at Princess Eugenie and Jack’s royal wedding at St. George's Chapel in Windsor Castle in October 2018, and the singer even performed during the festivities .

Princess Eugenie, Jack, Princess Beatrice, Edo and the Duchess of York all attended Goulding and Jopling’s nuptials the following summer. The pop star and her husband might not have been at Beatrice and Edo’s wedding in July 2020, as the scaled-down ceremony was held with about only 20 guests to heed COVID-19 restrictions at the time.

The "Still Falling for You" singer has vacationed with the princesses in the past, and Hello! reported that the sisters attended Goulding and Joplin’s son Arthur’s 2nd birthday party in May 2023 with their husbands and kids. Princess Beatrice and Edo are parents to daughter Sienna, 2, and his 8-year-old son Christopher Woolf, whom he shares with ex Dara Huang. Princess Eugenie and Jack attended the party with their son August, 3, and have since welcomed baby Ernest, 11 months.

James Devaney/WireImage

Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie’s appearance at the afterparty marked their first joint outing since the premiere of Scoop on Netflix last week. The film revisited how their father Prince Andrew’s BBC Newsnight interview in 2019 about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein led to his fall from grace, and a depiction of Princess Beatrice was woven into a palace meeting scene.

Former BBC producer Sam McAlister, whose memoir inspired the Scoop movie, exclusively told PEOPLE , "We had been going to meet Prince Andrew and his chief of staff, Amanda Thirsk, played by Keeley Hawes in our movie, and then curveball of curveballs, he brought someone with him. Now, I'm thinking it's going to be a lawyer or a comms person and things are going to be over. But in fact, it was his daughter, Princess Beatrice."

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"So, to have prepared to do this incredibly important negotiation and then have to do it on these sensitive and difficult subjects in front of his young daughter really was taking an already extraordinary experience to the next level," McAlister says. "Nothing prepares you for a professional experience like that. And even though it was something that I like to think I was pretty adept at, we really were all out of our depth in Buckingham Palace, sitting just across from him and his daughter."

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Program Notes: Manchester Collective with Abel Selaocoe

PROGRAM INFORMATION

Manchester collective with abel selaocoe, saturday, april 13, 2024 | 7:30 pm bing concert hall.

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PROGRAM SUBJECT TO CHANGE.  Please be considerate of others and turn off all phones and watch alarms. Photography and recording of any kind are not permitted. Thank you.  

Sirocco: Manchester Collective & Abel Selaocoe

Manchester collective, abel selaocoe.

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