Bregenz Staging of Judith Weir’s Miss Fortune
As promised last month, my monthly roundup of concerts has now been moved to CT’s own concert diary page. I’ve just updated the page, which now gives a really good at-a-glance view of what March holds for new music concert-goers. Again, members are encouraged to add their own concerts to this list.
My personal picks start with Judith Weir’s new opera, Miss Fortune, which receives its British première on March 12th. You can read more about this in the interview I did with the composer last week. On the subject of opera, also not to be missed is John Adams’ The Death of Klinghoffer, which continues its run at ENO with performances on 3rd, 5th, 7th and 9th March. Fans of John Adams also have a world première to look forward to this month with the first outing of his new piece Absolute Jest, to be performed by the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra at Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco on 15th March along with another world première, Mass Transmission by Mason Bates. Other noteworthy new works include Nico Muhly’s Cello Concerto and Owen Pallett’s Violin Concerto at the Barbican, London on 16th March; Lyell Cresswell’s Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, Samuel Holloway’s Fault, Jack Body’s Little Elegies and Liza Lim’s Pearl, Ochre, Hair String at City Halls, Glasgow on 17th March; and Harrison Birtwistle’s Fantasia on all the notes at the Wigmore Hall on 13th March.
My final pick contains a bit of self-advertising: The Sacher Perspetives Concert with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales on 16th March. This is being held in partnership with an academic conference in Cardiff University on 16th and 17th March. The conference papers will all be inspired by research carried out at the Sacher Archive in Basel, the concert will consist of pieces that were commissioned by Paul Sacher. I wrote some time ago about my own visit to the archive with a Mexican colleague, Mauricio Beltrán, to examine the sketch material for Dutilleux’s Symphony No. 2. We’ll be presenting the quite surprising the results of our research at that conference. Do come along if you’re in town!