Act 2025

The ‘Quatuor Ellipsos’ tells us a family story through four iconic works firmly ingrained in the collective unconscious: Carmen, Casse-Noisette, West Side Story and Rhapsody in Blue. Like a small-scale symphonic orchestra, in a spirit bordering on that of chamber music, they invite three great pianists, Marie-Josèphe Jude, Charles Heisser and Jean-Frédéric Neuburger. With the coruscating arrangements we are immersed into the innumerable timbres of their saxophones in association with the piano.

Riccardo Muti Conductor Riccardo Muti has been regarded as the Toscanini of the present day. Not just a Toscanini-style taskmaster who preaches fidelity to the score and presides over intense, hard-driven performances, Muti insists on beautiful tone as well as disciplined ensemble, capitalizing on a youthful Italian glamour. In 2021, Muti led the Vienna Philharmonic's New Year's Concert for the sixth time and was heard leading the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in a performance of Verdi's Requiem. Muti was born in Naples on July 28, 1941. He initially learned piano and violin under his father, a physician. He attended the Verdi Conservatory in Milan, studying composition with Bruno Bettinelli and conducting with Antonino Votto. Muti won the Guido Cantelli Conducting Competition in 1967, leading to his professional debut with the RAI Orchestra in 1968.

This new duo brings together the talents of celebrated pianist and composer Gwilym Simcock and rising star saxophonist and composer Emma Rawicz. This musical collaboration has a special depth and freedom that has blossomed in just a short space of time, maturing rapidly into a unique and exciting musical force. Emma and Gwilym have composed for each other and collaborated on arrangements, drawing on the many common influences they share. Such has been the success of this musical venture; they have already been into the studio to record their first album as a duo - eagerly anticipated and scheduled for release on the prestigious ACT label on the 1st of November.

The breadth of clarinetist Sabine Meyer's repertoire is matched by her dedication to collaborations with other, equally skilled musicians. She has performed as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the world, earned critical acclaim for her recording catalog, and is a noted educator.Meyer was born on March 30, 1959 in Crailsheim, Germany. She received her first music lessons from her father, clarinetist Karl Meyer, and then went on to study with Otto Hermann in Stuttgart and Hans Deinzer in Hannover. Sabine was 16 when she made her professional debut. She joined Munich's Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra for a time, then, in 1982, Herbert von Karajan created something of an international stir by appointing her as solo clarinetist for the Berlin Philharmonic, going against the orchestra's tradition of not admitting female musicians. However, she only remained with the orchestra for a year, as the demand grew for her to perform as a soloist with other orchestras and chamber ensembles.

Mikhail Pletnev Reaching the highest level of prominence as both pianist and conductor, Mikhail Pletnev is a major figure on the contemporary Russian musical scene. He is also a prolific composer and a competent amateur violinist.Pletnev was born on April 14, 1957, in Archangelsk in the far north of what was then the Soviet Union. His family was musical; his father played and taught the bayan button accordion, and his mother was a pianist. When the family moved to Kazan in Russia's Tatarstan region, Pletnev began piano studies with Julia Shaskin. He moved to Moscow at 13 to study at the Moscow Central Music School with Evgeny Timakin, and a Grand Prix at the Jeunesses Musicales International in 1945 proved to be the first in a long series of prizes for the young pianist.

This recital is a subtle fusion of classical and popular music from different eras and latitudes – a hymn of love to life itself. It reflects the multifaceted personal journey of mezzo-soprano Anne-Lise Polchlopek and transcends the boundaries between repertoires to explore the universality of human existence and its relationship with time, with nature, and with other human beings.

Pianist Florian Noack's new album pushes back the gates of time to rediscover the lifeblood of the Roaring Twenties, which saw twentieth-century music trace a path between partying and war. During the 1920s, Berlin and Paris were awash with jazz, Dada and cabaret, rocked by the liberating music come from America. The arts truly roared between the two world wars, trying to forget the first and stifle their anxieties over the inevitable second. This is the bold journey through time offered by Florian Noack, a musical odyssey through his own transcriptions of Fats Waller, Gershwin and Kurt Weill, voluble and refined arrangements that alternate with original gems by Francis Poulenc, Erwin Schulhoff and Clement Doucet. An album filled with charm and virtuoso acrobatics that finds the poetry of those years of upheaval in the joy and radiance of their music.

Alpesh Chauhan and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra continue their fascinating survey of Tchaikovsky’s orchestral works, combining established repertoire with lesser-known works to great effect. For this third volume, the former are represented by orchestral excerpts from Eugene Onegin, and the brooding Marche slave. Eugene Onegin is without doubt Tchaikovsky’s best-known opera, regularly performed by opera companies around the globe. The ‘Entr’acte and Waltz’ opens Act II, a party in the country for the name-day of Onegin’s neighbour Tatyana, whilst the ‘Polonaise’ sets the scene for Act III, with another, much grander ball set years later in St Petersburg.

In physics, entropy measures the degree of disorder in a system and the associated arrangement possibilities. Lina Tur Bonet chose this term as the title for her new album on GLOSSA, on which she - together with theorbist Jadran Duncumb - interprets Italian violin music of the so-called stylus phantasticus.

Experience the profound journey of faith and renewal with Resurrection, a powerful collection of classical works for Easter. From poignant depictions of the Passion to triumphant expressions of Christ's rising, this album resonates with the solemnity and ultimate hope of the Holy Week. Immerse yourself in moving Passions and majestic oratorios that capture the sacrifice and glorious victory at the heart of Easter.