Britten Sinfonia is thrilled to announce its return to the live concert platform at the Barbican, where the orchestra is Associate Ensemble, from October 2020. The Barbican has announced that its autumn series, Live from the Barbican, will feature socially distanced concerts with a live audience, which will also be livestreamed.
Britten Sinfonia will be performing in two of the Live from the Barbican concerts, with a characteristic mix of genres, collaborators and programming. On Sunday 4 October, Britten Sinfonia operatic superstar Sir Bryn Terfel will open the series with some of Sir Bryn’s favourite songs, from Bach to Ivor Novello via Finzi. On Wednesday 18 November, Britten Sinfonia will be joined by renowned jazz clarinettist Shabaka Hutchings for performances of music by Copland and Stravinsky.
Tickets for the concerts and the livestream will go on sale at 10am on Friday 11 September.
Britten Sinfonia and Bryn Terfel
Sunday 4 October 2020, 8pm
The Barbican re-opens with celebrated bass-baritone Bryn Terfel performing alongside Britten Sinfonia and our Principal Oboe, Nicholas Daniel, in an evening of music that is close to his heart. The programme features Bach’s consoling cantata No. 82 Ich habe genug, and Finzi’s optimistic Shakespeare song cycle Let us garlands bring, in the composer’s own string orchestra version. The evening concludes with some of Sir Bryn’s favourite Welsh folk songs plus songs by Ivor Novello, all in specially commissioned orchestral arrangements by Iain Farrington. Britten Sinfonia’s Leader, Jacqueline Shave, will direct this concert from the violin.
Britten Sinfonia and Shabaka Hutchings
Wednesday 18 November, 8pm
Britten Sinfonia will join saxophonist, clarinettist, composer and band leader, Shabaka Hutchings, one of the foremost proponents of the current British jazz scene. Blurring the lines between jazz and classical music and exploring the jazz idiom, he performs Copland’s Clarinet Concerto, written for the legendary ‘King of Swing’ Benny Goodman, followed by Stravinsky’s Three Pieces for Solo Clarinet, and a solo improvisation on clarinet. Britten Sinfonia will also perform Copland’s musical portrait of 19th century pioneers, Appalachian Spring, which brings together traditional Shaker melodies with his quintessentially American sound.
Find out about Live from the Barbican here.
