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Tabea Zimmerman |
Lear overture begins final concerts for Sir Colin at 80
PREVIEW: SIR COLIN DAVIS AT 80
BARBICAN HALL
THE London Symphony Orchestra’s celebration of Colin Davis enters its final movement over the next fortnight, with three concerts reflecting their eminent president and former principal conductor’s wide-ranging taste.
Sir Colin, who turned 80 in September, shows no signs of heeding the ritardando that usually comes with age, and is set to conduct more concerts than ever with the LSO during the 2007/08 season.
Serving as LSO principal conductor from 1995 to 2006 – the longest period that anyone has held the role – Sir Colin’s tenure with the baton capped an already illustrious career with peerless direction of operas, including Berlioz’s The Trojans, Benjamin Britten’s Peter Grimes, Saint-Saëns’ Samson and Delilah and Verdi’s Falstaff.
His festivals of the music of Sibelius, Elgar, Berlioz and Beethoven are generally regarded as dramatic highlights of the LSO’s artistic achievements in recent years.
The first of the final three concerts in the series (Wednesday, December 12) features three overtures by Berlioz, a composer who Sir Colin has championed throughout his career.
Berlioz’s passionate, dramatic King Lear Overture opens the concert. Composed in 1831, it has a back-story almost as passionate and dramatic as the work itself. Berlioz had just won the Prix de Rome of 1830, but, spurned by the dissolution of his engagement to pianist Camille Moke, struck out for Paris to assassinate his former lover and her mother. On arriving in Nice, the French composer had second thoughts and abandoned his bloody plans. Instead, he spent a month on the French coast composing his Shakespearian overture – a happy outcome for classical music enthusiasts and, of course, Ms Moke and her mother.
Berlioz’s famous song cycle, Les Nuits d’été, will also feature, as will his Byronic celebration of the south, Harold in Italy, featuring soloist Tabea Zimmerman on viola.
On Sunday, December 16 and Tuesday, December 18, the LSO Symphony Chorus will join the fray in a performance of Sir Michael Tippett’s beautiful wartime oratorio, A Child of Our Time. An emotional and spiritual work, Tippett’s meditation on the ravages of war and its debasement of humanity will be interpreted here by soloists Indra Thomas (soprano), Mihoko Fujimura (alto) Steve Davislim (tenor) and Matthew Rose (bass).
Tippett’s Piano Concerto will make up the rest of the all-Tippett programme on the Sunday (featuring soloist Lang Lang), while Elgar’s Enigma Variations completes the series the following Tuesday.
Finally, if the pressures of barging down Regent Street in an attempt to get that last elusive Christmas present leaves you unable to make any of these three promising concerts, why not mark April 27 in your diary?
This date, for many, will mark the highlight of the LSO celebration of Sir Colin’s eight decades, with the world premiere of James MacMillan’s St John Passion – specially commissioned for Sir Colin – bringing proceedings to an appropriately exciting and momentous close.
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