Classical and Jazz: Preview - The week ahead - Mozart Unwrapped at King's Place and Jazz in the Crypt - plus listings
Published: 30 December 2010
by SEBASTIAN TAYLOR
A HIGHLY ambitious year-long exploration of Mozart’s music gets under way at the Kings Place arts venue this Friday, December 31. Mozart Unwrapped will involve more than 40 concerts given by six ensembles, 45 soloists and three choruses. In addition, there will be study days and other events examining his music.
The bumper Mozart-fest has been put together by Peter Millican, developer and chief executive of the new Kings Cross arts centre. “Mozart’s music has arrived in the 21st Century just as fresh and ablaze with energy, with, ingenuity and profundity as ever,” he says. “Now is as good a time as any to delve deeper into the extraordinary body of work created in all-too-short a lifetime. “In the year’s programme, we’ve included everything from the earliest piano sonatas and the glass harmonica pieces to trios, quartets, quintets and wind serenades; from piano concertos to some of the great symphonies; from concert arias and the early opera Il Re Pastore to the marvellous Requiem.”
The opening concert of Mozart Unwrapped this Friday evening is being given by the Orchestra of the Age of the Enlightenment. The overture to the Marriage of Figaro will starting the concert and the year-long programme. Following will be the Exsultate, Jubilate solo motet written when Mozart was 16; his Piano Concerto No 21 in C used in the film Elvira Madigan; and Symphony No 39 in E flat. Soloists are soprano Sophie Bevan and pianist Kristian Bezuidenhout. Jonathan Cohen conducts. The concert will be repeated on Saturday lunchtime. Next Thursday, Sir Colin Davis will conduct the Aurora Orchestra in playing his Mozart favourites.
LISTINGS:
FRIDAY DECEMBER 31
Piano recital: Warren Mailley-Smith, St Martin-in-the-Fields, 1pm, free
Kings Place hall one: Orchestra of Age of Enlightenment launch Mozart Unwrapped, 6pm, online £9.50
Hosepipe Band: New Year’s Eve Callidh, Cecil Sharp House, 2 Regent’s Park Road, NW1, 020 8731 8083, 8pm, £16/cons £14/under-14s £5
Singer Joan Viskant joins John Watson Trio, Palm Court, The Langham, 1 Portland Place, W1, 020 7965 0195, 8.45pm, £85 inc meal
SATURDAY JANUARY 1
Kings Place hall one: OAE play Mozart (repeat of Friday’s perf), 1pm, online £9.50 The Mikado, Barbican, 3pm, from £16.50
John Watson Trio, Palm Court, The Langham, Portland Place, W1, 020 7965 0195, 6.45pm, free
SUNDAY JANUARY 2
Lee Gibson sings Gershwin, Ronnie Scott’s, 47 Frith Street, Soho, 020 7439 0747, 1pm, from £10
Christian Brewer joins Pete Chapman Trio, Princess of Wales, 22 Chalcot Road, NW1, 0207 722 0345, 2pm, free
Jazz & jam: Christian Brewer & guests, Bar Solo, 20 Inverness Street, Camden Town, 020 7482 4611, 7.30pm, free
MONDAY JANUARY 3
Glen Miller Orchestra, Barbican, 3pm, from £16.50
Brandon Allen Quartet & guests indulge in psychedelic funk, The Old Crown, 90 Highgate Hill, N19, 020 7272 3893, 8pm, free
TUESDAY JANUARY 4
Soprano Sophie Daneman joins Concordia viol consort to perform 17th Century music from England & France,
Wigmore Hall, 7.30pm, from 15
Martin Speake Quartet play jazz, Lower Ground Bar, 269a West End Lane, NW6, 020 7431 2211, 9.30pm, £5
WEDNESDAY JANUARY 5
Jazz in the Crypt: Rick Laughlin Quartet play funk fusion, St Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square, 020 7766 1100, 8pm, £9/cons £5
THURSDAY JANUARY 6
James Bowman sings Mostly Handel & Bach with London Octave, St Martin-in-the-Fields, 7.30pm,from £7
Sir Colin Davis conducts his Mozart favs, Kings Place hall one, 7.30pm, online £9.50
Liszt Anniversary: Barry Douglas plays second piano concerto with LSO, Barbican, 7.30pm, from £8
Venues:
Barbican, Silk Street, EC1, 0845 7500, www.barbican.org.uk
Kings Place, York Way, Kings Cross, 0844 254 0321, www.kingsplace.co.uk
St Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square, 0207 766 1100, www.smitf.org
Wigmore Hall, Wigmore Street, W1, 020 7935 2141, www.wigmore-hall.org.uk