Events
Please find below a selection of concerts around the country, and sometimes beyond, featuring woodwind instruments. If you have a concert that you think might be relevant for listing on our page, please ‘Get in Touch’ with the details and a link to the booking page.
BBC SO Total Immersion: Italian Radicals
BBC Symphony Orchestra and the BBC Singers
May 5th 2024 at 19:30 – 22:00
Martyn Brabbins, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the BBC Singers launch an evening-long odyssey through the music of Dallapiccola, Maderna, Nono and Berio.
‘Keep going!’ Imagine a symphony that takes everything a symphony has been and everything a symphony could be: an orchestral showpiece that’s simultaneously a protest, a celebration, and a postmodern prank from the heart of 1960s counterculture. Berio’s Sinfonia is the climax to a day-long immersion in the music of postwar Italy.
But as we’ve heard, it’s just part of a far bigger – and even more gripping – story. Bristling, brilliant sonic adventures by Dallapiccola, by former BBC Symphony Orchestra guest conductor Bruno Maderna and by the far-left maverick Luigi Nono pave the way to Berio’s modern classic: outsize creative personalities who set out to remake the world, and left a legacy of music that continues to outrage, astonish and enchant.
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Calefax Reed Quintet – Bach, Dvořák, Debussy, Gershwin
13/05/2024 1:00 pm
Wigmore Hall, 36 Wigmore Street, London, W1U 2BP
Calefax Reed Quintet
Bach, Dvořák, Debussy, Gershwin
May 13th 2023 at 13:00 – 14:00
The Times has described the ensemble as ‘five extremely gifted Dutch gents who almost made the reed quintet seem the best musical format on the planet’. Though new works form part of its repertoire for the unique combination of oboe, clarinet, saxophone, bass clarinet and bassoon, here it offers a variety of arrangements.
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Darkness to Light: Manfred & Mahler 5
07/06/2024 8:00 pm
Heinz Hall for the Performing Arts, 600 Penn Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15222, United States
Darkness to Light: Manfred & Mahler 5
June 7th 2024 at 20:00 – 22:00
The program begins with the sounds of New York’s “frenetic energy and multicultural aural palette” in Jessie Montgomery’s Coincident Dances. Principal Oboe, Cynthia Koledo DeAlmeida, and Principal Horn, William Caballero, then join to premiere a double concerto by Michael Daugherty.
The night ends with Mahler’s epic 5th Symphony. Written at the beginning of his relationship with his wife, Alma, this work is seen as a love letter to her, as it begins with a funeral march and culminates in celebration.
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Darkness to Light: Manfred & Mahler 5
08/06/2024 7:30 pm
Heinz Hall for the Performing Arts, 600 Penn Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15222, United States
Darkness to Light: Manfred & Mahler 5
June 8th 2024 at 19:30 – 21:30
The program begins with the sounds of New York’s “frenetic energy and multicultural aural palette” in Jessie Montgomery’s Coincident Dances. Principal Oboe, Cynthia Koledo DeAlmeida, and Principal Horn, William Caballero, then join to premiere a double concerto by Michael Daugherty.
The night ends with Mahler’s epic 5th Symphony. Written at the beginning of his relationship with his wife, Alma, this work is seen as a love letter to her, as it begins with a funeral march and culminates in celebration.
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Darkness to Light: Manfred & Mahler 5
09/06/2024 2:30 pm
Heinz Hall for the Performing Arts, 600 Penn Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15222, United States
Darkness to Light: Manfred & Mahler 5
June 9th 2024 at 14:30 – 16:30
The program begins with the sounds of New York’s “frenetic energy and multicultural aural palette” in Jessie Montgomery’s Coincident Dances. Principal Oboe, Cynthia Koledo DeAlmeida, and Principal Horn, William Caballero, then join to premiere a double concerto by Michael Daugherty.
The night ends with Mahler’s epic 5th Symphony. Written at the beginning of his relationship with his wife, Alma, this work is seen as a love letter to her, as it begins with a funeral march and culminates in celebration.
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Britten Sinfonia and Pagrav Dance Company with Nicholas Daniel
13/06/2024 7:30 pm
Snape Maltings Concert Hall, Snape, IP17 3SP
Britten Sinfonia and Pagrav Dance Company: Sāvitri
June 13th 2023 at 19:30 pm – 21:30 pm
Close-up: Tutti in threes
16/06/2024 2:15 pm
Recital Hall, Concertgebouwplein 10, 1071 LN Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Close-up: Tutti in threes
June 16th 2024 at 14:15 – 16:35
The Close-up series is the best way to experience the Concertgebouw Orchestra’s musicians as individuals! Tonight wind players form the orchestra will come to the foreground, playing music by Beethoven, Reicha, Glinka and Poulenc, with the number 3 as the unifying theme.
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Woodwind Forward!
16/06/2024 2:15 pm
Kleiner Saal, Elbphilharmonie, Platz d. Deutschen Einheit 4, 20457 Hamburg, Germany
Woodwind Forward!
June 16th 2024 at 11:00 – 13:00
Already in the first half of the 20th century, French composers and orchestras used to put the woodwinds in the foreground. It should define their style and the special French sound. Francis Poulenc was one of the most important representatives of this tradition, and his music focuses on multicolor and sensitive poetry.
“”After all the impressionistic mists, will not this simple and clear art [of Poulenc], so reminiscent of Scarlatti and Mozart, be the next phase of our music?”” of wind music prove true in any case. With his few wind works, he set standards that still have an impact today.
Poulenc’s compositional spheres are complemented by the music of Henri Tomasis, Jean Françaix and Charles Koechlin. Behind the seemingly naïve title of Tomasi’s rural concerto »Concert champêtre« lies a knowledgeable allusion to French rococo music mixed with the Corsican flair of Tomasi’s homeland.
Charles Koechlin’s Bassoon Sonata takes us back to the sounds of Impressionism. In the France of his time, Koechlin was considered an outsider and yet created an exceptional work that shows how delicate and at the same time wild and intoxicating the bassoon is. And how many magnificent nuances of sound the instrument, which usually stands in the background, carries within itself.
Jean Françaix’s trio in four movements shows the 82-year-old composer still at the height of his creative power: melodic invention, rhythmic wit, harmonic elasticity and an elegant instrumental writing form a particularly fortunate combination.
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