The great song cycles of Franz Schubert will be presented by two world-renowned musicians, Ian Bostridge, tenor, and Thomas Adès, pianist and composer. Winterreise, which was being proofread by Schubert just before his death in 1828, sets to music 24 interrelated poems by Wilhelm Müller. It is presented from the point of view of the protagonist, alone and wandering on a cold winter’s evening, in despair after learning that the love of his life has left him for a richer man. Providing the winter setting, the piano plays an unusual role, acting as an equal partner rather than an accompaniment.
Featured Biographies
Ian Bostridge
Tenor
Ian Bostridge’s international recital career takes him to the foremost concert halls of Europe, Japan and North America, with regular appearances at the Schubertiade in Schwarzenberg and the Edinburgh, Munich and Aldeburgh festivals. Opera engagements have included Don Giovanni and Adès’s The Tempest for the Royal Opera, Covent Garden; The Rake’s Progress in Munich; Semele for English National Opera; Don Giovanni for the Vienna State Opera; and Aschenbach (Death in Venice) for both English National Opera and at the Monnaie, Brussels. A Barbican production of Curlew River will tour the USA and European festivals from 2014/15. He has appeared in concert with the Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw, Boston Symphony, London Symphony, New York Philharmonic and Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestras and the Orchestra of the Metropolitan Opera, under Sir Simon Rattle, Bernard Haitink, Sir Colin Davis, Seiji Ozawa, Riccardo Muti, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Daniel Barenboim, James Levine, Daniel Harding, Andris Nelsons and Sir Antonio Pappano. His many recordings have won all the major international record prizes and been nominated for 13 Grammys. He was awarded a CBE in the 2004 New Year’s Honours. He will be Humanitas Professor of Classical Music at the University of Oxford 2014/2015. His book Schubert’s Winter Journey: Anatomy of an Obsession will be published by Faber and Faber in the UK and Knopf in the US at the beginning of 2015.
Thomas Adès
Composer, Conductor, and Pianist
Thomas Adès (b. 1971 in London) works as composer, conductor and pianist. His compositions include two operas, Powder Her Face (Cheltenham Festival/Almeida London, 1995), and The Tempest (Royal Opera, Covent Garden, 2004); Violin Concerto Concentric Paths (Berliner Festspiele and London Proms, 2005); other orchestral works include Asyla (CBSO 1997), Tevot (Berlin Philharmonic and Carnegie Hall 2007), Polaris (New World, Miami 2011), In Seven Days (Piano concerto with moving image – LA Philharmonic and RFH London 2008), and Totentanz for mezzo-soprano, baritone and orchestra (London Proms, 2013). From 1999 to 2008 he was Artistic Director of the Aldeburgh Festival As a conductor he appears regularly with, among others, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, London Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Concertgebouw, Melbourne and Sydney Symphonies, BBC Symphony, and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. He has conducted the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, São Paulo State and Philharmonia Orchestras, Mariinksy Theatre and Gulbenkian Orchestras, and regularly appears with the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Britten Sinfonia, London Sinfonietta, Ensemble Modern and Athelas Ensemble of Copenhagen. As an opera conductor he has conducted The Rake’s Progress at the Royal Opera House and the Zürich Opera, and last Autumn made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera New York conducting The Tempest. He will conduct this production of The Tempest at the Vienna State Opera in 2015 with the Vienna Philharmonic. Recent piano engagements include solo recitals at Carnegie Hall (Stern Auditorium), New York, and the Barbican in London, and concerto appearances with the New York Philharmonic. Awards include: Grawemeyer Award for Asyla (1999); Royal Philharmonic Society large-scale composition awards for Asyla, The Tempest and Tevot; Ernst von Siemens Composers’ prize for string quartet Arcadiana; and Best Opera Grammy and Diapason d’or de l’année (Paris) for The Tempest. He coaches the course in Piano and Chamber Music annually at the International Musicians Seminar, Prussia Cove.