Press Releases

The Borletti-Buitoni Trust will continue its support of the Verbier Festival Academy Chamber Music Programme next year following a successful second year of sponsorship in 2007. Taking part this year were 2007 BBT artists, French string quartet Quatuor Ébène (which won the Festival’s Prix d’Honneur and will return next year for a Festival concert in its own right) and Norwegian violinist Vilde Frang. BBT executive director Susan Rivers and BBT film-makers David Hoskins and Graham Johnston were in the Swiss Alps too in order to make a film about the events and BBT artists involved (this will go on line in the early Autumn on www.bbtartistslive.com). In true ‘BBT family’ fashion, former BBT award winners who were performing at the festival and taking part in masterclasses joined in the BBT social activities including the Jerusalem Quartet, violist Lawrence Power of the Leopold String Trio and BBT honorary committee member Heinrich Schiff.

Dutch trombonist Jörgen van Rijen has already used part of his award to record a wide-ranging personal selection of works for trombone on a CD entitled I was like, WOW! to be released in Spring 2008. The title piece was written for trombone and tape by Dutch composer Jacob ter Veldhuis and was inspired by the war in Iraq. Van Rijen has taken the theme of this piece (a soldier’s return to consciousness after an attack to find himself still alive) to select other pieces of music which for him prompt the exclamation ‘WOW!’. In November 2007 he will record baroque concerti with Holland’s foremost baroque ensemble Combattimento Consort, also with Channel Classics and for release in Autumn 2008. The repertoire includes three concerti by Albrechtsberger, Wagenseil and Leopold Mozart and small chamber pieces by Bertali, Marini, Castello and Schmelzer.

Zürich-born cellist Christian Poltéra has used his award to support a trio of recordings with BIS featuring unfairly neglected works for cello by three Swiss composers. The second CD, Christian Poltéra plays Arthur Honegger, will be released in November 2007 and features Poltéra in partnership with Kathryn Stott and Christian Tetzlaff for the chamber pieces and the Malmö Symphony Orchestra conducted by Tuomas Ollila for the orchestral work. The first CD of the series, Christian Poltéra plays Othmar Schoeck, released in May 2007, received warm praise from UK and European critics: “Poltéra proves himself an extraordinarily virtuosic interpreter whose technique is as fascinating as his cello song” (Pizzicato June 2007).

In November 2007 English tenor Andrew Kennedy will record, with pianist Julius Drake, a collection of songs by English composers William Denis Browne, Ivor Gurney and Eugene Goosens, many of them never recorded before and several of them not performed since the 1920s. The selected songs will be recorded together with lesser-known poems from the same first world war period, read by Simon Russell-Beale. The CD, entitled The Dark Pastoral, will be released in summer 2008 leading up to the 90th anniversary of the armistice.

In September 2007 German violinist Viviane Hagner will record her second BBT-supported disc with ALTARA: the complete Brahms Hungarian Dances (arranged by Joachim) with pianist Julius Drake. Coupled with this rarely recorded masterpiece will be the world première recording of a new arrangement of Brahms Waltzes by the distinguished German composer Detlev Glanert. Release date: April/May 2008 (ALTARA). Hagner’s first CD, Bach/Bartók/Hartmann, was warmly received earlier this year: “Technically faultless and consistently interesting, this is an extraordinary recital” (Anna Picard, Independent on Sunday 18 March 2007)

Two of BBT’s most recent winners (2007), Dutch harpist Lavinia Meijer and German violinist Jermolaj Albiker are giving a recital in aid of the Nicholas Boas Charitable Trust at 22 Mansfield St, London W1 on 12 November 2007. Albiker is joined by pianist Gerhard Vielhaber for works by Beethoven, Bartók and Saint-Saëns and pieces for the harp include music by Dussek, Flothuis, Paul Patterson and Walter Kuhne. Bookings and further information: boas22m@btinternet.com

The Trio has justifiably received extensive praise and developed a loyal audience for this series of concerts over three seasons devoted to showcasing the string trio repertoire. Concert programmes 9 & 10 (of a total 12 in The Series) will be performed at Southampton’s Turner Sims Concert Hall (14 & 16 October 2007) and London’s Wigmore Hall (19 & 20 October) and feature British composers including Britten, Bridge, Knussen and Walton. For various quartet pieces they are joined by oboist Nic Daniel and pianist Martin Roscoe.

As part of the Trust’s ongoing commitment to providing more than just money to its musicians, founding trustee Mitsuko Uchida undertakes two tours with an ensemble of BBT award-winners: clarinettist Martin Fröst, violinist Soovin Kim, cellist Christian Poltéra and pianist Llyr Williams. This will be the first time the Trust is presented in the US. The US tour is in May 2008 and includes concerts at Kalamazoo (13th) as part of the Gilmore International Keyboard Festival, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society (15th) and Carnegie, Zankel Hall, New York (17th). The programme includes Messiaen’s iconic work Quatuor pour la fin du temps (Uchida/Fröst/Kim/Poltéra) as well as Liszt’s La Lugubre Gondola (Williams) and Bartók’s Contrasts for Violin, Clarinet and Piano (Kim/ Fröst/Williams). The European tour in November 08 includes Perugia (Italy), Amsterdam and London.

A double concerto for two pianos and orchestra is a rare thing these days but this is the result of Simon Crawford-Phillips’ and Philip Moore’s 2004 BBT fellowship. They commissioned the acclaimed German composer Detlev Glanert to write the work for them and it will receive its world première with co-commissioner BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra conducted by Martyn Brabbins at Glasgow’s City Halls on 15 March 2008.

In May 2008 Currie premières a percussion concerto in six movements co-commissioned by BBT and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) from Simon Holt entitled Table of Noises. Inspired by the composer’s memories of his great uncle, who was a taxidermist, it will be premièred with the CBSO conducted by Martyn Brabbins at Symphony Hall on 14 May. Colin Currie’s BBT award from 2005 has been effectively used to support other new commissions and a recording project: August 2007 saw the release of his CD Borrowed Time featuring works by Dave Maric, all commissioned by Currie over the years of their friendship and association and now collected together on one disc.