Oxford Alternative Orchestra
MOZART: DON GIOVANNI
St John’s Auditorium
From tonight until 30th Jan (except 25 & 28)
Tickets: 01865 305305 or www.ticketsoxford.com
Building on its past successes, the Oxford Alternative Orchestra – formed in 2016 by conductor Hannah Schneider – transports Mozart’s popular opera to a town in southern Italy towards the end of the Second World War, where it explores the themes of liberty, status and gender politics as the townspeople gradually wreak their revenge on the debauched, murderous Don. Jonny Danciger directs, with music direction by Hannah Schneider.
SJE International Piano Series
VADYM KHOLODENKO
St John the Evangelist
Friday, 7.30pm
Tickets: www.sje-oxford.org
Award-winning Ukranian pianist Vadym Kholodenko has performed with leading orchestras throughout Europe, North America and Japan. Now he makes his SJE debut with a programme of sonatas by Mozart, Schubert and Rachmaninov, contrasted with Ballade by contemporary Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho, and selections from Scriabin’s 24 Preludes Op.11.
Ellen Kent
LA BOHEME & MADAMA BUTTERFLY
New Theatre, Oxford
Friday & Saturday,
Tickets: 0844 871 3020 or www.atgtickets.com/Oxford
Ellen Kent is back in Oxford with two stunning productions of Puccini favourites – La Boheme (Friday) and Madama Butterfly (Saturday), both sung in Italian with English surtitles. Both feature international stars, including Korean soprano Elena Dee as Mimi and Butterfly, full chorus and orchestra, as well as the kind of exquisite, sumptuous sets and costumes for which Ellen Kent has become famous. Not to be missed!
JDP Concert Series
JAMES GILCHRIST (TENOR) & ANNA TILBROOK (PIANO)
JDP Music Building
Saturday, 7.30pm
Tickets: 01865 305305 or www.ticketsoxford.com
Popular tenor James Gilchrist and his regular piano accompanist Anna Tilbrook present a programme exploring the ‘outsider’ figure wandering through nature, inspired by the musical model originally established by Schubert’s Winterreise. This includes Finzi’s O fair to see, Julian Philips’ Love Songs for Mary Joyce, Schumann’s Liederkreis, Op.24 and Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen.
Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra
BEETHOVEN SYMPHONY & CONCERTO CYCLE I
Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford
Saturday, 7.30pm
Tickets: 01865 980980 or www.oxfordphil.com
Presenter and Beethoven authority John Suchet introduces this first full orchestral concert in Oxford Philharmonic’s Beethoven Festival. The programme includes the Piano Concerto No.1 in C major Op.15 and Symphony No.3 in E flat major Op.55, the famous ‘Eroica’ symphony. Marios Papadopoulos is the piano soloist and conductor.
St Giles Orchestra
ROSSINI, GERSHWIN & FRANCK
St Andrew’s Church, Linton Road
Saturday, 7.30pm
Tickets: www.stgilesorchestra.org.uk
Israel Lai, winner of Abingdon Music Festival’s Maestro Masterclass in 2019, conducts the opening piece of this concert, Rossini’s famous The Thieving Magpie overture. The baton is then passed to Dwight Pile-Gray, who joined St Giles Orchestra as a second conductor in November 2018, for Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F (with soloist Fionnuala Ward) and Franck’s Symphony in D minor.
Oxford Sinfonia
CONCERT
University Church of St Mary the Virgin
Saturday, 7.30pm
Tickets: www.oxfordsinfonia.co.uk
Birthday boy Beethoven makes another appearance in this concert, which is raising funds for the National Deaf Children’s Society. Beethoven himself famously suffered progressive hearing loss from the late 1790s, and by 1812 was profoundly deaf. Under the baton of Peter Bassano, Oxford Sinfonia will perform Beethoven’s Trauergesang and one of his most popular symphonies, the No.5 in C minor, best known for its dramatic, four-note opening motif. The programme also includes Gabrielli Canzoni for brass and Mozart’s Symphony No.36 in C, the ‘Linz’.
NICOLA LISLE
