Sun 25 Nov 2018
Kings Place Hall One
Bach, the Universe & Everything
J.S. Bach Herr, wie du willst – ‘Lord, deal with me as Thou wilt’ BWV73
Charlotte Beament soprano
Nick Pritchard tenor
James Newby bass
Professor Suzanne Aigrain speaker
Worlds Beyond
Marvel at our extraordinary universe and the music of Bach with our Sunday morning series for inquiring and curious minds, with divine music, lively conversation and stimulating science.
Tue 27 Nov 2018
Camden Assembly
The Night Shift – Camden
Further listening: Simone Jandl
Mon 12 Nov 2018
So you’ve heard our Brahms: A German Requiem concert and you’re hungry for more Brahms. Our co-principal viola Simone Jandl recommends four unique pieces Brahms wrote after a eureka moment later in his life.
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Rehearsing Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis | Vaughan Williams
Fri 9 Nov 2018
“It’s been really inspirational for the start of this project.”
Leader Margaret Faultless gets her hands on the original concert programme for the premiere of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis at Gloucester Cathedral on September 6, 1910.
Hear us play it before Brahms’ Requiem with Marin Alsop:
Saturday 10 November, 2018, The Anvil, Basingstoke
Sunday 11 November, 2018, Southbank Centre, London
Read MoreBrahms: A German Requiem Programme
Wed 7 Nov 2018
Here’s the programme for our Brahms: A German Requiem concert at Royal Festival Hall on 11 November 2018. Pick up a free hard copy on the night!
Read MoreIndividual or society? Heart or heart? Conform or rebel?
Mon 5 Nov 2018
Individual or Society?
Head or Heart?
Conform or Rebel?
Laws or Freedoms?
Secular or Sacred?
These questions about how to live a good life challenged composers such as Bach, Brahms and Mozart as much as they challenge us now.
Our 2018-19 season of concerts at Southbank Centre features the music these composers wrote in response to these questions, sometimes overtly and sometimes indirectly.
Read MoreBrahms’ humanist Requiem
Tue 30 Oct 2018
“Brahms’ Requiem is essentially humanist, less a prayer for the dead than a personal meditation for the consolation of the living.”
Ahead of our performances with Marin Alsop, we explore how Brahms’ German Requiem broke the mould.
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Composers and space
Thu 18 Oct 2018
“For the same reason we are bound to believe that, as neither the beautiful neither the ugly is universal,” claimed the French composer Hector Berlioz in 1844. “Certain operas, which are every day represented and applauded (on Earth), will be hissed off the stage on Saturn, Jupiter, Mars and Venus.”
Read MoreWe’re off to Asia
Wed 17 Oct 2018
Today members of the Orchestra are flying out to Singapore for a seven date tour of South East Asia, including our first ever concerts in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, the Philippines, Thailand and Brunei. We’ll also be returning to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where we played with Iván Fischer and Steven Isserlis in 2006.
It’s all part of Toyota Classics, an annual classical music tour Toyota has promoted since 1990 to support charities across Asia.
Read MoreOAE’s Golden Record
Mon 1 Oct 2018
Somewhere beyond Neptune, travelling into interstellar space at more than 38,000mph, is humankind’s most distant object, Voyager 1.
Launched in 1977, the spacecraft gave us extraordinary images of Jupiter and Saturn, and still sends messages home. The most famous is the ‘Pale Blue Dot’ photograph, taken from the edge of the solar system and depicting Earth from 3.7 billion miles away.
Read MoreWhat is Chamber Music?
Wed 19 Sep 2018
The term ‘chamber’ is often used to describe bands of various sizes, from string quartets to medium-sized orchestra. But what does ‘chamber music’ really mean? And where did it come from?
Our Chief Executive Crispin Woodhead explains.
Introducing Beethoven’s Contrabassoon
Wed 22 Aug 2018
What is this big beast of the orchestra, and where did it come from?
David Chatterton introduces the contrabassoon as heard in Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony and Haydn’s Creation.
Read MoreIntroducing the Baroque Double Bass
Fri 10 Aug 2018
‘A whole hillside of sheep goes into making the bottom string’.
Cecelia Bruggemeyer, our long-time double bass player, introduces its baroque ancestor.
NB
Violone: literally ‘big viol’ ; a general term used to refer to baroque bass instruments of various sizes and tunings
Bass:
1. a general word for a non-specified bass instrument or bass line
2. shorthand for double bass
Double-bass (Eng.), Contrebasse (Fr.): a bass stringed instrument that sounds an octave lower than the written pitch
Read MoreBach, the Universe & Everything: Meet the Scientists
Wed 8 Aug 2018
Meet the Scientists
Get to know the speakers, scientists and thinkers who’ll be exploring all things extraterrestrial in the next season of Bach, the Universe & Everything.
Read MoreIntroducing Mozart’s Fortepiano
Thu 19 Jul 2018
“It really changes the way we think about the music”.
Our Co-Principal Keyboard, Steven Devine, introduces the predecessor of the modern piano, the fortepiano.
It’s the type of instrument Haydn, Mozart and the young Beethoven would have known and composed for.
Read MoreApplications for the 2019 OAE Experience Scheme are now open
Mon 16 Jul 2018
OAE Experience
The Ann and Peter Law OAE Experience gives gifted period instrument players the chance to work alongside OAE players. The year-long scheme is aimed at players nearing the end of their studies, to help bridge the gap between conservatoire education and a professional career.
Read MoreBach, the Universe & Everything returns
Tue 10 Jul 2018
We’re extremely excited to announce all the dates in our next series of Bach, the Universe & Everything, at Kings Place in partnership with the Institute of Physics.
Read MoreWhy is it called the Surprise Symphony? The secret of Haydn’s success
Mon 9 Jul 2018
Haydn’s Surprise Symphony isn’t just one dramatic moment. Our Chief Executive Crispin explains why Haydn is the ‘King of Symphonies’.
Read MoreEnjoyed our Schiff’s Surprise concert? Here’s some advice…
Wed 4 Jul 2018
Here’s Max Mandel, our co-principal viola, on what you should track down next…
I hate having to defend Joseph Haydn, but it’s a position I find myself in quite often. A colleague of mine asked me in front of a pianist friend to choose, gun to my head, between the string quartets of Haydn and the string quartets of Mozart. I didn’t hesitate for a second with my answer: Haydn.
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