"The opening work of the evening was Bartók’s rarely heard Concerto for two pianos, percussion and orchestracompleted in 1940, an arrangement of his earlier Sonata for two pianos and percussion from 1937.   In three contrasting movements Bartók emphasises the percussive nature of the two pianos resolutely performed by Noriko Ogawa and Philip Smith together with a battery of percussion instruments including timpani; side drums; xylophone and tam-tam expertly played by Dame Evelyn Glennie and Janet Fulton."

"I loved the mesmerizing slow movement, a highly chromatic yet serene elegy. Complex and densely textured the Finale was especially well performed by the Camerata creating a broad range of vibrant colours". "Kodály created the Dances of Galánta in 1933 from five gypsy melodies that he had heard in the then Hungarian market town of Gálanta.  Vividly coloured the writing of gripping rhythmic intensity provided the Camerata with a marvellous platform to display their talents with the woodwind covering themselves in glory especially the entrancingly played solo clarinet. Sounding as glorious as I have heard from any orchestra in this hall the Camerata strings are a match to be reckoned with." "Although he was an Austrian by birth I’m glad that music from Haydn was included in this Hungarian themed programme concert. I guess Haydn qualified, as for most of his adult life he lived and worked for the Esterházy Court in what was then part of Hungary. Known as the ‘London’or ‘Salomon Symphony’ – the last symphony that Haydn wrote – written and composed in England in 1795, the Symphony No.104 in D major is one of his finest works. For this symphony the Camerata were asked to play standing up. Takács-Nagy’s commanding reading was remarkable in its splendour and broad expression an absorbing mix of memorable lyricism and buoyant rhythms. Vitality and sheer joyousness of the opening movement filled the hall followed by an Andante of Viennese grace if sounding rather sombre." " The Finale clearly designed by Haydn with audience appeal in mind did just that with the Camerata in remarkable form galloping along with effervescence providing considerable thrust and forward momentum. For his encore Takács-Nagy repeated the movement." "This was a quite stunning concert by the Manchester Camerata which confirms to me that in Gábor Takács-Nagy they have found their ideal music director."

Read the whole review on the Seen and Heard website

See details of the programme

Find out more about Camerata Music Director Gábor Takács-Nagy

		Beethoven - Symphony No. 9 Douglas Boyd & Manchester Camerata Rebecca von Lipinksi soprano Anna Grevelius mezzo-soprano Peter Wedd tenor Roderick Williams baritone City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Chorus Catalogue # AV2245 Recorded live in concert at The Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, January 2011 Produced by Andrew Keener

Manchester Camerata concludes its acclaimed Beethoven cycle, appropriately with the composer’s final Symphony, the glorious Ninth. Like the previous releases in this cycle these live recordings capture the spirit and freshness of these remarkable, genre-busting works, as well as the excitement, atmosphere and energy of the chamber orchestra under Douglas Boyd, the ensemble’s Music Director for 10 years. Manchester Camerata has become one of the finest, most innovative chamber orchestras in the UK, and Douglas Boyd has proven to be an eminent Beethovenian. Conducting the composer’s Fidelio at the 2009 Garsington Opera Festival, The Times (London) noted “his grasp of Beethovenian idiom” and “pungent underlining of orchestral detail”, praising the musical performance as “sublime and exultant”.

TRACK LISTING LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770 – 1827) Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125 “Choral”  1. I Allegro ma non troppo, un poco maestoso (14:38) 2. II Molto vivace (13:23) 3. III Adagio molto e cantabile (13:14) 4. V Presto – “O Freunde, nicht diese Töne!” – Allegro assai – Allegro assai vivace: alla Marcia – Andante maestoso – Adagio ma non troppo ma divoto – Allegro energico – Allegro ma non tanto … Presto (23:18) Total time: 64:58

Discover the whole Manchester Camerata Beethoven Cycle

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The scheme – led by the prestigious arts venue Sage Gateshead - was one of eight successful applications to gain funding from the new half a million pound fund set up by independent UK innovation body Nesta, Arts Council England and the Arts and Humanities Research Council. There were 500 applications in all.  Using the latest digital technology,  concerts given by Manchester Camerata, Northern Sinfonia and the Aurora Orchestra will be streamed to Alnwick Playhouse, The Maltings in Berwick and the Gala Theatre in Durham.

The idea is to bring classical music to audiences who find it difficult to get to orchestral concerts will be able to hear the concert and watch it on a big screen for a £5 ticket.  The concerts will also be available to view online for a limited period. For the project Sage Gateshead has linke dup with technology partners Aframe and Videojuicer to make the project work. As well as serving concert-goers, it will provide audience data that potentially could be shared with other arts organisations. Bob Riley, Chief Executive, Manchester Camerata, said: “We’re delighted to be part of this extremely exciting and forward-looking digital venture. Manchester Camerata’s mission is to transform people’s lives through the inspirational power of live music, and this project will allow us to extend our reach to people who would otherwise have limited opportunity to experience the Camerata live.” Aframe chief executive David Peto also welcomed the success of the application, saying: “It’s brilliant to see such an innovative project idea being recognised and granted funding.Pulling together the technical expertise of firms already entrenched in the video market and combining it with spectacular cultural content is a great way to add value to the arts community.” Alnwick Playhouse is one of the venues to benefit from this exciting new project.  Jo Potts is the Arts Centre Manager.  “This is a very exciting project which will benefit our venue in a variety of ways including the development of new audiences for classical music concerts and enhancing our existing programme of live classical music concerts delivered by The Alnwick Music Society.  “The opportunity to work with the digital partners Aframe and Videojuicer is a key part of the project for the Playhouse as it will help us identify and implement the digital updates required to successfully deliver on this project.”   Culture Minister Ed Vaizey said: “There is a huge amount of scope for bringing the innovative use of technology into cultural organisations. The number of applications for funding shows there is a tremendous appetite in the sector for digital innovation, with some very impressive and forward-thinking ideas emerging.  It is great to see the cultural sector looking forward and striving to be at the forefront of digital innovation.”

Manchester Camerata's Portrait of Love concert on 28 April 2012 at 7.30pm - conducted by Gábor Takács-Nagy - will be streamed live to the Gala in Durham, with rebroadcasts on April 29 at The Maltings in Berwick, and on May 28 at the Alnwick Playhouse in Northumberland.

See details of the Portrait of Love concert

Gábor Takács-Nagy

Visit the NESTA Website

Arts Council England

Arts and Humanities Research Council

Manchester Camerata musicians are undertaking a 6 week long specialist training from Music Therapist Dr John Habron.  The training is intended to equip them with the specific skills required to deliver workshops.    Working with people with dementia and their carers in central and Northern Manchester communities for 10 weeks, musicians will deliver music-therapy based sessions.

Activity will be individual focussed, identifying those areas yet to be diminished by the onset of dementia and developing these through a series of workshops to uncover participants’ hidden characters and engage their carers in a re-evaluation of their practice to improve communication and care. Dr John Habron from Coventry University will also be writing up this project as a research piece with his colleague Jana Jesuthasan.

Read more about Dr john Habron

Discover more about Manchester Camerata's Learning Projects

Working with a team from Manchester Camerata - Dalcroze Specialist Emma Dixon and violinist Gemma Bass - early years children and their parents are encouraged to explore music through traditional song and lullabies.  The sessions are aimed at helping parents and small children to use music together - to strength relationships and assist in developing language, musical skills and physical co-ordination in very young children.

The sessions make use of Dalcroze Eurythmics, a method which has been shown to yield impressive results in teaching music to very young children by combining movement and play with music and singing, and encouraging learning by imitation, often with parents present. The sessions will run weekly for 10 weeks from 14 February 2012, with sessions for both parents and 0-2 year olds, and also toddlers aged 2-4.

Find out more about the Dalcroze Method

Read more about Manchester Camerata's Learning projects

		Brahim Kerkour is an Anglo-Moroccan composer currently based in London. His work explores the possibility of a musical expressivity based on the intersections of sound, movement, and space. Current research focuses on the sculpting of sound, the notion of instruments as resonating bodies, as well as relationships between memory and the perception of musical space, energy, and temporality. Brahim joins Manchester Camerata as part of the Embedded scheme run in conjunction with Sound and Music.

- How have you found the Composer in Residence experience?      Its been a terrific experience so far. Camerata and SAM have been really supportive, and along with the structure of the residency, the conditions have been ideal for pursuing a long term creative endeavor. The orchestra's music making is inspiring, and I've been gaining a lot from my interactions with staff, musicians, audiences, and learning participants. - How did you decide the idea for the piece? What is it? What's the concept?      The idea emerged from thinking about how I could complement the concert program. Having chosen to write for an octet, I thought about how I could draw on Schubert's Octet to showcase instrumental colour in a different way than Strauss does in his arrangement of "Till Eulenspiegel" for five instruments. The concept behind my piece lies in the idea that music, of any culture or style, is fundamentally a distribution of energy over time (by energy, I'm referring to the general sensation of tension and relaxation, rather than the qualitative, or superficial, type of energy that we use to characterize a piece's surface). With this piece, I've set out to expose the underlying energy of a short passage from Schubert's Octet (the first five measures), and I'm using transformations of timbre to gradually peel away the layers of its surface, reaching a fluid movement of raw sound. So the piece is a type of excavation, and similar to those images from Geology textbooks that show the layer's of the earth, with someone's front yard at the top, the earth's core at the bottom, and various materials in between. - What was hard? Easy?      None of it was easy! Working with Schubert's music while simultaneously managing the underlying energy of my own piece was particularly challenging. As was pooling all the material into a unified sound world. Luckily, I had the chance to work with the ensemble on two occasions where we explored sounds, mixtures of instruments, and tried out some sketches. That was a massive help, and the piece I've composed grew directly out of those exchanges. - What do you audiences to get from the piece?      I hope it opens new perspectives on what instruments can do, and on the audience's relationship with other music. After navigating a sound world that interacts with the foundation of a familiar passage of music, I hope audiences will be compelled to participate creatively with the rest of Schubert's Octet in ways that are unique to their personalities.

Read more about Brahim Kerkour and his music

Visit Brahim's website

See more about Sound and Music's

Funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation the Futures Project is set to run for five years and plans to explore how new approaches to performance can develop the ways musicians look at themselves and communicate within the ensemble and also with audiences.  The second period of workshops took place in November, led by cellist Matthew Barley who worked with a core group of Camerata players, Camerata's Head of Creative Programming, Manus Carey, and the project researcher Jane Oakland.  The workshops used simple techniques to explore and develop improvisations both with and away from instruments.  The pilot phase of the project is now complete, and Jane Oakland’s research findings will be released at the end of the year.  The results of the research could have potential for national significance to be shared with other orchestras and institutions.

Matthew Barley blogged "I was back up in Manchester for two days of player training with members of the Manchester Camerata. It was the first time I’d worked with them, and they are obviously an impressive lot. During the two days they made incredible progress. It was set up as a pilot project to start improvising with them, and the the difference between the beginning of day 1 and the end of day 2 was just wonderful! We had some great playing going by the end, and there is a unique pleasure for me from seeing a group of players grow into a new skill they thought they didn’t have."

About Matthew Barley

Read about the first stage of the Futures Project

Find out more about The Paul Hamlyn Foundation

Performance dates for 'Moment Translucent' 26 January 2012  -  Lancaster International Concert Series 1 February 2012 – St Nicolas's Church, Thorne 2 February 2012 – The Coronation Hall, Ulverston There will also be the opportunity to hear Brahim in conversation before each concert explaining his compositional process and influences.

		Sound and Music (SAM) is the national agency for the promotion of contemporary music and Sound Art. Embedded is SAM's new artist development programme.   Supported by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, Embedded offers residencies for talented artists with a range of leading national creative organisations, encouraging serious engagement with their activity and providing significant scope for artistic exploration.

Brahim Kerkour is an Anglo-Moroccan composer currently based in London. His work explores the possibility of a musical expressivity based on the intersections of sound, movement, and space. Current research focuses on the sculpting of sound, the notion of instruments as resonating bodies, as well as relationships between memory and the perception of musical space, energy, and temporality.

Since the start of the 2011/12 Season Brahim has been working closely with the orchestra - involved in both off and on stage activities.  He's also composing a number of works for the ensemble - the first of which 'Moment Translucent' is inspired by Franz Schubert’s famous 1824 Octet.

More about Sound and Music

Embedded Composer Scheme

Brahim Kerkour

Manchester Camerata and New Music

The Victoria Hall 'Celebration of Christmas' on 12 December saw the world premier of the 'A Portrait of Wolstanton'.  The work was a collaborative musical project with Manchester Camerata Orchestra which has taken Portraits as its season theme. Year 10 & 11 GCSE Music students from Wolstanton High School and year 5s from six of its feeder Primary schools (Bradwell County Primary School, St Margaret’s CE Junior School, May Bank Infants School, Ellison Primary School, Bursley County Primary School and St Wulstan’s RC Primary School) came together for 2 days with Camerata composer Andy Smith, Principal Oboe Rachael Clegg and Violinist Gemma Bass to create a Portrait of Wolstanton in music and lyrics.

The pupils focussed on their locality and composed their own melodies, harmonies, lyrics and solos that reflected a journey from Wolstanton High School to Victoria Hall in Hanley.   The year 10 & 11 students acted as mentors to the younger pupils over the 2 day project, helping them with activities but also leading their own groups of students.

Visit the school's website

Read more about the relationship between Camerata and Wolstanton

Browse Manchester Camerata's concerts in Stafford

Find out more about Manchester Camerata's Learning work

The Second performance in our Up Close series takes place at the Deaf Institute on Tuesday 7 February 2012 at 8pm and features an extraordinarily powerful work by Osvaldo Golijov, The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind for string quartet and klezmer clarinet. An arrangement of some Piazzolla music for string quartet by Simon Parkin will be followed by a full performance of Shostakovich's most famous and visceral string quartet no 8. This performance will also feature a collaboration with artist John Hyatt developing throughout the whole Up Close series.   Click the image (right) to hear John talk about the project

		Click the image (left) to hear the views of some of the audience members. "I thoroughly enjoyed the concert – the music was wonderful and the intimacy of the event was just so special – it really felt at times like being in an 18th Century Salon with my own private band." "I'm a huge music fan and love live gigs whether large or small but what made this so very special was watching the connection between the

There will be two other Up Close concerts on Tuesday 6 March at the Deaf Institute and Wednesday 16 May at the Antony Burgess Foundation.

Read more about the Up Close series

See details of the next Up Close event

BEETHOVEN Symphonies Nos. 6 "Pastoral" and 8
The latest release in its acclaimed Beethoven Symphony cycle. Like the previous releases in this cycle these live recordings capture the spirit and freshness of these remarkable, genre-busting works, as well as the excitement, atmosphere and energy of the chamber orchestra under Douglas Boyd. The Times noted Douglas Boyd's "grasp of Beethovenian idiom" and "pungent underlining of orchestral detail", praising the musical performance as "sublime and exultant".   "The pacing of the opening movement (Pastoral) - so often taken too slowly - is just right"  Sunday Times 23 October 2011. Catalogue No. AV2242 Read further detail on the AVIE website

TCHAIKOVSKY, PROKOFIEV Rococo Variations, Symphony No. 1
		Manchester Camerata's first recording with Gábor Takács-Nagy. Two Russian works that straddle the turn of the 20th century and illuminate different musical strands – Tchaikovsky’s Romantic elegance and Prokofiev’s early, compositional irreverence. Yet these two works also share a common classicism: the Mozartian intricacy and grace of Tchaikovsky’s cello “concerto”, performed here by Takács-Nagy’s eminent fellow-Hungarian Miklós Perényi – in the composer’s original version rather than the more commonly heard revision by the work’s dedicatee Wilhelm Fitzhagen – and the Haydn-esque symphonic form on which Prokofiev hung his 20th-century harmonies. Catalogue No.  AV2243 Read further details on the AVIE website

These recordings can also be purchased online in our MUSIC SHOP and via iTunes

		Beethoven - Symphony No. 9 Douglas Boyd & Manchester Camerata Rebecca von Lipinksi soprano Anna Grevelius mezzo-soprano Peter Wedd tenor Roderick Williams baritone City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Chorus Recorded live in concert at The Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, January 2011 Read More

Beethoven Symphonies Nos. 6 & 8 Douglas Boyd and Manchester Camerata Recorded at The Bridgewater Hall, Manchester Saturday 30 January 2010 (Symphony No. 6), and Saturday 9 October 2009 (Symphony No. 8) Read more

		Beethoven Symphonies Nos. 1 and 3  Douglas Boyd and Manchester Camerata Symphony No. 1 recorded at The Bridgewater Hall, on 29 November 2008 Symphony No. 3 recorded at The Bridgewater Hall, on 27 September 2008 Read More

Beethoven Symphonies Nos. 4 and 7 Douglas Boyd and Manchester Camerata Catalogue # AV2169 Recorded 3 February (Symphony No. 4) and 3 November 2007 (Symphony No. 7) at The Bridgewater Hall. Read More

		Beethoven Symphonies Nos. 2 and 5  Douglas Boyd and Manchester Camerata Recorded 14 February and 19 October 2002, live at Bridgewater Hall Read More

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"Last night I was anointed by the Sollima experience and now I’m a disciple.   Yes. Giovanni Sollima cellist and composer extraordinaire took the RNCM by storm. Entitled Portrait of an Italian not surprisingly his fascinating concert was infused with Italian connections. Running through the all-Italian concert programme was Sollima’s own Italian heritage played by two soloists on Italian made cellos. (Incidentally there is a webcast of the concert available on www.medici.tv which I have viewed and is excellent.) Giovanni Sollima, a Palermo born musician,sometimes described as the ‘Jimi Hendrix of the cello’, has collaborated with many of the greatest names in the music world. Tonight’s music didn’t lend itself to too many Hendrixian effects as Sollima presented a programme that fused music from the classical era of Boccherini and neo-Renaissance Respighi with the eclectic yet accessible modernity of his own compositions." To open the concert Giovanni Guzzi directed from the violin the Third Suite from Respighi’s Ancient Airs and Dances. Based on sixteenth and seventeenth century lute and guitar pieces, Respighi’sSuite for strings is elegant and highly attractive yet the writing contains a dark, almost sinister, undercurrent. With the violins and violas standing to play the rich mellow sound of the Camerata was exceptional.
Watch the concert on Medici.tv
Read the whole review on the Seen and Heard website

We are currently planning our 2012-13 concert series, and as with everything we do at Manchester Camerata, we would very much welcome your opinion.

As such, we’d be grateful if you could please complete our short online survey which should take no longer than 5 minutes to complete. As well as helping to inform what we do, you will be entered into an exclusive Manchester Camerata prize draw!

Win one of up to three premium prizes:

First prize

Two top-price tickets to our Portrait of an Englishman concert on Saturday 26 May 2012 at the Bridgewater Hall with overnight stay in the luxurious surroundings of The Midland Hotel in Manchester (breakfast included). This exclusive package also includes dinner for two at The Midland Hotel's sumptuous Wyvern restaurant before the concert.

Second prize

Two top-price tickets to a Manchester Camerata concert in the 2011-12 season.

Third prize

The complete cycle of Beethoven Symphony recordings by Manchester Camerata recorded live at the Bridgewater Hall (5 CDs).

Click here to complete the survey

Closing date: Monday 28 November at 12pm.

We'll be announcing the winners in the next E-string, sign up here

Thank you for your time and best of luck!

Our guest director and soloist for this programme, the internationally-renowned Italian cellist and composer Giovanni Sollima, is a performer quite unlike any other. With a rock musician's energy and directness of communication, and a musicality that sits happily across many genres. Put together around his personality, this programme, blends the traditional and the more modern, features two of his own works, the lyrical Violoncelles Vibrez! for two cello soloists and strings, and LB Files, a mini dramatisation of the life of Luigi Boccherini, a work that embraces jazz, world, contemporary and rock all in one. Click here to watch the webcast live on Medici TV on Friday 18 November 2011 at 7.30pm. Medici.tv has been described as the world's unique virtual concert hall, Medici connects classical music lovers in more than 180 countries, broadcasting over 200 classical music events. 12 million videos have been watched with 80 thousand single visitors each month.

		As composer, Sollima has been captivated by every kind of languages and has thought to create new blends among the most diverse genres by combining elements of classical and rock music, as well as of music of all the Mediterranean area. He's also composed music for directors and choreographers, such as Peter Greenaway, Bob Wilson, Peter Stein, John Turturro, Karole Armitage and Carolyn Carlson. With the videographer Lasse Gjertsen he realized Daydream.

Manchester Camerata has worked with Medici.tv before. Its concerts Pictures from St Petersburg in October 2010 and Portraits of Music and Words in Octover 2011 were beamed from the Royal Northern College of Music Concert Hall to audiences around the world gaining thousands of new audience members for the orchestra worldwide.
See details of Camerata's Portrait of an Italian concert
Visit the Medici.tv Portrait of an Italian concert page
Find out more about Medici.tv

The concert featured quartet music by Rachmaninov, Prokofiev and Aulis Sallinen, and Brahms Sextet no. 2.   A selection of Prokofiev's Visions Fugitives (originally for piano) were arranged especially for the evening by Simon Parkin. This performance also marked the beginning of a new collaboration with artist John Hyatt which will develop over the coming year throughout the next UpClose concerts.

After an introductory talk about his plans and ideas, John Hyatt then presented a slow-moving film he'd created to be played with the Sallinen piece 'Quiet Songs'.

Click the image to hear the views of some of the audience members. "I thoroughly enjoyed the concert – the music was wonderful and the intimacy of the event was just so special – it really felt at times like being in an 18th Century Salon with my own private band." "I'm a huge music fan and love live gigs whether large or small but what made this so very special was watching the connection between the players at first hand and the connection they in turn made with the audience."

The next UpClose concert will take place on Tuesday 7 February 2012 at 8pm at the Deaf Institute in Manchester and will feature Golijov's incredible work for klezmer clarinet and string quartet 'The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind'.

Read more about the Up Close project

See details of the next concert

Visit John Hyatt's website