WHAT’S ON APR – AUG 2016

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CLASSICAL

Mozart’s PianoBaroque

Unwrapped

WORLD

John Williams at Songlines Encounters

WORDS

Cerys Matthews at Poetry & Lyrics

Festival

CONTEMPORARY

Evelyn Glennie Clare Hammond Noh Reimagined

Dancing up a new dawn

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icholas Collon and A

urora Orchestra – Poetry &

Lyrics Festival – Songlines E

ncounters

Nicholas Collon and the making of Aurora Orchestra

2 Apr — Aug 2016TITLE

For Your Records

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Blue Topaz String Trio in session in Hall One, Kings Place | Photo © Nick White

3

Our flagship series Baroque Unwrapped dives deep into Bach this April, with Martin Feinstein’s Bach Weekend, during which you can hear orchestral gems, the Goldberg Variations, the ‘Great’ partita and the solo cello suites. We also welcome superlative jazz pianist Gwilym Simcock, who will join violinist Thomas Gould for solo Bach and improvisations, our Associate Artist The Sixteen, who presents Handel’s Acis and Galatea, and the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge who give a rare performance of his Brockes-Passion. Last but not least, don’t miss our own bespoke new ‘pasticcio’ Casanova’s Conquest from Sounds Baroque in May.

We hugely value the work of Poet in the City at Kings Place, so it’s very exciting to be hosting Poetry and Lyrics, a two-day festival of poetry, lyrics and song featuring Cerys Matthews, Chris Wood, Hugh Lupton, Iain Burnside and tenor Nicky Spence, writing workshops and an investigation of punk lyrics.

At the opposite extreme, we celebrate the expressive power of folk instrumentalists in No Voices, featuring Kathryn Tickell, Superfolkus, Catrin Finch and Seckou Keita among others.

Summer means the Songlines Encounters festival, and I’m delighted that the legendary John Williams will be back in Hall One to play with South African star Derek Gripper, with gypsy violin virtuoso Roby Lakatos and his band on stage the following evening. There will also be a rare opportunity to see how the Japanese Noh tradition is inspiring contemporary musicians in the Noh Reimagined festival.

We can but hope for a fine summer, but in 1815 the eruption of an Indonesian volcano resulted in The Year Without a Summer. Ian Ritchie explores in words and music the effect this year-long winter had on artists like Beethoven, Schubert, Byron and Mary Shelley.

PETER MILLICAN CEO

CONTRIBUTORS

Pianist CLARE HAMMOND brings two fascinating new works for silent film to Kings Place this April. Acclaimed for her authority in contemporary repertoire, Clare is also known for her imaginative curations. She played the young heroine in The Lady in the Van.

CERYS MATTHEWS MBE presents the opening event of our Poetry & Lyrics Festival. Founding member of Catatonia, she’s a singer, DJ for BBC 6Music and the BBC World Service, cultural reporter for The One Show, author of Hook, Line and Singer for children, and has composed for the National Theatre.

ANDREW MELLOR, who interviews conductor Nicholas Collon, is a journalist and critic. He writes on music, Scandinavia and Scandinavian music for magazines, newspapers, orchestras and opera companies, and was formerly reviews editor of Gramophone.

ERICA WAGNER is an author and critic. She leads a session on folk song in our Poetry & Lyrics Festival. Her books include Gravity: Stories, Ariel’s Gift and Seizure. She is a contributing writer for The New Statesman and consulting literary editor for Harper’s Bazaar.

Welcome to our Spring-Summer Season!

4 Apr — Aug 2016CONTENTS

22 Spring into Baroque Unwrapped The Bach Weekend, Daria van den Bercken (above) and a brand-new pasticcio are all on the spring menu

29 Fretwork at 30 Join us for a very special birthday celebration

64 Q&A Clare Hammond The exciting contemporary pianist on her new film and piano project

23 Classical Listings

Contents

CONTEMPORARY

33 Living in the moment What happened when Dame Evelyn Glennie (above) met violinist Hugo Ticciati from O/MODERNT…

34 Contemporary Listings

FOLK

35 A Place Beyond Words Kathryn Tickell (above), Catrin Finch and Seckou Kaita join a celebration of instrumental artistry

36 Folk Listings

CLASSICAL

06 Dancing up a new dawn Nicholas Collon (above) dreamt up the innovative Aurora Orchestra while still a student. Andrew Mellor met him ten years on

09 Kings Place Partners Aurora Orchestra

21 The Year Without a Summer In 1815 a volcanic eruption changed the weather. Ian Ritchie explores its effect on writers and composers

5Book tickets 020 7520 1490 CONTENTS

JAZZ

39 Slowly Rolling Camera Dave Stapleton brings his eclectic new project featuring vocalist Dionne Bennett (above) to Kings Place

40 Hitting the road Stop by for Tim Garland’s Roadwork

41 Jazz Listings

ART

50 21st-century Selfies The legacy of Ruth Borchard lives on in the exciting Next Generation Collection of 21st-century self-portraiture (above)

52 Art Listings

REGULAR 1 Welcome2 Contents4 In the house6 Features

23 Listings53 Calendar61 Ticket info63 Talkback64 Q&A

WORLD

16 Unlocking the Kora John Williams (above) takes to the stage with Derek Gripper at this year’s Songlines Encounters Festival. Also appearing are Roby Lakatos and his ensemble.

19 Kings Place Local Akiko Yanagisawa, curator of the Noh Reimagined festival

46 Noh Unmasked An exploration of the classical Japanese theatre tradition and the new work it inspires today

46 World Listings

WORDS

12 A lyrical lass … Cerys Matthews MBE (above) on her passion for lyrics, poetry and music, which she brings to the Poetry & Lyrics Festival, from Poet in the City

15 Telling Tales Eric Wagner on the power of folk song

42 A Song of Good and Evil Philippe Sands’ dramatisation of the Nuremberg Trials, featuring baritone Laurent Naouri

43 Words Listings

6 Apr — Aug 2016IN THE HOUSE

This Season in the House …The world’s largest festival of new opera celebrates its 10th anniversary this August with a spectacular programme. Prepare for an explosion of creativity and boundary-breaking work at Kings Place and in the whole King’s Cross area.

7Book tickets kingsplace.co.uk IN THE HOUSE

Tête à Tête: The Opera Festival

AU G 2 0 1 6

8 Apr — Aug 2016AURORA ORCHESTRA

9Book tickets 020 7520 1490 AURORA ORCHESTRA

A little orchestra staffed by unknown conductors and friends from the National Youth Orchestra gave its first performance a decade ago this year. Ten years on, Aurora Orchestra is a byword for musical innovation – always ahead of the curve, constantly reminding the rest of us what happens when you think differently about the notes on the page and the way they’re presented. ‘When I think back to those early days, still going in 2015 would have been a dream,’ says Nicholas Collon, Aurora’s founder and Principal Conductor. ‘Anyone who starts an orchestra and tells you they have a plan for the next ten years is either bananas – or lying.’

A small, but significant, part of Aurora’s success is down to those organisations that scrambled to offer it a home in the early days, and Kings Place was one of the first. ‘We got in here very early – we just set up a meeting,’ says Collon. ‘They were extremely supportive and it’s been a wonderful home for us.’ These days

the orchestra is planning to a farther horizon, and has launched a project that will see it continue as Resident Orchestra at Kings Place until at least 2020. Over the next five years Aurora will gather in Hall One to present all 27 of Mozart’s piano concertos – the richest fruits of the composer’s quest to breathe new character, humanity and drama into instrumental music.

Aurora has always played with intense freshness and a rare unity of purpose, but as it enters its second decade, a project like the Mozart cycle might just see it come of sonic age. ‘Kings Place is a great arena for us to work on being an orchestra, which is what you have to do if you want to play Classical repertoire like Mozart’, says Collon. ‘If you only do it once a year, frankly it’ll sound a bit rubbish. So we’ve got five concerts a year in which to really explore this music and to hang other repertoire around it. It’ll be quite intimate here, which in this music will mean a really immediate experience.’

Conductor Nicholas Collon cooked up Aurora Orchestra when he was still a student.

He’s as surprised as anyone that it’s celebrating its tenth birthday. Andrew Mellor met him.

D a n c i n g u p a n e w d a w n

10 Apr — Aug 2016AURORA ORCHESTRA

Likewise Aurora’s latest ruse: its penchant for performing without printed music. The ensemble’s rendition of Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony at this year’s Proms, delivered standing and with no scores, was described by one critic as ‘vivacious, invigorating and liberating’. So has that experiment contributed to Aurora’s sound too? ‘Certainly, and that’s something we’re going to do more and more of in the future. It was a project very much rooted in musical objectives, and it achieved them – as well as being very, very intense and, personally, one of the best things I’ve done. The audience was thrilled by it, too.’

In projects like that, and the countless unlikely collaborations that Aurora has mounted in the last ten years, Collon can chart the trajectory of his own growth as a conductor. He’s conducted at Glyndebourne and English National Opera, and in 2013 premiered Jonathan Harvey’s Wagner Dream at Welsh National Opera. Just a few weeks ago, Aurora’s co-founder Robin Ticciati was named as the new chief conductor of the Deutsche-Symphonie Orchester in Berlin. Next year Collon himself takes up the baton as co-principal conductor of the Residentie Orchestra in the The Hague. But perhaps Aurora is still going – and stronger than ever – because he’s stuck around. ‘Well it’s my baby really,’ he says. ‘I’m pretty certain that if Aurora is still going when I’m 80, I’ll still be involved. It’s one of the most exciting artistic crucibles for what I can do as a conductor and it certainly has its own atmosphere.’

You might conclude that that atmosphere comes from the orchestra’s members, musicians ‘of my generation’, in Collon’s words. Those instrumentalists, not least the conductor’s wife, flautist Jane Mitchell, Aurora’s leader Thomas Gould and its principal viola player Max Baillie,

are part of the internal creative dynamo that means Aurora never stands still. ‘Those players are involved in non-classical music in their own work, and we always get ideas from them,’ says Collon. It has delivered some left-field but wonderful collaborations with dance groups, pop, folk and world musicians. Is that where Collon sees the future? ‘I’m not sure about that. But certainly these questions are at the forefront of people’s minds now: what is a concert? what is it to be a musician? Of course there are many viewpoints. Some people react against the work we do. But that’s quite a healthy thing really – because there’s enough art for everyone.’

AURORA ORCHESTRA: MOZART’S PIANO

SAT 16 JAN ‘Bach is the father, we are the children’ with John Butt Hall One, 7.30 pm

SAT 19 MAR ‘In the Court of the Mad King’ with John Reid Hall One, 7.30 pm

SAT 23 APR ‘Child’s Play’ with Robert Levin Hall One, 7.30 pm

SAT 17 SEP ‘Grand Tour’ with Cédric Tiberghien Hall One, 7.30 pm

FRI 16 DEC ‘L’Enfance’ with Lara Melda & Martin James Bartlett Hall One, 7.30 pm

‘It’s my baby. I’m pretty certain that if Aurora is still going when I’m 80, I’ll still be involved’

11Book tickets kingsplace.co.uk KINGS PLACE PARTNERS

pretty full with the most ambitious project yet undertaken at Kings Place – all 27 Mozart Piano Concertos over fi ve years.

WHY DID YOU APPROACH

KINGS PLACE?

We were bowled over by the idea of this wonderful, intimate concert hall in such an extraordinary setting. It seemed perfect for Aurora – the right size for our repertoire, with the potential to do some really innovative things.

HOW HAS IT BECOME A HOME?

We’ve been fortunate that Kings Place has embraced Aurora, right from that fi rst meeting. It has become the physical home of the Aurora management team, with an offi ce in the Music Base, and it’s also the place where we perform the most, becoming a crucible for the orchestra to try out things artistically, and gel as an ensemble.

TELL US ABOUT THE FORMAT FOR

YOUNG CHILDREN YOU’VE PIONEERED

HERE: FAR, FAR AWAY …

Far, Far Away is in some ways the most adventurous of all the work we do as an orchestra, combining live musical performance with story-telling, design and theatre to bring music to life for young audiences. What I love about the shows is that the music is placed front and centre, with theatrical elements always driven by the repertoire, rather than the other way around. The series continues to go from strength to strength, with the next project planned for May 2016.

WHAT HAVE BEEN YOUR STAND-OUT

MOMENTS AT KINGS PLACE?

There have been so many but, for me, mounting the B minor Mass

FOCUS ON

Aurora OrchestraResident Orchestra

DATE OF YOUR ASSOCIATION:

Autumn 2009.

PAST HIGHLIGHTS:

Our fi rst live radio broadcast (Mozart Unwrapped), some thrilling Bach (B minor Mass, St John Passion), collaborations with some brilliant artists, from Nico Muhly to Anthony Marwood, choreographer Wayne McGregor to actor Sam West.

FORTHCOMING:

I think our hands will be kept

Nicholas Collon reflects on Aurora Orchestra’s six years at Kings Place

12 Apr — Aug 2016

In addition to a wonderful new commission from Martin Suckling, it was especially thrilling to see Hall One packed to the rafters for a programme featuring chamber music by Berg, Webern, and Birtwistle – composers often perceived as ‘challenging’ and inaccessible.

WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO TRY OUT

(IN AN IDEAL WORLD)?

We’re getting to experience our ideal world over the next few seasons. We’ll try out every bit of repertoire that we can fi t in the hall, and maybe we’ll even take some that we can’t out into the public spaces … I’m looking forward to developing and cultivating an audience on this journey – one that will come to see Aurora’s events at Kings Place as unmissable dates.

KINGS PLACE PARTNERS

was just extraordinary. The stage was packed, as was the audience, and there was such a buzz that this was going to be an amazing event.

WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT ABOUT

PROGRAMMING IN HALL ONE AND

WHAT’S POSSIBLE, WHAT WORKS?

We’ve taken some repertoire right to the edge of what’s possible to fi t in there! Sometimes that means the sound is quite big for the space, but it can be electrifying. Equally, it works really well as a space for small chamber music. We like to keep the programming as fl exible and as varied as possible, so with this Mozart series, we will continue to look for opportunities to create unusual programmes around the fairly ‘traditional’ concertos.

HOW HAVE YOU WORKED WITH

KINGS PLACES’S OTHER PARTNERS

(E.G. POET IN THE CITY)?

Collaboration has always been very important for us – it’s a wonderful way of keeping you fresh artistically and bringing in new ideas. We recently staged a fi rst major collaboration with Poet in the City, another Kings Place associate, which was one of our highlights of 2015: an exploration of the poetry of Paul Celan through music, words and visual art, devised in partnership with the artist and writer Edmund de Waal.

SAT 23 APRMozart's Piano: ‘Child’s Play’Hall One, 7.30 pm

The Lock-In – ImprovisedHall Two, 9.45 pm

SAT 17 SEPMozart's Piano: ‘Grand Tour’Hall One, 7.30 pm

The Lock-In – Septura: Playing AwayHall Two, 10 pm

‘We’ve taken some repertoire right to the edge of what’s possible to fi t in Hall One!’

13Book tickets 020 7520 1490 TITLE

GR

FIT FOR A KING

A C O N C E R T E X P E R I E N C EP E R F E C T F O R G R O U P S

Get the full Kings Place experience by taking in a concert in exclusive style.

Enjoy a welcome glass of Prosecco and canapés in the Gallery Room before taking your seats for the concert. During the interval guests will reconvene in the Gallery Room to enjoy drinks and nibbles. Once the concert has finished bowl food and wine will be served in the Gallery Room, rounding off the evening in perfect fashion.

Package includes:Premium concert ticket Four canapés per person Four food bowls per person 1/2 bottle of wine per person Glass of Prosecco on arrival

from just £89.50 per person

For more information and to book please call us on 020 7014 2838 or visit kingsplaceevents.co.uk

14 Apr — Aug 2016POETRY & LYRICS

Award-winning singer and star of BBC 6 Music Cerys Matthews launches a unique Poetry and Lyrics weekend on 10 June. Here she

tells Helen Wallace about her journey into the language of song.

A Ly r i c a l L a s s

15Book tickets 020 7520 1490 POETRY & LYRICS

What were your formative poetic influences when you were growing up?When I was a child, my father would play the jazz greats – Louis Armstrong, Ray Charles, Billie Holiday – mixed with opera’s great arias and Bob Dylan. It was the perfect blend of huge melodies and striking lyrics. For me, a lazy, predictable lyric has always been enough reason to walk away from a song – there are so many great lyrics, there’s never a need to compromise. I was in awe of great writing and started collecting songs from all over the world from an early age. Soul music often has the most thought-provoking lyrics matched with enviable musical accompaniment: The Temptations, Doris Duke, Donny Hathaway… Then take blues songs by artists like Mississippi John Hurt, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Snooks Eaglin … The song structures are deceptively simple but deeply moving.

My mother added Welsh folk and Baptist chapel hymns to this diet and late-night readings from Wilfred Owen, Hardy, Yeats, Coleridge. I became fixated by folk songs, and found old texts totally inspiring. Take a hymn like ‘Calon Lân’ – ‘Pure heart – full of goodness, More fair than a lily, Only a pure heart can sing, Sing all of the day and all of the night’. This message that money can’t buy contentment is often present in chart songs: look at Jessie J’s ‘Price Tag’, Pink’s ‘Most Girls’. Words like this confirm and strengthen convictions, they can move you, empower you, make you question or change your perspective on the world. In short, I’ve always been fascinated by the power of a great turn of phrase, whether sung, recited or read.

Why do you particularly want to bring attention to the subject of song lyrics and sung poetry through this Poet in the City event? CERDD is Welsh for ‘music and poem’ – it’s common in many languages to refer to both disciplines using just one word. I wanted to enjoy both mediums, to wander along the blurred lines between them, it’s excuse enough to enjoy some great writing.

You’ve said that nothing is taboo in song-writing?Nothing was taboo in traditional songs – that’s why I loved them, and collected songs from when I was as young as eight. I learnt about Irish history through song, not through the TV news – protest songs like ‘Skibbereen’, ‘Bold Robert Emmet’, ‘Kevin Barry’, ‘Follow me up to Carlow’. I learnt about Cajun life through French songs and the Spanish Civil War in protest songs in books and leaflets I found in libraries, small local music or book shops.

Folk songs like this are filled to the brim with history, and it’s history told from a rare perspective, from that of the disenfranchised – the young females, the injured, the insane, the poor, the persecuted; subjects might include syphilis, murder, single motherhood, suicide, famine, religious persecution, genocide, war, death, punishment and exile.

Does song have a special role in subverting political norms and getting radical messages out there?Humans have an appetite for heartwarming songs, love songs, dance songs, novelty songs, songs for feast days/religious dates, as well as songs that comment on or question the status quo. But I would ask where are these modern-day protest songs? Very few, if any grace today’s charts! I sometimes ask myself, ‘What killed the great lyricist?’ Team writing? (Often you’ll see ten people credited as writers for just one song!!) But this is not a question we’re aiming to focus on this time. Better to be inspired by the world’s great repertoire of poetry and song and aim high, rather than be ‘bah humbug’ dissenters of modern group songwriting techniques!

‘A song can change your perspective on the world’

Billie Holiday

16 Apr — Aug 2016POETRY & LYRICS

Can you name the songs you’re most proud of writing?There are certain lines I’m fond of – and that still tickle me to sing, but I don’t usually pull apart songs once I’ve put them bed. Perhaps this evening might be the rare opportunity to look at songs from this perspective.

Which comes first for you, the music or the lyric? There are no rules, often an initial idea comes whole, lyric and melody at the same time. My favourite songs are the ones which come with least resistance. I woke up with an almost complete ‘The Good in Goodbye’ having seen Dylan perform the night before. I love this one! It’s from Cockahoop, my first solo album. But my second solo album, Don’t look Down, is also close to my heart – it has a particularly consistent theme running through it, written from the perspective of a single mother determined to make it through – it’s the closest I’ve got to making a concept album, I guess … and it’s one whose aim I’m particularly proud of.

Would you argue that the greatest written poetry is not necessarily the best to be set to music? Nope. I’m of the opinion than any great piece of writing, given the right choice of music, can be enjoyed with music too. ‘The Song of Wandering Aengus’ by WB Yeats, sung by Christy Moore, is one stunning example. After all, from as far back in history as we can go, poetry has come hand in hand with musical accompaniment – cue mobilising battle song by an ancient, bearded, harp-wielding bard …

There’s a mystique around song-writing: do you hope to encourage more people to have a go at lyrics through this event? I just want to celebrate the wonder of words – if seeds are sown, great.

FRI 10 – SAT 11 JUN 2016

Poetry and Lyrics: A festival of poetry, music and song from Poet in the City

In collaboration with Rainbow CityMedia support from Time Out

‘Where are the modern-day protest songs, songs which

question the status quo?’

Mississippi John-Hurt

Bob Dylan

17Book tickets kingsplace.co.uk POETRY & LYRICS

Music and lyrics work a strange alchemy in our lives. I am an American by birth but I have lived in Britain for 30 years, and I can safely say that it was song that brought me here. A memory that stays with me, clear as day: I was nine, staying at a friend’s house in Rhode Island, and one day her father put Steeleye Span’s ‘All Around My Hat’ on the turntable, and that was it. I can’t explain it, I can’t begin to try, but the music went into me and changed my life. Not a small part of the reason I moved to this country was thanks to my love of the music of these islands, which began with the voice of Maddy Prior and then moved outward, forward and back, a decades-long journey of discovery through the soundtrack of my life.

Perhaps it is the mystery that draws me in. The lyrics of many traditional songs, like the words of traditional stories or fairy tales, leave the listener room to move. The tales they tell are full of action, not emotion: men – or women – go to war, or fall into a lover’s arms, or decide to slaughter their nearest and dearest, but we are never told why. Years of listening – and singing, too, as the singers I have met tell me – give rise to different interpretations; different singers give each song a new flavour, too. And these are big stories, powerful stories: tales of violence, longing, loss. Who isn’t compelled by those?

There is one lyricist who stands out over all the others. You know the name: Anon. Perhaps the greatest compliment in songwriting is to vanish completely from the historical record, to have your work move out into the people. I have little doubt it will happen to Bob Dylan some day, when the

electronic apocalypse comes to wipe out the Cloud and we are thrown back on our mouths, our ears and our minds. Google will be blowin’ in the wind, and only the song will survive. And what is striking about a song like that – as much as in a song like ‘Sir Patrick Spens’ – is that there is no need to understand social or political circumstance to feel its power. Chris Wood’s ‘Hollow Point’ (which won Best Original Song at the 2011 BBC Folk Awards, when Chris was also named Folk Singer of the Year) is about the killing of Jean Charles de Menezes in London in 2005: I maintain it will still be sung when Chris’s name, and that of de Menezes, are long forgotten.

The same could be said for ‘One in a Million’, a song co-written by Chris and Hugh Lupton, an acclaimed storyteller, poet and novelist. That song – a modern-day love story set in a chip shop which combines the mundane and the miraculous to wondrous effect – took Best Original Song at the 2006 Folk Awards. But finally it’s not about awards, since those too will crumble to dust in the end. What fascinates, and what draws me in as keenly as it did my nine-year-old self, is the enduring and enigmatic relationship between song and lyric, between singer and song, between music and listener. And I can think of no better artists with whom to discuss this wonderful topic than my friends Hugh Lupton and Chris Wood.

SAT 11 JUN

Erica Wagner presents Telling Tales: Poetry & Folk with guests Chris Wood and Hugh Lupton4pm, Hall Two

Part of Poet in the City’s Poetry & Lyrics festival

Te l l i n g Ta l e sErica Wagner, who explores folk lyrics with

Chris Wood and Hugh Lupton at Poet in the City’s Poetry & Lyrics event, muses on the enduring

power of the folksong.

18 Apr — Aug 2016SONGLINES

South African star guitarist Derek Gripper has found a whole new repertoire in West African music for kora. The legendary

John Williams joins him at Songlines Encounters.

U n l o c k i n g t h e Ko r a

John Williams is one of our most loved and respected classical guitarists. He’s probably best-known for the ‘Cavatina’ on the soundtrack of The Deer Hunter, but also for his recordings of classical guitar repertoire from Bach to Vivaldi, Villa-Lobos to Takemitsu. So you take notice when he really enthuses about a new guitar talent. ‘Derek Gripper is amazing!’ says Williams. ‘He adds a seriously important dimension to the classical guitar generally and, in particular, its part in African music. All guitarists who are interested in music should take notice of him.’

So who is Derek Gripper? He’s a white South African guitarist based in Cape Town. Like John Williams he worships the music of JS Bach, but based in Africa and in a highly-connected 21st-century world he’s drawn on music from all over the planet to expand the guitar’s possibilities. He studied music in South India, is fascinated by Brazilian composer Egberto Gismonti and, above all, he’s fallen in love with the West African kora – a magnificent creation of gourd, cow-skin and fishing line. Its sophisticated, multi-layered sound is one of the musical glories of Africa.

‘I got interested by listening to the greatest kora album of all time: Kaira, by Toumani Diabaté. I knew nothing about Toumani and nothing about the kora. I was strangely content just to listen, at first thinking

it was more than one musician, later finding out it was solo. How could a musician play music of this rhythmic complexity and freedom all on his own?’

Inevitably, Derek started trying to play Toumani’s kora music on the guitar. This is no mean feat. Toumani’s kora has 21 strings and Derek’s guitar has six. But it also set him thinking about the nature of the music itself. ‘My musical background is one in which the basic elements are handed down in written form,’ explains Derek, ‘and the musician’s task is to interpret it. This is the art of what has, somewhat misleadingly, been called “classical music.”’

On Kaira and several subsequent albums Toumani plays different versions of the same traditional piece called Jarabi, with a lilting, dance-like rhythm. But Gripper sees these not so much as improvisations, but as recompositions with ‘endlessly inventive variations over a fixed bass line, just like Bach’s Chaconne for solo violin. The version that Bach creates is like no other and Toumani’s Jarabi is just like this.’

‘What I discovered is that, from the point of view of my musical world, Toumani Diabaté is a composer. And this opened the floodgates. Now I realised I had an entire library of music scores by some of the

19

‘Derek Gripper is amazing! He adds a seriously important

dimension to the classical guitar’

Book tickets 020 7520 1490 SONGLINES

20 Apr — Aug 2016

Roby Lakatos‘When Brahms needed a Hungarian dance melody, he used a theme from the gypsy Janós Bihari’. Simon Broughton meets Bihari’s descendant, the celebrated violinist Roby Lakatos, who will take to the stage at Songlines Encounters.

Larger-than-life violinist Roby Lakatos comes from one of the great dynasties of Hungarian Gypsy fiddlers. In fact he’s the seventh generation descended from János Bihari (1764–1827), the most famous Gypsy violinist of the 19th century. ‘When Brahms wrote his 21 Hungarian Dances, it was usually a Bihari theme that he used,’ says Lakatos. ‘My father, Toni Lakatos, knew all the pieces by Bihari.’ 

Lakatos straddles the worlds of classical and Gypsy music. He first picked up the violin aged three (‘only a toy one’, he says), but started learning seriously aged six and joined his father’s band aged nine. He learned the Gypsy repertoire from his father, but was taught by a classical teacher as well. He didn’t complete his conservatoire studies because he was lured away with a contract to play in a café-restaurant in Belgium where, over the last 30 years, he’s built up a formidable reputation. Yehudi Menuhin was a mentor in the 1990s and Lakatos now performs at prestigious instrument sales – recently, for instance, at the Amati shows in Cremona and London. He has a Stradivari on loan and his own violin was made by Leonidas Rafaelian, whom Lakatos describes as ‘the living Stradivari in Cremona’. For Songlines Encounters he will go back to his roots and focus on ‘the genius of Bihari’, alongside other Gypsy repertoire.

SONGLINES

greatest composers in Africa: Ballaké Sissoko, Amadu Bansang Jobarteh, Sekou Batourou Kouyaté [all West African kora players] … and, closer to home, South Africa’s mouth-bow genius Madosini. It really was like discovering a hidden treasure, to realise that a whole new repertoire for guitar was sitting right there.’

But if you can go and listen to Toumani Diabaté, why listen to Derek Gripper? Basically because the music is incredibly beautiful, as is his interpretation of it with all its resonances, textures and counterpoint. It is like listening to Bach or the great Spanish composer Albéniz. Even more remarkable are Gripper’s most recent arrangements of kora duets – for solo guitar! Toumani Diabaté himself is also an admirer.

‘I imagine one day we will find as many interpretations of Toumani’s music as we do of Bach’s,’ Gripper continues. ‘And perhaps, more importantly, we will start to realise that these musics are not really worlds apart – oral tradition, musicians speaking a single finite musical language fluently and not learning from notation. I think this is far closer to musical ideas mediated by Mozart and Beethoven and the concept of the all-knowing composer.’

‘What Derek has done is utterly wonderful and I love it,’ says John Williams, who also has an interest in music from all over the world. They first played together in London at the Sam Wanamaker Theatre in 2014, but for Songlines Encounters Gripper promises really ambitious arrangements which show where the music can go if you bring in ideas from other traditions. Expect to be amazed.

FRI 3 JUNJohn Williams & Derek Gripper Hall One, 8pm

SAT 4 JUNRoby LakatosHall One, 8pmSee Listings for details

John Wiliams & Derek Gripper

‘My father, Toni Lakatos, knew all the pieces from Bihari’

21Book tickets kingsplace.co.uk KINGS PLACE LOCAL

Akiko Yanagisawa

WHERE’S HOME FOR YOU?

Tokyo, where I was born and raised, and London where I have been living for over 14 years. I feel home is where important people like my family and partner are.

HOW HAS LONDON CHANGED IN THE TIME YOU’VE LIVED HERE: ANY MEMORIES FROM WHEN YOU FIRST ARRIVED?

In 1997, I came to London to study Arts Management at City University.I commuted from my studio apartment in Notting Hill to the

Barbican. At the time, the rent was £110 a week and the tube stopped for signal failures every other day. I did not find many stylish cafés and restaurants with good service, which was a shock coming from Tokyo. But things have changed a lot since as we see today. Also the arts in London have become much more exciting and vibrant – obviously Kings Place is one important venue that has opened in the time I have been here.

HOW DOES IT COMPARE TO YOUR HOME CITY? WHAT DO YOU MISS MOST ABOUT JAPAN?

Japanese-style bathtubs you can soak in to your chin, and crispy winter days with blue sky in Tokyo.

WHAT WOULD AN AKIKO YANAGISAWA MAP OF LONDON LOOK LIKE – IN TERMS OF THE SIGNIFICANT PLACES IN YOUR LIFE?

I love living near the park and water. When I lived in West London, I enjoyed walking in Kensington Gardens and visiting the

Kings Place Local

Akiko Yanagisawa is a producer with a special interest in Japanese arts and has curated the Noh Reimagined festival

which comes to Kings Place in May

Akiko Yanagisawa at Wazen Restaurant

22 Apr — Aug 2016KINGS PLACE LOCAL

FRI 13 & SAT 14 MAYNoh ReimaginedSee Listings pp45–47 for details

Akiko Yanagisawa at King’s Cross station

Serpentine Gallery, and Proms at the Royal Albert Hall. The long path on the south side of the Thames upstream of Putney Bridge, where you see rowing clubs practising, is still one of my favourite locations. But I think King’s Cross is the most interesting area in London now, as I tell my friends in Japan. I love the Regent’s Canal walk or biking to see the upcoming, wacky East London culture, and beautiful Regent’s Park and Little Venice to the west.

FAVOURITE PLACES IN THE KING’S CROSS AREA?

From the Regent’s Canal side of King’s Cross Station, walking up the Kings Boulevard looking at the progress of new buildings and feeling the buzz of new wine bars and cafés, eventually arriving at Granary Square, overlooking the

canal towpath and narrowboats; it is a picturesque urban scene full of life.

WHERE’S YOUR FAVOURITE EATERY AROUND HERE?

I love cooking, especially Italian and Japanese. But I also like the contemporary Indian Dishoom restaurant on Stable Street, cappuccino at Notes Coffee on One Pancras Square, and a new Japanese restaurant Wazen on Acton Street.

WHERE IN LONDON IS STILL A MYSTERY TO YOU?

It used to be the women’s pond on Hampstead Heath, but London Zoo is still a mystery.

WHAT ONE THING WOULD YOU CHANGE ABOUT THIS AREA?

It would be nice to have more trees, and cheaper rents.

ANY PARTICULARLY GOOD MEMORIES OF EVENTS AT KP?

Kings Place offers the best of music of all genres and I enjoy attending concerts there. The concert of Sho (a bamboo mouth organ) by Mayumi Miyata with members of London Sinfonietta was especially memorable. It was part of the Hibiki: Resonances from Japan festival I curated here in 2011.

TELL US ABOUT YOUR FORTHCOMING FESTIVAL – NOH REIMAGINED?

The festival’s aim is to rediscover the value and inspiration of Noh for contemporary arts and culture. Noh is a total art form comprising drama, music and dance which originated in the 15th century – one of the oldest unbroken performance traditions in the world. As the title indicates, I curated the programme not only to introduce the Noh as a traditional art form but to explore its potential to inspire contemporary artists and audiences.

There will be performances of classical Noh by the best expert performers from Japan, premieres of new pieces by two British composers, intercultural performance with saxophonist Evan Parker and Remix artists, and performances and discussions by visual and performing artists inspired by Noh. You can also see Noh Dance and drop into a Noh music workshop.

Join us to discover the unlimited inspiration of Noh!

‘I think Kings Cross is the most interesting area in London now as I tell my friends in Japan’

23Book tickets kingsplace.co.uk CLASSICAL 23Book tickets 020 7520 1490 CLASSICAL

The Year Without a Summer

1816, known as ‘the year without a summer’, was extraordinary in many ways. Our story begins in 1815, with the eruption of Mount Tambora in what is now Indonesia, the world’s biggest volcanic incident for at least 1300 years. The northern hemisphere became covered by an ash cloud and lack of sunlight was responsible for depressing darkness and extremely low temperatures during a ‘volcanic winter’ which displaced summer: globally, 1816 was the second coldest year on record since the middle ages and the 1810s were the coldest decade ever. The change in climate also gave rise to exceptional rains and crops failed throughout North America, northern Europe and as far afi eld as China. Illness and poverty ensued, with social and political consequences.

The fi re and smoke of that volcanic eruption may be a metaphor for the outburst of scientifi c and artistic creativity which accompanied the dusk of the Enlightenment and the dawn of the Romantic era: the resulting cold and darkness called for the invention of new heat and light.

If Napoleon, fi nally toppled in 1815, had been 19th-century Europe’s favourite real-life hero, Prometheus was its favourite fi ctional one. The missing ‘summer’ of 1816 saw the birth of Frankenstein’s monster, on the shores of Lake Geneva, where

the Shelleys and Lord Byron, shut indoors, spent their time playing ghoulish games and writing scary stories in the darkness. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus refl ected some of the current medical and scientifi c experiments, using electricity to treat damaged brains and reactivate corpses, and she created an uncontrollable monster. The new Prometheans included these creative artists and also ground-breaking scientists, inventors and radical thinkers, all playing with fi re.

In Vienna, meanwhile, Beethoven and Schubert were affected too. We know that life was not easy for either of them in 1816 but, as we listen to the opening concert (17 Jun), we can judge for ourselves whether the year-long winter infl uenced their music. Beethoven was having a relatively fallow creative period, but that summer he produced the fi rst

great song cycle in western music, the sublimely romantic An die ferne Geliebte. The same year a 19-year-old Schubert composed around one hundred Lieder – the German art songs of which he became the greatest master – almost all refl ecting the yearning, soul-searching and passionate Romanticism of this mysteriously dark period. Neither intellectuals nor the public at large understood what was going on and many people, including Byron, feared an apocalypse was nigh.

The two concerts provide contrasting poetic and musical bookends for a study day which will examine the whole context of 1816 and its impact with contributions by leading experts in the fi elds of neuroscience, meteorology, social history and culture.

FRI 17 – SAT 18 JUN The Year Without a Summer See Classical Listings pp31–32

The eruption of the Indonesian Mount Tambora in 1815 resulted in a long volcanic winter across the northern hemisphere. Two concerts and a study day explore the music,

literature and art dreamt up in those cold, dark days, as curator Ian Ritchie explains.

‘During a year-long winter Schubert wrote one hundred lieder and Mary Shelley created her uncontrollable monster’

24 Apr — Aug 2016TITLE24 CLASSICAL

Spring into Baroque Unwrapped

Baroque Unwrapped hits its stride this spring with Martin Feinstein’s Bach Weekend, which begins on the Friday after Easter, and promises a full immersion in the composer, taking in both the large-scale grandeur of the B minor Mass, cantatas, concertos and orchestral suites and the intensity and intimacy of the solo works. The remarkable talents of Scottish siblings Catherine and Jonathan Manson will be on display in two special chamber events: Baroque violinist Catherine, who is also leader of Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, takes on the ‘Great Partita’ No. 2 in D minor in a late-night concert (1 Apr), after presenting the beautiful Concerto for oboe and violin with Katharina Spreckelsen earlier in the evening. The following morning acclaimed gambist Jonathan will perform Bach’s three intricate viola da gamba sonatas with Steven Devine, who goes on to perform the miraculous Goldberg Variations on harpsichord at 4pm (2 Apr). Sunday sees a marathon of Bach’s solo suites for cello given by period expert Richard Tunnicliffe, whose recent recording of the cycle won wide acclaim. As Tunnicliffe has written of Bach’s solo instrumental music, ‘The listener shares in the communion of player and instrument and is drawn inexorably into the composer’s world. Of all instruments,

it is perhaps the cello, whose wide range and affecting timbre are capable of tenderness, noble oratory or soul-searching introspection, which is best suited to effect this almost magical process.’ Don’t miss his talk on the suites in between the two performances.

Following the Bach Weekend, there’s an opportunity to relish Bach’s solo violin sonatas as Thomas Gould interleaves solo performances with improvisations on Bach with renowned jazz pianist Gwilym Simcock (21 Apr) We welcome the The Choir of King’s College, Cambridge and The Sixteen for performances of Handel’s Brockes-Passion (22 Apr) and Acis and Galatea (7 May), respectively. May sees a host of international visitors to the series, with David Greilsammer’s Geneva Camerata mixing Balkan dance music with the Baroque (19 May), and Dutch pianist Daria van den Bercken presenting the dazzling music of arch-rivals Scarlatti and Handel (21 May). Also in May is a unique premiere in this series: Casanova’s Conquest (6 May), our very own pasticcio devised by Julian Perkins from Sounds Baroque.

THROUGHOUT 2016See Listings for details

Spring brings a Bach Immersion, stand-out performers and a premiere in Baroque Unwrapped

Apr — Aug 2016

Daria van den Bercken

25Book tickets kingsplace.co.uk CLASSICAL

SAT 2 APR BACH WEEKEND 2016

The Viola da gamba SonatasJonathan Manson & Steven DevineHall One 11.30amOnline Rates £19.50 including tea/sherry during interval | Packed lunch available

JS Bach Sonata in G, BWV 1027Sonata in D, BWV 1028Sonata in G minor, BWV 1029Jonathan Manson viola da gamba Steven Devine harpsichordJonathan Manson’s recent recording of the three Viola da gamba Sonatas was unanimously praised by the critics. Hear them live as he introduces and perform these exquisite works in duo with keyboard player Steven Devine.

BACH WEEKEND 2016

Study Session on the Mass in B minor Hall Two 2.30pm Free to those attending the 7.30pm concert, but a ticket is required. To book, please contact the Box Offi ce on 020 7520 1490.

Musicologist Dr Timothy Jones discusses Bach’s B minor Mass and explores the various factors which have led to it being universally recognised as one of the greatest choral masterpieces in the history of western music.

FRI 1 APR BACH WEEKEND 2016

Concertos and CantatasThe Feinstein Ensemble with The London Bach SingersHall One 7.30pmOnline Rates £14.50 – £34.50 | Savers £9.50Followed by informal meet-the-artist drinks at the Concert Bar (Level –2). Multi-event offer available. For details, see the OFFERS section left.

JS Bach Concerto in C minor for oboe and violin, BWV 1060R Ich habe genug, BWV 82a Ich armer Mensch, ich Sündenknecht, BWV 55Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D, BWV 1050Faye Newton soprano Nicholas Hurndall Smith tenor Catherine Manson solo violin Katharina Spreckelsen solo oboe Robin Bigwood solo harpsichord The London Bach SingersThe Feinstein EnsembleMartin Feinstein directorThe Bach Weekend 2016 opens with two sublime Leipzig cantatas, followed by two concertos from Bach’s miraculously productive time in Cöthen, the C minor Concerto for oboe and violin and the Fifth Brandenburg Concerto – a work of such virtuosity that it is hard to imagine anyone but Bach himself managing it at the time of its composition.

BACH WEEKEND 2016

The Great Partita in D minorCatherine MansonHall One 10pm | Lasts 45 minsOnline Rates £9.50 | Multi-event offer available

JS Bach Partita No. 2 in D minor for solo violin, BWV 1004Catherine Manson violinExpect an atmospheric late-night performance of the Partita for solo violin in D minor by Catherine Manson, one of the greatest period violinists of our age. The majestic ‘Chaconne’ which closes this work is conceived on a vast scale and stands alone as the most magnifi cent movement written for a solo instrument.

FRI 1– SUN 3 APR

Bach Weekend 2016From Cöthen to LeipzigMartin Feinstein’s acclaimed ‘Bach Weekend’ has established itself as one of the highlights of London’s musical calendar and this year’s festival is the fi rst in its new home at Kings Place. Bach Weekend 2016 will feature the great devotional works of Bach’s Leipzig period juxtaposed with the secular instrumental masterpieces written when he was court composer at Cöthen and enjoying the greatest compositional freedom of his career. Also part of Baroque Unwrapped.

OFFERS

Day, Weekend and Deluxe Weekend Passes available. For more information, please see kingsplace.co.uk/bach2016.

Packed Lunch Offer (Sat & Sun): Book a packed lunch online for the day or simply bring your own with you. Green & Fortune Café’s packed lunches include a sandwich (meat, fi sh or vegetarian), crisps, drinks, a piece of fruit and cake. You will be issued with a voucher to exchange on the day. Booking closes 24hr prior.

Multi-event Offer: Book tickets for both Friday evening concerts (7.30pm & 10pm) to qualify for a free drink during the break. Voucher can be collected from the Box Offi ce on the day.

Multi-event Offer: Save 10% when you book tickets for both Cello Suites concerts (Sun 11.30am & 3.45pm). To book, please contact the Box Offi ce on 020 7520 1490.

Jonathan Manson (2 Apr)

Catherine Manson (1 Apr)

26 Apr — Aug 2016CLASSICAL

Handel Water Music Suite No. 3 in G, HWV 350The Feinstein Ensemble Martin Feinstein director, fl ute, recorderBach’s Leipzig period is associated with his enormous output of cantatas and Masses. But he also organised a series of coffee concerts at Zimmermann’s coffee house on Katharinenstrasse. Records show that works by Handel and Telemann shared the bill with Bach’s own orchestral suites; here the ensemble conjures up one of those famous coffee concerts.

SAT 9 APR

Contemporary Piano and Film with Clare HammondHall Two 7.30pmOnline Rates £14.50 | Savers £9.50

Szymanowski Three Mazurkas, Op. 50 Nos 2, 9 & 6Thomas Adès Mazurkas, Op. 27Kenneth Hesketh Hände for piano and fi lmJS Bach Toccata in D minor, BWV 913 Ed Hughes The Nose for piano and fi lmMedtner Sonata romantica, Op. 53 No. 1Pianist Clare Hammond brings a fresh, imaginative programme of works for piano and fi lm, including two new pieces – Hände, by Ken Hesketh and The Nose, by Ed Hughes – which use silent fi lm as a backdrop for works of ingenuity and beauty. Along with mazurkas by Szymanowski and Adès, she plays Bach’s imposing Toccata in D minor, and Medtner’s passionate sonata.

SUN 10 APR COFFEE CONCERTS

Lucy Parham & Henry Goodmanin Élegie: Rachmaninov, A Heart in ExilePart of the Word/Play series devised by Lucy ParhamHall One 11.30amOnline Rates £14.50 (incl. tea or coffee) Savers £9.50

Lucy Parham pianoHenry Goodman narrator

before his death. Even by his own extraordinary standards, the emotional depth and majestic proportions of his Mass in B minor are astonishing. The London Bach Singers join The Feinstein Ensemble under their director, fl autist Martin Feinstein, to perform this wonderful work.

SUN 3 APR BACH WEEKEND 2016

The Complete Solo Cello Suites I & IIRichard TunnicliffePerformances – Hall One 11.30am & 3.45pmPre-/Post-concert Talk – Hall One 2.45pmOnline Rates £19.50 (per concert). Includes tea/sherry during interval (11.30am), tea/coffee and biscuits prior to concert (3.45pm) The pre-concert talk is FREE, but a separate ticket is required. Please call the Box Offi ce. Multi-event offer available. See p23

Concert IJS Bach Suite No. 1 in G, BWV 1007Suite No. 3 in C, BWV 1009Suite No. 5 in C minor, BWV 1011Concert IIJS Bach Suite No. 4 in E-fl at, BWV 1010Suite No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1008Suite No. 6 in D, BWV 1012Richard Tunnicliffe celloA rare chance to hear all six of Bach’s Cello Suites, some of the greatest works to have been written for unaccompanied cello, performed on one day by Richard Tunnicliffe. His recordings of the suites have been acclaimed internationally and he will introduce the works, giving some fascinating insights into these extraordinary masterpieces. Before the second concert, Tunnicliffe will talk about these sublime works and explain what makes them unique in the cello repertoire.

BACH WEEKEND 2016

LONDON CHAMBER MUSIC SUNDAYS

Orchestral SuitesThe Feinstein EnsembleHall One 6.30pmOnline Rates £14.50 – £34.50 I Savers £9.50

JS Bach Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B minor, BWV 1067Telemann Orchestral Suite in A minor for recorder & strings, TWV 55:a2

BACH WEEKEND 2016

The Goldberg VariationsSteven DevineHall Two 4pm | Lasts 75 mins; no intervalOnline Rates £19.50 incl. tea/coffee and biscuits prior to the concert

JS Bach Goldberg Variations, BWV 988Steven Devine harpsichordPerhaps the most remarkable single work in the four books of Bach’s Klavier-Übung series is the Goldberg Variations, a set of variations on a short aria. Renowned harpsichordist Steven Devine will perform this wonderful piece and talk about its history and what it is that makes it so universally popular.

BACH WEEKEND 2016

Mass in B minorThe Feinstein Ensemble with The London Bach SingersStudy Day – St Pancras Room 2.30pmPerformance – Hall One 7.30pmOnline Rates £34.50 – £59.50 | Savers £9.50

JS Bach Mass in B Minor, BWV 232The London Bach Singers (Faye Newton & Mhairi Lawson soprano; Tim Travers-Brown countertenor; Clare Wilkinson mezzo-soprano; Nicholas Hurndall Smith and Simon Wall tenor; Ben Davies and Eamonn Dougan bass)The Feinstein EnsembleMartin Feinstein directorBach completed the fi nal version of his greatest choral masterpiece shortly

Richard Tunnicliffe (3 Apr)

27Book tickets 020 7520 1490 CLASSICAL

include: Craig Ogden (guitar) & Miloš Milivojević (accordion), Laura Margaret Smith (mezzo-soprano) & Geoffrey Tanti (piano), Anne Denholm (harp), and the Sacconi Quartet’s Hannah Dawson (violin) & Cara Berridge (cello), as well as alternative folk ensemble Tir Eolas and jazz ensemble Morph Trio.

SUN 17 APR LONDON CHAMBER

MUSIC SUNDAYS

John & Fiona York Piano DuoSchubert, Ravel, HolstHall One 6.30pmOnline Rates £14.50-£29.50 | Savers £9.50

Holst The Planets, Op. 32Schubert Fantasie in F minor, D940Ravel Rapsodie espagnole (1907)The York Piano Duo perform Ravel’s joyful Rapsodie espagnole, and Schubert’s hauntingly beautiful Fantasie – one of his most famous chamber works. We also hear – in the work’s centenary year

Known for her ‘composer portraits’ in words and music, pianist Lucy Parham turns the spotlight on Sergei Rachmaninov, with the help of actor Henry Goodman. Though Rachmaninov became an exile in 1917, his soul was always rooted in Russia. His music is imbued with the culture of and a longing for his homeland, especially his much-loved piano works.

LONDON CHAMBER

MUSIC SUNDAYS

Duo LeonoreBeethoven, Fauré, Rachmaninov, FribbinsHall One 6.30pmOnline Rates £14.50 – £29.50 I Savers £9.50

Beethoven Sonata No. 3 in A for piano and cello, Op. 69Peter Fribbins Sonata for cello and piano (2005)Fauré Élégie for cello and piano, Op. 24 Rachmaninov Sonata in G minor for cello and piano, Op. 19 Maja Weber cello Per Lundberg pianoThe German-Swiss-based duo opens a perfect Sunday evening programme with one of the most lyrical of Beethoven’s fi ve cello sonatas, complemented by the passionate and melodic writing of the Cello Sonata by British composer Peter Fribbins. Fauré’s Élégie makes a fi tting prelude to Rachmaninov’s mighty Cello Sonata from 1901.

SAT 16 APR COFFEE CONCERTS

The Menuhin Centenary with Live Music NowHall One 11.30amOnline Rates £14.50 | Savers £9.50

The great violinist and visionary Yehudi Menuhin founded Live Music Now in 1977 to bring music to people in challenging circumstances, and provide work for young musicians. To mark his centenary year, join Zamira Menuhin and Clemency Burton-Hill for a day of discussions and performances by LMN musicians past and present, evoking Menuhin’s vision and discussing their amazing experiences. Musicians

– Holst’s own piano arrangement of his legendary Planets suite, whose manuscript was discovered by John York only a few years ago.

WED 20 APR

Ensemble Eroica‘A State of Sin’ – Schoenberg, Haydn, BeethovenHall One 7.30pmOnline Rates £9.50 – £14.50 | Savers £6.50

Haydn Symphony No. 97 in C, Hob I:97 Schoenberg Verklärte Nacht, Op. 4 Beethoven Symphony No. 1 in C, Op. 21Ensemble Eroica traces an emotional journey spanning guilt, sadness and love in Schoenberg’s sextet, Verklärte Nacht (Transfi gured Night). It describes the moonlit walk of a couple, during which the woman confesses and the man comes to accept. This sublime, psychological piece is bookended by two crisp Classical symphonies from the 1790s by Haydn and Beethoven.

Due Leonore (10 Apr)

28 Apr — Aug 2016CLASSICAL

FRI 22 APR BAROQUE UNWRAPPED

The Choir of King’s College, Cambridge & The Hanover BandHandel: Brockes-PassionHall One 7.30pmOnline Rates £34.50 – £59.50 | Savers £9.50

Handel Brockes-Passion, HWV 48The Choir of King’s College, CambridgeThe Hanover BandStephen Cleobury directorA rare opportunity to hear one of Handel’s early oratorios, written around 1715–16, performed by the world-famous King’s College Choir and renowned period-instrument orchestra The Hanover Band. The oratorio, named after its librettist, German poet Barthold Heinrich Brockes, is Handel’s only German-language oratorio and served as a model for Bach’s St John Passion.

SAT 23 APR MOZART’S PIANO

Aurora Orchestra & Robert LevinChild’s PlayHall One 7.30pmOnline Rates £24.50 – £49.50 Premium tickets £69.50 I Savers £9.50

Reicha Overture in DMozart Piano Concerto No. 3 in D, K40Piano Concerto No. 4 in G, K41Schubert Symphony No. 2 in B fl at, D125Robert Levin piano, conductorAs a keyboard player Mozart astonished his contemporaries not just with his technical virtuosity and musicianship, but with his talent for inventive and seemingly effortless improvisation. Kings Place’s Resident Orchestra Aurora joins Robert Levin, one of the great pianists and improvisers of our time, for a programme which explores youthful precocity, showmanship and the visceral impact of a newly spun cadenza. Part of Aurora Orchestra's fi ve-year series Mozart's Piano at Kings Place.

THU 21 APR BAROQUE UNWRAPPED

Thomas Gould & Gwilym SimcockBaroque EncountersHall Two 8pm | No intervalOnline Rates £14.50 | Savers £9.50

Programme to include: JS Bach Violin Sonata No. 1 in B minor, BWV 1014Violin Sonata No. 4 in C minor, BWV 1017 JS Bach, arr. Simcock Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 645Jesus bleibet meine Freude, BWV 147Thomas Gould violin Gwilym Simcock pianoGould and Simcock join forces for a genre-crossing programme that removes the boundaries between notated and improvised music, classical and jazz. Drawing inspiration from two of Bach’s violin sonatas, the duo will also perform improvised personal responses to these masterpieces, as well as arrangements from Simcock’s latest collaboration with the Orchestra of St John’s.

Robert Levin (23 Apr)

IN APRIL

BAROQUE UNWRAPPED The year-long celebration of Baroque riches continues with Martin Feinstein’s acclaimed Bach Weekend exploring Bach’s musical life in two German cities, Cöthen and Leipzig (1– 3 Apr; see pp23 – 24). A joyous fusion of jazz and Baroque lights up the hall when regular collaborators Thomas Gould and Gwilym Simcock play Bach’s great sonatas for violin and keyboard before improvising their response to his music (21 Apr). And the best-known choir in the world, from King’s College Chapel, Cambridge, join leading period performance ensemble The Hanover Band for a rare performance of the Brockes-Passion (22 Apr), one of Handel’s early oratorios, written around 1716.

kingsplace.co.uk/baroque

29Book tickets kingsplace.co.uk CLASSICAL

MOZART’S PIANO

Aurora OrchestraThe Lock-in – ImprovisedHall Two 9.45pmOnline Rates £5

Aurora’s late-night series is like no other, somewhere between a speakeasy and a concert. From the sublimely delicate to the explosively virtuosic, this is a musical partnership bridging two string traditions: the violin and the West African kora. Sura Susso joins Aurora principal Max Baillie in a performance based on a unique improvisational chemistry.

SUN 24 APR COFFEE CONCERTS

Barbara NissmanA Birthday Party for Ginastera 100, Prokofi ev 125, Bartók 135 & Liszt 205Hall One 11.30amOnline Rates £14.50 (incl. tea or coffee) Savers £9.50

Prokofi ev Piano Sonata No. 1, Op. 1Piano Sonata No. 3, Op. 28 Ginastera Piano Sonata No. 3, Op. 54 (dedicated to Barbara Nissman)Tres danzas argentinas, Op. 2Piano Sonata No. 1, Op. 22Bartók Musiques nocturnes (from Out of Doors Suite, Sz. 81)Allegro barbaro, Sz. 49Liszt Mephisto WaltzBarbara Nissman piano

Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera wrote his fi nal composition for Barbara Nissman, whom he called the fi nest interpreter of his work and one of the fi nest pianists in the world. Come and celebrate with Barbara, in music and memories, the centenary of Ginastera’s birth and composers who infl uenced him.

LONDON CHAMBER MUSIC SUNDAYS

Chilingirian QuartetMozart-Beethoven-Bartók – IIIPre-concert Talk – St Pancras Room, 5.15pmPerformance – Hall One 6.30pmOnline Rates £14.50 – £29.50 | Savers £9.50Pre-concert talk is free, but a separate ticket is required. To book, please contact Box Offi ce.

Mozart String Quartet in C, K465Bartók String Quartet No. 3, Sz. 85 Beethoven String Quartet in F, Op. 18 No. 1The third concert in our historic series commemorating the 70th anniversary of Bartók’s death by reconstructing the fi rst complete cycle of his quartets in the UK in 1949/50. Each of the six is framed by one of Beethoven’s six Op. 18 quartets, and by one of Mozart’s mature quartets, to complement the energy and tautness of Bartók and Beethoven’s musical style. The Blech Quartet originally gave this concert in January 1950. The performance will be preceded by a talk on Bartók’s Third Quartet by distinguished Bartók scholar Professor Amanda Bayley – editor of The Cambridge Companion to Bartók.

WED 27 APR

O/MODERNT Kammarorkester Hugo Ticciati Mindstream – ft. Evelyn GlennieHall One 8pmOnline Rates £16.50 – £34.50 I Savers £9.50

Áskell Másson Prim for snare drum solo (1984)Orchestral improvisationJill Jarman Mindstream (2015) (UK premiere) Tenney Having Never Written a Note for Percussion (1971)Tchaikovsky Serenade for strings in C, Op. 48O/MODERNT KammarorkesterDame Evelyn Glennie percussionHugo Ticciati violinDavid Lundblad conductorDame Evelyn Glennie joins Swedish contemporary ensemble O/MODERNT Kammarorkester, led by British violinist Hugo Ticciati, on a journey ‘inspired by the hope to live in the moment, as the fl ow of music carries us out into the waters of the present impermanent’. Be in the moment for the UK premiere of Mindstream, a double concerto for violin, marimba/vibraphone and orchestra, described as a ‘stream of musical consciousness in continual fl ux’.

IN MAY

BAROQUE UNWRAPPED The spirit of the Baroque permeates music-making today – Sounds Baroque perform Julian Perkins’ Casanova-inspired pasticcio, which borrows from Hasse, Jommelli and Mozart (6 May); there’s a study day devoted to the phenomenon of HIP (historically informed performance) – demonstrated by Harry Christophers and The Sixteen as they perform Handel’s Acis and Galatea with a Handel-sized ensemble (7 May); the Baroque meets the Balkans in a fusion of Vivaldi, Bach and Telemann with traditional dances (19 May); Rameau’s harmonic theory gets the 21st-century treatment with live electronics (20 May); and Daria van den Bercken recreates a famous keyboard duel between Handel and Scarlatti (21 May).kingsplace.co.uk/baroque

Hugo Ticciati (27 Apr)

30 Apr — Aug 2016CLASSICAL

SUN 1 MAY LONDON CHAMBER

MUSIC SUNDAYS

I MusicantiBeethoven, Dvorák, Smirnov, Hall One 6.30pmOnline Rates £14.50 – £29.50 I Savers £9.50

Dvořák String Quintet No. 2 in G, Op. 77Dmitri Smirnov Piano Quintet, Op. 72 Beethoven (arr. Lachner) Piano Concerto No. 4 in G, Op. 58 Zsolt-Tihamér Visontay violinFenella Humphries violinRobert Smissen viola Richard Harwood cello Leon Bosch basswith Martin Roscoe pianoMaking its debut in the LCMS series, I Musicanti numbers among its ranks some of the UK’s most respected musicians, directed by double bass virtuoso Leon Bosch. They open with Dvořák’s highly melodic double bass quintet; then British pianist Martin Roscoe joins them for the Piano Quintet by Russian-born composer Dmitri Smirnov. They close with Franz Lachner’s contemporary arrangement of Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto for chamber ensemble.

FRI 6 MAY BAROQUE UNWRAPPED

Sounds Baroque:Casanova’s ConquestThe Tradition of the PasticcioHall One 7.30pmOnline Rates £16.50 – £34.50 I Savers £9.50

Programme to include works by Hasse, Porpora, Gluck, Handel, Jommelli and Mozart

Sounds BaroqueJulian Perkins director, harpsichordThe tradition of the pasticcio, in which operas are compiled from various works, often by several composers, survived into the 19th century. Julian Perkins, director of Sounds Baroque, has devised a brand-new pasticcio – presented here as a concert performance – inspired by the adventures of Casanova, embracing works by composers from Jommelli to Mozart. Presented in association with the British Library.

and-seek with a wonderfully wicked parrot. With new chamber arrangements of music by Bartók and a specially commissioned story from Kate Wakeling, this performance in the round promises a playful introduction to Bartók’s music, and offers plenty of opportunity to join in, led by animateur Jessie Maryon Davies.

SAT 7 MAY AURORA AT KINGS PLACE

Aurora: Far, Far AwayAgatha the Pirate’s Treasure HuntFamily showHall Two 2.30pmOnline Rates £5.50 child. £7.50 adult, £17.50 family of 4, £20.50 family of 5

See previous listing for details. Suitable for children of fi ve and upwards, but younger siblings are also welcome.

BAROQUE UNWRAPPED

The SixteenHandel’s Acis and GalateaHall One 7.30pmOnline Rates £24.50 – £49.50 I Savers £9.50

Handel Acis and Galatea, HWV 49The Sixteen Harry Christophers conductorHandel’s well-known pastoral opera Acis and Galatea is a tale of tragedy, eternal love and liberation, dealing with the doomed love between the mortal Acis and the goddess Galatea. It’s the fi rst full-scale work by Handel set to an English text and Harry Christophers stays true to the 1718 premiere by using just fi vesingers and around nine musicians.

SAT 7 MAY BAROQUE UNWRAPPED

Study Day: How to be HIPHistorically Informed Performance: Here and Now, Why and HowHall One 10.30am – 4pmOnline Rates £39.50 (including tea/coffee during the break)

Clare Salaman (The Society of Strange and Ancient Instruments) Professor Richard Wistreich (Royal College of Music, Red Byrd)Dr David McGuinness (Concerto Caledonia) How have the recording industry and contemporary ideas of ‘good taste’ affected HIP over the last 40 years? What compromises have singers and instrumentalists made to perform effectively in large concert halls? Together, Wistreich, McGuinness and Salaman will explore ways in which new approaches to historical practice can provide inspiration for creative HIP.

SAT 7 & SUN 8 MAY AURORA AT

KINGS PLACE

Aurora: Far, Far AwayAgatha the Pirate’s Treasure Hunt Early years’ showHall Two 10.15am, 11am, 11.45amOnline Rates £5.50 child. £7.50 adult, £17.50 family of 4, £20.50 family of 5Lasts 30 mins | Suitable for children aged 0–4

Join Aurora Orchestra for a magical treasure-hunt adventure with Agatha the Pirate and meet a host of glimmering jellyfi sh, sail the high seas and play hide-

Sounds Baroque (6 May)

31Book tickets 020 7520 1490 CLASSICAL

Fretwork at 30

Fretwork’s 30th-birthday party boasts a pretty spectacular guest list, including singers Susan Bickley, Michael Chance, Clare Wilkinson and Emma Kirkby and lutenist Elizabeth Kenny: but then this is no ordinary viol consort. In fact, Fretwork are to the viol consort what the Arditti and Kronos Quartets have been to the string quartet: a transformational force in the creation of new repertoire. It’s a pretty extraordinary achievement for a group whose instruments fell out of fashion some time in the late 17th century. They can look back on the last 30 years with pride, having inspired no fewer than 23 composers to explore this rich musical resource, from Michael Nyman to Alexander Goehr, Elvis Costello, John Tavener and Thea Musgrave to Nico Muhly. Peter Sculthorpe even composed a work based on an Aboriginal chant for them – Djilile which translates as ‘whistling duck on a billabong.’

It all began with George Benjamin, as founder-member Richard Boothby recalls: ‘When George contacted

me in 1989, asking me to come and demonstrate the viol and its techniques, performing contemporary music was not something that anyone in the group had ever imagined we would, or even should, do. But the experience of working with George over the next few years was truly inspirational, and he was able to show us how the viol was to almost all composers a new family of string instruments, with new sounds and new techniques just waiting to be used.’ Rare is a Fretwork programme now that doesn’t include a new work. Benjamin went on to write the exquisite Upon Silence (1990) to be sung in this concert, and included the dusky sonority of the bass viol in his acclaimed opera Written on Skin. This special celebration will also include Tan Dun’s moving A Sinking Love and a new work by Duncan Druce, along with music by Lawes, Purcell, Gibbons, Cornyshe and Byrd.

TUE 24 JUNFretwork at 30Hall One, 7.30pm

‘Fretwork has inspired no fewer than 23 composers to explore the viol consort’

32 Apr — Aug 2016CLASSICAL

THU 19 MAY BAROQUE UNWRAPPED

Geneva Camerata & David GreilsammerBalkan-Baroque!Hall One 7.30pmOnline Rates £16.50 – £34.50 | Savers £9.50

Vivaldi Overture to L’Olimpiade, RV 725JCF Bach Symphony in D minor, WFV 1:3 JS Bach Concerto for two violins in D minor, BWV 1043 Telemann Oboe Concerto in E minor (performed on the clarinet)(arr. Sergei Abir) Traditional dances from Bulgaria, Macedonia and TurkeyGeneva CamerataGilad Harel clarinetDavid Greilsammer conductorThe young and dynamic Geneva Camerata present an encounter between two very different worlds – Baroque music and Balkan folk. With solo clarinettist Gilad Harel, a versatile performer of classical, folk, klezmer and jazz, they will reveal a magical dialogue between the elegance of Baroque and the wild rhythms of traditional Balkan songs.

FRI 20 MAY BAROQUE UNWRAPPED

Trio AporiaCorps sonore – Rameau and his contemporaries Hall Two 8pmOnline Rates £14.50 | Savers £9.50

Stephen Preston Baroque fl uteRichard Boothby viola da gambaJane Chapman harpsichordThe great French composer Jean-Philippe Rameau’s concept of the ‘corps sonore’, harmonics found naturally in resonant bodies, revolutionised harmonic thinking in the 18th century. It’s explored here in a boundary-defying 21st-century context through live electronics in world-premiere performances of works by Jean-Philippe Calvin and Michael Oliva, interspersed with Rameau.

SUN 15 MAY

Purcell SchoolFreddy Morgan Piano RecitalHall One 7.30pmOnline Rates £10 – £12; £5 for U25s

Short recitals by young pianists from one of the UK’s leading specialist music schools. Many Purcell School alumni have gone on to great careers, including Jack Liebeck, Catrin Finch, Oliver Knussen CBE and BBC Young Musician of the Year winners Nicholas Daniel, Lara Melda, and Martin James Bartlett. Don’t miss this chance to hear some of the great pianists of the future.

MON 16 MAY

A Song of Good and Evilfeat. Laurent Naouri, Guillaume de Chassy and Katja Reimann (TBC)Hall One 8pmOnline Rates £12.50 | Savers £9.50

A spoken-word-and-music programme offering new insights into the confl ict and connections between three men at the heart of the Nuremberg trials. See the Words Listings (p43).

SUN 8 MAY LONDON CHAMBER

MUSIC SUNDAYS

London Firebird Orchestra Haydn, Mozart, MendelssohnHall One 6.30pmOnline Rates £14.50 – £29.50 | Savers £9.50

Mozart Overture to The Marriage of Figaro, K492Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64 Mozart Two arias from The Marriage of FigaroHaydn Symphony No. 103 in E fl at, Hob. I:103 Drumroll Lisa Rijmer sopranoBenjamin Baker violinLondon Firebird Orchestra Jonathan Bloxham conductorLondon Firebird Orchestra return to Kings Place with a wonderful selection of Classical and early Romantic music. Jonathan Bloxham conducts the overture and two arias from Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro and New Zealander Benjamin Baker performs Mendelssohn’s perennially popular Violin Concerto. The concert ends with a bang – Haydn’s famous Drumroll symphony, given its premiere in London in 1795.

WED 11 MAY

Academy of St Martin in the Fields Chamber EnsembleMozart, Brahms, Dohnányi, Prokofi evHall One 7.30pmOnline Rates £11.50 – £29.50 | Savers £9.50

Mozart Divertimento in D, K136/125aDohnányi String Sextet in C, Op. 37Prokofi ev Overture on Hebrew Themes, Op. 34Brahms Horn Trio in E fl at, Op. 40The Academy of St Martin in the Fields Chamber Ensemble returns to Kings Place to close The Academy’s 2015/16 London season with a programme including a rarely-performed chamber music gem, Ernő von Dohnányi’s beautiful C major Sextet. Brahmsian in style, the Sextet is infused with a sense of fun and humour characteristic of the underappreciated Hungarian composer.

David Greilsammer (19 May)

33Book tickets kingsplace.co.uk CLASSICAL

FRI 17 JUN 1816: THE YEAR

WITHOUT A SUMMER

Pre-concert Talk: Beethoven & Schubert in ViennaSt Pancras Room 6.30pmFREE event, but a ticket is required.To book, please contact Box Offi ce.

An exploration of the relationship between Beethoven and Schubert, the mutual infl uences to be found in their Lieder and piano music, and the effects of the cold weather and lack of sunlight on their works.

1816: THE YEAR WITHOUT A SUMMER

James Gilchrist & Anna TilbrookBeethoven & Schubert in ViennaHall One 7.30pmOnline Rates £14.50 – £29.50 | Savers £9.50Multi-event offer: Book both concerts and the Study Day and save 20%

James Gilchrist tenorAnna Tilbrook pianoTwo distinguished performers, tenor James Gilchrist and pianist Anna Tilbrook, perform music composed in Vienna during 1816, refl ecting light and darkness, love and death. This includes Beethoven’s An die ferne Geliebte (the fi rst great song cycle), some of Schubert’s many settings of Goethe and others, including infl uential Lieder such as Der Wanderer, and pieces for piano.

Roman Mints violinKatya Apekisheva pianoTwo leading Russians of the younger generation, violinist Roman Mints and pianist Katya Apekisheva offer a programme of 20th-century Russian music and much-loved works by Schubert and Schumann in a recital to launch their CD of works by Alfred Schnittke on the Quartz label.

SAT 11 JUN POETRY & LYRICS

Walt Whitman & Songfeat. Iain Burnside & Nicky Spence Hall One 6pmOnline Rates: £14.50 I Savers £9.50

Pianist Iain Burnside and tenor Nicky Spence perform art songs by Vaughan Williams, Bridge, Weill, Ned Rorem and more, set to the poems of great American poet Walt Whitman. For further details, see the Words Listings on p44.

SAT 21 MAY BAROQUE UNWRAPPED

Daria van den BerckenHandel and Scarlatti at the KeyboardHall One 7.30pmOnline Rates £14.50-£34.50 I Savers £9.50

Handel Keyboard Suitesin E, HWV 430; in F, HWV 427 Scarlatti Keyboard Sonatasin D, K119; in C, K460; in C sharp minor, K247; in E, K380; in C, K159; in B minor, K87; in A minor, K109 and in E, K531 Handel Chaconne in G, HWV 435Early in their careers, Scarlatti and Handel met in Rome for a friendly musical duel on the harpsichord and organ. Playing instead on a modern piano, distinguished Dutch pianist Daria Van Bercken holds a magnifying glass to their music to fi nd the inner musical characteristics of these very different Baroque masters.

SUN 22 MAY COFFEE CONCERTS

Keyboard Conversations®

Three Great Bs: Bach, Beethoven and … Bartók!Hall One 11.30amOnline Rates £14.50 (incl. tea or coffee) Savers £9.50

American pianist Jeffrey Siegel’s concert with commentary covers great music from three centuries: Bach’s virtuoso Toccata in D minor, Beethoven’s playful Sonata, Op. 78 ‘for Therese’ (who was she and why did Beethoven write this for her?) and Variations on God Save the King, and a charming Rondo by Bartók, as well as his spicy Romanian Dances.

WED 25 MAY

Roman Mints & Katya ApekishevaHall One 7.30pmOnline Rates £14.50 – £26.50 | Savers £9.50

Leonid Desyatnikov Wie der alte Leiermann for violin and piano (1997)Schubert Violin Sonata No. 2 in A minor, D385Schnittke Violin Sonata No. 1 (1963)Schumann Violin Sonata No. 2 in D minor, Op. 121

FRI 17 – SAT 18 JUN

1816 – The Year without a SummerThe volcanic eruption of Mount Tambura, Indonesia, in 1815 produced an ash cloud that affected the whole of the northern hemisphere. The summer of 1816 was blotted out by darkness, freezing temperatures and constant rain, and this mini-Ice Age brought about changes in culture, politics and even human behaviour. 1816 was also the year Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein on Lake Geneva, and Beethoven and Schubert produced some of their most revolutionary work in Vienna. Exactly two centuries later, two concerts and a study day combine beautiful music and literature with expert insights into the historical, scientifi c, climatic, cultural and social context, to shed light on a year when unprecedented and far-reaching changes took place. kingsplace.co.uk/1816 James Gilchrist

(17 Jun)

34 Apr — Aug 2016

3 APR The Feinstein Ensemble 10 APR Duo Leonore 17 APR John & Fiona York Piano Duo 24 APR Chilingirian Quartet 1 MAY I Musicanti 8 MAY London Firebird Orchestra

SUNDAYS, 6.30 PM | HALL ONE

The LCMS promotes weekly Sunday concerts in Hall One. It’s been

resident at Kings Place since 2008, and can trace its origins to Victorian

Sunday-evening concerts in London in the 1870s.

CLASSICAL

WED 13 JUL

Sacconi Quartet with Mark PadmoreHall One 7.30pmOnline Rates £14.50 – £34.50 | Savers £9.50

Mozart String Quartet No. 20 in D, K499 HoffmeisterMendelssohn String Quartet No. 6 in F, Op. 80Jonathan Dove New commission for tenor and string quartet (London premiere)The dynamic Sacconi Quartet celebrates their 15th birthday with a performance of two well-loved quartets – Mozart’s D major Quartet, which takes its nickname from its dedicatee, and Mendelssohn’s Sixth Quartet, the last major work he completed before his premature death. In the second half, they are joined by celebrated tenor Mark Padmore for the London premiere of Jonathan Dove’s new song-cycle for tenor and string quartet, setting words by contemporary Syrian poet Ali Safar.

George Benjamin Upon SilenceByrd Consort songsGibbons Anthems and consort music, The Cries of LondonSettings of Petrarch incl. Frottole and Songs for LauraPurcell Songs and FantaziasTan Dun A sinking loveCornyshe Fa la solDuncan Druce New workLawes Consort musicFretworkGraham Treacher conductorwith Dame Emma Kirkby sopranoSusan Bickley mezzo-sopranoClare Wilkinson mezzo-sopranoMichael Chance countertenorCharles Daniels tenorPeter Harvey baritoneElizabeth Kenny luteGawain Glenton cornetto30 years ago Fretwork made their debut at Wigmore Hall, and since then they have completely transformed our notion of a ‘consort of viols’. They have commissioned over 60 new works from leading composers and to celebrate the occasion, with a rollcall of great guest artists, they play George Benjamin’s masterpiece Upon Silence, Tan Dun’s heart-stopping A sinking love and a new work by Duncan Druce.

SAT 18 JUN 1816: THE YEAR

WITHOUT A SUMMER

Study Day: 1816 – The Year Without a Summer (aka The Poverty Year)St Pancras Room 11.30pm – 5.30pm(Tea/coffee to be served from 11am onwards)Online Rates £39.50 | Savers £9.50Multi-event offer: book both concerts and the Study Day and save 20%

A study day of individual talks, panel discussions and public contributions. Speakers include Professor Michael Trimble (Behavioural Neurologist, UCL) covering topics such as the causes of the volcanic eruptions; the psychological effects of the weather on creativity; the impact on health, wealth, warfare and politics, the birth of Frankenstein, Dracula and Prometheus in the Romantic imagination.

1816: THE YEAR

WITHOUT A SUMMER

Byron in SwitzerlandHall One 7.30pmOnline Rates £13.50 – £24.50 | Savers £9.50Multi-event offer: book both concerts and the Study Day and save 20%

Louis Schwizgebel pianoDi Sherlock actorIan Ritchie narratorAlberto Venzago fi lm and photographyA concert refl ecting Byron’s extraordinary journey from London, to Switzerland, fl eeing debt, divorce and scandal. Alongside with readings from Byron’s diaries and poems and from Frankenstein, Swiss-Chinese pianist Louis Schwizgebel plays music by Schubert, Beethoven, Liszt and the Mendelssohns as well as Judith Bingham’s ‘melodrama’ for solo piano, Byron, Violent Progress – Theme and 13 Nocturnal Variations.

FRI 24 JUN

Fretwork at 30featuring Emma Kirkby, Clare Wilkinson, Michael Chance and more guestsHall One 7.30pmOnline Rates £19.50 – £39.50 Mark Padmore (13 Jul)

35Book tickets 020 7520 1490

Hugo Ticciati, the dynamic violinist-director of Swedish chamber orchestra O/MODERNT has become known for his innovative programming and loves to mix up genres and performers from different backgrounds, as his Vivaldi Rocks! (in Baroque Unwrapped, 22 Oct) will show.

He met Dame Evelyn Glennie when they were doing a children’s workshop in Sweden, where the British violinist is based. ‘I was translating for her and straight away we felt a wonderful flow of energies, synergy

and a spiritual connection. Ever since then we have been planning on doing something together.’ There was no obvious piece they could perform so they had the idea of commissioning a new piece for violin, marimba/vibraphone and string orchestra for Hugo’s O/MODERNT.

‘All three of us love improvising’‘We discussed a number of composers and Evelyn had recently worked with the jazz pianist and composer Jill Jarman. As soon as I came into contact with Jill, we likewise discovered a strong bond, particularly in our love for the Buddhist concept of living in the moment.’ The result is Jarman’s Mindstream, here receiving its UK premiere, which evokes the idea of the continually evolving state of being. Musically, the listener is invited to let go of motif, idea, phrase and, finally, an entire soundscape, in order to remain fully present in the passing moment. As Ticciati explains, ‘All three of us love improvising (Jill as a jazz pianist) and so the work combines the extemporary feeling of improvising with “funky” driving rhythmic sections. The interplay sheds light on temporal and impermanent processes in music. At times, one floats in a timeless vacuum of sound; at other times, it’s driven by the inner motor of change.’

The programme also contains James Tenney’s dramatic one-note crescendo and diminuendo for gong, which clears the harmonic air before Tchaikovsky’s lavish Serenade for strings.

WED 27 APRMindstreamO/MODERNT with Hugo Ticciati + Evelyn Glennie Hall One, 8pm

L i v i n g i n t h e m o m e n t

When violinist Hugo Ticciati met percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie they decided to commission a new work

for their joint instruments and skills, as Ticciati explains.

CONTEMPORARY

SAT 9 APR

Contemporary Piano and Film with Clare HammondHall Two 7.30pmOnline Rates £14.50 | Savers £9.50

Pianist Clare Hammond brings a fresh, imaginative programme of works for piano and fi lm, including two new pieces – Hände, by Ken Hesketh and The Nose, by Ed Hughes – which use silent fi lm as a backdrop for works of ingenuity and beauty. Along with mazurkas by Szymanowski and Adès, she plays Bach’s imposing D minor Toccata, and Medtner’s passionate Sonata. See the Classical Listings (p24) for full programme details.

SAT 16 APR

Denovali FestivalDenovali specialises in presenting experimental and adventurous music outside the framework of a traditional festival, so no big star with support acts – all artists receive the same time on stage. Past guests have included Ben Frost, Nils Frahm, Andy Stott, Oneohtrix Point Never and Hauschka. Look out for a wide range of international Denovali Records artists and non-label guests. More information will be available soon at kingsplace.co.uk/denovali

WED 27 APR

O/MODERNT ft. Evelyn GlennieHall One 8pmOnline Rates £16.50 – £34.50 I Savers £9.50

Dame Evelyn Glennie joins Swedish contemporary ensemble O/MODERNT Kammarorkester, led by British violinist Hugo Ticciati, on a journey ‘inspired by the hope to live in the moment, as the fl ow of music carries us out into the waters of the present impermanent’. The programme includes the UK premiere of Jill Jarman’s Mindstream, a double concerto for violin, marimba/vibraphone and orchestra. See Classical Listings (p27) for full programme details.

SAT 14 MAY NOH REIMAGINED

Johakyu Hall One 7.30pmOnline rates £14.50 – £24.50 I Savers £9.50

Discover highlights from two classical Noh masterpieces and premieres of Noh-inspired works by Andrew Thomas and Nicholas Morrish Rarity. See World Listings (p47) for further details.

NOH REIMAGINED

Women remixing NohHall Two 9.45pmOnline rates £14.50

The fi nale of the Noh Reimagined festival will feature multi-award-winning British female remix artists Mariam Rezaei and Shiva Feshareski. See World Listings (p47) for details.

WED 18 MAY

Sound Routes 2016PHACEHall Two 8pmOnline Rates £12.50 | Savers £9.50

One of the most innovative and versatile contemporary Austrian ensembles PHACE is the guest of Intrasonus UK’s Sound Routes 2016 Project. For its programme at Kings Place, the group has compiled a representative sample of the work of outstanding composers Amann, Furrer, Jarrell, Rusconi, Sciarrino and Wally. Featuring Sylvie Lacroix (fl ute),

Walter Seebacher (clarinet), Ivana Pristasova (violin), Roland Schueler (cello) and Mathilde Hoursiangou (piano). Preceded by an educational outreach performance from young players storming the stage with a 21st-century tarantella. With support from Austrian Cultural Forum London.

THU 21 – SUN 24 JUL

IGF Guitar Summit 2016The world’s greatest guitarists will gather in the heart of London for the third IGF Guitar Summit, offering masterclasses, workshops and evening concerts. Put the date in your diary and keep an eye on kingsplace.co.uk/igfgs for further announcements.

THU 4 – SU N 7 AUG

Tête à Tête: The Opera Festival10th-anniversary editionThe world’s largest festival of new opera celebrates its 10th birthday with a spectacular programme, featuring dozens of performances of brand new works as it continues to push the frontiers of opera fi lling King’s Cross with sound, spectacle and an explosion of creativity. Running throughout late July and early August all over the neighbourhood, Kings Place will be home to the fi nal long weekend. Full details will be announced in early May at kingsplace.co.uk/tete-a-tete.

36 Dec — Mar 2015CONTEMPORARY

Denovali Festival (16 Apr)

37Book tickets kingsplace.co.uk

As an oral tradition, the folk scene has always been dominated by vocalists, but artists such as Northumbrian piper Kathryn Tickell and Welsh harpist Catrin Finch have thrown a new spotlight on to the expressive potential of instrumental music.

No Voices explores folk music’s ability to tell stories and to conjure images without any words at all. Headlining on Friday night is the legendary Kathryn Tickell, who has done so much to nurture a new generation of folk musicians through the University of Northumbria, Sage Gateshead and the new Superfolkus mentoring scheme. This north-eastern power-house group, founded by Tickell, features renowned talents Eve Simpson, Sophie Lynch, Richard Hammond, Scott Turnbull and Michael Biggins, with a vast repertoire of traditional and contemporary melodies which they transform with exhilarating freedom.

Back from her extraordinary ambassadorial trip to Patagonia’s Welsh colony with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Catrin Finch performs with Senagalese kora super-star Seckou Keita on Saturday night. Like guitarist Derek Gripper, who has absorbed kora music into his own repertoire (see Songlines Encounters feature, p16) Catrin has found common musical ground between the western harp and West African 21-string kora, a lute-like instrument. The ground-breaking album Clychau Dibon, which won fRoots Album of the Year, is a mesmerising combination of Keita’s light, quicksilver virtuosity intermingled with the resonant depth of Finch’s modern concert harp. Sealing Saturday night will be another duo with a unique blend, cellist Emily Burridge and pedal steel-guitarist BJ Cole, who perform classical music though the glistening prism of their joint sonorities.

No such series would be complete without the adventurous ancient-modern dance music of

Gadarene, the intricate creations of Bristol-based Spiro and the acclaimed originality of Three Cane Whale, making a welcome return to Kings Place.

THU 28 - SUN 30 APR No Voices: A Place Beyond Words See Listings for details

A Place Beyond Words

A three-day festival celebrates the finest in contemporary instrumental folk music

Kathryn Tickell

FOLK

‘No Voices explores folk music’s ability to tell stories without any words at all’

38 Apr — Aug 2016

FRI 8 APRIL

Marry Waterson & David A Jaycock Hall Two 8pmOnline Rates £12.50 | Savers £9.50

Part of the great Waterson dynasty, Marry Waterson has the family gift for story-telling and a warm, characterful voice heard on two solo albums and many appearances with other artists. Her latest collaboration, with Cornish guitarist and composer David A Jaycock taps into his dreamlike, surreal and dark world with fascinating results.

Hayes Carll (21 Apr)

FOLK

SAT 9 APR

AltanHall One 8pmOnline Rates £14.50 – £26.50 | Savers £9.50

‘The hottest group in the Celtic realm’, Altan make music steeped in the rich and colourful heritage of County Donegal in the north-west of Ireland. Their new album, The Widening Gyre, recorded last year in Nashville, expands to include friends and music that they have met on the road over their 30 years of touring.

FRI 15 APR

Rachel Newton TrioHall Two 8pmOnline Rates £12.50 | Savers £9.50

‘This is the sound of modern Scotland … drawing on folklore and tradition, Newton’s singing and harp are at the heart of a singular vision.’ Multi-instrumentalist and singer Rachel Newton, with Lauren MacColl on fi ddle and Mattie Foulds on percussion, perform songs in English and Gaelic, alongside original instrumental compositions.

MON 18 APR

Rock for Rimbaudfeat. Diana Jones and Preston ReedHall One 8pmTicket price: £13.50 – £24.50 | Savers £9.50

Connect with the spirit of American rebellion and discovery in this fantastic evening of American folk, rock and alternative country music, featuring legendary slide guitarist Preston Reed, French hurdy-gurdy player Gregory Jolivet, dubbed the ‘Hendrix of the Gurdy’, and stunning alt country singer Diana Jones, performing songs inspired by the Appalachian music tradition. Young Americana talent comes in the form of The Mad Dalton, performing music refl ecting the spirit of the poetry of Arthur Rimbaud. Curated by The Rimbaud and Verlaine Foundation.

THU 21 APR

Hayes CarllHall One 8pmOnline Rates £13.50 – £24.50 | Savers £9.50

Hayes Carll is an odd mix. Wildly literate, utterly slackerly, impossibly romantic, absolutely a slave to the music, the 39-year-old Texan is completely committed to the truth and unafraid to skewer pomposity, hypocrisy and small-minded thinking. His music expands on his already extreme vintage country and thumping bad road boogie and fi nds new ways to take on the fate of the nation.

39Book tickets 020 7520 1490

Kathryn Tickell is a soaring talent on Northumbrian pipes and fi ddles, a musical ambassador for the North-East and now a mentor for young musicians on a scheme known as Superfolkus. Kathryn and a group of 15–25-year-olds from Superfolkus will be blasting traditional and new tunes from the region into uncharted territory. Support comes from Collectress, who combine Minimalist, lo-fi chamber music with fl uid, melodic improvisations on stringed instruments and more exotic sources.

NO VOICES

Gadarene Hall Two 10pm | Standing show; limited seatsOnline Rates £12.50 | Savers £9.50

Ultra-modern ancient music that’s wild enough to dance to! Gadarene transform obscure English 18th- and 19th-century tunes with arrangements drawing on styles from funk and reggae to electronica and trance. With clogs and cajon, mandolin, bass, fi ddle and fl ute, the band celebrate the release of their new CD.

THU 28 APR NO VOICES

Spiro + Three Cane WhaleHall One 8pmOnline Rates £12.50 – £19.50 | Savers £9.50

Spiro came together on the Bristol folk-sessions scene and have gone on to make critically acclaimed recordings on the Real World Label. Jane Harbour (violin/viola), Jon Hunt (guitar/cello), Alex Vann (mandolin) and Jason Sparkes (piano accordion/piano) break through the boundaries of their instruments, creating music that’s intricate yet full of momentum. Three Cane Whale employ a cornucopia of instruments from bouzouki to tenor horn, offering audiences a ‘glorious adventure into new folk,’ according to Cerys Matthews.

FRI 29 APR NO VOICES

Kathryn Tickell & Superfolkus + CollectressHall One 7.45pmOnline Rates £14.50 – £22.50 | Savers £9.50

THU 28 – SAT 30 APR

NO VOICESNew Instrumental Folk Music – a place beyond wordsIn classical and jazz, the notion of a series of concerts without voices wouldn’t raise an eyebrow, but in the song-centric world of folk and roots music, this is revolutionary. A new wave of folk musicians are changing perceptions with their innovative approaches to form and melody. ‘No Voices’ presents some of the leading lights on this scene. Drawing on traditional music – breathing life into it – these musicians use mesmeric interwoven patterns and improvisation; elegant fl ow; and tension and release, to evoke emotion and images without any need for the human voice. They create a place beyond words.kingsplace. co.uk/novoices

Catrin Finch and Seckou Keita (30 Apr)

FOLK

40 Apr — Aug 2016FOLK

with a style that echoes the elaborate rhythmic ‘folk baroque’ of Bert Jansch and Davy Graham, but also draws onclassical, roots and traditional music to create a ‘quintessentially Tilston’ sound. He plays songs from his new CD Truth to Tell.

FRI 24 JUN

Sam CarterHall Two 8pmOnline Rates £12.50 | Savers £9.50

He’s toured the world with a British Council project, supported Bellowhead and been fi lmed by the BBC. Hailed as ‘the fi nest English-style fi ngerpicking guitarist of his generation’, Sam Carter doesn’t rest on his laurels, but is always looking for new inspiration. His last album, The No Testament, is infused contemporary, narrative-based songs with shapenote, gospel and work-song infl uences.

SAT 11 JUN POETRY & LYRICS

Telling Tales: Poetry & FolkErica Wagner in conversation with Chris Wood & Hugh LuptonHall Two 4pm Online Rates £12.50 | Savers £9.50

What is it that makes folk music so poetic? And why, perhaps above all other styles, has folk maintained its lifelong dedication to words? Journalist and broadcaster Erica Wagner is joined for music and conversation by a leading light of the UK folk music scene, Chris Wood, and storyteller and poet Hugh Lupton.

FRI 17 JUN

Steve TilstonHall Two 8pmOnline Rates £12.50 | Savers £9.50

Admired for his song-writing prowess, Steve Tilston is also a dazzling guitarist

SAT 30 APR NO VOICES

Catrin Finch and Seckou Keita + BJ Cole and Emily BurridgeHall One 7.30pmOnline Rates £13.50 – £24.50 | Savers £9.50

Winners of the fRoots Album of the Year for their debut album Clychau Dibon, Welsh harpist Catrin Finch and Senegalese kora virtuoso Seckou Keita succeed in blending two very different cultures. ‘The interaction between the two players is remarkable, with the melody lines constantly switching between the kora and harp … between tranquil, hypnotic passages and more rapid-fi re improvisations,’ declared the Guardian.

THU 12 MAY

RANTHall Two 8pmOnline Rates £12.50 | Savers £9.50

Four fi ddles … one beautiful sound. RANT is the meeting of four of Scotland’s fi nest fi ddle players, two from the Shetland Islands and two from the Highlands. Bethany Reid, Jenna Reid, Sarah-Jane Summers and Lauren MacColl join forces to create a sound that’s raw, rich and vibrant – injecting their energy into traditional reels, strathspeys and jigs.

FRI 27 MAY

MegsonAlbum LaunchHall Two 8pmOnline Rates £12.50 | Savers £9.50

Debs Hanna (vocals, whistle, piano accordion) and Stu Hanna (guitar, mandola, banjo), aka Megson, are an unstoppable force on the British folk scene, known not only for their arresting and intelligent songwriting but also for their musicianship and northern humour. This concert launches the new studio album from Teesside’s most famous folk couple.

Megson (27 May)

41Book tickets kingsplace.co.uk

Slowly Rolling Camera

In September 2013, when the band Slowly Rolling Camera made its debut at Kings Place, it signalled a major departure from a traditional jazz sound. This was deliberate, acknowledges Dave Stapleton – the jazz keyboardist and owner of Edition Records – as Slowly Rolling Camera is all about reaching new audiences.

The band’s self-titled first album and follow-up EP draw on a wide range of genres and influences, reflecting the diverse musical backgrounds of its core collaborators, including jazz improvisation, drum and bass, soaring soulful vocals and electronica. Stapleton, a long-established name on the British jazz scene, was keen to try something with a more electronic edge. After trying out some ideas with drummer Elliot Bennett, he also

brought in singer Dionne Bennett and producer Deri Roberts. ‘We’d known each other for ages,’ explains Stapleton, ‘for about 10 years. We’d studied music at Cardiff together. I sent my music to Dionne and she wrote the lyrics and put the vocals on – it happened very organically.’

Even the band’s name evokes the style of the music. Stapleton heard the phrase ‘slowly rolling camera’ on the radio and thought it would work. ‘The music slowly evolves. It’s very much a cyclical groove that builds and builds,’ he says. The first album’s artwork enhances the cinematic quality, showing a detail of a car that Stapleton had spotted in Bristol.

Slowly Rolling Camera’s return to Kings Place will see a showcase of new tracks from the second album, ahead of an autumn release.

The core live band of seven includes guitarist Stuart McCallum, who is also in support with his innovative band City.

‘We’re looking for audiences that are interested in everything from jazz to classical, to electronic and dance music, to hip hop, trip hop and soul,’ says Stapleton. Intensively catchy, the track ‘Riga’ is proof that Slowly Rolling Camera’s approach is already working. Neil McKim

THU 5 MAY Slowly Rolling Camera Hall One, 8pm

Dave Stapleton's eclectic success story returns to Kings Place

JAZZ

‘It’s very much a cyclical groove that builds and builds’

Dionne Bennett

42 Apr — Aug 2016

Hitting the road

is called Roadwork. How would he describe the direction of the music? ‘Harder-hitting stuff, a greater emphasis on groove.’ And why the name? ‘Because no composition here just has one unchanged performance. The important thing is the subsequent work, done on the road by the band, that sees new material evolve and change.’ And the band, Jason Rebello, Ant Law and Asaf Sirkis? ‘They’re people who can traverse from acoustic from electric, jazz players more at

There is probably a scientific term for what Tim Garland does. With his tenor saxophone often proudly raised to a 45-degree angle, he brings life and energy to whatever interactions and reactions are going on around him. That is part of the explanation as to why he has been in such constant demand, from playing with bands such as Bill Bruford’s Earthworks, to his current role travelling the world with Chick Corea. The new project he brings to Kings Place on 18 Jun

home in a rock idiom.’ And how does he work as bandleader? ‘It’s about getting everyone in the band to bring what they have. We’ve all been brought up with different things, and what I like most about bandleading is to see everybody shine.’

FRI 18 JUNRoadwork: Tim Garland, Jason Rebello, Ant Law & Asaf SirkisSee Listings for details

Stop in your tracks this June for Tim Garland’s Roadwork, the latest project from the livewire bandleader, saxophonist and composer

‘The work done on the road by the band sees new material evolve and change’

JAZZ

43Book tickets 020 7520 1490

THU 7 APR

Courtney Pine & Zoe RahmanHall One 8pmOnline Rates £14.50 – £26.50 | Savers £9.50

After 20 plus years in the Jazz Hall of Fame (now with an OBE and CBE for services to music) Courtney Pine continues to break new ground. For his latest project, launched with sell-out shows at Kings Place in early 2015, he’s playing some of the most intimate sets of his career. Tonight it’s just him on stage with his bass clarinet, accompanied by MOBO-award-winning pianist Zoe Rahman.

THU 5 MAY

Slowly Rolling Camera + Stuart McCallumHall One 8pmOnline Rates £16.50 | Savers £9.50

Slowly Rolling Camera’s original and imaginative compositions fuse jazz, soul, trip hop and electronic music to create a unique musical soundscape. Hear music from their latest EP, Into the Shadow, which, with its lush instrumental and vocal harmonies, suggests Portishead,

Soul II Soul and Massive Attack. Manchester guitarist and composer Stuart McCallum has moved further into the world of electronica with his new album City, a beautiful ambient-electronica-jazz experience, that he conjures up in concert with a band of seasoned musicians and guest vocalists.

FRI 6 MAY

WorldService ProjectHall Two 8pmOnline Rates £12.50 | Savers £9.50

Familiar with Britpop? Well, WorldService Project are the leading specialists of Brit ‘punk-jazz’, an intriguing mix of Frank Zappa, Weather Report, Meshuggah and Stravinsky – all spiralling around in a Monty Python universe. Back from a mammoth tour across America, Europe and China, they’re launching a much-anticipated third album: For King and Country.

FRI 13 MAY NOH FESTIVAL

Evan Parker meets Noh musicHall Two 9.45pmOnline Rates £16.50 I Savers £9.50

An intercultural collaboration between eminent saxophonist Evan Parker and leading Japanese Noh fl autist Yukihiro Isso. See p46 for details.

SAT 21 MAY

Thomas StrønenTime is a Blind GuideHall Two 8pmOnline Rates £12.50 | Savers £9.50

Combining Thomas Strønen’s skills as a composer and percussionist, fi ve-piece ensemble Time Is a Blind Guide perform music from their recent self-titled debut release on ECM. An all-acoustic Anglo-Norwegian group, they play what Strønen describes as ‘melodic music with a twist’ where the notion of ‘time’ is a key theme.

SAT 18 JUN

Tim Garland RoadworkHall Two 8pmOnline Rates £12.50 | Savers £9.50

As a composer Garland uses his natural eclecticism and phenomenal technique to make surprising connections; as a bandleader, he creates spaces in which other musicians will surprise themselves. His electrifying quartet, with Jason Rebello, Asaf Sirkis and Ant Law, unites two strands of his career in one project – expect a dynamic and virtuosic set.

SAT 25 JUN EFPI FESTIVAL

Beats & Pieces + Johnny Hunter Qt + Let SpinHall Two 8pmOnline Rates £19.50 I £9.50

Efpi is both an independent record label and an umbrella organisation for the new generation of musicians working in contemporary jazz, improv and experimental music. Tonight’s triple bill celebrates the label’s two most recent album releases from Johnny Hunter Quartet and Let Spin, before fi nishing with a set from fl agship ensemble Beats & Pieces Big Band.

JAZZ

Courtney Pine & Zoe Rahman (7 Apr)

44 Apr — Aug 2016WORDS

Philippe Sands has focused his fascinating dramatisation of the 1945-6 Nuremberg Trials, which comes to Kings Place in May, on three men: Hitler’s lawyer Hans Frank, governor-general of Poland, then on trial for his part in the murder of three million people; prosecutor Hersch Lauterpacht, born in Zhovkva, near Lviv, but by then a Cambridge academic, who developed the concept of ‘crimes against humanity’ and modern laws of war; and Raphael Lemkin, also a lawyer, also trained in Lviv, who coined the term ‘genocide’ and whose family, like Lauterpacht’s, was obliterated, it is believed, on Frank’s orders.

Through projections and narrative read by Sands and guest actors, the interwoven stories of the three men are told. But where does music come into so bleak a dissection? Sands discovered that as the trials proceeded, Lauterpacht would seek consolation in a recording of Bach’s St Matthew Passion; meanwhile, one of the accused, Frank, who said the Reich would bring ‘art and culture’ to Poland, sat in his cell and summoned to mind the very same work, seeking in it not solace but affirmation (this is known from conversations with his prison psychiatrist). Each man heard in Bach’s masterpiece a contradictory message. Lauterpacht, perhaps, found inspiration in Bach’s message about the individual’s direct relationship with God for the idea of individual human rights. And Frank? Sands has asked, as an intelligent and cultured man, did he really understand the St Matthew Passion? Frank may have heard in these glorious chorales an assertion of the

collective, the rights of nation over those of an individual, which was the basis of his defence.’Legendary French baritone Laurent Naouri will be joining the actors, with pianist Guillaume de Chassy, to sing arias from the St Matthew Passion, including the heart-wrenching ‘Erbarme dich’, and other music which finds a resonance in the narrative, from Ravel’s Yiddish ‘L’enigme éternelle’ and Prokofiev’s Overture on Hebrew Themes to Leonard Cohen’s plea for human rights in ‘Anthem’. There is, too, the troubling ‘hymn’ written for Frank by his friend, Richard Strauss.

Directed by Nina Brazier, this production has been described as ‘tremendously dramatic, moving and thought-provoking’. It has already been staged several times, including a recent significant performance in the very Nuremberg courtroom in which the trials were held, as part of a conference marking the 70th anniversary of their opening day in November 1945.

MON 16 & WED 18 MAY A Song of Good and EvilHall One, 8pm

A Song of Good and Evil

Human Rights lawyer Philippe Sands leads an exploration in words and music of the Nuremberg Trials and their impact on international law today.

‘Each man heard in Bach’s masterpiece a contradictory message’

45Book tickets kingsplace.co.uk WORDS

MON 4 APR

Sean B Carroll The Serengeti RulesThe Quest to Discover How Life WorksHall Two 7pm Online Rates £12.50 | Savers £9.50

In telling the stories of some of the greatest discoveries of 20th-century biology, Sean B. Carroll, renowned biologist and author of The Serengeti Rules, reveals how a few simple rules govern all life on earth, from the cells in our bodies to populations of animals on the Serengeti.

MON 25 APR POET IN THE CITY

War MusicAn epic evening of poetry, feat. Christopher Reid & Bettany Hughes Hall One 7pm Online Rates £9.50

Christopher Logue (1926–2011) was a political rebel, inventor of the poster poem, pioneer of poetry and jazz, but he dedicated almost half his life to a very different project: a rewriting of Homer’s Iliad. Each volume of this modern epic, War Music, was a radical reimagining of Homer’s tale of warfare, human folly and the power of the gods. This special event celebrates the launch of a brand-new edition from Faber & Faber, featuring live performances of the poem with Christopher Reid and Bettany Hughes.

THU 28 APR

Rock ’n’ Roll Politics with Steve RichardsLondon Mayoral Election SpecialHall Two 7pm Online Rates £9.50

Roll up for a brand new Rock ’n’ Roll Politics on the eve of the London Mayoral election and other big elections around the UK. What will happen in the elections? How is Corbyn performing as a leader? Will the UK leave the EU and Scotland leave the UK? Columnist and broadcaster Steve Richards presents his

latest behind-the-scenes tour at a time when politics is all shook up.

FRI 6 MAY POET IN THE CITY

Pop-up PoetryCasanova Pop-upFoyer stage before Casanova’s Conquest: The Tradition of the Pasticcio

Poet in the City presents an irresistible poetry pop-up, ahead of the Casanova’s Conquest performance in Hall One. Arrive early to have your eyes and ears seduced by poems from some of the biggest heartbreakers in verse. Join us with a glass of wine, up on the foyer stage, as we take you on a sensuous tour of poetry playboys.

MON 9 MAY

Quentin Blake and FranceHall One 7.30pm Online Rates £12.50 | Savers £9.50

A special event featuring Quentin Blake, the UK’s best-loved children’s illustrator. A great lover of all things French, Blake has worked with many French writers and illustrators, and has published two books with the French publisher Gallimard, including an illustrated selection of his favourite French poems that contains Rimbaud’s ‘Le Dormeur du val’. Blake will be joined on stage by special guests, including poets, illustrators and musicians, for a unique exploration of French poetry and illustration. Get on your metaphorical bicyclette and bring red wine, baguette and Camembert for a special illustrator’s guide to the landscape and culture of France. Curated by The Rimbaud and Verlaine Foundation.

MON 16 MAY

A Song of Good and Evilfeat. Laurent Naouri, Guillaume de Chassy and Katja Reimann (TBC)Hall One 8pm Online Rates £13.50 – £24.50 | Savers £9.50

Philippe Sands’ A Song of Good and Evil offers new insights into the conflict and connections between three men at

the heart of the Nuremberg – Cambridge academic Hersch Lauterpacht, Polish prosecutor Raphael Lemkin, and Hitler’s lawyer Hans Frank – who had a shared passion for music. A personal exploration of the origins of modern justice and the fate of individuals and groups, in images, narrative and excerpts of music by Bach, Beethoven, Rachmaninov, Misraki and Leonard Cohen, performed by acclaimed bass-baritone Laurent Naouri and renowned jazz pianist Guillaume de Chassy. Featuring Katja Reimann (to be confirmed) as the narrator.

Utopia – Then and NowHall Two 7.30pm Online Rates £9.50

Thomas More’s Utopia, one of the most provocative and influential inventions of the humanist mind, turns 500 in 2016. So are More’s ideas still relevant to us today? What did they mean at the time, and to him personally, and how have they shaped the thinking of others? Find out during a discussion chaired by Michael Caines. The Times Literary Supplement presents.

Quentin Blake (9 May)

46 Apr — Aug 2016

FRI 10 JUN POETRY & LYRICS

Blurred Lines with Cerys MatthewsHall One 7.30pmOnline Rates: £14.50 – £34.50 I Savers £9.50

To launch the festival Cerys Matthews, whose 6Music Sunday morning show is the most listened to programme on digital radio and includes weekly poetry features, hosts an evening celebrating some of the world’s favourite poems and lyrics in the company of a line up of inspiring guests.Together they’ll walk along the blurred lines between song and verse.

SAT 11 JUN POETRY & LYRICS

Family Event: Turning Poetry into LyricsSt Pancras Room 12 noonOnline Rates: £5.50 (adult); £3.50 (child)

Set favourite rhymes to music at this interactive family show.

POETRY & LYRICS

Workshop: The Lyric I madeSt Pancras Room 1.30pmOnline Rates: £6.50

Discover your inner Ivor Novello at a special songwriting workshop for adults.

POETRY & LYRICS

Telling Tales: Poetry & FolkErica Wagner with Hugh Luptonand Chris WoodHall Two 4pm Online Rates £12.50 | Savers £9.50

What is it that makes folk music so poetic? And why, perhaps above all other styles, has folk maintained its lifelong dedication to words? Journalist and broadcaster Erica Wagner is joined for music and conversation by a leadinglight of the UK folk music scene, Chris Wood, and storyteller-poet Hugh Lupton.

POETRY & LYRICS

Walt Whitman & Songfeat. Iain Burnside & Nicky Spence Hall One 6pmOnline Rates: £14.50 I Savers £9.50

Pioneer of the open road, big-hearted wordsmith Walt Whitman has been set to music more than almost any other poet. Composers have returned again and again to his boundless ability to include the reader, and the listener, in a joyful riot of shared experience. This special performance of classical song settings from composers including Ralph Vaughan Williams, Frank Bridge, Kurt Weill and Ned Rorem. Featuring leading pianist Iain Burnside in performance with acclaimed tenor Nicky Spence.

POETRY & LYRICS

Putting the Punk in PoetryHall One 8pmOnline Rates: £14.50 – £34.50 I Savers £9.50

The festival fi nale. Expect a star-studded line-up to take us on a journey from punk to contemporary performance poetry. This electric show will take us to the subversive heart of punk, as we experience words and music which explode political norms, railing against the establishment in pursuit of an uncorrupted art. Watch this space...

Expect the full festival experience at Poetry and Lyrics, with a host of additional foyer performances and workshops. Catch some of the most exciting contemporary poets in live pop-up performances around the building. And feast your ears on solo slots from some surprise musical guests!

MON 20 JUN

Rock ’n’ Roll Politics with Steve RichardsHall Two, 7pmOnline Rates £9.50

Roll up for a brand-new Rock ’n’ Roll Politics. From Corbyn and Cameron via Osborne, Johnson and Sturgeon, columnist-broadcaster Steve Richards’ latest behind-the-scenes tour at a time when politics is all shook up.

WORDS

FRI 10 & SAT 11 JUNE

POETRY & LYRICSA new festival of poetry, music and song from Poet in the City and Rainbow City Artist ManagementFrom the earliest moments people have sought to express themselves in song, told stories and mapped histories through the poetry of lyrics and melody. But where do the lines cross between poem, music and lyrics? Join us for a weekend of live performance, workshops and debates, as we bring together some of the leading voices in poetry and the music industry to celebrate the word through classical song, folk, punk, spoken word and beyond.

Cerys Matthews (10 Jun)

47Book tickets 020 7520 1490

Noh Unmasked

‘It will be like a “Noh Unwrapped” in two days!’ says Akiko Yanagisawa, curator of the Noh Festival coming to Kings Place in May. Originating in the 14th century, Noh is one of the world’s oldest performing art forms. Cut off from Western arts and music until its rediscovery in the 20th century, it was proclaimed by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2001.

Based in London (see Kings Place Local) Akiko has long been an ambassador for Japanese culture: ‘We know that composers such as Britten and Stockhausen were influenced by Japanese music and the Noh tradition – in works like Curlew River – but they had taken Japanese sonorities and and used them in Western musical forms. In the 21st century, it’s time for the Japanese tradition to play a bigger role.’ She has collaborated with Sound and Music to find young composers who were interested in working with the Noh concept. The work of these composers will be heard in the context of classical Noh performances: Takasago, which embodies grace and elegance, and Dojoji involving dynamic movement. Noh music consists of chant and song, the Nohkan flute and three drums. The drums create tempo variation and Noh’s distinctive sense of ma, or space. The Nohkan

flute is used to convey atmosphere and emotional intensity. ‘It’s a radically different approach’ explains Akiko. ‘Masks are worn by supernatural beings such as ghosts and demons, and contemporary artists have responded to this in fascinating ways.’

The weekend will start with a rare opportunity to see the highlights from the classical Noh plays including Tenko and Toru performed by Japanese master instrumentalists and Yoshimasa Kanze, a Noh Shite dancer-actor. Then comes a unique collaboration between legendary saxophonist Evan Parker and Japanese flautist Yukihiro Isso, followed by workshops on dance and music and exploration of Noh in contemporary arts. Simon Starling’s film Project for a Masquerade (Hiroshima) will be screened and Ignacio Jarquin will present excerpts from his Madam Butterfly Returns. Last, but not least, the festival will welcome two vibrant remix artists, Mariam Rezaei and Shiva Feshareski to present a grand finale of time-travelling Noh.

FRI 13 – SAT 14 MAYNoh ReimaginedSee listings for details

Noh Reimagined is a two-day exploration of the classical Japanese theatre tradition and its power to inspire contemporary

artists and composers. Curator Akiko Yanagisawa explains all.

WORLD

‘It’s time for the Japanese

tradition to play a bigger role’

48 Apr — Aug 2016WORLD

a celestial hand drum and is also the name of a boy who possesses this amazing drum, while Toru was a prince who retired from court to spend the rest of his life enjoying the arts in his country home. The musicians and Kanze will also perform original pieces by Yukihiro Isso inspired by ghosts and demons.

NOH REIMAGINED

Evan Parker meets Noh MusicHall Two 9.45pmOnline Rates £16.50 I Savers £9.50

An intercultural collaboration between one of jazz’s foremost instrumentalists, saxophonist Evan Parker, and leading Noh fl autist Yukihiro Isso who, as well as being a master of classical Noh repertoire, is also a gifted improviser. In their fi rst meeting they will explore improvisation, creating dialogues between the cultures of contrasting rhythms, colours and sounds.

SAT 14 MAY NOH REIMAGINED

Noh in Focus 2 Movement in NohThe Dynamism of Stillness – A WorkshopHall Two 11.30amOnline Rates £9.50

The master actor-performer Yoshimasa Kanze, supported by Richard Emmert,

FRI 13 MAY NOH REIMAGINED

Noh in Focus 1 Knowing Noh Pre-concert talkHall One 6pmFREE event, but a ticket is required. Please contact the Box Offi ce to reserve your seat.

What is Noh? Richard Emmert, Tokyo-based American Noh practitioner and founder of Theatre Nohgaku, talks about the history, aesthetic concepts, stories and performance traditions of Noh, and gives an insight into the works being performed during the festival.

NOH REIMAGINED

Yugen The mysterious elegance of classical NohHall One 7.30pmOnline Rates £14.50 – £24.50 I Savers £9.50

Yoshimasa Kanze, Noh main dancer-actor, and Noh musicians Yukihiro Isso (nohkan – fl ute), Mitsuhiro Kakihara (o-tsuzumi – hip drum), Tatsushi Narita (ko-tsuzumi – shoulder drum), Yoshitani Kiyoshi (taiko – stick drum) perform highlights from the classical Noh plays Tenko and Toru, by the foremost Noh playwright and performer Zeami (c. 1363 – c. 1443). Tenko refers to

MON 9 MAY

Savina Yannatou: Songs of ThessalonikiHall Two 8pmOnline Rates £12.50 | Savers £9.50

Singer Savina Yannatou plays music from her fourth ECM album, a dazzling evocation of her band’s hometown, plunging deep into its rich and complex history. Her band Primavera en Salonico are a delight, one of the most resourceful bands in any idiom, as they negotiate the inspired – and very varied – arrangements of Kostas Vomvolos. With Kostas Vomvolos (qanun, accordion), Yannis Alexandris (oud, guitar), Kyriakos Gouventas (violin), Harris Lambrakis (nay), Michalis Siganidis (double bass) and Kostas Theodorou (percussion).

13 – 14 MAY

NOH REIMAGINEDThe contemporary art of classical Japanese theatreNoh is a total art form comprising drama, music and dance. Originating in Japan in the 14th century, it is one of the oldest unbroken performance traditions in the world. This two-day festival explores the art of Noh, in particular its aesthetic concepts and unique musical rhythms and tempos, which continue to inspire artists across diverse art forms. Some of the fi nest Noh performers from Japan will present selections from classical Noh masterpieces such as Takasago and Toru. Master Shite actor-performer, Yoshimasa Kanze, will dance to Noh percussion instruments punctuated by the space, voice and haunting pitches of the nohkan (fl ute) played by Yukihiro Isso. The festival will transform Kings Place into another world.Generously supported by Yakult, Daiwa, Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation, Arts Council Tokyo and Embassy of Japan, London.

Savinia Yannatou (9 May)

Yukihiro Isso (13 May)

49Book tickets kingsplace.co.uk

Noh-inspired works by Andrew Thomas and Nicholas Morrish Rarity. Dojoji is a famous story of a woman scorned and transformed into a serpent-demoness. Takasago, by Zeami, celebrates the longevity and harmony in marriage, and features the powerful dance of a young god. Yukihiro Isso’s original composition Bibyon, using Noh musical forms, bridges the ancient and modern aspects of the programme.

NOH REIMAGINED

Women remixing NohHall Two 9.45pmOnline rates £14.50

The fi nale of the festival will feature multi-award-winning British female remix artists Mariam Rezaei and Shiva Feshareki. Both will use their diverse experience of imaginative experimentation to bring the sound of Noh to the contemporary ears of Kings Place audiences.

NOH REIMAGINED

Noh Inspired 2Cross-cultural collaboration and contemporary musicSt Pancras Room 6pm

Join UK composers including Sound and Music Portfolio composers Andrew Thomas and Nicholas Morrish Rarity, whose Noh-inspired pieces premiere later this evening, as they discuss their own journeys into cross-cultural collaboration and its relevance to new music today. The panel is chaired by Richard Whitelaw, Director of Programmes at Sound and Music, and the discussion will be followed by a Q&A.

NOH REIMAGINED

Johakyu From Classical to ContemporaryHall One 7.30pmOnline rates £14.50 – £24.50 I Savers £9.50

Discover highlights from two classical Noh masterpieces and premieres of

will teach the highly stylised movements of Noh for actors, dancers and anyone else interested in the delicate intensity of movement expression. Participants will learn kata, basic movement patterns, kamae, basic posture, hakobi, sliding-feet manner of walking, and subtle means of expressing emotion in simplicity and abstraction.

NOH REIMAGINED

Noh in Focus 3 The music of NohWorkshopSt Pancras Room 1.30pmOnline rates £6.50

This workshop led by Richard Emmert will offer participants an opportunity to learn about the basic features of the music of Noh, and to try out the fundamental styles of Noh chant. Noh instrumentalists will join in the workshop, demonstrating aspects of the four instruments of a Noh ensemble.

NOH REIMAGINED

Noh Inspired 1Masking and Unmasking: Noh Theatre as a Strategy in Contemporary Art and Performance Hall Two 3.30pmOnline rates £6.50

A screening of Simon Starling’s Project for a Masquerade (Hiroshima), which connects the making of contemporary Noh masks with Cold War politics, nuclear development and art, will be followed by performances from three collaborations and a panel discussion: Ignacio Jarquin presents excerpts from his piece Madam Butterfl y Returns, incorporating Noh elements, music by Michael Finnissy and a libretto by Andrew G Marshall. Ami Skånberg Dahlstedt and Palle Dahlstedt look at the role of hero and victim in Noh through movement and sound fragments. David Toop and Wiebke Leister explore the psychological and aesthetic signifi cance of voice and face masking in Noh through sound and photography.

WORLD

Noh Festival (13–14 May)

50 Apr — Aug 2016WORLD

FRI 3 JUN SONGLINES ENCOUNTERS

John Williams and Derek GripperHall One 8pmOnline rates £16.50 – £34.50 I £9.50

Australian-born John Williams is one of the legends of classical guitar music; African-born guitarist Derek Gripper also transcribes and plays West African kora music. As well as solo pieces they will play a selection of kora pieces arranged by Derek for two guitars that will make us rethink what counts as classical and what as traditional music.

SONGLINES ENCOUNTERS

Vula VielHall Two 9.45pmOnline rates £12.50 (standing)

Vula Viel means ‘Good is Good’ in Dagaare, the language of the tribe in Upper West Ghana where Bex Burch lived, farmed and studied for three years. The intensely rhythmic music of her dynamic band Vula Viel is an engaging mix of African, electronica and Minimalist infl uences, based around the gyil, the Dagaare xylophone made of sacred lliga wood.

SAT 4 JUN SONGLINES ENCOUNTERS

Roby Lakatos Ensemble Hall One 8pmOnline rates £16.50 – £34.50 I £9.50

Roby Lakatos is a direct descendent of János Bihari (1764–1827), the most famous Gypsy violinist of his day, and for this Songlines Encounters concert Lakatos is going to dig out some of the rarities that are preserved in the family tradition and perform them on his Stradivarius, with his brilliant ensemble.

3 – 4 JUNE

SONGLINES ENCOUNTERS FESTIVALIt’s the time of the year to get ready to discover something new: the sixth edition of the Songlines Encounters Festival boasts a mouthwatering line-up of unique global acts appealing to anyone interested in great live performing. Legendary classical guitarist John Williams teams up with South African-born guitarist Derek Gripper to play solo pieces and duets, including the latter’s transcriptions of West African kora music for the guitar. The larger-than-life Hungarian violinist Roby Lakatos and his band will treat us to a brilliant programme of traditional Romani music preserved in the family tradition. And the dynamic quintet Vula Viel’s music is an engaging mix of African, electronica and Minimalist infl uences. Songlines Encounters Festival is co-curated by Songlines magazine and Ikon Arts Management.kingsplace.co.uk/sef2016

Vula Viel (3 Jun)

John Williams (3 Jun)

51Book tickets 020 7520 1490

In just three years the Chess Festival at Kings Place has grown into an essential date in the calendar for UK chess players. As organiser Adam Raoof, from chessengland.com explains, ‘We started with 140 players and last year welcomed an astonishing 260 players into the building, and we are aiming at 300 for July 2016. What was particularly rewarding this year was that we had such a large number of grandmasters and international masters taking part.’

One area he’s keen to expand is the junior entrants: ‘For the 2016 tournament we have received a private donation which will enable us to offer free places to at least ten talented young chess players to play in the Open.’

There are five sections in the tournament: (Open, Major (under 170), Minor (under 145), Amateur (under 120) and My First Tournawment (under 85). Raoof sees great potential in the ‘My First Tournament’ section: ‘We had a fantastic entry and most of the newcomers have gone on to play in other events I organise. This is certainly the section that could take off. We’re encouraging new players to enter, who have previously only ever played online or informally, or who are juniors who’ve not played in a tournament of this kind before. Here, they can get their first rating.’

With a new sponsor in DeMontford Bell (independent financial services), the Kings Place Chess Festival has been able to add new prizes in all sections, ‘And we are hoping to live-stream the top ten games and the grandmaster commentary throughout the day,’ says Raoof.

Check Mate at Kings Place

SAT 9 JULYKings Place Chess Festival

For more information visit: www.kingsplace.co.uk/chess

MORE FAMILY EVENTS

SAT 7 & SUN 8 MAY Aurora: Far, Far AwayAgatha the Pirate’s Treasure HuntEarly Years Show & Family ShowSee llstings p28 for details

SAT 11 JUN Poetry & Lyrics Family Workshop Turning Poetry into LyricsSee llstings p44 for details

FAMILY

The third Kings Place Chess Festival promises to be biggest yet

‘We’re encouraging new players and juniors to enter this year’

52 Apr — Aug 2016ART

During the 1950s and 1960s, Ruth Borchard, an extraordinary patron of the arts, built up an unparalleled collection of 100 self-portraits by British and Irish artists. When she died in 2000, she left behind both an astonishing collection and also the legacy of supporting contemporary self-portraiture, a legacy revived in 2011 through the inauguration of the Ruth Borchard Next Generation Collection. Continuing Ruth Borchard’s project into the twenty-first century, the Next Generation Collection of self-portraits by contemporary British and Irish artists ensures the Collection remains vital and vivid, and that its inheritance endures beyond Ruth Borchard’s lifetime.

The Next Generation Collection, which is continually growing, currently consists of 63 self-portraits brought together through purchases from the biennial Ruth Borchard Self-Portrait Prize,

most recently held in 2015 at Piano Nobile Kings Place and won by Shanti Panchal. The Ruth Borchard Collection: The Next Generation will be the first occasion on which the Next Generation Collection has been shown in its entirety. It will be exhibited alongside a selection from the Original Collection so as to initiate a dialogue between the 20th- and 21st-century collections.

The fundamental tenet of the Next Generation Collection is to bring together diverse artists, rarely

traditional portraitists, who briefly, inquisitively turn their eye upon themselves. Subject and object become one and the same, seeing and being seen elide in a moment of revelation and self-reflection. Bringing together the collection reveals its immense variety, despite an ostensibly similar motif. Artists represented in the collection range from those at the outset of their artistic practice, such as students Atlanta Arden-Miller and Tabitha Steinberg, to those with luminous careers, including Maggi Hambling RA and Shani Rhys James. A multitude of media appear in the collection, including Shanti Panchal’s watercolour, Paul Bloomer’s woodcut and Marco Livingstone’s self-portrait on a dartboard. The Collection also includes artists usually known for practices other than painting, such as the sculptor Nicola Hicks.

The Ruth Borchard Collection: The Next Generation – Self-Portraiture in the 21st Century reveals that contemporary self-portraiture is continually intriguing, significant and evolving. The curious paradox of the intimate familiarity of one’s own face and yet its strange foreignness when scrutinised through another’s gaze endures.

JUN – SEPThe Ruth Borchard Collection: The Next Generation – Self-Portraiture in the 21st centurySee Listings for details

21st-century selfies

The unique legacy of arts patron Ruth Borchard is flourishing through The Next Generation collection of 21st-century self-portraiture,

coming to Piano Nobile at Kings Place this spring.

‘Subject and object become one and the same, seeing and being seen elide in a moment of revelation’

53Book tickets kingsplace.co.uk ART

30 JAN – 14 MAY 2016

Thomas Newbolt: Drama Painting – A Modern BaroquePiano Nobile at Kings Place

Opening as a visual accompaniment to the Baroque Unwrapped music programme, Thomas Newbolt: Drama Painting – A Modern Baroque presents immense paintings by contemporary artist Thomas Newbolt. With their layers undiluted oil paint in vigorous impasto, the paintings have a physical depth mirroring their mysterious complexity. Enigmatic female figures emerge from the darkness of a shadowy room into vivid light. Together these figures are a harmonious collective yet still strikingly individual.

16 MAR – 30 APR

Jeff LowePangolin London

Jeff Lowe’s powerful sculptures are both beautifully constructed and distinctly architectural. Working in a variety of materials from cast iron to aluminium and ranging from the elemental to the organic, Lowe produces work that seems to both capture and release space. This, his first exhibition at Pangolin London, promises to be a major solo show and includes monumental works and maquettes as well as works on paper and jewellery.

13 MAY – 9 JUL

Sculpture in the GardenPangolin London

Much sculpture is made to be seen outdoors so Pangolin London will bravely bring the outside in to transform the gallery into a lush green garden. Featuring both large pieces and works on a more intimate scale, created by its wide-ranging roster of artists, this promises to be a spectacle in more ways than one.

JUN – SEP

The Ruth Borchard Collection: The Next GenerationSelf-Portraiture in the 21st centuryPiano Nobile at Kings Place

Founded in 2011, the Ruth Borchard Next Generation Collection consists of 63 self-portraits by contemporary British and Irish artists brought together through purchases from the biennial Ruth Borchard Self- Portrait Prize. The Ruth Borchard Collection: The Next Generation will be the first occasion on which the Next Generation Collection has been shown in its entirety.It will be exhibited alongside a selection from the Original Collection so as to initiate a dialogue between the 20th- and 21st- century collections.

19 JUL – 27 AUG

Summer ShowPangolin London

An eclectic mix of sculpture and works on paper from Pangolin London’s broad stable of sculptors. The sculptures will range from the miniature to the monumental, encompassing a wide variety of materials.

PIANO NOBILE KINGS PLACEOpening Hours: Mon–Sun, 9am–8pm Gallery staff present by appointment. The Gallery Level is often used for private event bookings during the week which might limit access. If you would like a personal viewing of the current exhibition please contact the gallery to ensure a member of staff is available. 020 7229 1099 | piano-nobile.com

PANGOLIN LONDONOpening Hours: Mon–Sat, 10am–6pm Closed Sundays, Bank Holidays and between exhibitions.0207 520 1480 | pangolinlondon.com

Sculpture in the Garden: Michael Cooper, Big Bear

Pangolin London(13 May – 9 Jul 2016)

54 Apr — Aug 2016TITLE

DINING OPTIONS AT KINGS PLACE Rotunda Bar and Restaurant

Delectable dishes centered around the beef & lamb from our own Northumberland farm

Award winning wine list and wide range of craft beers

Waterside dining alongside Regent’s Canal in our secret garden once the weather gets warmer

A la carte menu available throughout the day, as well as:

EARLY EVENING SET MENUTwo courses for £19.50 and three courses for £24.50.Available Monday to Saturday, 5.00pm - 7.30pm.

SUNDAYSClassic roasts - Bloody Marys - craft beers - Children’s den Plus fantastic sharing joints including studded leg of lamb and rib of beef, served with all the trimmings from £15.00 per person.

H OT D I S H E S & P I Z Z AS

SA N DW I C H E S

SA L A D S

CO F F E E

CA K EI F YO U FA N CY A Q U I C K B I T E , S U C H AS B E E F

& A L E CAS S E R O L E , L A M B & V EG E TA B L E

ST E W O R O U R H OT CA RV E RY SA N DW I C H E S

TO N A M E B U T A F E W , T H E N P O P I N & E N J OY

O N E O F O U R H O M E M A D E S P EC I A L S B E FO R E

H E A D I N G D OW N TO T H E CO N C E RT H A L L S .

W E A R E A L S O P R O U D TO S E L L A G R E AT

S E L ECT I O N O F SA N DW I C H E S AS W E L L AS

CA K E S & PAST R I E S W H I C H A R E F R E S H LY

M A D E BY O U R BA K E R E V E RY DAY.

G R E E N A N D FO RT U N ECA F E . CO . U K

0 2 0 7 0 1 4 285 0GA N D FCA F E

ROTUNDABARANDRESTAURANT.CO.UK ROTUNDALONDON 020 7014 2840

WHY NOT MAKE A RESERVATION ONLINE

WHILST BOOKING YOUR TICKETS AT

KINGSPLACE.CO.UK

DINING OPTIONS AT KINGS PLACE Rotunda Bar and Restaurant

Delectable dishes centered around the beef & lamb from our own Northumberland farm

Award winning wine list and wide range of craft beers

Waterside dining alongside Regent’s Canal in our secret garden once the weather gets warmer

A la carte menu available throughout the day, as well as:

EARLY EVENING SET MENUTwo courses for £19.50 and three courses for £24.50.Available Monday to Saturday, 5.00pm - 7.30pm.

SUNDAYSClassic roasts - Bloody Marys - craft beers - Children’s den Plus fantastic sharing joints including studded leg of lamb and rib of beef, served with all the trimmings from £15.00 per person.

H OT D I S H E S & P I Z Z AS

SA N DW I C H E S

SA L A D S

CO F F E E

CA K EI F YO U FA N CY A Q U I C K B I T E , S U C H AS B E E F

& A L E CAS S E R O L E , L A M B & V EG E TA B L E

ST E W O R O U R H OT CA RV E RY SA N DW I C H E S

TO N A M E B U T A F E W , T H E N P O P I N & E N J OY

O N E O F O U R H O M E M A D E S P EC I A L S B E FO R E

H E A D I N G D OW N TO T H E CO N C E RT H A L L S .

W E A R E A L S O P R O U D TO S E L L A G R E AT

S E L ECT I O N O F SA N DW I C H E S AS W E L L AS

CA K E S & PAST R I E S W H I C H A R E F R E S H LY

M A D E BY O U R BA K E R E V E RY DAY.

G R E E N A N D FO RT U N ECA F E . CO . U K

0 2 0 7 0 1 4 285 0GA N D FCA F E

ROTUNDABARANDRESTAURANT.CO.UK ROTUNDALONDON 020 7014 2840

WHY NOT MAKE A RESERVATION ONLINE

WHILST BOOKING YOUR TICKETS AT

KINGSPLACE.CO.UK

CalendarAPR – MAY – JUN – JUL – AUG

Celebrated British pianist andcomposer Gwilym Simcockteams up with violinist Thomas Gould for a Bach-inspired genre-crossingprogramme melting classical,jazz and improvised music inthe same pot. See p26.

56 Apr — Aug 2016CALENDAR56 Apr — Aug 2016

Martin Feinstein

BACH WEEKEND

ART until14 May

Piano Nobile Kings Place

Thomas Newbolt: Drama Painting – A Modern Baroque

ART until30 Apr

Pangolin London Jeff Lowe

CLASSICAL Fri 01 Apr Hall One, 7.30 pm BACH WEEKEND Concertos and Cantatas: The Feinstein Ensemble with The London Bach Singers

CLASSICAL Hall One, 10 pm BACH WEEKENDThe Great Partita in D minor: Catherine Manson

CLASSICAL Sat 02 Apr Hall One, 1.30 am BACH WEEKENDThe Viola da gamba Sonatas: Jonathan Manson & Steven Devine

CLASSICAL Hall Two, 2.30 pm BACH WEEKENDStudy Session on the Mass in B minor

CLASSICAL Hall Two, 4 pm BACH WEEKENDThe Goldberg Variations: Steven Devine

CLASSICAL Hall One, 7.30 pm BACH WEEKENDMass in B minor: The Feinstein Ensemble with The London Bach Singers

CLASSICAL Sun 03 Apr Hall One, 11.30 am BACH WEEKENDThe Complete Solo Cello Suites IRichard Tunnicliffe

CLASSICAL Hall One, 2.45 pm BACH WEEKENDPre-/Post- Concert Talk: The Complete Solo Cello Suites

CLASSICAL Hall One, 3.45 pm BACH WEEKENDThe Complete Solo Cello Suites IIRichard Tunnicliffe

CLASSICAL Hall One, 6.30 pm BACH WEEKEND | LONDON CHAMBER MUSICOrchestral Suites: The Feinstein Ensemble

WORDS Mon 4 Apr Hall Two 7pm The Serengeti Rules: The Quest to Discover How Life Works –Sean B Carroll

JAZZ Thu 07 Apr Hall One, 8 pm Courtney Pine & Zoe Rahman

FOLK Fri 08 Apr Hall Two, 8 pm Marry Waterson & David A Jaycock

CLASSICAL Sat 09 Apr Hall Two, 7.30 pm Contemporary Piano and Film with Clare Hammond

FOLK Hall One, 8 pm Altan

AP

RIL

Jeff Lowe

Sean B Carroll

Marry Waterson

Thomas Newbolt

Altan

Book tickets kingsplace.co.uk CALENDAR 575757Book tickets kingsplace.co.uk

CLASSICAL Sun 10 Apr Hall One, 11.30 am COFFEE CONCERTSLucy Parham & Henry Goodman in Élégie:Rachmaninov, A Heart in Exile

CLASSICAL Hall One, 6.30 pm LONDON CHAMBER MUSIC SUNDAYSDuo Leonore: Beethoven, Fauré, Rachmaninov & Peter Fribbins

FOLK Fri 15 Apr Hall Two, 8 pm Rachel Newton Trio

CLASSICAL Sat 16 Apr Hall One, 11.30 am COFFEE CONCERTSLive Music Now!Celebrating Menuhin

CONTEMPORARY TBC Denovali Festival

CLASSICAL Sun 17 Apr Hall One, 6.30 pm LONDON CHAMBER MUSIC SUNDAYS John & Fiona York Piano Duo

FOLK Mon 18 Apr Hall One, 8 pm Rock for Rimbaud featuring Diana Jones and Preston Reed

CLASSICAL Wed 20 Apr Hall One, 7.30 pm Ensemble Eroica: ‘A State of Sin’ – Schoenberg, Haydn, Beethoven

BAROQUE UNWRAPPED

FOLK Thu 21 Apr Hall One, 8 pm Hayes Carll

CLASSICAL Hall Two, 8 pm BAROQUE UNWRAPPEDThomas Gould & Gwilym Simcock: Baroque Encounters

CLASSICAL Fri 22 Apr Hall One, 7.30 pm BAROQUE UNWRAPPED Choir of King’s College, Cambridge & The Hanover Band: Handel: Brockes-Passion

CLASSICAL Sat 23 Apr Hall One, 7.30 pm MOZART’S PIANOAurora Orchestra & Robert Levin: Child’s Play

CLASSICAL Hall Two, 9.45 pm MOZART’S PIANOAurora Orchestra: The Lock-in – Improvised

CLASSICAL Sun 24 Apr Hall One, 11.30 am

COFFEE CONCERTSBarbara Nissman: A Birthday Party for Ginastera 100,Prokofi ev 125, Bartók 135 & Liszt 205

CLASSICAL Pre-concert Talk – St Pancras Room, 5.15 pmPerformance – Hall One, 6.30 pm

LONDON CHAMBER MUSIC SUNDAYSChilingirian Quartet: Mozart-Beethoven-Bartók – III

WORDS Mon 25 Apr Hall One, 7 pm War Music: an epic evening of poetryfeaturing Christopher Reid and Bettany Hughes

AP

RIL

Duo Leonore

John York

Diana Jones

Thomas Gould

Barbara Nissmann

Bettany Hughes

58 Apr — Aug 2016CALENDAR58 Apr — Aug 2016

AP

RIL – M

AY

Far, Far Away

Sounds Baroque

CLASSICAL Wed 27 Apr Hall One, 8 pm O/MODERNT: Kammarorkester | Hugo Ticciati Mindstream featuring Evelyn Glennie

WORDS Thu 28 Apr Hall Two, 7 pm Rock ’n’ Roll Politics with Steve Richards:London Mayoral Election Special

NO VOICES

FOLK Hall One, 8 pm NO VOICESSpiro + Three Cane Whale

FOLK Fri 29 Apr Hall One, 7.45 pm NO VOICESKathryn Tickell & Superfolkus + Collectress

FOLK Hall Two, 10 pm NO VOICESGadarene

FOLK Sat 30 Apr Hall One, 7.30 pm NO VOICESCatrin Finch and Seckou Keita +BJ Cole and Emily Burridge

ART Pangolin LondonLAST DAY

Jeff Lowe

BAROQUE UNWRAPPED

CLASSICAL Sun 1 May Hall One, 6.30 pm LONDON CHAMBER MUSIC SUNDAYSI Musicanti: Beethoven, Dvořák, Smirnov

JAZZ Thu 5 May Hall One, 8 pm Slowly Rolling Camera and Stuart McCallum

WORDS Fri 6 May Foyer 6.30pm Pop-up PoetryCasanova Pop-up

CLASSICAL Hall One, 7.30 pm BAROQUE UNWRAPPEDSounds Baroque: Casanova’s Conquest – The Tradition of the Pasticcio

JAZZ Hall Two, 8 pm WorldService Project

CLASSICAL Sat 7 May Hall One, 10.30 am BAROQUE UNWRAPPEDStudy Day: How to be HIP – Historically Informed Performance: Here and Now, Why and How

CLASSICAL Hall Two, 10.15 am, 11am, 11.45 am

AURORA AT KINGS PLACEFar, Far Away:Agatha the Pirate’s Treasure Hunt: Early years’ Show

CLASSICAL Hall Two, 2.30 pm AURORA AT KINGS PLACEFar, Far AwayAgatha the Pirate’s Treasure HuntFamily Show

CLASSICAL Hall One, 7.30 pm BAROQUE UNWRAPPEDThe Sixteen & Harry Christophers: Handel’s Acis & Galatea

Harry Christophers

Gadarene

Spiro

Evelyn Glennie

59Book tickets kingsplace.co.uk CALENDAR 59Book tickets kingsplace.co.uk

MAY CLASSICAL Sun 8 May Hall Two,

10.15 am, 11am, 11.45 am

AURORA AT KINGS PLACEFar, Far Away:Agatha the Pirate’s Treasure Hunt: Early years’ Show

CLASSICAL Hall One, 6.30 pm LONDON CHAMBER MUSIC SUNDAYSLondon Firebird Orchestra & Jonathan Bloxhamfeaturing Benjamin Baker (violin)Haydn, Mozart, Mendelssohn

WORDS Mon 9 May Hall One 7.30pm Quentin Blake and France

WORLD Hall Two, 8 pm Savina Yannatou: Songs of Thessaloniki

CLASSICAL Wed 11 May Hall One, 7.30 pm Academy of St Martin in the Fields Chamber Ensemble: Mozart, Brahms, Dohnányi, Prokofi ev

FOLK Thu 12 May Hall Two, 8 pm RANT

NOH REIMAGINED

WORLD Fri 13 May Hall One, 6 pm NOH REIMAGINEDNoh in Focus 1: Knowing Noh (Pre-concert talk)

WORLD Hall One, 7.30 pm NOH REIMAGINEDYugen: The mysterious elegance of classical Noh

WORLD Hall Two, 9.45 pm NOH REIMAGINEDEvan Parker meets Noh Music

ART Pangolin LondonFIRST DAY

Sculpture in the Garden (until 9 Jul)

WORLD Sat 14 May Hall Two, 11.30 am NOH REIMAGINEDNoh in Focus 2: Movement in Noh – The Dynamism of Stillness (Workshop)

WORLD St Pancras Room, 1.30 pm

NOH REIMAGINEDNoh in Focus 3: The music of Noh: Workshop

WORLD Hall Two, 3.30 pm NOH REIMAGINEDNoh Inspired 1: Masking and Unmasking: Noh Theatre as a Strategy in Contemporary Art and Performance

WORLD St Pancras Room, 6 pm

NOH REIMAGINEDNoh Inspired 2: Cross-cultural collaboration and contemporary music

WORLDCONTEMPORARY

Hall One 7.30pm NOH REIMAGINEDJohakyu: From Classical to Contemporary

WORLDCONTEMPORARY

Hall Two, 9.45 pm NOH REIMAGINEDWomen remixing Noh

ART Piano Nobile Kings PlaceLAST DAY

Thomas Newbolt: Drama Painting – A Modern Baroque

Savina Yannatou

RANT

Evan Parker

Noh Reimagined

Noh Reimagined

Quentin Blake

60 Apr — Aug 2016CALENDAR60 Apr — Aug 2016

CLASSICAL Sun 15 May Hall One, 7.30 pm Purcell SchoolFreddy Morgan Piano Recital

WORDS Mon 16 May Hall Two, 7.30 pm Utopia – Then and Now: The Times Literary Supplement presents...

WORDS Hall One, 8 pm A Song of Good and Evil – featuring Laurent Naouri, Guillaume de Chassy and Katja Riemann (TBC)

CONTEMPORARY Wed 18 May Hall Two, 8 pm Sound Routes 2016: PHACE

CLASSICAL Thu 19 May Hall One, 7.30 pm BAROQUE UNWRAPPEDGeneva Camerata & David GreilsammerBalkan-Baroque!

CLASSICAL Fri 20 May Hall Two, 8 pm BAROQUE UNWRAPPEDTrio Aporia: Corps sonore – Rameau and his contemporaries

CLASSICAL Sat 21 May Hall One, 7.30 pm BAROQUE UNWRAPPED Daria van den Bercken: Handel and Scarlatti at the Keyboard

JAZZ Hall Two, 8 pm Thomas Strønen – Time is a Blind Guide

CLASSICAL Sun 22 May Hall One, 11.30 am

COFFEE CONCERTSKeyboard Conversations®: Three Great Bs: Bach, Beethoven and … Bartók!

CLASSICAL Wed 25 May Hall One, 7.30 pm Roman Mints & Katya ApekishevaSchubert, Schumann, Schnittke & Desyatnikov

FOLK Fri 27 May Hall Two, 8 pm Megson: Album Launch

ART June Piano Nobile Kings Place

The Ruth Borchard Collection: The Next Generation – Self-Portraiture in the 21st century (until Sep)

SONGLINES ENCOUNTERS FESTIVAL

WORLD Fri 3 Jun Hall One, 8 pm SONGLINES ENCOUNTERSJohn Williams and Derek Gripper

WORLD Hall Two, 9.45 pm SONGLINES ENCOUNTERSVula Viel

WORLD Sat 4 Jun Hall One, 8 pm SONGLINES ENCOUNTERSRoby Lakatos Ensemble

POETRY & LYRICS

WORDS Fri 10 Jun Hall One, 7.30 pm POETRY & LYRICSBlurred Lines with Cerys Matthews

WORDS Sat 11 Jun St Pancras Room, 12 noon

POETRY & LYRICSFamily Event: Turning Poetry into Lyrics

MAY

Cerys Matthews

R Mints & K Apekisheva.

Trio Aporia

Thomas Strønen

Daria van den Bercken

Katja Riemann

61Book tickets kingsplace.co.uk CALENDAR 61Book tickets kingsplace.co.uk

WORDS FOLK Hall Two, 4 pm POETRY & LYRICSTelling Tales: Poetry & Folk Erica Wagner in conversation with Chris Wood & Hugh Lupton

WORDS Hall One, 6 pm POETRY & LYRICSWalt Whitman & Song

WORDS Hall One, 8 pm POETRY & LYRICSPutting the Punk in Poetry

1816: THE YEAR WITHOUT A SUMMER

CLASSICAL Fri 17 Jun St Pancras Room, 6.30 pm

1816: THE YEAR WITHOUT A SUMMERPre-concert Talk: Beethoven & Schubert in Vienna

CLASSICAL Hall One, 7.30 pm 1816: THE YEAR WITHOUT A SUMMERJames Gilchrist & Anna Tilbrook: Beethoven & Schubert in Vienna

FOLK Hall Two, 8 pm Steve Tilston

CLASSICAL Sat 18 Jun St Pancras Room, 11.30 am – 5.30 pm

1816: THE YEAR WITHOUT A SUMMERStudy Day: 1816 – The Year Without a Summer(aka The Poverty Year)

CLASSICAL Hall One, 7.30 pm 1816: THE YEAR WITHOUT A SUMMERByron in Switzerland

JAZZ Hall Two, 8 pm Tim Garland: Roadwork

WORDS Mon 20 Jun Hall Two, 7pm Rock ’n’ Roll Politics with Steve Richards

CLASSICAL Fri 24 Jun Hall One, 7.30 pm Fretwork at 30, featuring Dame Emma Kirkby, Clare Wilkinson, Michael Chance, Elizabeth Kenny and more guests

FOLK Hall Two, 8 pm Sam Carter

JAZZ Sat 25 Jun Hall Two, 8pm Efpi Festival – Triple Bill:Beats & Pieces + Johnny Hunter Quartet + Let Spin

ART Sat 9 Jul Pangolin LondonLAST DAY

Sculpture in the Garden (until 9 Jul)

CLASSICAL Wed 13 Jul Hall One, 7.30 pm Sacconi Quartet with Mark Padmore

ART 19 Jul Pangolin LondonFIRST DAY

Summer Show (until 27 Aug)

CONTEMPORARY Thu 21 – Sun 24 Jul

IGF Guitar Summit 2016

CONTEMPORARY Thu 4 – Sun 7 Aug

Tête à Tête Opera Festival: 10th-anniversary edition

Louis Schwizgebel

Mark Padmore

JUN

E – AU

G

Steve Richards

Steve Tilston

Tim Garland

Chris Wood

62 Apr — Aug 2016TITLE62 Apr — Aug 2016TITLE

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63Book tickets kingsplace.co.uk TICKET BOOKING & VENUE INFORMATION 63

VENUES

HALL ONE

Assigned Seating – Choose your own seat when booking. £9.50 Saver Seats can only be purchased online and are limited in availability. You are guaranteed a seat. Its location will be allocated by the Box Office. Tickets may be collected at any time during the hour before the performance.

HALL TWO

All seating is general admission. Some events may be standing only.

ST PANCRAS ROOM

All seating is general admission. Some events may be standing only.

BOOKING

Tickets are cheaper if booked online. (The online ticket prices are shown in the listings.)

Please add £2 per ticket to the online price if booking by telephone or in person. Kings Place do not charge any additional booking or postage fees.

GROUP BOOKINGS

Buy six or more tickets per event, and save 20%. Group discounts are available through the Box Office only and are not bookable online. May not be applicable for some events and subject to availability.

RETURNS POLICY

Tickets cannot be refunded or exchanged, except where an event is cancelled or abandoned when less than half of the performance has taken place.

ONLINE

Secure online booking 24 hrs kingsplace.co.uk

KINGS PLACE BOX OFFICE

+44 (0)20 7520 1490

BOX OFFICE OPENING HOURS

Mon, Wed, Thu, Fri & Sat 12–8pm; Tue 10–5pm; Sun 12–7pm (closed Bank Holidays). Box Office Opening Hours are subject to change.

KINGS PLACE 90 YORK WAY LONDON N1 9AG

ACCESS

We aim to make your visit to Kings Place as comfortable as possible. Kings Place is fully accessible for wheelchair-users, with lifts from ground floor to concert level, and multiple wheelchair-accessible toilets. There is an induction loop at Box Office to assist hearing-aid users. An infrared system is available in both Hall One and Hall Two. All areas are accessible to those with Guide and Hearing Dogs. To help us give you the best possible experience, please inform the Box Office team of your access requirements either by emailing access@kingsplace.co.uk or by calling 020 7520 1490. Our full Access Guide can be found on our website.

ARRIVING LATE

We will endeavour to seat latecomers at a suitable break in the performance, although this may not always be possible and in some instances latecomers may not be admitted at all. Tickets are non-refundable.

TAKING PICTURES

The use of cameras, video or sound recording equipment is prohibited during performances, concerts and exhibitions. Kings Place may take pictures during your visit that are later used for promotional purposes.

JOURNEY

Kings Place is situated just a few minutes’ walk from King’s Cross and St Pancras stations, one of the most connected locations in London and now the biggest transport hub in Europe.

PUBLIC TRANSPORT

The Transport for London Journey Planner provides live travel updates and options on how to reach Kings Place quickly and accurately. You can also call London Travel Information on: +44 (0)20 7222 1234.

CAR

The building is outside the Congestion Charge Zone. The nearest car park is at St Pancras Station on Pancras Road, open 24 hours, 7 days including Bank Holidays.

BIKE

There is a Santander Cycle docking station on the corner of Crinan Street and York Way. For its latest status and cycling routes please visit: tfl.gov.uk/roadusers/cycling or call: +44 (0)20 7222 1234.

FOOD & DRINK

64 Apr — Aug 2016TICKET BOOKING & VENUE INFORMATION

EDITORIAL TEAM

Publisher Kings Place Music Foundation

Contact +44 (0) 20 7520 1440mag@kingsplace.co.ukwww.kingsplace.co.uk

Editor-in-Chief Helen Wallace

Art Direction Julie Hill

Editorial Emrah TokalaçMichael GreenAmy Sibley-Allen Rachel JacksonRosie ChapmanAlice Clark (online)Sophia Klose (online)Apsara Flury (Design Assistant)

Proofreader Susannah Howe

Printer Indigo Press

ProgrammingPeter Millican(Director of Programmes)Amy Sibley-Allen (Head of Programme)Rosie Chapman (Programme Coordinator – Classical) Rachel Jackson (Programme Coordinator – Non-classical)Zoë Jeyes (Comedy Programmer)

With thanks to the team at Kings Place Music Foundation

© Kings Place 2015. All material is strictly copyright and all rights are reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without the written permission of Kings Place is strictly forbidden. The greatest care has been taken to ensure the accuracy of information in this magazine at the time of going to press, but we accept no responsibility for omissions or errors. The views expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of Kings Place.

ROTUNDA BAR & RESTAURANT

is the perfect place to dine and enjoy a drink. With our waterside setting, and a range of dining options including a full à la carte menu, pre-performance menu, light post-performance supper, as well as smaller nibbles, bar food and a great range of beers and wine, there is something to suit everybody. 020 7014 2840. For a quick bite, the

GREEN & FORTUNE CAFE

is ideal, serving a selection of daily hot specials, soups and hot carvery rolls alongside freshly made salads, sandwiches and cakes. 020 7014 2850. Prior to the performance, you may place your interval order at the CONCERT BAR, situated adjacent to the concert halls.

Central Saint MartinsRegent’s Canal

Goods Way

Pancras Rd

Kin

g’s

Bou

leva

rd

Midland R

d

Euston Station

St Pancras International Thameslink

King’s Cross

British Library

Euston Rd

Pentonville Rd

Cale

doni

an R

d

Wharfdale Rd

Crinan S

t

King’s Cross RdGray’s Inn Rd

Battlebridge

Basin

York

Way

Wharf Rd

Granary Sq 90 York Way London N1 9AG

Stable St

IMAGE CREDITSNicholas Collon © Ben Blossom/Kings Place | p1 P. Millican © Nick White; C. Hammond © Julie Kim; C. Matthews (supplied); A Mellor (supplied); E. Wagner © Janie Airey; | pp 2–3 N. Collon © Ben Blossom/Kings Place; D. van den Bercken © Andreas Terlaak; E. Glennie (supplied) © Jim Callaghan; K. Tickell © Tony Mac; D. Bennett © Claire Cousin; C. Matthews (supplied); J. Williams (supplied); Painting © Ruth Borchard Self-Portrait Collection | pp 4–5 Tête à Tête: The Opera Festival (supplied) | pp 6–8 N. Collon © Ben Blossom/Kings Place | pp 9–10 Aurora Orch. © Simon Weir | pp 12–13 C. Matthews (supplied); Billie Holiday © Alamy; pp 14–15 M. John-Hurt© Alamy; B. Dylan © Lebrecht; Campfire (supplied) | p16–18 D. Gripper (supplied); J. Williams & D. Grippler © Helena Miscioscia; R. Lakatos (supplied) | pp 19–20 A. Yanagisawa © Ben Blossom/Kings Place | p21 Mount Tambora © Alamy | pp 22–23 D. van den Bercken © Andreas Terlaak; C. Manson (supplied); S. Manson © Giorgia Bertazzi | pp 24–25 R. Tunnicliffe (supplied); Duo Leonore © Konzepthalle, Thun | pp 26–27 R. Levin © Herbert Ascherman; H. Ticciati (supplied) | pp 28–29 Sound Baroque © Benjamin Harte; Fretwork (supplied) | pp 30–32 D. Greilsammer © Julien Mignot; J. Gilchrist © operaomnia.co.uk; M. Padmore © Marco Borggreve | pp 33–34 E. Glennie (supplied); Denovali Festival © Thomas Hack | pp 35–38 K. Tickell (supplied); H. Carll (supplied); C. Finch & S. Keita © Andy Morgan; Megson © Rob Bridge | pp 39–41 D. Bennett © Claire Cousin; Tim Garland (supplied); C. Pine & Z. Rahman (supplied); pp 42–44 The Nuremberg Courtroom (supplied); Quentin Blake (supplied); C. Matthews (supplied) | pp 45–48 Noh mask of zo-onna (young woman) (supplied); S. Yannatou © Maarit Kytoharju; Y. Isso (supplied); Y. Kanze. © Shinji Aoki; Vula Viel (supplied); J. Williams (supplied) | p49 Chess Festival (supplied) | pp 50–51 Ruth Borchard Self-Portrait Collection (supplied); M. Cooper, Big Bear (supplied) | p53 G. Simcock © Eric Richmond | pp 54–55 ‘Figure 10’ by T. Newbolt (supplied); Sculpture by Jeff Lowe (supplied); M. Feinstein (supplied); S. B. Carroll (supplied); M. Waterson © Ollie Small; Altan (supplied); Duo Leonore (supplied); J. & F. York © Atelier York; D. Jones (supplied); T. Gould © Aga Tomaszek; B. Nissmann (supplied); B. Hughes (supplied) | pp 56–57 E. Glennie (supplied); Spiro © York Tillyer; Gadarene (supplied); Sound Baroque © Benjamin Harte; Aurora: Far, Far Away (supplied); H. Christophers (supplied); Q. Blake (supplied); S. Yannatou © Maarit Kytoharju; RANT © Ian Barclay; E. Parker (supplied); Japanese calligraphy (supplied); Noh Reimagined (supplied) | pp 58–59 K. Riemann (supplied); J. Chapman (Trio Aporia) (supplied); D. van den Bercken © Andreas Terlaak; Thomas Strønen © Knut Bry; R. Mints & K. Apekisheva (supplied); C. Matthews (supplied); C. Wood (supplied); L. Schwizgebel © Marco Borggreve; S. Tilston © Shay Rowan; Tim Garland Quartet (supplied); S. Richard (supplied); M. Padmore © Marco Borggreve | p61 Halls One & Two © Nick White | p64 Clare Hammond © Julie Kim

MARTHA MACDONALD

@hellomarthabessNOV 27

Headed to @KingsPlace for some much needed @thestorybeast antics. This is how you weekend.

TALKBACK 65Book tickets 020 7520 1490

Ta l k b a c kJump onto Twitter and #telluswhatyouthink, tagging @KingsPlace.

We love to hear from you and really value your opinions.

ELUSIVE MOOSE

@elusive_mooseNOV 14

Visiting London? @KingsPlace is where it’s at

KEITHBACHE

@KeithBacheNOV 13

Outstanding gig by @LauraJurd Dinosaur @Kings Place tonight. Brilliant start to @LondonJazzFest

ARTIFARTBLAST

@artifartblastNOV 27

Nothing minimal about full-on Pärt, Adams & Tavener in #Minimalism Unwrapped @KingsPlace from peerless @auroraorchestra. #Exquisite

NATGOROHOVA

@KeithBacheNOV 08

#Bartok string quartet nr1 stormed my world!!! Devastatingly dark & deliciously complex! @Chilingirians @KingsPlace

Our Partners at Kings Place

Resident Orchestra: Aurora Orchestra

Artistic Associates: Brodsky Quartet, The Sixteen, London Sinfonietta, Orchestra of the Age of EnlightenmentWe champion our collaborative partnerships, many of which have been part of our artistic programme since Kings Place first opened in October 2008. We are home to the Aurora Orchestra, which has had its headquarters in the Music Base since 2009 and was formally appointed Resident Orchestra in 2013. In addition, there are four Artistic Associates – the Brodsky Quartet, The Sixteen, London Sinfonietta and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, all of whom have been involved in various successful collaborations and imaginative curations at Kings Place

since its earliest days. The latter two have their offices at Kings Place, too, overlooking the Regent’s Canal. Kings Place is also home to the long-established London Chamber Music Society, which co-presents the highly popular London Chamber Music Sundays.Our partners have played pivotal roles in our year-long flagship series Unwrapped since its launch in 2009 as well as in various education and outreach projects. Other notable highlights past and present include the Brodsky Quartet’s critically-acclaimed Complete Shostakovich Quartets cycle, The Sixteen’s performances of their much-celebrated nationwide Choral Pilgrimages, Remix – a joint project from the London Sinfonietta and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, theAllegri Quartet’s Beethoven-Shostakovich cycle as part of the Chamber Music Sundays, and an ambitious series of concerts from Aurora Orchestra encompassing all of Mozart’s 27 piano concertos, starting in January 2016.

66 Apr — Aug 2016Q&A

DID YOU ALWAYS ENVISAGE BEING A CONTEMPORARY MUSIC SPECIALIST?

Not at all! I never attended a specialist music school and was quite isolated growing up in Nottingham, learning the piano. It was only when I was studying with Ronan O’Hora at the Guildhall School of Music that he noticed certain contemporary pieces suited me. I was chosen for a Park Lane Group concert, which led to my first disc, Piano Polyptych, which included music by Julian Anderson, Piers Hellawell and Kenneth Hesketh. That’s when I discovered how exciting it was working with living composers.

KENNETH HESKETH HAS CREATED A NEW SCORE FOR THE 1928 FILM HÄNDE ...

Kenneth is the composer I’ve worked with most closely; his music is intricate, demanding, with a kaleidoscopic approach to colour. Hände is an amazing, surreal silent film made in the 1920s in which human hands become characters in an intriguing drama. It’s been described as a ‘dance-inspired narrative exploring female experience and representation’, and it achieves incredible effects despite the very primitive technology of the time. Ken’s score is not simply for piano, but for percussion and the inside of the piano too: I place these sound olive magnets on various piano strings, which produce an eerie bending of the pitch. He explores these sounds in a texturally complex and virtuosic score.

HOW HAS ED HUGHES’S APPROACHED ‘THE NOSE’?

He’s created a sound track that supports the narrative of this darkly comic tale by Gogol, as re-told in a 1963 film. It concerns a government official who loses his

nose, only to discover it's grown a body and a career of its own. They used pin-screen technique to create the animation, which uses a million pin-heads as a screen, and allows for infinite gradations of tone and special lighting effects. Ed’s music is quite repetitive, with almost Baroque textures, which find a resonance the Bach Toccata in D minor that precedes it.

TELL ME ABOUT YOUR OTHER CHOSEN WORKS?

Taking Gogol as my cue, I’ve programmed works with a Slavic connection, Medtner’s Sonata romantica, three mazurkas by Szymanowski, inspired by the mazurkas of the Tatra region, which are quite unlike Chopin’s, and Adès’s Mazurkas, Op. 27, in which he distorts features of the dance-form, reimagining them in new and slightly disturbing ways.

YOUR MOST MEMORABLE EVENT AT KINGS PLACE?

I think it has to be the Panufnik Anniversary day in 2014, which I curated and performed in. Not only was it wonderful to bring some of Panufnik’s vital, imaginative music to a wider audience, but having his family there made it feel very personal. Kings Place was the ideal venue as we could use Hall Two for a cabaret set, and Hall One for the main concerts and a film screening. Most moving

C l a r e H a m m o n dPianist

for me was the Brodsky Quartet’s concert with his quartets and one by his daughter Roxanna.

YOU’VE RECENTLY STARRED AS THE ‘YOUNG’ LADY IN THE VAN: TELL US ABOUT THAT ...

Yes, that was a rare request that just landed in my inbox! When she was young, the real ‘Miss Shepherd’ had studied with Cortot in Paris and performed in concert, but was forbidden to play when she became a novice nun. George Fenton, who scored the film, identifies her with the slow movement of Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1 and Schubert’s G flat Impromptu, and uses them at emotionally resonant moments in the film. It was very strange seeing myself on film – but wonderful to have been able to make a Sony recording of these works.

SAT 9 APR Clare Hammond: Contemporary Piano and FilmHall Two, 7.30pm

Leading young pianist Clare Hammond brings two fascinating new works with film to Kings Place in April.

‘Hände is an amazing, surreal silent film in which human hands become characters in an intriguing drama’

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£5.50 ISSUE 114JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2016

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