2020 unsung concerts

[Justin]

The 2020 Oxfordshire Festival in late May will be showcasing quite a few treats, if all goes smoothly considering Covid-19.

Unsung highlights include:

22 May - World premiere of Elgar's Spanish Lady Comedy Overture

First modern performance of Frederick Hyman Cowen's Symphony No. 4, discussed here:http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,7544.msg79238.html#msg79238

23 May - World premiere of Edgar Bainton's Variations and Fugue in B minor

More info here: https://www.englishmusicfestival.org.uk/2020-oxfordshire-festival/programme.php

[Alan Howe]

Can't believe these will actually take place as advertised.

[MartinH]

Keep hoping! Let's pray this ends soon - at least so we can have some summer music festivals. And get musicians back to work so they can get paid!

[Alan Howe]

It won't end that soon. And there will be restrictions on movement, I'm sure.

[dhibbard]

Can't believe it also.

[Mark Thomas]

The UK government seems to think that some restrictions will need to be in place for a year to prevent a resurgance of the infection.

[Alan Howe]

Exactly. The EMF 2020 festival won't take place for months, I'm sure.

[eschiss1]

I was expecting most concerts, even audienceless (streamed live or otherwise) orchestral concerts to be cancelled with longterm consequences for the habits of concert making and concert going, but instead groups are adapting, I see online live concerts broadcast over Facebook (probably players are maintaining space etc)... and as the captions say they believe in the importance of music and musicmaking [especially] in times like these.
A strong if secular Amen here.

[eschiss1]

If it's still happening (not cancelled yet, anyway) a concert with Xaver Scharwenka's piano quartet in F Op.37 on May 16 in Marion, Massachusetts, USA - New Bedford Symphony Chamber Music Season.
Less obscure, postponed from a cancelled concert in April, but worth hearing live, a performance of Reger's clarinet quintet (and Ravel's string quintet) in Montréal , Bourgie Hall - on May 22. (Hopefully, again, won't be cancelled- goes without etc)
Similarly, May 28-31 in Los Angeles at Walt Disney Concert Hall- Schoenberg's Gurrelieder (begun 1900-3, completed 1910-11.) (Gustavo Dudamel conducting. Not an especially obscure work anymore, but well within our parameters and worth a mention.)

[eschiss1]

This is beginning to feel like whistling in the wind in light of what I hear the BBC just reported, but hopefully these concerts will be at worst delayed.
Anyhow, currently scheduled Patrick Hemmerlé has a concert called Night Winds in which, naturally, he is performing Medtner's piano sonata in E minor along with other works, on May 31 at London's Pushkin (not Tyutchev, for some reason) house (see here) (3 pm local time.)

(Bachtrack already has some summer 2021 chamber concerts of interest listed, including one with Enescu's octet in Munich, btw, and a very interesting-looking recital from Kissin June '21... Here's hoping.)

[eschiss1]

Another thing - in June, the West Cork Chamber Music festival contains performances of Amy Beach's string quartet and Taneev's C major (ends-in-minor) string quintet (op.16). Good programming (again, hopefully, if it happens. If it's postponed (today they're talking 6 months? Que sera sera and a'that, I know.), hopefully the concerts still happen, just at a later date- it's -still- good programming...)

[Justin]

The Oxfordshire Music Festival has predictably been canceled. The bright side is that many of the artists scheduled have confirmed to be involved in the festival next year, so hopefully we will still be treated to some world premieres.

[semloh]

As noted earlier, the Oxford English Music Festival in Dorchester Abbey should have been happening now (22-25 May), featuring Cowen's 4th Symphony, Coleridge-Taylor's Violin Concerto (soloist Rupert Marshall-Luck), and VW's Willow Wood. What a truly wonderful programme.

I'm a bit late with this, but still - some fascinating material has been, and is being, made available online. See;
https://www.englishmusicfestival.org.uk/2020-online-festival/programme.php

[ewk]

If Corona is good for one thing regarding concerts, it may be this: In our (amateur) university orchestra, the programming has become rather adventurous for our 2020 concerts, knowing that many spectators would rather be a problem than desirable.
Of course we do not know whether it can take place, but if we are allowed to rehearse, we might at least stream the concert to the internet:
4 July:
Mascagni Intermezzo from Cavalleria
Tchaikovsky Romeo and Juliet
Beach Gaelic Symphony

14 October:
Tchaikovsky Violin concerto
Suk Scherzo fantastico
Taneyev Oresteia Overture op.6

Best wishes,
Ewk

[scottevan]

Also, a heads up that the Bard Music Festival ("Nadia Boulanger and her World") in Annandale, New York will not be held this August, nor the production of Chausson's "Le Roi Artus" that was set for July. Both are postponed until next summer.