BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra Season 2012-13

• March 2012

  

  The BBC SSO has announced its 2012-13 season, presenting a wide ranging and ambitious series of concerts and broadcasts. Donald Runnicles opens his fourth season as Chief Conductor with the first act of Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde, launching the orchestra’s celebration of the bicentenary of the composer’s birth. Highlights of the season also include:

  Muzyka Polska: celebrating the breadth and diversity of Polish music from Chopin to Penderecki

  Marking the centenary of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring with a series of concerts inspired by Dance

  Andrew Manze begins a complete cycle of Beethoven’s Piano Concertos with soloist Steven Osborne

  International guest artists include Nicola Benedetti, Nina Stemme, Ian Storey, Julian Rachlin, Angela Hewitt, Garrick Ohlsson, Denis Kozhukhin and the young Scottish guitar virtuoso Sean Shibe.

  Ilan Volkov celebrates the Second Viennese School and British Modernism, conducts retrospectives of orchestral music by John Cage and John Zorn, and brings his Tectonics festival to Glasgow

  Pre-concert talks by writer A.L. Kennedy, composer Colin Matthews, broadcaster James Naughtie and poet Don Paterson

  A 70th Anniversary concert screening of Casablanca

  The BBC SSO’s home base at Glasgow City Halls sits at the heart of its most significant projects, particularly major explorations of Polish composers, and a centenary celebration of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring with music inspired by and created for dancing. Associate Guest Conductor Andrew Manze continues his cycle of Vaughan Williams Symphonies, and begins his cycle of Beethoven Piano Concertos, featuring Scottish pianist Steven Osborne. Principal Guest Conductor Ilan Volkov will curate and conduct projects devoted to the Second Viennese School and innovators John Cage and John Zorn.

  The orchestra is delighted to welcome distinguished international artists including soprano Nina Stemme, tenors Ian Storey and Robert Dean Smith and violinist Julian Rachlin. Following his acclaimed Prokofiev Piano Concerto cycle last season, the orchestra welcomes back Russian Denis Kozhukhin to play Rachmaninov, and the distinguished artists Angela Hewitt and Garrick Ohlsson perform the two piano concertos by Chopin. Scottish artists include Nicola Benedetti, who performs Szymanowski’s First Violin Concerto, the work with which she won the BBC Young Musician of the Year in 2004: and the outstanding young Scottish guitarist Sean Shibe plays Rodrigo’s Guitar Concerto. The orchestra will also be joined by the BBC Singers, the Men of the RSNO Chorus and guest conductors, Andrew Litton, Thomas Dausgaard and Martyn Brabbins.

  The BBC SSO continues to be an integral part of BBC Scotland’s broadcast output, contributing to programmes on BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio Scotland as well as performances from the BBC Proms.

  Roger Wright, Director, BBC Proms and Controller, BBC Radio 3 said: "The 2012/13 BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra plans are very exciting. The orchestra is in fine form and the season offers a really distinctive set of programmes. I am delighted that they will be able to be heard by millions of listeners on Radio 3".

• More stories

  • March 2013: BBC SSO Announces Season 2013/14
  • March 2013: Season 2013/2014 Brochures