1 Grand Pianola Music
The Britten Sinfonia mark John Adams’s 70th birthday with his celebration of the rhetoric of high Romanticism. Grand Pianola Music is the climax of a programme featuring his Chamber Symphony, Philip Glass’s Music In Similar Motion and the premiere of Timo Andres’s Steady Hand.
Barbican Hall, EC2, 25 February
2 Xenakis Day
The uncompromising composer Iannis Xenakis’s chamber music for strings is presented in two concerts by the JACK Quartet. After a lunchtime programme of pieces for solo strings, the group are joined by pianist Pavel Kolesnikov for piano and string quartet Akea.
Wigmore Hall, W1, 25 February
3 The Winter’s Tale
The headline novelty in ENO’s current season is the world premiere of Ryan Wigglesworth’s first opera. Rory Kinnear makes his debut as an opera director, with the composer himself conducting.
London Coliseum, WC2, 27 February to 14 March
4 Piano All-Nighter
Twelve hours of piano music curated by Birmingham Conservatoire includes appearances by Peter Donohoe and Mark Bebbington. Anthony Hewitt will be cycling overnight from Richmond to play early-morning Ravel, while a mystery guest will play Beethoven’s last three sonatas.
Town Hall, Birmingham, 3 March
5 MacMillan premiere
James MacMillan is the latest composer to produce a work for the Scottish Chamber Orchestra’s outstanding principal horn player Alec Frank-Gemmill. The Concertino For Horn And Strings is an orchestration of his 2007 single-movement Horn Quintet.
Younger Hall, St Andrews, 2 March; City Halls, Glasgow, 3 March
