On 3 October, The English Concert performs the first of four concerts at the Wigmore Hall during the 2012-13 season. Artistic Director Harry Bicket conducts and soprano Carolyn Sampson will join the orchestra in a programme of works by J. S. Bach and Handel from the early 18th century, which also showcases TEC principal players violinist Nadja Zwiener and oboist Katharina Spreckelsen. The programme will also be presented in St. George’s Bristol (2 October) and Crawley’s Hawth Studio (4 October), as part of TEC’s regional touring scheme supported by the Arts Council’s National portfolio funding, the orchestra’s first such grant. The following week, Bicket, TEC and Sampson will embark on a Far East tour with stops in Macau, Tianjin, Hong Kong and Taipei.

J. S. Bach is represented by his popular Orchestral Suite No. 1 in C, BWV 1066, and the Concerto in C minor, BWV 1060, for violin and oboe. Carolyn Sampson joins Bicket and the orchestra for Handel’s motet Silete venti, HWV242 – Italianate in style but composed and premiered in London – then will launch into three of Cleopatra’s arias from Giulio Cesare – Tu la mia stella sei, Se pieta, and Da tempeste.

Carolyn’s most recent appearance with Bicket and The English Concert was as a notable last-minute replacement in Bach’s B Minor Mass at the 2012 BBC Proms, a performance that was telecast live on BBC 4 and praised by The Daily Telegraph as “a remarkable evening. A very remarkable evening. An exceptionally remarkable evening”.

The English Concert is steeped in this repertoire and has committed it all to recordings. With founder Trevor Pinnock, ClassicsToday.com found their Bach Orchestral Suites “the finest rendition” available. “No one would dispute the quality” of their Silete venti according to Gramophone.

Harry Bicket is internationally renowned as an opera and concert conductor and is especially noted for his interpretations of baroque and classical repertoire. He has conducted Giulio Cesare at numerous international opera houses and will return to The Met in New York for their new production of the opera in the spring of 2013.

The English Concert will return to the Wigmore in November with tenor Mark Padmore, in March 2013 with frequent collaborator Laurence Cummings, and in May 2013 violinist Fabio Biondi

The English Concert was founded in 1973 by Trevor Pinnock and is among the world’s finest chamber orchestras, combining sheer joy in music-making with technical brilliance that makes their performances and recordings benchmarks of excellence. The orchestra began a new era in 2007 with the appointment of Harry Bicket, a conductor of exceptional range and broad musical sympathies.

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For further information, image or interview requests please contact Melanne Mueller, MusicCo International, +44 (0) 20 8542 4866 pr +1 917 907 2785, melanne@musiccointernational.com

CONCERT INFORMATION
2 October – St. George’s Bristol
3 October – Wigmore Hall, London
4 October – Hawth Studio, Crawley
12 October – Macau, PRC
14 October – Tianjin, PRC
16 October – Hong Kong
18 October – Taipei, Taiwan

J. S. Bach – Orchestral Suite No. 1 in C major / Concerto for Oboe & Violin in C minor
Handel Silete Venti / Arias from Giulio Cesare (in Macau, Arias from Theodora)
with Carolyn Sampson soprano