BBC Symphony Orchestra 2010 Shanghai Concert (Closing of Shanghai Spring International Music Festival)
Time: 19:30, Tuesday, 18 May 2010
Conductor  Jirí Belohlávek
Soloist     Sabine Meyer

<PROGRAMME>
TippettI    Fantasia Concertante on a Theme of Corelli     
Mozart     Clarinet Concerto                  
Dvorak    Symphony No. 9     

BBC Symphony Orchestra 2010 Guangzhou Concert
Time: 20:00, Tuesday, 25 May 2010
Venue: Symphony Hall, Xinghai Concert Hall, Guangzhou
Price: RMB 2680(VIP)/2280/1880/1680/1280/880/480/280
Ticket hotline: 020 37612015
10% discount is offered for British Council China website members.

<PROGRAMME>
Elgar           In The South
Debussy    Première Rapsodie
Weber        Clarinet Concerto No 1
Brahms      Symphony No 4

BBC Symphony Orchestra

• BBC SO is the one of the best symphony orchestras around the world, it is crowned as the flagship orchestra of the UK
• BBC SO is the backbone of the BBC Proms.

BBC Symphony Orchestra is the leading symphony orchestra in Britain. BBC stands for the British Broadcasting Corporation. It owns many world-class symphony orchestras, among which BBC symphony orchestra is of no doubt the best orchestra with the highest reputation. As the greatest Maestro Toscanini once declared in a press statement——BBC SO is the best symphony orchestra I’ve ever conducted.

BBC symphony orchestra was founded in London in 1930, with Adrian Boult as its chief conductor and remained the position until 1950. Since its inception, it boasted a size of 119 players.  During his tenure, BBC SO formed a diversified music style. The total number of its performances reached 1536, about 77 performances per year which is rarely seen among other symphony orchestras. It toured around the world and won worldwide reputation. Other principal conductors have included Richard Georg Strauss, Arturo Toscanini, Malcolm Sargent, Antal Dorati, Colin Davis, Pierre Boulez, Rudolf Kempe, Andrew Davis, Jiří Bělohlávek.

The BBC SO has a strong commitment to 20th-century and contemporary music and is specialized in playing the avant-garde British music works. It has given world premieres by leading composers such as ‘Earth Dances’ by Harrison Birtwistle, ‘Ritual in Memoriam Bruno Maderna’ by Pierre Boulez and so on. The 2009——10 season includes premieres from Ian McQueen, Bill Frisell, Ryan Wigglesworth and Peter Eötvös.

The BBC Symphony Orchestra is Associate Orchestra of the Barbican, where it performs an annual season of concerts. Highlights of the 2009-10 season include performances of all six symphonies by Martinů, conducted by Jiří Bĕlohlávek.

Jiří Bĕlohlávek took up the post of Chief Conductor in 2006 and he and the BBC SO perform together frequently across the season both in the UK and internationally, and the Orchestra also works regularly with Principal Guest Conductor David Robertson, newly appointed Artist in Association Oliver Knussen and Conductor Laureate, Sir Andrew Davis. All concerts are broadcast on BBC Radio 3, streamed online and available for 7 days on the BBC iPlayer, and a number are televised, giving the BBC Symphony Orchestra the highest broadcast profile of any UK orchestra.

Conductor: Jiri•Belohlavek

The renowned Czech maestro Jiří Bĕlohlávek took up the position of Chief Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra in July 2006. Founder and Music Director Laureate of the Prague Philharmonia, Maestro Bĕlohlávek studied at the Prague Conservatoire and Arts Academy. He appears regularly with major orchestras including the Leipzig Gewandhaus, Vienna Symphony, Berlin Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw, Philharmonia, London Philharmonic, NHK Symphony (Tokyo) and the Orchestre de Paris. In North America, he conducts the symphony orchestras of San Francisco, Washington D.C., St. Louis, Toronto, and Minnesota. In his homeland, Jiří Bĕlohlávek was appointed President of the Prague Spring Festival in 2006.

Jiří Bĕlohlávek has been Chief Conductor of the Prague Symphony (1977-89) and Music Director of the Czech Philharmonic (1990-1992), with whom he has recorded extensively for Chandos Records. He founded the Prague Philharmonia in 1994, and has recorded and toured extensively with this ensemble, including a televised appearance at the BBC Proms in July 2004. He was appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra in September 1995.

Highlights of the 2008-09 season included appearances at the Opera de Paris (The Bartered Bride), Teatro Real Madrid (Katya Kabanova), The Metropolitan Opera (Eugene Onegin and Rusalka), and a return to Glyndebourne Festival Opera for a new production of Dvorák’s Rusalka. In September 2008, he was presented with a Gramophone award in the ‘Best Opera’ category for his live recording with the BBC Symphony Orchestra of Janacek:The Excursions of Mr. Broucek.

His 2009-10 season includes appearances with, amongst others, the Japan Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic and Czech Philharmonic orchestras. He will also be conducting a new production of Martinu Plays of Mary at the National Theatre in Prague.

Soloist: Sabine Meyer

Sabine Meyer is regarded as one of the most outstanding soloists of our time. It is thanks to her that the clarinet, previously underrated as a solo instrument, has reclaimed the concert stage. As New York Time once commented: ’Sabine Meyer gave an agile, thoroughly musical account of the clarinet concerto. She moved through the fast passage work in the outer movements with a seamless precision and she used an alluring dynamic flexibility to create an often wrenching account of the Adagio.’

After studying with Otto Hermann in Stuttgart and Hans Deinzer in Hanover, Sabine Meyer first became a member of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in Munich and subsequently played with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra as solo clarinettist. As her solo activities became more and more in demand, she left the Berlin Philharmonic one year later.

Sabine Meyer has performed with many of the world’s leading orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic, Komische Oper Berlin, Bamberg Symphony, Hamburg Philharmonic, NDR Symphony, London Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Danish National Radio Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Montreal Symphony and NHK Symphony Orchestra Japan. Conductors she has worked with include Claudio Abbado, Herbert Blomstedt, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Charles Dutoit, Christoph Eschenbach, Yakov Kreizberg, Sir Neville Marriner, Kurt Masur, Ingo Metzmacher and Franz Welser-Möst. She has given recitals and concerts in all the major musical centres of Europe and North America, as well as in Brazil, Israel, Canada and Africa.

Sabine Meyer is a committed chamber music player and, in addition to her work with the Trio di Clarone which she founded in 1983, she has performed with Barbara Hendricks, Bruno Canino, Aloys Kontarsky, Heinrich Schiff, Gidon Kremer, Sandor Vegh, the Alban Berg Quartett, the Cleveland Quartet, the Hagen Quartet and the Vienna String Sextet. In 1988 she formed the Bläserensemble Sabine Meyer which performs regularly in Europe and Japan. They have recorded several discs for EMI including Mozart's Gran Partita, the Harmoniemusik from Entfuhrung aus dem Serail, and works by Dvorak and Myslivecek. In 2001/2002 a European tour is planned with the Tokyo String Quartet.

Summer Festival appearances in 2000 included Edinburgh, Rheingau, and Lockenhaus. In addition, she was "Artist in Residence" at the Lucerne Summer Festival, where she performed a wide variety of music including a "Tribute to Benny Goodman" and the world premiere of Hosokawa’s Clarinet Concerto with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. The 2000/2001 season includes concerts with the Gewandhaus Orchester Leipzig, Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, as well as many recital and chamber music.

Sabine Meyer records exclusively for EMI Classics with repertoire ranging from classical to contemporary. In 1993 she was awarded the "Artist of the Year" by Klassik Komm for her recording of the Stamitz concertos with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields and Iona Brown. Her discography is incredibly rich and varied. In September 1999, she released A Night at the Opera, which features a selection of opera transcriptions by Mozart, Rossini, Weber and Verdi, with Franz Welser-Möst conducting the Zürich Opera Orchestra. In May 1998 she released a disc featuring Copland’s Clarinet Concerto, Stravinsky’s Ebony Concerto and a selection of Benny Goodman arrangements with Ingo Metzmacher and the Bamberg Symphonic Orchestra. In April 1999 she released an album featuring Brahms’ Clarinet Quintet with the Alban Berg Quartett, followed by a new recording of the Mozart Clarinet Concerto and works by Takemitsu and Debussy, with Abbado in October 1999. The previous month, in September 1999, she released a disc of works by Beethoven including the Octet, Op 103, Rondino, and Septet Op.20 with the Bläserensemble Sabine Meyer. In May 2000 she released Reger’s clarinet quintet and the string sextet with the Wiener Streichsextett. Her most recent disc, released in September 2000, is called Modern works for Wind Ensemble and includes octets by Denisov, Obst and Catiglioni, as well as pieces by Raskatov and Hosokawa. Future plans include a disc of Mendelssohn, Weber and Baermann to be recorded in May 2001.