For the MCO, 2021 commenced with the presentation of Symphony: A Journey to the Heart of Classical Music in Madrid. This was our first venture with VR, and with the support of the German Commissioner for Culture and the Media, we continued exploring this exciting new field. We cannot wait to share more details about our future activities in the New Year.
With concerts postponed, we hosted a live Q&A with Rolando Villlazón (re-visit the discussion here) and in April, we ventured back onto the familiar ground of the concert stage with Artistic Advisor Daniele Gatti to continue our Schumann symphony cycle in Spain. This was followed by an intense period for the MCO Academy, where MCO Members spent a week coaching young musicians before performing with them side-by-side in the Kölner Philharmonie joined by Fabio Luisi and Christiane Karg, Sopran.
In late May, Mozart Momentum 1785 was released on Sony Classical highlighting our collaboration with Artistic Partner Leif Ove Andsnes. The album was voted as one of the best classical music albums of 2021 by BR Klassik. The next edition, Mozart Momentum 1786, will be released in the New Year. Stay tuned!
For Mozartfest Würzburg, we worked with guest soloist Alexander Melnikov. Powerful pianos concertos by Mozart and Shostakovich contrasted with the lyrical dialogue between cor anglais and trumpet in Aaron Copland's Quiet City, featuring MCO Members Emma Schied and Christopher Dicken as soloists.
In June, we reunited with Conductor Laureate Daniel Harding to initiate a pan-continental celebration of Beethoven performing the first of the composer's symphonies.
To mark the 800th anniversary of the UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Gothic cathedral in Burgos, we performed a pair of concerts featuring works by Mendelssohn, Mozart and Beethoven with Gustavo Dudamel.
For Festival de Granada in June rising star Klaus Mäkelä made his MCO debut conducting Sibelius and Grieg. And for the final tour of the 2020/2021 season, we joined with Gustavo Dudamel for the Festival Internacional de Música de Canarias.
Summer was then upon us and our 2021/2022 season commenced at our annual residency at Lucerne Festival. Mixing self-directed ensemble works with those led from the piano, we reunited with pianist Yuja Wang.
Off to London for the BBC Proms where we premiered Sir George Benjamin’s work Concerto for Orchestra. This piece was written for and dedicated to the MCO. Tune into our podcast here to discover more about this work. Our tour continued to Musikfest Berlin and Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg before we arrived in Bonn to close the Beethovenfest with Mahler's Symphony No. 2 (The Resurrection). Working with conductor Maxime Pascal, vocal soloists Camilla Tilling and Alisa Kolosova and the Prague Philharmonic Choir with chorus director Lukáš Vasilek we were proud to fill the stage with an unforgettable presence.
One of our most extensive tours of the year followed with Yuja Wang. We travelled from Romania, to Italy, Germany and Austria. The centre of the programme was formed of works for solo piano and ensemble. The MCO was the first orchestra with which Wang led an ensemble from piano, and this tour highlighted not only her unmistakable piano playing but also the uniqueness of the play-and-lead format.
In October we opened the festival celebration for Neumarkter Konzertfreunde working with celebrated violinist Alina Ibragimova, who made her MCO debut as the soloist in Beethoven's violin concerto. And in beloved Italy, members of the MCO formed a chamber ensemble to explore a selection of Igor Stravinsky’s most intriguing smaller works. This included a suite from L'Histoire du soldat conducted by MCO cellist Philipp von Steinaecker.
Our final tour for 2021 brought us back together with Leif Ove Andsnes for Mozart Momentum 1785/1786 after a six year delay. Through a mix of chamber and orchestral music, plus piano concertos we looked deeply at two of the most creative years in Mozart’s life. The tour took us to Gulbenkian, Lisbon; Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg; Sala Teatro, Lugano; Philharmonie, Berlin; Musikverein, Vienna; and Bozar, Brussels. The Mozart Momentum collaboration will continue and conclude in 2022.
To conclude the year, our Outreach and Education programme centered on a School Concert at Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie that was attended by 1000 students. WELCOME HOME! a concert about finding the place where you belong explored different cultural resonances in a concert curated especially for young people between the ages of 14 and 19.
Needless to say, 2021 has been a great year for the MCO and we look forward to sharing our journey with you in 2022.
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Cover Photo: Yuja Wang and the MCO in Schloß Esterhazy, Eisenstadt. (Photo: Geoffroy Schied).
Photo 1: Creating SYMPHONY with Gustavo Dudamel.
Photo 2: Students of the MCO Academy at Orchesterzentrum|NRW who performed at Kölner Philharmonie alongside MCO members in April (Photo: Martin Piechotta).
Photo 3: The premiere of Sir George Benjamin's Concerto for Orchestra at the BBC Proms. (Photo: BBC / Chris Christodoulou).
Photo 4 : Yuja Wang and the MCO at Filarmonica, Sibiu. (Photo: Festivalul Enescu la Sibiu).
Photo 5: Leif Ove Andsnes & the MCO at Musikverein, Vienna (Photo: Geoffroy Schied).
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