Page 34 - Liverpool Philharmonic 22-23 Season Coverage Book

10 October 2022

Gramophone 2022/23 Season Highlights - A listening

guide

Jack Pepper
As ensembles and venues start their latest seasons, Jack Pepper

explores notable trends and selects his top ten global highlights

I spent my summer digging through an inspiring collection of music and names.
Collating Gramophone’s latest Season Preview, it’s heartening to see such a wide

range of music, faces and places; so much so different, yet all united by a shared
love of what we call ‘classical’. Live music is well and truly back.

What can we expect? Well, firstly, there are some major birthdays. Namely, lots of
150ths. Vaughan Williams’s will be marked globally, from the NHK Symphony

Orchestra to the Bach Choir (the latter a personal tribute, given RVW served as their
Music Director in the 1920s). Also celebrating 150 years is Rachmaninov, who will

be presented by the likes of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and the Baltimore
Symphony; the latter will be joined by a direct descendent of the composer – Olga

Kern – in a performance of his Piano Concerto No 3. There’s also a 150th nod to
Hugo Alfvén, courtesy of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic.

Expect many major birthdays for ensembles, too, from the 10th Birthday of Il Pomo
d’Oro, to the 20th of the Southbank Sinfonia, the 50th of Chicago Opera Theater, the

60th of Scottish Opera and the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, the 75th of the
National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain and a whopping 175th for Barcelona’s

Liceu. We’re going to need a big cake.