Page 47 - Coverage Book_Aurora Orchestra Autumn 2020

Petroc Trelawny
New music has been a vital part of the Proms since the festival’s earliest days.
Founder Henry Wood believed that refreshing the classical music canon and
stretching audiences was one of his most important tasks.

When he conducted the premiere of Schoenberg’s Five Pieces for Orchestra in 1912
the programme note warned “all the numbers end in discord”; afterwards the
Prommers hissed their displeasure. But that didn’t discourage Wood. “Stick to it,” he
told his players, “this is nothing to what you will have to play in 25 years’ time.” This
year there will be no opportunity for communal hissing – or cheering – in the
audience-free Royal Albert Hall – but I am looking forward to hearing a line-up of
new works that suggests Covid-19 has failed to dampen the festival’s ambition. What
sort of Dawn will Thomas Adès paint when his new work is premiered by Simon
Rattle and the LSO?

Jay Capperauld is a brilliant young Scottish composer and saxophonist; I await with
interest his Circadian Refrains that the BBC SSO will play in Glasgow. New music
also has a rich heritage as part of the Last Night – this year a premiere by Sweden’s
Andrea Tarrodi sits alongside the more traditional end-of-season fare.

It will be reassuring to have some familiar favourites too. I’ve presented the Vienna
New Year’s Day Concert for a decade now, and I am thrilled to be hosting the BBC
Concert Orchestra’s Viennese Night. It features Strauss, Lehar, Heuberger and
Kálmán – a perfect spoon of Austro-Hungarian sugar in these difficult times.

Danielle de Niese
I have a special fondness in my heart for the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.
How could I not feel immense joy and nostalgia for the ensemble that accompanied
me in my debut at Glyndebourne – a place I now call home – in 2005, when I sang
the role of Cleopatra in Sir David McVicar’s iconic production of Handel’s Giulio
Cesare?

I also have lovely memories of recording my Mozart album with them in 2009, led by
the late, much-missed Sir Charles Mackerras. So I am thrilled to be introducing their
live performance on Thursday 3 September – with the added plus of the line-up
including some of the coolest instrumentalists on the scene: I have known the