IN mid-June, the Orchestra and Associate Artist Alexander Janiczek give performances amid the splendid surroundings of Dunblane Cathedral (14 June), at Findhorn’s Universal Hall (15 June), where the Orchestra has built up a strong rapport with local audiences over recent years, and at Glenmoriston Millennium Hall in Invermoriston (16 June).  

A native of Salzburg, violinist Janiczek has the perfect credentials to direct a programme of music by his home-city’s most famous son, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.  He pairs Symphony No 21, written when Mozart was aged 16, with Symphony No 39, one of the composer’s great, last symphonies. The SCO’s Principal Horn Alec Frank-Gemmill is soloist in the Horn Concerto No 4 in E-flat.  Frank-Gemmill recently received rave reviews for his performances of Ligeti’s Hamburg Concerto during the Orchestra’s 2011/12 Season.   

From 19 – 21 July, the Orchestra is reunited with guest conductor Nicholas McGegan for concerts at Stirling Castle, Strathpeffer Pavilion and the Badenoch Centre, Kingussie.  They perform Haydn’s Symphony No 88 in G and Mozart’s Symphony No 31 ‘Paris’, both written to impress the Parisian audiences of their times.  The programme also features well-known favourites from the 18^th century operatic repertoire, including overtures by Mozart and Cimarosa and arias by Haydn, performed by the South African baritone William Berger. Following these concerts, the SCO, McGegan and Berger head into the studio to record a disc of arias from operas including Mozart’s Don Giovanni and The Magic Flute and Haydn’s Armida and L’anima del filosofo.

Director/violinist Isabelle van Keulen has proved hugely popular with audiences on SCO Strings tours in 2010 and 2011.  This summer she returns to direct the full orchestra in a concert of much-loved classics at Inverness Eden Court (16 August), Perth Concert Hall (17 August) and Dumfries Easterbrook Hall (18 August).  The First Symphonies of Prokofiev (Symphony No 1 ‘Classical’) and Beethoven open and close the concert, while SCO Principal Clarinet Maximiliano Martín is the soloist in Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto.

SCO Strings and SCO Wind and Brass

For one week in June the SCO Strings and the SCO Wind and Brass go their separate ways on tour.  The SCO Strings travel to Killin’s McLaren Hall (21 June), Fortrose Community Theatre (22 June) and Ullapool Village Hall (23 June). German violinist Florian Donderer, Concertmaster of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, takes the solo in Haydn’s Violin Concerto in C and directs two works inspired by the traditional dance music of the composer’s homeland: Sándor Veress’ Four Transylvanian Dances and Antonín Dvořák’s melodic Serenade for Strings, which is, in turn, spirited, romantic and wistful.

The Orchestra’s virtuosic Wind and Brass Ensemble performs at Woodend Barn, Banchory; Boat of Garten Community Hall and Birnam Arts Centre (21 – 23 June), with a programme of music with Eastern European and Klezmer influences by Prokofiev, Mozart, Seiber and Borodin.

Source: Scottish Chamber Orchestra