The Tonhalle Orchestra of Zurich in 2017/18
The Tonhalle Orchestra of Zurich was founded 150 years ago and plans a season of celebratory events. This coincides with their having to move out temporarily of their home for the last 150 years, the Tonhalle building itself, which is in dire need of refurbishment and modernisation, particularly the backstage and foyer areas. The works will take a full three years and in that period most of their Zurich concerts will take place in a newly constructed hall within an existing industrial building (the ‘Maaghalle’) in the northern part of the city. Management will do its utmost to ensure its existing (often elderly, conservative and not especially discerning) audience makes the trek to a part of the city hitherto possibly unknown to them and less easy to access than the Tonhalle building by the lake and in the centre of the city. It hopes however that its new trendy location may attract a younger audience, who know the area for its clubs, modern art galleries and eclectic shops. Time will tell, but already two thirds of the subscriptions have been sold even before the programme was announced – now what does that tell you about Zurich’s concert life?
The new ‘hall’ is being built extremely quickly, and will be modern (a hundred tons of light Norwegian pine) but very plain. It’s basically a wooden shoe-box with fewer seats (1220) than in the ‘old’ Tonhalle (1450), in itself therefore not a vast hall as concert halls go (most have 2,000 seats).
Artist-in-residence is Australian viola player and composer Brett Dean who was a member of the Berlin Philharmonic from 1984 to 1998. This summer one can hear his new opera Hamlet at Glyndebourne; for the last three years he has been Artist-in-Association with the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
Some of the main orchestral highlights for the next season are:
Opening tour:
25.8.17 – Wiesbaden: Beethoven Piano Concerto No.5 (‘Emperor’) (Igor Levit), Grieg Peer Gynt Suite, Elgar Enigma Variations, cond. Lionel Bringuier
27.8.17 – Stresa: Brahms Piano Concerto No.1 (Francesco Piemontesi), Grieg Peer Gynt Suite, Elgar Enigma Variations, cond. Bringuier
27-29.9.17 – Brett Dean Viola Concerto (Brett Dean), Beethoven Symphony No.9 (‘Choral’), cond. Bringuier
18-20.10.17 – Beethoven Piano Concerto No.3 (Piemontesi), Shostakovich Symphony No.15 cond. Charles Dutoit
28-29.10.17 – Gubaidulina Triple Concerto, Brahms Symphony No.1, cond. Omer Meir Wellber
2-3.11.17 – Schubert Symphony No.4 & Mass No.5, cond. Giovani Antonini
15-17.11.17 – Bruckner Symphony No.8, cond. Franz Welser-Möst
29-30.11.17 – Stravinsky Violin Concerto (Patricia Kopatchinskaja), Shostakovich Symphony No.5, cond. Teodor Currentzis
6-8.12.17 – Dutilleux, Debussy La Mer, Brahms Symphony No.4, cond. Pablo Heras-Casado
15-17.12.17 – Brett Dean Amphitheatre, Bruch Scottish Fantasy (Ray Chen), Beethoven Symphony No.4, cond. Bringuier
20-21.12.17 – Mozart Piano Concerto No.27 (Maria João Pires), Bruckner Symphony No.4 (cond. Bernard Haitink)
31.12.17 – Wagner, Bruch Violin Concerto (Andreas Janke), Rossini, Tchaikovsky Symphony No.1, cond. Michael Sanderling
10-14.1.18 – Haydn Lo speziale, cond. Jan Willem de Vriend
18.-19.1.18 – Verdi Requiem, Monteverdi Choir, cond. John Eliot Gardiner
20.1.18 – Sibelius Violin Concerto (Victoria Mullova), Shostakovich Symphony No.6, cond. Paavo Järvi
25-27.1.18 – Janáček Taras Bulba, Prokofiev Violin Concerto (Hilary Hahn), Dvořák Symphony No.7, cond. Andrés Orozco-Estrada
7-9.2.18 – Mahler Symphony No.5 cond. Donald Runnicles
12.2.18 – Piano recital Maurizio Pollini
15.2.18 – Chinese New Year concert with Maxim Vengerov, cond. Long Yu
7-8.3.18 – Haydn Symphonies Nos.39 and 100, Viotti Violin Concerto (Christian Tetzlaff), cond. Ton Koopman
21-23.3.18 – Bernstein Age of Anxiety & Symphony No.2, Brahms Symphony No.2, cond. David Zinman
29-30.3.18 – Bach St. John Passion (Gemischter Chor Zürich), cond. Joachim Krause
European Tour 9-19.4.18 (Symphonie Fantastique, Enigma Variations, Brahms Piano Concerto No.1 (Levit) cond. Bringuier): Vienna, Essen, Hamburg, Paris, Heidelberg, Zaragoza and Madrid
27.4.18 – Mahler Symphony No.9, London Symphony Orchestra, cond. Sir Simon Rattle
5-6.5.18 – Dvořák Symphony No.9, Cello Concerto (Sol Gabetta), cond. Krzysztof Urbański
7.5.18 – Piano recital Grigory Sokolov
16-17.5.18 – Rimsky-Korsakov Scheherazade, cond. Bringuier
Eastern European Tour 19-22.5.18 – Katowice and Prague
23.5.18 – Chamber Orchestra of Europe cond. Sir Antonio Pappano, Ligeti, Brahms Violin Concerto (Lisa Batiashvili), Brahms Serenade No.1
7.6.18 – Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No.4 (Yuja Wang), R. Strauss Don Quixote, cond. Bringuier
20-22.6.18 – Beethoven Violin Concerto (Frank Peter Zimmermann), Schumann Symphony No.2, cond. Haitink
27-29.6.18 – Mendelssohn Violin Concerto (Julia Fischer), Mahler Symphony No.1, cond. Herbert Blomstedt
Full details of all concerts can be found on the orchestra’s website: www.tonhalle-orchester.ch
For tickets e-mail boxoffice@tonhalle.ch; Or call 0041 44 206 34 34 or fax 0041 44 206 34 69
Hi
Can you please tell me the name of the pianist that replaced Lang Lang on 27th April?
Jean-Yves Thibaudet (piano) – there is a review of this performance on this site and you can find it under ‘Concert Reviews’ and ‘International Concerts’ on the front page. Seen and Heard