Scottish Chamber Orchestra Announces 2019/20 Season With New Principal Conductor Maxim Emelyanychev

Beethoven is one of the giants of musical history, what Newton is to Science or Shakespeare is to Literature. His output was the most played classical music in the world in 2018, 250 years after his birth.

This year the Scottish Chamber Orchestra celebrates his 250th anniversary with a Complete Symphony Cycle split over four concerts, and a special event: Born This Way: Music and Wellbeing which, through panel discussions, performances and interactive sessions, explores Beethoven's musical creativity despite a tormented life. The symphonies are conducted over four concerts by Principal Conductor Maxim Emelyanychev, Principal Guest Conductor Emmanuel Krivine and Andrew Manze.

The Season opens with French conductor Fran ois Leleux directing the Orchestra in Brahms and Dvo k. He is joined by Javier Perianes, 2019 International Classical Music Awards 'Artist of the Year', performing one of the great pillars of the Romantic repertoire Brahms' First Piano Concerto. Leleux pairs this with Dvo k's dramatic and at times tempestuous Seventh Symphony and Beethoven's Egmont Overture.

Maxim Emelyanychev takes to the podium for Mozart's 'Jupiter' Symphony in November. In this, his first official concert in the role as Principal Conductor, Emelyanychev works with the award-wining German violinist Carolin Widmann who makes her SCO debut with Prokofiev's much-loved Second Violin Concerto. The programme starts with the UK premiere of French composer Philippe Hersant's Five Pieces for Orchestra.

Emelyanychev has spoken of his desire to continue combining period and modern instruments with the SCO to create a very special, blended sound. In Baroque Dances in January 2020 he and the SCO will deliver a packed programme of beautiful and fun-filled French and German Baroque music from Lully's humorous Le Bourgeois gentilhomme to the cannons and frogs of Telemann's 'Alster' Overture Suite and Rameau's sensual Les Indes Galantes.

Once again directing from the keyboard, Emelyanychev opens his final concert this season with Debussy's intoxicating Pre lude a l'apre s midi d'un faune before introducing audiences to Louise Farrenc's Third Symphony, a forgotten masterpiece.

Finnish violinist Pekka Kuusisto is the SCO's Featured Artist this Season. In October he brings his free spirit and charm to Bach, Hillborg and Sibelius. Returning in November he will be partnered by the orchestra's leader Benjamin Marquise Gilmore in the Grammy nominated double violin concerto Prince of Clouds by new SCO Associate Composer Anna Clyne.

Kuusisto's 'great American road trip' takes in iconic American classics from Barber's Adagio for Strings to Copland's Appalachian Spring while exploring exciting voices of the new generation. Kuusisto has close musical relationships with two of the hottest and most widely admired of the younger composers, Bryce Dessner (from indie rock band The National) and Nico Muhly, both heirs apparent to the mantle of Philip Glass and Steve Reich with their stimulating, intriguing and accessible music. This programme includes the UK premiere of Muhly's Violin Concerto, co-commissioned by the SCO, and the Australian, Mahler and St Paul chamber orchestras. Muhly joins Kuusisto before the concert to discuss this work.

Philip Higham, SCO Principal Cello said, I am thrilled that Pekka Kuusisto is our Featured Artist this Season. It seems to me that he has a way of opening musical doors that are often not so immediately visible to others. What he can produce in terms of tonal range, atmosphere, gesture and a sense of theatre is so out of the ordinary, that people are compelled to listen in a new way.

Anna Clyne is the new Associate Composer of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. The Grammy-nominated music graduate from the University of Edinburgh has been championed by many eminent conductors including Marin Alsop, Leonard Slatkin and Riccardo Muti.

In November the world premiere of a New Work by Clyne, co-commissioned by the SCO and Orchestre National de Lyon, is revealed alongside works by Mozart, and Haydn's 'Il Distratto' Symphony which is the inspiration behind her new work. Clyne has been working closely with the musicians of the SCO to create solo passages specifically for them.

Anna Clyne said: I am thrilled to have the opportunity to work with the wonderful musicians of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. We have lots of exciting plans including developing new content for their outstanding creative learning programme.

The SCO Chorus is known for its profound and shattering performances of Mozart's Requiem. This Season, they will be conducted by an extraordinary talent, Klaus M kel the young Finn just appointed Chief Conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic and still in his 20s. The chorus' extraordinary sound will move audiences in this much-loved work left unfinished at Mozart's death.

Haydn's Harmony Mass and Stravinsky's Mass are bound to show off the rigour and vigour of the SCO Chorus and the concert in December marks 10 years since Greg Batsleer became director of the SCO Chorus which he celebrates by conducting both the Orchestra and Chorus in this special anniversary concert.

The SCO Chorus also performs under the baton of new Principal Conductor Maxim Emelyanychev, bringing to life one of the most uplifting pieces of choral music, Vivaldi's Gloria. This dazzling piece will be positioned alongside spectacular concerti featuring theorbos, mandolins, chalumeaux and a tromba marina directed by Emelyanychev from the harpsichord.

Celebrating the Queen's Hall in its 40th year, a pair of magnificent 'piano' concertos Haydn's Keyboard Concerto in D and Schumann's Piano Concerto will demonstrate pianist Piotr Anderszewski's virtuosity from the flashing fireworks of Haydn to the poetic, searching sounds of Schumann.

The radiant Scottish Mezzo-Soprano Karen Cargill has long championed the songs of Alma Mahler, which thankfully exist despite her more famous husband insisting she devote yourself to me unconditionally i.e. stop composing. This concert of Alma's Seven Songs alongside Gustav Mahler's heavenly Symphony Number 4 is conducted by Mark Wigglesworth, who will also join author Cate Haste to talk about Alma Mahler earlier in the evening.

Nicola Benedetti's acclaimed performances of the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto are not to be missed. In a concert next March Benedetti brings her lithe, elegant, finely spun sound to this work and also partners with the superb viola player Lawrence Power in the Sinfonia Concertante by Mozart. This concert is part of the Quilter Cheviot Benedetti Series begun last year in which Benedetti plays and directs the Orchestra.

A Caledonian special sees two of Scotland's top musicians, composer Helen Grime and soloist Colin Currie, join the SCO in a new concerto. Grime's idea of percussion is melodious and often lyrical, as she plays with sounds of metal and wood. The concert conducted by Fran ois Leleux sandwiches the Grime between two of Mendelssohn's works inspired by Scotland, the Hebrides Overture and his 'Scottish' Symphony No 3.

Kristian Bezuidenhout returns to play with the Orchestra building on a strong rapport. An important figure among the younger generation of Early Music specialists, Bezuidenhout has loved Beethoven's Triple Concerto since he was a child. Beethoven wrote more music for piano, violin and cello than any other instruments; they were truly at the heart of his musical universe. Two SCO Principals join Bezuidenhout, both distinguished in their own right, Benjamin Marquise Gilmore on Violin and Philip Higham on Cello. This concert is preceded by SCO Platform a series of events which offer music students from several schools and universities the opportunity to perform to SCO audiences.

Bohemian Rhapsodies brings together conductor Joseph Swensen and SCO Leader Stephanie Gonley in a programme created by three friends Suk, Jan ek and Dvo k.

The double bass steps into the spotlight so rarely that the new concerto by one of Europe's most successful composers Peter E tv s is big news. Hot on the heels of its Berlin premiere the soloist for this performance is Nikita Naumov, the SCO's Principal Double Bass. Thomas Zehetmair conducts the Orchestra finishing with Haydn's 'Oxford' Symphony.

Soloist Xavier de Maistre has transcribed Mozart's Concerto in F major for the harp to create such a stunning and elegant work that you may think it was an original harp concerto. Also in this concert is the UK premiere of Franz Schubert's Die Zauberharfe, The Magic Harp, which Professor Brian Newbould has reconstructed into an orchestral suite packed with supernatural melodrama.

Nicolas Altstaedt's physicality and skill is jaw-dropping as he conducts the Orchestra while playing the toughest cello parts. The spikey, brilliant Shostakovich Cello Concerto will show this off in dramatic fashion, its heroism resonating with Beethoven's theatrical Overture from Coriolan.

Christmas and New Year don't go unmarked. A rich programme of music by Sally Beamish, Judith Weir, Cecilia McDowall, Margaret Rizza and Anton Brucker will bring the Chorus back together with conductor Ben Parry. Joseph Swensen conducts the New Year Gala Concert. Now a firm tradition the SCO offers a sweeping festive and light-hearted programme, with a Scandinavian twist with music from Nielsen and Lumbye.

Stan and Mabel and the Race for Space, written and illustrated by Jason Chapman with music by Paul Rissmann and narrated by BBC children's TV presenter Chris Jarvis, offers a fun-packed session of music and storytelling for families. Recommended for children ages 4-10 and their parents, this is one of the SCO's Family Concerts sponsored by Creative Learning Partner Baillie Gifford in a relationship which this year expands to support the orchestra to deliver new and innovative aspects to its community and education programme, over the next five years.

Chamber Sundays return with three concerts across the Season at 3pm in Edinburgh's Queen's Hall from SCO soloists and Maxim Emelyanychev on the keyboard, the fortepiano phenomenon Kristian Bezuidenhout and the SCO String Ensemble, and SCO Wind Soloists with the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Wind Students.

Maxim Emelyanychev, Principal Conductor of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra said: I am very happy to be Principal Conductor, and am greatly inspired by the two SCO productions I have been involved with so far, making fantastic collaborations with these excellent musicians.

In this, my first full Season, we will share with you a variety of interesting and diverse programmes from the Baroque to modern music written just a few years ago. That they are also from a range of countries will show off the many different genres and styles of the SCO.

I intend to continue combining period and modern instruments with the SCO to create a very special, blended sound. This will be experienced especially in our Vivaldi programme which includes theorbos, mandolins, tromba marina, chalumeaux and harpsichord in the Concerto con multi stromenti, which I will lead from the harpsichord.

Gavin Reid, Chief Executive of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra said: It is with great anticipation that we welcome Maxim Emelyanychev to the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and we all very much look forward to his opening concerts as our new Principal Conductor. Already, he has created a remarkable bond with our musicians and our audiences alike and I know that this will be a hugely exciting musical journey for us all.

As well as an outstanding line-up of visiting Scottish and International Artists, I am proud that we also celebrate the superb musicians that are part of our musical family that is the SCO and give them starring roles across the Season. There is a tremendous strength in this family which is evident in the sound of the Orchestra, the supportive way they work together and in the extraordinary atmosphere of our concerts which I know our audiences recognise and enjoy.

We are delighted at the number of young people who are now regularly attending our concerts, happily demonstrating both the results of the inspirational work of our Creative Learning team as well as a recently recognised national trend for increasing interest in classical music. We offer free tickets to under 18s and 6 tickets for students, unemployed people and those under 26. To sustain this offer and ensure that more and more young people experience the thrill of the SCO, we are delighted to announce the generous support of the Inches Carr Trust.

Last week we were thrilled to announce that Baillie Gifford is our new Creative Learning Partner, investing in our community and education programme. The SCO also receives stellar support from the Scottish Government, City of Edinburgh Council, and key funders and businesses including the Dunard Fund and our Major Partner Virgin Money. I would like to thank them all for their continued investment and partnership working, and look forward to delivering what I am certain will be a memorable season together over the coming months.

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