Wigmore Hall Announces 224 Concerts for April-July 2022

Wigmore Hall, home to the UK's largest classical music concert programme, announces the full line up of 224 concerts from April 2022 until the end of the concert season in July 2022.

The rich and diverse offering of daily recitals and chamber music concerts by the world's leading instrumentalists and singers will feature over a millennium of music from living composers to the earliest sacred music.

Wigmore Hall Director John Gilhooly said, "As recovery from the pandemic continues, I am encouraged and inspired by the role music has played to reach people across all age groups and backgrounds. Our '£5 Tickets for Under 35s' scheme is seeing the highest ever take up since the initiative was launched four years ago, bringing many thousands of new, young concertgoers to live performances since the start of the season. Meanwhile over 8 million people have engaged with us online over the past two years. Although concert life has some distance to go before full recovery, I am optimistic about the exciting year ahead.'

Highlights of April - July 2022 include:

2022 Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition

Founded in 1979, the triennial International String Quartet Competition launched the careers of the world's leading quartets including the Takács, the Hagen, the Belcea, the Casals, the Sacconi, the Danish Quartets and is now considered the most prestigious quartet competition globally. The 15th edition will take place from 5 to 10 April with each round of the competition live streamed on the Wigmore Hall website. Winners of prizes totalling £25,000 will be announced on 10 April.

Easter 2022

Wigmore Hall's Easter celebrations begin on 1 April with a performance of Bach's St. John Passion by The English Concert. The Cardinall's Musick marks the beginning of Holy Week on 11 April with a meditation on the Crucifixion performing music by Byrd, Tallis, Victoria and Palestrina. Stile Antico's programme on 13 April entitled 'The Path to Salvation' explores music for Holy Week and Easter by a wide range of composers from Lassus, Allegri to Taverner. Royal Philharmonic Society Award-winning Dunedin Consort performs Bach's St. Matthew Passion on 12 April.

Beethoven and Bartók

The Jerusalem Quartet returns to Wigmore on 10 and 11 June to conclude its epic year-long traversal of the complete Beethoven string quartets. In the same week on 15-17 June, there will also be an opportunity experience a complete cycle of all ten Beethoven Violin Sonatas performed by violinist Isabelle Faust and pianist Alexander Melnikov. Earlier in the spring, cellist Leonard Elschenbroich and pianist Alexei Grynyuk perform all six Beethoven Cello Sonatas over two concerts in one day on 30 April. Leonore Piano Trio has devised a special concert for families with children aged 5+ based on cellist Steven Isserlis' much-loved illustrated storybook Why Beethoven Threw the Stew (1 June).

Formed in 1998, the London-based Doric String Quartet returns to Wigmore Hall to perform all six string quartets of Béla Bartók over two evenings on 7 and 14 May.

Nitin Sawhney, John Cage and New Music

Wigmore Hall Associate Artist Nitin Sawhney is joined by cellist Ian Burdge for an evening of Sawhney's music bringing together traditions from across the globe (23 July). British-born Jamaican singer/songwriter, cellist, pianist and composer Ayanna Witter-Johnson brings to Wigmore Hall her compositions crossing the boundaries of classical, jazz, reggae, soul and R&B (5 May & 1 July).

Jazz legends double bassist Christian McBride and saxophonist Joshua Redman return for the third residency concert this season on 28 May. Saxophonists Trish Clowes (23 April) and Jess Gillam (2 June) return to Wigmore Hall with their respective ensembles - Associate Artist Clowes launching her new album 'A View with a Room'.

Icelandic composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir (7 May) and French soprano, composer Héloïse Werner (4 June) are subjects of major focus with many works performed for the first time at Wigmore Hall. Wigmore Hall Associate Ensemble and celebrated experimental music group, Apartment House, return on 18 June for a day-long John Cage celebration. Among the rarely-performed works by the American maverick includes the UK premiere of Seven2 for bass clarinet, bass flute, bass trombone, cello, double bass and 2 percussion as well as Speech 1955 for newsreader and 5 radios, Child of Tree for plant materials and Branches for plant materials.

Wigmore Hall/BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concerts

Every Monday lunchtime, BBC Radio 3 presents an hour-long concert broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 and streamed on the Wigmore Hall website. The 15 remaining concerts of the season include a piano recital by BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist Alexander Gadjiev (4 April) and performances by violinists Viktoria Mullova (18 April) and Leila Josefowicz (25 April), clarinettist Julian Bliss' Gershwin celebration (2 May), pianists Gabriela Montero (9 May), Nelson Goerner (6 June) and Elisabeth Leonskaja (27 June), Gringolts (16 May) and Škampa (30 May) Quartets as well as mezzo-soprano Catriona Morison (23 May) and soprano Olena Tokar (11 July).

Pianists

Wigmore Hall's starry piano season begins with the return of Igor Levit performing two monumental works from his award-winning recording, the Shostakovich 24 Preludes and Fugues (4 April) and British composer Ronald Stevenson's Passacaglia on DSCH (6 April). Solo recitals are also being given by Lucas Debargue (24 April), Benjamin Grosvenor (8 May), Francesco Piemontesi (12 May), Sergei Babayan (20 May), Marc-André Hamelin (25 May), Jonathan Biss (28 May), Richard Goode (4 June), Leon McCawley (29 June), Conrad Tao (13 July), Eric Lu (26 July) - among others. Leif Ove Andsnes and Marc-André Hamelin join forces for a two-piano concert including Stravinsky's own arrangement of The Rite of Spring (30 May).

Singers

The summer season is bookended by two landmark performances of Schubert's Winterreise, by tenor Ian Bostridge/pianist Angelia Hewitt (5 April) and tenor Mark Padmore/pianist Paul Lewis (25 June). Padmore also joins pianist Mitsuko Uchida in two performances of Beethoven's An die ferne Geliebte and Schubert's Schwanengesang (15, 17 May). German baritone Christian Gerhaher returns to Wigmore Hall on 30 June, 3 and 6 July for a three-concert Hugo Wolf series, performing the composer's seminal song cycles. The rollcall of celebrated British singers appearing throughout the spring includes Stuart Skelton (18 April), Louise Alder (29 April), Carolyn Sampson (31 May), Roderick Williams (14 June), Nicky Spence (4 July), James Gilchrist (22 July) - and soprano Sophie Bevan (17 July) who performs a programme of early 20th century Austrian songs with her husband, the pianist, composer, conductor Ryan Wigglesworth.

https://wigmore-hall.org.uk

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