Newcastle City Hall
Conductor comes to the rescue
A youth orchestra's conductor has stepped into the breach to rescue a Tyneside concert.
A youth orchestra's conductor has stepped into the breach to rescue a Tyneside concert after one of Britain's leading female conductors has had to cancel through illness.
Wiltshire-born Iona Brown, artistic and music director of the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra and chief conductor of the Danish Philharmonic Orchestra, was to have been the guest of the Northern Sinfonia for tomorrow night's concert at Newcastle City Hall.
Now her place on the platform will be taken by Swiss-born Baldur Bronniman, who has been Young Conductor in Association with the Northern Sinfonia - and conductor of its youth orchestra, Young Sinfonia - since 1998.
Tomorrow night's concert (Thursday 3), starting at 7.45, will be Bronniman's last with the Northern Sinfonia in his official posts. His two-year tenure was extended by another 12 months but will end in October this year.
The talented Bronniman studied at the Music Academy of Basle, taking part in masterclasses with such stars of the classical world such as Gyorgy Kurtag and Witold Lutoslawski.
After winning the Swiss Conductors' competition in 1993 he went on to work as a freelance conductor and lecturer in Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Israel and Japan.
In 1996 Bronniman was appointed Junior Fellow in Conducting at Manchester's Royal Northern College of Music, and last year he conducted the world premiere of a Northern Sinfonia' commission from Nicola Lefanu with Tasmin Little as soloist.
At tomorrow's City Hall concert Bronniman will conduct a programme that is sure to be a crowd-puller.
Several of the orchestra's principal players get star roles in Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante for Winds and there is a superb showcase for the Sinfonia's strings, the Fantasia Concertante on a Theme of Corelli, composed by Tippett.
The concert's second half is devoted to the ever-popular Symphony No 4 by Beethoven.
Tonight (Wednesday 2) one of the world's top chamber music ensembles, the Allegri String Quartet, make their second appearance at this season's Musicon recitals organised by Durham University.
They are at the city's Elvet Methodist Church at 7.30 to play Haydn's String Quartet Op 77, No 1 in G, and will be joined by the celebrated Dutch pianist Rian de Waal for performances of piano quintets by Schumann and Dvorak.
Another leading chamber ensemble, the Skampa Quartet from the Czech Republic, will be making their Newcastle debut next Wednesday (May 9).
They will be in the King's Hall of Newcastle University to perform three string quartets - Mozart's quartet in C, K465; Prokofiev's No 2 in F, Op 92; and Dvorak's in G, Op 106.