Latest Highlights

- Residency at Lisbon’s Gulbenkian Foundation: concerts on 19 and 22 January 2012 with Thomas Adès, Pekka Kuusisto, Toby Spence and Nicholas Hodges

- Beethoven cycle in Amsterdam and Paris with Bernard Haitink, Renaud and Gautier Capuçon, Frank Braley, Jessica Rivera, Karen Cargill, Roberto Sacca, Hanno Müller-Brachmann and Groot Omroepkoor, between 19 February and 6 March.

New on the COE website

We are delighted to inform potential applicants that the vacancies form is now available: after filling in the form, applicants are able to upload their CV and sound files directly onto the COE website (the size of each file is limited to 10MB). A press enquiry form dedicated to journalists and reporters and a keyword search engine feature have also recently become live. The French version of the COE website will become available by the end of this month. We hope you enjoy these new features, and please jump into our new ‘tag cloud’ as well!!

The COE on TV and webcast

The COE’s concerts at the Salle Pleyel in Paris on 2, 3 and 5 March will be available to watch online in real time and for four months after the day of the performance on www.citedelamusique.tv, as well as on www.medici.tv for free, live. On Sunday 20 March at 9am (8am GMT), Mezzo TV (viewed by over 16 million households, spread across 39 countries) will also broadcast the COE’s most recent DVD release, Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis performed at the Gulbenkian Foundation in February 2010 with John Nelson and the Gulbenkian Choir.

The COE nominates Sibelius for the Classic FM Hall of Fame 2012

Kate Gould, a member of the COE’s cello section, has recorded a video to nominate Sibelius’s 2^nd Symphony as part of the UK Classic FM Hall of Fame 2012. During January and February, Classic FM asked their listeners to vote for their three favourite pieces of music. Classic FM then compiles the votes and counts down the chart (a top 300) over the Easter Bank Holiday. This is usually Classic FM’s biggest event of the year. You can watch Kate’s video on http://bit.ly/wELd7U.

We will miss you, Paavo...

Peter Readman (Chairman of the COE since its foundation in 1981) and Dougie Boyd (founder member and principal oboe from 1981 to 2002) formed particularly strong relationships with Paavo over his many years with the COE and share some of their memories and thoughts below.

“Paavo was such a great friend of so many of us in the Chamber Orchestra of Europe (COE) that our lives will not be the same without him. His musical contribution to the life of the COE is well covered by Dougie Boyd in the tribute below and, of course, his Sibelius and Brahms symphony cycle recordings are living testament to his great influence on the Orchestra. Amongst all the enjoyable times I spent with Paavo over the years, one particular memory stands out. Paavo sat next to me in the Albert Hall for a performance by the COE with Nikolaus Harnoncourt of Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis in the Proms of 1998 during which Paavo was moved to tears by Marieke Blankestijn’s wonderful violin solo in the Sanctus. I will never forget Paavo’s emotional response on that occasion which revealed the true humanity not merely of a great musician, but also of a great man.” (Peter Readman)

“I have been so fortunate to have experienced such wonderful music making with the COE - both with my friends within the Orchestra and to have had the chance to work with so many extraordinary soloists and conductors. Over the years there were a few musicians who I felt really had a profound effect on my life as a human being and as an artist. Paavo Berglund was one of these artists.

In my early 20's, I was given the opportunity to make my first ever solo recording with the COE - Mozart and Strauss oboe concertos - and Paavo agreed to be the conductor for the project. Looking back, I was inexperienced both at recording and performing, but Paavo was unbelievably supportive and helpful. One was immediately struck by his honesty and musical integrity. Being able to record these seminal works for oboe with the COE and Paavo is something I have always treasured.

Paavo became a much loved fixture in the COE calendar, returning every year for European tours. We knew he had a reputation as the greatest interpreter of Sibelius and indeed his favourite encore with us of Valse Triste inevitably left us in tears and the audience in transfixed silence. He had also recorded Sibelius symphonies twice already during his life. Sibelius, for Paavo, was a life's work, a constantly evolving experience. Why not record it again with a chamber orchestra - with the COE? Paavo went very quiet in that inimitable Finnish way, thought for a while and then I saw an excitement in his eyes. The transparency and detail, the sparing use of vibrato - "like Toscanini vibrato", he used to say - the COE would be ideal for this! The project was born- and what a project it was. We were lucky that Paavo also had a great relationship with June Megennis, our General Manager, and between them they devised performances of the complete symphonies at the Edinburgh Festival and Paavo's home town of Helsinki, and then of course there were the recordings themselves.

We all felt, rehearsing with Paavo, that this was a "master at work" when it came to Sibelius, but more importantly there was so much love towards him from EVERYONE in the Orchestra. It truly was a once in a lifetime experience. The Helsinki concerts, in the land of Sibelius with Paavo and the COE were some of the greatest concerts in which I have ever been a part. I also vividly remember the last note of the last recording session being followed by a short heart felt thanks from Paavo. This in turn was followed by endless minutes of applause from us with Paavo looking touched and not a little bemused. It was the only time in my memory when there was such an intense and prolonged response from the COE.

There was another side to Paavo. He had great wit – and a sense of humour that was the driest imaginable. I wish we had made a collection of some of his comments.

Later, when I began conducting, there was only one person I turned to for advice. One of the first pieces I conducted with a professional orchestra was Sibelius's Symphony No 6. Could I go through the work with him? I was immediately invited to his summer house, a magical island near Turku, to spend a weekend with him and his lovely and truly remarkable wife, Kirsti. In between Finnish saunas, Finnish cooking and walks in an atmospheric Finnish landscape, we went through the score of the symphony. His knowledge was astounding of course. Then at the end I "conducted" the whole symphony through in his studio and he "played" all the orchestral parts on his violin - left-handed of course (conducting left-handed was another unusual Paavo characteristic). As ever, he was totally supportive and encouraging and he gave me the confidence to continue pursuing what has now become a new life for me.

We will all miss him at COE for his music making and his humanity. He was a musician's musician.” (Dougie Boyd)

Residency at the Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon, Portugal

The Chamber Orchestra of Europe performed two concerts at the Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon under the direction of conductor and composer Thomas Adès on 19 and 22 January. The Orchestra was joined for its first concert by Finnish violinist Pekka Kuusisto and tenor Toby Spence in a programme including Adès’s Couperin Studies and Violin Concerto, Berlioz’s Nuits d’été and Sibelius’s Symphony No. 6. For the second concert, pianist Nicholas Hodges performed Adès’s In Seven Days for piano, orchestra and video projection by Tal Rosner. The programme on 22 January also included Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6.

The COE was extremely grateful to the “superb” Pekka Kuusisto (Blog Sound + Vision, 20/01/2012) for stepping in, in place of Leila Josefowicz, who unfortunately had to cancel her performance with the Orchestra at short notice.

Both concerts were sold out and were enthusiastically received by the audience and the press (“the fabulous Chamber Orchestra of Europe”, “the extraordinary Chamber Orchestra of Europe” as described by Pedro Boléo in the paper Publico, 01/02/2012). According to Nuno Galopim, from Diario Noticias and the Arts and Culture blog Sound + Vision, the first concert was like “history unfolding before our eyes” as he considers Thomas Adès to be “one of the greatest composers of our time” (20/01/2012).

During the Orchestra’s week-long residency, Jan Harshagen, who has performed with the COE since 1983 and who used to be one of the principal horns of the European Community Youth Orchestra (ECYO at the time) was invited by Jonathan Luxton, principal horn of the Gulbenkian Orchestra, to coach four of his students in preparation for their auditions to enter the European Union Youth Orchestra (EUYO). The pieces rehearsed included Mahler’s 9^th symphony, Ein Heldenleben by R.Strauss and Beethoven’s 3^rd symphony, together with other orchestral excerpts.

Beethoven Cycle with Bernard Haitink in Amsterdam and Paris

The Chamber Orchestra of Europe will travel to Amsterdam and Paris between 19 February and 6 March, where it will complete the Beethoven symphony cycle started in January 2011 with Bernard Haitink. The Orchestra will give three performances in each venue: on 21, 24 and 28 February, the Orchestra will perform Beethoven’s Egmont Overture, Leonore Overture No 3, Triple Concerto and Symphonies 1, 4, 6, 7 and 9 at the Concergebouw and will repeat these concerts at the Salle Pleyel on 2, 3 and 5 March. The soloists joining the COE and Bernard Haitink for the Triple Concerto will be Renaud and Gautier Capuçon and Frank Braley, and for Symphony No 9 Jessica Rivera (soprano), Karen Cargill (mezzo-Soprano), Roberto Sacca (tenor), Hanno Müller-Brachmann (bass-baritone) and the Netherlands Radio Choir.
To be able to perform a complete Beethoven symphony cycle at the Concertgebouw with Bernard Haitink is a particular honour and privilege for the COE (which has also recently completed a Brahms cycle with him at the BBC Proms and Lucerne Summer Festival last year). Indeed, it was clear from last year’s performances that the audience in Amsterdam hold him very close to their hearts. There is a very special relationship between Bernard Haitink and the COE and he regularly compares the Orchestra to a “speedboat” which reacts immediately to his suggestions, as opposed to larger orchestras, “ocean liners” which are less easily manoeuvrable.

Latest DVD release: Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis

At the end of last year, a DVD was released of the COE's February 2010 performance of Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with the Gulbenkian Choir under the direction of John Nelson at the Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon. The DVD also includes over one hour of extras such as an interview of the conductor and of the Orchestra’s chairman, Peter Readman. The DVD has already been very well received by the critics, and journalist Rob Cowan, in Gramophone’s February 2012 issue, said “My viewing completed, I thought to myself: this has to be the greatest religious work of them all. The ultimate accolade, you might say: the performance has done its job, and I am duly uplifted [...] So if you’re after a fine Missa on screen, look no further.”

Welcome to Kai Frömbgen!

During the Chamber Orchestra of Europe’s time in Lisbon earlier this month, oboist Kai Frömbgen, principal oboe for the Bamberg Symphoniker in Germany, was invited to become a member of  COE and to share the principal oboe position with Francois Leleux. He said: "It is always a high aspiration to play orchestral music as if it were chamber music. The members of the COE are outstanding musicians who are dedicated to playing chamber music at the highest standard and who have a unique way of interpreting the repertoire. It is extraordinarily inspiring to make music together and for me it is like a dream come true to have the opportunity to play with the COE."

Born in Koblenz, in 1977, Kai had his first oboe lesson at the Luxemburg Conservatoire with Norbert Matters. He received the first prize of the federal competition “Jugend musiziert” three times, in 1991, 1993 and 1995. After passing his A-levels, he started studying with Professor Christian Wetzel in the School of Music and Drama “Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy” in Leipzig. He received scholarships from the Foundation of the German People, the Villa Musica and the Richard Wagner Society.

He played in the EUYO for two years, in 1998 and 1999. He was offered the guest principal oboe position in the Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz in 1999 and he then became the principal oboe of the Bamberger Symphoniker - Bayerische Staatsphilharmonie in 2003. Kai is a keen chamber musician and performs with Frank-Peter Zimmermann, Christian Zacharias, Mirijam Contzen, Christoph Eschenbach and the Sabine Meyer Wind Ensemble . In 2005, 2006 and 2007, he was the principal oboe of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, directed by Claudio Abbado.

Education Projects in Bulgaria and Catalunya

The Chamber Orchestra of Europe had a particularly busy end of year in terms of education and outreach.

In particular, Martin Walch, violin member of the COE, was invited for the third year to carry out masterclasses for solo and chamber music at the Sofia Musicacademy in Bulgaria between 20 and 22 December. This initiative was undertaken with the support of Professor Alexander Iltschev, Head of Violin Studies at the academy.

Ten members from the Chamber Orchestra of Europe travelled to Spain to work with the National Youth Orchestra of Catalunya (JONC) during their Christmas session from 27 to 31 December. In Salou, Catalunya, they coached instrumental sectionals and full string and wind sectionals, with a focus on Brahms’ 3rd symphony, and another composition by a Catalan composer, Rafael Ferrer’s Violin Concerto. The COE members thoroughly enjoyed the experience of working together as a team and having the opportunity to share their common vision of the COE and the playing style that they have developed together with a younger group.