Canary Islands Festival and Salzburg Mozartwoche 2023
26 January - 3 February 2023

It is with great anticipation that the Orchestra starts the New Year with performances at the Canary Islands Festival with conductor Andrés Orozco-Estrada and pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard.  Excitingly, this will be our first project with Mo. Orozco-Estrada, an exceptional conductor who we have been very eager to make music with for some time. Pierre-Laurent is a long-standing friend and partner of the COE and together we released a number of recordings: Mozart’s Piano Concertos Nos. 6, 15 and 27 (play-direct); all of the Beethoven Piano Concertos as well as Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with Nikolaus Harnoncourt. Together, we will perform at the Festival de Canarias in Gran Canaria on 30th January and at the Auditorio Tenerife on 31st January. On the programme feature Mozart’s Symphonies Nos. 38 “Prague” and 29 and Piano Concerto No. 24, as well as Beethoven’s Symphony No. 4. Click on the video below to hear Pierre-Laurent talking about the COE.

We will then travel to Salzburg for one concert at the 2023 Mozartwoche on 2nd February. Pierre-Laurent Aimard will be replaced with Korean pianist Seong-Jin Cho with whom we released a recording of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20 for Deutsche Grammophon in 2018. Seong-Jin joined us at the Baden-Baden Festspielhaus last summer in performances of Brahms’s Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 2 and we are looking forward to working with him again. The repertoire in Salzburg will include Mozart’s Symphonies Nos. 29 and 38 and also Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20 K466.

Energy, elegance and spirit – that is what particularly distinguishes Andrés Orozco-Estrada as a musician.

He was principal conductor of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra from September 2014 to July 2021 and said goodbye in June 21 with a major concert at the Alte Oper, about which the Frankfurter Rundschau wrote: “The image of a balance of human impeccability, communicative passion and the highest professionalism emerged. An orchestra, it was understood, wants to enjoy its work and at the same time make serious musical progress, and of course that sounds easier than it is. But it is precisely the combination of dancelike playfulness and an unconditional search for perfection that obviously distinguishes the Colombian’s work.”

He led the Houston Symphony Orchestra as Music Director from 2014-2022 and was also Chief Conductor of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra (2020-2022).

Orozco-Estrada regularly conducts Europe’s leading orchestras, including the Vienna Philharmonic, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, the Koninklijk Concertgebouworkest, the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and the Orchestre National de France, as well as major U.S. orchestras such as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Philadelphia Orchestra. He has also conducted concerts and opera performances at the Berlin State Opera and the Salzburg Festival with outstanding success.

For more information, please visit the IMG Artists’ website: https://imgartists.com/roster/andres-orozco-estrada/

Widely acclaimed as a key figure in the music of our time, Pierre-Laurent Aimard has had close collaborations with many leading composers including György Ligeti, Karlheinz Stockhausen, George Benjamin, Pierre Boulez and Oliver Messiaen.

Aimard begins the 2022/23 season by receiving Denmark’s most prominent music award, the Leonie Sonning Music Prize 2022, which will be celebrated in a series of concerts with Royal Danish Orchestra/​Cambreling and recitals in Copenhagen and Aarhus. Elsewhere he continues to work closely with leading orchestras and conductors across Europe, including Antwerp Symphony/​Herreweghe, Radio Filharmonisch Orkest/​Deneve, Deutsche Symphony Orchester Berlin/​Chan, Orchestre National de Lille/​Bloc and Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. He continues his collaboration with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra and Esa-Pekka Salonen, recording Bartók’s complete piano concertos due for release in Autumn 2023, and returns to Los Angeles Philharmonic for Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.4.

In celebration of György Ligeti’s 100th Anniversary in 2023, Aimard will perform works by the composer in collaborations throughout the season, including, Seoul Philharmonic/​Robertson for his Concerto for Piano; acclaimed German Jazz pianist, Michael Wollny on an improvisatory project around the Etudes and continuing to celebrate the composer through his unique recital programming.

In other chamber projects, highlights include collaborations with Tamara Stefanovich for Visions de l’Amen at the Boulez Saal and continued partnerships with Mark Simpson and Jean-Guihen Queyras for trio recitals including works by Lachenmann in Luxembourg and Vienna. Together with Isabelle Faust and Jorg Widmann, Aimard joins Queryas for Messiaen’s Quatuor pour la fin du temps touring the work across Spain in the Autumn.

Orchestral successes of the 2021/22 season included collaborations with Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France/​Chung, Munich Philharmonic/​Nagano, Bamberger Symphoniker/​Honeck, Seattle Symphony Orchestra/​Stasevska, hr-Sinfonieorchester/Altinoglu, Wiener Symphoniker/​Afkham and the World Premiere of Klaus Ospald’s concerto with WDR/​Poppe. In recital and chamber projects, Aimard continued to champion contemporary composers, performing works by Birtwistle, Lachenmann, Cage, Schoenberg and Andre in Berlin, Amsterdam, and Frankfurt as well as Messiaen’s colossal Vingt Regards in Paris and Amsterdam. In the UK highlights included Saffron Walden for Bach’s Well Tempered Klavier and the Edinburgh Festival to perform his Fantasy recital programme.

Having recently released a new disc of Beethoven’s Hammerklavier Sonata and Eroica Variations for Pentatone to great critical acclaim, Aimard releases a new recording of Visions de l’Amen with Tamara Stefanovich in September 2022. Recent seasons have also included Messiaen’s opus magnum Catalogue d’oiseaux which was honoured with multiple awards including the prestigious German music critic’s award ​‘Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik’. Aimard has also performed the world premieres of piano works by Kurtág at Teatro alla Scala; Carter’s last piece Epigrams, which was written for him; Sir Harrison Birtwistle’s works Responses; Sweet disorder and the carefully careless and Keyboard Engine for two pianos which received its London premiere in autumn 2019.

Through his professorship at the Hochschule Köln as well as numerous series of concert lectures and workshops worldwide, Aimard sheds an inspiring light on music of all periods. He was previously an Associate Professor at the College de France, Paris and is a member of Bayerische Akademie der Schönen Künste. He took up the position as Head of New Music at the Reina Sofía School, Madrid in autumn 2021. In spring 2020, he re-launched a major online resource ​‘Explore the Score’, after several years work, which centres on the performance and teaching of Ligeti’s piano music in collaboration with the Klavier-Festival Ruhr.

For more information, please visit the Harrison Parrott website: https://www.harrisonparrott.com/artists/pierre-laurent-aimard

With an overwhelming talent and innate musicality, Seong-Jin Cho has made his mark as one of the consummate talents of his generation and most distinctive artists on the current music scene. His thoughtful and poetic, assertive and tender, virtuosic and colourful playing can combine panache with purity and is driven by an impressive natural sense of balance.

Seong-Jin Cho was brought to the world’s attention in 2015 when he won the First Prize at the Chopin International Competition in Warsaw. In January 2016, he signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon. The first recording was released in November 2016 featuring Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with the London Symphony Orchestra and Gianandrea Noseda as well as the Four Ballades. A solo Debussy recital was released in November 2017, followed in 2018 by a Mozart album featuring Sonatas K281 and K332 and the Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor K466 with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and Yannick Nézet-Séguin. All albums won impressive critical acclaim worldwide. Cho’s latest album on the Yellow Label, titled The Wanderer and released in May 2020, features Schubert’s “Wanderer” Fantasy, Berg’s Piano Sonata op. 1 and Liszt’s Piano Sonata in B minor.

Highlights of Seong-Jin Cho’s 2020/21 season include his return the Berliner Philharmoniker with Ivan Fischer and debuts with the Münchner Philharmoniker and Valery Gergiev. A highly sought-after touring soloist, Cho embarks on several international tours, including those with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Luxembourg and Gustavo Gimeno and the Budapest Festival Orchestra with Ivan Fischer. Recent and upcoming orchestral highlights include performances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel, Boston Symphony Orchestra with Hannu Lintu, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra with Manfred Honeck, Mahler Chamber Orchestra with Jakub Hrůša and the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra with Jaap Van Zweden.

An active recitalist very much in demand, Seong-Jin Cho performs in many of the world’s most prestigious concert halls including the main stage of Carnegie Hall as part of the Keyboard Virtuoso series, Concertgebouw Amsterdam in the Master Pianists series, Berliner Philharmonie Kammermusiksaal (Berliner Philharmoniker concert series), Konzerthaus Vienna, Suntory Hall Tokyo, Walt Disney Hall Los Angeles, Prinzregententheater Munich, Liederhalle Stuttgart, Festival International de piano de la Roque d’Anthéron, Verbier Festival, Gstaad Menuhin Festival and Rheingau Musik Festival. During the coming season he gives debut solo recitals at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées Paris, Festspielhaus Bregenz, Victoria Hall Geneva and Wigmore Hall.

Born in 1994 in Seoul, Seong-Jin Cho started learning the piano at the age of six and gave his first public recital aged 11. In 2009, he became the youngest-ever winner of Japan’s Hamamatsu International Piano Competition. In 2011, he won Third Prize at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow at the age of 17. From 2012-2015 he studied with Michel Béroff at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris and is now based in Berlin.

For more information, please visit the Primo Artists website: https://www.primoartists.com/seongjin-cho