The COE, Nicholas Collon and Renaud Capuçon
27 November - 3 December 2017
Introduction
As part of the worldwide celebrations of Leonard Bernstein’s centenary, the COE gives three concerts in Antwerp, Paris and Toulouse, on
29 November, 1 December and 2 December respectively. Jaap van Zweden, who was originally going to conduct these performances, is now indisposed and is replaced with the young British conductor Nicholas Collon. Renaud Capuçon, a long-term collaborator, joins the Orchestra for Bernstein’s Serenade for Violin and Orchestra. Also on the programme are Shostakovich’s Chamber Symphony Opus 110a and Beethoven’s Symphony No.5. The COE’s concert in Paris will be broadcast at a later date on the French radio station France Musique.
Renaud and the COE have a very special relationship and have performed together across Europe with world-class conductors such as Myung-Whun Chung, Bernard Haitink (as part of Beethoven and Brahms cycles) and Semyon Bychkov. In May this year, they gave two chamber concerts at the recently opened Fondation Louis Vuitton (Paris) where Renaud performed and directed works by Strauss and Mozart, including Strauss’s Metamorphosen, which he had previously performed with members of the COE at his Easter Festival in Aix-en-Provence. He invited the Orchestra to perform with Semyon Bychkov and Katia and Marielle Labèque at the inaugural edition of the Festival in 2013. The COE returned to the festival in 2014 with Emmanuel Krivine and Martha Argerich and then again earlier this year with Sir András Schiff.
The Chamber Orchestra of Europe is working for the first time with Nicholas Collon, founder and principal conductor of the UK-based Aurora Orchestra, Principal Conductor of the Residentie Orkest in The Hague and Principal Guest Conductor of the Gürzenich Orchester in Cologne. Prior to founding Aurora in 2004, Nicholas Collon had a wide-ranging musical training, as viola player, organist, pianist and singer. He played viola in the National Youth Orchestra and went on to be organ scholar at Clare College, Cambridge, where he played as an accompanist and continuo player under conductors such as Sir John Eliot Gardiner, René Jacobs and Ivor Bolton. We are extremely grateful for Nick stepping in at such short notice.
The Bernstein at 100 celebrations are being coordinated by the Leonard Bernstein Office in New York. You can see everything that’s going on internationally here: https://leonardbernstein.com/at100
Nicholas Collon
Founder and Principal Conductor, Aurora Orchestra
Chief Conductor and Artistic Advisor, Residentie Orkest, The Hague (from 2018/19)
Principal Guest Conductor, Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne
The young British conductor Nicholas Collon is “a born communicator as well as an innovative programmer, and high-calibre interpreter of a wide range of repertoire” – London Evening Standard. He is Founder and Principal Conductor of the ground-breaking Aurora Orchestra, Principal Conductor of the Residentie Orkest in The Hague, and Principal Guest Conductor of the Guerzenich Orchester in Cologne.
His elegant conducting style, searching musical intellect and inspirational music-making have prompted guest invitations from orchestras such as the DSO Berlin, Finnish Radio Symphony, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Les Siecles, and many of the leading British orchestras including the Philharmonia and London Philharmonic.
In 2017/18 Nicholas conducts subscription weeks for the first time with the Bamberg Symphony, Dresden Philharmonic, Danish National Symphony and Salzburg Mozarteumorchester, and returns to the Hallé Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic and CBSO. He conducts the Guerzenich Orchester in his first concerts as Principal Guest at the Cologne Philharmonie and in the pit at Oper Koeln (Don Giovanni). His plans with the Residentie Orkest this season include concerts in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and at Rotterdam De Doelen, a televised concert from The Hague, and a tour of Germany.
Under Nicholas’s artistic direction, Aurora Orchestra have forged an enviable reputation in the UK and increasingly abroad. As Resident Orchestra at Kings Place they are midway through a five-year cycle of the complete Mozart Piano Concertos, and as Associate Orchestra at the Southbank Centre they are reinventing the concert format with their ‘Orchestral Theatre’ Series. They have appeared at the BBC Proms every year since 2010, often performing entire symphonies from memory. They increasingly tour internationally, giving concerts in summer 2017 at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw (Robeco festival), Berlioz Festival Cote St Andre and Ascona Festival, with main season appearances at the Cologne Philharmonie and in the new hall on Ile Seguin in Paris.
Nicholas has recorded two critically acclaimed recordings with Aurora for Warner Classics: Road Trip featuring music by Ives, Copland, Adams and Nico Muhly (winning the prestigious 2015 Echo Klassik Award for ‘Klassik Ohne Grenzen’) and Insomnia with music by Britten, Brett Dean, Ligeti, Gurney and Lennon & McCartney. He has also recorded Haydn and Ligeti with the Danish Radio Symphony, Britten and Delius with the Philharmonia, and several discs of contemporary repertoire with the Hallé Orchestra.
He has conducted over 200 new works, including the UK or world premieres of works by Unsuk Chin, Phillip Glass, Colin Matthews, Nico Muhly, Olivier Messiaen, Krzysztof Penderecki and Judith Weir.
Opera productions have included The Magic Flute at English National Opera, Jonathan Harvey’s Wagner Dream at Welsh National Opera, and Rape of Lucretiafor Glyndebourne Touring Opera, as well as Turn of the Screw at the Aldeburgh Festival with the Aurora Orchestra.
Born in London, Nicholas is a violist, pianist and organist by training, and studied as an Organ Scholar at Clare College, Cambridge.
Renaud Capuçon
The COE and French violinist Renaud Capuçon have collaborated on numerous projects over the years in many of the major European concert halls. They have developed a special relationship and, when Renaud founded the Easter Festival in Aix-en-Provence, he invited the COE to perform with Semyon Bychkov and Katia and Mareille Labèque at the Festival’s first edition in 2013. Since then, we have returned to the Festival in 2014 with Emmanuel Krivine and Martha Argerich, also taking part in a Carte Blanche concert organised by Renaud Capuçon and featuring himself and his violinist friends James Ehnes, Christian Tetzlaff and Alina Pogotskina. In 2017, we went back to the Festival with Sir András Schiff this time. The COE and Renaud Capuçon recorded works by Bach and Vasks in an album called Distant Light and released by Erato-Warner Classics.
Renaud Capuçon is one of the world’s most beloved musicians. Renaud is firmly established as a major soloist, recitalist and chamber musician, working with the top international orchestras and conductors and performing in the most prestigious venues.
Born in Chambéry in 1976, Renaud Capuçon began his studies at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris at the age of fourteen, winning numerous awards during his five years there. Following this, Capuçon moved to Berlin to study with Thomas Brandis and Isaac Stern, and was awarded the Prize of the Berlin Academy of Arts. In 1997, he was invited by Claudio Abbado to become concert master of the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester, which he led for three summers, working with conductors such as Pierre Boulez, Seiji Ozawa, Daniel Barenboim, Franz Welser-Moest and Abbado himself.
Since then, Capuçon has established himself as a soloist at the very highest level. He has played concerti with orchestras such as the Berliner Philharmoniker under Haitink and Robertson, the Boston Symphony under Dohnanyi, the Orchestre de Paris under Eschenbach and Paavo Järvi, Philharmonique de Radio France and Filarmonica della Scala orchestras with Chung, Orchestre National de France and Gatti and Gergiev, and the Simon Bolivar Orchestra and Los Angeles Philharmonic with Dudamel. Upcoming concerto engagements include concerts with the London Symphony Orchestra with François-Xavier Roth, Chamber Orchestra of Europe with Jaap van Zweden, Detroit Symphony Orchestra with Leonard Slatkin, Los Angeles Philharmonic with Matthias Pintscher and Camerata Salzburg with Robin Ticciati.
Capuçon also tours extensively as a solo recitalist and will perform in play directs with various groups such as Camerata Salzburg, Festival Strings Lucerne and Basel Chamber Orchestra. Capuçon has a great commitment to chamber music and has worked with Argerich, Nicholas Angelich, Barenboim, Bronfman, Yuja Wang, Buniatishvili, Grimaud, Pires, Pletnev, Repin, Bashmet and Mørk, as well as with his brother, cellist Gautier Capuçon. These collaborations have taken him, among others, to the festivals of Edinburgh, Berlin, Lucerne, Verbier, Aix-en-Provence, Roque d’Anthéron, San Sebastian, Stresa, Tanglewood and Salzburg. He is the Artistic Director of the Easter Festival in Aix-en-Provence which he founded in 2013 and was appointed Artistic Director of the Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad in 2016.
Recording exclusively with Erato/Warner Classics, Capuçon has built an extensive discography. Recent releases include Bach and Vasks Concertos as conductor and soloist with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, and Brahms and Berg Concertos with the Wiener Philharmoniker under Daniel Harding. His latest chamber music recording is a disc of Frank, Grieg and Dvorak sonatas with Khatia Buniatishvili. His recording of Fauré’s complete chamber music for strings with Nicholas Angelich, Gautier Capuçon, Michel Dalberto, Gérard Caussé and Ebène Quartet won the Echo Klassik Prize for chamber music in 2012. His compilation “Le Violon Roi” received the “Disque d’Or” and his latest recording of contemporary concerti by Rihm, Dusapin and Mantovani was nominated the best recording by French Victoires de la Musique 2017 and awarded the Echo Klassik Prize in 2017.
Renaud Capuçon plays the Guarneri del Gesù “Panette” (1737) that belonged to Isaac Stern. In June 2011 he was appointed “Chevalier dans l’Ordre National du Mérite” and in March 2016 “Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur” by the French Government.