The English Concert, Harry Bicket, artistic directionThe English Concert is among the finest chamber orchestras in the world, with an outstanding reputation for inspiring performances of Baroque and Classical music in the concert hall and on CD.
It presents a prestigious series of concerts in London, at Wigmore Hall, Cadogan Hall and the South Bank Centre, appearing also at London festivals, including the BBC Proms, the Spitafields Festival and the Lufthansa Festival of Baroque Music. In the UK it visits the major summer festivals and has developed a particularly close relationship with St George’s Bristol.
Internationally The English Concert performs on four continents. Since 2005 it has toured the United States, Australia, Korea and Malaysia, in addition to ten European countries, and since its foundation by Trevor Pinnock in 1973 has appeared at the world’s most famous stages, including the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Musikverein Vienna, the Théâtre des Champs Elysées in Paris, the Philharmonie Berlin, the Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center New York, and the Grosse Festspielhaus Salzburg.
Recent highlights include Handel’s Alexander’s Feast for the 2006 BBC Proms, Jonathan Dove’s Köthener Mass for the 2006 Spitalfields Festival, a triumphant 13-city US tour in autumn 2006 featuring Mozart violin concertos, and a return to the BBC Proms in 2007 with Mark Padmore singing Handel. Harry Bicket led the orchestra’s first visit to the United Arab Emirates in January 2008, where he directed performances of Bach, Handel and Geminiani in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Al Ain.
Among the most recorded of chamber orchestras, it has made more than 100 recordings for Deutsche Grammophon Archiv Produktion, including many award winners, and a series of critically acclaimed CDs for Harmonia Mundi USA with Andrew Manze, who succeeded Trevor Pinnock as Artistic Director in 2003.
In September 2007 Harry Bicket became the third artistic director in the orchestra’s 34-year history. Bicket is renowned worldwide for his performances of Baroque opera and oratorio with many of the finest singers of the age, and forthcoming seasons will include collaborations with Vesselina Kasarova, Alice Coote, Mark Padmore and others.
The orchestra also works regularly with leading guest directors, and in 2007-08 appears in London and abroad with oboist Alfredo Bernardini, violinist Fabio Biondi, and harpsichordists Laurence Cummings, Kenneth Weiss and Matthew Halls.
May 2008
Harry BicketInternationally renowned as an opera and concert conductor of great distinction, Harry Bicket is especially noted for his interpretation of the baroque and classical repertoire, and in September 2007 took up the position of Artistic Director of The English Concert, one of the UK’s finest period orchestras. Born in Liverpool, he studied at the Royal College of Music and Oxford University and is also an accomplished harpsichordist.
Harry Bicket made his Glyndebourne Festival debut in 1996 with Peter Sellars’ landmark production of Theodora and returned in 1999 and 2003. In 2004 he began his relationship with the Metropolitan Opera with an acclaimed new production of Rodelinda with Renée Fleming and David Daniels, and was immediately re-engaged for Cesare (2006/7) and Clemenza di Tito (May 2008). He made his debut with the Bayerische Staatsoper in 2000 (Rinaldo, new production) and returned every year until to 2007. In 2001 his first Barcelona production, Giulio Cesare, earned him the Opera Critics Prize for best conductor. He has since returned for Midsummer Night’s Dream (2005) and Ariodante (2006). 2003 saw debuts with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, conducting Partenope, and with the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden conducting Handel’s Orlando, which received an Olivier Award nomination for Best New Opera Production.
Harry Bicket has a strong following in Europe and North America, and has appeared widely with period orchestras and ensembles, including Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, The English Concert and the Handel and Haydn Society, as well as festivals such as Glimmerglass, Spoleto, Aspen and Santa Fe. He has also recently enjoyed great success with leading mainstream symphonic orchestras - his programmes often showcase his gift for choral repertoire, from the great Passions, Masses and Oratorios of the baroque and classical eras to the works of Fauré, Elgar and Tippett. Other highlights of the last few seasons have included St. Matthew Passion with the Rotterdam Philharmonic, Messiah and Missa Solemnis with Minnesota Orchestra, Messiah with the New York Philharmonic and critically acclaimed debuts with the Israel Philharmonic and Royal Stockholm Philharmonic. Symphonic guest conducting has also included San Francisco Symphony, Bayerische Rundfunk, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo, Houston, Symphony, Seattle Symphony, St Paul Chamber Orchestra, NACO Ottawa, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, and Indianapolis Symphony. Staged opera has included Opera Australia (Giulio Cesare); Scottish Opera (Gluck’s Orfeo); New York City Opera (Figaro, Entführung, Clemenza, Rinaldo); Royal Danish Opera (Gluck’s Orfeo); Glimmerglass (Partenope, Agrippina); New Israeli Opera (Poppea); Aldeburgh Festival (Purcell’s Faerie Queen); Edinburgh Festival (Clemenza); Spoleto Festival (Giasone, Tamerlano, L’ile de Merlin); English National Opera (Orfeo, Ariodante, Semele, Combattimento), Welsh National Opera (Clemenza di Tito); and Opera North (Radamisto, Return of Ulysses, Magic Flute, Croesus), Los Angeles Opera (Cesare, Poppea); Canadian Opera (Rodelinda).
Recent seasons have included critically acclaimed concerts and tours with The English Concert (UK, Spain, Middle East, Austria, France and Germany) and his debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, as well as returns to the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. Opera has included Santa Fe Opera (Platée, Radamisto) and Minnesota Opera (Croesus).
The current season and beyond includes Rotterdam Philharmonic (St. Matthew Passion), Los Angeles Philharmonic, concerts, recordings and extensive touring with The English Concert as well as productions for the Liceu Barcelona (Poppea, L’Arbore di Diana), Bordeaux Opera (Alcina), Theater an der Wien (Mitridate, Iphigenie en Tauride), Atlanta Opera (Orfeo), Canadian Opera Company (Idomeneo), Lyric Opera (Hercules, Rinaldo), and Metropolitan Opera (Rodelinda).
Harry Bicket’s discography includes five recordings with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, including a collection of Handel opera arias with Renée Fleming (Decca) and Ian Bostridge (EMI), as well as selections from Handel’s Theodora, Serse, and the cantata La Lucrezia with Lorraine Hunt Lieberson (Avie), which was nominated for a Grammy Award. His Gramophone Award-nominated CDs include Sento Amor with David Daniels featuring arias by Gluck, Handel and Mozart (Virgin Veritas) and Il tenero momento with Susan Graham featuring arias by Mozart and Gluck (Erato). His latest Virgin Classics recording (his first with The English Concert) features Bach arias and cantatas with David Daniels and was released in 2008 to outstanding reviews.
Harry Bicket appears by arrangement with Askonas Holt
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