Alina Ibragimova and Britten Sinfonia: an ongoing collaboration

Alina Ibragimova once again joins Britten Sinfonia in late February/early March for the tour of our Baltic Nights programme. Alina has been a regularly collaborator with Britten Sinfonia, first performing with us in 2006 for our At Lunch series of concerts. Aged only 21 Alina, performed lunchtime concerts in Krakow, , Aldeburgh, Cambridge, Norwich and London.

Alina rehearsing in Krakow with Huw Watkins and Joy Farrall

The programme for these At Lunch concerts featured the premiere of Huw Watkins Dream (later released on Britten Sinfonia’s Songs of the Sky CD), Michael Zev Gordon’s Fragments from a Diary and works by Stravinsky and Bartok.

Alina arriving at the Assembly House in Norwich in the Britten Sinfonia taxi

In 2007 Britten Sinfonia joined Alina in the studio to record Concerto Funebre for violin and orchestra by the little known composer, Karl Amadeus Hartmann. Hartmann is a figure unique in German music - the only composer to stay put and defy Hitler for the duration of the Third Reich and his Concerto Funèbre, written in 1939 was a protest against Hitler’s occupation of Prague. Released by Hyperion the disc also features Hartmann’s Suite No’s 1 and 2 and Sonata No’s 1 & 2 for solo violin.

Alina and Britten Sinfonia went on to perform Hartmann’s Concerto funebre in Cambridge and Norwich. Returning to Norwich and Cambridge in 2009 for concerts entitled Bach Plus Alina performed music by Bach and Kurtag. The towering genius of Johann Sebastian Bach was the focus of these concerts, which contrasted four of his works with two seminal 20th-century pieces by Berg and Kurtág. Bach two surviving violin concertos were played by Alina.. Kurtág’s acknowledgement of his debt to Bach in his Signs, Games and Messages, which includes ‘Hommage à J.S.B.’, an exploration of a Bach-like melodic line also saw Alina take centre stage, amazing audiences with her technical ability and artistic flair. Bach Plus was also performed in Inverness and Monmouth.

Later in 2009 Alina performed Vaughan Williams’ beautiful Lark Ascending in concerts with Britten Sinfonia in aid of the Great Fen Project.

Alina has described how she loves working with Britten Sinfonia “Playing with Britten Sinfonia is never boring… they have their own take on things and aren’t afraid to do so”

In celebration of Britten Sinfonia’s 20^th Birthday in 2011 Alina joined forces with another of the orchestra’s long-term collaborators, Pekka Kuusisto for a performance of Bach’s Double Violin Concerto at our Barbican birthday celebrations.

Alina rehearsing at the Barbican (c) Ben Ealovega

Alina & Pekka enjoying the applause after their performance at Britten Sinfonia's Birtdhay concert (c) Rhydian Peters

We’re really looking forward to working with Alina again. She will perform one of the two surviving Bach Violin Concerto’s alongside a beautiful and ethereal violin concerto by Latvian composer, Peteris Vasks entitled Distant Light. You can see Alina talking about the programme in our short film about the Baltic Nights programme

The concerts take place at Cambridge West Road Concert Hall on Monday 25 February, Wednesday 27 February at London’s Barbican and Sunday 3^rd March at Norwich Theatre Royal. To find out more about the concerts and to book tickets click here

BBC Radio 3 at 19.00 GMT today

Britten Sinfonia's first broadcast of the autumn (with apologies to our southern hemisphere followers) on BBC Radio 3's main evening slot is today at 19.00. Listen on 90-93FM, DAB or online. Recorded at the Queen Elizabeth Hall last week, Performance on 3 features Hartmann's Concerto Funebre. Alina Ibragimova is the soloist. The programme opens with Bach's Violin Concerto in A minor, BWV 1041 and his Prelude and Fugue No 20 in A minor in a new arrangement by Tansy Davies, and ends with Schoenberg's Verklaerte Nacht.

John Bickley

Richard Morrison in The Times last week summed up well a central element of the Britten Sinfonia philosophy: 'How refreshing to find a full house for a concert with the dread names of Schoenberg and Karl Hartmann on the programme. It’s a signal of the trust that the Britten Sinfonia has forged with its audiences. The regular punters know that, however unfamiliar the repertoire or disconcerting the leaps across era or genre, this adventurous chamber orchestra will always put across the music with flair and commitment.'

He came to our concert in Cambridge with Alina Ibragimova - repeated later in the week in Norwich and London - and we know from our audience feedback that many of you agree with him: you can read the full review here. Karl Hartmann's Concerto Funebre was both a discovery and a revelation for many, and Alina's impassioned yet controlled playing made a huge impression.

This week and next we are with the Michael Clark Company at the Barbican Theatre. His three year Stravinsky Project culminates with a new work, I do, presented alongside O and Mmm… in one highly charged evening. I do, set to Les Noces, concludes Clark's dialogue with Stravinsky in the affirmative, confirming and celebrating the marraige between classicism and modernism, tradition and innovation - a marriage which is at the heart of both Stravinsky's music and Clark's compelling choreography.

Last night was the first preview, and there are eight more shows: tonight, and then on 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 November. Tickets available online.

John Bickley