A highlight a year!

As we approach our 20th Birthday season we've been looking back at some of the highlights over the past twenty years. We've selected a highlight a year (but you can also read what else we were up to each year here).

1992

Britten Sinfonia launches following an initiative from Eastern Arts and a number of key figures including Nicholas Cleobury, who recognise the need for a world class orchestra in the East of England.

1993

Britten Sinfonia’s part in Jonathan Miller’s production of Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos provides the orchestra’s first critical success.

1994

The number of concerts increases from 12 in 1993 to 27 in 1994, including the orchestra’s first foreign tour, a residency at the Wratislava Cantans Festival in Poland.

1995

Britten Sinfonia’s debut CD is released to critical acclaim, featuring David Pyatt in the Strauss Horn Concertos and the Duet-concertino and Serenade for Wind Op.7. It wins a Gramophone Award.

1996

Orchestra works with tenor Ian Bostridge for the first time, with a young Daniel Harding conducting. This successful collaboration leads to other concerts and an EMI recording of Britten repertoire including Our Hunting Fathers.

1997

Britten Sinfonia awarded £150,000 from the Arts Council’s Arts for Everyone scheme for the development of its work in the East of England.

1998

Landmark concert series Frank Zappa and the Fathers of Invention, setting Zappa’s music against Bach, Stravinsky, Varese, Ives and Steve Reich

Proms debut

1999

Britten Sinfonia makes its BBC Proms debut, featuring a new symphony by David Matthews.

2000

Britten Sinfoina’s first tour to Germany includes performances at Munich’s Gasteig and Frankfurt’s Alte Oper.

2001

Joanna MacGregor directs a 10 date tour – Light and Shade - featuring music by Arvo Pärt, Lou Harrison, Schnittke and a new work from Nitin Sawhney. The tour is featured in a Joanna MacGregor South Bank Show profile for LWT.

2002

Celebrations for the orchestra’s 10th Anniversary begin with a national tour featuring Evelyn Glennie.

2003

Following a national review of the chamber orchestra sector, Arts Council England announces 100% increase in Britten Sinfonia’s funding.

2004

A major tour with Nitin Sawhney takes the ensemble to Brussels and around the UK in the autumn, including a debut at the Royal Festival Hall.

2005

We launched our first ever lunchtime series, Britten Sinfonia at Lunch, at West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge.

Jacqueline Shave was appointed leader in September.

2006

Lux Aeterna, our Hyperion recording of music by Morten Lauridsen, was nominated for a Grammy award.

2007

The ‘Britten Sinfonia at Lunch’ tour continued to be recorded for broadcast by BBC Radio 3 and the tour expanded to include Krakow (Poland), Aldeburgh, Cambridge and Norwich. 

2008

In a truly unique production that attracted a great deal of press and attention, Britten Sinfonia joined the Michael Clark Company for the Stravinsky Project at the Barbican.

2009

Britten Sinfonia appears at the Latitude Festival in Suffolk , the first classical group to appear at the festival.

Latitude Festival 2009 - photographer: Rebecca Walsh

2010

Nico Muhly was in residence with Britten Sinfonia throughout January and February 2010. A new work by the composer featured as part of Britten Sinfonia’s award-winning lunchtime series in January, and Impossible Things, a major commission for voice and violin, premiered as part of an acclaimed 14 date European tour which brought together Mark Padmore and Finnish violinist Pekka Kuusisto.

2011

The orchestra launched a new residency at Brighton Dome and Festival and founded its own choir, Britten Sinfonia Voices.

2012

Britten Sinfonia became Associate Ensemble at the Barbican.

We will be clebrating our 20th Birthday with special concerts at the Barbican and in Cambridge and Norwich

Blog sign off

Today is my last at Britten Sinfonia, and what a great way to finish - I'm off to Glyndebourne this morning to see The Yellow Sofa. Way back in April 2007, when we were getting our digital act together, we thought Britten Sinfonia should have a blog and, for reasons I don't clearly remember, I took on the writing. Well, it's been brilliant fun trying to give a wider perspective on the orchestra's work, starting with our tour of South America (the very first proper entry being uploaded from Madrid airport at vast expense (it was pre-wi-fi)). Umpteen visits to Krakow, promotional visits to Spain and Asia, blogs on many of the multifarious composers we have commissioned, the tours around the UK, our collaborations with the Michael Clark Dance Company and the Royal Opera House, London Jazz Festival concerts, concerts in some of the most beautiful buildings in the country (not least our reegular haunts of Ely and Norwich Cathedrals and King's College Chapel here in Cambridge): it is a rich vein from which to draw, and I know the blog will continue to illuminate our work. I'm off to The Sixteen as Acting General Manager, so paths will cross...........

John Bickley

Sunday Times: This was a top-rate concert performance in its own right

There have been some excellent reviews for the Michael Clark Company Stravinsky project at the Barbican last week. Here is another thoughtful contribution, from David Dougill in today's Sunday Times. You can read some of the other coverage on our website. It has been a great project for Britten Sinfonia to take part in; next week we move on to prepare for 'In the Spirit of Gil and Miles'. Bookmark this blog to keep up with our news.

The last two performances with Michael Clark Company

Just two more shows with the Michael Clark Company at the Barbican, tonight and tomorrow: there is very limited ticket availability, but do try for returns here. Check the reviews on the Britten Sinfonia website.

Silky string-playing

An early review for our Stravinsky collaboration with the Michael Clark Company - Mark Monahan in the Telegraph: 'You know you've witnessed something special on stage when 25 minutes whizz by with the speed of a lightning bolt and you sorely want to see it again, immediately. Such was the impression left by I Do, the third, final, all-new part of Michael Clark's three-year Stravinsky project.............

Throughout the evening, the music-making – all live – was excellent, with conductor Jurjen Hempel coaxing silky string-playing from the Britten Sinfonia in Apollo, sharp pianism in Rite, and sterling work all round in Les Noces. Close your eyes and it could have been a concert performance. But my, what you'd have been missing out on..............'

Read the full review here.

Contact the Barbican for tickets (not many left!) for the remaining performances this week.

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