Schubert - Die schöne Müllerin

Programme:

Schubert - The Wanderer Fantasy, Op. 15
Schubert - Die Schöne Müllerin

Thomas Guthrie, baritone
Daniel Grimwood, piano

Thomas Guthrie, baritone

Website: www.thomasguthrie.com

Thomas Guthrie is an innovative and award-winning British director and musician working in theatre and music to tell stories in vivid, new and direct ways.

A former Jette Parker Young Artist Stage Director at the Royal Opera House in London, his revival of David McVicar’s Die Zauberflöte there won What’s On Stage Best Revival 2018. His own critically acclaimed productions of Le Nozze di Figaro and Die Zauberflöte at Longborough Festival Opera led to an invitation to direct Wagner’s Der Fliegende Holländer there in 2018 (subsequently called ‘one of the best productions at this venue I have seen’, Rupert Christiansen, Telegraph).

He directed Aida at the Liceu in 2020, and his 2020 production of Gagliano’s rare 1608 opera La Dafne – created in a week with young singers at the Brighton Early Music Festival – was nominated for a 2020 RPS Award.

With a reputation for stylish, unfussy, energetic, physical, theatrical and sometimes controversial work, the clarity of the storytelling, the commitment of the performers and a pre-eminence of musical values are at the heart of his productions.

Tom also works with non-professionals of all ages and backgrounds. Some of his most thrilling projects have been in this field, including work with Streetwise Opera, the Prison Choir Project, the National Youth Choir of Great Britain, and the Royal Opera House, through whom he has inspired hundreds to connect with their inner Caruso and raise the roof. His production of Ludd and Isis, a new opera commissioned to launch the ROH’s new Production Park in Thurrock, involving a cast of hundreds, including professionals and amateurs of all ages, was acclaimed as ‘one of the Royal Opera House’s grandest achievements’ (Opera).

“Brilliant”
OPERA

Thomas is the founder and artistic director of the charity Music and Theatre for All, former Guest Artistic Advisor to the York Early Music Festival, was Belknap Fellow at Princeton University, New Jersey in 2017, and is proud to sing and play with Bjarte Eike’s Alehouse Boys.

“Thomas Guthrie is hot news. His imagination knows no bounds”
OPERA NOW

Daniel Grimwood, pianist

Website: www.danielgrimwood.eu

A new label’s first release sets down important markers, and with these impressive accounts of the 13 Nocturnes of Gabriel Fauré, written between 1875 and 1921, Edition Peters establishes the highest standards. Grimwood relishes the liquid harmonic movement and rich textural elaborations of Fauré’s ruminative, often dark pieces with poise and refinement; even when things get busy, the sound colours are beautiful.

Sunday Times

Daniel Grimwood is one of the most original musicians of his generation. With a repertoire ranging from Elizabethan Virginal music to composers of the modern day, he is a pianist of rare versatility, whose exceptional talent is internationally renowned.

He enjoys a solo and chamber career, which has taken him across the globe, performing in many of the world’s most prestigious venues and festivals, including the Wigmore Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall and the Purcell Room in London, the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester, Symphony Hall Birmingham, the Three Choirs Festival, the Rachmaninoff and Gnessin Halls in Moscow, the Carnegie Hall’s Weill Hall in New York, as well as concert halls in Germany, Austria, Italy, The Netherlands, Slovenia, Estonia, Taiwan, Azerbaijan, Egypt and Lebanon. He gave the American premiere of the Chamber Version of Henselt’s F minor Piano Concerto in Florida.

His musical interest started as a 3 year old playing next door’s piano and from the age of 7 he was performing in front of audiences. His training continued with Graham Fitch at the Purcell School, where he also studied violin, viola and composition, giving him a broad appreciation of classical music, and later Vladimir Ovchinnikov and Peter Feuchtwanger.

Although primarily a pianist, he is frequently to be found performing on harpsichord, organ, viola or composing at his desk. Grimwood is a passionate exponent of the early piano, and has given a recital of Chopin’s Etudes on the composer’s own Pleyel piano.

As a solo recording artist his growing discography ranges from Scriabin on Somm Recordings to Algernon Ashton, (a world premiere recording) on Toccata Classics. His recent discs of Liszt and Chopin, performed on an 1851 Erard piano, received a unanimous chorus of praise from the press; the Liszt album was Daily Telegraph CD of the week and Editor’s Choice in Gramophone Magazine. He was the first artist to record on the new Edition Peters Sounds label, a complete Fauré Nocturnes had an excellent reception in The Sunday Times. He has followed with two further CDs on Edition Peters Sounds showcasing the music of Henselt and recently the British composers Alwyn and Carwithen. Performances this season take him to Germany, Austria, the United States and the UK.

Daniel Grimwood's [Wigmore Hall] piano recital was stimulating and revelatory in equal measure. He played the first two books of Liszt's musical travelogue Années de Pèlerinage, which in itself is something of an undertaking in terms of pianistic demands, and he did so on an instrument of Liszt's time, an Erard piano of 1851.
Geoffrey Norris, The Daily Telegraph