Wednesday 8 September 2010, 7.45pm, £8.00 Conc; £6.00, Free to subscribers

Lisa Friend: Flute
Mark Kincaid: Piano
DONIZETTI Sonate for fl ute and piano
SCHUMANN 3 Romances
EDWARD German Romance
FAURÉ Fantasie
FAURÉ Après un rêve
SCHUBERT Sonata Arpeggione
SAINT SAENS Romance
DEBUSSY Syrnx
MISC. Deep in My Soul (medley by Lisa Friend)

At five years old Lisa Friend started to play the flute and her career has gone on to soar. From studying in New York with flautist Renee Siebert and winning a scholarship at the Royal College of Music to performing for the Royal Family as soloist with the late Yehudi Menuhin and writing and performing a track for Steven Spielberg. This promises to be a great recital.

Thursday 21 October 2010, 7.45pm

Conductor: Terje Mikkelsen
Soloist: Alena Baeva, violin
OLSEN The Wild Hunt of Thor
SIBELIUS Violin Concerto in D minor, Op.47
TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No.4 in F minor, Op.36

The Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra was awarded the distinction from the Russian Government of being renamed the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra of Moscow Radio due to their great contribution to Russian music. Since then, they have toured the world performing definitive interpretations of Tchaikovsky’s orchestral music. In their visit to the Town Hall they will perform, under their principal guest conductor Terje Mikkelsen, Olsen’s atmospheric The Wild Hunt of Thor and Sibelius’ ethereal Violin Concerto. The evening ends with Tchaikovsky’s elemental Symphony No.4 with its famous fate motif which is echoed throughout this symphonic masterpiece that is full of great drama and pathos.

Thursday 4 November 2010, 7.45pm

Conductor/violin: Thomas Zehetmair
IVES The Unanswered Question
MENDELSSOHN Violin Concerto in E minor,
Op.64
TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 2 in C minor,
Op.17 “Little Russian”

Thomas Zehetmair and Northern Sinfonia’s first concert in the Series starts with Charles Ives’ haunting “The Unanswered Question” with its mysteriously lyrical string writing overlaid by a series of cacophonous wind entries. It is a work unlike any other and this is great opportunity to hear this highly original piece. The concert continues with Mendelssohn’s much-loved Violin Concerto played by Thomas Zehetmair and in the second half the orchestra will perform Tchaikovsky’s charming Second Symphony, known as the “Little Russian” because of the influence of a number of Russian folk songs from which Tchaikovsky drew his melodic material.

Tuesday 23 November 2010, 7.45pm

Conductor: Ivor Bolton
Soloist: Freddy Kempf, piano
SCHUMANN Symphony No.2 in C
major, Op.61
BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No.2 in B
fl at major, Op.19
MOZART Symphony No.41 in C
major, K.551 (Jupiter)

We are very pleased to welcome for its first visit to the Town Hall, the distinguished Austrian orchestra, the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg.

We rarely get an opportunity to hear one of Schumann’s symphonies and the concert opens with his passionate Symphony No.2. The orchestra will then be joined by one of this country’s most popular pianists, Freddy Kempf, who will perform Beethoven’s exuberant Piano Concerto No.2. In the second half of the concert the orchestra will perform Mozart’s final symphonic masterpiece, his Symphony No.41, known as the Jupiter.

Thursday 20 January 2011 7.45pm

Director: Bradley Creswick
Soloist: Juliette Bausor, flute
Soloist: Catrin Finch, harp
FAURE Masques et bergamasques, Op. 112
ELGAR Salut d’Amour
MOZART Concerto for Flute and Harp
VAUGHANWILLIAMS
Fantasia on a theme of Greensleeves
DEBUSSY Danse Sacree et Profane
RESPIGHI Gli Uccelli (The Birds)

The brilliant flutist Juliette Bausor is joined by the former Harpist to HRH The Prince of Wales for Mozart’s spectacular Concerto. This is a programme packed with a seemingly endless parade of breathtaking melody, including Vaughan Williams’s hum-along to tune.

Thursday 3 February 2011, 7.45pm

Conductor: Andrés Orozco-Estrada
Soloist: Natasha Paremski, piano
MOZART Overture to Marriage of Figaro
BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No.5 (Emperor)
BRAHMS Symphony No.2 in D major,
Op.73

This season we are very fortunate to have concerts by two distinguished orchestras from Austria. For the second of these we are pleased to welcome the Vienna Tonkünstler Orchestra who have been established as one of Vienna’s most distinguished orchestras for over 100 years. They will be conducted by their new music director Andrés Orozco-Estrada. The soloist is the immensely talented Natasha Paremski in a performance of Beethoven’s grand Emperor Piano Concerto which has been loved by audiences the world-over since it was first composed in 1809. In the second half the orchestra will perform Brahms’ deeply romantic Symphony No.2.

Thursday 28 April 2011, 7.45pm

Conductor: Nicholas Kraemer
Soloist: Bradley Creswick, violin
COPLAND Appalachian Spring: Suite
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS
The Lark Ascending
BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 6 in
F major, Op.68 “Pastoral”

The last of the Northern Sinfonia’s concerts this season will be conducted by Nicholas Kraemer and has a pastoral theme running throughout. Copland’s evocative Appalachian Spring is followed by Vaughan Williams’ elegiac tribute to the English landscape. In the second half of the concert the orchestra will perform Beethoven’s musical homage to the countryside around Vienna that he loved so much.

Thursday 5 May 2011, 7.45pm

Conductor: Alexei Stepanov
Soloist: Ivan Rudin, piano
RIMSKY KORSAKOV Tale of Tsar Saltan
(Suite from Opera, Op.57)
Intr. to Act I: The Tsar’s Departure and Farewell
Intr. to Act II: The Tsarina in a Barrel at Sea
Intr. to Act IV: The Three Wonders
RACHMANINOV Piano Concerto No.1
TCHAIKOVSKY Suite from Nutcracker

The Bolshoi Opera and Orchestra have been at the centre of Russian musical life for over two centuries. They are renowned the world over and we are delighted to have them provide the finale to our season. In the first half they will perform a suite from Rimsky Korsakov’s exotic opera The Tale of Tsar Saltan. This will be followed by the distinguished Russian pianist Ivan Rudin giving a performance of Rachmaninov’s lyrical first Piano Concerto, with its pulsating outer movements and beautiful slow movement. In the second half the orchestra, under Alexei Stepanov, will perform some of the most popular music that Tchaikovsky ever composed – music from his much-loved ballet the Nutcracker. To hear the Bolshoi Orchestra perform in Middlesbrough will undoubtedly be one of the highlights of the season.

Monday 13 December, 3.00pm & 6.00pm, £14 Children £8 Family £36

Conductor: Alan Fearon
Orchestra: Northern Sinfonia
Tuby the Tuba
Blake The Snowman
Programme extras tbc

Raymond Briggs’s animated film has become a Christmas classic. Northern Sinfonia accompanies the fi lm with a live performance of Howard Blake’s enchanting soundtrack.

The film is shown on our big screen, while the orchestra plays Howard Blake’s music live, and is joined by a chorister to sing ‘We’re Walking in the Air’. A real Christmas treat for children and those of us who haven’t grown out of the Snowman’s magic yet!