The English Chamber Orchestra (ECO) is a British chamber orchestra based in London. The full orchestra regularly plays concerts at Cadogan Hall, and their ensemble performs at Wigmore Hall. With a limited performance size, the orchestra specializes in 18th-century music and was created to perform Baroque Music. The orchestra regularly tours in the UK and internationally, and holds the distinction of having the most extensive discography of any chamber orchestra and being the most well-traveled orchestra in the world; no other orchestra has played concerts (as of 2013, according to its own publicity) in as many countries as the English Chamber Orchestra.
Sir Neville Marriner, was an English conductor and violinist. Described as "one of the world's greatest conductors", Gramophone lists Marriner as one of the 50 greatest conductors and another compilation ranks Marriner #14 of the 18 "Greatest and Most Famous Conductors of All Time". He founded the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, and his partnership with them is the most recorded of any orchestra and conductor.
The Symphony No. 25 in G minor, K. 183/173dB, was written by the then 17-year-old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in October 1773, shortly after the success of his opera seria Lucio Silla. It was supposedly completed in Salzburg on October 5, a mere two days after the completion of his Symphony No. 24, although this remains unsubstantiated. Its first movement was used as the opening music in Miloš Forman's film biographical Amadeus.
Iona Brown, OBE, was a British violinist and conductor.
Murray David Perahia is an American pianist and conductor. He is widely considered one of the greatest living pianists. He was the first North American pianist to win the Leeds International Piano Competition, in 1972. Known as a leading interpreter of Bach, Handel, Scarlatti, Mozart, Beethoven, and Schumann, among other composers, Perahia has won numerous awards, including three Grammy Awards from a total of 18 nominations, and 9 Gramophone Awards in addition to its first and only "Piano Award".
Amadeus is a 1984 American period biographical drama film directed by Miloš Forman, and adapted by Peter Shaffer from his 1979 stage play of the same name, in-turn inspired by the 1830 play Mozart and Salieri by Alexander Pushkin. Set in Vienna, Austria, during the latter half of the 18th century, the film is a fictionalized story of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart from the time he left Salzburg, described by its writer as a "fantasia on the theme of Mozart and Salieri". Mozart's music is heard extensively in the soundtrack. The film follows a fictional rivalry between Mozart and Italian composer Antonio Salieri at the court of Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor. The film stars F. Murray Abraham as Salieri and Tom Hulce as Mozart. Abraham and Hulce were both nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor, with Abraham winning.
Mendelssohn's Piano Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 25, was written in 1830–31, around the same time as his fourth symphony ("Italian"), and premiered in Munich on 17 October 1831. This concerto was composed in Rome during a travel in Italy after the composer met the pianist Delphine von Schauroth in Munich. The concerto was dedicated to her. Mendelssohn attended one party after another in Munich in October 1831, the month of the premiere, but he also played chamber music and taught double counterpoint. He performed the piece himself at the premiere, which also included performances of his Symphony No. 1 and the Overture from Midsummer Night's Dream. He had already written a piano concerto in A minor with string accompaniment (1822) and two concertos with two pianos (1823–24).
Margaret Anne Marshall OBE is a Scottish soprano.
Masaaki Suzuki is a Japanese organist, harpsichordist, conductor, and the founder and music director of the Bach Collegium Japan. With this ensemble he is recording the complete choral works of Johann Sebastian Bach for the Swedish label BIS Records, for which he is also recording Bach's concertos, orchestral suites, and solo works for harpsichord and organ. He is also an artist-in-residence at Yale University and the principal guest conductor of its Schola Cantorum, and has conducted orchestras and choruses around the world.
Yeol Eum Son is a world renowned South Korean classical pianist. She is particularly esteemed as an interpreter of the Classical era of composers, especially Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, as well as such later composers as Mendelssohn, Schumann, Liszt, Rachmaninoff and Ravel. Son regularly performs as soloist with prominent orchestras and eminent conductors.
Ulf Håkan Hardenberger is a Swedish trumpeter, conductor and professor at the Malmö Academy of Music. Taking up the trumpet at the age of eight under the guidance of hometown teacher Bo Nilsson, Hardenberger pursued further studies at the Paris Conservatoire, with Pierre Thibaud, and in Los Angeles with Thomas Stevens. Hardenberger is a pioneer of important virtuosic new trumpet works. He collaborated with contemporary composers Harrison Birtwistle, Brett Dean, HK Gruber (Aerial), Hans Werner Henze, Betsy Jolas, György Ligeti and Mark-Anthony Turnage. In 2021, he premiered Jörg Widmann's Towards Paradise in 2022 Helen Grime's Trumpet Concerto, night-sky-blue, and in 2023 premiered Wynton Marsalis's Trumpet Concerto for Europe. Hardenberger performed with New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Wiener Philharmoniker, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, NHK Symphony Orchestra and conductors Alan Gilbert, Daniel Harding, Paavo Järvi, Ingo Metzmacher, Andris Nelsons, John Storgårds and David Zinman. From 2016 to 2018, he was artistic director of the Malmö Chamber Music Festival. In the 2019/20 season, he conducted Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, Malmö Symphony Orchestra, Swedish Chamber Orchestra and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. Hardenberger has been called "the cleanest, subtlest trumpeter on earth" by The Times.
Ann Murray, is an Irish mezzo-soprano.
Paul Seiko Chihara is an American composer.
Stephen Paulus was an American Grammy Award winning composer, best known for his operas and choral music. His style is essentially tonal, and melodic and romantic by nature.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Horn Concerto No. 4 in E-flat major, K. 495 was completed in 1786.
Andrew Marriner is a British solo, chamber and orchestral clarinettist. He became principal of the London Symphony Orchestra in 1986 following the footsteps of the late Jack Brymer. During his orchestral career he has maintained his place on the worldwide solo concert platform alongside an active role in the field of chamber music.
Douglas Weiland is an English modern-classical composer. His works range from the three Sir Neville Marriner commissions: Divertimento for Strings (1992), Clarinet Concerto (2002), Triple Concerto (2006), and two Piano Trios commissioned for Altenberg Trio Wien, to several commissioned choral works and the series of chamber works produced for the Norfolk & Norwich Music Club as their Composer-in-Residence.
Gregory Rose is a conductor, composer, arranger, and music director. He has conducted orchestral, choral and ensemble premieres throughout Europe and the Far East.
Brighton Festival Chorus is a large choir of over 150 amateur singers based in Brighton, UK. One of the country's leading symphony choruses.., and considered "one of the jewels in the city's musical crown", BFC performs in major concert halls throughout Britain and Europe, particularly in Brighton and London.
László Istvan Heltay was a Hungarian-born British conductor and choral director. Heltay is best known for contributing to the establishment of the Brighton Festival Chorus, the Chorus of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields and the Schola Cantorum of Oxford. He was described as:
