A mixed bag as Glasshouse unveils 'ambitious' classical season
Innovations and old favourites
The Glasshouse has taken the wraps off its 2026-27 classical music season, hailing it as the most ambitious yet - and beginning with a home-produced Mozart opera to emphasise the point.
The September 19 concert staging of Cosi fan tutte, with a cast including sopranos Christina Gansch and Alexandra Oomens, tenor Jonas Hacker and baritone Cody Quattlebaum, is to be followed in successive seasons by The Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni.
This ‘exploration’ of the so-called Mozart/Da Ponte operas (after librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte) will be led by Dinis Sousa, music director of Royal Northern Sinfonia (RNS), and also feature the orchestra and RNS Chorus.
From Mozart to Steve Reich marks a swift gear change but the first of three festival weekends in the forthcoming season will mark the 90th birthday of the American minimalist composer and musical innovator.
Homage will be paid via a series of concerts curated by Colin Currie, the Scottish percussionist who, with his Colin Currie Group, champions Reich’s music, and featuring musicians of RNS and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.
Author and broadcaster Tom Service will present performances in Sage One and Two over the birthday weekend (the actual big day being October 3).
Spanning Reich’s career, the festival will offer the chance to hear early experimental pieces such as Clapping Music (1972, for two musicians clapping) and more recent compositions such as Runner (2016), written for a large ensemble.
Flashing forward to next April, a big weekend of Beethoven will mark the 200th anniversary of the composer’s death (on March 26, 1827), featuring all five of his piano concertos and his Choral Fantasy, performed by a veritable roll call of celebrated pianists - Paul Lewis, Alice Sara Ott, Stephen Hough, Elisabeth Brauss, Jonathan Biss and Elisabeth Leonskaja.
Broadcaster and Beethoven expert John Suchet will be at The Glasshouse to present on April 9, 10 and 11.
Another flash forward, and another gear change, brings us to big weekend number three, in May 2027, which will mark 50 years since George Lucas’s Star Wars (later retitled Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope) and the centenary of Fritz Lang’s silent epic, Metropolis.
It will blast off on May 7 with a performance of Gustav Holst’s The Planets by Sinfonia of London conducted by John Wilson, jointly artistic partners of The Glasshouse.
(Also catch Wilson and his acclaimed ‘band’ here on October 30, joined by Benjamin Grosvenor for a concert featuring Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto, and again on December 16 for A Christmas Songbook.)
Back in sci-fi mode, Ben Palmer will follow up, conducting RNS for Metropolis in Concert (May 8) and Star Wars: A New Hope in Concert (two performances on May 9).
Fans of choral music can look forward to a 300th anniversary performance of Bach’s St Matthew Passion led by Dinis Sousa, RNS and the celebrated Monteverdi Choir (March 7, 2027).
But before that comes a chance to contribute to Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius (November 9) with RNS and Chorus joined by Sarah Connolly (mezzo), Benjamin Hulett (tenor), Roderick Williams (baritone), Voices of the River’s Edge and what’s being billed as the Massed Musical Forces of the North East.
Hundreds of non-professional singers from across the region are expected to take part in this third ‘Share the Stage’ performance, demonstrating The Glasshouse’s commitment to community involvement and threatening to raise the roof.
This is one of several Classic FM recommendations across the season.
Among the many other star musicians lined up to entertain are cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason (Saint-Saëns, October 16), pianist Mitsuko Uchida (Schubert, November 22) and violinist Isabelle Faust (Beethoven, February 14).
Exciting newcomers, meanwhile, will be performing on January 23 as the ECHO Rising Stars Festival (ECHO standing for European Concert Hall Organisation) takes over The Glasshouse for the day.
Other orchestras taking the big Sage One stage will be the Philharmonia (Mahler’s Sixth Symphony, November 20), the Royal Philharmonic (Stravinsky’s The Firebird Suite, March 19) and the Hallé (Debussy, Wagner, Strauss, April 24).
As ever, The Glasshouse’s resident RNS is to be phenomenally busy, its versatility and that of its individual musicians tested across the season.
I like the sound of its concert on September 26, directed by double bass player Will Duerden, and also that on October 22 featuring Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, directed by violinist Maria Włoszczowska, another Glasshouse artistic partner whose wonderfully tongue-twisting name appears regularly in the new season brochure.
She also directs the orchestra in the first of two Americana concerts (January 16) with music by Barber, Adams, Korngold and Copland.
The second (January 24), with Sousa conducting, should prove more challenging with works by John Cage (his Credo in US involving the use of tin cans), Gloria Coates, Charles Ives and George Crumb.
RNS musicians will also take stage for a homage to 007 (December 30), The Wizard of Oz in Concert (January 31) and to perform John Williams’ score to a screening of E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (February 21).
At both ends of the season come other challenges, first another live screening accompaniment - this time How to Train Your Dragon 2 (October 27 and 28) - and then delivering a major new, and as yet unnamed, commission from Norwegian composer Kristine Tjøgersen (to be paired in a concert with Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony on June 12).
In this glorious mixed bag of a season, some people’s eyes will light up at Queen Symphonic (Bohemian Rhapsody et al with a symphonic twist, November 4); others’ at Peter Maxwell Davies’ Eight Songs for a Mad King (March 27) or the return of Thomas Zehetmair to conduct the orchestra of which he was once the distinguished music director in a Mozart concert (June 4).
Announcing the new season, James Thomas, executive director of RNS and classical music at The Glasshouse, said: “This feels like a really important moment for us.
“It’s our most ambitious season yet and something we’re incredibly proud of.
“Royal Northern Sinfonia is one of the top chamber orchestras in the world and this season brings together an exceptional group of artists around them.
“What I love is the sheer breadth of what’s on offer – from major moments like our celebration of Steve Reich, which will be one of the biggest anywhere this year, to Bach’s St Matthew Passion with Dinis and the Monteverdi Choir.
“It’s a season that really shows who we are and where we’re heading.”
Dinis Sousa said: “For me, this season is really about the joy of making music with people I admire and sharing that with our audiences.
“We’re lucky to be working with such an incredible group of artists, from long-time collaborators to new faces who we’re excited to bring here for the first time.”
Getting as many people as possible involved with classical music remained central to The Glasshouse’s mission, he said, so he was “really excited to be doing our third iteration of Share the Stage, this time with Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius bringing the wider musical community of the North East together.”
The Glasshouse trumpets its commitment to being “the most affordable music venue in Europe”, with a £10 ticket scheme for those aged under 30.
Tickets for the new season go on general sale on Saturday, April 18 at 12 noon (to members on April 9 and classical season subscribers on April 16, also 12 noon). See all the details of the nbew season on The Glasshouse website.