Scottish Chamber Orchestra debuts: Robert Levin, Anssi Karttunen, Jean-Christophe Spinosi & Renata Pokupic

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Mozart at the Piano is one of the threads that weaves this season programme together, offering audiences the opportunity to hear some of the composer’s greatest piano concertos. World renowned Mozart scholar, Robert Levin, makes his SCO performer/director debut with two of Mozart’s greatest concertos from the mid-1780s, contrasting the dramatic weight of the C minor with the lyrical brilliance of the G major. He inserts these concertos between the movements of Haydn’s Symphony No 97 - something Haydn would have taken forgranted. With further demonstration of his active mastery of the Classical music language Levin follows these performances with a chamber concert in which he joins SCO Principals for the Mozart Quintet in E-flat K452 and performs the Sonata in D K576.

Much loved guest conductor Oliver Knussen introduces another debut artist, the Finnish cellist Anssi Karttunen playing Schumann’s Cello Concerto in a concert that opens with Knussen’s own take on Mussorgsky’s La Coutourière and finishes with Debussy’s La Boîte à Joujoux.

Founder of the Ensemble Matheus, Jean-Christophe Spinosi manages a highly successful double career these days as a violinist and conductor. Opera lovers are in for a treat with the Symphonic Opera programme featuring some of Mozart’s most famous arias sung by one of Europe’s most talked about young singers, the Croatian mezzo-soprano, Renata Pokupic, as well as symphonic offerings from Haydn (The Bear) and Mozart (Haffner).

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