Maestro move (3): Brit stick gets Basle
mainThe flourishing Ivor Bolton has signed on as music director of the Basle Symphony Orchestra, starting September 2016. The Swiss will announce it any day now.
Ivor starts as music director of Teatro Real Madrid in September. He will also retain the period-instrument Dresden Festival Orchestra which he co-founded in 2012.
He is presently rehearsing Handel’s Saul at Glyndebourne, in a production by the Komisch Oper’s Australian chief director, Barrie Kosky.
UPDATE: Official announcement:
Commencing with the 2016/17 concert season, British conductor Ivor Bolton will take the helm in a four-year contract running till the end of the 2019/20 season. Polish Conductor Michał Nesterowicz has also been named as the orchestra’s new Principal Guest Conductor.
Expressing his excitement over the collaboration, Bolton said: “I am very happy to work with this committed and highly professional ensemble. For a concert to become a memorable experience for both, audience and orchestra, there has to be trust, open-mindedness and passion. All of which I could immediately sense in abundance with the Basel Symphony Orchestra. I am hungry for our shared discoveries in symphonic music, ranging from the classical period up to classical modernism”.
Wonderful musician!
This is huge.
For one thing, Dennis Russell Davies is leaving an impressive footprint in Basel.
It wasn’t absolutely evident that someone of adequate calibre could follow him.
More importantly, this confirms and enhances Basel’s status as the unofficial European capital of historically informed musical práxis.
With Andrea Marcon teaching at the very productive Schola Cantorum Basiliensis and conducting the splendid La Cetra baroque ensemble, and Giovanni Antonini unfolding an intense and extremely influential activity as guest conductor of the astonishing Kammerorchester Basel, Ivor Bolton is completing a strong tripos.
Not too shabby for a middling town on the Upper Rhine.
Now Basel definitely needs a decent concert venue.
This is huge.
For one thing, Dennis Russell Davies is leaving impressive footsteps in Basel.
It wasn’t absolutely evident that someone of adequate calibre could follow him.
More importantly, this confirms and enhances Basel’s status as the unofficial European capital of historically informed musical prâksis.
With Andrea Marcon teaching at the very productive Schola Cantorum Basiliensis and conducting the splendid La Cetra baroque ensemble, and Giovanni Antonini unfolding an intense and extremely influential activity as guest conductor of the astonishing Kammerorchester Basel, Ivor Bolton is completing a strong tripos.
Not too shabby for a small-to-middling town on the Upper Rhine.
Now Basel definitely needs a decent concert venue.