Things to do

Zurich International Orchestra Series, Cadogan Hall

By Claudia Pritchard on 6/9/2016

London's large-scale venues are not the only place to see world-class artists

Angela Hewitt is the soloist in Beethoven's Piano Concerto No 4 at Cadogan Hall on 26 February 2017. Photograph: Bernd Eberle

It is tempting to head for the Barbican, Royal Albert Hall or Southbank Centre in search of orchestral music, but London's mid-scale venues often host the same top-name artists, and a seat at a venue such as Milton Court, Wigmore Hall or the Cadogan Hall off Sloane Square gets music-lovers up close and personal with the musicians and the music,

At Cadogan Hall, the 10th Zurich International Orchestra Series offers16 concerts over nine months, and the rollcall of performers reads like a Who's Who of classical music today.

To kick off the series, the Mariinsky Orchestra play the complete Prokofiev symphonies, conducted by Valery Gergiev (26 to 28 Sept), and they are swiftly followed by the Brussels Philharmonic under Stéphane Denève (29 Sept), with music including Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony No 6.

Craig Ogden is the guitar soloist in Rodrigo's sultry Concierto de Aranjuez (4 Oct), when the Spanish Symphony Orchestra also plays Mendelssohn's Italian Symphony No 4.

Other highlights include a performance by Natalie Clein of Dvorak's Cello Concerto (9 Nov). Libor Pešek conducts the Czech National Symphony Orchestra in a programme that ends with the composer's Symphony No 8.

Alison Balsom is the soloist in both Hummel's Trumpet Concerto and Shostakovich's Concerto for Piano and Trumpet, with the Zurich Chamber Orchestra (28 Nov), which also plays Mozart's Symphony No 33.

Elgar's Cello Concerto is played by Truls Mørk (20 Jan), when Edward Gardner, formerly at English National Opera, conducts his new orchestra, the Bergen Philharmonic, in the Peer Gynt Suite No 1 and Bartók's colourful Concerto for Orchestra.

Angela Hewitt is the soloist in Beethoven's Piano Concerto No 4 with the distinguished Vienna Tonkünstler (26 Feb), which also plays Mozart's invigorating overture to The Marriage of Figaro, and Dvorak's Symphony No 9 (From the New World). The Viennese musicians' residency continues with music by Mendelssohn, Alexander Sitkovetsky the soloist in the ever-popular Violin Concerto (28 Feb), and an unmissable programme featuring Emma Johnson as the soloist in Mozart's lyrical Clarinet Concerto, Schubert's Unfinished Symphony and Brahms's Symphony No 1.

The superb Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes plays two piano concertos by Mozart when the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra visits (17 Mar), and the programme also includes Prokofiev's Classical Symphony and Grieg's Holberg Suite.

The series concludes with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra in another all-Russian programme: Tchaikovsky's Suite from Swan Lake, Rachmaninov's intensely romantic Piano Concerto No 2 with Freddy Kempt as soloist, and Shostakovich's great Symphony No 6.

Comfortable, easy to reach and with excellent sightlines, the Cadogan Hall is a venue to keep on the music-lover's radar, and the Zurich International Concert Series is packed with stars.

Click here for more details of the concert series and for booking.