The Ulster Orchestra has confirmed the departure of its star Chief Conductor Daniele Rustioni at the end of the 2023-24 Season.
Departing Ulster Orchestra conductor, Daniel Rustioni. Photo courtesy The Times.
by Alf McCreary
Regarded internationally as one of the best conductors of his generation, his tenure with the Ulster Orchestra has been one of the most outstanding in its history.
Describing this period as “an amazing journey” he states in the new Season’s Programme: “It has been a complicated time, marked by the devastating effects of the pandemic, but also very exciting for what we have been able to achieve against the odds.
“Our achievements have included a new repertoire, the return of the orchestra for an acclaimed performance at the BBC Proms in London , and touring with one of our more original programmes to Linz, the city of Anton Bruckner.”
The orchestra has announced details of the new season which begins with Rustioni conducting a programme of music by Dukas, Prokofiev, Borodin and Ravel, in the Ulster Hall on September 22, and other highlights include Elgar’s Enigma Variations in the Ulster Hall on February 9 under the baton of Maestro Rustioni.
There will also be a performance of Brahms Double Concerto, featuring the violinist Francesca Dego and the cellist Daniel Muller-Schott.
Francesca, an outstanding international soloist, is the wife of Daniele Rustioni and is also the Ulster Orchestra’s first Artist in Focus.
She will perform the Sibelius Violin Concerto and Clara Schumann’s Three Romances for Violin in the Ulster Hall on November 17. Francesca will also combine with Ulster Orchestra players in a special chamber music project next March, touring to venues beyond Belfast.
The full orchestra will performances throughout Northern Ireland as part of its ‘On Your Doorstep’ programme, and concerts are scheduled for Coleraine, Londonderry , Armagh, Bangor, Cookstown, Enniskillen, Omagh and Strabane, and other venues…
The season will also include The Messiah on December 9, and the ‘Pops Series’ will feature the music of Burt Bacharach, Star Wars and the Beatles’ Lennon and McCartney.
Rustioni’s final concert will be a show-stopper when he conducts the Ulster Orchestra in a performance of Mahler’s mighty ‘Resurrection Symphony’ which will also feature the Belfast Philharmonic Choir in the Waterfront Hall on Friday May 24.
Rustioni, who is aged 40, said “This has been a dream for me and I am grateful to the Ulster Orchestra for their efforts to make this come true. In these hard times we all need to feel that the “resurrection’ is not an abstract concept but a concrete spiritual need, as Mahler has depicted in such a fascinating way in his 2nd Symphony.”
First published at News Letter, August 11, 2023
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