Sample programmes
Easter:
MacMillan Exsultet (version for symphonic brass)
Gubaidulina Seven Words upon the Cross
De Sabata Gethsemani (comtemplative poem)
Wagner Parsifal: Extracts
Slavic:
Dvorák The Noonday Witch
Lutoslawski Cello Concerto
Interval
Pärt Cantus In Memoriam Benjamin Britten
Bartók Music for Strings, Percussion & Celesta
World War I:
Gurney War Elegy / Ravel Mother Goose Suite
Beamish Violin Concerto
Interval
Walton Symphony No.1 / Vaughan Williams Symphony No.3 'Pastoral'
Songs and Dances:
Mussorgsky Songs and Dances of Death (Pesni i plyaski smerti) (mezzo soprano & orchestra)
Fujikura Song cycle in a new orchestral version
Interval
Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition (orch. Ravel)
“Firsts” – including a first performance by Kalevi Aho:
Beethoven Symphony no.1
Aho Trombone Concerto
Interval
Shostakovich Symphony no.1
Sibelius/Shostakovich:
Sibelius En Saga
A concerto
Shostakovich Symphony no.5
Heroics:
Elgar Falstaff
Rachmaninov The Miserly Knight
Dance of the Earth:
Birtwistle Earth Dances
Stravinsky Sacre de Printemps
Heavenly Bodies:
Harvey Body Mandela / Ades Asyla / Anderson Stations of the Sun
Holst The Planets
Bartok/Hindemith
Bartok Miraculous Mandarin suite
Bartok Piano Concerto No.1
Interval
Hindemith Trauermusik (Viola solo)
Hindemith Symphonic Metamorphosis, on theme by Weber
Opera repertoire
Bartok
Blaubart
Bell
Jack the Ripper: The Women of Whitechapel
Beethoven
Fidelio
Berg
Wozzeck
Birtwistle
The Mask of Orpheus
The Second Mrs Kong
Bloch
Macbeth
Britten
All
Bryars
Medea
Dallapiccola
Il Prigioniero
Volo di Notte
Debussy
Pelleas
Henze
Der Prinz von Homburg
Janáček
All
Knaifl
Alice in Wonderland
Korngold
Die Kathrin
Mozart
Magic Flute
Don Giovanni
Le nozze di Figaro
Die Entfuhrung Aus Dem Serail
Mussorgsky
Boris Godounov
Khovanschina
Poulenc
Voix humaine
Les mamelles de Tiresias
Prokofiev
Gambler
Fiery Angel
Love of 3 Oranges
War & Peace
Puccini
All
Rachmaninov
Aleko
Francesca da Rimini
The Miserly Knight
Raskatov
A Dog’s Heart
Ravel
L’enfant et les sortileges
Sawyer
From Morning to Midnight
Schreker
Der Ferne Klang
Smetana
Bartered Bride
Strauss
All
Stravinsky
Marva
Nightingale
Rake’s Progress
Tchaikovsky
Queen of Spades
Eugene Onegin
Mazzeppa
Cherevichki
Tippett
Child of our Time (staged oratorio)
Vaughan-Williams
Pilgrims Progress
Verdi
Othello
Falstaff
Wagner
The Flying Dutchman
Tannhäuser
Ring Cycle
Walton
Troilus and Cressida
Zemlinsky
Der Zwerg
Also possible: Borodin, Dvořák, Glinka, Martinu, Korngold, Rimsky-Korsakoff
Gramophone, December 2020"Brabbins’ Vaughan Williams symphony cycle continues to go from strength to strength with this impressively cogent, self-effacing reading…scrupulously attentive, uncommonly humane, utterly free of artifice and, to my mind, deserving of a place alongside Barbirolli, Boult, Previn, Handley and Haitink …"
Editor's Choice
BBC Music MagazineOnce in a while, a performance comes along that focus an understanding of a familiar work in a new way – or recaptures an insight that might have been lost. Martyn Brabbins's Enigma Variations is revelatory. Brabbins’ performance as a whole is a reminder of what a masterpiece of construction Enigma truly is….shows that ardour and subtlety can be two sides of the same complicated coin.
The Telegraph, February 2022“Janacek’s impact relies on the precision and clarity of the orchestral sounds, and Martyn Brabbins secured transparently expressive playing from the ENO orchestra, which powers the show”