Musical Tribute to David Hockney - 13 April 2025
Elena Stikhina : © kseniaparisphoto | Nicky Spence : © Ki Price | Pavel Kolesnikov et Samson Tsoy : © Joss McKinley | Collin Curie, Owen Gunnell © Chris Gloag
- Date
- 13 April 2025 – 8:30pm
- Place
- Auditorium
THE PIANIST DUO PAVEL KOLESNIKOV AND SAMSON TSOY CONTINUE THEIR MUSICAL TRIBUTE TO DAVID HOCKNEY BY HONOURING HIS YOUTH IN BRITAIN AND HIS NOTEWORTHY COLLABORATIONS WITH THE GLYNDEBOURNE FESTIVAL, FOR WHICH HE DESIGNED THE SETS FOR MOZART’S THE MAGIC FLUTE IN 1978 AND STRAVINSKY’S THE RAKE’S PROGRESS IN 1975.
This concert will be broadcast live and in replay on FLV Play, and offline on Radio Classique.
They also provide the opportunity for the audience to hear Britten’s rarely performed Cabaret Songs, composed based on writings by poet W. H. Auden. This elegant and striking work epitomises unique English non-conformist spirit and rhymes both with the cultural changes occurring in the Swinging Sixties, and ultimately, with joyous, tongue-in-cheek side of Mr Hockney’s world.
The second part of the concert centres on French music and showcases the great optimism and joie de vivre so often seen in David Hockney’s work, as evidenced by his series of drawings entitled Love Life. After Ravel’s Ma Mère l’Oye, and Satie’s Parade - for which Hockney designed the sets for New York’s Metropolitan Opera in 1981 - the evening ends with the warmth and energy of Maurice Ravel’s famed Rapsodie Espagnole.
The complicity of pianists Pavel Kolesnikov and Samson Tsoy with percussionists Colin Currie and Owen Gunnell, along with the exquisite voices of Elena Stikhina and Nicky Spence, bring this lively, colourful programme to life, inviting everyone to join in a celebration of art and life.
Programme:
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
The Magic Flute, Overture
Transcription by Ferrucio Busoni - Igor Stravinsky
The Rake’s Progress (excerpts)
Select arias for soprano and tenor - Benjamin Britten
Cabaret Songs, for tenor and piano - Maurice Ravel
Ma Mère l’Oye, for two pianos and percussion - Erik Satie
Parade, for four hands - Maurice Ravel
Rapsodie Espagnole, for two pianos and percussion
Pavel Kolesnikov and Samson Tsoy
Pavel Kolesnikov was born in Siberia, into a family of scientists. Samson Tsoy was born in Kazakhstan. Both studied at the Moscow Conservatory, where they met, and later at the Royal College of Music in London. There, they notably received instruction from Sergei Dorensky, Norma Fisher and Maria Joao Pires, among other piano masters.
They are among the most captivating and original musicians of their generation, celebrated for their visionary ways of bridging tradition and modernity. As soloists and as a duo, they present their thought-provoking programmes in the world’s most respected concert halls—Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, and Suntory Hall—while also creating powerful musical dialogues in unconventional spaces such as the Gagosian Galleries, the Guggenheim Museums in Bilbao and Venice, Antwerp’s MoMu and London’s Bold Tendencies. Their duo debut at Carnegie Hall was named one of The New York Times’ "Best of 2024." That same year, their debut recording of works by Schubert and Desyatnikov on Harmonia Mundi was featured in Le Monde’s "Nos albums préférés de 2024" and won the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik and the Diapason d’Or, while also being named BBC Music Magazine’s Instrumental Choice.
As soloists, both artists have earned international recognition. Pavel Kolesnikov, known for his poetic and deeply immersive artistry, has recorded extensively for Hyperion and received the Diapason d’Or de l’année for his Chopin Mazurkas. In recent seasons, he has been artist-in-residence at The Armory in New York and at the Wigmore Hall, and a featured artist at the Aldeburgh Festival. He has performed with the London Symphony Orchestra, Danish National Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, and Philharmonia Orchestra—collaborating with conductors Susanna Mälkki, Manfred Honeck, Sir Mark Elder, Gianandrea Noseda, Alexandre Bloch, and Vasily Petrenko.
Samson Tsoy, praised for his inexhaustible imagination and exceptional sensitivity, released his debut solo recording, Inmost Heart, in February 2025, earning a five-star review from BBC Music Magazine. He recently made his debuts with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Münchener Kammerorcheter, and performed both Brahms’ piano concerti in one evening with the Philharmonia Orchestra. He has worked with conductors Maxim Emelyanychev, Gergely Madaras, Enrico Onofri, Valery Gergiev, and Diego Masson, and in 2023, became the first classical musician to perform at the opening of the Munich Security Conference.
Kolesnikov and Tsoy often extend their performance work outside of conventional practice. As musical curators, they are known for their site-specific projects realised both at iconic spaces and unique off-the-beaten-track locations. Avid multidisciplinary collaborators, they closely worked with a choreographer Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, a sculptor Richard Serra, and a fashion designer Yohji Yamamoto in recent years. In 2019, Kolesnikov and Tsoy co-founded the Ragged Music Festival—an initiative that reimagines the relationship between music, architecture, and the visual arts. The festival was nominated for a South Bank Sky Arts Award in 2021. In 2023, Muziekgebouw Amsterdam offered Pavel and Samson carte blanche to create an international edition, subsequently re-inviting the festival in March 2026.
Elena Stikhina
Elena Stikhina graduated from the Moscow State Conservatory in 2012 and quickly came to European attention when she won first prize at the Competizione dell’Opera Linz in 2014, and again in 2016 when she won the Audience and Culturarte Prizes at the Operalia Placido Domingo competition. After her New York Metropolitan Opera debut (singing the title role in Suor Angelica), she was invited to perform on the world’s greatest operatic stages (Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, Semperoper Dresden, Baden-Baden Festival) and in major concert halls (Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Munich Philharmonic).
She has performed the lead role in Tosca as well as Leonora (Il Trovatore) in Berlin and Dresden, Senta (Der fliegende Holländer) in Baden-Baden and Munich, Brunnhilde (Siegfried) and Gutrune (Göterdämmerung) at the Philharmonie de Paris, the title roles in Médée at the Salzburg Festival, Aida at the Grand Théâtre in Geneva and the Dutch National Opera, and Salome at La Scala in Milan.
She became a guest soloist at the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg after forging a repertoire on the Vladivostock Mariinsky Theatre’s New Primorsky Stage, where she has performed the title role in Aida, and the roles of Cio-Cio-San (Madama Butterfly), Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), Rosalinde (Die Fledermaus), Renata (The Fiery Angel), Antonia (The Tales of Hoffmann), Elisabeth (Tannhäuser) and Mimi (La Bohème).
Last season, she performed the title roles of Leonora (Il Trovatore) in Athens, Mimi and Leonora (La Forza del Destino) at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, as well as the title roles of Salome and Tosca at the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg and Aida at the Arena di Verona.
During the 2024-2025 season, she performs the title roles of Tosca at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Aida at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, as well as Manon Lescaut and Salome at the Opernhaus Zurich.
Nicky Spence
Named by BBC Music[T1] Magazine as the 2022 Personality of the Year, operatic tenor Nicky Spence is an artist of great integrity and one of Scotland’s proudest ambassadors. Nicky was made an OBE in the King’s inaugural Birthday Honours in 2023 for Services to Music and received the Singer Award from the Royal Philharmonic Society in 2024. Nicky was schooled in the Dumfries and Galloway region before receiving a scholarship to the Guildhall School. During his training, he won a recording contract with Decca Records before taking a place at the National Opera Studio and, later, a position at the English National Opera as one of their inaugural Harewood Artists.
Nicky is highly respected for his portrayal of Janáček roles and is fulfilling his exciting potential as a Heldentenor, having recently made his role debut as Parsifal with the Hallé orchestra under Sir Mark Elder. Nicky has recorded prolifically and is a regular featured recitalist at London’s Wigmore Hall, though he can mostly be found on the international stages of L’Opéra de Paris, Covent Garden and the Metropolitan Opera in New York. In 2020, he won both the BBC Music Magazine Vocal Award and Gramophone’s Solo Vocal Award for his critically acclaimed recording of Janáček’s vocal work The Diary of One who Disappeared with Julius Drake.
Recent operatic successes include his debut at the Deutche Staatsoper as Albert Gregor in Věc Makropulos, his debut as Siegmund in Die Walküre directed by Richard Jones, Laca in Claus Guth’s new production of Jenůfa at the Royal Opera, Erik in Der Fliegender Holländer alongside Sir Bryn Terfel for Grange Park, a tour with Jakub Hrůša in Janáček’s The Eternal Gospel (Santa Cecilia, Rome/L’Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France), his role debut as Loge in a new Wagner Ring Cycle for The Royal Theatre of La Monnaie with Romeo Castellucci, Thomas Adès’ The Exterminating Angel in Paris and Jenůfa in concert with the LSO and Sir Simon Rattle.
Upcoming appearances include important title role debuts: Peter Grimes with the WNO; The Excurisons of Mr Brouček at the Brno Janáček Festival and a return to the Glyndebourne Festival and the Royal Opera House to sing Boris in Katya Kabanova and Laca in Jenůfa, respectively. The 2024/25 season also brings an artist’s residency at Wigmore Hall entitled Nicky Spence: A Celebration and concerts with the Hallé, Barcelona’s Orquestra Sinfonica, Kings Place, the Oxford International Song Festival, the Britten Sinfonia and the CSBO.
Nicky is making the most of his public visibility to bring more people to classical music than ever before and recently presented an acclaimed run of television programmes: Anyone Can Sing and Sing When You’re Winning (Sky Arts), and is host of the English National Opera’s new podcast, Opera Actually. Considered a force for good in the classical music world, Nicky is President-Elect for the Independent Society of Musicians, an official Ambassador for the Help Musicians UK charity and patron for the Scottish Opera Young Company. Nicky gives masterclasses in many countries and is a visiting professor at both the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal College of Music, London.
Colin Currie Group
Colin Currie (“the world’s finest and most daring percussionist”, Spectator) and Owen Gunnell are regular recital partners, and perform together as a duo and in the Colin Currie Quartet. They also perform in the Colin Currie Group, a virtuosic ensemble that specialises in the music of Steve Reich and whose performances have been hailed by the composer as “the best I’ve ever heard”. Colin and Owen have appeared together at major venues and festivals such as the BBC Proms, Wigmore Hall, Kings Place, Paris Présences Festival, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Hamburg Elbphilharmonie, NCPA Beijing, Tokyo Opera City and Nagakute Cultural Center. Together they have premiered new chamber works by Steve Reich, Kevin Volans, Rolf Wallin, Anna Meredith, Freya Waley-Cohen and Ben Nobuto.
A major highlight of recent seasons has been the critically acclaimed world premiere performances of Steve Reich’s Traveler’s Prayer, which the group took on tour to the Concertgebouw, the Royal Festival Hall, the Elbphilharmonie, the Philharmonie de Paris, Carnegie Hall, Cal Performances and Tokyo Opera City. The group also created Steve Reich’s Quartet in 2014 (for two pianos and two vibraphones), dedicated by Reich to Colin Currie. Since the premiere of Quartet at London’s Southbank Centre, the group has given multiple performances of this work, including across the United Kingdom, Europe, Asia and America.
Highlights of the Group’s 2023/24 season included performing Drumming as part of the Steve Reich celebration at Radio France’s Festival Présences and the UK premiere of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s New England Etudes at London’s Southbank Centre, a work co-commissioned by Colin Currie. They will make their Italian debut in the 2024/25 season at the Conservatorio di Milano at the invitation of the historic Società del Quartetto di Milano.
The Colin Currie Group performs regularly at London’s Southbank Centre and have appeared in concert at major halls and festivals worldwide, including at the Shanghai MISA Festival, the Esplanade Concert Hall in Singapore, Paris’ Cité de la Musique and Fondation Louis Vuitton, the Cologne Philharmonie, Rotterdam’s De Doelen, the Helsinki Festival, the Macau Festival, Saffron Hall and the Barbican Centre and made their concert debut at the 2019 Edinburgh International Festival performing Gubaidulina Glorious Percussion with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra conducted by Thomas Dausgaard.
The group recently released their third album on Colin Currie Records, Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians, which has received outstanding reviews and was selected as Editor’s Choice by Gramophone magazine. This follows their previous release of Live at Fondation Louis Vuitton, their highly successful debut album of Drumming from 2018 and their release of Quartet on Nonesuch in 2019.
