CityLife

Camerata gets ready for lift off

NEW SEASON: Douglas Boyd

ON Saturday, Manchester Camerata launches its season in the hall, and music director Douglas Boyd has chosen Beethoven, too - the 'Eroica' symphony (no. 3).

It's also a big work, but the Camerata sound, which has already proved itself admirably suited to Beethoven in performances and recordings, should give it a fresh edge. I always look forward to Boyd's Beethoven interpretations, and this one, too, is to be recorded.

The programme contains much more than that. The Camerata's principal guest director, Gordan Nikolitch, will play Brahms's violin concerto, and the concert includes the beginnings of two themes of this Camerata season: Purcell and Haydn.

The latter will be registering his presence later on in bigger ways, but this time it's with the overture for his comedy opera, Il Mondo Della Luna.

Purcell

From Purcell, it's the first of a series of his fantasias and other instrumental pieces, which Douglas Boyd believes are much overdue for a hearing in the concert hall.

"They are chamber music and also orchestral music," he says. "And the fantasias are absolutely astonishing.

"There are dates on the manuscripts of each of them, and they represent an outpouring of his emotions which we can identify with that particular day.

"I hope each one will be like a little benediction on the concert to follow."