Brian Wright - Conductor

News

ROYAL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA - In 2004/5 Brian conducted four major concerts with the RPO including Verdi’s Requiem in London. 2005/6 brought Handel’s Messiah, Britten’s War Requiem, and a concert in the RPO’s Cadogan Hall series. In  2006/7 he conducted Berlioz’s Grande Messe des Morts, and in 2007/8 Elgar’s The Dream Of Gerontius. In the 2000/1 season, Brian conducted the RPO in a highly

successful tour of China, including the Shanghai International Festival. The Shanghai Morning Express wrote: "A great interpretation of Beethoven's 5th from a world class conductor and orchestra". The Xinmin Evening News, wrote: "A concert on the highest level in China in recent years." Next season, 2008/9, brings Fauré and Berlioz at the RAH.

BBC’s BEETHOVEN EXPERIENCE - In June 2005 Brian conducted the opening concert of BBC Radio 3’s  week-long event broadcasting every work of Beethoven. In a free open-air concert in London, he conducted a programme including Beethoven’s “Battle Symphony”, Wellington’s Victory. See Richard Morrison’s amusing article in The Times.

ROMANIA - In May 2005 Brian visited Bucharest for concerts with the George Enescu Philharmonic featuring Brahms’s Tragic overture and Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony. He was immediately re-engaged for a programme of Sibelius, Liszt and Dvorak’s 7th Symphony in April 2007 and conducts further concerts in May 2009.

NORWAY - In March 2007 Brian conducted the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra in an English programme with Bax’s Tintagel, Vaughan Williams’s The Lark Ascending and Elgar’s 2nd Symphony.

SLOVENIA - In Easter week, April 2007 Brian visited Ljubljana for a concert  including Poulenc’s Stabat Mater and Elgar’s Cello Concerto, with the Slovenian Radio Symphony Orchestra.

SEYCHELLES FESTIVAL -  In June 2002 and 2004 Brian was Music Director of  the Seychelles International Festival of Classical Music conducting a specially formed Festival Symphony Orchestra. Programmes included Verdi's Requiem, Beethoven 5 and Tchaikovsky's Little Russian Symphony.

SINGAPORE - In the autumn of 2003 Brian conducted two concerts with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. The programme was of English repertoire - Elgar, Walton & Delius - and David Chew, for the Singapore arts website www.inkpot.com, wrote: "Brian Wright must be commended on his conducting. In small and big ways it made a real difference to the sound of the SSO that night. And the audience noticed!"

MAIDSTONE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA - Highlights of MSO’s  2006/7 season were Shostakovich 6, Sibelius 7, Dvorak 7, Beethoven 6, Tchaikovsky 2 and Mahler 6. In 2007/8 Brian conducted MSO in Elgar 2, Bruckner 6, Rachmaninov 2, Ravel’s La Valse, Debussy’s La Mer and Shostakovich 10. 2008/9 brings Vaughan Williams’ Job, Tchaikovsky 5, Brahms 2, Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra and Ravel’s Daphnis & Chloe. The Stage wrote in June 2005: “The string sound is clear and incisive, the brass impeccably tuned and the percussion have that clockwork sense of timing which always leaves me gasping with admiration. The woodwind section is pretty good too! No, I’m not in a pricey London venue enjoying the LSO or a top visiting orchestra, I’m at Mote Hall, Maidstone, on a damp Saturday night, listening to the Maidstone Symphony Orchestra.”

LONDON CHORAL CONCERTS - Performed with the authentic instrumentalists of The Hanover Band, Brian conducted his Goldsmiths Choral Union at London’s Barbican Hall in 2002/3 in Bach's Christmas Oratorio - "I have not heard such fine playing all year ... the natural trumpets blazed away brilliantly" (Evening Standard). Brian also conducted Elgar's great oratorio The Dream of Gerontius at the Royal Festival Hall. The Evening Standard wrote: "The chorus of cackling demons was spiky and alive. Elgar must have chuckled writing it ... Conductor Brian Wright drove the orchestra like a charioteer and made the improbable dream vivid." In July 2004, Brian and GCU visited Barcelona for two Festival concerts. 2005/6 then brought Britten’s War Requiem with the RPO, Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with the London Mozart Players and the London premiere of a fine new English translation by Neil Jenkins of Haydn’s Creation. Last season, 2006/7, Brian conducted GCU in Berlioz’s Grande Messe des Morts, Handel’s Messiah, Bach’s B minor Mass and Schubert’s Eb Mass. In July 2007, Brian and GCU visited the Czech Republic for two concerts, one of  them in Prague. 2007/8 brought Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius, Handel’s Messiah, Bach’s Easter Oratorio, Ascension Oratorio and Magnificat, Bruckner’s E minor Mass, and works by Sir Arthur Bliss and Ronald Corp. 2008/9 brings Fauré’s Requiem, Berlioz’s Te Deum, Handel’s Messiah and Dixit Dominus, Haydn’s Salve Regina and Nelson Mass, Rossini’s Petite Messe and Peter Skellern’s Weathers.

Conducting the RPO
In Shanghai