On Thursday 15 January the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra kicked off its tour to the USA with a concert conducted by our Artist Laureate Sir John Rutter at the Steinmetz Hall in the Dr Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, Orlando, Florida.
The performance included the American premieres of his Cityscapes and Celebration Overture, as well as John Rutter's glorious Magnificat. Read on to see more photos from the evening.
All photos © Petru Cuciuc
Opening with John's Celebration Overture, a roof-raising piece written in 2023 for the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra, the next offering was Canteloube's Chants d'Auvergne, a charming cycles of songs written in Auvergnat, a dialect of Occitan spoken in central France. Mezzo-soprano Clara Rottsolk's performance was captivating.
The first half ended with Cityscapes, a three-movement orchestral work inspired by cities both real and legendary – New York, Atlantis and London.
A composer beloved by audiences on both sides of the Atlantic, John Rutter's music has become a staple of choral life. The premiere of this work for orchestra, choir and solo soprano was given in Carnegie Hall in 1990, and complements the biblical Magnificat text with other Marian texts, the anonymous English carol Of A Rose, A Lovely Rose and the Sancta Maria prayer. It was performed on this occasion by Orlando's Bach Festival Choir.
We'll see you again soon, Orlando!
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All photos © Petru Cuciuc