The first part of this year looks to be exciting for the Radiohead lead guitarist and classical composer Jonny Greenwood.
Greenwood himself will be performing the world premiere of his new works for guitar and ensemble with the London Contemporary Orchestra (LCO) soloists at the Wapping Hydraulic Power Station on Sunday 23 February. The Wapping Hydraulic Power Station was converted and reopened in 1977 by Jules Wright as an arts centre - The Wapping Project - and has since become an interesting venue for many art forms. The Greenwood and LCO collaboration is a familiar one as LCO recorded Greenwood’s original soundtrack for The Master and programmed his Doghouse for the 2012 Reverb Festival at The Roundhouse, London.
The Wapping concert will also feature cues from Greenwood’s acclaimed scores to Norwegian Wood and The Master in addition to him performing Steve Reich’s legendary piece for multi-tracked electric guitar, Electric Counterpoint, and works by Bach, Purcell and LCO Composer-in-Association Edmund Finnis.
As part of the Barbican’s “Explorations: The Sound of Nonesuch Records” weekend marathon event in May to celebrate the labels 50th year anniversary, Greenwood will be performing on the ondes martenot with the BBC Concert Orchestra (under André de Ridder) in the suite from his score to the Oscar-winning film 'There Will Be Blood'. The concert will take place at the Barbican on 18 May and will include another Greenwood performance of Reich’s Electric Counterpoint and Henryk Górecki’s spellbinding Symphony No. 3 (a.k.a Symphony of Sorrowful Songs).
Conductor André de Ridder will give the US premiere of the Suite from ‘There will be Blood’ with the Colorado Symphony in February.
The premiere recording of the Suite from 'There will be Blood' will be released on the Deutsche Grammophon label in March this year, with the ubiquitous de Ridder conducting the Copenhagen Philharmonic.