Tour with Robin Ticciati and Iestyn Davies
25th January - 3rd February 2025

To start 2025, conductor Robin Ticciati and countertenor Iestyn Davies join the Chamber Orchestra of Europe on a tour to Berlin, Hamburg, Salzburg (Mozartwoche Festival) and Gstaad (Sommets Musicaux), performing arias by Handel and Mozart, as well as Mozart’s Symphony No. 35.

An incredibly prolific composer, Handel composed no less than 42 operas, only a handful of which are now performed in opera houses around the world. In this programme, Iestyn Davies will sing arias from five of them, namely Ottone, Giulio Cesare, Rodelinda, Alcina, Partenope, as well as from two oratorios, Saul and Il Trionfo del Tempo. When the latter was composed, in 1757, Handel, having suffered two strokes by then, had actually lost his eyesight. Iestyn will also sing ‘Eternal Source of Light Divine’, an Ode composed for the birthday of the British Queen Anne in 1731. We are very much looking forward to working on this repertoire with Robin. The orchestra rarely has the opportunity to craft a programme that looks so substantially before Mozart.

The COE and Robin Ticciati

Robin has a strong association and deep connection with COE. He is a kindred spirit. This association has been captured in the interview below (audio only) with the COE’s podcast presenter Simon Mundy. Robin says that working with the COE for the first time was for him a ‘seminal’ moment because of the whole ‘mystique’ surrounding the Orchestra. However, during our first project, performing at the Cologne Philharmonie with Alina Ibragimova a programme by Bruch, Bach, Widmann and Haydn, Robin felt that the COE had more to give. It was only when “they got dirty with Beethoven” (in his own words!) in Dubai in 2017 that he felt he really unleashed the COE’s potential. Since then we have had wonderful musical adventures with Robin, meeting with him several times a year (a feat for an orchestra without a principal conductor!), performing concerts featuring soloists such as Lisa Batiashvili, Bryn Terfel, Christian Tetzlaff, Francesco Piemontesi, Jean-Guihen Queyras, as well as singers Louise Alder and Magdalena Kožená.

Listen to Robin’s full interview below:

Iestyn Davies

An esteemed interpreter of Handel, Iestyn Davies begins the 24/25 season singing Didymus in Theodora at Teatro Real Madrid and with Music of the Baroque, Chicago; before delving into other works by the composer including David in Saul at the Glyndebourne Festival; Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno and Dixit Dominus with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Emmanuelle Haim, Messiah with les Violons du Roy and Bernard Labadie, and arias on tour with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and Robin Ticciati.

Read more on Askonas Holt’s website