BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra Winter Season 2021.

The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra will continue its series of live concerts in the New Year, broadcasting from its home at Glasgow City Halls. Highlights of its winter season include Steven Osborne playing Mozart, a focus on composer Mark Simpson [pictured], and Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale with actor Samuel West.

The season starts on 21 January, with an afternoon focusing on the British composer Mark Simpson, who joins the orchestra and conductor Ryan Wigglesworth to play his own Clarinet Concerto. Other forthcoming guest soloists include Scottish pianist Steven Osborne and the dynamic Spanish cellist Pablo Ferrández playing Shostakovich’s First Cello Concerto.       

The orchestra’s Associate Conductor Alpesh Chauhan returns twice, with a concert of Bruckner rarities and Stravinsky’s Pulcinella. There’s more Stravinsky, marking fifty years since the composer’s death, with The Soldier’s Tale, conducted by Mark Wigglesworth and performed by Samuel West, which will also be recorded by BIS for commercial release.  Ben Gernon is at the helm for an evening of 18^th century music and the orchestra’s leader, Laura Samuel, plays and directs a concert on 4 February which includes a ‘farewell’ to the orchestra’s former principal bassoon, Julian Roberts.      

Each of the concerts will be broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 with two streamed live on BBC iPlayer. All will be made available for a minimum of 30 days.   

The orchestra will also mark Burns Night with a specially filmed tribute, to be broadcast on 25 January on the BBC Scotland channel.      

Due to government restrictions around COVID-19, the BBC SSO’s concerts will continue to be performed and broadcast under strict social distancing guidelines. It is not currently anticipated that audiences will be allowed to attend.  Further plans for the first half of 2021 will be announced in February.