Those who are allergic to William Walton's music should make plans to emigrate now. Next year is the centenary of Walton's birth, and the celebrations are likely to proliferate. It promises to be a long haul, as the composer's fairly small oeuvre is endlessly recycled to fill all the tributes and festivals. The London Symphony Orchestra gets in first with a salute at the Barbican in January, followed by the Philharmonia at the South Bank Centre (February and March) and the City of Birmingham Symphony (January and March). Also in March, the National Film Theatre is showing 10 films with scores by the great man. His home town of Oldham, meanwhile, keeps its powder dry until October, when the annual Walton festival pulls out all the stops.
No sooner has it hymned Walton than the LSO moves on to Mstislav Rostropovich, with a glitzy series at the Barbican in March to mark the cellist/conductor's75th birthday. Later in the year, both the London Sinfonietta and the BBC Symphony Orchestra mark composer/conductor Oliver Knussen's 50th (June and November respectively).
In January, the BBC's annual composer weekend will be devoted to John Adams. It will offer a pretty comprehensive survey, including the British premiere (as a concert performance) of his controversial second opera, The Death of Klinghoffer, and the first British performance of his latest orchestral work, Guide to Strange Places.
Other significant premieres already scheduled include the first fruits of Julian Anderson's residency with the CBSO (March), and no fewer than three works by Mark-Anthony Turnage. From the latter, Dark Crossing, commissioned by the London Sinfonietta, is given its first British performances at the Queen Elizabeth Hall at the end of January, while the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group introduces to this country his Bass Inventions (with the jazz bassist Dave Holland as soloist), with performances in both Birmingham and London. And at the Proms, the second instalment of Turnage's triptych for the BBCSO will be unveiled.
British opera will no doubt be all agog for the arrival at Covent Garden of Antonio Pappano, who becomes the Royal Opera's music director in September, after Bernard Haitink has bid farewell with no doubt tearful concerts in July. Pappano will announce himself by conducting a new production of Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos, directed by the German Christof Loy, making his British debut.
Otherwise the domestic operatic highlight promises to be English National Opera's first production of Berg's Lulu, staged by Richard Jones. There are also two new works: Sally Beamish's Monster, based on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, to be premiered by Scottish Opera in February, and Nicholas Maw's Sophie's Choice, commissioned by the Royal Opera. This is due at Covent Garden in December, directed by Trevor Nunn, conducted by Simon Rattle, and with Angelika Kirschlager in the Meryl Streep role. Steve Reich and Beryl Korot's video opera Three Tales also reaches the Barbican in September, after its premiere in Vienna in May.
One of the most intriguing operatic "premieres" of the year promises to be Luciano Berio's completion of Puccini's Turandot; this starts its life in Amsterdam before moving around Europe and the US, though there is no hint yet of a British performance.
