La guitare de Miloš, fantaisie baroque

Jonathan Cohen has forged a remarkable career as a conductor, cellist and keyboardist. Well known for his passion and commitment to chamber music Jonathan is equally at home in such diverse activities as baroque opera and the classical symphonic repertoire. He is Artistic Director of Arcangelo, Music Director of Les Violons du Roy, Artistic Director of Tetbury Festival and Artistic Partner of St Paul Chamber Orchestra. From the 2023-2024 season, he will be the Artistic Director of the Handel and Haydn Society.

The 22-23 season sees Jonathan returning to the USA to conduct the Handel and Haydn Society and St Paul Chamber Orchestra and his projects with Les Violons du Roy include Handel’s Alcina and programmes with Carolyn Sampson and Philippe Jaroussky. He conducts Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Real Filharmonia de Galicia and Orquesta Barroca de Sevilla, as well as projects with Arcangelo including Handel’s Theodora.

Jonathan founded Arcangelo in 2010, who strive to perform high quality and specially created projects. He has toured with them to exceptional halls and festivals including Wigmore Hall London, Philharmonie Berlin, Kölner Philharmonie, Vienna Musikverein, Salzburg Festival and Carnegie Hall New York. They made their Proms debut at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse in 2016 and returned to the Proms in 2018 (Theodora) and 2021 (St Matthew Passion).

Arcangelo is busy and much in demand in the recording studio, partnering with fine soloists such as Iestyn Davies (its disc Arias for Guadagni won the Recital Category at the 2012 Gramophone Awards and its recording of Bach cantatas was best Baroque Vocal recording at the 2017 Gramophone Awards), Anna Prohaska, and Christopher Purves for Hyperion Records. Its recording CPE Bach Cello Concertos with Nicolas Altstaedt won the BBC Music Magazine Awards Concerto category in 2017, and its Buxtehude Trio Sonatas, Op.1 recording for Alpha Classics was nominated for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance at the 2018 Grammy Awards. Arcangelo’s recent recordings include Handel’s Brockes-Passion, Buxtehude Trio Sonatas Op. 2 and a further disc of Bach Cantatas with Iestyn Davies.

Firmly positioned as a leading exponent of his instrument, Miloš has appeared in some of the most important concert halls and at major festivals around the world, including with the Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, LA Philharmonic, and Cleveland Orchestra.

His first three releases on Deutsche Grammophon achieved chart-topping successes around the globe and turned him into “classical music’s guitar hero” (BBC Music Magazine) overnight. His recording of Rodrigo’s concerto with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the London Philharmonic had the Sunday Times calling him “The King of Aranjuez”, while his record, Blackbird–The Beatles Album — including duets with Gregory Porter, Tori Amos, Steven Isserlis, and Anoushka Shankar – was released to unanimous praise. Miloš’ 2019 album, Sound of Silence, joined his previous albums, in reaching No. 1 on the UK Classical charts, and on Amazon.

Miloš is the first ever classical guitarist to have performed in solo recital at the Royal Albert Hall in London, the Guardian commenting: “More extraordinary by far was the way a single guitarist could shrink the Hall’s cavernous space into something so close.” The Independent concluded: “not only a magician, but a serious and accomplished musician”.

In August 2018 Miloš made a triumphant return to the hall. In front of 6000 people at the BBC Proms, he performed the world premiere of Joby Talbot’s guitar concerto, Ink Dark Moon written especially for him, with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Committed to commissioning new repertoire for the guitar, Miloš joined the NAC Ottawa in May 2019 to perform another concerto written especially for him, ‘The Forest’ by Howard Shore.

In 2021, Miloš released his sixth album The Moon and the Forest, featuring the Talbot and Shore concerti as well as Ludovico Einaudi’s ‘Full Moon’ and Schumann’s ‘Traumerei’. This latest album marks Miloš’s 10-year anniversary with Decca and was hailed by Gramophone as offering “new perspectives on the relationship between guitar and orchestra, performed with conviction and elan”.