Main Programme - Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Transcription
Main Programme - Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
STEVENS & BILLINGTON FPCB5 C:Layout 1 16/9/11 08:45 Page 1 SCHOTT MUSIC - CENTRE FOR YOUNG MUSICIANS FPCB5 C:Layout 1 15/9/11 15:08 Page 1 A Centre for Advanced Training of the DFE Music & Dance Scheme Centre for Young Musicians is a key of instrumental & ensemble tuition in the capital for 8-18 year olds. Our Saturday School and holiday courses offer a sustained and progressive route from the early stages of learning through to music college entrance. Holiday courses include the critically acclaimed London Schools Symphony Orchestra and the London Youth Wind Band, Open-Access Instrumental Courses for younger players, and one-day GCSE Revision Courses led by Chief Examiners. Auditions will be taking place in the autumn term for the LSSO and LYWB, and auditions for the Saturday Centre will take place in early 2012 Please contact us for more information. Centre for Young Musicians Morley College • 61 Westminster Bridge Road • London • SE1 7HT Tel: 020 7928 3844 Fax: 020 7928 3454 Email: [email protected] / Web: www.cym.org.uk Life Support Your support will help Earthwatch conserve bottlenose dolphin populations in Mediterranean waters. Be our lifeline for the planet. Please donate today. Call Laura on +44 (0)1865 318878 or visit www.earthwatch.org/europe/lifesupport Registered charity number 1094467. Image © Joan Gonzalvo/Tethys Research Institute Life_support_theatre_ads_toprint.indd 24 08/03/2011 14:24 165 mm × 240 mm CHAPPEL OF BOND STREET - THE HANDEL HOUSE TRUST FPCB5 C:Layout 1 15/9/11 15:20 Page 1 MOIRA HOUSE - ALZHEIMERS - CLIC SERGENT FPCB5 C:Layout 1 15/9/11 15:26 Page 1 Jupiter Private Clients and Charities Orchestrating success. Flawless technique and years of practice are the backbone of a successful performance. A maxim Jupiter Private Clients shares with the OAE, who we’re delighted to support. We’re an ensemble who take particular care to understand your investment goals – and produce bespoke and harmonic solutions to meet them. We have expertise across a range of asset classes for individuals, charities, trusts and SIPPs, all offered through the highly personal service you’d expect from an individual investment manager continuously monitoring your portfolio. And with 20 years’ experience in actively managing money and green and SRI investing for our clients, Jupiter, like the OAE, have built a reputation for fine performance. To find out more, call Melanie Wotherspoon on 020 7314 5574 or email [email protected]. Past performance is no guide to the future. The value of investments can fall as well as rise and you may get back less than you invested. Outstanding Investment House of the Year – OBSR Awards 2009. “Jupiter” refers to Jupiter Asset Management Limited. Registered address: 1 Grosvenor Place, London SW1X 7JJ. Authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority whose registered address is 25 The North Colonnade, Canary Wharf, London E14 5HS. Calls may be monitored or recorded. 11328_10_Jupiter_PrivateClients&Charities_Orchestrating_240x165.indd 1 16/09/2010 12:24 APPROVAL MASIUS File name: 11328_10_Jupiter_PrivateClients&Charities_Orchestrating_240x165.indd Publication: OAE Season Programme Client: JUPITER Size: 240x165mm Date: 15.09.10 Operator: Carl Studio Proof: 01 Client Proof: 01 ARTWORKER COPYWRITER STUDIO CREATIVE DIR CREATIVE SERV ACC MAN ART DIR/DESIGNER CONCEPT MASTER DESIGN ARTWORK VISUAL 02 Lindt_Layout 1 21/09/2011 14:07 Page 1 62891 OAE MultiDate 2011_OAE 2006 Prog6 h copy 01/12/2011 19:41 Page 1 Contents Winter Concerts 2011–2012 OAE Administration 02 Welcome to tonight’s concert and to your free programme. This is our second season of offering complimentary programmes, and we hope that they are adding to your enjoyment of the evening. OAE regulars may notice some features missing from this programme. In an effort to reduce costs we are now only publishing our artist interviews and composer biographies online – you will be able to find them at oae.co.uk. If you don’t have internet access please speak to us at our information desk in the foyer or call us on 020 7230 9370, and we’ll be happy to send you a printed version in the post. We do however have one new feature in this season’s programmes – Boffin’s corner, where we explore an aspect of the programme in more detail. We hope you enjoy this new feature. Messiah Tuesday 6 December 2011 03 The Glory of Venice Friday 13 January 2012 20 An Olympic Thread Friday 10 February 2012 33 Romèo & Juliet Saturday 18 February 2012 43 Glossary 52 OAE Biography 54 OAE Education 55 OAE Supporters 56 2011-2012 Concerts 58 OAE News 60 Don’t forget to bring this programme back with you if you are attending another concert and remember that you can always download programmes in advance of the concert at oae.co.uk/programmes. Lastly, perhaps you might consider putting the £3 you would usually have paid for this programme towards an OAE Priority Booking or Friends Membership? These start from £15 a year and you can find information at our desk in the foyer or within this programme. Thank you for choosing the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, we hope you enjoy the concert and this programme. Major sponsor 01 62891 OAE MultiDate 2011_OAE 2006 Prog6 h copy 01/12/2011 19:41 Page 2 Management Chief Executive Stephen Carpenter Orchestra Manager Philippa Brownsword Projects Director Ceri Jones Director of Development Clare Norburn Development Manager, Individual Giving Isabelle Tawil Projects Manager Megan Russell Development Manager, Trusts and Foundations Sally Drew Education Director Cherry Forbes Development Officer Jodie Gilliam Education Officer Ellie Cowan Corporate Relations and Events Administrator Lucy Pilcher Librarian Colin Kitching Finance Director Lisa Sian Finance Officer Stephen Rock Communications Director William Norris Press Manager Katy Bell US Administrator, American Friends of the OAE Severn Taylor Graduate Intern Toby Perkins Board of Directors Martin Smith (Chairman) Martin Kelly (Vice-Chairman) Cecelia Bruggemeyer Stephen Carpenter Jane Carter Robert Cory Sally Jackson Colin Kitching Julian Mash Andrew Roberts Susannah Simons Rosalyn Wilkinson Mark Williams Development Board Julian Mash (Chairman) Sally Jackson (Player Member) Christopher Cooke James Flynn QC Theresa Lloyd David Marks Anthony Simpson Artistic Direction Committee Susie Carpenter-Jacobs Debbie Diamond Martin Lawrence Helen Verney Leaders Alison Bury Kati Debretzeni Margaret Faultless Matthew Truscott Melgaard OAE Young Conductor David Reiland American Friends Wendy Brooks (chair) John Brim Ciara Burnham Sarah Ketterer Richard Pzena Kathy Reiland Anthony Simpson Nicholas von Speyr Advisory Council Martin Smith (Chairman) Sir Victor Blank James Joll Christopher Jonas Christopher Lawrence Jonathan Sumption QC Sir John Tooley Marketing and Press Officer Natasha Stehr Digital Content Officer Zen Grisdale Administration Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment Kings Place, 90 York Way, London, N1 9AG Tel: 020 7239 9370 Email: [email protected] Website: oae.co.uk Blog: oae.co.uk/blog Facebook.com/orchestraoftheageofenlightenment Twitter: twitter.com/theoae Registered Charity No. 295329 Registered Company No. 2040312 02 62891 OAE MultiDate 2011_OAE 2006 Prog6 h copy 01/12/2011 19:41 Page 3 Messiah Tuesday 6 December 2011 7pm Royal Festival Hall Handel Messiah Laurence Cummings director Elizabeth Watts soprano Tim Mead countertenor Nicholas Mulroy tenor Lisandro Abadie bass-baritone Choir of the Enlightenment Major Sponsor Please pick up tonight’s postcard for the orchestra list The concert will finish at approximately 10pm with an interval of 20 minutes OAE Extras at 5.45pm, free admission Hallelujah Indeed! Royal Festival Hall Auditorium Join young performers to sing extracts from Messiah- be prepared to join in! 03 62891 OAE MultiDate 2011_OAE 2006 Prog6 h copy 01/12/2011 19:41 Page 4 The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment would like to thank the following Benefactors for their support without which this concert would not have been possible Julian and Camilla Mash Photo: Eric Richmond /Harrison & Co To find out more about OAE Benefactors, see the central pages. 04 62891 OAE MultiDate 2011_OAE 2006 Prog6 h copy 01/12/2011 19:41 Page 5 Messiah Tuesday 6 December 2011 Programme Notes George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) Messiah *Words indicated by an asterisk are explained on page 52. 05 Enlightening Messiah Handel’s Concept One of the great legacies of the ‘authentic’ performance movement is the reclaiming of masterworks like Handel’s Messiah from those who could seem, on the surface, overenthusiastic musical meddlers. Some of the most distinguished musicians in history have seen fit to alter Handel’s work, amongst them Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. But both that great genius and some lesser but still formidable musicians (amongst them Ebenezer Prout, Sir Thomas Beecham and Sir Malcolm Sargent) were often concerned simply with allowing Handel’s music to chime with the fashions of the day; if that involved reorchestrating Messiah to include soaring horns, the warmth of clarinets and flutes, and even a bass drum and cymbals, then so be it. That such an act would seem both unnecessary and irreverent today is testament to the prominence of the period instrument movement and its informing of musical tastes – the OAE included. Thirty years on from the first experiments in ‘authentic’ performance, we are used to hearing Messiah performed by the sort of forces which Handel would recognise – whether in concerts promoted by period instrument or symphony orchestras. But that in itself is problematic, because Handel himself performed Messiah with choirs, orchestras and solo casts of differing proportions in his own lifetime. So perhaps more significant than what we now see is what we now hear: a tremendous but disciplined rhythmic energy thrust into Handel’s music; a focus, a style, an understanding and a far greater sense of excitement, integrity and contemporary relevance. That Messiah has been considered, reappraised and performed so regularly in the two-and-a-half centuries since its composition speaks volumes – not only about the striking nature of Handel’s music, but also about its consistent resonance with English society. In this work, Handel more or less created a new genre that bore little if no relation to its equivalents in Europe. Unlike any of his other oratorios* (with the possible exception of Israel in Egypt), Messiah had no plot in the ordinary sense, using words drawn exclusively from the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer. So, ‘Handel as innovator’, there’s nothing particularly surprising in that concept. In some ways though, the creation of Messiah was an obvious and natural response to the demands and constraints heaped upon Handel. In the late 1730s trends in London entertainment were changing. Much to Handel’s frustration, Italian opera was failing to capture the imagination of the public, despite the composer’s almost delusional attempts to reignite the genre. Handel loved the theatrical drama that opera in Italian offered, and so as he began to accept its fate the obvious recourse would have been to turn to the dramatic, character-based oratorio for performance in the theatre. After all, the recounting of sacred stories was something the English never lost their fondness for, and there was no need for expensive scenery, costumes or rehearsal periods. But this wasn’t really on the cards either. The Bishop of London had banned performances of works with religious overtones on London stages, and so in creating a work that he knew would eventually be heard in London, Handel deliberately understated the character-dramatic content of Messiah, allowing it to slip 62891 OAE MultiDate 2011_OAE 2006 Prog6 h copy 01/12/2011 19:41 Page 6 Programme Notes 06 between the conceived profanities of flamboyance in church and religion on stage. In so doing, he created a piece based on three concepts for each of its three parts: the narrative of the nativity and its prophecy; the narrative of the crucifixion and redemption of mankind; and a commentary on the soul of the Christian and its victory over death. Part German ‘Passion’, part English ‘Anthem’, part Italian Opera, Handel had created a unique work that would set the mould for many more English composers after him. Famously though, Messiah wasn’t written to be premiered in London, or indeed England. Handel was known for his charitable work, with many of his London concerts sold as benefits for local charities. The Lord Lieutenant of Ireland invited Handel to Dublin in 1738; the composer’s charitable work no doubt foremost in the Lieutenant’s mind. From 22 August to 14 September 1741, Handel wrote his first version of Messiah in London, setting off for Dublin two months later with the music in his luggage. The composer’s crossing to Ireland was delayed due to unfavourable winds, and so he spent some time in Chester, using local singers to ‘road test’ some of the Messiah’s choruses. Upon arrival in Dublin, Handel organised two back-to-back subscription concert series at the newly built music hall in Fishamble Street – both selling out. Following this, he scheduled the premiere of Messiah for 13 April at the same venue, holding a public rehearsal four days earlier. His forces consisted of an orchestra led by his colleague from London, Matthew Dubourg, soloists also summoned from London, and the combined choral forces of Dublin’s two cathedral choirs (details of the rest of the band of instrumentalists are unknown, though they were probably local). From Dublin to London Following the Dublin premiere Handel became an overnight success, and immediately scheduled a second performance for 3 June. The composer was known and adored by Londoners, and on gifting Dublin the first performance of Messiah, he came close to replicating that status in the Irish capital. But returning to London in mid-August of 1742, Handel found Messiah’s initial English reception a little cold, despite his billing of the work as ‘A New Sacred Oratorio’ and avoiding any operatic suggestion. Eight years later, however, Handel the philanthropist again came to the fore, and it seems he was rewarded for his generosity. The composer had been connected with The Foundling Hospital in the Holborn area of London for some years, and in 1750 he mounted a benefit performance of Messiah in the orphanage’s chapel; as in Dublin, the aim was to raise money, this time for the hospital itself. Handel’s Foundling Hospital version of Messiah was rescored with a denser orchestration from that presented in Dublin (he added oboes, bassoons, horns doubling trumpets, and drums). But the chorus was slimmed down – probably given the competence of London chapel and consort singers – and comprised some twenty members including the six boy choristers of the Chapel Royal (the soloists would also have been expected to sing as part of the chorus). Today one might refer to the orphanage setting for this revival of Messiah as having an ‘ahh’ factor; whether the hospital relaunch was one of opportunism or pure integrity, it didn’t take long for Messiah to catch on. 62891 OAE MultiDate 2011_OAE 2006 Prog6 h copy 01/12/2011 19:41 Page 7 Messiah Tuesday 6 December 2011 Messiah’s Music Programme Notes 07 Whilst the form and structure of Messiah is unusual and attractive for its time, it’s the detail of Handel’s music that has sent it to the top of many a list of English baroque masterpieces. The work is full of Handelian hallmarks – chief amongst them an almost unsurpassed gift for setting English words, an undeniable sense of reassurance stemming from the composer’s own rock-steady faith and a glorious feel for ceremony. Though the arias* and choruses combine musical inventiveness and drama, even in his recitatives* Handel writes with a touching sensitivity (notably in the soprano recitative in Part 1 – ‘There were shepherds abiding in the field’ – perhaps the closest the work gets to character-dramatic interaction). Though Messiah constituted a move away from opera on Handel’s part – albeit, it turned out, temporary – he still utilised the acute dramatic technique that brought him success as an opera composer. The aria ‘Why do the nations so furiously rage together?’ is a dramatic tour-de-force for both baritone and orchestra akin to the ‘mad scenes’ from some of Handel’s operas. But there are moments of serene calm and beauty; ‘I know that my redeemer liveth’, the soprano aria thought to have been offered by Handel to one of the Foundling Hospital boys for the London performance is perhaps the best example. Handel also proves typically thrifty, using ‘borrowed’ musical ideas on a number of occasions: one can trace the material for ‘Let all the Angels of God to a keyboard work by Jonathan Kempernell; ‘Thou shalt break them’ and ‘The people that walked in darkness’ from operatic material by the Italian Giovanni Porta; and the duets ‘O death where is thy sting?’ and a number of choruses (Including ‘And he shall purify’ and ‘For unto us a child is born’) from Handel’s own backcatalogue. It’s those and the other choruses which are the real stars of Messiah, and for which Handel reserves his most striking and inventive word setting; his chorus acts as narrator, commentator and occasional protagonist. The composer’s gift for ceremonial choral music was well established, but in Messiah he seasoned his chorus with ingenious effects, some of which would, like those in Israel in Egypt, have seemed far too extravagant for liturgical performance. The upper and lower voices literally stray waywardly outwards in ‘For we, like Sheep, have gone astray’, the offbeat urgency of ‘But thanks, thanks, be to God’ has an almost Beethovenian insistence, and the declamatory drama of ‘Surely he hath born our griefs’ is pointed. At the work’s monumental conclusion Handel uses a heart-stopping effect. The final, fugal* ‘Amen’ steadily gains momentum until, at its very apex, Handel inserts one bar of silence before the two final ‘Amens’ – this can only be the work of only one man; it’s little wonder the German-born composer was cherished in his adopted homeland, and particularly by the Royals. 62891 OAE MultiDate 2011_OAE 2006 Prog6 h copy 01/12/2011 19:41 Page 8 Messiah’s Legacy Programme Notes Learn more about our mammoth Education Project Anthem for a Child on Page 30 In the decades immediately after Handel’s death, performances of Messiah came and went a little sparingly. But there was one spectacular revival of the work in March 1784, the year mistakenly thought to mark the centenary of the composer’s birth, and already Messiah was metamorphosing into both an unwieldy and ‘cult’ affair. On the third of three days of Handel-related festivities, patronised by George III and the Earl of Sandwich, Westminster Abbey saw a performance of Messiah with more musicians ‘than has been collected in modern times’ according to Charles Burney. The effect of the performances across the three-day event, not least that of Messiah, seems to have goldplated Handel’s posthumous reputation and stamped him on the nation’s cultural consciousness, as well as seeing many of his works published en masse. ‘Commemorations’ of the composer continued annually for some years later, each trumping the last in scale, and creating performances of such grandeur that couldn’t help but secure Messiah and its composer a legendary status. Another direct result of these activities, arguably, was the inexorable rise in the following century of the English ‘choral society’ tradition, itself cherishing Messiah and providing fertile ground for the creation of future sacred oratorios. It’s inevitable that an opus as great as Messiah be subjected to the fashions and constraints of its epoch. Small-scale performances with brisk tempi and period ornamentation may have become the order of the day in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, but who knows what the next 100 years have in store for the work? Handel himself was pragmatic about making amends to Messiah depending on available resources or even to satisfy a whim. But we should count it a happy coincidence that the Messiahs we enjoy today bear the nearest resemblance in sound in recent history to those enjoyed for the first time in this very city by Handel himself, and his hundreds of adoring fans. Andrew Mellor © 2008 Welcome to Southbank Centre, we hope you enjoy your visit. We have a Duty Manager available at all times. If you have any queries please ask any member of staff for assistance. Eating, drinking and shopping? Southbank Centre shops and restaurants include Foyles, EAT, Giraffe, Strada, YO! Sushi, wagamama, Le Pain Quotidien, Las Iguanas, ping pong, Canteen, Caffè Vergnano 1882, Skylon, Concrete and Feng Sushi, as well as cafes, restaurants and shops inside Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall and the Hayward Gallery. If you wish to contact us following your visit please contact Kenelm Robert our Head of Customer Relations, at Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX, or phone 020 7960 4250 or email [email protected] We look forward to seeing you again soon. Programme Editor Natasha Stehr 08 Design Harrison and co design Season Photography Eric Richmond Artwork Heather Kenmure Graphic Design Printed by Cantate 62891 OAE MultiDate 2011_OAE 2006 Prog6 h copy 01/12/2011 19:41 Page 9 Messiah Tuesday 6 December 2011 George Frideric Handel Messiah (1742) A Sacred Oratorio Words by Charles Jennens PART ONE 1. Sinfonia (Overture) 2. Accompagnato Tenor Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned. The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness; prepare ye the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. (Isaiah 40: 1-3) 3. Air Tenor Ev’ry valley shall be exalted, and ev’ry moutain and hill made low; the crooked straight and the rough places plain. (Isaiah 40: 4) 4. Chorus And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. (Isaiah 40: 5) 5. Accompagnato Bass Thus saith the Lord, the Lord of hosts: Yet once a little while and I will shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. And I will shake all nations; and the desire of all nations shall come. (Haggai 2: 6-7) The Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His temple, even the messenger of the Covenant, whom you delight in; behold, He shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. (Malachi 3: 1) 09 6. Air Alto But who may abide the day of His coming, and who shall stand when He appeareth? For He is like a refiner’s fire. (Malachi 3: 2) 7. Chorus And He shall purify the sons of Levi, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness. (Malachi 3: 3) 8. Recitative Alto Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call His name Emmanuel, God with us. (Isaiah 7: 14; Matthew 1: 23) 9. Air and Chorus Alto O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion, get thee up into the high mountain. O thou that tellest good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, behold your g od! (Isaiah 40: 9) Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. (Isaiah 60: 1) Chorus O thou that tellest. . . etc. 10. Accompagnato Bass For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people; but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and His glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising. (Isaiah 60: 2-3) 62891 OAE MultiDate 2011_OAE 2006 Prog6 h copy 01/12/2011 19:41 Page 10 11. Air 17. Chorus Bass The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light; and they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. (Isaiah 9: 2) “Glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth, good will towards men.” (Luke 2: 14) 12. Chorus For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon His shoulder; and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9: 6) 18. Air Soprano Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, thy King cometh unto thee; He is the righteous Saviour, and He shall speak peace unto the heathen. Rejoice greatly. . . da capo (Zecharaiah 9: 9-10) 19. Recitative 13. Pifa (“Pastoral Symphony”) 14a. Recitative Soprano There were shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flocks by night. (Luke 2: 8) 14b. Accompagnato Soprano And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and they were sore afraid. (Luke 2: 9) 15. Recitative Soprano And the angel said unto them: “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2: 10-11) 16. Accompagnato Soprano And suddenly there was with the angel, a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God, and saying: (Luke 2: 13) 10 Alto Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing. (Isaiah 35: 5-6) 20. Duet Alto & soprano He shall feed His flock like a shepherd; and He shall gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom, and gently lead those that are with young. (Isaiah 40: 11) Come unto Him, all ye that labour, come unto Him that are heavy laden, and He will give you rest. Take his yoke upon you, and learn of Him, for He is meek and lowly of heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls. (Matthew 11: 28-29) 21. Chorus His yoke is easy, and His burden is light. (Matthew 11: 30) 62891 OAE MultiDate 2011_OAE 2006 Prog6 h copy 01/12/2011 19:41 Page 11 Messiah Tuesday 6 December 2011 PART TWO 29. Accompagnato Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world. (John 1: 29) Tenor Thy rebuke hath broken His heart: He is full of heaviness. He looked for some to have pity on Him, but there was no man, neither found He any to comfort him. (Psalm 69: 20) 23. Air 30. Arioso Alto He was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. (Isaiah 53: 3) Tenor Behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto His sorrow. (Lamentations 1: 12) 22. Chorus He gave His back to the smiters, and His cheeks to them that plucked off His hair: He hid not His face from shame and spitting. He was despised. . . da capo (Isaiah 53: 6) 24. Chorus Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows! He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him. (Isaiah 53: 4-5) 31. Accompagnato Soprano He was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgressions of Thy people was He stricken. (Isaiah 53: 8) 32. Air Soprano But Thou didst not leave His soul in hell; nor didst Thou suffer Thy Holy One to see corruption. (Psalm 16: 10) 25. Chorus 33. Chorus And with His stripes we are healed. (Isaiah 53: 5) All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way. And the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53: 6) Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of Glory shall come in. Who is this King of Glory? The Lord strong and mighty, The Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of Glory shall come in. Who is this King of Glory? The Lord of Hosts, He is the King of Glory. (Psalm 24: 7-10) 27. Accompagnato 34. Recitative Tenor All they that see Him laugh Him to scorn; they shoot out their lips, and shake their heads, saying: (Psalm 22: 7) Tenor Unto which of the angels said He at any time: “Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee?” (Hebrews 1: 5) 28. Chorus 35. Chorus “He trusted in God that He would deliver Him; let Him deliver Him, if He delight in Him.” (Psalm 22: 8) Let all the angels of God worship Him. (Hebrews 1: 6) 26. Chorus 11 62891 OAE MultiDate 2011_OAE 2006 Prog6 h copy 01/12/2011 19:41 Page 12 36. Air 43. Air Alto Thou art gone up on high; Thou hast led captivity captive, and received gifts for men; yea, even from Thine enemies, that the Lord God might dwell among them. (Psalm 68: 18) Tenor Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel. (Psalm 2: 9) 37. Chorus The Lord gave the word; great was the company of the preachers. (Psalm 68: 11) 38. Air Soprano How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things. (Isaiah 52: 7; Romans 10: 15) 44. Chorus Hallelujah: for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth. (Revelation 19: 6) The kingdom of this world is become the kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever. (Revelation 11: 15) King of Kings, and Lord of Lords. (Revelation 19: 16) Hallelujah! 39. Chorus Their sound is gone out into all lands, and their words unto the ends of the world. (Romans 10: 18; Psalm 19: 4) PART THREE 45. Air 40. Air Bass Why do the nations so furiously rage together, and why do the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth rise up, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord, and against His anointed. (Psalm 2: 1-2) 41. Chorus Let us break their bonds asunder, and cast away their yokes from us. (Psalm 2: 3) 42. Recitative Tenor He that dwelleth in Heav’n shall laugh them to scorn; The Lord shall have them in derision. (Psalm 2: 4) Soprano I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. And though worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God. (Job 19: 25-26) For now is Christ risen from the dead, the first fruits of them that sleep. (I Corinthians 15: 20) 46. Chorus Since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. (I Corinthians 15: 21-22) 47. Accompagnato Bass Behold, I tell you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. (I Corinthians 15: 51-52) 12 62891 OAE MultiDate 2011_OAE 2006 Prog6 h copy 01/12/2011 19:41 Page 13 Messiah Tuesday 6 December 2011 48. Air 52. Air Bass The trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality. The trumpet. . . da capo (I Corinthians 15: 52-53) Soprano alto If God be for us, who can be against us? (Romans 8: 31) Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth, who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is at the right hand of God, who makes intercession for us. (Romans 8: 33-34) 49. Recitative Alto Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” (I Corinthians 15: 54) 50. Duet Alto & tenor O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. (I Corinthians 15: 55-56) 53. Chorus Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, and hath redeemed us to God by His blood, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. Blessing and honour, glory and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever. Amen. (Revelation 5: 12-14) 51. Chorus But thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (I Corinthians 15: 57) Want to be involved with our work? Turn to page 31 and read how you can Play your Part for the OAE. We would like to thank the following groups for attending: 6 December Mrs Kirsty MacDonald & guests Mr Paul McGinn & guests Ms Chloe Reed & Oxsted School 13 January Mrs Nicole Hu & the Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle 18 February Ms Helen Petchey & the Berlioz Society Ms Marjorie Wilkins & the Music Club in London 13 62891 OAE MultiDate 2011_OAE 2006 Prog6 h copy 01/12/2011 19:41 Page 14 Biography Laurence Cummings director Laurence Cummings is one of Britain’s most exciting and versatile exponents of historical performance both as a conductor and a harpsichord player. He was an organ scholar at Christ Church Oxford where he graduated with first class honours. In 1996 he was appointed Head of Historical Performance at the Royal Academy of Music which has led to both baroque and classical orchestras forming part of the established curriculum. He is a trustee of Handel House London and was also Musical Director of the Tilford Bach Society. Since 1999 he has been Music Director of the London Handel Festival where performances have included productions of Deborah, Athalia, Esther, Agrippina, Sorsame, Alexander Balus, Hercules, Samson, Ezio, Riccardo Primo and Tolomeo. He is a regular guest at Casa da Musica in Porto where he conducts Orquestra Barroca Casa da Música. He is Artistic Director of the Internationale Händel-Festpiele Göttingen from 2012. Other opera productions he has conducted include Radamisto, L’Incoronazione di Poppea, Semele, Messiah and Orfeo for English National Opera, Giulio Cesare and The Fairy Queen for Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Giulio Cesare and Alcina at Gothenburg Opera, Vivaldi’s L’Incoronazione di Dario and La Verita in Cimento for Garsington Opera, Ariodante and Tolomeo for English Touring Opera, Rodelinda for Opera Theatre Company in the UK, Ireland and New York, Alceste at the Linbury Theatre Covent Garden as part of the London Bach Festival, Caverlieri’s Rappresentatione di Anima e di Corpo, Eccle’s The Judgement of Paris and King Arthur in Croatia, Francisco António de Almeida’s La Spinalba and La Guiditta in Porto, and L’Incoronazione di Poppea and Dardanus at the Royal Academy of Music. He made his US debut conducting Orfeo with the Handel and Haydn Society in Boston. He regularly conducts the English Concert and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, both in the UK and on tour. He also works with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Ulster Orchestra, Hallé Orchestra at the Bridgewater Hall, Irish Baroque Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia, Royal Academy of Music Baroque Orchestra – B minor Mass at the London Bach Festival and Monteverdi’s 1610 Vespers at the Spitalfields Festival. 14 His numerous recordings include the first recording of Handel’s newly discovered Gloria with Emma Kirkby and the Royal Academy of Music on BIS and recital discs of solo harpsichord music (including music by Louis and Francois Couperin) for Naxos. A solo disc of Handel arias with Angelika Kirschlager and the Basel Chamber Orchestra on Sony BMG was followed up by a recording of duets with Lawrence Zazzo and Nuria Rial, also with the Basel Chamber Orchestra, on Deutsche Harmonia Mundi. He conducts the English Concert and recorder player Maurice Steger in a disc of Corelli concertos for Harmonia Mundi released in early 2011. Future plans include productions for Garsington Opera and Glyndebourne, concerts with the Hallé Orchestra, English Concert, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, along with his commitments in Porto and at the Gottingen Handel Festival. In the US he makes his debut at the Metropolitan Opera New York. 62891 OAE MultiDate 2011_OAE 2006 Prog6 h copy 01/12/2011 19:41 Page 15 Messiah Tuesday 6 December 2011 Biography Elizabeth Watts soprano Elizabeth Watts won the Rosenblatt Recital Song Prize at the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition in 2007 and the previous year the Kathleen Ferrier Award. She is currently an Artist in Residence at the Southbank Centre, and a former BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist. Her critically acclaimed debut recording of Schubert Lieder for SONY Red Seal will be followed in 2011 by a disc of Bach Cantatas for Harmonia Mundi, with whom she has an exclusive contract. Recent and future plans include concerts with all of the UK orchestras, Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra and the Boston Handel and Haydn Society; appearances with the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Glyndebourne on Tour and Welsh National Opera; and recitals at the Wigmore Hall, Concertgebouw Amsterdam and the Aldeburgh and Cheltenham Festivals. Elizabeth was a chorister at Norwich Cathedral and studied archaeology at Sheffield University before studying singing at the Royal College of Music in London. 15 62891 OAE MultiDate 2011_OAE 2006 Prog6 h copy 01/12/2011 19:41 Page 16 Biography Tim Mead countertenor Tim Mead was a choral scholar at King’s College, Cambridge, and also studied at the Royal College of Music, London. Recent engagements include Ottone Il Coronazione di Poppea for Den Norske Opera Oslo, the Opéra de Lyon and English National Opera; Tolomeo Giulio Cesare for the Deutsche Oper am Rhein; title role Rinaldo with the Bach Collegium Japan; title role Admeto Händel-Festspiele Göttingen and the Edinburgh Festival; Endimione La Calisto for the Bayerische Staatsoper; Paggio and Ombra di Bussiride Ercole amante for De Nederlandse Opera; Clearte Niobe at the Royal Opera House; title role Orlando for Scottish Opera and Chicago Opera Theatre, Eustazio Rinaldo and title role Giulio Cesare for Glyndebourne Festival Opera; title role Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice with the Akademie für Alte Musik, Bach Magnificat and Dixit Dominus with Emmannuelle Haim and Le Concert d’Astrée; Das Weihnachtsoratorium with William Christie and Les Arts Florissants, Oronte Riccardo Primo and Idelberto Lotario for the Basel Kammerorchester, Trasimede Admeto for Opernhaus Halle and Biber’s Missa Bruxellensis in the Proms with the Academy of Ancient Music. Future plans include Endimione La Calisto at the Bayerische Staatsoper and Bertarido Rodelinda for Mercury Baroque (Houston). 16 62891 OAE MultiDate 2011_OAE 2006 Prog6 h copy 01/12/2011 19:41 Page 17 Messiah Tuesday 6 December 2011 Biography Nicholas Mulroy tenor Born in Liverpool, Nicholas Mulroy studied at Clare College Cambridge and Royal Academy of Music. He regularly appears with leading ensembles throughout Europe, including Monteverdi Choir with Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Le Musiciens du Louvre with Marc Minkowski, Les concerts d’Astrée with Emmanuelle Haïm, Gabrieli Consort with Paul McCreesh as well as concerts with Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Koelner Akademie, Dunedin Consort, Staatskapelle Dresden, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, BBC Proms and Spitalfields Festival. Other conductors he has worked with include Laurence Cummings, Trevor Pinnock, Sir Colin Davis and Nicholas Kraemer. On stage he has worked with Glyndebourne Festival Opera and on Tour, Opera Comique Paris and Theatre Capitole de Toulouse. Recordings include a Gramophone Awardwinning Messiah with Dunedin Consort on Linn, and releases with Exaudi on NMC, King’s Consort on Hyperion and I Fagiolini on Chandos. Future plans include performances with Gabrieli Consort, BBC Philharmonic, Polyphony, OAE, Copenhagen Philharmonic, Kölner Akademie, Wroclaw Philharmonic and at the Opera de Lille. 17 62891 OAE MultiDate 2011_OAE 2006 Prog6 h copy 01/12/2011 19:42 Page 18 Biography Lisandro Abadie bass-baritone Lisandro Abadie was born in Buenos Aires. After singing diplomas at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis with Evelyn Tubb and Musikhochschule Luzern (P.Brechbühler), he was awarded the Edwin Fischer Gedenkpreis in 2006, and the Finalist Prize at the Handel Singing Competition in 2008. He has sung under the direction of William Christie (The Fairy Queen in Aix-en-Provence), Laurence Cummings (Theodora, Belshazzar in London), Facundo Agudin (Don Giovanni, Così fan tutte, Zauberflöte, Nozze di Figaro), Václav Luks (La Resurrezione, Bach’s Passions), Christophe Rousset (San Guglielmo), Clau Scherrer (Messiah), Maurice Steger (Acis & Galatea), Douglas Bostock (The Bartered Bride), Vincent Dumestre (Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme) and has collaborated with ensembles like Les Arts Florissants and Mala Punica. His recordings include Marais’ Sémélé with Hervé Niquet, Hayes’ The Passions with Anthony Rooley, Handel’s Il Pastor Fido with David Bates, Camilla de Rossi’s Santa Beatrice with Daniela Dolci, among others. In 2010 he created the title role of the opera Cachafaz, by Oscar Strasnoy, staged by Benjamin Lazar. 18 62891 OAE MultiDate 2011_OAE 2006 Prog6 h copy 01/12/2011 19:42 Page 19 Messiah Tuesday 6 December 2011 Biography Choir of the Enlightenment The Choir of the Enlightenment is formed of a group of professional singers, many of whom are soloists in their own right. In recent years the choir has appeared with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment at British and European festivals, as well as regularly performing with them as part of their annual London concert series at the Southbank Centre. The choir has taken part in many of the OAE’s recordings, including J S Bach cantatas BWV 205 and 114 and Purcell’s Odes for Queen Mary, both with Gustav Leonhardt, and Mozart’s Così fan tutte with Sir Simon Rattle, recorded live at Symphony Hall Birmingham. In July 2000, the choir and orchestra performed Bach’s B minor Mass on the 250th anniversary of his death. This concert, which was part of the BBC Proms Festival, was broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 and on BBC Television. During recent seasons the Choir of the Enlightenment has performed Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas directed by Richard Egarr at the BBC Proms and at the Utrecht Festival; Charpentier’s David et Jonathas to celebrate the tercentenary of his death, (conducted by Emmanuelle Haïm) and has also taken part in performances of Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and his version of Bach’s St Matthew Passion. The choir took part in the OAE’s 21st Birthday Celebrations, Tim Carroll’s production of Dido and Aeneas, Bach’s St John Passion with Mark Padmore, Handel’s Belshazzar at the BBC Proms, directed by Sir Charles Mackerras, Haydn’s The Return of Tobias, conducted by Sir Roger Norrington, a performance of Haydn’s Creation conducted by Sir Mark Elder and more recently, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with conductor John Butt and sold out performances, both in the UK and abroad, of Monteverdi’s 1610 Vespers. Boffin’s Corner Messiah and the Expanding Orchestras Messiah has long fascinated those musicians who peer into musical history, largely because it healthily challenges most of our preconceived notions of ‘faithfulness to the score’ and ‘authenticity’. What, for example, is the right way to perform an ‘authentic’ Messiah? The way Handel performed it in Dublin or London? After all, there must have been striking differences in content and execution even between these chronologically close performances. With that proviso, it’s fascinating to examine just how far Handel’s score was massaged after its initial airing. Even during the composer’s lifetime the work started to become popular with large choruses, the accompanying orchestra slowly enlarging so as not to be drowned out. In 1784 a performance was arranged in Westminster Abbey to mark 25 years since Handel’s death with a combined army of over 275 singers and 250 instrumentalists. The latter beat on three timpani and blew down six trombones, twelve horns and twelve trumpets – most of them phantom parts that Handel never wrote. Five years after that Mozart had a go at ‘retouching’ Messiah, adding parts for flutes, clarinets, trombones and horns. And he couldn’t have claimed he needed more power in the band to balance a large chorus, because the performance in question involved a choir of only twelve! By 1857 London had grown out of Messiahs involving piddling little orchestras in the 200s, and mounted a performance of the work at the Crystal Palace with an orchestra of 500 and a chorus that weighed in at over 2,000. A decade later those figures were spinning even further out of control, with an impatient George Bernard Shaw begging, prophetically, that a performance in a medium-sized hall be given with ‘a capable chorus of twenty singers’ so that he could ‘hear the work properly just once’ before he died. A century on, however, the supersize Messiah wasn’t extinct. Malcolm Sargent’s 1959 EMI recording of the work from Liverpool sounds magnificent with symphonic strings and warming horns, but it was probably a dying breed. These days Messiah is almost universally downsized. Do the benefits of clarity and focus outweigh those of grandeur and mass-involvement? Now there’s a subject for vigorous debate. 19 62891 OAE MultiDate 2011_OAE 2006 Prog6 h copy 01/12/2011 19:42 Page 20 The Glory of Venice Friday 13 January 2012 7pm Queen Elizabeth Hall Giovanni Gabrieli Canzon xiv a 10; Virtutae Magna a 10 Giovanni. B. Fontana Sonata for 3 violins Alessandro Grandi Salve Regina; Exaudi me Domine Gabrieli Sonata septimi toni (1) a 8 Claudio Monteverdi Exulta filia Gabrieli Jubilate Deo a 10 Interval Major Sponsor Gabrieli Canzon xvi a 12; Cantate Domino a 6; Kyrie a 12 Grandi Lauda Zion salvatorem Gabrieli Gloria a 12; Sonata for 3 violins; Sanctus/ Benedictus a 12 Marini La Zorzi Gabrieli Exultet iam angelica turba Robert Howarth director Julia Doyle soprano Daniel Auchincloss tenor Please pick up tonight’s postcard for the orchestra list The concert will finish at approximately 8.55pm with an interval of 20 minutes OAE Extras at 5.45pm, free admission Queen Elizabeth Hall auditorium Robert Howarth introduces tonight’s programme 20 62891 OAE MultiDate 2011_OAE 2006 Prog6 h copy 01/12/2011 19:42 Page 21 The Glory of Venice Friday 13 January 2012 Programme Notes The Glory of Venice *Words indicated by an asterisk are explained on page 52. 21 Giovanni Gabrieli (c1554-1612) was born into a musical family. He studied with his uncle, Andrea, who had worked in Munich under Orlando di Lasso. Giovanni was appointed to St Mark’s in 1566 as second organist, quickly becoming a celebrated composer, especially of ceremonial music. Giovanni also worked in Munich, probably returning to Venice in 1579. He deputised as organist at St Mark’s in 1585 and in 1587 succeeded his uncle as first organist, a post he held until his death in 1612. Our programme tonight celebrates his life in this, the 400th anniversary of his death, through his large publications Sacrae symphoniae (1597), Canzoni et sonate and Symphoniae sacrae (1615). All of his instrumental works are entitled either Canzoni or Sonate but at this time the idea of ‘sonata-form’* was not developed so we should not view them in that light. They derive from the roots of either ‘a song’ i.e. chanson/canzon/ canzona or ‘to sound’ sonare/ sonate. Over the years each form developed and Gabrieli was certainly a pioneer. Whereas his contemporaries were publishing short and pleasant canzoni, Gabrieli was writing ever larger, ever longer and evermore complex works. Between the publications of 1597 and 1615 we can see a great leap forward in structure and style. In particular he experiments with more unusual time-signatures and complicated rhythmic patterns. In Italy at this time, there was a gradual movement away from the Renaissance towards the new baroque styles of music. It sought to replace polyphony with monody, that is, to stop setting words for many voices at the same time, leaving just one voice singing rhetorically with a simple accompaniment. Gabrieli, whilst not an acknowledged follower of this movement, was certainly was aware of the changing style. Evidence of this can be found at the end of his 1615 publication in the Sonata for Three Violins and Continuo. Compared to his large scale canzonas, this is a more focussed, more personal persuasive style that was later so well adapted by Fontana, Castello and Marini. Monteverdi, who was appointed Maestro di Cappella at San Marco a year after Gabrieli died, features briefly here with his ‘new style’ motet* Exulta filia. He uses secular dance rhythms (only to redouble the pure joy of the text), and as a master of setting words the inherent exuberance leaps out at us as we listen. This motet, with a text adapted and extended from the Communion for the Mass* at Dawn on Christmas Day, was contained in the Quarta raccolta de’ sacri canti (1629). Alessandro Grandi, like Monteverdi, was a brilliant exponent of this new style. He often added instruments to his works. We hear three motets in this programme, one for a solo voice and two with accompaniments. However, he never writes for more than two instruments, and in the examples here, he either uses two violins or two cornetts. Biagio Marini was hired as a musician at St Mark’s in about 1615. His peripatetic lifestyle took him to work in at least ten cities, among them Brussels, Düsseldorf and Milan. In the 1650s he returned to Venice where he died. Approximately half his extant publications are instrumental works including Affetti Musicale No 1 (1617) in which La Zorzi is contained. Each piece is named after and dedicated to an important Venetian family or individual family members. Gabrieli’s sacred vocal music is written in a very similar way to his instrumental works. He ascribes very specific instrumentation to accompany the voices. Often only two of twelve lines are specified for a 62891 OAE MultiDate 2011_OAE 2006 Prog6 h copy 01/12/2011 19:42 Page 22 Programme Notes voice, whereas the other parts are written for the instruments. His Virtutae Magna is a celebration anthem on a large scale for the feast day of St Mark. It takes pride of place at the beginning of the third part of the 1597 Sacrae Symphoniae and is scored in 12 parts. In it, Gabrieli builds the music beautifully using the two choirs separately, then together, gathering the rhythmic pace as the text builds towards the inevitable Alleluia. The Jubilate Deo, from Symphonae sacrae (1615), specifies only two voice parts alongside an ensemble of cornetts, sackbuts and a dulcian. For our performance we are doubling the voices with a violin and viola to enhance the celebratory nature of the text. Cantate Dominum is the very first work in the 1597 collection. It is an obvious choice as the text commands us to ‘sing to the lord a new song’; perfect for a collection of sacred anthems. The whole publication is ordered by size of ensemble, so this piece is only in six parts. It is quite audibly from an earlier period and is much shorter than many of the other pieces but it is looking towards the new world of the baroque. To illustrate that point, we present it as a work for solo voice with brass accompaniment, enabling the listener to hear clearly the rhetorical declamation of the text. The second half of the programme has been structured around a Mass sequence. The movements are taken from both 1597 and 1615 and may well have been heard in this form at some point in San Marco after Gabrieli’s death. This leads us with jubilation towards our parting motet Exultet iam angelica turba. Its liturgical place is during the lighting of the paschal candle at the Easter vigil, however, its text is so exciting and it’s so well structured that it makes an excellent end to a celebratory concert. Not only does it exclaim ‘tuba intonet salutaris’ - ‘let the trumpet of salvation sound forth’, but it also concludes ‘et magnis populorum vocibus haec aula resultet. Alleluia’ ‘and may this hall resound with the loud voices of the people. Alleluia’. Robert Howarth © 2011 Boffin’s Corner Secrets of St Mark’s In the 17th century St Mark’s Venice was a law unto itself. Not only was Venice politically and economically independent from the mainland, its church was more or less autonomous in the face of Rome’s authority, too. At the beginning of the century the whole city was excommunicated, and even when the relationship was rather better, St Mark’s liked to put its own stamp on the liturgy – basically ordering services however it liked (or rather, however the Doge liked). That was one reason the church enjoyed such a unique musical tradition. In 1527, thirty years before Giovanni Gabrieli got the job, Dutchman Adrian Willaert was appointed maestro di cappella at St Marks. His reign saw even more individual approaches to music-making invade the wide open spaces of the basilica, most significantly the use of two or more choirs singing from different parts of the building. Willaert didn’t invent this coro spezzato phenomenon, but it came into its own under his watch and much of the music heard tonight owes something to its spatial musical re-imagining. On reason Willaert started moving his choirs and instruments around might have been the Doge himself. St Mark’s doesn’t have the most focussed acoustic, particularly when choirs are singing from the chancel. It could be that Willaert, Gabrieli and subsequent musical bosses at St Mark’s frequently altered the ‘singing’ and ‘playing’ positions at the church so the Doge could hear the music best from where he was sitting. In April 2007 scholars Deborah Howard and Laura Moretti travelled to Venice with the choir of St John’s College Cambridge to carry out acoustic experiments; they plotted where the Doge’s throne moved and how the choirs themselves moved. The extensive results of their experimentation can be found in their rather fascinating book Sound and Space in Renaissance Venice. © Andrew Mellor, 2011 22 62891 OAE MultiDate 2011_OAE 2006 Prog6 h copy 01/12/2011 19:42 Page 23 The Glory of Venice Friday 13 January 2012 The Glory of Venice Virtute magna operatua est coram Domino Beatus Marcus Evangelista, In cuis honorem praesens Vobis adest festivitas. Iste est enim cuius doctrina Omnis terra replete est, Et virtutis exemplo totius mundi Refluget machina. Alleluia. Haes est illa veneranda solemnitas, In qua triumphans agonis sui cursum Viriliter consumavit, Et victoriae coronam accipere meruit De manu Domini. Alleluia. With great strength Blessed Mark the Evengelist, In whose honour you hold the present festivity, Laboured before the Lord. It is he with whose teaching The whole earth has been filled, And the fabric of the whole world Shines with the example of his strength. Alleluia. This is that venerable celebration, In which in triumph he bravely completed The race of his struggle, And was worthy to receive the crown of victoey From the Lord’s hand. Alleluia. Salve, Regina, Mater misericordiae, vita, dulcedo, et spes nostra, salve. ad te clamamus exsules filii Hevae, ad te suspiramus, gementes et flentes in hac lacrimarum valle. Eia, ergo, advocata nostra, illos tuos misericordes oculos ad nos converte; et Iesum, benedictum fructum ventris tui, nobis post hoc exilium ostende. O clemens, O pia, O dulcis Virgo Maria. Hail, holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, our life, our sweetness and our hope. To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve; to thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears. Turn then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us; and after this our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus. O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary. Exaudi me, Domine, quoniam benigna est misericordia tua; secundum multitudinem miserationum tuarum respice in me. Ne avertas faciem tuam a puero tuo, quoniam tribulor. Velociter exaudi me. Intende animae meae et libera eam; propter inimicos meos eripe me. Hear me, O Lord, for Thy mercy is kind; look upon me according to the multitude of Thy tender mercies. Turn not away Thy face from Thy servant: for I am in trouble. Hear me speedily. Attend to my soul and deliver it. Save me because of my enemies. [Ps 68:14-19] Exulta, filia Sion; lauda, filia Hierusalem. Ecce rex tuus sanctus, ecce mundi salvator venit. Omnes gentes, plaudit minibus, Jubilate Deo in voce exultationis, Laetentur ceoli in voce exultationis, Exultet terra in voce exultationis Quia consolatus est Dominus populum suum; Redemit Hierusalem. Exult, daughter of Sion; sing praises, daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, your holy King, the Saviour of the world comes. All nations, clap your hands, Rejoice in God with the voice of exultation, Let the heavens be praised with the voice of exultation, Let the earth exult in the voice of exultation, For the Lord ahs comforted his people; He has redeemed Jerusalem. Jubilate Deo omnis terra, Quia sic benedicetur homo Qui timet Dominum. Jubilate Deo omnis terra. Deus Isreal conjugat vos Et ipse sit vobiscum. Let the whole earth rejoice in God, For thus is blessed the man Who fears the Lord. Let the noble earth rejoice in God. May the God of Israel unite you And may he himself be with you. 23 62891 OAE MultiDate 2011_OAE 2006 Prog6 h copy 01/12/2011 19:42 Page 24 Auxilium de sancto Tueatur vos et de Syon. Jubilate Deo omnis terra. Benedicat vobis Dominus ex Syon, Qui fecit coelom at terram. Jubilate Deo omnis terra. Servite Domino in laetitia. Jubilate Deo onmis terra. May help from his holiness Protect you even from Zion. May the Lord bless you from Zion, He who made heaven and earth. Serve the Lord with gladness. Cantate Domino canticum novum: Cantate Domino omnis terra. Cantatde Domino, et benedicite nomini eius: Annunciate de die in diem salutare eius. O sing unto the Lord a new song: Sing unto the Lord, all the earth. Sing unto the Lord, bless his name; Shew forth his salvation from day to day. Kyrie eleison Kyrie eleison Kyrie eleison Christe eleison Christe eleison Christe eleison Kyrie eleison Kyrie eleison Kyrie eleison Lord, have mercy on us Lord, have mercy on us Lord, have mercy on us Christ, have mercy on us Christ, have mercy on us Christ, have mercy on us Lord, have mercy on us Lord, have mercy on us Lord, have mercy on us Gloria in excelsis Deo. Et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis. Laudamus te. Benedicamus te. Adoramus te. Glorificamus te. Gratias agimus tibi propter magnam gloriam tuam, Domine Deus, Rex caelestis, Deus Pater omnipotens. Domine Fili unigenite Jesu Christe. Domine Deus, Agnus Dei, Filius Patris, Qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis. Qui tollis peccata mundi, suscipe deprecationem nostram. Qui sedes ad dextram Patris, miserere nobis. Quoniam tu solus sanctus. Tu solus Dominus, Tu solus altissimus, Jesu Christe. Cum Sancto Spiritu, In gloria Dei Patris Amen. Glory to God on high. And on earth peace to men of good will. We praise thee. We bless thee. We adore thee. We glorify thee. We give thanks to thee for thy great glory, O Lord God, heavenly king, God the Father almighty, O Lord, the only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father. That takest away the sins of the world, have mercy on us. That takest away the sins of the world, receive our prayer. That sittest at the right hand of the Father, have mercy on us. For thou alone art holy, Thou alone art the Lord, Thou alone art most high, Jesus Christ. With the Holy Ghost In the glory of God the Father Amen. 24 62891 OAE MultiDate 2011_OAE 2006 Prog6 h copy 01/12/2011 19:42 Page 25 The Glory of Venice Friday 13 January 2012 Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus, Dominus Deus Sabaoth. Pleni sunt caeli et terra gloria tua. Hosanna in excelsis. Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini. Hosanna in excelsis. Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of hosts. Heaven and earth are full of thy glory. Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who cometh in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. Lauda Sion Salvatorem, Lauda ducem et pastorem, In hymnis et canticis. Praise, O Sion, praise thy Saviour, Shepherd, Prince, with glad behavior, Praise in hymn and canticle Ecce Panis angelorum, Factus cibus viatorum: Vere panis filiorum, Non mittendus canibus Hail, angelic Bread of Heaven, Now the pilgrim’s hoping-leaven, Yea, the Bread to children given That to dogs must not be thrown: O salutaris Hostia, Quae caeli pandis ostium: Bella premunt hostilia, Da robur, fer auxilium. O saving Victim, opening wide The gate of Heaven to us below; Our foes press hard on every side; Your aid supply; Your strength bestow. Exulet jam angelica turba coelorum, Exultant divina mysteria, Et pro tanti regis Victoria Tuba intonet salutaris. Gaudeat et tellus Tantis irradiate fulgorbus, Et aeterni regis splendore illustrata, Totius orbis se sentiat Amisisse caliginem. Laetetur at mater ecclesiae, Tanti luminis adornatet fulgoribus, Et magnis populorum vocibus Heac aula resultet. Alleluia. May the heavenly host of angels exult, May the divine mysteries exult, And for the victory of so great a king May the trumpet of salvation resound. May the earth also rejoice Illumined by such great brightness, And, lit up by the splendour of the eternal king, May it feel it has lost The darkness of the whole globe. May the mother of the church also rejoice, Adorned with the brightness of so great a light, And may this hall resound With the mighty voices of the peoples. Alleluia. Anthem for a Child is our largest and current education project and you can get involved by pledging miles. Read more on Page 30 25 62891 OAE MultiDate 2011_OAE 2006 Prog6 h copy 01/12/2011 19:42 Page 26 Biography Robert Howarth director Robert Howarth read music at the University of York. With a growing reputation as director and conductor of early repertoire Robert Howarth holds the posts of Artistic Advisor and Guest Director of The Avison Ensemble, Assistant Artistic Director of English Voices and Co-Principal Keyboard Player of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. His valuable contribution to the 02/03 season at the Bayerische Staatsoper was rewarded with the Munich Opera Festival Prize. Howarth’s opera engagements have included Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria for Welsh National Opera, Birmingham Opera Company and English Touring Opera; Alcina for the Hamburg State Opera, Theater St Gallen and ETO , Monteverdi Ballo del Ingrate and Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda for the Birmingham Opera Company and Tolomeo for English Touring Opera. He has also conducted Charpentier’s La déscente d’Orphée aux enfers for Glyndebourne’s Jerwood Programme and Almeida’s La Spinalba for the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He has been assistant conductor for productions at the Bayerische Staatsoper, Salzburg Festival, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Opéra de Paris, the Netherlands Opera and Glyndebourne and includes amongst his repertoire L’Incoronazione di Poppea, Ariodante, Orlando, Rodelinda, Tamerlano, Don Giovanni and Iphigenie en Tauride. Concert engagements include Bach Lutheran Masses and a European tour and recording of the Monteverdi Vespers 1610 with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment; Messiah with the Irish Baroque Orchestra; Apollo and Daphne with The St James Baroque Players; Bach Cantatas with the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra and Angelika Kirschlager, Athalia for the Ambronay Festival and a baroque programme for the Northern Sinfonia. During the 2011/12 season he makes his Opera North début conducting a new production of Giulio Cesare, returns to St Gallen for The Fairy Queen and directs programmes with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and The English Concert. 26 62891 OAE MultiDate 2011_OAE 2006 Prog6 h copy 01/12/2011 19:42 Page 27 The Glory of Venice Friday 13 January 2012 Biography Julia Doyle soprano Born and educated in Lancaster, Julia read Social and Political Sciences alongside a Choral Scholarship at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. After finishing her degree, she worked in America as a research consultant in infant linguistic and musical development, and then in Arts Management in London before pursuing a singing career. She has since performed all over the world with many of Europe’s top ensembles and is fast establishing a career as a soloist specialising in Baroque repertoire. Recent highlights include Mozart Exultate Jubilate and Haydn Nelson Mass at the Cité de la Musique Paris (Sigiswald Kuijken), Haydn Scena di Berenice at the Bridgewater Hall (BBC Philharmonic Orchestra/Gianadrea Noseda) and Creation at St Paul’s Cathedral (Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment /Thierry Fischer), Bach St John Passion (Sir John Eliot Gardiner), and St Matthew Passion (The King’s Consort/Robert King) at the Concergebouw, The Wedding Cantata (BWV 202) in Chicago (Music of the Baroque/Nicholas Kraemer), Handel Occasional Oratorio in Halle (English Concert), La Resurezionne in Marseilles (The King’s Consort), Messiah at the Royal Albert Hall (Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Richard Cooke) and Purcell at the Wigmore Hall and in Finland (Retrospect Ensemble/Matthew Halls). Forthcoming engagements include Bach St Matthew Passion at Alice Tully Hall in New York (Collegium Vocale/Philippe Herreweghe), Christmas Oratorio in Dublin (RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra/Matthew Halls), BWV 107 in Trogen Switzerland ( J. S. Bach-Stiftung), Handel Alexanders Feast at Rheingau Festival (Koelner Kammerchor/Peter Neumann). She has recently recorded Handel Messiah for Hyperion (Britten Sinfonia/Stephen Layton), Finzi In Terra Pax for NAXOS (Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra/Hilary Daven-Wetton), Lutoslawski Dwadziesci Koled for Sony BMG (BBC Symphony Orchestra / David Zinman) and Bach St John Passion and Magnificat for Analekta (Bethlehem Bach Choir/Greg Funfgeld). 27 62891 OAE MultiDate 2011_OAE 2006 Prog6 h copy 02/12/2011 11:20 Page 28 Biography Daniel Auchincloss tenor Canadian tenor Daniel Auchincloss studied at the University of Toronto and at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. He has performed as soloist with such groups as the Apollo Chamber Orchestra, the Brighton Festival Chorus, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia, the City of London Sinfonia, the Gabrieli Consort, La Grande Écurie et la Chambre du Roy, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and the Salzburg Camerata in Rome. Conductors with whom he has worked include Emmanuelle Haïm, Stephen Cleobury, Gary Cooper, Diego Fasolis, Jean-Claude Malgoire, James Morgan, Sir Roger Norrington and Vassily Petrenko. Engagements have included Linfea La Calisto for the Early Opera Company, Angel Canticum in nativitatem Domini with the Gabrieli Consort, La Pythonisse David et Jonathas with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Charpentier Te Deum with Le Concert Spirituel, Moore The Dragon of Wantley at the Musikfestspiele Potsdam Sanssouci, Apollo L’Orfeo for Capella Cracoviensis, The Fairy Queen and The Indian Queen for Toronto Masque Theatre, the title role in Platée for the English Bach Festival at the Megaron, Athens, Arbace Ciro in Babilonia for the Atelier Lyrique de Tourcoing, the title role in Le Comte Ory for New Chamber Opera and Police Inspector The Nose for the Opera Group. His recordings include Bach Cantatas with I Barocchisti (Arte), Biber Requiem in F, Paride ed Elena and the Monteverdi Vespers 1610 with The Gabrieli Consort & Players (DG), Britten Negroes with the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group conducted by Martyn Brabbins (NMC – a Sunday Times CD of the Week), Sacred Music of Claudio Monteverdi with The King’s Consort (Hyperion), Neukomm Missa Solemnis with La Grande Écurie et la Chambre du Roy (K617) and The Fairy Queen with the Coro della Radio Svizerra (RTSI TV). Other engagements have included Nencio L’infedeltà delusa with Andreas Spering and Capella Augustina at the Musikfestspiele Potsdam Sansoucci, Piet the Pot Le Grand Macabre for English National Opera (cover), Gondolier/Strolling Player Death in Venice at the St. Endellion Festival conducted by Martyn Brabbins, St. John Passion for the Amadeus Choir, Toronto, and the Irish Baroque Orchestra, Mozart Requiem with the Philharmonia Orchestra, Neukomm Missa Solemnis with Jean-Claude Malgoire and La Grande Écurie et la 28 Chambre du Roy, The Fairy Queen with Emanuelle Haïm and Le Concert d’Astrée at the Opéra de Lille and King Arthur for Toronto Masque Theatre. Current and future engagements include Evangelist in the first British performance of the CPE Bach Matthäus-Passion: Idraspes in Cavalli’s Erismena for New Chamber Opera; Nencio in Haydn’s L’infedeltà delusa for Potsdamer Winteroper: Mengone in Haydn’s Lo Speizale on tour with the Israel Camerata; Don Basilio / Don Curzio Le nozze di Figaro with the Atelier Lyrique de Tourcoing at the Théâtre des ChampsÉlysées; Acis in Handel’s Acis and Galatea for The Dunedin Concert at the Felicja Blumental International Music Festival, Tel Aviv; Buxtehude Membra Jesu Nostri with The Purcell Quartet at St John’s, Smith Square; Monteverdi Vespers 1610 with the Netherlands Bach Society; Handel Messiah with the Royal Edinburgh Choral Society; the title role in a concert performance of Charpentier’s Actéon; Don Carlos / Tacmas in Rameau’s Les Indes galantes with Boston Baroque as a part of the Opera America Conference; Don Basilio in Le nozze di Figaro with Classical Opera Company; Purcell’sThe Fairy Queen with The King’s Consort in Vienna; a performance and recording of Gabrieli, and Grandi with Musica Ficta conducted by Roland Wilson. 62891 OAE MultiDate 2011_OAE 2006 Prog6 h copy 01/12/2011 19:42 Page 29 Cathy Weiss, OAE Violinist. Photo: Eric Richmond /Harrison & Co 62891 OAE MultiDate 2011_OAE 2006 Prog6 h copy 01/12/2011 19:42 Page 30 62891 OAE MultiDate 2011_OAE 2006 Prog6 h copy 01/12/2011 19:42 Page 31 62891 OAE MultiDate 2011_OAE 2006 Prog6 h copy 01/12/2011 19:42 Page 32 62891 OAE MultiDate 2011_OAE 2006 Prog6 h copy 01/12/2011 19:42 Page 33 An Olympic Thread Friday 10 February 2012 7pm Queen Elizabeth Hall Telemann Overture, Les Nations Handel Aria, Figlio d’Altre Speranza Sally Beamish Spinal Chords (London premiere) Interval Locatelli Concerto Grosso Op.7 No.6, Il pianto d’Arianna Handel Cantata, Delirio amoroso Matthew Truscott director Major Sponsor Roberta Invernizzi soprano Please pick up tonight’s postcard for the orchestra list and narrator details The concert will finish at approximately 9.10pm with an interval of 20 minutes OAE Extras at 5.45pm, free admission Queen Elizabeth Hall auditorium Sally Beamish, joined by Chi-Chi Nwanoku MBE, introduces Spinal Chords 33 62891 OAE MultiDate 2011_OAE 2006 Prog6 h copy 01/12/2011 19:42 Page 34 New Music 20x12 programme & funder credits New Music 20x12 is a UK-wide commissioning programme initiated by Jillian Barker and David Cohen, and delivered by PRS for Music Foundation in partnership with the BBC, LOCOG, Sound and Music and NMC Recordings. prsformusicfoundation.com New Music 20x12 is generously supported by the following committed patrons and funders: Arts Council England, Creative Scotland, John S. Cohen Foundation, PRS for Music Foundation, Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Arts Council of Wales, Columbia Foundation Fund of the Capital Community Foundation, Incorporated Society of Musicians, Musicians Benevolent Fund, Jerwood Charitable Foundation, RVW Trust, Charlotte and Dennis Stevenson, Tolkien Trust, The Leche Trust, The Bliss Trust, Finzi Trust, The Worshipful Company of Musicians, Lilian Slowe, John and Ann Tusa, John Wates Charitable Trust, Richard Walduck, Honeymead Arts Trust, and Sir Anthony Cleaver. New Music 20x12 is a UK wide programme which consists of twenty outstanding new works, each lasting 12 minutes, commissioned to feature centre stage of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad. New Music 20x12 commissions will be broadcast by BBC Radio 3 and tour the UK, enabling as many people as possible to enjoy excellent new music as part of our celebrations of the London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games. 34 62891 OAE MultiDate 2011_OAE 2006 Prog6 h copy 01/12/2011 19:42 Page 35 An Olympic Thread Friday 10 February 2012 Introduction Programme Notes Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767) Ouverture Les Nations (Völker-Ouverture) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Ouverture Menuets I & II Les Turcs Les Suisses Les Moscovites Les Portugais Les Boiteux Les Coureurs *Words indicated by an asterisk are explained on page 52. 35 With the London Olympics and Paralympic Games getting ever closer, tonight’s concert finds appropriate ways to mark the occasion with a new piece by Sally Beamish, (commissioned as part of New Music 20x12) expressing the positive spirit that lives and breathes within every competitor, whatever the obstacles in their way, and with a typically goodhumoured celebration of international diversity by one of the most widely admired composers of the 18th century, Georg Philipp Telemann. The Olympic thread is taken further with works by Handel and Locatelli on three Classical Greek subjects in which triumph and adversity clash: a Cretan princess cruelly abandoned by her lover; a rightful king reduced to penury but biding his time; and a simple nymph driven to distraction by unrequited love. Telemann composed in many genres during his long and productive career, but one that he returned to more than most was the orchestral suite, of which well over a hundred examples by him survive. This was a popular form in Germany in the first half of the eighteenth century, and had its origins in the loosely connected suites of dances which, a few decades earlier, had been extracted from the operas of Lully. The usual designation of them by Telemann and his fellow Germans simply as ‘ouvertures’ was an acknowledgement both of these French roots and of the fact that the opening movements were often considerably longer than the others, and themselves ‘French’ in their formal plan of slow, stately sections alternating with faster, more contrapuntally* inclined ones. Telemann’s ouvertures were written for many purposes – they could accompany a banquet or be performed as a concert piece at a musicians’ collegium musicum – and to add to the fun it was not uncommon for them to be linked by a non-musical subject. There are, for instance, suites on the themes of Don Quixote, the port of Hamburg, the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and even a gout-sufferer, all descriptive exercises for which Telemann’s keen musical imagination and easy humour seem to have been uncommonly well suited. It is not known for whom he composed the ouverture Les Nations, which appears to be designed as a sort of travelogue. That much is evident from the four postcards from foreign parts which lie at the heart of the suite, respectively depicting the peoples and places of Turkey (wide melodic leaps, exotic harmonies and percussive bass-lines), Switzerland (poised, and with a slight French accent), Muscovy (a striking evocation of church bells) and Portugal (a hint of Latin passion and abandon); but with the ‘limpers’ and ‘runners’ in the final pair of movements seeming to allude to life in the slow and fast lanes, and the quick section of the ouverture also conjuring up a fine gallop, Telemann seems equally concerned with suggesting the motions of horse-travel itself – the equivalent, perhaps, of a later composer imitating the actions of a train. 62891 OAE MultiDate 2011_OAE 2006 Prog6 h copy 01/12/2011 19:42 Page 36 Programme Notes George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) Cantata Figlio d’alte speranze 36 The years Handel spent as a young man in Florence, Rome, Venice and Naples, from 1706 to 1710, were crucial to his development as a composer. It was there, in the land of opera and of the latest developments in vocal and instrumental music, that he met and engaged with famous musicians such as Corelli, Pasquini and the Scarlattis, listened to operas, composed two of his own as well as church music and numerous secular cantatas, and established links with some of the star singers who would later perform in his operas in London. Above all, it was in the compositions he produced in Italy that he perfected his own musical language, adding to his native gifts a melodic fluency, vocal lustre and natural elegance that were to remain characteristic of his works for the rest of his life. Figlio d’alte speranze is thought to be one of the earliest of Handel’s Italian works, probably composed in 1706. If it was intended for a particular patron there is no evidence to suggest who it might have been, and neither can any contemporary figure be directly linked with its seemingly politically weighted subject, that of King Abdalonymus of Sidon, who, having been reduced by events to the status of a gardener, bore his misfortune with equanimity until restored to his throne by Alexander the Great in 332 BC. Handel’s cantata* is as unassumingly noble of spirit as his hero. Falling into the customary format of three recitatives and three arias, it is modestly scored for soprano, continuo and two violins who play in unison throughout in the first and third arias. Their accompaniment figures – echoed by the continuo in the central aria, in which they do not play – add a note of restlessness to the situation, perhaps reflecting Abdalonymus’s tenacious optimism, or else the turning wheel of fortune to which he is nevertheless content to submit. 62891 OAE MultiDate 2011_OAE 2006 Prog6 h copy 01/12/2011 19:42 Page 37 An Olympic Thread Friday 10 February 2012 Programme Notes Sally Beamish music Melanie Reid text Spinal Chords (2011) 37 I have known Melanie Reid, and enjoyed her writing, ever since I moved to the Stirlingshire village where we both live, in 1996. When she had her devastating riding accident in 2010, and began writing ‘Spinal Column’ in the Times, I followed it every week. The idea of working with her came to me when the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment asked me for suggestions for a PRS for Music Foundation New Music 20x12 Cultural Olympiad commission. To my delight, she agreed, and I received the text for Spinal Chords (her title) in May 2011. It was hard to know how I could best serve the words, which I found deeply moving; but Melanie’s title gave me a good starting point: the idea of the chord as the backbone of the music. ‘Cords’ (without an ‘h’) also suggest strings, threads, linking and joining. I realised the role of the music should be as a backdrop for a very slow drama – that of Melanie’s ‘spinal journey’. The decision to use an actor, rather than a singer, was to preserve the directness of the text, and of Melanie’s own voice. I started with twelve chords, which are stated, very slowly, three times; each time in a different key. The chords themselves are closely linked to each other : each builds on the one before. The string orchestra is treated as a large chamber group, with 13 solo lines, and the chords are stated at first by broken-up groups of players, gradually consolidating into larger groups, and then with the addition of ornamentation, and later, scales. The music reflects the agonising slowness of recovery, and the gradual re-connecting as the body finds ways to heal. The piece uses the distinctive techniques of Baroque string playing: expressive bowstrokes, with a minimum of vibrato. I also draw on the similarities between Scottish traditional ornamentation, and that of Baroque music. Spinal Chords was commissioned by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, with funding from New Music 20x12 – a UK-wide commissioning programme initiated by Jillian Barker and David Cohen, and delivered by PRS for Music Foundation in partnership with the BBC, LOCOG, NMC Recordings and Sound and Music. Spinal Chords received its World Premiere on 5 February at the Turner Sims in Southampton, with tonight’s second performance being its London Premiere. © Sally Beamish, 2011 62891 OAE MultiDate 2011_OAE 2006 Prog6 h copy 01/12/2011 19:42 Page 38 Programme Notes Pietro Antonio Locatelli (1695-1764) Concerto grosso in E flat major, Op. 7 No. 6 Il pianto d’Arianna 1 Andante – Allegro – Adagio – Andante – Allegro 2 Largo – Largo andante 3 Grave – Allegro 4 Largo 38 One of the violin giants of the eighteenth century, Locatelli was born in Bergamo in 1695, but by the age of sixteen had moved to Rome, perhaps to study with the famous but ailing Arcangelo Corelli, but more likely with another prominent virtuoso, Giuseppe Valentini. His growing reputation as a violinist soon took him beyond Italy, however, and in 1729 he moved to Amsterdam, where he remained for the rest of his life, making a living as an ‘Italiaansch musiekmeester’, publishing his own music, giving private concerts, teaching, and selling imported Italian violin strings. His playing was noted for its power and brilliance, and indeed his most famous concertos, the Op. 3 set entitled L’Arte del Violino, show a fearsome difficulty that has led to latter-day comparisons with Paganini. Locatelli wrote no vocal music, but a glimpse of how he might have gone about it is seen in Il Pianto d’Arianna (‘The Tears of Ariadne’), the final concerto from his Op. 7 set, published in 1741, which seems to assume the form of a cantata for solo violin and orchestra even to the extent of including passages in unmistakable imitation of vocal recitative. The story of Ariadne, rescued from Crete by Theseus following his slaying of the Minotaur but then abandoned by him on the island of Naxos, was a familiar operatic one, and eighteenth-century listeners to this wordless treatment of it would have needed no explanation of the contents. They include a gentlepulsed opening, perhaps intended to represent Ariadne asleep, alternating with agitation at waking to discover that Theseus has disappeared. Thereafter the mood-swings – weeping one moment, raging the next, with moments of level-headed realisation in between – follow a course typical of the baroque lovelament. 62891 OAE MultiDate 2011_OAE 2006 Prog6 h copy 01/12/2011 19:42 Page 39 An Olympic Thread Friday 10 February 2012 Programme Notes Georg Frideric Handel Il delirio amoroso 39 If Italy contributed immeasurably to Handel’s development as a musician, it also brought out another of his talents, namely the ability to forge friendly and productive relationships with influential people. In Rome these included one of the wealthiest musical patrons of the day in Cardinal Benedetto Pamphili, who had already combined his loves for philosophy, poetry and music in the form of libretti for oratorios for Pasquini and Alessandro Scarlatti. Soon he had taken Handel up as well, almost certainly arranging for him to give a prestigious organ recital at the church of S Giovanni Laterano, and commissioning and writing the text for his first oratorio, Il trionfo del tempo e del disinganno as well as a number of other cantatas. Their earliest collaboration was the cantata Il delirio amoroso (‘Ecstasy of Love’), composed in the first months of 1707. Il delirio amoroso is a grander and more colourful work than Figlio d’alte speranze. The solo soprano is joined this time by an orchestra with solo roles for recorder, oboe, cello and violin, and the sequence of recitatives and arias, preceded by an orchestral sonata, lasts over half an hour. It is typical of Handel’s Italian cantatas, nevertheless, in taking the world of bucolic Classical loving and longing as its subject, with the nymph Clori, spurned in love by the shepherd Tirsi, becoming deranged by grief at his death and imagining herself following him into the Underworld where, despite his continuing rejection of her, her undying love enables his return to the world of the living. Also typical of Handel’s Italian period, however, is the presence of music which combines vitality, imagination and virtuosity with an urgency that seems to be going all out to impress. That it also allows for charm, freshness, dramatic flair and strong emotion is evidence of how early the young composer’s genius was formed; the unhurried spaciousness with which the first aria is laid out shows just how confident he already was in his work, while the lament ‘Per te lasciai la luce’ acts on the listener with all the emotional pull of one of his early operatic showstoppers. © Lindsay Kemp, 2011 62891 OAE MultiDate 2011_OAE 2006 Prog6 h copy 01/12/2011 19:42 Page 40 Biography Matthew Truscott director Matthew Truscott studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London, the Koninklijk Conservatorium in The Hague and in Bloomington, Indiana where his teachers were Erich Gruenberg, Simon Standage, Vera Beths and Mauricio Fucs. He now shares his time between period instrument performance and ‘modern’ chamber music, appearing with some of the finest musicians in both fields. As a soloist and director Matthew has appeared with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Konzerthaus Vienna and London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, as well as making regular appearances on BBC Radio 3 with OAE chamber ensembles, Florilegium and Retrospect Trio. One of the leaders of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, other engagements as concertmaster have included projects with English National Opera, The English Concert, The King’s Consort, Dutch National Opera and the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra. He is leader of St James’ Baroque, the Classical Opera Company and the Magdalena Consort. Matthew teaches baroque violin at the Royal Academy of Music in London. 40 photo: Pierre Doumenge 62891 OAE MultiDate 2011_OAE 2006 Prog6 h copy 01/12/2011 19:42 Page 41 An Olympic Thread Friday 10 February 2012 Biography Roberta Invernizzi soprano Born in Milan, she studied piano and double bass before turning to singing, studying with Margaret Heyward. She went on to specialize in baroque and classical repertoire and is now one of the most sought after soloists in the field of baroque and classical music. She has sung in many of the most important theatres in Europe and the United States, working with conductors such as Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Ivor Bolton, Ton Koopman, Gustav Leonhardt, Franz Brüggen, Jordi Savall, Alan Curtis, Giovanni Antonini, Fabio Biondi, Antonio Florio, Rinaldo Alessandrini and Ottavio Dantone and collaborating regularly with ensembles like: Concentus Musicus Wien, Accademia Bizantina, Il Giardino Armonico, Cappella de la Pieta dei Turchini, Concerto Italiano, Europa Galante, Ensemble Matheus, Venice Baroque Orchestra, Archibudelli and RTSI Lugano. Recent engagements include: Cleopatra in Handel’s Giulio Cesare and a recital Pergolesi/Mozart at the Queen Elizabeth Hall with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment; a European tour of Handel’s Arie e duetti with Anima Eterna and Philippe Jaroussky; Vagaus in Vivaldi’s Juditha Triumphans with Orquesta Nacional de España; Maddalena in Handel’s La Resurrezione with Nikolaus Harnoncourt in Vienna Musikverein; Ottone in Villa and a recital with Il Giardino Armonico at the Mozartheum in Salzburg; Gluck’s Orfeo at the Teatro de la Maestranza in Sevilla with Orquestra Baroccca of Sevilla. In September 2009 she was acclaimed in Monteverdi’s Orfeo al Teatro alla Scala under the baton of Rinaldo Alessandrini and staged by Robert Wilson. Recent performances include leading roles such as Mozart’s C Minor Mass and Davide Penitente at the Musikverein in Vienna and Styriarte Festival with Nikolaus Harnoncourt; title role in Sant’Elena al Calvario with Fabio Biondi at the Salzburg Festival; Handel’s Aci, Galatea e Polifemo at the Salzburg Festival with Il Giardino Armonico; Scarlatti’s La Santissima Trinità at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées in Paris and in Palermo with Europa Galante; Handel’s Trionfo del Tempo with Martin Haselböck and Scarlatti’s La Vergine dei Dolori at Teatro San Carlo in Naples with Rinaldo Alessandrini. She sang the role of Armida in Handel’s Rinaldo at Teatro alla Scala in Milan; Nerone in Handel’s Agrippina with Alan Curtis at Teatro Real in Madrid; La Satira (title-role) of Cavalli at teatro San Carlo in Napoli; Galuppi’s Olimpiade with Andrea Marcon and the Venice Baroque Orchestra in Teatro La Fenice; Vivaldi’s Ercole sul Termodonte and Cavalli’s Virtu degli Strali d’Amore with Fabio Biondi in Teatro La Fenice etc. Roberta Invernizzi has made over 70 recordings many of them world première with labels like: Sony, Deutsche Grammophon, EMI/Virgin, Naïve, Opus 111, Symphonia, Glossa, many of which have been recognized by the musical press with awards like Diapason D’Or de l’Année, Choc du Monde de la Musique, Goldberg’s Five Stars, Gramophone Awards and Deutsche Schallplatten Preis. Her solo-cd ‘Dolcissimo Sospiro’ won the renowned Midem Classical Awards 2007 and the Stanley Prize. In 2010 her solo-cd of Handel ‘Italian Cantatas’ for Glossa won again the prestigious Stanley Prize as ‘best Handel recording of the year’. She gives masterclasses in singing at the Civica School in Milan. 41 photo: Bruna Ginammi 62891 OAE MultiDate 2011_OAE 2006 Prog6 h copy 01/12/2011 19:42 Page 42 Biography Sally Beamish composer Sally Beamish’s music is performed and broadcast internationally. Initially a viola player, she moved from London to Scotland in 1990 to concentrate on writing music. Her work embraces many influences; particularly jazz and Scottish traditional music. The concerto form is a continuing inspiration, and she has written for many soloists, including Tabea Zimmermann, Håkan Hardenberger and Branford Marsalis. Her music is performed and broadcast worldwide, and since 1999 she has been championed by the BIS label, who have recorded much of her work. Recent commissions include concertos for cellist Robert Cohen, with the Minnesota and Halle orchestras, and for percussionist Colin Currie, with the Bergen Symphony Orchestra, Scottish and Swedish Chamber Orchestras, and Stanford Lively Arts, California. Her new string quartet for the Elias Quartet, Reed Stanzas, received its premiere at the 2011 BBC Proms. She will be featured on BBC Radio 3 as Composer of the Week in late February 2012. 42 Melanie Reid writer Melanie Reid, 54, has been a writer and columnist for The Times since 2006. She was born in Hertfordshire and is a graduate of Edinburgh University. An awardwinning journalist for 30 years, she has been Woman’s Editor of The Scotsman, Associate Editor of the Sunday Mail and Senior Assistant Editor of The Herald in Glasgow. In 2010 she fell off her horse and broke her neck and back, after which she began writing the ‘Spinal Column’ in The Times Saturday magazine. 62891 OAE MultiDate 2011_OAE 2006 Prog6 h copy 01/12/2011 19:42 Page 43 Romèo & Juliet Saturday 18 February 2012 7pm Royal Festival Hall Berlioz Romèo et Juliette Sir Mark Elder conductor Sonia Ganassi mezzo-soprano John Mark Ainsley tenor Orlin Anastassov bass BBC Symphony Chorus Schola Cantorum Tonight’s performance has been made possible thanks to the generosity of Robert and Laura Cory. Jonathan Burton surtitles Tonight’s concert is being recorded by BBC Radio 3 for broadcast on 26 February 2012 Please pick up tonight’s postcard for the orchestra list The concert will finish at approximately 8.40pm with no interval OAE Extras at 5.45pm, free admission Royal Festival Hall Berlioz expert David Cairns talks about this rarely performed piece 43 62891 OAE MultiDate 2011_OAE 2006 Prog6 h copy 01/12/2011 19:42 Page 44 The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment would like to thank the following Benefactors for their support without which this concert would not have been possible Robert and Laura Cory Martin and Elise Smith Photo: Eric Richmond /Harrison & Co To find out more about OAE Benefactors, see the central pages. 44 62891 OAE MultiDate 2011_OAE 2006 Prog6 h copy 01/12/2011 19:42 Page 45 Romèo & Juliet Saturday 18 February 2011 Programme Notes Hector Berlioz (1803-1896) Romèo et Juliette: the Formal Plan *Words indicated by an asterisk are explained on page 52. 45 Berlioz’s Romèo used to be seen as an awkward compromise between symphony* and opera or oratorio. Yet the more one studies it the stronger its compositional grasp appears. So far from being arbitrary, the scheme is logical, and the mixture of genres – the legacy of Shakespeare and Beethoven precisely gauged. The Introduction, depicting the feud of the two families, establishes the principle of dramatically explicit orchestral music and then, using the bridge of instrumental recitative (as in the finale of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony), crosses over into vocal music. Choral prologue now states the argument, which choral finale will resolve, and prepares the listener for the themes, dramatic and musical, that will be treated in the core of the symphony. In addition, the two least overtly dramatic movements, the adagio* and the scherzo*, are prefigured and emphasised, the one in a contralto* solo celebrating first love, the other in a scherzetto for tenor and semichorus which introduces the mischievous Mab. At the end the Finale brings the drama fully into the open in an extended choral movement that culminates in the abjuring of the hatreds depicted orchestrally at the outset. Throughout, voices are used enough to keep them before the listener’s attention, in preparation for their full deployment. In the Love Scene the songs of revellers on their way home from the ball float across the stillness of the Capulets’ garden. Two movements* later, in the Funeral Procession, the Capulet chorus is heard. The use of chorus thus follows what Berlioz (in an essay on the Ninth Symphony) called ‘the law of crescendo*’. It also operates emotionally: the voices, having begun as onlookers, become full- scale participants, just as the anonymous contralto and Mercutio-like tenor of the Introduction give way to an actual person, the saintly Friar Laurence. At the same time, the two movements preceding the finale take on an increasingly descriptive character, the funeral dirge merging into an insistent bell-like tolling and the Tomb Scene taking the work still nearer to narrative. In this way the oratorio-like Finale is made to evolve out of what has gone before. Thematic resemblances and echoes are constantly used to link the different sections. To cite only a few examples: the trombone recitative in the Introduction, representing the Prince’s rebuke to the warring families, is formed from the notes of their angry fugato*, stretched out and ‘mastered’; the ball music is transformed to give the departing guests their dreamlike song; in the Tomb Scene Juliet wakes (clarinet) to the identical notes of the rising cor anglais phrase in the opening section of the Love Scene, and this is followed by the great love theme itself, now blurred and torn apart as the dying Romèo relives it in distorted flashback. And in the Finale, as the families’ vendetta breaks out again over the bodies of their children, the return of the opening fugato unites the two extremes of the vast score. The principle is active to the end: the theme of Friar Laurence’s oath of reconciliation takes as its point of departure the Introduction’s angry B minor feud motif, reborn in a broad, magnanimous B major. © David Cairns, 2011 62891 OAE MultiDate 2011_OAE 2006 Prog6 h copy 01/12/2011 19:42 Page 46 Biography Sir Mark Elder CBE conductor Sir Mark Elder is Music Director of the Hallé. He enjoys close associations with the London Philharmonic and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. He was Music Director of English National opera from 1979 to 1993 and has been Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Symphony and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestras. He has appeared annually at the Proms in London for many years including in 1987 and 2006 in the internationally televised Last Night of the Proms. He has appeared regularly in many of the most prominent international opera houses, including Covent Garden, the Metropolitan Opera New York, the Opéra National de Paris, the Lyric Opera of Chicago and Glyndebourne and was the first British conductor to conduct a new production at the Bayreuth Festival. Recent and forthcoming symphonic engagements, apart from his commitment to the Hallé, include the Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw, Russian National Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, TonhalleOrchester Zurich, Gürzenich Orchester, China Philharmonic Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, Australian Youth Orchestra, London Philharmonic, London Symphony, Britten Sinfonia, Aldeburgh World Orchestra, Cambridge University Music Society and the OAE. He also conducted the Hallé orchestra in the 2011 BBC Proms. Recent operatic engagements include King Roger at the Bregenz Festival, Tannhäuser at the Opéra National de Paris, Billy Budd for Glyndebourne and several productions for Covent Garden, including most recently The Tsar’s Bride and Fidelio. In November 2011 he was closely involved in BBCTV’s four part series ‘Symphony’. Sir Mark Elder was knighted in 2008 and awarded the CBE in 1989. In May 2006 he was named Conductor of the Year by the Royal Philharmonic Society. He received Gramophone Awards in 2009, 2010 and 2011for his Hallé recordings of Götterdämmerung, The Dream of Gerontius, The Kingdom and Elgar’s Violin Concerto. In April 2011, he took up the position of Artistic Director of Opera Rara, with whom he is planning several recording projects over the next 5 years . He was awarded Honorary Membership of the Royal Philharmonic Society in 2011 and was recently appointed as a Principal Artist of the Orchestra at the Age of Enlightenment. 46 photo: Mark Dodd 62891 OAE MultiDate 2011_OAE 2006 Prog6 h copy 01/12/2011 19:42 Page 47 Romèo & Juliet Saturday 18 February 2011 Biography Sonia Ganassi mezzo-soprano Sonia Ganassi is one of the greatest mezzo-sopranos of her generation and she’s regularly invited to the most prestigious theaters in the world (the Metropolitan Opera in New York, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, La Scala in Milan, Teatro Real in Madrid, Barcelona’s Liceu, Bayerisches Staatsoper) where she has collaborated with conductors such as Riccardo Chailly, Riccardo Muti, Myung-Whun Chung, Daniele Gatti, Antonio Pappano and Daniel Barenboim. As a result of her many successes, in 1999 she won the Italian music critics award ‘Premio Abbiati’. Her many acting roles include Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Angelina in La Cenerentola, Hermione, Elizabeth the Queen of England, Romèo in Capuleti e Montecchi, Adalgisa in Norma, Leonora in La Favorita, Zaïde in Dom Sebastien, Jane Seymour in Anna Bolena, Maria Elizabeth in Maria Stuarda, Idamante in Idomeneo, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, Eboli in Don Carlo, Charlotte in Werther, Carmen and Marguerite in La Damnation de Faust. Besides the operatic activity, Sonia Ganassi has also performed in prestigious concert halls including the Stabat Mater at Concertegebouw in Amsterdam, at Avery Fisher Hall in New York, at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Verdi’s Requiem at the Berlin Philharmonie and the Teatro alla Scala, under the direction of Maestro Daniel Barenboim and at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia conducted by Maestro Pappano. Recent and future engagements include: Così fan tutte at the Festival Reate Rieti, Roberto Devereux in Japan (on tour with the Bayerische Staatsoper), Charlotte in Werther in Washington, Norma at the Berlin Staatsoper, Salerno and Paris, Anne Bolena in Washington and Vienna, La Straniera, Lucrezia Borgia and Don Carlo in Munich, a recital in Frankfurt, Aida in Marseille, Montecchi e Capuleti in Salem, La Grande-Duchesse de Gerolstein in Liège and Don Giovanni in Valencia under the direction of Maestro Mehta. 47 62891 OAE MultiDate 2011_OAE 2006 Prog6 h copy 01/12/2011 19:42 Page 48 Biography John Mark Ainsley tenor John Mark Ainsley was born in Cheshire, began his musical training in Oxford and continues to study with Diane Forlano. His concert engagements include appearances with the London Symphony under Sir Colin Davis, Rostropovich and Previn, the Concert D’Astrée under Haim, the London Philharmonic under Norrington, Les Musiciens du Louvre under Minkowski, the Cleveland Orchestra under Welser-Moest, the Berlin Philharmonic under Haitink and Rattle, the Berlin Staatskapelle under Jordan, the New York Philharmonic under Masur, the Boston Symphony under Ozawa, the San Francisco Symphony under Tate and Norrington, the Vienna Philharmonic under Norrington, Pinnock and Welser-Möst, and both the Orchestra of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and the Orchestre de Paris under Giulini. His discography is extensive. For Philips Classics he has recorded Handel’s Saul with Gardiner, Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Davis, Stravinsky’s Pulcinella with Haitink and Bach’s ‘Mass in B minor’ and the Evangelist in the ‘St. Matthew Passion’ with Ozawa. For Decca his recordings include L’Enfance du Christ, Alexander’s Feast, Acis and Galatea, the Berlioz ‘Requiem’ and the title role in Monteverdi’s Orfeo. His E.M.I. recordings include the Britten cycles ‘Serenade for tenor, horn and strings’, Les Illuminations and Nocturne, Charlie in Brigadoon and Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni. For Deutsche Grammophon his releases include Handel’s La Resurezzione, Rameau’s Dardanus and Handel’s ‘Messiah’ with Minkowski, the Britten ‘Spring’ Symphony with Gardiner and L’Heure Espagnole with Previn. For Hyperion he has made a series of recital discs of Schubert, Mozart, Purcell, Grainger, Warlock and Quilter and his recording of Vaughan Williams On Wenlock Edge with the Nash Ensemble was nominated for a Gramophone Award. On the operatic stage he has sung Don Ottavio at the Glyndebourne Festival under Sir Simon Rattle, directed by Deborah Warner, the Aix-en-Provence Festival under Claudio Abbado, directed by Peter Brook and for his debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, under Mackerras. His many appearances at the Munich Festival include Bajazet in Tamerlano, Jonathan in Saul, the title role in a new production of Idomeneo at the Cuvilliestheater and as 48 Orfeo, for which he received the Munich Festival Prize. He created the role of Der Daemon in the world premiere of Hans Werner Henze’s L’Upupa at the Salzburg Festival and Hippolyt in the world premiere of Henze’s Phaedra in Berlin and Brussels. He sang Skuratov in Janácek’s From the House of the Dead directed by Chereau and conducted by Boulez at the Amsterdam, Vienna and Aix-en-Provence Festivals and most recently at the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin under Sir Simon Rattle. He also made his house debut at La Scala, Milan under Salonen singing Skuratov and a DVD of this production has been released. He sang his first Captain Vere in Billy Budd in Frankfurt directed by Richard Jones and 2010 saw his first Captain Vere in the UK in Michael Grandage’s production of Billy Budd for the Glyndebourne Festival. Most recently he has appeared as Orfeo at the Theater an der Wien under Ivor Bolton. His future operatic engagements include his role debut as Peter Grimes at La Scala, Milan and Earl of Essex in Britten’s Gloriana in Hamburg. John Mark won the 2007 Royal Philharmonic Society Singer Award. He is a Visiting Professor at the Royal Academy of Music. v 62891 OAE MultiDate 2011_OAE 2006 Prog6 h copy 01/12/2011 19:42 Page 49 Romèo & Juliet Saturday 18 February 2011 Biography Orlin Anastassov bass Orlin Anastassov was born in Russe, Bulgaria. Both of his parents, Maria Venzislavova and Anastas Anastassov, were opera singers. He began his vocal study at a very early age with Maestro Georgi Deliganev and at 20, made his operatic debut in Russe as the King in Aida. Over the next few years he began to develop his repertoire which soon included roles such as Ramfis in Aida (Wiesbaden), Ferrando in Il Trovatore (Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Düsseldorf ) and Phillip II in Don Carlo (Sofia). In April 1999 Orlin Anastassov won the First Prize in the Operalia Competition and in June of the same year made his debut at Teatro alla Scala in Milan as Basilio in Il Barbiere di Siviglia under Riccardo Chailly. This was followed in 2000 with other important debuts; in Aida at the Vienna State Opera, Arena di Verona and at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in concert performances of Verdi’s La Battaglia di Legnano. He has appeared in the title role of Verdi’s Attila, as Fiesco in Simon Boccanegra and as Mephistopheles in Faust at Covent Garden, as Timur in Turandot and as Ramfis in Aida at the Teatro alla Scala. His performances in the great Verdi roles for Bass have also included Phillip II at the Grand Theatre de Geneve and at the Palau de les Arts in Valencia, Fiesco in Simon Boccanegra in Valencia and Cagliari, Zaccaria in Nabucco at the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa and at the Arena di Verona, Attila at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, and Procida in I Vespri Siciliani in Palermo, Ravenna, Genova, Mantova, Ferrara and Bussetto. He made his San Francisco Opera debut as Padre Guardiano in La Forza del Destino, also appearing in this role at the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa.. Mr. Anastassov sang his first performances of the title role in Boris Godunov at L’Opera de Monte Carlo where he was also heard in Faust, the opera which also marked his debut at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. Among his other past projects were Franco Alfano’s rarely performed Sakuntala at the Teatro Dell’Opera di Roma, Samson et Dalila at the Salzburg Festival under Valery Gergiev, La Gioconda at the Teatro Real in Madrid, La Boheme and Il Barbiere di Siviglia at the Staatsoper Berlin. He made his North American operatic debut in La Boheme at the Washington Opera. Anastassov has participated in concert performances of Berlioz’s Benvenuto Cellini, 49 L’Enfance du Christ, Romeo et Juliette and Les Troyens with the London Symphony Orchestra under Sir Colin Davis. In the 2010/2011 season, Mr. Anastassov performed the role of Conte Walter in Luisa Miller at the Bayerische Staatsoper and the Opera National de Paris. He appeared at Accademia Nazionale de Santa Cecilia to perform in Verdi’s Requiem and at Teatro di San Carlo in the role of Jean Procida in Les Vepres Sicilennes. He also performed the principal role in the new production of Attila at Teatro alla Scala. He began the 2011/2012 season as Fiesco in Simon Boccanegra in Bilboa followed by Boris Godunov in Valencia. Later he returns to both the Deutsche Oper Berlin and Teatro alla Scala for Lusia Miller. Orlin Anastassov appears frequently in concert and has sung Verdi’s Requiem with the New York Philharmonic under Lorin Maazel, with the London Symphony under Sir Colin Davis, in Rome under Gian Luigi Gelmetti, in Monte Carlo under Georges Prêtre as well as in Paris, Milan, Toulouse, Amsterdam, Spoleto, Leipzig, and Brescia under Riccardo Chailly. He has also sung Berlioz’s Romeo et Juliette at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples and at the Sao Carlos in Lisbon. 62891 OAE MultiDate 2011_OAE 2006 Prog6 h copy 01/12/2011 19:42 Page 50 Biography BBC Symphony Chorus One of the UK’s finest and most distinctive amateur choirs, the BBC Symphony Chorus was founded in 1928. Its early appearances included premieres of Bartók’s Cantata Profana, Stravinsky’s Perséphone and Mahler’s Eighth Symphony and this commitment to new music is undiminished today with premieres and commissions in recent years of works by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Judith Weir, Stephen Montague, Peter Eötvös, Sir John Tavener and Mark-Anthony Turnage. In its performances with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Chorus performs a wide range of challenging repertoire, all of which is broadcast on BBC Radio 3. The current Barbican season’s concerts with the BBC SO include performances of Tippett’s A Child of Our Time with Sir Andrew Davis and Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms with David Robertson as well as concerts as part of two of this season’s Total Immersion events dedicated to Jonathan Harvey and Arvo Pärt. As resident chorus for the BBC Proms, the BBC Symphony Chorus takes part in a number of concerts each season, usually including the First and Last Nights. Its 2011 appearances included performances of Janacek’s Glagolitic Mass, Britten’s Spring Symphony, Verdi’s Requiem and premieres of BBC commissions by Judith Weir and Sir Peter Maxwell Davies. 50 The Chorus also performs on its own and with other orchestras at venues in London and further afield. Most recently the Chorus has given concerts in the Canary Islands, in France, and with the Philharmonia Orchestra and Lorin Maazel at London’s Southbank Centre. As well as dedicated studio recordings for Radio 3, the most recent of which was a programme of contemporary repertoire for choir, percussion and solo piano conducted by Chorus Director Stephen Jackson, the Chorus has also made recordings for commercial record labels, including Foulds’s A World Requiem, a selection of choral works by Joseph Marx and Delius’s The Song of the High Hills and Appalachia with the BBC SO and Sir Andrew Davis. To find out about the BBC Symphony Chorus visit bbc.co.uk/symphonychorus or contact the Chorus Administrator ( / 020 776 54715) photo: Simon Jay Price 62891 OAE MultiDate 2011_OAE 2006 Prog6 h copy 01/12/2011 19:42 Page 51 Romèo & Juliet Saturday 18 February 2011 Biography Schola Cantorum Musical director James Burton Choral Vocal Coach Sonja Nerdrum Schola Cantorum of Oxford is one of the longest established and widely known chamber choirs in the UK. Founded by the conductor László Heltay in 1960 as the Collegium Musicum Oxoniense, Schola Cantorum has worked with many highly respected musicians, including former patrons Sir Michael Tippett and Yehudi Menuhin, as well as Leonard Bernstein, Gustav Leonhart, Sir Colin Davis, and Sir Neville Marriner. Schola Cantorum comprises around thirty singers, most of whom sing with the choir while they are students at Oxford University. Studying a wide range of academic subjects, including music, the choir members rehearse during university term-times, perform regularly in Oxford and give concerts all over the UK. In addition to its long recording history, the choir has developed a formidable international reputation and in recent years has given concert tours of Mexico, Argentina, Italy, Israel, Spain and China. In 2008, they appeared as guest artists at the 43rd International Festival Wratislavia Cantans in Wroclaw, Poland. In 2008, Schola recorded a disc of music by American composer Randall Thompson, which was released on the Hyperion label to critical acclaim. More recently, they recorded a disc of music by the celebrated Finnish composer, Einojuhani Rautavaara, 51 which was released in January 2010. Schola Cantorum has frequently appeared on radio and television in the UK and abroad. In 2006, the choir commissioned the Oxford Blues Service, a jazz setting of the service of Evensong by Roderick Williams, which was performed live on BBC Radio 3. A jazz Matins service, which was broadcast on BBC Radio 4, followed in 2007. The choir has featured in several of John Bridcut’s BBC films, including The Passions of Vaughan Williams, in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the composer’s death; Elgar: The man behind the mask; and most recently The Prince and the Composer, a documentary presented by HRH The Prince of Wales about Hubert Parry. Following the enormous success of Schola’s fiftieth anniversary celebrations last season, the choir has had another exciting year. Recent highlights have included a masterclass given by the renowned American choral trainer Robert Isaacs, and performances at the Dorchester Festival and in Beaulieu Abbey; the opening concert of the Fifth Masevaux International Festival of the Organ, performing with Thierry Escaich; and Bach’s St Matthew Passion at the St Denis Festival, France. Schola Cantorum is very grateful to Oliver Wyman, a leading global management consulting firm, for its generous support. 62891 OAE MultiDate 2011_OAE 2006 Prog6 h copy 01/12/2011 19:42 Page 52 Adagio From the Italian word meaning ‘at ease,’ also described as slow and stately. Glossary Aria From the Italian word meaning ‘air’ . Any melody or song performed usually, but not always, by a singer, now used almost exclusively to describe a selfcontained piece for one voice, at times duets, usually with orchestral accompaniment. The most common context for arias is opera, however there are also many arias that form crucial movements of oratorios and cantatas. Cantata A work for one or more voices with instrumental accompaniment. Concerto Like many musical terminologies, the word ‘concerto’ differs in its meaning across musical history. The Classical form to which these notes refer used the following basic structure: a first movement, usually composed in sonata form (see below), a slower, quieter second movement, and a third faster and more virtuosic movement to end the piece. Contralto The deepest female classical singing voice, falling between tenor and mezzosoprano. It typically ranges between the F below middle C to the second G above middle C, although at the extremes some voices can reach the E below middle C or the second B above middle C. Contrapuntal Since the Renaissance period in European music, much music which is considered contrapuntal has been written in imitative counterpoint. In imitative counterpoint, two or more voices enter at different times, and (especially when entering) each voice repeats some version of the same melodic element. 52 Crescendo Italian for increasing. Performance indications ask for, respectively, a gradual increase in the volume of sound. Fugal From the Latin meaning flight, the fugue is a composition written for several independent parts. It begins with the main theme after which the other parts are gradually introduced and build and are layered on ‘top’ of one another. Fugato A passage in fugal style within another work that is not a fugue. Mass A form of sacred musical choral composition that sets the invariable portions of the Eucharistic liturgy (principally that of the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion, and the Lutheran Church) to music. Most Masses are settings of the liturgy in Latin, the traditional language of the Roman Catholic Church, but there are a significant number written in the languages of non-Catholic countries where vernacular worship has long been the norm. Motet A short piece of music set to Latin words, and sung instead of, or immediately after, the Offertorium, or as a detached number in extra-liturgical functions. The origin of the name is involved in some obscurity. The most generally accepted derivation is from the Latin motus ‘movement’; but the French mot, ‘word’, or ‘phrase’, has also been suggested. Movement A separate section of a larger composition. 62891 OAE MultiDate 2011_OAE 2006 Prog6 h copy 01/12/2011 19:42 Page 53 Glossary Oratorio An extended musical setting of a sacred text made up of dramatic, narrative and contemplative elements. Except for a greater emphasis on the chorus throughout much of its history, the musical forms and styles of the oratorio tend to approximate to those of opera in any given period, and the normal manner of performance is that of a concert (without scenery, costumes or action). The oratorio was most extensively cultivated in the 18th and 19th centuries but has continued to be a significant genre. Recitative A musical declamation for solo voice in which singers converse, describe, or declaim, moving the action forward between the high musical moments. A form/style of writing for vocals (used in operas, oratorios or cantatas) that is close to the manner of natural speech, with slight melodic variations and minimal orchestral accompaniment, focused on conveying the words and meaning. Scherzo From the Italian word meaning joke. A scherzo is a name given to a piece of music or a movement from a larger work such as a symphony. The scherzo developed from the minuet, and gradually came to replace it as the third (sometimes second) movement in symphonies, sonatas and other similar works. It denotes various types of composition, primarily one that is quick, lively and dance like. Although not necessarily light hearted in tone, it usually presents surprises in the rhythmic or melodic material. Sonata form Sonata form refers to the standard layout of an entire work, or more specifically to the standardised form of the first movement of a work. The basic model consists of an exposition, where the main thematic material is introduced; this then goes on to be explored harmonically and texturally in the development. Following on from this is the recapitulation, in which the thematic material returns in the tonic, or home, key before the piece or movement ends with a coda. Symphony An extended musical composition in Western classical music, scored almost always for orchestra. ‘Symphony’ does not necessarily imply a specific form, though most are composed according to the sonata principle. Many symphonies are tonal works in four movements with the first in sonata form, which is often described by music theorists as the structure of a classical symphony, although many symphonies by the acknowledged classical masters of the form, Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Ludwig van Beethoven do not conform to this model. The OAE needs you. Turn to Page 31 to find out more. 53 62891 OAE MultiDate 2011_OAE 2006 Prog6 h copy 01/12/2011 19:42 Page 54 Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment Principal Artists Sir Mark Elder CBE Iván Fischer Vladimir Jurowski Sir Simon Rattle Emeritus Conductors Frans Brüggen Sir Roger Norrington ‘For this remarkable ensemble, it’s all about the music’ Independent on Sunday Just over two decades ago, a group of inquisitive London musicians took a long hard look at that curious institution we call the Orchestra, and decided to start again from scratch. They began by throwing out the rulebook. Put a single conductor in charge? No way. Specialise in repertoire of a particular era? Too restricting. Perfect a work and then move on? Too lazy. The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment was born. And as this outfit with the funny name began to get a foothold, it made a promise to itself. It vowed to keep questioning, adapting and inventing as long as it lived. Playing on period-specific instruments became just one element of its quest for authenticity. Baroque and Classical music became just one strand of its repertoire. Every time the musical establishment thought it had a handle on what the OAE was all about, the ensemble pulled out another shocker: a Symphonie Fantastique here, some conductor-less Bach there. All the while, the orchestra’s players called the shots. In the early days, it seemed a minor miracle. Ideas and talent were plentiful; money wasn’t. Somehow, the OAE survived to a year. Then to two. Then to five. It developed own-terms relationships with record labels, broadcasters and conductors. It crept into the opera house. It became the toast of the European touring circuit. It bagged a residency at London’s most prominent arts centre. It began, before long, to thrive. Only then came the real challenge. Eccentric and naïve idealists the ensemble’s musicians were branded. And that they were determined to remain – despite growing relationships with the Glyndebourne festival, Virgin Records and the Southbank Centre. Mercifully, they remained just that. In the face of the industry’s big guns, the OAE kept its head. It got organised but remained experimentalist. It sustained its founding drive but welcomed new talent. It kept on exploring performance formats, rehearsal approaches and musical techniques. It examined instruments and repertoire with greater resolve. It kept true to its founding vow. And in some small way, the OAE changed the classical music world for good. It challenged those distinguished partner organisations and brought the very best from them, too. Symphony and opera orchestras began to ask it for advice. Existing period instrument groups started to vary their conductors and repertoire. New ones popped up all over Europe and America. And so the story continues, with ever more momentum and vision. The OAE’s recent series of nocturnal Night Shift performances have redefined concert parameters. The ensemble has formed the bedrock for some of Glyndebourne’s most groundbreaking recent productions. It travels as much abroad as to the UK regions: New York and Amsterdam court it, Birmingham and Bristol cherish it. Remarkable people are behind it. Simon Rattle, the young conductor in whom the OAE placed so much of its initial trust, still cleaves to the ensemble. Iván Fischer, the visionary who punted some of his most individual musical ideas on the young orchestra, continues to challenge it. Vladimir Jurowski, the podium technician with an insatiable appetite for creative renewal, has drawn from it some of the most revelatory noises of recent years. All three share the title Principal Artist. Of the instrumentalists, many remain from those brave first days; many have come since. All seem as eager and hungry as ever. They’re offered ever greater respect, but continue only to question themselves. Because still – and even as they moved into their beautiful new purpose-built home at Kings Place in 2009 – they pride themselves on sitting ever so slightly outside the box. They wouldn’t want it any other way. © Andrew Mellor, 2009 54 62891 OAE MultiDate 2011_OAE 2006 Prog6 h copy 01/12/2011 19:42 Page 55 OAE Education 2011-12 From our weekly string club in London to week long projects in Wiltshire the autumn term has been fantastically busy for OAE Education. In the run up to Christmas we look forward to our celebratory preconcert performance at the Royal Festival Hall and all the exciting new faces we will meet in 2012 during our nationwide project Anthem for a Child. Hallelujah Indeed! As part of a continuing partnership with Islington, Camden, Merton and Wandsworth music services, we will be hosting a pre-concert event on 6 December – Hallelujah Indeed! Key Stage two and three pupils from our partner boroughs string groups and the Foundling Choir have been invited to perform on the Royal Festival Hall Stage. We have commissioned two new pieces for this event and all repertoire performed is Hallelujah themed. With over 100 pupils involved, this certainly will be a Hallelujah Indeed! Anthem for a child This Autumn term OAE Education have officially launched their most ambitious project to date – Anthem for a Child. In 2011-12 we will work across the country in 9 locations from Devon to York, bringing a series of teacher training, workshops and concerts to over 5000 children and students of all ages. Celebrating partnerships we have developed over the last ten years, Anthem is specially tailored to each area to maximise impact and musical future. Musician’s Miles Inspired by the essence of the Anthem project (community, legacy and scale) we have decided to embark on a different kind of fundraising drive, and we’ve asked for the help of the whole OAE. We are hoping to total 5000 miles of sponsored activity – a mile to represent every person who will be involved in the project. There will more information on how you can get involved later in the season. In the meantime, if you are interested in supporting the project please see the central pages of this programme or visit oae.co.uk/support/current-appeals Teacher Training This November and December we are holding the first sessions of Anthem teacher training. The opening session was held in Plymouth which is also the opening setting of the tour. Teachers from Totnes and Plymouth met alongside final year music teacher students from Plymouth University for a day of learning about their part in the Anthem project. Everyone involved was taught two newly commissioned works that they will go on to teach to their pupils. Also, everyone was provided with teaching recourses compiled by OAE workshop leaders and players with materials relating to the project to provide opportunities to extend learning about the orchestra, repertoire and musicality beyond the OAE project. You can see footage of some of our work in Plymouth on YouTube on PlymouthMusicZone’s Channel. If you would like to enquire about education projects please contact Ellie on: [email protected] 020 7239 9370 or visit our website oae.co.uk photo: David Illman 55 62891 OAE MultiDate 2011_OAE 2006 Prog6 h copy 01/12/2011 19:42 Page 56 Our Supporters The OAE continues to grow and thrive through the generosity of our supporters. We are very grateful to our sponsors and patrons and hope you will consider joining them. We offer a close involvement in the life of the Orchestra with many opportunities to meet players, attend rehearsals and even accompany us on tour. For further information please call Isabelle Tawil on 020 7239 9380. MAJOR SPONSOR CORPORATE BENEFACTORS Ambrose Appelbe Solicitors American Express Services Europe Ltd Apax Partners Commerzbank Lazard Lubbock Fine Chartered Accountants Parabola Land Vision Capital CORPORATE PATRONS KYP Services Lindt Macfarlanes Roger Neill Swan Turton BUSINESS CLUB MEMBERS Goodenough College Green & Fortune Lubbock Fine Chartered Accountants Parabola Land INDIVIDUAL BUSINESS CLUB MEMBER Stephen & Angela Jordan Stephen Moss (The Guardian) OAE Futures is the long term artistic development programme of the OAE and was established in 2006 with a substantial lead donation from The Smith Challenge Fund. The OAE is grateful to Martin and Elise Smith for this generous and imaginative support. OAE Futures comprises projects grouped under three headings: Future Orchestra, Future Performers and Future Audiences, and offers a special opportunity for donors to be involved in the development of the Orchestra’s artistic strategy at the highest level. The Orchestra thanks for the following for their support of OAE Futures: OAE Futures Funders Bob & Laura Cory The Smith Challenge Fund Ann & Peter Law OAE Experience Scheme Ann & Peter Law Melgaard OAE Young Conductor Scheme Greg & Gail Melgaard For further details about becoming an OAE Futures Funder please contact Clare Norburn, Director of Development: [email protected] 56 BENEFACTORS Felix Appelbe & Lisa Bolgar Smith Julian & Annette Armstrong Christopher & Lesley Cooke Robert & Laura Cory Nigel Jones & Françoise Valat Jones David & Selina Marks Julian & Camilla Mash Anthony Simpson & Susan Boster Philip & Rosalyn Wilkinson CHAIR PATRONS Martin & Elise Smith Leader Mark, Rosamund, Benedict & Emily Williams Violin Chair Hugh & Michelle Arthur Violin Chair Bruce Harris Viola Chair Sir Vernon & Lady Ellis Co-Principal Viola Dominic & Ali Wallis Continuo Cello Michael and Licia Crystal Principal Double Bass Christopher & Dame Judith Mayhew Jonas Principal Oboe Peter & Leanda Englander Principal Clarinet Roger & Pam Stubbs Sub-principal Clarinet Professor Richard Portes CBE FBA Principal Bassoon John & Rosemary Shannon Co-Principal Horn Sir Timothy & Lady Lloyd Keyboard Franz & Regina Etz Lute/Theorbo James Flynn QC Lute/Theorbo Steve & Joyce Davis Orchestra Manager Mrs Nicola Armitage Education Manager EDUCATION PATRONS John & Sue Edwards (Principal Education Patrons) Mrs Nicola Armitage Venetia Hoare Professor Richard Portes CBE FBA The OAE is a registered charity number 295329 accepting tax efficient gifts from UK taxpayers and businesses 62891 OAE MultiDate 2011_OAE 2006 Prog6 h copy 02/12/2011 11:20 Page 57 Our Supporters FRIENDS OF THE OAE Support the OAE from just £50 a year. IDOMENEO GROUP Michael & Jacqueline Gee Professor David Graham QC Mrs Irina Knaster David & Lesley Mildon Tim & Jenny Morrison Gary & Nina Moss Andrew Nurnberg Haakon & Imogen Overli Shelley von Strunckel Eric Tomsett Anonymous GOLD FRIENDS Noël & Caroline Annesley Gerard Cleary Mr & Mrs C Cochin de Billy Michael & Barbara Gwinnell Mr & Mrs Michael Mallinson Michael & Harriet Maunsell SILVER FRIENDS Mrs A Boettcher Michael Brecknell Geoffrey Collens Mr & Mrs Michael Cooper Patricia Herrmann Lady Heseltine Peter & Sally Hilliar Mrs Hilary Jordan Rupert & Alice King Mrs Urszula King John D & Dorothy H Leonard Marsh Christian Trust Roger Mears & Joanie Speers Sabine & Norbert Reis Her Honour Suzanne Stewart Mr J Westwood Dr Christina Williams 57 BRONZE FRIENDS Keith Barton Professor John Birks The Revd Brian Blackshaw Sue & Bill Blyth Dan Burt Andrew & Laetitia Collender Michael A. Conlon Anthony & Jo Diamond Gary & Ella Diamond Mrs S M Edge Mr P Foote Mr & Mrs James Golob Oliver Heaton Michael & Morven Heller Auriel Hill Mrs A Hone Professor John Irving Mr & Mrs F Jonas Mr & Mrs J W Lloyd Professor Ingrid Lunt The Laurence McGowan Appreciation Society Dr Trilby Johnson Mrs Joy Whitby Elena Wilkinson THE AMERICAN FRIENDS OF THE OAE A US-based 501(c)(3) charitable organisation. Contributions received qualify for an Internal Revenue Service tax deduction. AMERICAN BENEFACTORS Ciara A Burnham Mark D & Catherine J Cone Sarah Ketterer The Pzena Family Foundation William & Kathleen Reiland AMERICAN PATRONS John and Elena Brim Ms Denise Simon Mr & Mrs Nicholas von Speyr Mr Donald Johnson TRUSTS, FOUNDATIONS AND OTHER SUPPORTERS Apax Foundation Aquarius Charitable Foundation Arts Council England The Paul Bassham Charitable Trust R & S Cohen Foundation The Comninos Charitable Trust The Coutts Charitable Trust The Drapers’ Charitable Fund Edgar E Lawley Foundation The Ernest Cook Trust Esmée Fairbairn Foundation The Foyle Foundation The Golden Bottle Trust J Paul Getty Jnr Charitable Trust The Idlewild Trust John Lewis Partnership John Lyon’s Charity The Joyce Fletcher Charitable Trust Margaret & Richard Merrell Foundation Marsh Christian Trust Mayor’s Music Education Fund Michael Marks Charitable Trust Michael Tippett Musical Foundation The Nugee Foundation Orchestras Live The Charles Peel Charitable Trust The Austin & Hope Pilkington Trust The Prince’s Foundation for Children & The Arts PRS For Music Foundation The Radcliffe Trust The RK Charitable Trust Salomon Oppenheimer Philanthropic Foundation 62891 OAE MultiDate 2011_OAE 2006 Prog6 h copy 02/12/2011 11:20 Page 58 2011-2012 Southbank Centre Concerts Sunday 12 February 2012 Purcell Room at Queen Elizabeth Hall 10.30am and 2pm Sunday 4 March 2012 Queen Elizabeth Hall, 1.30pm *Bach in rehearsal Booking Information Southbank Centre Ticket Office 0844 847 9922 southbankcentre.co.uk/oae Tickets £6-£60 unless otherwise indicated. All concerts start at 7pm and are preceded by a free pre-concert OAE Extras event at 5.45pm. Free programmes are available at every concert. You can find more information about the OAE at: Email: [email protected] Website: oae.co.uk Blog: oae.co.uk/blog Facebook.com/orchestraofthe ageofenlightenment Twitter: twitter.com/theoae Study Day: Berlioz’s Romèo and Juliet Ahead of the OAE’s performance of Berlioz’s mammoth Romèo and Juliet on 18 February this study day gives you a chance to find out more about this unique piece. Tickets £5 Tickets £12 per session, £6 concessions, £4 full time students Sunday 4 March 2012 Purcell Room at Queen Elizabeth Hall, 11am *OAE TOTS: Let’s get on the bus! A fun, lively and interactive session for everyone aged five and under (and their parents) – come and join musicians from the Orchestra for an hour of musical fun. Tickets Adults £4.50, Tots £1 * Music Nation Weekend. Part of the London 2012 Festival 58 A very special opportunity, as part of the Music Nation weekend, to watch the OAE in rehearsal for the evening’s concert. The rehearsal lasts 3 hours with a 20 minute break. Sunday 4 March 2012 Queen Elizabeth Hall *Baroque Giants: Bach Bach Suite No.3 in D Bach Violin Concerto in E major Bach Brandenburg Concerto No.5 in D Bach Suite No.4 in D Laurence Cummings director Matthew Truscott violin Lisa Beznosiuk flute 62891 OAE MultiDate 2011_OAE 2006 Prog6 h copy 02/12/2011 11:20 Page 59 Sunday 4 March 2012 Queen Elizabeth Hall, from 9pm Wednesday 7 March 2012 Queen Elizabeth Hall Baroque Giants: Handel *The Night Shift Laurence Cummings director Matthew Truscott violin Lisa Beznosiuk flute Handel Overture, Saul Handel Concerto Grosso in B flat Op.3 No.1 Handel Organ Concerto in D minor Op.7 No.4 Handel Concerto Grosso in A Op.6 No.11 Handel Il pastor fido Tickets £9 adv, £12 on the day, £4 students, £8 stage seats Laurence Cummings director Soloists from the OAE Tuesday 6 March 2012 Queen Elizabeth Hall, 8pm Wednesday 25 April 2012 Queen Elizabeth Hall The Works Bostridge sings Bach Bach Suite No.3 in D Bach Brandenburg Concerto No.5 in D Bach Brandenburg Concerto No.4 in G Bach Ich habe genug Bach Sinfonia from Cantata No.169 Bach Sanfte soll mein Todeskummer from Easter Oratorio Bach Der Ewigkeit saphirnes Haus from Trauer-Ode Bach Sinfonia from Cantata No.35 Bach Mein Verlangen from Cantata No.161 Bach Zerschmettert mich, ihr Felsen und ihr Hügel from St John Passion Bach Suite No.3 in D Bach Brandenburg Concerto No.5 in D Laurence Cummings presenter/director Unwind with a drink and let our presenter and soloist give you a guided tour of two of Bach’s masterpieces, complete with musical examples from the Orchestra. Tickets £15 & £25 Steven Devine director Ian Bostridge tenor 59 62891 OAE MultiDate 2011_OAE 2006 Prog6 h copy 01/12/2011 19:42 Page 60 OAE news Our new apprentice... Night Shift News We’re very pleased to announce that our new Melgaard OAE Young Conductor for 2012 is David Reiland. Hailing from Belgium, he has worked with the Lucerne Festival (with Pierre Boulez), Sinfonietta Berlin, and the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra amongst others as guest or assistant conductor. During his year with us, he will experience a wide range of OAE activities and will have the opportunity to assist two of OAE’s Principal Artists: Sir Simon Rattle and Sir Mark Elder. David is very much looking forward to his time with us: “Without a doubt, this year alongside the OAE will offer me, as young conductor, an incredibly rewarding, moving and decisive experience. An experience like no other.” Previous OAE apprentices have gone on work at Trondheim Symphonie, Opera Comique, London Philharmonic Orchestra and Glyndebourne. You can find out more about this unique scheme at oae.co.uk/about/young-conductor-scheme As you may have seen, over the past few months, we’ve been busy raising funds to put on a whole Night Shift tour in pubs, following on from the success of our initial event in September. Well, we had a flood of donations in the closing days of the campaign and were thrilled not just to meet our target, but to smash through it with £1,255 raised overall. We were thrilled with everyone’s generosity and enthusiasm, and with over 50 donors it really did prove the concept of Crowdfunding – a lot of small donations making a BIG difference. Thank you! The pub tour will start on 31 January 2012, with further performances across London on 1, 7, 21 and 22 February. Check our website for full details of venues and the music featured. The performances all build up to the Night Shift’s second appearance at Camden’s Roundhouse, following on from our sold out event there in 2010. The event, on 24 February, features extracts from Berlioz’s Romeo and Juliet, conducted by Sir Mark Elder and with presenter Alistair Appleton. A further Night Shift, back at Southbank Centre, follows hot on its heels on 4 March, as part of the Music Nation weekend and the London 2012 festival. Full details of all events at oae.co.uk/thenightshift Berlioz Study Day Ahead of the OAE’s performance of Berlioz’s mammoth Romèo & Juliet on 18 February, we’ll be looking more closely at this unique piece on 12 February in our annual study day. The morning session will examine the power of Shakespeare’s works and their representation in music, before looking more specifically at Berlioz’s masterpiece itself. In the afternoon we will look at the impact of Harriet Smithson, (actress and Berlioz’s first wife) on his compositions, and the day will be rounded off with a look at, and discussion of,Berlioz’s songs, culminating in a performance of his stunning song La Mort d’Ophelie with rising young soprano Sarah Gabriel. Tickets for each session are just £12 (£6 for concessions/£4 students), lasting two and a half hours with a break and can be purchased from the Southbank Centre website at southbankcentre.co.uk/oae or on 0844 847 9922. 60 New CD now on sale We’re pleased to announce that the second CD on our OAE Released label is out now: a live recording of Beethoven’s Symphony No.9 from the Edinburgh International Festival. Beethoven’s euphoric Symphony No.9, like his Symphony No.5, is one of those pieces of classical music which transcends the barrier between musical genres – one of the few pieces of the classical canon in the popular consciousness. Few can fail to be uplifted and caught up in the joyous Ode to Joy finale. For this performance, recorded live at the Edinburgh International Festival in 1994, we were joined by the renowned conductor and long-time collaborator, Sir Charles Mackerras, a partnership that lasted almost a quarter of a century. The CD is on sale now, priced at £9.99 from our OAE shop: oae.co.uk/shop or by calling 020 7239 9374. For all the latest OAE news visit oae.co.uk P3_Layout 1 21/09/2011 14:03 Page 1 $0%526($33(/%( DUHSURXGWRVSRQVRUWKH 2UFKHVWUDRIWKH$JHRI(QOLJKWHQPHQW 'LYRUFH3UHQXSWLDO$JUHHPHQWV/LWLJDWLRQ :LOOV3ULYDWH&OLHQW(PSOR\PHQW3URSHUW\ ZZZDPEURVHDSSHOEHFRXN Lubbock Fine is proud to be associated with The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and wishes it every success. LF Creative, the dedicated arts and music division of Lubbock Fine, provides specialist accounting and tax advice for musicians. Contact: Clive Patterson or Russell Rich [email protected] [email protected] Russell Bedford House, City Forum, 250 City Road, London EC1V 2QQ Tel: +44 (0)20 7549 2333 www.lubbockfine.co.uk Member of Russell Bedford International - with affiliated offices worldwide Commerzbank is proud to sponsor the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment Corporates & Markets At Commerzbank, we aspire to be our clients’ partner of choice when it comes to the development and execution of smart solutions for all their finance and capital market needs. With our guiding principles of performance, client orientation, team spirit and integrity, we understand the need to nurture talent and to act to the highest professional and personal standards of honesty, quality and excellence. Commerzbank is proud to sponsor the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. www.commerzbank.com/newCM Achieving more together Helping You Find Your Perfect Instrument Visit Our New Showrooms in Central London At Bishop Instruments & Bows we have an extensive range of violins, violas, cellos and bows by the worlds finest contemporary craftsmen and the old masters. We have recently moved to a larger premises just two minutes from Wigmore Hall, with two showrooms and a large workshop for repairs of the finest order. Our Current Examples in Stock Include: Violins by GB Guadagnini, Gagliano, JB Vuillaume, E Ceruti, V Postiglione, L Bisiach, C Candi & G Pedrazzini. Violas by G Rocca, G Dall’Aglio, G Rivolta, Capicchioni, Carletti, Sderci. Cellos by G Antoniazzi, Capicchioni, Gilkes, Panormo & Fredi. Bows by Simon, Henry, Sartory & Fetique. 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