International Concert Series 2022-2023

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Concert Series G R E AT P E R F O R M A N C E L I V E 2 0 2 2 – 2 0 2 3

Great Music of the World KEYSTONE DONOR Lord & Lady Sainsbury of Preston Candover through the Linbury Trust MAJOR DONORS Mr Peter Bedford Mr Jan Bowlus The Bulldog Trust Mrs P Cadbury Hackwood Arts Trust Jeremiah Colman Trust Mr P Degermark Edward Garside Mr and Mrs J M Holden Dr Michael Hollas Sally Jones John and Jill Leek Anthony and Alison Milford Sir John Milne David & Diana Norman The Countess of Portsmouth Mr & Mrs John Raymond Mr Stuart Roden Mr & Mrs G J Rushbrook Prof J M Smith Mr & Mrs Michael Steen Leslie Strickland Tenon Philip and Jill Walsh Michael Webster P S Wilmot-Sitwell A complete list of donors can be found on the Anvil Arts website­

Since The Anvil opened in 1994, the International Concert Series has brought many superb performers to Basingstoke.

The Anvil presents one of the largest orchestral series in the country. However, with fewer than half the number of seats to sell of other concert halls, we are unable to cover the cost of bringing these great orchestras to Basingstoke from ticket revenue alone. The Great Music of the World fund gives us the security to be able to make the upfront commitment required.

In the last twenty years, the Fund has supported more than forty concerts, including memorable appearances by the Leipzig Gewandhaus, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Czech Philharmonic and Budapest Festival orchestras.

Please support the fund so that we can continue to put Basingstoke on the map by bringing the world’s great orchestras for everyone to enjoy.

We would like to express our gratitude for their support to all donors to the Great Music of the World Fund.

Welcome Back We’re so pleased to welcome you back to The Anvil to enjoy the International Concert Series once more. Eighteen pieces never heard here before, including works

by Mozart, Elgar, and Janáček; twelve Anvil debut performances by outstanding soloists and conductors; orchestras from the Czech Republic, Sweden and Iceland; and above all spectacular, moving and memorable concerts to delight you in “one of the best concert halls in the country” (The Observer) right here in Basingstoke.

Hear more music for less money with our subscription deals – see the booking form for details. And don’t forget under 25s pay just £12 for any seat in the house.

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Friday 23 September 2022 Thursday 13 October 2022 Friday 11 November 2022 Wednesday 23 November 2022 Thursday 1 December 2022 Sunday 15 January 2023 Friday 3 February 2023 Wednesday 15 February 2023 Friday 3 March 2023 Saturday 25 March 2023 Thursday 13 April 2023 Friday 28 April 2023 Saturday 20 May 2023

Extra Concerts

Tuesday 29 November 2022 Wednesday 7 June 2023

Philharmonia Orchestra Brno Philharmonic Orchestra Chineke! Orchestra Malta Philharmonic Orchestra Sinfonia of London Philharmonia Orchestra Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra Philharmonia Orchestra Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra Swedish Philharmonia Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment Iceland Symphony Orchestra Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment

The Sixteen Philharmonia Orchestra

CONCERTS START AT 7.45PM UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED £42, £38, £31, £24, £16 Under 25s, f/t students £12 (include £4 booking fee)

G roup rate available M any concerts have pre-concert talks – please ask the box office for details anvilarts.org.uk 01256 844244 box.office@anvilarts.org.uk Group booking 01256 366935 group.booking@anvilarts.org.uk

G Friday 23 September

Philharmonia Orchestra

Vikingur Olafsson

Clyne

Masquerade Adams

Must the Devil have all the good tunes?

Mahler

Symphony no. 5 Vikingur Olafsson

piano Santtu-Matias Rouvali

“Breathtakingly brilliant pianist” Gramophone on Vikingur Olafsson

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The 2022-23 concert series opens with the exuberant Masquerade, inspired by London’s bustling 18th-century pleasure gardens. John Adams’ piece is a piano concerto in all but name, with propulsive outer movements and a meditative central section. “Combining devilish solos with toe-tapping melodies…devastatingly catchy” Classical Music.

Mahler’s fifth symphony opens with a grave march, followed by a stormy movement with fluctuating moods. An energetic scherzo marks a turning point, and after the tender Adagietto, the symphony ends joyfully, culminating in a triumphant chorale.

The Philharmonia Orchestra is Anvil Arts’ Orchestra in Partnership

Thursday 13 October

Brno Philharmonic Orchestra

Laura van der Heijden

Dennis Russell Davies

Janáček

Taras Bulba

Martinů

Cello Concerto no. 1 Janáček

Jealousy

2 “Dazzling, imaginative and impressive” BBC Music on Laura van der Heijden

Dvořak

Symphony no. 8 Laura van der Heijden

(cello) Dennis Russell Davies

Founded by Janáček in his home town, the Brno Philharmonic Orchestra has an unmatchable tradition in his music. His dramatic symphonic poem, based on an epic tale of Cossack adventure, was composed as the possibility of Czech independence grew closer. Martinů’s concerto, one of his best for any instrument, is built around the reflective slow movement. Jealousy was originally written as the dramatic overture to the opera Jenufa, and packs a high emotional charge into its short duration.

Dvořak’s Eighth Symphony was composed at his house in the depths of rural Bohemia and is full of the spirit of Czech folksong and the countryside. Its four movements move between major and minor before building to an exuberant finale driven by whooping horn calls.

Wednesday 23 November

Malta Philharmonic Orchestra

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Jeneba Kanneh Mason

Friday 11 November

Chineke!

Orchestra

Coleridge-Taylor

Ballade in A minor Walker

Lyric for strings Florence Price

Piano Concerto Dvořak

Symphony no. 9 (From the New World) Jeneba Kanneh-Mason

piano Leslie Suganandarajah

Coleridge-Taylor’s Ballade was commissioned for the Three Choirs Festival on the recommendation of Elgar, and was a great success for the composer. George Walker’s heartfelt Lyric was originally written for string quartet and later expanded to full strings.

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Seascapes for violin and symphony orchestra Prokofiev

Violin Concerto no. 1 Rachmaninov

Symphony no. 2

Maxim Vengerov

violin

The romantic Seascapes opens this concert, with Maxim Vengerov as soloist. Prokofiev’s violin concerto has the atmosphere of a fairy tale or dream, with the two rhapsodic outer movements divided by a quirky scherzo. The composer’s delicate orchestration is to the fore as the finale evaporates in an iridescent shimmer of soloist, strings and flute.

Rachmaninov’s Second Symphony is a richly-scored masterpiece. The first three movements are all based on the same falling theme, while the finale is an outburst of fanfares and celebration, confirming the transition from darkness and doubt to joyous affirmation.

Sergey Smbatyan Maxim Vengerov

Florence Price’s concerto is in a single movement, like those of Liszt and Mendelssohn. The final section is an exuberant juba, a dance which was a forerunner of ragtime.

Dvořak’s most famous symphony, written in America while filled with longing for his Czech homeland, has an apparently inexhaustible flow of melodies, with a justly celebrated slow movement at its heart.

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“Vengerov didn’t merely give a great concert; some of his playing left me openmouthed in wonder” Bachtrack, January 2022

Extra Concert Martin James Bartlett John Wilson

Thursday 1 December

The Sixteen

Tuesday 29 November

The Sixteen at Christmas The Wise Men and the Star Harry Christophers

One of the world’s great choral ensembles, The Sixteen continues to thrill and delight audiences around the world. This special Christmas programme includes a feast of carols and seasonal choral music. Favourite traditional versions, stunningly beautiful Tudor and Renaissance works and modern settings are combined in a ravishing and satisfying evening of music. The perfect way to start your festive celebrations.

Tickets: £36, £28 (includes £4 booking fee)

“A tiny soundbite of heaven” The Times

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Sinfonia of London Walton

Overture: Scapino Ravel

Valses nobles et sentimentales Gershwin

Rhapsody in Blue Debussy

La mer

Ravel

Bolero (original ballet version)

Martin James Bartlett

piano John Wilson

“Ingenious programming, astonishing playing, revelatory music-making” The Times

A hand-picked group of world-class musicians who meet for specific projects, the Sinfonia of London made its live debut at the Proms last year. The concert gets off to a scintillating start with Walton’s musical depiction of the rascally servant of Italian tradition. The delicate sequence of waltzes which follows, orchestrated by Ravel from his piano original, is given an extra glow by the nostalgic and affectionate coda. Gershwin’s most celebrated piece is still unmatched in its merging of swing and classical traditions.

Debussy’s largest orchestra piece is an attempt to capture in music the many moods of the sea “always endless and beautiful.” The concert closes with the original ballet version of Bolero, fascinatingly different from the familiar orchestral version.

Marta Gardolinska

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Sunwook Kim

Sunday 15 January

Philharmonia Orchestra Weber

Overture: Der Freischütz Clarinet Concerto no. 1 Brahms

Symphony no. 1 Michael Collins

clarinet Marta Gardolinska

Weber’s magnificent overture to his most successful opera concentrates the most important elements of the drama into a memorable tone-poem. Weber’s first clarinet concerto brilliantly exploits the qualities of instrument, with the music ranging in character from grand declamation to jaunty and playful, with a particularly imaginative and effective slow movement. The prolonged effort that Brahms’ First Symphony cost the composer as he struggled to escape from the shadow of Beethoven is well known. Nevertheless it resulted in one of his most satisfying works.

The Philharmonia Orchestra is Anvil Arts’ Orchestra in Partnership

“Collins’ clarinet playing mesmerises the ear” BBC Music

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Kirill Karabits

Friday 3 February

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra

Debussy

Prelude à l’après-midi d’un faune Bartók

Piano Concerto no. 2 Elgar

Symphony no. 2 Sunwook Kim

piano Kirill Karabits

Debussy’s groundbreaking prelude is a delicate and subtle translation into sound of a lazy summer afternoon. Bartók’s thrilling and spectacular Piano Concerto no. 2 is an allstops-out masterpiece. Its characteristic structure has the central mysterious slow movement interrupted by a whirlwind scherzo and framed by dynamic outer movements of great power, energy and excitement. Elgar’s Second Symphony was dedicated to King Edward VII, but like much of his music, behind the grandeur of its public face lies a more thoughtful and uncertain world. Elgar’s mastery of this wide range of emotional expression, and ability to use his large orchestra to powerful effect, is complete.

“A delight. His rhythmically incisive, crisp, clear-cut delivery was highly attractive” Seen and Heard International on Sunwook Kim

Alice Coote

Friday 3 March

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Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra

Sir John Eliot Gardiner

Wednesday 15 February

Philharmonia Orchestra Mendelssohn

Overture: The Hebrides Elgar

Sea Pictures Dvořak

Symphony no. 5 Alice Coote

mezzo-soprano Sir John Eliot Gardiner

Mendelssohn’s vivid musical picture of a voyage to the Scottish islands is deservedly one of his most popular pieces. Elgar wrote Sea Pictures immediately after the Enigma Variations and it shares their mastery of orchestral tone-painting in five contrasting songs.

Dvořak’s symphony is the first of his mature works in the form and shows a wealth of inspiration and memorable melodies in its four movements. The fresh and sunny character throughout its four movements never fails to delight.

Beethoven

Overture: Leonora no. 3

Vaughan Williams

The Lark Ascending Mahler

Symphony no. 4 Thomas Gould

Beethoven’s dramatic overture is a perfect concentration of the themes of his opera Fidelio. In The Lark Ascending, the solo violin soars above the orchestra in increasing rapture, contrasted with a more folk-inspired second theme. The Fourth is Mahler’s most serene symphony, written at a time when everything in his life seemed to be going well. After three graceful and mostly good-humoured movements, it concludes with a child’s-eye view of heaven, as a place where food, games and music overflow in abundance.

violin Natalia Tanasii

soprano Alexander Soddy

The Philharmonia Orchestra is Anvil Arts’ Orchestra in Partnership

“a Sea Pictures of arresting character and flawless technical control” Gramophone on Alice Coote

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Alexander Soddy

Nemanja Radulović

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Saturday 25 March

Swedish Philharmonia

Bo Linde

A Merry Overture Tchaikovsky

Violin Concerto Sibelius

Symphony no. 2 Nemanja Radulović

violin Jaime Martin

The opening piece is by one of Sweden’s most renowned composers, and lives up to its name.

Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto was written while on holiday in Switzerland recovering from his disastrous marriage. It begins in heroic vein, followed by a tender and beautiful slow movement. The spectacular finale takes the form of a whirling Russian dance.

Sibelius’ second symphony was written largely in Italy and inhabits a very different musical world from the northern darkness of his first. The sense of renewal and exploration continues through its four movements before building inexorably to the final thrilling brass theme.

Thursday 13 April

Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment Mozart

Quintet for piano and wind instruments Fortepiano Concerto no. 17 Symphony no. 36 (Linz) Kristian Bezuidenhout

piano/director

The magnificent quintet which opens the concert is one of Mozart’s greatest pieces. After the first performance the composer wrote excitedly to his father “I consider it to be the best thing I have written in my life.” The piano concerto which follows is written on a grander scale than before, and was a huge hit in his 1784 season. The Linz symphony was written in 1783 for a concert in that town he gave while travelling back to Vienna. With trumpets and drums to the fore, even in the elegant slow movement, it’s a bright and festive work.

Riccardo Minasi

Stephen Hough

Eva Ollikainen

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Saturday 20 May

Friday 28 April

Iceland Symphony Orchestra

Thorvaldsdóttir

Metacosmos

Rachmaninov

Piano Concerto no. 2 Tchaikovsky

Symphony no. 5 Stephen Hough

piano Eva Ollikainen

Anna Thorvaldsdóttir’s richly detailed and rewarding music always makes a strong impression and her piece Metacosmos is “a gorgeous and engrossing tone poem” San Francisco Chronicle.

Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto was a breakthrough piece after years of creative block. Its passionate and lyrical character has deservedly made it a favourite amongst his works. Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony was composed on his return to Russia in 1888 after a successful European concert tour. The waltz feel of much of the first movement foreshadows the waltz which takes the place of the usual scherzo. The slow movement is pure melody, while the finale is a burst of power and orchestral colour.

“Simply one of the finest pianists of the age” St Louis Post-Despatch

CPE Bach

Symphony in F Mozart

Symphony no 34 JC Bach

Sinfonia concertante for violin and cello CPE Bach

Symphony in B minor Mozart

Music from Don Giovanni Gluck

Dance of the Furies Riccardo Minasi

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Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment

All the composers featured in this programme left home to find their own voices. Bach’s most famous sons were key players in the transition from the baroque style of their father to the new classical style that found its brightest invention in Mozart and Haydn. JC Bach ran fashionable subscription concerts in London from the mid-1760s which often featured his charming sinfonia concertantes. CPE Bach, although he held conventional court positions in Berlin and Hamburg, was a restless innovator in the emerging symphony form and solo concertos. When Mozart escaped to Vienna from Salzburg he took his large-scale Symphony no. 34 with him, where it was one of his first big public hits, establishing him as a composer to be reckoned with.

Extra Concert Sheku Kanneh-Mason

Wednesday 7 June

Philharmonia Orchestra Beethoven

Triple Concerto Strauss

Ein Heldenleben Nicola Benedetti

violin Sheku Kanneh-Mason

cello Benjamin Grosvenor

piano Santtu-Matias Rouvali

Nicola Benedetti

A dream team of soloists join forces in Beethoven’s Triple Concerto, a rewarding oddity among his works, which has deservedly become more popular in recent years. The polonaise-influenced finale is a delight from start to finish.

Strauss’ opulent yet tongue in cheek portrait of himself as the hero of the title shows the composer bursting with confidence in his own powers. The music portrays his home life and his battles with critics, before he finally settles down to a life of peace and artistic productivity. Strauss’ imagination blazes through his unrivalled knowledge of the orchestra to produce an enthralling piece.

Benjamin Grosvenor

The Philharmonia Orchestra is Anvil Arts Orchestra in Partnership

Tickets: £69, £59, £52, £42, £14 (includes £4 booking fee)

Santtu-Matias Rouvali

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Anvil Arts operates a free Access List in order to improve our service to patrons with access needs. Registration forms are available from the box office or Anvil Arts website.

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Anvil Arts is the largest performing arts organisation in Hampshire, and runs The Anvil, The Haymarket and The Forge in Basingstoke. It is governed by The Anvil Trust, an independent educational charity.

Support the International Concert Series by donating to the Great Music of the World fund. See the booking form or contact the box office for details.

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Anvil Arts, Churchill Way, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 7QR 01256 844244 anvilarts.org.uk

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By car: From the ring road or junction 6 of the M3, follow signs for Basingstoke town centre and then brown signs for The Anvil. These direct you to the car park next to the building. Coach drop off points are in Churchill Way. Nearest EV charging points in the Churchill Way car park.

Not all seats may be available at all performances.

Details in this brochure were correct at the time of going to press, but changes may be unavoidable.

NEW ROAD

By train: Basingstoke station is just a short walk away. Journey time for London Waterloo 45-60 mins; Southampton Central 30-35 mins.

By bike: Cycle parking is available at the front of The Anvil, underneath the car park ramp to the right of the main doors.

Visit anvilarts.org.uk for more information.

The Anvil Trust is grateful for the support of the following: Sponsors and Corporate Members:

Supported by:

Picture credits Martin James Bartlett © Paul Marc Mitchell Nicola Bendetti © Andy Gotts Alice Coote © Jiyang Chen Dennis Russell Davies © Reinhard Winkler Sir John Eliot Gardiner © Sheila Rock Marta Gardolinska © Bartek Barczyk Stephen Hough © Sim Canetty-Clarke) Kirill Karabits © Konrad Cwik Vikingur Olafsson © Ari Magg Eva Ollikainen © Nikolaj Lund Riccardo Minasi © Drew Gardner Jeneba Kanneh Mason © John Davis Sheku Kanneh-Mason © Jake Turney Santtu-Matias Rouvali © Kaapo Kamu Alexander Soddy © Miina-Jung The Sixteen © Firedog Swedish Philharmonia © Nikolaj Lund Maxim Vengerov © Diago Mariotta Mendez

• The ticket counter has a drop down counter for wheelchair users.

• The Anvil is equipped with infra-red hearing enhancement systems for use with headsets or portable induction loops.

Both are available from the Stewards’ point.

• Personal Emergency Evacuation Plans are available on request.

For full details of all facilities, please visit anvilarts.org.uk/access or contact the box office

This brochure is also available in other formats

Ticket prices Area 1 (Red) £42 Area 2 (Blue) £38 Area 3 (Green) £31 Area 4 (Yellow) £24 Area 5 (Purple) £16 Ticket prices include £4 booking fee Subscription discounts available – please contact the box office for details.

Please note – there is level access to Stalls row H and, via a lift, Circle row C and most of rows CB, CC, DB and DC (Side Circle).

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Churchill Way, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 7QR 01256 844244 anvilarts.org.uk