Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra concert season 2016 / 17 Guildhall, Portsmouth
Welcome to the 2016/17 Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra Season at Portsmouth Guildhall.
especially delighted to welcome Nemanja Radulovi´c as our Artist-in-Residence for the season.
Described as “one of this country’s cultural miracles” in national press following our performances of Richard Strauss’ Salome last season, the artistic strength of the Company continues to grow. There is a palpable sense of expectation in the audience prior to concerts, a sense of excitement that only inspires our brilliant musicians, conductors and guest artists to create such world-class music each week.
As ever our range of programmes and artists are designed to inspire our loyal regular supporters whilst finding many ways to welcome new audiences of all ages and tastes. Throughout the season we will encourage you to find out more through our range of online resources on the BSO website.
Kirill Karabits’ outstanding leadership of the BSO continues this season with programmes featuring great symphonic works from Walton to Bruckner, Martinu˚ and Shostakovich through to Schumann, Mendelssohn and Mahler in a series of great symphonies from the middle part of the 20th century. Our philosophy of nurturing long-lasting artistic relationships, whilst fostering outstanding new talent continues and we welcome debuts from conductor James Feddeck and trumpeter Tine Thing Helseth, alongside the welcome return visits by Ion Marin, Sunwook Kim, Steven Isserlis, Johannes Moser and Carlos Miguel Prieto. We are
Whether in the concert hall, a school, hospital or community setting, as a leading arts charity the BSO has a unique remit to bring great music and cultural engagement to the range of diverse communities across the South and South West, with an influence that is felt nationally and internationally. It has never been more important to advocate for the positive impact our work has on people’s lives and the key role everyone has to help us reach out, through supporting the BSO. I would like to thank everyone who supports this remarkable organisation. You play a vital role in our future. I look forward to welcoming you to another season of great music making. Dougie Scarfe Chief Executive
wednesday
Power and Glory “karabits and the bso represent one of this country’s finest orchestral partnerships” The Telegraph, August 2015
Left: Anna Pyne and Kevin Smith
Walton’s First Symphony was a landmark of English composition and represents the peak of his symphonic thinking. Its turbulent emotions and high-voltage energy were the fruit of tempestuous events surrounding Walton at the time. After an eloquent, dramatic first movement, a stinging, malicious Scherzo and a truly melancholic slow movement, the finale is totally different in outlook – an almost Elgarian ceremonial jubilation, as if a cloud has lifted. The creation of the First Piano Concerto was tumultuous for Tchaikovsky, and yet with all the sweat and tears it took, as well as its initial criticism by contemporaries, it has gone on to become one of the most popular in the repertoire. If the solo writing is at times a little unorthodox, the opening alone to this wonderful piece, with its memorable horn call and that soaring theme over pounding piano chords, is enough to forgive any shortcoming. Lysenko’s masterpiece, the peak of Ukrainian opera, reflects its best features – deep, penetrating folk character and loyalty to the best national artistic traditions.
5
october 7.30 pm
lysenko Taras Bulba Overture tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No.1 walton Symphony No.1 Kirill Karabits conductor Sunwook Kim piano
thursday
27
Rachmaninov Revisited
tchaikovsky Romeo & Juliet Fantasy Overture rachmaninov Piano Concerto No.1 martinu Symphony No.4
“I have rewritten my first concerto; it is really good now” said Rachmaninov to a friend. “All the youthful freshness is there, and yet it plays itself so much more easily.” It contains all the signatures of his mature style – polished melodies, a demanding solo part and sumptuous orchestral writing, acquired during the two decades he spent as both a conductor and composer. Yet a youthful, dramatic energy is still evident from the opening bars to its show-stopping conclusion. Martin˚u’s Fourth Symphony is one of the most luminous, colourful, rhythmically alive, optimistic and celebratory pieces of the 20th century. It grows out of a single motif, using contrasting lyrical and rhythmical material combined with sweeping melodies to reach its vibrant finale. The first great thunderbolt to issue from Tchaikovsky’s pen and the best early realisation of his incredible potential, this fantasy overture careens between the tension of the clashing Montague and Capulet houses and the heart-breaking beauty of the protagonists’ love. The sum of the parts is pure magic.
october 7.30 pm
Aleksandar Markovi´c conductor Alexander Romanovsky piano
Alexander Romanovsky
Right: David Daly
“the bso, a consistently impressive ensemble in every section, whose talent needs proclaiming, gave a searing, gleaming account alive both with detail and grandeur� The Guardian, December 2015
thursday
Romance and Revelry The Fourth is the only one of Bruckner’s nine symphonies to have a subtitle. Friends had suggested that rather than write music that told no story he should create a work that was more evocative. Bruckner was not terribly enthusiastic as appending a programme rather got in the way of what he was trying to accomplish artistically, but he went along with the idea. The result is quite glorious – a sort of Teutonic romanticism suggestive of medieval castles, knights on horseback and celebratory hunts. Perhaps more than any other single work, the Fourth reflects all the characteristic elements of Bruckner’s symphonic pilgrimage – the easy-going rusticity of the earlier symphonies, the lofty grandeur of the final three, and the highly personal concept of span, colour and momentum that make the authorship of these works unmistakable. There too is the impression of a darker element, rather at odds with the idyllic Romantic context Bruckner himself specified, and eventually a brilliant apotheosis. Left: Jennifer Curiel
The Trumpet Concerto is unquestionably the crown jewel among Haydn’s works for soloist and orchestra. It boasts marvellous, memorable themes that are well suited to the instrument; balanced dialogue between soloist and orchestra, and superb handling of the supporting ensemble. It was written for the newly developed keyed trumpet. The possibilities offered by this new instrument developed by Haydn’s friend and a member of the court orchestra, trumpet virtuoso Anton Weidinger, marked a milestone in the history of the trumpet.
10
november 7.30 pm
haydn Trumpet Concerto bruckner Symphony No.4 ‘Romantic’ Kirill Karabits conductor Tine Thing Helseth trumpet
thursday
Hammer Blows
Ion Marin
Left: Tom Beer
Mahler’s Sixth Symphony is structurally his most conservative, but in terms of expression it is not conservative at all. It stretches the capabilities of Mahler’s largest orchestra with relentless marches, angular melodies, and adventurous harmonies. Although the composer was ambivalent about attributing programmatic aspects to his works, he informally titled the Sixth the ‘Tragic’ Symphony without providing a detailed programme. It has been called both absolute music and a portrayal of the fall of a Hero, Mankind, or Mahler himself. Yet it is only in the colossal, overwhelming finale that the work’s fateful nature really becomes clear. Opening with an eerie, unsettling introduction, the movement proper is restless and striving. It consists of a series of waves of vigorous activity, each of which is crowned catastrophically by one of the hammer blows of fate. There is no recovery from the third and final climax. The music, its tragic destiny fulfilled, subsides into utter darkness.
24
november 7.30 pm
mahler Symphony No.6 ‘Tragic’ Ion Marin conductor
thursday
8
Fireworks from Armenia
karayev The Seven Beauties: Waltz khachaturian Violin Concerto tchaikovsky Suite No.3
Khachaturian had an affinity for writing concertos and easily completed his Violin Concerto in just two months. He remembered “I worked without effort... the themes came to me in such abundance that I had a hard time putting them in some order.” It is a work imbued with the music of his Armenian homeland, filled with festive brilliance, blazing orchestral colour and sparkling virtuosity. As it unfolds, the soloist is required to display one dazzling technical feat after another. Tchaikovsky’s Suite No. 3 is a finely crafted work of winning spirit, though one that rarely broaches the personal revelations of his late symphonies. It is entirely idiomatic Tchaikovsky nonetheless. Nobody else could have written the opening Elegy, which traces a trajectory from the languid to the impassioned, with its gorgeous themes and fluttering accompaniments. Greatly influenced by Shostakovich, Karayev forged his own distinctive use of native Azerbaijani folk music. The ballet The Seven Beauties brims with an exotic array of appealing rhythms and melodies.
december 7.30 pm
Kirill Karabits conductor Nemanja Radulovi´c violin
“hardworking, underfunded, yet splendid orchestra that really is one of this country’s cultural miracles” The Telegraph, October 2015
Right: Jennifer Curiel, Edward Kay and Nicole Boyesen
thursday
Last Night of the Christmas Proms
22
december 7.30 pm
Pete Harrison conductor Alison Jiear singer Iain Mackenzie singer
thursday
12
Sweeping Sibelius
brahms Tragic Overture tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No.2 sibelius Symphony No.5
The Fifth ranks as one of Sibelius’ two most popular symphonies. It has an epic quality, a sweep and grandeur which triumphs over passing feelings of anxiety to celebrate the heroic, optimistic power of life. He achieves a striking richness of sound with a normal-size orchestra, in sharp contrast to the gigantic ensembles called for by such contemporaries as Strauss and Mahler. It opens in an atmosphere of mysterious beauty – you might imagine time-lapse photography of wildflowers unfolding in a vast landscape, whilst all manner of brilliant writing fills the finale, such that by the time this remarkable work reaches its conclusion in six expansive, powerful chords you can only agree with the composer’s description of it as “triumphal.” Tchaikovsky’s Second Piano Concerto abounds in his signature lyricism. After the strong, bold
january 7.30 pm
James Feddeck conductor Alexei Volodin piano
opening, the music unfolds episodically in a series of graceful melodic interludes and an angst-ridden, turbulent narrative. Tchaikovsky places heavy demands on the pianist, requiring great virtuosity and an exceptional warmth of tone, and brings the concerto to a close in an exhilarating display of orchestral pyrotechnics. Brahms’ overture opens with two emphatic chordal exclamations, following which, with timpani vibrating ominously, unison strings intone the austere main theme – a simple, touching march. A magnificent energy that presses through the outer portions of the work has a defiant strength whose force is heightened by the return of the poignant little march idea, defining the “Tragic” of the overture even more potently than all the muscular thrust before and after it.
thursday
Back in the USSR
Valeriy Sokolov
Prokofiev worked on his Second Violin Concerto at the same time as Romeo & Juliet and the two works have much in common, particularly an ardent and voluptuous lyricism. It begins with unaccompanied solo violin, as if Prokofiev wished to establish from the outset the pre-eminence of melody and a new simplicity of language. It brims with extraordinary, if sometimes spare, instrumental combinations and effects as in the energetic finale where the solo violin, bounding about in wide-ranging broken-chord passages, is accompanied by just bass drum and double basses. The second of Shostakovich’s wartime symphonies, the Eighth was criticized as being too pessimistic at a time when Stalin was insisting that Soviet victory was in sight. It does contain possibly the most terrifying music Shostakovich ever wrote, yet he tried to persuade listeners otherwise, describing it as “an optimistic, life-asserting work... all that is dark and evil will rot away, and beauty will triumph.� Perhaps the final flute solo does at least suggest that the lone hero has survived.
26
january 7.30 pm
prokofiev Violin Concerto No.2 shostakovich Symphony No.8 Kirill Karabits conductor Valeriy Sokolov violin
thursday
23
Out of Dresden
wagner Lohengrin: Prelude to Act I schumann Cello Concerto wagner Lohengrin: Prelude to Act III schumann Symphony No.3 ‘Rhenish’
Having departed Dresden and the shadow of Wagner, in just three months in early 1850, a reinvigorated Schumann completed two major orchestral works, the ‘Rhenish’ Symphony and the Cello Concerto. However, whilst the symphony soon had highly acclaimed performances in Düsseldorf and elsewhere, the concerto remained unplayed until after his death, championed by his widow Clara who wrote in her diary “I have played Robert’s cello concerto through again ... the romantic quality, the vivacity, the freshness and humour are indeed wholly ravishing, and what deep feeling one finds in all the melodic passages!” The symphony is equally exhilarating, with both moments of joyous rapture and grand solemnity. Lohengrin was Wagner’s first internationally recognised masterpiece. The Act I Prelude is a musical depiction of the Holy Grail as it descends to the Earth in the care of an Angelic host whilst that of Act III, containing just about the flashiest music he ever wrote, sets the scene for Lohengrin’s wedding.
february 7.30 pm
Kirill Karabits conductor Steven Isserlis cello
“it’s a good sign when your first thought at the end of a performance is, when can i hear that again? and after isserlis’ outstanding shostakovich in poole, i found myself wondering if i could rearrange the following evening’s plans to hear him play it in bristol too” The Times, October 2015
Right: Tammy Thorn, Robb Tooley and Nicolas Fleury
thursday
Heroes & Legends
more music from the movies Pete Harrison conductor Experience the thrill of a live symphony orchestra performing some of the most memorable film and television themes ever written. A gargantuan feast of Hollywood glitz and glamour features music old and new written by multi-award winning composers from the golden age of cinema to the present: Elmer Bernstein, Hans Zimmer, Maurice Jarre, Miklos Rozsa, James Horner, Erich Korngold, Alexandre Desplat, Tan Dun and, of course, the godfather of the film score, John Williams.
9
march 7.30 pm
“a truly memorable performance, deserving of the very enthusiastic response from a gratifyingly large audience” Seen and Heard International October 2015
thursday
Song and Dance In 1961 Bernstein revisited the score for West Side Story and extracted nine sections to assemble what he called the Symphonic Dances. The suite opens with the famous confrontation of the Jets and the Sharks. The haunting strains of Somewhere contrast with the lively Latin dances of the Mambo and Cha-cha. The Cool fugue features a 12-tone scale, and segues into the final, deadly fight between the gangs in Rumble, whilst a solo flute plays I Had a Love to close the suite, which ends, like the musical, on a haunting, unresolved chord. A Symphonic Picture is a colourful cavalcade of melody – a sort of symphonic synopsis of the operatic scenario of Porgy & Bess. It seamlessly links all the biggest hit songs from the show including Summertime, I Got Plenty O’ Nuttin’, Bess, You is My Woman Now and It Ain’t Necessarily So.
Left: Philippa Stevens
23
march 7.30 pm
The Chairman Dances is a “foxtrot for orchestra” that Adams composed while working on his opera Nixon in China. The music is representative of a combination of minimalist iterations and stylised pseudo jazz inflections, chugging rhythms and colourful orchestration and diatonic harmonies. The Fourth Piano Concerto displays much of the spacious style and the demanding virtuosity of Rachmaninov’s earlier concertos, wrapped up in a structure of tightly coiled drama. But it also inhabits a world of its own; it is a work very much of its time, incorporating not only the remnants of late Romanticism but also some up-to-date sounds of Ravel and Gershwin – reflecting Rachmaninov’s musical curiosity and evolving style.
adams The Chairman Dances rachmaninov Piano Concerto No. 4 bernstein West Side Story: Symphonic Dances gershwin Porgy & Bess: A Symphonic Picture Carlos Miguel Prieto conductor Denis Kozhukhin piano
friday
7
Rococo and Revolution
schubert Symphony No.8 ‘Unfinished’ tchaikovsky Variations on a Rococo Theme mendelssohn Symphony No.5 ‘Reformation’
No-one really knows why Schubert never finished his B minor symphony. With numerous other aborted fragments it may well have been that he was growing dissatisfied with symphonic form as he had been practicing it and was striving for something on a far larger scale, something to compare with the dramatic energy and scope shown by Beethoven. But with these two most perfect movements, Schubert ushered in the age of the Romantic symphony – the variety and immediacy of the themes suffusing the work are breath-taking. It is powerful, satisfying music; perhaps it was left unfinished because it could not, need not be finished. With its graceful main theme and resourceful invention, the Rococo Variations remains one of Tchaikovsky's most popular pieces.
april 7.30 pm
Kirill Karabits conductor Johannes Moser cello
It is a work characterised by carefree charm, grace and the indomitable spirit of his idol, Mozart, filtered through his Russian and Romantic sensibilities. The ‘Reformation’ Symphony was premiered under the title “Symphony to celebrate the Church Revolution”. It received mixed reviews and was performed only once more in Mendelssohn’s lifetime which probably explains its posthumous publication. It opens with a stately introduction, built upon a fragment of music from the 18th century Lutheran liturgy of Saxony known as the ‘Dresden Amen’. Given Mendelssohn’s interest in programme music it is not unreasonable to conclude that the storminess of this music represents the ecclesiastical conflicts in the Church during the Reformation.
Right: Kirill Karabits
“karabits and his orchestra have trod this ground often, but there was nothing routine about those slippery mood shifts from amiable to terrified” The Times, August 2015
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra would like to thank the following supporters principal funders
public funders
partners
in-kind partners
principal academic partner
trusts & foundations With special thanks to Paul Hamlyn Foundation for its support of BSO Participate
academic partner
The Leverhulme Trust EsmĂŠe Fairbairn Foundation Garfield Weston Foundation The Foyle Foundation The Valentine Charitable Trust Flaghead Charitable Trust The Michael & Ilse Katz Foundation Cressy Foundation The Pitt-Rivers Charitable Trust PRS for Music Foundation Ralph Vaughan Williams Trust The Garrick Charitable Trust Gess Charitable Trust The Radcliffe Trust The VEC Acorn Trust Anthony du Boulay Charitable Trust
principal patrons principal media partner
David & Jill Peters Terence & Annette O’Rourke
media partner
broadcast partner
thank you
We would like to thank our Patrons and Performance Champions, those who have chosen to remember the BSO in their Will, and everyone who supports us through donations, membership or by volunteering their time
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ticket prices Tickets go on general sale on Wednesday 7 September.
Ticket prices are inclusive of an 8% booking charge. (Charges apply for all ticket sales by telephone, online and in person)
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A 50p per ticket restoration levy is also payable on all purchases. This is to help afford the Guildhall Renaissance capital project of repairs and upgrades.
FREE ‘Meet the Music’
concessions
pre-concert talks take place before each concert (not 22 Dec or 9 Mar) at 6.40pm in the Council Chamber on the second floor of Portsmouth Guildhall.
The BSO offers the following concessions to most concerts. Please note that only one concession applies per ticket and that concessions are not available retrospectively. Proof of status is required at the time of collection. All concessions and discounts are subject to availability. BSO Kids for a Quid Under 18s: £1 per ticket (some exclusions apply) BSO Vibes £5 per ticket (for 18–25s signed up to the scheme)
Why not book a package of concerts and save money? Generous discounts are available if you buy 3 concerts or more. Book for all 12 concerts and you will receive a massive 40% off! Multibuy Discounts 12 concerts 40% 9 – 11 concerts 30% 6 – 8 concerts 20% 3 – 5 concerts 10%
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Group booking discounts 10 or more tickets 10% 20 or more tickets 20% 30 or more tickets 30% Group discounts are applicable for tickets purchased for the same concert. Tickets must be paid in full one month in advance of the concert date, otherwise they will be released for resale.
The BSO is a unique orchestra with a unique remit. It is a cultural beacon for the South and South West. From our home in Poole, we create and perform concerts that empower the music scene across more than 10,000 square miles of our region whilst maintaining a vibrant and important national and international stature.