Monteverdi Choir
Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique
Dinis Sousa — conductor
St Martin-in-the-Fields, London, UK
Monday 13 May 2024, 7:30pm
Tuesday 14 May 2024, 7:30pm
Thursday 16 May 2024, 7:30pm
Friday 17 May 2024, 7:30pm
Saturday 18 May 2024, 7:30pm
Philharmonie de Paris, Paris, France
Saturday 25 May 2024, 8pm
Sunday 26 May 2024, 4pm
Tuesday 28 May 2024, 8pm
Wednesday 29 May 2024, 8pm
Monteverdi Choir & Orchestras presents
Monteverdi Choir
Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique
Dinis Sousa conductor
Lucy Crowe — soprano
Alice Coote — mezzo-soprano
Allan Clayton — tenor
William Thomas — bass
Oscar Holch assistant conductor
The Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique and John Eliot Gardiner performed Beethoven’s complete symphonies in residencies across Europe and the US in the first two months of 2020, celebrating the twin milestones of the 250th anniversary of the composer’s birth and the 30th anniversary of the orchestra’s founding.
The London leg should have taken place in May that year, but by then live performance was silenced by lockdown. Instead the ORR led the way on YouTube with a series of nine videos in which John Eliot Gardiner explored each Beethoven symphony in turn. This orchestra, after all, was established specifically to breathe new life into this music, to re-invigorate works dulled by familiarity, to re-create the sounds of Beethoven’s lifetime.
So why revive the cycle now, in 2024? Well, as interesting as our YouTube journey is, needless to say it is no match for the visceral power of Beethoven’s music in live performance. And in this programme the eminent American Beethoven scholar, William Kindeman, argues persuasively that our turbulent times mean we have never needed Beethoven’s music more: the composer’s artistic response to the political turmoil of the Napoleonic era is more relevant today than ever as a beacon of hope for humanity.
Scan to watch John Eliot Gardiner explore all nine Beethoven Symphonies
For each concert in our series, one of our longstanding musicians – who have devoted their careers to the rediscovery of the music of Beethoven and his successors – will make the case for the use of period instruments to bring this music to life. Their insights show us how the ORR uniquely harnesses Beethoven’s power, and demonstrate the passion, skill and expertise that set this ensemble apart in this repertoire.
As in 2020, we have a major anniversary to celebrate. Not Beethoven or the ORR this time, but the group that started it all off: the Monteverdi Choir. Founded in 1964, this season the Choir celebrates its 60th anniversary, and bookends our cycle with two works. An addition, not programmed in 2020, is Beethoven’s early Mass in C major, in the first concert. And by the time we’ve charted his entire symphonic output, we reach another choral work – Symphony No. 9. 7th May 2024 marks the 200th anniversary of the premiere of this revolutionary piece, and as the pandemic becomes a distant memory, it seems fitting that the Monteverdi Choir looks optimistically to the next 60 years with the words that Beethoven added to preface Schiller’s ode:
Oh friends, no more of these sounds! Let us sing more cheerful songs, More full of joy!
Beethoven’s life spanned tumultuous times. He enrolled at the University of Bonn in 1789, the year revolution erupted in nearby France. His deep sympathies for the ideals of the French Revolution were shaken by the Reign of Terror in 1793-94; his enthusiasm for Napoleon Bonaparte as First Consul of the French Republic was replaced by disillusionment when Napoleon crowned himself emperor in 1804. Beethoven persisted in promoting ideals through his art, in the form of artistic projections or “effigies of the ideal,” as Friedrich Schiller expressed it. After the fall of Napoleon, Beethoven jokingly referred to himself as a “Generalissimo” in the realm of tones, as leader of a “kingdom of the air” or “empire of the mind,” an ambitious spiritual project standing apart from the shortcomings of everyday political life.
These qualities help explain the astonishing worldwide interest in Beethoven’s music more than a quartermillennium after his birth in 1770. The instability of our politics today strangely parallels the problems of Beethoven’s lifetime. Just as enthusiasm for the French Revolution in 1789 was followed by disillusionment, so did the collapse of the Soviet Empire in 1989 encourage false optimism about an imminent age of freedom and democracy.
Progressive features are felt from the very opening tensional chord of
Beethoven’s First Symphony in C major, from 1800. Especially audacious is the dance movement in penultimate position, which foreshadows some of the scherzos in his later symphonies. He titled the movement “Menuetto,” but this minuet is swift, not stately, with sharp rhythmic accents in the opening section. The playfully humorous finale gradually unfolds a rising scale pattern that becomes a generating motive of the main theme.
During 1801, Beethoven tackled his first major work for the stage, the allegorical ballet The Creatures of Prometheus. Prometheus is a demigod, a rebellious titan and humanity’s benefactor. He steals divine fire from Zeus, and burns hearts into figures of clay, thereby endowing the original man and woman with creative potential. When these primal representatives of humanity gradually display higher awareness, it is to the music of a contradance, a politically progressive dance on account of its exchange of partners, signifying the erosion of class boundaries after the French Revolution.
The Second Symphony in D major was composed in early 1802, shortly before Beethoven’s half-year of creative seclusion in the village of Heiligenstadt, where he sought to come to terms with his incurable deafness through a deepened commitment to his art.
“It was only my art that held me back,” Beethoven wrote in his Heiligenstadt Testament, referring to his suicidal thoughts. In this symphony, Beethoven first brought the full scope of his imagination to bear on the orchestral genre. Unlike the off-tonic opening of the First Symphony, Beethoven begins here with a powerful unison D sounded across all the pitch registers. At the climax of the slow introduction, he expands this gesture, plunging fortissimo into D minor in a manner prophetic of the Ninth Symphony.
The Eroica Symphony in E-flat major, from 1804, is a pivotal piece in the history of music, a landmark work of artistic truth spoken to political power. When Beethoven moved to Vienna in 1794, he encountered a highly repressive political environment. His hopes for Napoleon were disappointed by the time of the symphony’s completion, whereupon
he gave up all thoughts he had about resettling in Paris. In political terms, he found himself between a rock and a hard place. In the Eroica, Beethoven’s ideas about “freedom, progress in the world of art as in the whole of creation,” as he later expressed it, assumed shape as a musical dramatic deed, building on Promethean symbolism. Its four movements embody the following narrative – struggle, death, rebirth, and glorification.
The conflicted character of the Eroica’s first movement is broadly associated with the Promethean theft, the kidnapped fire with which the titan instills higher awareness into his two statue-like “creatures” – the archetypal original man and woman. In the ballet, humanity’s representatives only truly come to life after a scene in which Prometheus is put to death and then reincarnated, restored to life. In the Eroica, these narrative stages are reflected in the weighty funeral
The Battle of Leipzig by Alexander Sauerweid, 1813
march, followed by an initially soft and distant, evolving scherzo in which the central trio section displays a trio of horns glorifying the Promethean rebirth, with its celebration of shared creativity. In the Eroica finale, the connection to Prometheus is made explicit through the re-use of the contradance drawn from the ballet. Starting with only the bass of the theme – a vision of bare bones – this movement unfolds as a chain of ingenious transformations, an apotheosis of play.
The parallel of the Eroica with Beethoven’s own despair, thoughts of suicide, and discovery of a new innovative artistic path is hardly coincidental. But the heroic symbolism of the Eroica is too deeply embodied in the artwork to be interpreted just in terms of Beethoven’s
biography, or in relation to any individual historical figure such as Napoleon. What Beethoven explores in the Eroica are universal aspects of heroism, centering on the idea of a confrontation with adversity leading ultimately to a renewal of creative possibilities.
Robert Schumann once described the Fourth Symphony from 1806 as “a slim Greek maiden between two Norse giants.” The high spirits of this ingenious piece are set into relief by the dark shadows cast in the slow introduction and the development of the opening movement, in which Beethoven highlights the timpani as part of his unorthodox preparation for the recapitulation. Mysterious drumrolls are heard, and the approach to the reprise is a protracted crescendo, in which the motivic texture penetrates and fills the tonal space above the rumbling drum until the recapitulation is triumphantly affirmed fortissimo by the full orchestra. The ensuing Adagio slow movement begins with a quiet dotted rhythmic figure, marking a tonal space that is filled by a broad expressive melody. This dotted rhythmic motive retains importance throughout: as the movement ends, the motive is played again softly in the timpani leading to another crescendo, now becoming part of the emphatic closing gesture.
With his Mass in C major first performed in 1807, Beethoven found himself in a direct and taxing comparison with Haydn. The commission came from Prince Nikolaus Esterházy the younger, who turned to Beethoven on account of Haydn’s advanced age. For Esterházy, Haydn had written all six of his later masses; Beethoven’s sketches for his C major Mass contain excerpts from Haydn’s Schöpfungsmesse, and his
Prometheus Brings Fire to the Earth by Peter Paul Rubens, c.1538treatment of the form of the mass largely follows Haydn’s models. Nevertheless, Beethoven’s dynamic and richly contrasting chacterization of the text departs from Haydn’s more restrained approach, which is surely what displeased Prince Esterházy, who reportedly remarked sceptically after the first performance: “But, dear Beethoven, what is this that you have done again?” When offering the C major Mass for publication, Beethoven proudly emphasized precisely what had troubled the prince, stating that “I believe that I have handled the text as it has been yet seldom treated.”
In 1808, Beethoven completed a contrasted pair of symphonies: the Fifth, in C minor, and the Sixth or Pastoral Symphony in F major. In the Fifth Symphony, Beethoven achieved a concentrated synthesis holding together the four movements, one aspect of which is the famous rhythmic motive of repeated notes and a falling third heard at the outset. Variants of this so-called “fate” motive appear in later movements, most obviously in the insistent horn motives of the scherzo. The integration of the symphony is not only motivic, but also shapes many features of the orchestration and form. By folding the scherzo and finale into a composite movement, Beethoven places an elemental polarity at the core of his formal conception.
The link between scherzo and finale is one of the most celebrated transitions in all music. Here, the drum is heard on low C, softly tapping the motivic rhythm before this figure is gradually transformed into a steady pulsation. The strings try to pick up the thread of the scherzo, but are stopped in their tracks, and dwell as if hypnotized on the falling intervals from
the end of the fragment. This motivic scrap is quietly repeated, and drifts higher and higher until it converges into the emphatic C major beginning of the finale, marked by the first appearance of trombones in the symphony. The finale of the Fifth Symphony emerges suddenly, like a mirage in the desert. As it appears, however, the apparent mirage takes on the glaring force of reality, and exposes the desert as the illusion.
In this finale, a visceral resonance to French Revolutionary music alludes to the Hymne dithyrambique, a hymn written by Claude Joseph Rouget de L’Isle, composer of the famous Marseillaise, which became the French national anthem. Rouget de L’Isle declaims the key word of the revolution, “li-ber-té,” as a rising major third in long notes. Beethoven alludes extensively to this idea already in his slow movement, marked ‘Andante con moto’, which remains unsettled, suggesting the premonition of a desired goal that cannot yet be achieved.
In the finale, Beethoven develops the “li-ber-té” figure of a rising third in two surpassing passages placed in the middle and toward the conclusion of this powerful ‘Allegro’. Since the motive is played as a four-note figure with upbeat, it evokes the words “la li-ber-té,” while the four-note “ta-ta-ta-taaaa” motive offers affirmative echoes in compressed rhythm. Motivic development telescopes the figure, building up the music into a great ascending arch of sound. These two passages are interconnected as images of failure and success: the first fails, collapsing into a recall of the ghostly scherzo in the minor; the second succeeds, delivering the definitive C major that cannot be followed. The musical design of Beethoven’s Fifth
is not abstract, but bears a relation to historical reality: embrace of the inspiring principles of the French Revolution cleansed from political abuses.
Although the Sixth Symphony stands in sharp contrast to the Fifth – with its opening movement inscribed “Pleasant, cheerful feelings aroused on arrival in the countryside” – these two works share important features, such as the culminating role of the finales following harrowing penultimate movements: the scherzo in the Fifth, the storm in the Sixth. The Pastoral Symphony is not simply a mirror of rustic country life, as is reflected in the middle movement, the “Merry gathering of villagers” with its medley of dances. Deeper meaning resides in its portrayal of nature. In writing that the work was “more an
expression of feeling than tone painting,” Beethoven draws attention to an aspect of subjective engagement. In the second movement, he alludes to his song “The Call of the Quail,” WoO 129, whose text “He frightens you in the storm, the Lord of Nature: Plead with God! Plead with God!” anticipates the storm movement while conveying a religious attitude toward nature that has gained enhanced relevance in our own time, with global warming and political indifference to environmental degradation. Toward the end of this second movement of the Pastoral, the “Scene by the Brook,” the quail gains companions in a trio of birdcalls: nightingale, quail, and cuckoo. Beethoven names each bird next to their corresponding instruments: flute, oboe, and clarinet, respectively. The
Liberty leading the people by Eugène Delacroix, c.1830quail’s distinctive figure has a dotted rhythm. The presence of the quail’s warning is poignant in view of the later storm movement. In the finale, benevolent nature becomes an imperiled paradise to be reclaimed through the faith embodied in the shepherd’s hymn. In 2017, the “Beethoven Pastoral Project” became part of a global initiative against climate change. In this context, the finale of the Pastoral, with its reclamation of the imperiled paradise, is richly allusive, containing Alpine melodies evocative of Switzerland, the land whose freedom struggles are associated with Schiller’s Wilhelm Tell.
In 1812, Beethoven finished another contrasted pair of symphonic masterpieces: his Seventh and Eighth Symphonies. No other composition by Beethoven is so intensely animated by the power of rhythm as the Seventh –a radiant work whose first performances marked the celebration of allied victory over Napoleon in Germany and Spain. The Seventh Symphony, unlike the Fifth, does not involve struggle against adversity, even if a darker, contrasting range of character emerges in the second movement, the Allegretto in A minor. This famous Allegretto features a prominent rhythmic ostinato, which endows this music with a processional aura, imposing a strong unifying character that is felt throughout the variations of the theme and even the contrasting episodes in the brighter major mode. In its character, the Eighth Symphony is somewhat reminiscent of the sublime comedy of the Second Symphony. Beethoven often associated the key of F major with humour, and this work is no exception. The extraordinary rhythmic intensity of the Seventh Symphony reappears in certain passages of the Eighth, particularly in the development
of the first movement and again in the concluding Allegro vivace. Beethoven’s sublime humor is felt in the finale of the Eighth, especially in his treatment of an intrusive “false note,” a C-sharp played between the paired statements of the principal theme, and which toward the end asserts itself powerfully, opening something like a gaping chasm beneath the hearer’s feet while illuminating the whole symphony.
The Ninth Symphony in D minor from 1824 is a great work of synthesis. Since lack of space precludes adequate commentary here, let us comment briefly on the relevance in our time of Beethoven’s setting of Schiller’s idealistic ‘Ode to Joy’ in the choral finale, which has become a seemingly unsurpassed symbol of affirmative culture and political resistance in many parts of the world. At times of crisis, this music offers a focus for collective consolation, as individuals are sublimated as discrete entities within a larger whole. In distant parts of an increasingly interconnected global community, Beethoven’s resilient response to conflict has inspired endurance, setting into motion a process that has gained momentum up to the present. In 1989, the symphony was broadcast by the protesters in Beijing, when about a million persons occupied Tiananmen Square. As one of the organizers recalled, “We used the Ninth to create an ambience of solidarity and hope for ourselves and for the people of China.” The famous “Joy” melody serves as anthem of the European Union and symbol of European unity, even as Brexiteers have turned their backs on the ‘Ode to Joy’. (Due to resistance to Brexit, Beethoven’s ‘Ode to Joy’ has recently soared in popularity in the United Kingdom.) Many commemorative performances have taken place, such
as at Sarajevo in 1996, and at the site of the Mauthausen concentration camp in 2000. In Japan, performances of ‘daiku’ (no. 9) marked the response to the destructive tsunami in 2011. In 2014, a flash-mob of the Ninth at the Odessa Fish Market reflected the desire of Ukrainians for closer ties to the European Union. In November 2019, the symphony was performed during massive political demonstrations held at the Plaza Italia in Santiago, Chile. During the global coronavirus crisis, with the curtailment of public concerts, Beethoven’s music continued to resound through the internet. As the pandemic loosened its grip, live performances resumed, with Chinese American composer Tan Dun’s new piece for the gongs and tamtams of
Wuhan – where the pendemic began –the Sound Pagoda: 12 Sounds of Wuhan and Beethoven’s Ode to Joy marking the end of the epidemic. As its ongoing global reception shows, Beethoven’s Ninth is no fading Enlightenment dream, but on the contrary, an indispensable assertion of human courage and potential, a futuristic beacon of hope. We need it more than ever today.
William Kinderman is a pianist and author of many scholarly works on music, most recently Beethoven: A Political Artist in Revolutionary Times (2020). He is professor and inaugural Leo and Elaine Krown Klein Chair of Performance Studies in the Herb Alpert School of Music, University of California, Los Angeles.
This statue of the composer was erected at Bonn by a fellowship of musicians led by Franz Liszt in 1845. The monument, shown here in the spring of 1945, miraculously withstood the devastation of dictatorship and war. Photo by Johnny Florea, private collection of William Kinderman.
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Monday 13 May 2024, 7:30pm
BEETHOVEN – OVERTURE from The Creatures of Prometheus
BEETHOVEN – SYMPHONY NO. 1 IN C MAJOR, OP. 21
Adagio molto – Allegro con brio
Andante cantabile con moto
Menuetto (Allegro molto e vivace)
Finale (Adagio – Allegro molto e vivace)
~ Interval ~
BEETHOVEN – MASS IN C MAJOR, OP. 86
Kyrie
Gloria Credo
Sanctus
Agnus Dei
Monteverdi Choir
Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique
Dinis Sousa conductor
Lucy Crowe — soprano
Alice Coote — mezzo-soprano
Allan Clayton — tenor
William Thomas — bass
Beethoven Symphony No. 1
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The beauty of Beethoven’s writing for the violin is that he knows the instrument so intimately. Particularly in the earlier symphonies, he understands the areas of the violin that really sparkle, and he uses them to great effect – in the Allegro molto of Symphony No.1’s Finale, for example, the sparkly tune is in the perfect key and register. That said, where the music demands it he has no sympathy for technical concerns: the Allegro of The Creatures of Prometheus overture opens in a nice easy key, but when the same material comes back in a different key, the passagework becomes far trickier.
Our philosophy in the ORR is to try to work out what Beethoven might have heard in his head, and as far as possible to reproduce that sound. Although he lived and worked in Vienna, where the violin playing style was more conservative, we know that he was very aware of the forward-looking approach in Paris, developed following the establishment of the Conservatoire in 1795 and François Tourte’s revolutionary new bow design. So the ORR aims for the style of a French orchestra in the early 1800s – using pure gut strings, but the new bows, which were de rigueur in Paris (whereas in Vienna and Leipzig even in Mendelssohn’s time some players were still using earlier bows). For
this concert, in which the music is still very much influenced by Mozart and Haydn, I might use a slightly earlier bow – with about three-quarters of the hair of a modern one, the sound is less thick and slightly perkier.
In reality though, the difference between modern violins and those of Beethoven’s time are minute. Much more important is the cohesive bowing style of the period. I once heard an audience member say that it looked as if the ORR violinists all studied with the same teacher, and that’s just what we’re after. We use very little vibrato, especially in section playing, and a different kind of bow stroke that leads to a more vibrant sound on gut strings. For every project we have a violin sectional rehearsal, which is quite unusual for professional orchestras and makes it a unique experience for the players – we discuss and rehearse the music enthusiastically and collaboratively. Of course we’ve performed the Beethoven symphonies many times as a group, so there’s a huge body of experience, but with each project we add another layer of mutual understanding. Through this we achieve that unified style that enables us to perform this music really powerfully.
— Peter Hanson Leader, violinKyrie eleison.
Christe eleison. Kyrie eleison.
Gloria in excelsis Deo, et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis.
Laudamus te, benedicimus te, adoramus te, glorificamus te. Gratias agimus tibi propter magnam gloriam tuam.
Domine Deus, Rex coelestis, 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 dexteram Patris, miserere nobis.
Quoniam tu solus sanctus, tu solus Dominus, tu solus altissimus, Jesu Christe, cum Sancto Spiritu, in gloria Dei Patris. Amen.
Credo in unum Deum, Patrem omnipotentem, factorem coeli et terrae, visibilum omnium et invisibilium.
Et in unum Dominium, Jesum Christum, Filium Dei unigenitum. Et ex Patre natum ante omnia saecula.
Deum de Deo, Lumen de lumine, Deum verum de Deo vero.
Lord, have mercy upon us. Christ, have mercy upon us. Lord, have mercy upon us.
Glory be to God on high, and in earth peace, good will towards men. We praise Thee, we bless Thee, we worship Thee, we glorify Thee. We give Thee thanks for thy great glory.
O Lord God, heavenly King, God, the Father Almighty.
O Lord God, the only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ.
O Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father thou that takest away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us. Thou that takest away the sins of the world, receive our prayer.
Thou that sittest at the right hand of God the Father, have mercy upon us.
For Thou only art Holy, Thou only art the Lord, Thou only, O Christ, with the Holy Ghost, art most High in the glory of God the Father. Amen.
I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God. Begotten of his Father before all worlds.
God of God, Light of light, Very God of Very God.
GLORIA CREDOSANCTUS
Genitum, non factum, consubstantialem Patri, per quem omnia facta sunt. Qui propter nos homines, et propter nostram salutem, descendit de coelis.
Et incarnatus est de Spiritu Sancto ex Maria Virgine, et homo factus est. Crucifixus etiam pro nobis, sub Pontio Pilato, passus et sepultus est. Et resurrexit tertia die, secundum Scripturas. Et ascendit in coelum. Sedet ad dexteram Patris.
Et iterum venturus est cum Gloria, judicare vivos et mortuos, cuius regni non erit finis.
Et in Spiritum Sanctum, Dominum et vivificantem, qui ex Patre Filioque procedit. Qui cum Patre et Filio simul adoratur et conglorificatur, qui locutus est per prophetas. Et in unam sanctam catholicam et apostolicam Ecclesiam. Confiteor unum baptisma in remissionem peccatorum. Et expecto resurrectionem mortuorum, et vitam venturi saeculi. Amen.
Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus, Dominus Deus Sabaoth. Pleni sunt coeli et terra gloria tua. Osanna in excelsis.
Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini. Osanna in excelsis.
Begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made. Who for us men, and for our salvation, came down from heaven.
And was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made man.
And was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate, he suffered and was buried.
And the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures. And ascended into heaven.
And sitteth on the right hand of the Father. And He shall come again with glory, to judge the quick and the dead, whose Kingdom shall have no end.
And I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and giver of life, who proceedeth from the Father and the Son. Who with the Father and the Son together, is worshipped and glorified, who spake by the prophets.
And I believe in one holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. I acknowledge one Baptism for the remission of sins.
And I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.
Holy, holy, holy Lord God of Hosts. Heaven and earth are full of Thy Glory. Osanna in the highest.
Blessed is He who cometh in the name of the Lord.
Osanna in the highest.
BENEDICTUS
Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini. Osanna in excelsis.
Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord. Osanna in the highest.
AGNUS DEI
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis.
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, dona nobis pacem.
O Lamb of God, that takest away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us.
O Lamb of God, that takest away the sins of the world, grant us peace.
Tuesday 14 May 2024, 7:30pm
BEETHOVEN – SYMPHONY NO. 2 IN D MAJOR, OP. 36
Adagio molto – Allegro con brio
Larghetto
Scherzo (Allegro)
Allegro molto – Allegro con brio ~ Interval ~
BEETHOVEN – SYMPHONY NO. 3 IN E FLAT MAJOR, OP. 55 ‘Eroica’
Allegro con brio
Marcia funebre (Adagio assai)
Scherzo (Allegro vivace)
Finale (Allegro molto)
Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique
Dinis Sousa conductor
Beethoven Symphony No. 2
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Beethoven Symphony No. 3
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From the unassuming writing for the clarinet in Symphony No. 1, to the ever-present and intrinsically entwined clarinet writing in the Symphony No. 3, we can hear Beethoven’s increasing understanding of the instrument and its possibilities. From a period-clarinet player’s point of view, it is such a joy to travel from one symphony to the next with copies (or originals!) of instruments known to Beethoven, that help unlock ways to speak and sing his music. Clarinets of the time only had 5 or 6 metal keys, and so certain chromatic notes were unattainable; to address this, instrument makers built clarinets of varying lengths. In his first three symphonies, Beethoven explores three different clarinets: the C clarinet, with its bright and healthy sound, the silvery, majestic and singing B-flat clarinet, and the lower, mellow calming timbre of the A clarinet.
Between Symphonies No. 2 and 3 (written in 1801 and 1803) we notice most distinctly Beethoven’s increasingly attuned understanding of the clarinet –the newest addition to the orchestra’s wind section. In Symphony No. 2, he writes for the A clarinet. We think of his later extensive use of the A clarinet in his violin concerto from 1806, also in D major. Although our role in this
symphony is for the most part rather subtle, giving colour and added texture, some cameo roles for the clarinet emerge, starting with the cheeky second subject of the first movement. Later, and more extensively in the theme of the gorgeous 2nd movement, the clarinet comes to the fore, as if we are blossoming out of the texture with this new sound.
It is in Symphony No. 3 that we feel a true, almost urgent entry of the clarinet as a main player in the wind section, with the timbre of the B-flat clarinet becoming a rather insistent protagonist. Beethoven now pushes the instrument to its limits. For me, the most glorious moment is the Poco Andante in the Finale, a small oasis of calm and truth after all the chaos. This is some of the most exquisite wind writing ever, and our period-instruments help us to unlock its beauty. The clarinet has truly found its place!
– Nicola Boud Principal clarinetThursday 16 May 2024, 7:30pm
BEETHOVEN – SYMPHONY NO. 4 IN B FLAT MAJOR, OP. 60
Adagio – Allegro vivace
Adagio
Allegro vivace
Allegro ma non troppo
~ Interval ~
BEETHOVEN – SYMPHONY NO. 5 IN C MINOR, OP. 67
Allegro con brio
Andante con moto
Allegro
Allegro
Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique
Dinis Sousa conductor
Beethoven Symphony No. 4
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Beethoven Symphony No. 5
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A Beethoven symphony cycle, no matter what instrument you play, requires both mental and physical preparation. Even 200 years on these works still push the performers to their limits: despite the extensive evolution of music since, and the myriad of compositional styles that exist today, Beethoven’s nine symphonies still represent a musical summit for which one must recalibrate and use every bit of experience to ensure that not one note is taken for granted.
There is a physicality inherent in these works, no more so than in the iconic Symphony No. 5. This piece requires us to produce something that the instruments of the period were barely designed to be able to realise. Whilst Mozart and Haydn wrote masterpieces within the instrumental parameters of the day, Beethoven, notably through these symphonies, demonstrated that he would never be confined by perceptions of physical limitations. The mere mention in a rehearsal that a particular phrase might not be possible would prompt an irascible and contemptuous reproach from Beethoven – nothing would be compromised.
For string players, these works present several dilemmas before even putting bow to string. The instruments themselves did not change hugely in the first years of the 19th century: the most important feature remains the raw gut
strings, which create a burnished timbre that modern steel strings can never achieve. However, the bow did evolve enormously: one can almost map this evolution alongside the compositional metamorphosis that takes place with each of Beethoven’s symphonies.
For this programme, I use different bows for the two works despite their chronological proximity. Symphony No. 4, with its classical delicacy, is hugely vivacious and virtuosic, ideal for what we would call a ‘classical’ or ‘transitional’ bow – transitional in the sense that it represents the link between the baroque bow and the modern bow of today. The curve of the bow has already changed but it remains relatively light, lithe and supple. This bow, however, would struggle to cope with the demands of Symphony No. 5 – notably the thundering bass line theme of the scherzo, and the French revolutionary calls to arms of the Finale. So, in the interval I switch to a later model, still contemporaneous with Beethoven but weighted more favourably to be able to produce the plethora of attacks, accents, and dynamics that the music demands.
Coming back to these pieces is always enormously rewarding. They seem to speak to us today as if the ink were still fresh: the challenges never diminish but the journey remains exhilarating to the end.
– Robin Michael Principal celloFriday 17 May 2024, 7:30pm
BEETHOVEN – SYMPHONY NO. 6 IN F MAJOR, OP. 68 ‘Pastoral’
Erwachen heiterer Empfindungen bei der Ankunft auf dem Lande
Szene am Bach
Lustiges Zusammensein der Landleute
Gewitter, Sturm
Hirtengesang. Frohe und dankbare Gefühle nach dem Sturm
~ Interval ~
BEETHOVEN – SYMPHONY NO. 7 IN A MAJOR, OP. 92
Poco sostenuto – Vivace
Allegretto
Presto – Assai meno preso
Allegro con brio
Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique
Dinis Sousa conductor
Beethoven Symphony No. 6
Scan to listen on Spotify
Beethoven Symphony No. 7
Scan to listen on Spotify
As a natural horn player one of the greatest pleasures, and challenges, is a Beethoven cycle. Beethoven uses the instrument in so many different roles, and to do this he exploits the contrasting sounds of different crooks – extra tubing we add to change the instrument’s length and thus its key.
Over the course of this project I’ll need a whole range, from the darkest depths of the B flat basso crook through to the scintillating brightness of the A alto. You’ll be able to see these bits of “plumbing” – we hang them on hooks on our music stands so that we can swiftly change them. Beethoven really understood the distinct characteristic of each crook, and these are lost on the modern horn – it’s part of the joy of the natural horn that we get to explore (and sometimes grapple!) with their individual personalities.
The Pastoral symphony uses a crook in F – one writer of the time described this key for horns as “noble and soft”, another as “pleasant cheerfulness”. It’s an agile and clear crook which works well for solos, like the dance-like solos in the third movement and the “alphorn” calls of the finale. The B flat basso of the second movement is quite different – one of our longest crooks,
it often feels as if we have to start notes ages in advance so that they arrive on time! A horn player from Beethoven’s era described it as having “a sombre, melancholic, or religious colour”, but if handled right it can purr or thunder.
Symphony No. 7 kicks off with the bright, mercurial A alto crook – this tiny crook packs a punch and can be rather direct. Beethoven’s contemporaries described it as “penetrating” and advised composers not to write slow music for it as it is very tiring to play. The lower E crook of the second movement has a “clear, tender and full tone” which suits the melancholic capabilities of the horn (it’s the key of our Nocturne in Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream). In the Scherzo we play a crook in D, a real foil to the other two: dark and with a hint of edge, you’ll hear how versatile it can be in the cor basse (low horn) solo where my colleague, Joseph Walters, will first use it to lull everyone into a moment of repose, and then, through a long crescendo featuring some “stopped” non-harmonic notes (created with the hand in the bell of the instrument, you’ll hear them buzz), whips everyone into action again.
– Anneke Scott Principal horn
Saturday 18 May 2024, 7:30pm
BEETHOVEN – SYMPHONY NO. 8 IN F MAJOR, OP. 93
Allegro vivace e con brio
Allegretto scherzando
Tempo di menuetto
~ Interval ~
BEETHOVEN – SYMPHONY NO. 9 IN D MINOR, OP. 125 ‘Choral’
Allegro ma non troppo, un poco maestoso
Molto vivace
Adagio molto e cantabile
Finale – Presto
Monteverdi Choir
Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique
Dinis Sousa conductor
Lucy Crowe — soprano
Alice Coote — mezzo-soprano
Allan Clayton — tenor
William Thomas — bass
Beethoven Symphony No. 8
Scan to listen on Spotify
Beethoven Symphony No. 9
Scan to listen on Spotify
For the choral singer, the challenges posed by Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 are unlike anything else. Beethoven may have written longer works for choir (to sing his Missa Solemnis, for example, requires huge physical stamina). But Symphony No. 9 taxes every element of the choral singer’s art.
The technical challenges can be daunting. There are extremes of range to manage, with sopranos and basses especially having to contend with very high, very long phrases. There is rhythmic complexity, which requires controlled muscularity in order to bring each line through the texture of the music. The greatest challenge, however, is communicating Freidrich Schiller’s iconic text – which inspired Beethoven to take the unprecedented step of including a choir in a symphony in the first place.
The fourth movement (known as the ‘Ode to Joy’), doesn’t even begin with the choir. It starts with a tremendous howl from the orchestra, followed by a cry of anguish from the cellos, who play as though they are pouring out their grief at the state of the world. When the cellos later play the melody which has become one of the most famous
in all Western music, it is quiet and comforting. It is as though a blanket has been put around us, to keep us warm so we can lift our eyes to the cosmos (the Sternenzelt) unfolding above us.
When we finally hear a voice singing Beethoven’s preface to Schiller’s words, it is the bass soloist addressing us all as friends, and saying “not these sounds!”. Well, which sounds then? Sounds that are freudenvollere (“more joyful”). There then follow 18 minutes that changed music forever, that heralded the Romantic era, and which require total concentration and focussed energy from all the performers.
Sometimes an attempt is made to blunt the technical challenges of the piece though sheer force of numbers in the choir. That is not the Monteverdi Choir way. Instead, we aim to serve Beethoven’s music through commitment to the text, the widest possible palette of colours, rhythmic conviction –and teamwork!
– Samuel Evans BassSymphony No. 9, Ode to Joy
Text: Friedrich von Schiller
O Freunde, nicht diese Töne! Sondern lasst uns angenehmere anstimmen, Und freudenvollere.
Freude, schöner Götterfunken, Tochter aus Elysium, Wir betreten feuertrunken Himmlische, dein Heiligtum.
Deine Zauber binden wieder, Was die Mode streng geteilt; Alle Menschen werden Brüder, Wo dein sanfter Flügel weilt.
Wem der grosse Wurf gelungen, Eines Freundes Freund zu sein, Wer ein holdes Weib errungen, Mische seinen Jubel ein!
Ja, wer auch nur eine Seele Sein nennt auf dem Erdenrund! Und wer’s nie gekonnt, der stehle Weinend sich aus diesem Bund!
Freude trinken alle Wesen An den Brüsten der Natur; Alle Guten, alle Bösen Folgen ihrer Rosenspur.
Küsse gab sie uns and Reben, Einen Freund, geprüft im Tod; Wollust ward dem Wurm gegeben, Und der Cherub steht vor Gott!
Froh, wie seine Sonnen fliegen Durch des Himmels prächt’gen Plan, Laufet, Brüder, eure Bahn, Freudig, wie ein Held zum Siegen!
Seid umschlungen, Millionen! Diesen Kuss der ganzen Welt! Brüder, über’m Sternenzelt Muss ein Iieber Vater wohnen!
Ihr stürzt nieder, Millionen? Ahnest du den Schöpfer, Welt? Such’ ihn über’m Sternenzelt, über Sternen muss er wohnen!
O friends, not these sounds! Let us rather take up a more pleasing and more joyful refrain.
O joy, glorious spark of the gods, daughter of Elysium, intoxicated by the flame, we enter, celestial one, your sacred shrine.
Your magic powers reunite what rigorous convention sets apart; all men become brothers, there, where your gentle wing comes to rest.
He who enjoys the blessed fortune of mutual friendship, he who has won a loving wife, let him partake of the rejoicing!
Yes, and if he has but one other soul in this world to call his own! And who has not accomplished this, let him steal weeping from this company!
All creatures drink in joy at Nature’s breast; good and evil together follow her rosy trail.
She gave us kisses and the vine, a friend proven unto death; the worm too feels love’s pleasure, and the cherub stands before God!
Joyously, as His suns race through Heaven’s resplendent plains brothers, run your course, joyfully, as a hero toward victory!
Be embraced, ye millions! This kiss to all the world! Brothers, there above the firmament a loving Father surely dwells!
Do you fall prostrate, ye millions! Do you divine your Creator, world? Seek Him beyond the firmament, He surely dwells beyond the stars!
English translation
Translation © Mari Prackauskas
The Monteverdi Choir celebrates its 60th anniversary in 2024. Over the course of its life, it has established itself as one of the greatest choirs in the world. Through a combination of consummate technique, historically-inspired performance practice and a strong appreciation for visual impact, the Choir constantly strives to bring fresh perspectives, immediacy, and drama to its performances.
The Monteverdi Choir was proud to be named ‘Best Choir’ at the Oper! Awards in January 2024. The Oper! Awards jury noted that “at festivals, on concert tours and in their numerous recordings, this is an ensemble whose quality will always leave the listener speechless. The singers have long since gone beyond the realm of their namesake and opera (co-) inventor, having moved well into the 19th century. Whether Baroque, the Classical period or the Romantic era, their singing is always unerringly tailored to the specific stylistic requirements. Again and again they have proven that, in addition to religious introspection, they are also masters of the grand operatic gesture, astounding us in Berlioz’s ‘Les Troyens’.”
The Choir’s 2024 season opened with a spectacular tour to Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw in February and March. Over three mesmerising concerts conducted by its Associate Conductor Dinis Sousa, the Choir captivated audiences and critics, and the performances were met unanimously with 5-star reviews from the press,
with Bachtrack calling them “truly one of the finest choirs of their time”. In March, the Choir performed Handel’s Biblical oratorio Israel in Egypt with the English Baroque Soloists, conducted by Peter Whelan, in London and on a European tour, with The Observer commenting that “the choir took top honours: ever word audible, every note, even when roared, bang in tune.”
Over the coming months, the Monteverdi Choir will embark on a dynamic programme of performances. The Choir will be joining the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, conducted by Dinis Sousa, for performances of Beethoven’s Mass in C major and Symphony No. 9 at St Martin-in-the-Fields in London and the Philharmonie de Paris in May. In June, the Choir will perform Bach’s sacred motets in London and Leipzig; music which has been part of the Monteverdi Choir’s repertoire for over five decades, giving the choir the opportunity to display technical virtuosity as well as a deep understanding of texts.
In 2023 the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists, conducted by Dinis Sousa, performed Bach’s Mass in B minor and Handel’s pastoral ode L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato, on an American tour in October following a European tour of Bach’s monumental work in April, conducted by John Eliot Gardiner. In the summer the Monteverdi Choir, Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique and outstanding soloists, conducted by Dinis Sousa, performed Berlioz’s opera Les Troyens on a critically acclaimed European tour.
Founded in 1964 by John Eliot Gardiner, the Monteverdi Choir has released over 150 recordings under his baton and won numerous prizes. The Choir and English Baroque Soloists were honoured to perform at the Coronation of their Patron, HM The King, in May 2023, with The Daily Telegraph proclaiming “if the Monteverdi Choir isn’t singing when I get to the gates of Heaven, I want my money back.”
MONTEVERDI CHOIR
St Martin-in-the-Fields, London
13-18 May 2024
Soprano
Emily Armour
Sam Cobb
Hilary Cronin
Rebecca Hardwick
Eloise Irving
Lucy Knight
Gwen Martin
Emily Owen
Theano Papadaki
Alison Ponsford-Hill
Elinor Rolfe Johnson
Amy Wood
Alto
Francesca Biliotti
Luthien Brackett
Rosemary Clifford
Christie Cook
Sarah Denbee
Annie Gill
Rebekah Jones
Iris Korfker
Margarita Slepakova
Tenor
Ben Alden
John Bowen
Jacob Ewens
Jonathan Hanley
Samuel Jenkins
Graham Neal
Benedict Quirke
Gareth Treseder
Bass
Jack Comerford
Samuel Evans
James Mawson
Alistair Ollerenshaw
David Stuart
George Vines
Jonty Ward
Laurence Williams
The Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique (ORR), founded in 1989 by John Eliot Gardiner, strives to provide bold new perspectives on the music of the 19th and early 20th centuries through its stylistic fidelity and intensity of expression.
Since its inception the ORR has won plaudits for its interpretations of major early Romantic composers, from Berlioz to Beethoven, as well as later works by composers ranging from Verdi to Debussy.
Major projects have included Beethoven symphony cycles, Schumann Revealed and Brahms: Root and Memories, in which the ensemble recorded the complete symphonies of each respective composer. Additionally, the ORR has performed operas by composers including Weber (Oberon and Le Freyschütz), Bizet (Carmen), Chabrier (L’Etoile), Verdi (Falstaff) and Debussy (Pelléas et Mélisande) in new productions in France, Italy and London.
The ORR gave the first complete staged performances in Paris of Berlioz’s Les Troyens in 2003, and in 2019 marked the 150th anniversary of the composer’s death with the first contemporary performances of his opera Benvenuto Cellini on period instruments. In the summer of 2023 the ORR, with the Monteverdi Choir and outstanding soloists conducted by Dinis Sousa, performed Berlioz’s Les Troyens on a critically acclaimed European tour. Their performance at the BBC Proms
received five-star reviews from the Financial Times, The Times, The Observer, Daily Telegraph, Evening Standard, The Arts Desk and Bachtrack.
The 2019/20 season marked 30 years since the founding of the ORR by John Eliot Gardiner, as well as the 250th anniversary of the birth of Ludwig van Beethoven. In celebration of these twin milestones, the orchestra embarked on another momentous project, performing a cycle of all nine of the composer’s symphonies in residencies across Europe and the United States.
The London performances were postponed by the pandemic, but in May 2024 the ORR, conducted by Dinis Sousa, will perform Beethoven’s complete symphonies at St Martin-inthe-Fields in London, and a selection of his symphonies at the Philharmonie de Paris. In its 60th-anniversary year, the Monteverdi Choir will join the ORR for performances of Beethoven’s Mass in C major and Symphony No. 9. The ORR’s recordings of Beethoven’s symphonies have been described as a “tour de force… played at white heat”, “glorious” and “magnificent” by Gramophone magazine.
St Martin-in-the-Fields, London
13-18 May 2024
Violin I
Peter Hanson
May Kunstovny
Miranda Playfair
Bradley Creswick
Martin Gwilym-Jones
Morane Cohen-Lamberger
Beatrice Philips
Clare Hoffman
Catherine van de Geest
Silvia Schweinberger
Davina Clarke
HyeWon Kim
Violin II
Lucy Jeal
Jayne Spencer
Iona Davies
Jane Gordon
Bérénice Lavigne
Rachel Rowntree
Beatrice Scaldini
Håkan Wikström
Jenna Sherry
Will Harvey
Viola
Anne Sophie van Riel
Amanda Verner
Lisa Cochrane
Joe Ichinose
Mark Braithwaite
Cara Coetzee
Clara Biss
George White
Cello
Robin Michael
Catherine Rimer
Olaf Reimers
Lucile Perrin
Jonathan Byers
Filipe Quaresma
Daisy Vatalaro
Double Bass
Axel Bouchaux
Cecelia Bruggemeyer
Markus Van Horn
Elizabeth Bradley
Jean Ané
Flute
Marten Root
David Westcombe
Flavia Hirte
Oboe
Michael Niesemann
Rachel Chaplin
Clarinet
Nicola Boud
Fiona Mitchell
Bassoon
Catriona McDermid
Philip Turbett
Contrabassoon
Damian Brasington
Horn
Anneke Scott
Joseph Walters
Peter Moutoussis
Gijs Laceulle
Trumpet
Paul Sharp
Simon Munday
Michael Harrison
Trombone
Miguel Tantos Sevillano
Martyn Sanderson
Christian Jones
Timpani
Robert Kendell
Percussion
Tim Palmer
Steven Gibson
Bobby Ball
Organ
Paolo Zanzu
Dinis Sousa is Principal Conductor of the Royal Northern Sinfonia (RNS), Associate Conductor of the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestras, and Founder and Artistic Director of Orquestra XXI, an awardwinning orchestra which brings together some of the finest young Portuguese musicians from around the world.
With the RNS he has appeared twice at the BBC Proms, with soloists Kristian Bezuidenhout and Nicholas Daniel, and during the 2023/24 season he embarked upon a complete cycle of Robert Schumann’s symphonies at The Glasshouse in Gateshead in addition to a performance of Das Paradies und die Peri which won a 5-star review from The Times. Other highlights with RNS this season include a world premiere by Cassandra Miller, collaborations with soloists Christian Tetzlaff, Steven Isserlis and Elizabeth Leonskaja, and a UK tour.
With the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestras, Sousa won critical acclaim for performances of Berlioz’s Les Troyens in 2023, including at the Salzburg Festival, Berlin Musikfest and the BBC Proms. Among many 5-star reviews, the Guardian wrote that “Sousa was electrifying in moments of grandeur, high drama and emotional intensity.” Later in 2023 he made his debut at Carnegie Hall conducting the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists in two programmes of Bach and Handel as part of a North American tour.
As a guest conductor, Sousa makes his debut this season with the Swedish Radio Symphony, and next season with the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican. Other recent engagements have included the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (Brahms’ German Requiem with Christian Gerhaher, Lenneke Ruiten and the Monteverdi Choir), BBC Philharmonic, Gulbenkian and Ulster Orchestras. His operatic experience includes Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia (Nevill Holt Opera) and Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande (Orquestra XXI).
Recent highlights with Orquestra XXI have included opening the Gulbenkian Foundation’s season, and a critically acclaimed tour of Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 to celebrate the orchestra’s 10th anniversary. In recognition of his work with Orquestra XXI, he was awarded the title of Knight of the Order of Prince Henry in Portugal.
soprano
Lucy Crowe’s 2023/24 season includes the title role of Handel’s Rodelinda on tour in the USA and Asia with Harry Bicket and The English Concert, Tytania in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Garsington Opera and concerts with Sir Simon Rattle, Sir András Schiff, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Bernard Labadie and Maxim Emelyanychev in Munich, Esterhazy, Gdansk, Tampere, Paris, Boston and London. A prolific recitalist, she will tour in the UK with accompanist Anna Tilbrook, including London’s Wigmore Hall.
With repertoire ranging from Purcell, Handel and Mozart to Verdi’s Gilda and Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen, she has sung with opera companies and orchestras throughout the world. Highlights of the last two seasons include Musetta in La bohème and Poppea in Agrippina at the Royal Opera House, Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro at The Metropolitan Opera and Pamina in Die Zauberflöte at the Liceu Barcelona.
Her discography is extensive and in 2021 she received a Grammy nomination for Best Opera Recording for Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen (title role) with the London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Simon Rattle, a BBC Music Magazine award nomination for Rodelinda (title role) with The English Concert and Harry Bicket and released her debut recital recording for Linn Records featuring Berg, Strauss and Schoenberg.
mezzo-soprano
Alice Coote is regarded as one of the great artists of our time. She has performed major roles at the Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera House, Glyndebourne, Opéra de Paris, Wiener Staatsoper, and Salzburg Festival, and has performed with orchestras including the London Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Engagements in the 2023/24 season include Storgé Jephtha at the ROH, Mahler Symphony No. 3 with Robin Ticciati, the London Philharmonic, and Beethoven Symphony No. 9 and Mass in C Major with Dinis Sousa and the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestras. Coote’s recent operatic engagements include Madame de Croissy Dialogues des Carmélites (Metropolitan Opera), title role Agrippina (Staatsoper Hamburg) and Mère Marie Dialogues des Carmélites (Opernhaus Zürich). On the concert stage, recent engagements include Cassandra in concert performances of Les Troyens with Dinis Sousa and the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestra, Elgar Sea Pictures with the Philharmonia and Sir John Eliot Gardiner, and Mahler Das Lied von der Erde with the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia.
A critically acclaimed recording artist, Coote’s extensive catalogue includes Mahler Song Cycles (Pentatone); Handel’s Messiah and Mahler Symphony No. 2 (EMI); The Power of Love: An English Songbook (Hyperion); and Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde (Pentatone). In 2018 she was awarded an OBE for services to music.
© Jiyang Chen © Victoria Cadisch
tenor
The magnetic stage presence and flexibility and consistency of Allan Clayton’s vocal range have led to international acclaim in music from Baroque to contemporary. His breadth demonstrated in recent title roles ranging from Peter Grimes to Faust, and a discography running from Handel to Dean. Clayton has appeared at the BBC Proms many times since his first visit in 2008, has sung with the London Symphony Orchestra under Sir Mark Elder and Sir Simon Rattle, and with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Sakari Oramo. He is a frequent visitor to Wigmore Hall and gives lied recitals around the world, with repertoire including works such as Schubert’s Winterreise and Die schöne Müllerin, and songs by Strauss, Wolf, Duparc and Tippett. Several composers have written song cycles specifically with his voice in mind, including Mark-Anthony Turnage and Josephine Stephenson. An advocate of contemporary music, he has appeared in world premieres of George Benjamin’s Written on Skin, Jonathan Dove’s The Adventures of Pinocchio and Gerald Barry’s Alice’s Adventures Underground. He is in demand at leading opera houses around the world, singing the title role in the US premiere of Brett Dean’s Hamlet at Metropolitan Opera, followed by a definitive interpretation of Peter Grimes there and at Teatro Real Madrid, as well as at London’s Royal Opera, where he opened the season in the title role in Jephtha
A graduate of the Opera Course at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and recipient of a number of major awards, British bass William Thomas is fast making a name for himself as one of today’s most promising young singers.
The 2023/24 season sees William sing Hobson in a new production of Peter Grimes in his debut at Teatro alla Scala, Milan and make his debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden as Colline in La bohème. Highlights on the concert platform include Rossini’s Stabat Mater with the Hallé Orchestra/Sir Mark Elder and Verdi’s Requiem with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra/Ryan Wigglesworth. He has also sung at the Wiener Staatsoper, the Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festival, English National Opera, Garsington Opera, the Grange Festival and for the Opéra de Rouen, Normandie. Future seasons see him return to the Royal Opera and the Glyndebourne Festival and make debuts at Oper Köln and the Bayerische Staatsoper.
On the concert platform he has appeared at the Salzburg Festival with Camerata Salzburg/Manfred Honeck and with the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestras/Dinis Sousa, at the BBC Proms with the Britten Sinfonia/David Bates, the Edinburgh Festival with The English Concert/John Butt and with the London Symphony Orchestra/ François-Xavier Roth and the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra/Phillip von Steinacker.
© Sim Canetty-Clarke © Benjamin EalovegaMCO’s three ensembles – the Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists and Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique – are a leading force on the international music scene. World-class instrumentalists and singers of many different nationalities come together to perform in groundbreaking projects that span eight centuries of musical masterpieces, regularly performing at our central London home, St Martin-in-the-Fields.
As a registered charity without public subsidy, the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestras rely on the generosity of our supporters to continue planning our ambitious, historically-inspired artistic programme. This support allows us to deliver projects without compromising on artistic quality or integrity, share our concerts with music lovers around the world through top-quality film and audio content, and helps us nurture and develop the next generation of musical talent.
© Philharmonie Luxembourg
/ Eric Devillet
Our membership scheme starts from £250 per year. Members enjoy a range of benefits including a personalised priority booking service for all our concerts, monthly newsletters, and invitations to post-concert receptions. At higher levels, additional benefits include invitations to exclusive open rehearsals, backstage access after our performances, and Conductors’ Dinners.
By supporting our charity at this highest level, you will contribute substantially towards our landmark projects, allow us to perform regularly in our London home at St Martin-inthe-Fields, and share our music globally via our filmed concerts.
We can offer creative and collaborative sponsorship packages that enable you to align your business with our work. There are opportunities to sponsor individual performances, or an entire season of concerts at our London home, St Martin-in-the-Fields.
By choosing to leave a Legacy Gift to the Monteverdi Choir & Orchestras, you will play a crucial role in ensuring that the performers and listeners of the future will continue to be enthralled by the power of our music-making.
Our American Friends play a valuable part in supporting and championing the work of the Monteverdi ensembles both in the US and beyond. The American Friends of the Monteverdi Choir & Orchestras, Inc is a registered 501(c)(3) and donations to the AFMCO are tax deductible for US taxpayers.
If you have any questions about supporting MCO please get in touch. On our website, you will find the facility to make a donation (which we warmly welcome at any level), purchase one of our memberships, or treat a friend via a Gift Membership. If you would like to discuss becoming a Benefactor, or how your organisation could partner with us, please contact us to arrange a discussion with our General Director, Rosa Solinas. development@monteverdi.org.uk +44 (0)20 7719 0120 Monday to Friday 9:30am to 5.30pm www.monteverdi.co.uk/support-us
The Monteverdi Apprentices Programme is a training scheme for young musicians that seeks to bridge the gap between higher education and a professional, freelance music career. By crafting supportive learning environments for talented young artists, whilst providing challenging and rewarding performance opportunities and exposing them to coaching from experts in a range of fields, the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestras aims to nurture the next generation of musical talent.
Participants in this long-established artist development programme take part in projects ranging from workshops and masterclasses with a focus on historically-inspired performance practices with industry-leading professionals, to paid performances with the Monteverdi ensembles. Each Apprentice is matched to an experienced member of MCO, who acts as a mentor, offering tailored artistic and practical support throughout their Apprenticeship, providing invaluable holistic advice, guiding them through the practicalities of preparing for projects, and helping the Apprentices to adjust and integrate into the wider ensemble whilst still encouraging personal development.
The Monteverdi Apprentices are also given the opportunity to perform with our world-class ensembles, and join the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestras for concerts both in the UK and overseas. Our aim is to round out their musical education, to help prepare them
for future challenges, and to allow them to gain unrivalled experience of the working practices of an internationally renowned ensemble in a safe and supportive environment. By the end of each year-long Programme, we expect to have equipped these young musicians with the skills to be able to work as professionals with the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestras, and other similar organisations worldwide. The Programme has over 90 alumni, and many prior Apprentices still perform regularly with the Monteverdi ensembles.
The 2023-24 cohort, comprised of ten singers (some of whom will be appearing in the Beethoven Symphony cycle this week), completed their Apprenticeship year in April with a sparkling Final Recital in the atmospheric setting of the Crypt at St Martin-in-the-Fields; a showcase performance of solo and ensemble vocal
music, accompanied by piano and lute. Over the course of their Apprenticeship, they worked with industry experts including Jean-Paul Fouchécourt, Sophie Daneman, Mark Padmore, Matteo delle Fratte, Richard Stokes, Nicole Tibbels, as well as MCO’s Artistic Advisor and Librarian James Halliday, our Associate Conductor Dinis Sousa, and founder John Eliot Gardiner.
With this support, the Apprentices joined the Monteverdi Choir for their spectacular tour of Bach’s masterpiece Mass in B Minor (April 2023), the landmark European tour of Berlioz’s Les Troyens which triumphed at Festival Berlioz, Salzburg, Versailles, Berlin and the BBC Proms (August-September 2023), and our critically acclaimed
performances of Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam (February 2024). We are immensely proud of what our Apprentices have achieved in the last 12 months, and look forward to seeing them continue to flourish over the coming years.
Planning for our next year of the Apprenticeship scheme is now underway, with a view to opening up the application process over the coming months, and welcoming our next cohort in 2025.
Monteverdi Apprentices Final Recital 2024 at St Martin-in-the-Fields, LondonThe Monteverdi Choir & Orchestras gratefully acknowledges the generous support of the following individuals, organisations and Trusts & Foundations:
PATRON
HM The King
PRESIDENT
Carol Grigor
PRINCIPAL FUNDER
Dunard Fund
BENEFACTORS
Michael Beverley
David & Sandra Brierwood
Michael L. Cioffi
Christian & Myrto Rochat
Sir David Walker
David Best
Lord Burns
Morny Davison
Lord & Lady Deben
Sir Vernon Ellis
Lady Virginia Fraser
Andrey Kidel
William Lock
Sebastian & Flora Lyon
Francis Norton
Yoshi Onodera
Helen & John Skinner
Clare Woodman CBE
Gordon Gullan
Stephen & Victoria Swift
Julia & Martin Albrecht
Geoffrey Barnett
Donald & Corrine Brydon
Rosemary Chadder
Peter & Stephanie Chapman
The Earl & Countess of Chichester
Sarah Cuthbert
Sir Stephen Gomersall
Iain & Alicia Hasnip
Sir Henry Keswick
Yi-Peng Li
Lady Nixon
Mollie Norwich
Nicholas & Christylle Phillips
Professor Richard Portes CBE FBA
Anthony C. Shoults
Professor John Smyth
Captain Brian Woodford CBE RN
Tania Bader
Mary Bernard
Donald D. Campbell
Vanessa Claypole
Dr Carol Cobb
Steve Edge
Jonathan Edwards
Lady Egremont
Nigel Gibson
Anthony de Grey
Jenny Hill
Richard Jacques
Gareth & Charlotte Keene
Robert Moreland
Mary Pinnell
Daan Posthuma
Meghan Purvis
Anne Reyersbach
Thomas Richter
Dr Paul A. Sackin
Steven & Olivia Schaefer
Christopher J. H. Thornhill
Andrew Tusa
Andrew Wales
Jenny & John Wiggins
Morgan Stanley elephant communications
TRUSTS & FOUNDATIONS
Dunard Fund
The Prince of Wales’s Charitable Foundation
Garfield Weston Foundation
Mrs F B Laurence’s Charitable Trust
The Thistle Trust
Roger Chadder
Peter J. Chapman
Ian Hay Davison CBE
Judith McCartin Scheide
Nicholas Snowman OBE
The Estate of Donald Gorman
The Estate of Howard Hodgkin
The Estate of Kevin Lavery
The Negaunee Foundation
Michael L. Cioffi
William Dudley
Neil Graham
David Kay
Seth Levi
Jai Shekhawat
Rory Walck
With grateful thanks to those who wish to remain anonymous and to the other individuals who give regular donations in support of our work.
Dr Rosa Solinas
General Director
Martin Wheeler
Finance & Administration Manager
James Halliday
Artistic Advisor & Librarian
Emily Parker
Artistic Operations Manager
Andrew Softley
Artistic Projects & Choir Manager
Margot Moseley Tours & Concerts Manager
Matthew Knight Partnerships & Communications Manager
Freya Firth-Robson Fundraising Executive Assistant
Charlotte Marino
Digital Operations Manager
Emily Denton Administrator
Philip Turbett
Orchestra Fixer
Matthew Muller Stage Manager
elephant communications PR and media relations
Bonzo’s Consultancy Ltd
Instrument Transport
Tom Cochrane
Keyboard Technician (keyboards provided by Jennings Organs)
Sir David Walker (Chairman)
Christian Rochat (Deputy Chairman)
David Best
Lady Deben
Virginia Fraser
Sir Stephen Gomersall
Andrey Kidel
Francis Norton
Level 12, 20 Bank Street, Canary Wharf, London E14 4AD, UK
+44 (0)20 7719 0120 info@monteverdi.org.uk
Registered in England & Wales Company No. 01277513 Charity No. 272279
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Design: Linda Lundin, Park Studio
& SOLO VIOLIN MUSIC St Martin-in-the-Fields, London 4 & 6 June 2024
Monteverdi Choir
English Baroque Soloists
Jonathan Sells — conductor
Kati Debretzeni — violin
