Issue No.80
FRIENDS’ NEWSLETTER
January 2020
BEETHOVEN HIGHLIGHTS March sees the wind come to the fore, with Beethoven’s Quintet for Piano and Wind being performed alongside Louise Farrenc’s Sextet for Piano and Wind (adding the flute) on 20 March. Born over 20 years before Beethoven’s death, Farrenc became a Professor of Piano at the Paris Conservatoire, teaching there for over 30 years. As a composer her music was premiered by some of the leading musicians of the day, including the violinist Joseph Joachim; but her works became largely neglected until the recent interest in rediscovering ‘forgotten’ female composers, which led to her being featured as a BBC Radio 3 Composer of the Week in 2013.
CONTENTS
PAGE ONE Beethoven Highlights PAGE TWO - Modern Classics PAGE THREE - Maya Youssef PAGE FOUR - National news PAGE FIVE - SCMF 2020 PAGE SIX - Focus on E360 PAGE SEVEN - MitR news PAGE EIGHT - Dates for your diary
It is the year of Beethoven! Having launched the String Quartet Cycle last autumn with a fabulous concert in November from the Ensemble 360 string players, our celebrations really get underway in 2020. Beethoven’s second quartet is contrasted with one of his last works, the Grosse Fuge, in a concert on 11 February that also features the world premiere of Carmen Ho’s piece The Way It Is as part of our relationship with the Royal Philharmonic Society.
Don’t miss this opportunity to hear why her chamber music is generally regarded as her best work and deserves to be heard more often. Ensemble 360 is joined by some very special guests on 22 March to perform Beethoven’s Sextet and Octet. Oboist Ilid Jones has performed with most of the UK’s leading orchestras, including alongside Adrian at the Royal Scottish National Orchestra; and horn player James Pillai plays regularly with orchestras in London - as well as being the husband of our bassoonist, Amy! Music from Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro arranged for octet also features, in a change to the advertised programme.
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MODERN CLASSICS In the coming Spring season and in the Sheffield Chamber Music Festival we are delighted to be presenting iconic landmark works by two of the most admired and respected living British composers, Howard Skempton and Gavin Bryars. Ensemble 360 and our singer-in-residence, Roderick Williams, have been working closely with Howard for a while now, presenting a mesmerising performance of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and then giving the world première of Man and Bat, a setting of DH Lawrence’s epic poem about one man’s struggle with ‘a bat, as big as a swallow’. Thanks to the very generous support of Maurice and Sheila Millward, the Ensemble has now been able to make a long-awaited return to the recording studio to record this piece with Roderick and also Howard’s new transcriptions of his earlier works Eternity’s Sunrise, The Moon is Flashing (with distinguished tenor James Gilchrist as soloist) and the Piano Concerto, featuring Tim Horton. The CD has been given a 5 star review
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by BBC Music Magazine and is enthusiastically described as “a recital recording to savour”. You can hear works from the disc, with James also singing works by Beethoven and Vaughan Williams, performed live in the Crucible Studio on Thursday 6 February. We are immensely excited that Gavin Bryars is coming with his own Ensemble to perform Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet and other of his chamber works on Saturday 9 May. This haunting work is born of a 26-second recording of a homeless man singing on the streets of London, which miraculously captures the incongruity of a life being led in abject poverty with a powerful message of belief and redemption. Gavin’s subsequent searches for the man and for the provenance of the song sadly yielded no results; yet the importance of this moving and beautiful piece is that it allows the voice of a nameless old man to live on nearly 50 years later. In addition Gavin will display another side of his music with a spot of late night jazz in the Crucible bar after the main concert.
MAYA YOUSSEF Artistic Director Angus Smith catches up with Syrian Maya Youssef ahead of her concert on Friday 3 April.
Did you grow up in a musical family and what are your earliest musical memories? I grew up in a household full of CDs, vinyl, cassettes and books. My earliest musical memory was when my father would tell us it was time for the daily listening sessions; from bossa nova and Miles Davies to weird electronic music mashed with hip hop. It was so much fun, especially when the listening turned to dancing. Please could you tell us something about your instrument, the qanun? The qanun is a 78-stringed plucked zither from the Middle East. It is an extremely flexible instrument capable of performing any type of music, which gives the player the freedom to explore new possibilities. Does music for the qanun belong to a written or an aural tradition? And is it primarily seen as a solo or an ensemble instrument? Written music didn’t enter the Arab tradition until the early 20th century. Before that, music was learned and passed aurally. Traditionally, the qanun is an integral part of the traditional ensemble called the ‘Takht’; however, soloists started revolutionising the instrument in the 20th century. Was it unusual for a young girl to take up the instrument? Very. The vast majority of qanun players are males so you can imagine the shock of my parents when I chose the qanun. One day I was in a taxi, the driver turned the radio on and I
asked, “What’s this instrument? I want to play it!”. He laughed and said, “you are a girl and the qanun is an instrument for men”. The next day my music institute announced the opening of a qanun class - I was first to sign up! You are an inspiration to many in your insistence on presenting music as a life- and hope-affirming act. How hard is it to sustain that faith in the face of ongoing tragedy in Syria and in other conflict zones around the world? I am grateful for everything that life throws at me no matter how hard and I am an eternal optimist. I truly think that despite the hardships, we are blessed beyond measure. All you have to do is to turn the TV off and listen to that blackbird singing love songs to you. Can you tell us something about the music that you will be playing for us in Sheffield? I will be playing you some brand new tracks from my second album as well as music from the first, ‘Syrian Dreams’. And finally, introduce us to your colleagues for the evening, Elizabeth Nott and Shirley Smart. I am blessed to have such wonderful musicians with me. Elizabeth Nott is a British Venezuelan percussionist who fell in love with music of the Middle East a while ago. Shirley Smart is a fantastic cellist who spent a good chunk of her life teaching traditional Arab music in Jerusalem. I never intended for this to be a power trio of women, but I absolutely love it!
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SUCCESS OF SOUTH YORKSHIRE MUSIC CELEBRATION
STINKY BOTTOM ON TOUR The Stinky Bottom in question is inhabited by swamp-slime-pie-eating swamp trolls in Sir Scallywag and the Battle of Stinky Bottom. Ensemble 360 and narrator Polly Ives are reviving this popular commission by our Children’s Composer-in-Residence, Paul Rissmann, and performing it to schools and families up and down the country during 2020. The story (based on the book by Giles Andreae and Korky Paul*) of a six-year-old knight who sets out to win the ‘Stinkiest Battle Ever’ is brought to life for 3- to 7-year-olds and their grown-ups through brilliant live music, irresistibly catchy songs, vivid storytelling, bright illustrations and lots of audience participation. As well as the performance, schools can access training and comprehensive cross-curricular digital resources. You can join the adventure with family concerts in Doncaster (14 March), Sheffield (9 May) and Barnsley (21 June). For dates further afield please check our website. * Published by Penguin Classics
Hundreds of young people gathered at the Doncaster Dome on Saturday 19 October to celebrate their musical talents. The South Yorkshire Music Celebration was led by the region’s four Music Education Hubs in collaboration with Music in the Round, and featured over 300 players from Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield taking part in massed orchestral, big band and brass ensembles - really raising the roof! The climax of the concert was a new piece of music by BBC composer Andy Smith, Mambo de Yorkshire, especially written for the occasion, which involved every single musician in the building and a total of 83 different instruments. It was a fabulous event - but don’t take our word for it! Take a look for yourself at www.tinyurl.com/symusicceleb. It’s hoped this will be the first of a longer-term collaboration between the four Music Hubs and us as we work together to develop more music education opportunities in schools and beyond. In Sheffield there is currently a campaign underway to create a new music education hub in the city centre, with the ambition of removing all barriers to playing and enjoying making music together for children and young people. For more information, please contact Jo@musicintheround.co.uk
SHEFFIELD CHAMBER MUSIC FESTIVAL 2020 HIGHLIGHTS Our Sheffield Programme Manager Tom McKinney picks out some highlights for our 2020 festival. One of the most exciting things about working with Ensemble 360 is always the sheer number of options available when it comes to programming concerts and festivals. When we sat down to work out how the Ensemble’s Beethoven String Quartets project might unfold, we realised from the start that we were in the enviable position of being able to present all of Beethoven’s quartets with a twist. And that twist is to give you the chance to hear Ben, Claudia, Ruth and Gemma perform the full cycle, but alongside other music and instruments that helps to contextualise and, dare I say, even enhance those performances. And so the spine of next year’s Sheffield Chamber Music Festival is that thread of Beethoven’s quartets, which runs from the first to the last night - seven of them in total, placed within concerts featuring other members of Ensemble 360 in music by Schubert, Respighi, Haydn, Saint-Saëns and many others. But the Festival is so much more than just Beethoven. Our other theme is music inspired by the natural world, and the festival will close with the extraordinary Carnival of the Animals by SaintSaëns: if you only know the Elephant and the Swan, then prepare to be blown away by the brilliance and beauty of Saint-Saëns’ other animals!
And brilliance and beauty will be the defining features of our Sunrise concert on Sunday 10 May. Haydn’s Sunrise Quartet will be performed, quite literally, at sunrise, in a performance starting at 5.15am (yes, AM!) in the Samuel Worth Chapel. If you’ve not yet visited this superb Victorian building, its magnificent architecture is a blend of Classical and ancient Egyptian styles, and will make for a truly memorable morning. The dawn chorus should be in full swing as the concert ends, and later in the festival, birdsong will be the focus of pianist Peter Hill’s performance on Friday 15 May. Not only one of the great British pianists, Peter is also acknowledged worldwide as a leading authority on the bird-inspired music of Olivier Messiaen. Can I fit in one more highlight? Well it has to be the Gavin Bryars Ensemble on Saturday 9 May. His 1971 work Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet has achieved an iconic status as a landmark work in British music. Based on a recording of a rough sleeper that Bryars recorded in London, it’s an overwhelmingly powerful piece with a social conscience that seems more relevant now than ever.
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FOCUS ON E360: CLAUDIA One of the highlights for me last autumn was embarking on our Beethoven String Quartets cycle. I discovered Beethoven as a child, through hearing his Violin Concerto and symphonies, but it was only when I was a teenager that I heard his quartets for the first time. When I was 16, I had a complete obsession with Op.131 and used to listen to the same bits over and over again. His music encompasses so much humanity and vulnerability that it compels you to look deeper into yourself as a person and musician. It has been really interesting to read his letters as they reveal a great deal about his daily
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life, practical difficulties, illnesses, friendships and aspirations. What I have found particularly moving is how often he was misunderstood, mainly due to the fact he was deeply ashamed about his deafness. We continue the String Quartet cycle across South Yorkshire over the next 18 months and our next concert is on Tuesday 11 February at Upper Chapel in Sheffield. Another highlight for me has been learning and performing Kurtág and Wyschnegradsky quartets with Patricia Kopatchinskaja and some of my colleagues in Camerata Bern, Switzerland. The Wyschnegradsky quartet is written mostly in quarter tones. Working with quarter tones has inspired me to think more about colour and how much ‘space’ there is, in fact, within a semitone! There is an advantage to working in Switzerland - my sister and her two children live just outside Zurich and so I always try and see them when I’m there. In a non-musical context, I’ve had the urge recently to improve my spoken Danish. My mother is Danish and wasn’t consistent in speaking to us in Danish, so I go to a class every few weeks to bring it back to life! I’ve always loved languages and feel that my brain could do with that sort of challenge now and again…
NEWS FROM MITR This year we are refreshing our relationship with the Young Classical Artists’ Trust (YCAT). Described as the ‘destination point for emerging talent’, YCAT supports young musicians as they embark on their professional careers, such as our very own Amy Harman. Our first concert with YCAT artists promises to be a real treat with American violinist Randall Goosby and pianist Jonathan Ware performing on 3 April before their Wigmore concert the following week; and we hope that this will be the first in a series of appearances by amazingly talented young musicians, giving you the opportunity to see the classical stars of tomorrow right here in South Yorkshire! Talking of young musicians, in November string relationships with organisations that work with players from Ensemble 360 visited Sheffield young musicians. It is also a subject close to the Music Academy, performing for and playing heart of Ensemble 360 oboist Adrian Wilson; so with their students as well as coaching them much so that in 2020 he is going to run 2020km in chamber music. The wind players will visit to raise money for the Learning & Participation the Academy on 21 March to continue this programmes of Music in the Round and the relationship, and there will be performances by Royal Scottish National Orchestra, of which their young musicians in the Sheffield Chamber he is Principal Oboe, and the Nicola Benedetti Musicwas Festival on 9 May. We in hope that in thisthe is Round’s Foundation. He is looking for people to one run 2017 a bumper year Music festival calendar with more in just the start of a strong bond between Martin alongside him to chat about how much music year than vision ever before. Marvellous wasmeans the focus of inaugural festivals in Milton Cropper’s for the Music AcademyMozart and to them, as well as seeking donations Keynes, Bowness-on-Windermere and Scarborough whilst Sensational Schubert graced our Ensemble 360 musicians. for the organisations. You can read all about this amazing undertaking onalliteration his JustGivinggoing!) page the stage in Doncaster. The effervescent Ensemble 360 (let’s keep the Keeping music at alive at helm, a time itsteering is fast audiences through justgiving.com/crowdfunding/2020for2020 were reliably the the music of these much-lovedand disappearing from our schools is vital, which is we look forward to receiving updates throughout composers with their usual passion these and flair. Julian Horton, Paul Allen and money John Suchet why we’re delighted to have established the year on the people he meets, raised also made appearances for concerts and talks.and There were creative art sessions and how many blisters he has!
concerts for children and their families, Bring and Sing workshops and the chance for anyone to try an instrument for the first time. We are so grateful to people like Adrian, and
you, our Friends, whose support in so many ways means that we can give a platform to young talented artists as well as bring the best musicians to Sheffield. Supporting with a legacy gift in your will is also hugely welcomed and a wonderful way to support the future of music in your community. In 2019 we were fortunate to receive some significant legacies that enabled us to undertake activity with young musicians as well as plan ahead for projects such as Beethoven 250 with Ensemble 360. Do please consider leaving the gift of music in your will, so that we can keep music and musicians sounding long into the future.
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ENSEMBLE 360 ON TOUR Portsmouth, Portsmouth Guildhall 27 January 2020*, 7.30pm HAYDN Piano Trio No.29 in E flat Hob.XV/29 HUMMEL Quintet in E flat minor Op.87 SCHUBERT Quintet in A D667 The Trout 023 9387 0200 www.portsmouthguildhall.org.uk Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire Music Centre 1 February 2020 *, 7.30pm POULENC Élégie DEBUSSY Rhapsody RAVEL Deux mélodies hébraïques RAVEL Tzigane MESSIAEN Quartet for the End of Time 01225 860100 www.wiltshiremusic.org.uk Leamington, Royal Spa Centre 15 March 2020*, 3.00pm MOZART Horn Quintet K407 MOZART String Quintet in C, K515 MOZART Clarinet Quintet in A, K581 01926 334418 www.royalspacentreandtownhall.co.uk Doncaster, Cast 8 February 2020, 7.00pm COPLAND Sextet BRUCH Acht Stucke Op.83 for clarinet and viola BRAHMS Clarinet Quintet 14 March 2020*, 7.00pm POULENC Élégie DEBUSSY Rhapsody RAVEL Deux mélodies hébraïques RAVEL Tzigane MESSIAEN Quartet for the End of Time
Barnsley, Emmanuel Methodist Church 7 February 2020, 7.30pm COPLAND Sextet BRUCH Acht Stucke Op.83 for clarinet and viola BRAHMS Clarinet Quintet Wortley Hall, Penistone 19 March 2020, 7.30pm BEETHOVEN Sextet MOZART Harmoniemusik from The Marriage of Figaro (excerpts) BEETHOVEN Octet Part of Penistone Arts Week / Supported by Hoylandswaine Arts Group 01226 327000 www.barnsleycivic.co.uk Newcastle-under-Lyme, New Vic Theatre 10 February 2020, 7.30pm BEETHOVEN String Quartet Grosse Fuge in B flat SHOSTAKOVICH Piano Quintet in G minor BEETHOVEN String Quartet in G 01782 717962 www.newvictheatre.org.uk Milton Keynes, The Stables BEETHOVEN Quintet for piano and wind in E flat, Op.16 FARRENC Sextet in C minor, Op.40 MOZART Quintet for piano and wind in E flat, K452
You can also book for all our Sheffield concerts at www.musicintheround.co.uk or by calling Sheffield Theatres box office on 0114 249 6000 *family concerts will also take place at these venues on these dates
22 June 2020, 7pm MOZART Divertimento in E flat K563 BEETHOVEN String Trio in E flat Op.3 01302 303959 www.castindoncaster.com 4th Floor, Sheffield Central Library, Surrey Street Sheffield S1 1XZ Registered Charity number: 326811 Company number 1880734 VAT number 391 1875 33