“Simply world-class” Opera Magazine MUSICIANS OF THE POWERHOUSE
NORTHERN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
2018-2019
Concert Season MACCLESFIELD CONCERT SERIES 1 DECEMBER 2018 7.30PM THE HERITAGE CENTRE
Friends Northern Chamber Orchestra With kind thanks to the Friends of the NCO for generously supporting this concert
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THE NORTHERN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA PRESENTS
VIVALDI - CONCERTO FOR 4 VIOLINS IN B MINOR Nicholas Ward, Simon Gilks, Rebecca Thompson and Dave Routledge, violins I Allegro II Largo III Allegro
FINZI - DIES NATALIS Nicholas Mulroy, tenor I Intrada II Rhapsody III The Rapture IV Wonder V The Salutation
INTERVAL
GRAINGER - MOLLY ON THE SHORE ELGAR - SERENADE FOR STRINGS I Allegro piacevole II Larghetto III Allegretto
J.S. BACH - CONCERTO FOR 2 VIOLINS IN D MINOR Nicholas Ward and Simon Gilks, violins I Vivace II Largo, ma non tanto III Allegro
We thank the Friends of the NCO for their generous sponsorship of this concert.
THE NORTHERN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA Patron Stephen Barlow President Raphael Wallfisch
Vice-Presidents Brian Leighton, Martin Roscoe
Board Members Malcolm Allcard • Morris Saleh Malcolm Brown • John Bush Conrad Marshall • Peter Thomasson Stephen Threlfall • Mike Wilbey Ronald Graham
Season Sponsor CDL
Artistic Director Nicholas Ward
Corporate Patrons Capstone Financial – ForViva – Porthaven Care Homes Honorary Patrons The Lord Stunell OBE The Baroness Bakewell DBE
Patrons Professor Alison Adam & Dr Craig Adam • Malcolm & Alison Allcard Anonymous Donor 1 • Anonymous Donor 2 • Anonymous Donor 3 Anonymous Donor 4 • Anonymous Donor 5 • Richard Baker Bevan & Dr Barbara Broadbent • Caroline Brown • Michael & Judith Biggin Roger & Hilary Brice • Nicola Bright • Liz Chalmers • Ian Edgar • David Ellis Heather Griffiths • Betty Hill • Geoff & Jennie Holman • David Kingsley • Brian Leighton Eleanor & Allan Lewington • Martin & Angela Losse • Drs Chris & Mary Loughran Vernon Matthews • Joan Matthews • Mary Miller • Bob Scott • Helen Scott Dieter Senn • Adrienne Spilsbury • Jean Soni • David Sutton • Stephen Threlfall Peter Thomasson • Mike & Ruth Wilbey • Sue Williams General Manager Tom Elliott Concerts Manager Jonathan Thackeray Office Administrator Karen Taylor
Associate Organisations Buxton International Festival Chetham’s School of Music Manchester Metropolitan University Northern Powerhouse The Stoller Hall
Marketing Manager Siobhan Parker MMU, Brooks Building, 53 Bonsall Street, Manchester M15 6GX info@ncorch.co.uk • www.ncorch.co.uk • 0161 247 2220 Twitter: @nco01 / Facebook: www.facebook.com/NorthernChamberOrchestra Company No: 1430784 Charity No: 278912
THE NORTHERN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA ABOUT US Formed in the late 1960s and based in Manchester, the NCO is now one of the country’s top, professional chamber orchestras, with its concerts and recordings warmly received by critics. In a ground-breaking move in 1986, under their young leader, Nicholas Ward, NCO became one of the first orchestras in the country to work regularly without a conductor. During this, our 51st season, NCO will be performing with leading soloists such as Freddy Kempf, Julian Bliss, Martin Roscoe, Nicholas Mulroy and Matthew Wadsworth. Our newest Artist in Association – cellist, baritone, actor and ‘Renaissance Man’
Matthew Sharp – joins us to display his virtuosic skills by both playing and singing in a concert of Schubert works. He will also work with the Education team on a variety of schools projects. The season comes to a close with our other Artist in Association, violinist Chloe Hanslip, who directs the orchestra in Manchester (where we are Orchestra in Association at The Stoller Hall), Macclesfield and Buxton in a concert of stunning strings. As well as being Orchestra in Residence at Buxton International Festival, NCO also has over thirty critically acclaimed recordings to its name including a series of Mozart and Haydn symphonies on the Naxos label. For more information visit www.ncorch.co.uk
We are proud of the ongoing relationship between NCO and Chetham’s School of Music, and look forward to continuing our collaboration at The Stoller Hall – Manchester’s newest space for performance.
TATTON PARK FRIDAY 14 DECEMBER 8PM MANSION DOORS OPEN AT 7PM
Northern Chamber Orchestra
Choir of St Nicholas Catholic High School, Northwich Compère Kate Millward
www.ncorch.co.uk | 0161 247 2220
ANTONIO VIVALDI (1678 – 1741)
CONCERTO FOR 4 VIOLINS IN B MINOR OP. 3 NO. 10 I Allegro II Largo III Allegro
This early work by Vivaldi was written as part of a set of 12 concerti featuring the violin, published as his Opus 3. The concerti are dedicated to Grand Prince Ferdinando of Tuscany, and are titled L’estro armonico (“Harmonic Inspiration”). Being the first of his works to be printed outside Italy (they were published in 1711 in Amsterdam) they came to wider attention than his earlier published works, contributing greatly to his international reputation. The concerti that make up the collection are divided between works for one, two and four violins, and this – the tenth – is the most radical of those for four violins. Like most of Vivaldi’s 500-odd concertos, the B Minor Concerto for Four Violins is in three movements (fast-slow-fast), with the outer movements in ritornello form — that is, unfolding as series of alternating orchestral and solo episodes. But this is also a highly original, even experimental work, not least because of its novel instrumentation — four solo violins, solo cello, strings, and continuo. The first movement opens with a coup de théâtre — with dialogue among soloists rather than with the full orchestra - and, like the finale, features wonderfully capricious solo episodes. 18th century listeners were stunned by the extraordinary intensity of expression and rhythmic drive in Vivaldi’s concertos, and the finale of the B minor concerto is full of bite and bravado, though the solemn, mysterious slow movement is no less passionate and powerful, in its own way. The whole piece serves a testament to Vivaldi’s extraordinary imagination and compelling originality.
GERALD FINZI (1901 – 1956)
DIES NATALIS OP. 8 I Intrada II Rhapsody III The Rapture IV Wonder V The Salutation
Quintessentially Finzi, the tender yet radiant Dies Natalis, a setting of texts by the 17th century poet Thomas Traherne, depicts both the first sensations of a child as it enters the world, and life’s tarnishing experience of the innocence of childhood. The richly textured, resourceful string writing and the long instrumental melodic lines have a broad sweep which carries the music naturally forwards in a unity of spirit with the poetry - a hallmark of Finzi’s art. The subtle inflections of the word-setting and the arching lyricism have attracted many leading vocalists to the work and, although particularly associated with the tenor voice, Dies Natalis was premiered at the Wigmore Hall on 26th January 1940 by the famous soprano Elsie Suddaby, together with the Maurice Miles String Orchestra. 1. Intrada Orchestral introduction 2. Rhapsody Will you see the infancy of this sublime and celestial greatness? I was a stranger, which at my entrance into the world was saluted and surrounded with innumerable joys: my knowledge was divine. I was entertained like an angel with the works of God in their splendour and glory. Heaven and Earth did sing my Creator’s praises, and could not make more melody to Adam than to me. Certainly Adam in Paradise had not more sweet and curious apprehensions of the world than I. All appeared new, and strange at first, inexpressibly rare and delightful and beautiful. All things were spotless and pure and glorious. The corn was orient and immortal wheat, which never should be reaped nor was ever sown. I thought it had stood from everlasting to everlasting. The green trees, when I saw them first, transported and ravished me, their sweetness and unusual beauty made my heart to leap, and almost mad with ecstasy, they were such strange and wonderful things. O what venerable creatures did the aged seem! Immortal cherubims! and the young men glittering and sparkling angels, and maids strange seraphic pieces of life and beauty! I knew not that they were born or should die; but all things abided eternally. I knew not that there were sins or complaints or laws. I dreamed not of poverties,
contentions or vices. All tears and quarrels were hidden from mine eyes. I saw all in the peace of Eden. Everything was at rest, free and immortal.
3. The Rapture Sweet Infancy! O heavenly fire! O sacred Light! How fair and bright! How great am I Whom the whole world doth magnify! O heavenly Joy! O great and sacred blessedness Which I possess! So great a joy Who did into my arms convey? From God above Being sent, the gift doth me enflame, To praise His Name. The stars do move, The sun doth shine, to show His Love. O how divine Am I! To all this sacred wealth This life and health, Who rais’d? Who mine Did make the same! What hand divine! 4. Wonder How like an angel came I down! How bright are all things here! When first among His works I did appear O how their glory me did crown! The world resembled His Eternity In which my soul did walk; And every thing that I did see Did with me talk. The skies in their magnificence The lovely, lively air,
O how divine, how soft, how sweet, how fair! The stars did entertain my sense; And all the works of God, so bright and pure, So rich and great, did seem, As if they ever must endure In my esteem. A native health and innocence Within my bones did grow, And while my God did all His Glories show, I felt a vigour in my sense That was all Spirit. I within did flow With seas of life, like wine; I nothing in the world did know But ‘twas Divine. 5. The Salutation These little limbs, these eyes and hands which here I find, This panting heart wherewith my life begins; Where have ye been? Behind what curtain were ye from me hid so long? Where was, in what abyss, my new-made tongue? When silent I, so many thousand, thousand years Beneath the dust did in a chaos lie, how could I smiles, or tears, Or lips, or hands, or eyes, or ears perceive? Welcome, ye treasures which I now receive. From dust I rise and out of nothing now awake, These brighter regions which salute my eyes, A gift from God I take, the earth, the seas, the light, the lofty skies, The sun and stars are mine: if these I prize. A stranger here, strange things doth meet, strange glory see, Strange treasures lodged in this fair world appear, Strange, all, and new to me: But that they mine should be who nothing was, That strangest is of all; yet brought to pass.
PERCY GRAINGER (1882 - 1961)
MOLLY ON THE SHORE Percy Grainger was a picturesque nationalist who tried to retain something of the original flavour of British folk songs and their singers by strict observance of peculiarities of performance, such as varying beat lengths and the use of ‘primitive’ techniques such as parallelism. Born the son of an architect in Brighton, Victoria, Australia, Percy Grainger was a precocious pianist, and the proceeds of a series of concerts, given at the age of twelve, enabled him to go and study in Frankfurt for six years, after which he began his European career as a concert pianist, settling in London in 1901. It was during his stay in England that he became passionately involved in collecting and arranging folk songs and country dances. Of this work, Grainger wrote: “In setting Molly on the Shore I strove to imbue the accompanying parts that made up the harmonic texture with a melodic character not too unlike that of the underlying reel tune. Melody seems to me to provide music with an initiative, whereas rhythm appears to me to exert an enslaving influence. For that reason I have tried to avoid rhythmic domination in my music - always excepting irregular rhythms, such as those of Gregorian Chant, which seem to me to make for freedom. Equally with melody I prize discordant harmony, because of the emotional and compassionate sway it exerts.” August 6, 1959
EDWARD ELGAR (1857 – 1934)
SERENADE FOR STRING ORCHESTRA OP. 20 I Allegro piacevole II Larghetto III Allegretto The composer’s earliest works were anything but teenage experiments; rather they were the products of a mature and experienced musician who never put pen to paper without a great deal of preparatory hard labour and much soul searching. Elgar was particularly fond of the Serenade for Strings, declaring it to be amongst his finest compositions. Its beauty and deceptively simple craftsmanship are but two elements which demonstrate support for the composer’s opinion. Interestingly, and perhaps significantly, Elgar’s last major work (the Cello Concerto) has much in common with the early Serenade. Both inhabit the same sound world and have a calm acceptance of a kind of sadness which progresses to eventual serenity. Although not formally published until 1892, the Serenade is believed to be a reworking of a suite Elgar had written some years earlier, before he had firmly set his
sights on a career as a composer. Apart from the Wand of Youth suites, it is therefore probably the earliest of his compositions to survive into the standard repertoire. Certainly, it has a youthful charm while at the same time displaying indications of the skills Elgar developed as he progressed towards musical maturity. It is reportedly the first of his compositions with which he professed himself satisfied. The piece is in three movements, beginning with the wistful Allegro piacevole, the opening bars of which will be familiar to most. There is an underlying note of sadness in the main theme heard at the outset, and Elgar sets against this a more lilting middle section with brief solo turns for the principal violin. The long central Larghetto is generally accepted as containing his finest and most mature writing and begins with an introduction that adapts ideas from the opening movement, before introducing a Romantic theme that is spun out in the same way as in his “Nimrod” movement from the Enigma Variations. There is a brief contrasting interlude before this theme returns in the full orchestra. The movement ends in a whisper. The brief closing movement returns to the Serenade’s opening mood, but in a more dancelike character.
JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685 – 1750)
CONCERTO IN D MINOR FOR TWO VIOLINS I Vivace II Largo, ma non tanto III Allegro This well-loved masterpiece was probably composed during Bach’s time at Cöthen (1717 - 1723). Bach uses the three-movement model of Vivaldi; however, the textures are much denser, with four-part writing throughout the tutti sections. The opening theme of the first movement is one of Bach’s most memorable. The second violins lead off, followed by the first violins - a fifth higher. The soloists introduce a new theme with wide skips, lightly supported by the orchestra. Later, the strings make brief references to the main theme underneath the soloists’ dialogue. In the perfection of the writing, profusion of ideas and clarity and compactness of structure, this movement is one of the most satisfying pieces of music ever composed. It is followed by perhaps the most sublime of slow movements in the repertoire. The orchestra provides a gently-rocking motion under the ravishing counterpoint of the solo violins. The last movement bursts forth with a vigorous descending figure, soloists and orchestra in pursuit of one another. There are more serene episodes and two extraordinary passages where the soloists hammer out four-note chords above the orchestra playing fragments of the main theme in unison.
NICHOLAS MULROY TENOR
Born in Liverpool, Nicholas was a chorister at the city’s Metropolitan Cathedral before studying Modern Languages at Cambridge and voice at the RAM. He has since been in constant demand both in the UK and further afield in a wide range of concert, recital and opera engagements. Widely known for his performances of Baroque repertoire, he has sung with some of its most noted exponents: Bach’s Evangelist with Sir John Eliot Gardiner and EBS, Paul McCreesh and the Gabrieli Consort, Laurence Cummings, Juanjo Mena and the BBC Philharmonic, and John Butt and the Dunedin Consort. He has also sung to great acclaim with groups such as the OAE, the Choir of New College, Oxford, I Fagiolini, the King’s Consort, Les Musiciens du Louvre, Brussels
Philharmonic, Wroclaw Baroque Orchestra, and le Concert d’Astrée, and at opera houses including Paris (Palais Garnier and Opéra Comique), Glyndebourne, Lille, and the Grand Capitole in Toulouse. Away from the Baroque, he has sung Tavener’s Requiem with BBCNOW, Piazzolla’s María de Buenos Aires with Mr McFall’s Chamber, Berio Sinfonia and the world premiere of Stephen Pratt’s Uneasy Vespers with RLPO, and Haydn Creation with the Royal Northern Sinfonia. A committed recitalist, he has appeared at the Wigmore Hall singing Schubert Lieder (also taken for BBC Radio 3) and the complete Britten Canticles on the occasion of the composer’s 100th birthday. He has sung Janacek’s Diary of One who Vanished for Glyndebourne Festival Opera, for the Philharmonia at the RFH and as part of the Aurora Janacek Festival, and has appeared with regular partners John Reid, Joseph Middleton, Iain Burnside and Eugene Asti. He has recorded extensively, with credits including a Gramophone Award-winning Messiah and critical acclaim has followed for recordings of Acis and Galatea, Matthäus-Passion, Handel’s Esther and a recent Johannes-Passion where he sings both Evangelist and arias.
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NCO MACCLESFIELD CONCERT SERIES 2018-2019
12
S AT U R DAY
Katherine Baker flute
Lucy Wakeford harp
January
Mendelssohn String symphony No. 10 7.30pm At The Heritage Centre Mozart Concerto for flute and harp Debussy Danse sacrée et danse profane Macclesfield Fauré Fantasy for flute and orchestra Haydn Symphony No. 39 Our first concert of the New Year brings a programme sure to beat the January blues with music of deftness of touch and warm sonorities. We begin the concert with a Mendelssohn sinfonia for strings in B minor, the one-movement no 10. This work by the 14-year-old composer, was considered to be lost until it was discovered in a Berlin library at the end of
“Katherine Baker’s flute full and smooth…” The Guardian
WWII. The effervescent conclusion of the work leads us into a most charming and joyous concerto, Mozart’s flute and harp, played by two stars of the UK classical music scene, Katherine Baker and Lucy Wakeford. After the interval the two soloists return individually to each play a short French masterpiece, Debussy first, then Fauré. We close the concert with one of Haydn’s great and perhaps underperformed early symphonies, the G minor, no 39.
“The delicacy and exquisite beauty of tone of the harp playing of Lucy Wakeford” The Times
Supported by the Friends of the NCO
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03
S U N DAY
Matthew Sharp cello Programme to include: Elgar Cello Concerto
March
3.00pm Stockport Town Hall
Our newest Artist in Association Matthew Sharp returns to Stockport Town Hall to perform the elegiac masterpiece that is Elgar’s Cello Concerto. Matthew is internationally recognised as both a compelling classical artist and a fearless pioneer, who can just as easily turn his hand to remarkable cello-playing as he can to mesmerising audiences with his vibrant baritone. The concert is the public conclusion of a programme of workshops and concerts in Stockport schools, led and directed by Matthew in a unique linking of education and concert work.
‘an extraordinary cellist - charismatic, virtuosic, brimming with verve and poetry’ The Times
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We thank the Friends of the NCO for their generous sponsorship of this concert
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TONIGHT’S ORCHESTRA DIRECTED BY NICHOLAS WARD, VIOLIN Violin I Nicholas Ward Dave Routledge Louise Latham Luke Coomber Shirley Richards Violin 2 Simon Gilks Becca Thompson Rob Adlard Judith van Ingen Viola Mike Dale Jacq Leighton Jones Aimee Johnson Cello Tim Smedley Barbara Grunthal Bass Richard Waldock Harpsichord David Francis
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THE NORTHERN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA PLAYING MEMBERS Violins Nicholas Ward Chair supported by Ken & Pam McKinlay Simon Gilks Chair supported by Anne Thompson Louise Latham Chair supported by Eleanor Lewington David Routledge Paula Smart Rebecca Thompson Chair supported by Valerie Elliott Violas Richard Muncey Chair supported by Martin and Angela Losse Mike Dale
Oboes Kenny Sturgeon Chair supported by Caroline Brown Jane Evans Clarinets Elizabeth Jordan Daniel Bayley Bassoons Llinos Owen Rachel Whibley Chair Supported by John Whibley Holidays Horns Naomi Atherton Jenny Cox
Cello Barbara Grunthal Chair supported by Peter Raynes
Trumpet Tracey Redfern Chair supported by John Bush
Bass James Manson Chair supported by Ken & Pam McKinlay Flutes Conrad Marshall Chair supported by Dieter Senn Nichola Hunter Chair supported by Jane & Wyn Davies
Timpani John Melbourne Harpsichord/keyboard Bernard Robertson
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