Katherine Baker (flute) and Lucy Wakeford (harp) with Northern Chamber Orchestra

“Simply world-class” Opera Magazine MUSICIANS OF THE POWERHOUSE

NORTHERN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA

2018-2019

Concert Season MACCLESFIELD CONCERT SERIES 12 JANUARY 2019 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 DIRECTED BY NICHOLAS WARD, VIOLIN

FELIX MENDELSSOHN (1809 – 1847) STRING SYMPHONY NO.10 IN B MINOR WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756 -1791) FLUTE AND HARP CONCERTO IN C MAJOR, K.299 KATHERINE BAKER, FLUTE & LUCY WAKEFORD, HARP I Allegro II Andantino III Rondo: Allegro

INTERVAL

CLAUDE DEBUSSY (1862 – 1918) DANSE SACRÉE ET DANSE PROFANE LUCY WAKEFORD, HARP GABRIEL FAURÉ (1845 – 1924) FANTAISIE FOR FLUTE AND ORCHESTRA OP.79 KATHERINE BAKER, FLUTE JOSEPH HAYDN (1732 – 1809) SYMPHONY NO.39 IN G MINOR, HOB.I:39 I Allegro assai II Andante III Minuet IV Finale: Allegro di molto

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 • Naomi Atherton

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 • Peter Raynes • 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, the NCO became one of the first orchestras in the country to work regularly without a conductor.

During this, our 51st season, the 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 Chloë 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, the 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.

Become a Friend of the NCO: • Annual fee only £25 single membership / £40 joint membership

• £1 off all Macclesfield concert tickets and all NCO recordings

• Attend special events and pre-concert talks

• Attend fundraising events and outings

• Join members of the orchestra and other Friends for a complimentary drink after concerts

Call the office on 0161 247 2220 or email friends@ncorch.co.uk www.ncorch.co.uk | 0161 247 2220

KATHERINE BAKER FLUTE

Katherine Baker is principal flute with the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, having previously held the same position at the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, and the Hallé.

Despite the very demanding nature of the job, she also takes on regular guest principal work with many of the country’s leading orchestras such as the London Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra and Academy of St Martin in the Fields.

In the midst of this busy orchestral career Katherine tries to devote as much time as she reasonably can to chamber music. She has performed at festivals and music societies across the country and in Europe, either as part of a number of well-known ensembles or in a solo capacity.

LUCY WAKEFORD HARP

Lucy is principal harp with the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and a member of the Britten Sinfonia. She was previously principal harp with the Philharmonia Orchestra from 2001 to 2011. After studying at the Royal College of Music with Marisa Robles, Lucy continued her studies in Paris with Gérard Devos and in London with Skaila Kanga. She has been a prize winner in several international competitions including second prize in the Israel harp competition and first prize in the Cité des Arts international competition held in Paris. Lucy was selected for representation by the Young Concert Artists Trust in 1998.

As a soloist, Lucy has played the Ginastera concerto with the Israel Philharmonic and Royal Philharmonic orchestras, Debussy’s Danse sacrée et danse profane with the London Symphony Orchestra, and Mozart’s concerto for flute and harp with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and the Britten Sinfonia, among many others.

FELIX MENDELSSOHN (1809 – 1847)

STRING SYMPHONY NO.10 IN B MINOR This is one of many teenage pieces, including twelve symphonies for strings, composed by Mendelssohn to be played at the family’s Sunday concerts, a feature of Berlin’s musical life during the early 19th century. These performances were conducted by the young composer, and the music would have no doubt astonished the audience with its maturity and confidence, equalled only by Mozart at a similar age.

The Symphony in B minor is in one continuous movement beginning with a reflective Adagio, which gives way to a vigorous Allegro. The richness of the scoring is achieved by dividing the viola section – a trick used by Mozart in his quintets for strings – which adds to the sombreness of the B minor tonality.

There was a time when the early works of Mendelssohn were dismissed as being of no consequence. Much of this music has only recently been rediscovered and their consequent performances reveal, in particular the symphonies, to be of some considerable importance. The fact that they were written in his teenage years need not detract from their quality; Mendelssohn was only seventeen when he composed one of the most perfect of all masterpieces, the overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Writing symphonies and chamber music came easily to the young composer: the stimulus of regular performances in the congeniality of his well-to-do family environment was of consequence. He was encouraged to develop his youthful experiments with musical forms and with orchestration in the knowledge that there could be no problems over domestic security; nor was he subject to the whims of a commissioning patron or a philistine employer.

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756 - 1791)

FLUTE AND HARP CONCERTO IN C MAJOR, K.299 I Allegro II Andantino III Rondo: Allegro The Concerto for Flute and Harp is one of only two true double concertos written

by Mozart, and the only piece of music he composed that includes the harp. Written in 1778 during his time in Paris, Mozart was commissioned – but never paid - by the Duke of Guînes, a flute player, and his harpist daughter, to whom Mozart was giving composition lessons. The piece is beautifully crafted and entirely characteristic of Mozart with its slow-fast-slow movement form. However, at the time of its composition the harp was not considered a standard orchestral instrument - the modern concert harp was not invented until 1810 - and was considered more of a ‘plucked piano’, making this, for its time, an unusual instrumental combination.

Not only does the concerto lack the glissandi and arpeggios we are used to when hearing the harp, but many of the gestures we are familiar with in Mozart’s piano works are also present.

Although the harp and flute was a combination Mozart was unfamiliar with, the composition is altogether typical of his other works from this period. The first movement, the joyful Allegro, is structured in standard sonata form and opens with the orchestra introducing the two principal themes of the movement before the soloists enter with a more elaborate restatement of the exposition. The recapitulation, cadenza and coda follow with lively predictability.

The slow-tempo second movement, in contrast to the Allegro, is light and graceful, with the soloists accompanied only by the strings. The central melody is traded back and forth between the harp and flute, before the pianissimo final bars. After a brief pause, the winds return for the Concerto’s rondo finale. The first violins introduce the principal theme, soon repeated by the winds, before the harp and flute lead us through some of Mozart’s most pleasing melodies. The orchestra then rejoins them in a final brisk restatement of the rondo’s opening theme, bringing the work to a spirited conclusion.

CLAUDE DEBUSSY (1862 – 1918)

DANSE SACRÉE ET DANSE PROFANE These two dances were written in 1904 at the behest of the firm Pleyel who had produced the new ‘chromatic’ harp with two rows of strings. However players of the conventional pedal harp soon mastered the chromatic difficulties of Debussy’s writing and Pleyel’s harp has now become a museum piece.

The Sacred Dance is reminiscent of the plaintive opening of Debussy’s Martyrdom of St Sebastian, with its archaic atmosphere and modal plain-song culminating in subtle ecstatic climaxes. After the return of the plain-song melody the movement ends with a gentle chime of low bells. With the harp still tolling, the strings suddenly take off with the second dance – quiet, lilting, sensuous, profane, until the harpist is forced to throw off his meditation and heart searching. The final section gaily reiterates the exhilaration of the dance.

GABRIEL FAURÉ (1845 - 1924)

FANTAISIE FOR FLUTE AND ORCHESTRA, OP.79 Fauré’s delightful miniature was composed in 1898 for Paul Taffanel, a French flautist and Fauré’s teaching colleague at the Paris Conservatory. Taffanel is credited with founding the “French School” of flute playing, with its emphasis on a lighter tone and incorporating vibrato, as opposed to a “strong and steady” tone that had characterized earlier playing. The opening Andantino of the Fantaisie is a lilting, flowing movement with the graceful sound of a flute melody accompanied by a simple orchestral accompaniment. The Allegro follows with two themes; one light and joyful with quick passages demonstrating the flautist’s agility, and the other more eloquent and flowing.

JOSEPH HAYDN (1732 - 1809)

SYMPHONY NO. 39 IN G MINOR I Allegro assai II Andante III Minuet IV Finale: Allegro di molto Haydn’s Symphony No. 39 in G minor is the earliest of his minor key symphonies associated with his Sturm und Drang period works. It is his sole contribution to the body of G minor symphonies of the Viennese Classical School, and inspired later G minor symphonies by JC Bach and Mozart. He composed over 100 symphonies over 40 years, taking him from obscurity to international celebrity and earning him the latter-day title of ‘father of the symphony’.

The opening of Haydn’s G minor symphony was shocking, for its time, with its uneasily exciting main theme interrupted by frequent pauses. We now label such music Sturm und Drang – storm and stress – but at the time it must have seemed inspired madness. In contrast, the Andante is one of Haydn’s most elegant slow movements. The minor mode returns for the Minuet, which is contrasted by a bright major-mode Trio. The frenetic finale returns to the nervous energy of Sturm und Drang, bringing the symphony to an energetic conclusion.

TONIGHT’S ORCHESTRA DIRECTED BY NICHOLAS WARD, VIOLIN Violin I Nicholas Ward Paula Smart Louise Latham Sarah Whittingham Shirley Richards Violin II Becca Thompson Sarah White Ann Lawes Catherine Lansden Viola Richard Muncey Raymond Lester Carolyn Tregaskis

Cello Cara Berridge Barbara Grunthal Bass James Manson Oboe Kenny Sturgeon Jane Evans Horn Naomi Atherton Jenny Cox

09

NCO MACCLESFIELD CONCERT SERIES 2018-2019

S AT U R DAY

February Matthew Wadsworth theorbo

7.30pm At The Heritage Centre Macclesfield

Handel Concerto Grosso Op.6 No.5 Dvořák 2 Waltzes for strings Op. 54 Goss Theorbo Concerto Bartók Divertimento for strings Bach Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 Matthew Wadsworth has earned a reputation as one of the world’s finest lutenists. His entrancing performances have led to reviews fulsome in their praise of his musicianship. Matthew was born blind but when contemplating his many achievements, both on and off the stage, ‘disabled’ is certainly not a word that could be used to apply to him. In this concert, we hear a new concerto by Stephen Goss for a medieval instrument, the 7 foot long theorbo. This comes at the end of the first half that is opened by the ebullient and perfectly conceived, Concerto Grosso in D by Handel. In the second half are two towering works of genius, Bartók’s magnificent Divertimento for strings, from 1939, his last composition in Europe before fleeing to the United States prior to World War II; and to close the concert is a piece that is sure to put a smile on any face with its bouncy confidence, the 3rd of Bach’s Brandenburg concertos.

“Lutenist Matthew Wadsworth dazzles with his dexterity” The Independent

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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 Cello Barbara Grunthal Chair supported by Peter Raynes 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

Oboes Kenny Sturgeon Chair supported by Caroline Brown Jane Evans Clarinets Elizabeth Jordan Daniel Bayley Chair supported anonymously Bassoons Llinos Owen Rachel Whibley Chair Supported by John Whibley Holidays Horns Naomi Atherton Jenny Cox Trumpet Tracey Redfern Chair supported by John Bush Timpani John Melbourne Harpsichord/keyboard Bernard Robertson

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