Brahms Piano Concertos programme

Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness

Brahms Piano Concertos with Sir Andrรกs Schiff

Monday 18 and Tuesday 19 March 2019 Royal Festival Hall 7pm

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“We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness”.

The American Declaration of Independence

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Thomas Jefferson’s immortal words were inspired by the brilliant energy of the Enlightenment in 18th century Europe. Even now they cast an optimistic beam over humanity and the challenges it faces.

Questions about the state and the individual beat in the hearts of many in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Their answers still define our lives and what freedoms, if any, we might enjoy.

Some of the music in this Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness season is overtly about the grand question of human freedom. Some works have a historical context, and we can pinpoint them as reactions to particular flashpoints, such as the failed revolutions in Germany in 1848. Many pieces relate the conflict between external forces and individual identity, and sing with a voice of undaunted independence.

All relate to a notion of intrinsic freedom set out

by Jean-Jacques Rousseau in the decade before Jefferson and his committee sat down to draft the Declaration of Independence. “L'homme est né libre, et partout il est dans les fers,” he wrote in Du contrat social (1762): “Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains”.

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A message from our Principal Sponsor I am delighted to welcome you to this pair of concerts of music by Brahms and Schumann with Sir AndrĂĄs Schiff.

Jupiter has been sponsoring this extraordinary Orchestra since 1999 and over the past 20 years we have established a successful partnership based on our shared strengths of integrity and innovation. Founded just one year apart, in 1985 and 1986 respectively, Jupiter and the OAE have much in common.

Our continued support of the OAE is due to many factors: its high level of expertise and professionalism in bringing music to its audiences in the most authentic way; providing an avenue for its Rising Stars to gain experience and exposure; and the modern and engaging way in which the Orchestra connects with its audiences and supporters.

I hope that you will enjoy listening to another memorable performance from the OAE’s fine musicians.

Edward Bonham Carter Vice-Chairman, Jupiter Asset Management

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Contents Introduction 03 Soloists and concert information 08 Orchestra 10 Programme notes Katy Hamilton Monday 18 March 11 Tuesday 19 March 13 Brahms and Schumann: Romantics in an Age of Revolution Tom Short 15 Support us 18 Biographies 20 OAE education 22 OAE team 27 Supporters 28 Future concerts 31 Introducing our 19/20 Southbank Centre season 32

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Brahms Piano Concerto No.1 Monday 18 March 2019 Royal Festival Hall 7pm This concert will finish at approximately 9.15pm, with one 20 minute interval.

Pre-concert talk Katy Hamilton, presenter and music researcher, Level 5 Function Room, Royal Festival Hall

Sir András Schiff director /piano Roger Montgomery Martin Lawrence Gavin Edwards David Bentley horn Schumann Konzertstück for four horns Symphony No.4 (1851 version) INTERVAL Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1

Brahms Piano Concerto No.2 Tuesday 19 March 2019 Royal Festival Hall 7pm This concert will finish at approximately 8.50pm, with one 20 minute interval.

Sir András Schiff director /piano Schumann Symphony No.3 Rhenish INTERVAL Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2

Pre-concert talk Dr Robert Samuels, Senior Lecturer in Music, Open University, Level 5 Function Room, Royal Festival Hall

Monday's concert supported by

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Mark and Rosamund Williams Heleen Mendl-Schrama Rev'd John Wates OBE and Carol Wates Philip and Rosalyn Wilkinson

Tuesday's Concert supported by Julian and Annette Armstrong Heleen Mendl-Schrama

Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness

Ursula Paludan Monberg horn

Also featured on front cover, left to right: Camilla Morse-Glover - cello Ann and Peter Law OAE Experience scheme David Blackadder - principal trumpet

Back cover: Amelia Shakespeare - flute Ann and Peter Law OAE Experience scheme Max Mandel - co-principal viola James Newby - baritone Rising Star of the Enlightenment 09

Orchestra Violin 1 Kati Debretzeni Aisslinn Nosky Alice Evans Jane Gordon Julia Kuhn Dominika Feher Kinga Ujszaszi Jayne Spencer Rachel Isserlis Leonie Curtin Violin 2 Ken Aiso Andrew Roberts Roy Mowatt Stephen Rouse Debbie Diamond Abel Balasz* Beatrice Scaldini Lucy Waterhouse Christiane Eidsten Dahl

Flute Lisa Beznosiuk Neil McLaren Katy Bircher Oboe Daniel Bates Leo Duarte Clarinet Antony Pay Katherine Spencer Bassoon Meyrick Alexander Helen Storey

Horn Roger Montgomery Martin Lawrence Gavin Edwards David Bentley Ursula Paludan Monberg Nicholas Benz Trumpet David Blackadder Phillip Bainbridge Trombone Philip Dale Martyn Sanderson Andrew Lester Timpani Adrian Bending

Viola Benedikt Schneider Nicholas Logie Martin Kelly Annette Isserlis Kate Heller Marina Ascherson Cello Luise Buchberger Catherine Rimer Andrew Skidmore Helen Verney Ruth Alford Eric de Wit Angela Lobata* Bass Jan Zahourek Cecelia Bruggemeyer Christine Sticher Markus van Horn

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*Participants in the Ann and Peter Law OAE Experience Scheme.

Help the next generation of gifted period instrument players.

To find out more visit oae.co.uk/support or contact: Marina Abel Smith Head of Individual Giving marina.abelsmith@oae.co.uk Telephone 020 7239 9380

Brahms Piano Concertos

Programme Notes Katy Hamilton

Monday 18 March Schumann (1810-56) Konzertstück for Four Horns 1.Lebhaft 2.Romance. Zienlich langsam 3.Sehr lebhaft 1849 was an astonishingly productive year for Robert Schumann. Now in his late thirties, living and working in Dresden with his wife Clara and his growing family of five children, he composed over forty pieces in twelve months, from keyboard and chamber works to solo vocal and choral collections, and large-scale pieces for voices and orchestra. But perhaps the most unusual was his Konzertstück, composed between February and March of that year, for four horns and orchestra.

This piece is effectively a three-movement concerto, although the music is continuous: a lively opening section followed by a beautifully singing Romanze, and a boisterous finale which quotes, at its centre, the slow movement theme.

Our four soloists are required to play Ventilhörner – that is, horns with valves, which allowed players to move beyond traditional patterns that were based around the harmonic series (think of hunting calls and military fanfares), and play all the notes in the chromatic scale with equal ease. These were still relatively new instruments in the 1840s, and Schumann’s soloists combine familiar fanfare-like figures with long, lyrical lines.

The decision to write a piece of this kind was largely down to Schumann’s love of Baroque music, and his intensive study of the music of Bach and others led him to create this very Romantic take on a concerto grosso. The soloists play variously as a four-part ‘choir’; in staggered, imitative passages; and with occasional stand-out moments for each.

Schumann Symphony No.4 (1851 version) 1.Ziemlich langsam 2.Romanze 3.Scherzo 4.Langsam The Konzertstück was first performed in February 1850 at the Leipzig Gewandhaus.

Two years later, Schumann’s Fourth Symphony was premiered in Dusseldorf, the town to which he and his family had recently relocated. But this latter piece has its origins in 1841, over a decade earlier. Recently married, and inspired by the music of Franz Schubert, Schumann worked on a Symphony in D minor which was performed in December 1841 at the Leipzig Gewandhaus.

But this new piece was not well received by the public, and he withdrew it. Returning to it years later, he sought to find a more persuasive way of organising his material, and even toyed with the idea of dropping the ‘symphony’ label altogether and calling it instead a ‘Symphonistische Phantasie’.

The reason for this proposed change was the peculiar construction of the piece: the four movements have strong thematic connections, and could even have been played through continuously. Yet he tightened the form, reorchestrated much of the music, and eventually retained the original title.

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The revised Symphony – now his Fourth, where it had once been his Second – was premiered in March 1853 in Dusseldorf with Schumann himself conducting. This time, the critical response was far more favourable: ‘The Symphony won over the musically-minded through its beauty,’ wrote one of the critics in attendance.

It was published that same year – the year in which the Schumanns would later meet Johannes Brahms. But decades after Robert’s death, the Symphony would come to cause friction between Clara Schumann and Brahms. She was overseeing a complete edition of her husband’s music, and had asked Brahms to deal with the symphonic works; but could not agree, despite Brahms’s insistence, that both the revised and early version of the piece should be published.

In the end, when she failed to respond to his promptings, he assisted in having the original version published without her involvement. This nearly broke their life-long friendship once and for all, and it was almost a year before the two were once again reconciled. Yet Brahms’s devotion to Robert’s music, and his determination to bring the works of his brilliant mentor before the public, is abundantly clear in one simple fact: that for all the work he put into the Schumann edition, from individual editing jobs to overseeing the work of others, not one score in the main sequence of volumes bears his name. It is only in the final supplement that he is listed as a contributor.

Brahms (1833-97) Piano Concerto No. 1 1.Maestoso 2.Adagio 3.Rondo: Allegro non troppo Brahms’s First Piano Concerto also began as a symphony, sketched in a two-piano score which he played through with Clara Schumann in early 1854. Yet he had no experience of orchestration at this point – or indeed of working with an orchestra as a director – and struggled to martial his material into order. A year later, he finally struck upon the idea of reworking some of the music into a concerto, and laboured at this over the next few years with the help of close friends who were able to offer him practical advice about orchestral writing.

Robert Schumann in a 1850 daguerreotype

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The final product was premiered in Hanover and Leipzig in January 1859... and was an abject failure. Critics wrote it off as full of dissonances (particularly the stormy first movement), one describing it as ‘a composition dragged to its grave.’

Brahms reported to Clara Schumann that ‘no more than three people bothered to clap’ and quite a few hissed instead! It was to be many years before the work received a warmer response from audiences.

Tuesday 19 March Schumann Symphony No. 3 Rhenish 1.Lebhaft 2.Scherzo: Sehr mäßig 3. Nicht schnell 4.Feierlich 5.Lebhaft In the autumn of 1850, Robert Schumann made a day trip to Cologne. As part of this trip, Robert got his first glimpse of the city’s cathedral, a mighty Gothic edifice which had been abandoned, incomplete, in the fifteenth century, and on which work finally resumed in the 1840s (it would eventually be completed to its original plan in 1880.)

It is a vast construction, the largest Gothic church in northern Europe, with the largest facade of any church in the world.

That same year, Robert composed a new symphony in E flat major which, as he informed his publisher, ‘here and there reflects a slice of life on the Rhein.’

The Third Symphony was premiered in April 1851 to tremendous acclaim, with leading music journals writing long articles extolling its many virtues and recalling the wildly enthusiastic applause of the first audience in Dusseldorf. The nickname of Rhenish, however, was not Schumann’s own – it gained currency over subsequent decades, partly as a result of various memoirs which made this previously private association in the composer’s mind a public matter.

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Cologne Cathedral is the subject of the fourth movement, originally headed ‘In the manner of accompanying a solemn ceremony’, in which church-like wind and brass groupings play weaving polyphony in the manner of a stile antico choral work.

It is one of – unusually – five movements (in the manner of Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony), including a breathlessly exciting opening and a gentle Ländler as its second movement. And, critically to its success, its melodies are eminently catchy and singable, Schumann noting that he had attempted to ‘capture the popular tone.’

This Concerto earned a far more favourable reception than its predecessor, with one critic writing of the ‘spring scents’ which seem to blow through the music, bringing it to a cheerful conclusion where the First Concerto remains in a world of storms and stress. And by this time, Brahms – the soloist in this premiere, as for his earlier Concerto – was a famous figure, the leading Austro-German symphonist (a title he had inherited from Schumann).

Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2 1.Allegro non troppo 2.Allegro appassionato 3.Andante 4. Allegretto Whilst Schumann’s Third Symphony was composed in a matter of months, Brahms’s Second Piano Concerto took several years to reach completion. He began working on the piece in 1878, just before his forty-fifth birthday, but put the sketches aside to write a string of other large-scale works: the Violin Concerto and two overtures, as well as several substantial chamber compositions.

He went back to the Concerto sketches in 1881, organising trial performances and tinkering with the score to ensure that it was exactly as he wished it to be. After the crashing failure of his First Concerto in Leipzig over twenty years earlier, he was hoping to go back to that same city and wow them all a second time around – alas, logistical details got in the way, and the premiere was given in Budapest in November 1881.

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Brahms in 1853

This long-breathed work is a rather different animal from its predecessor, composed with a symphonic breadth in four movements rather than three.

The pianist has highly virtuosic material throughout, but works closely with the rest of the orchestra rather than perpetually holding sway over the musical action. This is clear right from the start: the piece begins not with a grand introduction but a simple solo horn call, answered by the pianist; and chamber textures and orchestral solos abound throughout, with a beautiful melody for the principal cellist opening the slow movement. Its imposing length and richness were captured by Brahms with typical irony as he discussed it with friends... as his ‘little piano concerto.’

The piece is dedicated to Eduard Marxsen, Brahms’s music teacher from the age of ten, who remained an important friend and advisor to his prestigious pupil throughout his career.

Brahms Piano Concertos

Brahms and Schumann: Romantics in an age of Revolution Tom Short

The music by Brahms and Schumann you hear tonight might not have been written to inspire revolution, but it was written at a time in Germany when radical ideas around national identity, class and civil rights were fomenting.

To appreciate this, it’s important to understand the context in which music in the 19th century became loaded with revolutionary potential. Following the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte’s forces in 1815, the victorious European powers met at the Vienna Congress to re-establish the peace and stability which predated the French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars.

Leading the congress was the Austrian Prince Metternich, who aimed to strengthen conservatism, restoring the old monarchies which had ruled Europe in what later became known as the Biedermeier era. Austria shared with Prussia a dominant position in Germany, which after the upheavals of the Napoleonic wars was now divided into thirty-nine states.

Rather than unifying these states, this confederacy was intended to keep them separate, banishing the spectre of nationalism, constitutions and the expansion of civil rights this would bring.

This period also coincided with the growth of the middle classes in Germany, thanks to a sudden population surge and the beginnings of industrialisation.

Rejecting the opulent swagger of the Napoleonic period, the conservative swing led to a renewed emphasis on sentimentality and the comforts of domestic life. This stifling atmosphere was rigidly enforced with the help of a secret police. Restrictions on the freedom to assemble, to form associations and to discuss politics freely frustrated many who felt they had much to offer society, even those who were terrified at the prospect of another revolution. One way in which intellectuals were able to resist this repression was through art. Thinkers such as Ficht and Arndt spread liberal ideas through literary works, while male choral societies became a sleeper agent for social and political change.

More concrete opposition came from the wider population, who were suffering from the painful dislocation and starvation wages caused by the massive economic transformations that were underway. Appalling social conditions fused with the undiminished strength of 18th century revolutionary ideas to make the Europe of 1848 a political tinderbox.

After street demonstrations broke out in Paris in February which resulted in the abdication of King Louis-Philippe, uprisings spread across Europe into Austria and Germany, where popular demands for a bill of rights forced rulers to give in almost without resistance. In May 1848 a freely elected National Assembly was formed, which aimed to create a modern constitution for a united Germany.

Unfortunately, Germany's complex territorial situation and the inner turmoil which wracked the revolutionary movement led to its downfall, and attempts to create a modern constitution for Germany failed. By the beginning of 1849. authorities in Prussia and Austria had largely regained power.

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Among those driving this reactionary counter-attack was the future Chancellor of the German Empire, Otto von Bismarck, who roused his fellow aristocrats to action by hammering out the Prussian infantry's charge march on the piano.

As Karl Marx observed, the events of 1789 had been repeated as farce: the old feudal militaristic order was reestablished, and the middle classes, fearing the radicalism of the workers, largely made their peace with this arrangement (though a great deal of those who supported the revolution emigrated to the US, UK and Australia, and became known as the forty-eighters).

The collapse of the National Assembly led to outbreaks of violence across Germany, especially in Baden and Dresden.

Like many intellectuals, Robert Schumann had a troubled relationship with the revolution of 1848. Unlike his contemporary Richard Wagner who warded off sniper fire while resisting royalist forces in Dresden, Schumann wasn’t interested in frontline politics.

His sympathies were with those who wished to see Germany united under a federal government, and initially he had supported the revolutionaries’ cause; he wrote a group of three revolutionary songs inspired by the February revolution in Paris, two cantata-like works on revolutionary themes and a further cycle of ballades for solo voices, chorus and orchestra which explored republican ideas in more depth.

As hopes for the revolution faded, Schumann bemoaned ‘the troubled times’ which had afflicted the movement, and when fighting broke out in Dresden in 1849, he hid from the militia who were seeking volunteers to join the fight. When the coast was clear, Robert, his wife Clara and their eldest daughter escaped by train to outlying villages. Clara, who was seven months pregnant, returned three days later to fetch their younger children, while Robert buried himself in his composing.

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Oddly, Schumann's horror at the violent turn of the revolution had resulted in an explosion of creativity. He recounted to his friend the composer Ferdinand Hiller: ‘This has been my most fruitful year – as if the outer storms have driven me more into myself. Thus I’ve found a counterweight against the terrible things which broke in from the outside.’ This tumultous period resulted in a number of Schumann’s best-loved compositions, including the Konzertstück, the accompanying music to Byron’s dramatic poem, Manfred, and a collection of miniatures written for his daughters, Album for the Young.

Born twenty-three years after Schumann, Johannes Brahms was too young to take part in the revolution. He did perform his first concert in Hamburg at the age of 15 in 1848, on a day in which there was street violence in Frankfurt. However, like Schumann, Brahms was also a die-hard romantic. Upon discovering the older composer's works while staying in the Rhineland, he was delighted to discover a shared passion for the writings of the great romantic author and critic E T A Hoffmann, reflecting his own ideals of form.

The subsequent meeting of the two composers was of immense significance.

After a month-long stay with Robert and Clara Schumann in Düsseldorf, Brahms' subsequent compositions and correspondence immediately showed the influence of his hosts (particularly Clara, though that's another story!) Schumann meanwhile was so impressed by his young guest that he penned a rhapsodic article in his music magazine, Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, titled 'New Paths'.

Even by the rhetorical standards of his day the language used by Schumann was over-the-top.

Cheering revolutionaries in Berlin, 1848

Declaring Brahms to be a kind of musical messiah, Schumann's train of argument is strikingly militaristic in tone. Brahms appeared on the scene 'fully armed', with musical compositions 'like a rushing current, as if in a waterfall, over whose cascading waves peaceful rainbows were drawn.' The gist of his argument is the idea that Brahms was to be a German saviour, 'one that were called to give voice to the highest expression of the times in an ideal way'. Positioning Brahms as the next step in the noble path traced by Bach, Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven was also an assertion of a national cultural consciousness, and aspiration for national unity.

Brahms was all too aware of his place as a composer within an increasingly commercialised world. He once joked that he wrote divine adagios because 'his publishers order them like that' and certainly did not share Schumann's fascinating political ambivalence. Yet Brahms repeatedly exhibited a flightiness from bourgeois life at odds with his lofty position in German society. Through its typically romantic imagery of the visionary-composer, the 'New Paths' essay suggests Schumann and Brahms shared a concern with re-establishing a space for the artist within the repressive Biedermeier culture, one echoed by the latter composer's motto, 'alone but free'.

This essay suddenly plunged the young Brahms into the public eye, a role which he didn't immediately embrace, but it was extraordinarily prophetic. By the time the second piano concerto was written, Brahms was being touted as one of the 'Three B's' (joining Bach and Beethoven), as one of the great originals of German music. While the composer did not embrace the role of 'strong champion' of the times which Schumann bestowed upon him, he was happy to reflect the popular mood, giving way to patriotic sentiment after the founding of the German Empire in 1871 with the Triumphlied.

Unwilling to compromise and provide his audience with “easy� pieces, Schumann chose a career that offered far less fame and popularity than his talents perhaps deserved. Brahms demonstrated a similar degree of artistic integrity. Even after having accomplished all that he had set out to achieve, he chose to write his Four Serious Songs, going beyond anything he had written before.

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Brahms Piano Concertos

Biographies

© Nadia F Romanini

Sir András Schiff Born in Budapest in 1953, Sir András Schiff studied piano at the Liszt Ferenc Academy with Pál Kadosa, György Kurtág and Ferenc Rados; and in London with George Malcolm. Having collaborated with the world’s leading orchestras and conductors, he now focuses primarily on solo recitals, play-directing and conducting. Since 2004 Sir András has performed the complete Beethoven Piano Sonatas in over twenty cities, including Zurich where the cycle was recorded live for ECM. Other acclaimed recordings for the label include solo recitals of Schubert, Schumann and Janáček, alongside J.S. Bach’s Partitas, Goldberg Variations and Well-Tempered Clavier. In recent years his Bach has become an annual highlight of the BBC Proms. Elsewhere, he regularly performs at the Verbier, Salzburg and Baden-Baden festivals; the Wigmore Hall, Musikverein and Philharmonie de Paris; on tour in North America and Asia; and in Vicenza, Italy where he curates a festival at the Teatro Olimpico.

Vicenza is also home to Cappella Andrea Barca – a chamber orchestra consisting of international soloists, chamber musicians and friends he founded in 1999.

Together they have appeared at Carnegie Hall, Lucerne Festival and Salzburg Mozartwoche; while forthcoming projects include a tour of Asia and a cycle of Bach’s keyboard concertos in Europe.Sir András also enjoys a close relationship with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Budapest Festival Orchestra and Orchestra of the Age Enlightenment.

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In 2018 he accepted the role of Principal Artist with the OAE, complementing his interest in performing on period keyboard instruments.He continues to support new talent, primarily through his “Building Bridges” series which gives performance opportunities to promising young artists.

He also teaches at the Barenboim-Said and Kronberg academies and gives frequent lectures and masterclasses. In 2017 his book Music Comes from Silence, essays and conversations with Martin Meyer, was published by Bärenreiter and Henschel.Sir András Schiff’s many honours include the International Mozarteum Foundation’s Golden Medal (2012), Germany’s Great Cross of Merit with Star (2012), the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Gold Medal (2013), a Knighthood for Services to Music (2014) and a Doctorate from the Royal College of Music (2018).

Roger Montgomery Roger Montgomery studied at the University of York and at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Anthony Halstead. Interested in contemporary music and period instrument performance he plays horn with many of the leading groups in both fields, and is a member of the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House. His recording of the complete Mozart Concertos with the OAE on Signum Classics has been widely acclaimed including 5 star reviews and a recommendation as best period instrument performance in BBC Radio 3's Building a Library. Roger teaches at TrinityLaban, the Royal Academy of Music, Royal College of Music and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He was Chairman of the British Horn Society between 2009 and 2012.

Martin Lawrence Martin Lawrence has been the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment’s second horn since 1995.

He grew up in Cumbria, and studied physics at the University of York.

As well as OAE, he plays regularly with the English Concert and Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique and is

increasingly in demand abroad, working with Il Giardino Armonico, Dresden Festival Orchestra, Concerto Copenhagen and the Australian Chamber Orchestra.

He is currently studying for a PhD on the subject of music performance anxiety at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and is a qualified masseur. He is married to violinist Joanna Lawrence, and they have two lovely children aged 16 and 14, both musicians of course.

On the modern instrument he has played with many orchestras and ensembles including; the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, English National Opera Orchestra, B.B.C. Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London Sinfonietta and Scottish Chamber Orchestra. David lives in St Albans and teaches locally as well as at the Guildhall School of Music Junior Department and Birmingham Conservatoire.

Gavin Edwards Gavin Edwards studied Horn with Anthony Chiddel and Classical horn with Anthony Halstead, at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. After graduating he was appointed as principal horn of the Orchestre Sinfonica de Tenerife.

On his return to England he joined the Hanover Band in their recordings of Beethoven's, Schubert's and Haydn's symphonies. From here he started to work mainly in ensembles specializing in "period performance" principally with Sir John Eliot Gardiner, the English Baroque Soloists and, of course, the OAE.

Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment More than three decades ago, a group of London musicians took a good look at that curious institution we call the Orchestra, and decided to start again from scratch.

They began by throwing out the rulebook.

Put a single conductor in charge? No way.

Specialise in repertoire of a particular era?

Too restricting. Perfect a work and then move on? Too lazy. The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment was born.

Since then, the OAE has shocked, changed and mesmerised the music world. Residencies at the Southbank Centre and Glyndebourne haven’t numbed its experimentalist bent.

Record deals haven’t ironed out its quirks. Period-specific instruments have become just one element of its quest for authenticity.

David Bentley David has performed and recorded for all of the U.K.’s leading period orchestras and has been a member of the Academy of Ancient Music and the Hanover Band since 1997. In 2013 he recorded Bach’s Christmas Oratorio for Stephen Layton with the Orchestra of the Age of the Enlightenment and has recorded Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No1 for Florilegium, the Academy of Ancient Music and the English Baroque Soloists.

Pictured above, left to right: Roger Montgomery ( © Alexa Kidd-May) Martin Lawrence ( © Eric Richmond) Gavin Edwards David Bentley (© Benjamin Ealovega)

Today the OAE is cherished more than ever. It still pushes for change, and still stands for excellence, diversity and exploration. More than thirty years on, there’s still no orchestra in the world quite like it. ©Andrew Mellor

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OAE education

OAE TOTS at Saffron Hall

A programme to involve, empower and inspire Over the past twenty years OAE Education has grown in stature and reach to involve thousands of people nationwide in creative music projects.

Our participants come from a wide range of backgrounds and we pride ourselves in working flexibly, adapting to the needs of local people and the places they live.

The extensive partnerships we have built up over many years help us engage fully with all the communities where we work to ensure maximum and lasting impact. We take inspiration from the OAE's repertoire, instruments and players.

This makes for a vibrant, challenging and engaging programme where everyone is involved; players, animateurs, composers, participants, teachers, partners and stakeholders all have a valued voice.

Last season we undertook

Support our education programme

265 workshops 54 concerts in 33 towns, cities and villages with over 20,165 people across the country.

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The work we do could not happen without the support of our generous donors.

If you would like to support our Education programme please contact: Marina Abel Smith Head of Individual Giving marina.abelsmith@oae.co.uk Telephone 020 7239 9380

Rehearsals from Agreed at Glyndebourne

2019: Musical Communities To sit alongside Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness, in 2019 we are creating a programme of events inspired by the communities we live and work in, exploring how we can work together to build relationships and how music can be a fantastic tool for creativity.

In January our musicians and Rising Stars of the Enlightenment joined Durham Choral society in a performance of Handel's Messiah.

Earlier this month saw a collaboration with Glyndebourne education on a new community opera by Howard Moody called Agreed, featuring a cast of professional singers, a chorus drawn from the local community, Glyndebourne Youth Opera, our musicians and Glyndebourne Youth Orchestra.

Our TOTS programme continues to introduce children aged 2-5 to the magic of classical music with a concert series inspired by the great masters Bach, Handel and Mozart titled The World Around Us.

Our Nurturing Talent programme will see our OAE Experience students involved in projects throughout the year, a new composition project at Huddersfield University, teacher training and a new course for young musicians to delve into the world of baroque and classical music.

Our Schools programme will focus on 'variations' and how things change.

Our Special Needs programme will see culminations of our newly created Fairy Queen project for SEN settings and a new project for all six special schools in Ealing.

Our FLAGSHIP project for 2019-21 will begin with preparation for our first community opera, Regeneration, which will tour to County Durham, Norfolk, London, Suffolk and Plymouth over the three years of the project.

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Lubbock Fine is proud to support the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment We are a full service, contemporary firm of chartered accountants based in the city of London, and we’d like to meet you.

Along with proudly supporting the arts, our professional team provides specialist accounting, audit and tax advice to a wide range of clients across the full commercial and personal spectrum.

Our many clients rely on us to act as a “trusted advisor” across both their commercial and personal matters.

Why not give us a call to arrange a free, initial meeting or chat?

Please contact partner Russell Rich russellrich@lubbockfine.co.uk or feel free to call him on 020 7490 7766.

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OAE team

Chief Executive Crispin Woodhead

Finance Officer Fabio Lodato

Director of Finance and Governance Ivan Rockey

Digital Content Officer Zen Grisdale

Development Director Emily Stubbs Director of Marketing and Audience Development John Holmes Director of Press Katy Bell Projects Director Jo Perry General Manager Edward Shaw Orchestra Manager Philippa Brownsword Choir Manager David Clegg

Marketing and Press Officer Thomas Short Box Office and Data Manager Carly Mills Head of Individual Giving Marina Abel Smith Development Officer Helena Wynn Development Coordinator Kiki Betts-Dean Development Manager Catherine Kinsler Trusts and Foundations Manager Andrew Mackenzie

Projects Officer Ella Harriss Librarian Colin Kitching Education Director Cherry Forbes Education Officer Andrew Thomson

The OAE is a registered charity number 295329 and a registered company number 2040312 Registered office: Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9AG Telephone 020 7239 9370 info@oae.co.uk Design and art direction –LucienneRoberts+ Photography – Alex Grace Programme Editor - Thomas Short

Board of Directors Sir Martin Smith [Chairman] Steven Devine Denys Firth Nigel Jones Max Mandel David Marks Rebecca Miller Roger Montgomery Imogen Overli Olivia Roberts Andrew Roberts Susannah Simons Katharina Spreckelsen Mark Williams Crispin Woodhead OAE Trust Sir Martin Smith [Chair] Paul Forman Julian Mash Caroline Noblet Imogen Overli Rupert Sebag-Montefiore Diane Segalen Maarten Slendebroek Leaders Kati Debretzeni Margaret Faultless Matthew Truscott Players’ Artistic Committee Steven Devine Max Mandel Roger Montgomery (Chair) Andrew Roberts Katharina Spreckelsen Principal Artists John Butt Sir Mark Elder Iván Fischer Vladimir Jurowski Sir Simon Rattle Sir András Schiff Emeritus Conductors William Christie Sir Roger Norrington

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Supporters

The OAE continues to grow and thrive through the generosity of our supporters.

We are very grateful to our sponsors and Patrons and hope you will consider joining them. We offer a close involvement in the life of the Orchestra with many opportunities to meet players, attend rehearsals and even accompany us on tour.

OAE Thirty Circle We are particularly grateful to the following members of the Thirty Circle who have so generously contributed to the re-financing of the Orchestra through the OAE Trust.

Thirty Circle Patrons Bob and Laura Cory Sir Martin Smith and Lady Smith OBE Thirty Circle Members Victoria and Edward Bonham Carter Nigel Jones and Françoise Valat-Jones Selina and David Marks Julian and Camilla Mash Mark and Rosamund Williams Our Supporters Ann and Peter Law OAE Experience scheme Ann and Peter Law Principal Sponsor

Corporate Partners E.S.J.G. Limited Lubbock Fine Chartered Accountants Mark Allen Group Parabola Land Stephen Levinson at Keystone Law Swan Turton Corporate Associates Aston Lark Belgravia Gallery Kirker Holidays Zaeem Jamal Event Sponsors Ambriel Sparkling Wine Markson Pianos

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Season Patrons Julian and Annette Armstrong Adrian Frost Bruce Harris John Armitage Charitable Trust Nigel Jones and Françoise Valat-Jones Selina and David Marks Sir Martin Smith and Lady Smith OBE Mark and Rosamund Williams

Professor Richard Portes CBE FBA – Co-Principal Bassoon Olivia Roberts – Violin John and Rosemary Shannon – Principal Horn Roger and Pam Stubbs – Sub-Principal Clarinet Crispin Woodhead and Christine Rice – Principal Timpani

Project Patrons Julian and Camilla Mash Haakon and Imogen Overli Philip and Rosalyn Wilkinson

Education Patrons John and Sue Edwards – Principal Education Patrons Mrs Nicola Armitage Patricia and Stephen Crew Rory and Louise Landman Andrew & Cindy Peck Professor Richard Portes CBE FBA

Aria Patrons Denys and Vicki Firth Madeleine Hodgkin Stanley Lowy Gary and Nina Moss Rupert Sebag-Montefiore Caroline Steane Eric Tomsett Chair Patrons Mrs Nicola Armitage – Education Director Hugh and Michelle Arthur – Viola Victoria and Edward Bonham Carter – Principal Trumpet Anthony and Celia Edwards – Principal Oboe Sir Vernon and Lady Ellis – Co-Principal Viola Ian S Ferguson and Dr Susan Tranter Double Bass James Flynn QC – Co-Principal Lute/Theorbo Paul Forman – Co-Principal Cello, Co-Principal Violin and Co-Principal Horn Jenny and Tim Morrison – Second Violin Andrew Nurnberg – Co-Principal Oboe Jonathan Parker Charitable Trust – Co-Principal Cello

Rising Stars Supporters Annette and Julian Armstrong Mrs Rosamund Bernays Denys and Vicki Firth Mr Bruce Harris Ms Madeleine Hodgkin Mrs Sarah Holford Nigel Jones and Francoise Valat-Jones Mr Peter Lofthouse Mr Mark Loveday Mr Andrew Nurnberg Old Possum's Practical Trust Imogen and Haakon Overli The Reed Foundation Associate Patrons Julia and Charles Abel Smith Nick Allan Noël and Caroline Annesley Mrs A Boettcher David and Marilyn Clark David Emmerson Jonathan and Tessa Gaisman Peter and Sally Hilliar Noel De Keyzer Madame M Lege-Germain Sir Timothy and Lady Lloyd Michael and Harriet Maunsell MM Design - France Peter Rosenthal

For more information on supporting the OAE please contact: Emily Stubbs Development Director emily.stubbs@oae.co.uk Telephone 020 7239 9381 Roger Mears and Joanie Speers David Mildon in memory of Lesley Mildon John Nickson & Simon Rew Andrew and Cindy Peck Emily Stubbs and Stephen McCrum Shelley von Strunckel Ivor Samuels and Gerry Wakelin Rev’d John Wates OBE and Carol Wates Mr J Westwood Young Ambassador Patrons Rebecca Miller William Norris Young Patrons Joseph Cooke and Rowan Roberts David Gillbe Nina Hamilton Marianne and William Cartwright-Hignett Sam Hucklebridge Alex Madgwick Natalie Watson Gold Friends Michael Brecknell Mr and Mrs C Cochin de Billy Geoffrey Collens Chris Gould Silver Friends Dennis Baldry Haylee and Michael Bowsher Tony Burt Christopher Campbell Michael A Conlon Mr and Mrs Michael Cooper Dr Elizabeth Glyn Malcolm Herring Patricia Herrmann Rupert and Alice King Cynthia and Neil McClennan Stephen and Roberta Rosefield David and Ruth Samuels Susannah Simons Her Honour Suzanne Stewart

Bronze Friends Tony Baines Keith Barton Mr Graham Buckland Dan Burt Anthony and Jo Diamond Mrs SM Edge Mrs Mary Fysh Ray and Liz Harsant The Lady Heseltine Auriel Hill Stephen Larcombe Julian Markson Stephen and Penny Pickles Anthony and Carol Rentoul Alan Sainer Gillian Threlfall Mr and Mrs Tony Timms Mrs Joy Whitby David Wilson Trusts and foundations Angus Allnatt Charitable Foundation Apax Foundation Arts Council England Catalyst Fund Arts Council England Ashley Family Foundation Arts Council England Barbour Foundation Boltini Trust Boshier-Hinton Foundation Brian Mitchell Charitable Settlement Catherine Cookson Charitable Trust The Charles Peel Charitable Trust Chapman Charitable Trust Chivers Trust Cockayne – Grant for the Arts London Community Foundation John S Cohen Foundation Derek Hill Foundation D’Oyly Carte Charitable Trust Dunard Fund Ernest Cook Trust Esmee Fairbairn Foundation Fenton Arts Trust Fidelio Charitable Trust Foyle Foundation GarfieldWeston Foundation Geoffrey Watling Charity The Garrick Club Charitable Trust The Golden Bottle Trust Goldsmiths’ Company Charity Idlewild Trust

Jack Lane Charitable Trust JMCMRJ Sorrell Foundation J Paul Getty Jnr General Charitable Trust John Lyon’s Charity Lord and Lady Lurgan Trust The Mark Williams Foundation Michael Marks Charitable Trust National Foundation for Youth Music Nicholas Berwin Charitable Trust Old Possum’s Practical Trust Orchestras Live Palazzetto Bru-Zane Paul Bassham Charitable Trust The Patrick Rowland Foundation PF Charitable Trust Pitt-Rivers Charitable Trust PRS Foundation Pye Charitable Settlement RK Charitable Trust RVW Trust Schroder Charity Trust Sir James Knott Trust Small Capital Grants Stanley Picker Trust Strategic Touring Fund The Loveday Charitable Trust The R&I Pilkington Charitable Trust The Shears Foundation The Sobell Foundation Valentine Charitable Trust Violet Mauray Charitable Trust The 29th May 1961 Charitable Trust

We are also very grateful to our anonymous supporters and OAE Friends for their ongoing generosity and enthusiasm.

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Upcoming concerts

Visit oae.co.uk for more details on all our upcoming concerts.

A thrilling staging of the Easter story

The law's an ass

Bach's St John Passion

Trial by Jury

Tuesday 2 April 2019 Royal Festival Hall 7pm

Thursday 18 April 2019 Queen Elizabeth Hall 7pm

A thrilling staging of the Easter story.

Sir Simon Rattle has assembled an extraordinary team for this definitive staging of one of Bach’s great masterpieces, the St John Passion.

Gilbert and Sullivan’s Trial by Jury was the Mamma Mia! of the 1870s, running for hundreds of performances and touring as far as the USA and Australia.

First there’s an all-star cast of brilliant singers, including Christine Rice, Mark Padmore and Roderick Williams. Then he’s brought in celebrated director Peter Sellars to bring it to life on stage– so you see the drama unfurl on stage as well as hear it.

Featuring Sir Simon Rattle – conductor Peter Sellars – director Camilla Tilling – soprano Christine Rice – mezzo-soprano Mark Padmore – tenor Andrew Staples – tenor Roderick Williams – baritone Georg Nigl – baritone Choir of the Age of Enlightenment

It’s part courtroom comedy, part love story. Edwin has broken off his engagement to Angelina – so she decides to sue him for breach of contract. But it all gets very complicated when the jury shows it’s far from impartial.

We approached the distinguished conductor John Wilson for this, our first full-length performance of a Gilbert and Sullivan opera, as well as hits from G&S favourites including The Mikado, Pirates of Penzance and HMS Pinafore. Hear them as you’ve never quite heard them before, performed on instruments from the time the music was written.

John Wilson – conductor To book, visit southbankcentre.co.uk/oae

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Introducing our 19/20 Resident Orchestra season at Southbank Centre Welcome to Salvation and Damnation, the third part of our Six Chapters of Enlightenment.

These Chapters the six special seasons we’re staging to explore through music the golden age of science and philosophy that gave our orchestra its name.

This time we’re asking the tough questions – questions that taxed the composers and thinkers of the Enlightenment. How will I be judged? What will people think of me when I’m gone?

These concerts feature music that is often uplifting, occasionally challenging, and always compelling.

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To unlock these questions we’re joined by a host of great artists, including singers Ian Bostridge and Iestyn Davies, violinist Alia Ibragimova and pianist Stephen Hough.

We’ll be playing music by composers you’re used to hearing us perform, such as Vivaldi, Mozart and Beethoven, and some that you’re not, including Wagner, Liszt and Schoenberg. southbankcentre.co.uk/ orchestra-age-enlightenment/ salvation-damnation Pictured opposite - Left to right - Alina Ibragimova (Saving Michael Haydn), Masaaki Suzuki (Mendelssohn's Elijah), Ian Bostridge (If Music be the Food of Love, Curse Me), Iván Fischer (Mozart's Final Flourish), Sir Roger Norrington (Beethoven's Major Heroes), Thomas Mann (Faust: The Life of a Composer), Stephen Hough (Lizst and Wagner: Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know), Katherine Watson (Vivaldi and Pergolesi: Sacred Baroque)

Heaven or Hell?

Hero or villain?

Vivaldi and Pergolesi: Sacred Baroque

Beethoven’s Major Heroes

Monday 11 November 2019 Queen Elizabeth Hall Southbank Centre

Tuesday 28 January 2020 Queen Elizabeth Hall Southbank Centre

Faust: The Life of a Composer

Liszt and Wagner: Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know

Wednesday 25 March 2020 Queen Elizabeth Hall Southbank Centre

Friday 26 June 2020 Royal Festival Hall Southbank Centre

Remembered or Forgotten?

Blessed or cursed?

Mozart’s Final Flourish

Mendelssohn’s Elijah

Friday 7 February 2020 Royal Festival Hall Southbank Centre

Thursday 3 October 2019 Royal Festival Hall Southbank Centre

Saving Michael Haydn

If Music be the Food of Love, Curse Me

Tuesday 19 May 2020 Royal Festival Hall Southbank Centre

Sunday 26 April 2020 Queen Elizabeth Hall Southbank Centre 033

KIRKER MUSIC FESTIVALS F O R

D I S C E R N I N G

T R A V E L L E R S

Kirker Holidays offers an extensive range of independent and escorted music holidays.

These include tours to leading festivals in Europe such as the Puccini Festival in Torre del Lago and the Verdi Festival in Parma, as well as Glyndebourne, Buxton and opera weekends in Vienna, Milan and Venice.

We also host our own exclusive music festivals on land and at featuring internationally acclaimed musicians. For those who prefer to travel independently we arrange short breaks with opera, ballet or concert tickets, to all the great classical cities in Europe.

THE KIRKER MUSIC FESTIVAL IN TENERIFE A SEVEN NIGHT HOLIDAY | 12 JANUARY 2019 For our fourth exclusive music festival on the island of Tenerife, we will present a series of six concerts featuring the Gould Piano Trio, pianist Benjamin Frith, soprano Ilona Domnich and violist Simon Rowland-Jones.

Staying at the 5* Hotel Botanico, surrounded by lush tropical gardens, we shall also enjoy a programme of fascinating excursions. Highlights include the Sitio Litro Orchid Garden, a cable car journey to the peak of Mount Teide and a visit to the primeval cloud forest of the Anaga Mountains. We will also visit historic and picturesque villages along the spectacular north coast, including Garachico with its 17th century convent.

Price from £2,698 per person (single supp. £375) for seven nights including flights, transfers, accommodation with breakfast, six dinners, six private concerts, all sightseeing, entrance fees and gratuities and the services of the Kirker Tour Leader.

THE KIRKER MUSIC FESTIVAL IN MALLORCA A SIX NIGHT HOLIDAY | 29 MAY 2019 The works of Frédéric Chopin are central to our Festival in Mallorca and for our seventh visit we will be joined by the Phoenix Piano Trio, Marta Fontanals-Simmons, soprano and Lorena Paz Nieto, mezzo-soprano.

Based in the village of Banyalbufar, we will discover the gloriously unspoilt north coast of Mallorca. There will be visits to the picturesque artists’ village of Deia, the capital Palma and the villa of San Marroig. Our series of private concerts includes a recital in the monastery at Valldemossa where Chopin spent three months with his lover the aristocratic Baroness Dudevant, better known as the writer George Sand.

Price from £2,290 per person (single supp. £189) for six nights including flights, accommodation with breakfast, two lunches, six dinners, five concerts, all sightseeing and gratuities and the services of the Kirker Tour Leader.

Speak to an expert or request a brochure:

020 7593 2284 quote code GOG www.kirkerholidays.com

Perfectly tuned insurance

Because helping even the youngest musician strikes a chord with us Our Music policy has been carefully designed to allow you to enjoy playing your instrument with complete peace of mind, whatever your age. Lark Music is focused on protecting your possessions and supporting the musical arts.

www.larkmusic.com Lark Music is a trading name of Aston Lark Limited Registered in England and Wales No: 02831010.

Registered office: Ibex House, 42-47 Minories, London, EC3N 1DY Aston Lark Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

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