RCM Classical Orchestra

RCM Classical Orchestra Friday 8 May 2015, 7.30pm Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall

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RCM Classical Orchestra Friday 8 May 2015, 7.30pm Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall Supported by the RCM Patrons’ Circle Ben Palmer conductor Rowan Baker* conductor With regret, Sir Roger Norrington has had to cancel his appearance this evening due to illness. We are extremely grateful to Ben Palmer for leading our performance at short notice.

Haydn

Sibelius

Symphony no 85 in B flat major Hob I:85 ‘La Reine’ (20’) Pohjola’s Daughter (17’)* INTERVAL

Schubert

Symphony no 9 in C major D944 ‘The Great’ (48’)

An introduction to this evening’s concert Two symphonies of notable and great originality are the focus of our programme this evening. Haydn’s Symphony no 85, nicknamed ‘La Reine’ was one of a set of six now known collectively as the Paris Symphonies.

They were written as a commission for a society in the French capital, where Haydn’s music, despite his never visiting the country, was hugely admired. The title was added by a quick-witted publisher when the Queen, Marie Antoinette, professed a particular liking for this symphony.

Schubert’s Symphony no 9, often called ‘The Great’, to distinguish it from the smaller Symphony in C, no 6, lives up to its title in many ways.

Schubert himself spoke of his writing ‘a grand symphony’, and it is distinguished by what Schumann described as its ‘heavenly length’. It was Schumann who had discovered the manuscript amongst the Schuberts’ belongings when visiting the late composer’s brother. Unperformed in Schubert’s lifetime, it took time to be realised as the work of genius we now recognise today, characterised by Schubert’s ever-present melodic gift.

Completing the programme is a celebration of Jean Sibelius in his 150th anniversary year. The tone-poem Pohjola’s Daughter draws on the ancient Finnish folk-epic, the Kalevala, and tells the encounter of the wizard-hero Väinämöinen with the daughter of the moon-god, Pohjola.

Stephen Johns RCM Artistic Director

Symphony no 85 in B flat major Hob I:85 ‘La Reine’ Adagio–Vivace Romance. Allegretto Menuetto. Allegretto – Trio Presto

Joseph Haydn (1732–1809)

In 1785, Joseph Haydn received a commission from Paris for six symphonies to be performed at the Concert de la Loge Olympique. In Paris, things were not all going well, and the once flourishing musical life, maintained by the affluent and showy nobility, suffered considerably as the barons’, princes’ and dukes’ growing debts spelled the end of an era of private orchestras. For Haydn, Kapellmeister to Prince Nikolaus Esterhazy, on the other hand, these were exciting times. Even though he composed exclusively for the court at Esterhaza, his music had been offered for sale in Paris and London in pirated editions since the mid 1760s, steadily increasing his fame abroad. But it was only in 1778 that Artaria set up the first music printing firm in Vienna and began to publish Haydn’s music, paving the way for a more systematic and controlled dissemination of his wares. It seems far from coincidental that within a year Haydn requested – and was granted – new contractual terms allowing him to market his instrumental music freely and to accept foreign commissions. A new stage was set for Haydn’s reputation abroad. Haydn’s successful efforts to sell symphonies to Paris publishers were soon followed by the commission for the six Paris symphonies, no 82–87.

Count D’Ogny’s commission was attractive to Haydn not only financially but because the orchestra of the masonic Loge Olympique concerts was renowned for its rare size and quality. Years of experience as an opera composer working especially in the genre of opera buffa had taught Haydn the subtle art of telling stories and propelling drama through music and of constructing parallel narratives in contrapuntal voices; most of all, though, it had taught him to play with his audience’s expectations. Haydn opened ‘La Reine’ – a nickname attached to the work by the Paris publisher Imbault in the first edition – in his best French overture style: the premiére coup d’archet – a grand opening gesture involving the full orchestra – mimics the Lullian tradition for slow sections to commence opera

overtures that had continued as a favourite with Parisian audiences ever since. This coup was followed by the equally typical tirades (fast runs) and dotted rhythms. The fast section of the first movement entailed little more than a nod to the typical imitative writing of the French overture, focussing instead on the orchestral sonority by using predominantly homophonic textures. In the second movement, Haydn inflected his signature folk-style with elements of the French Romance, before teasing the audiences with his trademark subversion of rhythmic conventions in the Menuetto. Here, accents on the usually graceful third beat are a comical misdemeanour in the ears of anyone attuned to the danced Minuet. Haydn packed the symphony with fervour and punches, giving his Parisian audience much to enjoy.

Pohjola’s Daughter

Jean Sibelius (1865–1957)

‘I am no longer writing a symphony, rather a symphonic fantasy’, Sibelius wrote to his wife Aino in January 1905. He was talking about his latest foray into the world of programmatic music, inspired at least in part by his visit to Berlin in 1905 where he heard Strauss’ Ein Heldenleben and Sinfonia domestica. For Pohjola’s Daughter, as his publisher insisted on titling the work, Sibelius returned to the Kalevala, the Finnish-language folk epic in 50 cantos, for inspiration. Based on Canto 8, the piece depicts the tragic story of the male hero, the ancient seer Väinämöinen and his advances to Pohjola, the beautiful daughter of the Northland. Scorning Väinämöinen, she sets him a series of impossible tasks which he will ultimately fail.

Sibelius strove throughout his life to aid the emancipation of Finnish culture and language. After nearly 700 years of Swedish control over the country, Finland had been governed by Russia as a grand duchy for close to 60 years when Sibelius was born in 1865 into a Swedish-speaking family.

He therefore belonged to the elite minority class that was still in effect ruling the country, but he allied himself with the Finnish cause early on.

He had turned to the Kalevala for inspiration many times before, not least in his hugely successful Kulervo Symphony of 1892 and his Lemminkäinen

Legends of 1896. But his music also displays his years studying AustroGerman compositional methods. The central European symphonic repertoire was characterised by formal abstraction, an intricate motivic unity and a harmonic language that created works with a strong sense of a musical goal. By contrast, a tone poem was primarily concerned with telling a story and evoking its underlying emotions at the same time. In Pohjola’s Daughter Sibelius strikingly defied harmonic closure so as to depict the story’s melancholy ending. The heroic tragedy is expressed by the piece’s ambivalent tonal centre veering between G minor and B flat major with the latter depicting the ancient hero particularly in the heroic fanfares that articulate the work’s two decisive cadential points. However, the work never reaches an affirmative harmonic ending – even the final four bars which drift from g back to B flat create a sense of surrender more than triumph and closure. The musical soundscape in between exploits the orchestral colours to the full to display the mythical landscape: horn calls, birdsong imitations, folk like melodies are interspersed with woodwind cadenzas that speak of loneliness and despair.

Symphony no 9 in C major D944 ‘The Great’ Andante – Allegro, ma non troppo – Più moto Andante con moto Scherzo. Allegro vivace – Trio Allegro vivace

Franz Schubert (1797–1828)

Schubert’s great C major symphony was first published nearly 15 years after its conception. None other than Robert Schumann claimed to have pulled the work from its slumber in ‘dust and darkness’ at the house of the composer’s brother, Ferdinand. Schumann described the symphony in his Neue Zeitschrift für Musik to be of ‘heavenly length, like a novel in four volumes by Jean Paul.’ ‘It can never end,’ he continued, ‘and for the best reason: because it will engage the listener for a long time after its hearing.’

Whether the first complete performance in Leipzig in 1839 also came on Schumann’s initiative – as is generally assumed – remains difficult to ascertain, but contemporary correspondence certainly discussed the work’s unusual scale and excruciatingly difficult execution, making it quite

possible that a full Viennese performance had not come to fruition.

Schumann’s image of ‘dust and darkness’, however, was certainly a Romanticised view: a score of the work had been in the museum of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna since the late 1820s, and a performance had clearly been intended.

Perhaps the Viennese problem with this symphony lay partly in the difficulty musicians and conductors had in perceiving Schubert as a symphonist. Schubert was celebrated and revered as a composer of chamber music, and his songs in particular were of an intricate intimacy that turned each of them in the eyes and ears of his Viennese listeners into a looking glass onto a magical world that was otherwise hidden from view.

It was this link to the world of enchantment that audiences would eventually come to love in this symphony, but the link – as Schumann predicted – proved difficult to grasp upon one hearing.

The symphony certainly differed greatly from Schubert’s earlier ones; it arose as the culmination of nearly seven years of him struggling to find a new path for the genre, attempting to turn away from the heritage of Haydn and Mozart, and beyond Rossinian operatic style, yet not into the direction of Beethoven’s symphonic writing. Schubert’s attempts yielded four incomplete works, before he eventually created this work with its iconic opening horn call – reminiscent, perhaps, of the sounds of the Upper Austrian countryside – with its expansiveness in form, harmonic exploration and orchestration, and with its combination of worldly joie de vivre and magical premonitions. Schumann forestalled any analysis of the work, declaring these necessarily as a reduction of its meaning. Yet, he could not withhold his impression of the second movement that ‘speaks to us in such moving voices, as if of a different world. It seems as if a heavenly guest is tiptoeing through the orchestra.’ © Wiebke Thormählen (RCM Area Leader in History)

Ben Palmer Ben Palmer is Artistic Director of the Orchestra of St Paul's, and is in demand as a guest conductor throughout the UK and abroad. Acclaimed for his innovative and imaginative programming, he is increasingly gaining recognition as an inspiring and versatile conductor. Recent debuts include the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra (at the Hampton Court Palace Festival), the Kazakh State Chamber Orchestra, and the London Mozart Players. Other orchestras he has conducted include the Hallé, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia, the Royal Ballet Sinfonia, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group and the Rambert Orchestra. The current season includes re-invitations to the RPCO (Elgar's Enigma Variations and Cello Concerto with Guy Johnston in Malvern), the Kazakh State Chamber Orchestra, Oxford University Orchestra, the Wolsey Orchestra, Farnborough Symphony Orchestra and Oxford Sinfonia, screenings of The Snowman and Charlie Chaplin's The Gold Rush with live orchestra at Southbank Centre, and the release of a critically acclaimed disc of music for strings (première recordings of Elgar, Malcolm Arnold and Robert Simpson) with OSP. Ben appears each season at Southbank Centre's Queen Elizabeth Hall and Purcell Room, and St John's, Smith Square; other notable venues include the Royal Albert Hall, LSO St Luke's, Shanghai Oriental Art Center and the Liszt Academy in Budapest. He is principal conductor of London Haydn Project, musical director of Stamford Chamber Orchestra and Aylesbury Symphony Orchestra, and is regularly invited to work with some of the UK's finest amateur orchestras. He is musical director of acclaimed professional chamber choir The Syred Consort, and Woking Choral Society, one of the UK’s foremost amateur choruses. His opera work includes staged productions of Le nozze di Figaro, Così fan tutte, Die Zauberflöte, L'enfant et les sortilèges, Dido and Aeneas and Die Fledermaus.

In addition to his work as a conductor, Ben Palmer is in demand as a composer, arranger and orchestrator. Recent commissions include three works for the Deutsches Kammerorchester Berlin (to be played at the Berlin Philharmonie), a Sinfonietta for the English Music Festival, and a choral/orchestral piece for Woking Choral Society, to be premièred at

Cadogan Hall in 2016 alongside Tippett's A Child of Our Time. His music has been performed by such ensembles as Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, the City of London Sinfonia and the Fibonacci Sequence, in venues such as the Royal Albert Hall and St John's, Smith Square, and as far afield as South Korea. He is editor of volume 17 of the Elgar Complete Edition, currently in preparation. A trumpeter and composer by training, he studied music at the University of Birmingham, graduating with first class honours in 2003. He stayed on at Birmingham to complete an MPhil in composition with Vic Hoyland, before moving to London in 2005 to study at the Royal Academy of Music with Simon Bainbridge. It is his lifetime ambition to conduct all the Haydn symphonies (currently 50/107).

Ben has worked closely with Sir Roger Norrington since 2011, acting as his assistant conductor for concerts, recordings and on tour, with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Deutsche Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra, Zurich Chamber Orchestra and the Orchestre de chambre de Paris, and for two performances at the 2014 BBC Proms. In January last year he was invited to prepare the RCM Symphony Orchestra for Sir Roger's performance of the Berlioz Symphonie fantastique, and has subsequently acted as rehearsal conductor at the RCM for Bernard Haitink, Andrew Gourlay and Jac van Steen. www.benpalmer.net | @ConductorBen

Rowan Baker Rowan is 24 years old and graduated from the University of Southampton in 2011, having majored in conducting and composition (with Michael Finnissy) and received first class honours. Rowan has attended masterclasses with Michael Rose (Olney Conducting Workshops), Mark Heron and Tim Reynish (RNCM Conducting Weekend), Howard Williams (CSSM), George Hurst (Canford Music School) and Tomáš Netopil (International Conducting Institute). He was also Assistant Conductor of Southampton University Symphony Orchestra 2010-11 and musical director of Southampton University Symphonic Wind Orchestra 20112014. He initially studied conducting under Robin Browning.

Rowan has conducted Wimbledon Symphony Orchestra, Luton Symphony Orchestra, Croydon Youth Orchestra, Hertfordshire Philharmonic, Havant Orchestra, Farnborough Symphony Orchestra, Aylesbury Symphony Orchestra, NEC Symphony Orchestra, SFCM Symphony Orchestra, de Havilland Philharmonic and Bohuslav Martinů Philharmonic. He currently works for the Andrew Lloyd Webber's Really Useful Group and is an arranger, transcriber and copyist for the London Festival Opera. Rowan is in his second year at the Royal College of Music, studying for a masters in conducting under Peter Stark and Robin O'Neill, and was recently awarded a $70,000 scholarship from San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

RCM Classical Orchestra The Royal College of Music orchestras play regularly with conductors and musicians of international stature in a wide range of repertoire. They comprise exceptionally talented instrumentalists who have chosen to study at the RCM because of its unrivalled blend of superlative teaching, extensive performance opportunities and access to its important collections of historic instruments, scores and manuscripts. Recent conductors of the RCM Classical Orchestra have included Christopher Hogwood, Sir Roger Norrington and Matthew Truscott.

Period practice plays an important role in the musical training and artistic programme at the RCM, which has a thriving historical performance department. There are regular performances from period ensembles of all sizes on original instruments. The RCM Classical Orchestra combines period instrument techniques with modern instruments as an introduction to historically informed performance.

Founded in 1882, the RCM moved to its present site on Prince Consort Road in 1894. Illustrious alumni include Benjamin Britten, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Gustav Holst, Dame Joan Sutherland, Sir Thomas Allen, Sir Colin Davis, John Wilson, Alina Ibragimova and Sarah Connolly. In addition to its 750 full time students, the College engages dynamically with a wider and more diverse community of children and adults through a dedicated range of creative activities delivered by RCM Sparks’ education and participation projects, RCM Junior Department programme and the Woodhouse Professional Development Centre. A further development is the growing schedule of live-streamed concerts and masterclasses which can be viewed on www.rcm.ac.uk.

The RCM would like to thank the following orchestral coaches: Clare Duckworth violin Robert Turner viola Amanda Truelove cello Tony Hougham double bass Simon Channing woodwind Byron Fulcher brass Ben Palmer & Rowan Baker strings, woodwind, brass & percussion and tutti

Violin I Magdalena Loth-Hill* Alexandra Lomeiko* Yi-Chia Wu Elin White David Lopez Tatiana Gachkova Felix BäckstrÜm* Paula Gonzalez Cuellas Emmanuel Bach* Luis Mota* Sofia Navarro Escano Heather Stewart* Miriam Bergset Violin II Clara Danchin* Suein Kang Osian Dafydd Aischa Guendisch* Ingrid Clement Joanna Klimaszewska* Ada Witczyk Katherine Robb Ines Soares Delgado Anna Lee* Cecile Galy Mikael Stoor Viola Anastasia Sofina* Katherine Clarke Elaine Chen Marijke Welch Ana Alves Philippa Bint Marsailidh Groat Hardy Jennifer Key

Cello Yaroslava Trofymchuk* Joseph Davies* Jo Dee Yeoh Florence Petit Jonathan Dodd Deni Teo Clara Berger Karoline Brevik Elia Benhamou

Clarinet Haydn & Sibelius Liam Harman* Lowri Davies Camellia Johnson (bcl) Schubert Liam Harman* Camellia Johnson Lowri Davies Melissa Youngs*

Bass Alexandre Klein Valentina Ciardelli Salvatore La Rosa Christopher Xuereb Ben Havinden-Williams Anne-Gabriele Douce Lewis Tingey

Bassoon Haydn & Sibelius Emily Newman* Todd Gibson-Cornish* Catriona McDermid (cbn)* Schubert Todd Gibson-Cornish* Catriona McDermid* Emily Newman* Madeline Millar*

Flute Haydn & Sibelius Sophie Clayton Ruth Knight Javier Leon Collado (pic)* Schubert Dakota Martin Louisa Biguglio Catherine Hare Jonna Jarvitalo* Oboe Haydn & Sibelius Katie Potts* Weronika Stepkowska Philip White (cor)* Schubert Charlotte Evans* Felicity Cowell* Emma Gibbons* Richard Lines-Davies

Personnel correct at the time of going to print.

Italics denote section principals. * Scholars/Award Holders generously supported by the RCM

Horn Florence Rousseau* Jerome Wilson-Chalkley* Alison Young* Jack Pilcher-May Trumpet Niall Mulvoy* Lewis West* Tamsin Cowell (crt) Laura Gilroy (crt)* Trombone Jonathan Hollick Gregory Huff James Alexander* Tuba Oliver Brooks* Timpani Louise Goodwin Harp Helena Pearson

Music has the power to transform lives. Thanks to the generosity of our supporters, generations of gifted students from around the world have been guided and inspired at the RCM. We would like to thank in particular those who have made donations of £1,000 or more in the last 12 months. Gifts are listed in descending order.

Supporters of named scholarships, bursaries and Junior Fellowships The Estate of Basil Coleman The Estate of Christopher Hogwood Soirée d’Or Scholarships The Estate of Ivor Charles Treby ABRSM Leverhulme Trust Future of Russia Foundation Philip Loubser Foundation The John and Marjorie Coultate Scholarship Estate of Roselyn Ann Clifton Parker The Big Give Trust Laurie Barry and the John Barry Scholarship for Film Composition Estate of Dr John Birch FRCM The Wolfson Foundation H R Taylor Trust H F Music Awards The Richard Carne Charitable Trust Andrew and Karen Sunnucks Thomas Redford Legacy John Lewis Partnership Scholarships Jennifer Coumbe Charles Napper Award Lydia Napper Award Hester Laverne Award Croucher Hong Kong Charitable Trust The Tsukanov Family Foundation Richard and Rosemary Millar The Worshipful Company of Musicians Humphrey Searle Scholarship The Polonsky Foundation Gylla Godwin Award The Reed Foundation The Hon Ros Kelly Opperby Stokowski Collection Trust The Lee Abbey Award Stephen Catto Memorial Scholarship The Worshipful Company of Drapers The Worshipful Company of Fishmongers Lord and Lady Lurgan Trust Sir Gordon Palmer Scholarship Ian Stoutzker CBE FRCM Ian and Meriel Tegner Linda Beeley H.M.D. Meyer Violin Prize Emma Rose Scholarship Williams Rose Scholarship The Charles Stewart Richardson Scholarship for Composition The Ernest Hecht Charitable Foundation The Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation UK Henri Cowell Soirée d’Or Scholarship The Boltini Trust Scholarship Gilbert and Eileen Edgar Junior Fellowship

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Members of the RCM Chairman’s Circle Philip Carne MBE, HonRCM and Christine Carne * Michael and Ruth West* Linda HonRCM and Tony Hill Denis and Meredith Coleman *+ John and Catherine Armitage* Jane Barker CBE * Dasha Shenkman OBE, HonRCM* Sir Roger and Lady Carr HonRCM* Karina and Dhairya Choudhrie+* Guy Dawson and Sam Horscroft+ Gisela Gledhill* Terry Hitchcock * James and Clare Kirkman* Dr Mark Levesley and Christina Hoseason* John Nickson and Simon Rew* Sylvia and Clive Richards* Quentin Williams* Victoria Robey OBE * Alethea Siow and Jeremy Furniss* Members of the RCM Director’s Circle Daniel Chapchal Sir Peter and Lady Middleton FRCM Judy and Terence Mowschenson Vivien McLean Tania Chislett Charles and Kaaren Hale The Vernon Ellis Foundation Metherell Family Richard and Sue Price Peter and Dimity Spiller Roland Saam Joanna Kaye + Sir Sydney and Lady Lipworth Anne Wadsworth+ Sir Robert and Lady Wilson Members of the RCM Patrons’ Circle John Ward Russell Race * Jane Wilson Mrs Piffa Schroder Ellen Moloney Rhoddy Voremberg Dimity and Kerry Rubie Mrs Victoria Moore-Gillon David and Sue Lewis Mrs Isla Baring * Halina and John Bennett Lorna and Christopher Bown Mrs Lorraine Buckland Mr Kenneth and Mrs Lillemor Gardener Sir Anthony Cleaver FRCM and Lady Cleaver Mary Godwin Carol J. Hagh Ms Greta Hemus John and Sue Heywood Mr David James Mr David Lewis Barbara Simmonds Betty Sutherland Louisa Treger Dr Yvonne Winkler

Mr Victor and Mrs Lilian Hochhauser FRCM Sir Peter and Lady Gershon Sarah Griffin Mr James Lancaster and Mrs Margaret Lancaster Mrs Yannick Mango Sir David Lees Sir Richard and Lady Sykes Mr David Mildon Robin Hambro Charles and Domonique Lubar Helen Chung-Halpern and Abel Halpern Mrs Marcella Rossi MarieNoelle and Mathias Gislev Corporate Supporters Campus Living Villages M&G Investments GlaxoSmithKline Royal Garden Hotel RLM Finsbury BAE Systems Hatch Mansfield Little Greene Other generous donors RBC Trust Company Ltd. The Peter Sowerby Foundation Georg and Emily von Opel Foundation+ Geoffrey Richards HonRCM The Robert Fleming Hannay Memorial Charity Bob and Sarah Wigley The Henry Wood Trust Niquesa Fine Jewellery and Hotels Karen Cook The Hon Richard Lyttelton Heritage Lottery Fund The Rothschild Foundation The Seary Charitable Trust St Marylebone Educational Foundation John Hosier Music Trust Roland Rudd Miss Kathleen Beryl Sleigh Charitable Trust The Sharp Foundation Christopher Saul Sian Westerman Natalie Livingstone Professor Colin Lawson FRCM William Tilden The Leche Trust Ofenheim Charitable Trust Ann Driver Trust Fidelio Trust Dorothy Sayers Clore Duffield Foundation Richard Everard Sir David Tang Stephen Von Bismarck Mitie Mr Douglas Flint The Derek Hill Foundation Edward Mandel/Jacques Samuel Pianos Bursary Friends of the National Libraries Michael D Steen Paige Nelson

RCM Symphony Orchestra Friday 26 June 2015, 7.30pm | Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall

Nicholas Collon conductor Philip Attard saxophone RCM Symphony Orchestra Stravinsky Feu d'artifice Ligeti Atmospheres Arne Gieshoff Umschreibung Debussy Rapsodie for saxophone Sibelius Symphony no 5 in E flat major op 82 Since making his successful debut at the BBC Proms in 2010, Nicholas Collon has forged a commanding career as Principal Conductor and Artistic Director of the Aurora Orchestra. Tonight he conducts an explosive concert that includes two RCM Concerto Competition winners: saxophonist Philip Attard and rising star composer Arne Gieshoff.

The evening culminates in Sibelius’ epic Symphony no 5, a work which was originally composed to celebrate his 50th birthday, so it is fitting that the RCM Symphony Orchestra performs it tonight, in this, the 150th anniversary of the composer’s birth.

Ticket holders can enjoy a free pre-concert talk in the RCM Museum of Music at 6.15pm when Dr Ingrid Pearson will discuss Sibelius and the music in tonight’s concert.

Tickets: £10, £15 RCM Box Office 020 7591 4314 | www.rcm.ac.uk/events