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Autumn Classics 11-12 September 2026

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PROGRAMME

25/26 Concert Season

Cover image © Christopher Bowen

Autumn Classics

The Linlithgow concert is in association with

Kindly supported by Eriadne & George Mackintosh and Claire & Anthony Tait

Friday 11 September, 7.30pm St Michael's Parish Church, Linlithgow Saturday 12 September, 7pm Holy Trinity Church, St Andrews RAVEL Le Tombeau de Couperin SAINT-SAËNS Cello Concerto No.1 Interval of 20 minutes

HAYDN Symphony No.101 ‘The Clock’ Stephanie Gonley director/violin Philip Higham cello

Philip Higham

Stephanie Gonley

4 Royal Terrace, Edinburgh EH7 5AB +44 (0)131 557 6800 | info@sco.org.uk | sco.org.uk

The Scottish Chamber Orchestra is a charity registered in Scotland No. SC015039. Company registration No. SC075079.

THANK YOU

Principal Conductor's Circle Our Principal Conductor’s Circle are a special part of our musical family. Their commitment and generosity benefit us all – musicians, audiences and creative learning participants alike. Annual Fund James and Patricia Cook Visiting Artists Fund Harry and Carol Nimmo Anne and Matthew Richards International Touring Fund Gavin and Kate Gemmell Learning and Participation Fund Jo and Alison Elliot Sabine and Brian Thomson

Productions Fund Geoff and Mary Ball Bill and Celia Carman Anne, Tom and Natalie Usher Scottish Touring Fund Eriadne and George Mackintosh Claire and Anthony Tait New Music Fund Ken Barker and Martha Vail Barker Colin and Sue Buchan David Caldwell Nick and Kate Thomas Kimie Trust

CHAIR SPONSORS The Donald and Louise MacDonald Principal Conductor's Chair Maxim Emelyanychev Chorus Director Gregory Batsleer Anne McFarlane

Principal Double Bass Jamie Kenny Erik Lars Hansen and Vanessa C L Chang

Principal First Violin Afonso Fesch Fiona and Ian Russell

Principal Flute André Cebrián Claire and Mark Urquhart

First Violin Aisling O'Dea Finlay and Lynn Williamson

Sub-Principal Flute Marta Gómez Judith and David Halkerston

First Violin Kana Kawashima Chris and Claire Fletcher

Principal Oboe The Hedley Gordon Wright Charitable Trust

Principal Viola Max Mandel Ken Barker and Martha Vail Barker

Sub-Principal Oboe Katherine Bryer Ulrike and Mark Wilson

Sub-Principal Viola Francesca Gilbert Christine Lessels

Principal Clarinet Maximiliano Martín Stuart and Alison Paul

Viola Steve King Sir Ewan and Lady Brown

Principal Bassoon Cerys Ambrose-Evans Claire and Anthony Tait

Principal Cello Philip Higham Nick and Kate Thomas

Sub-Principal Bassoon Alison Green George Rubienski

Sub-Principal Cello Su-a Lee Ronald and Stella Bowie

Principal Horn Caroline Hahn and Richard Neville-Towle

Cello Donald Gillan Professor Sue Lightman

Principal Trumpet Peter Franks George Ritchie

Cello Eric de Wit Jasmine Macquaker Charitable Fund

Timpani / Percussion Louise Lewis Goodwin Silvia and Andrew Brown

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“ …an orchestral sound that seemed to gleam from within.” THE SCOTSMAN

HM The King Patron Donald MacDonald CBE Life President Joanna Baker CBE Chair Gavin Reid LVO FRSE Chief Executive Maxim Emelyanychev Principal Conductor Andrew Manze Principal Guest Conductor Joseph Swensen Conductor Emeritus Gregory Batsleer Chorus Director Jay Capperauld Associate Composer

Our Musicians

Your Orchestra Tonight

Information correct at the time of going to print

This concert will be played on natural brass/timpani throughout.

First Violin Stephanie Gonley Afonso Fesch Emma Baird Amira Bedrush-McDonald Fiona Alexander Sarah Bevan-Baker Kristin Deeken Abigail Young Second Violin Hatty Haynes Felix Didier Rachel Smith Stewart Webster Tom Hankey Jess Hall

Flute André Cebrián Marta Gómez

Horn Jože Rošer Nivanthi Karunaratne

Oboe Clara Schweinberger Katherine Bryer

Trumpet Peter Franks Shaun Harrold

Clarinet Maximiliano Martín William Stafford

Timpani Louise Lewis Goodwin

Bassoon Cerys Ambrose-Evans Alison Green Louise Lewis Goodwin Timpani / Percussion

Viola Max Mandel Francesca Gilbert Christine Anderson Steve King Cello Andrew Skidmore Donald Gillan Kim Vaughan Robert Anderson Bass

Ben Havinden Williams Alexandre Santos

Harp Eleanor Hudson

What You Are About To Hear RAVEL (1875-1937) Le Tombeau de Couperin, M68 (1914–17) Prélude Forlane (Allegretto) Menuet (Allegro moderato) Rigaudon (Assez vif)

SAINT-SAËNS (1835-1921) Cello Concerto No.1 in A minor, Op.33 (1872) Allegro non troppo Allegretto con moto Tempo I

HAYDN (1732-1809) Symphony No.101 in D major ‘The Clock’ (1793/94) Adagio – Presto Andante Menuetto: Allegretto Finale: Vivace

Commemoration, contemplation, celebration: there’s a bittersweet taste to this evening’s concert, which reimagines remembrance as refinement and elegance, and which also plunges us into the kind of musical exuberance that brought London audiences to their feet in the 18th century. We begin, however, a bit more than a century ago, when Maurice Ravel conceived Le tombeau de Couperin as a kind of double memorial, firstly to earlier French composers, and secondly to friends and colleagues lost in World War I. He first wrote the piece between 1914 and 1917 as a six-movement piano suite, consciously evoking French Baroque dances and character pieces from two centuries earlier. Its somewhat morbid title – which does indeed translate literally as ‘Couperin’s Tomb’ – in fact follows a well-established French tradition of music intended to memorialise a cherished earlier figure. In Ravel’s case, that was the great French Baroque composer François Couperin, although Ravel was at pains to stress the piece should be seen as a homage to 18th-century French music in general, rather than a tribute to Couperin in particular. (Couperin himself, incidentally, composed something similar in his Le tombeau de Monsieur Blancrocher, a tribute to deceased lutenist Charles Fleury, and the tradition has continued right up to the present day: British composer Jonathan Harvey wrote his Le tombeau de Messiaen in tribute to the great French colourist and birdsong collector as recently as 1994.) Ravel actually began work on the piano suite’s Couperin-like ‘Forlane’ before the War began. The conflict, however, would have a profound effect on the composer.

Ravel was aiming to counter the darkness and violence of conflict with music that epitomised the enduring peacetime values (distinctively French ones, it has to be said) that he held so dear: beauty, elegance, sophistication, emotional restraint. Maurice Ravel

Considered unsuitable for combat duty because of his small stature and somewhat

encountered criticism, however, for the music’s somewhat light, buoyant tone:

frail health, Ravel instead served as an ambulance driver and nurse, cheerfully naming his ambulance Adélaïde, and signing off letters to friends as ‘Chauffeur Ravel’. That apparent cheerfulness may have been more like gallows humour, however: he was discharged from his wartime duties in 1917 following a significant decline in his health, exacerbated by the death of his beloved mother that year. Friends reported that he emerged from his wartime experiences more serious, more troubled and less carefree than previously.

was this really appropriate for a work that apparently set out to honour the deceased? Ravel’s reply was straightforward: ‘the dead are sad enough, in their eternal silence.’ More philosophically, there’s an undeniable sense that Ravel was aiming to counter the darkness and violence of conflict with music that epitomised the enduring peacetime values (distinctively French ones, it has to be said) that he held so dear: beauty, elegance, sophistication, emotional restraint.

Hence, perhaps, his decision to dedicate each of Le tombeau de Couperin’s movements to a friend and colleague

The six-movement piano Le tombeau de Couperin received its premiere in Paris’ Salle Gaveau on 11 April 1919 from eminent pianist Marguerite Long, who had lost her husband Joseph de Marliave in

who had been lost in action. Ravel

the war (in fact, Ravel had dedicated the 9

suite’s concluding Toccata to him). When Ravel came to create the orchestral version we hear today, however, he chose just

Romain Bussine had established the French capital’s Société Nationale de Musique, with the stated aim of promoting and

four of the original piece’s six movements – perhaps simply because the Fugue and Toccata were too idiomatically pianistic to translate into orchestral music.

celebrating an authentically French style of music above the prevailing Germanic trends.

The opening ‘Prélude’ – dedicated to Lieutenant Jacques Charlot – dashes by almost without a pause, the oboe playing its gently decorated opening theme. Clarinet, trumpet and cor anglais have their moments in the spotlight in the movement’s central section, before the luminosity of the opening sinks steadily towards a more wistful conclusion in the minor. The spiky, clipped main theme of the ‘Forlane’ – dedicated to Lieutenant Gabriel Deluc – seems full of ‘wrong’ notes, though a more rustic-sounding central section retains the opening’s distinctive rhythms. The third movement ‘Menuet’ (dedicated to Jean Dreyfus, stepson of one of Ravel’s friends) contains some of the suite’s most luscious harmonies, and it’s here that Le tombeau de Couperin’s disarming mix of elegance and tender melancholy is most evident. A dashing ‘Rigaudon’ – dedicated to brothers Pierre and Pascal Gaudin, both killed on their first day of service in 1914 – concludes the suite, its fanfare-like opening figure returning again and again to propel the music towards its sunny conclusion. Camille Saint-Saëns was also out to celebrate distinctively French musical values in his 1872 Cello Concerto No.1. The work came just a couple of years after his nation’s defeat in another conflict, the Franco-Prussian War, as a direct result of which he and Paris Conservatoire professor 10

Saint-Saëns was already a well-established figure at this point, with operatic successes and several concertos behind him. Indeed, the fact that we perhaps remember him chiefly as the composer of a frivolous, throwaway collection of zoological pieces – The Carnival of the Animals, which he refused (save ‘The Swan’) to have published during his lifetime – distracts from his wide-ranging achievements. As well as a composer, organist, pianist and conductor, he was a teacher, a noted writer and traveller, and a scholar across a bewilderingly wide range of subjects, from Classical languages to the occult. He also lived for an extraordinarily long time. He was born just a few years after the death of Beethoven, yet lived to experience Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring and the antics of Les Six, a loose Parisian composer collective of the 1920s which aimed to replace the pastel-hued lyricism of impressionism with something altogether wittier, brighter and more sophisticated. Towards the end of his life, Saint-Saëns was considered by many young musical firebrands to be something of a dinosaur, but he nonetheless moved with the times in his own, admittedly fairly conservative ways. And as far as staying on-trend in the 1870s, Saint-Saëns’s First Cello Concerto fits that bill ideally with its unusually compact structure. Condensing all of a larger work’s disparate sections into a single movement

Towards the end of his life, Saint-Saëns was considered by many young musical firebrands to be something of a dinosaur, but he nonetheless moved with the times in his own, admittedly fairly conservative ways. Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns

was hardly new – Mendelssohn had joined up the movements of his Violin Concerto

Société Nationale de Musique concerts, but at the more conservative Concerts

in 1844, and Liszt was constantly seeking unity and self-referential organic-style growth across his music. Saint-Saëns, however, takes a somewhat blunter approach in simply interrupting his first ‘movement’ while it’s in full flow, swerving sideways into a more contemplative ‘slow movement’ (which, truth be told, is neither slow nor substantial enough to count as a movement in its own right), then returning to the opening music as if nothing has happened.

du Conservatoire. Indeed, the concert’s conductor, Édouard Deldevez, acidly informed the composer that the Concerto wouldn’t have stood a hope in hell’s chance of getting a Conservatoire performance without the involvement of Tolbecque. It raised a few eyebrows at its unveiling, but reactions were generally positive. The Revue et Gazette Musicale de Paris, for example, commented: ‘We must say that the Cello Concerto seems to us to be a beautiful and good work of excellent sentiment and perfect cohesiveness, and as usual the form is of greatest interest.’

The Concerto was commissioned by Belgian cellist Auguste Tolbecque, a close friend of Saint-Saëns and Principal Cello in the Paris Conservatoire’s orchestra. And it was premiered, on 19 January 1873, not as part of Saint-Saëns’ new-fangled

The Concerto’s soloist launches into the urgent, impassioned opening theme right from the start of the first movement – no preparatory orchestral statement here. It’s

almost as if the melody is so compelling that the cellist can’t wait to share it with us, and accordingly, that theme comes to

his chance. The incoming Prince Anton Esterházy looked to trim back his artistic outgoings: he’d still guarantee an on-

dominate much of the first section of the Concerto, as well as returning in its third ‘movement’. A second, slower and far more lyrical theme emerges later, and it’s this second theme that suddenly slows to a halt during what would normally be the movement’s central development section, unexpectedly ushering in the minuet-like slow movement. Here, the solo cello sings a more expressive, heartfelt song against dainty, music-box-like accompaniment. There’s a brusque return for the opening music, however, as Saint-Saëns resumes his more turbulent explorations following the lengthy interruption, though he rises into the brighter major as the work heads towards its conclusion.

going salary for Haydn, but his permanent presence at court would no longer be required. The composer’s music was already wildly popular among London audiences, and German-born, Londonbased impresario Johann Peter Salomon snapped him up for two visits to England, the first in 1791-2, and the second in 1794-5. Both went down a storm, so much so that Haydn reportedly even considered settling permanently in the English capital (and was explicitly invited to do so by King George III, no less).

From distinctively French musical values, we head eastwards – and back in time nearly a century – for tonight’s final piece, in which an Austrian composer sets to thoroughly entertain the British. By the time he wrote his Symphony No.101, in 1793-4, Joseph Haydn had spent almost 30 years in the employment of the fabulously wealthy Esterházy family, much of that time in the lavish but rather isolated Eszterháza Palace, now in north-west Hungary, but in Haydn’s time firmly at the heart of the Habsburg Empire. During those decades, he’d used the court’s resident musicians to the fullest, virtually inventing the modern symphony and string quartet as musical forms, and developing his clean, clear, elegant and mischievously witty musical style across operas, chamber music and plenty more.

He hobnobbed with royalty and the aristocracy, was fêted at high-society occasions, and even received an honorary doctorate in Oxford (which provided his ‘Oxford’ Symphony, No.92, with its nickname). More importantly, with the six symphonies he composed for his first visit, he got to know just what his London listeners liked. While he was well aware that he was catering to the refined, aristocratic tastes of the Austrian nobility at Eszterháza, he also knew that London audiences adored spectacle, surprise and sonic entertainment – which he duly supplied in six more ‘London’ symphonies. In that respect, Haydn’s second batch of ‘London’ symphonies – Nos.99 to 104 – represents a rare meeting of minds between composer and audience: each knows the other intimately, and each is out to enjoy that relationship to the fullest.

But equally, he felt he needed to move

Haydn began work on his Symphony No.101 at home in Vienna, composing the second, third and fourth movements

on. In 1790, at the age of 58, he found

there before rounding the piece off with

It’s hard to believe that Haydn wasn’t out to raise a smile of recognition among his London listeners. That’s even if the title went on to confuse later audiences. Franz Joseph Haydn

its opening movement, which he put together once he arrived in London.

when he’d been hoping for tick-tocking timepieces throughout.

And talking of sonic entertainment, the immovable tick-tocking accompaniment in the second movement that gives the Symphony its ‘Clock’ nickname was almost certainly intentional. Though officially speaking, the reference to a timepiece came from Viennese publisher Johann Traeg, who issued a keyboard version of the Symphony’s second movement in 1798 under the title 'Rondo: The Clock', it’s hard to believe that Haydn wasn’t out to raise a smile of recognition among his London listeners. That’s even if the title went on to confuse later audiences. The story goes that in 1928, renowed conductor Arturo Toscanini was accosted by a listener after a Viennese performance who complained that he’d only been able to discern a

The Symphony received its premiere on 3 March 1794 in the sumptuous surroundings of the Hanover Square Rooms, Mayfair, with a large orchestra of 60 musicians and Haydn himself directing. It went down a storm – so much so, in fact, that the composer repeated both the first and second movements. Next-day newspaper critiques hardly held back on their praise. The Morning Chronicle was especially enthusiastic: ‘as usual the most delicious part of the entertainment was a new grand Overture [or Symphony] by HAYDN; the inexhaustible, the wonderful, the sublime HAYDN! The first two movements were encored; and the character that pervaded the whole composition was heartfelt joy.

clock reference in the second movement,

Every new Overture he writes, we fear, till it

The Symphony’s ambitions are clear right from its opening movement’s brooding, shadowy slow introduction, into which the movement’s faster main material seems to burst with a scampering dance.

is heard, he can only repeat himself; and we are every time mistaken.’ The Symphony’s ambitions are clear right from its opening movement’s brooding, shadowy slow introduction, into which the movement’s faster main material seems to burst with a scampering dance. Haydn puts his orchestra’s trumpets and timpani to good use in propelling along the movement’s urgent rhythms, and if the solemnity of the opening looks set to return at one point, it’s quickly dispelled by the general high spirits. The second movement’s clock-like ticktocking comes courtesy of the bassoons and pizzicato strings, which accompany a graceful melody in the first violins. There’s stormy drama in a dramatic later episode set in the darker minor, but the

clouds swiftly part to reveal the ticktocking accompaniment again, now in the bassoon and flute. Listen out, too, for an unexpected moment of silence, as if the music had suddenly stopped completely, only to resume in an entirely unrelated key – an example of Haydn’s renowned wit, certainly, but also strangely moving in its context. After a gutsy, punchy minuet for his third movement, Haydn’s finale seems to revel in the sonic splendour of his large-scale orchestra. It might begin softly in the strings, but the full force of his ensemble is quickly unleashed, and he deftly melds together intricate counterpoint and dramatic development in music of great power, sophistication and joy. © David Kettle

SEASON 26/27 Explore our new season today at sco.org.uk Gordon Bragg Sub-Principal Second Violin Photo: Christopher Bowen

FOR THE LOVE OF MUSIC Company Registration Number: SC075079. A charity registered in Scotland No. SC015039.

Stephanie Gonley

Director/violin

Stephanie Gonley has a wide-ranging career as concerto soloist, soloist/director of chamber orchestras, recitalist and chamber musician. She has appeared as soloist with many of UK’s foremost orchestras, including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia and BBC Symphony Orchestra. Stephanie is leader of the English Chamber Orchestra and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and has performed as Director/Soloist with both. Stephanie has also appeared as Director/ Soloist with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, the Vancouver Symphony, and the Oriol Ensemble Berlin to name but a few. She has enjoyed overseas concerto performances with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and Hannover Radio Symphony, to Hong Kong Philharmonic and the Norwegian Radio Symphony Orchestra, while her recordings include Dvorák Romance with the ECO and Sir Charles Mackerras for EMI, and the Sibelius Violin Concerto for BMG/Conifer. Stephanie studied with David Takeno at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and Dorothy DeLay at the Juilliard School in New York. She holds a fellowship at the Guildhall, where she is also a violin professor.

Cello

Philip Higham

Born in Edinburgh, Philip studied with Ruth Beauchamp at St Mary's Music School and subsequently at the RNCM with Emma Ferrand and Ralph Kirshbaum. He also enjoyed mentoring from Steven Isserlis. In 2008 he became the first UK cellist to win 1st Prize in the Bach Leipzig competition, and followed it with major prizes in 2009 Lutoslawski Competition, and the 2010 Grand Prix Emmanuel Feuermann in Berlin. He was selected for representation by Young Classical Artist Trust between 2009 and 2014. He has appeared as soloist with the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Hallé Orchestra (broadcast by BBC Radio 3), the Royal Northern Sinfonia and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. He has given recitals at the Wigmore Hall, Brighton Festival and Lichfield Festival, and further afield in Germany, Istanbul and Washington DC. In 2014 he performed the complete Bach Suites in Tokyo at the Musashino Cultural Foundation, and again at Wigmore Hall in 2017. Philip will perform the Britten Cello Suites at Wigmore Hall in December this year. Philip has been described as ‘possessing that rare combination of refined technique with subtle and expressive musicianship… all the qualities of a world-class artist’ (The Strad), and has been praised for his ‘expansive but tender playing’ (Gramophone). His debut recording of the Britten Solo Suites (Delphian, 2013) was named instrumental disc of the month in both Gramophone and BBC Music magazines. He has also released the complete Bach Suites, to critical acclaim. Philip was appointed Principal Cello of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in 2016. He plays a fine Milanese cello by Carlo Giuseppe Testore, made in 1697, and is grateful for continued support from Harriet's Trust. Philip's Chair is kindly supported by The Thomas Family. For full biography please visit sco.org.uk

Scottish Chamber Orchestra The Scottish Chamber Orchestra (SCO) is one of Scotland’s five National Performing Companies and has been a galvanizing force in Scotland’s music scene since its inception in 1974. The SCO believes that access to world-class music is not a luxury but something that everyone should have the opportunity to participate in, helping individuals and communities everywhere to thrive. Funded by the Scottish Government, City of Edinburgh Council and a community of philanthropic supporters, the SCO has an international reputation for exceptional, idiomatic performances: from mainstream classical music to newly commissioned works, each year its wide-ranging programme of work is presented across the length and breadth of Scotland, overseas and increasingly online. Equally at home on and off the concert stage, each one of the SCO’s highly talented and creative musicians and staff is passionate about transforming and enhancing lives through the power of music. The SCO’s Creative Learning programme engages people of all ages and backgrounds with a diverse range of projects, concerts, participatory workshops and resources. The SCO’s current five-year Residency in Edinburgh’s Craigmillar builds on the area’s extraordinary history of Community Arts, connecting the local community with a national cultural resource. An exciting new chapter for the SCO began in September 2019 with the arrival of dynamic young conductor Maxim Emelyanychev as the Orchestra’s Principal Conductor. His tenure has recently been extended until at least 2031. The SCO and Emelyanychev released their first album together (Linn Records) in 2019 to widespread critical acclaim. Their second recording together, of Mendelssohn symphonies, was released in 2023, with Schubert Symphonies Nos 5 and 8 following in 2024. The SCO also has long-standing associations with many eminent guest conductors and directors including Principal Guest Conductor Andrew Manze, Pekka Kuusisto, François Leleux, Nicola Benedetti, Isabelle van Keulen, Anthony Marwood, Richard Egarr, Mark Wigglesworth, Lorenza Borrani and Conductor Emeritus Joseph Swensen. The Orchestra’s current Associate Composer is Jay Capperauld. The SCO enjoys close relationships with numerous leading composers and has commissioned around 200 new works, including pieces by Sir James MacMillan, Anna Clyne, Sally Beamish, Martin Suckling, Einojuhani Rautavaara, Karin Rehnqvist, Mark-Anthony Turnage, Nico Muhly and the late Peter Maxwell Davies.

Biography

4-6 November, 7.30pm St Andrews | Edinburgh | Glasgow

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The SCO is a charity registered in Scotland No SC015039. Photo: Christopher Bowen