BACH AND SIBELIUS WITH PEKKA KUUSISTO

2 – 4 OCTOBER 2019

BACH AND SIBELIUS WITH PEKKA KUUSISTO –––––

2019/2020 CONCERT PROGRAMME SCO.ORG.UK

SEASON 2019/20

A WARM WELCOME ––––– Dear friends,

Brandenburg, like an echo that you hear before the sound itself.

Thank you so much for choosing to attend our performance. Making music with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra is deeply pleasing, and I’d like to take this opportunity to share some thoughts about the works we’ve prepared for you.

Then we will perform the work by Hillborg.

Some years ago, I was offered the opportunity to participate in a substantial project created by the Swedish Chamber Orchestra. They were asking six glorious and aesthetically diverse composers to write companion pieces to the six Brandenburg concertos by JS Bach, and I became the recipient of a new violin concerto by the Björn Borg of composing – Anders Hillborg.

The resulting piece, Bach Materia, is a weird and wonderful one-way ticket to a life less ordinary. It relies heavily on the unpredictable, and allows both myself and various orchestra members to improvise.

In this performance, Nikita, the ruler of the double bass, will be my main partner in crime.

If you choose to return to the performance after a well-deserved intermission, you will hear a handful of traditional Finnish dance tunes and some movements of Bach’s Partita for solo violin in E major. This is mirroring the beginning of the concert, but also inviting you to think of the following Sibelius symphony as a highly evolved interpretation of traditional music.

Sibelius’ Symphony No 5 in E-flat can be read and experienced in all kinds of ways. In the context of Bach, Hillborg and traditional tunes, it seems to carry a tale where a language is born, a species learns to use it, and as a result, their living conditions start to develop rapidly – resulting in collisions between traditions and new possibilities. It seems to bridge the slow, nature-centric storytelling of Finnish mythological singing and the gradually evolving urban music of composers such as John Adams and Steve Reich.

The concert will begin with the third Brandenburg concerto, as was the original intention of Anders Hillborg when he composed Bach Materia. Anders cleverly deposits a small prediction of Bach

But don’t take my word for it.

Materia between the movements of the

Director / Violin / Conductor

I hope you have an inspiring evening.

Pekka Kuusisto

THANK YOU

FUNDING PARTNERS ––––– Thank you to everyone who financially supports the work of the SCO, from the Scottish Government to local authorities, our Benefactor, Business Partners and Patrons to many charitable trusts and foundations. The generosity of our funders allows us to create truly world-class music, events and projects both here and abroad.

CORE FUNDING -----

BENEFACTOR -----

LOCAL AUTHORITIES ----

SISTER ORGANISATION -----

SCO AMERICA sco-america.org

MAJOR PARTNER -----

CREATIVE LEARNING PARTNER -----

BUSINESS PARTNERS -----

THANK YOU

PRINCIPAL CONDUCTOR’S CIRCLE ––––– Our Principal Conductor’s Circle is made up of individuals who love great music and who share the SCO’s vision to bring the joy of music to as many people as possible. We would like to extend our grateful thanks for playing such a key part in the future of the SCO.

VISITING ARTISTS FUND -----

AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT FUND -----

Colin and Sue Buchan Claire and Anthony Tait Anne and Matthew Richards

Erik Lars Hansen and Vanessa Chang Kenneth and Martha Barker

RECORDINGS FUND -----

CREATIVE LEARNING FUND -----

Colin and Sue Buchan Donald and Louise MacDonald

Claire and Mark Urquhart Paul and Clare Rooney

INTERNATIONAL TOURING FUND -----

PRODUCTIONS FUND -----

Gavin and Kate Gemmell David and Maria Cumming

The Usher Family

ANNUAL FUND -----

James and Patricia Cook

CHAIR SPONSORS ----CONDUCTOR EMERITUS

Joseph Swensen Donald and Louise MacDonald

CHORUS DIRECTOR Gregory Batsleer Anne McFarlane

VIOLA

Steve King Sir Ewan and Lady Brown

PRINCIPAL CELLO Philip Higham The Thomas Family

SUB-PRINCIPAL CELLO Su-a Lee Bryan Wade

CELLO

PRINCIPAL FLUTE Geoff and Mary Ball

SUB-PRINCIPAL FLUTE Claire and Mark Urquhart

Eric de Wit Jasmine Macquaker Charitable Fund

PRINCIPAL OBOE

SUB-PRINCIPAL DOUBLE BASS

PRINCIPAL CLARINET

Adrian Bornet Jo and Alison Elliot

Robin Williams Hedley G Wright

Maximiliano Martín Stuart and Alison Paul

SEASON 2019/20

BACH AND SIBELIUS WITH PEKKA KUUSISTO ––––– BACH Brandenburg Concerto No 3 HILLBORG Bach Materia Scottish Premiere interval of 20 minutes

BACH Minuet 2 from Partita in E FINNISH TRADITIONAL Kopsin Jonas BACH Minuet 1 from Partita in E

#mySCO

FINNISH TRADITIONAL Lundgren BACH Gavotte en Rondeau from Partita in E FINNISH TRADITIONAL Minuet from Tiukka SIBELIUS Symphony No 5 ––––– PEKKA KUUSISTO – Director / Violin / Conductor ––––– Wednesday 2 October 2019, 7.30pm Ayr Town Hall Thursday 3 October 2019, 7.30pm The Queen's Hall, Edinburgh Friday 4 October 2019, 7.30pm Glasgow City Halls

The Ayr concert is kindly supported by

We also acknowledge the support of ‘South Ayrshire Charitable Trust’

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.

OUR MUSICIANS

YOUR ORCHESTRA FIRST VIOLIN Bradley Creswick Kana Kawashima Jane Kim Siún Milne Amira BedrushMcDonald Carole Howat Katrina Lee Rachel Spencer

FLUTE Silvija Scerbavicute Emma Roche

SECOND VIOLIN Lise Aferiat Laura Comini Sarah Bevan-Baker Amy Cardigan Niamh Lyons Stewart Webster

BASSOON Julian Roberts Alison Green

VIOLA Loan Cazal Felix Tanner Steve King Kathryn Jourdan Rebecca Wexler CELLO Philip Higham Su-a Lee Donald Gillan Eric de Wit BASS Nikita Naumov Adrian Bornet Sophie Butler

OBOE Robin Williams Mary Gilbert CLARINET Yann Ghiro William Stafford

FRENCH HORN Rebecca Hill Harry Johnstone Fergus Kerr Jamie Shield Anna Drysdale TRUMPET Peter Franks Shaun Harrold Simon Bird TROMBONE Duncan Wilson Cillian O’Cealláchain Rob Collinson TIMPANI Alasdair Kelly HARPSICHORD Tom Wilkinson

PLAYER FEATURE:

NAME: Amira Bedrush-Mcdonald POSITION: First Violin MEMBER SINCE: 2015 ––––– Three words to describe the Scottish Chamber Orchestra? Vibrant. Unified.

Inspiring.

What are you most looking forward to in the Season? This will be the first time I get the chance to play all the Beethoven Symphonies in one Season and I can’t wait to see what differences and perhaps even similarities each conductor will bring to these pieces.

What can you expect from an SCO concert? Direct, committed playing, where we are all completely engaged. I think the camaraderie on stage always comes across.

ARE YOU A HEARING AID USER?

Please use the Induction Loop systems provided by the venues if available. Hearing aids can cause feedback (a whistling effect) which may be heard by the musicians and other members of the audience.

MOBILE PHONES AND ELECTRONIC DEVICES The Orchestra list was correct at the time of going to print.

Please ensure your mobile phone and any electronic devices are switched off during the concert. The use of cameras and recording equipment is forbidden.

TONIGHT'S REPERTOIRE

WHAT YOU ARE ABOUT TO HEAR –––––

JS BACH (1685-1750) Brandenburg Concerto No 3, BWV 1048 (1718) I II Adagio (including additional Hillborg Cadenza) III Allegro

HILLBORG (b. 1954) Bach Materia Scottish Premiere (2018) JS BACH (1685-1750) Partita in E, BWV 1006 (1720) Minuet 2 Minuet 1 Gavotte en Rondeau

FINNISH TRADITIONAL (Dates unknown) Kopsin Jonas Lundgren Minuet from Tiukka SIBELIUS (1865-1957) Symphony No 5 in E flat Op 82 (1919) Tempo molto moderato Andante mosso, quasi allegretto Allegro molto

––––– ‘Overture – Concerto – Symphony’ is an industry standard pattern that orchestral programmers have followed for decades in planning concerts. It has plenty to recommend it, but in recent years we have also seen the exciting emergence of people – like Pekka Kuusisto – with other ideas. They have loosened up the conventions: in a way they have gone back to the way concerts were in the time of Mozart and Haydn, when you might get (in any order) a symphony, an aria, a quintet, an improvisation or two, perhaps even a chorus. In Edinburgh concerts of that time you might also get some traditional music as we do tonight.

The pairing of JS Bach and Anders Hillborg is the brainchild of Gregor Zubicky, Artistic Director of the Swedish Chamber Orchestra. For years, he cherished the idea of bringing together six prestigious composers from around the world to write responses to Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos. His dream finally came to fruition in 2018. To Anders Hillborg fell the chance of responding to Brandenburg Concerto No 3. Hilborg is one of Sweden’s top composers whose work has been performed by many orchestras including the Berlin, Los Angeles and Royal Stockholm Philharmonic.

Numbers fascinated Bach who delighted in the arcane symbolism of mathematics.

Three is the critical number in the third Brandenburg Concerto. Here are 3 x 3 instruments (violins, violas, cellos); there are three movements – though Bach’s second is teasingly sketchy (tonight you hear Hillborg’s ideas about it). A 3-note rhythmic motif saturates every bar of the first movement, and the finale is in triple

Johann Sebastian Bach

Traditional Finnish Folk music

time. It is likely that if you total up the number of bars or notes you may well find that total is divisible by three too. Of all the Brandenburgs it is the most concentrated and thrillingly dynamic.

matches three courtly dances from Bach’s E Major Partita for solo violin with traditional Finnish tunes. Fiddle playing was especially strong in the West and South West of Finland and these tunes have a quirkiness that is worlds away from Bach’s metric

In his response to Bach, Hillborg added a violin solo to the strings as he was inspired especially by the chance to work with Pekka Kuusisto. He wrote: “Bach Materia is written for violin solo and string orchestra with the Finnish violinist Pekka Kuusisto in mind – a unique musician for whom improvisation is a natural ingredient in his performances, hence improvisation is an important part of this composition. In the material of my piece there is also music from Bach’s concerto, as well as music written in his spirit, and my own. There are three sections where the soloist is given carte blanche to do whatever he/she pleases… Bach Materia is warmly dedicated to Pekka Kuusisto.”

regularity. Kopsin Jonas, was notated by an Ostrobothnian (region of Finland) tailor and folk music enthusiast called Samuel Rinta-Nikkola. He put his collection of around 100 tunes together in the 1800s, but there is every reason to believe that they could date from as early as Bach’s time.

Kuusisto follows Hillborg’s tour de force

From conception to finish, Sibelius’ Fifth

with his own Nordic-Bach time travel. He

Symphony occupied him between 1912

Outside of this concert programme there is very little to link Bach and Sibelius. The one hard fact you may find in the Erik Tavaststjerna’s three volume biography of Sibelius was that the young Sibelius gave up studying violin before his final year at the academy, and thereby avoided learning Bach’s solo sonatas and partitas.

energy, but is not moving forward. You will find similar oscillating motifs throughout the symphony and elsewhere in Sibelius’s music, sometimes on a huge scale: they almost always contrast with sections like one that follows the opening here, afire with forward momentum.

Jean Sibelius

and 1919. It is one of several of his works from the early 20th century that cost him truly extraordinary efforts. Over time it existed in various versions, and through them one can trace a process of ever increasing condensation (four movements became three) – and integration. Most vitally, though, it is fair to say that nobody else in the world at that time (and his key contemporaries included Stravinsky, Schoenberg and Debussy among others) was wrangling with the kind of musical thinking Sibelius pursues in this symphony, particularly in regard to the handling of time - or rather the way music enables a listener to experience time.

The other thing that this opening does is to offer the listener a seed of an idea that will not fully flower for 25 minutes, until the immense majestic close of the symphony.

Sibelius’ famous motif (supposedly inspired by the beating of wild swan’s wings) circles round and round in the horns (as in the opening) while winds and strings respond with their own ideas (again, as in the opening). This is an oscillating idea on the grandest scale and it acts like a powerful symphonic brake on the music, earthing the symphony’s forward momentum before its crashing final chords.

Sibelius also explores what happens when you have two kinds of time sounding

Take the very opening. As the horns hold a note the winds embellish it with a flourish; horns change note, winds embellish that one; then horns go back to the original note and winds embellish that afresh.

This oscillation between those two notes does two things. First, it creates a state of

simultaneously. Open the score at the opening of the second movement and what you see is very, very slow moving writing for the wind instruments: Sibelius slows their time down so far that it becomes difficult even to discern a melody. Against this, he has flutes and strings add a delicate, dance-like motif that moves at least four times as fast to start with; as the movement progresses it gets ever more elaborate so, as a result, even faster. It almost sounds as though you are hearing a slow organ chorale and a dance at the same time and it is not always easy to decide which is foreground and which is background.

It repays extremely intent listening, this movement, one of the most absorbing moments in all music.

dynamic stasis – the music has tremendous

© Svend McEwan-Brown

COMPOSER

ANDERS HILLBORG

––––– One of Sweden’s leading composers, Anders Hillborg is that rare artist whose music strikes a chord across many different countries and cultures. Born in Sweden in 1954, an early interest in electronic music developed from a beginning as a keyboard improviser in a pop band, but contact with Ferneyhough, and the music of Ligeti quickly led to a fascination with counterpoint and orchestral writing. Since then, Hillborg’s love of pure sound and the energy that he gives it, has appealed to many major conductors including Alan Gilbert, Sakari Oramo, Kent Nagano and Gustavo Dudamel.

Peacock Tales, Hillborg’s theatrical clarinet concerto for Martin Fröst, displays another strand of his large and varied output: a sense of humour and the absurd. The piece has been taken up with enthusiasm in several different versions and has received a staggering number of performances.

Mouyayoum for 16-voice a cappella choir is one of his most popular works, riffing on a rhythmically complex overtone series unadorned with words. Here, as always Hillborg’s ear for the subtleties of the voice and his natural lyricism are unmistakable. Above all, his music is borne out of a refreshing stylistic freedom matched by an innate communicative ability. Hillborg’s sphere of activity extends well beyond the concert hall to embrace a wide range of Pop and Film music. In 1996 Hillborg won a Swedish Grammy for his work on 'Jag vill se min älskade komma från det vilda' ('I want to see my beloved coming from the wild').

2011 saw the premiere of Cold Heat by the Berlin Philharmonic under David Zinman, and Sirens – Hillborg’s largest work to date – by the LA Philharmonic and Esa-Pekka Salonen. The advocacy of Esa-Pekka Salonen has resulted in numerous works, including Dreaming River (premiered by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra in 1999), Eleven Gates (2005–06) premiered and commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and most recently Sirens, a joint commission from the LA Philharmonic and Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

In October 2016 the Stockholm Philharmonic under Sakari Oramo premiered a Violin Concerto for Lisa Batiashvili (his second) co-commissioned by the Leipzig Gewandhaus, Minnesota and Seoul Philharmonic orchestras. Other recent projects include the orchestral work Sound Atlas which was premiered by Marin Alsop and the London Philharmonic Orchestra in 2019.

DIRECTOR / VIOLIN / CONDUCTOR

PEKKA KUUSISTO

––––– Pekka Kuusisto is renowned for his fresh approach to repertoire. An advocate of new music, Kuusisto’s recent premieres include concerti by Sauli Zinovjev, Anders Hillborg, Andrea Tarrodi and Philip Venables. This season he performs Daníel Bjarnason’s Violin Concerto with the Iceland and Detroit Symphony Orchestras, and its Finnish premiere with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra as well as the Austrian premiere of Hillborg’s Bach Materia with the Camerata Salzburg. Other highlights include debuts with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and Aurora Orchestra with whom he tours to Singapore and the UK. He returns to the Philharmonia and Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestras, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, and WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln. He also takes up a season-long residency at Wigmore Hall.

Kuusisto is a gifted improviser and regularly engages with people across the artistic spectrum, most recently with Hauschka and Samuli Kosminen, neurologist Erik Scherder, electronic music pioneer Brian Crabtree, and folk artist Sam Amidon.

Widely recognised for his flair in directing ensembles from the violin, Kuusisto is Artistic Partner with The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Artistic Director of the ACO Collective and Artistic Partner of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. He also directs ensembles including Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, the Scottish and Norwegian Chamber Orchestras.

Kuusisto has released several recordings, notably for Ondine and BIS. This season he records Hillborg’s Bach Materia and Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos 3 and 4 with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra and Thomas Dausgaard.

Pekka Kuusisto plays a fine Italian violin by Francesco Stradivari circa 1738, on loan from Mr Peter Biddulph.

TALKS, DISCUSSIONS AND STORYTELLING

PRE-CONCERT INSIGHTS All events take place from 6.45-7.15pm (unless otherwise stated) and are free to concert ticket holders.

––––– Thursday 7 November, Edinburgh Queen’s Hall Friday 8 November, Glasgow City Halls Composer Insights: Associate Composer Anna Clyne discusses her two featured pieces.

Saturday 18 January, Aberdeen Music Hall (TBC) Artist Insights: Principal Conductor Maxim Emelyanychev discusses this evening’s programme.

Thursday 30 January, Edinburgh Usher Hall Friday 31 January, Glasgow City Halls Composer Insights: Author Cate Haste and SCO Creative Learning Director Kirsteen Davidson Kelly discuss the life and music of Alma Mahler.

LEGACIES

A LEGACY FOR GENERATIONS TO COME ––––– The SCO would like to thank everybody who has supported our work and we acknowledge with special gratitude those who were kind enough to leave us a final, and deeply thoughtful, gift. All legacies make a positive difference, no matter the size, and help us to fulfil our mission to make incredible music accessible to as many people as possible in the most creative and engaging way.

Over the last few years, we have been immensely grateful to these friends of the SCO whose thoughtful foresight in leaving a gift in their Will has made such a valuable contribution in so many wonderful ways:

Tom Bruce-Jones, Glasgow Helen Caldwell, Edinburgh Joyce Denovan, Glasgow Robert Durham, Dundee Herman Gawlik, Glasgow Ian Hogarth, Edinburgh Mattie Hutchinson, Glasgow Helen Kelbie, Aberdeen David Lee, Glasgow Evelyn McNab, Glasgow Ian Mitchell, Glasgow Judith Pickles, Edinburgh

THANK YOU

SCO PATRONS ––––– Join our family of Patrons by contacting Laura Hickey on 0131 478 8344 or laura.hickey@sco.org.uk DIAMOND

GOLD

Malcolm & Avril Gourlay

The Batsleer Family

Dr Caroline Hahn

Caroline & Colin Bryce

James & Felicity Ivory

Lord Matthew Clarke

Chris Jarvis

Lucinda Coulthard

Sir George & Lady Mathewson

Dr Clive Criper & Mrs Myint-Su

Vincent & Clair Ryan

David & Sheila Ferrier

William Samuel

Iain Gow

Alan & Sue Warner

Judith & David Halkerston Ian Hutton

PLATINUM

Gordon Kirk

Eric G Anderson

Roy & Svend McEwan-Brown

David Caldwell in memory of Ann

June Miller

Tom & Alison Cunningham

Alan Moat

Gail & Lindsay Gardiner

John & Liz Murphy

Gordon & Grace Gillespie

Alison & Stephen Rawles

Carola & Martin Gordon

Mr & Mrs J Reid

John & Jane Griffiths

George Rubienski

Carol & Shields Henderson

Irene Smith

J Douglas Home

Ian S Swanson

Audrey Hopkins

John-Paul & Joanna Temperley

Norman & Christine Lessels

Michael & Joan Wareham

Chris & Gill Masters

Catherine Wilson

Duncan & Una McGhie

Neil & Philippa Woodcock

Anne-Marie McQueen

G M Wright

James F Muirhead

Bruce & Lynda Wyer

Patrick & Susan Prenter George Ritchie Martin & Mairi Ritchie Colin & Elaine Ross Jill & Brian Sandford Ian Stewart & Family Michael & Elizabeth Sudlow Robert & Elizabeth Turcan Tom & Natalie Usher Anny & Bobby White Ruth Woodburn

SILVER

Mary Law

Fiona Addison

Graham & Elma Leisk

Roy Alexander

Geoff Lewis

Joseph I Anderson

Alan Macfarlane

Pamela Andrews & Alan Norton

Nancy Macneil of Barra

Dr Peter Armit

James McClure in memory of Robert Duncan

Joseph & Patricia Banks

Gavin McCrone

Timothy Barnes & Janet Sidaway

Iain McEwan

Peter & Kay Black

Brian Miller

Alan Borthwick

James & Helen Moir

Jane & Michael Boyle

Margaret Mortimer & Ken Jobling

Mary Brady

Andrew Murchison

John Brownlie

Hugh & Gillian Nimmo

Laura Buist

David & Tanya Parker

Robert Burns

Hilary & Bruce Patrick

Janet Cameron

Maggie Peatfield

Isabel J Clark

Ian & Sheila Percy

Sheila Colvin

Fiona Reith

Tony Cook

Alan Robertson

Lorn & Camilla Cowie

Andrew Robinson

Lord & Lady Cullen of Whitekirk

David Robinson

Jo & Christine Danbolt

Olivia Robinson

Caroline Denison-Pender

Hilary E Ross

Dr Wilma Dickson

Catherine Steel

Jean Donaldson

Jean Sutherland

John Donaldson

Ian Szymanski

Sylvia Dow

Marion Thomson

James Dunbar-Naismith

Douglas & Sandra Tweddle

Dr & Mrs Alan Falconer

Margaretha Walker

Chris & Claire Fletcher

James Wastle

Dr James W E Forrester

C S Weir

Dr William Fortescue

Alan Welsh

James Friend

Bill Welsh

Archie & Ellen Gibson

Professor Frank Whaling & Mrs Margaret Walsh-Whaling

Andrew Hadden

Roderick Wylie

J Martin Haldane

–––––

Ronnie & Ann Hanna Ruth Hannah Robin Harding Norman Hazelton Ron & Evelynne Hill Clephane Hume Archie & Pat Hunter Robert & Leila Inglis David & Pamela Jenkins Sir Raymond & Lady Johnstone Marty Kehoe Professor Christopher & Mrs Alison Kelnar David Kerr Allan Kirton Dr & Mrs Ian Laing Janey & Barrie Lambie Barry Laurie in memory of Richard Green

Thanks also to our Bronze Patrons and Patrons, and to all those who wish to remain anonymous.

ABOUT US

––––– The internationally celebrated Scottish Chamber Orchestra is one of Scotland’s National Performing Companies.

Formed in 1974 and core funded by the Scottish Government, the SCO aims to provide as many opportunities as possible for people to hear great music by touring the length and breadth of Scotland, appearing regularly at major national and international festivals including the Edinburgh International Festival, BBC Proms, and by touring internationally as proud ambassadors for Scottish cultural excellence.

Making a significant contribution to Scottish life beyond the concert platform, the Orchestra works in schools, universities, colleges, hospitals, care homes, places of work and community centres through its extensive Creative Learning programme.

The SCO has long-standing associations with many eminent guest conductors including Conductor Emeritus Joseph Swensen, Principal Guest Conductor Emmanuel Krivine, François Leleux, Pekka Kuusisto, Richard Egarr, Andrew Manze and John Storgårds.

The Orchestra also enjoys close relationships with many leading composers and has commissioned almost 200 new works, including pieces by the late Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Sir James MacMillan, Martin Suckling, Einojuhani Rautavaara, Mark-Anthony Turnage, Nico Muhly and Associate Composer Anna Clyne.

An exciting new chapter for the SCO began this autumn with the arrival of dynamic young conductor Maxim Emelyanychev as the Orchestra’s next Principal Conductor. This was a position previously held by Robin Ticciati from 2009-2018. Ticciati and the SCO made a series of outstanding recordings (Linn Records) of works by Haydn, Schumann, Berlioz, Strauss and Wagner. Their last recording – the complete Brahms Symphonies – has been internationally acclaimed.

The SCO and Emelyanychev are to release their first album together (Linn Records) in November 2019. The repertoire – Schubert’s Symphony No 9 in C major ‘The Great’ – is the first concert Emelyanychev performed with the Orchestra in March 2018. sco.org.uk

Patron HRH The Prince Charles, Duke of Rothesay

BOARD

Life President Donald MacDonald CBE

Chairman Colin Buchan

Principal Conductor Maxim Emelyanychev

Joanna Baker

––––– –––––

Cllr Christina Cannon Glasgow City Council

Principal Guest Conductor Emmanuel Krivine

David Cumming

Conductor Emeritus Joseph Swensen

Jo Elliot Rachael Erskine

Chorus Director Gregory Batsleer

Cllr Rosemary Liewald Fife Council

Associate Composer Anna Clyne

Cllr Donald Wilson City of Edinburgh Council

Alison Paul Zoë van Zwanenberg ORCHESTRA ADVISORS TO THE BOARD Adrian Bornet, Peter Franks, Donald Gillan and Su-a Lee

MANAGEMENT –––––

Chief Executive Gavin Reid

Design & Publications Magnus Fraser

Projects and Administrative Assistant Elsa Morin

Creative Learning Director Kirsteen Davidson Kelly

Concerts Director Judith Colman

Education Officer Atzi Muramatsu

Concerts & Projects Manager Louisa Stanway

Community Engagement Officer Joanna Burns

Orchestra Manager Laura Kernohan

SCO and University of St Andrews Graduate Trainee Fiona Croal

Stage Manager Pete Deane

Head of Development Lucinda Coulthard

Orchestra Librarian Amy Brown

Partnerships Manager David Nelson

Chorus Manager Jenny Searle

Development Officer Laura Hickey

Marketing & Communications Director Gareth Beedie

Finance & Administration Director Ian White

Data Services Manager Adam James

Finance Officers Mary Gibson Heather Baird

Marketing and Press Officer Catherine Gillespie Marketing Officer Sophie Sim

Insta pick of the week

YOUR SAY 19/20 SEASON CONCERT OPENER @SCOmusic season got off to a flying start tonight. The orchestral sound in Egmont was stunning and the lyricism of @maxi715 and the rest of the woodwind was particularly noticeable in the 2nd movt of the Dvořák.

David @Edinburgensis

What an opening to the Perth Concert Series @HorsecrossPerth tonight! @SCOmusic on top form throughout, but the highlight absolutely had to be Dvořák No 7 which was, and is, just *baton drop*

Thomas @KinneyNicol My son visited an RSNO concert with school and loved it. I took my girls to an SCO concert and they loved it. Fast forward one year and many concerts later we have two violin players, piano and trumpet lessons. Inspired by music! @SCOmusic @RSNO

Gilly @GillyHerbert

First SCO concert of the season at the Usher Hall tonight. Marvellous. It’s great to be back!

Bill Welsh, Edinburgh

SCHUBERT RECORDING Philip Higham, in action during SCO’s latest recording of Schubert’s Symphony No 9 with Maxim Emelyanychev. Uut soon, stay tuned!

SHARE YOUR CONCERT EXPERIENCE –––––– Sign up for our email newsletter For all our latest news, films, photos, blogs and special offers, visit SCO.ORG.UK/LATEST Email us Sophie Sim, Marketing Officer sophie.sim@sco.org.uk Comment on Facebook facebook.com/scottishchamberorchestra Share your experience on Twitter @SCOmusic Share your experience on Instagram @scottishchamberorchestra #mySCO

BBC MUSIC DAY A huge thank you to Sue, Alison and William from the Scottish Chamber Orchestra @SCOmusic for a fantastic introduction to Reconnect workshops. Very informative and excellent fun! #BBCMusicDay @ReidEdinburgh

The Lothian Birth Cohort – University of Edinburgh, @EdinUniLBC

#mySCO