SCO News | January 2018

news

INSPIRING AND CONNECTING WITH PEOPLE OF ALL AGES

www.sco.org.uk | Issue 69 | January 2018

LOOKING BACK Celebrating Robin Ticciati SCO Principal Conductor 2009 – 2018 Also inside: Summer Tour Dates 2018 | Recording Brahms | Wester Hailes Residency

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CONTENTS

Issue 69 | January 2018

14

10

22

16 –––––

REGULARS 3 FOREWORD 4 SCO NEWS 9 60 SECOND INTERVIEW 26 YOUR ORCHESTRA, YOUR SAY 27 THROUGH THE EYES OF...

COVER

OTHERS 10 40 Years of summer touring with the SCO

by Lorna McLaren

13 Summer Tour Dates 2018 14 SCO ReConnect

18 Looking Back Celebrating Robin Ticciati SCO Principal Conductor 2009 – 2018 by Ken Walton

20 Recording Brahms

Creative music workshops for people living with dementia

22 SCO Wester Hailes Residency

by Robin Ticciati

4 Royal Terrace Edinburgh EH7 5AB telephone: 0131 557 6800 email: info@sco.org.uk www.sco.org.uk

Core funded by

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The Scottish Chamber Orchestra is a charity registered in Scotland No. SC015039 Company registration No. SC75079

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FOREWORD Welcome to the first SCO News of

The SCO has, of course, a

composers, none more so than Sir

2018.

well-earned reputation for high quality and distinctive recordings stretching back many years. For two extraordinary weeks in May, our musicians locked themselves away in the Usher Hall with Robin and our friends from Linn to record all four of Brahms’ symphonies. I’ve heard enough of the results to know that when the full set is released in March, they will be in very high demand.

James MacMillan. His Stabat Mater performed in March with Harry Christophers and The Sixteen, was simply outstanding. We now look forward to the world première in April 2018 of his Saxophone Concerto with the remarkable Amy Dickson. We were also thrilled to work with Tom Harrold, presenting the first performances of his brilliant new work To the Light.

The Scottish Chamber Orchestra packs a great deal into each year. It is perhaps the nature of my job always to be looking forward to the next concert, tour, recording or workshop.

So before immersing ourselves in what’s to come over the next few months, I have been reflecting on some of the many highlights of 2017.

I have always loved touring, so it was wonderful at the start of the year to accompany the Orchestra, Robin Ticciati and pianist Maria João Pires around some of the finest cities and concert halls in Europe, with stops including Salzburg, Paris, Aix-en-Provence and Rotterdam.

Our travelling continued over the summer months – albeit a little closer to home – with performances the length and breadth of Scotland.

It was particularly special to return to Shetland for the first time in ten years, with concerts in Aith, Burravoe and Lerwick.

August is often a busy month. Last year we had the honour of giving the opening Usher Hall concert in the Edinburgh International Festival’s 70th anniversary season, with a programme that included the first piece performed in the first festival all those years ago in 1947 – Haydn’s Symphony No 94 ‘Surprise’.

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Through SCO Connect, the Orchestra has developed a highly regarded, vital and wide-ranging outreach programme, enhancing the lives of many people of all ages, backgrounds and abilities across Scotland. There are many highlights that I could include here, but to pick just three, the culmination of our two-year residency at Rattray Primary School in Perth, followed by the start of our new three-year community project in Edinburgh’s Wester Hailes, plus the excitement of 1,800 primary children listening intently to the Orchestra performing in Edinburgh’s Princess Street Gardens on the morning of the Virgin Money Fireworks Concert, are particularly special.

Scotland is blessed not only with wonderful orchestral musicians, but also many highly creative and internationally renowned

It wasn’t all good news! After 39 years of uninterrupted service, Lorna McLaren left the first violin section just last week. We also said goodbye to three other outstanding musicians; Peter Whelan, Matt Hardy and Emily Dellitt Imbert. We thank them all for everything they brought to the SCO and wish them well for the future. To redress the balance a little, we were delighted to welcome Brontë Hudnott to our flute section!

Thank you as ever for your support of the SCO. I hope you enjoy reading this edition of SCO News and I look forward very much to seeing you at our performances over the coming months

Gavin Reid Chief Executive

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SCO NEWS SCO CHIEF EXECUTIVE GAVIN REID APPOINTED ABO CHAIR –––––– The Scottish Chamber Orchestra are pleased to announce that our Chief Executive Gavin Reid has been elected as the new Chair for the Association of British Orchestras (ABO) – a national body representing the collective interests of professional orchestras, youth ensembles and the wider classical music industry throughout the UK. Gavin succeeds Kathryn McDowell CBE, Managing Director of the London Symphony Orchestra, who previously worked for the SCO as a development manager in the 1980s.

ABO Director Mark Pemberton commented, “It was clear to the Board that Gavin Reid can provide the experienced leadership needed to guide the ABO through the next few years, including challenges such as Brexit, public funding and diversity within orchestras.

Gavin is a strong collaborator, whose great experience in bringing leaders, managers, musicians, audiences and funders together will be invaluable. He is already a very familiar and respected

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Gavin Reid

figure within the ABO, having

ago, the ABO has played a

previously been a board member for six years. We are delighted to welcome him as our new Chair.”

vitally important role, tirelessly advocating, championing and supporting the work of the UK’s remarkable orchestras…

Our orchestras have never been in greater artistic health, never more innovative, never more resilient and never more needed. I look forward enormously to working with my colleagues across the UK in addressing both the challenges and the opportunities that lie ahead.

–––––– http://www.sco.org.uk/latest

On his appointment, Gavin Reid said: “It is a huge honour and privilege to be elected Chair of the ABO. I would like to thank Kathryn McDowell for her outstanding leadership of the ABO Board over the past three years as well as her tremendous commitment to the UK’s vibrant orchestral life.

Since its foundation 70 years

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SCO AT CELTIC CONNECTIONS 2018 –––––– One of our first projects in 2018 will be a collaboration with post-minimalist composer Max Richter at Glasgow’s Celtic Connections on Tuesday 23rd January.

The music performed is from Richter’s sublime and beautifully constructed eighth album Three Worlds: Music from Woolf Works which was released in January 2017.

Woolf Works was originally commissioned by Royal Ballet choreographer Wayne McGregor, as a three-movement evocation

of Virginia Woolf ’s novels, and was premiered at Covent Garden in 2015. This concert version is, like the source material, fabulously innovative, yet still

the construction and operation of the new all-purpose performance venue, and future home for the SCO, is now live.

––––––

true to Richter’s core belief in melody, storytelling and emotional impact.

Take a look at www.impactscotland.org.uk

Joining the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Max Richter on stage at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall are soprano Grace Davidson and conductor Robert Ziegler.

SCO CHORUS YOUNG SINGERS

NEW VENUE NOW ONLINE –––––– The website for IMPACT Scotland, the charitable trust responsible for

© gracedavidsonsoprano.com

Grace Davidson

© www.robertziegler.co.uk

Robert Ziegler

–––––– Members of the SCO Chorus Young Singers’ Programme 2017/18 will be Rebecca Anderson, Carey Andrews, David Norris and Robin Randall. Read more about it in the next SCO News.

–––––– The SCO Chorus Young Singers’ Programme is kindly supported by The Baird Educational Trust

Max Richter

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Rosie Staniforth

D’AMORE –––––– WE ASKED ROSIE STANIFORTH ABOUT HER NEW OBOE D’AMORE Rosie, what is an oboe d’amore and how is it different from your normal oboe? The oboe d’amore is considered the alto of the oboe family, between the oboe (soprano) and cor anglais (tenor) It’s a transposing instrument and sounds a minor third lower than it is notated i.e. in A.

WIN £250 ––––––

250 SOCIETY Please join us in congratulating recent winners of our 250 Society draw who each won £250.

September – Margaret McCreery October – Fiona Ballantyne November – Arthur Callander December – Alistair Montgomerie It costs just £5 a month to become a member of the SCO’s 250 Society and be in with a chance of winning a monthly prize of £250. All proceeds go towards helping to fund the work of SCO Connect. To join, simply download the SCO 250 Society membership form at www.sco.org.uk/support-us or call on 0131 478 8344.

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The main body of its repertoire lies in the baroque era, along with some beautiful writing by Mahler and, of course, the famous solo in Ravel’s Bolero.

It’s wonderful to play some of the music Bach composed for the d’amore. Its purity of timbre and potential to pierce the soul makes makes me feel like the woodwind equivalent of a counter-tenor, providing I have a good reed, of course!

How did you select the instrument you have? It was a fairly straightforward procedure to choose the instrument. I’ve been selecting oboes, d’amores and cors anglais at the Marigaux workshop in Paris for around 25 years, so I have developed a fairly robust formula for picking a winner, involving various visual and physical tests.

The main challenge on this

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occasion was actually getting an appointment, as production of all d’amores was suspended for quite some time whilst they re-developed certain aspects of the build (bore, hole positioning etc). I think we waited around five years in the end.

Have you given your d’amore a name yet? No nicknames for my new d’amore have sprung to mind yet – suggestions welcome!

We are looking forward to François Leleux play/directing with the orchestra in March.

What do you think to an oboist directing at the same time?

Leleux is a fabulous musician and I know he’ll put the wind section through its paces, a refreshing change from sometimes being a little overlooked by the more string-orientated conductors. It’s an exciting prospect.

CONNECT LATEST –––––– As part of this Season’s initiative to increase our under 18 audience, several SCO Insights events are designed to welcome children and young people to the concert hall.

In November, Storyteller Claire Hewitt and SCO Principal Flute Alison Mitchell presented Songs of the Arctic, a magical half-hour of Arctic myth and music which appealed to audiences of all ages in St Andrews and Edinburgh.

We are also working with talented young musicians from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and at specialist music schools across the country, providing them with coaching from SCO musicians and pre-concert performance opportunities at SCO venues. In December you may have heard students from St Mary’s Music School playing at the Usher Hall, or RCS students with Rosie Staniforth

(SCO Oboe) at City Halls, Glasgow.

Look out for student performers from Douglas Academy and RCS at City Halls, Glasgow, from Dyce Academy in Aberdeen and from the City of Edinburgh Music School at the Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh.

All Insights events take place from 6.30-7pm and are free to concert ticket holders.

–––––– As Orchestra in Residence at the University of St Andrews, we are proud to support the new Children’s Orchestra. Launched in 2016 and conducted by Gillian Craig, the programme has expanded this year to include a junior and a senior group who meet for weekly rehearsals. Both groups enjoyed a coaching session with SCO musicians in November, and performed at the St Andrews and Fife Community Orchestra (StAFCO) Winter Concert on St Andrews’ Eve. We are delighted to report that the audience of nearly 300 people spanned all ages and included a three-month old baby and a local resident who is about to turn 101!

One of the highlights of the autumn programme was Responses, a lunchtime Chamber Concert at the Byre Theatre at which students and staff performed alongside SCO musicians. The programme featured the winner of an international call for scores which invited composers to respond to Stravinsky’s Septet.

The call attracted 140 entries

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and the stunning winning piece was Aphrodite Anadyomene for clarinet, violin, cello and piano

by Emma Wilde. Emma recently completed a PhD at the University of Manchester and is a member of the LSO Panufnik Composers’ Scheme 2017.

–––––– IN OTHER NEWS Building on the success of SCO VIBE fusion orchestra courses for young people in Edinburgh, Glasgow and St Andrews, we launched SCO VIBE in Aberdeen in October 2017. Twenty five young people signed up for the two day course, and 45 family and friends attended an informal performance at the end of the second day. A student from the BMus Music & Communities course at the University of Aberdeen volunteered as a project assistant and tutor, and was delighted to have the opportunity to work with our expert team of musicians: “This experience has given me role models to aspire to and a goal to achieve; to make composing music creative and accessible to anyone regardless of music experience.” Shannon Stevenson, University of Aberdeen Our most recent Explore Day was led by Professor Jan Smaczny, who took an in-depth look at the Dvořák repertoire included in the SCO Season. The day was delivered in partnership with the Royal

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Conservatoire of Scotland and the audience commented that the day was ‘stimulating and absorbing’, led by a ‘marvellous presenter’ and enhanced by a ‘lovely performance’ from SCO Cello Eric de Wit. Big Ears, Little Ears, our popular series for babies, toddlers and their grown-ups, rounded off 2017 at the newly restored St Cecilia’s Hall, University of Edinburgh with a beautiful Christmas-themed string quartet concert by Ben Gilmore, Gordon Bragg, Jane Atkins and Donald Gillan.

And finally, the SCO Family Concert 2018 features The Chimpanzees of Happytown. In the run-up to the concerts, SCO Connect workshops will take place at children’s hospitals in Glasgow and Edinburgh and at schools in Wester Hailes, Edinburgh and Easterhouse, Glasgow. We will also be running free SCO family workshops at St Cecilia’s Hall in Edinburgh (28 January) and Riverside Museum, Glasgow (4 February) – a perfect opportunity for children to try out our fabulous multi-coloured instruments and learn the songs from the show!

EXPLORE DAYS –––––– Please join us for Explore Mozart’s Great Mass! The Great Mass is conceived on a large scale as an extended missa solemnis,

involving a large orchestra, virtuoso solo vocal writing and chorus, sometimes in eight parts.

Mozart’s new wife Constanze sang the celebrated ‘Et incarnatus est’ in the first performance of part of the work in 1783. Like the Requiem, the work is incomplete.

Why did Mozart write it, why did he leave it unfinished, how does it relate to his other work of around this time? Dr. John Kitchen (University of Edinburgh) will be joined by SCO players to explore these and other questions surrounding this great work.

–––––– Explore Mozart’s Great Mass in C minor Saturday 10 February 2018 10.30am – 4.30pm University of Edinburgh, St Cecilia’s Hall, Niddry Street, Cowgate Edinburgh EH1 1NQ

PIANO WANTED –––––– The lovely Steinway Model A3, Boudoir Grand piano which has been living in our salon, and is used by our visiting artists for practice, is returning to its owner in February. Do you have a similar piano that would like to be looked after and loved by all our soloists from February onwards? It would be tuned regularly and looked after by our piano technician Norman Motion. Please feel free to share this with anyone you know who may be able to help us.

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SCO IN EUROPE –––––– In April and May this year, we are delighted to welcome Polish pianist Piotr Anderszewski back to the Orchestra after a gap of several years. One of the outstanding musicians of his generation, Anderszewski will direct two Mozart concertos from the keyboard - No 17 in G, K453, and No 24 in C minor.

Completing the programme is Poulenc’s effervescent Sinfonietta, a virtuosic showpiece for the musicians of the SCO, directed by the Orchestra’s Leader, Stephanie Gonley.

Shortly after concerts in Edinburgh and Glasgow (Thursday 3 and Friday 4 May), the SCO sets out on a tour of Europe, which will criss-cross the continent in four concerts.

Starting at the Philharmonie in Köln on Wednesday 16 May, the Orchestra will then make its debut at Amsterdam’s Musiekgebouw on Friday 18 May. Next stop is San Sebastián in Northern Spain with a concert at the Kursaal on Sunday 20 May. Finally, after an epic trans-European trip requiring three separate teams of drivers for the SCO’s truck, we finish at Budapest’s magnificent Béla Bartók National Concert Hall on Tuesday 22 May

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60

SECOND INTERVIEW SIR JAMES MACMILLAN

QUESTIONS BY STEVE KING

James, you are part of a multi-century line of Western musical composers going back through, for example, Britten, Schoenberg, Wagner, Beethoven, Bach, Monteverdi, and Pérotin to plainchant. Who in this ‘bloodline’ do you see as major influences on you?

It’s interesting that you cite this wide range of composers covering many centuries. Composers in our own time can explore so much music compared to earlier times, and the names from the Middle Ages and Renaissance are just as potent and influential as those most recent. I don’t know if I have a ‘bloodline’ as such but I have always been drawn to the great contrapuntalists from the past, as Palestrina, Bach and others teach us universal lessons about handling and deploying complexity. In recent times Messiaen, Shostakovich and Britten have all been important for me.

How, as a composer, do you see your relationship with audience and performers? What are your expectations of the audience hearing your work for the first time?

I suppose I have an ideal listener in mind – and that person is a bit like me!

That means that person is open and hungry for music they have not yet heard before. Not everyone is like that, as many know what they like, and that’s it. That applies to me too, but I have a genuine thirst to encounter music I don’t know, or don’t like yet – non-classical and non-western music too. I have a great respect for performers and want their experience of my music to be a fulfilling one. Communication of music is like a triad, where the composer is the tonic or the root, the performer is the third and the listener is the fifth. It should be a euphonious unity.

When we performed your Stabat Mater in 2017, it had a bigger emotional impact on me than any other new piece I’ve ever played. Are you aware that your music can move people, listeners and performers, to such a degree?

I never know what kind of reaction I’m going to get from one piece of music to the next. Even with the same piece there can be very different responses. I am aware that I can communicate fluently to some, sometimes many, and when the communication works the full spiritual intention, reach and search in the music gets through. It’s lovely when that happens.

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40 years of summer touring with the SCO

by Lorna McLaren

In June 1979 the orchestra embarked on its first summer Highland tour playing to new audiences in Stornoway, Skye, Mull, Iona, Fort William and Oban.

It was a great success and laid the foundation for the years ahead.

Of course not everything on tour goes to plan and management have to be prepared for any eventuality. The brand new ferry to Iona would not start, so players and instruments – including the timpani had to be man-handled onto a converted fishing boat, and a tractor plus trailer commandeered to drive the instruments up to the Abbey. Earlier on the tour, our principal flute David Nicholson, left his briefcase behind on the pier at Armadale whilst taking

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photographs. Not a disaster you may think, except his flute was in his briefcase and he was due to play a concerto that evening in Fort William! He did miraculously get it back in time for the concert.

These stories and many similar adventures are woven into the orchestra’s folklore.

In the early years, the orchestra used Inverness as a base, and in 1980 the first musical train journey from Inverness to the Kyle of Lochalsh was introduced.

With our audience in tow and an upright piano in the guard’s van, we entertained them both on and off the train in spectacular surroundings and sometimes accompanied by midges! In 1982 a steam train was used for the outward journey, which proved

Lorna McLaren playing Boccherini with a view

These stories and many similar adventures are woven into the orchestra’s folklore

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to be an exciting adventure for both the audience and the train spotting world. On another occasion we took the audience down Loch Ness by boat for a concert at Urquhart Castle.

One of my fondest memories is of two performances we gave of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Golspie and Thurso which involved local actors. The delivery of the line “here is my chink through which to blink” will live with me forever.

Amongst world-class conductors

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and soloists who performed with us were Alexander Schneider, Jamie Laredo, Ernst Kovacic, Joseph Swensen and Sir Peter Maxwell Davies; second best was not an option.

Over the years the range of venues increased to include the whole of Scotland from Langholm to Lerwick and lifelong friendships were forged with audience members, hosts and landladies alike. Postconcert parties provided by

Thurso Music Club and James Munro’s post-train journey BBQs were highlights and visits to the St Magnus Festival in Orkney keenly anticipated.

The range of work diversified and education became a key part of our activities. As a member of the string quartet Quartz (founded

by Steve King) we toured extensively throughout Scotland and beyond and undertook the first tour of the Shetland Isles in 1988 playing in schools, Sullom

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Lorna McLaren, first Highland and Islands tour

Voe oil terminal and at a folk session in the local pub – it was on the schedule, honest!

A number of Music Factory events were held annually at Eden Court, where children learning instruments in the Highlands could come together for coaching and a performance. In more recent years, composition workshops in secondary schools, leading up to a series of Masterworks concerts have been an important addition to summer touring.

But it’s not all work and no play.

One of the joys of Highland touring was exploring the landscapes en route and on occasions, cycling to a venue.

When the schedule allowed, I would escape up a mountain, often accompanied by Adrian Bornet and other colleagues, and a good number of Munros were ‘bagged’ in between concerts.

My final Highland tour was to the Shetland Isles last July.

Making our way on the ferry for a concert in Burravoe, a pod of orcas was spotted chasing seals up Yell Sound. My touring memories are full of moments like these. What an amazing way to experience the Highlands –––––– Lorna McLaren – SCO Violinist from 1979 – January 2018

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SUMMER TOUR DATES 2018 –––––– DATE

VENUE

Thursday 7 June Friday 8 June Saturday 9 June Thursday 14 June Friday 15 June Saturday 16 June Wednesday 27 June Thursday 28 June Saturday 30 June Saturday 30 June Sunday 1 July Wednesday 18 July Thursday 19 July Friday 20 July Saturday 21 July Thursday 26 July Friday 27 July Saturday 28 July Thursday 13 September Friday 14 September Saturday 15 September

1. The Volunteer Hall, Duns 2. The Beacon Arts Centre, Greenock 3. The Victoria Halls, Helensburgh 4. Thurso High School, Thurso 5. Eden Court, Inverness 6. Cathedral, Dunblane 7. Community Hall, Seil Island (Winds) 8. Village Hall, Fort Augustus (Winds) 9. Birnam Arts Centre, Birnam (Winds) 10. The Bowhouse, St Monans (Cellos) 10. The Bowhouse, St Monans 11. Brunton Theatre, Musselburgh (Strings) 12. The Cathedral Church of St John the Divine, Oban (Strings) 13. High School, Portree (Strings) 14, Fort William, Lochaber High School (Strings) 15. Stirling Castle, Stirling 16. Universal Hall, Findhorn 17. St Ninian’s and Forglen Church, Turriff 18. Younger Hall, St Andrews 19. The Town House, Hamilton 20. Easterbrook Hall, Dumfries

4

16 17

5

13 8 14

9

12 7

6 3 2

15 19

18 10 11

1

20

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CREATIVE MUSIC WORKSHOPS FOR PEOPLE LIVING WITH DEMENTIA.

SCO RECONNECT SCO ReConnect is a programme of interactive,

musicians perform and improvise around familiar

creative music workshops for people living with dementia which is delivered in partnership with the University of Edinburgh and the Royal Edinburgh Hospital. The project aims to use live music to help improve patients’ and carers’ sense of well-being and quality of life, and to encourage the general use of music in the care setting.

melodies and spontaneously generate musical ideas to match the mood and musical preferences of the participants.

SCO ReConnect aims to put patients at the heart of the musical experience. The sessions incorporate improvisation and interactive performances of varied musical repertoire, which might include songs from musicals, well known Scottish tunes, and popular hits from the past. Patients are invited and supported to join in by singing, playing instruments, improvising, dancing and listening. During workshops, SCO

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Around eight patients take part in each session and are encouraged to attend as many workshops as possible. Occupational therapists, members of the nursing staff, activity co-ordinators and family members also join in.

The programme is led by Dr Jane Bentley, a community musician with an international reputation for her specialised musical work in health, social care and wellbeing settings. www.art-beat.info/ Jane has been working with SCO musicians since

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The programme is led by Dr Jane Bentley

–––––– You can hear more about SCO ReConnect at our Insights pre-concert events in January: 18 January 2018, 6.30pm, Queen’s Hall Edinburgh.

Dr Katie Overy, Director of the Institute for Music in Human and Social Development at the University of Edinburgh, in conversation with William Stafford (SCO Clarinet) and Donald Gillan (SCO Cello).

19 January 2018, 6.30pm, Glasgow City Halls Dr Jane Bentley is joined by Alison Green (SCO Bassoon) and Peter Franks (SCO Principal Trumpet) to discuss the SCO ReConnect programme.

2013 to develop their skills in improvisation and to

We are currently preparing a short video

explore ways of interacting with people with dementia through music. A growing SCO team regularly devotes time and expertise to the project and in 2017, Peter Franks, Alison Green, William Stafford and Donald Gillan were joined by Su-a Lee and Eric de Wit.

documentary about SCO ReConnect. Giving an insight into the programme with live workshop footage and commentary from SCO musicians, our workshop leader Dr Jane Bentley, and our colleague Dr Katie Overy from the University of Edinburgh, you can view the video via the Creative Learning pages of the SCO website. www.sco.org.uk/creativelearning/health-professional –––––– Kindly supported by The E M Whittome 2013 Charitable Trust, The Stafford Trust, J Macdonald Menzies Charitable Trust and The Pixel Fund.

In 2017, ReConnect workshops took place in a new residential care ward at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital.

Due to the generosity of our funders we were able to expand the programme to run a series of 20 regular weekly sessions from July to December.

SCO ReConnect aims to put patients at the heart of the musical experience

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LOOKING BACK Celebrating Robin Ticciati SCO Principal Conductor 2009 – 2018

by Ken Walton

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When it was announced in 2009

arising from his engagement as the

UK position as music director of

that Robin Ticciati was to be the next chief conductor of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, many of the orchestra’s hard core following asked one simple question. “Who?”

youngest maestro ever to conduct at La Scala Milan.

Glyndebourne Opera.

At the time, Ticciati was 25. He was beginning to make a name for himself in England and abroad, having Co-founded the idiosyncratic Aurora Orchestra in 2005, and established early relationships with the likes of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.

But to regular Scottish audiences, this lean, boyish bundle of energy with the wild explosion of hair was still an unknown quantity.

His only Scots gig so far had been Highland Tour dates with the SCO. He hadn’t yet set foot in any major city venue. Yet, on the basis of these concerts, the decision of the SCO management and players was instantaneous and unanimous. They simply had to have him. Now.

He had even caught the eyes of Sir Simon Rattle and Sir Colin Davis, who willingly helped the young Cambridge graduate - till then untutored formally in the art

That was eight years ago. Time passes all too quickly, and after two subsequent extensions to his initial three-year contract Ticciati has served his term here

of conducting - hone his podium technique.

in Scotland, stepping down after the 2018 Edinburgh International Festival to concentrate on his new post as principal conductor of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, alongside his existing

And by the time the SCO spotted him, the term Wunderkind was being bandied about, most likely

Robin Ticciati SCO Recordings: Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique / Béatrice et Bénédict Overture / Les Nuits d’été / La Mort de Cléopâtre / Roméo et Juliette Haydn Symphonies in D major – nos. 31, 70, 101 Schumann Symphonies 1–4 Wagner: Siegfried Idyll Brahms The Symphonies (to be released March 2018) Strauss Wind Concertos (release date TBC)

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The question asked of any departing conductor is, what difference did he or she make? Having spoken to Ticciati periodically during his SCO years, and experienced the electricity of his performances and the illuminating immediacy of his recordings, my guess is his own response would be that he has taken the orchestra and its audiences on a journey to places they, and he, have never been before.

That’s not to say all the repertoire has been unfamiliar. Haydn, for instance, has always been part of the basic diet of the SCO. But in Ticciati’s hands, he finds a middle ground between the clean-cut purist approach and the old-fashioned Romantic one, where clarity and malleable density coexist.

Then there’s the question of context.

Alongside these Haydn symphonies, Ticciati would typically include, say, a chunk of Mahler (who could forget his scintillating Mahler 4 with mezzo soprano Karen Cargill in 2014?) together with delicate slices of Ligeti. A programme, he once told me, should be as much a unique journey of discovery for him as for the audience.

Consequently, every one of his

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Robin Ticciati SCO ‘landmarks’:

2008

2009-11 2012

Robin Ticciati first conducted the SCO when he was 25 – on tour in the Highlands to Strathpeffer, Portree and Fort William. The programme included Richard Strauss’ Duet Concertino with Maximiliano Martín and Peter Whelan.

2009/10 season: conducts Henze, Mahler (with Magdalena Kožená) and Brahms; Fauré, Haydn and Berlioz (Karen Cargill); Ligeti, Bartók, Mozart (Peter Whelan); Dvořák, Beethoven and Ligeti (Tom Poster).

In October 2008, the SCO announced the appointment of Ticciati as the orchestra’s next Principal Conductor, effective as of the 2009/10 season.

Tours with Maria João Pires in November 2012.

In October 2010, the SCO announced the extension of Ticciati’s contract as principal conductor for an additional 3 years, through the 2014-2015 season.

Opens the 2010/11 season with a complete concert performance of Don Giovanni and over the next two seasons performs the complete Schumann Symphonies.

concerts has been a source of wonder and enlightenment. Besides

a concert performance of Mozart’s Don Giovanni, not only was he

so virile and sensuous; the opera Béatrice et Bénédict so gloriously

his idiosyncratic flair and stylistic integrity is a willingness to press beyond the traditional chamber orchestra boundaries.

following through on the Mozartian operatic successes established under Sir Charles Mackerras, but his mastery of the genre, his incisive grasp of the drama in music, surely sowed the seeds for his later appointment at Glyndebourne.

ebullient? Or that the luxurious song cycle Les Nuits d’été, La Mort de Cléopâtre, and the wholesome love scene from Roméo et Juliette should have attracted such glowing reviews of both live performances and recordings? “This is Berlioz up close and personal, and wonderful to behold”, trumpeted one of the many superlative reviews, comparing Karen Cargill’s solo performances to the magic of Dame Janet Baker.

Sure, the Schumann symphonies were well-represented under Joseph Swensen’s leadership, but here again Ticciati has breathed sparkling new life into these well-worn works, both in live performances, and in his splendid recording of all four on the Linn label.

Then there was opera. When he opened his second SCO season with

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And what of those memorable adventures with Berlioz, a composer whose wild and opulent music the SCO has tended traditionally to avoid?

Who’d have thought the Symphonie Fantastique could have sounded

Actually, what we’ve actually experienced over the past eight years is Robin Ticciati “up close

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2013-14 2015-16 2017-18 March 2013: Performs Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde in an arrangement for chamber orchestra. In March 2013, the SCO further extends Ticciati’s contract as principal conductor to 2018.

His season 2016/17 with the SCO seeks to grow the focus on living composers both from Britain and further afield, as well as the music of Mozart, Strauss and Bruckner.

That season sees the SCO touring to Europe and Asia and appearing at the Edinburgh International Festival.

2017/18 is 9th and final season with Dvořák as backbone of programming but with Berlioz’s rarely heard Overture Les FrancsJuges opening the season. Soloists appearing with Robin this season: Mitsuko Uchida, Christian Tetzlaff, Maximiliano Martín.

and personal”. In conversation, there is a delightful self-effacing

this final season with the SCO, was to explore fresh avenues in Dvořák.

These will be Robin’s final SCO Winter Season concerts when we

honesty that may, to some, hint of fragility, but is simply him being true to himself and open with us, and more importantly, honouring the musical score. There is always passion, flowery and loquacious at times in conversation, but never disingenuous.

But a back problem has periodically prevented that, forcing him to pull out of concerts over the past couple of years, not just here in Scotland, but in his wider work. All being well though, there are still some crackers to come.

wish him au revoir. We all hope that Ticciati, while he further nurtures his reputation and talent in his new home town of Berlin, will find the time, opportunity and good health to come back and share his artistry with us every once in a while

Further tours with the SCO in 2014 (Austria and Japan) and 2015 (Europe).

Ticciati lives and breathes music; he questions it afresh with every performance, and the outcome is always exploratory and fresh.

Recent seasons have been frustrating for Ticciati. His ardent wish, during

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Ticciati is back in January to conduct a ‘Chaos and Creation’ programme featuring music by Dvořak, Martinů, Haydn and Rebel.

Then it’s a double helping of Dvořak in March, with performances of the Violin Concerto and New World Symphony.

Final SCO Season concert includes Dvořák’s New World Symphony.

–––––– Robin Ticciati’s final Winter Season concert Dvořák ‘New World’ Symphony 22 & 23 March in Edinburgh and Glasgow

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RECORDING BRAHMS by Robin Ticciati No personal words should be needed alongside a new recording, since the music should be able to speak clearly enough for itself. However, with this specific project I very much wanted to write something down. These recordings mark the end of the first chapter of my relationship with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Given that we have spent the last nine years together exploring and attempting to bring to life (mostly) late 18th century and 19th century repertoire, these Brahms Symphonies represent - in some ways - a summation of our work together. There is no other orchestra I would have considered recording these remarkable scores with at this stage in my musical life. Through our proximity the players have become my breath, my voice for realising what I feel these composers wanted to hear.

In the orchestra’s musical DNA is now our shared history and that has been an enlivening thing to be part of and responsible for.

Using our smaller string section close to that of Brahms’s favoured Meiningen orchestra, I have enjoyed actually embracing the loudest criticism of these symphonies during his lifetime (that they represented enlarged chamber music rather than ‘proper’ symphonies) and relished the intimacy and beautiful dialogue between the public and private figure of Brahms. It is precisely in these chamber-like realisations that I have sought to find and highlight details of wind articulation, string portamenti, the notion of vibrato as ornament, tempo rubato and other such stylistic considerations that build up a picture of Brahms the historicist and Brahms the progressive. All of these are choices after research and thought, but ultimately it comes down to taste and an interpreter’s individual expression. We know Brahms was open to many different approaches (one example being his happiness with eighteen first violins for the premiere of the Fourth). However, it is constant questioning of ‘tradition’ or what we call ‘tradition’ that has helped me to uncover certain choices for myself and the SCO in these recordings.

Alongside the already noted smaller string sections we are using traditional calf-headed timpani, the trombones are small-bore and the horns are Viennese from the late 19th century. The choice of these brighter instruments helped us to find a sound world that is, of course, easier to balance against smaller string forces, but more importantly specific in its quest for a certain historic colouristic detail. The instruments do not easily lapse into a more modern dusky autumnal hue but seek to uncover a febrile, often raw, romantic fever within the score.

It can hardly be suggested that playing styles changed significantly during the relatively short compositional period of Brahms’s symphonies, but the programmatic changes

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Through our proximity the players have become my breath, my voice for realising what I feel these composers wanted to hear within his musico-biographical style are very much in evidence and it was a real pleasure to work on this with the players and see how it influenced the temperature of each symphony, and indeed each movement. It was a very 19th century ideal to interpret music with pictorial and psychological images and we focused much on that, both making our own and also referring to the contemporary sources - Clara Schumann (‘the organ in the dark forest’) Joseph Joachim (‘free but alone’) etc etc. There is a clear journey starting with the immense struggle in the First (with Beethoven’s shadow), passing through the mixed pastoral quality of the Second, resting for a moment in a long farewell to Clara in the third, and finishing with a more absolutist view of symphonic composition in the colossal Fourth.

Our recording sessions lasted two weeks in Usher Hall, Edinburgh, and we played to an empty hall in studio conditions - the excitement of an ‘imagined audience’ listening months later, the excitement of a family coming together to celebrate the music and each other being very much part of this idealised vision of recorded music-making. Twenty years since the orchestra’s first recording of these symphonies with Sir Charles Mackerras, now seems the perfect opportunity to revisit these works on record –––––– Brahms The Symphonies (to be released March 2018)

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SCO WESTER HAILES RESIDENCY Led by Aisling O’Dea (SCO Violin), a team of SCO musicians launched our three year Wester Hailes Residency programme in style with an SCO Family Day at WHALE Arts on Saturday 21 October, bringing whale-themed musical fun and the SCO’s collection of multicoloured instruments to the heart of Wester Hailes. The event was designed as a community event exclusively for families in the Wester Hailes area and was delivered in partnership with WHALE Arts Centre.

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The day was thoroughly entertaining and really inspired both myself and my daughter to learn to play. Great fun for kids & adults.

Parent/Carer

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We now have regular SCO Connect creative projects running in nursery, primary and secondary schools including: DOTS & LINES Expert early years’ practitioners and SCO musicians lead a series of multidisciplinary creative workshops at local nurseries. Taking inspiration from Paul Klee’s well-known statement that “a line is a dot that went for a walk”, the workshops playfully explore how dots and lines can be expressed through music, dance, movement and visual art. Pre-school children, teachers and family members are invited to enjoy music and creative play together, led by early years’ music specialist Caroline McCluskey and early years’ movement specialist Ana Almeida, with SCO musicians including Alison Mitchell, Brontë Hudnott, Aisling O’Dea, Gordon Bragg and Rachel Smith. The workshops are assisted by Community Music students on placement from Edinburgh College.

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SCO SOUNDMOVES A series of cross-artform creative workshops for primary classes. Children and adult artists engage in a seven-week collaborative process, continually negotiating creative decisions to devise a coauthored piece of music and movement. The children try out a selection of instruments and explore different styles of music-making and expressive movement using games, imaginative play and reflective discussion to collectively compose and choreograph their own work. The project is led by composer Matilda Brown and movement specialist Ana Almeida with SCO musicians including William Stafford, Lorna McLaren, Robert McFall, Su-a Lee and Donald Gillan. Each series concludes with an informal performance of the children’s work. The project is assisted by students on placement from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

SCO AT WHEC Our first series of creative composition workshops at Wester Hailes Education Centre (WHEC) was led by Matthew Hardy (SCO Timpani) and Aisling O’Dea (SCO violin). The four-day programme was designed to provide an informal and friendly space for participants to try out a range of compositional techniques, to play alongside the SCO musicians and to contribute creative ideas to the collaborative music making process. On the final day, students enjoyed recording their pieces with a professional sound engineer while a professional filmmaker videoed the process and interviewed a number of students to document some of their reactions to the project.

I felt like I belonged there, that I had a place and a reason to be here.

WHEC student, 2017

Because the students were keen to develop more of their own material and in particular to write their own songs, our second WHEC project in December took the form of a Songwriting Workshop for twelve students. This three day

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project was led by Paul Griffiths, renowned animateur and guitarist who is also the Artistic Director of SCO VIBE. Students had a fantastic time developing their own material with Paul and musicians, and recorded the results on the final day.

We are proud to have children’s TV presenter Chris Jarvis as our Residency Champion, and to pupils’ delight, Chris joined us at three local primary schools in October. He has made a short video introduction to the Residency, which you can find on the Creative Learning pages of the SCO website, along with project videos and

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information. www.sco.org.uk/creative-learning/ current-projects/1191-wester-hailes-residency –––––– Kindly supported by The Castansa Trust, The Robertson Trust, The Christina Mary Hendrie Trust, Mrs Rowena Goffin’s Charitable Trust, The Stevenston Charitable Trust, The Nancie Massey Charitable Trust, Geraldine Kirkpatrick Charitable Trust and Ponton House Trust.

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YOUR ORCHESTRA, YOUR SAY...

Insta pick of the week

–––––– Your opportunity to comment and have your say.

Whether it is via social media or by sending us a letter, we love to hear from you.

–––––– Yesterday evening’s concert at Queen’s Hall was electric. I thought both soloist and orchestra revealed real depths in the Schumann Piano Concerto; I was certainly moved. The Haydn was extraordinarily exciting! And I loved the “standing” Bach too. Very good indeed.

Colin Brown, Facebook

End of an Era...

Our Sub-Principal and Pri

ncipal Bassoons!

JOIN THE CONVERSATION –––––– Schumann Requiem was like an unwrapped gift. It may never be Verdi but it is a genuine & heart felt requiem. Richard Egarr did a fantastic job with the help of a 1st class orchestra along with the Chorus & soloists. The Brahms to start was a joy.

Johnny C Murty @JcsmMurty (Twitter) It’s the morning after the night before and I’m still buzzing after last night’s Beethoven [Symphony No 5, Usher Hall] extravaganza... it was like listening to the 5th with new ears, brilliant!!! I was in the Upper Circle and it sounded terrific. Thanks for a great musical experience... our Scottish football and rugby teams may be letting us down, but our orchestras make me proud!!!

Philip Weitzen, Facebook

It was great to see so many young budding musicians at our @SCOmusic concert [Copland Appalachian Spring, Queen’s Hall]! Makes a real difference to us on stage... please come again!.

Su-a Lee @sualee1 (Twitter)

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Sign up for our email newsletter For all our latest news, films, photos, blogs and special offers, visit sco.org.uk/latest Email us Michael Devlin, Customer Communications michael.devlin@sco.org.uk Comment on Facebook facebook.com/scottishchamberorchestra Share your experience on Twitter @SCOmusic Share your experience on Instagram @scottishchamberorchestra #mySCO

#mySCO

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THROUGH THE EYES OF...

Kirsteen Davidson-Kelly SCO Connect Director SCO Connect has been going from strength to strength – what has been your highlight from 2017? And what are you most looking forward to in 2018?

My standout moment of 2017 was hearing the première of Sounding Out the Past, a haunting song cycle by Suzanne Parry which was commissioned in partnership with Live Borders for the Borders Heritage Festival 2017, and developed in collaboration with Borders writer Jules Horne. The brief was to interpret the heritage of three historic Borders houses and to include community participation in the artistic process. Drawing on local children’s explorations of the houses, Suzanne and Jules used musical storytelling to bring the past to life in song and included local children in the process as genuine collaborators. Sounding Out the Past was premiered at Bowhill House by Scottish

will lead a series of school workshops. I really admire his ability to engage young people with contemporary orchestral music, so I know that we are in for some excellent, imaginative music making.

singer Hannah Rarity and three SCO musicians at an atmospheric recital in the chapel of Bowhill House. Spine tingling! https://soundcloud.com/suzanne-parry-john/sets/ three-borders-songs

as performer, researcher and educator – what has surprised you most about working with the SCO? I’ve always enjoyed being centre stage and developing unique projects, so it has been great to discover that I find my work with the SCO equally rewarding. I love collaboration, innovation, great music making, and getting things done - and my SCO role has plenty of all those elements! I really enjoy the energy, expertise and passion that SCO musicians bring to the Connect programme, and am genuinely moved by the wonderful work that they and our collaborators carry out.

Knowing that I’m part of making this happen is what gets me out of bed on a dark January morning!

I’m looking forward to working with SCO Associate Composer Martin Suckling on an innovative project to commemorate the Armistice centenary. Meditation is a new SCO commission which will feature the bells of Scotland, and we are inviting members of the public to record their local bells and submit them to be included in an electronics part! https://www.armisticebells.com/ Before the SCO premier in November, Martin

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If budget and logistics weren’t an issue, what project would you like to create with the SCO? My dream project is a multi-artform piece for the new Impact Centre. Musicians, choreographers, writers and film-makers would work with young people from all Edinburgh’s schools to create and perform a dynamic celebration of the city – and our ambition would be for every young person to know that they are welcome in the SCO’s new home.

Having had a rich and varied career

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PLAY YOUR PART

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