The Wallace Collection Programme

2017/2018 Classical Season

The Wallace Collection Saturday 9 June

Programme

The Wallace Collection was launched by John Wallace in two concerts at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, in 1986, with an eclectic mix of old and new brass instruments and repertoire. The ensemble appeared regularly at the Edinburgh and other international Festivals and toured widely through Europe, Russia, North and South America, Australasia, Africa and Asia.

Variable in size from five to fifty, The Wallace Collection made many recordings covering a rich diversity of repertoire. Its reputation was built on stretching horizons towards new repertoire and new sounds; reaching back to uncover buried musical treasures; and introducing exciting new artistic talents to the public.

After disbanding from 2002 to June 2014, it was relaunched with a concert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, reaffirming The Wallace Collection’s position as a wideranging, inclusive and free-spirited performing group which continued to push at boundaries. In its rebirth for the 21st Century, The Wallace Collection combines master musicians with a passion for promoting the diverse world of brass music, aiming to inspire, entertain, develop, educate and transform this vital musical genre. The love for the complete spectrum of brass music from its origins, through its vibrant traditions, to ensuring its continuing vitality in our contemporary world, is the foundation of the ensemble’s credo.

Since 2014, The Wallace Collection has presented, commissioned and performed in a diverse selection of projects, including the Epiphany Festival in Kings College Chapel Cambridge; brass festivals held at the Butlin’s Resort (Skegness), Cheltenham Racecourse, the Algarve, Malta and St Andrew’s; the release of two CDs of the complete brass works of Maxwell Davies and Malcolm Arnold; the publication of a collection of works composed/transcribed by its member; the delivery of a major brass music education project – Discovering Brass – involving 90 children from three London-based primary schools; concerts on period instruments for the Galpin Society’s annual conference and the Sypert Concert season at St Cecilia’s Hall, Edinburgh, as well as two world premiere performances of works for brass band and brass quintet – De Profundis at the East Neuk Festival and As Above, So Below at the Cumnock Tryst.

Most recently, The Wallace Collection has performed with The Cory Band at RWCMD, delivered master-classes to students at the RNCM and performed with Steve Harley and the Cockney Rebels at Glasgow Concert Hall. Future commitments include an equally exciting variety of national and international performances, recordings, publications and further involvement with music education development.

Jazz Ripples Mareel - 9th June 2018 AndrĂŠ Previn

Four Outings for Brass Michael Tilson Thomas

Street Song Interval

Hans Werner Henze

Fragments from a Show Jim Parker

The Golden Section

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Programme Notes Andre Previn - Four Outings for Brass

Conductor, composer and pianist André Previn has received a number of awards and honours for his outstanding musical accomplishments, including both the Austrian and German Cross of Merit, and the Glenn Gould Prize. He is the recipient of Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Kennedy Center, the London Symphony Orchestra, Gramophone Classic FM, and in 2010 was honoured with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award from The Recording Academy.

More than half a century after Stravinsky wrote Ragtime, Andre Previn wrote Four Outings for Brass. The piece was written for the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble and was first performed at the 1974 South Bank Summer Festival in London. Each movement represents a soloist. The first movement is lighthearted in character, with the tuba as soloist. The second movement is in blues style with two trumpets playing the principal part. The third movement, with hints of Kurt Weill in the Mahagonny-like trombone solo, reminds us of Previn's early Berlin background. The fast and scherzo-like final movement presents a smooth horn melody in a rough and rhythmical pattern. Four Outings is dedicated to ‘Fletcher’ - John Fletcher, the much admired and imitated virtuoso tuba player of the LSO and the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble.

Michael Tilson Thomas - Street Song

Michael Tilson Thomas is Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony, Founder and Artistic Director of the New World Symphony, and Principal Guest Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra. He has won eleven Grammys for his recordings, is the recipient of the National Medal of Arts (the highest honour for artistic excellence in the United States), presented to him by President Barack Obama, and is a Chevalier dans l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France.

Street Song was originally commissioned for Empire Brass in 1988 and dedicated to the composer's father, Ted. It was then later rescored for the London Symphony Brass section in 1996 to offer a symphonic brass version. The piece has been described as having “slight echoes of Copland and Bernstein with its jazzy syncopation and suspending harmonies”. It is an interweaving of 3 songs; slow movement with slowly resolving dissonant harmonies, a folk-like moderate tempo also containing dissonance, and a dance-like movement with a jazzyswing feel.

Hans Werner Henze - Fragments from a Show

Hans Werner Henze was a prolific German composer and conductor over a career spanning six decades. His works are extremely varied in style, having been influenced by serialism, atonality, Stravinsky, Italian music, Arabic music and jazz, as well as traditional schools of German composition.

Fragments from a Show is a brass quintet from the opera 'Der langwierige Weg in die Wohnung der Natascha Ungeheurer’ (English translation “The Long Route into the Home of Natasha Ungeheurer”) which was composed by Henze in 1971.

The opera is based on the 11-part poem cycle by Gaston Salvatore. Sub-titled as a “show for 17 performers”, “Natascha Ungeheuer” is representative of a false utopia. She lulls the leftist bourgeois, who figure in the complex plot, into a false sense of security which would allow the retention of a “good” revolutionary conscience without actively participating in class warfare. The choice becomes one of relinquishing consciousness and returning to the old bourgeoisie or choosing one of two possible forms of helplessness: either the lonely avantgarde or social democracy. Natascha Ungeheuer offers both possibilities, with a difficult path which unfolds itself in eleven sections.

Our performance tonight is a collection of music compiled from the opera, created by Henze himself for the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble. We shall be playing from facsimiles of the original parts.

Jim Parker- The Golden Section

Jim Parker, an English composer born in 1934, is well-known for his television scoring and is a four-time winner of the British Academy Award for his TV music.

He also writes classical music and composed this quintet for The Wallace Collection, which premiered it in the Purcell Room in London in 1993.

The Golden Section is inspired by the Fibonacci Sequence - the mathematical sequence referred to as "The Golden Section" (a ratio of approximately 1 to 1.618 which can be seen when a rectangle is cut, leaving a smaller rectangle whose proportions are exactly the same as the original. The sequence has also been an influential inspiration to painters and musicians alike, from Leonardo to Mozart.

The formal proportions of the work are constructed upon this ratio, whilst further inspiration is taken from famous artists who were also influenced by its ability to yield beautiful structures and paintings. Each movement in turn is dedicated to Goya, Whistler, Seurat, Manet, Hopper and Mondrian and produces something of a modern Pictures at an Exhibition for brass quintet.

Playing For You This Evening John Wallace (Trumpet) – John grew up in the Brass Band tradition in Scotland.

In 1965 he toured Europe with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain and went on to become Principal Trumpet with the Philharmonia Orchestra after periods with the Royal Philharmonic and London Symphony Orchestras as Assistant Principal. In 1986 he created his internationally acclaimed brass group, The Wallace Collection and in 2002 he took up the position as Principal of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (RCS) – a position he held until leaving in 2014 to resume his musical career, reforming The Wallace Collection, and composing new music for brass. John's international career as a highly acclaimed virtuoso trumpet player, educationalist, published composer and co-editor of Companion to Brass Instruments and History of The Trumpet have combined to establish him as a musician of enormous distinction. John was awarded the OBE in 1995 in recognition of his distinguished services to Music, and the CBE in 2011 for services to Dance, Music and Drama in Scotland.

John Miller (Trumpet) – John began his musical life playing cornet with a local brass band in Fife, Scotland. He became a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, and went on to study music at Kings College, Cambridge. This was a particularly significant period in his performance career and saw John perform with the London Symphony Orchestra, London Sinfonietta and on to join the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble, the Philharmonia Orchestra and become a founder member of The Wallace Collection. After teaching trumpet at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, he joined the staff of Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester where he was Head of School of Wind Brass and Percussion until his recent retirement. John is a published composer and educationalist and is in high demand as a leader of masterclasses, workshops and musical outreach projects. He was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the Guildhall School in 1993, and a Fellowship of the RNCM in 2006, followed by Professorship (personal chair) of RNCM in 2010.

Fergus Kerr (French Horn) - In addition to performing with The Wallace Collection, Fergus freelances with a wide variety of leading orchestras and ensembles. Based in Glasgow, he is a frequent player with all the Scottish orchestras including BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and the Orchestra of Scottish Opera. His work also takes him regularly to Gateshead to play at The Sage with the Royal Northern Sinfonia. As a chamber musician Fergus is a founder member of the prize-winning wind quintet the Gliondar Ensemble and following a project at GIO-Fest 2011, Fergus is now a regular player with the free improvisation group Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra. Fergus also enjoys the wealth of crossover opportunities offered by Glasgow’s thriving music scene, enabling him to regularly collaborate with jazz and traditional musicians.

More information about The Wallace Collection at: www.TheWallaceCollection.world Facebook: @thewallaceworld Twitter: @thewallaceworld

Paul Stone (Trombone) - Born in Edinburgh, Paul began playing Baritone at the age of seven and went on to become the principal Euphonium player in the celebrated West Lothian Schools Brass Band, winning Scottish, British and European titles as well as several individual awards. He later attended the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (now Royal Conservatoire of Scotland) to study Euphonium with David Dowall, Electro-Acoustic Composition with Dr Alistair MacDonald and Trombone with Kevin Thompson and Lance Green, receiving numerous prestigious awards during his studies. In addition to performing with The Wallace Collection, Paul has also worked with Scottish, RSNO Brass Quintet, Brass Ensemble and Big Band as well as numerous musical productions and freelance orchestras. Paul has also enjoyed performances with Scotland’s major Orchestras as well as RTE Symphony Orchestra, the Ulster Orchestra and the Czech National Symphony Orchestra. In contrast he has also been a member of P&O Cruises’ in-house orchestras, working with performers such as Paul Daniels, Elaine Delmar, Roy Walker, Iris Williams, Gerrard Kenny and Allan Stewart.

Tony George (Tuba) – Tony has had a varied career in many different aspects of brass performing and teaching. He has performed and recorded with Modern Orchestras such as the Philharmonia, London Philharmonic and the London Mozart Players as well as many period instrument orchestras, most notably the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Orchestra of the 18th Century and the Gabrieli Ensemble. In addition to being the co-Artistic Director of The Wallace Collection he has also taught at the RCM, GSMD, RAM and the RCS as well as giving masterclasses at the RWCMD and RNCM.

TRIO HLK RICHARD HARROLD, ANT LAW AND RICHARD KASS - TRIO HLK IS THE UNION OF THREE DISTINCT, FORWARD THINKING MUSICAL PERSONALITIES

“An astonishing tour-de-force of contemporary composition/jazz improv” - Steve Kettley, Click Clack Club

SATURDAY 16 JUNE, 7.30pm  £18 / £8  MAREEL 0 1595 7455 0 0 www.shetlandarts.org