Bournemouth Symphony Orchestraconcert season 2017 / 18

Lighthouse, Poole’s Centre for the Arts

debuts from a range of guest artists including conductors Richard Farnes, Matthew Halls, Mikhail Tatarnikov and Robert Trevino. We are especially delighted to welcome Andreas Ottensamer, Principal Clarinet of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra as our Artist-in-Residence for the season.

As ever our range of programmes are designed to inspire our loyal regular supporters whilst finding many ways to welcome new audiences of all ages and tastes. Throughout the season we will encourage you to find out more through our range of online resources on the BSO website and social media channels.

As one of the UK’s leading arts charities, the BSO has a unique remit to bring great music and cultural engagement to the range of communities across the South and South West, whether that be in a concert hall, a school, a hospital or a community setting.

In turbulent times, the BSO is leading the charge to demonstrate the positive role cultural engagement has in the development of our children, in the cohesion of our communities and in building a better society. We could not do it without your support and I would like to thank everyone who supports this remarkable organisation and in helping us build a strong future. I look forward to welcoming you to another season of great music making.

Dougie Scarfe, Chief Executive

We launch the season, which leads us to our 125th Anniversary in good heart with a Company whose artistic strength continues to grow under the outstanding leadership of Chief Conductor Kirill Karabits. Kirill’s musical journey is sure to be a thrilling one once again, not least at the opening of the season with Messiaen’s epic Turangalîla Symphony. This is a once in a generation opportunity to experience this truly extraordinary masterpiece, here on the South Coast.

A highlight of every week is without doubt the palpable sense of audience excitement, that sense of the shared musical experience generating emotions and long-lasting memories that is hard to equal. It is the amazing rapport between stage and audience that inspires our outstanding musicians, conductors and guest artists each concert, making the season so special.

Kirill continues his exploration of the great symphonies of Bruckner, Mahler and Schumann and returns to the music of Elgar and Walton, the core German repertoire of Brahms and Beethoven and this season we place the music of Tchaikovsky in the context of some of his contemporaries including Glinka and Kalinnikov. Rachmaninov’s dramatic choral symphony The Bells with the Bournemouth Symphony Chorus is also sure to be something special.

Our philosophy of nurturing enduring relationships, whilst fostering new talent continues and we welcome

Named from two Sanskrit words, turanga and lîla, meaning roughly ‘time’ and ‘love’, Turangalîla features ‘non-retrogradable’ rhythmic patterns – those that are the same played forwards as backwards – and four distinct musical themes, described by Messiaen as the ‘statue theme’, named for the threatening images on ancient Mexican monuments, the slow, quiet ‘flower theme’, the central and most significant ‘love theme’ and a final theme of opposing chords that produces crossing counterpoints in the orchestra. Messiaen wanted to create a “love song and hymn of joy, time, movement, rhythm, life, and death” and this inventive piece is like no other – a work of huge structural scope that strives to convey, from most tender to most wild, its basic theme: love. Written in a single month, Bizet’s polished gem of a symphony is remarkable not so much for its originality, but for its skilful reworking of others’ designs. It is a brilliant work that shows a grasp of unity and overall design that was remarkable for a seventeen-year old composer.

bizetSymphony in C

messiaenTurangalîla Symphony

Kirill Karabitsconductor

Steven Osbornepiano

Cynthia Millarondes martenot

Rhythm of Lifewednesday

4october

7.30 pm

Supported byStephen Elder & Vanessa Claydon

“the cultural heartbeat

of the south west”

Darren HenleyCEO Arts Council England

January 2017

Kirill Karabits

its deft interplay between soloist and orchestra. Equally inventive and a landmark in the history of the symphony, Schumann’s Fourth Symphony is a sinuous and structurally taught work. Its four thematically connected movements are played without pause, enhancing the poetic flow of the solemn grandeur of the music before reaching its volatile and explosive ending – and its threat of insurrection, violence, terror and madness. Also known as the St Anthony Variations, the Haydn Variations marked the turning point of Brahms’ career as an orchestral composer. With its range and inventiveness, the work is more than a mere set of variations however – rather a work of ever-evolving harmonic and rhythmic enhancements.

brahmsVariations on a

Theme by Haydnhindemith

Clarinet Concertoweber

Concertinoschumann

Symphony No.4

Kirill Karabitsconductor

Andreas Ottensamerclarinet

Clarinet Magic

It was the jazz clarinettist Benny Goodman who asked Hindemith to write a concerto for him, having already commissioned works from a number of composers, including Bartók and Copland. It is a work of particular serenity and melody, marked by a distinctive, translucent polyphonic language encompassing the entire chromatic scale. The four movements reflect four moods – hedonism, optimism, lyricism and gaiety. Weber’s works for the clarinet broke fresh ground, allowing the recently developed instrument a new measure of prominence and demonstrate its wide-ranging capabilities for both expressivity and virtuosic display. It is a tribute to his ability that the dramatic and energetic Concertino remains a favourite in the standard repertory with

wednesday

11october

7.30 pm

Supported byRichard Bagley

l mozartSinfonia in G Major ‘Neue Lambacher’ m haydn Cello Concertow a mozartSerenade No.9 ‘Posthorn’

Reinhard Goebelconductor

Bruno Delepelairecello

Salzburg Connections

In 1779, Mozart found himself back in his native Salzburg after a disheartening journey through Germany and France seeking new employmentopportunities. A period of great creativity, it heralded the emergence of his mature genius. The Posthorn is one of his largest serenades in duration, scope, and scoring, calling for as large an ensemble as his symphonies, and spanning a full emotional range. It takes its nickname from the inclusion of the post horn – traditionally used to announce the arrival and departure of coaches, specifically those carrying the mail. After years of debate and misattribution, the New Lambach symphony is now recognised as coming from the pen of Leopold Mozart rather than Wolfgang. It represents Leopold at his most mature; a serious, progressive symphony and no mere novelty of which he is often accused of writing. Origins of a newly discovered concerto for cello have also been questioned. Which Haydn wrote it – Josef or younger brother Michael? Whatever the case, it has a Mozartian combination of instrumental idiom and subtle large-scale structure.

wednesday

18october 7.30 pm

“an artistic triumph... the martinu symphony

was a sensation, and drew from the bso a world-class

performance, lovingly prepared and bursting

with energy”David Truslove, Bachtrack

October 2016

debussyPrintemps

chopinPiano Concerto No.1

d’indyLa Forêt enchantée

debussyLa Mer

Fabien Gabelconductor

Louis Schwizgebelpiano

Colour and Lightwednesday

25october

7.30 pm

The father of musical Impressionism, Debussy’s music displays a palette of bold colours and delicate interplay of light as any painting by Monet or Renoir. Meandering harmonies weave from one bar to the next in an organic flow, nowhere more so than in his symphonic masterpiece La Mer. It is a gorgeously sensual evocation of the sea in all its variety, from the sparkling glint of the water to the brooding immensity of its power. Printemps foreshadows Debussy’s later works with his use of gentle pentatonic melodies and oriental exoticism. Written to show off his extraordinary talent, Chopin’s E minor Concerto opens with a grand orchestral sweep before the piano enters with a dazzling display of technical virtuosity, culminating in a race to the end with a series of blazing scales and arpeggios both enthralling and exhausting. D’Indy’s delightfully descriptive piece tells the story of a knight and his fellow warriors encountering a troupe of elves as they ride through the forest, the mood changing from the darkly forbidding opening through the light and airy elf theme to the quiet stillness of the ending.

Louis Schwizgebel

Supported byBSO Endowment Trust in memory of

Canon & Mrs Ivor Jeffrey-Machin

glinkaRuslan & Ludmilla OvertureglinkaValse from A Life for the TsarkalinnikovSymphony No.1rachmaninovPiano Concerto No.3

Kees Bakelsconductor

Lukáš Vondrácekpiano

Russian Masters

The extraordinary musical demands of Rachmaninov’s Third Concerto make it one of the most challenging works in the piano concerto repertoire. The soloist plays almost constantly throughout and must combine ear-popping virtuosity with a chamber musician’s ability to listen and blend into the orchestra. Undoubtedly a tour de force, the great technical demands are more a means than an end, as the work seems much more focused on conveying Romantic musical ideas than being a simple display piece – its mood and character sitting squarely in 19th century Romanticism. A contemporary of Tchaikovsky and championed by Rachmaninov, Vasily Kalinnikov was an immensely popular composer during his lifetime.

All-round captivating and instantly charming, his First Symphony abounds with memorable melodies, developed with great skill and embellished through his fluent and colourful orchestration. In particular, the andante is a most gentle and luminous idyll set within a work of elegant yet simple grandeur and well worth a listen. Glinka, proverbially the father of Russian opera, also tapped into the Russian psyche with his two operas A Life for the Tsar and Ruslan and Ludmilla, both of which incorporated Russian as well as other folk elements. The music is dramatic, epic and stirring, evoking the expanse of the Russian Steppe. The sparkling overture of the latter was written in just twenty-four hours!

wednesday

1november 7.30 pm

Carol Paige and Jesper Svedberg

Andy Cresci

“this reading of rachmaninov’s fourth

piano concerto, for me, stood well against the best performances i have heard... a truly memorable concert with the bso on top form”

Ian Lace, Seen and Heard International,March 2017

Elgar described his Second Symphony as “the passionate pilgrimage of a soul” suggesting the music’s predominantly restless and tragic character. It reflects the tension of the time in which it was written – a study of conflict and paradox; exuberance followed by depression, gregariousness followed by withdrawal, optimism giving way to resigned fatalism and a deep nostalgia for vanished times. Although Le tombeau is Ravel’s personal memorial to friends lost in the Great War, with each movement dedicated to a fallen comrade, it doesn’t talk directly about the war at all; rather about eternal values: beauty, elegance, the things that we want to preserve... in other words, the opposite of war. Vaughan Williams’ best loved and most enduring Romance opens almost imperceptibly, out of which the ‘lark’ takes wing, rising, undulating, falling. The music avoids any tonal centre, written without bars allowing the soloist an almost improvisatory freedom to describe the ethereal minstrel. It is a picture of a perfect world; an intensely beautiful and idyllic tableau of English life that may have been lost forever.

ravelLe tombeau de Couperin

vaughan williamsThe Lark Ascending

elgarSymphony No.2

Richard Farnesconductor

Jack Liebeckviolin

In Memoriamwednesday

8november

7.30 pm

Supported byTerence & Annette O’Rourke

brahms Tragic OverturebeethovenPiano Concerto No.3rachmaninov The Bells

Kirill Karabitsconductor

David Fraypiano

The Bells cast to be announcedBournemouth Symphony Chorus

The Bells

Rachmaninov’s choral symphony The Bells is intensely dramatic, operating on several levels. The imitation of the sound of bells, in turn joyful and sad, becomes a backdrop for the expression of a wide range of emotions. In addition to the sound of the bells, another aural element plays an important role in the music. The intoxicating rhythm of the poetry, so irresistible in Edgar Allen Poe’s original, was matched in the Russian translation by Konstantin Balmont and the music does full justice to their verbal fireworks. Brahms’ overture opens with two emphatic chords. Unison strings, with timpani vibrating ominously, then intone the austere main theme – a simple march. A magnificent energy has a defiant strength whose force is heightened by the return of the poignant little march idea, defining the ‘Tragic’ of the overture even more potently. Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto came straight from the heart of its creator and was a showcase for his own amazing pianistic talents. Revolutionary in its scale, drama and intensity, it is a masterful partnership between soloist and orchestra.

wednesday

15november 7.30 pm

David FraySupported byChris & Clem Martin

Smooth Classics

grieg Peer Gynt – Morningbeethoven Symphony No.6 – Shepherd’s Song

mascagni Intermezzo from Cavalleria Rusticanamendelssohn Nocturne from A Midsummer Night’s Dream

rodrigo Concierto de Aranjuez – adagiomozart Flute and Harp Concerto – andantinovaughan williams Fantasia on Greensleeves

mozart Clarinet Concerto – adagiogluck Dance of the Blessed Spirits

albinoni Oboe Concerto No.2 – adagiodvork Symphony No.9 – largo

debussy Clair de Lunefaur Pavane

Victor Aviatconductor

Anna Pyneflute

Eluned Pierceharp

Edward Kayoboe

Kevin Banksclarinet

saturday

25november

7.30 pm

Four sublime adagios from concertos by Albinoni, Mozart and Rodrigo crown a concert featuring some of the most beautiful and relaxing classical music ever written.

Janice Thorgilson, Jacoba Gale and Magda Gruca-Broadbent

feel, when you get there, that the whole experience of the piece is contained and transfigured in this crowning coming-together of symphonic space and time. In just four years Mozart wrote sixteen glorious piano concertos. No.23 (K488) was an immediate success, remaining popular probably as much for its wistfulness as for melodies verging on the sublime. It does not open with a fanfare or any kind of powerful curtain-raising motif, as many other concertos do – rather it begins with a gentle melody, played on the piano, setting the stage for a unique blend of moods from quiet serenity to flashes of aural radiance and moments of exquisite pathos. The spirited finale perhaps reminds us that this was the product of one of the most exhilarating periods in Mozart’s tragically brief life.

mozartPiano Concerto No.23

bruckner Symphony No.8

Kirill Karabitsconductor

Robert Levinpiano

Bruckner Transcended

Bruckner’s last completed symphony contains music of sheer, breath-taking magnificence. It is a non-stop instrumental song imbued with mystical passions and aesthetic glories. It rises from a doom-laden opening to a third movement containing some of the noblest, most ecstatic music Bruckner ever created and represents the summit of his achievements. Each movement is designed on a massive scale, patiently building exuberant climaxes marked by joyful brass trumpeting. Working from a few seminal motifs, Bruckner breathes life into mighty themes, nourishing them with extreme contrapuntal skill. These all come together in the gargantuan finale – a moment of ‘blazing calm’ and one of the most existentially thrilling experiences a symphony has ever created. Bruckner’s achievement is to make you

wednesday

29november

7.30 pm

prokofievRomeo and Juliet Suite rachmaninovRhapsody on a Theme of PaganinishostakovichSymphony No.5

Vassily Sinaiskyconductor

Kirill Gersteinpiano

An Artist’s Reply

In 1937, at the height of Stalin’s purges, the Communist Party strongly denounced Shostakovich’s most recent works. Fearing for his life, he wrote a symphony ending with a rousing march. But to many, the triumph rang hollow. Even today, people wonder just what he was trying to say. Was the symphony meant to celebrate Stalin’s regime? Or did it contain hidden messages protesting the very system it seemed to support? Years later Shostakovich commented

“I think it is clear to everyone what happens in the Fifth. The rejoicing is forced, created under threat. It’s as if someone were beating you with a stick and saying, ‘Your business is rejoicing, your business is rejoicing ...’” Rostropovich reportedly believed that the piece would have gotten Shostakovich killed if not for the thunderous response of the listeners.

wednesday

6december 7.30 pm

Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody, a brilliant showpiece for virtuoso pianist, is a set of 24 variations. It opens with an introduction, based on the principal motif from the Paganini theme which itself is not introduced fully until after the first variation. What follows is an exercise of both compositional and pianistic prowess. After moments of Romantic outpourings the music hurtles towards a typical grandiose conclusion, but at the last moment it wittily becomes a whisper and ends impishly with an echo of the introduction. Equally as passionate and abounding with yearning melodies and unbridled drama, Prokofiev’s ballet music for Shakespeare’s star-crossed lovers shows his mastery of orchestral colour at its most brilliant. It too was a response to state criticism of his music.

Anna Pyne, Kevin Smith and Vicky Berry

Christmas & New Year with the BSO

wednesday 13 december7.30 pm

Handel’s Messiah

Laurence Cummingsconductor

Mhairi Lawsonsoprano

James Hallcounter-tenor

Nicholas Scotttenor

Edward Grintbass

Bournemouth Symphony Chorus

saturday 16 december7.30 pm

Last Night ofthe ChristmasPromsPete Harrisonconductor

Annie Skatessinger

James Spillingsinger

tuesday 19 december3pm & 7pm

The Snowman

blakeThe Snowman

Hugh Bruntconductor

Pui Fan Leenarrator

Magda Gruca-BroadbentSupported byInvestec Wealth & Investment

In partnership withLighthouse

saturday 23 december7.30 pm

Celebration of Christmas CarolsVictor Aviatconductor

Bournemouth Symphony Chorus and Youth Chorus

monday 1 january 3pm

New Year’s Day Johann Strauss GalaVictor Aviatconductor

guest soprano

Tim Fisher and Kevin Banks

while the strings play the principal theme; this process is repeated and then the clarinet gently unfolds and develops the material over a beautifully transparent accompaniment. Launched by a stirring call to attention Mozart’s brilliant Haffner, with its sweeping first movement containing just one real theme and use of clarinets for added textural timbre, marked a big departure for the period. The finale, which Mozart requested be played “as fast as possible” bubbles over with comic-opera vivaciousness. It was with his Fifth Symphony that Dvorák left his symphonic apprenticeship definitively behind him and attained not only mastery but also that individual, loveable style that makes him so popular. Its distinctive quality of the simultaneously airy and dramatic owes much Schubert, to whom he turned for inspiration after abandoning the Wagnerian style he had previously adopted. But Dvorák’s Bohemian roots are also apparent.

mozartSymphony No.35 ‘Haffner’

j stamitzClarinet Concerto in B flat

c stamitzClarinet Concerto in E flat

‘Darmstädter’dvork

Symphony No.5

Matthew Hallsconductor

Andreas Ottensamerclarinet/director

New Eras

The Clarinet Concerto of Czech composer and father of the Mannheim School, Johann Stamitz, stylistically speaking, sits between the late baroque and classical periods and is renowned for being one of the first proper concertos written for the instrument. It is an important milestone in the development of the genre with its use of sonata and rondo form. The Mannheim School was a melting pot of revolutionary experimentation with musicians from all over Europe coming together to develop a new explosive and colourful sound – the beginnings of the orchestra as we know it today. The Mannheim Orchestra was also the first to adopt the recently developed clarinet, and here Mozart heard the instrument for the first time. Continuing where his father left off, Carl Stamitz further developed classical structure in his concerto, with its broad symphonic writing and thematic progression. A lovely touch, opening the adagio, sees the clarinet holding a long, sustained note

wednesday

17january

7.30pm

Boris Giltburg

khachaturianAdagio of Spartacus and PhrygiashostakovichPiano Concerto No.2tchaikovskySymphony No.5

Mikhail Tatarnikovconductor

Boris Giltburgpiano

Triumph and Passion

Shostakovich’s Second Piano Concerto stands miles apart from many of his other works in its sense of freedom and abandon. It is a gloriously free, wistful creation – an unrestrained delight from start to finish, particularly in the famous, soulful and heart-rending adagio, which guarantees the whole work’s enduring popularity – either side of which are two vivacious movements, both full of style and an overwhelming sense of fun. After a shaky start, the Fifth Symphony soon became recognised for the masterpiece it undoubtedly is. Tchaikovsky wrote that its subject was ‘Providence’. More specifically it is a journey from darkness and despair into light and triumph, accomplished partly by the musical character of the individual movements, and partly through a recurring

“motto” theme, which appears in a different guise throughout. Khachaturian’s sensual Adagio marks the point in the ballet when Spartacus can enjoy a moment of peace and celebration from persecution by the Romans. More beautiful melodies make this perennial favourite one of the best loved themes ever written.

wednesday

24january 7.30 pm

Supported byTerence & Annette O’Rourke

An extraordinary melding of musical heritage and progressive outlook made Brahms an overwhelming presence in the latter half of the 19th century, but the musical genesis did not come easily. The monumental First Piano Concerto occupied Brahms for over five years. After beginning a two-piano sonata in 1854, he soon realised that the musical material required orchestral treatment and recast it as the first movement. Adding the jaunty finale in late 1856, followed by the radiant adagio, he continued to make adjustments up to and beyond the first performance in 1859. Lyatoshinsky is relatively unknown in the West, a pity since his Third Symphony represents the greatest example of Ukrainian symphonic music and for many, including Kirill, remains one of the great symphonies of the 20th century. Full of colours, playing between the strings and the brass, with fabulous melodies and an infectious enthusiasm, you are left with a sense of awe. The first performance in Kiev caused a sensation, but the Soviet censors still forced the composer to rewrite it, changing the original concept and removing the epigraph “Peace will defeat war.”

brahmsPiano Concerto No.1

lyatoshinskySymphony No.3

Kirill Karabitsconductor

Sunwook Kimpiano

Monumental Brahmswednesday

31january

7.30pm

“karabitsis presiding

over a golden ageof this outstanding orchestra... this is

music-making atits finest”

Paul JordanFine Times Recorder

January 2017

Perfect Fourths

Mahler’s Fourth Symphony has been described as “an adventure of enchanted melodies and sounds, a progress from a pastoral landscape, where the grass still bore prints Haydn and Schubert had left, through scenes of shadow and sadness, dispelled by large shouts of joy, to a vision of untroubled happiness.” That vision of happiness comes most fully in a song The Heavenly Life, which forms the astonishingly original finale and like the symphony overall, leads us to think of contrasts of Heaven and Earthly Life, serenity and agitation, simplicity and complexity. Schubert himself gave his Fourth Symphony the name Tragic. Possibly he did this in an unsuccessful attempt to attract the attention of publishers or impresarios. The work is not overtly tragic in nature. Both the outer movements start in the minor and are tempestuous and dramatic in character, but each ends triumphantly in the major key. Overall the form and scale of the symphony follow the models of Mozart and Haydn, but there is considerable innovation and originality in the harmonic ideas and tonality of the work.

wednesday

7february7.30pm

schubertSymphony No.4 ‘Tragic’mahlerSymphony No.4

Kirill Karabitsconductor

Catherine Fostersoprano

“it’s a sign of the trust karabits now inspires in

the bso’s audiencethat he can achieve a full house for a quite

daring programme... a performance of shrewd

timing and massive rhetorical force”

Ivan Hewett, The TelegraphFebruary 2017

Supported byRoger Higgins

Heroes and Monstersmore music from the movies

saturday

17february

7.30 pm

Peter Turnbull, Andy Cresci and Kevin Morgan

Pete Harrisonconductor

Once again the full power of a symphony orchestra is unleashed in a concert packed full of stirring and epic soundtracks of the silver screen – this time featuring music from films with monsters galore, whether they be dinosaurs, giant beasts from the jungle or the deep, supernatural creatures of the night or psychopathic killers. Titles include The Mummy, Dracula, Psycho, Silence of the Lambs, King Kong, Super 8, The Abyss, Pan’s Labyrinth, Jurassic Park, Lord of the Rings, Jaws and Gremlins composed by Hollywood greats from Bernard Hermann to Michael Giacchino, Jerry Goldsmith to Howard Shore and, not forgetting, John Williams.

debussyPremière rhapsodietempletonPocket Size Sonata No.2widorIntroduction et RondokovacsEasy Momentsgershwin (arr. koncz)Prelude No.1poulencSonata for Clarinet and Piano debussyLa Fille aux cheveux de linhorovitzSonatina

Andreas Ottensamerclarinet

José Gallardopiano

Andreas Ottensamerbso artist-in-residence recital

Andreas Ottensamer comes from an Austro-Hungarian family of musicians and was drawn to music early. He gained his first orchestral experience as a deputy in the orchestra of the Vienna State Opera and the Vienna Philharmonic and is now the principal clarinettist of the Berlin Philharmonic. His artistic partnerships as chamber musician include work with Murray Perahia, Leif Ove Andsnes and Yo-Yo Ma, and together with pianist José Gallardo he is artistic director of the Bürgenstock Festival in Switzerland. In 2005 he founded the clarinet trio The Clarinotts with his father Ernst and brother Daniel.

wednesday

21february 7.30 pm

“ottensameris simply a superb

player, little individual details

of his phrasing made possible by quite remarkable breath control”

Keith BruceThe Herald Scotland

August 2016

For Haydn The Creation was a summation of his religious convictions as well as his life’s work as a composer. Every one of his scores ended with the inscription “Laus Deo” (God be Praised) or “Soli Deo Gloria” (For the Glory of God alone), and never was it more fitting than at the end of this illuminating oratorio. It still speaks eloquently to believer and non-believer alike with its lively arias and rousing choruses, and this, in the end, was what Haydn hoped his music would do. The opening is one of Haydn’s most gripping strokes of genius, a depiction of the chaos that reigned before the birth of the world. Fragmented themes, shocking dissonances and unexpected instrumental flourishes conjure a vision of a tumultuous universe. After a brief recitative setting the scene for the first day, Haydn calls on the chorus for a stunning dramatic stroke: at the moment of the creation of light, the orchestra and chorus unleash their full power with a radiant C major chord – a touch that underlines the cosmic power of the moment.

haydn Die Schöpfung

David Hillconductor

Lucy Crowesoprano

Benjamin Huletttenor

Christopher Purvesbass

Bournemouth Symphony Chorus

The Creationwednesday

28february

7.30 pm

Lucy Crowe

Philippa Stevens and Nicole Boyesen

“vigour and momentum informed the eventful

finale with a hard-driven fugato given out by superbly

disciplined strings, and the end was wonderfully rousing... bournemouth symphony orchestra isat the top of its game.”

David Truslove, Classical SourceJanuary 2017

spontaneity, but it is far from casual in its sourcing and craftsmanship, drawing upon Basque and Spanish melodies, jazz riffs, the influences of Mozart and Saint-Saëns, and even his childhood fascination with mechanical toys. Thirty years after Debussy wrote his Tarantelle styrienne for piano, Ravel created an orchestral version of the sprightly work, publishing it under the title Danse. Working like an orchestral painter he brings additional intensity and exuberance to the original harmonies and textures of light and shade. Pictures at an Exhibition is, in part, Mussorgsky’s musical homage to a talented friend, inspired by a visit to a posthumous exhibition. One of Mussorgsky’s great gifts was the ability to capture the essence of a character, mood, or scene in brief, striking musical imagery. His imagination goes far beyond the immediate visual stimulus of the paintings, which are brought into even more vivid detail through Ravel’s orchestral magic.

Rapsodie espagnole, Ravel’s first published orchestral work, is Spanish to the core, subtly and brilliantly evoking the sights, sounds and physical sensations of this “perfumed land that the sun caresses.” This is music at once coolly intellectual and passionately sensuous, which justifies its composer’s reputation as a musical Impressionist. The tension built up through the restraint of the first three movements is released with fervent abandon in the finale – Ravel’s pulsating rhythms combining with full-bodied instrumentation conjures up the brilliance, commotion and joyous confusion of a Spanish festival, offering the composer splendid opportunities for dazzling orchestral effects and colours. Ravel’s admirers had long been waiting for him to compose a piano concerto. When he finally took up the form, in his mid-fifties, he worked on two at once. They were among the last compositions he ever completed. The G Major Concerto sparkles with energy and a sense of

ravelRapsodie espagnole

debussy (orch. ravel)Danse - Tarantelle styrienne

ravelPiano Concerto in G

mussorgsky (orch. ravel)Pictures at an Exhibition

Carlos Miguel Prietoconductor

Gabriela Monteropiano

Picture Perfectwednesday

7march 7.30 pm

Supported byArts University Bournemouth

beethovenPiano Concerto No.5 ‘Emperor’ives The Unanswered QuestionbrahmsSymphony No.1

Thierry Fischerconductor

Stephen Houghpiano

Finding Answers

Ives referred to The Unanswered Question as a “cosmic landscape” in which the strings portray “the silences of the Druids.” Over that quiet background the solo trumpet phrase asks “the perennial question of existence.” In response a quartet of winds Ives called the “fighting answers”, seeks a reply, becoming more agitated and frustrated, until the trumpet states the question one final time, only to be answered by silence. It was one of the first modern works in which the performers’ parts are arranged independently of the other parts in both key and tempo with intriguingly juxtaposed musical textures that move at different rates. Writing a symphony for Brahms was not something he took for granted. It took him more than twenty years to approach the challenge and several more years to complete. It was no “laughing matter” to write a symphony after Beethoven. The symphony he finally did produce was described by Hans von Bülow as

“Beethoven’s Tenth” while other critics pronounced it “the greatest first symphony in the history of music.”

But Brahms was not just trying to recapture Beethoven. He incorporated ideas and innovations that changed the traditional aesthetics of the Classical/Romantic symphony. The dramatic intensity of the first movement gives way to the peace and serenity of the second, and the finale has been described as “one of the sublimest utterances human ears have heard” – its hymn-like theme commuted into a glorious and magnificent conclusion. Beethoven wrote his final Piano Concerto at the height of his compositional powers, but at a time of personal and political turmoil. It opens with such power and majesty as to remind you forcibly of the Eroica Symphony. A sort of spacious simplicity characterises the first movement, whilst the adagio offers a dramatic change of mood by way of its exquisite mystical serenity, only to be superseded by the most exuberant bravura rondo finale. However it might have acquired its name, it really is the ‘Emperor’ of piano concertos!

wednesday

14march 7.30 pm

Supported byIan Wilson

Andrew Litton

In his Violin Concerto, Korngold reworked themes from several of his film scores. Lush and romantic, the music certainly brings to mind the swashbuckling films of the period. Its combination of full-throated lyricism and unbridled virtuosity made it a favourite with Jascha Heifetz and later violinists. Korngold develops the main theme in freely rhapsodic fashion, embellishing it with pyrotechnic passagework that ascends into the stratosphere. The finale melds a lively hoedown with a sweeping melody of decidedly cinematic character. Tchaikovsky’s final symphony explores the metaphysics of death – the fact that we are made of flesh and blood, and that we will all die. The composer hinted to his friends and admirers that the work might contain secret messages, but he never told them what they were. “Let them guess” he said. Copland’s overture opens in a blaze. This fanfare, and subsequent extended trumpet solo, is contrasted with a march-like theme and a lyrical melody for strings, all of which are cleverly woven into the final, joyous conclusion.

coplandAn Outdoor Overture

korngoldViolin Concerto

tchaikovskySymphony No.6 ‘Pathétique’

Andrew Littonconductor

Stefan Jackiwviolin

Hollywood Concertowednesday

21march 7.30 pm

debussy Rondes de printempsmendelssohn Violin Concerto in E minorberlioz Symphonie fantastique

Robert Trevinoconductor

Simone Lamsmaviolin

Images and Dreams

The Symphonie fantastique is a work like no other. Its sound palette is unprecedented. Its forms are fresh. Its programme is grotesque. And the result is a composition that creates its own world in sound. The influence of Goethe, Beethoven and Shakespeare, plus the irrational love for Harriet Smithson, all worked on the mind of the twenty seven-year old Berlioz and what resulted was an amazingly fresh and wholly personal journey through sumptuous reveries and drug-induced dreams that lead ultimately to a death by beheading. Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto makes a trip from darkness to light. It begins restless and questing, sometimes mysterious and sometimes nostalgic but ends with a blaze of colour, and a mood of joy and exhilaration, sustained by witty virtuosic melodies and lively interplay between soloist and orchestra. The last part of his triptych Images, Debussy wanted to convey the joyousness of the countryside awakening to spring and decking itself in leaves and garlands. It is headed with the quotation “Long live May, welcome May, with its woodland banner!”

wednesday

11april 7.30 pm

Simone Lamsma

It is marked by many of the same driving, massive instrumental effects that would later cause the critics to pan the symphony as bombastic and coarse. However, this Capriccio is a fine work. If much of the music is fiery and driving, there are also moments of melancholy and beauty. A love song slowly transforms into a dance celebrating the Gypsy character of the joy of living. You can easily visualise a campfire, with whirling skirts, stamping feet and pure gusto. The dance irresistibly grows more and more frenzied, until the work ends with an explosive presto for full orchestra. Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto also received initial hostility. It was shelved for a few years but after some revision and the championing of the work by violinist Adolf Brodsky it soon established itself as a concert favourite with its appealing melodies and dazzling showmanship.

After a promising beginning as a talented composer and performer, with the premiere of his First Symphony, Rachmaninov’s confidence and momentum – if not his entire career – suddenly seemed to fizzle. The performance must have been appalling, not helped by the fact that Glazunov, not the best of conductors to begin with, appeared to be drunk! Rachmaninov called it “the most agonising hour of my life” and the effect on him was devastating. For the next three years he wrote nothing and the symphony itself was never performed again in his lifetime. The entire score is strong, highly individual and self-assured – the work of a young talent overflowing with ideas. Its four movements are unified by a single idea that echoes the shape of the Dies irae, which recurs in several of his most important later works. The Caprice bohémien was Rachmaninov’s second serious instrumental work after graduation, immediately preceding the First Symphony.

rachmaninovSymphony No.1tchaikovsky

Violin Concertorachmaninov

Caprice bohémien

Kirill Karabitsconductor

Nemanja Radulovicviolin

Bohemian Firewednesday

18april

7.30 pm

brittenFour Sea InterludesdvorkCello Concertor straussTod und Verklärung

James Feddeckconductor

Daniel Müller-Schottcello

Notes of Nostalgiawednesday

25april 7.30 pm

When a young Richard Strauss attended a performance of Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde, he was totally captivated and a year later composed Death and Transfiguration, a tone poem that pays homage to the opera. It describes the last hours of an artist who has aimed to achieve the highest ideals. Opening with a throbbing ostinato suggesting the rhythm of the dying man’s heartbeat, two important themes reappear throughout in different guises, representing different stages of his life’s journey. Written at the end of Dvorák’s three-year contract in New York, the Cello Concerto reflects some of his American experiences but is at the same time filled with the spirit of his beloved Bohemia where he longed to return. Containing some of his most memorable melodies and one of the loveliest of horn solos, by placing the solo cello into a variety of constantly changing instrumental combinations the result is most delicate and translucent. Britten’s Sea Interludes are not only brilliantly realised tone portraits of the sea and its many faces, but a subtle psychological primer on the deep questions posed in the opera itself.

Daniel Müller-Schott

It is in the Fifth Symphony that you truly encounter the genius of Beethoven through the musical manifestations of his intimate thoughts, his secret sorrows and his intensely concentrated rage. A sense of a power struggle between tonic minor and major is played out across the entire symphony in a kind of musical competition between the forces of darkness and the avenging nature of light but in the end goodness triumphs over even the darkest fate in Beethoven’s world. One of his earliest compositions for orchestra, the Second Piano Concerto reflects Beethoven’s mastery of Classical form and style. It is a youthful work, yet shows glimpses of the mature Beethoven, especially in his use of unexpected harmonies. Haydn produced six symphonies for his second visit to England but it was the Military which caught the public’s imagination. Aside from its attractive themes and Haydn’s captivating treatment of them, the other major reason for its popularity was the appearance of percussion instruments, adding not just exotic colour but also a touch of menace.

haydn Symphony No.100 ‘Military’

beethoven Piano Concerto No.2

beethoven Symphony No.5

Kirill Karabitsconductor

Sunwook Kimpiano

Into the Lightwednesday

2may

7.30 pm

Sunwook Kim

Tammy Thorn and Nicolas Fleury

Walton’s First Symphony was a landmark of English composition and represents the peak of his symphonic thinking. Its turbulent emotions and high-voltage energy were the fruit of tempestuous events surrounding Walton at the time. After an eloquent, dramatic first movement, a stinging, malicious Scherzo and a truly melancholic slow movement, the finale is totally different in outlook – an almost Elgarian ceremonial jubilation, as if a cloud has lifted. Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto is an exuberant and passionate work filled with uninhibited virtuosity. The dramatic and lengthy first movement is based on the menacing-sounding Ukrainian folk tune titled Song of the Blind and is filled with extensive technical passages made up of lush chord sequences and scales. The finale is also based on a folk tune – a combination of hymn-like solemnity and more technical wizardry. Elgar’s ebullient overture has everything that is most admired about his music – wonderful melody, nobility of expression and moving passion.

elgarIn the South

tchaikovskyPiano Concerto No.1

waltonSymphony No.1

Kirill Karabitsconductor

Simon Trpceski piano

Trpceski plays Tchaikovsky

wednesday

9may

7.30 pm

“karabits’s sense of the first movement’s

epic architecture proved faultless, and the grinding central climax, as well as

the bereft cor anglais solo that follows it, were

beautifully engineered”Andrew Clements, The Guardian

January 2017

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principal media broadcast principal academic conservatoiremedia partner partner partner academic partner partner partner

public funders

partners

in-kind partners

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra would like to thank the following supporters

principal patrons

David & Jill PetersTerence & Annette O'RourkeMike & Jane StaceyIn memory of Mike Lumb

trusts & foundations

With special thanks to Paul Hamlyn Foundation for its support of BSO Participate

Bristol Music Trust, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, The Leverhulme Trust,The Valentine Charitable Trust,The Michael & Isle Katz Foundation,Flaghead Charitable Trust, The Sherling Charitable Trust, The Coral Samuel Charitable Trust, Cressy Foundation,The Pitt-Rivers Charitable Trust,The D’Oyly Carte Charitable Trust,Idelwild Trust, The Leche Trust, The Michael Tippett Musical Foundation, Hinrichsen Foundation, Gess Charitable Trust, Miss Jeanne Bisgood’s Charitable Trust, The VEC Acorn Trust, Bedhampton Charitable Trust, The Norman Family Charitable Trust, The Finzi Trust, The Bliss Trust, Anthony du Boulay Charitable Trust

thank you

We would like to thank our Patrons and Performance Champions, those who have chosen to remember the BSO in their Will, and everyone who supports us through donations, membership or by volunteering their time

FREE ‘Meet the Music’ pre-concert talks take place before every Wednesday Series Concert at 6.30pm in the Concert Hall.

series concertsTickets on general sale from Wednesday 6 September.

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additional concertsTickets on sale now

Smooth Classics (25 Nov)Messiah (13 Dec)Christmas Proms (16 Dec)The Snowman (19 Dec) Johann Strauss Gala (1 Jan)Heroes & Monsters (17 Feb)£36 £30 £26 £23 £18 £11Christmas Carols (23 Dec)£28 £23 £19£16 £13 £10Celebrity Recital (21 Feb)£19

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