Bournemouth Symphony Orchestraconcert season 2017 / 18

Great Hall, Exeter UniversityExeter Cathedral

A highlight of every concert is without doubt the palpable sense of audience excitement, that sense of the shared musical experience generating emotions and long-lasting memories which is hard to equal. It is the amazing rapport between stage and audience that inspires our outstanding musicians, conductors and guest artists, and what makes the season so special.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 ScarfeChief 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. His performance of Lyatoshinsky’s powerful Third Symphony together with the monumental First Piano Concerto by Brahms is sure to be the pinnacle of the season.

Our philosophy of nurturing enduring relationships, whilst fostering new talent continues and we welcome back a range of guest artists including Sunwook Kim, Vassily Sinaisky and Boris Giltburg, as well as debuts by conductor Mikhail Tatarnikov, cellist Leonard Elschenbroich and pianist Louis Schwizgebel.

As ever our range of programmes are designed to inspire both our loyal regular supporters whilst finding many ways to welcome new audiences of all ages and tastes. From the passion and drama of some of the great Russian classics to the epic soundtracks of modern-day Hollywood blockbusters, Elgar’s stirring Cello Concerto, four of the great piano concertos ever written, and a special evening of Smooth Classics, we hope to bring something for everyone. 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.

The Eroica represented a shocking upheaval in the world of music. It was longer, more forcefully complex and less emotionally comfortable than anything audiences had heard before in 1805 Vienna. Despite initial criticism, the air of artistic uprising must have been intoxicating for even the most traditional listeners. In it Beethoven had found his ‘new path’ and he was never again simply a composer – from then on he was a creator of monuments. Written for performance at the Salzburg Court, Mozart completed all five of his violin concertos in a single year. The scoring is light and the solo writing gracefully ornate, illustrating Mozart’s increasing mastery of form and music development, and anticipating the great Romantic concertos that were to follow. Fingal’s Cave is more of a tone-poem than an overture in the traditional sense. Rather than preparing the listener for a performance of an opera or play, originally entitled The Lonely Island, it paints a vivid musical portrait of the remote cave on Staffa, the stormy seas that surround it and a Romantic’s sense of loneliness and solitude.

mendelssohnHebrides Overture

wa mozartViolin Concerto No.5

beethovenSymphony No.3 ‘Eroica’

Victor Aviatconductor

Alexander Janiczekviolin

Revolutionary Herofriday

29september

7.30 pm

“the cultural heartbeat

of the south west”

Darren HenleyCEO Arts Council England

January 2017

Kirill Karabits

Colour and Lightthursday

26october

7.30 pm

debussyPrintemps

chopinPiano Concerto No.1

d’indyLa Forêt enchantée

debussyLa Mer

Fabien Gabelconductor

Louis Schwizgebelpiano

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.

“karabits is presiding over

a golden age of this outstanding orchestra...

this is music-making at its finest”

Paul Jordan, Fine Times RecorderJanuary 2017

ravelLe tombeau de Couperinvaughan williamsThe Lark AscendingelgarSymphony No.2

Richard Farnesconductor

Jack Liebeckviolin

In Memoriamthursday

9november 7.30 pm

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.

Jack Liebeck

Victor Aviatconductor

Anna Pyneflute

Eluned Pierceharp

Edward Kayoboe

Kevin Banksclarinet

Smooth Classics

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.

thursday

23november

7.30 pm

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

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.

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.

thursday

7december 7.30 pm

Christmas and New Year with the bso

wednesday 20 december7.30 pm

Last Night ofthe ChristmasPromsPete Harrisonconductor

Annie Skatessinger

James Spillingsinger

tuesday 2 january 3pm

New YearJohann Strauss GalaVictor Aviatconductor

guest soprano

Magda Gruca-Broadbent

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

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.

khachaturianAdagio of Spartacus

and Phrygiashostakovich

Piano Concerto No.2tchaikovsky

Symphony No.5

Mikhail Tatarnikovconductor

Boris Giltburgpiano

Triumph and Passionfriday

26january

7.30 pm

Boris Giltburg

brahmsPiano Concerto No.1lyatoshinskySymphony No.3

Kirill Karabitsconductor

Sunwook Kimpiano

Monumental Brahms

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.”

thursday

1february 7.30 pm

“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

Heroes and Monstersmore music from the movies

thursday

15february

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.

Written in the summer of 1919, the Cello Concerto represented, for Elgar, the angst, despair and disillusionment he felt after the Great War, and an introspective look at death and mortality. He had been deeply saddened by the war, was suffering from a painful chronic ear condition, and the recent deaths of several old friends had made him acutely aware of his own advancing years. It signified Elgar’s farewell to the way of life as he had known it.

“Everything good and nice and clean and fresh and sweet is far away – never to return” he wrote. Remaining incredibly fresh and abounding with memorable melodies, the Ninth Symphony describes Dvorák’s spiritual and emotional journey from his intense longing for his beloved Bohemia to the thrill of the “New World” and its varied peoples. With its realisation of love and affection, the Siegfried Idyll shows a side of Wagner rarely seen in his operas. Absent is the wild passion; rather, it is a gentle song of contentment and a most personaland intimate expression of Wagner’s feelings while still calling to mind his heroic alter-ego.

Elgar’s Cello Eulogywednesday

21february 7.30 pm

wagner Siegfried IdyllelgarCello ConcertodvorkSymphony No.9 ‘From the New World’

Christoph Königconductor

Leonard Elschenbroichcello

Leonard Elschenbroich

beethovenPiano Concerto No.5 ‘Emperor’

ives The Unanswered Question

brahmsSymphony No.1

Thierry Fischerconductor

Stephen Houghpiano

thursday

15march 7.30 pm

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!

Anna Pyne, Kevin Smith and Vicky Berry

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.

thursday

26april

7.30 pm

brittenFour Sea Interludes

dvorkCello Concerto

r straussTod und Verklärung

James Feddeckconductor

Daniel Müller-Schottcello

Notes of NostalgiaExeter Cathedral

“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

principal funders principal partner

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 most concerts (not 23 Nov, 20 Dec, 2 Jan, 15 Feb & 26 Apr) at 6.40pm in the Forum Alumni Auditorium.

box officesExeter Northcott TheatreStocker RoadExeter, EX4 4QB

Exeter Visitor Information & Tickets, Dix’s Field Exeter, EX1 1GF

All concerts take place at the Great Hall, Exeter University except for Thursday 26 April which is at Exeter Cathedral.

concessionsThe BSO offers the following concessions to most concerts. Please note that only one concession applies per ticket and that concessions are not available retrospectively. Proof of status is required at the time of collection. All concessions and discounts are subject to availability.

BSO Kids for a QuidUnder 18s: £1 per ticket (some exclusions apply)

BSO Vibes£5 per ticket (for 18–25ssigned up to the scheme)

ticket pricesTickets go on general sale on Wednesday 6 September.

£40 £34 £26 £22 £16

Prices include booking fees but additional postage charges are payable for tickets sent out.

50% discount forFull-time studentsPatrons on Jobseeker’s Allowance, Income Support or Employment and Support AllowanceAn essential companion

Special prices apply for wheelchair users and up to one companion. Please contact the ticket office for details.

Why not book a package of concerts and save money?Generous discounts are available if you buy 4 concerts or more and if you book for 11–13 concerts you will receive a massive 40% off!

Multibuy Discounts11–13 concerts 40%9–10 concerts 30%5– 8 concerts 20%4 concerts 10%

Group booking discounts10 or more tickets 10%20 or more tickets 20%30 or more tickets 30%Group discounts are applicable for tickets purchased for the same concert. Tickets must be paid in full one month in advance of the concert date, otherwise they will be released for resale.

tickets01392 726363bsolive.com