Welcome We wish you a very warm welcome to our November Concert in The Caird Hall. Tonight we bring you a concert of music by Schubert, Brahms and Sibelius, with our guest soloist Robert Torrance.

Robert Dick Conductor Robert Torrance Violin Schubert Overture Alfonso und Estrella Sibelius Violin Concerto in D minor INTERVAL Brahms Symphony No. 2 in D

Dundee Symphony Orchestra is the performing name of Dundee

Orchestral Society. The Society was founded in 1893 by a group

of enthusiastic amateur performers, and has gone from strength to

strength ever since. The only period in the Orchestra's history

when it did not perform or rehearse was during the Second World

War.

BBC Radio 3 recently teamed up with Making Music to find four

of the UK's best amateur orchestras to perform as part of ‘Play to

the Nation’, which aimed to show off the vibrant, diverse and

often excellent activity of amateur orchestras around the UK.

The line-up featured the Dundee Symphony Orchestra

performing Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1 from their concert last

year in St Paul’s Cathedral.

Earlier this year in St Paul’s Cathedral, the DSO hosted Handel’s

Messiah “from Scratch” as part of Handel’s 250th

anniversary

celebrations, which attracted many local singers.

In the Caird Hall in March, with The Edinburgh Singers and four

fine soloists, the orchestra performed Beethoven’s 9th

Symphony

(Choral) and Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music to great

acclaim, with a repeat concert in Edinburgh the following

evening.

In June, the orchestra performed an all Mendelssohn concert to

celebrate the 200th

anniversary of his birth, including Joseph

Fleetwood playing Piano Concerto No. 1 in G minor, and

rounded off with Symphony No. 4 in A, Italian.

The Orchestra is funded through private and

charitable donations, subscriptions from members,

and supported by Making Music, The National

Federation of Music Societies, with funds provided by the

Scottish Arts Council. We would like

to thank all those who provide financial

assistance for the orchestra for their

continuing support over the years.

If you enjoy our concerts, we hope you will consider becoming a

Friend of the Orchestra. This may be done by completing the

form at the back of the programme.

To keep up to date with current events visit the Orchestra website

www.dundeesymphonyorchestra.org.uk

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visiting http://www.thebooth.co.uk

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Robert Dick

Conductor

Born in Edinburgh in 1975, Robert

studied violin and piano at the Royal

College of Music in London where

he graduated with Honours in 1997,

and also gained the Associateship

Diploma of the Royal College of

Music in Violin Performance.

Robert’s interest in conducting began

at an early age and in 1993 he was

invited to conduct the Royal Scottish

National Orchestra by its then

Musical Director, Walter Weller.

Having conducted all of the youth orchestras of which he was a

member, including the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland and

the Royal College of Music Symphony Orchestra, Robert is now

a regular guest conductor of many groups including the Rose

Street Ensemble, the Scottish Borders Community Orchestra and

The Edinburgh Symphony Orchestra. Currently the conductor of

the Dundee Symphony Orchestra, the Edinburgh Philharmonic

Orchestra and the Orchestra of the Canongait, Robert has

conducted much of the great symphonic repertoire including

symphonies by Schumann, Dvorak, Sibelius, Mahler and

Bruckner as well as productions of Julius Caesar, Carmen,

Tosca, Die Fledermaus, Bittersweet, Don Giovanni, The Magic

Flute and numerous Gilbert & Sullivan operas.

In 2001, Robert came second in the British Reserve Insurance

Conducting Competition in Cardiff and has also enjoyed success

abroad having been invited to conduct the Plovdiv Philharmonic

Orchestra in the final concert of the Vienna International

Mastercourse Series, where he gained their Diploma.

Additionally he gained the Diploma of the International Summer

Academy at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, on this occasion

conducting the Varna Symphony Orchestra and he recently

participated in the International Masterclass with Gennadi

Rozhdestvensky and the Thüringen Philharmonie in Gotha,

Germany. He has also worked with orchestras in Belgium,

Bulgaria, Spain and the U.S.A. and in 2007 he participated in the

Fourth Lovro von Matacic International Conducting Competition

in Zagreb, Croatia.

Highlights in 2008 included Mahler’s Fifth Symphony with the

Edinburgh Symphony Orchestra, The Merry Wives of Windsor

with Fife Opera, the two Brahms Piano Concerti with Murray

McLachlan in the Edinburgh Festival, his first ever appearance as

a harpsichord soloist in Bach’s D minor Keyboard Concerto with

the Gecko Ensemble, what is believed to be the Scottish premiere

of Elgar’s ballet The Sanguine Fan and a BBC Radio 3 Broadcast

with the Dundee Symphony Orchestra. 2009 has seen special

concerts commemorating the respective anniversaries of Handel,

Haydn and Mendelssohn, including Messiah, The Creation and

Judas Maccabaeus, as well as performances of Beethoven’s

Ninth Symphony in Dundee and Edinburgh.

As a violin and viola soloist, Robert has performed concertos by

Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Bruch and Brahms and has

extensively toured Europe as an orchestral player in venues

including the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, The Hofburg Palace

in Vienna and the Royal Albert Hall in London. In addition, he

has freelanced with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the Scottish

Concert Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra of

Scotland.

Alan Torrance

Leader

Alan Torrance studied violin with Winifred Gavine in Edinburgh

until the age of eighteen, when he completed his performer's

ARCM. Over the following four years he studied with David

Martin of the Royal Academy of Music in London, before

receiving further lessons from Max Rostal in a Master Course at

the Klagenfurt Conservatoire in Austria aided by a Scottish Arts

Council Award.

In 1975, while playing with the Scottish Ballet Orchestra (and

also for Bing Crosby!) he was invited to become a member of the

Scottish Baroque Ensemble (now the Scottish Ensemble) with

which he toured widely and made recordings.

On moving to New Zealand in 1987, he combined teaching

theology in the University of Otago with being leader of the

Dunedin Sinfonia - a part-time professional orchestra which

attracted international soloists and conductors and broadcast

regularly on New Zealand's Concert FM.

After a further five years' academic teaching and playing in

London, Alan has returned to his homeland where he is professor

of systematic theology in the University of St Andrews. This has

enabled him to lead various local orchestras including the NSPO

and the DSO, to which he is returning as leader this year. In

addition to leading the Laird Quartet, he has also performed

chamber music with his four sons both in the UK and in Verbier,

Switzerland. When not playing, he would rather be kayaking,

mountain-biking or making the most of the Scottish mountains!

Robert Torrance

Violin

Robert Torrance (21) started

his violin studies aged 6 with

Madam Shen of the Yehudi

Menuhin School. In 1998,

he studied for a year with

Caroline Plummer, Professor

of violin, University of Notre

Dame, Indiana, under whose

tutelage he won, at age 10, a gold medal in the under-18 final of

the Indiana State Violin competition.

On the family’s return to Scotland he studied with Warren Jacobs

(St Mary's Music School, Edinburgh) winning, at age 14, the

open string solo competition, the Festival Medal and the Stringer

Prize at the Edinburgh Musical Competition Festival. On being

awarded a music scholarship to St Leonard’s School he studied

with Vladislav Steinberg qualifying to compete as one of 13 in

The International Yfrah Neaman Violin Competition in Mainz,

Germany at which Igor Oistrakh (one of the world's most famous

violinists and a professor at the Royal Brussels Conservatoire)

was one of the panel judges.

On receipt of a Scottish Arts Council award, Robert commenced

violin lessons with Professor Oistrakh in Brussels. Whilst still at

school, he was invited to perform Saint-Saens’ Introduction and

Rondo Capriccioso with the University of St Andrews’

Symphony Orchestra. Robert first played with the Dundee

Symphony Orchestra in 2007 performing Sarasate’s Carmen

Fantasy and Dvorak’s Romance. The following year, he was

selected (from around 700 applicants) to appear as one of 18

musicians in BBC’s televised “Classical Star” series.

Shortly after completing his psychology degree at York

University, he performed Haydn’s Violin Concerto in C at the

Ruthven Music Festival in June, and in September gave the

opening concert at the Invergordon Arts Society. He is devoting

this year to violin study and receiving lessons in Manchester with

the acclaimed teacher and international soloist, Leland Chen.

Robert also enjoys chamber and ensemble playing and has

performed with his family quartet both in Scotland and in the

Verbier Festival, Switzerland.

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We have a large selection of restored second hand violins and pianos as well as new. We stock violas, cellos, classical guitars, acoustic guitars, banjos, mandolins etc, also bodhrans and whistles, instrument cases and

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Tel. 01382 226415

Programme Notes

Franz Schubert (1797-1828)

Overture Alfonso und Estrella

Alfonso und Estrella is an opera in three acts, set to a German

libretto by Franz von Schober. Its overture was also used for

Rosamunde, but is not the piece known as Rosamunde overture,

which was composed for Die Zauberharfe.

In close collaboration with von Schober, Schubert wrote the

music for Alfonse und Estrella between September 1821 and

February 1822. Schober, only one year older than Schubert, and

a dabbler in literature, music and theatre, shared an appreciation

with Schubert for the operatic theories of Ignaz von Mosel, a

patron of Schubert's, who supported Gluck’s operatic ideals. This

influence may have led to the omission of all spoken dialogue,

parting from the German Singspiel form followed in operas at

that time.

Schubert never heard the opera performed in his lifetime. Opera

houses in Vienna, Berlin, Dresden and Graz all had refused to

stage it. The opera received its performance in Weimar in June

1854, conducted by Franz Liszt.

A repeated criticism of the opera is its lack of dramatic action and

pacing, although it is believed Schubert intended to compose a

grand Romantic opera, employing a large chorus and orchestra.

At other times, however, strong vocal lines, rich orchestration,

and jarring harmonic progressions predominate. In such sections

Schubert shows not only his genius for setting words to music

and his sensitivity to orchestral colours but also his ability to

manage the large resources of big operatic ensembles

Wikipedia

Jean Sibelius (1865 - 1957)

Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D minor, Op. 47

Allegro moderato

Adagio di molto

Allegro ma non tanto

Sibelius originally dedicated the concerto to the noted violinist

Willy Burmester, who promised to play the concerto in Berlin.

For financial reasons, Sibelius decided to premiere it in Helsinki,

and since Burmester was unavailable to travel to Finland,

Sibelius engaged Victor Novacek, a violin teacher at the Helsinki

Conservatory. The initial version of the concerto premiered in

1903, with Sibelius conducting. Novacek played poorly and the

premiere performance was a disaster.

Sibelius withheld this version from publication and made

substantial revisions, deleting much material he felt did not work.

The new version premiered in 1905 with Richard Strauss

conducting the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. Willy Burmester

was again asked to be the soloist, but he was again unavailable,

so the performance went ahead without him, the orchestra's

leader Karel Halíř stepping into the soloist's shoes. Burmester

was so offended that he refused ever to play the concerto, and

Sibelius re-dedicated it to the Hungarian Ferenc von Vecsey who

was aged only 12 at the time, first performing it when he was

only 13, although he could not adequately cope with the

extraordinary technical demands of the work.

The first movement, Allegro moderato, opens with a cushion of

pianissimo strings pulsating gently. The soloist then enters with a

characteristic IV-V-I phrase; the violin announces the theme and

is echoed by clarinet briefly, then continues into developmental

material. More low woodwind and timpani accompany the

soloist in several runs. Almost cadenza-like arpeggios and

double-stops and more runs are accompanied by more woodwind

restatements of the theme. The strings then enter brazenly for the

first time, announcing a second theme. Developmental material

leads to a cadenza which then opens into the recapitulation. The

'Allegro molto vivace' coda ends with restatements of past

themes. Although this movement is mainly melodic, it is still

largely virtuosic. Particularly difficult passages include one

where the performer must play and maintain a trill with the 1st

and 2nd finger, while playing a second moving line on the next-

lower string, with the 3rd and 1st fingers.

The second movement, Adagio di molto, is very lyrical. A short

introduction by two clarinets leads into a singing solo part over

pizzicato strings. Beautifully dissonant accompaniments by the

brass dominate the first part of the song-like movement. The

remarkable middle section has the solo violin playing ascending

broken octaves, with the flute as the main voice of the

accompaniment, playing descending notes simultaneously.

The third movement, Allegro ma non tanto (not overly fast), is

widely known amongst violinists for its formidable technical

difficulty and is most assuredly one of the several greatest

concerto movements ever written for the instrument. It opens

with rhythmic percussion and the lower strings for four bars,

before the violin boldly enters with the first theme on the G

string. This first section offers a complete and brilliant display of

violin gymnastics with up-bow staccato double-stops and a run

with rapid string-crossing, then octaves, that leads into the first

tutti. The second theme is taken up by the orchestra and is almost

a waltz, and the violin takes up the same theme in variations, with

arpeggios and double-stops. Another short section concluding

with a run of octaves makes a bridge into a recapitulation of the

first theme. Clarinet and low brass introduce the final section. A

passage of harmonics in the violin precedes a sardonic passage of

chords and slurred double stops. A passage of broken octaves

leads to an incredibly heroic few lines of double stops and

soaring octaves. A brief orchestral tutti comes before the violin

leads things to the finish with a D major scale up, returning down

in minor (then repeated). A flourish of ascending slur-separate

sixteenth notes, punctuated by a resolute D from the violin and

orchestra concludes the concerto. Wikipedia

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

Symphony No. 2 in D Op. 73

Allegro non troppo

Adagio non troppo

Allegretto grazioso (quasi Andantino) – Presto ma non assai

Allegro con spirito

Following the twenty-year gestation of his First Symphony,

completed at last in 1876, Brahms wrote the second in a bare four

months in the summer of 1877 at Portschach, a lakeside resort in

southern Austria. Later he wrote, "So many melodies fly about

here that one must be careful not to tread on them", a conceit

which can be applied to the symphony itself. In sharp contrast

with the first symphony, with its tragedy, nervous tension and

conflict, the second is the most radiant and genial of all Brahms'

major works. "All so merry and tender, as though it were

especially written for a newly-wedded couple", was the

composer's own description.

Prodigal as Brahms seems to be with spontaneous lyrical

melodies, apparently plucked from the air, in fact every theme in

the first, third and fourth movements is derived in some way from

the symphony's opening statement, shared between 'cellos and

basses, horns and woodwind. The three-note 'cello/bass motif in

particular acts as a kind of motto throughout the symphony. The

first movement is not without its darker moments; the first entry

of the trombones falls like a momentary shadow on a sunlit

landscape. The movement comes to no triumphant conclusion;

instead a long and eloquent horn solo leads us into a gentle and

nostalgic sunset coda.

The slow movement, led off by an extended, ardent tune for the

'cellos, is the most serious of the four. Its middle section, a gentle

theme in rocking rhythm suddenly gives way to a stormy fugato.

The greatly varied recapitulation is disturbed by agitated

figurations and a new climax. By contrast the scherzo-substitute

movement, with its serene oboe theme, is simplicity itself.

Lightly scored (trumpets, trombones and drums are silent), it is

virtually mono-thematic – the two Presto interruptions are merely

variants, at a different speed and different metres, of the oboe

tune.

In the finale Brahms recalls something of the happy mood of the

first movement, in music of indefatigable rhythmic vitality and

cumulative strength. A soaring second subject, announced by the

strings, and taken up by the rest of the orchestra, reappears,

transformed, in the final bars of the symphony.

Author: John Kane, 2005

Supplied through the Programme Note

Bank of Making Music, the NFMS

Acknowledgements

The Dundee Symphony Orchestra gratefully thanks the following

for generous and valuable continuing support

For the financial support given to the Society: The St. Katharine’s Fund

The Lang Foundation

The R.J. Larg Family Trust

The Leng Charitable Trust

The Low & Bonar Charitable Trust

Alexander Moncur’s Trust

William S. Phillip’s Fund

D.C. Thomson Charitable Trust

Harold Adams Charitable Trust

Aberbrothock Charitable Trust

Tay Charitable Trust

Thorntons Solicitors, Arbroath

Friends of the DSO

For the concessionary terms given to members of the Orchestra: Music in Print Limited, 29 Castle Street, Dundee

Vintage Strings, 77 Perth Road, Dundee, DD1 4HY

The Royal Scottish National Orchestra

This concert is supported by Making Music, The National Federation of

Music Societies, with funds provided by the Scottish Arts Council. www.makingmusic.org.uk

Charity Number SCO11490

Registered in Scotland as a charity

Printer: West Port Print & Design, St Andrews

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A feast of audiovisual displays and music against a backdrop of street art, performances and illuminations

FREE

Friday 27 November Starting at 6pm in Dundee City Centre with a torchlight procession and closing with a stunning firework display.

Including

in St Paul’s Cathedral, High St., at 8pm

Haydn Military Symphony Elgar Serenade for Strings

DUNDEE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

CONCERT

Saturday 27 March 2010 Caird Hall, Dundee, 7.30pm

Conductor ROBERT DICK

Programme to include

Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 2

Soloist Murray McLachlan

Schubert Symphony No. 9

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