BRAHMSMACMILLAN

THURSDAY 23 JANUARY 2020QUEEN ELIZABETH HALL64TH SEASON 2019/20

QUEEN ELIZABETH HALLTONIGHT’S VENUE

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PHOTOGRAPHY is not allowed in the auditorium.

LATECOMERS are admitted to the auditorium only if there is a suitable break in the performance.

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ETIQUETTE

KSO: registered charity no. 1069620

COVER IMAGE: The Log Cabin Houseboat (1925; detail) by J.D. Fergusson (1874-1961), a key member of the Scottish Colourists. The internationally recognised artist’s infl uences included Fauvism, which emphasised pure colour and unconstrained brushwork. Photo: Antonia Reeve; © The Fergusson Gallery, Perth & Kinross Council

THURSDAY 23 JANUARY 2020 7.30PMSOUTHBANK CENTRE’S QUEEN ELIZABETH HALL LONDON

RUSSELL KEABLE ConductorALAN TUCKWOOD Leader

BRAHMSPiano Concerto No.2

JAMES MACMILLANSymphony No.4

Interval 20 minutes

Concert concludes around 9.30pm

Soloist: Samson Tsoy

4 KENSINGTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

TONIGHT’S PROGRAMME TIMELINE

So many melodies fl y about that one must be careful not to tread on them… it is not hard to compose, but what is fabulously hard is to leave the superfl uous notes under the table‘JOHANNES BRAHMS Piano Concerto No.2 (1881), p5

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Symphony No.4

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Piano Concerto No.2

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For a composer, silence is something pregnant with expectation… music grows in the spiritual life: the silence of not knowing something‘JAMES MACMILLAN Symphony No.4 (2015), p7

JANUARY 2020 5

JOHANNES BRAHMS 1833-97

I ALLEGRO NON TROPPO II ALLEGRO APPASSIONATO III ANDANTE III ALLEGRETTO GRAZIOSO – UN POCO PIÙ PRESTO

“I believe in Bach the father, Beethoven the Son and Brahms the Holy Ghost of music,” wrote the great 19th-century conductor Hans von Bülow. One of the giant “three Bs” of music, Brahms was born in Hamburg to humble parents. Only too well aware of his great predecessors, he was perhaps the first composer to be so intensely interested in music of the past. As a conservative by nature, never writing an opera or for larger orchestras, he found himself pitted against the New German School of Liszt and

BRAHMS

Piano Concerto No.2 (1881)Wagner, who sneered at Brahms’s rock-like loyalty to Classical thought and design.

It was this very conservatism that made Brahms so popular in England, where his influence was strong. One can’t help thinking that many British composers would have been far more powerful and original had they developed further their own distinctive voices rather than constantly looking over their shoulders at the great German master. Yet Brahms was far more radical than is often thought: tonight’s work, for example, is one of the longest concertos ever written.

The first sketches for the Second Piano Concerto were made immediately after Brahms’s first Italian journey in spring 1878, when he fell under the country’s spell. Although he put the piece aside in favour of the Violin Concerto and his First Violin Sonata, he worked at it on and off over the next three years, finally completing it in the summer of 1881 while in Pressbaum, near Vienna.

Even longer than his monumental First Piano Concerto, the Second is one of Brahms’s most imposing works, written on a vast, symphonic scale in four movements. It was therefore with heavy irony that he described it to his devoted admirer and friend Elisabet von Herzogenberg as a “tiny, tiny piano concerto with a tiny, tiny wisp of a scherzo”. And he posted the score to his close friend Theodor Billroth with the laconic message: “I am sending you a few short piano pieces.”

Although Brahms had given up his career as a virtuoso pianist and teacher as soon as he could afford to do so in the late 1860s, he was still able to give the first performance of the Second Piano Concerto, with its formidable solo part, in Budapest in November 1881, conducted by Alexander Erkel. Before this, Brahms had been able to try out the work semi-privately with Von Bülow’s fine orchestra at the ducal court of Saxe-Meiningen.

The Concerto’s key, B flat major, was a favourite of Brahms: “this udder”, as he described it, “that has always yielded good milk before”. And he evidently thought highly of his achievement, dedicating the work “to my beloved friend and teacher, Eduard Marxsen”. The leading teacher in Hamburg, Marxsen had laid the sure foundations of Brahms’s superb technique. Long after he had established his reputation, Marxsen’s most famous pupil would still submit his works for criticism before publication.

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Johannes Brahms enjoys breakfast with Johann Strauss’s wife, Adele, in Austria in 1894

‘The piano strews instantly memorable themes before our ears’Brahms expert Malcolm MacDonald

6 KENSINGTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

TONIGHT’S PROGRAMME

The spacious first movement has the most Romantic of all concerto openings: the horn evokes the stillness of mountain and forest with the soloist as an equal partner. A preliminary airing of the first theme arouses a fiery cadenza in Brahms’s most muscular and sinewy vein in preparation for the fervent and full-hearted orchestral tutti. Throughout the movement, the piano does not merely repeat or comment on the orchestral themes but engages in a wide-ranging dialogue by continually varying them.

Brahms declared that he added the second movement, based on one originally sketched for the Violin Concerto, because the first movement was “too harmless”. A scherzo, allegro appassionato, in D minor, it is the closest the concerto comes to tragedy. Written in an extremely concise sonata form in contrast to the first movement’s expansive one, the first subject, mainly on the piano and low strings, is nervous and hard-driven, while the second subject, in the high strings followed by the piano, is a haunting little tune full of pathos.

This first section is repeated before an angry development, the music rising to a new pitch of tension. A pealing D major theme bursts in at the height of the storm, lightening the mood and expanding into the Trio. But the earlier tension returns, urgent and volatile, the movement storming to a breathtaking conclusion.

The slow movement begins with a beautiful singing theme on the solo cello. This is never given to the piano, which instead wreathes it with delicate decoration, like a

self-communing improvisation. Piano and orchestra then engage in a more agitated dialogue. After an episode of deep tenderness, the solo cello returns with its theme, the movement ending in the same mood of calm with which it began.

The finale is a complex mixture of sonata and rondo, requiring of the soloist a raffish yet elegant sense of fun. As the Brahms expert Malcolm MacDonald put it: “Brahms never wrote a movement that was more of an unalloyed entertainment, nor more feline in its humour; the proportions remain kingly but the lion now moves with a kitten’s lightness and a cat’s precise, unconscious grace. The piano strews lilting, instantly memorable themes before our ears in seemingly innocent profusion: but great art is everywhere.”

The second subject has a gypsy feel, echoing the composer’s Hungarian Dances, while there is an almost Mozartian wit in the exchanges between the piano and orchestral soloists, Brahms bringing his monumental concerto to a wonderfully suave conclusion without even calling on the expected trumpets and drums.

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Theodor Billroth Operating (1889; detail) by the Austrian painter Adalbert Franz Seligmann. German-born surgeon Billroth – the “father of abdominal surgery”, who performed the first successful removal of a cancerous tumour from a patient’s stomach in 1881 – was a close friend of Brahms, who dedicated two string quartets to him

JOHANNES BRAHMS 1833-97

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LISTEN OUT FOR…

In the slow movement, the solo cello shares the limelight with the piano. Listen for the expressive melody that begins and ends the movement and the way in which Brahms weaves filigrees of sound around it as the movement draws to its peaceful conclusion.

JANUARY 2020 7

JAMES MACMILLAN 1959–

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THE LEADING SCOTTISH COMPOSER of his generation, 60-year-old James MacMillan (Sir James since 2015) works internationally as both composer and conductor. He studied at the University of Edinburgh and then at Durham University with John Casken, first attracting attention with his orchestral piece The Confession of Isobel Gowdie (1990), which received an ecstatic reception at its première at the BBC Proms. It has since become a contemporary classic, three recordings being made within ten years.

MacMillan is one of that rare breed of living composers whose works readily find an audience, and everything he writes aims at direct emotional and dramatic communication. Strongly coloured by his socialism, his Catholicism and his Scottish patriotism, his works often use traditional Scottish music as an important source of inspiration.

They are also frequently placed alongside those of other deeply religious modern composers such as Arvo Pärt and John Tavener. But MacMillan draws a distinction: “Tavener always said that for him the most important image is that of the Risen Christ. For me, it’s Christ Crucified. It shows in our music: in Tavener’s, it’s as if Heaven is already attained. In mine, it’s still to be fought for.”

Although MacMillan had conceived the piece years earlier, he did not begin work on the Fourth Symphony until late 2014. Cast in a single movement lasting around 40 minutes, it was written in celebration of the 60th birthday of the Scottish conductor Donald Runnicles, who gave the first

JAMES MACMILLAN

Symphony No.4 (2015)performance with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra at the BBC Proms in August 2015. The reviews were appreciative:

“In one continually evolving movement, the symphony teems with striking ideas, both musical and philosophical…” The Times

“It is, as ever with MacMillan, a spiritual journey, in this instance governed by ‘ritual’ in its various guises… the musical ingredients are unmistakably his: plaintive melodies sculpted from the world of Gregorian chant, set against chattering counterpoints, densely aromatic string clusters, resplendent chorales…” The Scotsman

“…it was a powerful sense of the fragility of memory, and of time passing, that emerged most clearly. Melodies – including some

soulful passages on the violas that conjured up Carver’s ancient masses – materialised from the orchestral margins only to fade again like half-forgotten tunes.” Daily Telegraph

The composer provided his own description of the work for the first performance:

“My earlier three symphonies employed programmatic elements, whether exploring poetic imagery or literary references, but this new work is essentially abstract. I’m interested here in the interplay of different types of material, following up on a fascination with music as ritual that has stretched from Monteverdi in the early 17th century through to Boulez and Birtwistle in the present day. There are four distinct archetypes in the symphony, which can be viewed as rituals of

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James MacMillan, who has long been influenced by Robert Carver (around 1485-1570, right), alludes to the Scottish High Renaissance composer’s work in Symphony No.4

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TONIGHT’S PROGRAMME

movement, exhortation, petition and joy. These four ideas are juxtaposed in quick succession from the outset, over the first five minutes or so. As the work progresses, these can be individually developed in an organic way, or can co-mingle, or they can be opposed and argumentative.

“Over a slow-moving tread, an angular, modal melody is heard on muted trumpet and oboe, accompanied by a sonorous chorale on cor anglais and horns. The first of many imperceptible accelerations brings forward clarinets and solo violas in an urgent and insistent theme revolving around just a few adjacent notes.

“Above this, the pleading strings splay out downwards, becoming more animated, leading to the first quick and joyful music on wind, xylophone and piano, interrupted by rushing strings. From here, the symphony has a trajectory from slow to fast: the pace may step back for some more reflective episodes, but there is a general cranking-up of tempo and energy.

“The work as a whole is a homage to Robert Carver, the most important Scottish composer of the High Renaissance, whose intricate multi-part choral music I’ve loved since performing it as a student. There are allusions to his ten-voice mass Dum

sacrum mysterium embedded in my work and at a number of points it emerges from across the centuries in a more discernible form. The vocal lines are muted and muffled, literally in the distance, as they are played delicately by the back desks of the violas, cellos and double basses.

“As the music gets faster, we hear some of the main themes recur in different contexts, becoming more fanfare-like and animated. Ideas are developed but continually thrown forwards. A kind of interplay develops between the ‘ancient’ music and the speeding-up process, even when the symphony seems to ‘begin again’, this time in a related mode.

“The cello section gradually emerges as a principal protagonist, pulling the music to a serene and ethereal core, featuring resonating temple bowls. The earlier splaying strings are heard again, almost in a mirror image, before the music takes a few dramatic twists leading to its final acceleration.”

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Interior (The Red Chair) (around 1928; detail) by F.C.B. Cadell. The Scottish Colourist’s paintings of his Edinburgh residence are typical of the bold, distinctive style that emerged in British art after the First World War

LISTEN OUT FOR…

Listen for the way in which the ancient music haunts the work like a ghost, appearing and disappearing in a mist, before its intense lyricism comes to dominate as the symphony grows towards its climax.

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FABIAN WATKINSONProgramme notes: © the author, 2020; composer’s notes: © James MacMillan, 2015

‘[The work gives] a powerful sense of… time passing’The Daily Telegraph’s review

JANUARY 2020 9

JAMES MACMILLAN 1959–

Samuel John Peploe’s Blue Day, Iona (1931). The Scottish Colourists – Peploe, J.D. Fergusson, F.C.B. Cadell and Leslie Hunter – all spent time in France, absorbing the vibrant colours of contemporary French painting into a confident new Scottish style

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ARTISTS’ BIOGRAPHIES

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RUSSELL KEABLEPH

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Conductor Russell Keable has won plaudits as an interpreter of contemporary music in both the national and international press

‘Keable and his orchestra did magnificently’The Guardian

RUSSELL KEABLE is one of the UK’s most exciting musicians, praised as a conductor in both the national and international press. “Keable and his orchestra did magnificently,” wrote the Guardian; “one of the most memorable evenings at the South Bank for many a month,” said the Musical Times.

Keable has been associated with Kensington Symphony Orchestra for more than 30 years, establishing the group’s reputation as one of the finest non-professional orchestras in the UK. Under his baton, KSO has become known for its consistently ambitious programming of contemporary music, and he has led premières of works by British composers including Robin Holloway, David Matthews, Peter Maxwell Davies, John McCabe, Joby Talbot and John Woolrich.

RUSSELL KEABLE

Music directorHe has received particular praise as a champion of the music of Erich Korngold: the British première of the composer’s opera Die tote Stadt was hailed as a triumph, and research in Los Angeles led to a world première of music from Korngold’s film score for The Sea Hawk.

Keable performs with orchestras and choirs throughout the UK, has conducted in Prague and Paris (filmed by British and French television) and has worked with the Royal Oman Symphony Orchestra in Dubai. He has recorded two symphonies by Robert Simpson, and a Beethoven CD was released in New York.

Keable holds the post of director of conducting at the University of Surrey. He trained at the University of Nottingham and at King’s College, London University. He studied conducting at London’s Royal College of Music with Norman Del Mar, and later with George Hurst.

Over five years, Keable developed a special relationship with the Schidlof Quartet, with whom he established an innovative education programme. He is a dynamic lecturer and workshop leader, working with audiences ranging from schoolchildren to music students and international business conferences.

Keable is also in demand as a composer and arranger; he has written works for many British ensembles, and his opera Burning Waters, commissioned by the Buxton Festival, was premièred in July 2000. He has also composed music for the mime artist Didier Danthois to use in prisons and special-needs schools.

ST JOHN’S SMITH SQUARE BERNSTEIN, KORNGOLD

& SHOSTAKOVICH

BOOK NOW

Bernstein Candide Overture Korngold Violin Concerto Soloist: Stephen Bryant

Shostakovich Symphony No.11: The Year 1905 Guest conductor: Michael Seal

ST JOHN’S SMITH SQUARE SATURDAY 14 MARCH, 7.30PM

AT THE SAME VENUE:Sibelius En SagaNicholas Maw Dance ScenesTchaikovsky Symphony No.6 TUESDAY 30 JUNE, 7.30PM

12 KENSINGTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

ARTISTS’ BIOGRAPHIES

SAMSON TSOY

Piano

RISING STAR SAMSON TSOY was born in Kazakhstan to a Korean father and a Russian-Jewish mother. Based in the UK, the Russian pianist has established an international career, having already been invited to perform with renowned conductors including Valery Gergiev with the Mariinsky Orchestra, Alexander Vedernikov with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Diego Masson with the Philharmonia Orchestra, Juanjo Mena with the Real Filharmonía de Galicia and Roberto Minczuk with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra.

Tsoy has appeared as both a soloist and a chamber musician in prestigious venues such as the Barbican Hall and Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall in London, the Théâtre de la Ville and Salle Gaveau in Paris, Berlin’s Konzerthaus and Milan’s Sala Verdi. He has also performed at the Aldeburgh, Kilkenny Arts, Verbier, Montreux Septembre Musical, Plush, Honens and International Mstislav Rostropovich festivals.

His 2019/20 season includes performances at the Wigmore Hall, Great Hall of the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory, Mariinsky Theatre, Théâtre de la Ville and Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, as well as a concert for the United Nations in New York.

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Rising star Samson Tsoy, who performs internationally, also established his own “must-see” festival in London last year

Tsoy graduated from the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory and the Royal College of Music in London. He has also worked under the guidance of Maria João Pires and Elisabeth Leonskaja. A laureate of the Paloma O’Shea Santander International Piano Competition, he is the winner of the 9th Campillos International Piano Competition, a recipient of the Milstein Medal Piano Award, a laureate of the Imogen Cooper Music Trust and a City Music Foundation artist.

He regularly performs with fellow pianist Pavel Kolesnikov, and the pair launched the Ragged Music Festival in east London in September 2019. The event was described as “seriously edgy, admirable and a must-see” by Classical Music magazine and received a five-star review in the Independent.

Tsoy searches for inspiration in different art forms. A ballet aficionado, he is an admirer of Rudolf Nureyev and Natalia Osipova; he is also a keen runner and closely follows figure-skating. He feels that widening one’s perspectives is essential for any artist, and finds it particularly refreshing to communicate and exchange ideas with people working in business and politics, the fashion industry and activism relating to human rights.

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KENSINGTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Revivals and premières of new works often feature in the orchestra’s repertoire, alongside major works of the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. World and British premières have included music by Bax, Brian, Bruckner, Nielsen, Schoenberg, Sibelius and Verdi.

Russell Keable has aired a number of unusual works, as well as delivering some significant musical landmarks: the London première of Dvořák’s opera Dimitrij and the British première of Korngold’s operatic masterpiece Die tote Stadt, the latter praised by the Evening Standard as “a feast of brilliant playing”.

In 2004, KSO and the London Oriana Choir performed a revival of Walford Davies’s oratorio Everyman, a recording of which is available on the Dutton label.

KENSINGTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, now in its 64th season, enjoys an enviable reputation as one of the finest non-professional orchestras in the UK. Its founding aim – “to provide students and amateurs with an opportunity to perform concerts at the highest possible level” – remains key to its mission.

KSO has had only two principal conductors: its founder, Leslie Head, and Russell Keable, who has been with the orchestra for more than three decades. The knowledge, passion and dedication of these musicians has shaped KSO, giving it a distinctive repertoire that sets it apart from other groups.

The orchestra’s principal cello, Joseph Spooner, plays a key role in the slow movement of Brahms’s Second Piano Concerto tonight

Contemporary music continues to be the lifeblood of KSO. Recent programmes have featured works by an impressive roster of composers working today, including Thomas Adès, Charlotte Bray, Brett Dean, Jonny Greenwood, Magnus Lindberg, Rodion Shchedrin, Joby Talbot and John Woolrich.

In 2005, Errollyn Wallen’s Spirit Symphony, performed with the BBC Concert Orchestra and broadcast on BBC Radio 3, won the Radio 3 Listeners’ Award at the British Composer Awards. In 2014, KSO gave the

‘A feast of brilliant playing’The Evening Standard

KENSINGTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Founded in 1956

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14 KENSINGTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

ARTISTS’ BIOGRAPHIES KENSINGTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

KSO also works with a guest conductor each year; recently, these have included Jacques Cohen, Nicholas Collon, Alice Farnham, Andrew Gourlay, Holly Mathieson and Michael Seal, who returns for the orchestra’s next concert in March.

KSO regularly performs at Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, Cadogan Hall and St John’s Smith Square, and makes its debut at Croydon’s Fairfield Halls in May. The orchestra celebrated its 60th anniversary with a gala concert at the Barbican Centre in May 2017.

world première of Stephen Montague’s From the Ether, commissioned by St John’s Smith Square to mark its 300th anniversary.

During the 2014/15 season, the orchestra was part of Making Music’s Adopt a Composer scheme, collaborating with Seán Doherty on his work Hive Mind (2015). Matthew Taylor’s Symphony No.4 (2015-16) was written for the orchestra, as was Chris Long’s The Pale Blue Dot (2019).

In April 2018, KSO returned to the Westfield London shopping centre for the orchestra’s 16th “sponsored play” event, raising more than £21,000 for War Child and the Kensington & Chelsea Foundation’s Grenfell Tower Fund. The orchestra also supports the music programme at Pimlico Academy.

This reflects the orchestra’s long history of charitable activities: KSO’s first concert was given in aid of the Hungarian Relief Fund, and it has developed links with the Kampala Symphony Orchestra and Music School under its KSO2 programme, providing training, fundraising and instruments.

The reputation of the orchestra is reflected in the quality of international artists who regularly appear with KSO. In recent seasons, soloists have included Nikolai Demidenko, Sir John Tomlinson, Yvonne Howard, Katherine Watson, Matthew Trusler, Fenella Humphreys and Richard Watkins, in addition to up-and-coming artists such as the pianist Martin James Bartlett, the 2014 BBC Young Musician of the Year, and the Young Classical Artists Trust musicians Alexander Ullman and Richard Uttley.

‘KSO once again scores over most professional orchestras’Classical Source

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The orchestra at Cadogan Hall in 2017. KSO also performs at the Barbican Centre, Fairfield Halls in Croydon and St John’s Smith Square

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JANUARY 2020 15

PATRONS Sue and Ron Astles Kate Bonner Sim Canetty-ClarkeCWA International Ltd John and Claire Dovey Bob and Anne Drennan Malcolm and Christine DunmowNick Marchant Jolyon and Claire Maugham David and Mary Ellen McEuenJohn and Elizabeth McNaughton Linda and Jack Pievsky Neil Ritson and family Kim Strauss-Polman Keith Waye

PREMIUM FRIENDS David Baxendale Dr Michele Clement and Dr Stephanie Munn John Dale Alastair Fraser Michael and Caroline Illingworth Maureen Keable Jeremy MarchantBelinda Murray Margot RaybouldJeff and Deborah ReganRichard and Jane Robinson

FRIENDS Anne Baxendale Robert and Hilary Bruce Yvonne and Graeme Burhop George FriendJim and Gill Hickman David JonesRufus Rottenberg Jane SheltonPaul SheehanFabian Watkinson Alan Williams

FRIENDS’ SCHEMESUPPORT US

Choose from three levels of membership with special benefits when you join our Friends’ Scheme

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SUPPORT KSO by joining our Friends’ Scheme. There are three levels of membership for 2019/20.

JOIN OUR FRIENDS’ SCHEME

Become a member today

SEE YOUR NAME listed in our concert programmes as a Friend, Premium Friend or Patron, under single or joint names.

CORPORATE SPONSORSHIPS are available on request for companies and groups, tailored to your needs.

HOW TO JOIN To join the Friends’ Scheme, contact David Baxendale by calling 020 8650 0393 or by emailing friends@kso.org.uk.

FRIEND £65Unlimited concert tickets at concessionary rates, priority booking and free interval drinks and concert programmes.

PREMIUM FRIEND £135One free ticket for each concert, unlimited guest tickets at concessionary rates, priority booking and free interval drinks and concert programmes.

PATRON £235Two free tickets for each concert, unlimited guest tickets at concessionary rates, priority booking and free interval drinks and concert programmes.

16 KENSINGTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

SPONSOR OR DONATESUPPORT US

YOU, OUR AUDIENCE, can really help us through sponsorship. Anyone can be a sponsor, and any level of support – from corporate sponsorship of a concert or soloist to individual backing of the orchestra – is enormously valuable to us.

We offer a variety of benefits to sponsors, tailored to their needs, such as programme and website advertising, guest tickets and assistance with entertaining.

As a charity, KSO is able to claim Gift Aid on any donations made to the orchestra. Donating through Gift Aid means that KSO can claim an extra 25p for every £1

you give, at no extra cost to you. Your donations will qualify as long as they are not more than four times what you have paid in tax in that financial year.

TO SPONSOR KSO, or to find out more, call David Baxendale on 020 8650 0393, email sponsorship@kso.org.uk or speak to any member of the orchestra.

TO MAKE A DONATION, or to find out more about Gift Aid, email the treasurer at subs@kso.org.uk. Support us by sponsoring a concert

SPONSORSHIP AND DONATIONS

Make a difference to KSO

LEGACIES LEFT to qualifying charities, such as KSO, are exempt from inheritance tax. In addition, if you leave more than 10% of your estate to charity, the tax due on the rest of your estate may be reduced from 40% to 36%.

Legacies can be left for fixed amounts (specific or pecuniary bequests) as either cash or shares, but a common way to ensure that your loved ones are provided for is to make a residuary bequest, in which the remainder of your estate is distributed to one or more charities of your choice after specific bequests to your family and friends have been met.

Legacies, along with conventional donations to KSO’s Endowment Trust,

enable us to plan for the next decades of the orchestra’s development.

If you include a bequest to KSO in your will, please tell us that you have done so; we can then keep you up to date and, if you choose, we can also recognise your support. Any information you give us will be treated in the strictest confidence, and does not form a binding commitment of any kind.

TO LEAVE A LEGACY or to find out more, speak to your solicitor or contact Neil Ritson, the chair of KSO’s Endowment Trust, on 020 7723 5490 or neil.ritson@kso.org.uk.

LEAVING A LEGACY

Support the next generation

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Help KSO by remembering us in your will

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JANUARY 2020 17

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18 KENSINGTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

THE ORCHESTRATONIGHT’S PERFORMERS

FIRST VIOLIN

Alan Tuckwood

David Pievsky

Helen Stanley

Erica Jeal

Ria Hopkinson

Helen Turnell

Claire Dovey

Heather Bingham

Darin Qualls

Adrian Gordon

Bronwen Fisher

Sam Blade

Matthew Hickman

Susan Knight

SECOND VIOLIN

Robert Chatley

Juliette Barker

Francoise Robinson

Sarah Hackett

Judith Ní Bhreasláin

Eglantine Grego

Kathleen Rule

David Nagle

Rufus Rottenberg

Jill Ives

Liz Errington

Elizabeth Bell

VIOLA

Beccy Spencer

Andrew McPherson

Sonya Brazier

Guy Raybould

Hattie Rayfi eld

Daniela Dores

Phil Cooper

Luke Waterfi eld

Jeremy Lambert

Nick Macrae

Sally Randall

Alison Nethsingha

CELLO

Joseph Spooner

Natasha Briant

Vanessa Hadley

David Baxendale

Jessica Quarmby

Hannah Reid

Becca Walker

Kim Polman

Rosi Callery

Annie Marr-Johnson

Alex Breedon

Natasha Foster

DOUBLE BASS

Steph Fleming

Andrew Neal

Sam Wise

Philip Austin

Oliver Bates

FLUTE

Christopher Wyatt

Kerenza Allin-Garner

PICCOLO

Kerenza Allin-Garner

Christopher Wyatt

OBOE

Charles Brenan

Chris Astles

COR ANGLAIS

Chris Astles

CLARINET

Chris Horril

Graham Elliott

BASS CLARINET

Graham Elliott

BASSOON

John Wingfi eld-Hill

Sheila Wallace

CONTRABASSOON

Sheila Wallace

FRENCH HORN

Jon Boswell

Heather Pawson

Andrew Humphreys

Andy Feist

TRUMPET

Stephen Willcox

John Hackett

Anna Hughes

TROMBONES

Phil Cambridge

Ken McGregor

BASS TROMBONE

Stefan Terry

TUBA

Neil Wharmby

TIMPANI

Tommy Pearson

PERCUSSION

Tim Alden

Catherine Hockings

Simon Willcox

HARP

Tomos Xerri

PIANO & CELESTE

Richard Leach

MUSIC DIRECTORRussell Keable

TRUSTEESChris AstlesDavid BaxendaleElizabeth BellSam BladeJon BoswellRosi CalleryJohn DoveySabina NielsenHeather PawsonNick Rampley

ENDOWMENT TRUSTRobert DrennanGraham ElliottJudith Ní BhreasláinNick RampleyNeil Ritson

EVENTSChris AstlesJudith Ní BhreasláinSabina NielsenBeccy Spencer

LIBRARIANCatherine Abrams

MEMBERSHIPJuliette BarkerDavid BaxendaleAndrew Neal

MARKETINGJeremy BradshawRia HopkinsonJo JohnsonAndrew NealGuy Raybould

PROGRAMMESRia Hopkinson

CONTACT US:

KENSINGTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRARussell Keable Conductor

JANUARY 2020 19

GET TO KNOW KSONOTICEBOARD

MEET THE ORCHESTRA KSO’S LEADER

NAME: Alan Tuckwood

OCCUPATION: Group director of digital services, Mid and South Essex University Hospitals

INSTRUMENT: Violin (leader)

YEARS WITH KSO: 24

FAVOURITE KSO CONCERT: Apart from performing Brahms’s Double Concerto with principal cello Joseph Spooner at Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, way back in January 1997, I’d have to go for a concert at St John’s Smith Square in May 2016 – Janáček’s Suite “From the House of the Dead”, which has virtuosic violin solos running throughout, Judith Weir’s Natural History and Martinů’s Symphony No.5.

FANTASY PROGRAMME: Richard Strauss’s Also Sprach Zarathustra and Josef Suk’s Asrael Symphony, which I saw performed by the Berlin Philharmonic with Kirill Petrenko at the Philharmonie earlier this month. It’s a work of superhuman energy, composed in tribute to the memory of Suk’s wife, Otylka, and his father-in-law, Antonín Dvořák. I’ve chosen these pieces because there are amazing violin solos in both works!

WANTED: DOUBLE BASSES

Are you a double-bass player looking for high-standard orchestral playing in London for the 2019/20 season? Then we’re looking for you… GET IN TOUCH: Email our principal bass, Steph Fleming, at bass.fixer@kso.org.uk

KSO @KensingtonSO • Jan 4We’re very excited to be joined by @TsoySamson for Brahms’s Second Piano Concerto at QEH @southbankcentre on 23 January. Born in Kazakhstan, Samson has been described as “the most promising” by @MusicMagazine

Follow us on Twitter @KensingtonSO

KSO RetweetedKenneth Woods @kennethwoods • Jan 4Replying to @VatDaddy @KensingtonSO What a wonderful programme. Russell and KSO do such brave and interesting programmes. Love @jamesmacm’s music through and through. I’m recording Matthew Taylor’s Fourth Symphony – which was, of course, written for KSO – with @BBCNOW next week. It’s a super piece.

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KSO RetweetedBrendan Thorpe @brendanthorpe • 26 Nov 2019@KensingtonSO Great performance tonight. Excellent programming! #KSO #Weber #Hindemith #Beethoven #StJohnsSmithSquare

DID YOU KNOW?

Leonard Bernstein loved conducting amid the superb acoustics of Croydon’s newly refurbished Fairfield Halls Phoenix Concert Hall. Don’t miss KSO’s debut there in May! BOOK NOW: Visit kso.org.uk

64TH SEASON2019/20

BOOK TICKETS & FIND OUT MORE:

FAIRFIELD HALLS PHOENIX CONCERT HALL, CROYDONSUNDAY 3 MAY, 7PM

MAHLERSYMPHONY NO.3Soloist: Helen CharlstonChorus: Epiphoni ConsortChoirs: Coloma Convent Girls’ School Croydon High School Wallington High School for Girls Wilson’s School, Wallington

PHOTO: © SIM CANETTY-CLARKE