Britten Sinfonia
birthday concert
Saturday 27 October 2012 7.30pm
Barbican Hall
Henry Purcell Hear my prayer, O Lord, Z15
Nico Muhly Looking Forward world premiere
J. S. Bach Concerto for two violins in D minor
Benjamin Britten Les illuminations
James MacMillan One London premiere
Harry Rankin
Sergey Prokofiev Symphony No. 1, ‘Classical’
Interval: 30 minutes
Pekka Kuusisto OMG HBD
J. S. Bach Keyboard Concerto No. 5 in F minor
Moondog, arr. MacGregor Sidewalk Dances
Britten Sinfonia
Britten Sinfonia Voices
Kuljit Bhamra tabla
Thomas Gould violin/director
Tom Herbert double bass
Alina Ibragimova violin
Pekka Kuusisto violin/director
Joanna MacGregor piano/director
Mark Padmore tenor
Seb Rochford drums
Jacqueline Shave violin/director
Andy Sheppard saxophones
Eamonn Dougan choral director
Club Stage
Produced by Britten Sinfonia
in association with the Barbican
1
The City of London
Corporation
is the founder and
principal funder of
the Barbican Centre
Join Kuljit Bhamra, Jacqueline Shave and Caroline
Dearnley for an informal post-concert performance
Britten Sinfonia:
Associate Ensemble at the Barbican
A very warm welcome to tonight’s
performance, which marks a double
celebration for the orchestra.
First, this concert is our debut
performance as the Barbican’s new
Associate Ensemble, and we are
both proud and excited that we can
now call this dynamic arts centre our
London home. The Barbican’s wideranging arts programmes sit well
with our own broad artistic outlook
and it’s thrilling to be presenting such
a range of projects in our first season
here. Among the collaborators
joining us will be Ian Bostridge
singing new orchestral arrangements
of Schubert, Alina Ibragimova
directing Bach and Pēteris Vasks, and
Angela Hewitt directing Beethoven.
We’ll also be performing Max
Richter’s reworking of Vivaldi, Philip
Glass’s iconic Koyaanisqatsi and
Oliver Knussen’s magical operas
based on Maurice Sendak’s books
in a spectacular multimedia staging
by director Netia Jones. Many
other mouthwatering projects are
planned, and our partnership with
the Barbican’s Head of Music,
Angela Dixon, and her brilliant
team promises to be one of limitless
possibilities.
Second, tonight also marks Britten
Sinfonia’s 20th birthday. I’ve had
the extraordinary privilege of being
involved with the orchestra since its
formation, and what a thrilling and
exciting journey it has been. Central
to the success of Britten Sinfonia
are the musicians themselves,
whose commitment and inspiration
have continued to drive the
orchestra forward.
Of course it’s impossible to
encapsulate all the facets of the
ensemble in a single concert
but tonight we’re celebrating by
journeying through 400 years of
fabulous music, in which some of
our wonderful players – Jacqueline
Shave and Thomas Gould to
name but two – feature alongside
some of our closest collaborators,
including Alina Ibragimova, Pekka
Kuusisto, Mark Padmore, Joanna
MacGregor and Andy Sheppard.
We’re thrilled, too, that composers
James MacMillan and Nico Muhly
have generously written birthday
pieces for the orchestra and are
able to join us tonight.
Crucially, we are also looking to
the future with a new commission
from the young composer Alissa
Firsova for our newly formed
youth ensemble, Britten Sinfonia
Academy, which some of you may
have heard in the Foyer before
Barbican Classical Music Podcast
Ahead of Britten Sinfonia’s first season as
Associate Ensemble at the Barbican, artists
and key members of the group speak to
Marcus O’Dair and Ben Eshmade about their
plans for the coming year.
Subscribe to our podcast now for more exclusive interviews
with some of the world’s greatest classical artists.
2
Available on iTunes, Soundcloud and the Barbican website.
this concert. None of these players
was even born when the orchestra
was formed in 1992, but you would
do well to remember their names,
as some of them, I suspect, will be
playing with Britten Sinfonia’s main
orchestra at our 30th-birthday
celebrations!
Finally, on behalf of the musicians,
board and staff of Britten Sinfonia I
would like to say a huge thank you
to our loyal funders (in particular
Arts Council England) and to
you, our audience. Whether as
long-term supporters or perhaps
new to the orchestra tonight, it
is you who make our enterprise
and endeavour so fulfilling and
worthwhile, and it is you, we hope,
who will carry us forward as we
continue our musical adventure
– now in partnership with the
Barbican.
Exciting times indeed. Enjoy the
concert, and do join the musicians
in the bar afterwards where you
can also hear Jacqueline Shave
and Kuljit Bhamra performing on
the Club Stage.
David Butcher
Chief Executive
Hear my prayer, O Lord, Z15 (c1682)
Britten Sinfonia Voices
In a composing career that lasted
less than 20 years, Purcell wrote
over 500 works encompassing
virtually every musical form, many of
which were never published during
his lifetime. It’s extraordinary to think
that the wealth of works we enjoy
today may represent only a fraction
of what he composed. Much of
Purcell’s music was written for oneoff performances or celebratory
occasions, composed during his
various tenures as the teenage
composer at the court of Charles II,
organist of the Chapel Royal and
Keeper of the King’s Instruments.
It is perhaps as a vocal composer
that Purcell is most highly regarded
today and he probably began
his career writing songs. His early
collections feature two quite distinct
styles: a series of dance-like songs
which use strophic text-setting and
a set of declamatory works that
centre around more serious texts
and are altogether more poetic in
style. Though they showed promise,
these works were nothing out of
the ordinary and it was some
years before Purcell began to
develop his unique and elegant
vocal style. It was during his time
at Westminster Abbey, where he
was appointed organist at the
age of 20, that his vocal writing
really began to blossom. Here,
he turned his attention to sacred
music, writing many of his greatest
anthems for use in the Abbey. They
vary dramatically in style and in the
forces they require, depending on
the circumstances for which they
were originally intended. Some
are intimate pieces suited to semiprivate devotions, while others are
far grander, befitting their use at
state occasions.
It is not clear for what purpose
the anthem Hear my prayer was
written, though it appears to have
been composed between 1680 and
1682, so it could well have been
intended for the Abbey. Its use is
further complicated by the fact that
it is incomplete: the double lines at
the end of the manuscript indicate
that another section is to follow, and
the omission of the final flourish that
Purcell routinely added to mark the
end of a piece suggests that this
is just the opening movement of a
larger anthem. As the last item in
the autograph manuscript, followed
by a number of blank pages, it is
equally possible that the rest of
the larger work exists in another
collection of manuscripts, now lost
or destroyed.
Even as a fragment, however,
Hear my prayer is one of the finest
examples of anthem writing in
Purcell’s oeuvre, conceived as a
stunning and extended workingout of a single imitative phrase
that builds to an eight-part climax.
Unlike most of Purcell’s anthems
(and perhaps because it is
incomplete), Hear my prayer does
not alternate imitative antiphonal
Programme note
Henry Purcell (1659–95)
exchanges with the rich vocal
textures of the full choir. Instead,
the intricate interweavings of the
individual lines lend the work an
intimacy and sensitivity in keeping
with its melancholic text. Setting
the first verse of Psalm 102, Purcell
uses the simplest of means to create
a powerful effect. The opening
line uses just two notes, a minor
third apart, to evoke a sense of
plaintive, chant-like devotion, while
the anguished chromaticism on
‘crying’ in the following line injects
a new layer of melancholy. Purcell’s
greatest triumph, however, is the
impassioned crescendo that he
builds through these two simple
motifs over the next 34 bars, to
reach a powerful discordant climax
on ‘come’ in the final bars of the
anthem. This towering moment of
dissonance, and its subsequent
resolution, remains one of the most
haunting moments in the English
church music repertoire.
Programme note © Jo Kirkbride
Text
Hear my prayer, O Lord:
and let my crying come unto thee.
Psalm 102: 1
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Nico Muhly (born 1981)
Looking Forward (2012) world premiere
Britten Sinfonia Voices
Britten Sinfonia
Thomas Gould leader/director
Looking Forward was written for
the 20th anniversary of Britten
Sinfonia. At the ensemble’s request,
it dovetails with Henry Purcell’s
setting of Psalm 102, Hear my
prayer. I have chosen fragments
from the same psalm to set in a
harmonic landscape that alternates
between drone-based diatonicism
and more confusing chromaticism,
stolen from Purcell’s keening and
twisted vocal lines. Towards the
end, fragments of the Purcell begin
to peek through the texture and
the piece ends with an ambiguous,
shimmering drone.
Programme note © Nico Muhly
Text
Hear my prayer, O Lord:
and let my crying come unto thee
For I have eaten ashes like bread,
and mingled my drink with weeping,
because of thine indignation and
thy wrath:
for thou hast lifted me up, and cast
me down.
My days are like a shadow that
declineth;
and I am withered like grass.
But thou, O Lord, shall endure for
ever;
But thou art the same,
and thy years shall have no end.
Psalm 102: 1, 9–12, 27
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750)
Concerto for two violins, strings and continuo
in D minor, BWV1043 (c1723)
1 Vivace • 2 Largo ma non tanto • 3 Allegro
4
Britten Sinfonia
Alina Ibragimova violin
Pekka Kuusisto violin
In 1717 Bach was appointed
Kapellmeister to Prince Leopold at
the court of Cöthen, his penultimate
job before taking up the position at
Leipzig where he remained for the
rest of his life. He spent six years at
Cöthen, during which time he struck
up a cordial friendship with the
Prince, who was young, enthusiastic
and a great lover of instrumental
music. Although the Prince was
appreciative of Bach’s work and
gave him a great deal of latitude
in what he chose to compose,
the nature of the job and the
preferences of his patron meant that
almost all the music Bach composed
during his years at Cöthen was both
instrumental and secular. There
was no organ at the court, nor any
choral tradition in the town itself,
and the Prince subscribed to the
Calvinist belief that no instrumental
music should be performed in the
town’s churches.
Fortunately, Bach had a group
of around 18 very competent
musicians at his disposal and he
was given free rein to make the
most of their talents. As a result,
many of Bach’s most important
instrumental works date from this
Programme note
period, including (almost certainly)
his six Brandenburg Concertos,
the Sonatas and Partitas for solo
violin, the Orchestral Suites and
the six Cello Suites. Bach often
joined in with their performances,
playing viola, violin or keyboard as
required; C. P. E. Bach later said of
his father’s abilities: ‘In his youth,
and until the approach of old
age, he played the violin clearly
and penetratingly. He understood
the capabilities of the string
instruments perfectly.’
His understanding of the violin led
him to write a number of concertos
for the instrument, although today
only two survive complete and in
their original forms. In addition to
the two solo concertos (BWV1041
and 1042), he also wrote a
Concerto for oboe and violin in
D minor (BWV1060) and the
Double Concerto for two violins,
also in D minor. Like many of
Bach’s works, the Double Concerto
was later adapted for another set
of instruments (a process known as
‘parody’), and forms the basis of
his Concerto for two harpsichords
in C minor (BWV1062). In fact,
some scholars have long suspected
that all eight of Bach’s harpsichord
concertos may have originated as
works for other instruments.
Unlike the concertos of subsequent
generations, in which independent
virtuoso soloists are ‘accompanied’
by an orchestra, Bach’s concertos
are part of the Baroque tradition
and are essentially orchestral
works in which leading players are
called upon to play extended solo
passages. The Double Concerto
aptly demonstrates this, opening
with a jubilant orchestral introduction
that sets the tone for a colourful and
inventive work. The two solo violins
emerge almost seamlessly from the
orchestral texture, with imitative lines
that weave in and out of each other,
punctuated now and then by the
ripieno (full orchestra). The poignant
central Largo, meanwhile, seems to
spin out a single long, languorous
line of music, the soloists gliding
effortlessly above the orchestral
texture. The finale offers a dazzling
array of orchestral colours and
swirling textures which celebrate
Bach’s mastery of the concerto form.
We are fortunate that this work
survives at all: when Bach died, his
manuscripts were divided between
his sons Wilhelm Friedemann and
Carl Philipp Emanuel, but those
under the care of the former were
unfortunately lost. Thankfully, C. P. E.
Bach was more responsible and the
manuscripts eventually found their
way to the State Library of Berlin.
Programme note © Jo Kirkbride
Benjamin Britten (1913–76)
Les illuminations, Op. 18 (1939)
1 Fanfare • 2 Villes • 3a Phrase • 3b Antique • 4 Royauté • 5 Marine • 6 Interlude
7 Being Beauteous • 8 Parade • 9 Départ
Britten Sinfonia
Mark Padmore tenor
Pekka Kuusisto violin/director
composing career, it seems the
seeds of travel had also been
sown in Britten’s own mind. With
some critics suggesting that he
had recently been giving in to the
lure of popularity, Britten seems
to have craved some respite and
the chance to do some intensive
thinking – having listened to the
advice of those who suggested he
begin ‘to settle down again and to
start writing music as good as his
earliest works’.
In 1939, Britten and Pears followed
W. H. Auden to the USA. After a
brief stay in Canada, which Britten
described as ‘extraordinary … there
5
When Peter Pears, Britten’s partner
and musical muse, embarked on a
tour of America in October 1937,
Britten wrote to him, ‘I envy you
… in fact I must go myself before
too long’. Despite his apparent
dismay that his teacher Frank
Bridge should have had to go
abroad to pursue a successful
is terrific energy and vitality’, the
pair moved into an apartment in
Brooklyn. The flat proved both an
inspiration and a distraction, with
the constant flow of people (mostly
artists and musicians) providing an
extremely fertile environment but
making sustained concentration
virtually impossible. After a few
months the pair were forced to
move, relocating to a house in
Long Island where Britten found
his much-needed repose. It was
here that his American composition
marathon began in earnest.
6
Although Britten completed six
major scores during his two-year
stay in America, the inspiration
for Les illuminations arose before
he had even left England. In 1938
Britten excitedly related to the
singer Sophie Wyss that he had just
read the most wonderful poetry
by Rimbaud and was eager to set
it to music. The work was to be an
orchestral song-cycle in the manner
of Our Hunting Fathers, and
would be based on the collection
of prose poems of the same title,
although ‘Villes’ and ‘Départ’
use only a fraction of Rimbaud’s
originals. Britten completed the
work in October 1939 and it was
premiered the following January
at the Aeolian Hall in London,
with Wyss as the soloist. It quickly
became the preserve of tenors,
too, with Pears first performing it
in 1941.
The work opens with the bright
‘Fanfare’, introducing the soloist
who intones the movement’s
refrain: ‘J’ai seul la clef de cette
parade sauvage’ (‘I alone have
the key to this savage parade’),
although it closes somewhat more
sombrely than it began. In ‘Villes’
Rimbaud describes the excitement
and bustle of the city at night, with
the strings evoking the savage
dances and the roaring of the
trees – Britten believed Rimbaud
had London in mind, although it
is equally likely that the composer
drew his inspiration from his own
time in New York. The protagonist,
who wishes to withdraw to a world
of sleep, gradually leads the music
into the ethereal calm of ‘Phrase’,
where bell-like harmonics and
soft, shimmering textures evoke
the quieter side of night. ‘Antique’
is a gentle dance in which the
simple melody revolves almost
entirely around arpeggios of a
major chord, accompanied by
strummed cellos and violas to give
the impression of a guitar. These
childlike qualities are used to evoke
the son of Pan, whose beauty the
protagonist is admiring.
The mock-pomp of ‘Royauté’,
which tells of a loving couple who
wish to be king and queen, and
the exuberance of the seascape
that follows in ‘Marine’ make
a strong contrast to the return
of the opening refrain in the
‘Interlude’. Here the tone once
more becomes sombre, a reaction
against, so Britten told Wyss, ‘the
exaggeratedly ecstatic mood of
“Marine”’. This leads into the
longest song of the cycle, ‘Being
Beauteous’, whose symbolic text is
set to highly evocative, passionate
music, full of yearning melodies
and tremulous climaxes; Britten
dedicated this movement to Peter
Pears. ‘Parade’, by contrast,
is aggressive and anxious,
describing the ‘robust rogues …
Eyes dulled like a summer night’
and culminating in a series of
vivid, emphatic cadences. Finally,
‘Départ’ brings the cycle to a quiet
close, reminding us of the hushed
interiority heard at the outset.
Programme note © Jo Kirkbride
Texts
1 Fanfare
J’ai seul la clef de cette parade sauvage.
1 Fanfare
I alone have the key to this savage parade.
2 Villes
Ce sont des villes! C’est un peuple pour qui se sont
montés ces Alleghanys et ces Libans de rêve! Des
chalets de cristal et de bois se meuvent sur des rails
et des poulies invisibles. Les vieux cratères ceints
de colosses et de palmiers de cuivre rugissent
mélodieusement dans les feux … Des cortèges de
Mabs en robes rousses, opalines, montent des ravines.
Là-haut, les pieds dans la cascade et les ronces, les
cerfs tètent Diane. Les Bacchantes des banlieues
sanglotent et la lune brûle et hurle. Vénus entre dans
les cavernes des forgerons et des ermites. Des groupes
de beffrois chantent les idées des peuples. Des
châteaux bâtis en os sort la musique inconnue … Le
paradis des orages s’effondre. Les sauvages dansent
sans cesse la fête de la nuit …
Towns
These are towns! This is a people for whom these
dreamlike Alleghanies and Lebanons arose. Chalets of
crystal and wood move on invisible rails and pulleys.
The old craters, girdled with colossi and copper palm
trees, roar melodiously in the fires … Processions
of Mabs in russet and opaline dresses climb from
the ravines. Up there, their feet in the waterfall and
the brambles, the stags suckle Diana. Suburban
Bacchantes sob and the moon burns and howls. Venus
enters the caves of the blacksmiths and the hermits.
From groups of bell-towers the ideas of peoples sing
out. From castles of bone the unknown music sounds …
The paradise of storms collapses. The savages dance
ceaselessly the festival of the night …
Quel bons bras, quelle belle heure me rendront cette
région d’où viennent mes sommeils et mes moindres
mouvements?
What kind arms, what fine hour will give me back this
country from which come my slumbers and my smallest
movements?
3a Phrase
J’ai tendu des cordes de clocher à clocher; des
guirlandes de fenêtre à fenêtre; des chaînes d’or
d’étoile à étoile, et je danse.
Sentence
I have stretched ropes from steeple to steeple;
garlands from window to window; golden chains from
star to star, and I dance.
3b Antique
Gracieux fils de Pan! Autour de ton front couronné de
fleurettes et de baies, tes yeux, des boules précieuses,
remuent. Tachées de lies brunes, tes joues se creusent.
Tes crocs luisent. Ta poitrine ressemble à une cithare,
des tintements circulent dans tes bras blonds. Ton
coeur bat dans ce ventre où dort le double sexe.
Promène-toi, la nuit, en mouvant doucement cette
cuisse, cette seconde cuisse et cette jambe de gauche.
Antique
Graceful son of Pan! About your brow crowned with
small flowers and berries move your eyes, precious
spheres. Stained with brown dregs, your cheeks grow
gaunt. Your fangs glisten. Your breast is like a cithara,
tinglings circulate in your blond arms. Your heart beats
in this belly where sleeps the dual sex. Walk, at night,
gently moving this thigh, this second thigh, and this
left leg.
4 Royauté
Un beau matin, chez un peuple fort doux, un homme
et une femme superbes criaient sur la place publique:
‘Mes amis, je veux qu’elle soit reine!’ ‘Je veux être
reine!’ Elle riait et tremblait. Il parlait aux amis de
révélation, d’épreuve terminée. Ils se pâmaient l’un
contre l’autre.
Royalty
One fine morning, among a most gentle people, a
magnificent couple were shouting in the square: ‘My
friends, I want her to be queen!’ ‘I want to be queen!’
She was laughing and trembling. He spoke to friends
of revelation, of trial ended. They were swooning one
against the other.
En effet ils furent rois toute une matinée où les tentures
carminées se relevèrent sur les maisons, et toute
l’après-midi, où ils s’avancèrent du côté des jardins de
palmes.
As a matter of fact they were royal one whole morning,
when the crimson hangings were draped over the
houses, and all afternoon, when they progressed
towards the palm gardens.
7
Les illuminations
8
5 Marine
Les chars d’argent et de cuivre –
Les proues d’acier et d’argent –
Battent l’écume, –
Soulèvent les souches des ronces.
Les courants de la lande,
Et les ornières immenses du reflux,
Filent circulairement vers l’est,
Vers les piliers de la forêt,
Vers les fûts de la jetée,
Dont l’angle est heurté par des tourbillons de lumière.
Seascape
The chariots of silver and copper –
The prows of steel and silver –
Beat the foam –
Raise the bramble stumps.
The streams of the moorland
And the huge ruts of the ebb-tide
Flow eastward in circles
Towards the shafts of the forest,
Towards the columns of the pier
Whose corner is struck by eddies of light.
6 Interlude
J’ai seul la clef de cette parade sauvage.
Interlude
I alone have the key to the savage parade.
7 Being Beauteous
Devant une neige un Etre de Beauté de haute taille.
Des sifflements de mort et des cercles de musique
sourde font monter, s’élargir et trembler comme un
spectre ce corps adoré; des blessures écarlates et
noires éclatent dans les chaires superbes. Les couleurs
propres de la vie se foncent, dansent, et se dégagent
autour de la Vision, sur le chantier. Et les frissons
s’élèvent et grondent, et la saveur forcenée de ces
effets se chargeant avec les sifflements mortels et les
rauques musiques que le monde, loin derrière nous,
lance sur notre mère de beauté, – elle recule, elle se
dresse. Oh! nos os sont revêtus d’un nouveau corps
amoureux.
Being Beauteous
Against a snowfall a Being Beauteous, tall of stature.
Whistlings of death and circles of muffled music
make this adored body rise, swell and tremble like a
spectre; wounds, scarlet and black, break out in the
magnificent flesh. The true colours of life deepen,
dance and break off around the Vision, on the site.
And shivers rise and groan, and the frenzied flavour
of these effects, being heightened by the deathly
whistlings and the raucous music which the world,
far behind us, casts on our mother of beauty, – she
retreats, she rears up. Oh! our bones are reclothed by
a new, loving body.
O la face cendrée, l’écusson de crin, les bras de
cristal! Le canon sur lequel je dois m’abattre à travers
la mêlée des arbres et de l’air léger!
O the ashen face, the shield of hair, the crystal arms!
The cannon on which I must hurl myself through the
jumble of trees and buoyant air!
8 Parade
Des drôles très solides. Plusieurs ont exploité vos
mondes. Sans besoins, et peu pressés de mettre en
oeuvre leurs brillantes facultés et leur expérience
de vos consciences. Quels hommes mûrs! Des
yeux hébétés à la façon de la nuit d’été, rouges et
noirs, tricolores, d’acier piqué d’étoiles d’or; des
faciès déformés, plombés, blêmis, incendiés; des
enrouements folâtres! La démarche cruelle des
oripeaux! Il y a quelques jeunes …
Parade
Very robust rogues. Several have exploited your
worlds. Without needs, and in no hurry to set their
brilliant faculties and their experience of your
consciences to work. What mature men! Eyes dulled
like a summer night, red and black, tricoloured, like
steel spangled with gold stars; distorted features,
leaden, pallid, burned; their playful croakings! The
cruel bearing of tawdry finery! There are some young
ones …
O le plus violent Paradis de la grimace enragée! …
Chinois, Hottentots, bohémiens, niais, hyènes, Molochs,
vieilles démences, démons sinistres, ils mêlent les tours
populaires, maternels, avec les poses et les tendresses
bestiales. Ils interpréteraient des pièces nouvelles et
des chansons ‘bonnes filles’. Maîtres jongleurs, ils
transforment le lieu et les personnes et usent de la
comédie magnétique …
Oh the most violent Paradise of the furious grimace!
… Chinese, Hottentots, gypsies, simpletons, hyenas,
Molochs, old madnesses, sinister demons, they
mingle popular, motherly tricks with brutish poses
and caresses. They would interpret new plays and
‘respectable’ songs. Master jugglers, they transform
the place and the people and make use of magnetic
comedy …
J’ai seul la clef de cette parade sauvage.
I alone have the key to this savage parade.
Leaving
Seen enough. The vision was met with everywhere.
Had enough. Sounds of towns, in the evening, and in
sunlight, and always.
Known enough. The setbacks of life. O Sounds and
Visions!
Leaving amid new affection and new noise!
Arthur Rimbaud (1854–91)
Translation © George Hall
Texts/ Programme note
9 Départ
Assex vu. La vision s’est rencontrée à tous les airs.
Assez eu. Rumeurs des villes, le soir, et au soleil, et
toujours.
Assez connu. Les arrêts de la vie. O Romeurs et
Visions!
Départ dans l’affection et le bruit neufs!
James MacMillan (born 1959)
One (2012) London premiere
Britten Sinfonia
Jacqueline Shave violin/director
One is a monody for orchestra
where a single line is passed
around the instruments, which
paint it with different colours
as it emerges and develops. It
is inspired by my interest and
involvement in traditional song
from Scotland and Ireland. Lasting
just a few minutes, it only blossoms
into something other than its
singularity in the last few bars.
9
Programme note © James MacMillan
Sergey Prokofiev (1891–1953)
Symphony No. 1 in D major, Op. 25, ‘Classical’
(1916–17)
1 Allegro • 2 Larghetto • 3 Gavotta: Non troppo allegro • 4 Finale: Molto vivace
Britten Sinfonia
Jacqueline Shave violin/director
Prokofiev’s career as a composer
and pianist began at a very early
age, thanks to musical nurturing
from his adoring parents. By the
age of 5 he had already begun
composing and at 9 years old he
wrote his first opera – The Giant
– to be performed by his family.
By the time Prokofiev entered the
St Petersburg Conservatory at
the early age of 13, he already
had four operas, two sonatas,
one symphony and a variety of
piano works to his name. Yet,
alongside his growing recognition
as a musical prodigy, the young
Prokofiev also gained a reputation
as a stubborn, bad-tempered and
unfriendly individual – a view that
he did nothing to dispel. These
rumours became entangled with
the perception that his music, too,
was complicated and difficult to
comprehend, but again, Prokofiev
was only too happy to trade upon
his image as a musical renegade.
10
His personal reputation, however,
did little to limit Prokofiev’s success
as both a composer and pianist
during his time at the conservatory.
In 1914, his final year there, he was
awarded the Rubinstein Prize for his
performance of his own First Piano
Concerto, a work widely considered
to be the earliest example of his
mature compositional style. This
proved to be a turning point in
Prokofiev’s career and, after
leaving the conservatory, he
embarked on a trip to London,
where he was introduced to
Stravinsky and Diaghilev. The
years that followed brought a
wealth of new compositions and
Prokofiev’s music soon began to
gain international recognition. In
1917, inspired by his visit to London
and a new interest in the works
of Haydn, he composed his first
‘real’ symphony: the ‘Classical’.
This piece remains a defining work
in his oeuvre, and an outsanding
example of neo-Classicism, a style
that crossed genres, from music to
architecture. In music it is typically
characterised by works that revisit
particular aspects of earlier styles,
but its definition is often hotly
contested by those concerned.
Prokofiev, for example, is said
to have looked with distaste on
Stravinsky’s particular brand of neoClassicism, sarcastically dubbing
it ‘Bach on the wrong notes’. Yet
Prokofiev’s own attitude to the style
is far from nostalgic or retrospective:
while he deliberately seeks to
honour Haydn’s achievements
in his ‘Classical’ Symphony, he
combines a Haydnesque attitude
to form and orchestration with an
altogether more modern approach
to harmony. He gave the symphony
its ‘Classical’ title himself, remarking
that this was the manner in which
Haydn would have written, had he
lived in the 20th century. Lasting
less than 15 minutes, this vibrant
miniature is full of wit, energy and,
above all, elegance, breathing
new life into the traditional form
of the Classical symphony.
Programme note © Jo Kirkbride
INTERVAL: 30 minutes
Concerto No. 5 for keyboard, strings and
continuo in F minor, BWV1056 (c1738)
1 [Allegro] • 2 Largo • 3 Presto
Programme note
Johann Sebastian Bach
Britten Sinfonia
Joanna MacGregor piano/director
In particular, Bach began to take
great interest in Italian composers
and spent many hours studying
their compositional technique.
By transcribing the works of
Corelli, Vivaldi and Torelli for the
keyboard, he inducted himself
into the stylistic features of Italian
composition, learning how to write
dramatic openings, dynamic motorrhythms and decisive harmonic
schemes, as well as adopting their
‘sunny’ musical dispositions.
But his most important influence
in the realm of the concerto was,
unsurprisingly, Antonio Vivaldi,
whose works were described
by one commentator as ‘the
very embodiment of the new
Italianate concerto and of a new
language of instrumental music
for the whole of musical Europe’.
Vivaldi’s models, which established
the standard three-movement
concerto pattern (fast–slow–fast)
and introduced the ritornello
principle as a key component of
the form, provided Bach with an
indispensable prototype, which he
was then able to fuse with more
Germanic practices, moulding
the concerto in his own manner.
Vivaldi’s principles of alternation
of tutti and solo textures plus
daring harmonic inventiveness
were combined with the altogether
more Austro-Germanic formal
characteristics of rigour and
regularity. Bach also expanded
the central, slow movement of the
concerto to hitherto unwitnessed
proportions, doing away with the
short, intermezzo-like interludes
frequently found in Vivaldi’s
concertos and moving towards
a longer, more elaborate
structure more befitting of the
newly contemplative concerto
design. This change was just one
example of Bach’s shift away
from the Italianate characteristic
of unabashed virtuosity towards
an altogether more homogenous,
integrated formal practice.
The six harpsichord concertos
BWV1052–7, showcase the fruits
of his labours, drawing on his
years spent studying the Italian
models and combining this with
the experience of the intervening
years during which he had written
for other ensembles. He grouped
these concertos together to form
a self-contained set: as with other
sets of works by Bach, the score
is introduced by the letters ‘J. J.’
(‘Jesu juva’ – ‘Help me, Jesus’)
and concluded with ‘Finis. S. D.
Gl.’ (‘Soli deo gloria’ – ‘To God
alone the glory’). The set is also
unified by the fact that the works
are all transcriptions or adaptations
of pre-existing concertos.
The Concerto in F minor is
a transcription of a violin
concerto that has since been
lost and although considerable
ornamentation has been added
to the melodic line – particularly
in the slow movement – the
underlying melody is thought
to resemble closely the original
violin work. The work is packed
with rhythmic energy and virtuosic
phrases, suspended only briefly for
the central movement that offers
a soothing, lyrical respite to the
turbulence of the outer movements.
Programme note © Jo Kirkbride
11
Although Bach turned to orchestral
composition with renewed vigour
during the last 20 years of his
life, his grounding in the art of
instrumental works stemmed
from his years spent as Court
Organist and Concert Master
in Weimar from 1708 to 1717. It
was during these nine years at
the court that he was fully able
to explore his own musical ideas,
marking the start of a sustained
period of keyboard and orchestral
composition, in which he attained
both the technical proficiency
and confidence to extend the
prevailing large-scale structures
of the time and to synthesise these
with influences from abroad.
Louis ‘Moondog’ Hardin (1916–99)
Sidewalk Dances: 12 Moondog Pieces
(arr. MacGregor)
1 Single Foot • 2 Bumbo • 3 Sextet • 4 Dog Trot • 5 All is Loneliness & Voices of Spring
6 Rabbit Hop • 7 Invocation • 8 Reedroy • 9 Double Bass Duo • 10 Symphonique
No. 6 (Good for Goodie) • 11 Bird’s Lament • 12 Heath on the Heather
Britten Sinfonia
Joanna MacGregor piano/director
Andy Sheppard saxophones
Seb Rochford drums
Kuljit Bhamra tabla
Tom Herbert double bass/electric bass guitar
Junkies an flunkies line the
wind along side ban-thebomb demonstrators
Girls’re hustlin for dollars on
one side a the street an
Girls’re sittin down for their rights
on the other side a the street –
The new Premise’s playin
an Moondog’s beatin his
drum an sayin his lines –
Bob Dylan: ‘Hootenanny
Magazine’, December 1963
12
Born Louis Thomas Hardin in
Marysville, Kansas, Moondog was
a musician whose art meshed jazz,
Bach, Native American rhythms and
poetry. With a lifelong fascination
for the strict rules of canon-writing,
he composed over 80 symphonies,
300 rounds, countless percussion
pieces, organ and piano pieces,
scores for brass bands and string
orchestras, and five books called The
Art of the Canon – a not-so-oblique
homage to Bach’s The Art of Fugue.
His first profound musical experience
was at 5 years old: his preacher
father took him to the Arapaho
reservation, and Chief Yellow Calf
let him beat the big tomtom during
the Sundance ceremony. At 16 the
young Louis had a catastrophic
accident – a dynamite cap exploded
in his face – and he was sent to
Iowa School for the Blind, where he
studied harmony and counterpoint
in Braille. Adopting the name
Moondog (after his dog in Missouri,
who howled at the moon) he moved
to New York in 1943, where he lived
and performed on the streets –
mainly around 54th St, 6th Ave and
Broadway – for the next 30 years.
He began building his own
percussion instruments (with exotic
names like trimba, oo and tuji) and
could draw a crowd in minutes. A
formidable sight in an impressive
homemade Viking costume, he was
an underground beat poet Statue of
Liberty. It was during this time that
Moondog made his first recordings
– an EP for Epic, three albums for
Prestige and two for Columbia/
CBS, which would often combine
the sounds of nature and New York
city noise (such as the foghorns in
Tugboat Toccata), and experiment
in rudimentary overdubbing.
Although he chose to live rough
and save money to pay a copyist
to work on his scores, Moondog
was not entirely overlooked by the
music establishment; the conductor
Artur Rodzinski invited him to study
orchestration at Carnegie Hall
with the New York Philharmonic,
while Stravinsky appeared as a
character witness when Moondog
sued a New York DJ for stealing his
name. He did, however, steer well
clear of mainstream musical life,
cultivating a musical philosophy
and outlook that were demanding,
honest and totally engaging.
Moondog hung out with all the
jazzmen of 1950s New York – Dizzy
Gillespie, Duke Ellington, Charlie
Parker – and was hailed as one
of the fathers of Minimalism (a
soubriquet which he rejected, goodnaturedly). From 1974 until his death
he made his home near Cologne;
at heart he was a classicist, an antiatonalist, and a visionary purist
who thought Bach wasn’t as fussy
as he was, and said so (to great
uproar) on German television
while discussing The Art of Fugue.
I was privileged to see Moondog
perform in London in 1995. With his
long white hair, long robes, sightless
eyes and chiselled cheekbones, it
was as though God had climbed
out of a William Blake engraving
for the day. Many years later, I
made these arrangements for
Britten Sinfonia, trying to capture
Moondog’s fierce integrity. They’re
re-imaginings (some based on live
street recordings) for larger forces,
occasionally radically rewritten,
with open sections and new solo
lines – while always acknowledging
that Moondog’s pieces are
short and snappy, melodic and
joyful, and characterised by a
pounding beat. His maxim: ‘The
art of concealing art, maximum
effect but with minimum means’.
Programme note
2 Bumbo
My Bumbo, less Caribbean than
Tito’s Mambo? There’s a reason why.
Because my Bumbo’s in the form of
double two-part canons, by the by.
3 Sextet
A playful dance piece written for
the trimba and oo, reconstructed
from a 1956 street recording.
4 Dog Trot
Reconstructed from a New
York street recording from
1957; a dog trot moving past
Birdland and the Palladium.
5 All is Loneliness &
Voices of Spring
In 1968 ‘All is Loneliness’ was
recorded by Janis Joplin; the voice
here is Moondog’s, from a 1950s,
primitively overdubbed, recording.
It was the first round he ever wrote,
composed in 1951 ‘in a doorway
on 51st St between 7th Avenue and
Broadway’. In the next year he wrote
six dozen, all in fives or sevens,
published in small Madrigal Books.
Voices of Spring were in chorus,
each voice was singing a song.
I couldn’t sing in that chorus
until I wrote me a song.
I wrote my song, and
joined the throng.
6 Rabbit Hop
An outrageous, whelping, dustbin
lid-banging double canon.
7 Invocation
1988. A triple canon on a single
tone, low A. Moondog chose this
note because ‘it’s the same note
Buddhist monks chant. “Invocation”
is to help living people communicate
with ancestors, or ancestors to
communicate with the living.’
8 Reedroy
An extravagant soprano sax
solo originally written for John
Harle in 1995, with a series of
repeated chords (chaconne)
as accompaniment.
for a record of nursery rhymes for
actress Julie Andrews in 1957.)
10 Symphonique No. 6
(Good for Goodie)
Written in 1955 and dedicated to
Benny Goodman, a gleeful swing
tribute written in the form of a
ground over 17-part counterpoint
– but pure Minimalism.
11 Bird’s Lament
One of Moondog’s signature tunes
of the 1950s, written in memory
of Charlie Parker – and made
famous for a new generation
by the Mr Scruff remix.
12 Heath on the Heather
A magnificent, joyful 25-part canon
over a ground (heroically kept going
by piano, bass and drums). Its swing
rhythms and sheer rumbustiousness
disguise the ingenuity of this
composition, a technical feat
inspired by Renaissance models
of the 15th century. This is the
Moondog version, though.
Programme note ©
Joanna MacGregor
9 Double Bass Duo
Gentle, nursery rhyme-like duo,
in circular form. (Unlikely as it
sounds, Moondog provided music
13
1 Single Foot
Originally written for two organs
and percussion in the 1990s.
Moondog considered this to be
a ‘desert’ piece; the drumbeat
represents the hoofbeats of a
horse with a ‘single foot’ gait
and the piece is dedicated to
a horse owned by Bill Lucky, a
famous trapper and hunter.
About tonight’s
performers
has also spearheaded innovative
projects such as Bhangra Latina
and a new tabla notation system
which allows students to learn the
tabla without having to follow the
traditional Indian Guru teaching
system. His cutting-edge work earned
him an MBE in 2009 for services to
Bhangra and British Asian music.
Kuljit Bhamra tabla
Kuljit Bhamra is currently working
on a Bollywood Carmen for
the BBC and is releasing the
world’s first Bollywood comedy
Christmas CD next month, called
A Jolly Bolly Christmas.
One of the most inspiring
musicians on the British Asian
music scene, Kuljit Bhamra has
composed and produced over
2,000 songs and is responsible
for the rise to fame of numerous
Bhangra and Bollywood stars.
14
He has worked, both independently
and collaboratively, on film scores
for over 10 years, including the
soundtracks for the award-winning
Bhaji on the Beach, A Winter of
Love, Bend it Like Beckham, as
well as making appearances
on The Guru, The Four Feathers
and, more recently, Alexander,
Brick Lane, Charlie and The
Chocolate Factory and Jadoo.
Thomas Gould violin/director
He also worked on Andrew Lloyd
Webber’s hit musical Bombay
Dreams as onstage percussionist,
going on to write the Indian music
for the West End musical The Far
Pavilions. Other theatre productions
include Deranged Marriage, The
Lion of Punjab, Hansel and Gretel,
The Snow Queen, The Ramayana,
Laila Majnun and King Cotton.
British violinist Thomas Gould has
been described as ‘a soloist of
rare refinement’ by The Sunday
Times. This year’s highlights include
performances with the Royal
Philharmonic Concert Orchestra at
the Royal Albert Hall, the London
Concert Orchestra at Birmingham’s
Symphony Hall and the Los
Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra
at the Walt Disney Concert Hall.
He was the last Artistic Director of
the Society for the Promotion of
New Music before its merger and
subsequent renaming as Sound &
Music – the first British Asian to hold
this post in its 65-year history. He
In recent seasons he has appeared
as a soloist with major UK orchestras
including Aurora Orchestra, Bath
Philharmonia, Britten Sinfonia, City of
Birmingham Symphony Orchestra,
the Hallé, London Contemporary
Orchestra, Manchester Camerata,
Orchestra of Opera North, Orchestra
da Camera, Orchestra of the Swan
and sinfonia ViVA. International
engagements have included concerts
with the Australian Chamber
Orchestra, Zurich Camerata,
Kammerphilharmonie Graz, Kosovo
Philharmonic, McGill Chamber
Orchestra and Sinfonietta Riga.
Thomas Gould appears in recital
at venues including Wigmore
Hall, Kings Place and Southbank
Centre, and at festivals across
the UK (Aldeburgh, Bath, Buxton,
Plush, Presteigne, Prussia Cove,
Sounds New and Spitalfields) and
abroad (Ernen Musikdorf, Darwin,
Lanaudière, Malta Arts, Montreal
Bach, Nürnberg Kammermusik,
Spoleto and Verbier). He also
appears in Britten Sinfonia’s
lunchtime chamber music series at
the Wigmore Hall and as a guest
member of the Nash Ensemble. An
unusually versatile performer, he
is a member of swing band Man
Overboard and has performed at
jazz venues including Ronnie Scott’s,
Le QuecumBar and the Vortex.
Thomas Gould has given many
premieres of new repertoire
including Nico Muhly’s concerto
for electric violin Seeing is Believing
(recorded for Decca with Aurora
Orchestra and Nicholas Collon),
Christopher Ball’s Violin Concerto
(recorded for Omnibus Classics with
the Emerald Concert Orchestra),
Mark Bowden’s Lines written a few
miles below (a collaboration with
Rambert Dance Company) and
Joe Duddell’s All Stars Aligned.
He is leader of Aurora Orchestra
and Britten Sinfonia and works
as guest leader and director with
orchestras including the Academy
of St Martin in the Fields, City of
London Sinfonia, London Sinfonietta,
Manchester Camerata, Philharmonia
Thomas is an Associate of the Royal
Academy of Music and a former
YCAT artist. He plays a 1782 J. B.
Guadagnini violin and a six-string
electric violin made by John Jordan.
Born in Russia in 1985, Alina
Ibragimova studied at the Moscow
Gnessin School before moving
with her family to the UK in 1995
where she studied at the Yehudi
Menuhin School and Royal College
of Music, and was a member of
the Kronberg Academy Masters
programme. Her teachers have
included Natasha Boyarsky, Gordan
Nikolitch and Christian Tetzlaff.
She has been the recipient of
awards from the Royal Philharmonic
Society, Borletti-Buitoni Trust
and a Classical BRIT, and was a
member of the BBC Radio 3 New
Generation Artists scheme (2005–7).
She records for Hyperion and
her recording of Mendelssohn’s
violin concertos has recently been
released. She performs on an
Anselmo Bellosio violin of c1775,
kindly provided by Georg von Opel.
Alina Ibragimova violin
He is a member of the Mercury
Music Prize-nominated bands The
Invisible and Polar Bear and has
recently started performing and
recording in Moats & Thrones, a duo
with his wife, singer Alice Grant.
He has also performed and
recorded with a wide range of
musicians including Acoustic
Ladyland, Adele, John Legend,
King Sunny Ade, Paolo Nutini,
Paul Motian, Mulatu Astatke, Finn
Peters and Brigitte Fontaine.
When not performing and recording
Tom Herbert teaches bass at the
Royal Academy of Music and at
Goldsmiths, University of London.
As soloist/director she has toured
with the Kremerata Baltica,
Britten Sinfonia, Academy of
Ancient Music and the Australian
Chamber Orchestra.
With regular recital partner
Cédric Tiberghien and in solo and
chamber music she has appeared
at venues including the Wigmore
Hall, Concertgebouw, Mozarteum,
Musikverein, Carnegie Hall and
the Palais des Beaux Arts, in the
Vancouver Recital Series and
at festivals including Salzburg,
Verbier, MDR Musiksommer,
Pekka Kuusisto violin/director
Finnish violinist Pekka Kuusisto is
internationally renowned both
as soloist and director and is
recognised for his fresh approach
to the repertoire. Also a strong
advocate of new music, he regularly
collaborates with composers of
today and this season he gives
the world premiere of Sebastian
Fagerlund’s Violin Concerto, written
15
Tom Herbert was born in London
and studied jazz and classical
double bass at the Guildhall
School of Music & Drama.
Performing music from Baroque to
new commissions on both modern
and period instruments, Alina
Ibragimova has appeared with
orchestras including the London
and Seattle Symphony orchestras,
Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie
Bremen, Stuttgart Radio Symphony,
Hallé, Munich Chamber, Orchestra
of the Age of Enlightenment,
Konzerthausorchester Berlin,
Orchestre National du Capitole de
Toulouse, Philharmonia and all the
BBC orchestras. Conductors with
whom she has worked include Sir
Mark Elder, Rafael Frühbeck de
Burgos, Sir John Eliot Gardiner,
Edward Gardner, Valery Gergiev,
Philippe Herreweghe, Richard
Hickox, Paavo Järvi, Vladimir
Jurowski, Charles Mackerras, Yannick
Nézet-Séguin, Gianandrea Noseda,
Tugan Sokhiev and Osmo Vänskä.
Kaapo Kamu
Tom Herbert
double bass/ electric bass guitar
About tonight’s performers
Manchester International,
Lockenhaus and Aldeburgh.
Sussie Ahlburg
Orchestra and the Royal Liverpool
Philharmonic Orchestra.
for him and commissioned by the
Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra.
He also appears with Ottawa’s
NAC Orchestra, the National
Symphony Orchestra in Washington
DC and the Toronto Symphony
Orchestra and gives concerts with
the Swedish Chamber Orchestra,
Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra
and Konzerthausorchester Berlin.
at the Aldeburgh Festival and most
recently at the Concertgebouw’s
Robeco Zomerconcerten in 2012.
He has been Artistic Partner of the
Tapiola Sinfonietta since 2006 and
is also a member of the recently
formed string quartet, quartet-lab.
Pekka Kuusisto plays a Giovanni
Baptista Guadagnini violin
of 1752, kindly loaned by the
Finnish Cultural Foundation.
He collaborates with people across
the artistic spectrum, working on
new interpretations of existing
repertoire alongside original
pieces. He regularly directs from
the violin, working on projects with
ensembles such as the Australian,
London, Irish and St Paul Chamber
orchestras, as well as the Amsterdam
and Västerås sinfoniettas.
Based in Sibelius’s home town of
Järvenpää, ‘Our Festival’, of which
Pekka Kuusisto is Artistic Director,
provides another opportunity
to bring together a number of
art-forms on a single platform,
including a collaboration with
the juggler Jay Gilligan and a
performance of Sibelius’s Violin
Concerto alongside poems
and songs from Karelia.
16
He has enjoyed a number of
prestigious residencies, including
Pal Hansen
Recent highlights have included a
critically acclaimed international tour
with Britten Sinfonia, performing
Thomas Adès’s Violin Concerto
under the baton of the composer
and the world premiere in March
of Owen Pallett’s Violin Concerto,
again with Britten Sinfonia here at
the Barbican Centre. Last season
he performed with the Chamber
Orchestra of Europe, Deutsche
Kammerphilharmonie Bremen,
Oslo Philharmonic and Moscow
State Symphony orchestras.
Joanna MacGregor
piano/director
British pianist Joanna MacGregor is
known to audiences for her
commitment to expressing musical
connections through diverse and
original programming.
As a soloist she has appeared with
many of the world’s leading
orchestras, performing under such
renowned conductors as Pierre
Boulez, Sir Colin Davis, Valery
Gergiev, Sir Simon Rattle and
Michael Tilson Thomas. She has
also worked as a soloist/director
with the Royal Liverpool and Royal
Philharmonic orchestras,
Manchester Camerata and the
Hallé, and enjoys a close artistic
partnership with Britten Sinfonia.
Among the musicians with whom
she has collaborated are Brian Eno,
jazz artist Moses Molelekwa, pop
artist and tabla player Talvin Singh,
folk artist Kathryn Tickell, jazz
saxophonist Andy Sheppard,
Arabic singer and oud virtuoso
Dhafer Youssef and cultural
historian Marina Warner. She has
also premiered works by such
composers as John Adams, Django
Bates, Sir Harrison Birtwistle and
James MacMillan.
In 2010 she curated the multi-arts
Deloitte ‘Ignite’ Festival at the Royal
Opera House, Covent Garden, and
this year conducted Mozart’s The
Magic Flute in her final appearance
as Artistic Director of the Bath
Festival, a role she took up in 2006.
Other recent engagements have
included touring Bach’s ‘Goldberg’
Variations to Scotland and Norway,
her debut at the Mostly Mozart
Festival in New York and two
performances at the BBC Proms,
playing Hugh Wood’s Piano
Concerto and Messiaen’s
Turangalîla-Symphonie. This season
she curates the ‘Aventures’ series at
the Luxembourg Philharmonie, in
which she will also perform.
Her diverse discography of over 30
solo albums ranges from classical
to jazz and contemporary music
and includes the Mercury Prizenominated Play and Neural Circuits.
Joanna MacGregor is currently
Head of Piano Studies at London’s
Royal Academy of Music. Earlier
this year she was awarded an OBE
for services to music in the Queen’s
Jubilee Honours.
Mark Padmore tenor
Mark Padmore was born in London
and grew up in Canterbury. He
won a choral scholarship to King’s
College, Cambridge, and graduated
with an honours degree in music. He
has since established a flourishing
career in opera, concert and recital.
His performances of Bach’s Passions
have gained particular notice
throughout the world.
In concert he has performed
with many of the world’s leading
orchestras including the Berlin,
Vienna and New York Philharmonic
orchestras, the Philadelphia,
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra,
the BBC, Boston and London
Symphony orchestras and the OAE.
He has given recitals in Amsterdam,
Barcelona, Brussels, Madrid, Milan,
Moscow, New York Paris and Vienna.
Maike Zimmermann
In the opera house recent
appearances have included
the leading role in Sir Harrison
Birtwistle’s The Corridor, the
title-role in Stravinsky’s The Rake’s
Progress, Handel’s Jephtha and
the Evangelist in a staging of the St
Matthew Passion. He also played
Peter Quint in an acclaimed BBC
TV production of Britten’s The Turn
of the Screw. Plans include Captain
Vere in Billy Budd for the 2013
Glyndebourne Festival.
Mark Padmore’s award-winning
discography includes Bach’s
Passions and cantatas, Handel
arias, Haydn’s Masses and
oratorios, operas by Mozart,
Rameau and Charpentier, songs by
Britten, all three Schubert songcycles and Schumann’s Dichterliebe.
Seb Rochford drums
Seb Rochford is renowned as an
adventurous composer, songwriter,
producer and instrumentalist who,
with his multi-genre output and the
help of some key collaborators, has
turned British jazz on its head.
About tonight’s performers
A characteristic of his music is the
mixing of a jazz background with
modern electronic and pop/rock
influences, so it is no surprise that
his influences include Beethoven,
Daughters, Björk, Skepta, Burial,
Prince and contemporary
electronica as well as a large
dose of jazz. The CDs with his own
bands, as well as his contribution to
many others as a composer, player
or producer, attest to his particular
brand of inventiveness and his
ability to get the best out of a wide
spectrum of versatile musicians.
Through his bands, he has earned
the reputation of one of the most
creative musicians on the UK scene.
Polar Bear’s raw-boned, dramatic
music mixes jazz with an electronic
soundscape and a punk sensibility,
underpinned by break-beat
and rock rhythms, while Fulborn
Teversham witnesses the collision
of punky, funky melodic music with
deadpan vocals, cosmic electronica
and an eclectic mix of acoustic jazz,
alt rock and prog punk.
As well as enjoying a significant
UK career, Seb Rochford has a
growing international profile.
He has played and recorded
with a huge array of local and
international luminaries, including
Yoko Ono, Herbie Hancock,
Brian Eno, Squarepusher, David
Byrne, Bojan Z, Marc Ribot, Patti
Smith, Sean Lennon, Corinne
Bailey Rae, Adele, Hugh Hopper,
Babyshambles, Statik, Stan Tracey,
Fran Healey, Adrian Utley, Andy
Sheppard and Britten Sinfonia.
He recently released a critically
acclaimed album with Theremin
innovator Pamelia Kurstin: Ouch
Evil Slow Hop on Slowfoot Records.
Trio Libero’s debut album was
released earlier this year on ECM.
17
Marco Borggreve
He appears frequently at Wigmore
Hall in London where he first sang
all three Schubert song-cycles in
2008, repeating the cycles there with
Paul Lewis last season. Composers
who have written for him have
included Mark-Anthony Turnage,
Alec Roth, Sally Beamish, Thomas
Larcher and Huw Watkins. As well as
his regular collaborators Paul Lewis,
Till Fellner, Kristian Bezuidenhout,
Julius Drake, Roger Vignoles, Simon
Lepper and Andrew West, he works
with many internationally renowned
chamber musicians including Imogen
Cooper and Steven Isserlis.
In 2011 she took a year away to
explore other musical pathways,
and her own compositions, which
resulted in Postcards from Home, a
critically acclaimed world music/
jazz CD. She also presented and
led a complete Beethoven string
quartet cycle on the Hebridean
island of Harris.
She is presently working on a piece
for solo violin and recorded sound
of underwater ice from the
Antarctic. She plays on a Spanish
Contreras violin, from 1752.
Jacqueline Shave received her
formal training at the Royal
Academy of Music, but drew her
particular performance inspiration
and love of chamber music from
her time at the Britten–Pears School
in Snape. There she worked closely
with many great artists including the
Beaux Arts Trio and the LaSalle and
Vermeer quartets, and also led the
orchestra under Rostropovich,
Lutosπawski and Murray Perahia.
On leaving the academy she
became the Leader of English
Touring Opera, before focusing on
chamber music, first leading the
Schubert Ensemble and then
co-founding the Brindisi Quartet,
leading it for 15 years.
She has appeared as guest leader
with many groups including the
Nash Ensemble, London Sinfonietta,
Composers’ Ensemble and the
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. She
was appointed Leader of Britten
Sinfonia in 2005, and this has
become the core of her musical life.
18
Earlier this year she became leader
of the Red Note Ensemble, a
contemporary music group in
Glasgow, and now gives regular
masterclasses at the Royal Scottish
Conservatoire and the Royal
Academy of Music in London.
He has been described as a serial
collaborator, playing, recording
and developing new music with
artists as varied as Brazilian
percussionist Nana Vasconcelos,
Indian violinist L. Shankar, English
folk musician Kathryn Tickell,
contemporary classical composer/
performers John Harle and
Joanna MacGregor, singersongwriter John Martyn and a
myriad of leading jazz figures
– including Carla Bley, George
Russell and the late Gil Evans.
Dániel Vass/ECM Records
Jacqueline Shave violin/director
classical music. Among recent
commissions are Glossolalia,
a choral work with saxophone,
guitar and percussion soloists
commissioned by Bigger Sky and
the Norfolk & Norwich Festival,
and a work for the northern youth
big band Jambone with youth
choir, which was premiered at the
2012 Gateshead International
Festival. Another work, Saxophone
Massive, has been played all over
Europe as well as at Somerset
House as part of the London
2012 Cultural Olympiad.
Andy Sheppard saxophones
Established for over 25 years
as a composer and performer,
saxophonist Andy Sheppard is one
of a very few British musicians to
have made a significant impact on
the international jazz scene, playing
and writing for settings from solo to
big band and chamber orchestra.
His works combine a strong sense
of lyricism with a very personal use
of rhythms from Asia, Africa and
South America. Recent years have
also seen a growing fascination
with new music technologies and
the grooves of club culture.
He has been invited to compose for
large and small ensembles in the
areas of jazz and contemporary
Andy Sheppard performs in
Trio Libero, with French bassist
Michel Benita and UK drummer
Seb Rochford. Their debut
album, Trio Libero, was released
on ECM earlier this year.
Britten Sinfonia
Britten Sinfonia is one of the
world’s most celebrated and
pioneering ensembles. The
orchestra is acclaimed for its
virtuoso musicianship, an inspired
approach to concert programming
which makes bold, intelligent
connections across 400 years of
repertoire, and a versatility that is
second to none. Britten Sinfonia
breaks the mould by not having
a principal conductor or director,
Britten Sinfonia is an Associate
Ensemble at the Barbican in
London, and has residencies across
the east of England in Norwich,
Brighton and Cambridge (where
it is the University’s orchestra-inassociation). The orchestra also
performs a chamber music series
at Wigmore Hall and appears
regularly at major UK festivals
including Aldeburgh and the BBC
Proms. The orchestra’s growing
international profile includes regular
touring to Mexico, South America
and Europe. In February this year
it made its American debut at
the Lincoln Center, New York.
Founded in 1992, the orchestra is
inspired by the ethos of Benjamin
Britten through world-class
performances, illuminating and
distinctive programmes where old
meets new, and a deep commitment
to bringing outstanding music to
both the world’s finest concert halls
and the local community. Britten
Sinfonia is a BBC Radio 3 broadcast
partner and regularly records for
Harmonia Mundi and Hyperion.
This season it launches its association
at the Barbican with a gala concert
that also celebrates the orchestra’s
20th birthday. Other highlights
include collaborations with Ian
Bostridge, Alice Coote, Colin
Currie, Angela Hewitt and Henning
Kraggerud and premieres of works
by Gerald Barry, Eriks Ešenvalds,
Alissa Firsova, Detlav Glanert, Nico
Muhly and Dobrinka Tabakova.
This season Britten Sinfonia will also
premiere a work commissioned
through OPUS 2013; the orchestra’s
new project offering unpublished
composers the chance to receive a
professional commission performed
The season also sees the debut
performances of Britten Sinfonia
Academy, featuring talented young
musicians from the east of England.
Led by Britten Sinfonia musicians and
guest artists, the Academy specialises
in the features that make Britten
Sinfonia unique, including exploring
new music and crossing genres,
composition and improvisation, and
performing without a conductor.
Britten Sinfonia has received many
accolades including two Royal
Philharmonic Society awards (2007
and 2009) and a Gramophone
Award. In 2008 the orchestra and
its International Partner, Cambridge
University Press, won the Arts
& Business International Award
for its tour to South America.
Britten Sinfonia Voices
Britten Sinfonia Voices is a vocal
ensemble that reflects the artistic
vision and range of Britten Sinfonia.
The group is directed by the
acclaimed young chorus conductor
and singer Eamonn Dougan, who
carefully selects and prepares the
Voices for each project. Britten
Sinfonia Voices is made up of some
of the finest young professional
voices – both emerging talent
and experienced singers.
It is a flexible group, performing
repertoire from the Baroque to the
latest new music. In December last
year it took part in performances
of Berlioz’s L’enfance du Christ,
conducted by Sir Mark Elder, and
Handel’s Messiah under David
Hill. In March 2012 it performed
Mendelssohn’s Elijah here at
the Barbican Hall. Forthcoming
highlights include an unconducted
Bach St John Passion and new
music projects with Philip Glass
and James MacMillan.
Eamonn Dougan choral director
Eamonn Dougan read music at
New College, Oxford before
continuing his studies at the Guildhall
School of Music & Drama. He now
pursues a busy career working
as both conductor and singer.
About tonight’s performers
as part of Britten Sinfonia’s
award-winning At Lunch series.
He is the Choral Director of Britten
Sinfonia Voices, the professional
chorus of Britten Sinfonia, and
Principal Guest Conductor of The
National Youth Choir of Great
Britain. He is also Associate
Conductor of The Sixteen and
has directed the ensemble to
considerable acclaim at concert
halls and festivals across England
and Europe, including performances
at the Royal Festival Hall, Queen
Elizabeth Hall, Kings Place and
his debut at the Concertgebouw,
Amsterdam. He is a regular
Guest Conductor with Wrocπaw
Philharmonic Choir, Poland,
the Coro de la Comunidad de
Madrid, and the St Endellion
Festival Orchestra and Chorus.
His solo recordings include Bach’s
St John and St Matthew Passions,
Handel’s Messiah and Brahms’s
A German Requiem in its twopiano version as well as motets by
Giovanni Grillo with His Majestys
Sagbutts & Cornetts, and the
premiere recording of Arvo Pärt’s
Von Angesicht zu Angesicht.
He has appeared on disc and
the concert platform throughout
the world with many of Britain’s
leading ensembles and is a member
of The Sixteen and I Fagiolini.
19
instead choosing to collaborate with
a range of the finest international
guest artists from across the musical
spectrum, resulting in performances
of rare insight and energy.
Britten Sinfonia
Violin 1
Jacqueline Shave
Thomas Gould
Beatrix Lovejoy
Martin GwilymJones
Katherine Shave
Fiona McCapra
Clara Biss
Gillon Cameron
Violin 2
Miranda Dale
Nickie Goldscheider
Alexandra Reid
Marcus Broome
Judith Kelly
Anna Bradley
Viola
Clare Finnimore
Sophie Renshaw
Rachel Byrt
Felix Tanner
Cello
Caroline Dearnley
Ben Chappell
Joy Hawley
Julia Vohralik
Double Bass
Stephen Williams
Roger Linley
Flute
Emer McDonough
Sarah O’Flynn
Oboe
Nicholas Daniel
Adrian Rowlands
Clarinet
Joy Farrall
Emma Canavan
Bassoon
Sarah Burnett
Claire Gainford
Britten Sinfonia
Voices
Horn
Richard Wainwright
Clare Moss
Trumpet
Paul Archibald *
Heidi Bennett
Ross Brown
Trombone
Roger Harvey
Timpani/
Percussion
Bill Lockhart
Harpsichord
Maggie Cole
Celesta
Nico Muhly
* ‘Moondog’ only
Soprano
Lisa Beckley
Susan Gilmour
Bailey
Zoe Brown
Helen Neeves
Alexandra Kidgell
Ruth Provost
Alto
Lucy Ballard
Cathy Bell
Ksynia Loeffler
Rose Martin
Tenor
Matthew Beale
Richard Rowntree
Gareth Treseder
Paul Tindall
Bass
Neil Bellingham
Robert Evans
Cheyney Kent
Timothy Murphy
20
The 18 musicians you will hear in the foyer
today are the first intake of Academy members,
and were discovered through a series of
workshops and auditions held across the
region. They have worked intensively with
our musicians and composer Alissa Firsova
to prepare for this evening’s performance.
We are grateful to the Monument Trust,
and the Idlewild Trust for their support of
Britten Sinfonia Academy, and the William
Alwyn Foundation for their support of the
commission to Alissa Firsova.
For further information about the Academy,
please visit www.brittensinfonia.com/academy
Chief Executive
David Butcher
Concerts Director
Hannah Donat
Artistic Planning
Director
Nikola White
Orchestra
Manager
Hannah Bates
Concerts Assistant
James Calver
Finance Director
Rebecca Walsh
Finance Assistant
Elaine Rust
Creative Learning
Manager
Isobel Timms
Creative Learning
Assistant
James Brady
Britten Sinfonia Academy
Britten Sinfonia Academy is our new youth
ensemble for outstanding young musicians
of secondary-school age from the east of
England. Over the coming year these young
instrumentalists will take part in courses
that focus on the qualities that make Britten
Sinfonia unique: working without a conductor,
mixing up musical genres and performing
in different styles, playing in small chamber
groups and improvising, composing and
exploring new music. Its year will culminate
in a weekend residency and performance at
the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge next
March. We hope to see the ensemble grow
and expand to a full chamber orchestra over
the next few years and gain recognition within
the region and beyond.
Management
Violin
Lara Agar
Asia Chan
Tess Jackson
Eliza Spindel
Rebecca Swaney
Viola
Daniel Jackson
Cello
Carola Federle
Alex Scott
Caroline Worster
Double Bass
Joe Cowie
Flute
Heidi Reger
Oboe
Izzi Pincombe
Clarinet
Andrew Farnden
Horn
Jack Evans
Trumpet
Zoe Perkins
Bass Trombone
Katy Surridge
Harp
Imogen Ridge
Piano
Polina Sosnina
Development
Director
Will Harriss
Development
Assistant
Gabrielle
Deschamps
Marketing
Director
Claire Bowdler
Marketing
Assistant
Lisa Buckby
National Press
& PR Agent
Sophie Cohen
Phot0 © Harry Rankin
Orchestrating partnerships to remember
Last year Britten Sinfonia performed in concert halls worldwide, from Dijon
to Dublin, Brighton to Buenos Aires, Norwich to New York. 42,500 people
came to hear us play, and another 1 million people listened to our
broadcast concerts.
Tonight’s concert marks our debut as Associate Ensemble at the Barbican –
one of the world’s finest arts venues. There’s never been a better time to
discover the benefits of being a Corporate Partner with Britten Sinfonia.
If you’re looking for something breathtakingly different, whilst enjoying
performances at the very highest of world-class standards, then let
Britten Sinfonia orchestrate a partnership to remember.
Find out more by contacting Will Harriss,
Development Director, on +44 (0)1223 341014,
or by emailing [email protected].
Barbie ad:Layout 1
16/10/12
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Page 2
THANK YOU
Britten Sinfonia is proud to acknowledge the support of the many individuals, trusts and
foundations, corporate partners and public funders listed below. Their vision and generosity
enables Britten Sinfonia to continue giving excellent performances, presenting adventurous
commissions, and nurturing the talent and aspirations of young people through its Creative
Learning programme.
Come and share the adventure and play your part. Visit our website, send us an email –
[email protected] – or call the Development Team on 01223 300795 to find out more.
Principal Funder
International Partner
Broadcast Partner
Corporate Sponsors
Other Partners
Kirby Laing
Foundation
NorwichTown
Close Estate
Charitable Trust
Sinfonia Circle
Dame Mary Archer DBE
Dr Jerome Booth
Michael and Barbara Gwinnell
Roy and Barbara Hall
Charles Rawlinson MBE and Jill Rawlinson
John Stephens OBE
John and Jilly Wreford
Project and Commissioning Partners
Jonathan and Clare Barclay
Roy and Barbara Hall
Diana Hiddleston
John Stephens OBE
One anonymous donor
Chair Partners
Leader John and Jilly Wreford
Associate Leader Charles Rawlinson MBE
and Jill Rawlinson
Violin 1 Barry and Ann Scrutton
Violin 2 Donagh O'Sullivan
Viola Michael and Penelope Gaine
Cello Jonathan and Clare Barclay
Double Bass Dr Jerome Booth
Flute Delia Broke
Oboe John Stephens OBE
Bassoon Robert and Margaret Mair
Horn Dame Mary Archer DBE
Trumpet Jeffrey Archer
Trombone Dr Claire Barlow
Percussion Stephen and Stephanie Bourne
Piano Michael and Barbara Gwinnell
Britten Sinfonia Voices Dr Jerome Booth
Chief Executive Hamish and Sophie Forsyth
Unspecified Principal Chair Anonymous
Unspecified Principal Chair Mark Hoffman
Orchestra Chair Partner
Orchestra Chair Partner
Lady Dearlove
Orchestra Chair Partner
Erika Jeakings
Orchestra Chair Partner
Orchestra Chair Partner
Orchestra Chair Partner
Penelope Robson
Connie Bach
Sir Richard and
Adrian and
John Lebus
Ronald Millan
John and
Friends
Dr Aileen Adams
Clive Bandy
Elizabeth Bandy
Dame Gillian Beer
Sir Alan Bowness
S Bradfield
Susan Burton
Anthony and Barbara Butcher
Joanna Camus
J Ceybird
Prof. Sir Cyril Chantler
Chris and Jeremy Clare
Deborah Clarke
A Curran
Kelly Dickson
Andrew Duff MEP
Shirley Ellis
Helen Faulkner
Sally and Michael Fowler
Mr and Mrs Julian L Gardner
Sarah Garnier
Hilary and Edwin Green
Maureen Hanke
Peter Hardy
Ruth Harmer
Brian and Ruth Hazleman
David Henfrey
Mark Hoffman
Juliet Jarrold
Sarah Knights and
Tony Barnett
Michael and Patricia
McLaren-Turner
P. Maude MBE
Roger Mears and
Joannie Spears
Kaarina Meyer
Howard Phillips
Thomas Ponsonby
Judith Portrait
Colin Purdom
Judith Rattenbury
Dr Paul Sackin
John Sennitt
Roderick and Thelma Shaw
Graham Shorter
Stephen Smith
Dr Peter Stephenson
Harry Streets
Mary Anne Sutherland
Anthony Thompson
Beryl Walker
Mr and Mrs Wall
Margaret and Colin Willis
Carolyn Wingfield
12 anonymous friends
T
F
I
G
Y
A
D
h
T
h BIR
20T
Over 42,500 people came to
hear us play last year, with the
orchestra visiting ten different
countries on three continents.
As well as giving concerts,
last season we commissioned
thirteen new works, launched
a new professional choir, put
the finishing touches to our
ambitious Academy for talented
young players, and gave 3,800
young people the chance to
participate with Britten Sinfonia
in school workshops and on
stage with our players. Ticket
income, however, covers barely a
quarter of the cost of presenting
all of this work.
This year please help celebrate
Britten Sinfonia by way of a birthday
gift. We’d love to welcome you to join
as a Friend (from just £50) or to support
an Orchestra Chair (from £500) or
maybe a new piece of music. Get
involved and help us continue to set the
benchmark for all chamber orchestras
for the next 20 years, by supporting our
work through a donation. There’s never
been a better moment to get involved!
Visit brittensinfonia.com,
call Gabrielle Deschamps
on 01223 300795, or email
[email protected]
to find out more.