60th SEASON

Strauss Don Juan John McCabe Concerto for Orchestra Interval – 20 minutes Mussorgsky orch. Ravel Pictures at an Exhibition

Russell Keable conductor Alan Tuckwood leader

Monday 12 October 2015, 7.30pm St John’s Smith Square

Cover image: Viktor Hartmann’s The Great Gate of Kiev

In accordance with the requirements of Westminster City Council persons shall not be permitted to sit or stand in any gangway. The taking of photographs and use of recording equipment is strictly forbidden without formal consent from St John’s. Smoking is not permitted anywhere in St John’s. Refreshments are permitted only in the restaurant in the Crypt. Please ensure that all digital watch alarms, pagers and mobile phones are switched off. During the interval and after the concert the restaurant is open for licensed refreshments.

Box office tel: 020 7222 1061. Website: www.sjss.org.uk. St John’s Smith Square Charitable Trust, registered charity no: 1045390. Registered in England. Company no: 3028678.

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TONIGHT’S PROGRAMME

Don Juan

Don Juan was the third of Strauss’s tone poems, after Aus Italien and Macbeth, but it was a huge advance for the twenty-four-year-old composer, his first masterpiece. Here he found his own highly distinctive voice where form and expression became fused as one. And although all the instruments are pushed to unprecedented limits, Strauss by then had enough orchestral experience to know that what he asked for was possible. The first performance, conducted by the composer in Weimar in November 1889, was a sensational triumph, establishing him once and for all as the most important German composer since Wagner.

Strauss based his interpretation of the notorious womaniser on a verse play by the German poet Nikolaus Lenau, who had died insane in 1850. He headed the score with quotations from Lenau, but these are not necessary to understand the work.

The structure of Don Juan is a development of the form used by Liszt for his tone poems: a sonata-form movement unified by a motto theme with a long elaborate development containing two episodes, here representing a love scene and a masked ball. The work erupts with a rush of strings into a long, energetic and passionate theme representing Don Juan. The love scene is dominated by an oboe solo, but its magical atmosphere is gradually undermined until a new heroic theme, perhaps the most memorable in the work, emerges on four horns in unison. This becomes the climax of the recapitulation, again on the horns but higher, repeated with thrilling effect in the woodwind and strings. But the ending is a shock; at its moment of greatest exultation the music is suddenly cut off. A dissonant note on the trumpet represents Don Juan being stabbed by his adversary, and his life ebbs away to descending trills.

RICHARD STRAUSS 1864–1949

Richard Strauss

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Concerto for Orchestra

Deciso — Adagio

Scherzino: Allegro vivo

Romanze: Andante

Intermezzo: Giocoso

Largo — Allegro deciso — Allegro marcato — Pesante

John McCabe, who died earlier this year, was perhaps unique amongst modern composers in having an equally important career as an internationally renowned pianist. He wrote over 200 works, including music not just for the concert hall but also for the stage, television and film. His music uses an extended tonality and is striking for its sense of colour, particularly in his writing for brass and percussion. Landscape was always a strong inspiration, one of his most popular works being Cloudcatcher Fells (1985) for brass band. Other notable works include Notturni ed Alba (1970) for soprano and orchestra and The Chagall Windows (1974) for orchestra. As a pianist he made many highly regarded recordings, but perhaps his most lasting legacies will be his twelve-CD set of all the Haydn piano sonatas for Decca, and his set of Carl Nielsen’s complete piano music. Many composers, from Richard Rodney Bennett to George Benjamin, wrote works for him.

The Concerto for Orchestra was commissioned by the London Philharmonic Orchestra to celebrate its fiftieth anniversary season and it gave the first performance at the Royal Festival Hall, conducted by Georg Solti, in February 1983. The orchestra had already performed some of McCabe’s works and the composer was particularly touched that it was the players themselves who had chosen him. He enjoyed working with them, describing it as a ‘happy occasion for me. My experience has always been of real music-making with the orchestra, whose members have been courteous colleagues of great musical insight’, adding that ‘from start to finish, Solti’s energy and control of large-scale form, plus the brilliance of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, gave the Concerto the ideal start in life’. This is borne out by the fact that the orchestra commissioned a second piece in 2006, the Symphony on a Pavane.

For the Concerto McCabe wanted to write a piece with a strong structure which would show off not only the orchestra’s virtuosity, but also their ability to play lyrically. He said that it ‘felt like writing a large passacaglia’, that is, a work based on one continually repeating theme, and much of the work consists of a slow-moving melody surrounded by more elaborate decoration. McCabe shaped the structure on Schumann’s Faschingsswank aus Wien (‘Viennese Carnival’) for piano, where

TONIGHT’S PROGRAMME

JOHN McCABE 1939–2015

John McCabe

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TONIGHT’S PROGRAMME

three short inner movements are flanked by two much longer ones. But as the piece is continuous, at a first hearing it is not always easy to detect the transition between the five movements, so a few signposts might be useful.

The first movement is in two sections. The brilliant opening fanfares include a statement of the work’s main theme in trumpet and woodwind. This is stated more fully in the second section, which is announced by the tubular bells. Beginning with a slow string build-up, this ends with a very quiet repeated pattern on the piano which leads into the three central movements whose titles are taken directly from the Schumann piece. In the Scherzino scurrying muted strings alternate with repeated brass notes, the theme appearing mainly in the lower wind instruments. A descending passage in the wind and brass marks the beginning of the Romanze, which is dominated by steadily moving but expressive melodies in the strings. A particularly intense line in the upper strings is taken over by the piccolo and flute before fading into the Intermezzo, where the strings are silent. Off-beat patterns in two-time contrast with triplets, and these are then combined to create rhythmic conflict. A crescendo on a single note in the tuba is dramatically cut off by the tubular bells, which begin the finale by outlining the main theme. This is a restless movement which unites the various motifs. Sinister repeated notes and a brass chord lead to a powerful variation of the opening fanfare which ends with a massive ‘final’ chord. But the work fades into silence with the quiet pattern which closed the opening movement.

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MODEST MUSSORGSKY 1839–1881

Pictures at an Exhibition (orch. Maurice Ravel 1875–1937)

Promenade

Gnomus A sketch depicting a little gnome, clumsily running with crooked legs.

Promenade

Il vecchio castello A troubadour singing in front of a medieval castle.

Promenade

Tuileries An avenue in the Tuileries gardens in Paris with crowds of children and nurses.

Bydlo A Polish cart with enormous wheels drawn by oxen.

Promenade

Ballet des poussins dans leurs coques A costume design for the ballet Trilby.

Samuel Goldenberg und Schmuÿle An impoverished Jew begging from a rich one.

Promenade

Limoges: Le marché French women quarrelling violently in the market.

Catacombae (Sepulcrum romanum) — Cum mortuis in lingua mortua This depicts artist Viktor Hartmann looking at the Paris (despite the title) catacombs by the light of a lantern.

La cabane sur des pattes de poule (Baba Yaga) A design for a clock in the form of Baba Yaga’s hut. (In Russian folklore Baba Yaga is a witchlike figure. Mussorgsky added a depiction of her flight in a mortar propelled by a pestle.)

La grande porte de Kiev A competition entry for the design of city gates in Kiev. These are in the ancient Russian, massive style with a cupola shaped like a Slavonic helmet. *

* Movement descriptions are based on those by Vladimir Stasov in the original score.

Modest Mussorgsky

TONIGHT’S PROGRAMME

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TONIGHT’S PROGRAMME

Maurice Ravel

The artist and architect Viktor Hartmann was a close friend of Mussorgsky, making creative comments about his work and giving him two of his pictures. So his sudden death in 1873 at the age of only thirty-nine came as a great shock. (Sadly, Mussorgsky himself was also to die young, a week after his forty-second birthday, having drunk himself to death.) It was at a memorial exhibition of over 400 of Hartmann’s works in St Petersburg the following year that Mussorgsky was inspired to write his piano suite, Pictures at an Exhibition. By June that year he was fully engrossed in its composition, writing that ‘Hartmann is seething, like Boris seethed’. But the work was not performed in Mussorgsky’s lifetime, only being published after his death in a version with well-meaning changes made by his friend Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. It was not until 1931 that an edition appeared which was true to Mussorgsky’s original intentions.

Ravel, along with Debussy, was a great admirer of the raw power of Mussorgsky’s music, so he must have been pleased to receive the commission to orchestrate Pictures at an Exhibition from the conductor Serge Koussevitzky. He worked on it between May and September 1922, and enjoyed being kept busy without the mental strain of composing. In fact he wrote nothing for over a year after completing it. Ravel’s orchestral scores are the work of a superb craftsman, calculated with meticulous precision, and it is a tribute to his imaginative treatment of Pictures that it is hard now not to think of it as an original orchestral piece. For although there have been at least eleven other orchestrations, including ones by Henry Wood and Leopold Stokowski, it is Ravel’s that has stayed in the repertoire. But as he was working from the Rimsky-Korsakov edition, for this performance a few changes have been made, particularly in Samuel Goldenberg und Schmuÿle, to bring it in line with Mussorgsky’s original score.

There are fifteen movements in all, ten illustrating different pictures and designs and five of them Promenades depicting Mussorgsky walking round the exhibition. These Promenades give the work a structural unity, and material from them also appears in Con mortuis in lingua mortua and The Great Gate of Kiev, thus linking Mussorgsky to his friend. As Hartmann had spent four years abroad the titles are in a variety of languages which Mussorgsky preserved: Latin, Italian, Polish, German inflected with Yiddish, and Russian.

© Fabian Watkinson, 2015

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BIOGRAPHIES

Russell Keable conductor

Russell Keable has established a reputation as one of the UK’s most exciting musicians. As a conductor he has been praised in 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.

He performs with orchestras and choirs throughout the British Isles, has conducted in Prague and Paris (concerts filmed by French and British television) and recently made his debut with the Royal Oman Symphony Orchestra in Dubai. As a champion of the music of Erich Korngold he has received particular praise: the British première of Korngold’s 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 trained at Nottingham and London universities; he studied conducting at London’s Royal College of Music with Norman Del Mar, and later with George Hurst. For over thirty years he has been associated with Kensington Symphony Orchestra, one of the UK’s finest non-professional orchestras, with whom he has led first performances of works by many British composers (including Peter Maxwell Davies, John Woolrich, Robin Holloway, David Matthews, Joby Talbot and John McCabe).

Keable has also made recordings of two symphonies by Robert Simpson, and a Beethoven CD was released in New York. He is recognised as a dynamic lecturer and workshop leader. He has the rare skill of being able to communicate vividly with audiences of any age (from schoolchildren to music students, adult groups and international business conferences). Over five years he developed a special relationship with the Schidlof Quartet, with whom he established an exciting and innovative education programme. He also holds the post of Director of Conducting at the University of Surrey.

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 as part of their millennium celebration, was premièred in July 2000. He has also composed music for the mime artist Didier Danthois to use whilst working in prisons and special needs schools.

ARTISTS’ BIOGRAPHIES

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Kensington Symphony Orchestra

Founded in 1956, Kensington Symphony Orchestra 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’ — continues to be at the heart of its mission.

KSO has had only two Principal Conductors — the founder, Leslie Head, and the current incumbent, Russell Keable, who recently celebrated his thirtieth year with the orchestra. The dedication, enthusiasm and passion of these two musicians has shaped KSO’s image, giving it a distinctive repertoire which sets it apart from other groups.

Revivals and premières of new works frequently feature in the orchestra’s repertoire alongside the major works of the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first centuries. World and British premières have included works by Arnold Bax, Havergal Brian, Nielsen, Schoenberg, Sibelius, Verdi and Bruckner. 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 (which the Evening Standard praised as ‘a feast of brilliant playing’). In January 2004 KSO, along with the London Oriana Choir, performed a revival of Walford Davies’s oratorio Everyman, a recording of which is available on the Dutton label.

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ARTISTS’ BIOGRAPHIES

Contemporary music has continued to be the life-blood of KSO. An impressive roster of composers working today has been represented in KSO’s programmes, most recently including Magnus Lindberg, Charlotte Bray, Benedict Mason, Oliver Knussen, Thomas Adès, Brett Dean, Anne Dudley, Julian Anderson, Rodion Shchedrin, John Woolrich, Joby Talbot, Peter Maxwell Davies and Jonny Greenwood. In December 2005 Errollyn Wallen’s Spirit Symphony, performed with the BBC Concert Orchestra and broadcast on BBC Radio 3, was awarded the Radio 3 Listeners’ Award at the British Composer Awards. In 2014 KSO performed the world première of Stephen Montague’s From the Ether, commissioned by St John’s Smith Square to mark the building’s 300th anniversary. During the 2014/15 season KSO was part of Making Music’s Adopt a Composer scheme, collaborating with Seán Doherty on his work Hive Mind.

From the very beginning KSO has held charitable aims. Its first concert was given in aid of the Hungarian Relief Fund, and since then the orchestra has supported many different charities, musical and non-musical. In recent years it has developed links with the Kampala Symphony Orchestra and Music School under its KSO2 programme, providing training, fundraising and instruments in partnership with the charity Musequality. In 2013 and 2015 the orchestra held Sponsored Play events in Westfield London shopping centre, raising over £30,000 for the charity War Child. The orchestra also supports the music programme at Pimlico Academy, its primary rehearsal home.

The reputation of the orchestra is reflected in the quality of international artists who regularly appear with KSO. In recent seasons soloists have included Sir John Tomlinson, Nikolai Demidenko, Richard Watkins, Jean Rigby and Matthew Trusler; and the orchestra enjoys working with the new generation of up-and-coming musicians, including BBC Young Musician of the Year 2014 Martin James Bartlett and Young Classical Artists Trust artists Ji Liu and Richard Uttley. The orchestra works annually with guest conductors including most recently Nicholas Collon, Alice Farnham, Andrew Gourlay and Jacques Cohen.

Without the support of its sponsors, its Friends scheme and especially its audiences, KSO could not continue to go from strength to strength and maintain its traditions of challenging programmes and exceptionally high standards of performance. Thank you for your support.

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FRIENDS OF KSO

To support KSO you might consider joining our very popular Friends Scheme. There are three levels of membership and attendant benefits:

Friend

Unlimited concessionary rate tickets per concert, priority bookings, free interval drinks and concert programmes.

Premium Friend

A free ticket for each concert, unlimited guest tickets at concessionary rates, priority bookings, free interval drinks and concert programmes.

Patron

Two free tickets for each concert, unlimited guest tickets at concessionary rates, priority bookings, free interval drinks and concert programmes.

All Friends and Patrons can be listed in concert programmes under either single or joint names.

We can also offer tailored Corporate Sponsorships for companies and groups. Please ask for details.

Cost of membership for the sixtieth season is:

Friend . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . £60 Premium Friend . . . . . . . . . £125 Patron . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . £220

To contribute to KSO by joining the Friends please contact David Baxendale on 020 8653 5091 or by email at friends@kso.org.uk.

Patrons

Kate BonnerJohn and Claire DoveyBob and Anne DrennanMalcolm and Christine DunmowGerald HjertDaan MatheussenJolyon and Claire MaughamDavid and Mary Ellen McEuenMichael and Jan MurrayLinda and Jack PievskyNeil Ritson and familyKim Strauss-PolmanKeith Waye

Premium Friends

Sue AstlesDavid BaxendaleClaude-Sabine and Fortuné BikoroDr Michele Clement and Dr Stephanie Munn John DaleAlastair FraserMichael and Caroline IllingworthMaureen KeableNick MarchantRichard and Jane RobinsonElizabeth RounceJoan and Sidney Smith

Friends

Anne BaxendaleRobert and Hilary BruceYvonne and Graham BurhopGeorge FriendJoan HackettRobert and Gill Harding-PayneRufus Rottenberg

YOUR SUPPORT

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OTHER WAYS TO SUPPORT US

Sponsorship

One way in which you, our audience, can help us very effectively is through sponsorship. Anyone can be a sponsor, and any level of support — from corporate sponsorship of a whole concert to individual backing of a particular section or musician — is enormously valuable to us. We offer a variety of benefits to sponsors tailored especially to their needs, such as programme and website advertising, guest tickets and assistance with entertaining.

For further details about sponsoring KSO, please speak to any member of the orchestra, email sponsorship@kso.org.uk or call David Baxendale on 020 8653 5091.

Leaving a Legacy: Supporting KSO for the next generation

Legacies left to qualifying charities — such as Kensington Symphony Orchestra — are exempt from inheritance tax. In addition, since April 2012, 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 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 the specific bequests to your family and friends have first been met.

Legacies, along with conventional donations, to KSO’s Endowment Trust allow us to better plan for the next fifty years of the orchestra’s development.

If you include a bequest to KSO in your will, telling us you have done so will enable us to keep you informed of developments 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 any kind of binding commitment.

For more information about leaving a legacy please speak to your solicitor or Neil Ritson, Chairman of the KSO Endowment Trust, on 020 7723 5490 or email neil.ritson@kso.org.uk.

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YOUR SUPPORT

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The KSO Website

To keep up-to-date with KSO information and events visit our website, where you can see upcoming concerts, listen to previous performances and learn more about the history of the orchestra.

An easy way to contribute to KSO at no extra cost to yourself is via our website. A number of online retailers will pay us a small percentage of the value of your purchase when you go via our website to make it. www.kso.org.uk/shop

Mailing List

If you would like to receive news of our forthcoming concerts by email, please join our mailing list. Just send a message to jo.johnson@kso.org.uk and we’ll do our best to keep you informed. www.kso.org.uk/mailinglist

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YOUR SUPPORT

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TONIGHT’S PERFORMERS

First ViolinAlan Tuckwood Louise RingroseSusan KnightAriane TodesLouise EvansBronwen FisherMatthew HickmanErica JealHelen StanleyBianca ProcinoClaire DoveyHelen TurnellSarah HackettHeather BinghamClaire MaughamHelen Waites

Second Violin David PievskyHelen EcclestoneFrancoise RobinsonJuliette BarkerJovana KosicRufus RottenbergJeremy BradshawEmma NabavianKathleen RuleLea GoetzRichard SheahanRoanna ChandlerLiz ErringtonElizabeth BellDanielle DawsonAdrian Gordon

Viola Beccy SpencerGuy RaybouldSally RandallAlex TysonKathryn LewisNick MacraeCamilla DervanElizabeth LavercombeJane Spencer-DavisTom PhilpottPhilip CooperSonya Wells

Cello Joseph SpoonerRosi CalleryDavid BaxendaleBecca WalkerAnnie Marr-JohnsonNatasha FosterJudith RobinsonAnna HamiltonRosie GoddardAna RamosCat MugeNatasha Briant

Double Bass Robin MajorJamie ParkinsonAndrew NealGisella FerrariMark McCarthySam Wise Oliver BatesAlison Coaker

FluteMike CopperwhiteClaire PillmoorDan Dixon

PiccoloDan Dixon

OboeCharles BrenanSarah BruceChris Astles

Cor Anglais Chris Astles

ClarinetChris HorrilClaire BaughanGraham Elliot

Bass ClarinetGraham Elliot

Alto SaxophoneIan Noonan

BassoonNick RampleyJohn Wingfield-HillSheila Wallace ContrabassoonSheila Wallace

French Horn Jon BoswellHeather PawsonEd CornJim Moffat

Trumpet Stephen WillcoxJohn HackettLeanne Thompson

TrombonePhil CambridgeKen McGregor

Bass TromboneStefan Terry

TubaNeil Wharmby

Tenor TubaDavid Musgrove

TimpaniTommy Pearson

PercussionTim AldenAndrew BarnardBrian FurnerSimon Willcox

HarpBethan Semmens

Piano / CelestePanayotis Archontides

Music DirectorRussell Keable

TrusteesChris AstlesDavid BaxendaleJohn DoveyHeather PawsonNick RampleyRichard SheahanSabina Wagstyl

Endowment TrustRobert DrennanGraham ElliottJudith Ní BhreasláinNick RampleyNeil Ritson

Event TeamChris AstlesBeccy SpencerSabina Wagstyl

Marketing TeamJeremy BradshawJo Johnson Guy RaybouldLouise Ringrose

Membership TeamJuliette BarkerDavid Baxendale Phil CambridgeRobin Major

ProgrammesKathleen Rule

ORCHESTRA

Monday 23 November 2015, 7.30pm (St John’s Smith Square)WILLIAMSON Santiago de EspadaBLISS Miracle in the GorbalsCOPLAND Appalachian Spring (complete ballet)

Monday 25 January 2016, 7.30pm (Cadogan Hall)MOERAN SerenadeRAVEL Piano Concerto in G (Soloist: Alexander Ullman)VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Symphony no.5

Saturday 12 March 2016, 7.30pm (St John’s Smith Square)With guest conductor Michael SealBRITTEN Gloriana (Symphonic Suite)SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony no.10

Tuesday 17 May 2016, 7.30pm (St John’s Smith Square)JANÁČEK Suite: From the House of the DeadJUDITH WEIR Natural History (Soloist: Donna Lennard)MARTINŮ Symphony no.5

Monday 27 June 2016, 7.30pm (St John’s Smith Square)WALTON Scapino: A Comedy OvertureBRITTEN Violin Concerto (Soloist: Fenella Humphreys)ELGAR Falstaff

Registered charity No. 1069620

60th SEASON