Published by Isca Management www.iscaensemble.org.uk

Please visit our new website at www.iscaensemble.org.uk.

You may now order and pay for tickets in advance by post or still choose to purchase them at Paragon Books, Sidmouth.

Full details are to be found on the website.

Classical Orchestral Concert

Sidmouth Parish Church

Saturday 2nd. March 2013

at 7.30 p.m.

I s c a E n s e m b l eI s c a E n s e m b l eI s c a E n s e m b l e

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Welcome to Sidmouth Parish Church

The collection at the end of this concert is being organised by members of The Rotary Club of Sidmouth

Contributions will help with the club’s development of its excellent

community programme in the locality.

Please generously support this evening's local charity.

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Acknowledgement.

Our sincere thanks to the management at Paragon Books

Your local shop selling a wide selection of books

and periodicals.

The Isca Ensemble, now approaching its tenth year, has successfully grown into a regional Chamber Orchestra and regularly features up to 50 leading amateur players according to specific repertoire. Since its inception, it has performed in churches in Sidmouth, Axminster, Honiton and Exeter. Members of the Ensemble were also invited to Dartington to work and perform with players of the Orchestra of the Age of the Enlightenment. The Isca String Quartet also continues to expand its repertoire and gives a series of annual concerts. The Ensemble wishes to express its warmest appreciation for the support it has received from East Devon and Exeter communities. The idea of forming such a unique group has blossomed over the years with the subsequent adaptation to a more varied repertoire. The Ensemble wishes to continue its very successful partnership with churches, charities and Arts organisations in the region. Further concerts in Devon by the Isca String Quartet and the Isca Ensemble (comprising of a variable number of players and instrumentations), will be advertised once finalised. We do hope you enjoy this evening's concert and will support us in the future. The ISCA Ensemble wishes to thank the authorities of Sidmouth Parish Church, Martyn and Sue Daldorph, Bob and Merrill Millington members of Rotary, all the helpers who have taken care of tickets sales, programmes and refreshments and Paragon Books in Sidmouth. As you retire this evening, there will be a special collection organised by the Rotary Club of Sidmouth for its community initiatives. The next two concerts will be in Sidmouth Parish Church on June 1st and on November 30th. (see details later in this programme).

Please visit our new website at www.iscaensemble.org.uk.

Tickets may be purchased in advance from Paragon Books or by post by using the new form on the orchestra's website.

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T h e I s c a E n s emb l eT h e I s c a E n s emb l e

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Isca Ensemble South West players

Violins Antony Clements

(leader) Jacky Baldwin

Serena Stephenson Sandra Sutton David Norrish Rebecca Willson Anna Davis Ellen Stratton

Trevor Taylor

(Principal - second violins) Clare Greenall Angela Hendy Clare Talbot Laura Watson

Ray Fane Ayesha Ichsan

Violas

Richard Wood (Principal)

Deborah Hamilton Margaret Offord Marion Kenworthy Flora Farquharson

Clarinets Chris Gradwell John Walthew

Bassoons Alan Boxer

Helen Simmonds

Horns Simon Thomas Trevor Ives

Susanna Stephenson Saskia Loysen

Trumpets Tony Hindley Liz Wood

Timpani Edward Scull

Celli Stephen Guy (Principal) Alice Bell

Claire Goldstraw Carol Galton

Catherine Warren Elen Morgan

Bass Marion Attrill (Principal) Lisa Thorne James Rintoul Clive Forsyth

Flutes Catherine Clements Robert Stephenson

Oboes Julia Hill

Rhiannon Morgan

Musical Director : Roger Hendy

contact rogerhendy@btinternet.com

Church liaison : Martyn & Sue Daldorph , Robert & Merrill Millington & Val Chapman. The Rotary Club of Sidmouth liaison : David Mason & David Burgoigne

Box Office : Paragon Books, Sidmouth. Southernhay Church, Exeter (rehearsal venue) : Wendy Milne

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When C and F major return as they were destined to do in the development section, they sound every bit as remote as they did in the symphony’s introduction, and we sense that we have come full circle. It is now the finale’s task to ram home the symphony’s tonic key, A major. The result is a magnificent bacchanal, pounding almost to state of frenzy. The final build-up culminates in two huge full-orchestra climaxes, both marked triple forte – fff – the first time such an extreme dynamic had been used in orchestral music, and entirely appropriate for an ending that is both logical and dazzlingly affirmative. Near the very end the discordant and groaning bass line makes an even more striking appearance before high horn fanfares bring the work to a joyous and triumphant end. What a work!

Roger Hendy.

Playing in Isca. Currently there are no vacancies for players in any of the sections of the orchestra but sometimes opportunities do occur. However, experienced amateur players are always welcome to contact the Musical Director of leader of the orchestra. Look at the orchestra’s website at www.iscaensemble.org.uk for further details. There may be opportunities for some string players to join the special orchestral workshop on June 1st. for which there is no charge.

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This magically atmospheric movement was such a success at its first performance that it had to be repeated. It also made a huge impression on the young Schubert, who echoed its slow, but strangely weightless, tread in a number of his later works. After the Allegretto, the Presto bursts into life. This has all the racing momentum of a typical Beethoven scherzo. It is twice interrupted by a slower Trio section (with another version of the long–short–short rhythmic pattern established in the opening movement) and yet its vitality seems irrepressible: a third and final attempt to establish the slower Trio theme is magnificently dismissed by five crisp orchestral chords. This scherzo is, however, in the ‘wrong’ key – the destabilising F major! To get back to where we belong, Beethoven simply shatters the glass with two fortissimo chords that open the finale and ushers us into a triumphant fury of music so adamantly in A major that we forget any past harmonic digression.

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This evening's programme

Beethoven : Overture ‘Egmont’ Op 84

Dvořák : Three Slavonic Dances Op. 46 & 72

Ewazen : Concerto for Marimba and String Orchestra

Edward Scull - marimba

——– Interval and refreshments 20 minutes ——–

Beethoven : Symphony No.7 in A, Op. 92

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Ludwig Van Beethoven (1770 – 1827)

Overture ‘Egmont ‘ Op. 84

Beethoven was fascinated with the concept of individual freedom. His life was spent struggling to compose freely despite the dictates of demanding patrons. His music itself is a testament to creative freedom. Born in a time when strictly formal outlines were the musical norm, Beethoven found unique, innovative ways to escape these constraints. As a body of music, his works expanded form, harmony and instrumentation, continuously broadening the scope of his very personal musical expression. Beethoven composed his Overture to Goethe’s drama, Egmont, for a new production of that play in Vienna in 1810. The composer had been acquainted with Goethe’s writings since his youth and regarded the poet as one of the great spirits of the age. “Goethe’s poems have tremendous power over me,” he once declared, adding: “I am tuned up and stimulated to composition by this language, which builds itself into higher orders as if through the work of spirits, and already bears in itself the mysteries of harmonies.” Egmont, moreover, provided two themes that were especially attractive to the composer: the martyrdom of a hero in the cause of liberty and the selfless devotion of a woman who loves him. Beethoven was no stranger to these ideas, having already dealt with the matter at length in his opera Leonore (Fidelio). Beethoven’s Overture begins with an introduction in slow tempo, where massive initial chords express a feeling of power and crisis. From these great blocks of sound emerge plaintive woodwind figures that accelerate into the main body of the work. Here a certain kinship with the composer’s famous Fifth Symphony becomes evident. The music conveys the same sense of elemental struggle encountered in the symphony’s first movement, and it even makes use of the famous four-note rhythm, which dominates that piece. Later the parallel between the two compositions becomes unmistakable. Like the symphony’s finale, the overture’s conclusion emerges from a mysterious, dark realm to soar triumphantly on rising scales and the brilliant tones of trumpets. The music embodies Egmont’s conviction that death is not an end when hope thrives and ideals remain intact.

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The night of the premiere of the Seventh Symphony in Vienna gave the rest of the nineteenth century plenty to talk about. No other symphony of Beethoven’s so openly invited interpretation - not even his Sixth, the self-proclaimed ‘Pastoral’ Symphony, with its bird calls, thunderstorm, and frank evocation of something beyond mere eighth notes and bar lines. In this work we sense that our basic understanding of harmony has been turned upside down. At the outset of the work, Beethoven’s magnificent introduction is of unprecedented size and ambitious intentions. He begins decisively in A major, but at the first opportunity moves away - not to the dominant (E major) as historical practice and textbooks would recommend, but to the unlikely regions of C major and F major. We move from the spacious vistas of the introduction into the joyous song of the Vivace. Getting there is a challenge Beethoven relishes, and many a music lover has marvelled at his passage of transition, in which stagnant, repeated E’s played out by the first flute and first violins, catch fire with the dancing dotted rhythm that will carry us through the entire movement. The development section brings new explorations in C and F major, and the coda is launched by a spectacular, long-sustained crescendo that is said to have convinced Weber that Beethoven was “ripe for the madhouse.”

The Allegretto is as famous as any music Beethoven ever wrote. At the indicated tempo, it is hardly a slow movement, but it is sufficiently slower than the music that precedes it to wonderful change of mood providing a feeling of relaxation. The solemn beauty of the opening on the lower strings, the gradual accumulation of tension until the release into the calm major key by the clarinet, the ghostly fugue in which Beethoven occupies the Olympian intellectual heights along with Bach, the titanic restatement of the opening theme and the decay into oblivion all mark this as a movement of true musical genius.

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Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 - 1827)

Symphony No.7 in A, Op. 92

I. Poco sostenuto –Vivace II. Allegrettto III. Presto – Assai meno presto (trio) IV. Allegro con brio

Composition of the seventh and eighth Symphonies, written as a pair, occupied Beethoven for nearly two years.The Seventh Symphony was premiered in Vienna on December 8th 1813 at a charity concert for soldiers wounded in the Battle of Hanau, with Beethoven himself conducting; the program also included the patriotic Wellington's Victory. Ever since, the Seventh Symphony has retained its place at the forefront of the symphonic repertoire. Beethoven was noted as remarking that it was one of his best works. Undoubtedly the reason for this is the tremendous rhythmic drive encapsulated by the composer which led Wagner to call the work ‘the Apotheosis of the dance’. Apart from the striking and unusual slow movement, the pace is unrelenting, as are the demands on the players! The work as a whole is known for its use of rhythmic devices suggestive of a dance, such as dotted rhythm and repeated rhythmic figures. Many critics and listeners have often felt stirred or inspired by the Seventh Symphony.

Significantly, Beethoven’s contemporaries thought him a complicated man. He was a true eccentric, who adored the elevated term Tondichter (poet in sound). He often looked like a homeless person and on one occasion his choice of outfit caused his arrest for vagrancy. There were other curious contradictions: he was disciplined and methodical - he would rise early and make coffee by grinding a precise number of coffee beans but lived in a comparative squalor. Certainly modern scholarship, as it chips away at the myth, finds him ever more complex. The general perception of Beethoven’s music in 1812 at the time of the premiere of the Seventh Symphony, was that it was every bit as difficult and unconventional as the man himself even, perhaps, to most ears, utterly untamed. Beethoven was so far ahead of his time that he was thought out of fashion in his latter years. His rapidly developing composition techniques produced music, which was uncompromising (as in the last quartets) which to many modern ears is still rather disturbing.

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Dvořák : Three Slavonic Dances No. 2 in E minor (Starodávný) Op. 72. No. 7 in C minor (Skočná) Op. 46. No. 8 in G minor (Furiant) Op. 46. Prior to the publication of the Slavonic Dances, Op. 46, Dvořák was a relatively unknown composer. Because of this fact, he had applied for the Austrian State Music Prize scholarship in order to fund his compositional work. After he won the prize three times in four years Johannes Brahms, as one of the members of the committee responsible for awarding the scholarship, referred Dvořák to his own publisher, Fritz Simrock. The first of Dvořák's music to be published by Simrock was the Moravian Duets, which attained widespread success; encouraged, Simrock asked the composer to write something with a dance-like character. Unsure how to begin, Dvořák used Brahms's Hungarian Dances as a model - but only as a model; there are a number of important differences between the two works. For example, whereas Brahms made use of actual Hungarian folk melodies, Dvořák only made use of the characteristic rhythms of Slavic folk music: the melodies are entirely his own. Simrock was immediately impressed by the music Dvořák produced (originally for piano four hands), and asked the composer for an orchestral version as well. Both versions were published within the year, and quickly established Dvořák's international reputation. The enormous success of the Opus 46 dances led Simrock to request another set of Slavonic Dances in 1886; Dvořák's subsequent Opus 72 dances met with a similar reception. No. 2 in E minor Op. 72 is a Starodávný (a sort of polonaise) and is marked Allegretto grazioso. One of the best known dances and perhaps the most beautiful of the set, it is serene and elegant. No. 7 in C minor is a Skočná, a dance involving leaping or hopping. According to the Czech writer Jiří Berkovec, the rhythm, melodic contour and general structure of this piece conform to the outlines of the tetka (“auntie” dance) of the Haná region, and it is rounded off by a lively polka. No. 8 in G minor is a well-known Furiant, this one a particularly fiery and brilliant specimen providing an exuberant climax.

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This evening’s soloist - Edward Scull (percussionist).

Edward has recently graduated from the Royal College of Music in London, having been awarded a Foundation Scholarship to study Percussion. Despite a background of piano and flute studies, where Edward won many awards and competitions, it is his percussion career that has taken off very quickly. He played in county orchestras before gaining places with both the National Children’s orchestra of Great Britain and the National Youth Wind Ensemble and has worked with many prestigious conductors. Edward’s musical career really started to blossom whilst studying at Wells Cathedral School under the direction of Jayne Obradovic and Jan Faulkner. Edward took part in two international Brass and Percussion Festivals as well as working with Karl Jenkins in a world premiere of his piece B Movie. During his final year of study, Edward achieved a distinction in his diploma in percussion. Further afield, Edward has toured the UK extensively playing in major Concert Halls and has also been on many musical tours including Ireland, the Czech Republic and Italy. Edward’s dedication to percussion as a solo entity enables him to compose for and develop individual percussion instruments in a virtuoso style not only in tuned concert xylophone and marimba, but also timpani, congas, and drum kit, using them to explore sounds as the principle instrument. This dedication and excitement reflects in his playing to such an extent that last year saw him perform the multi percussion concerto “Ruby” by Joe Duddell at the Royal College of Music, where he won the prestigious Concerto competition.

Edward is also involved in CD production, performing for software development, and advertising jingles. A composer in his own right, he composes for solo performance, and works with many other artists and musicians to develop their ideas.

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CONCERT CLASSICS

SIDMOUTH PARISH CHURCH

SATURDAY 30th NOVEMBER 2013 at 7.30 p.m.

CONCERT CLASSICS

SIDMOUTH PARISH CHURCH

SATURDAY 30th NOVEMBER 2013 at 7.30 p.m.

Tickets

£12 (central aisle) £10 (side aisles) Students £5 available in advance from

Paragon Books, 38 High Street, Sidmouth

tele. 01395 514516 or at the door

Tickets may also be obtained by post through the website

www.iscaensemble.org.uk

Dvorák: Cello Concerto RICHARD JENKINSON (soloist)

Beethoven : Symphony No. 3 ‘Eroica’

ISCA ENSEMBLE Celebrating its Tenth Anniversary

Roger Hendy : Musical Director Antony Clements : leader

Proceeds in aid of the continuing renovation work at

Sidmouth Parish Church.

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Our next two concerts in Sidmouth - make a note in your diary.

As part of the orchestra's Tenth Anniversary celebrations, two very special events will take place on Saturday June 1st and Saturday November 30th. in Sidmouth Parish Church. On Saturday June 1st. following a one-day intensive orchestral workshop, the Ensemble supplemented by other leading players will perform an evening's concert commencing at 7.30 p.m. comprising of :

Langford

An Axminster Overture (a new work by Devon’s leading composer)

Wagner

Overture ‘Meistersinger’

Dvořák Symphony No 8

————————————

ADMISSION IS FREE (Tickets unnecessary).

The orchestral workshop will take place in the church from 10.30 a.m. and

members of the public are welcome to come and listen at any time.

Doors open at 6.30 p.m. for the evening performance commencing at 7.30 p.m.

There will be a retiring collection for

SAVE THE CHILDREN

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The Marimba.

The marimba consists of a set of wooden bars with resonators. The bars are struck with mallets to produce musical tones. The bars are arranged as those of a piano, with the accidentals raised vertically and overlapping the natural bars (similar to a piano) to aid the performer both visually and physically. This instrument is a type of xylophone, but with broader and lower tonal range and resonators. The chromatic marimba was developed in southern Mexico and northern Guatemala from the diatonic marimba, an instrument whose ancestor was a type of balafon that African slaves built in Central America. Part of the key to the marimba's rich sound is its resonators. Vibrations from the bars resonate as they pass through the tubes, which amplify the tone in a manner very similar to the way in which the body of a guitar or cello would. Modern marimba music usually calls for simultaneous use of between two and four mallets, granting the performer the ability to play chords or music with large interval skips more easily. In a world full of technology, where modern music is dominated by electronic instruments, simple acoustic instruments are finding a large audience. Hand made percussion instruments from South and Central America, exotic horns made from giant sea shells, and even Australian aboriginal instruments are being used more and more in contemporary western music. The marimba, born in tribal Africa, is a big part of this musical trend. All in all, few instruments can boast such a wide range of expression. You will find the marimba performing the music of Bach, traditional music of indigenous peoples in Indonesia, contemporary American jazz, and modern symphonic orchestral music.

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Eric Ewazen (b. 1954) Born in Cleveland, Ohio, composer Eric Ewazen studied composition at Tanglewood, the Eastman School of Music and The Juilliard School. Ewazen’s music has been commissioned, performed, and recorded by many renowned professional musicians and ensembles, including the Ahn Trio, Summit Brass Ensemble, American Brass Quintet, San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Boston Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, and the New York Philharmonic. His music has been described as ‘unabashedly tonal, yet sprinkled with touches and glimpses of many other styles’. During an interview in 2004, Ewazen identified one of his primary personal goals in composition as communicating with both audiences and performers, to take listeners on a ‘journey through sound - telling the audience a good story.’ He makes every attempt to refrain from writing to specific audiences, but rather attempts to communicate universally. He also has the desire to be able to communicate the emotions of his music on first hearing. He once stated “I get a real kick out of the idea that performers will say to me that they’ve had fun playing my music.” Notably, Ewazen’s compositions exemplify an attraction to the harmonic and rhythmic drives of American composers such as Copland and Barber. He is a self-proclaimed cross between a neo-Romantic and neo-Impressionistic composer and is very proud of composing music that incorporates definite forms, musical structures, intense rhythmic structures and singable melodic lines.

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Concerto for Marimba and String Orchestra. The Concerto for Marimba and String Orchestra was commissioned by marimbist She-e Wu and composed in 1999. The piece is dedicated to the “Taipei firefighters of Taiwan for their bravery during the tragic earthquake of September 20, 1999.” It was first performed on November 13, 1999 in Taipei, Taiwan by She-e Wu with Paul Chiang as conductor. The listener will appreciate at the outset of this piece that this is an extremely difficult concerto for any soloist to tackle. There are only brief interludes when the soloist can relax in what is predominantly a highly charged piece requiring a high degree of inner rhythmic sense and virtuosic ability. The piece is cast in the traditional three-movement concerto form. The movement opens with solo marimba playing beautifully shimmering rising chord soft sequences which forms the essence of latter thematic sections. The movement then swings into a lovely Allegro Vivace which immediate captivates the highly original fast flowing sounds of the concerto instrument with shimmering string interjections. Middle sections hint at the influence of jazz. A brief cadenza precedes the final push to the conclusion. The second movement can best be described as a modified arch form and contains some magnificent textural writing for the strings. It is easy to appreciate the influence of Copland and Barber here. The soaring thematic passages for the strings are distinctly ‘Westernised’ and panoramic in character and may have been of great interest to contemporary popular composers such as John Williams in development his film scores. The third movement is a very delightful and rhythmically complex rondo. The rhythms in this last movement are quite infectious and folky! The end of the movement harks back to the original chord structure of the opening in a most triumphant Maestoso for the strings and marimba, before the syncopated main theme kicks in again leading to a fitting climax.

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