newsletter nov 2019 amended - harrogate symphony orchestra...adagio for strings and organ albinoni...

 

Volume 8. Issue 1 October 2019

Welcome . . . No one can say we have been resting on our laurels this year. What, with our usual 3 concerts, the HCC Christmas concert and then to be invited to perform in Ripon Cathedral with only 3 rehearsals . . . very scary. We couldn’t really refuse though, could we? It was, as we expected, a wonderful experience for our first time and to have a full audience was the icing on the cake! For this to be followed with even more scary yet amazingly exciting news . . . well, you’ll just have to read on! Bryan

Spot the Logo Well, did you guess where I was last newsletter? It was, of course, outside the Albert Hall. Now this one is a little more tricky . . . any ideas?

www.harrogateorchestra.org.uk

http://www.harrogateorchestra.org.ukhttp://www.harrogateorchestra.org.uk

 


Concert talk We do love it when we are busy so no surprises last year: it was hectic as ever.

HCC Christmas Concert December 15th Another smoothly operated concert with nearly 300 children milling around the 75 HCS singers and 100 HSO players. The audience was a little disappointing but do you remember what the night was like? The hour before we were due to start, the heavens opened and this obviously had a big effect on the numbers that turned out: notably the ones that would have just come and paid on the door. Nevertheless there were still nearly 1000 excited parents and grandparents and the quality of singing from the children didn’t disappoint: I’m sure they get better every year.

Another new rota this time for the 14th December and already everything is in place for another stunning show.

Rehearsals from 2018. You will never guess what piece we are rehearsing!

Mar 16 Royal Hall Poet and Peasant Overture Suppé Piano concert no.5 (soloist: Harry Fox) Beethoven Symphony no 2 Ives This was always going to be a contentious programme: not so much the overture or concerto, but who had ever heard of Charles Ives, never mind the fact that he had written a symphony? The overture was tremendous fun with a wonderfully played solo by our very own Fran Hannan. The concerto didn’t disappoint either with a brilliant performance by Harry Fox. If you don’t believe how good it all was, just watch this video recording of us in action: h"ps://youtu.be/xIc2ewLVfqgI was quite relieved to find that a good number of players actually enjoyed the Ives. Certainly it was not the norm for us and although intended as a bit of fun I hope you enjoyed the memorable moments too: some great tunes and such a noteworthy ending! Strangely enough, I have had more people writing in and commenting upon their approval of the performance, than any other piece we have done recently! What a strange world?

https://youtu.be/xIc2ewLVfqghttp://www.harrogateorchestra.org.ukhttp://www.harrogateorchestra.org.ukhttps://youtu.be/xIc2ewLVfqg

 


A Very British Proms Royal Hall June 22nd 2019 English Folk Song Suite Vaughan-Williams Elizabethan Serenade and Binge The Watermill Jupiter (from The Planets) Holst The Lark Ascending Vaughan-Williams By the Sleepy Lagoon Coates March from the Little Suite Trevor Duncan 4 Scottish Dances Malcolm Arnold  Crown Imperial Walton Chanson de Matin Elgar Agatha Howard Blake Nimrod (Enigma Variations) Elgar Pomp and Circumstance March no. 1 Elgar Memory from Cats Lloyd-Webber Fantasia on British Sea Songs Wood/Sergeant and Rule Britannia Jerusalem Parry This was always going to be a crowd puller and we were delighted when 665 enthusiastic audience members turned up. It was, as always on these occasions, a really wonderful atmosphere with the audience fully involved in the proceedings. There were many highlights and the orchestra played their hearts out: again just listen on our website and you will hear for yourselves. The Scottish Dances certainly went down well, as did Richard Fletcher’s sublime performance of the Lark Ascending (he was so impressed with our playing by the way). Laura Jackson’s singing was outstanding and also brought back memories of her songs from the shows performance! For many, the highlight of the evening was meeting and being conducted by Howard Blake. There was something about him that everyone just warmed to. He had a whale of a time and loved every minute of his excursion to Harrogate. So much so that in our time together the following morning, we chatted about a very interesting project . . . read about this later.

Howard inspecting my pond.

Howard is the one on the left!


  www.harrogateorchestra.org.uk

. . . and yet to come: Nov 16 Overture Magic Flute Mozart Violin concerto (Bartosz Woroch) Brahms Symphony 6 op 74 (Pathétique) Tchaikovsky Dec 14 HCC The next rotation of schools.

2020 Mar 21 Overture Romeo and Juliet Tchaikovsky Piano concerto no. 2 and (Julian Saphir) Shostakovich Scherzo from Concerto Symphonique no. 4 Litolff Symphony 7 Beethoven

June 27 The Harrogate Proms: for the Harrogate Hospital Trust Harrogate Convention Centre. Compered by BBC’s Harry Gration Yes, the big one! As always, the summer concert is always a little different, but in this case, massively so. It will be the first time all local choral groups will have the opportunity to come and sing together for a local cause: and all proceeds are in aid of the Harrogate Hospital & Community Charity. The charity trust board will suggest what piece of equipment we could put the proceeds towards. We are looking for a balanced choir of 350 singers representing the Harrogate district. Background info and applications are on our website. A special committee of HSO, HCS and the team from the hospital charity trust has been meeting for over a year to organise this event and presently we are trying to secure sponsors. Andrew Padmore from the HCS and yours truly will conduct the concert. Programme: 1st half O Fortuna Orff Va Pensiero (Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves) from Nabucco Verdi Festive Overture Shostakovich The Armed Man (Suite) Jenkins Grand March from Aida Verdi

Ripon Cathedral Organ Festival. July 13th Toccata & Fugue in D minor Bach arr. Wood Adagio for strings and organ Albinoni arr. Giazotto Symphony No 1 in D minor Guilmant Symphony no. 3 Saint-Saens

We were all looking forward to performing for the first time in this magnificent building but for my part, I was not looking forward to the problems churches often bring to performing in such odd acoustics. Well, how wrong could I be? It was wonderful and the balance was excellent. People could hear clearly and everyone thoroughly enjoyed the whole event: audience and players alike.


 

November 21 Overture to be decided Violin concerto (Nadia Ivkovs) Sibelius Symphony to be confirmed but thoughts on Sibelius 2/6 Vaughan Williams 5, or Borodin 2 If we do the Sibelius, we could do an all Sibelius concert. Good idea? December 5 HCC Please note the earlier date for the next family gathering.

December 20 Royal Hall: The Snowman Symphony Yes, this is the one the whole of Harrogate, North Yorkshire, indeed the UK will be talking about . . . the world premier of Howard Blake’s The Snowman Symphony. After our success in June with the Very British Proms, Howard was overjoyed with the whole affair. So much so that he was adamant that we should continue the wonderful relationship. I told him that we invariably perform Walking in the Air and he then told me about his Snowman Symphony. A piece was commissioned by HRH Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah Ibni Almarhum Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah Alha. As Howard had material from his stage show as well as the ballet and the film, he decided to combine them into one, hour-length symphonic version for the Sultan. Howard was keen that the HSO should perform this work, and I was asked if we would do it. After 0.34 seconds I managed to get a chilled “yes!” response out! Now that you know about it, I can start getting the score and parts together. The idea is that we rehearse the music in the 3 weeks after our June concert, before the summer break. You keep the music and we revisit it after the early HCC concert on the 5th December. So we will have another 2 rehearsals plus the day itself. We hope to have stills of the film on large screens and I asked Howard if he would narrate. It comes with a narrator and choir as well as the treble soloist. Have a look on youtube at this short extract:

https://youtu.be/fmWo5XHmvcE


2nd half: Zadok the Priest Handel Look at the World Rutter Polovstian Dances Borodin Pomp and Circumstance no.1 Elgar Fantasia on British Sea Songs and Rule Britannia Wood/Sergeant Jerusalem Parry

Exciting or what!

https://youtu.be/fmWo5XHmvcEhttp://www.harrogateorchestra.org.ukhttps://youtu.be/fmWo5XHmvcEhttp://www.harrogateorchestra.org.uk

 


Welcome to our new members: Lois Parker: violin I have just joined HSO this September. I knew about Harrogate Symphony Orchestra as I have been to a couple of concerts to listen to my Dad, who joined the orchestra earlier this year. When I was at primary school I also sang in the Christmas concerts in the Conference Centre at least twice – so I have experienced Bryan’s jokes before! I am currently in the 6th form at St Aidan’s starting my A levels (Biology, Maths, History and Religious Studies). I have played the violin since I was four and a half and play with school, music centre and county orchestras. It is nice to be part of a large string section with HSO – often the string sections I play with only have a few desks. When I am not playing the violin I enjoy a variety of sports, including netball and orienteering (I am in the Yorkshire squad).

Adrian Parker: violin I joined HSO just after Christmas last year – and was not immediately put off by the Charles Ives! I hadn’t played in a big orchestra for nearly 30 years. I knew of HSO because I used to see them at the Christmas concerts in the Conference Centre when various of my 3 children (who now range from 21 to 16) sang in primary school choirs. I had often thought I might see if I could play with HSO at some point – when there was time and perhaps when I could no longer run and mountain bike. I am pleased I have given it a go earlier than I planned – prompted by finding that I have a hand condition called Dupuytren's contracture. It may never come to anything, or not for decades – but it has the capacity to affect the function of a number of fingers through shortening ligaments – so I thought I would join while I could. I am pleased that we are now playing Tchaikovsky’s 6th Symphony – which was the first full symphony that I played in Harrogate Schools Symphony Orchestra aged 15. I work as a lawyer helping to manage a national law firm that focuses on supporting the NHS and wider health sector. Outside work I enjoy competing in various forms of orienteering on foot and on mountain bike.

2021 March 20 Soloist: the winner of the Beethoven society Piano Competition. Programme ideas/thoughts to Bryan

June26: A Night of Dance Thanks to all those who continue to throw ideas at me, I now have a long list of music associated with dance. The idea of the night will be to play some HSO only numbers, some dances with a live local youth dance troupe and more dances with a renown adult couple! Wouldn’t it be great to do Libertango and Danzon no. 2 again! We are trying also to get the theme from the BBC Strictly show. Watch this space.


 

Sue Hibbert: violin  I started playing violin at the age of 7 as we had “an old one in the loft”. Whilst it was a little unfortunate that this was a full size violin, who would have guessed that this random event would open up such a fantastic world of music for me? Apart from having time away from playing for career and family time (daughter’s off to Uni this term! How did that happen?), I am as smitten and determined to improve as I ever was and play as much as I can fit in. When I’m not playing or working (I have two part time jobs as the HR Manager for two charities in Harrogate and Leeds), I’m in the

garden trying to make improvements there too.


Other news Coast to coast: Liz Latta (viola) Thanks to all who supported us on our Coast to Coast cycle adventure with Bedale High School. We made it, just about it one piece, I’m hoping my swollen chin and spectacular purple chin bruise will have faded a little by Thursday! I was determined to get up Park Rash without stopping but the hill got the better of me. Rather than just putting my foot down, my pride came before the proverbial fall! I somehow managed to scrape both knees and elbows and in a desperate effort not to face plant the road I landed on my chin! I was soon back on my bike (embarrassment allowed me to jump up quickly in the hope that nobody noticed my fall) and after a few steps to get me past the worst hairpin bend, I made it to the top, eventually! The whole group had a fantastic time despite a very wet first day, mixed with a little hail! One poor lad failed to stop at the bottom of a hill (coming down from Park Rash) flying over a wall and

landing in a pile of nettles, was painful, but probably saved him from a more serious injury than a fractured wrist. He was there to meet us, as we got off the bus back in Bedale, smiling and determined to do the whole thing next time. Thomas, who is recovering from Cancer, joined us on the last day, his dad had done the whole ride with us but was very happy to see Thomas speed ahead of him on the big hill heading up towards Scalby. 

Sue Griffin: violin I'm a returner to orchestral playing after a gap measured in decades. I retired recently and my first action in this new life phase was to return to the fun of music with the HSO. I love anything to do with engines and motorsport, gardening, growing food and cooking.


 

A hectic Social life continues for HSO members . . . and here’s yet another photo of our leader of the 2nd violins, Viv, with a glass in hand. I am assuming this is not on a concert night before the gig

Marion Field Marion you might know had a bad fall over the summer. Thankfully she is making excellent progress and will be back before long.

Triana and Larry: a girl, Freya, for this lovely couple. If you know Larry, I think you’ll see that Freya has his looks: much to Triana’s annoyance. As Triana says, “I agree, she looks exactly like Larry! Very unfair considering I did all the hard work”!

Becky Else Becky played with us last year in the ‘young performers’ concert. After a 10 month trial, Becky has a full time 1st Violin position with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. She says she is 'delighted to have joined the society and realises how proud the Liverpool people are of their orchestra. Her and Phil have just bought a house on the Wirral and are excited to be 'putting down roots', although Phil is still touring on Annie the Musical.

Mum (Pam who plays viola with us on occasions) and Dad are helping out with decorating!


Team Latta, with generous support from The Harrogate Symphony Orchestra, raised £430 and with all the other fund raising, the Bedale Coast to Coast Community Cycle Ride should have accumulated a substantial amount for the Candle lighters, children’s cancer charity. Thank you so much for eating the flapjack and sponsoring us.


 Doris’s birthday do! A group of us met up with Doris to celebrate her 90th birthday. She wasn’t expecting the crowd and had a wonderful time. Doris was in the 2nd violins for many years and she still comes to concerts.


Harrogate Homeless Project Presentation

Over the last couple of years we have supported this charity and already raised £2000 by the time this photo was taken in February.

Knaresborough Bed Race In June Harrogate Symphony Orchestra (HSO) entered a team in the bed race for the first time. For those not familiar with this local tradition (where have you been??) the Great Knaresborough Bed Race is something unique: it is part fancy dress pageant and part gruelling time trial over a 2.4 mile course, ending with a swim through the icy waters of the River Nidd. It has been organised by the Knaresborough Lions for over 50 years and is a must-see event in the Knaresborough calendar, as well as raising thousands of pounds for local charities. According to the Bed Race website, runners have to be fit, fanatical and frankly a bit mad. Our team were certainly two out of three, and we had to work hard on improving our fitness!


HSO’s team was made up of a couple of veteran bed-racers, coaching the rest of us who were entering for the first time. The HSO bed race virgins included Sharon Gladish (viola), David Annett (horn), Ruth Fewster-Neale (cello), Liz Clegg, and Linnea Stokes (violins). The team was initiated by Jocasta Perry (viola) who had run the race before and fortunately had a racing “bed” in her garage! Jocasta and cellist Dominic Gallagher were the team marshals on the day. David’s young son Ben was the plucky passenger who had to sit on the bed throughout the race and the river crossing. Our team had quite a mixed range of fitness; including Linnea who was also training for a marathon, alongside others (unnamed!) who struggle to get round a 5k parkrun. We had about 10 weeks of training, including regular practice runs out with the bed and trial swims across the river (and yes, we found out it was really cold!). We also undertook our own personal training to build up our strength and stamina for the uphill pushing! We were determined to have fun and run a great race, to do HSO proud.

Our first training run, before we knew what we had let ourselves in for!

The team also had the creative challenge of turning our metal bed frame into a carnival float for the Parade. The theme this year was “Yorkshire”, and we wanted our float to also have a musical connection. We settled on “The Dales are Alive with the Sound of Music”. This allowed us all to dress up as nuns and belt out songs from the musical! The float looked amazing on the day, thanks in large part to Liz’s creative skills (making sheep, trees and dry stone walls) and

Jocasta who drilled and secured all the pieces. We were joined by lots of HSO children in the parade who dressed up as animals, or wore HSO t-shirts; handing out sweets and promotional leaflets for the HSO summer concert!

During the race, our favourite stretch along the Waterside The team-training photo, we had just had our first look at the river crossing!

The day itself was the exception to the rule that “it never rains on bed race day”, with torrential rain throughout the morning. However out spirits were raised by the fantastic crowd who still showed up to view the floats and wish us good luck. As nuns, we clearly caught the eye and so appeared on several media videos and were interviewed by a local radio station!

The parade team ready for the float judging

 The rain just eased off for the race itself, and we were really pleased with our performance. We finished a couple of places ahead of our starting position, which meant we overtook more teams than we were overtaken by! Thanks to the encouragement of Ruth and David running at the rear of the bed, we held off a team attempting to overtake us up

the hill, something we were particularly proud of. The river crossing was treacherous, given the high water levels, but we all got across with the bed and its child passenger (this was an achievement in itself!) David’s son Ben was very brave as we lowered him on the bed down the vertical bank into the water (and up the other side!) We were grateful for the

The “HSO” float and team during the parade

assistance of the frogmen and women of Upper Wharfedale Fell Rescue Association who were on hand with guide ropes and rescue poles to keep everyone from drifting down the Nidd towards York. The HSO marshals, Jocasta and Dominic, had a busy day in hi-vis, based at the approach to the river bank. A dramatic shot of the treacherous

river crossing

They were first responders to a runner who collapsed nearby, having to call for emergency help. Team getting out of river (we survived!!)

All in all, the day was fantastic fun. We got some great publicity for HSO, including a full page article in the Harrogate Advertiser before the event as well as lots of public and media interest on the day. We also raised over

£1,400 in sponsorship for the Harrogate Homeless Project, HSO's chosen charity for 2019. We are keen to enter again next year, and if we are successful in securing a place, would welcome other HSO members who want to get involved either as runners or float builders, or in any other capacity.

We stopped for this photo opportunity at St Johns Church on the way home (wearing our Bed Race medals!)

 Mike Kelly November was a sad time for us, with the passing of Mike. A good number of us played for his funeral and Paul and his family and friends were really touched at the support of the HSO. Mike was a real character as you all know and he simply lived for his music: particularly his association with HSO. He rang me most days and loved interrupting me in rehearsals . . . and in concerts! Paul, his son, still comes every week to rehearsals. We really should get him to learn the instrument he always fancies playing. . . the triangle!

Here is Mike in relaxed mode.

By the way, that isn’t a Christmas tree hat he is wearing . . . it just happens to be a tree behind him. What a classic photo . . . (took ages to get)!

Now who is that I wonder . . .surely it can’t be Adam Hawkes? I thought we had better get this photo, just to prove that he does come to rehearsals on occasions.

Jo on the Chase! Having been a fan of The Chase for quite some time now (and maybe secretly having a bit of a crush on Bradley Walsh…..), in a moment of madness last year I decided to apply to be on it and, after a fairly lengthy audition process, I managed to bag myself a spot as a contestant! The episode was filmed last December at Elstree studios, north of London. It was one of the most nerve-wracking experiences I have ever had – but tremendously

 


enjoyable as well. The production team were all fantastic and it was great to meet Bradley and The Dark Destroyer (Shaun Wallace) who was The Chaser in my episode. Unfortunately I didn’t win any money but I was really proud of myself for getting all the way through to the final round and managing not to give any ridiculously stupid answers! If you’ve ever remotely considered applying to go on a game show I would highly recommend it – you’ve got nothing to lose!

View from the bridge of an old fiddler: John Mitchell Some 27 years ago, in September 1992, I had heard from a musical friend that Bryan Western was looking for some more fiddlers to join the Harrogate Symphony Orchestra, recently created from the then existing Harrogate Chamber Orchestra. I went along to a rehearsal in Granby High School and have been playing in the band ever since. In the November concert of that year, one of the works was the Brahms Violin Concerto and here we are playing it again this November (2019). The soloist in 1992 was Laurence Jackson. Looking at the programme, I wondered what might have happened to him since. I discovered that he had risen to become leader of the prestigious City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, although he has now left and gone to Australia. We know that some of “our” soloists have become very well-known indeed, for example, Alison Balsom and it’s gratifying to think that we can play a small part in helping some of these youngsters (as they often are when playing with us) on their way. However, I am really writing these few words to share with you some of the personal highlights of the time I have spent in HSO, which is what started me off looking through some of the old programmes. Here are just three of them but there are many more. In February 1996, HSO undertook a major fundraiser in aid of The Drake Music Project helping the disabled to enjoy music. It was a big undertaking with Ben Frith playing Rach 2 Piano Concerto and a special “One Voice” choir singing Carmina Burana before a full house in the HICC. It was an exciting thing to do, but Bryan spent the week before, paralysed from the waist down, from a viral infection and conducted “Carmina” from a wheelchair. David Greed, leader of the Opera North orchestra, stepped in and conducted the Rachmaninoff and “Meistersinger” overture. The first fiddles “fell off” in a tutti passage in the Rachmaninoff in rehearsal – David Greed politely referred to it as “like a motorway crash” – but it didn’t happen in performance! Conducting “Carmina” was a very brave thing for Bryan to do and the whole concert was a very exciting experience. The reopening of the Royal Hall after restoration was another great musical occasion. For me, this was because it was a chance to play Beethoven 9, which I had not done before. The sheer exhilaration of the great double fugue in the last movement was something I won’t easily forget. My nine year old granddaughter sat in the front row and declaimed, as a keen musical critic, that the “soprano sounded like an alarm going off”! Last, and greatest I think for me, was our much more recent performance of Shostakovich 5 just a few years ago. My own feeling was that we have never so much got “into the music” as we did on that occasion and, technically difficult as it was, we were able to do something that we don’t always manage and that is to play both the notes and the music. We did actually attempt Shost 5 in February 1994 in the Lounge Hall at the end of a very long programme and I think it was very much more a case of playing most of the right notes mostly in the right order...we really have improved since those days! Looking forward to the old friends, Mozart, Brahms and Tchaikovsky this November, I get as much of a buzz out of playing in HSO as I always did and still look forward to the Thursday rehearsals. I am probably the least qualified fiddler to play in the first violins. My musical upbringing was very patchy. Although I had a good teacher – his early career was spent playing in orchestras on ocean liners – he obviously managed to avoid the Titanic – we didn’t have an orchestra at my school and I learned orchestral playing in the early days in the Scarborough Light Orchestra, an amateur band with a sprinkling of ex-professionals from the then recently defunct Yorkshire Symphony Orchestra and playing mainly orchestral pot-boilers.


Friends of the HSO. Many thanks to all those who have encouraged people to come to the next concert. Before bookings open, the ‘Friends’ and their guests often number almost 150. An amazing number. A logistical nightmare for Kathy but wonderful news for us. Just think what could happen if we all sold just 2 tickets each in addition to these . . . guaranteed audiences: no worries about empty spaces!

. . . and finally: ➢ You are aware of the old saying ‘any publicity is good publicity’ so please

forward this newsletter to all your friends and relations, especially now, to promote our November concert.

➢ Should anyone know of any individuals or firms that you think might be prepared to support us with the June 2020, event would you please point them in our direction. Sponsorship could be crucial in securing a substantial fee for the hospital trust.

It was run by a local music teacher, Ronnie Cole, who gave me a lot of encouragement just when I needed it . Somehow I managed to avoid taking any AB exams, which may well have been a blessing because I was never worrying about the next Grade “around the corner” and so always played just for fun. When I suggested to my daughters that perhaps I should take Grade 8, their advice was “don’t do it Dad, you’ll probably fail!” Ah, the wisdom of children!!

Website Looking good isn’t it! If you have any comments about it, please do not hesitate to mention it to Richard in the trombones. HSO players can now pay subs directly to our bank account, fill in your membership, look for the rehearsal schedule, listen to our recordings etc etc. So much to see, read and digest. Many thanks for such a great job Richard.


newsletter nov 2019 amended - harrogate symphony orchestra...adagio for strings and organ albinoni...

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