Bournemouth Symphony Orchestraconcert season 2015 / 16

Great Hall, Exeter UniversityExeter Cathedral

BSO as our Chief Conductor will see him leading us to our 125th Anniversary in 2018 and beyond. These are indeed exciting times.

The season is full of outstanding programmes and I am particularly excited by our artistic rostra, with many performers new to the BSO joining those we have known and loved for many years. For me it is this mix that builds a season into a memorable journey for musicians and audiences alike. We are especially delighted to welcome Augustin Hadelich as our Artist-in-Residence for the season.

With over 50 years of live performances at the Great Hall, I am delighted to share with you our exciting 2015 / 16 concert season – the first under our new partnership with the University of Exeter. As ever our musicians lay at the heart of everything we do at Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and great credit must go to them for their brilliant playing. Kirill Karabits’ inspiring artistic leadership of the organisation is being appreciated by ever growing audiences and we are delighted that Kirill’s renewed commitment to the

The BSO has a unique remit to provide world-class music and cultural engagement to communities across the South and South West and in doing so brings national and international recognition to our region. Your support has never been more important to sustain the future of this cultural beacon.

I would like to thank everyone who supports this remarkable organisation.

Dougie Scarfe Chief Executive

Welcome

weberEuryanthe Overture

brahms Piano Concerto No. 1

saint-saens Symphony No. 3 ‘Organ’

Yan Pascal Tortelierconductor

Louis Lortie piano

Organ Symphony

Recognised at once as a landmark, Saint-Saëns’ Third Symphony had a powerful impact on later symphonists with its unconventional form and extended thematic development from a few simple opening ideas. It reveals a genuine flair for sumptuous orchestral colour, suave and unforgettable melody and brilliant craftsmanship – the zenith of his symphonic output. Brahms spent the greater part of the 1850s building his first orchestral masterpiece, the D minor Piano Concerto, out of material meant for other works. It is a bold and daring work, stormy and dramatic, tender

and lyrical, and filled with youthful passion and surging power written at a time of intense personal experiences for Brahms, most of which revolved around his complicated relationship with Robert and Clara Schumann. Schumann himself appraised Weber’s operatic gem as “a chain of sparkling jewels from beginning to end – all brilliant and flawless.”

friday

9 october 7.30 pm

Louis Lortie

jc bachAmadis des Gaules:Overture & SuitemozartViolin Concerto No.6 in D

mozartSymphony No.31 ‘Paris’mozartChaconne from Idomeneo

Reinhard Goebelconductor

Mirijam Contzenviolin

Mozart by Goebel

Arriving in Paris in 1778, Mozart soon started writing for the Parisian taste for colour and excitement, and Symphony No.31 certainly offers entertainment of the highest order, grabbing the listener’s attention instantly and continuing with athletic energy and brilliant vitality and confidence. Mozart’s compositional development is also apparent in the controversial Violin ConcertoK271a but is it Mozart or not? Either way it is certainly worthy

of performance with its richnessof orchestral writing and dashing solo flourishes. More of a grand rondo than a traditional chaconne, Mozart crafted a richly scored, dignified and noble orchestral interlude reflecting the opera’s central theme of averted disaster and final harmonious conclusion. Also written for a Paris premiere in 1779, Johann Christian Bach’s opera did not receive public success, a pity as the music is dynamic and accomplished.

thursday

22 october 7.30 pm

Supported by

Old Mill Accountantsand Financial Planners

mozartSonata in F Major

schumannFantasy in C Major

chopinNocturne in C minor

Polonaise in F-sharp minorbeethoven

Sonata in F minor‘Appassionata’

John Lillpiano

John Lill Piano Recital

Arguably Britain's most well known pianist, who has recently celebrated his 70th birthday with a highly acclaimed complete Beethoven Sonata Cycle, John Lill first came to international attention when he won the coveted Tchaikovsky prize in 1970 and is known for his aristocratic interpretations of Beethoven and the great masters of the 19th and 20th century piano repertoire. He has been a popular visitor to the BSO for over forty years and this is a special opportunity to hear him in recital.

friday

20 november 7.30 pm

Jane Ferns

John Lill

Supported by

BSO Endowment Trust

beethovenPiano Concerto No.4elgarSymphony No.2

Vassily Sinaiskyconductor

Kirill Gersteinpiano

With references to the brilliant warmth and light of Italy and the rugged grandeur of the Cornish coast, Elgar’s Second Symphony is far more complex and deeply personal than his First. Riddled with doubts, questioning and conflict it reflects not only the true spirit of the age but also the personality of the composer as it meanders from extrovert

exuberance to melancholy introversion. Elgar himself stated that “I have written out my soul.”In this most lyrical, poetic and fantastical of his concertos, Beethoven does not abandon Mozartian concerto form but imbues it with a genuinely romantic voice. It is ardent and melancholy, heroic and ethereal, anguished and whimsical.

Elgar Unmaskedthursday

26 november 7.30 pm

Kirill Gerstein

“the bso’s performance on this recording illuminates

prokofiev’s scores with sensitivity and panache, and in the case of the

first symphony, refreshing a well-known work with

ear-catching spark”The TelegraphOnyx CD of

Prokofiev Symphonies 1 & 2November 2014

Matt King and Carol Paige

Sibelius 150

sibeliusThe Tempest SuitegriegPiano ConcertosibeliusTapiolasibeliusSymphony No. 7

Kirill Karabitsconductor

Juho Pohjonenpiano

friday

11 december 7.30 pm

The incidental music for The Tempest, the tone poem Tapiola and the Seventh Symphony were Sibelius’ last significant compositions. Possibly the most ambitious and extraordinary symphony in the repertoire – a work of great confidence and affirmation – the Seventh is more a sort of giant rondo. Comprising one seamless flow of thematic development it builds from a few melodic scraps towards a final upward sweep and trombone hymn that

seems to reach out to infinity. Contrastingly, Tapiola is dusky, mysterious and brooding – evoking the god of the forest and a seemingly endless northern landscape untouched by human warmth, whilst the seldom performed music for Shakespeare’s final play is full of beauty, imagination and power. With its dreamlike, intoxicating atmosphere of magical sonorities it is the perfect foil for Grieg’s nearly perfect concerto, itself inspired by the Scandinavian countryside.

Last Night of the Christmas Proms

Kick off Christmas with our fun-packed concert for all the family, featuring seasonal classics old and new, all wrapped up with a sprinkling of magic and sparkle. A rollercoaster of Christmas favourites lies in store, including Jingle Bells, White Christmas, Sleigh Ride, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas and It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year. All this plus a selection of popular songs from the best of West End and Broadway musicals.

Pete Harrisonconductor

Louise Dearmansinger

Stephen Wellersinger

Holly Randall and Tom Beer

tuesday

22 december 7.30 pm

Aleksandar Markovicconductor

Rebecca Bottonesoprano

New Year Johann Strauss Gala

The BSO’s annual series of traditional New Year concerts sees the return of Vienna based conductor Aleksandar Markovic. Enjoy a gala concert featuring the full symphonic forces of the BSO performing Johann Strauss as it should be heard, bringing to the fore his great craftsmanship that made him the talk of the Viennese dance halls.

saturday

2january 3pm

Colette Overdijk and Mark Derudder

Pete Harrisonconductor

Heroes & Aliens epic galactic soundtracks

Join the BSO and boldy go where no orchestra has gone before in another blockbuster concert featuring music from some of the most iconic and successful space movies of all time, including Apollo 13, Star Wars, Star Trek, ET, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Avatar and War of the Worlds... plus many more.

thursday

4 february 7.30 pm

Colette Overdijk and Mark Derudder

stravinskyDumbarton Oakstchaikovsky Violin ConcertoschumannSymphony No.1 ‘Spring’

Kirill Karabitsconductor

Augustin Hadelich violin

Hadelich plays Tchaikovsky

Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto is a perennial favourite of violinists and audiences. Vibrant and confident, ironically, it dates from a crisis-laden two years in his life after the breakdown of his disastrous marriage. Folk music and French chanson merge with dazzling fireworks in this marvellous showpiece. When the Spring Symphony burst forth in a torrent of confidence and creativity in those famous four days of “symphonic fire...

sleepless nights,” Schumann was still a newcomer to orchestral music; yet it possesses the most successful use of orchestral colour that he ever obtained. Stravinsky’s concerto for orchestra derives inspiration not only from Bach but also from musical ideas from across the entire 18th century, giving it a particularly eclectic air – a blend of traditional counterpoint and fugal writing with Stravinsky’s spiky melodic lines and syncopated rhythms.

thursday

18 february 7.30 pm

“the essence of hadelich’s playing is beauty:

revelling in the myriadways of making a phrase

come alive on the violin,delivering the musical

message with no technicalimpediments whatsoever”

Washington PostJanuary 2015

Supported by

University of Exeter

chaussonSoir de fête

de fallaNights in the

Gardens of Spaindebussy

Pelléas et Mélisande Suitestravinsky

The Firebird (1919)

Fabien Gabelconductor

Frank Braleypiano

Firebird

One of the most impressive calling cards in the history of music, The Firebird is a work of such brilliance that it could only have been written by Stravinsky, mixing the orchestral mastery of his Russian mentors with the rhythmic vitality of the revolutionary about to burst out of his shell. The musical language shifts between exotic, chromatic gestures to illustrate the supernatural dimension and

the sing-song simplicity of folk song for the mortals creating a dazzling, evocative atmosphere. A Moorish exoticism is also present in de Falla’s set of symphonic impressions of the great gardens of Granada and Cordoba, incorporating dance rhythms of Andalusia, whilst Chausson’s more personal orchestral picture postcard of nocturnal revelries is altogether more dreamlike and ethereal.

thursday

3 march 7.30 pm

Fabien Gabel

js bachSuite No.3brittenSerenade for Tenor, Horn & StringsmozartSymphony No.39

Kirill Karabits conductor

John Mark Ainsley tenor

Nicolas Fleuryhorn

English Serenade

Hauntingly beautiful and compellingly emotional, Britten’s Serenade is an insightful and imaginative setting of poems which span five centuries of English verse, united under a loosely connecting theme of evening, the night-time and sleep. The music is immediately gripping, the tenor’s penetrating vocal lines matched in spades by the wonderful horn calls. It is without question a genuine masterwork of the 20th century. Mozart’s Symphony No.39 opens

grandly, with a darkly dramatic introduction in which orchestral texture and harmonic dissonance increase to near breaking point.This gives way to superlatively crafted work of contrasting melodic invention and rhythmic and contrapuntal exploration. Bach’s orchestral suite in the French style opens with a majestic overture, a curtain raiser to a series of exquisite dances which include the famous ‘Air on a G string’ as well as a jubilant gavotte and final festive gigue.

thursday

7 april 7.30 pm

wagnerTannhäuser Overture

waltonCello Concerto

sibeliusSymphony No.2

Jac van Steen conductor

Quirine Viersen cello

Fire & Ice

The Second Symphony, from its first performance to today, remains one of Sibelius’ most popular works. Its importance at the time was also due to the Finnish struggle for independence and early reactions to the work included some efforts to read into it an overtly nationalistic, patriotic programme. Much attention was focused on the heroic finale, of course, but also on the long, anguished slow movement, music of great passion and pain, surging along in dramatic waves toward a grim conclusion.

Walton’s Cello Concerto is introspective and reflective. Wistful romanticism and lush harmonies evoke the peace of the English countryside. It is a carefully balanced work; sizzling virtuosity is occasionally interrupted by moments of poignant lyricism. The overture to Tannhäuser presents a kind of synopsis of the operatic action, interweaving the struggle between sacred and profane love.

thursday

21 april 7.30 pm

Jac van SteenEdward Kay

brahms Violin Concerto mendelsohnn Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyageelgar Enigma Variations

Kirill Karabits conductor

Vilde Frang violin

Enigma at Exeter Cathedral

A work dazzling in its ingenuity, technical skill and range of expression Enigma Variations was an immediate popular success and transformed Elgar from a moderately successful provincial composer to a national and international figure. Musically, the original theme is remarkable in that it has the same rhythm whether it is played backwards or forwards and the two halves of

the phrase suggest two different keys, one major and one minor which builds much drama into the melody. Brahms’ concerto stands as one of the largest and most challenging works in the solo violin repertoire. It is a song for the violin on a symphonic scale – a lyrical outpouring of joyous energy from its confident yet wistful opening to fiery finish.

saturday

7 may 7.30 pm

“karabits’ brahms cycle underlines just

what an exciting prospect this young ukrainian

conductor is. he combined scholarly rigour with

a freshness and buoyancy that never flagged”

The GuardianBrahms Symphony Cycle

Poole, LighthouseMay 2014

Anna Pyne and Kevin Smith

The BSO and you

In the last year Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra has performed over 115 symphonic concerts with a further 35 ensemble performances and more than 300 separate school workshops, recitals, tea dances and other community activity across the South and South West of England and beyond. It is not surprising then, that you, our loyal supporters and audience members, voted the BSO the World’s Favourite Orchestra in the 2014 Bachtrack global poll of symphony orchestras.

Over 125,000 people attended a BSO concert and BSO Participate engaged with more than 30,000 children, students and community groups including working with people with dementia, special ‘meet the music’ seminars and free concerts for primary schools which saw the BSO play to over 6,000 youngsters. And did you know? Any child under 18 can come to almost every BSO concert for just £1!

In order to support all this activity and maintain the high artistic standards that we strive to attain in everything we do, we are increasinglyreliant on financial support above and beyond the grants we receive and the income we generate.

there are many ways that you can give to the bso

Become a Member from as little as £60 per year, or if you give more you can join our growing community of Performance Champions and Patrons.

You might also like to consider leaving a legacy to the BSO in your will or simply go online and make a donation today.

We also offer a number of great corporate sponsorship packages.

To find out more about how you can give to the BSO call our Development Department on 01202 644734 or email development@bsorchestra.co.uk

academic partner

media partner

public funders

partners

in-kind partners

principal academic partner

principal media partner

principal funders

affiliates

broadcast partner

trusts & foundations

With special thanks to Paul Hamlyn Foundation for its support of BSO Participate

Esmée Fairbairn FoundationGarfield Weston FoundationThe Leverhulme TrustThe Foyle FoundationThe Valentine Charitable TrustFlaghead Charitable TrustThe Michael & Ilse Katz FoundationBasil Samuel Charitable TrustCoral Samuel Charitable TrustThe Marchus TrustThe Mercers’ CompanyCressy FoundationThe Pitt-Rivers Charitable TrustRalph Vaughan Williams TrustThe Garrick Charitable TrustGess Charitable TrustThe Radcliffe TrustThe VEC Acorn TrustAnthony du Boulay Charitable TrustThe Norman Family Charitable Trust

principal patronsDavid & Jill PetersRobert WhiteTerence & Annette O’Rourke

thank youTo our Performance Patrons and Champions and to everyone who supports the BSO through donations, membership or by volunteering their time.

FREE ‘Meet the Music’ pre-concert talks take place before most concerts (not 20 Nov, 22 Dec, 2 Jan & 7 May) at 6.40pm in the Forum Alumni Auditorium.

box officesExeter Northcott TheatreStocker RoadExeter, EX4 4QB

Exeter Visitor Information & Tickets, Dix’s Field Exeter, EX1 1GF

All concerts take place at the Great Hall, Exeter University except for Saturday 7 May which is at Exeter Cathedral.

concessionsThe BSO offers the following concessions to most concerts. Please note that only one concession applies per ticket and that concessions are not available retrospectively. Proof of status is required at the time of collection. All concessions and discounts are subject to availability.

BSO Kids for a QuidUnder 18s: £1 per ticket (some exclusions apply).

BSO Vibes£5 per ticket (for 18–25ssigned up to the scheme).

ticket pricesTickets go on general sale on Wednesday 2 September.

£38 £32 £24 £20 £14

John Lill Recital (20 Nov)

£19

A £2 booking fee per transaction is payable for all ticket sales except for cash sales in person.

50% discount forFull-time studentsWheelchair users and up to one companionPatrons on Jobseeker’s Allowance or Income Support

There are no discounts for disabled patrons, but an accompanying companion qualifies for a 50% discount.

Why not book a package of concerts and save money?Generous discounts are available if you buy 4 concerts or more and if you book for 11 or 12 concerts you will receive a massive 40% off!

Multibuy Discounts11–12 concerts 40%9 –10 concerts 30%6 – 8 concerts 20%4 –5 concerts 10%

Group booking discounts10 or more tickets 10%20 or more tickets 20%30 or more tickets 30%Group bookings must be paid in full one month in advance of the concert date, after which tickets will be released for resale.

tickets01392 493493bsolive.com

by roadThe Great Hall is situated on the main Streatham campus of Exeter University. It is adjacent to the Northcott Theatre which is signposted from Exeter City Centre. The campus lies to the north of the City Centre. From the M5 and A30 to the west, the best route to take from the ring road (B3181) is Pinhoe Road (B3212) and enter the campus via Union Road and Prince of Wales Road.

satnav use postcode EX4 4QJ

great hall parkingCar parking is available on campus – free from 6pm. We advise that you allow plenty of time to find a space as it is often very busy. The main car parks are Car Parks A, B and D as marked on the map. Blue badge holders can use the Car Park C at the top of Stocker Road.

cathedral parkingCity Centre car parks are all within easy walking distance. The nearest is the Cathedral and Quay multi-storey on Lower Coombe Street, EX11DX

Great HallExeter UniversityStocker RoadExeter, EX4 4PY

Exeter CathedralThe CloistersExeter, EX1 1HS

public transportThe Streatham Campus is served by the Stagecoach D and H bus routes which run all evening from the City Centre. The bus stop is at North Park Road opposite the Northcott Theatre.

Most local bus services stop at Exeter Bus and Coach Station which is a 5-minute walk from the Cathedral.

Exeter has two railway stations – Exeter St David’s (main station) and Central. Exeter St David’s Station is a 10-minute walk from the Streatham Campus and taxis are available. Central Station is a 5-minute walk from the Cathedral.

Kirill Karabits Chief Conductor

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra2 Seldown Lane, Poole, BH15 1UF Tel: 01202 670611 www.bsolive.com

BSO is a Charity Registered No.208520 and a company limited by guarantee Registered No.538351 England.

All information is correct at the time of going to press – however artists are subject to availability and the BSO reserves the right to make any necessary changes from the advertised programmes.

www.bsolive.com Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra

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