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Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra: Online Concert Programme | Thu 3 October 2024

Bristol Beacon presents 

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra with Karl-Heinz Steffens & Paul Lewis

Thu 3 October 2024, 7.30pm

This evening’s performance:

Karl-Heinz Steffens Conductor
Paul Lewis Piano
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
Ladies of Bournemouth Symphony Chorus

Vaughan Williams In the Fen Country
Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 3
Interval
Holst The Planets

Pre-concert talk hosted by music educator Jonathan James

 

Welcome

Welcome to the 2024/25 Orchestral Season at Bristol Beacon. Building on the success of our reopening season last year, we are proud to present another fine mix of virtuosic artists and inspiring orchestras between October 2024 and June 2025. Our Orchestra in Residence, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, will be with us on six occasions, including twice with their new Chief Conductor Mark Wigglesworth. We’re also delighted to welcome back our Associate Artists, the London Symphony Orchestra, with their new Chief Conductor Sir Antonio Pappano and Principal Guest Conductor Gianandrea Noseda.

Additionally, we welcome John Wilson’s Sinfonia of London, the London Philharmonic Orchestra with the dynamic Karina Canellakis and international orchestras from Hungary, Prague and Buenos Aires. Distinguished soloists this season include Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Nicola Benedetti and Sir Stephen Hough. Plus we have an exceptionally special solo recital in store from Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson, who plays Beethoven’s last three piano sonatas on the Steinway piano he helped choose for Bristol Beacon.

This is my first season as CEO of Bristol Beacon and, as someone who has worked closely with orchestras over many years, I am very pleased that we are presenting this season in Beacon Hall. Our Hall is already celebrated for its excellent acoustic and wonderful atmosphere for orchestral repertoire, and I hope you will agree that Bristol Beacon is a welcoming and exciting space for our visiting orchestras.

Thank you very much for supporting our orchestral season.

With best wishes,

Simon Wales
Chief Executive, Bristol Beacon

Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958): In the Fen Country

In the Fen Country is the earliest of Vaughan Williams’s orchestral works that he did not withdraw. Its first version was completed by April 1904 and he revised it twice, in 1905 and 1907, before its first performance on 22 February 1909, at the Queen’s Hall, London, conducted by Thomas Beecham. He revised the orchestration in 1935, and despite further performances, particularly by Beecham, more than three decades elapsed before its publication in 1969, well after the composer’s death. Vaughan Williams dedicated it to his cousin, Randolph Wedgwood.

By the time of its premiere the fruits of Vaughan Williams’s folksong collecting activities in East Anglia had become apparent in the three Norfolk Rhapsodies, composed in 1906, in which he quotes from the melodies he had found. However, what is striking about In the Fen Country is the composer’s attempts to find an individual, distinctive voice through composing a main theme of his own, heard on cor anglais at the opening, which shows folk melody characteristics, as well as the influence of the Tudor masters like Tallis and Byrd. Nevertheless at the same time he cannot throw off the shackles of late Romantic chromatic harmony, particularly as the work builds to its climax. All in all it may be likened to a chrysalis struggling to emerge.

Vaughan Williams described the work as a ‘symphonic impression’, and it evokes the flat, lonely landscapes north of Cambridge, with Ely at its centre, which he would have known from his years studying at Trinity College. In its shifting light and shade it conjours superbly the scudding cloudscapes of the fenland. Particularly effective is the conclusion when the opening melody returns embedded in the hushed, rich sonority of divided violas, before the section leader’s solo fades to nothing.

© Andrew Burn

Ludvig van Beethoven (1770-1827): Piano Concerto No. 3

1. Allegro con brio
2. Largo
3. Rondo: Allegro

Beethoven completed his Piano Concerto No 3 in 1800-01; its composition was contemporary with that of the Second Symphony. He conceived the work, as he did all his piano concertos, for himself to perform as soloist, and it is therefore worth noting that when some years later, his increasing deafness prevented him from playing in public, he stopped writing concertos. This concerto, however, is far more than a conventional showpiece. In his previous piano concertos, Beethoven had increasingly sought  to create themes which were simple in outline but suitable for thorough development, and in this concerto, cast in the ‘tragic’ Classical key of C minor, this trend is fully exploited.

The first movement’s opening orchestral tutti is extensive, and immediately gets to the heart of the matter with the first theme, which has enormous potential, containing both lyrical and rhythmic elements as well as phrases which are projected by various sections of the orchestra. Similarly the second subject theme is treated extensively, appearing first in the woodwind before the strings join. But soon theme one is heard in stern outline in the bass, and a rather abrupt cadence prepares the way for the entry of the solo piano, whose three impatient upward scales herald new presentations of the existing material. The piano part is certainly demanding, though at times, for example, during the development section, its manner is restrained. The cadenza, as if in compensation, is long and complex, and during the coda the piano remains involved to the end.

The central Largo is among Beethoven’s most exalted lyrical creations, featuring a piano part which demands great sensitivity in phrasing, and gloriously eloquent writing for the strings. As the music proceeds the florid decorations of the piano line seem to anticipate the style of Chopin, while at the heart of the movement there is a quasi-operatic  duet for bassoon and flute, set against impressionistic piano arpeggios. In due course the serene principal theme returns, now featuring new and ever more elaborate embellishments.

The Rondo finale is high spirited, but beneath the surface there seems to lurk a more intense emotional mood; this is soon confirmed at the first climax, when the trumpets and timpani hammer out the rhythm. The interludes extend the moods yet further, including hints of playfulness and even frivolity, while the textures are occasionally complex, and new tunes give opportunities to woodwind soloists in addition to the piano. In the final stages, the music moves resolutely into the major key, to ensure a high-spirited and triumphant conclusion.

© Terry Barfoot

Gustav Holst (1874-1934): The Planets

1. Mars, the Bringer of War
2. Venus, the Bringer of Peace
3. Mercury, the Winged Messenger
4. Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity
5. Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age
6. Uranus, the Magician
7. Neptune, the Mystic

“As a rule I only study things that suggest music to me … recently the character of each planet suggested lots to me and I have been studying astrology fairly closely”, Holst wrote to a friend in 1913, when an orchestral suite based on astrological associations of the planets was fermenting in his mind. The Planets was composed between 1914-1917 and first heard under the young Adrian Boult in 1918 at a private performance generously funded by Holst’s friend and fellow composer Henry Balfour Gardiner.

Apart from the sheer inventiveness of the music, its originality impressed from the outset. Not only had Holst deployed huge orchestral forces with virtuoso panache, but also a suite for orchestra on this scale was quite unprecedented. Clearly, he had also absorbed contemporary continental influences: Debussy, Strauss and Scriabin, as well as Schoenberg and Stravinsky, whose Five Orchestral Pieces and The Rite of Spring were first heard in Britain in 1912 and 1913 respectively. Surely it is no coincidence that Holst referred to the work occasionally as ‘Seven Orchestral Pieces’.

From the outset it was assumed that Mars, the Bringer of War reflected the carnage of the First World War, yet it was written before hostilities commenced and before the tank was invented. Nevertheless, the music with its persistent rhythmic figure, begun menacingly on col legno strings, a relentless 5/4 metre, coiling chromatic phrases and massive discordant climaxes, does create a metaphor for the desolation and horror of war. Perhaps most eerie of all is the canonic passage for trumpet and tenor tuba, a chilling aural image of relentless pursuit.

The rising horn phrase and descending woodwind chords of Venus, the Bringer of Peace, usher in an ethereal contrast. Lapping chords perpetuate the serene mood, whilst in the centre of the movement the solo violin introduces a melody whose lush harmonies are reminiscent of Scriabin.

The scherzo, Mercury, the Winged Messenger, is a miracle of scoring; the music fleet of foot as cross-rhythms abound  – a reflection of Holst’s enthusiasm for the Elizabethan madrigalists, in particular Morley and Weelkes. The trio is formed from a little fragment of melody that is passed from one instrument to another, a subtle evocation of the swift flight of the God.

Boisterous good humour characterises Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity whose vitality is fuelled by syncopated rhythms. During its first performance, Holst’s daughter, Imogen, recalled that ‘”cleaners working in the corridors of the Queen’s Hall put down their scrubbing-brushes and began to dance.” The music too has a Falstaffian quality; indeed Holst told Boult that he had in mind “one of those jolly fat people who enjoy life.” But he said too that it portrayed “laughter holding both his sides,” and the noble melody of the central section, with its tinge of melancholy, is a reminder that laughter and tears are often inextricably mixed. It is a splendid tune which only later took on its unfortunate association with school speech days and patriotism after Holst adapted it for the hymn Thaxted. Too often the true nature of the music is obscured when it is performed as a solemn dirge.

Holst’s own favourite movement was Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age. Austere oscillating flute and wind chords, a bleak phrase whose poignancy derives from a falling semitone, and a solemn processional form the basis of this portrait of the dust and ashes of old age. It rises to a terrifying climax, with the wild clangour of bells, a musical equivalent, perhaps, to Dylan Thomas’s line of poetry, “Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” Ultimately though, the music is enveloped in tranquil radiance, a symbol of acceptance for the inevitable passing of life.

Aided by brilliant orchestration, some of Holst’s cleverest musical images in the work occur in Uranus, the Magician: for instance, the opening four-note brass motif – as if a conjurer were casting a spell – and the three bassoons, like spirits responding to his command. The movement develops into a jig-like dance, then a quick march that resembles Fêtes from Debussy’s Nocturnes. The ending, gigantic chords intermingled with stillness, seems to pose a question: “Was it all illusion?”

Neptune, the Mystic is the most original movement, formed predominantly from static harmony and  swirling orchestral colour, an idea possibly derived from the ‘Farben’ movement of Schoenberg’s ‘Five Orchestral Pieces’. Throughout the orchestra is instructed to play as quietly as possible. But in the boldest stroke is the introduction of the women’s voices who steal in amid mysterious harp and celeste decoration, their hypnotic repetitions ever receding into the vastness of space.

© Andrew Burn

Karl-Heinz Steffens
Conductor

Now in his fifth season as Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra, German conductor Karl-Heinz Steffens is recognised as a conductor of great distinction in both the symphonic and operatic worlds. He is in great demand as a guest conductor, working with ensembles such as the Bavarian Radio Symphony, Berlin Philharmonic, Helsinki Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, Orchestre National de Lyon, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Toronto Symphony, Auckland Philharmonia and Zurich Tonhalle Orchestras and with the Radio Symphony Orchestras of Berlin, Cologne, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Hannover, Leipzig and Stuttgart. He is also a frequent visitor to the UK, appearing with the Philharmonia with whom he conducted a Brahms cycle in the Royal Festival Hall, as well as the BBC Scottish Symphony, Bournemouth Symphony, City of Birmingham Symphony and the Hallé Orchestra.

He recently relinquished his post as Music Director at the Prague State Opera, where productions included Der fliegende Holländer and Schreker’s Der ferne Klang, amongst others. In his previous position as Music Director of the Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, he and the orchestra were honoured with many accolades; they received the ECHO award for Best Orchestra in 2015 for their recording of works by B.A. Zimmermann and in 2016/17 were nominated prize-winners of the Best Concert Programme of the Season by the Deutsche Musikverlegerverband, the German Music Publishers’ Association.

Prior to his conducting career, Steffens was a highly respected solo clarinettist, culminating in the successive posts of Principal Clarinet with the Bavarian Radio and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestras. Steffens has recently been awarded the Bundesverdienstkreuz in Germany for his services to music.

Paul Lewis
Piano

“Lewis is a wonderfully unfussy and straightforwardly lucid interpreter of these great works, judicious with his rubato, and never imposing unnecessary mannerisms on the music; whether structurally or texturally everything is consistently uncluttered” The Guardian

Paul Lewis is one of the foremost interpreters of the Central European piano repertoire, his performances and recordings of Beethoven and Schubert receiving universal critical acclaim. He was awarded CBE for his services to music, and the sincerity and depth of his musical approach have won him fans around the world.

This global popularity is reflected in the world-class orchestras with whom he works, including the Berlin Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, London Symphony, Philharmonia, Bavarian Radio Symphony, NHK Symphony, New York Philharmonic, LA Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw and Leipzig Gewandhaus orchestras. His close relationship with Boston Symphony Orchestra led to his selection as the 2020 Koussevitzky Artist at Tanglewood.

With a natural affinity for Beethoven, Lewis took part in the BBC’s three-part documentary Being Beethoven and performed a concerto cycle at Tanglewood in summer 2022. He has performed the cycle all over the world, and was the first pianist to play the complete cycle in a single season at the BBC Proms in 2010.

Beyond many award-winning Beethoven recordings, his discography with Harmonia Mundi also demonstrates his characteristic depth of approach in Romantic repertoire such as Schumann, Mussorgsky, Brahms and Liszt.

Between 2022 and 2024, Lewis embarked on a Schubert Piano Sonata Series, presenting the completed sonatas from the last 12 years of Schubert’s life at venues around the world. The cycle continues into 2025, when he will also give the premiere of a new Piano Sonata by Thomas Larcher.

In chamber music, he works closely with tenor Mark Padmore in lied recitals around the world – they have recorded three Schubert song cycles together – and he is co-Artistic Director of Midsummer Music, an annual chamber music festival held in Buckinghamshire, UK.

Awards
Royal Philharmonic Society Instrumentalist of the Year; two Edison awards; three Gramophone awards; Diapason d’Or de l’Annee; South Bank Show Classical Music Award; honorary degrees from Liverpool, Edge Hill and Southampton universities; appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2016 Queen’s Birthday Honours

Recital venues
Royal Festival Hall, Alice Tully, Carnegie Hall, Musikverein, Konzerthaus, Théâtre des ChampsÉlysées, Concertgebouw, Berlin Philharmonie and Berlin Konzerthaus
Festivals: Tanglewood, Ravinia, Schubertiade, Edinburgh, Salzburg, Lucerne

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra

One of the UK’s best-loved orchestras, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra is known for championing the role of culture in people’s lives. Based at Lighthouse, Poole, the Orchestra is resident in Bristol, Exeter, Portsmouth, Southampton, and Yeovil, and performs in towns and villages across the region. It is the largest cultural provider in the Southwest of England, serving one of the biggest and most diverse regions in the UK.

Mark Wigglesworth’s appointment as Chief Conductor (from autumn 2024) builds on the BSO’s reputation for the highest quality music-making; the Orchestra boasts an enviable list of named conductors, including Principal Guest Conductor Chloé van Soeterstède, Marin Alsop, David Hill MBE, Kirill Karabits, and Andrew Litton.

Highlights of the season include concerto and chamber performances from Artist-in-Residence, the violinist Alena Baeva, and collaborations with Calleva Assistant Conductor, Enyi Okpara — and the Orchestra’s celebrated Digital Concert series continues into its fifth year.

Known for championing access to high-quality music for all, the BSO leads hundreds of community-based events each year, from award-winning work in health and care settings to partnerships with schools and music education hubs. In the 2024/25 season, it deepens its reach into local communities, including a new residency in partnership with NHS Dorset.

bsolive.com

Orchestra Credits

Violin 1
Amyn Merchant (Leader)
Mark Derudder
Edward Brenton
Kate Turnbull §
Karen Leach §
Magdalena Gruca-Broadbent
Jennifer Curiel §
Isabella Fleming
Julie Gillett-Smith §
Kate Hawes §
Joan Martinez
Lucy McKay
Edward McCullagh
Victoria Barnes

Violin 2
Carol Paige *
Savva Zverev
Vicky Berry §
Eddy Betancourt
Rebecca Burns
Lara Carter §
Boglarka Gyorgy
Hannah Renton
Janice Thorgilson
Francisca Brito
Karen Anstee

Viola
Richard Waters
Raquel Lopez Bolivar
James Hogg
Judith Preston §
Liam Buckley
Victoria Bernath
Alison Kay
Stephanie Chambers
Kevin Saw
Dan Shilladay

Cello
Jesper Svedberg *
Hannah Sloane
Auriol Evans
Philip Collingham Ω
Rebecca McNaught
Kate Keats
Corinna Boylan
Alba Merchant

Double Bass
David Daly * §
Nicole Carstairs §
Ben du Toit
Michael Chaffin
Jane Ferns §
Mark Thistlewood

Flute
Anna Pyne *
Robert Manasse
Jenny Farley
Owain Bailey

Piccolo
Jenny Farley
Owain Bailey *

Oboe
Edward Kay * §
Rosalie Watson
Adrian Rowlands
Holly Randall

Cor Anglais
Holly Randall

Bass Oboe
Adrian Rowlands

Clarinet
Barry Deacon *
Chris Goodman
Helen Bennett

Bass Clarinet
Cara Doyle

Bassoon
Tammy Thorn *
Emma Selby
Alanna Pennar-Macfarlane

Contra Bassoon
Kim Murphy

Horn
Amadea Daizley-Gaist
Ruth Spicer §
Alex Willett
Kevin Pritchard §
Edward Lockwood §
Zachary Hayward
Alastair Rycroft

Trumpet
Paul Bosworth *
Peter Turnbull §
Peter Mankarious
Martin Rockall
Robert Farley

Trombone
Kevin Morgan * §
Robb Tooley

Bass Trombone
Joe Arnold

Euphonium
Amdy Fawbert

Tuba
Callum Reid

Timpani
James Bower
Feargus Brennan

Percussion
Matt King * §
Ben Lewis
Helen Edordu
Jake Brown

Harp
Eluned Pierce * §
Kate Ham

Celeste
Elliot Launn

Organ
Alistair Young

* Section Principal
§ Long Service Award
Ω Diversity Champion