BBC SSO Edinburgh Season 2018/19

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Usher Hall Edinburgh bbc.co.uk/ bbcsso

Thomas Dausgaard Chief Conductor

Welcome to our 2018/19 Season

It is a great joy to welcome you to a new season with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. I am excited about two centenaries we will be celebrating in our Edinburgh concerts: 100 years of one of the most inspiring musicians of the 20th century, Leonard Bernstein; and the (too early) death of the great French mystic and Iberophile Debussy.

I was lucky to be in a mind-blowing two-week masterclass with Bernstein in 1988, where he also conducted Songfest – one of his key works combining two of his greatest talents: music and words. Debussy, meanwhile, opened up unknown doors to what an orchestra can sound like, and we devote a concert to his special magical world.

I am also particularly looking forward to our meeting between a klezmer band and Mahler, Bloch and Bernstein when we bring our Composer Roots project to Edinburgh for the very first time, as we shake the concert format up a little bit and welcome traditional musicians to share the stage with us. I hope it makes you hear Mahler’s wonderful First Symphony with fresh ears. Welcome!

Thomas Dausgaard Chief Conductor

Photo above/Thomas Dausgaard

by Thomas Grøndahl

Thomas Dausgaard Chief Conductor

John Wilson Associate Guest Conductor

Ilan Volkov Principal Guest Conductor

Donald Runnicles Conductor Emeritus

Matthias Pintscher Artist-in-Association

Laura Samuel Leader

Photos/Marc-André Hamelin by Sim Canetty-Clarke, Joaquín Achúcarro

by Hannah Taylor and Jian Wang by Xu Bin

Sunday 23.09.2018 3.00pm

Gershwin’s ‘Rhapsody in Blue’

Copland Fanfare for the Common Man

Drums sound, trumpets stand plain and proud: Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man has become a symbol of all that’s noble in the American Dream, and as Thomas Dausgaard launches our new Season, we celebrate American music at its most life-affirming. Augusta Read Thomas’s brand new work Brio lives up to its name and bursts with vim and vigour, while George Gershwin offers a swinging salute to the city that never sleeps – delivered by a pianist who’s a byword for brilliance. And then six world-class singers lift up their voices in Songfest, Leonard Bernstein’s big-hearted celebration of America in all its tolerance, diversity, tenderness and optimism. Originally written for the US Bicentennial celebrations, it’s more relevant than ever in its composer’s 100th anniversary year.

Augusta Read Thomas Brio Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue Bernstein Songfest Nadine Sierra soprano Kelley O’Connor mezzo-soprano Michèle Losier mezzo-soprano Paul Appleby tenor Nmon Ford baritone Musa Ngqungwana bass Marc-André Hamelin piano Thomas Dausgaard conductor Concert ends at approx. 4.45pm

Sunday 25.11.2018 3.00pm

Debussy’s ‘La Mer’

Debussy Nocturnes*

“I have slandered the sea” wrote Claude Debussy.

“Today it is beautiful enough to defy all comparisons”.

Yet 100 years after his death in 1918, Debussy’s La Mer is surely the most poetic seascape ever painted for an orchestra, the work of a composer whose quiet genius turned music into an art of limitless expressive subtlety. This centenary celebration opens with Nocturnes – Impressionist paintings, transformed into ravishing sound – and includes the Prélude whose unprecedented sensuality scandalised Belle Époque Paris. But there’s darkness as well as light: Thomas Dausgaard joins Joaquín Achúcarro in the brooding concerto that Debussy’s compatriot Ravel created for a pianist who’d lost an arm in the Great War.

Ravel Piano Concerto for the Left Hand Debussy Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune Debussy La Mer Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Voices* Joaquín Achúcarro piano Thomas Dausgaard conductor Concert ends at approx. 4.55pm

Sunday 10.02.2019 3.00pm

Composer Roots: Mahler 1

Bernstein Overture: Candide

If you could hear silence, how would it sound?

Maybe something like the massive stillness that opens Mahler’s First Symphony: the starting point for a young artist’s journey to the heart of absolute tragedy and glorious triumph. It’s one of those pieces that simply has to be experienced live, and as part of our ongoing Composer Roots project, we’ll uncover its origins in Jewish folk music with the klezmer band She’Koyokh. To open, an effervescent Broadway overture by Mahler’s great champion Leonard Bernstein and a magnificent rarity by a late-romantic master who shared Bernstein and Mahler’s Jewish heritage. In Ernest Bloch’s Schelomo, the solo cello is King Solomon, and its voice is his Song – by turns passionate, forthright, and uninhibitedly sensuous.

Bloch Schelomo: Rhapsodie Hébraïque* Mahler Symphony No.1 She’Koyokh Jian Wang cello* Thomas Dausgaard conductor Concert ends at approx. 5.00pm

Box Office: 0131 228 1155

www.usherhall.co.uk

Grand Circle

Stalls

II

IV III

I

II

I

II

IV Stage

Stage

Book for all 3 Concerts and Save 20% Buy a ticket for all three concerts in the series and receive a 20% discount on your tickets. Offer open until Sunday 23 September 2018 only. Offer only applies to full price tickets.

Area I: £72.00 for all three concerts (saving £18.00) Area II: £60.00 for all three concerts (saving £15.00) Area III: £48.00 for all three concerts (saving £12.00) Area IV: £36.00 for all three concerts (saving £9.00) Single Tickets Area I: £30.00 Area II: £25.00 Area III: £20.00 Area IV: £15.00

Single Ticket Discounts £6 tickets for Under 26s, Students, and Unemployed: Patrons under 26, students (those in full time education), and Registered Unemployed are entitled to a £6 ticket for themselves in areas II-IV (subject to availability).

Proof of status is required. Tickets must be collected in person.

50% Discount for Registered Disabled: Disabled patrons, and a carer where required, will receive a 50% discount on any single full price ticket.

Special Group Rates: Group rates are available for bookings of 10 or more. For details please telephone the Box Office.

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Box Office: 0131 228 1155 Usher Hall Box Office Lothian Road Edinburgh EH1 2EA

All the concerts in this series are promoted in association with the Usher Hall.

Monday–Saturday 10am to 5.30pm When there is an event on a Sunday the box office is open from 1pm until 30 minutes after the start of the event.

Getting to the Usher Hall The Usher Hall is located between the Royal Lyceum Theatre and Traverse Theatre.

It is close to both Haymarket and Waverley train stations (approx. 15 minutes walk from either). A taxi rank is situated opposite the hall. There is limited on-street parking, however a 24-hour car park is located behind the hall on Castle Terrace.

Cheques should be made payable to: City of Edinburgh Council.

All major credit cards accepted.

Please note there is a ÂŁ1.50 transaction fee for bookings by telephone, online or by post.

Disabled Access Wheelchair accommodation is available.

Parking spaces for blue badge holders are located across from the Royal Lyceum Theatre in Grindlay Street and also in Cambridge Street across from the Traverse Theatre.

A large print, text-only version of this brochure is available, for a copy please telephone: 0141 552 0909

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The information in this brochure was correct at the time of publishing. The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra reserves the right to amend artists and programmes for any of the listed concerts if necessary.