A World of Music at Glasgow City Halls
THE GLASGOw SEASON 2014/2015
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BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra BBC Scotland City Halls, Candleriggs Glasgow G1 1NQ Email: bbcsso@bbc.co.uk
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All concerts are scheduled to be recorded for future transmission or broadcast live on BBC Radio 3.
‘It has been my intention to bring some of the finest singers, soloists and conductors to Scotland and to showcase the brilliance, flexibility and commitment of this remarkable group of musicians.’
THE GLASGOw SEASON 2014/2015
In September 2014 it will be five years since I took up the post of Chief Conductor with this wonderful orchestra. Our relationship continues to blossom, and I am immensely proud of our achievements so far. It has been my intention to bring some of the finest singers, soloists and conductors to Scotland and to showcase the brilliance, flexibility and commitment of this remarkable group of musicians. The 2014/15 season is no exception. We open with Dmitri Shostakovich’s Tenth Symphony and will later perform his enigmatic Fifteenth, as well as the First Piano Concerto with Garrick Ohlsson; we’ll be exploring connections between the music of Sibelius and Beethoven; and there will be a very special concert performance of Berg’s riveting music drama Wozzeck, one of the 20th century’s greatest operas. This is a gripping tale told through passionate, visceral music and an unforgettable experience for performers and audiences alike.
I’m also delighted that this year I’ll be celebrating an important birthday in Scotland with arguably the finest present a conductor could ask for - Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. The orchestra and I will be joined by a world-class line-up of soloists, and our friends the Edinburgh Festival Chorus, for what promises to be a very memorable occasion. I hope you can be there. Our theme this season in Glasgow is ‘discovery’ so whether you’re a regular subscriber to the Thursday Night Series or an occasional visitor to our wonderful home at City Halls, I’m certain you will find something new in the evenings ahead to intrigue, delight and surprise you. And if you’ve never heard the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra before you’re in for a treat.
Donald Runnicles, Chief Conductor
SHOSTAKOVICH 5,10,15 Dmitri Shostakovich was perhaps the greatest symphonist of the 20th century, often composing under immense political pressure. David Fanning salutes his achievement and introduces the three landmark symphonies in the BBC SSO’s 14/15 Season. On 12 May 1926, a gawky, bespectacled 19 year-old took the applause in the Great Hall of the Leningrad Philharmonia for his first symphony. Nearly 46 years later, on 8 January 1972, in the Great Hall of Moscow Conservatoire, the same composer, now bloated and almost immobilised by illness, was wildly fêted at the first performance of his fifteenth and last symphony. In between was a career marked by extraordinary changes of fortune, in a country and a world of bewildering extremes: advanced culture and noble aims, cheek-byjowl with philistinism and mass murder. Shostakovich’s own multi-faceted temperament – precariously balancing scepticism with compassion, evasiveness with overwhelming directness, fierce independence with equally fierce social conscience – proved to be his strongest coping strategy. But not all those characteristics were inborn. They were nurtured by influences as diverse as Beethoven, Wagner, Mahler, Stravinsky and Berg, and forged in the flames of harsh circumstance, most conspicuously at the time of the
epic central group of symphonies, Nos. 4 to 10, from the era of ‘high-Stalinism’. The pressures on Shostakovich first came to a head in January 1936. While he was at work on the finale of his colossal Fourth Symphony, Pravda published anonymous articles denouncing his opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk District and his ballet Bright Stream. Those broadsides were a sign that permissiveness in the arts was no longer to be tolerated, and that the doctrine of Socialist Realism was in fact an instrument of control - enforcing optimism and conformity, not merely recommending them. Shostakovich was forced to reinvent himself, which he did with a vengeance the following year with his Fifth Symphony (20 November), sealing his rehabilitation and scoring a global as well as national triumph. From horns, trumpets and piano brutalising the first movement’s lyrical themes, to the full orchestra blaring out a final Mahlerian apotheosis, via a scherzo poised between fragility and brutality, and a
04 05
hymn-like, strings-led slow movement, Shostakovich used his experience with film music to evoke moods of resistance, suffering and survival. As deep as it was direct, his work struck chords with an intelligentsia beset by mass denunciations, deportations and state-sponsored paranoia. In a masterstroke of spin he dubbed the Fifth a ‘Soviet artist’s practical creative reply to just criticism’, claiming to have found that phrase in a review of the piece (but since no amount of research has uncovered any such source, the words were more likely his own, but used with calculated irony). The position Shostakovich had by now carved out for himself as the spiritual chronicler of his times was reinforced after the Nazi invasion of June 1941, with his ‘Leningrad’ Symphony, No. 7. Soon after the War, however, came a second encounter with institutionalised philistinism, in the ‘anti-formalism’ campaign of 1948, which saw him dismissed from his teaching posts and forced to turn his hand to craven adulations of Stalin in film scores and cantatas. His symphonic impulses were temporarily on hold. Then, following the death of Stalin in March 1953, those impulses were released – again with a vengeance - in the magnificent Tenth Symphony (25 September), a tour-de-force of Beethovenian ambition and craftsmanship. From the moment the cellos and double basses awaken the symphony from the depths, until the piccolo sings its sad farewell, the first movement is a masterpiece of patient symphonic unfolding. A scherzo of pure venom is followed by another one haunted
D Hunstein/Lebrecht Music & Arts
Permissiveness in the arts was no longer to be tolerated, and the doctrine of Socialist Realism was now an instrument of control.
by ghosts and ciphers (including, for the first time, Shostakovich’s DSCH musical signature – the notes D, E flat, C, B natural). And the way the finale pushes celebration into hyper-ventilation stakes Shostakovich’s claim to the title of undisputed master of musical double-speak. The Tenth was a peak Shostakovich would not seek to scale again. The apparently conformist, programmatic Nos. 11 and 12, and the resolutely non-conformist cantata-symphonies Nos. 13 and 14, seem poles apart in their messages. Some saw – and continue to see - covert dissidence here. For others in the Soviet intelligentsia it was precisely the irreconcilable ‘doubleness’ that reflected their inner lives through Khrushchev’s so-called ‘Thaw’ and Brezhnev’s ‘Stagnation’. Finally, Shostakovich’s symphonic swansong, the profound, enigmatic Fifteenth of 1971 (7 May), looked back over a damaged life. In an unguarded moment, the composer likened his percussion-dominated first movement to a toyshop at night. In fact, words failed him, and they still fail us if we try to rationalise the symphony’s mixture of sardonic humour, depression, outrage and resignation. Holding all that in such delicate artistic balance was a massive achievement: not only of craftsmanship, but also of insight into the modern psyche. David Fanning is Professor of Music at the University of Manchester and has written extensively on Shostakovich.
SHOSTAKOVICH 5,10,15 25 September 2014 Symphony No.10 20 November Symphony No.5 7 May 2015 Symphony No.15
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Sweet Harmony: SHAKESPEARE AND MUSIC From the songs and music performed in his plays, to opera and ballet based on his works, Shakespeare has fired the imagination of composers for over 400 years. Richard Bratby introduces our overview of some of the music The Bard has inspired. A flute swirls, a playbill flutters in the breeze, and as a choir soars on the soundtrack, the camera pans across the roofs of Elizabethan London. Far below, the Globe Playhouse bustles with life. There’s a fanfare, a band plays, and then the Chorus strides on stage and – five minutes into Laurence Olivier’s 1944 film of Henry V – declaims the first words we’ve heard: O for a Muse of fire, that would ascend The brightest heaven of invention, A kingdom for a stage, princes to act, And monarchs to behold the swelling scene!
And if you happen to be a composer…aye, there’s the rub. After having that whole opening sequence to himself, William Walton now finds himself up against William Shakespeare in full, ringing flight. Confronted with the challenge of finding music to match some of the most potent, expressive and – yes – musical words in the English language, Walton takes the only sensible course of action, and falls silent. It’s not that words and music are enemies: far from it. Although few of the original tunes have survived, Shakespeare’s plays are punctuated with songs, dances,
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Photofest /Lebrecht Music & Arts (copyright Warner Bros)
SwEET HARMONY: SHAKESPEARE AND MUSIC Thursday 22 January 2015 Delius The walk to the Paradise Garden walton Henry V: A Shakespeare Scenario Thursday 5 February Shostakovich King Lear (music from the film) Thursday 5 March Liszt Hamlet: symphonic poem Prokofiev Romeo and Juliet (excerpts) Thursday 14 May Mendelssohn A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Laurence Olivier in his film adaptation of Henry V
tuckets and marches. He filled Prospero’s isle with “sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not”, and declared that “The man that hath no music in himself / Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds / Is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils”. No, the problem is those unsurpassable words. When Shakespeare finds his Muse of Fire, it’s as pointless to add music as it would be to add words to a late Beethoven quartet. And yet composer after composer has been drawn to his world. One way around the problem was to avoid the English language altogether. The young Felix Mendelssohn and his family used to perform Shakespeare at their home in Berlin. “From our youth,” recalled his sister Fanny, “we were entwined in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Felix particularly made it his own. He identified with all of the characters.” Except this wasn’t quite A Midsummer Night’s Dream. It was Ein Sommernachtstraum, in the translation by August Schlegel - thanks to whose work a generation of German artists had grown up thinking of Shakespeare as ganz unser: “entirely ours”. Mendelssohn’s glorious music certainly makes it entirely his; he even risks a couple of songs and choruses. Mostly, though, he adopts the same strategy as Walton, supplying music only when Shakespeare is silent. The supreme Romantic, Franz Liszt, conceived his symphonic poem Hamlet (1858) as an overture - to be played before the curtain has risen or a word has been spoken.
Frederick Delius took things a stage further; understandably, given that his A Village Romeo And Juliet (1901) was an opera. Because if musical history proves anything, it’s that you have to be supremely foolhardy (or Italian) to try and turn Shakespeare into opera. Ballet is another matter: with the words stripped out altogether, Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet (1935) has become one of the most enduringly successful musical translations of Shakespeare; audiences seem barely concerned by the fact that Prokofiev originally rewrote the plot to provide a happy ending. A Village Romeo and Juliet, meanwhile, began as a German play set in Switzerland, taking from Shakespeare only the idea of doomed young love. But that – and the title – was enough. It was enough for Shostakovich, too, in his own opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk - but then, in the USSR, words were dangerous things, and even an allusion to Shakespeare could be sufficient. “Music oft hath such a charm / To make bad good, and good provoke to harm”. Just as Mendelssohn had turned Shakespeare into a teller of German folktales, so Shostakovich’s score helps make Grigori Kosintsev’s film King Lear (1971) into a bleak satire on a failing gerontocracy. It’s as relevant to the Brezhnev-era USSR as Olivier’s Henry V (dedicated ‘to the Commandos and Airborne Troops of Great Britain’) was to the wartime United Kingdom. Whatever the time, whatever the place, it’s as if Shakespeare has been there before us. And the universal language of music turns out to be a natural stage-assistant for the universal dramatist from Stratford. No music can supplant Shakespeare’s words. But for three centuries, it’s done a surprisingly good job of translating them. Richard Bratby is a freelance writer and critic.
OPENING NIGHT:
SHOSTAKOVICH 10 08 THURSDAY 25 SEPTEMBER 2014, 7.30PM
MUSSORGSKY A NIGHT ON THE BARE MOUNTAIN SCRIABIN PIANO CONCERTO
09 (c.13 MINS)
(c.29 MINS)
SHOSTAKOVICH SYMPHONY No.10
(c.53 MINS)
BARRY DOUGLAS PIANO DONALD RUNNICLES CONDUCTOR A horn calls softly, a piano dreams in the twilight, and Scriabin’s Piano Concerto begins its enchanted journey. That’s the centrepiece of the opening concert of our season: the finest piano concerto Rachmaninov never wrote, played by a soloist celebrated for his interpretations of the Russian piano repertoire. It’s a very different world from Shostakovich’s shattering Tenth Symphony. A heartfelt cry for freedom written under the shadow of Stalinism, it’s still one of the 20th century’s most overwhelming symphonic experiences. Donald Runnicles conducts, and opens the concert by whipping up a storm with Mussorgsky’s exciting orchestral showpiece.
Donald Runnicles (photo: John Wood)
Prelude: 6.45pm in the Recital Room Writer and critic Richard Bratby introduces the orchestra’s 2014/15 season. Post-Concert Coda (approximately 10 minutes after the main concert) Barry Douglas gives a short recital. Barry Douglas (photo: Katya Kraynova)
A glittering masterpiece for violin and orchestra that’s less than 10 years old. MAGNUS LINDBERG’S VIOLIN CONCERTO “I don’t have a political or social point to make” says the Finnish composer Magnus Lindberg. “Music is something which is about emotion. It is an experience.” Over five decades, Lindberg has steered his own creative course – from the Krautrock-loving ultra-modernist of the 1970s to a composer who’s taken his classical inheritance in both hands and written some of the most distinctive and communicative orchestral music of our time. It’s certainly hard to think of another living composer who could have accepted a commission from New York’s Mostly Mozart festival and created something that succeeds as dazzlingly as Lindberg’s Violin Concerto of 2006. There’s no agenda here, and no need for one – Lindberg has simply written a concerto the way Mozart or Sibelius would have sat down and written one. And it speaks on its own terms; atmospheric, lyrical and luminous; unmistakably Lindberg, unmistakably itself. Listening, it seems barely possible that its epic climaxes and vast, glistening sheets of sound are actually being created by an orchestra smaller than that of Mozart’s Haffner symphony. In more senses than one, Lindberg’s Violin Concerto is that rarest of things: a true contemporary classic.
DVOŘÁK’S ‘NEw wORLD’ SYMPHONY 10 THURSDAY 9 OCTOBER, 7.30PM
NIELSEN OVERTURE: HELIOS
11 (c.12 MINS)
MAGNUS LINDBERG VIOLIN CONCERTO
(c.27 MINS)
DVOŘÁK SYMPHONY No.9 ‘FROM THE NEw wORLD’
(c.40 MINS)
PEKKA KUUSISTO VIOLIN THOMAS DAUSGAARD CONDUCTOR There’s a magical connection between music and light. Nielsen felt it, and inspired by sunrises over the Aegean, his Helios Overture is a warm, glowing paean to the Greek god. Magnus Lindberg feels it too, and since its premiere in 2006 his luminous, lyrical Violin Concerto has become an instant modern classic, hailed by listeners and critics alike as the natural successor to Sibelius. Pekka Kuusisto is the soloist, and his insight and inventiveness make him the ideal partner for popular BBC SSO guest conductor Thomas Dausgaard. BBC SSO regulars will know to expect freshness, fire and a few surprises in Dausgaard’s reading of Dvořák’s much-loved symphony ‘From the New World’.
Pekka Kuusisto (photo: Kapo Kaamu)
Prelude: 6.45pm in the Recital Room Thomas Dausgaard in conversation. Post-Concert Coda (approximately 10 minutes after the main concert) Pekka Kuusisto in recital. Thomas Dausgaard (Photo: Ulla-Carin Eckblom)
‘wOZZECK’ IN CONCERT 12
THURSDAY 23 OCTOBER, 7.30PM
BERG wOZZECK
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(c.90 MINS)
SEMI-STAGED PERFORMANCE SUNG IN GERMAN wITH ENGLISH SUPERTITLES CAST INCLUDES: wOZZECK ROMAN TREKEL MARIE ELENA ZHIDKOVA DRUM-MAJOR THOMAS BLONDELLE CAPTAIN TOM RANDLE DOCTOR NATHAN BERG BBC SINGERS THE CHORISTERS OF ST MARY’S CATHEDRAL, EDINBURGH DONALD RUNNICLES CONDUCTOR
Roman Trekel
KENNETH RICHARDSON DIRECTOR “Wretches like us – we’ll always be cursed, in this world and the next”. Wozzeck is at the bottom of the heap – an underdog made for kicking, and a soft target for the powerful, the cynical and the cruel. And as his spirit reaches snapping point, Alban Berg’s devastating opera tells the story in some of the most searching – and searing - music of the 20th century. Wozzeck is one of those dramas that everyone needs to experience for themselves, and this semi-staged performance, with Donald Runnicles conducting some of the finest living interpreters of these roles, will leave you reeling. There will be no interval in this performance. Prelude: 6.45pm in the Recital Room Douglas Jarman, author of The Music of Alban Berg, introduces Wozzeck. There will be no coda after this concert.
Elena Zhidkova
Beethoven re-imagined by Adams: cheeky homage or no laughing matter? You decide. ABSOLUTE JEST by JOHN ADAMS Scherzo means “a joke” - or, if you prefer, a jest. But when John Adams’s new concerto for string quartet and orchestra was premiered in the USA in 2012, some critics failed to see the funny side. “Graffiti spraypainted on some of Beethoven’s most profound invention” spluttered one. “Too clever for its own good” sniped another. Absolute Jest takes fragments of Beethoven’s late string quartets particularly their scherzos - and uses them for what Adams describes as the closest he’s ever got to writing variations. From one perspective, it’s the perfect tribute to the string quartet medium. From another, it’s an act of flagrant sacrilege against one of the most revered of classical music’s sacred cows. But Adams sees Beethoven as a fellow-subversive: he recalls how, as a student in the 1960s, Beethoven’s “exuberant aggressiveness shocked and delighted me”. More recently, while writing his opera Doctor Atomic, Adams discovered that Robert Oppenheimer listened to the late quartets at Los Alamos. Absolute Jest liberates a brilliant new energy from Beethoven’s musical atoms: seriously playful and unfailingly entertaining. Be in no doubt: Adams is laughing with Beethoven, not at him. As for those critics, the joke’s on them.
JOHN ADAMS: ABSOLUTE JEST 14 THURSDAY 6 NOVEMBER, 7.30PM
RAMEAU SUITE No.1 FROM ‘LES INDES GALANTES’ JOHN ADAMS ABSOLUTE JEST FOR STRING QUARTET AND ORCHESTRA REBEL CHAOS (FROM ‘LES ÉLÉMENS’) BEETHOVEN SYMPHONY No.2
15 (c.12 MINS)
(c.22 MINS)
(c.6 MINS)
(c.35 MINS)
DORIC STRING QUARTET MARKUS STENZ CONDUCTOR
Doric String Quartet
Comedy is a serious business. Beethoven knew that when his exuberant Second Symphony cheerfully booted the classical rule-book out of the window; and John Adams certainly knew it when he leafed through the scherzos of Beethoven’s late string quartets and transformed them into Absolute Jest: a one-off concerto for string quartet that takes Beethoven seriously enough to laugh along with him. As soloists, the Doric String Quartet definitely get it: and guest conductor Markus Stenz gets it too, pairing Beethoven and Adams with two riotously inventive French Baroque showpieces that prove that the best jokes never get old. Prelude: 6.45pm in the Recital Room Markus Stenz in conversation. Post-Concert Coda (approximately 10 minutes after the main concert) The Doric String Quartet gives a short recital.
Markus Stenz (photo: Molina Visuals)
THE RUNNICLES BIRTHDAY CONCERT:
BEETHOVEN’S NINTH
16 THURSDAY 13 NOVEMBER, 7.30PM
MOZART SINFONIA CONCERTANTE, K.364 BEETHOVEN SYMPHONY No.9 ‘CHORAL’
17 (c.32 MINS)
(c.68 MINS)
LAURA SAMUEL VIOLIN SCOTT DICKINSON VIOLA ANGELA MEADE SOPRANO ELIZABETH BISHOP MEZZO-SOPRANO STUART SKELTON TENOR MARKO MIMICA BASS-BARITONE EDINBURGH FESTIVAL CHORUS CHRISTOPHER BELL CHORUS MASTER
DONALD RUNNICLES CONDUCTOR A special occasion calls for a very special concert – and from the epic tragedy of its opening to its transcendent final Hymn to Joy, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony has long been classical music’s supreme act of celebration. So what better way for the BBC SSO to toast Donald Runnicles’ 60th birthday than with the work at the very centre of his beloved German Romantic tradition? First, though, two of the orchestra’s principal players begin the festivities with one of the few pieces that can truly look Beethoven in the eye: Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante, music of sublime grandeur and heart-rending beauty. Prelude: 6.45pm in the Recital Room Donald Runnicles in conversation. There will be no coda after this concert.
Clockwise from top left: Marko Mimica (photo: Nikola Serventic), Elizabeth Bishop (photo: Sasha Vasiljev), Stuart Skelton (photo: John Wright), Angela Meade (photo: Dario Acosta) Photo opposite: Donald Runnicles (photo: John Wood)
SHOSTAKOVICH 5 THURSDAY 20 NOVEMBER, 7.30PM
SIBELIUS EN SAGA
(c.19 MINS)
JAMES MACMILLAN PIANO CONCERTO No.3 ‘THE MYSTERIES OF LIGHT’ (c.25 MINS)
SHOSTAKOVICH SYMPHONY No.5
(c.46 MINS)
PETER DONOHOE PIANO MARTYN BRABBINS CONDUCTOR When words fall silent, music speaks. Even today, it’s hard to tell whether Shostakovich’s mighty Fifth Symphony tells a story of triumph, of despair, or something far more complex. But one way or another, every performance hits home: and under the direction of Martyn Brabbins it will speak more eloquently – and passionately – than ever. James MacMillan’s deep personal faith inspired his Third Piano Concerto, but with notes taking the place of words, everyone’s free to find their own meaning in this fiercely beautiful spiritual testament. Peter Donohoe begins our cycle of MacMillan’s piano concertos - a wonderfully serene contrast to the stormy Nordic drama of Sibelius’s En Saga.
Martyn Brabbins (photo: Sasha Gusov)
Prelude: 6.45pm in the Recital Room James MacMillan discusses his three piano concertos. Post-Concert Coda (approximately 10 minutes after the main concert) Peter Donohoe in the first of three recitals to complement each of the MacMillan piano concertos. Peter Donohoe (photo: Sussie Ahlburg)
BERLIOZ’S ‘SYMPHONIE FANTASTIQUE’ 18 THURSDAY 4 DECEMBER, 7.30PM
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FAURÉ PELLÉAS ET MÉLISANDE, Op.80: INCIDENTAL MUSIC (c.18 MINS) SAINT-SAËNS PIANO CONCERTO No.5 ‘THE EGYPTIAN’ (c.28 MINS)
BERLIOZ SYMPHONIE FANTASTIQUE
(c.50 MINS)
JAVIER PERIANES PIANO MATTHIAS PINTSCHER CONDUCTOR
Matthias Pintscher
A composer’s mind is an extraordinary place at the best of times; still, nothing in music quite matches the fabulous, opium-fuelled phantasmagoria that is Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique. Fired by unrequited desire, and sweeping from pastoral love-scenes to the foot of the guillotine itself, it continues to startle and amaze. Matthias Pintscher brings a composer’s insight, and teams up with one of the piano’s great explorers – Javier Perianes – to give a new shine to the sparkling exotica of Saint-Saëns’ delightful, unfairly neglected ‘Egyptian’ concerto. Fauré’s Pelléas et Mélisande will seem all the more serene by comparison - but dangerous passions smoulder beneath its exquisite melodies and shot-silk colours. Prelude: 6.45pm in the Recital Room Writer and broadcaster Stephen Johnson introduces Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique. There will be no coda after this concert. Javier Perianes (photo: Josep Molina)
Energy and vitality in a near-forgotten piano concerto from a British maverick. DYNAMIC TRIPTYCH by JOHN FOULDS Imagine a composer who fuses the musical language of Holst with the ecstatic vision of Scriabin or Messiaen. Imagine a pioneer of world music, whose choral works used to fill the Royal Albert Hall, yet whose experiments with microtones still unsettle audiences today. Now imagine that such a composer had been wiped from our concert halls as comprehensively as if he’d never lived. That, incredibly, is the story of John Foulds (1880-1939). His career took him from suburban Manchester to Calcutta, where his early death from cholera consigned him to oblivion in the West (trunks full of his manuscript scores were simply eaten by termites). Between its premiere in 1931 (by Edinburgh’s Reid Orchestra) and 2005, performances of Dynamic Triptych (1929) can be counted on one hand. Today, that neglect seems incredible. Dynamic Triptych is a product of Foulds’ study of Indian thought and culture: a headlong, blindingly difficult piano concerto, composed at a white-heat of inspiration. With a Foulds revival now gathering momentum, it’s becoming increasingly clear that this former cult composer is actually one of the most original voices in 20th century British music; no work makes that case more powerfully than this one.
wALTON’S HENRY V 20 THURSDAY 22 JANUARY 2015, 7.30PM
21
DELIUS THE wALK TO THE PARADISE GARDEN (FROM ‘A VILLAGE ROMEO AND JULIET’)
(c.10 MINS)
FOULDS DYNAMIC TRIPTYCH (PIANO CONCERTO) wALTON HENRY V: A SHAKESPEARE SCENARIO
(c.29 MINS)
(c.50 MINS)
ASHLEY wASS PIANO ACTOR to be announced GLASGOw CHAMBER CHOIR THE CHORISTERS OF ST MARY’S CATHEDRAL, EDINBURGH RICHARD FARNES CONDUCTOR
Ashley Wass (photo: Patrick Allen)
“O for a Muse of fire…” Shakespeare’s Henry V crammed the Battle of Agincourt into a tiny wooden theatre. Four centuries later, William Walton matched that vision with a score that redefined British cinema. Because when a British composer’s imagination ignites, there’s no limit to the places they can travel – whether they’re Frederick Delius, relocating Shakespeare’s romance to an Alpine idyll, or John Foulds, fusing Indian philosophy and Jazz Age verve in his breathtaking Dynamic Triptych. Huge in scale and volcanic in its energy, it’s arguably Britain’s greatest 20th century piano concerto, and it has no more committed champions than Richard Farnes and Ashley Wass. Prelude: 6.45pm in the Recital Room Film historian and BBC Radio 3 presenter Matthew Sweet discusses Shakespearian film music. There will be no coda after this concert. Image above: Laurence Olivier in his film adaptation of Henry V Photofest /Lebrecht Music & Arts (copyright Warner Bros)
Richard Farnes (photo: Bill Cooper)
VOLKOV CONDUCTS ‘THE SEASONS’ THURSDAY 5 FEBRUARY, 7.30PM
SHOSTAKOVICH KING LEAR (MUSIC FROM THE FILM) (c.26 MINS)
MUSSORGSKY SONGS AND DANCES OF DEATH GLAZUNOV THE SEASONS
(c.23 MINS)
(c.36 MINS)
YURI VOROBIEV BASS ILAN VOLKOV CONDUCTOR Shostakovich revered him, Rimsky-Korsakov was awed by his genius, and Prokofiev owed him more than he would ever admit. But Alexander Glazunov was more than just a great teacher – and The Seasons is more than just the missing link between Tchaikovsky’s and Stravinsky’s ballets. It’s one of Imperial Russia’s forgotten treasures, glittering with colour and brimming over with hummable tunes. Ilan Volkov will charge it with all his trademark electricity, while Mariinsky Theatre veteran Yuri Vorobiev brings true St. Petersburg style to the pitch-black humour of Mussorgsky’s pungent songs. And Shostakovich’s King Lear offers a bracingly Russian angle on our season-long tribute to Shakespeare.
Ilan Volkov (photo: Mark Hamilton)
Prelude: 6.45pm in the Recital Room Musicologists David Fanning and Michelle Assay explore Shostakovich and Shakespeare. Post-Concert Coda (approximately 10 minutes after the main concert) Yuri Vorobiev in a short recital of Russian songs. Yuri Vorobiev (photo: Yuri Vorobiev)
RUNNICLES CONDUCTS SIBELIUS THURSDAY 19 FEBRUARY, 7.30PM
SIBELIUS FINLANDIA
23
(c.8 MINS)
BEETHOVEN VIOLIN CONCERTO SIBELIUS SYMPHONY No.7
22
(c.44 MINS)
(c.24 MINS)
BEETHOVEN LEONORE OVERTURE No.3
(c.14 MINS)
ALINA POGOSTKINA VIOLIN DONALD RUNNICLES CONDUCTOR
Alina Pogostkina (photo: Felix Broede)
“I believe in civilisation” said Jean Sibelius, and amidst the turmoil and uncertainty of the early 20th century, he created a final symphony of monumental grandeur and elemental strength. Sibelius’ Seventh Symphony might just be the greatest since Beethoven; what’s certain is that few composers share such a profound kinship. Alina Pogostkina finds the strength and calm at the heart of Beethoven’s lyrical Violin Concerto, and Donald Runnicles frames symphony and concerto alike in two stirring hymns to freedom: two supreme masters, separated by a century but both set alight by the unbreakable power of the human spirit. Prelude: 6.45pm in the Recital Room Tim Howell, renowned Sibelius expert from the University of York, introduces tonight’s programme. There will be no coda after this concert. Donald Runnicles (photo: John Wood)
THE MACMILLAN PIANO CONCERTOS Thursday 20 November 2014 Piano Concerto No.3 ‘The Mysteries of Light’ Thursday 5 March 2015 Piano Concerto No.1 ‘The Berserking’ Thursday 2 April Piano Concerto No.2
THE MACMILLAN PIANO CONCERTOS This season the BBC SSO presents a complete cycle of the piano concertos by James MacMillan, performed by leading British pianist Peter Donohoe. Here, the composer introduces each of the works and the inspiration behind them. As someone who has somewhat limited keyboard skills I’m a bit astonished that I have written three piano concertos already. Perhaps it is the case that, due to my physical limitations, I can allow my imagination to run riot, unfettered by my own technical restrictions. Admittedly, I approached my First Concerto (5 March) with some trepidation back in 1989, when Musica Nova and the Scottish National Orchestra invited me to write a big piece for them and Peter Donohoe. This work is entitled The Berserking for reasons I try to explain in my programme note, and was composed for the 1990 Musica Nova in Glasgow’s big year as European Capital of Culture. The premiere was in September, and all through that year my wife was pregnant with our first child. I remember us saying “well as long as she doesn’t arrive on the 22nd we’ll be alright.” Our nickname for the baby, in utero was “The Berserker” who turned out to be Catherine who duly arrived on the 22nd September! I missed the rehearsals that day... The Second Concerto (2 April) was written in 2003 for New York City Ballet and choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon. Its birth was quite unusual then, in that the music took place out of sight, in a pit, to accompany dancers. It was only later that it resumed life as a concert
work in more conventional circumstances. Its scoring is just for strings, but it was influenced by the dance requirements of its initial commission. It is full of allusions to Scottish song and dance, and much else. The Third Concerto (20 November) was composed specially for, and premiered by, Jean-Yves Thibaudet and the Minnesota Orchestra conducted by Osmo Vänskä. I got to know Osmo well during his time as Chief Conductor of the BBC SSO, when he performed and recorded a lot of my music. This concerto also has a subtitle - The Mysteries of Light which is again explained in the programme note. I suppose I have always been interested in the potential of bringing about a fusion of the idea of the concertante scenario with the idea of the tone poem. The first and third concertos especially, along with many of my other concertos, seem to paint pictures, tell stories and even flesh out some ideas, which are extra-musical in origin. When all is said and done, of course, the music is just music, pure and simple. However, the music would be a very different kind of music if it had not been for the very specific nature of its inspiration, in all three of these cases, and in three very different ways.
PROKOFIEV’S ROMEO AND JULIET 24 THURSDAY 5 MARCH, 7.30PM
LISZT HAMLET: SYMPHONIC POEM
25 (c.14 MINS)
JAMES MACMILLAN PIANO CONCERTO No.1 (THE BERSERKING)
(c.33 MINS)
PROKOFIEV ROMEO AND JULIET: EXCERPTS
(c.45 MINS)
PETER DONOHOE PIANO CARLOS MIGUEL PRIETO CONDUCTOR Music on the edge: James MacMillan got the idea for The Berserking at a football match, and channelled an outburst of reckless, explosive fury into what one critic has called the greatest piece of British music since Benjamin Britten. Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet strips the sentimentality from Shakespeare’s tragedy in one of the greatest and most moving of all 20th century ballet scores. And as for Hamlet – well, confronted with Shakespeare’s great psychological drama, no composer as extrovert as Franz Liszt was ever likely to hold back. Keyboard heavyweight Peter Donohoe unleashes his full virtuoso powers while Carlos Miguel Prieto lavishes all his trademark fire on a concert of dangerous extremes.
Carlos Miguel Prieto (photo: Benjamin Ealovega)
Prelude: 6.45pm in the Recital Room Critic and Prokofiev biographer David Nice introduces the music in this evening’s programme. Post-Concert Coda (approximately 10 minutes after the main concert) The second of three Coda recitals, curated by Peter Donohoe, to complement the MacMillan piano concertos.
Peter Donohoe (photo: Sussie Ahlburg)
Soaring tunes, quiet poetry, and that indefinable Scandinavian inner glow. STENHAMMAR’S SYMPHONY No.1 In Sweden, they’ve named a type of biscuit after Wilhelm Stenhammar (1871-1927). In Britain, his name is more likely to be met with a shrug. This inventive and gloriously warm-hearted composer is still hardly known outside Scandinavia – even though anyone who’s heard his two piano concertos, his exuberant Serenade for Orchestra or his two-anda-half loveable symphonies tends to ask why we don’t hear them more often. Andrew Manze is out to change all that. He’s got family ties to Sweden, and he’s championed Stenhammar throughout his conducting career. This season he introduces Stenhammar’s First Symphony. It’s a relatively early work, written when Stenhammar was 34 – and subsequently disowned by the modest and intensely self-critical composer as “idyllic Bruckner”. Well, there are far worse models for a big Romantic symphony! And actually, Stenhammar was being unduly harsh on himself. The First is much more than the sum of its influences: from opening horn-calls to majestic finish, it’s full of soaring tunes, quiet poetry, and that indefinable freshness and inner glow that Stenhammar shares with Sibelius (his hero) and Grieg. Andrew Manze believes in it passionately. The best Scandinavian symphonist you’ve never heard? Don’t rule it out.
OSBORNE PLAYS BEETHOVEN: PIANO CONCERTO No.2 26 THURSDAY 19 MARCH, 7.30PM
SIBELIUS KARELIA: OVERTURE
27 (c.9 MINS)
BEETHOVEN PIANO CONCERTO No.2 STENHAMMAR SYMPHONY No.1
(c.31 MINS)
(c.53 MINS)
STEVEN OSBORNE PIANO ANDREw MANZE CONDUCTOR Andrew Manze’s love of Baroque music is famous, and his revelatory cycle of Vaughan Williams symphonies has been a real highlight of recent BBC SSO seasons. Tonight he devotes his artistry and charisma to a different, very personal enthusiasm: the gloriously vibrant music of the great Swedish symphonist Wilhelm Stenhammar. Imagine the energy of Sibelius combined with the freshness and melody of Grieg, and you’ll get some idea of Stenhammar’s First Symphony. It’s a real rediscovery, and the ideal complement to Beethoven’s most brilliant Piano Concerto, played by Steven Osborne who, in this concert, concludes his acclaimed complete cycle with us.
Steven Osborne (photo: Benjamin Ealovega)
Prelude: 6.45pm in the Recital Room Andrew Manze introduces the concert and discusses Stenhammar and his music. Post-Concert Coda (approximately 10 minutes after the main concert) Steven Osborne performs Feldman’s Palais de Mari.
Andrew Manze (photo: John Wood)
RACHMANINOV’S SECOND SYMPHONY THURSDAY 2 APRIL, 7.30PM
MARK SIMPSON NEw wORK
(c.10 MINS)
BBC COMMISSION, wORLD PREMIERE
JAMES MACMILLAN PIANO CONCERTO No.2 RACHMANINOV SYMPHONY No.2
(c.30 MINS)
(c.55 MINS)
PETER DONOHOE PIANO ANDREw LITTON CONDUCTOR It’s hard to imagine a creative spirit more Russian than Rachmaninov – or more Scottish than James MacMillan. But like any truly great artists, both composers take the local and make it universal: Rachmaninov in the most grandly romantic of all late Romantic symphonies, MacMillan in a piano concerto that began life as a ballet score, and pulls three centuries of Scottish musical history into a whirling, dazzling reel. Peter Donohoe leads the dance tonight, while Andrew Litton will make the music soar – and smash a bottle of champagne on the bows of a brand-new orchestral work by the young Liverpool composer Mark Simpson.
Andrew Litton (photo: Danny Turner)
Prelude: 6.45pm in the Recital Room Mark Simpson introduces his new work. Post-Concert Coda (approximately 10 minutes after the main concert) The last of Peter Donohoe’s recitals complementing the MacMillan piano concertos. Peter Donohoe (photo: Sussie Ahlburg)
BRUCKNER 4 28 THURSDAY 16 APRIL, 7.30PM
MAHLER SONGS FROM DES KNABEN wUNDERHORN
29 (c.36 MINS)
BRUCKNER SYMPHONY No.4 (ROMANTIC)
(c.67 MINS)
ALICE COOTE MEZZO-SOPRANO PETER COLEMAN-wRIGHT BARITONE MARK wIGGLESwORTH CONDUCTOR A horn calls in the distance; a clarinet sings a peasant song; and a solitary wanderer trudges through the forest. For the great Austrian song-symphonists, the words and images of German folklore opened up vast new worlds of poetry and feeling. Anton Bruckner shaped them into the most colourful (and lovable) of his nine vast symphonies whilst the young Gustav Mahler got straight back to the source, finding the strangeness and wonder that lie beneath the most outwardly innocent folksongs in his endlessly imaginative Des Knaben Wunderhorn. Mark Wigglesworth lets them play off each other in a concert that unites epic grandeur with the most intimate of emotions, and features two outstanding soloists.
Alice Coote
Prelude: 6.45pm in the Recital Room Mark Wigglesworth in conversation. There will be no coda after this concert. Mark Wigglesworth (photo: Ben Ealovega)
SHOSTAKOVICH 15 THURSDAY 7 MAY, 7.30PM
JANÁČEK SINFONIETTA
(c.24 MINS)
SHOSTAKOVICH CONCERTO FOR PIANO, TRUMPET AND STRING ORCHESTRA
(c.23 MINS)
SHOSTAKOVICH SYMPHONY No.15
(c.47 MINS)
MARK O’KEEFFE TRUMPET GARRICK OHLSSON PIANO DONALD RUNNICLES CONDUCTOR
Garrick Ohlsson (photo: Paul Body)
Some composers fade peacefully into old age: others do things rather differently. The 71 year-old Janáček took a massive orchestra, lined up eleven more trumpets and let fly with his extraordinary Sinfonietta: a huge, brassy shout of joy that has to be heard live to be truly believed. Shostakovich, meanwhile, wrote a final symphony that seems to ask as many questions as it answers – and simply refuses to sit still and be taken seriously. Perhaps the brilliantly witty First Piano Concerto that Shostakovich wrote at the other end of his career will shed some light; but with BBC SSO guest Garrick Ohlsson joining Donald Runnicles as soloist, entertainment, at any rate, is guaranteed. Prelude: 6.45pm in the Recital Room Writer and broadcaster Stephen Johnson introduces the concert. Post-Concert Coda (approximately 10 minutes after the main concert) Garrick Ohlsson performs a selection from Shostakovich’s Preludes and Fugues. Donald Runnicles (photo: Simon Pauly)
CLOSING NIGHT:
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM THURSDAY 14 MAY, 7.30PM
31
BERIO RITIRATA NOTTURNA DI MADRID DI LUIGI BOCCHERINI (c.8 MINS)
MOZART PIANO CONCERTO No.21, K.467
(c.29 MINS)
MENDELSSOHN A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM (INCIDENTAL MUSIC) (c.42 MINS)
GARRICK OHLSSON PIANO KATHERINE BRODERICK SOPRANO CLARA MOURIZ MEZZO-SOPRANO LES SIRÈNES ACTOR to be announced MARKUS STENZ CONDUCTOR
Clara Mouriz (photo: José Manuel Bielsa)
When the light fades on a summer’s evening, something magical starts to happen. Shakespeare knew that, and two centuries later, a German teenager summoned up the same enchantment. Mendelssohn’s ravishing score for A Midsummer Night’s Dream is surely music’s most perfect homage to Shakespeare; conducted by Markus Stenz, it’s a joyous climax to our season-long tribute to the Bard. But it all starts with Luigi Boccherini and an uproarious night out in 18th century Madrid – plus the sunlit, hugely popular 21st piano concerto by the one composer guaranteed to give Shakespeare a run for his money. Prelude: 6.45pm in the Recital Room Tiffany Stern and Daniel Grimley from Oxford University explore the use of music in Shakespeare’s play, from the original production to the present day. There will be no coda after this concert.
30
Katherine Broderick (photo: Paul Foster-Williams)
GLasgow Season Diary 14/15 Thursday 25 September 2014, 7.30pm OPENING NIGHT: SHOSTAKOVICH 10 Mussorgsky A Night on the Bare Mountain Scriabin Piano Concerto Shostakovich Symphony No.10 Barry Douglas piano Donald Runnicles conductor
Thursday 4 December, 7.30pm BERLIOZ’S ‘SYMPHONIE FANTASTIQUE’ Fauré Pelléas et Mélisande Saint-Saëns Piano Concerto No.5 ‘The Egyptian’ Berlioz Symphonie fantastique Javier Perianes piano Matthias Pintscher conductor
Saturday 4 October, 8.00pm Hear and Now: NEW ICELANDIC VOICES Ilan Volkov conductor Tickets available from August 2014
Monday 8 December, 7.30pm MONDAY NIGHT LIVE: BRUCH VIOLIN CONCERTO No.2 Jack Liebeck violin Martyn Brabbins conductor
Thursday 9 October, 7.30pm DVOŘÁK’S ‘NEW WORLD’ SYMPHONY Nielsen Overture: Helios Magnus Lindberg Violin Concerto Dvořák Symphony No.9 ‘From The New World’ Pekka Kuusisto violin Thomas Dausgaard conductor Thursday 23 October, 7.30pm ‘WOZZECK’ IN CONCERT Berg Wozzeck Wozzeck Roman Trekel Marie Elena Zhidkova Drum-Major Thomas Blondelle Captain Tom Randle Doctor Nathan Berg BBC Singers The Choristers of St Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh Donald Runnicles conductor Thursday 30 October, 2.00pm AFTERNOON PERFORMANCE 1 Programme and ticket details to be announced Thursday 6 November, 7.30pm JOHN ADAMS: ABSOLUTE JEST Rameau Suite No.1 from Les Indes Galantes John Adams Absolute Jest Rebel Chaos (from Les Élémens) Beethoven Symphony No.2 Doric String Quartet Markus Stenz conductor Thursday 13 November, 7.30pm RUNNICLES BIRTHDAY CONCERT: BEETHOVEN’S NINTH Mozart Sinfonia Concertante, K.364 Beethoven Symphony No.9 ‘Choral’ Angela Meade, soprano Elizabeth Bishop mezzo-soprano Stuart Skelton tenor Marko Mimica bass-baritone Edinburgh Festival Chorus Laura Samuel violin Scott Dickinson viola Donald Runnicles conductor Thursday 20 November, 7.30pm SHOSTAKOVICH 5 Sibelius En Saga James MacMillan Piano Concerto No.3 Shostakovich Symphony No.5 Peter Donohoe piano Martyn Brabbins conductor
Saturday 17 January 2015, 8.00pm Hear and Now: HANS ABRAHAMSEN André de Ridder conductor Tickets available from December 2014 Thursday 22 January, 7.30pm WALTON’S HENRY V Delius The Walk to the Paradise Garden Foulds Dynamic Triptych (Piano Concerto) Walton Henry V: A Shakespeare Scenario Ashley Wass piano Glasgow Chamber Choir The Choristers of St Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh Richard Farnes conductor Monday 26 January, 2.00pm DISCOVERING MUSIC Hans Gál Symphony No.2 Ticket details to be announced Thursday 29 January, 2.00pm AFTERNOON PERFORMANCE 2 Programme and ticket details to be announced Thursday 5 February, 7.30pm VOLKOV CONDUCTS ‘THE SEASONS’ Shostakovich King Lear (music from the film) Mussorgsky Songs and Dances of Death Glazunov The Seasons Yuri Vorobiev bass Ilan Volkov conductor Monday 9 February, 2.00pm DISCOVERING MUSIC Hans Gál Cello Concerto Raphael Wallfisch cello Ticket details to be announced Thursday 19 February, 7.30pm RUNNICLES CONDUCTS SIBELIUS Sibelius Finlandia Beethoven Violin Concerto Sibelius Symphony No.7 Beethoven Leonore Overture No.3 Alina Pogostkina violin Donald Runnicles conductor Saturday 28 February, 8.00pm Hear and Now: BOULEZ AT 90 Matthias Pintscher conductor Tickets available from January 2015 Thursday 5 March, 7.30pm PROKOFIEV’S ROMEO AND JULIET Liszt Hamlet: Symphonic Poem James MacMillan Piano Concerto No.1 Prokofiev Romeo and Juliet (excerpts) Peter Donohoe piano Carlos Miguel Prieto conductor
Thursday 12 March, 2.00pm AFTERNOON PERFORMANCE 3 Programme and ticket details to be announced Monday 16 March, 7.30pm MONDAY NIGHT LIVE: NIELSEN AND STENHAMMAR Andrew Manze conductor Thursday 19 March, 7.30pm OSBORNE PLAYS BEETHOVEN: PIANO CONCERTO No.2 Sibelius Karelia: Overture Beethoven Piano Concerto No.2 Stenhammar Symphony No.1 Steven Osborne piano Andrew Manze conductor Thursday 2 April, 7.30pm RACHMANINOV’S SECOND SYMPHONY Mark Simpson New Work (BBC Commission, World Premiere) James MacMillan Piano Concerto No.2 Rachmaninov Symphony No.2 Peter Donohoe piano Andrew Litton conductor Thursday 16 April, 7.30pm BRUCKNER 4 Mahler Songs from Des Knaben Wunderhorn Bruckner Symphony No.4 (Romantic) Alice Coote mezzo-soprano Peter Coleman-Wright baritone Mark Wigglesworth conductor Thursday 23 April, 2.00pm AFTERNOON PERFORMANCE 4 Programme and ticket details to be announced 1, 2, 3 May TECTONICS GLASGOW 2015 Details to be announced February 2015 Thursday 7 May, 7.30pm SHOSTAKOVICH 15 Janáček Sinfonietta Shostakovich Concerto for piano, trumpet and string orchestra Shostakovich Symphony No.15 Mark O’Keeffe trumpet Garrick Ohlsson piano Donald Runnicles conductor Thursday 14 May, 7.30pm CLOSING NIGHT: A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM Berio Ritirata Notturna di Madrid di Luigi Boccherini Mozart Piano Concerto No.21 Mendelssohn A Midsummer Night’s Dream* Garrick Ohlsson piano Katherine Broderick soprano* Clara Mouriz mezzo-soprano* Les Sirènes* Markus Stenz conductor
PLAN YOUR VISIT
Q: Where can I park? A: You can park near City Halls at a discounted rate on the night of the performance at the multi-storey facilities at Q-Park on Candleriggs and Albion Street. NB You will need to have your ticket validated at the City Halls Box Office on concert nights when you arrive at the venue. This includes parking for disabled patrons. Other car parking facilities close to City Halls include the NCP Glasshouse on Glassford Street and car parks on the east side of High Street, in addition to metered on-street parking throughout the area. Q: What public transport runs near City Halls? A: City Halls is within easy walking distance of Argyle Street, Queen Street, High Street and Central railway stations as well as St. Enoch and Buchanan Street subway stations. Buchanan Bus Station is a 15 minute walk away. Nearby bus routes include numbers 2, 6, 7/7A, 18, 21, 43, 60/60A, 61, 64, 75, 240, 255, 263 and 267.
CITY HALLS WILSON STREET
Q: What access facilities are available? A: All entrances at City Halls are fully accessible with lifts to every level of the auditorium. Wheelchairs are available on request and can be pre-booked via the box office. Guide dogs are welcome at City Halls. Q: Is there an induction loop? A: No, there is no induction loop in the City Halls auditorium. However, Glasgow’s Concert Halls has an assisted infrared hearing system which can be used as both a stand alone hearing aid or as an enhancement to an existing hearing aid. Headsets are available from the cloakroom for a £5 refundable deposit and can be pre-booked via the box office. Q: Is food available at City Halls before the concert? A: No, but the Merchant City and the centre of Glasgow is full of restaurants and bars where you can enjoy food before or after the concert. There are also two bars in City Halls: the Candleriggs Bar at the opposite end of the promenade from the Recital Room and the Bazaar Bar on the ground floor. Beat the queues by preordering your interval drinks.
A large print, text-only version of this brochure is available. For a copy please telephone: 0141-552 0909 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.
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Opening Night: Shostakovich 10 Dvořák’s ‘New World’ Symphony Wozzeck in Concert John Adams: Absolute Jest Runnicles Birthday Concert: Beethoven’s Ninth Shostakovich 5 Berlioz’s ‘Symphonie fantastique’ Walton’s ‘Henry V’ Volkov Conducts ‘The Seasons’ Runnicles Conducts Sibelius Prokofiev’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ Osborne Plays Beethoven: Piano Concerto No.2 Rachmaninov’s Second Symphony Bruckner 4 Shostakovich 15 Closing Night: Mendelssohn’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’
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HOW TO BOOK BOX OFFICE: 0141-353 8000 bbc.co.uk/bbcsso SEASON TICKETS: Book a Season Ticket and SAVE up to 35% Why book a season ticket?
How to book a season ticket
There are lots of good reasons to book in advance for the BBC SSO’s Glasgow Thursday Night Season. Not only are you guaranteed a terrific year of music but you can also:
1 Decide how many concerts you want to attend (checking if you are entitled to any for free) and where you would like to sit.
• S ave Money by booking just 4 or more concerts - and the more you book the more you save. This year you can save up to 35% across the Glasgow Thursday Night Season. • G et a FREE Concert when you book for 8, 11, or 15 concerts, which means you can DISCOVER even more music. For example, it’s the same price to book for 12 concerts as it is for 11, so use your free extra concert to explore a composer or a piece you don’t know!
• P lan your year of concerts in one simple booking. • E xpand your musical horizons. There’s such a wide range and mix of music in our Thursday Night Series that you’re bound to DISCOVER something new.
ooking for single tickets opens: B Monday 14 April 2014 Single ticket prices for Thursday Night Series
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Standard £83.00 £69.00 £59.00 £39.00
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Standard £98.00 £82.00 £70.00 £46.00
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Standard £117.60 £98.40 £84.00 £55.20 20
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£91.80
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£65.60 £56.00 £36.80 20
£76.80 £65.60 £43.10
£110.10 £92.10 £78.60 £51.60
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Standard £137.20 £114.80 £98.00 £64.40 20
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9/8 Standard £146.80 £122.80 £104.80 £68.80 25 £137.20 £114.80 £98.00 £64.40
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Standard £240.10 £200.90 £171.50 £112.70 30
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• S ecure the seats you want in advance, guaranteeing you the best seats at the best price. Exclusive Season Ticket booking opens on Thursday 20 March 2014. • E xchange your tickets for another concert if you find you can’t attend one you’ve booked in advance. We’ll happily swap them for a concert not on your subscription list. Please note that the Box Office requires 24 hours notice and a £1 charge applies.
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• £ 5 tickets for Students, Under 16s and Unemployed. Students (those in full time education), Under 16s and the Unemployed are entitled to £5 tickets (subject to availability). Proof of status may be required. • S ingle Ticket Concessions. Over 60s and SSO Club members receive £2 off full price single tickets (proof of status required). • 50% Discount for Registered Disabled. Disabled patrons and a companion will receive a 50% discount on any single full price ticket. • G roups. Bring a group of 10 and get one extra ticket free (that’s two free tickets for a group of 20, etc.). For details of group booking please call the box office on 0141-353 8000. • S chool Groups. We welcome school parties to City Halls for BBC SSO concerts. If you are a teacher interested in bringing a group, please email ssooutreach@bbc.co.uk • B ox Office Charges. Please note that the Glasgow Concert Halls Box Office charges a fee of £1.50 on all telephone bookings and £1 on all online bookings. There will be a £1 charge if you wish your tickets to be posted to you.
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