Royal Scottish National Orchestra & Thomas Søndergård by Edinburgh International Festival

ROYAL SCOTTISH NATIONAL ORCHESTRA & THOMAS SØNDERGÅRD Royal Scottish National Orchestra Thomas Søndergård Conductor Members of the Edinburgh Festival Chorus Aidan Oliver Chorus Director 11 Aug 6pm & 8.30pm Edinburgh Academy Junior School The performance lasts approx. 1hr 10mins with no interval. Sung in English with English supertitles. Please ensure all mobile phones and electronic devices are turned off or put on silent.

Mendelssohn

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Overture 1 Scherzo: Allegro vivace 2 L’istesso tempo 3 Song with chorus 4 Andante 5 Intermezzo: Allegro appassionato 6 Allegro 7 Con moto tranquillo (Notturno) 8 Andante 9 Wedding March 10 Marcia funebre 11 A Dance of Clowns 12 Allegro vivace Finale

PROGRAMME NOTES Born as he was into one of Europe’s elite cultural dynasties, it was no surprise that the young Felix Mendelssohn would quickly discover — and grow to love — the plays of Shakespeare. Amid his childhood immersion in music, painting, literature and philosophy, he would also raid the family’s library and act out favourite scenes from Shakespeare with his sister Fanny. The Mendelssohns acquired a new German translation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 1826 and Felix devoured it — as well as immediately sensing its musical potential. The result was his Overture, written when he was just 17, and originally intended for the concert hall rather than the theatre, though its magical opening chords usher listeners unmistakably into a land of lovers and fairies, complete with the braying of Bottom the ass and the scampering of fairy feet. It was 16 years later that the mature composer was requested by King Frederick William IV of Prussia to provide incidental music for a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at his palace in Potsdam. Incorporating his existing Overture into what was now a theatrical setting, Mendelssohn also set

about reusing the musical themes he’d concocted as a teenager into the broader scope of an eveninglong entertainment. There are 14 numbers in all, including settings of Shakespeare’s songs, ‘melodramas’ closely integrating speech and music, and the famous ‘Wedding March’, originally planned to celebrate the (offstage) triple union of Demetrius with Helena, Lysander with Hermia and Theseus with Hippolyta. Mendelssohn’s music ends as it began, with the magical four chords accompanying Puck’s famous ‘If we shadows have offended’ farewell.

David Kettle David Kettle is a music and arts writer based in Edinburgh, who contributes regularly to the Scotsman and the Daily Telegraph. He has also written for publications including BBC Music Magazine, The Times, The Strad and Classical Music, and for organisations including the BBC Proms, Glyndebourne and Scottish Opera.

ROYAL SCOTTISH NATIONAL ORCHESTRA The Royal Scottish National Orchestra was formed in 1891 as the Scottish Orchestra and became the Scottish National Orchestra in 1950, before being awarded Royal Patronage in 1977. Throughout its history, the Orchestra has played an integral part in Scotland’s musical life, including performing at the opening ceremony of the Scottish Parliament building in 2004. It performs across Scotland, including concerts in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee, Aberdeen, Perth and Inverness, and appears regularly at the Edinburgh International Festival and BBC Proms. Many renowned conductors have contributed to its success, such as George Szell, Sir John Barbirolli and Sir Alexander Gibson. The Orchestra’s artistic team is currently led by Danish conductor Thomas Søndergård, who was appointed Music Director in 2018, having previously held the position of Principal Guest Conductor. Current Principal Guest Conductor is Hong Kong-born conductor Elim Chan.

The Orchestra has a worldwide reputation for the quality of its recordings and has received a 2020 Gramophone award for Chopin’s Piano Concertos (soloist Benjamin Grosvenor and conductor Elim Chan), two Diapason d’Or awards for symphonic music (Denève/Roussel 2007 and Denève/Debussy 2012) and eight Grammy award nominations. Over 200 releases are available, including the complete symphonies of Sibelius (Gibson), Prokofiev (Järvi), Glazunov (Serebrier), Nielsen and Martinů (Thomson), Roussel (Denève) and the major orchestral works of Debussy (Denève). Søndergård’s debut recording with the Orchestra of Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben was released in 2019. The Orchestra’s pioneering learning and engagement programme, Music for Life, aims to engage the people of Scotland with music across key stages of life. The team is committed to placing the Orchestra at the centre of Scottish communities via workshops and annual residencies across the length and breadth of the country.

THOMAS SØNDERGÅRD Danish conductor Thomas Søndergård is Music Director of Royal Scottish National Orchestra, following six seasons as its Principal Guest Conductor. He served as Principal Conductor of BBC National Orchestra of Wales from 2012 to 2018 and prior to this was Principal Conductor and Musical Advisor of the Norwegian Radio Orchestra for three seasons. He has conducted many leading orchestras, including Chicago Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Gewandhausorchestra Leipzig and Mahler Chamber Orchestra. In the 2020/21 season, he made his debuts with the Berliner Philharmoniker and NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover. Due to the ongoing global pandemic, debuts with the Cleveland Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, St Louis Symphony Orchestra and San Francisco Opera were sadly

cancelled. Highlights of his season with the RSNO include leading its first digital season in works by Beethoven, Wagner and Mozart, among others. He also returned to the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Aalborg Symphony Orchestra and Royal Danish Opera. Following his acclaimed debut for the Royal Danish Opera, he has since returned regularly for a wide range of repertoire and will return for further opera and concert projects. He has also enjoyed success conducting at Norwegian Opera and the Royal Swedish Opera, where productions of Tosca and Turandot led to his Bayerische Staatsoper debut in the main season and summer Opera Festival, followed by a re-invitation for the Opera’s Akademiekonzert series. He has also conducted two productions for the Deutsche Oper Berlin. His discography covers a broad range of contemporary and earlier repertoire, and in 2011 he was awarded the prestigious Queen Ingrid Foundation Prize for services to Music in Denmark. In 2019, was awarded the Wilhelm Hansen Honorary Award.

EDINBURGH FESTIVAL CHORUS The Edinburgh Festival Chorus has been at the heart of the Edinburgh International Festival since its foundation in 1965, when it opened the 19th Festival with the Scottish premiere of Mahler’s Symphony No 8. Since then the Chorus has worked with many of the world’s leading orchestras and conductors in the great symphonic and oratorio repertoire, while also taking part in premieres of specially commissioned works in recent years. At the 2015 Festival, the Chorus celebrated its first 50 years by taking part in a spectacular outdoor project based on John Adams’s Harmonium, while its appearances in the 2019 Festival included MacMillan’s Quickening with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Edward Gardner, Mahler’s Second Symphony with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel, Elgar’s The Kingdom with the Hallé and Martyn Brabbins, and Britten’s War Requiem with the Orchestre de Paris and Daniel Harding. Frequently performing with Scotland’s leading orchestras, the Chorus forms an integral and iconic part of Scotland’s contribution to the Edinburgh International Festival.

Its occasional appearances outside the Festival have included performances in Glasgow, at the BBC Proms in London, and further afield across Europe.

AIDAN OLIVER Aidan Oliver has been the Chorus Director of the Edinburgh Festival Chorus since September 2018. Oliver is also the Chorus Director at Glyndebourne. The Glyndebourne Chorus is one of the pre-eminent choruses in international opera and has long been regarded as one of the foremost training grounds for the next generation of opera stars. He is also the founding director of Philharmonia Voices, the renowned professional chorus that collaborates with the Philharmonia Orchestra on many of its most ambitious choral projects. His previous positions include Director of Music at St Margaret’s Westminster (the Parliamentary Church) and Associate Conductor of the St Endellion Festival. Oliver has worked extensively on the music staff of the Royal Opera and English National Opera and as guest chorus director of groups including the BBC Symphony Chorus, BBC Singers, Huddersfield Choral Society and RIAS Kammerchor of Berlin.

ROWAN PIERCE Yorkshire-born soprano Rowan Pierce is a former Rising Star of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Harewood Artist at English National Opera. She studied at London’s Royal College of Music, where she won the Van Someren Godfrey Prize, the first Schubert Society Singer Prize and the President’s Award by the Prince of Wales in 2017. She has subsequently won both the Song Prize and First Prize at the inaugural Grange Festival International Singing Competition. She appears regularly with ensembles including the Academy of Ancient Music, Gabrieli Consort, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, OAE, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Florilegium and Royal Northern Sinfonia, and has appeared at London’s Wigmore Hall and Milton Court on many occasions. Recent and future operatic roles include Tiny (Paul Bunyan) and Papagena (The Magic Flute) for English National Opera; Barbarina (Le nozze di Figaro) for Nevill Holt Opera, the Grange Festival and ENO; Papiria (Lucio Papirio Dittatore) for the Buxton Opera Festival; Oberto (Alcina)

for Glyndebourne; and Quivera and Orazia (The Indian Queen) for the Opéra de Lille, Antwerp Opera, Opera de Luxembourg and Opera de Caen. Recent and future festival performances include appearances at the Ryedale, Oxford Lieder, Bath, Cheltenham, BBC Proms, Lammermuir, Leeds Lieder and Chiltern Arts festivals. Among her recordings are a solo disc of Purcell songs, Vaughan Williams’s Symphony No 7 (Sinfonia antartica) with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Andrew Manze, and award-winning recordings of King Arthur and The Fairy Queen with the Gabrieli Consort.

KATHRYN RUDGE Featured as The Times’s Rising Star of Classical Music in 2012, mezzo-soprano Kathryn Rudge was born in Liverpool and studied at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. She was a Young Artist at English National Opera, a YCAT artist and a BBC New Generation artist. Among her numerous prizes and awards are the Musicians Benevolent Fund Sybil Tutton Award and Susan Chilcott Scholarship, and she is a Samling Scholar. Recent and future concert engagements include performances with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Manchester Camerata, Hamburg Symphony, BBC Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Huddersfield Choral Society, as well as the world premiere of Michael Nyman’s Symphony No 11 (Hillsborough Memorial) and recordings and concerts with Opera Rara. Recent and future recitals include engagements at Wigmore Hall, Bridgewater Hall, the Brighton, City of London, Ryedale, Chiltern Arts, Leeds Lieder, Oxford Lieder and Cheltenham festivals, as well as the BBC Proms.

Recent and future operatic engagements include Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro) for Glyndebourne Touring Opera; Annio (La Clemenza di Tito), Hermia (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) and Zerlina (Don Giovanni) for Opera North; Dorabella (Così fan tutte) for Garsington Opera and Opera de Dijon; Rosina (The Barber of Seville) for ENO; and Nancy (Albert Herring) for the Buxton Festival. Her debut recital album, Love’s Old Sweet Song, was released in 2014, and recent recordings include discs of Elgar orchestral songs and of songs by Coates.

DAME HARRIET WALTER Dame Harriet Walter is an acclaimed British actress, with a rich body of work spanning film, theatre and television. She can next be seen in the highly anticipated feature film The Last Duel, directed by Ridley Scott and starring Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. Her recent film credits include My Dinner with Hervé, appearing alongside Jamie Dornan and Peter Dinklage; The Sense of an Ending, directed by Ritesh Batra and also starring Jim Broadbent and Charlotte Rampling; Denial, appearing alongside Rachel Weisz and Tom Wilkinson; and Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the critically acclaimed first instalment in the latest Star Wars trilogy. Her other notable film credits include the Oscar-winning Atonement, Babel and Sense and Sensibility. She has also had roles in some of the best-loved television series of recent years, including The End, The Crown, Downton Abbey and Call the Midwife. She recently featured in Succession for HBO and Patrick Melrose for Showtime/Sky Atlantic. She is next to be seen in Ted Lasso for Apple and This is Going To Hurt for the BBC.

Dame Harriet Walter is a seasoned theatre actor, having appeared in a number of productions with the Royal Shakespeare Company, including Death of a Salesman, Anthony and Cleopatra and Much Ado About Nothing. In 2018, she starred in The Tempest, Henry IV and Julius Caesar as part of the Donmar Warehouse’s All-Female Shakespeare Trilogy, which was also broadcast on the BBC in the UK, and on PBS in US.

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