Leeds International Chamber Season 2016/17
Tuesdays at 7.30pm
The Venue Quarry Hill, Leeds
HAVING COME TO KNOW AND LOVE THE AUDIENCE AT THE VENUE THROUGH THE ANNUAL ENDELLION SPRING/SUMMER RESIDENCY, I AM DELIGHTED AND HONOURED TO BE CURATING THIS INTERNATIONAL CHAMBER SEASON.
Each programme includes masterpieces from the Austro-German tradition that dominated western music from Bach to Brahms, alongside music from a variety of composers who resisted and reacted against that tradition in its late Romantic form and who managed to make the huge imaginative quantum leap away from its powerfully magnetic force. They considered late Romantic music to be indulgently bloated and overripe, and its system of tonality stretched to breaking point. New inspiration was found in the robust, bracingly fresh spirit of ethnic folk music with its asymmetric rhythms, pungent harmonies, and earthy sonorities; regional language/ speech patterns and landscapes; and, occasionally, pre-Bach systems of harmony.
Free pre-concert talk 4 October 6:45pm, The Venue Join David Waterman in conversation with Julian Rushton before our opening concert for an insight into this season’s theme.
I am thrilled that some of the artists I most love and admire are participating. Although utterly individual, they share a luminous musical integrity. For them, each concert is a spontaneous and vivid act of unique (re)creation based on a profound absorption of the score. I hope that familiar works will become revelations and less familiar works will be wonderful discoveries. David Waterman Artistic Director and Cellist
Leeds International Chamber Season 2016/17
4 October 2016
8 November 2016
13 December 2016
OLLI MUSTONEN
STEVEN ISSERLIS
MICHAEL COLLINS
CONNIE SHIH
DAVID WATERMAN
piano
Bach Partita No 1 in B flat Shchedrin Album for the Young Mustonen Piano Sonata (Jehkin Iivana) Beethoven Piano Sonata Op 106 (Hammerklavler) The opening concert of our series is framed by two towering works in B flat, by composers who are at the very centre of the Austro-German classical tradition. JS Bach’s superhuman mastery and emotional range influenced all who came after him, none more so than Beethoven in his later period. The late Beethoven piano sonatas are amongst the wonders of the world and the mighty Hammerklavier includes a profoundly spiritual slow movement followed by a fugal Finale that is as life-enhancing and forever contemporary as the Grosse Fuge for quartet. Olli Mustonen is great friends with Rodion Shchedrin in whose wonderfully original work there are influences of Russian Orthodox church music and Russian folk culture – examples of which Shchedrin collected while travelling the Russian countryside. Olli’s own sonata invokes the transformative power of some archetypes of Finnish mythology, channelled through the eponymous Karelian late 19th century poet-singer, Jehkin Iivana, who in this sonata transports us to magical regions. Olli Mustonen is one of the world’s most distinctive musicians. He is equally a composer, conductor, and pianist. His powerful and deep musical responses and insight, and vast range of colours, articulations and rubati grace all of his enchanting and memorable performances.
Photo by Outi Montosen
cello
piano
Debussy Cello and Piano Sonata Fauré Cello and Piano Sonata No 1 Bridge Cello and Piano Sonata Beethoven Piano and Cello Sonata No 3 Steven is one of the great musiciancellists of our age and his warmly instinctive and natural playing is founded on an effortless, unshowy technical command and a musical integrity and understanding second to none. Connie Shih is one of his most regular partners and has a breathtaking dynamism and empathy both with her chamber music partners and composers. Debussy’s sonata is a much-loved late masterpiece written at the time of the First World War, as was Frank Bridge’s marvellous cello sonata. Fauré’s genius has never had a better and more ardent advocate than Steven, and this late sonata (also in the shadow of World War 1) is powerful and dramatic as well as full of the rapturous and yet exquisitely refined lyricism that is so unique to Fauré. Debussy and Fauré shared a fascination with, followed by a repulsion from, Wagner’s music; and their strong instincts for independence from German music were clearly magnified by living through France’s catastrophic military defeats by Germany in 1870 and 1914. They were both strong influences on Bridge.
clarinet cello
ANNE QUEFFÉLEC piano
Satie Gnossienne No 1 Ravel À la manière de Chabrier Satie Gymnopédie No 1 Poulenc L’éventail de Jeanne: Pastourelle Séverac Où l’on entend une vieille boîte à musique Debussy Clair de lune Dupont Après-midi de dimanche Satie Gymnopédie No 3 Hahn Le Rossignol Éperdu: Le banc songeur Hahn Le Rossignol Éperdu: Hivernale Schmitt Musiques Intimees: Glas Poulenc Clarinet and Piano Sonata Dvořák Waldesruhe for Cello and Piano Brahms Clarinet Trio Anne Queffélec, a special favourite of British and International audiences ever since her appearance in ‘The Leeds’ performs some popular French pieces, alongside lesser known works; each one highly evocative, typically French, and a long way from the sound world of Wagner, Strauss or Mahler.
After these pieces, all facing firmly away from German Romanticism, comes Beethoven’s much loved sonata Op 69, a piece at the heart of the piano and cello repertoire.
As with Anne, I have always relished every opportunity to play with Michael Collins; surely one of the greatest clarinettists in the world. Poulenc’s sparkling clarinet sonata completes the French first half. The second half is introduced by Dvořák's soulful cello piece, Waldesruhe, followed by Brahms’ wonderful autumnal and introspective clarinet trio.
Photo by Jean Baptiste Millot
Photo by Caroline Doutre
17 January 2017
21 February 2017
28 March 2017
FERENC RADOS
ARISA FUJITA
PHILIPPE GRAFFIN
ALASDAIR BEATSON
LILLI MAIJALLA
DAVID WATERMAN
DAVID WATERMAN
ALASDAIR BEATSON
piano piano
Mozart Piano Sonata, K533/494 Bartók Nine Pieces from Mikrokosmos VI Schubert Fantasie in F minor, D940 Schubert Eight Variations on an Original Theme, D813 Ferenc Rados is something of an inspirational prophet amongst a large group of younger musicians who have marvelled at his teaching and playing. He partly belongs to a Hungarian tradition represented in the pre-war Liszt Academy, Budapest, by figures such as Kodály, Bartók, Leó Weiner, Sándor Végh, György Kurtág and others. He has taught András Schiff, Zoltán Kocsis, Dénes Várjon, Leonid Kavakos and many others, and teaches regularly at IMS Prussia Cove. His concerts are rare events and avidly sought out by many musicians. Alasdair Beatson has emerged as one of Europe’s most distinctive and compelling voices in the younger generation of pianists and he is in huge demand for chamber music as well as for solo playing Great masterworks of Mozart and Schubert sandwich pieces from Bartók’s Mikrokosmos. Bartók was himself a great pianist steeped in classical traditions as witness his recordings from Scarlatti to Debussy. His own unique musical language was profoundly inspired in its atmosphere, inflections, and harmonic and rhythmic characteristics by his field research into peasant music throughout Eastern Europe and North Africa.
Photo by Giorgia Bertazzi
violin viola
cello
CONNIE SHIH piano
Haydn Piano Trio, Hob XV:29 (1797) Fauré Piano Quartet No 2 Rachmaninov Trio élégiaque No 1 Dvořák Piano Quartet No 2 I am delighted to be joined by some of my very favourite chamber music partners; Connie Shih, returning after her recital with Steven Isserlis, Arisa Fujita who leads both a marvellous quartet and piano trio, and Lilli Maijalla, who was in ‘quartet-lab’ with Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Pekka Kuusisto and Pieter Wispelwey. Our Haydn Trio demonstrates the playful imagination and warm, generous spirit that pervade his many great quartets. Haydn was the key progenitor of ‘Classical Style’, virtually inventing and perfecting sonata form, the symphony, the string quartet, and the piano trio; he in effect laid the foundations for 19th century music. Fauré’s quartet is a gloriously ecstatic piece. His music owes nothing to folk music but is influenced by harmony partly derived from Gregorian chant. The quartet is a joy to play and to hear. Rachmaninov and Dvořák are composers who did not reinvent or decisively break away from the mainstream tradition but who nevertheless superbly adapted it and integrated it with characteristic elements of their native Russia and Bohemia, respectively.
violin cello
piano
Beethoven Piano Trio Op 1, No 1 Enescu Violin Sonata No 3 Schumann Piano Trio No 1 Alasdair Beatson returns after his recital with Ferenc Rados to play with myself and the remarkable, charismatic French violinist, Philippe Graffin, whose highly individual imagination, range of colours and rhythmic freedom are reminiscent of an earlier and much missed era of violin playing. Beethoven’s Op 1, No 1 has all the youthful spirit, warmth and good nature of its young composer and yet in its mastery and subtlety could be the work of a veteran. What a journey from this piece to the Hammerklavier and yet each are unmistakably imbued with Beethoven’s personality. Enescu was a stupendous violinist, pianist, conductor, composer and teacher (Menuhin was a pupil). He was hugely influenced by gypsy playing and music from his native Romania. The Third Violin Sonata is one of his best-loved pieces, not least because of Enescu’s own exemplary recording with Dinu Lipatti on piano. Schumann’s Trio is a dark turbulent intense work of genius. His special gift for confessional intimacy and poetry is at its height in this highly personal and revelatory slow movement. These qualities are perhaps one reason why he was, alone amongst the AustroGerman composers, loved, admired and frequently performed by Fauré.
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There is a lift at the front of the building to The Venue and disabled toilets in the foyer area. Patrons with disabilities and their essential carers may obtain two tickets for the price of one – via the LICS Essential Carer Scheme – details from the Box Office 0113 376 0318. Support dogs are welcome. Please let us know when booking of any special access requirements you may have.
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The Venue
Quarry Hill, Leeds, LS2 7PD
There is a designated disabled car park beside Leeds College of Music which has spaces for at least ten cars.
To order a copy of this brochure in an alternative format, please contact 0113 378 6600 or email music@leeds.gov.uk.
TICKET PRICES & BOOKING INFORMATION
Seating area
Area A
Area B
Full price
£19.50
£17.50
Over 60s
£17.50
£15.50
Under 18s/student/unwaged
£9.75
£8.75
Book by telephone 0113 376 0318
TAKE OUT A SUBSCRIPTION TO ALL SIX CONCERTS &
The booking line is open from 10am – 6pm Monday to Saturday. Please note that a fee of £2.50 will apply per transaction except for subscription bookings.
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Book online www.leedsconcertseason.com Please note a booking fee of £1 per ticket applies. We regret that subscriptions cannot Please be booked online.
Book in person or by post City Centre Box Office
note City Centre Box Office has moved
Leeds Town Hall, The Headrow, Leeds, LS1 3AD Email: boxoffice@leeds.gov.uk The Box Office is open to personal callers from 10am – 6pm Monday to Saturday. Cheques should be made payable to Leeds City Council. Please enclose a stamped addressed envelope if you would like your tickets sent to you.
Booking dates
Talk to us! If you have any questions or comments about Leeds International Concert Season please contact us: Leeds International Concert Season Leeds Town Hall, The Headrow, Leeds, LS1 3AD General Enquiries: 0113 378 6600 Email: music@leeds.gov.uk Whilst every effort is made to avoid changes, Leeds International Concert Season reserves the right to change artists and programmes without notice if unavoidable.
@LeedsConcerts Leeds International Concert Season
11 – 22 July: For existing chamber subscribers retaining seats.
Please note: this is a separate subscription from the Endellion String Quartet series.
Requests for seat changes by existing subscribers will be processed on a first-come-first-served basis from 25 – 29 July and can be returned to the Box Office any time from 11 July. 1 August: For new subscribers 20 August: General booking
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