Igor Stravinsky: Renard

LONDON SINFONIETTA

Concert programme

Igor Stravinsky: Renard Sunday 10 February, 3:00pm Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, London

Erik Satie

Socrate#

32’

Igor Stravinsky

3 Pieces for String Quartet

7’

Igor Stravinsky

3 Pieces for Clarinet

5’

Igor Stravinsky

Concertino for String Quartet

6’

Igor Stravinsky

Renard – chamber opera in 1 act*

18’

Paris during the 1910s and 1920s was a hotbed of experimentation and creative dialogue between the arts. The concert explores the important works that came out of the city’s salons, hosted by great patrons such as Winnaretta Singer, also known as la Princesse Edmond de Polignac. Central to the programme is Stravinsky’s comic chamber opera Renard, in which a fox comes to a sticky end.

Presented by the London Sinfonietta and Southbank Centre as part of Southbank Centre’s The Rest Is Noise, inspired by Alex Ross’ book The Rest Is Noise.

Barbara Hannigan director*/soprano# Daniel Norman tenor* Edgaras Montvidas tenor* Roderick Williams bass* John Molloy bass* Reinbert de Leeuw piano# Timothy Lines solo clarinet Harriet Walter presenter Timberlake Wertenbaker script writer

Images on front cover: Marlene Dietrich as Lola, 1930 © AFP Getty / Stravinsky © Moviestore Collections/Rex Features

The London Sinfonietta is grateful to Arts Council England and the PRS for Music Foundation for their generous support of the ensemble’s Music Programme 2012/13 and to the John Ellerman Foundation for their support of the ensemble.

1

Welcome Welcome to this, our second project in The Rest Is Noise festival.

The story of 20th-century music can’t be told without accounting for the extraordinary output and huge influence of Igor Stravinsky. The festival in the early 1980s of all of Stravinsky’s output, inspired and led by The London Sinfonietta’s co-founder David Atherton and involving many performances by this ensemble, is still regarded as a landmark event. While the ensemble has since increasingly worked on music being written in the second half of the century, and especially on music written now, the opportunity to return and represent some of this repertoire, as part of The Rest Is Noise festival, is hugely rewarding.

It’s important that we find a way to present this repertoire afresh, so it’s exciting to be working on this project with Barbara Hannigan as musical director. This extraordinary, multi-talented musician brings an exciting insight into everything

London Sinfonietta

Resident at Southbank Centre

The London Sinfonietta is proud of its Residency at Southbank Centre. From the world-class platform of events and festivals at Southbank Centre, the London Sinfonietta takes major projects around the UK and the world, creates new work through commissions and collaborations with major composers and artists, and involves the public from across London in contemporary performance events with the ensemble.

2

she does, and we are looking forward to her leadership from the podium as well as her performances as a singer. It’s also a pleasure to welcome the other singing and instrumental soloists to work with us today.

Our work on The Rest Is Noise Festival continues in the Autumn, when we take up the story with the Southbank Centre on post-war repertoire, and bring the project right up to the year 2000 and beyond – when our New Music Show in December will feature pieces with the ink still wet on the page.

It’s good to be part of this enormously important festival, and we trust that you will want to return again and again across the year to follow the journey of music and the other arts across the last century.

Andrew Burke Chief Executive londonsinfonietta.org.uk

Southbank Centre

The Rest Is Noise

We hope you enjoy your visit to Southbank Centre.

We have a Duty Manager available at all times. If you have any queries please ask any member of staff for assistance.

The Rest Is Noise is a year-long festival that digs deep into 20th-century history to reveal the influences on art in general and classical music in particular. Inspired by Alex Ross’ book The Rest Is Noise, we use film, debate, talks and a vast range of concerts to reveal the fascinating stories behind the century’s wonderful and often controversial music.

Eating, drinking and shopping? Southbank Centre shops and restaurants include Foyles, EAT, Giraffe, Strada, YO! Sushi, wagamama, Le Pain Quotidien, Las Iguanas, ping pong, Canteen, Caffe Vergnano 1882, Skylon, Concrete and Feng Sushi, as well as cafes, restaurants and shops inside Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Hayward Gallery.

If you wish to make a comment following your visit please contact Visitor Experience Team at Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX, phone 020 7960 4250 or email customer@southbankcentre.co.uk.

We look forward to seeing you again soon.

We have brought together some of the world’s finest orchestras and soloists to perform many of the most significant works of the 20th century.

We reveal why these pieces were written and how they transformed the musical language of the modern world.

Over the year, The Rest Is Noise features 12 focus weekends. The music is set in context with talks from a fascinating team of historians, scientists, philosophers, political theorists and musical experts as well as films, online content and other special programmes.

If you’re new to 20th-century music, then this is your time to start exploring with us as your tour guide. There has never been a festival like this.

Jude Kelly Artistic Director, Southbank Centre Join the journey southbankcentre.co.uk/therestisnoise

3

Erik Satie (1866 – 1925) The son of a French ship broker, Erik Satie was born in Honfleur, north-western France. Following the Franco-Prussian war in 1870, Satie and his family moved to Paris, but Satie was forced to move back with his grandparents after the death of his mother just two years later. His turbulent childhood continued upon the death of his grandmother in 1878 and Satie moved back to Paris to live with his father and his new step-mother whom he greatly disliked.

Satie’s musical education began in earnest upon his entry into the Paris Conservatoire in 1879, but he was dismissed shortly afterwards in 1882 for not adhering to the conservatoire’s performance standards. All was not lost, however, as Satie’s father, Alfred, was beginning to establish a music publishing business, providing him with a platform to publish his work. In 1887, Satie wrote his three Sarabandes; composing his Gymnopédies in 1888. Encouraged by his recent musical outpourings, Satie began to explore his surroundings in and around Montmartre with his great friend Contamine de Latour, and his discovery of the café Le Chat Noir was of importance to his future career, for it was here that Satie met Claude Debussy – with whom he would form a friendship lasting over 25 years.

In 1898, Satie left Montmartre for the Parisian suburb of Arcueil-Cachan and for a while, earned his living playing the piano in cafes around town. This marks the most melancholy period in Satie’s life, the main highlight in these 15 years being his set of Trois morceaux en forme de poire based largely on cabaret melodies.

His luck changed, however, in 1915 when the young Jean Cocteau heard a performance of Satie’s Trois morceaux. Cocteau used his social status to secure commissions and engage with virtuoso soloists to perform Satie’s music.

4

The upshot of this relationship was Cocteau’s collaboration with Satie in the ballet Parade which premiered in May 1917. The ballet was composed for Diaghilev’s Ballet Russes and was not without its scandal. The music critic Jean Poueigh reviewed the ballet unfavourably, resulting in Satie writing a postcard to the critic insulting him and his opinions.

Satie was sued by Poueigh and given an eight-day jail sentence for his retaliation. Amidst the furore of the work’s premiere, a group of young composers established themselves under the title, “Les Nouveaux Jeunes”, with journalist Henri Collet later defining them as the now well-known, “Les Six”, seen as a reactionary group to the impressionist music of their contemporaries Debussy and Ravel and the German romantics, particularly the music of Wagner.

Satie was now enjoying widespread success, helped along by the composition of Socrate in 1917 based on Victor Hugo’s translation of Plato’s Dialogues. His success was marked in 1920 by two festivals of his music, with the final period of his compositional output being starkly more stylistically varied than his previous compositions. Satie continued to write music for ballet, collaborating with Léonide Massine and Pablo Picasso in Mercure (1924) along with the painter Francis Picabia and the French film-maker René Clair in Relâche, translating as “performance cancelled” in French. Scandal erupted once again on the opening night of the latter ballet as Jean Borlin, the principal dancer, had to withdraw due to illness.

The ballet had truly lived up to its title.

Following the composition of Relâche, Satie’s health began to take a turn for the worse, culminating in admittance to hospital to monitor his progress. His deterioration continued, however and Satie died on 1 July 1925 of sclerosis of the liver. His manuscripts were saved following his death by his good friend and member of “Les Six” Darius Milhaud, ensuring that his eclectic output was preserved.

Notes on the programme

Erik Satie (1866–1925): Socrate (1919)

Few periods of history have witnessed such close associations between the arts as early 20th-century Paris, when a close group of composers, artists, dancers and theatre directors collaborated to produce some of the century’s enduring artistic masterpieces.

Café concerts, art exhibitions and philosophy groups were all meeting points for Paris’ new artistic elite, and it was at one of these regular haunts, the cabaret venue Le Chat Noir, that Erik Satie first befriended Claude Debussy and became enfolded in his close musical circle. Like Debussy, Satie had attended the Paris Conservatoire a few years earlier, where he took lessons in piano from Georges Mathias. But while Debussy had been recognised as a talented young composer during his time there, Satie was dismissed from the Conservatoire on account of his ‘insignificant, laborious and worthless’ piano playing. Fortunately, Mathias recognised that Satie’s real talent lay with composing, and he was readmitted to the Conservatoire soon after, but his unusual style of composition and disregard for traditional rules did not make a favourable impression on his tutors.

Both Satie and Debussy shared the same musical vision, rejecting the over-complex musical language that had developed in recent years, and advocating a return to a purer form of musical expression. Satie first earned fame for his Six Gymnopédies, whose simplicity is captured through repetition. The first eighteen bars of Gymnopédie No. 1 feature just six pitches, there is no ‘development’ or ‘transition’ per se, and the piece circles insistently around the repetition of the opening two bars. Sparsely textured and harmonically narrow, barlines and key signatures, too, become almost obsolete in the fluidity of Satie’s impressionistic style. This eccentric style and clarity of vision was matched by Satie’s appearance: every day he emerged from his apartment on the outskirts of Paris wearing one of the dozen immaculate velvet suits he owned, each identical, earning him the nickname ‘the Velvet Gentleman’.

As Satie’s renown as a composer increased, so too did his eccentricity. Alongside his compositions, which had become increasingly humorous and stylistically complex over time, annotated with puns, anecdotes and mysterious directions, Satie also published a number of writings on music. Some were intended to be taken seriously, others were more absurd. As well as publishing elaborate hoaxes, such as announcing the non-existent premiere of a non-existent antiWagnerian opera entitled Le bâtard de Tristan, Satie’s writings included implausible ‘diary entries’ from his life: ‘I am inspired from 10:23 to 11:47. I have lunch at 12:11 and leave the table at 12:14… Another bout of inspiration from 3:12 to 4:07… Dinner is served at 7:16 and over at 7:20. Then come symphonic readings (aloud) from 8:09 until 9:59. My bedtime is regularly at 10:37. I awaken with a start at 3:19am (Tuesdays).’

Despite these absurdities, Satie continued to be taken seriously as a composer, and his friendship with the poet Jean Cocteau sparked a series of works inspired by, or based on, poetry and philosophy. In 1919, Satie published one of his most serious works to date: subtitled ‘a symphonic drama in three parts’, Socrate follows aspects of the life of the classical Greek philosopher Socrates, told through a series of writings.

Despite the subtitle, as a work it is neither symphonic, nor particularly dramatic. Scored for four solo sopranos and chamber orchestra (although Satie also published a version for voice and piano for its early outings at Parisian café concerts), the three parts comprise: a eulogy of Socrates written by his pupil, Alcibaides; a dialogue between Socrates and another of his pupils, Phaedrus; the death of Socrates in the form of a monologue by the philosopher Phaedro. Rather than present the work as a dramatic narrative in the same manner as a baroque cantata, divided into distinct musical sections such as arias and recitatives, the whole work is recitative-like in its style, set to Satie’s sparse orchestral backdrop. Nevertheless, the music is characteristically effective, despite its economy of resources, and Satie’s simple, repetitive rhythms form a counterpoint to the complexity and intricacy of the text. Satie affords more than half of the music to the work’s final movement – a slow recessional in which we see Socrates life gradually ebbing away from him after he commits suicide.

Jo Kirkbride

5

Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971) Igor Feodorovich Stravinsky was born in Oranienbaum, near St Petersburg, on 5 June 1882, the third son of Feodor Stravinsky, one of the principal basses at the Maryinsky Theatre in St Petersburg. Stravinsky’s musical education began with piano lessons when he was ten; he later studied law at St Petersburg University and music theory with Fyodor Akimenko and Vassily Kalafati.

His most important teacher, though, was Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, with whom he studied informally from the age of twenty, taking regular lessons from 1905 until 1908.

Although Stravinsky’s first substantial composition was a Symphony in E flat, written in 1906 under the tutelage of Rimsky-Korsakov, it was The Firebird, a ballet commissioned by Sergei Diaghilev and premiered by his Ballets Russes in Paris in 1910, that brought Stravinsky into sudden international prominence. In the next year he consolidated his reputation with Petrushka, like The Firebird a transformation of something essentially Russian into a work of surprising modernity. Stravinsky’s next major score – a third ballet commission from Diaghilev – is one of the major landmarks in the history of music: the blend of melodic primitivism and rhythmic complexity in The Rite of Spring marked the coming of modernism in music and was met with a mixture of astonishment and hostility.

Stravinsky became established as the most radical composer of the age.

In the years that followed, the explicitly Russian flavour of his music gave way to a more refined neoclassicism, beginning with the ballet Pulcinella (1920), for which Stravinsky went back to the music of Pergolesi, reworking it into something completely personal. 1920 was also the year that Stravinsky settled in France, taking French citizenship in 1934.

His ties to his adopted homeland were further loosened when, in a mere eight months, from November 1938, Stravinsky suffered the deaths of his daughter, his mother and then his wife Catherine. Faced with an imminent war in Europe, Stravinsky and his second-wife-to-be Vera Sudeikin emigrated to the United States where they were to make their home for the rest of their lives.

Pulcinella turned out to be only the first of many works in which, over the next two decades,

6

Stravinsky subdued the music of the past to his own purposes, among them the ‘divertimento’ The Fairy’s Kiss, derived from Tchaikovsky, and the ballet Apollon Musagète, both premiered in 1928. Two choral-orchestral works – the oratorio Oedipus Rex (1927) and the Symphony of Psalms (1930) – showed that he could also work on an epic scale; and it was not long before he tackled a purely orchestral Symphony in C (1938), which was followed within four years by the Symphony in Three Movements.

With Perséphone (1934), Jeu de Cartes (1936) and Orpheus (1946), the series of ballets also continued, generally in collaboration with George Balanchine, a partnership as important to dance in the 20th-century as Tchaikovsky’s and Petipa’s had been in the 19th. Stravinsky’s neo-classical period culminated in 1951 in his threeact opera The Rake’s Progress, to a libretto by W. H. Auden and Chester Kallman.

One of the most unexpected stylistic volte-faces in modern music came in 1957, with the appearance of the ballet Agon; Stravinsky himself conducted its premiere at a 75th-birthday concert. Hitherto he had ignored Schoenbergian serialism, but in 1952 he began to study Webern’s music intensely and Agon was the first work in which he embraced serialism wholeheartedly, though the music that resulted was entirely his own – indeed, it has a formal elegance that he seemed to have been trying to capture in his neo-classical period. The chief works from Stravinsky’s late serial flowering are Threni, for six solo voices, chorus and orchestra (1958), The Flood, a ‘musical play for soloists, chorus and orchestra’ (1962), the ‘sacred ballad’ Abraham and Isaac (1963), Variations for Orchestra (1964) and Requiem Canticles (1966).

Stravinsky was also active as a performer of his own music, initially as a pianist but increasingly as a conductor. The first among contemporary composers to do so, he left a near-complete legacy of recordings of his own music, released then on CBS and now to be found on Sony Classical. His conducting career continued until 1967, when advancing age and illness forced him to retire from the concert platform. His tenuous grasp on life finally broke on 6 April 1971, in New York, and his body was flown to Venice for burial on the island of San Michele, near to the grave of Diaghilev.

Reprinted by kind permission of Boosey & Hawkes

Notes on the programme

Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971):

Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971):

In the hotbed of artistic cross-fertilisation that characterised early 20th-century Paris, ‘art music’ took on a completely new appearance: traditional ‘classical’ forms were combined with jazz, folksong, rag-time and musical hall, to name but a few.

Stylistically, it was a musical free-for-all. At the heart of this transformation, Igor Stravinsky laid down the gauntlet for his contemporaries. A chameleonic composer to say the least, Stravinsky’s musical style underwent more radical transformations during the course of his career than perhaps any other composer to date. His styles are difficult to classify succinctly, but they are widely thought to fall into three identifiable periods: an early ‘Russian’ period, characterised by the use of Russian folk ideas, hardedged sounds and rhythmic complexity; his subsequent ‘neoclassical’ phase (although he abhorred the term) which saw him look back to Classical and Baroque models and rejuvenate them with modern techniques; and lastly his ‘Serial’ period, in which he finally embraced the twelve-tone techniques that Arnold Schoenberg and his school had explored some years earlier.

Unsurprisingly, it was not Stravinsky’s chamber music that made him famous, but his large theatrical spectacles. With his bold, confident style, Stravinsky soon attracted the attention of Serge Diaghilev, the director of the Ballet Russes in Paris, and was asked to write a ballet for the company in 1910. The result was The Firebird, the first of three ballets that Stravinsky would compose during his first three-year stay in Paris (the others were Petrushka and The Rite of Spring). Scored for large orchestras of often unusual instrumentation and with heavy Russian folk influences, these ballets were not to everyone’s tastes, with the Musical Times claiming of The Rite of Spring that ‘practically, it has no relation to music at all as most of us understand the word.’ The premiere of The Rite marked the dawn of a new era in western art music, as Alex Ross writes in The Rest Is Noise: ‘Lowdown yet sophisticated, smartly savage, style and muscle intertwined… Melodies would follow the patterns of speech; rhythms would match the energy of dance; musical forms would be more concise and clear; sonorities would have the hardness of life as it is really lived.’

But amidst these broad categories, Stravinsky’s music also absorbed the sounds of other musical cultures.

His Three Pieces for String Quartet of 1914, for example, is inspired by the sights and sounds of the Spanish city of Madrid. Stravinsky described the work as follows: ‘Many of the musicians who had preceded me in visiting Spain had, on their return, put their impressions on record… first and foremost Glinka, with his incomparable Jota Aragonaise and A Night in Madrid – and on my side I was delighted to conform with this custom. This piece was inspired by the surprising results of the mixture of strains from the mechanical pianos and orchestrinas in the streets and little night taverns of Madrid.’ Described by Paul Griffiths as ‘determinedly not a ‘string quartet’ but a set of pieces to be played by four strings’, the quartet is not so much a self-contained work as a set of studies on different moods. Stravinsky later titled the movements ‘Dance’, ‘Eccentric’ and ‘Canticle’, exploring through music the implications of these very different words.

While The Rite catapulted Stravinsky to widespread fame (and, indeed, infamy), it also brought him to the attention of a number of important patrons. Among them, was the Swiss merchant and philanthropist Werner Reinhart, who subsequently bankrolled Stravinsky’s first production of his chamber opera L’histoire du Soldat, among a number of other works.

Werner was also an amateur clarinettist, and in gratitude for his support of his music Stravinsky wrote a set of Three Pieces for Clarinet in Werner’s honour. At barely a minute and a half long each, the three short movements present a miniaturised snapshot of Stravinsky’s early works. Devised around an octatonic scale, the first piece takes as its theme a meandering Russian folk melody, whose melancholic hues lead on to a far more upbeat second movement, this time capturing the circling, driving rhythms of Petrushka and The Rite. In the final movement Stravinsky returns to Paris, incorporating jazz and ragtime features that recall the ragtime movement from L’histoire du Soldat – a fitting gesture towards his patron.

Three Pieces for String Quartet (1914)

Three Pieces for Clarinet (1919)

Jo Kirkbride 7

Notes on the programme

Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971): Renard (1916)

While the division of style into distinct periods is, as with every composer, an over-simplification of their musical development, in Stravinsky’s case the changes are readily identifiable. Yet one strand of his musical outlook remained constant through his career: his distaste for over-indulgence and personal expression. In his autobiography of 1936 he wrote: ‘I consider that music is, by its very nature, essentially powerless to express anything at all, whether a feeling, an attitude of mind, a psychological mood, a phenomenon of nature, etc… Expression has never been an inherent property of music. That is by no means the purpose of its existence.’ This polemic, which was essentially a reaction to the indulgent sounds of Romanticism that preceded Stravinsky’s early works, has been widely reproduced (and criticised) over the years. So much so, that Stravinsky eventually found himself defending his own words, when he wrote in his 1962 book with Robert Craft: ‘The over-publicised bit about expression (or nonexpression) was simply a way of saying that music is supra-personal and super-real and as such beyond verbal meanings and verbal descriptions… I stand by the remark, incidentally, though today I would put it the other way around: music expresses itself.’

Stravinsky abhorred the labels that were attributed to his music, and largely resisted the throes of nationalism that grew around the tumultuous political events of the early 20th-century. That his earliest works were conceived in a ‘Russian’ idiom was, for Stravinsky at least, little more than a source of musical inspiration, rather than a defiant nationalist statement. Although the works of his early Russian phase were tremendously successful, over time he would come to distance himself increasingly from these associations for fear of being typecast. With his music receiving a lukewarm – if not altogether cool – reception back at home in Russia, Stravinsky would begin to cut the ties with his homeland, something that Debussy lamented to his contemporary in a letter: ‘Cher Stravinsky, you are a great artist! Be, with all your energy, a great Russian artist! It is a good thing to be from one’s country, to be attached to the earth like the humblest peasant.’

Of the great works that grew out of Stravinsky’s relatively short Russian period, his dramatic work

8

Renard remains one of the least well-known, despite its charming premise. Renard is based on the folk tales of Russian writer Alexander Afanasyev, with the text written by Stravinsky himself. Set in a farmyard, this moral tale follows a cunning young Fox as he twice outwits and captures the Cock, who in turn is rescued each time by the Cat and the Goat. After the Cock is captured for the second time, the Cat and the Goat capture and strangle the Fox, and the three rejoice at their victory.

Although Stravinsky called the piece a ‘burlesque’, Renard falls somewhere between the genres of ballet and opera, in that it is a dramatic work that is sung and played, while incorporating elements of dance.

The piece was written at the request of one of Paris’ most important philanthropists, Winnaretta Singer, also known as la Princesse Edmond de Polignac, heir to the Singer sewing machine fortune. Singer asked Stravinsky to write a new work that could be performed in her salon, so it is hardly surprising that the dramatic action was not designed to be fullystaged. While there are as many characters as there are singers, the vocal parts themselves are not aligned with particular characters: when not singing, the actors/singers are asked to perform freely as clowns, dancers and acrobats, instead of being given specific choreography. However, the first performance was given not in Singer’s salon – in fact, the work was never performed there for reasons that are unclear – but was premiered by the Ballet Russes at the Théâtre de l’Opéra in Paris in 1922, complete with full costumes and elaborate choreography.

As well as the source of the folk tales, the music of Renard is also distinctly Russian, and makes extensive use of the cimbalom – a stringed instrument that is played with mallets, chosen because it is similar in timbre to the Russian guzla (an instrument that was not easy to come by in Paris). This percussive instrument is perfectly suited to the work’s linear texture, which makes extensive use of repeated melodic fragments, alternating time signatures and driving rhythms – features of Russian folksong which Stravinsky had introduced in Petrushka and The Rite just a few years earlier.

Jo Kirkbride

Erik Satie: Socrate

I. Portrait de Socrate (Le Banquet)

I. Portrait of Socrates (The Banquet)

Alcibiade Or, mes chers amis, afin de louer Socrate, j’aurai besoin de comparaisons: on croira peut-être que je veux plaisanter; mais rien n’est plus sérieux. Je dis d’abord qu’il ressemble tout à fait à ces silènes qu’on voit exposés dans les ateliers des sculpteurs et que les artistes représentent avec une flûte ou des pipeaux à la main, et dans l’intérieur desquels, quand on les ouvre en séparant les deux pièces dont ils se composent, on trouve renfermées des statues de divinités. Je prétends ensuite qu’il ressemble au satyre Marsyas… Et n’es-tu pas aussi joueur de flûte? Oui, sans doute, et bien plus étonnant que Marsyas. Celui-ci charmait les hommes par les belles choses que sa bouche tirait de ses instruments, et autant en fait aujourd’hui quiconque répète ses airs; en effet, ceux que jouait Olympus, je les attribue à Marsyas son maître. La seule différence, Socrate, qu’il y ait ici entre Marsyas et toi, c’est que sans instruments, avec de simples discours, tu fais la même chose… Pour moi, les amis, n’était la crainte de vous paraître totalement ivre, je vous attesterai avec serment l’effet extraordinaire que ses discours m’ont fait, et me font encore.

En l’écoutant, je sens palpiter mon coeur plus fortement que si j’étais agité de la manie dansante des corybantes. Ses paroles font couler mes larmes, et j’en vois un grand nombre d’autres ressentir les mêmes émotions. Tels sont les prestiges qu’exerce et sur moi et sur d’autres la flûte de ce satyre…

Alcibiades Now, my dear friends, in order to praise Socrates, I shall need comparisons: he will believe, perhaps, that I am joking, but I couldn’t be more serious, I shall say first of all that he completely resembles those figures of Silenus that are on display in sculptors’ studios, and that artists depict with a flute or pipes in their hands, and inside of which, when one opens them by separating the two halves of which they are made, one finds, enclosed, statues of divinities.

I then maintain that he is like the satyr Marsyas…

But are you not, too, a flute player? Yes, no doubt, and then, even more surprising than Marsyas, the latter charmed men by the beautiful things that his mouth drew out of his instruments, something that can be done today by anybody who plays like him. Indeed, those that Olympus played, I attribute them to Marsyas, his master. The only difference, Socrates, that there is between you and Marsyas, is that without instruments, with mere words, you achieve the same thing… For me, my friends, were it not for fear of appearing to you to be completely drunk, I should swear on oath to you the extraordinary effect his words have had upon me, and still have. When listening to him, I feel my heart beating more strongly than if I had been excited by the orgiastic dance of the Corybantes, his words cause my tears to flow, and I see that many others are overcome by the same emotions. Such are the extraordinary things that upon me and many others the flute of this satyr works…

Socrate Tu viens de faire mon éloge: c’est maintenant à moi de faire celui de mon voisin de droite.

Socrates You have just sung my praises: now it is up to me to praise my neighbour on my right.

II. Les Bords de l’Ilissus (Phèdre)

II. On the Banks of the Ilissus (Phaedrus)

Socrate Détournons-nous un peu du chemin et, s’il te plaît, descendons le long des bords de l’Ilissus.

Là, nous trouverons une place solitaire pour nous asseoir où tu voudras.

Socrates Let us turn away a little from the path, and, if such be your pleasure, let us go down to the banks of the Ilissus. There we shall find a solitary place to sit down wherever you like.

9

10

Phèdre Je m’applaudis, en vérité, d’être sorti aujourd’hui sans chaussures, car pour toi, c’est ton usage.

Qui donc empêche de descendre dans le courant même, et de nous baigner les pieds tout en marchant? Ce serait un vrai plaisir, surtout dans cette saison et à cette heure du jour.

Phaedrus I congratulate myself, in truth, not to be wearing shoes today, for such is your own custom. Who is to stop us from going into the stream and bathing our feet as we walk along?

It would be a true pleasure, above all at this time of the year, and at this hour of the day.

Socrate Je le veux bien; avance donc et cherche en même temps un lieu pour nous asseoir.

Socrates That suits me well; go on, then, and at the same time let us seek a place where we can sit down.

Phèdre Vois-tu ce platane élevé?

Phaedrus Do you see that place up there?

Socrate Eh bien?

Socrates Well?

Phèdre Là nous trouverons de l’ombre, un air frais et du gazon qui nous servira de siège, ou même de lit, si nous voulons.

Phaedrus There shall we find shade, a cool breeze, and sward that will be a seat for us, or even a bed, should we so desire.

Socrate Va, je te suis.

Socrates Go on, then, I shall follow you.

Phèdre Dis-moi Socrate, n’est-ce pas ici quelque part sur les bords de l’Ilissus, que Borée enleva, dit-on, la jeune Orithye?

Phaedrus Tell me, Socrates, was it not somewhere here on the banks of the Ilissus, that Boreas, so they say, carried off the young Oreithyia?

Socrate On le dit.

Socrates So people say.

Phèdre Mais ne serait-ce pas dans cet endroit même?

Car l’eau est si belle, si claire et si limpide, que des jeunes filles ne pouvaient trouver un lieu plus propice à leurs jeux.

Phaedrus But could it not have been in this very spot itself? For the water is so beautiful, so clear and so limpid, that young maidens could scarce find a place more propitious to their frolics.

Socrate Ce n’est pourtant pas ici, mais deux ou trois stades plus bas, là où l’on passe le fleuve. On y voit même un autel consacré à Borée.

Socrates All the same, it is not here but two or three furlongs away, at the ford across the river.

There’s even an altar dedicated to Boreas there.

Phèdre Je ne me le remets pas bien. Mais dis-moi, de grâce, crois-tu donc à cette aventure fabuleuse?

Phaedrus I can’t bring it to mind. But tell me, I beg you, do you really believe in this fable story?

Socrate Mais si j’en doutais, comme les savants, je ne serais pas fort embarrassé; je pourrais subtiliser et dire que le vent du nord la fit tomber d’une des roches voisines, quand elle jouait avec Pharmacée, et que ce genre de mort donna lieu de croire qu’elle avait été ravie par Borée; ou bien je pourrais dire qu’elle tomba du rocher de l’Aréopage, car c’est là que plusieurs transportent la scène… Mais à propos, n’est-ce point là cet arbre où tu nous conduis?

Socrates If I doubted it, as wise men do, I would not be troubled; I might be rational and simply say that the north wind blew her off one of the nearby rocks, when she was playing with Pharmacea, and that the manner of her death led one to believe that she had been ravished

by Boreas; or else I could say that she fell from the rock of the Areopagus, for ‘tis there that several people place the scene… But by the way, is not that the tree whither you are taking us?

Phèdre C’est lui-même.

Phaedrus The very one.

Socrate Par Junon, le charmant lieu de repos! Comme ce platane est large et élevé! Et cet agnus cactus avec ses rameaux élancés et son bel ombrage, ne dirait-on pas qu’il est tout en fleur, pour embaumer l’air? Quoi de plus gracieux, je te prie, que cette source qui coule sous ce platane, et dont nos pieds attestent la fraîcheur? Ce lieu pourrait bien être consacré à quelque nymphe et au fleuve Achéolus, à en juger par ces figures et ces statues. Goûte un peu l’air qu’on y respire: est-il rien de plus suave et de si délicieux? Le chant des cigales a quelque chose d’animé et qui sent l’été. J’aime surtout cette herbe touffue qui nous permet de nous étendre et de reposer mollement notre tête sur ce terrain légèrement incliné. Mon cher Phèdre, tu ne pouvais mieux me conduire.

Socrates

By Juno, what a charming resting place! How high and wide is the plane tree! And that agnuscactus with its intertwined boughs, and the beautiful shade it affords, would not you say that is has blossomed to perfume the air? And what is more pleasant, I ask you, than this spring flowing beneath the plane tree, and to whose refreshing coolness our feet bear witness? This place might be consecrated to a nymph and the river Achelous, judging by these figures and statues.

Taste the air one breathes here: is there aught more seductive or more delicious? The song of the cicadas is lively and speaks of the summer; I love above all this thick grass which enables us to stretch out and gently rest our heads on this gently sloping ground. My dear Phaedrus, you could not have guided me better.

III. La Mort de Socrate (Phédon)

III. The Death of Socrates (Phaedo)

Phédon Depuis la condamnation de Socrate, nous ne manquions pas un seul jour d’aller le voir.

Comme la place publique où le jugement avait été rendu était tout près de la prison, nous nous y rassemblions le matin, et là nous attendions, en nous entretenant ensemble, que la prison fut ouverte, et elle ne l’était jamais de bonne heure…

Le geôlier qui nous introduisait ordinairement vint au-devant de nous et nous dit d’attendre, et de ne pas entrer avant qu’il nous appelât lui-même.

Quelques moments après, il revint et nous ouvrit.

Phaedo Since Socrates was condemned, we let not a day go by without seeing him. As the public place where judgment was given was close to the prison, we assembled there in the morning, and there we waited, talking with one another, for the prison to be opened, and it was never opened early… The gaoler who usually let us in came to us and told us to wait and not to come in until he himself had called us. A few moments later, he came back and opened the door.

En entrant, nous trouvâmes Socrate qu’on venait de délivrer de ses fers, et Xantippe, tu la connais, auprès de lui, et tenant un de ses enfants dans ses bras. Alors Socrate, se mettant sur son séant, plia la jambe qu’on venait de dégager, la frotta avec sa main, et nous dit:

When we went in, we found Socrates, whose chains had been removed, and Xanthippe, whom you know, standing beside him holding one of her children in her arms. And then Socrates sat up, bent the leg that had just been freed rubbed it with his hand, and said to us:

“L’étrange chose, mes amis, que ce que les hommes appellent plaisir, et comme il a de merveilleux rapports avec la douleur, que l’on prétend contraire! N’est-ce pas dans la jouissance et la souffrance que le corps subjugue et enchaîne l’âme? A grand’peine persuaderais-je aux autres hommes que je ne prends point pour un malheur l’état où je me trouve, puisque je ne saurais vous le persuader à vous-mêmes. Vous me croyez donc,

“How strange it is, my friends, what men call pleasure, and what a wonderful relationship it enjoys with pain, which everybody claims to be the opposite! Is it not in pleasure and suffering that the body subjugates and enchains the soul?

With great difficulty shall I persuade my fellow men that I find not in the least unfortunate the situation in which I find myself, since I could not bring even you to believe this. You believe 11

à ce qu’il paraît, bien inférieur aux cygnes, pour ce qui regarde le pressentiment et la divination.

Les cygnes, quand ils sentent qu’ils vont mourir, chantent encore mieux ce jour-là qu’ils n’ont jamais fait, dans la joie d’aller trouver le dieu qu’ils servent.”

Bien que j’aie plusieurs fois admiré Socrate, je ne le fis jamais autant que dans cette circonstance.

J’étais assis à sa droite à côté du lit sur un petit siège, et lui il était assis plus haut que moi. Me passant la main sur la tête, et prenant mes cheveux qui tombaient sur mes épaules: “Demain, ô Phédon, dit-il, tu feras couper ces beaux cheveux, n’est-ce pas?”

Il se leva et passa dans une chambre voisine pour y prendre le bain; Criton l’y suivit, et Socrate nous pria de l’attendre. En rentrant, il s’assit sur son lit et n’eut pas le temps de nous dire grand’chose, car le serviteur des Onze entra presque en même temps et s’approchant de lui, “Socrate, dit-il, j’espère que je n’aurai pas à te faire le même reproche qu’aux autres: dès que je viens les avertir, par l’ordre des magistrats, qu’il faut boire le poison, ils s’emportent contre moi, et me maudissent; mais pour toi, je t’ai toujours trouvé le plus courageux, le plus doux et le meilleur de ceux qui sont jamais venus dans cette prison, et en ce moment je sais bien que je suis assuré que tu n’es pas fâché contre moi, mais contre ceux qui sont la cause de ton malheur et que tu connais bien. Maintenant, tu sais ce que je viens t’annoncer, adieu, tâche de supporter avec résignation ce qui est inévitable.”

12

me therefore, or so it would appear, much inferior to the swans, where premonition and divination are concerned. Swans, when they feel they are about to die, sing on that day better than they have ever sung before, in the joy they feel in going to meet the god they serve.”

Although I have several times admired Socrates, I never did as much as then. I was seated on his right, beside his bed, on a little seat, and he himself was seated higher than I. Putting his hand on my head, and taking hold of my hair which fell to my shoulders, he said: “Tomorrow, O Phaedo, you’ll have all this fine hair cut off, will you not?”

He got up and went into a nearby room to take his bath. Crito followed him, and Socrates bade us await him. When he came back, he sat on his bed, and had but little time to say anything to us, for the servant of the Eleven came in almost at the same time and, approaching Socrates, said to him: “I hope I shall not have to reprimand you for the same thing as the others: as soon as I come to tell them, by order of the magistrates, that they have to drink the poison, they fly into a rage against me and curse me. But as for you, I have always found you to be the bravest, the most gentle and the best of those who ever came into this prison, and now too I know I can be sure that you will not be angry with me, but with those who caused your misfortune, and whom you know well. Now, you know what I have come to say to you, farewell, try to bear with resignation that which is inevitable.”

Et en même temps il se détourna en fondant en larmes et se retira. Socrate en le regardant, lui dit: “Et toi aussi, reçois mes adieux. Je ferai ce que tu dis.”

At the same time, he turned aside, and, bursting into tears, he left the room. Socrates, watching him, said: “And you too, receive my farewell. I shall do what you say.”

Et se tournant vers nous: “Voyez, nous dit-il, quelle honnêteté dans cet homme: tout le temps que j’ai été ici, il m’est venu voir souvent et s’est entretenu avec moi: c’était le meilleur des hommes, et maintenant il me pleure de bon coeur! Mais allons, Criton, obéissons-lui de bonne grâce, et qu’on apporte le poison, s’il est broyé, sinon qu’il le broie lui-même.”

And turning towards us, he said: “See how honest this man is. All the time I have been here, he has come to see me often, and talked with me. He was the best of men, and now he weeps heartfelt tears for me! But come, Crito!

Let us obey him with good grace, and let the poison be brought, if it has been mixed, and if not, let him mix it himself.”

Criton fit signe à l’esclave qui se tenait auprès.

L’esclave sortit, et après être sorti quelque temps, il revint avec celui qui devait donner le poison, qu’il portait tout broyé dans une coupe. Aussitôt

Crito motioned to the slave who was standing by. The slave went out, and after a short absence, he came back with the person whose duty it was to give the poison, which he brought

que Socrate le vit: “Fort bien, mon ami, lui dit-il, mais que faut-il que je fasse? Car c’est à toi à me l’apprendre.”

“Pas autre chose, lui dit cet homme, que de te promener, quand tu auras bu, jusqu’à ce que tu sentes tes jambes appesanties, et alors de te coucher sur ton lit; le poison agira de lui-même.”

mixed in a goblet. As soon as Socrates saw him, he said: “Fine, my friend, but what must I do?

It’s up to you to tell me.”

“Nothing, said the man to him, save that you should walk when you have drunk it, until you feel your legs grow heavy. Then you must lie on your couch, the poison will act by itself.”

Et en même temps, il lui tendit la coupe.

Socrate porta la coupe à ses lèvres et la but avec une tranquillité et une douceur merveilleuses.

Jusque-là, nous avions eu presque tous assez de force pour retenir nos larmes; mais en le voyant boire, et après qu’il eut bu, nous n’en fûmes plus les maîtres. Pour moi, malgré tous mes efforts, mes larmes s’échappèrent avec tant d’abondance que je me couvris de mon manteau pour pleurer sur moi-même; car ce n’est pas le malheur de Socrate que je pleurais, mais le mien, en songeant quel ami j’allais perdre.

And thereupon he handed him the goblet.

Socrates brought it to his lips and drank with wonderful tranquillity and gentleness. Up to that point, almost all of us had had enough strength to hold back our tears. But on seeing him drink, and after he had drunk, we were no longer masters of ourselves. As for me, in spite of all my efforts, my tears flowed in such abundance that I covered myself with my cloak in order to weep for myself; for it was not the misfortune of Socrates that I wept over, but my own, thinking that I was to lose him.

Cependant , Socrate, qui se promenait, dit qu’il sentait ses jambes s’appesantir et il se coucha sur le dos comme l’homme l’avait ordonné.

Socrates, however, as he walked around, said that he felt his legs growing heavy. He lay down on his back, as the man had told him.

En même temps le même homme qui lui avait donné le poison s’approcha, et après avoir examiné quelque temps ses pieds et ses jambes, il lui serra le pied fortement et lui demanda s’il le sentait; il dit que non. Il lui serra ensuite les jambes; et portant ses mains plus haut, il nous fit voir que le corps se glaçait et se raidissait; et le touchant lui-même, il nous dit que, dès que le froid gagnerait le coeur, alors Socrate nous quitterait.

Then the man who had given him the poison came to him, and after examining his feet and his legs several times, he squeezed his foot tightly and asked him if he could feel anything.

No, he said. He then squeezed his legs; then, moving his hands higher, he showed us that his body was growing chill and stiff. Then, touching him, he told us that as soon as the chill reached his heart, then Socrates would leave us.

Alors se découvrant, Socrate dit: “Criton, nous devons un coq à Esculape: n’oublie pas d’acquitter cette dette.”

Then Socrates uncovered himself and said: “Crito, we owe a cockerel to Aeschulapus. Do not forget to pay this debt.”

Un peu de temps après, il fit un mouvement convulsif; alors l’homme le découvrit tout à fait: ses regards étaient fixes. Criton s’en étant aperçu, lui ferma la bouche et les yeux.

Voilà, Echécrates, quelle fut la fin de notre ami, du plus sage et du plus juste de tous les hommes.

A short while later, he had a convulsion.

Then the man uncovered him entirely: his gaze was fixed. Seeing this, Crito closed his mouth and his eyes. So that was how it was, Echecrates, the death of him who was our friend, the wisest and the most just of men.

Traduit du grec par Victor Cousin

Text reproduced by kind permission of Universal Music Publishing. Translation: John Sidgwick

13

Igor Stravinsky: Renard March to which the players enter The Cock is strutting on his perch The Cock Kuda, kuda, kuda, kuda, kuda?

Podayte mne yevo syuda!

Ya nogami stopchu, toporom srublyu, Ya nogami stopchu, I toporom srublyu.

Kuda, kuda, kuda, kuda, kuda?

Podayte mne yevo syuda!

Podayte mne yevo skorei syuda!

Kuda, kuda, kuda, kuda, kuda?

Kuda?

I nozhisho zdesya, I nozhishko zdesya, I guzhishko zdesya, I zarezhem zdesya, I povesim zdesya.

Kuda, kuda, kuda, kuda, kuda?

I no … i nozhishko zdesya, I gu … i guzhishko zdesya, I za … i zarezhem zdesya, I po … i povesim zdesya.

Where, oh where, oh where, oh where is he?

Bring him here to me!

I’ll trample him underfoot, I’ll chop him up with an axe.

I’ll trample him underfoot, I’ll chop him up with an axe.

Where, oh where, oh where, oh where is he?

Bring him here to me!

Bring him along quicker than that!

Where, oh where, oh where, oh where is he?

Where is he?

We’ve got a knife here, a little knife, and we’ve got a noose here, and we’ll chop him up, and we’ll string him up.

Where, oh where, oh where, oh where is he?

And the … knife is ready, and the … noose is ready, and we’ll … chop him up, and we’ll … string him up.

Sizhu na dubu, Sizhu, dom steregu, Pesnyu poyu.

I’m on my perch, I’m guarding the house, I’m singing my song.

The Fox enters, dressed as a monk.

14

The Fox Zdravstvuy, krasnoye chado, petel!

Snidi, krasnoye chado, na zemlyu, Da pokaysya!

Ya shla iz dalnikh pustïn, Ne pila, ne yela …

Good-day, my crimson-crested son!

Come down, dear son, from your perch, and make your confession!

I’ve travelled from far-off deserts, I haven’t drunk or eaten …

The Cock impatiently Podi von lisa!

Oh, go away, Renard!

The Fox Mnogo nuzhdï preterpela; Tebya, miloye chado, Spovedat khotela.

I have suffered greatly; I’ve come, dearest son, to hear your confession.

The Cock haughtily O mati moya, lisitsa! Ya ne postilsya, ne molilsya; Pridiv innoye vremya.

Oh, my dear Brother Renard, I don’t go in for fasting and praying.

Come back some other time.

The Fox O moye chado, petel!

Sidish tï na visotsem dreve, Da mïslish mïsli nedobrïya, Proklatïya.

Vi derzhite zhyon po mnogu; Kto derzhit desyat zhyon, Innïy derzhit tselïkh dvatsat zhyon, Pribïvayet sovremenem do soroka!

Gde soidyotes, tut i deryotes O svoikh zhyonakh, Kak o nalozhnitsakh.

Snidi, miloye chado, na zemlyu i pokaisya, Da ne vogrekhakh umreshi.

Oh, my dearest son!

You are perched up very high, but your mind is full of low, wicked thoughts.

You lot all have too many wives; some of you have ten, and some have as many as twenty, or even forty at a time!

Whenever you get together you fight over your wives as though they were your mistresses.

Come down, my son, and confess so that you don’t die in a state of sin.

A drumroll … the Cock prepares to jump a ‘salto mortale’. He jumps. The Fox seizes him and parades round the stage holding him under his arm. The Cock struggles desperately.

The Cock Ponesla menya lisa!

Ponesla petukha!

Po krutïm berezhkam, Po vïsokim goram, V chuzhiya zemli, V dalekiya stranï, Za tri devyat zemel, V tridtsyatoye tsarstvo, V tridesyatoye gosudarstvo; Kot da baran, Khochet sest menya lisa!

Kot da baran, Khochet sest petukha!

Kot da baran, Otïmite menya!

The Fox has grabbed me!

He’s dragging the poor Cock!

Over the high hills, over the steepest mountains, into unknown parts, into distant lands, into far countries, into farther kingdoms, into the farthest empires.

Dear Cat, dear Goat, the Fox wants to eat me!

Dear Cat, dear Goat, he wants to eat the poor old Cock!

Dear Cat, dear Goat, get me out of here!

The Cat and the Goat appear The Cat, The Goat Ekh tï, kumushka-golobushka!

Ne kuplennoye u tebya, Deshevoye; Uzh ne podelish-li myatsa?

Al ne vedayesh Yermak Zatreshchal natoshchak.

I tebe tovo ne minovat!

Hey, you greedy old thing!

What you’ve got in your mouth can’t have cost a lot!

Wouldn’t you like to share it with us?

It wouldn’t do you any good, if you gobble it up all at once.

So cough up, or you’ll be sorry!

The Fox lets the Cock go and runs away. The Cock, the Cat and the Goat dance.

Kak lisa ozornichala, Krasnaya ozornichala I sebya velichala.

U nei bïla da, u ney bïla da, U ney bïla da zubki lovki da,

So the Fox started making trouble, Renard started making trouble and boasting about it.

And he had, and he had, a wicked set of teeth, 15

Usyo shkvatïvala golovki.

Skhodil kïchetok so dvora, So dvora …

Svodil kïchetok za sobo, Za soboy …

Kurochek ryabushechek.

Otkul vzyalasya lisitsa, Otkul vzyalasya krasnaya Khvost podzhala Kichetku chelom otdala: ‘Chavo shlyaeshsya, Shatayeshsya?

Zdes lisa podzhidayet myastsa.’

‘Ne yesh menya, lisinka, Ne yesh menya, krasnaya!

Ne budet li s tebya Kurochek ryabushechek?’

‘Ne khochu myastsa innavo, Khochu pyetushinavo!’

O, o, o, o, o …

Vzyala lisa kicheta za boki, Ponesla yevo dalyoko Za pen, za kolodu, Za beluyu berezu …

Kichet klichet da kichet klichet …

Kuri kicheta ne slishut.

sharp and ready for use.

There’s the Cock coming out, coming out …

And with him he’s got, he’s got …

His darling speckled hens.

Suddenly the Fox pops up, up pops Renard, waves his tail around and bows to the Cock: ‘Why are you running around, running about like that?

It’s time for the Fox’s dinner!’

‘Don’t eat me, Fox, don’t eat me, Renard!

Wouldn’t you rather eat my darling speckled hens?’

‘I don’t want anything else, it’s you I want to eat, Cock!’

O, o, o, o, o …

The Fox has got his claws into the Cock, he’s dragging him far away over the log-pile, beyond the trough, right behind the birch trees …

Cock-a-doodle-doodle-doo …

And even his hens can’t hear him.

The Cat and the Goat leave. The Cock resumes his perch and settles down comfortably.

The Cock Sizhu na dubu, Sizhu, dom steregu, Pesnyu poyu.

I’m on my perch, I’m guarding the house, I’m singing my song.

The Fox appears, this time without his monk’s costume.

16

The Fox Kukuareku petushok, Zolotoy grebeshok, Chyosanna golovushka, Shyolkova borodushka, Viglyani v okoshko.

Master Cock, golden-crested, proudly-combed, silken-bearded, just poke your head out of the window.

The Cock Ne glyazhu v okoshko.

No, I won’t look out of the window.

The Fox Dam tebe goroshku.

I’ll give you some peas.

The Cock Ne nado mne goroshku.

Petukh kashku kushayet, Lisu ne slushayet.

I don’t want any peas.

Cocks only like grain, and they don’t listen to foxes.

The Fox Petushok, petushok!

U menya to khoromï bolshiye, V kazhdom uglu pshenichki Po merochke: yesh, yesh!

Little Cock, little Cock!

I’ve got a great big house with piles of grain in every corner – you can eat your fill!

The Cock Sit, nekhochu!

I’m not hungry!

The Fox Kukuareku, petushok, Zolotoy grebeshok, Shyolkova borodushka!

Viglyani v okoshko, Dam tebe lepyoshku.

Cock-a-doodle-doo, Master Cock, golden-crested, silken-bearded!

Look out of the window!

I’ve got some cake for you.

The Cock Ne nado mne lepyoshki!

Petukh ne tak to glup, Ne glodat tebe moy khlup.

I don’t want your cake!

Cocks aren’t that stupid – You won’t catch me that way.

The Fox Okh, tï petya, petushok, Spushchaysya ka tï na nizyashche, S nizyashchavo na zemleshcheye, Ya tvoyu dushu na nebesa vznesu!

Oh, little Cock, little Cock, just come down a tiny bit more, just a tiny little bit nearer the ground, and I’ll take your soul up to heaven!

A drumroll … the Cock prepares to jump …

Tenor 1 shouted Ne oskoromsya Lisïnka!

Don’t break your fast, Renard!

The Cock jumps.

Tenor 2 shouted Komu skoromno, a nam zdorove!

We love it when it’s forbidden!

The Fox seizes the Cock and parades round the stage holding him under his arm.

The Cock struggles desperately.

The Cock Ponesla menya lisa, Ponesla petukha.

Po krutim berezhkam, Po visokim goram, V chuzhiya zemli, V dalekiya strani, Za tridevyat zemel, V tridtsatoye tsarstvo, V tridesyatoye gosudarstvo!

Kot da baran, Khochet syest menya lisa!

Kot da baran,

The Fox has grabbed me!

He’s dragging the poor Cock away!

Over the high hills, over the steepest mountains, into unknown parts, into distant lands, into far-off countries, into farther-off kingdoms, into the farthest-off empires!

Dear Cat, dear Goat, the Fox wants to eat me!

Dear Cat, dear Goat,

17

Khochet syest petukha!

Kot da baran, Otimite menya!

he wants to eat the poor old Cock!

Dear Cat, dear Goat, get me out of here!

The Fox carries the Cock to the side of the stage and begins to pluck him. The Cock wails.

The Cock Okh, tï lisïnka, lisitsa, Neporochnaya sestritsa!

Kak u nashevo u batyushki, Maslitsem blinki polivayut tebya V gosti podzhidayut.

Tam to ne po nashemu, Pirogi s kasheyu.

Pomyani, Gospodi, Sidora, Makara, Tretyavo Zakhara, Tryokh Matryon, Da Luku s Petrom, Dyeda Miroyeda, Babku Belmatku, Tyushu da Katyoshu, Babushku Matryushu …

Oh, Brother Renard, you’re so kind and sweet!

Come home to daddy’s, you’ll have a wonderful welcome, you’ll be an honoured guest.

It’s not like here, there are good things to eat.

Remember, O Lord, your pious servants, the holy saints, and all my brothers and sisters, and uncles and aunties, and nephews and nieces, and mummy and daddy, and of course grandad, and dear old granny …

The Cock faints. The Cat and the Goat appear. They sing a pleasant song to the Fox, accompanying themselves on the gusli.

The Cat, The Goat Tyuk, tyuk, guseltsï, Baranovï strunochki …

Tyuk, tyuk …

Kak struna to zagula, Tyuk, tyuk …

Da zagula, a drugaya prigovarivala.

Tyuk, tyuk, guseltsi, Baranovi strunochki …

Tyuk, tyuk …

Uzh kak doma li lisa, Uzh kak doma li lisa, Uzh kak doma li lisa, Uzh kak doma li lisa Ivanovna.

Tyuk, tyuk, Vo svoyom zolotom gnezde, Da so svoimi malïmi detushkami?

Tyuk, tyuk, guseltsï, Baranovï strunochki …

Tyuk, tyuk …

Pervaya to doch Chuchelka, A vtoraya to Podchuchelka, Tretya to Podaipirozhok, A chetvyortaya Zazhmikulachek.

Tyuk, tyuk, guseltsï, Baranovï strunochki …

Tyuk, tyuk …

18

Plink, plonk, little gusli, little sheep-gut strings …

Plink, plonk … strumming a cheerful song, plink, plonk … a cheerful song to keep you company.

Plink, plonk, little gusli, little sheep-gut strings …

Plink, plonk …

Is the Fox at home, is the Fox at home, is the Fox at home, is Renard the Fox at home?

Plink, plonk, in his golden den, with his pretty little cubs?

Plink, plonk, little gusli, little sheep-gut strings …

Plink, plonk …

And the first daughter looks a real fright, and the second looks a worse fright, and the third’s called Give-us-a pie, and the fourth one’s Stick-out-a-paw.

Plink, plonk, little gusli, little sheep-gut strings …

Plink, plonk …

Kak struna to zagula, Tyuk, tyuk …

Da zagula a drugaya prigovarivala.

Uzh, kak doma li, Da uzh, kak doma li, Da uzh, kak doma li lisa, Uzh kak doma li lisa Ivanovna.

strumming a cheerful song, plink, plonk … a cheerful song to keep you company.

Is the Fox at home, is the Fox at home, is the Fox at home, is Renard the Fox at home?

The Fox shows the tip of his nose.

The Fox Kto tam pesni poyot?

Da uzh kto tam lisku zovyot?

Who’s that singing out there?

What do they want of me?

The Cat, The Goat Idut zveri na pyatakh, Nesut kosu na plechakh, Khochut lisinku posechi Po samya plechi.

We’ve caught up with you now, we’ve brought along this big scythe, and we’re going to slice you up into little pieces.

They produce a large scythe.

The Fox terrified Akh! vi moi glazyonki, glazyonki, I chto vi moi milïye, delali?

– Mï smotreli, smotreli, Chtob zveri lisku ne syeli.

Akh! vi moi nozhunki, nozhunki, I, chto vi, moi milïya, delali?

– Mi bezhali, bezhali, Chtob zveri lisku ne porvali.

A tï, moi khvost glyacha ros?

– Ya po pnyam, po kustam, Po kolodam zatseplyal Chtob lisu zveri khvatili, Da zakamshili.

Oh, my eyes, my precious eyes, what have you been doing for me?

– We’ve been watching, watching, to see the animals don’t get you.

Oh, my legs, my precious legs, what have you been doing for me?

– We’ve been running, running, to make sure the animals don’t catch you.

And you, my tail, my lovely brush?

– In the brambles, in the bushes, in the branches I got stuck, so the animals could catch you, and finish you off.

Enraged, the Fox lashes his tail, crying out: Akh, tï kanalya, pust zhe tebya zveri yedyat!

Ah, you wretch! You deserve to be eaten!

The animals catch the Fox by his tail, drag him out of his house, and strangle him.

A! A! A! A! A! A! A!

A! A! A! A! A! A! A!

The Fox dies. The Cock, the Cat and the Goat dance.

19

Lisïnka, lisitsa!

Glyacha dolgo ne zhila?

Ya boyalas tipuna, A tipun to ne sudya, A sudya to ladïga.

Ladïgïni deti Khotyat uleteti, Khotyat uleteti, Za Ivanov gorod.

Oni po gramotke pïshut, Da na lisitsu pishut Lisïnka, lisitsa, Podi po voditsu.

Ne doroge volki.

Gorokh molotili Liskinï rebyata Liske to skazili, Lisïnka to s pechi Oblomala plechi.

Syom, syom, syom, Peresyom, peresyom, Na lopatke ispechyon.

Muzhik pesnyu spel, Syom, syom, syom, peresyom, Na kapustnik sel.

Syom, syom, syom, peresyom, Peresyom, peresyom, peresyom.

Sel tri koroba blinov, Tri kostra pirogov, Zaulok rogulek, Zakhod kalachey, Makinnitsu s suloyu, Ovin kiselya, Po varenku shchey.

Gospodi pomiluy, Na konike Danilo Na lavke Flor Na pechi prigovor.

V pechi kalachi, Kak ogon goryachi Pro boyar pechenï.

Nayekhali boyare Da sobak na vezli, Sobaki to vzdurili Da lisku ukusili …

Renard the Fox, Renard the Fox, couldn’t you live any longer?

I came out in spots, I went to the judge, but he’s a blockhead.

Blockhead’s children want to fly away, want to fly away, away beyond the town.

They can read and write, and they can smell the fox.

Renard the Fox, Renard the Fox, go and fetch the water.

There are wolves on the road, they’re shelling peas.

Renard’s cubs come along to tell him, their mother’s fallen off the stove and broken her neck.

Boom, boom, boom, taraboom, taraboom, it’s cooked on a griddle.

The peasant sings his song …

Boom, boom, boom, taraboom, and sits down to eat his fill.

Boom, boom, boom, taraboom, taraboom, taraboom, taraboom.

He ate three basketfuls of pancakes, three cartloads of pies, a streetful of fritters, a barnful of pastries, a barrelful of vodka, a pondful of jam, a lakeful of soup.

Lord save us all, Danilo’s lying on the bed.

Flor’s at the workbench, the answer’s in the oven.

There’s fresh bread in the oven, it’s piping hot, we’ve baked it for our gentlemen.

The gentlemen have come to us and brought dogs with them, and the dogs went wild and savaged the fox …

Spoken Vot, vam skazka!

A mne krinka masla.

So there’s your story, now give us our reward!

March to which the players leave Text by the composer; reproduced and translated by permission of J. & W Chester/Edition Wilhelm Hansen London Ltd. Translation © Andrew Huth 20

Photo: © Rupert Jefferson

Photo: © Elmer de Haas

Barbara Hannigan

Daniel Norman

A frequent guest of the Berliner Philharmoniker, Barbara Hannigan has also performed with a host of other leading orchestras and ensembles worldwide, and under such conductors as Sir Simon Rattle, Pierre Boulez, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Alan Gilbert, Jukka-Pekka Saraste and John Storgaards.

Daniel Norman was a choral scholar at New College Oxford. He went on to study in the US, Canada and at the Royal Academy of Music. In his first year out of college he made his debuts at the Royal Festival Hall with David Atherton and at the Barbican with Richard Hickox.

Her operatic repertory includes her recent and highly celebrated debut as Berg’s Lulu at La Monnaie and the world premiere of George Benjamin’s Written on Skin at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, soon opening in March at London’s Covent Garden. Ligeti’s Mysteries of the Macabre, a tour de force for soprano and orchestra, has become a signature work, which she has sung – and sometimes also conducted – at New York’s Lincoln Center, the Berlin Philharmonie, Théâtre du Châtelet, Salzburger Festspiele and the Vienna Konzerthaus. She has given the world premieres of over 80 works. Last season saw her perform an acclaimed European tour of Boulez’s Pli selon pli conducted by the composer. Her recording of Dutilleux’s Correspondances, a beloved work in her repertoire, has just been released by Deutsche Grammophon, conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen.

She made her conducting debut in February 2011 at the Châtelet in Paris, with recent and upcoming conducting engagements including Walton’s Façade with Sir Simon Rattle and members of the Berlin Philharmonic, programmes with the Gulbenkian Orchestra, the WDR Orchestra of Cologne and Prague Philharmonic.

Concert performances have included Wozzeck with Daniel Harding and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Tippett A Child of Our Time with the CBSO and with the Northern Sinfonia and Sam Kaplan in Weill’s Street Scene at the BBC Proms.

soprano

Born and brought up in Canada, Barbara Hannigan received her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the University of Toronto, studying with Mary Morrison. She continued her studies at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague with Meinard Kraak and privately with Neil Semer.

tenor

Opera credits include his Covent Garden debut as Borsa Rigoletto, Goro Tanzmeister in concert performances of Ariadne auf Naxos with Sir Simon Rattle and the LSO, and the Electrician in the Channel 4 film of Adès’s Powder Her Face (Almeida/Aldeburgh), as well as in its Vienna and Boston premieres. He sung, to critical acclaim, the first official staging of all five Britten Canticles in Westminster Abbey with Streetwise Opera.

Recordings include four volumes of the Hyperion Schubert Edition with Graham Johnson and the Grammy nominated Beethoven 9th Symphony (Vänsä/Minnesota Orchestra). Daniel has also released his debut solo CD: Britten Winter Words and Who Are These Children? with Christopher Gould (BIS).

Engagements in 2012/2013 include Orlando Gough’s Imago for Glyndebourne and the title role in staged performances of Handel Joshua for Opera North. Subsequent engagements include Mime Das Rheingold for Oviedo Opera and Red Whiskers Billy Budd for Glyndebourne in New York.

21

Photo: © Benjamin Ealovega

Photo: © Rokas Darulis

Edgaras Montvidas

Roderick Williams

Lithuanian tenor Edgaras Montvidas was educated in Vilnius at the Lithuanian Music Academy. From 2001–2003 he was a member of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden Young Artists Programme, where he sang Arminio in Verdi I Masnadieri. From 2004–2006 he was a member of the ensemble of Frankfurt Opera where his roles included Tamino Die Zauberflöte.

Roderick Williams enjoys relationships with all the major UK opera houses and is particularly associated with the baritone roles of Mozart. He has also sung world premieres of operas by, among others, David Sawer, Sally Beamish and Alexander Knaifel.

tenor

Plans this season and beyond include Prunier in Puccini La Rondine for The Royal Opera, Covent Garden; Lensky Eugene Onegin and Belmonte in Mozart Die Entführung aus dem Serail for Glyndebourne Festival Opera and Lensky for the Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich and Grande Théâtre de Genève, Geneva.

Other recent opera appearances have included Nemorino L’elisir d’amore for English National Opera and Scottish Opera, Belmonte for BayerischeStaatsoper, Hamburg Opera and Netherlands Opera and Arbace in Mozart Idomeneo for Netherlands Opera.

Edgaras is also active on the concert platform, recently singing Fisherman Le Rossignol with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and Pierre Boulez and has sung with the BBC Symphony, Scottish Chamber, Russian National and Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestras, in repertoire including Berlioz Te Deum and Mozart Requiem. He has made a number of appearances at the BBC Proms including as the Young Lover in Puccini Il Tabarro with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra.

In 2009, Edgaras was awarded the Theatre Award The Gold Cross of the Stage in Lithuania for his performances as Werther.

22

bass

Roderick Williams has sung concert repertoire with all the BBC orchestras, and many other ensembles including the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Philharmonia, London Sinfonietta, Manchester Camerata, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the Hallé, Britten Sinfonia, Bournemouth Symphony, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Deutsches SymphonieOrchester Berlin, Russian National Orchestra, Academy of Ancient Music, The Sixteen and Bach Collegium Japan. His many festival appearances include the BBC Proms, Edinburgh, Cheltenham, Aldeburgh and Melbourne.

Roderick is an accomplished recital artist who can be heard at venues and festivals including the Wigmore Hall, the Perth Concert Hall, Howard Assembly Room, the Musikverein, Vienna and on Radio 3, where he has participated on Iain Burnside’s Voices programme.

His numerous recordings include Vaughan Williams, Berkeley and Britten operas for Chandos, Verdi’s Don Carlos (conducted by Bernard Haitink) for Philips, and an extensive repertoire of English song with pianist Iain Burnside for Naxos. Roderick Williams is also a composer and has had works premiered at the Wigmore and Barbican Halls, the Purcell Room and live on national radio.

John Molloy

Reinbert de Leeuw

John Molloy comes from Birr in Ireland, and studied at the DIT Conservatory of Music & Drama, Dublin and the Royal Northern College of Music, where he received the PPRNCM Diploma.

Recent engagements include Arthur The Lighthouse with Nationale Reisopera, Le Commandeur de Beaupré Le Cour De Célimène at Wexford and Masetto Don Giovanni with English National Opera.

This season he will perform Luca The Bear for Opera Northern Ireland.

Born in Amsterdam, Reinbert de Leeuw has a wideranging career as a conductor, composer and pianist.

bass

John has worked with many opera companies in Ireland and the UK including Opera North, Opera Ireland and D’Oyly Carte Opera Company. He has also performed at The Farmleigh Proms and the Sir Malcolm Sergeant Festival in London. His operatic roles include Sarastro The Magic Flute, Snug A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Colline La Boheme and Tiger Brown The Threepenny Opera.

Recent concert appearances include the Australian premiere of Van Gogh – The Opera with Crash Ensemble at the Canberra International Festival of Music and Haydn’s Creation in The Hague with Continuo Rotterdam. John has also appeared with The National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, RTE Concert Orchestra, London Gala Orchestra and The Goldberg Ensemble.

Oratorio repertoire includes the Requiems of Verdi, Mozart, Bruckner, Duruflé and Schumann, Haydn’s Creation and Nelson Mass, Vaughan Williams’ The First Nowell and Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius.

piano

Since 1974, Reinbert has been conductor and music director of the Schoenberg Ensemble. He was guest Artistic Director of the Aldeburgh Festival (1992) and was Artistic Director of the Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music (1994–98).

Reinbert is a regular guest in most European countries and the United States, where he also lectures at the Juilliard School of Music in New York.

He was Artistic Advisor for the contemporary music series of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra from 2000–04.

His recordings as a pianist have won many prizes, including the Dutch Edison, the Premio della critica discografica Italiana, the Grand Prix of the Hungarian Liszt Society and the Diapason d’Or. He has also made some 30 recordings as a conductor, covering a wide range of repertoire by composers including Messiaen, Stravinsky, Janáček and Reich.

In 1994 Reinbert de Leeuw was made Honorary Doctor at the University of Utrecht and is Professor at the University of Leiden.

Reinbert has been co-founder and from 2001-2010, Artistic Director of the Summer Academy, the international orchestra and ensemble academy of the Netherlands’ National Youth Orchestra. His 2006 performance of Messiaen’s Des Canyons aux Etoiles with the Summer Academy Orchestra received the ‘Angel’ award for the best performance during that year’s Edinburgh Festival.

23

Harriet Walter

Timberlake Wertenbaker

presenter

Harriet has worked extensively in theatre, television, film and radio.

She began 2013 by playing the role of Brutus in an all-female production of Julius Caesar at the Donmar Warehouse. Harriet is an Associate Artist at the RSC where her roles have included Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra, Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing and Lady Macbeth, all directed by Gregory Doran. Harriet won the Evening Standard Award and received a Tony nomination for her role as Elizabeth in Phyllida Lloyd’s production of Mary Stuart.

Harriet is best known on TV as Harriet Vane in the Lord Peter Wimsey series, and as D.I. Natalie Chandler in Law and Order: UK. Harriet most recently appeared in the Academy Award-nominated A Royal Affair. Her film credits include Young Victoria, Atonement, Babel, Bright Young Things, Sense and Sensibility and Milou et Mai. Harriet has also published three books, Other People’s Shoes, Macbeth for ‘Actors on Shakespeare’ and Facing It: reflections on images of older women. Harriet was awarded a CBE in 2000 and a DBE in 2011.

script writer

Timberlake Wertenbaker grew up in the Basque country. She was Arts Council writer in residence in 1983 with Shared Experience and Resident Writer at The Royal Court Theatre in 1985.

She was also the Royden B Davis visiting professor of drama at Georgetown University, from 2005–2006.

Awards include an Olivier Award for Our Country’s Good, and a Critics’ Circle and Writers’ Guild Award for Three Birds Alighting on a Field.

Timberlake has written plays including Antigone (Southwark Playhouse), The Line (Arcola Theatre), Galileo’s Daughter (Theatre Royal, Bath), Credible Witness, The Break of the Day, Three Birds Alighting on a Field, Our Country’s Good, The Grace of Mary Traverse (Royal Court Theatre), Ash Girl (Birmingham Rep), After Darwin (Hampstead Theatre) and The Love of the Nightingale (RSC).

Her translations include Elektra, Phedre, Hippolytus, Hecuba, Wild Orchids, Filumena and Mephisto.

Today’s Players Michael Cox

Michael Thompson

Joan Atherton

Markus van Horn

flute/piccolo

horn

violin

bass

supported by Michael and Patricia McLaren-Turner

supported by Belinda Matthews

Paul Silverthorne

David Hockings

viola

percussion

Gareth Hulse

Carys Evans

oboe/cor anglais

horn

supported by Nick and Claire Prettejohn

Oliver Lowe

Timothy Lines

Paul Archibald

Tim Gill

clarinet/Eb

trumpet

cello

John Orford

Jonathan Morton

bassoon

violin

supported by Sir Stephen Oliver

percussion

Chris Bradley cimbalom

London Sinfonietta making new music

24

The London Sinfonietta is one of the world’s leading contemporary music ensembles with a reputation built on the virtuosity of its performances and its ambitious programming. It is committed to placing new music at the heart of contemporary culture and continually pushing boundaries, regularly undertaking projects with choreographers, video artists, film-makers, electronica artists, jazz and folk musicians. The ensemble is Resident Orchestra at Southbank Centre with its headquarters at Kings Place.

Famed for its commitment to the creation of new music, the London Sinfonietta has commissioned over 250 works since its foundation in 1968, and premiered many hundreds more. World and UK premieres during 2012/13 include, among others, Steve Reich’s Radio Rewrite (a London Sinfonietta cocommission), David Fennessy’s 13 Factories, (UK premiere) Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen’s Run (world-premiere) and a new work by Luke Bedford (London Sinfonietta commission).

The London Sinfonietta Academy is central to the London Sinfonietta’s commitment to working with young musicians. A week-long summer course enables 30 students and three conductors from across the UK to learn skills specific to performing new music from the ensemble’s Principal players.

The London Sinfonietta Academy 2013 will be conducted by world-renowned composer, conductor and performer George Benjamin. A public performance will mark the culmination of this year’s London Sinfonietta Academy on Saturday 13 July. Keep an eye on our website and social media channels to find out how to reserve tickets.

The Writing the Future scheme continues to pair composers with London Sinfonietta Principal players

Get close to the London Sinfonietta and contemporary classical music with activities that give you the opportunity to create, curate and perform with a world-class ensemble.

As part of the Steve Reich: Radio Rewrite tour in March 2013, the London Sinfonietta will present a Repeating Patterns Schools Concert, produced by, and for, young people. The concert will include Reich’s Electric Counterpoint which features in the GCSE curriculum and will be accompanied by

Facebook, Twitter and Wordpress are your channels for the most up-to-date, exclusive and behind the scenes information on the London Sinfonietta.

From exclusive offers to composer interviews, music streams and competitions, these are your places for a behind-the-scenes view into the workings of the London Sinfonietta.

to develop new chamber compositions which will be performed throughout the season. Projects for the composers also include creative cross artform collaborations with students at the Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design.

The ground-breaking Blue Touch Paper programme continues into another round of developing inventive cross artform work. During the forthcoming year, composer Edward Jessen will be working with director Joseph Alford, composer Luke Carver Goss will be working with Jacob Polley, and composer Dan Stern will be working with set designer Aurelian Koch. These works will receive their preview performance on Tuesday 14 May at Village Underground, London.

specially-devised learning resources.

The KX Collective, a dynamic group of young people from Kings Cross and surrounding areas, continue to create and perform new music, collaborate with professional musicians, produce events and find out about music being made today. For further details of this opportunity, please contact together@londonsinfonietta.org.uk

The London Sinfonietta Label and releases on NMC Recordings and Signum Records present a recordings catalogue of the finest new music performed by the London Sinfonietta. The latest release, New Music Show, features Martin Suckling’s Candlebird, plus music composed on the Writing the Future scheme, by composers including Edmund Finnis, Shiva Feshareki and Duncan MacLeod.

25

The creation of new music lies at the very heart of the London Sinfonietta and we need your support to make new music happen.

The greatest discoveries rely on the commitment, generosity and vision of a passionate group of supporters. Our imagination is unlimited, but our funds are not. In addition to a variety of trusts and foundations to which we are very grateful, the London Sinfonietta Pioneers also play a crucial role in providing invaluable support for brand new commissions, world premiere performances, and ground-breaking new projects.

In return, London Sinfonietta Pioneers enjoy exclusive access to the ensemble, including opportunities to attend rehearsals, take part in our listening group, attend selected receptions surrounding premieres, a twice-yearly newsletter, and acknowledgement on our website and in concert programmes.

Membership starts from just £35 a year. Pick up a Pioneers leaflet from our information desk in the foyer, or visit londonsinfonietta.org.uk/pioneers to find out more.

London Sinfonietta is immensely grateful to the following trusts and foundations for their support: Arts Council England; The Aaron Copland Fund for Music; The Angus Allnatt Charitable Trust; The Boltini Trust; The British Council; The Britten Pears Foundation; The Derek Butler Trust; The City of London Corporation’s City Bridge Trust; Columbia Foundation Fund of the London Community Foundation; The D’Oyly Carte Charitable Trust; The John Ellerman Foundation; Esmée Fairbairn Foundation; Fenton Arts Trust; The Holst Foundation; Jerwood Charitable Foundation; The Stanley Thomas Johnson Foundation; The Leche Trust; The Leverhulme Trust; The Marple Charitable Trust; Musicians Benevolent Fund; PRS for Music Foundation; RVW Trust; The Harold Hyam Wingate Foundation; Youth Music.

Steve Reich: Radio Rewrite – support the new work In September 2011, Steve Reich watched Jonny Greenwood perform Electric Counterpoint in Poland.

Keen to learn more about Greenwood’s own music, he investigated the songs of Radiohead, and with them has discovered a compositional stimulus which is ‘something different, something new’. Radio Rewrite, inspired by this discovery, is the latest work from Steve Reich and his first composition for larger ensemble in some years.

This is your chance to put your name to a piece of music history, by helping us raise £3,000 towards producing this work. In return for your gift, we’d love to say thank you with a selection of exclusive Radio Rewrite rewards, including the opportunity to purchase a ticket to the sold-out world première performance at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall on Tuesday 5 March 2013 and meet the composer himself.

For more information about the new commission and how you can help make new music happen, visit londonsinfonietta.org.uk

26

Honorary Patrons John Bird Sir Harrison Birtwistle Alfred Brendel KBE Sir George Christie CH

Lead Pioneers Sir Richard Arnold Trevor Cook Susan Grollet in memory of Mark Grollet Leo and Regina Hepner Penny Jonas Anthony Mackintosh Belinda Matthews Robert & Nicola McFarland Michael & Patricia McLaren-Turner Sir Stephen Oliver QC Nick & Claire Prettejohn

Richard Thomas & Caroline Cowie Paul & Sybella Zisman

Creative Pioneers Ian Baker Andrew Burke Robert Clark Jeremy & Yvonne Clarke Rachel Coldicutt Susan Costello Anton Cox Dennis Davis Deborah Golden Patrick Hall Nicolas Hodgson Andrew Hunt Maurice & Jean Jacobs Frank & Linda Jeffs Alana Lowe-Petraske Jane McAusland

Stephen Morris Julie Nicholls Simon Osborne Patricia O’Sullivan Geoff Peace Ruth Rattenbury Dennis Stevenson Iain Stewart Anne Stoddart Sally Taylor Barry Tennison David and Jenni Wake Walker Estela Welldon John Wheatley Jane Williams Stephen Williamson Michelle Wright Plus those generous Pioneers who prefer to remain anonymous

London Sinfonietta Board of Directors

Administration

Paul Zisman

Administration Andrew Burke

Chairman

Andrew Burke Rachel Coldicutt Ian Dearden David Hockings Penny Jonas Alana Lowe-Petraske Belinda Matthews Philip Meaden Sir Stephen Oliver QC Matthew Pike Paul Silverthorne Sally Taylor

Freelance and Consultant Staff Claire Stevens

Chief Executive

Recording Projects Manager

Sarah Tennant

Julie Nicholls

Head of Concert Production

Consultant Accountant

Natalie Marchant

Michelle Wright for Cause4

Concerts & Touring Administrator

Fundraising Consultant

Tina Speed

sounduk

Participation and Learning Manager

Public Relations

Richard Baker

Claire Barton

Artistic Advisor

Development Manager

John Fulljames

Amy Forshaw

Artistic Advisor (Blue Touch Paper programme)

Senior Marketing Officer

Claire Lampon Marketing & Development Assistant

Elizabeth Davies Head of Administration and Finance

London Sinfonietta is grateful to its accountants: Martin Greene Ravden LLP and its auditors MGR Audit Limited for their ongoing support.

Esther Mulholland Administrative Assistant

Sarah Tuppen Projects Intern (Surrey University Professional Training Placement) 27

Steve Reich: Radio Rewrite Tour Tuesday 5 March Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall

O LD SO

UT

Wednesday 6 March Birmingham Town Hall Tel No: 0121 780 4949 Thursday 7 March Brighton Dome Tel No: 01273 709 709 Saturday 9 March Glasgow Royal Concert Hall Tel No: 0141 353 8000 After the world première performance in London, the London Sinfonietta and Steve Reich bring Radio Rewrite to Brighton, Birmingham and Glasgow; a major new work inspired by the music of Radiohead. “The greatest living composer of our time” (New York Times), will also be performing in his seminal piece Clapping Music.

Radio Rewrite is a co-commission by the London Sinfonietta and New York’s Alarm Will Sound.

Steve Reich: Variations for Vibes, Pianos and Strings Sunday 10 March Glasgow Royal Concert Hall Featuring: London Sinfonietta and NYOS Futures

28

Photo: © Briony Campbell

Photo: © Jeffrey Herman

Photo: © Briony Campbell

Upcoming London Sinfonietta concerts

In Portrait: Luke Bedford

Mauricio Kagel:

Wednesday 22 May, 7:45pm Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall

Saturday 1 June, 7:30pm Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall

The Pieces of the Compass Rose

Luke Bedford has fast become one of “e sound references are never the most important composers of his used anecdotally; every one of generation, in part on the evidence of them is integrated by Kagel’s past work for the London Sinfonietta. extraordinary harmonic imagination into a world in This new ensemble composition is a which nothing is what it seems, major 25-minute work, which will be performed for a second time after the and in which every new vista contains a genuine surprise.” interval to give the rare instant second chance for an audience to get Andrew Clements to know this brand-new composition.

The programme also includes an Discover Mauricio Kagel’s The Pieces ensemble arrangement of the 2011 of the Compass Rose, a musical double-soloist and string ensemble travelogue taking you from the north composition Wonderful No-Headed east of Brazil, to the Gulf of Finland Nightingale, and music by Gérard and the South American Andes using Grisey, whose music holds a instruments from piano and fascination for Bedford. harmonium to a full range of percussion. An Argentinian composer Luke Bedford’s new work is whose cultural and musical outlook commisioned by the London embraced a life lived crossing Sinfonietta with the generous continents, The Pieces of the Compass support of Michael and Rose is Kagel’s response to the diverse Patricia McLaren-Turner. soundworlds evoked by geography, language and ethics.

Tickets from £15 (£6.50 U26, £4.50 students) Phone 0844 875 0073 Online southbankcentre.co.uk

Tickets from £9 (£6.50 U26, £4.50 students) Phone 0844 875 0073 Online southbankcentre.co.uk

4