NATIONAL CONCERT HALL
2024 — 2025 SEASON
BRUCKNER 200
National Symphony Orchestra
Hans Graf conductor
Stefan Jackiw violin
Mozart Violin Concerto No. 5, Turkish
Bruckner Symphony No. 7
“STEFAN JACKIW IS A VIOLINIST OF PERSUASIVE
LYRICAL GIFTS AND TECHNICAL PROWESS” Seen and Heard International
Our Bruckner 200 commemorations continue with the most popular symphony in his lifetime and still today, the dark, dreamlike Seventh.
FRIDAY 6 DECEMBER 2024, 7.30PM Tickets from €15 nch.ie
National Symphony Orchestra
Patrik Ringborg conductor
Camille Thomas cello
Friday 29 November 2024, 7.30pm
National Concert Hall
Saturday 30 November 2024, 7.30pm
SETU Arena, Waterford
In association with Symphony Club of Waterford
Programme
Judith Ring Everything was asleep as if the universe was a vast mistake / 7’
Dvorˇák Cello Concerto / 40’
Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5 / 44’
PLEASE NOTE: The NCH does not permit photography or videography during the performance (without prior permission). We kindly ask you to refrain from using any recording equipment for the duration of tonight’s performance.
CEO
Robert Read
NCH Board Members
Maura McGrath Chair | James Cavanagh | Cliona Doris
Rebecca Gageby | Hilary Hough | Peter McKenna
Niamh Murray | Michelle O’Sullivan | Don Thornhill
Patron
Michael D. Higgins President of Ireland
Fáilte Welcome
It is a pleasure to be returning to the National Concert Hall and performing with the National Symphony Orchestra where I made my debut in 2008 with Wagner’s Ring. Performing with the NSO is always exciting, the musicians are brilliant and hugely dedicated. It feels like meeting an old friend.
Judith Ring’s Everything was asleep... is a real treat for the audience and I have really enjoyed getting to know this work. Developed during the Composer Lab workshops in 2022 at the National Concert Hall, it acts as the perfect programme opener and complements the other works superbly.
Dvořák’s Cello Concerto has been a longstanding favourite of mine. Growing up, I had a recording of Rostropovich performing this work and a few years later I was delighted to hear him perform it live while listening in on rehearsals for a series of concerts in London commemorating his 60th year.
I first encountered Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony when I was 19-yearsold and auditioned for the conducting class at the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm. I found it such a terrifying experience that I didn’t conduct the symphony for many years. However, I was successful in the audition and now I love conducting this and the other symphonies by Tchaikovsky.
It is such a gift to be performing this programme with French cello star, Camille Thomas, whom I have wanted to work with for many years. I am thrilled that our schedules have finally aligned to allow this collaboration.
Patrik Ringborg
Programme Notes
Judith Ring (b.1975)
Everything was asleep as if the universe was a vast mistake
The title of this piece is a quote by Fernando Pessoa, a Portuguese poet/writer. I heard this quote in a French movie by Jean-Luc Godard called Hélas pour moi and it struck me in a profound way.
This piece is about the idea of nature reclaiming the Earth once humankind have wiped themselves out. It features various states of growth and takeover as remnants of human-made structures get covered, tangled, choked and destroyed by plant-life. A musical time-lapse culminating in a calm, poignantly beautiful, but ultimately lonely world.
The National Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Gavin Maloney, performed the world premiere of Everything was asleep as if the universe was a vast mistake on 9 January 2023 at the National Concert Hall. This took place as part of Composer Lab 2022, a professional development initiative delivered in partnership by the National Symphony Orchestra and the Contemporary Music Centre, Ireland, in association with RTÉ lyric fm.
Note © Judith Ring
Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904)
Cello Concerto in B minor, Op. 104
I. Allegro
II. Adagio ma non troppo
III. Finale: Allegro moderato – Andante – Allegro vivo
In 1892 Dvořák made his second visit to the New World, as Director of the National Conservatory, New York. Among his friends there was the Dublin-born composer Victor Herbert, whose Second Cello Concerto greatly impressed him. He had received a request for such a work from cellist Hanuš Wihan, with whom he had made a concert tour in Bohemia during 1892. Despite a busy schedule in New
York, Dvořák found time to write his score between November 1894 and February 1895 and he brought the new work back to Prague with him when he resumed his duties at the city’s Conservatory.
He undertook an extensive revision to his manuscript on his return home with the help of Wihan, to whom the work is dedicated. However Dvořák became incensed when Wihan tried to get him to accept a last movement cadenza he had prepared for the premiere. It became such an issue that Dvořák actually wrote to his publisher, Simrock, forbidding any such addition. In the end, the first performance was given in London on 19 March, 1896, with Leo Stern as soloist. It was an immediate success and Wihan finally played it in 1899 under Willem Mengelberg and again the following year with the composer conducting.
The music starts shyly with dark clarinets and the lower strings, as though creating the right ambience for a mellow solo instrument. The upper strings take over the modest theme and build it into a fine, majestic statement. A short pause is followed by the second main tune, one of Dvořák’s greatest melodies, for the French horn. A third, noisy, staccato idea quickly follows, reflective of his Slavonic Dances, rounding off this orchestral sequence, though it is not heard again during the movement.
Now the cello bursts in vigorously with the two main themes again over imaginative woodwind writing. Dvořák develops his melodies expertly, expanding them imaginatively and at length. He starts with a version of the first theme at half its original speed, followed by further variants of it from the flute and oboe; the development is carried out with an assured mastery. For the closing sequence, having recapitulated the themes, the cello favours the second melody and the movement ends in a happy mood.
When working on the score, Dvořák heard his sister-in-law, Josefina Kounicová, was seriously ill. He had been enamoured of her many years before when he taught her piano and she had been a successful young actress. She refused his hand and he married her younger sister in the end, but always maintained a great fondness for her. She died soon after his return to Prague and his slow movement may have anticipated this, creating a beautiful elegy for her. It begins with a dreamy, Slavic
melody but the cello soon moves it into a far more impassioned sequence. The clarinet tries to bring back the first theme but following an orchestral outburst, the soloist launches into a quotation from his song, Leave me alone, (Op. 82 No. 1) which was a particular favourite with Josefina and its mood catches the heartbreak he was experiencing. The tune is developed vigorously before returning to the opening melody to complete his three-part A–B–A scheme. It is here that Dvořák places his short cadenza, with the soloist in pensive mood, soon joined by some delicious woodwind comments, reminiscent of the Bohemian countryside. It reveals a possible touch of homesickness, the music having been composed in New York. The coda is gently melancholic with the clarinet bidding farewell.
The finale is a rondo with cellos and basses setting up a steady march until the solo cello launches the principal melody with great panache. There are three main episodes between the repeats of the rondo theme. A passage echoing a moment from the New World Symphony leads to the first, where the cello has some impressive chords high on the instrument, the second presents a passionate tune in broken phrases and the third comprises a calmer idea. Dvořák moves more into a fantasia than rondo form from here on, with a succession of fresh ideas, not divided by any return of the rondo theme. When Josefina died during his final work on the score in Prague, he altered the end of the concerto, adding an extended coda, bringing back a reference to the song as well as the first subject from the opening movement. After this unusual reflective sequence, the tempo picks up and the work ends in a lively flourish.
Note by Ian Fox © National Concert Hall
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-93) Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64
I. Andante – Allegro con anima
II. Andante cantabile, con alcuna licenza
III. Valse: Allegro moderato
IV. Finale: Andante maestoso – Allegro vivace
There is a long break between Tchaikovsky’s Fourth (1877-78) and Fifth (1888) symphonies. At the time of the Fourth he had been undergoing a near-suicidal period following his disastrous marriage to and separation from Antonina Ivanovna Miliukova. In the years following this unfortunate liaison he began to work out a more acceptable lifestyle and hints of how he was thinking are apparent in a note he made in 1888. It outlines the plot of the first movement of a new symphony he was contemplating: ‘Introduction. Complete resignation before Fate or, in other words, before the inscrutable predestination of Providence. Allegro. (1) Murmurs, doubts, worries, reproaches against XXX. (2) Shall I throw myself into the embraces of faith???’ In his diaries he usually hid the names of his homosexual liaisons under the term ‘XXX’.
At first he seemed well pleased with the new composition and wrote to a friend: ‘My symphony is ready, and it seems to me that I have not blundered, that it has turned out well’. However, the first performance in St Petersburg, which he conducted on 17 November 1888, was less successful than he had expected, a feeling which was confirmed at further concerts, and it took time for the work to gain acceptance.
The first movement opens with a dark Andante theme on clarinet over chords from the string section. The music becomes even slower until soft string chords present the accompaniment to another sombre but faster melody, initially played by the clarinet and bassoon, the true first subject of the movement. This theme is amplified and extended by the strings with bubbly woodwind figures, later punctuated by the brass. The tempo pulls back again as hints of the second main subject peek through the textures. Eventually this melody appears on pizzicato strings with sudden outbursts from the woodwind. The strings expand it into a sweeping waltz.
A stormy sequence with loud horn-calls leads to the development of the themes; the material is expanded and elaborated upon in powerfully emotional sequences. Finally calm is restored and the bassoon re-introduces the main
theme, treating it to further variation, followed by the second subject in a fresh presentation (molto più tranquillo). The horns introduce the coda, with further interesting variants on the subjects; the main theme is given a march-like presentation and then the music dies away, ppp.
The lower strings set the mood for the theme of the slow movement, introduced by a remarkable horn solo (12/8, dolce con molto) while the clarinet provides a lazy accompaniment. The oboe brings in a counter melody assisted by the horns and the music plunges down to the lower strings, only to recover in a more animated extension of the themes. The clarinet launches a new idea, with a distinctive decoration woven through it, the bassoon takes over and the strings help to set a more lively pace. Suddenly, the theme from the introduction to the first movement bursts through savagely. There is a shocked silence at such an intrusion, as soft pizzicato chords set the music on its way again, with further variants of the main theme, building up to the full force of the orchestra, with blazing brass comments in a brilliantly scored sequence. Once more the introduction bursts in with a mighty ffff crash and howling brass. The main theme replaces this indiscretion quickly and the movement drifts towards its pppp ending over throbbing horns.
The short third movement is a charming waltz, a welcome respite after the drama of the first two movements. It is a gentle affair with strings and woodwind sharing its graceful measures. There are three parts to the opening melody: the theme itself, a livelier oboe and bassoon counter-melody, and the main idea again in a fresh woodwind dressing. The central ‘trio’ section is a bustling affair, started by staccato strings and decorated by fireworks from the wind. The oboe brings back the waltz and the music builds to a strong chordal climax before slipping in a brief reminder of the first movement introduction on bassoon, followed by a diminuendo which fools one into expecting a really soft ending. Instead, six powerful ff chords bring the waltz to a positive conclusion.
The finale presents the listener with few, if any, problems, though it has caused controversy among musicologists. Sir Donald Tovey expressed his reservations with characteristic vivacity when he compared it to the ‘Alice-and-Red-Queen’ effect, where they ran faster and faster while remaining rooted to the spot. Certainly it is not a movement of great subtlety, but its brash affirmation of life provides a thrilling conclusion to this journey through the composer’s fears and anxieties.
It begins with a strong reiteration of the introduction to the first movement and expands it into a majestic climax before dying away over a timpani roll. The movement proper then gets underway with a rapid chordal theme on strings; further material is quickly introduced as the music gathers momentum and speeds away. The woodwind bring in a subordinate melody which the strings briefly adopt before returning to the main theme, now up to full speed as a whirlwind march. The ideas are tossed around the orchestra in exciting sequences until the recapitulation brings back the main theme for a further dramatic presentation.
The coda comes sailing in as the winds reintroduce the principal theme over scurrying strings. A great drum roll and an orchestral chord pull the tempo back for a restatement of the main theme – moderato assai e moto maestoso. This becomes increasingly ceremonial – marziale, energico con tutta forza – producing a spectacular climax. The tempo surges into Presto and the symphony thunders to its dramatic finish in an explosion of powerful chords.
Note by Ian Fox © National Concert Hall
Patrik Ringborg conductor
Patrik Ringborg is one of Sweden’s most prolific conductors with over 90 conducted operas and a vast concert repertory. From 1993 he worked with the opera companies of Freiburg and Essen, returning to Freiburg as Music Director in 2006. He was appointed General Music Director of the State Theatre in Kassel in 2007, remaining in this position until 2017. He was engaged by the Staatsoper Dresden, Volksoper Vienna, Deutsches Nationaltheater in Weimar, Deutsche Oper Berlin, and Norwegian National Opera. At Opera in Cologne, he conducted Der Rosenkavalier (including Dame Kiri Te Kanawa’s farewell performances).
He has conducted over 30 German orchestras, including Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, Orchestra of Deutsche Oper Berlin, Munich Radio Orchestra, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchesta, WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne, and the Gürzenich Orchestra as well as concerts in many other countries. In Sweden, he has worked with all the main orchestras. Gothenburg Opera appointed him Principal Guest Conductor after his 1998 debut with Tannhäuser. He subsequently conducted all the company’s Wagner productions until 2006, returning for Salome, Notorious (world premiere), Ariadne and Sir Arne’s Hoard. Maestro Ringborg has been a guest with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra since 1996 and conducted the Nobel Prize award ceremony in 2008 and the Birgit Nilsson Prize award ceremony (for Yo-Yo Ma) in 2022. Having conducted the Stockholm Royal Opera in Elektra (Savonlinna 2010), his opera debut in Stockholm followed in 2013 with Parsifal directed by Christof Loy, returning in 2016 for the world premiere of Daniel Börtz’s Medea. He has been a guest at Malmö Opera since 1992, and since 2022 its Principal Guest Conductor.
Patrik Ringborg was awarded Svenska Dagbladet newspaper’s Opera Prize in 2014 for Parsifal and Das Rheingold, and ranked Number One of Opus magazine’s 20 most important people in Swedish classical music in 2015. A member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music, in 2022 he received the gold medal Litteris et Artibus from King Carl XVI Gustaf.
Camille Thomas cello
Optimism, vitality and joyful exuberance are elements of Camille Thomas’s rich and compelling personality. The young Franco-Belgian cellist, who signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon in 2017, understands art’s power to bring people together, to unite individuals from diverse cultures, countries and backgrounds. Her charismatic artistry is driven by a passion for life and a desire to inspire others to open their hearts to the wonder and emotion of classical music. ‘I strongly believe that music has the power to enlarge the heart, to make you feel everything with more intensity,’ she says. ‘Music gives hope for the beauty and greatness of the human soul.’
At its heart of Voice of Hope, her second DG album, is the world premiere recording of Fazil Say’s Concerto for Cello and Orchestra, Never Give Up, the composer’s response to terrorist attacks on Paris and Istanbul, written expressly for Thomas, who gave its world premiere performance in Paris in 2018. It is the first classical album recorded in partnership with UNICEF, reflecting the cellist’s desire to help others through her music.
Camille Thomas was born in 1988 in Paris. She began playing cello at the age of four and made such rapid progress that she was soon taking lessons with Marcel Bardon. She moved to Berlin in 2006 to study with Stephan Forck and Frans Helmerson at the Hanns Eisler Hochschule für Musik, and continued her training in the form of postgraduate lessons with Wolfgang-Emanuel Schmidt at the Franz Liszt Hochschule für Musik in Weimar.
Camille is conquering the world stage at a staggering pace. She has already worked with such conductors as Paavo Järvi, Mikko Franck, Marc Soustrot, Darrell Ang, Kent Nagano, Stéphane Denève, and with orchestras such as the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Academia Santa Cecilia, Sinfonia Varsovia, Staatsorchester Hamburg in the Elbphilharmonie, Lucerne Festival Strings in Munich’s Herkulessaal, Orchestre National de Bordeaux, and Brussels Philharmonic.
Camille Thomas plays the famous ‘Feuermann’ Stradivarius 1730 as a loan from the Nippon Music Foundation.
Meet The Orchestra
Get to know the people behind the instruments of the National Symphony Orchestra
Maria Kolby Sonstad
Cello
When did you join the National Symphony Orchestra?
Beginning of May this year!
What do you enjoy most about being in the NSO?
Getting to do what I love every day, alongside great colleagues.
Where did you study?
The Royal Academy of Music, Aarhus, DK with an exchange semester at the Royal Irish Academy of Music.
What made you decide to pursue a career in music?
I ended up quitting the cello after high school, but after several years of working in different fields I realized that getting to play music every day is actually pretty amazing.
Which work in the upcoming season are you most excited to perform? Why?
Mahler’s Ninth Symphony. It’s probably my favourite piece of music.
What do you enjoy doing when you’re not playing with the orchestra? Everything that includes nature and being active. I also enjoy a cup of tea while reading a good book.
If you weren’t a musician, what would you most like to be?
I used to be a personal trainer and did enjoy that quite a bit, so perhaps that.
What is your greatest achievement –either musical or general?
I would say getting a job with the NSO shortly after finishing my degree is high on my list at the moment.
What was the last book/podcast/TV series you really loved?
I just recently watched Friends for the first time, and can’t figure out why it took me so long. I loved it.
Do you have any secret talents?
I don’t know if this is a talent, but I did represent Norway in the European Championship in fitness and bodybuilding once. I can also do a pretty mean cartwheel!
National Symphony Orchestra
The National Symphony Orchestra has been at the centre of Ireland’s cultural life for over 75 years. Formerly the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, it was founded in 1948 as the Raidió Éireann Symphony Orchestra. In 2022, the Orchestra transferred from RTÉ to the remit of the National Concert Hall.
Resident orchestra of the National Concert Hall since its opening in 1981, it is a leading force in Irish musical life through year-long programmes of live music –ranging from symphonic, choral and operatic to music from stage and screen, popular and traditional music, and new commissions – alongside recordings, broadcasts on RTÉ and internationally through the European Broadcasting Union. Schools concerts, family events, initiatives for emerging artists and composers, collaborations with partner promoters and organisations extend the orchestra’s reach.
As a central part of the National Concert Hall’s 2024-2025 Season, the NSO presents more than 55 performances shared between Dublin, Galway, Limerick, Waterford and Cork. They include collaborations with international and Irish artists, ensembles and conductors – including a number of events with the National Concert Hall’s Artists-in-Residence: the renowned American musician and composer Bryce Dessner, the internationally acclaimed Irish mezzo-soprano Tara Erraught, and the dynamic musician and presenter Jessie Grimes. The programme is rich and varied, presenting repertoire from across the centuries to the present day including world and Irish premieres, choral masterpieces, birthday and anniversary celebrations, family concerts and screenings, schools concerts, and professional initiatives for emerging singers and composers. A focus on nature and the environment is a central part of the season’s programming.
Highlights with the Artists-in-Residence are many. They include three Irish premieres by Bryce Dessner: Mari, his Violin Concerto performed by its dedicatee, Pekka Kuusisto, and his Concerto for Two Pianos performed by Katia and Marielle Labèque, for whom it was written. Tara Erraught performs virtuosic works by Mozart, Haydn and Marianne von Martínez, with historical performance specialist Laurence Cummings conducting, and arias by Mozart, Puccini, Bellini, Donizetti and Rossini, with Clelia Cafiero conducting. Tara is also the driving force behind Celebrating the Voice, a week-long professional development programme for young singers which culminates in an opera gala with the NSO conducted by Anu
Tali. Jessie Grimes leads immersive, family-friendly concerts including Our Precious Planet and explorations of iconic works: Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony and Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique as part of the ASD-friendly Symphony Shorts, as well as Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf, featuring new and specially commissioned shadow puppetry, and Britten’s The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra.
Other exciting highlights include Dame Sarah Connolly joining conductor Mihhail Gerts for Alma Mahler’s Six Songs; an 80th birthday celebration for conductor Leonard Slatkin which includes the world premiere of his son Daniel’ s cosmic journey, Voyager 130; Hugh Tinney performing Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto; Speranza Scappucci conducting a Ravel Birthday Celebration; John Storgårds conducting Rachmaninov and Shostakovich; Anja Bihlmaier conducting Mahler’s Ninth Symphony; and Ryan McAdams conducting the First Violin Concerto by Philip Glass with NSO Leader Elaine Clark as soloist; and John Luther Adams’ Pulitzer Prize-winning Become Ocean. Jaime Martín returns to conduct Chopin’s Second Concerto with Yeol Eum Son as the soloist, and former Principal Conductor Gerhard Markson returns for Stanford’s Requiem featuring the National Symphony Chorus and soloists including Máire Flavin and Sharon Carty.
World premieres by Deirdre McKay and Ailís Ní Ríain and, as part of Composer Lab, by Amelia Clarkson, Finola Merivale, Barry O’Halpin, and Yue Song all feature. Irish premieres include a new orchestral setting of Philip Glass’s film score Naqoyqatsi with the Philip Glass Ensemble; Stephen McNeff’s The Celestial Stranger with Gavan Ring as soloist; James MacMillan’s St. John Passion with the National Symphony Chorus and Chamber Choir Ireland; and Ukrainian Victoria Vita Polevá’s Third Symphony.
Additional family events include popular screenings of classic children’s stories by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler – Stick Man and The Snail and the Whale – and Roald Dahl’s Revolting Rhymes. Music in the Classroom returns with Junior Cycle and Leaving Certificate Music Guide events, and Musical Adventures for Primary School children.
National Symphony Orchestra
1st Violin
Elaine Clark (Leader)
Bas Treub
Sebastian Liebig †
Orla Ní Bhraoin °
Catherine McCarthy
Ting Zhong Deng
David Clark
Anne Harte
Bróna Fitzgerald
Claudie Driesen
Karl Sweeney
Molly O’Shea
Emma Masterson
Liz Reeves
2nd Violin
Anna Smith
Elizabeth McLaren ‡
Cliodhna Ryan
Rosalind Brown
Paul Fanning
Dara O’Connell
Melanie Cull
Evelyn McGrory
Elena Quinn
Magda Kowalska
Stella di Virgilio
Conor Masterson
Viola
Steven Burnard
Francis Harte °
Ruth Bebb
Neil Martin
Cliona O’Riordan
Margarete Clark
Nathan Sherman
Anthony Mulholland
Alison Comerford
Carla Vedres
Cello
Martin Johnson •
Polly Ballard ‡
Violetta-Valerie Muth °
Úna Ní Chanainn
Filip Szkopek
Maria Kolby-Sonstad
Lucy Hoile
David McCann
Double Bass
Pete Fry
Mark Jenkins ‡
Cathy Colwell
Waldemar Kozak
Helen Morgan
Jenni Meade
Olaya García Álvarez
Flute
Catriona Ryan • Ríona Ó Duinnín ‡
Piccolo
Sinéad Farrell †
Oboe
Matthew Manning •
Sylvain Gnemmi ‡
Clarinet
Kenny Keppel
Fintan Sutton †
Bassoon
Greg Crowley •
James Fisher
Horn
Christopher Gough
Peter Ryan
Bethan Watkeys †
Nicholas Benz
David Horwich
Trumpet
Darren Moore
Oscar Whight
Pamela Stainer
Jonathan Corry
Trombone
Jason Sinclair • Gavin Roche ‡
Bass Trombone
Josiah Walters †
Tuba
Francis Magee •
Timpani
Niels Verbeek
Percussion
Bernard Reilly ◊
Ronan Scarlett
Jun Bo Fu
1
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NATIONAL CONCERT HALL
2024 — 2025 SEASON
INTERNATIONAL ORCHESTRAS AND RECITALS
SATURDAY 30
NOVEMBER 2024
7.30PM
PARAORCHESTRA
Charles Hazlewood conductor
Victoria Oruwari soprano
The pioneering ensemble of disabled and non-disabled musicians, with guest soprano Victoria Oruwari, led by Charles Hazlewood perform Górecki’s cathartic and hauntingly beautiful work Symphony of Sorrowful Songs , preceded by Schubert’s Death and the Maiden, a melancholic, iridescent and urgent piece realised for full string orchestra by Mahler.
Pre-concert talk 6.15pm-7pm
Tickets from €15
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