Brahms: A German Requiem Mendelssohn’s Elijah Thursday 3 October 2019 Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall
Bethany Horak-Hallett mezzo-soprano, Rising Star of the Enlightenment
Six chapters of the Enlightenment - Part 3
Salvation and Damnation is the third of our Six Chapters of Enlightenment, six seasons of music exploring the golden age of science of philosophy that gave our Orchestra its name.
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The Enlightenment may have been the shining age of Isaac Newton and the development of vaccinations, but in the 18th century you could still be broken on the wheel for heresy. The question of Salvation and Damnation is therefore not only about what you believe about life and the thereafter. It is also about how we reconcile what we do know with what we don’t, and how we cope with the limits of what we can bring to rational order. It is the final challenge to the fashionable eighteenth century delusion that we can figure everything out and there will always be a reasonable explanation when we find it. The focal point of our season is Faust: The Life of a Composer (Wednesday 25 March 2020). Ever since his appearance in medieval English stories, Faust has been sent to hell for his unfortunate dealings with the Devil. Thomas Mann reimagined him as a composer in his 1947 novel Doctor Faustus, and we play music by Schoenberg, Wagner and others either referred or alluded to in the book. Elsewhere, we explore those whose star dims on death. Michael Haydn, once vaunted younger brother of Joseph, drowned his talents in booze and was quickly overshadowed and forgotten. It falls to us to continue his resurrection to the canon with the performance and recording of his violin concerti with Alina Ibragimova (Tuesday 19 May 2020). Then there’s the question of posterity. Is celebrity the real afterlife? What do we think when we hear Beethoven’s Eroica, written about Napoleon? (Tuesday 28 January 2020). Or are we transported by the guru feats of the virtuoso (in our case Stephen Hough) in performances of Liszt’s piano concerti (Friday 26 June 2020)? But first we have an overt salvation and damnation narrative. Tonight’s Elijah is a story of the resurrection and miracles, with a hero Mendelssohn reinvented as a sort of Biblical superhero. All souls admitted!
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Contents
Welcome 03 Concert repertoire and soloists 06 Orchestra and choir 08 Programme notes Richard Bratby 10 Mendelssohn, the Nazis and Me Sheila Hayman 16 Mendelssohn's Elijah: Text 18 Support us 22 Mendelssohn's Elijah: Text 24 Biographies 29 OAE team 34 Supporters 36 OAE news 38 OAE Education 40 Upcoming concerts 42 05
Mendelssohn’s Elijah
Repertoire and soloists
Thursday 3 October 2019 Southbank Centre's Royal Festival Hall 7pm
Masaaki Suzuki conductor
The performance will run for approximately two hours and 40 minutes with one 20 minute interval Pre-concert talk with Professor Donald Burrows of the Open University Level 5 Function Room, Royal Festival Hall 6pm
Carolyn Sampson soprano Anna Stéphany mezzo-soprano Brenden Gunnell tenor Christian Immler baritone Emma Walshe youth Choir of the Age of Enlightenment
Mendelssohn Elijah
Concert supported by Adrian Frost.
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Martin Kelly viola
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Orchestra and choir Orchestra
Choir
Violin 1 Kati Debretzeni Dominika Feher Rodolfo Richter Stephen Rouse Richard Blayden Alison Bury Julia Kuhn Alice Evans Claire Holden Henry Tong
Oboe Rachel Chaplin Lars Henriksson
Violin 2 Matthew Truscott Nia Lewis Huw Daniel Rebecca Livermore Kinga Ujszaszi Daniel Edgar Anna Jane Lester Veronique Matarasso
Horn Anneke Scott Martin Lawrence Nicholas Benz Jonathan Durrant
Viola Max Mandel Nicholas Logie Martin Kelly Annette Isserlis Kate Heller Marina Ascherson
Trombone Philip Dale Martyn Sanderson Andrew Lester
Cello Andrew Skidmore Catherine Rimer Helen Verney Ruth Alford Richard Tunnicliffe
Timpani Adrian Bending
Bass Christine Sticher Cecelia Bruggemeyer Carina Cosgrave
Clarinet Antony Pay Louise Strickland Bassoon Meyrick Alexander Sally Jackson
Trumpet Neil Brough Matthew Wells
Ophicleide Anthony George
Organ William Whitehead
Soprano Tara Bungard Emily Dickens Rosemary Galton Alice Gribbin* Angharad Gruffydd Jones Katy Hill Kirsty Hopkins Sofia Larsson* Daisy Walford Emma Walshe* Alto Sarah Denbee* Lara Rebekah Harvey Laura Hocking Bethany Horak-Hallett* Rebekah Jones Ruth Kiang Amy Lyddon Olivia Warburton Tenor Rory Carver* Richard Dowling Sam Dressel Christopher Fitzgerald Lombard Laurence Kilsby* Edward Ross Daniel Thomson Bass Frances Brett Jonathan Brown* Jack Comerford Malachy Frame* Brian McAlea Philip Tebb Geoffrey Williams
Flute Lisa Beznosiuk Neil McLaren
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Programme notes
Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) Elijah – an oratorio on words from the Old Testament, Op.70 Richard Bratby
Introduction Overture Part I Part II Tradition remade The premiere of Mendelssohn’s oratorio Elijah in Birmingham Town Hall on 26 August 1846 would be the single greatest public success of his entire short life. It would also, as it turned out, be among the last. But the idea of writing a large-scale sacred work had occupied him throughout his adult life. In Berlin, in March 1829, at the age of twenty, he had directed the first performance since the eighteenth century of Bach’s St Matthew Passion – an experience that was to shape his entire musical outlook. In 1832, together with a childhood friend, the theologian and Lutheran priest Julius Schubring, he began to compile a Biblical libretto, modelled on Bach but based on the life of Saint Paul. The finished oratorio, Paulus, was premiered in Düsseldorf on 22 May 1836. It drew widespread attention; the press hailed it as an instant classic, and the audience was ecstatic. Word spread. The London publisher Novello boarded ship for Europe to secure the English rights and Mendelssohn’s friend Carl Klingemann prepared an English translation. As St. Paul, it received its British premiere in Liverpool on 3 October 1836: the result, wrote the critic of the Morning Post, was “one of the greatest triumphs it has ever been our pleasing duty to record”. The news was a particular pleasure for the
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Anglophile Mendelssohn and by the following autumn he was already mulling over the outlines of a second oratorio, to be based on the life of the Old Testament prophet Elijah. He discussed the libretto with Klingemann before turning back to Schubring. Schubring suggested and adapted appropriate Biblical texts, and they worked on the project until early 1839, before breaking off.
Birmingham Town Hall
The fire-bringer Meanwhile, Mendelssohn had witnessed at first hand his popularity in Great Britain. In October 1837 he conducted St.Paul at the Birmingham Triennial Festival, to huge acclaim. “The applause and shouts at the least glimpse of me were incessant” he wrote to his mother, and he returned in 1840 to conduct 'Lobgesang'. In June 1845, the Festival committee took the initiative and commissioned him to write a new oratorio for the following year. There is evidence that at this point he had already resumed the Elijah project, but England provided a new impetus, and a new perspective on the oratorio tradition. Mendelssohn had witnessed the
enthusiasm with which Handel’s oratorios were performed – and received – in the UK. In Birmingham alone he’d heard performances of Messiah and Joshua: “A man must be as cold-blooded as a fish to resist all this”. Handel’s powerfully characterised arias and grand, muscular choruses suggested a path beyond Bach. As early as 1838, Mendelssohn had told Schubring that their Elijah must be a compelling and modern personality:
the role of the prophet Obadiah and a mezzo as Jezebel. Just as vital is a large orchestra, including organ as well as trombones and ophicleide (the fore-runner of the tuba), which, when not painting pastoral scenes of watercolour delicacy, he handles with swashbuckling – almost operatic - energy and panache.
I imagined Elijah as a real prophet through and through, of the kind we could really do with today: strong, zealous, and yes, even bad-tempered, angry and brooding – in contrast to the rabble, whether at court or amongst the populace, and indeed at odds with almost the whole world – yet borne aloft as if on angel’s wings. The narrative they forged together is uncompromisingly dramatic. After proclaiming God’s curse on the Baal-worshipping people of Israel, Elijah flees. In his exile he raises a widow’s child from the dead; empowered, he returns to Israel and challenges the priests of Baal to summon divine fire – and leads their slaughter when they fail. In part two, the Baal-worshipping Queen Jezebel once more drives him into exile – where after suffering tribulations, he hears for himself the “still, small voice” of God and “breaks forth like a fire” upon the impious before himself ascending to heaven. It’s the vision of a Romantic artist. Mendelssohn’s Elijah is no ageing patriarch, but an almost Prometheus-like figure: a fire-bringer, a Biblical superhero, uncompromising in his faith and his devotion to truth. The music matches that conception. Mendelssohn deploys up to eight soloists, including a tenor in
William Bartholomew
Mendelssohn and his collaborators broke freely with established practice when it suited their dramatic purpose. Mendelssohn and Schubring jointly agreed that after Elijah’s ascension to heaven in a fiery chariot, the final numbers should point the listener towards the New Testament, and the coming of the Messiah. Mendelssohn consciously based his closing chorus on the final Amen chorus of Handel’s Messiah: he expected that his audience would easily make the connection. But it was the English translator William Bartholomew who suggested that the overture should come after Elijah’s thunderous opening curse – and could
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Programme notes
Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) Elijah – an oratorio on words from the Old Testament, Op.70 itself depict Israel groaning under famine and drought.
Elijah in Birmingham Bartholomew was a vital part of the project. Mendelssohn spoke good English but he knew that his Birmingham audience would be discerning, and he wanted the word-setting to be of the highest possible standard. By the summer of 1846 he told the soprano Jenny Lind that he was “living the life of a marmot”: completely buried in Elijah, in constant correspondence with Bartholomew, and sending choruses to the Birmingham choirmaster James Stimpson as soon as they were finished. He continued polishing the score even after arriving in London for preliminary rehearsals on 18 August 1846. On 23 August he took the 2pm train from London Euston to Birmingham (the railway had opened in 1838) and at 11.30am on 26 August he stepped out in front of an orchestra of one-hundred-and-twenty-five players and a chorus of two-hundred-and-seventy-one singers (including, he noted, sixty “bearded altos”) in Birmingham Town Hall to conduct the premiere. Witnesses recall that he was greeted with deafening cheers, and that sunlight flooded the hall at the moment that he walked out. Although the Festival strictly forbade either applause or encores, eight separate numbers were encored, and the audience’s response, after the final chorus, was overwhelming. The Times captured the moment:
The last note of Elijah was drowned in a long-continued unanimous volley of plaudits, vociferous and deafening. It was as though enthusiasm, long-checked, had suddenly burst its bonds and filled the air with shouts of exultation.
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Mendelssohn, evidently overpowered, bowed his acknowledgments, and quickly descended from his position in the conductor's rostrum; but he was compelled to appear again, amidst renewed cheers and huzzas. Never was there a more complete triumph - never a more thorough and speedy recognition of a great work of art.
Jenny Lind
A prophet with honour Elijah was a defining moment in the history of the Birmingham Triennial Festival and in the history of 19th century choral music. It was performed at every successive Triennial Festival, becoming an institution – not always, in the opinion of some critics, a benign one. For each successful imitation such as Parry’s Judith (1888) there were countless forgettable flops by composers who emulated Mendelssohn’s piety without possessing his inspiration or his brio. Prince Albert – a personal friend of Mendelssohn’s, and an amateur composer in his own right summed up the general admiration after
a London performance in April 1847, inscribing his programme with words that compared the composer to a latter-day prophet:
To the Noble Artist, who, surrounded by the Baal-worship of debased art, has been able, by his genius and science, to preserve faithfully, like another Elijah, the worship of true art, and once more to accustom our ear, amid the whirl of empty, frivolous sounds, to the pure tones of sympathetic feeling and legitimate harmony: to the Great Master, who makes us conscious of the unity of his conception, through the whole maze of his creation, from the soft whispering to the mighty raging of the elements. Mendelssohn himself continued to revise Elijah until his death fifteen months later, conducting it in early 1847 in Manchester, Birmingham and four times (such was the demand) in London. A questioning, restless creative spirit, he never ceased striving: even while the applause from the greatest triumph of his – or possibly any composer of the 19th century – was still ringing in his ears. The buttonmaker Joseph Moore, chairman of the Birmingham Festival, recalled how immediately after the premiere, Mendelssohn turned to his friend, the music critic Henry Chorley, and said “in his merriest manner”:
‘Come, and I will show you the prettiest walk in Birmingham’. He then led the critic and other friends to the banks of the canal, bordered by coal and cinder heaps. There, on the towing path, they walked for more than an hour, discussing the new oratorio…it was then and there, amidst the scenery of the cinder heaps, that a sudden thought struck Mendelssohn to change Lift Thine Eyes from a duet into a trio…
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Mendelssohn's Elijah
Mendelssohn, the Nazis and Me Sheila Hayman
“He really depicts Elijah like an Old Testament Christ”. And yet, “It’s almost as if Mendelssohn said, ‘I want to write a Christian oratorio, but I don’t want to denigrate Jews in the process.’” (Jeffrey Sposato on Elijah) I'm a direct descendent of Fanny Mendelssohn. Felix Mendelssohn was my great-great-great-great uncle; I’m also a documentary filmmaker, and some years ago the musicologist Jeffrey Sposato sat in my living room, in front of Fanny Mendelssohn’s music stand, eloquently filling in the oratorios chapter of my BBC film, Mendelssohn, the Nazis and Me. I always knew about the Mendelssohn connection but never had any desire to make films about him; as a child, having a dead German classical musician in the family did nothing for my brand, and when I started making films the digital age was beginning to transform the world, which seemed a lot more exciting. So that became my special subject for the next twenty years. But then in 2005 I attended my first family gathering, at Wannsee of all places, where the Nazis’ Final Solution was worked out in meticulous detail. An interesting choice for a family whose survival after 1941 depended on determining whether or not they were Jewish - or, as it turned out, on making sure it was not determined, until the war was won. There’s nothing like coming down to breakfast in a room full of 250 strangers, all of whom turn out to be your cousins, unless it’s then hearing fragments of their stories: about distant ancestors who were forced to buy a dozen - or possibly twenty - life sized porcelain monkeys before they were allowed to marry, and
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fierce great-aunts who took on the Nazi party lawyers, and won. So at that point I was intellectually hooked; there were riches to uncover for a storyteller. But there was also an emotional hook: the childhood sense of not belonging, that I had always attributed simply to having a father with a thick accent and eccentric eating habits, but turned out to go back a couple of centuries, to the time when Moses Mendelssohn, my 6x great-grandfather, first proposed that Jews and Christians might live together and share a common language. At that moment, a confusion began that persists to this day: can you be Jewish, and German (or English)? Are you still Jewish, if you convert to Christianity? If you marry ‘out’? By now my film had not one, but three storylines: Felix and his identity, the family and their identity under the Nazis, and, most bizarrely, the German Jews and their music at that time. It emerged that the Nazi project, priding itself on ‘rational’ attention to detail, felt it necessary to separate not just the Jews from Aryan society, but ‘Jewish’ music as well. Not only was music by Jewish composers forbidden to be played or listened to by Aryan Germans; even more bizarrely, Jews were forbidden to listen to ‘Aryan’ music, for fear that somehow their access to it would pollute the music for others. Inevitably, Mendelssohn’s music was put in the Jewish camp, which may have been some consolation to the Jews but presented a huge headache to the Nazis, when they realised that he was the
for many of them the last they heard before they were rounded up and sent to their deaths. We can all be grateful to be listening to it tonight in a world where everybody can enjoy it together, no matter where they come from, or what religion, if any, they call their own.
Felix Mendelssohn composer of the indispensable musical accompaniment to Aryan Germany’s favourite play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Their attempts - forty-four, in all, right up to 1944 - to find an adequate replacement were one of the stranger byways in the story; and it’s surely no accident that this play, for which Mendelssohn wrote arguably his most precociously brilliant music, is also all about identity: the shape-shifting, nonsensical up-ending of adoration into loathing, turning an ordinary man first into an angel, and then a monster.
So the not-belonging turned out to apply not just to me, nor even to my family, but to hundreds of thousands of Germans with Jewish ancestry under the Nazis, and to Felix himself, the grandson of a great Jewish scholar who was Christianised by his parents at the age of 6, and spent the rest of his life working out, in music, that question about who he was.
Sheila Hayman is a filmmaker whose documentary Mendelssohn, the Nazis and Me was first broadcast on BBC4 in 2009. She has also worked with us on several digital projects. Find out more about the film at: www.sheilahayman.com
So that music became the metaphorical thread I needed to weave the three strands of my film together. But without question, the most emotionally powerful moment was the story of the last performance of Elijah, in the Oranienburg synagogue in Berlin, in 1937; the windows tightly sealed lest the music sully the clean Aryan air outside, and the threadbare audience clinging to the comfort of this glorious music,
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Mendelssohn's Elijah
Text
INTRODUCTION Elijah As God the Lord of Israel liveth, before whom I stand: There shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.
OVERTURE PART I 1 Chorus The People Help, Lord! Wilt Thou quite destroy us? The harvest now is over, the summer days are gone, and yet no power cometh to help us! Will then the Lord be no more God in Zion? The deeps afford no water! And the rivers are exhausted! The suckling’s tongue now cleaveth for thirst to his mouth! The infant children ask for bread! And there is no one breaketh it to feed them.
2 Duet with Chorus The People Lord, bow Thine ear to our prayer. Two Women Zion spreadeth her hands for aid, and there is neither help nor comfort. 3 Recitative Obadiah Ye people, rend your hearts and not your garments for your transgressions: the prophet Elijah hath sealed the heavens through the word of God. I therefore say to ye: forsake your idols, return to God; for He is slow to anger, and merciful, and kind, and gracious, and repenteth Him of the evil.
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4 Aria Obadiah ‘If with all your hearts ye truly seek Me, ye shall ever surely find Me.’ Thus saith our God. Oh! that I knew where I might find Him, that I might even come before His presence! 5 Chorus The People Yet doth the Lord see it not, He mocketh at us; His curse hath fallen down upon us, His wrath will pursue us till He destroy us. For He, the Lord our God, He is a jealous God, and He visiteth all the fathers’ sins on the children to the third and the fourth generation of them that hate Him. His mercies on thousands fall, on all them that love him and keep his commandments.
6 Recitative An Angel Elijah! Get thee hence, Elijah! Depart and turn thee eastward: thither hide thee by Cherith’s brook. There shalt thou drink its waters; and the Lord thy God hath commanded the ravens to feed thee there; so do according unto His word. 7 Double Quartet & Recitative Angels For He shall give His angels charge over thee; that they shall protect thee in all the ways thou goest; that their hands shall uphold and guide thee, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. An Angel Now Cherith’s brook is dried up, Elijah; arise and depart; and get thee to
Zarephath; thither abide: for the Lord hath commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee. And the barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth. 8 Aria & Duet The Widow What have I to do with thee, O man of God? art thou come to me, to call my sin unto remembrance? – to slay my son art thou come hither? Help me, man of God! my son is sick! and his sickness is so sore, that there is no breath left in him! I go mourning all the day long; I lie down and weep at night. See mine affliction. Be thou the orphan’s helper! Elijah Give me thy son. Turn unto her, O lord my God; in mercy help this widow’s son! For thou art gracious, and full of compassion, and plenteous in mercy and truth. Lord my God, O let the spirit of this child return, that he again may live. The Widow Wilt thou show wonders to the dead? Shall the dead arise and praise thee? Elijah Lord my God, O let the spirit of this child return, that he again may live! The Widow Shall the dead arise, the dead arise and praise thee? Elijah Lord, my God, let the spirit of this child return, that he again may live! The Widow The Lord hath heard thy prayer, the soul of my son reviveth! My son reviveth! Elijah Now behold, thy son liveth!
The Widow Now by this I know that thou art a man of God, and that His word in thy mouth is the truth. What shall I render to the Lord, for all his benefits to me? Elijah Thou shalt love the Lord thy God; with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. O blessed are they who fear Him! Both Thou shalt love the Lord thy God; with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. O blessed are they who fear Him!
9 Chorus The People Blessed are the men who fear Him, they ever walk in the way of peace. Through darkness riseth light, light to the upright. He is gracious, compassionate; He is righteous.
10 Recitative & Chorus Elijah As God the Lord of Sabaoth liveth, before whom I stand, three years this day fulfilled, I will shew myself unto Ahab; and the Lord will then send rain again upon the earth. Ahab Art thou Elijah! Art thou he that troubleth Israel! The People Thou art Elijah, thou he that troubleth Israel!
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Mendelssohn's Elijah
Text
Elijah I never troubled Israel’s peace: it is thou, Ahab, and all thy father’s house Ye have forsaken God’s commands, and thou hast follow’d Baalim. Now send, and gather to me the whole of Israel unto Mount Carmel; there summon the prophets of Baal, and also the prophets of Baal, and also the prophets of the groves who are house feasted at Jezebel’s table. Then we shall see whose God is the Lord. The People And then we shall see whose God is the Lord. Elijah Rise then, ye priests of Baal; select and slay a bullock, and put no fire under it; uplift your voices and call the god ye worship; and the god who by fire shall answer, let him be God. The People Yea, and the God who by fire shall answer, let him be God. Elijah Call first upon your god, your numbers are many. I, even I only, remain one prophet of the Lord. Invoke your forest gods, and mountain deities.
11 Chorus Prophets of Baal Baal, we cry to thee, hear and answer us! Heed the sacrifice we offer! Hear us, Baal! Hear, mighty god! Baal, oh answer us! Baal, let thy flames fall and vanquish the foe! 12 Recitative & Chorus Elijah Call him louder, for he is a god! He talketh, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey; or, peradventure, he sleepeth: so awaken him! Call him louder, call him louder!
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Prophets of Baal Hear our cry, o Baal, now arise! Wherefore slumber? 13 Recitative & Chorus Elijah Call him louder! He heareth not. With knives and lancets cut yourselves after your manner. Leap upon the altar ye have made, call him and prophesy! Not a voice will answer you: none will listen, none heed you. Prophets of Baal Baal! Baal! Hear and answer, Baal! Mark how the scorner derideth us! Elijah Draw near, all ye people, come to me!
14 Aria Elijah Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, this day let it be known that Thou art God, and that I am Thy servant! Lord God of Abraham! Oh shew to all this people that I have done these things according to Thy word. Oh hear me, Lord, and answer me! Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, oh hear me and answer me, and shew this people that Thou art Lord God. And let their hearts again be turned! 15 Quartet Angels Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee. He never will suffer the righteous to fall: He is at thy right hand. Thy mercy, Lord, is great, and far above the heavens. Let none be made ashamed, that wait upon Thee!
16 Recitative & Chorus Elijah O Thou, who makest Thine angels spirits; Thou, whose ministers are flaming fires: let them now descend! The People The fire descends from heaven! The flames consume his offering! Before Him upon your faces fall! The Lord is God, the Lord is God! O Israel hear! Our God is one Lord, and we will have no other gods before the Lord. Elijah Take all the prophets of Baal, and let not one of them escape you. Bring them down to Kishon’s brook, and there let them be slain. The People Take all the prophets of Baal and let not one of them escape us: bring all and slay them! 17 Aria Elijah Is not His word like a fire, and like a hammer that breaketh the rock into pieces! For God is angry with the wicked every day. And if the wicked turn not, the Lord will whet His sword; and He hath bent His bow, and made it ready. 18 Arioso Alto Woe, unto them who forsake Him! Destruction shall fall upon them for they have transgressed against Him. Though they are by Him redeemed, yet they have spoken falsely against Him; from Him they have fled. 19 Recitative & Chorus Obadiah O man of God, help thy people! Among the idols of the Gentiles, are there any that can command the rain, or cause the heavens to give their showers! The Lord our God alone can do these things.
Elijah O Lord, Thou hast overthrown Thine enemies and destroyed them. Look down on us from heaven, o Lord; regard the distress of Thy people. Open the heavens and send us relief. Help, help Thy servant now, o God! The People Open the heavens and send us relief. Help, help Thy servant now, o God! Elijah Go up now, child, and look toward the sea. Hath my prayer been heard by the Lord! The Child There is nothing. The heavens are as brass, they are as brass above me. Elijah When the heavens are closed up because they have sinned against Thee: yet if they pray and confess Thy name, and turn away from their sins when Thou dost afflict them: then hear from heaven, and forgive the sin. Help, send Thy servant help, o God! The People Then hear from heaven, and forgive the sin. Help, send Thy servant help, o God! Elijah Go up again, and still look towards the sea. The Child There is nothing. The earth is as iron under me Elijah Hearest thou no sound of rain! Seest thou nothing arise from the deep! The Child No: there is nothing. Elijah Have respect to the prayer of Thy servant, o Lord, my God! Unto Thee will I cry, Lord, my rock, be not silent to me! And Thy great mercies remember, Lord.
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Support us The past 30 years have seen the OAE grow to become one of the world’s leading period instrument orchestras performing to a global audience of over 5 million people each year. Our education work reaches over 12,000 participants annually across the UK. The Night Shift, our pioneering late night series of informal performances, now tours internationally attracting audiences of over 4,000 each year. We love what we do and we’re proud of our international reputation for performing with warmth, imagination and expertise. We could not have reached these milestones without our loyal band of supporters. Our box office sales, touring and public funding brings in 70% of the income we need and the generosity of our donors is vital to make up the remaining 30%. Without this support, we could not realise our ambitious plans to continue our pioneering work on the concert platform and beyond.
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Supporting our projects Every year, the OAE curates a season full of inspiring and unique projects. We are always looking for enlightened individuals who are interested in supporting this aspect of our work. Project supporters enjoy the chance to meet players and soloists and be involved in the creative process from the early stages right up to the performance. For more information please contact: Emily Stubbs Development Director emily.stubbs@oae.co.uk Telephone 020 7239 9381 OAE Friends As an OAE Friend [from £50], you can be sure to get your hands on your favourite seats with our priority booking period. You’ll also benefit from a unique insight into the inner workings of the Orchestra with regular rehearsal access, opportunities to meet the players and invitations to other events throughout the season. Join the OAE Friends at oae.co.uk/support or contact: Helena Wynn Development Officer helena.wynn@oae.co.uk Telephone 020 7239 9386 OAE Corporate supporters OAE Corporate supporters recognise the need for corporate sponsorship of the arts and relish the experiences such sponsorship affords. A wide variety of options await companies looking to offer their staff or clients unique opportunities. From private recitals in exclusive clubs to Gala dinners with internationally-acclaimed stars and the unparalleled delights of Glyndebourne Festival Opera, our OAE Corporate supporters benefit from unforgettable events. To find out more visit oae.co.uk/support or contact: Catherine Kinsler Development Manager catherine.kinsler@oae.co.uk Telephone 020 7239 9370
Patrons OAE Patrons [from £1,000] enjoy unrivalled access to our artistic activity, with opportunities for involvement including invitations to Glyndebourne dress rehearsals, dinner with OAE players and guest artists, Patron trips, and the chance to select a concert in our Southbank Centre season, gaining special insight into the artistic process through backstage and rehearsal access. To become an OAE Patron, contact: Marina Abel Smith Head of Individual Giving marina.abelsmith@oae.co.uk Telephone 020 7239 9380 Young Patrons Keen to sponsor an orchestra with a difference? Young Patrons enjoy benefits like the opportunity to attend evening and weekend rehearsals, 2 for 1 tickets to our late-night gig series The Night Shift, exclusive networking events, a credit in programmes and much more. Become a Young Patron at oae.co.uk/support or contact: Marina Abel Smith Head of Individual Giving marina.abelsmith@oae.co.uk Telephone 020 7239 9380 Leaving a legacy to the OAE Legacies are crucial to our fundraising and help to sustain and increase the scope of our work. By leaving a legacy in your will to the OAE you will be helping to shape the Orchestra’s future ensuring we can continue to inspire, enthuse and challenge audiences for years to come. To find out more visit oae.co.uk/support or contact: Marina Abel Smith Head of Individual Giving marina.abelsmith@oae.co.uk Telephone 020 7239 9380
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Mendelssohn's Elijah
Text
The Child Behold, a little cloud ariseth now from the waters; it is like a man’s hand! The heavens are black with cloud and with wind; the storm rusheth louder and louder! The People Thanks be to God for all His mercies. Elijah Thanks be to God! For He is gracious; and His mercy endureth for evermore! 20 Chorus The People Thanks be to God! He quencheth the thirsty land. The waters gather, they rush along, they are lifting their voices. The stormy billows are high, their fury is mighty. But the Lord is above them and almighty. PART II 21 Aria Soprano Hear ye, Israel, hear what the Lord speaketh:’Oh, hadst thou heeded my commandments’Who hath believed our report! To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed! Thus saith the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel, and His Holy One to him oppressed by tyrants, thus saith the Lord: ‘I am He that comforteth. Be not afraid, for I am thy God! I will strengthen thee! Say, who art thou, that thou art afraid of a man that shall die; and forgettest the Lord thy Maker, who hath stretched forth the heavens, and laid the earth’s foundations? Say, who art thou!’
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22 Chorus The People ‘Be not afraid,’ saith God the Lord,’be not afraid, thy help is near!’ God, the Lord, thy God, saith unto thee:’Be not afraid!’ Though thousands languish and fall beside thee, and tens of thousands around thee perish, yet still it shall not come nigh thee. 23 Recitative & Chorus Elijah The Lord hath exalted thee from among the people, and o'er his people Israel hath made thee king. But thou, Ahab, hast done evil to provoke him to anger above all that were before thee: as if it had been a light thing for thee to walk in the sins of Jeroboam. Thou hast made a grove, and an altar to Baal, and serv'd him and worshipp'd him. Thou has killed the righteous, and also taken posession. And the Lord shall smite all Israel as a reed is shaken in the water; and He shall give Isreal up, and thou shalt know he is the Lord. The Queen Have ye not heard he hath prophesied against all Israel? The People We heard it with our ears. The Queen And why hath he spoken in the name of the Lord? Doth Ahab govern the kingdom of Israel while Elijah’s power is greater that the king’s? The gods do so to me and more if, by tomorrow about this time, I make not his life as the life of one of them whom he hath sacrificed at the Brook of Kishon. The People He shall perish! The Queen Hath he not destroyed Baal’s prophets? Yea, by the sword he destroyed them all. The People He destroyed them all!
The Queen He also closed the heavens and called down a famine upon the land. The People He also closed the heavens and called down a famine upon the land. The Queen So go ye forth and seize Elijah, for he is worthy to die. Slaughter him! Do unto him as he hath done! 24 Chorus The People Woe to him! He shall perish, for he closed the heavens. Any why hath he spoken in the name of the Lord? Let the guilty prophet perish! He hath spoken falsely against us and our land, as we have heard with our ears. So go ye forth: seize on him! He shall die! 25 Recitative Obadiah Man of God, now let my words be precious in thy sight. Thus saith Jezebel: “Elijah is worthy to die�. So the mighty gather against thee and they have prepared a net for thy steps, that they may seize thee; that they may slay thee. Arise then, and hasten for thy life; to the wilderness journey. The Lord thy God doth go with thee. He will not fail thee; He will not forsake thee. Now be gone and bless me also. Elijah Though stricken, they have not grieved. Tarry here my servant: the Lord be with thee. I journey hence to the wilderness. 26 Aria Elijah It is enough! O Lord, now take away my life for I am not better than my
fathers. I desire to live no longer. Now let me die, for my days are but vanity. I have been very jealous for the Lord God of Hosts, for the children of Israel have broken Thy covenant and thrown down Thine altars and slain all Thy prophets - slain them with the sword. And I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life to take it away. 27 Recitative Tenor See, now he sleepeth beneath a juniper tree in the wilderness; but the angels of the Lord encamp round about all them that fear Him. 28 Chorus Angels Lift thine eyes to the mountains, whence cometh help. Thy help cometh from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. He hath said thy foot shall not be moved; thy Keeper will never slumber. 29 Chorus The People He, watching over Israel, slumbers not nor sleeps. Shouldst thou, walking in grief, languish, He will quicken thee. 30 Recitative An Angel Arise Elijah, for thou hast a long journey before thee. Forty days and forty nights shalt thou go to Horeb, the mount of God. Elijah Oh Lord, I have laboured in vain. Yea, I have spent my strength for naught. Oh that Thou wouldst rend the heavens; that Thou wouldst come down; that the mountains would flow down at Thy presence to make Thy name known to Thine adversaries through the wonders
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Mendelssohn's Elijah
Text
of Thy works. Oh Lord, why has Thou made them to err from Thy ways and hardened their hearts that they do not fear Thee? Oh that I now might die!
earthquake. And after the earthquake there came a fire, but yet the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire there came a still small voice, and in that still voice onward came the Lord.
31 Aria An Angel Oh rest in the Lord, wait patiently for Him; and He shall give thee thy heart's desires. Commit thy way unto Him and trust in Him, and fret not thyself because of evil-doers.
35 Recitative An Angel Above Him stood the Seraphim and one cried to another: The People ''Holy, holy, holy is God the Lord, the Lord Sabaoth. Now His glory hath filled all the earth.�
32 Chorus The People He that shall endure to the end shall be saved. 33 Recitative Elijah Night falleth round me, oh Lord. Be Thou not far from me. Hide not Thy face, 0h Lord, from me: my soul is thirsting for Thee, as a thirsty land. An Angel Arise now: get thee without. Stand on the mount before the Lord, for there His glory will appear and shine on thee. Thy face must be veiled, for He draweth near. 34 Chorus The People Behold, God the Lord passed by, and a mighty wind rent the mountains around, brake in pieces the rocks - brake them before the Lord. But yet the Lord was not in the tempest. Behold, God the Lord passed by, and the sea was upheaved and the earth was shaken. But yet the Lord was not in the
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36 Recitative The People Go, return upon thy way! For the Lord yet hath left Him seven thousand in Israel, knees which have not bowed to Baal. Go, return upon thy way! Thus the Lord commandeth. Elijah I go on my way in the strength of the Lord. For Thou art my Lord and I will suffer for Thy sake. My heart is therefore glad; my glory rejoiceth, and my flesh shall also rest in hope. 37 Aria Elijah For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed, but Thy kindness shall not depart from me, neither shall the covenant of Thy peace be removed. 38 Chorus The People Then did Elijah the prophet break forth like a fire: his words appeared like burning torches. Mighty kings by him were overthrown. He stood on the mount of Sinai and heard the judgments of the future, and in Horeb its vengeance. And when the Lord would take him away to heaven, lo, there
came a fiery chariot with fiery horses; and he went by a whirlwind to heaven.
39 Aria Tenor Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in their heavenly Father's realm. Joy on their head shall be for everlasting, and all sorrow and mourning shall flee away for ever.
43 Chorus The People And then shall your light break forth as the light of morning breaketh; and your health shall speedily spring forth then; and the glory of the Lord shall be thy rearward. Lord, our Creator, how excellent Thy Name is in all the nations. Thou fillest heaven with Thy glory. Amen.
40 Recitative Soprano Behold, God hath sent Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord; and He shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children and the heart of the children unto their fathers, lest the Lord come and smite the earth with a curse. 41 Chorus The People But the Lord from the north hath raised one, who, from the rising of the sun, shall call upon His name and come on princes. Behold my servant and mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth. On him the Spirit of God shall rest – the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of might and counsel, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. 42 Quartet Soprano, Contralto, Tenor and Bass Oh come everyone that thirsteth; Oh come to the waters; come unto Him. Oh hear, and your souls shall live for ever.
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Mendelssohn's Elijah
Biographies
Masaaki Suzuki - conductor Since founding Bach Collegium Japan in 1990, Masaaki Suzuki has established himself as a leading authority on the works of Bach. Suzuki combines his conducting career with his work as an organist and harpsichordist. Born in Kobe, he graduated from the Tokyo University of Fine Arts and Music and studied at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam. Founder and Professor Emeritus at the Tokyo University of the Arts, he was on the choral conducting faculty at the Yale School of Music and Yale Institute of Sacred Music from 2009 until 2013, where he remains affiliated as the principal guest conductor of Yale Schola Cantorum. Suzuki’s impressive discography on the BIS label, has brought him many critical plaudits. 2018 marked the triumphant conclusion of Bach Collegium Japan's epic recording of the complete sacred and secular cantatas initiated in 1995 and comprising sixty-five volumes. In 2012 Suzuki was awarded with the Leipzig Bach Medal and in 2013 the Royal Academy of Music Bach Prize. In April 2001, he was decorated with ‘Das Verdienstkreuz am Bande des Verdienstordens der Bundesrepublik’ from Germany.
Carolyn Sampson - soprano Carolyn Sampson has enjoyed notable successes worldwide in repertoire ranging from early baroque to the present day. On the opera stage she has appeared with English National Opera, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Scottish Opera, Opéra de Paris, Opéra de Lille, Opéra de Montpellier and Opéra National du Rhin. 029
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Carolyn Sampson performs regularly at the BBC Proms and with orchestras including the Bach Collegium Japan, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Vienna Symphony Orchestra and with numerous orchestras in the USA. A consummate recitalist, Carolyn Sampson’s regular performances include at the Wigmore Hall, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Saintes Festival, Frankfurt, Berlin, Vienna, and Barcelona, as well as Carnegie Hall, San Francisco, and Japan. Carolyn has an extensive discography earning accolades including the recital award in the 2015 Gramophone Awards, a Diapason D’or, and a nomination for Artist of the Year in the 2017 Gramophone Awards.
Anna Stéphany– mezzo-soprano Anglo-French mezzo-soprano Anna Stéphany studied at the Guildhall School of Music, where she was a recipient of the Gold Medal. Anna was previously a member of the ensemble at Opernhaus Zürich, where she frequently returns as a guest artist. Further operatic appearances include Sesto Giulio Cesare at the Glyndebourne Festival, and Octavian Der Rosenkavalier at the Bolshoi in Moscow, the Royal Swedish Opera, Covent Garden and in Zürich. On the concert platform appearances include La damoiselle élue with the Hallé Orchestra and L’enfant et les Sortileges with Sir Simon Rattle and the London Symphony Orchestra, both at the BBC Proms. In her 2019-20 season Anna returns to Glyndebourne Festival as Ruggiero Alcina. On the concert platform performances include Beethoven Symphony no. 9 with London Symphony Orchestra, and The Dream of Gerontius with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Gabrieli Consort & Players. 030
Brenden Gunnell - tenor American born Brenden Patrick Gunnell is a very promising young “Heldentenor”. His repertoire includes the title role in Britten’s Peter Grimes, the title role of Idomeneo, Loge in Das Rheingold, Siegmund in Die Walküre and Erik in The Flying Dutchman. Recent and future engagements opera include: Sergej in Lady Macbeth from Msensk for Birmingham Opera Company, the role of Jenik in Prodana Nesta for the Garsington Festival Opera, Prince in Rusalka at the Glyndebourne Festival and Siegmund in Die Walküre for Göteborg Operaen. Recent and future concert engagements include Mahler’s 8th Symphony at Maggio Musicale da Firenze under Fabio Luisi and including a CD recording with the Dortmund Philharmonic Orchestra, Verdi's Requiem at King’s College, Cambridge, Liszt’s Faust Sinfonie with the Gewandhaus Orchester Leipzig, Beethoven 9 with the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra and the Dortmund Philharmonic Orchestra and Oedipus Rex with the Elbphilharmonie Orchestra (NDR) in Hamburg and a tour of Europe.
Christian Immler - baritone German bass-baritone Christian Immler studied with Rudolf Piernay in London and won the ‘International Nadia et Lili Boulanger Competition’, launching his career. Since then he has performed internationally, from London to Seoul to Sydney. In concert, Christian has performed alongside conductors such as Christophe Rousset, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Marc Minkozski, Ivor Bolton, Daniel Harding, Kent Nagano, Raphael Pichon, William Christie and Leonardo García Alarcón with repertoire including the works of Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Mendelssohn, Mahler and, Bach. A keen recitalist, Christian collaborates with pianist Helmut Deutsch, with whom he released the album Modern Times. 030
The 2019/20 season will see him sing Rocco in Beethoven’s Leonore with René Jacobs and the Freiburger Barockorchester, and Der Freischütz at the Opéra de Rouen and the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées with Laurence Equilbey. His more than 50 recordings are award-winning, with a 2016 Grammy Nomination, the Echo Klassik, the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik, several Diapason d’Or, Diamant d’Opéra and the France Musiques’ Enregistrement de l’année. Christian is Professor of Voice at the Kalaidos Fachhochschule in Zurich. Choir of the Age of Enlightenment The Choir of the Age of Enlightenment is a group of professional singers, many of whom are soloists in their own right. Originally the choir had appeared exclusively with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment – at British and European festivals, as well as regularly as part of their concert series at London’s Southbank Centre. However, 2016 saw the choir performing their first unaccompanied concerts, without the OAE by their side. The Choir has taken part in many of the OAE’s recordings over the years, including Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610, Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Bach Cantatas with Gustav Leonhardt, and Mozart’s Così fan tutte with Sir Simon Rattle. It has also appeared frequently on radio and television with the Orchestra, perhaps most memorably in July 2000 when the Choir and Orchestra performed Bach’s B Minor Mass at the BBC Proms on the 250th anniversary of his death. During recent seasons the Choir of the Age of Enlightenment has performed with the Orchestra in the UK and further afield, working on a wide range of repertoire with conductors such as Richard Egarr, Emmanuelle Haim, John Butt, Sir Roger Norrington and Sir Mark Elder. In 2013 the Choir performed the Brahms Requiem at the BBC Proms with Marin Alsop and the OAE. One review praised ‘the most homogenous sound I think I’ve ever heard from a choir….they rightly received the loudest ovation of the night’.
Put a single conductor in charge? No way. Specialise in repertoire of a particular era? Too restricting. Perfect a work and then move on? Too lazy. The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment was born. And as this distinctive ensemble playing on period-specific instruments began to get a foothold, it made a promise to itself. It vowed to keep questioning and inventing as long as it lived. Residencies at Southbank Centre and the Glyndebourne Festival didn’t numb its experimentalist bent. A major record deal didn’t iron out its quirks. Instead, the OAE examined musical notes with ever more freedom and resolve. That creative thirst remains unquenched. The Night Shift series of informal performances are redefining concert formats. Its base at London’s Kings Place has fostered further creativity, such as Bach, the Universe and Everything, a trailblazing Sunday morning series with contributions from esteemed scientists. And from 2017, it started Six Chapters of Enlightenment, six extraordinary seasons exploring the music, science and philosophy of the golden age from which the Orchestra takes its name. Now more than thirty years old, the OAE is part of our musical furniture. It has even graced the outstanding conducting talents of Elder, Rattle, Jurowski, Iván Fischer, John Butt and Sir András Schiff’s with a joint title of Principal Artist. But don’t ever think the ensemble has lost sight of its founding vow. Not all orchestras are the same. And there’s nothing quite like this one.
Andrew Mellor
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment In 1986, a group of inquisitive London musicians took a long hard look at that curious institution we call the Orchestra, and decided to start again from scratch. They began by throwing out the rulebook.
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OAE team
The OAE is a registered charity number 295329 and a registered company number 2040312. Registered office: Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9AG Telephone 020 7239 9370 info@oae.co.uk Design and art direction –LucienneRoberts+ Photography – Alex Grace
Chief Executive Crispin Woodhead
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Life President Sir Martin Smith
Director of Finance and Operations Ivan Rockey
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Board of Directors Imogen Overli [Chairman] Steven Devine Denys Firth Adrian Frost Nigel Jones Max Mandel David Marks Rebecca Miller Roger Montgomery Andrew Roberts Olivia Roberts Katharina Spreckelsen Mark Williams Crispin Woodhead
Development Director Emily Stubbs Director of Marketing and Audience Development John Holmes Director of Press Katy Bell Projects Director Jo Perry General Manager Edward Shaw Orchestra Manager Philippa Brownsword Choir Manager David Clegg Projects Officer Ella Harriss Librarian Colin Kitching Education Director Cherry Forbes Education Officer Andrew Thomson
Marketing and Press Officer Anna Bennett Box Office and Data Manager Carly Mills Head of Individual Giving Marina Abel Smith Development Officer Helena Wynn Development Events Coordinator Kiki Betts-Dean Development Manager Catherine Kinsler Trusts and Foundation Manager Andrew Mackenzie Programme Editor Anna Bennett Leaders Kati Debretzeni Margaret Faultless Matthew Truscott Players’ Artistic Committee Steven Devine Max Mandel Roger Montgomery Andrew Roberts Katharina Spreckelsen Principal Artists John Butt Sir Mark Elder Iván Fischer Vladimir Jurowski Sir Simon Rattle Sir András Schiff Emeritus Conductors William Christie Sir Roger Norrington
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OAE Trust Imogen Overli [Chairman] Paul Forman Julian Mash Caroline Noblet Rupert Sebag-Montefiore Diane Segalen Maarten Slendebroek Sir Martin Smith Caroline Steane Honorary Council Sir Victor Blank Edward Bonham Carter Cecelia Bruggemeyer Stephen Levinson Marshall Marcus Julian Mash Greg Melgaard Sue Palmer Jan Schlapp Susannah Simons Lady Smith OBE Rosalyn Wilkinson
KIRKER MUSIC FESTIVALS F O R
D I S C E R N I N G
T R A V E L L E R S
Kirker Holidays offers an extensive range of independent and escorted music holidays, including tours to leading festivals in Europe as well as our own exclusive music festivals. Each of our Kirker Music Festivals is carefully designed to combine world-class musicians with exceptional locations and a programme of fascinating excursions. THE KIRKER MUSIC FESTIVAL IN TENERIFE A SEVEN NIGHT HOLIDAY | 19 JANUARY 2020 For our fifth exclusive music festival on the north coast of Tenerife, we will present concerts featuring the Castalian String Quartet, Daniel Lebhardt, pianist and Christopher Monckton, tenor, pianist and organist. Staying at the 5* Hotel Botanico, surrounded by lush tropical gardens, we shall also enjoy a programme of fascinating excursions. Highlights include the Sitio Litro Orchid Garden and a cable car journey to the peak of Mount Teide. We will also visit historic and picturesque villages along the spectacular north coast, including Garachico with its 17th century convent, and La Orotava, the most historic and picturesque town on the island. Price from £2,885 (single supp. £398) for seven nights including flights, transfers, accommodation with breakfast, six dinners, six concerts, all sightseeing, entrance fees and gratuities and the services of the Kirker Tour Leader.
THE KIRKER SPRING MUSIC FESTIVAL AT THE HOTEL TRESANTON, ST. MAWES A THREE NIGHT HOLIDAY | 9 MARCH 2020 Our annual visit to Olga Polizzi’s fabled Hotel Tresanton in St Mawes combines a relaxing spring escape in Cornwall, with a series of world-class chamber music recitals. Performances in 2020 will be given by the Piatti String Quartet and violist Simon Rowland-Jones in the Old Methodist Hall, and include works by Beethoven, Brahms and Mendelssohn. There will also be a series of musical talks and a visit to the private garden at Lamorran, inspired by Lady Walton’s garden on the island of Ischia. Dinner is included each evening at the excellent Tresanton restaurant which overlooks the sea and is lit by candles in the evening. Price from £1,268 (single supp. £280) for three nights including accommodation with breakfast, three dinners, three concerts, two talks, a visit to Lamorran and the services of the Kirker Tour Leader.
Speak to an expert or request a brochure:
020 7593 2284 quote code GOG www.kirkerholidays.com
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Supporters
OAE Thirty Circle We are particularly grateful to the following members of the Thirty Circle who have so generously contributed to the re-financing of the Orchestra through the OAE Trust.
Our Supporters Ann and Peter Law OAE Experience scheme Ann and Peter Law Principal Sponsor
Thirty Circle Patrons Bob and Laura Cory Sir Martin Smith and Lady Smith OBE Thirty Circle Members Victoria and Edward Bonham Carter Nigel Jones and Françoise Valat-Jones Selina and David Marks Julian and Camilla Mash Mark and Rosamund Williams
Corporate Partners Champagne Deutz E.S.J.G. Limited Lubbock Fine Chartered Accountants Mark Allen Group Marquee.TV Parabola Land Stephen Levinson at Keystone Law Swan Turton Corporate Associates Aston Lark Bannenberg and Rowell Belgravia Gallery Gelato Incipio Group Kirker Holidays Zaeem Jamal
The OAE continues to grow and thrive through the generosity of our supporters. We are very grateful to our sponsors and Patrons and hope you will consider joining them. We offer a close involvement in the life of the Orchestra with many opportunities to meet players, attend rehearsals and even accompany us on tour. For more information on supporting the OAE please contact: Emily Stubbs Development Director emily.stubbs@oae.co.uk Telephone 020 7239 9381
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Season Patrons John Armitage Charitable Trust Julian and Annette Armstrong Adrian Frost Nigel Jones and Françoise Valat-Jones Selina and David Marks Haakon and Imogen Overli Sir Martin Smith and Lady Smith OBE Mark and Rosamund Williams Project Patrons Bruce Harris Julian and Camilla Mash Philip and Rosalyn Wilkinson One Anonymous Donor
Aria Patrons Stanley Lowy Gary and Nina Moss Rupert Sebag-Montefiore Maarten and Taina Slendebroek Caroline Steane Eric Tomsett Chair Patrons Mrs Nicola Armitage – Education Director Hugh and Michelle Arthur – Viola Victoria and Edward Bonham Carter – Principal Trumpet Anthony and Celia Edwards Principal Oboe Ian S Ferguson and Dr Susan Tranter - Double Bass James Flynn QC - Principal Lute/ Theorbo Paul Forman – Principal Cello, Principal Horn, Violin Jonathan and Tessa Gaisman - Viola Michael and Harriet Maunsell Principal Keyboard Jenny and Tim Morrison - Second Violin Caroline Noblet – Oboe Andrew Nurnberg - Principal Oboe Professor Richard Portes - Principal Bassoon Olivia Roberts - Violin John and Rosemary Shannon Principal Horn Roger and Pam Stubbs - Clarinet Crispin Woodhead and Christine Rice - Principal Timpani Education Patrons John and Sue Edwards – Principal Education Patrons Mrs Nicola Armitage Patricia and Stephen Crew Rory and Louise Landman Sir Timothy and Lady Lloyd Andrew & Cindy Peck Professor Richard Portes CBE FBA
We are also very grateful to our anonymous supporters and OAE Friends for their ongoing generosity and enthusiasm.
Rising Stars Supporters Annette and Julian Armstrong Mrs Rosamund Bernays Denys and Vicki Firth Mr Bruce Harris Ms Madeleine Hodgkin Mrs Sarah Holford Nigel Jones and Francoise Valat-Jones Mr Peter Lofthouse Mark and Liza Loveday Mr Andrew Nurnberg Old Possum's Practical Trust Imogen and Haakon Overli The Reed Foundation Associate Patrons Charles and Julia Abel Smith Noël and Caroline Annesley Sir Richard Arnold and Mary Elford Mrs A Boettcher David and Marilyn Clark David Emmerson Jonathan Parker Charitable Trust Peter and Sally Hilliar Catherine and Barney Burgess Steven Larcombe Robert & Moira Latham Sir Timothy and Lady Lloyd Roger Mears and Joanie Speers David Mildon in memory of Lesley Mildon MM Design - France John Nickson and Simon Rew Andrew and Cindy Peck Peter Rosenthal Ivor Samuels and Gerry Wakelin Emily Stubbs and Stephen McCrum Shelley von Strunckel Mr J Westwood Young Ambassador Patrons Rebecca Miller William Norris Nkeiru Scotcher Young Patrons David Gillbe Marianne and William Cartwright-Hignett
Sam Hucklebridge Alex Madgwick Henry Mason Gold Friends Michael Brecknell Mr and Mrs C Cochin de Billy Gerard Cleary Chris Gould Silver Friends Dennis and Sheila Baldry Haylee and Michael Bowsher Robin Broadhurst Tony Burt Christopher Campbell Michael A Conlon Mr and Mrs Michael Cooper Anthony and Jo Diamond Dr Elizabeth Glyn Malcolm Herring Patricia Herrmann Val Hudson Rupert and Alice King Cynthia and Neil McClennan Stephen and Roberta Rosefield David and Ruth Samuels Susannah Simons Her Honour Suzanne Stewart Bronze Friends Tony Baines Graham and Claire Buckland Dan Burt Mrs SM Edge Mrs Mary Fysh Martin and Helen Haddon Ray and Liz Harsant The Lady Heseltine Mrs Auriel Hill Julian Markson Stuart Martin Sir Nicholas Montagu Stephen and Penny Pickles John Ransom Anthony and Carol Rentoul Paul Rivlin Alan Sainer Mr Anthony Thompson Mr and Mrs Tony Timms Mrs Joy Whitby
David Wilson And three anonymous donors Trusts and foundations Angus Allnatt Charitable Foundation Apax Foundation Arts Council England (ACE) Ashley Family Foundation Brian Mitchell Charitable Settlement Charles Peel Charitable Trust Derek Hill Foundation Fidelio Charitable Trust Foyle Foundation Garrick Charitable Trust Henocq Law Trust for Ann and Peter Law John Lyon’s Charity Metropolitan Masonic Charity Michael Marks Charitable Trust National Foundation for Youth Music Nicholas Berwin Charitable Trust Old Possum’s Practical Trust Orchestras Live Palazzetto Bru-Zane Paul Bassham Charitable Trust The Patrick Rowland Foundation PF Charitable Trust Pitt-Rivers Charitable Trust PRS Foundation Pye Charitable Settlement RK Charitable Trust RVW Trust Schroder Charity Trust Sir James Knott Trust Small Capital Grants Stanley Picker Trust Strategic Touring Fund The Loveday Charitable Trust The R&I Pilkington Charitable Trust The Shears Foundation The Sobell Foundation Valentine Charitable Trust Violet Mauray Charitable Trust The 29th May 1961 Charitable Trust
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OAE news
Imogen Overli appointed as Chairman We warmly welcome Imogen as our new Chairman for the start of our new season. Imogen is a long-term patron and supporter of the OAE and has taken over from Sir Martin Smith after his many years of service.
New Rising Stars of the Enlightenment In August, we announced our new cohort of Rising Stars for our 2019/20 season. Watch out for them in our Southbank concerts and in our new season of Bach, the Universe and Everything at Kings Place. ZoĂŤ Brookshaw soprano Sofia Larsson soprano Bethany Horak-Hallett mezzo-soprano SinĂŠad O'Kelly mezzo-soprano Guy Cutting tenor Hugo Hymas tenor Dominic Sedgwick baritone
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Lisa Beznosiuk principal flute
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OAE Education
OAE TOTS at Saffron Hall
A programme to involve, empower and inspire Over the past twenty years OAE Education has grown in stature and reach to involve thousands of Support our people nationwide in creative music projects. Our education programme participants come from a wide range of backgrounds and we pride ourselves in working flexibly, adapting to The work we do could not happen without the support of our generous donors. the needs of local people and the places they live. If you would like to support our Education programme please contact:
Last season we undertook
366 workshops 58 concerts in 17 towns, cities and villages
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Marina Abel Smith Head of Individual Giving marina.abelsmith@oae.co.uk Telephone 020 7239 9380
The extensive partnerships we have built up over many years help us engage fully with all the communities where we work to ensure maximum and lasting impact. We take inspiration from the OAE's repertoire, instruments and players.
This makes for a vibrant, challenging and engaging programme where everyone is involved; players, animateurs, composers, participants, teachers, partners and stakeholders all have a valued voice.
Students from Cricket Green School performing with our musicians and 1500 singers at the #RAHMerton concert.
2020 Programme As the OAE embarks on its season of Salvation and Damnation, the third part of our Six Chapters of Enlightenment, in OAE Education we will also take inspiration from the golden age of science and philosophy that gave us our name. Our FLAGSHIP project for2019-20 will see the first performances of our community opera The Moon Hares featuring music from Dioclesian by Henry Purcell, alongside new work by James Redwood and a libretto by Hazel Gould.
Our TOTS programme will be inspired by Mozart, Telemann and Beethoven with a lively set of workshops and concerts entitled Animal Adventures
Our SCHOOLS programme will be include a new concert telling the story of Don Quichotte for KS1 pupils and an invitation to our KS2 pupils to join us at Southbank Centre's Queen Elizabeth Hall for The Moon Hares.
Our SPECIAL NEEDS programme will see performances of Fairy Queen: Three Wishes in Suffolk and Brighton and students involved in Our Band will join us for our community operas in County Durham, Norfolk and London.
Musicians on Call will be expanded to enable more people who are unable to come to the concert hall to experience world class music in informal settings
Our NURTURING TALENT programme will include our Peter and Ann Law Experience scheme, coaching projects with young musicians, university work all with the aim of inspiring the next generation of musicians. 041
Upcoming concerts Bach, the Universe and Everything
Salvation and Damnation
Mathematics and the Brain Sunday 13 October 2019
Beethoven's Major Heroes Tuesday 28 January 2020 Southbank Centre's Queen Elizabeth Hall 7pm
Kings Place 11.30am Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford 5:30pm
Bach, the Universe and Everything is our very own Sunday service for inquiring and curious minds; a place to bond with music lovers and revel in the wonders of science. THE SCIENCE Can mathematics explain the brain? No-one is entirely sure, but Professor Alain Goriely definitely thinks it’s worth trying. He explores how applied mathematics can help us learn more about the effect of brain injuries and neuro-degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s. THE MUSIC In this cantata, Bach imagines going to a wedding, although he’s initially concerned with the pre-marital angst of the participants, rather than having a party. It’s all resolved by the end, however, with a journey from doubt to certainty and a celebratory final chorale. Bach Ach, ich sehe, itzt, da ich zur Hochzeit gehe ('Ah, I see, now as I go to the marriage') BWV 162
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This concert sees Beethoven at his most buoyant and sunny – or does it? Beethoven's second and third symphonies in major keys are, on the surface, distinctly positive compositions. However, each symphony has a darker side. Sir Roger Norrington brings his usual energy and enthusiasm to some of Beethoven’s most popular music. Beethoven Symphony No.2 Beethoven Symphony No.3, Eroica Sir Roger Norrington conductor Visit oae.co.uk for more details on all upcoming concerts.
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Philip Dale trombone
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