Welcome to the 2012-13 season of Worthing Symphony Orchestra’s classical concerts, which the borough council has been proudly supporting for eighty-six years. From the sparkling opening of Elgar’s overture Froissart to the climax of Rachmaninov’s Second Symphony, the acclaimed professional orchestra will lift your soul with wonderfully inspired music performed in the stunning acoustics of the Assembly Hall. Inspirational conductor John Gibbons reaches out to new and loyal listeners alike with introductions to each piece of music which have been carefully crafted to enhance your enjoyment and listening experience.
Enjoy the season! Peter Latham Chief Executive
Our season is dominated by an exciting array of international soloists who bring their award-winning talent to your doorstep from around the globe. This year we welcome the return of charismatic Scottish-Italian violinist Nicola Benedetti and popular Russian violinist Boris Brovtsyn plus two British-born young stars from the 2012 BBC Young Musician competition in a season that is both refreshingly innovative yet anchored on well-established popular classics. The first of our BBC Young Musicians, Charlotte Barbour-Condini, was the first recorder player to win the woodwind category of the prestigious competition, she joins members of Worthing Symphony Orchestra and young Sussex string players in a youth prom with a twist. In the subsequent concert, 2012 winner Laura van der Heijden makes a welcome return to Worthing to perform Dvorak’s romantic Cello Concerto in B minor, with the orchestra. I am delighted that top BBC presenter John Inverdale joins us for another family concert packed full of favourites which will enthuse both new and loyal orchestra fans. I am also thrilled to reveal that one of the world’s
greatest Wagnerian singers of the past thirty years and ardent orchestra supporter, Sir John Tomlinson, will join us for our final concert in which we pay a special tribute to Richard Wagner, whose bicentenary occurs on May 22nd 2013. However our most daring event is the Remembrance Day concert, which features a showing of the 1916 film The Battle of the Somme. The score by young British composer Laura Rossi will be performed live by the orchestra featuring German cellist Leonard Elschenbroich. The film is an astonishing historical record and audiences who have seen it with the live film score have frequently found it a profoundly moving experience. In addition to our reputation for attracting wonderful soloists, the orchestra has become internationally renowned for world-class performance and we are now regularly invited to play at the Derngate in Northampton for the Malcolm Arnold Festival. The heart of the orchestra nonetheless remains in Worthing with its many fine restaurants and hotels, lovely promenade, Victorian pier and views of the beautiful South Downs. Visitors can therefore enjoy a rich and varied visit which includes a top-quality orchestral concert at its core.
John Gibbons Conductor
Cover photography: Arta Arnicane – © Andreas Zihler Nicola Benedetti – © Decca/Simon Fowler Leonard Elschenbroich – © Felix Broede Laura van der Heijden – © Sam Trench Published by Worthing Borough Council July 2012 Designed by Seren Printed by Evonprint
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Sunday 2nd September at 2.45pm (carriages from 4.50pm) One of today’s most charismatic international soloists, Nicola Benedetti, returns to Worthing to play Bruch’s ever-popular Violin Concerto in G minor, in what promises to be a truly memorable occasion.
Elgar Froissart Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor
Dvorak Nicola has captivated audiences and critics alike with Symphony No. 7 her musicality and poise. She has a remarkable ability in D minor to communicate and enthral audiences with dynamic and energy-filled performances. Throughout her career, Nicola’s desire to perform a broad variety of “Nicola Benedetti repertoire and reach a wide audience has shown her brings a degree of heat, to be one of Britain’s most innovative and creative subtlety and quicksilver young violinists. colours only achieved by the world’s best.” Dvorak’s seventh symphony, a powerful work full Geoff Brown • The Times of melody, infectious Czech rhythms and vibrant
orchestral colour, is his finest symphony while Elgar’s ebullient concert overture opens the season in a vibrant, uplifting manner.
www.nicolabenedetti.co.uk
Photographs of Nicola © Decca/Simon Fowler
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Mozart Symphony No. 35 ‘Haffner’
Sunday 7th October at 2.45pm (carriages from 5.05pm) Jessica Zhu won the audience prize at the inaugural Sussex International Piano Competition for her performance of Liszt’s first piano concerto and we are excited to welcome her back to play one of the most popular Romantic piano concertos by Schumann.
Schumann Piano Concerto in A minor Warlock Capriol Suite Beethoven Symphony No. 2 in D major
Jessica received warm praise for her Wigmore Hall debut, given as part of the Park Lane Group’s Young Artists Series in December 2011, having studied with Nancy Weems at the University of Houston before gaining a highly coveted Marshall Scholarship in 2009. With the award she took up a masters programme at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, studying with Joan Havill and graduating with distinction. Jessica is now on a fellowship at the Guildhall studying with Paul Roberts and Ronan O’Hora.
“Nobody could accuse Zhu of not taking risks …magnificent!” The Independent
The concert is framed by two classical symphonies packed full of sunny optimism, while the delightful Capriol Suite, based on sixteenth century French dances, is a delightfully engaging work for strings.
www.jessicazhu.com A Worthing Symphony Society Promotion
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John Ireland Epic March
Sunday 11th november at 2.45pm
Elgar Cello Concerto
(carriages from 5.10pm) This year’s popular concert of remembrance features a full screening of the Imperial War Museum’s 1916 film The Battle of the Somme with a live film score from young British composer Laura Rossi.
Laura Rossi The Battle of the Somme
The film was shot by two official cinematographers, Geoffrey Malins and John McDowell and on 19th August 1916 went on general release, selling twenty million tickets in the first six weeks. In 2005 the film was inscribed on UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register and remains one of the most significant films of all time. The concert opens with John Ireland’s stirring Epic March, a work premiered at the opening concert of the 1942 Proms. It is followed by a performance by the young German cellist Leonard Elschenbroich, winner of the Leonard Bernstein award and long-time protégé of Anne-Sophie Mutter, who returns to play Elgar’s poignant 1919 Cello Concerto - a work synonymous with the horrors of the first world war.
“Elschenbroich’s sound had a burnished glow and radiated authority.” The Independent
www.leonard-elschenbroich.com 4
Photograph of Leonard © Felix Broede
Sunday 6th January 2013 at 2.45pm (carriages from 5.15pm) Thrilling film scores and orchestral masterpieces usher in yet more delights as well-loved characters are musically conjured by the orchestra. Young pianist, Arta Arnicane, was born into a musical family and studied piano in Moscow, Riga, Glasgow and Zurich. Since winning the Sussex International Piano Competition 2010, she has also been the winner of the Prague Spring International Music Competition 2011, the Baltic International Piano Competition and the Premio Iturbi in Spain.
John Williams Star Wars – main titles Ravel • Mother Goose Suite Eric Coates • The Three Bears Suite John Williams • E.T. Flying Theme Dohnanyi • Variations on a Nursery Theme Alwyn • Peter Pan Suite Prokofiev • Peter and the Wolf Tchaikovsky Nutcracker Suite
This year her London concerto debut with conductor John Gibbons in Southwark Cathedral nestles alongside other major engagements “Her intense composure before including appearances at the Tonhalle each piece was magnetic .... her in Zürich and the Megaron in Thessaloniki. interpretation revelatory.” Worthing Herald Sleeping Beauty, Goldilocks and the Three Bears,Tom Thumb, Beauty and the Beast, E.T. and the SugarPlum Fairy will all be created as well as the famous Waltz of the Flowers during an afternoon which will put a smile on the faces of young and old alike, narrated by BBC presenter John Inverdale.
www.artaarnicane.com
Photograph of Arta © Andreas Zihler
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Sunday 10th February at 2.45pm (carriages from 4.45pm) Charlotte Barbour-Condini is the first recorder player to have won the Woodwind Final of BBC Young Musician, which she achieved during the 2012 competition. She is able to change perceptions of the recorder with her sparkling performances and reprises her winning rendition of Vivaldi’s concerto with Worthing Symphony Orchestra. One of the most popular works of all time, The Four Seasons, will be enlivened by Tibor Varga International Violin Competition and 2001 Reuters Prize winner Boris Brovtsyn. He has appeared with orchestras and at festivals across the world, worked with distinguished colleagues such as Sir Neville Marriner, Yuri Bashmet and Alain Lombard as a soloist, and in chamber music concerts with Janine Jansen, Maxim Rysanov, Denis Matsuev and Alexei Ogrintchouk among others. Part of the appeal of The Four Seasons lies in their pictorial descriptions and this performance also unites the orchestra with young talented string players from across the county. The poems which inspired the music will be narrated by distinguished actress Josephine Tewson, known to millions for her roles as nervous Elizabeth in Keeping up Appearances and Miss Davenport in Last of the Summer Wine.
“Brovtsyn has a compelling stage presence ... and a passion for the music that is as much innate as it is modestly transmitted.” Worthing Herald 6
Vivaldi Recorder Concerto in C minor Vivaldi The Four Seasons Pachelbel Canon
Sunday 10th March at 2.45pm
Rossini Semiramide Overture
(carriages from 5pm) BBC Young Musician 2012, Laura van der Heijden, returns to play one of the supreme cello concertos of all time, a work full of romantic sentiment and one of Dvorak’s greatest masterpieces.
Vaughan Williams Symphony No. 5 in D major
Fifteen-year-old Laura is the youngest daughter of a Dutch father and a Swiss mother. She joined the Junior Department of the Royal College of Music at age eight and passed her grade eight exams for piano and cello when she was ten. She has since performed with the Jupiter Chamber Orchestra, Zurcher Kammer Orchester and won the Marjorie Humby competition at the Royal College of Music last year. The overture to Semiramide is one of Rossini’s finest and opens one of his most serious operas about the Queen of Babylon, who murders her husband with the help of her lover, only to later fall in love with a warrior who turns out to be her son.
Dvorak Cello Concerto in B minor
“Laura has a special talent ... music exudes from every fibre of her being.” John Gibbons
Ralph Vaughan Williams remains one of Britain’s most popular composers. He wrote the fifth symphony during the darkest days of the second world war and ironically, its beautiful vision of optimism and peace was quite a shock to the audience at the premiere. The melodic lines and serene mood recall the atmosphere of his famous work The Lark Ascending while his trademark orchestration conjures up spellbinding moments of cathedral-like sonorities.
www.lauravanderheijden.org
Photographs of Laura © Sam Trench
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Friday 12th April Semi-finals: afternoon session commences at 2pm evening session commences at 6pm
Sunday 14th April Grand Final commences at 2.45pm Future star pianists from across the globe will compete in front of a jury of celebrated classical musicians to be declared the winner, receive a cash prize and worldwide recital opportunities. During the semi-finals, six of the finest pianists will each perform a forty-five minute piano recital for one of three places in the Grand Final. In conclusion, three pianists will perform three piano concertos with Worthing Symphony Orchestra under its principal conductor John Gibbons, during the Grand Final. The performances will take place before an international jury of pianists, musicians, conductors, agents and critics. Refreshments will be available throughout the Sussex International Piano Competition.
www.sussexipc.co.uk A Worthing Symphony Society Promotion
“We have created a competition with integrity and talent at its core.� John Gibbons 8
Smetana Vltava (The Moldau)
Saturday 25th May at 7.30pm (carriages from 9.50pm)
Wagner Wotan Scena (Das Ring des Niebelungen) Rachmaninov Symphony No.2
Vltava is one of six remarkable tone poems depicting Smetana’s beloved homeland. The work is a vivid description of the River Moldau as it passes on its way from the forests of Bohemia, through the St John’s Rapids to Prague and the castle of Vyšehrad. The Rhine has spawned much German folklore and is at the heart of Wagner’s great music drama cycle, Das Ring des Niebelungen. Sir John Tomlinson is one of the preeminent Wagnerian singers of the past thirty years and performs with WSO after his autumn 2012 appearance in the Ring Cycle at the Royal Opera House. Wotan Scena is a masterly scenario created by David Syrus, Head of Music Staff at the Royal Opera House and a long-standing Bayreuth Festival musician. The orchestral version is by John Gibbons. Rachmaninov’s second symphony is one of his most richly rewarding works. Composed in Dresden, shortly after Piano Concerto No.3 in 1906, it won the Glinka Award in 1908. Since then it has become one of the most popular of all the Romantic symphonies. The slow movement, in particular, contains one of Rachmaninov’s finest and most beautiful melodies, meltingly introduced by the solo clarinet.
“Sir John Tomlinson - one of the great Wagnerians of our time.” The Independent
www.johntomlinson.org 9
Worthing Symphony Society Join the society, support the orchestra!
President: Nicola Benedetti • Chairman: Mr E. Hurcombe Treasurer: Mr J. Gander • Secretary and Membership: Mrs W. Dowse
A common love of classical music unites members of Worthing Symphony Society which became a registered charity in 1982. Through donations and memberships the society funds concerts throughout the season and provides members with an array of exclusive benefits: Reduced ticket rates Priority booking and earliest choice of seats Newsletters filled with society business, news and reviews Opportunities to attend rehearsals and meet the orchestra Exclusive social events Free entry to Worthing Music Festival advanced piano classes Chances to meet like-minded music-lovers A basic subscription to join Worthing Symphony Society starts at just £5, although we hope regular supporters of the orchestra will also consider adding a modest donation (see membership application form for details). As a registered charity the society can claim Gift Aid on all donations and sponsorship from supporters who are UK tax payers. Application forms are available from Worthing Theatres box offices, society desks at concerts or can be downloaded at www.worthingtheatres.co.uk
Enquiries to the society at: worthingsymphonysociety@gmail.com Worthing Symphony Society • Town Hall • Chapel Road • Worthing • BN11 1HA
Worthing Symphony Society members at a fundraising recital in Parham House. 10
Thankyou! Worthing Symphony Society is grateful to all its members for their ongoing enthusiasm, donations and passion for classical music in Worthing. During each season a number of members go above and beyond in aid of the society and orchestra. WSS would therefore like to thank the following patrons in particular for their continued support: Mrs L.M. Sunasky • Miss G. Gough Mrs S. Holland • Mrs C.A.G. Silversides Mr B. Brown • Mrs J. Goacher Mr M. Murray • Mr D. Ripley Mr and Mrs C. George Ms S. Gibbons • Mr and Mrs R. Gilbert Mr J. Leaper • Miss G. Tucker, Mrs B. Hull and the late Dr D. Jefferies
The luxurious surroundings of Indigo Restaurant offer an ideal setting to enjoy English and European cuisine, expertly prepared and presented using the finest locally-sourced ingredients, either before or after a concert. Worthing Symphony Orchestra patrons receive exclusive discounts both in the restaurant and sumptuous lounge-bar when quoting ‘symphony’. Ardington Hotel Steyne Gardens Worthing • BN11 3DZ
01903 230 451 reservations@ardingtonhotel.co.uk
www.indigorestaurant.info • www.ardingtonhotel.co.uk
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The Ardington Hotel proudly endorses Worthing Symphony Orchestra’s 2012/13 season. The elegant contemporary three-star hotel is situated approximately ten minutes’ walk from the Assembly Hall and has ample parking for guests attending concerts - a perfect home-from-home for tranquil weekends in Worthing. To take advantage of our preferential rates for Worthing Symphony Orchestra supporters, please quote ‘classical getaway’ when booking.
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Ardington Hotel • Steyne Gardens • Worthing • BN11 3DZ 01903 230 451 • reservations@ardingtonhotel.co.uk www.ardingtonhotel.co.uk
Telephone:
01903 206 206 between 9.30am and 8pm Mon to Sat; Sun 11am to 8pm.
Online: www.worthingtheatres.co.uk (Multi-buy tickets may only be booked by phone or in person.)
Symphony Society members receive an extra 50p off when booking five or more concerts. Only one discount applies per ticket. Discounts are not available online. Students and under 16s: £6 any concert. Advance bookings include £2 admin charge for phone transactions and £1.50 for purchases online, which include postage and apply irrespective of the number of concerts booked. Tickets purchased within four working days of events are held for box office collection from one hour prior to performance. In person: at the Assembly Hall from 45 minutes before performances, or at the Connaught and Pavilion theatres. Group discount (10%) is available for parties of 10 or more. Payment: Credit and debit cards are accepted, except American Express. Only bookings for parties of 10+ may be reserved without payment and we may suspend reservations if necessary. For a small fee exchanges may take place before the day of a concert. There is no fee charged for multi-buy tickets which may be exchanged for another concert in the current season before the day of the performance. Refunds are only available for those who have taken out Ticket Plan Protection.Terms and conditions apply. FREE PARKING is available at the Civic Centre car park on Sundays and after 6pm on Saturdays. Spaces are limited. SPECIAL RATE PARKING is available 10 minutes’ walk from the Assembly Hall at the Guildbourne Centre car park where it is £1.30 per hour to a maximum charge of £6 on Saturdays and £1 per hour to a maximum charge of £3 on Sundays. Validate car park tickets at the box office to receive this rate. Parking charges may be subject to change without warning as car parks are managed by an external operator. The Assembly Hall has wheelchair access, a loop system and accessible toilets. Guide and hearing dogs are permitted. It is usually possible to arrange a combination of wheelchair and standard seating to allow patrons to sit together. Please notify us of your requirements when booking. Assembly Hall • Stoke Abbott Road • Worthing • BN11 1HQ. Published by Worthing Borough Council – July 2012 The information contained in this publication was correct at time of going to press, but may be subject to change.