Nicholas Collon Conducts Mahler

NICHOLAS COLLON CONDUCTS MAHLER Friday 10 March 2017 7.30pm | Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall Nicholas Collon conductor RCM Symphony Orchestra

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NICHOLAS COLLON CONDUCTS MAHLER Friday 10 March 2017 7.30pm | Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall

Nicholas Collon conductor RCM Symphony Orchestra

Mahler (1860–1911)

Symphony no 6 in A minor Tragic

i ii iii iv

80’

Allegro energico, ma non troppo Andante moderato Scherzo: Wuchtig Finale: Allegro moderato – Allegro energico

The RCM Symphony Orchestra is made up of some of the world’s best young performers and regularly works with international conductors of the highest calibre.

Tonight the orchestra is conducted by Nicholas Collon for Mahler’s monumental Sixth Symphony.

This evening’s performance is being streamed live at www.rcm.ac.uk/live. Join the online conversation before and after the concert via #RCMLive

Mahler Symphony no 6 in A minor Tragic ‘Tragic’ is an unusual title for a symphony composed at a time of great happiness.

1903–4 was not only the year of the symphony’s birth but the height of Mahler’s fame as a conductor and his compositions were increasingly well received. In 1897 Mahler conducted highly acclaimed performances of Wagner’s Lohengrin and Mozart’s The Magic Flute at Vienna Court Opera where he was director from 1897–1907. Mahler’s personal life was settled having married Alma Schindler in 1902. Later that year their first child was born and another in 1904. Mahler’s extraordinary creativity was at its highest; Alma testified in her 1940 memoirs that ‘he was conscious of the greatness of his work’. That greatness included not only his Sixth Symphony but also his Kindertotenlieder and Nachtmusik serenades that he completed in 1904. With Mahler’s professional and personal life showing no signs of tragedy why was Mahler writing a tragic symphony?

It has been suggested the symphony foreshadows Mahler’s tragedies of later life – his diagnosis of heart disease and his daughter’s death, both in 1907. Could the three fatal hammer blows in the Finale perhaps foretell his own future? Mahler would have been aware of the connotations surrounding three blows; they can be heard at the beginning of Verdi’s Force of Destiny Overture and Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony. Indeed, after the 1907 tragedies the ever superstitious Mahler removed the third hammer blow to prevent a third fateful event. However, Mahler’s happiness does not guarantee exclusive composition of happy music. Tchaikovsky wrote in a letter to his financial supporter Nadezhda von Meck, that ‘a work composed in the happiest surroundings may be touched with dark and gloomy colours’. What can be guaranteed is that the symphony culminates in the shattering and catastrophic collapse of a hero that should have surely triumphed.

Not only does Mahler use the earth-shaking hammer blows but the trombones and horns struggle to offer a major key resolution: they fail, and the final bars explode into the minor.

Mahler would place today’s audience in the most favourable position to fully understand his Sixth Symphony. In a letter of 1904, addressing fellow compatriot Richard Specht, Mahler stated ‘My Sixth will pose conundrums that only a generation that has absorbed and digested my first five symphonies may hope to solve’. The conductor today not only has to try to ‘solve’ the symphony but to make many practical considerations. There is the question of whether the third hammer blow is retained but also the ordering of the two inner movements, which are most commonly performed Andante moderato, then Scherzo: Wuchtig.

The Sixth Symphony continues to be an enigma and has a profound impact upon its listeners. For Bruno Walter – Mahler’s friend and fellow conductor – the work was so expressively dark that he dare not conduct it. After the 1906 premiere in Essen the audience fell silent. Alban Berg even made the profound declaration in a letter to Anton Webern in 1908 that it was ‘The only Sixth, despite the Pastoral’. © Alec Coles-Aldridge (RCM Bachelor of Music, Year 3)

Nicholas Collon The young British conductor Nicholas Collon is recognised as a born communicator, innovative programmer, and high-calibre interpreter of a wide repertoire. His elegant conducting style, searching musical intellect and inspirational music-making have ensured that he is already a regular guest with orchestras such as the Philharmonia, BBC Philharmonic, City of Birmingham Symphony, Danish Radio Symphony and Capitole de Toulouse. In Spring 2016 he debuted with Deutsche Sinfonie-Orchester Berlin and Gurzenich Orchestra Cologne, and this season will appear for the first time with Finnish Radio Symphony. He is Founder and Principal Conductor of the Aurora Orchestra, an annual visitor to the BBC Proms, Associate Orchestra at the Southbank Centre from 2016, and known for their eclectic programming and their performances of complete symphonies from memory. Collon has released ground-breaking recordings with Aurora for Warner Classics, and critically acclaimed discs with the HallĂŠ Orchestra and Danish Radio Symphony. He has conducted over 200 new works, and has conducted opera for English National Opera, Welsh National Opera and Glyndebourne on tour. Collon is a violist by training, and studied as Organ Scholar at Clare College, Cambridge. Since Summer 2016 he has been Principal Conductor of the Residentie Orkest in The Hague, with whom he appears regularly at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw.

RCM Symphony Orchestra The Royal College of Music Symphony Orchestra plays with conductors and musicians of the highest international stature, and is frequently invited to perform in prestigious venues across London and beyond. The orchestra also performs regularly at its home in South Kensington, and its concerts are broadcast live to an international audience via the RCM website. Equally at home in classical, romantic and contemporary repertoire, the RCM Symphony Orchestra enjoys close relationships with some of the world’s most celebrated conductors, including Bernard Haitink, Vladimir Jurowski, Vladimir Ashkenazy and Jac van Steen. Their willingness to return is evidence of the consistently high standards of playing that the RCM orchestral musicians achieve.

The members of the RCM Symphony Orchestra are some of the world’s very best young instrumentalists. They have chosen to study at the RCM because of its unrivalled blend of superlative teaching, extensive performance opportunities, and close connections with the orchestral profession. In addition to the many professors who are active professional instrumentalists, the RCM participates in side-by-side and other experience schemes with, amongst others, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of English National Opera, the Philharmonia and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. This enables students to experience professional conditions and achieve professional standards before they graduate. The RCM’s long tradition of high-quality orchestral training has launched the careers of many distinguished orchestral players over several decades.

Founded in 1882, the RCM moved to its present site on Prince Consort Road in 1894. Illustrious alumni include Benjamin Britten, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Gustav Holst, Dame Joan Sutherland, Sir Thomas Allen, Sir Colin Davis, John Wilson, Alina Ibragimova, Gerald Finley and Sarah Connolly. In addition to its 750 full time students, the College engages dynamically with a wider and more diverse community of children and adults through a dedicated range of creative activities delivered by RCM Sparks’ education and participation projects, RCM Junior Department programme and the Creative Careers Centre. A further development is the growing schedule of live-streamed concerts and masterclasses which can be viewed on www.rcm.ac.uk.

Violin I

Cello

Horn

Roberto Ruisi

Zoe Saubat

Matthew Horn

Anna Lee Paula Sanz Alasa Yoon So Cho Rosa Hartley Haim Choi Naomi Watson Ines Delgado Emmanuel Bach Patrizia Lichtscheidl Assya Nurzhigitova Wilford Goh Sarah Daramy-Williams Shi Ling Chin Christopher Quaid Tzu-Fan Tang

Kieran Carter Deni Teo Riccardo Pes Ariane Zandi Haeun Kim Jobine Siekman Carolina Bartumeu Florian Belbeoch Cecilia Chan Arjun Ganguly

Helena Jacklin Alexander Oon Jacob Bagby Anna Euen Remi Faggiani Tom Pollock Arianne Rooney Ollie de Carteret

Bass

Erika Curbelo Adam Stockbridge Tom Griffiths Jack Wilson Antoine Sarker Nick Walker

Violin II

Lasma Taimina Abel Puustinen Eleonora Consta Julia Liang Jacqui Martens Mun Jeong Kim Wei-Ting Wu Josh Dalton Tory Sawyer Yi Lee Carolina Blaskovic Peiyi Ng Phoebe Goddard Tamara Elias Viola

Morag Robertson May Dolan Joanna Patrick Marsailidh Groat Hardy Pippa Bint Ana Dunne Sequi Johan Hoeglind Jenny Key Gerardo Mendez Juarez Katherine Raven Liam Johnson Tom Broadbent Royce Chen

Alfie Harries Sam Beck-Johnson Philip Nelson Declan Birchall Lucia Polo Moreno Lucy Keller Owen Nicolaou Evangeline Tang Daniel Tancredi Flute

Jaymee Coonjobeeharry Taylor MacClennan Sirius Chau (pic) Imogen Royce (pic) Grace Walker (pic) Oboe

Trumpet

Will Morley

Trombone

Robert Moseley Nicolas Kent Greg Huff James Maund (bass) Tuba Stephen Calow

Timpani

Stefan Beckett Will Riby

Anna Seaton

Percussion

David Hasler Flic Cowell (cor) Hannah Tyler (cor) Liz Bunday (cor)

Joley Cragg Kim Foster (offstage)

Clarinet

Camellia Johnson Elliot Gresty Eve Wieltschnig Will Knight (E flat) Matt Glendening (bass) Bassoon

Emily Newman Emma Westley Kristina Hedley Summer Perry James Fisher (contra)

Joe Barstow Tom Hollister Sam Howes (offstage) Alun McNeil-Watson Jess Wood

Harp

Bethan Griffiths Thea Butterworth Celeste Franck Sauvignon Personnel correct at the time of going to print.

Italics denote section principals.

The RCM would like to thank the following orchestral coaches: Ben Palmer preparation conductor Gaby Lester violin Andriy Viytovych viola Timothy Walden cello Nicholas Bayley double bass Ben Palmer & Gaby Lester tutti strings Simon Channing woodwind Byron Fulcher brass David Hockings percussion Daphne Boden harp Byron Fulcher woodwind, brass, percussion, harp & celeste

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ORCHESTRAL MASTERWORKS: SHOSTAKOVICH'S SYMPHONY NO 10 Friday 5 May 2017 6.15pm | Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall Rafael Payare conductor RCM Philharmonic Shostakovich Symphony no 10 in E minor op 93 Rafael Payare, chief conductor of the Ulster Orchestra, conducts the RCM Philharmonic Orchestra in Shostakovich's powerful tenth symphony.

Tickets: £5, £8 RCM Box Office 020 7591 4314 | www.rcm.ac.uk/events