RSNO Digital Season: Beethoven Symphony No5

Scotland’s National Orchestra 1

BEETHOVEN SYMPHONY No5 SPONSORED BY

★★★★★

‘Exceptionally good’ The Scotsman

★★★★

‘Impressive unity’ The Times

★★★★

‘Simply wonderful’ Bachtrack

10 STUNNING CONCERTS FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS

Buy online at rsno.org.uk/digital-season

BEETHOVEN SYMPHONY NO5

With Beethoven, four notes are enough to start a revolution. ‘This is how Fate knocks at the door!’ he said, and everyone knows the electrifying opening of his Fifth Symphony. But if that’s all you know, you’re in for the musical adventure of a lifetime. RSNO Music Director Thomas Søndergård also conducts Scottish tenor Nicky Spence in Britten’s dreamlike songs, and we start with the haunting Lyric for Strings by George Walker, a true American original.

WALKER Lyric for Strings [6’] BRITTEN Les Illuminations Op18 [23’] BEETHOVEN Symphony No5 in C Minor Op67 [34’] Thomas Søndergård Conductor Nicky Spence Tenor Royal Scottish National Orchestra RECORDED AT THE RSNO CENTRE, GLASGOW Broadcast Fri 26 Feb 2021, 7.30pm This performance has been recorded for the RSNO Archive.

Supported by the Iain and Pamela Sinclair Legacy.

SPONSORED BY

Jack Hunter Director John Whitener Script Supervisor Diana Dumi and Diego Almazán Camera Operators Diana Dumi Video Editor Phil Hobbs Producer Hedd Morfett-Jones Sound Supervisor

Spring/Summer 2021

Available from Fri 16 April 2021

NINE SPECTACULAR CONCERTS BROADCAST FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS Featuring Thomas Søndergård • Nicola Benedetti Elim Chan • Benjamin Grosvenor Paul Lewis and more

On Sale Now! rsno.org.uk

RSNO: Scotland’s National Orchestra 5

Welcome Dear friends Welcome to the finale of the RSNO’s first-ever Digital Season. It has been an absolute joy to be able to share music with you, albeit digitally, over the last five months. From audience members to critics alike, we have been bowled over by your wonderful comments. It is thanks to your enduring support that I am confident we will emerge from this pandemic in a strong position, ready to bring world-class musicmaking back to the concert halls of Scotland when it is safe to do so.

In case you missed our news last week, I am delighted to let you know that Thomas Søndergård has extended his contract and will be continuing his partnership with the Orchestra as Music Director. We have enjoyed many wonderful concerts under his baton – and this digital performance of Beethoven’s magnificent Symphony No5 is no different!

Before that, we continue our exploration of music by black composers with George Walker’s haunting Lyric for Strings and enjoy Britten’s dreamlike Les Illuminations sung by Scottish tenor Nicky Spence. We are indebted to Nicky for stepping in at the last minute when travel restrictions prevented Edgaras Montvidas from joining us. Special thanks also go to our long-standing friends and corporate partners, Capital Document Solutions, for their sponsorship of this performance.

This may be the finale of our current Digital Season, but we have so much more to share with you. Our new Spring/Summer Digital Season has just gone on sale at rsno.org.uk/digital-season. Packed full of great music and artists, including Nicola Benedetti, Paul Lewis and Benjamin Grosvenor, I do hope you will join us for another stimulating Season.

Alistair Mackie CHIEF EXECUTIVE

6 Beethoven Symphony No5

73-80

64–72

55–63

46–54

37–45

28–36

19–27

10–18

1–9

Royal Scottish National Orchestra

RSNO: Scotland’s National Orchestra 7

ARTISTIC TEAM Thomas Søndergård MUSIC DIRECTOR Elim Chan PRINCIPAL GUEST CONDUCTOR Neeme Järvi CONDUCTOR LAUREATE Alexander Lazarev CONDUCTOR EMERITUS

Gregory Batsleer

1 2 3 4 5

CHORUS DIRECTOR, RSNO CHORUS

Patrick Barrett

6 CHORUS DIRECTOR, RSNO JUNIOR CHORUS

FIRST VIOLIN Maya Iwabuchi LEADER Sharon Roffman LEADER Lena Zeliszewska

7 8 9

ASSOCIATE LEADER

Emily Davis ASSOCIATE LEADER 10 Tamás Fejes ASSISTANT LEADER 11 Patrick Curlett ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL 12 Barbara Paterson SUB PRINCIPAL 13 Jane Reid 14 Caroline Parry 15 Ursula Heidecker Allen 16 Lorna Rough 17 Susannah Lowdon 18 Alan Manson 19 Elizabeth Bamping 20 SECOND VIOLIN Xander van Vliet PRINCIPAL Jacqueline Speirs ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL

21 22

Marion Wilson ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL 23 Harriet Wilson SUB PRINCIPAL 24 Nigel Mason 25 Wanda Wojtasinska 26 Paul Medd 27 Anne Bünemann 28 Sophie Lang 29 Robin Wilson 30 Emily Nenniger 31

VIOLA Tom Dunn PRINCIPAL Asher Zaccardelli

32

ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL

33

Susan Buchan SUB PRINCIPAL Lisa Rourke SUB PRINCIPAL David Martin Nicola McWhirter Claire Dunn Katherine Wren Maria Trittinger Francesca Hunt

34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41

CELLO Aleksei Kiseliov PRINCIPAL 42 Betsy Taylor ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL 43 Kennedy Leitch ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL 44 Arthur Boutillier SUB PRINCIPAL 45 William Paterson 46 Rachael Lee 47 Sarah Digger 48 DOUBLE BASS Ana Cordova PRINCIPAL Margarida Castro

49 50

ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL Michael Rae ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL Paul Sutherland SUB PRINCIPAL John Clark Sally Davis

51 52 53 54

FLUTE Katherine Bryan PRINCIPAL Helen Brew ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL Janet Richardson

55 56 57

PRINCIPAL PICCOLO

OBOE Adrian Wilson PRINCIPAL Peter Dykes ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL Henry Clay PRINCIPAL COR ANGLAIS

58 59 60

CLARINET Timothy Orpen PRINCIPAL CLARINET Duncan Swindells

61 62

PRINCIPAL BASS CLARINET

BASSOON David Hubbard PRINCIPAL Luis Eisen ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL Paolo Dutto

63 64 65

PRINCIPAL CONTRABASSOON

HORN Christopher Gough PRINCIPAL 66 Alison Murray ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL 67 Andrew McLean 68 ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL 69 David McClenaghan Martin Murphy ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL 70 TRUMPET Christopher Hart PRINCIPAL Marcus Pope SUB PRINCIPAL Jason Lewis ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL

71 72 73

TROMBONE Dávur Juul Magnussen PRINCIPAL Lance Green ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL Alastair Sinclair

74 75 76

PRINCIPAL BASS TROMBONE

TUBA John Whitener PRINCIPAL

77

TIMPANI Paul Philbert PRINCIPAL

78

PERCUSSION Simon Lowdon PRINCIPAL John Poulter ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL

79 80

8 Beethoven Symphony No5

Lyric for Strings Whatever else has gone wrong in the last 12 months, we can cheer ourselves up that we are living in a great moment of musical rediscovery and unforgetting. Of course, it’s unlikely that Bach, Beethoven and Brahms will be hurled from their pedestals by some old-time composer who has unluckily slipped our minds.

But the refreshing open-mindedness and sense of adventure which has recently spread through the arts world reminds us that the history of classical music is vastly richer and more varied than we have got used to thinking. And as the case of George Walker demonstrates, we’re not talking only about the past.

George Walker (1922-2018)

FIRST PERFORMED Philadelphia, 1946 DURATION 6 minutes

As recently as 2015, the Guardian ran a piece on Walker headlined ‘The great American composer you’ve never heard of’, and he is still hardly a household name, however well known the Lyric for Strings, in particular, is becoming.

But in years to come we will be hearing a lot more of a composer who wrote a large number of intensely wrought, and mostly fairly short, pieces.

Sadly this has come too late for Walker himself, who died in 2018 aged 96. But after a lifetime of trying, and usually failing, to get his music performed as much as he would like, he did at least live to see the late explosion of interest in it in America, Britain and beyond. The conductor Sir Simon Rattle, alerted by the Guardian piece, became an instant enthusiast, and met Walker – ‘a vastly benevolent, rather twinkly old man’ – several times. Walker died knowing that Rattle planned to perform his Sinfonia No5 at the 2020 Proms, a performance which had of course to be cancelled, though Rattle and the London Symphony Orchestra did play the UK premiere of the less demanding Sinfonia No4 in a streamed concert in September 2020.

RSNO: Scotland’s National Orchestra 9

Walker had a pretty standard musical education. He was born in 1922 in Washington, DC; his father was a physician who had come to the States from Jamaica. George studied at Oberlin Conservatory from the age of 14 and subsequently at Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute, initially as a pianist, before becoming one of the Institute’s first black graduates in 1945, which was also the year he made his professional debut as a pianist in a concert at Manhattan’s Town Hall. He had a successful career as an international concert pianist, and notched up many other ‘firsts’ before becoming in 1996 the first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize for music.

Walker said in his 90s that one reason he wrote short pieces was to make them easier for concert organisers to programme – ‘which hasn’t happened!’. But his music is by no means easy listening, although it is mostly tonally based and adheres to classical forms – many of his pieces bear traditional titles like Sonata, Concerto and Sinfonia. As Rattle says, ‘it doesn’t fit into one’s picture of what American music could be … it’s wonderfully written, with great finesse, but also it’s really tough modern music. It doesn’t follow the rules so many American pieces follow, which is that it must be accessible, work well on relatively little rehearsal, and not frighten the horses. It is really extraordinary music by a really wonderful composer.’

No doubt, however, Lyric for Strings will remain Walker’s calling card: written at Curtis at the age of 24, it is not at all ‘modernist’ but completely tonal (and sometimes modal); if it reminds you of another elegiac string piece, that’s no surprise. Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings had been written a few years earlier, and was an orchestration of the slow movement of his string quartet. When Walker’s

fellow student Seymour Lipkin announced in 1946 that he’d landed a job to conduct some string pieces on the radio, Walker instantly asked: ‘If I add a double bass to the second movement of my string quartet, will you play it?’ Lipkin agreed; and so Lament, as it was then called, received its world premiere, played by the string-instrument students of the Curtis Institute. The official premiere took place the following year at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, with the National Gallery Orchestra conducted by Richard Bales.

This contemplative movement, which consciously echoes Barber’s in shape and sound, was written in memory of Walker’s beloved grandmother. But it is more than just a sad piece, its stately, contrapuntal walking pace shot through with the sort of translucent cadences learned from Ralph Vaughan Williams, and an arching structure that builds to an anguished (or perhaps ecstatic?) climax before subsiding back to peace and reflection.

All his life Walker aimed to create ‘elegant structures’ in music, and in this early piece he starts exactly as he means to go on. © Robert Thicknesse

10 Beethoven Symphony No5

Les Illuminations Op18 At the end of April 1939 Benjamin Britten and his partner Peter Pears set off for America via boat to Canada. Among the 25-year-old composer’s luggage was part of the song cycle he was writing for the Swiss-born, Britishresident soprano Sophie Wyss. Les Illuminations was completed in October 1939, when Britten and Pears were staying in Amityville, Long Island, at the home of Dr William and Elizabeth Mayer, devotees of the arts who were keen supporters of the two talented young Britons.

Benjamin Britten (1913-76)

FIRST PERFORMED London, 30 January 1940 DURATION 23 minutes 1 Fanfare 2 Villes 3a Phrase 3b Antique 4 Royauté 5 Marine 6 Interlude 7 Being Beauteous 8 Parade 9 Départ

The life and work of Arthur Rimbaud are among the most extraordinary in the whole of 19thcentury literature. Born in the northern French town of Charleville in 1854, as a teenager he repeatedly ran away from home, eventually making his way to Paris where, having already contacted several other poets, he fell into the arms of Paul Verlaine, who left his wife for him.

Having scandalised Paris by their behaviour, the two set off for Brussels and London, where it seems that Rimbaud conceived and began to write his Illuminations. The relationship ended in Brussels in 1873 with a jealous quarrel, at the climax of which Verlaine shot his lover in the wrist – for which he went to prison for two years.

At this point his erstwhile partner abandoned poetry altogether, travelling to the Middle East and then settling in Africa, where he became a trader, mainly in coffee or guns. Becoming ill in 1891, Rimbaud returned to France, eventually dying in Marseilles of bone cancer at the age of 37.

The title Illuminations is an English word signifying, according to Verlaine, who arranged for the poems to be published in 1886, coloured plates (what we might call ‘prints’); we might also view them as snapshots containing sudden intense insights.

RSNO: Scotland’s National Orchestra 11

The collection of 42 almost entirely prose poems was born of Rimbaud’s wish to create a new art – that of the voyant, or seer, who would apply drugs, alcohol and other stimulants to cause ‘a deranging of all the senses’; the result is often enigmatic, but equally suggestive, resonant and full of powerful imagery.

Why did they attract Britten? It was through his former lover and mentor W H Auden that he came to know the works of ‘one of those bewildered but gifted young [men] of whom he was fond’, as Pears once put it. (‘Lost sheep’ was the phrase Britten himself used.)

And it can hardly have escaped his attention that they were a product of one poet in a gay relationship with another.

His nine settings capture the poems’ sense of wonder and disillusion, as well as occasional suggestions of the sinister and the erotic. He dedicated Antique to his former boyfriend Wulff Scherchen, the Interlude to Elizabeth Mayer, Being Beauteous to Peter Pears and the cycle as a whole to Sophie Wyss, who premiered it with Boyd Neel and his string orchestra at the Aeolian Hall, London, on 30 January 1940.

There is a definite virtuosity about the result in Britten’s use of a string orchestra to emulate other instruments (two trumpets in Fanfare, for instance, or the guitar – or maybe the ancient Greek cithara – accompaniment of Antique), as well as, more generally, an array of special effects that is as startlingly expressive as it is brilliant. At times it is easy to imagine that there are more instruments available to the composer, and of more kinds, than there in reality are, as he creates extraordinarily diverse kinds of music to match Rimbaud’s extraordinarily varied verse. © George Hall

What was happening in 1940?

8 Jan As a result of World War II, food rationing began in the UK, with some restrictions remaining until 1954 10 Feb Cartoon characters Tom and Jerry – though not named as such – made their screen debut in Puss Gets the Boot 5 Mar Members of the Soviet Politburo signed an order for the mass execution of almost 22,000 Polish military officers and intelligentsia – the Katyn massacre 10 May Neville Chamberlain resigned and Winston Churchill became UK Prime Minister 15 May McDonald’s opened its first fastfood outlet in San Bernardino, California 26 May The evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from Dunkirk, France, began, finishing on 4 Jun 18 Aug The ‘hardest day’ of the Battle of Britain, when more British and German planes were lost than on any other 7 Sep The London Blitz began, the first of 57 consecutive nights of German bombing 12 Sep Cave paintings 17,000 years old were found at Lascaux, France 13 Nov Walt Disney’s Fantasia premiered at the Broadway Theatre in New York

12 Beethoven Symphony No5

Text and Translation 1 Fanfare J’ai seul la clef de cette parade sauvage.

1 Fanfare Only I possess the key to this savage parade.

2 Villes Ce sont des villes! C’est un peuple pour qui se sont montés ces Alleghanys et ces Libans de rêve! Des chalets de cristal et de bois se meuvent sur des rails et des poulies invisibles.

Les vieux cratères ceints de colosses et de palmiers de cuivre rugissent mélodieusement dans les feux. … Des cortèges de Mabs en robes rousses, opalines, montent des ravines. Là-haut, les pieds dans la cascade et les ronces, les cerfs tettent Diane. Les Bacchantes des banlieues sanglotent et la lune brûle et hurle. Vénus entre dans les cavernes des forgerons et des ermites. Des groupes de beffrois chantent les idées des peuples. Des châteaux bâtis en os sort la musique inconnue … Le paradis des orages s’effondre. Les sauvages dansent sans cesse la fête de la nuit.

2 Towns What towns these are! This is a people for whom such dreamlike Alleghenies and Lebanons arose. Chalets of crystal and wood move on invisible rails and pulleys.

Old craters, encircled by colossi and copper palm trees, roar melodiously in the fires …

Processions of Mabs in russet and opaline dresses climb from the ravines. High up, their feet in the waterfall and the brambles, the stags are suckled by Diana. Suburban Bacchantes sob and the moon burns and howls. Venus enters the caves of blacksmiths and hermits. From groups of bell towers the ideas of peoples sing out. Unknown music sounds from castles of bone … The paradise of storms collapses … The savages dance ceaselessly the festival of the night.

Quels bons bras, quelle belle heure me rendront cette région d’où viennent mes sommeils et mes moindres mouvements?

What kind arms, what fine hour will return me to this land from which come my slumbers and my smallest movements?

3a Phrase J’ai tendu des cordes de clocher à clocher; des guirlandes de fenêtre à fenêtre; des chaînes d’or d’étoile à étoile, et je danse.

3a Sentence I have stretched ropes from steeple to steeple; garlands from window to window; golden chains from star to star, and I dance.

3b Antique Gracieux fils de Pan! Autour de ton front couronné de fleurettes et de baies, tes yeux, des boules précieuses, remuent. Tachées de lies brunes, tes joues se creusent. Tes crocs luisent. Ta poitrine ressemble à une cithare, des tintements circulent dans tes bras blonds. Ton coeur bat dans ce ventre où dort le double sexe. Promène-toi, la nuit, en mouvant doucement cette cuisse, cette seconde cuisse et cette jambe de gauche.

3b Antique Graceful son of Pan! Around your brow crowned with small flowers and berries move those precious spheres, your eyes.

Stained with brown dregs, your cheeks grow gaunt. Your fangs glisten. Your breast is like a cithara whose jingling circulates in your blonde arms. Your heart beats in this belly where sleeps the dual sex. Walk, at night, gently moving this thigh, this second thigh, and this left leg.

RSNO: Scotland’s National Orchestra 13

4 Royauté Un beau matin, chez un peuple fort doux, un homme et une femme superbes criaient sur la place publique: ‘Mes amis, je veux qu’elle soit reine!’ ‘Je veux être reine!’ Elle riait et tremblait. Il parlait aux amis de révélation, d’épreuve terminée. Ils se pâmaient l’un contre l’autre.

4 Royalty One fine morning, amongst a most gentle people, a magnificent couple were shouting in the square: ‘My friends, I want her to be queen!’ ‘I want to be Queen!’ She was laughing and trembling. He spoke to their friends of revelation, of trials ended. They were swooning one against the other.

En effet, ils furent rois toute une matinée, où les tentures carminées se relevèrent sur les maisons, et tout l’après-midi, où ils s’avancèrent du côté des jardins de palmes.

Indeed they were royal that whole morning, as the crimson hangings were draped over the houses, and all afternoon, when they progressed towards the palm gardens.

5 Marine Les chars d’argent et de cuivre –

5 Seascape Silver and copper chariots –

Les proues d’acier et d’argent –

Steel and silver prows –

Battent l’écume, –

Beat the foam –

Soulèvent les souches des ronces.

Lifting the bramble stumps.

Les courants de la lande,

The moorland streams

Et les ornières immense du reflux,

And the ebbtide’s huge ruts

Filent circulairement vers l’est,

Flow eastward in circles,

Vers les piliers de la forêt,

Towards the forest pillars,

Vers les fûts de la jetée,

Towards the supports of the jetty

Dont l’angle est heurté par des tourbillons de lumière.

Whose corner is struck by eddies of light.

6 Interlude J’ai seul la clef de cette parade sauvage.

6 Interlude Only I possess the key to this savage parade.

7 Being Beauteous Devant une neige un Être de Beauté de haute taille. Des sifflements de mort et des cercles de musique sourde font monter, s’élargir et trembler comme un spectre ce corps adoré; des blessures écarlates et noires éclatent dans les chairs superbes. Les couleurs propres de la vie se foncent, dansent, et se dégagent autour de la Vision, sur le chantier.

7 Being Beauteous Against the snow, a beauteous being, tall of stature. Deathly hissing and the ring of subdued music make this adored body rise, enlarge and tremble like a ghost; scarlet and black wounds burst open on the magnificent flesh. The true colours of life deepen, dance and break off around the Vision, on the worksite.

14 Beethoven Symphony No5

Et les frissons s’élèvent et grondent, et la saveur forcenée des ces effets se chargeant avec les sifflements mortels et les rauques musiques que le monde, loin derrière nous, lance sur notre mère de beauté, – elle recule, elle se dresse. Oh! nos os sont revêtus d’un nouveau corps amoureux.

Shudders rise and groan, and the frenzied nature of these effects is heightened by the deathly hissing and the raucous music which the world, far behind us, hurls upon our mother of beauty, – she retreats, she stands up. Oh! Our bones are clothed once more in a new, amorous body.

Ô la face cendrée, l’écusson de crin, les bras de cristal! Le canon sur lequel je dois m’abattre à travers la mêlée des arbres et de l’air léger!

O the ashen face, the shield of hair, the crystal arms! The cannon by which I must fire myself through the jumble of trees and buoyant air!

8 Parade Des drôles très solides. Plusieurs ont exploités vos mondes. Sans besoins, et peu pressés de mettre en oeuvre leurs brillantes facultés et leur expérience de vos consciences. Quels hommes mûrs! Des yeux hébètés à la façon de la nuit d’été, rouges et noirs, tricolorés, d’acier piqué d’étoiles d’or; des faciès déformés, plombés, blêmis, incendiês, des enrouements folâtres! La démarche cruelle des oripeaux! – Il y a quelques jeunes, –

8 Parade Very robust rascals. Several have exploited your worlds. Neither needy, nor in much hurry to set to work their brilliant faculties and their knowledge of your consciences. How mature they are! Eyes vacant as a summer night, red and black, tricoloured, like steel spangled with gold stars; distorted features, leaden, pallid, burned; such playful croaking!

The cruel gait of ragged finery! – There are some young ones, –

Ô le plus violent Paradis de la grimace enragée! … Chinois, Hottentots, bohémiens, niais, hyènes, Molochs, vieilles démences, démons sinistres, ils mêlent les tours populaires, maternels, avec les poses et les tendresses bestiales. Ils interpréteraient des pièces nouvelles et des chansons ‘bonnes filles’. Maître jongleurs, ils transformant le lieu et les personnes, et usent de la comédie magnétique … J’ai seul la clef de cette parade sauvage.

Oh the most violent Paradise of the furious grimace! … Chinese, Hottentots, gypsies, simpletons, hyenas, Molochs, old madnesses, sinister demons, they mingle popular, motherly tricks with brutish poses and caresses. They would perform new plays and songs for good girls. Master jugglers, they transform the place and the people and make use of magnetic comedy … Only I possess the key to this savage parade.

9 Départ Assez vu. La vision s’est rencontrée a tous les airs.

9 Leaving Seen enough. The vision was met with everywhere.

Assez eu. Rumeurs de villes, le soir, et au soleil, et toujours.

Had enough. The murmur of towns, in the evening, and in sunlight, and always.

Assez connu. Les arrêts de la vie. – Ô Rumeurs et Visions!

Known enough. Life’s stopping points. O Noise and Visions!

Départ dans l’affection et le bruit neufs!

Leaving amidst new affection and new noise!

Translation: © George Hall

RSNO: Scotland’s National Orchestra 15

Nicky Spence TENOR Dumfries-born Nicky Spence trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the National Opera Studio. An artist of great integrity, Nicky’s unique skills as a singing actor and the rare honesty in his musicianship are earning him a place at the top of the profession.

He has appeared at the Royal Opera House, Metropolitan Opera New York, Seattle Opera, L’Opéra National de Paris, La Monnaie Brussels, Opéra National de Lyon, Teatro Real Madrid, Dutch National Opera, Oper Frankfurt, English National Opera, Opera North and Welsh National Opera. With Scottish Opera, he has appeared as the Steersman in Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman, Tamino in Mozart’s The Magic Flute and Baron Lummer in Richard Strauss’ Intermezzo.

Nicky gives recitals internationally, appears in concert extensively and records prolifically. In 2020 he won the BBC Music Magazine Vocal Award and Gramophone’s Solo Vocal Award for his critically acclaimed recording of Janáček’s The Diary of One Who Disappeared.

Nicky is patron of the Blackheath Halls in London and Scottish Opera’s Young Company, an ambassador for Help Musicians UK and president of Dumfries’ Musical Theatre Company. In 2019 he joined the board of the Incorporated Society of Musicians.

16 Beethoven Symphony No5

Symphony No5 in C Minor Op67 Beethoven began trying out ideas for what was to be his Fifth Symphony early in 1804, soon after completing his Eroica (No3). But it took him another four years of intensive work to finish it, by which time he had already completed and published another symphony, No4. Clearly, bringing such a revolutionary, searingly urgent work to perfection demanded long and hard work, and plenty of pauses for breath.

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

FIRST PERFORMED Vienna, 22 December 1808 DURATION 34 minutes Allegro con brio Andante con moto Scherzo: Allegro Allegro

But there was another possible reason why completing the Fifth Symphony took so long.

Beethoven’s political idealism had suffered a terrible blow. He’d intended to dedicate the Eroica to the French revolutionary hero Napoleon Bonaparte. However, when he learned that Napoleon had proclaimed himself Emperor, in December 1804, Beethoven scratched out the dedication (so violently he tore through the paper), shouting, ‘So he is nothing but an ordinary being! Now he will trample the rights of men under foot and pander to his own ambition; he will place himself high above his fellow creatures and become a tyrant!’

Although his faith in Napoleon had failed, Beethoven’s belief in the French revolutionary ideals of ‘Liberty, Fraternity, Equality’ was evidently more robust. If there is a sense of a particularly intense, grim struggle in the Fifth Symphony, it could be that it reflects Beethoven’s determination to reaffirm that faith, despite the growing realisation that France’s ‘democratic’ revolution had taken a terrible turn for the worse. If so, the first movement’s famous da-da-da-DA motif can be heard as a gesture of embattled hope, and the music’s driven obsession with this figure acquires a distinctly political edge.

RSNO: Scotland’s National Orchestra 17

The first movement is unmistakably tragic (the plaintive solo oboe cadenza, about twothirds of the way through, sounds like a plea on behalf of suffering, downtrodden humanity everywhere), and in the end the minor key prevails; but ‘tragic’ doesn’t necessarily mean despairing.

The da-da-da-DA rhythm also overshadows the more lyrical second movement, in the form of brass and timpani fanfares that repeatedly interrupt the melodic flow. It’s also clearly audible in the horns’ fortissimo call to action after the Scherzo’s shadowy opening.

Eventually the shadows return, with quietly throbbing repeated timpani notes (starting as da-da-da-DA), a massive crescendo, then the finale storms in triumphantly, enhanced by the addition of piccolo, contrabassoon and three trombones (a combination unprecedented in a classical symphony). The da-da-da-DA rhythm is heard again in the second theme, and it is later sung out defiantly by trombones at the movement’s central climax, like a crowd defiantly singing hymns of hope in the midst of turmoil. But soon afterwards there’s another eerie hush, and the ghost of the Scherzo returns briefly on plucked strings, with plaintive woodwind – a moment of doubt? After this, the finale theme storms back in again, leading eventually to a long, accelerating coda, insisting almost manically on the ‘triumphant’ major key.

It is up to the listener to decide whether the conclusion represents certainty of victory or a desperate effort to hang onto something positive even when the world seems to offer little support for it. Either way, though, it’s thrilling. © Stephen Johnson

What was happening in 1808?

1 Jan Sierra Leone was made a British Crown colony 6 Feb The US ship Topaz rediscovered Pitcairn Island, home since 1789 to the last remaining HMS Bounty mutineer, John Adams 21 Feb Russian troops crossed into Finland, starting the 1808-9 Finnish War 1 Mar The Slave Trade Act of 1807 was implemented, with the UK abolishing the slave trade in all its colonies 13 Mar Frederick VI became king of Denmark, declaring war on Sweden the following day 3 May Hundreds of Madrid’s citizens were shot by occupying French troops, an event depicted by Spanish painter Francisco Goya 15 May Michael William Balfe, Irish composer of the opera The Bohemian Girl, was born 30 Jun English chemist Humphry Davy informed the Royal Society of his discovery of the elements calcium and boracium (or boron) 20 Sep The original Covent Garden Theatre in London burned down 22 Dec Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony, Fourth Piano Concerto and Choral Fantasy were premiered in the same concert as his Fifth Symphony

PRINCIPALS MONTH MARCH 2021

Free music education and performance content that celebrates our Principals and the instruments they play.

Principals Month is dedicated to all RSNO Chair Patrons

rsno.org.uk/principals-month

RSNO: Scotland’s National Orchestra 19

Thomas Søndergård CONDUCTOR Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Mahler Chamber Orchestra and Bamberg Symphony.

Earlier this month, Thomas made his debut with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in a Digital Concert Hall performance in the ‘Golden Twenties’ season.

Danish conductor Thomas Søndergård is Music Director of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, making his debut in October 2018 after six seasons as Principal Guest Conductor.

He served as Principal Conductor of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales (BBC NOW) from 2012 to 2018, and prior to this as Principal Conductor and Musical Advisor of the Norwegian Radio Orchestra for three seasons.

He conducted the RSNO on its New Year 2019 tour to China, Spring 2019 tour to the West Coast of the USA and September 2019 visit to Paris, as well as its January 2020 tour to Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany. He also conducted works by Mahler as part of the 2020 Edinburgh International Festival’s online My Light Shines On season.

Thomas has conducted many leading orchestras, including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra,

Thomas’ operatic engagements include the Bayerische Staatsoper (Turandot), Norwegian Opera (Die Zauberflöte) and Deutsche Oper Berlin (world premiere of Andrea Lorenzo Scartazzini’s Edward II ), and Tosca, Turandot and Dialogues des Carmélites with the Royal Swedish Opera. He was described as ‘a sensation’ at his debut with the Royal Danish Opera conducting Poul Ruders’ Kafka’s Trial, and subsequent productions there have included Il barbiere di Siviglia, Le nozze di Figaro, La bohème, The Cunning Little Vixen and Il viaggio a Reims.

Thomas’ debut recording with the RSNO, of Richard Strauss’ Ein Heldenleben, was released

by Linn Records in April 2019, followed in February 2020 by Prokofiev’s Symphonies 1 and 5. Releases with BBC NOW include Sibelius’ Symphonies 1, 2, 6 and 7 and most recently a disc which shines light on Sibelius’ tone poems and theatre music (Linn Records). Other noteworthy recordings include Vilde Frang’s celebrated first recording for EMI, of Sibelius’ Violin Concerto and Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No1, and Ruders’ Piano Concerto No2 on Bridge Records, nominated for a Gramophone Award in 2011. The Lutosławski and Dutilleux cello concertos with Johannes Moser were released on Pentatone in 2018.

In 2011 Thomas was awarded the prestigious Queen Ingrid Foundation Prize for Services to Music in Denmark.

20 Beethoven Symphony No5

Royal Scottish National Orchestra

Formed in 1891 as the Scottish Orchestra, the company became the Scottish National Orchestra in 1950, and was awarded Royal Patronage in 1977. The Orchestra’s artistic team is led by Danish conductor Thomas Søndergård, who was appointed RSNO Music Director in October 2018, having previously held the position of Principal Guest Conductor. Hong Kong-born conductor Elim Chan succeeds Søndergård as Principal Guest Conductor.

The RSNO performs across Scotland, including concerts in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee, Aberdeen, Perth and Inverness. The Orchestra appears regularly at the Edinburgh International Festival and the BBC Proms, and has made recent tours to the USA, China and Europe.

The Orchestra is joined for choral performances by the RSNO Chorus, directed by Gregory Batsleer. The RSNO Chorus evolved from a choir formed in 1843 to sing the first full performance of Handel’s Messiah in Scotland. Today, the RSNO Chorus is one of the most distinguished large symphonic choruses in Britain. The Chorus has performed nearly every work in the standard choral repertoire, along with contemporary works by composers including John Adams, Howard Shore and James MacMillan.

Formed in 1978 by Jean Kidd, the acclaimed RSNO Junior Chorus, under its director Patrick

Barrett, also performs regularly alongside the Orchestra. Boasting a membership of over 400 members aged from 7 to 18, it has built up a considerable reputation singing under some of the world’s most distinguished conductors and appearing on radio and television.

The RSNO has a worldwide reputation for the quality of its recordings, receiving a 2020 Gramophone Classical Music Award for Chopin’s Piano Concertos (soloist: Benjamin Grosvenor), conducted by Elim Chan; two Diapason d’Or awards for Symphonic Music (Denève/Roussel 2007; Denève/Debussy 2012) and eight GRAMMY Awards nominations. Over 200 releases are available, including the complete symphonies of Sibelius (Gibson), Prokofiev (Järvi), Glazunov (Serebrier), Nielsen and Martinů (Thomson) and Roussel (Denève) and the major orchestra works of Debussy (Denève). Thomas Søndergård’s debut recording with the RSNO, of Strauss’ Ein Heldenleben, was released in 2019.

The RSNO’s pioneering learning and engagement programme, Music for Life, aims to engage the people of Scotland with music across key stages of life: Early Years, Nurseries and Schools, Teenagers and Students, Families, Accessing Lives, Working Lives and Retired and Later Life.

The team is committed to placing the Orchestra at the centre of Scottish communities via workshops and annual residencies.

RSNO: Scotland’s National Orchestra 21

On Stage

FIRST VIOLIN Maya Iwabuchi

CELLO Aleksei Kiseliov

BASSOON David Hubbard

Emily Davis

Betsy Taylor Kennedy Leitch Arthur Boutillier Sarah Digger

Luis Eisen Paolo Dutto

LEADER

ASSOCIATE LEADER

Tamás Fejes

ASSISTANT LEADER

Patrick Curlett Alan Manson Caroline Parry Susannah Lowdon Ursula Heidecker Allen Jane Reid Lorna Rough SECOND VIOLIN Marion Wilson ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL

Harriet Wilson Robin WIlson Nigel Mason Anne Bünemann Sophie Lang Paul Medd Wanda Wojtasinska VIOLA Tom Dunn PRINCIPAL

Felix Tanner Susan Buchan Claire Dunn Francesca Hunt Maria Trittinger

PRINCIPAL

DOUBLE BASS Margarida Castro ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL

Michael Rae Paul Sutherland Sally Davis FLUTE Katherine Bryan PRINCIPAL

Helen Brew Jimena de Vicente Alvarez PICCOLO

OBOE Adrian Wilson PRINCIPAL

Henry Clay CLARINET Timothy Orpen PRINCIPAL

Duncan Swindells

PRINCIPAL BASS CLARINET

PRINCIPAL

PRINCIPAL CONTRABASSOON

HORN Christopher Gough PRINCIPAL

Alison Murray TRUMPET Christopher Hart PRINCIPAL

Jason Lewis TROMBONE Dávur Juul Magnussen PRINCIPAL

Lance Green Alastair Sinclair

PRINCIPAL BASS TROMBONE

TIMPANI Paul Philbert PRINCIPAL

nne o B a L ge

uber

join our loyalty club and receive 10% OFF your food bill on each visit

GOOD FOOD, GOOD WINE, GOOD TIMES To join email theatreland@labonneauberge.co.uk or call 0141 352 8310 WE HOPE TO OPEN OUR DOORS AGAIN VERY SOON *Card is not transferable and cannot be used in conjunction with any other special offer, promotion or event. The management reserve the right to withdraw this card from use. Discount is 10% off food bill. This is subject to management change. By providing your email address you are allowing La Bonne Auberge to send you future marketing communications.

All information will be kept private and confidential. No data will be shared with any third parties. All emails will include an unsubscribe link; you can opt out at any time.

La Bonne Auberge at Holiday Inn Glasgow Theatreland, 161 West Nile Street, Glasgow, G1 2RL www.labonneauberge.co.uk theatreland@labonneauberge.co.uk

ne n o B La

e g r e b u

Scotland’s National Orchestra 23

Supporting the RSNO I am honoured and extremely proud to be Music Director of the RSNO. It is through the continued generosity of you, our friends, donors and supporters, that we can continue to achieve and realise the most ambitious goals of the Orchestra.

The absence of live performance and the separation of musicians from the stage make these difficult times for all. It has reinforced for us all how vital music is in helping us overcome hardship, fear and loneliness. The creativity and dedication shown by RSNO musicians in recent months has been incredible. This is despite the pattern of our working lives being dramatically

interrupted and being separated, not just from one another, but also from our audiences and communities. I hope you will choose to support us now as we adapt and embark upon this next chapter in RSNO history.

Thank you for your support

Thomas Søndergård MUSIC DIRECTOR, RSNO

RSNO Conductors’ Circle The RSNO Conductors’ Circle is an inspirational group of individual supporters at the heart of the RSNO’s Individual Giving programme.

Our members’ annual philanthropic gifts enable us to realise the Orchestra’s most ambitious goals. Conductors’ Circle members support inspirational concert performances for our audiences alongside transformational education programmes in communities across Scotland, via our ground-breaking initiative Music for Life.

The relationship between the RSNO and Conductors’ Circle members involves exceptional levels of access to all aspects of Orchestra life. We design bespoke private events tailored to individual interests and passions, providing insight into the artistic process and bringing our supporters further into the RSNO family. Members of the Conductors’ Circle benefit from an intimate and long-lasting connection with the RSNO Artistic Team and particularly with RSNO Music Director Thomas Søndergård, Principal Guest Conductor Elim Chan and the many

renowned guest Conductors we are privileged to welcome to the RSNO each year.

The RSNO is very grateful for the continued support of its Conductors’ Circle: Ardgowan Charitable Trust Geoff and Mary Ball Sir Ewan and Lady Brown Ian and Evelyn Crombie Carol Grigor and the Trustees of Dunard Fund Gavin and Kate Gemmell Kenneth and Julia Greig Ms Chris Grace Hartness Kat Heathcote and Iain Macneil Bruce and Caroline Minto David and Alix Stevenson Eric and Karen Young We would also like to thank those generous donors who wish to remain anonymous.

For more information on Individual Giving and becoming part of the Conductors’ Circle please contact Jenny McNeely at jenny.mcneely@rsno.org.uk

24 Beethoven Symphony No5

Patron Programme CHAIR PATRON From musical activities in schools with the musicians of the future to working in community venues across Scotland, as a Chair Patron you are enabling RSNO musicians to explore the many facets of their art and the positive impact it has on people’s lives. Supporting an individual musician puts you at the heart of the RSNO family. You’re connected directly to the musicians on stage and get to enjoy privileged behind-the-scenes access. RSNO musicians truly appreciate our Chair Patrons and enjoy developing personal relationships with our supporters.

Assistant Conductor

Cello Aleksei Kiseliov PRINCIPAL

Horn Christopher Gough PRINCIPAL

First Violin Maya Iwabuchi LEADER Sharon Roffman LEADER

Kennedy Leitch

Alison Murray

Dunard Fund Chair

ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL The David and Anne Smith Chair

Tamás Fejes Assistant LEADER

Arthur Boutiller

David McClenaghan

Rachael Lee

Trumpet Christopher Hart PRINCIPAL

The Solti Foundation Chair

The Bill and Rosalind Gregson Chair

Patrick Curlett ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL The RSNO Circle Chair

Jane Reid

The James Wood Bequest Fund Chair

Alan Manson

The James Browning Chair

The Ardgowan Charitable Trust Chair The Christine and Arthur Hamilton Chair

Double Bass Ana Cordova PRINCIPAL

The Kate and Gavin Gemmell Chair

The Hugh and Linda Bruce-Watt Chair

John Clark

Elizabeth Bamping

The WL and Vera Heywood Chair

Flute Katherine Bryan PRINCIPAL

Second Violin Xander van Vliet PRINCIPAL

Helen Brew ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL

The Hilda Munro Chair

Sophie Lang

The Ian and Evelyn Crombie Chair

Viola Lisa Rourke SUB PRINCIPAL The Meta Ramsay Chair

The Gregor Forbes Chair

The David and Anne Smith Chair The Gordon Fraser Charitable Trust Chair

Oboe Adrian Wilson PRINCIPAL The Hedley Wright Chair

Peter Dykes

David Martin

ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL Witherby Publishing Group Charitable Trust Chair

Francesca Hunt

Cor Anglais Henry Clay PRINCIPAL

The Miss Grace MM Mitchell Bequest Chair The Rolf and Celia Thornqvist Chair

The Springbank Distillers Chair

ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL Mr & Mrs Pierre and Alison Girard The J & A Mitchell Chair

Ms Chris Grace Hartness

Marcus Pope SUB PRINCIPAL

The Nigel and Margot Russell Chair

Trombone Dávur Juul Magnussen PRINCIPAL The Mitchell’s Glengyle Chair

Lance Green

ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL The William Cadenhead Chair

Timpani Paul Philbert

Ms Chris Grace Hartness

Percussion John Poulter

ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL The Dot and Syd Taft Chair

Director of Concerts and Engagement Bill Chandler The James and Iris Miller Chair

In memory of a dear friend, Fiona H

Bassoon David Hubbard PRINCIPAL

The James and Morag Anderson Chair

We would like to acknowledge the generous contribution of Mr Hedley Wright in supporting the RSNO Chair Patron Programme.

RSNO: Scotland’s National Orchestra 25

LEARNING AND ENGAGEMENT PATRON Our Learning and Engagement activity is structured around our Music for Life programme. From apps for babies to concerts and workshops for school children, and lunchtime concerts for older adults, the range of projects is vast. As a Patron, you will have access to our projects to bring you closer to the communities we serve across Scotland.

Learning and Engagement Patrons Neil and Nicola Gordon Mr Maurice Taylor CBE Witherby Publishing Group Charitable Trust NEW WORKS PATRON The RSNO is dedicated to bringing new works and outstanding new talent to audiences across Scotland. Our New Works Patrons contribute a significant legacy to orchestral music that extends beyond the RSNO, providing new music for orchestras and audiences around the world – for generations to come.

New Works Patron Susie Thomson We are also grateful to those who give but wish to remain anonymous.

If you would like more information or would like to discuss how you can become part of the RSNO Family of Supporters, please contact Jenny McNeely, Head of Individual Giving and Partnerships, at jenny.mcneely@rsno.org.uk

We would like to thank all those who have made donations to the RSNO Covid Appeal over the recent months. The generosity of our supporters at this time is deeply appreciated.

Musical Memories Leave a gift to the RSNO and ensure future generations can create their own Musical Memories of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.

We all have special Musical Memories. It could be learning to play an instrument when you were a child, or a special piece of music that just left you breathless the first time you heard the Orchestra play it. Maybe it was seeing a soloist you had always wanted to hear, or just a great concert shared with friends. Memories such as these make music such an important part of our lives.

Leaving a gift to the RSNO in your will is the single most important way you can help us to make music and to create memories. Your legacy will support the work of the Orchestra for years to come, ensuring that we can continue to bring great music to a new generation of children, young people and adults right across Scotland.

It is easy to leave a gift. After you have made provisions for family and friends, please think of the Orchestra.

Your gift is important to us and to everyone in Scotland who enjoys music. Contact your solicitor to draft a will or add a codicil to your current will.

If your estate is subject to inheritance tax, a gift to a charity, such as the RSNO, is tax-free and will reduce the amount of tax payable to the Government. Please ask your solicitor for details.

For more information please visit rsno.org.uk/memories If you would like to discuss this further, please contact Kirsten Reid, Individual Giving and Partnerships Officer, in the strictest confidence at kirsten.reid@rsno.org.uk To the many among you who have pledged to leave a gift already – thank you.

Scotland’s National Orchestra 27

Charitable Trusts and Foundations Charitable trusts and foundations have a long and illustrious history of supporting the RSNO, both on the concert platform and through our Learning and Engagement programmes in the community. Grants and awards of all sizes are greatly appreciated, and range from one-off donations for specific projects through to large-scale support over a number of years, including support of the acclaimed RSNO Junior Chorus and our flagship educational project, the National Schools Concert Programme. We are fortunate in having developed long-term relationships with a number of trusts who have sustained their invaluable support over many years, enabling a significant amount of our work and mission to go ahead each year that otherwise would simply not happen. Our 2020:21 Season of concerts and Learning and Engagement programmes is generously supported by the following trusts and foundations: Aberdeen Endowments Trust Alexander Moncur Charitable Trust Alma and Leslie Wolfson Charitable Trust Austin and Hope Pilkington Trust Balgay Children’s Society Bank of Scotland Foundation Boshier-Hinton Foundation Castansa Trust Cruden Foundation Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation David and June Gordon Memorial Trust D’Oyly Carte Charitable Trust Dunclay Charitable Trust Educational Institute of Scotland Ettrick Charitable Trust Fidelio Charitable Trust Forteviot Charitable Trust Gannochy Trust Garrick Charitable Trust Gordon Fraser Charitable Trust Glasgow Educational and Marshall Trust Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation Hugh Fraser Foundation Idlewild Trust James Wood Bequest Fund Jean & Roger Miller Charitable Trust Jennie S Gordon Memorial Foundation John Ellerman Foundation John Mather Charitable Trust John Scott Trust Fund J T H Charitable Trust Leche Trust Leng Charitable Trust McGlashan Charitable Trust Meikle Foundation Michael Tippett Musical Foundation Mickel Fund Murdoch Forrest Charitable Trust New Park Educational Trust Noël Coward Foundation Northwood Charitable Trust PF Charitable Trust

PRS Foundation R J Larg Family Trust Robertson Trust Ronald Miller Foundation RVW Trust Scott-Davidson Charitable Trust Solti Foundation Stevenston Trust Tay Charitable Trust The Privy Purse Charitable Trust Tillyloss Trust W A Cargill Fund Walter Scott Giving Group Wavendon Foundation William Syson Foundation Witherby Publishing Group Charitable Trust We are also grateful to a number of trusts that wish to stay anonymous.

If you would like more information about our work and how you can make a difference, please contact Ajda Šubelj, Head of Trusts and Projects, at ajda.subelj@rsno.org.uk

28 Beethoven Symphony No5

RSNO Circle The Circle is a vital part of the RSNO family. Our community of music-lovers inspire and support us.

Supporting us by joining the Circle will help us to bring music to so many people, from our Learning and Engagement programmes to our brand-new digital performances. As part of our community and family, we will keep in touch with our exclusive magazine Inner Circle, our Circle member webpage and invitations to special events throughout the year.

To find out more about joining the Circle please visit rsno.org.uk/circle or get in touch with our Individual Giving and Partnerships Officer, Kirsten Reid, RSNO, 19 Killermont Street, Glasgow G2 3NX Email: kirsten.reid@rsno.org.uk To all our existing Circle members, thank you. Thank you for your unwavering support that allows us to continue sharing the joy of music.

Virtuoso

Ms Catherine Y Alexander Mrs A M Bennett Dame Susan and Mr John Bruce Mrs Stina Bruce-Jones Stephen and Morny Carter Philip and Mary Contini Sir Sandy and Lady Crombie Gavin and Kate Gemmell Dr M I and Mrs C R Gordon Scott and Frieda Grier Iain MacNeil and Kat Heathcote Miss A McGrory Miss M Michie Mr James Miller CBE Meta Ramsay Mr George Ritchie Mr and Mrs W Semple Myra and David Soutar Mr Ian Taft Claire and Mark Urquhart Raymond and Brenda Williamson Mr Hedley G Wright

Symphony

Ronnie and Evelyne Anderson Mr Alan and Mrs Carolyn Bonnyman Miss L Buist Mr and Mrs J K Burleigh Mr J L Donaldson Mr I Gow Mr J D Home Mrs J Kennedy Mrs A Lamont Norma and Christine Lessels Mr A D Mackay Mr I C MacNicol Professor J and Mrs S Mavor Mrs A McQueen Morag Millar Mr Miller Graham and Elizabeth Morton Miss K Ridland Mr and Mrs David Robinson Mr D Rogerson Mrs Ann M Stephen Mr Alistair M and Mrs Mandy Struthers Mr and Mrs M Whelan Mrs A Wolfson

Concerto

Dr K Chapman and Ms S Adam Mr A Alstead Miss D Blackie Neil and Karin Bowman Dr M Bronte-Stewart Dr F L Brown Mr John Brownlie Mr and Mrs Burnside Mr A Campbell Sir Graeme and Lady Catto Mr R Cavanagh Myk Cichla Dr J Coleiro Mr and Mrs B H Cross Christine and Jo Danbolt Mr P Davidson Mr J Diamond Miss C Dixon-Carter OBE Mr C Ffoulkes Mr and Mrs M Gilbert Professor J R and Mrs C M Gray Richard and Linda Holden Mrs F D Inverarity Mr N Jack Mr and Mrs S G Kay Mr and Mrs W Kean Mrs M King Mr Alistair Mackie Mr D MacPherson Mr R G Madden Mr S Marwick Mr and Mrs G McAllister Mr E and Mrs S McGeachan Mr Rod McLoughlin Mrs B Morinaud Mr A Morrison Mrs A C Morrison Dr and Mrs D Mowle Dr P Osborne Mr and Mrs D Pirie Ms A and Miss I Reeve Elspeth M Robertson Miss L E Robertson Ross family Dr and Mrs G K Simpson Mr and Mrs A Stewart Mrs M Stirling Mr G Stronach

Dr G R Sutherland Mr I Szymanski Professor D E M Taylor Mr and Dr Tom Thomson Mr J B and Mrs M B Watson Mr and Mrs Wigglesworth

Sonata

Ms S Ace Mr K Allen Ms D Baines Mr O Balfour Mr N C Banks Mr N Barton Dr A D Beattie Mrs H Benzie Lord and Lady Borthwick Rev P Boylan John Bradshaw and Shiona Mackie Mrs L Brocklebank Ms H Calvert Mr E M Cameron Miss S M Carlyon Mrs H S Chalmers Mr T Cole and Mrs J Leslie-Cole Lady Coulsfield Adam and Lesley Cumming Ms K Cunningham Mr F Dalziel and Mrs S Walsh Dr J K and Mrs E E Davidson Mr and Mrs K B Dietz Mrs C Donald Jane Donald and Lee Knifton Ms P Dow Mrs P du Feu Mr John Duffy Mr and Mrs M Dunbar Mr R M Duncan Brigadier and Mrs C C Dunphie Mrs E Egan Miss L Emslie Mr R B Erskine Dr E Evans Mr D Fraser Mr D and Mrs A Fraser Mr D Frew Ms J Gardner Dr P and Dr K Gaskell Mr W G Geddes

Mrs E Gibb Mrs M Gibson Mr D Gibson Lady A V Gibson Mrs J Gilchrist Mrs M Gillan Mr R M Godfrey Dr J A Graham and Mrs H M Graham Professor and Mrs A R Grieve Mr and Mrs G Y Haig Lord and Lady Hamilton Dr P J Harper Dr N Harrison Mr and Mrs R J Hart Mr D Hartman Ms V Harvey Mrs S Hawthorn Mrs M Hayes Dr and Mrs P Heywood Bobby and Rhona Hogg Ms J Hope Mr R Horne Mr and Mrs F Howell Mrs A S Hunter Professor R N Ibbett Professor and Mrs E W Laing Mr J P Lawson Mr and Mrs J Lawson Mr R M Love Dr D A Lunt Mrs Lesley P Lyon Mr and Mrs R MacCormick Mr and Mrs MacGillivray Lady Lucinda L Mackay Mr R Maizels and Ms C Tilley Dr A K and Mrs J C Martin Mr and Mrs J Martin Mr and Mrs D H Marwick Ms S McArthur Mr G McCormack Mrs L McCormick Mrs M McDonald Mrs C McGowan-Smyth Dr Colin McHardy Dr A H McKee Mr Patrick McKeever Mr G McKeown Ms H L McLaren Mrs E McLean

Ms Fiona McLeod Mr and Mrs B Mellon Mr and Mrs I Mills Mrs P Molyneaux Mr R Morley Mr B Morrison Mr K M Murray Mr B and Mrs C Nelson Mr and Mrs K O’Hare Professor Stephen Osborne and Frank Osborne Mr and Mrs K Osborne Dr G Osbourne Ms S Park Mr R Parry Mr J Paterson Misses J and M Penman Mr I Percival Dr M Porteous Mr J W Pottinger Miss J A Raiker Mr M Rattray Ms F Reith Mrs D A Riley Dr and Mrs D Robb Mr I Robertson Mr H and Mrs J Robson Ms A Robson Mrs E K Ross Mrs S Scott Mrs J Shanks Mr J A Shipley Dr M J and Mrs J A Shirreffs Mr E B Simmons and Mrs R Nicolson Dr Colin and Mrs Kathleen Sinclair Mr M J Smith Mrs E Smith Mr M A Snider Dr and Mrs B Stack Mrs Lorna Statham Mrs T Stevenson Rev N and Mr R Stewart Mrs R F Stewart Mr and Mrs B Tait Dr and Mrs T Thomson Mrs E B Tupman Dr S Tweedie Dr Morag Ward Mr W Watters

Dr and Mrs T Weakley Mrs V Wells Mr G West Miss M Whitelaw Dr and Mrs D T Williams Mr D Woolgar Mr R Young

Thank you to all our members of the Circle, including those who wish to remain anonymous. Every one of you makes a real difference.

30 Beethoven Symphony No5

A big Thank You to our supporters FUNDERS

CORPORATE SUPPORTERS

PRINCIPAL MEDIA PARTNER

PRINCIPAL TRANSPORT PARTNER

BROADCAST PARTNER

PARTNERS Glasgow Chamber of Commerce • Institute of Directors • Scots Magazine The Scottish Council for Development & Industry • Smart Graphics

PROJECT PARTNERS Abertay University • Children’s Classic Concerts • Children’s Hospices Across Scotland • Dundee University • Gig Buddies Glasgow Association for Mental Health (GAMH) • Glasgow Life • Horsecross Arts • National Youth Orchestras of Scotland Prescribe Culture (University of Edinburgh) • Royal Conservatoire of Scotland • Scottish Book Trust Tayside Healthcare Arts Trust • Usher Hall • Young Scot

CHAIR SPONSORS

If you would like more information about sponsorships, corporate partnerships or fundraising events with the RSNO, please contact Kirsten Reid, Individual Giving and Partnerships Officer, at kirsten.reid@rsno.org.uk

RSNO: Scotland’s National Orchestra 31

Royal Scottish National Orchestra PATRON

CHIEF EXECUTIVE

Jenny McNeely

Her Majesty The Queen

Alistair Mackie Nicola Shephard

Graham Ramage

EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT

HEAD OF INDIVIDUAL GIVING AND PARTNERSHIPS GRAPHICS AND NEW MEDIA DESIGNER

Kirsten Reid

INDIVIDUAL GIVING AND PARTNERSHIPS OFFICER

RSNO BOARD OF DIRECTORS

CONCERTS AND ENGAGEMENT

Elected Directors Dame Susan Bruce DBE

Bill Chandler

Sam Stone

CHAIR

Ajda Šubelj

John Heasley

Michael Cameron

DRIVER AND DEPUTY STAGE MANAGER

HONORARY TREASURER

Samantha Campbell Bekah Cork

FINANCE AND CORPORATE SERVICES

Flora Farqhuarson

CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER

DIRECTOR OF CONCERTS AND ENGAGEMENT

HEAD OF LEARNING AND ENGAGEMENT

Hugh Bruce-Watt Kat Heathcote Linda Holden Neil McLennan Costa Pilavachi David Robinson Gurjit Singh Lalli Jane Wood

ARTISTIC PLANNING AND TOURS MANAGER CREATIVE ASSISTANT

Emma Hunter

TRUSTS AND PROJECTS COORDINATOR INFORMATION SERVICES MANAGER HEAD OF TRUSTS AND PROJECTS

Angela Moreland Ted Howie

FACILITIES COORDINATOR

DEPUTY ORCHESTRA MANAGER

Jack Hunter

LEARNING AND ENGAGEMENT OFFICER

Irene McPhail

HEAD OF ORCHESTRA MANAGEMENT

Hedd Morfett-Jones

LIBRARIAN

Susan Rennie

ARTISTIC PLANNING MANAGER

Abby Trainor

CONCERTS ADMINISTRATOR

Jade Wilson

Rosie Kenneally Ewen McKay

Player Directors Dávur Juul Magnussen Sophie Lang Kennedy Leitch Paul Philbert Janet Richardson Lorna Rough

Naomi Stewart

Richard Payne

Tammo Schuelke

Matthias van der Swaagh Craig Swindells

VIDEO PRODUCER

ACCOUNTS AND PAYROLL ASSISTANT DIGITAL MANAGER

FINANCE MANAGER ADMINISTRATOR

FINANCE ASSISTANT

STAGE AND PRODUCTION MANAGER

Nominated Directors Cllr Frank Docherty

Christine Walker CHORUS MANAGER

GLASGOW CITY COUNCIL

Cllr Lezley Marion Cameron THE CITY OF EDINBURGH COUNCIL

Company Secretary Gordon Murray

EXTERNAL RELATIONS

PROGRAMMES EDITOR

Royal Scottish National Orchestra 19 Killermont Street Glasgow G2 3NX T: +44 (0)141 226 3868 W: rsno.org.uk

EXTERNAL RELATIONS ADMINISTRATOR

Scottish Company No. 27809 Scottish Charity No. SC010702

Dr Jane Donald

DIRECTOR OF EXTERNAL RELATIONS

Ian Brooke

RSNO COUNCIL

Constance Carter-Fraser

Baroness Ramsay of Cartvale

Jessica Cowley

Lady Gibson Ms Ruth Wishart

Carol Fleming

/royalscottishnationalorchestra

Lorimer Macandrew

@RSNO

CHAIR

MARKETING MANAGER HEAD OF MARKETING

DIGITAL CONTENT PRODUCER

@rsnoofficial

COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER

Youtube.com/thersno

Catriona Mackenzie

The RSNO is one of Scotland’s National Performing Companies, supported by the Scottish Government.

Orchestra list and programme details correct at time of going to print. Contents © Copyright RSNO and named authors.