RSNO Friday Night Club: Strauss Four Last Songs

Friday Night Club Fri 12 Jun 2020: 7.30pm STRAUSS Four Last Songs Peter Oundjian Conductor Marita Sølberg Soprano Royal Scottish National Orchestra Recorded on Sat 28 May 2016, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall This concert is dedicated to the memory of Michael Tumelty, former classical music critic of The Herald.

This performance was recorded for the RSNO Archive. Supported by the Iain and Pamela Sinclair Legacy.

RSNO Friday Night Club: Strauss Four Last Songs

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Fri 19 Jun STRAUSS Burleske for Piano and Orchestra STRAUSS Suite from Der Rosenkavalier Thomas Søndergård Conductor Kirill Gerstein Piano Royal Scottish National Orchestra

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Scotland’s National Orchestra

IN MEMORY OF

Michael Tumelty

Tonight’s Friday Night Club is dedicated to the memory of Michael Tumelty. Michael was much more than the classical music critic for The Herald. His passion for music, sharp wit and championship of new music and artists made him a hugely respected figure in the Scottish classical music scene. A great friend and supporter of the RSNO, audience members will fondly remember him as a regular speaker at our pre-concert talks.

He joined the Orchestra on tour many times and made lifelong friendships with both musicians and staff. We were touched when Michael gifted the Orchestra a library of his books.

It is our privilege to dedicate tonight’s concert to Michael – a man who made many friends in a lifetime of service to music and who shared a love of the music of Richard Strauss.

RSNO Friday Night Club: Strauss Four Last Songs

remiscipate Lillie Harris Born 1994

WORLD PREMIERE Fri 27 May 2016, Usher Hall, Edinburgh DURATION 10 minutes The title remiscipate (pronounced ‘re-missi-pate’) is an amalgamation of two words, reminisce and dissipate. When writing a new work, I often leave naming it until the end – and for this piece, that left me with quite a challenge. I needed the title to reflect different things simultaneously, as the piece has two main personalities – representing both a literal moving dust cloud, and an ephemeral cloud of memories – so no existing word felt right.

It was inspired by footage I saw in October 2015 of the Red Road flats’ destruction in Glasgow. Every video I found of the demolitions captivated me – there was the impressive sonic effect of the explosion (followed by the buildings’ collapse), the visual impact of the outburst and the rapid fall of such an enormous mass of material, and also the atmosphere you could sense among the crowds that had gathered to watch. There was excitement, trepidation and shock, but I’m sure that for many there was also sadness and loss – especially for those who once made a home in one of the blocks, who watched and

remembered a multitude of moments. Every person who saw those events will have seen them from a different angle, and will remember some things more clearly than others. If all those perspectives could be gathered up and presented together, I think they would look like that dust cloud.

I wanted this piece to have constant movement, like particles, and to have moments of real intensity – like the split second of the detonation, or the heavy heartbeat in someone shocked to watch the building fall. I started writing by putting my fingers in my ears and just listening, as the rumbling sound I heard seemed to match the sounds of demolition so well, and felt very personal like the real-life experiences I wanted to explore. remiscipate is a musical expression of the enormous swirling dust clouds that engulfed the entire estate after each demolition – material swirls, drifts, bursts suddenly and fades gradually to nothing. But the piece also explores the nature of memory, and how strong memories and ghosts of our past can suddenly rise up again, either nebulous and indistinct or very clear and present. © Lillie Harris

Scotland’s National Orchestra

Lillie Harris COMPOSER © Kevin Leighton

Competition 2016. Last year, she was the joint winner of echo choir’s composition competition for her setting of an Alice Oswald poem, and in January 2020 two choral works she wrote on the NYCGB’s Young Composer Scheme were released on NMC recordings.

Upcoming projects and performances include new commissions for the Chapter House Choir York, Cheltenham Music Festival through the RPS’s Emerging Composers programme, an art song for the Royal Opera House (working with librettist Laura Attridge), Covent Garden Chorus and recorder quartet BLOCK4.

Lillie Harris graduated from the Royal College of Music in 2016, studying composition with Haris Kittos and winning the Elgar Memorial prize for her final portfolio.

Her pieces have been workshopped and performed by ensembles including the Ebor Singers, The Assembly Project, Florilegium and ensemble recherche, and she has participated in young composer schemes with Psappha, the RSNO, London Philharmonic Orchestra, National Youth Choirs of Great Britain, Royal Philharmonic Society and London Symphony Orchestra, who last year commissioned her to write new pieces for their ‘Elmer’s Walk’ Under5s concert. In 2017 she was awarded the Tenso Young Composers Award for her song cycle setting poems by August Stramm, one of which was shortlisted for the London Oriana Choir five15 competition 2019, and her piece Dormientes Bestia for paetzold (a square crosssectioned bass recorder) and tape was in the winning programme in the RCM Contemporary

Lillie also writes the user manual for Steinberg’s notation software Dorico, sings with Covent Garden Chorus, and undertakes engraving and copying work for film, TV and game music recording sessions.

RSNO Composers’ Hub Lillie Harris participated in the first RSNO Composers’ Hub in 2015–16, from which her piece remiscipate was chosen to be performed at the Orchestra’s Season Finale concerts.

For composers in the early stages of their career, RSNO Composers’ Hub is a fantastic opportunity to compose music for orchestra in a range of contexts, develop skills and creative relationships, and acquire an understanding of the business of a major arts organisation.

For more information, visit rsno.org.uk/hub

RSNO Friday Night Club: Strauss Four Last Songs

Four Last Songs ‘I didn’t want war. No one had to die on my account.’ World War Two cast a huge shadow over the ageing Richard Strauss’ life. When Hitler came to power in 1933, Strauss was 69 years old. He was unwittingly dragged into the politics of the Third Reich after conducting Parsifal at Bayreuth, replacing the anti-fascist Toscanini. A disciple of Wagner, Strauss took on the assignment in honour of the 50th anniversary of Wagner’s death. Inevitably it was interpreted by many as approval for the Nazis, especially as he was subsequently appointed President of the Reichsmusikkammer by Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels.

Richard Strauss (1864-1949)

FIRST PERFORMED 22 May 1950, Royal Albert Hall, London, by Kirsten Flagstad (soprano) and the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Wilhelm Furtwängler DURATION 25 minutes Frühling September Beim Schlafengehen Im Abendrot

Strauss was not consulted on his appointment and was forced to step down in 1935, citing ill health. The real reason was his refusal to end his collaboration with friend and Jewish author Stefan Zweig on his opera Die schweigsame Frau. His daughter-in-law Alice was also Jewish, which may explain in part why Strauss did not actively fight the regime.

Indeed, in 1944, the year of Richard and his wife Pauline’s golden wedding anniversary, their son Franz and Alice were detained by the Gestapo. Richard petitioned on their behalf and a compromise was reached: the couple were placed under house arrest in Strauss’ home in Garmisch in the Bavarian Alps.

A further source of sadness for Strauss in the autumn of his life was the destruction of many of Germany and Austria’s major opera houses, many of which had staged premieres of his and Wagner’s operas: Munich’s National Theatre (1943), and the Dresden Staatskappelle and Vienna State Opera House (1945). In despair, Strauss wrote Metamorphosen for 23 solo strings. This was one of several works dating from 1942 onwards that represented a late flowering of creativity, beginning with the Second Horn Concerto, and including the Oboe Concerto and Four Last Songs.

Scotland’s National Orchestra

In exile in Switzerland and nearing the end of his life, Strauss read Eichendorff’s poem Im Abendrot in 1946. It struck a chord with him and is, in many ways, a final love song to his beloved Pauline. Around the same time, he was given a copy of Hesse’s poems and set three of them to music between May and September 1948. The setting for soprano (Pauline’s voice) and the prominent parts for horn (his father’s instrument) and violin (his own childhood instrument) further enhance the autobiographical element. Despite their melancholic subject, the songs exude an air of calmness and acceptance as death approaches.

On the occasion of his 85th birthday, Strauss was awarded the freedom of Garmisch and Bayreuth, but just two months later, he suffered a series of heart attacks and died on 8 September 1949. The Four Last Songs were first performed, as Strauss had wished, by Kirsten Flagstad, Wilhelm Furtwängler and the Philharmonia Orchestra in London on 22 May 1950, poignantly just nine days after the death of Pauline.

In the first song, Frühling (Spring), the voice emerges from dark, rippling arpeggios in the lower strings. Very soon, the music lightens with hints of birdsong, before a luscious, short orchestral interlude introduces the second stanza. The music becomes more expansive, yet Strauss’ wonderful chromatic harmony maintains an air of sensuality and intimacy.

The second song, September, begins in the major, and despite the apparently melancholy words, there is a feeling of quiet contentment and reminiscence about this song. The lively texture in the opening stanza reflects the falling rain. Gradually the music becomes stiller and the harmonies more yearning as melodic lines pull against long pedals in the bassline.

As the energy seeps from the voice, a passionately quiet horn melody takes over before the music dies away over gentle string harmonies.

A shadowy phrase emerges from the basses in the third song, Beim Schlafengehen (On Falling Asleep), and is imitated throughout the string section. Woodwinds highlight the starry night, and the voice is energised by thoughts of childhood before dropping back in tiredness.

But yet again, the mood is of calm reflection rather than sadness as a solo violin spins a long, if slightly melancholic melody. The soul takes flight as the full violin section expands the solo melody. Wagner’s influence is clear here as voice and orchestra weave the texture together over rich supporting harmonies.

That the closing Im Abendrot (At Sunset) is Strauss’ final musical love song to his wife is obvious from the passion he pours into the expansive introduction. The mood darkens as the Alpine valleys of their beloved Garmisch close in on them, but two larks lift the couple’s tired spirits. Strauss reflects on a sense of peace, but wonders if this deep tiredness might perhaps be death, quoting his own tone poem Death and Transfiguration. The two larks carry the soul peacefully heavenwards. © Katherine Wren, RSNO Viola

RSNO Friday Night Club: Strauss Four Last Songs

Four Last Songs Frühling Hermann Hesse

Spring

In dämmrigen Grüften träumte ich lang von deinen Bäumen und blauen Lüften, von deinem Duft und Vogelsang.

In dusky vaults I long dreamt Of your trees and blue skies, Of your scent and of birdsong.

Nun liegst du erschlossen in Gleiss und Zier, von Licht übergossen wie ein Wunder vor mir.

Now you lie revealed In glistening adornment, Bathed in light Like a wonder before me.

Du kennest mich wieder, du lockest mich zart, es zittert durch all meine Glieder deine selige Gegenwart!

You know me again, You lure me tenderly, All my body trembles At your blessed presence!

September Hermann Hesse

September

Der Garten trauert, kühl sinkt in die Blumen der Regen.

Der Sommer schauert still seinem Ende entgegen.

The garden mourns, Cool rain falls on the flowers.

Summer shivers Quietly towards its end.

Golden tropft Blatt um Blatt nieder vom hohen Akazienbaum.

Sommer lächelt erstaunt und matt in den sterbenden Gartentraum.

Leaf upon golden leaf drops Down from the tall acacia tree.

Summer smiles, astonished and weary In the dying dream of the garden.

Lange noch bei den Rosen bleibt er stehen, sehnt sich nach Ruh. Langsam tut er die grossen müdgewordnen Augen zu.

Still awhile by the roses It clings on, longing for rest.

Slowly it closes its great, Weary eyes.

Scotland’s National Orchestra

Beim Schlafengehen Hermann Hesse

On Falling Asleep

Nun der Tag mich müd gemacht soll mein sehnliches Verlangen freundlich die gestirnte Nacht wie ein müdes Kind empfangen.

Now the day has tired me So should my fervent longing Embrace the starry night Like a tired child.

Hände, lasst von allem Tun, Stirn, vergiss du alles Denken, alle meine Sinne nun wollen sich in Schlummer senken.

Hands, cease all activity, Head, forget all thoughts, All my senses Would give way to slumber.

Und die Seele unbewacht will in freien Flügen schweben, um im Zauberkreis der Nacht tief und tausendfach zu leben.

And the soul unguarded Longs to soar on open wings In the magic circle of the night, Deep and thousand-fold to live.

Im Abendrot Josef Karl Benedikt von Eichendorff

At Sunset

Wir sind durch Not und Freude Gegangen Hand in Hand, Vom Wandern ruhen wir beide Nun überm stillen Land.

Through joy and travail We travelled hand in hand, We rest now from wandering Over this silent land.

Rings sich die Täler neigen, Es dunkelt schon die Luft, Zwei Lerchen nur noch steigen Nachträumend in den Duft.

Around us, the valleys slope, The skies are already darkening, Only two larks still rise Dreamily in the fragrant air.

Tritt her, und lass sie schwirren Bald ist es Schlafenszeit, Dass wir uns nicht verirren In dieser Einsamkeit.

Come away and let them fly, Soon it will be time to sleep, So we do not lose ourselves In this solitude.

O weiter, stiller Friede!

So tief im Abendrot, Wie sind wir wandermüde Ist das etwa der Tod?

Oh wide, still peace!

So deep in the sunset, How weary we are of wandering Is this, then, death?

Translations © Katherine Wren, RSNO Viola

RSNO Friday Night Club: Strauss Four Last Songs

Marita Sølberg SOPRANO

Norwegian soprano Marita Sølberg was born in Levanger and studied at the Tronderlag Music Conservatory, National College of Operatic Art and Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo, and went on to win the 2001 Queen Sonja International Music Competition and the Tom Wilhelmsens Foundation Prize. She regularly appears with all the major Norwegian orchestras and at numerous festivals.

She was a member of Stuttgart Opera from 2006 to 2008 and made her Royal Opera debut in the 2016:17 Season as Antonia Les contes d’Hoffmann. With Norwegian National Opera her repertoire includes Countess Almaviva Le nozze di Figaro, Donna Elvira Don Giovanni, Giulietta I Capuleti e i Montecchi, Antonia, Nedda Pagliacci, Mimì La bohème (for which she won the Norwegian Music Critics’ Prize), Female Chorus The Rape of Lucretia, Sandman/Dew Fairy Hänsel und Gretel and Solveig in Jüri Reinvere’s Peer Gynt.

Engagements elsewhere include Zerlina Don

Giovanni for Bergen National Opera, Angel in Messiaen’s Saint François d’Assise in Trondheim, Pamina Die Zauberflöte for LA Opera, Countess Almaviva for La Fenice, Venice, and Mimì for Vienna State Opera.

Marita has performed in concert with orchestras including the Orchestre de Paris, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic, Mahler Chamber Orchestra and Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, in repertoire including Bach’s St Matthew Passion, Mahler’s Symphony No4 and Richard Strauss’ Four Last Songs.

Scotland’s National Orchestra

Peter Oundjian CONDUCTOR Born in Toronto and raised in Surrey, Peter grew up performing frequently as a violinist and choral singer. During his teenage years he frequently played concertos, recitals and chamber music throughout England. He attended the Royal College of Music in London, where he was awarded the Tagore Gold Medal in 1975.

The same year, at the encouragement of Pinchas Zukerman, Peter entered the Juilliard School in New York. In 1980 he won First Prize in the Viña del Mar International Violin Competition. In 1981 he joined the Tokyo String Quartet as its first violinist. Over the next 14 years, the group performed worldwide and recorded over 35 albums. In 1995 Peter was forced to step away from the violin, having developed focal dystonia in his left hand.

Peter Oundjian was Music Director of the RSNO from 2012 to 2018. He was also the Music Director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra from 2004 to 2018 and is now its Conductor Emeritus. Previously he was the Principal Guest Conductor of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra from 2006 to 2010, Artistic Director of the Caramoor International Music Festival in New York from 1997 to 2007 and Music Director of the Amsterdam Sinfonietta from 1998 to 2002. In 2016 he was appointed Principal Conductor of the Yale Philharmonia and began his tenure as Music Director of the Colorado Music Festival in Boulder in 2019.

With the RSNO Peter toured China, the USA and Europe, and his final appearance as the Orchestra’s Music Director was a memorable performance of Britten’s War Requiem at the 2018 BBC Proms. He was nominated for a BBC Music Magazine Award for the RSNO’s 2018 album John Adams: Naïve and Sentimental Music & Absolute Jest.

At the age of 39, Peter turned his focus to his former passion for conducting, which he had also studied at Juilliard. He was excited to bring music to life through the sensitivities he had absorbed as a chamber musician. Peter has appeared at some of the great annual gatherings of music and music-lovers: the BBC Proms, Edinburgh International Festival, Prague Spring Festival and the Philadelphia Orchestra’s Mozart Festival, for which he was Artistic Director from 2003 to 2005. He has also made numerous appearances with the LA Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony and Pittsburgh, St Louis, Baltimore, Atlanta, Chicago and Boston symphony orchestras.

Education has been as much of a joy and passion for Peter as any other musical pursuit.

At the age of 25 he became a visiting professor at the Yale School of Music, and has mentored young violinists, conductors and chamber groups there ever since.

RSNO Friday Night Club: Strauss Four Last Songs

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. They are joined by Assistant Conductor Junping Qian.

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 throughout 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, with a membership of around 160. 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 new 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 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 orchestral works of Debussy (Denève). Thomas Søndergård’s debut recording with the RSNO, of Richard Strauss’ Ein Heldenleben, was released on Linn Records 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 community workshops and annual residencies across the length and breadth of the country.

Scotland’s National Orchestra

On Stage FIRST VIOLIN Maya Iwabuchi

VIOLA

FLUTE

TROMBONE

PRINCIPAL

PRINCIPAL

ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL

William Chandler

Ian Budd Michael Lloyd Lisa Rourke David Martin Fiona West Claire Dunn Katherine Wren Maria Trittinger Francesca Hunt

Helen Brew Robert Looman Janet Richardson

CELLO

COR ANGLAIS

PRINCIPAL

CLARINET

PERCUSSION

ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL

PRINCIPAL

LEADER

ASSOCIATE LEADER

Tamás Fejes

ASSISTANT LEADER

Lena Zeliszewska Patrick Curlett Jane Reid Alison McIntyre Caroline Parry Ursula Heidecker Allen Lorna Rough Susannah Lowdon Alan Manson Laura Ghiro Elizabeth Bamping SECOND VIOLIN Xander van Vliet PRINCIPAL

Jacqueline Speirs Marion Wilson Harriet Wilson Christopher Ffoulkes Nigel Mason Michael Rigg Wanda Wojtasinska Penny Dickson Feargus Heatherington Paul Medd Sophie Lang

Tom Dunn

Aleksei Kiseliov PRINCIPAL

Betsy Taylor Kennedy Leitch Arthur Boutillier William Paterson Rachael Lee Sarah Digger Robert Anderson Kevin Kirs DOUBLE BASS

Ana Cordova PRINCIPAL

Margarida Castro Michael Rae Paul Sutherland David Inglis John Clark Sally Davis José Miguel Manzanera Rubio Feargus Egan

Katherine Bryan

PRINCIPAL PICCOLO

OBOE

Will Oinn Henry Clay Sarah-Jayne Porsmoguer

Lance Green

Arlene MacFarlane Alastair Sinclair

PRINCIPAL BASS TROMBONE

TUBA

John Whitener PRINCIPAL

TIMPANI

Martin Gibson

Josef Pacewicz

Simon Lowdon

Robert Digney Yann Ghiro

Philip Hague

BASS CLARINET

BASSOON

David Hubbard PRINCIPAL

Rosina Alter Simon Davies

PRINCIPAL CONTRABASSOON

HORN

Christopher Gough ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL

Alison Murray Martin Murphy David McClenaghan Sue Baxendale TRUMPET

Roeland Henkens GUEST PRINCIPAL

Marcus Pope John Gracie

HARP

Pippa Tunnell CELESTE

Lynda Cochrane

We hope that you are enjoying the RSNO’s Friday Night Club performances The RSNO is a registered charity, and, with many others, will be severely impacted by this crisis, which is touching the lives of each and every one of us. The support of our audiences and supporters continues to inspire and uplift us, now more than ever. We would like to take this opportunity to send our support and best wishes to you and your families during this challenging time.

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Please donate online at rsno.org.uk/support-rsno or visit rsno.org.uk/circle to join today.

In the meantime, we continue to work hard to enrich lives and support the well-being of our community through free, accessible online music and content.

We are a family and a community brought together by music. When our Orchestra returns to the stage, we look forward to welcoming you back to the RSNO and enjoying many more great concerts together.