11-13 September 2024
MOZART & BEETHOVEN
The Linlithgow concert is with
Kindly supported by Eriadne & George Mackintosh and Claire & Anthony Tait.
Wednesday 11 September, 7.30pm, Holy Trinity Church, St Andrews
Thursday 12 September, 7.30pm, Paisley Abbey
Friday 13 September, 7.30pm, St Michael’s Parish Church, Linlithgow
WAGNER Siegfried Idyll
MOZART Sinfonia Concertante K297b
Interval of 20 minutes
BEETHOVEN Symphony No 2
Karel Deseure Conductor
Katherine Bryer Oboe
Maximiliano Martín Clarinet
Cerys Ambrose-Evans Bassoon
Stephen Stirling Horn
4 Royal Terrace, Edinburgh EH7 5AB
+44 (0)131 557 6800 | info@sco.org.uk | sco.org.uk
The Scottish Chamber Orchestra is a charity registered in Scotland No. SC015039. Company registration No. SC075079.
Karel Deseure
©
Andrej
Grilc
THANK YOU
PRINCIPAL CONDUCTOR'S CIRCLE
Our Principal Conductor’s Circle are a special part of our musical family. Their commitment and generosity benefit us all – musicians, audiences and creative learning participants alike.
Annual Fund
James and Patricia Cook
Visiting Artists Fund
Colin and Sue Buchan
Harry and Carol Nimmo
Anne and Matthew Richards
International Touring Fund
Gavin and Kate Gemmell
Creative Learning Fund
Sabine and Brian Thomson
CHAIR SPONSORS
Conductor Emeritus Joseph Swensen
Donald and Louise MacDonald
Chorus Director Gregory Batsleer
Anne McFarlane
Principal Second Violin
Marcus Barcham Stevens
Jo and Alison Elliot
Second Violin Rachel Smith
J Douglas Home
Principal Viola Max Mandel
Ken Barker and Martha Vail Barker
Viola Brian Schiele
Christine Lessels
Viola Steve King
Sir Ewan and Lady Brown
Principal Cello Philip Higham
The Thomas Family
American Development Fund
Erik Lars Hansen and Vanessa C L Chang
Productions Fund
Bill and Celia Carman
Anny and Bobby White
Anne, Tom and Natalie Usher
Scottish Touring Fund
Eriadne and George Mackintosh
Claire and Anthony Tait
Cello Donald Gillan
Professor Sue Lightman
Cello Eric de Wit
Jasmine Macquaker Charitable Fund
Principal Double Bass Nikita Naumov
Caroline Hahn and Richard Neville-Towle
Principal Flute André Cebrián
Claire and Mark Urquhart
Principal Oboe Robin Williams
In memory of Hedley G Wright
Principal Clarinet Maximiliano Martín
Stuart and Alison Paul
Principal Bassoon Cerys Ambrose-Evans
Claire and Anthony Tait
Principal Timpani Louise Lewis Goodwin
Geoff and Mary Ball
THANK YOU FUNDING PARTNERS
“A crack musical team at the top of its game.”
HM The King
Patron
Donald MacDonald CBE
Life President
Joanna Baker CBE
Chair
Gavin Reid LVO
Chief Executive
Maxim Emelyanychev
Principal Conductor
Andrew Manze
Principal Guest Conductor
Joseph Swensen
Conductor Emeritus
Gregory Batsleer
Chorus Director
Jay Capperauld
Associate Composer
Our Musicians
YOUR ORCHESTRA
Information correct at the time of going to print
First Violin
Stephanie Gonley
Afonso Fesch
Ruth Crouch
Fiona Alexander
Amira Bedrush-McDonald
Tom Hankey
Kristin Deeken
Emily Ward
Second Violin
Gordon Bragg
Rachel Smith
Sarah Bevan Baker
Stewart Webster
Niamh Lyons
Will McGahon
Viola
Max Mandel
Zoë Matthews
Steve King
Kathryn Jourdan
Cello
Philip Higham
Su-a Lee
Donald Gillan
Eric de Wit
Bass
Nikita Naumov
Jamie Kenny
Flute
André Cebrián
Marta Gómez
Oboe
Katherine Bryer
Fraser Kelman
Kirstie Logan
Clarinet
Maximiliano Martín
William Stafford
Bassoon
Cerys Ambrose-Evans
Alison Green
Horn
Stephen Stirling
David Tollington
Jamie Shield
Trumpet
Peter Franks
Shaun Harrold
Timpani
Louise Lewis Goodwin
Marta Gómez
Sub-Principal Flute
WHAT YOU ARE ABOUT TO HEAR
WAGNER (1813-1883)
Siegfried Idyll (1870)
MOZART (1756-1791)
Sinfonia Concertante K297b (1778)
Allegro
Adagio
Andante con variazioni
BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)
Symphony No 2 in D Major, Op 36 (1801–1802)
Adagio molto – Allegro con brio
Larghetto
Scherzo: Allegro
Allegro molto
Family, friendship and connections with others are the warm themes running through all three of tonight’s pieces – whether they’re celebrating an enduring marriage and a birth, or mutual respect between musicians, or even a renewed sense of engagement with the world itself, and a determination to forge a path through life, however difficult that might be.
Before the opening sounds of tonight’s first piece, you might like to close your eyes, and imagine it’s Christmas morning. As Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll begins, you’ll be having a similar experience to that of the composer’s wife Cosima on 25 December 1870, when she awoke to the piece’s caressing opening rising from the staircase of the couple’s villa in Tribschen, overlooking Lake Lucerne, where it was being performed by 15 musicians from Zürich’s Tonhalle Orchestra.
Wagner had written his Siegfried Idyll – and organised this unconventional domestic premiere – as a present for Cosima’s 33rd birthday (marked the previous day), in gratitude for her continuing devotion to him, and in celebration of the arrival of their son Siegfried, who’d been born the previous year. As such, his Siegfried Idyll was intended as a purely private piece of music, not one for public consumption – though when money became tighter in 1878, Wagner sold it to music publisher Schott, at the same time expanding its original handful of players to a small orchestra.
It remains Wagner’s only purely instrumental work that’s regularly played, and it contains music of astonishing beauty and breathtaking intimacy – a world away from the lavish extravagance of his operas, though the piece inevitably shares melodies with his epic Ring cycle, whose hero, not coincidentally, shares his name with Wagner’s son. From its gentle opening, the Siegfried Idyll moves through glorious bucolic evocations – listen out for birdsong, horn calls, tolling bells and even a distant church organ – to a sublime conclusion
that might just have been intended to lull Cosima back to sleep.
From intimate family affection, we move to a more professional side of friendship in tonight’s next piece. Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante, K297b, however, is a work of many mysteries, and a piece that has set many eminent musicologists scratching their heads. Respected scholar (and keyboardist) Robert Levin, for example, wrote a whole book about the piece – without quite finding answers to all of its enigmas.
The piece’s background, at least, is clear. Mozart wrote the Sinfonia Concertante in Paris in 1778, and intended it for four woodwind-playing friends. He was in the French capital with his mother Anna Maria, on a six-month stop that formed part of a much longer, job-seeking tour.
On their way from their home in Salzburg to Paris, mother and son had stopped off in Mannheim, now in southern Germany, and in the late 18th century home to one of Europe’s finest and most
It remains Wagner’s only purely instrumental work that’s regularly played, and it contains music of astonishing beauty and breathtaking intimacy – a world away from the lavish extravagance of his operas.
accomplished orchestras. Mozart got on with the Mannheim players famously, on both musical and personal levels (although he didn’t end up with his hoped-for employment). Three of those musicians – the Mannheim orchestra’s principals on flute, oboe and bassoon – told him they’d soon be travelling to Paris, where they’d meet up with a renowned horn player for some chamber performances. Why didn’t he join them there?
Mozart did just that. But he did more than just rekindle these acquaintances. He wrote an entire Sinfonia concertante for the quartet of wind players, plus orchestra, which was intended for performance at Paris’ prestigious Le Concert Spirituel concert series. Parisian audiences were particularly fond of these elaborate, multiinstrument concertos. And Mozart took advantage of that passion in a substantial but witty work, handing over his manuscript score to Le Concert Spirituel’s director, Joseph Legros, for copying.
And then, Mozart’s score disappeared. It’s not clear whether it was simply lost, or whether (as
Richard Wagner
Mozart himself suspected) something more sinister was afoot. Giuseppe Cambini, Paris’ most popular composer in the sinfonia concertante form, was Mozart’s chief suspect – and it was surely no coincidence, Mozart felt, that a piece by Cambini himself would replace his ‘lost’ sinfonia concertante in its intended concert.
In fact, the disappearance of his new piece was only one misfortune amid a catalogue of problems that Mozart encountered in Paris. For a start, the city that had adored the precocious seven-year-old on his visit in 1763 seemed to have grown immune to his charms 15 years later. Worse, his mother fell suddenly ill and died on 3 July 1778.
It wasn’t an easy time for the young composer. As for the four-woodwind Sinfonia concertante, however, it miraculously reappeared almost a century later, unearthed by Mozart scholar Otto Jahn in Berlin. The manuscript that Jahn discovered looked authentic, even if it was clearly not written in Mozart’s hand, and – more
The manuscript that Jahn discovered looked authentic, even if it was clearly not written in Mozart’s hand, and – more alarmingly – even if it had a clarinet soloist replacing the original flautist.
alarmingly – it had a clarinet soloist replacing the original flautist. Some were immediately persuaded of the piece’s authenticity, but others were far more sceptical. The influential New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, for example, assessed the work rather witheringly in its 1982 edition, stating: ‘its credentials are dubious, and any music by Mozart that it may contain can only be in corrupt form’. Among more recent theories are that the orchestral parts are Mozart’s but the soloists’ parts have been somehow adapted – or the other way round. The bigger enigma, however, if the piece isn’t authentic Mozart, is just how convincingly Mozartean it sounds, and how idiomatically it employs its four soloists. It’s hard to imagine, for instance, a flute playing much of the material that now appears written for clarinet.
In the end, it’s up to each individual listener to assess the Sinfonia Concertante’s authenticity. What’s not in doubt is the piece’s warmth and confidence, and the way it showcases its four contrasting soloists. There’s a sense of
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
spaciousness and grandeur to the strings’ unison opening to the first movement, with a more lyrical, song-like melody emerging later. When the four soloists first enter, it’s with the same unison theme, although its material is quickly chopped up and shared between them – rather magically transforming what was earlier a single melodic line into its constituent parts. After a brief central development section that more clearly shows off each soloist’s individual skills, a four-way cadenza leads the movement to its resonant close.
The second movement’s marking of ‘Adagio’ (or ‘slow’) might be another indication that what we’re hearing isn’t 100% original Mozart: he was far more likely to indicate that his slow movements should be played at the slightly quicker ‘andante’ (literally, at a walking pace). The movement is a gentle, reflective song, with melodies exchanged elegantly between the four soloists, and a plaintive bassoon solo partway through offering one of the Sinfonia Concertante’s rare moments of sadness.
Fun and wit return in abundance, however, in the perky closing movement, whose main melody (announced by the solo oboe right at the start) is put through all manner of decoration and elaboration across ten ever more effervescent variations, before a scampering, three-time version of the opening tune propels the piece to its good-natured close.
From family celebrations and professional connections, our final piece moves us towards a broader sense of engagement with the world, and even with life itself. There’s no shortage of energy and optimism in Beethoven’s Second Symphony. But the piece is also a statement of determination and resilience.
in the hope of relieving his alarmingly increasing deafness, away from the noise and bustle of the capital. Beethoven’s stay, however, had the opposite effect. He noticed no improvement in his condition, and, isolated from distractions, had far more time to reflect on it, and what it might mean for the career as a performer and composer he’d envisioned for himself.
At the start of his stay, he wrote to childhood friend Franz Wegeler: ‘that jealous demon, my wretched health, has put a nasty spoke in my wheel; and it amounts to this, that for the past three years my hearing has become weaker and weaker.’ By the end of his time away, however, and nearing the Second Symphony’s completion, he’d written a letter to his two brothers, Carl and Johann, one that he’d never send. In what’s become known as Beethoven’s Heiligenstadt Testament, he set out his predicament, and explained the turmoil into which it had thrown his hopes and ambitions, even admitting that he’d contemplated suicide. But, he explained, he’d resolved to put what he felt to be his artistic destiny before the difficulties of his personal circumstances, and vowed to overcome whatever obstacles fate decided to throw in his path.
Beethoven wrote the Symphony in 1802, while staying in the Viennese village (now suburb) of Heiligenstadt, where he’d been sent by his doctor
Considering the personal turmoil in which he composed it, many commentators have expressed surprise at just how sunny, carefree and upbeat the Second Symphony is (Berlioz wrote that ‘this Symphony is smiling throughout’). That astonishment is entirely legitimate, of course, but it rests on the assumption that a creator’s personal circumstances will necessarily permeate and influence the work they’re producing. It could have been that Beethoven was consciously attempting to distract himself by writing thoroughly jolly music. More likely, perhaps, is that the Second Symphony may be the embodiment of Beethoven’s renewed sense of dogged optimism, of belief in his pioneering perspectives on music – something that can surely be sensed
The Second Symphony may be the embodiment of Beethoven’s renewed sense of dogged optimism, of belief in his pioneering perspectives on music –something that can surely be sensed not only in its eagerness and energy, but also in its rather gritted-teeth determination, its urgency and its restless power.
not only in its eagerness and energy, but also in its rather gritted-teeth determination, its urgency and its restless power.
The Symphony got its premiere on 3 April 1803 in a lengthy concert at Vienna’s Theater an der Wien, in the same performance as the unveiling of Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto and the oratorio Christ on the Mount of Olives, as well as a repeat performance of his First Symphony. The First went down far better than the Second, inevitably, mainly because its simpler style would have been far more familiar to its Viennese audience. Indeed, one critic in the Zeitung für die elegante Welt went as far as describing the Second Symphony as ‘a hideously writhing, wounded dragon that refuses to die, but writhing in its last agonies and, in the fourth movement, bleeding to death’.
Though we think of Beethoven’s Third Symphony, the 'Eroica', as his great breakthrough work, he sows the seeds that will later blossom there in his Second. The slow introduction to the Second’s
first movement, for example, is weighty enough almost to feel like a movement in its own right, and leads to a faster section full of extreme dynamic contrasts, abrupt shifts between major and minor, and plenty of timpani strokes to add to its resounding climaxes. After his gently flowing second movement, the Second Symphony marks Beethoven’s first use of a playful scherzo as his third movement, instead of the then customary elegant refinement of a minuet. And Beethoven’s inaugural symphonic scherzo finds him in particularly mischievous mood, with unexpected accents, stomping rhythms, and sudden swerves into unexpectedly different material, though never without a knowing smile on its face.
It’s in his hurtling, breakneck finale, however, that Beethoven really showcases his brilliant, forwardthinking creativity, with a main theme that’s barely more than a high-pitched flick and a low-down grumble, and an extended closing coda where he lets his innovative, comic juices flow.
© David Kettle
Ludwig van Beethoven
Conductor KAREL DESEURE
Karel Deseure graduated from the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp as a flautist and subsequently studied conducting at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague. He was privileged to have masterclasses with conductors such as Bernard Haitink, Peter Ëotvös and Jorma Panula.
In 2012 he was awarded the Anton Kersjes Foundation scholarship and from 2013-2015 was appointed assistant conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2016 he assisted Valery Gergiev at the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and Sir Mark Elder and Daniele Gatti in two series of concerts with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam.
In the early stage of his career, Karel appeared frequently with Belgian and Dutch orchestras such as the Brussels Philharmonic, Liège Royal Philharmonic, Antwerp Symphony, Arnhem Philharmonic orchestras, philharmonie zuidnederland. In 2017, he made his debut with the Luzerner Sinfonieorchester and the Belgian National Orchestra.
The 2023/24 Season included Karel's debut with the Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire and cellist Anastasia Kobekina, the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris and the Bucarest Radio Symphony Orchestra. Karel also returns to Orchestre National de Cannes, Orchestre Symphonique de l’Opéra de Toulon and the Philharmonie zuidnerland.
2024/25 sees Karel return to the Opera Zuid in a production of Puccini Le Villi.
For full biography please visit sco.org.uk
©
Andrej Grilc
Oboe KATHERINE BRYER
Oboist Katherine Bryer enjoys a varied career working as an orchestral, solo and chamber musician with a variety of ensembles throughout the UK. After three years in Edinburgh studying with Joe Houghton at St Mary’s Music School, Katherine moved to London to pursue both a Bachelors and Masters at the Royal Academy of Music, studying oboe with Chris Cowie, Ian Hardwick and Celia Nicklin, and cor anglais with Sue Böhling and Jill Crowther.
During her time in London Katherine performed with the London Philharmonic, BBC Symphony and Philharmonia Orchestras. She was appointed as Sub-Principal Oboe with the SCO in August 2022.
Katherine’s chamber pursuits have also led to performances with groups including Hebrides Ensemble, 12 Ensemble, and specialist contemporary music group, Explore Ensemble, in festivals taking her from Orkney to the Netherlands.
For full biography please visit sco.org.uk
MAXIMILIANO
MARTÍN
Spanish clarinettist and international soloist Maximiliano Martín is one of the most exciting and charismatic musicians of his generation. He combines his position of Principal Clarinet of the SCO with solo chamber music engagements, and masterclasses all around the world.
Maximiliano has appeared as a soloist and chamber musician in many of the world's most prestigious venues including the BBC Proms at Cadogan Hall, Wigmore Hall, Library of Congress in Washington, Mozart Hall in Seoul, Laeiszhalle Hamburg, Durban City Hall in South Africa, and Teatro Monumental in Madrid. Highlights of the past years have included concertos with the SCO, European Union Chamber Orchestra, and Orquesta Filarmónica de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, amongst others. He performs regularly with ensembles and artists such as London Conchord Ensemble, Doric and Casals String Quartets, François Leleux, Pekka Kuusisto and Llŷr Williams.
Born in La Orotava (Tenerife), he studied at the Conservatorio Superior de Musica in Tenerife, Barcelona School of Music and at the Royal College of Music, where he held the prestigious Wilkins-Mackerras Scholarship, graduated with distinction and received the Frederick Thurston prize. His teachers have included Joan Enric Lluna, Richard Hosford and Robert Hill. Maximiliano was a prizewinner in the Howarth Clarinet Competition of London and at the Bristol Chamber Music International Competition. He is one of the Artistic Directors of the Chamber Music Festival of La Villa de La Orotava, held every year in his hometown.
Maximiliano Martín is a Buffet Crampon Artist and plays with Buffet Tosca Clarinets.
Maximiliano's Chair is kindly supported by Stuart and Alison Paul
CERYS
AMBROSE-EVANS
Born in London, Cerys started playing the bassoon when she was 15, after first playing the double bass. She studied at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, learning with Miriam Gussek, Daniel Jemison, Helen Simons and Peter Whelan, and was awarded the Howarth-GSMD Bassoon prize in her first year. After participating in the Erasmus scheme in Amsterdam and graduating with first class honours, she continued her studies with Bram van Sambeek at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague.
Since moving back to the UK, Cerys has enjoyed a varied freelance career, performing with the RPO, LSO, Hallé, CBSO and The Orchestra of the Royal Opera House. She has been Principal Bassoon of the SCO since 2021/22.
For full biography please visit sco.org.uk
Horn STEPHEN STIRLING
Stephen Stirling, Principal Horn of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, is a horn soloist and chamber musician of worldwide renown. His discography includes over 100 chamber works and concertos, many of them world premiere recordings. His recording of the Brahms Horn Trio with the Florestan Trio, was nominated for a Gramophone award and his set of Mozart Horn Concertos with the City of London Sinfonia has been broadcast hundreds of times by Classic FM. The Concertino for Horn by Weber, with CLS is also much broadcast. The CD ‘Horn’, with the Fibonacci Sequence features chamber masterpieces for horn and recently in conjunction with Anthony Halstead, he researched and recorded a CD ‘From Dennis Brain’s Library’. Works written for him include concertos by Gary Carpenter and Matthew Taylor, premiered with the BBC Philharmonic and ASMF respectively.
Stephen has long been associated with innovative ensembles. The New London Chamber Ensemble was one of the first groups, now much imitated, to pioneer choreographed performances in wind chamber music. With Endymion, Capricorn, the NLCE, the Fibonacci Sequence, Arpège, the Composers Ensemble and the Hebrides Ensemble, he has been involved with commissioning, premiering and recording countless new works, working with some of the finest composers of our time, James MacMillan, Martin Butler, Harrison Birtwistle, Thomas Adés, Sally Beamish, Bret Dean, Jörg Widmann, and Gary Carpenter to name a few. He was an early member of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe which with Niklaus Harnoncourt revolutionised performance practice of the classical repertoire on modern instruments.
Stephen is Professor of Horn at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, and a faculty member of the Yellow Barn International Summer Music School and Festival in Vermont, USA.
© Fiona Hanson
SCOTTISH CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
The Scottish Chamber Orchestra (SCO) is one of Scotland’s five National Performing Companies and has been a galvanizing force in Scotland’s music scene since its inception in 1974. The SCO believes that access to world-class music is not a luxury but something that everyone should have the opportunity to participate in, helping individuals and communities everywhere to thrive. Funded by the Scottish Government, City of Edinburgh Council and a community of philanthropic supporters, the SCO has an international reputation for exceptional, idiomatic performances: from mainstream classical music to newly commissioned works, each year its wide-ranging programme of work is presented across the length and breadth of Scotland, overseas and increasingly online.
Equally at home on and off the concert stage, each one of the SCO’s highly talented and creative musicians and staff is passionate about transforming and enhancing lives through the power of music. The SCO’s Creative Learning programme engages people of all ages and backgrounds with a diverse range of projects, concerts, participatory workshops and resources. The SCO’s current five-year Residency in Edinburgh’s Craigmillar builds on the area’s extraordinary history of Community Arts, connecting the local community with a national cultural resource.
An exciting new chapter for the SCO began in September 2019 with the arrival of dynamic young conductor Maxim Emelyanychev as the Orchestra’s Principal Conductor. His tenure has recently been extended until 2028. The SCO and Emelyanychev released their first album together (Linn Records) in November 2019 to widespread critical acclaim. Their second recording together, of Mendelssohn symphonies, was released in November 2023.
The SCO also has long-standing associations with many eminent guest conductors and directors including Principal Guest Conductor Andrew Manze, Pekka Kuusisto, François Leleux, Nicola Benedetti, Isabelle van Keulen, Anthony Marwood, Richard Egarr, Mark Wigglesworth, Lorenza Borrani and Conductor Emeritus Joseph Swensen.
The Orchestra’s current Associate Composer is Jay Capperauld. The SCO enjoys close relationships with numerous leading composers and has commissioned around 200 new works, including pieces by Sir James MacMillan, Anna Clyne, Sally Beamish, Martin Suckling, Einojuhani Rautavaara, Karin Rehnqvist, Mark-Anthony Turnage, Nico Muhly and the late Peter Maxwell Davies.
SUPPORT THE SCO SUMMER TOUR
2024 marks the 45th anniversary of our Scotland-wide summer tours, where we bring together a host of exceptional conductors and soloists to present world-class live music to villages and towns across Scotland.
If you are passionate about music and would like to play your part in presenting enriching concerts to audiences across the length and breadth of Scotland, please consider making a donation today.
For more information, contact Hannah Wilkinson on 0131 478 8364 or hannah.wilkinson@sco.org.uk
sco.org.uk/support-us
