Highlands Tour – Summer in Italy – Summer Tour 23 – Programme note

Summer Tour 23

SUMMER IN ITALY

19-21 July 2023

Season 2022/23 SUMMER IN ITALY

With special thanks to Summer Tour sponsors

Eriadne and George Mackintosh, Claire and Anthony Tait and The Jones Family Charitable Trust

Wedesday 19 July, 8pm Stirling Castle

Thursday 20 July, 7.30pm Elgin Town Hall

Friday 21 July, 7.30pm Reid Hall, Forfar

Rossini Overture, The Barber of Seville

Bottesini Fantasia ‘Lucia di Lammermoor’ for Double Bass and Orchestra

Rossini Introduction, Theme and Variations for Clarinet and Orchestra

Interval of 20 minutes

Bottesini Gran Duo for Clarinet, Double Bass and Orchestra

Mendelssohn Symphony No 4, ‘Italian’

Maxim Emelyanychev Conductor

Maximiliano Martín Clarinet

Nikita Naumov Double Bass

The Stirling concert is with

Elgin Town Hall concert presented in association with

The Elgin concert is with

The Scottish Chamber Orchestra is a charity registered in Scotland No. SC015039. Company registration No. SC075079.

Maximiliano Martín

Maxim Emelyanychev Nikita Naumov

Su-a Lee Sub-Principal Cello

THE SIR CHARLES MACKERRAS CIRCLE

Leave the Gift of Music

Former SCO Conductor Laureate Sir Charles Mackerras had the vision to help the SCO by leaving the legacy of his royalty payments from his SCO recordings in perpetuity. We remember him with the utmost respect, fondness and gratitude.

As a small way to show our appreciation, we have created The Sir Charles Mackerras Circle for those who wish to pledge making legacy gift to benefit the SCO.

To recognise their generosity during their lifetime, circle members will be invited to an annual behind-the-scenes event to hear about how legacies are helping to make incredible live music accessible to as many people as possible.

To learn more about the Sir Charles Mackerras Circle, contact Mary at mary.clayton@sco.org.uk or call 0131 478 8369

Thank You PRINCIPAL CONDUCTOR'S CIRCLE

Our Principal Conductor’s Circle is made up of individuals who are a special part of our musical family. Their commitment and generosity benefit us all – musicians, audiences and creative learning participants alike.

American Development Fund

Erik Lars Hansen and Vanessa C L Chang

Annual Fund

James and Patricia Cook

Hedley G Wright

International Touring Fund

Gavin and Kate Gemmell

Productions Fund

The Usher Family

Bill and Celia Carman

Anny and Bobby White

Scottish Touring Fund

Eriadne and George Mackintosh

Claire and Anthony Tait

Visiting Artists Fund

Colin and Sue Buchan

Harry and Carol Nimmo

Anne and Matthew Richards

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

Principal Viola Max Mandel

Kenneth and Martha Barker

Viola Steve King

Sir Ewan and Lady Brown

Principal Cello Philip Higham

The Thomas Family

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

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

Our Musicians YOUR ORCHESTRA

First Violin

Stephanie Gonley

Tijmen Huisingh

Kana Kawashima

Siún Milne

Fiona Alexander

Amira Bedrush-McDonald

Esther Kim

Second Violin

Marcus Barcham Stevens

Gordon Bragg

Michelle Dierx

Stewart Webster

Niamh Lyons

Will McGahon

Catherine James

Viola

Max Mandel

Zoë Matthews

Brian Schiele

Steve King

Cello

Philip Higham

Su-a Lee

Donald Gillan

Christoff Fourie

Bass

Nikita Naumov

Jamie Kenny

Flute

André Cebrián

Laura Pou

Oboe

Robin Williams

Katherine Bryer

Clarinet

Maximiliano Martín

William Stafford

Bassoon

Information correct at the time of going to print

Horn

Jože Rožer

Jamie Shield

Trumpet

Peter Franks

Shaun Harrold

Timpani/Percussion

Louise Lewis Goodwin

Cerys Ambrose-Evans

Alison Green

Nikita Naumov Principal Double Bass

WHAT YOU ARE ABOUT TO HEAR

Rossini (1792-1868)

Overture, The Barber of Seville (1816)

Bottesini (1821-1889)

Fantasia ‘Lucia di Lammermoor’ for Double Bass and Orchestra (Date unknown)

Operatic exuberance, flamboyant fun and – yes – plenty of summer sunshine are all present and correct in tonight’s all-Italian concert – with no apologies, either, for some Mediterranean high spirits from two of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra’s Principals. Okay, our final piece might actually have come from the pen of a German composer, but he was so immersed in Italy’s bright colours and vigorous lifestyle that he surely counts as temporarily Italian too.

Rossini (1792-1868)

Introduction, Theme and Variations for Clarinet and Orchestra (1819)

Bottesini (1821-1889)

Gran Duo for Clarinet, Double Bass and Orchestra (Date unknown)

Mendelssohn (1809–1847)

Symphony No 4, ‘Italian’ (1833)

Allegro vivace

Andante con moto

Con moto moderato

Finale: Saltarello (Presto)

We begin, however, with a composer who’s Italian through and through. For many listeners, the Overture to Gioachino Rossini’s 1816 opera The Barber of Seville is the epitome of effervescent Italian wit, summing up to a tee the scheming hairdresser running rings around local bigwigs at the centre of the composer’s comic romp. This music, however, was not even written for The Barber of Seville at all. Rossini had originally composed the Overture for his 1813 opera Aureliano in Palmira, and then reused it in his 1815 Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra. His rather shameless re-recycling for The Barber of Seville marked his third use of the material – but there was a reason.

In fact, Rossini had simply run out of time. Remarkably, he dashed off The Barber of Seville in less than three weeks – not that you’d ever suspect from the opera’s wealth of wit and melody. But that was hardly unusual. Rossini was a notoriously fast worker: he’d maintain the pace of producing at least two operas a season for 19 years. He’d originally planned something Spanish-sounding for The Barber of Seville’s Overture, to match the opera’s Iberian setting, but left things too

late to put it together. In the end, recycling older material was his only option.

The irony, of course, is how indelibly we associate the Overture’s bubbling comedy and good humour with the opera itself –despite the fact that it contains precisely no themes or melodies that we’d encounter later in the work. And for eagle-eared listeners at the opera’s first performance – on 20 February 1816 at Rome’s Teatro Argentina – that redeployment of existing music was perhaps just one reason behind the show’s fiasco of a premiere.

For a start, rival composer Giovanni Paisiello – who’d already scored a hit with his own operatic version of Beaumarchais’ 1775 comedy – turned up with some cronies to disrupt this new version by the upstart Rossini before it gained a foothold in audiences’ affections. Paisiello and his mates caused mayhem, allegedly releasing a stray cat to prowl around

the stage, and the poorly rehearsed cast hardly helped by tripping over scenery, falling through trapdoors and missing their cues. Appalled, Rossini left early, and stayed away for the following night too. When a mob of torch-wielding locals approached his residence after the second performance, he feared the worst. In fact, they were there to proclaim and celebrate his genius, and Rossini’s Barber soon found a permanent place in the repertoire. Its music became so well known and widely loved, in fact, that it later inspired affectionate parodies from the likes of Woody Woodpecker, Bugs Bunny and Tom and Jerry, each in their own individual animated take.

Launching with some attention-grabbing loud chords, Rossini’s Overture seems barely able to contain its excitement in its restrained opening section. The loud chords return to kick off the Overture’s faster section, contrasting a nimble but

Itsmusicbecamesowell knownandwidelyloved,in fact,thatitlaterinspired affectionateparodies fromthelikesofWoody Woodpecker,BugsBunny andTomandJerry,each intheirownindividual animatedtake.

Gioachino Rossini c. 1810–1815

Giovanni Bottesini

melancholy violin tune against a wittier, far more mischievous oboe melody. After a couple of Rossini’s trademark swelling crescendos, the tempo surges forward even faster before the Overture’s exuberant conclusion.

Born about three decades after his compatriot Rossini, Giovanni Bottesini was another successful and muchadmired man of the opera. His first opera, Cristoforo Colombo, received its premiere to great acclaim in Havana, Cuba, in 1847, and he maintained a particularly close friendship with Giuseppe Verdi, who asked him to conduct the premiere performances of his own Aida, in Cairo in 1871.

But opera isn’t what Bottesini is primarily remembered for today (even if it nonetheless finds its way into tonight’s next piece). Instead, he’s remembered as a rare but breathtaking virtuoso on the double bass, and also as one of the figures

who established the bass as a legitimate, respectable solo instrument in its own right, capable of enormous expression and lyricism. Not bad for someone who’d only taken it up in order to get a scholarship into the Milan Conservatoire (he’d started off as a singer and violinist). The young Bottesini immediately took to the instrument, however, giving his first public concert in 1839 as an 18-year-old, and embarking on a concert tour of Italy the following year.

But if we jump ahead to his later life, and his parallel career in opera, Bottesini developed a reputation for bringing his bass along to performances he was conducting, and using it to serenade opera-goers during the intervals with musical fantasies based on the tunes they’d just heard. His exuberant, extrovert Lucia di Lammermoor Fantasia reputedly began life as one of those spontaneous interval entertainments, inserted into

...he’srememberedas ararebutbreathtaking virtuosoonthedouble bass,andalsoasone ofthefigureswho establishedthebassasa legitimate,respectable soloinstrumentinitsown right,capableofenormous expressionandlyricism.

Gaetano Donizetti’s 1835 opera. (Which brings us far closer to home: the opera is based on Sir Walter Scott’s tragic novel The Bride of Lammermoor, which tells of a woman trapped between feuding familites in the Lammermuir Hills, southeast of Edinburgh, in the 17th century.)

Bottesini’s Fantasia is unashamedly entertaining for its listeners, and unapologetically taxing for its soloist. The composer first plunges us headlong into the storm that opens Act III of Donzetti’s opera, before allowing the bass to sing in decorated versions of some of the opera’s arias, and transforming some of

its storytelling recitatives into showy solo cadenzas. Listen out, too, for Bottesini’s extensive use of harmonics, high-pitched, glassy sounds produced by lightly touching the instrument’s strings while bowing, rather than firmly holding them down.

If Bottesini was a mature conductor, composer and bass virtuoso when he came up with his Lucia di Lammermoor Fantasia, Rossini was barely an adult when he created tonight’s next piece. That said, however, the 18-year-old already had his first opera – Demetrio e Polibio – under his belt, and had been studying at the Bologna Conservatoire since 1806, when he was just 14.

There’s something undeniably operatic, too, about the music of his youthful Introduction, Theme and Variations, which he intended to perform with his fellow Bologna students as part of their end-ofyear exams. It’s far more than just a skilled learner’s compositional exercise, however –and it’s an indication of the young Bologna players’ musical abilities that they could attempt a piece of such lavish technical demands.

After some resonant chords summon our attention, Rossini begins with a slow, somewhat solemn introduction, which nonetheless shows off the clarinet’s voicelike abilities in a noble but extravagantly decorated melodic line. A solo cadenza leads into the piece’s main theme, which has more than a hint of the opera house to it (Rossini would go on to transform it into an aria in his 1819 opera La donna del lago). The composer elaborates on the theme in five contrasting variations, themselves separated by frothy orchestral interludes – and following one

Bottesini with his Testore bass around 1865

last Rhapsody in Blue-like swoop from the bottom to the top of the clarinet’s range, the piece dashes towards its lively conclusion.

Clarinet and double bass sharing the stage as joint soloists is hardly an everyday occurrence (though the unusual combination serves neatly to bring together tonight’s two SCO Principals). It’s frustrating, therefore, that we know so little about the background to Bottesini’s Gran duo for those two instruments. Bottesini’s father was a clarinettist, so the composer undoubtedly knew the instrument well – and may well have written the piece for himself and his dad to play together. There’s a certain chamberlike intimacy to the music that might seem to support that argument, too, not that Bottesini reduces any of the technical demands he makes on both his players, even if he ensures they shine equally brightly in their own individual ways.

A showy orchestral introduction leads to lyrical pronouncements from both soloists, each of whom seems about to launch into a big tune, only for it never to quite materialise. They come together, however,

in an elegant, slow-moving melody, decorating each other’s themes tastefully. A similarly portentous orchestral introduction leads into the second movement, ushering in the clarinet’s perky but serious, minor-key melody, soon answered more lyrically by the bass. But Bottesini quickly moves us into far more comical music as the two soloists join forces in a tripping tune, pushing the piece to its sunny ending.

We bring tonight’s concert to a sparkling conclusion with the young Felix Mendelssohn, as a gap-year traveller in his early 20s. It was more like three gap years, in fact, off and on between 1829 and 1831. And it’s probably fairer to describe his travels as excursions in the tradition of a Grand Tour, in which a wealthy young man completed his education by ticking off the cultural highlights of Europe. Mendelssohn began – unconventionally – with a threeweek visit to Scotland in 1829, which inspired both his Hebrides Overture and his ‘Scottish’ Symphony. But, encouraged by both writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (who he counted as a friend) and his composition teacher Carl Friedrich Zelter, he set off for the more traditional destination of Italy in October 1830. He spent ten months in the country, making his way from Venice to Naples via Bologna, Florence and Rome, then back home again through Genoa and Milan.

If his Scottish trip had been about brooding landscapes, swirling mists and blood-soaked history, his Italian trip, as he wrote home to his parents, was about light, sunshine and happiness: ‘This is Italy! And now has begun what I have always thought to be the supreme joy in life. And I am loving it.’

Bottesini’sfatherwas aclarinettist,sothe composerundoubtedly knewtheinstrumentwell–andmaywellhavewritten thepieceforhimselfand hisdadtoplaytogether.

He devoted time during his travels to planning what he called ‘the jolliest piece I have ever done’ in a letter to his sister Fanny, completing his ‘Italian’ Symphony back home in Berlin on 13 March 1833. It was an immediate success at its premiere in London two months later. (Its designation as No 4, incidentally, is misleading: Mendelssohn wrote and premiered the piece several years before his Second and Third Symphonies. It’s only numbered as his Fourth because it was published after those later works.)

Mendelssohn described the Symphony as ‘blue sky in A major’, and it’s a bright optimism that’s encapsulated in the first movement’s bounding opening theme, though the movement’s central development section brings in somewhat darker, more impish material. The slow second movement was inspired by religious processions that Mendelssohn witnessed in Rome: it contrasts a noble

melody in the woodwind and violas with a plodding bassline, slipping away at its conclusion as if the procession has moved into the distance.

Following an elegant third-movement minuet (complete with distant horn calls in its gently martial trio section), Mendelssohn closes with a finale that blends two breathless Italian dances: the Roman saltarello (which gives the movement its name) and the Neapolitan tarantella. The ‘Italian’ is one of very few symphonies that begins in the bright positivity of the major and ends in the more serious minor (often the journey is the other way round: just think of Beethoven’s Fifth). The finale’s whirling energy, however, alongside a melancholy memory of the Symphony’s opening melody just before the end, ensures a propulsive, somewhat delirious conclusion.

© David Kettle

Felix Mendelssohn

IfhisScottishtriphad beenaboutbrooding landscapes,swirlingmists andblood-soakedhistory, hisItaliantrip,ashewrote hometohisparents,was aboutlight,sunshineand happiness:‘ThisisItaly! AndnowhasbegunwhatI havealwaysthoughttobe thesupremejoyinlife.And Iamlovingit.’

Conductor MAXIM EMELYANYCHEV

At the Scottish Chamber Orchestra Maxim Emelyanychev follows in the footsteps of just five previous Principal Conductors in the Orchestra’s 49-year history; Roderick Brydon (1974-1983), Jukka-Pekka Saraste (1987-1991), Ivor Bolton (1994-1996), Joseph Swensen (1996-2005) and Robin Ticciati (2009-2018).

Recent highlights have included debuts with some of the most prestigious international orchestras: Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester, Toronto Symphony and Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, as well as returns to the Antwerp Symphony, the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and a European tour with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, followed by appearances at the Radio-France Montpellier Festival and the Edinburgh International Festival.

In October 2022, Maxim toured the USA with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and made his debut with the Berlin Philharmonic. Other touring in 2022/23 includes the New Japan Philharmonic, the Osaka Kansai Philharmonic, the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, the Helsinki Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. He also returns to the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse and to the Royal Opera House in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte.

He regularly collaborates with renowned artists such as Max Emanuel Cenčić, Patrizia Ciofi, Joyce DiDonato, Franco Fagioli, Richard Goode, Sophie Karthäuser, Stephen Hough, Katia and Marielle Labèque, Marie-Nicole Lemieux, Julia Lezhneva, Alexei Lubimov, Riccardo Minasi, Xavier Sabata and Dmitry Sinkovsky.

Maxim is also a highly respected chamber musician. His most recent recording, of Brahms Violin Sonatas with long-time collaborator and friend Aylen Pritchin, was released on Aparté in December 2021 and has attracted outstanding reviews internationally. With the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Maxim has recorded Schubert Symphony No 9 – the symphony with which he made his debut with the orchestra – which was released on Linn Records in November 2019.

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.

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.

Born in La Orotava (Tenerife), he studied at the Conservatorio Superior de Musica in Tenerife, Barcelona School of Music and at the RCM, 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. Martín was a prize-winner in the Howarth Clarinet Competition of London and at the Bristol Chamber Music International Competition.

Maximiliano's Chair is kindly supported by Stuart and Alison Paul

Double Bass NIKITA NAUMOV

Born in Russia, Nikita attended the Karaganda Special Music School in Kazakhstan. He then studied at the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatoire in St Petersburg, during which time he was invited to study at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, funded by the Leverhulme Trust.

Nikita has played as Guest Principal with many of the world’s finest orchestras, including the London Symphony, BBC Symphony, Netherlands Philharmonic and Stavanger Symphony Orchestras, and the Amsterdam Sinfonietta. Regularly appearing as a soloist and as a chamber musician, Nikita has featured at the BBC Proms and the BBC chamber series at Wigmore Hall as a member of the internationally-recognised chamber group, London Concord Ensemble, as well as regularly performing with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.

Nikita's Chair is kindly supported by Caroline Hahn and Richard Neville-Towle

Biography

SCOTTISH CHAMBER ORCHESTRA

The internationally celebrated Scottish Chamber Orchestra is one of Scotland’s National Performing Companies.

Formed in 1974 and core funded by the Scottish Government, the SCO aims to provide as many opportunities as possible for people to hear great music by touring the length and breadth of Scotland, appearing regularly at major national and international festivals and by touring internationally as proud ambassadors for Scottish cultural excellence.

Making a significant contribution to Scottish life beyond the concert platform, the Orchestra works in schools, universities, colleges, hospitals, care homes, places of work and community centres through its extensive Creative Learning programme. The SCO is also proud to engage with online audiences across the globe via its innovative Digital Season.

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.

The SCO and Emelyanychev released their first album together (Linn Records) in November 2019 to widespread critical acclaim. The repertoire – Schubert’s Symphony No 9 in C major ‘The Great’ –is the first symphony Emelyanychev performed with the Orchestra in March 2018.

The SCO also has long-standing associations with many eminent guest conductors and directors including Conductor Emeritus Joseph Swensen, François Leleux, Pekka Kuusisto, Nicola Benedetti, Richard Egarr, Andrew Manze and John Storgårds.

The Orchestra enjoys close relationships with many leading composers and has commissioned almost 200 new works, including pieces by the late Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Sir James MacMillan, Sally Beamish, Martin Suckling, Einojuhani Rautavaara, Karin Rehnqvist, Mark-Anthony Turnage, Nico Muhly, Anna Clyne and Associate Composer Jay Capperauld.

For full biography please visit sco.org.uk

MAXIM’S ‘EROICA’ A GRAND TOUR OF SCOTLAND

Featuring music by Jay Capperauld*, Bruch and Beethoven

*Commissioned by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, and with generous support from the Vaughan Williams Foundation.

Maxim Emelyanychev Conductor Maximiliano Martín Clarinet Max Mandel Viola

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