news
AIMING TO INSPIRE AND CONNECT WITH PEOPLE OF ALL AGES
www.sco.org.uk | Issue 64 | May 2016
A man of
many parts
Richard Strauss in perspective
Also inside: Memories of Max | Martin Suckling | Roy McEwan
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CONTENTS
Issue 64 | May 2016
16
4
8
10 –––––
Regulars 3 Foreword 4 SCO news 8 60 second interview 9 Recent Recordings 22 Your Orchestra, Your Say
Other 15 End of an era 23 years at the helm of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Roy McEwan has helped grow our reputation.
16 Memories of Max Some of our memories of the much-loved Sir Peter Maxwell Davies.
COVER 10 A man of many parts Richard Strauss in perspective by Dr Martin Ennis.
4 Royal Terrace Edinburgh EH7 5AB telephone: 0131 557 6800 email: info@sco.org.uk www.sco.org.uk
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The Scottish Chamber Orchestra is a charity registered in Scotland No. SC015039 Company registration No. SC75079
20 And this was how it started Associate Composer Martin Suckling chats about being a composer and his new SCO commission Piano Concerto.
Core funded by
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Foreword
Your Orchestra
Welcome again to SCO News Welcome to this edition of SCO News, the last occasion on which I will have the pleasure to welcome you before I step down as Chief Executive at the end of August. It has been such an honour to get to know so many Subscribers and Patrons over the years, and to feel that there is now a genuine SCO family in which we all play our part. Looking at the content of this publication, it really is uplifting to see, 23 years on from when I joined the Orchestra, what a vibrant and diverse organisation it is, filled with hugely talented and committed musicians and administrators. I am delighted to be handing over to Gavin Reid who, I know, will bring a
Composer Laureate. Both these great men made defining contributions to the SCO.
Roy McEwan
wealth of experience, talent and commitment to the SCO. Two of the musical giants I have had the privilege to work with over my time here have now been lost to us. Sir Charles Mackerras, who died in 2010 (there is a new Mackerras website well worth exploring – www.charlesmackerras.com) and a shadow has been cast by the recent death of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, the Orchestra’s
One feature of the Orchestra which struck me on arrival in 1993 and remains, is a sense of enterprise and creative energy and there are, and will continue to be new talents – orchestra members, conductors and soloists as well as composers – who will ensure that the Scottish Chamber Orchestra remains one of Scotland’s most exciting and creative cultural assets.
Roy McEwan Chief Executive
AIMING TO INSPIRE AND CONNECT WITH PEOPLE OF ALL AGES
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SCO NEWS Roy McEwan’s Successor announced
Summer Concerts –––––– As we tour the length and breadth of Scotland in the summer months, connecting with as many communities as we can, what is it that makes these concerts so special?
–––––– Welcome to Gavin Reid who becomes our new Chief Executive from 29 August 2016. Gavin was born in Edinburgh and played trumpet in the European Community Youth Orchestra before being appointed Principal Trumpet with Manchester Camerata in 1989. In 2002 he was appointed General Manager of Manchester Camerata and was one of the first Fellows on the Clore Leadership Programme. In 2006 he became Director of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (BBC SSO). During his time there he has appointed a world-class team of conductors; created a special partnership with the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (RCS); and consolidated the BBC SSO in its new home in City Halls, Glasgow. He has also been successful with commercial recordings, music festivals and touring. Speaking about his appointment, Gavin says, “I am enormously thrilled to take up this post after 10 wonderful years at the BBC SSO. I am passionate about music and the extraordinary opportunities it can offer to everyone. I am particularly
excited by the crucial and influential role that the SCO plays within Scotland and I look forward to working closely with players, staff, artists and all of the SCO’s supporters to build on the fantastic achievements of recent years, as led by Roy McEwan.” Roy will hand over to Gavin during the summer before he fully retires on Monday 29 August at the Virgin Money Fireworks Concert which now symbolises the ‘changing of the guard’. On Gavin’s appointment, Roy comments, “I have no doubt that Gavin will bring great experience, flair and devotion to the next stage of the SCO’s story. He is joining a wonderful orchestra full of talented and committed musicians and staff and I wish him well in taking them forward.” We are all really looking forward to working with Gavin to build on our creative relationships, develop our creative learning and grow our profile as a cultural ambassador for Scotland.
Making music is such an intense experience. Being away from home has its challenges in one sense, but travelling together as an Orchestra brings so many other rewards both on and off the concert platform. One such reward is the time we have together while travelling and staying overnight. Becoming a tighter ‘family’ means we understand each other better, take more risks with our playing and therefore make even better music than ever. –––––– Venturing into the unknown... No matter which venues we travel to, there are always questions to be answered to build our local knowledge. Is the stage area wide enough to fit the whole orchestra in Blair Castle? How will we set up the stage area in the basketball court in Kingussie? Will the B&B in Callander still be serving sandwiches after the concert? What’s the new Crêperie in Findhorn like? Will our truck fit through the gate at Lanark
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our concerts is available on the back page or at www.sco.org.uk. You can also download a poster for each concert from the website.
We are thrilled to play in the ballroom at Blair Castle for the second year in a row on Saturday 6 August. Last year the statues of Atholl soldiers joined us (they couldn’t be moved) and people came from all around including nearby villages and farms, and the local campsite.
Memorial Hall? As you can imagine, there is a great sense of adventure (and on occasion, a small amount of anxiety)! –––––– Local heroes… Another reward is the number of friends we continue to make across Scotland. They let us in on local secrets, decorate the town and village shops with our posters, provide help with accommodation and meals, or organise interval drinks for the audience. They inform the local music teachers and school music departments about the concerts and encourage students to come along (some under 18s get free tickets!). These friends, and there are too many to name, are our local heroes. We can’t thank them enough for all the support they have provided over the years.
–––––– Join in… The people we meet in the communities have become part of who we are and make our summer concerts so special. And you can get involved: 1. If you attend our concerts in our cities, consider catching up with us one evening in the countryside. For example, plan a visit to Nardini’s Café in Largs, then stroll along to the seaside pavilion – The Barrfields Theatre – for our evening concert on Saturday 28 May. 2. Send our list of concerts to your friends and family around Scotland – most people attend a concert because of a personal recommendation. A full list of
3. If you spot a concert close to where you live, give us a call or send an email if you can help out. That may be with publicity (delivering a few fliers or hanging posters), or if you need materials to help inform local groups, or if you can help on the night of the concert with refreshments or selling programmes. Every small contribution is a great help. 4. Look for our events on Facebook and share them.
Robin update –––––– Our Principal Conductor Robin Ticciati has had to withdraw from several months of work after suffering from a herniated disc in February. He underwent successful surgery in March and is now at home in London, taking time to ensure he makes a full recovery. We look forward to welcoming Robin back to Scotland in August for our Edinburgh International Festival performance of Berlioz’s Roméo & Juliette followed by our Season opening of Mozart’s Last Symphonies in Perth, Edinburgh and Glasgow, proudly sponsored by Baillie Gifford.
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It’s a girl!
SCO CONNECT
–––––– SCO Cellist Eric de Wit and SCO Violinist Rachel Smith are thrilled to let you know that they welcomed baby Nora Miryam into the world on Sunday 20 March. She was 9lb 12oz and 59cm at birth. All three family members are doing very well.
–––––– April brings change for the SCO Connect team. Lucy Forde has now finished in her role as SCO Connect Director and we wish her and her family all the very best for the future. We are delighted to welcome back Dr Kirsteen Davidson-Kelly who previously provided maternity cover. Kirsteen is a pianist and researcher who has collaborated with composers, dancers, physical theatre practitioners, visual artists and filmmakers – both as a performer and through creative education projects within diverse communities and internationally. –––––– Wester Hailes Residency In January 2016, we began a residency project in Wester Hailes,
Eric, Rachel and Nora
Win £250 ––––––
250 SOCIETY Please join us in congratulating recent winners of our 250 Society draw who each won £250. January 2016 – Janet Monfries February 2016 – Elaine Ross March 2016 – Eon Grindlay April 2016 – Peter Swarbrick It costs just £5 a month to become a member of the SCO’s 250 Society and be in with a chance of winning a monthly prize of £250. All proceeds go towards funding the work of SCO Connect. To join, simply download the SCO 250 Society membership form at www.sco.org.uk/support-us or contact Adam James on 0131 478 8344.
Edinburgh at Canal View and Clovenstone Primary Schools. Matilda Brown, composer and workshop leader, Ana Almeida, a specialist in early years’ musical movement, and SCO musicians including Eric de Wit, Emily Dellit Imbert and Su-a Lee led five music and movement workshops in each school. The children were very enthusiastic about trying out instruments, responding to sounds through movement and creating new music in collaboration with the team. The workshops culminated in an informal performance where children were able to share their work with their classmates, parents and teachers. Amanda Carmichael, teacher at Canal View Primary School said, “The children have really become a lot more focussed in class since this project and are working together more. Those that are quiet in the classroom really came out of their shells through the music and this was lovely to see. The children have loved this and have learned so much. Honestly, the five weeks doesn’t seem like enough time.” The residency continues with creative workshops for pre-school children and their parents and carers. –––––– Kindly supported by Ponton House Trust, Jean Fraser Charitable Trust, Bank of Scotland Foundation and The Stevenston Charitable Trust ––––––
Student Collective on stage at Usher Hall
Rattray Primary School Residency Our residency in Rattray Primary School in Perthshire is coming to the end of its first year. To mark the occasion, children will be showcasing the work they have developed with Matilda Brown and SCO musicians in a performance on Monday 16 May in the NorieMiller Studio, Perth Concert Hall for pupils, teachers and parents. –––––– Kindly supported by The Robertson Trust, The Plum Trust and Paterson Logan Charitable Trust –––––– Edinburgh International Book Festival (EIBF) Following a very successful collaboration around The Crocodiamond Family Concert, we will be working with EIBF again in August. SCO players Alison Mitchell and Gordon Bragg will join author and illustrator Debi Gliori for the Big Draw event on 21 August and a Storybox event for schools on 30 August.
Student collective –––––– Our Student Collective provides opportunities for students to gain practical experience of working with an orchestra. This Season we have been working with Chenxin Xie (Strathclyde University), Vivek Santayana and Niklas Hamström (University of Edinburgh). Niklas and Vivek have been creating links with student radio stations and publications and represented the SCO at the University Freshers’ Fair. Niklas organised a tour at the Usher Hall, providing students the opportunity to feel what it’s like to stand on stage and have a sneak peek backstage at our musicians warming up. Chenxin has been active on social media, promoting SCO concerts. She has also set up links with many societies on campus including ‘The Strathclyde Chinese Students and Scholars Association’, helping us bring our music to new audiences. Niklas (University of Edinburgh) added that ,“The SCO
work placement has given me valuable insight into the running of the orchestra and the functioning of the marketing department. One of the most enjoyable experiences has been the time in the office; getting to know the staff and feeling like a part of the organisation.” –––––– Connect Students Anita Okienko, a 3rd year BA (Hons) Popular Music student at Edinburgh Napier University, volunteered as a Student Tutor on our SCO VIBE course in 2015. Along with animateur Paul Griffiths, a team of SCO and freelance musicians and two other Student Tutors, Anita worked with young musicians aged 11 to 18. Anita talks about her experience of SCO VIBE and how it inspired her to follow her passion to teach. “The main challenge for me was the transition between being a student to becoming a teacher – I had to be confident enough, make responsible decisions and decide on the creative outcome of any activity. One day
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the pupils came up with fantastic lyrics which we later used in one of the orchestra’s compositions. “It was incredibly rewarding to see this great bunch of aspiring musicians having so much fun, interacting with each other and learning new skills. The feeling when you start noticing your contribution towards a child’s education is impossible to describe – so heart-warming. This experience definitely confirmed to me that I want to become the best teacher I possibly can.” –––––– SCO VIBE is delivered in partnership with Drake Music Scotland and City of Edinburgh Council. For more information on the Student Collective please contact connect@sco.org.uk
Programme Change –––––– A Celebration of Scotland’s Musical Hero Thursday 1 December, Edinburgh Friday 2 December, Glasgow Sadly Sir Peter Maxwell Davies was unable to write his Accordion Concerto which we had commissioned for these concerts. Instead we are delighted to be joined by Cellist William Conway who will perform Maxwell Davies’ Strathclyde Concerto No 2. This work, which is as lyrical as anything he wrote, was originally written for William Conway when he was our Principal Cellist. He first performed it with the SCO in February 1989.
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SECOND INTERVIEW Marcus Barcham Stevens We’re looking forward to you joining the Orchestra as Principal Second Violin in October. What do you enjoy about playing in a chamber orchestra? Thank you. I am excited about taking up the job with the SCO. I loved the two recent Brahms symphonies I played with the SCO, Brahms 3 with Robin Ticciati and Brahms 4 with Emmanuel Krivine. Close musical communication and interaction is what attracts me to chamber orchestras, as well as the repertoire, especially Baroque/Classical and 20th Century. Did you always want to be a violinist? Pretty much. From about the age of 10 I was bowled over by two recordings: Beethoven’s Violin Concerto by Arthur Grumiaux and Sibelius’ Violin Concerto by Christian Ferras, which made me want to be a violinist. Other things I have thought about being are a composer, going into the church or the Foreign Office. How do you listen to music? Through a subscription to Digital Concert Hall, from the Berlin Philharmonie. Really excellent concerts are streamed online and there is an archive of historical concerts from 1966. Live musicmaking communicates so much more to me than “perfect” edited recordings. We’re giving you a time machine. Which period or moment in musical history would you travel to and why? Leipzig in the 1720s. Or more specifically, 1723-26 in the Thomaskirche. Imagine seeing Bach every Sunday conduct his latest cantata which he had just composed that week.
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Recent Recordings Schumann Piano Concerto Mendelssohn Piano Concerto No 1 ––––––
Ingrid Fliter - Piano Antonio Méndez - Conductor
Following on from our Gramophone Award-nominated recording of Chopin’s Piano Concertos, our acclaimed partnership with pianist Ingrid Fliter continues with two Romantic composers close to our hearts in Schumann and Mendelssohn. Ingrid Fliter is a graceful and charismatic performer, wellknown for her thoughtful and sensitive music-making and effortless technique. The recording also marks the recording debut of Antonio
Méndez with whom we performed at the 2015 St Magnus International Festival as well as during our 2015/16 Season. This is the first album to be recorded at the state of the art facilities in the new Royal Scottish National Orchestra Centre in Glasgow. Available to purchase now from the SCO Merchandise desk: £12. Also available to download in Studio Master or on 45 RPM Supercut vinyl from www.linnrecords.com
“[Fliter] brilliantly tackles Schumann’s shifting colours and technical demands head on… she brings out all of Mendelssohn’s melodic genius.” Classic FM “There’s still room for something fresh to be said with this evergreen music … in both the Mendelssohn and Schumann, Fliter plays with tautness and energy, fitting handin-glove with the SCO. Heartfelt and intelligent, this is life-enhancing music, and as a bonus there’s The Fair Melusina Overture”. BBC Music Magazine, May 2016
Coming soon… –––––– Last September we were in the studio with Conductor Ben Gernon, recording three works by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies – An Orkney Wedding, with Sunrise, Last Door of Light and Ebb of Winter. The latter of these works was our last completed commission from our late Composer Laureate, which we premiered during our 40th Anniversary Season. –––––– This album is due for release on Linn in September 2016.
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A man of many parts Richard Strauss in perspective by Dr Martin Ennis Richard Strauss’ life spans one of the most turbulent periods in German history. Born in 1864, Strauss wrote his first compositions while Germany was still a collection of nation states, and he came of age several years before Wilhelm II was crowned Kaiser. In the course of his long career he saw the Wilhelmine Empire, the Weimar Republic and the Third Reich collapse around him. He even witnessed, a few weeks before his death in 1949, the founding of the German Federal Republic. Throughout most of his adult life, Strauss was the dominant force in German music. From about the turn of the century, he was widely regarded as both the country’s leading composer and one of its foremost conductors. So when, in 1933, the Nazis set up a Reichsmusikkammer [Reich Music Chamber] to govern the musical activities of the nation, Strauss was the obvious choice to serve as inaugural president. Yet, when Germany’s most important music journal, the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, was
relaunched in December 1949 – it was discontinued during World War II – Strauss’ name barely featured. The first issue contained a series of retrospectives, including one on ‘Das musikalische Theater von 1900 bis 1950’ – effectively, a survey of German opera – but Strauss’ contribution is dismissed in one paragraph. Composers, now almost completely forgotten, such as Werner Egk and Heinrich Sutermeister, receive as many column-inches, in flagrant disregard of the fact that Strauss’ operas had, for decades, dominated German stages. Admittedly, Strauss merits a photograph, but even this is placed after a portrait of Hans Pfitzner, a not-quite-sogrand old man of German music who, like Strauss, had died in 1949. Why such neglect? Was it the irrelevance of a composer in advanced old age? Or was it a post-war attempt to move on, to abandon the figures most closely identified with earlier regimes? The answer is complex. Strauss was such a protean character that
all attempts to pigeon-hole him have proved challenging. As the musicologist Bryan Gilliam once put it, ‘what set Strauss apart from his German contemporaries was a unique musical atheism’. Or, to put it another way, he was a musical chameleon. Precociously gifted, Strauss seems to have learned to read music earlier than he learned to read and write, and by the time he left school he had composed a symphony (performed under the great conductor, Hermann Levi), six overtures, 59 songs, 45 piano pieces, and much more besides. “I wrote too much too soon”, he commented in 1910, and in a note to his son Franz, composed shortly before his death, Strauss stipulated that these early works should not be published. “They are talented copies in Classical vein” – he wrote – “echoes of greater and less great predecessors.” Strauss started adult life as a representative of the musical establishment, and it’s fitting that he gained his first position in 1885 as a conductor of Brahms’s favourite ensemble, the Meiningen
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Court Orchestra. In fact, later the same year, while still only twentyone, Strauss went on to replace the great Brahms admirer, Hans von Bülow, as Meiningen’s Principal Conductor. Strauss’ father, who didn’t share his son’s enthusiasms, described him at the time as “a raging Brahmsian”. However, as Strauss grew more interested in the ‘progressive’ composers, Wagner and Liszt, he increasingly turned away from Brahms. By November 1889, he was calling the latter “musically deficient”, even a “mediocrity”, and in a letter to Wagner’s widow, Cosima, Strauss went so far as to rail against Brahms’s masterpiece, Ein deutsches Requiem, declaring Berlioz’s Requiem a much greater work. Before long he was shunning the ‘old-fashioned’ symphony for the more ‘advanced’ symphonic poem. With the first of his great tone poems Don Juan – the terms symphonic poem and tone poem are effectively interchangeable – he established himself not only as a brilliant compositional mind but also as a master of dazzling orchestral colour; his dual careers as composer and conductor developed symbiotically during this period. Don Juan – like its successors Tod und Verklärung and (the reworked) Macbeth – lasts little more than 20 minutes. Before long, however, the scale of Strauss’ orchestral works
increased dramatically, and in the years leading up to World War I he completed a series of extremely grandiose compositions, enormous in scale and in the demands they make on orchestral resources. Even today, they are challenging for well-established ensembles, as the collaboration of the Hallé and BBC Philharmonic orchestras in a recent performance of the Alpine Symphony demonstrated. Axel Carpalan, allegedly quoting
Strauss was such a protean character that all attempts to pigeonhole him have proved challenging Sibelius, surely had works such as these in mind when he referred in 1911 to contemporary Germany “where instrumental music is becoming mere technique, a kind of musical civil-engineering, which tries to disguise its inner emptiness behind an enormous musical apparatus”. The Alpine Symphony was nonetheless a high-water mark. Over the following years
Strauss virtually abandoned pure orchestral composition, turning his attention instead to opera. However, one could say that his operatic career was already entering its third phase. After the limited success of two early operas, Guntram and Feuersnot, which were based in German myth, Strauss found a way round the problem of the all-pervading Wagnerian influence by reinventing himself as an enfant terrible in two starkly modernist operas, Salome and Elektra. Yet, this persona lasted no longer than the previous one, and by 1911 Strauss was presenting himself as a purveyor of up-market Viennese Schmalz, in the form of the immediately and enduringly popular Der Rosenkavalier. Though Der Rosenkavalier is often portrayed as a retreat from high modernism – its composer was reviled by many as a revisionist, even a backslider – with the benefit of hindsight we can see that Strauss was setting the points for a new stylistic direction. Der Rosenkavalier is an early example of the neo-Classicism that would mark the next phase of Strauss’ career, sweeping across the musical world in the wake of World War I. On hearing Strauss’ next opera Ariadne auf Naxos in 1912, Princesse de Polignac, one of the most important patrons of early twentieth-century music, concluded that “the days of large
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orchestras were over”. With no idea, presumably, that Strauss was already at work on the Alpine Symphony, she promptly commissioned Stravinsky to write his one-act opera-ballet Renard, a work that uses only about a dozen players. According to most critics, Ariadne and the bulk of Strauss’ remaining ten operas espouse a clear neoClassical aesthetic. The same label has frequently been applied to most of the orchestral works performed this season by the SCO. In some cases, the label is entirely appropriate; after all, both the Suite from Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (1917) and Capriccio (1942), as well as several works in between, are built on material by seventeenthand eighteenth-century composers. However, the term should be used with caution. Strauss’ brand of neo-Classicism was quite different from that practised by others. Unlike Stravinsky, he had little interest in placing Classical material under a distorting mirror; even in his theatrical works he avoids the Verfremdungseffekte [alienation effects] associated with Brecht. Strauss’ achievement in his last decades was to forge a new, non-ironic style that, in terms of referenced material, lies somewhere between neoClassicism and neo-Romanticism. The two most enduring works of the post-1945 period, Metamorphosen and the Four
Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme is performed by the SCO in St Andrews, Edinburgh and Glasgow |12-14 October 2016
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Last Songs, seem to many the quintessence of Romanticism, albeit written long après la lettre; on the other hand, the Oboe Concerto and the Duet-Concertino, both performed during the coming season, draw more obviously on Classical models. What unites them all is the composer’s uniquely captivating blend of eighteenthcentury melody and nineteenthcentury harmony. Strauss once claimed that “the human soul was first revealed to humanity in Mozart’s melodies”, and the works heard during the coming season reveal a constant striving after the easy elegance of Mozart’s operatic arias. At the same time, Strauss never quite abandons the richness of harmonic language he inherited from Wagner, even if this particular style has long since been purged of its extreme chromaticism and its power to shock. It is as though Strauss, chameleon-like, can switch between styles at will. According to Theodor Adorno, one of the most profound thinkers on twentieth-century music, Strauss chose in his later years “to abandon himself to unmitigated exteriority”. In similar vein, the philosopher Ernst Bloch detected “a brilliant superficiality” in his music. There’s no doubt that the sense of a composer hiding behind stylistic masks contributed to the neglect Strauss suffered
in the decades after World War II. It’s no coincidence that the concept of historical inevitability – the idea of constant, ineluctable musical progress that was propagated with feverish intensity by Schoenberg – reached its peak in the 1950s. For many, Strauss’ willingness to swap styles was simply at odds with this dominant historical imperative. Even well-disposed critics argued that he had outlived his own time, suggesting that if Strauss had died around the time of the First World War – like Mahler and Debussy – he would have remained an icon for modernists. Norman del Mar, one of the composer’s principal apologists and the author of a three-volume study, went further, claiming that Strauss’ long life resulted in his taking over Brahms’ “cloak of end-figure”; “the unusual circumstance that [Strauss] continued to wear this cloak while still living on for some thirty years seemed at times to reduce it to a thread-bare condition”, he added.
Strauss’ chequered history during the Third Reich doubtless also played a role in his neglect. In some quarters his early identification with the Nazi regime wasn’t easily forgotten, even though Strauss’ post as President of the Reichsmusikkammer was terminated by the Nazis as early as 1935 – as a direct result of his engagement with non-Aryan figures. What’s more, many of those who chose to ignore Strauss after World War II didn’t realise that his dealings with the Nazi regime were over-shadowed by attempts to protect his Jewish daughter-in-law and grandchildren. Accounts of a fruitless visit to Theresienstadt to plead for the release of relatives came to general public awareness only long after the composer’s death. No-one can deny that Strauss’ career was a turbulent one, or that his oeuvre contains work of many different stamps. Today, however, with polystylism almost de rigueur in certain quarters, we’re fortunate in being able to approach Strauss’ music with an open mind and, free from misleading prejudices, we can appreciate the works showcased in the SCO’s 2016-17 programme on their own terms. Prepare to be surprised and delighted in equal measure! –––––– Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme 12-14 October 2016 St Andrews, Edinburgh and Glasgow
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End of an era 23 years at the helm of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Roy McEwan has helped grow our reputation. After an astonishing 23 years at the administrative helm of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Roy McEwan has decided it’s time to collect his pension. McEwan turns 65 in May, so there’s nothing unusual about this decision to step down at the end of the season. Yes, age is one factor, he says. But the other has been to allow the wheels of change at the SCO to turn smoothly. “One of the reasons I stayed so long was having such a wonderful chairman in Donald MacDonald,” he explains. “We had a partnership for 21 of my 23 years at the SCO, which is pretty unheard of nowadays.” It seemed sensible that McEwan should hang around a little longer to see the new chairman in, who could then manage his own successor. It is, without doubt, the end of an era. McEwan remembers fondly the many wonderful partnerships he has helped nurture: the long and fruitful relationship the orchestra enjoyed with the late Sir Charles Mackerras, whose Mozart recordings with Linn Records are simply genius; the enticement of Joseph Swensen to become Principal Conductor after a period of shifts in that post; and the Linn partnership itself, which continues today in svelte new recordings
featuring the current Principal Conductor, Robin Ticciati. It was Mackerras who first suggested the use of natural horns, a stylistic feature of most SCO performances ever since. “The SCO was an exceptional orchestra when I came, but it’s been wonderful to see it grow in terms of its bold repertoire and international reputation,” says McEwan. “We already have a really fine orchestra, an international reputation, and a really fine creative learning programme. Now we need the facilities of a new concert hall to progress the work of the SCO: opening up possibilities to work with new artists, development of our life-long learning programme, the way the orchestra builds itself into the community. There is huge potential, but that requires a place for us in Edinburgh that is absolutely stunning.” The SCO is one of our national musical treasures. McEwan’s custodianship for more than half its existence has been one of great integrity and musical adventure. Let the adventure continue. –––––– Extract from full interview by Ken Walton, which was published in Scotsman Life Magazine on 20 February 2016.
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Memories of Max Some of our memories of the much loved Sir Peter Maxwell Davies From Roy McEwan, Chief Executive Everyone at the Scottish Chamber Orchestra is deeply saddened by the passing of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies in March. Max’s relationship with the SCO has been one of the defining characteristics of the Orchestra, emerging before it was 10 years old and stretching to his wonderfully evocative orchestral work Ebb of Winter, written for our 40th Anniversary in 2014. At the core of his twenty works which were commissioned or premiered by the SCO, were the 10 Strathclyde concertos, celebrating the talented musicians within the Orchestra and Max’s special relationship with us. This relationship was deepened by the many trips we took to Orkney as part of the St Magnus Festival which was created and inspired by Max. He was a man of great personal warmth and compassion as well as a fearless campaigner for those causes that he believed in. He will always be an important part of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra’s life and history and indeed the musical life of Scotland. A full list of SCO Commissions and Premieres of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’ music is available on our website. From Steve King, SCO Viola There are still a few of us in the SCO who were around during the golden age of the Strathclyde Concertos and the other pieces of Max’s that we performed together in Scotland and throughout
the world. There are stories there that could fill a book! To this day, he carries forward the flag of true musical individualism – may this carry on for many a year! As Max passed the magic 80, we looked in wonder at how much more this amazing creative musician would pass on to us in the future. His opus was already huge, with a rainbow of diversity in genre and style. I had been on the receiving end of Max’s beat for 31 years. I was on the receiving end of Max’s generosity for 31 years and had the perfect view of Max, the creative, performing and personal musician, from a very practical angle as a viola player. Max is a manifestation of a multi centuries line of mainstream composers in western music that takes us from the plainchant of over 1000 years ago, through Perotin, Monteverdi, Bach, Beethoven, Wagner, Schoenberg, Britten. And the spectrum of his influence on others is all around us – the Scottish composer Sir James MacMillan is a fine example, even my path has been driven by his influence. My association with Max as a composer and also his driving influence behind the unique St Magnus Festival has given me a foundation and inspiration to manifest my own career vision. However, as a friend it is with great fondness and warmth that I look back on this gentle, kind,
thoughtful man and see how important he was in inspiring me to be the person I am now. Always with a twinkle in his eye, and a sense of humour that never ceased to bring a smile to others around him. He was there with a carefully chosen few words during a life’s crisis – words never forgotten that gave me comfort and confidence. He was there for my wedding to my loved wife Anne and joined in the fun and antics, his gift, a specially composed anthem, the theme close to both our hearts, ‘good red wine’! Cheers Max, you will always remain in my heart. From Lorna McLaren, SCO Violin Max was a joy to know. Always smiling, his warmth and generous spirit was palpable and infected those around him. He cared about mankind and the human spirit, and this was reflected in his compositions, whether he was writing for the concert hall or friends. He gave us a fantastic musical legacy, not only as a composer, but also as one of the co-founders of the St Magnus Festival in Orkney. It was a privilege to be part of this. From Alison Green, SCO Bassoon So many memories of Max. I was lucky enough to take part in two of the Hoy composers’ courses in the nineties. One with Alasdair Nicholson and another with Steve Martland. Max was of course on hand with pearls of wisdom about composition techniques to share with the young composers. We used to huddle into the cold church on Hoy to play through the music produced by the composers, and then we’d all go next door to the youth hostel to eat. It was through this course that I met the Rendalls – Jack and Dorothy (An Orkney Wedding depicts their wedding) and their daughter Lucy (Lullabye for Lucy). We used to see Max striding energetically past their house where we were staying, to reach his cottage up the hill.
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I remember playing Max’s Cello Concerto with Will Conway as soloist in St Magnus Cathedral. It was so atmospheric and it felt like exactly the right place to be playing that Concerto (See SCO News page 8).
challenging, but when we performed his works with so-called ‘good’ conductors the ebb and flow of his music, so influenced by sea and landscape, were never as fluid nor convincing.
I also remember going to the Ojai Festival in California, where we performed the newly composed Ojai Festival Overture. I remember talking to Max about the Strathclyde Concertos and asking if he’d thought of composing a concerto for the 2nd players. A twinkle came into his eye and a while after that he composed Strathclyde 9 for the ‘Cinderella’ instruments as he called them, including me on contra-bassoon.
He was reluctant to explain his music in pictorial terms. But there were two occasions I remember well, when we were struggling to find meaning in the dense notation. What exactly was happening, we wanted to know, to help us in the interpretation? Well, he was looking out of his Rackwick cottage window on Hoy, and witnessed a huge shoal of herring thrashing the surface of the water off the bay. Immediately he set to to realise this in notational form, and we had the clue to create a sound world. Another occasion presented us with equally complex ideas. Again the question. He was working in this same cottage during a storm, and for a moment there was a deathly silence. Suddenly a bolt of lightning shot through the room, his hair stood an end and all his recorded material was wiped. The noise was intense; then again the silence before evidence of the storm again intruded. This episode was the inspiration for our questioning.
We did a lovely concert for Max in the BBC Proms in 2014 for his 80th birthday and presented him with his SCO tartan waistcoat. He was so delighted and looked so smart. From Adrian Bornet, SCO Double Bass Max’s generosity of spirit and warm smiling welcome are aspects of his character many know. In relation to the interpretation of his music he could also be most generous. We were rehearsing Orkney Wedding for a coming tour, and really indulging ourselves in the developing drunken scene, whooping and all, when in walked Max. It was obvious he was enjoying these excesses but we were concerned at perhaps overdoing things a bit. His generous response was that the music is as a child having left the family home to be out in the world fending for itself. We worked with him as conductor over many years, with one or two in the orchestra suggesting very politely ways in which he might improve his style. It could be very amusing, and he was ever a ready learner. But nerves on the podium would sometimes clear his mind of things we might require. The following day would see strenuous efforts to repair things. A time signature of 15/16 could be
Through these and many another moments over many years I will always have the fondest of memories. –––––– In memory of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies (1934-2016)
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And this was how it started Our Associate Composer Martin Suckling chats about being a composer and his new SCO commission Piano Concerto When did you decide you wanted to become a composer? I was quite young, and I wanted to aspire to something that would top my older brother and sister, who are both instrumentalists. Composer seemed to fit the bill: what little brother wouldn’t want to write the tune their siblings had to dance to? As well as an extremely supportive family, I was fortunate to have a piano teacher (Rob Foxcroft) who encouraged me to improvise as much as possible, as well as introducing me to a wide range of new music – I had quite narrow tastes as a teenager, pretty much Schubert and Queen; Old Blind Dogs too when I joined a ceilidh band. I remember learning some movements of Messiaen’s Vingt regards sur l’enfant-Jésus and them being the first pieces of (relatively) contemporary music I actually enjoyed. But once I opened my ears, what a world there was to explore – and the best thing being I could create it as I discovered it! So, just as I was discovering I didn’t really have the patience to do the slow methodical focused practice required to be a violinist, I found I did have the patience to do the slow not-always-methodical work of composing music.
Did you play an instrument first? Does that help you when you are composing? I use anything I can get my hands on to help when I’m composing – violin, piano, singing, computer synthesis, persuadable instrumentalists and singers... Getting the actual sound right is so important, and my ears are a much better judge than my eyes, I find, or at least a different judge. Pitch matters; how music moves in time matters. But also the years spent playing in orchestras and a sense of the physicality of what I’m writing are invaluable. Do you ever miss being the one on stage? So much. I’m an attention-seeker as much as a control-freak. What does your first draft of a score look like? Fully-formed/sketches/different colours/detailed/ visual/wordy? It depends on the piece. Sometimes there’s a specific moment of music that arrives almost fully-formed and I can write that out and see where it leads; other times I have a sense of where I’m going but I need to
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use a lot of words and try a lot of wrong directions before I get there. Each movement for this Piano Concerto has been quite a different experience to write. The one constant is a stack of fineliners of as many different shades as possible which I periodically replenish. When working on a piece, I have to be creator, critic and coach, and it helps to have different ‘voices’ in different colours – plus it makes me happy. Do you always use a specific stimulus when composing (like the Niall Campbell poem And This Was How It Started which inspired your new Piano Concerto which we premiere in October)? I find it helps to have some fixed point around which ideas can crystallise. Last year my ‘sources’ were mainly visual – Goya and Edmund de Waal – but I think all the pieces I’ve written for the SCO have had a literary connection – Borges for storm, rose, tiger; Shakespeare for Six Speechless Songs; and now Niall Campbell for the Piano Concerto. I read Campbell’s book Moontide in 2014 while I was making the first sketches for what became this Concerto and I was utterly seduced. The myth of a world created through song is an old one I’ve long been attracted to, and the everyday magic of Campbell’s pub singer seemed to me just what I wanted from my soloist – there’s virtuosity there, but it’s not an antagonistic situation, more of a celebration, life-affirming. You became a father a couple of years ago? Has this changed your perspectives on composition, or has it had any other effect on how you compose? It changes your perspective on pretty much everything! Practically, it means I need to be much more efficient. That’s definitely still a work in progress. I also seem to have shifted from writing very late at night to writing very early in the morning. As a Glasgow-born Scot, do you feel an affinity with all things Scottish? Haggis, Burns’ poetry, Scottish music…?
Hah! You know, I won the ‘Scottish Songwriter in Schools’ competition with a song about haggis I wrote in primary school, so maybe... But actually it’s really complicated: yes I play the pipes and I sorely miss my ceilidh-playing days, but I got into these as a classically trained ‘outsider’. And one of the wonderful things about so much that we consider quintessentially Scottish is that it’s really international rather than provincial in nature – bagpipes occur in a great many cultures; our fiddle playing embraces traditions from the whole Celtic diaspora, not to mention Scandinavia; Burns was an internationalist (think The Slave’s Lament); the line singing of the Outer Hebrides (which I simply adore) became transformed in the Americas. . . If you had to pick a composer from the 18th or 19th centuries to work or study with now, who would it be? It depends on what we’d be doing, I can imagine many of them would be difficult to work with! They say you shouldn’t meet your heroes, but still I’d have to go with Schubert. Or Berlioz – his orchestral imagination is extraordinary and I’d love to bring him back to the 21st century and see what he’d do with our resources. He described an orchestra of 120 violins, 40 violas, 45 cellos, 35 double bass, and 4 octobasses alongside a corresponding quantity of wind and brass – imagine what would happen if he got his hands on a computer and ambisonic speaker array! –––––– Associate Composer Martin Suckling’s Piano Concerto is one of four SCO commissions in the 2016/17 Season. –––––– Kindly supported by RVW Trust, Cruden Foundation and The Hope Scott Trust. –––––– The SCO will perform the Piano Concerto on 12 – 14 October 2016 in St Andrews, Edinburgh and Glasgow.
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YOUR ORCHESTRA, YOUR SAY... –––––– We would like to give you the opportunity to comment and have your say. Whether it is via social media or by sending us a letter, we love to hear from you. –––––– Hi... just to say I taught a first cello lesson to a 7 year old this week... I asked why she wanted to learn the cello and she said she had tried one out at Crocodiamond and just knew she wanted to play it :-) Harriet Davidson (Cello teacher, Email)
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We came up to Glasgow from Caernarfon in N.Wales to spend 4 days on my wife’s 80th birthday. The City Halls and the Brahms concert was fabulous. A superbly led and so talented orchestra was the highlight of our stay at this superb friendly and cultural city. We shall come again. Customer Email
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@SCOmusic great concert! Is there a happier looking conductor than Andrew Manze? #smileymaestri Kate Main @tram_cat
We loved Bizet Symphony in C. I took my 7 year old daughter to show her what an orchestra was and she was mesmerised. She started piano lessons last September and was impressed by the soloist. Laetitia (Email)
Join the conversation –––––– Sign up for our email newsletter for all our latest news, films, photos, blogs and special offers. sco.org.uk/register Email us Elizabeth Whitty, Customer Communications elizabeth.whitty@sco.org.uk Comment us on Facebook View our latest photographs. facebook.com/scottishchamberorchestra Share your experience on Twitter @SCOmusic Share your experience on Instagram #mySCO
THROUGH THE EYES OF... Aisling O’Dea First Violin Did you always want to play the violin? Both my parents being musicians there was always plenty of music to be heard at home when I was growing up. My mother and sister play the piano and I wanted to play something ‘different’ and the fiddle was what caught my eye - also the fact that my older sister was having violin lessons at that time, so of course I wanted to do that too. When my family moved to the UK I started having regular violin lessons. I guess it was then when I decided ‘I want to be a fiddle player’. Does your violin have a story? My violin is made by the English maker Henry Lockey-Hill and was made in 1820 so quite soon it’ll be 200 years old. Lockey-Hill was better known for his cello making skills so having a violin from him makes it quite special. The fact that it will soon celebrate its 200th birthday sometimes makes me wonder about the stories the violin could tell me!
You do a lot of our SCO Connect projects – what are you enjoying about the residency at Rattray Primary School? I’m particularly enjoying working with the pupils at Rattray Primary School and am looking forward to our performance on 16 May. It is very special to see the enthusiasm these kids have, from the moment they enter the classroom, you can sense their excitment to create and explore, not to mention the great fun we all have. The workshops are led by Matilda Brown and that whole creative world unfolds right from the start of the session. None of the pupils have violin lessons but a few are really keen to give it a go and so the challenge for me is to get them playing. Needless to say it is quite impressive what effects one can get with open strings and pizzicato!
THROWBACK –––––
Sir Peter Maxwell Davies performing the Strathclyde concerto No 1 for Oboe and Orchestra with the SCO in 1988.
Hear us in concert
Saturday 28 May 7.30pm
Thursday 23 June 8pm
YOUR ORCHESTRA YOUR ORCHESTRA IN CASTLE DOUGLAS IN DUNS
YOUR ORCHESTRA IN LARGS
YOUR ORCHESTRA IN STIRLING
PABLO GONZÁLEZ Conductor
PABLO GONZÁLEZ Conductor
PABLO GONZÁLEZ Conductor
WOLFRAM CHRIST Conductor
Friday 24 June 8pm
Saturday 25 June 8pm
Sunday 3 July 4pm
Wednesday 20 July 7.30pm
YOUR ORCHESTRA IN KINGUSSIE
YOUR ORCHESTRA IN FINDHORN
EAST NEUK FESTIVAL
MUSIC AT PAXTON
WOLFRAM CHRIST Conductor
WOLFRAM CHRIST Conductor
Christian Zacharias Director / Violin
SCO Wind Soloists
Wednesday 20 July 7.30pm
Thursday 21 July 7.30pm
Thursday 21 July 7.30pm
Friday 22 July 7.30pm
SCO STRINGS IN DRUMNADROCHIT
SCO WINDS IN DUNDEE
SCO STRINGS IN SKYE
SCO WINDS IN BLAIRGOWRIE
STEPHANIE GONLEY Director / Violin
SCO Wind Soloists
STEPHANIE GONLEY Director / Violin
SCO Wind Soloists
Friday 22 July 8pm
Sunday 24 July 7.30pm
Thursday 4 August 8pm
Friday 5 August 7.30pm
SCO STRINGS IN CALLANDER
YOUR ORCHESTRA IN MUSSELBURGH
YOUR ORCHESTRA IN INVERNESS
YOUR ORCHESTRA IN CULTS
STEPHANIE GONLEY Director / Violin
STEPHANIE GONLEY Director / Violin
Lahav Shani Conductor
Lahav Shani Conductor
Saturday 6 August 7.30pm
Thursday 11 August 8pm, Edinburgh
Thursday 18 August 8pm, Edinburgh
Monday 29 August 9.30pm, Edinburgh
YOUR ORCHESTRA IN BLAIR ATHOLL
SCHUMANN’s Manfred
BERLIOZ Roméo & Juliette
Virgin Money Fireworks Concert
Lahav Shani Conductor
Sir John Eliot Gardiner Conductor
Robin Ticciati Conductor
Kristiina Poska Conductor
Thursday 15 September 7.30pm
Friday 16 September 7.30pm
Saturday 17 September 7.30pm
YOUR ORCHESTRA IN SELKIRK
YOUR ORCHESTRA IN HELENSBURGH
YOUR ORCHESTRA IN LANARK
ALEXANDER JANICZEK Director / Violin
ALEXANDER JANICZEK Director / Violin
ALEXANDER JANICZEK Director / Violin
Thursday 26 May 7.30pm
Friday 27 May 7.30pm
Diary: Summer 16
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