Sponsored and match funded by
SEEK THE LIGHT 10 – 11 Mar 2022
SCO.ORG.UK
PROGRAMME
Season 2021/22
SEEK THE LIGHT
Sponsored and match funded by
* Please note that this is a change to the previously advertised programme.
Thursday 10 March, 7.30pm The Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh Friday 11 March, 7.30pm City Halls, Glasgow Both halves of the concert will be played without a break
Beethoven Symphony No 4: Adagio* Polwart / Murphy Seek the Light (The 4 movements will be interspersed throughout this evening's concert) (World Premiere – Scottish Chamber Orchestra commission)
Polwart / Murphy You Know Where You Are (from Seek the Light) Tarrodi Birds of Paradise Polwart / Murphy The Night Mare (from Seek the Light) Tüür Insula Deserta Interval of 20 minutes
Polwart / Murphy A Love Too Loud (from Seek the Light) Vasks Violin Concerto 'Distant Light' Polwart / Murphy Sleep Now (from Seek the Light) Hugo Ticciati* Violin / Director Karine Polwart Singer
This performance will be recorded for the ‘Radio 3 in Concert’ series, due for broadcast on 1 April 2022.
Karine Polwart
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The Scottish Chamber Orchestra is a charity registered in Scotland No. SC015039. Company registration No. SC075079.
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––––– We believe the thrill of live orchestral music should be accessible to everyone, so we aim to keep the price of concert tickets as fair as possible. However, even if a performance were completely sold out, we would not cover the presentation costs. We are indebted to everyone acknowledged here who gives philanthropic gifts to the SCO of £300 or greater each year, as well as those who prefer to remain anonymous. We are also incredibly thankful to the many individuals not listed who are kind enough to support the Orchestra financially, whether that is regularly or on an ad hoc basis. Every single donation makes a difference and we are truly grateful. Become a regular donor, from as little as £5 a month, by contacting Mary Clayton on 0131 478 8369 or mary.clayton@sco.org.uk
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PRINCIPAL CONDUCTOR'S CIRCLE ––––– Our Principal Conductor’s Circle is made up of individuals who share the SCO’s vision to bring the joy of music to as many people as possible. These individuals are a special part of our musical family, and their commitment and generosity benefit us all – musicians, audiences and creative learning participants alike. We would like to extend our grateful thanks to them for playing such a key part in the future of the SCO. American Development Fund Erik Lars Hansen and Vanessa C L Chang Kenneth and Martha Barker Creative Learning Fund Claire and Mark Urquhart David and Maria Cumming International Touring Fund Gavin and Kate Gemmell
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CHAIR SPONSORS Conductor Emeritus Joseph Swensen Donald and Louise MacDonald
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Cello Donald Gillan Professor Sue Lightman
Our Musicians
YOUR ORCHESTRA First Violin Hugo Ticciati* Ruth Crouch Adela Bratu Kana Kawashima Fiona Alexander Amira Bedrush-McDonald Sarah Bevan-Baker Ruth Slater Second Violin Marcus Barcham Stevens Gordon Bragg Katrina Lee Rachel Spencer Gillian Risi Lorna McLaren Viola Fiona Winning Felix Tanner Brian Schiele Steve King Cello Philip Higham Su-a Lee Donald Gillan Eric de Wit Bass Nikita Naumov Adrian Bornet
Information correct at the time of going to print
Flute André Cebrián Emma Roche
* Sadly, due to family circumstances Pekka Kuusisto will no longer be able to join the SCO for his planned Residency in March. Pekka was due
Piccolo Emma Roche
to direct/perform three programmes with the Orchestra: New York Counterpoint (6 Mar), Seek The
Oboe Robin Williams Katherine Bryer
Light (10/11 Mar) and America, The Beautiful (16/17/18 Mar). Our thoughts are with Pekka and his family at this difficult time.
Bass Clarinet William Stafford
We are grateful that violinist/director Hugo Ticciati has agreed to step
Clarinet Maximiliano Martín William Stafford
in for Pekka for the entirety of the Residency. Hugo is an acclaimed violinist, leader and conductor and
Bassoon Cerys Ambrose-Evans Alison Green Horn Nick Mooney Harry Johnstone Trumpet Peter Franks Shaun Harrold Timpani Tom Hunter Percussion Iain Sandilands Technical Cues Samuel McLellan
has a huge passion for contemporary, non-western and traditional music alike and we hugely appreciate him joining us for these three exciting projects at such short notice.
Adrian Bornet Sub-Principal Double Bass
W H AT YO U ARE ABOUT TO HEAR Polwart / Murphy Seek the Light (World Premiere – Scottish Chamber Orchestra commission) (2022) You Know Where You Are The Night Mare
––––– The stellar compass of migrating birds, the mythic birth of constellations, and the passing of winter are amongst the inspirations behind Seek the Light, a new work by singer-songwriter and folk artist, Karine Polwart and composer and sound designer, Pippa Murphy. Looking upwards and outwards to the living planet and beyond, they weave together song and spoken word in a series of four meditations on light and darkness, wrought in a spirit of awe, reverence and solace.
A Love Too Loud Sleep Now
Beethoven (1770-1827) Symphony No 4: Adagio (1807) Tarrodi (b 1981) Birds of Paradise (2008) Tüür (b 1959) Insula Deserta (1989) Vasks (b 1946) Violin Concerto 'Distant Light' (1996/7) Andante – Cadenza 1 Cantabile Mosso – Cadenza 2 Cantabile Agitato – Cadenza 3 – Tempo di Valse Andante
Seek the Light forms the glistening thread that connects all the music in this wideranging concert, conceived originally as a collaboration between the exceptional Finnish violinist Pekka Kuusisto, and Polwart and Murphy. In Pekka’s absence, we’re delighted to welcome the equally charismatic violinist Hugo Ticciati, who will play/direct all the works in the programme alongside Karine and the SCO. The concert opens with a belated tribute to Beethoven, whose 250th birthday celebrations in 2020 were rather overshadowed by the arrival of the pandemic. Nestling between the revolutionary heroism of his Third and the turmoil of his Fifth, Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony gets somewhat overlooked, but it’s a work of great enchantment, delight and charm, written intentionally to be distinctively different from its neighbours. Its slow second movement has generated quite a bit of speculation: its accompaniment figure sounds very much like a heartbeat, and the yearning melody that begins in the violins might lead you to think it’s a statement of amorous intent.
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Looking upwards and outwards to the living planet and beyond, they weave together song and spoken word in a series of four meditations on light and darkness, wrought in a spirit of awe, reverence and solace.
Karine Polwart
Accordingly, Beethoven weaves through some of his most delicate orchestral writing, before the timpani get their moment to shine just before the close. The epic seasonal journeys of birds depend on their embodied knowledge of geomagnetism, topography, air currents and light, as well as celestial observations. Polwart and Murphy’s You Know Where You Are marvels at the way in which migrating birds orientate themselves to Polaris, The Pole (or North) Star, around which the Earth appears to rotate. Climate change, intensive agriculture, urban structures and light pollution have interrupted these evolved rhythms, causing dramatic declines in many familiar songbird populations in recent decades.
Swedish composer Andrea Tarrodi evokes the shimmering heat of the rainforest, and the dazzling courtship displays and uncanny calls of one of nature’s most exquisite creatures in her string concerto, Birds of Paradise. Its swirling clamour and uncanny mimetic motifs are inspired by an episode of the BBC’s celebrated nature documentary series Planet Earth, narrated by David Attenborough. If flight, colour and light infuse Tarrodi’s piece, then Polwart and Murphy turn next to darkness. Few of us in Scotland experience the wonder and depth of a truly dark night sky. Yet throughout history, it has been pivotal to our sense of ourselves. We have navigated by stars, structured our seasonal and religious
Ludwig van Beethoven
Andrea Tarrodi
calendar by solar, lunar and stellar cycles, dreamt beneath, and been awed by, the celestial realm.
indigenous tales are largely lost. What abides are references to Roman gods and Greek myths, by which we continue to describe much of the night sky today.
We have also feared the dark.
All human cultures across time and space have told stories about how the visible
In the Northern hemisphere, Cassiopeia is one of the most readily identifiable constellations - a huge, scrawled ‘W’ that appears to circuit The Pole Star. A Love Too Loud re-tells the Greek myth from the perspective of Cassiopeia herself, Queen of Ethiopia (in Ancient Greece, this encompassed modern-day Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia and Sudan). As mother of Andromeda, Cassiopeia is said to have offended the gods by boasting of her daughter’s beauty. For this vanity, she is, upon her death, thrown to the heavens
stars and planets came to be. Scotland’s
by Zeus, in a curse of perpetual humiliation
But what if we have more to fear from unceasing light than from darkness? The Night Mare explores this possibility in the form of contemporary ballad mythmaking. Estonian composer Erkki-Sven Tüür’s Insula Deserta maintains an air of arid uncertainty, closing the first set on a note of anxiety.
Erkki-Sven Tüür
Pēteris Vasks
that sees her spend half the night on her head, clinging to the underside of Polaris. Perhaps she didn’t deserve it?
And it is to the skyward realm of stars and birds that Polwart and Murphy return in their final song. In Gaelic folklore, the dark of the winter months is the domain of the Cailleach, ‘the old woman’, whilst the light of spring and summer belongs to Brìde, or Brigit, incorporated into Christian canonry as St Bride. Brìde is associated with the oystercatcher (in Gaelic, brìdean - ‘Bride’s bird’ or gille-brìde -‘servant of Bride’) and with both the lark and the linnet (from the Latin genus linaria). Sleep Now is a lullaby sung at the threshold between darkness and light, death and new life. We, along with Hugo and the orchestra, offer you a warm invitation here to join us at this close, “singing in the dark”.
Much of the work of Pēteris Vasks is informed by Latvian folklore, history and political identity, and reflects on complex, shifting human relationships with the natural world. It is also profoundly spiritual. Hugo Ticciati has previously performed and recorded Vasks’ string concerto Distant Light with his Stockholm-based O/Modernt Chamber Orchestra. Infused with a sense of both loss and hope, Vasks himself says of his work, “My intention is to provide food for the soul, and this is what I preach in my works … Distant Light is nostalgia with a touch of tragedy. Childhood memories but also the glittering stars millions of light years away”.
© David Kettle
Sleep Now is a lullaby sung at the threshold between darkness and light, death and new life. We, along with Hugo and the orchestra, offer you a warm invitation here to join us at this close, “singing in the dark”. Pippa Murphy
1. sleep now, sleep now mother of my mother sleep now, sleep now night has come
3. sleep now, sleep now all the stars are shining sleep now, sleep now birds are in your room
linaria, linaria the lark and the linnet linaria, linaria singing in the dark
linaria, linaria the lark and the linnet linaria, linaria singing in the dark
2. sleep now, sleep now throw the windows open sleep now, sleep now call the shadows in linaria, linaria the lark and the linnet linaria, linaria singing in the dark
SPECIAL THANKS FROM KARINE AND PIPPA Mark Whyles Stephen Deazley Hebridean Dark Skies Festival Jonathan Hargreaves Joey O’Neill
Director / Violin HUGO T I C C I AT I
––––– As violinist, leader and conductor, Hugo Ticciati imbibes all possible forms of creativity, whether it be performing world premieres in the most prestigious venues around the world, improvising with monks in India, or devising innovative programmes for O/Modernt Orchestra and Festival which he founded in 2011. Alongside his passion to discover and learn from the music of previous epochs and non-western traditions, Hugo embraces the world of contemporary music. To date, over forty works have been written for and dedicated to him by a host of eminent composers, including Erkki-Sven Tüür, Pēteris Vasks, Victoria Borisova-Ollas, Albert Schnelzer and Dobrinka Tabakova. Being the Artistic Director of O/Modernt Orchestra, Hugo collaborates regularly with Kremerata Baltica, Manchester Camerata, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, Tallinn Chamber Orchestra and Orchestra da Camera di Perugia. Most recently, he has been invited to work with Swedish Chamber Orchestra, Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra and Vienna Chamber Orchestra. Gaining a growing reputation for his innovative and adventurous programming, Hugo is frequently asked to devise and present concerts and festivals with a unique twist. This has led to ongoing collaborations with Wigmore Hall and Kings Place in London. Pursuing his passion for chamber music, Hugo has developed special artistic partnerships with members of the O/Modernt Soloists as well as other internationally renowned artists, notably Evelyn Glennie, Anne Sofie von Otter, Nils Landgren, Steven Isserlis, Angela Hewitt and Olli Mustonen. Hugo frequently gives master-classes and lectures on music-related subjects both at Scandinavia’s leading specialist music school Lilla Akademien, where he holds the post of Deputy Artistic Director, and other educational institutions around the world.
Singer / Songwriter K ARINE POLWART –––––
Composer / Sound designer PIPPA MURPHY ––––– Folk singer, songwriter and theatre-maker, Karine Polwart is a seven-times winner at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. Her work encompasses traditional song and oral storytelling, contemporary songwriting and spoken word, cross-genre collaborations and thematic multi-art-form projects. Much of Karine’s writing is rooted in folklore, place, social history, and scientific and philosophical curiosity. She is currently elected to the Senate of the Ivors Academy, the advocacy body for UK composers, songwriters and producers. Award-winning composer and sound designer, Pippa Murphy is renowned for her stylistic breadth, depth and originality as well as her unique cross-disciplinary understanding of storytelling and creative collaboration. She has scored for TV, film, concert halls & theatres. Pippa studied classical violin, piano and percussion from an early age and has a PhD in composition from the University of Birmingham. As a composition team, Polwart and Murphy collaborated first on Wind Resistance, Polwart’s acclaimed one woman show for The Lyceum Theatre and Edinburgh International Festival (2016), and on the subsequent album project, A Pocket of Wind Resistance (2017), which won a New Music Scotland Award and was shortlisted for Scottish Album of the Year. They collaborated with SCO at The King’s Theatre, Glasgow during Celtic Connections 2019, and with the BBC SSO for both Celtic Connections and Proms in the Park 2017. As a composer and librettist team, they have written together for Mahogany Opera and Glasgow School of Art Choir’s Composeher project. As cocreators, they are currently Artists in Residence at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.
Kindly supported by
SCO American Development Fund
Hugo Ticciati Director / Violin* *Please note that this is a change from previously advertised
AMERICA, THE BEAUTIFUL 16 - 18 Mar, 7.30pm St Andrews | Edinburgh | Glasgow
18 and Under FREE
SCO.ORG.UK Company Registration Number: SC075079. A charity registered in Scotland No. SC015039.
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SCO.ORG.UK/SUPPORT-US The SCO is a charity registered in Scotland No SC015039.