DSO Prog 21 Nov 2009 - Dundee Symphony Orchestra November 20… · violin lessons with Professor...
Transcript of DSO Prog 21 Nov 2009 - Dundee Symphony Orchestra November 20… · violin lessons with Professor...
Welcome We wish you a very warm welcome to our November Concert in The Caird Hall. Tonight we bring you a concert of music by Schubert, Brahms and Sibelius, with our guest soloist Robert Torrance.
Robert Dick Conductor Robert Torrance Violin Schubert Overture Alfonso und Estrella Sibelius Violin Concerto in D minor INTERVAL Brahms Symphony No. 2 in D
Dundee Symphony Orchestra is the performing name of Dundee
Orchestral Society. The Society was founded in 1893 by a group
of enthusiastic amateur performers, and has gone from strength to
strength ever since. The only period in the Orchestra's history
when it did not perform or rehearse was during the Second World
War.
BBC Radio 3 recently teamed up with Making Music to find four
of the UK's best amateur orchestras to perform as part of ‘Play to
the Nation’, which aimed to show off the vibrant, diverse and
often excellent activity of amateur orchestras around the UK.
The line-up featured the Dundee Symphony Orchestra
performing Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1 from their concert last
year in St Paul’s Cathedral.
Earlier this year in St Paul’s Cathedral, the DSO hosted Handel’s
Messiah “from Scratch” as part of Handel’s 250th
anniversary
celebrations, which attracted many local singers.
In the Caird Hall in March, with The Edinburgh Singers and four
fine soloists, the orchestra performed Beethoven’s 9th
Symphony
(Choral) and Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music to great
acclaim, with a repeat concert in Edinburgh the following
evening.
In June, the orchestra performed an all Mendelssohn concert to
celebrate the 200th
anniversary of his birth, including Joseph
Fleetwood playing Piano Concerto No. 1 in G minor, and
rounded off with Symphony No. 4 in A, Italian.
The Orchestra is funded through private and
charitable donations, subscriptions from members,
and supported by Making Music, The National
Federation of Music Societies, with funds provided by the
Scottish Arts Council. We would like
to thank all those who provide financial
assistance for the orchestra for their
continuing support over the years.
If you enjoy our concerts, we hope you will consider becoming a
Friend of the Orchestra. This may be done by completing the
form at the back of the programme.
To keep up to date with current events visit the Orchestra website
www.dundeesymphonyorchestra.org.uk
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visiting http://www.thebooth.co.uk
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Robert Dick
Conductor
Born in Edinburgh in 1975, Robert
studied violin and piano at the Royal
College of Music in London where
he graduated with Honours in 1997,
and also gained the Associateship
Diploma of the Royal College of
Music in Violin Performance.
Robert’s interest in conducting began
at an early age and in 1993 he was
invited to conduct the Royal Scottish
National Orchestra by its then
Musical Director, Walter Weller.
Having conducted all of the youth orchestras of which he was a
member, including the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland and
the Royal College of Music Symphony Orchestra, Robert is now
a regular guest conductor of many groups including the Rose
Street Ensemble, the Scottish Borders Community Orchestra and
The Edinburgh Symphony Orchestra. Currently the conductor of
the Dundee Symphony Orchestra, the Edinburgh Philharmonic
Orchestra and the Orchestra of the Canongait, Robert has
conducted much of the great symphonic repertoire including
symphonies by Schumann, Dvorak, Sibelius, Mahler and
Bruckner as well as productions of Julius Caesar, Carmen,
Tosca, Die Fledermaus, Bittersweet, Don Giovanni, The Magic
Flute and numerous Gilbert & Sullivan operas.
In 2001, Robert came second in the British Reserve Insurance
Conducting Competition in Cardiff and has also enjoyed success
abroad having been invited to conduct the Plovdiv Philharmonic
Orchestra in the final concert of the Vienna International
Mastercourse Series, where he gained their Diploma.
Additionally he gained the Diploma of the International Summer
Academy at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, on this occasion
conducting the Varna Symphony Orchestra and he recently
participated in the International Masterclass with Gennadi
Rozhdestvensky and the Thüringen Philharmonie in Gotha,
Germany. He has also worked with orchestras in Belgium,
Bulgaria, Spain and the U.S.A. and in 2007 he participated in the
Fourth Lovro von Matacic International Conducting Competition
in Zagreb, Croatia.
Highlights in 2008 included Mahler’s Fifth Symphony with the
Edinburgh Symphony Orchestra, The Merry Wives of Windsor
with Fife Opera, the two Brahms Piano Concerti with Murray
McLachlan in the Edinburgh Festival, his first ever appearance as
a harpsichord soloist in Bach’s D minor Keyboard Concerto with
the Gecko Ensemble, what is believed to be the Scottish premiere
of Elgar’s ballet The Sanguine Fan and a BBC Radio 3 Broadcast
with the Dundee Symphony Orchestra. 2009 has seen special
concerts commemorating the respective anniversaries of Handel,
Haydn and Mendelssohn, including Messiah, The Creation and
Judas Maccabaeus, as well as performances of Beethoven’s
Ninth Symphony in Dundee and Edinburgh.
As a violin and viola soloist, Robert has performed concertos by
Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Bruch and Brahms and has
extensively toured Europe as an orchestral player in venues
including the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, The Hofburg Palace
in Vienna and the Royal Albert Hall in London. In addition, he
has freelanced with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the Scottish
Concert Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra of
Scotland.
Alan Torrance
Leader
Alan Torrance studied violin with Winifred Gavine in Edinburgh
until the age of eighteen, when he completed his performer's
ARCM. Over the following four years he studied with David
Martin of the Royal Academy of Music in London, before
receiving further lessons from Max Rostal in a Master Course at
the Klagenfurt Conservatoire in Austria aided by a Scottish Arts
Council Award.
In 1975, while playing with the Scottish Ballet Orchestra (and
also for Bing Crosby!) he was invited to become a member of the
Scottish Baroque Ensemble (now the Scottish Ensemble) with
which he toured widely and made recordings.
On moving to New Zealand in 1987, he combined teaching
theology in the University of Otago with being leader of the
Dunedin Sinfonia - a part-time professional orchestra which
attracted international soloists and conductors and broadcast
regularly on New Zealand's Concert FM.
After a further five years' academic teaching and playing in
London, Alan has returned to his homeland where he is professor
of systematic theology in the University of St Andrews. This has
enabled him to lead various local orchestras including the NSPO
and the DSO, to which he is returning as leader this year. In
addition to leading the Laird Quartet, he has also performed
chamber music with his four sons both in the UK and in Verbier,
Switzerland. When not playing, he would rather be kayaking,
mountain-biking or making the most of the Scottish mountains!
Robert Torrance
Violin
Robert Torrance (21) started
his violin studies aged 6 with
Madam Shen of the Yehudi
Menuhin School. In 1998,
he studied for a year with
Caroline Plummer, Professor
of violin, University of Notre
Dame, Indiana, under whose
tutelage he won, at age 10, a gold medal in the under-18 final of
the Indiana State Violin competition.
On the family’s return to Scotland he studied with Warren Jacobs
(St Mary's Music School, Edinburgh) winning, at age 14, the
open string solo competition, the Festival Medal and the Stringer
Prize at the Edinburgh Musical Competition Festival. On being
awarded a music scholarship to St Leonard’s School he studied
with Vladislav Steinberg qualifying to compete as one of 13 in
The International Yfrah Neaman Violin Competition in Mainz,
Germany at which Igor Oistrakh (one of the world's most famous
violinists and a professor at the Royal Brussels Conservatoire)
was one of the panel judges.
On receipt of a Scottish Arts Council award, Robert commenced
violin lessons with Professor Oistrakh in Brussels. Whilst still at
school, he was invited to perform Saint-Saens’ Introduction and
Rondo Capriccioso with the University of St Andrews’
Symphony Orchestra. Robert first played with the Dundee
Symphony Orchestra in 2007 performing Sarasate’s Carmen
Fantasy and Dvorak’s Romance. The following year, he was
selected (from around 700 applicants) to appear as one of 18
musicians in BBC’s televised “Classical Star” series.
Shortly after completing his psychology degree at York
University, he performed Haydn’s Violin Concerto in C at the
Ruthven Music Festival in June, and in September gave the
opening concert at the Invergordon Arts Society. He is devoting
this year to violin study and receiving lessons in Manchester with
the acclaimed teacher and international soloist, Leland Chen.
Robert also enjoys chamber and ensemble playing and has
performed with his family quartet both in Scotland and in the
Verbier Festival, Switzerland.
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We have a large selection of restored second hand violins and pianos as well as new. We stock violas, cellos, classical guitars, acoustic guitars, banjos, mandolins etc, also bodhrans and whistles, instrument cases and
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Tel. 01382 226415
Programme Notes
Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
Overture Alfonso und Estrella
Alfonso und Estrella is an opera in three acts, set to a German
libretto by Franz von Schober. Its overture was also used for
Rosamunde, but is not the piece known as Rosamunde overture,
which was composed for Die Zauberharfe.
In close collaboration with von Schober, Schubert wrote the
music for Alfonse und Estrella between September 1821 and
February 1822. Schober, only one year older than Schubert, and
a dabbler in literature, music and theatre, shared an appreciation
with Schubert for the operatic theories of Ignaz von Mosel, a
patron of Schubert's, who supported Gluck’s operatic ideals. This
influence may have led to the omission of all spoken dialogue,
parting from the German Singspiel form followed in operas at
that time.
Schubert never heard the opera performed in his lifetime. Opera
houses in Vienna, Berlin, Dresden and Graz all had refused to
stage it. The opera received its performance in Weimar in June
1854, conducted by Franz Liszt.
A repeated criticism of the opera is its lack of dramatic action and
pacing, although it is believed Schubert intended to compose a
grand Romantic opera, employing a large chorus and orchestra.
At other times, however, strong vocal lines, rich orchestration,
and jarring harmonic progressions predominate. In such sections
Schubert shows not only his genius for setting words to music
and his sensitivity to orchestral colours but also his ability to
manage the large resources of big operatic ensembles
Wikipedia
Jean Sibelius (1865 - 1957)
Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D minor, Op. 47
Allegro moderato
Adagio di molto
Allegro ma non tanto
Sibelius originally dedicated the concerto to the noted violinist
Willy Burmester, who promised to play the concerto in Berlin.
For financial reasons, Sibelius decided to premiere it in Helsinki,
and since Burmester was unavailable to travel to Finland,
Sibelius engaged Victor Novacek, a violin teacher at the Helsinki
Conservatory. The initial version of the concerto premiered in
1903, with Sibelius conducting. Novacek played poorly and the
premiere performance was a disaster.
Sibelius withheld this version from publication and made
substantial revisions, deleting much material he felt did not work.
The new version premiered in 1905 with Richard Strauss
conducting the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. Willy Burmester
was again asked to be the soloist, but he was again unavailable,
so the performance went ahead without him, the orchestra's
leader Karel Halíř stepping into the soloist's shoes. Burmester
was so offended that he refused ever to play the concerto, and
Sibelius re-dedicated it to the Hungarian Ferenc von Vecsey who
was aged only 12 at the time, first performing it when he was
only 13, although he could not adequately cope with the
extraordinary technical demands of the work.
The first movement, Allegro moderato, opens with a cushion of
pianissimo strings pulsating gently. The soloist then enters with a
characteristic IV-V-I phrase; the violin announces the theme and
is echoed by clarinet briefly, then continues into developmental
material. More low woodwind and timpani accompany the
soloist in several runs. Almost cadenza-like arpeggios and
double-stops and more runs are accompanied by more woodwind
restatements of the theme. The strings then enter brazenly for the
first time, announcing a second theme. Developmental material
leads to a cadenza which then opens into the recapitulation. The
'Allegro molto vivace' coda ends with restatements of past
themes. Although this movement is mainly melodic, it is still
largely virtuosic. Particularly difficult passages include one
where the performer must play and maintain a trill with the 1st
and 2nd finger, while playing a second moving line on the next-
lower string, with the 3rd and 1st fingers.
The second movement, Adagio di molto, is very lyrical. A short
introduction by two clarinets leads into a singing solo part over
pizzicato strings. Beautifully dissonant accompaniments by the
brass dominate the first part of the song-like movement. The
remarkable middle section has the solo violin playing ascending
broken octaves, with the flute as the main voice of the
accompaniment, playing descending notes simultaneously.
The third movement, Allegro ma non tanto (not overly fast), is
widely known amongst violinists for its formidable technical
difficulty and is most assuredly one of the several greatest
concerto movements ever written for the instrument. It opens
with rhythmic percussion and the lower strings for four bars,
before the violin boldly enters with the first theme on the G
string. This first section offers a complete and brilliant display of
violin gymnastics with up-bow staccato double-stops and a run
with rapid string-crossing, then octaves, that leads into the first
tutti. The second theme is taken up by the orchestra and is almost
a waltz, and the violin takes up the same theme in variations, with
arpeggios and double-stops. Another short section concluding
with a run of octaves makes a bridge into a recapitulation of the
first theme. Clarinet and low brass introduce the final section. A
passage of harmonics in the violin precedes a sardonic passage of
chords and slurred double stops. A passage of broken octaves
leads to an incredibly heroic few lines of double stops and
soaring octaves. A brief orchestral tutti comes before the violin
leads things to the finish with a D major scale up, returning down
in minor (then repeated). A flourish of ascending slur-separate
sixteenth notes, punctuated by a resolute D from the violin and
orchestra concludes the concerto. Wikipedia
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Symphony No. 2 in D Op. 73
Allegro non troppo
Adagio non troppo
Allegretto grazioso (quasi Andantino) – Presto ma non assai
Allegro con spirito
Following the twenty-year gestation of his First Symphony,
completed at last in 1876, Brahms wrote the second in a bare four
months in the summer of 1877 at Portschach, a lakeside resort in
southern Austria. Later he wrote, "So many melodies fly about
here that one must be careful not to tread on them", a conceit
which can be applied to the symphony itself. In sharp contrast
with the first symphony, with its tragedy, nervous tension and
conflict, the second is the most radiant and genial of all Brahms'
major works. "All so merry and tender, as though it were
especially written for a newly-wedded couple", was the
composer's own description.
Prodigal as Brahms seems to be with spontaneous lyrical
melodies, apparently plucked from the air, in fact every theme in
the first, third and fourth movements is derived in some way from
the symphony's opening statement, shared between 'cellos and
basses, horns and woodwind. The three-note 'cello/bass motif in
particular acts as a kind of motto throughout the symphony. The
first movement is not without its darker moments; the first entry
of the trombones falls like a momentary shadow on a sunlit
landscape. The movement comes to no triumphant conclusion;
instead a long and eloquent horn solo leads us into a gentle and
nostalgic sunset coda.
The slow movement, led off by an extended, ardent tune for the
'cellos, is the most serious of the four. Its middle section, a gentle
theme in rocking rhythm suddenly gives way to a stormy fugato.
The greatly varied recapitulation is disturbed by agitated
figurations and a new climax. By contrast the scherzo-substitute
movement, with its serene oboe theme, is simplicity itself.
Lightly scored (trumpets, trombones and drums are silent), it is
virtually mono-thematic – the two Presto interruptions are merely
variants, at a different speed and different metres, of the oboe
tune.
In the finale Brahms recalls something of the happy mood of the
first movement, in music of indefatigable rhythmic vitality and
cumulative strength. A soaring second subject, announced by the
strings, and taken up by the rest of the orchestra, reappears,
transformed, in the final bars of the symphony.
Author: John Kane, 2005
Supplied through the Programme Note
Bank of Making Music, the NFMS
Acknowledgements
The Dundee Symphony Orchestra gratefully thanks the following
for generous and valuable continuing support
For the financial support given to the Society: The St. Katharine’s Fund
The Lang Foundation
The R.J. Larg Family Trust
The Leng Charitable Trust
The Low & Bonar Charitable Trust
Alexander Moncur’s Trust
William S. Phillip’s Fund
D.C. Thomson Charitable Trust
Harold Adams Charitable Trust
Aberbrothock Charitable Trust
Tay Charitable Trust
Thorntons Solicitors, Arbroath
Friends of the DSO
For the concessionary terms given to members of the Orchestra: Music in Print Limited, 29 Castle Street, Dundee
Vintage Strings, 77 Perth Road, Dundee, DD1 4HY
The Royal Scottish National Orchestra
This concert is supported by Making Music, The National Federation of
Music Societies, with funds provided by the Scottish Arts Council. www.makingmusic.org.uk
Charity Number SCO11490
Registered in Scotland as a charity
Printer: West Port Print & Design, St Andrews
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A feast of audiovisual displays and music against a backdrop of street art, performances and illuminations
FREE
Friday 27 November Starting at 6pm in Dundee City Centre with a torchlight procession and closing with a stunning firework display.
Including
in St Paul’s Cathedral, High St., at 8pm
Haydn Military Symphony Elgar Serenade for Strings
DUNDEE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
CONCERT
Saturday 27 March 2010 Caird Hall, Dundee, 7.30pm
Conductor ROBERT DICK
Programme to include
Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 2
Soloist Murray McLachlan
Schubert Symphony No. 9
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