JOURNEY THROUGH MUSIC

Saturday 4 February, 7.30pm

Ludwig van Beethoven Symphony No. 3 in E flat major, ‘Eroica’ (45 mins)

Interval: 20 mins

Camille Saint-Saëns Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor (22 mins)

Claude Debussy La mer (23 mins)

BBC PhilharmonicBenjamin Grosvenor pianoBen Gernon conductor

ARE YOU READY TO BEGIN YOUR MUSICAL JOURNEY OF DISCOVERY?

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Our Journey Through Music scheme at Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall is an affordable and enjoyable introduction to the world of concert-going and classical music. For young people and children from the age of 8, our special scheme is aimed at making our concerts easily accessible for families and anybody who wants to discover orchestral music or to explore it further.

Ready to begin?Join us on this musical journey and discover the unforgettable world of classical music. Three performances will feature a pre-concert session suitable for all ages – but every concert in the 2016/17 season is available at a special family-ticket price. Plus – choose your seat anywhere in the house for the same price:• £7 for children aged 16 and under• £12 for accompanying adults• £35 family ticket, for 4 people (maximum of 2 adults)These prices include a £2 booking fee so you know there’s no extra costs when you book – just be sure to book in advance as these are not available on the day.

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE ORCHESTRA

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WHAT IS AN ORCHESTRA?An orchestra is a group of instrumental players who perform together, usually led by a conductor.

The modern symphony orchestra usually has somewhere between 60 and 90 players: around 30 violins, 12 violas, 10 cellos, eight double basses; two or three each of flutes, oboes, clarinets and bassoons; four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, a tuba, a harp and an assortment of percussion instruments. You can find out more about the instruments, and where they sit, on the next two pages after this.

THE CONDUCTORThe person in charge is usually the conductor, who stands at the front and directs the orchestra from a podium, keeping time either by waving a short stick, called a baton, or sometimes just with his or her hands. One of the earliest conductors, the Italian-born Frenchman Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632–87), kept his orchestra together by banging a big stick on the floor, but one day he accidentally stabbed his foot and soon afterwards died of gangrene. It’s not as dangerous these days!

Part of the conductor’s job is to show the beat (or pulse) of the music so that all the musicians play together in time. He or she also signals when individual musicians or groups have to start or stop playing. All the time conductors are listening to the overall sound-balance, and altering it, to make sure that the important instruments don’t get drowned out by less important ones. Otherwise, like lots of people talking loudly at the same time, the result would be chaos!

But there’s more to it than this. The conductor can also help to reveal the changing moods of the music. If they can create a strong musical image for the listener, the effect can make us feel all sorts of emotions: happiness, sadness, fear, pride and everything in between. The music might energise you, or it might make you feel you’ve fallen into a dream.

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THE ORCHESTRA ON STAGEMost orchestras have a similar seating plan, with the strings at the front, the woodwind behind them and the brass and percussion further back still.

WOODWINDThe woodwind section sits behind the strings, often in two rows. There are four different instruments, usually in pairs, but in bigger orchestras there can be up to three or four players of each instrument. The metal flutes produce a high, bright, silvery sound. The piccolo is like a small flute and plays very high up. Oboes are black wooden instruments with a detachable reed, which gives them a distinctive sharp-edged sound. Before a concert starts, the whole orchestra tunes up to the note ‘A’ sounded by the Principal Oboe. A bigger, lower version of the oboe is the cor anglais, or ‘English horn’. Clarinets have a more hollow, woody sound. The lowest-sounding member of its family is the bass clarinet. The lowest woodwind instrument is the bassoon, which is long and heavy and has to be supported by a sling round the player’s neck. The contra-bassoon is so long that it’s bent double. Occasionally a piece will need extra instruments, such as the saxophone, which is more usually found in a jazz band.

BRASSLike the strings and woodwind, the brass family has four groups. There are French horns (usually four), instruments once associated with hunting, while the trumpets came from military bands, and often have fanfare-like parts. Trombones are played with a movable slide but, in spite of their size, they can play amazingly fast notes; and finally the enormous tuba makes the deepest notes of all.

PERCUSSIONThe percussion section sits at the back of the orchestra and centres around the timpani, or kettledrums – between two and four copper drums. They have pedals, which alter their pitch (or notes). The bass drum is hit with just one stick; while the metal cymbals are clashed together, often when the music gets very loud. The side-drum is a small military drum that can play very quietly or very loudly indeed. Sometimes composers ask for a variety of other percussion instruments, such as the xylophone, the marimba or even whistles, whips and sirens.

STRINGSString players sit at the front in a semi-circle, usually with the violins on the left and the cellos on the right. Each of the string sections (and also the woodwind, brass and percussion sections) has a principal, who leads the section. The strings divide into four sections: violins, violas, cellos and double basses. The violins are subdivided into first violins and second violins, with the Firsts generally having a slightly more difficult and brilliant part. Violas are bigger than violins, with a deeper, mellower sound. The cellos have a rounded, bass sound. The huge double basses (which are played standing up, or perched on a high stool) add depth to the string sound. The harp is played with fingers instead of a bow, and it has a series of complicated pedals that change its pitch (or notes).

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TONIGHT'S MUSIC

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827)Symphony No. 3 in E flat major, ‘Eroica’ (1803–4) 1 Allegro con brio (Fast, with energy)2 Marcia funebre (Funeral March)3 Scherzo: Allegro vivace (Fast and lively)4 Finale: Allegro molto – Poco andante, con espressione

(Very fast, then slow and with expression)

If we’re lucky, war is something that we only see in the news. But for much of Beethoven’s life, Europe was swept by terrible wars (sometimes he even had to sleep with pillows clamped over his ears to block out the sound of cannons and bombs). It was a time of great suffering, and great change, and much of it was caused by the famous French general Napoleon Bonaparte. Many of his admirers – and even his enemies – thought that Napoleon was going to change Europe for the better, creating a new age of freedom and justice. Beethoven thought so too, and, in 1804, he completed this piece as a tribute and was originally going to dedicate it to Napoleon.

A symphony is a big piece for orchestra, usually in four sections called ‘movements’. This one was the boldest and stormiest example yet. Everyone who heard it was amazed – up until then, people had listened to symphonies while they chatted or ate dinner. You couldn’t do that with this piece – you’d choke on your starter! Instead, this was music that demanded to be heard. And then Napoleon ruined everything: he had himself crowned Emperor of France. That proved that his promises had been lies: he was only after power and wealth after all. Beethoven was so furious that he ripped right through the front page of the symphony, trying to scratch out Napoleon’s name. Ever since then, it’s been known simply as the ‘Eroica’ (Italian for ‘Heroic’) Symphony. Napoleon was no longer a hero, and in the end he was defeated – but the ‘Eroica’ is as thrilling today as ever.

What to listen for1 Fast, with energy • BANG! With two sudden explosions, Beethoven blasts

us straight into the action. Low and fast, the cellos sing a tune that seems to push forward; soon the whole orchestra is blasting it out. And that’s just the start of an incredible adventure. Keep listening for that tune, and see where Beethoven takes you. Sometimes it’s calm and quiet, sometimes thrillingly fast, and sometimes it sounds so harsh and fierce that you think the players must have gone wrong. But they haven’t: enjoy it!

2 Funeral March • Even a great hero sometimes has to face tragedy. The

second movement of the symphony is sad, slow and very serious – like people marching forwards, carrying a coffin, and weighed down with grief. Sometimes it sounds almost as if they stumble. And, right in the middle of the movement, the oboe plays a quiet, sweet song – it’s as if the sun has come out. But not for long.

3 Scherzo: Fast and lively • ‘Scherzo’ is Italian for joke – and after all that sadness,

Beethoven makes it sound as if the whole orchestra is laughing: first chuckling quietly, then falling about in great gales of laughter. In the middle, the three horns rush off on an adventure of their own – then Beethoven repeats the scherzo all over again.

TONIGHT'S MUSIC

4 Finale: Very fast, then slow and with expression • So how’s Beethoven going to finish it all off? There’s a

great rush of sound, a full stop – and then a few odd little notes seem to tiptoe out of the silence. They don’t even sound like a tune! Beethoven repeats them, again and again, each time adding another layer of music – and before you know it, there’s a lovely, swinging melody on top; he’s built the music from the bottom up. Now Beethoven goes off on all sorts of musical adventures again, but before it’s all over, he slows everything down and there’s a peaceful, quiet tune, half-happy, half-sad. There’s more to life than adventure, after all – but you can bet he’s going to finish with a bang (or maybe quite a few bangs). Count them if you can!

What else could I listen to?Well, eight more incredible Beethoven symphonies for starters! But if you’re in a rush, and want all the excitement of the ‘Eroica’ in just a quarter of the time, try his overture Leonora No. 3.

Interval: 20 minutes (time for an ice-cream!)

Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921)Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor (1868)

1 Andante sostenuto (Slow and sustained)2 Allegro scherzando (Fast, jokingly)3 Presto (Very fast)

Benjamin Grosvenor piano

OK, first of all, that name. You say it ‘San-Son’. So with that out of the way … it’s hard to know where to start. Everyone in French music – in fact, everyone in the world of music – knew Camille Saint-Saëns. He wrote his first piece of music when he was just 4 years old, and his last when he was 86. He even wrote the world’s very first piece of film music. You might already know some of his music – perhaps the Danse macabre (the one with the skeletons) or The Carnival of the Animals.

He wrote this piece in 1868, for him to play himself (he was a brilliant pianist, just like he seems to have been brilliant at everything else). It’s a concerto – a piece in which one (‘solo’) instrument gets to show off and compete with an orchestra. But they get to play along together, too, and to explore lots of different tunes and moods. Because this concerto begins very seriously and ends by having fun, people were confused by it at first – some said that ‘it begins in church and ends at a party!’ Sounds good to us …

TONIGHT'S MUSIC

What to listen for1 Slow and sustained • The piano begins first – in fact, when Saint-Saëns first

played it, he made it up as he went along! (He wrote the notes down later, which is how our soloist Benjamin knows what to play). When will the orchestra get involved – and how?

2 Fast, jokingly • The piano doesn’t start this time – who does? (Clue

– check out the back of the orchestra). The orchestra and the piano take turns to play little bits of tunes – as if they’re throwing them to each other. It’s fun: well, Saint-Saëns does say to play ‘like a scherzo’ (remember the meaning of scherzo from the Beethoven we’ve just heard?).

3 Very fast • The music seems to whirl – as if the piano and orchestra

are motorbikes revving their engines. They didn’t have motorbikes in 1866, but this is definitely fast and furious – as if piano and orchestra are racing each other. Who wins?

What else could I listen to?Saint-Saëns wrote five piano concertos, and lots of fun shorter pieces for piano and orchestra. The one he called Wedding Cake (seriously) is particularly delicious.

Claude Debussy (1862–1918)La mer (1903–5)

1 De l’aube à midi sur la mer (From dawn to midday at sea)

2 Jeux de vagues (Games of the waves)3 Dialogue du vent et de la mer (Dialogue between wind

and sea)

Believe it or not, Claude Debussy grew up miles away from the sea. Maybe that’s why he loved it so much. He spent his childhood near Paris, in France, but he dreamed of joining the French Navy – and on his first day at music college, he showed up dressed as a sailor! He loved the art of the sea (one of his favourite pictures was The Wave by the Japanese artist Hokusai). And he never missed a chance for a seaside holiday. In 1905, while staying at a seaside hotel in Eastbourne in England, he completed a piece called – you guessed it – ‘The Sea’ (La mer in French).

Each of the three sections (or ‘movements’) shows the sea in a different mood. The first is called ‘From dawn to midday at sea’, and Debussy’s friend Erik Satie teased him for being so precise: ‘I like the bit between half past ten and quarter to eleven’ he laughed. But Debussy had a good reason. Like the sea, his music can seem mysterious and ever-changing. But, again like the sea, the more carefully and closely you observe it, the more beautiful the patterns and colours you’ll see (or in this case, hear).

TONIGHT'S MUSIC

What to listen for1 From dawn to midday at sea • Listen for the different kind of waves: little and many (the

violins), slightly bigger and livelier (the flutes) and then a deep ocean swell: as the cellos sing together in big, dark waves. (So, which bit do you think is half-past ten?)

2 Games of the waves• Fast and lively: which way will the waves dart next?

Debussy uses the glockenspiel (the brilliant, chime-like percussion instrument) to show the sun glinting on the waves. Keep an ear out for the huge, sweeping wave (called a ‘glissando’) from the harp.

3 Dialogue between wind and sea• What happens when the wind and the sea meet? If you’re

expecting drama, you’d be right. As the storm gathers and breaks, hear how the trumpets cut through the din, and the cymbals crash and splash.

What else could I listen to?The English composer Frank Bridge also wrote a piece called The Sea – in some ways, it’s very like Debussy’s, but at the same time completely different! Try listening to them one after the other and playing ‘spot the difference’. Or try some of Debussy’s other descriptive pieces for orchestra, such as Images and Nocturnes – all of which paint pictures in sound.

Notes © Richard Bratby

bbc.co.uk/journeythroughmusic

JOURNEY THROUGH MUSIC PRE-CONCERT SESSION

#MyJTM

We have a special pre-concert introduction at this upcoming concert. Join us a bit earlier on the concert night to discover more about the orchestra and the music being performed.

Friday 26 May 2017Concert Fantastique

Music by Arvo Pärt, Berlioz & DutilleuxPre-concert session, 6.30pm