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CCS SA 31511 XXXX_AS_Bookletcover_The mahler album.indd 1 05-09-11 10:34 CCS SA 31511 BOOKLET-DEF:lin.str.booklet/2kl 06-09-2011 13:13 Pagina 1 violin 1 viola Candida Thompson, artistic director Daniel Bard Adelina Hasani* Abigail Fenna** Sjaan Oomen* Frederik Boits* Arnieke Beilschmidt – Ehrlich** Ernst Grapperhaus Nicoline van Santen Stanislava Stoeva** Cécile Gouder de Beauregard** Els Goossens Karen Segal Anna den Herder* Ingrid van Dingstee cello violin 2 Kaori Yamagami Jacobien Rozemond Maarten Mostert Diet Tilanus Michiel Weidner** Nina de Waal* Örs Köszeghy Petra Griffioen Charles Watt* Helena Druwé** Miriam Kirby* Frances Thé** Inki Varga double bass Kerstin Hoelen* Matthew Midgley Erik Spaepen* Rob Dirksen** * only Beethoven & Mahler Adagietto harp ** only Mahler Adagio Gwyneth Wentink* • • CCS SA 31511 BOOKLET-DEF:lin.str.booklet/2kl 06-09-2011 13:13 Pagina 2 Amsterdam Sinfonietta Amsterdam Sinfonietta enjoys intensive Amsterdam Sinfonietta is an ensemble of 22 collaborations with pre-eminent musicians. gifted musicians who perform under the Guest artists such as Janine Jansen, David direction of Candida Thompson, artistic direc - Fray, Jean-Guihen Queyras, Barbara tor/lead violin since 2003. The ensemble’s Hannigan, Maxim Vengerov, Thomas defining feature is the strong involvement and Hampson, Sergey Khachatryan, Christianne artistic drive of each individual member. The Stotijn, Håkan Hardenberger, Martin Fröst, group has gained a reputation for distin - Julian Rachlin, Sol Gabetta, James Gilchrist, guished performances and innovative pro - Natalia Gutman and Isabelle van Keulen have gramming, often featuring surprising combina - made return appearances with the orchestra. tions of works. It collaborates with renowned artists and performs in major venues through - Recently the ensemble toured China perform - out the world. ing concerts with cellist Pieter Wispelwey. The group also performed spectacular performan- Founded in 1988 Amsterdam Sinfonietta is a ces with solo cellist Sol Gabetta at the highly respected ensemble with strong roots Barbican in London, the Philharmonie in in the Dutch cultural scene. Every season it Luxemburg, Bozar in Brussels, the Elbphilhar- presents a series of concerts in the major monie in Hamburg and the Konserthuset in concert halls of the The Netherlands. The Stockholm. The latest tour through Germany orchestra boasts a young and loyal audience. and Belgium with the French pianist David Amsterdam Sinfonietta performs ingenious Fray was a resounding success culminating in programmes featuring well-known repertoire ecstatic reviews. Following concerts in Berlin, combined with commissions, new arrange - Cologne, Frankfurt and Düsseldorf and the ments or rarely performed works. Recent Frankfurter Rundschau wrote: “For the cham - commissions include world premières of com - ber orchestra Amsterdam Sinfonietta, per - positions by Sofia Gubaidulina, HK Gruber, forming under the direction of Candida Michel van der Aa and Dobrinka Tabakova. Thompson, the keyword is alertness. The 22 Over the past seasons Amsterdam Sinfonietta string players (…) communicate with each has initiated and recorded new arrangements other in a state of heightened awareness. of various chamber music works. These Each player listens attentively to the others, to include works by Beethoven, Brahms, Mahler, the counter lines and tonal colours. (…) The Schulhoff, Haas, Shostakovich and Berg. result sounded fresh and modern – simply CCS SA 31511 BOOKLET-DEF:lin.str.booklet/2kl 06-09-2011 13:13 Pagina 3 brilliant.” The group has been a guest at many National. Other future projects include international festivals including the Adelaide collaborations with the violinist Patricia Festival, Gergiev Festival, Schleswig Holstein Kopatchinskaja, pianist Dejan Lazic and cla- Festival and La Roque d’Antheron and also rinettist Martin Fröst and tours of Germany, appears regularly at the Holland Festival and Russia and China. in the Robeco Summer Series and Carte Blanche Series in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw. Candida Thompson artistic director and leader Every year the ensemble shows its versatility In the summer of 2003 Candida Thompson with a New Year’s programme that tran - was appointed artistic director of Amsterdam scends the bounds of a conventional concert. Sinfonietta. She studied with David Takeno, This New Year’s programme has become a graduating with honours from the Guildhall tradition attracting new and diverse audiences School of Music and Drama. She further in many national venues. Joining forces with developed her artistic prowess at the Banff artists such as Bobby McFerrin, Roby Centre for the Arts in Canada. Since complet- Lakatos, and Chick Corea has resulted in ing her studies Candida Thompson has led intriguing on-stage chemistry and compelling chamber orchestras in the United Kingdom, concerts. The orchestra also participates in Scandinavia, Spain, Germany and the multidisciplinary projects. Together with the Netherlands. Dutch-Italian choreographers Emio Greco & PC, the ensemble presented a theatrical pro - As a soloist she had performed with several duction featuring a contemporary collage of orchestras such as the Moscow Chamber Bach’s St Matthew Passion. Amsterdam Orchestra, The English String Orchestra, The Sinfonietta has also worked with the actor Netherlands Symphony Orchestra, the Wiener Jeroen Willems and stage director Pierre Audi Symphoniker, Netherlands Radio Chamber in a programme centred on Alban Berg’s Lyric Orchestra and Amsterdam Sinfonietta. She Suite. Upcoming projects include a Dessner- regularly performs chamber music with musi - Greenwood double portrait featuring recent cians such as Xenia Jankovic, Bruno compositions by Jonny Greenwood of Giuranna, Janine Jansen, Joseph Silverstein Radiohead fame and Bryce and Aaron and Isabelle Faust. Under Candida Dessner from the successful rock band The Thompson’s leadership Amsterdam CCS SA 31511 BOOKLET-DEF:lin.str.booklet/2kl 06-09-2011 13:14 Pagina 4 Sinfonietta has made successful tours of Mahler's Beethoven Australia, the United States, China, Spain, “A quartet for string orchestra! That sounds Italy and Germany and has recorded a num - strange to you. I already know all the objec - ber of highly acclaimed CD recordings. tions that will be raised: ruination of intimacy, of individuality. But that is an error. What I intend is only an ideal representation of the quartet. Chamber music is primarily written for the living room. It is really enjoyed only by the performers. The four ladies and gentlemen who sit at their music stands are also the audience towards which this music turns. If chamber music is transferred to the concert hall, this intimacy is already lost. But even more is lost. In a large space the four voices are lost and do not speak to the listener with the power that the composer wanted to give them. I give them this power by strengthening the voices. I unravel the expansion that is dor - mant in the voices and give the sounds wings.” Thus Mahler in an open letter in the Viennese newspaper Die Wage in January 1899. On 14 January, during his first season as chief con - ductor of the Viennese Philharmonic Orchestra, he was to conduct the premiere of his arrangement for string orchestra of Beet- hoven's String Quartet opus 95 ‘Quartetto serioso’. And what Mahler had anticipated did indeed occur during this concert: after the first movement loud cries of boo erupted, coun- tered by fervent applause from Mahler's CCS SA 31511 BOOKLET-DEF:lin.str.booklet/2kl 06-09-2011 13:14 Pagina 5 supporters. Despite his deep conviction, entire movement. Any expansion of the lyrical Mahler never performed his arrangement subsidiary theme is quickly retorted by the again. His score and the orchestral parts were angry main theme. In the development, this found in the late 1980s in the Viennese raging reaches macabre heights through Philharmonic Orchestra archive. The arrange - sharp appoggiaturas and lashing sforzando ment was first published in 1990, and since accents. then Mahler's version of the ’Quartetto The Allegretto ma non troppo commences in serioso’ has had a permanent place on con - an ominous mood with five descending notes cert stages around the world. in the cellos. This short introduction is follow- ed by a soft, plaintive melody, after which the Quartetto serioso violas announce a chromatically descending Beethoven wrote his String Quartet opus 95 in fugue subject. After it has sounded in all 1810 and called it the ‘Quartetto serioso’ . This voices, the cellos return to the descending concise quartet heralds his final period of opening motif, whispering and macabre, with composition, in which his music abounds in a biting and dissonant accompaniment in the abstraction and experimentation. On com- other parts. This passage reminds one imme - pletion of the quartet, as if Beethoven sensed diately of the grinding dissonances at the that it would be too progressive for the gener- beginning of Mozart's Dissonance Quartet KV al public, he wrote to the publisher: “the quar - 465 . The ominous, chromatically descending tet is written for a small circle of connoisseurs five-note line brings the movement to an un- and must never be performed in public.” For resolved end on a diminished F chord. this reason it was published only in 1816. Characteristic of the quartet are its exception - The struggle remains undecided, and pro - al conciseness and daring. The expositions do ceeds without interruption in the movement not have the customary

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