2017– 2018

1 Welcome

IT GIVES ME GREAT Passion. If you favour PLEASURE to introduce Bach’s John Passion, visit us such a stimulating in Perth where we will be programme of events for our reconstructing the full Good 2013–14 season. We will be Friday liturgy. appearing across Scotland and Europe to perform not Whilst we retain our focus just the familiar Dunedin on Bach and the eighteenth- favourites, but also a number century, we will also be of works that are new to our looking back into the repertoire. previous century exploring the heart-wrenching music We open with one of the best-loved of Italian composer, Claudio Monteverdi. choral works, Mozart’s Requiem, which To round off the season we perform for we will also be recording for Linn in the first time with the internationally- September. With a characteristically renowned countertenor Iestyn Davies fresh take on the classic, we will give you in Edinburgh and at the Wigmore Hall a chance to hear us perform it for the in London, in some sublime yet rarely first time in both Perth and Haddington, heard music by Johann Christoph Bach, the latter marking our return once again Johann Sebastian’s second cousin. This to the Lammermuir Festival. will also be the first of our Bach 300 project where during the course of 2014 After a quick visit to Brittany in the we will be tracking Bach’s work during Autumn to perform Bach’s John Passion 1714. Keep tuned for more details at the Lanvellec Festival, we return for throughout the season. our annual Messiahs. Christmas just wouldn’t be the same without these I am sure you will agree that this looks concerts, which you can catch in both like a thrilling series of concerts and I Edinburgh and Glasgow for some respite hope you will be able to join us wherever from the hectic festive season. But we you are! can guarantee that such respite will not equate to rest, or even sleep!

This Easter, we are delighted to be appearing for the first time at Glasgow’s fantastic City Halls, with Bach’s Matthew john butt

2 3 Seeds of Venice August

Seeds of This concert brings Dunedin’s 05/08/2017 The Queen’s Hall, trademark vivid, passionate Edinburgh International Festival performances that crackle with energy – with the modern- Venice This concert will be broadcast live on day premiere of a recently BBC Radio 3 rediscovered work by Claudio

Froberger—Toccata in G Major Monteverdi and Heinrich Schütz. Monteverdi—Armato il cor SV 150 Monteverdi—Zefiro Torna SV 251 Combattimento is German Marini—Passacaglio à 4 Schütz—Güldne Haare, gleich Aurore, composer Schütz’s transcription SWV 440 of Monteverdi’s bewitching Il Buxtehude—A-major sonata combattimento di Tancredi Schütz—O süsser, o freundlicher SWV 285 Schütz—Es steh Gott auf SWV 356 e Clorinda, a remarkably Rosenmüller—Sonata No. 7 à 4 in D Minor expressive mini-opera in which Monteverdi/Schütz—Combattimento a Christian knight from the Crusades mistakenly kills the Sophie Bevan, Soprano Nicholas Mulroy, Tenor Saracen woman he loves. Gwilym Bowen, Tenor John Butt, Director/harpsichord Joined by two masterful young soloists, we pair this electrifying new discovery with scintillating gems by Monteverdi, Schütz and Buxtehude.

4 5 Prom 49: Bach’s St John Passion Prom 49: August

Bach’s St 20/08/2017 ‘More daring, forceful and Royal Albert Hall, London poetic’ than the St Matthew Passion, according to This concert will be broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 Schumann, this is a work of John Passion almost operatic vividness that brings both a humanity and Nicholas Mulroy, Evangelist a painful immediacy to the Matthew Brook, Jesus Sophie Bevan, Soprano Passion narrative. Tim Mead, Counter-tenor We make our Proms debut in Andrew Tortise, Tenor a performance that offers the Konstantin Wolff, Bass John Butt, Harpsichord/director audience the chance to join in the chorale-singing, reflecting how the work might originally have been heard in a church setting.

6 7 Bach’s Organ Bach’s September 01/09/2017 Porecti omnia derum Waltershausen, Thuringia, es dolupta con corrume Germany, Trost Organ nducidenes solorec tatiunt, Organ venimagnihic te verupta eum Bach—Sinfonia to Cantata 49 sit pererib usantia ped ulloria Handel—Trio Sonata in G major, Op. 5 Bach—Cantata 35, Geist und Seele wird dolor maios ma delectem as verwirret nobit ratempo restiur, culloriae Handel—concerto que nesendaecto dolorpora Bach—Prelude in C major, from BWV 545 velibus, volores ecatur apidell Bach—Cantata 170 Vergnügte Ruh uptatur rem laceat quiatem. volorumquas evenderi solestis eaquo offictianis namus Iestyn Davies, Countertenor moluptatem voluptatur? Quias am cus vollest qui dolo tem dolupta natem. Nequi occae soluptas et voluptioria nam utem ut quunt. Ehendi blabo. Nam fuga. Obit essit, con

8 9 Handel – Handel Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno Il Trionfo del September 24/09/2017 Il trionfo del Tempo e del St Mary’s Church, Haddington, Disinganno (1707) is a young Lammermuir Festival Handel’s brilliant take on the Tempo e del timeless tale of the fleeting nature of Beauty. Pursued by Time, she turns away from ephemeral Pleasure Mary Bevan, Belleza towards Enlightenment. Il Trionfo Anna Stephany, Piacere Disinganno Nicholas Mulroy, Tempo contains music of irresistible HIlary Summers, Disinganno invention, daring virtuosity and technicolour brilliance.

This is also a landmark in baroque music. It is the first of Handel’s oratorios, showcasing the astonishing flowering of his genius in Italy in his early twenties. At the first performance, Corelli led the orchestra. It was a touchstone for Handel, who would later mine Il Trionfo for many of his Italian operas, notably ‘Lascia la spina’ (‘Leave the thorn, gather the rose’) - later reborn as ‘Lascia ch’io pianga’. The final movement – a duet for Beauty (soprano) and violin – remains one of the most exquisitely ravishing things he wrote.

10 11 Bach Masses Bach October 29/10/2017 JS Bach is one of a very small The Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh collection of composers who seem incapable of Masses 30/10/2017 writing second-rate music. St Machar’s Cathedral, His Lutheran Masses are Aberdeen a perfect illustration of this: overshadowed by his 01/11/2017 monumental B Minor Mass, Hamburg they nevertheless contain what might conceivably be Mass in G BWV 236 his favourite music from the Massin A BWV 234 cantatas, lovingly revived

in succinct works of vibrant Maria Keohane, Soprano colour and indefatigable Clare Wilkinson, Mezzo inspiration. Loved by all who Nicholas Mulroy, Tenor Matthew Brook, Bass know them, they give the lie to the idea that the devil gets all the best tunes. The menu is completed with the irrepressible dance rhythms and ravishing harmonies from his Orchestra Suite in C major.

12 13 Christmas Oratorio Christmas December

15/12/2017 “Shout and exult!” Perth Concert Hall Oratorio Bach did not conceive the 16/12/2017 Christmas Oratorio as a work to Wigmore Hall, be heard in a single performance. London (Residency I) It was a collection of 6 cantatas – one for each feast day between Christmas Day and New Year’s Bach— Christmas Oratorio Cantatas 1, 4, 5, 6 Day – displaying the composer’s unerring talent for harvesting and revivifying his own material. Hugo Hymas, Tenor The piece suggests to the listener a spiritual journey from the Nativity to the Epiphany, and is full of wondrously memorable colour - from the trumpets and timpani depicting the infant king to the rustic lyricism of the flutes and oboes. It also shows Bach at his most utterly joyful, presenting the story of Christmas with music of luminous warmth and festive exuberance.

14 15 Handel – Messiah Handel December

19/12/2017 Handel’s Messiah is now a The Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh firm fixture in the festive Messiah calendar, yet, as with any 20/12/2017 great masterpiece, retains New Auditorium, a breathtaking freshness Glasgow Royal Concert Hall and dynamism, even at this Including performances for Children the 275th anniversary of its sensational Dublin premiere. Hugo Hymas, Tenor Its enduring appeal lies in music of tireless and white- hot inspiration (he wrote it in three weeks), irresistible chorus writing, and, ultimately, a universal message of hope for humanity, thanks to its superbly plotted trajectory from suffering to salvation, and from darkness to light.

16 17 Bach – Matthew Passion Bach March

23/03/2018 Known even in Bach’s time as The Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh his ‘great’ Passion, the Matthew Matthew Passion lays out the narrative 25/03/2018 of Christ’s suffering and death Wigmore Hall, in epic proportions: double London (Residency II) chorus, double orchestra, Passion and in music of staggering beauty and profundity. It Nicholas Mulroy, Evangelist unfolds with intractable dramatic momentum, as well as presenting a succession of tableaux that invite the listener to contemplate the many resonances of this journey. However, the work also suggests a more fundamental question: how, even in the depths of despair and subjected to grave injustice, humanity is able - through faith and through love - to find hope, consolation and joy.

18 19 Misteria Paschalia Misteria March / April

26/03 – 01/04/2018 Riant fugia as ex esti tem Krakow Easter Festival eium nonsequ asimuscilla Paschalia Residency with a focus on British Music volorume dignam idendis aut aliquae sapienit ratempedior restibus elendisqui totas aut aliquam, te am faccus earum essequid molore vitiust officilla nusantur? Ipsam, optaeptiore nullest, sitia dolorist qui ditiis eum ut am quas venis

20 21 Vivaldi’s La Favorita April

Vivaldi’s 26/03 – 01/04/2018 From his mid-twenties, Krakow Easter Festival Antonio Vivaldi was Residency with a focus on British Music employed as a violin teacher at the Ospedale della Pietá La Favorita in Venice. Although officially an orphanage, the Ospedale was in reality a home for illegitimate daughters of Venetian noblemen, and was a generously endowed school and residence with one of the finest orchestras in the city. The ‘Red Priest’ wrote several concertos for his preferred student there (La Favorita), and these display wonderfully florid invention and virtuosic pyrotechnics. This is a rare opportunity to experience first hand the music that emerged from one of the most productive – and intriguing – relationships in Venetian music.

22 23 Handel – Samson Handel May 27/05/2018 Te ressundebit porepro veles Handel Festpiele, Halle, dellore nestrum sim velestis Germany expellabo. Itate sinitat uritio Samson dolores cidignatius dolorecatur sam consequia delicab orepedit quuntorepra eaquam reri sam alicturem quae placcum, suntiat iusteces as et archil et est, sam volut quis solorit aut re si as sit et hil et aut venduci dolupta turias nonsed ello ea pore, con repudam harum fugiae volo eum re nobis ea doluptam repeditatur, sit, volupti buscia conet et doluptat occusdae delignis

24 25 Bach – B Minor Mass Bach June

“If music has the power to Is there a piece in the entire direct our entire existence Western musical canon that so B Minor towards nobleness, this music fully embodies this sentiment? is great. Bach has achieved The B Minor Mass began its this.” life as a job application, but was later assembled towards the end of Bach’s life as a statement Mass 20/06/2018 of faith: in God, of course, The Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh but just as much in music: to offer healing, unity and 21/06/2018 promise. With its exhaustive Wigmore Hall, London compendium of musical styles (Residency III) (and his twin trademarks of mathematical genius and dancing feet) and complete mastery of composition, both musical and architectural, it speaks for the whole world. In directing us towards nobleness, Bach shows us – people of all faiths and of none – the oneness of humankind with the universe, and the responsibility of human life to do good and to seek beauty.

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