STRAIGHT FROM THE HEART Symphony Hall, Birmingham Wednesday 30 June 2021, 2.00pm & 6.30pm Kazuki Yamada – Conductor Alban Gerhardt – Cello Anderson Litanies (CBSO Centenary Commission – UK Premiere) 20’ Dvořák Symphony No.7 40’ Love Dvořák’s New World symphony? Then why not try something a OUR CAMPAIGN FOR MUSICAL little stronger? Dvořák’s Seventh begins with a rumble of thunder, and LIFE IN THE WEST MIDLANDS ends in a shout of defiance; in between come summer storms, lilting dance tunes, and some of the sweetest, most heartfelt music in any These socially-distanced concerts have been made possible by funding from Arts great symphony. The CBSO’s Principal Guest Conductor Kazuki Yamada Council England’s Culture Recovery Fund, never stints on emotion; and it’s a perfectly-chosen complement to the plus generous support from thousands of UK premiere of the CBSO’s latest Centenary Commission – Litanies, individuals, charitable trusts and companies a major new cello concerto from our former Composer in Association through The Sound of the Future fundraising Julian Anderson. It’s Julian’s very personal tribute to a friend who died too campaign. young, and with the phenomenal Alban Gerhardt as soloist, we think it’s set to be an instant classic. By supporting our campaign, you will play your part in helping the orchestra to recover from the pandemic as well as renewing the way we work in our second century. Plus, all new memberships are currently being matched pound for pound by a generous You are welcome to view the online programme on your mobile device, but please ensure that your member of the CBSO’s campaign board. sound is turned off and that you are mindful of other members of the audience. Any noise (such as whispering) can be very distracting – the acoustics of the Hall will highlight any such sound. If you use a Support your CBSO at cbso.co.uk/future hearing aid in conjunction with our infra-red hearing enhancement system, please make sure you have collected a receiver unit and that your hearing aid is switched to the ‘T’ position, with the volume level appropriately adjusted. Audiences are welcome to take photographs before and after the concert, and during breaks in the music for applause. If you would like to take photos at these points please ensure you do not use a flash, and avoid disturbing other members of the audience around you. Please note that taking photographs or filming the concert while the orchestra is playing is not permitted as it is distracting both for other audience members and for the musicians on stage. Keeping you safe: Please ensure that you are following all of the covid-safe measures that are in place, including: arriving at the time indicated on your ticket, wearing a face covering whilst in the building (exemption excluded), keeping a social distance from other audience members and staff, following facebook.com/thecbso signage and/or guidance from staff, and using the hand sanitising stations provided. Thank you. twitter.com/thecbso instagram.com/thecbso Supported by Supported by 1 Julian Anderson (b.1967) Julian Anderson and the CBSO Litanies When Sakari Oramo succeeded Simon Rattle as the CBSO’s chief conductor in 1998, it soon became clear that his enthusiasm for Julian Anderson’s first cello concerto can be seen as an new music was easily the equal of his predecessor’s. In fact, the exploration in the possibilities of the cello, beginning with a CBSO would premiere almost as many new pieces in the ten years Toccata and working through a full range of textures and of Oramo’s leadership as it did over the entire 18 years of Rattle’s techniques available to the instrument. The musical material is tenure – including works by Henze, Per Norgard, Magnus highly varied and includes unusual tunings as well as diatonic Lindberg and Elliott Carter. Oramo was active in choosing the modes which are sharply contrasted. 34-year old Julian Anderson as the CBSO’s third (and so far final) Composer in Association in 2001. Following the traditional three-movement form, albeit without break, the concerto features a central slow section with lyrical “The set-up is arguably the best in the country”, he told The passages exploiting the cello’s singing qualities. A chorale at the Guardian. “There are so many levels, from the composing point of end of this section is written in memory of Anderson’s dear friend, view alone – the orchestra, the Birmingham Contemporary Music the composer/conductor Oliver Knussen. The faster opening and Group, the choruses – and they’re all so well integrated.” He also closing sections contrast this central movement, ending with a became a regular pre-concert speaker at Symphony Hall, sharing lively finale which takes its inspiration from Dance. his creative insights on Messiaen, Stravinsky and Dutilleux. When Oramo held his contemporary music festival Floof! in April 2003, Litanies was commissioned by Radio France, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Anderson acted as a kind of co-host to a gathering of composers the CBSO, the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, the Swedish as varied as Esa-Pekka Salonen and Jonathan Harvey – as well as Chamber Orchestra, and the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne. introducing performances of his own Alhambra Fantasy (later championed by the CBSO Youth Orchestra), Shir Hashirim and Programme note courtesy of Schott Music The Crazed Moon. Meanwhile, he crafted a series of strikingly personal works for the CBSO and its extended “family”. “I have found the orchestra enormously open, very sympathetic and very interested” he said – and Anderson’s first work for the CBSO, Imagin’d Corners (2002) was conceived as a showpiece for the CBSO’s horn section in the acoustic of Symphony Hall. Symphony (2003), Book of Hours for BCMG (2004) and Four American Choruses (2004) for the unaccompanied CBSO chorus all sprang from the relationship, with Anderson’s final work as composer-in-association – the exquisite, Brancusi-inspired Eden for orchestra – being premiered at Cheltenham in July 2005. Programme note © Richard Bratby THE COMPOSER Julian Anderson is among the most esteemed in demand as concert programmer and public speaker. Between and influential composers of his generation, 2002 and 2011 he was Artistic Director of the Phiharmonia’s Music his music being performed regularly both of Today concert series at the Royal Festival Hall in London and, from internationally and at home in the UK. 2013 to 2016 he was Composer in Residence at Wigmore Hall. Anderson was born in London in 1967 and Close associations and residencies with the CBSO, The Cleveland studied composition with John Lambert, Orchestra, and the London Philharmonic Orchestra have contributed Alexander Goehr and Tristan Murail. He was to Anderson’s significant orchestral output. awarded a prestigious RPS Composition Prize in 1992 at the age of 25 for his two-movement work Diptych (1990) Anderson’s strong relationships with ensembles including the for orchestra, launching his career. His success as a composer Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Nash Ensemble, London has also fed a prominent academic career, which has included Sinfonietta and Asko-Schönberg Ensemble have resulted in many Senior Composition Professorships at the Royal College of Music award-winning commissions, including Book of Hours (2004) (1996-2004), where he was also Head of Composition for five years, for ensemble and electronics, Van Gogh Blue (2015), Sensation Harvard University (2004-07), and the Guildhall School of Music & (2015-16) for solo piano, and String Quartet No.3 ‘Hana no Drama, where he holds the specially created post of Professor of hanataba’ (2018). Composition and Composer in Residence. Anderson is also much Photo © John Batten 2 Antonín Dvořák (1841–1904) The opening of the first movement, much worked over by Dvořák in his sketches, establishes the predominant mood, with its dark Symphony No.7 in D minor, Op.70 colouring and muttered melody, and, as early as its eighth bar, the first of the Symphony’s many dramatic, pivotal diminished-seventh chords. The contrast between the dark chromaticism of the opening Allegro maestoso and the gentle diatonic lyricism of the B flat major second subject is Poco adagio one that recurs throughout the work. A tightly controlled Scherzo: Vivace – Poco meno mosso – Vivace development section leads to a much truncated recapitulation, Finale: Allegro beginning with the first subject played fff (fortississimo) by the full orchestra; the original muttered version is reserved for the coda. Dvořák’s close personal links with Britain began in March 1884, The slow movement begins with a lyrical theme in a cloudless when he conducted his Stabat Mater at the Royal Albert Hall in F major; but this is disrupted by an anguished minor-mode episode, London, and a few days later a programme of his own orchestral with dropping diminished sevenths in the first violins and cellos, music at a concert of the Philharmonic Society (now the Royal followed by a richly consoling horn melody. The central Philharmonic Society). The performances were so successful that development, based largely on the horn theme, is dramatic and he returned home armed with three major commissions: for a new intricate, and the calm simplicity of the opening is not recaptured cantata for the Birmingham Festival of the following year, which until the very end of the movement. resulted in The Spectre’s Bride; for a new oratorio for the 1886 The Scherzo has a captivating double-stranded principal melody, Leeds Festival, which was to be St Ludmila; and for a new symphony with cross-rhythms reminiscent of the Bohemian dance called the for the Philharmonic Society. On a return visit later in the year, ‘furiant’, and a melodic echo of the second-subject group of the first primarily to conduct the Stabat Mater at the Three Choirs Festival in movement.