JOURNEY THROUGH MUSIC

Friday 26 May, 7.30pm

Arvo Pärt Cantus in memoriam (7 mins) Henri Dutilleux Tout un monde lointain … (27 mins)

Interval: 20 mins

Hector Berlioz Symphonie fantastique (50 mins)

BBC Philharmonic Juanjo Mena conductor Leonard Elschenbroich ARE YOU READY TO BEGIN YOUR MUSICAL JOURNEY OF DISCOVERY?

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.

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using the hashtag #MyJTM illustrations:All Wright/Nucco Brain Ben AN INTRODUCTION TO THE ORCHESTRA

WHAT IS AN THE CONDUCTOR ORCHESTRA? The person in charge is usually the But there’s more to it than this. The An orchestra is a group of instrumental conductor, who stands at the front and conductor can also help to reveal the players who perform together, usually led directs the orchestra from a podium, changing moods of the music. If they can by a conductor. keeping time either by waving a short create a strong musical image for the stick, called a baton, or sometimes just listener, the effect can make us feel all The modern symphony orchestra usually with his or her hands. One of the earliest sorts of emotions: happiness, sadness, has somewhere between 60 and 90 conductors, the Italian-born Frenchman fear, pride and everything in between. players: around 30 violins, 12 violas, Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632–87), kept his The music might energise you, or it might 10 , eight double basses; two or orchestra together by banging a big stick make you feel you’ve fallen into a dream. three each of flutes, , clarinets and on the floor, but one day he accidentally bassoons; four horns, three trumpets, stabbed his foot and soon afterwards died three trombones, a tuba, a harp and an of gangrene. It’s not as dangerous these assortment of percussion instruments. days! You can find out more about the instruments, and where they sit, on Part of the conductor’s job is to show the next two pages after this. 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!

1 All illustrations:All Wright/Nucco Brain Ben THE ORCHESTRA O N STAGE

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

PERCUSSION The 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 BRASS their pitch (or notes). The bass drum is hit with just one Like the strings and woodwind, the brass family has stick; while the metal cymbals are clashed together, often four groups. There are French horns (usually four), when the music gets very loud. The side-drum is a small instruments once associated with hunting, while military drum that can play very quietly or very loudly the trumpets came from military bands, and often indeed. Sometimes composers ask for a variety of other have fanfare-like parts. Trombones are played with percussion instruments, such as the xylophone, the a movable slide but, in spite of their size, they can marimba or even whistles, whips and sirens. play amazingly fast notes; and finally the enormous tuba makes the deepest notes of all.

STRINGS WOODWIND String players sit at the front in a semi-circle, The woodwind section sits behind the strings, often in two rows. usually with the violins on the left and the There are four different instruments, usually in pairs, but in bigger cellos on the right. Each of the string sections orchestras there can be up to three or four players of each (and also the woodwind, brass and percussion instrument. The metal flutes produce a high, bright, silvery sound. sections) has a principal, who leads the The piccolo is like a small flute and plays very high up.Oboes are section. The strings divide into four sections: black wooden instruments with a detachable reed, which gives them violins, violas, cellos and double basses. The a distinctive sharp-edged sound. Before a concert starts, the whole violins are subdivided into first violins and orchestra tunes up to the note ‘A’ sounded by the Principal . second violins, with the Firsts generally having A bigger, lower version of the oboe is the cor anglais, or ‘English horn’. a slightly more difficult and brilliant part. Clarinets have a more hollow, woody sound. The lowest-sounding Violas are bigger than violins, with a deeper, member of its family is the bass clarinet. The lowest woodwind mellower sound. The cellos have a rounded, instrument is the bassoon, which is long and heavy and has to be bass sound. The huge double basses (which supported by a sling round the player’s neck. The contra-bassoon are played standing up, or perched on a high is so long that it’s bent double. Occasionally a piece will need extra stool) add depth to the string sound. The instruments, such as the saxophone, which is more usually found in harp is played with fingers instead of a bow, a band. and it has a series of complicated pedals that change its pitch (or notes). BRASS

TRUMPETS HORNS TROM NCH BON FRE ES T UB AS

WOODWIND

I N PA IM T

OES C S OB LARIN S UTE ETS L FL B PERCUSSION A AS B SO M O N Y S C

D ON EC S VIOLA S LIN S IO V C E L L HARPS T S O S S IN R I L F O I

DOUBLE

STRINGS V BASSES TONIGHT'S MUSIC

Arvo Pärt (born 1935) Henri Dutilleux (1916 –2013) Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten Tout un monde lointain … (1967–70)

(1977) 1 Enigme (Enigma) – 2 Regard (Gaze) – Arvo Pärt comes from the Baltic nation of Estonia, and he’s 3 Houles (Surges) – often described as a ‘Holy Minimalist’. Even though you don’t 4 Miroirs (Mirrors) – have to be religious to enjoy it, many people feel that Pärt’s 5 Hymne (Hymn) music has a wonderfully thoughtful, even spiritual feeling. His music often begins by sounding very simple – with just a few Leonard Elschenbroich cello notes, as if he’d used the very minimum needed. But that’s only the start. As you’re about to hear, Pärt weaves those notes into Many classical composers lived a long time ago. But quite a few something incredibly rich and beautiful. of us actually met Henri Dutilleux (pronounced ‘Doo-tee-yer’), who died only four years ago at the age of 97. He was a kind, Just after he finished writing this piece in 1977, he heard the lively old man, full of good humour and not terribly tall, who sad news that the British composer Benjamin Britten had died. wore old-fashioned glasses and spoke English with a very thick Pärt was a great fan of Britten’s music – so he called it Cantus French accent and a very deep voice. You might have mistaken in memoriam Benjamin Britten, which translates as ‘Song [or him for your great-grandad, but his music was full of imagination Chant] in memory of Benjamin Britten’. and magical sounds.

He finished this piece in 1970 and it’s what musicians call a What to listen for – a piece in which a single (‘solo’) player, in this case • The strings: Pärt likes to keep things simple so he doesn’t a cellist, performs alone with the support of the orchestra. But use woodwind or brass in this piece, just strings and a bell. Dutilleux didn’t call it that. He liked to gather ideas from poetry Listen to how plainly it begins, and then how the strings and paintings, and see what sounds they suggested to him. In start to ‘sing’, to overlap and cascade. this piece, he took ideas from the mysterious French poetry • The bell: does it remind you of anything in particular: a mood, or a place? Out of all the possible instruments, why do you think Pärt chose to add just this one?

What else could I listen to? Arvo Pärt’s Fratres often appears in films and TV documentaries – it’s deceptively simple, and it couldn’t be by any other composer. TONIGHT'S MUSIC

of (1821–67) – and each section (or us another clue from his favourite poet: ‘Guard your movement) of the piece has a single word from one of his dreams! Wise men don’t have dreams as beautiful as fools poems, to get your imagination going. There’s lots to discover – do!’ after all, the title means ‘A whole distant world …’ What else could I listen to? Dutilleux wrote a concerto for violin and orchestra, too – the What to listen for beautiful L’arbre des songes (‘The Tree of Dreams’). 1 Enigme (Enigma) • A puzzle – and a mystery! The very first sound is Interval: 20 minutes (time for an ice-cream!) mysterious – like something rustling, or a wave slowly breaking on the sea. It’s actually two of the percussion instruments (at the back of the orchestra – see if you can spot them). Then our cello soloist Leonard joins in, and shows what he can do: low grumbling sounds, bursts of energy, and little flurries of – when he plucks the strings of his cello. Gradually, the orchestra joins in too, until the cello seems to shiver, and the music moves on into: 2 Regard (Gaze) • The cello sings sadly, and the string instruments seem to sigh. Dutilleux got the idea from a weird love poem by Baudelaire: ‘the poison that flows from your eyes, from your green eyes’. With a big sound from the brass instruments, it moves on into: 3 Houles (Surges) • The cello scurries about again; but other instruments surge with it – the clarinet and the oboe (woodwind instruments, in the middle of the orchestra), and later the bright-sounding flute. The music gets stormier (listen for the clattering wooden xylophone). Baudelaire’s poem talked of a black ‘sea of ebony’. It goes quiet again and then … 4 Miroirs (Mirrors) • The marimba (in the percussion section) and the harp pick out a rhythm like a quietly ticking clock and the cello sings, with the violins making gleaming sounds around it. Gradually the music gathers strength and launches into: 5 Hymne (Hymn) • It may be called ‘Hymn’ but it’s not a church sort of hymn. Listen out for bold, surprising sounds from the brass instruments and the percussion, while the cello scampers and darts between them. How will it end? Dutilleux gives TONIGHT'S MUSIC

Hector Berlioz (1803–69) What to listen for Symphonie fantastique (1830) 1 Dreams, Passions • It begins quietly. Berlioz said that his hero thinks of ‘the 1 Dreams, Passions longing he used to experience before he discovered his 2 A Ball Beloved’, and the music seems to wander around. ‘Then 3 Scene in the Country he remembers the passionate love which she suddenly 4 March to the Scaffold inspired in him’. With a sudden crash, the violins and flute 5 Dream of a Sabbath Night play a long tune that Berlioz used to describe Harriet. The cellos and basses thump like a beating heart. Things are The French composer Hector Berlioz was music’s ultimate about to get passionate! rebel. He had messy red hair, a passionate temper and he loved 2 A Ball music so much that he dropped out of medical school to be a • Berlioz imagines seeing his beloved at a fabulous party. composer – even though he could only play the flute and the The orchestra plays an elegant waltz – the hottest new guitar! Other composers were amazed. He hadn’t had many craze in Paris in 1830 – and two harps make the music lessons, so everything he wrote sounded wrong – but music glitter like diamonds. He sees her dancing and somehow, right! And incredibly exciting. He loved all the sounds then he glimpses her across the room (her tune is played that a full orchestra could make. And he was mad about the quietly by the clarinet). Then the dance whirls on. new books and art that were coming out in in the 1820s 3 Scene in the Country – stories of horror, passion and wild adventures. • Our hero flees to the countryside – but everything reminds him of Harriet! He hears a shepherd boy And then … he fell in love! Well, sort of: he hadn’t actually (depicted by the cor anglais – a smoky sounding met the beautiful actress Harriet Smithson but he’d seen woodwind instrument) calling to his friend (a distant- her acting in a Paris theatre and, in early 1830, he decided to sounding oboe). He tries to relax – but at the end we write a symphony describing his feelings for her. Everyone was hear distant thunder, played by two sets of timpani. astonished. A symphony is a piece for orchestra in several 4 March to the Scaffold separate movements, telling a story in which tunes (or ‘themes’) • And now he’s completely lost it: ‘He dreams that he are the characters. It’s one of the biggest challenges for any has murdered his beloved in a fit of jealousy’. In France, classical composer. Berlioz didn’t care; he simply wrote music in those days, that meant one thing: the guillotine! He that was as passionate and as unpredictable as he felt. imagines being taken through yelling crowds (the brass instruments almost seem to jeer) to have his head cut And he called it Symphonie fantastique (‘Fantastic Symphony’). off. The last thing he imagines before he gets the chop ‘Fantastic’ can mean full of fantasy and imagination, as well as is – you guessed it – Harriet’s theme. (You can literally really good. This symphony is both of those things. Berlioz hear his head bounce into the basket – pizzicato – right described it as ‘an episode in the life of an artist’ – a sort of afterwards). dream – and in every movement he included a theme that was supposed to be Harriet. The ‘artist’, of course, was Berlioz himself! And the story? Well, if you’re sitting comfortably … TONIGHT'S MUSIC

5 Dream of a Sabbath Night • Listen to the strings chattering and rumbling and the weird sighs from the woodwinds (that sliding sound is called a ): our hero is alone in a graveyard at night. Witches are gathering, and guess what: his beloved is one of them! From now on, things only get crazier. Listen for the chiming of midnight bells, and the strings playing col legno (with the wooden bit of their bows) – a rattling sound, like skeletons dancing.

And if all this doesn’t sound like your idea of a love letter – you’d be surprised: Harriet finally heard Berlioz’sSymphonie fantastique in 1832. The following year, she married him.

What else could I listen to? There’s just so much exciting music by Berlioz – try his overtures Roman Carnival, Les francs-juges and Le corsaire.

Notes © Richard Bratby