DIGITAL CONCERTS PEER GYNT AND THE SEA

This concert forms part of the CBSO Symphonic Collection, and was filmed at Symphony Hall,

Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla – Conductor Klara Ek – Soprano Norman Perryman – Artist CBSO Chorus

Čiurlionis The Sea (UK premiere) 35’ Grieg Peer Gynt: Incidental Music 50’ OUR CAMPAIGN FOR MUSICAL LIFE IN THE WEST MIDLANDS Peer Gynt is a prankster, an adventurer and a rogue, and everyone knows some of the wonderfully memorable music that Grieg wrote Your support of the CBSO’s The Sound of the to accompany his exploits. But Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla has another Future campaign will raise £12.5m over five years to: story to tell – a beautiful rarity from her native Lithuania – and another dimension to share, as Birmingham-born artist Norman  Accelerate our recovery from the Perryman creates colours and images to complement the music. Covid-19 crisis so that we can get back to This concert was originally filmed in front of a live audience in enriching people’s lives through music as November 2018, and includes unseen footage of The Sea. quickly as possible  Renew the way we work for our second century, opening up the power of This concert is available to view online from music to an even broader cross-section Tuesday 30 March to Wednesday 30 June 2021 of society whilst securing our tradition of artistic excellence. The CBSO’s digital work has been made possible thanks to generous support from David and Sandra Burbidge, Jamie and Alison Justham, Chris and Jane Loughran, John Osborn, Support your CBSO at cbso.co.uk/donate and Arts Council England’s Culture Recovery Fund.

We are grateful to the Rachel Baker Memorial Charity for its generous support of the concert at which this film was recorded.

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Supported by Supported by 1 Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis This bright E major all harmonises well with a sentence in the (1875–1911) opening paragraph of the prose-poem Čiurlionis wrote to accompany his work, reproduced in this programme: ‘the sky The Sea (Jūra), Poem envelops your waves with its blue, while you, full of grandeur, UK Premiere breathe calmly and peacefully…’ Yet Čiurlionis has his own instinctive sea journey to follow. A more mysterious sequel, seeing the depths as it were, could align with ‘you frown, your blue face is as if discontented’. Yet we have a distance to cover before the wind whips up a storm. Here the best thing is to succumb to the rapidly Musically speaking, La Manche/the English Channel as transfigured changing impressionism, and swoon to the ecstatic strings in thirds in the “three symphonic sketches” of Debussy’s La Mer, and the which inevitably remind us of the Night Wanderer’s incandescence North Sea caught in the various moods of Britten’s Four Sea in Zarathustra, until a rocking figure in the bass finally leads to the Interludes from Peter Grimes figure most prominently in the marine shaping of a crucial theme, a descending portion of the scale with stakes of the 20th-century orchestral repertoire. There is room for a triplet figure (a coincidental half-resemblance to the downward other sea-pictures, though, and especially for Čiurlionis’s hugely motion of the ‘night’ theme in An Alpine Symphony). ambitious tone poem of 1903, begun around the same time as Debussy’s but not premiered until 1936, 25 years after his untimely Its rhythms pulse ominously on a single note; chromatic flurries death in a psychiatric hospital at the age of 35, and not performed in tell us a storm is on the way. Like Strauss’ on his way down the its original version until 1990. mountain, this one commandeers an organ for its grandeur, but the real resemblance, and this time the influence, has to be with the Although the sea was a creation of the imagination for Čiurlionis, as it battle sequence of Ein Heldenleben (A Hero’s Life, 1899). Indeed, was for Debussy, and a symbolic presence, in a more literal sense the Čiurlionis’s prose-poem describes the windwhipped waves as row waves in question belong not to the shoreline of his native Lithuania upon row of a self-sacrificing army at the bidding of a capricious but to the much warmer climate of the Black Sea (though a snatch general: ‘the wind has ordered them to crush rocks hundreds of of a Lithuanian folksong, ‘Močiute mano’, appears on the oboes in miles away, and they rush forward, confident, howling, dashing the sea drift following the first big swells). There Čiurlionis apparently their weak chests against solid stone and perishing; new ranks rise received his first inspiration as a guest of his patron Bronislawa behind them and also perish’. Wolman and her family at her Crimean summer residence in Anapa. The Sea was five years in the making, completed in 1907. Yet just as Strauss’ hero reasserts his humanism after a mighty welter, critic-adversaries routed, the full majesty of the sunlit sea Čiurlionis’s roots were as various as his talents (he devoted the breaks forth to dazzle at the climax. The aftermath is masterly, and second half of his all too short creative life to his unique form individual, with hints of Čiurlionis’s description of the sea collecting of painting). Born in Varėna, a village in southeastern Lithuania fragments of waves, mourning as it does so; the composer is very which was then part of the Russian empire, he spoke the language much his own man in the gentle flurries, rockings and trills which most favoured by cultured Lithuanians, Polish, at home; an steer us gently, perhaps under a starlit sky, to a barcarolle (Čiurlionis attempt to learn his mother tongue came with a growing national knew his Chopin, and if his own piano nocturnes are indebted to consciousness in his maturity, encouraged above all by the woman the master’s example, they can be memorable, too). We could be who became his wife in 1907, art critic Sofija Kymantaitė. With the left, contented, to drift in this subtly evolving dream; but Čiurlionis financial support of a Polish prince, he pursued his musical studies in must have his peroration, and so we get a final E major apotheosis. Warsaw from 1894 to 1899 and then for a crucial year (1901-02) at the Leipzig Conservatoire. The Sea was one of only two major orchestral works Čiurlionis completed. Before it, in 1901, he captured what he later described It was in Leipzig, that musical mecca, that he attended the to his fiancée as ‘the mysterious talk of the woods’ with his other Gewandhaus concerts of the great Artur Nikisch, and heard the tone poem In the Forest before he turned to ‘rolling waves’. There’s recent scores of the leading late romantic master Richard Strauss. a tantalising title which crops up in a triptych of 1908, A Sonata of Landlocked Bavarian Strauss only tried to ‘paint’ the sea once, in the Sea, but this turns out to be a series of paintings, respectively the magical Beach at Sorrento movement of his 1889 “symphonic titled Allegro, Andante and Finale. His last years were dominated by fantasia” Aus Italien. The Sea has more in common with An Alpine his visual art before a deep depression led to his being hospitalised Symphony – though that came many years later – and Also sprach in a Polish psychiatric institution. He died there of pneumonia on Zarathustra, Strauss’ poetic response to Nietzsche (whose writings 10 April 1911, having never seen his baby daughter. The shining were also very influential on Čiurlionis while he was in Leipzig). While optimism of The Sea was snuffed out in real life. But this magnificent the fresh breeze of upward-swirling harp and descending ‘nature- testimony to a major figure who until recently didn’t even feature in theme’ intervals of woodwind right at the start of The Sea, met by many musical reference works now has a new lease of life thanks to rising gentle waves from lower strings, make an interesting parallel another inspirational Lithuanian, Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, who as a child with the dawn of Debussy’s La Mer, the three climactic sunrise studied at the National MK Čiurlionis School of Art in Vilnius and statements are clearly indebted to the opening of Zarathustra. decided at the age of 11 that her future lay in music.

Programme note © David Nice

2 The Sea Powerful sea. Great, infinite, boundless. The sky envelops your Look, just look how willingly they are all running with the wind, each waves with its blue, while you, full of grandeur, breathe calmly and and every one, and there are millions of them, and still more coming. peacefully, since you know that there are no limits to your power Hold at least one of your subjects, o queen! and your grandeur, your existence is infinite. The great, powerful, wonderful sea! Half the world is looking at you at night, distant suns What a horrid hoard! Waves, waves and only waves stretch from drown their blinking, mysterious, slumbering glances in your depths, horizon to horizon. while you, eternal queen of giants, breathe peacefully and quietly, you know that there is only you and nobody reigns over you. Look, your giants are rising, but even they are no longer in your power. You are foaming, o great sea! You frown, your blue face is as if discontented. You frown? Could it be wrath? Who could dare, o sea, incomprehensible in infinite grandeur, The wind has ordered them to crush rocks hundreds of miles away, who could dare to go against you? and they rush forward, confident, howling, dashing their weak chests against solid stone and perishing; new ranks rise behind them and And from the sea came the answer, murmuring faintly, swaying the also perish. shore-grass, whispering: ‘It is the wind, wind, wind.’ The wind keeps driving new hoards, eventually it grows bored and, Wind is a nothing, it is a transient entity, a homeless vagabond, abandoning it all, sweeps away whistling. evanescent and colourless, which is growling like a loathsome jackal, thrashing and devastating forests, diving in the dust, stirring fires, While you are foaming, o sea, majestic and powerless. kicking down old crosses in graveyards, and tearing apart small, poor cottages. The wind has long since gone. You are collecting your waves, your fragments, you can hardly hold them and lament mournfully like a Slender willows bow low before it, while the modest frail flowers press child. Why do you lament, o sea? themselves to the ground scared by its rage. They are weak and feeble. Do you grieve for your zealous waves, of which nothing but foam has survived? And you – you frown and are wrathful, the eternal queen of giants, stretching here for thousands of centuries, lit by the blinking suns of Do not grieve for them! The time will come when the wind will blow the universe, always cold and tranquil, you are wrathful. again and new waves will rise on the distant shore, the wind will again drive them wherever it wishes and there will abound zealous giants, Is it because your waves are no longer in your power? until again nothing remains of them but foam.

The wind is already reigning over them and driving them like a herd Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis of sheep.

3 Edvard Grieg (1843–1907) But artists aren’t always the most objective judges of their own creative processes. Grieg’s wife Nina had a different perspective on Peer Gynt: Incidental Music it all. As she watched her husband grow more and more immersed Act I: in the play and its captivating poetry, she saw him realise as he Prelude: At the Wedding worked ‘that he was the right man for a work of such witchery and Act II: so permeated with the Norwegian spirit’. In any case, despite his Prelude: The Abduction of the Bride – Ingrid’s Lament grander ambitions Grieg was by nature a miniaturist of genius. With In the Hall of the Mountain King the exception of the justly famous Piano Concerto, Grieg’s greatest Act III: successes are almost entirely on a small scale – and thus it is with The Death of Åse the exquisite chain of movements that makes up his Peer Gynt incidental music. Act IV: Morning The movements selected here distil key moments from Ibsen’s story Arabian Dance with a power, colour and poignancy out of all proportion to their Anitra’s Dance modest durations. At the Wedding sets the scene for one of Peer’s Solveig’s Song more outrageous adventures, which we then hear, alongwith its Act V: sorrowful consequences, in The Abduction of the Bride – Ingrid’s Prelude; Peer Gynt’s Homecoming Lament. In the Hall of the Mountain King is a magnificently sustained Whitsun Hymn crescendo built on varied repetitions of a deliciously sinister tune – Solveig’s Cradle Song just the thing for the entertainment of the hideous King of the Trolls. The Death of Åse is in complete contrast: Peer stands at the bedside of his dying mother, trying to ease her passage to the next world by telling her tales. But Peer Gynt is always on the move, emotionally In 1874, the 31-year old Edvard Grieg found himself approached as well as physically: Morning Mood is as its title suggests: a hymn by one of his heroes, the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, with to the newly-risen sun and to re-awakened life. The exotically- a commission for theatre music for his verse drama Peer Gynt. flavoured Arabian Dance transports us from the cold North to the Understandably Grieg was thrilled to receive such a request but, hot Middle East where, in Anitra’s Dance, the daughter of a Bedouin as he soon realised, it was quite a burden of responsibility. For chief dances alluringly for Peer. Meanwhile, back in Norway, the Scandinavians, the character of Peer Gynt is as rich in resonances as faithful Solveig waits for Peer’s return in Solveig’s Song. Peer Gynt’s Shakespeare’s Falstaff is for Englishspeakers. For the American critic Homecoming (Stormy Evening at Sea) is a stirring nature picture Harold Bloom he is without parallel in 19th-century literature: that clearly left its mark on the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. Whitsun Hymn celebrates Peer’s arrival back in his homeland, ‘Dickens, Tolstoy, Stendhal, Hugo, even Balzac have no single where he is forgiven by Solveig, now old and nearly blind. Finally, in figure quite so exuberant, outrageous, vitalistic as Peer Gynt. Solveig’s Cradle Song, she sings him tenderly to sleep. He merely seems initially to be an unlikely candidate for such eminence: what is he, we say, except a kind of Norwegian Programme note © Stephen Johnson roaring boy, marvelously attractive to women, a kind of bogus poet, a narcissist, absurd self-idolator, a liar, seducer, bombastic self-deceiver? But this is paltry moralizing, all too much like the scholarly chorus that rants against Falstaff. True, Peer, unlike Falstaff, is not a great wit. But in the Yahwistic Biblical sense, Peer the scamp bears the Blessing: more life.’

Grieg soon found that living up to such a character creatively was a hugely difficult task. ‘Peer Gynt progresses slowly,’ he grumbled to a friend in August 1874, ‘and there’s no chance of it being finished by autumn. It’s such a terribly unmanageable subject.’ Even after the huge success of the premiere in 1875, Grieg was still grumbling about it all: he was, he said, ‘compelled to do patchwork’, thwarted at every stage by the very precise demands of the theatre company, especially when it came to timing: ‘In no case had I the opportunity to write as I wanted... hence the brevity of the pieces.’

4 Peer Gynt

I Dovregubbens Hall In the Hall of the Mountain King Slagt ham! Kristenmands søn har dåret Slay him! The Christian’s son has led astray Dovregubbens veneste Mø! The fairest maid of the Mountain King! Slagt ham! Slay him!

Arabisk Dans Arabian Dance Profeten er kommen! The prophet is here! Rör Flöjten og Trommen! Sound the flute and the drum! Profeten, Herren, den Alting vidende, The prophet, blessed with all wisdom, Til os er han kommen over Sandhavet ridende. He has come to us trotting over land and sea. Profeten, Herren, den aldrig fejlende, The prophet, the great one, ever righteous, til os er han kommen gjennem Sandhavet sejlende. He has come to us sailing across the sea. Rör Flöjten og Trommen! Profeten er kommen! Sound the flute and the drum! The prophet is here!

Solveigs sang Solveig’s Song Kanske vil der gå både Vinter og Vår, The winter may go, and the spring disappear, og næste Sommer med, og det hele År; — The summer may fade, and the whole year pass; – men engang vil du komme, det véd jeg vist; But you will find your way back to me, of that I’m certain, og jeg skal nok vente, for det lovte jeg sidst. You will be mine, I promise, and I will wait faithfully for you.

Gud styrke dig, hvor du i Verden går! God strengthen you where you go in the world, Gud glæde Dig, hvis du for hans Fodskammel står! God bless you whenever you kneel before him; Her skal jeg vente til du kommer igjen; Here shall I wait until you come again, og venter du hist oppe, vi træffes der, min Ven! And if you should wait for me in Heaven, there will we meet!

Pinsesalme Whitsun Hymn Velsignede Morgen, da Gudsrigets Tunger O blessed morning, when the tongues of the kingdom of God traf Jorden som flammende stål. touch the earth like swords of fire, Fra Jorden mod Borgen nu Arvingen sjunger your heirs sing in the language of the kingdom of God, på Gudsrigets Tungemål. from down on earth up to the Heavenly castle.

Solveigs vuggessang Solveig’s Cradle Song Sov, du dyreste Gutten min! Sleep, my sweet child! Jeg skal vugge dig, jeg skal våge. I will rock you, I will keep watch over you!

Gutten har siddet på sin Moders Fang. The boy was seated on his mother’s knee. De to har leget hele Livsdagen lang. Both of them played all day long.

Gutten har hvilet ved sin Moders Bryst The boy rested upon his mother’s breast, hele Livsdagen lang. Grud signe dig, min Lyst! every day of his life. May God bless you, my joy!

Gutten har ligget til mit Hjerte tæt The boy pressed himself to my heart hele Livsdagen lang. Nu er han så træt. every day of his life. Now he is so weary.

Sov, du dyreste Gutten min! Sleep, my sweet child! Jeg skal vugge dig, jeg skal våge. I will rock you, I will keep watch over you!

5 CITY OF BIRMINGHAM SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Under the baton of its Music Director famous – and showed how the arts can help right. The CBSO Children’s Chorus and Youth Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, the City of give a new sense of direction to a whole city. Chorus showcase singers as young as eight. Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Through its unauditioned community choir (CBSO) is the flagship of musical life in Home and Away – CBSO SO Vocal in Selly Oak – the CBSO Birmingham and the West Midlands, Rattle’s successors (1998- shares its know-how and passion for music and one of the world’s great orchestras. 2008) and Andris Nelsons (2008-15) with communities throughout the city. The helped cement that global reputation, and CBSO Youth Orchestra gives that same Based in Symphony Hall, the ochestra gives continued to build on the CBSO’s tradition opportunity to young instrumentalists aged over 150 concerts each year in Birmingham, of flying the flag for Birmingham. As the only 14-21, offering high-level training to the next the UK and around the world, playing music professional symphony orchestra based generation of orchestral musicians alongside that ranges from classics to contemporary, between Bournemouth and Manchester, top international conductors and soloists. film music and even symphonic disco. With the orchestra tours regularly in Britain – a far-reaching community programme and and much further afield. The orchestra These groups are sometimes called a family of choruses and ensembles, it is has travelled to Japan and the United the “CBSO family” – over 650 amateur involved in every aspect of music-making in Arab Emirates in previous seasons, and in musicians of all ages and backgrounds, the Midlands. But at its centre is a team of 75 December 2016 made its debut tour of who work alongside the orchestra to make superb professional musicians, and a 100- China. And its recordings continue to win and share great music. But the CBSO’s year tradition of making the world’s greatest acclaim. In 2008, the CBSO’s recording of tradition of serving the community goes music, right here in the heart of Birmingham. Saint-Saëns’ complete piano concertos was much further. Its Learning and Participation named the best classical recording of the programme touches tens of thousands That local tradition started with the last 30 years by Gramophone. of lives a year, ranging from workshops in orchestra’s very first symphonic concert in nurseries to projects that energise whole 1920 – conducted by Sir . Ever Now, under the dynamic leadership of neighbourhoods. And everyone’s welcome since then, through war, recessions, social Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, associate conductor at CBSO Centre on Berkley Street. As well as change and civic renewal, the CBSO has Michael Seal and assistant conductor Jaume being a friendly, stylish performance venue been proud to be Birmingham’s orchestra. Santonja Espinós, the CBSO continues to do for the lunchtime concert series Centre Under principal conductors including Adrian what it does best – playing great music for Stage and contemporary jazz concerts by Boult, George Weldon, Andrzej Panufnik and the people of Birmingham and the Midlands. Jazzlines, the CBSO’s rehearsal base is home Louis Frémaux, the CBSO won an artistic to Birmingham Contemporary Music Group reputation that spread far beyond the Meet the Family and Ex Cathedra. Now in its Centenary Midlands. But it was when it discovered the The CBSO Chorus – a symphonic choir year, the CBSO, more than ever, remains young British conductor Simon Rattle in made up of “amateur professionals”, trained the beating heart of musical life in the UK’s 1980 that the CBSO became internationally by cbe – is famous in its own Second City.

VIOLIN I Gabriel Dyker* CELLOS FLUTES CONTRA BASSOON BASS TROMBONE Benjamin Gilmore Bryony Morrison* Jonathan Weigle Marie-Christine Margaret Cookhorn* Barry Clements Philip Brett Timothy Birchall David Powell#* Zupancic* Clare Thompson Amy Littlewood Kate Setterfield#* Veronika Klírová* HORNS TUBA Emily Davis Wendy Quirk Miguel Fernandes* Elspeth Dutch* Graham Sibley* Colin Twigg Amanda Woods Catherine Ardagh- PICCOLO Kartik Alan Jairamin Colette Overdijk* Bethan Allmand Walter#* Janet Richardson Mark Phillips#* TIMPANI Julia Åberg* Zhivko Georgiev Helen Edgar* Jeremy Bushell* Matthew Perry Elizabeth Golding Jacqueline Tyler#* OBOE Martin Wright# Ruth Lawrence#* VIOLAS Joss Brookes Emmet Byrne* Joseph Ryan PERCUSSION Mark Robinson Christopher Yates#* Lorenzo Meseguer Jonathan Bareham Adrian Spillett* Kate Oswin Adam Römer* Luján COR ANGLAIS Andrew Herbert* Kirsty Lovie* Michael Jenkinson* Abigail Hyde-Smith Rachael Pankhurst* TRUMPETS Toby Kearney* David Gregory# Catherine Bower* Jonathan Holland#* Daniel Martinez Katharine Gittings Angela Swanson BASSES CLARINETS Alan Thomas* Robert Bilson Jessica Tickle Anthony Alcock* Oliver Janes* Richard Blake* HARPS Adam Hill Elizabeth Fryer* Julian Atkinson#* Joanna Patton* Jonathan Quirk#* Markus Thalheimer Louise Parker Damián Rubido VIOLIN II Rosanna Rolton Amy Thomas González BASS CLARINET TROMBONES Peter Campbell-Kelly* Ben Newton Jeremy Watt Mark O’Brien#* Richard Watkin* CELESTE/ORGAN Kate Suthers* Helen Roberts Sally Morgan#* Anthony Howe#* Julian Wilkins Moritz Pfister Isobel Adams Julian Walters* BASSOONS Amy Marshall#* Mark Goodchild#* Charlotte Skinner* David Burndrett Nikolaj Henriques* Richard Ion # Recipient of the CBSO Long Service Award * Supported player

6 THE PERFORMERS

Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla Klara Ek Osborn Music Director Soprano

Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla was named Music Director of the City of Possessing a voice of remarkable clarity and beauty, Klara Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in February 2016 following Ek has distinguished herself with many of the world’s in the footsteps of Sir Simon Rattle, Sakari Oramo and Andris leading conductors and orchestras. Nelsons. Her Music Directorship was extended through the 2020-21 season. Highlights have included Peer Gynt with the Gothenburg Symphony on tour under Alain Altinoglu, Handel’s Samson with Recent highlights include numerous European tours with the City Festival de Beaune conducted by Leonardo García Alarcón, and of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, performances with the New Schumann’s Szenen aus Goethes Faust with the Danish National York Philharmonic, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Michael Schønwandt. On Orchestra, Filharmonica della Scalla, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and stage she made her debut at Staatsoper Hamburg as Handel’s the National Symphony Orchestra. Edilia (Almira) and gave standout performances as Melia (Apollo et Hyacinthus) with Classical Opera. This season Ek joins the Royal Gražinytė-Tyla has electrified audiences as a guest conductor all Northern Scottish National Orchestra for Mahler’s Symphony No.4 over the world. In , she has collaborated with the Lithuanian under Thomas Søndergård, and Pacific Symphony forMessiah National Symphony Orchestra, the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn, conducted by Christopher Warren-Green. the Deutsche Radiophilharmonie, the Choir of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the MDR Symphony Orchestra, as well as the Ek is much in demand by the world’s principal early music Chamber Orchestras of Vienna, the Danish National Symphony ensembles. With the Academy of Ancient Music she has sung the Orchestra, the Mozarteum Orchestra and the Camerata Salzburg, roles of Oriana (Amadigi di Gaula) under Christopher Hogwood and the Orchestra of the Komische Oper in Berlin. At the Kremerata and Arminda (La finta giardiniera) under Richard Egarr, and she has Baltica, she has enjoyed a dynamic collaboration with Gidon Kremer collaborated with Pablo Heras-Casado and Compañía y Orquesta on numerous European tours. She has led operas in Heidelberg, Barroca de Aranjuez in the first modern performance of Bonno’s Salzburg, Komische Oper Berlin, and Bern, where she served as L’isola disabitata. In addition with Alan Curtis and Il Complesso Kapellmeister. In North America, she has worked with the orchestras Barocco, she has recorded Jommelli’s Ezio, Scarlatti’s Tolomeo e of Philadelphia, Seattle and San Diego and has led the Metropolitan Alessandro and Handel’s Berenice. Opera Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. Notable symphonic debuts include Mahler’s Symphony No.4 with With the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Gražinytė-Tyla was a Dudamel the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra Fellow in the 2012-13 season, Assistant Conductor (2014-16), and and Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich – all under Bernard Haitink, Mahler’s Associate Conductor (2016-17). She was the Music Director of the Symphonies Nos.2 and 4 with the Orquesta Sinfónica Simón Bolívar Salzburg Landestheater from 2015 until 2017. Winner of the 2012 and the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Gustavo Dudamel, Die Salzburg Festival Young Conductors Award, she subsequently made Schöpfung with Washington’s National Symphony Orchestra and her debut with the Youth Orchestra in a symphonic Helmuth Rilling, Bach’s Magnificat with the Berliner Philharmoniker concert at the Salzburger Festspiele. and Ton Koopman, and Schumann’s Szenen aus Goethes Faust with Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and Christopher Hogwood. Gražinytė-Tyla was discovered by the German Conducting Forum Most recently Ek made her BBC Proms debut in Mahler’s Symphony (Deutsches Dirigentenforum) in April 2009. A native of Vilnius, No.4 under Thomas Søndergård and Beethoven’s Symphony No.9 Lithuania, she was born into a musical family. Before pursuing with the Hallé under Nikolaj Znaider. her studies at the Music Conservatory in Zurich, she studied at the Music Conservatory Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy in Leipzig On stage, Klara Ek’s most recent debuts include Lisetta (Il and at the Music Conservatory in Bologna, Italy. She graduated matrimonio segreto) and Rosmonda in a rare staging of Porpora’s with a bachelor’s degree in choral and orchestral conducting Il Germanico in Germania for the Innsbruck Festival under from the University of Music and Fine Arts, Graz, Austria. Mirga Alessandro De Marchi, Climene in Hasse’s Leucippo for Oper Köln, has participated in numerous masterclasses and conducting Despina (Così fan tutte) for Danish National Opera under Benjamin workshops, and has worked with many established conductors and Bayl and Contessa Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro) at the Hokuptopia professors, such as Christian Ehwald, George Alexander Albrecht, Festival, Japan. Johannes Schlaefli, Herbert Blomstedt, and Colin Metters.

7 Norman Perryman Perryman has performed in this way with many musicians and Artist ensembles, including pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard, violinist Daniel Hope, The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Rotterdam Born in Birmingham in 1933, Norman Perryman was Philharmonic, The Nederlands Dans Theater, the Belgian National educated at the Royal Grammar School Worcester then, at Orchestra and the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra. It was Sir Simon the age of 16, began his studies at the Birmingham College of Rattle who invited Norman to perform with the City of Birmingham Art & Crafts. Symphony Orchestra in 1993, a performance and documentary televised by BBC as Concerto for Paintbrush and Orchestra. Norman graduated with First Class Honours in Painting, but it was his love for music that inspired him to dedicate his life to translating Twenty-five years later CBSO Music Director Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla music into visual rhythms, colour and line. His many watercolours brought Norman back to his birthplace to create and perform include the large Birmingham Symphony Hall Collection of great a visual harmony inspired by the Symphonic Poem The Sea, by musicians, including the violinist Yehudi Menuhin. Čiurlionis, whose life’s ambition was also to bring these two art forms together. Norman has memorised the score and created a visual In the early 1970s Norman was encouraged by Menuhin to create a choreography for his own fluid lyrical expressionist images, that new performing art form, using his paintbrush as an instrument live enlighten and underscore the music. in orchestral performances, with his overhead-projectors providing Norman moved to the Netherlands as a young man, exhibited a painting platform. These magnified images projected above and throughout Europe and travelled widely as an art educator to create behind the orchestra create an ethereal synchronicity between the Visual Arts Syllabus for the International Baccalaureate. He has colour and sound. “Perryman makes music with his paintbrush,” performed worldwide and now lives in . Menuhin declared, after a performance together.

CBSO Chorus from Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony and Janačék’s Glagolitic Mass to Henze’s “the best chorus Simon Halsey CBE – Chorus Director The Raft of the Medusa and John Adams’s Julian Wilkins – Associate Chorus Director Harmonium. in the land” Hilary Finch, The Times The CBSO Chorus is one of the world’s The Chorus has been at the centre of the great choirs – 180 people from all walks CBSO story throughout: singing at the of life who come together to sing official opening of Symphony Hall in 1991, symphonic choral music. Trained for at Rattle’s final concert in Birmingham in Philharmonic, Philharmonic and the over 30 years by Simon Halsey cbe, its 1998, and giving centenary performances of Cleveland Orchestra, and has built a special main role is to perform with the City of all three of Elgar’s great choral works: The relationship with the BBC Philharmonic. Birmingham Symphony Orchestra on Dream of Gerontius, The Apost