JOURNEY THROUGH MUSIC

Friday 13 January, 7.30pm

Maurice Ravel Oiseaux tristes (arr. Colin Matthews) (4 mins) Noctuelles (arr. Steven Stucky) (5 mins) La vallée des cloches (arr. Colin Matthews) world premiere (4 mins) Piano Concerto for the Left Hand (18 mins)

Interval: 20 mins

Dmitry Shostakovich Symphony No. 8 (59 mins)

BBC Philharmonic Jean-Efflam Bavouzetpiano Nicholas Collon conductor 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.

Ready to begin? Join us on this musical journey and discover the unforgettable world of classical music. Three performances will feature a pre-concert session suitable for all ages – but every concert in the 2016/17 season is available at a special family-ticket price. Plus – choose your seat anywhere in the house for the same price: • £7 for children aged 16 and under • £12 for accompanying adults • £35 family ticket, for 4 people (maximum of 2 adults) These prices include a £2 booking fee so you know there’s no extra costs when you book – just be sure to book in advance as these are not available on the day.

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

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 cellos, 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, oboes, 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 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 Oboe. 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 jazz 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

Maurice Ravel (1875–1937) What to listen for Oiseaux tristes (1904–5), Oiseaux tristes • This is French for ‘Sad Birds’. Ravel said he imagined birds orch. Colin Matthews sitting on branches in a deep, dark forest on a hot day. Noctuelles (1904–5), orch. Steven Stucky Can you feel the heat: the way the music sounds thick and La vallée des cloches (1904–5), misty? The woodwind instruments represent the birds. orch. Colin Matthews world premiere Noctuelles • ‘Noctuelles’ means ‘moths’ – and it’s easy to imagine them fluttering around in the darkness. The music is fast paced: Music comes in many shapes and sizes. The French composer listen for the sound of the celesta (it looks like a small Maurice Ravel originally wrote these three pieces more than piano but makes a shimmering, glistening sound). 100 years ago as part of a piano suite called Miroirs (which La vallée des cloches translates as ‘Mirrors’) and each one is a sort of musical • I n ‘The valley of bells’ Ravel imagines a country scene, reflection of a particular image. dotted with churches. One by one their different bells start to chime, some close, some far away. Watch the Although they sound very effective played by just one person at percussion section at the back of the orchestra. Colin the piano, imagine how they might sound played by a symphony Matthews has only just finished making this orchestra. That’s where the American composer Steven Stucky and this is the first time it has ever been heard in concert. (1949–2016) and British composer Colin Matthews (born 1946) come in, as they’ve both taken particular pieces from Miroirs and arranged them so that they can be played by an orchestra. What else could I listen to? They’ve imagined the sounds that Ravel would have wanted We’ve got some more Ravel coming right up! But Colin if he’d had an orchestra, and tried to help him tell his musical Mathews has also orchestrated the magical Préludes by Ravel’s story. near-contemporary Debussy, and our friends in the Hallé have recorded them all. TONIGHT'S MUSIC

Maurice Ravel What to listen for Piano Concerto for the Left Hand • Darkness: the music begins quietly and slowly, played by the very deepest and gloomiest-sounding instruments in (1929–30) the orchestra – the contrabassoon (deeper-sounding big Jean-Efflam Bavouzetpiano brother of the standard bassoon) and the double basses (the biggest string instruments). It’s as if the music is in Like most of us, Maurice Ravel was a wonderful mixture of shadows. things. His mother came from the Basque region, near France’s • How will the pianist join in? With a big, grand sound, border with Spain, and his father was an engineer. Maurice proud and jagged – and all played with just one hand. always loved the music of Spain, and the clear, mechanical Don’t believe it? Watch! sounds of machines. He dressed in the very smartest and most • War! Lots of fantastic things happen between the piano fashionable clothes, and lived alone in a tiny house filled with and the orchestra, but listen out for the bright-sounding clockwork toys and ornaments. He spent ages writing his music trumpets and the point when the music settles into a – he wanted it to sound just right. stern marching rhythm, with rattling drums. Throughout history, armies have marched to the sound of trumpets – This next piece is a concerto – a work for a single instrument it’s as if Ravel is remembering the reason why his pianist with the backing of an orchestra. The idea is to show off just only has one hand in the first place. how well a star performer can play. Paul Wittgenstein was an • The cadenza: just before the end, the orchestra stops Austrian pianist who lost his right arm while fighting in the First and the pianist simply goes wild, all on his own. When World War. Most people would have given up, but Wittgenstein this happens in a concerto, it’s called a ‘cadenza’ – it’s a was determined to play on and he asked the world’s most final chance for the pianist to show what they can do. Just famous composers to write him pieces that he could play with listen to all those notes! his one remaining hand! So Ravel wrote this Concerto for the Left Hand for him. It was finished in 1930 but some people think you can hear some of the sounds of the war in the music. What else could I listen to? Ravel wrote another Piano Concerto, this time for himself to play – with both hands!

Interval: 20 minutes (time for an ice-cream!) TONIGHT'S MUSIC

Dmitry Shostakovich (1906–75) But Shostakovich was a great artist, and that meant he had to Symphony No. 8 in C minor (1943) tell the truth. The next summer, he wrote another symphony: his Eighth (he didn’t give it a name). A symphony is a long piece 1 Adagio (Slow) of music, usually for orchestra and usually made up of several 2 Allegretto (Moderately fast) separate pieces called movements, which all go together to 3 Allegro non troppo (Fast but not too much so) – tell up one big musical story. But it’s a story without words: 4 Largo (Very slow) – the tunes (‘themes’) are like the characters. The story of 5 Allegretto (Moderately fast) Shostakovich’s Eighth Symphony … well, hear for yourself. Remember where and when Shostakovich wrote it. After the All music tells some sort of story – even (maybe especially) war, Stalin’s officials thought it told the wrong kind of story, so if it’s one that can’t be put into words. And it doesn’t always they banned it and threatened Shostakovich. Sometimes telling have to be a very happy story. We’ve already heard about a the truth can be dangerous … musician who was involved in the First World War, the pianist Paul Wittgenstein, who commissioned Ravel’s Concerto for the Left Hand; our next composer, Dmitry Shostakovich knew all about the Second World War. He lived in Russia, which for nearly 30 years was ruled over by the dictator Joseph Stalin (his surname meant ‘man of steel’). Even when times were peaceful, everyone had to live by Stalin’s rules. Speaking your mind could get you thrown in prison, or even killed.

Then, in 1941, it got even worse: Hitler’s armies invaded Russia. It was one of the most terrible wars in history. Over 27 million Russians died. Shostakovich was one of lucky ones but he was trapped for a while when the Nazi troops surrounded the city of Leningrad (St Petersburg). Food was short, some people were so hungry they ate rats, and many more simply starved in the freezing winter. But Stalin’s officials expected Shostakovich to write music to encourage people, so in 1942 he composed his ‘Leningrad’ Symphony (No. 7). It’s grand, exciting and has a loud, enthusiastic ending – just what people needed to hear. TONIGHT'S MUSIC

What to listen for 4 Largo (Very slow) 1 Adagio (Slow) • This sounds grand at first, and then quiet – as the music • The cellos and double basses start the symphony with a slowly repeats itself, changing a bit each time (as if gruff, jagged tune. The music slowly starts to unfold – as Shostakovich is thinking about what he has seen, over and if Shostakovich is telling us something very big and very over). It can sound incredibly icy and lonely: listen out for serious. Listen for drums and trumpets, the instruments when the flutes take over the tune. They sound gentle at of war. And after it gets quiet again, listen for a long, sad first, but later the players flutter their tongues to make a tune played by the cor anglais, the mournful-sounding shivering sound. The smooth-sounding clarinet leads into woodwind instrument. Does it sound a bit like a human the last movement. voice sobbing? See what you think. 5 Allegretto (moderately fast) 2 Allegretto (moderately fast) • The bassoon starts things off – and suddenly it all seems • Many symphonies contain a short, fast movement called a a bit brighter and happier. It’s as if Shostakovich is looking scherzo (which is Italian for ‘joke’) – but if this is a joke it’s to happier times – whether in the past or the future, who a very angry one! Listen out for where the highest of the knows? But listen out for the brass instruments and the woodwind instruments, the piccolo, plays along with the violent, crashing sound of the cymbals in the percussion low bassoon. Does it sound ridiculous? Maybe that’s the section) – who seem to be telling us that the war isn’t point. over yet. The ending is quiet. Happy, sad – or just relieved 3 Allegro non troppo (Fast but not too fast) that it’s all over? • Thousands of machines – tanks, aircraft and trains – took part in the Second World War, while deep in Russia, factories worked round the clock building weapons. The What else could I listen to? string instruments play a bustling rhythm that never quite Shostakovich wrote 15 symphonies. For a different (and more stops – like a machine. Along the way, listen out for yells upbeat) description of the Second World War try the Seventh from the brass instruments and booming sounds from the – the ‘Leningrad Symphony’. The Russians played it at their percussion section. There’s a long, rattling drum-roll (it enemies through huge loudspeakers, to show that they weren’t sound a bit like gunfire), and the music goes straight on defeated! into … Notes © Richard Bratby JOURNEY THROUGH MUSIC PRE-CONCERT SESSIONS

We have special pre-concert introductions at two upcoming concerts. Join us a bit earlier on the concert night to discover more about the orchestra and the music being performed.

Saturday 4 February 2017 Relishing in Revolution Music by Beethoven, Saint-Saëns & Debussy Pre-concert session, 6.30pm

Friday 26 May 2017 Concert Fantastique Music by Arvo Pärt, Berlioz & Mark Simpson Pre-concert session, 6.30pm

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