The Barbican’s Associate Orchestra bbc.co.uk/symphonyorchestra Season Box Office 0845 120 7596 (bkg fee) www.barbican.org.uk Reduced booking fee online Welcome to the BBC Symphony Orchestra’s 2008–09 Barbican season. Chief Conductor Jiˇrí Beˇlohlávek launches the season with Beethoven’s Missa solemnis, joined by a stellar quartet of soloists and the superb BBC Symphony Chorus. Jiˇrí continues his highly praised explorations of the symphonies of Bruckner and Mahler and returns to the music of his homeland for a concert staging of Martinu’s° glorious opera Julietta.We explore the music of France and Spain, with a month devoted to French music and musicians and a Spanish-themed concert featuring FRIDAY 3 OCTOBER De Falla’s El amor brujo (Love, the Magician). 7.00PM In December, we celebrate the 100th birthday of Elliott Carter and early Beethoven in 2009 we introduce a trio of events – our ‘Total Immersion’ series Missa solemnis of Composer Days in which we delve into the extraordinary musical worlds of Karlheinz Stockhausen,Tristan Murail and Iannis Xenakis. Jirˇí Beˇlohlávek conductor In addition, there is a heady mix of premieres and commissions, an Christine Brewer soprano exciting list of soloists including Christine Brewer, Nelson Freire, Soile Ekaterina Semenchuk mezzo-soprano Isokoski and Gil Shaham, while conductors making a welcome return Paul Groves tenor Stephen Milling bass to the Orchestra include Edward Gardner and Andrew Litton. BBC Symphony Chorus All of our concerts are broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and streamed online and, this season a number will be broadcast live. Look out for these live ‘From the heart – may it go to the heart.’ Beethoven’s inscription on the score of his concerts, which will begin at 7.00pm. ‘Solemn Mass’ stands as a profound wish for I look forward to seeing you at the Barbican. ‘This was singing of one of the greatest works of Western sacred art.The composer’s visionary interpretation of Paul Hughes rare charm and divine glory and sinful mankind’s insignificance, General Manager versatility, at both forged against a background of personal turmoil and creative uncertainty, reveals the sublime. ends of a vast Prepare for an unforgettable spiritual and emotional spectrum.’ emotional journey under the inspired care The Observer of Jirˇí Beˇlohlávek and a great solo team, on Christine Brewer led by the incomparable Christine Brewer. Pre-concert talk, 6.00pm Barbican Hall An introduction to tonight’s concert. Tickets £24 £20 £16 £12 £8 bbc.co.uk/symphonyorchestra 3 FRIDAY 10 OCTOBER FRIDAY 24 OCTOBER 7.30PM 7.00PM Musorgsky Spanish Scenes Night on the Bare Mountain (original version) Turina Matthias Pintscher Danzas fantásticas New work Benet Casablancas (BBC co-commission: world premiere) Siete escenas de Hamlet (UK premiere) Tchaikovsky Ravel Manfred Rapsodie espagnole Kazushi Ono conductor Apollo Voices De Falla El amor brujo In 1884 Tchaikovsky visited a dying friend in Josep Pons conductor Switzerland, carrying with him a copy of Lord Byron’s Flamenco singer to be announced ‘Gothic’ verse-drama Manfred and reading it while Actor to be announced deep in Alpine country.The combination of poetry and natural imagery fired Tchaikovsky’s imagination Spain’s musical past includes compelling meetings between and fuelled tireless work on his Manfred symphony. high and popular culture, vividly captured in Manuel de Falla’s ‘It seems to me, that it is the best of my compositions,’ so-called ‘gypsy revel’, El amor brujo (Love, the Magician). he wrote.Tonight’s concert includes the first Delicate contrasts of sound and richly woven textures lie performance of acclaimed young German at the musical heart of Benet Casablancas’s Siete escenes de composer Matthias Pintscher’s latest score, based Hamlet (Seven Scenes from Hamlet), written in the late 1980s. Kazushi Ono Herbie Yamaguchi on his evocative music-theatre piece L’espace dernier. Thanks to his Basque maternal family, Ravel’s connections with Iberian culture ran deep. His Rapsodie espagnole evokes the Pre-concert talk, 6.00pm effervescent, exotic spirit of Spain. ‘Filled with a Barbican Hall musical energy Matthias Pintscher in conversation. Pre-concert talk, 6.00pm Barbican Hall narrowed BBC Music Intro Concert An introduction to tonight’s concert. and pinpointed An introduction to concert-going for families. See page 28 for details. BBC Music Intro Concert by elegant An introduction to concert-going for families. technique’ Tickets £24 £20 £16 £12 £8 See page 28 for details. New York Times on Kazushi Ono Tickets £24 £20 £16 £12 £8 4 BBC Symphony Orchestra 2008–09 bbc.co.uk/symphonyorchestra 5 FRIDAY 28 NOVEMBER David Crookes 7.00PM Carmina burana Svatopluk Havelka Hommage à Hieronymous Bosch Sally Matthews (UK premiere) ‘Sally Matthews gave Hindemith the performance Symphonic Metamorphosis after Themes by Carl Maria von Weber an extra touch of class, singing with Orff a beauty of tone Carmina burana and an ability to WEDNESDAY 12 NOVEMBER shape phrases in 7.30PM Jakub Hru˚sˇa conductor Sally Matthews soprano a personal way John Graham-Hall tenor that made her Bruckner William Dazeley baritone outstanding.’ Symphony No. 5 in B flat major Trinity Boys’ Choir Financial Times BBC Symphony Chorus Jirˇí Beˇlohlávek conductor Svatopluk Havelka, a central composer of the Czech ‘New Wave’ The BBC Symphony Orchestra and its Chief school of film music, now in his early eighties, attracted worldwide Conductor, Jirˇí Beˇlohlávek, have garnered rave acclaim following the premiere of his Homage to Hieronymus Bosch reviews for their Bruckner performances, drawing in 1974.The work’s striking evocations of Bosch’s paintings of late- critical superlatives last year after a searing account medieval life, debauchery and death provide the ideal preface to of the Austrian composer’s Seventh Symphony. Carl Orff’s Carmina burana. Ale-swilling monks, pompous abbots, ‘My life has lost all joy and enthusiasm,’ wrote flagrant lovers and assorted gluttons here take their turn on Bruckner around the time he was working on Fortune’s wheel, with Orff imparting unstoppable momentum the transcendent slow movement of his to a score bristling with energy. monumental Fifth Symphony in 1875. His testing personal and emotional circumstances, however, Pre-concert talk, 6.00pm take second place to the expression of defiant Fountain Room optimism and ultimate triumph. An introduction to tonight’s concert. Pre-concert talk, 6.00pm Post-concert talk Fountain Room Fountain Room An introduction to tonight’s concert Meet the BBC Symphony Chorus. A chance to find out about life in the BBC Symphony Chorus. Tickets £24 £20 £16 £12 £8 Tickets £24 £20 £16 £12 £8 6 bbc.co.uk/symphonyorchestra 7 Boyd Hagen MONDAY 8 DECEMBER TUESDAY 16 DECEMBER 7.30PM 7.30PM Focus on Gil Shaham Elliott Carter Centenary Concert Sam Hayden Substratum Elliott Carter (BBC commission: world premiere Soundings of complete work) Cello Concerto Mozart Sound Fields Gil Shaham Violin Concerto No. 2 in D major Horn Concerto Messiaen Boston Concerto ‘Shaham’s playing Un sourire Oliver Knussen conductor had a searing Anssi Karttunen cello intensity, but it was Stravinsky Martin Owen horn the irrepressible Violin Concerto Elliott Carter’s global influence since the 1940s – as a composer, energy he exuded writer and teacher – has been the result of his constant exploration David Robertson conductor of new ideas and his lucid confrontation of tired conventions. that brought every Gil Shaham violin The native New Yorker, born on 11 December 1908, has long note so vividly enjoyed a fruitful partnership with Oliver Knussen, and with the to life.’ Gil Shaham’s place among today’s great BBC Symphony Orchestra, which mounted a weekend-long festival violinists rests secure on foundations of insightful of Carter’s music in 2006.Tonight’s celebration features four recent The Guardian musicianship, breathtakingly beautiful sound works – three of them written only in the past four years. Carter’s and irresistible panache, qualities guaranteed to concertos for horn and for cello explore the wide possibilities illuminate Mozart’s joyful Second Violin Concerto available to those instruments, while the inventive Soundings makes and the witty elegance of Stravinsky’s Violin a feature of the interplay between a solo piano and the orchestra. Concerto. He joins forces with David Robertson, Composed only last year, the brief string orchestra piece Sound the BBC Symphony Orchestra’s Principal Guest Fields focuses on a dramatic contrast of textures, while Conductor, for tonight’s concert.The programme the loudness and tone-colour remain constant. opens with the world premiere of the complete version of the multi-layered Substratum, created Pre-concert talk, 6.00pm for the BBC SO by Sam Hayden as a constantly Barbican Hall evolving construction of kaleidoscopic sounds The Music of Elliott Carter. and orchestral textures. Tickets Post-concert talk, 6.00pm £24 £20 £16 £12 £8 Fountain Room Sam Hayden in conversation. Tickets £24 £20 £16 £12 £8 8 BBC Symphony Orchestra 2008–09 bbc.co.uk/symphonyorchestra 9 THURSDAY 8 JANUARY 7.00PM Smetana Libusˇe–overture Total Immersion: Suk Three Composer Days Fantasy in G for Violin and Orchestra Mahler Stockhausen Saturday 17 January Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen Tristan Murail Saturday 7 February Xenakis Saturday 7 March Dvorˇák Symphony No. 9, Prepare to be transported to thrilling new worlds of sound ‘From the New World’ and imagination in the company of three extraordinary composers.The creative artists chosen to launch the BBC Jirˇí Beˇlohlávek conductor Symphony Orchestra’s unmissable days of Total Immersion Dagmarˇ Pecková mezzo-soprano stand for the marriage of music, thought and emotion, inventors Ivan Zenat≥ violin of abundantly eloquent musical languages with the power to Tonight’s profusely Romantic programme celebrates the vibrancy provoke, captivate and inspire. of Czech music, the strength of which influenced the young Mahler and soared to sublime creative heights in Dvorˇák’s ‘New World’ Obituary notices for Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928–2007), Symphony.