WaterworksTour 2017 Baltic Sea Philharmonic Welcome We are delighted to welcome you to our ‘Waterworks’ tour. We thrive on making connections – with you our audiences, and with our fellow artists. And there is nothing that connects every one of us more than water. It is the essence of all life, and for us in the Baltic Sea Philharmonic, it is also the engine of our region, shaping our environment, and linking all the home countries of our players. On this tour we celebrate these elemental connections, and we also honour the American composer Philip Glass in his 80th birthday year. Such celebrations call for a truly special concert experience and we are excited to introduce with this tour a ground-breaking spectacle that fuses music, fashion, lighting design, visual art and choreography. We hope you will be thrilled by what you see, moved by what you hear, and inspired, like us, to seek out a deeper connection to different countries and cultures, and to the natural world that we all depend on. Source The origin of ‘Waterworks’ lies in how nature connects all of us Find out about this tour’s inspiration, our concert schedule and the music you will Sea Change 06 be hearing We are transforming the concert experience Step into a new world of light, sound, visual art and fashion, as we shake up performance conventions 28 14 Wave Riders Our dynamic leader and performers are inspiring the next generation Discover Kristjan Järvi’s vision for the Baltic Sea Philharmonic, and meet our soloist and 22 musicians Flow Bringing people together is our constant motivation Follow our journey from pioneering youth orchestra to international movement for unity 04 05 Source From the Baltic to the Amazon Let the music of ‘Waterworks’ take you on an inspirational journey From its earliest days, the Baltic Sea The music represents how we are from school concerts for more than 7,000 Philharmonic has always been uniting this region, but are also connected to the teenage pupils, some of whom may people. Every year our musicians come whole world. It doesn’t matter whether it’s never have heard symphonic music being together from the ten countries of the Baltic the waters of the Baltic or the Amazon: performed live. And Aarhus, on the east Sea region, an area that was historically everything is connected.’ coast of Denmark, welcomes us for the first divided. And as an ambassador for Nordic time, as it celebrates its year as European culture, we reach out to other nations and As we mark Philip Glass’s 80th birthday Capital of Culture. people around the world with our music. year, alongside Aguas da Amazonia we Beyond music and culture, what unites perform another of his nature-themed ʻIt doesn’t matter whether it’s the us in the Baltic Sea Philharmonic is our compositions, the Violin Concerto No. 2 waters of the Baltic or the connection to nature and to the landscapes The American Four Seasons, for which Amazon: everything is connected’ of our region, and nothing shapes our we are delighted to welcome back the natural environment more than the Baltic dynamic Russian-born violinist Mikhail Simonyan. We also welcome musicians of We return to the Konzerthaus in Berlin, Sea itself. With ‘Waterworks’ we celebrate the New York-based Absolute Ensemble, where we play in the Young Euro Classic not just the life-giving essence of water, who will be embedded in the Baltic Sea festival, and to Peenemünde on the Baltic but also the Baltic Sea – that great body of Philharmonic on this tour. But they are not Sea island of Usedom, where our story water which sustains our region and joins our only collaborators for ‘Waterworks’. began back in 2008. Our ‘Waterworks’ us to all the other water in the world. Sound designer Chris Ekers, lighting journey also takes us back 500 years when designer Bertil Mark, projection artist we visit Martin Luther’s city of Wittenberg The music of ‘Waterworks’ is inspired by Philipp Geist and a brilliant technical team in Germany, where we perform an open- water and its power to bind us together, have joined us to create a truly immersive air concert as part of celebrations to mark as Kristjan Järvi, Music Director of the concert experience, fusing music, fashion, half a millennium since the Reformation. Baltic Sea Philharmonic, explains: ‘Our sound, light and images to magical effect. And we end our tour with another first programme starts with Handel’s Water This show marks a new stage in our journey – a performance in Hamburg’s new Music, because as Handel was born in as an orchestra, and we are thrilled to be Elbphilharmonie, a fitting final destination Germany he was originally part of our Baltic sharing it for the first time with you. with its gleaming wave-topped facade compositional fabric, and it brings us all mirroring the movement of water in the the way down to the waters of the Amazon, Transforming the concert experience is harbour it overlooks. with Philip Glass’s Aguas da Amazonia. an exciting departure for the Baltic Sea Philharmonic, but this tour also takes From the Baltic to the Amazon, from the us back, to people and places we have Danish coast to the Elbe, our journey connected with so strongly in the past. through the waters of the world shows we Returning to Copenhagen, we continue are all connected. We hope you enjoy riding our commitment to education by presenting the waves with us! Source 08 09 Waterworks Tour Baltic Sea Philharmonic Kristjan Järvi Mikhail Simonyan George Frideric Handel May 2017 School concerts May 2017 (1685 – 1759) / Daniel Schnyder (1961) / 5 May 2017, 7.00 pm George Frideric Handel 8 May 2017, 9.00 am, 11.00 am, 1.00 pm Charles Coleman (1968) Hattingen (LWL-Industriemuseum (1685 – 1759) / Copenhagen (DR Concert Hall), Water Music Henrichshütte), Daniel Schnyder (1961) / Denmark Germany Charles Coleman (1968) Philip Glass (1937) Water Music 10 May 2017, 9.00 am, 11.00 am, 1.00 pm Violin Concerto No. 2 7 May 2017, 3.00 pm Aarhus (Musikhuset Århus), ‘The American Four Seasons’ Copenhagen (DR Concert Hall), Philip Glass (1937) Denmark Denmark Aguas da Amazonia Philip Glass (1937) orchestrated by Aguas da Amazonia 9 May 2017, 7.00 pm Charles Coleman (excerpts) orchestrated by Aarhus (Musikhuset Århus), Charles Coleman Denmark August 2017 25 August 2017, 8.00 pm Young Euro Classic (Berlin, Konzerthaus), Germany 26 August 2017, 8.00 pm Usedom Music Festival (Kraftwerk Museum Peenemünde, Island of Usedom), Germany 27 August 2017, 6.00 pm Lutherstadt Wittenberg (open air – Reformation Summer, Schlossplatz), Germany 29 August 2017, 8.00 pm Hamburg (Elbphilharmonie), Germany Source 10 11 Listening Guide Our water-inspired programme embraces Baroque splendours and minimalist wonders ‘The principle of all things is water; Handel’s original composition to create a everything comes from water and version of Water Music that reveals new everything returns to water.’ These words perspectives on the famous old piece. from the philosopher, mathematician and astronomer Thales of Miletus (c.624 BC – The US composer Philip Glass, who is c.547 BC) show how essential water was celebrating his 80th birthday in 2017, is for the ancient Greeks – an importance that one of the most prominent representatives is just as great for our civilisation today. of minimalism, although he prefers to Without water, there would be no life on describe himself as a composer of ‘music our blue planet, nor would there be any of with repetitive structures’. Conceived in its magnifi cent mountains. So this natural the 1960s by Glass, Steve Reich, Terry element must be protected. The Baltic Sea Riley and La Monte Young, minimalism Philharmonic reminds us of this idea with its is characterised by repeated melodic Aguas da Amazonia was ‘Waterworks’ programme. and rhythmic patterns. It often uses originally conceived for a electronic instruments and effects such dance company One of the most popular pieces featuring as the synthesizer and tape loops. It is the element of water is George Frideric also infl uenced by non-Western traditions: and synthesizer. The music contains music for some time when he came across Handel’s Water Music. It was composed Glass found inspiration in Indian music, many references to Vivaldi’s Baroque it again on CD and was inspired by the idea for King George I of Great Britain, whom particularly the work of Ravi Shankar. tonal language, which can be regarded of an orchestration. He also noticed that his Handel had known earlier as the Elector of as a precursor of minimalism owing to its own children found the music wonderful. Hanover. The music, or at least part of it, Glass composed his Second Violin repeating patterns. The concerto thrives So he called Glass and asked for his was fi rst performed to accompany George Concerto for the US violinist Robert above all on its memorable melodies, permission to adapt the piece. Kristjan and his entourage on a royal cruise along McDuffi e, who premiered it in December which have a truly magical radiance despite Järvi’s close friend, the composer Charles the River Thames on the evening of 17 July 2009 with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. their considerable brevity, while its fl owing Coleman, produced the arrangement, 1717. Taken together, the 22 movements of Conceived as a counterpart to Vivaldi’s rhythms are reminiscent of the movement transcribing the cycle for classical Water Music create a spectacular Baroque Four Seasons, the four-movement concerto of water. orchestra. ‘The music is so pure and well experience. The lavishly instrumented is titled ‘The American Four Seasons’, but structured that it was literally crying out for music was later structured into three Glass leaves it up to the listener to decide The subsequent Glass suite Aguas da a different kind of presentation,’ Charles suites, and is especially appropriate for which movement represents which season.