About the Orchestra Sinfonia Viva is a virtuoso ensemble delivering original and extraordinary creative musical experiences. Founded in 1982, Sinfonia Viva has a national reputation as a leader in creative music activity in the UK. Its work offers relevant and enriching possibilities for all. Sinfonia Viva: Embraces new opportunities and ways of working whilst nurturing the best of existing practice, making music accessible to the widest audience Connects participants, communities and professional musicians through shared creative activities and performances Creates exciting and imaginative performance experiences for audiences and participants Collaborates with partners to devise, develop and deliver original Sinfonia Viva in association with musical opportunities Is an ambassador for music making Classic FM and Derby LIVE present The Orchestra has toured to Ireland and Berlin, has broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and has been part of a project for Granada Television. The Orchestra made its London debut as part of an Indian music festival in London’s Kings Place, building on its partnership with top Indian classical violinist Kala Ramnath. One of the Orchestra’s tracks on the Gorillaz’ album Plastic Beach was nominated for a Grammy award. The Orchestra has hosted the Association of British Orchestras’ national conference. Sunday Afternoon Classics It took part in the BBC Radio 3 co-ordinated Music Nation week-end which was a countdown event to the London 2012 Festival and the performance was also broadcast on BBC Radio 3. The Orchestra was the local content producer for the Olympic Torch Evening Celebration event in June 2012 in Derby Assembly Rooms Derby. Sunday 24th November 2013, 3.00pm Sinfonia Viva prides itself on its project development activity and partnership working, often bringing together musicians from other musical styles, genres and traditions. It also has extensive experience in event management activity and delivery. Sinfonia Viva is supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England and receives funding from Derby City Council. Feedback on any Sinfonia Viva event is welcome via the contact details below. Sinfonia Viva, Beaufort Street Business Centre, Beaufort Street, Derby, DE21 6AX Tel: 01332 207570 Fax: 01332 207569 Email: [email protected] www.vivaorch.co.uk Viva Chamber Orchestra Ltd is a company limited by guarantee registered in England No.187955. Registered address 22-26 Nottingham Road, Stapleford, Nottingham. Registered Charity No.291046 VAT No.385367024 This concert is supported by Rolls-Royce plc, Derby City Council, Derby LIVE, Classic FM and Orchestras Live. Schubert Symphony No.2 in B flat, D125 Mozart Clarinet Concerto in A major, K622 Weber Concertino in E flat major for clarinet and orchestra, Op26 Mendelssohn Symphony No.4 in A major, Op90 'Italian’ SymphonyProgramme No.2 in B flat, D125 Franz Schubert (1797-1828) 1. Largo – allegro vivace; 2. Andante; 3. Menuetto. Allegro vivace; 4. Presto vivace. Schubert began work on his Second Symphony in December 1814, just over a year after completing his First, and finished it the following March. No record of an immediate performanceUnauthorised has survived. It may have been played by the orchestra of the Imperial and Royal Seminary, Vienna, the school at which Schubert had gained a place as a chorister in the Imperial Court Chapel Choir. He had left the school in the autumn of 1813, but appears to have stayed on friendly terms with the staff and his former fellow-students, and the symphony is dedicated to the headmaster, Dr Innocenz Lang. The first public performance did not take place until October 1877 when it was played at the Crystal Palace, London. During the period that separates the First and Second Symphonies Schubert had written several works, including his notesMass in F, the opera Des Teufels Lustschloss (The Devil's Pleasure-Palace) and a number of songs, including his first outstanding masterpiece in the genre, 'Gretchen am Spinnrade' (Gretchen at the Spinning-wheel). The experience of writing these works seems to have given him greater confidence in handling the symphonic tradition of Mozart and Haydn, added to which are signs of his growing admiration for Beethoven. This becomes apparent as soon as the main section of the first movement gets underway. Following the imposing slow introduction,copyright it sets off at a bustling allegro vivace with a theme that bears a strong resemblancereproduction to the equivalent in the overture to Beethoven's ballet The Creatures of Prometheus. The second main theme is more relaxed and spacious, but it is the driving energy of the opening that dominates the movement. The andante is the only example of a theme and variations in Schubert’s orchestral works. The theme already has the hallmarks of those amiably lyrical, song-like melodies which he often used as the basis for variations in his later chamber music, and it is easily traced in the five variations which follow. A more strenuous tone takes over in the minor-key fourth variation, while the fifth returns to the mood of the first three, surrounding the tune with delicate skipping figuration for the violins. It is followed by a concluding sectionMike in which a sunset glow seems to pervade the music as it comes to rest. The strenuous nature of that fourth variation surfaces again in the third movement, a minuet in name and tempo but a scherzo by nature. The oboe tune in the central trio section, which recalls the theme of the variations, has a beguilingis innocence about it. Later in his career Schubert would exploit such a contrast between turbulence andWheeler tranquility to more poignant effect. Here it is a simple matter of lightening the tone amid the emphatic drive of the outer sections. prohibited. The Minuet's dynamism prepares us for the racing exuberance of the finale. Soft and light at first, the music soon reaches an outburst of Beethovenian power. The second main theme is all airy grace, which turns darker when Schubert springs a surprise by bringing it back in a minor key in the final section. It is a passing cloud, adding a touch of pathos to the most impressive symphonic movement Schubert had composed so far. 2013. Clarinet Concerto in A major, K622 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) 1. Allegro; 2. Adagio; 3. Rondo. Allegro. The clarinet was first developed in the early eighteenth century and was used by a number of composers, including Rameau, Telemann and Vivaldi. But it was Mozart who probably did more than anyone else to establish it as both a solo instrument and a regular member of the orchestra. His love-affairProgramme with the instrument began during his visit to London as a child in 1764-5 (the English composer Thomas Arne had used clarinets in his 1762 opera Artaxexes), and his comment on the famous Mannheim orchestra in a letter to his father in December 1778, “if only we had clarinets too!”, (i.e. in Salzburg) shows how much the instrument’s agility and warm tone had captured his imagination. In the early 1780s, soon after settling in Vienna, Mozart met Anton Stadler, clarinettist with the VienneseUnauthorised court orchestra, who was admired for his beautifully expressive playing. Over the next few years Mozart wrote parts for him in the Trio for clarinet, viola and piano, K498, and the Quintet for piano and wind instruments, K452, culminating in the Clarinet Quintet and Concerto, as well as obbligato parts for clarinet and basset-horn in two of the arias from his opera La clemenza di Tito. Stadler played a modification of the standard instrument, which he helped to develop in 1788, and which today is called a basset-clarinet. It was fitted with extra keys extending the lower end of the compass by a major third. Mozartnotes made use of the extra notes, especially in the Concerto, but the new instrument failed to catch on, and when the Quintet and the Concerto were published the solo parts were adjusted to fit the conventional clarinet. The discovery in 1967 of an article from a German music periodical of 1802, reviewing one of the first publications of the concerto, confirmed suspicions that the solo part as printed was not what Mozart originally wrote, since the anonymous reviewer was able to make detailed comparisons between the two scores. Since Mozart’s manuscript is lost, attemptscopyright to restore the clarinet part as original conceived involve a certain amount of conjecture.reproduction Nevertheless, reconstructions reveal, even more clearly than the first published versions, how Mozart systematically exploited the contrast between the two most characteristic parts of the instrument’s range: the clear, bright upper octaves and the deliciously husky-toned lower, so-called chalumeau, register (for which Stadler’s playing was particularly noted), as well as its ability to switch nimbly between the two. The Clarinet Concerto was Mozart’s last instrumental work, written in October 1791, just over a month before he died, though part of the first movement derived from an unfinished concerto in G for basset-horn (another, deeper-pitched relative of the clarinet), also intended for Stadler, dating from no later than the early months of 1791, and possibly a year or two earlier. By bringing together the clarinet’s gentle and expressive qualities (itsMike salient characteristic as perceived in Mozart’s day) with A major, regarded as a bright, cheerful key, the concerto highlights the fruitful tension between high spirits and gentle, often wistful, lyricism that runs through so much of his music. The effect is reinforced by the mellow, clear scoring, for an orchestra without either clarinets or the more penetrating sound of oboes. is The allegro is one of Mozart’s melodically richest first movements,Wheeler conceived on a spacious scale and combining sprightliness and mellow warmth.