ENGLISH CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
Wednesday 14 November
St Mary's Church, ShrewsburyStephanie Gonley - director / violin
Caroline Dale - cello
Divertimento for Strings Bartók Cello Concerto No 1 in C Haydn The four Seasons Vivaldi
Divertimento for Strings - Béla Bartók (1881-1945)
Allegro non troppo; Molto adagio; Allegro assaiThe Hungarian composer Béla Bartók was one of the most powerful and individual voices in music in the first half of the twentieth century; turning his back on contemporary avant-garde trends, he evolved his own idiom, influenced by the simplicity and directness of folk music. Bartók's output includes six string quartets, concertos for piano and violin, the opera Duke Bluebeard's Castle, and his popular Concerto for Orchestra, written after he had emigrated to the USA.
The Swiss conductor Paul Sacher had commissioned Bartók to write his Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta for the Basle Chamber Orchestra in 1937; two years later, he asked Bartók for another work, this time 'something lighter'. Bartók responded with the Divertimento for Strings, which he conceived as 'a kind of concerto grosso'; soloists from each section alternate with the full body of strings, in the manner of the eighteenth-century concerti grossi of Corelli or Handel. The result is one of Bartók's liveliest and most outgoing works; Paul Sacher conducted the first performance on 11 June 1940.
Over a sequence of chugging chords, the violins play a laid-back theme full of 'blue notes' which seem to suggest jazz but ultimately derive from Bartók’s beloved Hungarian folk music. This idea is expanded and developed (and occasionally turned upside down) in a movement full of wit and energy, featuring abrupt contrasts of loud and soft, lyrical and angular, as well as solo and tutti textures.
The uneasy sound of muted strings introduces a darker mood of sombre intensity reflecting Bartók's premonitions of the impending 'global catastrophe' of war in Europe. Growing inexorably from its ghostly opening, the second movement culminates in a nightmare sequence of trills – a cry of pain and despair.
For the finale, we are back in the world of Hungarian folk music, in an energetic dance thematically related to the first movement, again with a slightly jazzy feel to it. The beginnings of a fugue give way to a solo violin cadenza with a gypsy flavour; the jazzy dance tune returns, subjected to added decoration and once again turned upside down. Bartók then progressively ratchets up the tempo, pausing for a teasing 'pizzicato polka' before ending in a blaze of excitement.
Cello Concerto No. 1 in C, Hob.VIIIb:1 - Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)
Moderato; Adagio; Allegro moltoHaydn composed his C major Cello Concerto in the 1760s, for Joseph Weigl, the principal cellist in the court orchestra of Prince Nicolaus Esterházy, Haydn's employer. The work was believed lost until a set of manuscript parts came to light in the Prague National Museum, as recently as 1961. Its freshness of invention, energy and joie de vivre have quickly established the Concerto as a favourite amongst performers and listeners alike.
The cello has always been a difficult instrument to write concertos for, as its deceptively delicate voice can easily be drowned by the orchestra. Brilliantly successful solutions by great composers such as Dvořák and Elgar have managed to make light of the problems (when Brahms saw the score of Dvořák's Cello Concerto, he remarked 'Why on earth didn't I know that one could write a violoncello concerto like this? If I had only known, I would have written one long ago!'); Haydn's two cello concertos are among the earliest to prove, triumphantly, that it could be done.
The open-hearted, cheerily extrovert first movement is followed by a contrastingly restrained and courtly Adagio, in which the orchestral wind players are silent. The concerto concludes with an energetically bustling finale, in which Haydn gives the soloist plenty of opportunities for pyrotechnic displays of virtuosity.
The Four Seasons - Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)
for violin, strings and continuo (Op. 8, Nos. 1-4)
Spring Allegro; Largo; Allegro
Summer Allegro non molto; Adagio; Presto
Autumn Allegro; Adagio molto; Allegro
Winter Allegro non molto; Largo; Allegro
Fifty years ago, nobody could have predicted that four violin concertos by Antonio Vivaldi would by now be among the best-loved and most frequently played music in the world. Vivaldi was remembered – if at all – only as the 'red-haired priest' who wrote vast amounts of music for his adoring pupils at the Ospedale della Pietŕ, an orphanage for foundling girls in Venice. His dazzling career as a virtuoso violinist and composer of forty operas was forgotten, as was most of the music itself.
The girls of the Pietŕ must have been astonishingly talented; Vivaldi composed several hundred extremely difficult concertos for them to play, on a vast range of instruments (there are thirty-nine bassoon concertos, for example).
But it was his own instrument, the violin, that inspired Vivaldi to his greatest feats of inventiveness and originality. In 1725 he gathered together twelve of his violin concertos and published them under the collective title 'Il Cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione' ('the contest of harmony and invention'). The first four of these concertos constitute The Four Seasons; Vivaldi helpfully provided a descriptive sonnet for each of them, cross-referenced to the score to indicate exactly what is being represented in the music from bar to bar. This uncomplicated pictorialism, combined with the directness and energy of the music, made these concertos hugely popular in their own day, and has endeared them to performers and audiences since their rediscovery.
At the start of the first of the four concertos, 'Spring has arrived, and the birds greet it festively with cheerful song', according to the first sonnet. After the birdsong comes the murmuring of brooks and gentle breezes; then the sky darkens with a brief thunderstorm before the birds sing once more. In the slow movement, the soloist depicts a goatherd sleeping in a flowery meadow while his dog barks lazily (in the viola line) at his feet. In the third movement of Spring, 'nymphs and shepherds dance to the festive sound of a rustic bagpipe'.
Summer opens with an evocation of the languor induced by the hot sun; the soloist adds the voices of the cuckoo, turtle dove and goldfinch. A gentle breeze gives way to a sudden harsh north wind. The solo violin plays a drooping lament, as a peasant boy bewails the coming storm 'and his own fate'. In the slow movement, the boy tries to sleep, but is tormented by insects and rumbles of thunder. The storm breaks graphically in the Finale, with thunder and lightning, as hailstones flatten the crops.
The first movement of Autumn is a merry celebration of a successful harvest. The soloist cartwheels in, in the guise of a drunkard, 'glowing with the liquor of Bacchus', eventually lapsing into sleep, as do all the revellers in the succeeding slow movement. The third movement is an energetic hunting scene, 'with horns, rifles and hounds'; the soloist portrays the terrified prey as it tries to flee but is caught and killed.
Winter begins with trembling limbs, icy blasts of wind, feet stamping for warmth, and chattering teeth. The second movement brings respite from the cold; the soloist keeps warm indoors by the fire, as the rain (solo cello and pizzicato violins) falls relentlessly outside. The finale is a skating party; tentative first steps are followed inevitably by slides and a tumble. More confident strides succeed only in cracking the ice. An unexpected sirocco (the hot desert wind from Africa) evokes a fleeting recollection of summer, before the cold north wind brings us back to chilly reality. The last sonnet ends: 'Such is winter, but what joy it brings!'
CAROLINE DALE
Caroline studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London (where she was an Associate from the age of 19) and later with the legendary Pierre Foumier in Geneva. At 15 she was the youngest ever recipient of the Isserlis Scholarship.
Caroline was a member of the Nigel Kennedy Quartet and the Balanescu Quartet, as well as a founder member of the (American-based) Apollo Piano Trio. Prior to her appointment as Principal Cellist of the English Chamber Orchestra she was principal of the BT Scottish Ensemble and the LCO. She has appeared as concerto soloist with the London Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic., ECO, LCO and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.
Caroline's recording career includes the solo cello music for the films 'Hilary and Jackie' (about the life of Jacqueline du Pre), 'Truly Madly Deeply' and 'Atonement' (released in September 2007). In 1995 she formed her own group 'Ghostland', writing and performing her own music with the band, and recording on the Warner and Instant Karma labels. In 2003 she released a solo album, 'Such Sweet Thunder', which combined classical repertoire and Caroline's own compositions. Caroline also plays electric cello and has toured with David Gilmour, Sinead O'Connor and David Gray.
STEPHANIE GONLEY
Stephanie Gonley made her first appearance with the ECO as a soloist in 1990, which led to her appointment in April 1991 as one of its leaders. She is the youngest person to hold this position and only the fourth leader in the Orchestra's history.
Stephanie was a scholar at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where she was a pupil of David Takeno. She continued her studies with Dorothy DeLay at the Juilliard School in New York, and later with Ilan Gronich at the Hochschule in Berlin. Amongst other awards, she was a winner of the prestigious Shell-LSO National Scholarship. She is currently a Professor of Violin at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
She is now firmly established as one of the leading British violinists of her generation, and appears as a soloist with many of the leading orchestras both in the UK and abroad. Her Wigmore Hall debut was broadcast live on BBC Radio 3. Stephanie was leader of the Vellinger Quartet (winners of the 1994 London International String Quartet Competition) and made her BBC Proms debut in 1995.
With the ECO Stephanie appears regularly as both director and soloist and her solo recordings with the Orchestra include Dvorak's Romance for EMI with Sir Charles Mackerras, hailed by Gramophone as "a winner... the playing polished and beautifully balanced" and Bach's violin concertos and Brandenburg Concertos. Recent solo appearances with the ECO include Bernstein's Serenade earlier this season at London's Cadogan Hall (broadcast by BBC Radio 3), Bruch's Violin Concerto No.l, Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante (in which she appears as viola soloist on some occasions, and violin soloist on others), Vivaldi's 'The Four Seasons' and Mozart's Concertone for two violins (partnered by Maxim Vengerov). She has also recently performed the Sibelius Violin Concerto with the London Philharmonic Orchestra.
ENGLISH CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
In September 2006 the American radio network CPRN selected the ECO as one of the world's greatest orchestras. The ECO is indeed truly international, having performed in more countries than any other orchestra, recorded over 1,200 works and played with the world's greatest soloists in its 46 years of history. The Orchestra is regularly invited to play for its Patron HRH The Prince of Wales, including his 50th Birthday concert at Windsor Castle and HM The Queen Mother's 90th birthday concert at Buckingham Palace.
The ECO aims to celebrate and build upon its tradition of maintaining the highest international musical standards, nurturing new talent and focusing on the 'best of British' music and musicianship, as well as being the chamber orchestra of choice for many of the world's greatest soloists. Benjamin Britten, the ECO's first Patron, was a tremendous musical influence on the Orchestra. The ECO also enjoyed a long relationship with Daniel Barenboim, one of the highlights of which was the performance and recording of the complete cycle of Mozart Piano Concertos.
Today the Orchestra continues to attract musicians of the stature few chamber orchestras can match. As well as tours in the UK and across Europe the Orchestra continues its London Concert Series with concerts at Cadogan Hall and Wigmore Hall featuring a host of eminent guest artists. The Orchestra performed Mozart's Magic Flute at Grange Park Opera and Nevill Holt in June and July 2007, and has just accepted a long-term residency at Grange Park Opera which will run from 2008 - 2010 inclusive. The ECO presents an annual Mediterranean Music Cruise (www.TheMusicCruise.com) for which it is joined by eight international soloists for a feast of music at sea. Vladimir Ashkenazy, Maxim Vengerov and Sir Colin Davis continue to be regular guests with the ECO at home and abroad.
The ECO has been chosen to record many successful film sound tracks (including many John Barry scores and Dario Marinelli's Pride and Prejudice and Atonement) and has taken part in a variety of film and television work.
The ECO is proud of its outreach programme, CLOSE ENCOUNTERS, which takes music into communities and schools around the UK and overseas. Further details of the ECO's activities can be found at www.englishchamberorchestra.co.uk
Last Updated : 19/11/2007