** Please note that the change in venue for this concert.**
MOZART 12 Variations ‘Ah vous dirai-je, Maman’ K265 (8′) SCHOENBERG Drei Klavierstücke Op.11 (14′) HAYDN Piano Sonata in D Hob.XVI:42 (11′) BRAHMS Drei Intermezzi Op.117 (14′) BEETHOVEN Piano Sonata No.23 Op. 57 ‘Appassionata’ (24′)
In his new recital series, Tim Horton celebrates the music of Vienna, a city famous for its classical music, through works by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms and more.
Alongside this showcase of the city’s musical traditions and the composers who link them, Tim presents some richly inventive offerings from the dawn of the 20th century. This promises to be a fresh and compelling new exploration of the dazzling musical variety derived from the City of Dreams.
Post-concert Q&A – free Please join us after the concert for a free Q&A with Tim Horton.
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MOZART Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, 12 Variations on ‘Ah, vous dirai-je maman’, K265
Originally thought to have been written in about 1776, more recent research on the manuscript of these delightful variations has led to a dating of 1781–2, during Mozart’s first year in Vienna, possibly written for some of his more advanced piano pupils. The earliest published edition (issued by the Viennese firm of Torricella in 1785) has a dedication to Josepha Barbara Auerhammer (1758–1820) about whom Mozart had mixed feelings, writing to his father that ‘the girl is a fright! But she plays charmingly.’ Clearly Mozart admired his pupil’s gifts as a player since they gave concerts together in Vienna. The anonymous tune and text of ‘Ah, vous dirai-je maman’ first appeared in song collections in the 1760s. In English-speaking countries, the melody eventually came to be associated with Jane Taylor’s nursery rhyme ‘Twinkle, twinkle, little star’ though that was originally set to a different tune (the earliest appearance of words and music together was in 1838).
Following a straightforward presentation of the theme, Mozart embarks on a series of variations, ingenious and playful in mood until Variation VIII when the key changes into the minor for a rather sterner reworking of the tune. A return to the major for Variation IX marks the start of the later variations in which Mozart becomes more creative with his treatment of the theme, particularly in Variation XI – a lyrical Adagio – and the final Variation XII, marked Allegro, in which the tune is transformed into triple time to bring the work to a brilliant close.
Schoenberg wrote a famous essay called ‘Brahms the Progressive’, and he drew much inspiration from the intimate sound-world of Brahms’s late piano pieces. But by 1909 he had started to abandon conventional tonality in favour of a free atonal language, without anchoring the music in traditional keys or harmonies. But through the use of recurring motifs, Schoenberg creates a unified work of extraordinary boldness. The composer likened his music to Wassily Kandinsky’s paintings, describing it as ‘an ever-changing, unbroken succession of colours, rhythms and moods’.
Composed in 1784, this two-movement sonata was originally published as part of a triptych of piano sonatas dedicated to 15-year-old Princess Marie Esterházy to celebrate her marriage the previous year to Prince Nikolaus II (then 17 years old; he later became Haydn’s patron after the death of his father in 1790). The first movement, marked Andante con espressione, is a set of variations. The theme itself is punctuated by silences and by a harmonic scheme which takes some characteristically surprising turns as the writing becomes increasingly florid. The most dramatic variation comes with a shift from D major to minor before a return to the music of the opening. The second movement, Vivace assai, is also full of harmonic quirks, but now the music is energetic and Haydn develops his ideas with conciseness and subtlety, including a good deal of imitative writing, right up to the delightfully inconsequential ending.
Andante moderato
Andante non troppo e con molto espressione
Andante con moto
These three short pieces were composed at the Austrian spa town Bad Ischl in 1892 and first performed in Berlin on 6 January 1893 by the pianist Heinrich Barth. Like the first of the Ballades Op.10, the first Intermezzo is based on a Scottish poem printed in Herder’s collection, this time a lullaby (and, informally, Brahms sometimes called the whole set ‘Lullabies’). Clara Schumann was enchanted by these pieces when she first saw them, telling Brahms that ‘In these pieces I at last feel musical life stir once again in my soul’. When Brahms’s publisher Simrock suggested using Lullabies instead of Intermezzi as the official title, Brahms’s response was endearingly curmudgeonly: ‘It should then say, lullaby of an unhappy mother or of a disconsolate bachelor’.
BEETHOVEN Ludwig van, Piano Sonata in F minor Op.57 ‘Appassionata’
The Sonata in F minor Op.57 only acquired its famous nickname ‘Appassionata’ after Beethoven’s death – an invention by a Hamburg publisher that has stuck. The work was mostly sketched in 1805, finished the following year, and first published in 1807. The manuscript, in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, came from the family of the French pianist Marie Bigot, to whom Beethoven had given it after she sight-read it for him. Her husband recalled that just before Beethoven’s visit, during his journey back to Vienna from Silesia, he was ‘surprised by a storm and driving rain, which soaked through the case in which he carried the Sonata in F minor which he had just composed’ and, indeed, the manuscript has many water stains, presumably made by this downpour. The Appassionata is recognized as one of the greatest of Beethoven’s middle-period piano sonatas (alongside the Waldstein), and its turbulent emotional world moves from the gloom of the opening to a quotation from a folk song (for the second theme), a set of variations on a deceptively simple chordal theme for the slow movement, leading via a chromatic diminished seventh chord to the finale.
***Sadly, due to illness and the adverse weather further south, the musicians are unable to go ahead with tonight’s concert. The Crucible box office will be in touch with all ticket holders over the course of today. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact marketing@musicintheround.co.uk ***
Separated by a few short years and the turn of a century, this concert features two utterly different string quartets from two modernist giants who typify the staggering range of fin de siècle classical music.
Schoenberg’s visionary second quartet sees Ensemble 360 joined by superstar soprano Claire Booth for a surprisingly accessible and personal work that stretches from the intimate to the interstellar. Debussy’s sensual and impressionistic quartet shimmers with life and light between opening storms and a grand conclusion.
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SCHOENBERG Arnold, String Quartet No. 2, Op. 10
The earliest sketch for this quartet is dated 9 March 1907 and the work was completed in the summer of 1908. It was written at a turbulent time in Schoenberg’s private life – his wife Mathilde was having an affair with the painter Richard Gerstl – but the finished work was dedicated to her. The first performance was given at the Bösendorfer-Saal in Vienna on 21 December 1908. The occasion was recalled by the composer almost thirty years later, when he wrote that it caused ‘riots which surpassed every previous and subsequent happenings of this kind.’ He went on to admit that the riots were ‘a natural reaction of a conservatively educated audience to a new kind of music.’ This was a work Schoenberg identified as an important turning point in his creative development: a move away from reliance on traditional keys. As Schoenberg himself put it in a 1949 lecture – choosing his words carefully – the quartet marked ‘the transition to the second period, this period which renounces a tonal centre and is falsely called atonality.’ The composer’s irritation with the use of the ‘atonal’ label is understandable: as he pointed out in the same lecture, in every movement of the quartet ‘the key is presented distinctly at all crossroads of the formal organization.’ Even so, it was a work which shocked early audiences – and at the premiere the second, third and fourth movements were all interrupted by audience jeers and laughter until the coda of the fourth movement, which was heard without disturbance. As Schoenberg commented, ‘perhaps even my enemies and adversaries might have felt something here?’
As well as its harmonic innovations, perhaps the most startling aspect of this work is the addition of a soprano voice in the third and fourth movements, which are settings of two poems by Stefan George. The first movement is loosely in sonata form with five thematic ideas, all of them related to each other. Beginning clearly in the home key of F sharp minor before moving away into remoter harmonic territory, the movement eventually finds repose on quiet F sharp minor chords. The second movement is a kind of Scherzo marked Sehr rasch (very quickly) in D minor, but with frequent changes of tempo – and a Trio section which quotes the Viennese folk song ‘O du lieber Augustin’. The third movement, ‘Litanei’ (Litany) – the first of the two song settings – is loosely in E flat minor though highly chromatic. Schoenberg’s own account of the last movement, ‘Entrückung’ noted that it ‘begins with an introduction, depicting the departure from earth to another planet.’ From this literally other-worldly opening, the voice and instruments in this movement develop the music with a brilliantly imagined and highly expressive array of unusual sonorities before finally arriving on a sublime and radiant chord of F sharp major.
Nacht [Night] (Carl Hauptmann) Schilflied [Song among the reeds] (Nikolaus Lenau) Die Nachtigall [The nightingale] (Theodor Storm) Traumgekrönt [Crowned in a dream] (Rainer Maria Rilke) Im Zimmer [Indoors] (Johannes Schalf) Liebesode [Ode to love] (Otto Erich Hartleben) Sommertage [Summer days] (Paul Hohenberg)
Berg composed these songs during his time as a student of Schoenberg (between 1905 and 1908) – so they are almost exactly contemporary with Schoenberg’s Second String Quartet. Altogether during this period, Berg wrote more than eighty songs. The present selection was assembled by the composer in 1928 when he also made versions with orchestral accompaniment. Three of the songs were performed at a concert of music by Schoenberg’s pupils in 1907 – the first public hearing of any music by Berg. Stylistically they owe much to the legacy of Wolf and Mahler as well as Schoenberg’s earlier songs, and the influence of Wagner, Strauss and Debussy. But even though they are student works, they reveal a composer with a superb natural affinity with the human voice: Berg went on to write several mature sets of songs, as well as the operas Wozzeck and Lulu, and that understanding of the expressive potential of the voice can already be heard in the Seven Early Songs. They range from relatively simple writing to almost expressionistic music which borders on atonality. Often intoxicating, sometimes shimmering, the ravishing opulence of these songs have love as their central obsession, so it is no surprise that Berg later dedicated the set to his wife Helena – recalling the blissful time when they first got to know each other. The soprano Diana Damrau has commented that the songs are ‘about a great love, and also physical love … the happiness of fulfilled togetherness. You don’t need anything else, and the circle closes with the last song, ‘Sommertage’. There he goes back to nature and what particularly characterises the romantic soul: the quest for freedom’.
Debussy’s String Quartet was first performed at the Société Nationale de Musique on 29 December 1893 – almost exactly a year before he shocked Paris with the Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune, the most laconic manifestation of his revolutionary creative spirit. The Quartet, composed just after the Prélude, is one of his earliest mature works – a piece that still has some roots in the musical language of César Franck but in which a fresh and brilliant imagination can be heard, not just in the free handling of forms, but also in the spectacularly inventive writing for string instruments – something absorbed by Ravel in the Quartet he wrote a decade later. The first movement is robust and confident, while the second, with its extensive use of pizzicato, hints at the Javanese music that Debussy heard at the 1889 Exposition. The slow movement begins with fragments of the theme split between the lower instruments before being introduced in full by the first violin, over rich chromatic harmonies. The finale has clear thematic links with the first. It starts hesitantly, gradually building up both tension and speed, on a melodic idea that is presented in different guises before reaching the dazzling conclusion in G major.
Recognised as one of the world’s leading guitar quartets, the Aquarelle Guitar Quartet is a dynamic and innovative group known for its extraordinary performances and glorious range of sound.
Their newest member, Classic FM chart-topping artist Craig Ogden, will be familiar to many, following his sell-out recitals in Sheffield in 2022 and 2023.
Featuring everything from classical favourites to irresistible tango and famous movie hits, this afternoon concert is a perfect treat for music-lovers of all ages.
View the brochure online here or download it below.
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BELLINATI Paulo, Baião de Gude
Regarded as one of the leading Brazilian guitarists of the younger generation, Bellinati is hailed by many as successor in the lineage of great Brazilian guitarist/composers such as Jobim, Powell and Gnattali. In his compositions, he recreates Brazilian styles such as Baião, Maxixe and Frevo, blending influences from contemporary jazz and classical music. Baião de Gude draws its inspiration from a game of marbles called ‘Bolos de Gude’, which is played in the street by the children of Brazil.
GISMONTI Egberto (arr. J Jervis), Baião Malandro
Baião Malandro (Smart Baião) by Egberto Gismonti is a mischievous, rhythmically engaging as well as ambiguous, and aggressive composition. The popular baião rhythm originated in the north-east of Brazil and was pioneered by the folk-singer Luiz Gonzaga. Like many of Gismonti’s works, Baião Malandro differs in each of its incarnations due to the improvisatory nature of the composer’s performances. The particular version that James Jervis has chosen to arrange appears on Gismonti’s album ‘Alma’ where it can be heard in the form of a piano solo with synthesised sounds.
BIZET Georges (arr. W Kanengiser), Carmen Suite
In addition to being one of the most beloved and enduring operas of all time, this work has found a home on the symphonic stage, most notably with an orchestral suite of some of its most popular excerpts. In this arrangement of six movements from Carmen for guitar quartet, a special emphasis was put on retaining the distinctly Spanish sound of the music, which finds a natural home on the guitar.
The current suite begins with the Aragonaise, with strumming fanfares and imitations of castanets. Next is the timeless Habanera, a sensual aria based on a melody by Iradier that explores the lyric possibilities of a single line melody on the guitar. It is followed by the flamenco-inspired Seguidilla, which explores a wide range of articulations and colors available on guitar quartet. The ever-popular Toreadors features boisterous strummed chords and extended trills, while the delicate Entr’Acte is a gradually unfolding masterwork of lyric counterpoint. The final Gypsy Dance creates a slowly building tension with repeated staccato figures, finally erupting in the famous and furious coda.
Alfonsina y el mar is a song by pianist Ariel Ramirez and writer Félix Luna. Alfonsina and the sea, as it translates to English, is a tribute to Argentine poet Alfonsina Storni who tragically took her own life by jumping into the sea. This is a unique version for four guitars expertly woven together by master arranger, composer and guitarist Roland Dyens.
SCOTT Andy (arr. M Baker), Salt of the Earth
Andy Scott is a Northwest (UK) based composer, saxophonist and educator with a distinctive musical voice that encompasses elements of jazz, world and contemporary classical styles. He is a founder member of the Apollo Saxophone Quartet and teaches at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester.
One of Andy’s most popular compositions, ‘Salt of the Earth’ started life as a three-movement Concerto for Tuba with Brass Band! Andy has arranged the piece for a number of ensembles and soloists, and in this case was delighted to continue his collaboration with the AGQ, with Mike Baker undertaking the arranging duties.
The composer writes “Influenced heavily by jazz & latin music, ‘Salt of the Earth’ is fast and furious. The main melody moves over changing chords that are underpinned by a pedal note before the release of a montuno-inspired B section. Moving away from chord changes, the introduction, bridge and coda are written as two virtuosic single-line parts.
The title of the piece was inspired by the salt mining industry in my home county of Cheshire East. Underground networks of roads stretch for miles, whilst overground, huge football pitch-size salt mountains provide a surreal landscape.”
LEDESMA Ismael (arr. M Baker), A Mi Pueblo
A Mi Pueblo (For my people) is a haunting piece of music, written by the Paraguayan harpist Ismael Ledesma. This arrangement for four guitars captures the textures achieved by the harp along with the beautifully simple melody.
BONFÁ Luiz (arr. V Bessas), Manhã de Carnaval
Manhã de Carnaval is the principal song in the 1959 Brazilian film Black Orpheus. It became one of the first Bossa Nova compositions to gain popularity worldwide and it is considered one of the most important songs of that style.
MARTÍN Eduardo, Hasta Alicia Baila
Hasta Alicia Baila (Until Alicia Dances), a Cuban rumba (guaguancó), was written by Eduardo Martín for Alicia, a friend of the composer’s, in an attempt to get her up and dancing! The guaguancó is a traditional ‘call and response’ form of the rumba, featuring percussive effects from instruments such as the tumba, llamador, and quinto. The guitars imitate these drums throughout the piece, giving it its rhythmic drive and authentic flavour.
JOBIM Antonio Carlos (arr. M Tardelli), Lamento no Morro (Cry from the Hills)
Antonio Carlos Jobim is one of the most celebrated and influential Latin American musicians of all time. Largely credited with the creation of Bossa Nova (an amalgam of samba and ‘cool jazz’), some of his songs have become all time classics, famous throughout the world, including ‘The Girl from Ipanema’, ‘Desafinado’ and ‘A felicidade’.
‘Lamento no Morro’ first appeared in 1956 on the album ‘Orfeu da Conceição’. Originally a play by Vinícius de Moraes, ‘Orfeu da Conceição’ was set to music by Antônio Carlos Jobim who also conducted the 35 piece Grande Orchestra Odeon featuring legendary musicians, Roberto Piava on vocals and Luiz Bonfá on guitar.
SANTAOLALLA Gustavo (arr. V Bessas), De Ushuaia a la Quiaca
De Ushuaia a la Quiaca is the Argentinian equivalent of Land’s End to John o’ Groats and is part of the soundtrack of the movie ‘Motorcycle Diaries’. The film is a biopic about the written memoir of Ernesto Guevara, best known as the Marxist guerrilla leader Che Guevara. The composer, Gustavo Santaolalla, won a BAFTA for his work on this film and later went on to compose the music for other successful films such as ‘Brokeback Mountain’, ‘Bebel’ and most recently ‘The Last of Us’.
REINHARDT Django (arr. M Baker), Minor Swing
‘Minor Swing’ (composed in 1937) is one of the most popular and celebrated compositions of legendary gypsy jazz guitarist, Django Reinhardt (1910-1953). He recorded the piece six times throughout his career in various different guises, most famously with Stéphane Grappelli and the Quintette du Hot Club de France in 1937, and it is considered to be one of his most covered works. It was included on the Aquarelle Guitar Quartet’s 2012 Chandos Records CD, ‘Final Cut’ inspired by the inclusion of ‘Minor Swing’ in the film ‘Chocolat’ (2000). Johnny Depp’s performance of ‘Minor Swing’ makes up a memorable part of the Golden Globe-winning soundtrack (for Best Original Score) by Rachel Portman (b.1960), and perfectly depicts the gypsy origins of Depp’s character.
BELLINATI Paulo, A Furiosa
The playful and almost cheeky opening to ‘A Furiosa’ is slightly deceptive as to the character of the rest of the piece. What ensues is a wonderfully catchy and fun melody based around the energetic dance rhythm of the Brazilian Maxixe. Bellinati wrote this piece as a tribute to the incredibly virtuosic and talented street musicians of Brazil, known affectionately as ‘The Furious Ones’ on account of their astonishing technique and speed. This fun dance is full of rhythmic excitement and flair.
“High-octane virtuosity, relaxed lyricism, tonal richness and perfection of ensemble.”
NATHANIEL FACEY alto sax TOM FARMER double bass SHANEY FORBES drums JASON REBELLO piano JONNY MANSFIELD vibraphone
Multi-award winners Empirical are celebrated for their distinctive signature sound, a combination of complex, thoughtful writing and spontaneous improvisation.
Having started in 2007 they went on to become one the UK’s most acclaimed jazz outfits, with the band personnel remaining the same for fifteen years.
For this concert they are joined by rising star Jonny Mansfield and Jason Rebello, an award winner with a reputation built over a thirty-five-year international career. It will feature material from their new album, their first full-length release since 2016.
Expect forward looking, creative music as Empirical re-take their place at the centre of the UK scene.
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Chart-topping Maya Youssef is hailed as ‘the queen of the qanun’, the Middle Eastern 78-stringed plucked zither. Based on Arabic classical traditions, her innovative sound has echoes of everything from jazz to flamenco, infused with warmth, humour and optimism.
The Damascus-born musician’s global reputation continues to grow as an artist of the highest quality and as a musical ambassador building connections across borders and between peoples and traditions. Maya’s 2022 album, ‘Finding Home’, included commissions for Opera North and the British Museum and was praised for both the range of influences and the intensity and emotion of her playing.
A performer of complexity and charisma, Maya’s welcome return to Sheffield promises to be a thrilling musical evening.
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CHAMINADE Automne CHAMINADE L’Autre Fois CHAMINADE Les Sylvains R SCHUMANN Fantasie in C (33′) STEPHEN HOUGH Sonatina Nostalgica (10′) CHOPIN Sonata No.3 in B minor (30′)
Described by The Guardian as “a master pianist who lines up with the greats” and voted one of Classic FM’s top 25 greatest pianists ever, Stephen Hough returns to the Crucible Playhouse for the first time in five years. He performs works including Schumann’s Fantasie in C and Chopin’s breathtaking final piano sonata.
Schumann’s Fantasie in C was described by Liszt, its dedicatee, as “a work of the highest kind” and here it sits alongside Stephen’s own work and Chopin’s final piano sonata, a breathtaking and dramatic work.
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CHAMINADE Cécile, Automne
The second of her 6 Études de concert Op.35, Cécile Chaminade’s (1857-1944) ‘Automne’ was composed in 1886 in Périgord (the regional name of the Dordogne), where the composer holidayed with her family each year during September and October. Beginning tenderly with a stepwise melody in the middle of the piano’s rocking, accompaniment-texture, the music grows to a contrasting middle section marked ‘con fuoco’ (‘with passion’). This is poignant and characterful music that reflects the beauty of Autumn, evoking images of falling leaves, fading light, and a sense of nostalgia. A quintessential example of Chaminade’s ability to blend technical virtuosity with rich expressiveness, ‘Automne’ encapsulates the romantic spirit of the late 19th century in a voice that is distinctively the composer’s own. The piece is dedicated to Polish-French pianist and composer, the Countess ‘Mademoiselle Hélène Kryzanowska’.
Benjamin Tassie, 2024
CHAMINADE Cécile, L’Autre Fois
Cécile Chaminade’s (1857-1944) ‘Autrefois’ is the fourth piece in the composer’s collection, 6 Pièces humoristiques Op.87 (Six humorous pieces). Translated as ‘in the past’ or ‘formerly’, ‘Autrefois’ is nostalgic and bittersweet in character. Composed in 1897, the compisition begins with a gentle, ornamented theme, marked by subtle shifts in harmony. This music is then contrasted with a middle section comprised of cascading figures and rich chromatic textures, before the piece then returns to the tranquillity of its opening musical idea. Appoggiaturas (short notes that ‘decorate’ the melody), dynamic contrasts, and chromatic voice-leading – within the work’s formal structure – make this a piece rich with expressive and interpretive potential, typifying Chaminade’s talents with deeply characterful and pianistic writing.
Benjamin Tassie, 2024
CHAMINADE Cécile, Les Sylvains
Composed in 1892, Cécile Chaminade’s (1857-1944) Les Sylvains (commonly translated as ‘The Fauns’) is a characterful miniature built around two contrasting musical ideas – the first, a gravely lyrical melody with gently pulsating accompaniment; the second, a playful and capricious texture in the piano’s higher register, perhaps reminiscent of the mythical faun’s exuberant flute music. ‘Sylvains’ means ‘of the forest’ and this is music that richly evokes an enchanted woodland: arpeggios and glissandi cascade playfully and brightly, alternating in contrast with the darker colours of the piano’s lower register before, finally, the music gradually disappears ‘al niente’ (to nothing) into the forest’s depths.
Benjamin Tassie, 2024
SCHUMANN Robert, Fantasie in C, Op. 17
In December 1836, Schumann finished what he called his ‘Sonata for Beethoven’, inspired by an appeal published in 1835 (to mark what would have been Beethoven’s 65th birthday) for a monument to the composer in Bonn. Schumann suggested to his publisher Kistner that the proceeds from sales should go towards the appeal. Kistner turned the work down and Schumann made a number of revisions, calling the work Dichtungen (‘Poems’) until shortly before sending it to Breitkopf & Härtel in January 1839, at which point he settled on Fantasie. While any explicit Beethoven link had been dropped, and the work now carried a dedication to Franz Liszt, at least one Beethovenian allusion remains in the third movement: a passage in the left hand is a slowed-down version of the persistent rhythm from the Allegrettoof the Seventh Symphony. Moreover, Kenneth Hamilton has detected ‘the ghost of Beethoven’s Sonata Op. 101 hovering over certain elements of the work’, adding that the sonata was a favorite of both Schumann and Mendelssohn.
It is unusual to have a fantasy in three distinct movements and perhaps Schumann had in mind the ‘quasi una fantasia’ subtitles of Beethoven’s Op. 27 sonatas. The first movement, marked to be played with ‘imagination and passion’, is an innovative reinvention of sonata form, with unconventional key relationships (suggestive of Schubert), and striking structural innovations, notably the seemingly self-contained interlude placed at the moment where the recapitulation might be expected to arrive. The second movement depicts Schumann’s imaginary army of Davidsbündler (League of David) marching against the Philistines. Dominated by an obsessive dotted rhythm, this is Schumann at his most flamboyant, with a vertiginous coda where the leaps become ever wider before the grandest of conclusions. The third movement is a complete contrast: the music is poetic, restrained, and noble – and surely full of quiet longing for Clara (whom he was finally to marry in 1840). When she received a copy in May 1839, she reported that she was ‘half ill with rapture’. The demands of the work are formidable and Clara never played it during Schumann’s lifetime. Liszt was immensely proud of the dedication, considering the Fantasie to be among the greatest of Schumann’s piano works, but while he played to Schumann and taught it to students, he never performed it in a public concert. It was only with the next generation – many of them pupils of Liszt and Clara Schumann – that the Fantasie was established as one of the masterpieces of the Romantic piano repertoire.
This little sonatina, lasting under five minutes, was written for my friend (and fellow Gordon Green student) Philip Fowke in celebration of his 70th birthday. It is ‘nostalgica’ on three levels: firstly, it was commissioned by my old school, Chetham’s; secondly, it deliberately utilises a romantic musical language of yesteryear; but most importantly it evokes literal homesickness for the places of our youth, in this case the little ‘sonatina’ village of Lymm in Cheshire.
The first movement is in ABA form and is made up of two contrasting but equally lyrical motives. A dotted rhythm gesture appears in the final bar and becomes the theme of the second movement. The Finale plays with these three ideas, tossing them around in a spirit of celebration.
I The road from Danebank
Danebank was a grand country house which gave its name to today’s Dane Bank Road. Along and about this road are places resonant with memories for me, not least the nursing home where my mother lived her final years. By happy coincidence some of Philip Fowke’s forebears, the Watkin family, lived at … Danebank.
II The bench by the Dam
Lymm Dam is the picturesque source of the village, a calm lake whose surface reflects mature trees and the handsome steeple of the parish church. I had a bench installed there commemorating my parents. Drive a few miles down the road and you’ll find the birthplace of John Ireland whose musical shadow falls over this pastoral movement.
III A gathering at the Cross
Lymm Cross is a monument at the heart of the village and this movement is an affectionate tribute to the countless friends and family members who have gathered for parties and dinners and carol-singing within striking distance of its crumbling sandstone structure over many years.
Sir Stephen Hough, May 2022
CHOPIN Frédéric, Sonata No.3 in B minor Op.58
Chopin developed many new forms of piano music, from the kind of audacious miniatures found among the mazurkas to extended single-movement works such as the ballades and scherzos. But he also wrote three piano sonatas, drawing on structures inherited from Mozart and Beethoven. The Piano Sonata No.3, Op. 58, was completed in 1844 and its first movement is in sonata form. Even so, the music seems closer to the world of Chopin’s ballades than to any classical models, particularly in the rhapsodic development section. The outer sections of the Scherzo are filled with rapid movement, the ideas delicate and airy, while the slow Trio is richly harmonised but never loses its hints of unease. After a declamatory opening, the slow movement – a Chopin nocturne in all but name – is dominated by the song-like melody heard near the start, the mood changing for a dream-like central section before returning to the opening idea. The finale has a seemingly unstoppable momentum and energy, and for Marceli Antoni Szulc, Chopin’s first Polish biographer, this movement evoked images of the Cossack Mazeppa on a galloping horse.
JS BACH Sonata No. 1 in G minor (18’) Partita No. 1 in B minor (28’)
Benjamin Nabarro performs the first in a new series of concerts celebrating JS Bach’s much-loved music for solo violin. Centred on the intricate and expansive partitas and sonatas, Ben’s recitals explore the wonder of Bach through some of the most enduring and joyous works ever written for the violin.The pieces are presented together with a short, informal conversation about Bach’s celebrated works between Benjamin Nabarro and BenjaminTassie, Music in the Round’s Programme Manager for Sheffield.
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BACH J.S., Sonata No.1 for solo violin, BWV 1001
On Bach’s autograph fair copy of the Sonatas and Partitas he calls them ‘Six Solos for violin without bass accompaniment’. They were completed in 1720, the date Bach added beneath his signature on the title page, though it is likely that he had been working on them before then. These magnificent pieces stand as one of the greatest monuments of Baroque instrumental music, but it is worth considering some of the precursors that might have inspired him – all works with which Bach was almost certainly familiar. First, a suite for solo violin without bass and a set of six partitas by Johann Paul von Westhoff (1656–1705), the movements based on dance forms, making extensive use of ‘multiple-stops’ (playing more than one string at the same time) to create the illusion of a solo instrument in dialogue with itself. Westhoff spent his last few years as a violinist at the court in Weimar where Bach met him in 1703, and this encounter may well have given Bach the idea of trying something similar. The unaccompanied Passacaglia which Heinrich Biber (1644–1704) composed as an epilogue to his Rosary Sonatas in about 1676 could well have provided a model (particularly for the Chaconne of the D minor Partita), and Biber’s pupil Johann Joseph Vilsmaÿr (1663–1722) published a set of Six Partitas for solo violin in 1715. In 1717, Vivaldi’s pupil Johann Georg Pisendel (1687–1755) showed Bach his Sonata for solo violin without bass – and later performed Bach’s sonatas and partitas.
The overall design of Bach’s Six Solos alternates Sonatas with Partitas. Each Sonata is in four movements, with a slow opening movement followed by a faster fugue. The finales are characterised by fast, continuous writing full of the kind of kinetic energy that fuels so much of Bach’s music. The third movements are more varied – and each is in a different key from the rest of the sonata. In the First Sonata (in G minor), Bach’s third movement is a gently lilting Siciliano in B flat major. But some of Bach’s most innovative writing in this work is to be found in the fugue (second movement), a marvel of ingenuity which demands from the player a combination of virtuosity and musical insight: Bach was writing here for extremely skilled musicians and may have played the Sonata and Partitas himself (he was a fine violinist as well as a superb keyboard player). There’s a brilliant kind of musical conjuring trick involved in the fugue: the violin is essentially a melodic instrument intended to play a single line, but here, through the use of double-stops and incredibly ingenious part-writing, Bach presents two or more musical lines at once. The result is a compositional sleight of hand with the violin functioning as more than one part, sometimes supported by bass lines that it also supplies itself. The G minor Sonata demonstrates Bach’s ability to create music of the greatest imagination within quite a strict, formal structure: at its most expressive in the first and third movements (Adagio and Siciliana), at its most technically brilliant (and demanding) in the fugue, and at its most energetic and direct in the Presto finale.
Written for the renowned violinist Yehudi Menuhin, Hungarian composer Béla Bartók’s (1881-1945) Sonata for Solo Violin is widely considered one of the most challenging and expressive works for the instrument. It sits well in this programme, inspired, as it was, by Menhuin’s performance of Bach’s solo violin sonatas. Indeed, Bartók blends elements of the Baroque – the striking triple- and quadruple ‘stops’ of the opening, for example, in which the violinist plays three or four notes simultaneously – with the composer’s signature folk-inspired melodies; angular, sometimes discordant tunes drawn from the folk traditions of Eastern Europe, for which he is perhaps best known. The Sonata is in four movements: the intense and lyrical Tempo di ciaccona, the haunting Fuga, the delicate Melodia, and the virtuosic Presto. Each movement explores the violin’s capabilities, demanding both technical mastery and profound musicality.
BACH J.S., Partita No.1 for solo violin, BWV 1002
The Partitas are very different in terms of their structures. While each is, broadly speaking, a suite of dances, Bach treats this idea with considerable freedom. The First Partita presents four dances – Allemanda, Corrente, Sarabande and Tempo di borea (i.e. Bourée) – but each of them is followed by a ‘Double’, a kind of variation which Bach uses either to create contrast (as in the Allemanda and Corrente) or to intensify a particular mood, something he does to memorable effect in the Sarabande and its ‘double’, or to create still greater musical momentum, as in the Tempo di borea and its double.
After Bach’s death, a few expert performers continued to play the Sonatas and Partitas from manuscript copies, notably Haydn’s friend Johann Peter Salomon. The whole collection was published for the first time in 1802. In the nineteenth century, Mendelssohn and Schumann both felt the need to ‘enhance’ Bach’s original by adding piano accompaniments. Joseph Joachim was perhaps the first great virtuoso since Salomon to present Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas in concerts, and even in the recording studio (some extraordinarily evocative records from 1903). Thanks to Joachim’s efforts and those of his successors such as Georges Enescu, the Sonatas and Partitas finally came to be recognised as creative pinnacles of the violin repertoire.
Share in the delight of joining a large chorus. Expertly guided by our Singer-in-Residence, Roderick Williams, you’ll be singing selected movements from Fauré’s much-loved Requiem. Music available in advance.
Participant numbers are limited. Early booking recommended.
HONEGGER Intrada (4’) L BOULANGER Nocturne et Cortège (8’) TURNAGE True Life Stories: Elegy for Andy (3′) VIVALDI Agitata da due venti (6’) BOZZA Aria (4’) FRANÇAIX Sonatine (8’) HUBEAU Sonata (15’) PRICE The Glory of the Day was in Her Face (3’) PRICE Song to the Dark Virgin (3’) MAHLER Ich atmet’ einen linden Duft (3’) ROPARTZ Andante et Allegro (6’)
Having made waves with recent performances at Wigmore Hall and the BBC Proms, rising star trumpeter Aaron Akugbo makes his Sheffield debut. Citing Louis Armstrong as his greatest musical influence, this charismatic performer presents an eclectic mix of works.
This promises to be an afternoon concert of discovery and delight, with music spanning centuries and continents. Works from familiar names such as Vivaldi and Mahler are combined with new treats to discover from Florence Price and Eugene Bozza.
View the brochure online here or download it below.
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HONEGGER Arthur, Intrada
The Intrada by Arthur Honegger (1892–1955) was composed in April 1947 for that year’s concours at the Geneva Conservatoire. Its maestoso outer sections are ceremonial in character – with angular melodic lines (over sustained piano chords) that are particularly well suited to the trumpet – while the lively central section resembles a kind of toccata for trumpet.
The phenomenal gifts of Lili Boulanger (1893–1918) were recognised when she was in her teens, and in 1913 she became the first woman to win the Prix de Rome for composition at the Paris Conservatoire with her cantata Faust et Hélène. She was nineteen at the time, but her musical language was already distinctive. The Nocturne was one of her earlier pieces, originally entitled ‘pièce courte pour flûte et piano’, the manuscript dated 27 October 1911. It was subsequently reworked for violin and piano and is here arranged for trumpet. The Cortège,which is often paired with it, dates from June 1914 when it began as a piano solo which was then arranged for violin and piano and later transcribed for trumpet.
Antonio Vivaldi (1678–1741) is much less remembered for his operas than for his instrumental and choral works, but he claimed to have composed more than 90 of them, of which complete scores of around 20 are known to survive. The aria ‘Agitata da due venti’ began life in his opera Adelaide – first performed in Verona during the Carnival season in February 1735, and recycled few months later in Griselda which was given its premiere at the Teatro San Samuele in Venice on 18 May 1735. In both cases, this florid virtuoso aria was performed by the same singer, Margherita Giacomazzi. The title refers to the character Costanza, caught by conflicting emotions like a sailor between opposing winds. The coloratura vocal lines of Vivaldi’s original transfer very successfully to a trumpet.
Eugène Bozza (1905–91) was born in Nice to an Italian father (who was a professional violinist). After graduating from the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome, he pursued further studies over the next decade (in violin, conducting and composition) at the Paris Conservatoire, winning the Prix de Rome in 1934. He composed the Aria in 1936, scoring it originally for saxophone and piano but its flowing melody over ripely-harmonised piano chords is well suited to the trumpet.
Jean Françaix (1912–97) composed his Sonatine for the 1952 trumpet concours. Cast in three short movements, the opening ‘Prélude’requires considerable agility while the ‘Sarabande’ presents a long, slow melody on a muted trumpet which gives way to faster and more complex section full of rapid chromatic writing. An unaccompanied cadenza leads directly to an entertaining ‘Gigue’ which brings the work to a high-spirited close.
Jean Hubeau (1917–92) is remembered primarily as a pianist, but he studied composition with Paul Dukas at the Conservatoire and was runner up in the 1934 Prix de Rome competition, coming second to Eugène Bozza. Hubeau composed his Sonata for Trumpet in 1943 and it was published by Durand the following year with a dedication to Jean Bérard, head of the Pathé-Marconi recording company. One of its most celebrated later exponents was the trumpeter Maurice André who recorded the work with the composer at the piano. It is cast in three movements: a Sarabande marked Andante con moto, a rapid Intermèdeand a concluding blues-inspiredSpiritual.
PRICE Florence, The glory of the day was in her face
The rediscovery of the African-American composer Florence Price (1897–1953) has not only revealed an impressive body of symphonic music but also a number of songs including The Glory of the Day was in Her Face (on a poem by James Weldon Johnson) and Song to the Dark Virgin (from her 1941 collection Songs of the Weary Blues, four settings of Langston Hughes, the great poet of the Harlem Renaissance).
The rediscovery of the African-American composer Florence Price (1897–1953) has not only revealed an impressive body of symphonic music but also a number of songs including The Glory of the Day was in Her Face (on a poem by James Weldon Johnson) and Song to the Dark Virgin (from her 1941 collection Songs of the Weary Blues, four settings of Langston Hughes, the great poet of the Harlem Renaissance).
‘Ich atmet’einenlinden Duft’ is from the Rückert-Lieder by Gustav Mahler (1860–1911), composed in the summer of 1901 and evoking the gentle fragrance of a lime tree which the poet associated with his love.
Joseph Guy-Ropartz(1865–1955) composed his Andante et Allegro for the 1903 trumpet concours at the Paris Conservatoire. Born in Brittany, he studied composition with Massenet and the organ with César Franck before becoming director of the conservatoires in Nancy and then Strasbourg. His compositions include five symphonies as well as shorter works including this fluently written competition piece which explores many of the characteristics of the instrument – expressiveness in the slower sections and considerable brilliance towards the close.
EMMA RAWICZ saxophones IVO NEAME piano CONOR CHAPLIN bass ASAF SIRKIS drums ** TONY KOFI saxophones JONATHAN GEE piano BEN HAZLETON bass ROD YOUNGS drums
A very special concert, a double bill, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Sheffield Jazz and its predecessors. It features two great all-star bands led by multi-award winning British Jazz musicians, one of whom is a longstanding favourite with Sheffield audiences and another who has made a huge impression in the past couple of years.
Described as “an astonishing new talent” by Jamie Cullum, rising star saxophonist and composer Emma Rawicz is already making waves on the UK scene. She has a unique sound, fusing many influences from lilting Afro-Cuban inspired grooves to modern jazz and funk numbers. Emma has already recorded two albums of original compositions, with her second, ‘Chroma’, released on the prestigious German label ACT, garnering numerous 4 star reviews.
One of the most popular jazz musicians (both in the UK and internationally), Tony Kofi is a saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist, whose list of collaborators reads like a Who’s Who of jazz. Having cut his teeth in the Jazz Warriors of the early 90’s, Tony has gone on to establish himself as a musician, teacher and composer of real authority. He leads and co-leads several groups, including this quartet which is dedicated to the music of Thelonious Monk.
Please note there will be an interval of 30 minutes for this event.
“A young musician who is destined to be a major voice in the music both as an instrumentalist and composer.”
Jazz Views about Emma Rawicz
“There is so much respect in jazz circles for Tony Kofi.”
Join Contemporary Music for All Sheffield (CoMA) for this presented workshop that interweaves explorations of the human voice into the unique colours of an open ensemble. CoMA are joined by composers Héloïse Werner (Hermes Experiment) and Ellen Sargen (MD CoMA Manchester) to explore pieces for mixed ensemble and voice. Either join in as an instrumentalist or vocalist on the day (all abilities of instrument and voice are welcome), or simply relax and watch as an audience member, with opportunities for Q&A throughout. Either way, this is an event to bring you closer to the music and scores will be available to peruse on the day.
Allcomers participants will be supported on the day to engage with these open scores, which invite players to make small decisions about what and how to play, and consider new ways of thinking about music.
If you’d like more information about this event, please email Learning and Participation lp@musicintheround.co.uk.
This event is hosted by Music in the Round. It is the third in our series of Participation Events around our Sounds of Now concerts. Don’t miss Hermes Experiment in the evening at 8pm in the Crucible Playhouse. Tickets for the 8pm event are available here.
Read more about CoMA here, and see what previous participants have said about their Allcomer Events here.
A grand work for a grand finale: captivating charm and wit from George Onslow’s Nonet. Nicknamed the ‘French Beethoven’, this is a chance to hear one of his finest and largest-scale chamber works whose five movements move through an expressive array of moods from turbulence to a jubilant conclusion.
Steven Isserlis then joins pianist Tim Horton for a heartfelt lament by Gabriel Fauré, before we sign off with Tchaikovsky’s celebratory musical postcard, Souvenir de Florence. This hugely popular string sextet by the great Russian composer features both Steven Isserlis and Ensemble 360’s cellist Gemma Rosefield, and promises to be a fitting farewell to the Festival in our anniversary year.
Note from Guest Curator, Steven Isserlis
“George Onslow, grandson of the first Earl of Onslow, is an interesting figure, straddling the twin worldsof London and Paris. Almost killed in a hunting accident – an incident which inspired his best-known work, a string quintet subtitled ’The Bullet’ – he sounds like a lively character, whose music was admired by Chopin. Tchaikovsky – who praised the piano quartet by Fauré that opened this festival – closes our programme with his irresistibly celebratory Souvenir de Florence. Party time!”
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ONSLOW George, Nonet in A Op.77
Allegro spirituoso
Scherzo. Agitato
Tema con variazioni
Finale. Largo – Allegretto quasi Allegro
Onslow was born in Clemont-Ferrand, the son of an aristocratic British family. He studied with Cramer and Dussek, and though travelling widely, he always remained loyal to the Auvergne working as a successful farmer as well as composing a large body of chamber music (including thirty-six string quartets) along with four symphonies and operas. His music was admired by Schumann and Mendelssohn, and the Nonet, composed in 1848, is dedicated to Prince Albert. The first movement has a nervous energy that is quite characteristic, and from the very start it’s clear that Onslow makes imaginative use of the ensemble. The Scherzo that follows has an unusual combination of austerity and charm, based on pithy Beethovenian main idea. The slow movement is theme with five variations. After a slow introduction, the finale is gently animated, working its way towards a dramatic conclusion.
Originally written as the slow movement of a planned cello sonata, the Élégie was first performed privately at the home of Fauré’s teacher and friend Saint-Saëns in June 1880. After abandoning the sonata (Fauré’s two cello sonatas – both magnificent works – came much later in his career), he decided to publish the Élégie as a stand-alone movement in 1883. It was dedicated to Jules Loeb who gave the first public performance, with Fauré at the piano, in a concert of the Société nationale de musique on 15 December 1883. The outer sections have a quiet solemnity which is underlined by the repeated piano chords heard at the start, over which the cello plays a melody seemingly laden with grief. The central section sees a move to a major key, and the arrival of a glorious lyrical theme – first on the piano, then the cello – which works up to a dramatic climax before a return to the sombre mood of the opening.
Allegro con spirito
Adagio cantabile e con moto
Allegro moderato
Allegro vivace
For Tchaikovsky, Souvenir de Florence was the one of his chamber works that gave him the most trouble. He had promised to write a piece for the St Petersburg Chamber Music Society in 1886 when the Society made him an honorary member, but after a false start in 1887, it was not until June–July 1890 that he composed the work. He found writing for string sextet problematic, as he wrote to his brother Modest in June 1890: ‘I began it three days ago and am writing with difficulty, not for lack of new ideas, but because of the novelty of the form. One requires six independent yet homogeneous voices. This is unimaginably difficult.’ By mid-July he was much happier with progress (‘at the moment I’m terribly pleased with myself’, he wrote to Modest), but the work was revised the following year after Tchaikovsky had heard a private performance. He was clearly taken aback by the results, telling Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov that he planned radical surgery ‘to alter the string sextet, which turned out to be astonishingly bad in all respects.’ Following extensive changes to the coda of the first movement, the middle of the third movement and the fugue in the finale, he was finally happy with the results and sent the score to Jurgenson for publication at the end of January 1892. The work is only tenuously connected with Florence: Tchaikovsky sketched one of the themes there while composing The Queen of Spades, but the Sextet was mostly composed at the house in Frolovskoye (about 100 miles west of Moscow) that he rented between 1888 and 1891. The first movement begins with a vigorous theme followed by a more lyrical idea that serves as a charming contrast. The Adagio starts with a theme that resembles a slowed-down recollection of the first movement, but this gives way to an expansive melody on the first violin, accompanied by pizzicato. The wraith-like central section of this movement is remarkable for the string effects demanded by the composer. The third movement is dominated by a theme that is redolent of a Russian folk tune, and the finale is also launched with a quick folk dance which is treated in a variety of ways including a rather unexpected fugue before heading to an affirmative close.
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