MOZ ART & BEETHOVEN 8 NOVEMBER 2021
Hello! We are the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (OAE) We play on historic instruments using techniques from the time the composer was writing. This means that every time we perform, you will see a stage of intriguing instruments and hear our passion for making the old feel new. Welcome to the first concert of our 2021-22 season, The Wilderness Pleases; exploring the Enlightenment fascination with nature and its awe-striking beauty. The title of the series, The Wilderness Pleases is inspired by a book from the Enlightenment era; Shaftesbury’s controversial 'The Moralists.' In the book, the main character, Theocles, describes the terror of encountering a group of crocodiles in an Egyptian desert. After escaping the monsters, he is overcome with a desire to admire them as wondrous creatures of the natural world.
‘let us fly to the vast deserts of these parts […] ghastly and hideous as they appear they want not their peculiar beauties. The Wilderness pleases.’ -Anthony Ashley Cooper, the third Earl of Shaftesbury, 1709
MOZART & BEETHOVEN MOZART The Magic Flute: Overture
MOZART Sinfonia concertante in E-flat for violin and viola, K. 364 BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 6, ‘Pastoral’ Conductor Bruno Weil Solo Violin Cecilia Bernardini* Violin 1 Rodolfo Richter Iona Davies Dominika Feher Henry Tong Debbie Diamond Stephen Rouse Leonie Curtin Hatty Haynes Mary Hofman Violin 2 Jane Gordon Claire Holden Rebecca Livermore Claudia Delago-Norz Christine Eidsten Dahl Sophie Simpson Rebecca Bell Will McCahon
Viola Max Mandel* Ian Rathbone Annette Isserlis Kate Heller Marina Ascherson Lisa Cochrane
Oboe Geoff Coates Lars Henriksson
Cello Andrew Skidmore Catherine Rimer Helen Verney Richard Tunnicliffe
Bassoon Peter Whelan Sally Jackson
Double bass Cecelia Bruggemeyer Markus van Horn Kate Brooke Flute Lisa Beznosiuk Laura Piras Piccolo Rosie Bowker
*Solist in Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante
This concert is supported by Bruce Harris.
Clarinet Sarah Thurlow Charlotte Bartley
Horn Philip Eastop David Bentley Trumpet David Blackadder Phillip Bainbridge Trombone Philip Dale Tom Lees Patrick Jackman Timpani Adrian Bending
THE MAGIC FLUTE: OVERTURE Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) Five proud chords; three ceremonial knocks on the door. It’s a suitably noble opening for a drama that deals with some of the loftiest ideals of humanist philosophy. But any of Mozart’s brother-members of the Masonic lodge Zur neugekrönten Hoffnung (“New-Crowned Hope”) who were in the audience for Die Zauberflöte during the autumn of 1791 would have recognised the precise rhythm that a Mason of the rank of Fellow Craft had to knock during Lodge ceremonies. Just to make it absolutely clear, Mozart repeats his chords in the middle of the overture, backed by trombones - the instrument that the 18th century associated with all that was solemn and sacred. A serious business. You could easily forget that Die Zauberflöte is also the brightest, sweetest and most playful comedy that Mozart ever wrote, practically a pantomime, written for a suburban Viennese theatre to a
libretto by the impresario and all-round entertainer Emanuel Schikaneder. So Die Zauberflöte isn’t just about the wisdom of Sarastro, or Prince Tamino’s quest for truth, knowledge and love. Papageno has a place too. To write a flying fugal allegro, as Mozart well knew, took supreme craft. But to make it laugh and dance as joyfully as the overture to Die Zauberflöte takes something more. Call it enlightenment. Richard Bratby
SINFONIA CONCERTANTE IN E FLAT FOR VIOLIN AND VIOLA, K364 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)) By 1779 - a few years before Haydn wrote his Symphony No. 76 - the 23-year-old Mozart was chomping at the bit to break free from the restrictions imposed by his employer in Salzburg, the Archbishop Colloredo. His recent tour westward to Mannheim and Paris had proved of decisive importance; it apparently stirred a desire to experiment with some of the instrumental forms and styles Mozart had been encountering. One result was the Sinfonia Concertante, a work that bursts with the joy of exploring new instrumental sound combinations and possibilities. It also marks a sort of turning point, in essence summing up much of what Mozart had achieved to date as an artist. Not long afterward - and in part on account of indulging in such purely pleasurable creative endeavors, at the expense of his duties as court organist - he was summarily dismissed by his boss (as he sardonically puts it in a letter, "with a kick on my arse") and left Salzburg for good to live in Vienna. The genre here, as the name indicates, is basically a hybrid between the symphony and the concerto - what, later in the 19th century, would be labeled a double concerto for violin and viola. Yet the Sinfonia Concertante wondrously unifies these several dimensions. Like Haydn, Mozart exploits his rather modest orchestral ensemble to the maximum; there's no percussion, nor even flutes or Mozart's beloved
clarinets, but he divides the violas into two for a richer string blend. The proportions of the opening movement (marked with the epic-sounding tempo "Allegro maestoso") are generous and expansive, further contributing to the work's symphonic aspect. For many, this piece represents the grandest of Mozart's violin concertos, surpassing the five official ones. At the same time, the viola is no second fiddle here. Mozart's choice of instrument for the second soloist is telling: although an excellent violinist, he himself loved to play viola in string quartet ensembles, enjoying the perspective of being "in the middle." One unforgettable characteristic of the Sinfonia Concertante is the remarkable partnership and equality shared by both soloists and the searingly beautiful sound blend they create. Mozart's original score even inscribes the viola part in D major, thus requiring the violist to tune the strings up a half-step. The intention is to give the usually more-reserved viola a certain resonance to offset the violin's usual limelight-hogging sonority. The Sinfonia Concertante is in part about an extraordinary abundance of ideas and sonorities which - thanks to Mozart's art - pour out with a seeming effortlessness, like ripened fruit simply there to be plucked. The opening orchestral exposition makes this clear, as one idea is laid out on top of another until, with a half dozen in the air, one loses track. And more are yet to come as the curtain opens and the soloists enter in one of the most sublime passages of all Mozart, soaring out from the background on a sustained high E-flat. It's perhaps no surprise that George Balanchine
CONTINUED choreographed a famous ballet to this music, for the role of the duo soloists entails a conversation not just with the orchestra at large but with each other (it's intriguing, as well, to imagine Mozart's own voice represented by the viola). This is clear in the many echoing passages he unfolds and in his construction of the cadenzas, expressly written out. Beyond these instrumental dimensions, there's yet another. This is the world of opera, of lamenting song, with a hint of archaic baroque sentiment, which comes to the fore in the sensitive and lengthy Andante, one of Mozart's relatively rare minor-mode slow movements. Here we find an emotional depth that, as Maynard Solomon speculates in his notable biography, may reflect the composer's experience of loss in coping with the recent death of his mother. Specifically, the duality of the violin-viola sound contributes to another aspect of the piece's stunning beauty: listen as the solo violin takes up its plaintive aria of grief and the response from the viola, now providing a sudden but believable consolation. The two continue to form a complementary pair as Mozart unfolds his song seamlessly, virtually prefiguring what Wagner would later coin as "infinite melody." With the presto rondo finale, an irrepressibly joyful spirit returns. As Alfred Einstein observes, its "gaiety results principally from the fact that in the chain of musical events the unexpected always occurs first, being followed by the expected." Or, to return to Hesse's ethereal Immortals, the Sinfonia Concertante ends with
their characteristic laughter, which is "laughter without an object…simply light and lucidity." By Thomas May for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, reprinted with permission.
SYMPHONY NO.6, 'PASTORAL'
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) Allegro ma non troppo Andante molto moto Allegro Allegro Allegretto
"Recollections of country life, more the expression of feelings than painting" was Beethoven's disclaimer on the title-page of the 'Pastoral' symphony. His anxiousness to avoid arousing the expectation of a programmatic work is understandable enough, though no one listening to the storm movement interpolated between the scherzo and finale could be in any doubt as to what was being depicted. This was, of course, by no means the first great work to be inspired by nature and the countryside. If nothing else, Beethoven had before him the example of Haydn's two great oratorios - 'The Creation', with its depiction of bird, insect and animal life, and 'The Seasons', with its own vivid summer storm, as well as the evocation of the field-labourer hurrying cheerfully off to work; but Beethoven's was a pioneering attempt to forge the sounds and moods of nature into a purely symphonic work. The work's premiere took place at a benefit concert of Beethoven's music given at the Theater an der Wien, on December 22, 1808. The programme also included the first performances of the Fifth Symphony and of the Fourth Piano Concerto, excerpts from the Mass in C major, and - written in great haste in order to form a grand finale to the evening - the Choral Fantasy Op.80. Small wonder the performances were under-rehearsed (the Choral Fantasy actually ground to a halt), and that the four-hour concert,
given on a bitterly cold evening when, to cap it all, the theatre's heating system had broken down, taxed the audience's powers of concentration well beyond their limit. If the opening movement is largely bereft of dramatic incident, the slow movement has the gently undulating sound of the stream running almost uninterruptedly though it. Towards the end, the gurgling of the water pauses for a moment while Beethoven introduces the sounds of nightingale, quail and cuckoo, as portrayed by flute, oboe and clarinets, respectively. Beethoven's masterstroke in Symphony No.6 is to begin his storm pianissimo, with a sense of pent-up tension, before the thunder unleashes its violence in earnest. Twice the storm approaches and recedes, with the shrill sound of the piccolo adding pungency to the second climax. As the rumble of thunder at last dies away, a gentle rising scale on the flute leads directly into the finale. The flute's scale lands the music firmly on the key of C major for the opening of the finale, and it is in that key, rather than the home key of F major, that the clarinet gives out a preliminary version of the finale's main theme, while the violas provide a pastoral drone on their two lowest open strings. As the clarinet's melody is taken over by the horn, Beethoven superimposes a second drone effect on the cellos, this time anchored on the home note of F. As a result, the fundamental notes of C major and F major are momentarily sounded together, producing an effect which sets the finale in motion in an atmosphere of rustic charm. Misha Donat
Conductor Bruno Weil kicks off our The Wilderness Pleases season this evening with Beethoven’s ‘Pastoral’ Symphony No 6. After hours of toil over musical scores, Beethoven would happily spend hours tramping through the countryside on restorative walks. This symphony is his spectacular tribute to nature and displays overtones of the composer’s pantheism, a belief that, to oversimply, God resides in all of nature. To Weil, “the symphony is forty minutes of happiness and relaxation - and three minutes of thunderstorms. You hear the birds, for example, and can even understand them. The challenge is to make the piece sound relaxed and without any pressure, yet also convey the deeper layer of meaning. That’s the secret of the symphony.”
Weil will be bringing the same level of preparation to this evening’s two other works, Mozart’s Overture to The Magic Flute opera and Haydn’s Sinfonia Concertante. Each of these very well-known work sits squarely within Weil’s core interest: Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven are the greatest names from the so called Classical period of music before Romanticism took hold, and Weil is among their great interpreters. The conductor has had a long and fruitful association with the OAE. This goes back more than twenty years when he conducted Così fan tutte at the Glyndebourne Festival; he then went on to record a string of works with the OAE for Sony. The orchestra is “extremely quick in understanding and technically fantastic so it’s easy to work with them”, he says.
So why is playing on period rather than modern day instruments so vital to him? “Because that brings the truth of the composer”, declares Weil emphatically. He sees his mission as stripping aside the cultural accretions overlaid on Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven over the decades to reveal the music as the composer originally intended it. “It’s an act of forgetting the nineteenth and twentieth century. The tempos from the Romantic period and later are too slow and the whole expression is a personal, emotional interpretation unknown to a composer like Mozart and Beethoven”, he insists. There’s another more practical reason too: “Players with period instruments are used to playing without vibrato - the horns don’t have valves so they must do everything with their lips and so on. It means that we get much closer to what the composer had in mind - and you don’t make so many mistakes!”
Weil’s enthusiasm for this era of music is infectious. He is unembarrassed to say that the works of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven are simply the best music ever written and they reward concentration and study. He takes particular delight in bringing a younger generation to this peerless music. “The more you understand it the better it gets.“ Victor Smart.
BIOGRAPHIES
BRUNO WEIL Born in Germany, Bruno Weil was named General Music Director of the City of Augsburg in 1981, becoming Germany’s youngest General Music Director at that time. Bruno Weil resigned his post as General Music Director of the City of Duisburg, Germany in 2002 and is now principal guest conductor of the Tafelmusik Orchestra, Music Director of the Cappella Coloniensis, and Principal Guest Conductor of Bruckner Orchestra Linz. Bruno Weil has performed with leading symphony orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Montreal Symphony, and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, and the Dresden Staatskapelle, the latter with whom he collaborates frequently conducting Haydn Symphonies. In 1997 Bruno Weil won the Echo Klassik Award as “Conductor of the Year.” His CD releases include the complete recording of the opera Endimione
by Johann Christian Bach, (Echo Klasssik Award 2000 – Best opera recording 17th/18th century) and Liszt’s “Beethoven Cantata“ and Beethoven's Choral Fantasy (Echo Klassik award). In 2010 he received the fifth Echo Klassik award for Haydn´s Symphonies No. 93, 95 and 96. He recorded the opera Der Freischütz on period instruments and in 2004 made the first recording of a Wagner opera on original instruments: The Flying Dutchman. In 2005 he recorded Beethoven Symphonies No. 5 and 6 with Tafelmusik and recently Mozart Symphonies No. 40 and 41, and Beethoven´s Symphonies No. 7 and 8 and in 2016 the Beethoven cycle has been completed. In addition, he has conducted at the German Opera Berlin, the Hamburg State Opera, the Semper Opera Dresden, Glyndebourne, and most often at the Vienna State Opera. In October 2001 Bruno Weil was appointed conducting Professor in Munich at the State Academy for Music and Theatre, where he retired in 2016. From 2015 through June of 2019, he was Conducting Professor at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg and will continue to teach at their summer academy.
Photo credit Alex Grace
Photo credit Foppe Schut
CECILIA BERNARDINI
MAX MANDEL
Cecilia Bernardini grew up in a family of baroque musicians. She studied both modern and baroque violin in Amsterdam and London and graduated with distinction.
OAE Principal Viola Max Mandel enjoys a varied and acclaimed career as a chamber musician, soloist, orchestral musician and speaker. He is a also a member of the trailblazing ensemble FLUX Quartet and the Mozart specialists Spunicunifait.
As a soloist she worked with conductors such as Jurjen Hempel, John Butt, Lars Ulrik Mortensen, Jaap ter Linden and Raphael Pichon, performing at the Concertgebouw, Musikverein and Konzerthaus.With fortepianist Keiko Shichijo she has played in many major festivals and concert series. She is also a member of the Quartetto Bernardini, with her father oboist Alfredo Bernardini, violist Simone Jandl and cellist Marcus van den Munckhof. She regularly leads groups, such as Ensemble Zefiro, Arcangelo, The Netherlands Bachvereniging, Tafelmusik, Orquesta Barroca de Sevilla, Helsinki Baroque Orchestra and Freiburger Barockorchester. As of 2019 she has been appointed leader of the Belgium-based B’Rock orchestra. Cecilia has built up an extensive discography. Recent recordings include the Brandenburg Concertos with Ensemble Zefiro, the complete sonatas for violin and harp by Spohr with Masumi Nagasawa, oboe quartets “Around Mozart” with Quartetto Bernardini and piano trios by Beethoven and Schubert with Trio Marie Soldat. She plays on a 1643 Nicolò Amati violin, kindly loaned to her by the Netherlands Music Instrument Foundation www.muziekinstrumentenfonds.nl
He has appeared as guest Principal Viola with The Chamber Orchestra of Europe, The Australian Chamber Orchestra, The Scottish Chamber Orchestra, The Academy of Ancient Music, and the Handel & Haydn Society amongst others. Other group affiliations include The Smithsonian Chamber Players, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and The Silk Road Ensemble. Recent recordings include Toshi Ichiyanagi String Quartets with FLUX on Camerata Records and Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante with violinist Aisslinn Nosky and the Handel & Haydn Society Orchestra on Coro Records. Born and raised in Toronto, Canada he lives in London.
“Not all orchestras are the same” Over three decades ago, a group of inquisitive London musicians took a long hard look at that curious institution we call the Orchestra, and decided to start again from scratch. They began by throwing out the rulebook. Put a single conductor in charge? No way. Specialise in repertoire of a particular era? Too restricting. Perfect a work and then move on? Too lazy. The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment was born. And as this distinctive ensemble playing on period-specific instruments began to get a foothold, it made a promise to itself. It vowed to keep questioning, adapting and inventing as long as it lived. Those original instruments became just one element of its quest for authenticity. Baroque and Classical music became just one strand of its repertoire. Every time the musical establishment thought it had a handle on what the OAE was all about, the ensemble pulled out another shocker: a Symphonie Fantastique here, some conductor-less Bach there. All the while, the Orchestra’s players called the shots. In some small way, the OAE changed the classical music world too. It challenged those distinguished partner organisations and brought the very best from them, too. Symphony and opera orchestras began to ask it for advice. Existing period instrument groups started to vary their conductors and
repertoire. New ones popped up all over Europe and America. And so the story continues, with ever more momentum and vision. The OAE’s series of nocturnal Night Shift performances have redefined concert parameters. Its association at London’s Kings Place has fostered further diversity of planning and music-making. The ensemble has formed the bedrock for some of Glyndebourne’s most ground-breaking recent productions. In keeping with its values of always questioning, challenging and trailblazing, in September 2020, the OAE became the resident orchestra of Acland Burghley School, Camden. The residency – a first for a British orchestra – allows the OAE to live, work and play amongst the students of the school. Of the instrumentalists, many remain from those brave first days; many have come since. All seem as eager and hungry as ever. They’re offered ever greater respect, but continue only to question themselves. Because still, they pride themselves on sitting ever so slightly outside the box. They wouldn’t want it any other way. ©Andrew Mellor orchestraoftheageofenlightenment theoae oae_photos YouTube.com/OrchestraEnlighten
OAE TEAM Chief Executive Crispin Woodhead
Projects Officer Ed Ault
Life President Sir Martin Smith
Finance and Governance Director Pascale Nicholls
Orchestra Consultant Philippa Brownsword
Board of Directors Imogen Overli [Chairman] Daniel Alexander Steven Devine Denys Firth Adrian Frost Max Mandel David Marks Rebecca Miller Andrew Roberts Katharina Spreckelsen Matthew Shorter Dr. Susan Tranter Crispin Woodhead
Development Director Emily Stubbs Projects Director Jo Perry Education Director Cherry Forbes Communications Director Elle Docx General Manager Edward Shaw Head of Individual Giving and Digital Development Marina Abel Smith Education Officer Andrew Thomson Projects Manager Sophie Adams Finance Officer Fabio Lodato Digital Content Officer Zen Grisdale Marketing and Press Officer Anna Bennett Box Office and Data Manager Paola Rossi Development Manager Kiki Betts-Dean Development Officer Luka Lah
Choir Manager David Clegg Librarian Roy Mowatt Leaders Huw Daniel Kati Debretzeni Margaret Faultless Matthew Truscott Players’ Artistic Committee Adrian Bending Steven Devine Max Mandel Andrew Roberts Katharina Spreckelsen Principal Artists John Butt Sir Mark Elder Iván Fischer Vladimir Jurowski Sir Simon Rattle Sir András Schiff Emeritus Conductors William Christie Sir Roger Norrington
OAE Trust Adrian Frost [Chairman] Mark Allen Paul Forman Steven Larcombe Alison McFadyen Caroline Noblet Imogen Overli Rupert Sebag-Montefiore Maarten Slendebroek Sir Martin Smith Caroline Steane Honorary Council Sir Victor Blank Edward Bonham Carter Cecelia Bruggemeyer Nigel Jones Stephen Levinson Marshall Marcus Julian Mash Greg Melgaard Susan Palmer OBE Jan Schlapp Diane Segalen Susannah Simons Lady Smith OBE Rosalyn Wilkinson Mark Williams
THANK YOU OAE Experience scheme Ann and Peter Law Corporate Partners Champagne Deutz Mark Allen Group Marquee TV Swan Turton Corporate Associates Gelato Season Patrons John Armitage Charitable Trust Julian and Annette Armstrong Denys and Vicki Firth Adrian Frost Nigel Jones and Françoise Valat-Jones Selina and David Marks Haakon and Imogen Overli Sir Martin and Lady Smith OBE Philip & Rosalyn Wilkinson Mark and Rosamund Williams Project Patrons Bruce Harris Ian S Ferguson CBE and Dr Susan Tranter Aria Patrons Madeleine Hodgkin Steven Larcombe Peter and Veronica Lofthouse Stanley Lowy Gary and Nina Moss Rupert Sebag-Montefiore Maarten and Taina Slendebroek Caroline Steane Eric Tomsett Chair Patrons Mrs Nicola Armitage - Education Director Victoria and Edward Bonham Carter - Principal Trumpet Katharine Campbell - Violin Anthony and Celia Edwards - Principal Oboe
James Flynn QC - Co-Principal Lute/Theorbo Jonathan and Tessa Gaisman – Viola Michael and Harriet Maunsell - Principal Keyboard Jenny and Tim Morrison - Second Violin Caroline Noblet – Oboe Professor Richard Portes - Principal Bassoon Christina – Flute John and Rosemary Shannon - Principal Horn Sue Sheridan OBE – Education Roger and Pam Stubbs - Clarinet Crispin Woodhead and Christine Rice - Principal Timpani Associate Patrons Charles and Julia Abel Smith Noël and Caroline Annesley Sir Richard Arnold and Mary Elford Hugh and Michelle Arthur David and Marilyn Clark Damaris Albarrán David Emmerson Jonathan Parker Charitable Trust Elisabeth Green in memory of June Mockett Roger Heath MBE and Alison Heath MBE Peter and Sally Hilliar Moira and Robert Latham Sir Timothy and Lady Lloyd Roger Mears and Joanie Speers Rebecca Miller David Mildon in memory of Lesley Mildon John Nickson and Simon Rew Andrew and Cindy Peck Stephen and Penny Pickles Peter Rosenthal Emily Stubbs and Stephen McCrum Shelley von Strunckel Mr J Westwood
Education Patrons Mrs Nicola Armitage Sir Victor Blank Stephen and Patricia Crew John and Sue Edwards Sir Timothy and Lady Lloyd Andrew and Cindy Peck Professor Richard Portes Sue Sheridan OBE Rising Stars Supporters Annette and Julian Armstrong Denys and Vicki Firth Bruce Harris Ms Madeleine Hodgkin Mrs Sarah Holford Nigel Jones and Francoise Valat-Jones Peter & Veronica Lofthouse Mr Andrew Nurnberg Old Possum's Practical Trust Imogen and Haakon Overli Gold Friends Michael Brecknell Gerard Cleary Mr and Mrs C Cochin de Billy Chris Gould Michael Spagat Silver Friends Dennis and Sheila Baldry Haylee and Michael Bowsher Tony Burt Christopher Campbell Mr and Mrs Michael Cooper David Cox Anthony and Jo Diamond Suzanne Doyle Rachel and Charles Henderson Malcolm Herring Patricia Herrmann Stephen Hodge Rupert and Alice King Alison and Ian Lowdon Anthony and Carol Rentoul Bridget Rosewell David and Ruth Samuels Leslie Scott Susannah Simons Victor Smart Her Honour Suzanne Stewart Simon and Karen Taube
Bronze Friends Tony Baines Penny & Robin Broadhurst Graham and Claire Buckland Dan Burt Michael A Conlon Roger Easy Mrs SM Edge Mrs Mary Fysh Simon Gates Stephen and Cristina Goldring Martin and Helen Haddon Ray and Liz Harsant The Lady Heseltine Mrs Auriel Hill Val Hudson Stuart Martin Patricia Orwell Paul Rivlin Alan Sainer Matthew and Sarah Shorter Mr and Mrs Tony Timms John Truscott Mrs Joy Whitby David Wilson Young Patron Ed Abel Smith David Gillbe Elizabeth George Henry Mason Peter Yardley-Jones Young Ambassador Patron Marianne and William Cartwright-Hignett Jessica and Alex Kemp Breandán Knowlton Trusts & Foundations Apax Foundation Arts Council England Ashley Family Foundation Boshier-Hinton Foundation Brian Mitchell Charitable Settlement CAF Resilience Fund The Charles Peel Charitable Trust Chivers Trust Derek Hill Foundation Dyers Company Ernest Cook Trust Esmee Fairbairn Foundation Fidelio Charitable Trust Foyle Foundation
Garfield Weston Foundation Garrick Charitable Trust Geoffrey Watling Charity Henocq Law Trust John Lyon’s Charity Linbury Trust Lord and Lady Lurgan Trust Michael Marks Charitable Trust National Foundation for Youth Music Old Possum’s Practical Trust Orchestras Live Paul Bassham Charitable Trust The Patrick Rowland Foundation Peter Cundill Foundation Peter Stebbings Memorial Charity Pitt-Rivers Charitable Trust Radcliffe Trust Rainbow Dickinson Trust Stanley Picker Trust The 29th May 1961 Charitable Trust The Loveday Charitable Trust The R&I Pilkington Charitable Trust The Shears Foundation The Vernon Ellis Foundation
APPEAL DONORS We have been overwhelmed by the support of our audiences since the beginning of the pandemic. Many of you have generously helped us tackle this challenging time by donating to our Regeneration Appeal. The Appeal runs to 31st December 2021 and every donation will be matched. If you would like to contribute, please contact: Emily.Stubbs@oae.co.uk Charles and Julia Abel Smith Mark and Sue Allen Deborah Anthony Julian and Annette Armstrong Hugh and Michelle Arthur John Birks Sir Victor Blank Bob and Elisabeth Boas A & FDW Boettcher William Bordass Mr Roger Bowerman Ms Susan Bracken Neil Brock
Sir Anthony Cleaver Professor Susan Cooper Ms Harriet Copperman Dr David Cox Gill Cox Stephen and Patricia Crew Mrs Melanie Edge Esmee Fairbairn Foundation Ms Margaret Faultless Denys and Vicki Firth Adrian Frost Jennifer Frost Jonathan N Gaisman, QC Dr David Glynn Roy Greenhalgh David Guthrie Martin Haddon Ray Harsant Roger Heath MBE and Alison Heath MBE Peter and Sally Hilliar Nigel Jones and Françoise Valat-Jones Jerome Karter Sue Lamble Steven Larcombe Sir Timothy Lloyd and Lady Lloyd Dr Alan Lord Stanley Lowy, MBE Ellie Makri Michael and Harriet Maunsell Tim and Jenny Morrison Mr Clive Murgatroyd, MBE Robert Nash John Nickson & Simon Rew Andrew Nurnberg Johanna Nusselein Imogen and Haakon Overli Andrew and Cindy Peck Mike Raggett Ruth and David Samuels Laura Sheldon Sue Sheridan OBE Maarten and Taina Slendebroek Sir Martin Smith and Lady Smith OBE Michael Spagat Caroline Steane Para Sun Iain Taylor Christopher Tew Lady Marina Vaizey, CBE Eva Maria Valero Mark and Rosamund Williams Peter Williams
WE MOVED INTO A SCHOOL
A little over a year ago we took up permanent residence at Acland Burghley School in Camden, North London. The residency – a first for a British orchestra – allows us to live, work and play amongst the students of the school. Three offices have been adapted for our administration team, alongside a recording studio and library. We use the Grade II listed school assembly hall as a rehearsal space, with plans to refurbish it under the school’s ‘A Theatre for All’ project. The school isn't just our landlord or physical home. Instead, it allows us to build on twenty years of work in the borough through OAE’s long-standing partnership with Camden Music. Having already worked in eighteen of the local primary schools that feed into ABS, the plans moving forward are to support music and arts across the school into the wider community. Our move underpins our core ‘enlightenment’ mission of reaching as wide an audience as possible. A similar project was undertaken in 2015 in Bremen, Germany. The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie moved into a local comprehensive school in a deprived area and the results were described as “transformational”, with improved academic performance, language skills, mental health and IQ scores; reputational benefits; greater interest in and engagement with music among pupils; strengthened links between school, orchestra and community; and even, according to some of the musicians who took part, an improvement in the Kammerphilharmonie’s playing. Margaret Faultless, OAE leader and violinist, said: “The members of the Bremen Kammerphilharmonie said their experience actually improved them as an orchestra and I think the same will happen to us over the next five or so years, and it will remind all of us of the reasons we make music, which are sometimes easy to forget, especially in our strange and troubled times.” Continues Margaret: “I am certainly looking forward to learning from the young people at Acland Burghley and in turn introducing them to the joys of our music and music-making.” The move has been made possible with a leadership grant of £120,000 from The Linbury Trust, one of the Sainsbury Family Charitable Trusts.
OAE EDUCATION A PROGRAMME TO INVOLVE, EMPOWER AND INSPIRE
Over the past twenty years OAE Education has grown in stature and reach to involve thousands of people nationwide in creative music projects. Our participants come from a wide range of backgrounds and we pride ourselves in working flexibly, adapting to the needs of local people and the places they live.
The extensive partnerships we have built up over many years help us engage fully with all the communities where we work to ensure maximum and lasting impact. We take inspiration from the OAE's repertoire, instruments and players. This makes for a vibrant, challenging and engaging programme where everyone is involved; players, animateurs, composers, participants, teachers, partners and stakeholders all have a valued voice.
SUPPORT OUR EDUCATION PROGRAMME
The work we do could not happen without the support of our generous donors. If you would like to support our education programme please contact Marina Abel Smith, Head of Individual Giving and Digital Development marina.abelsmith@oae.co.uk 0208 159 9319
NEXT CONCERT
DEMONS IN THE BATH: ACI, GALATEA E POLIFEMO Sunday 23 January 2022, 7pm
Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre Soprano: Zoë Brookshaw Mezzo-soprano: Bethany Horak-Hallett (pictured above) Bass: Trevor Bowes HANDEL Aci, Galatea e Polifemo Delve into the darker side of the wilderness with in Handel's Aci, Galatea e Polifemo featuring bass Trevor Bowes and OAE Rising Stars alumni Zoë Brookshaw and Bethany Horak-Hallett. Handel’s tragic tale is about two lovers who are being kept apart as servants by a villainous cyclops, with its thrilling and varied scoring, the music excites a sense of both determination and helplessness in confronting the natural world. As Handel’s music so often does, this concert challenges our understanding of order and fairness and delivers us to a supernatural world of poetic possibilities. Arrive early for our pre-concert talk, 6pm Queen Elizabeth Hall Foyer, Southbank Centre.
TICKETS FROM £10 - 80 OAE.CO.UK/ACI or scan the QR code 020 815 9323 | boxoffice@oae.co.uk
The OAE is a registered charity number 295329. Registered company number 2040312. Acland Burghley School, 93 Burghley Road, London NW5 1UH | 0208 159 9310 | info@oae.co.uk We are grateful for the support of our environmental partner Oxford Botanic Garden and Arboretum who generously allowed us to conduct our season photoshoot in their grounds. Photo credit Emma-Jane Lewis.