40th anniversary gala concert programme aut14

Turner Sims 40th Anniversary Gala Concert


Welcome from the Vice-Chancellor

Welcome to Turner Sims on this special occasion. Tonight’s concert, forty years to the day since the building was officially opened, is an opportunity to celebrate the contribution that Turner Sims has made not only to the life of the University but also to the city and region.

Over the four decades of its existence many things have changed, not only at Turner Sims but also on campus. The University’s mission today – to change the world for the better – encompasses our academic and research activity and aspirations and our arts offer too. We are justly proud of Turner Sims and its fellow professional arts organisations - the Nuffield Theatre (celebrating its own 50

th anniversary this year), and

the John Hansard Gallery – who bring this offer to life. I know from talking to colleagues locally and further afield that the venues’ activities contribute significantly to the opportunities, experiences and wellbeing of staff and students in Southampton as well as the wider community.

The real charm of Turner Sims, as we will once again find this evening, is sitting in this magical space, enjoying outstanding artists performing great music. I congratulate the staff past and present at Turner Sims for ensuring the vitality and creative energy of the venue and making it a welcoming destination. And like the best initiatives, Turner Sims only truly works thanks to its extensive network of partnerships, whether with artists, agents and managers, funders, sponsors and donors, or you, the audience.

I am sure you will enjoy this evening, and that you will want to join me in wishing Turner Sims all future success as it begins its fifth decade.

Professor Don Nutbeam

University of Southampton Vice-Chancellor


Introduction from the Concert Hall Manager

Looking back at my introduction to the 30th Anniversary Gala concert programme in 2004, I

am heartened that many of the enthusiasms I shared then remain today. Turner Sims continues to be an extraordinary organisation to lead and programme. Similarly, I still experience the same buzz whenever I walk into the building. The live music, the heart of Turner Sims, is as special as it always was and, like many of you, I have had the good fortune to enjoy countless evenings of music-making of the highest quality. Whilst the atmosphere and excitement endure, each season has brought to Turner Sims new artists. Nicola Benedetti, Benjamin Grosvenor, Hugh Masekela, the Elias String Quartet, La Serenissima, the Neil Cowley Trio, Baaba Maal and Toumani Diabaté are among the illustrious names who have made their debuts over the past decade.

What has changed most noticeably, however, is our environment – both physical and virtual. With the new auditorium seating installed over this past summer thanks to a significant anonymous donation, the concert-going experience is markedly improved on what it was in 2004. But we don’t want to stop there. Through The Ruby Campaign many people have already supported our ambitions to re-vitalise the rest of the building and ensure that the surroundings match the calibre of artists and expectations of visitors well before we reach our half century.

In virtual terms, websites, live streamed events and digital downloads as well as social media channels mean that your relationship with Turner Sims in 2014 can be more immediate, and certainly much more interactive. Events are promoted, commented on, praised and critiqued through a myriad of outlets and to a potential global audience. Artists and ensembles who in the past would have been out of reach for us due to lack of communication channels can be accessed more easily. And whilst Turner Sims can never compete financially with much larger capacity venues, and indeed cherishes its intimate size and ambience, it can continue to grow through its online presence. Our pioneering project The Britten Stream in November 2013, live streamed via both the university and Guardian newspaper websites, is a sign of things to come.

Tonight we celebrate with some special friends of the venue who are not only part of our past and present but also our future. I’m grateful to all of them for giving their time to mark this milestone in our history. I’m also grateful to Orchestras Live and The Friends of Turner Sims’ legacy from Mr Anthony Petty for making this evening possible. Finally thank you, our audience, for your ongoing support.

Kevin Appleby

Concert Hall Manager


40th Anniversary

Gala Concert

Wednesday 19th November 2014

Britten Sinfonia

Claire Booth soprano

Christopher Glynn piano

Elias String Quartet

Paul Lewis piano

Please turn off all mobile phones, pagers and digital watches. Taking photographs is prohibited.

It is illegal to record any performance unless prior arrangements have been made with Turner Sims and the artists concerned.

Purcell ed Britten Chacony in G minor Britten Sinfonia

Tippett Little Music for Strings Britten Sinfonia

Mozart Ch'io mi scordi di te Britten Sinfonia

Claire Booth soprano

Christopher Glynn piano

arr Donald Grant Scottish folksongs Elias String Quartet

Mozart Piano Concerto No 12 in A, K414 Britten Sinfonia

Paul Lewis piano

Elgar Introduction and Allegro, Op 47 Britten Sinfonia


Interval – enjoy a complimentary glass of wine or juice in the foyer

The Anthony Petty Bequest

This concert has been made possible with the support of


Turner Sims through the Years

In 1967 a bequest was made to the University of Southampton that was to transform the musical landscape of Southampton. The bequest by Miss Margaret Grassam Sims made provision for a hall to be built for the people of Southampton. In response to strong local support for classical performance at the time, and to allow the University Concert Society to flourish beyond the bounds of the Nuffield Theatre, it was a concert hall that was conceived. Turner Sims is fortunate to have a vast archive of documents on the many concerts and events that have taken place here since its opening in 1974, but few images remain of the initial construction of the hall itself. These two images - never before printed in our programmes - capture the very beginnings of the building we all enjoy today.

In 1974 there were 20 concerts. In this anniversary season there will be 70. It is heartening to

have the venue so well used and supported. It is hard to conceive of all the artistic changes that

have taken place over those years. Our programme is certainly more diverse than before,

responding to new communities and new music. Turner Sims itself has been transformed too,

particularly with the construction of the Bernard Miller Foyer in 1994 after a major fundraising

campaign. It vastly improved the experience of artists and concert-goers alike, and added an

atmospheric bar area that could also serve as a daytime space.


Turner Sims has gone from strength to strength, but the interior of the concert hall has been looking rather tired for the last few years despite the addition of our beautiful new Steinway D in 2008. Whilst our Italian Castelli chairs were pristine when installed and are still considered a design classic, they have not reflected the quality of artists frequently sitting in them. We were therefore delighted this year when an anonymous donation gave the opportunity to revitalise the auditorium in time for our 40th Anniversary year.

The donation allowed Turner Sims to undertake Phase I of a programme of substantial improvements, including the purchase of 356 new fixed chairs and 130 free standing seats. The auditorium had to be emptied for the seat replacement, so the chance was also taken to replace the carpeting - now a vibrant purple - and install new fittings, doors and curtains. It also allowed for major improvements to the house lights—a new programmable system of energy saving LED lights has been installed.

We hope all of these changes have improved and prepared the auditorium for many more years of concerts.


Phase II

Following the excellent improvements to our auditorium, we are keen to continue our refurbishment plans. Phase II focusses on the foyer, backstage areas, dressing rooms and green room. The stage lighting will be made more flexible and new audio-visual equipment will be installed, enabling live streaming of events and better recording facilities.

To help us achieve these exciting changes, The Ruby Campaign has been launched. It provides an opportunity for patrons to donate, making these improvements possible. Gifts can be for any amount but we are also offering the opportunity to have a named plaque on one of our beautiful new seats for donors pledging £250.

Donating to The Ruby Campaign has given me a chance to be a part of

the future of Turner Sims. I have fond memories of being here so am glad

to think I have supported a little piece of this wonderful place.

Ruby Campaign donor


Programme Notes

Henry Purcell (1659–1695)

arranged by Benjamin Britten (1913–1976)

Chacony in G minor

While the original reason for the composition of Purcell’s Chacony in G minor is not known, it seems to be one of just three works we know that he composed for what we would regard as purely orchestral music (the other two being the Pavan in G minor in four parts, and the Sonata in D for trumpet, strings and continuo). It is thought that the Chacony was composed during the 1680s, not that long after Purcell replaced Matthew Locke as Composer in Ordinary of the royal Twenty Four Violins on 10 September 1677 (the date assumed to be Purcell’s 18th birthday).

The title is intriguing, as the more normal form would be Chaconne, confirming, as it does, to the typical repetition of an eight-bar bass phrase (‘ostinato’), over which there are layered variations. Whether the choice of title indicates Purcell’s lack of experience or youthful arrogance may be left for each listener to decide.

Fast forward some 260 years and meet another brilliant British composer, Benjamin Britten (whose 101st birthday would have fallen on St Cecilia’s Day this coming Saturday, 22 November). Not surprisingly, Britten was enamoured of his earlier musical forebear and, for Purcell’s birth tercentenary in 1945, had used a theme from Purcell’s Abdelazer as the inspiration for his ever-popular Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra. He would later go on and arrange a number of Purcell’s songs, but in 1948 also arranged the Chacony for strings (and revised it in 1963). He presumably knew it even earlier, as he titled the third movement of his Second String Quartet ‘Chacony’ in 1946.

There are eighteen variations in total, and I’ll let Britten describe the work. He considered the work to be for the theatre ‘most likely a tragedy, judging by the serious and severe nature of the music... The theme, first of all in the basses, moves in a stately fashion from a high to a low G. It is repeated many times in the bass with varying textures above. It then starts moving around the orchestra. There is a quaver version with heavy chords above it, which provides the material for several repetitions. There are some free and modulating versions of it, and a connecting passage leads to a forceful and rhythmic statement in G minor.’ Britten goes on to describe the end as ‘a pathetic variation, with dropping semi-quavers, repeated ‘soft’ – Purcell’s own instruction.’


Sir Michael Tippett (1905–1998)

Little Music for Strings

Prelude - Maestoso Fugue - Allegro moderato Air - Andante espressivo Finale - Vivace

Dating from two years earlier than Britten’s Chacony, Sir Michael Tippett composed his Little Music for Strings in 1946, for the tenth anniversary of the Jacques Orchestra. Less than a month after the première of Tippett’s Third String Quartet at London’s Wigmore Hall on 19 October 1946, Reginald Jacques conducted his orchestra in the Little Music for Strings’ première at the same venue on 9 November. By the première Tippett had already begun what would become the long haul composition of his first opera The Midsummer Marriage, and the tonalities of the Little Music’s Prelude and Finale (B flat) as well as the use of fifths in the G major Fugue presage Mark’s Act I Summer Song.

Yet more overtly, like Britten as well as many contemporary composers, Tippett was influenced by the re-discovery of the glories of the baroque. His Little Music apes the dance suites of any number of composers from the baroque age. Bach, Purcell and Vivaldi respectively can be seen as influences, not least in the Air, which – like Purcell’s Chacony – is a set of variations (here, eight) over a ground bass.

The Prelude is severely sonorous, stentorian even, with great swooping intervals and instrumental sections seemingly going in separate sections, before the mood begins to change and the instrumental lines become more conciliatory and unified. The sinuous Fugue – violins, violas, cellos/basses then violins – is intricately wrought, again finding some unanimity as it slows and dies away over seven bars (rather like the finale of Tippett’s own Second String Quartet) for the slow, dark ground bass of Purcell-esque Air to enter. To end, after a brief, hesitant introduction getting faster and more confident, the Finale is another fugue which has a further aural surprise, the repeated figure at the close, suddenly quiet, like an echo.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791)

Concert Aria: Ch’io mi scordi di te, K505

Recitativo Ch’io mi scordi di te - Andantino – Allegro assai – Andante Non temer, amato bene - Rondo (Andante) – Allegretto

No celebration could be without the human voice, especially as soprano Elisabeth Söderström was the artist to officially launch the new hall in 1974. It falls to Mozart (if only he knew!) to do the honours, in one of his concert arias, unusual in its requirement not only for voice but also obbligato keyboard.

We hear an aria to a text, probably by Lorenzo Da Ponte, that Mozart had already used in 1786, as an insertion aria for his own Idomeneo when he transposed the original castrato part of Idamante (Idomeneo’s son, who he has to kill, as he tragically swore to sacrifice the first person he meets when he gets back from the Trojan Wars, and that person is, of course, Idamante) to that of a tenor.


But in December that year Mozart re-set the same text, adding it to his work catalogue (Verzeichnis) on 27 December, with the comment ‘for Mlle Storace and me.’ She was the English soprano Nancy (Anna Selina) Storace, who had created the part of Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro earlier in the year, and who was shortly to be leaving Vienna. We can surmise from that comment that Mozart himself was at the keyboard for this aria at her farewell concert at the Theater am Kärntnertor on 23 February 1787. Mozart’s scoring requires the largest of our forces tonight, with soprano and pianist joined by strings alongside pairs of clarinets, bassoons and horns, which – like the piano – only join in the rondo.

Describing Idamante’s tortured love for the captive Trojan princess Illia, the opening G minor recitative (I forget you?!) elaborates his consternation at her telling him not to love him, his stuttering utterances alternating with just strings, while the aria (Do not worry, my darling) agonises over his predicament. Here the wind gently modulate to E flat for the piano to enter, and it is the partnership between piano and voice that make this concert aria so special and lauded. The mood swings are illustrated by Mozart’s musical imagination – a sudden increase of tempo, with rapid piano scales; orchestra and piano alone; the vocal repetition of perchè (why?) followed by duet for piano and voice in the minor; a return to the rondo theme on wind in faster tempo etc. The aria affords both soloists the chance to shine, vocally with ornamentation and the piano with brilliant arpeggios to close.

I forget you?!

How can you suggest I give myself to her?

And still wish me life?

Ah no! Life would be worse than death!

Let death come, I accept it courageously.

Anyway how could I fall for another,

and lavish my affections on them?

Ah! I should die of grief!

Do not worry, my darling,

my heart will forever be yours.

I can no longer suffer such anguish,

my spirit fails me.

Do you sigh? O fatal sorrow!

Just think what a situation I’m in!

O God! I cannot describe it.

Barbaric, pitiless stars,

why so stern?

Kindly souls who see

my anguish at this time,

tell me if a faithful heart

can suffer such torment?

Ch’io mi scordi di te?

Che a lui mi doni puoi consigliarmi?

E puoi voler che in vita?

Ah no! Sarebbe il viver mio di morte assai

peggior.

Venga la morte, intrepida l'attendo.

Ma, ch’io possa struggermi ad altra face,

ad altr’oggetto donar gl'affetti miei, come

tentarlo?

Ah, di dolor morrei!

Non temer, amato bene,

per te sempre il cor sarà.

Più non reggo a tante pene,

l’alma mia mancando va.

Tu sospiri? O duol funesto!

Pensa almen, che istante è questo!

Non mi posso, oh Dio! spiegar.

Stelle barbare, stelle spietate,

perchè mai tanto rigor?

Alma belle, che vendee

le mie pene in tal momento,

dite voi, s’egual tormento

può soffrir un fido cor?


Scottish Folksongs

chosen and arranged by Donald Grant (born 1980)

In 1992, in the notes accompanying the CD release accompanying his BBC Scotland radio series and book, Scotland’s Music, John Purser wrote: ‘Perhaps more than any country in Western Europe, Scotland has retained its folk music in unbroken traditions which have survived, in the more remote areas, untouched by the Romans, unoccupied by the Normans, and socially little altered until the 18th century following the defeat of Bonnie Prince Charlie at Culloden in 1746.’ The CDs open with Purser himself playing 9th-century brass bells, while much earlier evidence of music can be found in the fragments of an 8th-century BC brass horn. Of course though much of the subsequent music over a millennium is sacred in nature (with the first manuscripts of church works dating from the 13th-century), there is no doubt that secular, social music was flourishing throughout the ages.

The first known Scottish folk song is The Pleugh Song (‘the plough song’) – collected in a 17th-century manuscript, but obviously much older – signifying the plea of itinerant ploughmen offering their services to local landowners (the argument being that the men could do better than the landowner’s old ox). By the 18th-century there was much interest in the transcription of Scottish folk music, with the likes of William Thomson (the editor of Orpheus Caledonius, 1725), composer-cum-publisher James Oswald, Robert Bremner and William Napier, and in the 1790s such enthusiasm was taken up by George Thomson who commissioned from his native Edinburgh arrangements by such continental composers as Ignaz Pleyel, Leopold Koželuh, Joseph Haydn (on his two successful visits to London) and Ludwig van Beethoven. Despite the vagaries of sending bulky parcels of manuscripts across Napoleonic Europe (some packages taking years to arrive), Beethoven managed to supply Thomson with some 168 folk song arrangements, mostly British, including two sets of Scottish ones (the 25 songs of Op 108 and a further 12, WoO 156) as well as others in British or wider collections. Not surprisingly such Scottish literary luminaries as Robert Burns and Sir Walter Scott are included in the list of poets. As Thomson requested these arrangements were not just for piano, but also included violin and cello parts, so the arrangements of Scottish folk songs for quartet are in fine company.

Donald Grant of the Elias String Quartet has Scottish folk music in his blood. Born in Roybridge some ten miles northeast of Fort William, on the A86 heading towards Aviemore, Donald is steeped in Highland culture with his first musical experiences gleaned from his Gaelic-singing father. Not surprisingly his interest in folk music has led to continuing involvement in the folk scene, including his 2009 solo album The Way Home (Glen Roy Records) with a subsequent sabbatical seeing him return to his folk roots as both composer and performer. Which tunes he has chosen will be revealed tonight, but it wouldn’t be surprising if some celebratory Scottish dances are included, from the slower strathspays to the irresistible toe-tapping reels or jigs.

Interval – enjoy a complimentary glass of wine or juice in the foyer


Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791)

Piano Concerto No 12 in A, K414

Allegro Andante Allegretto At the age of 25 Mozart at last broke himself away from Salzburg and moved lock, stock and barrel to Vienna. Early in 1782 he made his first concert appearance in Vienna. It was five years since he had written a solo piano concerto (although the double piano concerto written for himself and his sister to play dates from 1779), but he penned three during this year, introducing them in concerts early in 1783. These were No 11 in F, K413, tonight’s No 12 in A, K414 and No 13 in C, K415.

The piano concerto was suddenly fashionable in Vienna, and Mozart was quick to make the most of the trend, very consciously writing not only with a mind to success on the concert platform, but also with an eye to sheet music sales, providing editions for piano and string quartet (even for Concerto No 14, which orchestrally requires trumpets and timpani). He wrote to his father on 28 December 1782: ‘These concertos are a happy medium between what is too easy and what is too difficult; they are very brilliant, pleasing to the ear, and natural without being insipid. There are passages here and there from which only connoisseurs can derive satisfaction; but these are written in such a way that the less learned cannot fail to be pleased, though without knowing why’ (!). Mozart arranged subscription concerts for their performance in January 1783. The trio of concertos were eventually published by the Viennese firm Arataria & Co in 1785 as ‘Opus IV.’

The effortless geniality of the A major concerto is epitomised by the ebullient thematic blossoming of the first movement, completely organic but ever-developing. The rise and dotted fall of the lyrical tutti first theme is contrasted with more vigorous figuration and later still builds to two long-sculpted climaxes, after the second of which the piano enters with the opening theme. There’s a new theme for the darker development section, turning a blind eye to the earlier themes, which only return in the recapitulation, shared between soloist and orchestra. As with the ensuing movements, we have extant Mozart’s cadenza (should tonight’s soloist choose to use them).

Mozart’s playfulness (if not cheekiness) comes to the fore in the Andante, where he quotes four bars from his friend (who he had met as a nine-year-old in London) Johann Christian Bach’s 1763 overture for an opera by Baldassare Galupppi, La calamita de’ cuori (The Magnet of Hearts), but only uses those bars to leapfrog into his own invention. J C Bach died the previous January and it’s clear that his influence hung heavily on Mozart. Intriguingly, because of his idea of publishing the works by subscription, he ornaments the repeat of the theme for the soloist, so we can gauge what his own improvisatory performances would have sounded like. Once again the central section is slightly darker than the outer sections.

The final Allegretto is a bubbling rondo, with the principal theme brought back again and again after a series of episodes. Intriguingly this might not have been the concerto’s first finale, as it is supposed that the independent Rondo in A, K386 was originally destined for the concerto, but was discarded for this more compact successor.


Sir Edward Elgar (1857–1934)

Introduction and Allegro for string orchestra and quartet,

Op 47

Moderato – Allegretto – Moderato – più mosso – Allegro

Elgar was over 40 by the time he received any real public acclaim – with his Enigma Variations – but his accomplished works before this include the overture Froissart (1890), the Serenade for strings (1892) and many of his cantatas: even his most famous The Dream of Gerontius postdates Enigma by only one year. Although a failure at its première, continental performances in Düsseldorf elicited an excited response by no lesser composer than Richard Strauss, claiming that Elgar was the foremost English composer of his day. From then on Elgar was recognised in his homeland, and a number of works followed – including the conception of what became the Second Symphony and Falstaff, the five Pomp and Circumstance Marches, Cockaigne, Alassio: In the South and the cantatas The Apostles and The Kingdom. It is from this fertile period that the Introduction and Allegro for strings and quartet also comes.

The immediate impetus was from Elgar’s publishing friend Alfred Jaeger from Novello who, in 1904, encouraged Elgar to write something for the string section of the newly formed London Symphony Orchestra, suggesting ‘a real bring-down-the-house torrent of a thing such as Bach could write.’ This put Elgar in mind of a Welsh tune he had heard a choir sing across the other side of Cardigan Bay when he was on holiday in 1901, a fact he was reminded of in 1904 when he heard a similar song close to his home in the Wye valley which spurred him on further.

Coupled with more than a passing nod to the form of Handel’s concerti grossi, especially in its use of a solo string quartet to contrast with the full string section it has an unique form: introduction–exposition –fugue–recapitulation–coda (note no real development), described thus by the composer: ‘No working-out part, but a devil of a fugue instead. G major and the said divvel (sic) in G minor with all sorts of japes and counterpoint.’ There are three main thematic ideas, the second of which is an allegretto – introduced by the quartet, over which Elgar quoted Shakespeare’s Cymbeline, ‘Smiling with a sigh,’ while the third is the Welsh tune, first introduced on solo viola and returning at the end in true Elgarian noble style.

Without doubt one of the most perfect string orchestra works, with exquisite writing for all parts, this has become one of Elgar’s most popular works, for which he – entirely characteristically – claimed in his programme note for the première in March 1905: ‘The work is really a tribute to that sweet borderland where I have made my [Herefordshire] home.’

Programme notes © Nick Breckenfield 2014


Britten Sinfonia

Britten Sinfonia is one of the world’s most celebrated and pioneering ensembles. The orchestra is acclaimed for its virtuoso musicianship, an inspired approach to concert programming which makes bold, intelligent connections across 400 years of repertoire, and a versatility that is second to none. Britten Sinfonia breaks the mould by not having a principal conductor or director, instead choosing to collaborate with a range of the finest international guest artists from across the musical spectrum, resulting in performances of rare insight and energy.

Britten Sinfonia is an Associate Ensemble at the Barbican in London, and has residencies across the east of England in Norwich and Cambridge (where it is the university’s orchestra-in-association). The orchestra also performs a chamber music series at Wigmore Hall and appears regularly at major UK festivals including Aldeburgh and the BBC Proms. The orchestra’s growing international profile includes regular touring to North and South America and Europe. In August 2014, Britten Sinfonia made its Indian debut with a tour of six major cities. The orchestra has just returned from a US tour of Netia Jones’ acclaimed production of Britten’s Curlew River.

Founded in 1992, the orchestra is inspired by the ethos of Benjamin Britten through world-class performances, illuminating and distinctive programmes where old meets new, and a deep commitment to bringing outstanding music to both the world’s finest concert halls and the local community. Britten Sinfonia is a BBC Radio 3 broadcast partner and regularly records for Harmonia Mundi and Hyperion.

In 2014–15, Britten Sinfonia collaborates with artists including Sophie Bevan, Sarah Connolly, Cambridge’s King’s College Choir, Barbara Hannigan, Iestyn Davies, director Netia Jones, Thomas Adès, Lawrence Power and Ian

Bostridge, with premieres from composers including James MacMillan, Kaija Saariaho, Patrick John Jones and Joey Roukens. Following UK performances, many of these collaborations will tour internationally with performances in some of the world’s finest concert halls.

Central to Britten Sinfonia’s artistic programmes are a wide range of creative learning projects both within schools and the community. In the 2014–15 season Britten Sinfonia Academy, our talented youth ensemble, will perform its own At Lunch concerts and we hold our composition competition, OPUS2015, offering unpublished composers the chance to receive a professional commission.

In 2013 Britten Sinfonia was awarded the Royal Philharmonic Society Music Award for Ensemble having previously won the Chamber Music Award in 2009 and the Ensemble Award in 2007. Britten Sinfonia recordings have been Grammy nominated, received a Gramophone Award and an ECHO/Klassik Recording Award. In 2014 Britten Sinfonia was nominated for an Olivier Award for its collaboration with the Richard Alston Dance Company.

brittensinfonia.com


Violin 1

Jacqueline Shave

Charlotte Maclet

Ruth Ehrlich

Alex Afia

Gillon Cameron

Savitri Grier

Violin 2

Katherine Shave

Marcus Broome

Judith Kelly

Zoe Davies

Charlotte Reid

Violas

Simone van der Giessen

Rachel Byrt

Felix Tanner

Francis Kefford

Cellos

Caroline Dearnley

Julia Vohralik

David Edmonds

Double Basses

Stephen Williams

Ben Russell

Oboes

John Roberts

Dominic Kelly

Clarinets

Joy Farrall

Oliver Pashley

Bassoons

Jarosław Augustyniak

Simon Couzens

Horns

Laurence Davies

Carsten Williams


‘...wonderful, beautiful hall…’

Vienna Piano Trio


Claire Booth

British soprano Claire Booth has become internationally renowned for her commitment to an astonishingly wide range of repertoire both on the operatic stage and concert platform. In the 2012-13 season alone her diverse performances included Kurtág's Kafka Fragments in Netia Jones’ ground-breaking multi media production at the Royal Opera House, Mozart Concert Arias with the Deutsche Symphonie Orchester at the Berlin Philharmonie and Oliver Knussen's Whitman Settings in her debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Recent operatic highlights have included her critically-acclaimed assumption of the lead role in Jancek's Cunning Little Vixen for Garsington Opera, Rosina in The Barber of Seville and Dorinda in Handel’s Orlando both for Scottish Opera, Nora in Vaughan Williams’ Riders to the Sea for English National Opera, Anne Truelove in Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress with City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Lucia in Britten’s Rape of Lucretia and Narrator in George Benjamin's Into the Little Hill for the Aldeburgh Festival.

Her numerous concert appearances have resulted in close associations with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, and Ensemble Intecontemporain, the Aldeburgh and Holland Festivals and recent debut appearances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, London Philharmonic and Boston Symphony Orchestras. She sang Britten's Spring Symphony with BBCSO as part of Aldeburgh's Britten centenary celebration weekend in 2013 under Oliver Knussen. Regular appearances at the BBC Proms have included Knussen’s Requiem – Songs for Sue and Whitman Settings, George Crumb’s Ancient Voices of Children, Luke Bedford’s On voittout en aventure, Berg’s Der Wein and Debussy’s Le Martyre de Saint Sébastien.

A series of collaborations with video director Netia Jones have included her performances of Max in Knussen's Where the Wild Things Are and Rhoda in Higglety Pigglety Pop!, which toured from the Aldeburgh Festival via The Los Angeles Philharmonic to the Barbican's own 60th birthday celebrations for the composer.

Her most recent CD release is a live recording of her role as Lucia in Britten's Rape of Lucretia with Angelika Kirkschlager and Ian Bostridge for EMI. Other recordings include Harvey's opera Wagner Dream with Martyn Brabbins and the Ictus Ensemble, John Eccles' The Judgement of Paris with Christian Curnyn and the Early Opera Company and diverse works by Oliver Knussen including Requiem, Songs for Sue of which she sang the world première.

Claire sang in the opening concert of the 2014 Edinburgh International Festival in August and returns to Welsh National Opera for Rossini’s Moses in Egitto, performing in Southampton next week.

claire-booth.com


Christopher Glynn

Christopher Glynn performs as pianist and accompanist with leading singers, instrumentalists and chamber ensembles in concerts, broadcasts and recordings throughout Europe, North America and the Far East.

He has performed in recital with singers including Sir Thomas Allen, Susan Bullock, Allan Clayton, Lucy Crowe, Sophie Daneman, Bernarda Fink, Sarah Fox, Michael George, Benjamin Hulett. Anthony Rolfe Johnson, Jonas Kaufmann, Andrew Kennedy, Yvonne Kenny, Dame Felicity Lott, Christopher Maltman, Henk Neven, Ian Partridge, Derek Lee Ragin, Joan Rodgers, Kate Royal, Carolyn Sampson, Toby Spence, Bryn Terfel, Ailish Tynan, Roderick Williams, Catherine Wyn Rogers and tonight’s soprano Claire Booth. He has performed with instrumentalists including Julian Bliss, Andrej Bielow, Adrian Brendel, Natalie Clein, Michael Collins, Nicholas Daniel, David Garrett, Tine Thing Helseth, Daniel Hope and Steven Isserlis; with chamber groups including London Winds and the Elias, Fitzwilliam, Alberni and Szymanowski Quartets; and with choirs including BBC Singers and The Sixteen. Chris was born in Leicester and read music at New College, Oxford before studying piano with

John Streets in France and Malcolm Martineau at the Royal Academy of Music. His awards include the accompaniment prize in the 2001 Kathleen Ferrier competition and the 2003 Gerald Moore award. Since making his debut at Wigmore Hall in 2001, Chris has performed in concert venues and festivals throughout the world. He has made over 20 CDs for labels including Hyperion, Decca, DG, EMI, Signum, Erato, Coro and Cantoris and premiered works by composers including James Macmillan, Roxanna Panufnik, Judith Weir, Oliver Knussen, Eric Whitacre. He has made many studio recordings and live broadcasts for the BBC. Chris is a Professor at the Royal College of Music and an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music; he is also a course leader for the Samling Foundation and has adjudicated in several international competitions. Chris has devised programmes for Wigmore Hall and the National Portrait Gallery and since 2010 has been Artistic Director of the Ryedale Festival. Recent highlights include a Grammy award, recording projects with Julian Bliss and Andrej Bielow, performances in the Barbican’s Britten centenary series and at the BBC Proms, and a series of concerts featuring the complete songs of Ravel which he curated for the Wigmore Hall. cglynn.com



Sara Bitlloch violin

Donald Grant violin

Martin Saving viola

Marie Bitlloch cello

The Elias String Quartet take their name from Mendelssohn's oratorio, Elijah, of which Elias is its German form, and have quickly established themselves as one of the most intense and vibrant quartets of their generation. They perform around the world, collaborating with many different artists. The Quartet was formed in 1998 at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester where they worked closely with the late Dr Christopher Rowland. They also spent a year studying at the Hochschule in Cologne with the Alban Berg quartet. Other

mentors in the Quartet’s studies include Peter Cropper, Hugh Maguire, György Kurtág, Gábor Takács-Nagy, Henri Dutilleux and Rainer Schmidt.

The Quartet was chosen to participate in BBC Radio 3's New Generation Artists’ scheme and is the recipient of a 2010 Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award. They have performed at some of the world’s most prestigious chamber venues, including New York’s Carnegie Hall, the Washington Library of Congress, the Vienna Musikverein, the Berlin Konzerthaus, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and the Wigmore Hall in London. They recently returned to the US for a tour with Jonathan Biss, visiting Napa Valley, San Francisco, Salt Lake City, Kansas City and New York.

The 2013/14 season saw the Quartet take on three major tours of the USA, Australia and Sweden as well as further performances across Europe in Vienna, Salzburg, Amsterdam,


Luxembourg, Bonn, Venice and Padua. With the support of the Borletti-Buitoni Trust, the Elias Quartet are now immersed in their Beethoven Project: learning and performing all Beethoven string quartets.

The cycles started in 2012/13 and continue throughout this season in various venues including Sheffield, Southampton, Bristol, Brighton, Norwich, Tonbridge, Glasgow and London. They are documenting their journey on a dedicated website:

thebeethovenproject.com

Plans for 2015 include a return to North America for a month-long tour, performing in New York, Toronto, San Francisco, and Salt Lake City; and concerts in Paris, Amsterdam, Hanover, and Istanbul. The Quartet will premiere a work written for them by young British composer Emily Howard at Wigmore Hall and collaborate with various artists including Jonathan Biss, François-René Duchâble, and the Kungsbacka Trio.

They have performed alongside artists such as Leon Fleisher, Michael Collins, Pascal Moraguès, Simon Crawford-Phillips, Ralph Kirshbaum, Alice Neary, Ann Murray, Joan Rogers, Mark Padmore, Roger Vignoles, Michel Dalberto, Peter Cropper, Bernard Gregor-Smith, Ettore Causa, Timothy Boulton,

Robin Ireland, Adrian Brendel, Anthony Marwood and with the Endellion, Jerusalem and Vertavo Quartets.

For four years they were resident String Quartet at Sheffield’s Music in the Round as part of Ensemble 360, taking over from the Lindsay Quartet. From 2012-15 the Elias are Associate Artists here at Turner Sims. Their three years have included the venue’s first complete Beethoven quartets cycle in 30 years in 2012-14 and concludes in Spring 2015 with an exclusive series centred around the three quartets of Robert Schumann.

The Quartet is steadily building a recording catalogue that has been met with widespread critical acclaim. Their most recent disc is with pianist Jonathan Biss of the Schumann and Dvořák piano quintets, released on the Onyx label. They have also released a disc of French harp music with harpist Sandrine Chatron for the French label Ambroisie, Goehr’s Piano Quintet with Daniel Becker for Meridian Records, and a Britten Quartets disc, released by Sonimage. Throughout 2014 and 2015, they will build on their relationship with the Wigmore Hall and the Wigmore Live label, for which they have already released two discs, when they perform and record all the Beethoven quartets as the culmination of their Beethoven Project.

eliasstringquartet.com


Paul Lewis

Paul Lewis is internationally regarded as one of the leading musicians of his generation. His recent cycles of core piano works by Beethoven and Schubert, both presented at Turner Sims and elsewhere, have received unanimous critical and public acclaim worldwide, and consolidated his reputation as one of the world’s foremost interpreters of the central European classical repertoire.

His numerous awards have included the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Instrumentalist of the Year, two Edison awards, three Gramophone awards, the Diapason D'or de l'Annee, the Preis Der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik, the Premio Internazionale Accademia Musicale Chigiana, and the South Bank Show Classical Music award. In 2009 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Southampton.

He performs regularly as soloist with the world's great orchestras, including the Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, London

Symphony, Bavarian Radio Symphony, NHK Symphony, New York Philharmonic, LA Philharmonic, and the Royal Concertgebouw, Tonhalle Zurich, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Philharmonia, and Mahler Chamber Orchestras, in collaboration with such conductors as Sir Colin Davis, Stéphane Denève, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Bernard Haitink, Pablo Heras-Casado, Daniel Harding, Paavo Järvi, Sir Charles Mackerras, Andris Nelsons, Wolfgang Sawallisch and Robin Ticciati. He is also a frequent guest at the world's most prestigious festivals, including Lucerne, Mostly Mozart (New York), Tanglewood, Schubertiade, Salzburg, Edinburgh, La Roque d’Antheron, Rheingau, Klavier Festival Ruhr, and London’s BBC Proms where in 2010 he became the first pianist to perform a complete Beethoven piano concerto cycle in one season.

Paul Lewis’ recital career takes him to venues such as London's Royal Festival Hall, Alice Tully and Carnegie Hall in New York, the Musikverein and Konzerthaus in Vienna, the Theatre des Champs Elysees in Paris, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Berlin


Philharmonie and Konzerthaus, Tonhalle Zurich, Palau de Musica Barcelona, Oji Hall in Tokyo, and Melbourne’s Recital Centre.

His multi-award winning discography for Harmonia Mundi includes the complete Beethoven piano sonatas, concertos, and the Diabelli Variations, Liszt’s B minor Sonata and other late works, and all of Schubert’s major piano works from the last six years of his life, including the 3 song cycles with tenor Mark Padmore. Future recording plans include the Brahms D minor piano concerto with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Daniel Harding, and solo works by Mussorgsky and Schumann.

Paul Lewis studied with Joan Havill at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London before going on to study privately with Alfred Brendel. Along with his wife the Norwegian cellist Bjørg Lewis, he is artistic director of Midsummer Music, an annual chamber music festival held in Buckinghamshire, UK.

paullewispiano.co.uk

Turner Sims is one of the most

wonderful concert venues in the

country and I am delighted to be

associated with it as patron of the

Friends of Turner Sims. I urge you

to join this organisation to support

the work and future of the concert

hall.

Paul Lewis, Patron of the Friends of Turner Sims since 2004.


Friends of Turner Sims

It seems easy to gain friends these days. Some people count their friends in the thousands. Just open a social media account and with a few clicks and a few friendship requests you can proclaim yourself a popular individual indeed with your very own online network.

But what does it really mean to be a friend?

Most people would agree that a friend supports you through the good times and the bad, shares your successes and passions and does so for the pleasure of being in your company from time to time. In 1991 The Friends of Turner Sims was established by a group of individuals who believed just that. They wanted to support Turner Sims for the pleasure of the many wonderful concerts it hosted and for its importance as a beacon for the arts in our community. Launched with the aid of the charismatic Trevor Pinnock, the Friends tasked themselves with giving their time, their enthusiasm and a regular membership fee.

What started with a handful of members in 1991 grew to a network of 130 by 1998 and 240 by 2000. Membership currently stands at an impressive 304. We are firm friends ourselves, with many of us meeting at concerts as well as formal Friends meetings; offering lifts for concerts to Friends who are no longer able to drive.

We may sometimes roll up our sleeves and stuff a few envelopes but the majority of our work is advocacy, which comes naturally when you are passionate about Great Music Live. So if you have ever found yourself telling someone you know about a fantastic performance you have seen at Turner Sims, why not consider joining the Friends of Turner Sims? You’re already doing what a Friend does.

Friends are acknowledged as an invaluable asset to Turner Sims and our efforts are richly rewarded, with priority booking, ticket discounts and free concert programmes. But these are the icing on the cake - what we really enjoy is seeing our favourite arts venue flourish, and being part of making that happen.

And if you want to, you can even ‘like’ Turner Sims on Facebook…

Grayham Mizon

Chair, Friends of Turner Sims


20 concerts in 1974,

70 concerts in 2014. 7 honorary degrees have been issued to Turner

Sims staff and artists.

6 months of closure

in 1993 allowed for

the construction of

the Bernard Miller

Foyer, with the

inaugural Spring

1994 performance

being given by the

internationally

renowned pianist

John Lill, who also

opened our 40th

Anniversary Season!

2760 children were

involved in the live

Britten Stream in 2013.

The film of the event

has been viewed over

2000 times online.

Turner Sims was

the first music

venue in the

country to be

awarded a 3 year

programme of

development

funding by the Arts

Council of

England.

In 2012

Turner

Sims was

listed as

one of the

top 10 chamber

music

venues in

the UK by

Classical

Music

magazine.

2012’s Musical Alphabet weekend

saw 50 events and 500

performers in 23 venues across

Southampton. There were 161 exclusive minutes of BBC

broadcasting and over 2500 people experienced the project.

The 2 year Arts & Kids

project in 2006/8

involved over 8000 children.


The number of Turner Sims Friends has grown from

130 in 1998,

to 240 in 2000,

to 304 this year!

Since 2002 a

new octet has

been formed...of

children born to

Turner Sims staff.

In 40 years we’ve

hosted 7 octets,

2 septets, 5 sextets,

13 quintets, 91

quartets and 51 trios!

Our Steinway D piano has over

12000 parts and

weighs 450kg.

Our archive holds

95 individual

season brochures.

There are 288 Music Department students that use Turner

Sims, sitting over 200 performance exams each year.

2760 children were

involved in the live

Britten Stream in 2013.

The film of the event

has been viewed over

2000 times online.

The Allegri Quartet have played

over 100 concerts at Turner

Sims and celebrate their 60th

Anniversary in 2014.

Since 2013

alone,

10600

University of

Southampton

students have

graduated on

our

premises.

Turner Sims has

marked 15 anniversaries of

other artists and

institutions since

opening, including

the 75th birthday

of Dave Brubeck

whose son Darius

will help us

celebrate our

40th.


We a

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ys love p

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g Tu

rner Sim

s…fa

nta

stic

aco

usti

cs, fan

tasti

c peo

ple…

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ou

gh b

ette

r kno

wn

as a

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usic

ve

nu

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the T

urn

er

Sim

s is t

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the

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TURNER SIMS | GREAT MUSIC

Turner Sims Hall at

Southampton University, to be

officially opened next Tuesday,

has been designed to put ' music

performance requirements first and not

merely as an afterthought to the civic

reception or the dog show.' Short of

more such halls, what can be done to

improve the conditions under which

music is publicly performed?

BBC Radio 3 Study on

3 programme

14/11/1974

‘Congra

tula

tions o

n 4

0 y

ears

of g

reat p

rogra

mm

ing…

I look fo

rward

to y

our 5

0th ‘ G

ary C

ro

sb

y O

BE

I am

delight-

ed to be

returning to

perform at

Turner Sims

during it's 40th

season, a venue

where I have always

been welcomed and

supported by audience

and staff alike. Presenting

and nurturing new and adven-

turous music, the Turner Sims

is a key venue on the UK's new

music map. Engaging with audienc-

es to help maximise the appeal and

profile of new music, Turner Sims is the

obvious performance space for premier-

ing new work in the Southern region of

England. Joby Burgess (Artistic Director -

Powerplant) ‘It has very go

od aco

ustic

s. I feel at ho

me play

ing there…

’ Ju

an M

arti

n s

pea

king t

o T

he

Dai

ly E

cho 3

0.5.

1997

We LOVE working with Turner Sims! We love the venue for its high production values and for being a venue where excellence is a given. Kevin is an absolute champion when it comes to promoting new music (in all genres), and each season's programme is assuredly pioneering, adventurous,

incredibly diverse and exciting. They are brilliant at looking beyond the obvious in terms of audience development, and

are to be commended on their success in building bridges between diverse community/artistic partners,

as well as engaging new audiences. Janine Irons MBE, Director

Tomorrow’s Warriors


Turner Sims Southampton is provided by

the University of Southampton and gratefully

acknowledges the support of Arts Council England.

Contact

Box Office 023 8059 5151

Management and

Administration

023 8059 2223

Marketing

023 8059 2504

Front of House and Bar

023 8059 3105

Email

[email protected]

Web

turnersims.co.uk

Turner Sims is proud to be a member of the

following organisations:

IMAGE CREDITS: Turner Sims (Paul McCabe, University of Southampton), Britten Sinfonia (Harry

Rankin), Claire Booth (Sven Arnstein), Christopher Glynn (Joanna Bergin), Elias String Quartet

(Benjamin Ealovega / Kevin Saunders), Paul Lewis (Joseph Molina, Harmonia Mundi), Friends of

Turner Sims (© Southern Daily Echo)

You Tell Us

What can I tell you?

As our customer, you’re the best person to suggest

improvements to our services and tell us what you would

like to see at Turner Sims.

How can I make my suggestion?

Email us at [email protected] or get in touch by post: Turner Sims University of Southampton FREEPOST RTHT-TBHY-ZJJR Southampton SO17 1YN

What will happen to my suggestion?

If you would like feedback on your comments, please let us

know and we will be happy to contact you.

40th anniversary gala concert programme aut14

Documents