Westbourne MusicThu 13 June 2013, 12.45pm The Merchants House £8/£7/£4

Wolf Italian SerenadeR.Strauss Sextet from CapriccioBrahms Sextet No. 1 in B flat, op. 18

A lunchtime concert in the beautiful Merchants Hall in Glasgow’s city centre as part of the Westbourne Music chamber series. A composer more often associated with song, we’ll be performing Hugo Wolf’s own arrangement for strings of a favourite comedic and amorous string quartet. The sextet from Capriccio, ‘created’ by a fictional composer appearing as a character in Strauss’ autobiographical opera, is more often heard off-stage opening the opera, but here takes centre stage. Brahms was anxious about comparisons with composers whose work he admired, leading him to explore the sonorous potential of the relatively under-utilized string sextet, rather than the more conventional string quartet mastered by Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. Time has proven, however, that this caution was misplaced, as his chamber works have earned their place as a staple of the repertoire for strings.

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Re-defining the string orchestra

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CITY HALLS AND ÒRAN MÓR CONCERTS:City Halls, Candleriggs, Glasgow, G1 1NQTel: 0141 353 8000 Web: glasgowconcerthalls.com

ROYAL CONSERVATOIRE OF SCOTLAND CONCERT: 100 Renfrew Street, Glasgow G2 3DB Tel: 0141 332 5057 web: boxoffice.rcs.ac.uk

How to book

You can save £2 on the price of each ticket by purchasing a subscription for £44 for all evening concerts (exc. Westbourne). Contact City Halls box office for details. If you’re a registered student you can attend any of our evening concerts for only £5! Under 16s can attend all evening events for free accompanied by a paying adult.

WESTBOURNE MUSIC:The Merchants Hall, 7 West George Street, Glasgow, G2 1BATel: 0141 649 5347 email:westbournemusic@gmail.com

Scottish Ensemble, 350 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, G2 3JD0141 332 4747 scottishensemble.co.ukRegistered charity no. SC001539 @scotensemble scottishensemble

Glasgow 2012 - 13

Welcome to the 2012–13 season in Glasgow! Throughout the season we’ll be celebrating the centenary of one of my favourite composers: Benjamin Britten. Every concert in this season will feature a work by Britten alongside music written by the composers that inspired him: Mozart, Bach, Purcell and Schumann. We’ve also commissioned Scottish composer Martin Suckling to write a series of musical postcards which will feature across the season.

A highlight in Glasgow this season will be the candlelit concert in Òran Mór featuring the iconic Goldberg Variations by J.S. Bach. Tickets for last year’s candlelit concert disappeared fast – so be sure to book early to guarantee your place at this special event.

IlluminationsWed 24 October 2012, 7.30pmRoyal Conservatoire of Scotland £13

Mozart Divertimento in D K 136Schumann String Quartet No. 3 in A Major op. 41 (arr. Morton)Purcell Fantasias 9, 5 & 11Britten Les Illuminations

Tenor Thomas WalkerVideo Artist Netia Jones

“I alone hold the key to this savage parade” intones the tenor throughout Les Illuminations, one of Benjamin Britten’s best-known works. Scottish tenor Thomas Walker and live visuals from video artist Netia Jones will guide us through Britten’s eerie and dark but sensual sound-world of the crystal chalets, copper palm trees, stags, Venus and Bacchantes, and castles built from bones depicted in Arthur Rimbaud’s poetry.

Pre – concert talk 6.45pm With John Bridcut, author of Britten’s Children and The Faber Pocket Guide to Britten. An award-winning film maker, John’s films include Britten’s Children, The Passions of Vaughan Williams and the recent A Jubilee Tribute to The Queen by The Prince of Wales.

Part of Glasgay! Festival running 15 October – 3 November 2012

VariationsConcert by CandlelightTue 4 December 2012, 7.30pmÒran Mór £13

Britten Variations on a Theme of Frank BridgeBach Goldberg Variations (arr. Sitkovetsky)

A great way to start the festive season: an evening of candlelight, top-quality performances and one of the seminal works in the classical repertoire – the magical Goldberg Variations by J. S. Bach. Created as a tribute to his teacher, the composer Frank Bridge, Benjamin Britten’s variations for string orchestra each have their own individual character which together, like Bach’s, create an epic narrative touching on a wide variety of musical styles. In our atmospheric candlelit venues, the threads of the ancient and simple concept of variations will weave their spell, creating an uplifting and inspiring experience.

La FolliaSat 16 February 2013, 7.30pmCity Halls £13

Geminiani Concerto Grosso ‘La Follia’ Górecki Harpsichord Concerto Vaughan Williams Violin Concerto in D minor ‘Concerto Accademico’ Holst St. Paul’s Suite Górecki 3 Pieces in Old Style Vivaldi Concerto Grosso op.3 no. 10 RV580 in B minor Britten Simple Symphony

‘La Follia’ – musical madness. You just can’t fight it when music gets in your head – this can be uplifting, maddening, or both! Should you succumb to ‘La Follia’ at this concert, there will be plenty of musical ‘ear-worms’, ensuring the Ensemble experience stays with you long after the concert. Polish composer Henryk Górecki is most famous for his Symphony No. 3 of Sorrowful Songs, which managed to beat Madonna in the UK charts in the early 1990s. There’s a lot more, however, to this fascinating Polish composer whose beguiling melodies and ancient rhythms speak affectingly to a 21st-century audience.

This project is supported by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute as part of Polska Music programme.

PhaedraWed 24 April 2013, 7.30pmCity Halls £13

Handel Concerto Grosso, op.6 no.7 in B Flat MajorHandel Baroque AriasBiber BattaliaPurcell Dance of Furies, Fantasia upon One Note and Chacony in GBritten Phaedra

Soprano Jane Irwin

We’re teaming up with friend of the Ensemble, superstar trumpeter Alison Balsom for a tour of the USA in April performing works from our two albums recorded together for EMI. We’ll be celebrating the end of our tour with a programme of works written at the time of the birth of the string ensemble and a performance of Britten’s Phaedra.

Closing our Britten season in Glasgow, soprano Jane Irwin will be joining us to perform this dramatic cantata. In common with many of Britten’s operas, Phaedra features a protagonist who finds herself outside the norms of society and tells the Greek myth of a woman’s illicit love for her stepson. Written towards the end of Britten’s life, this emotional and gripping work is imbued with all the experience of writing for the operatic stage that Britten had gained through his career.

Part of The Scottish Orchestras’ Guide to Benjamin Britten 18 – 27 April 2013

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sJonathan MortonArtistic Director