COME AND PLAY WITH THE HALLÉ

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "COME AND PLAY WITH THE HALLÉ"

Darleen Hoover
6 years ago
Views:

1 COME AND PLAY WITH THE HALLÉ WIDER OPPORTUNITIES CONCERTS FOR SCHOOLS HEROES AND VILLAINS CONDUCTED BY JONATHON HEYWARD PRESENTED BY TOM REDMOND SUMMER 2017 THE BRIDGEWATER HALL, MANCHESTER RESOURCE PACK FOR TEACHERS Supported by: Hallé Concerts Society 2017

2 COME AND PLAY WITH THE HALLÉ 2017 HEROES AND VILLAINS CONDUCTED BY JONATHON HEYWARD PRESENTED BY TOM REDMOND PROKOFIEV Romeo and Juliet: Montagues and Capulets ROSSINI Overture, William Tell: Galop AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION J STRAUSS II arr. STEVE PICKETT Cuckoo Polka STRAVINSKY The Firebird: Kastchei s Dance AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION {SONG} LYN MARSH Believe ELGAR Wand of Youth: Fairy Pipers AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION {SONG} NEIL BENNISON & STEVE PICKETT Superhero Blues JOHN WILLIAMS Indiana Jones: March AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION CHUCK RIO arr. STEVE PICKETT Tequila JOHN WILLIAMS Harry Potter: Harry s Wondrous World TCHAIKOVSKY 1812 Overture: Final section Concert duration : 70

3 JONATHON HEYWARD (conductor) Hailing from Charleston, South Carolina, Jonathon Heyward is the Hallé s new Assistant Conductor. His twoyear appointment will involve assisting Music Director Sir Mark Elder and other visiting artists, acting as Music Director of the Hallé Youth Orchestra and conducting concerts with the Hallé. He recently won the 54th International Competition for Young Conductors in Besançon, winning the Grand Prize at the age of only 23. Concertclassic.com commented: Jonathon Heyward embraces music with the enthusiasm and vigour of a 23-year-old. With sweeping but precise gestures, [John Adams s] The Chairman Dances swung in an irresistible and colourful way. Originally a cellist, he commenced his conducting studies at the Boston Conservatory in the class of Andrew Altenbach. Between 2012 and 2014 he occupied the position of Assistant Conductor for the Conservatory s opera department. During his time there, he worked on productions including La bohème, Die Zauberflöte and The Rape of Lucretia. In 2013 he became the youngest ever semi-finalist at the Blue Danube International Opera Conducting Competition, where he was acclaimed for being a fresh new talent, with exceptional musicianship. Jonathon Heyward now resides in London and has just graduated from the Royal Academy of Music, where he studied with Sian Edwards. He conducted a Hampstead Garden Opera production of Don Giovanni in November In June 2016 he conducted the Echo Ensemble in a contemporary music programme including Boulez s Notations in both Berlin and London, and made his Russian debut with the St Petersburg Symphony Orchestra. This season he will conduct the Philharmonie Zuidnederland (South Netherlands Philharmonic) in three concerts, the Basel Symphony Orchestra, and the Prague Symphony Orchestra as part of the Prague Spring Festival. He was also selected by the Kurt Weill Foundation to assist on a production of Lost in the Stars with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra in January TOM REDMOND (presenter) Tom Redmond is a broadcaster, presenter, horn player and animateur based in Manchester. He was a member of the Hallé for 13 years before relinquishing his position in 2016 to allow him more time to work in music education and broadcasting. As a horn player he has performed throughout Europe, Japan, Russia, South East Asia and the USA with orchestras including the City of Birmingham and London Symphony orchestras, Hong Kong Philharmonic and the Philharmonia. He is involved with the BBC's Ten Pieces project, leading creative workshops with its celebrity ambassadors, and he was the orchestra consultant for the project's ebook. He has introduced classical music to over 150,000 young people and their families in interactive concerts for schools with the Hallé, CBSO, RTÉ NSO, SCO and Ulster Orchestra. As an animateur he has led creative sessions in a variety of musical environments, from prisons to music hubs and state and public schools. He has recently devised and delivered a series of corporate training workshops to highlight the effects of inspirational leadership in the workplace, using the orchestra as an example of a high performance team. He is also the horn tutor at the Junior Royal Northern College of Music and has a close relationship with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. He works as a consultant with many orchestras, providing resources and training for outreach and creative programmes. Tom is in demand as a presenter of pops concerts and has worked alongside conductors including Stephen Bell, Andrew Gourlay, James Lowe, Jamie Phillips, Timothy Redmond and Neil Thomson. As part of the recent Britten centenary celebrations he narrated The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra at the closing concert of the 2013 Aldeburgh Festival with the Hallé under Sir Mark Elder. This led to a commission from the Hallé to re-write the text, which received its first performances in Manchester and Nottingham in 2015 and which pupils heard in this year s Hallé for Youth concerts. Recent and future presenting highlights include debuts with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra at the Edinburgh International Festival, Insights at the Royal Opera House, the premier of a new work, Dinosaurumpus, with the Hallé and return visits to the CBSO, RTENSO and Ulster Orchestra. At the Royal Albert Hall he hosts a concert for young people with Lang Lang and in October 2016 presented My First Orchestral Adventure with the RPCO.

4 PROGRAMME NOTES SERGEI PROKOFIEV ROMEO AND JULIET: MONTAGUES AND CAPULETS Prokofiev s ballet score for Romeo and Juliet is a perennial favourite in the canon of 20 th century music. Even in the concert hall without dancers, the composer so skilfully portrayed the fate of Shakespeare s star crossed lovers that the music alone is enough to vividly tell the story. In the Hallé concert you ll hear the Introduction that ingeniously sets the mood of the tragedy about to unfold. Here Prokofiev created an atmosphere of almost unbearable tension by gradually increasing the orchestration with a series of increasingly loud and dissonant chords. In between these ominous blocks of sound are quiet string passages that convey a sense of eerie and uneasy calm. Without a pause the Montagues and Capulets appear in a grotesque dance. The feuding families sneer and square up to each other with the music graphically depicting their intense mutual hatred. There is a calmer section of music but the age-old enmity soon returns. GIOACHINO ROSSINI OVERTURE, WILLIAM TELL: GALOP Rossini s final opera William Tell is grand opera in the true sense. Not only does it contain over four hours of music but it makes considerable technical demands on its cast and chorus. Add to this its revolutionary theme the story of its titular hero leading the Swiss to victory over their Austrian oppressors and the result is a work with a fitful performance history. There are signs, however, that this could be changing. The fortunes of William Tell may have fluctuated over the years but its overture, a series of four vivid musical tableaux, has remained a perennial favourite in its own right. The last of the tableaux begins with a stirring trumpet fanfare before the Swiss cavalry (or, even more famously, the Lone Ranger and trusty Tonto!) gallop triumphantly into view. AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION JOHANN STRAUSS II arr. STEVE PICKETT CUCKOO POLKA Johann Strauss II was discouraged from following in the musical footsteps of his father Johann Strauss I (who, some believe, was jealous of his son s abilities). However, fate decreed that the younger Johann would become the undisputed Waltz King and a man feted wherever he travelled (and travel he certainly did). His Cuckoo Polka is enough to make you go well, cuckoo! IGOR STRAVINSKY THE FIREBIRD: KASTCHEI S DANCE In 1910 Stravinsky came to prominence with a vibrantly-hued ballet score called The Firebird. In the ballet Prince Ivan captures the magical firebird, only releasing her in exchange for one of her magic feathers. When later imprisoned by the evil ogre Kastchei, he uses the feather to summon the firebird. With her help he destroys Kastchei s castle and wins a beautiful princess as his bride. At this stage of the ballet the firebird has been summoned by Prince Igor. The firebird casts a spell on Kastchei and his retinue who, with the firebird as choreographer, dance the frenzied Infernal Dance with its feverish energy and grotesque swells of sound.

5 AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION {SONG} LIN MARSH BELIEVE In the concert you will raise your voices in the heroic strains of Believe by Lin Marsh, one of our most sought-after composers and lyricists with a specialism of writing vocal works for young people. EDWARD ELGAR WAND OF YOUTH: FAIRY PIPERS Around about 1869, the young Elgar along with his brother and two sisters devised a little play with music to perform to their parents at home. The play was, in Elgar s own words, a reaction to some small grievances occasioned by the imaginary despotic rule of my father and mother (The Two Old People) to show that children were not properly understood. It was set in a woodland glade with a brook flowing through the middle. On one side was fairyland, on the other the ordinary life. Enticed first by little bells and then by moths and butterflies, The Two Old People enter fairyland but just cannot get that fairy feeling. As a result, fairy pipers arrive by boat and lull them to sleep. AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION {SONG} NEIL BENNISON & STEVE PICKETT SUPERHERO BLUES The children s song, Superhero Blues is another collaboration between Steve Pickett, Hallé Education Director and composer, and Neil Bennison, Classical Music Programme Manager at The Royal Concert Hall in Nottingham. Following the success of last year s song, In New York City s Streets, it was suggested that a new venture could create a song based around this year s concert theme, Heroes and Villains. Superhero Blues takes its inspiration from Elvis Presley s Heartbreak Hotel and we hope that this laid back musical style will appeal to the children and the teachers. JOHN WILLIAMS INDIANA JONES: MARCH John Williams has scored all but two of Steven Spielberg s films and once described their relationship as like a marriage. In Spielberg s quadruple Oscar-winning Raiders of the Lost Ark, archaeologist Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) is hired by the US government to find the Ark of the Covenant which is believed to hold the key to human existence before his enemy Renee Belloq and a band of Nazis get their nefarious hands on it. Williams s rousing Raider s March signifies just what a hero Indy is (that is, as long as there aren t any snakes around!). AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION CHUCK RIO arr. STEVE PICKETT TEQUILA With its honking saxophone riff and repeated shouts of its title, Chuck Rio s Tequila remains one of the most irresistible songs of the rock n roll era. It topped the charts in 1958 and has since cropped up in adverts and in films like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie. Steve Pickett s arrangement of the song can be enjoyed with salt and lime, though we recommend it straight in true Mexican fashion.

6 JOHN WILLIAMS HARRY POTTER: HARRY S WONDROUS WORLD When he came to write the score for the first film in the Harry Potter septology, the great John Williams broke with his usual practice that is, he actually read the book on which the film was based. As this superb music shows, his Oscar-nominated soundtrack is rich with themes that vividly conjure up JK Rowling s wonderful world of wizardry, and the music became as intrinsic a part of the film as any character. Alas, subsequent composers of Potter scores have found Williams a hard act to follow. PYTOR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY 1812 OVERTURE: FINAL SECTION The 1812 Overture was the result of a commission to write a special piece of music for the All Russian Art and Industrial Exhibition, held in Moscow in That year marked the 70 th anniversary of the Battle of Borodino in 1812 when the Russians had defeated Napoleon s invading armies. To mark the occasion, Tchaikovsky wrote an overture full of patriotic themes in keeping with the grand historical subject matter. The Hallé will play the final section of the overture depicting the climax of the battle itself. The Marseillaise represents the French armies, while God Save the Tsar illustrates the Russians. The ending is a glorious celebration of the Russian victory with God Save the Tsar blaring out triumphantly. Programme Notes 2017 Anthony Bateman

The Hallé's Award Winning Education Programme was established in 1989 and has now grown to the point where it generates more than 60 projects a year in various parts of the community from schools,

7 The Hallé's Award Winning Education Programme was established in 1989 and has now grown to the point where it generates more than 60 projects a year in various parts of the community from schools, special needs centres and prisons to youth clubs and work with the elderly. The aim of Hallé Education is to firmly establish the Hallé Orchestra as a valuable and highly responsive resource for all members of the community in and around Manchester. We do this principally by placing musicians into the wider community to compose and perform music alongside project participants. The Education Programme complements the Hallé's annual schedule of more than 120 concerts and is central to the Orchestra's artistic strategy. Schools' work remains our main focus where, in partnership with teachers, we aim to enhance the National Curriculum for music. To complete the experience we encourage those involved to share with us the passion and quality of live music in the concert hall. For those unable to attend concerts for whatever reason, we have a programme which develops the many positive benefits of arts work through the creative process of music-making. Since its inception, the quality of Hallé Education has been recognised by several prestigious awards including: a Royal Anniversary Challenge Gold Medal for its Gamelan project; a Sainsbury's Arts Education Award for Powerful Percussion; a PRS Composers in Education Award for Bridging the Gap; and a Regional National Training Award for its training programme for Hallé musicians which was generously sponsored by the Esmée Fairbairn Charitable Trust. Two other factors have been vitally important to our success. They are the support and dedication to the Programme of over half the Orchestra's players and the overwhelmingly positive response from schools and other participants. Although much of Hallé Education's work is based in Greater Manchester, it also serves the wider geographical area covered by the Orchestra's touring programme throughout the north of England. Without doubt, one of the most exciting and successful initiatives developed since Hallé Education's inception is Hallé for Youth. Each year this specially devised series of concerts for schools provides an introduction to live classical music for thousands of schoolchildren throughout Greater Manchester and the North West. Another highlight of Hallé Education s programme is the series of Come and Play with the Hallé concerts, which involves the orchestra performing with thousands of primary-aged children who are engaged with the Whole Class Ensemble Teaching Programme, and provides children from within a local authority with an opportunity to take part in a musical performance with a live symphony orchestra. Teachers from the local music services tutor the children attending the concerts, with all the materials designed by Hallé Education. The programme is designed so that the children are involved in an interactive experience throughout the whole concert. Original and arranged material, specially composed by Steve Pickett for the professional players and young people to share, is presented alongside orchestral blockbusters ranging from film scores to famous classics. The children, therefore, experience the power of a symphony orchestra at first hand, and are then part of it.

Following the death of Sir Charles, the orchestra continued to develop under the guidance of such distinguished figures as Dr Hans Richter, Sir Hamilton Harty and Sir John Barbirolli.

8 The Hallé is one of the top orchestras in the UK. It is currently in its 159 th concert season, having been founded in Manchester by Sir Charles Hallé (right) and giving its first concert in the city s Free Trade Hall on 30 January Following the death of Sir Charles, the orchestra continued to develop under the guidance of such distinguished figures as Dr Hans Richter, Sir Hamilton Harty and Sir John Barbirolli. The Hallé s current conductor is Sir Mark Elder who became Music Director in 2000 and was knighted by the Queen for services to music in In the past he has worked with many of the world s leading symphony orchestras and still performs as a guest conductor with international orchestras and concert halls. Sir Charles Hallé As well as performing in approximately 70 concerts a year at The Bridgewater Hall, its home in Manchester, and over 40 concerts annually throughout the rest of Britain, the Hallé has also performed all over the world and has frequently televised performances. The orchestra also collaborates on a variety of projects with the BBC Philharmonic, Royal Northern College of Music and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Sir Mark Elder CBE Sir Mark Elder CBE Hallé St Peter s, the Hallé s rehearsal, recording and small concert space, was opened in 2013 by the Hallé s Patron, HRH The Countess of Wessex. A restored church in Ancoats, the venue provides a home for the Hallé, its choirs and youth orchestra as well as an exciting space for education workshops and small performances. Future plans are being developed to expand the site to create additional rehearsal and breakout spaces as well as a café. The Hallé Choir has over 160 members and often joins the orchestra for large choral works throughout the year. In addition, the Hallé has a youth orchestra, two youth choirs and a children s choir that work alongside the musicians and conductors, performing and touring in the UK and Europe. Last season over a quarter of a million people heard the Hallé, of which more than 71,000 were inspired by the Hallé s pioneering education programme. Generating approximately 70 projects a year, the programme exists to create a wider enjoyment and understanding of music throughout the whole community. Facebook - Twitter - YouTube - Instagram:

9 Here are a few facts about the hall, which you may find useful. The Bridgewater Hall took exactly 3½ years to build, from digging the foundations in March 1993, to the opening concert in September The centre of a lively, noisy city isn t the ideal place to build a new concert hall because orchestras and audiences need perfect silence and microphones are now so sensitive that they can hear things that ordinary people can t, for example: heavy traffic, trams, buses, aeroplanes. The solutions to these problems were: o Lift the building off the ground and stand it on a set of huge steel springs. This is because vibrations (sound) cannot travel through a coiled spring. o Make the building itself very heavy and solid so it cannot move easily. o Make the doors, windows and carpets very thick. o Put facilities such as air conditioning, water supply and things that hum and buzz in a separate tower at the back of the building. It took a team of 20 architects, an interior designer, a team of acoustic designers with lots of computers and a team of expert engineers to design The Bridgewater Hall. Every single design choice is for acoustic purposes! Inside the foyer a sculpture ripples through all four floors. It represents billowing lengths of Manchester cotton and waves of sound, light, water and music. Although it looks as though it could be made of fabric or cardboard, it is actually made of great strips of steel, carefully bent into shape and painted only on the back so that the colours are reflected off the wall behind. Inside the auditorium everything has been designed to make the sound perfect. The most important feature is the ceiling which is a heavy, ribbed structure of steelwork coated in concrete. It is kept in place by a spider s web of delicate steelwork underneath, which acts like an upside-down suspension bridge the flat concrete is being kept up by the steel wires, rather than hanging down from it. The auditorium can seat 2,400 people, which includes a choir of nearly 300. Every seat has been specially designed so that even if it is not a full house, all the sound bounces as though every chair was taken. The Bridgewater Hall organ is the largest mechanical organ to be installed in Britain this century. It has over 5,500 pipes the largest is on the front and is 32 feet long, the smallest is less than 2 inches. The whole organ is the size of a four-storey house with stairs and passageways inside. The organ weighs 22 tons and cost 120,000 to build.

10 The Organ at The Bridgewater Hall and the Choir seating area The Main Auditorium. Notice the funny angles formed by the Circle and Gallery seats?

11 Some of the Spring Boxes that hold up the auditorium. The Hallé rehearsing on the stage.

COME AND PLAY WITH THE HALLÉ

COME AND PLAY WITH THE HALLÉ CONCERTS FOR SCHOOLS STRICTLY HALLÉ CONDUCTED BY JONATHON HEYWARD PRESENTED BY TOM REDMOND SUMMER 2018 THE BRIDGEWATER HALL, MANCHESTER RESOURCE PACK FOR TEACHERS Supported