JOURNEY THROUGH MUSIC

Saturday 5 November, 7.30pm

Tragedy and Humour; Darkness and Light

Sibelius Tapiola (18 mins)

Kaija Saariaho Notes on Light (28 mins)

Interval: 20 mins

Weill Violin Concerto (28 mins)

Britten Four Sea Interludes from ‘Peter Grimes’

(14 mins)

Jakob Kullberg cello BBC PhilharmonicJohn Storgårds conductor/violin

ARE YOU READY TO BEGIN YOUR MUSICAL JOURNEY OF DISCOVERY?

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Our Journey Through Music scheme at Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall is an affordable and enjoyable introduction to the world of concert-going and classical music. For young people and children from the age of 8, our special scheme is aimed at making our concerts easily accessible for families and anybody who wants to discover orchestral music or to explore it further.

Ready to begin?Join us on this musical journey and discover the unforgettable world of classical music. Three performances will feature a pre-concert session suitable for all ages – but every concert in the 2016/17 season is available at a special family-ticket price. Plus – choose your seat anywhere in the house for the same price:• £7 for children aged 16 and under• £12 for accompanying adults• £35 family ticket, for 4 people (maximum of 2 adults)These prices include a £2 booking fee so you know there’s no extra costs when you book – just be sure to book in advance as these are not available on the day.

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE ORCHESTRA

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WHAT IS AN ORCHESTRA?An orchestra is a group of instrumental players who perform together, usually led by a conductor.

The modern symphony orchestra usually has somewhere between 60 and 90 players: around 30 violins, 12 violas, 10 cellos, eight double basses; two or three each of flutes, oboes, clarinets and bassoons; four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, a tuba, a harp and an assortment of percussion instruments. You can find out more about the instruments, and where they sit, on the next two pages after this.

THE CONDUCTORThe person in charge is usually the conductor, who stands at the front and directs the orchestra from a podium, keeping time either by waving a short stick, called a baton, or sometimes just with his or her hands. One of the earliest conductors, the Italian-born Frenchman Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632–87), kept his orchestra together by banging a big stick on the floor, but one day he accidentally stabbed his foot and soon afterwards died of gangrene. It’s not as dangerous these days!

Part of the conductor’s job is to show the beat (or pulse) of the music so that all the musicians play together in time. He or she also signals when individual musicians or groups have to start or stop playing. All the time conductors are listening to the overall sound-balance, and altering it, to make sure that the important instruments don’t get drowned out by less important ones. Otherwise, like lots of people talking loudly at the same time, the result would be chaos!

But there’s more to it than this. The conductor can also help to reveal the changing moods of the music. If they can create a strong musical image for the listener, the effect can make us feel all sorts of emotions: happiness, sadness, fear, pride and everything in between. The music might energise you, or it might make you feel you’ve fallen into a dream.

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THE ORCHESTRA ON STAGEMost orchestras have a similar seating plan, with the strings at the front, the woodwind behind them and the brass and percussion further back still.

WOODWINDThe woodwind section sits behind the strings, often in two rows. There are four different instruments, usually in pairs, but in bigger orchestras there can be up to three or four players of each instrument. The metal flutes produce a high, bright, silvery sound. The piccolo is like a small flute and plays very high up. Oboes are black wooden instruments with a detachable reed, which gives them a distinctive sharp-edged sound. Before a concert starts, the whole orchestra tunes up to the note ‘A’ sounded by the Principal Oboe. A bigger, lower version of the oboe is the cor anglais, or ‘English horn’. Clarinets have a more hollow, woody sound. The lowest-sounding member of its family is the bass clarinet. The lowest woodwind instrument is the bassoon, which is long and heavy and has to be supported by a sling round the player’s neck. The contra-bassoon is so long that it’s bent double. Occasionally a piece will need extra instruments, such as the saxophone, which is more usually found in a jazz band.

BRASSLike the strings and woodwind, the brass family has four groups. There are French horns (usually four), instruments once associated with hunting, while the trumpets came from military bands, and often have fanfare-like parts. Trombones are played with a movable slide but, in spite of their size, they can play amazingly fast notes; and finally the enormous tuba makes the deepest notes of all.

PERCUSSIONThe percussion section sits at the back of the orchestra and centres around the timpani, or kettledrums – between two and four copper drums. They have pedals, which alter their pitch (or notes). The bass drum is hit with just one stick; while the metal cymbals are clashed together, often when the music gets very loud. The side-drum is a small military drum that can play very quietly or very loudly indeed. Sometimes composers ask for a variety of other percussion instruments, such as the xylophone, the marimba or even whistles, whips and sirens.

STRINGSString players sit at the front in a semi-circle, usually with the violins on the left and the cellos on the right. Each of the string sections (and also the woodwind, brass and percussion sections) has a principal, who leads the section. The strings divide into four sections: violins, violas, cellos and double basses. The violins are subdivided into first violins and second violins, with the Firsts generally having a slightly more difficult and brilliant part. Violas are bigger than violins, with a deeper, mellower sound. The cellos have a rounded, bass sound. The huge double basses (which are played standing up, or perched on a high stool) add depth to the string sound. The harp is played with fingers instead of a bow, and it has a series of complicated pedals that change its pitch (or notes).

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TONIGHT'S MUSIC

Jean Sibelius (1865–1957)Tapiola (1926)

Jean Sibelius came from Finland. It’s a land of endless lakes and forests, stretching right up to the Arctic Circle. In the winter, the lakes freeze, the land is blanketed with snow, and the sun rises for only a few hours a day – but when it’s clear the fabulous shimmering colours of the Northern Lights can fill the sky. In the summer, the sun almost never sets at all, and the daylight streams through the forests.

Sibelius loved his home country, its landscape and its stories. In 1926, he wrote this piece - a ‘tone poem’, or in other words, a piece that tells a story or creates a mood through music (like a poem often does, but with music instead of words). He called it Tapiola – after Tapio, the mysterious god of the Finnish forests. When a conductor asked him the story behind the music, he sent him this short poem (which is more evocative in its original Finnish):

Widespread they stand, the Northland’s dusky forests,Ancient, mysterious, brooding savage dreams;Within them dwells the forest’s mighty god,And wood-sprites in the gloom weave magic secrets.

And that’s really all you need to know – we’re off on a journey taking us deep into a huge, wild, mysterious forest…

What to listen for• The trees: after a gloomy drumroll, the music moves

slowly. Imagine tree trunks as far as you can see, with the light occasionally breaking through the leaves. Long, slow notes in the background make the music feel huge and still.

• The elements: the forest is never completely still or quiet. Listen for the woodwind instruments (sitting in the middle of the orchestra). What are they suggesting? A rustle of leaves? Trilling birdsong? Or something more mysterious?

• Something mysterious: very, very slowly … do you get the feeling there’s something big lurking in the shadows? Watch the brass instruments, at the back of the orchestra – when they have something to say, we’ll know about it!

What else could I listen to?Sibelius’s seven symphonies are full of the spirit of the Far North – if you enjoyed Tapiola, why not begin with Nos. 2 and 5, which both have great tunes in them.

TONIGHT'S MUSIC

Kaija Saariaho (born 1952)Notes on Light (2006)

1 Translucent, secret2 On fire3 Awakening4 Eclipse5 Heart of Light Jakob Kullberg cello

Who says classical composers are all dead? The Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho is alive and well and living in Paris. She writes the most wonderful music – as if she’s looking up at the sun, stars or clouds, and then turning what she sees into sound. When she was a girl growing up in Finland, she heard the music of Sibelius, and when she was in bed at night she imagined she could hear her own music coming out of the pillow! She was determined to be a composer, even though back then some people still told her she couldn’t because she was a girl. They look a bit silly now – today, Kaija is one of the most incredible composers in the world.

She wrote Notes on Light in 2006, and it’s for a single (‘solo’) instrument – a cello – with an orchestra questioning it, supporting it and colouring in the background. It’s made up of five separate shorter pieces (or ‘movements’) and Kaija has given each one a title explaining what it’s about. Each piece is about a different kind of light: how it feels, what it would sound like if you could hear it. Let your ears – and imagination – do the rest.

What to listen for• The cello: our soloist Jakob Kullberg is an amazing player,

and Kaija asks him to make all sorts of wonderful and strange sounds. Listen for when he double-stops (plays more than one note at a time, which is very tricky) plays sul ponticello (this is Italian for ‘near the bridge’ and it creates a quiet, whispery, silvery sound) and creates ‘harmonics’ (ghostly high notes that seem to gleam as if they’re made of glass). Sometimes he just plays long,

sweet, singing tunes; at others, such as ‘On fire’, the music scampers about wildly.

• The orchestra: Kaija makes the orchestra seem to glow – at other times it’s as if it’s in shadow. Watch the string instruments as they put mutes on their instruments – little black devices that make them sound muffled and mysterious. And listen out for the sounds in the percussion section, at the vey back – there are lots of chimes and glinting noises.

• Beginnings and endings: every piece of music is a journey. Near the start, the cello and the orchestra seem to slide and droop downwards (as if they can’t quite wake up). At the very end, the cello climbs higher and higher and the music gets brighter and brighter – as if it’s dissolving into the light.

What else could I listen to?There’s so much wonderful music by Kajia Saariaho to explore, and she’s writing more all the time! Try her musical portrait of the constellation Orion.

Interval: 20 minutes (time for an ice-cream!)

TONIGHT'S MUSIC

Kurt Weill (1900–50)Violin Concerto (1924)

1 Andante con moto (At a walking pace)2 Notturno – 3 Cadenza – 4 Serenata 5 Allegro molto, un poco agitato (Very fast

and a little anxiously)

John Storgårds violin

Kurt Weill grew up in Germany during the First World War. After the war, it was a time of great change. For over a century before that, German composers had written music about love and nature, but Weill lived in Berlin – a city full of traffic, shops, bright lights and nightclubs. He was a young, modern composer and he wanted to write music that sounded like the world he lived in. Later, he wrote pop songs and musicals.

He wrote this piece in 1924, and it’s a concerto – a piece in which one solo player shows what they can do in front of a whole orchestra. The violin is an instrument that makes a sweet sound, as if it’s singing. Weill didn’t want things to get too sweet and slushy, so he got rid of all the violins and other string instruments in the orchestra, leaving just the wind, brass and percussion instruments. They make a bright, hard, busy-sounding world in which the violin has to sing its song – a bit like the world Weill lived in. The soloist today is our conductor, John Storgårds, and incredibly he’s going to conduct and play at the same time. Don’t believe it? Just watch!

What to listen for1 Andante con moto (At a walking pace)• The music begins slowly and sadly, but soon becomes

busy and anxious. Listen to how the sound of the violin stands out from the orchestra – as if it’s wandering the streets. Where will it go?

2 Notturno• ‘Notturno’ is Italian for ‘night piece’ – and it’s a night full

of weird sounds, some far away, some up close. The violin sounds as if it’s curious: it has a conversation with the xylophone (the clattering, wooden percussion instrument at the back of the orchestra). The music slows down and goes straight into…

3 Cadenza• Usually, a cadenza is the part in a concerto in which the

soloist breaks free to play alone. But he’s not entirely alone here – the trumpet seems to be stalking him, until …

4 Serenata• The wind instruments play a quiet, quirky sounding tune,

and the violin sings and sings while they chug away. A ‘serenata’ is Italian for ‘serenade’ – a love song traditionally sung outside.

5 Allegro molto, un poco agitato (Very fast and a little anxiously)• It begins quietly, but soon everyone is racing along – as if

the orchestra is chasing the violin. Who wins?

What else could I listen to?Kurt Weill’s music sounds like no-one else’s! His ‘Kleine Dreigroschenmusik’ suite (from his ‘play with music’ The Threepenny Opera) is very catchy.

TONIGHT'S MUSIC

Benjamin Britten (1913–76)Four Sea Interludes from ‘Peter Grimes’ (1945)1 Dawn2 Sunday Morning 3 Moonlight 4 Storm

Benjamin Britten came from the seaside town of Lowestoft in Suffolk, where his parents’ house looked straight out over the North Sea. So when he was growing up, he saw the sea every day of the year, in good weather and bad. In 1945, when he was one of Britain’s most famous composers, he wrote an opera called Peter Grimes – the story of a lonely fisherman in a town not far from Lowestoft. And he put the music of the sea into every scene.

How did he manage it? Between the different scenes of the opera – while the scenery was being changed – Britten wrote four ‘Interludes’ (pieces to be played ‘in between’) showing the different moods of the sea. With Britten’s music, plus a bit of imagination, you can almost taste the salt!

What to listen for1 Dawn• The violins and flutes play alone – like a bright ray of

light in a huge empty expanse. Listen out for the sudden breeze that ruffles the water.

2 Sunday Morning• Sunday Morning: The horns pretend to be chiming bells,

while people bustle here and there. What kind of Sunday morning would you say this is? Sunny? Breezy? Cold or warm?

3 Moonlight• Moonlight: On the beach at night, waves lap gently up

and down the sand (listen to the string instruments). The moonlight catches the waves in little glints – can you hear the flutes gleaming on each wave?

4 Storm• Storm: Black clouds, screaming seagulls and waves as big

as houses! The string instruments boil and swirl, and the trombones of the orchestra snarl and sway.

What else could I listen to?Every musical young person should hear Britten’s The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra. Yes, it’s really called that (but adults are allowed to listen too).

Notes © Richard Bratby

JOURNEY THROUGH MUSIC PRE-CONCERT SESSIONS

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This season we have special pre-concert introductions at three concerts. Join us a bit earlier on the concert night to discover more about the orchestra and the music being performed.

Saturday 4 February 2017Relishing in Revolution

Music by Beethoven, Saint-Saëns & DebussyPre-concert session, 6.30pm

Friday 26 May 2017Concert Fantastique

Music by Arvo Pärt, Berlioz & Mark SimpsonPre-concert session, 6.30pm