The Scottish Chamber Orchestra launches its 2014/15 Season, which runs from October 2014 to May 2015. One of the most widely travelled of the national performing companies, the Orchestra continues its commitment to serve the whole of Scotland with main season concerts and events in Edinburgh, Glasgow, St Andrews, Aberdeen, Perth, Inverness, Ayr and Dumfries, as well as far-ranging summer touring to the Highlands and Islands.
Now in his sixth season with the SCO (and committed to the Orchestra until at least 2018) Principal Conductor Robin Ticciati opens the Season with Mahler’s Symphony No 4, a perfect showcase for mezzo soprano Karen Cargill, who will also perform Mahler’s songs (Kindertotenlieder and Das Lied von der Erde) in programmes featuring Haydn, who is Ticciati’s passion and ripe for exploration with the SCO, long-time exponents of his work. Ticciati conducts the Orchestra in no fewer than four Haydn symphonies and is set to record six symphonies in spring 2015 on Linn Records. Ticciati’s decision to explore this particular repertoire with the SCO sets out to challenge preconceptions about Haydn and show the composer in a renewed light. Ticciati explains:
“Haydn allows one to create the most wonderful stories! A three bar phrase or an interrupted cadence mean nothing with this composer unless performers and audiences alike risk telling a tale together. It is 'absolute' music behind which an imagined world plays on: scenes full of nature, creatures, and humans all jostling for their place. I have enjoyed including his works into our concert programmes over the last five years and now look forward to shining the spotlight on Haydn, who, after all, looked after the young Mozart and inspired Beethoven.”
A strong thread of Ticciati’s enthusiasm for Schumann (he conducted performances and recordings of the complete Schumann symphonies in 2013/14) is woven into the new Season when he conducts world-renowned violinist Christian Tetzlaff in the Violin Concerto, while the recording of the complete symphony cycle will also be released in September 2014.
The ‘Piano Classics’ concert series within the 2014/15 Season features some of the world’s most celebrated pianists performing repertoire spanning three centuries. Mitsuko Uchida performs Ravel’s Piano Concerto (who returns as a guest artist after more than 20 years); Elisabeth Leonskaja makes her SCO debut with the two monumental Brahms concertos in one concert; and award-winning Ingrid Fliter plays Chopin’s Piano Concerto No 1 in E minor, under the baton of conductor Jun Märkl (having received huge acclaim for her recently released recording of Chopin’s piano concertos with SCO and Märkl). Beethoven’s Piano Concertos 1 and 2 are presented by Welshman Llŷr Williams – a longstanding friend of the Orchestra – and Piano Concerto No 4 by Francesco Piemontesi, recipient of the 2012 BBC Music Magazine Rising Star Award.
Renowned for its commitment to the creation and performance of new work, the SCO delivers the world premieres of two new commissions by Toshio Hosokawa (Aeolus, October 2014) and John McLeod (Out of the Silence, January 2015), the latter written in tribute to composer Carl Nielsen whose 150th anniversary is celebrated in 2015 (along with Sibelius whose Symphony No 4 is performed in the same programme). Candlebird by SCO Associate Composer Martin Suckling receives its Scottish premiere, and the Orchestra also performs the UK premieres of Hosokawa’s Meditation, dedicated to the victims of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan, and Swedish composer Rolf Martinsson’s Garden of Devotion, a SCO co-commission with the Kammarorkester Musica Vitae.
The SCO Chorus is widely recognised as having gone from strength to strength under the direction of young Chorusmaster Greg Batsleer. In 2014/15 it will showcase its talents in performances of some of the greatest choral works ever written: Handel’s Messiah and Haydn’s Creation, conducted by SCO Associate Artist Richard Egarr and Christopher Hogwood respectively (both known as eloquent advocates of historically-informed performance) and Haydn’s joyful Harmoniemesse conducted by celebrated Estonian conductor Tõnu Kaljuste.
The SCO is always proud to be an ambassador for Scottish cultural excellence overseas and once again goes on tour with Ticciati. Following hugely successful forays to the Far East and to Austria in the 2013/14 Season (and the major concert halls of Europe the season before) the Orchestra embarks on an extensive Continental tour in March 2015 with guest violinist Renaud Capuçon, visiting Cologne, Vienna, Toulouse, Grenoble, and culminating in a concert at the Aix-en-Provence Easter Festival.
SCO Connect – the Orchestra’s dedicated education and outreach department – continues its work to inspire and engage with people of all backgrounds, ages and abilities across Scotland. In 2014/15 its wide-ranging creative programme includes opportunities for families to engage with the SCO and its musicians through special concerts such as Sir Scallywag and the Golden Underpants (February 2015), creative projects in schools such as SCO VIBE; community initiatives such as the SCO ReConnect music and dementia project, and opportunities for people to develop their skills and appreciation of music through adult educational events such as SCO Explore days.
Speaking about the Orchestra’s 2014/15 Season, SCO Chief Executive Roy McEwan commented:
“We’re delighted to share another wonderful season of music with our audiences across Scotland, bringing together outstanding repertoire, an excellent line-up of guest artists and conductors, and of course our own SCO players shining in both solo performances and ensemble playing. Following the Orchestra’s 40th Anniversary in the 2013/14 Season, we look forward to the future with renewed commitment to bringing the SCO’s unique sound to as many people as possible across the country, through concert hall performance, and education and outreach events involving all sections of the community.”