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Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford

Wednesday 13 June 2001, 8 pm


Brahms

Double Concerto for Violin and 'Cello


Double Concerto for Violin and 'Cello

Daniel Bhattacharya, violin, and Andrew Taylor, cello.


Jonathan Clarke

Lament

A major new cantata for soprano, tenor and baritone soloists, chorus and orchestra, setting poems by Shakespeare, Blake, Arthur O’Shaughnessy, Tim Craig and Philip Larkin.

Claire Hollocks, soprano; Neill Bramble, tenor; Rohan de Lanerolle, baritone.

James Ross, conductor

The Orchestra is pleased to acknowledge the Holst Foundation with gratitude for a grant towards to costs of this concert.

Brahms        Double Concerto for Violin and 'Cello

The Double Concerto is Brahms' last orchestral work. It was written in 1887 as an act of rapprochement with his old friend Joseph Joachim, the violinist for whom he had written the Violin Concerto eight years earlier. Joachim's divorce had offended Brahms greatly, but after several years of silence he renewed contact suggesting the concerto, and their their friendship resumed. The 'cellist was Robert Hausman, a long-standard member of Joachim's String Quartet.

Even by Brahms' high standards, the Double Concerto is a work of both extraordinary fluency and emotional power. It is a product of a lifetime's composing, and solves with apparent effortlessness the challenges of combining two solo lines with both each other and with orchestra. After four bars from the orchestra, the first movement introduces the solo 'cello, and after an allusion to the later second subject, the solo violin, becoming a double cadenza before the main orchestral tutti begins. A full-scale sonata-form movement follows, with a vigorous full orchestral exposition, after which the soloists take the lead. A falling clarinet figure leads to the 'cello introducing the second subject in full in C major. The development is dominated by a syncopated figure derived from the orchestral exposition; the orchestral recapitulation is cut short by the soloists, and the violin re-introduces the second subject in A major. The coda is an energetic reassertion of A minor.

The slow movement in D major contains one of Brahms' most simple and beautiful melodies, played by the soloists in octaves. Two short episodes, the first introduced by the woodwinds, provide subtle contrast before the opening melody returns. The 'cello starts the third movement with a lively polka-tempo melody; it provides the movement's dominant idea, against which are contrasted a series of varied ideas including a strong chordal subject first played in C major by the 'cello, and a syncopated woodwind melody, returning in A major, the key in which the dance-like opening theme returns and in which the concerto ends exuberantly.

Lament          An introduction by Jonathan Clarke

When I first considered composing a cantata for the Earth, I was torn between how to express the often-tragic sense of the planet we inhabit without making the music overly morose. Throughout Lament, I have endeavoured to retain intimations of optimism in both text and music.

The texts I have chosen are primarily abstract. O'Shaughnessy's Ode allows me to present the musicians in a narrative context. I feel that the text suggests that music, and indeed art generally, can better represent life than mundane realism. Escapism can be preferable to the harshness of society. In Blake's A Poison Tree the inherently violent nature of society is expressed vividly, while Larkin's Ignorance conveys with characteristically sardonic humour the feelings of insignificance and helplessness that plague us all at some point in our lives.

Tim Craig's Lament for Mother Earth highlights the ecologically abusive nature of humanity. The sentiment that 'the world's big enough to look after itself' is clearly a denial of the irreparable damage we are inflicting on the planet. The text carries a poignant warning to guard against such complacency. The 'narrative' context of the musicians completes the work with Prospero's monologue from Act IV scene I of The Tempest. I intend these lines to convey a false sense of reassurance. The actors may have 'melted into air, into thin air'; unfortunately for humanity, the tribulations of the world they have been expressing do not so easily go away.

I have endeavoured to keep the musical and the textual language combined throughout Lament. Much of the music has a driving sense of rhythm and with frequent use of ostinato figures. This is particularly evident through the first and third movements and in the 'cellos in the second movement. These driving phrases build up a sense of intensity whilst emphasising the lack of respite from the themes of the text. The chorus is used in the first and third movements to emphasise the motifs of the baritone and soprano soloists, rather than standing as a separate musical entity. These are many sudden shifts in the text from optimism to despair, most obviously in the fourth movement, set to Larkin's Ignorance. The opening passages are rapid, almost tongue-in-cheek settings that incorporate Latin dance textures. This suddenly gives way to a funereal quality in the music, the horn leading this change between bright and sombre textures. The scoring is more intimate in the second and fourth movements than the others, reflecting the more personal themes of the texts. The dense divided viola and 'cello string scoring of the second movement allows contrast with the high tenor solo. In the fourth movement the four horn parts correspond likewise with the oboe. The finale reworks the opening orchestral theme from a minor tonality to a modal one. At  the end this brighter sonority gives way to stasis, conveying the false relief that the baritone soloist has just propounded.

Daniel Bhattacharya, violin, began playing the violin aged three. His musical education has encompassed the Purcell School, the Royal Northern College of Music and the Royal Conservatory of Music, Toronto with professors including Nick Roth, Yossi Zivoni and Lorand Fenyves. His solo performances have included concert appearances at the Seville International Music Festival and Bath Georgorian Festival. He has given recitals in the Purcell Room, Litchfield and Brighton Festivals, and tours of Russia, India, Switzerland and Canada. Until recently Daniel was associate-principal second violin in the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. In addition, he plays regularly with the London Philharmonic, Glyndebourne Touring Orchestra, City of London Sinfonia and the BT Scottish Ensemble. Daniel is also leader of Ensemble Esteeika', formed by composer Tunde Jegedo and Paul Gladstone-Reid to specialise in modern African classical music.

Andrew Taylor, 'cello, was born in Durham in 1974 and began 'cello aged eight, with Kitty Peacock, subsequently studying at St. Mary's Music School in Edinburgh with Ruth Beauchamp. At school he participated in masterclasses with Steven Isserlis and made his concert debut aged sixteen with Saint-Saëns' Concerto in A minor. In 1995 he graduated with first-class honours in music from Lancaster University and was awarded a British Academy studentship to complete a study on contemporary 'cello-playing and teaching. During the 1990s Andrew studied with David Fletcher and performed concertos by Brahms Elgar, Haydn, Lalo and Schumann, chamber music as part of the Serafin Quartet, appearing in Europe and the USA. In 2000 he completed his postgraduate diploma at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Leonard Stehn, also appearing in the 2000 BBC Proms. Andrew has performed with the Christ Church Festival Orchestra since 1999; he plays on a 'cello made in 1999 by Italian maker Fabrizio Portanti.

Jonathan Clarke, composer, was born in Solihull in 1977; aged twelve he won the West Midlands under-16 Piano and Organ Championships, reaching the National Yamaha Finals. Aged 14 he was appointed organist at St Benedict’s Small Heath and awarded Solihull School’s organ scholarship. In 1996 he was appointed organ scholar at Trinity College, Oxford, where he studied under David Goode and Thomas Trotter, and recorded a CD of Trinity College Choir with Priory Records. He graduated with a BA (music) in 1999 and was appointed Head of Organ Studies at Eltham College, London, and Organist and Choirmaster at Knowle Church, Birmingham. He was guest soloist for the tercentenary of Castle Howard, Yorkshire; other recent engagements have included at Durham and Birmingham Cathedrals and for the BBC’s Songs of Praise. Jonathan’s first major compositions were for the theatre: his Piano Quartet was used for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead at the Old Fire Station, Oxford; his musical, Empty Spaces, in collaboration with lyricism Tim Craig, was described as ‘beautiful and haunting’ by Oxford Daily Information. He has worked on editorial projects for Virgo Music Publishing: his realisation of the St. Thomas Sonata, the oldest surviving known work for solo trombone, was praised for its ‘skilful and idiomatic qualities’ by the American Brass Society Journal. His Romance for Bassoon and Piano is on the Associated Board Syllabus. Lament is his most ambitious work to date.

Claire Hollocks, soprano, studied English and Music at Southampton University and took and an MA (Music) in the Vocal Studies Department of Birmingham Conservatoire. During her studies she participated in a Master Class for Les Arts Florissants and in operas including Monteverdi's Coronation of Poppea and Cavalieri's Rappresentatione di anima e di corpo. Subsequent operatic performances have included Belinda and 2nd Witch in Purcell's
Dido and Aeneas and Melissa in Lully's Cadmus et Hermione on Dartington Summer School's Early Opera Course. She is an experience oratorio soloist, including in Fauré's Requiem, Haydn's Nelson Mass, Mozart's Requiem and Handel's Messiah. She has just completed a tour of Vienna and Prague as a member of the Posaune Voce Trio with whom she also visited Washington D.C. in March to perform with the United States Army Orchestra. Claire currently sings in the Midlands-based choir Ex Cathedra and at Birmingham Oratory, and teaches singing for The Royal Wolverhampton School and Wolverhampton Grammar School.

Neill Bramble, tenor, started singing in Solihull School Chapel Choir in 1992. Since then he has studied with Pamela Davies, receiving awards at the Lichfield Festival and Dudley Festival of Music. Last year he won ‘Singing Challenge 2000’, organised by the City Of Birmingham Choir, with whom he now sings. Neill’s solo experience includes Handel’s Messiah, Schubert’s Mass In G, Handel’s Dixit Dominus, and, on stage, Tony in West Side Story. Last Christmas he performed solo works in the ‘Carols For All’ concert at Symphony Hall in Birmingham. In the last year he has also toured to Ireland with the Charles Wood Singers, working with distinguished musicians including Dr Barry Rose. He is currently studying medicine at Birmingham University at the same time as developing his solo and choral singing career.



Violin 1
Aline Nassif, leader
Rebecca Wallis
Tim Pryce
Pippa Whitehouse
Hanh Doan
Rowena Smith
Merith Godwin-Greer
Katie Neeves
Emily Allen

Violin 2
Richard Coxson
Helen Rowley
Holly Dowlen
Claire Townsend
Fiona Samuels
Anna Storrs
Kathryn Staley
Kate Gould