' '"-
Security checks have been
re-instituted at Town Hall
entrances and patrons are
requested to arrive in good
time for concerts.
Programme 15p
CBSD
THURSDAY 9 OCTOBER 1975 at 7.30 p.m.
TOWN HALL, BIRMINGHAM
Conductor Louis Fremaux
Soloists Beaux Arts Trio
Isidore Cohen -violin
Bernard Greenhouse- cello
Menahem Pressler- piano
Leader Felix Kok
Overture, The Flying Dutchman
Symphony No. 2 in C, opus 61
INTERVAL
Wagner
Schumann
Light refreshments available in the Lower Gallery during the
interval. Licensed Bar in the Basement Hall where refreshments
are also available before the concert and during the interval.
The bar remains open after the concert.
Triple Concerto in C, opus 56 Beethoven
This concert is being
broadcast " live" on BBC
Radio 3.
Patrons are asked not to enter
or leave the auditorium while
the Orchestra is playing. It
would be appreciated if
patrons would refra in as far as
possible from coughing during
the performance.
CBSO records and
publications available from
the CBSO Information Desk in
Box Office No. 2 in the front
foyer during the interval and
after every CBSO concert.
Miniature scores of works to
be played in the Thursday
Series are on sale at the
CBSO Information Desk. Price
list available.
The City of Birmingham
Symphony Orchestra receives
financial assistance from the
Arts Council of Great Britain,
the West Midlands County
Council and the City of
Birmingham Council.
The BEAUX ARTS TRIO made
its first public performance in
1957 at the Berkshire Music
Festival in the United States,
since when they have carved
out an international reputation
as one of the very greatest
chamber music ensembles in
the world. Their records for
Philips are at the top of every
classical best-selling list and
have won both the Grand Prix
du Disque and the Deutscher
Schall plattenpreis. The Trio
has received high praise
everywhere it has played, from
North America to the Middle
East.
Menahem Pressler, pianist,
was taken to Israel from
Germany by his parents when
Hitler came to power. He had
started his musical studies in
Magdeburg and so took up his
professional career in his
adopted country. He became
internationally known when he
won the Claude Debussy Prize
at the age of 17, which led to
several appearances each
season with the Philadelphia
Orchestra. He has appeared
as soloist with leading
orchestras and conductors all
over the wor_ld and now makes
his home in Indiana, where he
is professor at the University.
Bernard Greenhouse, cello,
was a fellowship student at
Julliard but went to Europe for
an audition with Pablo Casals,
which developed into two
years study with the master.
He soon established a fine
reputation in recitals and
concerts throughout most of
the music centres of Europe
and the USA. He is a
renowned teacher and is on
the staff of the Manhattan
School of Music, New York
State University and the
University of Hartford. He
plays the famous " Paganini "
Stradivarius cello which is
dated 1707.
Isidore Cohen, violin, was born
in New York and also studied
at Julliard, under Ivan
Galamian. He was leader of
the Little Orchestra Society of
New York and has been leader
with many other orchestral
ensembles, including the
Casals Festival in Puerto Rico
and the Mozart Festival in New
York's Lincoln Centre. His
extensive chamber music
background includes guest
appearances with the
Budapest Quartet and in the
American series " Music from
Marlboro" .
PROGRAMME NOTES
Overture, The Flying
Dutchman
Wagner (1813-1883)
The failure of the " Dutchman"
in Dresden in 1843 was really
Wagner's own fault. Flushed
by the success of Rienzi the
previous year and impatient as
ever he withdrew the work
from Berlin , where Meyerbeer
was trying hard to persuade
the authorities to embark on a
production, and offered it to
the willing Dresdeners. Rienzi
is a run-of-the-mill Grand
Opera, with splendid
pageantry, costumes and sets
and breaks no new ground in
its shape or material. Dresden,
then, was a small provincial
town, whose occupants liked
what they knew. They certainly
• did not like this dark, morbid,
shabbily-dressed work, which
seemed so different from
Rienzi. With the benefit of
hindsight we can see the first
glimmerings of the
revolutionary zeal which some
thirty years later was to reach
fruition. Although Wagner still
keeps to the traditional devices
of arias and choruses this is
really an opera built on a
symphonic structure; with
most of the material deriving
from a few germinal themes.
The Overture presents these
themes and at the same time
is a musical synopsis. A storm
at sea is vividly portrayed and
the Dutchman's theme is
easily recognised as an
arpeggio figure on heavy
brass. The Dutchman is
doomed to sail round the world
for ever, unless he finds a
woman willing to die for him.
Even the Devil realised that to
do this and give him a sporting
chance, he needs must land
from time to time. So he is
permitted to come ashore
every seven years. He lands in
Norway and quickly finds
Senta, whose father, Daland,
has befriended him. She falls
in love and despite warnings
from her friends, she pursues
the Dutchman as he leaves
after a misunderstanding. The
ship has sailed, however, so
Senta throws herself into the
sea and by doing so releases
the Dutchman from his curse
and the opera closes with a
glimpse of the pair, blissfully
happy, ascending into heaven.
To return to the music, the
careful listener will hear a
restless arpeggio figure in the
strings which later
accompanies the Dutchman's
first big scene. The storm
subsides and cor anglais plays
the main theme of Senta's
ballad in which she expresses
her love for the Dutchman.
The working out depicts the
endless wanderings and
longing for death. A shanty
interrupts this, but the storm
returns and Senta's theme is
heard again, but this time ff
conquering all. The
Dutchman's theme re-appears
triumphantly, with one brief
reference to Senta's love,
before the last crescendo to a
powerful chord.
Harry Jones ©
Symphony No. 2 in C,
opus 61
Schumann (1810-1856)
Sostenuto assai - allegro ma
non troppo
Scherzo: allegro vivace
Adagio espressivo
Allegro molto vivace
So many beautiful ideas are
enshrined in Schumann's four
symphonies that it has always
been a matter of regret to
musicians generally (and more
especially to conductors) that
the orchestration is at times
thick and ineffective, due in
the main to the clumsy use of
the horns in close harmony
when the composer had
recourse to two pairs. Gustav
Mahler rescored the
symphonies; but his versions
are seldom given in this
country, for conductors are
somewhat chary (perhaps
rightly) of performing
hyphenated arrangements of
the great masterpieces of
music, preferring the original
versions whatever their
defects.
But in the isolated case of this
second symphony Schumann
confined himself to one pair of
horns -with great gain to the
clear presentation of the
music itself. For he used these
instruments here in the
diatonic classical manner, with
but few chromatic notes
interpolated to make the music
congested or overloaded with
brassiness.
The second symphony was
composed in 1845-6 and first
performed at a Leipzig
Gewandhaus Concert on
16 November 1846,
Mendelssohn conducting. Its
composition came at that time
when Schumann was first
beginning to show signs of
those mental hallucinations
which ultimately brought about
his early end. But his powers
of resistence enabled him to
fight back. 'The first
movement', he wrote when he
had recovered his health, 'is
full of this combat and its
character is one of stubborn
capriciousness; it was only in
the finale that I began to feel
myself again '.
Yet we must not judge this
neglected symphony mainly as
an example of Schumann's
more pathological style, for
the music is healthy enough in
its own right and admirably
bound together in somewhat
cyclic form by the simple
tonic-dominant figure on horn,
trumpets and alto trombone
with which the first movement
opens mysteriously, and which
finds its way unobtrusively into
the finale (perhaps more by
accident than design) .
In the introductory sostenuto
assai section of the first
movement and its piu vivace
continuation Schumann
unfolds his ideas in such
logical progression of thought
that we can certainly reach
the conclusion that Brahms
must have been largely
influenced by this symphony
when in later years he came to
know it. The piu vivace section
referred to above (in its
woodwind phrases) generates
the theme of the allegro that
follows. Throughout its pages
we feel the combative spirit in
the music, though it is
conditioned by a C major
optimism scarcely affected by
Schumann's ill-health at the
time. The scherzo - one in
2/ 4 time; in its spate of
semiquavers not unlike that in
Mendelssohn's Scotch
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Symphony - has two Trios, Triple Concerto in C, animated by duty, not in the dominant key (G) but in
the second of which brings opus 56 inspiration'. Even Tovey draws A, both major and minor. The
temporary repose to music far attention to the composer's development is mainly
more agitated in character Beethoven ( 1770-1827) use of 'dry themes in order to concerned with the principal
than anything in the first concentrate attention on tone- theme, especially its basic
movement. (Once again we Allegro colour', though he also five-note motive: in general,
feel the impact of its cross- Largo- describes it as 'an unlucky the two solo strings take the
rhythms on Brahms's Rondo alia Polacca work which repays initiative, the piano, though
symphonic music). In this sympathetic study'. prominent, tending to have a
scherzo, Schumann omits the Sympathetic listening, too, of supporting and embellishing
three trombones and in the The Classical concerto course, which is particularly function. The beginning of the
adagio that follows, the employing two or more solo important as performances are recapitulation is marked by a
timpani as well. Here the instruments is a rare few. So let us approach this full restatement of the
music goes into the minor key phenomenon, the two most 'unlucky work' without too principal theme in a powerful
of C to remind us suddenly notable examples being many preconceptions, noting tutti. At the point where we
that this Symphony does not Brahms's Op. 102 for violin, first that the scale of the outer would normally expect a
vary its tonality in any cello and orchestra and the movements, though largely cadenza, there is a passage
movement - something a Triple Concerto of Beethoven. determined by the presence of featuring the soloists in a
parallel to which it may be This rareness may be the three solo instruments, is more virtuosic manner.
hard to find in symphonies explained in terms of a basic supported by a number of fine
consisting of several The Largo begins in AIJ major, contradiction : that between imaginative strokes, and that
movements. Yet the music giving the soloists ample the Largo is more an a key anticipated by the
brings its own pathos in opportunity and creating a introduction to the finale than orchestra immediately before
thematic and harmonic closely-knit dramatic form . Put a movement in its own right. the quasi-cadenza, and
developments wherein we more positively, it is a problem
gradually modulates to the
sometimes catch a glimpse of of reconciliation. What Be it 'dry' or otherwise, all the dominant of C, at which point
Beethovenish grandeur. prompted Beethoven to tackle thematic material of the first it leads directly into the finale.
Strangely enough, this the problem? According to movement is more or less (An interesting comparison
movement also finds its Schindler, the Triple Concerto related through the prevalence might be made with the slow
u~ltimate goal in the major key was written for the Archduke of dotted-quaver-and- movement of the Fourth Piano
in a long final section which Rudolph, the violinist Seidler semiquaver figures. The Concerto, written a year or so
sinks to rest after a chromatic and the cellist Kraft. That was hushed opening of the lower later.) The orchestra, its
passage revealing Schumann's in 1803-4, and the first strings invites comparison with violins muted, plays a
more despairing state of mind. performance was probably the the (then unwritten) Violin relatively small part here, tor
1 The finale, allegro motto one given at a benefit concert Concerto; the method is this movement is essentially a
vivace - which in the course in the Augartensaal, Vienna, in essentially the same, that of reflective discourse for the
of the opening theme revels in May 1808. Apart from the emphasizing a point- in each three solo instruments, the
the sunlight of a similar theme evidence in a couple of case, the principal idea - by piano contributing delicate
in Mendelssohn's Italian sketchbooks, little more is means of quiet, deliberate arabesques and arpeggios,
Symphony - is joyous by known about the work, and it musical speech. This first mainly from its lower octaves.
comparison; unflagging in its is impossible to say what sort impulse is expanded in a tutti, The Rondo alia Polacca, in
energy; attempting a somewhat of inner prompting Beethoven where it is followed by two 3/4, is in the manner of a
half-hearted return (on brass) experienced. further themes, the first of polonaise. Spaciously
to the first theme of the which is destined for the role designed, and lively and
symphony (as if to remind the On the whole, the Triple of 'second subject'. After an buoyant throughout, this gives
listener of health restored) , Concerto has had a poor emphatic cadence in the tonic plenty of scope to the soloists
and finally reaching its very press, and this despite a key, the solo instruments enter and is by no means
diatonic end with the number of strikingly individual successively - cello, violin, predictable in the moves it
ascending scale passage that features. For Marion Scott it is piano - and so begins a makes. The rondo theme is
marked the beginning of the a work that 'rouses sonata exposition. The 'first first heard at the outset, where
movement. expectations of great music it subject' acquires an important the low dynamic level and the
© never fulfils, deals out new second theme - high pitch of the solo cello,
platitudinous craftsmanship, orchestra, then solo cello - directed to be played sotto
and is, in fact, Beethoven and the 'second subject' is not voce, create a distinctive
Public Evening Concerts
on Mondays at the University of Aston
Oct-Dec 1975
OCTOBER
13 OPERA ON FILM
DON GIOVANNI Mozart
Della Casa, Grummer, Siepi , Berry
Conducted by Furtwangler
Tickets: 2Sp (one price only)
20 PRAETORIUS CONSORT OF LONDON
director Christopher Ball
Early wind and string music
Tickets: £1 .00 ( Students/ OAPs 2Sp)
27 CONTRASTS
CAMERATA/CHRIS BRADLEY JAZZ TRIO
Tickets: SOp ( Students/OAPs 2Sp)
NOVEMBER
(Saturday)
BK
7.30
CFTA
7.30
CFTA
7.30
1 ALAN HACKER (Clarinet) GH
FRANK WIBAUT (Piano ) 7.30
ANDREW WILSON-DICKSON (Organ)
ORCHESTRA DA CAMERA
Conducted by KENNETH PAGE
Poulenc Concerto for Organ, Timpani and Strings
Mozart Clarinet Concerto in A
Chopin Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor
Tickets: £1 .00 ( Students/ OAPs 2Sp)
3 BIRMINGHAM BASSOON QUARTET
with ROBERT JOHNSTON (harp)
a programme of arrangements and original
works for this unusual combination
Tickets: SOp ( Students/ OAPs 2Sp)
10 EWAN MACCOLL AND PEGGY SEEGER
Folk Concert
Tickets: £1 .00 ( Students/ OAPs 2Sp)
17 STEPHEN BISHOP (Piano)
Schubert Sonata in DtJ
Beethoven Sonata in EtJ Op. 31 No. 3
Debussy Four Preludes
Brahms Variations on a Theme of Handel
Tickets: £1 .00 ( Students/ OAPs 2Sp)
BK Byng Kenrick Suite
CFTA Centre for the Arts
GH Great Hall
CFTA
7.30
CFTA
7.30
CFTA
7.30
NOVEMBER
(Friday)
21 MUSIC IN 12 PARTS
PHILIP GLASS ENSEMBLE
Amplified keyboards and Winds
are the media of Glass's music
Tickets: SOp (one price only)
(Promoted by the Arts Lab)
24 PIANO ROLLS
An even ing of American piano
incl. Scott Joplin and Jelly Roll Morton
played by the composers and
presented by Mike Meddings
Tickets: SOp ( Students/ OAPs 2Sp)
DECEMBER
CFTA
8.00
CFTA
7.30
1 DENIS MATTHEWS (Piano) CFTA
with KENNETH PAGE (violin) 7.30
DEREK RATCLIFFE (viol in)
BENJAMIN KENNARD (cello)
Mozart Piano Quartet in G minor K478
Kodaly Duo for violin and cello
Mozart Piano Quartet in EIJ K493
Tickets: 7Sp ( Students/OAPs 2Sp)
Tickets for the Evening Concerts are available from
Mrs Cook, Reception Office (Main Buildings) 021-3S9 3611
Ext. 6013, or the Centre for the Arts Office 021 -3S9 3979
(between 9am and 3pm), Gosta Green, B4 7ET.
Serial tickets are available (except for students and
OAPs) at the following rates:-
October- December £S.SO ( 10 Concerts, a saving of £1 .SO)
LUNCHTIME CONCERTS (free)
every Tuesday at 1pm
write or ring for details: Centre for the Arts
presence · On ·lts Im' al
appearance, this th .
transformed . . erne 1s
runnin mto lightly
a mot g semlquavers in 2/4-
th o perpetua initiated b
. e solo viol in and y
Its partners H taken up by
find an im .. ere again we
for a cadeagmatlve substitute
nza and t th
same rl me a c' ampi at ' e
basic de · e IOn of the
Sign. The I .
rhythm · po ona1se
IS restored ·
which is charac _m the coda,
livelier bravura ~enzed by even
soloists. rom the
Hugh Ottaway ©
CBSO
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Thursday 16 October
Thursday 23 October
Saturday 25 October
Thursday 30 October
1.
3.
LOUIS FREMAUX
JILL GOMEZ
VeRNON HANDLEY
LYNDA COFFIN
RICHARD WEIGALL
lAIN SUTHERLAND
VALERIE MASTERSON
JOHN BRECKNOCK
GEORGE HURST
IDA HAENDEL
2.
4.
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Forthcoming Concerts in Birmingham Town Hall at 7.30 p.m.
Rapsodie espagnole
Song cycle, Notturni ed Alba
Symphonie Fantastique
Egdon Heath }
Fugal Concerto for flute, oboe and strings
The Perfect Fool: Ballet Music
Symphony No. 1 in Al1
Johann Strauss 150th Birthday Concert
Johann Strauss II, born 25 October 1825
Overture, Carneval
Violin Concerto
Symphony No. 5 in C minor
Ravel
McCabe
Berlioz
Holst
Elgar
Dvorak
Dvorak
Beethoven
Tickets available from the Advance Booking Office in the
corridor, Victoria Square side of the Town Hall, which remains
open during the interval of all CBSO concerts.
1 Jill Gomez
2 Vernon Handley
3 Lynda Coffin
4 Richard Weiga/1
CBSD
Conductors
Leaders
Deputy Leader
1st Violins
*Stanley Smith
Philip Head
Richard Howarth
David Wood
Enid Beaumont
*Cyril Read
Andrew Szirtes
Gisela Hess
John Sutton
Sheila Clarke
Stuart Ford
Diana Levitas
Camilla Allison
2nd Violins
Jeremy Ballard
Paul Smith
Henry Birch
Michael Buckley
David Hiscox
James Hunter
Paul White
Louise Dayman
Graeme Littlewood
Alison Jones
Jane Margeson
Gina Wray
Vyvyan Brooks
Susan Eaton
Violas
John Brearley
Peter Cole
Gwyn Williams
Richard Pugh
Carol Millward
Diana Drewer
Margaret Artus
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
LOUIS FREMAUX, Principal Conductor and Musical Director
HAROLD GRAY, OBE, Associate· Conductor
FELIX KOK, JOHN BRADBURY
BARRIE MOORE
*William Danks Clarinets
Jean Cartmell Colin Parr
Jennifer Whitelaw Martyn Davies
Cellos Bass Clarinet
Christopher Vanderspar Frank Allen
Roger Ladds
David Russell
Cecily Hake Bassoons
Colin Humphreys Andrew Barnell
Alison Harper John Schroder
Edward Bosher
Elspeth Cox Double Bassoon
Sara Pacey Toddy Harman
Double Basses Horns
George Greer Robert Blackburn
Christopher Staunton Kenneth Cordingley
Alan Stevenson John Rooke
• Kenneth Burston *Paul Dudding
Robert Mitchell
Charles Wall
John Tattersdill Trumpets
Thomas Millar Alan Whitehead
Trevor Jones
Flutes
Lynda Coffin Cornet
Colin Lilley Roy Curran
Piccolo Trombones
Russell Parry David Evans
Brian Altham
Oboes
Richard Weigall Bass Trombone
*Antony Miller John Powell
Cor Anglais Tuba
Peter Walden James Gourlay
• Recipients of the CBSO long service award
General Manager and Secretary Arthur Baker
Concert Manager Beresford King-Smith
Registered Offices 60 Newhall Street, Birmingham B3 3RP. Telephone 021-236 1555
T•impani
James Strebing
Percussion
Douglas Milne
Anne Oakley
Stephen Whittaker
Harp
Robert Johnston
Orchestral Manager
Tony Evans
Platform. Manager
John Sunderland
Instruments Assistant
Gordon Carrier
I..Jibrarian
• Jame·s Wedge
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