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TUESDAY 26 NOVEMBER 2019 ST JOHN’S SMITH SQUARE 64 TH SEASON 2019/20 WEBER HINDEMITH BEETHOVEN

WEBER HINDEMITH BEETHOVEN programme 20… · PAUL HINDEMITH 1895 19- 63 NOVEMBER 2019 5 HINDEMITH Symphony: Mathis der Maler (1934) I ENGELKONZERT II GRABLEGUNG III VERSUCHUNG DES

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  • TUESDAY 26 NOVEMBER 2019ST JOHN’S SMITH SQUARE

    64TH SEASON2019/20

    WEBERHINDEMITHBEETHOVEN

  • TONIGHT’S PROGRAMME TIMELINE

    What love is to man, music is to the arts and to mankind. Music is love itself – it is the purest, most ethereal language of passion‘ There are only two things worth aiming for: good music and a clean consciencePAUL HINDEMITH Symphony: Mathis der Maler (1934), p5Music is a higher revelation than all philosophy… it comes to me more readily than words‘

    CARL MARIA VON WEBER Der Freischütz Overture (1820), p4

    LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN Symphony No.6 (1808), p7

    ‘ HINDEMITH 1895 -1963Symphony: Mathis der Maler

    BEETHOVEN

    Symphony No.6

    1770-1827

    1790 1800 1820 1830

    1840

    1850 1860 1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 19301780 19401770 1950 19601810 1970

    WEBER 1786-1826Der Freischütz Overture

    1890

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  • COVER IMAGE: Franz Marc’s Blue Horse I (1911; detail). The artist (1880-1916) was a founding member of the Blaue Reiter group and a key fi gure in German Expressionism. Photo: courtesy of the Lenbachhaus, Munich

    In accordance with the requirements of Westminster City Council, persons shall not be permitted to sit or stand in any gangway. The taking of photographs and use of recording equipment is strictly forbidden without formal consent from St John’s. Smoking is not permitted anywhere in the venue. Refreshments are permitted only in the restaurant in the crypt, which is open for licensed refreshments during the interval and after the concert. Please ensure that all digital watch alarms, pagers and mobile phones are switched off.

    PHONE 020 7222 1061 ONLINE sjss.org.uk ST JOHN’S SMITH SQUARE

    St John’s Smith Square Charitable Trust: registered charity no. 1045390; registered in England; company no. 3028678. KSO: registered charity no. 1069620

    TUESDAY 26 NOVEMBER 2019 7.30PMST JOHN’S SMITH SQUARE LONDON

    RUSSELL KEABLE ConductorALAN TUCKWOOD Leader

    WEBERDer Freischütz Overture

    BEETHOVENSymphony No.6, ‘Pastoral’

    Interval 20 minutes

    HINDEMITHSymphony: Mathis der Maler

  • TONIGHT’S PROGRAMME

    4 KENSINGTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

    C.M. VON WEBER 1786 -1826

    WEBER Der Freischütz Overture (1820)

    WHEN CARL MARIA VON WEBER conducted the first performance of Der Freischütz (The Free-Shooter or The Marksman) in June 1821, in Berlin, the curtain rose not only on a self-contained masterpiece, but also on the new Romantic movement in music, opening the door to a world that relied on the inner feelings and fantasy of the composer.

    The work, which had taken three years to complete, sealed Weber’s reputation as the father of German Romantic opera; it is perhaps no exaggeration to say that without Weber, there could have been no Wagner.

    It was so successful, however, that it overshadowed the rest of Weber’s output. This includes some of the most exuberant works ever written for clarinet and a large body of magnificent piano music, influenced by Weber’s enormous hand span of a 12th. Although it exerted a strong influence on the young Schumann, Chopin and Liszt, it is shamefully undervalued today.

    A cousin of Mozart’s wife, Constanze, Weber was an infant prodigy whose first compositions were published when he was 12. At only 17, he was put in charge of the theatre in Breslau (now Wrocław), before becoming the director of the Prague Opera.

    Finally, in 1817, he took charge of the German Opera Theatre in Dresden, a prestigious position he held until his early death. Weber was disabled from birth and suffered from tuberculosis for most of his life. By the time he died in London (he was visiting for the première of Oberon at Covent Garden) in 1826, his lungs had almost completely gone.

    The libretto of Der Freischütz is based on a popular ghost story that tells of a young forester, Max, who trades his soul to the devil in return for a set of magic bullets. By their use he hopes to win a shooting competition and with it the hand of his beloved Agathe.

    The principal characters and events of the drama are foreshadowed in the overture, including the famous midnight scene in the Wolf ’s Glen, where, against a suitably bloodcurdling backdrop of thunderbolts and other natural and supernatural manifestations, the bullets are cast.

    Carl Maria von Weber. Right, Tom Hulce and Elizabeth Berridge star in the Oscar-winning 1984 film Amadeus as Mozart and his wife, Constanze – who was also Weber’s cousin

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  • PAUL HINDEMITH 1895 -1963

    NOVEMBER 2019 5

    HINDEMITH Symphony: Mathis der Maler (1934)

    I ENGELKONZERT II GRABLEGUNG III VERSUCHUNG DES HEILIGEN ANTONIUS

    PAUL HINDEMITH WAS A PUBLIC figure all his life: not only as a composer, but also as a performer (he was the soloist in the première of Walton’s Viola Concerto in 1929), teacher and writer. Sometimes referred to as a “20th-century Bach” because of his love of counterpoint and his practical approach to the composer’s task, he was certainly immensely prolific. His works range from small pieces written for amateurs to symphonies and operas.

    Hindemith influenced a whole generation of students, teaching successively in Germany at the Berlin Hochschule, in the US at Yale University and the Tanglewood Music Center, Massachusetts (where his

    students included Leonard Bernstein), and in Switzerland at the University of Zurich.

    Matthias Grünewald (around 1470-1528) was a German painter whose work was characterised by intensely heightened colour and graphic depictions of human suffering. In the early years of the 20th century, he became a talismanic figure, especially for Expressionist artists.

    In his opera Mathis der Maler (Mathis the Painter, 1935), Hindemith clearly intended his audience to draw parallels with their own time, describing Mathis as a man “plagued by the devilish torments of a doubting, seeking soul, who experiences… the breakdown of a new era”.

    The Symphony was an offshoot of the opera, but was completed first, in 1934, as the German conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler was prodding Hindemith for a new piece for a Berlin Philharmonic tour. The work was an instant success with both the public and critics, the Telefunken company immediately making a gramophone recording of the composer conducting the Berlin Philharmonic.

    John the Baptist points towards crucified Christ in Matthias Grünewald’s Isenheim Altarpiece (1512-16; detail). The Latin text is from John 3:30: “He must increase, but I must decrease”

    CONTINUED ON P6

  • 6 KENSINGTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

    TONIGHT’S PROGRAMME

    When Furtwängler applied to his boss, Hermann Göring, for permission to produce Mathis at the Berlin State Opera, however, he was told that this could only be done with Hitler’s permission. Unfortunately, Hitler had disapproved of Hindemith since seeing his opera Neues vom Tage (News of the Day, 1929), when he was shocked by the sight of a naked soprano singing in her bath.

    Furtwängler wrote an article that he thought would help the situation but in fact made it much worse, leading to both the opera and the Symphony being banned by the Nazis as “degenerate” and to Furtwängler having to give up his official posts. Eventually, after all of his music was banned in 1936, Hindemith was forced into unwilling exile in Switzerland and the US. Finally given its first performance in Zurich in May 1938, Mathis has since become Hindemith’s most famous and successful work.

    If Hindemith’s music can at times seem rather dry, this is certainly not the case with Mathis. In fact, with its use of modes and divided strings, to English ears it is occasionally reminiscent of Vaughan Williams and even Tippett. Each movement of the Symphony represents one of the panels of Grünewald’s masterpiece, the Isenheim Altarpiece (1512-16), which is presented in the opera as the distillation of the peasants’ hatred of their lords.

    The first movement, Engelkonzert (Angelic Concert), is the opera’s overture. It begins with solemn music in the trombones, based on the song Es sungen drei Engel, a melody used throughout the opera. A fast main section divides into three parts: a lively modal theme in the flute and violins; then a serene and mystical theme in the strings; and finally, a fugato based on the two themes, during which the three angels return, splendidly illuminated, in the trombone.

    PAUL HINDEMITH 1895 -1963

    CONTINUED FROM P5

    A view of Grünewald’s Isenheim Altarpiece, which is depicted in Hindemith’s Symphony (1934)

  • LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN 1770-1827

    NOVEMBER 2019 7

    BEETHOVEN Symphony No.6 (1808)

    I ALLEGRO MA NON TROPPO II ANDANTE MOLTO MOSSO III ALLEGRO IV ALLEGRO V ALLEGRETTO BEETHOVEN REMAINS ONE OF THE towering figures of music history. He straddles the Classical and Romantic eras with a foot in both camps. And in the wake of the French Revolution he was the first to fully assert the right to total self-expression of the artist, no longer a craftsman creating works to please an aristocratic patron.

    And he never repeated himself. Every work is a new struggle, a new battle to drag out of himself something powerful and different. Unlike another genius, Mozart, whose works seem to have appeared almost fully formed in his mind, Beethoven needed endlessly to refine a raw idea until he had found its perfect form.

    His notebooks are a powerful testament to his amazing tenacity in constantly feeling his way towards a vision he could only faintly sense but knew existed. In this way Beethoven was both the archetypal Romantic artist and very modern. Composition would never again be easy. Some say that this led to chaos, some to heaven. Everyone has to decide for themselves.

    The symphonies mirror this duality. The even-numbered ones, especially the Fourth, Sixth and Eighth, can be seen as more Classical, refined and controlled, whereas the odd-numbered ones, especially the “Eroica”, Fifth and Seventh, are far more powerful and dynamic, written on a far grander scale than

    CONTINUED ON P8

    Paul Hindemith, who gave the première of Walton’s Viola Concerto in October 1929

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    Marked sehr langsam (very slow), the second movement, Grablegung (Entombment), derives from the opera’s sixth scene. It moves from touchingly hesitant gestures to a profoundly peaceful close. The first theme is in muted strings and woodwind, while the second, using fourths and fifths, appears first in the oboe, then in the flute, accompanied by plucked strings.

    The concluding Versuchung des heiligen Antonius (Temptation of Saint Anthony) is the most powerful and dramatic movement. This comes from the intermezzo of the opera’s final scene, which describes the painter’s mellow resignation and his dismissal of the world outside his workshop. Although it opens with unison strings playing a recitative in fiercely twisted lines, it is mostly thrusting and quick.

    Towards the close, the Gregorian chant Lauda Sion Salvatorem is superimposed across scurrying strings before the Symphony culminates in a glorious brass Alleluia, one of Hindemith’s most sensational achievements.

  • 8 KENSINGTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

    TONIGHT’S PROGRAMME

    any previous symphony. This culminates in the enormous Ninth, with its choral finale, a work without which there would probably have been no Bruckner, no Mahler and probably no Wagner, either.

    Beethoven’s symphonies became the standard by which later composers were judged, and could be immensely intimidating. Nervous of the comparison, Brahms famously left off writing a symphony until he was over 40, and even as late as Elgar’s First Symphony of 1908, the highest praise that the composer’s confidant and publisher, August Jaeger, could give the Adagio was that it was “one of the very greatest slow movements since Beethoven, but I consider it worthy of that master”.

    It gives a fascinating insight into Beethoven’s working methods that he was able to write two such contrasting works as the intensely relentless Fifth and the expansive and serene

    Sixth Symphonies at the same time. The idea of a work based on nature was not of course original. In 1784 Justin Knecht had written a symphony called The Musical Portrait of Nature, whose movement titles were very close to Beethoven’s, and there were also much earlier works, such as Vivaldi’s Four Seasons (around 1716-17).

    Beethoven’s love of nature was, however, deep and real. After he rejected conventional religion, nature became an important solace, a calming influence on the composer’s often troubled mind – and in his explanation of

    The symphony is ‘more an expression of feeling than painting’Beethoven on his approach to the work

    Joseph Karl Stieler’s 1820 portrait of Beethoven at work on the Missa Solemnis. Right, the composer’s death mask. His 250th anniversary is being marked throughout 2019/20

    CONTINUED FROM P7

    CONTINUED ON P10

  • NOVEMBER 2019 9

    LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN 1770-1827

    Caspar David Friedrich’s Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog (around 1817; detail). The German artist’s painting is considered to be one of the masterpieces of Romanticism

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  • 10 KENSINGTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

    TONIGHT’S PROGRAMME

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    FABIAN WATKINSONProgramme notes: © the author, 2019

    the work as “more an expression of feeling than painting”, Beethoven was at great pains to make clear that his ‘Pastoral’ symphony was not merely descriptive.

    The Fifth and Sixth symphonies had their first performances in a monster concert that Beethoven gave in Vienna on 22 December 1808, at the Theater an der Wien, now the home of popular musicals and opera. It also included premières of the Fourth Piano Concerto and the Choral Fantasy, two movements from the C major Mass, an improvised keyboard fantasy and the concert aria Ah! perfido. The concert was ill-prepared, the theatre was bitterly cold and the performances lasted for more than four hours. No wonder the audience was less than fully appreciative.

    The ‘Pastoral’ is the only one of Beethoven’s symphonies to have five movements, the final three following each other without a break. But despite their descriptive titles, this is a truly Classical work, in which the mood-painting and moments of outspoken realism, such as the birdsong and the storm, are contained within a tight symphonic structure. It also has, perhaps more than any other Beethoven symphony, a glowing lyrical energy.

    The first movement, Awakening of Cheerful Feelings on Arrival in the Countryside, opens with a quiet melody full of lively figures. Everything contributes to a mood of tranquillity: there are no minor keys or minor chords, and the harmonies change very slowly.

    This is particularly true of the development section, a wonderfully scored, broad expanse, “its motion as unhurried as the sky-drift of summer clouds, yet as rapid as shadows crossing a field”, as the critic Basil Lam described it. Perhaps it depicts the feeling of liberation that Beethoven experienced in the countryside, each change of chord adding further depth to the scene.

    The serenely beautiful slow movement, Scene by the Brook, has a wonderfully effortless flow, betraying no evidence of Beethoven’s struggles to knock his material into shape. It ends with a short section of birdsong, which can be heard as an extended final trill, almost like the cadenza of a solo concerto.

    The third movement, Merry Gathering of Country Folk, is cast as a relatively free scherzo, a rustic dance with abrupt changes of key and uneven phrase lengths. In the Trio, trumpets make their first appearance, to striking effect.

    As in the Fifth Symphony, the return of the first part is considerably shortened and leads directly into the Thunder, Storm, depicted in the piccolo and trombones. In reality, this serves not as an independent movement but as an introduction to the finale.

    The mood of the opening of the symphony is restored in the final Shepherds’ Song: Happy and Thankful Feelings after the Storm. All is sunshine in this rondo, which opens with an evocation of an alphorn playing a well-known ranz des vaches (a Swiss mountain melody used to summon cows).

    There are many points of contact between the outer movements, such as the character of the melody and the broad harmonies – and as the Beethoven expert Donald Tovey pointed out, the loud passages breathe a majestic splendour, “glorious as the fields refreshed by the rain”.

    CONTINUED FROM P8 He creates ‘motion as unhurried as the sky-drift of summer clouds’The critic Basil Lam on the first movement

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    Brahms Piano Concerto No.2 Soloist: Samson Tsoy James MacMillan Symphony No.4

    QUEEN ELIZABETH HALL THURSDAY 23 JANUARY, 7.30PM

    COMING SOON BRAHMS AND MACMILLAN

    BOOK NOW

  • 12 KENSINGTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

    RUSSELL KEABLEARTISTS’ BIOGRAPHIES

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    RUSSELL KEABLE is one of the UK’s most exciting musicians, praised as a conductor in both the national and international press. “Keable and his orchestra did magnificently,” wrote the Guardian; “one of the most memorable evenings at the South Bank for many a month,” said the Musical Times.

    In more than 30 years with KSO, Keable has established the group as one of the UK’s finest non-professional orchestras. It is known for its ambitious programming of contemporary music, and he has led premières of works by British composers including Robin Holloway, David Matthews, Peter Maxwell Davies, John McCabe, Joby Talbot and John Woolrich.

    Keable has received particular praise as a champion of the music of Erich Korngold: the British première of the composer’s Die tote Stadt was hailed as a triumph, and research in Los Angeles led to a world première of music from Korngold’s film score for The Sea Hawk.

    Keable performs with orchestras and choirs throughout the UK, has conducted in Prague and Paris (filmed by British and French television) and has worked with the Royal Oman Symphony Orchestra in Dubai. He has recorded two symphonies by Robert Simpson, and a Beethoven CD was released in New York.

    Keable holds the post of director of conducting at the University of Surrey. He trained at the University of Nottingham and King’s College, London University. He studied conducting at London’s Royal College of Music with Norman Del Mar, and later with George Hurst.

    Over five years, Keable established an innovative education programme with the Schidlof Quartet. He is a dynamic lecturer and workshop leader, working with audiences ranging from schoolchildren and music students to international business conferences.

    Keable is also in demand as a composer and arranger. His opera Burning Waters, commissioned by the Buxton Festival, was premièred in July 2000; he has also composed music for the mime artist Didier Danthois to use in prisons and special-needs schools.

    Russell Keable has forged KSO’s reputation during a partnership lasting more than 30 years

    RUSSELL KEABLE Music director

  • NOVEMBER 2019 13

    KENSINGTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

    Russell Keable has aired a number of unusual works, as well as delivering significant musical landmarks: the London première of Dvořák’s opera Dimitrij and the British première of Korngold’s Die tote Stadt, the latter praised by the Evening Standard as “a feast of brilliant playing”. In 2004, KSO and the London Oriana Choir performed a revival of Walford Davies’s oratorio Everyman, a recording of which is available on the Dutton label.

    Contemporary music continues to be the lifeblood of KSO. Recent programmes have featured works by an impressive roster of composers working today, including Thomas Adès, Charlotte Bray, Brett Dean, Jonny Greenwood, Magnus Lindberg, Rodion Shchedrin, Joby Talbot and John Woolrich.

    KENSINGTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, now in its 64th season, enjoys an enviable reputation as one of the finest non-professional orchestras in the UK. Its founding aim – “to provide students and amateurs with an opportunity to perform concerts at the highest possible level” – remains key to its mission.

    KSO has had only two principal conductors: its founder, Leslie Head, and Russell Keable, who has been with the orchestra for more than three decades. The knowledge, passion and dedication of these musicians has shaped KSO, giving the orchestra a distinctive repertoire that sets it apart from other groups.

    Revivals and premières of new works often feature in the orchestra’s repertoire, alongside major works of the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. World and British premières have included music by Bax, Brian, Bruckner, Nielsen, Schoenberg, Sibelius and Verdi.

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    The orchestra at Cadogan Hall, one of its regular performance venues, in January 2017

    KENSINGTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Founded in 1956

    CONTINUED ON P14

    ‘A force to be reckoned with… London is lucky to have KSO’Classical Source

  • 14 KENSINGTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

    THE ORCHESTRAARTISTS’ BIOGRAPHIES THE ORCHESTRAARTISTS’ BIOGRAPHIES

    In 2005, Errollyn Wallen’s Spirit Symphony, performed with the BBC Concert Orchestra, won the Radio 3 Listeners’ Award at the British Composer Awards. In 2014, KSO gave the world première of Stephen Montague’s From the Ether, commissioned by St John’s Smith Square to mark its 300th anniversary.

    During the 2014/15 season, KSO collaborated with Seán Doherty on Hive Mind (2015), as part of Making Music’s Adopt a Composer scheme. Matthew Taylor’s Symphony No.4 (2015-16) was written for the orchestra, as was Chris Long’s The Pale Blue Dot (2019).

    In April 2018, KSO staged its 16th “sponsored play” event at Westfield London, raising more than £21,000 for War Child and the Kensington & Chelsea Foundation’s Grenfell Tower Fund. KSO also supports the music programme at Pimlico Academy.

    This reflects the orchestra’s long history of charitable activities: KSO’s first concert was given in aid of the Hungarian Relief Fund, and it has developed links with the Kampala Symphony Orchestra and Music School

    under its KSO2 programme, providing training, fundraising and instruments.

    The reputation of the orchestra is reflected in the quality of international artists who appear with KSO. Recent soloists include Nikolai Demidenko, Sir John Tomlinson, Yvonne Howard, Katherine Watson, Matthew Trusler, Fenella Humphreys and Richard Watkins, in addition to up-and-coming artists such as the pianists Martin James Bartlett, Alexander Ullman and Richard Uttley.

    The orchestra works with a guest conductor each year; recently, these have included Jacques Cohen, Nicholas Collon, Andrew Gourlay, Holly Mathieson and Michael Seal.

    KSO regularly performs at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Cadogan Hall and St John’s Smith Square, and celebrated its 60th anniversary with a gala concert at the Barbican Centre in May 2017.

    The orchestra’s mission has always been to perform concerts at the highest possible level

    CONTINUED FROM P13 ‘A feast of brilliant playing’The Evening Standard

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  • NOVEMBER 2019 15

    FRIENDS’ SCHEMESUPPORT US

    PATRONS Sue and Ron Astles Kate Bonner Sim Canetty-ClarkeCWA International Ltd John and Claire Dovey Bob and Anne Drennan Malcolm and Christine DunmowNick Marchant Jolyon and Claire Maugham David and Mary Ellen McEuenJohn and Elizabeth McNaughton Linda and Jack Pievsky Neil Ritson and family Kim Strauss-Polman Keith Waye

    PREMIUM FRIENDS David Baxendale Dr Michele Clement and Dr Stephanie Munn John Dale Alastair Fraser Michael and Caroline Illingworth Maureen Keable Jeremy MarchantBelinda Murray Margot RaybouldJeff and Deborah ReganRichard and Jane Robinson

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    Join our Friends’ Scheme to receive special benefits

    SUPPORT KSO by joining our popular Friends’ Scheme. There are three levels of membership, each with special benefits, for the 2019/20 season.

    FRIEND £65Unlimited tickets at concessionary rates, priority booking and free interval drinks and concert programmes.

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  • 16 KENSINGTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

    SPONSOR OR DONATESUPPORT US

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    SPONSORSHIP AND DONATIONS Make a difference to KSO YOU, OUR AUDIENCE, can really help us through sponsorship. Anyone can be a sponsor, and any level of support – from corporate sponsorship of a concert or soloist to individual backing of the orchestra – is enormously valuable to us. We offer a variety of benefits to sponsors, tailored to their needs, such as programme and website advertising, guest tickets and assistance with entertaining.

    As a charity, KSO is able to claim Gift Aid on any donations made to the orchestra.

    Donating through Gift Aid means that KSO can claim an extra 25p for every £1 you give, at no extra cost to you. Your donations will qualify as long as they are not more than four times what you have paid in tax in that financial year.

    TO SPONSOR KSO, or to find out more, call David Baxendale on 020 8650 0393, email [email protected] or speak to any member of the orchestra.

    TO MAKE A DONATION, or to find out more about Gift Aid, email the treasurer at [email protected].

    LEAVING A LEGACY Support the next generation LEGACIES LEFT to qualifying charities, such as KSO, are exempt from inheritance tax. In addition, if you leave more than 10% of your estate to charity, the tax due on the rest of your estate may be reduced from 40% to 36%.

    Legacies can be left for fixed amounts (specific or pecuniary bequests) as either cash or shares, but a common way to ensure that your loved ones are provided for is to make a residuary bequest, in which the remainder of your estate is distributed to one or more charities of your choice after specific bequests to your family and friends have been met.

    Legacies, along with conventional donations to KSO’s Endowment Trust, enable us to plan for the next decades of the orchestra’s development.

    If you include a bequest to KSO in your will, please tell us that you have done so; we can

    then keep you up to date and, if you choose, we can also recognise your support. Any information you give us will be treated in the strictest confidence, and does not form a binding commitment of any kind.

    TO LEAVE A LEGACY or to find out more, speak to your solicitor or contact Neil Ritson, the chair of KSO’s Endowment Trust, on 020 7723 5490 or [email protected].

    Support KSO by sponsoring a concert

  • NOVEMBER 2019 17

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  • 18 KENSINGTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

    THE ORCHESTRATONIGHT’S PERFORMERS

    FIRST VIOLINAlan TuckwoodIvan ChengMatthew HickmanSusan KnightHelen Hockings Taro Visser Bronwen Fisher Erica Jeal Sabina Nielsen Francoise Robinson Helen Stanley Helen Turnell Helen WaitesRobert Chatley Ria Hopkinson Heather Bingham

    SECOND VIOLINDavid Pievsky Claire Dovey Danielle DawsonLiz Errington Adrian Gordon Richard Sheahan Rufus Rottenberg Judith Ní Bhreasláin Juliette BarkerWendy Jeff ery Jeremy Bradshaw Sam BladeJill IvesDavid NagleKathleen Rule

    VIOLABeccy Spencer Meredith Estren

    Guy RaybouldSally RandallAndrew McPhersonLiz LavercombeJeremy LambertTom Milburn-PhilpottJane Spencer-DavisDaniela DoresPhil CooperLuke Waterfi eld

    CELLOJoseph SpoonerNatasha FosterAlex BreedonRosi CalleryAnna HamiltonBecca WalkerJudith RobinsonNatasha BriantDavid BaxendaleYiwen Hon

    DOUBLE BASSSteph FlemingAndrew NealMarcus AllenSam WiseDavid Guy

    FLUTEChristopher WyattClaire Knighton

    PICCOLOClaire KnightonCaroline Welsh

    OBOECharles BrenanChris Astles

    CLARINETChris HorrilGraham Elliott

    BASSOONNick RampleyJohn Wingfi eld-Hill

    FRENCH HORNJon BoswellHeather PawsonAndrew HumphreysAlex Regan

    TRUMPETStephen WillcoxJohn Hackett

    TROMBONEPhil CambridgeKen McGregor

    BASS TROMBONEStefan Terry

    TUBANeil Wharmby

    TIMPANITommy Pearson

    PERCUSSIONTim AldenSimon WillcoxAndrew Barnard

    MUSIC DIRECTORRussell Keable

    TRUSTEESChris AstlesDavid BaxendaleElizabeth BellSam BladeJon BoswellRosi CalleryJohn DoveySabina NielsenHeather PawsonNick Rampley

    ENDOWMENT TRUSTRobert DrennanGraham ElliottJudith Ní BhreasláinNick RampleyNeil Ritson

    EVENTSChris AstlesJudith Ní BhreasláinSabina NielsenBeccy Spencer

    LIBRARIANCatherine Abrams

    MEMBERSHIPJuliette BarkerDavid BaxendaleAndrew Neal

    MARKETINGJeremy BradshawRia HopkinsonJo JohnsonAndrew NealGuy Raybould

    PROGRAMMESRia Hopkinson

    WOODWIND COACHRachel Ingelton

    CONTACT US:

  • NOVEMBER 2019 19

    NOTICEBOARD GET TO KNOW KSO

    KSO @KensingtonSO • Nov 8More Helens wanted for our first violin section. Four Helens is just not enough #Helen

    KSO RetweetedMari Wyn Williams @Mazzawyn • Oct 7Wonderful evening with @KensingtonSO singing Berg’s Lulu Suite! The most difficult music I’ve ever had to learn, but so powerful

    Follow us on Twitter @KensingtonSO MEET THE ORCHESTRA

    NAME: Claire Knighton

    OCCUPATION: Artist manager

    INSTRUMENT: Flute / piccolo

    YEARS WITH KSO: 6

    FAVOURITE KSO CONCERT: Mahler’s Symphony No.2, Barbican Centre, May 2017

    FANTASY PROGRAMME: Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune, Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No.2 and Stravinsky’s Firebird (complete)

    Are you a double-bass player looking for high-standard orchestral playing in London for the 2019/20 season? Then we’re looking for you…

    GET IN TOUCH: Email Steph Fleming at [email protected]

    WANTED: DOUBLE BASSES

    KSO RetweetedJohn Wingfield-Hill @jwingfieldhill • Oct 24Things @KensingtonSO #bassoons say: “Playing @britneyspears last week has really messed up the low notes on this reed.”

    KSO @KensingtonSO • Nov 7It’s sectionals today and the violas are definitely rehearsing and not just taking photos

  • THURSDAY 23 JANUARY 2020QUEEN ELIZABETH HALL, 7.30PMBrahms Piano Concerto No.2 Soloist: Samson TsoyJames MacMillan Symphony No.4

    SATURDAY 14 MARCH 2020ST JOHN’S SMITH SQUARE, 7.30PMBernstein Candide OvertureKorngold Violin Concerto Soloist: Stephen BryantShostakovich Symphony No.11: The Year 1905 Guest conductor: Michael Seal

    SUNDAY 3 MAY 2020FAIRFIELD HALLS PHOENIX CONCERT HALL, 7PMMahler Symphony No.3 Soloist: Helen Charlston Chorus: Epiphoni Consort

    TUESDAY 30 JUNE 2020ST JOHN’S SMITH SQUARE, 7.30PMSibelius En SagaNicholas Maw Dance ScenesTchaikovsky Symphony No.6

    64TH SEASON2019/20

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