conductor

Wyn Davies was born in South Wales. Since his début with Welsh National Opera, he has conducted most major British opera companies and many orchestras including the Hallé, the Northern Sinfonia and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.

He spent two years at the Metropolitan Opera, New York and two seasons in Canada where he conducted an award-winning production of Weill’s THREEPENNY OPERA in Toronto. He was appointed Director of Music to New Zealand Opera in 2005.

In Britain, he conducts regularly at the Buxton Festival. He is also a noted pianist and cabaret performer. Other notable projects include Kern’s SHOW BOAT for the Royal Shakespeare Company and Opera North, on tour and in the West End; ANIMATED OPERAS and the Theresienstadt children’s opera BRUNDIBAR for S4C television. Wyn Davies has prepared performing editions of works as diverse as L’INCORONAZIONE DI POPPEA and THE BEGGARS’ OPERA.

Martino Tirimo was born into a musical family in Cyprus and began piano and violin lessons with his father, a conductor and violinist. He gave his first concert at the age of six and when only twelve he conducted seven performances of Verdi's La Traviata, including soloists from La Scala, Milan. 

At the age of thirteen his family moved to London and he continued his education at Bedales School. At sixteen he won the Liszt Scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music, graduating with the highest honours, after which he completed his studies in Vienna. He later worked closely with Gordon Green, whom he regarded as his greatest mentor. In 1971 and 1972 victories in the International Piano Competitions in Munich and Geneva launched his international career. 

He has appeared with many of the world's leading orchestras including all the major British orchestras and those in Berlin, Cleveland, Dresden, Leipzig, Munich, Prague, Vienna and other centres, with conductors including Barbirolli, Boult, Pritchard, Kurt Sanderling, Masur, Norrington and Rattle. 

He has also directed from the keyboard several cycles of the five Beethoven Concertos with the Dresden Philharmonic, both in Germany and at the Royal Festival Hall in London. He has often appeared with this orchestra both as soloist and conductor.

“Tirimo's playing belongs to a past generation of 'greats'. Listening to him I conjure up aural images of Solomon, Arrau, Kempff, Serkin, Schnabel and Rubinstein. Throughout the evening one was consistently aware that this supreme musician placed himself entirely at the service of the composer.”

The first Op. 25 suite of Scènes Historiques was a reworking of music Sibelius wrote for a Gala entertainment in 1899 depicting tableaux of events in Finnish history. The final piece for that event was not included in the suite but became known in its own right as Finlandia.

In 1912 Sibelius had been working on a number of short orchestral pieces and decided to make these into a suite; he called the suite Scenes Historiques II Op. 66 and the three pieces were ready at the very last minute before the first performance in March 1912. This evening two of these are performed. 

I Die Jagd (The Chase) – a powerful introduction features the horn section and would not have been out of place in a symphony. Eventually the energy of the ‘chase’ takes over but the horns are never very far away with some typical Sibelian writing – demanding yet rewarding! 

II Minnelied (Lovesong) – in this short and very expressive piece, a calm opening on horns prepares the way for solo work from ’cello and harp. The beautiful main theme was taken from another piece, Pohjola’s Daughter. In his sketchbook the composer wrote ‘Aino’ (his wife) above the theme.

During the year 1816 the teenage Schubert poured out two symphonies, including this 4th Symphony, three piano/violin sonatinas, two acts of an opera, several sacred choral works, many dances for violin & piano and more than 100 songs. It was the composer himself who added the subtitle ‘Tragic’ to the score but it is unclear whether anything particularly ‘tragic’ inspired the addition. 

I Adagio molto – Allegro vivace – the dark and brooding slow introduction leads into bustling music rather reminiscent of Mozart whom Schubert fervently admired. 

II Andante – a gentle movement featuring a delicate oboe melody. A more agitated central section disturbs the mood but Schubert concludes the movement as it began. 

III Menuetto: Allegro vivace – some interesting rhythmic ideas, reminiscent of Beethoven lead to a trio where flute, clarinet and oboe lead the dance. 

IV Allegro – the mood and the key of the opening movement returns in a typically bustling finale. The conclusion changes to the major as Schubert decides to end the ‘tragic’ work in triumph. 

 *D. 417 - the number in the catalogue of Schubert’s music compiled by the music scholar Otto Deutch in 1951 and allocated to this symphony.

Chopin’s two piano concertos were written when the composer was 19 in the case of the 2nd concerto, and 20 in the case of the 1st. Like Beethoven’s first two piano concertos, they were not published in order of composition. In March 1830 he mentions in a letter that he is busy on the first movement. 

In May he wrote, ‘Busy on the ‘Rondo’ – ‘it is not yet finished because the right inspired mood has kept eluding me. But if I just have the ‘allegro’ and the ‘adagio’ finished [the first two movements] I shall have no anxiety about the finale’. 

In September 1830, he informed his friend Titus Woyciechowski that the concerto was finished: ‘And I feel like a novice, just as I felt before I knew anything of the keyboard. It is far too original and I shall end by being unable to learn it myself’. 

As it transpired, the premiere was a great success: ‘I hasten to let you know, I must inform you [Titus] that I was not a bit, not a bit nervous and I played the way I play when I am alone – I reeled it off with ease. Deafening applause’. 

I Allegro maestoso – the traditonal orchestral opening sets the scene for what is a concerto where the musical concentration is on the piano. Indeed Chopin on tour would perform the work without an orchestra or with the orchestral writing arranged for a string quartet or quintet. The piano writing is in turn delicate, forceful, bold, brilliant and lyrical. It is worth bearing in mind that the composer/performer was just in his twenties at the time of the first performance. 

II Romance – the feeling of ‘a kind of reverie in the moonlight on a beautiful spring night’ mingles with a feeling of improvisation. Delightful though melancholy duets with the bassoon are a feature of this truly romantic movement. The closing bars of the movement seem as if Chopin is reluctant to leave this world he has created. 

III Rondo – but leave it he must as the jaunty Polish dance, the ‘Krakowiak’ takes the music away from romance to country dance. The episodes between the country dancing are sparkling, lyrical, energetic and graceful. 

‘After playing Chopin, I feel as if I had been weeping over sins that I had never committed and mourning tragedies that were not my own’. – Oscar Wilde 

‘Bach is like an astronomer who, with the help of ciphers, finds the most wonderful stars: Beethoven embraced the universe with the power of his spirit: I do not climb so high.  A Long time ago I decided that my universe will be the soul and heart of man’. – Chopin 

‘Hats off, Gentlemen, a genius!’ – Robert Schumann

© Barry Sharkey 2010