PROGRAMME NOTES
The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, OP.34
Benjamin Britten (1913–1976)
Creative genius, opera supremo, virtuoso pianist, gifted conductor, inspired recording artist and visionary festival organiser Benjamin Britten was a musical polymath without equal in the history of British music. While still in his mid-teens, he won a scholarship to study at the Royal College of Music, after which one of the examiners enquired indignantly, “What is an English public schoolboy doing writing music of this kind?” Aged just twenty-four, he composed his Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge, a blistering masterpiece for string orchestra that once and for all announced the arrival of a major new talent.
Britten spent the early part of the Second World War in North America, where his life-long friendship with the great English tenor Peter Pears blossomed. It was after returning to England that in 1945 he completed the work that would prove a turning point in British music: the opera Peter Grimes. Riding on a wave of popular success, he produced a set of orchestral variations on a theme by his favourite English composer Henry Purcell (1659–1695) that would win instant popularity as The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra. Yet whatever personal success he may have enjoyed, Britten above all wanted to feel useful–to be a vital part of everyday society, as witnessed by a 1964 newspaper article in which he wished for his music to be “accepted as an essential part of human activity and human expression”and that he longed to be “of value to the community”.
Subtitled “Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Henry Purcell”, The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra was originally composed as the soundtrack to a 1946 Crown Film Unit feature intended to introduce children to the various instruments of the orchestra.
Britten follows the full orchestral statement of the main theme with a playful series of variations that presents the instruments of the orchestra in their proper families, working down from the highest-pitched instruments. Thus he opens with the woodwind (piccolo and flute, oboes, clarinets, bassoons) and continues with the strings (violins, violas, cellos, doubles basses, harp), French horns, brass (trumpets, trombones and bass tuba) and percussion, and then brings everyone back in order again for a majestic fugal finale.
ALEXANDER SHELLEY
Conductor and Narrator
In January 2015, he assumed the role of Principal Associate Conductor of London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, with whom he curates an annual series of concerts at Cadogan Hall and tours both nationally and internationally.
Born in London in October 1979, Alexander Shelley, the son of celebrated concert pianists, studied cello and conducting in Germany and first gained widespread attention when he was unanimously awarded First Prize at the 2005 Leeds Conductors’ Competition, with the press describing him as “the most exciting and gifted young conductor to have taken this highly prestigious award. His conducting technique is immaculate, everything crystal clear and a tool to his inborn musicality.” Described as “a natural communicator both on and off the podium” (Daily Telegraph), Alexander Shelley works regularly with the leading orchestras of Europe, the Americas, Asia and Australasia, including the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Deutsche Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra and Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal.
Alexander Shelley succeeded Pinchas Zukerman as Music Director of Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra (NACO)in September 2015. The ensemble has since been praised as “an orchestra transformed... hungry, bold, and unleashed” (Ottawa Citizen) and Alexander Shelley’s programming credited for turning the orchestra “almost overnight... into one of the more audacious orchestras in North America” (Maclean’s Magazine).
Alexander Shelley’s operatic engagements have included The Merry Widow and Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette (Den Kongelige Opera); La bohème (Opera Lyra/National Arts Centre), Iolanta (Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen), Così fan tutte (Opéra National de Montpellier), The Marriage of Figaro (Opera North) in 2015.
He was awarded the ECHO Prize in 2016 for his second Deutsche Grammophon recording, Peter and the Wolf, and both the ECHO and Deutsche Grunderpreis in his capacity as Artistic Director of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen’s Zukunftslabor, a visionary project of grass-roots engagement, which uses music as a source for social cohesion and integration. Through his work as Founder and Artistic Director of the Schumann Camerata and their ground-breaking 440Hz series in Dusseldorf, and through his leadership roles in Nuremberg, Bremen and Ottawa, inspiring future generations of classical musicians and listeners has always been central to Alexander Shelley’s work. He has led the German National Youth Orchestra on several tours of Germany and works with many thousands of young people a year in outreach projects. He regularly gives informed and passionate talks on his programmes, as well as numerous interviews and podcasts on the role of classical music in society.
In August 2017, he concluded his tenure as Chief Conductor of the Nürnberger Symphoniker, a position he held since September 2009. The partnership was hailed by press and audiences alike as a golden era for the orchestra, where he transformed the ensemble’s playing, education work and international touring activities. Besides, he led a co-production of Harry Somers’ Louis Riel in 2017 with the NACO and Canadian Opera Company.
Alexander Shelley WRITES:
This brand new virtual performance is all about reaching out from the isolation of our homes. We want to reinforce to our existing audiences and also introduce new audiences to the excitement, passion, skill and craftsmanship involved in a symphony orchestra. Britten’s The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra is the perfect vehicle for this and with an orchestra like the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in full force, each musician a master of their trade, giving their all and playing to the maximum of their abilities, I think we have created something really amazing that we hope you enjoy.
I’ve written a new narration for the Young Person’s Guide, one that hopefully speaks a little bit more to the times we’re in right now. I begin by introducing what is about to happen, and then you hear the Orchestra start to play Henry Purcell’s famous theme before Britten’s variations unfold. For the those listeners who don’t know Britten or Purcell, I suggest you imagine Ed Sheeran writing a cover of a John Lennon song! It’s that sort of level of a meeting of minds. Britten was most definitely one of the greatest composers in the world in the Twentieth Century, an extraordinary British icon, and the same is true of Henry Purcell for his time. As we go through the piece, I present each section of the orchestra and try to give a sense of their idiosyncrasies.
It is incredibly accessible music for all and I think that’s exactly why Britten picked this Purcell theme, as well. It has a lovely shape to it–when you listen to it, it sticks in the ear and you’ll hum it all day long! The melody makes a clear, succinct statement, and what Britten does is he brilliantly puts that melody into the different sections (the strings, woodwind, brass and percussion) and he gives an example of what each of those groups together sounds like before he breaks it down to individual instruments. After having done this, he builds his fugue, which is a stroke of genius. Starting in order with every instrument that he has introduced, the music builds to a glorious finale. As we approach the end, he does something very clever with metre, where he has half of the orchestra playing in one time signature and the other in a very different feel above it. It sounds like some magnificent edifice rising from under water; it is this moment that makes your hair stand on end. It is astonishing music.
Even though it is extraordinary that through the wonders of modern technology we can put together a virtual Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, with everybody performing from their homes, and an orchestral that sounds really great, we are all acutely aware that there is no substitute for the live experience. We can not wait to bring this exceptional piece to a concert hall and celebrate it in front of a live audience soon.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT
We hope you enjoyed this performance from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
These are difficult times for all of us, and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra is no exception. With 90% of our income generated from the sale of concert tickets and with no performances since the middle of March, the COVID-19 pandemic is having a significant impact, both on the Orchestra’s finances and the income of its freelance musicians. And with the continued restrictions, it’s unlikely the RPO will be able to perform to live audiences in the foreseeable future.
But resilience is one of the RPO’s values and we remain optimistic and resolute in our determination to emerge from this crisis, continuing to serve our communities, bringing the thrill and excitement of live orchestral music to the widest possible audience.
With grateful thanks for your continued friendship and support, from everyone at the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
