Joint initiative by RSNO and SCO provides greater flexibility and increased savings

A new initiative by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra (RSNO) and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra (SCO) will provide the concert goers of the northeast of Scotland with greater flexibility and variety of orchestral performances, following the announcement of the first Aberdeen Concert Series, a joint venture between the two national performing companies.

The Aberdeen Concert Series offers concert attenders at the Music Hall increased flexibility by combining the two orchestras’ Aberdeen programmes into one season package. Benefits from the collaboration include increased ease of booking and substantial subscription discounts of up to 40% off single ticket prices. Subscribers will also receive all the latest news and exclusive offers via a special bi-annual newsletter produced by the two orchestras.

The repertoire of the Aberdeen Concert Series is broad and varied – nine concerts which span the centuries — from Handel’s Water Music to Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. The two orchestras each start their respective Aberdeen concerts for 2011/12 with new works; the RSNO’s with a major choral composition by British composer Cecilia McDowall, Northlight, involving communities from across Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire, and the SCO’s with a new work by Scottish composer Martin Suckling.

The Aberdeen Concert Series for 2011/12 welcomes RSNO Music Director Stéphane Denève and SCO Principal Conductor Robin Ticciati who both make appearances with their respective ensembles, Denève opening and closing the series’ first year, coincidently his last as Music Director. The series also sees the orchestras joined by some of the world’s finest musicians:  violinists Nicola Benedetti, James Ehnes and Viktoria Mullova, pianists Nikolai Lugansky, Nicholas Angelich and Llŷr Williams, and soprano Camilla Tilling.

The RSNO opens the new series on Thursday 6 October with a major new commission by British composer Cecilia McDowall and writer Alan Spence, a choral work entitled Northlight, which is inspired by communities of the northeast of Scotland. The première of Northlight features a chorus comprised of local amateur singers and people new to performing music. The Northlight Community Composition project, in conjunction with Aberdeen City Council and Aberdeenshire Council and supported by TOTAL E&P UK Limited, has also involved preparatory work from the local singers working alongside musicians from the RSNO and RSNO Chorus, Cecilia McDowall and Alan Spence over the past year. RSNO Assistant Conductor Christian Kluxen leads the RSNO and combined Chorus for the performance of Northlight and RSNO Music Director Stéphane Denève takes over for the remainder of the programme: Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No3 with Nikolai Lugansky, and Debussy’s Images, part of the RSNO’s 2011/12 Debussy anniversary celebrations.

Saturday 15 October marks the SCO’s first performance of the Aberdeen Concert Series, with Principal Conductor Robin Ticciati. The programme comprises the original version of Schumann’s Symphony No4, the revised version of which Ticciati performed to considerable acclaim with the SCO in Aberdeen in January 2010, Beethoven’s Violin Concerto with Diapason D’Or de l’année recipient Viktoria Mullova and a new work by critically lauded Scottish composer Martin Suckling. Beethoven features strongly in two more of the SCO’s concerts: on Saturday 26 November, Leon Fleisher – himself a living legend of the keyboard – conducts Nicholas Angelich in Beethoven’s Second Piano Concerto and, on 11 February, Welsh pianist Llŷr Williams performs the Piano Concerto No5 Emperor which, along with Symphony No3 Eroica, is conducted by SCO favourite Andrew Manze.  The brilliant French harpsichordist Emmanuelle Haïm brings a programme of Handel and Rameau on Saturday 14 January and is joined by soprano Camilla Tilling in Handel’s Cantata: Delirio Amoroso.  The SCO’s final concert in the Aberdeen Concert Series on Saturday 28 April is a blockbuster combination: Nicola Benedetti performing Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.

New to Aberdeen is the RSNO’s highly successful interactive concert presentation Naked Classics, making its first appearance at the Music Hall. On Thursday 17 November 2011 presenter Paul Rissmann unveils the mystery behind one of Sibelius’ greatest works, his Symphony No5, using presentations, audio-visual and multimedia techniques, interviews with musicians and demonstrations.

The RSNO will further its commitment to engaging with the communities of the northeast. Working in conjunction with Aberdeen City Council and Aberdeenshire Council the Orchestra will engage with local groups to provide high-quality live musical experiences on and beyond the concert platform, including the continuation of the RSNO’s residency in Aberdeen’s Royal Hospital for Sick Children, a newly developed Secondary Schools engagement programme with, at its heart, a concert by the full Orchestra with local students playing side by side in the Music Hall, and to start the series, the culmination of the Community Composition project,  working with community groups with British composer Cecilia McDowall and Glasgow-born writer Alan Spence.

The SCO also gives two concerts in Aberdeenshire as part of its Scottish summer touring schedule.  On Thursday 9 June, the Orchestra with popular guest director/violinist Alexander Janiczek performs a programme of Rossini, Weber and Prokofiev at Inverurie Town Hall.  SCO Principals Peter Whelan (bassoon) and Alec Frank-Gemmill (horn) are soloists in Weber’s Bassoon Concerto in F and his Concertino for Horn and Orchestra in E-flat.  The following month, on Thursday 7 July, the SCO Strings – directed by Isabelle van Keulen – make their debut at Woodend Barn, Banchory with music by Mozart, Bartók, Grieg and Piazzola. SCO Connect, the Orchestra’s education and outreach department, complements the SCO’s performing schedule in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire with its popular Wind Farm: an opportunity for amateur musicians to come together in a relaxed and informal environment for a weekend of coaching and performance with musicians from the SCO.  Wind Farm will take place on the 15/16 October 2011.

SCO Chief Executive Roy McEwen: “It’s a great pleasure for us at the SCO to join hands with our colleagues at the RSNO to create a new series in Aberdeen which offers such a range of repertoire and guest artists to the people of the North East. Creative solutions are needed during the current period of economic challenges and the priority of both orchestras is to continue to serve the people of Scotland in every way that we can. We look forward to working together and building our relationship with our audiences at the Music Hall in Aberdeen and across the region.”

RSNO Chief Executive Simon Woods: “This is a great example of how a challenge can be turned into a virtue. The current economic climate has required both orchestras to look carefully at costs and the number of concerts we present each year. But by working together we have come up with an elegant proposition that allows Aberdeen concert goers for the first time to construct their own subscription package from the top-quality offerings of both the SCO and RSNO. I believe the Aberdeen Concert Series is a great step forward for our two organisations in providing top-class orchestral music in a flexible, accessible way. We look forward to welcoming our friends in the northeast to our future performances.”

The RSNO and the SCO are supported by the Scottish Government and Aberdeen City Council. The RSNO gratefully acknowledges support from TOTAL E&P UK Limited, Shell U.K. Limited, Capital Solutions, Cameron House on Loch Lomond, Dunard Fund, The Weir Group PLC, La Bonne Auberge, The Courier, The Miller Group, ExxonMobil, ScotRail, Park’s Motor Group BMW, Loganair Limited, BBC Radio 3, Evening Times Edinburgh Evening News Classic FM, HSBC, First Rule Investment Consultancy Ltd, Heath Lambert, Royal Bank of Scotland plc, Smart Graphics, Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce, Glasgow Chamber of Commerce, The Franco-Scottish Business Club, Alliance Française Glasgow and The Scottish Council for Development & Industry. The SCO gratefully acknowledges support from Virgin Money, Dunard Fund, Chatham Skoda, Lumison, State Street, BBC Radio 3, Radio Forth, Aberdeen Asset Management, Caledonian Brewing Company, Capital Solutions, Edinburgh University Settlement Homeopathy, John Lewis Edinburgh, The Leith Agency, MacDonald Orr Limited, Macdonald Roxburghe Hotel, The Miller Group, Standard Life, SATV Television Production, The Scottish Council for Development & Industry, and Thom Micro Systems.

For more information go to www.rsno.org.uk and www.sco.org.uk.

Source: RSNO and SCO