CELTIC CONNECTIONS
ASSEMBLY HALL, WORTHING
Sunday 26th March 2023 at 2.45pm
Karl Jenkins Palladio (De Boers Diamond advert
William Wordsworth Variations on a Scottish Theme
Richard Wagner Siegfried Idyll
Frederick Delius On hearing the first cuckoo in spring
E.J. Moeran Whythorne’s Shadow
Percy Grainger Irish tune from County Derry
Paul Lewis Tauranga Concerto
Soloist: IAN SCOTT (clarinet)
Conductor: JOHN GIBBONS
Leader: JULIAN LEAPER
Scottish-born clarinettist, Ian Scott, WSO Principal Clarinet for many years, has recorded a number of CDs of British Clarinet concertos. It was listening to one of these while in Tauranga, New Zealand, that Brighton-born composer Paul Lewis was inspired to write his Tauranga Concerto. This 20-minute work reflects both the beauty of the Kaimai mountains and the local nature reserve. Its finale however is inspired by a “Jitterbug” dance number and results in a jazzy movement reminiscent of the Swing music of the 1920s and 30s.
The Londonderry Air fascinated Percy Grainger throughout his life and there exist many takes by Grainger on this popular theme. The composer was great friends with Frederick Delius whose On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring is justifiably popular. E.J. Moeran collected folksongs in his native Norfolk and his bucolic Whythorne’s Shadow is based on a Tudor melody by Elizabethan composer Thomas Whythorne, who wrote some of the first secular songs to be printed in England.
The orchestral music of William Wordsworth has enjoyed a renaissance of interest thanks to the on-going series of recordings by WSO Music Director John Gibbons and the Liepaja Symphony Orchestra. His Variations on a Scottish Theme is based on the very popular Scottish song ‘The Hundred Pipers’ attributed to Carolina Oliphant, Lady Nairne, in the 1840s, and which commemorates the fall of Carlisle to Bonnie Prince Charlie.
Karl Jenkins, the hugely successful Welsh composer of Adiemus and The Armed Man, wrote his string work Palladio in homage to the Palladian style of architecture. It gained huge popularity through its use on a TV advert.
Richard Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll was composed as a birthday present for his second wife, Cosima, after the birth of their son Siegfried in 1869. It was premiered on Christmas Day 1870 in their home and was originally intended as a private work but financial pressures led to its publication in 1878.
The professional orchestra of
West Sussex
IAN SCOTT
Ian Scott is the Principal Clarinet of the Royal Ballet Sinfonia, The Orchestra of St.John's, The Rambert Dance Company and a regular Guest Principal with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden.
He was born in Perth, Scotland where he began lessons with Charles Maynes. He studied at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama with Henry Morrison and at the University of Arizona with John Denman winning major prizes at both establishments. He was then invited by the conductor Claudio Scimone to become Principal Clarinet with the Gulbenkian Orchestra in Lisbon, Portugal where he played for six years.
He has appeared as soloist with I Solisti Veneti and the Orchestra da Camera di Padova in Italy, The Gulbenkian Orchestra in Portugal and on tour to the Far East, and with numerous orchestras in Britain, including The Royal Ballet Sinfonia, London Musici, The City of Oxford Orchestra, The Northern Sinfonia and The Guildford Philharmonic.
He is a founder member of London's leading clarinet sextet, The Clarinet Section which records for the label Clarinet Classics. His recording for ASV White Line of British Clarinet Concertos with the Royal Ballet Sinfonia conducted by Gavin Sutherland was released in April 2003. His latest recording for the Dutton Epoch label is called English Clarinet Concertos and includes world premiere recordings of the concertos by Leighton Lucas and Humphrey Procter-Gregg with Barry Wordsworth conducting The Royal Ballet Sinfonia.
Ian plays on clarinets made by the English maker Peter Eaton and modified by Alan Andrews.
Tickets here:
