March and April Concert Program

CONCERT PROGRAM

MARCH / APRIL 2019 B E E T H OV E N , M OZ A R T A N D S I B E L I U S M O Z A R T ’ S C L A R I N E T C O N C E R TO L AT E M A S T E R P I E C E S

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VERDI’S REQUIEM

Romeo and Juliet Experience Prokofiev’s masterful ballet score.

Stanislav Kochanovsky conductor Yulianna Avdeeva piano 10 – 13 MAY

Arts Centre Melbourne, Hamer Hall Stanislav Kochanovsky conductor

mso.com.au

CONTENTS

05 10 16

THE MELBOURNE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Your MSO Guest musicians BEETHOVEN, MOZART AND SIBELIUS Friday 29 March | 7.30pm Saturday 30 March | 7.30pm Monday 1 April | 6.30pm Arts Centre Melbourne, Hamer Hall

MOZART’S CLARINET CONCERTO Thursday 4 April | 7.30pm Melbourne Recital Centre Friday 5 April | 7.30pm Robert Blackwood Hall, Monash University

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LATE MASTERPIECES Sunday 7 April | 11am Iwaki Auditorium, ABC Southbank

VERDI’S REQUIEM Thursday 11 April | 7.30pm Saturday 13 April | 2pm Arts Centre Melbourne, Hamer Hall

In consideration of your fellow patrons, the MSO thanks you for silencing and dimming the light on your phone.

Cover image: Paul Dean. Credit: Trish O’Brien

mso.com.au

(03) 9929 9600

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Our Artistic Family

Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Established in 1906, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO) is an arts leader and Australia’s oldest professional orchestra. Chief Conductor Sir Andrew Davis has been at the helm of the MSO since 2013. Engaging more than four million people each year, the MSO reaches a variety of audiences through live performances, recordings, TV and radio broadcasts and live streaming.

The MSO performs a variety of concerts ranging from core classical performances at its home, Hamer Hall at Arts Centre Melbourne, to its annual free concerts at Melbourne’s largest outdoor venue, the Sidney Myer Music Bowl. The MSO also delivers innovative and engaging programs and digital tools to audiences of all ages through its Education and Outreach initiatives.

As a truly global orchestra, the MSO collaborates with guest artists and arts organisations from across the world. Its international audiences include the USA, where the MSO will tour in October 2019, China (2012, 2016 & 2018), Europe (2014 & 2020) and Indonesia, where in 2017 it performed at the UNESCO World Heritage Site, Prambanan Temple.

The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land on which we perform and would like to pay our respects to their Elders and Community both past and present.

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Your MSO

Your MSO

Sir Andrew Davis Chief Conductor

Benjamin Northey Associate Conductor

Tianyi Lu

Cybec Assistant Conductor

Hiroyuki Iwaki

Conductor Laureate (1974–2006)

FIRST VIOLINS Dale Barltrop Concertmaster

Sophie Rowell

Concertmaster The Ullmer Family Foundation#

Peter Edwards

Assistant Principal

Kirsty Bremner Sarah Curro

Michael Aquilina#

Peter Fellin Deborah Goodall Lorraine Hook Anne-Marie Johnson Kirstin Kenny Ji Won Kim Eleanor Mancini Chisholm & Gamon#

Mark Mogilevski Michelle Ruffolo Kathryn Taylor Michael Aquilina

#

SECOND VIOLINS

CELLOS

Matthew Tomkins

David Berlin

Robert Macindoe

Rachael Tobin

Monica Curro

Nicholas Bochner

Principal The Gross Foundation# Associate Principal

Assistant Principal Danny Gorog and Lindy Susskind#

Mary Allison Isin Cakmakcioglu Tiffany Cheng Freya Franzen Cong Gu Andrew Hall Isy Wasserman Philippa West Patrick Wong Roger Young VIOLAS Christopher Moore

Principal MS Newman Family# Associate Principal Assistant Principal Anonymous*

Miranda Brockman

Geelong Friends of the MSO#

Rohan de Korte

Andrew Dudgeon#

Keith Johnson Sarah Morse Angela Sargeant Maria Solà#

Michelle Wood

Michael Aquilina# Andrew and Theresa Dyer#

DOUBLE BASSES Steve Reeves Principal

Principal Di Jameson#

Andrew Moon

Lauren Brigden Katharine Brockman Christopher Cartlidge

Sylvia Hosking

Michael Aquilina#

Anthony Chataway

Dr Elizabeth E Lewis AM#

Gabrielle Halloran Maria Solà#

Trevor Jones Fiona Sargeant Cindy Watkin Elizabeth Woolnough

Associate Principal Assistant Principal

Damien Eckersley Benjamin Hanlon Suzanne Lee Stephen Newton Sophie Galaise and Clarence Fraser#

FLUTES Prudence Davis Principal Anonymous#

Wendy Clarke

Associate Principal

Sarah Beggs

Sophia Yong-Tang#

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Your MSO

PICCOLO Andrew Macleod

HORNS

PERCUSSION

Nicolas Fleury

Robert Clarke

Saul Lewis

John Arcaro

Abbey Edlin

Robert Cossom

Trinette McClimont Rachel Shaw

HARP

Principal John McKay and Lois McKay#

Principal

OBOES

Acting Associate Principal

Jeffrey Crellin

Nereda Hanlon and Michael Hanlon AM#

Principal

Thomas Hutchinson Associate Principal

Ann Blackburn

The Rosemary Norman Foundation#

COR ANGLAIS

TRUMPETS

CLARINETS

William Evans Rosie Turner

David Thomas

Philip Arkinstall

Associate Principal

TROMBONES Brett Kelly

BASS CLARINET

Tim and Lyn Edward#

Richard Shirley

Jon Craven

Mike Szabo

Principal

Principal Bass Trombone

BASSOONS

TUBA

Elise Millman

Associate Principal

Natasha Thomas CONTRABASSOON

Principal

John and Diana Frew#

Principal

Jack Schiller

Yinuo Mu

Associate Principal

Craig Hill

Principal

Drs Clem Gruen and Rhyl Wade#

Principal

Shane Hooton

Principal

Tim and Lyn Edward#

Owen Morris

Michael Pisani

Principal

Principal

Timothy Buzbee

Principal

TIMPANI** Christopher Lane

Principal

Brock Imison Principal

# Position supported by ** Timpani Chair position supported

by Lady Potter AC CMRI

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Guest Musicians

Guest Musicians BEETHOVEN, MOZART AND SIBELIUS | 29 March – 1 April Aaron Barnden

Ceridwen Davies

Vivian Qu Siyuan

Jacqueline Edwards

Helen Ireland

Emmanuel Cassimatis

Michael Loftus-Hills

Matthew Laing

Phoebe Smithies

Lynette Rayner

Isabel Morse

Brent Miller

Oksana Thompson

Zoe Wallace

Nicholas Waters

Kylie Davies

violin violin violin violin violin violin

viola viola viola viola

double bass oboe horn

timpani

cello

double bass

MOZART’S CLARINET CONCERTO | 4–5 April Helena Rathbone ^

William Clark

Rachel Curkpatrick

Jacqueline Edwards

Isabel Morse

Lloyd Van’t Hoff

Jenny Khafagi

Mee Na Lojewski

Colin Forbes-Abrams

Michael Loftus-Hills

Rebecca Proietto

Tristan Rebien

Miranda Matheson

Kylie Davies

Brent Miller

Oksana Thompson

Vivian Qu Siyuan

Julie Raines

Nicholas Waters

Emma Sullivan

concertmaster violin violin violin violin violin violin

viola viola cello cello

double bass double bass

oboe

bass clarinet

contrabassoon

associate principal trumpet timpani harp

double bass

VERDI’S REQUIEM | 11–13 April Aaron Barnden

William Clark

Rachel Curkpatrick

Zoe Black

Ceridwen Davies

Tristan Rebien

Cameron Jamieson

Isabel Morse

Fletcher Cox

Jenny Khafagi

Kylie Davies

Michael Olsen

Michael Loftus-Hills

Vivian Qu Siyuan

Mads Sorensen

Oksana Thompson

Andrew Sinclair

Sophie Spencer

Nicholas Waters

Lauren Gorman

Brent Miller

violin violin violin violin violin violin violin

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viola viola viola

double bass double bass

+principal double bass flute

Information correct as of 19 March 2019 ^ Appears courtesy of Australian Chamber Orchestra + Appears courtesy of West Australian Symphony Orchestra

oboe

associate principal trumpet trumpet trumpet trumpet trumpet timpani

REPETITEUR Tom Griffiths Jane Matheson SOPRANO Philippa Allen Julie Arblaster Eva Butcher Aliz Cole Ella Dann-Limon Samantha Davies Michele De Courcy Laura Fahey Rita Fitzgerald Catherine Folley Susan Fone Carolyn Francis Camilla Gorman Emma Hamley Aurora Harmathy Penny Huggett Tania Jacobs Gwen Kennelly Anna Kidman Maya Kraj-Krajewski Natasha Lambie Maggie Liang Claire McGlew Charlotte Midson Clancye Milne Catriona NguyenRobertson Susie Novella Karin Otto Jodie Paxton Tanja Redl Natalie Reid Beth Richardson Mhairi Riddet Jo Robin Elizabeth Rusli Jodi Samartgis Jillian Samuels Lydia Sherren Jemima Sim Shu Xian Freja Soininen Chiara Stebbing

Emily Swanson Elizabeth Tindall Fabienne Vandenburie Tara Zamin

ALTO Ruth Anderson Emma Anvari Catherine Bickell Cecilia Björkegren Kate Bramley Jane Brodie Alexandra Cameron Serena Carmel Young-Hee Chan Alexandra Chubaty Nicola Eveleigh Lisa Faulks Jill Giese Natasha Godfrey Jillian Graham Debbie Griffiths Ros Harbison Juliana Hassett Sue Hawley Jennifer Henry Sara Kogan-Lazarus Judy Longbottom Joy Lukman Helen MacLean Christina McCowan Rosemary McKelvie Stephanie Mitchell Sandy Nagy Tian Nie Tiffany Pang Nicole Paterson Alison Ralph Maya Tanja Rodingen Helen Rommelaar Annie Runnalls Katherine Samarzia Lisa Savige Julienne Seal Helen Staindl Libby Timcke Jenny Vallins

TENOR Steve Burnett Peter Campbell Matthew Castle Peter Clay John Cleghorn Keaton Cloherty Geoffrey Collins James Dipnall David Floyd Simon Gaites David Henley Lyndon Horsburgh Wayne Kinrade Jessop Maticevski Shumack Michael Mobach Jean-Francois Ravat Nathan Guan Kiat Teo Tim Wright

Guest Musicians

MSO Symphony Orchestra Chorus | Verdi’s Requiem

BASS Maurice Amor Alexandras Bartaska Richard Bolitho Roger Dargaville Ted Davies Peter Deane Andrew Ham Andrew Hibbard Joseph Hie Robert Latham Gary Levy Douglas McQueen-Thomson Vern O’Hara Alexander Owens Stephen Pyk Nick Sharman Liam Straughan Matthew Toulmin Maurice Wan Foon Wong Ned Wright-Smith Maciek Zielinski

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Beethoven, Mozart and Sibelius 29 March 2019 | 7.30pm 30 March 2019 | 7.30pm 1 April 2019 | 6.30pm Arts Centre Melbourne, Hamer Hall Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Sir Andrew Davis conductor Alessio Bax piano BEETHOVEN Egmont: Overture

[9']

MOZART Piano Concerto No.27

[32']

— INTERVAL — SIBELIUS Symphony No.1

[38']

Pre-concert talk: 29 & 30 March at 6.15pm, Hamer Hall. Learn more about the performance at a pre-concert presentation with pianist and PhD candidate, Tristan Lee. Post-concert conversation: 1 April at 8:30pm, Hamer Hall Stalls Foyer. Join composer and ABC Classic FM producer, Andrew Aronowicz, for a conversation about the performance.

Running time: approximately one hour and 50 minutes including interval.

Timings listed are approximate.

Alessio Bax

Chief Conductor of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Sir Andrew Davis is also Music Director and Principal Conductor of the Lyric Opera of Chicago. He is Conductor Laureate of both the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the Toronto Symphony, where he has also been named interim Artistic Director until 2020.

Alessio Bax came to world prominence with First Prize wins at the Leeds and Hamamatsu International Piano Competitions. He has appeared with orchestras such as the London Philharmonic, Dallas Symphony, NHK Symphony Tokyo, and St. Petersburg Philharmonic. Recent appearances have included Brahms’ Second Piano Concerto with the Fort Worth Symphony under Miguel Harth-Bedoya and Samuel Barber’s concerto with the Kansas City Symphony Orchestra and Edo de Waart.

conductor

In a career spanning more than 40 years he has conducted virtually all the world’s major orchestras and opera companies, and at the major festivals. Recent highlights have included Die Walküre in a new production at Chicago Lyric.

Sir Andrew’s many CDs include Messiah, nominated for a 2018 Grammy, Bliss’s The Beatitudes, and a recording with the Bergen Philharmonic of Vaughan Williams’ Job/Symphony No.9 nominated for a 2018 BBC Music Magazine Award.

With the MSO he has released a third recording in the ongoing Richard Strauss series, featuring the Alpine Symphony and Till Eulenspiegel.

piano

BEETHOVEN, MOZART AND SIBELIUS | 29 March – 1 April

Sir Andrew Davis

Alessio Bax’s recordings include Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto with the Southbank Sinfonia, a four-hand piano recording of music by Poulenc with Lucille Chung, and Lullabies for Mila (works by Bach, Beethoven, Grieg, Mozart, Rachmaninov and Scriabin).

At 14, Alessio Bax graduated from the conservatory of Bari, his hometown in Italy. He studied in France with Francois-Joël Thiollier and in Siena under Joaquín Achúcarro. In 1994 he moved to Dallas, where he is now the JohnsonProthro Artist-in-Residence at Southern Methodist University’s Meadows School of the Arts.

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BEETHOVEN, MOZART AND SIBELIUS | 29 March – 1 April

Program Notes LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN

(1770–1827)

Egmont, Op.84: Overture Beethoven’s Egmont Overture was written for a revival of Goethe’s play about the Flemish hero Lamoral, Count Egmont who led the Dutch and Flemish people in resisting Spanish domination in the 16th century. Egmont was executed by the Spanish in Brussels in 1565. But his death signalled the eventual revolt and liberation of Spain’s ‘northern provinces’.

Egmont was a figure bound to appeal to Beethoven and the older Goethe. It has been said that Goethe saw in the Egmont story not only one of the major turning points of political and religious history, but a likeness to himself in Egmont’s charm, individuality and love of life. The character in the title role is more like him than the historical count. Beethoven, who was more of a meritocrat than democrat, but who no doubt chafed at calling Goethe ‘Excellency’, saw in it a paean to freedom and national independence.

Goethe completed his play in 1787, and Beethoven was commissioned in 1809 by the Burgtheater in Vienna to write incidental music for the long-awaited Viennese premiere, which took place on 10 May 1810. Beethoven so admired the work that he refused a fee from the theatre. In the end, besides the famous overture, he wrote nine other numbers. (In fact, the overture was the last number to be completed and was premiered at the play’s fourth performance.) In 1814 Beethoven wrote to Georg Friedrich Treitschke (one of the revisers of Beethoven’s earlier ‘escape opera’ Fidelio) that he would happily write more numbers if Treitschke could secure a production at the Theater auf der Wieden.

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But Beethoven’s overture is in itself a gripping musical experience. It is not programmatic, though we can imagine it as music accompanying critical historical events. The octave F opening on the strings is perhaps the boldest opening statement from the often terse Beethoven, and then the overture launches into a heavy sarabande, perhaps betraying theatrical origins – a Spanish dance rhythm conjuring up the villains?

– before the Allegro proper begins.

The Egmont Overture can stand on its own in the concert hall, but its main innovation comes out of the theatre.

Where the middle-period Beethoven, in one of his purely instrumental works, would have ended with a long coda, Beethoven here halts the proceedings and launches into strikingly new material.

In the play, Egmont shouts over drumrolls to the people who have come to see his execution: How often this sound used to summon me to the field of battle and victory!

How boldly my comrades strode forth to face danger. But I stride forth from this prison to face an equally honourable death. I die for the freedom for which I have lived and fought.

As he steps onto the scaffold the orchestra bursts into the so-called ‘Victory Symphony’. This is also how Beethoven’s overture ends: an exhilarating race to the conclusion with scrubbing strings, brass tattoos and the thrilling piccolo we nowadays associate with Beethoven’s Fidelio and the Fifth and Ninth Symphonies, his other victorious finales.

Abridged from a note by G.K. Williams Symphony Australia © 2004 The MSO first performed Beethoven’s Egmont Overture on 1 October 1938 under conductor Sir Malcolm Sargent, and most recently in April 2016 with Sir Andrew Davis.

Piano Concerto No.27 in B flat, K595 Allegro Larghetto Allegro Alessio Bax piano This concerto, Mozart’s last, has little in it to attract the virtuoso out to impress, or the audience in search of the sensational. Many commentators have found in it, if not a feeling of leave-taking, at least resignation and nostalgia. Its composition follows an exceptionally difficult period in Mozart’s life, when he was afflicted by poverty and wrote comparatively little. This last of his piano concertos, finished on 5 January 1791, heralds a new tone in Mozart’s work – one of simpler, unassuming, sometimes even popular expression. The title of the song on which the theme of the third-movement rondo is based, Longing for Spring, expresses both the yearning for a fresh world and the hope of its beginning.

Although Mozart gave the first documented performance of his concerto in a public concert, this, more than any other Mozart concerto, has the character (in mood if not in scoring) of chamber music, to be heard in an intimate circle of music lovers. It begins – as no other music of Mozart’s does except the G minor Symphony No.40 – with several bars of accompaniment. In few of Mozart’s concertos does the first theme so completely set the mood of the composition: it is free and expressive, yet perhaps a little weary, too, in the way each of its three phrases sinks to rest before being roused again by an interruption of the wind instruments.

The soloist’s handling of the material

intensifies it rather than contrasting with the opening tutti. The development ranges through ceaseless modulations, entirely related to the themes of the movement, and carried forward by the wind instruments and strings in imitation, with arabesques from the piano.

The slow movement has the utter simplicity of utterance of a Romance – one rendered celestially beautiful by the quality of its feeling. A sentiment of farewell is difficult to deny here.

So unforced and unanimous is the exchange between soloist and orchestra that one seems to hear the other’s contribution resonating in the mind even when each is playing alone.

The mood of the finale is ambiguous – there is something of the ‘hunting’ rondos of several earlier concertos, and an element of light capriciousness too. The tempo is set by that of the song Mozart wrote to a similar melody just eight days after completing the concerto: ‘Come, sweet May, and make the trees green again’. The piano writing here is more virtuosic than in the first two movements, but the feeling of rejoicing is tempered by several passages which oscillate between major and minor keys. The concerto as a whole leaves a remarkable effect of rich and integrated emotional communication.

BEETHOVEN, MOZART AND SIBELIUS | 29 March – 1 April

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART

(1756–1791)

David Garrett © 2000 The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra first performed this concerto on 16 November 1968 with conductor Fritz Rieger and soloist André Tchaikowsky, and most recently on 21–22 July 2016 with Alexander Shelley and Lars Vogt.

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BEETHOVEN, MOZART AND SIBELIUS | 29 March – 1 April

JEAN SIBELIUS

(1865–1957)

Symphony No.1 in E minor, Op.39 Andante, ma non troppo – Allegro energico Andante (ma non troppo lento) Scherzo (Allegro) Finale (Andante – Allegro molto) Who is the real Sibelius? Is he the passionate creature of the First and Second Symphonies; the lofty, clearthinking classicist of the Third and Sixth Symphonies; the dark nay-sayer of the Fourth or the creator of those epics of intensity, the Fifth and Seventh Symphonies? Can the frequenter of warm southern breezes in The Oceanides (1914) be the same man who conjures up the almost horrific stillness of Tapiola (1926)?

This very unknowability is what makes him a fascinating figure. For beneath such apparent contradictions a trajectory can be discerned which takes his music on a journey that begins in the world of rhetorical late Romanticism and a strong feeling of nationalist pride (for he played a part in Finland’s struggle against Russian domination). But at the end of his composing life we find his music bounded by interior concerns, in which the subject at hand is not heroic struggle, other people’s music, an abstract journey from darkness to light or the ironic interplay of the trivial and the profound.

As the years progressed, Sibelius’ imagination revolved increasingly around the idea of music itself as drama, the unfolding of musical events as a universe of narrative, parallel to our own.

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It is tempting to talk of the first numbered symphony entirely from the perspective of Sibelius’ later music, to emphasise what is prophetic and play down whatever is not. There is much in the piece that foretells of his later achievements. But it is also the work

of a man still in his early 30s, immensely gifted and skilful, but still coming to terms with many of the musical influences around him.

The feature of the work that immediately marks it out as ‘Sibelian’ to anyone interested in musical detail is the modal inflection of the long, winding tune which opens the first movement. The modes in which music was created, before the system of major and minor keys came into play about four centuries ago, held a particular fascination for many composers around the turn of the 20th century, particularly those interested in folk traditions. Although Sibelius’ modal writing was to change character as he developed, it was never to leave him.

This opening melody of the Symphony No.1 is characteristically Sibelian, too, in its economy of means: a solo clarinet over a timpani roll is all he needs to suggest something ancient, eternal, bard-like. As he grew older, the modesty of his instrumental forces stood in great contrast to the lavish orchestras called for by Strauss, Scriabin and many of his other contemporaries.

The manner in which Sibelius puts his material together in this movement tells us a lot about the consistency of his principles of musical organisation.

It is possible to write in terms of conventional analysis, but the music comes to the listener more organically and intuitively than that. Notice, for example, how the second major theme, a dancing idea first heard on the flutes, becomes broader and more lyrical when it passes to the oboe and how it is, in any case, clearly derived from the solo clarinet theme that sets the symphony in motion.

As the tempo of the movement quickens the musical undergrowth grows thicker, combining the melodic ideas together in an ingeniously devised musical tempest, at the other end of

The slow movement reminds us that, however subtly he organises his material, he is still, in this work, captivated by the rhetoric of the Romantic symphony.

The warm, tender opening tune is the seed from which all else in the movement derives. In the course of the movement this song-like theme (punctuated, characteristically, by answering phrases from the woodwind) takes on many guises, some subtle, some obvious, but the overall effect is neither intricate nor fussy but passionate and intense. The many sustained long-held notes (pedal points) Sibelius uses to intensify feeling – again, integral to his composing style – are particularly evident here.

hand, the arioso-like quality of the big tune which comes to dominate the last half of this movement is essentially operatic: after all, Sibelius had not altogether abandoned the idea of writing a major work for the lyric stage. The work’s final pages are more equivocal and the symphony ends, like the first movement, with two pizzicato chords. The emotional ambivalence of this conclusion tells us how enigmatic so much of his music could be.

Phillip Sametz © 2004/2006 The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra first performed Sibelius’ Symphony No.1 on 26 July 1941 under conductor Sir Bernard Heinze and most recently in November 2010 with Benjamin Northey.

BEETHOVEN, MOZART AND SIBELIUS | 29 March – 1 April

which a ringing transformation of the main theme on the brass announces that we are in a mood of summary and conclusion. This technique of gradual crescendo and pulse-quickening; a short, bracing survey of the vista from the summit; then an abbreviated rounding off, would become a vital part of Sibelius’ musical personality.

The short scherzo that follows is notable for its integration of the timpani into the main melodic material (an idea that brings inevitable comparison with the Scherzo of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony). The pastoral trio which follows suggests a bucolic calm that would be unusual in Sibelius’ later music, while the gradually quickening pace of the foreshortened reprise gives the final minutes an air of hectic excitement.

Sibelius’ admiration for Tchaikovsky is most evident in the finale. The very opening is a good example. The tune with which the symphony began is presented afresh in a highly impassioned, Tchaikovskian manner by the strings, with brass declamations. The ferocity of the tune’s subsequent development also bears some resemblance to the spirit of Tchaikovsky’s more rousing symphonic moments. On the other

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Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto 4 April 2019 | 7.30pm Melbourne Recital Centre

5 April 2019 | 7.30pm Robert Blackwood Hall, Monash University Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Michael Collins clarinet/director Paul Dean clarinet MOZART Clarinet Concerto

[28']

DEAN* Clarinet Concerto

[25']

WORLD PREMIERE

— INTERVAL — BEETHOVEN Symphony No.7

[39']

*MSO Composer in Residence Paul Dean’s Clarinet Concerto has been commissioned by Andrew Johnston and premiered by the MSO to mark the 65th Wedding Anniversary of his parents, Stephanie and David Johnston.

Pre-concert talk: 4 April at 6.30pm, Elisabeth Murdoch Hall / 5 April at 6.30pm, Robert Blackwood Hall balcony foyer. Learn more about the performance at a pre-concert presentation with MSO Education Manager, Lucy Rash.

Running time: approximately two hours including interval. Timings listed are approximate.

Paul Dean

Having established a distinguished career as a soloist, Michael Collins has in recent years become highly regarded as a conductor. He was Principal Conductor of the City of London Sinfonia, 2010–18. Recent concert highlights have included play/directing Mozart with the London Mozart Players after performing Mozart Quintet’s with the Borodin Quartet the same day. In November he made his conducting debut with the Academy of Ancient Music. In September 2018 he recorded Strauss with the BBC Symphony.

Brisbane-born Paul Dean is regarded as one of Australia’s foremost musicians in his capacities as soloist, composer and artistic director. He is a founding member of the Endeavour Trio, and was Principal Clarinet with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra until 2000. He now holds the position of Head of Winds at Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University.

clarinet/director

Michael Collins is committed to expanding the repertoire of the clarinet.

He has premiered works such as John Adams’ Gnarly Buttons, Elliott Carter’s Clarinet Concerto, and Brett Dean’s Ariel’s Music. Recordings include the Grammy award-winning Shakespeare Songs with Ian Bostridge and Antonio Pappano, and Bernhard Crusell’s clarinet concertos (recently nominated for a BBC Music Magazine Award).

In 2015, Michael Collins was awarded an MBE for his services to music. He plays exclusively on Yamaha.

clarinet

MOZART’S CLARINET CONCERTO | 4–5 April

Michael Collins

Paul has performed as soloist with the Queensland, West Australian, Adelaide and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras, and as guest artist with the Navarra, Doric, and Goldner Quartets. He has performed at many festivals including the Oxford May Music Festival and the Alpine Classic Switzerland. Paul’s recording of Mozart and Brahms clarinet works for the Melba label, and the music of Benjamin Frankel for German label CPO have won high praise from critics.

Paul has composed music for violinist Jack Liebeck, pianist Daniel De Borah, and Katie Noonan, among others. His opera Dry River Run, commissioned by the Queensland Conservatorium Opera School, premiered in 2018.

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MOZART’S CLARINET CONCERTO | 4–5 April

Program Notes WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART

(1756–1791)

Clarinet Concerto in A, K622 Allegro Adagio Rondo (Allegro) Michael Collins clarinet The clarinet was an exotic instrument in Mozart’s day. Writing to his father from the German city of Mannheim, 22-year-old Mozart exclaimed: ‘If only we had clarinets! You cannot imagine the glorious effect of a symphony with flutes, oboes and clarinets.’ The famed Mannheim orchestra had no less than two clarinets; the Salzburg orchestra – in which Mozart father and son played – had none. Years later, when Mozart was making a career for himself in Vienna, he became acquainted with the Stadler brothers, Anton and Johann, skilled clarinettists who performed in various ensembles in the imperial capital. It was for Anton, the elder of the two, that Mozart composed the Clarinet Concerto, in September–October 1791.

Among the features of the clarinet that must have appealed to Mozart are the strongly differentiated colours of the instrument’s various registers. The clarinet’s tonal variety is astonishing.

The low register is dark and resonant, the middle is warm and melodious, and the top is clear and bright. No other woodwind instrument has such a broad range of sounds from top to bottom.

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Curiously, no other woodwind instrument has such a powerful ‘break’ in the middle of its range. Like the break in the singing voice, the clarinet break is something that players have to work hard at controlling. Playing above or below the break poses no special challenges but travelling across it can be hazardous.

And this is probably another reason why Mozart so loved the clarinet: its strong affinity with the human voice. The clarinet has a chest voice, a head voice and a break in-between. It is powered by air passing from the lungs through the lips. It sings not with words but with pure open sounds. And the smooth carriage from one sound to another – as smooth as a singer gliding from one note to the next – is one of the instrument’s specialties. ‘Never should I have thought that a clarinet could be capable of imitating a human voice so deceptively as it was imitated by you,’ wrote a critic of Anton Stadler’s playing.

Judging from the opening movement of the Clarinet Concerto, Allegro, Mozart relished putting Stadler through his paces, while simultaneously exhibiting the instrument’s kaleidoscopic range.

Of particular note is Mozart’s tendency to commence a phrase in one register (either high or low) and abruptly jump to another for its continuation. There’s something marvellous about the apparent ease with which the clarinet is able to carry this out. The second movement, Adagio, is a soulful aria for clarinet and orchestra. What is remarkable is the way in which Mozart creates such beautiful, song-like melodies from such plain and simple means: the rising notes of a chord and the falling notes of a scale. Here, the building blocks of music open a portal to the sublime. By contrast, the jaunty finale in 6/8 exhibits the clarinet’s playful side. As before, the music leaps between registers. Mozart also has the soloist perform dazzling acrobatics, proving just how agile this novel instrument is.

Robert Gibson © 2019 The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra first performed Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto on 11 August 1947 with soloist Thomas White and conductor Sir Bernard Heinze, and most recently in July 2017 with David Thomas and Richard Egarr.

Clarinet Concerto Introduction, Scherzetto, Burlesque, Adagio Out of the blue, Waltz, Cadenza and Finale Paul Dean clarinet The writing process of my clarinet concerto was spread out over a few months, punctuated by the final preparations and rehearsals for the debut of my first Opera at the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University. Writing an opera is a large scale project to say the least, and what it taught me about large forms, the function of melody and harmony, and orchestration were invaluable to my future as a composer.

Of course the process of writing a clarinet concerto was a complete joy. My own history with the major concertos from the repertoire as a player and teacher left a great trail of inspiration in my imagination as well as the odd bout of nervous weight.

I wrote a first movement just prior to the start of the opera rehearsal period and I very smugly went into the next few months thinking, “Well, half of it is done, at least”. On returning to it months later I hated every second of it and I did the only reasonable thing… sent it to that file on my computer called “Rubbish to be laughed at in later years”.

The writing process restarted with the Waltz in the middle of the second movement. I had been to see Prokofiev’s Cinderella with the Queensland Ballet which my fiancé was playing in and was utterly blown away by the score.

The Waltz was in many ways born out of dreams following this performance and therefore gave me a rock in the middle of the composition to hang my hat on for the next few months. Other influences came from as far afield as

my stepdaughter listening to 1970s ELO one afternoon which sparked great energy in the opening of the second movement. The second movement was wrapped up in a matter of weeks, amongst some extremely bizarre dreams of meeting with Anton Stadler (Mozart’s clarinettist) and Richard Mühlfeld (Brahms’ clarinettist). A rather impressive writer’s block accompanied thoughts of “how does the first movement start?” in the month that followed.

All of a sudden, “whoosh”! Literally.

My mind had had enough and I began the piece with a whoosh. In an act of self-cleaning the inspiration process, I cleared out the ghosts of the original first movement and the four sections took shape naturally. The Burlesque was the result of a dream I had while staying in the Blue Mountains. There I was standing in front of the MSO and this weird burlesque music was playing.

It was an all-too encompassing image to forget and the burlesque was started and finished within the same day.

MOZART’S CLARINET CONCERTO | 4–5 April

PAUL DEAN

(born 1966)

The adagio section was a result of a few things. Thoughts of my recently departed mother mixed in with a new concept of harmony. The question will remain for every composer: how does one write emotional music within an atonal language that appeals to listeners and performers and doesn’t sound trite and a rehash of music from before our time? This is ultimately an unanswerable question and one that will accompany me through every bar of music I write for the rest of my days.

I am enormously indebted to Andrew Johnston for his energy and vision in making this commission and piece happen, and to the players and management of the MSO for all they have done to make this a successful occasion.

Paul Dean © 2019 This is the world premiere of this work.

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MOZART’S CLARINET CONCERTO | 4–5 April

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN

(and the skipping figure which presumably prompted Berlioz’s comment).

Symphony No.7 in A, Op.92

The second movement is again based on a pervasive rhythm, beating constantly through the theme and the variations. The tempo marking is Allegretto, but Beethoven wondered whether he should have written Andante, a sure sign that it should be neither too slow, nor too fast. Solemn and flowing at the same time, rich yet simple in its harmonies, this movement was immediately understood, as its encore at the 1813 premiere shows.

(1770–1827)

Poco sostenuto – Vivace Allegretto Presto – Assai meno presto Allegro con brio Beethoven composed his Seventh and Eighth Symphonies more or less concurrently in 1811 and 1812. He conducted the first public performance of No.7 in a charity concert for wounded soldiers at the old University in Vienna on 8 December 1813. Many eminent musicians played in the orchestra, including Salieri and Spohr. The hit of the evening was the premiere of Beethoven’s wartime occasional piece Wellington’s Victory or The Battle of Vittoria, but the Allegretto second movement of the symphony was encored.

In this symphony Beethoven, not for the first time, achieved something completely new. It was too much for some of his contemporaries: even so perceptive a musician as Weber thought that the grinding five-note figure which is repeated obstinately by the violas, cellos and basses in the coda of the first movement showed that Beethoven was ‘ripe for the madhouse’.

Berlioz admired the symphony, but puzzlingly found a rustic, peasants’ round in the first movement, and Wagner dubbed the whole symphony ‘the apotheosis of the dance’.

But there is no program in this symphony; its innovations are musical. The most obvious is the preoccupation with rhythm. This is clear from the moment when, after the unprecedentedly long, slow introduction, almost a separate movement in itself, the orchestra seems to become fixated on one repeated note, eventually slipping into the rhythm which dominates the first movement

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The scherzo is one of those amazing Beethoven inventions which pack a wealth of ideas and surprises into a concentrated space, but without seeming quirky or cluttered, because the composer seems so sure of what he is doing. Besides, the trio provides a sudden and remarkable contrast: small intervals, phrasing joined rather than detached, winds to the fore where strings had been before. The whole thing is worth repeating, and Beethoven does just that, but who can predict in advance how?

The finale’s power is obvious, and so is its driving, sinewy intensity. The mastery lies in making the effect cumulative and exhilarating, rather than merely wearying. The Seventh Symphony as a whole is one of Beethoven’s supreme achievements in long-range musical strategy. In some respects this was best understood a few years later by the unassuming Franz Schubert, whose own late symphonies, No.8, the Unfinished, and No.9, the Great C major, show the same repetition of material over large spans, but enlivened by telling modifications in the harmonic treatment. © David Garrett The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra first performed Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony on 7 May 1938 under conductor Georg Szell, and most recently in July 2015 with Matthew Coorey.

THE

CLARINET’S JOURNEY

by Paul Dean

Woody Herman, photo by William P. Gottlieb

The main reason for the popularity of the clarinet is its incredible versatility.

It is just as comfortable in a Brahms or Mahler symphony as it is in all styles of jazz, and even some rock music.

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Since its development in the early 18th century, the sound of the clarinet has spurred many great composers to write some of their most inspired concertos and chamber music: Mozart’s Concerto K622 and Quintet K581; Brahms’ Trio Op.114, Quintet Op.115 and Sonatas Op.120; Bartók’s Contrasts; and concertos by Copland and Nielsen. There are several major orchestral solos for the clarinet, such as appear in Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No.6, Respighi’s Pines of Rome and Rachmaninov’s Symphony No.2. It was an integral part of the wonderful Glenn Miller sound, the central focus of the Benny Goodman and Woody Herman

bands and, of course, who could forget Acker Bilk (as much as we might try…).

As early as 1710 the clarinet was developed by the famous Denner family of instrument makers in Nuremberg.

The first model had just two keys and differed only slightly from its predecessor, the chalumeau. The most important invention which gave birth to the clarinet out of the chalumeau was the register or ‘speaker’ key. This released it from the confines of the one octave range of the chalumeau, enabling it to ‘overblow’ a twelfth and move into what is now termed the second or clarion register. What separated the clarinet and chalumeau from other reed instruments such as the oboe and bassoon was the mouthpiece: the latter needed two pieces of cane bound together to create the vibrations, but the former needed only one, attached to a mouthpiece.

More keys were added to facilitate smooth chromatic movement throughout the entire range. The first known clarinet part in any orchestral piece was in a mass by J.A.J. Faber written in the 1720s. Vivaldi used clarinets in his concertos RV556, 559 and 560.

However, it was not until the success of the Mannheim orchestra in the 1760s that the clarinet started to become a regular ensemble member; by the 1780s most European orchestras employed two clarinet players.

Mozart elevated the instrument to a permanent position in the modern orchestra. Every opera after Idomeneo contained increasingly important clarinet parts. In particular, La clemenza di Tito contains spectacular and beautiful obbligato writing. The impact that his three main clarinet compositions (the Kegelstatt Trio K498, the quintet K581 and the concerto K622, arguably his most beautiful) made on the musical community of the time was enormous.

Thereafter, composers and performers accepted the new instrument as a fullyfledged member of the wind family in the orchestra.

Composers in the Romantic period embraced the clarinet. It not only became an alternative solo voice to the flute, oboe and bassoon, but often started to take leading voice status. Beethoven used it to wonderful effect in his Fourth, Sixth and Eighth Symphonies. For many modern players these symphonies present the greatest highlights and often the greatest challenges in the entire repertoire.

Weber and Spohr wrote concertos which demanded a new measure of virtuosity from players, who in turn required great technical improvements from the instrument manufacturers.

Schubert, Mendelssohn, Berlioz, Schumann and Brahms used the dark timbre as an essential fabric in their orchestral sound. Berlioz (and later,

Mahler and Strauss) used the E flat clarinet (piccolo clarinet) as a startling new dimension to orchestral colour.

During the 18th century, the instrument had rapidly become a favourite of gypsy musicians throughout Hungary, the Balkans and Turkey. This aspect of the instrument was later exploited by Bartók and Kodály.

The 20th century really saw the golden age of the clarinet, beginning just prior to 1900 with Debussy and Ravel.

They demanded previously unheard-of extremes in dynamics, varieties of tone and colour, and phenomenal technical wizardry. Of special interest is Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé. This set the standard by which composers such as Stravinsky, Berg, Hindemith and Messiaen could use and expand the instrument. The clarinet has also played an important role in jazz and ragtime ensembles. This influenced composers such as Stravinsky (Ebony Concerto), Bernstein (Prelude, Fugue and Riffs) and, of course, Gershwin in the opening to his Rhapsody in Blue.

It has been said that musicians often have their own personalities moulded by the characteristics of the instrument they play. This statement does contain a certain amount of truth: I do not know too many quiet brass players, for instance. The clarinet is a fairly jolly instrument, and despite being capable of incredible and sometimes violent mood swings, seems quite content to be just loud and fast. Clarinettists the world over tend to be ‘good time’ people who can think of nothing better than spending an evening with friends, sharing good food and wine…and occasionally dropping in anecdotes of their loudest ever squeak, or discussing the number of times the cat has inadvertently fallen from the tree in Peter and the Wolf.

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Late Masterpieces 7 April 2019 | 11am Iwaki Auditorium, ABC Southbank Sophie Rowell violin Matthew Tomkins violin Christopher Moore viola David Berlin cello Philip Arkinstall clarinet Mairi Nicholson presenter MOZART Divertimento for String Trio

[40']

— INTERVAL — BRAHMS Clarinet Quintet

Running time: approximately one hour and 50 minutes with interval.

Timings listed are approximate.

[37']

LATE MASTERPIECES | 7 April

Sophie Rowell

Matthew Tomkins

Recently appointed Concertmaster with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Sophie Rowell has had an extensive performing career as a soloist, chamber musician and principal orchestral violinist both in Australia and abroad. After winning the ABC Young Performer’s Award in 2000, Sophie founded the Tankstream Quartet which won string quartet competitions in Cremona and Osaka. Having studied in Germany with the Alban Berg Quartet the quartet moved back to Australia in 2006 when they were appointed to the Australian String Quartet.

Matthew Tomkins has been a member of the MSO since 2000, and Principal Second Violin since 2010. Born in Canberra, Matthew grew up just outside of Ballarat and began learning the violin at the age of five. His teachers included Marco van Pagee, Spiros Rantos and Mark Mogilevski and he also holds a Bachelor of Engineering and a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Melbourne.

violin

Since 2012 Sophie has travelled the world playing in principal violin positions with orchestras including the Vancouver, Sydney & Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras, as well as participating in many chamber music festivals in Australia. She now teaches at the Australian National Academy of Music having previously taught at the Elder Conservatorium in Adelaide and the Australian Institute of Music in Sydney.

She has also given master classes in the UK, France, Singapore and Australia.

violin

With the MSO he has toured throughout Europe and China and performed with artists as diverse as Nigel Kennedy, Charles Dutoit, KISS and Tim Minchin.

Matthew has been a regular performer in the MSO Chamber Players series.

Matthew is well known to Australian audiences as a member of the Flinders Quartet and is also a core player with the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra. He has tutored regularly for the Australian Youth Orchestra, and teaches chamber music and violin at the University of Melbourne.

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LATE MASTERPIECES | 7 April

Christopher Moore

David Berlin

After completing his Bachelor of Music at the University of Newcastle, Christopher played the violin with the Adelaide and New Zealand Symphony Orchestras and spent nine years travelling the globe as principal violist of the Australian Chamber Orchestra.

As romantic as that sounds, he missed his old chums Mahler, Schoenberg and Adès, and so has returned to these and other old friends at the MSO.

David Berlin studied the cello with Lois Simpson at the Sydney Conservatorium and with Channing Robbins at the Juilliard School of Music in New York. For three decades David has been at the forefront of music performance in Australia, as Principal Cello of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra since 1989.

viola

Not surprisingly, Christopher’s wife and two daughters are pleased that Papa has hung up his rock star garb and come home to roost like their pet chickens. If you’re lucky, he may hand you a bona fide free-range egg; if you’re unlucky, you’ll be stuck hearing about how much he loves brewing beer and riding his bike into town from the suburbs.

As principal violist with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Christopher plays a Maggini viola, on loan to the MSO by an anonymous benefactor and crafted in 1610.

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cello

In London in 1992, David gave the world premiere performance of the complete works for cello and piano

by Franz Liszt, with Leslie Howard.

David has performed chamber music with violinists Kolja Blacher and James Ehnes, pianists Emanuel Ax and Yefim Bronfman, as well as tenor Ian Bostridge.

Along with solo recordings for ABC radio he has appeared as soloist on the Tall Poppies, Chandos and Naxos labels. His recital disc Barber & Debussy with pianist Len Vorster on the Tall Poppies label was nominated by James McCarthy as one of the best classical CDs of 2011 in Limelight magazine.

LATE MASTERPIECES | 7 April

Philip Arkinstall

Mairi Nicholson

Philip Arkinstall has been Associate Principal Clarinet of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra since 2009 and was principal with the Malaysian Philharmonic for 11 years prior. He was the winner of the Australian Woodwind Competition in Brisbane at the age of just 18 and also won the 2MBS Radio Performer of the Year in 1996 and the ABC Young Performers Award in 1997.

Queen’s Trust and Big Brother awards enabled him to further his studies in Europe and he has appeared both as a soloist and as a guest principal with the Sydney, West Australian, Queensland, and Tasmanian symphony orchestras.

Mairi’s long and varied career as a broadcaster and music journalist for both the ABC and BBC has taken her from the Sydney Opera House to New York’s Avery Fischer Hall, from the Royal Albert Hall, London to Hamer Hall, Melbourne.

clarinet

He’s an active chamber musician and has been fortunate enough to tour Australia for Musica Viva with the Auer quartet, also working with groups like the Goldner Quartet, the Eggner trio, as well as the Australia Ensemble, The Australian Chamber Orchestra, the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra and many contemporary ensembles including PLEXUS, MSO’s Ensemble in Residence.

presenter

Currently for ABC Classic FM she presents the Lunchtime Concert, The Opera Show and Legends plus live broadcasts of MSO and Musica Viva concerts and Opera Australia productions.

Mairi writes for Limelight magazine, leads Opera and Music tour groups to Europe and America and conducts Media training with singers and instrumentalists.

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LATE MASTERPIECES | 7 April

Program Notes WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART

(1756–1791)

Divertimento in E flat for String Trio, K563 Allegro Adagio Menuetto 1 Andante: Tema con variazioni Menuetto 2 Allegro From mid-1788 to the beginning of 1791 things were difficult for Mozart. His popularity in Vienna had (temporarily) waned and the city’s musical life was put on hold while the Emperor waged an expensive and inconclusive war in the Middle East – theatres closed and many of Mozart’s aristocratic patrons left town so as not to be conscripted. Mozart and his wife, Constanze, suffered ill-health and their financial situation was most perilous in the middle of 1788. At this time Mozart wrote a string of letters to his fellow Freemason Michael Puchberg, a textile merchant, begging to borrow money. While Puchberg didn’t give him nearly as much as requested, the loans kept Mozart’s household afloat. In gratitude Mozart gave Puchberg tickets to a forthcoming concert (which may have included performances of the last three symphonies) and composed at least two works, one of which was the Divertimento for String Trio, written in September 1788. Its key, E flat, may be of significance: it is a ceremonial key, and is the central key of Mozart’s greatest Masonic work, The Magic Flute.

(The Masonic Funeral Music is in the closely related key of C minor.)

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We know that it was performed at a ‘private concert’ (read: fundraiser) in Dresden when Mozart was on his way to Berlin. And, of course, on his return

he (probably falsely) claimed that he had been commissioned by the King to write what we now know as the ‘Prussian’ Quartets. Those contain some of Mozart’s most ‘advanced’ music, so it may seem odd that in this Divertimento he was seemingly cultivating a light genre, appropriate for background music at an aristocratic soirée. Divertimento, cassation, serenade – all referred to a multi-movement ensemble work usually framed by marches to which wind ensembles might well have processed in and out of the event (some extant works include written-in crescendos and diminuendos to create just that effect with ensembles where it is impractical to play while wandering about). The internal movements would then consist of pairs of contrasting pieces.

Mozart’s piece does all that, but there is nothing lightweight about it: at some 40 minutes’ playing time it is his longest work of chamber music. Symmetrical in layout, it is bookended by two highly wrought allegro movements, the first of which has a development that would rival any of those in Mozart’s more ‘serious’ work. The Adagio second movement is substantive and extended, exploring states of profound emotion which is then dispelled by the poise of the first of the work’s two minuets. The second ‘slow’ movement is an Andante whose seemingly commonplace theme – in the manner of a Viennese pop song – is then subjected to an array of variations.

Channelling Haydn or prefiguring Beethoven, it shows Mozart a master of polyphony, and of the sleight of hand that produces textures more complex that one might imagine possible from three instruments. The second minuet is genuinely amusing in its use of terse motifs and mock-serious gestures, and the disarmingly inconsequential noodling of the central trio section.

Gordon Kerry © 2019 The only previous performance of this work by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra took place in November 2009 with Markus Tomasi, Fiona Sargeant and David Berlin.

JOHANNES BRAHMS

(1833–1897)

Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Op.115 Allegro Adagio Andantino – Presto non assai, ma con sentimento Con moto At a time in the second half of the 19th century when Wagner, Liszt and Bruckner were driving music into everlarger forms and creating ever more public musical spectacles, Brahms presided over a revival of interest in a rather more modest music which could be performed in intimate and domestic environments. In so doing, Brahms, along with Dvořák in Bohemia, risked the wrath of the avant-garde by propelling the chamber music heritage of Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and Mendelssohn into the modern era.

Of this handful of composers whose contribution to the literature of chamber music has been truly profound, Brahms must surely have been the most painstaking and self-critical in

his approach to his art. His acknowledged chamber music amounts to just 24 pieces in all, but the number of other works which he began and never completed, or destroyed after completion, is considerably greater (Brahms once remarked that he never had any shortage of things to burn in winter).

The composer’s battles with the string quartet, for instance, are notorious. He once said that he incinerated about 20 works in the form before the appearance of his first published string quartets, Op.51. His struggle with the piano trio was no less tortuous. His first such work, Op.8, was revised time and again over a 40-year period, and it was only in his advanced years that he completed the piano trios Opp.87 and 101, his two masterworks in the form.

LATE MASTERPIECES | 7 April

The finale is a rondo on one of those themes, in 6/8, such as Mozart used in many a concerto, whose innocent, vernacular tune is then put through the technical paces and emotive excursions that only a genius like Mozart could bring off. As the great musicologist Alfred Einstein noted, ‘it is a true chamber work, and grew to such large proportions only because it was intended to offer something special in the of way of art, invention and good spirits’ and went on to suggest it is ‘the finest, most perfect trio ever heard’.

Yet for all his deliberations and agonies over the gestation of his chamber music – probably, indeed, because of them – the quality of Brahms’ 24 existing works is uniformly high, combining the strength and character of Beethoven with the singing warmth of Schubert in an idiom tinged with, but not dominated by, Romantic lushness. Brahms’ chamber music is filled with idiomatic, highly original chamber writing, from the wild gypsy rondos of the works for piano and strings, to the poignancy of the last clarinet pieces.

In terms of his chamber music Brahms’ final years were devoted to works involving the clarinet. Like Mozart before him, the mature Brahms found in the dark, woody tones of the clarinet an instrument which could project music of translucent, autumnal beauty and enduring appeal. And again like Mozart (who had a friend in Anton Stadler), Brahms uncovered not just a clarinet but a clarinettist.

The extraordinary Richard Mühlfeld was originally a violinist in the acclaimed Meiningen Orchestra, and also served

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LATE MASTERPIECES | 7 April

as the orchestra’s assistant conductor.

But during the 1870s he taught himself to play the clarinet and took over that role within the orchestra. By the time Brahms began to write for him in the early 1890s, Mühlfeld’s clarinet playing was acclaimed throughout Europe for its richness of tone and originality of technique. In the end, Brahms would complete two sonatas, a trio and a quintet for Mühlfeld.

The greatest of these works is the Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Op.115.

Brahms composed it in the summer of 1891, when he was 58, and it was published the following year. It’s an elegiac work, with a dark beauty and a haunting, wistful quality. It opens in the strings and with a certain ambiguity as to the key. The clarinet enters with a brief flourish and as the main theme is restated the harmonies become full and rich – a fine example of Brahms’ chamber technique at its most expansive.

The Adagio slow movement moves into the major key and the serene mood is accentuated by the muted strings.

The more passionate, rhapsodic middle section brings with it a suggestion of the Hungarian gypsy music which was one of Brahms’ greatest loves.

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The third movement is in the form of an intermezzo, with a suggestion of a folksong in the main theme. The more agitated Presto section in the middle is built around a semiquaver pattern which eventually gives way to the return of the main Andantino theme.

A theme and five variations continues the folk vein into the final movement, with the clarinet’s sombre tone sounding more poignant than ever as it trades off ideas and phrases with the first violin. From all the evidence presented in this emotional conclusion to a great work, it seems that Mühlfeld must have possessed an extraordinary lyrical sense and a rich clarinet tone – with as much expressive ability as the human voice itself. © Martin Buzacott The only previous performance of this work by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra took place in May 2005.

RE AD MO RE ABOUT T HE CL ARINE T ’S HISTORY ON PAGE 2 2

FANTASY AND THE FIREBIRD | 8 March

Adopt a Musician COME INTO OUR WORLD AND ADOPT AN MSO MUSICIAN Our musicians are the beating heart of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra – providing music that motivates and inspires. They are also our hardest workers; devoting countless hours to perfecting their art.

Support the music and the Orchestra you love while getting to know your favourite player. Honour their talent, artistry and life-long commitment to music and become part of the MSO family!

You can adopt a musician yourself – or form a syndicate with your friends.

Level of gift starts with Section Players at $5,000 pa.

To adopt your musician today contact Arturs Ezergailis.

CONTACT DETAILS philanthropy@mso.com.au or 03 8646 1551

Verdi’s Requiem 11 March 2019 | 7.30pm 13 March 2019 | 2pm Arts Centre Melbourne, Hamer Hall Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Lawrence Renes conductor Leah Crocetto soprano Okka von der Damerau mezzo-soprano Issachach Savage tenor Nicholas Brownlee bass Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Chorus Warren Trevelyan-Jones chorus master VERDI Messa da Requiem

[84']

Pre-concert talk: 11 April at 6.15pm & 13 April at 12.45pm, Hamer Hall. Learn more about the performance at a pre-concert presentation with writer and founder of Rehearsal magazine, Megan Steller.

Running time: approximately one hour and 50 minutes with interval.

Timings listed are approximate.

VERDI’S REQUIEM | 11–13 April

Lawrence Renes

Leah Crocetto

Dutch-Maltese conductor Lawrence Renes began his 2018–19 season with the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra before going on to give the Chinese premiere of George Benjamin’s opera Written on Skin with the Beijing Music Festival and Shanghai Symphony Orchestra. Upcoming highlights include his return to Tokyo’s NHK Symphony Orchestra, and Billy Budd with the San Francisco Opera.

Prominent in Italian repertoire, Leah Crocetto recently returned to Seattle Opera to sing Leonora in Il trovatore.

Last year saw her first performance as Bellini’s Norma in concert with North Carolina Opera, and her debut at Carnegie Hall in recital with pianist Mark Markham. These performances mark her Australian debut. With the Los Angeles Philharmonic she will sing in Mahler’s Symphony No.8 under Gustavo Dudamel.

Renes was Music Director and Chief Conductor of the Royal Swedish Opera until summer 2017. During his time there, productions included Parsifal, Madam Butterfly, Der Rosenkavalier, and Jenůfa.

A champion of John Adams, he has conducted Nixon in China and Doctor Atomic. The DVD of his Nederlandse Opera production of Doctor Atomic was named one of 2008’s Ten Best Classical Recordings of the Year in The New Yorker.

Last season, Ms. Crocetto performed the title role in Aïda with Washington National Opera and Seattle Opera.

She debuted as Aïda with San Francisco Opera (SFO) in 2016–2017. Also last season she sang Leonora in Il trovatore with Oper Frankfurt, Liù in Turandot with SFO and the title role of Tosca with Pittsburgh Opera. Ms. Crocetto made her Metropolitan Opera debut in 2015–16.

Highlights of Lawrence Renes’ 2017–18 season included engagements with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, and Mahler Chamber Orchestra at the Holland Festival.

Concert highlights have included Verdi’s Requiem with Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, as well as performances of Messiah and Beethoven’s Ninth.

conductor

soprano

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VERDI’S REQUIEM | 11–13 April

Okka von der Damerau

Issachach Savage

Hamburg-born Okka von der Damerau began her vocal studies in Rostock and graduated from the University of Music in Freiburg.

Heldentenor Issachah Savage was the winner of the Seattle International Wagner Competition having earned the main prize, audience favourite prize, orchestra favourite prize, and a special honour by Speight Jenkins, General Director of the Seattle Opera.

mezzo-soprano

From 2006 to 2010 she was an ensemble member of the Hannover State Opera and performances included the world premiere of Edward Rushton’s Die fromme Helene, as Erda in Das Rheingold, Maddalena in Rigoletto and Third Woman in The Magic Flute. After appearing as First Maid in Elektra at the Bavarian State Opera she became an ensemble member in the 2010–11 season.

Recent guest appearances have included Ortrud in Lohengrin at Stuttgart Opera, Waltraute in Götterdämmerung in Munich and Brangäne in Tristan und Isolde with the Cleveland Orchestra at Severance Hall with Franz Welser-Möst. She has sung with Vienna State Opera and the Chicago Symphony. She sang Juana in Ernst Krenek’s 1938 opera, Karl V, at Bavarian State Opera in February. Next month in Munich she sings Ulrica in Verdi’s The Force of Destiny.

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tenor

His roles include Florestan, Otello, Rienzi, Bacchus (in Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos), Lohengrin, Pinkerton and Radames. Forthcoming appearances include Siegmund in Die Walküre at Opéra National de Bordeaux, Mahler’s Song of the Earth with the Omaha Symphony, and The Messenger in Aida with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

On the concert stage, he has sung Verdi’s Requiem with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl. He has sung at the Metropolitan Opera, Houston Grand Opera and with other prestigious companies. His repertoire includes contemporary work such as Mitch in Previn’s Streetcar Named Desire, and Wynton Marsalis’ All Rise.

VERDI’S REQUIEM | 11–13 April

Nicholas Brownlee

Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Chorus

Nicholas Brownlee won first prize at the 2016 Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition. He is a member of the ensemble at the Baden State Theatre Karlsruhe where his 2018–19 season has included appearances in Anna Bolena and Der Freischütz and he will be heard in The Tales of Hoffmann.

For more than 50 years the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Chorus has been the unstinting voice of the Orchestra’s choral repertoire. The MSO Chorus sings with the finest conductors including Sir Andrew Davis, Edward Gardner, Mark Wigglesworth, Bernard Labadie, Vladimir Ashkenazy and Manfred Honeck, and is committed to developing and performing new Australian and international choral repertoire.

bass

Nicholas Brownlee made his Metropolitan Opera debut as the First Soldier in Salome conducted by Johannes Debus. A former Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist at Los Angeles Opera, he has appeared in The Pearlfishers, Magic Flute, Madam Butterfly and Moby-Dick, all conducted

by James Conlon. He also sang Colline in La bohème at LA Opera conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, and has appeared at Atlanta Opera, the Teatro de São Carlos (Lisbon), Santa Fe Opera, and as Colline in Dallas.

Nicholas Brownlee’s appearances on the concert platform have included Dvořák’s Te Deum with the Houston Symphony and Verdi’s Requiem with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra.

Commissions include Brett Dean’s Katz und Spatz, Ross Edwards’ Mountain Chant, and Paul Stanhope’s Exile Lamentations. Recordings by the MSO Chorus have received critical acclaim.

It has performed across Brazil and at the Cultura Inglese Festival in Sao Paolo, with The Australian Ballet, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, at the AFL Grand Final and at Anzac Day commemorative ceremonies.

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VERDI’S REQUIEM | 11–13 April

Program Notes GIUSEPPE VERDI

(1813–1901)

Requiem Mass Requiem [Introit and Kyrie] Dies irae [Sequence] Offertory

Warren Trevelyan-Jones MSO Chorus Master

Warren Trevelyan-Jones is the Head of Music at St James’, King Street in Sydney and is regarded as one of the leading choral conductors and choir trainers in Australia. Warren has had an extensive singing career as a soloist and ensemble singer in Europe, including nine years in the Choir of Westminster Abbey, and regular work with the Gabrieli Consort, Collegium Vocale (Ghent), the Taverner Consort, The Kings Consort, Dunedin Consort, The Sixteen and the Tallis Scholars.

Warren is also Director of the Parsons Affayre, Founder and Co-Director of The Consort of Melbourne and, in 2001 with Dr Michael Noone, founded the Gramophone award-winning group Ensemble Plus Ultra. Warren is also a qualified music therapist.

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Sanctus Agnus Dei Lux aeterna Libera me It seems at once appropriate and incongruous that Verdi should write a Requiem. Appropriate, because as the most significant Italian composer of the second half of the 19th century, representative of a tradition stretching back to the Renaissance, it would seem unthinkable that his output should not include at least one major religious work. Incongruous, because Verdi was generally regarded as an atheist, and at the time he wrote the Requiem, had composed – to all intents and purposes – nothing but operas. Out of this contradiction emerged a work which is in effect sui generis, suited entirely neither to the church nor the theatre, yet containing the finest features of both of its antecedents.

Verdi was born in Busseto, near Parma, in a region with a tradition of anti-clericalism. None of his early experiences, including his family’s modest origins, drew him nearer to the church, and the course of his life never changed this. His relationship with the church seems to have been more in accordance with social usage than out of actual adherence. His outlook seems perhaps best summarised as someone devoutly ethical but who happily rejected religion. His wife Giuseppina, who was herself deeply religious, wrote of him:

It has also been frequently pointed out that the role that religion usually plays in his operas is a negative one.

We need to be careful of reading too much into this, given that it might be a function of the fact that Verdi gravitated towards subjects of the most dramatic contemporary writers, for whom religion in itself was not of particular interest.

What interested Verdi in a libretto was its dramatic drive and the theatrical and musical opportunities it offered: a work like Il trovatore does not have an innate social commentary to offer, being as it is concerned with individual crises and destinies.

That said, it cannot be denied that Verdi’s oeuvre taken as a whole does show certain features, for which he has to have been responsible, for the very reason that he did take a lot of care in the choice and the shaping of the subjects he set to music. For example, there is what could almost be called an existentialist streak in Verdi’s operas.

Works such as Ernani, Macbeth, Il trovatore, Rigoletto, La traviata, Simon Boccanegra, The Force of Destiny, A Masked Ball or Aida, to name but a few, all present a world in which individual choices are made in an uncaring universe and a hostile society. The only barometer of morality in these works is the integrity of that individual choice; and they are all tragedies because at some point a decision (often of great integrity) is made which sets that choice at odds with forces beyond its control. They are not the fated tragedies of the Greeks – they are chosen tragedies.

Another feature of Verdi’s operas is that religion features less than one would expect, and that the role of religion when

it is present is often a political rather than a spiritual one. Religion is an almost conspicuous absence in Verdi’s middleperiod works, the sinister Miserere in Il trovatore being the exception that proves the rule. Of his later works, The Force of Destiny offers a more conventional and supportive role than most, but it is notable that in the original version of the work, the protagonist rejected the comfort of the church in the final scene and committed suicide. Of the other later works, Aida and Don Carlos present a stark view of religion as a repressive temporal authority with little comfort to offer. These features do not necessarily indicate a particular attitude in Verdi, but they have to offer a vision of the kind of thinking which resonated with him and which inspired music in him. And neither feature, it has to be said, at first sight bodes well for the writing of a Requiem.

Verdi, however, found his own way to the genre.

VERDI’S REQUIEM | 11–13 April

[He] lets himself be – I won’t say an atheist, but certainly not much of a believer, and that with an obstinacy and a calm which makes you want to thrash him.

It is typical of Verdi that it should not be a state or religious occasion which first inspired the idea of a Requiem, but rather the death of someone he held in reverence and affection, namely Gioachino Rossini. Following Rossini’s death in 1868, Verdi suggested that six great Italian composers each write a movement of a Requiem to be dedicated to the late, great old man of Italian opera.

Verdi proceeded to compose the Libera me, but his colleagues were not so forthcoming and the project eventually lapsed. This may have something to do with other parts of Verdi’s proposal – that the work be performed only once, in closed performance, and that no one receive any pay for it.

Verdi’s choice of movement is intriguing, though. The Libera me is taken from the Absolution and is not in fact a canonical part of the Requiem mass, although it had been set to music in previous renditions of the Requiem rite.

His setting of it is also revealing. Most

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VERDI’S REQUIEM | 11–13 April

previous settings of the Libera me were for choir; but Verdi’s is deeply personal, set for the soprano voice at the dramatic lower end of her register, sounding like a terrified plea rather than an invocation in the confidence of faith. Dying away into silence as it does, it is hardly a reassuring end to any obsequy. It was, however, to set the tone for the final version of the Requiem – several major themes of which were already present in this first essay.

When Rossini died Verdi wrote to his friend Clara Maffei, ‘A great name has gone from the world!…When the other one who is still alive is taken from us, what will remain!’ The ‘other one’ he referred to was Alessandro Manzoni, usually described as an ‘author and patriot’. In these days when the word ‘patriot’ has been substantially defiled by acts committed in the name of patriotism, it is hard to understand the impact and stature of someone like Manzoni who spent all his long life devoted to the ideal of realising and cultivating a single, unified Italian state true to the ideals which had made the Italian peninsula such a crucial part of European culture. His magnum opus, the book I promessi sposi, has a fair claim to having defined the standard of the modern Italian language, and his unimpeachable moral integrity made him a leading voice in the efforts to unite and reform Italy. His death in 1873, like Rossini’s, gave Verdi an occasion to reflect upon a life which he had admired.

In the case of Manzoni, though, Verdi’s tribute was to be a solo effort.

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Verdi’s Requiem could have been written by nobody else – its drama and sensibility is uniquely his, despite the fact that he was setting a liturgical text as opposed to an opera libretto, and that this has profound implications.

The liturgy does not recognise a setting or characters, nor does it possess that crucial factor which Verdi sought in

a libretto, which he called ‘la parola scenica’ (‘the theatrical word’). That is to say, it does not create a theatrical structure which will in turn generate pacing and a sense of drama. The mass, be it the Requiem or the regular mass, is in its essence a contemplative rite, which creates a different dynamic entirely. Fortunately for Verdi, however, the Requiem has a structural distinction in the section known as the Sequence.

The Sequence, usually known by its first phrase Dies irae, replaces in the Requiem the section usually occupied by the Credo in the mass of the living; and it is the Dies irae which is the lynchpin of Verdi’s setting, returning abruptly and out of ritual order at several points in the piece. There are two reasons for this, one is that it is in the first person and therefore far more engaging to Verdi’s style than the more regular missal sections, which imply a monumental and impersonal setting.

Secondly, the Dies irae presents a powerful image of the Last Judgement, and Verdi was quite clearly inspired by this to great effect. In a manner of speaking, he was liberated by not having a concrete stage setting or the demands of the theatre to take into account.

It is perhaps in the Requiem, of all places, that Verdi’s existentialist streak comes most to the fore. Sartre’s play Huis clos (No Exit), which brought the phrase ‘Hell is other people’ into currency, makes much of the idea that life is about the choices one makes and that in the afterlife he depicts, it is not possible to choose any more. The Last Judgement, as depicted in the Requiem, concentrates upon the reckoning due for those choices made. Verdi’s Requiem focuses particularly on the idea that the only thing which stands between humanity and eternal damnation is a hope of divine grace. It would be an almost Lutheran vision of salvation, were it not for the fact that the choir and soloists stand as intercessors

Composing and producing for the operatic theatre is one long process of compromise. The limitations of the orchestra, or the singers, or the stage, or the technology, the librettist, the censor or the management, all played a part in what finally became an operatic score in Verdi’s time. In the Requiem, arguably for the first time, none of these limitations obtained. It was performed in Milan Cathedral, all costs covered by the city of Milan. Verdi conducted himself, with his own choice of soloists and a thoroughly well-drilled chorus.

Most importantly however, the words and their meaning were known to all the audience in advance; and there were no tawdry sets, costumes or lighting, with all the attendant limitations of 19th century mores and technology, to limit the scope of Verdi’s vision.

The implication of these last points is profound. The fact that the text of the Requiem was a familiar one was clearly not lost on Verdi. As opposed to the theatre, where suspense is essential, in a formal genre like a Requiem the audience knew what would ritually ‘happen next’. The effect is that all of his efforts are devoted to emotional impact in the moment rather than being restrained by a need to pace a drama.

Indeed, development per se is almost entirely absent from the Requiem.

It moves in blocks of timelessness, cataclysm and rapture, each circulating around the other.

Given the task of evoking the Last Judgement, Verdi’s aural painting is for once unrestricted by a concrete stage setting. The fact that there is

no stage setting has other significance.

In anything but a Requiem this could have been a serious drawback for a composer as vivid as Verdi. As it happens, it is practically the making of the work, as words which in an opera would point to a concrete situation become instead applicable to humanity as a whole. Perhaps no one since Beethoven was able to depict the human experience in so universal a context but in such a personal way.

Verdi’s genius in this piece is to make each soloist and indeed the choir not characters out of an opera, but representatives of humanity; and he instinctively drew upon the profoundest and most unshakeable human emotions for them to experience – awe, panic, adoration, despair, hope. It is all latent in the Requiem text, but only Verdi draws an audience into a coherent individual experience of the universal.

Only Verdi can lead us to understand the human circumstance in the face of divine judgement.

VERDI’S REQUIEM | 11–13 April

pleading with the deity for themselves and us – something which could only have emerged from a Catholic sensibility. But it is Verdi’s great achievement that it is almost never in doubt that on the far side of the music is the void and eternity.

Antony Ernst © 2008 The MSO first performed Verdi’s Requiem on 31 May 1939 with conductor George Szell. The soloists were Thea Philips (soprano), Heather Kinnaird (mezzo-soprano), Lionello Cecil (tenor) and Raymond Beatty (bass); the Melbourne Philharmonic Society choir was conducted by George English. The Orchestra’s most recent performances took place in September 2013 under Sir Andrew Davis; the soloists were Amber Wagner, Jamie Barton, René Barbera and Jonathan Lemalu, with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Chorus and Sydney Philharmonia Choirs.

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VERDI’S REQUIEM | 11–13 April

Text and Translation No.1 Requiem [Introit and Kyrie] Requiem aeternam dona eis Domine:

Grant them eternal rest, O Lord,

et lux perpetua luceat eis.

and let everlasting light shine upon them.

Te decet hymnus, Deus, in Sion,

To thee, O God, praise is meet in Zion,

et tibi reddetur votum in Jerusalem:

and prayer shall go up to thee in Jerusalem.

exaudi orationem meam,

Give ear to my supplication,

ad te omnis caro veniet.

unto thee shall all flesh come.

Kyrie eleison,

Lord, have mercy upon us.

Christe eleison,

Christ, have mercy upon us.

Kyrie eleison.

Lord, have mercy upon us.

No.2 Dies irae [Sequence]

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Dies irae, dies illa

The day of wrath, that day

Solvet saeclum in favilla,

shall dissolve the world in ashes,

Teste David cum Sibylla.

as witnesseth David and the Sibyl.

Quantus tremor est futurus,

What trembling shall there be

Quando Judex est venturus,

when the Judge shall come

Cuncta stricte discussurus!

who shall thresh out all thoroughly!

Tuba mirum spargens sonum

The trumpet, scattering a wondrous sound

Per sepulcra regionum,

through the tombs of all lands,

Coget omnes ante thronum.

shall drive all unto the Throne.

Mors stupebit et natura

Death and nature shall be astounded

Cum resurget creatura,

when creation shall rise again

Judicanti responsura.

to answer the Judge.

Liber scriptus proferetur,

A written book shall be brought forth

In quo totum continetur,

in which shall be contained all

Unde mundus judicetur.

for which the world shall be judged.

(Dies irae.)

(The day of wrath.)

Judex ergo cum sedebit,

And therefore when the Judge shall sit,

Quidquid latet apparebit,

whatsoever is hidden shall be manifest:

Nil inultum remanebit.

and nothing shall remain unavenged.

Dies irae, dies illa…

The day of wrath, that day…

Quid sum miser tunc dicturus,

What shall I say in my misery?

Quem patronum rogaturus,

Whom shall I ask to be my advocate,

Cum vix justus sit securus?

when scarcely the righteous may be without fear?

King of awful majesty,

Qui salvandos salvas gratis,

who freely saves the redeemed:

Salva me, fons pietatis.

save me, O Fount of Pity.

Recordare, Jesu pie,

Remember, merciful Jesus,

Quod sum causa tuae viae

that I am the reason for thy journey,

Ne me perdas illa die.

do not destroy me on that day.

Quaerens me, sedisti lassus,

Seeking me didst thou sit weary,

Redemisti crucem passus:

thou didst redeem me, suffering the Cross:

Tantus labor non sit cassus.

let not such labour have been in vain.

Juste Judex ultionis,

O just Judge of Vengeance,

Donum fac remissionis

give the gift of redemption

Ante diem rationis.

before the day of reckoning.

Ingemisco tamquam reus:

I groan as one guilty;

Culpa rubet vultus meus:

my face blushes at my sin.

Supplicanti parce Deus.

Spare the supplicant, O God.

Qui Mariam absolvisti,

Thou who didst absolve Mary

Et latronem exaudisti,

and hear the prayer of the thief,

Mihi quoque spem dedisti.

hast given me hope too.

Preces meae non sunt dignae,

My prayers are not worthy,

Sed tu bonus fac benigne,

but thou, who art good, show mercy,

Ne perenni cremer igne.

lest I burn in everlasting fire.

Inter oves locum praesta

Give me a place among the sheep,

Et ab haedis me sequestra,

and separate me from the goats,

Statuens in parte dextra.

setting me on the right hand.

Confutatis maledictis,

When the damned are confounded

Flammis acribus addictis,

and consigned to sharp flames,

Voca me cum benedictis.

call me with the blessed.

Oro supplex et acclinis,

I pray, kneeling in supplication,

Cor contritum quasi cinis,

heart as contrite as ashes,

Gere curam mei finis.

take thou my ending into thy care.

Dies irae, dies illa…

The day of wrath, that day…

Lacrimosa dies illa,

That day is one of weeping

Qua resurget ex favilla,

on which shall rise again from the ashes

Judicandus homo reus.

the guilty man, to be judged.

Huic ergo parce Deus.

Therefore spare this one, O God.

Pie Jesu Domine,

Merciful Lord Jesus:

Dona eis requiem. Amen.

Grant them rest. Amen.

VERDI’S REQUIEM | 11–13 April

Rex tremendae majestatis,

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VERDI’S REQUIEM | 11–13 April

No.3 Offertory Domine Jesu Christe, Rex gloriae,

O Lord Jesus Christ, King of glory,

libera animas omnium fidelium defunctorum deliver the souls of all the departed faithful de poenis inferni,

from the torments of Hell,

et de profundo lacu:

and from the deep pit;

libera eas de ore Leonis,

deliver them from the mouth of the lion;

ne absorbeat eas Tartarus,

that Hell may not swallow them up,

ne cadant in obscurum:

and that they may not fall into darkness.

sed signifer sanctus Michael

But may the holy standard-bearer Michael

repraesentet eas in lucem sanctam.

bring them into the holy light;

Quam olim Abrahae promisisti

which thou didst promise of old to Abraham

et semini ejus.

and his seed.

Hostias et preces tibi, Domine,

We offer unto thee, O Lord,

laudis offerimus:

sacrifices and prayers of praise;

tu suscipe pro animabus illis,

do thou receive them on behalf of those souls

quarum hodie memoriam facimus:

whom we commemorate this day.

fac eas, Domine,

Make them, O Lord,

de morte transire ad vitam.

to cross over from death to life.

No.4 Sanctus Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus,

Holy, holy, holy,

Dominus Deus Sabaoth!

Lord God of Hosts.

Pleni sunt coeli et terra gloria tua.

Heaven and earth are full of thy glory.

Hosanna in excelsis.

Hosanna in the highest.

Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini.

Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.

Hosanna in excelsis.

Hosanna in the highest.

No.5 Agnus Dei

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Agnus Dei,

Lamb of God,

qui tollis peccata mundi,

that takest away the sins of the world:

dona eis requiem;

grant them rest.

Agnus Dei,

Lamb of God,

qui tollis peccata mundi,

that takest away the sins of the world:

dona eis requiem.

grant them rest.

Agnus Dei,

Lamb of God,

qui tollis peccata mundi,

that takest away the sins of the world:

dona eis requiem sempiternam.

grant them eternal rest.

Lux aeterna luceat eis, Domine,

Let everlasting light shine on them,

cum Sanctis tuis in aeternum,

O Lord, with thy saints for ever:

quia pius es.

for thou art merciful.

Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine:

Grant them eternal rest, O Lord,

et lux perpetua luceat eis.

and let everlasting light shine upon them

Cum Sanctis tuis in aeternum,

with thy saints for ever;

quia pius es.

for thou art merciful.

VERDI’S REQUIEM | 11–13 April

No.6 Lux aeterna

No.7 Libera me Libera me, Domine, de morte aeterna,

Deliver me, O Lord, from eternal death

in die illa tremenda:

in that awful day

quando coeli movendi sunt et terra.

when heaven and earth shall be moved:

Dum veneris judicare

when thou shalt come to judge

saeculum per ignem.

the world by fire.

Tremens factus sum ego

I am seized with trembling

et timeo,

and I fear the time

dum discussio venerit

when the trial shall approach,

atque ventura ira.

and the wrath to come;

Quando coeli movendi sunt et terra.

when heaven and earth shall be moved.

Dies irae, dies illa,

A day of wrath, that day

calamitatis et miseriae,

of calamity and woe,

dies magna et amara valde.

a great day and bitter indeed.

Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine,

Rest eternal grant them, O Lord,

et lux perpetua luceat eis.

and may light perpetual shine upon them.

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HONORARY APPOINTMENTS

Deputy Chairman David Li Managing Director Sophie Galaise Board Directors Andrew Dudgeon AM Danny Gorog Lorraine Hook Margaret Jackson AC Di Jameson David Krasnostein Hyon-Ju Newman Glenn Sedgwick Helen Silver AO Company Secretary Oliver Carton

The MSO relies on your ongoing philanthropic support to sustain our artists, and support access, education, community engagement and more. We invite our suporters to get close to the MSO through a range of special events.

The MSO welcomes your support at any level. Donations of $2 and over are tax deductible, and supporters are recognised as follows: $1,000+ (Player)

$20,000+ (Impresario)

$2,500+ (Associate)

$50,000+ (Virtuoso)

$5,000+ (Principal)

$100,000+ (Platinum)

$10,000+ (Maestro) The MSO Conductor’s Circle is our bequest program for members who have notified of a planned gift in their Will.

Enquiries P (03) 8646 1551 | E philanthropy@mso.com.au 49

CALENDAR

OF EVENTS

26 – 27 April

2 – 4 May

10 – 13 May

Ghostbusters

Metropolis New Music Festival

Romeo and Juliet

Arts Centre Melbourne, Hamer Hall

Melbourne Recital Centre

Arts Centre Melbourne, Hamer Hall

16 – 17 May

23 – 24 May

29 – 30 May

Ludovic Morlot: A Night at Sea

Casino Royale in Concert

Mozart Symphony No.29

Arts Centre Melbourne, Hamer Hall and Costa Hall, Geelong

Arts Centre Melbourne, Hamer Hall

Melbourne Recital Centre and Monash University

Tickets at mso.com.au

Thank you to our Partners Principal Partner

Government Partners

Premier Partners

Major Partners

Venue Partner

Education Partners

Supporting Partners

Quest Southbank

The CEO Institute

Ernst & Young

Bows for Strings

The Observership Program

Trusts and Foundations

Erica Foundation Pty Ltd, Gall Family Foundation, The Archie & Hilda Graham Foundation, The Gross Foundation, Ern Hartley Foundation, The A.L. Lane Foundation, Gwen & Edna Jones Foundation, Sidney Myer MSO Trust Fund, MS Newman Family Foundation, The Thomas O’Toole Foundation, The Ray & Joyce Uebergang Foundation, The Ullmer Family Foundation

Media and Broadcast Partners

BEST SEAT in the house

As Principal Partner of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, we know the importance of delighting an audience. That’s why when you’re in Emirates First, you’ll enjoy the ultimate flying experience with fine dining at any time in your own private suite.

*Emirates First Class Private Suite pictured. For more information visit emirates.com/au, call 1300 303 777, or contact your local travel agent.