CONCERT PROGRAM
SEPTEMBER 2019 PIANOS AND PERCUSSION
•
M OZ A R T A N D E LG A R
M E N D E L S S O H N ’ S V I O L I N C O N C E R TO
Show off your love of the MSO!
Merchandise now available at the MSO Box Office, Hamer Hall. Visit us Monday – Friday, 10am to 6pm or before each Hamer Hall performance.
CONTENTS
05 10 16
THE MELBOURNE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Your MSO Guest musicians PIANOS AND PERCUSSION Sunday 15 September / 11am Iwaki Auditorium, ABC Southbank Centre
MOZART AND ELGAR Thursday 19 September / 7.30pm Arts Centre Melbourne, Hamer Hall Friday 20 September / 7.30pm Costa Hall, Geelong
24
MENDELSSOHN’S VIOLIN CONCERTO Thursday 26 September / 7.30pm Melbourne Recital Centre Friday 27 September / 7.30pm Robert Blackwood Hall, Monash University
In consideration of your fellow patrons, the MSO thanks you for silencing and dimming the light on your phone. Cover image: Dale Barltrop, MSO Concertmaster
mso.com.au
(03) 9929 9600
Shop luxury before your next flight. Located in T2 international departures after security.
Premier Partner of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
Our Artistic Family
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra is a leading cultural figure in the Australian arts landscape, bringing the best in orchestral music and passionate performance to a diverse audience across Victoria, the nation and around the world. Each year the MSO engages with more than 5 million people through live concerts, TV, radio and online broadcasts, international tours, recordings and education programs. Under the spirited leadership of Chief Conductor, Sir Andrew Davis, the MSO is a vital presence, both onstage and in the community, in cultivating classical music in Australia. The nation’s first professional orchestra, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra has been the sound of the city of Melbourne since 1906.
The MSO regularly attracts great artists from around the globe including Anne-Sophie Mutter, Lang Lang, Renée Fleming and Thomas Hampson, while bringing Melbourne’s finest musicians to the world through tours to China, Europe and the United States. 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.
5
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#
Tair Khisambeev
Assistant Concertmaster
Peter Edwards
Assistant Principal
Kirsty Bremner Sarah Curro
Michael Aquilina#
Peter Fellin Deborah Goodall Lorraine Hook Anne-Marie Johnson Kirstin Kenny Eleanor Mancini 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 Di Jameson#
Christopher Cartlidge Associate Principal Michael Aquilina#
Lauren Brigden Katharine Brockman Anthony Chataway
Dr Elizabeth E Lewis AM#
Principal MS Newman Family# Associate Principal Assistant Principal Anonymous*
Miranda Brockman
Geelong Friends of the MSO#
Rohan de Korte
Andrew Dudgeon#
Keith Johnson
Barbara Bell, in memory of Elsa Bell#
Sarah Morse Maria Solà#
Angela Sargeant Maria Solà#
Michelle Wood
Michael Aquilina#
DOUBLE BASSES Steve Reeves Principal
Sylvia Hosking
Assistant Principal
Damien Eckersley Benjamin Hanlon Suzanne Lee Stephen Newton
Gabrielle Halloran
Sophie Galaise and Clarence Fraser#
Trevor Jones
FLUTES
Maria Solà# Anne Neil#
Fiona Sargeant
Prudence Davis
Maria Solà
Principal Anonymous#
Cindy Watkin
Wendy Clarke
#
Associate Principal
Sarah Beggs
Sophia Yong-Tang#
6
Your MSO
PICCOLO Andrew Macleod
HORNS
PERCUSSION
Nicolas Fleury
Robert Clarke
Saul Lewis
John Arcaro
Principal John McKay and Lois McKay#
Principal
OBOES
Principal Third The Hon Michael Watt QC and Cecilie Hall#
Jeffrey Crellin
Principal
Thomas Hutchinson Associate Principal
Ann Blackburn
The Rosemary Norman Foundation#
COR ANGLAIS Michael Pisani
Principal
Abbey Edlin
Nereda Hanlon and Michael Hanlon AM#
Trinette McClimont Rachel Shaw
BASS CLARINET Jon Craven Principal
BASSOONS Jack Schiller
Principal
Elise Millman
Associate Principal
Yinuo Mu Principal
Shane Hooton William Evans Rosie Turner
Craig Hill
HARP
Principal
David Thomas
Associate Principal
Drs Rhyll Wade and Clem Gruen#
TRUMPETS
Associate Principal
Philip Arkinstall
Tim and Lyn Edward#
Robert Cossom
Owen Morris
CLARINETS Principal
Principal
John and Diana Frew#
TROMBONES Richard Shirley
Tim and Lyn Edward#
Mike Szabo
Principal Bass Trombone
TUBA Timothy Buzbee
Principal
TIMPANI**
Natasha Thomas
Dr Martin Tymms and Patricia Nilsson#
CONTRABASSOON Brock Imison
Principal
# Position supported by ** Timpani Chair position supported by Lady Potter AC CMRI
7
Guest Musicians
Guest Musicians MOZART AND ELGAR | 19–20 September Aaron Barnden
William Clark
Jessica Buzbee
Madeleine Jevons
Isabel Morse
Tim Corkeron*
Jenny Khafagi
Zoe Wallace
Yiang Shan Sng^
Michael Loftus-Hills
Alexandra Giller^
Nicholas Waters
Vivian Qu Siyuan
Merewyn Bramble
Esther Toh
violin violin violin violin violin viola
viola viola cello
principal trombone timpani
percussion
double bass double bass double bass
MENDELSSOHN’S VIOLIN CONCERTO | 26–27 September Aaron Barnden
Jenny Khafagi
Isabel Morse
Madeleine Jevons
Michael Loftus-Hills
Donald Nicolson
violin violin
violin violin
* Appears courtesy of Queensland Symphony Orchestra ^ University of Melbourne Masters of Music student 8
Information correct as of 5 September 2019.
viola
harpsichord
Keep the music alive – forever
Did you know there’s a way to continue to support the orchestra you love beyond your lifetime? By leaving a gift in your Will to Melbourne Symphony Orchestra you can create a legacy of the highest quality symphonic music, rich musical experiences and learning opportunities for generations of Melburnians (and Victorians) to come. And, by notifying us that you have a made a bequest to the MSO you can join fellow far-sighted individuals in our Conductor’s Circle. Enjoy exclusive access to the Orchestra at functions and special events throughout the year, just for Conductor’s Circle members.
For more information about leaving a gift in your Will to the MSO or the Conductor’s Circle, please contact a member of the Philanthropy team on (03) 8646 1551 or via email at philanthropy@mso.com.au.
Pianos and Percussion 15 September 2019 | 11am Iwaki Auditorium, ABC Southbank Centre John Arcaro timpani Robert Cossom percussion Louisa Breen piano Leigh Harrold piano Andrew Aronowicz presenter BARTĂ“K Sonata for two pianos and percussion
[27']
BERNSTEIN (ARR. MUSTO / COSSOM) Symphonic Dances from West Side Story [23']
Running time: approximately 70 minutes with no interval. Timings listed are approximate.
Robert Cossom
John Arcaro has been a member of the MSO since 1990. He has also been a guest timpanist/percussionist with Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa Japan, Malaysian Philharmonic, Sydney Symphony, West Australian and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras. He has worked as a chamber musician and soloist with ensembles such as the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Melbourne Chamber Orchestra, Synergy Percussion, Speak Percussion, Astra, Aphids, The Pokrovsky Ensemble Russia and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.
Robert Cossom was born in Hobart, and learned everything he knows from Eric Johnstone and Tom O’Kelly. He is proud to have worked with and to be a friend of them both. He starting playing casually with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra at age 15, and was appointed to a permanent position in the MSO in 1995. Personal highlights of his MSO career include playing with KISS and The Wiggles, and working with Sir Andrew Davis. He created and endows the MSO Snare Drum Award for undergraduate percussion students.
Performance highlights have included a critically acclaimed performance of Stockhausen’s Kontakte with pianist Michael Kieran Harvey in 1996. John has recorded numerous film scores and performed with a wide range of popular artists, including Frank Sinatra, Olivia Newton-John, KISS and Sting. John studied in New York and Philadelphia with leading orchestral percussionists and graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) with high distinction. He is currently a member of staff at the University of Melbourne and the VCA.
Robert’s music has been played by, among others, the TYO Percussion Ensemble, the TSO and the MSO Chamber Players. He has also been composer-in-residence for the Sydney Youth Orchestras.
timpani
percussion
PIANOS AND PERCUSSIONS | 15 September
John Arcaro
Robert likes sunsets, long walks on the beach, and being caught in the rain. He is supported by Zildjian, Evans Drumheads, Pearl Drums and Just Percussion. His music is published by Rhythmscape Australia.
11
PIANOS AND PERCUSSIONS | 15 September
Louisa Breen
Leigh Harrold
Melbourne-born Louisa Breen started her piano lessons with Nehama Patkin. After graduating with a Bachelor of Music Honours from the University of Melbourne, she studied at the Royal College of Music in London where she completed her Masters in Musical Performance.
Leigh Harrold is one of Australia’s most sought-after pianists. Completing his studies at The University of Adelaide with Gil Sullivan, Leigh received the Beta Sigma Phi Classical Music Award – the conservatorium’s highest honour. He took up a full scholarship at the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM) in 2003 under Geoffrey Tozer and was made the Academy Fellow in 2004.
piano
Louisa has toured Asia and Australasia as a member of the RCM Premiere ensemble and performed regularly as a soloist and as a chamber musician in concerts throughout the UK. She has performed concertos with orchestras in Australia, the United Kingdom, Europe and New Zealand, including the European Premiere of Carl Vine’s Piano Concerto with the RCM Sinfonietta. Since returning to Melbourne in 2005, Louisa has been a freelance pianist, and is currently Associate Artist at the Australian National Academy of Music. She performs regularly as a solo and chamber musician, and with the Melbourne and Sydney Symphony Orchestras. As half of the Brown and Breen piano duo, she has released a CD of Australian compositions for two pianists.
12
piano
Leigh has performed extensively throughout Europe, North America, Africa and Australia as both soloist and chamber musician, including concerts at the Royal Academy of Music, the Mozarteum in Salzburg and concerto engagements with Australian orchestras. He has collaborated with such luminaries as flautist Michael Cox, soprano Camilla Tilling and pianist Mark Gasser. Twice awarded the Geoffrey Parsons Award for Associate Artists, Leigh was also the recipient of the pianist’s prize in the 2014 Mietta Song Competition. Leigh currently holds positions at ANAM and the University of Melbourne, and is pianist with the MSO.
BÉLA BARTÓK
(1881–1945)
Sonata for two pianos and percussion, Sz 110, bb115 Assai lento – Allegro molto Lento, ma non troppo Allegro non troppo
Andrew Aronowicz presenter
Andrew Aronowicz is a composer, teacher and music writer, currently working as a Program Producer at ABC Classic. His music has been performed around the country by a number of acclaimed Australian ensembles, including commissions by Plexus Ensemble and Syzygy Ensemble as part of the Glen Johnston Composition Award at Macedon Music. Andrew has a diverse experience communicating about classical music to various audiences. He has worked as a subject coordinator and lecturer at the University of Melbourne, a critic and feature writer for Limelight magazine, and as a pre-concert speaker for the Melbourne Symphony, Sydney Symphony and Australian Chamber Orchestras. Andrew holds a Bachelor of Music with honours and a Master of Music specialising in composition, both from the University of Melbourne. He’s also a keen cryptic crossword enthusiast, and likes collecting coloured socks.
Bartók and his wife, Ditta Pásztory, spent the summer of 1937 in the Austrian region of Carinthia, where Bartók spent the time composing his Sonata for two pianos and percussion, commissioned by legendary Swiss conductor and entrepreneur, Paul Sacher. A fine pianist, Pásztory took over as the foremost interpreter of Bartók’s work as his health declined. The premiere performance of this Sonata in 1938 was also Bartók and Pásztory’s debut as a piano duo. Malcolm Gillies has noted that the work, like its companion Music for strings, percussion and celesta, moves from tight chromatic writing at the start to ‘open, “acoustic” scale’ patterns in the finale. This creates a movement from a highly tense sound-world to one that grows out of powerful dance rhythms – the theme of the Sonata’s finale, announced by xylophone, is an example of such exuberance. The central movement, whose two themes could not be more different from each other, dramatises the showdown between the serenity of the first and the more emphatic rhythms of the second. Bartók scholar Lajos Lesznai points out the similarities of the opening theme to that of Bartók’s Allegro barbaro (which contrasts with an icily quiet second theme).
PIANOS AND PERCUSSIONS | 15 September
Program Notes
Bartók’s own program note stresses the classical nature of the composition: The first movement opens with a slow introduction which anticipates a motif of the Allegro. The Allegro itself, in
13
PIANOS AND PERCUSSIONS | 15 September
C, is in sonata form. The exposition presents the principal subject group consisting of two themes (the second of which has already been mentioned in connection with the introduction); then there follows a contrasting theme which gives rise to a broadly fashioned concluding section, at the end of which the contrasting theme again appears briefly. The development section, after a short transition with fourths overlaying each other, consists basically of three sections. The first of these uses the second theme of the principal subject group, in E, as an ostinato motif, above which the imitative working out of the first theme of the principal group takes on the character of an interlude. After this, the first section – with the ostinato in G flat and inverted – is repeated in greatly altered form. The recapitulation has no real final section; this is replaced by a fairly extensive coda which (with a fugato opening) is based on the concluding theme, to which the principal theme is eventually added. The second movement, in F, is in simple ternary form. The third movement, in C, represents a combination of rondo and sonata form. Between the exposition and the reprise there appears a new thematic group fashioned from two motifs of the first theme, treated in imitation. The coda, which dies away pianissimo, concludes this movement and the work. This covers the facts but hardly does justice to the work’s groundbreaking (and typically ‘modernist’) use of colour, and the variety of percussive sounds made possible by the line-up. Gordon Kerry Symphony Australia © 2003/2019 This is the first performance of this work by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.
14
LEONARD BERNSTEIN
(1918–1990)
West Side Story: Symphonic Dances arr. John Musto and Robert Cossom for two pianos and percussion Prologue (Allegro moderato) Somewhere (Adagio) Scherzo (Vivace e leggiero) Mambo (Presto) Cha-Cha (Andantino con grazia) Meeting Scene (Meno mosso) Cool, Fugue (Allegretto) Rumble (Molto allegro) Finale (Adagio) The idea, conceived as early as 1949, to use Romeo and Juliet as the basis for a story set in contemporary Manhattan was that of choreographer Jerome Robbins. Robbins discussed the idea with Arthur Laurents, who would go on to write the book, and Bernstein. The trio debated the various ways of representing the social chasm between their modern-day Montagues and Capulets: at one point it was to have been an East Side Story, with the starcross’d lovers drawn from the Jewish and Catholic communities. Eventually the creators, who now included Stephen Sondheim as lyricist, agreed on a story that pits two street gangs – the ‘American’ Jets and the Puerto Rican Sharks – against each other, with tragic consequences for the lovers Tony and Maria. West Side Story was not, by any means, the first Broadway show based on Shakespeare: Rodgers and Hart had produced The Boys from Syracuse (after The Comedy of Errors) in 1938, and ten years later, Cole Porter’s Kiss me, Kate – based on The Taming of the Shrew – appeared. But West Side Story, which hit the stage in 1957, was certainly the first work based on a Shakespearean tragedy to play on Broadway.
In Act II, Maria is at first horrified that Tony has killed her brother, but agrees to escape the city for a better life together in the countryside. Bernardo’s girlfriend, Anita, understanding that Maria loves Tony, tries to find Tony to warn him that one of the Sharks, Chino, is coming after him with a gun; but she is brutally treated by the Jets, and angrily claims that Maria has been killed by Chino. Tony seeks out Chino, and is mortally wounded just as he sees Maria alive. Her grief persuades the gangs to bring the war of attrition to an end. West Side Story is unusual in that the dance element is integrated into the drama, rather than interrupting it with a series of set-pieces. Moreover, its musical language, despite the contrasts of Latin dance music and romantic duets, is a very tightly constructed score, featuring motifs based on certain intervals. Most prominent is the tritone, or augmented fourth (heard in the first
gesture of the prologue, for instance, or the first two syllables of ‘Maria’) – an interval which is inherently unstable, and which therefore contributes a pervasive unease to the music. Bernstein could rightly describe this selection as ‘symphonic dances’: their contrast of mood and style is unified by just such techniques. The Prologue has a growing sense of macho swagger and latent violence. An instrumental version of Somewhere follows – the duet that Tony and Maria sing at the opening of Act II when they dream of leaving the violence of Manhattan behind them, and which Maria reprises in the final scene of the work. The Scherzo, too, is an idyllic vision of a peaceful world, whose spell is broken by the more muscular rhythms of the Mambo as the gangs compete in the dance at the gym. The Cha-Cha and Meeting Scene are brief glimpses of happiness, reminiscences of Tony’s ‘I just met a girl named Maria’. Cool, Fugue comes from Act I, as the Jets, increasingly impatient, wait for the Sharks to arrive for their council of war at Doc’s Candy Store. The Rumble takes place at the end of Act I, with the deaths of Bernardo and Riff. The slow Finale is based on Maria’s ‘I have a love’, from earlier in Act II, in which she explains to Anita how much she loves Tony, despite his having killed Bernardo. Its melody’s similarity to the so-called ‘redemption through love’ motif that ends Wagner’s Ring Cycle is probably not coincidental; the work concludes with a fading memory of Somewhere.
PIANOS AND PERCUSSIONS | 15 September
The action takes place in 1950s Manhattan. A fight between the gangs is disrupted by the police, so Riff, the Jets’ leader, proposes to attend a dance at the local gym where he will challenge Bernardo, leader of the Sharks, to a ‘rumble’ which will establish the primacy once and for all of the gangs. Tony, Riff’s best friend, has left the gang, but is persuaded to come to the dance; there he sees Maria, sister of Bernardo, who has recently arrived from Puerto Rico; they fall in love. After the dance, Tony serenades Maria outside her apartment, then joins the gangs in their discussion of the rules for the coming fight. The next day Tony and Maria meet and dream about marrying, and Tony agrees when Maria asks him to stop the rumble. Tony, however, trying to break it up, inadvertently makes Riff vulnerable, and Bernardo kills him. In fury, Tony kills Bernardo.
Gordon Kerry © 2009 The MSO first performed the Symphonic Dances from West Side Story (original orchestral version) on 28 February 1978 under conductor David Measham, and most recently in February 2014 under Benjamin Northey. This is the first performance of this arrangement for two pianos and percussion.
15
Mozart and Elgar 19 September 2019 | 7.30pm Arts Centre Melbourne, Hamer Hall
20 September 2019 | 7.30pm Costa Hall, Geelong Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Ryan Wigglesworth conductor / piano Paul Lewis piano MOZART Concerto for two pianos No.10
[24']
— INTERVAL — BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No.3
[34']
ELGAR Enigma Variations [29']
Running time: approximately two hours including a 20-minute interval. Timings listed are approximate. Pre-concert talk: 19 September at 6.15pm, Hamer Hall / 20 September at 6.30pm, Costa Hall. Learn more about the performance at a pre-concert presentation with MSO Artistic Coordinator, Michael Williamson. Thursday’s performance is being broadcast live and recorded by ABC Classic for repeat broadcast on 19 December.
Paul Lewis
Yorkshire-born Ryan Wigglesworth was Principal Guest Conductor of the Hallé Orchestra (2015–2018) and Composer in Residence at English National Opera. He held the Daniel R. Lewis Composer Fellowship with the Cleveland Orchestra for the two recent seasons and was Composer-in-Residence at the 2018 Grafenegg Festival. With the Royal Academy of Music, he recently founded the Knussen Chamber Orchestra.
Paul Lewis works regularly as soloist with the world’s great orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, London Symphony, and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestras, among others.
conductor / piano
Recent opera engagements include a new production of The Magic Flute in the 2019 Glyndebourne Festival Opera season (also to be performed at the 2019 Proms) and Birtwistle’s The Minotaur for Covent Garden. Recent concerts include the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Bavarian Radio Symphony, and Finnish Radio Symphony. Active as a pianist, performances include Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1, directed from the keyboard. Also a composer, Ryan Wigglesworth’s first opera, The Winter’s Tale, premiered at ENO in 2017. Current projects include a piano concerto premiered at the 2019 Proms.
piano
MOZART AND ELGAR | 19–20 September
Ryan Wigglesworth
His numerous awards have included the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Instrumentalist of the Year, two Edison awards, three Gramophone awards, the Diapason D’Or de l’Annee, the Preis Der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik, the Premio Internazionale Accademia Musicale Chigiana, and the South Bank Show Classical Music award. Recordings include the complete Beethoven piano sonatas, concertos, and Diabelli Variations, Liszt’s B minor sonata and other late works, all of Schubert’s major piano works from the last six years of his life including three song cycles with tenor Mark Padmore, and Brahms’ First Piano Concerto with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Daniel Harding. Forthcoming performances include recitals in Tokyo, Singapore, London, Amherst, and Schenectady, and appearances with the Tokyo Symphony, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, and New York Philharmonic. 17
MOZART AND ELGAR | 19–20 September
Program Notes WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART
(1756–1791)
Concerto in E flat for two pianos, K365 Allegro Andante Rondeaux (Allegro) Mozart’s Concerto for two pianos is one of the first fruits of his emancipation from the stifling environment and working conditions in the service of the Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg. It was written in 1779 or early 1780 after his return from a fateful journey to Paris, during which his mother died; he was exposed to French music and to French indifference, and he fell in love with the unresponsive Aloysia Weber, whose sister he was eventually to marry. It is not going too far to say that before the journey Mozart was a gifted adolescent; after it, a man. A new maturity is evident in the compositions of this period, notably the opera Idomeneo, the Serenade in B flat for 13 instruments (Gran Partita), and the Sinfonia Concertante for violin and viola, K364, with its profound slow movement. There are no such depths in the Concerto for two pianos, but the work reflects the assurance of style which became a consistent feature of Mozart’s music from then on. It is a brilliant and diverting entertainment, with a majesty in the first movement often found in Mozart’s works in the key of E flat. The concerto should be understood as a product of the composer’s desire to please, while he provides recherché touches for the connoisseur.
18
The orchestra plays a subordinate part in this concerto. On the other hand, the interplay between the two keyboards is very rich. The writing shows two fine players to good advantage, but it is not
intended as a virtuosic showpiece – there is little overt bravura display. The pianos carry a great profusion of themes. This is how Mozart usually wrote when he himself was to play the music, and indeed the work was almost certainly written for him to play with his sister Nannerl. Later, in Vienna, he performed the concerto several times with one of his pupils, Josepha Auernhammer. Mozart made disparaging remarks about this lady’s appearance, but admitted her musical talents. The opening of the concerto is notable for the breadth and dignity of the first theme. The exposition is dominated, however, by a theme first heard in the violas and cellos, accompanied by repeated notes on the violins and a horn call. Once the pianos have come in on a unison trill, the orchestra retreats into the background, but the pianos exploit every possibility of their combination, sporting a succession of themes. In the most beautiful passage of the development, the winds reappear to take up a yearning theme, the mood prolonged by scale figures passing from one piano to the other. In the recapitulation the music suddenly turns briefly to the minor key – an event unusual in Mozart’s concertos, having the effect of a momentary passing of darkness across the face of an otherwise cheerful movement. The cadenza is by Mozart himself. The slow movement, an Andante in B flat, is a meditative but graceful piece, rich in themes which are presented then left, rather than worked out. There are passages of greater forcefulness, and an excursion into C minor, but the last impression is one of charm. The Frenchinfluenced galant style is in evidence in this movement, and may be found in the concertos of Schröter, who in some respects served Mozart as a model. In the Rondo the orchestra plays a more significant part. The refrain is a two-step
© David Garrett The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra first performed this concerto on 31 October 1942 with conductor Williams Cade and soloists Lindsay Biggins and Raymond Lambert, and most recently in November 2009 with Reinhard Goebel and soloists Stephen McIntyre and Caroline Almonte.
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770–1827)
Piano Concerto No.3 in C minor, Op.37 Allegro con brio Largo
opening minute of this concerto, to the interactive exchanges between strings, winds, brass and timpani), and his talent for wringing every drop of potential from themes and motifs was becoming a hallmark of his style (again, listen to the ways in which the short, simple idea enunciated by the strings right at the start pervades so much of the first movement). Added to that, the Allegro con brio demonstrates Beethoven’s tremendous flair for bringing drama to instrumental music. There are no words in this drama but, rather, dramatic tension is created through the sheer force of music’s constituent parts – melody, harmony, key, rhythm, form, dynamics and texture. As you would expect, the solo piano is a crucial player in the drama, creating much of the momentum through brilliant passages (forceful scales, decisive octaves, dazzling ornamentation) but also by pulling back and lowering the temperature as required. That said, the temperature reaches fever pitch in the first-movement cadenza, written out by Beethoven in 1809.
Beethoven worked on the Piano Concerto No.3 in the early years of the new century. By the time it was premiered – in Vienna in 1803 at a concert which included his First and Second symphonies (the latter a premiere) together with the oratorio Christus am Ölberge (also a premiere) – Beethoven had been living in the Austrian capital for more than a decade. He arrived in Vienna from the small Rhineland city of Bonn as a pianist of repute and a composer of promise. Ten years on, his skills at the piano remained formidable and he had developed into a composer of epoch-making potential.
As soloist at the 1803 premiere, Beethoven would have improvised the cadenza. According to the page-turner on that occasion, Beethoven largely performed the slow movement, Largo, from notes he had in his head but had not fully committed to paper (bear in mind he had two symphonies and an oratorio to prepare for the same concert!). The terrified page-turner stared at page after page of barely notated dots and dashes. In the rather surprising key of E major, the gentle middle movement embraces a range of piano textures, from chords in the chorale style to filigree passages in double thirds to arpeggios that swirl up through the registers.
By now, Beethoven’s proficiency in orchestration had attained a new level of sophistication (listen, in the
We return to C minor, a brisk tempo and bravura piano writing for the last movement. While less intense than the
Rondo: Allegro
MOZART AND ELGAR | 19–20 September
theme whose silent first beats impart a note of piquancy. The most magical parts of this movement are the returns to the rondo theme after each of the episodes. In the second of these, in C minor, Mozart writes almost exactly the phrase which he gave much later to Papageno in The Magic Flute, to the words ‘O were I a mouse…’, a moment of tragi-comedy. The conclusion of this good-humoured, almost boisterous movement belongs largely to the soloists, whose concerto this has been from start to finish.
19
MOZART AND ELGAR | 19–20 September
opening movement (as befits a concerto finale), the piano remains brilliant and transparent throughout. (Note how Beethoven momentarily shines a spotlight on the solo clarinet in one of the contrasting, lyrical episodes.) As the movement comes to a close, the shackles of C minor are cast off and we enter the realm of the opera buffa stretta with a still faster tempo, breathless surface rhythm, and jolly back-and-forth between piano and orchestra. Our drama closes on a comic note, with high-spirited antics in the key of C major. Robert Gibson © 2019 The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra first performed this concerto in February 1944, conducted by Sir Bernard Heinze with soloist Raymond Lambert, and most recently in July 2018 with Joshua Weilerstein and Jayson Gillham.
EDWARD ELGAR (1857–1934)
Variations on an Original Theme, Op.36 Enigma Theme (Enigma: Andante) I ( C.A.E.) – Caroline Alice Elgar, the composer’s wife II (H.D.S.-P) – Hew David SteuartPowell, pianist in Elgar’s trio III ( R.B.T.) – Richard Baxter Townshend, author IV ( W.M.B.) – William Meath Baker, nicknamed ‘the Squire’ V (R.P.A.) – Richard Penrose Arnold, son of Matthew Arnold VI (Ysobel) – Isabel Fitton, viola player VII ( Troyte) – Arthur Troyte Griffith, architect VIII ( W.N.) – Winifred Norbury IX (Nimrod) – August Johannes Jaeger, reader for the publisher Novello & Co X (Dorabella) Intermezzo – Dora Penny, later Mrs Richard Powell 20
XI (G.R.S.) – Dr G.R. Sinclair, organist of Hereford Cathedral
XII (B.G.N.) – Basil G. Nevinson, cellist in Elgar’s trio XIII (***) Romanza – Lady Mary Lygon, later Trefusis XIV (E.D.U.) Finale – Elgar himself (‘Edu’ being his nickname) In middle age, Edward Elgar loathed having to earn the bulk of his income as a humble rural music teacher. Nevertheless, in spite of his obvious talent as a composer (displayed in a handful of shorter works which sometimes elicited the odd flicker of interest), his career during his 20s and 30s had been a series of disappointments. After a stint conducting the band at the local lunatic asylum he had gravitated toward London, but Elgar and the big city never got on. And so, at a time when Schoenberg was emerging in Austria and Debussy was writing his Nocturnes in France, poor Elgar (who was older than both of them) found himself back in his native Malvern region, eking out a living as best he could. He took in students, made instrumental arrangements, played in an occasional performance and continually threatened to give away music altogether. (He often mentioned his desire to become a professional golfer.) Elgar’s disappointment – indeed downright bitterness – during the 1890s was understandable. For ‘serious’ composers England had produced no role models since the days of Purcell, and even the modest Renaissance of English music sparked by the efforts of the Brahmsians Stanford and Parry involved styles and personalities which were a world away from Elgar’s Roman Catholic sentiments and pro-Wagnerian aesthetics. And so by 1898, as the 41-year-old Elgar languished in the Malvern Hills, he must have realised that time was passing him by. By the same age, his idol Mozart had already been dead for five years. Elsewhere, the glory days of the British
But one evening in that October, typically weary and perhaps a little bored after a long day’s teaching, Elgar began to doodle away at the piano. Somehow, he chanced upon a brief theme that pleased him. He started fooling around with it, elaborating on its sad, haunting and simple melody. It was in G minor, the key of Mozart’s great Symphony No.40 which he had once reworked bar-for-bar into an original composition. Imagining his friends confronting the same theme, he commented to his wife, ‘This is how so-and-so would have done it.’ Or then he would try to catch another friend’s character in a variation, asking his wife to guess, ‘Who is that like?’ The harmless bit of fun, initiated accidentally, would single-handedly turn around the composer’s career and by February 1899 the work had grown into what would become one of England’s greatest orchestral masterpieces, Elgar’s Variations on an Original Theme, Op.36. Where the word ‘Theme’ should have appeared in the score, the composer wrote ‘Enigma’. In explaining his use of the term, Elgar stated that the theme itself was a variation on a well-known tune. It was an ‘Enigma’ because he never said what it was. (‘The Enigma I will not explain,’ he wrote. ‘Its dark saying must be left unguessed.’) It’s a conundrum which has occupied concertgoers and scholars alike ever since. Elgar himself rejected suggestions of God Save the King and Auld Lang Syne. Other suggestions have included Rule, Britannia!, various nursery rhymes, a theme from Beethoven’s late quartets, an extract from Wagner’s Parsifal, and even Ta-ra-ra-boom-de-ay. Elgar biographer Michael Kennedy has proposed that the unheard theme
could be Elgar himself, with the famous two-quaver two-crotchet motive on which the entire work is based capturing the natural speech rhythm of the name Edward Elgar. But, mischief-maker that he was, Elgar went to his grave without revealing the truth and no one since has come up with the definitive answer. The second enigma was the identity of the characters depicted within each variation, who were identified at first only by their initials in the score. Fortunately this enigma has proved to be much easier to solve and for many years the appeal of the superb orchestration has been balanced by the local snapshots which gave rise to it. The orchestral masterpiece which became Elgar’s first popular success can be enjoyed both as a work of ‘domestic’ music as well as an embodiment of universal themes.
MOZART AND ELGAR | 19–20 September
Empire – which meant more to the politically conservative Elgar than to many of his musical contemporaries – were beginning to fade.
The main theme, which will lurch between minor and major keys, is given to the violins, who state it immediately. Variation 1, which simply elaborates the main theme with prominent wind playing, depicts Elgar’s wife, Caroline Alice (‘Carice’). The second variation brings the first hint of actual imitation. Pianist H.D. Steuart-Powell was one of Elgar’s chamber music collaborators, who characteristically played a diatonic run over the keyboard as a warm-up. It’s imitated here in this section in 3/8 time. Variation 3 depicts the ham actor R.B. Townshend whose drastic variation in vocal pitch is mocked here. The Cotswold squire W. Meath Baker is the subject of Variation 4 while the mixture of seriousness and wit displayed by the great poet Matthew Arnold’s son Richard is captured in the fifth variation. The next two variations parody the technical inadequacies of Elgar’s chamber music acquaintances. Violist Isabel Fitton (depicted in Variation 6) had trouble performing music where the strings had to be crossed while Arthur
21
MOZART AND ELGAR | 19–20 September
Troyte Griffith (Variation 7) was a pianist whose vigorous style sounded more like drumming! Poor Winifred Norbury is actually represented in Variation 8 not as herself but in a musical depiction of her 18th-century country house ‘Sherridge’. The most famous variation of course is Nimrod (No.9). Nimrod (the ‘mighty hunter before the Lord’ of Genesis chapter 10) was Elgar’s publisher A.J. Jaeger (German for ‘hunter’). Apparently the idea for this particular variation came when Elgar was going through one of his regular slumps in morale and wanted to give away his musical career. He wrote to Jaeger who immediately took Elgar on a long walk during which they discussed the creative artist’s constant desire to do something other than making art. Apparently Jaeger said that whenever Beethoven was troubled by the turbulent life of a creative artist, he simply poured his frustrations into still more beautiful compositions. And Jaeger concluded by noting that of course Beethoven’s slow movements were simply incomparable – a statement which met with Elgar’s wholehearted agreement. So in memory of that conversation, Elgar made those opening bars of Nimrod quote the slow movement from Beethoven’s Pathétique Sonata. And Elgar later wrote to Jaeger that the Nimrod variation was ‘just like you – you solemn, wholesome, hearty old dear’. Variation 10 depicts a young woman called Dora Penny, whose soubriquet ‘Dorabella’ comes from Mozart’s Così fan tutte. And then Variation 11 goes beyond the human species. G.R. Sinclair was the organist at Hereford Cathedral but the variation with its downwardrushing opening scale actually depicts Sinclair’s bulldog Dan, falling down the steep bank into the river Wye, paddling upstream, coming to land and then
22
barking. Elgar even wrote Dan’s name into his manuscript in the fifth bar where he barks. The cello features prominently in Variation 12 – a tribute to the cellist Basil Nevinson who would figure again many years later as the inspiration for Elgar’s great Cello Concerto. Mendelssohn’s Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage is quoted in Variation 13, said to depict Lady Mary Lygon’s departure by ship to Australia. And then finally we hear ‘E.D.U.’ where the composer depicts himself (his wife’s nickname for him was Edoo) cocking a snook at all those who said he’d never make it as a composer. The Enigma Variations, performed for the first time in London on 19 June 1899 under Hans Richter, were the conclusive evidence that he had. © Martin Buzacott The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra first performed Elgar’s Enigma Variations on 29 September 1938 with Sir Malcolm Sargent, and most recently in July 2017 with Benjamin Northey.
We have a real appreciation for things that are well orchestrated. Northern Trust is proud to support the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. For 130 years, we’ve been meeting our clients’ financial needs while nurturing a culture of caring and a commitment to invest in the communities we serve. Our goal is to help you find perfect harmony.
TO LEARN MORE VISIT
northerntrust.com
A SSET SERVICING | A SSET MANAGEMENT
Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto 26 September 2019 | 7.30pm Melbourne Recital Centre
27 September 2019 | 7.30pm Robert Blackwood Hall, Monash University Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Dale Barltrop director / violin Ray Chen violin ROSSINI Overture to The Italian Girl in Algiers [8'] MENDELSSOHN Violin Concerto
[32']
— INTERVAL — VIVALDI Concerto for two violins in A minor SCHUBERT Symphony No.3
[11'] [25']
Running time: approximately one hour and 45 minutes including a 20-minute interval. Timings listed are approximate. Pre-concert talk: 26 September at 6.30pm, Elisabeth Murdoch Hall / 27 September at 6.30pm, Robert Blackwood Hall balcony foyer. Learn more about the performance at a pre-concert presentation with MSO Second Violin Andrew Hall. Thursday’s performance is being recorded by ABC Classic for future broadcast on 6 October.
Ray Chen
Dale Barltrop has served as Concertmaster of the MSO since 2014 and First Violinist of the Australian String Quartet since 2016.
Ray Chen redefines what it is to be a classical musician in the 21st Century, with a media presence that enhances and inspires a global classical audience. His commitment to education is paramount, and inspires the younger generation of music students with his series of videos combining comedy and music.
director / violin
Barltrop began his career as Principal Second Violin of the St Paul Chamber Orchestra in the United States and was subsequently appointed Concertmaster of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, a position he held for seven years. He has also appeared as Concertmaster of the Australian World Orchestra under Sir Simon Rattle and guest leader of the Australian Chamber Orchestra. Barltrop made his solo debut with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra at the age of 15 and furthered his studies in the USA. His teachers have included William Preucil, Gerald Fischbach, Elizabeth Morgan and Marcia Cox. Barltrop performs on a violin crafted by JB Guadagnini, Turin, 1784. It is on loan from the Ukaria Cultural Centre and was purchased through the generosity of Allan J Myers AO, Maria Myers AO and the Klein Family.
violin
MENDELSSOHN’S VIOLIN CONCERTO | 26–27 September
Dale Barltrop
His profile has grown to encompass the Forbes list of 30 most influential Asians under 30, appearing in “Mozart in the Jungle”, and performing at major events such as the Nobel Prize Concert in Stockholm and the BBC Proms. He has appeared with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic and Los Angeles Philharmonic, and worked with conductors such as Vladimir Jurowski, Manfred Honeck, Kirill Petrenko, and Krystof Urbanski. Born in Taiwan and raised in Australia, Ray Chen was accepted to the Curtis Institute of Music at age 15, where he studied with Aaron Rosand. He plays the 1715 “Joachim” Stradivarius violin on loan from the Nippon Music Foundation.
25
MENDELSSOHN’S VIOLIN CONCERTO | 26–27 September
Program Notes GIOACHINO ROSSINI
(1792–1868)
The Italian Girl in Algiers: Overture The Italian Girl in Algiers, premiered in 1813 in Venice, was one of Rossini’s first great successes. The French novelist Stendhal, writing a few years later about his experiences in Italy, tells how a kind of musical frenzy would take hold of orchestra and audience at performances of this opera, sweeping one and all away in waves of uncontrollable delight. Modern Rossini expert Philip Gossett calls this ‘the zaniest of all buffo operas’. It is the story of a woman who, doing what she pleases, cows a blustering male into submission. The themes are civilisation versus barbarism, authoritarian rule versus liberty, and above all the emancipation of the female sex. The Italian girl, Isabella, confronted by the brutality and sensuality of the Bey, Mustafa, wins out through intelligence, cleverness, and seductive wiles. Rossini’s trademarks, in his overtures, are the reduction to musical essentials – rhythm, treated as enlivening musical mechanism; a simple structure of slow introduction, first and second subject, recapitulation and coda. Then there is his love of showy noise, achieved by brilliantly skilful orchestral means. This was essential if the attention of the public was to be captured, as they went about the talkative business of attending the opera house, which was meeting-place, casino, refreshment bar and theatre all rolled into one. Finally there must be the ‘Rossini crescendo’, the piling up of instruments and volume. The substance of Rossini’s form, Carl Dahlhaus observes, resides in his pattern of dynamics.
26
The overture to the Italian Girl is typical, but with distinctive features.
Nineteenth-century English critic Henry Chorley pointed out that no two great Rossini overtures begin in the same way. The opening of this one has been compared to a guilty husband tiptoeing into the house in the dead of night, but tripping over the furniture. Both the main Allegro’s subjects – unusually – are presented by the winds. When the second subject is recapitulated, it is given to piccolo and bassoon, a combination irresistibly described by Richard Osborne as music’s answer to Laurel and Hardy. There is the Rossini crescendo, of which half the point is usually missed – the most telling thing about it may be the sudden drop in dynamic level to pianissimo. This is often combined with an unusual use or matching of instruments. Here the violins, which have been conversing with the flute, suddenly begin to play quietly sul ponticello (near the bridge), a glacial effect added to by the oboe. Abridged from an annotation © David Garrett The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra first performed this overture in January 1956 with Clive Douglas, and most recently in February 2009 with Oleg Caetani.
FELIX MENDELSSOHN
(1809–1847)
Violin Concerto in E minor, Op.64 Allegro molto appassionato – Andante – Allegro non troppo – Allegro molto vivace In 1826 two precociously gifted teenage boys met in Berlin: Felix Mendelssohn and Ferdinand David. By then Mendelssohn had already composed 13 string sinfonias and five concertos, which were premiered at a series of Sunday concerts instituted by Felix’s father at the family home from 1822 on. Felix, his sister Fanny and members of the Court Orchestra performed a range of music, but a great deal of the young
The other boy, 16-year-old violinist Ferdinand David, was employed in the orchestra of Berlin’s Königstadt theatre. Between 1826 and 1829 David worked in Berlin, and frequently played chamber music with Mendelssohn, Rietz and others. Mendelssohn and David would remain friends until Mendelssohn’s early death in 1847, and David would be involved in editing his friend’s work for posthumous publication. Between 1829 and 1835 David lived and worked in Estonia, but in 1836 accepted Mendelssohn’s invitation to move to Leipzig and become leader of the Gewandhaus Orchestra. There he also performed frequently with Mendelssohn in chamber concerts, and when the Leipzig Conservatorium opened in 1843, David established its violin department, with 14-year-old Joseph Joachim among his first pupils. (With David, Mendelssohn and Schumann on staff, it must have been quite an institution.) In 1838 Mendelssohn remarked in a letter to David: I would like to compose a violin concerto for next winter. One in E minor keeps running through my head, and the opening gives me no peace. Assuming that it is the same opening that Mendelssohn eventually got down on paper, we can understand how the composer might have felt he was onto something. Despite Mendelssohn’s reverence for the past (Berlioz sniffed that he was ‘a little too fond of the dead’), this work is by no means neoclassical in form or manner. The opening, with its flowing arpeggios and distant, Beethovenian drum-taps, launches without introduction or exposition into a beautiful, Romantic melody for the soloist that starts high
and gently ascends further into the stratosphere; the contrasting second subject groups shows Mendelssohn’s exquisite ear, as he exploits unusual warm voicing in the wind section (flutes below the clarinets, for instance) as it accompanies the solo violin. But for various reasons Mendelssohn was unable to complete the work that winter or the next, despite David’s constant reminders. In 1839 he wrote politely to the violinist: It is nice of you to press me for a violin concerto! I have the liveliest desire to write one for you and, if I have a few propitious days, I’ll bring you something. But the task is not an easy one. It was made less easy by the sheer amount of work Mendelssohn had at this time. As well as duties with the Gewandhaus, he directed six music festivals in Germany and England, and devoted himself to reviving historical music from Bach to Schubert that had sunk into desuetude. In 1841 he was appointed Kapellmeister by King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia, so divided his time between Leipzig and Berlin until moving back to the latter city in 1843. There, with the establishment of the new Cathedral choir, and with various composing and conducting engagements in Germany and abroad, Mendelssohn continued his hectic pace until the summer of 1844, when he took a vacation. Finally, after nearly a decade, he was able to return to the Violin Concerto which he completed in September of that year. David performed it under the baton of Niels Gade (Mendelssohn was ill) in March 1845. Joachim played it soon after, and the rest is history. Mendelssohn was averse to virtuosity for its own sake, likening such effects to ‘juggler’s tricks’. Part of his diffidence may have been a response to the
MENDELSSOHN’S VIOLIN CONCERTO | 26–27 September
composer’s work. Among the five early concertos was one for violin and strings in D minor, written when Felix was 13 for his teacher Eduard Rietz.
27
MENDELSSOHN’S VIOLIN CONCERTO | 26–27 September
challenge of writing a genuine concerto that was not emptily showy. He was no doubt helped by David’s technical artistry and personality, and there seems little doubt that David wrote the first movement’s cadenza. But it was Mendelssohn’s genius to place the cadenza before the recapitulation, thus making it part of the dramatic structure of sonata form, rather than an ‘add-on’, as in many other concertos. A long bassoon note at the end of the first movement briefly holds the music in suspense before it moves, without a break, into a classically Mendelssohnian song. The slow movement is in simple ABA form, with a contrasting central section. It too passes into the finale without a pause; here the music has all the lightness and grace of the great Mendelssohn scherzos. Gordon Kerry © 2009 The MSO first performed the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in March 1939 with conductor Sir Bernard Heinze and soloist Grisha Goluboff, and most recently in February 2017 with Nicholas Carter and Anne-Marie Johnson
ANTONIO VIVALDI
(1678–1741)
Concerto for two violins in A minor, Op.3 No.8 RV 522 Allegro Larghetto e spiritoso Allegro Antonio Vivaldi died in Vienna some time in July 1741 and was buried in an unmarked grave. His music was rarely if ever played between then and the 1930s, when musicians in Italy began rediscovering Vivaldi’s huge and varied output of works.
28
Despite his death in obscure poverty, Vivaldi had enjoyed great popularity and success during his lifetime. Born in Venice in 1678, he began learning violin
with his father, a professional musician. He started studying for the priesthood in his early teens, though this in no way would have been seen as conflicting with the expectation of a career in music. With his distinctive red hair he was affectionately known as Il prete rosso (the red priest) but in fact Vivaldi ceased saying Mass about a year after his ordination. Late in life he explained in a letter to one of his patrons that he had been afflicted with a chest ailment (variously thought to have been asthma or angina). He nevertheless enjoyed a career as a violin virtuoso, entrepreneur and composer. His works included some 500 concertos as well as many operas, instrumental sonatas and a large body of sacred music. His playing was clearly prodigious. One contemporary describes how Vivaldi ‘put his fingers but a hair’s breadth from the bow, so that there was scarcely room for the bow’. It would seem that Vivaldi pioneered technical advances, such as using the highest register of the strings, which were unknown at the time. Vivaldi was lucky enough to meet up with the Amsterdam-based printer Estienne Roger, who hit on the solution of engraving plates, and using beams to link shorter notes like quavers and semiquavers. The music could therefore be printed as often as needed, and it had the great virtue of being much more legible. Vivaldi’s Opus 3, or L’estro armonico (The harmonious fancy), a collection of twelve concertos for a variety of instrumental combinations, appeared in Roger’s edition in 1711, becoming, as scholar Michael Talbot puts it, ‘perhaps the most influential collection of instrumental music to appear during the whole of the 18th century’. Johann Sebastian Bach quickly made keyboard arrangements of several of the concertos, including this one in A minor, which he adapted for 2 keyboards and pedals as an organ solo (BWV 593).
Gordon Kerry © 2019 The only previous performance of this concerto by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra took place in 2013 with James Ehnes (violin/director) and Wilma Smith (violin).
FRANZ SCHUBERT
(1797–1828)
Symphony No.3 in D, D200 Adagio maestoso – Allegro con brio Allegretto Menuetto (Vivace) – Trio Presto vivace In 1815 Schubert was the sixth assistant in his father’s school, yet that year was almost unparalleled for its sheer volume of musical work. Somewhere in between correcting his pupils’ exercises, Schubert found time for composition on what must have been a daily basis. Schubert began his Third Symphony on 24 May. Napoleon had landed in France, the Congress of Vienna was in progress, and Europe was in the middle of the ‘Hundred Days’. But these events seem to have had little impact on Schubert’s music; the only hint of martial activity is in the choice of key. Schubert’s introduction establishes D major, a key long associated with
brilliance, pomp, and ‘rumours of war’. After a single emphatic chord, the introduction assumes a delicately conventional character with a clear debt to classical models: Haydn and Mozart. But Schubert’s own voice emerges almost immediately with a startling harmonic shift preceded by three soft chords. An ascending scale figure in the violins and drooping woodwind figures provide the links with the rest of the movement. The Allegro con brio marks the first occasion on which Schubert had entrusted a main theme to a woodwind instrument. After toying with various instrumental colours in his sketches, he settled on a crisply rhythmic clarinet figure, alternating with string passages to establish an atmosphere of fun and gaiety. The full orchestra maintains the high-spirited mood and builds to a climax before leaving the listener suspended…
MENDELSSOHN’S VIOLIN CONCERTO | 26–27 September
The ‘double’ concerto begins with a characteristic coup d’archet, or ‘strike of the bow’ – a brusque gesture outlining the tonic and dominant chords – and a downward cascade of semiquavers before stating the main ritornello, or refrain, that recurs like pillars, between which the soloists engage in colourful bravura. The second movement, following the fast-slow-fast model that Vivaldi made standard, is more lyrical, starting with a solemn unison figure that leads to more ornate ideas passed between the soloists, while the finale is in an urgent triple time. Here once, again a ritornello provides for a series of contrasting episodes.
Having gained our attention, Schubert presents the second subject as an oboe solo with string accompaniment. At this point he broke off work, resuming on 11 July to complete this first movement and the remaining three in just eight days. In his most resourceful use of wind instruments yet, Schubert traces the development of the Allegro con brio with a dialogue between woodwinds and strings. Then, artfully avoiding a replica of the exposition in the recapitulation, Schubert introduces elements of the slow introduction – a technique he developed further in his ‘Great’ C major symphony. For his second movement Schubert began an earnest Adagio molto in 3/4, only to abandon it after two bars. In its place he wrote, on 15 July, an intermezzo (Allegretto) – light and graceful. The Menuetto wrenches us from delicacy to earthiness in one heavy
29
MENDELSSOHN’S VIOLIN CONCERTO | 26–27 September
upbeat, combining the style of a scherzo with the spirit of Austrian peasant dances. Its Trio, featuring oboe and bassoon, shows the inevitable path which the folk Ländler was treading (or whirling?) towards the waltz. The finale (Presto vivace) continues the dance-like mood with a whirlwind of a tarantella. This is orchestral writing at its most brilliant and joyous, with a suggestion of the Italian style and pre-empting the popularity of Rossini’s music in Vienna.
This is the shortest of Schubert’s first three symphonies; its brevity and conciseness points to classical restraint and technical maturity, while its lighter weight and sparkling detail points to the pure joy of music. As one writer has suggested, ‘Genius doesn’t need to reveal itself by plumbing the depths or storming the heights.’ Adapted from a note by Yvonne Frindle ©1997/2009 The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra first performed this symphony on 16 October 1942 under conductor Sir Bernard Heinze, and most recently in March 2009 with Oleg Caetani.
Farewell to Steve Reeves We will soon say farewell to our much-loved Principal Double Bass, Steve Reeves.
Steve will be finishing up with the MSO after the upcoming tour to the USA in October. These performances of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto are his final Melbourne performances with the Orchestra.
Steve joined the MSO as Principal Double Bass in 1989 and has performed under Chief Conductors Hiroyuki Iwaki, Markus Stenz, Oleg Caetani and most recently Sir Andrew Davis. Steve leaves behind a legacy of artistic excellence and will be greatly missed.
30
Supporters
Supporters MSO PATRON The Honourable Linda Dessau AC, Governor of Victoria
CHAIRMAN’S CIRCLE Marc Besen AC and Eva Besen AO Gandel Philanthropy The Gross Foundation Di Jameson Harold Mitchell Foundation David Li AM and Angela Li Harold Mitchell AC MS Newman Family Foundation Lady Potter AC CMRI The Cybec Foundation The Pratt Foundation The Ullmer Family Foundation Anonymous (1)
ARTIST CHAIR BENEFACTORS Cybec Assistant Conductor Chair Tianyi Lu The Cybec Foundation Concertmaster Chair Sophie Rowell The Ullmer Family Foundation 2019 Mid-Season Gala Artist Lang Lang is supported by Marc Besen AC and Eva Besen AO Young Composer in Residence Mark Holdsworth The Cybec Foundation
PROGRAM BENEFACTORS Cybec 21st Century Australian Composers Program The Cybec Foundation East meets West Supported by the Li Family Trust Meet the Orchestra Made possible by The Ullmer Family Foundation MSO Audience Access Crown Resorts Foundation, Packer Family Foundation MSO Building Capacity Gandel Philanthropy (Director of Philanthropy) Di Jameson (External Relations Manager) 32
MSO Education Supported by Mrs Margaret Ross AM and Dr Ian Ross MSO International Touring Supported by Harold Mitchell AC, The Ullmer Family Foundation, The Pratt Foundation MSO Regional Touring Creative Victoria, Freemasons Foundation Victoria, Robert Salzer Foundation, Perpetual Foundation – Alan (AGL) Shaw Endowment The Pizzicato Effect (Anonymous), The Marian and E.H. Flack Trust, Scobie and Claire Mackinnon Trust, Supported by the Hume City Council’s Community Grants Program Sidney Myer Free Concerts Supported by the Sidney Myer MSO Trust Fund and the University of Melbourne Musical Acknowledgment of Countries Supported by the Helen Macpherson Smith Trust and the Commonwealth Government through the Australian National Commission for UNESCO
PLATINUM PATRONS $100,000+ Marc Besen AC and Eva Besen AO John Gandel AC and Pauline Gandel AC The Gross Foundation Di Jameson David Li AM and Angela Li MS Newman Family Foundation Anthony Pratt The Pratt Foundation Lady Potter AC CMRI Ullmer Family Foundation Anonymous (1)
VIRTUOSO PATRONS $50,000+ Harold Mitchell AC
IMPRESARIO PATRONS $20,000+ Michael Aquilina The John and Jennifer Brukner Foundation Mimie MacLaren John and Lois McKay Maria Solà Anonymous (1)
Margaret Billson and the late Ted Billson Mitchell Chipman Tim and Lyn Edward Danny Gorog and Lindy Susskind Robert & Jan Green Hilary Hall, in memory of Wilma Collie The Hogan Family Foundation Peter Hunt AM and Tania de Jong AM Margaret Jackson AC Suzanne Kirkham David Krasnostein AM and Pat Stragalinos Ian and Jeannie Paterson Elizabeth Proust AO Xijian Ren and Qian Li Glenn Sedgwick Gai and David Taylor Harry and Michelle Wong Anonymous (1)
PRINCIPAL PATRONS $5,000+ Christine and Mark Armour Barbara Bell, in memory of Elsa Bell Kaye and the late David Birks Stephen and Caroline Brain Prof Ian Brighthope May and James Chen John and Lyn Coppock The Cuming Bequest Wendy Dimmick Andrew Dudgeon AM Jaan Enden Mr Bill Fleming John and Diana Frew Susan Fry and Don Fry AO Sophie Galaise and Clarence Fraser Geelong Friends of the MSO R Goldberg and Family Leon Goldman Colin Golvan AM QC and Dr Deborah Golvan Jennifer Gorog HMA Foundation Louis Hamon OAM Nereda Hanlon and Michael Hanlon AM Hans and Petra Henkell Doug Hooley Jenny and Peter Hordern
Dr Alastair Jackson AM Rosemary and James Jacoby Dr Elizabeth A Lewis AM Norman Lewis, in memory of Dr Phyllis Lewis Peter Lovell Mr Douglas and Mrs Rosemary Meagher Marie Morton FRSA Anne Neil Dr Paul Nisselle AM The Rosemary Norman Foundation Ken Ong, in memory of Lin Ong Jim and Fran Pfeiffer Jeffrey Sher QC and Diana Sher OAM Helen Silver AO and Harrison Young Diana and Brian Snape AM Tasco Petroleum The Hon. Michael Watt QC and Cecilie Hall Drs Rhyl Wade and Clem Gruen Lyn Williams AM Jason Yeap OAM – Mering Management Corporation Sophia Yong-Tang Anonymous (5)
Supporters
MAESTRO PATRONS $10,000+
ASSOCIATE PATRONS $2,500+ Marlyn and Peter Bancroft OAM Dandolo Partners Will and Dorothy Bailey Bequest Anne Bowden Bill Bowness Julia and Jim Breen Patricia Brockman Roger and Coll Buckle Jill and Christopher Buckley Lynne Burgess Oliver Carton Richard and Janet Chauvel Ann Darby, in memory of Leslie J. Darby Natasha Davies, for the Trikojus Education Fund Merrowyn Deacon Sandra Dent Peter and Leila Doyle Duxton Vineyards Lisa Dwyer and Dr Ian Dickson AM Dr Helen M Ferguson Elizabeth Foster Barry Fradkin OAM and Dr Pam Fradkin Alex and Liz Furman
33
Supporters 34
Dina and Ron Goldschlager Louise Gourlay OAM Susan and Gary Hearst Jenkins Family Foundation John Jones Andrew Johnston Dr Rosemary Ayton and Dr Sam Ricketson Irene Kearsey and Michael Ridley Merv Keehn and Sue Harlow The Ilma Kelson Music Foundation Bryan Lawrence John and Margaret Mason H E McKenzie Allan and Evelyn McLaren Wayne and Penny Morgan Bruce Parncutt AO Alan and Dorothy Pattison Sue and Barry Peake Mrs W Peart Christine Peirson and the late Graham Peirson Julie and Ian Reid Ralph and Ruth Renard Peter and Carolyn Rendit S M Richards AM and M R Richards Joan P Robinson and Christopher Robinson Tom and Elizabeth Romanowski Mark and Jan Schapper Dr Michael Soon Jennifer Steinicke Peter J Stirling Jenny Tatchell Frank Tisher OAM and Dr Miriam Tisher Richard Ye Anonymous (5)
PLAYER PATRONS $1,000+ David and Cindy Abbey Dr Sally Adams Mary Armour Australian Decorative and Fine Arts Society Robbie Barker Adrienne Basser Janice Bate and the late Prof Weston Bate Janet H Bell David Blackwell OAM John and Sally Bourne Michael F Boyt Dr John Brookes Stuart Brown Suzie Brown OAM and Harvey Brown Shane Buggle Dr Lynda Campbell John Carroll Andrew Crockett AM and Pamela Crockett Panch Das and Laurel Young-Das Mary and Frederick Davidson AM Caroline Davies W and A Deane Rick and Sue Deering John and Anne Duncan Jane Edmanson OAM Doug Evans Grant Fisher and Helen Bird Applebay Pty Ltd David Frenkiel and Esther Frenkiel OAM David Gibbs and Susie O’Neill Janette Gill Mary and Don Glue Greta Goldblatt and the late Merwyn Goldblatt George Golvan QC and Naomi Golvan Dr Marged Goode Prof Denise Grocke AO Jennifer Gross Max Gulbin Dr Sandra Hacker AO and Mr Ian Kennedy AM Jean Hadges Paula Hansky OAM Amir Harel and Dr Judy Carman Tilda and Brian Haughney Anna and John Holdsworth Penelope Hughes Peter Jaffe and Judy Gold
Stephanie Tanuwidjaja Tara, Tessa, Melinda and Terence Ann and Larry Turner David Valentine Mary Valentine AO The Hon. Rosemary Varty Leon and Sandra Velik Sue Walker AM Elaine Walters OAM and Gregory Walters The Rev Noel Whale Edward and Paddy White Nic and Ann Willcock Marian and Terry Wills Cooke OAM Richard Withers Lorraine Woolley Jeffrey and Shirley Zajac Anonymous (20)
Supporters
Basil and Rita Jenkins Christian and Jinah Johnston Dorothy Karpin Dr Anne Kennedy Julie and Simon Kessel KCL Law Kerry Landman Diedrie Lazarus Dr Anne Lierse Gaelle Lindrea Dr Susan Linton Andrew Lockwood Elizabeth H Loftus Chris and Anna Long The Hon Ian Macphee AO and Mrs Julie Macphee Eleanor & Phillip Mancini Annette Maluish In memory of Leigh Masel Wayne McDonald and Kay Schroer Lesley McMullin Foundation Ruth Maxwell Don and Anne Meadows new U Mildura Patricia Nilsson Sir Gustav Nossal AC CBE and Lady Nossal Laurence O’Keefe and Christopher James Kerryn Pratchett Peter Priest Treena Quarin Eli Raskin Raspin Family Trust Tony and Elizabeth Rayward Cathy and Peter Rogers Andrew and Judy Rogers Peter Rose and Christopher Menz Liliane Rusek Elisabeth and Doug Scott Martin and Susan Shirley Penny Shore John E Smith Dr Sam Smorgon AO and Mrs Minnie Smorgon Dr Norman and Dr Sue Sonenberg Lady Southey AC Geoff and Judy Steinicke Dr Peter Strickland Pamela Swansson
MSO PATRON COMMISSIONS Snare Drum Award test piece 2019 Commissioned by Tim and Lyn Edward
CONDUCTOR’S CIRCLE Current Conductor’s Circle Members Jenny Anderson David Angelovich G C Bawden and L de Kievit Lesley Bawden Joyce Bown Mrs Jenny Brukner and the late Mr John Brukner Ken Bullen Peter A Caldwell Luci and Ron Chambers Beryl Dean Sandra Dent Lyn Edward Alan Egan JP Gunta Eglite Mr Derek Grantham Marguerite Garnon-Williams Drs Clem Gruen and Rhyl Wade Louis Hamon OAM Carol Hay Rod Home Tony Howe Laurence O’Keefe and Christopher James 35
Supporters
Audrey M Jenkins John Jones George and Grace Kass Mrs Sylvia Lavelle Pauline and David Lawton Cameron Mowat David Orr Matthew O’Sullivan Rosia Pasteur Elizabeth Proust AO Penny Rawlins Joan P Robinson Neil Roussac Anne Roussac-Hoyne Suzette Sherazee Michael Ryan and Wendy Mead Anne Kieni-Serpell and Andrew Serpell Jennifer Shepherd Profs. Gabriela and George Stephenson Pamela Swansson Lillian Tarry Dr Cherilyn Tillman Mr and Mrs R P Trebilcock Michael Ullmer AO The Hon. Rosemary Varty Mr Tam Vu Marian and Terry Wills Cooke OAM Mark Young Anonymous (28)
The MSO gratefully acknowledges the support of the following Estates: Angela Beagley Neilma Gantner The Hon Dr Alan Goldberg AO QC Gwen Hunt Audrey Jenkins Joan Jones Pauline Marie Johnston C P Kemp Peter Forbes MacLaren Joan Winsome Maslen Lorraine Maxine Meldrum Prof Andrew McCredie Miss Sheila Scotter AM MBE Marion A I H M Spence Molly Stephens Jennifer May Teague Albert Henry Ullin Jean Tweedie Herta and Fred B Vogel Dorothy Wood
TRUSTS AND FOUNDATIONS
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
36
MSO BOARD
Life Members Marc Besen AC and Eva Besen AO John Gandel AC and Pauline Gandel AC Sir Elton John CBE Harold Mitchell AC Lady Potter AC CMRI Mrs Jeanne Pratt AC
Chairman Michael Ullmer AO
Artistic Ambassador Tan Dun Artistic Ambassador Geoffrey Rush AC
Board Directors Andrew Dudgeon AM Danny Gorog Lorraine Hook Margaret Jackson AC Di Jameson David Krasnostein AM Hyon-Ju Newman Glenn Sedgwick Helen Silver AO
The MSO honours the memory of John Brockman OAM Life Member The Honourable Alan Goldberg AO QC Life Member Roger Riordan AM Life Member Ila Vanrenen Life Member
Supporters
HONORARY APPOINTMENTS
Deputy Chairman David Li AM Managing Director Sophie Galaise
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) $2,500+ (Associate) $5,000+ (Principal) $10,000+ (Maestro)
$20,000+ (Impresario) $50,000+ (Virtuoso) $100,000+ (Platinum)
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 37
CALENDAR
OF EVENTS
18 October
26 October
26 October
Spring: Lu Siqing in Recital
Fairytale Ball
MSO Chorus: Brahms’ Requiem
Melbourne Recital Centre
Arts Centre Melbourne, Hamer Hall
31 October
1 November
3 November
Evil Dead in Concert
Tchaikovsky and Brahms
Ghost Stories
Palais Theatre, St Kilda
Melbourne Town Hall
Melbourne Recital Centre
Iwaki Auditorium, ABC Southbank
Tickets at mso.com.au
Thank you to our Partners Principal Partner
Government Partners
Premier Partners
Premier Education and Research Partner
Major Partners
Venue Partner
Program Development Partner
Education Partners
Supporting Partners
Quest Southbank
The CEO Institute
Ernst & Young
Bows for Strings
The Observership Program
Easts meets West Program Partners Consulate General of the People’s Republic of China in Melbourne
LRR Family Trust
Media and Broadcast Partners
Mr Chu Wanghua and Dr Shirley Chu
Associate Professor Douglas Gin and Susan Gin
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.