September 2024 Concert Program

CONCERT PROGRAM

SEPTEMBER 2024

DVOŘÁK & BRUCKNER TAN DUN: NINE BEETHOVEN & MENDELSSOHN

CONTENTS MELBOURNE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

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Acknowledging Country Your MSO

DVOŘÁK & BRUCKNER

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TAN DUN: NINE

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BEETHOVEN & MENDELSSOHN

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SUPPORTERS

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These concerts may be recorded for future broadcast on MSO.LIVE.

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

ACKNOWLEDGING COUNTRY In the first project of its kind in Australia, the MSO has developed a musical Acknowledgment of Country with music composed by Yorta Yorta composer Deborah Cheetham Fraillon AO, featuring Indigenous languages from across Victoria.

Generously supported by Helen Macpherson Smith Trust and the Commonwealth Government through the Australian National Commission for UNESCO, the MSO is working in partnership with Short Black Opera and Indigenous language custodians who are generously sharing their cultural knowledge.

The Acknowledgement of Country allows us to pay our respects to the traditional owners of the land on which we perform in the language of that country and in the orchestral language of music.

About Long Time Living Here As a Yorta Yorta/Yuin composer the responsibility I carry to assist the MSO in delivering a respectful acknowledgement of country is a privilege which I take very seriously. I have a duty of care to my ancestors and to the ancestors on whose land the MSO works and performs.

As MSO continues to grow its knowledge and understanding of what it means to truly honour the First people of this land, the musical acknowledgment of country will serve to bring those on stage and those in the audience together in a moment of recognition as as we celebrate the longest continuing cultures in the world.

– Deborah Cheetham Fraillon AO Our musical Acknowledgment of Country, Long Time Living Here by Deborah Cheetham Fraillon AO, is performed at MSO concerts.

Australian National Commission

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for UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

MELBOURNE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Committed to shaping and serving the state it inhabits, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra is Australia’s preeminent orchestra and a cornerstone of Victoria’s rich, cultural heritage.

Each year, the MSO and MSO Chorus present more than 180 public events across live performances, TV, radio and online broadcasts, and via its online concert hall, MSO.LIVE, engaging an audience of more than five million people in 56 countries.

In 2024 the organisation will release its first two albums on the newly established MSO recording label.

With an international reputation for excellence, versatility and innovation, the MSO works with culturally diverse and First Nations artists to build community and deliver music to people across Melbourne, the state of Victoria and around the world.

In 2024, Jaime Martín leads the Orchestra for his third year as MSO Chief Conductor.

Maestro Martín leads an Artistic Family that includes Principal Conductor Benjamin Northey, Cybec Assistant Conductor Leonard Weiss CF, MSO Chorus Director Warren Trevelyan-Jones, Composer in Residence Katy Abbott, Artist in Residence Erin Helyard, MSO First Nations Creative Chair Deborah Cheetham Fraillon AO, Young Cybec Young Composer in Residence Naomi Dodd, and Artist in Association Christian Li. The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra respectfully acknowledges the people of the Eastern Kulin Nations, on whose un‑ceded lands we honour the continuation of the oldest music practice in the world.

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SEPTEMBER PROGRAM

YOUR MSO

VIOLAS Christopher Moore Principal Di Jameson OAM and Frank Mercurio#

FIRST VIOLINS

SECOND VIOLINS

Tair Khisambeev

Matthew Tomkins

Acting Associate Concertmaster Di Jameson OAM and Frank Mercurio#

Anne-Marie Johnson

Acting Assistant Concertmaster David Horowicz#

Peter Edwards

Assistant Principal Margaret Billson and the late Ted Billson#

Sarah Curro

Dr Harry Imber#

Peter Fellin Deborah Goodall Karla Hanna Lorraine Hook Kirstin Kenny Eleanor Mancini Anne Neil#

Mark Mogilevski Michelle Ruffolo Anna Skálová Kathryn Taylor

Principal The Gross Foundation#

Monica Curro

Assistant Principal Dr Mary-Jane Gething AO#

Mary Allison Isin Cakmakçioglu Tiffany Cheng Glenn Sedgwick#

Freya Franzen Cong Gu

Lauren Brigden Katharine Brockman Anthony Chataway William Clark Aidan Filshie Gabrielle Halloran Jenny Khafagi Fiona Sargeant

CELLOS David Berlin Principal

Rachael Tobin

Newton Family in memory of Rae Rothfield#

Associate Principal Anonymous#

Andrew Hall Robert Macindoe Isy Wasserman Philippa West

Elina Faskhi

Andrew Dudgeon AM#

Patrick Wong Cecilie Hall#

Roger Young

Shane Buggle and Rosie Callanan#

Assistant Principal Di Jameson OAM and Frank Mercurio#

Rohan de Korte

Andrew Dudgeon AM#

Sarah Morse Rebecca Proietto

Peter T Kempen AM#

Angela Sargeant Caleb Wong Michelle Wood

Andrew and Judy Rogers#

DOUBLE BASSES Jonathon Coco Principal

Stephen Newton

Acting Associate Principal

Benjamin Hanlon

Acting Associate Principal Di Jameson OAM and Frank Mercurio#

Rohan Dasika

Acting Assistant Principal

Suzanne Lee

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Learn more about our musicians on the MSO website. # Position supported by

BASSOONS

TROMBONE

Prudence Davis

Jack Schiller

Richard Shirley

Wendy Clarke

Elise Millman

Sarah Beggs

Natasha Thomas

Principal Jean Hadges#

Associate Principal

PICCOLO Andrew Macleod Principal

OBOES

Principal Dr Harry Imber# Associate Principal

BASS TROMBONE Michael Szabo Principal

Patricia Nilsson and Dr Martin Tymms#

TUBA

CONTRABASSOON

Principal

Brock Imison

TIMPANI

Principal

Timothy Buzbee

Matthew Thomas

Michael Pisani

HORNS

Principal

Ann Blackburn

Nicolas Fleury

PERCUSSION

Acting Principal

COR ANGLAIS Rachel Curkpatrick Acting Principal

CLARINETS David Thomas Principal

Philip Arkinstall

Associate Principal

Craig Hill

Rosemary and the late Douglas Meagher#

BASS CLARINET Jonathan Craven Principal

Principal Margaret Jackson AC#

Peter Luff

Acting Associate Principal

Saul Lewis

Principal Third The late Hon Michael Watt KC and Cecilie Hall#

Shaun Trubiano Principal

John Arcaro

Tim and Lyn Edward#

Robert Cossom

Drs Rhyl Wade and Clem Gruen#

Abbey Edlin

HARP

Josiah Kop Rachel Shaw

Yinuo Mu

The Hanlon Foundation#

SEPTEMBER PROGRAM

FLUTES

Principal

Gary McPherson#

TRUMPETS Owen Morris Principal

Shane Hooton

Associate Principal Glenn Sedgwick#

Rosie Turner

John and Diana Frew#

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DVOŘÁK AND BRUCKNER 5 & 7 SEPTEMBER ARTS CENTRE MELBOURNE, HAMER HALL 6 SEPTEMBER COSTA HALL, GEELONG ARTISTS Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Daniel Carter conductor Karen Gomyo violin

PROGRAM SMETANA The Bartered Bride: Overture [7'] DVOŘÁK Violin Concerto [31'] – Interval – BRUCKNER Symphony No.4 Romantic [66']

CONCERT EVENTS PRE-CONCERT TALK

Want to learn more about the music being performed? Arrive early for an informative and entertaining pre-concert talk with Andrew Aronowicz.

5 & 7 September at 6.45pm in the Stalls Foyer on Level 2 at Hamer Hall.

6 September at 6.45pm at Costa Hall Foyer.

For a list of musicians performing in this concert, please visit mso.com.au/musicians

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Duration: 2 hours and 15 minutes including interval. Timings listed are approximate.

DVOŘÁK AND BRUCKNER | 5–7 September

DANIEL CARTER CONDUCTOR

This season Daniel Carter makes his debuts at the Vienna State Opera (Die Zauberflöte), at Malmö Opera (Turandot) and with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and returns to the Deutsche Oper Berlin (Nixon in China) and to the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.

Daniel Carter is Generalmusikdirektor of Landestheater Coburg where most recently he has conducted a series of symphonic programs, Die Götterdämmerung (completing Coburg’s Ring Cycle), Macbeth, Hänsel und Gretel, La damnation de Faust, and The Rake’s Progress. He has also debuted with the Gewandhaus Orchestra, Leipzig (Siegfried), at the Rossini Opera Festival Pesaro (Il Viaggio a Reims), Meiningen (La Bohème), Bern (Pelleas et Melisande), Deutsche Oper Berlin (Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Carmen, Die Fledermaus, Don Quichotte) and Staatsoper Hannover (Nixon in China).

He has made guest appearances with Münchener Kammerorchester, Oper Köln, Aaalto Theater Essen, National Theatre Mannheim, Victorian Opera, Opera Australia, West Australian Symphony Orchestra, Australian Youth Orchestra, and has held posts at Deutsche Oper Berlin, Hamburg State Opera and Theater Freiburg Daniel Carter graduated from Melbourne University with a Bachelor of Music (Honours) and in 2012 won the Brian Stacey Memorial Award for Emerging Conductors.

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DVOŘÁK AND BRUCKNER | 5–7 September

KAREN GOMYO VIOLIN

Born in Tokyo and beginning her musical career in Montréal and New York, violinist Karen Gomyo now makes her home in Berlin. A musician of the highest calibre, the Chicago Tribune praised her as “…a first-rate artist of real musical command, vitality, brilliance and intensity”.

For the 2022/23 season Karen will make her debut with Pittsburgh Symphony performing the US Premiere of Samy Moussa’s Violin Concerto ‘Adrano’. Other notable debuts include Tokyo Metropolitan Orchestra, New World Symphony and Orchestre Métropolitain de Montreal. Karen returns to the Bamberger Symphoniker, Los Angeles Philharmonic, National Arts Centre Orchestra and National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan and will also take part in the Seattle Chamber Music Festival as well as trio concerts in Germany with pianist Kiveli Doerkin and cellist Julian Steckel.

In Europe Karen has worked with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, WDR Sinfonieorchester, Dresdner Philharmoniker, Polish National Radio Symphony, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Danish National Symphony, Orchestra dell’Accademia di Santa Cecilia, BBC Symphony, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.

She is a champion of the Nuevo Tango music of Astor Piazzolla and in 2021 Karen released A Piazzolla Triology on BIS Records, recorded with the Strings of Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire and guitarist Stephanie Jones. It follows Karen’s first project with BIS, a collection of works by Paganini and his baroque predecessors recorded with guitarist Ismo Eskelinen, released in 2019

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BEDŘICH SMETANA

(1824–84)

The Bartered Bride: Overture In a breathless overture to the work that gave his long-suffering fellowcountrymen their own operatic identity, Smetana encapsulates the vitality and bustle, as well as the rustic charm, of a Czech village in festive mood. Not so much a potpourri of themes from the opera as a tone poem of great concision and economy, the overture was apparently written well before the opera itself. It was probably the ‘comic overture’ by Smetana that was performed in concert from a piano reduction as early as November 1863, several months ahead of the first sketches for the opera and nearly three years before the opera, in its first, relatively primitive two-act version, reached the stage in Prague.

This was the first time Czech village life had been portrayed believably in opera.

Although premiered inauspiciously in the shadow of a looming (though in the event, short) war with Bismarck’s Prussia, The Bartered Bride survived the fiasco of its truncated opening season in the oppressive midsummer heat of 1866 to win the the undying affection of Czech people (and, subsequently, audiences throughout the world) as it was revised and expanded into its definitive three-act form by 1870, going on to register 100 performances by 1882, within the composer’s lifetime, and 2,000 performances by 1953.

Truly did Smetana remark at the celebration of the Bride’s 100th performance that he had believed from the first that ‘not even Offenbach could compete with it.’ For the one-act libretto

originally presented to him had been a typically frothy Offenbachian opérette.

He had had to build it, through dogged insistence and perseverance, from a lightweight buffo confection into a comedy peopled with characters his audiences would recognise and empathise with, individuals experiencing the deep human emotions of hope and fear, venality and cunning, confusion and despair and, above all, unquenchable young love. In the ‘all’s fair’ context of love and war, not even a dubious device by which the happy outcome turns on a piece of shameless deception can arouse disquiet. Thus not only the bride is won but a questionable cash bonus as well. (The opera is literally ‘The Sold Bride’, not ‘bartered’.)

DVOŘÁK AND BRUCKNER | 5–7 September

PROGRAM NOTES

While the overture essentially sets the scene of festivity on the village green (ringing up the curtain as villagers celebrate, ‘Come now, let us all be merry’), the three main motifs (bustling, suspenseful string figures in the opening, a polka-like subject which foreshadows the brilliant national dances to come, and a winsome, contrasting oboe melody) will all be heard again at the climax of the second act as the bridal-sale contract is signed before the outraged village-folk as indignant witnesses.

Smetana lived to resent the fact that the runaway success of this, the second of his eight completed operas, overshadowed later works he valued more highly, such as The Kiss, The Secret, The Two Widows and the heroic tragedy Dalibor. But he was wrong, in his disappointment, to dismiss the Bride as a mere bagatelle. More than the historical The Brandenburgers in Bohemia, which preceded it, The Bartered Bride was the means by which this expatriate composer, home at last from a youthful odyssey in Sweden, resoundingly fulfilled his determination to give his people a national music. Not only did it bring Czech opera to the promised land

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DVOŘÁK AND BRUCKNER | 5–7 September

but it mirrored then, as it mirrors today, the authentic spirit of the rural Czech community.

Anthony Cane © 2005

ANTONÍN DVOŘÁK

(1841–1904)

Violin Concerto in A minor, Op.53 (B.108) I. Allegro ma non troppo – II. Adagio ma non troppo III. Allegro giocoso, ma non troppo Soloist Karen Gomyo violin It was probably on the recommendation of Brahms that the great Joseph Joachim became the dedicatee of the only violin concerto composed by Dvořák.

Ironically, however, Joachim was never to play it. Brahms had composed his own Violin Concerto for Joachim in 1878, and seems to have given him a couple of Dvořák’s chamber works for performances in Berlin and London.

Encouraged by Joachim’s interest, Dvořák visited him in Berlin in July 1879 to discuss the idea of a concerto.

He sent him a completed draft in November, followed by a full revision, incorporating Joachim’s suggestions, in May 1880. In its new version, he believed, ‘the whole concerto has been transformed.’ Even so, it was not altogether to the virtuoso’s liking.

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After a further two years, Joachim revised the solo part and suggested that Dvořák lighten the orchestration.

Although the composer would agree to only minor changes, in particular rejecting any suggestion of separating the linked opening movements, Joachim nevertheless committed himself to launching the work in London in 1884.

That premiere was abandoned when Dvořák found he was not free to

conduct. Joachim now lost interest.

Dvořák turned to the young Czech violinist František Ondříček, who promptly gave the first performance in Prague on 14 October 1883 and proceeded to play the concerto throughout Europe with great success.

Joachim’s obviously strong reservations about the concerto doubtless reflect his firmly traditionalist view of Classical structure and balance in music. He seems to have felt unable wholeheartedly to lend his name to a work so untraditional, particularly in its first two movements. He quite possibly disliked the improvisatory nature of the concerto, finding Dvořák’s artistic integrity perhaps compromised by his failure to carry through a ‘proper’ sonata structure in the opening movement.

Likewise, he doubtless agreed with the publisher Simrock that the opening movements should be separated; and as the outstanding virtuoso violinist of the day he must have wondered at the lack of opportunity for a cadenza, even though there is brilliance enough in the solo part as written out. The concerto nevertheless embodies much of Joachim, particularly in the style of the solo writing, and Dvořák never withdrew the dedication, inscribed to Joachim ‘in highest admiration’.

Eschewing a conventional orchestral opening tutti, Dvořák launches immediately into his two-part main theme—the first part boldly rhythmic with full orchestra, and the second a passionate answering phrase from the solo violin. This theme, in one or other of its parts, forms the essence of the entire movement. Dvořák introduces subsidiary themes, most notably an effusive folk-like tune which appears on a flood of warm solo violin tone when the movement is already well advanced.

However, the lesser themes serve in the main only as brief moments of repose while the composer gathers his forces

Here the composer, in long and tender phrases, sings a song of heartfelt rapture.

Dvořák scholar Otakar Šourek likens two linked thematic ideas, stated broadly by the soloist at the beginning, to the passionate embrace of lovers. Gervase Hughes finds in this ‘unwonted flight of lyricism’ the composer’s ‘first successful attempt to prove himself a truly individual romanticist by international rather than local standards’. A slight increase in tempo briefly brings a sense of agitation, but the clouds lift on a sunny, folk-like melody with which the trilling violin soars, as Šourek puts it, ‘like a lark above the flowery fragrance of Bohemian meadows’. Now bolstered by the brass, the agitated motif again tries, unsuccessfully, to make its presence felt. The movement ends with the main theme, in tranquillity.

If the thematic material of the slow movement, as Šourek suggests, is deeply rooted in the soil of Czech folk music, then the finale is even more overtly nationalistic. This is a spirited homage to Czech national dance, fundamentally a vigorous, syncopated furiant. Interspersed with this dance, rondo-fashion, is first a cheerful oboe motif taken up by the flute; then a swelling dolce theme on solo violin; and last a highly bucolic, faintly melancholy section in characteristic dumka rhythm.

Neither pure rondo nor sonata, the movement reiterates all three subsidiary themes in different guises (as the main theme is itself varied on every appearance). At the end the dumka

returns, now in great good humour, and the main theme sweeps the concerto to a taut, forceful conclusion.

Anthony Cane © 1999

ANTON BRUCKNER

(1824–96)

Symphony No.4 in E flat, WAB 104 (1878/80 version) I. Bewegt nicht zu schnell II. Andante quasi allegretto III. Scherzo (Bewegt) IV. Finale (Bewegt doch nicht zu schnell)

DVOŘÁK AND BRUCKNER | 5–7 September

to proceed with his main business of developing the opening subject. The development completed, Dvořák wastes no time on a conventional recapitulation of his original ideas: he merely recalls the violin’s answering phrase from the opening theme, transforming it into a serenely reflective bridge which leads without a break into the sweet lyricism of the slow movement.

Bruckner’s Fourth Symphony has long been his most popular. The Fourth is the only symphony to which Bruckner himself gave a title, and ‘Romantic’ is an apt word for the moods and atmospheres the music evokes.

When asked to explain his symphony, he invented (after composing it) an imaginary program in which the first movement is supposed to represent a medieval city at dawn, trumpet calls signalling the opening of the city gates, knights riding out into the countryside where they are surrounded by the bird calls and magic of the forest. But Bruckner’s program is best ignored— he reluctantly tried to explain his music because its first audiences found it so hard to understand.

Bruckner’s symphonies demanded a new way of listening. He is often tagged ‘the Wagnerian symphonist’, but his debt to Wagner was very partial. The true sources of the musical craft of this church-trained teacher and organist from Upper Austria lie in that country’s musical tradition—in Beethoven and even more in Schubert. Bruckner’s symphonies are not dramatic in Wagner’s sense, nor dialectical or argumentative in Beethoven’s. His inspiration, like Schubert’s, is lyrical, and the music is

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DVOŘÁK AND BRUCKNER | 5–7 September

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built into long paragraphs, put side by side, and compared by one musician to a series of terraces.

It is often called organists’ music, and certainly Bruckner’s fondness for contrapuntal devices such as inversion, augmentation and diminution is very obvious in the symphonies, and shows his deep learning in the methods of the old church composers. Bruckner was one of the great improvisers at the organ, but his symphonies, despite their vast scale, are never rambling.

Perhaps the popularity of Bruckner’s Fourth Symphony is chiefly due to its memorable opening. The mysterious beginning of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony fascinated Bruckner, and it has been said that he couldn’t get a symphony under way without a tremolo.

It is not a symphony which starts, but the beginning of music itself: major and minor horn calls sounding the interval of a fifth, gradually rousing the woodwind to join in. The string tremolos continue, after a climax, as accompaniment to the second subject, and the characteristic ‘Bruckner rhythm’ of a duplet and a triplet is heard. The recapitulation starts with the opening horn calls, now surrounded by a flowing figure in muted violins, and they also provide the material of the elaborate coda.

The slow movement is an elegiac march in C minor, the relative minor key. Whereas the slow movement of Beethoven’s Ninth, often invoked as Bruckner’s model, consists of variations on two themes, the returns of Bruckner’s broad main theme are separated by an episode that returns twice, a chantlike theme for the violas heard against pizzicato notes from the other strings.

Each statement of the main theme is more richly scored and displays more movement than its predecessor, rising at last to a great climax before a solemn coda.

The last two movements were subject to the revisions and second thoughts so typical of Bruckner’s career as a symphonist. Between 1878 and 1880, years after the fiasco of the first readthrough, Bruckner wrote a completely new Scherzo, and revised the Finale extensively. The success of the first performance under Richter protected the Fourth Symphony from further major revision by the composer.

Bruckner’s description of the Scherzo as a hunt with horn calls, and the Trio as a dance melody played to the hunters during the rest, is the only useful though obvious part of his ‘program’. The scale of this sounding of the horn, however, suggests King Mark’s moonlight hunt in Tristan und Isolde, or even the Ride of the Valkyries, more than Bruckner’s bucolic ‘hunting of the hare’. The Trio, by contrast, is an Austrian peasant dance with which Haydn, Mozart and of course Schubert would have felt at home.

The Finale is the longest movement, a feature of the overall balance of the symphony again suggested by Beethoven’s Ninth. As in Beethoven, there are reminiscences here of the earlier movements. A three-note descending phrase is heard in the introduction, recalling the opening of the symphony, while the brass remember the Scherzo. This phrase is gradually revealed as the main theme, played in unison by the whole orchestra. The second thematic group is dominated by a C minor melody for violins and violas, later combined with a lively woodwind motif. Themes from all the movements occur, combined most artfully with the new thematic material, as Bruckner works his way to a restatement of the symphony’s opening theme in the home key. The brass dominates the coda, with the motto of the symphony’s first pages. © David Garrett 2002

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TAN DUN: NINE | 14 September

TAN DUN: NINE 14 SEPTEMBER ARTS CENTRE MELBOURNE, HAMER HALL ARTISTS Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Tan Dun conductor Lu Siqing violin MSO Chorus Warren Trevelyan-Jones chorus director

PROGRAM BEETHOVEN The Creatures of Prometheus: Overture [5'] TAN DUN Hero Concerto for violin [36'] – Interval – Tan Dun Choral Concerto: Nine* [20'] BEETHOVEN Symphony No.9: Ode to Joy [abridged] [10'] *Australian premiere of an MSO Co-commission

For a list of musicians performing in this concert, please visit mso.com.au/musicians

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Duration: 1 hour and 40 minuetes including interval. Timings listed are approximate.

East meets West is supported by the Li Family Trust.

TAN DUN: NINE | 14 September

TAN DUN CONDUCTOR

The world-renowned artist and UNESCO Global Goodwill Ambassador, Tan Dun, has made an indelible mark on the world’s music scene with a creative repertoire that spans the boundaries of classical music, multimedia performance, and Eastern and Western traditions. He is a winner of prestigious honors including the Grammy Award, Oscar/Academy Award, Grawemeyer Award, Bach Prize, Shostakovich Award, and most recently Italy’s Golden Lion Award for Lifetime Achievement.

Tan Dun is an Artistic Ambassador of Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and serves as the Honorary Artistic Director of the China National Symphony, Principal Guest Conductor at Shenzhen Symphony, and Honorary Artistic Director and Chief Guest Conductor of the Xi´an Symphony Orchestra.

Tan Dun’s music has been played throughout the world; his first Internet Symphony, which was commissioned by Google/YouTube, has reached over 23 million people online. Most recently, Tan Dun premiered his new oratorio epic Buddha Passion, cocommissioned by the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and the Dresden Festival.

Tan Dun’s music is published by G. Schirmer, Inc. and represented worldwide by the Music Sales Group of Classical Companies.

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TAN DUN: NINE | 14 September

LU SIQING VIOLIN

Born in Qingdao, China, Lu Siqing was invited by Yehudi Menuhin to study at his school in London aged 11. In 1984 he returned to China and five years later went to Juilliard to study with Dorothy DeLay. In 1987 he was the first Asian to win First Prize at Italy’s Paganini International Violin Competition.

Lu Siqing has performed at some of the world’s most famous concert halls in more than 40 countries. He has released more than 20 CDs, performed with leading orchestras such as the Philharmonia and San Francisco Symphony, and collaborated with conductors such as Maazel, Gergiev, Ashkenazy, van Zweden, Slatkin and Yu Long. In 2012, he formed the China Trio with cellist Li-Wei Qin and pianist Yingdi Sun. He plays on a 1734 ex-Ricci Guarneri del Gesu violin, graciously loaned to him by Mr. J Zhou.

“Lu played with an intensely bright and biting tone that soared over the orchestral texture with impressive power.” (The Age)

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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, Manfred Honeck, Xian Zhang and Nodoko Okisawa, and is committed to developing and performing new Australian and international choral repertoire.

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 the Anzac Day commemorative ceremonies.

TAN DUN: NINE | 14 September

MSO CHORUS

The MSO Chorus is always welcoming new members. If you would like to audition, please visit mso.com.au/chorus for more information.

WARREN TREVELYAN-JONES CHORUS DIRECTOR Warren Trevelyan-Jones is regarded as one of the leading choral conductors and choir trainers in Australia. He is Head of Music at St James’, King Street, Sydney, a position he has held since relocating to Australia in 2008. Under his leadership, The Choir of St James’ has gained a highprofile international reputation through its regular choral services, orchestral masses, concert series and a regular program of recording and both interstate and international touring.

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.

He is also a co-founder of The Consort of Melbourne and, in 2001 with Dr Michael Noone, founded the ‘Gramophone’ award-winning group Ensemble Plus Ultra. In September 2017 he was appointed Chorus Director of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and has recently been appointed Chorus Master of the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. He is also an experienced singing teacher and qualified music therapist.

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TAN DUN: NINE | 14 September

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MSO CHORUS PERFORMING IN THIS CONCERT SOPRANO

ALTO

TENOR

Shirin Albert Julie Arblaster Giselle Baulch Jillian Colrain Catherine Folley Susan Fone Nicole Free Karina Gough Penny Huggett Gina Humphries Tania Jacobs Gwen Kennelly Ingrid Kirchner Natasha Lambie Charlene Li Judy Longbottom Caitlin Noble Julie O’Reilly Amanda Powell Danielle Rosenfeld-Lovell Julienne Seal Jemima Sim Fiona Steffensen Tracey Thorpe Emma Wise Channery Zhang

Emma Anvari Margaret Arnold Tes Benton Catherine Bickell Kate Bramley Jacqueline Cheng Alexandra Chubaty Juliarna Clark Andrea Clifford-Jones Nicola Eveleigh Dionysia Evitaputri Lisa Faulks Jill Giese Debbie Griffiths Sophia Gyger Ros Harbison Jennifer Henry Kristine Hensel Helen Hill Yvonne Ho Helen MacLean Christina McCowan Nicole Paterson Tormey Reimer Kate Rice Kerry Roulston Libby Timcke

James Allen Adam Birch Kent Borchard Steve Burnett Allan Chiang James Dal-Ben Jose Diaz James Dipnall Simon Gaites Lyndon Horsburgh Michael Mobach Jean-Francois Ravat Cameron Tait Elliott Westbury Stephen Wood

BASS Kevin Barrell Tharanga Basnayake Roger Dargaville Simon Evans Elliott Gyger Andrew Ham Andrew Hibbard Gary Levy Douglas McQueenThomson Vern O’Hara Caleb Triscari Maciek Zielinski

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN

(1770–1827)

The Creatures of Prometheus: Overture Beethoven’s only ballet music was written for a ‘heroic and allegorical’ ballet conceived by the Italian dancer Salvatore Viganò, and produced in Vienna in 1800. The story combines the myth of Prometheus, who snatched fire from the sky, with that of Pygmalion, the sculptor whose statue came to life.

Prometheus uses the fire to fashion two statues, a man and a woman, from clay; but they resist all his efforts to make them human, stubbornly remaining as inert as vegetables. Disappointed, he is about to destroy his handiwork when the god Pan persuades him to lead them to Mount Parnassus, where they are educated by Apollo, Orpheus and the Muses. Acquiring the ability to think and feel, they begin to appreciate the beauty of nature and the civilising influences of music, comedy, tragedy and dance.

Beethoven didn’t think too highly of Viganò’s efforts—he wrote to a publisher: ‘I have written a ballet, in which, however, the ballet master has not made the most of his part’. At any rate, Beethoven wrote no more ballet music. Perhaps he felt that Viganò had not put sufficient emphasis on Prometheus’ rebellious, heroic character, and his sufferings which were the price of the good he did for mankind.

From the first notes of the Overture, in which Beethoven commands his audience’s attention by the tonal ambiguity of a discord leading out of the main key, the music is passionate and noble. The youthful energy of the composer, well suited to the ballet’s theme, is apparent in the dashing and

often brilliant orchestral writing. An oboe leads into the first Allegro subject, which contrasts with a delicately syncopated second subject. Both themes can be found later in the ballet.

The Adagio (No.5 in B flat) is the second item in Act II. Although exact details of the staging have been lost, it is assumed that this number represented Orpheus teaching the creations about the delights of music. It is one of the few extant examples of Beethoven’s writing for the harp. A change of tempo (Andante quasi allegretto) into a Siciliano-style section is heralded by a short cello cadenza.

TAN DUN: NINE | 14 September

PROGRAM NOTES

In Beethoven’s mind, the character of Prometheus was identified with the young Napoleon, the defender of ‘liberty, equality and fraternity’. In the Finale of the ballet, a theme which could almost be called the refrain of Beethoven’s young manhood makes an early appearance. It is a theme associated with heroism, and here treated as a basis for variations, as it was to be in the Variations for piano Op.35, and most memorably and magically exalted, in the finale of the ‘Eroica’ Symphony, originally dedicated to Napoleon. In this last number, presumably, the statues thank Prometheus and his assistants—there is a final solemn moment for winds, and then a quicker, joyful coda.

Adapted from a note by David Garrett

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TAN DUN: NINE | 14 September

TAN DUN

The composer writes:

However, throughout the work, many of the words that the chorus sings and chants are empty words. Some from Taoist and Buddhist traditions and some simply nonsense words. “Empty” means everything. Nothing exists in an enduring manner. Thus, I find it very interesting to use the “emptiness” to represent “everything”. Beethoven’s 9th Symphony reflects who we are as human beings and thus, to fulfill the shapeless space and compliment the greatest sound is in silence. That is why I thought maybe using empty words from the chorus or the gesture of vocalising to sing the choral concerto might be an interesting parallel to Beethoven.

At the very beginning of Ode to Joy, when I listen to Schiller’s words, he proclaims all people are brothers and all creatures are together in this one world. Chinese philosophers Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi, from 2500 years ago, also said that very same thing and felt the same way. Thus, I felt a deep connection between Beethoven’s 9th Symphony and Chinese philosophy.

In the last movement, I ask myself why do we exist among the stone, among all kinds of nature? Is it not for peace?

Why do we have to live? We all want to live the same way, which in my third movement Time, I hope to portray our responsibility to live in peace with nature and create peace amongst ourselves.

Thus, my work seeks out different poets from different worlds and different points in history to form my work. I used the poetry of Qu Yuan, perhaps some of the earliest ritual opera from 2400 years ago, where the music has been lost but, the words remain. In my imaginings, I try to replace the music to this ancient poetry and lyric, bringing back what has vanished. Another poet I turned to is Li Bai, from 1300 years ago. His poetry is so beautiful about nature—describing the company of the moon amongst the shadows.

© Tan Dun 2024

Hero Concerto for violin Soloist Lu Siqing violin Program notes for this work were not available at time of printing.

TAN DUN Choral Concerto: Nine I. Nine II. Wine III. Time

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Human beings and nature have a deep connection and I have always been fascinated by it. The love making between the shadows, human beings and the moon. I also use some words from Schiller and quote Beethoven’s renowned Ode to Joy—to the creatures of nature, creatures of love and creatures of our own mind.

Symphony No.9 in D Minor, Op.125: Finale (excerpts) On 7 May 1824, Beethoven summoned Vienna’s leading musicians in the Kärnthnerthor Theatre to give the premiere of the Ninth Symphony.

Profoundly deaf, Beethoven was long past being able to conduct, but stood beside the leaders, indicating the speeds. At the end, he was unaware of the applause, so that the contralto soloist had to turn him around, producing ‘a volcanic explosion of sympathy and admiration that seemed it would never end’. The applause was probably more for the composer than the performance. Two rehearsals were insufficient to prepare the most difficult orchestral piece the musicians had ever encountered.

as ‘supreme master’ and Germany as centre of the ‘cult of music’— Beethoven’s earlier symphonies had suggested that instrumental music could be even more eloquent than words.

Yet finally, Marx believed, Beethoven showed that this was not so: ‘Having devoted his life to instrumental sounds, he once again summons his forces for his boldest, most gigantic effort. But behold!—unreal instrumental voices no longer satisfy him, and he is drawn irresistibly back to the human voice.’

TAN DUN: NINE | 14 September

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN

© Graeme Skinner 2014

Everyone in the first Vienna audience in May 1824 must have known that something extraordinary was about to take place. Certainly, the London press intimated in advance of the British premiere a year later: ‘In the last movement is introduced a song!— Schiller’s famous Ode to Joy—which forms a most extraordinary contrast with the whole, and is calculated to excite surprise, certainly, and perhaps admiration.’ But why did Beethoven take the unprecedented step of fitting out an instrumental symphony with a vocal finale? He had toyed with two distinct plans for a symphony with added chorus. In 1818, he made very preliminary notes for a ‘symphony in ancient modes’ on ancient Greek religious themes, including a choral adagio. But by 1822, he was sketching a ‘German symphony’, with chorus singing Schiller’s To Joy, though to an entirely different tune.

To Adolph Bernhard Marx—the early 19th-century music historian whose writings helped enshrine Beethoven

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BEETHOVEN & MENDELSSOHN | 19 September

BEETHOVEN & MENDELSSOHN 19 SEPTEMBER MELBOURNE TOWN HALL ARTISTS Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Umberto Clerici conductor Satu Vänskä violin

PROGRAM ROSSINI La Scala di Seta: Overture [6'] BEETHOVEN Violin Concerto [42'] – Interval – MENDELSSOHN Symphony No.3 Scottish [40']

CONCERT EVENTS ORGAN RECITAL

15 August at 6.30pm at Melbourne Town Hall.

Arrive early to enjoy a recital performed by Calvin Bowman on the mighty Grand Organ, free for ticket holders.

MENDELSSOHN Sonata III Op.65 No.3 MENDELSSOHN (arr. A.F. Delmar) Ruy Blas: Overture

For a list of musicians performing in this concert, please visit mso.com.au/musicians

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Duration: 2 hours including interval. Timings listed are approximate.

BEETHOVEN & MENDELSSOHN | 19 September

UMBERTO CLERICI CONDUCTOR

After a career spanning more than 20 years as a gifted cello soloist and orchestral musician, Umberto Clerici is now widely regarded as an acclaimed conductor.

After serving as Principal Cello of the Teatro Regio di Torino, Umberto was Principal Cello of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra from 2014 to 2021. In 2018, he made his conducting debut with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, and the 2024 season will mark Clerici’s second as Chief Conductor of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra. In 2024, Umberto also returns to the Melbourne and West Australian Symphony Orchestras, together with a three-week series with the Sydney Symphony for ‘Symphony Hour’ that Umberto himself has curated. Other recent highlights include his debut with the Tasmania Symphony and a hugely successful debut in opera conducting Verdi’s Macbeth with Opera Queensland.

Upcoming European conducting engagements in early 2024 include Elgar’s Cello Concerto with Steven Isserlis for the Volksoper Vienna, Orchestra del Teatro Massimo in Palermo and Orchestra Regionale Toscana.

Umberto plays cellos by Matteo Goffriller (made in 1722, Venezia) and Carlo Antonio Testore (made in 1758, Milano).

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BEETHOVEN & MENDELSSOHN | 19 September

SATU VÄNSKÄ VIOLIN

Satu Vänskä has developed an international profile as Principal Violin with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, a position that she has held for the past twenty years. As a soloist, Satu has performed with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, at the Sydney Opera House and Melbourne Recital Centre and as part of Tasmania’s Mona Foma festival. Satu has performed with London’s Aurora Orchestra in the 2018 London season of Weimar Cabaret with the late Barry Humphries, the Arctic Chamber Orchestra, Sinfonia Lahti and at Slovenia’s Festival Maribor.

Satu is the founder, curator, front-woman, violinist and vocalist of the critically acclaimed ACO Underground, the ACO’s electro-infused, experimental spin-off project. With ACO Underground, Satu has performed collaborations with artists including Midnight Oil’s Jim Moginie and the Violent Femmes’ Brian Ritchie in venues ranging from New York’s Le Poisson Rouge to Sydney’s Phoenix Central Park.

Satu studied with Pertti Sutinen at the Lahti Conservatorium and the Sibelius Academy, and later at the Hochschule für Musik in Munich with Ana Chumachenco.

Satu performs on the 1728/29 Stradivarius violin on loan from the ACO Instrument Fund.

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GIOACHINO ROSSINI

(1792–1868)

La Scala di Seta: Overture La Scala di Seta was one of Rossini’s earliest operas. Based upon a French farce of the same name, it was written in 1812 for the Venetian theatre San Moisè. Although the libretto was strongly criticised because of an alleged resemblance to another famous opera (Cimarosa’s The Secret Marriage), the music was favourably received by the public.

Three rushing bars of allegro vivace lead into a slow introduction, and thereafter the overture follows the simplest possible construction, based on three main themes. The first theme is given to the strings, the second to flutes and clarinets, and the third to the oboes.

Rossini’s aim, in his overtures, was to provide the public with a piece of orchestral music to put them in a good mood, excited and ready for what was to follow. Electrified, they were pre-disposed to the sheer physical enjoyment of sound. Thus the composer declared from the start that he was in charge of proceedings. The Rossini overture has been called ‘a musical visiting-card’.

Rossini’s trademarks, in his overtures, are the reduction to musical essentials: rhythm, treated as an enlivening musical mechanism; and a simple structure of slow introduction, first and second subject, recapitulation and coda. Then there is his love of sheer noise, achieved by brilliantly skillful 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. Overtures almost always featured the famous ‘Rossini crescendo’, the piling up of instruments and volume. © David Garrett

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN

(1770–1827)

Violin Concerto in D, Op. 61 I. Allegro ma non troppo II. Larghetto – III. Rondo (Allegro) Soloist Satu Vänskä violin

BEETHOVEN & MENDELSSOHN | 19 September

PROGRAM NOTES

In December 1806, Johann Nepomuk Möser reviewed a concert for the Wiener Theaterzeitung at which ‘the excellent Klement’, leader of the orchestra at the Theater an der Wien, ‘also played, besides other beautiful pieces, a Violin Concerto by Beethhofen’. Möser went on to note that the ‘experts’ were unanimous, ‘allowing it many beauties, but recognising that its scheme often seems confused and that the unending repetitions of certain commonplace events could easily prove wearisome’. It is hard to imagine how the critics back then got it so wrong and why there was only one other documented performance during Beethoven’s life. (It was not until Joseph Joachim took the piece up in 1844, that it gained any currency at all.) Beethoven himself may have felt that the work had no future, as he made a version for piano and orchestra for the pianist, composer and publisher Muzio Clementi soon after the premiere. These include written-out cadenzas with timpani accompaniment which form the basis for Christian Tetzlaff’s own.

Beethoven had been working at tremendous speed in the latter half of 1806. Having finally completed the first

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BEETHOVEN & MENDELSSOHN | 19 September

version of his opera Fidelio he then in quick succession composed the Fourth Symphony, Fourth Piano Concerto, the three ‘Razumovsky’ string quartets, the Violin Concerto and one or two other things before the end of the year.

The early years of the 19th century, Beethoven’s ‘heroic decade’, saw works that dramatise titanic struggles and epic victories on a scale unimagined by previous composers. This may reflect Beethoven’s own heroic response to the deafness which began to hamper his professional and personal life at the time; it may also reflect radical upheavals in European society: Napoleon’s armies occupied Vienna three times in the course of the decade.

But the period also produced works of great serenity such as the Violin Concerto. Still large-scale works, their emotional worlds are far from the violent tensions of the odd-numbered symphonies.

Beethoven had toyed with and abandoned a Violin Concerto in the early 1790s. By the time of the D major work, however, he had composed nine of his ten sonatas for piano and violin. From the 1802 Op.30 set on, he invested these with the same complexity of emotion and expanded scale that we have noted in the symphonies and string quartets. But Beethoven’s interest in the concerto medium was, until 1806, primarily in composing works for himself as soloist—the first four piano concertos; after that time his hearing loss made concerto playing too risky.

At one remove, as it were, in this work he could concentrate on the problem of reconciling the principles of symphonic composition—which stress dramatic contention and ultimate integration of contrasting thematic material—and concerto composition, which adds the complication of pitting the individual against the mass.

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In the Violin Concerto Beethoven uses a number of gambits to bring about this synthesis. As in several works of this period, the Violin Concerto often makes music out of next to no material: the opening gesture of five drum taps, for instance, seemingly blank at the start, returns several times during the movement, most strikingly when the main material is recapitulated: there the whole orchestra takes up the motif. Similarly, the larghetto slow movement has been famously described

by Donald Tovey as an example of ‘sublime inaction’—nothing seems to be happening, though in fact subtle changes and variations of material stop the piece from becoming monotonous.

The seemingly improvised transition into the last movement dramatises the gradual change from that immobility to the release of energy in the finale.

Throughout the work Beethoven expertly creates and frustrates our expectations: the soloist only enters after a fully symphonic introduction, and only then with an ornamental flourish, rather than any thematic material. The beautiful second theme is, as Maynard Solomon notes, perfectly composed to exploit the richness of the lowest string of the instrument, but the soloist only gets that theme at the movement’s end. This large-scale plotting of the work allowed Beethoven to expand the dimensions of the violin concerto beyond all ‘classical’ expectations, and lay the foundation for the great concertos of Brahms and Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky and Sibelius. © Gordon Kerry 2008

Symphony No.3 in A minor, Op. 56 Scottish I. Andante con moto – Allegro un poco agitato – Andante con moto – II. Vivace non troppo III. Adagio – Allegro vivacissimo – Allegro, maestoso assai Mendelssohn’s ‘Scottish’ Symphony contains neither the clear narrative of the Arnold work, nor the Caledonian set-pieces of the MacCunn. Despite its occasional references to Scottish folksong, its claims to Scotland lie less in direct musical example than in a pervading mood of melancholy and resignation.

In 1829, Mendelssohn left for a four year Grand Tour of Europe and the British Isles, encouraged by his parents to ‘broaden his mind.’ Such a tour was a fashionable Romantic gesture; his letters home indicate that he took his mindexpanding duties very seriously indeed.

His tour of Scotland inspired at least two pieces indispensable to the symphonic repertoire. After a visit to the Isle of Mull he wrote to his parents that ‘in order to make you understand how extraordinarily the Hebrides have affected me, I have written the following which came into my mind.’ Enclosed was the first 20 bars of The Hebrides overture, more revealing than any letter. Later that same trip he visited Holyrood, the former palace of Mary, Queen of Scots. ‘I believe I have found the beginning of my Scottish Symphony,’ he wrote.

A trip to Italy appears to have dispelled the mood; Mendelssohn did not complete the Symphony for another 12 years, making it the last of the five symphonies. Even then, its nationalistic flavour was not entirely clear to all

listeners. Schumann wrote, somewhat breathlessly, that it was ‘so beautiful as to compensate a listener who has never been in Italy [sic].’

The ‘Scottish’ Symphony is perhaps more interesting for its innovation of structure than for its local details.

The principal sections run straight through, and contain enough motivic relation to qualify, almost, as thematic transformation. The opening movement is a melancholy Allegro poco agitato, framed by an elegaic Andante, and of a clear thematic relationship. The movement is punctuated by moments of high drama, and rarely strays from the minor, maintaining a mood of resignation. The second movement is a quicksilver Mendelssohn Scherzo, with the clearest Scottish references of the symphony. A rustic clarinet melody gives way to a rhythmic dance tune. The next movement is restlessly lyrical, and becomes more and more embellished, while the finale provides an energetic conclusion, again replete with dance tunes. A melancholy coda reminds us of the beginning, before a rousing and exciting close. The piece was premiered in Leipzig, in 1842, and permission was granted later that year for its dedication to Queen Victoria, a fervent admirer of the composer. There is a spaciousness and melancholy that is indeed reminiscent of Mendelssohn’s description of Holyrood: ‘Everything is ruined, decayed and open to the sky.’

Like each of the other composers on tonight’s programme—an Englishman, a Frenchman, and a Scotsman— Mendelssohn has his own Scotland. It is a place of the imagination: neither humorous, colouristic nor pastoral, but in his case, deeply moving.

BEETHOVEN & MENDELSSOHN | 19 September

FELIX MENDELSSOHN

(1809–47)

© Anna Goldsworthy 1999

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Supporters

Cameron Mowat

Deidre and Malcolm Carkeek

David Orr

The Cuming Bequest

Matthew O’Sullivan

Margaret Davies

Rosia Pasteur

Blair Doig Dixon

Penny Rawlins

Neilma Gantner

Margaret Riches

Angela Felicity Glover

Christopher Menz and Peter Rose

The Hon Dr Alan Goldberg AO QC

Neil Roussac

Derek John Grantham

Anne Roussac-Hoyne

Delina Victoria Schembri-Hardy

Marie Rowland

Enid Florence Hookey

Fred and Patricia Russell

Gwen Hunt

Mr Michael Ryan and Ms Wendy Mead

Family and Friends of James Jacoby

Anne Kieni Serpell and Andrew Serpell

Audrey Jenkins

Jennifer Shepherd

Joan Jones

Suzette Sherazee

Pauline Marie Johnston

John E Smith

Christine Mary Kellam

HMA Foundation

C P Kemp

Professors Gabriela and George Stephenson

Jennifer Selina Laurent

Pamela Swansson

Sylvia Rose Lavelle

Tam Vu and Dr Cherilyn Tillman

Peter Forbes MacLaren

Frank and Miriam Tisher

Joan Winsome Maslen

Mr and Mrs R P Trebilcock

Lorraine Maxine Meldrum

Christina Turner

Prof Andrew McCredie

P & E Turner

Jean Moore

Michael Ullmer AO

Joan P Robinson

The Hon Rosemary Varty

Maxwell and Jill Schultz

Francis Vergona

Miss Sheila Scotter AM MBE

Tam Vu and Dr Cherilyn Tillman

Marion A I H M Spence

Frank Tisher OAM and Dr Miriam Tisher

Molly Stephens

Robert Weiss

Gwennyth St John

Terry Wills Cooke OAM and the late Marian Wills Cooke

Halinka Tarczynska-Fiddian

Mark Young

Elisabeth Turner

Anonymous (18) The MSO gratefully acknowledges the support of the following Estates: Norma Ruth Atwell Angela Beagley Barbara Bobbe

Albert Henry Ullin Jean Tweedie Herta and Fred B Vogel Dorothy Wood Joyce Winsome Woodroffe

Michael Francois Boyt

COMMISSIONING CIRCLE

Christine Mary Bridgart

Cecilie Hall and the Late Hon Michael Watt KC

Margaret Anne Brien

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Jennifer May Teague

Ken Bullen

Tim and Lyn Edward Weis Family

John and Lorraine Bates Equity Trustees Colin Golvan AM KC and Dr Deborah Golvan Elizabeth Proust AO and Brian Lawrence Guy Ross The Sage Foundation

Rosemary and the late Douglas Meagher Craig Hill

Professor Gary McPherson Rachel Shaw

Anne Neil

Eleanor Mancini

Newton Family in memory of Rae Rothfield Cong Gu

Patricia Nilsson

Michael Ullmer AO and Jenny Ullmer

Natasha Thomas

ADOPT A MUSICIAN

Michelle Wood

Andrew and Judy Rogers

Margaret Billson and the late Ted Billson

Glenn Sedgwick

Peter Edwards

Tiffany Cheng, Shane Hooton

Shane Buggle and Rosie Callanan

Anonymous

Roger Young

Rachael Tobin

Andrew Dudgeon AM

HONORARY APPOINTMENTS

Tim and Lyn Edward

Life Members

John Arcaro

John Gandel AC and Pauline Gandel AC

Dr John and Diana Frew

Jean Hadges

Rohan de Korte, Philippa West

Rosie Turner

Dr Mary-Jane Gething AO Monica Curro

The Gross Foundation

Sir Elton John CBE Lady Primrose Potter AC CMRI Jeanne Pratt AC

Matthew Tomkins

Lady Marigold Southey AC

Dr Clem Gruen and Dr Rhyl Wade

Michael Ullmer AO and Jenny Ullmer

Jean Hadges

MSO Ambassador Geoffrey Rush AC

Cecilie Hall

The MSO honours the memory of Life Members

Robert Cossom

Prudence Davis Patrick Wong

Cecilie Hall and the late Hon Michael Watt KC Saul Lewis

The late Marc Besen AC and the late Eva Besen AO John Brockman OAM

The Hanlon Foundation

The Honourable Alan Goldberg AO QC

Abbey Edlin

Harold Mitchell AC

David Horowicz

Roger Riordan AM

Anne-Marie Johnson

Dr Harry Imber

Supporters

FIRST NATIONS CIRCLE

Ila Vanrenen

Sarah Curro, Jack Schiller

Margaret Jackson AC Nicolas Fleury

Di Jameson OAM and Frank Mercurio Elina Fashki, Benjamin Hanlon, Tair Khisambeev, Christopher Moore

Peter T Kempen AM Rebecca Proietto

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Supporters

MSO ARTISTIC FAMILY

MSO BOARD

Jaime Martín

Chairman

Chief Conductor

Benjamin Northey

Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor – Learning and Engagement

Leonard Weiss CF

Cybec Assistant Conductor

Sir Andrew Davis CBE †

Conductor Laureate (2013–2024)

Hiroyuki Iwaki †

David Li AM Co-Deputy Chairs Margaret Jackson AC Di Jameson OAM Board Directors Shane Buggle Andrew Dudgeon AM

Conductor Laureate (1974–2006)

Martin Foley

Warren Trevelyan-Jones

Lorraine Hook

MSO Chorus Director

Gary McPherson

Erin Helyard

Farrel Meltzer

Artist in Residence

Karen Kyriakou

Artist in Residence, Learning and Engagement

Christian Li

Young Artist in Association

Edgar Myer Mary Waldron Company Secretary Demetrio Zema

Katy Abbott

Composer in Residence

Naomi Dodd

Cybec Young Composer in Residence

Deborah Cheetham Fraillon AO First Nations Creative Chair

Artistic Ambassadors Xian Zhang Lu Siqing Tan Dun The MSO relies on your ongoing philanthropic support to sustain our artists, and support access, education, community engagement and more. We invite our supporters 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:

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$500+ (Overture) $1,000+ (Player) $2,500+ (Associate) $5,000+ (Principal) $10,000+ (Maestro) $20,000+ (Impresario) $50,000+ (Virtuoso) $100,000+ (Platinum)

Join a new generation of giving.

Welcome to Future MSO – an initiative for young philanthropists and music lovers to connect over exclusive opportunities, while supporting the careers of exceptional emerging musicians, conductors and composers at the MSO. Your tax time donation of $1,000 reveals: • A community of like-minded, culturally engaged young professionals.

• An annual calendar of events for you and a guest to connect with patrons, MSO musicians and guest artists.

• The inner world of the Orchestra with experiences that bring you closer to the music.

AMPLIFY YOUR IMPACT BY JOINING FUTURE MSO TODAY. Scan the QR code to join Future MSO today.

Or email philanthropy@mso.com.au to discuss your involvement.

Thank you to our Partners PREMIER PARTNER

VENUE PARTNER

MAJOR PARTNERS

INTERNATIONAL LAW FIRM PARTNER

GOVERNMENT PARTNERS

ORCHESTRAL TRAINING PARTNER

EDUCATION PARTNERS

SUPPORTING PARTNERS

Quest Southbank

Ernst & Young

MEDIA AND BROADCAST PARTNERS

TRUSTS AND FOUNDATIONS

Freemasons Foundation Victoria

Flora & Frank Leith Trust, Sidney Myer MSO Trust Fund

East meets West Program Supporters PROGRAM SUPPORTERS Consulate General of the People’s Republic of China in Melbourne

Ministry of Culture and Tourism China

SUPPORTING PARTNERS

CONSORTIUM PARTNERS

云端青少年交响乐团 Cloud Concert Youth Orchestra

SUPPORTERS

Mahler

Dvořák

Skywalker

Jaime Martín

Ravel

Kats-Chernin

Dramatic Pensive

Industrial mso.com.au

Raging

Serene Packages on Sale

Hopeful

Heroic Season 2025

Liza Lim