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Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring

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Program IGOR STRAVINSKY The Rite of Spring (excerpts) MSO performance recorded 18 & 20 July 2019 at Arts Centre Melbourne, Hamer Hall, with Sir Andrew Davis conducting.

Presenter Nicholas has always had a strong commitment to music education and community engagement. In 2010 he was awarded the Dame Roma Mitchell Churchill Fellowship to study the LSO’s iconic Discovery program and the use of improvisation in training classical musicians at the Guildhall School of Music.

NICHOLAS BOCHNER After training in Adelaide and London, Nicholas spent 3 years as Artist-in-Residence at the University of Queensland as part of the ensemble Perihelion, forging a strong reputation as an exponent of contemporary music. He joined the MSO as Assistant Principal Cello in 1998. Since then he has appeared as a soloist, chamber musician and recitalist. He has also taught cello and improvisation at the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM).

In 2016, Nicholas’ considerable experience as an orchestral musician and his passion for communication led him to undertake a fellowship at ANAM where he developed, conducted and presented educational concerts for primary school children. During the fellowship he was mentored by Paul Rissmann, Graham Abbott and the legendary Richard Gill AO. Since then he has presented educational concerts for children and adults for MSO, ANAM and the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra.

In 2020 he was named the MSO’s Cybec Assistant Conductor for Learning and Engagement. He is also the conductor of the Melbourne University Biomedical Students’ Orchestra. In support of his work as an education presenter, Nicholas has been studying conducting with Benjamin Northey and won a coveted place at the TSO’s 2019 Australian Conducting Academy.

PERFECT

PAIRING Ears Wide Open is proudly supported

by TarraWarra Estate

TarraWarra 2015 Estate Chardonnay This Chardonnay reflects the flavours and aromas of Spring fruits and nuts. However, like the complex and dissonant The Rite of Spring – with themes of sacrificial endings to provoke nature’s renewal – the Yarra Valley harvest came early in 2015 due to the warmer start to spring, creating superb fruit quality for the vintage.

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TarraWarra says: The wine is a blend of seven blocks located across the TarraWarra property. Harvested between 11.8 and 12.4 baume, the wine was naturally fermented, and had no acid addition.

The wine has grapefruit and lemon zest aromas with underlying notes of cashew nuts. The tight palate reflects the season, with texture derived from 10 months on lees and a lovely drive with persistence of flavour.

With oak and tank maturation, the wine shows an elegance with appealing freshness.

VINTAGE NOTES

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2015 was a beautiful vintage in the Yarra Valley. From veraison to harvest the weather was warm, without extreme heat, and the night time temperatures were cooler than average. This combination aids ripening while retaining acid in the fruit. Careful vineyard management gives the fruit the qualities that are a hallmark of TarraWarra Estate Chardonnay.

TarraWarra 2015 Estate Chardonnay is available for purchase from tarrawarra.com.au.

Glossary Cor Anglais A woodwind instrument that belongs to the oboe family, also known as an English Horn.

It is a ‘double reed’ instrument, meaning that the sound comes from two pieces of cane in the mouthpiece vibrating against each other.

Accent An emphasis, stress, or stronger attack placed on a particular note or set of notes.

Accents contribute to the articulation of a performance or musical phrase.

Register A voice or instrument has a range of pitches, and the register refers to the particular part of that range. The register affects the quality of sound or timbre. A higher register indicates a higher pitch; for example, violins have a higher register than cellos.

Chromatic scale A musical scale with twelve pitches, each a semitone above or below its adjacent pitches.

Quick Facts IGOR STRAVINSKY (1882–1971) Born into a St Petersburg family in 1882, Stravinsky was the most famous ‘classical’ composer of his time. After living in Paris for some time, he migrated to the United States in 1939 and settled in Los Angeles.

Stravinsky’s appearances on stage in the US, in western Europe, Australia and his native Russia late in life were monumental events.

(Abridged from Gordon Kerry © 2013)

SERGEI DIAGHILEV (1872–1929) A Russian patron of the arts who founded the Ballets Russes – a ballet company that integrated various art forms. He produced three of Stravinsky’s ballets, including The Rite of Spring.

The famous riot during the Rite of Spring At its premiere, The Rite of Spring caused a scandalous riot – one of the biggest in music history. While it’s popularly believed that the riot stemmed from disdain at the contemporary composition and choreography being performed, there is evidence to show that the rioting was actually between different factions of Parisian society (traditionalists and modernists) hurling abuse at one another, rather than at towards the stage.

Stravinsky used the power of music to shock in four key ways: 1) By using familiar musical elements in a distorted way 2) By layering musical elements in a complex way 3) By using a very large orchestra to produce huge aural force 4) By switching fragments of music, altering length and rhythm to create an unpredictable music collage.