May 2021 | Concert Program

CONCERT PROGRAM

M AY 2 0 2 1 V I VA L D I ’ S T H E F O U R S E A S O N S

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TO M OT H E R, W I T H LOV E

S C H U M A N N ’ S C E L LO C O N C E R TO DA L E BA R LT R O P P L AYS S C H U M A N N

Be Part of Our Story Across the decades, the MSO has been part of thousands of lifelong musical journeys.

After 10 months of cancelled performances, our return to the stage has imbued our 2021 Season with a heightened sense of emotion, excitement, and significance.

Thank you for sharing it with us tonight.

Your support today will ensure we can continue to perform musical magic for generations to come.

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CONTENTS

04

THE MELBOURNE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Acknowledging Country Your MSO Guest Musicians

10

VIVALDI’S THE FOUR SEASONS

18

TO MOTHER, WITH LOVE: WAGNER, RAVEL AND ELGAR

28 34 40

SCHUMANN’S CELLO CONCERTO

DALE BARLTROP PLAYS SCHUMANN

SUPPORTERS

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These concerts may be recorded for future broadcast on

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mso.com.au

(03) 9929 9600

Our Artistic Family

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 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.

Australian National Commission for UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

About Long Time Living Here In all the world, only Australia can lay claim to the longest continuing cultures and we celebrate this more today than in any other time since our shared history began. We live each day drawing energy from a land which has been nurtured by the traditional owners for more than 2000 generations. When we acknowledge country we pay respect to the land and to the people in equal measure.

As a composer I have specialised in coupling the beauty and diversity of our Indigenous languages with the power and intensity of classical music.

In order to compose the music for this Acknowledgement of Country Project I have had the great privilege of working with no fewer than eleven ancient languages from the state of Victoria, including the language of my late Grandmother, Yorta Yorta woman Frances McGee. I pay my deepest respects to the elders and ancestors who are represented in these songs of acknowledgement and to the language custodians who have shared their knowledge and expertise in providing each text.

I am so proud of the MSO for initiating this landmark project and grateful that they afforded me the opportunity to make this contribution to the ongoing quest of understanding our belonging in this land.

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— Deborah Cheetham AO

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.

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 MSO has been the sound of the city of Melbourne since 1906.

The MSO regularly attracts great artists from around the globe including AnneSophie 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.

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Your MSO Xian Zhang

Principal Guest Conductor

Benjamin Northey Principal Conductor in Residence

Nicholas Bochner

Cybec Assistant Conductor

Sir Andrew Davis Conductor Laureate

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 Peter Fellin Deborah Goodall Lorraine Hook Anne-Marie Johnson Barbara Bell, in memory of Elsa Bell#

Kirstin Kenny Eleanor Mancini Mark Mogilevski Michelle Ruffolo Kathryn Taylor

SECOND VIOLINS

CELLOS

Matthew Tomkins

David Berlin

Principal The Gross Foundation#

Robert Macindoe Associate Principal

Monica Curro

Assistant Principal Danny Gorog and Lindy Susskind#

Mary Allison Isin Cakmakcioglu Tiffany Cheng Freya Franzen Danny Gorog and Lindy Susskind#

Cong Gu Andrew Hall Isy Wasserman Philippa West Patrick Wong Roger Young VIOLAS Christopher Moore Principal Di Jameson#

Christopher Cartlidge Associate Principal

Lauren Brigden Katharine Brockman Anthony Chataway

Dr Elizabeth E Lewis AM#

Gabrielle Halloran Trevor Jones Anne Neil#

Fiona Sargeant Cindy Watkin

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Learn more about our musicians on the MSO website.

Principal

Rachael Tobin

Associate Principal

Nicholas Bochner Assistant Principal

Miranda Brockman

Geelong Friends of the MSO#

Rohan de Korte

Andrew Dudgeon#

Sarah Morse Angela Sargeant Michelle Wood

Andrew and Judy Rogers#

DOUBLE BASSES Benjamin Hanlon

Frank Mercurio and Di Jameson#

Suzanne Lee Stephen Newton Sophie Galaise and Clarence Fraser#

FLUTES Prudence Davis Principal Anonymous#

Wendy Clarke

Associate Principal

Sarah Beggs

Sophia Yong-Tang#

PICCOLO Andrew Macleod

Principal John McKay and Lois McKay#

OBOES Thomas Hutchinson

Associate Principal

Ann Blackburn

The Rosemary Norman Foundation#

HORNS Nicolas Fleury

Principal Margaret Jackson AC#

Saul Lewis

COR ANGLAIS

Principal Third The Hon Michael Watt QC and Cecilie Hall#

Michael Pisani

Abbey Edlin

Principal Beth Senn#

Nereda Hanlon and Michael Hanlon AM#

CLARINETS

Trinette McClimont Rachel Shaw

David Thomas

Principal

TRUMPETS

Philip Arkinstall

Owen Morris

Associate Principal

Craig Hill BASS CLARINET Jon Craven Principal

Elise Millman

Anonymous#

CONTRABASSOON Brock Imison

Robert Cossom

Drs Rhyl Wade and Clem Gruen#

HARP Yinuo Mu Principal

William Evans Rosie Turner

TROMBONES

Dr Martin Tymms and Patricia Nilsson#

Anonymous#

Associate Principal Glenn Sedgwick#

Jack Schiller

Natasha Thomas

John Arcaro

Shane Hooton

John and Diana Frew#

Associate Principal

PERCUSSION

Principal

BASSOONS Principal

TIMPANI

Richard Shirley

Mike Szabo

Principal Bass Trombone

TUBA Timothy Buzbee

Principal

Principal

# Position supported by

7

Guest musicians

Guest Musicians VIVALDI’S THE FOUR SEASONS | 7 MAY First violin Nicholas Waters Second violin Madeleine Jevons Miranda Matheson

Viola Molly Collier-O’Boyle

Assistant Principal

Cello Rebecca Proietto

TO MOTHER, WITH LOVE | 9 MAY View on page 22

8

Information correct as of 29 April 2021

Harpsichord Donald Nicolson

Viola Molly Collier-O’Boyle

Double bass Vivian Qu Siyuan

Ceridwen Davies

Oboe Rachel Curkpatrick

First violins Madeleine Jevons Michael Loftus-Hills Ioana Tache

Assistant Principal

Second violin Miranda Matheson Lynette Rayner

Cello Svetlana Bogosavljevic Kalina Krusteva

Guest musicians

SCHUMANN’S CELLO CONCERTO | 13–15 MAY

Timpani Brent Miller

Principal Timpani

DALE BARLTROP PLAYS SCHUMANN | 13–15 MAY Viola Molly Collier-O’Boyle

Bassoon Colin Forbes-Abrams

Ceridwen Davies

French horn Tim Allen

First violins Madeleine Jevons Michael Loftus-Hills Ioana Tache

Assistant Principal

Second violin Miranda Matheson Lynette Rayner

Cello Svetlana Bogosavljevic Kalina Krusteva

Timpani Brent Miller Principal Timpani

Double bass Vivian Qu Siyuan

9

Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons: Ears Wide Open Friday 7 May / 6.30pm Arts Centre Melbourne, Hamer Hall Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Nicholas Bochner conductor VIVALDI The Four Seasons PAUL STANHOPE Dancing on Clouds MICHAEL DAUGHERTY Strut

Proudly presented by TarraWarra Estate

Proudly supported by City of Melbourne, and Crown Resorts Foundation and Packer Family Foundation. Nicholas Bochner's position as Cybec Assistant Conductor for Learning and Engagement is generously supported by the Cybec Foundation.

A musical Acknowledgement of Country, Long Time Living Here by Deborah Cheetham AO, will be performed before the start of this concert.

Running time: Approximately 1 hour, no interval.

VIVALDI’S THE FOUR SEASONS | 7 May

Nicholas Bochner conductor 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.

In 1998 he joined the MSO as Assistant Principal Cello. 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).

Nicholas has always had a strong commitment to music education and community engagement. In 2010 Nicholas was awarded the Dame Roma Mitchell Churchill Fellowship. In 2016, Nicholas’ undertook a fellowship at ANAM where he developed, conducted and presented educational concerts for primary school children. Since then he has presented educational concerts for children and adults for MSO, ANAM and the Melbourne Chamber 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.

In 2020, Nicholas was appointed as the Cybec Assistant Conductor for Learning and Engagement — a two year position generously supported by the Cybec Foundation. He is also the conductor of the Melbourne University Biomedical Students’ Orchestra.

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VIVALDI’S THE FOUR SEASONS | 7 May

Soloists

Tiffany Cheng

violin

Anne-Marie Johnson

Tair Khisambeev

violin

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Kathryn Taylor

violin

violin

ANTONIO VIVALDI

(1678–1741)

The Four Seasons La primavera (Spring) Allegro Largo Allegro Tiffany Cheng L’estate (Summer) Allegro non molto Adagio – Presto Presto Kathryn Taylor L’autunno (Autumn) Allegro – Allegro assai Adagio molto Allegro Anne-Marie Johnson L’inverno (Winter) Allegro non molto Largo Allegro Tair Khisambeev PUBLISHING THE SEASONS At the time of its writing, The Four Seasons (Nos 1-4 from his Op.8, Il cimento dell’Armonia e dell’Inventione [The Contest between Harmony and Invention]), was recognised throughout Italy and Europe as innovative, creating exciting possibilities for all composers who heard his works.

There is no clear indication as to why these four concertos were written, though it is obvious that Vivaldi sought to develop his reputation through increasingly adventurous compositions and many of his earlier works are

dedicated to the nobility for whom they were composed. However, The Four Seasons hold no such clues. It may simply be the case that he held off having them published so that only he could perform them. Vivaldi was recognised in Italy as an excellent player (at a time when Italy was renowned in Europe for its string virtuosi) and so he would have commanded healthy fees for his compositions; and, significantly, attracted wealthy patrons to his concerts.

Works were often pirated by publishers keen to take advantage of a new work’s popularity, so it was in the interests of a successful composer to release his own works, officially sanctioned by exclusive publishing rights. Vivaldi’s Op.8 may have been composed as early as 1717, but it was not until 1725 that a complete publication came forth from Amsterdam, noted for the excellence of its publishing houses. From Amsterdam, they became known in England, Germany and France and from those bastions of culture, throughout the world.

VIVALDI’S THE FOUR SEASONS | 7 May

Program Notes

THE INNOVATOR Both Handel and Bach were aware of Vivaldi and the daring changes he wrought on the concerto form. This form, which we have come to accept as fundamental to Western European music, was still evolving during Vivaldi’s youth. By the time of his death he had played a significant role in settling this genre and had explored many of its possibilities, both in structure and in the use of various solo instruments.

Vivaldi used the solo instrument is such a distinctive way that it is worthwhile to consider how this was achieved.

The solo violin for The Four Seasons becomes the leader and guide for the accompanying instruments as well as for the listener, and rarely in any of the movements are we allowed to forget the central importance of this voice. In this

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VIVALDI’S THE FOUR SEASONS | 7 May

case, it is right to call the violin solo a ‘voice’, as there is a clear tale being told and a complex one at that.

The nature of composition in the age of Vivaldi is directly linked to story-telling.

Vocal music abounded (Vivaldi was a prolific composer of sacred and secular vocal music) and the importance of speech is so linked with this work as to be absolute. The concept of Allegory – whereby representation of humours and aspects of the human psyche or soul were to be found in displays of art — was central to the understanding of the Renaissance thinkers. So it is with The Four Seasons.

Very little is known about the sonnets which appear with some editions of this work (they appear in English at the end of this note). It is suggested that Vivaldi may have had a hand in the writing of these Sonetti dimostrativi (‘Guiding Sonnets’). Whoever wrote them, the way that Vivaldi used such a text and yet didn’t set a word to music is surprising and significant. While the poetry is rich in pastoral visions (which Vivaldi brilliantly captures) it is often the more ‘serious’ meditations that bring fuller meaning to the poetry and the concerti themselves – there is a melancholy here even in the simple delights of the changing seasons. Naturally there is a direct correlation with the development of a life and there is no mistaking that the shivering and shaking of winter is also linked to the trembling of old age at the cold, the dark, and impending death.

FOUR SEASONS IN ONE – THE MUSIC

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In these concertos one is aware of the immediacy of the soloist’s role.

There is not always the long orchestral introduction that we find in the usual Classical or Romantic concerto. In Baroque concertos, and particularly in The Four Seasons, the soloist is centre stage: initiator, observer, leader and controller. The concerto is a dialogue

between the solo violin and the fellow strings of the orchestra — no great revelation. It is the way in which Vivaldi shapes the role of the solo voice and the orchestral responses that makes for an engaging and original dialogue.

In Spring we are immediately aware of the violins’ evocation of birdcalls, trilling brightly as they flit through the new foliage in search of a mate. We are then brought to a vision of freshness, with murmuring brooks and sweet breezes created by the smooth oscillations of the orchestra. The tranquillity changes to confusion, as the orchestra (in the minor key) becomes a raging storm and the solo violin a bolt of lightning.

Then, as suddenly as it came, the storm is gone and all is calm again; the birds return. The second movement is gently scored. The orchestra shimmers as a soft afternoon breeze moves the branches and new spring leaves, while the solo violin plays a remarkably poignant and melancholy tune (perhaps painting the dreams of the sleeping goat-herd?). Suddenly we are plunged into a revel: the drone of bagpipes is clearly heard in the orchestra while the violin leads a merry dance for the peasants to follow to the end of the day.

Summer in all its intensity is here, with the languor of the orchestra in its drooping and halting quavers set against the intensity of the solo violin’s harsh virtuosity. We hear a cuckoo call in the distance and then the roar of the North Wind, bringing no relief in its wild semiquavers, only heat. The middle movement of this concerto is remarkable not only for maintaining the key of G minor (all the other concertos have contrasting and complementary keys) but also in its brevity and introspection. Again the solo violin inhabits the spirit of a peasant: this time a shepherd, dreaming in annoyed sleep, with the occasional darting of mosquitos and flies (quaver figures in

After the heat and tempests of Summer, Autumn comes as a blessed relief — with Harvest a time of rejoicing and dancing. The theme is introduced by the orchestra, a slightly clumsy and pedestrian tune (the lower strings capture the heavy boots of peasants drumming on the floor). This is taken up by the village fiddler accompanying the party, who eventually succumbs to the heaviness of wine, and falls (with the rest of the band) into a stupor.

Jolted awake briefly, all slip into the arms of Bacchus. The drunken dream of the revellers is a murky one — Vivaldi uses the veil of muted strings, lingering harmonic dissonance and the chordal voice of the harpsichord to conjure a rest that is deep but not tranquil. The morning is greeted with galloping horses (the orchestral rhythm could be nothing else) with the sound of horns ringing in the sensitive ears. The solo violin takes up the call in pursuit of the prey, and then becomes the fleeing animal in a darting and prancing figure while the dogs and guns are represented by the orchestra.

The pursuit is hot and the beast falls: the hunters return triumphant.

The harsh cracking figure of the next section displays a hard Winter.

Dissonance, bowed vibrato and an insistent semiquaver rhythm paint a bitter, bright environment. The soloist deepens the cold with a swirling wind, chilling the orchestra, then runs, stamping its feet to warm the chilled body and to still the chattering teeth. But out of the cold, in front of a warming fire,

the solo violin’s melody clearly reminds us of the ease of those warmer times during the past year, while the beat of the rain (the pizzicato of the orchestra) is gently heard at the window. The final movement is a departure from the rest of the concertos. There is no orchestral opening; instead the solo violinist sketches the ice-skater’s patterns in the fragile film over the lake (a circling, weaving set of semiquavers coupled with what is an extraordinarily lyrical and yet menacing tune). The timorous nature of the orchestral accompaniment (quaver pulses and gradual imitation of the solo figure) adds to the tension. After a few clumsy ‘bumps’ from both orchestra and soloist, they are all up again, only to crash though the ice into the shocking watery cold. The winds return (the ‘North Wind’ figure that we heard in Summer), this time summoning a blizzard curtain to close this fourth and final act.

VIVALDI’S THE FOUR SEASONS | 7 May

the orchestra) disturbing him from his rest. All thoughts of rest are forgotten with the tumult of a summer storm the whole orchestra creates with insistent semiquavers and driving rhythm: a wilder and more terrifying relation of its springtime cousin with the solo violin more frantic and brilliant in the whirling semiquavers of wind, rain, hail and flashes of lightning.

Abridged from David V. Russell © 1998

PAUL STANHOPE

(born 1969)

Dancing on Clouds The composer writes: Dancing on Clouds was commissioned by the Hush Foundation for its Volume 18 CD, performed by the ACO Collective.

The piece followed a residency at the Westmead Children’s Hospital School.

In this environment l was impressed by the resilience of the young patients and how many used their imaginations to cope with stressful situations; in this context, music was important to all. They suggested an energetic and optimistic musical response as being the most useful to them.

The image in the title of the piece suggests a flight of fancy into the heavens, escaping our mortal burdens, overcoming hardship and arriving at a place where anything might be possible,

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VIVALDI’S THE FOUR SEASONS | 7 May

even dancing on clouds. The music begins with gentle pulses and melodic contours before launching into a series of more overtly rhythmic episodes.

After a short soloistic section where the music comes to a brief stand-still, playful pizzicati hint at a tip-toe dance, building eventually to a larger, energetic musical climax and a brief coda which re-introduces the gentle pulses of the opening. The music ends in a series of cloud-like puffs suggested by soft, high string harmonics.

Paul Stanhope © 2018

MICHAEL DAUGHERTY

(born 1954) Strut

The composer writes: Strut (1989) for string orchestra was commissioned by the New York State School Music Association. The world premiere was given by the NYSSMA Honor String Orchestra, conducted by Larry Rachleff, at the 1989 NYSSMA Conference on October 15, 1989. Strut (1989) is inspired by Paul Robeson (18981976), the great African-American actor, singer and civil rights activist. Robeson was widely admired for his acting, on stage as Shakespeare’s Othello, in films such as The Emperor Jones (1932) and Showboat (1936), and in concert for his singing of Afro-American spirituals and folksongs. Paul Robeson was also an advocate for American racial equality and justice. His civil rights activities were viewed as “subversive” by J. Edgar Hoover, director of the F.B.I. Robeson’s American passport was revoked by the U.S. Government in 1950, forcing his political, film and concert career to a virtual stand still.

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The buoyancy and fearless fiddling of Strut reflects the visionary optimism and outburst of creative activity during the Harlem Renaissance (1920–30), in which

Paul Robeson was a central figure.

Imagining a youthful and optimistic Paul Robeson strutting down 125 th street in Harlem during the 1920s, I have created various rhythmic motives, themes and vibrant syncopations that are woven into a lively and complex rhythmic tapestry.

Michael Daugherty © 2021

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MSO Chamber Series

To Mother, With Love: Wagner, Ravel and Elgar Sunday 9 May | 11am Deakin Edge Chris Moore curator, host and viola Georgia Wilkinson soprano Musicians of the MSO Tair Khisambeev violin Matthew Tomkins violin Fiona Sargeant viola Rohan De Korte cello Ben Hanlon bass Prudence Davis flute Sarah Beggs flute

Michael Pisani oboe David Thomas clarinet Brock Imison bassoon Nicolas Fleury horn Rachel Shaw horn Shane Hooton trumpet/flugelhorn

Guest musicians Lloyd Van’t Hoff clarinet/bass clarinet Louisa Breen piano RAVEL String Quartet ELGAR Salut d’Amour RAVEL Trois poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé WAGNER Siegfried Idyll A musical Acknowledgement of Country, Long Time Living Here by Deborah Cheetham AO, will be performed before the start of this concert.

Running time: Approximately 1 hour, no interval.

curator, host and viola CREATIVE PRODUCER, MSO CHAMBER SERIES POSITION SUPPORTED BY DI JAMESON

Christopher’s childhood was filled with the sound of music. His mother was a founding member of the Newcastle University Choir in 1977 (the year Christopher was born) and she played the organ at their local Catholic church. There wasn’t a weekend that didn’t involve some kind of musical activity; from concerts in the Opera House to music camps. The sort of stuff Christopher’s two young girls now complain about.

Nowadays, Christopher is in high demand as a chamber musician around the country and overseas. Christopher currently holds the position of Creative Producer of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra’s chamber offerings and MRC chamber orchestra series.

Christopher plays on a 1610 Giovanni Paolo Maggini violakindly on loan from and anonymous benefactor. He also owns a wonderful 1937 Arthur E. Smith viola which is on loan to William Clark.

He hasn’t thanked Chris yet. Not even a bottle of wine. If you’re reading this William, Christopher Iikes anything but rosé.

Georgia Wilkinson soprano

Winner of the 2019 Herald Sun Aria Competition, Georgia Wilkinson is making her mark on the operatic stage.

Georgia has studied in Italy, Germany, the UK and the US. Whilst studying a Bachelor of Music at Melbourne University, she became the youngest ever Opera Scholar of the Year and the Robert Salzer Voice Awardee.

TO MOTHER, WITH LOVE: WAGNER, RAVEL AND ELGAR | 9 May

Christopher Moore

Georgia made her professional debut as Sophie (MasterClass) and her international debut was at the Weimar Lyric Opera, Germany singing Pamina (Die Zauberflöte). Career highlights include the title role in Alice Through the Opera Glass (Victorian Opera) , Gertrude Opera’s 2019 Young Artist and concert performances of Jekyll and Hyde.

In 2021 Georgia is a member of the Richard Divall Emerging Artist Program with Melbourne Opera. She will be singing the title role in Victorian Opera’s award winning production of Sleeping Beauty, the role of Lisette (La Rondine, Australian National Opera) and making her debut with the Melbourne Symphony Orechestra in their Mother’s Day Concert.

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TO MOTHER, WITH LOVE: WAGNER, RAVEL AND ELGAR | 9 May

Musicians of the MSO

Tair Khisambeev

Matthew Tomkins

Fiona Sargeant

Rohan de Korte

Ben Hanlon

Prudence Davis

violin

viola

bass 20

violin

cello

flute

Michael Pisani

David Thomas

Brock Imison

Nicolas Fleury

Rachel Shaw

flute

clarinet

horn

oboe

TO MOTHER, WITH LOVE: WAGNER, RAVEL AND ELGAR | 9 May

Sarah Beggs

bassoon

horn

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TO MOTHER, WITH LOVE: WAGNER, RAVEL AND ELGAR | 9 May

Shane Hooton

trumpet/flugelhorn

Guest musicians

Lloyd Van’t Hoff

clarinet/bass clarinet

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Louisa Breen piano

MAURICE RAVEL

(1875–1937)

String Quartet in F major Allegro moderato – Très doux Assez vif – Très rhythmé Très lent Vif et agité Remarkably, Ravel’s String Quartet — one of the standard quartets of the 20th century repertoire — was actually a student work. He composed it in late 1902 and early 1903 while still enrolled at the Paris Conservatoire, around the time of his second unsuccessful attempt to win the Prix de Rome.

Certainly the composer’s youth is evident in the obvious influences upon the String Quartet – in particular the impressionist mood and extraordinary tone colours which seem to have derived from Debussy whose own String Quartet (with which Ravel’s is often coupled on recordings) appeared almost a decade earlier. But there is greater evidence still of the older, more mature Ravel in the translucent instrumental textures, the economy and aloof style of utterance, the neo-classical, indeed almost Mozartian elegance of formal construction, and the exotic touches inspired by the music of the Far East.

The premiere of the String Quartet by the Heymann Quartet at the Société Nationale on 5 March 1904 excited much comment. Ravel’s own teacher, the great Gabriel Fauré, sternly advised his pupil to revise the final movement, while Debussy himself famously told Ravel, ‘In the name of the gods of music, and in mine, do not touch a single note of what you have written in your quartet.’ Perhaps this disagreement between the older, disapproving Fauré and the younger, more appreciative

Debussy was symbolic, for there can be no doubt that the String Quartet was to prove a landmark on Ravel’s journey toward a distinctively ‘new’ musical language in subsequent works.

But for all his concern about the final movement, the String Quartet was nevertheless dedicated to Fauré and his influence remains prevalent throughout the work, not least in its structural precision and maturity. (Ironically, in the wash-up of the String Quartet’s premiere, Ravel fell out with Debussy rather than Fauré). Sonata form is still treated with respect in the Quartet and the impressionist tinges never result in lack of clarity. As one commentator noted, ‘Perfection rather than innovation was Ravel’s aim’ – an ambition which he achieved with conspicuous facility.

The opening movement, beginning Allegro moderato, is built on two traditional themes. The first is a stylish melody stated immediately throughout the entire quartet, while the second appears on first violin over rapid figurations in the second violin and viola. As the movement proceeds through the first of its several climaxes, the striking instrumental effects begin (note, for instance, the extraordinary tone colour produced by the first violin and viola playing two octaves apart). But for all the deft handling of the instrumental writing, it remains as close as Ravel ever came to a traditional sonata form opening movement.

The second movement, Assez vif, is a stunner. Its rapid, pizzicato opening represents sheer exhilaration, with an inherent tension between 3/4 and 6/8 rhythms. It’s been suggested that Ravel was imitating an Indonesian gamelan orchestra in this movement, but it’s difficult to imagine the extravagant trills and tremolos which begin and end phrases being played on anything other than European instruments. There is a formal second subject (bowed and marked ‘Bien chanté’) and a

TO MOTHER, WITH LOVE: WAGNER, RAVEL AND ELGAR | 9 May

Program Notes

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TO MOTHER, WITH LOVE: WAGNER, RAVEL AND ELGAR | 9 May

slower, more reflective middle section introduced by the cello. Then the movement closes with a brief, frenzied reprise of the opening.

The strictness of form is relaxed slightly in the slow movement, which is more improvisatory in character, and more episodic in its sequences. The tempi change continually and the opening theme of the first movement returns here in quite a different guise. In true chamber music fashion, themes and ideas (two of which are introduced by the viola) are tossed back and forth between the protagonists.

A vigorous flourish renews the sense of urgency in the helter-skelter finale. The unusual rhythm (based on five-in-a-bar) creates an off-beat feel, but passages of a more expressive character continually emerge amidst the disconcerting effects. The opening theme of the Quartet returns once more, suitably contorted within the ‘new sound world’ of the finale, both rounding off the Quartet as a whole, but also pointing toward a new direction in Ravel’s later music. No wonder it made the venerable Fauré feel uncomfortable!

Martin Buzacott Symphony Australia © 1998

EDWARD ELGAR

(1857–1934)

Salut d’Amour, Op.12 Not content simply with a diamond ring as an engagement gift, the young composer Edward Elgar composed and presented Caroline Alice Roberts with Liebesgruss. Miss Robert’s fluency in German gives a clue to the choice of language for the title (Love’s Greeting), but it was later changed by the publishing company Schott & Co to Salut d’Amour.

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Elgar received only two guineas from the publisher for Salut d’Amour —

remarkable as it is arguably one of his most recognisable ditties. Originally written for violin and piano, Elgar made editions for piano solo, cello and piano and small orchestra but today we hear my new favourite version on flugelhorn.

Hopefully my mother (and yours) agrees!

Christopher Moore © 2021

MAURICE RAVEL Trois poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé Soupir Placet futile Surgi de la croupe et du bond Georgia Wilkinson soprano When asked to interpret the poems he set, Ravel responded: “Useless to explain. The poetry speaks to you or it does not. It is very obscure and if it once seizes you — marvellous! I consider Mallarmé not merely the greatest French poet, but the only French poet; since he made the French language, not designed for poetry, poetical. It is a feat in which he stands alone... He released winged thoughts, subconscious reveries, from their prisons.” Whether Ravel fully understood Mallarmé’s aesthetic or not is anyone’s guess. In any case, his endeavour to ‘transpose’ Mallarmé’s reflexive poetic technique into music has produced some of the most exquisitely delicate sonance ever penned.

Christopher Moore © 2021

RICHARD WAGNER

(1813–1883)

Siegfried Idyll The Siegfried Idyll reveals a touchingly gentle and domestic side of a composer who often displayed the opposite.

Wagner’s full title for the piece was Tribschen Idyll, with Fidi’s Birdsong and Orange Sunrise, as a Symphonic Birthday Greeting from Richard to Cosima.

The Siegfried Idyll is a kind of pendant to the music drama Siegfried, on which Wagner had been working, and many of its themes are to be found in the opera. The peaceful melody with which it begins is associated in the opera’s last act with Brünnhilde’s yielding, her giving up of memories of immortality for love of Siegfried. Another theme, appearing in counterpoint with it, is that of Brünnhilde’s sleep. There is a second theme, not from the opera, based on an old German lullaby, and later the wind instruments present the theme associated with the words ‘Siegfried, Treasure of the World’, from the opera’s love duet. We hear the horn melody associated with the young Siegfried as hero, and the theme of the woodbird who leads Siegfried to Brünnhilde’s firesurrounded rock.

Although it began as private chamber music (Wagner later sanctioned its publication and performance with

orchestral strings), the Siegfried Idyll is really an early example of the symphonic poem. Liszt invented this genre and Richard Strauss developed it: Wagner here depends less on an extraneous program than either of these composers.

The Siegfried Idyll (which Wagner originally planned to call ‘Symphony’) can be heard as a single movement in a kind of expanded sonata form. The first theme, in fact, comes from a planned string quartet Richard had promised to Cosima in the days of their first love.

Only later was it incorporated into the opera Siegfried.

The second group of themes ends with the lullaby, played by the oboe and accompanied by string figures which, Wagner explained, represent sheep.

The surprise performance of this piece was the most ambitious of a number of pantomimes mounted in the Wagner household. Although containing many private meanings for the family, the Siegfried Idyll is an application to instrumental music of a method Wagner developed in his music dramas – the building of broad melodies out of constantly repeated single phrases.

TO MOTHER, WITH LOVE: WAGNER, RAVEL AND ELGAR | 9 May

Tribschen is the villa near the Swiss town of Lucerne where Wagner was living with his wife Cosima, whom he had recently married when her divorce from Hans von Bülow was finalised. She already had two daughters by Wagner, and in 1869 a son was born, Siegfried, known in the family circle as Fidi. On Christmas Day 1870, which was also Cosima’s birthday, she awoke to the strains of music. As the music died away, Richard came into the room and offered Cosima the score of the ‘symphonic birthday poem’. The 13 musicians stood on various levels of the staircase of Tribschen. They were rehearsed secretly by the young Hans Richter, who played horn, and also the brief trumpet part.

Richter, later to become famous as a conductor, was at that stage living in the Wagner household. He had almost given the game away to Cosima, who wondered why he was disappearing every evening, and what on earth he was doing practising the trumpet!

As Donald Tovey has written, the Siegfried Idyll is ‘a gigantic though intensely quiet piece of purely instrumental music, connected with the opera only by a private undercurrent of poetic allusion’. Cosima herself recalled Richard telling her that ‘all that he had set out to do was to work the theme which had come to him in Starnberg (where we were living together), and which he had promised me as a quartet, into a morning serenade, and then he had unconsciously woven our whole life into it — ­ Fidi’s birth, my recuperation, Fidi’s bird, etc. As Schopenhauer said, this is the way a musician works — he expresses life in a language which reason does not understand.’

David Garrett © 1991

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TO MOTHER, WITH LOVE: WAGNER, RAVEL AND ELGAR | 9 May

Text and translations Poems by Stéphane Mallarmé (1842–1898)

1. SOUPIR (1864)

1. SIGH

Mon âme vers ton front où rêve, ô calme sœur,

My soul climbs towards your forehead, where dreams––oh calm sister––an autumn strewn with russet freckles,

Un automne jonché de taches de rousseur, Et vers le ciel errant de ton œil angélique Monte, comme dans un jardin mélancolique, Fidèle, un blanc jet d’eau soupire vers l’Azur !

– Vers l’azur attendri d’octobre pâle et pur Qui mire aux grands bassins sa langueur infinie Et laisse, sur l’eau morte où la fauve agonie Des feuilles erre au vent et creuse un froid sillon, Se trainer le soleil jaune d’un long rayon.

As in a melancholy garden, Faithful, a white fountain of water sighs toward the Azure!

– Toward the softened azure of October, pale and pure, Which mirrors in the grand basins its infinite languor And, on the dead water, where the tawny agony of leaves wanders in the wind and digs a cold furrow, the yellow sun drags itself in a long ray.

2. PLACET FUTILE (1897)

2. FUTILE PETITION

Princesse! à jalouser le destin d’une Hébé Qui poind sur cette tasse au baiser de vos lèvres; J’use mes feux mais n’ai rang discret que d’abbé Et ne figurerai même nu sur le Sèvres.

Princess! in envying the destiny of a Hebe,* Who appears on this cup at the kiss of your lips; I exhaust my fervor, but have only the discrete rank of an Abbot, and will not even appear nude on the Sèvres porcelain.**

Comme je ne suis pas ton bichon embarbé Ni la pastille ni du rouge, ni jeux mièvres Et que sur moi je sens ton regard clos tombé Blonde dont les coiffeurs divins sont des orfèvres!

Nommez-nous... toi de qui tant de ris framboisés Se joignent en troupeau d’agneaux apprivoisés Chez tous broutant les vœux et bêlant aux délires,

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And towards the errant sky of your angelic eye,

Nommez-nous... pour qu’Amour ailé d’un éventail

Since I am not your bearded lapdog Nor lozenge, nor rouge, nor insipid games And on me I feel that your gaze falls closed, Blonde one, whose divine hairdressers are goldsmiths!

Name us... you whose many raspberried laughs Join in a herd of tame lambs Grazing on all the vows and bleating with delirium, Name us... so that Love, winged with a fan

Paints me fingering a flute, lulling this sheep fold, Princesse, name us shepherd of your smiles. *Hebe: the cupbearer for the gods and goddesses of Mount Olympus, serving their nectar and ambrosia ** Sèvres: a town near Paris famous since 1756 for it’s porcelain, mosaics and painted glass from Several sonnets.

3. SURGI DE LA CROUPE ET DU BOND (1887)

3. EMERGE FROM THE CRUPPER AND THE BOUND

Surgi de la croupe et du bond D’une verrerie éphémère Sans fleurir la veillée amère Le col ignoré s’interrompt.

Emerge from the crupper* and the bound of an ephemeral glassware Without flourish, the bitter vigil, The ignored neck stops itself short.

Je crois bien que deux bouches n’ont Bu, ni son amant ni ma mère, Jamais à la même chimère, Moi, sylphe de ce froid plafond!

I truly believe that the two mouths did not Drink, neither her lover, nor my mother, Never from the same chimera,** Me, sylph of this cold ceiling! ***

Le pur vase d’aucun breuvage Que l’inexhaustible veuvage Agonise mais ne consent,

The pure vase of any beverage That inexhaustible widowhood Dying, but not consenting,

Naïf baiser des plus funèbres! À rien expirer annonçant Une rose dans les ténèbres.

Naïve kiss of many funerals!

To expire announcing nothing A rose in the shadows.

TO MOTHER, WITH LOVE: WAGNER, RAVEL AND ELGAR | 9 May

M’y peigne flûte aux doigts endormant ce bercail, Princesse, nommez-nous berger de vos sourires.

*crupper: the rump of a horse; or a strap to prevent the saddle or harness on a horse from sliding forward **chimera: the term chimera has come to describe any mythical or fictional animal with parts taken from various animals; or describes anything composed of very disparate parts *** sylph: a slender, graceful woman; (in folklore) a supernatural being able to inhabit the air.

Translations and commentary: Julia Bullock © 2021

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Schumann’s Cello Concerto Thursday 13 May | 6pm Friday 14 May | 6pm Saturday 15 May | 6pm Arts Centre Melbourne, Hamer Hall Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Umberto Clerici conductor and cello SCHUMANN Cello Concerto MENDELSSOHN Symphony No.4 Italian

A musical Acknowledgement of Country, Long Time Living Here by Deborah Cheetham AO, will be performed before the start of this concert.

Running time: Approximately 1 hour, no interval.

SCHUMANN’S CELLO CONCERTO | 13–15 May

Umberto Clerici conductor and cello With a career spanning more than 20 years as a gifted cello soloist, orchestral musician, and now emerging conductor, Umberto Clerici is swiftly gaining a reputation as an artist with a diverse and multifaceted career.

Umberto started studying the cello at the age of five. As a cello soloist, he has appeared with some of the world’s most prestigious orchestras including the Vienna Philharmonic, St. Petersburg Philharmoni and at the Salzburg Festival amongst many others. Umberto then moved to Australia to take up the position as Principal Cello of the Sydney Symphony during the years 2014–2020.

Umberto is now successfully establishing his reputation as a conductor after making his debut with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra last season. He recently made his debut with the Queensland Symphony and looks forward to making his debut with the Melbourne Symphony. Umberto is already enjoying a special relationship with the Sydney Symphony, who, he will conduct three times this season in Mahler’s Symphony No.4, Classics in the City and two regional tours.

Umberto also enjoys his position as the Artistic Director of the Sydney Youth Orchestra Chamber Ensemble.

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SCHUMANN’S CELLO CONCERTO | 13–15 May

Program Notes ROBERT SCHUMANN

(1810–1856)

Cello Concerto in A minor, Op.129 Nicht zu schnell (Not too fast) – Langsam (Slowly) – Sehr lebhaft (Very lively) Umberto Clerici cello/director The fluency and spontaneous grace of this work could be thought to reflect the single span of inspiration in which Schumann composed it. The work was composed by the 40-year-old, newly arrived in Düsseldorf from Dresden, in the space of 15 days — from 10 to 24 October 1850.

Schumann at first considered calling this masterpiece a Konzertstück, to reflect its less than concerto-length dimensions (it runs to about 25 minutes).

However, it is only the brevity of the slow movement which could in any way threaten its claim to the grander title.

In contrast with certain passages in the Violin Concerto of 1853, Schumann here composed solo music which is wellpitched for the instrument. Schumann, though remembered as a pianist, in fact possessed a reasonably deep first-hand knowledge of the cello, having taken it up briefly after the injury in 1832 which put an end to his piano career. He once explained that he was able to handle the bow despite the paralysis which affected one of the fingers of his right hand.

Though Schumann didn’t study cello for long, this concerto is evidence that his time on the instrument paid off. As his wife, Clara, confided in her diary (16 November 1850): ‘Last month [Robert] composed a concerto for violoncello … It appears to be written in the true violoncello style.’

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As always Clara was Schumann’s most perceptive critic and keenest admirer, and she added in her diary, a year later: I have played Robert’s Violoncello Concerto again and thus procured for myself a truly musical and happy hour.

The romantic quality, the flight, the freshness and the humour, and also the highly interesting interweaving of cello and orchestra are, indeed, wholly ravishing, and what euphony and what deep sentiment are in all the melodic passages.

One could forgive Clara for being partisan, but in this case, her summary is quite apt. For once, Schumann’s habitually over-painted orchestration is under control. The cello is exploited for its eloquent tenor tone, and the work has a wonderful lyricism.

Schumann the musical poet is evident in the way each movement is linked to the next to allow for a continuity of thought unlikely to be broken by applause, and in the eschewal of virtuosity for its own sake. ‘I cannot write a concerto for the virtuosos,’ Schumann had commented early in his career. The cadenza is in fact shifted from the first movement to the last, so that an audience may first attend to the warmth and scope of the musical ideas. The triplets in the first movement are the only early concessions to virtuosity.

There is no orchestral introduction as was customary in the Classical concerto — just four bars of material which introduces a sweeping opening melody in the cello. The cello goes on for some time in its attractive tenor register, until a more vigorous orchestral passage takes over. Then a secondary, slightly more chromatic and more rhythmically pointed melody is heard, before triplets are introduced in the codetta, taking the listener almost imperceptibly into the development section, a passage notable for pert, light scoring for the orchestra

and long, flowing responses in the solo cello. A recollection of the opening melody in more languorous mood, in the remote key of F sharp minor, marks the furthest point of the development, before a return to the material of the opening section, now slightly varied.

A gradual retarding of the coda leads to the slow movement, where traditionally the soloist plays in duet with the leader of the orchestral cellos. It is only 34 bars long, but rises to a glorious climax with the cello in its tenor register. An accelerating coloratura leads to the last movement. Here the cello takes on a more playful character, while remaining essentially melodic.

was dissatisfied with this symphony, and always intended to revise it. He never got around to doing so, and it was published only after his death, edited by his friend Ignaz Moscheles.

Meanwhile, Mendelssohn had submitted this symphony in response to a request from the London Philharmonic Society for ‘a symphony, an overture, and a vocal piece’ (along with the concert aria Infelice, the overture The Hebrides and perhaps the Trumpet Overture).

The Italian Symphony was performed in a concert of the Society in London, in which Mendelssohn also played Mozart’s D minor Piano Concerto K.466, on 13 May 1833.

SCHUMANN’S CELLO CONCERTO | 13–15 May

G.K. Williams Symphony Australia © 1997

Mendelssohn’s anxiety about his symphonies had a lot to do with his sense of responsibility imposed by what Beethoven had done. An energetic symphony in A major was bound to put listeners in mind of Beethoven’s Seventh, and the processional character of Mendelssohn’s second movement inevitably recalls the same movement in Beethoven’s symphony. Perhaps also Mendelssohn was bothered by the challenge which faces interpreters of his Italian Symphony: how to avoid making each of the four movements sound like a moto perpetuo. The great English musicologist Sir Donald Tovey thought that if he wanted to change anything, Mendelssohn could have wished to broaden the design of the last movement towards the end. That is what he did in the symphony he was working on concurrently, the Scottish Symphony (No.3). Posterity considers that Mendelssohn should have remained satisfied with a masterpiece in which, far from being a pale reflection of Beethoven, he was entirely himself in the lightness of touch, the polished elegance of scoring, and the sureness of form which mark every movement of the Italian Symphony. Mendelssohn sometimes spoke convincingly of weightier things, but it is no accident

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FELIX MENDELSSOHN

(1809–1847)

Symphony No.4 in A, Op.90 Italian Allegro vivace Andante con moto Con moto moderato Saltarello (Presto) For once a subtitle seems apt: Mendelssohn’s Italian Symphony expresses a northern European’s love of the sun-drenched south. ‘Blue sky in A major’, it has been called. The ideas for it came to Mendelssohn as he spent the winter of 1830–31 in Italy, and he wrote to his parents about the symphony that Naples ‘must play a part in it’. Indeed it did, in the leaping dance of the Saltarello finale. Mendelssohn was in his early twenties, and in this symphony ‘there stands the eager youth who looks out with bright eyes upon the world, and, behold, all is very good’ (Ernest Walker).

Fresh and youthful, this symphony is at the same time one of Mendelssohn’s supreme achievements. He himself considered it ‘the most mature thing I have ever done’. For some reason, he

SCHUMANN’S CELLO CONCERTO | 13–15 May 32

that along with the Violin Concerto, the Midsummer Night’s Dream music, several overtures and the Octet for Strings, the Italian Symphony is among those works of his which have never gone out of fashion. Here, it has always been agreed, is a large-scale work which in every bar brings Mendelssohn’s distinctive contribution to music.

The opening of the symphony, like much of what follows, is notable for its brilliant and imaginative scoring. Here the bounding theme for the violins is presented to the accompaniment of repeated chords for the woodwinds, which at least doubles its effect of almost breathless energy. The string theme migrates to the winds in a masterly preparation of the second subject, in which the first subject returns, fortissimo. The second subject is a rocking figure for clarinets and bassoons, which, as Tovey says, is obviously in no hurry. After further development of the opening theme, a quiet close leads back to the beginning.

The important material this contains is present only in the ‘first time bars’, so the repeat of the exposition should really not be omitted. The development soon presents a fugato on a wholly new theme, then the two main subjects are elaborately worked out, and the recapitulation is approached through a long crescendo beginning under a longheld tonic A for the first oboe — another memorably original idea.

The second movement may have been suggested by a religious procession Mendelssohn is known to have seen in Naples (though Moscheles claimed that it was based on a Czech pilgrims’ song). It begins with plainchant-like intonation, then the ‘marching’ starts in the cellos and basses, over which the cantus firmus is sounded by oboes, bassoons and violas. One particularly delightful instance of the many felicitous instrumental combinations here is the

weaving in counterpoint between flutes and violins. The chromatic subsidiary theme is a development of the opening intonation.

Although not called a minuet and trio, this is in effect what the third movement is. There is little suggestion of the dance in this graceful music, which is more like a song without words, and the trio, with its solemn horns and bassoons (a low note for the second of which is tricky to balance audibly) sounds a deeply Romantic, poetic note.

Pedants point out that one of the rhythms of the movement Mendelssohn calls Saltarello is that of the even more furious Tarantella – the victims of tarantula bite, Tovey wittily observes, cannot even stop to jump in their dance!

The energy here is even more irresistible than in the first movement, so much so that it may pass unnoticed that the movement remains in A minor until the end. Mendelssohn said this symphony was composed at one of the bitterest moments of his life, when he was most troubled by his hypercritical attitude towards his own music. It is good to be reminded of this artistic struggle by a ‘driven’ personality, because his art so transcends the struggle that we can hardly guess that it ever existed.

David Garrett © 2003

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Dale Barltrop plays Schumann Thursday 13 May / 8.30pm Friday 14 May / 8.30pm Saturday 15 May / 8.30pm Arts Centre Melbourne, Hamer Hall Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Umberto Clerici conductor Dale Barltrop violin SCHUMANN Violin Concerto BRAHMS Variations on a theme by Haydn

A musical Acknowledgement of Country, Long Time Living Here by Deborah Cheetham AO, will be performed before the start of this concert.

Running time: Approximately 1 hour, no interval.

Dale Barltrop

With a career spanning more than 20 years as a gifted cello soloist, orchestral musician, and now emerging conductor, Umberto Clerici is swiftly gaining a reputation as an artist with a diverse and multifaceted career.

Brisbane-born violinist, Dale Barltrop, is Concertmaster of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and First Violinist of the Australian String Quartet. He previously served as Concertmaster of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra in Canada and Principal Second Violin of the St Paul Chamber Orchestra in the United States, having performed with all of these orchestras as soloist and director.

conductor

Umberto started studying the cello at the age of five. As a cello soloist, he has appeared with some of the world’s most prestigious orchestras including the Vienna Philharmonic, St. Petersburg Philharmoni and at the Salzburg Festival amongst many others. Umberto then moved to Australia to take up the position as Principal Cello of the Sydney Symphony during the years 2014–2020.

Umberto is now successfully establishing his reputation as a conductor after making his debut with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra last season. He recently made his debut with the Queensland Symphony and looks forward to making his debut with the Melbourne Symphony. Umberto is already enjoying a special relationship with the Sydney Symphony, who, he will conduct three times this season in Mahler’s Symphony No.4, Classics in the City and two regional tours.

Umberto also enjoys his position as the Artistic Director of the Sydney Youth Orchestra Chamber Ensemble.

violin

DALE BARLTROP PLAYS SCHUMANN | 13–15 May

Umberto Clerici

Barltrop has also appeared as Concertmaster of the Australian World Orchestra, guest director of the Australian Chamber Orchestra, ACO2 and the Camerata of St John’s chamber orchestra in Brisbane. He has performed at numerous music festivals across North America.

Barltrop made his solo debut with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra at the age of 15 and was Concertmaster of both the Queensland and Australian Youth Orchestras.

A passionate educator, Barltrop has served on the faculties of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra School of Music and the Vancouver Academy of Music, amongst other organisations.

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 J Myers AO and the Klein Family.

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DALE BARLTROP PLAYS SCHUMANN | 13–15 May 36

Program Notes ROBERT SCHUMANN

(1810–1856)

Violin Concerto in D minor In kräftigem, nicht zu schnellem Tempo (In a strong, not too fast tempo) Langsam (Slowly) – Lebhaft, doch nicht schnell (Lively, but not fast) Dale Barltrop violin In May 1853, the rising virtuoso Joseph Joachim performed Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in Düssseldorf, where Robert Schumann was music director. ‘Joachim won victory over us all – he played with a perfection and deep poetry, so much soul in every tiny tone, a real ideal, such violin playing as I’ve never heard,’ recorded Clara, Robert’s wife, a celebrated pianist, accomplished composer, his staunchest defender and most exacting critic. Thus wrote Joachim to Robert: ‘May Beethoven’s example incite you, wondrous guardian of the richest treasures, to draw a work out of your deep quarry, and bring into the light something for us poor violinists…’ Schumann worked quickly, finishing his violin concerto on 3 October 1853, sketching and orchestrating it in under two weeks. He described it as ‘a reflection of a certain seriousness with an underlying mood of happiness.’

Such happiness was found in the extraordinary musical company gathered in Düsseldorf as the concerto neared completion; it included the young Johannes Brahms, recommended to the Schumanns by Joachim. Robert and Clara were totally enthralled with their new friend; their home resounded with music the three made performing for each other. Robert declared Brahms ‘a genius’ and wrote what would be his last essay, praising Brahms lavishly as a musical visionary.

These joyous moments were a respite from Robert’s recurrent ills — anguished visions and physical torments that often rendered him, in his early 40s, wretched and incapacitated. Robert persevered, seeking solace and sustenance in composition when he could. In January 1854, the Schumanns visited Hamburg, where Joachim gave them a private reading of the concerto. Responding to Robert’s requests, Joachim made comments and suggested revisions in the solo part’s most difficult passages, recorded in Joachim’s score and a piano reduction Robert had prepared.

Weeks later, Schumann attempted suicide by jumping into the River Rhine.

His subsequent confinement at the Endenich asylum ended their plans of a premiere.

Before Schumann’s death, Joachim performed the concerto again for Clara and voiced criticisms, especially of the third movement. The Schumanns’ daughter, Eugenie, recalled the sad conviction with which, following consultation with Joachim and Brahms, Clara decreed the violin concerto should never be published, believing it suffered from a significant ‘defect’ arising from Robert’s condition. Concerned that mental illness had diminished his creative judgment and wishing to preserve his artistic reputation, Clara withheld several of Robert’s last compositions from the complete edition of his works, and destroyed others.

The Violin Concerto manuscripts survived in Berlin’s Prussian State Library. Against the wishes of Eugenie Schumann, a prohibition on publication placed by Joachim’s heirs was broken in August 1936 by interested parties, including Jelly d’Aranyi, a violinist, distant relative of Joachim and spiritualist who declared that for years Schumann had given her telepathic instruction on how to perform the concerto. Nazi propaganda trumpeted the November 1937 Berlin premiere

Few musicians would characterise the Violin Concerto as the most sophisticated of Schumann’s compositions, and some may find justification for Clara’s decision.

Schumann explores unusual harmonies in unexpected directions and employs short, asymmetrical, often irregular phrases. However, the concerto’s lasting beauty lies not in perfection of form or exceptional fusion of harmony and texture, but in the solo line, inspired by Joachim’s artistry, to which Schumann gives a lyrical freedom worthy of his noblest works.

The solo violin immediately elaborates on the imposing first-movement opening theme with Baroque-like figurations, later embracing the simpler, heartfelt contrasting F major theme with soulful warmth and imagination. A sublime second-movement intermezzo, in the style of a romance, evokes quiet but intense rapture, the soloist’s line marked ausdrucksvoll (expressively), enfolded by the strings, sustained by horns and bassoons. A dramatic crescendo leads without pause to the third movement’s hearty, strongly accented triple-metre polonaise. The violin takes pleasure in its dance with the orchestra, embellishing with variations, engaging in playful exchanges and concluding in buoyant spirits.

Samuel C. Dixon © 2003

JOHANNES BRAHMS

(1833–1897)

Variations on a theme by Haydn, Op.56a The violinist Joseph Joachim once reassured a youthful Brahms, who had pestered him anxiously for an opinion on his new Variations on a theme by Schumann, ‘If I could, I would turn every one of the Variations into a triumphal arch and the theme into a laurel wreath for you to wear as I led you through them, you young Emperor of Music!’

For Brahms, like Haydn and Beethoven before him, the variation form was central to his musical life. While he declared a ‘particular affection’ for the form, which he argued should be used more creatively and with greater freedom, his own exploration of variation form nevertheless remained conservative, a challenge to his ingenuity in remaining faithful to the theme. His creativity shone in spinning off entirely new ideas from fragments of the original theme.

DALE BARLTROP PLAYS SCHUMANN | 13–15 May

featuring Georg Kulenkampff as rediscovered evidence of German cultural glory. Yehudi Menuhin became an international champion of the concerto, declaring it to be the ‘historically missing link’ between the Beethoven and Brahms violin concertos, and ‘a treasure…it is real Schumann, romantic and fresh and so logically interconnected in every impulse.’

Brahms was at a crossroads when he came, aged 40, to consider a theme from an old manuscript apparently by Haydn. He was in 1873 still three years from completing his long-gestating first symphony. His experience of the art of orchestration was limited to a first piano concerto and a pair of serenades, all composed long before he had even arrived from his native Hamburg in 1862 to make a permanent home in Vienna.

Now, in his Variations on a theme by Haydn, the composer turned two notable corners. Composing the work in two separate versions more or less concurrently, one for two pianos (Op.56b) and one for orchestra (Op.56a), Brahms on one hand closed his career as a composer of major piano works — henceforth there would be only miniatures; and on the other hand he created, triumphantly, the world’s first

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DALE BARLTROP PLAYS SCHUMANN | 13–15 May

free-standing variations for orchestra.

At the same time, in his confident and subtle mastery of a constantly varying instrumental palette through ten distinct environments (theme, eight variations and finale), he announced his arrival as an orchestrator.

The ‘theme by Haydn’ had been discovered and shown to Brahms three years previously by his Viennese friend Carl Ferdinand Pohl, librarian of the Society of the Friends of Music and Haydn’s first comprehensive biographer.

Pohl had unearthed a set of half a dozen wind band divertimenti, or Feldparthien (literally, field partitas), in which it appeared, as the second movement of the last, under the heading Corale St Antonii. All six divertimenti are now considered spurious, possibly by Ignaz Pleyel, and the St Antony Chorale itself perhaps an old Austrian pilgrims’ hymn.

Brahms in his opening statement of the theme consciously imitates the early Classical wind sonorities in the original divertimento. He reserves his upper strings for the actual variations, which follow, as John Horton has suggested, in a loosely symphonic sequence — ­­ energetic in the first three variations; Romantically melancholy in the fourth (Andante con moto); scherzo-like in 5, 6 and 8, with Variation 7 (Grazioso) a contrasting centrepiece; and gloriously cumulative in a passacaglia finale which builds in Bachian fashion from a ground bass constantly reiterating the first five bars of the St Antony theme.

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The bell-like tolling of the note B flat from the end of the theme echoes constantly through Variation 1, interwoven with sweeping string figures.

Variation 2, in the minor, propels each scampering phrase with a peremptory shove, but the more delicate Variation 3 flows placidly, evoking Romantic horn sighs. The poignant expressiveness of the minor-key Variation 4, based on two new, wistfully flowing

melodies, is achieved with a deceptive simplicity which refuses to proclaim its extraordinary contrapuntal skill.

The impetuous Variation 5 pits different rhythms against each other within a basic 6/8 metre and a swaggering march follows in the equally brilliant Variation 6.

The languorous siciliano of Variation 7 is another contrapuntal tour de force with glowing Brahmsian harmonies. A final, fleeting ghost-like variation — the third in the minor – leads to the solemn ground bass of the finale, a mere ten notes from which Brahms builds a kaleidoscopic edifice, rising inexorably to a majestic return of the full chorale theme.

Brahms’ unprecedented use of a passacaglia, or ground bass, finale to a set of variations is both a homage to the towering example of Bach and an advance hint of the great passacaglia, based on a theme of Bach himself, with which, 12 years later, he would close his fourth, and final, symphony.

Anthony Cane © 2004

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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 Nicholas Bochner The Cybec Foundation Concertmaster Chair Sophie Rowell The Ullmer Family Foundation Young Composer in Residence Matthew Laing The Cybec Foundation

PROGRAM BENEFACTORS Cybec 21st Century Australian Composers Program The Cybec Foundation Digital Transformation Perpetual Foundation – Alan (AGL) Shaw Endowment, Telematics Trust

MSO Education Margaret Ross AM and Dr Ian Ross MSO For Schools Crown Resorts Foundation, Packer Family Foundation, The Department of Education and Training, Victoria, through the Strategic Partnerships Program and the Victorian Challenge and Enrichment Series (VCES) MSO Regional Touring Creative Victoria, Freemasons Foundation Victoria, Robert Salzer Foundation, Sir Andrew & Lady Fairley Foundation, The Ray & Joyce Uebergang Foundation The Pizzicato Effect Flora & Frank Leith Charitable Trust, The Marian and E.H. Flack Trust, Scobie and Claire Mackinnon Trust, Jenny Anderson, Australian Decorative And Fine Arts Society, Barbara Bell in memory of Elsa Bell, Janet H Bell, Richard and Janet Chauvel, Caroline Davies, Alex and Liz Furman, Robert and Janet Green, Jean Hadges, Hilary Hall in memory of Wilma Collie, Rosemary Jacoby in memory of James Jacoby, Jenkins Family Foundation, Jeanette King, Christopher and Anna Long, H E McKenzie, Shirley McKenzie, Marjorie McPherson, Kerryn Pratchett, Opalgate Foundation, Joanne Soso, Margaret Ross AM and Dr Ian Ross, Jenny Tatchell, Anonymous Sidney Myer Free Concerts Supported by the Sidney Myer MSO Trust Fund and the University of Melbourne

East meets West The Li Family Trust

PLATINUM PATRONS $100,000+

Meet the Orchestra The Ullmer Family Foundation

Marc Besen AC and Eva Besen AO

Melbourne Music Summit Erica Foundation Pty Ltd

The Gross Foundation

MSO Live Online Crown Resorts Foundation, Packer Family Foundation 40

MSO Capacity Building Di Jameson (Senior Manager, Philanthropy and External Affairs), The Alison Puzey Charitable Fund as part of Equity Trustees Sector Capacity Building Fund supporting Musicians’ iPADs

John Gandel AC and Pauline Gandel AC Di Jameson David Li AM and Angela Li The Pratt Foundation

Anonymous (1)

PRINCIPAL PATRONS $5,000+ Adrienne Basser

VIRTUOSO PATRONS $50,000+

Barbara Bell, in memory of Elsa Bell

Annette Maluish

Stephen and Caroline Brain

Harold Mitchell AC Elizabeth Proust AO and Brian Lawrence

IMPRESARIO PATRONS $20,000+

Dr Kaye Birks and the late David Birks Lynne Burgess Dr Shirley Chu John and Lyn Coppock Mary Davidson and Frederick Davidson AM

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Jaan Enden

The Hogan Family Foundation

Bill Fleming

Margaret Jackson AC

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David Krasnostein AM and Pat Stragalinos

Susan Fry and Don Fry AO

Mimie MacLaren

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Geelong Friends of the MSO

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R Goldberg and Family

Anonymous (1)

Leon Goldman

MAESTRO PATRONS $10,000+

Colin Golvan AM QC and Dr Deborah Golvan

Christine and Mark Armour Margaret Billson and the late Ted Billson Krystyna Campbell-Pretty AM Ann Darby, in memory of Leslie J. Darby Danny Gorog and Lindy Susskind Robert and Jan Green Nereda Hanlon and Michael Hanlon AM Peter Hunt AM and Tania de Jong AM Rosemary Jacoby in memory of James Jacoby Paul Noonan Opalgate Foundation Ian and Jeannie Paterson Dr Trong Pham and Graeme Campbell Glenn Sedgwick and Dr Anita Willaton Beth Senn Gai and David Taylor Harry and Michelle Wong Anonymous (3)

Supporters

The Ullmer Family Foundation

Jennifer Gorog HMA Foundation Louis Hamon OAM Geoff Hayes Hans and Petra Henkell Hartmut and Ruth Hofmann Doug Hooley Dr Alastair Jackson AM Suzanne Kirkham Man Kit Yu Dr Jerry Koliha and Marlene Krelle Dr Elizabeth A Lewis AM Norman Lewis, in memory of Dr Phyllis Lewis Dr Caroline Liow Peter Lovell Douglas and Rosemary Meagher Frank Mercurio Marie Morton FRSA Anne Neil Dr Paul Nisselle AM The Rosemary Norman Foundation Norwest

41

Supporters

Ken Ong, in memory of Lin Ong

Dina and Ron Goldschlager

Bruce Parncutt AO

Louise Gourlay OAM

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Susan and Gary Hearst

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Jenkins Family Foundation

Jeffrey Sher QC and Diana Sher OAM

John Jones

Helen Silver AO and Harrison Young

Andrew Johnston

Brian Snape AM and the late Diana Snape

Irene Kearsey and Michael Ridley

Lady Marigold Southey AC

Merv Keehn and Sue Harlow

Tasco Petroleum

The Ilma Kelson Music Foundation

The Hon Michael Watt QC and Cecilie Hall

Jeanette King

Dr Rhyl Wade and Dr Clem Gruen

Julie Lamont

Liping Wang

Bryan Lawrence

Lyn Williams AM

Jane Leitinger

Sophia Yong-Tang

Andrew Lockwood

Anonymous (5)

Shane Mackinlay

ASSOCIATE PATRONS $2,500+ Mary Armour Marlyn Bancroft and Peter Bancroft OAM Dandolo Partners Will and Dorothy Bailey Bequest Anne Bowden Bill Bowness AO Julia and Jim Breen Patricia Brockman Dr John Brookes Elizabeth Brown Roger and Coll Buckle Jill and Christopher Buckley Oliver Carton Richard and Janet Chauvel David Chu Breen Creighton Natasha Davies, for the Trikojus Education Fund Sandra Dent Peter and Leila Doyle Lisa Dwyer and Dr Ian Dickson AM Dr Helen M Ferguson Bill Fleming Elizabeth Foster Barry Fradkin OAM and Dr Pam Fradkin 42

Alex and Liz Furman

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Gregory L Crew

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Wolf and Asya Deane

Anna Xi

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Lu Xing

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Anonymous (5)

Elizabeth Foster

PLAYER PATRONS $1,000+ David and Cindy Abbey Dr Sally Adams Applebay Pty Ltd Australian Decorative and Fine Arts Society Geoffrey and Vivienne Baker Robbie Barker Adrienne Basser Janice Bate and the late Prof Weston Bate Elizabeth Beischer Janet H Bell Gilbert and Dawn Best David Blackwell OAM John and Sally Bourne Robbie Boyes Geoff Brentnall Elida Brereton Professor Ian Brighthope Nigel Broughton and Dr Sheena Broughton Elizabeth Brown Olivia H Brown Stuart Brown Suzie Brown OAM and Harvey Brown Shane Buggle Ronald and Kate Burnstein Dr Lynda Campbell Pamela Carder John Carroll Robert B Coles Dr Sheryl Coughlin and Paul Coughlin Breen Creighton

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Clayton and Christina Thomas

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Sparky Foundation

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Timothy O’Connell

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Anonymous (25)

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OVERTURE PATRONS $500+* Katy and Nigel Adams Ellen Allery and Joan Stephens Anita and Graham Anderson Dr Judith Armstrong and Robyn Dalziel Emanuel J Augustes John Avery Elvala Ayton & Maxine Wain Margaret Bainbridge Richard and Jan Baird Liz and Charles Baré Gisela Barrett Maria Bascombe Nina Bate Heather and David Baxter Professor David Beanland AO Judy Becher Koert Beekes Susi Bella Dr William Birch AM Neville Blythman Jennifer Bowen Bill Bowness AO Mrs Errol Broome John Brownbill Gordon Bunyan Bill and Sandra Burdett Rick Burrows Dr Judy Bush John Butcher Anita and Norman Bye Elise Callander

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Jeffrey and Shirley Zajac

Jennifer Carty Ian and Wilma Chapman Dreda Charters-Wood Barbara Cheevers Dr Deanne Chiu Peter Clavin Helen Connelly Geoffrey Constable Carol Coyle Michael Cramphorn Calvin Crisp Rosemary Cromby Bernard Daffey Elaine Davidoff Alan Day Roger Deayton Dr Tim Denton Carol des Cognets The Dougall and Morey families Mike and Nina Dow William Dubksy Michael Dunne David and Dr Elizabeth Ebert Cynthia Edgell Jane Edmanson OAM Virginia Ellis Rosanne Ennis Jennifer Errey Robert Evans Douglas L Farch Jillian Fearon David and Catriona Ferguson

* The MSO has introduced a new tier to its annual Patron Program in recognition of the donors who supported the Orchestra during 2020, many for the first time.

Moving forward, donors who make an annual gift of $500–$999 to the MSO will now be publicly recognised as an Overture Patron. For more information, please contact Donor Liaison, Keith Clancy on (03) 8646 1109 or clancyk@mso.com.au 45

Supporters 46

Alisa Fiddes

Dr Anthony Klemm

Janette Fly

Michael Koswig

Elizabeth Fraser

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Viji and Margaret Krishnapillai

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Barbara Kuriata

Justin Gan

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Prue Gill

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Amer Makhoul

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Richard Gubbins

Julie E McConville

Jing Guo

and Neil McEwen

Dawn Hales

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Shirley A McKenzie

R J Harden

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Rev Kenneth Hewlett

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Paul Higham

Richard McQueen

Margaret R Hook

Noreen C Megay

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F Louise Jamson

Helen Midgley

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Helen Miles

Basil and Rita Jenkins

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Ann Moore

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Francis P Newman

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Colin Squires

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Jillian Pappas

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Phil Parker

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Anthony Summers

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Ricci Swart

Sandra Price and Judy Hillman

Helen M Symons

Hendrik Prins

Brett Thomas

Kerryn Pryde

Luanne Thornton

Professor Charles Qin and Kate Ritchie

Tam Vu and Dr Cherilyn Tillman

Christine Rainford

Michael Tomkins

Marilyn Richards

Alan and Glenda Trethewey

Phillip M Richards

Noel and Jenny Turnbull

Joy and David Ritchie

Dr Elsa Underhill and Professor Malcolm Rimmer

Lawrence and Anne Robinson Marion Robertson and Linton Edwards Thea Roche Alister Rowe Margaret and Roger Rush Anne Russell Dr Emily and Kevin Russo Judy Ryan Michael Ryan and Wendy Mead Robyn and Bruce Ryan Justin-Paul Sammons Grant Samphier Dr John C Sampson Ken Sandars Bev Sanders Frances Scholtz

Supporters

Michael Noble

Dr Chris van Rompaey Gabrielle Vertessy Jillian Waddell Dr Adrian and Catherine Wallis Wendy and Robert Warren Amanda Watson Margaret Watters Angela Westacott Ken Whitney Agnes Wong Joyce Woodroffe Professor Barbara Workman Lorna Wyatt Harold Zwier Anonymous (23)

Dr Peter Seligman Paul Selmo David Sherwood Sally Shuter Dr Frank and Valerie Silberberg Paul and Margarita Schneider Dr Max and Annette Simmons Libby Skilling John E Smith

47

Supporters

CONDUCTOR’S CIRCLE Jenny Anderson David Angelovich G C Bawden and L de Kievit Lesley Bawden Joyce Bown Jenny Brukner and the late Mr John Brukner Ken Bullen Peter A Caldwell Luci and Ron Chambers Beryl Dean Sandra Dent Alan Egan JP Gunta Eglite Mr Derek Grantham Marguerite Garnon-Williams Dr Rhyl Wade and Dr Clem Gruen Louis Hamon OAM Carol Hay Graham Hogarth Rod Home Tony Howe Laurence O’Keefe and Christopher James Audrey M Jenkins John Jones George and Grace Kass Bruce and Natalie Kellett Sylvia Lavelle Pauline and David Lawton Cameron Mowat David Orr Matthew O’Sullivan Rosia Pasteur Penny Rawlins Joan P Robinson Neil Roussac and Anne Roussac-Hoyne Suzette Sherazee Michael Ryan and Wendy Mead Anne Kieni-Serpell and Andrew Serpell Jennifer Shepherd Prof Gabriela Stephenson and Prof George Stephenson

48

Pamela Swansson

Lillian Tarry Tam Vu and Dr Cherilyn Tillman Mr and Mrs R P Trebilcock Michael Ullmer AO The Hon Rosemary Varty Marian Wills Cooke and Terry Wills Cooke OAM Mark Young Anonymous (29) The MSO gratefully acknowledges the support of the following Estates: Norma Ruth Atwell Angela Beagley Christine Mary Bridgart The Cuming Bequest Margaret Davies Neilma Gantner The Hon Dr Alan Goldberg AO QC Enid Florence Hookey Gwen Hunt Family and Friends of James Jacoby Audrey Jenkins Joan Jones Pauline Marie Johnston C P Kemp Peter Forbes MacLaren Joan Winsome Maslen Lorraine Maxine Meldrum Prof Andrew McCredie Jean Moore Miss Sheila Scotter AM MBE Marion A I H M Spence Molly Stephens Halinka Tarczynska-Fiddian Jennifer May Teague Albert Henry Ullin Jean Tweedie Herta and Fred B Vogel Dorothy Wood

MSO BOARD

Li Family Trust

Chairman Michael Ullmer AO Deputy Chairman David Li AM Managing Director Sophie Galaise 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 Company Secretary Oliver Carton

Biostime Swisse Xiaojian Ren & Qian Li Wanghua Chu and Dr Shirley Chu LRR Family Trust David and Dominique Yu

HONORARY APPOINTMENTS 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 Jeanne Pratt AC Artistic Ambassadors Tan Dun

Supporters

EAST MEETS WEST

Lu Siqing MSO Ambassador Geoffrey Rush AC The MSO honours the memory of Life Members John Brockman OAM The Honourable Alan Goldberg AO QC Roger Riordan AM Ila Vanrenen

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

49

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