2 012 S E A S O N

Wed 6 June 8pmFri 8 June 8pmSat 9 June 8pm

Majestic BrahmsBrahms and Shostakovich

Ausgrid Master Series

Welcome to tonight’s concert at the Sydney Opera House – a concert that reveals how powerful orchestral music can be.

Performing with the Sydney Symphony this evening are two artists who are both making return visits to this stage: conductor Oleg Caetani and pianist Philippe Bianconi. The program they have prepared for us begins with an impressive and Olympian piano concerto by Johannes Brahms and ends with a deeply emotional symphony by Dmitri Shostakovich. With this pairing we are able to experience the majesty and warmth of the German romantic style – the heart of the symphony orchestra tradition – and music by one of the great symphonists of the 20th century, a composer whose music was a mirror to the troubling world in which he lived and worked.

The contrasts in style and emotion will be dramatic. Not only does this promise to be a powerful concert but a profoundly moving one.

The Ausgrid network includes the poles, wires and substations that deliver electricity to more than 1.6 million homes and businesses in New South Wales. Ausgrid is transforming the traditional electricity network into a grid that is smarter, more reliable and more interactive – something we are very proud of.

We’re also extremely proud of our partnership with the Sydney Symphony and our support of the orchestra’s flagship Master Series. We are supporting the orchestra as a Community Partner, with the goal of bringing great music and exciting performances to an even wider audience.

We trust that you will enjoy tonight’s performance and we look forward to seeing you again at Ausgrid Master Series concerts throughout the season.

WELCOME TO THE AUSGRID MASTER SERIES

GEORGE MALTABAROW Managing Director

Wednesday night’s performance will be broadcast live across Australia on ABC Classic FM.

Pre-concert talk by Oleg Caetani at 7.15pm in the Northern Foyer.

Estimated durations: 48 minutes, 20-minute interval, 32 minutesThe concert will conclude at approximately 9.50pm.

Brahms and ShostakovichOleg Caetani CONDUCTOR

Philippe Bianconi PIANO

Johannes Brahms (1833–1897)Piano Concerto No.2 in B fl at, Op.83Allegro non troppoAllegro appassionatoAndanteAllegretto grazioso – Un poco più presto

INTERVAL

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906–1975)Symphony No.6 in B minor, Op.54LargoAllegroPresto

2012 season

ausgrid master seriesWednesday 6 June | 8pmFriday 8 June | 8pmSaturday 9 June | 8pm

Sydney Opera House Concert Hall

PRESENTING PARTNER

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INTRODUCTION

Brahms and ShostakovichJohannes Brahms and Dmitri Shostakovich occupied vastly diff erent worlds: they lived in diff erent centuries, in diff erent cultures and under diff erent political conditions. Their music can’t help but refl ect this, and – as with our recent combination of Poulenc’s Gloria and Mozart’s Requiem – any program that brings them together becomes an exercise in musical contrast. What they share is symphonic ambition and the power of musical expression.

Often when Brahms’s Second Piano Concerto is programmed it’s placed after interval, in the spot normally occupied by the symphony. And if it weren’t for the piano at the front of the stage, you’d be forgiven for thinking that it was a symphony: it’s long (the best part of 50 minutes), it’s in four movements rather than the usual three, and it’s magnifi cent in character. The solo part is one of the most challenging in the piano repertoire – ‘Olympian’ sums it up perfectly.

Tonight, Brahms’s powerful and brilliant concerto is played in the fi rst half. Shostakovich’s Sixth Symphony has such a range of emotion and its musical message is so unusual that it begs to sit last. In many ways it invites contemplation.

Shostakovich’s motivation was lyrical: he said he wanted to ‘communicate the moods of spring, of joy and youthfulness’. But the symphony’s expressive range is much wider than those words might suggest, and it’s the source of its unusual structure. Just as Brahms gives us a concerto in the four movements of a symphony, so Shostakovich gives us a symphony in the three movements of a concerto. He sidesteps convention even further by beginning slowly with mournful, almost hypnotic music, and gradually increasing the tempo through a playful but weird second movement, and on to a brilliant, almost intoxicating fi nale. In the Sixth Symphony, Shostakovich brings together vastly diff erent and ‘apparently irreconcilable’ aspects of existence, and the result, says one Shostakovich scholar, is ‘the revelation of an inexplicable inner unity’.

Perhaps in this concert, too, we can experience a revelation in hearing these two completely diff erent but powerful musical creations in juxtaposition.

Historical Timeline

We are developing an interactive historical timeline, presenting images, documents, audio and video from our past and into the future. It will feature landmark Sydney Symphony events and performances and some of the personalities associated with the orchestra.

The timeline will be launched with our new website later this year, and you can play a part in building it into into a rich and valuable resource. If you know of any events, images or stories that belong in the timeline visit sydneysymphony.com/80years/timeline_contributi ons

BOOK NOW! Tickets available from $35*

SYDNEYSYMPHONY.COM or call 8215 4600 Mon-Fri 9am-5pm

Tickets also available at sydneyoperahouse.com 9250 7777 Mon-Sat 9am-8.30pm | Sun 10am-6pm

*Booking fees of $7.50 – $8.95 may apply

DAVID ROBERTSONYour chance to witness him in action. The Sydney Symphony’s Chief Conductor and Artistic Director designate conducts two great programs in 2012.

KALKADUNGUDIDJERIDU MEETS ORCHESTRAAfter sold-out concerts in 2008, William Barton returns with his didjeridu to play Kalkadungu.

MOZART Symphony No.31 (Paris) MACKEY Stumble to Grace – Piano Concerto AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE

BARTON & HINDSON KalkadunguPROKOFIEV Classical Symphony

David Robertson conductorWilliam Barton didjeridu (pictured right)Orli Shaham pianoMEET THE MUSICPRESENTED BY AUSGRID

27 & 28 Jun 6.30pmPre-concert talk at 5.45pm – Orli Shaham in conversation

TCHAIKOVSKY’S PATHÉTIQUEIMPASSIONED MASTERPIECEVAUGHAN WILLIAMS Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas TallisADÈS Violin Concerto – Concentric PathsTCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No.6, Pathétique

David Robertson conductorAnthony Marwood violin (right)AUSGRID MASTER SERIES

4, 6 & 7 Jul 8pmPre-concert talk by David Robertson at 7.15pm

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ABOUT THE MUSIC

Keynotes

BRAHMSBorn Hamburg, 1833Died Vienna, 1897

In 1858, aged 25, Brahms admitted that his first full-scale orchestral work, the First Piano Concerto, was ‘a brilliant and decisive failure!’ The audience hissed him, and reviewers panned it as a ‘monstrosity’, ‘grotesque’. Wisely keeping his head down, and immersing himself mostly in piano and chamber music and songs, Brahms effectively avoided symphony orchestras for two decades. Then, in his mid forties, he staged a spectacular second bid for orchestral acclaim, introducing his first two symphonies (1876 and 77), his Violin Concerto (1879), and his Academic Festival Overture (1881).

PIANO CONCERTO NO.2

When the Second Piano Concerto appeared in 1881, it was instantly recognised as the most substantial and adventurous work of its kind since Beethoven. Moreover, Brahms – though considered by many to be a traditionalist conservative – decisively broke with convention. Had he wanted merely to emulate Beethoven, his new concerto would have consisted of just the first, third and final movements. But, thinking out of the box, Brahms went on to insert a symphony-like scherzo in second position. ‘Hey presto’, as one of his smart-aleck friends put it, ‘a symphony, with piano accompaniment!’

Johannes BrahmsPiano Concerto No.2 in B flat, Op.83Allegro non troppoAllegro appassionatoAndanteAllegretto grazioso – Un poco più presto

Philippe Bianconi piano

Brahms wrote the bulk of his Second Piano Concerto while on holiday in Italy in 1878 and then completed it during and shortly after another such visit to Italy in 1881. While there is nothing essentially ‘Italian’ or even festive about this most monumental and generously-dimensioned of piano concertos, there is no doubt that when Brahms returned to Vienna with the completed score, he was still very much in his holiday humour. To Elisabet von Herzogenberg he described it with deliberately wild inaccuracy as ‘a little piano concerto with a teeny-weeny wisp of a scherzo’. To his long-time supporter Theodor Billroth he announced the completion of ‘a few small piano pieces’. But to the public at large he presented the work as it truly was: an immense, quasi-symphonic, four-movement concerto fi lled with massive chords and wide stretches in the piano part (Brahms was famous for the size of his own hands) and an orchestration fi lled with richness and variety.

The contrasts between this Second Concerto and the First Piano Concerto written 20 years earlier could not be stronger. The earlier work was in a minor key while this one is major. The fi rst began with a lengthy orchestral ritornello before the soloist entered, whereas here the soloist begins in the second bar. The fi rst was impassioned and youthful, while this one tends more toward refl ection, nostalgia and lyricism. Additionally, the First Concerto had been a resounding failure at its premiere in Leipzig, prompting Brahms to note that ‘a second will sound quite diff erent.’ Twenty years later, and at the height of his creative powers, he proved the point. But the two very diff erent Brahms piano concertos are nevertheless united by their ‘symphonic’ conception and the undeniable mastery of their piano writing and orchestration, not to mention the sheer force of their musical impact.

Given the comparative lack of success of the First Concerto, Brahms might have felt some trepidation in writing a second. But by the time he turned his attention to the second he had fi nally conquered the two major instrumental forms which had always given him the most trouble: the string quartet and the symphony. Now, with the magnifi cent Violin Concerto and the German Requiem also

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Brahms – a pianist with symphonic instincts. The composer and critic Robert Schumann once described his piano sonatas as ‘veiled symphonies’.

behind him, it was time to revisit the piano concerto form with newfound confi dence and a proven virtuoso compositional technique. Indeed the Second Concerto seems to employ the style of these other forms from time to time. The four-movement form, without a concerto’s usual cadenzas, is clearly symphonic, as is much of the ‘blending’ of the soloist with the orchestra, Meanwhile the scherzo second movement is actually based on a movement intended originally for the Violin Concerto. Other instrumental textures sometimes have a chamber music feel to them, with ideas tossed back and forth in an intimate manner between soloist and orchestra.

The Second Concerto was written at the time when Brahms was forming an association with Hans von Bülow, who conducted the Meiningen Court Orchestra. Brahms had a standing invitation to rehearse his music and perform as soloist with the orchestra. But before approaching Bülow with the new score, Brahms put it

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‘a little piano concerto with a teeny-weeny wisp of a scherzo’BRAHMS

through its paces in the usual way. First he played it for Clara Schumann in Frankfurt. Then he and Ignaz Brüll performed ‘the long terror’ (his nickname for the concerto) for ‘the victims’ (Brahms-speak for private audience, Billroth and critic Eduard Hanslick). When it passed muster (Hanslick called it ‘a symphony with piano obbligato’), it was let loose on Bülow who, doubting his orchestra’s ability to do it justice, warned Brahms to ‘pack all his goodwill and patience in his trunk’ and come to Meiningen to rehearse it.

The expansive and stirring fi rst movement begins romantically with a horn call reminiscent of that in Weber’s Oberon Overture. The piano enters immediately, embroidering the melody almost before it has begun and soon indulging in the closest thing to a cadenza to be found in the concerto. From here an orchestral tutti introduces the main thematic material. Rather than restating these main themes (as so often in Brahms, there is a multitude of main ideas), the piano enters into a free, organically developing dialogue with the orchestra, often becoming impassioned and occasionally visiting distant keys like B minor. There is a particularly elaborate preparation for the recapitulation with one of the main themes being played by the orchestra while the piano weaves a series of arpeggio fi gures around it: one of the more majestic moments in a memorable opening movement.

As self-deprecating as ever, Brahms described the dramatic fi rst movement as ‘innocuous’, which is why, he said, he took the bold step of inserting the fi ery, scherzo-like Allegro appassionato as second of four movements. Here the drama is increased still further in D minor (in fact, the only movement of the four not in the home key of B fl at, a key Brahms called ‘an udder which has always given good milk before’). The central section is in D major, featuring sotto voce octaves in the piano, and in typical Brahmsian fashion it serves more as a development section than a simple contrasting episode. The return of the main theme again varies rather than repeats all that has gone before.

The tonic B fl at is re-established at the beginning of the slow movement, when a solo cello introduces one of Brahms’ most sublime melodies. The soloist enters in an improvisatory style, leading into a passionate middle section where tremolo fi gures on the strings accompany virtuoso trills and fanfares on the piano. Towards the recapitulation, the key of F sharp is established as the melody takes wide leaps, before the original key returns and the cello and piano lead the movement into a fi nal duet. Throughout this Andante, the textures are intimate, almost like chamber music, and the soloist and orchestra

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participate as equal partners in one of Brahms’ most glorious slow movements.

The mood lightens in the fi nal movement, where the spirit of Mozart is invoked. As usual, there is more thematic material in this single movement than is contained in most complete symphonies. At the opening, the tripping Hungarian-style tune sets the prevailing mood, then in quick succession new ideas emerge: a more restrained melody on woodwinds and then strings, a stately theme for piano followed by clarinets, and a cheeky one for piano with plucked strings. There are no trumpets and drums in this movement, and the soloist is left to shine through some extraordinarily diffi cult and surprisingly elaborate passages, even, at the transition to the coda in a section marked Un poco più presto, pre-empting the kind of metrical modulation which was to become synonymous with much avant-garde 20th-century music. But nothing can hold back the sway of the gypsy dance rhythms and the music drives on to its emphatic conclusion.

MARTIN BUZACOTTSYMPHONY AUSTRALIA © 2001

The concerto calls for an orchestra of two flutes (one doubling piccolo), pairs of oboes, clarinets and bassoons; four horns and two trumpets; timpani and strings.

The Sydney Symphony first performed this concerto on 26 July 1939 with conductor Georg Szell and pianist Artur Schnabel. The orchestra’s most recent performances were in 2006, with pianist Gerhard Oppitz and Gianluigi Gelmetti conducting.

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Keynotes

SHOSTAKOVICHBorn St Petersburg, 1906Died Moscow, 1975

By the time he completed studies at Leningrad Conservatory in the mid-1920s, ‘Mitya’ Shostakovich’s colleagues were already characterising him as determined and difficult. While he composed his graduation test piece, he supported himself by playing piano for silent films at the Piccadilly Cinema. Tubercular and nervy, like other Russians often not eating properly, belligerent toward his unsympathetic college authorities, and subjected to the jealousy of fellow students, he developed a touchy and demanding musical persona, increasingly reflected in sardonic and provocative scores that both he and his critics dubbed ‘grotesque’.

SIXTH SYMPHONY

Coming two years after his great patriotic and much-lauded Fifth Symphony, this curious successor was premiered by the Leningrad Philharmonic in 1939. Having secured a non-aggression pact with Hitler, Stalin had begun the month by invading eastern Poland, and would end it by launching the so-called Winter War in Finland. In his first patriotic wartime symphony, so Shostakovich claimed: ‘music of a contemplative and lyrical order…predominates. I wanted to convey in it the moods of spring, joy, youth.’ But, as the symphony begins, any hope of spring is a very long way off.

That slow beginning (Largo) is followed by two increasingly faster movements, ending with a fast-as-possible Presto.

Dmitri ShostakovichSymphony No.6 in B minor, Op.54LargoAllegroPresto

Like Beethoven’s Fourth, Shostakovich’s Sixth Symphony is fl anked by more famous siblings. Consequently, both works are often undervalued. Neither appears, at face value, to carry the same extra-musical freight as those either side – no response to just criticism, no funeral march for a hero, no apocalyptic triumph of light over darkness.

Having run foul of Stalin over his opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, Shostakovich produced the Fifth Symphony in 1937. While he himself may not have tagged it a ‘response to just criticism’, it won him his rehabilitation. His return to favour, however, needs to be viewed in a broader context. In 1934 Stalin had unleashed the fi ve-year ‘Great Terror’. Like all of the intelligentsia, Shostakovich saw friends and colleagues disappear; and he must have known of the vigil kept outside the Leningrad prison by women such as Anna Akhmatova. There are stories that for a time he, like many, kept a packed suitcase ready in the hall so as not to disturb his family should he be taken away. ‘Rehabilitated’ was still a most fragile state.

The eff ect of the purges was to rob the USSR of millions of its citizens, especially leading intellects in most fi elds, so that by the end of the 1930s the country’s infrastructure was almost fatally weakened. The non-aggression pact between the USSR and Nazi Germany bought a little time for Stalin, and as Ian McDonald has noted, ‘the public sphere continued to resound with optimistic propaganda – a contrast perhaps encoded in Shostakovich’s Sixth Symphony’.

Begun in April 1938, the symphony certainly pays lip service to some of the central tenets of Socialist Realism – eventually. It ends, for instance, in a riot of high-spirited major tonality that is both absurd and genuinely thrilling. The movement which precedes it is likewise full of a wild energy which never fl ags and which moves with eff ortless liquidity through the whole orchestral palette. But each of these two movements lasts around six minutes; the slow movement with which the piece begins lasts for eighteen.

Structurally, the opening movement does the work of two movements in a Classical (or neo-classical) design: it develops a musical argument on a large scale, but also explores the tragic regions frequently visited by the standard internal slow movement. The drama of the movement overall might be described as one of disappearance. It begins with a long

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and beautifully articulated melody given by the same mellow combination of low winds and strings in unison which is such a feature of Wagner’s Parsifal. The fi rst chord struck in the piece is a false dawn in C major, but it isn’t long before the gears clash and the harmony is wrenched away to form a new theme, characterised by three short notes plunging to a sardonic trill in the woodwind and strings.

In an act of purely artistic courage, Shostakovich concentrates his use of the full orchestra in the fi rst part of this fi rst movement. These occasions are usually moments of great passion or anguish, as, for instance, where a brief passage of serenity is swept away by more of those sardonic trills, now distributed throughout the orchestra at full volume. Increasingly, and in a sense more chillingly, the focus of the music moves to smaller ensembles within the band. Shostakovich’s career as a composer of chamber music dates from this time with his First String Quartet and the Piano Quintet, but the chamber-like textures in the symphony are often derived from oddly collected groups. Piccolo and harp join one rank of violins. The cor anglais, which turns the fi rst theme into something reminiscent of the shepherd’s bleak melody in Wagner’s opera Tristan and Isolde, is heard in counterpoint with violas and cellos, while timpani tread softly in the background. Two fl utes create something like the ‘bird of death’ solo from Mahler’s Second Symphony over an immobile texture of string trills. And a

There are stories that Shostakovich kept a packed suitcase ready in the hall so as not to disturb his family should he be taken away.

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horn, seemingly unable to play more than one note, is fi nally frozen in a chain of trills from the celesta before the strings return with a now exhausted version of the opening material.

It is almost too easy to see a musical analogue for the contemporary events in this movement, especially in its progressive dismantling of the orchestra into smaller and more fragile alliances, where individual voices are more and more exposed. Discussing the works of this period in an interview, Vladimir Ashkenazy said:

I don’t fi nd self-pity in Shostakovich. Although it is his torture, it becomes sublimated, totally transcended…Along with his grotesque satire and disdain for the trivia around him, this is the strongest point of his greatest output. It is the tragedy and the darkness of the life of an individual within totalitarian oppression.

The remaining two movements have their share of grotesque satire, and like the fi rst they dramatically balance episodes of overwhelming orchestral sound against chamber music textures and extended solos for instruments such as the piccolo, the xylophone and the E fl at clarinet which begins the second movement. The pace is breathtaking, moving from passages of Mendelssohnian lightness to the brutal grind of the full orchestra in unison; from acrobatic melodies to breathless three-note motifs.

Finally, the third movement gallops along with a short Rossini-like melody, constantly changing key and register to avoid capture. The empire strikes back, of course. In an elephantine waltz section the music moves imperceptibly from the satirical to the sinister; in big, brassy marches tinged with a slightly corny dance-band harmony, all hell threatens to break loose. Shostakovich once claimed the work was about ‘spring, joy and life’, but in its own way it echoes the words of Anna Akhmatova’s Requiem:

I stand as witness to the common lot,survivor of that time, that place.

GORDON KERRY © 2001

Shostakovich’s Sixth Symphony calls for three flutes (one doubling piccolo), three oboes (one doubling cor anglais), four clarinets (one doubling E flat clarinet, another doubling bass clarinet) and three bassoons (one doubling contrabassoon); four horns, three trumpets, three trombones and tuba; timpani and percussion (snare drum, bass drum, cymbals, triangle, tambourine, tam-tam, xylophone); harp, celesta and strings.

The symphony was first performed by the Leningrad Philharmonic and Yevgeny Mravinsky on 21 November 1939. The Sydney Symphony gave the Australian premiere 27 March 1952 under its then chief conductor Eugene Goossens. The orchestra’s most recent performances took place in 2002, Mark Elder conducting.

I stand as witness to the common lot, survivor of that time, that place.

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INTERLUDE

Shostakovich: Witness to a CenturyBy Gordon Kerry

1905 began in St Petersburg with a massive strike of over 100,000 workers. The government reacted with a number of repressive measures, among them banning the right to organised marches. When the workers in turn responded by organising a march, led by an Orthodox priest, to petition the Tsar directly; many were gunned down in the snow in front of the Winter Palace. The populace was outraged, strikes spread across the country, and fi nally the Tsar was forced to accept the institution of a constitutional monarchy with elected parliament. The experiment failed – but slowly. Economic reforms were not followed through, and with Russia’s entry into the First World War the privations of the populace grew ever more extreme. In 1917 the Bolsheviks, led by Lenin, successfully fomented a second revolution. The fi rst Soviet state was founded, the Tsar and his family executed.

Born in St Petersburg a year after the events of 1905, Shostakovich was an adolescent at the time of the 1917 revolution. In 1928, the 21-year-old’s First Symphony was premiered in his home town, by then renamed Leningrad. Its introduction in the West by conductor Bruno Walter assured Shostakovich of world celebrity, but was also an announcement of the optimistic, outward-looking Russia of the immediate post-Revolutionary period. That Shostakovich was broadly in sympathy with the ideals of early revolutionary Russia is suggested by his Second and Third Symphonies, subtitled respectively ‘To October’ (referring to the 1917 October Revolution) and ‘The First of May’ (the day Lenin set aside to celebrate workers’ rights).

The political backdrop to Shostakovich’s early career was the power struggle between Trotsky and Stalin that began with the death of Lenin in 1922. By the early 1930s, Stalin’s ascendancy was complete, and in 1934 the purges – or Great Terror – began. In two particularly bloody years, Yezhov, chief of the NKVD (later the KGB) oversaw the imprisonment and murder of Stalin’s principal remaining Party rivals as well as leading scientists, writers and musicians.

Despite having enjoyed during these same troubled years a spectacularly successful two-year run, Shostakovich’s opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk was attacked in the pages of Pravda in 1936 as ‘chaos instead of music’ and the composer was warned ‘this could all end very badly’. Shostakovich, or the orchestral management in Leningrad, immediately withdrew his demanding Fourth Symphony, a powerfully disturbing behemoth of dissonance and irony. The composer,

Shostakovich’s opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk was attacked in the pages of Pravda as ‘chaos instead of music’

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like many of his generation, slept for a time in the hallway of his apartment so that his seemingly inevitable arrest wouldn’t traumatise his young family.

Then in his Fifth Symphony Shostakovich produced just what the Party ordered – though he claimed it was a journalist who gave it the subtitle ‘an artist’s response to just criticism’. The work was a huge success: people wept openly in the slow movement and stood cheering before the fi nale had concluded.

But there were further reversals of fortune: in 1948 Shostakovich was denounced a second time, despite having been awarded the Stalin Prize in 1940, and the Order of Lenin in 1946. His Ninth Symphony displeased Stalin in its refusal to use Beethoven’s Ninth as a model to glorify the Soviet victory over the Nazis. By the late fi fties, with Stalin dead, Shostakovich was back in favour, even presiding over the Union of Soviet Composers from 1960. He became a member of the Communist Party the same year, ironically, as Richard Taruskin points out, when the dissident movement was fi nally emerging. His last works routinely explore notions of mortality.

The nature of Shostakovich’s relations with the Soviet state is a vexed question. In 1979, four years after Shostakovich’s death, Testimony: Memoirs of Dmitri Shostakovich as related to and edited by Solomon Volkov, appeared in English, in which

A sketch by Nikolai Sokolov of Shostakovich playing cards.

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the composer is presented as a secret dissident, encoding specifi c messages of protest against Stalin’s regime in his music. Testimony remains, even 30 years later, a nub of fi erce controversy at least among English-language writers. Richard Taruskin and Laurel Fay (author of Shostakovich: A Life) regard it as a complete fraud, noting that Volkov has declined to publish the ‘original’ Russian version. Whereas journalist Norman Lebrecht and the late Ian MacDonald (author of The New Shostakovich) regard Testimony as completely reliable. MacDonald even marshalled a number of people who claim to have seen pages of the Russian original endorsed by Shostakovich’s signature.

The aging composer may well have tacitly approved a version of his life which was largely ‘massaged’ but would refl ect well on him. But some things just don’t add up. Why, if the composer really had been a dissident, did he not show the same courage as, say, Alexander Solzhenitsyn? Why did he fi nally join the Communist Party at the very time that some measure of liberalism was being introduced? Why (though this is disputed by the pro-Testimony lobby) did he sign the denunciation of Andrei Zakharov in 1973? The reality, as Alex Ross has suggested, may be that Shostakovich was ‘a man who strived at all costs to create conditions in which he could work in peace’.

And work he did, not only for the concert stage, but for fi lm and theatre and, in the aftermath of the success of the Fifth Symphony, on chamber music. Many of his 15 string quartets are obviously personal and disturbing. The intimate medium provided him with a small scale laboratory in which he could experiment, away from public and offi cial scrutiny, on his musical technique and emotional armoury. Whether or not Shostakovich’s behaviour in the face of a brutal and irrational regime was less than heroic, his musical output contains some of the greatest works of the 20th century.

GORDON KERRY © 2006

‘a man who strived at all costs to create conditions in which he could work in peace’.ALEX ROSS

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MORE MUSIC

BRAHMS AT THE PIANO

Almost unbelievably, there is an 1889 recording made on Edison Wax Cylinder of Brahms himself playing his Hungarian Dance No.1. Despite sounding like a dozen un-tuned transistor radios playing all at once in a hurricane, the master is still just audible enough in a few fl eeting snippets to make it well worth experiencing. Try the various enhanced listening options on Stanford University’s excellent ‘Brahms Sonic Archeology’ webpage: bit.ly/StanfordBrahms

SHOSTAKOVICH SYMPHONIES

Below, of course, we’re going to recommend Maestro Caetani’s Shostakovich symphony cycle. However, there’s something to be said also for going back to the source, and no one was closer to Shostakovich’s Fifth and Sixth Symphonies than the conductor of their premieres, Yevgeny Mravinsky. You can watch him conducting some of the Fifth on Youtube, as ever with his Leningrad Philharmonic. Mravinsky did not premiere the Seventh – Shostakovich’s next wartime symphony – but his historic 1953 recording is truly revelatory.NAXOS CLASSICAL ARCHIVES 9.80687

And every Shostakovich fan should know the dedicated website: dschjournal.com

OLEG CAETANI

Maestro Caetani’s own website www.olegcaetani.com is a good place to begin exploring his recorded repertoire. On the Multimedia page, he even off ers some basic video tips on conducting! His complete set of Shostakovich symphonies, recorded with the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano G. Verdi (and its chorus as required), is on ten discs. If you prefer, the Fifth and Sixth (recorded 2001–02) can be had paired on a single disc.ARTS MUSIC SA-CD 47850-8 (COMPLETE)

ARTS MUSIC SA-CD 47668-2 (5 AND 6)

PHILIPPE BIANCONI

You’ll fi nd several videos of Philippe Bianconi performing in recital on YouTube, including Debussy’s Poissons d’or (Goldfi sh), and the Toccata from Ravel’s Tombeau de Couperin. But if you’d like a permanent souvenir, look for his Debussy solo recital album, featuring Estampes, Masques, L’isle joyeuse and Images.LYRINX CD LYR2274

Broadcast Diary

June

Saturday 16 June, 1pmanne sofie von otter & friends (2011)Anne Sofi e von Otter mezzo-sopranoNicholas Carter conductorBengt Forsberg pianoSvante Henryson celloCanteloube, Henryson, Abba, Gershwin, Milhaud, Weill

Thursday 28 June, 8pm kalkadunguDavid Robertson conductorWilliam Barton didjeriduOrli Shaham pianoMozart, Barton & Hindson, Mackey, Prokofi ev

2MBS-FM 102.5sydney symphony 2012 Tuesday 12 June, 6pm

Musicians, staff and guest artists discuss what’s in store in our forthcoming concerts.

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Webcasts

Selected Sydney Symphony concerts are webcast live on BigPond and Telstra T-box and made available for later viewing On Demand.Coming up next:kalkadungu Thursday 28 June at 6.30pm

Visit: bigpondmusic.com/sydneysymphony

Live webcasts can also be viewed via our mobile app.

Sydney Symphony Live

The Sydney Symphony Live label was founded in 2006 and we’ve since released more than a dozen recordings featuring the orchestra in live concert performances with our titled conductors and leading guest artists, including the Mahler Odyssey cycle, begun in 2010. To purchase, visit sydneysymphony.com/shop

Sydney Symphony Online

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Visit sydneysymphony.com for concert information, podcasts, and to read the program book in the week of the concert.

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MAHLER ODYSSEY ON CDDuring the 2010 and 2011 concert seasons, the Sydney Symphony and Vladimir Ashkenazy set out to perform all the Mahler symphonies, together with some of the song cycles. These concerts were recorded for CD, with nine releases so far and more to come.

Mahler 9 OUT NOW

In March, Mahler’s Ninth, his last completed symphony, was released. SSO 201201

ALSO CURRENTLY AVAILABLE

Mahler 1 & Songs of a WayfarerSSO 201001

Mahler 8 (Symphony of a Thousand)SSO 201002

Mahler 5 SSO 201003

Song of the Earth SSO 201004

Mahler 3 SSO 201101

Mahler 4 SSO 201102

Mahler 6 SSO 201103

Mahler 7 SSO 201104

Glazunov & ShostakovichAlexander Lazarev conducts a thrilling performance of Shostakovich 9 and Glazunov’s Seasons. SSO 2

Strauss & SchubertGianluigi Gelmetti conducts Schubert’s Unfi nished and R Strauss’s Four Last Songs with Ricarda Merbeth. SSO 200803

Sir Charles MackerrasA 2CD set featuring Sir Charles’s fi nal performances with the orchestra, in October 2007. SSO 200705

Brett DeanBrett Dean performs his own viola concerto, conducted by Simone Young, in this all-Dean release. SSO 200702

RavelGelmetti conducts music by one of his favourite composers: Maurice Ravel. Includes Bolero. SSO 200801

Rare Rachmaninoff Rachmaninoff chamber music with Dene Olding, the Goldner Quartet, soprano Joan Rodgers and Vladimir Ashkenazy at the piano. SSO 200901

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ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Oleg Caetani CONDUCTOR

The great teacher Nadia Boulanger discovered Oleg Caetani’s talent and initiated him into music. At Rome’s Conservatory of Santa Cecilia he attended Franco Ferrara’s conducting class, and at 17 made his theatre debut with Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda by Monteverdi. Later, he studied conducting at the Moscow Conservatory with Kirill Kondrashin, and at the St Petersburg Conservatory with Ilya Musin.

He fi rst conducted the acclaimed Staatskapelle Dresden at age 20, and his close relationship with that orchestra now spans three decades. He made his Australian debut in 2001, and his most recent appearance with the Sydney Symphony was in 2010 conducting Bruch, Beethoven and Schoenberg.

Oleg Caetani made his debut at La Scala, Milan in 2001 with Puccini’s Turandot, returning in 2005 for Verdi’s Otello. Recent engagements have included Vaughan Williams’ Sir John In Love (English National Opera), Verdi’s Requiem (Accademia di Santa Cecilia) and Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges (Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Paris), as well as Puccini’s Girl of the Golden West in Seattle and Melbourne, Wagner’s Flying Dutchman in Rome, Poulenc’s La voix humaine coupled with Bluebeard’s Castle (Bartók), and Verdi’s Don Carlos in Cologne.

Shostakovich’s music has a central place in his repertoire. He has conducted Shostakovich all over the world as well as recording a complete cycle of the 15 symphonies with the Verdi Orchestra in Milan. He has also recorded an acclaimed cycle of Tchaikovsky’s six symphonies. His pioneering series of recordings of the symphonies of Alexandre Tansman (1897–1986) has won three Diapasons d’Or. The music of Romanian composer George Enescu has been another of Caetani’s specialities. Following his performances of the opera Oedipe to open the 2009 Enescu Festival, he was awarded the legion of honour of the Romanian Republic in recognition for his performances of Enescu’s music around the world. He conducted Oedipe again in 2011 in Bucharest.

Forthcoming engagements include Puccini’s Madama Butterfl y in London and concerts with the Verdi Orchestra, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Metropolitan Orchestra Tokyo, and the National Orchestra of Spain.

sydney symphony 23

Philippe Bianconi PIANO

Philippe Bianconi commenced his studies at the Conservatory in Nice where he was a pupil of Simone Delbert-Février. Later in Paris he studied with Gaby Casadesus and in Freiburg-in-Breisgau with Vitalij Margulis. He won the Casadesus International Competition in Cleveland and the Jeunesse Musicales International Competition in Belgrade, as well as the Silver Medal of the Seventh Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth. He made an acclaimed recital debut at New York’s Carnegie Hall in 1987, and since then has enthralled audiences and reviewers throughout the world.

In North America he has appeared regularly with the orchestras in Cleveland, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, Saint Louis, Dallas, Buff alo, Montreal and Vancouver, and at the Ravinia Festival with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under James Conlon. He has also collaborated with such distinguished conductors as Lorin Maazel, Christoph von Dohnányi, Kurt Masur, David Zinman, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Edo de Waart and Yoav Talmi.

In Europe, his performance of Rachmaninoff ’s Second Piano Concerto with James Conlon and the Orchestre de l’Opéra de Paris sold out the Paris Garnier Opera House. He has also been soloist with the Orchestre National de France, Orchestre de Paris, Berlin Radio Symphony, Netherlands Philharmonic, Warsaw Philharmonic, Prague Symphony, Orchester der Beethovenhalle in Bonn, and the Strasbourg Philharmonic.

Also an active and acclaimed recital artist, he has appeared in Sydney, San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, Washington DC, Wigmore Hall in London, at the Berlin Philharmonie, as well as in Hamburg, Milan, Madrid, Tokyo, Beijing, and Shanghai. After his recent recital in the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées a reviewer acclaimed him ‘premier pianist of France’.

He has recorded the complete solo piano music of Ravel, and solo albums of Schumann, Schubert, and Debussy for Lyrinx. He has also recorded Shostakovitch and Prokofi ev with cellist Gary Hoff man, and three Schubert lieder cycles with Hermann Prey.

Philippe Bianconi has performed with the Melbourne, West Australian, and Sydney symphony orchestras, and his most recent appearance in Sydney was in 1998, when he played Mozart’s Piano Concerto K467 and an all-Chopin recital.

24 sydney symphony24 sydney symphony

MUSICIANS

Vladimir AshkenazyPrincipal Conductor and Artistic Advisor supported by Emirates

Dene OldingConcertmaster

Nicholas CarterAssociate Conductor supported by Premier Partner Credit Suisse

FIRST VIOLINS Dene Olding Concertmaster

Kirsten Williams Associate Concertmaster

Katherine Lukey Assistant Concertmaster

Fiona Ziegler Assistant Concertmaster

Julie Batty Jennifer Booth Marianne BroadfootBrielle ClapsonSophie Cole Amber Davis Jennifer Hoy Nicola Lewis Léone Ziegler Elizabeth Jones° Martin Silverton*Tereza Singer*Sun Yi Associate Concertmaster

Alexander Norton

SECOND VIOLINS Kirsty Hilton Marina Marsden Emily Long A/Assistant Principal

Susan Dobbie Principal Emeritus

Maria Durek Shuti Huang Stan W Kornel Benjamin Li Nicole Masters Biyana Rozenblit Alexandra D’Elia°Monique Irik*Emily Qin°Lucy Warren†

Emma West Assistant Principal

Emma Hayes Philippa Paige Maja Verunica

VIOLASTobias Breider Roger Benedict Robyn Brookfield Sandro Costantino Jane Hazelwood Graham Hennings Stuart Johnson Justine Marsden Leonid Volovelsky Rosemary Curtin*Tara Houghton°David Wicks*Anne-Louise Comerford Felicity Tsai

CELLOSCatherine Hewgill Julian Smiles*Timothy NankervisElizabeth NevilleChristopher PidcockAdrian Wallis David Wickham Rowena Macneish°Adam Szabo°Rachael Tobin°Leah Lynn Assistant Principal

Fenella Gill

DOUBLE BASSESKees Boersma Alex Henery Neil Brawley Principal Emeritus

David Campbell Steven Larson Richard Lynn David Murray Benjamin Ward

FLUTES Janet Webb Carolyn HarrisRosamund Plummer Principal Piccolo

Emma Sholl

OBOESDiana Doherty David Papp Alexandre Oguey Principal Cor Anglais

Shefali Pryor

CLARINETSFrancesco Celata Christopher Tingay Craig Wernicke Principal Bass Clarinet

Peter Jenkin*Lawrence Dobell

BASSOONSMatthew Wilkie Fiona McNamara Noriko Shimada Principal Contrabassoon

HORNSRobert Johnson Geoffrey O’Reilly Principal 3rd

Marnie Sebire Euan HarveyBen Jacks

TRUMPETSDavid Elton Anthony Heinrichs Peter Miller*Paul Goodchild John Foster

TROMBONESRonald Prussing Scott Kinmont Christopher Harris Principal Bass Trombone

Nick Byrne

TUBASteve Rossé

TIMPANIRichard Miller

PERCUSSIONRebecca Lagos Colin Piper Mark Robinson Brian Nixon*Philip South*

HARP Louise Johnson PIANOJosephine Allan*

Bold = PrincipalItalics = Associate Principal* = Guest Musician° = Contract Musician† = Sydney Symphony FellowGrey = Permanent member of the Sydney Symphony not appearing in this concert

To see photographs of the full roster of permanent musicians and find out more about the orchestra, visit our website: www.sydneysymphony.com/SSO_musiciansIf you don’t have access to the internet, ask one of our customer service representatives for a copy of our Musicians flyer.

The men of the Sydney Symphony are proudly outfitted by Van Heusen.

sydney symphony 25

SYDNEY SYMPHONYVladimir Ashkenazy, Principal Conductor and Artistic AdvisorPATRON Her Excellency Professor Marie Bashir AC CVO

Founded in 1932 by the Australian Broadcasting Commission, the Sydney Symphony has evolved into one of the world’s fi nest orchestras as Sydney has become one of the world’s great cities.

Resident at the iconic Sydney Opera House, where it gives more than 100 performances each year, the Sydney Symphony also performs in venues throughout Sydney and regional New South Wales. International tours to Europe, Asia and the USA have earned the orchestra worldwide recognition for artistic excellence, most recently in the 2011 tour of Japan and Korea.

The Sydney Symphony’s fi rst Chief Conductor was Sir Eugene Goossens, appointed in 1947; he was followed by Nicolai Malko, Dean Dixon, Moshe Atzmon, Willem van Otterloo, Louis Frémaux, Sir Charles Mackerras, Zdenek Mácal, Stuart Challender, Edo de Waart and Gianluigi Gelmetti. David Robertson will take up the post of Chief Conductor in 2014. The orchestra’s history also boasts collaborations with legendary fi gures such as George Szell, Sir Thomas Beecham, Otto Klemperer and Igor Stravinsky.

The Sydney Symphony’s award-winning education program is central to its commitment to the future of live symphonic music, developing audiences and engaging the participation of young people. The orchestra promotes the work of Australian composers through performances, recordings and its commissioning program. Recent premieres have included major works by Ross Edwards, Liza Lim, Lee Bracegirdle, Gordon Kerry and Georges Lentz, and the orchestra’s recording of works by Brett Dean was released on both the BIS and Sydney Symphony Live labels.

Other releases on the Sydney Symphony Live label, established in 2006, include performances with Alexander Lazarev, Gianluigi Gelmetti, Sir Charles Mackerras and Vladimir Ashkenazy. The orchestra has recently completed recording the Mahler symphonies, and has also released recordings with Ashkenazy of Rachmaninoff and Elgar orchestral works on the Exton/Triton labels, as well as numerous recordings on the ABC Classics label.

This is the fourth year of Ashkenazy’s tenure as Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor.

JOH

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26 sydney symphony

BEHIND THE SCENES

MANAGING DIRECTOR

Rory JeffesEXECUTIVE TEAM ASSISTANT

Lisa Davies-Galli

ARTISTIC OPERATIONS

DIRECTOR OF ARTISTIC PLANNING

Peter Czornyj

Artistic AdministrationARTISTIC ADMINISTRATION MANAGER

Elaine ArmstrongARTIST LIAISON MANAGER

Ilmar LeetbergRECORDING ENTERPRISE MANAGER

Philip Powers

Education ProgramsHEAD OF EDUCATION

Kim WaldockEMERGING ARTISTS PROGRAM MANAGER

Mark LawrensonEDUCATION COORDINATOR

Rachel McLarin

LibraryLIBRARIAN

Anna CernikLIBRARY ASSISTANT

Victoria GrantLIBRARY ASSISTANT

Mary-Ann Mead

ORCHESTRA MANAGEMENT

DIRECTOR OF ORCHESTRA MANAGEMENT

Aernout KerbertORCHESTRA MANAGER

Chris LewisORCHESTRA COORDINATOR

Georgia StamatopoulosOPERATIONS MANAGER

Kerry-Anne CookTECHNICAL MANAGER

Derek CouttsPRODUCTION COORDINATOR

Tim DaymanPRODUCTION COORDINATOR

Ian SpenceSTAGE MANAGER

Peter Gahan

SALES AND MARKETING

DIRECTOR OF SALES & MARKETING

Mark J ElliottMARKETING MANAGER, SUBSCRIPTION SALES

Simon Crossley-MeatesA/SENIOR MARKETING MANAGER, SALES

Matthew RiveMARKETING MANAGER, BUSINESS RESOURCES

Katrina RiddleONLINE MARKETING MANAGER

Eve Le Gall

John C Conde ao ChairmanTerrey Arcus amEwen CrouchRoss GrantJennifer HoyRory JeffesAndrew KaldorIrene LeeDavid LivingstoneGoetz RichterDavid Smithers am

Sydney Symphony Board

Sydney Symphony Council

Sydney Symphony StaffMARKETING & ONLINE COORDINATOR

Kaisa HeinoGRAPHIC DESIGNER

Lucy McCulloughDATA ANALYST

Varsha KarnikMARKETING ASSISTANT

Jonathon Symonds

Box OfficeMANAGER OF BOX OFFICE SALES & OPERATIONS

Lynn McLaughlinMANAGER OF BOX OFFICE OPERATIONS

Tom DowneyCUSTOMER SERVICE REPRESENTATIVES

Steve Clarke – Senior CSRMichael DowlingDerek ReedJohn RobertsonBec Sheedy

COMMUNICATIONS

HEAD OF COMMUNICATIONS

Yvonne ZammitPUBLICIST

Katherine StevensonDIGITAL CONTENT PRODUCER

Ben Draisma

PublicationsPUBLICATIONS EDITOR & MUSIC PRESENTATION MANAGER

Yvonne Frindle

DEVELOPMENT

DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT

Caroline SharpenCORPORATE RELATIONS

Julia OwensCORPORATE RELATIONS

Stephen AttfieldPHILANTHROPY, PATRONS PROGRAM

Ivana JirasekPHILANTHROPY, EVENTS & ENGAGEMENT

Amelia Morgan-Hunn

BUSINESS SERVICES

DIRECTOR OF FINANCE

John HornFINANCE MANAGER

Ruth TolentinoACCOUNTANT

Minerva PrescottACCOUNTS ASSISTANT

Emma FerrerPAYROLL OFFICER

Geoff Ravenhill

HUMAN RESOURCES

HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGER

Anna Kearsley

Geoff Ainsworth amAndrew Andersons aoMichael Baume aoChristine BishopIta Buttrose ao obePeter CudlippJohn Curtis amGreg Daniel amJohn Della BoscaAlan FangErin FlahertyDr Stephen FreibergDonald Hazelwood ao obeDr Michael Joel amSimon JohnsonYvonne Kenny amGary LinnaneAmanda LoveHelen Lynch amJoan MacKenzieDavid MaloneyDavid Malouf aoJulie Manfredi-HughesDeborah MarrThe Hon. Justice Jane Mathews aoDanny MayWendy McCarthy aoJane MorschelGreg ParamorDr Timothy Pascoe amProf. Ron Penny aoJerome RowleyPaul SalteriSandra SalteriJuliana SchaefferLeo Schofield amFred Stein oamGabrielle TrainorIvan UngarJohn van OgtropPeter Weiss amMary WhelanRosemary White

sydney symphony 27

SYDNEY SYMPHONY PATRONS

Maestro’s CirclePeter Weiss am – Founding President & Doris WeissJohn C Conde ao – ChairmanGeoff Ainsworth am & Vicki Ainsworth Tom Breen & Rachael KohnIn memory of Hetty & Egon GordonAndrew Kaldor & Renata Kaldor aoRoslyn Packer aoPenelope Seidler amMr Fred Street am & Mrs Dorothy StreetWestfield GroupBrian & Rosemary WhiteRay Wilson oam in memory of the late James Agapitos oam

Sydney Symphony Leadership EnsembleDavid Livingstone, CEO, Credit Suisse, AustraliaAlan Fang, Chairman, Tianda GroupMacquarie Group FoundationJohn Morschel, Chairman, ANZAndrew Kaldor, Chairman, Pelikan Artline

Lynn Kraus, Sydney Office Managing Partner, Ernst & YoungShell Australia Pty LtdJames Stevens, CEO, Roses OnlyStephen Johns, Chairman, Leighton Holdings,and Michele Johns

01 Roger Benedict Principal Viola Kim Williams am & Catherine Dovey Chair

02 Lawrence Dobell Principal Clarinet Anne Arcus & Terrey Arcus am Chair

03 Diana Doherty Principal Oboe Andrew Kaldor & Renata Kaldor ao Chair

04 Richard Gill oam Artistic Director Education Sandra & Paul Salteri Chair

05 Jane Hazelwood Viola Veolia Environmental Services Chair

06 Catherine Hewgill Principal Cello Tony & Fran Meagher Chair

07 Elizabeth Neville Cello Ruth & Bob Magid Chair

08 Colin Piper Percussion Justice Jane Mathews ao Chair

09 Shefali Pryor Associate Principal Oboe Rose Herceg Chair

10 Emma Sholl Associate Principal Flute Robert & Janet Constable Chair

For information about the Directors’ Chairs program, please call (02) 8215 4619.

Directors’ Chairs

01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

www.sydneysymphony.com/staytuned

28 sydney symphony

PLAYING YOUR PART

Platinum Patrons$20,000+Brian AbelGeoff Ainsworth am & Vicki Ainsworth Robert Albert ao & Elizabeth AlbertTerrey Arcus am & Anne ArcusTom Breen & Rachael KohnSandra & Neil BurnsMr John C Conde aoRobert & Janet ConstableDr Bruno & Mrs Rhonda GiuffreIn memory of Hetty & Egon GordonMs Rose HercegMrs E HerrmanMr Andrew Kaldor & Mrs Renata Kaldor ao

D & I KallinikosJames N Kirby FoundationJustice Jane Mathews aoMrs Roslyn Packer aoDr John Roarty oam in memory of Mrs June Roarty

Paul & Sandra SalteriMrs Penelope Seidler amMrs W SteningMr Fred Street am & Mrs Dorothy Street

Mr Peter Weiss am & Mrs Doris Weiss

Westfield Group Mr Brian & Mrs Rosemary WhiteRay Wilson oam in memory of James Agapitos oam

Kim Williams am & Catherine DoveyJune & Alan Woods Family BequestAnonymous (1)

Gold Patrons$10,000–$19,999Mr C R AdamsonAlan & Christine BishopIan & Jennifer BurtonCopyright Agency LimitedThe Estate of Ruth M DavidsonThe Hon. Ashley Dawson-DamerPaul R EspieFerris Family FoundationJames & Leonie FurberMr Ross GrantThe Estate of the l ate Ida GuggerHelen Lynch am & Helen BauerMrs Joan MacKenzieRuth & Bob MagidMrs T Merewether oamTony & Fran MeagherMr B G O’ConorMrs Joyce Sproat & Mrs Janet CookeMs Caroline WilkinsonAnonymous (2)

The Sydney Symphony gratefully acknowledges the music lovers who donate to the orchestra each year. Each gift plays an important part in ensuring our continued artistic excellence and helping to sustain important education and regional touring programs. Donations of $50 and above are acknowledged on our website at sydneysymphony.com/patrons

Silver Patrons$5,000–$9,999Mark Bethwaite am & Carolyn BethwaiteJan BowenMr Alexander & Mrs Vera BoyarskyMr Robert BrakspearMr Robert & Mrs L Alison CarrBob & Julie ClampettIan Dickson & Reg HollowayMr Colin Draper & Mary Jane Brodribb Penny EdwardsMichael & Gabrielle FieldMr James Graham am & Mrs Helen Graham

Mrs Jennifer HershonMichelle Hilton Stephen Johns & Michele BenderJudges of the Supreme Court of NSW Mr Ervin KatzThe Estate of the late Patricia LanceGary LinnaneMr David LivingstoneWilliam McIlrath Charitable FoundationDavid Maloney & Erin FlahertyEva & Timothy PascoeRodney Rosenblum am & Sylvia Rosenblum

Manfred & Linda SalamonThe Sherry Hogan FoundationDavid & Isabel SmithersIan & Wendy ThompsonMichael & Mary Whelan TrustDr Richard WingateJill WranAnonymous (1)

Bronze Patrons$2,500 – $4,999Dr Lilon BandlerStephen J BellMarc Besen ao & Eva Besen aoMr David & Mrs Halina BrettLenore P BuckleHoward ConnorsEwen & Catherine CrouchFirehold Pty LtdVic & Katie FrenchMr Erich GockelMs Kylie GreenAnthony Gregg & Deanne WhittlestonAnn HobanIrwin Imhof in memory of Herta ImhofJ A McKernanR & S Maple-BrownGreg & Susan MarieMora MaxwellJames & Elsie MooreJustice George Palmer amBruce & Joy Reid Foundation

Mary Rossi TravelMrs Hedy SwitzerMarliese & Georges TeitlerMs Gabrielle TrainorJ F & A van OgtropAnonymous (3)

Bronze Patrons$1,000-$2,499Charles & Renee AbramsAndrew Andersons aoMr Henri W Aram oamDr Francis J AugustusRichard BanksDavid BarnesDoug & Alison BattersbyMichael Baume ao & Toni BaumePhil & Elese BennettNicole BergerMrs Jan BiberJulie BlighM BulmerIn memory of R W BurleyEric & Rosemary CampbellDr John H CaseyDebby Cramer & Bill CaukillDr Diana Choquette & Mr Robert Milliner

Joan Connery oam & Maxwell Connery oam

Mr John Cunningham scm & Mrs Margaret Cunningham

Lisa & Miro DavisMatthew DelaseyJohn FavaloroMr Edward FedermanMr Ian Fenwicke & Prof. N R WillsDr & Mrs C GoldschmidtWarren GreenAkiko GregoryIn memory of the late Dora & Oscar Grynberg

Janette HamiltonDorothy Hoddinott aoPaul & Susan HotzThe Hon. David Hunt ao qc & Mrs Margaret Hunt

Dr & Mrs Michael HunterMr Peter HutchisonMichael & Anna JoelThe Hon. Paul KeatingIn Memory of Bernard MH KhawAnna-Lisa KlettenbergMr Justin Lam Wendy LapointeMs Jan Lee Martin & Mr Peter LazarKevin & Deidre McCannRobert McDougallIan & Pam McGaw

sydney symphony 29

To find out more about becominga Sydney Symphony Patron, pleasecontact the Philanthropy Officeon (02) 8215 4625 or emailphilanthropy@sydneysymphony.com

Matthew McInnesMacquarie Group FoundationMr Robert & Mrs Renee MarkovicAlan & Joy MartinHarry M Miller, Lauren Miller Cilento & Josh Cilento

Miss An NhanMrs Rachel O’ConorDrs Keith & Eileen OngMr R A OppenMr Robert OrrellMr & Mrs OrtisMaria PagePiatti Holdings Pty LtdAdrian & Dairneen PiltonRobin PotterDr Raffi QasabianErnest & Judith RapeeKenneth R Reed Patricia H Reid Endowment Pty LtdRobin RodgersJohn SaundersIn memory of H St P ScarlettJuliana SchaefferMr & Mrs Jean-Marie SimartCatherine StephenJohn & Alix SullivanThe Hon Brian Sully qcMildred TeitlerAndrew & Isolde TornyaGerry & Carolyn TraversJohn E TuckeyMrs M TurkingtonIn memory of Joan & Rupert Vallentine In memory of Dr Reg WalkerHenry & Ruth WeinbergThe Hon. Justice A G WhealyGeoff Wood & Melissa WaitesMr R R WoodwardDr John Yu & Dr George SoutterAnonymous (12)

Bronze Patrons$500–$999Mr Peter J ArmstrongMr & Mrs Garry S AshMrs Baiba B Berzins & Dr Peter Loveday Dr & Mrs Hannes BoshoffMinnie BriggsDr Miles Burgess

Pat & Jenny BurnettIta Buttrose ao obeStephen Bryne & Susie GleesonThe Hon. Justice J C & Mrs CampbellMr Percy ChissickMrs Catherine J ClarkJen CornishGreta DavisElizabeth DonatiDr Nita & Dr James DurhamGreg Earl & Debbie CameronMr & Mrs FarrellRobert GellingVivienne GoldschmidtMr Robert GreenMr Richard Griffin amJules & Tanya HallMr Hugh HallardMr Ken HawkingsMrs A HaywardDr Heng & Mrs Cilla TeyMr Roger HenningRev Harry & Mrs Meg HerbertSue HewittMr Joerg HofmannMs Dominique Hogan-DoranMr Brian HorsfieldAlex HoughtonBill & Pam HughesSusie & Geoff IsraelMrs W G KeighleyMr & Mrs Gilles T KrygerMrs M J LawrenceDr & Mrs Leo LeaderMargaret LedermanMrs Yolanda LeeMartine LettsAnita & Chris LevyErna & Gerry Levy amDr Winston LiauwMrs Helen LittleSydney & Airdrie LloydMrs A LohanMrs Panee LowCarolyn & Peter Lowry oamDr David LuisMelvyn MadiganDr Jean MalcolmMrs Silvana MantellatoMr K J MartinGeoff & Jane McClellan

Mrs Flora MacDonaldMrs Helen MeddingsDavid & Andree MilmanKenneth N MitchellChris Morgan-HunnNola NettheimMrs Margaret NewtonMr Graham NorthDr M C O’Connor amA Willmers & R PalDr A J PalmerMr Andrew C PattersonDr Kevin PedemontDr Natalie E PelhamMr Allan PidgeonRobin PotterLois & Ken RaeMr Donald RichardsonPamela RogersAgnes RossDr Mark & Mrs Gillian SelikowitzCaroline SharpenMrs Diane Shteinman amDr Agnes E SinclairDoug & Judy SotherenMrs Elsie StaffordMr Lindsay & Mrs Suzanne StoneMargaret SuthersMr D M SwanMr Norman TaylorMs Wendy ThompsonKevin TroyJudge Robyn TupmanGillian Turner & Rob BishopProf. Gordon E WallRonald WalledgeMr Robert & Mrs Rosemary WalshMr Palmer WangDavid & Katrina WilliamsAudrey & Michael WilsonDr Richard WingMr Robert WoodsMr & Mrs Glenn WyssMrs Robin YabsleyAnonymous (18)

30 sydney symphony

SALUTE

PRINCIPAL PARTNER

The Sydney Symphony is assisted by the Commonwealth Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body

The Sydney Symphony is assisted by the NSW Government through Arts NSW

GOVERNMENT PARTNERS

PREMIER PARTNER

COMMUNITY PARTNER MAJOR PARTNERSPLATINUM PARTNER

SILVER PARTNERS

REGIONAL TOUR PARTNERS

2MBS 102.5 Sydney’s Fine Music Station

MARKETING PARTNER

GOLD PARTNERS

ORCHESTRA NEWS | JUNE–JULY 2012

❝…I’ll be able to do normal things like a normal person!

❞back at school. I was petrifi ed!’ But after about 30 minutes of rehearsal, it was like I’d never left. It was really like getting straight back on the bike.’

Was the accident a blessing in disguise? A lot of people say this after they’ve had some kind of interruption in their career – it felt like a rebirth.’ I felt as though I played much better than before, I thought about things better, and I didn’t take anything for granted any more. In a way, so long as my wrist holds out, it wasn’t such a bad thing after all.’

So does Catherine take any extra precautions now? ‘No! I’m always shocking my husband with the way I chop onions. I love cooking. That’s my favourite place to be – in the kitchen. And he takes one look at me, and then has to look away. But I never really think about it. I’m not precious at all.’

The Principal Cello Chair is sup-ported by Fran & Tony Meagher. Through this support, the Meaghers enjoy a close relationship with Catherine and the orchestra. For more information on Directors’ Chai rs call 8215 4663

Nic

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Catherine Hewgill is an elegantly poised presence on stage. Whether it’s the tranquil cello solo from the slow movement of Brahms’s Second Piano Con-certo, or fearlessly leading her troops into the fray of a mighty Bruckner symphony, she takes it all in her stride. Principal Cello with the Sydney Symphony for 22 years, Catherine even managed to overcome a poten-tially career-ending injury when she slipped over after a concert and crushed all the bones in her wrist. ‘The surgeon thought I would never play again.’

Lying in her hospital bed, Catherine initially welcomed

the thought of being able to take time off. ‘Wow! For the next couple of months, I’ll be able to do normal things like a normal person!’ Those feelings quickly wore off. ‘I didn’t feel at all fulfi lled. I felt really strongly that I’d lost my raison d’être.’

It was a diffi cult, frustrating time. ‘My husband said I was horrible to live with, that I wasn’t the same. He used to say that I needed to be “clapped at” about four times a week!

‘I really lost all my self-confi dence. I’ll never forget, after 14 months, when I came back to work, it was like the fi rst day

LUCKY BREAKIn 2001 Principal Cello Catherine Hewgill suffered a potentially career-ending injury. She talks about what it’s like to come through a period of such turmoil.

Proud sponsor of theSydney Symphonyin their 80th yearof timeless entertainment

One concert-goer was intrigued by the ophicleide, which recently appeared in Berlioz’s Harold in Italy. ‘What are they, and why would a composer choose to include them?’ he asked. Our resident ‘ophicleidian’ Nick Byrne was more than happy to respond.

Ask a Musician

The ophicleide was invented in 1817 by Frenchman Jean Hilaire Asté. It’s a lower-pitched exten-sion of the keyed bugle family and came into being at a time when composers were searching for a lower voice to supplement the sound of the trombone. Piston

valves were still in an early (some would say primitive!) stage of their development, but composers like Berlioz (Symphonie fantastique, Harold in Italy), Mendelssohn (Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Elijah) and Wagner (Rienzi, The Flying Dutchman,

Lohengrin) all took advantage of the ophicleide’s special sound. Sweet and versatile in the upper register, open and gruff in its lower tones, the ophicleide is wholly individual in character and temperament compared with its modern generic replacements. Tragically, by 1860–70 the ophicleide had been superseded by the bass tuba and euphonium.

Nick Byrne, Second T rombonewww.ophicleide.com

Have a question about the music, instruments or inner workings of the orchestra? Write to us using the Your Say addresses above.

Your SayOur post-concert surveys always bring a variety of views. The one for Tchaikovsky at the Ballet in April was no exception:

‘We can’t say that we have enjoyed the first half of the concert because of the choice of the music pieces. [Golijov’s Last Round] was poorly composed and poorly rehearsed. The second piece “Spanish Garden” [sic] was something resembling the sound of a graveyard. However, we thoroughly enjoyed the second half of the concert! The brilliant music, the fine direction of the conductor and the passion of the orchestra were absolutely heavenly!’

‘Conductor Andrew Grams was a joy to watch – he should have had a whip to conduct with, not to hit the musicians of course, but to swish it above their heads. He was on fire! The music selection was very interesting – [the Golijov]

was like watching a tennis game – left – right – left – right! A marvellous question-and-answer piece. A big thank you to all musicians of the SSO as well as to the pianist and the conductor.’

And from a star-struck subscriber earlier in the year:

‘Wow! What a night it was! Quite stupendous! Anne Sophie Mutter [March] was just unbelievable and so worth waiting for all these years. The orchestra were wonderful and really shone in the Shostakovich, where Ashkenazy just came alive… How privileged I felt being able to attend this wonderful concert. To many more concerts of this class, and look forward to having Evgeny Kissin and Behzod Abduraimov and Sophie Mutter here again…soon!!’

We like to hear from you. Write to yoursay@sydneysymphony.com or Bravo! Reply Paid 4338, Sydney NSW 2001.

Education NewsMeeting Steve ReichIn May four members of the Sydney Symphony’s emerging artists program – Freya Franzen, Liisa Pallandi (violin), Tara Houghton (viola) and Adam Szabo (cello) – took part in a marathon concert celebrating the works of American minimalist composer Steve Reich. The Sydney Opera House hosted Steve’s residency, which included performances of many of his seminal works. Our musicians gave the Australian premiere of Variations for Vibes, Pianos and Strings, alongside members of Synergy Percussion, and other young string players, conducted by Roland Peelman.

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Right: Violinist Freya Franzen, rehearsing Reich’s Variations for Vibes, Pianos and Strings.Below: Wearing his trademark baseball cap, the composer looks on in rehearsal.

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The story goes that at a perform-ance of Szymanowski’s Fourth Symphony by a North American orchestra, the end of the thrilling fi rst movement drew applause from a handful of eager audience members. It was short-lived when exuberance turned to embarrass-ment at clapping in the ‘wrong place’. But the conductor for that occasion quickly turned around with words of reassurance: ‘It’s okay. We’re excited too!’

The conductor was David Robertson, the recently announced Chief Conductor designate of the Sydney Symphony. And this delightful concert vignette illustrates the importance he places on honest and open communication. He’s not afraid to communicate with audiences, introduce new ideas and be a dynamic advocate for the music of our time.

At the announcement of his appointment on 15 May, Principal Cello Catherine Hewgill recalled Robertson’s fi rst visit to the Sydney Symphony in 2003: ‘I had what can only be described as an out-of-body experience during a performance of John Adams’ Harmonielehre. Having David direct us through this incredibly harmonically complex music just took me somewhere else com-pletely.’

Current Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor Vladimir Ashkenazy will continue to return annually to the Sydney Symphony. That the orchestra is

able to continue its relationship with Ashkenazy, at the same time as building a new partnership with David Robertson is testa-ment to the mutual respect and admiration the musicians share for both men, and the conductors for each other. Critic Peter McCallum from The Sydney Morning Herald, summed up Ashkenazy’s time with the orchestra beautifully: ‘He has built supportive audiences and international networks and will depart much loved for his deep musical understanding, humil-ity, warmth and charm, and the abiding memory of many insight-ful performances.’

For the incoming Chief Con-ductor, Concertmaster Dene Olding is full of praise: ‘He is an excep-tional musician – highly intel-ligent, articulate and a wonderful communicator. His four previous appearances with the orchestra have shown the breadth of his repertoire and the sophistication of his musical interpretations.’

David Robertson’s plans from 2014 include a series of innovative projects with the orchestra. These include an annual opera-in-con-cert, commissioning partnerships with other orchestras such as the Royal Concertgebouw, and annual international touring. There’s much to look forward to. As Catherine Hewgill says, ‘This marriage will be a good one!’David Robertson’s tenure as Chief Conductor will begin in 2014, with a fi ve-year contract.

Artistic Focus

DAVID ROBERTSONWe announce David Robertson as Chief Conductor and Artistic Director designate.

The wonders of technology allowed David Robertson to join us by live video feed from New York for the announcement on 15 May. From left: Peter Czornyj, Simon Crean, John Conde, Catherine Hewgill and Rory Jeffes.

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oro Crossover Classics

The blurring of genres is nothing new. These days we tend to associ-ate the term ‘crossover’ with performers – think Katherine Jenkins or Aled Jones – but cross-over might also describe compos-ers’ experimentations with form and genre. Take Brahms’s First Piano Concerto. This ambitious work began life as a fl edgling attempt at a symphony. But the fi gure of Beethoven loomed large for young Brahms, who lost confi dence: ‘You’ve no idea what it’s like to hear the footsteps of a giant like that behind you.’ He re-worked the material, fi rst into a sonata for two pianos and even-tually his First Piano Concerto. Grand in scope, it’s almost a sym-phony for piano and orchestra.

Rachmaninoff ’s Symphonic Dances also borrows from other genres. As the title suggests, each of the three movements is based in dance. Similarly symphonic in scope, the work began life as a prospective ballet score – waltzes and energetic rhythms abound, orchestral colours (including Rachmaninoff ’s only inclusion of the alto saxophone) surround the listener. In the majestic fi nal movement, Rachmaninoff recycles the ‘Dies Irae’, the funereal plainchant used to such great effect in his Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. Far from being dirge-like, the ‘Dies Irae’ brings the music to a brilliant climax that quotes thrilling ‘Allelujahs’ from Rach-maninoff ’s Vespers, sounding a fi nal, powerful affi rmation of faith.Symphonic DancesBrahms, Dvorák, RachmaninoffAusgrid Master SeriesWed 1 Aug | 8pmFri 3 Aug | 8pmSat 4 Aug | 8pm

The Score

Tugan Sokhiev returns to Sydney to conduct Symphonic Dances.

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SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE TRUSTMr Kim Williams AM [Chair]Ms Catherine Brenner, The Hon Helen Coonan, Mr Wesley Enoch,Ms Renata Kaldor AO, Mr Robert Leece AM RFD, Mr Peter Mason AM,Dr Thomas Parry AM, Mr Leo Schofi eld AM, Mr John Symond AM

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500 YEARS OF TROMBONE: THE CONCERT

On Wednesday 13 June, trombonists Ron Prussing, Scott Kinmont, Nick Byrne and Christopher Harris will present a lunchtime concert at St James’ Church King Street. The program will include original music and transcriptions from composers such as Josquin des Prez, Dowland, Daniel Speer, Beethoven, Bruckner, Tomasi and Elena Kats-Chernin.

ACOUSTIC REFINEMENT

The installation of new acoustic panels in the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall is on track, with the work due for completion in early June. Acoustician Larry Kirkegaard will be in Sydney 19–23 June to do further testing during our rehearsals and concerts. Based on these results, and feedback given by the musicians, Larry will be refi ning the angles of the various panels to achieve an optimum sound.

VA NGUARD

Our new philanthropic program Vanguard got off to a strong start on 4 April and its members have already enjoyed a second event. On 23 May the musical program saw a collaboration between double bass, trombone, guitar and voice – mixing classical, jazz and hip-hop. There are more private events scheduled for 2012, all intended to create intimate but surprising experiences of classical music. To fi nd out more and to join, visit sydneysymphony.com/vanguard

ARRIVALS…

We’ve welcomed quite a few recent additions to the Sydney Symphony family: Eloise Anwyl was welcomed by Penny Evans (Senior Marketing Manager) and her husband Ben on 10 February; Hannah Ying-Leng met her parents Felicity (viola) and Thomas Tsai on 10 March; Emma West (Assistant Principal Second Violin) and her husband Andrew welcomed Lila Grace into the world on 20 March; and proud parents Alexandra Mitchell (First Violin) and

husband Charlie announced the arrival of Thomas Ashton on 18 May. Phew! Sydney Symphony crèche anyone?

…AND A FAREWELL

Lee Bracegirdle retired from the Horn section after 32 years of service with the orchestra. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that audiences won’t be hearing from him. Lee is also a composer, and will no doubt retain his connection with the world of music-making through this creative outlet. We wish him all the best into the future.

STRINGS ON STEROIDS

In recent months we’ve seen a number of guest players in the concertmaster and principal cello chairs as we seek to fi ll these positions. Two of our guests – violinist Andrew Haveron and cellist Teije Hylkema – managed to fi nd some time for offstage creativity as well. We’re assured no cellos were harmed in the making of this music video: bit.ly/StringsOnSteroids

CODA

BRAVO EDITOR Genevieve Lang sydneysymphony.com/bravo