Lunchtime Concert Slava Grigoryan guitar Sharon Grigoryan cello Friday 25 September, 1:10pm

Sharon Grigoryan has been the cellist with the Australian String Quartet since 2013, and has been invited to be Guest Principal Cellist with the Melbourne, Adelaide and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras. She is the current Artistic Director of the Barossa, Baroque and Beyond music festival, which recently completed its fifth year. In 2019 Sharon curated a chamber music series, Live at the Quartet Bar, for the Adelaide Festival Centre, and made her debut as a radio presenter on ABC Classic.

Regarded as a wizard of the guitar, Slava Grigoryan has forged a prolific reputation as a classical guitar virtuoso. Born in Kazakhstan, he immigrated with his family to Australia in 1981 and began studying the guitar with his violinist father Edward at the age of 6. By the time he was 17 he was signed to the Sony Classical Label. His relationship with Sony Classical, ABC Classic in Australia, ECM in Germany and his own label Which Way Music has led to the release of over 30 solo and collaborative albums – four of which have won ARIA Awards – spanning a vast range of musical genres. Since 2009 Slava has been the Artistic Director of the Adelaide Guitar Festival.

PROGRAM

Jobiniana No. 4 Sergio Assad

Sarabande from Cello Suite No. 6 J.S. Bach

Pièce en forme de habanera Maurice Ravel arr. Slava Grigoryan

Allemande from Cello Suite No. 1 J.S. Bach

Ngeringa Edward Grigoryan

Spiegel im Spiegel Arvo Pärt arr. Slava Grigoryan

Five Tonadillas Enrique Granados arr. Slava Grigoryan

Sergio Assad’s Jobiniana No. 4 is the last in a series of tributes to Antonio Carlos Jobim the legendary Brazilian musician who was the main force behind the creation of the Bossa Nova style. It was commissioned by Shin Ichi Fukuda as part of one of his projects on Brazilian music. For the same project, Assad also arranged several of Jobim’s pieces for cello and guitar.

Bach most likely composed his Six Suites for unaccompanied cello, BWV 1007–1012, while serving as Kapellmeister at the court of Prince Leopold in Cöthen between 1717 and 1723. Precise dating is difficult because they survive, not in Bach’s own hand, but in a copy made later in Leipzig by his second wife, Anna Magdalena Bach. It is likely that the Suites were written either for Christian Ferdinand Abel or Christian Bernhard Linigke, both accomplished cellists and Cöthen residents.

Though appreciated in some circles, as Forkel’s 1802 Bach biography makes clear, the Suites fell into quasi-oblivion along with much of Bach’s music in the decades following his death. Bach’s celebrated biographer Philipp Spitta gave them their due for their “serene grandeur” in his monumental study (1873–80), but they remained little known by the general public until they were championed by Pablo Casals in the early twentieth century.

Bach’s forward-looking exploration of the cello’s potential unfolds within the traditional configuration of the Baroque suite, which consisted of old-style dances in binary form—allemande, courante, sarabande, and gigue—with a newer-style optional dance movement, or Galanterie, interpolated before the final gigue. These interpolated dances in his cello suites consist of minuets, bourrées, or gavottes, and he prefaced each of the Suites with a Prélude.

Throughout, Bach’s contrapuntal genius shows in his ability to project multiple voices and implied harmonies with what is often considered a single-line instrument.

Maurice Ravel’s Pièce en forme de Habanera was actually originally written as a Vocalise-étude in 1907. In its original form, it is a particularly demanding and virtuosic piece with staccato passages, portamenti, trills and sweeping scales. Yet, it brilliantly displays Ravel’s ability to compose for and demonstrate the possibilities of the human voice. It appeared in a collection of vocalises assembled by A. L. Hettich and it may have been for this specific purpose that Ravel composed the piece. Perhaps as a means of making it more accessible, Ravel transcribed the Vocalise for cello and piano. Since then, it has appeared in transcriptions for several other instruments.

The fascination of French composers for Spanish music dates back to Bizet’s Carmen and Lalo’s Symphonie espagnole, and was explored even more by Chabrier, Debussy and Ravel. Ravel’s connection to Spanish music, however, was less a fancy and more a matter of heritage. His mother was of Basque descent and grew up in Madrid. She often sang to him folk songs as a child. Interestingly, the habanera which Ravel here chose as the Spanish influence of this piece actually has its origins in France itself. The French contradanza was the basis of the development of the habanera in Cuba during the 19th century, from whence it traveled back to France via Spain. The distinctive habanera rhythm is present throughout much of the piece and against this the cello weaves its seductive melody, whose character demands that the performer mask its difficulties in ease of execution.

“I have discovered that it is enough when a single note is beautifully played. This one note, or a silent beat, or a moment of silence, comforts me. I work with very few elements— with one voice, with two voices. I build with the most primitive materials—with the triad, with one specific tonality.” - Arvo Pärt Pärt’s words are exemplified by the sparse musical material of his 1978 work Spiegel im Spiegel. Initially, the melody consists of only two notes. Another note is added with each subsequent phrase, creating the illusion of an endless continuum.

Granados’s Tonadillas en estilo antiguo (ballad tunes of Castille - in the ancient style) were to a great extent inspired by the paintings of Goya—Granados was an excellent painter and owned some of Goya’s works. A tonadillo is a theatre song, originally accompanied by a small orchestra or a guitar, and in the eighteenth century tonadillas were frequently sung by a singer in costume between the acts of plays, as a sort of vocal intermezzo. The range of mood in these songs is varied: passionate, despairing, coy and teasing. Only one is written in the bass clef, and three were dedicated to the celebrated Catalan soprano Maria Barrientos (whose recording remains a benchmark). Composed in 1911–13, the tonadillas were written ‘in the old style’, and are a nostalgic evocation of the working-class neighbourhoods of nineteenth-century Madrid. The word majo (and its feminine maja) refers to the artisans living in such districts of Madrid as Lavapiés and the area around the church of San Antonio de la Florida—the word simply means ‘pretty’, except when it is applied, as in these songs, to the lower-class characters who lived in these places.

PROGRAM

Jobiniana No. 4 Sergio Assad

Sarabande from Cello Suite No. 6 J.S. Bach

Pièce en forme de habanera Maurice Ravel arr. Slava Grigoryan

Allemande from Cello Suite No. 1 J.S. Bach

Ngeringa Edward Grigoryan

Spiegel im Spiegel Arvo Pärt arr. Slava Grigoryan

Five Tonadillas Enrique Granados arr. Slava Grigoryan

Sergio Assad’s Jobiniana No. 4 is the last in a series of tributes to Antonio Carlos Jobim the legendary Brazilian musician who was the main force behind the creation of the Bossa Nova style. It was commissioned by Shin Ichi Fukuda as part of one of his projects on Brazilian music. For the same project, Assad also arranged several of Jobim’s pieces for cello and guitar.

Bach most likely composed his Six Suites for unaccompanied cello, BWV 1007–1012, while serving as Kapellmeister at the court of Prince Leopold in Cöthen between 1717 and 1723. Precise dating is difficult because they survive, not in Bach’s own hand, but in a copy made later in Leipzig by his second wife, Anna Magdalena Bach. It is likely that the Suites were written either for Christian Ferdinand Abel or Christian Bernhard Linigke, both accomplished cellists and Cöthen residents.

Though appreciated in some circles, as Forkel’s 1802 Bach biography makes clear, the Suites fell into quasi-oblivion along with much of Bach’s music in the decades following his death. Bach’s celebrated biographer Philipp Spitta gave them their due for their “serene grandeur” in his monumental study (1873–80), but they remained little known by the general public until they were championed by Pablo Casals in the early twentieth century.

Bach’s forward-looking exploration of the cello’s potential unfolds within the traditional configuration of the Baroque suite, which consisted of old-style dances in binary form—allemande, courante, sarabande, and gigue—with a newer-style optional dance movement, or Galanterie, interpolated before the final gigue. These interpolated dances in his cello suites consist of minuets, bourrées, or gavottes, and he prefaced each of the Suites with a Prélude.

Throughout, Bach’s contrapuntal genius shows in his ability to project multiple voices and implied harmonies with what is often considered a single-line instrument.

Maurice Ravel’s Pièce en forme de Habanera was actually originally written as a Vocalise-étude in 1907. In its original form, it is a particularly demanding and virtuosic piece with staccato passages, portamenti, trills and sweeping scales. Yet, it brilliantly displays Ravel’s ability to compose for and demonstrate the possibilities of the human voice. It appeared in a collection of vocalises assembled by A. L. Hettich and it may have been for this specific purpose that Ravel composed the piece. Perhaps as a means of making it more accessible, Ravel transcribed the Vocalise for cello and piano. Since then, it has appeared in transcriptions for several other instruments.

The fascination of French composers for Spanish music dates back to Bizet’s Carmen and Lalo’s Symphonie espagnole, and was explored even more by Chabrier, Debussy and Ravel. Ravel’s connection to Spanish music, however, was less a fancy and more a matter of heritage. His mother was of Basque descent and grew up in Madrid. She often sang to him folk songs as a child. Interestingly, the habanera which Ravel here chose as the Spanish influence of this piece actually has its origins in France itself. The French contradanza was the basis of the development of the habanera in Cuba during the 19th century, from whence it traveled back to France via Spain. The distinctive habanera rhythm is present throughout much of the piece and against this the cello weaves its seductive melody, whose character demands that the performer mask its difficulties in ease of execution.

“I have discovered that it is enough when a single note is beautifully played. This one note, or a silent beat, or a moment of silence, comforts me. I work with very few elements— with one voice, with two voices. I build with the most primitive materials—with the triad, with one specific tonality.” - Arvo Pärt Pärt’s words are exemplified by the sparse musical material of his 1978 work Spiegel im Spiegel. Initially, the melody consists of only two notes. Another note is added with each subsequent phrase, creating the illusion of an endless continuum.

Granados’s Tonadillas en estilo antiguo (ballad tunes of Castille - in the ancient style) were to a great extent inspired by the paintings of Goya—Granados was an excellent painter and owned some of Goya’s works. A tonadillo is a theatre song, originally accompanied by a small orchestra or a guitar, and in the eighteenth century tonadillas were frequently sung by a singer in costume between the acts of plays, as a sort of vocal intermezzo. The range of mood in these songs is varied: passionate, despairing, coy and teasing. Only one is written in the bass clef, and three were dedicated to the celebrated Catalan soprano Maria Barrientos (whose recording remains a benchmark). Composed in 1911–13, the tonadillas were written ‘in the old style’, and are a nostalgic evocation of the working-class neighbourhoods of nineteenth-century Madrid. The word majo (and its feminine maja) refers to the artisans living in such districts of Madrid as Lavapiés and the area around the church of San Antonio de la Florida—the word simply means ‘pretty’, except when it is applied, as in these songs, to the lower-class characters who lived in these places.

Lunchtime Concert Slava Grigoryan guitar Sharon Grigoryan cello Friday 25 September, 1:10pm

Sharon Grigoryan has been the cellist with the Australian String Quartet since 2013, and has been invited to be Guest Principal Cellist with the Melbourne, Adelaide and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras. She is the current Artistic Director of the Barossa, Baroque and Beyond music festival, which recently completed its fifth year. In 2019 Sharon curated a chamber music series, Live at the Quartet Bar, for the Adelaide Festival Centre, and made her debut as a radio presenter on ABC Classic.

Regarded as a wizard of the guitar, Slava Grigoryan has forged a prolific reputation as a classical guitar virtuoso. Born in Kazakhstan, he immigrated with his family to Australia in 1981 and began studying the guitar with his violinist father Edward at the age of 6. By the time he was 17 he was signed to the Sony Classical Label. His relationship with Sony Classical, ABC Classic in Australia, ECM in Germany and his own label Which Way Music has led to the release of over 30 solo and collaborative albums – four of which have won ARIA Awards – spanning a vast range of musical genres. Since 2009 Slava has been the Artistic Director of the Adelaide Guitar Festival.