presented by tenix · presented by tenix city recital hall ... classical music to primary and...

3 | Sydney Symphony

PRESENTING PARTNER

2011 SEASON

DISCOVERYPRESENTED BY TENIX

City Recital Hall Angel Place

Discover the music of the great composerswith Richard Gill

PROGRAM CONTENTS

Monday 14 March | 6.30pmDiscover LisztPAGE 9

Monday 2 May | 6.30pmDiscover Respighi & RavelPAGE 13

Monday 29 August | 6.30pmDiscover DvorákPAGE 17

Monday 10 October | 6.30pmDiscover Brett DeanPAGE 21

The Sydney Sinfonia – 15 YearsPAGE 5

About the ArtistsPAGE 25

This program book for Discovery contains notes for all four concerts in the series. Copies will be available at every performance, but we invite you to keep your program and bring it with you to each concert.

WELCOME TO DISCOVERY

Ross TaylorChief Executive Offi cerTenix Pty Ltd

Tenix is proud to sponsor the 2011 Discovery series. Each concert is a unique opportunity to understand more about the music you will listen to, presented by a team of young talented and passionate musicians under the guidance of Sydney Symphony mentors.

With education comes knowledge and we are excited to be part of the Education Program for the sixth year, bringing the world of classical music to primary and secondary school children as well as tertiary music students across the state.

As an organisation, we focus on sustainable outcomes for our clients – and it is great to partner with the Sydney Symphony as they focus on the building the next generation of musical talent.

Their goal is simple: to educate, inspire and encourage people of all ages in the enjoyment and playing of music – I hope you enjoy this opportunity as much as we do.

5 | Sydney Symphony

ANNIVERSARY

‘An art can only be learned in the workshop of those who are winning their bread by it.’ SAMUEL BUTLER, EREWHON (1872)

The Sydney Sinfonia – the fi rst 15 years

In 2001 Alexandra Mitchell won a place in the Sydney Symphony fi rst violin section. The appointment was a fi ne achievement for a talented young music graduate; it also represented one of the early success stories of the Sydney Sinfonia.

Alex was the fi rst of an ever-growing number of Sinfonia alumni to win a place in the Sydney Symphony. Since then she’s been joined by fellow violinists Brielle Clapson and Emily Long, violist Stuart Johnson, cellist Kristy Conrau, double bassists David Campbell and Benjamin Ward, oboists Shefali Pryor and David Papp, and timpanist and percussionist Mark Robinson. Further afi eld, alumni of the Sydney Sinfonia – and of the advanced Fellowship program – can be found in orchestras and ensembles throughout Australia and abroad.

These appointments are a source of pride because they show the Sinfonia program achieving precisely what it sets out to do: preparing talented young instrumentalists to take their places in professional orchestras, bridging the gap between formal institutional study and the challenges of a musician’s work in the real world.

At the heart of the program is a culture of mentoring. In the Sinfonia, the learning process is moved from the classroom to the rehearsal studio, as elite young musicians from throughout Australia sit alongside Sydney Symphony musicians and work with leading conductors, acquiring the expert knowledge that comes from combined years of practical experience.

The Sydney Sinfonia was established in 1996, the brainchild of Richard Gill and former Education Manager Margie Moore. Over the years it has grown, increasing the depth of opportunities it off ers, with mock auditions, workshops, and the Sinfonietta composition project. In addition to the Discovery concerts, the Sinfonia plays for Education Program’s Schools Concerts each year, and in 2010 they appeared for the fi rst time ‘Side-by-Side’ with the Sydney Symphony in the Meet the Music series.

The Sinfonia is 15 years old. Already it has won acclaim in Australia and around the world. It’s not unique – rather, it is a model of its kind. And we look forward to a future of providing the kind of ‘on the job’ training that an orchestral musician can gain nowhere else – in the workshop.

Sydney Sinfoniafounded 1996 supported by Leighton Holdings since 2002

Fellowship Program founded 2001supported by Premier Partner Credit Suisse in 2011

Sinfonietta Projectfounded 2006supported by Geoff & Vicki Ainsworth and the James N. Kirby Foundation

Education Programsupported by Tenix since 2004

AT CITY RECITAL HALL (2001) VIOLINIST ANTHEA HETHERINGTON (2001)

RUMON GAMBA CONDUCTING A WORKSHOP IN THE SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE (2006) YANNICK NÉZET-SÉGUIN WORKING WITH THE SINFONIA (2009)

(Left)FROM LEFT: LÉONIE ZIEGLER, REBECCA SEYMOUR, SUSAN DOBBIE (2003)

(Below)JONATHAN WEBB (R) WITH MENTOR ADRIAN WALLIS (2004)

(Left) FROM LEFT: DAVID PAPP, TAMASIN MELLER, KIRI BIRTLE, NICHOLAS CAVALLARO (2006)

(Below) SAMUEL CURKPATRICK & NICHOLAS CAVALLARO AT SOPA (2008)

ASHKENAZY CONDUCTING SINFONIA (2010) THOMAS ADÈS CONDUCTING ‘SIDE-BY-SIDE’ (2010)

DAMIEN ECKERSLEY & STEPHEN NEWTON (2006) BOTH NOW IN THE MSO

IRIT SILVER (2004) NOW PRINCIPAL CLARINET, QSO ON TOUR IN WOLLONGONG (2004)

Sydney Symphony education concerts are performed each year to both primary and secondary school students across the state.

60

Tenix. Proud Partner of the Sydney Symphony’s Education Program

Tenix is a leading provider of end-to-end services to owners of electricity, gas, water and other network, transport and industrial assets across Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific Islands and the USA. We design, construct, operate, maintain and manage assets and systems to deliver optimal results for owners and their customers.

www.tenix.com

Teothslasys

w

eptoseac

ToIss

w

Tenix is proud to be the presenting partner of the Sydney Symphony’s Education Program. At Tenix we focus on sustainable outcomes for our clients and congratulate the Sydney Symphony as they build the next generation of musical talent for the future.

9 | Sydney Symphony

PRESENTING PARTNER

2011 SEASON


DISCOVER LISZTMonday 14 March | 6.30pmCity Recital Hall Angel Place

Richard Gill conductor

LISZTPrometheus – Symphonic Poem

WEILLFirst movement from Symphony No.2

Sostenuto – Allegro molto (sustained – very fast)

This concert will be recorded for later broadcast on ABC Radio National.

The ABC Classics DVD based on the Discovery series can be purchased online atsydneysymphony.com/shop

10 | Sydney Symphony

DISCOVER…

FRANZ LISZT

Liszt was the quintessential 19th-century artist. More than perhaps any other composer, he embodied the contradictions of the Romantic age. He was a Byronic fi gure given to the occasional stormy love aff air, but a man of lifelong religious conviction who eventually took Holy Orders in the Catholic Church. He was an acolyte of forward-looking composers such as Berlioz and Wagner, but a staunch defender of the musical past, and the fi rst pianist to perform the full range of keyboard repertoire from Bach to Chopin. He was a cosmopolitan composer who drew infl uence from styles as diverse as Palestrina, Paganini, and contemporary opera, but a composer deeply aware of his Hungarian roots, whose gypsy-inspired rhapsodies convey a proud nationalist sentiment.

Much of the landscape of modern classical music owes its existence to Liszt. The concept of the ‘recital’ for solo piano is a Lisztian creation (he called them ‘monologues pianistiques’). It was Liszt who asserted that a conductor should be more than a director of musical traffi c, but the physical embodiment of the work’s spirit.

But it is Liszt’s music that forms his greatest legacy – in his works for piano and his symphonic poems for orchestra. In Liszt’s hands, the piano became an encyclopaedia of orchestral eff ects, from timpani rolls to celestial choirs. His music often stretches the musician’s physical limits; as the pianist Louis Kentner wrote: ‘Liszt knew what the piano could do, but rejected a priori that there should be anything it could not do. Liszt bent the piano to his will, as he bent music itself to his will.’ His vision for orchestral music transcended conventions of form and harmonic language and, as the inventor of the symphonic poem, he placed musical structures in the service of emotion and narrative.

Two centuries have passed since his birth, but Liszt remains a controversial fi gure. His fi ery temperament and overweening creative drive sometimes bested his critical judgement, and his music is not always considered a model of good taste. There is, however, no denying the sheer scope of his creative achievement. As one of his lovers put it, Liszt ‘threw his lance further into the future than anyone else’.

HUGH DAVIDSON ©2011

Franz (Ferenc) LisztBorn Raiding, 1811Died Bayreuth, 1886

He can be compared to no other player…he arouses fright and astonishment. He is an original…he is absorbed by the piano.

CLARA SCHUMANN


BU

ND

ESA

RC

HIV

BIL

D

Kurt WeillBorn Dessau, 1900Died New York City, 1950

KURT WEILL Symphony No.2 (1934)

Before he fl ed Germany in 1933, Kurt Weill had been earning his living as a synagogue organist and cabaret pianist. These two divergent occupations are refl ected in the diversity of musical styles he pursued as a composer. He was a student of Humperdinck and Busoni, and his early works reveal a somewhat intellectual approach and the infl uence of composers such as Alban Berg and Paul Hindemith. But with Hindemith he shared a deep concern for seeking ways in which music could be truly useful to society. This, combined with his cabaret experience, led to his work in theatre and his collaboration with playwright Bertolt Brecht. The pair wrote The Threepenny Opera (which includes the ‘Ballad of Mack the Knife’) in 1928 and this has become Weill’s single best-known major work.

His Second Symphony – premiered in 1934 under Bruno Walter in Amsterdam – was, in Weill’s words ‘conceived as a purely musical form’. It suggests a return to the classical framework of his earlier concert hall works, while revealing the infectious rhythms and bluesy gestures that characterise his theatre pieces. Some fi nd a refl ection of the dark events of 1932–33 in the general mood of the symphony, but Weill fi rmly disclaimed any specifi c scenario.

The fi rst movement is organised in classical sonata form, and in performances of the complete symphony it becomes apparent that the slow introduction (Sostenuto) contains the seeds of the whole work. There is a clarity and brilliance in the Allegro molto and Weill reveals – not for the fi rst time – his profound love for the music of Mozart.

The Second Symphony was warmly received by the public, but the critics, who knew Weill only from The Threepenny Opera, were disconcerted by an apparent change of tack and by the unusual character of the work. Walter subsequently conducted the symphony in New York and in Vienna, where it attracted generally favourable notices. But performances in Hitler’s Germany were, of course, impossible, and the work vanished from the European musical scene after 1937. In Australia it remains neglected: records suggest it has been programmed only twice in nearly eight decades of ABC concert presentations.

ADAPTED IN PART FROM A NOTE BY DAVID DREW

In forming this unlikely combination of Franz Liszt and Kurt Weill, Richard Gill seized upon a common characteristic of the two composers. ‘They are both great harmonic innovators,’ he says, ‘and each had an absolutely unique voice. Nobody else wrote they way they did.’


PRESENTING PARTNER



2011 SEASON


DISCOVERRESPIGHI & RAVELMonday 2 May | 6.30pmCity Recital Hall Angel Place


RESPIGHITwo movements from The Birds

Preludio The Cuckoo

RAVELTwo movements from Mother Goose

Laideronnette, Empress of the Pagodas (in the style of a march)The Magical Garden (slow and solemn)

DISCOVER…

Ottorino RespighiBorn Bologna, 1879Died Rome, 1936

OTTORINO RESPIGHI

Performer and composer, teacher and musicologist, Ottorino Respighi was one of the most popular musicians of his day. He studied piano and violin from a young age, and his formal training took place at the Liceo Musicale in Bologna. He then spent several months as an orchestral violist in Russia where he also had a few – but according to him ‘very important’ – composition lessons with Rimsky-Korsakov. In 1913 he moved to Rome and took up a post teaching composition at the Liceo Musicale di S. Cecilia where he would teach until 1935 (including a three-year stint as director of the institute).

It’s through his orchestral works that Respighi is best known today but his output also includes a number of operas, vocal works, ballet scores, concertos and pieces for chamber ensemble. A number of his works (including The Birds) present impressions of particular places and activities – his Roman Trilogy (Pines, Fountains and Festivals) is probably the most famous of his ‘impressionistic’ works, but he also wrote a suite of three Brazilian Impressions after a visit to Rio de Janeiro. In addition to composing and teaching at the Liceo, Respighi also dabbled in musicology and his interest in Italian music of the 16th to 18th centuries can be heard in several of his compositions, most notably in his Ancient Airs and Dances, three suites of music in the Baroque style.

The fi ve-movement orchestral suite Gli uccelli (The Birds) is another of his works that bears the infl uence of past composers. With this piece, Respighi joined the long list of composers who have been inspired by birdsong and the suite includes musical nods to the hen, the dove, the nightingale and the cuckoo. Furthermore, each movement is freely transcribed from the music of a composer from the Baroque era. In both the Prelude (which hints at the musical themes to come) and the fi nal movement The Cuckoo (with its distinctive two-note call), Respighi borrowed from keyboard works by the Italian composer Bernardo Pasquini. The suite is scored for a small orchestra and Respighi exploits all the instruments (including celesta and harp) to imitate the sounds of each bird.

ALEXANDRA PINKHAM ©2011


Maurice RavelBorn Ciboure, 1875Died Paris, 1937

MAURICE RAVEL

Before he became a composer, Ravel thought that he wanted to be a pianist. He spent six years studying piano at the Paris Conservatoire without much success – as his friend Ricardo Viñes pointed out, ‘Ravel didn’t love the piano so much as he loved music.’ Nevertheless, Ravel’s piano skills were to remain fundamental in his approach to composition. Not only did he make several important contributions to the piano repertoire (including two concertos and the notoriously diffi cult Gaspard de le nuit), but many of his orchestral scores were initially written as piano pieces.

Ravel was a perfectionist. As a composer, he liked to take his time and plan a piece logically, always aiming to get as close as possible to ‘technical perfection’. He also refused to reveal anything about a composition, even to close friends, until it was complete – just as he would not allow himself to be seen in public without fi rst having taken the utmost care over his clothes and appearance.

By 1908, when he began writing Mother Goose (Ma Mère l’Oye), Ravel was well-established as one of France’s leading composers. He was seen, together with Debussy, as breaking away from the stuff y traditional ways of the Paris Conservatoire (which had denied him the Prix de Rome composition prize fi ve times) and leading a new approach to music, especially to harmony.

Ravel originally wrote Mother Goose as a piano duet for Mimi and Jean Godebski, children of a friend. He completed it in 1910, while procrastinating about a commission for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, Daphnis et Chloé. The following year, with Daphnis et Chloé still incomplete, Ravel turned Mother Goose into a ballet for the Théâtre des Arts, orchestrating it and adding an introduction and some interludes. Put together, Mother Goose is a musical collection of the stories that Ravel loved telling Mimi and Jean. As Mimi later recalled: ‘I used to climb on his knee and indefatigably he would begin, “Once upon a time…” And it would be Laideronnette or Beauty and the Beast or, especially, the adventures of a poor mouse that he made up for me. I used to laugh uproariously at these and then feel guilty because they were really very sad.’

DAVID LAN G ©2011


MORE MUSICMORE MUSIC – CONCERTS & BROADCASTS

Sydney Symphony Online

Mobile appDownload our app (iPhone, Android or any smartphone supporting mobile internet) to stay up to date with concert information, program books, recordings and webcasts.www.sydneysymphony.com/mobile_app

Stay TunedSign up to receive our fortnightly e-newslettersydneysymphony.com/staytuned

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

Join us on Facebook facebook.com/sydneysymphony

Follow us on Twitter twitter.com/sydsymph

Have your sayTell us what you thought of the concertsydneysymphony.com/yoursayor email: [email protected]

If one of these Discovery concerts has whet your appetite to hear more music by the featured composers, seek out these concerts in the Sydney Symphony’s 2011 season.

16 MayAmi and Pascal Rogé play the two-piano version of La Valse by RAVEL in a duo recital of French and German repertoire at City Recital Hall.

29 June, 1, 2 JulyLISZT’s symphonic poem Tasso, Lament and Triumph begins a program with Schumann’s piano concerto and RAVEL’s brilliant orchestration of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition.

8, 9, 11 JulyJS BACH’s Orchestral Suite No.2, featuring Berlin Philharmonic fl autist Emmanuel Pahud, sets the scene for a program featuring Holst’s suite The Planets.

1 AugustFreddy Kempf plays LISZT and Beethoven piano works at City Recital Hall.

19 AugustSoprano Sara Macliver and organist David Drury perform music by BACH and other composers in a Tea & Symphony matinee.

8, 9, 10, 12 SeptemberHear a complete performance of RESPIGHI’s suite The Birds in our Roman Holiday program, which ends with Mendelssohn’s sunny Italian Symphony.

15 SeptemberEvgeny Kissin plays an all-LISZT recital.

12, 13, 14, 15 OctoberThe Sydney Symphony plays the complete ‘New World’ Symphony by DVORÁK with music by Lutoslawski and Mozart.

3 NovemberAnne Sofi e von Otter sings some of the songs WEILL composed for Broadway. Also on this gala program: RAVEL’s Tzigane – a stunning gypsy-inspired work for violin and orchestra.

1, 2, 3 DecemberHear The Lost Art of Letter Writing, the violin concerto that won Brett DEAN the Grawemeyer award. A Brahms

Beyond Discovery

Selected Sydney Symphony concerts are recorded for webcast by BigPond and are available for later listening on demand. Visit: bigpondmusic.com/sydneysymphony

Webcasts

2MBS-FM 102.5

SYDNEY SYMPHONY 2011

2MBS-FM broadcasts a regular Sydney Symphony spot at 6pm on the second Tuesday of each month. Tune in to hear musicians, staff and guest artists discuss what’s in store in our forthcoming concerts and to hear previews of the music.

Most Sydney Symphony concerts are recorded by ABC Classic FM for live or delayed broadcast and broadcast listings can be found at www.abc.net.au/classic

In addition, concerts in the Discovery series are recorded by ABC Radio National for later broadcast.

Broadcast Diary

overture and Schubert’s Great C Major Symphony complete the program. Frank Peter Zimmermann, the concerto’s dedicatee, is the soloist.

All concerts at the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall unless specifi ed. Visit www.sydneysymphony.com for more information and tickets, or call (02) 8215 4600.

See page 24 for recommended recordings of the featured composers.


PRESENTING PARTNER



2011 SEASON


DISCOVER DVORÁK Monday 29 August | 6.30pmCity Recital Hall Angel Place


DVORÁKFirst movement from Symphony No.9 in E minor (From the New World)

Adagio – Allegro molto (Slow – Very fast)

COPLANDShaker Melody from Appalachian Spring

DISCOVER…

Antonín DvorákBorn Nelahozeves, near Prague, 1841Died Prague, 1904

ANTONÍN DVORÁK

The surge of nationalistic fervour which came to dominate European politics in the 19th century was particularly important to cultures that had traditionally occupied marginal positions on the world stage. Folk traditions formerly dismissed as rustic or primitive were sought out and preserved, and ‘national fl avour’ became an essential element in Romantic musical aesthetics. The Czech region of Bohemia (at the time a subject state within the Austrian Empire) was no exception to this tendency: Bohemian nationalist sentiment made its presence felt even in the late 1700s, and the desire for a recognised political, linguistic, and musical identity intensifi ed over the course of the following century.

So it is not surprising that Bohemian composer Antonín Dvorák should have built his career on a foundation of nationally tinged works such as his ever-popular Slavonic Dances (1878). Although cultural tensions in Vienna during the 1880s somewhat dampened expressions of ‘minority’ nationalism, by the 1890s Dvorák’s eminence was established both at home and internationally. In 1891 he became a professor of composition and instrumentation at the Prague Conservatory with a reputation as an eff ective – albeit tempestuous – teacher. But it was his reputation as a nationalistic composer which prompted Jeanette Thurber to invite Dvorák to become Artistic Director of her National Conservatory of Music in New York City. True to the prevailing political atmosphere, the United States was eager to establish its cultural identity independent of imported European ideas, so it is not without irony that a European composer should have been entrusted with this endeavour.

Dvorák arrived in America in September 1892, and lived in the United States for the next three years. Despite the plagued homesickness that plagued him, the composer’s American period was undeniably productive. As well as tutoring young composers, who introduced him to Native- and African-American musics, Dvorák also created some of his own best-loved works including his famed Cello Concerto in B minor, the ‘American’ String Quartet, and of course the ‘New World’ Symphony. Dvorák’s pedagogical activities in New York also left their mark: many of his American students became teachers themselves and went on to shape generations of quintessentially American composers, including Charles Ives, George Gershwin and Aaron Copland.

ANGHARAD DAVIS ©2011

Dvorák much preferred rural to urban life, but New York had its compensations: he was a keen pigeon-fancier and train-spotter, and was able to enjoy both – at Central Park and Grand Central Station.


Aaron CoplandBorn Brooklyn, 1900Died North Tarrytown NY (now Sleepy Hollow), 1990

COPLAND Appalachian Spring: Shaker Melody

In 1942, American music patron Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge attended a performance by the Martha Graham Dance Company. Moved by what she had seen, she decided to commission three composers of Miss Graham’s choice to compose ballets for the company. Martha Graham chose Darius Milhaud, Paul Hindemith, and Aaron Copland.

Copland’s submission became the atmospheric ballet Appalachian Spring (written in 1943–44), with a scenario about a marriage in the rural country of the Appalachian Mountains. It was composed for a chamber orchestra of 13 instruments, as many as could fi t into the orchestra pit; Copland later made a version for full orchestra.

The melodies in the ballet score suggest pioneer songs and dances and the spirit of the American frontier. But Copland himself was adamant that the only genuine American ‘folk tune’ used in the ballet was ‘Simple Gifts’ – a dance-song by Elder Joseph Brackett of the Shakers which, said Copland, had been previously unknown to the general public.

In the ballet, the Shaker melody and its fi ve variations accompanied scenes of daily activity for the bride and her farmer husband. The tune evokes the values of simplicity and directness. With the benefi t of hindsight, we can tell that much of Graham’s aesthetic and her spare, restrained choreographic style was in accord with Copland’s own compositional inclinations, and which we associate now with the typical American sound. ‘Plain, plain, plain!’ said Leonard Bernstein in admiration, ‘…one of those Puritan values like being fair – you’re thrifty.’

And there is indeed something in Copland’s music, his Enlightened Popular style – the wide-open folksy breeziness, the stoic heroism of melodies constructed from stark intervals, the simple colours of the orchestration – which has come to represent ‘good Yankee values’: solidity, sobriety, industriousness, family and community spirit. ’Tis the gift to be simple, ’tis the gift to be free, ’Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be,And when we fi nd ourselves in the place just right, ’Twill be in the valley of love and delight.When true simplicity is gain’d, To bow and to bend we shan’t be asham’d,To turn, turn will be our delight, Till by turning, turning we come round right.

ADAPTED FROM NOTES BY DAVID GARRETT AND GORDON KALTON WILLIAMS

‘Appalachian Spring had a great deal to do with bringing my name before a larger public,’ recalled Copland in later years. His orchestration of ‘Simple Gifts’ has become a secondary American anthem.


PRESENTING PARTNER



2011 SEASON


DISCOVER BRETT DEAN Monday 10 October | 6.30pmCity Recital Hall Angel Place


DEANEtüdenfest for string orchestra and offstage piano

JS BACHFirst movement from Brandenburg Concerto No.3 in G, BWV 1048

Allegro (fast)


DISCOVER…

Brett DeanBorn Brisbane, 1961

BRETT DEAN

Australian composer Brett Dean has a special relationship to the orchestra. After training as a violist at the Queensland Conservatorium in Brisbane, he held a permanent position with the Berliner Philharmoniker for 14 years. It was during this time that he began to compose music, quickly receiving recognition for early works such as Ariel’s Music for clarinet and orchestra (1995), winner of an award from the UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers. He left the Berliner Philharmoniker in 1998 to focus on composing, but his experience performing with the orchestra has had a lasting impact on his work. His insider’s knowledge of string instruments is tangible, especially in pieces such as Etüdenfest, which employs a full palette of characteristic string sounds, textures, colours and techniques.

Another consequence of Dean’s performing career has been his contact with a large number of young instrumentalists. He has a keen interest in shaping the next generation of music makers, and held the position of Artistic Director of the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM) until 2010. In fact, Etüdenfest grew out of a winter week of masterclasses at ANAM in 1997, at which the students worked in detail on etudes (technical studies) and exercises as well as concert repertoire. For the closing concert Dean presented the students with extracts from well-known studies by the grandfathers of modern string technique as the basis for a prepared group improvisation.

These etudes, as Dean observes, are the ‘most uninspiring and mechanical examples of musical composition.…[They] aren’t meant to be concert caprices in the manner of Paganini. This is the very stuff of fi rst putting hands on fi ngerboards and hair on strings, of changing position and getting from the heel of the bow to the tip.’ But he was so inspired by the results of the improvisation that he developed a fully notated version for the Australian Chamber Orchestra, who premiered it in 2000 with Imogen Cooper playing the off stage piano part.

As a composer, Dean has been highly successful – he was the fi rst Australian to win the coveted Grawemeyer international composition prize for his 2006 violin concerto, The Lost Art of Letter Writing. He has been commissioned and regularly performed by the world’s leading orchestras and festivals, including his old orchestra, the celebrated Berliner Philharmoniker.

HANNAH REARDON-SMITH ©2011

‘This music that was written never to be performed was one of the performance highlights of the week. We had turned this “boring technical stuff” into a sound world all of its own.’

DEAN DESCRIBES THE ‘PREPARED IMPROVISATION’ WHICH LED TO ETÜDENFEST

The Sydney Symphony will give the Sydney premiere of The Lost Art of Letter Writing in December (see page 16).


Johann Sebastian BachBorn Eisenach, 1685Died Leipzig, 1750

JS BACH Brandenburg Concerto No.3 in G

In May 1721 the Margrave of Brandenburg received a carefully copied presentation manuscript headed ‘Six concertos with several instruments’. The concertos were by Johann Sebastian Bach – composed at diff erent times when Bach was in the service of the court of Anhalt-Cöthen (1718–1721) and suited to particular players available there. The great 19th-century Bach scholar, Spitta, began referring to the six concertos in shorthand by the name of their dedicatee, and so these masterpieces became known as the ‘Brandenburg concertos’.

Each of the concertos is for a diff erent combination of instruments, and the third concerto (BWV 1048) has an affi nity with Dean’s Etüdenfest in that it is scored for a string orchestra with a keyboard continuo role (essentially the ‘rhythm section’ in Baroque music). Although the strings are arranged in three groups of equal strength, the writing for each instrument is equally virtuosic at times. This is the most ‘symphonic’ of the Brandenburgs, but in using a homogenous group of instruments it also harks back to the traditions of consort music from the Renaissance. The musical style is characterised by the propulsive rhythms, melodic freshness and contrapuntal ingenuity that made Bach the towering genius of the baroque period.

ADAPTED FROM A NOTE BY DAVID GARRETT

The Discovery composer profi les in this program have been written by the Sydney Symphony’s 2010 Publications Inter n, and by recent graduates of the AYO Music Presentation Fellowship, which provides opportunities for training and experience in publishing and broadcasting through organisations such as the Sydney Symphony and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

EVERYONE HAS A STORY

FAB19523_Bio Landscape Strip Ad_FA.indd 1 1/02/11 5:02 PM


MORE MUSICMORE MUSIC – RECORDINGS

Sydney Symphony Online

Mobile appDownload our app (iPhone, Android or any smartphone supporting mobile internet) to stay up to date with concert information, program books, recordings and webcasts.www.sydneysymphony.com/mobile_app

Stay TunedSign up to receive our fortnightly e-newslettersydneysymphony.com/staytuned

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

Join us on Facebook facebook.com/sydneysymphony

Follow us on Twitter twitter.com/sydsymph

Have your sayTell us what you thought of the concertsydneysymphony.com/yoursayor email: [email protected]

LISZT

For a superb introduction to Liszt’s music that won’t break the bank, snap up a copy of Ultimate Liszt, a 5-CD set drawing together classic performances of some of his greatest music for orchestra and for solo piano. DECCA ELOQUENCE 478 0235

RESPIGHI

If you’re getting to know the music of Respighi, you’ll want to hear the brilliant orchestral works that make up his ‘Roman Trilogy’ (Fountains of Rome, Pines of Rome and Roman Festivals). All three can be found on The Essential Respighi, in performances conducted by Ernest Anserment (Suisse Romande Orchestra), Lorin Maazel (Cleveland Orchestra) and Charles Dutoit (Montreal Symphony Orchestra) respectively. Also on the 2-CD set: Botticelli Triptych and The Birds in a performance by István Kertész and the London Symphony Orchestra.DECCA 443759

For more Respighi ‘under the infl uence’ of early music, there are the three sets of Ancient Airs and Dances, recorded by Antal Doráti and Philharmonia Hungarica in 1958.MERCURY LIVING PRESENCE 434304

RAVEL

For a comprehensive collection of Ravel’s brilliantly coloured orchestral music for the concert hall and the theatre, you can’t go past the 2-CD collection featuring recordings by Charles Dutoit and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. This set has everything, from Boléro to La Valse, and includes the orchestral version of Mother Goose.DECCA 460 214

Selected Discography

It’s also worth listening to Ravel’s original piano duet version of Mother Goose, which is included in Ravel: Music for Four Hands played by Louis Lortie and Hélène Mercier. Also on the disc in Ravel’s own piano versions: Rapsodie espagnole, Bolero, La Valse and the Introduction and Allegro (originally for harp, fl ute, clarinet and string quartet).CHANDOS 8905

DVORÁK

The ‘New World’ Symphony is easily Dvorák’s most popular symphony (if not the most popular symphony of all!) and there are more than 200 recordings to choose from. But for something close to home (both for Dvorák and for Australians), try Charles Mackerras’s ‘New World’ with the Prague Symphony Orchestra, recorded in 2005 with Symphony No.8.SUPRAPHON 3848

DEAN

To hear Brett Dean’s Etüdenfest, seek out the recording from the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra’s Australian Composer Series. Testament, an all-Dean disc conducted by Sebastian Lang-Lessing, includes Shadow Music, Between Moments and Game Over. ABC CLASSICS 476 3219

For more Dean, and to hear Brett as soloist in his Viola Concerto, we must recommend our own recording, which also includes Twelve Angry Men, composed for the 12 cellos of the Berliner Philharmoniker, and Komarov’s Fall.SSO 200702

See page 16 for details of Sydney Symphony concerts featuring this year’s Discovery composers, and for broadcast and webcast information.


ABOUT THE CONDUCTOR

RICHARD GILL conductor

Richard Gill is internationally respected as a music educator, specialising in opera, musical theatre and vocal and choral training. In addition to his role as Artistic Director of the Sydney Symphony’s Education Program, he is Music Director of Victorian Opera. He has also been Artistic Director of OzOpera, Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Canberra Symphony Orchestra and the Adviser for the Musica Viva in Schools program.

In recent seasons he has conducted Sydney Symphony Meet the Music concerts and Discovery concerts with the Sydney Sinfonia, as well as directing the Sinfonietta Project. He has also conducted the Melbourne, Queensland, Tasm anian and Canberra symphony orchestras, Orchestra Victoria, Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, and the Australian, Western Australian and Sydney youth orchestras. In addition to OzOpera and Victorian Opera, he has conducted for Opera Australia and Opera Queensland. He also conducted The World’s Biggest Singing Lesson at the UWA Perth International Arts Festival and Sing Your Own Opera at the Melbourne International Festival of the Arts, and was Chairman of the Jury for the ABC/OA Operatunity OZ project (2005–06).

His diverse operatic repertoire encompasses baroque opera, core works such as The Marriage of Figaro and Rigoletto, operetta and 20th-century classics. His productions for Victorian Opera have included a Stravinsky double bill (Les Noces and Oedipus Rex), Così fan tutte, The Coronation of Poppea, Noyes Fludde, The Snow Queen, Don Giovanni, Duke Bluebeard’s Castle and Ariadne auf Naxos.

An advocate for new music, he has conducted premiere performances of Rembrandt’s Wife (Andrew Ford), The Love of the Nightingale (Richard Mills, Brisbane and Melbourne premiere seasons), Lindy (Moya Henderson), The Eighth Wonder and Through the Looking Glass (Alan John). His music theatre repertoire includes Jonathan Mills’ Ghost Wife and Eternity Man.

Richard Gill’s numerous accolades include an Order of Australia Medal, the Bernard Heinze Award, an Honorary Doctorate from the Edith Cowan University of Western Australia, the Australian Music Centre’s award for Most Distinguished Contribution to the Presentation of Australian Composition by an individual, and the Australia Council’s prestigious Don Banks Award.

JEFF

BU

SB

Y

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, EDUCATIONSANDRA & PAUL SALTERI CHAIR


MUSICIANS

Sydney Sinfonia

VIOLINS

Fiona ZieglerKirsty HiltonMarina MarsdenAmber DavisSusan DobbieMaria DurekEmma HayesAlexandra MitchellLéone ZieglerJi Won Kim†Freya Franzen†Ella BennettsNadia BuckJack ChenowethNatasha ConrauSusannah CumingDavid DalsenoRebecca GillReafen LiuNicole MastersAnna O’BrienClare Miller Tristan SelkeKelly TangJason Tong

VIOLAS

Anne-Louise ComerfordJane HazelwoodFelicity TsaiRosemary Curtin*Tara Houghton†Lisa BucknellNicole Greentree James MunroJamie PollockNeil ThompsonVivian Wheatley

CELLOS

Kristy ConrauFenella GillAdam Szabo†Eleanor BettsEslee HwangBernadette MorrisonTimmothy OborneDavina Shum

DOUBLE BASSES

Kees BoersmaDavid CampbellSteven LarsonRichard LynnHugh Kluger†James Menzies Robin BrawleyRohan DasikaShandelle Horsford

FLUTES

Janet Webb Emma Sholl Carolyn Harris Katie Zagorski†Vanessa Ropa

OBOES

Diana DohertyAlexandre OgueyDavid PappEmmanuel CassimatisSarah Young

CLARINETS

Lawrence DobellFrancesco CelataRowena Watts†

BASSOONS

Roger BrookeNoriko Shimada Melissa Woodroffe†

HORNS

Robert JohnsonBen JacksKaty Grisdale†Sebastian DunnClaire LinquistSharn McIver Francesco Lo Surdo

TRUMPETS

Daniel MendelowPaul GoodchildPhill O’Neill

TROMBONES

Ronald PrussingScott KinmontBen Lovell-GreeneMitchell Nissen Mitchell Staines

TUBAS

Steve Rossé Antonio Neilley- Menéndez De LlanoDuncan Spry

TIMPANI & PERCUSSION

Rebecca LagosColin PiperAndrew Kut ChanMonica LeeKaylie Melville

HARPS

Louise JohnsonNatalie Wong

Italic = Sydney Symphony Mentor Musician

* = Guest Mentor Musician

† = Sydney Symphony Fellow

This list shows all the Sydney Sinfonia members and mentors for 2011. To see the orchestra lists for individual Discovery performances, please visit http://www.sydneysymphony.com/education/discovery/discovery_2011/ in the week of each concert

Vladimir AshkenazyPrincipal Conductor and Artistic AdvisorK

EITH

SA

UN

DER

S

Michael DauthConcertmasterK

EITH

SA

UN

DER

S

Dene OldingConcertmasterK

EITH

SA

UN

DER

S


SALUTE

Presenting Partner Education Program

Presenting PartnerSydney Sinfonia

Sandra & Paul SalteriPrincipal Patrons of Richard Gill OAM,Artistic Director

SYDNEY SYMPHONY FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM

Mrs Warwick Stening Principal Patron

Robert Albert AO & Elizabeth Albert

Sandra & Neil Burns

Dr Bruno & Mrs Rhonda Giuffre

Mrs Tempe Merewether OAM

Greg & Kerry Paramor and Equity Real Estate Partners

June & Alan Woods Family Bequest

Tenix

SINFONIETTA

Geoff & Vicki Ainsworth

James N. Kirby Foundation

ALLEGRO EDUCATION FUND

Brian Abel

Ian & Jennifer Burton

Bob & Julie Clampett

THE PARTNER

Leighton Holdings is delighted to join with the Sydney Symphony as Presenting Partner of the Sydney Sinfonia.

The Sydney Sinfonia’s unique structure and format drives a dynamic culture of professional development and innovative performance, benefi ting not only the young musicians involved but also contributing to a greater understanding of classical music within the community regardless of age.

Leighton Holdings’ corporate community investment program is focused on developing long-term partnerships with organisations that build Australia’s future skills base. We are proud to support the current and future generations of talented orchestral musicians as they entertain, educate and inspire us.

David Stewart CEO, Leighton Holdings

PLAYING YOUR PART Richard Gill, the Sydney Symphony’s acclaimed educator and musician, has worked with Australia’s leading musicians and music teachers to create our innovative and world-renowned Education Program. We bridge the gap between classroom and concert hall by producing high quality resources and off ering development programs to assist teachers, giving inspiring concerts to school children and awarding fellowships to postgraduate musicians.

To support our activities and help enrich our community with the wonder of music, please contribute by making a donation.

Call Caroline Sharpen (02) 8215 4619, email [email protected] or write to Sydney Symphony, GPO Box 4972, Sydney NSW 2001

EDUCATION PROGRAMOur range of programs encourages people to respond to music in a number of ways. They include: School Concerts for all ages, with supporting educational materials and professional development seminars for teachers; Playerlink and Regional Tours, bringing the orchestra to children in regional areas; Sydney Sinfonia, tonight’s ensemble, providing a career pathway and mentoring for emerging professional musicians; Sydney Symphony Sinfonietta, an elite ensemble drawn from the Sinfonia to perform contemporary repertoire and nurture young composers; Sydney Symphony Fellowship Program, providing opportunities for young professional musicians to work closely with the orchestra and to enhance their skills through work on chamber music repertoire; and Discovery, a concert series for adults that examines how orchestral music works.

For more information email [email protected]


SALUTE

PRINCIPAL PARTNER

PLATINUM PARTNERS

PREMIER PARTNER

MAJOR PARTNERS

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


GOLD PARTNERS

REGIONAL TOUR PARTNERS

SILVER PARTNERS

The Sydney Symphony applauds the leadership role our Partners play and their commitment to excellence, innovation and creativity.

BRONZE PARTNER MARKETING PARTNER

Emanate 2MBS 102.5 Sydney’s Fine Music Station

PATRONS

The Sydney Symphony gratefully acknowledges the many music lovers who contribute to the Orchestra by becoming Symphony Patrons. Every donation plays an important part in the success of the Sydney Symphony’s wide ranging programs.

A City of Sydney Venue | LORD MAYOR Clover Moore Managed by PEGASUS VENUE MANAGEMENT (AP) PTY LTDFOUNDER Christopher Rix MANAGEMENT AND STAFFGENERAL MANAGER. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Bronwyn EdingerMARKETING MANAGER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Gina Anker TECHNICAL MANAGER. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Cally Bartley FUNCTIONS & BAR MANAGER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Paul BerkeleyTECHNICIAN. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Donald Brierley MARKETING ASSISTANT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Kim BussellEVENT COORDINATOR. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Katie ChristouVENUE SERVICES MANAGER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .James Cox BOX OFFICE ASSISTANT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Adam Griffi thsACCOUNTS COORDINATOR. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Kerry JohnstonFOH MANAGER. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Barbara Keffel PUBLICIST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Cassie Lawton OPERATIONS MANAGER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Graham Parsons EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Rosemary PenmanOPERATIONS ASSISTANT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Vico ThaiBOX OFFICE MANAGER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Craig ThurmerTECHNICIAN. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Jeff ToddBOX OFFICE ASSISTANT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Rachel Walton

CITY RECITAL HALL ANGEL PLACE2–12 Angel Place, Sydney, Australia GPO Box 3339, Sydney, NSW 2001Administration: 02 9231 9000 Box Offi ce: 02 8256 2222 or 1300 797 118Facsimile: 02 9233 6652 Website: www.cityrecitalhall.com

Clocktower Square, Argyle Street, The Rocks NSW 2000GPO Box 4972, Sydney NSW 2001Telephone (02) 8215 4644Box Offi ce (02) 8215 4600Facsimile (02) 8215 4646www.sydneysymphony.com

All rights reserved, no part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing. The opinions expressed in this publication do not necessarily refl ect the beliefs of the editor, publisher or any distributor of the programs. While every effort has been made to ensure accuracy of statements in this publication, we cannot accept responsibility for any errors or omissions, or for matters arising from clerical or printers’ errors. Every effort has been made to secure permission for copyright material prior to printing.

Please address all correspondence to the Publications Editor: Email [email protected]

SYMPHONY SERVICES INTERNATIONALSuite 2, Level 5, 1 Oxford Street, Darlinghurst NSW 2010PO Box 1145, Darlinghurst NSW 1300Telephone (02) 8622 9400 Facsimile (02) 8622 9422www.symphonyinternational.net

PAPER PARTNER

All enquiries for advertising space in this publication should be directed to the above company and address. Entire concept copyright. Reproduction without permission in whole or in part of any material contained herein is prohibited. Title ‘Playbill’ is the registered title of Playbill Proprietary Limited. Title ‘Showbill’ is the registered title of Showbill Proprietary Limited. By arrangement with the Sydney Symphony, this publication is offered free of charge to its patrons subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s consent in writing. It is a further condition that this publication shall not be circulated in any form of binding or cover than that in which it was published, or distributed at any other event than specifi ed on the title page of this publication 16338 — 1/070311 — 6P

This is a PLAYBILL / SHOWBILL publication. Playbill Proprietary Limited / Showbill Proprietary Limited ACN 003 311 064 ABN 27 003 311 064Head Office: Suite A, Level 1, Building 16, Fox Studios Australia, Park Road North, Moore Park NSW 2021PO Box 410, Paddington NSW 2021Telephone: +61 2 9921 5353 Fax: +61 2 9449 6053 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.playbill.com.auChairman Brian Nebenzahl OAM, RFD Managing Director Michael Nebenzahl Editorial Director Jocelyn Nebenzahl Manager—Production & Graphic Design Debbie ClarkeManager—Production—Classical Music Alan ZieglerOperating in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Hobart & Darwin

MANAGING DIRECTOR

Rory JeffesEXECUTIVE TEAM ASSISTANT

Lisa Davies-Galli

ARTISTIC OPERATIONSDIRECTOR OF ARTISTIC PLANNING

Peter Czornyj

Artistic AdministrationARTISTIC ADMINISTRATION MANAGER

Elaine ArmstrongARTIST LIAISON MANAGER

Ilmar LeetbergRECORDING ENTERPRISE MANAGER

Philip Powers

Education ProgramsEDUCATION MANAGER

Kim WaldockARTIST DEVELOPMENT MANAGER

Bernie HeardEDUCATION COORDINATOR

Rachel McLarin

LibraryLIBRARIAN

Anna CernikLIBRARY ASSISTANT

Victoria GrantLIBRARY ASSISTANT

Mary-Ann Mead

DEVELOPMENTHEAD OF CORPORATE RELATIONS

Leann MeiersCORPORATE RELATIONS EXECUTIVE

Julia OwensCORPORATE RELATIONS EXECUTIVE

Stephen Attfi eldHEAD OF PHILANTHROPY & PUBLIC AFFAIRS

Caroline SharpenPHILANTHROPY & PUBLIC AFFAIRS EXECUTIVE

Kylie AnaniaDEVELOPMENT COORDINATOR

Amelia Morgan-Hunn

SALES AND MARKETINGDIRECTOR OF SALES & MARKETING

Mark J ElliottSENIOR MARKETING MANAGER,SINGLE SALES

Penny EvansMARKETING MANAGER, SUBSCRIPTION SALES

Simon Crossley-MeatesMARKETING MANAGER, CLASSICAL SALES

Matthew RiveMARKETING MANAGER, BUSINESS RESOURCES

Katrina Riddle

ONLINE MANAGER

Eve Le GallMARKETING & MEDIA SERVICES COORDINATOR

Alison Martin DATA ANALYST

Varsha Karnik

Box Offi ceMANAGER OF BOX OFFICE SALES & OPERATIONS

Lynn McLaughlinMANAGER OF BOX OFFICE OPERATIONS

Natasha PurkissMANAGER OF SALES & SERVICE

Mark BarnesCUSTOMER SERVICE REPRESENTATIVES

Steve ClarkeMichael DowlingErich GockelJohn Robertson

COMMUNICATIONSHEAD OF COMMUNICATIONS

Yvonne ZammitPUBLICIST

Katherine Stevenson

PublicationsPUBLICATIONS EDITOR & MUSIC PRESENTATION MANAGER

Yvonne Frindle

ORCHESTRA MANAGEMENTDIRECTOR OF ORCHESTRA MANAGEMENT

Aernout KerbertDEPUTY ORCHESTRA MANAGER

Lisa MullineuxORCHESTRAL COORDINATOR

Georgia StamatopoulosOPERATIONS MANAGER

Kerry-Anne CookTECHNICAL MANAGER

Derek CouttsPRODUCTION COORDINATOR

Tim DaymanPRODUCTION COORDINATOR

Ian SpenceSTAGE MANAGER

Peter Gahan

BUSINESS SERVICESDIRECTOR OF FINANCE

John HornFINANCE MANAGER

Ruth TolentinoASSISTANT ACCOUNTANT

Minerva PrescottACCOUNTS ASSISTANT

Li LiPAYROLL OFFICER

Usef Hoosney

HUMAN RESOURCESHUMAN RESOURCES MANAGER

Anna Kearsley

Sydney Symphony Staff

presented by tenix · presented by tenix city recital hall ... classical music to primary and...

Documents