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PROGRAM September 1

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CONTENTSSEPTEMBER

2 PROGRAM September2 PROGRAM September

Conductor Benjamin Northey Host Guy Noble

Flute Alexis Kenny Soloists from the Lisa Gasteen

National Opera School Soprano Petah Chapman

Baritone Samuel Piper

SUN 6 SEPT 11.30AM

QPAC Concert Hall

MUSIC ON SUNDAYS

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PROGRAM September 3

PROGRAM NOTES

Alexander Borodin (1833-1887)Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908)Scheherazade – The Sea and Sinbad’s Ship

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)None but the Lonely Heart Samuel Piper

Modest Mussorgsky (1839-1881)arr. Rimsky-Korsakov Khovanschina: Prelude (Dawn on the Moscow River

Sergei Rachmaninov (1873-1943)How Fair this Spot Petah Chapman

TchaikovskySymphony No.4 in F minor Scherzo (Pizzicato ostinato)

Saverio Mercadante (1795-1870)Flute Concerto in E minor Alexis Kenny

TchaikovskyT’will soon be midnight from The Queen of Spades Petah Chapman

TchaikovskySymphony No.5 in E minor Valse (Allegro moderato)

Mussorgsky arr. RavelPictures at an Exhibition: The Hut on Hen’s Legs The Great Gate of Kiev

Imperial Russia began with Peter the Great’s declaration of the empire in 1721. The composers Borodin, Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky and Rimsky-Korsakov were all born in the reign of Nicholas I, the eleventh of the undisputed Imperial rulers.

Few musicians of the time were full-time professional composers. Borodin was actually an industrial chemist. In fact, the group of nationalist composers to which Borodin belonged (the ‘Mighty Handful’ or ‘The Five’ – comprising himself, Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Cui and Balakirev) made a virtue of amateurism; what they lacked in polish, they made up for in ‘authenticity’. Borodin’s Polovtsian Dances come from his opera Prince Igor. Polovtsy is the Russian word for the Turkic or Asiatic people living east of the Volga river. The Dances remind us that Russia stretches a long way east.

Of the aforementioned Five, Rimsky-Korsakov actually became pre-eminent in orchestration, which he studied while in the Imperial navy. Rimsky-Korsakov orchestrated some of The Five’s best-known music. His own works exhibit the brilliant, clearly defined colours we expect from Russian orchestration. Scheherazade also reflects Russia’s fascination with the East, being based on stories from The Thousand and One Nights. In Scheherazade’s first movement the solo violin represents the Arabic classic’s narrator, Scheherazade, whose stories appease her murderous husband night after night. And then we embark on a portrayal of Sinbad’s ship at sea; billowing cello figures in E major, a key Rimsky-Korsakov associated with dark blue.

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PROGRAM NOTES

We know Tchaikovsky for his symphonies and ballets, but Russians also knew a composer of songs, None but the Lonely Heart being his best-known. The words suggest heartfelt loss: ‘…only he who has known / the desire to see his beloved again / can understand what I have suffered / and what I am suffering’; this may be why quotation of the song in the exiled Stravinsky’s ballet The Fairy’s Kiss is so moving.

The Five were based in Saint Petersburg, the city established by Peter the Great as his capital along the banks of the Neva in 1703, but throughout Russian history Moscow has vied for equal attention. Mussorgsky’s opera Khovanschina revolves around several plots against Peter the Great in the 17th century. The Prelude depicts Moscow as it sleeps, and the quiet flow of the river … the clang of bells ringing for matins is heard. The Prelude’s structure is characteristically Russian; basically differently coloured variations on a folk-like tune.

Rachmaninov, born in the reign of Alexander II, was the only composer on today’s program to live into the end of the Romanov dynasty during the Revolutions of 1917. In fact his family’s estates were confiscated. In 1934, after he had been living in the West for 16 years, Steinway gave Rachmaninov a new piano as a gift. The first piece he played on it was God save the Czar. How Fair this Spot, a song from 1902, contains words by Glafira Galina, which could be thought to express Rachmaninov’s profound love of homeland: ‘It’s beautiful here… / Look, in the distance / the river gleams like fire; / the meadows are like a colourful carpet, / white clouds sail above’.

Travelling in Switzerland once, Tchaikovsky wrote to his patron Nadezhda von Meck back in Russia: ‘Mountains are fine, but I’m dying for a plain.’ His love of homeland was as strong as that of The Five and yet he created masterpieces in the Western (Germanic) forms. Symphony No.4 of 1877 follows a Beethovenian program, its first movement reflecting a struggle against Fate. But the middle movements provide respite. The most notable feature of the third movement is its use of pizzicato strings.

There was a kind of fascination for things Italian in the Imperial era (think: Tchaikovsky’s Capriccio italien). The favour was sometimes returned, with composers drawing on ‘Russian characteristics’ to lend their music distinct flavour. The Rondo russo finale of Mercadante’s Flute Concerto in E minor is still a favourite of flautists. One of the means by which Mercadante creates a Russian flavour is through alternating major and minor.

Russia’s most famous authors were also products of Russia’s Imperial era. Pushkin (1799-1837) was probably the most significant for music. Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades is only one of many operas based on Pushkin. It was composed in Florence in 44 days. A young officer scares an old woman to death when he conceals himself in her bedroom to learn her secret of winning at cards. Later, her ghost teaches him her secret but when he plays he finds that he is holding not the Ace but the Queen of Spades. T’will soon be midnight occurs in Act III when the love-interest Lisa waits for Hermann to appear and convince her that he wasn’t just using her as a conduit to her grandmother’s secret.

PROGRAM September 5

PROGRAM NOTES

Operas, songs, symphonies – Tchaikovsky was probably the most versatile Russian composer of the 19th century. And the last three of his six symphonies are among his greatest contributions to the concert stage. All three follow a program that could loosely be characterised as struggle against Fate though each ends slightly differently, No.5 with a victorious march. Before that, the third movement is a waltz. Toward its end, Tchaikovsky quotes an aria by Glinka: ‘Do not turn to despair’, but this dance-like movement reminds us that Tchaikovsky was also the greatest composer of ballets, an art form perfected in Russia’s Imperial age.

Of The Five, Mussorgsky was arguably the one who possessed the rawest power and whose authenticity was most vividly illustrative. Pictures at an Exhibition originated as a set of piano pieces to memorialise Mussorgsky’s friend Victor Hartmann, who had died in 1873. Each movement is a ‘tone portrait’ of a Hartmann artwork. The Hut on Hen’s Legs refers to the design for a clock face in the form of Baba-Yaga, the witch in Russian folktales, who lives in such a hut. The massive, blazing finale reminds us that this music originated from the Imperial age; The Great Gate of Kiev was Hartmann’s design for a structure to commemorate Alexander II’s 1866 escape from assassination.

Gordon Kalton Williams © 2015

6 PROGRAM September

Conductor Simone Young Soprano Lisa Gasteen

Mahler Rückert Lieder Mahler Symphony No.6

SAT 12 SEPT 7.30PM

QPAC Concert Hall

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YOUNG

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PROGRAM September 7

Mahler also worked on setting a further group of five Rückert poems. He published them as separate works (for voice and piano initially), but after his death a publisher grouped them together with two songs from Des Knaben Wunderhorn (the collection of folk-poetry which so inspired the composer) and, with the benefit of hindsight, named them Sieben Lieder aus letzter Zeit – effectively, ‘Seven Last Songs’. The five Rückert Lieder do not constitute a song-cycle, in that there is no overarching narrative as in Schubert’s Winterreise, or central theme as in the Kindertotenlieder. The songs can therefore be sung in whatever order the soloist decides.

There are some recurrent poetic ideas, however, one of which is the subject of the first of the songs to be composed. Blicke mir nicht in die Lieder (Do not look into my songs) dramatises the conviction of many artists that a poem or song should not be seen until it is finished, and that the work itself should happen in secrecy, as bees make honey in the privacy of their hive. Mahler, of course, can’t resist the gentle evocation of bees in the song’s accompaniment.

Always sensitive to the beauties of the natural environment, Mahler then set Ich atmet’ einen linden Duft (I breathed the scent of linden); the poet describes entering a room where a sprig from a linden (or lime-tree), picked by the beloved, is filling the house with the fragrance of love. The delicacy of the orchestration and the seemingly rhapsodic form of the song beautifully represent the subtlety of the scent and the fragility of the emotion.

Um Mitternacht (At Midnight) dramatises the soul’s experience of existential despair in imagery of an empty universe and eternally suffering humanity. Mahler eschews any orchestral warmth by omitting the string sections from this song.

Gustav Mahler (1860-1911)

Rückert Lieder (five songs to poems of Friedrich Rückert)Blicke mir nicht in die LiederIch atmet’ einen linden DuftUm MitternachtIch bin der Welt abhanden gekommenLiebst du um Schönheit

Lisa Gasteen soprano

Friedrich Rückert (1788-1866) experienced the upheavals of Europe during the Napoleonic wars and held the position of professor of oriental languages at various German universities before retiring to the country to concentrate on poetry.

Mahler started setting poetry by Rückert in 1901, at the same time as he began work on his Fifth Symphony, and ultimately produced two sets of songs to Rückert’s verse. The Kindertotenlieder (Songs on the Death of Children) has been described as Mahler’s greatest song-cycle, though at the time he was accused of ‘self-tormenting exhibitionism’. The poetry grew out of Rückert’s own grief at the loss of his two children. Mahler responds in music that memorialises his own brother who died in childhood. ‘It hurt me to write them,’ Mahler said of the songs, ‘and I grieve for the world which will one day have to hear them.’

PROGRAM NOTES

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PROGRAM NOTES

The climax of the song (and its power is such that it is frequently placed last in performance) arrives as the poet commends all things into the hand of God. Arguably Mahler’s greatest single song, Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen (I am lost to the world) is, like Blicke mir nicht in die Lieder, about the artist’s necessary withdrawal from the world in order to make art. Mahler, of course, was one of the busiest and most visible musicians of his time, making time to compose only during his precious summer vacations. But this song makes clear how single-minded an artist must be; the reward for creation is to live alone ‘in my heaven … my devotion … my song’. The melody of this song is used in heavily modified form in the famous Adagietto of the Fifth Symphony, and its plangent opening pages look forward to the ecstatic dissolution of Das Lied von der Erde (1911).

Liebst du um Schönheit (If you love for beauty) offers sets of short stanzas, matched by Mahler’s strophic musical form, in which the poet admits he can’t offer beauty or treasure to the beloved but will love for love’s sake, faithfully and forever.

Gordon Kerry © 2007

Poems of Friedrich Rückert (sung in German)

Blicke mir nicht in die Lieder Do not look at my songs! My eyes are lowered as if caught in a malicious act. Even I do not dare to watch them as they grow: your inquisitiveness is treason!

Bees too, when building their cells let no-one behold them, neither do they perceive themselves. When the rich honeycomb is hauled into the light of day then you shall be the first to taste the sweetness.

Ich atmet’ einen linden Duft I breathed a gentle fragrance. In the room stood a branch of a lime tree, a gift from a dear hand. How lovely was the lime fragrance!

How lovely is the lime fragrance! The sprig from the lime tree you plucked so gently; softly I breathed Love’s delicate fragrance.

Um Mitternacht At midnight I awoke and looked up to the Heavens; no star in the busy firmament smiled on me at midnight.

At midnight my thoughts stretched out beyond the darkness and no friendly light brought consolation to me at midnight.

At midnight I heeded the beating of my heart; a single pulse of pain was roused at midnight.

At midnight I fought the battle, O humanity, of your suffering, but could not resolve it with my strength at midnight.

At midnight I gave up all my strength into your hand; Lord over death and life, You keep watch at midnight!

PROGRAM September 9

PROGRAM NOTES

Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen I have lost touch with the world where once too much time I wasted. For so long has nothing been heard of me that those who think of me imagine me dead.

It is nothing to me that they think me dead. I cannot say that they are wrong, for truly I am dead to the world.

I am dead to the world’s tumult and rest in calm domains. I live alone in my heaven in my devotion, in my song.

Liebst du um Schönheit If you love for beauty, do not love me! Love the sun, with its golden hair!

If you love for youth, do not love me! Love the Spring, which is young every year! If you love for treasure, then do not love me! Love the mermaid, who has many bright pearls! If you love for love, oh yes, then love me! Love me always, as I will always love you!

Translations by David Vivian Russell Symphony Australia © 2000

Gustav Mahler (1860-1911)

Symphony No.6 in A minorAllegro energico, ma non troppo. Heftig, aber markigScherzo: WuchtigAndante moderatoFinale: Sostenuto – Allegro moderato – Allegro energico

Like Richard Strauss’ Ein Heldenleben, Mahler’s Sixth Symphony has a ‘hero’ who faces an inexorable fate, but offers no sense of comfort or victory. It is the work, as Mahler put it, of ‘an old fashioned composer’, cast in a traditional four-movement design.

From the outset, though, its tone – which led to the occasional use, even in Mahler’s time, of the nickname Tragic – is unambiguous. A fully scored A major chord, underpinned by an obsessive rhythmic motif from the timpani, fades and, as it fades, changes to the minor mode. This is music which will end in darkness. The movement begins as a march, though as scholar Michael Kennedy puts it, ‘modern music [that] marches in with this sinister tramping start’. The movement’s starkly contrasting second subject is a lyrical tune which rises and falls largely by step. Mahler’s not always reliable widow Alma describes how on their summer vacation in 1902 when Mahler began work on the piece ‘after he had drafted the first movement, he came down from [his study in the woods] to tell me he had tried to express me in a theme.

“Whether I've succeeded, I don't know; but you'll have to put up with it.” Its contour and mood certainly relate to any number of Romantic love-themes. Mahler’s treatment of it, too, reminds one of Berlioz’s use of the Beloved’s idée fixe in the Symphonie fantastique: it is always slightly varied on each appearance. In any event, the yearning lyricism provides a perfect foil for the implacable march with which the movement begins – ‘change and conflict are the secret of effective music’, as Mahler said. There is a celebrated evocation of alpine scenery toward the end of the movement, which Mahler described as the ‘last earthly sounds heard from the valley below by the departing spirit on the mountain top’.

The Scherzo has an insistent rhythm to begin with, and there is much Mahlerian irony, both in the dry clattering of the xylophone and in what Kennedy calls the ‘delicate pastiche Haydn’. The oboe conjures up an innocent, rustic world, and the metrical changes – described by Mahler as altväterlich (literally ‘old-fatherly’) – may recall a Bohemian folk song.

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PROGRAM NOTES

The Scherzo has been interpreted as ‘diabolical’ and ‘catastrophic’ on one hand, where Alma’s reminiscences insist that it depicts the ‘tottering’ of their children at play before the intrusion of tragedy at the end of the movement. The Andante represents a complete contrast with both the Scherzo and the finale, but despite its thematic reference to Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder (Songs on the Death of Children), the tone is hardly tragic. Rather, with its horn calls and reminiscence of the cowbells it is poignant and romantic, a relaxation of the tension before the turbulence of the finale.

This is one of Mahler’s largest and most complex structures, and it bears the weight of the whole symphony, recalling material from earlier in the work. Its introductory section contains much of the material

that will be developed as the movement unfolds, particularly the impassioned melody heard first high in the violins. It depicts a nightmarish world, where the Allegro energico builds intense excitement and momentum, straining towards climactic release, only to be brutally interrupted on three occasions. Mahler originally included a sickening thud ‘like an axe-stroke’ at each of these points, but later omitted the third out of superstition. Mahler himself said that the movement describes ‘the hero on whom falls three blows of fate, the last of which fells him as a tree is felled’. The piece ends in dissolution: drum roles, fragmentary motifs, a baleful and comfortless A minor.

Abridged from a note by Gordon Kerry © 2006

PROGRAM September 11

SUN 27 SEPT 3PM

QSO Studio

QSO CHAMBER PLAYERS

VILLA- LOBOS AND

FRIENDSFlute Hayley RadkeBassoon Nicole Tait

Trumpet Richard MaddenTrombone Dale Truscott

Viola Bernard Hoey Viola Cédric David

Clarinet Brian CatchloveBassoon Glenn Prohasky Violin Rebecca SeymourCello Matthew KinmontOboe Vivienne Brooke

Clarinet Irit SilverFrench Horn Lauren Manuel

Viola Nicholas TomkinCello Katherine Philp

Double Bass Justin BullockDouble Bass Dushan Walkowicz

Antheil Symphony for Five Instruments

Villa-Lobos Chôros No.7Schulhoff Concertino for Flute,

Viola and Double BassHindemith Octet

12 PROGRAM September

George Antheil (1900-1959)Symphony for Five Instruments Allegro Lento Presto

Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959)Chôros No.7, ‘Setemino’

Erwin Schulhoff (1894-1942)Concertino for Flute, Viola and Double-bass Andante con moto Furiant: Allegro furioso Andante Rondino: Allegro gaio

Paul Hindemith (1895-1963)Octet Breit: Mässig schnell Varianten: Mässig bewegt Langsam Sehr lebhaft Fuge und drei altmodische Tänze: Walzer, Polka, Galopp

After study in New York and Philadelphia, George Antheil travelled to Europe in 1922, performing piano recitals in London, settling first in Berlin and then in Paris the following year. In Berlin he had met Stravinsky, whom he idolised, and the music he composed until the mid-1920s brought together the emphatic metrical organisation of Stravinsky’s early work with some of the preoccupations of interwar Paris, namely the mildly dissonant harmony of neo-classicism (though he hated the term) and jazz, and a fascination with the age of the machine. (He was something of an inventor himself, and teamed up with Hollywood star Hedy Lamarr in the 1940s to create ‘frequency hopping’, a way of radio-controlling airborne missiles.)

His breakthrough work, the Ballet mécanique of 1926, established him, albeit briefly, as a major new voice, but then became the curse that successful works, like Barber’s Adagio or Rachmaninov’s C-sharp minor Prelude, did for their composers. The Symphony for Five Instruments calls for an ensemble with which it is practically impossible to lapse into Romantic comfort. Composed in 1922 and revised the following year, it is symphonic in the same way as the Symphonies of Wind Instruments by Stravinsky, whose influence, alongside that of Erik Satie, is palpable.

It is cast in a three-movement design. The opening Allegro does not develop material in any classical sense, but ‘jump cuts’ provide a constant sense of contrast supported by insistent rhythm. Notwithstanding the astringent make-up of the ensemble, the central Lento has a cool lyricism with melodies spun out of gently reiterated and gradually modified motifs. The finale returns to the knockabout world of circus music.

Like Antheil, Brazilian Heitor Villa-Lobos was drawn to Paris in the early 1920s and there established himself as composer who fused the contemporary – that is, Stravinskian – aesthetic with the sounds and rhythms of his native country. This, well before the Bachianas brasileiras, he achieved with a series of solo, vocal and chamber works called Chôros. The Chôro refers to an urban popular music that developed in Rio de Janeiro in the late 19th century; the word signifies a lament, but the character of such works tends in fact to be up-tempo, with bouts of instrumental improvisation. Chôros No.7, composed in 1924, is an instrumental septet in a single ten-minute movement that is made up of a series of largely dance-inspired episodes. Higher wind instruments, in particular, have often-florid solo lines. Setting off the rhythmic energy are slower, more lyrical sections, and Villa-Lobos is able to draw often surprisingly rich and colourful textures from the ensemble.

PROGRAM NOTES


When Czech composer Erwin Schulhoff died of tuberculosis in a Nazi concentration camp his music nearly died with him. Declared entartete Musik (degenerate music) by the regime, his work was only rediscovered in the 1980s. Schulhoff’s earliest music shows the influences of the major trends in early 20th-century music, and his brief period of study with Debussy in 1913 left its mark permanently. World War I, in which he served as a soldier for four years, led Schulhoff to reject Romanticism as tainted, and he embraced the expressionism of Schoenberg, Dadaism, and jazz.

Schulhoff had lived, studied and worked in various German cities until the early 1920s, when he returned to Prague, the city of his birth. It was there that Dvořák had recommended a career in music for Schulhoff; the folk elements that were so important to such composers as Dvořák and Janáček were still present in Prague’s musical life, and found their way into Schulhoff’s subsequent work. Composed in 1925, the Concertino brings a number of these musical preoccupations together. Despite its relative brevity, it deserves the title, as each of the three players are treated as soloists, as well as constantly combining to form a wonderful array of accompanying textures.

The first movement is the most expansive, finding room for deceptively simple melodies, echoes of Debussy (especially in the flute writing) and the alternation of pensive and frenetic passages. The short furiant, a dance form much loved by Dvořák, has a mercurial charm, enhanced by the use of piccolo; while the following Andante conjures something of the harmonic and contrapuntal strangeness found in Viennese music on the cusp of Romanticism and atonality. This mood is, however, swept away by another energetic dance in the final Rondino.

The Stravinskian neo-classicism that was so pervasive in Paris was very often ironic in tone. Paul Hindemith also cultivated ‘classical’ forms and techniques like Bachian counterpoint, and in his early works used a harmony (often featuring the interval of the fourth) that had a bracing quality. But as a German his relationship to the Bachian and Viennese traditions was different from those of his French or Russian émigré colleagues; it is as if for Hindemith the forms of classical music constituted real German values as the nation became infected by Nazism in the 1930s. Hindemith’s dislike of fascism and his efforts to help German Jews escape led to his being black-banned by the Nazis as a standard-bearer for entartete Musik. He himself escaped to Switzerland and then to the USA with the outbreak of war.

The Octet, for an ensemble that stresses warm timbres, is the last of a great many chamber works and was composed in 1957, in Switzerland (to which Hindemith had returned). It comes after the completion of his opera Die Harmonie der Welt, about the great astronomer Kepler. In five movements, it perhaps shares the opera’s faith in an ordered universe.

A strong opening of full chords and something like Beethoven’s ‘fate’ motif leads to a movement of rigorous ‘Baroque’ counterpoint. The lively second movement has numerous inspired touches, like the use of pale, strong tones in the final section. The substantial slow movement often features the horn. The fourth movement does service as a scherzo, with hiccupping motifs punctuating more elaborate melody and counterpoint. The finale has a Brahmsian solidity in its fugal sections, leavened by the loving humour of the (not so) old-fashioned dances and the punch-line ending.

© Gordon Kerry 2015

PROGRAM NOTES


Benjamin NortheyConductor

Since returning to Australia from Europe in 2006, Benjamin Northey has rapidly emerged as one of the nation’s leading musical figures. He is currently Chief Conductor of the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra and Associate Conductor of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

Northey studied with John Hopkins at the University of Melbourne Conservatorium of Music and then with Jorma Panula and Leif Segerstam at Finland’s Sibelius Academy. He has conducted the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, Hong Kong Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra of Colombia, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Auckland Philharmonia and the Southbank Sinfonia of London.

2014 engagements included Carmen for Opera Australia, Into the Woods for Victorian Opera, Malaysian Philharmonic, New Zealand Symphony, Auckland Philharmonia, Melbourne, Sydney, Queensland, Tasmanian and West Australian Symphony Orchestras and the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra; in 2015, he will return to all the major Australian orchestras, the HKPO, the NZSO and conduct Turandot for Opera Australia.

Guy NobleHost

Guy Noble is one of Australia’s most versatile conductors and musical entertainers, conducting and presenting concerts with all the major Australian orchestras and performers such as The Beach Boys, Yvonne Kenny, David Hobson, Ben Folds, Dianne Reeves, Randy Newman, and Clive James. He has cooked live on stage with Maggie Beer and Simon Bryant (The Cook, The Chef and the Orchestra, Adelaide Symphony) appeared as Darth Vader (The Music of John Williams, Sydney Symphony) and might be the only person to have ever sung the Ghostbusters theme live on stage accompanied by The Whitlams (Queensland Symphony Orchestra). Guy is a regular guest presenter on ABC Classic FM, conducted La Boheme throughout Queensland with (Opera Queensland and Queensland Symphony Orchestra), hosts and accompanies Great Opera Hits (Opera Australia) writes a column for Limelight Magazine, presents the inflight classical channels on Qantas, Air China, China Airlines and Gulf Air, and is very pleased to be back as host of Music of Sundays.

BIOGRAPHIES


Alexis KennyFlute

Alexis Kenny is Section Principal Flute with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra and has also performed with Orchestra Victoria and the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, and the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra. She has been awarded numerous scholarships and prizes, including a Churchill Fellowship. As a recipient of an Australia Council Artist Development grant and a Brisbane City Council Lord Mayor’s Young and Emerging Artists Fellowship, Alexis was granted leave from QSO to study with Berlin Philharmonic flautist, Prof. Michael Hasel, and to research orchestra training programs in 2012. She has performed with Eighth Blackbird, Southern Cross Soloists and Topology, and has appeared on the debut albums of george, and The Basics. Alexis has tutored for the Australian Youth Orchestra, including at National Music Camp, and lectured at the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University. She will be a guest artist at the Australian Flute Festival in October.

Internationally acclaimed Wagnerian soprano Lisa Gasteen has established The Lisa Gasteen National Opera School to provide elite opera coaching comparable to that of the best schools in Europe and North America.

Professionals from Australia and overseas coach advanced classical voice students and young professionals in a unique, intensive four week program that includes repertoire classes, voice lessons, music coaching, practical musicianship and language skills.

The Queensland Symphony Orchestra has a partnership with the School and offers selected young singers performance opportunities in a number of series, including Music on Sundays, Specials and in concerts in regional Queensland.

Simone YoungConductor

Simone Young, AM, was General Manager and Music Director of the Hamburg State Opera and Music Director of the Philharmonic State Orchestra Hamburg from 2005 – 2015. She is an acknowledged interpreter of Wagner and Strauss operas, having conducted Der Ring des Nibelungen at the Vienna Staatsoper, the Berlin Staatsoper and Hamburg. Her Hamburg recordings include the Ring cycle and symphonies of Bruckner, Brahms and Mahler.

Simone Young has been Music Director of Opera Australia, Chief Conductor of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and Principal Guest Conductor of the Gulbenkian Orchestra, Lisbon. She regularly conducts at leading opera houses and orchestras around the world including the Vienna, Berlin, New York and London Philharmonic Orchestras, and Staatskapelle Dresden.

Amongst her many accolades are a Professorship at the Musikhochschule, Hamburg, Honorary Doctorates from Griffith and Monash Universities and UNSW, Green Room and Helpmann Awards, and the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, France.

BIOGRAPHIES


Lisa GasteenSoprano

Prior to taking the Chair of Practice Professor of Opera at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music, Griffith University in 2011, Lisa Gasteen had become one of the world’s most sought after interpreters of the dramatic German repertoire.

Best known for her performances of Brünnhilde, Isolde and Electra she was a regular guest at the major opera houses including Metropolitan Opera, New York;

Royal Opera, Covent Garden; The Bastille, Paris; and the State Opera Companies of Vienna, Stuttgart and Berlin to name a few.

Her concert repertoire includes Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Handel’s Messiah, Verdi’s Requiem and extensive lieder including Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder.

Lisa has won many other awards including the 1992 Advance Australia Award, 3 Helpmann Awards and the 2002 Sidney Meyer Performing Arts Individual Award. She was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in 2006 for her services to the Arts.

In 2011 Lisa established The Lisa Gasteen National Opera School, located at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music, Griffith University, Brisbane, to help, mentor and develop the skills and progress of Australian operatic singers and répétiteurs.

BIOGRAPHIES

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Rebecca Seymour Ashley Harris

Brenda Sullivan Heidi and Hans Rademacher Anonymous

Stephen Tooke Tony & Patricia Keane

SECTION PRINCIPAL SECOND VIOLINWayne BrennanArthur Waring

SECOND VIOLINDelia Kinmont Jordan & Pat Pearl

Natalie Low Dr Ralph & Mrs Susan Cobcroft

Helen TraversElinor & Tony Travers

VIOLACharlotte Burbrook de Vere Di Jameson

Graham Simpson Alan Galwey

SECTION PRINCIPAL CELLODavid LaleArthur Waring

CELLOKathryn Close Dr Graham & Mrs Kate Row

Andre Duthoit Anne Shipton

Matthew Kinmont Dr Julie Beeby

ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL DOUBLE BASSDushan WalkowiczSophie Galaise

DOUBLE BASSJustin BullockMichael Kenny & David Gibson

Paul O'BrienRoslyn Carter

SECTION PRINCIPAL FLUTEAlexis KennyDr Damien Thomson & Dr Glenise Berry

ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL FLUTEHayley RadkeDesmond B Misso Esq

PRINCIPAL OBOEHuw JonesHelen & Michael Sinclair

ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL OBOESarah MeagherSarah and Mark Combe

OBOEAlexa MurrayDr Les & Ms Pam Masel

SECTION PRINCIPAL CLARINETIrit SilverArthur Waring

CLARINETKate TraversDr Julie Beeby

SECTION PRINCIPAL BASSOONNicole TaitIn memory of Margaret Mittelheuser AM

ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL BASSOONDavid MitchellJohn & Helen Keep

SECTION PRINCIPAL FRENCH HORNMalcolm StewartArthur Waring

FRENCH HORNLauren ManuelGaelle Lindrea

SECTION PRINCIPAL TRUMPETSarah ButlerMrs Andrea Kriewaldt

ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL TRUMPETRichard MaddenElinor & Tony Travers

TRUMPETPaul RawsonBarry, Brenda, Thomas & Harry Moore

SECTION PRINCIPAL TROMBONEJason RedmanFrances & Stephen Maitland OAM RFD

ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL TROMBONEDale TruscottPeggy Allen Hayes

PRINCIPAL TUBAThomas AllelyArthur Waring

PRINCIPAL HARPJill AtkinsonNoel & Geraldine Whittaker

PRINCIPAL TIMPANITim CorkeronDr Philip Aitken & Dr Susan UrquhartPeggy Allen Hayes

SECTION PRINCIPAL PERCUSSIONDavid MontgomeryDr Graham & Mrs Kate Row

PERCUSSIONJosh DeMarchiDr Graham & Mrs Kate Row

Thank you

Chair Donors support an individual musician’s role within the orchestra and gain fulfilment through personal interactions with their chosen musician.

CHAIR DONORS

PATRON ($100,000+)Timothy Fairfax AC Tim Fairfax Family FoundationHarold Mitchell ACCathryn Mittelheuser AM The Pidgeon FamilyJohn B Reid AO and Lynn Rainbow ReidT & J St Baker Charitable TrustArthur WaringNoel and Geraldine WhittakerAnonymous

MAESTRO ($50,000 - $99,999)Philip Bacon GalleriesBank of QueenslandProf. Ian Frazer AC and Mrs Caroline FrazerJellinbah GroupMrs Beverley June SmithJohn Story AO and Georgina StoryGreg and Jan Wanchap

SYMPHONY ($20,000 - $49,999)Dr Philip Aitken and Dr Susan UrquhartDr Julie BeebyEnglish Family PrizePeggy Allen HayesLeonie HenryMrs Andrea KriewaldtFrances and Stephen Maitland OAM RFDDesmond B Misso Esq.In memory of Margaret Mittelheuser AMJustice Anthe PhilippidesDr Graham and Mrs Kate RowDr Damien Thomson and Dr Glenise BerryRodney WylieAnonymous

CONCERTO ($10,000 - $19,999)David and Judith Beal Mrs Roslyn CarterDr Ralph and Mrs Susan CobcroftMrs I.L. DeanTony Denholder and Scott Gibson Dr and Mrs W.R. Heaslop Gwenda HeginbothomMs Marie IsacksonJohn and Helen KeepM. Lejeune Dr Les and Ms Pam MaselPage and Marichu MaxsonIan PatersonMr Jordan and Mrs Pat PearlHeidi and Hans RademacherAnne ShiptonElinor and Tony TraversAnonymous (2)

SCHERZO ($5,000 - $9,999)Trudy BennettMrs Valma BirdDr John and Mrs Jan BlackfordDr Betty Byrne Henderson AMDr John H. CaseyMrs Elva EmmersonSophie GalaiseAlan GalweyDr Edgar Gold AM, QC and Dr Judith Gold CM Prof. Ian Gough AM and Dr Ruth GoughDr Edward C. Gray Fred and Maria HansenAshley Harris Dr Alison HollowayThe Helene Jones Charity TrustTony and Patricia KeaneMichael Kenny and David Gibson

Mr John MartinBarry, Brenda, Thomas and Harry MooreKathy and Henry NowikIn memory of Mr and Mrs J.C. Overell Helen and Michael Sinclair Mrs Gwen WarhurstProf. Hans and Mrs Frederika WestermanAnonymous

RONDO ($1,000 - $4,999)Jill AtkinsonEmeritus Professor Cora V. Baldock Dr Geoffrey Barnes and in memory of Mrs Elizabeth BarnesProf. Margaret Barrett Brett BoonProfessors Catherin Bull AM and Dennis Gibson AOM. Burke Mrs Georgina ByromPeter and Tricia CallaghanMrs J. A. Cassidy Drew and Christine CastleyGreg and Jacinta ChalmersCherrill and David CharltonIan and Penny CharltonRobert ClelandSarah and Mark Combe Roger Cragg Julie Crozier and Peter HopsonMs D.K. CunninghamDr Beverley Czerwonka-LedezJustice Martin DaubneyLaurie James DeaneRalph DohertyIn memory of Mrs Marjorie DouglasGarth and Floranne Everson Dr Bertram and Mrs Judith Frost

Queensland Symphony Orchestra is proud to acknowledge the generosity and support of our valued donors.

DONORS



C.M. and I.G. Furnival Dr Joan E. Godfrey, OBE Lea and John GreenawayYvonne HansenMadeleine Harasty David HardidgeHarp Society of Queensland Inc Lisa Harris Ted and Frances HenzellPatrick and Enid Hill Prof. Ken Ho and Dr Tessa Ho Jenny HodgsonSylvia HodgsonJohn HughesMiss Lynette Hunter Sandra Jeffries and Brian CookJohn and Wendy Jewell Ainslie JustDr Colin and Mrs Noela KratzingSabina LangenhanDr Frank LeschhornRachel LeungShirley LeuthnerGaelle LindreaLynne and Franciose LipProf. Andrew and Mrs Kate ListerMary Lyons and John FardonSusan MabinRose-Marie Malyon Belinda McKay and Cynthia Parrill Annalisa and Tony MeikleIn memory of Jolanta Metter In memory of Carol MillsMr and Mrs G.D. MoffettB and D MooreMartin Moynihan AO QC and Marg O’Donnell AO

Howard and Katherine MunroKaren MurphyJohn and Robyn MurrayRon and Marise NilssonTina Previtera Dr Phelim ReillyMr Dennis Rhind In memory of Pat RichesRod and Joan Ross Professor Michael Schuetz, Honorary Consul of GermanyChris and Judith SchullBernard and Margaret SpilsburyM.A. StevensonJohn and Jennifer StollBarb and Dan StylesMrs Helen TullyWilliam TurnbullH.R. Venton Mr Ian and Mrs Hannah WilkeyMargaret and Robert WilliamsGillian WiltonJeanette WoodyattAnonymous (44)

VARIATIONS ($500 - $999)Mrs Penny AcklandWarwick Adeney Julieanne AlroeDon BarrettManus BoyceDeidre BrownMrs Verna CafferkyAlison G. CameronW.R. and H. CastlesDr Alice CavanaghDr C. DavisonR.R & B.A Garnett

Graeme and Jan GeorgeHans GottliebShirley HeeneyRichard Hodgson Anna JonesMiss Dulcie LittleThe Honourable Justice J.A. Logan, RFDJim and Maxine MacMillanIn memory of Mr David Morwood T. and M.M. ParkesCharles and Brenda PywellMartin and Margot QuinnPatience M. StevensKatherine TrentTanya VianoAnonymous (30)

JOHN FARNSWORTH HALL CIRCLENamed in honour of the first Chief Conductor of QSO (1947-1954)

Roberta Bourne Henry

All enquiries, please call Gaelle Lindrea on (07) 3833 5050

Instruments on loan

QSO thanks the National Instrument Bank and The NFA Anthony Camden Fund for their generous loan of fine instruments to the recitalists of our English Family Prize for Young Instrumentalists.

Please contact Gaelle Lindrea on 07 3833 5050, or you can donate online at qso.com.au/donatenow All donations over $2 are tax deductible ABN 97 094 916 444

For a list of Building for the Future donors go to qso.com.au/giving/ourdonors

Thank you


QUEENSLAND SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

PATRON His Excellency the Honourable Paul de Jersey AC, Governor of Queensland

CONDUCTOR LAUREATE Johannes Fritzsch

ASSISTANT CONDUCTOR Natalia Raspopova

SOLOIST-IN-RESIDENCE Shlomo Mintz

CONCERTMASTER Warwick Adeney

ASSOCIATE CONCERTMASTER Alan Smith

CELLO David Lale~ Kathryn Close Andre Duthoit Matthew Jones Matthew Kinmont Kaja Skorka Craig Allister Young

DOUBLE BASS Dushan Walkowicz= Anne Buchanan Justin Bullock Paul O’Brien Ken Poggioli

FLUTE Alexis Kenny~ Hayley Radke>>

PICCOLO Kate Lawson*

OBOE Huw Jones~ Sarah Meagher>> Alexa Murray

COR ANGLAIS Vivienne Brooke*

CLARINET Irit Silver~ Brian Catchlove+ Kate Travers

BASS CLARINET Nicholas Harmsen*

VIOLIN 1 Stephen Tooke^ Linda Carello Lynn Cole Emily Francis Nicole Hammill Priscilla Hocking Ann Holtzapffel Stephen Phillips Rebecca Seymour Joan Shih Brenda Sullivan Brynley White

VIOLIN 2 Gail Aitken~ Wayne Brennan~ Jane Burroughs Faina Dobrenko Simon Dobrenko Delia Kinmont Natalie Low Tim Marchmont Helen Travers Harold Wilson

VIOLA Bernard Hoey= Jann Keir-Haantera+ Charlotte Burbrook de Vere Cédric David Tara Houghton Kirsten Hulin-Bobart Helen Poggioli Graham Simpson Nicholas Tomkin

The Soloist-in-Residence program is supported by the T & J St Baker Charitable Trust. The Assistant Conductor program is supported through the Johannes Fritzsch Fund and Symphony Services International.

~ Section Principal= Acting Section Principal>> Associate Principal + Acting Associate Principal

* Principal

^ Acting Principal

BASSOON Nicole Tait~ David Mitchell>> Evan Lewis

FRENCH HORN Malcolm Stewart~ Peter Luff>> Ian O’Brien* Vivienne Collier-Vickers Lauren Manuel

TRUMPET Richard Madden= Paul Rawson+

Mark Bremner

TROMBONE Jason Redman~ Dale Truscott>>

BASS TROMBONE Tom Coyle*

TUBA Thomas Allely*

HARP Jill Atkinson*

TIMPANI Tim Corkeron*

PERCUSSION David Montgomery~ Josh DeMarchi>>


BOARD OF DIRECTORSGreg Wanchap Chairman Margaret Barrett Tony Denholder Tony Keane John Keep Page Maxson James Morrison AM Karen Murphy Rod Pilbeam

MANAGEMENTSophie Galaise Chief Executive OfficerRos Atkinson Executive Assistant to CEO Richard Wenn Director – Artistic PlanningMichael Sterzinger Artistic Administration

ManagerNadia Myers Assistant Artistic AdministratorFiona Lale Artist Liaison Matthew Farrell Director – Community

Engagement and Commercial Projects

Nina Logan Orchestra ManagerHelen Davies Operations AssistantJudy Wood Orchestra Librarian/

WHS CoordinatorNadia Myers Library and Operations

Assistant Peter Laughton Operations and Projects

ManagerVince Scuderi Production Coordinator John Nolan Community Engagement

OfficerPam Lowry Education Liaison Officer Karen Soennichsen Director – Marketing Sarah Perrott Marketing Manager Zoe White Digital Marketing SpecialistMiranda Cass Marketing Coordinator David Martin Director – Corporate

Development & Sales Katya Melendez Corporate Relationships

ManagerEmma Rule Ticketing Services ManagerGeorge Browning Sales OfficerCelia Fitz-Walter Sales and Ticketing CoordinatorMichael Ruston Ticketing Services Officer Jake Donehue Ticketing Services Officer Gaelle Lindrea Director – Philanthropy Lisa Harris Philanthropy OfficerPhil Petch Philanthropy Services OfficerRobert Miller Director – Human ResourcesDebbie Draper Chief Financial OfficerSue Schiappadori AccountantAmy Herbohn Finance Officer

QUEENSLAND PERFORMING ARTS CENTRE PO Box 3567, South Bank, Queensland 4101 T (07) 3840 7444 W qpac.com.au

CHAIR

Chris Freeman AM

DEPUTY CHAIR

Rhonda White AO

TRUSTEES

Kylie Blucher Simon Gallaher Sophie Mitchell Mick Power AM

EXECUTIVE STAFF

Chief Executive: John Kotzas Director – Presenter Services: Ross Cunningham Director – Marketing: Roxanne Hopkins Director – Corporate Services: Kieron Roost Director – Patron Services: Jackie Branch

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The Queensland Performing Arts Trust is a statutory body of the State of Queensland and is partially funded by the Queensland Government

The Honourable Annastacia Palaszczuk MP, Premier and Minister for the Arts

Director-General, Department of Science, Information Technology, Innovation and the Arts: Sue Rickerby

Patrons are advised that the Performing Arts Centre has EMERGENCY EVACUATION PROCEDURES, a FIRE ALARM system and EXIT passageways. In case of an alert, patrons should remain calm, look for the closest EXIT sign in GREEN, listen to and comply with directions given by the inhouse trained attendants and move in an orderly fashion to the open spaces outside the Centre.


Community and education partners

Corporate partners

Government partners

PARTNERS

Co-production partners

Media partners

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