Beethoven & The 21st Century - Concert Program

#ACO16

PRINCIPAL PARTNER: ACO COLLECTIVE

PRINCIPAL PARTNER

THANK YOU The ACO warmly thanks and acknowledges our partner Wesfarmers Arts for their generous and steadfast support, since 1998.

PRINCIPAL PARTNER: ACO COLLECTIVE WA REGIONAL TOURING PARTNER PERTH SERIES PARTNER

#ACO16

A NIGHT OF NIGHTS LED BY

RICHARD TOGNETTI

WedneSday 9 marcH 2016 7Pm

melbourne Synagogue, cnr arnold St & toorak rd, South yarra Program to include

Handel Concerto Grosso in A major, Op.6, No.11 moZart (arr. tognetti) Violin Concerto No.5 in A major FrĂ–St Klezmer Dances BeetHoVen Cavatina from String Quartet in B-flat major, Op.130

Premium PacKage $150 (Gold reserve seating and post-concert refreshments with members of the ACO) gold reSerVe $100 SilVer reSerVe $75 SaPPHire reSerVe $50 (restricted view seating)

BooK noW

The Melbourne Hebrew Congregation Phone 03 9866 2255 Email acotickets@mhc.org.au

LEAD PATRONS

marc Besen

ac

& eva Besen

ao

SUPPORTER

leo and mina Fink Fund

TA RR AWA RR A FES TIVA L F E AT UR ING T HE A C O | 19–2 0 M A RC H 2 016 With a blend of fine art, live music and stunning views, this weekend-long festival in the Yarra Valley, only an hour from Melbourne, features intimate concerts directed by Richard Tognetti.

20 SOLD 16 OUT

Limited to 200 guests, the Festival experience includes a masterclass, guided tours of the Museum’s exquisite Panorama exhibition and, of course, music from the ACO. SATURDAY 19 MARCH 2016 12.30pm Music by Debussy and Enescu 6.00pm Music by Handel, Pärt, Vivaldi, Glass and Mendelssohn SUNDAY 20 MARCH 2016 11.00am Masterclass 2.30pm Music by the Bach Family

2017 TA R R AWA R R A F E S T I VA L 2 5–2 6 F E BRU A RY 2 017

PACK AGES ON SALE WED 17 AUGUST 2016 ACO.CO M . AU/ TARR AWARR A 20 17

EVENT PARTNER

Satu V채nsk채, Principal Violin

MURAL: MAYA HAYUK PHOTO: CAITLIN WORTHINGTON DESIGN: BRONWYNROGERS.COM WESF1341

N AT ION A L T OUR PA R T NER

Wesfarmers’ association with the Australian Chamber Orchestra goes back a long way. Eighteen years after we first worked together to bring this wonderful orchestra to Perth on a regular basis, we are now delighted to be able to help the ACO reach out into our regional communities in Western Australia and beyond as the Principal Partner of ACO Collective.

This tour – ACO Collective’s first under the leadership of its new Artistic Director Pekka Kuusisto– will show the ACO’s National Concert Season audience the vitality and energy that has delighted communities right across the country since the ensemble was formed as AcO2 in 2007.

It is a privilege and a joy to support the tremendous work of the ACO as part of our commitment to making a broader contribution to the communities in which we live and work.

We hope you enjoy this performance as much as we have enjoyed bringing it to you.

PRINCIPAL PARTNER ACO COLLECTIVE

Richard Goyder ao Managing Director Wesfarmers 7

ENG AGE W I T H US SOCIALLY

We’d love to hear from you – join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and stay up to date on all things ACO. Don’t forget the hashtag #ACO16. @a_c_o facebook.com/AustralianChamberOrchestra @AustChamberOrchestra

ACO BLOG

Meet us backstage with the ACO Blog – we’ll keep you up-to-date with Orchestra news, interviews and insights. acoblog.com.au

LOOK

Watch us Live in the Studio, go behind-the-scenes and watch ACO concert footage on YouTube. youtube.com/AustralianCO

8

LISTEN

Join us for a Spotify Session, hear concert tasters and playlists, and revisit past concerts on Spotify. aco.com.au/Spotify

YOUR SAY

Did you enjoy the concert? What was your favourite piece? Is this your first ACO experience?

We love to hear what you think about our concerts and recordings or anything else you’d like to tell us.  aco@aco.com.au

R ADIO

ACO concerts are regularly broadcast on ABC Classic FM. Follow us on Twitter to keep up to date with broadcasts.

ME S S AGE F ROM T HE CH A IR M A N It’s a thrill to welcome you to the Australian Chamber Orchestra’s 2016 season. Beethoven may be the main course in this year’s musical banquet, but throughout the year we hope you’ll find a selection of repertoire to satisfy all tastes and palates.

Of course Beethoven’s name is always on any reasonable list of the greatest composers, and his late string quartets in particular provide a magnificent pillar on which to build a concert season. And laying the foundation is the finale of this program, Beethoven’s ‘Quartetto Serioso’, opus 95, the gateway to the mighty five late quartets and the ‘Grosse Fuge’.

This concert introduces the newly-named ACO Collective (formerly AcO 2), along with its inaugural Artistic Director, Finnish violinist, composer and conductor, Pekka Kuusisto.

Pekka is an enthusiastic champion of new music, and this program demonstrates his flair for programming works that are not just classic in their style, but also excitingly contemporary and adventurous in their genre, conceived very much in the questing spirit of our times.

With the generous support of its principal partner Wesfarmers, ACO Collective will continue its extensive regional touring and education programs, visiting Western Australia in April and May, and New South Wales in September.

While Pekka and ACO Collective are dazzling audiences around the country on this 11-concert tour, the ACO will be premiering The Reef in New York, Richmond and Los Angeles. I was fortunate enough to see this epic multimedia adventure that explores the intersection of surfing, the ocean, landscape and music in 2013.

Since then, director and co-creator Mick Sowry has been working with Richard Tognetti, shooting new footage and adding to the soundtrack.

If you’d like to experience The Reef redux, there is one performance only at City Recital Hall Angel Place on Friday 12 February at 7.30pm.

In addition to these exciting events, I am delighted to announce that Richard Evans is taking on the role as Managing Director of the ACO. Richard is well-known to many in his previous roles as General Manager of The Bell Shakespeare Company, Executive Director of The Australian Ballet, Chief Executive Officer of Sydney Opera House, Arts and Culture Advisor to the Barangaroo Delivery Authority in Sydney and most recently as the interim Managing Director of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

On behalf of the ACO Board, musicians and staff, we welcome Richard to the ACO and look forward to this next phase of the Orchestra’s national and international development under his leadership.

Guido Belgiorno-Nettis Chairman 9

“Life is no brief candle to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.�

GEORGE BERNARD SHAW Please consider supporting the ACO with a gift in your will and make sure the ACO plays on for future generations.

Your bequest will make a difference.

For more information on our Continuo Circle please contact Jill Colvin on (02) 8274 3835 or jill.colvin@aco.com.au ACO.COM.AU

BEE T HOV EN & T HE 21S T CEN T URY PEKKA KUUSISTO AND ACO COLLECTIVE

Pekka Kuusisto Artistic Director, ACO Collective ACO Collective NICO MUHLY Drones & Violin: Part I. Material in E-flat ERKKI-SVEN TÜÜR Action – Passion – Illusion: II. Passion TIPPETT Variations on an Elizabethan Theme: II. A Lament ERKKI-SVEN TÜÜR Action – Passion – Illusion: I. Action BRYCE DESSNER Tenebre ERKKI-SVEN TÜÜR Action – Passion – Illusion: III: Illusion INTERVAL SIBELIUS Rakastava (The Lover), Op.14 BEETHOVEN (arr. Tognetti) String Quartet in F minor, Op.95 ‘Serioso’ Approximate durations (minutes): 3 – 7 – 7 – 6 – 15 – 5 INTERVAL 11 – 20 The concert will last approximately one hour and forty-five minutes, including a 20-minute interval.

The Australian Chamber Orchestra reserves the right to alter scheduled artists and programs as necessary.

11

W H AT YOU A R E A BOU T T O HE A R This season-opening program by ACO Collective led by its Artistic Director, Finnish violinist Pekka Kuusisto, interweaves contemporary works by living composers, all of whom have a background in popular music, with masterpieces from the more mainstream ‘classical’ tradition

by Beethoven, Tippett and Pekka’s fellow countryman Sibelius. Pekka says: ‘The ACO’s 2016 season is themed around Beethoven’s late string quartets, and so this formed the basis of the program.

After much discussion, Opus 95 was chosen as the closing work of the concert. I was then given the extremely delicate task of exploring repertoire which would both complement and introduce this highly experimental work.

PICTURED: Pekka Kuusisto Photo by Sonja Werner

‘Opus 95 has a particularly explosive opening statement, so we needed something very intimate and gentle to precede it, in order not to steal Beethoven’s thunder. Rakastava by Sibelius is the perfect thing, with a feel of very distinct lighting. At the risk of sounding like a tourist advert for my part of the planet, I’d say that it’s very much about dusk in a Fennoscandian forest, around mid-June.

‘Everything in Rakastava feels and smells like nature at night, so we needed another kind of light before it. Cue Tenebre by Bryce Dessner (guitarist with The National). Originally written as a gift for the lighting designer of the Kronos Quartet, its shadows are very architectural. Tenebre is inspired by ceremonial vocal music, which ties it nicely to Rakastava as well,

12

‘I’m excited about the challenge and will dive into it . . .’

PEKKA KUUSISTO

PICTURED: Left – Henry Purcell by John Closterman.

Right – Part of the Allegro con brio movement from Beethoven’s String Quartet in F minor ‘Serioso’.

since the Sibelius work started its life as a suite for male choir, with lyrics from Finnish traditional poetry. Maybe we’ll sing a bit in this concert as well.

‘The massive nod that Tenebre gives to earlier music is mirrored from Tippett’s Lament, which contains a direct quote from Ah, Belinda by Henry Purcell. Sir Michael Tippett’s amazing handling of a string orchestra has certainly been an inspiration to Bryce Dessner and Erkki-Sven Tüür.

‘Tüür’s work also has some delicious Purcellian clashings, especially in the middle movement, and the warm and fuzzy activities in the low register constantly remind me of Vaughan Williams and Britten. The outer movements give us a healthy reminder to listen to Estonian prog rock, as well as echoing some moments from Britten’s Les Illuminations, which is convenient, since Britten is one of the heroes of Nico Muhly.

‘Nico’s beautiful collection of violin gestures is originally the first movement of a suite for violin and piano, and includes an element of contained improvisation, which is a lovely way to begin a concert. Both Nico and Bryce are dear friends of mine, and I’m ecstatic to get to bring their music to ACO Collective.

‘In the case of Beethoven’s Op.95, we are faced with a dilemma – Beethoven himself wrote that the work should not be performed to the general public, but only for a small circle of connoisseurs.

I’m excited about the challenge and will dive into it trusting that Beethoven would have changed his mind upon hearing ACO Collective!’

13

BEE T HOV EN & T HE 21S T CEN T URY DRONES & VIOLIN PART 1 – MATERIAL IN E-FLAT Composed 2011 NICO MUHLY Born Randolph, 1981

PICTURED: Nico Muhly

New York-based Nico Muhly is a composer equally at home in writing music for the Tallis Scholars, the Hilliard Ensemble and the Metropolitan Opera as he is in working with pop artists like Björk, Grizzly Bear and Antony & the Johnsons. A frequent collaborator with another of this program’s composers, Bryce Dessner (their Planetarium concert project with singer Sufjan Stevens has earned rave reviews), he comes from a classical music background, but that doesn’t restrict him creatively: ‘It’s essentially like being from somewhere,’ he says. ‘It’s like being from Nebraska . . . It doesn’t mean that you can’t have a productive life somewhere else.’ His opera Two Boys premiered at the English National Opera in 2011 and he’s currently working on an operatic adaptation of Winston Graham’s novel Marnie for performance at the Met in New York. The Britten Sinfonia and Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra have also commissioned him.

Among Muhly’s most celebrated works is the Drones series, recorded and produced in the Greenhouse studios in Iceland and released initially as three EPs, respectively entitled Drones & Piano, Drones & Viola, and Drones & Violin, the latter part played by Pekka Kuusisto. Nico Muhly says of them: ‘I started writing the Drones pieces as a method of developing harmonic ideas over a static structure. The idea is something not unlike singing along with one’s vacuum cleaner, or with the subtle but constant humming found in most dwelling-places. We surround ourselves with constant noise, and the Drones pieces are an attempt to honour these drones and stylise them.’

The first part of Drones & Violin is subtitled ‘Material in E-flat’, in which the presence of the drone is nowhere near as simple as might be expected, the violin ranging through a diverse spectrum of timbral and tonal registers against the backdrop of the ever-present ‘hum’ (elsewhere Muhly has given the example of the changing pitches of an aircraft in flight as examples of everyday drones). The effect is to weave music in and out of the mundane, to find the stuff of art in the everyday world around us, while all the while putting the soloist through a serious test of technique, as if expressing the natural human desire to break free from the aural shackles that constantly confine us.

14

ACTION – PASSION – ILLUSION Composed 1993 ERKKI-SVEN TÜÜR Born Kärdla, 1959 Soviet-era Kärdla, the only town on the Estonian island of Hiiumaa, may seem an unlikely breeding ground for a pop-star turned classical composer, but right from the outset, Erkki-Sven Tüür showed signs that he was destined to break the mould.

Initially he was self-taught, finding musical inspiration more in prog-rock and bands like Yes, King Crimson and Emerson Lake & Palmer than he did from the classics. When his formal musical education began, first at the Tallinn School of Music and later the Tallinn Academy of Music, he continued to pursue his career as a member of the acclaimed Estonian band In Spe (literally ‘In Hope’), performing in constant fear of, and opposition to, the Communist authorities.

PICTURED: Erkki-Sven Tüür

But with perestroika and the opening of Estonia’s borders to the West, Tüür found a ready audience for his music in which modernism and minimalist-style modality based on traditional runic melodies strain against one another to form a curious, but convincing, organic whole. Ensembles from the Helsinki Philharmonic to the Hilliard Ensemble, from the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra to the Stockholm Saxophone Quartet began to champion, and commission, his work.

The composer himself says that his music is ‘concerned with the relation between emotional and intellectual energy . . . My pieces are abstract dramas in sound . . . I am very interested in a combination of opposites – tonality versus atonality, regular repetitive rhythms versus irregular complex rhythms, tranquil meditativeness versus explosive theatricality.’

All of those diverse influences and musical resolution-withinconflict are in evidence in Action – Passion – Illusion, a threemovement work (one for each part of the collective title), written for the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra in 1993.

As its title suggests, ‘Action’ is built on stabbing, staccato chords at the opening over increasingly swirling accompaniment, a kind of Bartók-like march in which one part of the musical fabric is always pulling against the other in a constant tussle that never resolves in favour of one side or the other.

‘Passion’ is elegiac and begins slowly in the cellos and double basses, squarely in the realm of the brooding ‘holy minimalism’ in which Tüür, Arvo Pärt and others among their Baltic contemporaries have developed such a reputation. Progressively gaining in intensity, it begins to move through ‘the slow filling of space’ as the composer writes, and onto ‘sound clusters for the violins in the high register.’

15

‘I am very interested in a combination of opposites . . .’

ERKKI-SVEN TÜÜR

But Tüür’s musical self-description scarcely does justice to the profundity of the emotion and – as the title suggests – ‘passion’ of the music, the searing climax reached after a sustained build-up, leading to a conclusion straining against the limits of conventional musical expression in its spiritually-questing restlessness.

‘Illusion’ is hypnotic in a different, more agitated way, essentially taking a baroque-style motif and breaking it down into its constituent parts, each filled with a striking rhythmic vitality, boundless in its enthusiasm, filled with crisp articulations and a joie de vivre which is infectious.

A LAMENT (ANDANTE ESPRESSIVO) FROM VARIATIONS ON AN ELIZABETHAN THEME Composed 1953 MICHAEL TIPPETT Born London, 1905 Died London, 1998 At the Aix-en-Provence Festival in 1952, Benjamin Britten attended the world premiere of a work called La Guirlande de Campra (Campra’s Garland), which took the unusual form of a set of orchestral variations on a theme deriving from the opera Camille, Reine des Volsques, composed by Andre Campra in 1717. The twist, though, was that each variation was contributed by a different composer, Honegger, Poulenc, Auric and Tailleferre among them.

Filled with enthusiasm both for the multi-composer concept and the impending coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953 (Britten’s opera Gloriana was to be his contribution to the festivities) Britten on his return to England issued commissions to several British composers to contribute a variation each to a work called Variations on an Elizabethan Theme, for performance at the 1953 Aldeburgh Festival.

The theme in question was ‘Sellinger’s Round’, Irish in origin but known to Britten in a version adapted for virginal by William Byrd, the leading composer from the era of Elizabeth I. Not everyone was as enthusiastic as Britten about the royalist project. Alan Rawsthorne declined the invitation and Edmund Rubbra pulled out at the last moment. In the end, though, Britten 16

PICTURED: Michael Tippett

himself transcribed the theme (orchestrated by Imogen Holst) and wrote one variation, his sometime-pupil Arthur Oldham and friend Lennox Berkeley both contributed variations, so did Humphrey Searle and Michael Tippett, and the barnstorming finale was provided by William Walton.

At the premiere conducted by Britten, the composers weren’t identified with their individual movements, and the audience paid two-and-sixpence each to enter a competition to guess who’d written what. No one guessed correctly.

Michael Tippett composed the second of the Variations, ‘A Lament’, featuring an ornate violin solo based on the theme, but set over a ground bass deriving from the aria ‘Ah Belinda’ from Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. Tippett was sufficiently intrigued by the musical material that he went onto use it as the basis for an entire set of variations of his own, commissioned by the Swiss conductor Paul Sacher and titled Divertimento on Sellinger’s Round – a side project rumoured to have caused some ill-feeling between Tippett and Britten.

17

TENEBRE Composed 2011 BRYCE DESSNER Born Cincinnati, 1976 It’s one of the most distinctive sounds in modern rock music, Bryce Dessner’s electric guitar stirring up a whirlwind of swirling sound as the indie-rock band of which he’s an integral member, The National, perform in leading venues all over the world. But perhaps as befitting a twin (his brother Aaron is also a guitarist in The National), Dessner also has another musical life in which he directs the Music Now Festival in his native Cincinnati and composes modern-day ‘classical’ music for ensembles and institutions such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Edinburgh International Festival, Sydney Festival and New York City Ballet.

PICTURED: Bryce Dessner

But it was his collaboration with the Kronos Quartet on Aheym in 2009 that truly put Dessner on the map as a ‘classical’ artist, an astonishing work built on block-like chord structures, intense and anguished in mood, and performed by the Kronos to critical acclaim literally hundreds of times.

Since then the Yale University graduate’s St. Carolyn by the Sea plus two other Dessner works have formed the centrepiece of a Deutsche Grammophon CD and his music has been honoured with special events devoted to it at the Barbican in London and the Cork Opera House in Ireland, and his Music Now Festival in Cincinnati is now celebrating its 10th anniversary.

In May 2015, Gustavo Dudamel conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic in the premiere of Dessner’s Quilting, a 17-minute score co-commissioned with the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

Upcoming projects include a score for the New York City Ballet, choreographed by Justin Peck, and a new work commissioned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, to be performed by the New York Philharmonic.

The composer writes: Tenebre began as a conversation with Kronos Quartet about writing a piece as a gift for Laurence Neff, Kronos’ longtime lighting designer, celebrating his 25th year with Kronos and his 50th birthday. The piece was also commissioned by the Barbican in London for a celebration of Steve Reich’s 75th birthday. As I thought about how to approach the piece I spent a lot of time investigating the relationship between music and light, which led me to the Holy Week service called Tenebre.

Tenebre is a mass service before Easter that many Renaissance and Baroque composers, and even some modern composers, have written music for.

18

‘I spent a lot of time investigating the relationship between music and light . . .’

BRYCE DESSNER The significance of the Tenebre service for me is its relationship to light. There are 15 candles extinguished through the service, the final darkness symbolising the death of Christ. I looked at Tenebre not in the context of religion but for its use of light, and how composers have scored that descent into darkness.

I used the writing of the piece as an opportunity to study some of my favorite Renaissance vocal music, and I chose to reference Tenebre settings by Tallis, Gesualdo and Palestrina, as well as an incredible Tenebre service by Couperin. These small quotes are woven together in an abstract way and my Tenebre inverts the form of the service: rather than going from light into darkness, we go from darkness to light, to symbolise Larry’s illumination of Kronos Quartet’s music.

Since Tenebre is built and inspired by vocal music, I wanted to include vocals at the end of the piece. In the finale of my Tenebre, the texture expands to three quartets playing (all recorded by Kronos), and an octet of voices sung by my friend Sufjan Stevens. He sings a layered amoeba-like melody of Hebrew letters (which are sung as part of the traditional Tenebre service), and then the first line of the Tenebre reading, Incipit Lamentatio Ieremiae Prophetae, which translates to ‘Here begins the Lamentation of Jeremiah the Prophet.’ So the piece ends where it should begin.

19

RAKASTAVA (THE LOVER), OP.14 Composed 1911/12 I. Rakastava (The Lover) II. Rakastetun Tie (The Path of the Beloved) III. Hyvää Iltaa – Jää Hyvästi (Good Night – Farewell) JEAN SIBELIUS Born Hämeenlinna, 1865 Died Järvenpää, 1957 The Hotel Danube in Paris was a filthy firetrap and the proprietor looked like a murderer, but Sibelius had no option other than to stay there, because, famous though he was in Finland, he was out of money and his previous Parisian lodgings at the not-much-better Hotel Malte were now beyond his means.

PICTURED: Jean Sibelius, 1913

In previous years he would have simply drowned his sorrows, but in this late-autumn of 1911 that wasn’t an option because the events of 1908 had sent the dipsomaniac composer into seven years of enforced sobriety and a life without his beloved cigars too. Thirteen failed operations to remove a throat tumour can do that to a man, and even though the old surgeon Professor Fränkel in Berlin had mercifully given up after weeks of torturing the composer with serial bungled invasive procedures, thus allowing his younger assistant to step in and remove the offending growth at his first attempt, 40-something Sibelius knew he now had no option but to clean up his act.

So as winter descended on the French capital, Sibelius, with his Fourth Symphony now having been premiered to mystified audiences, threw himself into his work, returning, as he had done once or twice already since his health scare, to music he’d composed earlier and reworking it.

20

. . .this time, the transformation was to be much more radical.

In this case in November 1911, it was a choral work that he’d entered in a Helsinki University composition competition 18 years earlier, earning him a commendable if less-thanoverwhelming second prize. The original version had been a setting of lyrical poetry from the Finnish Kantelatar collection of national verse, along with the Kalevala an enduring source for Sibelius’ creative inspiration. The work fell into three sections: ‘Where is my fair one?’, ‘Here my darling has walked’ and an evening song and farewell – essentially a work (rather untypically for Sibelius) ruminating on the sadness of lovers’ parting.

He’d already changed its form twice previously, adding string orchestral accompaniment in 1894 and then turning it into an a cappella work four years later, but this time, the transformation was to be much more radical.

Rakastava for male voice choir was about to become Rakastava for string orchestra, timpani and percussion.

Sibelius completed the Suite on 2 December 1911 and sent the manuscript to his publisher, Breitkopf, but almost immediately realised that he wasn’t happy with it and requested its return.

On New Year’s Eve 1911, he received it back and over the course of the next nine days, he worked on it day and night, turning it into the work we know today as his anachronistically-numbered Opus 14.

On 9 January 1912, he sent it back to Breitkopf in Germany, where it was rejected for being a revision of an older work.

Other publishers, too, enthusiastically rejected the work – Lienau because string orchestral music was no longer fashionable, and Zimmermann in Germany for unspecified reasons. Eventually it was only released to the world by the Finnish publisher Axel Lindgren.

In the eponymous first movement, the ethereal mood is interspersed with fleeting moments of animation in the middle strings .‘The Path of the Beloved’ is more insistent in its rhythmic drive, a kind of moto perpetuo, the melody subdued and introspective over a pizzicato accompaniment, with the triangle (a late addition to the score in the January 1912 revision) doing exactly what cynics think triangles do, adding a mere six ‘tings’ at the movement’s end and nothing more.

The atmospheric third movement (‘Good Night – Farewell’) is perhaps the only part of the work where aspects of the 21

original are discernible, the violin and cello revealing traces of solo vocal parts in the most extended movement of the piece, folk-like at first but brooding and intense by the end.

It may have been reworked in Paris but for Sibelius, it was music of his homeland. ‘It’s a work with a vein of black earth running through it,’ Sibelius wrote home. ‘Earth, and a piece of Finland.’

STRING QUARTET NO.11 IN F MINOR, OP.95, ‘SERIOSO’ arr. Richard Tognetti Composed 1810/11, 1814 I. Allegro con brio II. Allegretto ma non troppo III. Allegro assai vivace ma serioso IV. Larghetto espressivo – Allegretto agitato – Allegro LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN Born Bonn, 1770 Died Vienna, 1827 By 1810, the previous year’s Siege of Vienna had led to French troops now occupying the city. Most of Beethoven’s supporters and patrons fled to the comparative safety of their country estates. Beethoven himself remained behind, but he was writing very little music other than the Egmont Overture and the String Quartet in F minor, opus 95 which he subtitled ‘Quartetto Serioso’. Unusually for Beethoven, the Quartet wasn’t a commission. He wrote it for his own personal reasons and dedicated it to his friend Baron Nikolaus Zmeskall, who was an amateur cellist.

The ‘Serioso’ subtitle (drawn from the marking in the third movement) indicates just what a rough time Beethoven was going through. Famously of course, he was almost deaf, and during the bombing of Vienna he’d hidden in a basement with pillows covering his ears, as concerned about losing the last of his hearing as he was in preserving life and limb. He’d just had another failed love affair (Terese Malfatti refused to marry him), his general health was terrible, he was broke and depressed.

While composing the F minor Quartet, he wrote to a friend, ‘If I had not read somewhere that no one should quit life voluntarily while he could still do something worthwhile, I would have been 22

‘Life may be beautiful but for me it is poisoned forever.’

BEETHOVEN

dead long ago and certainly by my own hand . . . Life may be beautiful but for me it is poisoned forever.’

Not a great mind-set, then, and he poured all this into the ‘Serioso’ Quartet and then told a musician-friend that: ‘The quartet is written for a small circle of connoisseurs, and should never be performed in public.’

His wish didn’t quite come to pass. In fact by 1816 it was already out in the public domain, the last of Beethoven’s so-called

PICTURED: Ludwig van Beethoven

by WJ Mahler, 1815

‘Middle Period’ quartets, in four movements, the central two joined together without pause. But unheeded though it was, his request for the Quartet not to be performed in public indicated just where Beethoven’s chamber music was heading, into a private confessional realm that would emerge 14 years later in the unrivalled late quartets.

There’s a real eruption of emotion at the opening of the F minor Quartet, all four instruments going hard at the first eleven notes, ‘Allegro con brio’, in unison. Highly intense and concentrated (the movement as a whole is less than half the length of its counterparts in the Rasumowsky Quartets, opus 59 and the ‘Harp’ Quartet opus 74), the first violin leaps about violently in 23

‘. . . no bottle of champagne was ever uncorked at a better time.’

ANONYMOUS octaves in a state of almost-volcanic flux before, at movement’s end, as if exhausted by the stress, the music quietens to a murmur and then fades away.

The not-so-slow second movement – an allegretto ma non troppo rather than a customary andante – juxtaposes a lyrical main theme and a second subject that’s treated as an extended and enriched fugato.

A taut and propulsive ‘Allegro assai vivace, ma serioso’ enters following this second movement without a pause. With its dotted rhythms, this third movement has a curiously ferocious intensity, ‘hewn out of stone’ according to one critic, ‘a sort of quick march in triple time’ says another, contrasted by a middle section of a chorale-like nature decorated by filigree figures on the first violin.

A slow and expressive introduction, strangely, albeit briefly, soothing in its own way, makes way for a Finale displaying the distinctive sense of agitation, anxiety and tension that are the prevalent moods of the work as a whole.

But suddenly toward the end, the music is wrenched into the major key and a kind of enforced sense of good humour is established. The instrumental writing becomes brilliant and the contrapuntal effects are exhilarating. Where did that come from? It’s not entirely clear, but the change of mood gives the impression that the composer, having tired of all the ‘sturm und drang’, simply abandons the tensions and transcends them. One wag aptly quipped of this unexpectedly upbeat conclusion that ‘no bottle of champagne was ever uncorked at a better time.’

Martin Buzacott © 2016

24

PEKK A KUUSISTO

ARTISTIC DIREC TOR, ACO COLLEC TIVE

‘The flamboyant Finn engages audiences with a puckish playfulness, approaching the music with a palpable thirst for fun and adventure.’

THE PIONEER PRESS

Photo by Kaapo Kamu

Recently described by one critic as a musician ‘who surely has the most personal sound of any classical violinist now alive’, Pekka Kuusisto is internationally renowned for his fresh approach to the repertoire. An advocate of new music, Kuusisto works with composers such as Nico Muhly, Thomas Adès and Sebastian Fagerlund. As soloist, he performs with Seattle, Toronto, BBC Scottish, Singapore and Cincinnati symphony orchestras, as well as the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Oslo Philharmonic, MDR Sinfonieorchester Leipzig, Bamberger Symphoniker, Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia and Philharmonia Orchestra.

Collaborating with performers across the artistic spectrum, Kuusisto joined forces with actress Seela Sella and director Kristian Smeds for a new theatrical production, Tabu, at the Finnish National Theatre, which featured Kuusisto as both composer and performer. A keen chamber musician, regular partners include Anne Sofie von Otter, Simon Crawford-Phillips, Nicolas Altstaedt, Alexander Lonquich and Olli Mustonen.

Kuusisto is widely recognised for his directing work, and in addition to his position with ACO Collective, he becomes Artistic Partner with Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra from September 2016. He also regularly directs the Mahler, Swedish and Irish chamber orchestras, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie and Britten Sinfonia.

Pekka Kuusisto received the Nordic Council Music Prize in 2013 and is Artistic Director of the award-winning Our Festival, based in Sibelius’ home-town. His latest recording features Fagerlund’s Violin Concerto with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra (BIS).

Pekka Kuusisto plays a Giovanni Baptista Guadagnini violin of 1754 kindly loaned by the Finnish Cultural Foundation.

25

ACO COLLECTIVE ACO Collective is the ACO’s critically acclaimed 17-piece string ensemble which delivers the ACO’s regional touring and education programs Australia-wide. ACO Collective (formerly known as AcO2) combines musicians of the ACO with Australia’s most talented young professional musicians at the outset of their careers, creating a combined ensemble with a fresh, energetic performance style. These young professionals have all participated in the ACO’s year-long Emerging Artists’ Program and are in demand from Australia’s professional orchestras, but dedicate themselves to the ACO’s high-octane performance style for intense touring periods.

ACO Collective commenced touring as AcO2 in 2007, and since then has performed in more than 80 regional centres in every state and territory, all of Australia’s state capitals, and has toured to Japan. The Ensemble works regularly with guest artists of the highest calibre, both international and Australian, including violinists Elizabeth Wallfisch, Benjamin Schmid, Henning Kraggerud and Thomas Gould; cellist Daniel Müller-Schott; harpist Alice Giles; recorder virtuoso Genevieve Lacey; singer / songwriter Tim Freedman from The Whitlams; and oud player Joseph Tawadros.

In 2013, the ACO presented the Ensemble in a national subscription tour led by Richard Tognetti and it was named

by The Australian as ‘one of the year’s must-see concerts’.

Biennially, the Ensemble is the Orchestra-in-Residence at the Vasse Felix Festival in Western Australia and in 2014 it was the Orchestra-in-Residence at the Canberra International Music Festival.

In 2016, internationally acclaimed Finnish violinist Pekka Kuusisto takes up the inaugural position as ACO Collective Artistic Director. ACO Collective, under Kuusisto’s direction, will open the ACO’s 2016 National Subscription season with an 11-concert tour of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra, Adelaide and Newcastle. During 2016 ACO Collective will also undertake tours of regional Western Australia, under the direction of Pekka Kuusisto, as well as regional New South Wales, under the direction of special guests, the celebrated string quartet, Meta4.

26

MUSICI A NS ON S TAGE

Pekka Kuusisto photo by Kaapo Kamu

Pekka Kuusisto Violin and Artistic Director, ACO Collective

Helena Rathbone 1 Principal Violin

Aiko Goto Violin

Chair sponsored by Kate & Daryl Dixon

Chair sponsored by Anthony & Sharon Lee Foundation

Liisa Pallandi Violin

Christopher Moore 2 Principal Viola

Timo-Veikko Valve 3 Principal Cello

Chair sponsored by The Melbourne Medical Syndicate

Chair sponsored by peckvonhartel architects

Chair sponsored by Peter Weiss ao

Thibaud Pavlovic-Hobba Violin Harry Bennetts Violin Amy Brookman Violin Peter Clark Violin

Madeleine Jevons Violin Lachlan O’Donnell Violin

Ruben Palma Cello Anna Pokorny Cello

Benjamin Caddy Viola William Clark Viola

Josef Bisits Double Bass

Players dressed by Willow and SABA

1. Helena Rathbone plays a 1759 J.B. Guadagnini violin kindly on loan from the Commonwealth Bank Group.

2. Christopher Moore plays a 1610 Giovanni Paolo Maggini viola, kindly on loan from an anonymous benefactor.

3. Timo-Veikko Valve plays a 1729 Giuseppe Guarneri filius Andreæ cello with elements of the instrument crafted by his son, Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù, kindly on loan from Peter Weiss ao.

27

ACO BEHIND T HE S CENE S BOARD Guido Belgiorno-Nettis am Chairman Liz Cacciottolo Deputy Bill Best John Borghetti Judith Crompton John Grill ao Anthony Lee Heather Ridout ao Carol Schwartz am Julie Steiner Andrew Stevens John Taberner Nina Walton Peter Yates am Simon Yeo ARTISTIC DIRECTOR Richard Tognetti ao

Bernard Rofe Librarian Cyrus Meurant Assistant Librarian Joseph Nizeti Multimedia, Music Technology & Artistic Assistant Felix Abrahams Sound Engineer EDUCATION Phillippa Martin ACO Collective & ACO Virtual Manager

Yvonne Morton Accountant

Jessica Block Deputy General Manager

Shyleja Paul Assistant Accountant

Alexandra Cameron-Fraser Strategic Development Manager

DEVELOPMENT

Anna Melville Artistic Administrator Megan Russell Tour Manager Lisa Mullineux Assistant Tour Manager Danielle Asciak Travel Coordinator

28

Leo Messias Marketing Coordinator Cristina Maldonaldo Communications Coordinator Chris Griffith Box Office Manager

Deyel Dalziel-Charlier Box Office & CRM Database Assistant

Richard Evans Managing Drector

Luke Shaw Head of Operations & Artistic Planning

Hilary Shrubb Publications Editor

Caitlin Gilmour Education Assistant

Steve Davidson Corporate Services Manager

ARTISTIC & OPERATIONS

Mary Stielow National Publicist

Dean Watson Customer Relations Manager

EXECUTIVE OFFICE

Helen Maxwell Executive Assistant to Mr Evans & Mr Tognetti ao

Derek Gilchrist Marketing Manager

Zoe Arthur Acting Education Manager

FINANCE ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF

MARKETING

Christina Holland Office Administrator INFORMATION SYSTEMS Ken McSwain Systems & Technology Manager Emmanuel Espinas Network Infrastructure Engineer

Rebecca Noonan Development Manager Jill Colvin Philanthropy Manager Penelope Loane Investor Relations Manager Tom Tansey Events Manager Tom Carrig Senior Development Executive

AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA ABN 45 001 335 182 Australian Chamber Orchestra Pty Ltd is a not-for-profit company registered in NSW. In Person Opera Quays, 2 East Circular Quay, Sydney NSW 2000

By Mail PO Box R21, Royal Exchange NSW 1225

Ali Brosnan Patrons Manager

Telephone (02) 8274 3800 Box Office 1800 444 444

Sally Crawford Development Coordinator

Email aco@aco.com.au Web aco.com.au

V ENUE SUPP OR T Australian National University ADELAIDE TOWN HALL

QUEENSLAND PERFORMING ARTS

AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY

128 King William Street,

CENTRE

Llewellyn Hall School of Music

Adelaide SA 5000

Cultural Precinct,

GPO Box 2252, Adelaide SA 5001 Venue Hire Information Telephone (08) 8203 7590

Cnr Grey & Melbourne Street, South Bank QLD 4101 PO Box 3567, South Bank QLD 4101

Email townhall@adelaidecitycouncil.com

Telephone (07) 3840 7444

Web adelaidetownhall.com.au

Box Office 131 246

Martin Haese Lord Mayor Peter Smith Chief Executive Officer

William Herbert Place (off Childers Street), Acton, Canberra VENUE HIRE INFORMATION Telephone (02) 6125 2527 Email music.venues@anu.edu.au

Web qpac.com.au Christopher Freeman am Chair John Kotzas Chief Executive

ARTS CENTRE MELBOURNE

GRAND VENUES OF NEWCASTLE

CITY RECITAL HALL ANGEL PLACE

PO Box 7585,

CITY HALL

A City of Sydney Venue

St Kilda Road, Melbourne VIC 8004

Owned and operated by the

Telephone (03) 9281 8000

City of Newcastle

Box Office 1300 182 183

290 King Street,

Web artscentremelbourne.com.au

Newcastle NSW 2300

Tom Harley President

Telephone (Venue & Event Coordinators)

Victorian Arts Centre Trust

(02) 4974 2996

Claire Spencer Chief Executive Officer

Ticketek Box Office (02) 4929 1977 Email grandvenues@ncc.nsw.gov.au

2–12 Angel Place, Sydney NSW 2000 GPO Box 3339, Sydney NSW 2001 Telephone (02) 9231 9000 Box Office (02) 8256 2222 Web cityrecitalhall.com Elaine Chia General Manager

SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE Bennelong Point GPO Box 4274, Sydney NSW 2001 Telephone (02) 9250 7111 Box Office (02) 9250 7777 Email infodesk@sydneyoperahouse.com Web sydneyoperahouse.com Nicholas Moore Chair, Sydney Opera House Trust

In case of emergencies . . .

Please note, all venues have emergency action plans. You can call ahead of your visit to the venue and ask for details. All Front of House staff at the venues are trained in accordance with each venue’s plan and, in the event of an emergency, you should follow their instructions. You can also use the time before the concert starts to locate the nearest exit to your seat in the venue.

Louise Herron am Chief Executive Officer 29

BEE T HOV EN & T HE 21S T CEN T URY TOUR DATES & PRE-CONCERT TALKS TOUR PRESENTED BY

Pre-concert talks take place 45 minutes before the start of every concert.

Thu 4 Feb, 7.30pm Newcastle City Hall Pre-concert talk by Ken Healey am

Tue 9 Feb, 7.30pm Adelaide Town Hall Pre-concert talk by Eugene Ragghianti

Sat 6 Feb, 8pm Canberra Llewellyn Hall Pre-concert talk by Ken Healey am

Sat 13 Feb, 7pm Sydney – City Recital Hall Angel Place Pre-concert talk by Ken Healey am

Sun 7 Feb, 2.30pm Melbourne Arts Centre Pre-concert talk by Anna Melville Mon 8 Feb, 7,30pm Melbourne Arts Centre Pre-concert talk by Anna Melville

Sun 14 Feb, 2pm Sydney Opera House Pre-concert talk by Ken Healey am Mon 15 Feb, 7pm Brisbane QPAC Concert Hall Pre-concert talk by Gillian Wills

Tue 16 Feb, 8pm Sydney – City Recital Hall Angel Place Pre-concert talk by Ken Healey am Wed 17 Feb, 7pm Sydney – City Recital Hall Angel Place Pre-concert talk by Ken Healey am Fri 19 Feb, 1.30pm Sydney – City Recital Hall Angel Place Pre-concert talk by Ken Healey am

Pre-concert speakers are subject to change.

This is a PLAYBILL / SHOWBILL publication.

Playbill Proprietary Limited / Showbill Proprietary Limited ACN 003 311 064 ABN 27 003 311 064 This publication is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, 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 other than that in which it was published.

Head Office: Suite A, Level 1, Building 16, Fox Studios Australia, Park Road North, Moore Park NSW 2021 PO Box 410, Paddington NSW 2021 Telephone: +61 2 9921 5353 Fax: +61 2 9449 6053 E-mail: admin@playbill.com.au Website: www.playbill.com.au

Chairman & Advertising Director Brian Nebenzahl OAM RFD Managing Director Michael Nebenzahl Editorial Director Jocelyn Nebenzahl Manager — Production — Classical Music Alan Ziegler

Playbill runs its own printery where we print all our theatre programs. We also print a variety of jobs from flyers to posters to brochures. Contact us at print@playbill.com.au for a quote on your printing work.

OPERATING IN SYDNEY, MELBOURNE, CANBERRA, BRISBANE, ADELAIDE, PERTH, HOBART & DARWIN OVERSEAS OPERATIONS: New Zealand — Wellington: Playbill (NZ) Limited, Level 1, 100 Tory Street, Wellington, New Zealand 6011; (64 4) 385 8893, Fax (64 4) 385 8899. Auckland: PO Box 112187, Penrose, Auckland 1642; Mt Smart Stadium, Beasley Avenue, Penrose, Auckland; (64 9) 571 1607, Fax (64 9) 571 1608, Mobile 6421 741 148, Email: admin@playbill.co.nz. UK: Playbill UK Limited, C/- Everett Baldwin Barclay Consultancy Services, 35 Paul Street, London EC2A 4UQ; (44) 207 628 0857, Fax (44) 207 628 7253. Hong Kong: Playbill (HK) Limited, C/- Fanny Lai, Rm 804, 8/F Eastern Commercial Centre, 397 Hennessey Road, Wanchai HK 168001 WCH 38; (852) 2891 6799, Fax (852) 2891 1618. Malaysia: Playbill Malaysia Sdn Bhn, C/- Peter I.M. Chieng & Co., No.2 – E (1st Floor) Jalan SS 22/25, Damansara Jaya, 47400 Petaling Jaya, Selangor Darul Ehsan; (60 3) 7728 5889, Fax (60 3) 7729 5998. Singapore: Playbill (HK) Limited, C/- HLB Loke Lum Consultants Pte Ltd, 110 Middle Road #05-00 Chiat Hong Building, Singapore 188968; (65) 6332 0088, Fax (65) 6333 9690. South Africa: Playbill (South Africa) (Proprietary) Limited, C/- HLB Barnett Chown Inc., Bradford House, 12 Bradford Road, Bedfordview, SA 2007; (27) 11856 5300, Fax (27) 11856 5333.

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. Additional copies of this publication are available by post from the publisher; please write for details.

ACO–161 — 17738 — 1/040216 30

ACO MEDICI PROGR A M In the time-honoured fashion of the great Medici family, the ACO’s Medici Patrons support individual players’ Chairs and assist the Orchestra to attract and retain musicians of the highest calibre.

MEDICI PATRON

CORE CHAIRS

GUEST CHAIRS

The late AMINA BELGIORNO-NETTIS

VIOLIN

PRINCIPAL CHAIRS

Glenn Christensen Terry Campbell ao & Christine Campbell

Brian Nixon Principal Timpani

Richard Tognetti ao Artistic Director & Lead Violin Michael Ball ao & Daria Ball Wendy Edwards Prudence MacLeod Andrew & Andrea Roberts Helena Rathbone Principal Violin

Aiko Goto Anthony & Sharon Lee Foundation Mark Ingwersen Ian Wallace & Kay Freedman

Liisa Pallandi The Melbourne Medical Syndicate

Satu Vänskä Principal Violin

Ike See Di Jameson

Kay Bryan

VIOLA

Christopher Moore Principal Viola

Alexandru-Mihai Bota Philip Bacon am

Timo-Veikko Valve Principal Cello Peter Weiss ao Maxime Bibeau Principal Double Bass Darin Cooper Foundation

FRIENDS OF MEDICI Mr R. Bruce Corlett am & Mrs Ann Corlett

Ilya Isakovich The Humanity Foundation

Kate & Daryl Dixon

peckvonhartel architects

Mr Robert Albert ao & Mrs Libby Albert

Nicole Divall Ian Lansdown CELLO Melissa Barnard Martin Dickson am & Susie Dickson Julian Thompson

ACO L IF E PAT RONS IBM

Mr Martin Dickson am & Mrs Susie Dickson

Mr Robert Albert ao & Mrs Libby Albert

Dr John Harvey ao

Mr Guido Belgiorno-Nettis am

Mrs Alexandra Martin

Mrs Barbara Blackman ao

Mrs Faye Parker

Mrs Roxane Clayton

Mr John Taberner & Mr Grant Lang

Mr David Constable am

Mr Peter Weiss ao

31

ACO BEQ UE S T PAT RONS Please consider supporting the future of the ACO with a gift in your will.

For more information on making a bequest, please call Jill Colvin, Philanthropy Manager, on 02 8274 3835.

The late Charles Ross Adamson

Peter Evans

The late Josephine Paech

The late Kerstin Lillemor Andersen

Carol Farlow

The late Richard Ponder

The late Mrs Sybil Baer

Suzanne Gleeson

Ian & Joan Scott

Steven Bardy

Lachie Hill

The late Mr Geoffrey Francis Scharer

Dave Beswick

The late John Nigel Holman

The Estate of Scott Spencer

Ruth Bell

Penelope Hughes

Leslie C Thiess

The Estate of Prof Janet Carr

The late Dr S W Jeffrey am

G.C. & R. Weir

Sandra Cassell

Estate of Pauline Marie Johnston

Margaret & Ron Wright

The late Mrs Moya Crane

The late Mr Geoff Lee am oam

Mark Young

Mrs Sandra Dent

Mrs Judy Lee

Anonymous (12)

Leigh Emmett

The late Shirley Miller

The late Colin Enderby

Selwyn M Owen

ACO GENER A L PUR P O SE PAT RONS ACO General Purpose Patrons support the ACO’s general operating costs. Their contributions enhance both our artistic vitality and ongoing sustainability. For more information, please call Ali Brosnan, Patrons Manager on 02 8274 3830 Andrew Andersons

Michael Horsburgh am & Beverley Horsburgh Dr Jason Wenderoth

John & Lynnly Chalk

Penelope Hughes

Brian Zulaikha

Dr Jane Cook

Mike & Stephanie Hutchinson

Anonymous (2)

Paul & Roslyn Espie

Professor Anne Kelso ao

Jennifer Hershon

Douglas & Elisabeth Scott

Peter & Edwina Holbeach

Jeanne-Claude Strong

ACO NE X T ACO Next is an exciting new philanthropic program for young supporters, engaging with Australia’s next generation of great musicians while offering unique musical and networking experiences. For more information, please call Ali Brosnan, Patrons Manager, on 02 8274 3830.

MEMBERS Clare Ainsworth Herschell

Aaron Levine

Jessica Read

Justine Clarke

Royston Lim

Louise & Andrew Sharpe

Este Darin-Cooper & Chris Burgess

William Manning

Emile & Caroline Sherman

Amy Denmeade

Rachael McVean

Michael Southwell

Catherine & Sean Denney

Barry Mowzsowski

Helen Telfer

Anita George

Paris Neilson & Todd Buncombe

Karen & Peter Tompkins

Alexandra Gill

James Ostroburski

Joanna Walton & Alex Phoon

Rebecca Gilsenan & Grant Marjoribanks

Nicole Pedler

Nina Walton & Zeb Rice

Adrian Giuffre & Monica Ion

Michael Radovnikovic

Peter Wilson & James Emmett

32

ACO T RUS T S & F OUNDAT IONS

Holmes à Court Family Foundation

The Neilson Foundation

The Ross Trust

ACO INS T RUMEN T F UND The ACO has established its Instrument Fund to offer patrons and investors the opportunity to participate in the ownership of a bank of historic stringed instruments. The Fund’s first asset is Australia’s only Stradivarius violin, now on loan to Satu Vänskä, Principal Violin.

The Fund’s second asset is the 1714 Joseph Guarneri filius Andreæ violin, the ‘ex Isolde Menges’, now on loan to Violinist Mark Ingwersen. For more information, please call Penelope Loane, Investor Relations Manager on 02 8274 3878.

Peter Weiss ao PATRON, ACO Instrument Fund BOARD MEMBERS Bill Best (Chairman) Jessica Block

SONATA $25,000 – $49,999

INVESTORS

ENSEMBLE $10,000 – $24,999

Stephen & Sophie Allen

Lesley & Ginny Green

John & Deborah Balderstone

Peter J Boxall ao & Karen Chester

Guido & Michelle Belgiorno-Nettis Bill Best

John Leece am

SOLO $5,000 – $9,999

Andrew Stevens

PATRON $500 – $4,999

Sam Burshtein & Galina Kaseko

John Taberner

Michael Bennett & Patti Simpson

Carla Zampatti Foundation

Leith & Darrel Conybeare

Sally Collier

Dr Jane Cook

Michael Cowen & Sharon Nathani

VISIONARY $1m+

Geoff & Denise Illing

Marco D’Orsogna

Peter Weiss ao

Luana & Kelvin King

Garry & Susan Farrell

Jane Kunstler

Gammell Family

John Landers & Linda Sweeny

Edward Gilmartin

Genevieve Lansell

Tom & Julie Goudkamp

Bronwyn & Andrew Lumsden

Philip Hartog

Patricia McGregor

Brendan Hopkins

OCTET $100,000 – $199,999

Trevor Parkin

Angus & Sarah James

John Taberner

Elizabeth Pender

Daniel and Jacqueline Phillips

Robyn Tamke

Ryan Cooper Family Foundation

Anonymous (2)

Andrew & Philippa Stevens

PATRONS

LEADER $500,000 – $999,999 CONCERTO $200,000 – $499,999 The late Amina Belgiorno-Nettis Naomi Milgrom ao

QUARTET $50,000 – $99,999 John Leece am & Anne Leece Anonymous

Benjamin Brady

Dr Lesley Treleaven Ian Wallace & Kay Freedman 33

ACO SPECI A L C OMMIS SIONS & SPECI A L PRO JE C T S SPECIAL COMMISSIONS PATRONS

ACO ACADEMY BRISBANE

Peter & Cathy Aird

THE REEF NEW YORK PRODUCERS’ SYNDICATE

Gerard Byrne & Donna O’Sullivan

Executive Producers

Philip Bacon ao

Mirek Generowicz

Tony & Michelle Grist

Kay Bryan

Peter & Valerie Gerrand

Lead Producers

Dr Ian Frazer ac & Mrs Caroline Frazer

G Graham

Jon & Caro Stewart Foundation

Dr Edward Gray

Anthony & Conny Harris Rohan Haslam John Griffiths & Beth Jackson Andrew & Fiona Johnston Lionel & Judy King David & Sandy Libling Tony Jones & Julian Liga Robert & Nancy Pallin Deborah Pearson Alison Reeve Augusta Supple Dr Suzanne M Trist Team Schmoopy Rebecca Zoppetti Laubi Anonymous (1)

Major Producers Danielle & Daniel Besen Foundation Charlie & Olivia Lanchester

Andrew Clouston

Producers Richard Caldwell Warren & Linda Coli Graham & Treffina Dowland Steve Duchen & Polly Hemphill Wendy Edwards Doug Elix Gilbert George Tony & Camilla Gill Max Gundy (board member ACO US) & Shelagh Gundy

Linda & Graeme Beveridge

Peter & Victoria Shorthouse

Jan Bowen

John Taberner (board member ACO US) & Grant Lang Alden Toevs & Judi Wolf

Delysia Lawson Angela Roberts

Bruce & Jocelyn Wolfe PATRONS

The ACO would like to pay tribute to the following donors who support our international touring activities in 2016:

Bee & Brendan Hopkins

Wayne Kratzmann

Janet Holmes à Court ac

Rebecca John & Daniel Flores Patrick Loftus-Hills (board member ACO US) & Konnin Tam Sally & Steve Paridis (board members ACO US)

INTERNATIONAL TOUR PATRONS

LEAD PATRONS

Major Partner

Mike Thompson

Michael Forrest & Angie Ryan Ian & Cass George Professor Peter Høj Helen McVay Shay O’Hara-Smith Brendan Ostwald Marie-Louise Theile Beverley Trivett MELBOURNE HEBREW CONGREGATION PATRONS LEAD PATRONS Marc Besen ac & Eva Besen ao

SUPPORTER Leo & Mina Fink Fund EMANUEL SYNAGOGUE PATRONS CORPORATE PARTNERS Adina Apartment Hotels

Corporate Partner Lexington Partners Manikay Partners Corporate Supporter UBS

Meriton Group LEAD PATRON The Narev Family PATRONS David Gonski ac Lesley & Ginny Green The Sherman Foundation Justin Phillips & Louise Thurgood-Phillips

34

ACO N AT ION A L EDUC AT ION PROGR A M The ACO pays tribute to all of our generous donors who have contributed to our National Education Program, which focuses on the development of young Australian musicians. This initiative is pivotal in securing the future of the ACO and the future of music in Australia. We are extremely grateful for the support that we receive.

If you would like to make a donation or bequest to the ACO, or would like to direct your support in other ways, please contact Ali Brosnan on (02) 8274 3830 or ali.brosnan@aco.com.au Donor list current as at 20 January 2016 PATRONS

Bruce & Joy Reid Trust

Dr Wendy Hughes

Marc Besen ac & Eva Besen ao

Andrew & Andrea Roberts

I Kallinikos

Janet Holmes à Court ac

Mark & Anne Robertson

Mrs Judy Lee

Margie Seale & David Hardy

John Kench

Tony Shepherd ao

Anthony & Sharon Lee Foundation

Peter & Victoria Shorthouse

Lorraine Logan

Mr Robert Albert ao & Mrs Libby Albert

Anthony Strachan

Macquarie Group Foundation

Australian Communities Foundation

John Taberner & Grant Lang

David Maloney & Erin Flaherty

Leslie C. Thiess

Pam & Ian McDougall

Alden Toevs & Judi Wolf

Brian & Helen McFadyen

The Hon Malcolm Turnbull mp &

P J Miller

The Belalberi Foundation

Ms Lucy Turnbull ao

The Myer Foundation

Guido & Michelle Belgiorno-Nettis

David & Julia Turner

peckvonhartel architects

Luca Belgiorno-Nettis am

E Xipell

Elizabeth Pender

Andre Biet

Peter Yates am & Susan Yates

John Rickard

Leigh & Christina Birtles

Professor Richard Yeo

Andrew Roberts

Liz Cacciottolo & Walter Lewin

Peter Young am & Susan Young

Paul Schoff & Stephanie Smee

Rod Cameron & Margaret Gibbs

Anonymous (2)

Greg Shalit & Miriam Faine

EMERGING ARTISTS & EDUCATION PATRONS $10,000+

– Ballandry Fund Daria & Michael Ball Steven Bardy & Andrew Patterson

Stephen & Jenny Charles

Jann Skinner

Rowena Danziger am & Ken Coles am

DIRETTORE $5,000 – $9,999

The Cooper Foundation

Geoff Ainsworth & Jo Featherstone

Ann Gamble Myer

Geoff Alder

Daniel & Helen Gauchat

Veronika & Joseph Butta

Andrea Govaert & Wik Farwerck

Elizabeth Chernov

Dr Edward C. Gray

Victor & Chrissy Comino

John Grill & Rosie Williams

Leith & Darrel Conybeare

Kimberley Holden

David Craig

Angus & Sarah James

Liz Dibbs

Miss Nancy Kimpton

Ellis Family

Elmer Funke Kupper

Bridget Faye am

Irina Kuzminsky & Mark Delaney

Ian & Caroline Frazer

Bruce & Jenny Lane

A G Froggatt

Prudence MacLeod

Kay Giorgetta

MAESTRO $2,500 – $4,999

Anthony and Suzanne Maple-Brown

Tony & Michelle Grist

Michael Ahrens

Alf Moufarrige

Liz Harbison

David & Rae Allen

Jim & Averill Minto

Kerry Harmanis

Ralph Ashton

John & Anne Murphy

Dr John Harvey ao & Mrs Yvonne Harvey

Will & Dorothy Bailey Charitable Gift

Louise & Martyn Myer Foundation

Annie Hawker

Doug & Alison Battersby

Jennie & Ivor Orchard

Fraser Hopkins

The Beeren Foundation

Joyce Sproat & Janet Cooke Jon & Caro Stewart St George Foundation Mary-Anne Sutherland Alden Toevs & Judi Wolf John Vallance & Sydney Grammar School Geoff Weir Westpac Group Simon Whiston Shemara Wikramanayake Cameron Williams Anonymous (8)

35

Colin Isaac & Jenni Seton

Berg Family Foundation

Matt Allen

Jenny Bryant

Philip Bacon am

Phillip Isaacs oam

Neil & Jane Burley

Lyn Baker & John Bevan

Will & Chrissie Jephcott

Gilbert Burton

Adrienne Basser

Brian Jones

Kathryn Chiba

David & Anne Bolzonello

Bronwen L Jones

Caroline & Robert Clemente

Brian Bothwell

Josephine Key & Ian Breden

Alan Fraser Cooper

Michael & Tina Brand

In memory of Graham Lang

Robert & Jeanette Corney

Vicki Brooke

Airdrie Lloyd

Heather Douglas

Diana Brookes

Colin Loveday

Anne & Thomas Dowling

Dr Catherine Brown-Watt psm

Robin Lumley

Michele Duncan

Jasmine Brunner

Diana Lungren

Suellen Enestrom

Sally Bufé

Magellan Logistics Pty Ltd

Euroz Securities Limited

Gerard Byrne & Donna O’Sullivan

Greg & Jan Marsh

Jane & Richard Freudenstein

Andrew & Cathy Cameron

David Mathlin

John Gandel ao & Mrs Pauline Gandel

Terry Campbell ao & Christine Campbell

Janet Matton

Anna Gauchat

Ray Carless & Jill Keyte

Kevin & Deidre McCann

Robert & Jennifer Gavshon

Roslyn Carter

Nicholas McDonald

Megan Grace

Andrew Chamberlain

Ian & Pam McGaw

Warren Green

Julia Champtaloup & Andrew Rothery

Colin McKeith

Nereda Hanlon & Michael Hanlon am

Patrick Charles

J A McKernan

Reg Hobbs & Louise Carbines

Angela & John Compton

Bruce McWilliam

Gavin & Christine Holman

Laurie & Julie Ann Cox

Roslyn Morgan

Simon & Katrina Holmes à Court

Carol & Andrew Crawford

Suzanne Morgan

Erica Jacobson

Judith Crompton

Glenn Murcutt ao

Mark Johnson

J & P Curotta

Baillieu Myer ac

Ros Johnson

Ian Davis

Stuart Nash

John Karkar qc

Michael & Wendy Davis

Dennis & Fairlie Nassau

The Alexandra & Lloyd Martin Family

Stephen Davis

Nola Nettheim

Foundation

Defiance Gallery

Anthony Niardone & Glen Hunter

Jennifer Senior & Jenny McGee

Martin Dolan

Paul O’Donnell

Jane Morley

Dr William F Downey

Ilse O’Reilly

Daniel Droga

James Ostroburksi & Leo Ostroburski

Emeritus Professor Dexter Dunphy am

Anne & Christopher Page

Sharon Ellies

Prof David Penington ac

Leigh Emmett

G.V. Pincus

Peter Evans

Julia Pincus & Ian Learmonth

Julie Ewington

Lady Primrose ac

Elizabeth Finnegan

Beverley Price

Don & Marie Forrest

Mark Renehan

Anne & Justin Gardener

Mrs Tiffany Rensen

Kerry Gardner

Dr S M Richards am & Mrs M R Richards

Matthew Gilmour

Warwick & Jeanette Richmond

Colin Golvan qc

in Memory of Andrew Richmond

VIRTUOSO $1,000 – $2,499

In memory of José Gutierrez

Roadshow Entertainment

Jennifer Aaron

Paul Hannan

Em. Prof. A W Roberts am

AJ Ackermann

Gail Harris

J. Sanderson

Aberfoyle Partners

Bettina Hemmes

In Memory of H. St. P. Scarlett

Alceon Group

Christian Holle

Lucille Seale

Annette Adair

Monique D’Arcy Irvine & Anthony Hourigan

Dr. Margaret Sheridan

Linda Addy

Merilyn & David Howorth

Diana & Brian Snape am

Samantha & Aris Allegos

Penelope Hughes

Maria Sola

Jane Allen

Launa & Howard Inman

Dr P & Mrs D Southwell-Keely

Sandra & Michael Paul Endowment Patricia H Reid Endowment Pty Ltd Perpetual Trustee Company Limited Ralph & Ruth Renard The Sandgropers D N Sanders Petrina Slaytor John & Josephine Strutt Ralph Ward-Ambler am & Barbara Ward-Ambler Richard & Suzie White Anonymous (3)

36

Keith Spence

Sam Crawford Architects

Megan Lowe

Mark Stanbridge

Marie Dalziel

Rob Mactier

Ross Steele am

Jill Davies

Dr & Mrs Donald Maxwell

Geoffrey Stirton & Patricia Lowe

Mari Davis

Kathleen McFarlane

Dr Charles Su & Dr Emily Lo

Kath & Geoff Donohue

H E McGlashan

Tamas & Joanna Szabo

In Memory of Raymond Dudley

Margaret McNaughton

Victoria Taylor

Margaret Dunstan

Suzanne Mellor

Jane Tham & Philip Maxwell

M T & R L Elford

Tempe Merewether

Robert & Kyrenia Thomas

Christine Evans

Cameron Moore & Cate Nagy

Anne Tonkin

Eddy Goldsmith & Jennifer Feller

Simon Morris & Sonia Wechsler

Matthew Toohey

Penelope & Susan Field

Elizabeth Manning Murphy

Angus Trumble

Jean Finnegan & Peter Kerr

Marie Morton

Ngaire Turner

Jessica Fletcher

Dr G. Nelson

Kay Vernon

Michael Fogarty

J Norman

Rebecca & Neil Warburton

Peter Fredricson

Graham North

John Wardle

Steven Frisken

Robin Offler

Marion W Wells

Sam Gazal

John O’Sullivan

Gillian Woodhouse

Brian Goddard

Robin Pease

Harley Wright & Alida Stanley

Marilyn & Max Gosling

Kevin Phillips

Don & Mary Ann Yeats

Arnoud Govaert

Bernard Hanlon & Rhana Pike

William Yuille

Jillian Gower

Rosie Pilat

Rebecca Zoppetti Laubi

Grandfather’s Axe

Michael Power

Anonymous (20)

Katrina Groshinski & John Lyons

John Prendiville

Annette Gross

Beverly & Ian Pryer

Lesley Harland

John Riedl

Mrs C A Allfrey

Gaye Headlam

Angela Roberts

Elsa Atkin am

Kingsley Herbert

GM & BC Robins

Rita Avdiev

Dr Penny Herbert

Sally Rossi-Ford

A. & M. Barnes

in memory of Dunstan Herbert

Robin Rowe

Tessa Barnett

Lachie Hill

Mrs J Royle

Robin Beech

Marian Hill

Christine Salter

Elizabeth Bolton

Sue & David Hobbs

Garry Scarf & Morgie Blaxill

In memory of Peter Boros

Geoff Hogbin

Boris & Jane Schlensky

C Bower

Bee Hopkins

Rena Shein

Denise Braggett

Prof Angela Hull ao

Sherborne Consulting

Mrs Pat Burke

Dr & Mrs Michael Hunter

Florine Simon

Hugh Burton-Taylor

Mary Ibrahim

Casimir Skillecorn

Heather Carmody

Dr Vernon & Mrs Margaret Ireland

Spire Capital

J. M. Carvell

Owen James

Fionna Stack

Nada Chami

Barry Johnson & Davina Johnson oam

Professor Fiona Stewart

Fred & Angela Chaney

Caroline Jones

Georgina Summerhayes

Fred & Jody Chaney

Angela Karpin

In memory of Dr Aubrey Sweet

Dr Roger Chen

Bruce & Natalie Kellett

Barbara Symons

Colleen & Michael Chesterman

Graham Kemp & Heather Nobbs

Gabrielle Tagg

Richard & Elizabeth Chisholm

Jacqueline & Anthony Kerwick

Arlene Tansey

Olivier Chretien

Karin Kobelentz & Miguel Wustermann

David & Judy Taylor

ClearFresh Water

Ms Sarah R Lambert

G C & R Weir

Paul Cochrane

Prof Kerry A Landman

Taryn Williams

Warren & Linda Coli

Philip Lawe Davies

Sally Willis

Sally Collier

TFW See & Lee Chartered Accountants

Brian Zulaikha

P. Cornwell & C. Rice

David & Sandy Libling

Anonymous (24)

Annabel Crabb

Dimitra Loupasakis

CONCERTINO $500 – $999

37

ACO CH A IR M A N’S COUNCIL The Chairman’s Council is a limited membership association which supports the ACO’s international touring program and enjoys private events in the company of Richard Tognetti and the Orchestra.

Mr Guido Belgiorno-Nettis am Chairman, Australian Chamber Orchestra & Executive Director, Transfield Holdings Mr Philip Bacon am Director, Philip Bacon Galleries Mr David Baffsky ao Mr Marc Besen ac & Mrs Eva Besen ao Mr John Borghetti Chief Executive Officer, Virgin Australia Mr Michael & Mrs Helen Carapiet Mr John Casella Managing Director, Casella Family Brands (Peter Lehmann Wines) Mr & Mrs Robin Crawford Rowena Danziger am & Kenneth G. Coles am Mr David Evans Executive Chairman, Evans & Partners Dr Bob Every ao Chairman, Wesfarmers Ms Tracey Fellows Chief Executive Officer, REA Group Mr Angelos Frangopoulos Chief Executive Officer, Australian News Channel Mr Richard Freudenstein Chief Executive Officer, FOXTEL

38

Ms Ann Gamble Myer

Ms Gretel Packer

Mr Daniel Gauchat Principal, The Adelante Group

Mr Jeremy Parham Head of Langton’s, Langton’s

Mr James Gibson Chief Executive Officer, Australia & New Zealand BNP Paribas

Mr Robert Peck am & Ms Yvonne von Hartel am peckvonhartel architects

Mr John Grill ao Chairman, WorleyParsons Mr Grant Harrod Chief Executive Officer, LJ Hooker Mrs Janet Holmes à Court ac Mr Simon & Mrs Katrina Holmes à Court Observant Mr John Kench Chairman, Johnson Winter & Slattery Ms Catherine Livingstone ao Chairman, Telstra Mr Andrew Low

Mr Mark Robertson oam & Mrs Anne Robertson Ms Margie Seale & Mr David Hardy Mr Glen Sealey Chief Operating Officer, Maserati Australasia & South Africa Mr Tony Shepherd ao Mr Peter Shorthouse UBS Wealth Management Mr Paul Sumner Chief Executive Officer, Mossgreen Pty Ltd Mr Mitsuyuki (Mike) Takada Managing Director & CEO, Mitsubishi Australia Ltd

Mr David Mathlin

The Hon Malcolm Turnbull mp & Ms Lucy Turnbull ao

Ms Julianne Maxwell

Mr David & Mrs Julia Turner

Mr Michael Maxwell

Ms Vanessa Wallace & Mr Alan Liddle

Ms Naomi Milgrom ao

Mr Peter Yates am Deputy Chairman, Myer Family Investments Ltd & Director, AIA Ltd

Ms Jan Minchin Director, Tolarno Galleries Mr Jim & Mrs Averill Minto Mr Alf Moufarrige Chief Executive Officer, Servcorp

Mr Peter Young am & Mrs Susan Young

AC O GOV ER NMEN T PA R T NER S THE ACO THANKS ITS GOVERNMENT PARTNERS FOR THEIR GENEROUS SUPPORT

The ACO is assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.

The ACO is supported by the NSW Government through Arts NSW.

AC O COMMI T T EE S SYDNEY DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE

MELBOURNE DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL

EVENT COMMITTEES

Heather Ridout ao (Chair) Director, Reserve Bank of Australia

Peter Yates am (Chair) Deputy Chairman, Myer Family Investments Ltd & Director, AIA Ltd

SYDNEY

Debbie Brady

Sandra Ferman

Paul Cochrane Investment Advisor, Bell Potter Securities

Fay Geddes

Ann Gamble-Myer

Lisa Kench

Guido Belgiorno-Nettis am Chairman ACO & Executive Director, Transfield Holdings Bill Best Maggie Drummond Tony Gill Andrea Govaert John Kench Chairman, Johnson Winter & Slattery Jennie Orchard Tony O’Sullivan Peter Shorthouse UBS Wealth Management Mark Stanbridge Partner, Ashurst Alden Toevs Group Chief Risk Officer, CBA Nina Walton

Colin Golvan qc

John Taberner (Chair) Lillian Armitage Judy Anne Edwards

Julie Goudkamp Elizabeth Harbison Julianne Maxwell Elizabeth McDonald

Shelley Meagher Director, Do it on the Roof

Catherine Powell

James Ostroburski Director, Grimsey Wealth

Liz Williams

Joanna Szabo Simon Thornton Executive General Manager, Toll IPEC

Nicola Sinclair Lynne Testoni Judi Wolf BRISBANE Philip Bacon Kay Bryan Andrew Clouston Ian & Caroline Frazer Cass George

DISABILITY ADVISORY COMMITTEE

Edward Gray

Amanda Tink Independent Consultant, Amanda Tink Consultancy

Wayne Kratzmann

Morwenna Collett Manager, Project Controls & Risk Disability Coordinator, Australia Council for the Arts

Marie-Lousie Theile

Helen McVay Shay O’Hara-Smith Beverley Trivett Bruce and Jocelyn Wolfe

39

ACO PA R T NERS PRINCIPAL PARTNER

PRINCIPAL PARTNER: ACO COLLECTIVE

NATIONAL TOUR PARTNERS

OFFICIAL PARTNERS

CONCERT AND SERIES PARTNERS

ASSOCIATE PARTNER: ACO VIRTUAL

MEDIA PARTNERS

40

EVENT PARTNERS

AC O NE W S VIRGIN AUSTR ALIA PRIVATE PERFORMANCE PICTURED BELOW: (left to right) Karl Schuster, CEO Velocity Frequent Flyer; Greg O’Neil, President of BCD Travel; Richard Tognetti ao, ACO; Shirley Field, General Manager Global Sales VA; and Tass Messinis, MD of BCD Travel.

BELOW LEFT: Guests arrive at the Park Hyatt.

In late November, the ACO, led by Richard Tognetti, performed at an exclusive private event for our Principal Partner, Virgin Australia at the Park Hyatt in Sydney. Co-hosted by Velocity Frequent Flyer CEO Karl Schuster, and Greg O’Neil, President of BCD Travel, the event treated selected corporate customers of each company to a beautiful evening overlooking the harbour, with the Orchestra performing exquisite repertoire by Bach, Vasks, Rameau and Vivaldi.

BELOW RIGHT: Guests Katharine Brown and David McGuire, with Melissa Barnard, Satu Vänskä and Virgin Australia crew.

This performance is one small way that we thank Virgin Australia for their invaluable support.

41

PRE OR POST THEATRE MENU

$45 Includes: Main Course & A Glass of Wine

PHONE BOOKINGS: +61 2 9229 7788 ONLINE BOOKINGS: www.gpogrand.com ADDRESS: Ground Floor, No. 1 Martin Place, Sydney OPENING HOURS: Mon-Sat 12pm-3pm, Mon-Sat 6pm-10pm @gpogrand

/IntermezzoItalianRestaurant

MUSIC TO YOUR EYES ECN is a proud partner of the ACO, bringing the 2016 tour campaigns to life across Australia’s premiere office towers.

EXECUTIVECHANNELNETWORK.COM.AU SYDNEY | MELBOURNE | LONDON | PARIS | FRANKFURT