Skye McIntosh, Artistic Director
TEMPORA MUTANTUR
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TEMPORA MUTANTUR
PROGRAM
DATES
Boccherini Piano Quintet in E minor Op. 57 No. 3
Canberra Thursday 17th December, 7pm Albert Hall, Yarralumla
Mozart Piano Concerto No. 6 in B flat major Haydn Symphony No. 64 Tempora Mutantur (Times Are Changed) arr. Salomon
The concert duration is approximately 1 hr, no interval. Please observe social distancing at all times and remain seated throughout your attendance at the performance. Thank you for your cooperation.
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Sydney Saturday 19th December, 7pm City Recital Hall, Angel Place Southern Highlands Sunday 20th December, 4pm Burrawang School of Arts
Erin Helyard Guest Director and Fortepiano Skye McIntosh Founder & Artistic Director, Violin Matthew Greco Violin Karina Schmitz Viola Daniel Yeadon Cello Melissa Farrow Flute
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ARTISTIC DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE I am delighted that we can return to touring before the year is over and also welcome back our dear friend and regular collaborator, Erin Helyard as soloist and Guest Director.
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We were unable to present our end of year orchestral program as originally planned, given that many of our AHE musicians live interstate or overseas. In its place, we are performing a more intimate program including Mozart’s early Piano Concerto No. 6, Boccherini’s Piano Quintet in E minor and Salomon’s chamber version of Haydn’s Tempora Mutantur Symphony No. 64. In relation to his Piano Concertos No. 12, 13 and 14, Mozart explained that these works could be performed with the accompaniment of a string quartet, omitting the full orchestra with larger string sections and wind parts. This practice of performing orchestral works was common at the time and in a similar manner we present the Concerto No. 6 in an intimate chamber performance. Boccherini’s Piano Quintet in E minor is a rare treat for us to perform. The work opens with a nostalgic lament that takes us on a journey through Bohemian characters - culminating in a playful rondo, full of gipsy flare. The program concludes with Haydn’s Symphony No. 64. The symphony’s nickname is Tempora Mutantur - a Latin phrase which translates as
‘Time Are Changed’. This would have been familiar to Haydn, and it is believed that title may mean that the work doubled as theatre music performed at the Esterházy palace - possibly in performances of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. We perform Salomon’s chamber arrangement of the work, which is little known today. Salomon was a friend of Haydn who arranged over twenty five of his symphonies for this particular instrumentation, most of which have not been performed or recorded in modern times. The Ensemble hopes to record these symphonies at some stage in the future.
Skye McIntosh Artistic Director & Violin
THE ENSEMBLE The Australian Haydn Ensemble, founded in 2012 by Artistic Director and Principal Violinist Skye McIntosh, has quickly established itself as one of Australia’s leading period-instrument ensembles, specialising in the repertoire of the late baroque and early classical eras. It takes its name from the great Joseph Haydn, a leading composer of the late eighteenth century, when style was transitioning from Baroque to Classical. Based around a small core of strings and flute, the Ensemble performs in a variety of sizes and combinations, ranging from string or flute quartet or quintet, to a full orchestra. It has developed a flourishing regular series at the Sydney Opera House Utzon Room and in Canberra, where it was Ensemble in Residence at the Australian National University during 2014. It also performs throughout regional NSW and presents education workshops to students of all ages, focusing on imparting eighteenth century historical performance techniques. In January 2019, AHE presented programs at the Peninsula Summer Music Festival and the Organs of the Ballarat Goldfields Festival in Victoria, receiving glowing reviews. In 2016 the group released its debut ABC Classics recording The Haydn Album which reached number one on the Australian Aria Classical charts. It received rave reviews, one claiming that the Ensemble stood “proudly shoulder to shoulder with the many period instrument ensembles found in Europe.”. In October 2017 AHE released Beethoven Piano Concertos 1 & 3 on the ABC Classics label, showcasing newly-commissioned chamber versions of the works in the style of the eighteenth century, in collaboration with Aria award winning historical keyboardist Dr Neal Peres Da Costa. Reviewers have been extremely enthusiastic: “This recording is remarkable not
only for the pianist’s wonderfully free and fluent playing, but also for the excellent performance of the Ensemble.” The Ensemble has presented a host of unique chamber music and orchestral programs, working with a range of world-class musicians such as Neal Peres Da Costa, Erin Helyard, Catherine Mackintosh (UK), Marc Destrubé (Canada), Melvyn Tan (UK) and Simon Martyn-Ellis (USA) as well as singers Sara Macliver (Australia), Stephanie True (Canada), Simon Lobelson (Australia) and David Greco (Australia). It is particularly interested in presenting unusual programs of eighteenth century chamber versions of larger orchestral symphonic and concerto works by Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, as well as bringing to a wider audience some of the lesserknown contemporaries of these composers, such as Abel, Albrechtsberger, C.P.E. Bach, J.C. Bach, David, Graun, Hoffmeister, and Vanhal. Members of the Australian Haydn Ensemble bring a wealth of expertise from first-class period and modern ensembles and orchestras around the world, such as the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra of the Antipodes, Concerto Köln, English Baroque Soloists, English Chamber Orchestra, Irish Chamber Orchestra, Julliard 415, Les Talens Lyrique, New Dutch Academy and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.
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THE PERFORMERS Erin Helyard Guest Director and Fortepiano Dr Erin Helyard has been acclaimed as an inspiring conductor, a virtuosic and expressive performer of the harpsichord and fortepiano, and as a lucid scholar who is passionate about promoting discourse between musicology and performance. Erin graduated in harpsichord performance from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music with first-class honours and the University Medal. He completed his Masters in fortepiano performance and a PhD in musicology with Tom Beghin at the Schulich School of Music, McGill University, Montreal. He was named the Westfield Concert Scholar (Cornell University) on fortepiano for 20092010 and from 2003 to 2012 Erin was a central member of the award-winning Ensemble Caprice (Montreal). As Artistic Director and co-founder of the celebrated Pinchgut Opera and the Orchestra of the Antipodes (Sydney) he has forged new standards of excellence in historically-informed performance in Australia. The company recently won Best Rediscovered Opera (2019) for Hasse’s Artaserse at the International Opera Awards in London. Operas under his direction have been awarded Best Opera at the Helpmann Awards for three consecutive years (2015-2017). He has received two Helpmann Awards for Best Musical Direction: one for a fêted revival of Saul (Adelaide Festival) in 2017 and the other for Hasse’s Artaserse (Pinchgut Opera) in 2019. Erin has conducted from the keyboard operas by composers as varied as Handel, Vivaldi, Cavalli, Monteverdi, Rameau, Vinci, Hasse, Charpentier,
Salieri, and Grétry. As a conductor he has distinguished himself in dynamic performances with the Adelaide, Tasmanian, and Queensland Symphony Orchestras and the Australian Haydn Ensemble. Helyard regularly collaborates with the Australian Chamber Orchestra and duets in nineteenth-century repertoire on historical pianos with renowned Alkan exponent Stephanie McCallum. In 2018 he was recognised with a Music and Opera Singers Trust Achievement Award (MAA) for contribution to the arts in Australia. Erin Helyard and Richard Tognetti received Best Classical Album at the Australian Independent Record Awards in 2020 for their ABC Classic disc of Beethoven and Mozart sonatas. Erin is a Senior Lecturer at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and appears courtesy of Pinchgut Opera. Erin is playing a Fortepiano after Stein by D. Jacques Way, Stonington 1986 supplied & prepared by Carey Beebe Harpsichords. Violin & Artistic Director Skye McIntosh Skye is the founder and Artistic Director of the Australian Haydn Ensemble. She has appeared as principal 2nd violin for Pinchgut Opera, as principal 2nd violin with the Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra, and as a regular member of the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra since 2010. Skye completed her Bachelor of Music with First
THE PERFORMERS
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Class Honours at the Queensland Conservatorium in 1999. In 2004 she travelled to the UK to study at The Royal Academy of Music, was a regular member of the Britten Pears young artist program, and performed at several UK Festivals. Skye completed a Master of Music degree, at the Sydney Conservatorium in 2011.
Bachvereniging (Netherlands Bach Society), Les Talens Lyriques (Paris), Festival D’Aix en Provence, Opera Nationale de Paris, L’Académie baroque européenne d’Ambronay, Capella Mediterranea (Switzerland) and Pacific Baroque Orchestra (Canada). He is a founding member of the Sydneybased, baroque ensemble The Muffat Collective.
Skye has made many concert appearances as soloist and director, and in 2013 attended the Banff Centre with the Australian Haydn Quartet for a Winter Residency, and also performed at The Julliard School.
Matthew is playing a violin by David Christian Hope, 1760, Quittenbach
Skye is playing a violin by Tomaso Eberle, 1770, Naples Violin Matthew Greco
Matthew began learning violin at the age of 12 and studied with Professor Janet Davies and Neal Peres Da Costa at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. At the age of 19 he was engaged by Australia’s leading period orchestras - the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra and Orchestra of the Antipodes. He later undertook further study in historical performance at the Royale Conservatoire of The Hague, with Professor Ryo Terakado and Professor Enrico Gatti, graduating in 2013. Matthew performs as a soloist, concertmaster and core member of some of the world’s leading period instrument ensembles, including the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Orchestra of the Antipodes (Pinchgut Opera), Australian Haydn Ensemble, Salut! Baroque, De Nederlandse
Viola Karina Schmitz
Karina is principal violist of Handel and Haydn Society in Boston, Apollo’s Fire in Cleveland, and the Carmel Bach Festival Orchestra. She is also a founding member of 17th century ensemble ACRONYM, and violinist/violist of Duo Corbetta. For eleven years she served as principal second violinist with Philadelphia based Tempesta di Mare. Hailing from the USA, Karina holds degrees from New England Conservatory and the Cleveland Institute of Music, and studied early music at Oberlin Conservatory and in the Apollo’s Fire Apprentice Program. Karina has collaborated with many ensembles including Van Diemen’s Band, the Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra, Boston Camerata, and the American Opera Theater in Washington, D.C. Photo: Roger Mastroianni
Karina is playing a viola by Francis Beaulieu, 2011, Montreal after Pietro Giovanni Mantegazza, Milan, 1793
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Cello Daniel Yeadon
Dr Daniel Yeadon is a Lecturer at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney, where he teaches cello and viola da gamba, coaches chamber music, and engages in research into learning, teaching and historical performance practices. Daniel has a love of a wide range of musical genres and is an exceptionally versatile cellist and viola da gamba player, performing repertoire from the Renaissance through to Contemporary. Daniel is a passionate chamber musician, playing regularly with Australian Haydn Ensemble, Ironwood, Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO), Australian Romantic and Classical Orchestra, and Bach Akademie Australia. 8
Originally from the UK, Daniel read physics at Oxford University and then completed his postgraduate studies at the Royal College of Music in London. For many years Daniel was a member of the renowned Fitzwilliam String Quartet and the exuberant period instrument ensemble Florilegium. He has made many award-winning recordings. Daniel is playing a cello by William Forster II, 1781, London Daniel appears courtesy of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Flute Melissa Farrow Melissa has been principal flute with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra since 2003, and a core member of the Australian Haydn Ensemble since its formation. She performs and records regularly with groups including Pinchgut Opera, the Australian
Chamber Orchestra, Ironwood, The Australian Romantic and Classical Orchestra, The Marais Project, and Latitude 37, among others. She has had numerous solo performances with the AHE, NZ Barok, the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, and Pinchgut Opera. She is featured as soloist in Gretry’s L’amant Jaloux, in the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra’s Brandenburg Celebrates, on Smorgasbord with The Marais Project, and on touchons du bois with Erin Helyard. After graduating from the Sydney Conservatorium Melissa undertook post-graduate study in modern flute, recorder, and traverso in Amsterdam. She maintains a busy home studio teaching flute and recorder, and teaches period flute at the Sydney Conservatorium. She has also presented Baroque style workshops and masterclasses to modern flautists in NZ, Flute Connections Studio (Sydney), the Australian Flute Festival (Canberra), MLC School (Sydney), Camberwell Grammar (Melbourne), in Penrith with Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, and at the Sydney Conservatorium. Melissa is playing a traverso by R. Tutz 2001 Innsbruck, Austria after H. Grenser, Dresden, c. 1810 Melissa Farrow appears courtesy of the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra.
ABOUT THE MUSIC Times are changed; we, too, are changed within them. So reads an English translation of the well-known and centuries-old Latin adage: Tempora mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis Transformation and change have been recurrent themes in philosophy throughout the ages, and this year in particular, many of us have had cause – and time – to reflect on the effects of change. Perhaps the reason that music – in all its guises – provides such solace when facing challenges, is due to it being one of the few temporal art forms. Music is time-based – it is intelligible and resonates in us because it unfolds horizontally across time. We hear pitches shift, rhythms being generated, motifs grow, voices accumulate, and larger themes develop and resolve again. And we witness people steering this process by reacting and interacting in real-time before us. The centrepiece of this program is the Australian premiere of an 18th-century chamber version of Haydn’s Symphony No. 64, set for flute, strings and fortepiano by Johann Salomon – who first brought Haydn to London. Known as Tempora mutantur, it is one of the few subtitles given to Haydn’s works that actually originates from the composer’s own pen. Not only does Haydn play with our sense of time in the musical phrases, in an arrangement that will be new to many, the work comes across as crisp and as inventive as the day it first sprang to life. LUIGI BOCCHERINI (1743–1805) Piano Quintet Op. 57 No. 3 in E minor, G. 415 I. Andante lento assai II. Minuetto non presto III. Provensal: Allegro vivace – Andante lento
Boccherini was Italian by birth and relocated to Spain in his thirties where he remained for the rest of his life. There are strong threads of Spanish music in his works, and his prolific output includes hundreds of string quartets and quintets, works for guitar ensemble, and many cello sonatas and concertos. He was himself a talented cellist, and it was his initiative to add an extra cello to the standard string quartet instrumentation. Further, it is likely that the prominent role he gave the cello in the ensemble influenced other composers – notably Haydn – to write more soloistically for it. Boccherini’s style is generally associated with the galant sensibilities of the time – succinct melodies that did not require flamboyant decoration or elaborate development. But this does not in any way diminish his importance as a composer. His writing contains an abundance of twists and turns and displays an innovative compositional dialect. Dating from 1799, the E-minor Piano Quintet is one of the most appealing of the Op. 57 set, and the fortepiano is neither overt soloist as in the Mozart, but nor does it become a more democratic ensemble member as in Salomon’s Haydn. The uncomplicated melodic lines and reassuring developmental trajectories mean that Boccherini can place more attention on the texture and combinations of instruments – and the flexible role that the fortepiano occupies is vital. The fortepiano arpeggiation catches the light of different string colours, and these change often during the dynamic shifts that dominate the first movement. In the Minuetto, the pianist joins different instruments in slivers of agreement, before taking their ideas, changing them slightly, and passing them on. It’s over in a flash, as the final Provensal takes hold. Here the fortepiano asserts its authority in the initial Allegro episode,
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but the roles soon blur again. Boccherini takes an unexpected detour to an introspective Andante lento – the interplay of the voices so sensitively managed, that new musical hues seem to emerge with each progressive phrase. As the Allegro gradually returns, a faint cloud of ambiguity still hovers in the air. WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756–91) Piano Concerto No. 6 in B-flat major, K. 238 I. Allegro aperto II. Andante un poco adagio III. Rondo: Allegro
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When considering the phenomenon of change and its relationship to time, it is worth pausing for a moment to re-evaluate some assumptions about authenticity. Thanks to musicological research, new information about the origins of many works comes to light on a regular basis, through the discovery of correspondence, sketches, notebooks or alternate manuscripts of pieces. There is no doubt that in the time of Boccherini, Mozart and Haydn, pieces were rearranged, adapted, borrowed, copied, recycled, and published under multiple titles on a regular basis. This was not composers or musicians being conniving, but rather taking avail of the resources at hand and modifying works to suit different venues and occasions – and long before international copyright conventions. The events of 2020 have prompted many ensembles and arts organisations to rethink their approach to what is considered a normal performance. Being adaptable and using locallysourced players may turn out to be one of the positive outcomes in this year of huge change. In that spirit, this version of the Mozart Piano Concerto No. 6 is an example of a collaborative remodelling for fortepiano and string quartet undertaken by the performers themselves. As a template, it takes Mozart’s own similarly flexible treatment of the accompaniment to the K. 413–5 and K. 449 concertos from several years later.
Think of it as a reimagining that conforms to historical as well as contemporary practices. It’s a good choice – the concerto is relatively straightforward and there are no concealed numerological sequences or hidden symbols. Although, Mozart does add aperto to the Allegro marking of the first movement, which he did with a number of concertos written for different instruments around this period of his early twenties. Did he mean it to be played in an expansive way, or could he have been indicating an even greater openness of interpretation? There is a fairly threadbare written-out cadenza in the score, but the players of the day would have taken many liberties and improvised in performances. This freedom is reinforced in the Finale too, with many little unscripted Eingänge – or lead ins – given to the pianist, along with lots of familiar-sounding snippets or incidental references to other works of Mozart and his contemporaries. The middle Andante radiates warmth, and even when it dips into minor tonality, the effect is more a trick of the light than encroaching doom. Throughout the concerto, allow your ears to adjust to how the familiar colours and characters find new homes by being absorbed into the harmonics and reverberations of the strings. FRANZ JOSEPH HAYDN (1732–1809) Symphony No. 64 in A major, Tempora Mutantor, Hob. I:64 arr. Johann Salomon (ca. 1745–1815) I. Allegro con spirito II. Largo III. Menuetto and Trio: Allegretto IV. Finale: Presto Haydn aficionados will be familiar with many of the little tricks, surprises and in-jokes that populate his works. Yet, the Symphony No. 64 – dating from 1773 – falls into an enigmatic category all of its own. The relative certainty that its Tempora Mutantur title – Times Are Changed – was not a
colloquial name coined by listeners or reviewers after the fact, has contributed to the intrigue. Much scholarly attention has been given to figuring out how and why the music relates to the title – including whether the work has theatrical origins, and if some of the phrases are musical translations of the rhythms of spoken verse. At the end of the day, having conclusive answers to these questions is not a prerequisite for appreciating Haydn’s compositional mastery. Each listener will react to the music with their own filters and perspectives, built up from countless unique experiences. Music performs this chameleon-like dance well, and Haydn’s particular brand of musical liveliness well and truly withstands the test of time. Right at the opening of the first movement, Haydn signals that up is down and down is up. The first phrase is a whispered question that is answered emphatically, before being timidly posed again. In comparison to other works of the day, this reversal of the opening formula would have upset the contemporary listener’s equilibrium, and it sets the terms for what follows. A second theme arrives by stealth, mutating from the lower voices of that loud retort from the beginning. The melodic questioning continues throughout, but the responses often evade a clear answer by changing the subject. The second movement is where things get really interesting, and has been the focus of much of the above-mentioned research. Even with ears accustomed to today’s multimedia collage of samples and distended rhythms, Haydn’s effect here is nothing short of remarkable. We step into what appears to be a structure of standard dimensions, but Haydn omits a cadence here and delays another there, until the whole movement seems to defy the accepted rules of time and gravity. The resulting patchwork is beautiful, but must have surely made listeners of the day feel like they were gaining a glimpse of futuristic open-plan architecture and refracted hexagons.
The Menuetto shifts the scene to an imaginary distant land, signalled by way of a deliberately jaunty dance rhythm and the porous overhead glimmer of sustained upper tones. The Trio cracks the melodic material even wider apart, before a brief Finale creeps in out of nowhere. But even here, things are not as they first seem. Haydn drops in little minor-key Sturm und Drang cameos – and remember that Drang means an urge or impulse to move forward. These tempt us to settle in for the big development familiar to sonata form, but Haydn is just teasing and flips back to a sort of ritornello style more associated with the era of Vivaldi. With a bold and decisive full stop to end, Haydn reminds us that a work’s form too can be just as elusive and elastic as the space and time it occupies. Notes by Dr Charles MacInnes
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HISTORICALLY INFORMED PERFORMANCE The Australian Haydn Ensemble is one of Australia’s leading ensembles performing on period instruments and specialising in what has come to be known as Historically Informed Performance (HIP). What does historically informed performance mean? Historically Informed Performance means taking an approach to music-making that is close to what the composers might have intended when they were alive. The players achieve this by performing on instruments of the time when a piece was written, with reference also to musical sources of the day. This approach is becoming much more commonplace in Australia. 12
Historically Informed Performance as we know it today emerged in Europe in the 1960s when some performers of baroque and classical works began to question how these pieces might have been performed when written. They began to examine historical sources such as composers’ original manuscripts and instrumental treatises written by performers and composers during the late seventeenth century through to the late eighteenth
century. This research led to the discovery of ‘new’ ways of interpreting old works that are drawn from these sources, and there is still much to be discovered. AHE and Historically Informed Performance The Ensemble’s focus is on music written during the late baroque and early classical period when compositional styles of chamber music and orchestral writing had reached a new height in their development. Composers of this period were not only extending musical forms but also the virtuosic demands on instruments and performers. An Historically Informed Performance approach brings the music to life by providing a context to both the performer and listener. Period or original instruments often make it technically more difficult for the performer, but they also allow greater freedom to colour the sound in a way that is not possible on modern instruments.
SUPPORT AHE Your support is greatly appreciated and makes it possible for the AHE to continue to grow. All donations over $2 are tax deductible. DONATE ONLINE www.australianhaydn.com.au/ how-to-support DIRECT DEPOSIT Pay direct from your account into: The Australian Haydn Ensemble Inc. Public Fund BSB: 082 088 Account: 845262651 Please include your name and mark it as a donation in your transaction, and email us at info@australianhaydn.com.au to let us know you have donated.
CHAIRMAN’S CIRCLE Marco Belgiorno-Zegna AM & Angela Belgiorno-Zegna Dr Timothy & Eva Pascoe Dr Hannes Boshoff Mark Burrows AO Tom & Sherry Gregory Ian & Pam McGaw Peter Young AM & Susan Young
Thank you to everyone who has so generously donated to AHE during a year of uncertaintity. For a full list of donors, please visit www.australianhaydn.com.au/patrons
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BACKSTAGE Administration Alicia Gibbons - General Manager Stephen Bydder - Administrator Marguerite Foxon - Front of House and Administrator Vi King Lim – Score Services Patron Professor the Honourable Dame Marie Bashir AD CVO Board Marco Belgiorno-Zegna AM (Chair) Jan Bowen AM Harriet Lenigas Adrian Maroya Kevin McCann Skye McIntosh Peter Young AM
Australian Haydn Ensemble is a not for profit organisation ABN 26 202 621 166 Level 1/16-18 Oxford Square Darlinghurst NSW 2010 1800 334 388 (Freecall) australianhaydn.com.au admin@australianhaydn.com.au Details in this program are correct at time of publication. Australian Haydn Ensemble reserves the right to add, withdraw or substitute artists and to vary the program and other details without notice. Full terms and conditions of sale available at our website australianhaydn.com.au or on request.
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This project is supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW.