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Jacques Ibert

Catherine Peake studies a composer to whom all systems were valid

The History Collection / Alamy Stock Photo

Perhaps not as well-known as some of his contemporaries, Jacques Ibert nonetheless made a name for himself as a composer. Studying at the Paris Conservatoire as well as privately, his fellow students included Arthur Honegger and Darius Milhaud. Ibert’s studies were interrupted by World War I, but after winning the Prix de Rome in 1919 for his cantata Le Poète et la fée, he continued his studies in Rome. In his early career, Ibert worked as a pianist at silent movie theatres where he improvised music to suit what was happening onscreen, and wrote popular songs and other light works under a pen name. He later composed in a wide range of genres and his biographer Alexandra Laederich wrote that, “His music can be festive and gay… lyrical and inspired, or descriptive and evocative… often tinged with gentle humour… all the elements of his musical language bar that of harmony relate closely to the Classical tradition.” Ibert himself said that “all systems are valid”, and was steadfast in refusing to align himself to a particular musical style. He also often collaborated with other composers, such as in the waltz L’éventail de Jeanne where he was one of ten contributors including Ravel and Poulenc. Much of Ibert’s work reflected his interest in theatre. He wrote seven operas, his first, Persée et Andromède, while studying in Rome, but his opéra-bouffe of 1927, Angélique, was his most successful, combining as it did humour, style and flair. He also wrote five ballets and over sixty film scores, including for Orson Welles’ film Macbeth and the Circus ballet for Gene Kelly’s Invitation to the Dance. One of his best-known theatrical works was his music for Un chapeau de paille d’Italie, which he later reworked as the orchestral suite Divertissement. His work was not confined to the theatre though, and it was his early orchestral works La Ballade de la geôle de Reading, inspired by Oscar Wilde’s poem and performed in 1922, and Escales, performed in 1924, that confirmed his musical reputation. Other non-theatrical works include two collections of piano music, Histoires and Les Rencontres, that were commissioned by his publisher, and his Flute Concerto, first performed in 1934. Ibert continued to compose while working in Paris and Rome where he “threw himself wholeheartedly into his administrative role and proved an excellent ambassador of French culture in Italy.” He also worked as a conductor and music administrator, and in 1937 was the first musician to be appointed director of L’Académie de France à Rome, a post he held until 1960, excluding the years of World War II. His work here included the administration of the Prix de Rome. After the war he became administrator of the Réunion des Théâtres Lyriques Nationaux, which oversaw the Paris Opera  and the Opéra-Comique. Jacques Ibert was elected to the Académie des Beaux Arts of the Institut de France in 1956.

The Life of a Composer, Saturday 5 February 2022, 8:00pm

Immigrant, Exile, Outsider

Paul Cooke studies the life of Felix Werder

In 1940, 18-year-old Felix Bischofswerder arrived in Australia along with his father, having fled Nazi Germany in the mid 1930s for London, where he studied Fine Arts and Architecture. He shortened his surname to Werder and proceeded to play a significant role in the cultural life of his adopted country for most of the next 70 years. As a composer, he was not constrained by genre, writing chamber and electronic music, symphonies, concertos, opera and more. He was also an influential teacher, critic and public intellectual. In the 1950s, he and fellow composers Margaret Sutherland and Dorian Le Gallienne introduced and established a new music scene in Melbourne. More recently, his experimental ensemble Australia Felix (whose alumni included soprano Merlyn Quaife, saxophonist Peter Clinch and jazz musician Brian Brown) gave concerts of new Australian music in both Australia and Europe over a period of 20 years. He taught both music and art history at the Melbourne Council of Adult Education from 1956 until the 1990s, and privately taught many generations of Australian composers. In the 1960s and 1970s he was music critic for The Age in Melbourne. He then became involved in radio broadcasting, producing new music programs, first in the 1970s for the ABC, then in the 1980s and early 1990s with community radio. Although not quite a teenager when his family emigrated to England, his German and Jewish musical heritage stayed with him. His father, Boaz Bischofswerder, had been a member of Arnold Schoenberg’s circle, with the composer briefly staying with the Werder family and his nephew Joseph introducing the young Werder to the practices and philosophies of modern art. From thence Werder regarded the Schoenberg family as “the main interest that moulded my future”. Bischofswerder, as cantor and liturgical composer at Berlin’s Brunenstrasse Synagogue, had published musical arrangements of synagogue music as well as his own compositions. Jewish music was a major influence on the development of Werder’s own compositions and, when he visited Berlin in the 1970s, was thrilled to discover that his father’s arrangements were still being used. With the outbreak of World War II, the family were declared enemy aliens, but were offered the chance to emigrate to Canada to work for the war effort. Somehow, they ended up in Australia on the Dunera and were placed in internment camps, first in Hay and then in Tatura. During this time, Werder, drawing upon his memories of his Berlin childhood and the example of Schoenberg’s twelve-tone technique of composition, wrote his first symphony. It was to be the beginning of a compositional career that built upon European models rather than attempting to forge a uniquely Australian music. He noted that his role models were “the unconscious creativity of Gesualdo and the indeterminacy of the fragmentation of C.P.E. Bach”. Werder had been advised that his music was unplayable, unsuitable for performance, too avant-garde. He had to wait until 1955 for the first major performance of one of his compositions, Balletomania, by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Eugene Goossens. In 1957, The Australian Jewish News announced the release of a recording of his Quartet (possibly his String Quartet no 4). It noted that it was “one of the few quartets written here that have been recorded”, and that his “reputation has grown very considerably over the years”. His seven operas were well-received, and included Private, commissioned by the ABC for television and broadcast in 1969. He was made a member of the Order of Australia in 1976, and won numerous awards for his music. A concert to celebrate his 90th birthday in 2012 featured three new compositions: he was never one for going “gently into the night”.

Music of the Night, 23 February 2022, 10:30pm

First Person Simone Young

Andrew Bukenya continues with Part Two of his interview with Simone Young, Sydney Symphony Orchestra’s Chief Conductor Designate

When it comes to the symphonic world, you’ve become known for Strauss and Mahler. So, I would think Korngold, or maybe ‘what is she going to do with Handel’? It would be a wonderful chance to see you involved with works that people might not necessarily connect with you…

Exactly, and at least one of the categories that we will offer selection from will be things that people don’t know. Really unfamiliar works, whether they’re from the 21st century or just unfamiliar works. My experience in Hamburg was that people were up for composers like Barber, for example, of whom they know the Serenade for Strings and that’s about it. Having one or two other things in the list by Barber or perhaps something by Debussy or Ravel that one’s never heard of. Then yes, throw in some Korngold or some Zemlinsky, some tasty morsels that people might find attractive.

You’ve had this wonderful array of experiences, Simone, from répétiteur to chief exec, opera director, manager and of course, conductor. So, with all these things combined, how do they inform your experience on the concert platform, particularly as the first female conductor of some major orchestras?

There are two things here. One is the whole woman thing which I hold to be utterly irrelevant. I haven’t talked about it for 35 years and I’m not really going to start talking about it now. Society is changing, the makeup of students in music schools, the makeup of the orchestras is changing. Everything is developing and changing and there is a natural development going on in the industry for diversity in general. I am very keen on mentoring and motivating exceptional talents. And that is to me, the key thing. I don’t care about gender or race or anything else. I’m interested in minds and what they do with the music. Yes, I know I stick out there as one of the very few and so that’s very visible, but for me it doesn’t have any impact on what I do. Much more significant are the years of doing lots of opera which certainly did inform my transition to the concert podium. But I’ve been doing an even mix of opera and concerts for about the last 20 years. For example, I don’t think you can conduct Fidelio if you don’t conduct Beethoven Nine, but vice versa is the same. You can’t really conduct Beethoven Nine and understand it if you haven’t conducted Fidelio, because it’s all in there.

One thing that really captured my imagination, and you touched on it, was the role of mentorship. You have had some incredible mentors along the way, from early days with Charles Mackerras and Stuart Challender, working as Daniel Barenboim’s assistant, to all the other things that you’ve managed to do. Do you see a role for that mentorship continuing while you’re in Sydney?

Absolutely, an important part of every conductor’s role is to take responsibility for the next generation. I’ve been quite successful already in mentoring and watching the start of significant careers of young Australians. Nicholas Carter, who is now the new music director in Bern, and has just had a big success with the Santa Fe Opera. And Dan Carter, another Australian who’s now music director in Coburg, in Germany. There’s also Finnegan Downie Dear, who was supposed to be debuting with Sydney Symphony in November, but unfortunately became one of the victims of the Covid cancellations. But Finn worked with me on and off for three years and he just won the Mahler competition last year in Bamberg.

This role of mentoring is very significant. I haven’t yet found the next person who I want to work with me, but something I will be doing in Australia is working with young Australian conductors, whether that’s in the form of engaging them as assistants or in the form of masterclasses, I don’t know. One day I would love to have a major conducting competition in Australia, in Sydney, but we’re a long way off that just yet.