SSO 2011 Program

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Sydney Symphony 2011 Season

Find yourself in‌


Welcome

Wherever you are on your musical journey, whatever your tastes, you’ll find yourself inspired and fulfilled at Sydney Symphony concerts. Find yourself in a world of spectacular music in our 2011 concert season.


Order now for the 2011 season


Dear Music Lover I remember when I was a teenager in Moscow – I was interested in all the music that I’d never heard before, and for me it was a magic thing to go to concerts. I spent all my pocket money on them – orchestral concerts especially! An orchestral concert gives you something that is indescribable, it is unfathomable – once you experience it nothing can stop you. It becomes a part of life. And as I prepare for a third season with this magnificent orchestra, over and over again I’m humbled to see the profound role that our music-making plays in the lives of our audience. In 2010 we began a journey together, the Mahler Odyssey. In 2011 we’ll bring the cycle to its conclusion, with some of the most wonderful symphonies he ever wrote. Just beyond words. In May we’ll be commemorating the 100th anniversary of Mahler’s death with a performance of his Ninth Symphony on the very day he died. This is such a special symphony, and extraordinarily moving. I say that all the music we play has the power to take you out of this world, but with this symphony, it’s altogether another level of feeling and existence. I know you’ll want to join us, to share in this magic. And if you love music there’s no way we can stop you. Sincerely

Vladimir Ashkenazy Principal Conductor & Artistic Advisor Sydney Symphony

POSITION OF PRINCIPAL CONDUCTOR & ARTISTIC ADVISOR SPONSORED BY EMIRATES


Choose your series … P age Series

Series description

EnergyAustralia Master Series

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Wednesday, Friday or Saturday 8pm

Fire up your passions with classical masterpieces performed by some of the world’s top conductors and soloists in the Sydney Symphony’s flagship series of 9 or 6 concerts.

12 Emirates Metro Series

The world’s finest artists performing glorious music with your orchestra – the perfect start to your weekend. Reward yourself and unwind with 5 or 8 extraordinary concerts.

18 Great Classics

Saturday afternoons filled with glorious music in the sparkling surrounds of the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour. This is life in your city at its finest.

Mondays @ 7

Just because you’re busy at the end of the week doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy soul-enriching music at the beginning. Make 5 Mondays yours in 2011.

Friday 8pm

Saturday 2pm

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Monday 7pm

Meet the Music

Music is the great connector – your experience in the concert hall will draw you into a world of creativity that crosses continents and generations of humanity. Get connected with these 4 eclectic concerts.

Kaleidoscope

Music and image is the theme in 2011 when the orchestra meets the silver screen, with two epic movies including The Fellowship of the Ring… and even images from outer space!

Thursday Afternoon Symphony

Whether you’re after the edge-of-your-seat thrills of a virtuoso performance or moments of musical tranquillity, it’s all here in 2011. And you can be home before the rush hour.

42 Tea & Symphony

Cup of tea, anyone? One-hour Friday morning concerts with a complimentary morning tea served in the Sydney Opera House foyer. Splendid music, time with friends and out in time for lunch.

48 Mozart in the City

Take an hour away from the craziness to hear some of Mozart’s most soul-reviving works alongside gems by other great composers. Right in the heart of the city at Angel Place.

Discovery

Four entertaining musical lectures with Australia’s foremost musical educator, Richard Gill, and the Sydney Sinfonia. No one leaves without learning and laughing a lot – it’s a chance to hear with new ears.

International Pianists in Recital

Five renowned pianists in four programs, with Beethoven sonatas taking centre stage. So sublime, so intimate, close your eyes and it’s as if they’re playing just for you.

Connoisseur’s Selection

The ultimate in flexibility. Choose your own 4, 6 or 8-concert package from all that’s on offer, including special events. Opt for the Deluxe Connoisseur or Standard Connoisseur. It’s your choice!

Special Events

Hear two superstar pianists – Lang Lang and Evgeny Kissin – in concert and recital. Plus the extraordinary voice of Anne Sofie von Otter. Don’t miss these amazing artists.

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Presented by EnergyAustralia Wednesday or Thursday 6.30pm

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Friday or Saturday 8pm (7pm in May)

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Thursday 1.30pm

Presented by Kambly Friday 11am

Thursday 7pm

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Presented by Tenix Monday 6.30pm

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Presented by Theme & Variations Monday 7pm

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Create your own package

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66 The Mahler Odyssey live recordings

68 Concert calendar

70 Artists & repertoire

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74 Booking information

79 Venue seating maps

Sydney Symphony 2011 Season

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Enjoy exclusive subscriber benefits Your seats, the best seats, at the biggest savings

Only subscribers sit in the best available seats, all year long, and save up to 46% on single ticket prices.

Seasonal upgrade priority

Only subscribers have priority to change their seating location annually. Return your renewal form promptly for best results, as we upgrade seats in strict date order.

Single ticket savings

Subscribers save 10% on the purchase of any additional single tickets for all Sydney Symphony classical concerts or special events throughout the season. Excludes Platinum reserve.

Special event priority

Subscribers receive priority booking for concerts presented by the Sydney Symphony outside the subscription season.

If your plans change, so can your tickets

If your plans change, so can your concert. Exchange your concert ticket for another classical performance or special event during the year. Plus, your first ticket exchange of the year is free. See page 77 for more information.

Easy and convenient payment plans

Only subscribers can secure seats now and then pay in two, four, five or six easy instalments.

For all concert-goers Free program books In 2011 we continue to offer free programs at every subscription concert. Pre-concert talks Join us for stimulating and informative talks 45 minutes before all subscription concerts (except Discovery and Tea & Symphony). Talks are free to concert-goers and take place in the Northern Foyer of the Sydney Opera House and the Reception Room at City Recital Hall Angel Place.

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Sydney Symphony 2011 Season

Returning in 2011! Save 10% off purchases at all ABC shops Sydney Symphony Subscribers receive a 10% discount on purchases at all ABC Shops. Not valid for sale items. Discounted parking with Wilson Parking at the Sydney Opera House Only subscribers can save each time they park at the Sydney Opera House with the Wilson Platinum Card. Discount also available at other Wilson Parking locations throughout the city. Enjoy Sydney Symphony news Subscribers automatically receive Bravo!, the official newsletter of the Sydney Symphony, featuring interviews, news and peeks behind stage door. Save with your subscriber card Enjoy more of the best that Sydney has to offer. Your 2011 Subscriber Card is your ticket to great savings at restaurants, the Art Gallery of NSW, book and music retailers, hotels, cinemas and theatres. For details, visit sydneysymphony.com/subscribe PLUS Be in the draw to win a trip to Europe with Emirates.* Only subscribers are in the draw to win a trip to Europe. Book your subscription or renewal by Friday 24 September 2010 and be in the draw to win two return business class flights to your choice of one of Emirates’ 25 European destinations. Courtesy of Principal Partner Emirates. (Terms and conditions apply.) *See page 78 for details.



E nergyAustralia Master Series Find yourself in the…

Great music, familiar and new, from across the centuries. Stellar artists who bring maturity and insight. The power of great music-making. You.

Whether you’re a recent convert or have years of concert-going behind you, bring your ears, bring your curiosity and find yourself on a stimulating journey of inspiration. In 2011 the musical landscape extends from Mozart to John Adams, and at the core of the season you’ll find the great Romantic composers, the lifeblood of a symphony orchestra – Beethoven, Brahms, Dvoˇrák, Tchaikovsky… And in the second year of our Mahler Odyssey, you’ll hear three of his symphonies, conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy. Six or nine concerts in the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall Wednesday, Friday or Saturday 8pm

Dene Olding, Concertmaster 6

Sydney Symphony 2011 Season


EnergyAustralia Master Series

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PEER GYNT

MAHLER 7

EDO CONDUCTS BEETHOVEN

Ashkenazy Conducts

Night Music

The Voice of Ecstasy

Wed 23 Feb 8pm Fri 25 Feb 8pm Sat 26 Feb 8pm

Wed 9 Mar 8pm Fri 11 Mar 8pm Sat 12 Mar 8pm

Wed 30 Mar 8pm Fri 1 Apr 8pm Sat 2 Apr 8pm

GRIEG Peer Gynt – Complete incidental music

MENDELSSOHN Violin Concerto in E minor MAHLER Symphony No.7

BEETHOVEN Symphony No.7 BARBER Adagio for Strings ADAMS Harmonium

Vladimir Ashkenazy conductor Sayaka Shoji violin

Edo de Waart conductor Sydney Philharmonia Choirs

Mahler’s Seventh Symphony glides through nocturnal worlds, giving musical glimpses of a feverish Romantic imagination, and the composer’s genius lights the way. This is Mahler’s most intriguing symphony, its classical symmetry embracing unrestrained fantasy and glowing orchestral colours. Embark on this particular musical journey and you’ll pass through the realms of fairytales, of ghosts, of serenading guitars and pure musical magic, before emerging to hear Mahler in a rare sunny mood.

Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony sees him at his most obsessive – an entire symphony that’s driven by rhythm and pulse, music to get you on your feet. Some people hear it as a wild orgy of sound; Wagner recognised that it was thrilling enough to set everyone dancing. Even when the music slows down, it possesses an inexorable power that has always had audiences coming back for more.

Vladimir Ashkenazy conductor Jacqueline Porter soprano (Solveig) Sydney Philharmonia Choirs John de Lancie narrator You’ll recognise the fearsome climaxes in The Hall of the Mountain King, and the floating serenity of Morning Mood. These are two of Grieg’s most famous themes. But what about the story from which they come: Peer Gynt? Vladimir Ashkenazy begins the year with a musical masterpiece that has its origins in the emotion and drama of the theatre. Grieg’s complete music for Ibsen’s play Peer Gynt will be brought to life in the concert hall with Star Trek legend John de Lancie supplying a narrative to weave the music together. Peer Gynt is the handsome antihero: reckless, irresponsible and “soulless as an onion” (says Ibsen). His wild adventures include a run-in with the Troll King and vast wealth in North Africa – where we hear the famous sunrise. He seduces and is seduced. But only Solveig stays true, waiting her whole life for his return. It’s the most touching moment, says Ashkenazy, “her final song is just devastating – it’s very difficult not to cry there.”

Mahler’s “Night Music” is introduced by the heart’s jewel of violin concertos, so loved by musicians and concert-goers that it almost needs no introduction. It sings, it dances, it fires the imagination and gladdens the heart – just the music for a perfect evening in the concert hall.

John Adams takes Beethoven’s idea of hypnotic repeating patterns to the next extreme. The result is minimalism: pulsating effects and rhythmic energy in a familiar harmonic soundscape. Harmonium, for chorus and orchestra, adds three visionary poems from John Donne and Emily Dickinson to the mix, building to a “bright, vibrant clangour” and the intoxication of love. Between these two ecstatic pieces is a moment of singing perfection for the strings of the Sydney Symphony – immeasurably sad, utterly elegant. These performances mark the 30th anniversary of Harmonium, which was dedicated to Edo de Waart.

SAYAKA SHOJI VIOLIN

JOHN DE LANCIE NARRATOR EDO DE WAART CONDUCTOR

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Sydney Symphony 2011 Season


MAHLER 9

PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION

Another World

An Artist’s Imagination

Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Brahms

Wed 18 May 8pm Fri 20 May 8pm Sat 21 May 8pm

Wed 29 Jun 8pm Fri 1 Jul 8pm Sat 2 Jul 8pm

Wed 27 Jul 8pm Fri 29 Jul 8pm Sat 30 Jul 8pm

MOZART Piano Concerto No.13 in C, K415 MAHLER Symphony No.9

LISZT Tasso, Lament and Triumph SCHUMANN Piano Concerto MUSSORGSKY orch. Ravel Pictures at an Exhibition

TCHAIKOVSKY Romeo and Juliet – Fantasy Overture RACHMANINOFF Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini BRAHMS Symphony No.4

Vladimir Ashkenazy conductor Steven Osborne piano Mahler’s Ninth was his last completed symphony, which he was destined never to hear. The music is shot through with premonitions of death and deep longing, but it also soars on a vision of celestial bliss. “It’s beyond being dark or light,” says Ashkenazy. “It’s another world, on another level of feeling and existence. And when it fades away, with the final notes in the violas, it’s as if the last strain of matter is disappearing in the universe.” There’s no other symphony like it: two introspective slow movements wrapped around Mahler’s trademark peasant waltzes and sharp parodies. The first movement, said one friend, was the most heavenly thing Mahler ever wrote; the quiet finale quotes the farewell motto from Beethoven’s Les Adieux piano sonata. Mozart offers a brilliant antidote to the introspection of Mahler, with an Olympian concerto that’s as ambitious as it is inventive and whimsical. Mahler’s finale may feel like the end of the world, but for Mozart all the world was before him and his music smiles with the confidence of youth.

Pinchas Steinberg conductor Ingrid Fliter piano Arresting images and eloquent storytelling once again characterise the music when Pinchas Steinberg returns to Sydney. In Venice, Liszt found gondoliers singing the epic poetry of Torquato Tasso, a Renaissance genius embraced in folklore. He said hearing their mournful song was like watching the reflections of the fading evening light on a mirror of water, and the music he wrote transforms that simple beginning into glorious triumph. Schumann offers abstract pictures in his fantasia-turned-piano concerto. Composed for his beloved Clara, the concerto is prized as much for its irresistible radiance and tender intimacy as for its bravura, which launches the soloist headlong into Schumann’s spirited poetry. But it’s Mussorgsky and Ravel who turn the concert hall into an art gallery with music that promenades from one brilliant miniature to another. Exotic visions rub shoulders with earthy portraits and flights of fancy in this tribute to an artist’s imagination.

These performances commemorate the 100th anniversary of Mahler’s death, on 18 May 1911.

Hear Ingrid Fliter in recital, performing Beethoven and Chopin (4 July).

VLADIMIR ASHKENAZY CONDUCTOR

INGRID FLITER PIANO

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ROMANTIC RHAPSODY

Thomas Dausgaard conductor Freddy Kempf piano Three very different Romantics take charge in this vivid and impassioned program. In his Fourth Symphony, Brahms sticks to his classical guns while embracing a questing lyricism. There’s a hint of Beethoven in the incisiveness of the music, and the spirit of Bach in the grand variations that unfold in the finale, but the autumnal warmth and exalted melancholy of the symphony is all Brahms. Tchaikovsky’s fantasy is a portrait of Shakespeare’s play: the brawling feud, the optimistic Friar, and the doomed lovers – all brought to a tragic climax. And in the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini we hear a portrait of virtuosity itself, with Paganini’s flamboyant theme treated to charismatic variations. Like Brahms, Rachmaninoff wasn’t afraid to follow his true instincts – this is unashamedly Romantic music. And with the massive orchestra backing the solo part, says Freddy Kempf, it’s exciting and spectacular as well. Hear Freddy Kempf in recital, performing Beethoven and Liszt (1 August). Hear Prokofiev’s take on the Romeo and Juliet story in our matinee and Metro series (14–16 July)

FREDDY KEMPF PIANO

EnergyAustralia Master Series

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ˇ DVORÁK’S NEW WORLD SYMPHONY

MAHLER 2

BEETHOVEN’S EROICA

New Horizons

Resurrection Symphony

Hero / Antihero

Wed 12 Oct 8pm Fri 14 Oct 8pm Sat 15 Oct 8pm

Wed 23 Nov 8pm Fri 25 Nov 8pm Sat 26 Nov 8pm

Wed 7 Dec 8pm Fri 9 Dec 8pm Sat 10 Dec 8pm

LUTOSLAWSKI Symphony No.4 MOZART Piano Concerto No.21 in C, K467 ˇ Dvorák Symphony No.9, New World

MAHLER Symphony No.2, Resurrection

TCHAIKOVSKY The Voyevoda – Symphonic ballad, Op.78 PROKOFIEV Symphony-Concerto for cello and orchestra BEETHOVEN Symphony No.3, Eroica

Mark Wigglesworth conductor Stephen Hough piano There’s a reason Dvoˇrák’s New World was voted No.1 in the ABC’s Classic 100 Symphony. Beethoven might be more impressive, but Dvoˇrák speaks directly to the ear and the emotions. His harmonies are crisp, his melodies are rich and singable, his ideas are stirring, and his musical personality is straightforward. Even when he’s in a melancholy mood, he can’t quite hide the vital inspiration of his Bohemian homeland. Lutoslawski’s Fourth Symphony represents another American commission for a European composer, composed a century on. It’s compact and lucid, setting out to intrigue at first and then satisfy with its eloquence and clear lines. Mozart’s music is all about eloquence and clear lines too, and every one of his piano concertos is a miracle, including this one, the ‘Elvira Madigan’. As Stephen Hough describes it, the concerto offers noble lyricism in its first movement, blue sky with clouds in the second (truly a troubled peace), and high-jinks fun in the finale.

Vladimir Ashkenazy conductor Emma Matthews soprano Lilli Paasikivi mezzo-soprano Sydney Philharmonia Choirs Mahler put everything into his Resurrection Symphony – not just his deepest convictions, his most ambitious ideas and the thunderbolts of inspiration, but an enormous orchestra and a huge chorus with vocal soloists. It’s an all-embracing symphony, even the resurrection of the title goes beyond that of Christ to the rebirth of the spirit after death, the resurrection of us all. Through this symphony, Mahler questions why we live, why we suffer. The music ponders things that are dark and grotesque; it celebrates innocence and light. Drawing from the folk songs of Des Knaben Wunderhorn (Youth’s Magic Horn), Mahler suggests the simplicity and faith of youth: “Dear God will give me light, will light me to eternal, blessed life!” And in the sublime finale – wild and solemn – death is overturned: “Thou shalt rise again…Immortal life!”

Osmo Vänskä conductor Alisa Weilerstein cello In recent years, Osmo Vänskä has emerged as one of the great Beethoven conductors of our time – his Pastoral Symphony here in Sydney in 2001 married vivid clarity and exciting contrasts to a lustrous and eloquent sound. Ten years later, he returns with the Eroica, in what promises to be a transcendent performance of one of Beethoven’s most powerful symphonies. American cellist Alisa Weilerstein will be making her Sydney Symphony debut playing one of her favourite works, the ‘symphony-like’ cello concerto by Prokofiev. It begins in the world of his Romeo and Juliet ballet and tempers its virtuosic energy with dreamlike lyricism and swelling melodies – breathtaking. Beethoven’s Eroica is a celebration of greatness, the hero. It’s Tchaikovsky, beginning the concert with a tiny symphonic ballad, who introduces the antihero in a morbid tale of jealousy and revenge gone amiss.

EMMA MATTHEWS SOPRANO

STEPHEN HOUGH PIANO

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Sydney Symphony 2011 Season

OSMO VÄNSKÄ CONDUCTOR


EnergyAustralia Master Series Choose your package and order at sydneysymphony.com/subscribe

SIX-concert package* Peer Gynt Ashkenazy Conducts Wed 23 Feb, Fri 25 Feb, Sat 26 Feb 8pm

Romantic Rhapsody Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Brahms Wed 27 Jul, Fri 29 Jul, Sat 30 Jul 8pm

Mahler 7 Night Music Wed 9 Mar, Fri 11 Mar, Sat 12 Mar 8pm

Mahler 2 Resurrection Symphony Wed 23 Nov, Fri 25 Nov, Sat 26 Nov 8pm

Pictures at an Exhibition An Artist’s Imagination Wed 29 Jun, Fri 1 Jul, Sat 2 Jul 8pm

Beethoven’s Eroica Hero / Antihero Wed 7 Dec, Fri 9 Dec, Sat 10 Dec 8pm

NINE-concert package*

Renewing subscribers save 20% by adding a new second series If you’re not a subscriber to Mozart in the City, Meet the Music or International Pianists in Recital, take an extra package to one of these in addition to your EnergyAustralia Master Series subscription and save an additional 20% on standard subscription prices in the first year. See terms and conditions on page 77.

Subscribers receive a 10–20% discount on additional single tickets. See Special Events pages 62–65.

Peer Gynt Ashkenazy Conducts Wed 23 Feb, Fri 25 Feb, Sat 26 Feb 8pm

Romantic Rhapsody Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Brahms Wed 27 Jul, Fri 29 Jul, Sat 30 Jul 8pm

Mahler 7 Night Music Wed 9 Mar, Fri 11 Mar, Sat 12 Mar 8pm

Dvoˇrák’s New World Symphony New Horizons Wed 12 Oct, Fri 14 Oct, Sat 15 Oct 8pm

Edo conducts Beethoven The Voice of Ecstasy Wed 30 Mar, Fri 1 Apr, Sat 2 Apr 8pm

Mahler 2 Resurrection Symphony Wed 23 Nov, Fri 25 Nov, Sat 26 Nov 8pm

Mahler 9 Another World Wed 18 May, Fri 20 May, Sat 21 May 8pm

Beethoven’s Eroica Hero / Antihero Wed 7 Dec, Fri 9 Dec, Sat 10 Dec 8pm *These packs allow you to keep your seats in perpetuity, renewing the same seats year after year.

Pictures at an Exhibition An Artist’s Imagination Wed 29 Jun, Fri 1 Jul, Sat 2 Jul 8pm

Concerts

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9

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9 $672

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$426

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$573

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C

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$375

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EnergyAustralia Master Series

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Emirates Metro Series Find yourself in the…

Revive and recharge for the weekend with an evening of live music. Make your Friday night remarkable when you catch the Sydney Symphony in concert with great conductors, leading soloists and some exciting new talents.

The 2011 Emirates Metro Series is bursting at the seams with masterpieces – great symphonies by Schubert, Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky, and favourite concertos by Brahms, Sibelius and Rachmaninoff. And we keep you up to the minute with something brand new – even we don’t know how it will sound! – and the Sydney premiere of one of the finest violin concertos of recent times. Two concerts from Ashkenazy’s Mahler Odyssey complete the mix. Five or eight concerts in the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall Friday 8pm

Mark Robinson, Assistant Principal Timpani Emirates Metro Series

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TCHAIKOVSKY & BRAHMS

MAHLER 6

Passions of the Soul

Hammerblow of Fate

Fri 11 Feb 8pm

Fri 4 Mar 8pm

BERLIOZ Béatrice et Bénédict: Overture BRAHMS Violin Concerto TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No.5

LISZT Piano Concerto No.2 MAHLER Symphony No.6

Peter Oundjian conductor Ray Chen violin Did Tchaikovsky really call Brahms a “giftless bastard”? Yes, and worse. But the two men got on well enough when they eventually met, and they agreed on one thing: neither really liked the finale of Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony! Tchaikovsky was bothered that its brilliant optimism would sound false, but audiences knew better – and we still do.

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Sydney Symphony 2011 Season

Vladimir Ashkenazy conductor Jean-Efflam Bavouzet piano Mahler’s Sixth Symphony begins with a sinister march – its pounding steps set the stage for a tragic and intensely moving creation. This is music by a composer obsessed with fate, and it spills over with passion and fierce emotions – every feeling coming directly from the heart. In his finale, Mahler wrote three great hammerblows to symbolise the blows of destiny – then deleted one in morbid fear that the symphony would turn out to be prophetic. If you’re getting to know Mahler, this symphony is an impassioned portrait of the man and his musical vision.

Brahms and Tchaikovsky come together in this program with masterpieces that are absolutely unchallenged in the affections of music-lovers. Brahms’s Violin Concerto reveals all the elegance of his mature style – noble, rhapsodic, and dazzling too. This is the vehicle for the gifted young Taiwanese-Australian violinist Ray Chen, making his Sydney Symphony debut. Tchaikovsky’s genius lies in his sincerity of emotion and dramatic instincts – nowhere more so than in his Fifth Symphony, where Fate is the theme and all the joys and sorrows, struggles and passions of the soul are set out on this great musical canvas.

Hear Jean-Efflam Bavouzet in recital (7 March).

Peter oundjian Conductor

jean-efflam bavouzet piano

According to his son Daniel, Liszt’s Second Piano Concerto was a portrait too – the music veers between extremes, sometimes suggesting the young Liszt as an ardent lover, sometimes the religious contemplation of the composer as an old man. More than a virtuoso showpiece, this is a concerto that’s full of poetry and brilliant contrasts.


THE LAST ROMANTIC

MAHLER 10

PROKOFIEV’S ROMEO & JULIET

Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto

Love and Death

Beethoven, Sibelius, Prokofiev

Fri 13 May 8pm

Fri 15 Jul 8pm

HINDSON Concerto for two pianos premiere MAHLER Symphony No.10 (completed by Clinton A. Carpenter)

BEETHOVEN Leonore Overture No.2 SIBELIUS Violin Concerto PROKOFIEV Romeo and Juliet: Suite

Fri 8 Apr 8pm RAUTAVAARA A Requiem in Our Time RACHMANINOFF Piano Concerto No.3 RACHMANINOFF Symphony No.3 Edo de Waart conductor Joyce Yang piano Joyce Yang knows exactly why Rachmaninoff’s music is so powerful, and so popular. “There is so much nostalgia in his music – even if it’s new to your ear, it will tap into an emotion that’s very personal, it will give life to something you already know.” Who knows what those emotions will be? Perhaps it will be the deep melancholy from the middle of the Third Piano Concerto, or maybe you’ll be swept up in the exuberance of the finale. The Third Symphony might reach out with its feelings of bittersweet regret and the tragedy of exile – the sounds of Orthodox chant hinting at a Russia remembered. Or perhaps it will be the rhapsodic grandeur and majestic orchestral colours that move you. Whatever the feeling, Rachmaninoff is always genuine and heartfelt. Rautavaara’s vividly sonorous music for brass and percussion begins with fanfares and ends with the gentle austerity of tears – clearing the way for the poignant introduction of Rachmaninoff’s concerto.

Vladimir Ashkenazy conductor Ami Rogé piano Pascal Rogé piano When Mahler died, he left behind one movement and pages of sketches for his final symphony, with instructions that it all be burned. But his wishes were ignored, and since the 1960s orchestras have had the choice of performing one of several completions. These are the work of scholarcomposers who’ve spent decades pondering the question: What would Mahler do? For our concerts, Ashkenazy has chosen the completion by American Clinton Carpenter. It’s more convincing, he says, and richer, as if Carpenter fully identified with Mahler. “Some versions can seem a bit pale, but this one just takes you by the throat.” When Pascal and Ami Rogé decided to commission a concerto to celebrate their wedding, Matthew Hindson seemed an obvious choice. Ami praises the “visual” character of Hindson’s music; Pascal admires the way it speaks directly to the heart, to listeners. The new concerto promises to bring a spirit of joy to the first half of the concert, with music that’s colourful, affectionate, and even a little bit theatrical.

James Gaffigan conductor Sergey Khachatryan violin Young American talent James Gaffigan is making his Sydney Symphony debut, and for this first meeting he’s chosen “colour repertoire” – music that exploits the full orchestra in the way that the French and the Russians know best. His own suite from Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet follows the original narrative, bringing together the highlights of this dramatic ballet. The scene is set with the feud between the Montagues and the Capulets, and there’s the youthful ardour of the balcony scene and the hot-blooded duels, before the music ends, as it does in the theatre, with Juliet’s death – tragic and sublime. Sibelius’s Violin Concerto is equally sublime – powerful drama, spinning melodies and catchy rhythms, all combined in blazing virtuosity. There’s no Finnish saga winding its way through this music, but the journey to the rollicking finale is no less exciting. It’s perfect music for Sergey Khachatryan, who at 15 became the youngest-ever winner of the Jean Sibelius Competition. Hear Tchaikovsky’s take on the Romeo and Juliet story in the Master Series (27, 29, 30 July).

Hear Pascal and Ami Rogé perform in a duo recital on 16 May.

joyce yang piano

sergey khachatryan violin

pascal AND AMI rogÉ pianos

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Emirates Metro Series

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THE LENINGRAD SYMPHONY

ROMAN HOLIDAY

SCHUBERT’S GREAT C MAJOR

War and Peace

Mendelssohn’s Italian Symphony

Signature Sound

Fri 19 Aug 8pm

Fri 9 Sep 8pm

Fri 2 Dec 8pm

BRAHMS Double Concerto SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No.7, Leningrad

MENDELSSOHN The Fair Melusine – Overture R STRAUSS Horn Concerto No.1 RESPIGHI The Birds MENDELSSOHN Symphony No.4, Italian

BRAHMS Tragic Overture DEAN The Lost Art of Letter Writing – Violin Concerto sydney premiere SCHUBERT Symphony No.9 (Great C Major)

Vasily Petrenko conductor Karen Gomyo violin Alban Gerhardt cello Brahms wrote his Double Concerto as a kind of peace offering – intended to restore his old friendship with the great violinist Joachim. It worked: at the rehearsals the two men spoke for the first time in years. The concerto rejects flashy showmanship in favour of glowing intimacy and a dialogue between the two soloists, and Brahms weaves in passing references to his friend, including the Hungarian flavour of the vibrant finale. There’s no mood of conciliation in Shostakovich’s celebrated Leningrad Symphony from 1942. It was written in a city under siege, and for Shostakovich its composition was an act of defiance, a way of saying that life would go on as usual. Its harrowing journey begins in conflict, with the menacing approach of the enemy, and ends in a spectacular but ambivalent victory. Relief comes in the gentler moments, but this fiercely powerful and intense music is not meant to put you at your ease. It’s “how I hear the war,” said the composer.

Nicholas McGegan conductor Ben Jacks horn When he was 20, Mendelssohn set off on the 19th-century answer to the gap year – a Grand Tour. And it was under the blue skies of Rome that he began his Italian Symphony. It’s sunny and effervescent music, marrying a breathless, bounding momentum to his trademark delicacy. Strauss’s lively first horn concerto is the work of a teenager still under the influence of a father who preferred the elegance of Mozart and Mendelssohn. Respighi was no reactionary, but he too felt the appeal of music from the past. The Birds lends the orchestral colours he learned in Russia from Rimsky-Korsakov to baroque character pieces – the result: perfect Italianate charm. This concert itinerary leaves us in Rome with a native and a foreigner. But it begins in a fantasy world with The Fair Melusine – a story of enchantment, a mermaid and a broken promise. Mendelssohn says we shouldn’t let our imaginations run away with the music, but that’s exactly what it inspires us to do.

Jonathan Nott conductor Frank Peter Zimmermann violin In 2009 Brett Dean’s violin concerto won the Grawemeyer Award – a kind of Nobel prize for composers – and we’re thrilled to be presenting its Sydney premiere with the soloist for whom it was written. “Brett has a very human way of writing music,” says conductor Jonathan Nott, “it has a soul to it, an expressive line, fantastic colours, and he invites you to enjoy the sound.” The concerto has a story, too. Each of its four movements is prefaced by a letter: Brahms to Clara Schumann, Vincent van Gogh, the composer Hugo Wolf, and Ned Kelly’s famous Jerilderie letter. And the music mirrors the intensity of love (with a quote from Brahms’s Fourth), the pain of an artist, waltz-like decadence and the bushranger’s defiance. Building the program around this powerful heart, Jonathan Nott has chosen a “symphony in miniature” to prepare the way for the concerto, and the expansive singing lines and heavenly length of Schubert’s final symphony. This concert brings together three composers who break the mould in different ways and it unites a contemporary Australian voice with the German Romantic tradition that has shaped his style.

karen gomyo violin

ben jacks horn

16

Sydney Symphony 2011 Season

frank peter zimmermann violin


Emirates Metro Series Choose your package and order at sydneysymphony.com/subscribe

Five-concert package* Mahler 6 Hammerblow of Fate Fri 4 Mar 8pm

Roman Holiday Mendelssohn’s Italian Symphony Fri 9 Sep 8pm

Mahler 10 Love and Death Fri 13 May 8pm

Schubert’s Great C Major Signature Sound Fri 2 Dec 8pm

The Leningrad Symphony War and Peace Fri 19 Aug 8pm

EIGHT-concert package* Tchaikovsky & Brahms Passions of the Soul Fri 11 Feb 8pm

The Leningrad Symphony War and Peace Fri 19 Aug 8pm

Mahler 6 Hammerblow of Fate Fri 4 Mar 8pm

Roman Holiday Mendelssohn’s Italian Symphony Fri 9 Sep 8pm

The Last Romantic Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto Fri 8 Apr 8pm

Schubert’s Great C Major Signature Sound Fri 2 Dec 8pm *These packs allow you to keep your seats in perpetuity, renewing the same seats year after year.

Mahler 10 Love and Death Fri 13 May 8pm

Renewing subscribers save 20% by adding a new second series If you’re not a subscriber to Mozart in the City, Meet the Music or International Pianists in Recital, take an extra package to one of these in addition to your Emirates Metro Series subscription and save an additional 20% on standard subscription prices in the first year. See terms and conditions on page 77.

Prokofiev’s Romeo & Juliet Beethoven, Sibelius, Prokofiev Fri 15 Jul 8pm Concerts

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8

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Emirates Metro Series

17


Great Classics Find yourself in…

Create the perfect Saturday afternoon around a Sydney Symphony concert. Enjoy lunch with friends, admire the beauty of the Sydney Opera House, then surrender to the inspirational power of the music. Great Classics is also the ideal series for a family subscription and a great way to introduce younger music lovers to the sound and excitement of a symphony orchestra.

In 2011 the Great Classics series begins with the Brahms Violin Concerto and Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony, and the masterpieces just keep coming – Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto, Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet ballet music, Sibelius’s Violin Concerto, Mendelssohn’s Italian Symphony and Ashkenazy conducting Mahler. Four or seven matinees at the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall Saturday 2pm

18


Michael Dauth, Concertmaster Great Classics

19


TCHAIKOVSKY & BRAHMS

MAHLER 6

Passions of the Soul

Hammerblow of Fate

Sat 12 Feb 2pm

Sat 5 Mar 2pm

BERLIOZ Béatrice et Bénédict: Overture BRAHMS Violin Concerto TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No.5

LISZT Piano Concerto No.2 MAHLER Symphony No.6

Peter Oundjian conductor Ray Chen violin Did Tchaikovsky really call Brahms a “giftless bastard”? Yes, and worse. But the two men got on well enough when they eventually met, and they agreed on one thing: neither really liked the finale of Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony! Tchaikovsky was bothered that its brilliant optimism would sound false, but audiences knew better – and we still do. Brahms and Tchaikovsky come together in this program with masterpieces that are absolutely unchallenged in the affections of music-lovers. Brahms’s Violin Concerto reveals all the elegance of his mature style – noble, rhapsodic, and dazzling too. This is the vehicle for the gifted young Taiwanese-Australian violinist Ray Chen, making his Sydney Symphony debut. Tchaikovsky’s genius lies in his sincerity of emotion and dramatic instincts – nowhere more so than in his Fifth Symphony, where Fate is the theme and all the joys and sorrows, struggles and passions of the soul are set out on this great musical canvas.

ray chen violin

20

Sydney Symphony 2011 Season

Vladimir Ashkenazy conductor Jean-Efflam Bavouzet piano Mahler’s Sixth Symphony begins with a sinister march – its pounding steps set the stage for this tragic and intensely moving creation. This is music by a composer obsessed with fate, and it spills over with passion and fierce emotions – every feeling coming directly from the heart. In his finale, Mahler wrote three great hammerblows to symbolise the blows of destiny – then deleted one in morbid fear that the symphony would turn out to be prophetic. If you’re getting to know Mahler, this symphony is an impassioned portrait of the man and his musical vision. According to his son Daniel, Liszt’s Second Piano Concerto was a portrait too – the music veers between extremes, sometimes suggesting the young Liszt as an ardent lover, sometimes the religious contemplation of the composer as an old man. More than a virtuoso showpiece, this is a concerto that’s full of poetry and brilliant contrasts. Hear Jean-Efflam Bavouzet in recital (7 March).

jean-efflam bavouzet piano


THE LAST ROMANTIC Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto

PROKOFIEV’S ROMEO & JULIET Beethoven, Sibelius, Prokofiev

Sat 9 Apr 2pm

Sat 16 Jul 2pm

RAUTAVAARA A Requiem in Our Time RACHMANINOFF Piano Concerto No.3 RACHMANINOFF Symphony No.3

BEETHOVEN Leonore Overture No.2 SIBELIUS Violin Concerto PROKOFIEV Romeo and Juliet: Suite

Edo de Waart conductor Joyce Yang piano Joyce Yang knows exactly why Rachmaninoff’s music is so powerful, and so popular. “There is so much nostalgia in his music – even if it’s new to your ear, it will tap into an emotion that’s very personal, it will give life to something you already know.” Who knows what those emotions will be? Perhaps it will be the deep melancholy from the middle of the Third Piano Concerto, or maybe you’ll be swept up in the exuberance of the finale. The Third Symphony might reach out with its feelings of bittersweet regret and the tragedy of exile – the sounds of Orthodox chant hinting at a Russia remembered. Or perhaps it will be the rhapsodic grandeur and majestic orchestral colours that move you. Whatever the feeling, Rachmaninoff is always genuine and heartfelt.

James Gaffigan conductor Sergey Khachatryan violin Young American talent James Gaffigan is making his Sydney Symphony debut, and for this first meeting he’s chosen “colour repertoire” – music that exploits the full orchestra in the way that the French and the Russians know best. His own suite from Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet follows the original narrative, bringing together the highlights of this dramatic ballet. The scene is set with the feud between the Montagues and the Capulets, and there’s the youthful ardour of the balcony scene and the hot-blooded duels, before the music ends, as it does in the theatre, with Juliet’s death – tragic and sublime. Sibelius’s Violin Concerto is equally sublime – powerful drama, spinning melodies and catchy rhythms, all combined in blazing virtuosity. There’s no Finnish saga winding its way through this music, but the journey to the rollicking finale is no less exciting. It’s perfect music for Sergey Khachatryan, who at 15 became the youngest-ever winner of the Jean Sibelius Competition.

Rautavaara’s vividly sonorous music for brass and percussion begins with fanfares and ends with the gentle austerity of tears – clearing the way for the poignant introduction of Rachmaninoff’s concerto.

Hear Tchaikovsky’s take on the Romeo and Juliet story in the Master Series (27, 29, 30 July).

edo de waart conductor

james gaffigan conductor

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Great Classics

21


THE LENINGRAD SYMPHONY

ROMAN HOLIDAY

SCHUBERT’S GREAT C MAJOR

War and Peace

Mendelssohn’s Italian Symphony

Signature Sound

Sat 20 Aug 2pm

Sat 10 Sep 2pm

Sat 3 Dec 2pm

BRAHMS Double Concerto SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No.7, Leningrad

MENDELSSOHN The Fair Melusine – Overture R STRAUSS Horn Concerto No.1 RESPIGHI The Birds MENDELSSOHN Symphony No.4, Italian

BRAHMS Tragic Overture DEAN The Lost Art of Letter Writing – Violin Concerto sydney premiere SCHUBERT Symphony No.9 (Great C Major)

Vasily Petrenko conductor Karen Gomyo violin Alban Gerhardt cello Brahms wrote his Double Concerto as a kind of peace offering – intended to restore his old friendship with the great violinist Joachim. It worked: at the rehearsals the two men spoke for the first time in years. The concerto rejects flashy showmanship in favour of glowing intimacy and a dialogue between the two soloists, and Brahms weaves in passing references to his friend, including the Hungarian flavour of the vibrant finale. There’s no mood of conciliation in Shostakovich’s celebrated Leningrad Symphony from 1942. It was written in a city under siege, and for Shostakovich its composition was an act of defiance, a way of saying that life would go on as usual. Its harrowing journey begins in conflict, with the menacing approach of the enemy, and ends in a spectacular but ambivalent victory. Relief comes in the gentler moments, but this fiercely powerful and intense music is not meant to put you at your ease. It’s “how I hear the war,” said the composer.

Nicholas McGegan conductor Ben Jacks horn When he was 20, Mendelssohn set off on the 19th-century answer to the gap year – a Grand Tour. And it was under the blue skies of Rome that he began his Italian Symphony. It’s sunny and effervescent music, marrying a breathless, bounding momentum to his trademark delicacy. Strauss’s lively first horn concerto is the work of a teenager still under the influence of a father who preferred the elegance of Mozart and Mendelssohn. Respighi was no reactionary, but he too felt the appeal of music from the past. The Birds lends the orchestral colours he learned in Russia from Rimsky-Korsakov to baroque character pieces – the result: perfect Italianate charm. This concert itinerary leaves us in Rome with a native and a foreigner. But it begins in a fantasy world with The Fair Melusine – a story of enchantment, a mermaid and a broken promise. Mendelssohn says we shouldn’t let our imaginations run away with the music, but that’s exactly what it inspires us to do.

Jonathan Nott conductor Frank Peter Zimmermann violin In 2009 Brett Dean’s violin concerto won the Grawemeyer Award – a kind of Nobel prize for composers – and we’re thrilled to be presenting its Sydney premiere with the soloist for whom it was written. “Brett has a very human way of writing music,” says conductor Jonathan Nott, “it has a soul to it, an expressive line, fantastic colours, and he invites you to enjoy the sound.” The concerto has a story, too. Each of its four movements is prefaced by a letter: Brahms to Clara Schumann, Vincent van Gogh, the composer Hugo Wolf, and Ned Kelly’s famous Jerilderie letter. And the music mirrors the intensity of love (with a quote from Brahms’s Fourth), the pain of an artist, waltz-like decadence and the bushranger’s defiance. Building the program around this powerful heart, Jonathan Nott has chosen a “symphony in miniature” to prepare the way for the concerto, and the expansive singing lines and heavenly length of Schubert’s final symphony. This concert brings together three composers who break the mould in different ways and it unites a contemporary Australian voice with the German Romantic tradition that has shaped his style.

alban gerhardt cello

nicholas mcgegan conductor jonathan nott conductor

22

Sydney Symphony 2011 Season


Great Classics Choose your package and order at sydneysymphony.com/subscribe

FOUR-concert package Mahler 6 Hammerblow of Fate Sat 5 Mar 2pm

The Leningrad Symphony War and Peace Sat 20 Aug 2pm

Prokofiev’s Romeo & Juliet Beethoven, Sibelius, Prokofiev Sat 16 Jul 2pm

Schubert’s Great C Major Signature Sound Sat 3 Dec 2pm

Seven-concert package* Tchaikovsky & Brahms Passions of the Soul Sat 12 Feb 2pm

The Leningrad Symphony War and Peace Sat 20 Aug 2pm

Mahler 6 Hammerblow of Fate Sat 5 Mar 2pm

Roman Holiday Mendelssohn’s Italian Symphony Sat 10 Sep 2pm

The Last Romantic Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto Sat 9 Apr 2pm

Schubert’s Great C Major Signature Sound Sat 3 Dec 2pm *This pack allows you to keep your seats in perpetuity, renewing the same seats year after year.

Prokofiev’s Romeo & Juliet Beethoven, Sibelius, Prokofiev Sat 16 Jul 2pm

Renewing subscribers save 20% by adding a new second series If you’re not a subscriber to Mozart in the City, Meet the Music or International Pianists in Recital, take an extra package to one of these in addition to your Great Classics subscription and save an additional 20% on standard subscription prices in the first year. See terms and conditions on page 77.

Concerts

4

7

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$468

Concession $250

4

$419

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$412

A

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$349

B

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$314

C

$174

$293

C

$158

$265

Youth

$142

$195

Subscribers receive a 10–20% discount on additional single tickets. See Special Events pages 62–65. Terms and conditions apply.

www.sydneysymphony.com/subscribe. Ph: (02) 8215 4600

Great Classics

23


Mondays @ 7 Find yourself in…

Begin your week with the sound of a symphony orchestra! At the convenient time of 7pm, these concerts give you an evening full of inspiration and magic, with no need to sleep in on Tuesday morning.

Mondays @ 7 is the perfect orchestral sampler. We give you great masterpieces like the Brahms Violin Concerto and Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony. There’s Ashkenazy conducting Mahler’s inspiring Resurrection Symphony with choir, vocal soloists and an enormous orchestra. Mendelssohn on a “Roman holiday” brings elegance and verve, Rachmaninoff takes off in a world of emotion, and The Planets goes into space with stunning high-definition footage on the big screen. Five concerts in the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall Monday 7pm

Ben Jacks, Principal Horn 24

Sydney Symphony 2011 Season


Mondays @ 7

25


TCHAIKOVSKY & BRAHMS

THE LAST ROMANTIC

THE PLANETS

Passions of the Soul

Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto

A Journey in HD

Mon 14 Feb 7pm

Mon 11 Apr 7pm

Mon 11 Jul 7pm

BERLIOZ Béatrice et Bénédict: Overture BRAHMS Violin Concerto TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No.5

RAUTAVAARA A Requiem in Our Time RACHMANINOFF Piano Concerto No.3 RACHMANINOFF Symphony No.3

BACH Orchestral Suite No.2 JARRELL …un temps du silence… (Flute Concerto) australian premiere HOLST The Planets

Peter Oundjian conductor Ray Chen violin Did Tchaikovsky really call Brahms a “giftless bastard”? Yes, and worse. But the two men got on well enough when they eventually met, and they agreed on one thing: neither really liked the finale of Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony! Tchaikovsky was bothered that its brilliant optimism would sound false, but audiences knew better – and we still do. Brahms and Tchaikovsky come together in this program with masterpieces that are absolutely unchallenged in the affections of music-lovers. Brahms’s Violin Concerto reveals all the elegance of his mature style – noble, rhapsodic, and dazzling too. This is the vehicle for the gifted young Taiwanese-Australian violinist Ray Chen, making his Sydney Symphony debut. Tchaikovsky’s genius lies in his sincerity of emotion and dramatic instincts – nowhere more so than in his Fifth Symphony, where Fate is the theme and all the joys and sorrows, struggles and passions of the soul are set out on this great musical canvas.

Edo de Waart conductor Joyce Yang piano Joyce Yang knows exactly why Rachmaninoff’s music is so powerful, and so popular. “There is so much nostalgia in his music – even if it’s new to your ear, it will tap into an emotion that’s very personal, it will give life to something you already know.” Who knows what those emotions will be? Perhaps it will be the deep melancholy from the middle of the Third Piano Concerto, or maybe you’ll be swept up in the exuberance of the finale. The Third Symphony might reach out with its feelings of bittersweet regret and the tragedy of exile – the sounds of Orthodox chant hinting at a Russia remembered. Or perhaps it will be the rhapsodic grandeur and majestic orchestral colours that move you. Whatever the feeling, Rachmaninoff is always genuine and heartfelt. Rautavaara’s vividly sonorous music for brass and percussion begins with fanfares and ends with the gentle austerity of tears – clearing the way for the poignant introduction of Rachmaninoff’s concerto.

Ludovic Morlot conductor Emmanuel Pahud flute Ladies of the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs Gustav Holst’s Planets wasn’t written for the movies, but it could have been – it has the monumental character and emotional force of a great film score and more than a few film composers are indebted to it. With this spectacular visual presentation from the Houston Symphony and filmmaker Duncan Copp, we return the favour – accompanying Holst’s music with stunning high-definition footage from NASA space probes and the Hubble Telescope. Holst’s romantic, astrological vision meets modern astronomy. Holst heard the planets in a wealth of sound; the reality of space is silence. Swiss composer Michael Jarrell has attempted the impossible in his flute concerto (a time of silence): “I wanted to make it possible to hear different types of silence, and the only way you can perceive them is by varying the contexts.” The result is a fiendishly virtuosic piece, written especially for soloist Emmanuel Pahud, principal flute of the Berlin Philharmonic. And Bach’s second orchestral suite has the flute dancing in the spotlight – a concerto in all but name. This program can also be heard in Kaleidoscope (8, 9 July).

ray chen violin joyce yang piano

emmanuel pahud flute

26

Sydney Symphony 2011 Season


ROMAN HOLIDAY

MAHLER 2

Mondays @ 7

Mendelssohn’s Italian Symphony

Resurrection Symphony

Mon 12 Sep 7pm

Mon 28 Nov 7pm

Choose your package and order at sydneysymphony.com/subscribe

MENDELSSOHN The Fair Melusine – Overture R STRAUSS Horn Concerto No.1 RESPIGHI The Birds MENDELSSOHN Symphony No.4, Italian

MAHLER Symphony No.2, Resurrection

Nicholas McGegan conductor Ben Jacks horn When he was 20, Mendelssohn set off on the 19th-century answer to the gap year – a Grand Tour. And it was under the blue skies of Rome that he began his Italian Symphony. It’s sunny and effervescent music, marrying a breathless, bounding momentum to his trademark delicacy. Strauss’s lively first horn concerto is the work of a teenager still under the influence of a father who preferred the elegance of Mozart and Mendelssohn. Respighi was no reactionary, but he too felt the appeal of music from the past. The Birds lends the orchestral colours he learned in Russia from Rimsky-Korsakov to baroque character pieces – the result: perfect Italianate charm. This concert itinerary leaves us in Rome with a native and a foreigner. But it begins in a fantasy world with The Fair Melusine – a story of enchantment, a mermaid and a broken promise. Mendelssohn says we shouldn’t let our imaginations run away with the music, but that’s exactly what it inspires us to do.

Vladimir Ashkenazy conductor Emma Matthews soprano Lilli Paasikivi mezzo-soprano Sydney Philharmonia Choirs Mahler put everything into his Resurrection Symphony – not just his deepest convictions, his most ambitious ideas and the thunderbolts of inspiration, but an enormous orchestra and a huge chorus with vocal soloists. It’s an all-embracing symphony, even the resurrection of the title goes beyond that of Christ to the rebirth of the spirit after death, the resurrection of us all. Through this symphony, Mahler questions why we live, why we suffer. The music ponders things that are dark and grotesque; it celebrates innocence and light. Drawing from the folk songs of Des Knaben Wunderhorn (Youth’s Magic Horn), Mahler suggests the simplicity and faith of youth: “Dear God will give me light, will light me to eternal, blessed life!” And in the sublime finale – wild and solemn – death is overturned: “Thou shalt rise again…Immortal life!”

Five-concert package Tchaikovsky & Brahms Passions of the Soul Mon 14 Feb 7pm The Last Romantic Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto Mon 11 Apr 7pm The Planets A Journey in HD Mon 11 Jul 7pm Roman Holiday Mendelssohn’s Italian Symphony Mon 12 Sep 7pm Mahler 2 Resurrection Symphony Mon 28 Nov 7pm Concerts

5

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$441

A

$401

B

$341

C

$251

Concession

$396

A

$361

B

$306

C

$226

Youth

$176

Renewing subscribers save 20% by adding a new second series

LILLI PAASIKIVI MEZZO-soprano

ben jacks horn

If you’re not a subscriber to Mozart in the City, Meet the Music or International Pianists in Recital, take an extra package to one of these in addition to your Mondays @ 7 subscription and save an additional 20% on standard subscription prices in the first year. See terms and conditions on page 77.

Subscribers receive a 10–20% discount on additional single tickets. See Special Events pages 62–65. Terms and conditions apply.

www.sydneysymphony.com/subscribe. Ph: (02) 8215 4600

Mondays @ 7

27


Find yourself in…

Presented by EnergyAustralia

In every Meet the Music concert you can hear a masterpiece, something unexpected, and something new from the best of our Australian composers. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a high school student, just getting to know the orchestral repertoire, or a concert-goer wanting to expand your musical experiences – this series is the perfect way to find music in all its beauty and variety. So when you subscribe you’re joining the generations of music lovers who’ve “met the music” – enjoying favourites and making discoveries. Every concert is a journey and composer and broadcaster Andrew Ford will be your guide. Four concerts in the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall Introduced by Andrew Ford (ABC Radio National) Wednesday and Thursday 6.30pm

Meet the Music plays a central role in our acclaimed education program and the series is popular with students and school groups.

Sun Yi, Associate Concertmaster 28

Sydney Symphony 2011 Season


Meet the Music

29


MOZART & TCHAIKOVSKY

BARTÓK’S CONCERTO FOR ORCHESTRA

YOUNG guns

Two Great Symphonists

Symphonic Spotlight

Presenting the AYO

Wed 16 Mar 6.30pm Thu 17 Mar 6.30pm

Wed 25 May 6.30pm Thu 26 May 6.30pm

Wed 20 Jul 6.30pm Thu 21 Jul 6.30pm

MOZART Symphony No.34 LEDGER Bassoon Concerto premiere STRAVINSKY Ode TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No.2 (Little Russian)

KERRY Symphony premiere GRAINGER In a Nutshell BARTÓK Concerto for Orchestra

DEBUSSY La Mer VINE Violin Concerto premiere NIELSEN Symphony No.5

Benjamin Northey conductor

Hans Graf conductor Matthew Wilkie bassoon

Gordon Kerry takes it as a great compliment to be sharing this program with Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra, not just because he adores Bartók’s music but because in many respects both composers are trying to do the same thing. Kerry’s Symphony “will be celebrating the orchestra in its unity and diversity” and that’s what Bartók does too. There are moments of glory for individuals in the orchestra, some of our fantastic soloists, and then there’s the way these composers take the orchestra apart and put it back together again.

Thomas Dausgaard conductor Dene Olding violin Australian Youth Orchestra

Of all the great symphonists, Mozart and Tchaikovsky inspire the most affection, and it’s easy to hear why. Mozart never failed to keep his audience’s pleasure in mind, and there’s a natural elegance in everything he wrote. Meanwhile, Tchaikovsky speaks to us in a language of glorious melody that touches the heart. In his Second Symphony he draws on folk tunes from the Ukraine (the “Little Russia” of Tchaikovsky’s subtitle) and the music leaps for joy. James Ledger’s new concerto for Principal Bassoon Matthew Wilkie won’t leap so much as fly. Inspired by a tiny William Blake poem, “Eternity”, the concerto will take the solitary bassoon on an ecstatic journey, high above an evolving blanket of orchestral colour.

Between the musical drama of Kerry and Bartók sit the vivid images of Grainger’s In a Nutshell suite – from the kind of melody you might hum while waiting for a sweetheart, to the world of the music hall and a larrikin march. It’s tuneful music dressed up in Grainger’s spicy orchestrations. This is a concert that reveals the immense variety of colours and sounds that are possible when you put a symphony orchestra in the spotlight.

The last time we presented the AYO in Meet the Music they played Shostakovich’s Tenth: exhilarating music for young musicians to sink their teeth into. This time they play a masterpiece by Danish composer Carl Nielsen – think Shostakovich without the pessimism. Fellow Dane, Thomas Dausgaard is the ideal person to lead Nielsen’s magnificent Fifth Symphony. The music begins in a pastoral vein, with all the beauty of the orchestra on show, before things turn sinister with the entry of a side drum. And rhythm remains the driving force, bringing the symphony to its brilliant and radiant climax. Debussy’s vast rendition of the sea is another piece to show off the talent of young musicians, with its mysterious colours and fabulous effects. And at the heart of this program is a new concerto by Carl Vine, written especially for Sydney Symphony concertmaster Dene Olding. Its starting point is the solo violin, quietly accompanied by orchestra – nothing, says Vine, has the potential to sound more alone. But in music, as in life, there’s a need for community as well as solitude – and perhaps only through music can we understand the tension between the two.

matthew wilkie bassoon Benjamin Northey conductor

australian youth orchestra

30

Sydney Symphony 2011 Season


BEETHOVEN’S EGMONT

Meet the Music

The Perfect Hero

Choose your package and order at sydneysymphony.com/subscribe

Wed 19 Oct 6.30pm Thu 20 Oct 6.30pm IVES The Unanswered Question WESTLAKE Missa Solis – Requiem for Eli sydney premiere

BEETHOVEN Egmont – Incidental music Richard Gill conductor Nigel Westlake conductor Cantillation Eddie Perfect narrator Nigel Westlake’s Missa Solis is a ‘Mass for the Sun’, but it’s also a powerful tribute to his son, Eli, who was killed in 2008 – a personal requiem. Its texts range from the Tibetan Book of Living and Dying and an ancient hymn by the Pharoah Akhenaten to writings by Galileo. Some of Missa Solis began life as the soundtrack for Solarmax – its fingerprints are in the larger-than-life sound of voices and orchestra and the filmic character of the music. “I had this image of a Cecil B. DeMille production” says Westlake about one movement. But there are also moments of great lightness and effervescence, simplicity and quiet – meditative moments that pick up on the existential contemplation of Ives’ Unanswered Question.

Presented by EnergyAustralia

four-concert package Mozart & Tchaikovsky Two Great Symphonists Wed 16 Mar, Thu 17 Mar 6.30pm

Young Guns Presenting the AYO Wed 20 Jul, Thu 21 Jul 6.30pm

Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra Symphonic Spotlight Wed 25 May, Thu 26 May 6.30pm

Beethoven’s Egmont The Perfect Hero Wed 19 Oct, Thu 20 Oct 6.30pm

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$198

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Youth

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Goethe’s play Egmont gave Beethoven his favourite themes: the drama of political oppression, the human struggle for liberty. In these concerts we present all of Beethoven’s music for the play with a narration based on Goethe, and actor-musician Eddie Perfect tells the inspiring tragedy of a great hero.

EDDIE PERFECT NARRATOR

www.sydneysymphony.com/subscribe. Ph: (02) 8215 4600

Meet the Music

31


Kaleidoscope Find yourself in‌

Colour, image, reflections, motion – this year the Kaleidoscope series captures the essence of its name with four thrilling concerts that link dynamic orchestral sound with powerful images and film.

Two great movie soundtracks, a visual interpretation of a favourite masterpiece, and a tribute to music on the silver screen come together in Kaleidoscope, shaped in collaboration with James Morrison. Four concerts in the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall Friday or Saturday evenings

Kirsty Hilton, Principal Second Violin 32

Sydney Symphony 2011 Season


Kaleidoscope

33


JAMES MORRISON AT THE MOVIES

THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING

THE PLANETS

The Trumpet Goes to the Cinema

On Stage and Screen

A Journey in HD

Fri 18 Feb 8pm Sat 19 Feb 8pm

Fri 6 May 7pm Sat 7 May 7pm

Fri 8 Jul 8pm Sat 9 Jul 8pm

Featuring music from… 2001: A Space Odyssey, Cinema Paradiso, Star Wars, Modern Times, classic James Bond films, and more!

THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING Peter Jackson’s epic film complete with music by Howard Shore

JS BACH Orchestral Suite No.2 JARRELL …un temps du silence… (Flute Concerto) australian premiere HOLST The Planets

Marc Taddei conductor James Morrison jazz trumpet

Ludwig Wicki conductor Kaitlyn Lusk vocalist Sydney Philharmonia Choirs Sydney Children’s Choir

Ludovic Morlot conductor Emmanuel Pahud flute Ladies of the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs

Peter Jackson’s epic vision of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy was supported by an equally epic soundtrack from Canadian composer Howard Shore. In each film, the music uses the power of a full symphony orchestra and massed voices to match the visceral impact of the journey unfolding on screen.

Gustav Holst’s Planets wasn’t written for the movies, but it could have been – it has the monumental character and emotional force of a great film score and more than a few film composers are indebted to it. With this spectacular visual presentation from the Houston Symphony and filmmaker Duncan Copp, we return the favour – accompanying Holst’s music with stunning high-definition footage from NASA space probes and the Hubble Telescope. Holst’s romantic, astrological vision meets modern astronomy.

The Kaleidoscope series begins in style with concerts that bring together some of the great musical moments from the silver screen in a program starring jazzman extraordinaire, James Morrison. The trumpet is in the spotlight in Cinema Paradiso, there’s music to make you smile in Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times, and the smooth themes from the movies that made James Bond a household name. John Williams brought the sound of the orchestra to the world of the science fiction movie with his spectacular orchestral score for Star Wars. And classical music itself starred in 2001: A Space Odyssey, when Stanley Kubrick lifted the stunning opening moment of Richard Strauss’s Thus Spake Zarathustra. Hear it all when James Morrison takes the Sydney Symphony to the movies.

For these special performances we turn the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall into a cinema, screening part one of the trilogy, The Fellowship of the Ring, with its Oscar-winning score performed live on stage. These performances will end at 10.20pm – please note the 7pm starting time. This program can also be heard in a special Mother’s Day matinee (8 May). See page 63.

Holst heard the planets in a wealth of sound; the reality of space is silence. Swiss composer Michael Jarrell has attempted the impossible in his flute concerto (a time of silence): “I wanted to make it possible to hear different types of silence, and the only way you can perceive them is by varying the contexts.” The result is a fiendishly virtuosic piece, written especially for soloist Emmanuel Pahud, principal flute of the Berlin Philharmonic. And Bach’s second orchestral suite has the flute dancing in the spotlight – a concerto in all but name. This program can also be heard in Mondays @ 7 (11 July).

THE fellowship of the ring

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Sydney Symphony 2011 Season

emmanuel pahud flute


METROPOLIS

Kaleidoscope

A Film Icon Restored

Choose your package and order at sydneysymphony.com/subscribe

Fri 28 Oct 8pm Sat 29 Oct 8pm METROPOLIS (1927) Newly restored film with the complete original score by Gottfried Huppertz australian premiere

Frank Strobel conductor Fritz Lang’s Metropolis was the most ambitious, and expensive, silent film ever made. Set in a futuristic urban dystopia, it sends one man from his life of luxury and authority into the domain of underground slave-workers – two worlds in violent collision. “Love conquers all” claims the film – a fairytale, admitted Lang.

four-concert package James Morrison at the Movies The Trumpet Goes to the Cinema Fri 18 Feb, Sat 19 Feb 8pm

The Planets A Journey in HD Fri 8 Jul, Sat 9 Jul 8pm

The Fellowship of the Ring On Stage and Screen Fri 6 May, Sat 7 May 7pm Please note earlier starting time.

Metropolis A Film Icon Restored Fri 28 Oct, Sat 29 Oct 8pm

Concerts

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For more than 80 years, no one expected to be able see this iconic film in full. Then, in 2008, a 16-millimetre negative turned up in Buenos Aires, providing the missing 30 minutes of footage that would restore this colossal film to within a hair’s breadth of its original length. In the absence of a definitive script, Gottfried Huppertz’s original film score played a crucial role in the restoration process. That score is the only complete document from the 1927 premiere, and the editing of the original film had been based on the music. Even if you’ve seen Metropolis before, don’t miss this chance to experience the perfect marriage of sound and image, with the Sydney Symphony performing Huppertz’s opulent, neo-Romantic score. These performances will end at 10.30pm. In association with the Weimar Republic Exhibition at the Art Gallery of NSW.

Renewing subscribers save 20% by adding a new second series If you’re not a subscriber to Mozart in the City, Meet the Music or International Pianists in Recital, take an extra package to one of these in addition to your Kaleidoscope subscription and save an additional 20% on standard subscription prices in the first year. See terms and conditions on page 77.

Subscribers receive a 10–20% discount on additional single tickets. See Special Events pages 62–65. Terms and conditions apply. metropolis

www.sydneysymphony.com/subscribe. Ph: (02) 8215 4600

Kaleidoscope

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36


Thursday Afternoon Symphony Find yourself in…

Thursday Afternoon Symphony takes the best programs from across our evening series and offers them as mid-week matinees – perfect for avoiding the evening rush. In the 2011 Thursday Afternoon Symphony series every concert is a highlight, with popular concertos by Brahms, Sibelius and Rachmaninoff and some of the best-loved symphonies, including Tchaikovsky’s Fifth and Dvoˇrák’s New World. Former Chief Conductor, Edo de Waart, will return to conduct Rachmaninoff’s Third Symphony, and you can experience the inspiration of Vladimir Ashkenazy in two concerts from the Mahler Odyssey. Four, five, or nine matinees in the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall Thursday 1.30pm

Nick Byrne, Trombone, rogenSi Chair Thursday Afternoon Symphony

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TCHAIKOVSKY & BRAHMS

MAHLER 6

THE LAST ROMANTIC

Passions of the Soul

Hammerblow of Fate

Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto

Thu 10 Feb 1.30pm

Thu 3 Mar 1.30pm

Thu 7 Apr 1.30pm

BERLIOZ Béatrice et Bénédict: Overture BRAHMS Violin Concerto TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No.5

LISZT Piano Concerto No.2 MAHLER Symphony No.6

RAUTAVAARA A Requiem in Our Time RACHMANINOFF Piano Concerto No.3 RACHMANINOFF Symphony No.3

Peter Oundjian conductor Ray Chen violin Did Tchaikovsky really call Brahms a “giftless bastard”? Yes, and worse. But the two men got on well enough when they eventually met, and they agreed on one thing: neither really liked the finale of Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony! Tchaikovsky was bothered that its brilliant optimism would sound false, but audiences knew better – and we still do. Brahms and Tchaikovsky come together in this program with masterpieces that are absolutely unchallenged in the affections of music-lovers. Brahms’s Violin Concerto reveals all the elegance of his mature style – noble, rhapsodic, and dazzling too. This is the vehicle for the gifted young Taiwanese-Australian violinist Ray Chen, making his Sydney Symphony debut. Tchaikovsky’s genius lies in his sincerity of emotion and dramatic instincts – nowhere more so than in his Fifth Symphony, where Fate is the theme and all the joys and sorrows, struggles and passions of the soul are set out on this great musical canvas.

Peter oundjian Conductor

Vladimir Ashkenazy conductor Jean-Efflam Bavouzet piano Mahler’s Sixth Symphony begins with a sinister march – its pounding steps set the stage for a tragic and intensely moving creation. This is music by a composer obsessed with fate, and it spills over with passion and fierce emotions – every feeling coming directly from the heart. In his finale, Mahler wrote three great hammerblows to symbolise the blows of destiny – then deleted one in morbid fear that the symphony would turn out to be prophetic. If you’re getting to know Mahler, this symphony is an impassioned portrait of the man and his musical vision. According to his son Daniel, Liszt’s Second Piano Concerto was a portrait too – the music veers between extremes, sometimes suggesting the young Liszt as an ardent lover, sometimes the religious contemplation of the composer as an old man. More than a virtuoso showpiece, this is a concerto that’s full of poetry and brilliant contrasts. Hear Jean-Efflam Bavouzet in recital (7 March).

Edo de Waart conductor Joyce Yang piano Joyce Yang knows exactly why Rachmaninoff’s music is so powerful, and so popular. “There is so much nostalgia in his music – even if it’s new to your ear, it will tap into an emotion that’s very personal, it will give life to something you already know.” Who knows what those emotions will be? Perhaps it will be the deep melancholy from the middle of the Third Piano Concerto, or maybe you’ll be swept up in the exuberance of the finale. The Third Symphony might reach out with its feelings of bittersweet regret and the tragedy of exile – the sounds of Orthodox chant hinting at a Russia remembered. Or perhaps it will be the rhapsodic grandeur and majestic orchestral colours that move you. Whatever the feeling, Rachmaninoff is always genuine and heartfelt. Rautavaara’s vividly sonorous music for brass and percussion begins with fanfares and ends with the gentle austerity of tears – clearing the way for the poignant introduction of Rachmaninoff’s concerto.

VLADIMIR ASHKENAZY CONDUCTOR

EDO DE WAART CONDUCTOR

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Sydney Symphony 2011 Season


MAHLER 10

PROKOFIEV’S ROMEO & JULIET

THE LENINGRAD SYMPHONY

Love and Death

Beethoven, Sibelius, Prokofiev

War and Peace

Thu 12 May 1.30pm

Thu 14 Jul 1.30pm

Thu 18 Aug 1.30pm

HINDSON Concerto for two pianos premiere MAHLER Symphony No.10 (completed by Clinton A. Carpenter)

BEETHOVEN Leonore Overture No.2 SIBELIUS Violin Concerto PROKOFIEV Romeo and Juliet: Suite

BRAHMS Double Concerto SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No.7, Leningrad

James Gaffigan conductor Sergey Khachatryan violin

Vasily Petrenko conductor Karen Gomyo violin Alban Gerhardt cello

Vladimir Ashkenazy conductor Ami Rogé piano Pascal Rogé piano When Mahler died he left behind one movement and pages of sketches for his final symphony, with instructions that it all be burned. But his wishes were ignored, and since the 1960s orchestras have had the choice of performing one of several completions. These are the work of scholarcomposers who’ve spent decades pondering the question: What would Mahler do? For our concerts, Ashkenazy has chosen the completion by American Clinton Carpenter. It’s more convincing, he says, and richer, as if Carpenter fully identified with Mahler. “Some versions can seem a bit pale, but this one just takes you by the throat.” When Pascal and Ami Rogé decided to commission a concerto to celebrate their wedding, Matthew Hindson seemed an obvious choice. Ami praises the “visual” character of Hindson’s music; Pascal admires the way it speaks directly to the heart, to listeners. The new concerto promises to bring a spirit of joy to the first half of the concert, with music that’s colourful, affectionate, and even a little bit theatrical.

Young American talent James Gaffigan is making his Sydney Symphony debut, and for this first meeting he’s chosen “colour repertoire” – music that exploits the full orchestra in the way that the French and the Russians know best. His own suite from Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet follows the original narrative, bringing together the highlights of this dramatic ballet. The scene is set with the feud between the Montagues and the Capulets, and there’s the youthful ardour of the balcony scene and the hot-blooded duels, before the music ends, as it does in the theatre, with Juliet’s death – tragic and sublime. Sibelius’s Violin Concerto is equally sublime – powerful drama, spinning melodies and catchy rhythms, all combined in blazing virtuosity. There’s no Finnish saga winding its way through this music, but the journey to the rollicking finale is no less exciting. It’s perfect music for Sergey Khachatryan, who at 15 became the youngest-ever winner of the Jean Sibelius Competition.

Brahms wrote his Double Concerto as a kind of peace offering – intended to restore his old friendship with the great violinist Joachim. It worked: at the rehearsals the two men spoke for the first time in years. The concerto rejects flashy showmanship in favour of glowing intimacy and a dialogue between the two soloists, and Brahms weaves in passing references to his friend, including the Hungarian flavour of the vibrant finale. There’s no mood of conciliation in Shostakovich’s celebrated Leningrad Symphony from 1942. It was written in a city under siege, and for Shostakovich its composition was an act of defiance, a way of saying that life would go on as usual. Its harrowing journey begins in conflict, with the menacing approach of the enemy, and ends in a spectacular but ambivalent victory. Relief comes in the gentler moments, but this fiercely powerful and intense music is not meant to put you at your ease. It’s “how I hear the war,” said the composer.

Hear Tchaikovsky’s take on the Romeo and Juliet story in the Master Series (27, 29, 30 July).

Hear Pascal and Ami Rogé perform in a duo recital on 16 May.

VASILY PETRENKO CONDUCTOR

james gaffigan conductor

pascal AND AMI rogÉ pianos

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Thursday Afternoon Symphony

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ROMAN HOLIDAY

ˇ DVORÁK’S NEW WORLD SYMPHONY

SCHUBERT’S GREAT C MAJOR

Mendelssohn’s Italian Symphony

New Horizons

Signature Sound

Thu 8 Sep 1.30pm

Thu 13 Oct 1.30pm

Thu 1 Dec 1.30pm

MENDELSSOHN The Fair Melusine – Overture R STRAUSS Horn Concerto No.1 RESPIGHI The Birds MENDELSSOHN Symphony No.4, Italian

LUTOSLAWSKI Symphony No.4 MOZART Piano Concerto No.21 in C, K467 ˇ Dvorák Symphony No.9, New World

BRAHMS Tragic Overture DEAN The Lost Art of Letter Writing – Violin Concerto sydney premiere SCHUBERT Symphony No.9 (Great C Major)

Nicholas McGegan conductor Ben Jacks horn When he was 20, Mendelssohn set off on the 19th-century answer to the gap year – a Grand Tour. And it was under the blue skies of Rome that he began his Italian Symphony. It’s sunny and effervescent music, marrying a breathless, bounding momentum to his trademark delicacy. Strauss’s lively first horn concerto is the work of a teenager still under the influence of a father who preferred the elegance of Mozart and Mendelssohn. Respighi was no reactionary, but he too felt the appeal of music from the past. The Birds lends the orchestral colours he learned in Russia from Rimsky-Korsakov to baroque character pieces – the result: perfect Italianate charm. This concert itinerary leaves us in Rome with a native and a foreigner. But it begins in a fantasy world with The Fair Melusine – a story of enchantment, a mermaid and a broken promise. Mendelssohn says we shouldn’t let our imaginations run away with the music, but that’s exactly what it inspires us to do.

Mark Wigglesworth conductor Stephen Hough piano There’s a reason Dvoˇrák’s New World was voted No.1 in the ABC’s Classic 100 Symphony. Beethoven might be more impressive, but Dvoˇrák speaks directly to the ear and the emotions. His harmonies are crisp, his melodies are rich and singable, his ideas are stirring, and his musical personality is straightforward. Even when he’s in a melancholy mood, he can’t quite hide the vital inspiration of his Bohemian homeland. Lutoslawski’s Fourth Symphony represents another American commission for a European composer, composed a century on. It’s compact and lucid, setting out to intrigue at first and then satisfy with its eloquence and clear lines. Mozart’s music is all about eloquence and clear lines too, and every one of his piano concertos is a miracle, including this one, the ‘Elvira Madigan’. As Stephen Hough describes it, the concerto offers noble lyricism in its first movement, blue sky with clouds in the second (truly a troubled peace), and high-jinks fun in the finale.

Jonathan Nott conductor Frank Peter Zimmermann violin In 2009 Brett Dean’s violin concerto won the Grawemeyer Award – a kind of Nobel prize for composers – and we’re thrilled to be presenting its Sydney premiere with the soloist for whom it was written. “Brett has a very human way of writing music,” says conductor Jonathan Nott, “it has a soul to it, an expressive line, fantastic colours, and he invites you to enjoy the sound.” The concerto has a story, too. Each of its four movements is prefaced by a letter: Brahms to Clara Schumann, Vincent van Gogh, the composer Hugo Wolf, and Ned Kelly’s famous Jerilderie letter. And the music mirrors the intensity of love (with a quote from Brahms’s Fourth), the pain of an artist, waltz-like decadence and the bushranger’s defiance. Building the program around this powerful heart, Jonathan Nott has chosen a “symphony in miniature” to prepare the way for the concerto, and the expansive singing lines and heavenly length of Schubert’s final symphony. This concert brings together three composers who break the mould in different ways and it unites a contemporary Australian voice with the German Romantic tradition that has shaped his style.

MARK WIGGLESWORTH CONDUCTOR

nicholas mcgegan conductor jonathan nott conductor

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Sydney Symphony 2011 Season


Thursday Afternoon Symphony Choose your package and order at sydneysymphony.com/subscribe

four-concert package* Mahler 6 Hammerblow of Fate Thu 3 Mar 1.30pm

Roman Holiday Mendelssohn’s Italian Symphony Thu 8 Sep 1.30pm

The Last Romantic Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto Thu 7 Apr 1.30pm

Schubert’s Great C Major Signature Sound Thu 1 Dec 1.30pm

Five-concert package* Tchaikovsky & Brahms Passions of the Soul Thu 10 Feb 1.30pm

The Leningrad Symphony War and Peace Thu 18 Aug 1.30pm

Mahler 10 Love and Death Thu 12 May 1.30pm

Dvoˇrák’s New World Symphony New Horizons Thu 13 Oct 1.30pm

Prokofiev’s Romeo & Juliet Beethoven, Sibelius, Prokofiev Thu 14 Jul 1.30pm

NINE-concert package*

Renewing subscribers save 20% by adding a new second series If you’re not a subscriber to Mozart in the City, Meet the Music or International Pianists in Recital, take an extra package to one of these in addition to your Thursday Afternoon Symphony subscription and save an additional 20% on standard subscription prices in the first year. See terms and conditions on page 77.

Subscribers receive a 10–20% discount on additional single tickets. See Special Events pages 62–65.

Tchaikovsky & Brahms Passions of the Soul Thu 10 Feb 1.30pm

The Leningrad Symphony War and Peace Thu 18 Aug 1.30pm

Mahler 6 Hammerblow of Fate Thu 3 Mar 1.30pm

Roman Holiday Mendelssohn’s Italian Symphony Thu 8 Sep 1.30pm

The Last Romantic Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto Thu 7 Apr 1.30pm

Dvoˇrák’s New World Symphony New Horizons Thu 13 Oct 1.30pm

Mahler 10 Love and Death Thu 12 May 1.30pm

Schubert’s Great C Major Signature Sound Thu 1 Dec 1.30pm *These packs allow you to keep your seats in perpetuity, renewing the same seats year after year.

Prokofiev’s Romeo & Juliet Beethoven, Sibelius, Prokofiev Thu 14 Jul 1.30pm Concerts

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$348

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Youth

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Thursday Afternoon Symphony

41


Tea & Symphony Find yourself in…

Presented by Kambly

Spend the morning with the Sydney Symphony in the Sydney Opera House – superb musicians performing great music in a magical location. When you join us on a Friday morning, you can enjoy an hour of wonderful music and the chance to catch up with friends over a cup of tea beforehand. In 2011 the highlights include jewels by Mozart, the sweeping sounds of two great Nordic symphonies, the gripping drama of Bartók and Beethoven, and Ashkenazy conducting Brahms. Choose eight concerts or a pack of four – either way the prices are unbeatable. Four or eight morning concerts in the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall Friday 11am Biscuits for Tea & Symphony kindly supplied by Kambly.

Jane Hazelwood, Viola, Veolia Environmental Services Chair 42

Sydney Symphony 2011 Season


Tea & Symphony

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MOZART REVISITED

MOZART & HAYDN

Fri 4 Feb 11am

Fri 15 Apr 11am

MOZART Concerto in D for piano and violin, K315f (reconstructed by Philip Wilby) BRITTEN Sinfonietta MOZART Symphony in D (from the Posthorn Serenade, K320)

MOZART Wind Serenade in E flat, K375 HAYDN Symphony No.49 (La passione) HAYDN Cello Concerto No.1 in C

Dene Olding violin-director Andrea Lam piano Mozart was a young spark, just 22 years old, when he began writing a concerto for piano and violin. He didn’t finish it, but he did finish a sonata for violin and piano and there’s every sign that these two pieces came from the same creative inspiration. Philip Wilby has done the detective work to turn the concerto fragment into a lively and satisfying whole using music from the sonata. Benjamin Britten was another young spark, and he’s pushing the envelope with his official first composition, the taut and sophisticated Sinfonietta. Then there’s some more clever recycling with a three-movement symphony that the enterprising Mozart put together from his ambitious Posthorn Serenade. This is music that’s too grand and powerful to be simple background music, and Mozart brings it into the concert hall as a symphony that’s both brilliant and entertaining.

Pieter Wispelwey cello-director When cellist Pieter Wispelwey was invited to direct a Classical program with the Sydney Symphony, there was simply no avoiding Haydn – of all the 18th-century cello concertos, Haydn’s hold the central position. “His C major cello concerto is unbelievably popular,” Wispelwey says, “and rightfully so!” Its highlight is an effervescent finale, very fast and hypnotising in its brilliance. Leading us to this climax is the stormy drama of Haydn’s so-called “Passione” symphony and one of Mozart’s serenades for wind octet: spirited music that will show off the Sydney Symphony wind players. This program can also be heard in Mozart in the City (14 April).

This program can also be heard in Tea & Symphony (4 February). pieter wispelwey cello

Andrea Lam piano

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Sydney Symphony 2011 Season


BARTÓK’S CONCERTO FOR ORCHESTRA

SIBELIUS 2: INTO THE LIGHT

YOUNG GUNS: PRESENTING THE AYO

Fri 27 May 11am

Fri 17 Jun 11am

Fri 22 Jul 11am

GRAINGER In a Nutshell BARTÓK Concerto for Orchestra

MENDELSSOHN The Hebrides SIBELIUS Symphony No.2

DEBUSSY La Mer NIELSEN Symphony No.5

Benjamin Northey conductor

Jahja Ling conductor

There’s no soloist in Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra, but nearly everyone is given a cameo role. It’s music that shows off the orchestra as individuals and as a first-class ensemble. The exhilarating journey begins mysteriously, takes time out for games and jokes, finds night-time inspiration in a haunting elegy, and then launches into a life-affirming virtuoso finale.

The Hebrides is the ultimate Romantic miniature, inspired by the gloomy beauty of an island cavern (Fingal’s Cave) and the fierceness of the northern seas – you can taste the salt spray even in the warm comfort of the concert hall.

Thomas Dausgaard conductor Australian Youth Orchestra

The power of Bartók’s most popular orchestral work is introduced by the maverick imagination of Percy Grainger, one of Australia’s most original – and entertaining – voices. In a Nutshell is full of vivid musical images – from the kind of melody you might hum while waiting for a sweetheart, to the world of the music hall and a larrikin march. It’s tuneful music dressed up in Grainger’s spicy orchestrations. This is a concert that reveals the immense variety of colours and sounds that are possible when you put a symphony orchestra in the spotlight.

Possibly only Sibelius – another Romantic at heart – could have captured the atmosphere better. His most popular symphony is brimming with the patriotic feeling of Finlandia, catching the ancient spirit of Finnish melodies even as he pursues his own brand of concentrated originality. Everything that we love about Sibelius can be heard in the Second Symphony: the pastoral simplicity, the stirring power of the brass, the yearning melodies and the bold spaciousness of his triumphant finale.

Tomorrow’s orchestra makes a welcome return to the Tea & Symphony series. The faces are new but the playing is as exhilarating as ever and brimming over with undisguised enthusiasm. As The Sydney Morning Herald said in 2002, “Hear it, feel it, this is what the orchestral experience is all about.” For this concert, Danish conductor Thomas Dausgaard has chosen a masterpiece by his fellow countryman, Carl Nielsen. The music begins in a pastoral vein, with all the beauty of the orchestra on show, before things turn sinister with the entry of a side drum. And rhythm remains the driving force, bringing the symphony to its brilliant and radiant climax. Debussy’s vast rendition of the sea is another piece to show off the talent of young musicians, with its mysterious colours and fabulous effects.

JAHJA LING CONDUCTOR

Benjamin Northey conductor

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THOMAS DAUSGAARD CONDUCTOR

Tea & Symphony

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PIPE ORGAN AND SONG

THE JOY OF BRAHMS

BEETHOVEN’S EGMONT

Fri 19 Aug 11am

Fri 23 Sep 11am

Fri 21 Oct 11am

Program to include…

BRAHMS Symphony No.1

IVES The Unanswered Question BEETHOVEN Egmont – Incidental music

JS BACH Mein gläubiges Herze (‘My heart ever faithful’ from Cantata No.68) FAURÉ Pie Jesu (from the Requiem) with solo organ music by Bach and the French Romantics Sara Macliver soprano David Drury organ with the 2011 Fellows and musicians of the Sydney Symphony When we performed Mahler’s Eighth Symphony in 2010, Sara Macliver made a breathtaking appearance as the Mater Gloriosa, “beaming with pristine accuracy from the organ loft” (The Sydney Morning Herald). In this special concert she gives us a chance to experience anew the sound of her angelic soprano voice radiating through the Concert Hall, accompanied by the king of instruments. Sara Macliver will be joined by Sydney’s leading organist, David Drury, and our outstanding young orchestral Fellows with their Sydney Symphony mentors. And the program they’re assembling for your delight will range from the joyous sounds of the immortal Bach to the floating perfection of the “only” Pie Jesu – from moments of great brilliance to intimate contemplation.

Vladimir Ashkenazy conductor Brahms wasn’t the kind of composer to dash off a symphony, and it took him more than 14 years to write his first. Take heart, late bloomers: he was 43 years old by the time it was done. The music was written with the thunderous step of the great Beethoven always in earshot, but at the joyous conclusion of this dramatic symphony Brahms has the last word – perfect and inimitable.

VLADIMIR ASHKENAZY CONDUCTOR

Richard Gill conductor Eddie Perfect narrator In 1908 Charles Ives posed a question in music: “We get up and go to the office and come home again, have dinner, sit around…But is this all my life is good for? Shouldn’t I be doing something courageous for the good of humanity?” The orchestral strings lead the conventional life, flutes and trumpet try to respond, but in the end the question is left unanswered. Egmont (his real name) would have had no time for existential angst. His life and heroic martyrdom gave a voice to the oppressed in the Netherlands of the 16th century, and his courageous story is told with words by Goethe and music by Beethoven. It’s a drama of political oppression and the human struggle for liberty – Beethoven’s favourite themes – and in this concert we bring the complete music to life with actor-musician Eddie Perfect and a narration based on the original play.

My heart ever faithful, sing praises, be joyful!

RICHARD GILL CONDUCTOR

SARA MACLIVER SOPRANO

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Sydney Symphony 2011 Season


Tea & Symphony

Presented by Kambly

Choose your package and order at sydneysymphony.com/subscribe

four-concert package A* Mozart Revisited Mozart and Britten Fri 4 Feb 11am

Pipe Organ and Song To include JS Bach and Fauré Fri 19 Aug 11am

Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra Grainger and Bartók Fri 27 May 11am

Beethoven’s Egmont Ives and Beethoven Fri 21 Oct 11am

four-concert package B* Mozart & Haydn Mozart and Haydn Fri 15 Apr 11am

Young Guns: Presenting the AYO Debussy and Nielsen Fri 22 Jul 11am

Sibelius 2: Into the light Mendelssohn and Sibelius Fri 17 Jun 11am

The Joy of Brahms Brahms Fri 23 Sep 11am

Eight-concert package*

Renewing subscribers save 20% by adding a new second series If you’re not a subscriber to Mozart in the City, Meet the Music or International Pianists in Recital, take an extra package to one of these in addition to your Tea & Symphony subscription and save an additional 20% on standard subscription prices in the first year. See terms and conditions on page 77.

Subscribers receive a 10–20% discount on additional single tickets. See Special Events pages 62–65.

Mozart Revisited Mozart and Britten Fri 4 Feb 11am

Young Guns: Presenting the AYO Debussy and Nielsen Fri 22 Jul 11am

Mozart & Haydn Mozart and Haydn Fri 15 Apr 11am

Pipe Organ and Song To include JS Bach and Fauré Fri 19 Aug 11am

Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra Grainger and Bartók Fri 27 May 11am

The Joy of Brahms Brahms Fri 23 Sep 11am

Sibelius 2: Into the light Mendelssohn and Sibelius Fri 17 Jun 11am

Beethoven’s Egmont Ives and Beethoven Fri 21 Oct 11am *These packs allow you to keep your seats in perpetuity, renewing the same seats year after year.

Concerts

4

8

All reserves

$186

$326

Terms and conditions apply.

www.sydneysymphony.com/subscribe. Ph: (02) 8215 4600

Tea & Symphony

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Sydney Symphony 2011 Season


Mozart in the City Find yourself in…

What’s the best way to unwind after a long day? If you asked an 18th-century Viennese, chances are they’d answer: listen to music. Live music, of course, vibrant and charming. And three centuries on, nothing’s really changed. So we offer you Mozart in the City: an hour’s musical respite in the heart of the week, at a convenient time and venue.

This year, every Mozart in the City concert includes a serenade, music designed for relaxation and for pleasure. Think of it as your twilight serenade! Four early evening concerts without interval at City Recital Hall Angel Place Thursday 7pm

Mystery Moments Once more we’re rounding out each Mozart in the City concert with a Mystery Moment: a musical surprise – something familiar or a rare jewel – that will send you into the evening with a smile on your face.

Fenella Gill, Cello Mozart in the City

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MOZART REVISITED

MOZART & HAYDN

MOZART AFTER DARK

Thu 3 Feb 7pm

Thu 14 Apr 7pm

Thu 23 Jun 7pm

MOZART Concerto in D for piano and violin, K315f (reconstructed by Philip Wilby) BRITTEN Sinfonietta MOZART Symphony in D (from the Posthorn Serenade, K320)

MOZART Wind Serenade in E flat, K375 HAYDN Symphony No.49 (La passione) HAYDN Cello Concerto No.1 in C

SCHUBERT Concert Piece for violin and orchestra MOZART Flute and Harp Concerto MOZART Serenata notturna

Dene Olding violin-director Andrea Lam piano Mozart was a young spark, just 22 years old, when he began writing a concerto for piano and violin. He didn’t finish it, but he did finish a sonata for violin and piano and there’s every sign that these two pieces came from the same creative inspiration. Philip Wilby has done the detective work to turn the concerto fragment into a lively and satisfying whole using music from the sonata. Benjamin Britten was another young spark, and he’s pushing the envelope with his official first composition, the taut and sophisticated Sinfonietta. Then there’s some more clever recycling with a three-movement symphony that the enterprising Mozart put together from his ambitious Posthorn Serenade. This is music that’s too grand and powerful to be simple background music, and Mozart brings it into the concert hall as a symphony that’s both brilliant and entertaining.

Pieter Wispelwey cello-director When cellist Pieter Wispelwey was invited to direct a Classical program for the Mozart in the City series there was simply no avoiding Haydn – of all the 18th-century cello concertos, Haydn’s hold the central position. “His C major cello concerto is unbelievably popular,” Wispelwey says, “and rightfully so!” Its highlight is an effervescent finale, very fast and hypnotising in its brilliance. Leading us to this climax is the stormy drama of Haydn’s so-called “Passione” symphony and one of Mozart’s serenades for wind octet: spirited music that will show off the Sydney Symphony wind players. This program can also be heard in Tea & Symphony (15 April).

Michael Dauth violin-director Emma Sholl flute Louise Johnson harp Mozart wrote his concerto for flute and harp at the height of a Paris craze for concertos with multiple soloists – in this case the soloists were a French diplomat and his harp-playing daughter. The result is awash with rococo charm, and everything about the flute’s glowing lines and the harp’s rippling eloquence is designed to please. The showing off expected in a concerto doesn’t seem to have appealed to the introverted Schubert, but he comes close in his light-hearted Concert Piece, a concerto in miniature with a hint of Beethoven running in its veins. And if you’re not smiling by the end of the flute and harp concerto, then Mozart’s “Nocturnal Serenade” will do the trick – it’s bursting with an impish sense of humour and, as it turns out, everyone’s a soloist!

This program can also be heard in Tea & Symphony (4 February). pieter wispelwey cello

Emma sholl flute

Andrea Lam piano

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Sydney Symphony 2011 Season


MOZART & BRAHMS

Mozart in the City

Thu 1 Sep 7pm

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BRAHMS Serenade No.2 MOZART Piano Concerto No.25 in C, K503 Geoffrey Lancaster piano-director Roger Benedict viola-director Brahms’s Serenade No.2 introduces an unexpected sight to a Sydney Symphony concert: an orchestra without violins. Instead, the violas are given the lead, the woodwinds and horns are placed in vivid relief, and the music takes on a rich, autumnal colour. This is one of Brahms’s earliest forays into symphonic music and it caught him in a blissful mood: “I have seldom written music with such delight.”

four-concert package Mozart Revisited Mozart and Britten Thu 3 Feb 7pm

Mozart After Dark Mozart and Schubert Thu 23 Jun 7pm

Mozart & Haydn Thu 14 Apr 7pm

Mozart & Brahms Thu 1 Sep 7pm

Concerts

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The dreamy musings of Brahms are followed by Mozart’s longest and most magnificent piano concerto – profoundly inventive and expansive in feeling. Geoffrey Lancaster returns to the City Recital Hall stage, bringing his flawless technique and bold musical vision to the music of a Classical genius.

Geoffrey lancaster piano

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Mozart in the City

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David Papp, Oboe 52


Discovery Find yourself at…

Presented by Tenix

In Discovery we present Richard Gill, one of Australia’s most passionate and entertaining conductor-educators, and the talented young musicians of the Sydney Sinfonia with their Sydney Symphony mentors. Together they “unpack” the music of the great composers. A Discovery concert is more than a concert. You could call it a “lecture-concert”, but that doesn’t even begin to convey the energy, the enthusiasm and the illumination you’ll experience. Richard Gill goes straight to the heart of the music, giving you new ways to listen and leaving you with the excitement of discovery. Discover classical music with Richard Gill Four 90-minute concerts without interval at City Recital Hall Angel Place Monday 6.30pm

Discovery

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DISCOVER LISZT

DISCOVER RESPIGHI & RAVEL

ˇ DISCOVER DVORÁK

Mon 14 Mar 6.30pm

Mon 2 May 6.30pm

Mon 29 Aug 6.30pm

LISZT Prometheus – Symphonic Poem WEILL Symphony No.2: 1st movement

RESPIGHI The Birds: Preludio The Cuckoo RAVEL Mother Goose: Laideronnette, Empress of the Pagodas The Magical Garden

ˇ Dvorák Symphony No.9, New World: 1st movement COPLAND Appalachian Spring: Shaker Melody

Richard Gill conductor For some people Liszt was the ultimate virtuoso pianist: long-haired, handsome and armed with a diabolical technique – enough to make ladies swoon. But for Richard Gill, Liszt was one of the most forward-looking composing voices of the mid-19th century as well as the inventor of the symphonic poem, where conventional forms give way to the power of emotions and narrative. And in this concert you can discover Liszt’s visionary harmonic language through the “misfortune and glory” of his hero Prometheus. Kurt Weill (of “Mack the Knife” fame) might seem like an unexpected companion, but there’s method in the madness. “They are both great harmonic innovators,” explains Gill, “and absolutely unique voices. Nobody else wrote they way they did.” Discover Liszt in his 200th anniversary year and join us for: Piano Concerto No.2 (3, 4, 5 March) and Tasso, Lament and Triumph (29 June, 1, 2 July), as well as solo piano music on 7 March (Jean-Efflam Bavouzet), 1 August (Freddy Kempf) and 15 September (Evgeny Kissin).

“ The Discovery concerts are just great – they really open your ears to how music is created in a way that carries over and adds to the enjoyment of other concerts.”

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Sydney Symphony 2011 Season

Richard Gill conductor Richard Gill kills two birds with one stone when he brings together Respighi and Ravel for a colourful night of discovery. One Italian, one Frenchman – these composers flourished at the beginning of the 20th century as the modern orchestra was truly coming into its own, and one thing they have in common is an unerring ear for brilliant, evocative orchestral sound. Discover Respighi’s update on music from the era of Vivaldi in The Birds, and Ravel’s exquisite interpretations of baroque fairy tales with the ugly-duckling Laideronnette and the enchanting Magical Garden.

Richard Gill conductor Dvoˇrák’s New World Symphony is the American masterpiece of a “simple Czech musician”, as he called himself. Discover its urban bustle and its vast landscapes, but also the yearning nostalgia of a homesick composer. Dvoˇrák’s mission in America was to show Americans the way to a national music, and Aaron Copland was one of the American composers who took up the challenge in the 20th century. His Appalachian Spring ballet sounds as if it’s full of traditional music, but there’s only one true folk tune: the serene Shaker melody, “Simple Gifts”. Discover Dvoˇrˇ ák, then hear the complete New World Symphony (12, 13, 14, 15 October).

Discover Respighi and Ravel, then hear The Birds in full (8, 9, 10, 12 September) and La Valse by Ravel in a stunning version for two pianos (16 May).

RICHARD GILL, Artistic director, education, sandra & Paul salteri chair


DISCOVER BRETT DEAN

Discovery

Mon 10 Oct 6.30pm

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DEAN Etüdenfest JS BACH Brandenburg Concerto No.3: 1st movement Richard Gill conductor Brett Dean’s opera Bliss was premiered to great acclaim in 2010, and in 2009 he won the world’s most prestigious and valuable composition prize, the Grawemeyer Award, for his violin concerto The Lost Art of Letter Writing, joining some of the most illustrious names in music. Discover this leading Australian composer through his Etüdenfest, an Olympian celebration of all the virtuoso possibilities available to an orchestra of strings. Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos are landmarks of orchestral writing, and No.3, also for strings, reveals the vital European tradition that underpins Dean’s distinctive style.

Presented by Tenix

four-concert package Discover Liszt Mon 14 Mar 6.30pm

Discover Dvoˇrák Mon 29 Aug 6.30pm

Discover Respighi & Ravel Mon 2 May 6.30pm

Discover Brett Dean Mon 10 Oct 6.30pm

Concerts

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Discover Brett Dean, then join us for the Sydney premiere of his violin concerto, The Lost Art of Letter Writing (1, 2, 3 December).

Renewing subscribers save 20% by adding a new second series If you’re not a subscriber to Mozart in the City, Meet the Music or International Pianists in Recital, take an extra packaage to one of these in addition to your Discovery subscription and save an additional 20% on standard subscription prices in the first year. See terms and conditions on page 77.

Subscribers receive a 10–20% discount on additional single tickets. See Special Events pages 62–65. Terms and conditions apply. BRETT DEAN

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Discovery

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International Pianists in Recital Find yourself at…

Presented by Theme & Variations

The piano recital offers a chance to enjoy music at its most personal and intimate. You’ll hear one musician – or perhaps two! – in command of a carefully conceived program, revealing nuances of colour and interpretation. It’s just the music, the performer, and you. In 2011 we present five pianists from around the world – Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, Ingrid Fliter and Freddy Kempf, with duo pianists Pascal and Ami Rogé. Two themes run through the programming: Beethoven sonatas take centre stage, and Liszt – in his 200th anniversary year – steals the spotlight. Four concerts at City Recital Hall Angel Place Monday 7pm

Louise Johnson, Principal Harp www.sydneysymphony.com/subscribe. Ph: (02) 8215 4600

International Pianists In Recital

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JEAN-EFFLAM BAVOUZET IN RECITAL

PASCAL AND AMI ROGÉ IN RECITAL

INGRID FLITER IN RECITAL

Mon 7 Mar 7pm

Mon 16 May 7pm

Mon 4 Jul 7pm

BEETHOVEN Pathétique Sonata, Op.13 DEBUSSY Clair de lune (from Suite bergamasque) Et la lune descend sur le temple qui fût (from Images, Series 2) La terrasse des audiences du clair de lune (from Préludes, Book 2) DEBUSSY arr. Bavouzet Jeux WAGNER arr. Liszt Isolde’s Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde LISZT Grand solo de concert, S176

SCHUMANN arr. Debussy Six Etudes in Canon Form, Op.56 BRAHMS Sonata in F minor for two pianos, Op.34b POULENC Elégie The Embarkation for Cythera DUKAS The Sorcerer’s Apprentice RAVEL La Valse

BEETHOVEN 32 Variations on an original theme Sonata in E flat, Op.31 No.3 CHOPIN Nocturne in B, Op.9 No.3 Polonaise in F sharp minor, Op.44 Waltz in C sharp minor, Op.64 No.2 Waltz in A flat, Op.42 Waltz in G flat, Op.70 No.1 Waltz in A minor, Op.posth. Ballade No.4 in F minor, Op.52

This recital begins with one of Beethoven’s most popular sonatas and ends with a monumental concert piece by Liszt – its difficulty and emotional range suggested by the fact that the composer later arranged it for two pianos as “Concerto Pathétique”. At the heart of this program is an evocation of the moon. Debussy sets the scene with his famous Clair de lune before introducing ruined temples, mysterious watchers gathered in contemplation of the beauty of the night, and – in his ballet Jeux – a nocturnal game of tennis. And Wagner’s transcendent music from Tristan und Isolde tenderly summons the oblivion that can be found only in the “realm of night”. “Jean-Efflam Bavouzet’s flexible virtuosity and innate grasp of Debussy’s style and sound world yields ravishing, freshly minted interpretations…” Gramophone Hear Jean-Efflam Bavouzet play Liszt’s Second Piano Concerto (3, 4, 5 March).

jean-efflam bavouzet piano

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Sydney Symphony 2011 Season

What’s better than one piano? Put two pianos together, says Pascal Rogé, and you get so much power and versatility of sound – “you can really feel like you’re an orchestra”. It’s even more exciting when the two pianists are partners in life as well as in music. “To be able to share music on stage,” says Pascal, “makes the whole story much more personal – it’s a very, very special experience.” Pascal and Ami Rogé invite you to share that experience in a rare duo recital that brings together the “orchestral” grandeur of German Romanticism and the vibrant colour of French music. Among the highlights is the duo sonata that eventually became Brahms’s great piano quintet, and two French masterpieces better known as orchestral works. Nestled in the middle are miniatures by Poulenc: a perky waltz and an elegy for the great arts patron, the Princess de Polignac. “Play this elegy,” said Poulenc, “as if improvising, a cigar in your mouth and a glass of cognac on the piano.” Hear Pascal and Ami Rogé in the premiere of Matthew Hindson’s Concerto for two pianos (12, 13 May).

PASCAL AND AMI rogÉ pianos

Every four years the prestigious Gilmore Artist Award is given to a pianist of superb skill and profound musicianship. The goal is to reward and nurture extraordinary artistry, and in 2006 Argentinean pianist Ingrid Fliter was named the fifth Gilmore Artist. Since then, her career has blossomed, with concerts throughout Europe, Asia and the United States, and in 2011 she makes her Australian recital and concerto debut, with the Sydney Symphony. In her recital program, Ingrid Fliter offers the rich contrasts of Beethoven and Chopin – power, heroism and classical forms on the one hand, subtle feeling, elegance and fantasy on the other. Her interpretations of both composers are persuasive and charismatic, and when it comes to Chopin, you would think she had been born to play this music. As BBC Music magazine described her: “an artist with something considered and challenging to say about a composer caught on the cusp between classical restraint and romantic rhetoric.” Hear Ingrid Fliter perform Schumann’s Piano Concerto (29 June, 1, 2 July).

INGRID FLITER PIANO


FREDDY KEMPF IN RECITAL

International Pianists in Recital Presented by Theme & Variations

Mon 1 Aug 7pm BEETHOVEN Eroica Variations, Op.35 Waldstein Sonata, Op.53 ROSSINI arr. Liszt La danza (from Soirées musicales) LISZT Petrarch Sonnet No.104 LISZT after Donizetti Réminiscences de Lucia di Lammermoor LISZT after Mozart Réminiscences de Don Giovanni This recital begins with Beethoven in his heroic and monumental character. The Opus 35 Variations are almost like a trial run for the finale of his Eroica Symphony the following year, using the same theme and the same richly inventive strategies. The Waldstein is one of Beethoven’s most exhilarating sonatas – two movements of unrelenting drive surround an island of calm. From Beethoven, the monarch of the piano, the program shifts to Liszt, the prince of virtuosos. In Liszt the piano sings with Romantic ardour, regardless of how many notes go whizzing by, and among his most effective and appealing works are his paraphrases on popular operas. For this recital, we hear Liszt’s personal take on themes from Lucia di Lammermoor and Don Giovanni – bravura music that proves the piano can be a diva too! “Kempf captures the essence of Liszt in playing of wistful nostalgia, yearning passion, with arpeggios and cadenzas that shimmer and scintillate…” International Piano

Choose your package and order at sydneysymphony.com/subscribe

four-concert package Jean-Efflam Bavouzet in Recital Beethoven, Debussy, Wagner and Liszt Mon 7 Mar 7pm Pascal and Ami Rogé in Recital Schumann, Brahms, Poulenc, Dukas and Ravel Mon 16 May 7pm Concerts

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Ingrid Fliter in Recital Beethoven and Chopin Mon 4 Jul 7pm Freddy Kempf in Recital Beethoven and Liszt Mon 1 Aug 7pm

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Special Recitals

In 2011 the Sydney Symphony also presents Lang Lang and Evgeny Kissin in two special recitals at the Sydney Opera House. Add these concerts to your International Pianists in Recital subscription and save. See pages 63 and 64 for program details. Add one concert to your International Pianists in Recital subscription and save 10% on full-price single tickets.

Hear Freddy Kempf perform Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini (27, 29, 30 July).

Add both special recitals to your package before 30 September 2010 and save 15%!

FREDDY KEMPF PIANO

Lang Lang Wednesday 8 June, 8pm

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Evgeny Kissin Thursday 15 September, 8pm

International Pianists In Recital

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Connoisseur’s Selection Find yourself in our…

When you know what you want and there isn’t a concert series to match, then this is the option for you. Perhaps you travel a lot, or maybe you have eclectic taste in music – Connoisseur’s Selection allows you to choose from any of our concerts in the entire 2011 season, including special events.

Select up to eight concerts from this brochure and we’ll assure you of the best available seats for each performance from within your chosen seating reserve. Just write the names and dates of your selected four, six or eight concerts on the booking form. Connoisseur’s Selection is the ultimate in flexibility and convenience – perfect for the discerning music lover. And in 2011 you have even more options, with a choice between the Deluxe package (Premium or A-reserve seating) or Standard package (B- or C-reserve).

New in 2011 Concerts

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Marianne Broadfoot, Violin 60

Sydney Symphony 2011 Season


Connoisseur’s Selection

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Special Events Find yourself in…

Only two pianists in the world have braved the 5000-seat arena of the Royal Albert Hall to perform a solo recital in the BBC Proms: Evgeny Kissin and Lang Lang.

They’re two of the greatest pianists performing in the world today, and in 2011 the Sydney Symphony brings them both to the Sydney Opera House for six stunning programs. And in November we welcome mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter in an intimate and enchanting program. Also on the calendar for 2011 is a special Mother’s Day screening and performance of The Fellowship of the Ring.

Add these special concerts to your subscription. The Fellowship of the Ring 8 May 2pm. See page 63

Evgeny Kissin 15, 22, 24 September 8pm. See page 64

Lang Lang 8, 10, 11, 14 June 8pm. See page 63

Anne Sofie von Otter 3 November 8pm. See page 64

THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING

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Sydney Symphony 2011 Season


MOTHER’S DAY SPECIAL

The Sydney Symphony presents Lang Lang

What are you planning for Mother’s Day? A new pair of slippers and breakfast in bed? Two breakfasts in bed? Tolkien’s hobbits would have approved – that is, until they set out on the greatest adventure of all time.

Lang Lang has the best job in the world: he’s in the business of transporting audiences into another world through music.

LANG LANG IN RECITAL

The Chinese prodigy who made his break to stardom playing Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the age of 17 has become possibly the “hottest artist on the classical music planet” (The New York Times).

BEETHOVEN Sonata in C, Op.2 No.3 BEETHOVEN Appassionata Sonata, Op.57 ALBÉNIZ Iberia, Book I PROKOFIEV Sonata No.7

This Mother’s Day, experience a thrilling adventure in the concert hall, with the first film from Peter Jackson’s epic interpretation of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, supported by the equally epic score by Canadian composer Howard Shore. This is your chance to hear the power of a full symphony orchestra and massed voices accompanying Tolkien’s drama as it unfolds on screen. For this special performance we turn the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall into a cinema, screening The Fellowship of the Ring with its Oscar-winning score performed live on stage.

THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING Sun 8 May 2pm Peter Jackson’s epic film complete with music by Howard Shore Ludwig Wicki conductor Kaitlyn Lusk vocalist Sydney Philharmonia Choirs Sydney Children’s Choir The performance will conclude at 5.20pm. This program can also be heard in the Kaleidoscope series (6, 7 May)

Lang Lang is the kind of pianist who sends thrills down your spine and woos you with the sublime beauty of his playing. Fans the world over respond to his extrovert and flamboyant stage presence and his tremendous command of the piano. More importantly, they respond to the way he communicates his love of the music. In this Sydney exclusive, Lang Lang will appear in a solo recital and perform two great piano concertos with the Sydney Symphony, playing music from the heart of the Romantic tradition. You can hear his breathtaking technique and effusive, heartfelt interpretations in Rachmaninoff’s dark-hued Second Concerto and Tchaikovsky’s First, the concerto Lang Lang dreamed of performing as a child. And whether you come to all three concerts or just one, you can be sure you’ll be transported into another world!

Wed 8 Jun 8pm Sydney Opera House Concert Hall

LANG LANG PLAYS RACHMANINOFF Fri 10 Jun 8pm Sat 11 Jun 8pm TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No.4 RACHMANINOFF Piano Concerto No.2 Jahja Ling conductor Lang Lang piano

LANG LANG PLAYS TCHAIKOVSKY Tue 14 Jun 8pm MENDELSSOHN The Hebrides SIBELIUS Symphony No.2 TCHAIKOVSKY Piano Concerto No.1 Jahja Ling conductor Lang Lang piano

“…pure visceral thrills…” The New York Times

lang lang

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Special Events

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The Sydney Symphony presents Evgeny Kissin Evgeny Kissin is a phenomenon, says Ashkenazy, “he possesses an enormous natural gift that’s beyond description.” Kissin says much the same thing about music, that it’s beyond description, beyond words: “What I have to say, the music says it.” And there lies the genius of Evgeny Kissin. Yes, he is a great pianist in the Russian tradition, with the sweeping style, generous tone and powerful but supple technique that marks an heir of Rachmaninoff. But for him, music is a language, and performance is about communicating meaning. Kissin can conjure a world of imagination – reflective and insightful – even as he dazzles with his astonishing mastery of the instrument. He draws you in to the music, the piano is his voice. This is why this extraordinary performer is in such demand, selling out concerts all over the world. Making his Australian debut with the Sydney Symphony, Evgeny Kissin will present a virtuoso recital of music by Franz Liszt and perform two piano concertos with Ashkenazy conducting: the aristocratic first concerto of Chopin and Beethoven’s majestic Emperor Concerto. When you hear Evgeny Kissin in Sydney in 2011, you’ll be in the presence of music itself. “ He is a born musician and a born great pianist.” Vladimir Ashkenazy

The Sydney Symphony presents Anne Sofie von Otter EVGENY KISSIN IN RECITAL Thu 15 Sep 8pm Sydney Opera House Concert Hall LISZT Ricordanza (from Transcendental Etudes) Sonata in B minor Funérailles (from Harmonies poétiques et religieuses) Vallée d’Obermann (from Years of Pilgrimage, Book I) Venezia e Napoli, S162

EVGENY KISSIN PLAYS BEETHOVEN’S EMPEROR Thu 22 Sep 8pm BRAHMS Symphony No.1 BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No.5 (Emperor) Vladimir Ashkenazy conductor Evgeny Kissin piano

EVGENY KISSIN PLAYS CHOPIN Sat 24 Sep 8pm CHOPIN Piano Concerto No.1 RACHMANINOFF Symphony No.2 Vladimir Ashkenazy conductor Evgeny Kissin piano

Anne Sofie von Otter is unrivalled for her exquisite sound and the gracious eloquence of her music-making. Whether in the opera theatre or the more intimate environment of a lieder recital, she’s an artist who communicates with genuine emotional power. There’s nothing she can’t do, and her tremendous versatility extends to interpretations of great songs from outside the classical canon, bringing jazzy sass to Gershwin and a soulful, dusky sound to pop ballads. At the heart of her Sydney program sits The Songs of the Auvergne – simple peasant songs given colourful orchestral accompaniments, from the yearning “Bailerò” to exuberant dance tunes. Violinist Pekka Kuusisto will be the soloist in Ravel’s outrageously virtuosic ‘gypsy music’ and Darius Milhaud introduces a jazzy decadence with The Creation of the World, featuring Bengt Forsberg. And everyone comes together for an irresistible finale. Anne Sofie von Otter makes her Australian debut in this special performance with the Sydney Symphony.

ANNE SOFIE VON OTTER AND FRIENDS Thu 3 Nov 8pm KRÁSA Overture for small orchestra RAVEL Tzigane for violin and orchestra CANTELOUBE Songs of the Auvergne: Highlights MILHAUD The Creation of the World Broadway Melodies – including songs by George Gershwin, Jerome Kern and Kurt Weill Anne Sofie von Otter mezzo-soprano Pekka Kuusisto violin Bengt Forsberg piano Nicholas Carter conductor

evgeny kissin

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Sydney Symphony 2011 Season


Special Events Choose your concerts and order now.

CONCERTS The Fellowship of the Ring Mother’s Day Special Sun 8 May 2pm

Evgeny Kissin in Recital Liszt Thu 15 Sep 8pm

Lang Lang in Recital Beethoven, Albéniz and Prokofiev Wed 8 Jun 8pm

Evgeny Kissin plays Beethoven Brahms and Beethoven Thu 22 Sep 8pm

Lang Lang plays Rachmaninoff Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff Fri 10 Jun, Sat 11 Jun 8pm

Evgeny Kissin plays Chopin Chopin and Shostakovich Sat 24 Sep 8pm

Lang Lang plays Tchaikovsky Mendelssohn, Sibelius, Tchaikovsky Tue 14 Jun 8pm

Anne Sofie von Otter and Friends Krása, Ravel, Canteloube, Milhaud, Broadway Melodies Thu 3 Nov 8pm

The Fellowship of the Ring – Mother’s Day Special Full ANNE SOFIE VON OTTER

Concession

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$107

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Lang Lang and Evgeny Kissin Recitals Full

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Premium

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$89

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Platinum seating: 200 of the best seats on the keyboard side of the hall.

Lang Lang and Evgeny Kissin Concerts Full

Special Renewal Period Offer Add 2 of these Special Events to your package(s) and save 15% on the full single ticket price. Add 3 of these Special Events to your package(s) and save 20% on the full single ticket price. These discounts valid till Thursday 30 September 2010 and only when you book your subscription! 15% and 20% price adjustments will be made by the Sydney Symphony Box Office.

Concession

Platinum

$169

Premium

$134

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$107

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$96

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$89

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Anne Sofie von Otter and Friends Full

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$134

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$96

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$80

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$71

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Subscribers receive 10% discount on extra tickets outside their subscription series, excluding Platinum reserve. These are the prices for our 2011 Special Events with the 10% discount applied. Seating for these concerts will be finalised after the subscription renewal period.

www.sydneysymphony.com/subscribe. Ph: (02) 8215 4600

Special Events

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Find yourself with…

Let the Mahler Odyssey live on! Remember the special moments of the Sydney Symphony’s two-year tribute to Mahler with these powerful performances, recorded live at the Sydney Opera House. Once the cycle is complete, at the end of 2011, we’ll have 12 titles, with Vladimir Ashkenazy conducting the Sydney Symphony in all ten symphonies and two of the great song cycles. Whether you’re after exciting recordings, a souvenir of a memorable concert, or simply a fantastic gift, the Mahler Odyssey CDs are the perfect choice.

Your choice… 1. Pre-order all 12 titles now and save $50! The exclusive Sydney Symphony Vladimir Ashkenazy Signature Edition is available only to subscribers and only with your season ticket order during the renewal period. Just one hundred copies of the Signature Edition will be produced. Pay in full, $220, or pay in four instalments of $55 when you collect your discs from our Box Office. Or have the discs sent directly to your home as soon as they’re available for an extra $42. 2. Order the Mahler 2010 pack Just in time for Christmas! Order the first four releases – Symphony No.1, Symphony No.8 (Symphony of a Thousand), Symphony No.5 and The Song of the Earth – and save $5 off each release. You’ll also receive a free copy of our best-selling recording Strauss and Schubert. Only available to 2011 subscribers. 3. Order individual titles from the 2010 season Order CDs of your favourite Mahler performances from 2010. Save $5 when you add the recordings to your subscription order.

Pricing Single CDs $20* for subscribers only | $25* for non-subscribers Double CDs $30* for subscribers only | $35* for non-subscribers *Plus $7 postage and handling. Delivery within Australia only.

66

Sydney Symphony 2011 Season

Vladimir Ashkenazy Principal Conductor & Artistic Advisor

As each title becomes available it will appear on sydneysymphony.com/shop


How to purchase a subscription online We’ve made purchasing your subscription online quicker and easier than ever before. Many customers are already booking concerts via our website, so why not take the plunge and try booking your subscription online? It’s neither daunting nor difficult – just follow these four easy steps.

Step 1: Subscription information First of all, have your credit card ready and go to www.sydneysymphony.com/subscribe

Step 1: Click ‘Choose your series’

This page provides all of the relevant subscription information. You can use the menu on the left hand side of the page to find information on How to Subscribe, FAQs, Subscriber Benefits and Terms & Conditions. Click on CHOOSE YOUR SERIES to see information on the Sydney Symphony’s 2011 concert series. Renewing If you are an existing subscriber and would like to renew your subscription please visit www.sydneysymphony.com/renew. Here you will be asked to login using your account number or email address and password if you have already signed up online. Step 2: Series information Here you’ll find a listing of the series available in the 2011 concert season. Click on SERIES INFO under the series of your choice for more information and to continue to the next step.

Step 2: Review and choose a series

Step 3: Making your selection If you’re happy with your selection, choose your package size on the left hand side of the page. Once you’ve chosen a package size, the available days will display on the right hand side of the page, choose the day you would like then click CONTINUE. Step 4: Reservation and payment You will now be taken through to the shopping cart where you can add additional purchases to your order or proceed straight to payment. Voilà! All done. A confirmation email with the details of your purchase will be sent to your email address.

Step 3: Select size of series then continue

Safe and secure Transacting online with the Sydney Symphony is very secure. You can tell you are using a secure payment system by the change of the web address when you enter the payment area. The URL changes from http:// to https://. HTTPS stands for Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure and allows secure e-commerce transactions. There are lots of signposts and instructions as you step through, so you shouldn’t feel lost. If you do encounter problems, you can always call us on (02) 8215 4600 and our customer service representatives will be delighted to assist.

www.sydneysymphony.com/subscribe. Ph: (02) 8215 4600

Sydney Symphony 2011 Season

67


2011 Concert calendar Date

Concert

Composers

Series

Page

February 3

Mozart Revisited

Mozart, Britten

Mozart in the City

p.50

4

Mozart Revisited

Mozart, Britten

Tea & Symphony

p.44

10

Passions of the Soul

Berlioz, Brahms, Tchaikovsky

Thursday Afternoon Symphony

p.38

11

Passions of the Soul

Berlioz, Brahms, Tchaikovsky

Emirates Metro Series

p.14

12

Passions of the Soul

Berlioz, Brahms, Tchaikovsky

Great Classics

p.20

14

Passions of the Soul

Berlioz, Brahms, Tchaikovsky

Mondays @ 7

p.26

18, 19

James Morrison at the Movies

Movie classics

Kaleidoscope

p.34

23, 25, 26

Peer Gynt: Ashkenazy Conducts

Grieg

EnergyAustralia Master Series

p.8

March 3

Mahler 6: Hammerblow of Fate

Liszt, Mahler

Thursday Afternoon Symphony

p.38

4

Mahler 6: Hammerblow of Fate

Liszt, Mahler

Emirates Metro Series

p.14

5

Mahler 6: Hammerblow of Fate

Liszt, Mahler

Great Classics

p.20

7

Jean-Efflam Bavouzet in Recital

Beethoven, Debussy, Liszt

International Pianists in Recital

p.58

9, 11, 12

Mahler 7: Night Music

Mendelssohn, Mahler

EnergyAustralia Master Series

p.8

14

Discover Liszt

Liszt, Weill

Discovery

p.54

16, 17

Two Great Symphonists

Mozart, Ledger, Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky

Meet the Music

p.30

30

Edo conducts Beethoven

Beethoven, Barber, Adams

EnergyAustralia Master Series

p.8

April 1, 2

Edo conducts Beethoven

Beethoven, Barber, Adams

EnergyAustralia Master Series

p.8

7

The Last Romantic

Rautavaara, Rachmaninoff

Thursday Afternoon Symphony

p.38 p.15

8

The Last Romantic

Rautavaara, Rachmaninoff

Emirates Metro Series

9

The Last Romantic

Rautavaara, Rachmaninoff

Great Classics

p.21

11

The Last Romantic

Rautavaara, Rachmaninoff

Mondays @ 7

p.26

14

Mozart & Haydn

Mozart, Haydn

Mozart in the City

p.50

15

Mozart & Haydn

Mozart, Haydn

Tea & Symphony

p.44

2

Discover Respighi & Ravel

Respighi, Ravel

Discovery

p.54

6, 7

The Fellowship of the Ring

Shore

Kaleidoscope

p.34

8

The Fellowship of the Ring

Shore

Mother’s Day Special

p.63

12

Mahler 10: Love and Death

Hindson, Mahler

Thursday Afternoon Symphony

p.39

13

Mahler 10: Love and Death

Hindson, Mahler

Emirates Metro Series

p.15

16

Pascal & Ami Rogé in Recital

Schumann, Brahms, Poulenc, Dukas, Ravel

International Pianists in Recital

p.58

18, 20, 21

Mahler 9: Another World

Mozart, Mahler

EnergyAustralia Master Series

p.9

25, 26

Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra

Kerry, Grainger, Bartók

Meet the Music

p.30

27

Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra

Grainger, Bartók

Tea & Symphony

p.45

8

Lang Lang in Recital

Beethoven, Albéniz, Prokofiev

Special

p.63

10, 11

Lang Lang plays Rachmaninoff

Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff

Special

p.63

14

Lang Lang plays Tchaikovsky

Mendelssohn, Sibelius, Tchaikovsky

Special

p.63

17

Sibelius 2: Into the Light

Mendelssohn, Sibelius

Tea & Symphony

p.45

May

June

68

23

Mozart after Dark

Schubert, Mozart

Mozart in the City

p.50

29

Pictures at an Exhibition

Liszt, Schumann, Mussorgsky orch. Ravel

EnergyAustralia Master Series

p.9

Sydney Symphony 2011 Season


Date

Concert

Composers

Series

Page

1, 2

Pictures at an Exhibition

4

Ingrid Fliter in Recital

Liszt, Schumann, Mussorgsky orch. Ravel

EnergyAustralia Master Series

p.9

Beethoven, Chopin

International Pianists in Recital

8, 9

p.58

The Planets: A Journey in HD

Bach, Jarrell, Holst

Kaleidoscope

p.34

11

The Planets: A Journey in HD

Bach, Jarrell, Holst

Mondays @ 7

p.26

14

Prokofiev’s Romeo & Juliet

Beethoven, Sibelius, Prokofiev

Thursday Afternoon Symphony

p.39

15

Prokofiev’s Romeo & Juliet

Beethoven, Sibelius, Prokofiev

Emirates Metro Series

p.15

16

Prokofiev’s Romeo & Juliet

Beethoven, Sibelius, Prokofiev

Great Classics

p.21

20, 21

Young Guns: Presenting the AYO

Debussy, Vine, Nielsen

Meet the Music

p.30

22

Young Guns: Presenting the AYO

Debussy, Nielsen

Tea & Symphony

p.45

27, 29, 30

Romantic Rhapsody

Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Brahms

EnergyAustralia Master Series

p.9

1

Freddy Kempf in Recital

Beethoven, Liszt

International Pianists in Recital

p.59

July

August

18

The Leningrad Symphony

Brahms, Shostakovich

Thursday Afternoon Symphony

p.39

19

Pipe Organ and Song

JS Bach, Fauré, French Romantic organ music

Tea & Symphony

p.46

19

The Leningrad Symphony

Brahms, Shostakovich

Emirates Metro Series

p.16

20

The Leningrad Symphony

Brahms, Shostakovich

Great Classics

p.22

29

Discover Dvorˇák

Dvorˇák, Copland

Discovery

p.54

1

Mozart & Brahms

Brahms, Mozart

Mozart in the City

p.51

8

Roman Holiday

Mendelssohn, R Strauss, Respighi

Thursday Afternoon Symphony

p.40

9

Roman Holiday

Mendelssohn, R Strauss, Respighi

Emirates Metro Series

p.16

10

Roman Holiday

Mendelssohn, R Strauss, Respighi

Great Classics

p.22

12

Roman Holiday

Mendelssohn, R Strauss, Respighi

Mondays @ 7

p.27 p.64

September

15

Evgeny Kissin in Recital

Liszt

Special

22

Evgeny Kissin plays Beethoven

Brahms, Beethoven

Special

p.64

23

The Joy of Brahms

Brahms

Tea & Symphony

p.46

24

Evgeny Kissin plays Chopin

Chopin, Rachmaninoff

Special

p.64

10

Discover Brett Dean

Dean, JS Bach

Discovery

p.55

12, 14, 15

Dvorˇák’s New World Symphony

Lutoslawski, Mozart, Dvorˇák

EnergyAustralia Master Series

p.10

13

Dvorˇák’s New World Symphony

Lutoslawski, Mozart, Dvorˇák

Thursday Afternoon Symphony

p.40

19, 20

Beethoven’s Egmont

Ives, Westlake, Beethoven

Meet the Music

p.31

21

Beethoven’s Egmont

Ives, Beethoven

Tea & Symphony

p.46

28, 29

Metropolis: A Film Icon Restored

Huppertz

Kaleidoscope

p.35

Anne Sofie von Otter and Friends

Krása, Ravel, Canteloube, Milhaud, Broadway Melodies

Special

p.64

October

November 3 23, 25, 26

Mahler 2: Resurrection Symphony

Mahler

EnergyAustralia Master Series

p.10

28

Mahler 2: Resurrection Symphony

Mahler

Mondays @ 7

p.27

p.40

December 1

Schubert’s Great C Major

Brahms, Dean, Schubert

Thursday Afternoon Symphony

2

Schubert’s Great C Major

Brahms, Dean, Schubert

Emirates Metro Series

p.16

3

Schubert’s Great C Major

Brahms, Dean, Schubert

Great Classics

p.22

7, 9, 10

Beethoven’s Eroica

Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Beethoven

EnergyAustralia Master Series

p.10

www.sydneysymphony.com/subscribe. Ph: (02) 8215 4600

Sydney Symphony 2011 Season

69


2011 Artists & repertoire Repertoire Composer

Work

Date

Composer

Work

Date

Adams Albéniz JS Bach

Harmonium Iberia, Book I Brandenburg Concerto No.3: 1st movement Orchestral Suite No.2 Mein gläubiges Herze (from Cantata BWV68) Solo organ music Adagio for Strings Concerto for Orchestra Egmont – Incidental music for Goethe’s play Leonore Overture No.2 Piano Concerto No.5 (Emperor) Symphony No.3, Eroica Symphony No.7 Sonata No.3 in C, Op.2 No.3 Sonata No.8 in C minor, Op.13, Pathétique Sonata No.18 in E flat, Op.31 No.3 Sonata No.21 in C, Op.53, Waldstein Sonata No.23 in F minor, Op.57, Appassionata Variations and fugue, Op.35 (Eroica Variations) 32 Variations in C minor on an original theme, WoO80 Béatrice et Bénédict: Overture Tragic Overture Double Concerto Violin Concerto Serenade No.2 Symphony No.1 Symphony No.4 Sonata in F minor for two pianos, Op.34b Sinfonietta, Op.1 Songs of the Auvergne: Highlights Piano Concerto No.1 Ballade No.4 in F minor, Op.52 Nocturne in B, Op.9 No.3 Polonaise in F sharp minor, Op.44 Waltz in A flat, Op.42 Waltz in C sharp minor, Op.64 No.2 Waltz in G flat, Op.70 No.1 Waltz in A minor, Op.posth. Appalachian Spring: Shaker Melody Etüdenfest The Lost Art of Letter Writing – Violin Concerto La Mer

30 Mar; 1, 2 Apr 8 Jun 10 Oct 8, 9, 11 Jul 19 Aug 19 Aug 30 Mar; 1, 2 Apr 25, 26, 27 May 19, 20, 21 Oct 14, 15, 16 Jul 22 Sep 7, 9, 10 Dec 30 Mar; 1, 2 Apr 8 Jun 7 Mar 4 Jul 1 Aug 8 Jun 1 Aug 4 Jul 10, 11, 12, 14 Feb 1, 2, 3 Dec 18, 19, 20 Aug 10, 11, 12, 14 Feb 1 Sep 22, 23 Sep 27, 29, 30 Jul 16 May 3, 4 Feb 3 Nov 24 Sep 4 Jul 4 Jul 4 Jul 4 Jul 4 Jul 4 Jul 4 Jul 29 Aug 10 Oct 1, 2, 3 Dec 20, 21, 22 Jul

Liszt after Donizetti

Réminiscences de Lucia di Lammermoor

1 Aug

Réminiscences de Don Giovanni

1 Aug

Et la lune descend sur le temple qui fût (from Images, Series 2)

7 Mar

Barber Bartók Beethoven

Berlioz Brahms

Britten Canteloube Chopin

Copland Dean Debussy

Debussy arr. Bavouzet Dukas Dvoˇrák Fauré Gershwin Grainger Grieg Haydn Hindson Holst Huppertz Ives Jarrell Kern Kerry Krása Ledger Liszt

70

La terrasse des audiences du clair de lune (from Préludes, Book 2)

7 Mar

Clair de lune (from Suite bergamasque)

7 Mar

Jeux (arranged for piano)

7 Mar

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (two-piano version) Symphony No.9, New World: 1st movement Symphony No.9, New World Pie Jesu (from the Requiem) Songs in Broadway Melodies In a Nutshell Peer Gynt – Complete incidental music Cello Concerto No.1 in C Symphony No.49 (La passione) Concerto for two pianos premiere The Planets Metropolis – Complete score (1927) The Unanswered Question …un temps du silence… (Flute Concerto) Songs in Broadway Melodies Symphony premiere Overture for small orchestra Bassoon Concerto premiere Prometheus – Symphonic Poem Tasso, Lament and Triumph Piano Concerto No.2 Funérailles (from Harmonies poétiques et religieuses) Grand solo de concert, S176 Petrarch Sonnet No.104 Sonata in B minor Ricordanza (from Transcendental Etudes) Venezia e Napoli, S162 Vallée d’Obermann (from Years of Pilgrimage, Book I)

16 May 29 Aug 12, 13, 14, 15 Oct 19 Aug 3 Nov 25, 26, 27 May 23, 25, 26 Feb 14, 15 Apr 14, 15 Apr 12, 13 May 8, 9, 11 Jul 28, 29 Oct 19, 20, 21 Oct 8, 9, 11 Jul 3 Nov 25, 26 May 3 Nov 16, 17 Mar 14 Mar 29 Jun; 1, 2 Jul 3, 4, 5 Mar 15 Sep 7 Mar 1 Aug 15 Sep 15 Sep 15 Sep 15 Sep

Sydney Symphony 2011 Season

Liszt after Mozart

See Rossini and Wagner for other Liszt piano arrangements Lutoslawski Mahler

Mendelssohn

Milhaud Mozart

Mussorgsky orch. Ravel Nielsen Poulenc Prokofiev

Rachmaninoff

Rautavaara Ravel

Symphony No.4 Symphony No.2, Resurrection Symphony No.6 Symphony No.7 Symphony No.9 Symphony No.10 (Carpenter completion) The Fair Melusine – Overture The Hebrides (Fingal’s Cave) Violin Concerto in E minor Symphony No.4, Italian The Creation of the World Concerto in D for piano and violin, K315f (reconstructed by Philip Wilby)

3, 4 Feb

Flute and Harp Concerto, K299 Piano Concerto No.13 in C, K415 Piano Concerto No.21 in C, K467 Piano Concerto No.25 in C, K503 Serenata notturna – Serenade in D, K239 Wind Serenade in E flat, K375 Symphony in D (from the Posthorn Serenade, K320) Symphony No.34 in C, K338

23 Jun 18, 20, 21 May 12, 13, 14, 15 Oct 1 Sep 23 Jun 14, 15 Apr 3, 4 Feb 16, 17 Mar

Pictures at an Exhibition

29 Jun; 1, 2 Jul

Symphony No.5 Elégie The Embarkation for Cythera Romeo and Juliet: Suite Symphony-Concerto for cello and orchestra Sonata No.7 Piano Concerto No.2 Piano Concerto No.3 Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini Symphony No.2 Symphony No.3 A Requiem in Our Time La Valse (two-piano version)

20, 21, 22 Jul 16 May 16 May 14, 15, 16 Jul 7, 9, 10 Dec 8 Jun 10, 11 Jun 7, 8, 9, 11 Apr 27, 29, 30 Jul 24 Sep 7, 8, 9, 11 Apr 7, 8, 9, 11 Apr 16 May

Mother Goose: Laideronnette, Empress of the Pagodas & The Magical Garden

2 May

Tzigane for violin and orchestra Respighi The Birds The Birds: Preludio & The Cuckoo Rossini arr. Liszt La danza (from Soirées musicales) Schubert Concert Piece in D for violin and orchestra, D345 Symphony No.9 (Great C Major), D944 Schumann Piano Concerto in A minor, Op.54 Schumann arr.Debussy Shore Shostakovich Sibelius R Strauss Stravinsky Tchaikovsky

12, 13, 14, 15 Oct 23, 25, 26, 28 Nov 3, 4, 5 Mar 9, 11, 12 Mar 18, 20, 21 May 12, 13 May 8, 9, 10, 12 Sep 14, 17 Jun 9, 11, 12 Mar 8, 9, 10, 12 Sep 3 Nov

3 Nov 8, 9, 10, 12 Sep 2 May 1 Aug 23 Jun 1, 2, 3 Dec 29 Jun; 1, 2 Jul

Six Etudes in Canon Form, Op.56 (two-piano version) 16 May The Fellowship of the Ring – Complete score Symphony No.7, Leningrad Violin Concerto Symphony No.2 Horn Concerto No.1 Ode Romeo and Juliet – Fantasy Overture Piano Concerto No.1 Symphony No.2 (Little Russian) Symphony No.4 Symphony No.5 The Voyevoda – Symphonic ballad, Op.78

Vine Violin Concerto premiere Wagner arr. Liszt Isolde’s Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde Weill Symphony No.2: 1st movement Songs in Broadway Melodies Westlake Missa Solis – Requiem for Eli

6, 7, 8 May 18, 19, 20 Aug 14, 15, 16 Jul 14, 17 Jun 8, 9, 10, 12 Sep 16, 17 Mar 27, 29, 30 Jul 14 Jun 16, 17 Mar 10, 11 Jun 10, 11, 12, 14 Feb 7, 9, 10 Dec 20, 21 Jul 7 Mar 14 Mar 3 Nov 19, 20 Oct


Conductors

Soloists 23, 25, 26 Feb; 3, 4, 5, 9, 11, 12 Mar; 12, 13, 18, 20, 21 May; 22, 23, 24 Sep; 23, 25, 26, 28 Nov

Vladimir Ashkenazy

Roger Benedict (viola-director) Nicholas Carter Thomas Dausgaard Michael Dauth (violin-director) Edo de Waart James Gaffigan

1 Sep 3 Nov 20, 21, 22, 27, 29, 30 Jul 23 Jun 30 Mar; 1, 2, 7, 8, 9, 11 Apr 14, 15, 16 Jul

Richard Gill

14 Mar; 2 May; 29 Aug; 10, 19, 20, 21 Oct

Hans Graf Geoffrey Lancaster (piano-director) Jahja Ling Nicholas McGegan Ludovic Morlot Benjamin Northey Jonathan Nott Dene Olding (violin-director) Peter Oundjian Vasily Petrenko Pinchas Steinberg Marc Taddei

16, 17 Mar 1 Sep 10, 11, 14, 17 Jun 8, 9, 10, 12 Sep 8, 9, 11 Jul 25, 26, 27 May 1, 2, 3 Dec 3, 4 Feb 10, 11, 12, 14 Feb 18, 19, 20 Aug 29 Jun; 1, 2 Jul 18, 19 Feb

Frank Strobel

28, 29 Oct

Osmo Vänskä

7, 9, 10 Dec

Nigel Westlake

19, 20 Oct

Ludwig Wicki

6, 7, 8 May

Mark Wigglesworth

12, 13, 14, 15 Oct

Pieter Wispelwey (cello-director)

14, 15 Apr

Choirs & Ensembles

Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, piano

3, 4, 5, 7 Mar

Ray Chen, violin

10, 11, 12, 14 Feb

Michael Dauth, violin

23 Jun

John de Lancie, narrator

23, 25, 26 Feb

David Drury, organ

19 Aug

Ingrid Fliter, piano

29 Jun; 1, 2, 4 Jul

Bengt Forsberg, piano

3 Nov

Alban Gerhardt, cello

18, 19, 20 Aug

Karen Gomyo, violin

18, 19, 20 Aug

Stephen Hough, piano

12, 13, 14, 15 Oct

Ben Jacks, horn

8, 9, 10, 12 Sep

Louise Johnson, harp

23 Jun

Freddy Kempf, piano

27, 29, 30 Jul; 1 Aug

Sergey Khachatryan, violin

14, 15, 16 Jul

Evgeny Kissin, piano

15, 22, 24 Sep

Pekka Kuusisto, violin

3 Nov

Andrea Lam, piano

3, 4 Feb

Geoffrey Lancaster, piano

1 Sep

Lang Lang, piano

8, 10, 11, 14 Jun

Kaitlyn Lusk, vocalist

6, 7, 8 May

Sara Macliver, soprano

19 Aug

Emma Matthews, soprano

23, 25, 26, 28 Nov

James Morrison, jazz trumpet

18, 19 Feb

Dene Olding, violin

3, 4 Feb; 20, 21 Jul

Steven Osborne, piano

18, 20, 21 May

Anne Sofie von Otter, mezzo-soprano

3 Nov

Lilli Paasikivi, mezzo-soprano

23, 25, 26, 28 Nov

Emmanuel Pahud, flute

8, 9, 11 Jul

Eddie Perfect, narrator

19, 20, 21 Oct

Jacqueline Porter, soprano

23, 25, 26 Feb

Ami Rogé, piano

12, 13, 16 May

Pascal Rogé, piano

12, 13, 16 May

Cantillation Sydney Children’s Choir

19, 20 Oct 6, 7, 8 May

Sayaka Shoji, violin

9, 11, 12 Mar

Emma Sholl, flute

23 Jun

Sydney Philharmonia Choirs

23, 25, 26 Feb; 30 Mar; 1, 2 Apr; 6, 7, 8 May; 8, 9, 11 Jul; 23, 25, 26, 28 Nov

Alisa Weilerstein, cello

7, 9, 10 Dec

Matthew Wilkie, bassoon

16, 17 Mar

Sydney Symphony 2011 Fellows Australian Youth Orchestra

19 Aug 20, 21, 22 Jul

Pieter Wispelwey, cello

14, 15 Apr

Joyce Yang, piano

7, 8, 9, 11 Apr

Frank Peter Zimmermann, violin

1, 2, 3 Dec

In 2011 the Sydney Symphony celebrates the 200th anniversary year of Franz Liszt (1811–1886). We also embark on the second and final year of our Mahler Odyssey in celebration of the symphonic legacy of Gustav Mahler (1860–1911).

Commissions HINDSON Concerto for two pianos

KERRY Symphony

LEDGER Bassoon Concerto

VINE Violin Concerto

Commissioned for Pascal and Ami Rogé and the Sydney Symphony by The Hon. Justice Jane Mathews ao.

The composition of this work was commissioned by the Ian Potter Cultural Foundation Trust.

Commissioned for Matthew Wilkie and the Sydney Symphony by Alan and Christine Bishop.

Commissioned for Dene Olding and the Australian Youth Orchestra by The Hon. Justice Jane Mathews ao.

www.sydneysymphony.com/subscribe. Ph: (02) 8215 4600

Sydney Symphony 2011 Season

71


Sydney Symphony

Vladimir Ashkenazy Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor sponsored by Emirates

Michael Dauth Concertmaster

Dene Olding Concertmaster

Nicholas Carter Assistant Conductor supported by Symphony Australia

Patron Her Excellency Professor Marie Bashir ac cvo Governor of New South Wales

First Violins

01

02

03

04

05

10

11

12

13

14

01

02

03

04

05

10

11

12

13

14

01

02

03

04

05

10

11

06

07

08

09

06

07

08

09

06

07

08

09

Second Violins

Violas

First Violins

01 Sun Yi

Associate Concertmaster

02 K irsten Williams Associate Concertmaster

03 Fiona Ziegler

Assistant Concertmaster

04 Julie Batty 05 Jennifer Booth

06 Marianne Broadfoot 07 Brielle Clapson 08 Sophie Cole 09 Amber Gunther 10 Jennifer Hoy 11 Georges Lentz 12 Nicola Lewis 13 Alexandra Mitchell 14 LĂŠone Ziegler

Photos: Keith Saunders, Sasha Gusov

72

Sydney Symphony 2011 Season

Second Violins

Violas

cellos

double basses

01 M arina Marsden

01 Roger Benedict

01 C atherine Hewgill

01 Kees Boersma

02 K irsty Hilton

Principal Viola Roger Allen & Maggie Gray Chair

03 Emma West

02 A nne Louise Comerford

Principal Principal

Assistant Principal

04 Susan Dobbie

05 Maria Durek 06 Emma Hayes 07 Shuti Huang 08 Stan W Kornel 09 Benjamin Li 10 Emily Long 11 Nicole Masters 12 Philippa Paige 13 Biyana Rozenblit 14 Maja Verunica

Principal Emeritus

Associate Principal

03 Yvette Goodchild Assistant Principal

04 Robyn Brookfield 05 Sandro Costantino 06 Jane Hazelwood

Veolia Environmental Services Chair

07 Graham Hennings 08 Stuart Johnson 09 Justine Marsden 10 Felicity Tsai 11 Leonid Volovelsky

Principal Cello Tony & Fran Meagher Chair

02 Leah Lynn

Assistant Principal

03 Kristy Conrau 04 Fenella Gill 05 Timothy Nankervis 06 Elizabeth Neville 07 Adrian Wallis 08 David Wickham

Principal

02 Alex Henery

Principal

03 Neil Brawley

Principal Emeritus

04 David Campbell 05 Steven Larson 06 Richard Lynn 07 David Murray 08 Benjamin Ward


Cellos

01

02

03

04

01

02

03

04

Harp

Flutes

05

06

07

08

05

06

07

08

Double Basses

Piccolo

01

02

Oboes

01

02

03

Bassoons

01

03

cor anglais

Clarinets

01

Bass Clarinet

02

03

ContraBassoon

02

03

02

03

Horns

01

04

05

Trumpets

01

02

03

Timpani

01

Bass Trombone

06

Trombones

04

01

Percussion

02

01

02

Tuba

03

piano

02

Harp

Oboes

Bass Clarinet

Horns

Trombone

Timpani

Louise Johnson

01 Diana Doherty

Craig Wernicke

01 Robert Johnson

01 Ronald Prussing

01 Richard Miller

Principal Harp

01 Janet Webb

Principal Oboe Andrew Kaldor & Renata Kaldor ao Chair

02 Emma Sholl

Flutes

Principal

02 Shefali Pryor

Associate Principal

Associate Principal Flute Robert & Janet Constable Chair

03 David Papp

03 Carolyn Harris

Piccolo

Rosamund Plummer Principal

Cor Anglais

Alexandre Oguey Principal

Clarinets

Principal

Bassoons

01 Matthew Wilkie

Principal

02 Roger Brooke

Associate Principal

03 Fiona McNamara Contrabassoon

Noriko Shimada Principal

01 Lawrence Dobell

Principal

02 Francesco Celata

Associate Principal

03 Christopher Tingay

www.sydneysymphony.com/subscribe. Ph: (02) 8215 4600

02 Ben Jacks

Principal Trombone Industry & Investment NSW Chair

03 Geoff O’Reilly

02 Scott Kinmont

04 Lee Bracegirdle 05 Euan Harvey 06 Marnie Sebire

03 Nick Byrne

Principal Principal

Principal 3rd

Trumpets

01 Daniel Mendelow

Principal

02 Paul Goodchild

Associate Principal Trumpet The Hansen Family Chair

Associate Principal

Principal

02 Mark Robinson

Assistant Principal/ Tutti Percussion Percussion

rogenSi Chair

01 Rebecca Lagos

Bass Trombone

02 Colin Piper

Christopher Harris

Principal

Principal

piano

Josephine Allan

Tuba

Principal (contract)

Steve RossĂŠ Principal

03 John Foster 04 Anthony Heinrichs

Sydney Symphony 2011 Season

73


Subscribing is easy 5 easy ways to subscribe 1. Mail

Return your booking form and payment in the enclosed reply paid envelope, or mail to

Sydney Symphony Subscriptions, GPO Box 4338, Sydney NSW 2001. (No stamp required if mailed within Australia.)

2. Online

Renewing or booking your subscription has never been easier! Just visit sydneysymphony.com/subscribe. Renew online and we’ll include a free CD of highlights from Grieg’s Peer Gynt with your tickets.

Renewing subscribers save 20% by adding a new second series If you’re not already a subscriber to Mozart in the City, Meet the Music or International Pianists in Recital, take an extra package to one of these in addition to your first series and save an additional 20% on standard subscription prices in the first year. How do I book my series subscription? If you’re a new subscriber, simply choose the series and day that suits you, enter it into the booking form and return it to us with your payment. If you are renewing, simply complete and return the renewal form that is attached to the letter accompanying this brochure. You can also hear samples of the music from the 2011 season and book online at sydneysymphony.com/subscribe See page 67 for more information. Please feel free to call us on (02) 8215 4600 Mon–Fri, 9am–5pm if you would like any advice or assistance with making your subscription.

3. Telephone

Call the Sydney Symphony Customer Service staff on (02) 8215 4600, Monday–Friday 9am–5pm.

4. Fax

Complete the enclosed booking form and fax it to (02) 8215 4660.

5. In person

Visit the Sydney Symphony at Level 9, 35 Pitt Street, Sydney (near Circular Quay), Monday–Friday, 9am–5pm.

From 13 December 2010, the Sydney Symphony’s offices will be at: Clocktower Square, cnr Argyle & Harrington Streets, The Rocks, Sydney (enter from Argyle St)

74

Sydney Symphony 2011 Season

How does a subscription work? Each year between January and December the Sydney Symphony presents a season of 100 concerts divided into 11 subscription series. When you subscribe you choose one (or more!) of these series to attend. A series is a package of pre-selected concerts that forms an exciting journey through the season. You choose the series, time and day of the week that suits you best. What if I’d like to hear a concert that’s not in my series? Subscribers have several options for supplementing their series packages or even substituting concerts from a different series. Why not supplement your series with single tickets? Single tickets are available to subscribers from Monday 22 November 2010 – 3 weeks ahead of their release to the general public. Or you can purchase tickets for special events now. Subscribers receive a 10% discount on most additional performances.

If you can’t attend a performance in your series, or would simply prefer to enjoy a different concert, it’s easy to exchange your tickets to another performance, from Monday 22 November 2010. See page 77 for terms and conditions. What happens after I book? After you’ve returned your booking form we will: 1. Confirm your order. 2. If you are a new subscriber, we will assign seats in the seating reserve you have selected, or be in touch with you to discuss other seating options. See page 77 for details. 3. Send your tickets to your nominated address when your subscription is paid in full. Group Bookings If you’re planning outings with your group of friends or society in 2011, call us to discuss the package that best suits your dates and times. Group subscriptions are available and groups of 8 or more receive a 20% discount on single tickets. Call our Groups Customer Relations staff on (02) 8215 4610, Monday–Friday 9am–5pm, to find out more. Payment We accept the following methods of payment: cheque, money order, cash (in person only), Visa, MasterCard, Amex. Cheques should be made payable to ‘Sydney Symphony’. Our knowledgeable customer service staff can guide you through the season and help you choose performances. Call (02) 8215 4600 Monday–Friday 9am–5pm.


2011 Booking form Simply cut out this form and use it to choose any number of concerts and series. For further assistance with making your selection, please call (02) 8215 4600. 1. Select the series you prefer and the number of concerts, e.g. EnergyAustralia Master Series 9 package. 2. Tick the day of the week that you wish to attend (if applicable).

3. Insert the number of packages you require next to the price reserve you require. 4. If you are booking a Connoisseur’s Selection, select your concerts.

Full

Note: Shaded Kaleidoscope used as example only. Package

Wed Thu

Kaleidoscope

N/A

EnergyAustralia Master Series Mondays @ 7 Thursday Afternoon Symphony

Fri

No. of concerts

Sat

5. Complete the number of Special Event tickets you require in the reserve you require. 6. Complete your personal and payment details and return the form to us.

Concession

Prem A

B

C

Prem A

B

C

Youth

Subtotal

4

$ 362

$ 330

3 $ 282

$ 206

$ 326

$ 298

1 $ 254

$ 186

$ 142

$

N/A

9

$ 744

$ 690

$ 573

$ 375

$ 672

$ 618

$ 519

$ 339

$ 276

$

N/A

6

$ 516

$ 474

$ 402

$ 294

$ 468

$ 426

$ 360

$ 264

$ 198

$

5

$ 441

$ 401

$ 341

$ 251

$ 396

$ 361

$ 306

$ 226

$ 176

$

9

$ 573

$ 510

$ 438

$ 348

$ 519

$ 456

$ 393

$ 312

$ 276

$

5

$ 331

$ 301

$ 251

$ 206

$ 301

$ 271

$ 226

$ 186

$ 166

$

4

$ 278

$ 250

$ 206

$ 174

$ 250

$ 226

$ 186

$ 158

$ 142

$

7

$ 468

$ 412

$ 349

$ 293

$ 419

$ 370

$ 314

$ 265

$ 195

$

4

$ 278

$ 250

$ 206

$ 174

$ 250

$ 226

$ 186

$ 158

$ 142

$

x

N/A

Mondays only Thursdays only

Great Classics

Saturdays only

Emirates Metro Series

Fridays only

Kaleidoscope

N/A

N/A

Meet the Music

N/A

N/A

8

$ 654

$ 606

$ 502

$ 350

$ 590

$ 550

$ 454

$ 318

$ 262

$

5

$ 446

$ 406

$ 341

$ 246

$ 401

$ 366

$ 306

$ 221

$ 176

$

4

$ 362

$ 330

$ 282

$ 206

$ 326

$ 298

$ 254

$ 186

$ 142

$

4

$ 250

$ 226

$ 198

$ 174

$ 226

$ 206

$ 178

$ 158

$ 110

$

8

$ 326

1,100

$

$ 326

Tea & Symphony

Fridays only

4 A/B

$ 186

Discovery

Mondays only

4

$ 198

$ 178

$ 158

$ 178

$ 162

$ 142

$ 110

$

Int. Pianists in Recital

Mondays only

4

$ 226

$ 202

$ 158

$ 206

$ 182

$ 142

$ 122

$

Mozart in the City

Thursdays only

4

$ 254

$ 174

$ 142

$ 230

$ 158

$ 130

$ 126

$

$

$ 186

total

$

coNnoisseur’s selection – Design your own Deluxe or Standard concert package, with your choice of any four, six or eight concerts. Choose either Deluxe (Premium or A-Res) or Standard (B- or C-Res) pricing. For more information see brochure, page 60. No. tickets x Price

Concert name

1

Concert name

Date

N/A

5

2

N/A

6

3

N/A

7

x $ 462

4 Total

x $ 322

Date

No. tickets x Price N/A x $ 618

x $ 432

N/A x $774

8

$

Total

x $ 534

$

special events – Subscribers may purchase tickets for Special Event concerts prior to their release to the general public. Subscribers save 10% on full-priced Special tickets – the prices listed on page 65 already have the discount applied. Concert

Date

Reserve (Prem, A, B, C)

No. of tickets

Subtotal $ $ $ total

$

Yes, I want to support the Sydney Symphony.

My tax-deductible gift is

$

$

www.sydneysymphony.com/subscribe. Ph: (02) 8215 4600

GRAND TOTAL

$

Sydney Symphony 2011 Season

75


Contact details

OFFICE USE ONLY

Part of the joy of attending concerts is sharing the music with others. The person who accompanies you to Sydney Symphony concerts can also share the benefits of subscribing. Simply enter their details below so that we can send your companion a subscriber card. If you have more than one companion and need more space, please attach additional information.

Subscriber – Please amend contact details if necessary Mrs

Mr

Title First name

Ms

Dr

CSR

Date

Day

Pkg

Reserve

Full

20%

Partial

your companion Mrs

Mr

Title

Ms

Last name

Street Address

Street Address

Suburb

Postcode

Suburb

Postcode

Daytime Tel.

Evening Tel.

Daytime Tel.

Evening Tel.

Mobile

Mobile

Email

Email

I wish to claim a concession as a: Pensioner Full-time Student

Youth (30 & under)

Please email me Stay Tuned for news, special offers and information about concerts

I am a member of Emirates Skywards frequent flyer program www.skywards.com

I would like to receive more information about the benefits of the Skywards program

Dr

Initial

Last name

Seated

Payment options

First name

Initial

Waitlist

I wish to claim a concession as a: Pensioner Full-time Student

Youth (30 & under)

Please email me Stay Tuned for news, special offers and information about concerts Please enclose photocopied proof of age and/or student card and/or pension details. special assistance: please attach your requirements to this booking form if you require special seating.

PAYMENTS – Please select your payment amount otherwise the full amount will be charged. I wish to pay the full amount now insert grand total

full amount

$

I wish to pay a 20% non-refundable deposit on my subscription package(s) now PLUS the full amount of any donation I have made. (Option available before 10 December only.) Credit card balances will automatically be deducted on 7 January 2011. Cash or cheque payments will have the balance invoiced and due on 7 January 2011. I wish to pay in 2 equal instalments.* The balance will be automatically deducted on 7 January 2011.

I wish to pay in 4 equal instalments.* Only available for subscriptions received prior to 29 October 2010. Payments will be automatically deducted on the first Friday of each month.

I wish to pay in 5 or 6 equal instalments.* Only available for subscriptions received prior to 30 August (6 instalments) or 30 September 2010 (5 instalments). Payments will be automatically deducted on the first Friday of each month.

*Only available for credit card purchases. Tickets will be posted once final payment has been received.

PAYMENT DETAILS Please tick ONE of the following payment methods: CHEQUE payable to Sydney Symphony (please staple to form) CASH (do not mail, please pay at Sydney Symphony Box Office) VISA

DINERS

MASTERCARD

AMEX

Name on card

POST Use the enclosed reply paid envelope or our freepost address: sydney symphony subscriptions reply paid 4338 sydney nsw 2001 No stamp required if mailed from within AUS PHONE

(02) 8215 4600 (Mon-Fri 9am-5pm)

FAX ALL forms to (02) 8215 4660 In person Level 9, 35 Pitt Street Sydney (near Circular Quay) Mon-Fri 9am-5pm

Card Number

Expiry Date Cardholder’s Signature Date of Birth (for security reasons)

76

Sydney Symphony 2011 Season

AMEX ID No

From 13 December 2010 Clocktower Square cnr Argyle & harrington streets The Rocks, Sydney (enter from Argyle St) Your tickets will be mailed to you as soon as possible after your order has been processed and payment has been received in full. Please refer to your brochure for a summary of our subscription fulfilment process. If you have further questions, please call (02) 8215 4600 (Mon-Fri 9am-5pm).


Renewing & booking your subscription You can renew your subscription with no changes, or you can request a change to your seating, number of seats or series (subject to availability). We will contact you to discuss options if we cannot fulfil your request. Subscribers have the option to transfer their seats to another patron in the event they might be travelling for most of the season. Simply request a transfer form from the box office before the renewal deadline of Thursday 30 September 2010. In the majority of series, only full-pack subscribers are guaranteed the same seats for the concerts each season. Subscribers to Master Series 6-concert packages, Metro Series 5-concert packages, Thursday Afternoon 4- and 5-concert packages and Tea & Symphony 4-concert packages are also entitled to renewable seating. Subscription packages comprising less than the full complement of concerts in the series will be seated in their selected reserve where possible. If we cannot accommodate your request, we will contact you to discuss options. After 12 August 2010 we will process mail, online and phone orders strictly by the date in which applications are received for each series category. The categories themselves will be prioritised as follows: 1. Renewing full pack without change requests 2. Renewing full pack with change requests 3. New full pack orders 4. Renewing connoisseurs and part pack orders 5. New connoisseurs and part pack orders Payment by cheque, money order, credit card or cash must accompany your booking. Your cheque or money order will be banked, or credit card debited on receipt of your application to establish priority for your application within the Sydney Symphony’s ticketing system. Cash payments can only be made in person at the

Sydney Symphony box office. To be eligible to renew your seats, you must submit your renewal by Thursday 30 September 2010. Please note that all prices detailed on renewal forms are full price until proof of concession is provided with your payment. Once proof of concession is supplied, the concessionary rate will be applied to your order. Once we receive your order and payment in full, and process it according to these procedures, we will mail your subscription pack (including tickets, subscriber card and diary stickers). If you have elected to pay in instalments, your tickets will be mailed to you after the balance of your payment is paid. Please note that credit card transactions will be automatically deducted at this time. If you have paid by cheque, we will mail you a reminder to pay each instalment. If you do not renew your subscription before Thursday 30 September 2010, your seats will be released and become available to others.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS Subscriptions to Sydney Symphony performances are subject to the conditions of sale set out below and to the requirements of the venue at which the performances are presented. Subscriptions Any monies due to applicants as a result of the Sydney Symphony being unable to satisfy ticket requests will automatically be refunded. The Sydney Symphony will issue you with your own personal Subscriber Number which will appear on your subscriber card. Please record this number to quote in any further correspondence or contact with the Sydney Symphony regarding your tickets.

Exchanges Subscription tickets may be exchanged up to two working days before the performance for which tickets were originally issued. Exchanges outside the original series will incur upgrade costs (full single ticket price less your 10% subscriber saving). This amount is payable at the time your exchange is made. Exchanges may not be available for all concerts and are subject to the availability. Your first exchange ticket is free. A ticket exchange fee of $5 per ticket will apply after the first finalised exchange. Exchanges can only be processed through the Sydney Symphony’s Box Office during business hours. Youth subscriptions Youth subscriptions are available to people aged 30 years or under at 1 January 2011. Proof of age must be supplied when booking and may be required prior to admission to each concert. Youth subscriptions are seated in C-reserve unless accompanied by a full-price adult subscription in another reserve, in which case the youth and full-priced subscriptions will be seated together, subject to availability. Concession subscriptions Concession subscriptions are available to current holders of means-tested Australian pensions (Aged, Disability, Veterans’ Affairs, Supporting Parent) and to Australian full-time students. Proof of concession eligibility must be supplied when booking and may be required prior to admission to each concert. Pay in instalments option If you are paying for your subscription in an instalment plan, your first deposit is non-refundable after initial payment is processed. Cancellation of your subscription may incur 20% of the package price. Multi-pack discounts The 20% savings on a second subscription package is valid only for the first year of new subscriptions to Mozart in the City, Meet the Music and International Pianists in Recital. You must subscribe to another series to be eligible. If you have any questions about these terms and conditions, please call the Sydney Symphony on (02) 8215 4600. General terms and conditions for sale can be seen in full at sydneysymphony.com/ terms or requested by calling (02) 8215 4600 Mon–Fri | 9am–5pm.

Renewable seating is only applicable for full-sized subscription packages, as well as Master Series 6-concert packages, Metro Series 5-concert packages and Thursday Afternoon 4- and 5-concert packages. Connoisseur’s Selection seating will be allocated on a best available basis within premium or A-reserve for Deluxe; or B- or C-reserve for the Standard option. It is not possible to guarantee the same seats at every concert in these packages. The Tea & Symphony series offers three packages: a 4-concert A pack; a 4-concert B pack; or an 8-concert full pack. It is only possible to offer renewable seating within your present series. It is not possible to retain your seat if you change from Pack A in 2010 to Pack B in 2011, or vice versa.

www.sydneysymphony.com/subscribe. Ph: (02) 8215 4600

Sydney Symphony 2011 Season

77


Subscribe by 24 September to be in the draw to win Emirates Business Class flights to Europe Subscribe by Friday 24 September 2010 to be in the draw to win two Business Class flights to one of Emirates’ 25 European destinations, including its three new destinations – Amsterdam, Prague and Madrid.

Simply purchase your Sydney Symphony subscription before Friday 24 September 2010 to enter the draw. For full terms and conditions visit sydneysymphony.com or call (02) 8215 4600.

Emirates, the Principal Partner of the Sydney Symphony, is committed to providing a world-class experience on every flight while connecting passengers to more destinations in Europe than any other airline. Discover the tulips in Amsterdam, stroll across the Charles Bridge in Prague or shop for the latest fashion in Madrid – the choice is yours, and by flying Emirates it’s all only one stop from Sydney.

Authorised under NSW Permit Number: LTPS/10/06357

With the Emirates A380 flying daily between Sydney and Dubai, and onto more than 100 destinations worldwide, the winner will discover the journey to Europe is almost as beautiful as the destination. Emirates’ award-winning Business Class features new generation seating with aisle access for every seat, ICE – a digital widescreen inflight entertainment system with more than 1,000 channels – plus an onboard lounge where you can enjoy a gourmet selection of beverages and canapés.

78

Sydney Symphony 2011 Season

Sydney Symphony subscribers fly for less with special Emirates fares Emirates is delighted to offer its enhanced discount of 10% across all of its published fares – including special offers – to all Sydney Symphony subscribers. This amazing offer is available on bookings all year round, even in peak travel seasons, and can be booked via the dedicated subscriber website sydneysymphony.com/emirates Terms and conditions apply.


Sydney Symphony Patrons Program “ The symphony must be like the world. It must contain everything.” Gustav Mahler

In 2011, together with our Principal Conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy, we continue the celebration of the life and music of Mahler, one of the greatest symphonists of all time. Through these concentrated performances, Sydney audiences have an opportunity to glimpse through the prism of his music – this world containing everything: Mahler’s world, our world. You can play a part in making this enormous undertaking possible by becoming a Sydney Symphony Patron. Being a patron not only connects you to the music, musicians and staff, but provides opportunities to form new friendships with people who share your interests and love of music.

Venue seating maps

To find out how to join, please contact the Philanthropy office on (02) 8215 4663 or email: philanthropy@sydneysymphony.com

Mahler 8 Celebration, 2010 (L-R) Penelope Seidler am, Managing Director Rory Jeffes and Amanda Love.

All Sydney Symphony concerts are at either the Sydney Opera House or City Recital Hall Angel Place unless otherwise indicated. If you would like to book wheelchair or disabled access spaces at either venue, please call the Sydney Symphony on (02) 8215 4600 Mon–Fri 9am–5pm. For more information visit sydneysymphony.com/venues.

Stalls

Boxes

Circle

Gallery

Level 1

Wheelchair

Premium

A Reserve

A Reserve

B Reserve

B Reserve

C Reserve

Level 2

Level 3

C Reserve

Wheelchair positions are available on all levels.

www.sydneysymphony.com/subscribe. Ph: (02) 8215 4600

Sydney Symphony 2011 Season

79


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

PRINCIPAL PARTNER

GOVERNMENT PARTNERs

platinum PARTNERs

major PARTNERs

gold PARTNERs

SYMPHONY S E R V I C E S

AUSTRALIA

80

Sydney Symphony 2011 Season


silver PARTNERs

regional tour PARTNERs

marketing partner 2MBS FM 102.5 – Sydney’s Fine Music Station MAESTRO’S CIRCLE John C Conde ao Peter Weiss am & Doris Weiss Geoff & Vicki Ainsworth Tom Breen & Rachael Kohn Ashley Dawson-Damer In Memory of Hetty & Egon Gordon Andrew Kaldor & Renata Kaldor ao Roslyn Packer ao Penelope Seidler am Fred Street am & Dorothy Street Westfield Group Ray Wilson oam In Memory of James Agapitos oam LEADERSHIP ENSEMBLE John Morschel, Chairman of ANZ The Macquarie Group Foundation

DIRECTORS’ CHAIRS A leadership program which provides an opportunity for people to build long-term partnerships with some of Australia’s most prominent musicians. Richard Gill oam, Artistic Director, Education Sandra & Paul Salteri Chair Emma Sholl, Associate Principal Flute Robert & Janet Constable Chair Ronald Prussing, Principal Trombone Industry & Investment NSW Chair Nick Byrne, Trombone rogenSi Chair Diana Doherty, Principal Oboe Andrew Kaldor & Renata Kaldor ao Chair Catherine Hewgill, Principal Cello Tony & Fran Meagher Chair Paul Goodchild, Associate Principal Trumpet The Hansen Family Chair Jane Hazelwood, Viola Veolia Environmental Services Chair

photography Main photography: Keith Saunders Guest artists: Josef Astor, Mats Backer, Ruud Balk, Greg Barrett, Gerard Blaser, Marco Borggreve, Jeff Busby, Mstislav Chernov, Lou Denim, Monique Deul, Lord Patrick Douglas-Hamilton, Ben Ealovega, Bridget Elliot, Philip Glaser, Kira Gluschkoff, Nick Granito, Sasha Gusov, Franz Hamm, David Hartig, Richard Haughton, Gary Holder, Oh Seuk Hoon, Ann Marsden, Mark McNulty, Margaretta K Mitchell, Yuliya Rusyayeva, Keith Saunders, Anson Smart, Guy Vivien, Cylla von Tiedemann and courtesy of Columbia Artists Music, EMI Classics and European Film Philharmonic. Thank you to all Sydney Symphony patrons who participated in our photo shoots in May 2010, especially those who appear in this brochure. We are inspired by your enthusiasm and passion. Design and production: Principals

Roger Benedict, Principal Viola Roger Allen & Maggie Gray Chair

www.sydneysymphony.com/subscribe. Ph: (02) 8215 4600

Sydney Symphony 2011 Season

81


Purchasing your season tickets online has never been easier sydneysymphony.com/subscribe

Post Sydney Symphony Box Office Reply Paid 4338 Sydney NSW 2001 (no postage stamp required if mailing within Australia)

fax (02) 8215 4660

web sydneysymphony.com/subscribe

call (02) 8215 4600 Mon–Fri 9am–5pm

visit Level 9, 35 Pitt Street, Sydney (near Circular Quay)

email info@sydneysymphony.com

From 13 December 2010 Clocktower Square cnr Argyle & Harrington Streets The Rocks, Sydney (enter from Argyle St)


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