February & March 2024 Concert Program

Concert Program MELBOURNE RECITAL CENTRE PRESENTS

Paul Lewis

6 February

Brooklyn Rider

27 February

The Four Elements

Genesis Baroque

14 March

Holding Court with J.S. Bach

Víkingur Ólafsson + Consortium

25 March

We're trying something different with our program notes in 2024. Concerts that feature as part of our Exquisite Classical Experiences offering will be available in regular print editions, and available for digital viewing and download on our website at melbournerecital.com.au/programs

Contents Paul Lewis

3

Brooklyn Rider The Four Elements

7

Memberships 10 Genesis Baroque Holding Court with J.S. Bach

11

Víkingur Ólafsson + Consortium

15

Our Donors

18

Our Supporters

21

Coming Up

22

SERIES PARTNER

The Langham Melbourne

If you are attending multiple events featured in this program, we kindly ask that you consider the environment and re-use your program during your next visit.

Melbourne Recital Centre acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of the lands on which we work, live, perform and learn. We pay our respects to the people of the Kulin nation, their Elders past and present and to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.

Paul Lewis Tuesday 6 February Elisabeth Murdoch Hall

3

Program

About the Artist

Franz Schubert (1797-1828) Piano Sonata No.19 in C minor, D958

Paul Lewis piano

i. Allegro ii. Adagio iii. Menuetto (Allegro) iv. Allegro Piano Sonata No.20 in A, D959 i. Allegro ii. Andantino iii. Scherzo (Allegro vivace) iv. Rondo (Allegretto) Interval Piano Sonata No.21 in B-flat, D960 i. Molto moderato ii. Andante sostenuto iii. Scherzo (Allegro vivace con delicatezza) iv. Allegro, ma non troppo

Duration: approx. 2 hours and 30 minutes, including interval

Paul Lewis CBE is internationally regarded as one of the leading musicians of his generation. His numerous awards have included the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Instrumentalist of the Year, two Edison awards, three Gramophone awards, the Diapason D'or de l'Annee, the Premio Internazionale Accademia Musicale Chigiana, and the South Bank Show Classical Music award. In 2016 he was awarded a CBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours list, and holds honorary doctorates from Southampton University and Edge Hill University.

He performs regularly as soloist with the world's great orchestras and is a frequent guest at the most prestigious international festivals, including Lucerne, Mostly Mozart (New York), Tanglewood, Schubertiade, Salzburg, Edinburgh, and London’s BBC Proms where in 2010 he became the first pianist to perform a complete Beethoven piano concerto cycle in one season.

His recital career takes him to venues such as London's Royal Festival Hall, Alice Tully and Carnegie Hall in New York, Vienna’s Musikverein and Konzerthaus, the Theatre des Champs Elysees in Paris, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Berlin Philharmonie and Konzerthaus, Tonhalle Zurich, Palau de Musica Barcelona, Symphony Hall Chicago, Oji Hall in Tokyo and Melbourne Recital Centre in Australia.

POST-CONCERT TALK Following this extraordinary performance, Paul Lewis joins Melbourne Recital Centre’s Director of Programming, Marshall McGuire, in the ground floor foyer for a 20-minute discussion about his artistry, career, and experience. Take a seat and enjoy this perfect conclusion to your musical experience.

4

About the Music

During his lifetime, and for most of the century after that, music lovers regarded Schubert as, primarily, a composer of songs and short piano works. And if the Schubert you know best is the composer of such songs as Hark, Hark!

The Lark or To Music, or of miniatures like the Moments musicaux, then these, his final piano sonatas, may come as a revelation. Not for their lyricism, nor their expressive honesty, but for their scale and emotional intensity. You might also ascribe these qualities to the three works which brought Mozart’s symphonic writing to a close in 1788; Schubert’s three final sonatas, which he completed just a few weeks before his death, are equally miraculous. And while it’s hard to think of Schubert’s 22 sonatas as a cycle, in the way Beethoven’s imposing legacy of 32 sonatas is remembered, there are subtle harmonic and thematic connections between each of these three works which suggest that Schubert saw them as a triptych.

Likewise, the fact that he hoped to dedicate all three to Hummel. But by the time these sonatas appeared in print, in 1839, Hummel too was no more, and the publisher dedicated them to Schubert’s staunch champion Robert Schumann.

These were the only solo keyboard sonatas Schubert created after Beethoven’s death; scholars have pointed out the many passages in which Schubert pays homage to his older – and deeply admired – contemporary (‘Who can do anything after Beethoven?’ he once remarked), but when brought face to face with this music, as you are in this performance, it may be best to marvel at just how personal it is – how, uniquely, Schubert could give voice to inner torment and regretful reminiscence within a traditional four-movement sonata format.

In fact, in the late 1940s, just as these sonatas began to enter the mainstream repertoire, the Australian-born pianist Ernest Hutcheson wrote that they ‘rival the finest of Beethoven’s sonatas in wealth of invention... With less of Beethoven’s awe-inspiring magnificence and logic of thought, they show a more natural spontaneity.’ Indeed Schubert was anything but methodical, and told fellow composer Ferdinand Hiller: ‘I write for several hours every morning. When one pieces is finished, I begin another.’

Where Beethoven’s music can ruthlessly exclude anything superfluous, Schubert’s is discursive and expansive, as if, in Schumann’s words, ‘there could be no ending, nor any embarrassment about what should come next.’

the eerie series of chromatic scales which eventually ushers in its return. A pervasive sense of harmonic restlessness continues in the Adagio, in which the main theme journeys to many unexpected keys before returning home, changed profoundly by its harmonic wanderings. The finale’s pervasive galloping rhythm may suggest to you either boisterous humour or barely suppressed desperation.

The A major sonata appears more genial on the surface, but the suspicion that this may be a mask is confirmed in the middle of the Andantino, in a wild, brutal passage which casts its shadow over all that follows, even after it has receded. Schubert sets off a more subtle depth charge in the Rondo, where the pauses and hesitations which pepper the final pages suggest once again that poise and serenity may be illusory.

The knowledge that D.960 was Schubert’s last sonata has had a profound influence on the way it’s been received.

Like other works from his last year, in particular the String Quintet and the F minor Fantasia for piano four hands, it has the epic songfulness that was Schubert’s special gift.

The first movement has a feeling of time unfolding slowly, suggesting the beating of giant wings; while the recurring, mysterious bass trill and the powerful pauses, enmeshed in an atmosphere of long-breathed lyricism, carry tremendous emotional power.

In the outer sections of the Andante sostenuto, on the other hand, time seems to be immaterial, the repetition of a crosshands figure decorating the theme with an almost painful sweetness. Some of the modulations in this movement are exceptionally unexpected, making the final homecoming all the richer. The dancing lightness of the Scherzo is a lilting contrast to what has come before, while the held note which begins the main theme of the finale gives all that follows a special urgency. As writer and broadcaster David Garrett has put it, at the end of this sonata ‘the listener has the sense of having traversed a vast and profound world, paradoxically in an intimate medium, in which the voice is rarely raised.’

Like all great music, these sonatas will never reveal all their secrets. When pianist Arthur Schnabel was asked why his repertoire included so much Schubert, he replied that he only wanted to play music ‘which is better than it could be performed.’ ©Phillip Sametz 2024

In the opening Allegro of the C minor sonata, this expansiveness is put at the service of an intense musical drama, from the dark grandeur of the opening theme to

5

Intimate Salon Experiences 2024 FEATURING

Andrea Lam | Bhairavi Raman & Nanthesh Sivarajah Duo Eclettico & Helen Morse | Genevieve Lacey & Marshall McGuire Kristian Chong & Friends | Melbourne Guitar Quartet Nat Bartsch Quartet | Olivia Chindamo & Matthew Sheens Orava Quartet | Penny Quartet | Qais Essar | Quartz SARAY Illuminado | The Boite | The Resonant Heart Vardos | Zoe Knighton & Amir Farid

Tickets and more information at melbournerecital.com.au/salon2024

Brooklyn Rider – The Four Elements

Tuesday 27 February Elisabeth Murdoch Hall

7

Program

About the Quartet

EARTH

Brooklyn Rider

Colin Jacobsen A Short While to be Here

Johnny Gandelsman violin

Based on American Folk Songs as collected by Ruth Crawford Seeger

Nicholas Cords viola

i. Whoa, Mule! ii. Hommage à Ruth iii. Peep Squirrel iv. The Old Cow Died v. Little Birdie FIRE Akshaya Tucker Hollow Flame AIR Andreia Pinto Correia Aere senza stelle i. Lacrimoso, quasi recitativo – the starless air: lyrical and static. ii. Agitato, strepitoso – a tumult of voices: dense, angular and dissonant. iii. Misterioso, senza musra. Inquieto – time suspended. A whirlwind of sands, vanishing into infinity.

Henri Dutilleux (1916-2013) String Quartet Ainsi la nuit (Thus The Night) i. Nocturne I

Colin Jacobsen violin Michael Nicolas cello With their gripping performance style and unquenchable appetite for musical adventure, Brooklyn Rider has carved a singular space in the world of string quartets over their fifteen-plus year history. Defining the string quartet as a medium with deep historic roots and endless possibility for invention, they find equal inspiration in musical languages ranging from late Beethoven to Persian classical music to American roots music to the endlessly varied voices of living composers.

Claiming no allegiance to either end of the historical spectrum, Brooklyn Rider most comfortably operates within the long arc of the tradition, seeking to illuminate works of the past with fresh insight while coaxing the malleable genre into the future through an inclusive programming vision, deep-rooted collaborations with a wide range of global tradition bearers, and the creation of thoughtful and relevant frames for commissioning projects.

Duration: approx. 2 hours, including interval

ii. Miroir d'espace iii. Litanies iv. Litanies II v. Constellations vi. Nocturne II vii. Temps suspendu Interval FIRE Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) String Quartet No.8 in C minor, Op.110 i. Largo ii. Allegro molto iii. Allegretto iv. Largo v. Largo WATER Osvaldo Golijov Tenebrae

8

POST-CONCERT TALK Following this extraordinary performance, Brooklyn Rider joins Melbourne Recital Centre’s Director of Programming, Marshall McGuire, in the ground floor foyer for a 20-minute discussion about their artistry, careers and more. Take a seat and enjoy this perfect conclusion to your musical experience.

About the Music

It was Stravinsky who wrote that ‘music is, by its very nature, essentially powerless to express anything at all’.

This powder keg of an idea may seem profoundly true to you, or profoundly baffling. Brooklyn Rider’s program The Four Elements suggests that music can not only engage with the world in which it was written, but can speak to times, places and concerns the composer could not have imagined.

Specifically, Brooklyn Rider describes tonight’s program as ‘a musical metaphor for both the inner workings of a quartet and the inter-related effects of climate change on our planet.’ And the first look at our fragile home comes from within Brooklyn Rider itself: A Short While to Be Here is by the quartet’s Colin Jacobsen.

EARTH Jacobsen writes: ‘We all have “a short while to be here, and a long time to be gone,” as the lyrics go on the American folk song Little Birdie. Astronaut Loren Acton described his experience looking down at our home planet Earth from above: Looking outward to the blackness of space, sprinkled with the glory of a universe of lights, I saw majesty – but no welcome. Below was a welcoming planet. There, contained in the thin, moving, incredibly fragile shell of the biosphere is everything that is dear to you, all the human drama and comedy. That's where life is; that's where all the good stuff is.

‘In writing this piece, I was very much inspired by the example of Ruth Crawford Seeger, one of America's most forward-looking composers of the early part of the 20th century. In Depression-era America she and her husband Charles Seeger began a deep investigation of American folk music. As an educator Ruth became deeply committed to teaching folk songs to children… This piece is very much a homage to her as well as a celebration of our home planet. This of course includes all animals and children, past and present, who've been here or will be here a short while and then gone for a long time...’

FIRE In the composer’s words: ‘Hollow Flame is like a journal entry of moments recorded over many months in which I try to grapple with what is happening in the climate crisis: the loss of so much, from human lives to old-growth forests, let alone human health and the well-being of our ecosystems. Hollow Flame is an attempt to witness my own numbness, my own inability to even form words when I try to talk about this.’

AIR ‘The inspiration for Aere senza stelle (Air Without Stars) was the tempestades de poeira – or dust storms – that travel from the Sahara Desert to the Iberian Peninsula, a phenomenon experienced during my youth in Portugal,’ writes Andreia Pinto Correia.

‘Re-reading Dante Alighieri's Inferno, I recognised a profound poetic connection to climate change, and so I mirrored the structure of Canto III, 22–30, dividing the work into three sections. In the final bars, the string quartet creates a sonic cloud, as though carrying an infinite stream of particles from the desert to other parts of the world.’

Ainsi la nuit is a vision of the mysteries of the night.

In seven epigrammatic sections, Dutilleux explores moods ranging from serenity to nightmare in music of subtlety and sophistication. While much of the work’s atmosphere is generated by kaleidoscopic string colourations the overall effect is airy and delicate, even when Dutilleux’s language is at its most complex.

FIRE As in so much of his work, Shostakovich weaves his musical initials, in their German form – D, Es (corresponding to E flat), C and H (B natural in the German tradition) – into his 8th String Quartet, as a musical tattoo, giving the work a powerful autobiographical drive. But is this quartet a purely personal statement about a composer’s creative and political struggles? Shostakovich wrote the work in just three days.

He was in Dresden to write the score for a film about the WWII bombing of that city, Five Days and Five Nights, and he dedicated the Quartet to ‘the victims of fascism and war.’

WATER Tenebrae (Latin for ‘Darkness’) is one of the most frequently performed works by one of the most prominent composers of our time. Describing the piece, Osvaldo Golijov says: ‘I wrote Tenebrae as a consequence of witnessing two contrasting realities in a short period of time in September 2000. I was in Israel at the start of the new wave of violence that is continuing today, and a week later I took my son to the new planetarium in New York, where we could see the Earth as a beautiful blue dot in space. I wanted to write a piece that could be listened to from different perspectives.

That is, if one chooses to listen to it "from afar", the music would probably offer a "beautiful" surface but, from a metaphorically closer distance, one could hear that, beneath that surface, the music is full of pain… The compositional challenge was to write music that would sound as an orbiting spaceship that never touches the ground.’ © Phillip Sametz 2024, incorporating material ©Colin Jacobsen, Akshaya Tucker and Andreia Pinto Correia

9

Melbourne Recital Centre Memberships Become a part of the Melbourne Recital Centre’s community of members to receive a range of benefits!

Music Lover Membership $50/year Perfect for the frequent concertgoer, Music Lover benefits include: › Waived transaction fees on all bookings › Ticket offers and priority access to our latest announcements › 10% discount on select performances › 10% discount at Melbourne Recital Centre foyer bars › Food and Beverage discounts at Script Bar & Bistro and Blondie Bar › and more!

Premium Membership $200/year Premium Members enjoy all the benefits of a Music Lover membership, plus: › 20% discount on select performances › One complimentary Music Lover Membership for a friend › Free exchanges between performances › Two complimentary drink vouchers to enjoy at your first yearly event as a Premium Member

Visit melbournerecital.com.au/membership to sign up!

Conditions apply, visit melbournerecital.com.au/membership for further information.

10

Genesis Baroque

– Holding Court with J.S. Bach Thursday 14 March Primrose Potter Salon

11

Program

About the Ensemble

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) Orchestral Suite No.2, BWV 1067

Genesis Baroque Jennifer Kirsner violin

i. Ouverture

Anna McMichael violin

ii. Rondeau

Meredith Beardmore traverso

iii. Sarabande

Meg Cohen viola

iv. Bourée I-II

Josephine Vains cello

v. Polonaise

Miranda Hill double bass

vi. Double

Donald Nicolson harpsichord

vii. Menuet viii. Badinerie Organ Sonata No.1 in in E-flat, BWV 525 iii. Allegro Brandenburg Concerto No.5, BWV 1050 i. Allegro ii. Affettuoso iii. Allegro

Duration: approx. 1 hour, no interval

12

Genesis Baroque, Melbourne/Naarm’s renowned period instrument chamber orchestra, was founded in 2017 by Artistic Director and violinist, Jennifer Kirsner.

The ensemble comprises some of Australia’s preeminent historically-informed performers, who together explore the vibrant repertoire of the 17th and 18th centuries through intimate, dynamic concerts across Melbourne and regional Victoria.

Genesis Baroque collaborates with distinguished performers and other artists based locally, interstate and overseas, and has a particular focus on providing a platform for local and expatriate Australian musicians.

The ensemble released its first studio album of Arcangelo Corelli’s Concerti Grossi Op.6 in August 2020 with principal guest director, Sophie Gent, and founding music director, Lucinda Moon. The recording debuted as the highest selling Australian album on the ARIA classical album charts and received critical acclaim.

About the Music

Critic Arlene Croce has written that ‘nothing is harder to convey than the impact of a change that has been universally accepted’. The reverence in which we hold Bach’s legacy, and the joy his music brings, can mask the innovative turn of mind he brought to the musical forms and idioms of his time, from the cantata to the instrumental suite. Yet it’s this deep well of originality which, in large part, makes his music so compelling more than 300 years after much of it first saw the light of day. You could choose any work in this program as a case in point.

As was the Baroque custom, Bach called his four orchestral suites Overtures. This term was understood to denote a procession of dance movements preceded by a substantial overture – a word which gave its name to the whole genre.

Bach’s contemporary Telemann – one of history’s most prolific composers – must hold some kind of record for having composed around 200 suites of this kind. Unlike his Brandenburg Concertos, Bach’s four surviving suites (there may have been more) don’t constitute a planned collection, and Bach seems to have composed them over a period of six years or so as the need arose.

The need, in this case, could well have been represented by the Collegium Musicum, an orchestra Bach directed from 1729, during his tenure in Leipzig. The band played outdoors in summer, and in Zimmermann’s coffee house during the cooler months. Although we know very little about the repertoire the orchestra played, it’s likely that Bach composed at least some of these suites for the Collegium Musicum, drawing on music he’d written during his employment at the court of Cöthen (1717-1722).

The Second Suite is the only one in a minor key and is also the most intimately scored. Where the fourth suite, with its trumpets, oboes, bassoon and timpani, suggests a grand outdoor occasion, the B minor suite is ideally suited to the intimacy of the Primrose Potter Salon. This is also the suite that breaks most surely from conventions, particularly in Bach’s selection of dance movements: here, for instance, is the only example, in any of the suites, of the Polish dance the Polonaise. And given the prominence of the flute, how can this work not feel almost as much as concerto as a suite?

there is a custom – dating back to the 18th century – of arranging these works for chamber ensemble, and today you can hear them played on combinations as diverse as two harpsichords or three marimbas. This performance of BWV525 features the more traditional ensemble of two violins, cello (playing the bass line) and harpsichord (playing the implied continuo harmonies).

In a sense the tradition of arranging these trio sonatas takes them full circle, since they include movements Bach had originally composed for other purposes and other instruments. That is also true for the six concertos Bach presented, with a fawning dedication, to the Margrave of Brandenburg in 1721. These concertos are, in a sense, the result of both composition and compilation, for Bach may have created some sections up to a decade earlier.

For the music of the Fifth concerto alone, scholars have identified up to 13 different sources!

If the ‘presentation’ version of these six concertos – among the greatest instrumental works of the era – was a job application to the Margrave’s court, it wasn’t successful, for the music sat in his library, unopened, for 30 years, before being sold. The concertos were not published until 1850, 100 years after Bach’s death.

Each of the six works is scored for a different ensemble, and each is miraculous in its own way. The Fifth breaks new ground in liberating the harpsichord from its traditional role of articulating the bass line and filling in the harmony.

Here the part is fully written out and begins to behave soloistically almost immediately. By the end of the dazzling harpsichord cadenza – which takes up about a third of the opening movement – you’ll find that you’re in the presence of the work now widely regarded as the first harpsichord concerto. The slow movement, marked affettuoso (affectionate), brings the focus back to the flute and strings, while the buoyant finale blends formal rigour and individual virtuosity in a way that reminds you why these concertos remain some of Bach’s most beloved and widely performed creations. ©Phillip Sametz 2024

Music history is full of pieces composed for teaching purposes, but which do far more than meet the brief.

Collectively, Chopin’s Etudes are one example, and Bach’s six Trio Sonatas BWV525-530 are surely another. In the early 1730s Bach created these sublime works in the course of instructing his eldest son, Wilhelm Friedemann, in the art of organ playing; unusually, they imitate the textures of the instrumental trio sonata, with the organ pedals assigned the role of the bass instrument. In homage,

13

Celebrate your love of live music, honour a loved one, or commemorate a special occasion with a seat plaque in the extraordinary Elisabeth Murdoch Hall at Melbourne Recital Centre.

Take your seat

Your seat plaque is a recognition of your $2,000 taxdeductible donation to Melbourne Recital Centre, and will be displayed on your chosen seat in Elisabeth Murdoch Hall for 10 years.

You can dedicate your seat to a special person or include a message of your choosing, with up to 25 characters per line, across two lines. Some restrictions apply.

Following the installation of your plaque, you will be invited to view your dedicated seat and to enjoy a private behind-the-scenes tour of the Centre.

To learn more, visit melbournerecital.com.au/name-a-seat or contact Sylvie Huigen, Development Manager on (03) 9207 2648 or sylvie.huigen@melbournerecital.com.au

Joshua Bell and Academy of St Martin in the Fields perform to a sold-out Elisabeth Murdoch Hall in October 2023.

Víkingur Ólafsson Monday 25 March Elisabeth Murdoch Hall

+ Consortium

15

Program

About the Artists

Set 1: Consortium

Víkingur Ólafsson piano

John Dowland (1563-1626) Mr John Langton’s Pavan Mr Thomas Collier his Galliard

Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson has made a profound impact with his remarkable combination of highest level musicianship and visionary programs. His recordings for Deutsche Grammophon – Philip Glass Piano Works (2017), Johann Sebastian Bach (2018), Debussy Rameau (2020), Mozart & Contemporaries (2021) and From Afar (2022) – captured the public and critical imagination and have led to career streams of over 600 million.

Thomas Weelkes (1576-1623) Pavan from Mr Weelkes his 3 Pavin William Lawes (c.1602-1645) Consort Set a 5 in G minor Fantazya a 5 Christopher Tye (c.1505-1572) In nomine, ‘Round’ William Byrd (1543-1623) Prelude and Ground, ‘The Queen’s Goodnight’ Interval

Set 2: Víkingur Ólafsson Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) Goldberg Variations, BWV 988

In October 2023, Ólafsson released his anticipated new album on Deutsche Grammophon of J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations. Ólafsson has dedicated his entire 2023-24 season to a Goldberg Variations world tour, performing the work across six continents throughout the year.

Consortium Laura Moore Reidun Turner Laura Vaugha Victoria Watts Ruth Wilkinson

Duration: approx. 2 hours and 15 minutes, including interval

Consortium unites a band of Australia’s finest viol players to explore the rich repertoire for viol consort. Drawing upon a wealth of professional experience in its players and a deep shared love of the consort experience, Consortium enables Melbourne audiences to experience the beauty and crystalline purity of the traditional repertoire for viol consort alongside exciting Avant Garde new music being written for this unique medium.

POST-CONCERT TALK Following this extraordinary performance, Víkingur Ólafsson joins Melbourne Recital Centre’s Director of Programming, Marshall McGuire, in the ground floor foyer for a 20-minute discussion about his artistry, career, and more. Take a seat and enjoy this perfect conclusion to your musical experience.

16

About the Music

SET 1 The consort music written in England in the century or so before Bach’s birth is a source of extraordinary musical riches – sometimes of a sombre beauty and sometimes of a saucy irreverence. Much of it was composed for dancing at court, at a time when the viol was yet to be supplanted by the interloping violin, which seems to have made English landfall around 1540.

The earliest music you’ll encounter in this performance is by the mysterious Chrstopher Tye, who became musical mentor to the young King Edward VI. You’ll also hear William Byrd’s often unruly setting of the popular tune The Queen’s Goodnight; two pieces by the composer most frequently associated with the spirit known as ‘the 17th century melancholy,’ John Dowland; and a pavan by the chorister and organist Thomas Weelkes, a marvellous composer whose life seems to have unravelled around 1517, when he was dismissed from his post at Chichester Cathedral for ‘drunkenness and outrageous blaspheming.’

With the Fantazya by William Lawes, you meet the composer Jordi Savall has described as ‘one of the most innovative and fascinating musical figures of [his] day.’

SET 2 There are works, it is said, that are written for the keyboard and others that are written through it. Everything Chopin wrote involves the piano, and it’s hard to imagine the opening movement of Beethoven’s Moonlight sonata being created with any other instrument in mind. On the face of it, there is every reason to discuss the Goldberg Variations in the same terms. In essence, this is a set of teaching pieces, which Bach entitled ‘Keyboard Practice, consisting of an Aria with Diverse Variations, for the Harpsichord with two manuals, composed for music lovers, to refresh their spirits.’ But this modest description doesn’t seem even remotely adequate for a piece the pianist Pavel Kolesnikov has likened to ‘climbing an infinite stairway, one step at a time.’

The story (as told by Bach’s first biographer, Johann Nikolaus Forkel some 50 years after the composer’s death) goes that Bach was commissioned to write the work for one his patrons, Count Hermann Karl von Keyserlingk, Russian ambassador to the court of Saxony. Prone to sleeplessness, he wanted some music ‘of a soft and lively character’ which would be played for him by his 14-year-old protégé, the harpsichordist Johann Gottlieb Goldberg.

The Goldberg Variations are organised schematically.

Following the theme, Bach arranges the variations in groups of three, every third variation being a two-voice canon, the canon in all cases (except the last) being played by the right hand over an independent bass line. With each succeeding canon, the intervals grow wider – so Variation 3 is a canon in unison, Variation 6 a canon at the second and so on until the lilting dance of Variation 27, a canon at the ninth. Interspersed with these canons are free variations – often suggesting dance forms popular in Bach’s day, particularly the gigue and the courtly passepied – and two-part inventions. Overall, the canons are the most ‘vocal’ movements, and the two-part inventions are the ones which would have given young Goldberg the greatest opportunity to demonstrate his virtuosity.

The theme itself – the Aria which sets the Variations in motion – is a gentle, dignified sarabande. Although you’ll be able to hear hints of this melody along the way, it isn’t the basis for Bach’s mighty edifice: the variations are based on the Aria’s bass line, harmonies (or rather harmonic possibilities) and phrase structure.

Knowing what goes on ‘under the hood’ can’t explain the work’s deep, enduring appeal. Bach’s organisational rigour over such a huge span is a thing of wonder, but in performance is something you’re likely to feel subliminally.

There is the theatre of the piece, the demands of concentration and stamina it makes on the performer (not to mention the frequent hand-crossings!), and the many moments of joy, like the penultimate Quodlibet (literally ‘whatever you wish’), a short, scintillating mash-up of two popular tunes, I’ve not been with you for so long and Cabbage and beets drove me away. But ultimately, it’s Bach’s imaginative power that dazzles and overwhelms.

The moments when virtuosity and grand design call a truce are among the most sublime: Variation 13, which seems to hold its breath and sigh at the same time; Variation 25, called the ‘black pearl’ by harpsichordist Wanda Landowska, which almost anticipates Chopin in its veiled beauty; and the profoundly affecting return to the opening Aria at the work’s conclusion, about which pianist Angela Hewitt has written: ‘Our journey is complete, yet we are back where we began.’ And the Goldberg Variations represent one of music’s transcendent journeys. ©Phillip Sametz 2024

Scholars’ opinions of this tale range from scepticism to scorn (and many of the more dazzling variations are hardly likely to cure insomnia…) but the title has stuck, and the world has been left with one of music’s towering achievements.

17

Thank you to our generous donors

MUSIC CIRCLE

$5,000+

Helen Brack

Maria Mercurio

Thank you to the donors who support the depth and vibrancy of the Centre’s musical program and play a crucial role in ensuring we can continue to present a broad range of the greatest musicians and ensembles from Australia and around the globe.

Arnold & Mary Bram

Debbie Brady

Dennis & Fairlie Nassau

John Castles am & Thelma Castles oam

Jannie Brown

Stephen Newton ao

The Hon Susan Crennan ao kc & Michael Crennan kc

Maggie Cash

Dr Paul Nisselle am

The Hon Alex Chernov ac kc & Elizabeth Chernov

Greg Noonan

Kaye Cleary

Christopher Reed

Salon Program Benefactor

Maria McCarthy

Lady Primrose Potter ac

Tom Smyth**

$30,000+ Robert Peck am, Yvonne von Hartel am, Rachel Peck & Marten Peck of peckvonhartel architects (Signature Event Circle Benefactors) Joy Selby Smith $20,000+ Cathy Simpson & John Simpson am (Signature Event Circle) $10,000+ Anonymous (1) John & Lorraine Bates

Mary Draper am Kathryn Greiner ao Diana Lempriere

Janet Thomson Lyn Williams AM Youth Music Foundation of Australia Inc (Signature Event Circle) $2,500+ Donald Abell Bill Burdett am & Sandra Burdett Alastair Campbell & Sue Campbell Kerin Carr Assoc Prof Jody Evans Colin Golvan am kc & Dr Deborah Golvan**

Christine & Michael Clough John & Chris Collingwood The Hon Mary Delahunty The Hon Justice Julie Dodds-Streeton**

Eda Ritchie am Clara Rubera

Brigitte Treutenaere & Paul Donnelly

Anne Runhardt & Glenn Reindel

Lord Francis Ebury & the Late Lady Suzanne Ebury

Viorica Samson

Kathryn Fagg ao & Kevin Altermatt

Jacqueline Schwarz

Margaret Farren-Price & Prof Ronald FarrenPrice am Andrew Firestone Mark Freeman Kingsley Gee Ann Gordon Gras Foundation Trust The Hon David L Harper am**

Esther & Brian Benjamin Warwick & Paulette Bisley

Catherine Heggen

Jim Cousins ao & Libby Cousins am (Signature Event Circle)

Dr Alastair Jackson am

Alistair Hay & Dr Jennifer Miller

Barbara Hutchinson in memory of her late husband Darvell M Hutchinson Konfir Kabo & Monica Lim Jane Kunstler

Ann Lahore Simon Le Plastrier* Shelley & Euan Murdoch Emeritus Professor Margaret Plant

Andrew Wheeler am & Jan Wheeler (Signature Event Circle)

Christopher Menz & Peter Rose

Igor Zambelli (Signature Event Circle)

Maria Sola

$7,500+

Dr Victor Wayne & Dr Karen Wayne oam

Alex King (Signature Event Circle)**

Sirius Foundation Jenny Tatchell

$1,000+ Anonymous (4) Clare Acherson Robert Baker Michael Bennett & Kate Stockwin^ Kaye Birks in the memory of David

18

Ralph & Ruth Renard Resonance Fund Michael Cowen & Sharon Nathani

Brian Crisp

Ballandry (Peter Griffin Family) Fund

Paul Jasper

Susan Pelka & Richard Caven

Lyndsey & Peter Hawkins

Robert Heathcote** Peter Heffey Doug Hooley Jenny & Peter Hordern John Howie am & Dr Linsey Howie* Prof Andrea Hull ao In memory of the Late Harry Johnson Norah Breekveldt & Andrew Katona*

Terry & Margaret Sawyer Greg Shalit & Miriam Faine Dr Vaughan Speck Iain Stewart Helen Symon kc & Ian Lulham Michael Troy The Ullmer Family Foundation Jennifer Whitehead $500+ Anonymous (4) Jenny Anderson Maureen Barden Catherine Belcher Dr David Bernshaw & Caroline Isakow The Hon Justice David Byrne kc Dr Geoffrey Clarke Emilia Cross Bruce Dudon Jean Dunn Chris Egan

Angela Kayser

Susan Fallaw

Assoc Prof Sebastian King^

Dr Jane Gilmour oam & Terry Brian*

Maryanne B Loughnan kc** In memory of John Price The Mard Foundation Janet McDonald Banjo McLachlan & Paul Mahony Mercer Family Foundation

Janine Gleeson The Hon Hartley Hansen am kc & Rosalind Hansen** Dr Robert Hetzel Rosemary & David Houseman Assoc Prof James Hurley

Joan Janka

$5,000+

Dr George Janko

D & X Williamson Family Charitable Fund

Dr Garry Joslin Irene Kearsey & Michael Ridley

The Jack & Hedy Brent Foundation

Sean King

$2,500+

Daniel Kirkham Angela & Richard Kirsner Dr Anne Lierse am Helen Lovass Barbara Manovel Jennifer K Marshall Jane Morris Helen Perlen Kerryn Pratchett Jim Short Simon Strickland Bernard Sweeney

Anne Burgi & Kerin Carr Kathy Deutsch & Dr George Deutsch oam $1,000+ Anonymous (2) Keith & Debby Badger Debbie Brady Maria Hansen Doug Hooley Dr Barry Jones ac & Rachel Faggetter

Charles Tegner

Prof John Langford am & Julie Langford

Robin Usher & Mandy Meade

Ann Miller

Helen Vorrath

The Hon Ralph Willis ao & Carol Willis

Tony Way

ACCESS TO MUSIC AND LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES FOR ALL Thank you to the donors who support learning and access programs which share the music by bringing high quality music and learning opportunities to people from all walks of life. $100,000+ Prof Dimity Reed am $30,000+ Hansen Little Foundation $20,000+ Krystyna CampbellPretty am $10,000+ Canny Quine Foundation Gailey Lazarus Foundation The Hon Justice Michelle Gordon ac & The Hon Kenneth M Hayne ac kc** The Sentinel Foundation

Young Artist Development Benefactor The Peggy and Leslie Cranbourne Foundation Merlyn Myer Music Commission The Aranday Foundation

The Late Betty Amsden ao dsj Barbara Blackman ao Jennifer Brukner oam Ken Bullen Jen Butler Emilia Cross

The Yulgilbar Foundation

The Estate of Beverley Shelton & Martin Schönthal

$30,000+

Kingsley Gee & Zhen Fu Guan

Margaret S Ross am & Dr Ian C Ross

Charles Taylor Hardman

$10,000+

Dr Garry Joslin

Warwick & Paulette Bisley George & Laila Embelton Julie Kantor ao

Jenny & Peter Hordern Jane Kunstler Janette McLellan Rosemary O’Connor

The Vizard Foundation

Elizabeth O’Keeffe

$5,000+

Prof Dimity Reed am

Anonymous (1) Dr Mary-Jane Gething ao

Penny Rawlins Vivienne Ritchie am

Rosemary O’Connor*

Christopher Menz & Peter Rose

$2,500+

Sandy Shaw

$500+

Jo Fisher & Peter Grayson

Mary Vallentine ao

Anonymous (1)

Peter J Stirling & Kimberley Kane**

TAKE YOUR SEAT

Kevin Byrne Elise Callander

$1,000+

Jack & Vivien Fajgenbaum

Peter J Armstrong*

Nina Friedman & Jarrad Pyke

Zoe Brinsden*

June K Marks Miriam McDonald

In memory of the Late Harry Johnson

Lorraine Moir

Martine Letts

Andrew & Georgina Porter

Dr Richard Mills am

Dr Ronald Rosanove & Elizabeth Rosanove

Anne Runhardt & Glenn Reindel

NURTURING ARTISTIC DEVELOPMENT Thank you to the donors who support our enriching artist development programs to help create a wide range of opportunities for local musicians to ensure a vibrant musical future for the Centre, Victoria and beyond.

Betty Amsden Kids and Family Program Benefactor The late Betty Amsden ao dsj

Timothy Goodwin**

Christine Sather* $500+ Leslie Thiess

A LASTING LEGACY Thank you to this extraordinary group of donors for supporting the future of Melbourne Recital Centre both now and for generations to come.

Inaugural Patrons Jim Cousins ao & Libby Cousins am Anonymous (4) Jenny Anderson John & Lorraine Bates

Thank you to the donors who have dedicated an Elisabeth Murdoch Hall seat in the last twelve months.

Michael Bennett Bill Burdett am & Sandra Burdett Anne Burgi Kerin Carr Andrew & Theresa Dyer Colin Golvan am kc & Dr Deborah Golvan Penny Hutchinson Kate Irving Jane Keech Reg & Norma Keech Ian & June Marks Christina McLeish Michael Muntisov Shelley & Euan Murdoch Susan Riebl * Ensemble Giovane ** Legal Friends ^ Medical Friends List of patrons as at 11 January 2024

19

Music Circle You are invited to become part of the Music Circle by making an annual, tax-deductible, gift of $1,000 or more. By donating to Melbourne Recital Centre, you will be joining a community of fellow music-lovers who are passionate about chamber music in Melbourne. Your annual Music Circle donation will bring great music to life in our city by supporting opportunities for talented local artists to build flourishing careers, as well as providing a platform for the greatest musicians from around the world to move, excite, and delight local audiences.

In appreciation of the crucial role that you will play in filling Melbourne Recital Centre with great music, you will enjoy special invitations throughout the year to gather after concerts and meet the wonderful international and local artists whose performances they make possible. Your gift will be recognised on our website, in our Annual Report, and in concert programs.

Donate to the Music Circle today and play your part in bringing live music to life at Melbourne Recital Centre.

Donate here To learn more, visit melbournerecital.com.au/support or contact Sylvie Huigen, Development Manager on (03) 9207 2648 or sylvie.huigen@melbournerecital.com.au

Our Supporters Founding Patron

Life Members

The Late Dame Elisabeth Murdoch ac dbe

Lin Bender am

Penny Hutchinson

Deborah Cheetham Fraillon ao

Julie Kantor ao

Jim Cousins ao

Stephen McIntyre am

Kathryn Fagg ao

Richard Mills ao

Margaret Farren-Price & Ronald Farren-Price am

Lady Primrose Potter ac

Richard Gubbins

Mary Vallentine ao

Jordi Savall

Founding Benefactors

Board Directors

The Kantor Family

Professor Andrea Hull ao, Chair

Assoc Prof Jody Evans

The Calvert-Jones Family

Paul Donnelly, Deputy Chair

Liz Grainger

Lyn Williams am

Andrew Apostola

Monica Lim

Helen Macpherson Smith Trust

The Hon Mary Delahunty

Peter McMullin am

Robert Salzer Foundation The Hugh Williamson Foundation

Melbourne Recital Centre Management Chief Executive Officer Sandra Willis

Director of Corporate Services Sarah MacPherson

Head of Operations Jasja van Andel

Director of Programming Marshall McGuire

Head of Marketing and Visitor Experience Latoyah Forsyth

Head of Development Alistaire Bowler

Principal Government Partner

Program Partners

Supporting Partners ™

M O U N T C A M E L R I D G E E S TAT E H A

E U

A S

T T

H R

C A

O L

T I

E A

Foundations ANONYMOUS

THE ARANDAY FOUNDATION

BALLANDRY (PETER GRIFFIN FAMILY) FUND

THE CALVERT-JONES FOUNDATION

THE CANNY QUINE FOUNDATION

THE PEGGY & LESLIE CRANBOURNE FOUNDATION

THE MARIAN & E.H. FLACK TRUST

GRAS FOUNDATION TRUST

GAILEY LAZARUS FOUNDATION

MERCER FAMILY FOUNDATION

M.S. NEWMAN FAMILY FOUNDATION

THE SENTINEL FOUNDATION

SIRIUS FOUNDATION

THE ULLMER FAMILY FOUNDATION

THE VIZARD FOUNDATION

D & X WILLIAMSON FAMILY CHARITABLE FUND

THE HUGH WILLIAMSON FOUNDATION

21

Coming Up at Melbourne Recital Centre

SELLING FAST 14-15 FEB Calexico – Feast of Wire 20th Anniversary Tour

17 FEB La Compañia – The Baroque of Venice

27 FEB Brooklyn Rider – The Four Elements

28 FEB Lonnie Holley + Moor Mother + Irreversible Entanglements

SELLING FAST 1 MAR Michael Rother & Friends Play the Music of Neu!

2 MAR Yirinda

SELLING FAST 8 MAR Arooj Aftab – Vulture Prince

SELLING FAST 13 MAR Franck Vigroux & Antoine Schmitt – Cascades

SELLING FAST 14 MAR Genesis Baroque – Holding Court with J.S. Bach

SELLING FAST 15-16 MAR Lydia Lunch & Joseph Keckler – Tales of Lust & Madness

25 MAR Víkingur Ólafsson + Consortium

SELLING FAST 26 MAR Meshell Ndegeocello

SELLING FAST 6 APR Blind Boys of Alabama

10 APR JACK Quartet – String Creatures

SELLING FAST

16 APR Mostly Mozart – Glass Harmonica

To explore our full list of what’s on at the Centre, visit melbournerecital.com.au 22

SELLING FAST

MATINEE PERFORMANCE

Cnr Southbank Boulevard & Sturt Street, Southbank, VIC melbournerecital.com.au 03 9699 3333