SIR ANDREW DAVIS | ANNE-SOPHIE MUTTER
MID-SEASON GALA 23 JUNE 2018
CONCERT PROGRAM
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Sir Andrew Davis conductor Anne-Sophie Mutter violin, Soloist in Residence* Stacey Alleaume soprano Jeremy Kleeman bass-baritone Stravinsky The Fairy’s Kiss: Divertimento Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto INTERVAL Williams Markings Nielsen Symphony No.3 Sinfonia Espansiva
* Supported by Mr Marc Besen AC and Mrs Eva Besen AO Running time: Two hours and 30 minutes, including a 20-minute interval In consideration of your fellow patrons, the MSO thanks you for silencing and dimming the light on your phone. The MSO acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land on which we are performing. We pay our respects to their Elders, past and present, and the Elders from other communities who may be in attendance. 2
mso.com.au
(03) 9929 9600
MELBOURNE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
SIR ANDREW DAVIS CONDUCTOR
Established in 1906, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO) is an arts leader and Australia’s longestrunning professional orchestra. Chief Conductor Sir Andrew Davis has been at the helm of MSO since 2013. Engaging more than 4 million people each year, the MSO reaches diverse audiences through live performances, recordings, TV and radio broadcasts and live streaming.
Chief Conductor of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Sir Andrew Davis is also Music Director and Principal Conductor of the Lyric Opera of Chicago. He is Conductor Laureate of both the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the Toronto Symphony, where he has also been named interim Artistic Director until 2020.
The MSO works with Associate Conductor Benjamin Northey and Cybec Assistant Conductor Tianyi Lu, as well as with such eminent recent guest conductors as Tan Dun, John Adams, Jakub Hrůša and Jukka-Pekka Saraste. It also collaborates with nonclassical musicians such as Elton John, Nick Cave and Flight Facilities.
In a career spanning more than 40 years he has conducted virtually all the world’s major orchestras and opera companies, and at the major festivals. Recent highlights have included Die Walküre in a new production at Chicago Lyric. Sir Andrew’s many CDs include Messiah nominated for a 2018 GRAMMY® Award, Bliss’ The Beatitudes, and a recording with the Bergen Philharmonic of Vaughan Williams’ Job/Symphony No.9 nominated for a 2018 BBC Music Magazine Award. With the MSO he has just released a third recording in the ongoing Richard Strauss series, featuring the Alpine Symphony and Till Eulenspiegel.
3
ANNE-SOPHIE MUTTER VIOLIN
STACEY ALLEAUME SOPRANO
Anne-Sophie Mutter is a fourtime GRAMMY® Award winner. Contemporary composers such as Krzysztof Penderecki, Sofia Gubaidulina, Wolfgang Rihm and John Williams have all composed for her. She premiered Sir André Previn’s The Fifth Season at Carnegie Hall in March 2018. Future performances include a recital of Mozart, Brahms and Franck sonatas with Daniel Barenboim and performances of Beethoven, Unsuk Chin (a world premiere) and John Williams’ Markings at Berlin’s Philharmonie.
Praised for her voice of remarkable beauty, warmth, character and expression, Australian-Mauritian Soprano Stacey Alleaume is embarking on a promising and exciting operatic career. In 2016, she received the Dame Joan Sutherland Scholarship for outstanding Australian operatic talent and became a member of the Moffatt Oxenbould Young Artist Program at Opera Australia. In her first season with the company, Alleaume performed as Micaëla in Carmen, Flower Maiden 1 in Parsifal and Violetta Valery in La Traviata. In the current season, Alleaume returns to Australia as Valencienne in The Merry Widow, Micaëla in Carmen, Fiorilla in Il Turco in Italia and Violetta. She will also cover the role of Gilda in Rigoletto.
Anne-Sophie Mutter dedicates herself to numerous benefit projects and, since 2011, has regularly shared the stage with The Mutter Virtuosi, an ensemble formed from former and current scholarship-holders of the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation. Her latest disc is a recording of Schubert’s Trout Quintet with Daniil Trifonov, Maximilian Hornung, Hwayoon Lee and Roman Patkoló. The MSO is thrilled to host AnneSophie as 2018 Soloist in Residence.
4
Stacey Alleaume joined the Performance Program at The Opera Studio Melbourne in 2010. Since then, the soprano’s artistic development has been supported by numerous awards and accolades. In 2011, Alleaume received grants from the PPCA Performers’ Trust Foundation and Opus 50 Charitable Trust. She was awarded the Dame Nellie Melba Opera Trust Scholarship in 2010 and was honoured again in 2012 with the Melba Opera Trust’s Amelia Joscelyne Reserve Scholarship and the Ruskin Family Opera Award.
JEREMY KLEEMAN BASS-BARITONE
A graduate of Victorian Opera’s Developing Artist Program and of Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, Jeremy Kleeman has also been a Melba Opera Trust Scholar, the recipient of the Dame Heather Begg Award and has received both Helpmann and Green Room Award nominations. Jeremy has performed with Opera Australia (title role, The Marriage of Figaro), Victorian Opera (The Cunning Little Vixen), State Opera of South Australia (Cloudstreet), Sydney Chamber Opera (The Rape of Lucretia), Pinchgut Opera (The Coronation of Poppea), Brisbane Baroque (Faramondo), Musica Viva (Voyage to the Moon), Royal Melbourne Philharmonic Society, Consort of Melbourne, Melbourne Bach Choir and the Canberra International Music Festival. Jeremy’s 2018 engagements include Walter Furst in William Tell and Albert in The Magic Pudding (Victorian Opera), and Collatinus in The Rape of Lucretia at Dark MoFo, Hobart, Nielson Symphony No.3 with Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Opera by the Lakes and Second Elder (Susanna) for Handel In The Theatre, Canberra.
5
Unfold the musical legacy of legendary American composer and conductor, Leonard Bernstein. WEST SIDE STORY
FILM WITH LIVE ORCHESTRA
27 JULY | 7.30pm SOLD OUT 28 JULY | 1pm SELLING FAST Benjamin Northey conductor
BERNSTEIN CLASSICS 15 AUGUST | 7.30pm Bramwell Tovey conductor
BERNSTEIN ON BROADWAY 18 AUGUST | 7.30pm Bramwell Tovey conductor
Talks, films, concerts and more. All ages. Arts Centre Melbourne, Hamer Hall
mso.com.au/bernstein
Leonard Bernstein by Paul de Hueck, Courtesy of the Leonard Bernstein Office
6
PROGRAM NOTES IGOR STRAVINSKY
(1882-1971)
The Fairy’s Kiss: Divertimento Sinfonia Swiss Dances and Waltz Scherzo Pas de deux Stravinsky first established his reputation in the West through his association with Sergei Diaghilev’s legendary Ballets Russes, for whom he composed the ballets which have remained his most popular works – The Firebird (1910), Petrushka (1911) and The Rite of Spring (1913). Towards the end of 1927, the dancer Ida Rubinstein, who was planning to establish a dance company of her own, approached Stravinsky’s publishers to enquire whether she might include his new ballet Apollon musagète in her repertoire. She was told that the European rights rested with Diaghilev, so she submitted to Stravinsky two ideas for new works, one of which he liked immediately. This was to compose a score inspired by the music of Tchaikovsky who had been a childhood idol. Stravinsky cherished memories of Tchaikovsky, pointed out to him by his father Feodor at the Mariinsky Theatre during the 50th anniversary production of Ruslan and Ludmila in 1893, two weeks before Tchaikovsky died. But Stravinsky’s lifelong regard for Tchaikovsky was founded on a great love for his music. In 1921, when
Diaghilev was mounting his lavish production of The Sleeping Beauty at London’s Alhambra Theatre, Stravinsky declared, in a letter to the Times, that Sleeping Beauty was ‘the most convincing example of Tchaikovsky’s great creative power’. He arranged two numbers for the London production, and his affection for this music is still apparent in the 1963 rehearsal of the ‘Bluebird pas de deux’ included on CBS’s complete set of Stravinsky Conducts recordings. Rubinstein gave Stravinsky free rein to choose both the subject matter and scenario of the ballet. He fashioned a storyline from Hans Christian Andersen’s tale The Ice Maiden, and decided to base his work on a selection of Tchaikovsky’s nonorchestral pieces – mostly piano and vocal works. The scenario is intended to be taken as an allegory of Tchaikovsky’s creative life. A child, separated from his mother, is found and kissed by a Fairy, then taken away to be looked after by villagers. At a village fête some 18 years later, the young man is celebrating with his fiancée when the Fairy, disguised as a gypsy, enters and tells the young man his future, promising good fortune. The young man and his fiancée dance by a mill, but when the fiancée goes away to put on her bridal dress, the Fairy appears, and lures the young man away with her. She bestows her fatal kiss on the young man, and encloses him forever in the land of Eternal Dwelling. Stravinsky chose about half of the complete ballet for inclusion in the four-movement Divertimento. In the Sinfonia, the Fairy kisses the child and 7
disappears; Swiss Dances and Waltz is the village fair and the young man’s betrothal. The Fairy leads the young man to his fiancée, playing round games with her friends, in the Scherzo, and the young couple dance together in the Pas de deux. It could be said that the scenario reveals some ambivalence towards Tchaikovsky’s art. The Fairy who bestows the kiss turns out to be malign. Lawrence Morton has suggested that, in Stravinsky’s mind, the fatal kiss planted on Tchaikovsky represented ‘the vulgarity of his symphonic climaxes and his boring sequences’. Morton further points out that the aspect of Tchaikovsky’s music most altered by Stravinsky is melody, the element most people would argue was Tchaikovsky’s real strength. But who could be confident in completely accepting the modernist Morton’s view of Stravinsky’s dissatisfaction with Tchaikovsky’s style? This work is the product of a deep immersion in an earlier countryman’s art. Tchaikovsky’s voice may sound, from a rewrought version of his song Tant triste, tant douce to a cadential figure from the Fifth Symphony, to a mere whiff of None but the Lonely Heart, another of Tchaikovsky’s songs, but the chugging rhythms, the precise articulations, the orchestration, ‘the syntax, idiom, accent, craft’ – there is not a bar that is not pure Stravinsky. It has been claimed that a certain spirit went out of Stravinsky’s music once he severed links finally with his homeland. The popular early ballets are imbued with the spirit of Russia, and Richard Taruskin has shown how deeply Stravinsky absorbed and transmuted 8
what may be called ‘aboriginal’ Russian and Ukrainian folk material in The Rite of Spring. In the 1920s, as Stravinsky began to pare down his style and subscribe to the values of Classicism, he also began to align himself with the more cosmopolitan strand of Russian culture, and he dedicated the short oneact opera Mavra (1921) to the ‘trinity’ of Glinka, Pushkin and Tchaikovsky. In The Fairy’s Kiss, Stravinsky’s expression of love for an honoured predecessor, there is a curious and moving warmth. In one sense, however, The Fairy’s Kiss did signify a rupture. Diaghilev was furious that one of his protégés should have been associated with such an inferior undertaking as the Ida Rubinstein Company, and the first performance at the Paris Opera on 27 November 1928 could be considered the end of their relationship. Gordon Kalton Williams Symphony Australia © 1998/2005 The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra first performed this work on 28 November 1961 during Stravinsky’s visit to Australia, under the direction of Robert Craft. The Orchestra most recently performed it on 15-17 November 2007 with Markus Stenz.
PETER ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY
(1840-1893)
Violin Concerto in D, Op.35 Allegro moderato – Moderato assai Canzonetta (Andante) Finale (Allegro vivacissimo) Anne-Sophie Mutter violin It was the winter of 1877, and Tchaikovsky was in love. He wrote to his brother Modest about the ‘unimaginable force’ of the passion
that had developed; its object was a young violinist and student at the Moscow Conservatorium, Josef Kotek. Kotek was a devoted and affectionate but platonic friend to Tchaikovsky, but soon became besotted with a fellow (female) student. The composer’s ardour cooled quickly, and within three weeks of discovering Kotek’s new relationship, Tchaikovsky had made his fateful proposal to Antonina Milyukova, a former Conservatorium student who had fallen in love with him. They married two months later, and as the depth of their cultural and personal differences quickly became clear, Tchaikovsky left his wife two months after that. Kotek and Tchaikovsky remained friends, however, and the Violin Concerto seems to have grown out of a promise that the composer made to write a piece for one of Kotek’s upcoming concerts. While Kotek was not, ultimately, the dedicatee or first performer of the work, he was of enormous help to Tchaikovsky in playing through sections of the piece as the composer finished them. After leaving his wife, Tchaikovsky, accompanied by one or other of his brothers (and at one point Kotek himself), travelled extensively in Western Europe. Tchaikovsky worked on the Violin Concerto in Switzerland in early 1878, not long after completing the Fourth Symphony and the opera Eugene Onegin. Commentators are generally agreed that both of those works reflect Tchaikovsky’s emotional reactions to the traumatic events of his marriage, though the composer himself was careful, in a letter to his
patron, Nadezhda von Meck, to point out that one could only depict such states in retrospect. In any event, it seems likely that, apart from honouring a promise to Kotek, Tchaikovsky found the conventions of the violin concerto offered a way of writing a large-scale work without the personal investment of the opera and symphony. Like the great concertos of Beethoven, Brahms, Mendelssohn and Sibelius, Tchaikovsky’s is in three substantial movements. The first develops two characteristic themes within a tracery of brilliant virtuoso writing for the violin, and like Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky places the solo cadenza before the recapitulation of the opening material. As in the slow movement of the Fourth Symphony, the central Canzonetta works its magic by the deceptively simple repetition of its material. The work concludes with a bravura, ‘Slavic’ Finale which is interrupted only by a motif for solo oboe which for one writer recalls, nostalgically, a moment in the ‘Letter Scene’ from Onegin (which itself parallels the relationship between Tchaikovsky and Antonina). The work was initially dedicated to the virtuoso Leopold Auer, who thought it far too difficult and refused to play it. In 1881 Adolf Brodsky gave the premiere in Vienna, where that city’s most feared critic, Eduard Hanslick, tore the piece to shreds: The violin is no longer played; it is pulled, torn, drubbed…We see plainly the savage vulgar faces, we hear curses, we smell vodka…Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto gives us for the first time the notion that there can be music that stinks to the ear. 9
Hanslick, like many a music critic, made a bad call; Tchaikovsky had written one of the best-loved works of the concerto repertoire. Gordon Kerry © 2003 The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra first performed this concerto on 21 May 1938 with conductor George Szell and soloist Lionel Lawson. The Orchestra’s most recent performance was on 28 February 2017, with Benjamin Northey and Maxim Vengerov.
JOHN WILLIAMS
(Born 1932)
Markings for solo violin, strings and harp Anne-Sophie Mutter violin It may seem strange to begin a program note by pointing out that John Williams is the most Oscar®-nominated living person (his score to Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi being the most recent nomination). But Williams is also arguably the the world’s most famous composer for orchestra – reaching all age groups. Last September I saw the Hollywood Bowl (capacity 17,500) packed with young people waiting with their lightsabers to hear the music of an 85-year-old man. As a film composer, Williams ranges from banjo/harmonica music for Arthur Penn’s movie The Missouri Breaks to the ‘bebop’ of Catch Me If You Can, directed by Steven Spielberg. But Williams has also, during his career, created concert works, including, in 1976, a violin concerto recorded by Gil Shaham. (Incidentally, there are many musicians who enjoy Williams’ film music as music, without reference to the films.)
10
Anne-Sophie Mutter has commissioned leading composers such as Sofia Gubaidulina, Wolfgang Rihm, and Sir André Previn (who, according to New Music USA, remembers Williams from their days playing for a ballroom dance school ‘on La Brea Avenue’). Mutter wanted Williams to write a piece for her because, as she said in a 2017 Boston Globe interview: ‘He just understands how to write for instruments…how to put instruments into the best possible position to soar…’ Markings was premiered on 16 July 2017 at Tanglewood, Massachusetts, summer home of the Boston Symphony, whose Pops orchestra Williams has conducted for nearly 40 years. Mutter was soloist; conductor, Andris Nelsons. Williams has written many tuneful violin solos in his films, but Markings is atonal. David Robertson, chief conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, has commented on the way Williams ‘puts an atmosphere in place…we begin wondering about what kind of story will be told.’ He adds, ‘What really impresses me in the piece is the way that small intervals, notes that are very close together, evoke a kind of intimacy that is then constantly being pulled apart. It almost feels like something very personal comes under wide public scrutiny…’ Markings begins ‘hushed but warmly’. The violin sound is sonorous (but ‘reflective’), emphasising the g-string, before ranging more widely. The soloist expounds song-like music over a slow tread before the music enters a dancelike phase (harp now joining), which is then pulled back for a cadenza before a short coda (the lyrical song again,
ascending into the violin’s highest range). What is this music about? Does Markings refer to the detailed attention to attack and declamation? Never mind, the music speaks to us directly and leaves us curious for more. Gordon Kalton Williams © 2018 This is the first performance of Markings by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.
CARL NIELSEN
(1865-1931)
Symphony No.3, Op.27, Sinfonia espansiva (1910-11) Allegro espansivo Andante pastorale Allegretto un poco Finale (Allegro) Stacey Alleaume soprano Jeremy Kleeman bass-baritone Nielsen was born and schooled in a small rural town on the central Danish island of Funen, and after a brief unhappy stint as a grocer’s apprentice, in 1879 aged 14, enlisted as a brass player in a military band in the region’s nearby capital, Odense. In 1884, he won a place in Niels Gade’s conservatory in Copenhagen, where for the three years his chief studies were violin and music theory, and in 1888 he returned briefly to Odense to conduct the premiere of his official ‘opus 1’, a suite for strings. He joined the Royal Theatre orchestra in 1889, serving as rank-and-file second violinist for 16 years under Johan Svendsen, whom he ultimately succeeded as second conductor in 1908. From 1901, in addition to his
modest salary, he also received a small state pension, buying time out from private teaching to devote instead to composition. In 1902 he conducted the premieres of his first opera, Saul and David, and his Second Symphony (‘The four temperaments’). The comic opera Maskarade (1906) was his first popular success. A tone poem Saga-Dream (1908), drawing on Icelandic folklore, was a notable musical precursor to the Third Symphony, completed early in 1911, and the Violin Concerto, written later that same year. Nielsen conducted the Copenhagen premieres of both symphony and concerto early in 1912, and a subsequent Amsterdam performance of the symphony with the Concertgebouw Orchestra earned a warm reception that contributed to it becoming his first real European success. What Nielsen once described as ‘unison jerks’, the symphony’s stuttering first chords set off an ‘expansive’ Allegro ‘meant as a gust of energy and lifeaffirmation blown out into the wide world’. The main melodic thread of the first movement – indeed, much of the entire symphony – seems to exist in a perpetual modal hinterland teetering uneasily between major and minor, lending the music both its internal energy, and an audible instability, against which it constantly strives for some sort of resolution. The themes themselves are caught up in a process of ongoing transformation. The arching, waltz-like main tune (which came to Nielsen while he was riding on a Copenhagen tram) can reappear so altered in shape that, by rights, it should be virtually unrecognisable, and yet somehow remains indelibly itself. In the opening part, one searing tutti 11
succeeds another in hyper-energised succession, more than once avoiding resolution by merely fading away. Contrasting quieter episodes offer a more closely focused interplay of orchestral colours and fugue-like counterpoints. An audible landmark, just past the movement’s halfway mark, is a big, brassy reworking of the theme as a sort of circus calliope tune. Into the home stretch, the toe-tapping waltz rhythm becomes irresistible. Yet the ending is curiously off-centre, the final chord more a colon than a full-stop, sidestepping any anticipated resolution. Nielsen intended the first movement’s expression of ‘strong tension (espansiva)’ to be ‘completely eliminated in the second by idyllic calm’. A sense of ‘peace in nature’ pervades, despite what he described as the ‘ambivalent mood between major and minor’ in which the movement begins and ends, and the more elegiac mood of the central episode. When male and female human voices enter with a wordless vocalise ‘it is only to underscore the mood one could imagine in paradise before the fall of our first parents, Adam and Eve’. Representing one of the most sublime moments in his creative life, this movement was played at Nielsen’s funeral in 1931. Having put the final touches to this idyllic vision in July 1910, Nielsen was plunged back into harsh reality by one of his frequent bouts of depression and creative inertia, and it wasn’t until autumn that he was able to press ahead with the third movement. Perhaps reflecting his lingering malaise at the time, he later described it as music 12
in which ‘both evil and good are manifested without any real settling of the issue’. Its beginning and ending are deceptively demure, and its core, characterised by a combination of skittish energy subverted by a restless rhythmic undertow, remains too conflicted, and insufficiently carefree, to keep up much pretence to being a conventional scherzo. Its mood of partially thwarted dynamism anyway throws into even greater relief the ensuing finale – Nielsen called it a ‘hymn to work’ – that not only reveals the composer himself restored to full health and resolve, but once again also alive to the ‘activity and ability manifested on all sides around us’. The unassuming march-like theme (he described it as ‘healthy-popular’) probably reminded many of the work’s early Danish audiences of Nielsen’s best known song setting Jens vejmand (Jens the roadbuilder), and, even as invested later with a certain unavoidable grandeur, the tune persists, to its very last reprise, speaking the simple, straightforward language of the folk. © Graeme Skinner, 2018 The first Australian performance of this work was given by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra on 28 September 1985 under conductor Hiroyuki Iwaki, with vocal soloists Felicity Lott and Roger Lemke. The MSO most recently performed it in July 1994 with Hugh Wolff and soloists Amanda Colliver and Roger Howell.
Beethoven and Brahms Joshua Weilerstein conductor Jayson Gillham piano Beethoven’s extraordinary Piano Concerto No.3 with Jayson Gillham, plus the magnificent orchestration of Brahms’ Piano Quartet. 20 – 21 JULY | 7:30pm 23 JULY | 6.30pm Arts Centre Melbourne, Hamer Hall
Book now mso.com.au
(03) 9929 9600 Jayson Gillham piano
13
MELBOURNE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Sir Andrew Davis Chief Conductor
Benjamin Northey Associate Conductor Anthony Pratt#
Tianyi Lu
Cybec Assistant Conductor
Hiroyuki Iwaki
Conductor Laureate (1974–2006)
FIRST VIOLINS Dale Barltrop Concertmaster
Sophie Rowell
Concertmaster The Ullmer Family Foundation#
Peter Edwards
Assistant Principal John McKay and Lois McKay#
Kirsty Bremner Sarah Curro
Michael Aquilina#
Peter Fellin Deborah Goodall Lorraine Hook Anne-Marie Johnson Kirstin Kenny Ji Won Kim Eleanor Mancini Mark Mogilevski Michelle Ruffolo Kathryn Taylor Michael Aquilina#
Amy Brookman* Madeleine Jevons* Michael Loftus-Hills* Susannah Ng* Oksana Thompson* Nicholas Waters*
14
SECOND VIOLINS
CELLOS
Matthew Tomkins
David Berlin
Robert Macindoe
Rachael Tobin
Monica Curro
Nicholas Bochner
Principal The Gross Foundation# Associate Principal
Assistant Principal Danny Gorog and Lindy Susskind#
Mary Allison Isin Cakmakcioglu Freya Franzen Anonymous#
Zoe Freisberg Cong Gu Andrew Hall
Andrew and Judy Rogers#
Isy Wasserman Philippa West Patrick Wong Roger Young Jacqueline Edwards* VIOLAS Christopher Moore Principal Di Jameson#
Fiona Sargeant
Associate Principal
Lauren Brigden
Mr Tam Vu and Dr Cherilyn Tillman#
Katharine Brockman Christopher Cartlidge
Principal MS Newman Family# Associate Principal Assistant Principal
Miranda Brockman
Geelong Friends of the MSO#
Rohan de Korte
Andrew Dudgeon#
Keith Johnson Sarah Morse Angela Sargeant Michelle Wood
Andrew and Theresa Dyer#
Rachel Atkinson* DOUBLE BASSES Steve Reeves Principal
Andrew Moon
Associate Principal
Sylvia Hosking
Assistant Principal
Damien Eckersley Benjamin Hanlon Suzanne Lee Stephen Newton
Sophie Galaise and Clarence Fraser#
Robert Nairn* Vivian Siyuan Qu*
Michael Aquilina#
FLUTES
Anthony Chataway
Prudence Davis
Dr Elizabeth E Lewis AM#
Gabrielle Halloran Trevor Jones Cindy Watkin Elizabeth Woolnough Caleb Wright Lisa Grosman* Helen Ireland* Sophie Kesoglidis*
Principal Anonymous#
Wendy Clarke
Associate Principal
Sarah Beggs PICCOLO Andrew Macleod Principal
OBOES Jeffrey Crellin Principal
Thomas Hutchinson Associate Principal
Ann Blackburn
The Rosemary Norman Foundation#
COR ANGLAIS Michael Pisani
Alexander Morton* Rachel Shaw*‡ TRUMPETS Geoffrey Payne* Guest Principal
Shane Hooton
Associate Principal
William Evans Rosie Turner
Principal
TROMBONES
Rachel Curkpatrick*
Brett Kelly
CLARINETS
Principal
David Thomas
Tim and Lyn Edward#
Principal
Philip Arkinstall
Associate Principal
Richard Shirley Mike Szabo
Principal Bass Trombone
Craig Hill
TUBA
BASS CLARINET
Timothy Buzbee
Jon Craven
David J. Saltzman*
Principal
BASSOONS Jack Schiller Principal
Elise Millman
Associate Principal
Natasha Thomas CONTRABASSOON Brock Imison Principal
Colin Forbes-Abrams* HORNS
MSO BOARD Chairman Michael Ullmer Managing Director Sophie Galaise Board Members Andrew Dyer Danny Gorog Margaret Jackson AC David Krasnostein David Li Hyon-Ju Newman Helen Silver AO Company Secretary Oliver Carton
Principal
TIMPANI** Christopher Lane PERCUSSION Robert Clarke Principal
John Arcaro
Tim and Lyn Edward#
Robert Cossom HARP Yinuo Mu Principal
Ben Jacks*†
Guest Principal
# Position supported by
Saul Lewis
* Guest Musician
Ian Wildsmith*
† Courtesy of Sydney Symphony Orchestra
Principal Third Guest Principal Third
Abbey Edlin
Nereda Hanlon and Michael Hanlon AM#
Trinette McClimont
‡ Courtesy of Orchestra Victoria ** Timpani Chair position supported by Lady Potter AC CMRI 15
Supporters MSO PATRON
PROGRAM BENEFACTORS
The Honourable Linda Dessau AC, Governor of Victoria
Cybec 21st Century Australian Composers Program The Cybec Foundation
CHAIRMAN’S CIRCLE Marc Besen AC and Eva Besen AO The Gross Foundation Harold Mitchell Foundation David and Angela Li Harold Mitchell AC MS Newman Family Foundation Lady Potter AC CMRI Joy Selby Smith The Cybec Foundation The Pratt Foundation The Ullmer Family Foundation Anonymous (1)
ARTIST CHAIR BENEFACTORS
East Meets West Supported by the Li Family Trust Meet The Orchestra Made possible by The Ullmer Family Foundation MSO Audience Access Crown Resorts Foundation, Packer Family Foundation MSO Building Capacity Gandel Philanthropy (Director of Philanthropy) MSO Education Supported by Mrs Margaret Ross AM and Dr Ian Ross MSO International Touring Supported by Harold Mitchell AC MSO Regional Touring Creative Victoria, Freemasons Foundation Victoria, The Robert Salzer Foundation, Anonymous The Pizzicato Effect (Anonymous), Collier Charitable Fund, The Marian and E.H. Flack Trust, Scobie and Claire Mackinnon Trust, Supported by the Hume City Council’s Community Grants Program
Associate Conductor Chair Benjamin Northey Anthony Pratt
Sidney Myer Free Concerts Supported by the Myer Foundation and the University of Melbourne
Orchestral Leadership Joy Selby Smith
PLATINUM PATRONS $100,000+
Cybec Assistant Conductor Chair Tianyi Lu The Cybec Foundation Associate Concertmaster Chair Sophie Rowell The Ullmer Family Foundation 2018 Soloist in Residence Chair Anne-Sophie Mutter Marc Besen AC and Eva Besen AO Young Composer in Residence Ade Vincent The Cybec Foundation
Marc Besen AC and Eva Besen AO John Gandel AC and Pauline Gandel The Gross Foundation David and Angela Li MS Newman Family Foundation Anthony Pratt The Pratt Foundation Lady Potter AC CMRI Joy Selby Smith Ullmer Family Foundation Anonymous (1)
VIRTUOSO PATRONS $50,000+ Di Jameson David Krasnostein and Pat Stragalinos Harold Mitchell AC Kim Williams AM
16
IMPRESARIO PATRONS $20,000+ Michael Aquilina The John and Jennifer Brukner Foundation Mary and Frederick Davidson AM Margaret Jackson AC Andrew Johnston Mimie MacLaren John and Lois McKay Maria SolÃ
MAESTRO PATRONS $10,000+ Kaye and David Birks Mitchell Chipman Tim and Lyn Edward Danny Gorog and Lindy Susskind Robert & Jan Green Hilary Hall, in memory of Wilma Collie The Hogan Family Foundation International Music and Arts Foundation Suzanne Kirkham The Cuming Bequest Gordan Moffat AM Ian and Jeannie Paterson Elizabeth Proust AO Xijian Ren and Qian Li Glenn Sedgwick Helen Silver AO and Harrison Young Gai and David Taylor Juliet Tootell Alice Vaughan Harry and Michelle Wong Jason Yeap OAM
PRINCIPAL PATRONS $5,000+ Christine and Mark Armour John and Mary Barlow Barbara Bell, in memory of Elsa Bell Stephen and Caroline Brain Prof Ian Brighthope David and Emma Capponi May and James Chen Wendy Dimmick
Andrew Dudgeon AM Andrew and Theresa Dyer Mr Bill Fleming John and Diana Frew Susan Fry and Don Fry AO Sophie Galaise and Clarence Fraser Geelong Friends of the MSO R Goldberg and Family Jennifer Gorog HMA Foundation Louis Hamon OAM Nereda Hanlon and Michael Hanlon AM Hans and Petra Henkell Hartmut and Ruth Hofmann Doug Hooley Jenny and Peter Hordern Dr Alastair Jackson Rosemary and James Jacoby Dr Elizabeth A Lewis AM Norman Lewis, in memory of Dr Phyllis Lewis Peter Lovell Lesley McMullin Foundation Mr Douglas and Mrs Rosemary Meagher Marie Morton FRSA Dr Paul Nisselle AM The Rosemary Norman Foundation Ken Ong, in memory of Lin Ong Bruce Parncutt AO Jim and Fran Pfeiffer Pzena Investment Charitable Fund Andrew and Judy Rogers Rae Rothfield Max and Jill Schultz Jeffrey Sher QC and Diana Sher OAM Profs. G & G Stephenson, in honour of the great Romanian musicians George Enescu and Dinu Lipatti Tasco Petroleum Mr Tam Vu and Dr Cherilyn Tillman The Hon. Michael Watt QC and Cecilie Hall Lyn Williams AM Anonymous (2)
17
ASSOCIATE PATRONS $2,500+ Dandolo Partners Will and Dorothy Bailey Bequest David Blackwell OAM Anne Bowden Julia and Jim Breen Lynne Burgess Oliver Carton John and Lyn Coppock Ann Darby, in memory of Leslie J. Darby Natasha Davies, for the Trikojus Education Fund Merrowyn Deacon Sandra Dent Peter and Leila Doyle Duxton Vineyards Lisa Dwyer and Dr Ian Dickson Jane Edmanson OAM Jaan Enden Dr Helen M Ferguson Mr Peter Gallagher and Dr Karen Morley Dina and Ron Goldschlager Leon Goldman Colin Golvan AM QC and Dr Deborah Golvan Louise Gourlay OAM Susan and Gary Hearst Colin Heggen, in memory of Marjorie Drysdale Heggen Jenkins Family Foundation John Jones George and Grace Kass Irene Kearsey and M J Ridley The Ilma Kelson Music Foundation Bryan Lawrence John and Margaret Mason H E McKenzie Allan and Evelyn McLaren Sue and Barry Peake Mrs W Peart Graham and Christine Peirson Julie and Ian Reid Peter and Carolyn Rendit S M Richards AM and M R Richards Tom and Elizabeth Romanowski Diana and Brian Snape AM Peter J Stirling Anonymous (8)
18
PLAYER PATRONS $1,000+ David and Cindy Abbey Christa Abdallah Dr Sally Adams Mary Armour Dr Rosemary Ayton and Dr Sam Ricketson Marlyn and Peter Bancroft OAM Adrienne Basser Janice Bate and the Late Prof Weston Bate Janet Bell Michael F Boyt Patricia Brockman Dr John Brookes Stuart Brown Suzie Brown OAM and Harvey Brown Roger and Col Buckle Jill and Christopher Buckley Shane Buggle John Carroll Andrew and Pamela Crockett Panch Das and Laurel Yound-Das Beryl Dean Rick and Sue Deering Dominic and Natalie Dirupo John and Anne Duncan Valerie Falconer and the Rayner Family in memory of Keith Falconer Grant Fisher and Helen Bird Barry Fradkin OAM and Dr Pam Fradkin Applebay Pty Ltd David Frenkiel and Esther Frenkiel OAM David Gibbs and Susie O’Neill Merwyn and Greta Goldblatt George Golvan QC and Naomi Golvan Dr Marged Goode Prof Denise Grocke AO Max Gulbin Dr Sandra Hacker AO and Mr Ian Kennedy AM Jean Hadges Michael and Susie Hamson Paula Hansky OAM Merv Keehn & Sue Harlow Tilda and Brian Haughney Anna and John Holdsworth Penelope Hughes Basil and Rita Jenkins Dorothy Karpin Brett Kelly and Cindy Watkin Dr Anne Kennedy Julie and Simon Kessel Kerry Landman
Diedrie Lazarus William and Magdalena Leadston Gaelle Lindrea Dr Susan Linton Andrew Lockwood Elizabeth H Loftus Chris and Anna Long The Hon Ian Macphee AO and Mrs Julie Macphee Eleanor & Phillip Mancini In memory of Leigh Masel Ruth Maxwell Don and Anne Meadows Ian Morrey and Geoffrey Minter new U Mildura Patricia Nilsson Laurence O’Keefe and Christopher James Alan and Dorothy Pattison Kerryn Pratchett Peter Priest Treena Quarin Eli Raskin Raspin Family Trust Joan P Robinson Cathy and Peter Rogers Martin and Susan Shirley Penny Shore Dr Sam Smorgon AO and Mrs Minnie Smorgon Dr Norman and Dr Sue Sonenberg Dr Michael Soon Lady Southey AC Geoff and Judy Steinicke Jennifer Steinicke Dr Peter Strickland Pamela Swansson Jenny Tatchell Frank Tisher OAM and Dr Miriam Tisher David Valentine Mary Valentine The Hon. Rosemary Varty Leon and Sandra Velik David and Yazni Venner Sue Walker AM Elaine Walters OAM and Gregory Walters Edward and Paddy White Nic and Ann Willcock Marian and Terry Wills Cooke Lorraine Woolley Richard Ye Anonymous (21)
THE MAHLER SYNDICATE David and Kaye Birks Mary and Frederick Davidson AM Tim and Lyn Edward John and Diana Frew Francis and Robyn Hofmann The Hon Dr Barry Jones AC Dr Paul Nisselle AM Maria Solà The Hon Michael Watt QC and Cecilie Hall
TRUSTS AND FOUNDATIONS Collier Charitable Fund Crown Resorts Foundation and the Packer Family Foundation The Cybec Foundation The Marian and E.H. Flack Trust Freemasons Foundation Victoria Gandel Philanthropy The International Music and Arts Foundation The Scobie and Claire Mackinnon Trust The Harold Mitchell Foundation The Sidney Myer MSO Trust Fund The Pratt Foundation The Robert Salzer Foundation Telematics Trust Anonymous
19
CONDUCTOR’S CIRCLE Current Conductor’s Circle Members Jenny Anderson David Angelovich G C Bawden and L de Kievit Lesley Bawden Joyce Bown Mrs Jenny Brukner and the late Mr John Brukner Ken Bullen Peter A Caldwell Luci and Ron Chambers Beryl Dean Sandra Dent Lyn Edward Alan Egan JP Gunta Eglite Mr Derek Grantham Marguerite Garnon-Williams Drs Clem Gruen and Rhyl Wade Louis Hamon OAM Carol Hay Tony Howe Laurence O’Keefe and Christopher James Audrey M Jenkins John Jones George and Grace Kass Mrs Sylvia Lavelle Pauline and David Lawton Cameron Mowat Rosia Pasteur Elizabeth Proust AO Penny Rawlins Joan P Robinson Neil Roussac Anne Roussac-Hoyne Suzette Sherazee Michael Ryan and Wendy Mead Anne Kieni-Serpell and Andrew Serpell Jennifer Shepherd Profs. Gabriela and George Stephenson Pamela Swansson Lillian Tarry Dr Cherilyn Tillman Mr and Mrs R P Trebilcock Michael Ullmer Ila Vanrenen The Hon. Rosemary Varty Mr Tam Vu Marian and Terry Wills Cooke Mark Young Anonymous (26) 20
The MSO gratefully acknowledges the support of the following Estates: Angela Beagley Neilma Gantner The Hon Dr Alan Goldberg AO QC Gwen Hunt Audrey Jenkins Joan Jones Pauline Marie Johnston Joan Jones C P Kemp Peter Forbes MacLaren Joan Winsome Maslen Lorraine Maxine Meldrum Prof Andrew McCredie Miss Sheila Scotter AM MBE Marion A I H M Spence Molly Stephens Jennifer May Teague Jean Tweedie Herta and Fred B Vogel Dorothy Wood
The MSO relies on your ongoing philanthropic support to sustain our artists, and support access, education, community engagement and more. We invite our suporters to get close to the MSO through a range of special events. The MSO welcomes your support at any level. Donations of $2 and over are tax deductible, and supporters are recognised as follows: $1,000+ (Player) $2,500+ (Associate) $5,000+ (Principal) $10,000+ (Maestro) $20,000+ (Impresario) $50,000+ (Virtuoso) $100,000+ (Platinum) The MSO Conductor’s Circle is our bequest program for members who have notified of a planned gift in their Will. Enquiries P (03) 8646 1551 E philanthropy@mso.com.au
Honorary Appointments Marc Besen AC and Eva Besen AO Life Members Sir Elton John CBE Life Member Lady Potter AC CMRI Life Member Geoffrey Rush AC Ambassador
THE MSO HONOURS THE MEMORY OF
John Brockman OAM Life Member The Honourable Alan Goldberg AO QC Life Member Ila Vanrenen Life Member
Honouring Mr Marc Besen AC and Mrs Eva Besen AO, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Life Members Sixty-nine years ago, Marc Besen finally found the perfect moment to propose to girlfriend Eva – after a wonderful ABC Symphony Orchestra concert, as the MSO was known back then. It worked and Marc and Eva have been happily married – and attending MSO performances ever since. While known across Melbourne for their retail businesses, including shopping centres and the women’s fashion store Sussan, today Marc and Eva are recognised primarily for their philanthropy. In 1996 they established the Besen Family Foundation, through which they support a number of organisations in the areas of arts and culture, health and welfare and Jewish causes. In 2003 they also confirmed their commitment to the visual arts by building the TarraWarra Art Museum, the first privately funded public art gallery in Australia – a gift to the people of this nation. Tonight we honour their extraordinary support of Melbourne Symphony Orchestra over the years by recognising them as our newest MSO Life Members. Not only have they been instrumental in the MSO’s international touring plans as major supporters of our 2014 European Tour, but they are also help bring the stars of the classical world to Melbourne. Through their funding of the International Artist Chair, Mr Besen said they hope to bring a younger audience to the concert hall to experience the excitement of music performed by the best. Thanks to the Besens, the MSO can perform with artists of such calibre as Anne-Sophie Mutter, Maxim Vengerov and Christian Tetzlaff at concerts like this evening’s Mid-Season Gala. Thank you, Marc and Eva, for your truly outstanding contribution to Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and to music in Melbourne.
‘ We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams.' – Arthur O’Shaughnessy
Come dream with us by adopting your own MSO musician! Support the music and the orchestra you love while getting to know your favourite player. Honour their talent, artistry and life-long commitment to music, and become part of the MSO family. Adopt Principal Harp, Yinuo Mu, or any of our wonderful musicians today.
PRINCIPAL PARTNER
GOVERNMENT PARTNERS
PREMIER PARTNERS
VENUE PARTNER
MAJOR PARTNERS
EDUCATION PARTNERS
SUPPORTING PARTNERS
Quest Southbank
The CEO Institute
Ernst & Young
Bows for Strings
TRUSTS AND FOUNDATIONS
The Scobie and Claire Mackinnon Trust, Sidney Myer MSO Trust Fund The Gross Foundation, Li Family Trust, MS Newman Family Foundation, The Ullmer Family Foundation MEDIA AND BROADCAST PARTNERS