Brahms' Requiem Concert Program

Brahms’ Requiem SATURDAY 26 OCTOBER Melbourne Recital Centre

1000 musicians and singers join forces for Melbourne Symphony Orchestra’s bi est performance of all time.

Sir Andrew Davis CONDUCTOR

24 OCTOBER 2020 Margaret Court Arena, Melbourne

It doesn’t get bi er than this.

Tickets and corporate packages at

MSO.COM.AU/MAHLER8

Artists Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Chorus Warren Trevelyan-Jones conductor Lee Abrahmsen soprano Simon Meadows baritone Tom Griffiths piano Donald Nicolson piano

Program SCHÜTZ Selig sind die Toten SCHÜTZ Herr, nun lässest du deinen Diener BRAHMS Ein deutsches Requiem

Running time: approximately 90 minutes with no interval.

In consideration of your fellow patrons, please silence and dim the light on your phone.

Photos and videos of this performance are not permitted.

Brahms’ Requiem – Saturday 26 October

Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Chorus

Warren Trevelyan-Jones

For more than 50 years the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Chorus has been the unstinting voice of the Orchestra’s choral repertoire. The MSO Chorus sings with the finest conductors including Sir Andrew Davis, Edward Gardner, Mark Wigglesworth, Bernard Labadie, Vladimir Ashkenazy and Manfred Honeck, and is committed to developing and performing new Australian and international choral repertoire.

Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Chorus Master Warren Trevelyan-Jones is also the Head of Music at St James’, King Street in Sydney and is regarded as one of the leading choral conductors and choir trainers in Australia. Warren has had an extensive singing career as a soloist and ensemble singer in Europe, including nine years in the Choir of Westminster Abbey, and regular work with the Gabrieli Consort, Collegium Vocale (Ghent), the Taverner Consort, The Kings Consort, Dunedin Consort, The Sixteen and the Tallis Scholars.

Commissions include Brett Dean’s Katz und Spatz, Ross Edwards’ Mountain Chant, and Paul Stanhope’s Exile Lamentations. Recordings by the MSO Chorus have received critical acclaim.

It has performed across Brazil and at the Cultura Inglese Festival in Sao Paolo, with The Australian Ballet, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, at the AFL Grand Final and at Anzac Day commemorative ceremonies.

The MSO Chorus is always welcoming new members. If you would like to audition please visit mso.com.au/chorus for more information.

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conductor

Warren is also Director of the Parsons Affayre, Founder and Co-Director of The Consort of Melbourne and, in 2001 with Dr Michael Noone, founded the Gramophone award-winning group Ensemble Plus Ultra. Warren is also a qualified music therapist.

Simon Meadows

Hailed as “a rising star” by Limelight Magazine, Lee Abrahmsen is a multiaward winning soprano both on the operatic stage and concert platform.

Simon Meadows studied at The Victorian College of the Arts, graduating with a BA (Music) and then going on to do a Grad Dip (Opera). He performed in recitals and sang roles in Opera Studio productions including The Speaker and 2nd Armed Man in Mozart’s The Magic Flute and Guglielmo in Cosi fan Tutte.

soprano

Lee was the recipient of the prestigious Herald Sun Aria and has performed as soloist in Australia with Opera Australia, Opera Queensland, the Melbourne, Sydney and Queensland Symphony Orchestras, Victorian Opera and Melbourne Opera, and internationally at the Edinburgh Festival and St Martin in the Fields.

She has sung over 25 roles including Countess in Le Nozze di Figaro (Opera Australia), Isolde in Tristan und Isolde, Senta in The Flying Dutchman, Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier, Elisabeth in Tannhäuser, and CioCioSan in Madame Butterfly (all for Melbourne Opera).

Recent performance highlights include a recital with Omega Ensemble at Sydney Opera House, the title role in Tosca (Australian Discovery Orchestra), Richard Strauss’ Four Last Songs with Omega Ensemble, and Fifth Maid in Strauss’ Elektra with Sydney Symphony at Sydney Opera House.

baritone

Brahms’ Requiem – Saturday 26 October

Lee Abrahmsen

Roles for Opera Australia include The Gaoler in Puccini’s Tosca, and the Messenger in Verdi’s La Traviata, Count in Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro and Yamadori in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly.

Simon has performed David in Samuel Barber’s A Hand of Bridge and for Chambermade, he portrayed the World War One British Poet Rupert Brooke in Nicholas Vines’ Green Room Awardwinning world premier Opera The Hive.

Concert engagements include Schubert’s Mass in G, Mozart’s Requiem, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Handel’s Messiah, Haydn’s Nelson Mass, Vaughan Williams’ Five Mystical Songs, A Sea Symphony and Serenade to Music, Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder, Beethoven’s Choral Fantasia and Frank Martin’s In Terra Pax.

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Brahms’ Requiem – Saturday 26 October

Tom Griffiths

Donald Nicolson

Tom holds degrees in French from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand and Music (hons) from the Royal Northern College of Music, UK. He also took part in The European Mozart Academy, a year-long post graduate chamber music program based in Poland.

Melbourne-based harpsichordist, organist and pianist Donald Nicolson is a prominent figure in performance and research of the music of 17th and 18th century Europe, and works as keyboardist for the MSO, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Australian Chamber Orchestra and New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. He has directed numerous performances from the harpsichord, and regularly teaches historically-informed performance practice at the University of Melbourne.

piano

From 2000–2019 he was principal repetiteur with the MSO Chorus and since 2002 he has worked regularly with both Opera Australia and Victorian Opera. For 3 years he was the Music Director of OA’s Victorian School’s Company. He has performed with the MSO, Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Victoria and with Vocal Consort Berlin at the Melbourne International Arts Festival.

Tom has been an official accompanist at the University of Melbourne Conservatorium of Music for many years, and now works as vocal coach and repetiteur for the new MMus in Opera Performance.

piano

Donald graduated with a PhD in Musicology at the University of Melbourne in 2018. Previously, he undertook postgraduate studies at the Royal Conservatorium in the Netherlands studying under Ton Koopman and Tini Mathot.

Donald is co-founder of ARIA-nominated baroque trio Latitude 37, which performs regularly at the Melbourne Recital Centre and undertook two Chamber Music New Zealand tours. Three CDs have been released with ABC Classics.

Donald is also a key member of Anja & Zlatna, an ensemble that infuses Balkan folk music with the improvisational practices of the Baroque. They have released two albums: Ruse Kose and Oj, Vesela Veselice!

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The Requiem, or Mass for the Dead, takes its name from the opening line of the Roman Catholic funeral liturgy: Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine (Rest eternal grant unto them, O Lord).

The focus is on the Day of Judgement; the mood is one of pleading for God’s mercy. In the Protestant tradition, the funeral service took quite a different direction, comforting the mourners by confidently affirming the Christian’s certain hope of resurrection. In keeping with the Lutheran respect for the scriptures, the texts were generally verses taken directly from the Bible, or hymns based on biblical texts. This was the tradition that Brahms was drawing on in creating his ‘German Requiem’.

One of the most significant figures in that musical tradition was Heinrich Schütz. In the course of a very long career (he was still writing music just a few months before his death at the age of 87) Schütz effectively put Germany on the musical map, earning the kind of international respect that until then had been reserved for Italian composers – by integrating the latest developments from Italy into his own musical language.

Schütz made two study trips to Venice.

Three years spent with Giovanni Gabrieli in his early 20s gave him a solid grounding in counterpoint, but also introduced him to the splendours of polychoral music: contrasting choirs of voices and instruments singing to each other across the resonant spaces of St Mark’s basilica. Nearly 20 years later, Schütz returned to Venice to learn from Claudio Monteverdi the revolutionary new technique of dramatic monody: a single voice declaiming the text in melody, over a basso continuo bass line.

For Schütz, the value of any compositional technique lay in its power to express the text, and those texts, apart from a single

book of Italian madrigals written as a graduation exercise, were all sacred and almost exclusively biblical. He was not interested in progress for progress’s sake, and did not see the ‘modern’ declamatory style as superseding the ‘old’, but rather as enriching it – and indeed vice versa.

Selig sind die Toten was published in 1648 as part of Schütz’s Geistliche Chormusik (Spiritual Choral Music), a collection in which the composer celebrates the expressive power of the ‘old’, polyphonic style (having pointed out in the preface that stilo antico and stilo moderno are equally beholden to counterpoint as the technique that underlies them both). The text, from the book of Revelation, speaks of the rewards that await those who die firm in their faith; the music suggests their blissful state in its expansive tempo and slowly changing harmonies, yet keeps the structure of the text clear through contrasts in texture.

Brahms’ Requiem – Saturday 26 October

Program Notes

Herr, nun lässest du deinen Diener is a setting of the Song of Simeon (the ‘Nunc dimittis’, in the Latin liturgy): the words of grateful relief uttered by an old man who has been told that he will not die until he has seen the Messiah. When Mary and Joseph bring the baby Jesus to the temple, Simeon recognises that his long years of waiting are over: this at last is the promised saviour, and Simeon can now die in peace. This motet is one of a pair, both settings of the same text, written in 1656 for the funeral of Schütz’s employer, the Elector of Saxony: one to be sung before the sermon, the other after.

Two centuries after Schütz, Johannes Brahms – born, baptised and confirmed in Hamburg, in Protestant north Germany – was well acquainted with Lutheran liturgical practice, though his own spiritual beliefs tended towards the personal rather than the institutional.

He has been described as a humanist and an agnostic; the devoutly Catholic

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Brahms’ Requiem – Saturday 26 October 8

Dvořák once wrote of him: ‘Such a man, such a fine soul – and he believes in nothing!’ Yet he read the scriptures with great attention; he even claimed that he could always put his hand on his Bible, even in the dark! To Brahms, though, rather than being a definition of Christian creed, the bible was ‘a repository of experiences and wisdoms’.

His idea of collecting apposite Bible verses as the text for a funeral music setting was entirely orthodox, except for one small detail: he deliberately left out any reference to the central tenet of Christianity – the death of Christ, which atones for the sins of humankind! When pressed to correct this ‘error’, Brahms stood firm, declaring that he had no particular interest in the spiritual destiny of the departed: his concern was to comfort the living. ‘I will admit,’ he said, ‘that I could happily omit the “German” and simply say “Human”.’ (Nevertheless, at the first complete performance of the work, in Bremen Cathedral, the organist made sure that the concert also included three movements from Handel’s Messiah: ‘I know that my Redeemer liveth’, ‘Behold the Lamb of God’ and the ‘Hallelujah!’ chorus.)

Brahms never gave a reason for writing his German Requiem, but the circumstances of its composition suggest that it was a response to his mother’s death, in February 1865. We know from a letter he wrote to Clara Schumann that he had definitely started working on the music by April that year; but although Clara would later say that all his friends were sure he had written it in memory of his mother, the only comment Brahms himself ever made was that he had been thinking of her when he wrote the fifth movement. That certainly fits with the text of that movement, in which the choir responds to the soprano soloist with: ‘I will comfort you as a mother comforts her child.’ It literally adds a ‘female touch’ to the Requiem, which previously had

had only a male (baritone) soloist. It also perhaps explains why Brahms added that movement after the premiere, and after sending the score (written on a mismatched assortment of paper sizes: ‘At the time I wrote it, I never had enough money to buy a stock of paper’) to the publisher: perhaps it was too personal for him to risk in public until he was sure that the rest of the Requiem was a success.

It seems likely that the loss of his friend and mentor Robert Schumann also played a part in the genesis of the work: the Requiem’s second movement is now known to have been written much earlier than the rest of the piece, originally part of a Sonata in D minor which Brahms started working on in 1854, shortly after Schumann’s mental breakdown and attempted suicide. In between that unfinished Sonata and the Requiem, two years after Schumann’s death, Brahms completed another funeral work, his Begräbnisgesang, which was a more direct response to that grief, but the fact that he turned back to a work from that painful time as the starting point for A German Requiem suggests that the sorrow was still present.

A German Requiem is the longest of Brahms’s works, written before any of his symphonies. Across its seven movements, it is unified by a threenote rising motif, first heard in the opening phrase of the choir. There is also a symmetry in the fact that the Requiem both begins and ends with the word ‘selig’ – blessed. Brahms claimed that there was a ‘well-known chorale’ featured in the first and second movements, that lay at the heart of the work, though he declined to say which chorale it was, brushing off the question with, ‘If you can’t hear it, it doesn’t matter much.’ (Most commentators agree that the chorale tune is to be heard in the opening melody from the instrumental parts.)

Brahms’ Requiem – Saturday 26 October

The difficulty of the choral parts, especially in the fugal passages, caused significant difficulties to the choirs in early performances; there is an account of one London ensemble labouring over them for six months! It was generally the contrapuntal writing which earned the work its loudest criticism; George Bernard Shaw famously described the Requiem as ‘a solid piece of musical manufacture that could only have come from the establishment of a first-class undertaker’. The fugue at the end of the third movement was often singled out for special opprobrium; in Brahms’s defence, it should be noted that the music at that point beautifully matches the text, with the ‘righteous souls’ represented by the contrapuntal rigour of the choral parts, and the pedal point which supports them suggesting the ‘hand of God’ which protects them.

Originally written for full orchestra, Brahms prepared the piano four hands version heard in this performance to allow the work to be performed and enjoyed even when an orchestra was not available. It was this version which was used for the first complete British performance of the Requiem, which took place in a private home in London in 1871; for this reason it has become known as the ‘London Version’. That performance was sung in English, with Brahms’s blessing; the English text has since been lost. With the piano parts written by Brahms himself – a virtuoso pianist – rather than being left to the publishing house, as was usually the case, the London Version still packs an impressive punch; at the same time, what is lost in orchestral colour is gained in intimacy and clarity.

Natalie Shea © 2019

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Brahms’ Requiem – Saturday 26 October

Text and Translation HEINRICH SCHÜTZ

(1585–1672)

Herr, nun lässest du deinen Diener Herr, nun lässest du deinen Diener

Lord, now you let your servant

in Friede fahren,

depart in peace,

wie du gesagt hast.

just as you promised.

Denn meine Augen haben deinen Heiland gesehen,

For my eyes have seen your salvation,

welchen du bereitet hast für allen Völkern,

which you have prepared for all peoples:

ein Licht, zu erleuchten die Heiden,

a light to enlighten the heathens,

und zum Preis deines Volks Israel.

and for the glory of your people, Israel.

English translation © Natalie Shea

Selig sind die Toten Selig sind die Toten,

Blessed are the dead

die in dem Herren sterben

who die in the Lord

von nun an.

from this time on:

Ja, der Geist spricht,

Yes, says the Spirit,

dass sie ruhen von ihrer Arbeit,

they will rest from their labours,

denn ihre Werke folgen ihnen nach.

for their deeds follow them.

English translation © Symphony Australia

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Ein deutches Requiem I. CHORUS Selig sind, die da Leid tragen,

Blessed are they that mourn,

denn sie sollen getröstet werden.

for they shall be comforted. (Matthew 5:4)

Die mit Tränen säen,

Those who sow in tears

werden mit Freuden ernten.

shall reap in joy.

Sie gehen hin und weinen

Those who go forth weeping,

und tragen edlen Samen,

bearing precious seed,

und kommen mit Freuden

shall return with rejoicing,

und bringen ihre Garben.

bringing their sheaves with them. (Psalm 126:5-6)

2. CHORUS Denn alles Fleisch, es ist wie Gras,

For all flesh is as grass,

und alle Herrlichkeit des Menschen

and all human glory

wie des Grases Blumen.

like the flower of the grass.

Das Gras ist verdorret

The grass withers,

und die Blume abgefallen.

and the flower falls away. (I Peter 1:24)

So seid nun geduldig, lieben Brüder,

So be patient, dear brethren,

bis auf die Zukunft des Herrn.

until the coming of the Lord.

Siehe, ein Ackermann wartet

Behold, the farmer waits

auf die köstliche Frucht der Erde

for the precious fruit of the earth,

und ist geduldig darüber, bis er empfahe

waits patiently until he receives

den Morgenregen und Abendregen.

the early and late rains.

So seid geduldig.

Be patient, then. (James 5:7-8)

Aber des Herrn Wort

But the word of the Lord

bleibet in Ewigkeit.

endures for ever. (I Peter 1:25)

Die Erlöseten des Herrn

Those ransomed by the Lord

werden wiederkommen

shall return,

und gen Zion kommen mit Jauchzen;

and come to Zion with rejoicing.

Freude, ewige Freude

Everlasting joy

wird über ihrem Haupte sein;

shall be upon their heads:

Freude und Wonne werden sie ergreifen,

they shall obtain joy and gladness,

und Schmerz und Seufzen

and sorrow and sighing

wird weg müssen.

shall flee away. (Isaiah 35:10)

Brahms’ Requiem – Saturday 26 October

JOHANNES BRAHMS

(1833–1897)

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Brahms’ Requiem – Saturday 26 October

3. SOLO (BARITONE) WITH CHORUS Herr, lehre doch mich,

Lord, teach me

dass ein Ende mit mir haben muss

that there will be an end to me,

und mein Leben ein Ziel hat

that my life has an end-point

und ich davon muss.

and that I must leave it.

Siehe, meine Tage

Behold, my days

sind einer Hand breit vor dir,

are a hand’s breadth before you,

und mein Leben ist wie nichts vor dir.

and my life is as nothing before you.

Ach, wie gar nichts sind alle Menschen,

Ah, how all people are mere trifles,

die doch so sicher leben.

though they live with such confidence.

Sie gehen daher wie ein Schemen

They are no more than shadows

und machen ihnen

and give themselves

viel vergebliche Unruhe;

great trouble for nothing:

sie sammeln und wissen nicht,

they gather up riches and don’t know

wer es kriegen wird.

who will get them.

Nun, Herr,

Now, Lord,

wes soll ich mich trösten?

where shall I seek consolation?

Ich hoffe auf dich.

My hope is in you. (Psalm 39:4-7)

Der Gerechten Seelen

The souls of the righteous

sind in Gottes Hand,

are in the hand of God,

und keine Qual rühret sie an.

and there shall no torment touch them.

(Wisdom 3:1)

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4. CHORUS Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen,

How lovely are your dwellings,

Herr Zebaoth!

O Lord of hosts!

Meine Seele verlanget und sehnet sich

My soul longs and yearns for

nach den Vorhöfen des Herrn;

the courts of the Lord:

mein Leib und Seele freuen sich

my flesh and my soul rejoice

in dem lebendigen Gott.

in the living God.

Wohl denen,

Blessed are they

die in deinem Hause wohnen,

that dwell in your house:

die loben dich immerdar!

they will praise you for ever. (Psalm 84:2, 4)

You are sorrowful now,

aber ich will euch wiedersehen,

but I will see you again,

und euer Herz soll sich freuen,

and your heart shall rejoice,

und eure Freude soll niemand

and no-one shall take your joy

von euch nehmen.

away from you. (John 16:22)

Ich will euch trösten,

I will comfort you

wie einen seine Mutter tröstet.

like a mother comforts her child. (Isaiah 66:13)

Sehet mich an:

Look at me:

ich habe eine kleine Zeit

I had trouble and labour

Mühe und Arbeit gehabt

for a short time

und habe grossen Trost funden.

and have found great consolation. (Sirach 51:27)

6. SOLO (BARITONE) WITH CHORUS Denn wir haben hier keine

For we have no

bleibende Statt,

permanent home here,

sondern die zukünftige suchen wir.

but we seek the one to come. (Hebrews 13:14)

Siehe, ich sage euch ein Geheimnis:

Behold, I tell you a mystery:

Wir werden nicht alle entschlafen,

We shall not all fall asleep,

wir werden aber alle verwandelt,

but we shall all be changed,

und dasselbige plötzlich,

and that will happen suddenly,

in einem Augenblick,

in an instant,

zu der Zeit der letzten Posaune.

at the time of the last trombone.

Denn es wird die Posaune schallen,

For the trombone shall sound,

und die Toten werden

and the dead shall

auferstehen unverweslich,

rise imperishable,

und wir werden verwandelt werden.

and we shall be changed. (I Corinthians 15:51-52)

Dann wird erfüllet werden

Then shall be fulfilled

das Wort, das geschrieben steht:

the saying that is written:

Der Tod ist verschlungen in den Sieg.

Death is swallowed up in victory.

Tod, wo ist dein Stachel!

Death, where is your sting!

Hölle, wo ist dein Sieg!

Hell, where is your victory!

Brahms’ Requiem – Saturday 26 October

5. SOLO (SOPRANO) WITH CHORUS Ihr habt nun Traurigkeit;

(I Corinthians 15: 54-56)

Herr, du bist würdig, zu nehmen

Lord, you are worthy to receive

Preis und Ehre und Kraft,

praise and honour and power;

denn du hast alle Dinge erschaffen,

for you created all things,

und durch deinen Willen

and by your will

haben sie das Wesen

they have being

und sind geschaffen.

and are created. (Revelation 4:11) 13

Brahms’ Requiem – Saturday 26 October 14

7. CHORUS Selig sind die Toten,

Blessed are the dead

die in dem Herren sterben

who die in the Lord

von nun an.

from this time on:

Ja, der Geist spricht,

Yes, says the Spirit,

dass sie ruhen von ihrer Arbeit,

they will rest from their labours,

denn ihre Werke folgen ihnen nach.

for their deeds follow them.

(Revelation 14:13)

Translation: Symphony Australia © 2003

REPETITEUR

ALTO

TENOR

Jacob Abela

Rachel Amos Ruth Anderson Catherine Bickell Cecilia Björkegren Kate Bramley Jane Brodie Elize Brozgul Serena Carmel Nicola Eveleigh Lisa Faulks Jill Giese Debbie Griffiths Ros Harbison Sue Hawley Jennifer Henry Kristine Hensel Helen Hill Helen MacLean Christina McCowan Stephanie Mitchell Sandy Nagy Nicole Paterson Natasha Pracejus Alison Ralph Mair Roberts Maya Tanja Rodingen Annie Runnalls Lisa Savige Julienne Seal Helen Staindl Melvin Tan

Kent Borchard Steve Burnett Matthew Castle John Cleghorn Keaton Cloherty Geoffrey Collins James Dipnall David Henley Wayne Kinrade Dominic McKenna Michael Mobach Ben Owen Colin Schultz Nathan Guan Kiat Teo Christopher Watson Tim Wright

SOPRANO Philippa Allen Emma Anvari Julie Arblaster Aviva Barazani Anne-Marie Brownhill Eva Butcher Samantha Davies Michele de Courcy Rita Fitzgerald Catherine Folley Georgie Grech Aurora Harmathy Juliana Hassett Penny Huggett Gwen Kennelly Natasha Lambie Judy Longbottom Claire McGlew Charlotte Midson Ann Ng Caitlin Noble Karin Otto Tanja Redl Natalie Reid Beth Richardson Janelle Richardson Mhairi Riddet Elizabeth Rusli Lydia Sherren Jemima Sim Shu Xian Emily Swanson Katy Turbitt Julia Wang Tara Zamin

Brahms’ Requiem – Saturday 26 October

Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Chorus

BASS Maurice Amor Alexandras Bartaska Richard Bolitho Roger Dargaville Peter Deane Andrew Ham Andrew Hibbard Joseph Hie Jordan Janssen Robert Latham Gary Levy Douglas McQueen-Thomson Steven Murie Vern O’Hara Alexander Owens Liam Straughan Matthew Toulmin Tom Turnbull Maurice Wan Foon Wong Maciek Zielinski

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