August 2021 | Concert Program by Melbourne Symphony Orchestra

CONCERT PROGRAM

AUGUST 2021 VA R I AT I O N S O N A T H E M E THE PLANETS

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TC H A I KOV S K Y A N D E LG A R VA R I AT I O N S I N T R O D U C I N G JA I M E M A R T Í N

Join Us The appointment of a new Chief Conductor is a momentous occasion for any orchestra. For the MSO, Maestro Jaime Martín will usher in a new and exciting era of innovation, creativity, and world-class music making. “As a conductor and musician who has worked with many orchestras around the world, I can clearly see that the MSO is what it is because of the generosity of its community. Let’s create a new chapter in the history of this fine orchestra, together.” Maestro Jaime Martín Join us as we enter this new era of the MSO’s history—a history whose foundation is built on the generosity of the community—with a tax-deductible gift today.

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CONTENTS

THE MELBOURNE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Acknowledging Country Your MSO Guest Musicians

10 18 24 32 40

VARIATIONS ON A THEME

TCHAIKOVSKY AND ELGAR VARIATIONS

THE PLANETS

INTRODUCING JAIME MARTÍN

SUPPORTERS

Selected concerts will be livestreamed to the MSO’s YouTube channel and may be recorded for MSO.LIVE. Please note, masks must be worn at all times in the Hamer Hall building. In consideration of your fellow patrons, we thank you for silencing and dimming the light on your phone.

mso.com.au

(03) 9929 9600

Acknowledging Country In the first project of its kind in Australia, the MSO has developed a musical Acknowledgment of Country with music composed by Yorta Yorta composer Deborah Cheetham AO, featuring Indigenous languages from across Victoria. Generously supported by Helen Macpherson Smith Trust and the Commonwealth Government through the Australian National Commission for UNESCO, the MSO is working in partnership with Short Black Opera and Indigenous language custodians who are generously sharing their cultural knowledge. The Acknowledgement of Country allows us to pay our respects to the traditional owners of the land on which we perform in the language of that country and in the orchestral language of music. Australian National Commission for UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientiﬁc and Cultural Organization

About Long Time Living Here In all the world, only Australia can lay claim to the longest continuing cultures and we celebrate this more today than in any other time since our shared history began. We live each day drawing energy from a land which has been nurtured by the traditional owners for more than 2000 generations. When we acknowledge country we pay respect to the land and to the people in equal measure. As a composer I have specialised in coupling the beauty and diversity of our Indigenous languages with the power and intensity of classical music. In order to compose the music for this Acknowledgement of Country Project I have had the great privilege of working with no fewer than eleven ancient languages from the state of Victoria, including the language of my late Grandmother, Yorta Yorta woman Frances McGee. I pay my deepest respects to the elders and ancestors who are represented in these songs of acknowledgement and to the language custodians who have shared their knowledge and expertise in providing each text. I am so proud of the MSO for initiating this landmark project and grateful that they afforded me the opportunity to make this contribution to the ongoing quest of understanding our belonging in this land.

— Deborah Cheetham AO

Our Artistic Family

Melbourne Symphony Orchestra The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra is a leading cultural figure in the Australian arts landscape, bringing the best in orchestral music and passionate performance to a diverse audience across Victoria, the nation and around the world. Each year the MSO engages with more than 5 million people through live concerts, TV, radio and online broadcasts, international tours, recordings and education programs. The MSO is a vital presence, both onstage and in the community, in cultivating classical music in Australia. The nation’s first professional orchestra, the MSO has been the sound of the city of Melbourne since 1906. The MSO regularly attracts great artists from around the globe including AnneSophie Mutter, Lang Lang, Renée Fleming and Thomas Hampson, while bringing Melbourne’s finest musicians to the world through tours to China, Europe and the United States. The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land on which we perform and would like to pay our respects to their Elders and Community both past and present.

Our Artistic Family

Your MSO Jaime Martín

Chief Conductor Designate

Xian Zhang

Principal Guest Conductor

Benjamin Northey Principal Conductor in Residence

Nicholas Bochner

Cybec Assistant Conductor

Sir Andrew Davis Conductor Laureate

Hiroyuki Iwaki †

Conductor Laureate (1974–2006)

FIRST VIOLINS Dale Barltrop

Concertmaster David Li AM and Angela Li#

Sophie Rowell

Concertmaster The Ullmer Family Foundation#

Tair Khisambeev

Assistant Concertmaster Di Jameson#

Peter Edwards

Assistant Principal

Kirsty Bremner Sarah Curro Peter Fellin Deborah Goodall Lorraine Hook Anne-Marie Johnson Kirstin Kenny Eleanor Mancini Mark Mogilevski Michelle Ruffolo Kathryn Taylor

SECOND VIOLINS

CELLOS

Matthew Tomkins

David Berlin

Robert Macindoe

Rachael Tobin

Monica Curro

Nicholas Bochner

Principal The Gross Foundation#

Principal Hyon Ju Newman#

Associate Principal

Assistant Principal Danny Gorog and Lindy Susskind#

Assistant Principal

Miranda Brockman

Geelong Friends of the MSO#

Mary Allison Isin Cakmakcioglu Tiffany Cheng Freya Franzen Cong Gu Andrew Hall Isy Wasserman Philippa West Patrick Wong Roger Young

Rohan de Korte

Andrew Dudgeon AM#

Sarah Morse Angela Sargeant Michelle Wood

Andrew and Judy Rogers#

DOUBLE BASSES Benjamin Hanlon

Frank Mercurio and Di Jameson#

Suzanne Lee Stephen Newton

VIOLAS

Sophie Galaise and Clarence Fraser#

Christopher Moore Principal Di Jameson#

Christopher Cartlidge Associate Principal

FLUTES Prudence Davis Principal Anonymous#

Lauren Brigden Katharine Brockman Anthony Chataway

Wendy Clarke

Dr Elizabeth E Lewis AM

Gabrielle Halloran Trevor Jones Anne Neil#

Fiona Sargeant Cindy Watkin

Learn more about our musicians on the MSO website.

Associate Principal

Sarah Beggs PICCOLO Andrew Macleod Principal

Thomas Hutchinson

Associate Principal

Ann Blackburn

The Rosemary Norman Foundation#

HORNS Nicolas Fleury

Principal Margaret Jackson AC#

Saul Lewis

COR ANGLAIS

Principal Third The Hon Michael Watt QC and Cecilie Hall#

Michael Pisani

Abbey Edlin

CLARINETS

Trinette McClimont Rachel Shaw

Principal

David Thomas

Principal

Philip Arkinstall

Associate Principal

Nereda Hanlon and Michael Hanlon AM#

BASS CLARINET

Associate Principal

Jack Schiller

TROMBONES

Elise Millman

Anonymous#

Natasha Thomas

Dr Martin Tymms and Patricia Nilsson#

CONTRABASSOON Brock Imison

Robert Cossom

Drs Rhyl Wade and Clem Gruen#

HARP Yinuo Mu Principal

William Evans Rosie Turner

John and Diana Frew#

Associate Principal

Anonymous#

Shane Hooton

BASSOONS Principal

John Arcaro

Owen Morris Principal

Principal

PERCUSSION

TRUMPETS

Craig Hill

Jon Craven

TIMPANI

Our Artistic Family

OBOES

Richard Shirley

Mike Szabo

Principal Bass Trombone

TUBA Timothy Buzbee

Principal

# Position supported by

Guest musicians

Guest Musicians VARIATIONS ON A THEME | 6–7 AUGUST First violin Zoe Black Lynette Rayner Second violin Zoe Freisberg Michael Loftus-Hills Ioana Tache Viola William Clark Ceridwen Davies Helen Ireland Isabel Morse Katie Yap

Cello Svetlana Bogosavljevic Kalina Krusteva Rebecca Proietto

French horn William Tanner

Double bass Rohan Dasika

Timpani Brent Miller

Assistant Principal

Vivian Qu Siyuan Emma Sullivan Giovanni Vinci

Trombone William Kinmont

Principal Timpani

Harp Melina van Leeuwen

Oboe Annabelle Farid

TCHAIKOVSKY AND ELGAR VARIATIONS | 6–7 AUGUST First violin Zoe Black Lynette Rayner Second violin Zoe Freisberg Michael Loftus-Hills Ioana Tache Viola William Clark Ceridwen Davies Helen Ireland Isabel Morse Katie Yap

Cello Svetlana Bogosavljevic Kalina Krusteva Rebecca Proietto

French horn William Tanner

Double bass Rohan Dasika

Timpani Brent Miller

Assistant Principal

Vivian Qu Siyuan Emma Sullivan Giovanni Vinci Oboe Annabelle Farid

*Appears courtesy of Orchestra Victoria 8

Information correct as of 28 July 2021

Trombone William Kinmont

Principal Timpani

Percussion Alison Fane Organ Jacob Abela

First violin Zoe Black Nicholas Waters

Trombone Benjamin Anderson* Matthew Van Emmerik

Second violin Lynette Rayner

Timpani Brent Miller

Harp Julie Raines

Guest musicians

THE PLANETS | 14 AUGUST

Tenor saxophone Niels Bijl

Principal Timpani

Double bass Rohan Dasika Assistant Principal

Percussion Greg Sully

MELBOURNE YOUTH ORCHESTRA FIRST VIOLINS

CELLOS

FRENCH HORN

Noah Coyne Nima Alizadeh Chloe Shieh Autumn Lee Miriam Baes Chloe-Paris Wade Najia Hanna

Douglas Joshi Rowan Parr Zachary Shieh Disa Smart Vicky Deng Will Hartley-Keane

Corey East-Bryans Tom Allen Julian Gillies-Lekakis Scott Plenderleith

SECOND VIOLINS

Ella Evans Timothy Farrell Daniel Anderson Ryan Zhang Frank Cawte

Joshua Dulfer Angus Pace

FLUTES

Finnlay Hansen

Minwu Hu Joseph Hourigan

SOPRANO SAXOPHONE

Euan Ka Emma Woo Lulu Wilms Jerome Tan Naamah Hanna Eric Dao Adel Kalnoki VIOLAS Louise Turnbull Lillian Vowels Hiu Sin Hillary Cheng James Casala Millie Davidson

DOUBLE BASSES

OBOES Michael Liu Anika Weibgen CLARINETS Patrick Vaughan Isabel Li BASSOONS Laura Radajewski Each Zhang

TRUMPETS Thien Pham Jim Millman TROMBONES

TUBA

Ryan Lynch PERCUSSION Joseph Fiddes Madeleine Ng HARP Glavier Aldina KEYBOARD Lily Begg TIMPANI Aditya Ryan Bhat

Guest musicians

INTRODUCING JAIME MARTÍN | 20–21 AUGUST First violin Nicholas Waters Second violin Michael Loftus-Hills Viola Molly Collier-O’Boyle

Double bass Kylie Davies Vivian Qu Siyuan Emma Sullivan Giovanni Vinci

Assistant Principal

Oboe Annabelle Farid

Ceridwen Davies Isabel Morse

Trombone Cian Malikides

Cello Elina Faskhitdinova Rebecca Proietto

Timpani Brent Miller Principal Timpani

Harp Julie Raines Organ Calvin Bowman Celeste & piano Louisa Breen

FIRST VIOLINS

CELLOS

FRENCH HORN

Noah Coyne Nima Alizadeh Chloe Shieh Autumn Lee Miriam Baes Chloe-Paris Wade Najia Hanna

Douglas Joshi Rowan Parr Zachary Shieh Disa Smart Vicky Deng Will Hartley-Keane

Corey East-Bryans Tom Allen Julian Gillies-Lekakis Scott Plenderleith

SECOND VIOLINS

Ella Evans Timothy Farrell Daniel Anderson Ryan Zhang Frank Cawte

Classical. On demand.

Euan Ka Emma Woo Lulu Wilms Jerome Tan Naamah Hanna Eric Dao Adel Kalnoki

DOUBLE BASSES

TRUMPETS

Thien Pham Jim Millman

TROMBONES

Joshua Dulfer Angus Pace

Experience the MSO — and more of the TUBAworld’s finest orchestras — at MSO.LIVE. Watch live andHansen on-demand Finnlay FLUTES HD performances,Minwu with quality, on mobile, SOPRANO SAXOPHONE Husuperior audio Joseph Hourigan tablet, and desktop devices. Ryan Lynch

VIOLAS

Louise Turnbull Lillian Vowels Hiu Sin Hillary Cheng James Casala Millie Davidson

OBOES Michael Liu Anika Weibgen

PERCUSSION Joseph Fiddes Madeleine Ng

HARP Click here to startCLARINETS your membership at MSO.LIVE Patrick Vaughan Isabel Li BASSOONS Laura Radajewski Each Zhang

Glavier Aldina KEYBOARD Lily Begg

Variations on a Theme Friday 6 August | 6pm Saturday 7 August | 6pm Arts Centre Melbourne, Hamer Hall Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Benjamin Northey conductor Li-Wei Qin cello MOZART Symphony No.31 Paris COLERIDGE-TAYLOR Symphonic Variations on an African Air TCHAIKOVSKY Rococo Variations

A musical Acknowledgement of Country, Long Time Living Here by Deborah Cheetham AO, will be performed before the start of this concert. Running time: Approximately 1 hour, no interval.

Li-Wei Qin

Since returning to Australia from Europe, Benjamin Northey has rapidly emerged as one of the nation’s leading musical figures. He is currently the Principal Resident Conductor of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and was appointed Chief Conductor of the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra in 2015.

Chinese-Australian cellist Li-Wei Qin has appeared all over the world as a soloist and chamber musician. Twice a soloist at the BBC Proms in London’s Royal Albert Hall, Li-Wei has enjoyed successful artistic collaborations with many of the world’s great orchestras including all the BBC symphony orchestras, the LA, London, and Hongkong, Osaka, China and NDR Hamburg Philharmonic Orchestras, Berlin Radio Symphony and Konzerthaus Orchestra, La Verdi Orchestra Milan, ORF Vienna Radio Orchestra, Prague Symphony, Sydney Symphony, and the Munich, Manchester, Zurich and the Australian Chamber Orchestras

conductor

His international appearances include concerts with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, the Hong Kong Philharmonic, the National Symphony Orchestra of Colombia, the Malaysian Philharmonic and the New Zealand Symphony and Auckland Philharmonia. He has conducted L’elisir d’amore, The Tales of Hoffmann and La sonnambula for SOSA and Turandot, Don Giovanni, Carmen and Cosi fan tutte for Opera Australia. Limelight Magazine named him Australian Artist of the Year in 2018. In 2021, he conducts the Hong Kong Philharmonic, the Christchurch Symphony and all six Australian state symphony orchestras.

cello

VARIATIONS ON A THEME | 6–7 August

Benjamin Northey

Li-Wei’s recordings on Universal Music/ Decca include the complete Beethoven Sonatas, Rachmaninov with Albert Tiu, Dvořàk Concerto with Singapore Symphony Orchestra, and Elgar and Walton Concerti with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Li-Wei’s 2013 live concert with the Shanghai Symphony and with maestro Yu Long has been released on Sony Classical. He teaches at the YST Conservatory, Singapore and is guest professor at Shanghai and Central Conservatory of Music, China and visiting professor, Chamber music, at the Royal Northern College of Music. Li-Wei plays a 1780 Joseph Guadagnini cello, generously loaned by Dr and Mrs Wilson Goh.

VARIATIONS ON A THEME | 6–7 August

Program Notes WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART

(1756–1791)

Symphony No.31 in D, K.297, Paris Allegro assai Andante Allegro Mozart had no great love for Paris, the City of Love. He arrived in the French capital in March 1778 in search of a job. Mozart’s father, Leopold, would have accompanied him but he was not granted leave from his position in Salzburg and in his place sent Maria Anna, Mozart’s mother. That the 22-year-old composer needed a guardian at all tells us something about Leopold’s controlling influence. Mozart didn’t want to be in Paris in the first place. He had travelled via Munich, Augsburg and Mannheim and, in Mannheim, had fallen in love with soprano Aloysia Weber. Mozart would have liked to have prolonged his already lengthy stopover in the city (Mannheim was renowned for its orchestra) to see how things would develop with Aloysia, but Leopold sent a furious letter commanding ‘Be off with you to Paris! And soon!’ So Mozart was out of sorts when he arrived in the French capital. He was in love and the object of his love was a long way away. Over the next few months he attempted to make connections with the great households of Paris but nothing substantial came of his efforts. He composed the Concerto for Flute and Harp for the flute-playing Duc de Guines who never actually paid him the full amount for the commission. The most substantial composition of his sixmonth stay was this particular work, the Symphony No.31, Paris.

Mozart was particularly pleased to tailor the Paris Symphony to Parisian taste. One thing that local audiences loved was having all of the instruments sounding together at the start, the so-called le premier coup d’archet (‘first stroke of the bow’). Mozart wisely guessed that he would have the audience on side by giving them this characteristically French opening statement. In fact, he rounds off the first movement with the same gesture and cites it on numerous occasions in between. Two different slow movements exist for this symphony. One was written for the premiere on 12 June and another for a performance on 15 August. Both, in other words, are authentic. Mozart dispenses with a minuet and trio and, instead, follows the Andante with a fleetfooted Allegro. Never before had Mozart had such a large orchestra at his disposal as in this work. In addition to the usual pairs of flutes, oboes, bassoons and horns, the Paris Symphony includes two trumpets, timpani and, very importantly, two clarinets. Later that same year Mozart wrote to his father back in Salzburg: ‘If only we had clarinets! You cannot imagine the glorious effect of a symphony with flutes, oboes and clarinets.’ Although unknown in Salzburg, clarinets were a fixture of the orchestra of the Concert spirituel, the concert series for which the Paris Symphony was written. Of particular note in one of Mozart’s letters home is his comment that, at the premiere, the Paris audience was delighted by the surprise forte early in the third movement and broke into spontaneous applause as the orchestra was playing. Clearly, symphony concerts were more raucous affairs in those days. Robert Gibson © 2015

Symphonic Variations on an African Air, Op.63 The theme-and-variations genre has a long history: having originated in late Renaissance Spain, it has continued to attract composers to the present day. During that span composers have developed numerous techniques for creating variations and for organising them into sets. One feature of the genre that has remained a constant challenge for composers is the form’s paratactic nature. As Jan LaRue puts it, “in the rigid pattern variations found commonly from the late Renaissance to the early twentieth century, no growth (i.e., formal process) is less imaginative...the inevitable repetition...turns the growth into a sort of musical link-sausage.” But of course, the best composers have always been able to counter this tendency, producing highly effective works of art. Analysis of variation sets must consider both the individual variations and the set as a whole. Robert Hatten has suggested that the character variation provides fertile soil for topical analysis, which he demonstrates in a discussion of Mozart’s Sonata, K.284, III. Furthermore, as Elaine Sisman has noted, the symphonic repertoire is an especially rich medium for the presentation of musical topics, owing to the possibilities of orchestral timbres and various effects (such as the Mannheim crescendo). Symphonic variations, therefore, promise to be especially rich ground for topical analysis. Coleridge-Taylor was a master orchestrator, and was well equipped to exploit instrumental colours and orchestral effects. But the matter is not entirely straightforward. In the tenth and last proposition about language and music in his book Music as Discourse, Kofi Agawu writes:

Whereas language interprets itself, music cannot interpret itself... There are, to be sure, intertextual resonances in music that might be described in terms of interpretive actions. For example, a variation set displays different, sometimes progressively elaborate and affectively contrasted reworkings of an initial theme – acts of interpretation that help us to “understand” the theme, appreciate its latent possibilities, and admire the composerly intellectual effort. But insofar as the variation set exists as a composition, all of its internal commentaries are absorbed by that larger generic identity.

VARIATIONS ON A THEME | 6–7 August

SAMUEL COLERIDGE-TAYLOR

(1875–1912)

These observations seem at first glance more readily applicable to the discrete, constant-form (in Nelson’s terms, melodico-harmonic) variations of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries than to the freer, more rhapsodic sets of the late and post-Romantic periods, at least insofar as variations in those sets conform to the structure of the theme and can easily be thought of as “reinterpretations” of it. As we shall see, the work to be studied here is a set of variations more tightly knit than those of the Classical and early Romantic periods, and that in turn will make consideration of the relationship of the variations to the set particularly relevant. Abridged from John L. Snyder © 2017 The Trustees of Indiana University

VARIATIONS ON A THEME | 6–7 August

PETER ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY

(1840–1893)

Variations on a Rococo Theme, Op.33 Introduction (Moderato quasi andante) Theme (Moderato semplice) Variation I (Tempo della thema) Variation II (Tempo della thema) Variation III (Andante sostenuto) Variation IV (Andante grazioso) Variation V (Allegro moderato) Variation VI (Andante) Variation VII and Coda (Allegro vivo) Li-Wei Qin cello A nostalgia for the world of the 18th century, thought of as refined, elegant and gently civilised, is never far from the surface in the highly Romantic art of Tchaikovsky, and it was Mozart who symbolised for him the best of the former century. Whatever the term ‘rococo’ may mean, to Tchaikovsky it meant Mozart. This set of variations is his finest tribute to his idol’s art. In no way does it detract from the success of Tchaikovsky’s Variations that the Mozart he emulates contains no turbulent emotions. In short, the Variations are far from the real Mozart. Charming, elegant, deftly written, they are equally gratifying to virtuoso cellists and to audiences. The light and airy accompaniment, which enables the cello to stand out beautifully, is for 18th century forces: double winds, two horns and strings. Tchaikovsky composed the work in 1876 (shortly before beginning his Fourth Symphony) for a cellist and fellow-professor at the Moscow Conservatorium, Wilhelm Fitzenhagen.

Fitzenhagen had requested a concertolike piece for his recital tours, so it was natural that Tchaikovsky first completed the Variations in a scoring for cello and piano. Before orchestrating it he gave the music to Fitzenhagen, who made

changes in the solo part, in places pasting his own versions over Tchaikovsky’s. The first performance was of the orchestral version, in November 1877. Tchaikovsky couldn’t attend since he had left Russia to recover from his disastrous marriage. Fitzenhagen retained the score, and it was he who passed it on to the publisher, Jurgenson. The cello and piano version was the first to appear in print, in autumn 1878, with substantial alterations which Fitzenhagen claimed were authorised but about which Tchaikovsky complained somewhat bitterly. But by the time Jurgenson came to publish the Rococo Variations in orchestral form, ten years had elapsed, during which Fitzenhagen had performed the work successfully both inside and outside Russia, and it had entered the repertoire. When Fitzenhagen’s pupil, Anatoly Brandukov, asked Tchaikovsky what he was going to do about Jurgenson’s publication of the Fitzenhagen version, the composer replied, ‘The devil take it! Let it stand as it is!’ The theme, which determines the character of the Variations, is Tchaikovsky’s own. It has an orchestral postlude, with a final question from the cello. This, increasingly varied, rounds off most of the Variations. The first two of these are fairly closely based on the theme. These are followed by a leisurely slow waltz, the expressive heart of the Variations. In Variation IV, Tchaikovsky gives the theme a different rhythm, and incorporates some bravura flourishes. In the fifth variation the flute has the theme, but the cello solo has its most substantial cadenza at the end of this variation which leads into the soulful slow variation, number six. It was this variation that, without fail, drew stormy applause on Fitzenhagen’s recital tours. The final variation begins with the solo part establishing its own particular

VARIATIONS ON A THEME | 6–7 August

rhythmic interpretation of the theme, a delightful way of upping the activity, which continues into the coda.

Tchaikovsky and Elgar Variations Friday 6 August | 8.30pm Saturday 7 August | 8.30pm Arts Centre Melbourne, Hamer Hall Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Benjamin Northey conductor Li-Wei Qin cello TCHAIKOVSKY Rococo Variations ELGAR Enigma Variations

A musical Acknowledgement of Country, Long Time Living Here by Deborah Cheetham AO, will be performed before the start of this concert. Running time: Approximately 1 hour, no interval.

Li-Wei Qin

conductor

cello

TCHAIKOVSKY AND ELGAR VARIATIONS | 6–7 August

Benjamin Northey

TCHAIKOVSKY AND ELGAR VARIATIONS | 6–7 August

Program Notes PETER ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY

(1840–1893)

Fitzenhagen had requested a concertolike piece for his recital tours, so it was natural that Tchaikovsky first completed

the Variations in a scoring for cello and piano. Before orchestrating it he gave the music to Fitzenhagen, who made changes in the solo part, in places pasting his own versions over Tchaikovsky’s. The first performance was of the orchestral version, in November 1877. Tchaikovsky couldn’t attend since he had left Russia to recover from his disastrous marriage. Fitzenhagen retained the score, and it was he who passed it on to the publisher, Jurgenson. The cello and piano version was the first to appear in print, in autumn 1878, with substantial alterations which Fitzenhagen claimed were authorised but about which Tchaikovsky complained somewhat bitterly. But by the time Jurgenson came to publish the Rococo Variations in orchestral form, ten years had elapsed, during which Fitzenhagen had performed the work successfully both inside and outside Russia, and it had entered the repertoire. When Fitzenhagen’s pupil, Anatoly Brandukov, asked Tchaikovsky what he was going to do about Jurgenson’s publication of the Fitzenhagen version, the composer replied, ‘The devil take it! Let it stand as it is!’ The theme, which determines the character of the Variations, is Tchaikovsky’s own. It has an orchestral postlude, with a final question from the cello. This, increasingly varied, rounds off most of the Variations. The first two of these are fairly closely based on the theme. These are followed by a leisurely slow waltz, the expressive heart of the Variations. In Variation IV, Tchaikovsky gives the theme a different rhythm, and incorporates some bravura flourishes. In the fifth variation the flute has the theme, but the cello solo has its most substantial cadenza at the end of this variation which leads into the soulful slow variation, number six. It was this variation that, without fail, drew stormy applause on Fitzenhagen’s recital tours.

EDWARD ELGAR

(1857–1934)

Variations on an Original Theme, Op.36 Enigma I (C.A.E.) – Caroline Alice Elgar, the composer’s wife II (H.D.S.-P) – Hew David SteuartPowell, pianist in Elgar’s trio III (R.B.T.) – Richard Baxter Townshend, author IV (W.M.B.) – William Meath Baker, nicknamed ‘the Squire’ V (R.P.A.) – Richard Penrose Arnold, son of Matthew Arnold VI (Ysobel) – Isabel Fitton, viola player VII (Troyte) – Arthur Troyte Griffith, architect VIII (W.N.) – Winifred Norbury IX (Nimrod) – August Johannes Jaeger, reader for the publisher Novello & Co X (Dorabella) Intermezzo – Dora Penny, later Mrs Richard Powell XI (G.R.S.) – Dr G.R. Sinclair, organist of Hereford Cathedral XII (B.G.N.) – Basil G. Nevinson, cellist in Elgar’s trio XIII (***) Romanza – Lady Mary Lygon, later Trefusis XIV (E.D.U.) Finale – Elgar himself (‘Edu’ being his nickname) In middle-age, Edward Elgar found himself in his native Malvern region, eking out a living as a humble rural music teacher. He took in students, made instrumental arrangements, gave an occasional performance and

continually threatened to give away music altogether. But one evening in October 1898 Elgar began to doodle away at the piano. Chancing upon a brief theme that pleased him, he started imagining his friends confronting the same theme, commenting to his wife, ‘This is how soand-so would have done it.’ Or he would try to catch another friend’s character in a variation. This harmless bit of fun grew into one of England’s greatest orchestral masterpieces, Elgar’s Variations on an Original Theme. Where the word ‘Theme’ should have appeared in the score, however, Elgar wrote ‘Enigma’. He stated that the theme was a variation on a well-known tune which he refused to identify. It’s a conundrum which has occupied concertgoers and scholars alike ever since. Elgar himself rejected suggestions of God Save the King and Auld Lang Syne. Other suggestions have included Rule, Britannia, an extract from Wagner’s Parsifal, and even Ta-ra-ra-boom-deay. Another suggestion is that it’s a simple scale, while Michael Kennedy has proposed that the unheard theme could be Elgar himself, with the famous two-quaver two-crotchet motif on which the entire work is based capturing the natural speech rhythm of the name ‘Edward Elgar’. Elgar went to his grave without revealing the truth and no one has come up with the definitive answer.

TCHAIKOVSKY AND ELGAR VARIATIONS | 6–7 August

The final variation begins with the solo part establishing its own particular rhythmic interpretation of the theme, a delightful way of upping the activity, which continues into the coda.

The second enigma was the identity of the characters depicted within each variation, who were identified at first only by their initials in the score. This enigma has proved much easier to solve. Variation 1, which simply elaborates the main violin theme with prominent wind playing, depicts Elgar’s wife, Caroline Alice (‘Carice’). The second variation brings the first hint of actual imitation. Pianist H.D. Steuart-Powell was one of Elgar’s chamber music collaborators,

TCHAIKOVSKY AND ELGAR VARIATIONS | 6–7 August

who characteristically played a diatonic run over the keyboard as a warm-up. Variation 3 depicts the ham actor R.B. Townshend whose drastic variation in vocal pitch is mocked here. The Cotswold squire W. Meath Baker is the subject of Variation 4 while the mixture of seriousness and wit displayed by the poet Matthew Arnold’s son Richard is captured in the fifth variation. The next two variations parody the technical inadequacies of Elgar’s chamber music acquaintances. Violist Isabel Fitton (Variation 6) had trouble performing music where the strings had to be crossed while Arthur Troyte Griffith (Variation 7) was a pianist whose vigorous style sounded more like drumming! Poor Winifred Norbury is actually represented in Variation 8 by a musical depiction of her country house, ‘Sherridge’. The most famous variation of course is Nimrod (No.9). Nimrod (the ‘mighty hunter before the Lord’ of Genesis chapter 10) was Elgar’s publisher A.J. Jaeger (German for ‘hunter’). Apparently the idea for this particular variation came when Elgar was going through one of his regular slumps. Jaeger took Elgar on a long walk during which he said that whenever Beethoven was troubled by the turbulent life of a creative artist, he simply poured his frustrations into still more beautiful compositions. In memory of that conversation, Elgar made those opening bars of Nimrod quote the slow movement from Beethoven’s Pathétique Sonata. Variation 10 depicts a young woman called Dora Penny, whose soubriquet ‘Dorabella’ comes from Mozart’s Così fan tutte. And then Variation 11 goes beyond the human species, depicting the organist G.R Sinclair’s bulldog Dan, falling down the steep bank of the river Wye, paddling upstream, coming to land and then barking.

The cello features prominently in Variation 12 – a tribute to cellist Basil

Nevinson. Mendelssohn’s Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage is quoted in Variation 13, said to depict Lady Mary Lygon’s departure by ship to Australia. Finally we hear ‘E.D.U.’ where the composer depicts himself (his wife’s nickname for him was Edoo) cocking a snook at all those who said he’d never make it as a composer. Abridged from Martin Buzacott © 2000

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The Planets

Side by Side with Melbourne Youth Orchestra Saturday 14 August | 7.30pm Arts Centre Melbourne, Hamer Hall Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Melbourne Youth Orchestra Jaime Martín conductor Edward Walton violin RAVEL Boléro RAVEL Tzigane HOLST The Planets (selections)

A musical Acknowledgement of Country, Long Time Living Here by Deborah Cheetham AO, will be performed before the start of this concert. Running time: Approximately 1 hour, no interval.

THE PLANETS | 14 August

Jaime Martín conductor The Chief Conductor is supported by Dr Marc Besen AC and Dr Eva Besen AO. Jaime Martín will begin his tenure as MSO Chief Conductor in 2022, investing the Orchestra with prodigious musical creativity and momentum. In September 2019 Jaime Martín became Chief Conductor of the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra and Music Director of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. He has been Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of Gävle Symphony Orchestra since 2013. He was recently announced as the Principal Guest Conductor of the Orquesta y Coro Nacionales de España (Spanish National Orchestra) for the 22/23 season. Having spent many years as a highly regarded flautist, Jaime turned to conducting fulltime in 2013. In recent years Martín has conducted an impressive list of orchestras and has recorded various discs, both as a conductor and as a flautist. Martín is the Artistic Advisor and previous Artistic Director of the Santander Festival. He was also a founding member of the Orquestra de Cadaqués, where he was Chief Conductor from 2012 to 2019. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Music, London, where he was a flute professor. 25

THE PLANETS | 14 August

Edward Walton violin

One of Australia’s most promising young musicians, Edward is 15 years old and was recently awarded 2nd prize in the Junior Division of the prestigious 2021 Menuhin International Violin Competition. He is the youngest musician to be selected for the 2021 ABC Young Performer Awards. In 2019 Edward was awarded first prizes in many international competitions, including the Il Piccolo Violino Magico competition in Italy, the Medallion International Concerto Competition in the US, the Jeunes Artistes musicals du Centre in France and the International London Grand Prize Virtuoso competition. His string quartet was awarded first prize in the 2020 Musica Viva Lockdown Legends competition. Edward has appeared as a soloist with orchestras in Australia and internationally and has performed recitals in Australia, Italy, Switzerland, Germany and at London’s Royal Albert Hall. He has attended the Kronberg Academy, Interlaken and Keshet Eilon master courses receiving masterclasses from Maxim Vengerov, Mauricio Fuks and Zakhar Bron.

Edward studies with Dr Robin Wilson, Head of Violin at the Australian National Academy of Music and plays on a 18th century Gennaro Gagliano violin kindly on loan through the Beare’s International Violin Society, London.

Melbourne Youth Orchestra

Since 1967, Melbourne Youth Orchestras has been enriching young lives through the power of music. Melbourne Youth Orchestras continues to grow their community on a reputation of excellence, inspiring young people to reach their potential, unleashing creativity and instilling a love of music which motivates life-long learning and participation. Melbourne Youth Orchestras believes that no young learner should be excluded based on disadvantage, and at all levels, their student-centred program focuses on building strong communities and encouraging participation across all religious, ethnic, cultural, social and educational backgrounds. Melbourne Youth Orchestras has a commitment to improving both the quality and capacity of music education in Victoria, playing a leadership role in collaborating with education and music partners to ensure that a high quality music education is available for all students in Victoria. Melbourne Youth Orchestra has been an education partner of the MSO since 2018.

MAURICE RAVEL

(1875–1937) Boléro

Poor Ravel. He was joking when he described Boléro as a ‘masterpiece without any music in it’, so was very annoyed when the piece became one of his most popular works. In fact it came about when he was asked by the Russian dancer Ida Rubinstein to orchestrate parts of Albéniz’s Iberia for a ballet with a ‘Spanish’ character in 1928. Rubinstein had founded her own company in Paris that year. It is a common and inaccurate cliché that the ‘best Spanish music was written by non-Spaniards’, but it does contain a grain of truth. Musicians from all over Europe were drawn to Spain – or to an idea of Spain – because of its relative exoticism and its musical traditions that include an estimated 1000 different dance forms. French composers in particular, such as Bizet, Chabrier and Debussy, all wrote ‘Spanish’ works. Unlike them, though, Ravel was actually of Spanish – or, to be more specific, Basque – heritage: his mother was Basque and his father Swiss, and though born in the Basque regions of southwestern France, Ravel spent his entire life in Paris. But Hispanic music was of great importance to him, and Ravel explores Spanish sounds and manners especially in works like the opera L’heure espagnole (‘The Spanish Hour’, which, with its ticking-clock music might also have satisfied his Swiss side!), several pieces ‘en forme de habanera’, the Rapsodie espagnole and the late ‘Don Quixote’ songs. In the case of the ballet envisaged by Ida Rubinstein, though, it turned out that the rights to Albéniz’s music were not available, so Ravel composed his

Boléro, based on an 18 th century Spanish dance-form that is characterised by a moderate tempo and three beats to a bar. It has ‘no music’ in that, having established a two-bar rhythmic ostinato, with its characteristic upbeat triplet and sextuplet figures tapped out by the snared drum, Ravel introduces his simple theme, which he described as of the ‘usual Spanish-Arabian kind’. Where the rhythmic ostinato, however, is relatively terse, the C major melody is in fact very expansive, unfurling over 16 bars and often pausing on a sustained ‘G’ between its ornate arabesque motifs. It is reiterated over and over again, embodied in different orchestral colours each time, including a marvellous moment where it appears simultaneously in three keys moving in sinuous parallel. The work’s shifting palette of colour and inexorable rhythmic tread builds massive tension, which is released explosively in its final bars as the music suddenly reaches the new key of E major.

THE PLANETS | 14 August

Program Notes

The music’s erotic charge of constraint and release mirrors the scenario for Ida Rubinstein’s ballet, choreographed by Bronislava Nijinska (Nijinsky’s sister). Ravel had, by no means idly, suggested Boléro could accompany a story where passion is contrasted by the mechanised environment of a factory. Nijinska, however, had the dancer in an empty café, dancing alone on a table as the room gradually fills with men overcome, as Michael J. Puri notes, ‘by their lust for her’ which they express through ever more frenetic dance. Gordon Kerry © 2007/12

THE PLANETS | 14 August

MAURICE RAVEL Tzigane Edward Walton violin In 1922 Ravel heard the Hungarian violinist Jelly d’Aranyi play his Duo sonata for violin and cello at a London soirée. Afterwards she entertained Ravel by playing him Hungarian gypsy melodies in a recital that lasted until the early hours of the morning. Two years later he told her about the piece he was writing ‘especially for you… the Tzigane must be a piece of great virtuosity, full of brilliant effects, provided it is possible to perform them, which I’m not always sure of’. When d’Aranyi gave Tzigane its first performance, in London later that year, in the version with piano, Ravel is reported to have told her afterwards that if he’d known she could master the difficulties so well he would have made it even harder! Tzigane means ‘gypsy’ and the music to which Ravel gave this title is ‘a virtuoso piece in the style of a Hungarian Rhapsody’. In Tzigane Ravel set himself the kind of challenge he loved – to make a musical virtue of extreme technical difficulties. He asked his publisher to send him a copy of Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsodies for piano, and his friend Hélène Jourdan-Morhange to bring her copy of Paganini’s Caprices for solo violin. Both these composers represented the ne plus ultra of virtuosity on their instruments, and Ravel outdid them. The technical feats Ravel asks of the violinist in the long opening unaccompanied section (which takes up almost half the piece; a sign perhaps of the haste with which Ravel composed it) include playing in high positions on the G string, octaves, multiple stops, tremolos, arpeggios, glissandos. Harmonics and left hand pizzicato are saved for after the entrance of the piano.

The piano – or rather the piano-luthéal, as Ravel had intended – became an orchestra in the second version of Tzigane, premiered by d’Aranyi in Paris in 1924. The luthéal was an attachment to the piano, patented in 1919, which enabled it to imitate the plucked and hammered sounds of the harpsichord, guitar, and Hungarian cimbalom. By 1924, however, this anticipation of the prepared piano was already almost obsolete, and in the orchestral version of Tzigane Ravel finds a substitute in the colours of harp, celesta, and the string section playing pizzicato and with harmonics. Probably Ravel, with the luthéal, had been trying to make the accompaniment sound more Hungarian, but his parodistic pastiche of Hungarian gypsy music makes no attempt at the ethnographic authenticity of Bartók (whose work Ravel admired), and probably owes more to the gypsy fiddlers Ravel heard in Paris cafés and cabarets. Tzigane is a series of free variations, as if improvised, but falling broadly into the ‘csardas’ structure of the Hungarian Rhapsody as brought to the concert hall by Liszt: a slow introduction, lassu, where the minor key seeks a certain pathos, then a sometimes wild fast section, a friss. The modal musical language of both the slow and fast sections is an imitation of the Hungarian gypsy style, but Tzigane is above all a successful experiment in stretching violin virtuosity to its limits. David Garrett ©2004/2006

The Planets, Op.32 Mars, the Bringer of War Venus, the Bringer of Peace Mercury, the Winged Messenger Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity Holst did not care for fame; his major interest was in creating something new with every work, and his experience equipped him to that end. As a young man, neuphritis had caused him to switch from piano to trombone; he thus became a professional musician and was able to supplement his academic training with substantial practical experience of instrumentation and compositional technique. At the same time his musical interests were expanding from his early love of Wagner to the composers of the first British musical renaissance, particularly Byrd, Morley, Weelkes and Purcell. He also became an enthusiast for and collector of British folksongs. But his interests outside music also carried important musical implications for him. His reading of Hindu literature and philosophy in translation led to the chamber opera Savitri (1908); and his fondness for Shakespeare’s Falstaff gave him the impetus to write his opera At the Boar’s Head (1924). So it was with his interest in the planets of our solar system. In a letter of 1913 he wrote: ‘As a rule I only study things that suggest music to me. That’s why I worried at Sanskrit. Then recently the character of each planet suggested lots to me, and I have been studying astrology fairly closely...’ Although he began composing The Planets in 1914, his teaching commitments allowed him only sporadic work on the piece, and he did not finish all seven movements until 1916. (Incidentally, the work is

not a complete journey through the solar system: Earth is omitted, and Pluto was not discovered until 1930.) His friend and musical patron Balfour Gardiner gave Holst the present of a private orchestral performance in 1918, conducted by Adrian Boult. Holst was delighted and astonished: he had been convinced that a performance of so complex a work for so large an orchestra would be impossible in wartime conditions.

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GUSTAV HOLST

(1874–1934)

The Planets in its complete form was not played publicly for another two years. The swiftness of its success at that point may be judged by the circumstances of its United States debut. The orchestras of New York and Chicago vied for the country’s first performance, finally agreeing to perform the piece on the same evening (New York coming in by a nose because of the time difference). Critics have often pointed out The Planets’ structural weaknesses – the joins that show and the sometimes contrived musical gestures Holst employs to get him safely from one idea to the next. These weaknesses (which are not evident in every movement) are in any case overcome by the boldness of Holst’s invention and the brilliance of his picture-painting. The work’s importance also lies in two other factors. The first is the image it gives us now of the musical idioms in the ‘British ether’ during the century’s second decade; Stravinsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Debussy, Sibelius, Wagner and Elgar all make guest appearances in the piece, yet, as Gerald Abraham puts it, ‘each three-quarters [is] dissolved in the alembic of Holst’s creative imagination.’ The second is that, because of the way Holst absorbs and transforms his influences and interests (musical and otherwise), The Planets points towards a British musical language in which the folksong tradition plays a small part in a more ambitious, more cosmopolitan endeavour.

THE PLANETS | 14 August

Mars, the Bringer of War The pounding 5/4 rhythms of Mars have been used in countless films and documentaries to depict the horror of The Great War, yet this movement – the first Holst wrote – was completed in short score just before war broke out. It begins with a menacing theme emerging over a tread of timpani, strings using the wood of the bow and harp, rising in crescendo to a powerful statement before the central episode introduces fanfares suggesting, or mocking, military glory. The concluding section brings the two main ideas together in a ferocious collision which results in chaos and oblivion. Venus, the Bringer of Peace Venus is a picture of beauty and serenity, and perhaps the movement most influenced by the music of Debussy and Ravel in its shimmering textures. The horns, woodwinds and harps dominate much of the piece and establish its atmosphere, Holst delaying the entry of the upper strings to magical effect. Mercury, the Winged Messenger Here the main theme darts from section to section in appropriately mercurial fashion, until the violin announces a delicate variant of it in the sinuous manner of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Sheherazade. But this newly fashioned theme does not stay long in one place either, and is passed in turn to oboe, flute and celeste before the full orchestra takes it up at the climax. The movement does not so much conclude as dart away.

Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity In some ways The Planets’ two scherzos – Jupiter and Uranus – have worn the least well, being the most obviously contrived in design, the most dated in their rude vigour, and the most ‘cribbed’ by TV and film producers. Jupiter’s dazzling syncopated opening could well be the theme for a TV news program.

A kind of rotund jollity soon descends upon the movement, before a sudden change to 3/4 brings in its wake one of Holst’s noblest melodies, very much in Elgar’s nobilmente vein. Jupiter has long been The Planets’ most popular movement. Phillip Sametz © 1999

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Introducing Jaime Martín Friday 20 August | 7.30pm Saturday 21 August | 2pm Arts Centre Melbourne, Hamer Hall Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Jaime Martín conductor Sophie Rowell violin SUTHERLAND Haunted Hills DUKAS The Sorcerer’s Apprentice VAUGHAN WILLIAMS The Lark Ascending STRAVINSKY The Firebird Suite (1945)

A musical Acknowledgement of Country, Long Time Living Here by Deborah Cheetham AO, will be performed before the start of this concert. Running time: Approximately 1 hour, no interval.

Sophie Rowell

The Chief Conductor is supported by Dr Marc Besen AC and Dr Eva Besen AO.

Co-Concertmaster of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, violinist Sophie Rowell has had an extensive performing career as a soloist, chamber musician and principal orchestral violinist both in Australia and abroad.

conductor

Jaime Martín will begin his tenure as MSO Chief Conductor in 2022, investing the Orchestra with prodigious musical creativity and momentum. In September 2019 Jaime Martín became Chief Conductor of the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra and Music Director of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. He has been Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of Gävle Symphony Orchestra since 2013. He was recently announced as the Principal Guest Conductor of the Orquesta y Coro Nacionales de España (Spanish National Orchestra) for the 22/23 season. Having spent many years as a highly regarded flautist, Jaime turned to conducting full-time in 2013. In recent years Martín has conducted an impressive list of orchestras and has recorded various discs, both as a conductor and as a flautist.

violin

INTRODUCING JAIME MARTÍN | 20–21 August

Jaime Martín

After winning the ABC Young Performer’s Award in 2000, Sophie founded the Tankstream Quartet which won string quartet competitions in Cremona and Osaka. Having studied in Germany with the Alban Berg Quartet the quartet moved back to Australia in 2006 when they were appointed as the Australian String Quartet. Sophie is the Head of Chamber Music (Strings) at the Australian National Academy of Music, having previously taught at the Elder Conservatorium in Adelaide and the Australian Institute of Music in Sydney. She has also given masterclasses in the UK, France, Singapore and throughout Australia.

Martín is the Artistic Advisor and previous Artistic Director of the Santander Festival. He was also a founding member of the Orquestra de Cadaqués, where he was Chief Conductor from 2012 to 2019. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Music, London, where he was a flute professor. 33

INTRODUCING JAIME MARTÍN | 20–21 August

Program Notes MARGARET SUTHERLAND

(1897–1984)

Haunted Hills ‘It has been the fashion over the last twenty years’, wrote Margaret Sutherland in 1958, ‘for composers to give general, non-committal titles to their works’. While there was much to be said in favour of a general ‘classifying’ title, she thought, there were times ‘when a descriptive title seems the only appropriate one’. Haunted Hills is one such example. The tone poem’s title may have originated from the name given to a mountain area near Moe in Gippsland, Victoria, but it was the Dandenong Ranges east of Melbourne where Sutherland sketched Haunted Hills in the autumn of 1950. The work reflects her profound appreciation for Australia’s natural environment, developed early in her life through long walks in the Dandenongs with her nature-loving uncle, William Sutherland. ‘The underlying urge, or feeling, was born of the sheer physical age of these hills’, Sutherland wrote in 1958. In a programme note supplied to the ABC in 1971, she added that it was also ‘a sound picture written in contemplation of the first people who roamed the hills – their bewilderment and their betrayal’, with the seeming gaiety of its frenzied dance ‘born of despair’.

Sutherland was sensitive to the plight of Australia’s First Nations peoples, and to white exploitation of their culture. She initially preferred not to emphasise the role of Australian Aborigines in inspiring the work, though ‘that was why I wrote it’, she said. Her diffidence is attributable to her reaction against the tendency of some composers to mimic sounds or rituals

to express ‘Australianism’. Instead, she believed that ‘Australian composers should absorb the country and all its constituents … and then forget it’. The result would be permeation – not imitation. Haunted Hills ushered in an intense period of orchestral composition for Sutherland. She had always preferred writing chamber music, equating it with a feminine sensibility. But with her unhappy marriage behind her and her two children grown up, she had more time on her hands, and the temptation to tackle composition for larger forces was irresistible. This may have been partly due to the desire to be considered a ‘serious’ composer. Historically, a higher value was placed on the larger genres – particularly symphony and opera – as opposed to the smaller forms to which women composers had tended to be confined through their traditional roles in the domestic realm. Premiered on 22 March 1951 by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra conducted by Eugene Goossens, it was first performed by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra under the baton of John Hopkins in 1971. Hopkins was a champion of Sutherland’s music, and she held him in high respect. It was ‘an unusual experience’ when Hopkins called her asking if he could review her orchestral scores. ‘John came one morning and stayed for lunch. He went steadily through and over, looking at everything. I became more and more astonished’, she said. The work has since enjoyed several MSO performances, and a version conducted by Patrick Thomas in 1972 can be found in ABC Classics Australian Composers Volume 1 (1995). In 1976, Australian choreographer Graeme Murphy saw its potential as dance music, and used it as the basis for his ballet Glimpses (depicting the world of

Along with the ‘frenzied dance’ section, the muscular, impressionistic nature of the work lent itself to a dance setting. Although reminiscent of the tone poems of British composer John Ireland and Sutherland’s beloved mentor, Arnold Bax, its leaner style is individual, ranging from lyrical and atmospheric to the rhythmic vigour of the ‘frenzied dance’. Arguably, Haunted Hills is Sutherland’s most ‘symphonic’ work, though structured as one movement divided into two distinctive parts. It begins with a sweeping theme suggestive of mountainous landscape. A dramatic leap in the violins and horns is accompanied by a harp glissando that foreshadows the colourful orchestration to come. The material is elaborated before a new, calmer melody appears. The second section begins with an introverted, contemplative theme, leading to the frenzied dance. The mysterious first theme re-appears, followed by a brief return of the ecstatic dance. The work ends with a fleeting recurrence of the opening ‘hills’ theme. Dr Jillian Graham © 2021. Dr Graham is currently writing Margaret Sutherland’s biography, to be published by Melbourne University Publishing.

PAUL DUKAS

(1865–1935)

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice In 1894, writing in one of his regular columns in La Revue hebdomadaire, Dukas observed that ‘the question of the pictorial in music has been much discussed, but the study of its potential for the comic has, on the contrary, been left almost completely in the shade’. He goes on to explore various examples of humour in music from the ‘primitives’

(that is, the Renaissance) to his own day, and concludes that ‘nothing, in the category of human feelings, is a stranger to music’. As if to prove his point, in 1897 he produced one of the great comic masterpieces of music: The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, which enjoyed instant popularity after its premiere in 1897 and was the vehicle for one of Walt Disney’s most memorable cartoons. Dukas’ reputation as a composer rests largely on this piece and the very few others that survived his self-critical purges, and, indeed, after 1912 he composed practically nothing, concentrating instead on teaching a generation of composers that included Messiaen and Duruflé and producing sophisticated musical commentary.

INTRODUCING JAIME MARTÍN | 20–21 August

Australian artist Norman Lindsay). It was first aired at the Australian Ballet’s 1976 Choreographic Workshop, and later by the Sydney Dance Company.

In this scherzo (‘joke’), Dukas returns to an early love, the poetry of Goethe. The ballad, written a century earlier, is essentially a fable of the misuse of partially understood power. The apprentice, left alone by his master, enchants a broom, endowing it with limbs to draw water from the well. Not knowing the spell to stop the broom, the apprentice chops it in half but now has two creatures inexorably filling the house with water. The sorcerer returns in time to set things right with a short, emphatic spell. Dukas begins mysteriously, with a gradual crystallisation of short motifs into themes. The comically lumbering bassoon, the washes of sound suggesting inundation and the sorcerer’s magisterial intervention are sheer orchestral magic. Gordon Kerry © 2013

INTRODUCING JAIME MARTÍN | 20–21 August

RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

(1872–1958)

The Lark Ascending – Romance for violin and orchestra Sophie Rowell violin He rises and begins to round, He drops the silver chain of sound, Of many links without a break, In chirrup, whistle, slur and shake. For singing till his heaven fills, ‘Tis love of earth that he instils, And ever winging up and up, Our valley is his golden cup, And he the wine which overflows To lift us with him when he goes. Till lost on his aerial rings In light, and then the fancy sings. The Lark Ascending by George Meredith (1828–1909)

The Lark Ascending has undoubtedly become Vaughan Williams’ most popular work. It was fully drafted in 1914 as a work for violin and piano, but the composition had to be set aside due to the outbreak of the First World War. Vaughan Williams’ professional musical life ceased completely for the next four years, as he served as an ambulance driver during the war, shuttling wounded and dying soldiers from the battlefront to temporary field hospitals in France and Greece. It was only after the war ended that he was able to return home to England and to his compositional work.

One of his first tasks was to revise The Lark Ascending. It was eventually premiered in its violin and piano form in December 1920 by the English violinist Marie Hall, to whom the work is dedicated. The orchestration of the score was completed in early 1921, and Hall gave the first performance of this, the more frequently played version, shortly afterwards in London’s Queen’s Hall with the British Symphony Orchestra under Adrian Boult.

Despite the work’s lengthy gestation period and the harrowing, life-changing experiences endured by the composer at the time, none of the terror or anguish of war is evident in the music. It is, in fact, an ideal example of Vaughan Williams’ contemplative and nostalgic musical style. The solo violin spins unbroken arches of melody and swirling arabesques almost continually throughout, and there is no contrasting material or abrupt formal changes to disturb the organic unfolding and rapturous atmosphere. The orchestration is restrained, gently supporting the solo violin for most of the work’s duration. The ‘Romance’ of the subtitle, perhaps a reference to Beethoven’s two violin Romances, alludes to Vaughan Williams’ longstanding love and adoration of nature. The Lark Ascending could be described as a musical reflection upon the poem of the same name written by the English novelist George Meredith in 1881. Only selected lines from the poem are printed in the musical score and the poetic content is used as a point of stimulus for the composer’s lyrical reverie. The solo violin clearly embodies the spirit of a bird singing and taking flight (with occasional bird calls also provided by the woodwind instruments), whilst the sustained chords, played by the strings, could be understood as the aural depiction of a flat pastoral landscape. The form of the work is rhapsodic, with lengthy ornamental solo cadenzas beginning and concluding the piece. These are notated without bar lines and in no strict tempo, thus giving the interpreter considerable freedom and liberty in interpretation. The floating quality of the harmony is partly due to Vaughan Williams’ characteristic use of a pentatonic (five-tone) mode, which weakens the strong directional pull of conventional tonality. This modality continues in the central

IGOR STRAVINSKY

(1882–1971)

The Firebird Suite Introduction – Prelude, Dance of the Firebird and Variation Pantomime I Pas de deux (The Firebird and Ivan Tsarevitch) Pantomime II Scherzo (Dance of the Princesses) Pantomime III Round Dance of the Princesses (Khorovod) Infernal Dance Berceuse (The Firebird) Final hymn Sergei Diaghilev’s seasons of Russian opera and ballet in pre-World War I Paris are legendary for bringing the splendours of Russian culture to Paris. In 1906 he mounted an exhibition of paintings. In 1908 Mussorgsky’s opera Boris Godunov, with Chaliapin in the title role, was heard for the first time in Western Europe, and in 1909 the newlyformed Ballets Russes presented four ballets. This season was so rapturously received by the Parisians that Diaghilev decided to dispense with opera and devote future seasons to ballet. For the 1910 season, Diaghilev aimed to present the first quintessential Russian ballet – taking its place alongside ‘Russian opera, Russian symphony, Russian song, Russian dance, Russian rhythm…’. Led by choreographer Michel Fokine, Diaghilev’s ‘peculiar committee’

(including Benois and the composer Tcherepnin) devised a scenario that fused disparate elements from Russian folklore: the tales of the Firebird and Ivan Tsarevitch; Kashchei the Deathless; and the dancing princesses with their golden apples. It is likely that Tcherepnin was the first composer consulted for the ballet, but whether the ‘house’ composer lost interest in ballet or found working with Fokine too trying, Diaghilev soon found himself trawling through the list of composers who had collaborated on orchestrations of music by Chopin for Les Sylphides in the previous season. Anatol Liadov, his former teacher, was the first choice, but when Liadov’s interest in the project came to nothing and Glazunov, next in line, also turned it down, Diaghilev offered the commission to Rimsky-Korsakov’s most promising pupil, 27-year-old Igor Stravinsky.

INTRODUCING JAIME MARTÍN | 20–21 August

dance-like section, which is initiated by the woodwinds. Throughout his life, Vaughan Williams collected and studied English folk-music, and although no specific folk tune is directly quoted here, its strong influence is apparent.

Stravinsky had been invited to orchestrate the opening and closing numbers of Les Sylphides (in itself a sign of confidence) after Diaghilev had heard his Scherzo fantastique in the winter of 1909. But The Firebird was to be a long, original work. If Diaghilev was taking something of a gamble in assigning it to a young, relatively unknown composer, Stravinsky had taken a gamble of his own in setting aside the opera he was working on (Le Rossignol, another bird) and apparently beginning sketches for the ballet almost a month before the commission was formally offered to him. The ballet and the suites The Firebird premiere, on 25 June 1910 at the Paris Opéra, was enormously successful, and the ovation Stravinsky received that night for his superbly colourful and dramatic score launched his international career. The following year he prepared a concert suite of five movements, still featuring the huge orchestra of the original production. In 1919 Stravinsky prepared a second suite

INTRODUCING JAIME MARTÍN | 20–21 August

(also in five movements, but a slightly different selection) in order to secure copyright outside Russia, reducing the orchestration at the same time. Finally, in 1945, Stravinsky prepared a longer suite, once more to secure the copyright and once more for a reduced orchestra. The pattern of these suites reveals not only Stravinsky’s shrewd business sense but also his critical attitude to this youthful work. He and Fokine had worked closely on what was, at the time, a new genre of dramatic one-act ballet, in which the music illustrated the smallest gesture on the stage. For some of the action in Fokine’s ‘choreographic poem’, Stravinsky improvised deliberately formless ‘recitatives’ using the leitmotif technique of Wagnerian music-drama. Stravinsky later regarded these passages as embarrassing: the 1945 suite is effectively the complete ballet ‘shorn of the “recitatives”’, and was the version used by Balanchine when he revised The Firebird for the New York City Ballet in 1949. The composer himself preferred this suite to the original ballet, which he described as ‘too long and patchy’. What remains is a Romantically-inclined score: lavish and colourful, and strongly influenced by the master of exoticism, Rimsky-Korsakov. Like RimskyKorsakov, Stravinsky used harmony to differentiate between the mortal and supernatural realms: Ivan Tsarevitch and the Princesses are given themes built from familiar diatonic scales, while the Firebird and Kashchei are portrayed with unsettling and highly chromatic music.

The Firebird music The Introduction establishes the atmosphere of Kashchei’s enchanted garden with an eerie theme constructed from alternating major and minor thirds (a device borrowed from Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera Kashchei the Deathless). The Firebird enters,

her brilliant plumage illuminating the night-time scene; the brilliant woodwind arabesques dispersing the growling trombones as she plucks golden apples from her magic tree. This Dance of the Firebird always remained Stravinsky’s favourite movement from the ballet, and he said of it proudly: ‘…it contains no melody, but consists above all in a flourish of harmonic progression…fitted to a brisk pecking rhythm…’ But Ivan Tsarevitch (the ‘Prince Charming’ of the tale), having entered warily through a break in the garden wall, pursues and captures the Firebird in the first of three brief pantomimes. The Firebird pleads for her release in the Pas de deux (an adagio). The strong ‘oriental’ character of this movement, with its languidly florid passages not only for flute but also for oboe, suggests that Stravinsky and Fokine were familiar with the dubious theory that the Firebird’s origins lay in Persian or Hindu folklore. Ivan releases the Firebird, who departs leaving a single golden feather as a token of gratitude and promise of future assistance. Meanwhile (Pantomime II) thirteen princesses enter and Ivan, hiding, watches them dance and play with the golden apples from the tree in the Dance of the Princesses. This is perhaps the most traditional moment in the ballet – a ‘Mendelssohn-Tchaikovskian scherzo’, said Stravinsky – in the moto perpetuo style. The Princesses are under the enchantment of Kashchei the Deathless, and one – the Princess Unearthly Beauty represented by a solo clarinet theme – soon has Ivan Tsarevitch under an enchantment of her own. The dance ends and Ivan reveals his presence in a wistfully noble horn solo, suggestive of Russian folk tunes (Pantomime III). A flute announces the beginning of the Khorovod, a traditional girls’ circle-dance, in which the princesses invite Ivan to join. The

At this point in the original ballet, a lengthy section of the ‘recitative’ Stravinsky later so despised began. During this Kashchei captures Ivan, who escapes being turned to stone by waving the Firebird’s feather. She appears, casting Kashchei’s retinue into a trance before hurling them headlong into a wild dance. This, the menacing Infernal Dance, features thrusting syncopated figures and irregular phrases separated by explosive chords.

INTRODUCING JAIME MARTÍN | 20–21 August

oboe’s seductive theme is an authentic Russian tune, drawn from RimskyKorsakov’s anthology of 1877. The words of the original song refer, appropriately enough, to a fine youth walking around the garden green. The climax of the dance leaves Ivan face-to-face with the Princess Unearthly Beauty, while ominous string tremolos remind us that the maidens are under an evil spell.

The Firebird moves among the exhausted dancers and with the Berceuse, or lullaby, charms them into a profound sleep. This ravishing movement suspends the descending four-note motif of the Firebird above a lyrical bassoon theme and a gently rocking ostinato. While the others sleep, the Firebird leads Ivan to a casket containing the egg that holds Kashchei’s immortal soul. He dashes the egg to the ground, the ogre expires, and the princesses and their petrified lovers are released from enchantment. The Finale celebrates the dissolution of Kashchei’s kingdom and the union of Ivan and the Princess. The horn theme is drawn from another khorovod melody, but contains hints of the mysterious introduction. It is developed into a majestic hymn of thanksgiving with a virtuosic display of rich orchestral sonorities. Symphony Australia © 1998 Edited from material by Brett Johnson with reference to Richard Taruskin.

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* The MSO has introduced a new tier to its annual Patron Program in recognition of the donors who supported the Orchestra during 2020, many for the first time. Moving forward, donors who make an annual gift of $500–$999 to the MSO will now be publicly recognised as an Overture Patron. For more information, please contact Donor Liaison, Keith Clancy on (03) 8646 1109 or clancyk@mso.com.au 45

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