CONCERT PROGRAM
MSO Principal Guest Conductor Xian Zhang
JUNE 2022 HIDDEN GEMS
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D E AT H A N D D E S I R E
B E E T H OV E N ’ S N I N T H
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CONTENTS
04
THE MELBOURNE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Acknowledging Country Your MSO Guest Musicians
8 18 24 34
HIDDEN GEMS
DEATH AND DESIRE
BEETHOVEN’S NINTH
SUPPORTERS
These concerts may be recorded for future broadcast on MSO.LIVE. Please note audience members are strongly recommended to wear face masks where 1.5m distancing is not possible, however wearing a mask is no longer a requirement for entry. In consideration of your fellow patrons, the MSO thanks 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.
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— Deborah Cheetham AO
Your MSO
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Established in 1906, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra is Australia’s pre-eminent orchestra and a cornerstone of Victoria’s rich, cultural heritage. Each year, the MSO engages with more than 5 million people, presenting in excess of 180 public events across live performances, TV, radio and online broadcasts, and via its online concert hall, MSO.LIVE, with audiences in 56 countries. With a reputation for excellence, versatility and innovation, the MSO works with culturally diverse and First Nations leaders to build community and deliver music to people across Melbourne, the state of Victoria and around the world. In 2022, the MSO ‘s new Chief Conductor, Jaime Martín has ushered in an exciting new phase in the Orchestra’s history. Maestro Martín joins an Artistic Family that includes Principal Guest Conductor Xian Zhang, Principal Conductor in Residence, Benjamin Northey, Conductor Laureate, Sir Andrew Davis CBE, Composer in Residence, Paul Grabowsky and Young Artist in Association, Christian Li. The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra respectfully acknowledges the people of the Eastern Kulin Nations, on whose un‑ceded lands we honour the continuation of the oldest music practice in the world.
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Your MSO
Your MSO Jaime Martín
Chief Conductor Dr Marc Besen AC and the late Dr Eva Besen AO#
Xian Zhang
Principal Guest Conductor
Benjamin Northey Principal Conductor in Residence
Carlo Antonioli Cybec Assistant Conductor Fellow
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 and Frank Mercurio#
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
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SECOND VIOLINS
CELLOS
Matthew Tomkins
David Berlin
Robert Macindoe
Rachael Tobin
Monica Curro
Nicholas Bochner
Principal The Gross Foundation# Associate Principal
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
Rohan de Korte
Andrew Dudgeon AM#
Glenn Sedgwick and Anita Willaton#
Freya Franzen Cong Gu Andrew Hall Isy Wasserman Philippa West
Sarah Morse Angela Sargeant Michelle Wood
Andrew and Judy Rogers#
DOUBLE BASSES Benjamin Hanlon
Andrew Dudgeon AM
#
Patrick Wong Roger Young
Shane Buggle and Rosie Callanan#
VIOLAS Christopher Moore Principal Di Jameson and Frank Mercurio#
Frank Mercurio and Di Jameson#
Rohan Dasika Suzanne Lee Stephen Newton Sophie Galaise and Clarence Fraser#
FLUTES Prudence Davis Principal Anonymous#
Christopher Cartlidge
Wendy Clarke
Associate Principal
Associate Principal
Lauren Brigden Katharine Brockman Anthony Chataway
Sarah Beggs PICCOLO
Dr Elizabeth E Lewis AM#
Gabrielle Halloran Trevor Jones Anne Neil#
Fiona Sargeant Cindy Watkin
Learn more about our musicians on the MSO website.
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
Nereda Hanlon and Michael Hanlon AM#
TRUMPETS
Craig Hill
Owen Morris
BASS CLARINET
BASSOONS
William Evans Rosie Turner
Principal
TROMBONES
Natasha Thomas
Richard Shirley Mike Szabo
Dr Martin Tymms and Patricia Nilsson#
Principal Bass Trombone
CONTRABASSOON
TUBA
Brock Imison
Principal
Robert Cossom
Drs Rhyl Wade and Clem Gruen#
HARP Yinuo Mu Principal
John and Diana Frew#
Elise Millman
Associate Principal
Anonymous#
Shane Hooton
Associate Principal Glenn Sedgwick and Anita Willaton#
Jack Schiller
John Arcaro
Principal
Jon Craven Principal
PERCUSSION
Gary McPherson#
Philip Arkinstall
Associate Principal
TIMPANI
Your MSO
OBOES
Timothy Buzbee
Principal
# Position supported by
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Hidden Gems Thursday 16 June / 7.30pm Melbourne Town Hall
Friday 17 June / 7.30pm Costa Hall, Geelong Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Benjamin Bayl conductor Michael Pisani oboe Jack Schiller bassoon Tair Khisambeev violin David Berlin cello
FARRENC Overture No.2 HAYDN Sinfonia Concertante RAMEAU Suite from Zoroastre SCHUBERT Symphony No.3
Organ Recital: 6.30pm, Melbourne Town Hall. Calvin Bowman presents a free 30-minute recital on the mighty Grand Organ. 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 95 minutes including interval.
HIDDEN GEMS | 16–17 June
Benjamin Bayl conductor
Benjamin Bayl is co-Founder of the Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra and Associate Director of the Hanover Band. Born and raised in Sydney and based in Berlin, he was the first Australian Organ Scholar of King’s College Cambridge, then studied conducting at London’s Royal Academy of Music. He was Assistant Conductor to Iván Fischer’s Budapest Festival Orchestra, and also assisted John Eliot Gardiner, Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Richard Hickox. Benjamin recently made debuts with Mahler Chamber Orchestra (Berlin Philharmonie), Hong Kong & Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestras, Royal Philharmonic, Taipei Symphony, Orquesta Filamónica Medellín and Philharmonie Zuidnerland, as well as conducting major orchestras throughout Italy, Germany and Scandinavia. Working extensively with period instrument orchestras, he directs B’Rock, Vocalconsort Berlin, Concerto Copenhagen, Concerto Köln, Wroclaw Baroque, Collegium Vocale Gent, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Australian Haydn Ensemble, and Hanover Band, with whom he recorded a Beethoven Symphony cycle. Festival engagements include Edinburgh, Amsterdam, Melbourne (with ANAM), Catagena, Ruhrtiennale, Euro Klassik Berlin & Chopin.
Michael Pisani oboe
Michael Pisani has been a member of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Oboe section since 2004. Michael grew up in Melbourne, first learning the piano before starting the oboe at age 12. After studying at the Victorian College of the Arts he was appointed to the position of Associate Principal Oboe in the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra and then to the same position in Orchestra Victoria the following year. On occasion, Michael also plays Principal Oboe with the Australian Chamber Orchestra and has been guest principal with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Auckland Philharmonic and Hong Kong Philharmonic. He has appeared as soloist with various orchestras in Melbourne, performing Strauss and Mozart oboe concertos, and has featured on the ABC’s Sunday Live and Young Australia programs. Michael also teaches oboe at the University of Melbourne.
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HIDDEN GEMS | 16–17 June
Jack Schiller
Tair Khisambeev
Born in Adelaide, Jack Schiller began playing the bassoon at the age of 12. From 2008 Jack spent four years under the tutelage of Mark Gaydon (Adelaide Symphony Orchestra), including two years of study at the Elder Conservatorium of Music. In 2012 he took up a scholarship position at the Australian National Academy of Music, studying with Elise Millman (Melbourne Symphony Orchestra). During his time at the academy Jack won the ANAM Concerto Competition, performing the Mozart Bassoon Concerto with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. He also won the in-house chamber music competition and was awarded the Director’s Prize for outstanding achievement by a leaving student.
Having a passion for travel, Tair has worked as an orchestral musician in many different countries, exploring the diversity of the world’s cultures and the performing arts inherent in every place he visited. Before he finally found his zen in Melbourne, he graduated from the Moscow Conservatory, worked several years in Russia, a few years in Japan, tried the rhythm of orchestras of England and Finland and took part in numerous festivals and competitions, both as a soloist and chamber musician.
bassoon
After completing his studies at ANAM, Jack took up a contract with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra as Associate Principal Bassoon and a position in the orchestra’s Fellowship program.
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violin
A special place in Tair’s heart belongs to chamber music. In 2010 he helped found a piano quintet, which under his leadership travelled and performed throughout Russia and Europe for six years. Tair is happy that he found so many like-minded chamber music lovers among Melbourne musicians and particularly in the MSO. Since starting at the Russian State Symphony Orchestra until now, Tair has been through it all with his wife, the great cellist Elina. Now they have dropped their anchor in Melbourne with confidence, rushing into the cultural beat of the city. So far no kangaroos have been injured on the road. Tair Khisambeev’s position as Acting Associate Concertmaster is supported by Di Jameson and Frank Mercurio through the MSO’s Adopt a Musician program.
HIDDEN GEMS | 16–17 June
David Berlin cello
David Berlin studied the cello with Lois Simpson at the Sydney Conservatorium and with Channing Robbins at the Juilliard School of Music in New York. For over 25 years David has been at the forefront of music performance in Australia, as Principal Cello of both the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra (19851988) and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (since 1989). In London in 1992, David gave the world premiere performance of the complete works for cello and piano by Franz Liszt, with Leslie Howard. Along with solo recordings for ABC radio, he has appeared as soloist on the Tall Poppies, Chandos and Naxos labels. His recital disc Barber & Debussy with pianist Len Vorster on the Tall Poppies label was nominated in Limelight Magazine by James McCarthy as one of the best classical CDs of 2011. In 2020, together with Benjamin Martin, he released French Cello Sonatas on the ABC Classic label – it has enjoyed highly positive reviews and streaming activity through Spotify. David plays on a cello made by Ivan Zgradic in Sherman Oaks, California in 1982. David Berlin’s position as Principal Cello is supported by The M.S. Newman Family Foundation through the MSO’s Adopt a Musician program.
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HIDDEN GEMS | 16–17 June
Program Notes LOUISE FARRENC
(1804–1875)
Overture No.2 In 1834, at the age of 30, Louise Farrenc composed her first orchestral works, the concert overtures Op.23 and Op.24. The choice of this genre at this time seems remarkable in several respects. Felix Mendelssohn had created a new genre with his overtures A Midsummer Night’s Dream Op.21, The Hebrides Op.26 and others, which immediately became very popular in the flourishing bourgeois music scene. Like Mendelssohn’s works, most of the concert overtures written in the 19th century have a subject that is named in the title. Against this background, it is significant and trendsetting for her later oeuvre that Louise Farrenc did not associate her overtures with a programme or subject, but on the contrary titled them Ouverture a’ grand orchestre. After Louise Farrenc had written almost exclusively piano music, variations, and character pieces in the taste of the time, in about ten years of compositional practice, the overtures are the first step in a new direction. The instrumentation, scale, form and style of the overtures indicate a new compositional intention in Farrenc’s oeuvre. Whereas the preceding piano works were intended for the connoisseur market, for teaching purposes or for concert performances on a smaller scale, depending on the degree of difficulty, the orchestral overtures for the first time demanded the effort and setting of large concerts. With these works, the composer presented herself to a wider public as well as to the small circle of connoisseurs in Paris, who nevertheless shaped public opinion as editors and authors of music journals.
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Up to now, the composer has hardly been mentioned in specialist literature, and the first performances of the concert overtures are not documented, or only brief notes. Towards the end of the 1830s, however, Louise Farrenc became a household name among music critics, not least thanks to the two overtures. The astonishment expressed by concert reviewers about the quality of these two works indicates that Louise Farrenc was always perceived as an exceptional composer. Translated by Aussie German Translation Services from original notes by Christin Heitmann, amended by Stephanie Sheridan © 2022
JOSEPH HAYDN
(1732–1809)
Sinfonia concertante in B flat Allegro Andante Allegro con spirito Michael Pisani oboe Jack Schiller bassoon Tair Khisambeev violin David Berlin cello The 1770s and 80s saw a veritable rash of concertantes or sinfonie concertante – pieces showing off the individual virtuosity of more than one soloist from within an orchestra. Mozart wrote one for wind instruments, another for violin, viola and orchestra, inspired by his contacts with orchestras in Mannheim, Munich and Paris. At the time of Haydn’s first visit to England, his pupil Pleyel was achieving great success there with his sinfonie concertante. The violinist and impresario Johann Salomon obviously wished to counter his rival’s success by presenting a sinfonia concertante by the celebrated Haydn himself, in his own concert series.
It is only in the last 20 years that the piece has recaptured the popularity it enjoyed in the 1790s – as well it might, for it combines the maturity of style and certainty of orchestral writing of Haydn’s Paris and London symphonies with a lighter tone of unashamed entertainment music. Haydn uses the soloists mainly as a group, without neglecting the characteristic timbre of each instrument. The first movement is the most symphonic in style. It features a fully written-out cadenza for the four soloists together. The Andante begins delightfully with the solo instruments playing against pizzicato strings, the first of many textural felicities. The last movement gave Salomon an opportunity to shine. In passages of recitative the solo violin behaves like a dramatic soprano, complete with written out appoggiaturas (‘leaning’ notes). David Garrett © 1997
JEAN-PHILIPPE RAMEAU
(1683–1764)
Suite from Zoroastre Overture Entrée des Peuples différents Loure Air tendre en rondeau Tambourin en rondeau
HIDDEN GEMS | 16–17 June
Haydn obliged with a work featuring important solos for Salomon to play. It was premiered in Salomon’s concert on 9 March 1792, with Messrs Harrington, Holmes and Menel playing oboe, bassoon and cello respectively.
Sarabande pour les Enchantements Air grave Air des Esprits infernaux Zoroastre, Rameau’s fifth tragédie en musique, is remarkable for a number of features. For a start, most operas of the French Baroque – indeed most of Rameau’s earlier theatre works – were based on classical mythology or medieval romance. Zoroastre’s subject matter is based on Persian sources; its hero (familiar to us as Zarathustra) is the founder of the religion known as Zoroastrianism. The work could also lay claim to being the first masonic opera, predating Mozart’s Magic Flute by nearly 40 years. According to commentator Graham Sadler, the destruction of the Temple of Solomon, symbolic to freemasons of Liberty and Equality, was obviously on librettist Louis de Cahusac’s mind when he opened the opera on the king of Bactria’s gardens, ravaged by storm. Other elements of freemasonry, such as the stark opposition of light and darkness, are apparent in the work’s conscious alternation of day and night, and the construction of a Temple of Light in the fifth act following the defeat of the forces of darkness. The opera was first performed at the Opéra in Paris on 5 December 1749. Though Rameau had become so popular that the Marquis d’Argenson, a supporter of Lully, had forbidden the Opéra to put on more than two of his operas in a year, the first version of
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HIDDEN GEMS | 16–17 June
Zoroastre presented its listeners with difficulties. These were resolved by a revision, mostly of Acts II, III and V, staged in January 1756. In this form (and with masonic elements even more pronounced) the work had greater success, and was chosen to open the new opera house of the Académie Royale de Musique in 1770. But even outside the context of dramatic innovations, this suite conveys some of the strikingness of Rameau’s dance writing, rich evidence of the composer’s genius. We can appreciate, as the New Groves’ Dictionary of Opera says, Rameau’s ‘ability to capture a huge range of moods…the more so given the limitation of form, phrase-structure and rhythm imposed by contemporary choreography.’ Adapted by Stephanie Sheridan from original notes by G.K. Williams © Symphony Services Australia Ltd 2004
FRANZ SCHUBERT
(1797–1828)
Symphony No.3 in D Adagio maestoso – Allegro con brio Allegretto Menuetto (Vivace) – Trio Presto vivace In 1815 Schubert was the sixth assistant in his father’s school, yet that year was almost unparalleled for its sheer volume of musical work. Somewhere in between correcting his pupils’ exercises, Schubert found time for composition on what must have been a daily basis. Schubert began his Third Symphony on 24 May. Napoleon had landed in France, the Congress of Vienna was in progress, and Europe was in the middle of the ‘Hundred Days’. But these events seem to have had little impact on Schubert’s music; the only hint of martial activity is in the choice of key. 14
Schubert’s introduction establishes D major, a key long associated with brilliance, pomp, and ‘rumours of war’. After a single emphatic chord, the introduction assumes a delicately conventional character with a clear debt to classical models: Haydn and Mozart. But Schubert’s own voice emerges almost immediately with a startling harmonic shift preceded by three soft chords. An ascending scale figure in the violins and drooping woodwind figures provide the links with the rest of the movement. The Allegro con brio marks the first occasion on which Schubert had entrusted a main theme to a woodwind instrument. After toying with various instrumental colours in his sketches, he settled on a crisply rhythmic clarinet figure, alternating with string passages to establish an atmosphere of fun and gaiety. The full orchestra maintains the high-spirited mood and builds to a climax before leaving the listener suspended... Having gained our attention, Schubert presents the second subject as an oboe solo with string accompaniment. At this point he broke off work, resuming on 11 July to complete this first movement and the remaining three in just eight days. In his most resourceful use of wind instruments yet, Schubert traces the development of the Allegro con brio with a dialogue between woodwinds and strings. Then, artfully avoiding a replica of the exposition in the recapitulation, Schubert introduces elements of the slow introduction – a technique he developed further in his ‘Great’ C major symphony. For his second movement Schubert began an earnest Adagio molto in 3/4, only to abandon it after two bars. In its place he wrote, on 15 July, an intermezzo (Allegretto) – light and graceful.
The finale (Presto vivace) continues the dance-like mood with a whirlwind of a tarantella. This is orchestral writing at its most brilliant and joyous, with a suggestion of the Italian style and pre-empting the popularity of Rossini’s music in Vienna.
HIDDEN GEMS | 16–17 June
The Menuetto wrenches us from delicacy to earthiness in one heavy upbeat, combining the style of a scherzo with the spirit of Austrian peasant dances. Its Trio, featuring oboe and bassoon, shows the inevitable path which the folk Ländler was treading (or whirling?) towards the waltz.
This is the shortest of Schubert’s first three symphonies; its brevity and conciseness points to classical restraint and technical maturity, while its lighter weight and sparkling detail points to the pure joy of music. As one writer has suggested, ‘genius doesn’t need to reveal itself by plumbing the depths or storming the heights’. Adapted from a note by Yvonne Frindle ©1997/2009
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Sheku Kanneh-Mason Mid-Season Gala SATURDAY 30 JULY / 7.30pm
Arts Centre Melbourne, Hamer Hall
Experience global sensation Sheku Kanneh-Mason performing Shostakovich’s Second Cello Concerto, plus Dvořák’s New World Symphony, led by Chief Conductor Jaime Martín.
Proudly presented by MSO Premier Partner Ryman Healthcare In association with Andrew McKinnon Presentations
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Death and Desire Friday 24 June / 11am Saturday 25 June / 7.30pm Arts Centre Melbourne, Hamer Hall Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Fabien Gabel conductor Daniel Müller-Schott cello R. STRAUSS Don Juan R. STRAUSS Death and Transfiguration* DVOŘÁK Cello Concerto
Pre-concert talk: 24 June at 10.15am and 25 June at 6.30pm, Hamer Hall. Learn more about the performance at a pre-concert talk with musician and composer Kym Dillon. 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 110 minutes including interval. Running time: Approximately 70 minutes with no interval. (morning) * Death and Transfiguration will not be performed at the morning performance.
Daniel Müller-Schott
Fabien Gabel has established an international career of the highest calibre, appearing with orchestras such as London Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, Tonkünstler-Orchester, Oslo Philharmonic, Helsinki Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic and Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. Praised for his dynamic style and sensitive approach to the score, he is best known for his eclectic choice of repertoire ranging from core symphonic works to new music to championing lesser-known composers of the 19th and the 20th century.
Daniel Müller-Schott is one of the most sought-after cellists in the world, and can be heard on all the great international concert stages. For more than two decades he has been enchanting audiences as an ambassador for classical music in the 21 st century. The New York Times refers to his “intensive expressiveness” and describes him as a “fearless player with technique to burn”.
conductor
Having attracted international attention in 2004 as the winner of the Donatella Flick conducting competition, Fabien Gabel was assistant conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra 2004–2006. He was music director of Orchestre Symphonique de Québec 2012–2021 and Orchestre Francais de Jeunes 2017–2021. Born in Paris to a family of accomplished musicians, Fabien Gabel began playing the trumpet at the age of six and honed his skills at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris and at the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe. He played with several prominent Parisian orchestras before embarking on his conducting career.
DEATH AND DESIRE | 24–25 June
Fabien Gabel
cello
Daniel Müller-Schott guests with international leading orchestras; in the US with the orchestras in New York, Boston, Cleveland, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Los Angeles; in Europe the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Bayrisches Staatsorchester and Münchner Philharmoniker, the Radio Orchestras from Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Leipzig and Hamburg, Copenhagen and Paris, Tonhalle-Orchester Zurich, the London Symphony and Philharmonic Orchestra, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, the Spanish National Orchestra as well as in Australia with the Sydney and Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and in Asia with Tokyo’s NHK Symphony Orchestra, Taiwan’s National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) and Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra.
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DEATH AND DESIRE | 24–25 June
Program Notes RICHARD STRAUSS
(1864–1949) Don Juan
In Nicolas Lenau’s incomplete drama Don Juan (1884), the eponymous antihero sets out to experience the love of women in the most comprehensive way possible. But as the posse of spurned lovers, enraged fathers and illegitimate children begins to prove bothersome, the Don begins to tire of the chase. Challenged to a duel, and fatigued by the prospect of yet another victory, he throws away his sword and is run through by his adversary. Taking the Lisztian notion of the symphonic poem as his guide, while still adhering reasonably closely to traditional sonata form, the young Strauss set out to ‘dramatises’ through music the various stages of Don Juan’s career, clearly contrasting the predatorial Don with the token protestations of his conquests. Gradually, however, as we enter the mind of Don Juan, fleeting doubts and wisps of dark themes begin to creep in. They are held at bay for a time by recapitulation of the main themes and the perennial sense of action bursting forth. But the end is inevitable, and the duel’s huge orchestral crescendo comes to a dramatic halt: the sword through the gizzard is conveyed in a sustained pianissimo chord, pierced suddenly by a trumpet shriek, and a few dying whimpers.
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The 25-year-old Strauss conducted the premiere, on 11 November 1889. It was a huge was a huge success, despite the initial reticence of an orchestra who had never encountered such technical difficulties before. Several of the wind players pleaded for mercy during rehearsals, but they
soon recognised that these ‘novelties’ actually demonstrated a phenomenal understanding of the instruments, and Don Juan has remained one of Strauss’ most played orchestral works. Adapted from a note by Martin Buzacott Symphony Australia © 2001
RICHARD STRAUSS Tod und Verklärung (Death and Transfiguration) Before becoming primarily an opera composer, the younger Richard Strauss specialised in the tone poem, honing his skills at musical portrayal. His third tone poem represents ‘the dying hours of a man who had striven towards the highest idealistic aims, maybe indeed those of an artist…’ The dying man’s sporadic pulse is suggested by a rhythm which seems derived from the Prelude to Act II of Wagner’s Götterdämmerung. Sighs are graphically portrayed by the strings. Several themes are presented, one on the flute answered by oboe and clarinet, and, in particular, an oboe melody accompanied by harp arpeggios, which is soon taken up by solo violin. The music takes a sudden violent turn with a symphonic allegro. It builds towards a defiant, disjointed fortissimo, contrasted with a restless, downward rolling theme. The timpani recall the opening’s syncopations before the music beats itself out in exhaustion. In a last desperate gesture, we hear the work’s most important theme, representing the artist’s ‘ideals’, with its resolute upbeat and vaulting octave leap built up from the traditional hunting call of the horn. A series of tableaux represents different phases of his life, from innocent childhood to dashing youth to heated lover. The themes are derived from those already established, suggesting that the man
Now the dying man passes beyond memories of his earlier years to the origin of his ideals. Strauss’ scheme was to repeat the ‘ideals’ theme three times, each time getting richer and more complex, as if to suggest the development of the dying man’s vision. Another violent outburst suggests his last spasms, and then several strokes on the gong – extremely effective orchestration – mark the countdown to doom. Quietly, from the depths of the orchestra a statement of the ‘ideals’ theme begins and builds to a tremendous climax, but the music drains away to strains familiar from the opening. The final ‘transfiguration’ dwells with great beauty on the ‘ideals’ theme. Strauss was in his mid-20s when he wrote this work and had not experienced even serious illness. On his death bed the octogenarian composer said it was just as he had imagined it in Tod und Verklärung. Of course, he was only referring to the first part of the experience. Adapted from a note by Gordon Williams Symphony Australia © 2001
ANTONÍN DVOŘÁK
(1841–1904)
Cello Concerto in B minor Allegro Adagio ma non troppo Allegro moderato Daniel Müller-Schott cello Brahms was impressed. ‘If only I’d known,’ he said, ‘that one could write a cello concerto like that, I’d have written one long ago!’ And he wasn’t just being polite. Brahms had recognised Dvořák’s talents early on, ensuring that the young composer received from the Imperial Government in Vienna the Austrian State Stipendium, an annual grant, for five years, and persuading his own publisher, Simrock of Berlin, to publish Dvořák’s music.
DEATH AND DESIRE | 24–25 June
is embryonic in the child. The ‘love’ theme soars higher and higher until the trombones and timpani hammer out the opening’s syncopations, as if the memory of passion causes terrible heart palpitations.
But Brahms’ admiration aside, the composition of what Dvořák scholar John Clapham has called simply ‘the greatest of all cello concertos’ was no easy matter. In fact, it was his second attempt at the medium – the first, in A major, was composed in 1865, but appears only to have been written out in a cello and piano score. This work was rediscovered by the German composer Günter Raphael in 1929. He made an orchestral version at the time, as did Jarmil Burghauser in 1977, but the versions are significantly different. That Dvořák left the work unorchestrated suggests that he was dissatisfied with this first effort. Despite the urgings of his friend, the cellist Hanuš Wihan, Dvořák thought no more about writing such a piece until many years later, though he did orchestrate the four-hand piano piece Klid (Silent Woods) and the Rondo B.171 Op.94 (originally for cello and piano) with solo parts for Wihan. Much to Dvořák’s annoyance, the first performance of the concerto was not given by its dedicatee, Wihan. The
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DEATH AND DESIRE | 24–25 June
London Philharmonic Society, who premiered it at the Queen’s Hall in March 1896, mistakenly believed Wihan to be unavailable, and engaged Leo Stern. Despite Dvořák’s embarrassment, Stern must have delivered the goods, as Dvořák engaged him for the subsequent New York, Prague and Vienna premieres of the work. Wihan did, however, perform the work often, and insisted on making some ‘improvements’ to Dvořák’s score so that the cello part would be more virtuosic. Wihan also insisted on interpolating a cadenza in the third movement, which the composer vehemently opposed. For some reason Simrock was on the point of publishing the work with Wihan’s amendments, and only a stiff letter from Dvořák persuaded the publisher to leave out the cadenza. Brahms, incidentally, had by this time taken on the job of correcting the proofs of Dvořák’s music before publication, to save the time of sending them to and from the United States. Dvořák, working on the piece in December 1894, heard that his sisterin-law Josefina (with whom he had been in love during their youth) was seriously, perhaps mortally, ill. Dvořák was sketching the slow movement at the time. The outer sections of this movement are calm and serene, but Dvořák expresses his distress in an impassioned gesture that ushers in an emotionally unstable central section in G minor, based on his song Kéž duch můj sám (Leave me alone) which was one of Josefina’s favourites.
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Josefina died in the spring of 1895, and Dvořák, by this time back in Bohemia, made significant alterations to the concluding coda of the third movement, adding some 60 bars of music. The movement begins almost ominously with contrasting lyrical writing for the soloist. Dvořák’s additions to the movement, and his determination not to diffuse its emotional power with a
cadenza, allowed him, as Battey notes, to revisit ‘not only the first movement’s main theme, but also a hidden reference to Josefina’s song in the slow movement. Thus, the concerto becomes something of a shrine, or memorial.’ Adapted by Stephanie Sheridan from original notes by Gordon Kerry © Symphony Australia 2004
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Beethoven’s Ninth Thursday 30 June / 7.30pm Friday 1 July / 7.30pm Arts Centre Melbourne, Hamer Hall Xian Zhang conductor Ning Feng violin Chiara Taigi soprano Jacqueline Dark mezzo-soprano Rosario la Spina tenor Nathan Berg bass MSO Chorus Michael Fulcher chorus director ZHAO JIPING Violin Concerto No.1 BEETHOVEN Symphony No.9
Proudly presented by East Meets West Concert Partner - Chinese Chamber of Commerce in Australia Melbourne Branch. 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 2 hours, inc. 20-min interval.
Ning Feng
Following her successful MSO debut in 2018 conducting Dvořák’s Ninth Symphony, Xian Zhang was appointed as the MSO Principal Guest Conductor in 2020.
Ning Feng is recognised internationally as an artist of great lyricism, innate musicality and stunning virtuosity. In 2019, the Washington Post described him as “a wonderful player with a creamy, easy tone and an emotional honesty,” and BBC Music Magazine said of a recent recording “his silvery tonal purity, immaculate intonation and gently beguiling musicality have a way of making most other players sound decidedly effortful by comparison.”
conductor
Xian Zhang is currently in her sixth season as Music Director of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. She also holds the position of Conductor Emeritus of Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi following a hugely successful period from 2009– 2016 as their Music Director. Xian Zhang has previously served as Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC National Orchestra & Chorus of Wales and was the first female conductor to hold a titled role with a BBC orchestra. In 2002, she won first prize in the Maazel-Vilar Conductor’s Competition. She was appointed New York Philharmonic’s Assistant Conductor in 2002, subsequently becoming their Associate Conductor and the first holder of the Arturo Toscanini Chair.
violin
BEETHOVEN’S NINTH | 30 June – 1 July
Xian Zhang
He plays regularly with all the major orchestras in China and in some of the finest concert halls in the world including halls in London, Vienna and Berlin, both with orchestra and in recital. The recipient of prizes at the Hanover International, Queen Elisabeth and Yehudi Menuhin International violin competitions, Ning Feng was First Prize winner of the 2005 Michael Hill International Violin Competition (New Zealand), and in 2006 won first prize in the International Paganini Competition. Ning Feng plays the 1710 Stradivari violin known as the ‘Vieuxtemps Hauser’, by kind arrangement with Premiere Performances of Hong Kong, and plays on strings by Thomastik-Infeld, Vienna.
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BEETHOVEN’S NINTH | 30 June – 1 July
Madeleine Pierard
Ashlyn Tymms
Award-winning soprano Madeleine Pierard was a Jette Parker Young Artist with The Royal Opera, Covent Garden, where she has since sung numerous roles, including Contessa di Folleville (Il Viaggio a Reims), Musetta (La Boheme), Lisa (La Sonnambula), Berta, Noémie (Cendrillon) and Costanza (L’isola disabitata).
Ashlyn Tymms most recently performed with West Australian Opera as Santuzza in Cavalleria rusticana and Dorabella in the Glyndebourne Festival production of Così fan tutte. In 2020, she also sang Hansel in their production of Hansel and Gretel.
soprano
Other recent roles include Lady Macbeth with English Touring Opera; Violetta, Pat Nixon, Miss Jessel and Musetta with NZ Opera; Musetta at the Royal Albert Hall; and, the title role in Rufus Wainwright’s Prima Donna. Concert appearances include Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at The Barbican and Britten’s War Requiem at the Cadogan Hall with the RPO; numerous appearances with the NZSO and throughout Europe, including l’Orchestre Symphonique de Bretagne and Orchestre Symphonique de Strasbourg. In recital, Madeleine has performed at the Wigmore and Cadogan Halls, Royal Albert Hall and The Royal Opera House. Madeleine is also a noted interpreter of contemporary repertoire and has premiered numerous works.
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Upcoming engagements include a tour of Mahler’s Fourth Symphony with the NZSO and a solo recital at The Royal Opera House, London.
mezzo-soprano
In 2022/2023, Ashlyn returns to WAO to sing the title role in Carmen; she also appears as soloist with the Melbourne and West Australian Symphony Orchestras, Sydney Philharmonia, Vienna Pops Orchestra, Flinders Quartet, Sydney University Graduate Choir, St. George’s College and Government House, Perth. Past operatic performances include Judith in the world premiere of The Two Sisters with Tête à Tête Opera and the title role in Dido and Aeneas. Concert engagements have included Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music at Buckingham Palace (hosted by The Prince of Wales), a tour to South Korea in recital with the London Cello Orchestra, Verdi’s Requiem at the Sydney Town Hall and Rosimonda in Handel’s Faramondo at the London Handel Festival.
© Patrick Togher Artists’ Management 2022
Nathan Berg
Rosario La Spina made his Opera Australia debut as Cavaradossi (Tosca) in 2005 and has subsequently appeared for the national company as Radames (Aida), Alfredo (La traviata), Pinkerton (Madama Butterfly), The Duke (Rigoletto), The Prince (Rusalka), Calaf (Turandot), Macduff (Macbeth), Rodolfo (La bohème), Don José (Carmen) and the title role in The Tales of Hoffmann. His American debut was as Rodolfo for Seattle Opera in 2007; he returned to Seattle as Radames and made his first Canadian appearances in this same role.
A “tall, majestic bass” with “impeccable technique” and “a palpable presence on stage,” Canadian bass-baritone Nathan Berg has enjoyed a career spannning a vast range of repertoire on the concert and operatic stage. He has recently earned worldwide acclaim for his portrayals of the title role in Der fliegende Holländer in his Bolshoi Theatre debut, Alberich in Das Rheingold with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra and Minnesota Opera, Doktor in Wozzeck with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the Houston Symphony, for which he won a Grammy Award, and his company debut at Teatro alla Scala in Robert Carsen’s worldpremiere production of Battistelli’s CO2.
tenor
Most recently, Rosario La Spina has sung The Duke for Opera Queensland, Manrico (Il trovatore) for West Australian Opera, Pollione (Norma) and Canio for Victorian Opera, Samson (Samson et Dahlia) in Tokyo, Cavaradossi, Turiddu and Canio for State Opera of South Australia and The Prince (The Love for Three Oranges), Turiddu, Canio and Calaf for Opera Australia. Future engagements include his debut as Siegmund in Opera Australia’s new production of Die Walküre, Rodolfo (La bohème) for State Opera of South Australia and Pinkerton (Madama Butterfly) in Belgium. © Patrick Togher Artists’ Management 2022
bass
BEETHOVEN’S NINTH | 30 June – 1 July
Rosario la Spina
In the 2021–2022 season, Mr. Berg makes his Metropolitan Opera stage debut as The Father in the New York premiere of Matthew Aucoin’s Eurydice, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, returns to Theater Basel as Philippe in Don Carlos, and debuts the role of Kurwenal in Tristan und Isolde with the Taiwan Philharmonic. He will also lead a residency with Opera Lafayette in Taos, New Mexico, culminating in performances of Grétry’s rarelyperformed Silvain in both New York and Washington, DC. 27
BEETHOVEN’S NINTH | 30 June – 1 July
Michael Fulcher
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Chorus
Michael is a conductor, chorus master, and vocal coach. A graduate of the University of Queensland, Queensland Conservatorium of Music, and Guildhall School of Music and Drama (London), he studied conducting with John Curro, David Porcelijn (ABC Young Conductors Mastercourse), Robert Rosen, and with Sir Charles Mackerras and Sir Mark Elder in the U.K.
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.
chorus director
Michael has conducted performances for Opera Queensland (Elixir of Love 1998), the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (Postcard from Marocco 2001), Victorian State Opera (Don Giovanni 1996), and the Queensland Conservatorium Opera School (Billy Budd 1993, L’elisir d’Amore 1994, Elijah the Opera 1995, Going into Shadows 2001, Pilgrim’s Progress in the presence of Ursula Vaughan Williams, 2002). Oratorio conducted or chorusmastered includes Dream of Gerontius (Elgar), the Bach passions and B minor mass, Beethoven’s Ninth, Mozart, Haydn and Schubert masses, the requiems of Verdi, Brahms and Mozart, and, for the New Zealand International Arts Festival Parsifal (Wagner), Macmillan’s ‘Quickening’ (2006), and Mahler’s Eighth Symphony (2010, Ashkenazy).
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Since 2013, Michael has been founding Artistic Director of Polyphonic Voices and Director of Music at Christ Church South Yarra.
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 the 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.
SOPRANO Philippa Allen Julie Arblaster Aliz Cole Kylie Constantine Veryan Croggon Isabelle Dennis Susan Fone Camilla Gorman Aurora Harmathy Gina Humphries Tania Jacobs Anna Kidman Theresa Lam Judy Longbottom Caitlin Noble Karin Otto Jodie Paxton Amanda Powell Natalie Reid Jodi Samartgis Jemima Sim Christa Tom Fabienne Vandenburie Julia Wang Jasmine Zuyderwyk
ALTO Satu Aho Ruth Anderson Emma Anvari Tes Benton Catherine Bickell Kate Bramley Jane Brodie Eva Butcher Alexandra Chubaty Mari Eleanor-Rapp Nicola Eveleigh Claudia Funder Jill Giese Ros Harbison Jennifer Henry Kristine Hensel Helen Hill Julie Lotherington Christina McCowan Penny Monger Sandy Nagy Catriona NguyenRobertson Nicole Paterson Natasha Pracejus Kate Rice Helen Rommelaar Kerry Roulston Helen Staindl Libby Timcke
TENOR Adam Birch Kent Borchard Steve Burnett Peter Campbell Ed Chan Keaton Cloherty James Dipnall Daniel Griffiths Lyndon Horsburgh Nader Masrour Michael Mobach Colin Schultz Robert Simpson Brad Warburton
BEETHOVEN’S NINTH | 30 June – 1 July
MSO Chorus
BASS Maurice Amor Kevin Barrell David Bennett Richard Bolitho Roger Dargaville Andrew Ham Andrew Hibbard John Hunt Jordan Hyndman Jordan Janssen Gary Levy Douglas McQueenThomson Nick Sharman Matthew Toulmin Caleb Triscari
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BEETHOVEN’S NINTH | 30 June – 1 July
Program Notes ZHAO JIPING
(born 1945)
Violin Concerto No.1 The Violin Concerto No.1 turned nearly a decade of my ideas into notes. From the establishment of the structure to the piano composition to the completion of the score, the entire process took me about a year to finish. The creative process was not a struggle, but rather a calm, pleasant experience. The work’s structure basically follows the principles of sonata form, but does not rigidly adhere to them and adjusts according to the needs of the music. In terms of musical language, it has a very strong Chinese color, whereas the theme borrows from traditional European concerto form. Through this open fusion, I hope this Violin Concerto can speak with the world in a Chinese voice. The origins of the Chinese elements in the work do not have obvious directivity, but are natural revelations of my focus and accumulation of Chinese elements in my years-long practice of composing. Chinese elements are deeply rooted in the music, from its orchestration to its harmonic language. The colorful composing techniques in the development section also reflect the Chinese flavor of the work. At the same time, this work carries a meaning of love with a lively sub-theme and a development section featuring inner conflict, which is ultimately attributed to the true, the good, and the beautiful within love. I hope that this work in which I express my love for humanity can cross borders and warm more listeners. © Zhao Jiping and China’s National Centre for the Performing Arts Orchestra
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LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
(1770–1827)
Symphony No.9 in D minor, Choral Allegro ma non troppo, un poco maestoso Scherzo (Molto vivace – Presto) Adagio molto e cantabile – Andante moderato Presto – Allegro molto assai (Alla marcia) – Presto Chiara Taigi soprano Jacqueline Dark mezzo Rosario la Spina tenor Nathan Berg bass MSO Chorus Michael Fulcher chorus director On 7 May 1824, Beethoven summoned Vienna’s leading musicians in the Kärnthnerthor Theatre to give the premiere of the Ninth Symphony. Profoundly deaf, Beethoven was long past being able to conduct, but stood beside the leaders, indicating the speeds. At the end, he was unaware of the applause, so that the contralto soloist had to turn him around, producing ‘a volcanic explosion of sympathy and admiration that seemed it would never end’. The applause was probably more for the composer than the performance. Two rehearsals were insufficient to prepare the most difficult orchestral piece the musicians had ever encountered. Nevertheless, one reviewer found the opening Allegro ‘bold and defiant, executed with truly athletic energy’. Punctuating its enormous 15-minute design, strategically placed returns of its colossal opening idea underpin the almost fissile energy generated by the sheer mass of scraping, blowing and drumming. Never before had sounds of such sustained violence been imagined, let alone produced by instruments. Wagner later pictured the second
Berlioz imagined the slow movement ‘might better be thought as two distinct pieces, the first melody in B flat, fourin-a-bar, followed by an absolutely different one, in triple-time in D’. Yet, in Beethoven’s interweaving of this unlikely pair, Berlioz heard ‘such melancholy tenderness, passionate sadness, and religious meditation’ as to be beyond words to describe. Everyone in the first Vienna audience in May 1824 must have known that something extraordinary was about to take place. Certainly, the London press intimated in advance of the British premiere a year later: ‘In the last movement is introduced a song! – Schiller’s famous Ode to Joy – which forms a most extraordinary contrast with the whole, and is calculated to excite surprise, certainly, and perhaps admiration.’ But why did Beethoven take the unprecedented step of fitting out an instrumental symphony with a vocal finale? He had toyed with two distinct plans for a symphony with added chorus. In 1818, he made very preliminary notes for a ‘symphony in ancient modes’ on ancient Greek religious themes, including a choral adagio. But by 1822, he was sketching a ‘German symphony’, with chorus singing Schiller’s To Joy, though to an entirely different tune.
‘supreme master’ and Germany as centre of the ‘cult of music’ – Beethoven’s earlier symphonies had suggested that instrumental music could be even more eloquent than words. Yet finally, Marx believed, Beethoven showed that this was not so: ‘Having devoted his life to instrumental sounds, he once again summons his forces for his boldest, most gigantic effort. But behold! – unreal instrumental voices no longer satisfy him, and he is drawn irresistibly back to the human voice.’ As the orchestra introduces brief flashbacks to each of the first three movements, the cellos and basses attempt an unlikely recitative: ‘but when the string basses painfully attempt their ungainly imitation of human speech; and when they begin to hum timidly the simple human tune, and hand it over to the rest of the orchestra, we see that, after all, the needs of humanity reach beyond the enchanted world of instruments, so that, in the end, Beethoven only finds satisfaction in the chorus of humanity itself.’ Despairing of instruments’ feeble efforts, the solo baritone announces (the introductory lines are Beethoven’s own, not Schiller’s):
BEETHOVEN’S NINTH | 30 June – 1 July
movement as a Bacchanalian spree of worldly pleasures. But while its motoric force is compulsive, Beethoven hardly thought of his big scherzo as mindless. Far from it; he keeps its overflowing energy meticulously controlled and channelled, not least when the predominant four-bar triple beat is dramatically jerked into three-bar phrases.
O friends! No more these sounds! Instead let us sing out more pleasingly, with joy abundant! Graeme Skinner © 2014
To Adolph Bernhard Marx – the early 19th century music historian whose writings helped enshrine Beethoven as 31
BEETHOVEN’S NINTH | 30 June – 1 July 32
Text and Translation Ludwig van Beethoven Symphony No. 9 in D minor Choral O Freunde, nicht diese Töne!
O friends, no more these sounds!
Sondern lasst uns
Instead let us sing out more
angenehmere anstimmen,
pleasingly with joy abundant.
und freudenvollere! Freude, schöner Götterfunken,
O joy, pure spark of God,
Tochter aus Elysium,
daughter from Elysium
Wir betreten feuertrunken,
with hearts afire, divine one,
Himmlische, dein Heiligtum!
we come to your sanctuary.
Deine Zauber binden wieder,
Your magic reunites
Was die Mode streng geteilt;
what custom sternly separated;
Alle Menschen werden Brüder
All mankind become brothers
Wo dein sanfter Flügel weilt.
beneath your sheltering wing.
Wem der grosse Wurf gelungen,
Whoever has known the blessing
Eines Freundes Freund zu sein
of being friend to friend,
Wer ein holdes Weib errungen
whoever has won a fine woman,
Mische seinen Jubel ein!
whoever, indeed, calls even
Ja, wer auch nur eine Seele
one soul on this earth his own,
Sein nennt auf dem Erdenrund!
let their joy be joined with ours.
Und wer’s nie gekonnt, der stehle
But let the one who knows none of this
Weinend sich aus diesem Bund!
steal, weeping, from our midst.
Freude trinken alle Wesen
All beings drink in joy
An den Brüsten der Natur;
at Nature’s bosom,
Alle Guten, alle Bösen
the virtuous and the wicked alike
Folgen ihrer Rosenspur.
follow her rosy path.
Küsse gab sie uns und Reben,
Kisses she gave to us, and wine,
Einen Freund, geprüft im Tod;
and a friend loyal to the death;
Wollust ward dem Wurm gegeben,
bliss to the lowest worm she gave,
Und der Cherub steht vor Gott.
just as the cherub who stands before God.
Joyously, as His dazzling suns
Durch des Himmels prächt’gen Plan
traverse the heavens,
Laufet, Brüder, eure Bahn,
O, brothers, run your course,
Freudig, wie ein Held zum Siegen.
exultant, as a hero claims victory.
Freude, schöner Götterfunken...
O joy, pure spark of God, etc.
Seid umschlungen, Millionen!
Be enfolded, all ye millions,
Diesen Kuss der ganzen Welt!
in this kiss of the whole world!
Brüder, überm Sternenzelt
Brothers, above the canopy of
Muss ein lieber Vater wohnen.
stars must dwell a loving Father.
Ihr stürzt nieder, Millionen?
Do you fall down, ye millions?
Ahnest du den Schöpfer, Welt?
In awe of your Creator, world?
Such’ ihn überm Sternenzelt!
Go seek Him beyond the stars!
ÜberSternen muss er wohnen.
For there assuredly he dwells.
Freude, schöner Götterfunken...
O joy, pure spark of God, etc.
BEETHOVEN’S NINTH | 30 June – 1 July
Froh, wie seine Sonnen fliegen
Text by Friedrich von Schiller English translation Anthony Cane © 2000
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Anthony Garvey and Estelle O’Callaghan
Janice Mayfield
Sandra Gillett and Jeremy Wilkins
Wayne McDonald and Kay Schroer
David and Geraldine Glenny
Dr Anne McDougall
Hugo and Diane Goetze
Jennifer McKean
Pauline Goodison
Shirley A McKenzie
Louise Gourlay OAM
Dr Alan Meads and Sandra Boon
Cindy Goy
Marie Misiurak
Robert and Jan Green
Ann Moore
Christine Grenda
Kevin Morrish
Jason Grollo
Joan Mullumby
Dawn Hales
Adrian and Louise Nelson
Geoff Hayes
Tania Nesbit
Cathy Henry
Rosemary O’Collins
Jim Hickey
Jeremy O’Connor and Yoko Murakoshi
William Holder
Conrad O’Donohue and Rosemary Kiss
Clive and Joyce Hollands
Phil Parker
Roderick Home
Howard and Dorothy Parkinson
R A Hook
Sarah Patterson
Di and Courtney Horscroft
Pauline and David Lawton
Peter Huntsman
Adriana and Sienna Pesavento
Geoff and Denise Illing
Wilma Plozza-Green
Rob Jackson
Jane Powick
Sandy Jenkins
Kerryn Pratchett
Wendy Johnson
Professor Charles Qin OAM and Kate Ritchie
Sue Johnston Huw Jones Fiona Keenan Coralie Kennedy Phillip Kidd
Akshay Rao Alfonso Reina & Marjanne Rook Professor John Rickard Dr Anne Ryan Viorica Samson
*T he 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 38
Dr Nora Scheinkestel Marjorie Seaton Suzette Sherazee Dr Frank and Valerie Silberberg Matt Sinclair Olga Skibina and Anastassia Korolev Brian Snape Colin and Mary Squires Ruth Stringer The Podcast Reader Allan and Margaret Tempest Reverend Angela Thomas Amanda Watson Michael Webber and Ruth Fincher Angela Westacott Barry and Julie Wilkins Fiona Woodard Dr Kelly and Dr Heathcote Wright Dr Susan Yell Daniel Yosua
Laurence O’Keefe and Christopher James John Jones Grace Kass and the late George Kass Sylvia Lavelle Pauline and David Lawton Cameron Mowat Ruth Muir David Orr Matthew O’Sullivan Rosia Pasteur Penny Rawlins Joan P Robinson Anne Roussac-Hoyne and Neil Roussac Michael Ryan and Wendy Mead Andrew Serpell Jennifer Shepherd Suzette Sherazee Dr Gabriela and Dr George Stephenson Pamela Swansson Lillian Tarry
Anonymous (32)
Tam Vu and Dr Cherilyn Tillman
CONDUCTOR’S CIRCLE
Peter and Elisabeth Turner
Jenny Anderson David Angelovich
Supporters
Carolyn Sanders
Mr and Mrs R P Trebilcock Michael Ulmer AO The Hon. Rosemary Varty
G C Bawden and L de Kievit
Terry Wills Cooke OAM and the late Marian Wills Cooke
Lesley Bawden
Mark Young
Joyce Bown
Anonymous (19)
Mrs Jenny Bruckner and the late Mr John Bruckner
The MSO gratefully acknowledges the support of the following Estates:
Ken Bullen
Norma Ruth Atwell
Peter A Caldwell
Angela Beagley
Luci and Ron Chambers
Christine Mary Bridgart
Beryl Dean
The Cuming Bequest
Sandra Dent
Margaret Davies
Alan Egan JP
Neilma Gantner
Gunta Eglite
The Hon Dr Alan Goldberg AO QC
Marguerite Garnon-Williams
Enid Florence Hookey
Drs L C Gruen and R W Wade
Gwen Hunt
Louis J Hamon AOM
Family and Friends of James Jacoby
Carol Hay
Audrey Jenkins
Graham Hogarth
Joan Jones
Rod Home
Pauline Marie Johnston
Tony Howe
C P Kemp
Lindsay and Michael Jacombs
Peter Forbes MacLaren
39
Supporters
Joan Winsome Maslen Lorraine Maxine Meldrum Prof Andrew McCredie Jean Moore Maxwell Schultz Miss Sheila Scotter AM MBE Marion A I H M Spence Molly Stephens Halinka Tarczynska-Fiddian Jennifer May Teague Albert Henry Ullin Jean Tweedie Herta and Fred B Vogel
HONORARY APPOINTMENTS Life Members Dr Marc Besen AC John Gandel AC and Pauline Gandel AC Sir Elton John CBE Harold Mitchell AC Lady Potter AC CMRI Jeanne Pratt AC Artistic Ambassadors Tan Dun Lu Siqing MSO Ambassador Geoffrey Rush AC
Dorothy Wood
The MSO honours the memory of Life Members
COMMISSIONING CIRCLE
Dr Eva Besen AO
Mary Armour The Hon Michael Watt QC and Cecilie Hall Tim and Lyn Edward
John Brockman OAM The Honourable Alan Goldberg AO QC Roger Riordan AM Ila Vanrenen
FIRST NATIONS CIRCLE John and Lorraine Bates Colin Golvan AM QC and Dr Deborah Golvan Elizabeth Proust AO and Brian Lawrence Michael Ullmer AO and Jenny Ullmer The MSO relies on your ongoing philanthropic support to sustain our artists, and support access, education, community engagement and more. We invite our supporters to get close to the MSO through a range of special events. The MSO welcomes your support at any level. Donations of $2 and over are tax deductible, and supporters are recognised as follows: $500+ (Overture) $1,000+ (Player) $2,500+ (Associate) $5,000+ (Principal) $10,000+ (Maestro) $20,000+ (Impresario) $50,000+ (Virtuoso) 40
$100,000+ (Platinum)
. For the Future
At the MSO, we believe in building the future of our artform. As Australia’s oldest professional orchestra, we have done this for more than 100 years by supporting the next generation of musicians, artists, composers, and conductors, contributing to a culture of artistic excellence within the MSO and broader arts ecology. From mentorships and residencies, to structured learning and training organisations, our programs create a multi-disciplinary talent pipeline for the advancement of Australian orchestral music. But we can’t do this alone. Please help us continue to build the future of our artform by donating today.
CLICK HERE TO DONATE
Thank you to our Partners Principal Partner
Premier Partners
Education Partner
Venue Partner
Major Partners
Government Partners
Supporting Partners
Quest Southbank Ernst & Young Bows for Strings
Media and Broadcast Partners
Trusts and Foundations
Freemasons Foundation Victoria
Erica Foundation Pty Ltd, The Sir Andrew and Lady Fairley Foundation, John T Reid Charitable Trusts, Scobie & Claire Mackinnon Trust, Sidney Myer MSO Trust Fund, The Ullmer Family Foundation
East meets West Program Supporters Consulate General of the People’s Republic of China in Melbourne
Prestigious Partner
Consortium Partners
Ministry of Culture and Tourism China
Concert Partners
Supporting Partners
Supporters Ken Ong OAM
BEST SEAT in the house
As Principal Partner of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, we know the importance of delighting an audience. That’s why when you’re in Emirates First, you’ll enjoy the ultimate flying experience with fine dining at any time in your own private suite.
*Emirates First Class Private Suite pictured. For more information visit emirates.com/au, call 1300 303 777, or contact your local travel agent.