19–30 NOVEMBER 2024
ARTS CENTRE MELBOURNE, HAMER HALL
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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 Fraillon 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.
Long Time Living Here
As a Yorta Yorta/Yuin composer the responsibility I carry to assist the MSO in delivering a respectful acknowledgement of country is a privilege which I take very seriously. I have a duty of care to my ancestors and to the ancestors on whose land the MSO works and performs.
As MSO continues to grow its knowledge and understanding of what it means to truly honour the First people of this land, the musical acknowledgment of country will serve to bring those on stage and those in the audience together in a moment of recognition as as we celebrate the longest continuing cultures in the world.
–
Deborah Cheetham Fraillon AO
Our musical Acknowledgment of Country, Long Time Living Here by Deborah Cheetham Fraillon AO, is performed at MSO concerts.
WELCOME
On behalf all of us at the MSO, I am delighted to welcome you to the 2024 Beethoven Festival!
From the beautifully crafted classical Symphony No.1 to the rapturous joy of the conclusion of Symphony No.9, as we experience the life’s work of this extraordinary composer together, we invite you to immerse yourself in transformative music that remains as fresh and relevant today as ever.
These masterpieces continue to move and inspire us, transcending barriers of language, culture, and time to speak directly to our hearts. In a world of increasing complexity and noise, Beethoven’s message of hope, resilience, and joy remains uniquely powerful. We’re so pleased to share the stage with the Auslan choir for Beethoven’s Ninth, a remarkable collaboration that honours the composer’s own journey with hearing loss and ensures his message of universal connection truly reaches all members of our community.
Thank you to our wonderful Chief Conductor Jaime Martín for his leadership in bringing these monumental works to life with such passion and insight, and also to the musicians of the MSO for their dedication to excellence and the supreme effort required to perform this marathon of music.
And our thanks to you, for joining us on this musical journey. Your presence completes the circle that Beethoven envisioned—of music as a force that brings humanity together in shared experience and understanding: Oh friends, not these sounds! Let us instead strike up more pleasing and more joyful ones!
Andrew Moore Director of Programming
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MELBOURNE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Committed to shaping and serving the state it inhabits, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra is Australia’s preeminent orchestra and a cornerstone of Victoria’s rich, cultural heritage.
Each year, the MSO and MSO Chorus present more than 180 public events across live performances, TV, radio and online broadcasts, and via its online concert hall, MSO.LIVE, engaging an audience of more than five million people in 56 countries. In 2024 the organisation will release its first two albums on the newly established MSO recording label.
With an international reputation for excellence, versatility and innovation, the MSO works with culturally diverse and First Nations artists to build community and deliver music to people across Melbourne, the state of Victoria and around the world.
In 2024, Jaime Martín leads the Orchestra for his third year as MSO Chief Conductor. Maestro Martín leads an Artistic Family that includes Principal Conductor Benjamin Northey, Cybec Assistant Conductor Leonard Weiss CF, MSO Chorus Director Warren Trevelyan-Jones, Composer in Residence Katy Abbott, Artist in Residence
Erin Helyard, MSO First Nations Creative Chair Deborah Cheetham Fraillon AO, Young Cybec Young Composer in Residence Naomi Dodd, and 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.
YOUR MSO
FIRST VIOLINS
Natalie Chee
Guest Concertmaster
Tair Khisambeev
Acting Associate Concertmaster
Di Jameson OAM and Frank Mercurio#
Anne-Marie Johnson
Acting Assistant Concertmaster
David Horowicz#
Peter Edwards
Assistant Principal
Sarah Curro
Dr Harry Imber#
Peter Fellin
Deborah Goodall
Karla Hanna
Lorraine Hook
Kirstin Kenny
Eleanor Mancini
Anne Neil#
Mark Mogilevski
Michelle Ruffolo
Anna Skálová
Kathryn Taylor
SECOND VIOLINS
Matthew Tomkins
Principal
The Gross Foundation#
Monica Curro
Assistant Principal
Dr Mary-Jane Gething AO#
Mary Allison
Isin Cakmakçioglu
Tiffany Cheng
Glenn Sedgwick#
Freya Franzen
Cong Gu
Newton Family in memory of Rae Rothfield#
Andrew Hall
Robert Macindoe
Isy Wasserman
Philippa West
Andrew Dudgeon AM#
Patrick Wong
Cecilie Hall#
Roger Young
Shane Buggle and Rosie Callanan#
VIOLAS
Christopher Moore
Principal
Di Jameson OAM and Frank Mercurio#
Lauren Brigden
Katharine Brockman
Anthony Chataway
Peter T Kempen AM#
William Clark
Morris and Helen Margolis#
Aidan Filshie
Gabrielle Halloran
Jenny Khafagi
Fiona Sargeant
Learn more about our musicians on the MSO website. # Position supported by
CELLOS
David Berlin Principal
Rachael Tobin
Associate Principal Anonymous#
Elina Faskhi
Assistant Principal
Di Jameson OAM and Frank Mercurio#
Rohan de Korte
Andrew Dudgeon AM#
Sarah Morse
Rebecca Proietto
Peter T Kempen AM#
Angela Sargeant
Caleb Wong
Michelle Wood
Andrew and Judy Rogers#
DOUBLE BASSES
Jonathon Coco Principal
Stephen Newton
Acting Associate Principal
Benjamin Hanlon
Acting Associate Principal
Di Jameson OAM and Frank Mercurio#
Rohan Dasika
Acting Assistant Principal
Suzanne Lee
FLUTES
Prudence Davis Principal
Jean Hadges#
Wendy Clarke
Associate Principal
Sarah Beggs
PICCOLO
Andrew Macleod Principal
OBOES
Michael Pisani Acting Principal
Ann Blackburn
COR ANGLAIS
Rachel Curkpatrick Acting Principal
CLARINETS
David Thomas Principal
Philip Arkinstall
Associate Principal
Craig Hill
Rosemary and the late Douglas Meagher#
BASS CLARINET
Jonathan Craven Principal
BASSOONS
Jack Schiller
Principal
Dr Harry Imber#
Elise Millman
Associate Principal
Natasha Thomas
Patricia Nilsson#
CONTRABASSOON
Brock Imison Principal
HORNS
Nicolas Fleury Principal
Margaret Jackson AC#
Peter Luff
Acting Associate Principal
Saul Lewis
Principal Third
The late Hon Michael Watt KC and Cecilie Hall#
Abbey Edlin
The Hanlon Foundation#
Josiah Kop
Rachel Shaw
Gary McPherson#
TRUMPETS
Owen Morris Principal
Shane Hooton
Associate Principal
Glenn Sedgwick#
Rosie Turner
John and Diana Frew#
TROMBONE
Don Immel
Acting Principal
Richard Shirley
BASS TROMBONE
Michael Szabo Principal
TUBA
Timothy Buzbee Principal
TIMPANI
Matthew Thomas Principal
PERCUSSION
Shaun Trubiano Principal
John Arcaro
Tim and Lyn Edward#
Robert Cossom
Drs Rhyl Wade and Clem Gruen#
HARP
Yinuo Mu Principal
Pauline and David Lawton#
JAIME MARTÍN CONDUCTOR
Chief Conductor of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra since 2022, and Music Director of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra since 2019, with those roles currently extended until 2028 and 2027 respectively, Spanish conductor Jaime Martín also takes up the role of Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales from the 24/25 season, and has held past positions as Chief Conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland (2019–2024), Principal Guest Conductor of the Orquesta y Coro Nacionales de España (Spanish National Orchestra) (2022–2024) and Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of Gävle Symphony Orchestra (2013–2022).
Having spent many years as a highly regarded flautist, Jaime turned to conducting full-time in 2013. Recent and future engagements include appearances with the London Symphony Orchestra, Dresden Philharmonic, Netherlands Philharmonic, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, as well as a nine-city European tour with the London Philharmonic Orchestra.
Jaime Martín is a Fellow of the Royal College of Music in London, and in 2022 the jury of Spain’s Premios Nacionales de Música awarded him their annual prize for his contribution to classical music.
Jaime Martín’s Chief Conductor Chair is supported by the Besen Family Foundation in memory of Eva Besen AO and Marc Besen AC.
LUDWIG VAN
Beethoven
Beethoven is born in Bonn, Germany, initially taught music by his father
Beethoven publishes his three Opus 1 piano trios, after building a following as a virtuoso pianist
Beethoven publishes his first work, a set of keyboard variations
1792 1795 1797-1802 1802-12
The ‘early period’ of Beethoven’s work (First Symphony, String Quartet No.1, Op.18)
Aged 21, Beethoven moves to Vienna
The ‘middle period’ of Beethoven’s work (the Emperor Concerto, the Fifth Symphony, the Moonlight Sonata, the opera Fidelio)
Disney’s first animated film, Fantasia, brings classical music to a new audience and includes Beethoven’s Symphony No.6 Pastoral 1940
Artist Max Klinger first unveils his own famous Beethoven Monument, depicting the composer as a bare-chested Olympic deity perched on a throne 1902
Beethoven’s home city of Bonn first unveils a Beethoven monument and museum 1845
Beethoven dies, following a long period of illness 1827
Beethoven’s late string quartets—his final works —are written 1825-26
Beethoven becomes almost completely deaf, after gradually losing his hearing in the preceding years 1814
The ‘late period’ of Beethoven’s work (The Ninth Symphony, Mass in D) 1813 (onwards)
The Beatles release the track Because, built on the chord progression from Moonlight Sonata played backwards 1969
A Clockwork Orange darkly immortalises Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony 1971
Picnic at Hanging Rock features the adagio second movement of Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto in a scene. It wouldn’t be the last time director Peter Weir would use Beethoven’s music 1975
Beethoven’s music is sent into outer space, care of the two Voyager probes 1977
The third-largest crater on Mercury is named in Beethoven’s honour 1984
Beethoven appears as a character in the comedy film Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure 1989
Rapper Nas samples Für Elise in his track I Can 2002
BEETHOVEN FESTIVAL: SYMPHONIES 1 & 3
TUESDAY 19 NOVEMBER
BEETHOVEN Symphony No.1 [26']
– Interval –
BEETHOVEN Symphony No.3 [47']
CONCERT EVENTS
PRE-CONCERT TALK
Want to learn more about the music being performed? Arrive early for an informative and entertaining pre-concert talk with MSO Library Manager Luke Speedy-Hutton.
19 November at 6.45pm in the Stalls Foyer on Level 2 at Hamer Hall.
For a list of musicians performing in this concert, please visit mso.com.au/musicians
Duration: 1 hour and 40 minutes including interval. Timings listed are approximate.
PROGRAM NOTES
Symphony No.1 in C, Op.21
I. Adagio molto – Allegro con brio
II. Andante cantabile con moto
III. Menuetto (Allegro molto e vivace) – Trio – Menuetto
IV. Finale (Adagio – Allegro molto e vivace)
Beethoven himself organised the concert at the Imperial Court Theatre, Vienna, on 2 April 1800, at which he introduced his first ‘Grand Symphony’. He also played one of his (so far) two piano concertos, improvised reportedly ‘in a masterly style’, and paid tribute to his two great precursors by programming a symphony by the late Mozart, and excerpts from Haydn’s new oratorio, The Creation. Gottfried van Swieten, who wrote the words for Haydn’s oratorio, was also one of Beethoven’s most enlightened supporters. Swieten had encouraged first Mozart, and more recently Beethoven to explore the music of Bach and Handel, whose fugues Beethoven went on to use as models during his intensive counterpoint studies with Haydn and Salieri. Beethoven duly dedicated the first printed edition of this symphony to Swieten, and its second movement begins in quasi-fugal form.
The sole critic to review the premiere thought the only flaw was ‘that the wind instruments were used too much’, so that the symphony sounded ‘more like it was being played by a military band than an orchestra’. Actually Beethoven’s ‘band’ of 13 (woodwinds, brass, and drums) was no larger numerically than that for Haydn’s last symphony. But whereas Haydn usually let the strings predominate, Beethoven continually pushes the winds forward.
The sustained wind chords that open the short Adagio are the first occasion for the strings to be reduced to a supportive pizzicato. As the genial Allegro gets under way, other novelties include recurring episodes in which Beethoven gives the impetus to the orchestral basses, and, at the very end, his unusually insistent reiteration of the closing C.
In characteristically egalitarian fashion, Beethoven passes over the first violins, and lets the seconds start the Andante second movement. He also smuggles in trumpets and kettledrums (hitherto usually silent in slow movements), though their rumblings do little to disturb the prevailing serenity. The surging minuet is perhaps more reminiscent of the dancing horses of Vienna’s Spanish Riding School, than the Redoutensaal for which Beethoven also composed ballroom dances. The ‘military band’ shifts the scene decisively to the parade ground in the Trio.
Berlioz called the finale, with its curious Adagio upbeat from the violins, ‘a genuine instance of musical childishness’. But Beethoven’s Viennese audience would have been charmed: bright, energetic music from the same mould as Mozart’s and Haydn’s popular finales, proof that the brash newcomer (Haydn dubbed him ‘the Grand Mogul’) was cut out for success.
© Graeme Skinner 2014
Symphony No.3 in E flat, Op.55 Eroica
I. Allegro con brio
II. Marcia funebre (Adagio assai)
III. Scherzo (Allegro vivace) – Trio –Scherzo
IV. Finale (Allegro molto)
As is the case with the First and Second, Beethoven’s composing score for the Third Symphony has disappeared. However, circumstantial evidence suggests he finished it during the Vienna winter of 1803–04, at around the same time he was working on his massive Waldstein Piano Sonata, Op.53, whose opening Allegro shares with the Third’s the added direction ‘con brio’ (with vigour). In size and scale, the Third epitomised the major advances he had made since even his recent Second Symphony, audibly obvious in the enhanced listening span he sets his audience, in his deployment of such attention-commanding themes, and in his pursuit of a more distinctive and sonorous orchestral mix. And in the summer of 1804, one of his patrons, Prince Joseph Lobkowitz, allowed him the almost unheard-of luxury of being able to trial the score while he was still revising it, in a series of private rehearsals, with an orchestra of some 27 or 28 players, in Lobkowitz’s Vienna palace. Later the Prince also paid Beethoven a hefty gratuity for the honour of having the name Lobkowitz appear as dedicatee on the title-page of the printed edition. In this respect at least, Joseph Lobkowitz was ultimately the Third’s hero.
In early 1804, however, Beethoven was still intending to dedicate it to Napoleon Bonaparte, the great political reformer and egalitarian. But when, late that year, Napoleon renounced democracy and proclaimed himself emperor of France, Beethoven reportedly flew
into a rage, and correctly predicted his former idol would ‘trample on human rights, and become a tyrant’. Even in disappointment, Beethoven still wanted to call it the ‘Bonaparte Symphony’, though by the time he corrected a new fair copy to send to his publisher in 1806 he had settled on Sinfonia Eroica (Heroic), with the regretful subtitle: ‘to the memory of a great man’. In November 1805 Napoleon’s army had marched into Vienna largely uncontested, but unwelcome enough to make locals stay away from the premiere season of the first version of Beethoven’s opera Fidelio, leaving mainly French officers to make up his small audience. During Napoleon’s second occupation of the city in 1809 the noise of bombardment so affected the hearing-impaired Beethoven that he retreated to a basement to protect his ears. Before the Battle of Waterloo brought the warlord’s reign of terror to an end in 1815, Beethoven celebrated the Napoleonic armies’ defeat in Spain in 1813 with his short ‘battle symphony’, Wellington’s Victory, and organised the patriotic concert at which it and his Seventh Symphony were premiered to raise funds for Austrian soldiers wounded expelling the French from Germany. But time again altered his perceptions; Beethoven later told Carl Czerny, ‘I used to detest Napoleon, now I think quite differently.’ And on hearing of Napoleon’s death in 1821, Beethoven remarked he had already composed the music for the ‘sad event’ in this symphony’s Funeral March.
According to his self-appointed secretary Anton Schindler, Beethoven intended the Symphony No.3 ‘to portray the workings of Napoleon’s extraordinary mind’. In the opening Allegro, the titanic main theme has been interpreted as representing ‘Napoleon’s determined, questing character’. In the funeral march, though the shadow of Death temporarily encompasses him,
in the midst of mourning, a new major-key theme signifies a rising star of hope, before the music returns to the graveside, muffled drumrolls, and a farewell volley faintly echoed. In stark contrast, the motoric Scherzo overflows with an abundance of energy. The finale consists of a simple country dance tune with variations that build strategically in intensity and complexity toward a blazing orchestral rout that—forget Napoleon—no one but Beethoven could have imagined!
© Graeme Skinner 2014
BEETHOVEN FESTIVAL: SYMPHONIES 2 & 5
THURSDAY 21 NOVEMBER
BEETHOVEN Symphony No.2 [32']
– Interval –
BEETHOVEN Symphony No.5 [31']
CONCERT EVENTS
PRE-CONCERT TALK
Want to learn more about the music being performed? Arrive early for an informative and entertaining pre-concert talk with MSO Library Manager Luke Speedy-Hutton.
21 November at 6.45pm in the Stalls Foyer on Level 2 at Hamer Hall.
For a list of musicians performing in this concert, please visit mso.com.au/musicians
Duration: 1 hour and 30 minutes including interval. Timings listed are approximate.
PROGRAM NOTES
Symphony No.2 in D, Op.36
I. Adagio molto – Allegro con brio
II. Larghetto
III. Scherzo (Allegro) – Trio – Scherzo
IV. Allegro molto
Beethoven introduced his Second Symphony at the Theater an der Wien on 5 April 1803. Also on the program were premieres of his Third Piano Concerto and oratorio Christ on the Mount of Olives, plus a repeat of the First Symphony. One reviewer thought the First ‘better, because lighter and less forced’, whereas the Second ‘strives too much for surprising effects’. Later, for exactly the same reasons, critics hailed the Second as better. According to Berlioz, the First was not true Beethoven at all; only in the Second do we really ‘discover him’.
Beethoven began sketching it in summer 1801, while revising the First for publication. It is even possible he revised the First to make it more like (or, perhaps, more unlike) the new symphony, though the disappearance of his original scores for both symphonies means we can never know for sure. Earlier sketches do show how assiduously he honed his themes from rough drafts. Mozart and Haydn both composed quickly and easily. Beethoven only got the effects he wanted by taking pains, and now his determined wrangling with unruly ideas begins to generate extraordinary outcomes.
From the first movement’s introduction onward, the winds become individually and collectively more prominent—more windy, more brassy—while the violins, orchestral aristocrats in Haydn’s and Mozart’s day, are relegated to scrubbing
away in the background, and the violas and cellos are promoted to announce the main theme. It’s not much of a theme, melodically speaking (despite distantly echoing Mozart’s Figaro overture), but its enormous rhythmic and contrapuntal potential drive the movement inexorably forward until, with sheer orchestral brute force, Beethoven delivers the sting in its tail.
The Larghetto lets in a little more melody, making do without trumpets and kettledrums. The Scherzo (displacing the conventional minuet) is generated out of powerful contrasts in the opening dialogue between strings and winds. The Trio begins with oboes and bassoons alone, answered by a counter-phrase for strings.
Another early reviewer, with the finale in mind, likened the Second to a ‘wounded dragon that refuses to expire’. A concerted burst of energy sets the violins off on the main theme. After a tutti climax, a new melody rises from the cellos, gradually infecting the rest of the orchestra. The woodwinds again play important roles, not least the bassoon which twice indulges in an idiosyncratic duet with the violins, leading back each time into a reprise of the main tune.
© Graeme Skinner 2014
I. Allegro con brio
II. Andante con moto
III. Allegro –
IV. Allegro
Five-and-a-half years after the premiere of the Second, the Fifth Symphony was first heard on 22 December 1808, again at the Theater an der Wien, in a concert showcasing Beethoven’s new work of the previous two years. Also premiered was the just completed Sixth Symphony, and there were performances of the Fourth Piano Concerto, and excerpts from the Mass in C. The concert was too long, the orchestra reportedly under-rehearsed, and Beethoven’s piano playing and conducting was erratic due to his failing hearing—not a propitious introduction to Beethoven’s most important symphony.
By comparison with the enormous Third (half as long again), the descriptive Sixth (with added fifth movement), and the Ninth (with voices, and longest of all), the Fifth seems deceptively conventional. Its modest length, tight construction, and Classical layout marks it out as natural successor to the First, Second, and Fourth. So too, for the first three movements, does its orchestration. Beethoven does save surprising new additions—three trombones, a piccolo and a contrabassoon—for the finale. But by then he has already carried out a far more important symphonic coup, almost by stealth.
The first four notes have become a code for Beethoven, indeed for all classical music. Allied (and Nazi) radio broadcasts during World War 2 turned them into a patriotic symbol of the titanic struggle for victory. Two different explanations of the opening notes are supposedly traceable to Beethoven himself. One, ‘Fate knocks at the door’, sounds convincing, but is probably
not authentic. The other, according to Czerny, is that Beethoven copied it from a bird-call.
Beethoven’s real revolution is achieved through what he does with this motto. Almost the whole of the unsettling first movement is focused on the first four notes, even quietly underpinning occasional attempts to loosen the minor key’s grip with the alternative major-key melody. Some will hear the knocking return (with added upbeats) in the fanfare-like second tune of the suave major-key Andante. And if others are not so sure, the horns certainly reintroduce the motto (now all on one pitch) in the third movement. Too grand to count as one at first, true scherzo spirit takes over in the furious fugal trio. Some experts claim not to hear the four-note rhythm persisting into the magnificent finale. Others disagree. For Beethoven’s contemporary E.T.A. Hoffmann, it simply crowns ‘a symphony full of wonders … climbing ever on and on, leading listeners into the infinite!’.
© Graeme Skinner 2014
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BEETHOVEN FESTIVAL: SYMPHONIES 4 & 6
SATURDAY 23 NOVEMBER
BEETHOVEN Symphony No.4 [34']
– Interval –
BEETHOVEN Symphony No.6 [39']
CONCERT EVENTS
PRE-CONCERT TALK
Want to learn more about the music being performed? Arrive early for an informative and entertaining pre-concert talk with MSO Library Manager Luke Speedy-Hutton.
23 November at 6.45pm in the Stalls Foyer on Level 2 at Hamer Hall.
For a list of musicians performing in this concert, please visit mso.com.au/musicians
Duration: 1 hour and 40 minutes including interval. Timings listed are approximate.
PROGRAM NOTES
Symphony No.4 in B flat, Op.60
I. Adagio – Allegro vivace
II. Adagio
III. Menuetto (Allegro vivace) – Trio (Un poco meno allegro)
IV. Allegro ma non troppo
Almost three years after trialling the Third Symphony there in 1804, Beethoven returned to the Lobkowitz palace in March 1807 to conduct his Coriolan Overture, Op.62 and the Fourth Symphony, both for the first time, in a private concert with the Prince’s orchestra. He had begun composing the Fourth, and possibly completed most of it, during the summer of 1806, while also working on his Fourth Piano Concerto and revisions of his opera, Fidelio.
Beethoven had been staying (near the modern Czech-Polish border) at the summer residence of another one of his princes, Karl Lichnowsky, when he and his host came almost to blows over the Prince’s insistence that Beethoven (to whom he paid a handsome annual retainer) play for some visiting Napoleonic army officers. Whether in republican high dudgeon (as some suppose) or simply to accept a welcome invitation, Beethoven then left for the nearby castle of Lichnowksy’s cousin, Franz Oppersdorff, whose private orchestra welcomed him with a performance of his Second Symphony. Oppersdorff also commissioned him to compose two new symphonies, and Beethoven duly received full payment for dedicating the Fourth to Oppersdorff in 1807, and part payment toward the Fifth a year later. He must have started work on the Fourth immediately. Responding to Oppersdorff’s
enthusiasm for the Second, it retreats from the gravity and length of the Third. But its orchestral brilliance, tonal energy and thematic focus also prepare for the Fifth.
Instead of launching directly into the Allegro main theme, Beethoven begins with a dramatic Adagio introduction. This in itself was nothing unusual: the First and Second have slow introductions; but here Beethoven was experimenting as he went. Insignificant as it may seem in retrospect, the novelty of beginning an introduction (indeed, a symphony) with a single pizzicato note for the strings, is sure to have registered with his original audience. And, to 18thcentury ears only recently graduated to the 19th, the meandering harmonies and Beethoven’s disinclination to find definite cadences must have seemed wilfully perverse. But there is nothing perverse or obfuscating about the way the main Allegro breaks. Sudden fortissimo chords accelerate toward it almost like a cavalry division being spurred into action. As this ebullient movement proceeds there are some especially beautiful solos, notably for the flute and bassoon, and unexpectedly too for the kettledrums.
The Adagio encompasses a typically Beethovenian ‘dove and crocodile’ mix of moods: serene and sentimental one moment, heroic and even bellicose the next. The orchestral textures vary accordingly, from a standard Classical slow movement’s soft strings, winds and a pair of horns, to full fanfares for trumpets and drums, instruments which Beethoven had previously used to such dramatic effect in the Third Symphony’s funeral march.
The third movement looks backward again to the minuet (still so-called in the first edition), of which it is a somewhat hyper-activated example; and forward to the scherzo of the Fifth Symphony.
An innovation is its five-section form, built out of two components: the minuet proper (A), and a contrasting slightly slower Trio (B) from the winds, with a little help from the violins. These are played in the order A-B-A-B-A.
Berlioz called the finale ‘an animated swarm of sparkling notes, a continual babble; interrupted only by occasional rough and uncouth chords’. That about sums it up, except to add that it also teems with unexpected sounds. There are short solo appearances for bassoon, clarinets (who also contribute a ‘babbling brook’ accompaniment), oboes and flute. At the very end, the music stops short, there is a coy exchange between violins, bassoons, violas and cellos, and a rush to the end.
© Graeme Skinner 2014
Symphony No.6 in F, Op.68 Pastoral
I. Awakening of pleasant feelings upon arriving in the country (Allegro ma non troppo)
II. Scene at the brook (Andante molto mosso)
III. Peasants’ merrymaking (Allegro) –
IV. The storm (Allegro) –
V. Shepherds’ hymn of joy and thanksgiving after the storm (Allegretto)
In October 1808, Beethoven was offered 3,400 florins a year to leave Vienna and move to Kassel, in Germany, to become musical director to Napoleon’s brother, Jerome, newly created ‘King of Westphalia’. Though he had no intention of going, he let it be known that he was seriously considering the offer. Then he set out to demonstrate how indispensable he was to Vienna and its musical life by arranging a pre-Christmas concert, on 22 December, that included two yet unperformed symphonies, the Fifth and the recently completely Sixth. As a bargaining tool, the concert—his last at the financially troubled Theater an der Wien—perhaps fell short of making the perfect impression. It was very long, also including the Fourth Piano Concerto, bits of the Mass in C, and, to give the chorus something else to do, the purpose-composed Choral Fantasy as a last-minute addition. As usual, the orchestra was under-rehearsed, and Beethoven’s own piano playing was, by this time, often erratic, due to his failing hearing. Nevertheless, his ploy seems to have worked. Three of his most longsuffering supporters, Archduke Rudolph and Princes Kinsky and Lobkowitz, clubbed together to pay him an annuity of 4,000 florins on condition he stay in Vienna.
Perhaps, in a different way, the Sixth Symphony was another positive attempt
on Beethoven’s part to come to terms with the dissatisfactions of his life in urban Vienna. What better panacea than an escape to the country? The idea of a symphony depicting country life had been forming in his mind since as early as 1803, while working on the Third Symphony, when he sketched a version of the quirky dance at the centre of the Peasants’ Merrymaking, and a short passage ultimately for the second movement that he marked ‘the murmuring of the brook’ (‘the larger the stream the deeper the note’). His only full-scale ‘program’ symphony, he subtitled it ‘Recollections of country life’, and also devised descriptive titles for each movement, though he warned that these were more indications of feeling than scene-painting.
The composer’s Awakening of pleasant feelings upon arriving in the country is immediately audible in the refreshingly simple opening tune with its rustic bagpipe-like drone (on violas and cellos) as accompaniment. But apart from being more relaxed and expansive than the openings of the Third or Fifth Symphonies, the movement follows the traditional symphonic pattern, as well as fulfilling Beethoven’s pictorial intentions. Likewise, the Scene at the brook is a formally conventional slow movement—at least until the coda, with its unaccompanied bird calls (marked as such in the score): a flute as nightingale, oboe as quail, and clarinet as cuckoo. For the rest of the work, Beethoven does modify conventional symphonic layout, with three more movements (instead of two), but run together without a break. Peasants’ merrymaking is the obvious pretext for a scherzo. The dancing is brought to a stop, literally, by The storm for which Beethoven introduces a piccolo and a pair of trombones, instruments then still more usually used for opera and other staged spectacles than in concert symphonies. They add a suitably portentous colouring. Finally,
the storm passes as the shepherds sing their Hymn of thanksgiving.
Beethoven himself also said: ‘Anyone who has an idea of life in the country can divine for himself the composer’s intentions without a lot of titles.’ But it was precisely because of the genial titles—and the simple story they plot— that this accessible symphony remained his most generally popular well into the recording era, and until as late as the Second World War, when it was finally overtaken by the Fifth.
© Graeme Skinner 2014
BEETHOVEN FESTIVAL: SYMPHONIES 7 & 8
MONDAY 25 NOVEMBER
BEETHOVEN Symphony No.8 [26']
BEETHOVEN Symphony No.7 [39']
Quick Fix at Half 6 is proudly presented by Tarrawarra Estate.
For a list of musicians performing in this concert, please visit mso.com.au/musicians
Duration: 75 minutes, no interval. Timings listed are approximate.
PROGRAM NOTES
Symphony No.8 in F, Op.93
I. Allegro vivace e con brio
II. Allegretto scherzando
III. Tempo di Menuetto
IV. Allegro vivace
In 1811, a witty columnist observed that Beethoven’s music often harboured both ‘doves and crocodiles’. His music can seem happy and healthful one moment, bizarre and bellicose the next. But other comparisons might also come to mind. Up to then, the obvious ‘crocodiles’ among Beethoven’s symphonies were the Third, Fifth and Sixth, all radical, revolutionary works that, in one way or another, effectively broke the Classical mould that he had inherited from Haydn and Mozart. The ‘doves’ might be identified as the First, Second and Fourth symphonies, works that still conform to Classical outlines, but are filled with new, distinctively Beethovenian materials. These early ‘doves’ have their successors in the Seventh and Eighth, a pair of accessible and popular late symphonies, still conventional in pattern, premiered just two months apart.
Beethoven began composing the Eighth (while finishing the Seventh) on a recuperative visit to the Czech spa resort of Teplitz in summer 1812. While there, he also met for the first time a fellow invalid, Goethe, whose initial impression of the composer was vivid and disturbing:
His talent astounded me. But he is completely uncontrollable. He is not entirely wrong in believing the world to be detestable, but he does not make it any easier for himself or others by his attitude. Although because of his loss
of hearing he can be excused … as it is, he is naturally laconic, doubly so because of his misfortune.
Goethe’s view might seem to fit uncomfortably with the creator of so amiable a work as the Eighth. But it is a reminder that the Beethoven Goethe saw—matching closely the popular image of the turbulent personality responsible for the Fifth and Ninth symphonies—was still capable of, still actually wanted to write, music that simply entertained and pleased. Some said that, in doing so here, Beethoven ‘regressed’ to the style of his earliest symphonies; that, from an increasingly uncertain mid-career, he took a nostalgic backward step to recapture a lost world. Others saw the Eighth as a sort of taking-of-stock, a necessary ‘comfort stop’ on the road to the apocalyptic Ninth.
Haydn had died only three years earlier in 1809. But his spirit, and Mozart’s—not least their sense of humour—comes alive again, perhaps authentically for the last time, in the Eighth Symphony. All four movements are in major keys, perfectly proportioned music, untouched by any distorting influence of melancholy. Distortion, where it occurs, comes in the form of musical teases, such as in the syncopations of the first movement’s second theme, and toward the end the quirky echo of an orchestral climax by a single bassoon. A more direct musical joke can be found in the ‘clockwork’ repeated wind chords in the second movement which, according to Beethoven’s self-appointed secretary Schindler, mimicked the metronome, recently invented by Johann Nepomuk Maelzel, who also made Beethoven’s ear trumpets. Beethoven reverts in the third movement, if not all the way back to an old-fashioned ballroom minuet as such, then to music he described as being ‘in the tempo of a minuet’ and that adds an almost carnivalesque note. Another
constant tease is the intrusive fortissimo ‘wrong note’ that continually interrupts the last movement’s main theme.
© Graeme Skinner 2014
Symphony No.7 in A, Op.92
I. Poco sostenuto – Vivace
II. Allegretto
III. Presto – Assai meno presto
IV. Allegro con brio
Five years after the premieres of the Fifth and Sixth Symphonies, Beethoven introduced the Seventh, together with ‘battle symphony’ Wellington’s Victory, Op.91, on 8 December 1813. The occasion was a concert in Vienna’s University Hall to raise money for Austrian soldiers recently wounded helping to expel Napoleon’s army from Germany. Beethoven wrote an open letter of thanks to eminent colleagues who generously condescended to play under his direction, including Hummel, Meyerbeer, Spohr and Salieri:
It was a rare assembly of first-class musicians, each impelled not only by craft but also patriotic fervor to benefit the Fatherland, without concern for rank or precedence … Had I not composed the music myself, I would have been as happy as Mr Hummel to take my place at the drum!
The third-last symphony is a kind of mirror image of the Third. The Napoleonic Third is spacious and heroic (in E flat, a minor third above C), the Seventh (in A major, a minor third below C) all energy and bluster, animated by sheer rhythmic propulsion. Wagner labelled it ‘the apotheosis of the dance’, though so intense is Beethoven’s focus on distinctive rhythms that it often leaves conventional dance far behind. That Beethoven might have been drunk, deaf, or daft when he composed it were
all possibilities reportedly considered by his colleagues. Weber is supposed to have said ‘ripe for the madhouse’, and another wondered later whether ‘in the last period, he succumbed to a kind of insanity, that his assertive contrasts, vehement expressiveness, and sheer insistence, rankle so?’.
Beethoven composed the Seventh during two high summers—sketching it in 1811 and finishing it in 1812—while, on doctor’s orders, visiting a succession of picturesque Czech health resorts. In August 1812, he reported to his pupil, Archduke Rudolph: ‘In Teplitz I heard the military band play four times a day— the only musical report to offer you. Otherwise, I spent a good deal of time with Goethe.’
Goethe wrote to his wife that he had seldom met a ‘more focused, fervent artist’, though to a musical friend he added: ‘But he is completely uncontrollable … although because of his loss of hearing he can be excused, and pitied. As it is, he is naturally laconic, doubly so because of his misfortune.’ Meanwhile, Beethoven boasted he gave his senior a lesson in egalitarianism. Strolling through the spa gardens, they saw a crowd form as the imperial family walked by. Goethe, by far the more eminent of the pair and a seasoned courtier, removed his hat and was ignored. But Beethoven, ‘hat firmly on my head … pushed through the crowd, Archduke Rudolph doffed his hat, and the Empress herself came to greet me’.
Resonances of an idealised Teplitz military band and Beethoven’s egalitarian spirit can be heard especially in the minor-key Allegretto, whose simple, solemn tune and straightforward treatment struck such a popular chord that it was regularly excerpted by real bands for use as a funeral march. He introduces another disarmingly simple
tune in the middle of the scherzo’s trio, according to one of Beethoven’s clerical friends, borrowed from a hymn traditionally sung by pilgrims to the shrine at Mariazell.
During the Second World War, the Seventh was one of the Beethoven works enlisted to help boost patriotic fervour here in Australia. Bernard Heinze conducted performances and radio broadcasts of it with orchestras around the country as part of a nationwide Beethoven Festival. It’s effect on audience morale was electric, as one reviewer note: ‘Even the desolate anti-climax of a late bus, and frigid lower extremities, was mitigated by the persistence in one’s pulse and brain of the finale. Professor Heinze had whirled his forces up-to-time through these tremendous Olympian transports, ending … on a note of high exhilaration.’
© Graeme Skinner 2014
RYMAN HEALTHCARE SPRING GALA: BEETHOVEN’S NINTH
28–30 NOVEMBER
ARTISTS
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
Jaime Martín conductor
Lauren Fagan soprano
Margaret Plummer mezzo-soprano^
Stuart Skelton tenor
Samuel Dale Johnson bass
MSO Chorus
Warren Trevelyan-Jones chorus director
Auslan Choir
^Please note: Michaela Schuster is unable to perform as originally scheduled.
PROGRAM
JAMES MACMILLAN Concerto for Orchestra [25']
– Interval –
BEETHOVEN Symphony No.9 Choral [65']
CONCERT EVENTS
PRE-CONCERT TALK
Want to learn more about the music being performed? Arrive early for an informative and entertaining pre-concert talk with Nicholas Bochner (Head of Learning & Engagement), Karen Kyriakou (Auslan Choir Consultant) and Gabrielle Halloran (MSO Violist).
28 & 29 November at 6.45pm in the Stalls Foyer on Level 2 at Hamer Hall. 30 November at 1.15pm in the Stalls Foyer on Level 2 at Hamer Hall.
For a list of musicians performing in this concert, please visit mso.com.au/musicians Proudly presented by MSO Premier Partner, Ryman Healthcare.
Duration: 2 hours minutes including interval. Timings listed are approximate.
IN LOVING MEMORY
Dedication to Gwen Bryson —a loved mum
My mum, Gwen, gave me the gift of music, her & our father had different tastes for which I am forever grateful. Our father was away for extended periods on military service so Gwen was the parent who drove to lessons, drove to performances, waited in the car with either a book, crossword or knitting— a scenario I am sure is familiar to some people here today.
She gave me encouragement before performances, listened to endless hours of scales & repetitions of the same passage, kept on me to practice, practice, practice. Growing up in rural Queensland she took me to performances when they came to town, sent me to summer school & made sure I went to local music performances & productions. Today I thank her & acknowledge her & my dad, Bill, for these gifts of love.
LAUREN FAGAN SOPRANO
Australian soprano Lauren Fagan has grown into one of today’s most accomplished sopranos, admired by international critics for her “glossy, commanding sound” and “magnificent dramatic power”.
In the 2023/24 season, Fagan debuts as Gutrune in Andreas Homoki’s new staging of Götterdämmerung at Opernhaus Zürich, appears at Festspielhaus Baden-Baden and Berliner Philharmonie as 5. Magd in Elektra with the Berliner Philharmoniker and makes her Opera Australia debut as Angelica in Puccini’s Suor Angelica.
Recent seasons have seen an impressive array of appearances including Norma in Marina Abramovic’s 7 Deaths of Maria Callas. Lauren Fagan made debuts at both Opéra de Paris and Bayerische Staatsoper and she sang Woglinde in Keith Warner’s Ring Cycle at Royal Opera House, Covent Garden under Sir Antonio Pappano.
Representing her country in the 2019 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition, Fagan recently made her long-awaited Australian operatic debut as Violetta in La traviata at State Opera South Australia.
MARGARET PLUMMER MEZZO-SOPRANO
Margaret Plummer’s roles, whilst principal artist at the Vienna State Opera for seven years, included Hansel (Hansel and Gretel ), Mercedes (Carmen), Flosshilde, Waltraute and Dritte Norn (Wagner’s Ring cycle), Blumenmädchen (Parsifal ), Siebel (Faust), Tebaldo (Don Carlos), Page (Salome), Fenena (Nabucco), Meg Page (Falstaff, also for Hamburg State Opera) and Hermia ( A Midsummer Night’s Dream) and Fjodor (Boris Godunov).
Margaret’s recent and upcoming engagements include her debuts at La Scala, Milan as Auntie (Peter Grimes) and at the Bayreuth Festival as Blumenmädchen (where she returned this year); Flosshilde (Das Rheingold ) and Siegrune (Die Walküre) with Sydney Symphony Orchestra; Bach’s Christmas Oratorio and Messiah with Sydney Philharmonia Choirs; and her return to Opera Australia as Prince Charming (Cinderella).
Guest engagements have taken Margaret to the Vienna Philharmonic (Beethoven’s Symphony No.9); Savaria Symphony Orchestra (Haydn’s Theresienmesse); Pinchgut Opera (Phoebe, Castor et Pollux and Diane, Iphigenie en Tauride); Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra (Mozart’s Requiem), among others.
STUART SKELTON TENOR
Stuart Skelton appears in the world’s most celebrated opera houses including the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Royal Opera Covent Garden, Paris Opera, La Scala Milan, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Dresden Semperoper, and the Vienna, Hamburg, Bavarian and Berlin State Operas. Stuart’s 2024 engagements include Siegmund (Die Walküre), for Seoul Philharmonic and Sydney Symphony, Tristan (Tristan und Isolde), for Tokyo Spring Music Festival and Glyndebourne Festival; Gurrelieder with Sir Simon Rattle, Munich and Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with the ACO.
He has appeared with all the major American and Australian symphony orchestras, Bavarian Radio and London Symphony Orchestras, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Concertgebouw and Gewandhaus Orchestra and the BBC Orchestras.
Stuart Skelton’s recordings include Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde, Die Walküre, Peter Grimes, his solo album, Shining Knight and Tristan und Isolde with West Australian Symphony.
In 2021 Stuart was awarded Icelandic Music Award’s Male Singer of the Year.
SAMUEL DALE JOHNSON BASS
With a voice described by Bachtrack as “gloriously lyrical,” Australian baritone Samuel Dale Johnson has established a reputation as one of the leading young baritones of today. This season, Samuel will make debuts with Opera Australia and State Opera of South Australia. In addition, he will make his debut with the Kymi Sinfonietta in Finland. In the 2023–2024 season, Samuel made his debut with the Royal Danish Opera as Sharpless in Madama Butterfly under the baton of Paolo Carignani and returned to Scottish Opera to perform Figaro in a new production of Il barbiere di Siviglia.
From 2017–2023, Samuel was a member of the ensemble of the Deutsche Oper Berlin where his recent roles included Escamillo in Carmen, Figaro in Il barbiere, the title role in Don Giovanni, Demetrius in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Marcello in La bohème and Angelotti in Tosca, with conductors including Donald Runnicles, Ivan Repušić and Paolo Arrivabeni.
MSO CHORUS
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, Manfred Honeck, Xian Zhang and Nodoko Okisawa, and is committed to developing and performing new Australian and international choral repertoire.
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.
WARREN TREVELYAN-JONES CHORUS DIRECTOR
Warren Trevelyan-Jones is regarded as one of the leading choral conductors and choir trainers in Australia. He is Head of Music at St James’, King Street, Sydney, a position he has held since relocating to Australia in 2008. Under his leadership, The Choir of St James’ has gained a highprofile international reputation through its regular choral services, orchestral masses, concert series and a regular program of recording and both interstate and international touring.
Warren has had an extensive singing career as a soloist and ensemble singer in Europe, including nine years in the Choir of Westminster Abbey and regular work with the Gabrieli Consort, Collegium Vocale (Ghent), the Taverner Consort, The Kings Consort, Dunedin Consort, The Sixteen and the Tallis Scholars.
He is also a co-founder of The Consort of Melbourne and, in 2001 with Dr Michael Noone, founded the ‘Gramophone’ award-winning group Ensemble Plus Ultra. In September 2017 he was appointed Chorus Director of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and has recently been appointed Chorus Master of the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. He is also an experienced singing teacher and qualified music therapist.
MSO CHORUS PERFORMING IN TH IS CONCERT
SOPRANO
Shirin Albert
Philippa Allen
Julie Arblaster
Sheila Baker
Eva Butcher
Aliz Cole
Jillian Colrain
Gabrielle Connell
Veryan Croggon
Samantha Davies
Michele de Courcy
Isabelle Dennis
Rita Fitzgerald
Catherine Folley
Nicole Free
Karina Gough
Penny Huggett
Gina Humphries
Leanne Hyndman
Ingrid Kirchner
Charlene Li
Judy Longbottom
Julie O’Reilly
Karin Otto
Amanda Powell
Tanja Redl
Elizabeth Rusli
Jodi Samartgis
Fiona Seers
Eleanor Smith
Rachel Sztanski
Tracey Thorpe
Elizabeth Tindall
Christa Tom
Asami Weaver
Emma Wise
Channery Zhang
ALTO
Margaret Arnold
Giselle Baulch
Tes Benton
Cecilia Björkegren
Kent Borchard
Kate Bramley
Steve Burnett
Alexandra Chubaty
Juliarna Clark
Andrea Clifford-Jones
Marie Connett
Mari Eleanor-Rapp
Nicola Eveleigh
Dionysia Evitaputri
Claudia Funder
Jill Giese
Jillian Graham
Debbie Griffiths
Jennifer Henry
Kristine Hensel
Helen Hill
Helen MacLean
Rosemary McKelvie
Charlotte Midson
Susie Novella
Nicole Paterson
Natasha Pracejus
Alison Ralph
Tormey Reimer
Kate Rice
Lisa Savige
Helen Staindl
Libby Timcke
TENOR
Peter Campbell
Allan Chiang
James Dal-Ben
Carlos Del Cueto
Jose Diaz
James Dipnall
Lyndon Horsburgh
Fergus Inder
Michael Mobach
Jean-Francois Ravat
Cameron Tait
Elliott Westbury
Stephen Wood
BASS
Maurice Amor
José Miguel Armijo Fidalgo
Kevin Barrell
Tharanga Basnayake
Stephen Bordignon
Roger Dargaville
Ted Davies
Peter Deane
Simon Evans
Andrew Ham
Andrew Hibbard
Jordan Janssen
Douglas McQueen-
Thomson
Douglas Proctor
Stephen Pyk
Matthew Toulmin
Caleb Triscari
Maciek Zielinski
BRIDGING LANGUAGE AND CULTURE: THE 2024 AUSLAN CHOIR
The 2024 Auslan choir was born from a seed planted back in 2011 when I led an Auslan choir for the same work at a community day event with the MSO. It was a single-day workshop that merely hinted at the possibilities of what a well-rehearsed choir could achieve.
The connection between “music” and “deaf” is, ironically, very strong and one that could be easily misunderstood. Both involve an expressive, non-verbal language that relies heavily on emotion and human connection. Music is part of the shared human experience, with emotions often expressed beyond what vocabulary can provide. Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony covers a broad spectrum of emotions, which can be powerfully represented visually through sign language.
Hearing loss can be isolating and lonely—something Beethoven himself could attest to. However, the Deaf Community globally is a strong one that embraces its unique identity. Music and music education have not always been open to those with hearing loss, with many individuals historically excluded from learning instruments and participating in musical groups. While this has improved, it remains far from fully inclusive. Having allies and members of the Deaf Community as valued performers alongside MSO musicians and chorus members opens up potential pathways for exciting future collaborations.
Every step of this process was guided by Rachelle Stevens, an experienced teacher and consultant who has lived experience of deafness, being profoundly deaf herself. Rachelle and I worked together on this project for over a year, translating the lyrics from Old German to English, then unpacking the meaning to translate it into Auslan, ensuring alignment with the music. In short, Rachelle provided the seeing perspective while I contributed the hearing perspective, bridging both language and culture to fulfill the vision first planted back in 2011.
Karen Kyriakou
Artist in Residence, Learning & Engagement
Rachelle Stevens and Karen Kyriakou preparing learning materials provided to 2024 Auslan Choir applicants.
AU SLAN CHOIR
Lucy Wilmore
Michelle Tran
Lisa Janssen
Melissa Thompson
Dan Goronszy
Andria Mavrikakis
Serena Thomas
Deborah Hackett
Eliza Knight
Robyn Whitney
Krista Andrews
Jaya Harris
Nicole Grenfell
Amber Richardson
Rachelle Stevens
Catherine Saun
Chelsea Lawry
Chelsea Hunter
Ekaterini (Kathy) Reid
Karen Kyriakou
The Auslan choir has been prepared by Karen Kyriakou and Rachelle Stevens.
PROGRAM NOTES
JAMES MACMILLAN (born 1959)
Concerto for Orchestra
The composer writers:
My Concerto for Orchestra was written in 2023/24 and is in one continuous, through-composed movement, lasting about 25 minutes. It has a subtitle— Ghosts—as the music seems to be haunted by other, earlier musical spirits and memories. Right from the start of the opening section we can hear allusions to folk-dance forms, an eastern European hymn and Scottish traditional music. Various chamber groups emerge from within the orchestral fabric and there is much deliberate focus on soloistic playing throughout. Duets and trios are important—the work opens with an eleven-note theme being thrown between two trombones, and later there are other duos for clarinets, piccolo and tuba, and two violas.
Trios are also prominent—three bassoons at one point, as well as a quotation from Beethoven’s Ghost Trio (which gives this work its subtitle), and allusions to the famous Debussy trio of flute, viola and harp. Also in the spotlight at various points is a string quartet, a wind quintet and a brass sextet.
The work has four main interlocking sections. The first is fast and presents most of the initially important materials. The second section is slow and elegiac, and operates like a two-part canon, presenting many different combinations of the two lines, sometimes fully orchestral, other times soloistic and in chamber dimensions.
The third section, a scherzo, is marked presto. Its main “refrain” is an energetic,
rhythmic theme based on my memories of the dance forms my children used to listen to when they were teenagers… The episodes between these focus on some of the chamber groups mentioned above. Eventually we hear a brief moment from the Beethoven Ghost Trio, but the piano is replaced by a celeste. This is then smudged into the Debussy memory and finally a new trio (cor anglais, bass clarinet and vibraphone) joins, all forming a trio of trios.
The Concerto culminates in an Allegro finale, based on an unsettled and compulsive compound rhythm, containing nasal fanfares on horns and counter-rhythmic interjections on trumpets, piccolo and xylophone. The music eventually subsides to a more serene conclusion, where the hymnic theme (which has haunted the music throughout) is given its final statement.
© James MacMillan 2024
Commissioned by the London Symphony Orchestra with the support of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra.
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LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
Symphony No.9 in D minor, Op.125
I. Allegro ma non troppo, un poco maestoso
II. Scherzo (Molto vivace – Presto)
III. Adagio molto e cantabile –Andante moderato
IV. Presto – Allegro molto assai (Alla marcia) – Presto
Soloist
Lauren Fagan soprano
Margaret Plummer mezzo-soprano
Stuart Skelton tenor
Sam Dale Johnson bass
MSO Chorus
Warren Trevelyan-Jones chorus director
Auslan Choir
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 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.
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.
To Adolph Bernhard Marx—the early 19th-century music historian whose
writings helped enshrine Beethoven as ‘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):
O friends! No more these sounds! Instead let us sing out more pleasingly, with joy abundant!
© Graeme Skinner 2014
SUPPORTERS
MSO PATRON
Her Excellency Professor, the Honourable
Margaret Gardner AC, Governor of Victoria
CHAIRMAN’S CIRCLE
The Gandel Foundation
The Gross Foundation
Besen Family Foundation
Di Jameson OAM and Frank Mercurio
Harold Mitchell Foundation
Lady Primrose Potter AC CMRI
Cybec Foundation
The Pratt Foundation
The Ullmer Family Foundation
Anonymous (1)
ARTIST CHAIR BENEFACTORS
Chief Conductor Chair Jaime Martín
Supported In memory of Eva Besen AO and Marc Besen AC
Concertmaster Chair
David Li AM and Angela Li
Cybec Assistant Conductor Chair
Leonard Weiss CF
Cybec Foundation
Acting Associate Concertmaster
Tair Khisambeev
Di Jameson OAM and Frank Mercurio
Cybec Young Composer in Residence
Naomi Dodd
Cybec Foundation
PROGRAM BENEFACTORS
Now & Forever Fund: International
Engagement Gandel Foundation
Cybec 21st Century Australian Composers Program Cybec Foundation
First Nations Emerging Artist Program
The Ullmer Family Foundation
East meets West The Li Family Trust
Community and Public Programs
AWM Electrical, City of Melbourne, Crown Resorts Foundation, Packer Family Foundation
MSO Live Online and MSO Schools
Crown Resorts Foundation, Packer Family Foundation
Student Subsidy Program Anonymous
MSO Academy Di Jameson OAM and Frank Mercurio, Mary Armour, Christopher Robinson in memory of Joan P Robinson
Jams in Schools Melbourne Airport, Department of Education Victoria, through the Strategic Partnerships Program, AWM Electrical, Jean Hadges, Hume City Council, Rural City of Wangaratta, Marian and EH Flack Trust, and Flora and Frank Leith Trust.
Regional Touring AWM Electrical, Creative Victoria, Freemasons Foundation Victoria, Robert Salzer Foundation, Sir Andrew and Lady Fairley Foundation
Sidney Myer Free Concerts Sidney Myer
MSO Trust Fund and the University of Melbourne, City of Melbourne Event Partnerships Program
Instrument Fund Catherine and Fred Gerardson, Tim and Lyn Edward, Joe White Bequest
PLATINUM PATRONS $100,000+
AWM Electrical
Besen Family Foundation
The Gross Foundation
Di Jameson OAM and Frank Mercurio
David Li AM and Angela Li
Lady Primrose Potter AC
Anonymous (1)
VIRTUOSO PATRONS $50,000+
Jolene S Coultas
Dr Harry Imber
Margaret Jackson AC
Packer Family Foundation
The Ullmer Family Foundation
Anonymous (1)
IMPRESARIO PATRONS
$20,000+
PRINCIPAL PATRONS
$5,000+
Christine and Mark Armour
H Bentley
Tim and Lyn Edward
Catherine and Fred Gerardson
The Hogan Family Foundation
Pauline and David Lawton
Maestro Jaime Martín
Elizabeth Proust AO and Brian Lawrence
Sage Foundation
Lady Marigold Southey
The Sun Foundation
Gai and David Taylor
MAESTRO PATRONS
$10,000+
John and Lorraine Bates
Margaret Billson and the late Ted Billson
Jannie Brown
Shane Buggle and Rosie Callanan
Krystyna Campbell-Pretty
The late Ken Ong Chong OAM
Miss Ann Darby in memory of Leslie J. Darby
Mary Davidson and the late Frederick Davidson AM
Andrew Dudgeon AM
Val Dyke
Jaan Enden
Kim and Robert Gearon
Dr Mary-Jane H Gething AO
Cecilie Hall and the late Hon Michael Watt KC
Hanlon Foundation
Peter T Kempen AM
Dr Ian Manning
Rosemary and the late Douglas Meagher
Farrel and Wendy Meltzer
Opalgate Foundation
Ian and Jeannie Paterson
Hieu Pham and Graeme Campbell
Janet Matton AM & Robin Rowe
Liliane Rusek and Alexander Ushakoff
Glenn Sedgwick
Athalie Williams and Tim Danielson
Lyn Williams AM
TThe Aranday Foundation
Mary Armour
Alexandra Baker
Barbara Bell in memory of Elsa Bell
Bodhi Education Fund
Julia and Jim Breen
Nigel and Sheena Broughton
Janet Chauvel and the late Dr Richard Chauvel
John Coppock OAM and Lyn Coppock
Cuming Bequest
David and Kathy Danziger
Carol des Cognets
Equity Trustees
Bill Fleming
John and Diana Frew
Carrillo Gantner AC and Ziyin Gantner
Geelong Friends of the MSO
Ivan Glavas
Dr Rhyl Wade and Dr Clem Gruen
Louis J Hamon OAM
Dr Keith Higgins and Dr Jane Joshi
David Horowicz
Geoff and Denise Illing
Dr Alastair Jackson AM
John Jones
Konfir Kabo
Merv Keehn and Sue Harlow
Suzanne Kirkham
Liza Lim AM
Lucas Family Foundation
Morris and Helen Margolis
Dr Isabel McLean
Gary and Ros McPherson
The Mercer Family Foundation
Myer Family Foundation
Suzie and Edgar Myer
Anne Neil in memory of Murray A. Neil
Newton Family in memory of Rae Rothfield
Patricia Nilsson and Dr Martin Tymms
Jan and Keith Richards
Sam Ricketson and Rosemary Ayton
Andrew and Judy Rogers
Guy Ross
Kate and Stephen Shelmerdine Foundation
Helen Silver AO and Harrison Young
Brian Snape AM
Dr Michael Soon
P & E Turner
Mary Waldron
Janet Whiting AM and Phil Lukies
The Yulgilbar Foundation
Igor Zambelli
ASSOCIATE PATRONS $2,500+
Barry and Margaret Amond
Carolyn Baker
Marlyn Bancroft and Peter Bancroft OAM
Janet H Bell
Allen and Kathryn Bloom
Alan and Dr Jennifer Breschkin
Dr John Brookes and Dr Lucy Hanlon
Stuart Brown
Lynne Burgess
Dr Lynda Campbell
Oliver Carton
Charles & Cornelia Goode Foundation
Simone Clancy
Leo de Lange
Sandra Dent
Rodney Dux
Diane and Stephen Fisher
Alex Forrest
Steele and Belinda Foster
Barry Fradkin OAM and Dr Pam Fradkin
Anthony Garvey and Estelle O’Callaghan
Susan and Gary Hearst
Janette Gill
R Goldberg and Family
Colin Golvan AM KC and Dr Deborah Golvan
Miss Catherine Gray
Marshall Grosby and Margie Bromilow
Mr Ian Kennedy AM & Dr Sandra Hacker AO
Amy and Paul Jasper
Sandy Jenkins
Jenny Tatchell
Melissa Tonkin & George Kokkinos
Dr Jenny Lewis
David R Lloyd
Margaret and John Mason OAM
Ian McDonald
Dr Paul Nisselle AM
Simon O’Brien
Roger Parker and Ruth Parker
Alan and Dorothy Pattison
James Ring
Tom and Elizabeth Romanowski
Dr Ronald and Elizabeth Rosanove
Christopher Menz and Peter Rose
Marshall Segan in memory of Berek Segan OBE AM and Marysia Segan
Steinicke Family
Christina Helen Turner
Dawna Wright and Peter Riedel
Shirley and Jeffrey Zajac
PLAYER PATRONS
($1,000+)
Dr Sally Adams
Jessica Agoston Cleary
Helena Anderson
Margaret Astbury
Geoffrey and Vivienne Baker
Mr Robin Batterham
Justine Battistella
Michael Bowles & Alma Gill
Richard Bolitho
Joyce Bown
Elizabeth Brown
Suzie Brown OAM and the late Harvey Brown
Roger and Coll Buckle
Jill and Christopher Buckley
Dr Robin Burns and Dr Roger Douglas
Shayna Burns
Ronald and Kate Burnstein
Daniel Bushaway and Tess Hamilton
Peter A Caldwell
Alexandra Champion De Crespigny
John Chapman and Elisabeth Murphy
Joshua Chye
Kaye Cleary
Breen Creighton and Elsbeth Hadenfeldt
Mrs Nola Daley
Panch Das and Laurel Young-Das
Caroline Davies
Michael Davies and Drina Staples
Rick and Sue Deering
John and Anne Duncan
Jane Edmanson OAM
Christopher R Fraser
Applebay Pty Ltd
Mary Gaidzkar
David I Gibbs AM and Susie O’Neill
Sonia Gilderdale
Dr Celia Godfrey
Dr Marged Goode
Hilary Hall in memory of Wilma Collie
David Hardy
Tilda and the late Brian Haughney
Cathy Henry
Gwenda Henry
Anthony and Karen Ho
Rod Home
Lorraine Hook
Doug Hooley
Katherine Horwood
Penelope Hughes
Shyama Jayaswal
Basil and Rita Jenkins
Jane Jenkins
Sue Johnston
Angela Kayser
Drs Bruce and Natalie Kellett
Akira Kikkawa
Dr Richard Knafelc and Mr Grevis Beard
Tim Knaggs
Dr Jerry Koliha and Marlene Krelle
Jane Kunstler
Ann Lahore
Kerry Landman
Janet and Ross Lapworth
Bryan Lawrence
Andrew Lockwood
Elizabeth H Loftus
David Loggia
Chris and Anna Long
Lisa and Brad Matthews
Wayne McDonald and Kay Schroer
Lesley McMullin Foundation
Dr Eric Meadows
Ian Merrylees
Sylvia Miller
Ian Morrey and Geoffrey Minter
Anthony and Anna Morton
Laurence O’Keefe and Christopher James
George Pappas AO in memory of Jillian Pappas
Ian Penboss
Kerryn Pratchett
Peter Priest
Professor Charles Qin OAM and Kate Ritchie
Michael Riordan and Geoffrey Bush
Cathy Rogers OAM and Dr Peter Rogers AM
Marie Rowland
Viorica Samson
Martin and Susan Shirley
P Shore
Janet and Alex Starr
Dr Peter Strickland
Dr Joel Symons and Liora Symons
Russell Taylor and Tara Obeyesekere
Frank Tisher OAM and Dr Miriam Tisher
Margaret Toomey
Andrew and Penny Torok
Ann and Larry Turner
Dr Elsa Underhill and Professor Malcolm Rimmer
Jayde Walker
Edward and Paddy White
Patricia White
Nic and Ann Willcock
Lorraine Woolley
Dr Kelly and Dr Heathcote Wright
C.F. Yeung & Family Philanthropic Fund
Demetrio Zema
Anonymous (19)
OVERTURE PATRONS $500+
Margaret Abbey PSM
Jane Allan and Mark Redmond
Jenny Anderson
Doris Au
Lyn Bailey
Robbie Barker
Peter Berry and Amanda Quirk
Dr William Birch AM
Stephen and Caroline Brain
Robert Bridgart
Miranda Brockman
Dr Robert Brook
Jungpin Chen
Dr John Collins
Warren Collins
Gregory Crew
Sue Cummings
Bruce Dudon
Dr Catherine Duncan
Margaret Flatman
Brian Florence
Martin Foley
Elizabeth Foster
M C Friday
Simon Gaites
George Miles
Hugo and Diane Goetze
Louise Gourlay OAM
The late George Hampel AM KC and
Felicity Hampel AM SC
Dr Jennifer Henry
C M Herd Endowment
Carole and Kenneth Hinchliff
Gillian Horwood
Oliver Hutton
Rob Jackson
Ian Jamieson
Wendy Johnson
Leonora Kearney
Jennifer Kearney
Katherine Kirby
Professor David Knowles and Dr Anne McLachlan
Heather Law
Sandra Masel in memory of Leigh Masel
Janice Mayfield
Gail McKay
Jennifer McKean
Shirley A McKenzie
Richard McNeill
Marie Misiurak
Joan Mullumby
Adrian and Louise Nelson
Marian Neumann
Ed Newbigin
Valerie Newman
Dr Judith S Nimmo
Amanda O’Brien
Brendan O’Donnell
Sarah Patterson
The Hon Chris Pearce and Andrea Pearce
William Ramirez
Geoffrey Ravenscroft
Dr Christopher Rees
Professor John Rickard
Robert and Katherine Coco
Carolyn Sanders
Julia Schlapp
Madeline Soloveychik
Tom Sykes
Allison Taylor
Hugh and Elizabeth Taylor
Geoffrey Thomlinson
Mely Tjandra
Noel and Jenny Turnbull
Phillip Parker
Rosemary Warnock
Amanda Watson
Michael Whishaw
Deborah and Dr Kevin Whithear OAM
Adrian Wigney
David Willersdorf AM and Linda Willersdorf
Charles and Jill Wright
Richard Ye
Anonymous (14)
FUTURE MSO ($1,000+)
Justine Battistella
Shayna Burns
Jessica Agoston Cleary
Alexandra Champion de Crespigny
Josh Chye
Akira Kikkawa
Jayde Walker
Demetrio Zema
MSO GUARDIANS
Jenny Anderson
David Angelovich
Lesley Bawden
Tarna Bibron
Joyce Bown
Patricia A Breslin
B J Brown
Jenny Brukner and the late John Brukner
Sarah Bullen
Peter A Caldwell
Luci and Ron Chambers
Terry Wills Cooke OAM and the late Marian Wills Cooke
Sandra Dent
Alan Egan JP
Gunta Eglite
Marguerite Garnon-Williams
Charles Hardman and Julianne Bambacas
Carol Hay
Dr Jennifer Henry
Graham Hogarth
Rod Home
Lyndon Horsburgh
Katherine Horwood
Tony Howe
Lindsay Wynne Jacombs
Michael Christopher Scott Jacombs
John Jones
Merv Keehn and Sue Harlow
Pauline and David Lawton
Robyn and Maurice Lichter
Cameron Mowat
Laurence O’Keefe and Christopher James
David Orr
Matthew O’Sullivan
Rosia Pasteur
Peter Berry and Amanda Quirk
Penny Rawlins
Margaret Riches
Anne Roussac-Hoyne and Neil Roussac
Michael Ryan and Wendy Mead
Anne Kieni Serpell and Andrew Serpell
Jennifer Shepherd
Suzette Sherazee
Prof Gabriela Stephenson and Prof George Stephenson
Pamela Swansson
Tam Vu and Dr Cherilyn Tillman
Frank Tisher OAM and Dr Miriam Tisher
Mr and Mrs R P Trebilcock
Christina Helen Turner
The Hon Rosemary Varty
Francis Vergona
Robert Weiss and Jacqueline Orian
Mark Young
Anonymous (27)
The MSO gratefully acknowledges the support of the following Estates:
Norma Ruth Atwell
Angela Beagley
Barbara Bobbe
Michael Francois Boyt
Christine Mary Bridgart
Margaret Anne Brien
Ken Bullen
Deidre and Malcolm Carkeek
The Cuming Bequest
Margaret Davies
Blair Doig Dixon
Neilma Gantner
Angela Felicity Glover
The Hon Dr Alan Goldberg AO QC
Derek John Grantham
Delina Victoria Schembri-Hardy
Enid Florence Hookey
Gwen Hunt
Family and Friends of James Jacoby
Audrey Jenkins
Joan Jones
Pauline Marie Johnston
George and Grace Kass
Christine Mary Kellam
C P Kemp
Jennifer Selina Laurent
Sylvia Rose Lavelle
Peter Forbes MacLaren
Joan Winsome Maslen
Lorraine Maxine Meldrum
Prof Andrew McCredie
Jean Moore
Joan P Robinson
Maxwell and Jill Schultz
Miss Sheila Scotter AM MBE
Marion A I H M Spence
Molly Stephens
Gwennyth St John
Halinka Tarczynska-Fiddian
Jennifer May Teague
Elisabeth Turner
Albert Henry Ullin
Jean Tweedie
Herta and Fred B Vogel
Dorothy Wood
Joyce Winsome Woodroffe
COMMISSIONING CIRCLE
Cecilie Hall and the Late Hon Michael Watt KC
Tim and Lyn Edward
FIRST NATIONS CIRCLE
John and Lorraine Bates
Equity Trustees
Colin Golvan AM KC and Dr Deborah Golvan
Elizabeth Proust AO and Brian Lawrence
Guy Ross
The Sage Foundation
Michael Ullmer AO and Jenny Ullmer
ADOPT A MUSICIAN
Shane Buggle and Rosie Callanan
Roger Young
Andrew Dudgeon AM
Rohan de Korte, Philippa West
Tim and Lyn Edward
John Arcaro
Dr John and Diana Frew
Rosie Turner
Dr Mary-Jane Gething AO
Monica Curro
The Gross Foundation
Matthew Tomkins
Dr Clem Gruen and Dr Rhyl Wade
Robert Cossom
Jean Hadges
Prudence Davis
Cecilie Hall
Patrick Wong
Cecilie Hall and the late Hon Michael Watt KC
Saul Lewis
The Hanlon Foundation
Abbey Edlin
David Horowicz
Anne-Marie Johnson
Dr Harry Imber
Sarah Curro, Jack Schiller
Margaret Jackson AC
Nicolas Fleury
Di Jameson OAM and Frank Mercurio
Elina Fashki, Benjamin Hanlon,
Tair Khisambeev, Christopher Moore
Peter T Kempen AM
Anthony Chataway, Rebecca Proietto
Pauline and David Lawton
Yinuo Mu
Morris and Helen Margolis
William Clark
Rosemary and the late Douglas Meagher
Craig Hill
Professor Gary McPherson
Rachel Shaw
Anne Neil
Eleanor Mancini
Newton Family in memory of Rae Rothfield
Cong Gu
Patricia Nilsson
Natasha Thomas
Andrew and Judy Rogers
Michelle Wood
Glenn Sedgwick
Tiffany Cheng, Shane Hooton
Anonymous
Rachael Tobin
HONORARY APPOINTMENTS
Life Members
John Gandel AC and Pauline Gandel AC
Jean Hadges
Sir Elton John CBE
Lady Primrose Potter AC CMRI
Jeanne Pratt AC
Lady Marigold Southey AC
Michael Ullmer AO and Jenny Ullmer
MSO Ambassador
Geoffrey Rush AC
The MSO honours the memory of Life Members
The late Marc Besen AC and the late Eva Besen AO
John Brockman OAM
The Honourable Alan Goldberg AO QC
Harold Mitchell AC
Roger Riordan AM
Ila Vanrenen
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)
$100,000+ (Platinum)
MSO ARTISTIC FAMILY
Jaime Martín
Chief Conductor
Benjamin Northey
Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor –Learning and Engagement
Leonard Weiss CF
Cybec Assistant Conductor
Sir Andrew Davis CBE †
Conductor Laureate (2013–2024)
Hiroyuki Iwaki †
Conductor Laureate (1974–2006)
Warren Trevelyan-Jones
MSO Chorus Director
Erin Helyard
Artist in Residence
Karen Kyriakou
Artist in Residence, Learning and Engagement
Christian Li
Young Artist in Association
Katy Abbott
Composer in Residence
Naomi Dodd
Cybec Young Composer in Residence
Deborah Cheetham Fraillon AO
First Nations Creative Chair
Artistic Ambassadors
Xian Zhang
Lu Siqing
Tan Dun
MSO BOARD
Chairman
David Li AM
Deputy Chair
Martin Foley
Board Directors
Shane Buggle
Lorraine Hook
Margaret Jackson AC
Gary McPherson
Farrel Meltzer
Edgar Myer
Mary Waldron
Company Secretary
Demetrio Zema
PREMIER PARTNER
VENUE PARTNER
INTERNATIONAL LAW FIRM PARTNER
MAJOR PARTNERS
GOVERNMENT PARTNERS
EDUCATION PARTNERS
ORCHESTRAL TRAINING PARTNER
SUPPORTING PARTNERS
Quest Southbank Ernst & Young
MEDIA AND BROADCAST PARTNERS
TRUSTS AND FOUNDATIONS
Flora & Frank Leith Trust, Sidney Myer MSO Trust Fund
