Strauss' Alpine Symphony, Debussy and Sutherland

CONCERT PROGRAM

Strauss’ Alpine Symphony, Debussy and Sutherland

2 – 3 March

Arts Centre Melbourne, Hamer Hall

Artists

Melbourne Symphony Orchestra

Jaime Martín conductor

Siobhan Stagg soprano

Program

SUTHERLAND Haunted Hills

DEBUSSY (arr. Brett Dean) Ariettes oubliées

R. STRAUSS An Alpine Symphony

Running time: approximately 2 hours including a 20-minute interval. Our musical Acknowledgment of Country, Long Time Living Here by Deborah Cheetham Fraillon AO, will be performed at this concert.

Pre-concert events

Pre-concert talk: 2 March at 6:45pm in Stalls Foyer, Level 2 at Hamer Hall.

Pre-concert talk: 3 March at 6:45pm in Stalls Foyer, Level 2 at Hamer Hall.

Learn more about Margaret Sutherland, composer of Haunted Hills – to be performed tonight – at a pre-concert presentation Carlo Antonioli, Cybec Assistant Conductor Fellow and Dr. Jillian Graham, writer, editor, and researcher.

Copies of Jillian’s brand-new book, Inner Song will be available for purchase at the Box Office. We hope you enjoy this enlightening presentation on one of Australia’s most impressive composers, and an inspiration for many at the MSO.

Please note audience members are strongly recommended to wear face masks where 1.5m distancing is not possible. In consideration of your fellow patrons, the MSO thanks you for silencing and dimming the light on your phone.

Acknowledging Country

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.

from a land which has been nurtured by the traditional owners for more than 2000 generations. When we acknowledge country we pay respect to the land and to the people in equal measure.

As a composer I have specialised in coupling the beauty and diversity of our Indigenous languages with the power and intensity of classical music. In order to compose the music for this Acknowledgement of Country Project I have had the great privilege of working with no fewer than eleven ancient languages from the state of Victoria, including the language of my late Grandmother, Yorta Yorta woman Frances McGee. I pay my deepest respects to the elders and ancestors who are represented in these songs of acknowledgement and to the language custodians who have shared their knowledge and expertise in providing each text.

I am so proud of the MSO for initiating this landmark project and grateful that they afforded me the opportunity to make this contribution to the ongoing quest of understanding our belonging in this land.

— Deborah Cheetham Fraillon AO

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 2023, the MSO’s Chief Conductor, Jaime Martín continues 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, Cybec Assistant Conductor Fellow, Carlo Antonioli, MSO Chorus Director, Warren Trevelyan-Jones, Soloist in Residence, Siobhan Stagg, Composer in Residence, Mary Finsterer, Ensemble in Residence, Gondwana Voices, Cybec Young Composer in Residence, Melissa Douglas 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.

Musicians Performing in this Concert

FIRST VIOLINS

Rebecca Chan*

Guest Concertmaster

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

Michael Loftus-Hills*

Eleanor Mancini

Michelle Ruffolo

SECOND VIOLINS

Matthew Tomkins Principal

The Gross Foundation#

Robert Macindoe

Associate Principal

Monica Curro

Assistant Principal

Danny Gorog and

Lindy Susskind#

Mary Allison

Isin Cakmakcioglu

Freya Franzen

Cong Gu

Newton Family in memory of Rae Rothfield#

Andrew Hall

Isy Wasserman

Philippa West

Andrew Dudgeon AM#

Patrick Wong

Hyon Ju Newman#

Roger Young

Shane Buggle and Rosie Callanan#

VIOLAS

Christopher Moore Principal

Di Jameson and Frank Mercurio#

Lauren Brigden

Katharine Brockman

William Clark*

Molly Collier-O’Boyle*

Karen Columbine*

Gabrielle Halloran

Beth Hemming*

Isabel Morse*

Fiona Sargeant

Katie Yap*

CELLOS

David Berlin Principal

Rachael Tobin

Associate Principal

Elina Faskhi

Assistant Principal

Rohan de Korte

Andrew Dudgeon AM#

Kalina Krusteva*

Sarah Morse

Rebecca Proietto*

Angela Sargeant

Michelle Wood

Andrew and Judy Rogers#

DOUBLE BASSES

Axel Ruge* Acting Principal

Caitlin Bass*

Rohan Dasika

Benjamin Hanlon

Frank Mercurio and Di Jameson#

Suzanne Lee

Stephen Newton

Sophie Galaise and Clarence Fraser#

Ken Poggioli*

FLUTES

Prudence Davis Principal

Anonymous#

Wendy Clarke

Associate Principal

Sarah Beggs

PICCOLO

Andrew Macleod Principal

OBOES

Johannes Grosso Acting Principal

Ann Blackburn

The Rosemary Norman Foundation#

COR ANGLAIS

Michael Pisani Principal

Rachel Curkpatrick*

HECKELPHONE

Brock Imison*

CLARINETS

David Thomas Principal

Philip Arkinstall

Associate Principal

Oliver Crofts^

Craig Hill

Correct as of 17 February 2023

Learn more about our musicians on the MSO website

BASS CLARINET

Jon Craven Principal

BASSOONS

Jack Schiller Principal

Elise Millman

Associate Principal

Natasha Thomas Dr Martin Tymms and Patricia Nilsson#

CONTRABASSOON

Colin Forbes-Abrams* Guest Principal

HORNS

Nicolas Fleury Principal

Margaret Jackson AC#

Andrew Young*

Acting Associate Principal

Saul Lewis Principal Third

The late Hon Michael Watt KC and Cecilie Hall#

Abbey Edlin

Nereda Hanlon and Michael Hanlon AM#

Ryan Humphrey*

Rebecca Luton*

Josiah Kop*

Rachel Shaw

Gary McPherson#

Mel Simpson*

Offstage Horns

Stefan Grant*

Natalia Edwards*

Nicola Robinson*

Robert McMillan*

TRUMPETS

Owen Morris Principal

Shane Hooton

Associate Principal

Glenn Sedgwick#

Rosie Turner

John and Diana Frew#

Offstage Trumpets

Tristan Rebien*

Joel Walmsley*

TROMBONES

Samuel Schlosser* Acting Principal

Benjamin Anderson*

Richard Shirley

Mike Szabo Principal Bass Trombone

Offstage Trombones

Kieran Conrau*

Don Immel*

TUBA

Timothy Buzbee Principal

Alex Hurst*

TIMPANI

Antoine Siguré*

Acting Principal

John Arcaro

Tim and Lyn Edward#

PERCUSSION

Robert Cossom

Drs Rhyl Wade and Clem Gruen#

Greg Sully*

HARP

Yinuo Mu Principal

Melina van Leeuwen*

CELESTE

Aidan Boase*

CHAMBER ORGAN

Donald Nicolson* * Denotes Guest Musician ^ MSO Academy 2023 # Position supported by

My first experience with the MSO was when I was very young....We were taken to a school concert, in the Melbourne Town Hall, conducted by Sir Bernard Heinze.… and I can honestly say that the MSO has never been out of my life since.”

A Lifetime of Music

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Thank you for your support.

Mary Armour – MSO Patron and lifelong concert-goer.

Chief Conductor of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra since 2022, Jaime Martín is also Chief Conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra (Ireland) and Music Director of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. He is the Principal Guest Conductor of the Orquesta y Coro Nacionales de España (Spanish National Orchestra) for the 22/23 season and was Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of Gävle Symphony Orchestra from 2013 to 2022.

Having spent many years as a highly regarded flautist, Jaime turned to conducting full-time in 2013, and has become very quickly sought after at the highest level. Recent and future engagements include appearances with the London Symphony Orchestra, Dresden Philharmonic, Netherlands Philharmonic, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Colorado Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Antwerp Symphony, Orquesta Sinfónica y Coro de RTVE (ORTVE) and Galicia Symphony orchestras, as well as a nine-city European tour with the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

Martín is the Artistic Advisor and previous Artistic Director of the Santander Festival. He was also a founding member of the Orquestra de Cadaqués, where he was Chief Conductor from 2012 to 2019.

2023 MSO SOLOIST IN

RESIDENCE

Soprano Siobhan Stagg is one of the most outstanding young artists to emerge from Australia in recent years.

After graduating from the University of Melbourne, Siobhan began her career in the Salzburger Festspiele’s Young Singers Project and as a soloist at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. She has sung title roles for the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Dutch National Opera, and Victorian Opera, (for which she received the Green Room Award for Best Female Lead in an Opera), and in concert with the London Symphony Orchestra and Berliner Philharmoniker, among many others.

Siobhan became a Director of the Melba Opera Trust Board in October 2020, their first scholarship alumna to be appointed, and the first International Director.

Siobhan Stagg soprano Jaime Martín conductor

The Chief Conductor is supported by Mr Marc Besen AC and the late Mrs Eva Besen AO.

Program

MARGARET SUTHERLAND (1897–1984)

Haunted Hills

From 1934 in the rainforest below Mount Dandenong, near Melbourne, William Ricketts created a garden filled with statues of fantastic creatures, native animals, and human figures that represent the traditional owners of the land, the Wurundjeri people. Some are winged, some crucified, and while they may now seem naïve there is no doubt of the artist’s sympathy with those wronged by colonial settlement.

Composed in 1950 and premiered the following year, Margaret Sutherland’s Haunted Hills has a similar intent: it celebrates the beauty of the Dandenong Ranges, but is, as she puts it, ‘a sound picture written in contemplation of the first people who roamed the hills, their bewilderment and their betrayal’ culminating in a ‘frenzied dance, its seeming gaiety born of despair.’

After an anguished rising gesture from the strings, a dignified maestoso theme – suggesting the Wurundjeri – is sounded by low woodwinds and strings, then brass. Its distinctive rhythm pervades the piece, where Sutherland varies the theme’s contour and harmony, as in the cor anglais solo that introduces the second ‘paragraph’ of the music. There follows a contrapuntal section, and reprise of the opening, though with the harmony inexorably falling.

A brief larghetto ‘movement’ might represent the Indigenous people’s ‘bewilderment’: much more sparse than the opening, it leaves air between chords, with a wan solo line for flute, and icy droplets from celesta. Energy bursts forth in the ‘frenzied dance’, where 3/4 and 6/8 contend for metrical

dominance. The music is ebullient on the surface – for instance in a passage where a trumpet solo is punctuated by harp glissandos – but barely hides the bitterness that descends into a griefstricken 4/4 on solo violin. This in turn dissolves into spare wind duos, and a restatement of the lonely flute theme which restarts the dance. The frenzy leads to a massive climax with the opening maestoso theme rung out by trombones, but this is short-lived. The music retreats quickly through a patch of disembodied pizzicatos into empty silence.

Gordon Kerry © 2022

CLAUDE DEBUSSY (1862–1918)

arr. Brett Dean (born 1961)

Ariettes oubliées (Forgotten Songs)

I. C’est l’extase langoureuse (It is the Languorous Ecstasy)

II. Il pleure dans mon cœur (Tears Fall in My Heart)

III. L’ombre des arbres (The Shadow of Trees)

IV. Chevaux de bois (Wooden Horses)

V. Green

VI. Spleen

Siobhan Stagg soprano

Roughly contemporary with Mahler’s First Symphony, Debussy’s songcycle Ariettes was first performed, to no great acclaim, in 1887 and revised for publication as Ariettes oubliées (Forgotten Songs) in 1903. The six songs set poetry by Paul Verlaine from his collection Romances sans paroles (Songs without Words) written in 1872 and 1873 when Verlaine had abandoned his wife and embarked on an affair with the young poet Arthur Rimbaud.

The songs, then, largely treat the notion of love. ‘C’est l’extase’ deals with post-

coital languor and sadness; ‘Il pleure dans mon cœur’ famously likens the falling rain to falling tears despite no cause for grief; in ‘L’ombre des arbres’, shadows, water and mourning doves reflect the poet’s drowned hopes; the ‘Chevaux des bois’ are the horses on a merry-go-round in a slightly hellish carnival; ‘Green’ is another post-coital lyric, while ‘Spleen’ expresses the poet’s weariness with everything but the beloved, whom he fears will leave him.

Debussy’s piano accompaniments are extremely economical, and in his 2015 arrangement for the soprano Magdalena Kožená, Simon Rattle and the Australian World Orchestra, Brett Dean is careful to adhere to Debussy’s spirit. Naturally the trumpets, drums and bells, not to mention the sounds of the natural world that pervade the poetry, are irresistible to a composer, but Dean has changed none of the pitch material, has cultivated the orchestral palette of early Debussy works like the Nocturnes and Prélude à ‘l’après-midi d’un faune’ – mainly eschewing doubling, frequently dividing the strings and creating diaphanous wind textures. His only changes are in the interests, as he says, of giving the orchestration more time to unfold, judiciously adding the occasionally beat, bar or pause for that effect.

Gordon Kerry © 2023

RICHARD STRAUSS

(1864–1949)

An Alpine Symphony

Night –

Sunrise –

The ascent

Entry into the wood –

Wandering by the side of the brook –

At the waterfall –

Apparition –

On flowering meadows –

On the alpine pasture –Through thicket and undergrowth on the wrong path

On the glacier –

Dangerous moments –On the summit –

Vision –

Mists rise –

The sun gradually becomes obscured

Elegy –

Calm before the storm –

Thunder and tempest, descent –Sunset –

Conclusion –Night

Around the time he wrote An Alpine Symphony, Strauss boasted that he could, if necessary, describe a knife and fork in music. Indeed An Alpine Symphony marks the limit in Strauss’ nearly three-decades-long quest to extend music’s capacity for illustration and representation – an effort which began with Don Juan in 1888 and reached a highpoint with Thus Spake Zarathustra’s attempt to express the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche.

Strauss turned to An Alpine Symphony after writing Ariadne auf Naxos. Critics had just remarked on the Mozartean turn in his music, referring to the chamber forces required for Ariadne, when he produced this piece of orchestral gigantism. The orchestra needs 137 players, but what would you expect? Strauss is attempting nothing less than a literal portrait of a mountain.

Strauss composed this work in Garmisch, where he could look out over the Zugspitze and the Wettersteingebirge. Although he completed the orchestration in 100 days in 1914–15, the work itself had been long in gestation. As an idea, it had occurred to him as a boy, after he

and a party of climbers got lost during a mountain hike and were overtaken by a storm on their return.

The form of An Alpine Symphony is spectacularly simple. The listener is drawn into the idea of ascending and descending a mountain. The timeframe is a 24-hour period. This format guarantees Strauss certain musical highlights: yet another opportunity to depict an opening sunrise (as impressive in its own way as Zarathustra’s), and a sunset sequence, eminently suited to Strauss in one of his ‘autumnal moods’. Strauss ingeniously avoids the obvious at ‘the summit’, where, after the predictable big statement of one of the earlier themes he shifts focus to a halting oboe. One writer has remarked that it is as if we are suddenly made aware of the impact of the stupendous view on an awestruck human. The predictability of the descent is offset by one of the most graphic storms in musical literature.

Although the work is not constructed like a symphony in the conventional sense, the 22 continuous sections can be grouped to suggest a huge Lisztian single-movement sonata form with delayed recapitulation, like 1896’s Ein Heldenleben.

‘At last I have learnt to orchestrate,’ Strauss said at the General Rehearsal with the Dresden Hofkapelle. Some of the more obvious orchestral highlights include the exhilarating depiction of spray at the waterfall. Then there is the strange colouring of the ‘Sun theme’ mixed with organ reeds to depict rising mists (‘perhaps the most brilliantly clever section of the work’, according to Strauss biographer, Norman Del Mar).

The work has often been dismissed as just a piece of ‘orchestriana’. But is it more than a shallow display? Del Mar points to Strauss’ ‘curiously detached attitude to the Nature subject…giving

it a de-humanised majestic quality reminiscent, in a unique way, of Bruckner.’

The work can also be seen in the context of the mystical importance which mountains held for Germans in the 19 th century. The sense of the great mass of the mountain, barely discernible in the gloom, at the very end of the work, certainly has a Brucknerian scale and aspect, and it is probable that Strauss would have understood the remarks of his philosophical model Nietzsche who said:

He who knows how to breathe the air of my writings knows that it is an air of the heights, a robust air.

Unlike Nietzsche, Strauss could lapse into banality when he attempted to express Eternal and Absolute Truths. But whether he did so here or not, he never risked another tone poem. After An Alpine Symphony, he turned decisively to the stage, where his skills in musical depiction were a decided asset.

Gordon Kalton Williams Symphony Australia © 1998/2006

STRAUSS’ ALPINE SYMPHONY, DEBUSSY AND SUTHERLAND

Texts and Translation

Ariettes oubliées (Forgotten Songs)

I. C’est l’extase langoureuse

C’est l’extase langoureuse, C’est la fatigue amoureuse, C’est tous les frissons des bois

Parmi l’étreinte des brises, C’est, vers les ramures grises, Le chœur des petites voix.

Ô le frêle et frais murmure!

Cela gazouille et susurre, Cela ressemble au cri doux

Que l’herbe agitée expire …

Tu dirais, sous l’eau qui vire, Le roulis sourd des cailloux.

Cette âme qui se lamente

En cette plainte dormante

C’est la nôtre, n’est-ce pas?

La mienne, dis, et la tienne, Dont s’exhale l’humble antienne

Par ce tiède soir, tout bas?

II. Il pleure dans mon cœur

Il pleure dans mon cœur

Comme il pleut sur la ville;

Quelle est cette langueur

Qui pénètre mon cœur?

Ô bruit doux de la pluie

Par terre et sur les toits!

Pour un cœur qui s’ennuie

Ô le bruit de la pluie!

Il pleure sans raison

Dans ce cœur qui s’écœure.

Quoi! nulle trahison? …

Ce deuil est sans raison.

I. It is the Languorous Ecstasy

It is languorous rapture, It is amorous fatigue, It is all the tremors of the forest

In the breezes’ embrace, It is, around the grey branches, The choir of tiny voices.

O the delicate, fresh murmuring!

The warbling and whispering, It is like the soft cry

The ruffled grass gives out …

You might take it for the muffled sound

Of pebbles in the swirling stream.

This soul which grieves

In this subdued lament, It is ours, is it not?

Mine, and yours too,

Breathing out our humble hymn

On this warm evening, soft and low?

II. Tears Fall in My Heart

Tears fall in my heart

As rain falls on the town; What is this torpor

Pervading my heart?

Ah, the soft sound of rain

On the ground and roofs!

For a listless heart, Ah, the sound of the rain!

Tears fall without reason

In this disheartened heart.

What! Was there no treason? …

This grief’s without reason.

C’est bien la pire peine De ne savoir pourquoi

Sans amour et sans haine, Mon cœur a tant de peine.

III. L’ombre des arbres

L’ombre des arbres dans la rivière embrumée

Meurt comme de la fumée

Tandis qu’en l’air, parmi les ramures réelles, Se plaignent les tourterelles.

Combien, ô voyageur, ce paysage blême

Te mira blême toi-même, Et que tristes pleuraient dans les hautes feuillées

Tes espérances noyées!

IV. Chevaux de bois

Tournez, tournez, bons chevaux de bois, Tournez cent tours, tournez mille tours, Tournez souvent et tournez toujours, Tournez, tournez au son des hautbois.

L’enfant tout rouge et la mère blanche, Le gars en noir et la fille en rose, L’une à la chose et l’autre à la pose,

Chacun se paie un sou de dimanche.

Tournez, tournez, chevaux de leur cœur, Tandis qu’autour de tous vos tournois

Clignote l’œil du filou sournois, Tournez au son du piston vainqueur!

And the worst pain of all

Must

be not to know why

Without love and without hate

My heart feels such pain.

III. The Shadow of Trees

The shadow of trees in the misty stream

Dies like smoke,

While up above, in the real branches, The turtle-doves lament.

How this faded landscape, O traveller, Watched you yourself fade, And how sadly in the lofty leaves

Your drowned hopes were weeping!

IV. Wooden Horses

Turn, turn, you fine wooden horses, Turn a hundred, turn a thousand times, Turn often and turn for evermore Turn and turn to the oboe’s sound.

The red-faced child and the pale mother, The lad in black and the girl in pink, One down-to-earth, the other showing off,

Each buying a treat with his Sunday sou.

Turn, turn, horses of their hearts, While the furtive pickpocket’s eye is flashing

As you whirl about and whirl around, Turn to the sound of the conquering cornet!

C’est étonnant comme ça vous soûle

D’aller ainsi dans ce cirque bête: Rien dans le ventre et mal dans la tête,

Du mal en masse et du bien en foule.

Tournez, dadas, sans qu’il soit besoin

D’user jamais de nuls éperons

Pour commander à vos galops ronds:

Tournez, tournez, sans espoir de foin.

Et dépêchez, chevaux de leur âme, Déjà voici que sonne à la soupe

La nuit qui tombe et chasse la troupe

De gais buveurs que leur soif affame.

Tournez, tournez! Le ciel en velours D’astres en or se vêt lentement.

L’église tinte un glas tristement.

Tournez au son joyeux des tambours!

V. Green

Voici des fruits, des fleurs, des feuilles et des branches

Et puis voici mon cœur qui ne bat que pour vous.

Ne le déchirez pas avec vos deux mains blanches

Et qu’à vos yeux si beaux l’humble présent soit doux.

J’arrive tout couvert encore de rosée Que le vent du matin vient glacer à mon front.

Souffrez que ma fatigue à vos pieds reposée

Rêve des chers instants qui la délasseront.

Astonishing how drunk it makes you, Riding like this in this foolish fair: With an empty stomach and an aching head,

Discomfort in plenty and masses of fun!

Gee-gees, turn, you’ll never need The help of any spur

To make your horses gallop round: Turn, turn, without hope of hay.

And hurry on, horses of their souls: Nightfall already calls them to supper And disperses the crowd of happy revellers, Ravenous with thirst.

Turn, turn! The velvet sky

Is slowly decked with golden stars. The church bell tolls a mournful knell— Turn to the joyful sound of drums!

V. Green

Here are flowers, branches, fruit, and fronds,

And here too is my heart that beats just for you.

Do not tear it with your two white hands

And may the humble gift please your lovely eyes.

I come all covered still with the dew Frozen to my brow by the morning breeze.

Let my fatigue, finding rest at your feet,

Dream of dear moments that will soothe it.

STRAUSS’ ALPINE SYMPHONY, DEBUSSY AND SUTHERLAND

Sur votre jeune sein laissez rouler ma tête

Toute sonore encore de vos derniers baisers;

Laissez-la s’apaiser de la bonne tempête, Et que je dorme un peu puisque vous reposez.

VI . Spleen

Les roses étaient toutes rouges

Et les lierres étaient tout noirs.

Chère, pour peu que tu te bouges, Renaissent tous mes désespoirs.

Le ciel était trop bleu, trop tendre, La mer trop verte et l’air trop doux.

Je crains toujours,—ce qu’est d’attendre!—

Quelque fuite atroce de vous.

Du houx à la feuille vernie

Et du luisant buis je suis las,

Et de la campagne infinie

Et de tout, fors de vous, hélas!

On your young breast let me cradle my head

Still ringing with your recent kisses;

After love’s sweet tumult grant it peace, And let me sleep a while, since you rest.

VI Spleen

All the roses were red

And the ivy was all black.

Dear, at your slightest move, All my despair revives.

The sky was too blue, too tender, The sea too green, the air too mild.

I always fear—oh to wait and wonder!— One of your agonizing departures.

I am weary of the glossy holly, Of the gleaming box-tree too, And the boundless countryside

And everything, alas, but you!

© Texts by Paul Verlaine

© Translations by Richard Stokes, author of A French Song Companion (Oxford, 2000)

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MAESTRO PATRONS $10,000+

Christine and Mark Armour

Margaret Billson and the late Ted Billson

Shane Buggle and Rosie Callanan

Krystyna Campbell-Pretty AM

Andrew Dudgeon AM

Colin Golvan AM KC and Dr Deborah Golvan

Danny Gorog and Lindy Susskind

Doug Hooley

Peter Lovell

Maestro Jaime Martin

Ian and Jeannie Paterson

Yashian Schauble

Glenn Sedgwick

The Sun Foundation

David and Gai Taylor

Athalie Williams and Tim Danielson

Lyn Williams

Jason Yeap OAM – Mering Management

Corporation

Anonymous (2)

PRINCIPAL PATRONS $5,000+

Mary Armour

John and Lorraine Bates

Barbara Bell in memory of Elsa Bell

Bodhi Education Fund (East meets West)

Oliver Carton

John Coppock OAM and Lyn Coppock

Perri Cutten and Jo Daniell

Ann Darby in memory of Leslie J. Darby

Mary Davidson and the late Frederick

Davidson AM

The Dimmick Charitable Trust

Tim and Lyn Edward

Jaan Enden

Bill Fleming

Susan Fry and Don Fry AO

Sophie Galaise and Clarence Fraser

Geelong Friends of the MSO

Jennifer Gorog

Dr Rhyl Wade and Dr Clem Gruen

Cecilie Hall and the late Hon Michael Watt KC

Hilary Hall in memory of Wilma Collie

Louis J Hamon OAM

Nereda Hanlon and Michael Hanlon AM

Dr Alastair Jackson AM

John and Diana Frew

Suzanne Kirkham

Dr Elizabeth A Lewis AM

Sherry Li

Dr Caroline Liow

Gary McPherson

The Mercer Family Foundation

Marie Morton FRSA

Anne Neil

Hyon-Ju Newman

Newton Family in memory of Rae Rothfield

Ken Ong OAM

Bruce Parncutt AO

Sam Ricketson and Rosemary Ayton

Andrew and Judy Rogers

Rosemary and the late Douglas Meagher

The Rosemary Norman Foundation

Guy Ross

Supporters

The Kate and Stephen Shelmerdine Family Foundation

Helen Silver AO and Harrison Young

Anita Simon

Brian Snape AM

Dr Michael Soon

Dawna Wright

Anonymous (2)

ASSOCIATE PATRONS $2,500+

Carolyn Baker

Marlyn Bancroft and Peter Bancroft OAM

Sascha O. Becker

Janet H Bell

Julia and Jim Breen

Alan and Dr Jennifer Breschkin

Patricia Brockman

Drs John D L Brookes and Lucy V Hanlon

Stuart Brown

Lynne Burgess

Dr Lynda Campbell

Janet Chauvel and the late Dr Richard

Chauvel

Breen Creighton and Elsbeth Hadenfeldt

The Cuming Bequest

Katherine Cusack

Michael Davies

Leo de Lange

Sandra Dent

Barry Fradkin OAM and Dr Pam Fradkin

Carrillo Gantner AC and Ziyin Gantner

Kim and Robert Gearon

Janette Gill

R Goldberg and Family

Goldschlager Family Charitable Foundation

Catherine Gray

Hartmut and Ruth Hofmann

Paul and Amy Jasper

John Jones

Merv Keehn and Sue Harlow

Margaret and John Mason OAM

H E McKenzie

Dr Isabel McLean

Ian Merrylees

Patricia Nilsson

Dr Paul Nisselle AM and Sue Nisselle

Alan and Dorothy Pattison

Sue and Barry Peake

David and Nancy Price

Peter Priest

Ruth and Ralph Renard

Tom and Elizabeth Romanowski

Liliane Rusek and Alexander Ushakoff

Jeffrey Sher KC and Diana Sher OAM

Barry Spanger

Steinicke Family

Peter J Stirling

Jenny Tatchell

Clayton and Christina Thomas

Elaine Walters OAM

Janet Whiting AM

Nic and Ann Willcock

Anonymous (5)

PLAYER PATRONS $1,000+

Dr Sally Adams

Anita and Graham Anderson

Australian Decorative & Fine Arts Society

Geoffrey and Vivienne Baker

Michael Bowles and Alma Gill

Joyce Bown

Nigel Broughton and Sheena Broughton

Suzie Brown OAM and the late Harvey Brown

Ronald and Kate Burnstein

Kaye Cleary

John and Mandy Collins

Andrew Crockett AM and Pamela Crockett

Dr Daryl and Nola Daley

Panch Das and Laurel Young-Das

Natasha Davies for the Trikojus Education Fund

Rick and Sue Deering

Suzanne Dembo

John and Anne Duncan

Jane Edmanson OAM

Diane Fisher

Grant Fisher and Helen Bird

Alex Forrest

Applebay Pty Ltd

David and Esther Frenkiel OAM

Anthony Garvey and Estelle O’Callaghan

David I Gibbs AM and Susie O’Neill

Sonia Gilderdale

Dr Celia Godfrey

Dr Marged Goode

Dr Sandra Hacker AO and Ian Kennedy AM

Dawn Hales

David Hardy

Tilda and the late Brian Haughney

Susan and Gary Hearst

Cathy Henry

Dr Keith Higgins

Anthony and Karen Ho

Peter and Jenny Hordern

Katherine Horwood

Penelope Hughes

Shyama Jayaswal

Basil and Rita Jenkins

Sandy Jenkins

Sue Johnston

John Kaufman

Angela Kayser

Drs Bruce and Natalie Kellett

Dr Anne Kennedy

Tim Knaggs

Dr Jerry Koliha and Marlene Krelle

Jane Kunstler

Ann Lahore

Kerry Landman

Kathleen and Coran Lang

Janet and Ross Lapworth

Bryan Lawrence

Phil Lewis

John Lockwood

Elizabeth H Loftus

Chris and Anna Long

Gabe Lopata

John MacLeod

Eleanor & Phillip Mancini

Aaron McConnell

Wayne McDonald and Kay Schroer

Ray McHenry

John and Rosemary McLeod

Don and Anne Meadows

Dr Eric Meadows

Sylvia Miller

Ian Morrey and Geoffrey Minter

Dr Anthony and Dr Anna Morton

Laurence O’Keefe and Christopher James

Roger Parker

Ian Penboss

Eli Raskin

Jan and Keith Richards

James Ring

Dr Ronald and Elizabeth Rosanove

Marie Rowland

Jan Ryan

Martin and Susan Shirley

P Shore

John E Smith

Dr Peter Strickland

Dr Joel Symons and Liora Symons

Russell Taylor and Tara Obeyesekere

Geoffrey Thomlinson

Frank Tisher OAM and Dr Miriam Tisher

Andrew and Penny Torok

Christina Turner

Ann and Larry Turner

Leon and Sandra Velik

The Reverend Noel Whale

Edward and Paddy White

Terry Wills Cooke OAM and the late Marian Wills Cooke

Robert and Diana Wilson

Richard Withers

Lorraine Woolley

Shirley and Jeffrey Zajac

Anonymous (14)

OVERTURE PATRONS $500+

Margaret Abbey PSM

Jane Allan and Mark Redmond

Mario M Anders

Jenny Anderson

Peter Batterham

Peter Berry and Amanda Quirk

Dr William Birch AM

Allen and Kathryn Bloom

Linda Brennan

Dr Robert Brook

Roger and Coll Buckle

Cititec Systems

Charmaine Collins

Dr Sheryl Coughlin and Paul Coughlin

Judith Cowden in memory of violinist

Margaret Cowden

Dr Oliver Daly and Matilda Daly

Merrowyn Deacon

Bruce Dudon

Melissa and Aran Fitzgerald

Brian Florence

Elizabeth Foster

Mary Gaidzkar

Simon Gaites

Dr Mary-Jane Gething

David and Geraldine Glenny

Hugo and Diane Goetze

Louise Gourlay OAM

George Hampel AM KC and Felicity Hampel AM SC

Geoff Hayes

Jim Hickey

William Holder

Clive and Joyce Hollands

Rod Home

R A Hook

Gillian Horwood

Geoff and Denise Illing

Wendy Johnson

John and Christine Keys

Belinda and Malcom King

Professor David Knowles and Dr Anne McLachlan

Pauline and David Lawton

Paschalina Leach

Dr Jenny Lewis

Sharon Li

The Podcast Reader

Janice Mayfield

Shirley A McKenzie

Dr Alan Meads and Sandra Boon

Marie Misiurak

Joan Mullumby

Dr Judith S Nimmo

Brendan O’Donnell

David Oppenheim

Sarah Patterson

Adriana and Sienna Pesavento

Professor Charles Qin OAM and Kate Ritchie

Alfonso Reina and Marjanne Rook

Professor John Rickard

Dr Anne Ryan

Viorica Samson

Carolyn Sanders

Julia Schlapp

Dr Alex Starr

Dylan Stewart

Ruth Stringer

Reverend Angela Thomas

Rosemary Warnock

Nickie Warton and Grant Steel

Amanda Watson

Deborah Whithear and Dr Kevin Whithear OAM

Dr Susan Yell

Anonymous (10)

CONDUCTOR’S CIRCLE

Jenny Anderson

David Angelovich

G C Bawden and L de Kievit

Lesley Bawden

Joyce Bown

Mrs Jenny Bruckner and the late Mr John Bruckner

Ken Bullen

Peter A Caldwell

Luci and Ron Chambers

Beryl Dean

Sandra Dent

Alan Egan JP

Gunta Eglite

Marguerite Garnon-Williams

Drs L C Gruen and R W Wade

Louis J Hamon AOM

Carol Hay

Jennifer Henry

Graham Hogarth

Rod Home

Tony Howe

Lindsay and Michael Jacombs

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 and Anne Kieni Serpell

Jennifer Shepherd

Suzette Sherazee

Dr Gabriela and Dr George Stephenson

Pamela Swansson

Lillian Tarry

Tam Vu and Dr Cherilyn Tillman

Mr and Mrs R P Trebilcock

Peter and Elisabeth Turner

Michael Ulmer AO

The Hon. Rosemary Varty

Terry Wills Cooke OAM and the late Marian Wills Cooke

Mark Young Anonymous (19)

The MSO gratefully acknowledges the support of the following Estates:

Norma Ruth Atwell

Angela Beagley

Christine Mary Bridgart

The Cuming Bequest

Margaret Davies

Neilma Gantner

The Hon Dr Alan Goldberg AO QC

Enid Florence Hookey

Gwen Hunt

Family and Friends of James Jacoby

Audrey Jenkins

Joan Jones

Pauline Marie Johnston

C P Kemp

Peter Forbes MacLaren

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

Dorothy Wood

COMMISSIONING CIRCLE

Mary Armour

The late Hon Michael Watt KC and Cecilie Hall

Tim and Lyn Edward

Kim Williams AM

Weis Family

FIRST NATIONS CIRCLE

John and Lorraine Bates

Colin Golvan AM KC and Dr Deborah Golvan

Sascha O. Becker

Maestro Jaime Martín

Elizabeth Proust AO and Brian Lawrence

The Kate and Stephen Shelmerdine Family Foundation

Michael Ullmer AO and Jenny Ullmer

Jason Yeap OAM – Mering Management Corporation

ADOPT A MUSICIAN

Mr Marc Besen AC and the late Mrs Eva Besen AO

Chief Conductor Jaime Martín

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

Sophie Galaise and Clarence Fraser

Stephen Newton

Geelong Friends of the MSO

Miranda Brockman

The Gross Foundation

Matthew Tomkins

Dr Clem Gruen and Dr Rhyl Wade

Robert Cossom

Danny Gorog and Lindy Susskind

Monica Curro

Cecilie Hall and the late Hon Michael Watt KC

Saul Lewis

Nereda Hanlon and Michael Hanlon AM

Abbey Edlin

Margaret Jackson AC

Nicolas Fleury

Di Jameson and Frank Mercurio

Benjamin Hanlon, Tair Khisambee, Christopher Moore

Dr Elizabeth A Lewis AM

Anthony Chataway

David Li AM and Angela Li

Dale Barltrop

Gary McPherson

Rachel Shaw

Anne Neil

Trevor Jones

Hyon-Ju Newman

Patrick Wong

Newton Family in memory of Rae Rothfield

Cong Gu

The Rosemary Norman Foundation

Ann Blackburn

Andrew and Judy Rogers

Michelle Wood

Glenn Sedgwick

Tiffany Cheng, Shane Hooton

Dr Martin Tymms and Patricia Nilsson

Natasha Thomas

Anonymous

Prudence Davis

HONORARY APPOINTMENTS

Life Members

Mr Marc Besen AC

John Gandel AC and Pauline Gandel AC

Sir Elton John CBE

Harold Mitchell AC

Lady Potter AC CMRI

Jeanne Pratt AC

Michael Ullmer AO and Jenny Ullmer

Anonymous

MSO Ambassador

Geoffrey Rush AC

The MSO honours the memory of Life Members

Mrs Eva Besen AO

John Brockman OAM

The Honourable Alan Goldberg AO QC

Roger Riordan AM

Ila Vanrenen

MSO ARTISTIC FAMILY

Jaime Martín

Chief Conductor

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)

Warren Trevelyan-Jones

MSO Chorus Director

Siobhan Stagg

2023 Soloist in Residence

Gondwana Voices

2023 Ensemble in Residence

Christian Li

Young Artist in Association

Mary Finsterer

2023 Composer in Residence

Melissa Douglas

2023 Cybec Young Composer in Residence

Christopher Moore

Creative Producer, MSO Chamber

Deborah Cheetham Fraillon AO

MSO First Nations Creative Chair

Dr Anita Collins

Creative Chair for Learning and Engagement

Artistic Ambassadors

Tan Dun

Lu Siqing

MSO BOARD

Chairman

David Li AM

Co-Deputy Chairs

Di Jameson

Helen Silver AO

Managing Director

Sophie Galaise

Board Directors

Shane Buggle

Andrew Dudgeon AM

Lorraine Hook

Margaret Jackson AC

David Krasnostein AM

Gary McPherson

Farrel Meltzer

Hyon-Ju Newman

Glenn Sedgwick

Company Secretary

Oliver Carton

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)

Media and Broadcast Partners

Trusts and Foundations

The Sir Andrew and Lady Fairley Foundation, Flora & Frank Leith Trust, Perpetual Foundation – Alan (AGL) Shaw Endowment, Sidney Myer MSO Trust Fund

The MSO is committed to a sustainable future for our art form and our audiences. As such, this program has been printed on Revive Laser stock. Revive Laser is 100% Recycled, and Certified Carbon Neutral against Climate Active Carbon Neutral Standard. Made in Australia by an ISO 14001 certified mill. No chlorine bleaching occurs in the recycling process.