A Snapshot in Time: Elgar's Cello Concerto

CONCERT PROGRAM

A Snapshot

in Time: Elgar’s Cello Concerto

1–3 June

Arts Centre Melbourne, Hamer Hall

Artists

Melbourne Symphony Orchestra

Benjamin Northey conductor

Li-Wei Qin cello

Program

LILI BOULANGER D’un matin de printemps

ELGAR Cello Concerto

– Interval –

PROKOFIEV The Love for Three Oranges: Symphonic Suite

LILI BOULANGER D’un soir triste

RAVEL La valse

Running time: approximately 2 hours including 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: 1 & 3 June at 6:45pm in Stalls Foyer, Level 2 at Hamer Hall.

Learn more about the performance at a pre-concert presentation with composer and performer Kym Dillon.

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.

A SNAPSHOT IN TIME: ELGAR’S CELLO CONCERTO

Musicians Performing in this Concert

FIRST VIOLINS

Dale Barltrop

Concertmaster

David Li AM and Angela Li#

Tair Khisambeev

Acting Associate Concertmaster

Di Jameson and Frank Mercurio#

Peter Edwards

Assistant Principal

Emily Beauchamp^

Kirsty Bremner

Sarah Curro

Peter Fellin

Deborah Goodall

Karla Hanna

Kirstin Kenny

Eleanor Mancini

Anne Neil#

Michelle Ruffolo

Kathryn Taylor

Michael Loftus-Hills*

Susannah Ng*

SECOND VIOLINS

Matthew Tomkins Principal

The Gross Foundation#

Robert Macindoe

Associate Principal

Mary Allison

Isin Cakmakçioglu

Freya Franzen

Cong Gu

Newton Family in memory of Rae Rothfield#

Andrew Hall

Isy Wasserman

Patrick Wong

Hyon Ju Newman#

Roger Young

Shane Buggle and Rosie Callanan#

Jacqueline Edwards*

Phoebe Masel*

VIOLAS

Christopher Moore Principal

Di Jameson and Frank Mercurio#

Katharine Brockman

Anthony Chataway

Dr Elizabeth E Lewis AM#

William Clark

Gabrielle Halloran

Molly Collier-O’Boyle*

Ceridwen Davies*

Beth Hemming*

Isabel Morse*

Heidi von Bernewitz*

CELLOS

David Berlin Principal

Rachael Tobin

Associate Principal

Elina Faskhi

Assistant Principal

Di Jameson and Frank Mercurio#

Rohan de Korte

Andrew Dudgeon AM#

Rebecca Proietto

Angela Sargeant

Michelle Wood

Andrew and Judy Rogers#

Kalina Krusteva*

Alexandra Partridge*

Anna Pokorny*

DOUBLE BASSES

Rohan Dasika

Benjamin Hanlon

Frank Mercurio and Di Jameson#

Suzanne Lee

Stephen Newton

Sophie Galaise and Clarence Fraser#

Luca Arcaro*

Caitlin Bass*

Emma Sullivan*

FLUTES

Prudence Davis

Principal Anonymous#

Wendy Clarke

Associate Principal

Sarah Beggs

PICCOLO

Andrew Macleod

Principal

Correct as of 18 May 2023

Learn more about our musicians on the MSO website

OBOES

Michael Pisani

Acting Principal

Ann Blackburn

The Rosemary Norman Foundation#

COR ANGLAIS

Rachel Curkpatrick*

Guest Principal

CLARINETS

Philip Arkinstall

Associate Principal

Craig Hill

BASS CLARINET

Jon Craven

Principal

BASSOONS

Jack Schiller

Principal

Elise Millman

Associate Principal

Natasha Thomas

Dr Martin Tymms and Patricia Nilsson#

CONTRABASSOON

Brock Imison

Principal

HORNS

Nicolas Fleury Principal

Margaret Jackson AC#

Saul Lewis

Principal Third

The late Hon Michael Watt KC and Cecilie Hall#

Abbey Edlin

Nereda Hanlon and Michael Hanlon AM#

Rachel Shaw

Gary McPherson#

Rebecca Luton*

TRUMPETS

Shane Hooton

Associate Principal

Glenn Sedgwick and Dr Anita Willaton#

William Evans

Rosie Turner

John and Diana Frew#

TROMBONES

James Kent

Acting Principal Cian Malikides^

Mike Szabo Principal Bass Trombone

TUBA

Timothy Buzbee Principal

TIMPANI

PERCUSSION

Shaun Trubiano

Acting Principal

John Arcaro

Tim and Lyn Edward#

Robert Cossom

Drs Rhyl Wade and Clem Gruen#

Robert Allan*

Greg Sully*

HARP

Yinuo Mu Principal

Megan Reeve*

CELESTE

Louisa Breen*

* Denotes Guest Musician

^ MSO Academy 2023

# Position supported by

Benjamin Northey conductor

PRINCIPAL CONDUCTOR IN RESIDENCE

Australian conductor Benjamin Northey is the Chief Conductor of the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra and the Principal Conductor in Residence of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

Northey also appears regularly as a guest conductor with all major Australian symphony orchestras, Opera Australia (Turandot, L’elisir d’amore, Don Giovanni, Così fan tutte, Carmen), New Zealand Opera (Sweeney Todd ) and State Opera South Australia (La sonnambula, L’elisir d’amore, Les contes d’Hoffmann). His international appearances include concerts with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, the Hong Kong Philharmonic, the Malaysian Philharmonic and the New Zealand Symphony, Auckland Philharmonia and Christchurch Symphony Orchestras.

Northey studied conducting with John Hopkins at the University of Melbourne and Jorma Panula at the Stockholm Royal College of Music.

With a progressive and diverse approach to repertoire, he has collaborated with a broad range of artists including Maxim Vengerov, Julian Rachlin, Karen Gomyo, Piers Lane and many others.

In 2023, he conducts the Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Tasmanian and Christchurch Symphony Orchestras and the Hong Kong Philharmonic.

Li-Wei Qin cello

Chinese-Australian cellist Li-Wei Qin appears world-wide as a soloist and chamber musician. Twice a soloist at the BBC Proms in London’s Royal Albert Hall, Li-Wei performs with many of the world’s great orchestras and chamber orchestras including the BBC symphony orchestras, the Los Angeles, London, Hong Kong, Osaka, China and NDR Hamburg Philharmonic Orchestras, Berlin Radio Symphony and Konzerthaus Orchestra, La Verdi Orchestra Milan, ORF Vienna Radio Orchestra, the Prague, Sydney and Melbourne Symphony Orchestras, and Kremerata Baltika, Sinfonia Vasovia, the Munich, Manchester, Zurich and Australian Chamber Orchestras. Leading conductors with whom he has worked include Vladimir Ashkenazy, Sir Andrew Davis, Marek Janowski, Jaap Van Zweden, Gianandrea Noseda, Jan Pascal Tortelier, Tan Dun, and the late Marcello Viotti, Jiri Belohlavek and Lord Menuhin.

He has appeared at the Wigmore Hall, the Jerusalem, Rheingau and MecklenburgVorpommern Music Festivals, at the Lincoln Centre Chamber Music Society New York and his recordings on Universal Music/Decca include the complete Beethoven Sonatas, Dvořàk Concerto (Singapore Symphony Orchestra), Elgar and Walton Concerti (London Philharmonic Orchestra), and a live performance with the Shanghai Symphony and Yu Long on Sony Classical.

He teaches at the YST Conservatory, Singapore and is guest professor at Shanghai and Central Conservatory of Music, China and visiting professor, Chamber music, at the Royal Northern College of Music. Li-Wei plays a 1780 Joseph Guadagnini cello, generously loaned by Dr and Mrs Wilson Goh.

Program Notes

LILI BOULANGER (1893–1918)

D’un matin de printemps (Of a Spring Morning)

D’un soir triste (Of a Sad Evening)

Born into a musical family, Lili Boulanger demonstrated a prodigious propensity toward music as a toddler. Unfortunately, chronic health issues would plague her from an early age and mandate that she forgo traditional conservatory training in favour of private lessons at home. As a child, she would also accompany her sister, Nadia, to the Conservatoire de Paris for classes with Louis Vierne, Paul Vidal, Auguste Chapuis, and Gabriel Fauré. Lili began private study with Georges Caussade in 1910 and entered the Conservatoire officially in 1912 to study with Paul Vidal and prepare to compete for the Prix de Rome in Music Composition.

After withdrawing for health reasons from the 1912 competition – in which no winner was declared – Lili became the first woman to win the Prix de Rome with her cantata, Faust et Hélène, in 1913. Notably, her father, Ernest, had won the 1835 Prix de Rome and her sister, Nadia, had taken second place in 1908. Widely lauded for her accomplishment, Lili would sign with Tito Ricordi and see her works published. When her studies at Villa Medici were interrupted by WWI, she and Nadia cofounded the Comité Franco-Américain and published a paper to support and unify composers and musicians displaced by the war. She returned to Rome in 1916, but Lili’s intestinal tuberculosis (Crohn’s disease) continued to complicate her life, and her health sharply declined.

D’un soir triste and D’un matin de printemps stand as the last works written in Lili’s own hand – started in the spring of 1917, they were largely finished by January 1918. Lili’s alterations and messy manuscripts were a sign of the physical deterioration she was undergoing, and what she did not complete in nuance of dynamics and articulations in her orchestration came from Nadia. Lili would dictate her final work, Pie Jesu, to her sister.

The instrumentation and divisi string writing of D’un matin de printemps reveal a surprisingly mature composer with a clear subtly complex contemporary voice. Short, tonic, and attainable, the tone poem opens brightly and sparkles with orchestral colors, develops through a span of dynamic range and mood, and ends in an upbeat orchestral splash.

D’un soir triste seems to reflect a dark foreboding as it marches on, dirge like. Contemporaneously modern dissonances and swelling dynamics convey an emotional desperation, and the orchestral complexity of cross rhythms, instrumental colourings, and lush divided strings belie her tender age.

© Adapted from notes by Gary Galván 2019

EDWARD ELGAR (1857–1934)

Cello Concerto in E minor, Op.85

I. Adagio – Moderato –

II. Lento – Allegro molto

III. Adagio

IV. Allegro – Moderato – Allegro, ma non troppo

Li-Wei Qin cello

Elgar’s compositional career reached its last zenith with the appearance of his Violin Concerto in 1910 and Second Symphony in 1911, works into which he claimed, ‘I have written out my soul… shewn myself’. Between them and this 1919 Cello Concerto – his last major work – Elgar faced steadily worsening prospects in almost every aspect of his life, from the personal challenges of aging, ill-health and bereavement, to the professional affronts of being elbowed aside as a conductor and composer by younger colleagues. And there was also the war. While the youth of Britain marched into France in August 1914 singing a music-hall hit, ‘It’s a long way to Tipperary’, Elgar’s Land of Hope and Glory – which had originated a decade earlier during the second Boer War as the trio of his first Pomp and Circumstance March (1901) – was mobilised again by their parents as a patriotic anthem. Rendered superfluous by his own old tune at home, and his music having little appeal to the average soldier at the front, Elgar, at 57, struggled to find a new wartime voice in works like Carillon, a musically slight but sentimentally eloquent response to the tragedy in Belgium, which he recorded for gramophone in 1915, and which here in Australia became his next-most-popular contribution to the war effort. His artistically and emotionally more substantial choral score The Spirit of England, settings of war poems by Laurence Binyon first

heard in 1916 and 1917 in a Britain still deep in the hostilities, had more hopeful first performances in Melbourne and Sydney in July – August 1918, just as public confidence in an Allied victory exploded. But it was Binyon’s lines commemorating the millions fallen (‘They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old; Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn’) – not Elgar’s music for them – that everyone remembered.

Binyon, who wrote these lines in the war’s first month, worked at the British Museum under Elgar’s close friend Sidney Colvin, the keeper of prints and drawings, and it was Colvin who first suggested Elgar turn them into ‘a wonderful Requiem for the slain’. Too old to fight, but having meanwhile volunteered as a hospital orderly in France, Binyon himself approached Elgar immediately the Armistice was declared with a request to set his new ode, ‘Peace’. But by letter on 18 November, Elgar demurred: ‘I do not feel drawn to write peace music somehow… the whole atmosphere is too full of complexities for me to feel music to it.’ Moreover, he found Binyon’s invocations of happy dead and healing spirits ‘cruelly obtuse to the individual sorrow and sacrifice – a cruelty I resent bitterly & disappointedly’. He had anyway, as his wife, Alice, privately recorded in her diary two months earlier, already conceived another ‘lament which should be in a war symphony’, music which evolved over the spring and summer of 1919 into ‘a real large work & I think good and alive’, as he described the ‘nearly completed’ Cello Concerto in a letter to Sidney Colvin and his wife, Frances, on 26 June, asking permission to dedicate it to them. On 27 October Elgar himself, out of duty to soloist Felix Salmond, reluctantly proceeded to direct the premiere, well knowing it was destined for near disaster after his co-conductor, Albert Coates, used up most of the

London Symphony’s available rehearsal time preparing Scriabin’s Poem of Ecstasy, which to add insult to injury was greeted by a storming ovation. As to the work itself, even some of his warmest admirers were at a loss what to make of a work that, as one wrote to The Musical Times in 1923, ‘anyhow, in my opinion… does not represent Elgar at his greatest’. And it was not until Elgar and Beatrice Harrison made their still-available 1928 recording that a new public, many of them unfamiliar with his earlier successes, began to appreciate the work as a masterpiece in its own right.

The work is laid out on paper in four movements, though listeners tend to hear the first and second movements, played without break, as a single span. Whereas his Violin Concerto opened into a conventionally spacious orchestral introduction, pending the princely arrival of its soloist, Elgar sets his cello soloist in a more intimate frame. Denied welcoming brass or upper strings, the brief opening cello recitative ( Adagio) sets its own unusually pared-back terms – hereinafter will be lyricism, light orchestration, simple layouts. The violas, completely unaccompanied, announce the dreamy, modal, much-loved main theme (Moderato), its rocking rhythm Elgar’s characteristic pastoral lilt. The winds introduce the airy, major-tending contrasting theme, which the cello then sets about varying, before the main theme simply returns. A longer, second cello recitative (Lento) inducts into faster, lighter, scherzo-like Allegro molto, the cello driving the music forward with its scrubbing semiquavers.

Elgar anticipated that the Adagio, despite its anticipatory half-close, would often be played without the rest of the concerto, and scored it with just strings and wind sextet. The cello melody gives the uncanny impression of being an internal dialogue between two separate voices, higher and lower, each merging

in and out of the countermelodies of the supporting strings.

The finale opens, exceptionally, announcing its fragmentary theme ( Allegro) without the cello. The cello then reworks it in a parenthetic recitative and short cadenza (Moderato), before it takes over fully ( Allegro, ma non troppo). The soloist sweetly but firmly pulls the music up introducing its arcing subsidiary idea, then carried on by flowing semiquavers into the extensive development. There’s a heady reprise of the fast theme, echoes of earlier quiet asides, and a penultimate throwback to the concerto’s opening gesture, caught up into a rapid, surging close.

Graeme Skinner © 2014

SERGEI PROKOFIEV (1891–1953)

The Love for Three Oranges: Suite Op.33a

1. The Clowns

2. The Magician Tchelio and Fata Morgana Play Cards (Infernal Scene)

3. March

4. Scherzo

5. The Prince and The Princess

6. Flight

Cleofonte Campagnini loved the idea. ‘Gozzi, dear Gozzi! But that would be marvellous!’ he enthused when Prokofiev proposed The Love for Three Oranges for Campagnini’s Chicago Opera. Venetian nobleman Carlo Gozzi (1720–1806) had a profound personal and aesthetic hatred of the two leading playwrights of his day, Carlo Goldoni and Pietro Chiari. Goldoni was a ‘realist’, advocating the abolition of the traditional commedia dell’arte masks so that the actors’ facial expressions could be seen. Chiari was a master of melodrama based on then fashionable French models. Gozzi published pamphlets decrying the others’ work, and took up the gauntlet when challenged by Goldoni to do better.

For the first of his ten ‘theatrical fantasies’, The Love for Three Oranges, Gozzi enlisted a commedia dell’arte company and drafted a scenario around which the actors could improvise. The dramatis personae included stock characters of the commedia dell’arte such as Tartaglia (the Prince), Pantalone, Smeraldina and Truffaldino (an alternative name for Arlecchino or Harlequin). The Prince is suffering from ‘hypochondria’ and dying from an inability to laugh. He is cured by a piece of accidental slapstick when the witch Fata Morgana (who for her own evil political reasons is trying to make

sure that the Prince is not cured) takes a pratfall. She in turn curses him with an obsession for three oranges which he must seek throughout the world, a parody of the heroic quests in Chiari’s plays. Each of the oranges contains a princess, but the first two die of thirst on being released from their pithy prison. The third Princess, after one or two other adventures, marries the Prince and they all live happily ever after.

Prokofiev’s first opera was The Gambler, composed in 1916–17 to his own libretto based on Dostoyevsky’s novella. It had been commissioned by Albert Coates, the English-born music director of the Mariinsky (later Kirov) Theatre, but the premiere was doomed by several events: the orchestra hated it, the stage director was incompetent, and perhaps most importantly, the country was in the grip of revolution. In an attempt to save the show, the director was replaced by the brilliant and (artistically) revolutionary Vsevolod Meyerhold, but even that was to no avail. It did however bring together two likeminded artists, and when Prokofiev set off for the United States, via Japan, in 1918, Meyerhold presented him with a copy of the first issue of his new journal: The Love for Three Oranges. Meyerhold perhaps saw himself as playing Gozzi to the influential Stanislavsky, and the version of Gozzi’s play he published in his journal was a kind of manifesto against Stanislavskian realism. By the time Prokofiev had arrived in the USA he had a draft libretto in hand, and when the opera was premiered in 1921 it was a great success.

A great recycler, Prokofiev knew the value of extracting music from larger works for the concert hall and in 1924 produced this Suite. Following Meyerhold, Prokofiev’s tale is framed by an on-stage argument between tragedians, comedians, lyricists and ridicules (or ‘Cranks’) about the merits of various theatrical genres. The Suite

opens with music in the Ridicules’ clamour. The Scène infernale depicts the witch Fata Morgana playing cards with the sorcerer Celio, the king’s protector, in a tussle for power. The celebrated March introduces the comic festival which the King hopes will cure the Prince, while the Scherzo describes the flight of the Prince and his jester Truffaldino – propelled by the wind from a devilish pair of bellows – across the desert. (Gozzi, incidentally, literally deflated the heroic style of Chiari by having them ‘sprawl on the grass at the sudden cessation of the favouring gale’!) The Prince and the Princess fall in love – fortunately for her, the Cranks lower a bucket of water to the stage when her orange is peeled, so she doesn’t die of thirst, and Prokofiev allows them a luscious music which looks forward to his Romeo and Juliet. It doesn’t end there: the princess is abducted, turned into a rat and so on, but it all ends with general rejoicing, and the baddies like Fata Morgana disappear through a trap door to the music of La Fuite.

Gordon Kerry © 2005

MAURICE RAVEL (1875–1937)

La Valse – poème chorégraphique

In the space of 120 years the waltz evolved from sturdy rusticity through elegant whirling to intoxicating sumptuousness – everyone from Mozart to Richard Strauss had taken a turn on the dance floor. Then World War I crushed the society that danced in three-quarter time, and the waltz became a thing of the past. For Ravel, himself traumatised by the war, this could only have made the waltz more irresistible; the composer of the Menuet antique and the Pavane pour une infante défunte was drawn, as always, to the past and to the dance.

In 1911 Ravel completed his Valses nobles et sentimentales – a string of lapidary waltzes in the spirit but not the style of Schubert – and he had begun to toy with the idea of a grander work for two pianos capturing the essence of Vienna through various aspects of the waltz. But Ravel didn’t write Wien, as it was to be called. When war broke out he headed to the front, driving lorries because he was too slight to be admitted to the fighting forces. After the armistice he completed something quite different: La Valse –a choreographic poem for orchestra. Where the Valses nobles… had been inspired by Schubert and the embryonic waltz of the early 19 th century, La Valse is a tribute to ‘An Imperial Court, around 1855’, a court in which the Strausses are the kings. Ravel imagined the music as ‘a sort of apotheosis of the Viennese waltz’, associated in his mind with ‘the impression of a fantastic, fatal whirling’. The effect is achieved through the simplest of structures, based not so much on themes or harmony but on something very simple: the crescendo, or building of sound from soft to loud. In this respect it is not unlike Boléro, which followed, but instead of one long

overwhelming crescendo, La Valse offers two.

The music begins with a grumble – a muted double bass section divided into three separate groups that share eerie tremolos and ominous plucked notes. Ravel’s scenario for this choreographic poem describes eddying clouds that part from time to time, offering fleeting glimpses of waltzing couples. Bassoons, horns and clarinets join in…Ravel’s beloved harps and more trembling strings…all is low and all is muted. This is the waltz viewed from a distance, each intimate couple in its own private world.

But we cannot stay voyeurs for long –the mists gradually disperse to reveal a huge ballroom in red and gold, brilliantly lit with chandeliers, and the waltzing couples have become a whirling crowd. The music embarks on a chain of waltzes that capture the verve of Johann Strauss, the opulence of Richard, and the frenzy of the ballroom. ‘I’m waltzing frantically,’ wrote Ravel when working on the piece – and if we were not in a concert hall we would be too.

The themes are sophisticated and volatile by turn – one moment the crowd of dancers is all glittering elegance, the next it is caught up in the fatal whirling that Ravel imagined. The fantastic melodic invention is matched by scintillating orchestral effects such as sweeping glissandi from the harps and divisions of the strings into as many as 16 separate parts. But the potential of Ravel’s huge orchestra of more than 90 players is kept in reserve – we are overwhelmed by its exquisite colours before we are overwhelmed by its power. By the time Ravel brings on his second crescendo, shorter and more turbulent, we are completely intoxicated.

Not all were intoxicated, however.

Sergei Diaghilev of the Ballets Russes was offered this spectacular music for a ballet but rejected it as too symphonic

and lacking in choreographic variety. In doing so he lost the friendship of the composer who had created Daphnis et Chloé for his company in 1912. Ironically La Valse was one of the few Ravel ballet scores that had been conceived for dancing and for orchestra: Ma Mère l’Oye (Mother Goose), Le Tombeau de Couperin and Valses nobles et sentimentales all became ballets, but only after they had first appeared as music for piano. In the end the Royal Flemish Opera Ballet gave the danced premiere, in 1926, and it was Ida Rubinstein who subsequently put La Valse on the map, with choreography by Bronislava Nijinska. But the music was first performed in the concert hall and it is there that its exhilarating momentum and surging climaxes continue to sweep us away. Pre-war Vienna may have waltzed itself into fatal oblivion but La Valse whirls on.

Yvonne Frindle © 2005/2018

Guests of Note DINNER SERIES

Across four separate events, we warmly invite you to share an intimate evening of conversation, fine food, wine – and of course music! – with some of the biggest superstars from our 2023 Season.

Best of all, every ticket raises funds to support the Orchestra’s core artistic program – helping the MSO continue presenting the best artists, thrilling repertoire, and world-class orchestral performances.

DINNER #1

An evening with Jaime Martín & Ray Chen

Saturday 1 July 2023

DINNER #3

An evening with Xian Zhang & Esther Yoo

Friday 8 September 2023

DINNER #2

An evening with Jaime Martín & Javier Perianes

Saturday 22 July 2023

DINNER #4

An evening with Benjamin Northey & Deborah Cheetham

Fraillon AO

Sunday 15 October 2023

For more information and to book your ticket, please scan the QR code or call MSO Philanthropy team on 03 8646 1551

Supporters

MSO PATRON

The Honourable Linda Dessau AC CVO, Governor of Victoria

CHAIRMAN’S CIRCLE

Mr Marc Besen AC and the late Mrs Eva Besen AO

Gandel Foundation

The Gross Foundation

Di Jameson and Frank Mercurio

Harold Mitchell Foundation

Lady Potter AC CMRI

Cybec Foundation

The Pratt Foundation

The Ullmer Family Foundation

Anonymous

ARTIST CHAIR BENEFACTORS

Chief Conductor Jaime Martín Mr Marc Besen AC and the late Mrs Eva Besen AO

Cybec Assistant Conductor Chair

Carlo Antonioli Cybec Foundation

Concertmaster Dale Barltrop

David Li AM and Angela Li

Assistant Concertmaster

Tair Khisambeev Di Jameson and Frank Mercurio

Young Composer in Residence

Melissa Douglas Cybec Foundation

2023 Composer in Residence

Mary Finsterer Kim Williams AM

PROGRAM BENEFACTORS

MSO Now & Forever Fund: International Engagement Gandel Foundation

Cybec 21st Century Australian Composers Program Cybec Foundation

Digital Transformation The Margaret

Lawrence Bequest – Managed by Perpetual, Perpetual Foundation – Alan (AGL) Shaw Endowment

First Nations Emerging Artist Program

The Ullmer Family Foundation

East meets West The Li Family Trust, National Foundation for Australia-China Relations

MSO Live Online Crown Resorts Foundation, Packer Family Foundation

MSO Education Anonymous

MSO Academy Di Jameson and Frank Mercurio

MSO For Schools Crown Resorts Foundation, Packer Family Foundation, Department of Education, Victoria, through the Strategic Partnerships Program

Melbourne Music Summit Department of Education, Victoria, through the Strategic Partnerships Program

MSO Regional Touring Creative Victoria, Freemasons Foundation Victoria, Robert Salzer Foundation, The Sir Andrew & Lady Fairley Foundation

The Pizzicato Effect Hume City Council’s Community Grants program, The Marian and E.H. Flack Trust, Flora & Frank Leith Charitable Trust, Australian Decorative And Fine Arts Society, Anonymous

Sidney Myer Free Concerts Sidney Myer

MSO Trust Fund and the University of Melbourne

PLATINUM PATRONS $100,000+

Mr Marc Besen AC and the late Mrs Eva Besen AO

The Gandel Foundation

The Gross Foundation

Di Jameson and Frank Mercurio

David Li AM and Angela Li

Lady Primrose Potter AC CMRI

The Ullmer Family Foundation

Anonymous (1)

VIRTUOSO PATRONS $50,000+

Margaret Jackson AC

Weis Family

Anonymous (1)

IMPRESARIO PATRONS $20,000+

H Bentley

The Hogan Family Foundation

David Krasnostein AM and Pat Stragalinos

Opalgate Foundation

Elizabeth Proust AO and Brian Lawrence

Lady Marigold Southey AC

Di Jameson and Frank Mercurio

Kim Williams AM

Anonymous (2)

MAESTRO PATRONS $10,000+

Christine and Mark Armour

Margaret Billson and the late Ted Billson

Krystyna Campbell-Pretty AM

Andrew Dudgeon AM

Dr Mary-Jane H Gething AO

Colin Golvan AM KC and Dr Deborah Golvan

Danny Gorog and Lindy Susskind

David R Lloyd

Peter Lovell

Maestro Jaime Martin

Ian and Jeannie Paterson

Christopher Robinson and the late Joan P Robinson

Yashian Schauble

Glenn Sedgwick

The Sun Foundation

Gai and David Taylor

Athalie Williams and Tim Danielson

Lyn Williams AM

Wingate Group

Jason Yeap OAM – Mering Management Corporation

Anonymous (2)

PRINCIPAL PATRONS $5,000+

Mary Armour

Barbara Bell in memory of Elsa Bell

Bodhi Education Fund

Julia and Jim Breen

Shane Buggle and Rosie Callanan

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

Dr John and Diana Frew

Susan Fry and Don Fry AO

Sophie Galaise and Clarence Fraser

Geelong Friends of the MSO

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

Merv Keehn and Sue Harlow

Dr Alastair Jackson AM

Paul and Amy Jasper

Suzanne Kirkham

Hyon-Ju Newman

Dr Elizabeth A Lewis AM

Sherry Li

Dr Caroline Liow

Gary McPherson

Rosemary and the late Douglas Meagher

The Mercer Family Foundation

Marie Morton FRSA

Anne Neil in memory of Murray A. Neil

Newton Family in memory of Rae Rothfield

Ken Ong OAM

Bruce Parncutt AO

Professor Sam Ricketson and Dr Rosemary Ayton

Andrew and Judy Rogers

Rosemary and the late Douglas Meagher

The Rosemary Norman Foundation

Guy Ross

The Kate and Stephen Shelmerdine Family Foundation

Helen Silver AO and Harrison Young

Anita Simon

Supporters

Brian Snape AM

Dr Michael Soon

Dawna Wright and Peter Riedel

ASSOCIATE PATRONS $2,500+

Carolyn Baker

Marlyn Bancroft and Peter Bancroft OAM

Sue and Barry Peake

Sascha O. Becker

Janet H Bell

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

Katherine Cusack

Leo de Lange

Dr Paul Nisselle AM

Elaine Walters OAM

Barry Fradkin OAM and Dr Pam Fradkin

Carrillo Gantner AC and Ziyin Gantner

Kim and Robert Gearon

Steinicke Family

Janette Gill

Goldberg Family

Goldschlager Family Charitable Foundation

Jennifer Gorog

Catherine Gray

Susan and Gary Hearst

Hartmut and Ruth Hofmann

Jenny Tatchell

John Jones

Mrs Qian Li

The Cuming Bequest

Margaret and John Mason OAM

H E McKenzie

Dr Isabel McLean

Ian Merrylees

Alan and Dorothy Pattison

David and Nancy Price

Peter Priest

Ruth and Ralph Renard

Peter and Carolyn Rendit

Tom and Elizabeth Romanowski

Liliane Rusek and Alexander Ushakoff

Jeffrey Sher KC and Diana Sher OAM

Barry Spanger

Peter J Stirling

Clayton and Christina Thomas

Janet Whiting AM

Shirley and Jeffrey Zajac

Anonymous (4)

PLAYER PATRONS $1,000+

Dr Sally Adams

Anita and Graham Anderson

Australian Decorative & Fine Arts Society

Geoffrey and Vivienne Baker

Allen and Kathryn Bloom

Michael Bowles and Alma Gill

Joyce Bown

Youth Music Foundation

Professor Ian Brighthope

Miranda Brockman

Nigel Broughton and Sheena Broughton

Suzanne Brown OAM and the late Harvey Brown

Jill and Christopher Buckley

Dr Robin Burns and Dr Roger Douglas

Ronald and Kate Burnstein

Kaye Cleary

John and Mandy Collins

Dr Daryl Daley and Nola Daley

Panch Das and Laurel Young-Das

Caroline Davies

Michael Davies

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

Frank Tisher OAM and Dr Miriam Tisher

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 Mr Ian Kennedy AM

Dawn Hales

David Hardy

Tilda and the late Brian Haughney

Cathy Henry

Dr Jennifer Henry

Dr Keith Higgins

Anthony and Karen Ho

Jenny and Peter Hordern

Katherine Horwood

Penelope Hughes

Shyama Jayaswal

Basil and Rita Jenkins

Sandy Jenkins

Sue Johnston

John Kaufman

Angela Kayser

Drs Bruce and Natalie Kellett

Anne and Leonard Kennedy

Tim Knaggs

Professor David Knowles and Dr Anne McLachlan

Dr Jerry Koliha and Marlene Krelle

Jane Kunstler

Ann Lahore

Kerry Landman

Kathleen and Coran Lang

Bryan Lawrence

Phil Lewis

Andrew 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

Professor Geoffrey Metz

Sylvia Miller

Ian Morrey and Geoffrey Minter

Anthony and Anna Morton

Laurence O’Keefe and Christopher James

Roger Parker

Ian Penboss

Kerryn Pratchett

Professor Charles Qin OAM and Kate Ritchie

Eli Raskin

Jan and Keith Richards

James Ring

Dr Peter Rogers and Cathy Rogers OAM

Dr Ronald and Elizabeth Rosanove

Marie Rowland

Marshall Segan in memory of Berek Segan

OBE and Marysia Segan

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

Andrew and Penny Torok

Christina Turner

Ann and Larry Turner

Leon and Sandra Velik

The Reverend Noel Whale

Edward & Paddy White

Nic and Ann Willcock

Terry Wills Cooke OAM and the late Marian Wills Cooke

Robert and Diana Wilson

Richard Withers

Lorraine Woolley

Anonymous (12)

OVERTURE PATRONS $500+

Margaret Abbey PSM

Jane Allan and Mark Redmond

Mario M Anders

Jenny Anderson

Dr Judith Armstrong and Robyn Dalziel

Benevity Australia Online Giving Foundation

Mr Peter Batterham

Peter Berry and Amanda Quirk

Linda Brennan

Dr Robert Brook

Elizabeth Brown

Suzie Brown OAM and the late Harvey Brown

John Brownbill

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

David and Geraldine Glenny

Hugo and Diane Goetze

Louise Gourlay OAM

Jan and the late Robert Green

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 Keys

Belinda and Malcolm King

Janet and Ross Lapworth

Paschalina Leach

Dr Jenny Lewis

Sharon Li

Dr Susan Linton

The Podcast Reader

Janice Mayfield

Shirley A McKenzie

Dr Alan Meads and Sandra Boon

Marie Misiurak

Joan Mullumby

Dr Judith S Nimmo

Estelle O’Callaghan

Brendan O’Donnell

David Oppenheim

Sarah Patterson

Pauline and David Lawton

Adriana and Sienna Pesavento

Geoffrey Ravenscroft

Alfonso Reina and Marjanne Rook

Professor John Rickard

Dr Anne Ryan

Viorica Samson

Carolyn Sanders

Dr Nora Scheinkestel

Julia Schlapp

Madeline Soloveychik

Dr Alex Starr

Dyan Stewart

Ruth Stringer

Tom Sykes

Reverend Angela Thomas

Rosemary Warnock

Amanda Watson

Deborah Whithear and Dr Kevin Whithear OAM

Dr Susan Yell

Daniel Yosua

Anonymous (15)

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

Charles Hardman

Carol Hay

Jennifer Henry

Graham Hogarth

Rod Home

Lyndon Horsburgh

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

Joan P Robinson

Maxwell Schultz

Miss Sheila Scotter AM MBE

Marion A I H M Spence

Molly Stephens

Gwennyth St John

Halinka Tarczynska-Fiddian

Jennifer May Teague

Albert Henry Ullin

Jean Tweedie

Herta and Fred B Vogel

Dorothy Wood

COMMISSIONING CIRCLE

Mary Armour

Cecilie Hall and the Late Hon Michael Watt KC

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

Dr Mary-Jane Gething AO

Monica Curro

The Gross Foundation

Matthew Tomkins

Dr Clem Gruen and Dr Rhyl Wade

Robert Cossom

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

Elina Fashki, Benjamin Hanlon, Tair Khisambeev, Christopher Moore

Dr Elizabeth A Lewis AM

Anthony Chataway

David Li AM and Angela Li

Dale Barltrop

Gary McPherson

Rachel Shaw

Anne Neil

Eleanor Mancini

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

Sir Andrew Davis CBE

Conductor Laureate

Hiroyuki Iwaki †

Conductor Laureate (1974–2006)

Warren Trevelyan-Jones

MSO Chorus Director

Siobhan Stagg

Soloist in Residence

Gondwana Voices

Ensemble in Residence

Christian Li

Young Artist in Association

Mary Finsterer

Composer in Residence

Melissa Douglas

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

Martin Foley

Lorraine Hook

Margaret Jackson AC

David Krasnostein AM

Gary McPherson

Farrel Meltzer

Edgar Myer

Glenn Sedgwick

Mary Waldron

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)

Principal Partner Premier Partners

Education Partner

Major Partners

Orchestral Training Partner

Government Partners

Venue Partner

Supporting Partners

Quest Southbank Bows for Strings Ernst & Young

Media and Broadcast Partners

Trusts and Foundations

Program Supporters

Consulate General of the People’s Republic of China in Melbourne

Supporting Partners

East meets West

Ministry of Culture and Tourism China

Consortium Partners

Supporters

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.

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

Freemasons Foundation Victoria

Xiaojian Ren & Qian Li

Mr Wanghua Chu & Dr Shirley Chu