Max Richter
MONDAY 5 AUGUST 2024 / 6.30pm
Melbourne Recital Centre
MAX RICHTER The Four Seasons Recomposed (excerpts)
Duration: 75 minutes with no interval
CARLO ANTONIOLI CONDUCTOR
Carlo Antonioli is one of Australia’s most dynamic young conductors, who previously held the positions of Cybec Assistant Conductor at the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and Assistant Conductor at the West Australian Symphony Orchestra. In 2024, Carlo returns to conduct the MSO as well as performances with the Adelaide and Christchurch Symphony Orchestras, and Australian Youth Orchestra Young Symphonists.
Rapidly establishing himself both with Australia’s leading symphony orchestras, and with vibrant, cutting-edge ensembles, some of Carlo’s most recent engagements include working with the Queensland, Tasmanian and Canberra Symphony Orchestras, Orchestra Victoria, the Australian Contemporary Opera Company, the Australian, Sydney and Melbourne Youth Orchestras, the Australian National Academy of Music, Ensemble Apex, Australian Doctors Orchestra and the Stonnington Symphony.
Carlo has assisted many prominent conductors in Australia including Vasily Petrenko, Sir Mark Elder, Sir Andrew Davis, Asher Fisch, Karina Canellakis, Mark Wigglesworth and Jaime Martín, as well as Vladimir Ashkenazy and Chief Conductor Simone Young at the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.
Carlo holds a Master of Music Studies (Conducting) from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and is a member of the Australian Conducting Academy
NICHOLAS BOCHNER PRESENTER
Nicholas joined the MSO as Assistant Principal Cello in 1998. Since then he has appeared as a soloist, chamber musician and recitalist. He has also taught cello and improvisation at the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM). Nicholas has always had a strong commitment to music education and community engagement. In 2010 he was awarded the Dame Roma Mitchell Churchill Fellowship to study the LSO’s iconic Discovery program and the use of improvisation in training classical musicians at the Guildhall School of Music.
In 2016, Nicholas’ considerable experience as an orchestral musician and his passion for communication led him to undertake a fellowship at ANAM where he developed, conducted and presented educational concerts for primary school children. During the fellowship he was mentored by Paul Rissmann, Graham Abbott and the legendary Richard Gill AO. Since then he has presented educational concerts for children and adults for MSO, ANAM and the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra.In 2020 he was named the MSO’s Cybec Assistant Conductor for Learning and Engagement.
In 2022 Nicholas moved away from playing before taking the position of Head of Learning and Engagement in 2023.
SOPHIE ROWELL VIOLIN
Former Concertmaster of the MSO, Sophie Rowell has had an extensive performing career as a soloist, chamber musician and principal orchestral violinist both in Australia and abroad. She is currently the Artistic Director of the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra.
After winning the ABC Young Performer’s Award in 2000, Sophie founded the Tankstream Quartet, which won string quartet competitions in Cremona and Osaka. Having studied in Germany with the Alban Berg Quartet, the quartet returned to Australia in 2006 when they were appointed to the Australian String Quartet. Since 2012 Sophie has traveled the world playing in principal violin positions with orchestras including the Scottish & Mahler Chamber Orchestras and the Vancouver, Sydney & Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras, as well as participating in many chamber music festivals in Australia.
Sophie studied with Alice Waten in Sydney and participated in numerous master classes with musicians such as Sir Yehudi Menuhin, Norbert Brainin (Amadeus Quartet) and Walter Levin (LaSalle Quartet). She now teaches at the Australian National Academy of Music having previously taught at the Elder Conservatorium in Adelaide and the Australian Institute of Music in Sydney.
QUICK FACTS
• Recomposed is Richter’s fifth solo project, following Infra (2010), 24 Postcards in Full Colour (2008), Songs from Before (2006), The Blue Notebooks (2004) and Memoryhouse (2002).
• Richter discards most of Vivaldi’s original material, and the remaining sections are used in varied ways. Some are phased and looped, some are identical to the original, while others retain the solo line and change the accompaniment.
• Excerpts from Recomposed have featured in a variety of television series including The Crown and Bridgerton.
• Richter found a natural similarity between the musical language of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, rich in patterns and contrasts, with the structure of post-minimal and electronic dance music. He quoted: “I found plenty of touch points that enabled me to dive into his material in a natural, sculptural and architectural way.”
• Recomposed was recorded by Daniel Hope (violin) with the Konzerthaus Kammerorchester Berlin for Deutsche Grammophon. The album topped the classical charts in 22 countries in 2012, and topped the iTunes classical chart in the UK, Germany and the US.
GLOSSARY
The Four Seasons
A group of four violin concerti composed around 1718–1720 by Italian Baroque composer Antonio Vivaldi (1678–1741), each of which portrays a season of the year. The Four Seasons were revolutionary in their conception and foreshadowed what would become known in the nineteenth century as ‘program music’: music that portrays a story.
Minimalism
A musical style originating in New York in the 1960s that uses limited musical material, particularly repetition, shifting rhythmic patterns, consonant harmony and reiteration of musical phrases. Key minimalist composers include Steve Reich and Philip Glass.
Baroque
A style of music prevalent during the period from about 1600 to about 1750, characterised by its use of polyphony, ornamentation and grandiosity.
Loop
A repeating section of sound material. Loops can be created using music technologies including turntables, digital samplers, looper pedals, synthesisers, and sequencers, and they can be programmed using computer music software.
Concerto
An instrumental composition, typically in three movements, written for one or more soloists accompanied by an orchestra.