BORN IN THE
U S
A
Rotorua : Saturday 20 July 2019 Hamilton: Sunday 21 July 2019
Welcome from the Music Director Kia Ora Welcome to this Opus Orchestra concert. It’s been a long wait – but well worth it. It is a pleasure for me to be back with our gifted and dedicated musicians – who feel like old friends. It is also a privilege to be working with the outstanding cellist, Lev Sivkov. We perform the Barber Cello Concerto with him – before he goes on to perform the same concerto with Orchestra Wellington and the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra. This is a spectacularly beautiful work – and it set us off on the idea of a programme based on a “Made in America” theme. The other piece with American associations here is the first of Chris Adams’ Postcards from Eden entitled ‘Los Angeles International Airport’ (a bit of the USA that New Zealanders know all too well). Chris’s rather melancholy take on “The Star Spangled Banner” may resonate with those of us who have stood in the immigration line at LAX, but it seems particularly apt as we awake each morning to the President’s latest tweets. Enjoy the concert. Peter Walls ONZM Music Director Lev Sivkov - Soloist Lev Sivkov was born into a musical family in Novosibirsk, Siberia, Russia, in 1990. He began to play the cello at the age of five. He moved to Basel, Switzerland, in 2006 to study with Ivan Monighetti, and completed his Bachelor studies with Conradin Brotbeck in Stuttgart. He has participated in masterclasses with Janos Starker at Indiana University, Bloomington, USA, Wolfgang Schmidt at the Kronberg Music Festival, Germany, Ferenc Rados at the Prussia Cove Music Seminars, England, and Jean-Guihen Queyras in Freiburg, Germany. In June 2016 he was appointed Principal Cellist of the Royal Danish Opera, Copenhagen, Denmark. In July 2017 he won his current position as Principal Cellist of Opernhaus Zurich, Switzerland. He is also increasingly active on the international stage as a recitalist and concerto soloist. Lev is a laureate of numerous competitions, most notably the prestigious Naumburg Competition in New York, USA, which he won in 2015. He made his New York debut in the Weill Music Room, Carnegie Hall, in November 2016 and performed there again in April 2019. In October 2018, parallel with his fulltime position in Zürich, he participated in the Isang Yun Competition in Tongyeong, Korea, winning 3rd prize and the Unesco Creative City of Music Special Prize, awarded by the audience. In July and August 2019, Lev will tour extensively as soloist and chamber musician in New Zealand. Lev plays a cello by Vincenzo Postiglione, Naples, 1893.
Peter Walls - Music Director Peter Walls has been Music Director of Opus Orchestra since 2004. He is currently also Music Director of Nota Bene, a Wellington chamber choir. He has appeared as a guest conductor with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, the NZSO National Youth Orchestra, Orchestra Wellington, the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra, Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir, and various other choirs including the Civic Choirs in Hamilton, Tauranga and Rotorua. Peter was Music Director of The Tudor Consort from 1993-1999, a position he resigned to take up a Visiting Fellowship at Magdalen College, Oxford. His CD with that choir of motets by Peter Philips was listed by Neue Musik Zeitung as one of the top early music CDs released in 2002 and received a CHOC award from Le Monde de la Musique (the highest award from one of the leading French magazines for Classical music). Classics Today wrote “Conductor Peter Walls understands the overall period style and he obviously cares a lot about ensemble balance and uniformity of tone and colour.” He has conducted many opera productions including Jack Body’s Alley in the New Zealand Arts Festival in 1998, Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi for Southern Opera in 2009, Verdi’s La Traviata for the Gisborne Opera Festival and Leoncavallo’s Cavalleria Rusticana for Opera Wanganui (these last two productions with a young Simon O’Neill as Alfredo and Turridu respectively). Peter is Emeritus Professor of Music at Victoria University of Wellington. He was Chief Executive of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra from 2002 until 2011 and held that same role with Chamber Music New Zealand from 2015 until January 2019. He was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to music in 2012. Elena Abramova - Concertmaster Russian born Violinist, Elena Abramova, holds a Masters Degree from the State Conservatory of St Petersburg, Russia, and a Doctorate in Violin performance from the University of Auckland. Elena has lived in Auckland since 2003 where she is a sought after freelance violinist, chamber musician, and teacher. she has played with the NZSO, APO, ACO, NZ Trio and other professional ensembles. She has been a concertmaster of Waitakere Orchestra for 10 years and has led a number of other orchestras including Aorangi Symphony, NZ Concerto Orchestra and the St Petersburg University Orchestra. Elena and her husband Greg McGarity founded Auckland Trio which plays concerts both as a traditional classical string trio and also as a cutting edge fusion ensemble exploring non-classical virtuosic string music.
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Programme Notes
Robert Schumann (1810–1856) Overture, Scherzo and Finale, Op. 52
1. Overture: Andante con moto – Allegro 2. Scherzo: Vivo 3. Finale: Allegro molto vivace Prior to 1840, Robert Schumann had made several attempts at composing a large-scale orchestral work but found himself more at home composing piano music and Lieder, esoteric forms which he could imbue with literary and personal allusions for the pleasure of the cognoscenti. However, Clara Wieck, whom he married in September 1840, encouraged Schumann to write a symphony, having already noted this goal in her diary: ‘it would be best if he composed for orchestra; his imagination cannot find sufficient scope on the piano. . . . His compositions are all orchestral in feeling. . . . My highest wish is that he should compose for orchestra— that is his field! May I succeed in bringing him to it!’ When working on his Symphony in B-flat major (‘Spring’), Schumann felt inflamed by ‘symphonic fire’, and the great success of the Symphony’s premiere at Leipzig’s Gewandhaus on 31 March 1841 demonstrated to Schumann the benefits of composing such ‘public’ genres. Alfred Doeffel, a historian of the Gewandhaus, wrote later that this ‘success with all present was such that the symphony was much discussed, and Schumann was viewed in a much different light and recognised to a greater degree than previously.’ Meanwhile, Schumann had also been crafting a three-movement orchestral piece that he called a ‘suite’ or ‘symphonette’. This composition, the Overture, Scherzo and Finale, received its premiere on 6 December 1841, alongside Schumann’s Symphony No. 2 in D minor, and performances by Clara Schumann and Franz Liszt. The reception was somewhat tepid, a response Schumann attributed to the audience being overwhelmed by so much music: ‘It was really too much at once – I believe – and then Mendelssohn was missing as the conductor. But that does not hurt anything – I know that the pieces are in no respect inferior to [Symphony No. 1] and will be recognized sooner or later in their own way.’ The Overture, Scherzo and Finale have proved that Schumann’s confidence was not misplaced. In their technicality and vitality these pieces share many characteristics with Schumann’s piano music; his musical alter-egos (extrovert, passionate Florestan and contemplative, sober Eusebius) frequently making their presence felt. The colourful orchestration shares something in common with Mendelssohn’s work, but the Overture, Scherzo and Finale could not be the music of anybody other than Robert Schumann. Samuel Barber (1910-1981) Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra, Op 22 1. Allegro moderato 11. Andante sostenuto 111. Molto allegro e appassionato The impetus for the composition of Barber’s Cello Concerto came from the conductor Serge Koussevitsky who wanted a new concerto for Raya Garbousova. Garbousova, a cellist of ‘limitless technique’ was born in Tbilisi c. 1909. After making her debut in Moscow playing Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations, Garbousova left the Soviet Union to study in Leipzig, performing in London and Berlin in 1926, and Paris in 1927. After several years of touring Europe, she emigrated to the USA in 1939. Garbousova’s father had been friends with Koussevitsky, and it was through these connections that Koussevitsky commissioned Barber in 1945.Barber, who was still in the US Army, found composing the Concerto difficult. He was in frequent contact with Garbousova, asking her to play to him so that he could understand her technique and expressive character. He also brought small sections of the Concerto to Garbousova to assess whether they were idiomatic. By 27 November the Concerto was complete, and its premiere took place on 5 April 1946 with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, part of a programme that included Richard Strauss’s Don Juan, Tchaikovsky’s Francesca da Rimini, Mussorgsky’s Khovanshschina, and Rounds for String Orchestra by David Diamond. Subsequent performances later in April at the Brooklyn Academy of Music introduced Barber’s Concerto to New York City.
Barber disagreed with the provision of detailed programme notes for his music, stating that he preferred his Cello Concerto to stand ‘on its own musical terms, which do not call for verbal description or analysis.’ Nevertheless, comments from several early reviews of the Concerto express its character well: one critic praised the ‘nervous and jittery’ first movement, which alternates between duple and triple metres, noting the ‘brilliant and … idiomatic treatment of the solo instrument,’ heightened by Garbousova’s ‘emotional fervidity, pure tone, wonderful technique.’ Composer Virgil Thompson believed the Concerto included ‘good tunes’ brought together in ‘musical, masterful, thoughtful’ manner,’ and a ‘Brahms-like grandeur.’ Olin Downes praised especially the second movement, in which a ‘young American dares to express himself poetically.’ The finale – a fleet, dialogue between cello and orchestra – exhibits how resourcefully Barber combined Romantic opulence with a mid-century modernist sensibility. In 1947, Barber revised the Concerto to improve the balance between the solo instrument and orchestra, reducing the orchestra texture, so that orchestral melody did not obscure the soloist. These changes did not decrease the tremendous technical and musical challenges of the Concerto, a work which remains one of the most significant and eloquent contributions to the cello repertory.
Chris Adams (1979– ) Postcards from Eden
(i) Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) 10 Hours Feb 2003 ‘So God sent them out of the Garden of Eden and made them cultivate the soil from which they had been formed.’ In 2003 Chris Adams spent 10 hours at Los Angeles International Airport, stuck between flights. He writes that having travelled through LA both before and after 9/11, he was struck by the relative freedom afforded to transiting travellers after the attacks: for a time, rather than being trapped in stuffy transit lounges between flights, all passengers had to clear customs, and could thus spend time in the public areas of the airport. During his 10 hours at the airport, Adams wrote five short poems that reflect upon the dystopian atmosphere of LAX, the artificiality of its décor, and the mildly intimidating military security. The five poems are as follows: Fake Palms Blue and Green Fluorescents Oasis in a concrete jungle. American Flag hanging limply Between two concrete towers Like the defeated Sampson Set to bring the ceiling down. Increased Security More Freedom Only in America Armed chairs discourage sleep “Gateway to America” – Not a place to stop. Adams initially intended to compose several pieces, ‘inspired by equally horrible people-created environments,’ but to date he has completed only the piece we hear today. It was written in 2007 for Gate Seven, a Wellington-based contemporary music ensemble comprised of students and graduates of the School of Music at Victoria University. More recently, in July 2017, St Matthew’s Chamber Orchestra workshopped and performed the piece at St Matthew’s-in-the-City, part of a collaboration between SOUNZ and CANZ.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550 1. Molto allegro 2. Andante 3. Menuetto: Allegretto - Trio 4. Finale: Allegro assai Mozart composed the pieces that would be his final three symphonies in around two months, during the summer of 1788. These symphonies in E-flat major (K. 543, completed 26 June), G minor (K. 550, completed 25 July) and C major (K. 551, completed 10 August) would subsequently acquire their own mythologies after the composer’s death in 1791. The fraught, murmuring agitation with which the Symphony in G minor begins stimulated the imagination of the Romantics, who heard in the piece (and especially in its opening Molto allegro) all the tension and tumult associated in that era with the mind and spirit of the genius composer: one mid-nineteenth-century writer identified in the G minor Symphony an ‘intensity in its pathos, and mightiness in the emotions that it suggests’ – qualities that were not typically associated with Mozart, especially in an era that considered Beethoven’s symphonies the epitome of Romanticism. Particularly prevalent in nineteenth-century thinking was the idea that Mozart – his life cut tragically short – never had the opportunity to hear his last three symphonies performed. More recently, musicologist Otto Biba stated that the idea Mozart never heard his G minor Symphony was the result of a ‘long standing legend among Mozart biographers of a romantic persuasion, who wished to portray primarily the brilliance and tragedy of a genius’ life’. Investigation of the correspondence between Johann Nepomuk Wenzel and Ambrosius Kühnel, a music publisher from Leipzig, suggests that a performance of the G minor Symphony took place in Vienna at the home of diplomat, librarian, and music patron, Baron Gottfried van Swieten. Wenzel wrote, ‘I have heard myself from the departed Mozart, that when he had it performed in Baron Wanswiten’s [sic] rooms, he had to leave the room during the performance because it was being played so badly.’ Furthermore, Mozart’s revisions of the Symphony, adding clarinets to the second movement, suggests that he must have heard it played at least once before deciding upon re-orchestration. Following the darkly anxious Molto allegro, the second movement of the Symphony initially exhibits a more mellow character, contemplative in E-flat major. However, the relaxed, somewhat flirtatious pairs of demi-semiquavers in the first half of the movement are transformed into something acutely darker and more fraught in the second half of the Andante when a cataclysmic A-flat minor chord seizes our attention. The lilting pairs of notes become anguished as they passed between different sections of the orchestra. . Returning to G minor, the stark and portentous mood of the Menuetto distorts the two-bar phrase structure typical of the minuet, as the oboes, flutes, and upper strings lurch across the barlines before writhing into confluence at the end of the first section. The second half of the Menuetto further complicates these syncopations and cross-rhythms. In the Trio serenity subsumes angst in a coquettish interlude, before the Menuetto’s jarring reprise. In the Finale the mood is jittery, suggesting a protagonist in the grip of indecision. Mozart treats the orchestra virtuosically, demanding from the string players cascades of fleet scales and other intricate figurations. The interplay between strings and woodwind is almost disorientating, while Mozart’s exploration of remote keys leads orchestra and audience alike on a dizzying harmonic journey. In the face of such sophisticated complexity, it is perhaps no wonder that the orchestra at Baron van Swieten’s rooms failed to meet Mozart’s expectations. Today, the complexities and drama of Mozart’s 40th Symphony have elevated the piece to the symphonic pantheon, its expressive breadth and eloquence unequalled by any other symphony of the eighteenth century. Programme note © Corrina Connor 2019
Player List
Conductor Peter Walls Concertmaster Elena Abramova* + P.Walls, H Fairburn Violin 1 Sharon Stephens + A & N Hooper Melody Gumbley Amber Read Luana Leupolu Rachel Moxham Maia-Dean Martin Katie Mayes Violin 2 Kerry Langdon* Lucy Gardiner Rebecka Beetz Rebecca Whalley Brigid Eady +A & N Hooper Michele Wahrlich + M & M Carr Michie Nishiyama Beverley Oliver Viola Edith Klostermann* Jackie McCaughan Annette Milson Shelby Hancox Anne Jaquiery Bronya Dean Cello Yotam Levy* Ros Oliver Elena Morgan Judith Williams Fiona Rouse
Double Bass Marija Durdevic* Jandee Song Flute Agnes Harmath* Anita Macdonald + M Hampson Oboe Joy Liu* + K Mayes Felicity Than Clarinet Ashley Hopkins* Justus Rozemond Bassoon Craig Bradfield* Terry Cammell Horn Ed Allen* + H Goodman Jill Ferrabee Trumpet Matthew Stein* Toby Pringle Hiro Kobayashi Trombone Alex Towers* Timpani Yoshi Tsuruta* Percussion Naoto Segawa* *Section Principal + Sponsored Seat
DEDICATION This programme is dedicated to the memory of John Ure, principal horn player and long serving member of Opus Orchestra PROUDLY SUPPORTED BY
We gratefully acknowledge our family of generous donors
Rotorua Roger Brewster Mary Burdon Steve Chou Mayor Steve Chadwick Stewart & Waiki Edward Hanno Fairburn Catriona Gordon Martin Hampson Alan & Nadine Hooper Genevieve Joyce Judy Keaney QSM Ann Larkin Joanne La Grouw Tom & Sidney Louisson Judy O'Sullivan Lyall & Gabrielle Thurston Life members
Doug Arcus Robert Blair Andrew Buchanan-Smart Brigid Eady Bob Hudson Kathryn Orbell QSM Rita Paczian
Hamilton M & M Carr Bernie and Kaye Crosbie G & J Gallagher T Miles K Mayes and H Goodman C Polglase Tauranga FAME Trust NZ (Regional) B Eady J & L Lengenhagger J & B Russenberger Hugh and Marion Townend Peter Walls ONZM
Additional thanks to: National Library of New Zealand (music) Ashley Hopkins (photography)
Christine Polglase Sharon Stephens Bill Taylor Marion Townend Michele Wahrlich Peter Walls ONZM
PATRON - James Judd SAVE THE DATE (more info at www.orchestras.org.nz)
