Programme 2 | June / July 2017 Programme 1 | Mar-Apr 2017
HAMILTON | TAURANGA | |ROTORUA HAMILTON | TAURANGA ROTORUA
Welcome from the Music Director Kia ora tatou
Mendelssohn, Schumann and Brahms were friends – and they each recognized the others’ genius. They shared a reverence for Beethoven but, equally, they were all acutely aware of the ways in which the romantic sensibility with which they strongly identified provided new challenges. They forged an extended musical vocabulary whose power is evident throughout this programme. It is always a pleasure to work with Diedre Irons and it is quite special to have her performing the Schumann Concerto, with which she made her debut at the age of twelve. A prodigy then and one of our most distinguished musicians now. The passage of time has not in any way diminished the sense of delight and discovery that Diedre communicates in performing this masterpiece. I am thrilled to be performing Brahms’ too-little-known Serenade No. 1. This is so rich musically. It is also technically challenging and I am proud that Opus Orchestra can give you such a fine account of it. The Brahms Symphonies require an orchestra larger than Opus Orchestra’s establishment – they all have trombones and three bassoons (except for the Second Symphony, but then that requires tuba as well as trombones). The Serenade suits us perfectly – and, as you will hear, it is as exciting as any of the symphonies themselves. Finally, thank you for being here. As your professional regional orchestra, Opus has a special contribution to make to the Waikato and the Bay of Plenty. We need your support in order to continue the exceptional musical development of the last few years. Ngā mihi nui, Peter Walls MUSIC DIRECTOR
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 soughtafter freelance violinist, chamber musician and teacher. She has played with the NZSO, APO, ACO, NZ Trio and other professional orchestras and ensembles. Elena has been the Concertmaster of Waitakere Orchestra for 10 years, and has led a number of other orchestras, such as Aorangi Symphony, Opus Orchestra, Chinese Orchestra of NZ, NZ Concerto Orchestra, and St. Petersburg University Orchestra, having performed with some of these groups as a soloist. Elena’s most recent special interest is in a fusion of a classical violin school with non-classical virtuosic violin music, such as Gypsy, Irish and American fiddling.
Photo Credit: Ashley Hopkins
Welcome to this concert with Opus Orchestra. I am writing this after a weekend of full-on rehearsal (eleven hours altogether) with these wonderful musicians. Hence my excitement about this programme. You’ll understand why when you hear it.
Diedre Irons Soloist
Diedre Irons is one of New Zealand’s most distinguished performing musicians. Born in Winnipeg, Canada, she made her debut with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra at the age of 12 playing the Schumann Piano Concerto. She graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and was subsequently invited by her teacher, Rudolf Serkin, to join the faculty of that prestigious conservatory where she taught for the next seven years. During those years she toured Canada and the United States as a soloist and as a chamber music player. Since moving to New Zealand in 1977 she has performed regularly with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, the Auckland Philharmonia and the Christchurch Symphony, toured many times under the auspices of Chamber Music New Zealand, and recorded extensively for Radio New Zealand. With the Christchurch Symphony and conductor Marc Taddei she has recorded the complete Beethoven Piano Concerti on the Trust label. She has travelled internationally having to date presented concerts in 25 countries. She was awarded an MBE in 1989 and an ONZM in 2011 for services to music and in 2007 received the degree Doctor of Music (honoris causa) from Brandon University in Manitoba, Canada. She taught at the University of Canterbury from 1992-2003 and in 2011 left her position as head of classical performance at the New Zealand School of Music in order to focus fully on her own career as a concert pianist.
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 now holds that same role with Chamber Music New Zealand. He was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to music in 2012.
Felix Mendelssohn (1809 - 1847) The Hebrides (‘Fingal’s Cave’), Op. 26 In January 1835, Mendelssohn – still just 25 years old – had to make a difficult decision. Having received several enticing offers – the first to direct and revitalise the opera in Munich, the second, to become the editor of the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung (a music journal produced by the music publishers Breitkopf & Härtel), and the third, to take over Leipzig’s Gewandhaus orchestra and Thomasschule – Mendelssohn chose Leipzig. For a salary of 1,000 thalers (and six months’ annual leave), he became the municipal music director and conductor of the Gewandhaus. Mendelssohn’s new position placed him in a line of succession going back to J.S. Bach, and a significant part of Mendelssohn’s own work in Leipzig would involve the resurrection of Bach’s sacred masterpieces. Mendelssohn’s first rehearsal with the Gewandhaus took place on 13 September 1835, and inarguably, his tenure in Leipzig cemented the reputation of the city and the Gewandhaus Orchestra as one of the most musically significant in Germany and the world. In turn, Mendelssohn’s musical influence would help to shape the careers of Robert Schumann, and Johannes Brahms. Mendelssohn’s overture ‘Fingal’s Cave’ pre-dates his Leipzig appointment by several years. In 1829, Mendelssohn made his first visit to the British Isles, arriving in London on 21 April, and beginning a round of performances in private salons before conducting a large concert on 25 May. His music – the Symphony in C minor, and Midsummer Night’s Dream Overture – made a favourable impression on English critics. Mendelssohn travelled to Scotland in the summer, starting his tour of the country from Edinburgh at the end of July. Travelling with the poet and diplomat Karl Klingemann, Mendelssohn first glimpsed the Hebrides on 7 August, and on 8 August, they visited the islands of Iona and Staffa. Klingemann recorded his impressions of the journey to Staffa, writing that as: ‘the barometer sank and the sea rose … ladies as a rule fell down like flies, and one or the other gentlemen followed suit. I only wish [Mendelssohn] had not been among them, but he is on better terms with the sea as a musician than as an individual or a stomach …. Also there sat placidly by the steam-engine, warming herself in the cold wind, a woman of two-and-eighty. That woman has six times touched me, and seven times irritated me. She wanted to see Staffa before her end. Staffa, with its strange basalt pillars and caverns is in all picture books. We were put out in boats and lifted by the hissing sea up the pillar stumps to the celebrated Fingal’s Cave. A greener roar of waves surely never rushed into a stranger cavern.’ Within days, the austere grandeur and isolation of Staffa, the might of the Atlantic Ocean, and the constant changes wrought by sea and wind, inspired Mendelssohn to sketch some musical ideas. By December 1830, he had made these ideas into the Ouvertüre zur einsamen Insel, but the work went through several revisions before finally becoming Die Hebriden (‘Fingalshöhle’). Its premiere occurred not in Leipzig, but at a concert by London’s Philharmonic Society in May 1832. The overture stands alone as a work, rather than being the prelude to a ballet, opera, or play; with no written narrative, the overture is programmatic insofar as it suggests Mendelssohn’s impressions of a distinct time and place. A musical motive, first heard in the bassoon, violas and cellos, is soon taken up by other instruments, suggests the restless movement of the sea and stimulates feelings of anticipation. Later in the overture, Mendelssohn transforms the motif into a martial one, moving from the darkness of B minor to the incandescence of D major, with a diversion into F minor. Unifying the entire overture are reiterations of the opening motif, sometimes gentle, sometimes boisterous, but serving as a constant reminder of the Atlantic’s irrevocable rush and ebb.
Robert Schumann (1810-1856) Concerto in A minor for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 54 1. Allegro affettuoso 2. Intermezzo 3. Allegro vivace Despite its intimate link with Clara Schumann and the Gewandhaus, the premiere of Schumann’s Piano Concerto took place in Dresden on 4 December 1845. Clara was the soloist, and Ferdinand Hillier conducted. On 1 January 1846, Clara played the Concerto again, this time in Leipzig with the Gewandhaus, and either Mendelssohn, or his colleague Niels Wilhelm Gade, conducting. Although a demanding and virtuosic work, Schumann’s Concerto offered audiences something conceptually new, as the review in the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung explained: ‘We all have reason to hold this composition in very high esteem and place it among the best by this composer, primarily because the usual monotony of the genre is happily avoided, and the entirely obligato orchestral part, fashioned with great love and care, is given its full due without leaving the impression of impairing the piano’s achievements, and both parts keep up their independence in a beautiful alliance.’ The ‘usual monotony’ to which the critic referred probably meant the showpiece concerti, which virtuoso pianists wrote primarily as a means of stunning audiences with their brilliance: the works of several pianist-composers, including Jan Dussek, Friedrich Kalkbrenner, Carl Czerny, and Sigismond Thalberg often paid only lip-service to the orchestra. Although Schumann had played pieces composed for the purpose of displaying virtuosity – and even composed them himself – he came to eschew blatant display. As one scholar, Alexander Stefaniak, explains, Schumann aimed ‘to identify and interpret virtuosity that … rejected superficial pleasure and embodied serious artistic values.’ However, Schumann admired how virtuosic music by Thalberg, Czerny, and others, challenged and enhanced the technical prowess of new generations of pianists. Schumann’s mature approach to virtuosity prioritised its capacity to transport his audiences into states of sublime transcendence, through the power of aesthetic integrity. Schumann’s Piano Concerto exemplifies his pursuit of the musical sublime, or rather his rejection of earlier concerto formulae, in order to realise a symphonic strategy for the piece. The orchestra never takes a deferential role, and the idiom of the solo piano part often calls to mind the intimacy and lyricism of Schumann’s Lieder. Schumann creates clear dialogues between the piano and individual orchestral instruments: just a few bars into the Allegro affettuoso we hear this in the pairing of the piano with the strings, or later with a small group of woodwind instruments. The piano sometimes enjoys entirely solo sections. The style is reminiscent of Schumann’s earlier solo piano works, in which he laid out his aesthetic manifesto in a march against Philistinism. The Intermezzo is always lyrical and expressive. However, it is the orchestra that enjoys the glorious recurring melody, rich and yearning, which expands upon the questioning, searching utterances by the piano. In just over 100 bars, we hear an entire world of tender passion, which somehow manages to launch the pyrotechnics of the finale; parallels between this transition, and that between the 2nd and 3rd movements of Beethoven’s ‘Emperor’ Concerto are easy to hear. And, like Beethoven’s Concerto, this is a muscular, bravura finale, in which the piano’s role is triumphant. Schumann wrote his finale as a Rondo, but one which refers to the first movement, thus rendering the entire Concerto a cohesive structure. Not only dramatic, this finale exudes ardour and exaltation, feelings which cannot help but propel the musicians and audience into the highest realms of the musical sublime.
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) Serenade No. 1, Op. 11 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
Allegro molto Scherzo: Allegro non troppo Adagio non troppo Menuetto I - Menuetto II Scherzo: Allegro Rondo : Allegro
‘Heavens! Your Serenade in D certainly is work! In the same amount of time I can prepare two of your symphonies, or at least get the details much better.’ By 1890, when Brahms’ friend, the conductor Hans von Bülow, wrote this letter from Hamburg, Brahms had composed his four symphonies, and indeed, all his major orchestral works. The Serenade in D, however, was his first purely orchestral work, dating from 1857-1858. With a recommendation from Joseph Joachim, Brahms had met Robert and Clara Schumann in Düsseldorf in September 1853, and after hearing his music, the Schumanns realised that Brahms possessed unique talent. Then, the orchestral writing in Brahms’ D minor Piano Concerto convinced them that the young composer must write symphonies. However, the legacies of earlier Austro-German symphonists proved so great that Brahms would not produce a symphony for many years. Instead, he wrote the Serenade. Historically, the serenade was an occasional or incidental form, a sequence of music designed to be heard as a diversion, perhaps during dinner. Mozart’s serenades, particularly the Gran Partita (K. 361) elevated the form, establishing the serenade as a significant genre. Brahms’ Serenade draws on these classical roots: he synthesizes the legacies of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven with his own meticulous approach to counterpoint, and powerful ‘Romantic’ spirit. Through the Serenade’s suggestions of folk idioms, and its spacious, ardent evocations of nature, we feel that most powerful of German Romantic sensations, Waldeinsamkeit: solitude and peace in the forest. Brahms’ Serenade sings of mountains, and warm summer evenings in the garden of an inn. The Serenade may be a youthful work, but it’s not immature. Brahms’ characteristic manipulation and development of motives, the warm and richness of the orchestration, and the flexibility and complexity of metre presage the symphonies. The Serenade also enjoys symmetry: its first and last movements are in D major; its pairing of scherzos – the first in D minor, the second in D major – as the 2nd and 5th movements – bookend the sumptuous Adagio in B-flat major and ‘classical’ minuets, the first in G major and second in G minor. Brahms uses the closely-related keys, of D major, D minor, B-flat major, which serve to provide a unified tonal palette for the entire work. Brahms’ Serenade fulfils Schumann’s prediction that Brahms was a young composer ‘called to give expression to his times in ideal fashion: a musician who would reveal his mastery not in gradual stages, but like Minerva, would spring fully armed from Kronos’ head. And he has come; a young man over whose cradle Graces and Heroes have stood watch.’ Programme note © Corrina Connor 2017.
James Judd
PATRON
Opus Orchestra Life Members Doug Arcus
Bob Hudson
Sharon Stephens
Robert Blair
Kathryn Orbell
Bill Taylor
Andrew Buchanan-Smart
Rita Paczian
Marion Townend
Brigid Eady
Christine Polglase
Michele Wahrlich
Peter Walls
THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS
Opus Orchestra Conductor
Peter Walls
C-master
Elena Abramova * + P. Walls, H. Fairburn
Violin 1 Trudi Miles + A & N Hooper Melody Gumbley Sharon Stephens + A & N Hooper Rachel Twyman + Chris Finlayson Patricia Nagle Emily Allen Luana Leupolu Violin 2 Kerry Langdon *+ H Fairburn Lucy Gardiner Shelby Maples Helen Yang Brigid Eady + A & N Hooper Michele Wahrlich + M & M Carr Beverley Oliver Violas Lisa Lynch* Jill Wilson Chris Nation Michael Slatter Annette Milson Susan Case
Cellos Martin Griffiths * Ros Oliver Yotam Levy + Chris Finlayson Judith Williams Tierney Baron Anne-Marie Simpson Db Bass
Vicky Jones*
Marija Dimitrijevic
Flutes
Adrianna Lis* Anita Macdonald + Martin Hampson
Oboes
Joy Liu* Felicity Hanlon
Clarinets Ashley Hopkins* Justus Rozemond Bassoons
Philip Sumner* Jacqui Hopkins
Horns John Ure* Jill Ferrabee Jennifer Hsu Henry Swanson Trumpets
Bill Stoneham*
Hiro Kobayashi
Timpani
Yoshiko Tsuruta* + Steve Chou
* Section Principal + Sponsored Seats
Thanks and acknowledgement to National Library of NZ for Music Hire
We gratefully acknowledge our generous family of donors Roger Brewster Malcolm and Margaret Carr Peter and Elizabeth Carr Glenice and John Gallagher Trust Dorothy and Roger Gibbs Jenny Joyce Jakob and Lydia Lenggenhager Katie Mayes and Hugh Goodman Trudi Miles Val Pollock Verena Russenberger
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