hunter 30 aug - Constable Vineyards

MUSIC IN THE
HUNTER
WELCOME NOTES
DENE OLDING DAVID CONSTABLE AM
30 AUG1 SEPT
2013
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3
ARTIST PROFILES
KATHRYN SELBY AM
4
KEES BOERSMA
4
GOLDNER STRING QUARTET5
KEN HEALEY7
PROGRAMME8-9
MENU THANK YOU
10-11
12
WELCOME NOTE
2
DENE OLDING
Dear Music in the Hunter Subscribers,
One of the most enjoyable musical events in our annual calendar is getting
away from the big city to perform for our loyal audience in this beautiful
Hunter Valley festival of chamber music with which we have been proudly
associated for 23 years.
This year, the Goldner Quartet will be joined by renowned Australian pianist,
Kathryn Selby AM. Kathryn is well-known for her national concert series
‘Selby and Friends’ and as a recitalist, soloist with major orchestras, and guest
at festivals around the world. Sydney Symphony Principal Double Bass,
Kees Boersma, will complete our line-up for performances that celebrate
masterworks of the European musical tradition. Both of these guest artists
have been regular collaborators with the quartet over the years.
In addition to favourites such as Beethoven’s ‘Pathetique’ piano sonata and
Schubert’s ‘Trout’ quintet, we are delighted to present some of our best-loved
works by Mozart, Faure, Dvorak, Grieg and Mendelssohn. In particular, we
are currently enjoying the string quartet in A minor by Mendelssohn. It is a
recent addition to our repertoire and the profundity of this work obviously
stems from Mendelssohn’s intimate study by of the late quartets of Beethoven.
This year is the centenary of the birth of Benjamin Britten and the bicentenary of the birth of Guiseppe Verdi. What better reason to perform
quartets by each of these masters! Verdi’s string quartet is a rarely heard gem
and his only chamber work. He composed the work over 10 days through an
interruption in opera rehearsals due to the ill health of a leading soprano. The
work is charming and skillful. Apart from his virtuoso string writing, Britten’s
first major string quartet explores sonorities that are unique in the genre and
are precursors to those he would later use in his opera ‘Peter Grimes.’
Many of you will remember Ken Healey, as the founding pre-concert speaker at
this festival. He makes a most welcome return to Music in the Hunter this year.
Thank you all for continuing to subscribe to this annual event and we are
again grateful for the ongoing support of David Constable and Ida Lichter,
without whom this festival could not succeed. The musicians look forward to
meeting all of you during the next two days.
A very special thanks to our regular subscribers and a warm welcome to the
many people who are attending Music in the Hunter for the first time.
Thank you also to the Silkman family for allowing us to use their facilities at
First Creek Winery.
I know that many of you are interested in year-to-year changes at Constable
Estate. The gardens have benefited greatly from plenty of rain during the
year. Our dams filled up and we had considerable growth in the Oak,
Chinese Elms and London Plane trees. Those of you who have previously
joined us for the Saturday tour and wine tasting will see the development.
One of my new projects was a lookout with extensive views over the
Pokolbin area. This structure was inspired by the Elizabethan Fruit Mount,
which I enjoyed climbing at Kew Gardens in the UK.
Once again, we have the pleasure of hearing Australia’s great Goldner String
Quartet, joined by Kathryn Selby, one of Australia’s finest pianists, and Kees
Boersma, Principal Double Bass with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.
We welcome back caterers Andy and Janet Wright of the Cellar Restaurant
after their absence last year.
WELCOME NOTE
DAVID CONSTABLE AM
3
ARTIST PROFILES
4
KATHRYN SELBY AM
“Kathryn Selby was a gracious ... soloist in this
introspective work, playing with technical mastery
and the collegiate manner of an experienced chamber
musician.” SMH, April 2013
Hailed by the Australian press as a ‘formidable
talent’ and most recently, ‘Australia’s pre-eminent chamber music pianist’ Kathryn is the Artistic Director of the popular national touring chamber ensemble
Selby & Friends, the concert series A Little Lunch Music held at Sydney’s City
Recital Hall, Angel Place and she also founded the piano trio, TriOz.
She was recently honoured to be appointed Member of the Order of Australia,
AM, on Australia Day 2013 and is the recipient of both the prestigious Churchill
and Australia Council Fellowships. Kathryn began her piano studies at the Sydney
Conservatorium of Music and then attended the famed Curtis Institute of Music
and Bryn Mawr College in Philadelphia, and earned her Master’s degree from
New York’s Juilliard School. Kathryn has performed with many orchestras overseas
and within Australia and has recorded extensively, including an all-Gershwin disc
for the NAXOS label and a solo piano recital disc for ABC Classics label.
KEES BOERSMA
Kees Boersma holds the position of Principal Double Bass
with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and on a number
of occasions has featured as soloist with the orchestra.
Performances have included the premiere of Colin Bright’s
Double Bass Concerto, Mozart’s concert aria ‘Per Questa
Bella Mano’ with Teddy Tahu Rhodes and Bottesini’s
‘Passione Ameroso’.
Current projects include world premiere performances of a
newly commissioned Concerto for Double Bass and Orchestra by Mary Finsterer,
performed with the Sydney Symphony in August and September of 2013. Kees
performs regularly with the Australia Ensemble and was for 10 years a member
of the contemporary music group ELISION, premiering the works of Franco
Donatoni, Richard Barrett, Lisa Lim and Brian Ferneyhough.
Kees has a long association with the Australian Youth Orchestra, was presenter at many
double bass conferences and is a Lecturer at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.
He has been a regular guest Principal Bass of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra
and the West Australian Symphony Orchestra as well as guest performer with period
performance ensembles such as the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (London),
the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra and Pinchgut Opera.
Launched in 1995, the Goldner String
Quartet is named after Richard Goldner,
founder of the original Musica Viva
Australia. The players are all well known
to Australian and international audiences
through solo performances, recordings
and their concurrent membership of
the Australia Ensemble at UNSW. All
members have occupied principal positions
in the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and
Australian Chamber Orchestra.
‘Real international class was shown
by the Goldner String Quartet…’ ,
The Strad Magazine
‘Goldner String Quartet’s ensemble is
well-nigh faultless… the performances
are top class’, Classicalsource.com
In 1997, the Goldner String Quartet made
its debut at the Wigmore Hall in London.
Unanimous audience and critical acclaim has
ensured the quartet’s regular return invitations
to London and many major UK,European
and Asian festivals. In 2001, the quartet
made its American debut with concerts at the
prestigious 92nd St Y in New York, and in
Washington DC. Closer to home, the quartet
has performed in Korea, Singapore and Brunei
and has undertaken several extensive tours of
New Zealand.
Julian Smiles cello, Dimity Hall violin,
Irina Morozova viola, Dene Olding violin
In addition to national tours for Musica Viva, the Goldners appear regularly
at major music festivals around Australia. In 2011, they celebrated the 20th
Anniversary of the Music in the Hunter festival, where they appear annually.
The quartet members have been a mainstay of the Australian Festival of
Chamber Music in Townsville since 1993. In 2000, they performed a major
retrospective of 20th-century string quartets at the Adelaide Festival and in
2004 performed the complete Beethoven Cycle in Sydney for Musica Viva.
The quartet is committed to teaching the next generation of string quartets,
and has an ongoing association with the Australian Youth Orchestra’s
Chamber Music programme. New works are regularly commissioned for the
Goldner String Quartet by Australia’s leading composers.
ARTIST PROFILES
GOLDNER STRING QUARTET
5
ARTIST PROFILES
6
In 2009, the quartet featured in the festival of concerts to celebrate the
inaugural season of the new Melbourne Recital Centre. Highlights of 2010
included the festival in Jeju (South Korea), the Coriole Festival (SA), Aurora
Festival (NSW), AFCM (Townsville), Huntington Estate Festival (Mudgee)
and performances during a South Pacific Cruise.
Their LIVE recordings of the complete Beethoven String Quartet Cycle, released
on ABC Classics won the 2009 Limelight Award for Best Classical Recording.
The Quartet has several recent recordings for Hyperion; each disc highlights string
quartets and piano quintets of a different composer (Bloch, Bridge, Dvořák,
Elgar and Harty to date) with pianist Piers Lane. These recordings have received
universal rave reviews including Editor’s Choice in Gramophone magazine and
BBC Music Magazine, as well as finalist for the BBC Music Magazine’s Chamber
Music Award in 2009. Also released are the complete quartets of Szymanowski
and Stravinsky on Naxos, and on the Tall Poppies label, Volumes 1-3 of the
string quartets of Peter Sculthorpe. The complete quartets of Carl Vine have been
recorded for future release on ABC Classics.
The quartet’s appearances in the 2011 City of London Festival drew capacity
audiences and unanimous praise from UK critics, and were broadcast on the
BBC. Coinciding with the Hyperion release of Elgar’s string quartet and piano
quintet (with pianist Piers Lane), the national and international reputation of
the Goldner String Quartet has grown from strength to strength.
Goldner String Quartet:
Dene Olding, Dimity Hall, violins; Irina Morozova, viola; Julian Smiles, cello
Ken Healey fell in love with chamber music as
a self-taught wind instrumentalist, arranging
chamber ensembles for the forces at hand in the
Franciscan house of studies in the mid-1950s.
His own instrument, the alto saxophone, posed
some problems, most of which — except the
technical ones — disappeared when he was
given an oboe, about ten years later.
Being locked away with limited access to
recordings, and even less to published music,
drove Ken to track down and arrange a very odd assortment of what passed
for repertoire. He read voraciously, and came to know a little about a far wider
range of music than most of his peers who studied singing or an instrument in
conventional circumstances.
It is against that unusual musical background, when for years the only daily
music was the singing of psalms and High Mass in Latin plainsong settings,
that Ken delights in an encomium bestowed much later by a subscriber
immediately after a pre-concert talk for the Australian Chamber Orchestra.
“You aren’t a music critic,” sounded like the beginning of a wince-inducing
attack, but it was followed by a punch line that Ken had not dreamed of: “You
are a celebrant of music!”
Ken’s professional life has been shared between reviewing the performing arts
as a critic, and celebrating them as a journalist, producer, teacher, scriptwriter,
occasional performer, and increasingly in recent years, as a pre-concert speaker.
The last category certainly feels like a kind of performance. Ken was the
inaugural pre-concert speaker for Music in the Hunter, and has been absent,
but not without leave, since 1997.
ARTIST PROFILES
KEN HEALEY
7
PROGRAMME
FRIDAY 30 AUGUST
SATURDAY 31 AUGUST
7:30pm Champagne Reception
10:15am Pre-Concert Talk
8:30pm Concert 1
11:00am Concert 2
Mozart
Piano Trio in E major, K 542
8
Allegro
Andante grazioso
Allegro
Mozart
Sonata for Violin and Piano
in B flat major, K 378
Beethoven
String Trio in C minor, Op 9, No 3
Allegro con spirito
Adagio con espressione
Scherzo: Allegro molto e vivace
Finale-Presto
Interval
Allegro moderato
Andantino sostenuto e cantabile
Rondo-Allegro
Beethoven
Sonata for Cello and Piano
in G minor, Op 5, No 2
Adagio sostenuto ed espressivo
Allegro molto piu tosto presto
Rondo-Allegro
Interval
Fauré
Piano Quartet in C minor, Op 15
Allegro molto moderato
Scherzo-Allegro vivo
Adagio
Allegro molto
10:00pm Supper
Verdi
String Quartet in E minor
Allegro
Andantino
Prestissimo
Scherzo-Fugue
Lunch
SUNDAY 1 SEPTEMBER
3:30pm Wine Tasting & Garden Tour
Constable Estate
205 Gillards Road, Pokolbin
10:45am Pre-Concert Talk
6:15pm Pre-Concert Talk
Grieg
Andante Con Moto for Piano Trio
7:00pm Concert 3
Britten
String Quartet No 1 in D major, Op 25
Andante sostenuto-Allegro vivo
Allegretto con slancio
Andante calmo
Molto vivace
Beethoven
Sonata in C minor, Op 13,
‘Pathetique’
Grave-Allegro di molto e con brio
Adagio cantabile
Rondo- Allegro
Interval
Dvořák
String Quintet in G major, Op 77
Allegro con fuoco
Scherzo-Allegro vivace
Poco andante
Finale: Allegro assai
Black-Tie Dinner
11:30am Concert 4
Mendelssohn
String Quartet in A minor, Op 13
Adagio-Allegro vivace
Adagio non lento
Intermezzo-Allegretto con moto
Presto
Interval
Schubert
Quintet in A major, D 667 ‘Trout’
Allegro vivace
Andante con moto
Scherzo-Presto
Thema-Andantino-Variazioni
Finale-Allegro giusto
Lunch
PROGRAMME
SATURDAY 31 AUGUST
9
MENU
FRIDAY EVENING
SATURDAY LUNCH
Reception
f Lunch f
f Canapés f
Baguettes with Hunter olives
& butter
Salt cod fritters with lemon mayonnaise
Local feta with preserved lemon,
quinoa & mint
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Little smoked salmon & leek tartlets
White anchovy & roast tomato on toast
Moroccan spiced chicken fillet
Crispy sumac spiced snapper
Couscous with roast capsicum,
eggplant, zucchini & pistachios
Buffalo mozzarella, pickled beetroot & basil
Heirloom carrots with labna
& dukkah
f Supper f
Watercress, pear, celeriac & walnuts
with grain mustard vinaigrette
Ciabatta with Hunter olives,
oil & butter
Mixed leaf salad, hazelnut vinaigrette
Duck confit with redcurrant sauce
f Desserts f
Braised red cabbage
Cheese platter
Lyonnaise potatoes
Bakewell tart with cherry compote
Rocket, frisse, peas, capers, radish &
shallot salad with verjuice dressing
Tea, coffee & biscotti
f Desserts f
Strawberry tarts
Constable Estate Matilda 2012
Semillon Sauvignon Blanc
Fresh fruit platter
First Creek 2010 Premium Chardonnay
Tea, coffee & biscotti
Constable Estate 2010 Premium
Cabernet Merlot
f Wines f
First Creek 2011 Premium Shiraz
Constable Estate 2013 Sparkling Cuvee
Constable Estate 2007 Botrytis Semillon
First Creek 2011 Premium Semillon
Constable Estate 2011 Premium Shiraz
First Creek 2011 Premium Merlot
Constable Estate 2007 Botrytis Semillon
f Wines f
SUNDAY LUNCH
f Entrées f
Naan bread
Smoked trout with horseradish
Free range chicken Dhansak
Cheddar & chive goujeres
Lamb Jalfrezi
Cured salmon with orange & fennel
Basmati rice
House made sourdough
Cauliflower & sweet potato
bhajis with raita
f Mains f
Beef fillet with Bordelaise sauce
& buttered spinach
Roast Kipfler potatoes with garlic
& rosemary
Red onion, tomato, Cos lettuce
& fennel salad
Cucumber, chickpeas, shallots,
cardamom & mint
Green beans with almonds
Mango chutney, eggplant
& lime pickle
Radicchio, tomato, celery
& walnut salad
Binnorie brie, cheddar and blue cheese
with biscuits & muscatels
f Desserts f
Vanilla pannacotta with honeycomb &
raspberry sauce
Tea, coffee and truffle balls
f Wines f
Constable Estate 2013
Sparkling Matilda
Constable Estate 2012
Premium Chardonnay
First Creek 2012 Premium Verdelho
Constable Estate 2010
Matilda Sparkling Shiraz
First Creek 2011 Premium Shiraz
Constable Estate 2007 Botrytis Semillon
Tea, coffee and biscotti
f Wines f
Constable Estate 2012 Verdelho
Constable Estate Matilda 2011 Rosé
Constable Estate 2010
Matilda Sparkling Shiraz
First Creek 2011 Premium Merlot
Constable Estate 2007 Botrytis Semillon
MENU
SATURDAY DINNER
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THANK YOU
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Music in the Hunter
gratefully acknowledges
the generous support
of Ara Vartoukian from
Theme and Variations
Piano Services of
Willoughby NSW for
providing a Steinway
concert grand piano for
this year’s festival.