Beethoven and the piano - Sydney Symphony Orchestra

Beethoven and the piano
A prolific and talented pianist, Beethoven pushed the
development of the piano that helped pave the way for the modern
concert grand piano we hear today. Impatient with the piano’s
inadequacies, Beethoven continually wrote beyond the piano’s
capabilities, which pushed manufacturers to look for ways to
make the piano stronger and more durable (Beethoven often
ruined pianos beyond repair after a few months).
An example of Beethoven’s use of new piano technology is in
the Fourth Piano Concerto’s second movement which calls for the
use of a true una corda pedal, which had existed since the early
1700s but was substantially improved during Beethoven’s life.
Additionally, the Waldstein Sonata (Op.53) exploits the wide
dynamics newly made possible, often with bewildering contrasts,
and includes a large section marked to be played with damper
pedal for the entire duration, a feat that would not have succeeded
years earlier.
Now just imagine what Beethoven might have been able to
achieve if he had been able to compose on a modern day grand
piano similar to the Steinway concert grand Gerhard Oppitz will
be playing tonight.
ARA VARTOUKIAN
Director
SEASON 2007
INTERNATIONAL PIANISTS IN RECITAL
PRESENTED BY THEME & VARIATIONS
GERHARD OPPITZ
Monday 18 June | 8pm
City Recital Hall Angel Place
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770–1827)
Sonata No.1 in F minor, Op.2 No.1
Allegro
Adagio
Menuetto (Allegretto)
Prestissimo
Sonata No.4 in E flat, Op.7
This concert will be broadcast
live across Australia on
ABC Classic FM 92.9.
Pre-concert talk by Dr Robert
Curry at 7.15pm in the First Floor
Reception Room.
Allegro molto e con brio
Largo, con gran espressione
Allegro
Rondo (Poco allegretto e grazioso)
Estimated timings:
22 minutes, 32 minutes,
20-minute interval, 14 minutes,
26 minutes
The performance will conclude
at approximately 10.05pm.
INTERVAL
Cover images: see page 30 for
captions
Sonata No.22 in F, Op.54
Program notes begin on page 5
In tempo d’un Menuetto
Allegretto
Artist biography is on page 23
Sonata No.23 in F minor, Op.57, Appassionata
Allegro assai
Andante con moto
Allegro ma non troppo
PRESENTING PARTNER
INTRODUCTION
Beethoven Sonatas
In November 1792 the 21-year-old Beethoven departed
provincial Bonn for Vienna, to receive, in the words
of Count Waldstein, ‘Mozart’s spirit from the hands
of Haydn’. Whether this happened might be debated –
Beethoven himself seemed dubious and he was to begin
pushing the boundaries of the Classical style almost
immediately – but the young composer quickly found
fame as a pianist, particularly for his improvisations,
which inspired wonder and admiration in Viennese
circles.
Beethoven’s style of pianism was a world away from
the clear, brilliant and witty execution of Mozart’s school.
His student Czerny later commented on his mastery
of legato playing at a time when, ‘dating still from
Mozart’s days, the clipped and staccato way of playing
was the fashion’. Beethoven, in contrast, combined
strength and passion with a singing style that many
pianists thought impossible.
His first symphony was some years off, but meanwhile
Beethoven published piano trios (his Opus 1) and his
first set of piano sonatas (Opus 2, 1796). These were like
symphonies for chamber forces – four movements
instead of three and substantial in scope. The next sonata
to be published (No.4) was truly monumental (it remained
one of Beethoven’s longest sonatas and is perhaps one
of the most difficult) and was accorded an opus number
of its own.
The Beethoven of the first half of tonight’s program
is a man in his 20s, enjoying new fame and attention.
By his early 30s – when he composed the works on the
second half of the program – his portrait was in
circulation and his first symphonic works had been
premiered; fame and fortune would seem secure, but
for the early signs of deafness, which would drive him
from society and prove the end of his playing career.
Composed in close succession between 1804 and 1806,
Sonatas Nos. 22 and 23 are an extreme contrast: one seems
slight and quirky in its ‘radical simplicity’, the other is
one of those that Beethoven counted among his greatest.
This, the Appassionata, shares with his great symphonic
works a sense of unity and integration between the
movements that Beethoven prized above all.
5 | Sydney Symphony
ABOUT THE MUSIC
Ludwig van Beethoven
Sonata No.1 in F minor, Op.2 No.1 (1793–94)
Keynotes
Allegro
Adagio
Menuetto (Allegretto)
Prestissimo
Born Bonn, 1770
Died Vienna, 1827
On Beethoven’s departure from Bonn for Vienna in 1792,
Count Waldstein had written that he would receive Mozart’s
spirit from Haydn’s hands. What Beethoven actually
received were counterpoint exercises (somewhat cursorily
marked), cash advances, kind words and unwanted advice
(particularly regarding the piano trio, Op.1 No.3). Haydn for
his part is known to have received coffee and chocolate (in
October 1793) and the dedication of this sonata, together
with its two companion pieces when all three were published
as Beethoven’s Opus 2. The evidence suggests that this
publication was a sensitive issue. According to Ries, Haydn
wanted ‘Pupil of Haydn’ to be inscribed on the title pages
of Beethoven’s first published works. Beethoven refused
to do this. Mention of the incident in later life caused
Beethoven irritation and he once declared that he had never
learnt anything from Haydn. Yet he clearly honoured him
as a composer and as late as 1812, without any apparent
false modesty, declined to put himself on the level of Haydn
and Mozart. In psychological terms it seems that the eager
paternalism of the childless and unhappily married Haydn
was something which the poorly fathered Beethoven
both needed and also needed to resist. Beethoven’s own
alcoholic and abusive father died in Bonn in 1792, just as
the lessons with Haydn in Vienna were beginning.
One of Haydn’s unsolicited services to Beethoven was to
write to the Elector of Bonn in 1793 requesting a raise on
Beethoven’s behalf. This was not undiluted altruism:
Beethoven owed him money. In rejecting the request, the
Elector informed Haydn that most of the pieces he had
sent as evidence of Beethoven’s industry and talent had
actually been written before Beethoven went to Vienna, a
fact of which Haydn, his teacher, seemed embarrassingly
unaware. Similarly this sonata, which was probably begun
in the same year, reuses themes from the early Piano
Quartet, WoO36 No.1, which he had written when he was 15.
Yet, although Beethoven does seem to have had a lapse in
inspiration in the year following his father’s death, the
reworking of old material in fact was to become a life-long
habit, which certainly stood him in good stead in this
6 | Sydney Symphony
BEETHOVEN
Between 1793 (Op.2) and 1822
(Op.111) Beethoven composed
32 piano sonatas. As a whole
they trace his career: the
young composer learning
from 18th-century models,
the composer-virtuoso, then,
as his increasing deafness
forced him to withdraw from
performing, the ‘heroic’ period
with such masterpieces
as the Waldstein and the
Appassionata. Beyond that –
but not represented in this
recital – are the so-called
Years of Crisis (the
Hammerklavier) and the
three late sonatas.
SONATA NO.1 IN F MINOR
The first of Beethoven’s
sonatas belongs to a set of
three that were published as
his Opus 2 in 1796. Together
they demonstrate the range
of the young composer, barely
25 years old but already
writing with originality and
powerful expression. They
show the influence of Mozart
and Haydn (they are
dedicated to Haydn), but also
of the piano virtuosos of the
time, Clementi and Dussek.
Charles Rosen has described
the first sonata as a ‘homage
to Mozart, transported into
a new and more violent
affective world’. It begins
the program as it will end: in
F minor. This was the key that
Beethoven’s contemporaries
considered the most pathetic
of all, and the outer
movements – especially
the stormy finale – convey
an ‘implacable’ minor mood.
sonata. If Beethoven did learn anything from Haydn it
was architecture not counterpoint, as comparison of this
mature work with its attractive but structurally clumsy
model shows.
Any other influences are beneath the surface.
Beethoven’s more overtly Haydnesque moments tended
to come later in his career (in the String Quartet, Op.135,
for example) and his early sonatas favour the more
symphonic four-movement form, rather than Haydn and
Mozart’s three-movement pattern. As Harold Truscott has
pointed out, the style of these early keyboard works owes
more to Clementi and Dussek, enriched by Beethoven’s
unique capacity for both concise, telling musical ideas
and structural expansion and breadth.
Listening Guide
The sonata is remarkable for its storminess and
emphasis on the minor mode which is present not only
in the opening idea of the first movement but which also
invades the second key area even as it moves to the more
relaxed relative major and the codetta. The Adagio, a
simple ternary form ABA structure, is the only movement
of the sonata in a major key, although even here the minor
mood invades the central section. For this, his first
sonata, Beethoven gives us a real minuet, rather than his
sometimes ironic, speeded-up version of this aristocratic
dance, the scherzo, a feature of his later sonatas. As in the
first movement, even the sections of the outer minuets
which move to the major key are shot through with
minor colour, while the central trio exploits some of
the textures of inevitable counterpoint which Haydn
taught him (and, in Haydn’s absence in London in 1794,
Albrechtsberger and possibly Salieri). The final Prestissimo
returns to the implacable side of Beethoven’s minor mood,
modulating to the dominant minor key (rather than the
relative major) for its second idea. The central section
abandons for a time both this dark colour, and also the
driving triplets of the rhythm but the feeling is very
much one of momentary respite rather than resolution.
Driving insistence returns at the end to give one of those
finales which Beethoven was to perfect in his later F minor
sonata, the Appassionata, Op.57, in which the music seems
relentlessly driven to some unspecified stormy apocalyptic
ending and which will conclude this program.
©PETER McCALLUM
7 | Sydney Symphony
Muzio Clementi (1752–1832) is wellknown to piano students for his
studies and sonatinas; in his lifetime
he was one of the first famous touring
pianists and Beethoven admired his
sonatas, owning copies of nearly all
of them and adopting something of
their virtuoso style and dramatic
pianism.
Beethoven
Sonata No.4 in E flat, Op.7
Keynotes
Allegro molto e con brio
Largo, con gran espressione
Allegro
Rondo (Poco allegretto e grazioso)
With just over 30 minutes
of music, this is one of
Beethoven’s longest sonatas
– only the Hammerklavier is
longer. Completed in 1797,
it is dedicated to Countess
‘Babette’ von Keglevics,
who was Beethoven’s piano
student at the time. (Later,
when she had married and
was Princess Odescalchi,
Beethoven dedicated his
first published piano
concerto to her.)
Carl Czerny ventured the opinion that this sonata,
which Riezler called Beethoven’s first masterpiece,
deserved the subtitle ‘Appassionata’ more than the more
famous Opus 57 (heard at the end of this evening’s
program) because Beethoven was in a passionate state
of mind when he wrote it. This indicates a somewhat
one-dimensional view of passion, and since Czerny was
only five years old when the sonata was written (and
didn’t meet Beethoven until he was ten) it can possibly
be discounted. However, it does tend to confirm an
impression hinted at elsewhere that Beethoven was in
love with the dedicatee, his pupil, Countess Barbara
(Babette) von Keglevics. Moreover he apparently tried to
introduce an unusual brand of intimacy to the lessons,
a fact discovered by the great 19th-century Beethoven
scholar, Nottebohm, in his relentless trawling of
Beethoveniana. A cousin of the countess’s wrote to
Nottebohm: ‘The Sonata was composed for her when
she was still a maiden. It was one of the whims of which
he had many, that, living as he did vis-a-vis, he came in
morning gown, slippers and tasselled cap to give her
lessons.’ Beyond its anecdotal curiosity, the infatuation
fits into a wider pattern that Beethoven, though in Ries’s
words, ‘rarely out of love’, usually fixed his affections on
women who were either married, above his class, or in
some other way unattainable.
Apart from the epic Hammerklavier Sonata, Op.106,
Opus 7 is in fact the longest of the Beethoven sonatas,
and its announcement on 7 October 1797 in the Wiener
Zeitung as a ‘Grand Sonata’ with its own opus number
rather than as grouping of three like his earlier set,
Opus 2, can be taken as a confident assertion of his
credentials by a young composer whose pianistic and
improvising abilities were highly prized by the Viennese
patrons of the day. During this period Beethoven was
frequently paired with other pianists such as Wölfl and
in quasi-gladiatorial contests in which it was noted that
his playing plumbed darker, more turbulent depths, and
8 | Sydney Symphony
SONATA NO.4 IN E FLAT
The sonata is ambitious not
only in its scale, but in its
technical difficulties, with
the 27-year-old Beethoven
making all sorts of demands
on the pianist: a fast tempo,
rapid passage work and
leaps, and other challenges.
Unlike the three-movement
sonatas of Mozart and
Haydn, this sonata is in
four movements, suggesting
an almost symphonic
approach to writing for
the piano – Beethoven was
three years away from his
first symphony.
had a sense of sweeping drama when compared to the
Mozartian style of his contemporaries.
Listening Guide
The first movement with its restless changing range
of pianistic textures, frequent recourse to right hand
octaves, and moments of virtuosic brilliance gives an
indication of this style. The opening is scarcely a theme
in any melodic sense but, as increasingly with Beethoven,
a motivic shape moulded for its plasticity in later
elaboration. As the music moves to the secondary key
(B flat major) it is the rhythmic drive and invention
rather than any bold harmonic or melodic moves which
maintains the sense of freshness and energy. Only after
the plain, long-note theme in the new key does Beethoven
introduce two structural innovations which became
significant devices in the expansion of sonata movements.
The first is another change of key within the second key
area, this time to C major, while the second is an extended
codetta before the whole exposition is repeated from
the beginning.
The second movement is a spare and elegiac Largo
in the expansively expressive manner which Beethoven
perfected early and which forms some of the most
affecting movements of his early period, while the third
movement, a minuet, plays Haydnesque games with
cadential figures. The final Rondo, a gracious Allegretto,
is of a type which he largely abandoned after the first
period in favour of more driven closing movements
which take more of the emphasis and weight of the work
in the middle period works. The central section injects
some storminess although one would have to admit that
the texture that Beethoven finds to articulate this is on
the conventional side, reminiscent of the piano studies
of Cramer which he admired. In the closing pages
Beethoven plays one of his favourite finale gambits,
a quick sidestep to an unexpected key (in this case
E major) before finding a way to return to his central
turbulent passagework with a calmed and tranquil spirit
for the close.
©PETER McCALLUM
9 | Sydney Symphony
This portrait of Beethoven from 1800
shows the young composer at the
turn of century: serious, fashionably
dressed, and attracting growing
public interest with ambitious works
such as the ‘Grand Sonata’ Opus 7 –
the engraved portrait was published
in Vienna.
‘The Sonata was
composed for her when
she was still a maiden.
It was one of the whims
of which he had many,
that, living as he did
vis-a-vis, he came in
morning gown, slippers
and tasselled cap to
give her lessons.’
Beethoven
Sonata No.22 in F, Op.54 (1804)
Keynotes
In tempo d’un Menuetto
Allegretto
This sonata from 1804
seems out-of-character
for Beethoven, especially
when compared to the
monumental Waldstein
sonata that preceded it
and the Appassionata that
followed. It is in two
movements rather than
three or four, but it lacks
the straightforward and
light tone of Beethoven’s
earlier two-movement
sonatas. Instead it is almost
experimental in character,
extraordinarily compact and
with what Charles Rosen
describes as a ‘radical
simplicity’.
‘It was only through Beethoven that music acquired that
growling and frowning expression which was natural enough
to him, but which perhaps ought to have remained his lonely
path alone. Why are you in such a bad temper, one would often
like to ask, especially in the second period.’
Were Beethoven to answer this question, put
rhetorically by Ferruccio Busoni in a letter to his pupil
Egon Petri, he might well answer that he wasn’t always
in a bad temper: witness this sonata. Appearing at the
height of the middle period in 1804, between the
monumental peaks of the Waldstein and Appassionata
sonatas, during work on the opera Leonore, and in one
of the most productive periods of his life, its proportions
and ambitions are as unassuming as its surrounding
peaks are Olympian. By returning to the two-movement
form in the midst of his heroic phase, Beethoven sowed
a seed which was ultimately to outlast the heroics.
Unlike the early two-movement sonatas, Opus 49, which
have the character of short divertimentos, all of the
two-movement sonatas from Opus 54 onwards have a
Janus-faced quality which, in some senses, was the
undoing of heroic assertiveness. Such a dualistic meeting
of opposites was, after all, the form with which Beethoven
chose to utter his last word on the matter in his final
sonata in C minor, Op.111.
Listening Guide
Opus 54 shares with Opus 26 and Opus 27 No.1 the
distinction of being a sonata without having any
clear-cut movements in sonata form, at least as it was
later codified. Both movements nevertheless exploit the
dualism of that principle in their own ways. The first
movement mixes the sectional form of the minuet with
the sonata principle so that, after the gentle minuet
theme, where unassertiveness seems to be raised to a
governing principle, there is a deceptively lumbering
contrasting idea in imitative octaves between the hands,
which is as plainly straightforward as the first idea is
quizzical. Beethoven clearly felt that, in terms of what he
wanted to say, this was enough, so the lumbering octaves
10 | Sydney Symphony
SONATA NO.22 IN F
The first movement (‘In
the tempo of a minuet’)
combines the dance style
and structure of the minuet
with sonata principle.
The second movement is
a reminder that perpetual
motion can be poetic too.
serve for a transition, second idea, codetta and
development, leading back to a slightly decorated
return. Decoration then becomes the chief dynamic
for propelling the movement forward so that, after a
recapitulation of the octaves, a substantial part, indeed
the most remarkable part of the movement, is further
elaboration and decoration of this theme.
The second movement is a perpetuum mobile of
semiquavers, but those who, like Beethoven’s pupil
Czerny, take it as ‘an excellent study for every good
pianist’ should look again at the restrained marking,
dolce (sweetly), its subtle phrasing, differentiated accents
and its careful attention to legato (Czerny, one feels,
is a little over-inclined to turn the most thoughtful
peregrination into aerobic exercise). Like the first
movement, it nods to the constructive principles of
sonata form, but this time avoids, as far as possible, any
overt contrast of theme, so that it is largely harmonic
principles and texture which articulate the form. An
important feature is the juxtaposition of the keys of
F major and A major, a recurring coupling which occurs
in both the Eighth Symphony and the final quartet,
Opus 135. Both movements suggest a composer at the
height of his powers, but in a deeply ruminative,
somewhat undemonstrative mood. The work was
written while Beethoven was spending an apparently
idle summer in Baden. At this resort he was in constant
touch with his pupil Ries, partly to give instructions
about a forthcoming performance of his third piano
concerto with Ries as soloist, and partly to explain his
row with his good friend, Breuning. At the end of a
particularly self-justificatory letter he wrote, “I should
never have thought that I could be so lazy as I am here.
If an outbreak of really hard work is going to follow,
then indeed something fine may be the result.” Busoni
would no doubt agree that seldom was idleness better
spent.
©PETER McCALLUM
11 | Sydney Symphony
This idealised portrait by Joseph
Willibrord Mähler, from around the
year of the Op.54 sonata, places
Beethoven in an Arcadian setting,
with ancient ruins in the background
and a lyre in his left hand.
Many have been
perplexed by the hidden
beauties of the Opus 54
sonata, with Wilhelm
Lentz writing in the
mid-19th century: ‘This
sonata…is only bizarre.
First there is a minuet
which is not a minuet,
and of which the motif,
if it is a motif, makes a
noise for a moment in
the lowest basses before
losing itself in a forest
of octaves…The
Allegretto must have
fallen from the pen of
the master when he
was in God knows what
kind of a mood; when
he wasn’t even
thinking…’
Beethoven
Sonata No.23 in F minor, Op.57, Appassionata
Allegro assai
Andante con moto
Allegro ma non troppo
Ferdinand Ries’s description of the genesis of the last
movement of the Opus 57 sonata gives an apt insight into
inextricable fusion between composition and keyboard
improvisation.
‘During a similar walk…we went so far astray that we did
not get back to Döbling, where Beethoven lived, until nearly
8 o’clock. He had been all the time humming and sometimes
howling, always up and down, without singing any definite
notes. In answer to my question what it was he said: “A theme
for the last movement of the sonata has occurred to me” (in
F minor Op.57). When we entered the room he ran to the
pianoforte without taking off his hat, I took a seat in the corner
and he soon forgot all about me. He stormed on for at least
an hour with the new finale which is so beautiful. Finally
he got up, was surprised still to see me still there and said:
“I cannot give you a lesson today. I still have work to do.”’
The subtitle Appassionata, so inextricably linked to
this work, was not Beethoven’s but was added by a
publisher in 1838 in an arrangement of the work for
piano duet. Carl Czerny took strong exception, saying
that Beethoven considered it his greatest work before
the Hammerklavier sonata and that the title would be
more appropriate for the Sonata in E flat, Op.7, heard
earlier this evening. However, if passionate moods are
an adequate excuse for kitsch subtitles, Beethoven’s
letters suggest that Opus 57 would probably qualify,
since this was the period of his, apparently unrequited,
infatuation with Josephine Deym (née Brunsvik),
once suggested – incorrectly, as is now known – as the
unidentified ‘Immortal Beloved’ of Beethoven’s most
famous letter. The period of its composition also
coincides with his work on the opera Leonore (later
Fidelio). The sonata was started in 1804 and, although
not published until 1807, it appears to have been finished
by 1806 in time for the autograph to be almost destroyed
in a rain storm on a trip home from Silesia after
Beethoven had had a towering row with one of his
patrons, Prince Lichnowsky. The autograph today still
bears the evidence of rain damage.
12 | Sydney Symphony
Keynotes
SONATA NO.23
APPASSIONATA
This is one of several
sonatas that Beethoven
considered his greatest,
perhaps because of its
powerful sense of thematic
unity. Typically, Beethoven
defies expectation, and an
early reviewer recognised
this when he praised the
powerful effect of the
tempestuous outer
movements but admitted,
almost apologetically, to
preferring the theme and
variations of the second
movement.
The sonata was composed
during the years 1804–06,
a time when Beethoven was
infatuated with the recently
widowed Josephine Deym,
and was dedicated to her
brother, Count Brunsvik.
But the ‘Appassionata’
nickname is not Beethoven’s
– it is the legacy of an 1838
publication of the sonata
as a duet, for which ‘passion’
might well have been a
useful selling point.
Listening Guide
The Appassionata was one of several sonatas which,
at various stages, Beethoven considered to be his
greatest. It is interesting to note that all the sonatas
which received this accolade from their creator (the
Hammerklavier sonata, Opus 106, and the final three,
Opus 109, 110 and 111) share the quality of thematic
unity and integration between their movements to a
high degree.
In the case of the present work, the outer movements
share many common features – characteristic harmonic
moves particularly to the chord referred to in harmony
textbooks as the ‘Neopolitan sixth’, small two-note
motives especially those revolving around the notes
D flat and C, general moods of agitation and turmoil,
and climaxes of tragic or catastrophic proportions in
their closing pages. Indeed one could almost see the
finale as a re-writing of the first movement as though
some kind of decisive realisation had been reached in
the calm, prayer-like slow movement. The notion that
such close parallels developed through spontaneous
improvisation as described by Ries above, provides a
profound insight into Beethoven’s creative process and
psychology.
The slow movement itself is no less remarkable for
its repose between such agitation. At the beginning
one might almost think that the melody on which the
variations are to be based is going to restrict itself largely
to a single note. Equally masterly is its gradual ascent
over the whole movement, in more animated notes to
its highest pitch, D flat, which is then, almost literally
torn down just at the final cadence and thrown down
into the abyss of the last movement.
‘[Beethoven] had been
all the time humming
and sometimes
howling, always up and
down, without singing
any definite notes. In
answer to my question
what it was he said:
“A theme for the last
movement of the sonata
has occurred to me.”’
FERDINAND RIES
©PETER McCALLUM
Portrait of Beethoven by Isidor
Neugass, probably completed in
the same year as the Appassionata.
It was intended to be sent to
Josephine Deym and for a time was
held in one of the Brunsvik castles.
13 | Sydney Symphony
GLOSSARY
COUNTERPOINT – two or more musical lines
or melodies played at the same time. It is a
composing technique that requires learned
skill, as the individual melodic lines must
be crafted so that they sound well together.
JOHANN BAPTIST CRAMER (1771–1858) – English
composer and concert pianist, and – like his
teacher Clementi – a music publisher.
(1760–1812) – Bohemian
pianist and composer, based at different
times in Prague, London and Paris.
JAN LADISLAV DUSSEK
NEAPOLITAN SIXTH – a chord that is built
on the flattened second step of the scale (in
C major this would be a D flat), and used in
its first inversion (i.e. with the middle note
of the chord in the lowest voice; in C major
this would be F–A flat–D flat); frequently
used to prepare a final cadence, especially
in 18th-century music, but hardly exclusive
to Neapolitan composers.
OCTAVES – an octave is the interval between
two notes that are eight scale steps apart
(and which share the same pitch name). In
piano technique the octave can be spanned
with ease by thumb and little finger, and
playing a melody ‘in octaves’ is a way of
giving greater power and projection to the
melodic line.
– literally, a joke; the scherzo as
a genre was a creation of Beethoven. For
composers such as Mozart and Haydn the
third movement of a symphony had
typically been a MINUET (in a dance-like
triple time and featuring a contrasting
central section call a TRIO); in Beethoven’s
hands it acquired a joking and playful
character (sometimes whimsical and
startling) as well as a much faster tempo.
SCHERZO
– a rhythmic unit that divides
the crotchet beat into four quick notes.
the first movements of their sonatas and
symphonies. (Also referred to as SONATA
PRINCIPLE.) It involves the EXPOSITION,
or presentation of themes and subjects:
the first in the home key, the second in
a contrasting key area. Traditionally the
exposition is repeated, and the tension
between the two keys is then intensified in
the DEVELOPMENT, where the themes are
manipulated and varied as the music moves
further and further away from the ultimate
goal of the home key. Tension is resolved in
the recapitulation, where both subjects are
restated in the tonic. Sometimes a CODA
(‘tail’) or CODETTA is added to enhance the
sense of finality.
TRIPLET – a rhythmic gesture, in which three
notes are played in the time of two of the
same kind. Continuous use of triplets,
especially at a fast tempo, can create an
exhilarating ‘skipping’ effect.
In much of the classical repertoire, movement
titles are taken from the Italian words that
indicate the tempo and mood. A selection of
terms from this program is included here.
Adagio – slowly
Allegretto – lively, not so fast as Allegro
Allegro – fast
Allegro assai – very fast
Allegro ma non troppo – fast but not too
much
Allegro molto e con brio – …with
movement and spirit
Andante con moto – at a walking pace,
with movement
Grazioso – gracefully
Largo, con gran espressione – broad, with
great expression
Prestissimo – even faster than possible
SEMIQUAVER
SONATA FORM – a 19th-century term
describing the harmonically based structure
most Classical composers had adopted for
15 | Sydney Symphony
This glossary is intended only as a quick and easy
guide, not as a set of comprehensive and absolute
definitions. Most of these terms have many subtle
shades of meaning which cannot be included for
reasons of space.
75 YEARS: HISTORICAL SNAPSHOT
Listening In
As you look at the stage, you’ll probably see
microphones. Most likely, too, you’ll be able
to hear this concert, again, in a broadcast.
The ABC was broadcasting this kind of
music before there was a Sydney Symphony,
and indeed brought the orchestra into
existence for this very purpose. The
Concert Hall of the Sydney Opera House
used to be referred to in ABC radio as
‘Studio 227’. But it was a broadcast studio
only when there was an audience for public
concerts. The ABC’s Sydney Symphony
Orchestra was, soon after its beginnings
in 1932, much more a concert than a
broadcasting orchestra. This came as a
surprise, to some a nasty one. Before the
formation of the ABC, commercial
entrepreneurs had imported high-flying
soloists, and even conductors, in the hope
of making money. Now these promoters
faced a formidable competitor, subsidised
by the public purse. The ABC held a trump
card: its new orchestras. At first orchestral
resources were traded for broadcast rights
to privately promoted concerts. But,
frustrated at the limited broadcasts they
were obtaining, the ABC soon began to
present their own ‘Celebrity Concerts’, by
subscription. Their competitors – especially
the Tait Brothers/J.C. Williamson combine
– threatened legal action. In 1938 the
ABC cleverly bluffed its way out of a court
case, deflecting the complainants with the
argument that the ABC’s concerts were also
broadcasts, which enabled them to reach
‘listeners in’ who would otherwise never
be able to hear such concerts. And so it
became an – unwritten – law that at least
part of every ABC concert was also a
broadcast. It would seem that the first
concert broadcast by the new ABC
involving their ‘Sydney’ orchestra was on
1 July 1932, when the ‘National Broadcasting
Symphony Orchestra’ was conducted by
16 | Sydney Symphony
E.J. Roberts, with Isador Goodman as
soloist. The broadcasting of the orchestra
by the ABC continues. Sydney would no
doubt eventually have acquired a full-time
professional symphony orchestra, but –
without a public broadcaster that became
a major concert promoter – who can say
when and how? The audience, then and
now, has been formed and shaped by the
broadcaster’s heavy bias towards the kind
of music you have come to hear.
David Garrett, a historian and former programmer
for Australia’s symphony orchestras, is studying
the history of the ABC as a musical organisation.
Television usually required studio production rather than
simply putting microphones (and cameras) in front of a live
concert. This photo shows the SSO in a television concert
from the 1960s.
INTERLUDE
Beethoven at the Piano
In his later years, Beethoven’s visitors would observe
that the pianos in his possession were often in terrible
disrepair: badly out of tune and with broken strings.
This was due in part to neglect and a curious
possessiveness – Beethoven is said to have resisted the
tuning of his Broadwood piano with the words ‘they
would like to tune it and spoil it, but they shall not touch
it’. And it was presumed that the more obvious damage
arose from Beethoven’s pounding on his pianos. The
pounding was a result of his deafness – in 1817 he was
already asking that his piano be ‘as loud as possible’ –
but it was also the manifestation of a lifelong quest for
a bigger piano sonority.
Accounts from Beethoven’s youth suggest that he had
developed – in the relative isolation of Bonn and without
having heard ‘any great or celebrated pianists’ – a style
of playing typically described as ‘rude and hard’. But
he also learned from example and, after hearing an
accomplished pianist such as Johann Sterkel, the
21-year-old was able to play ‘in precisely the same
pleasant manner with which Sterkel had impressed him’.
Even so, wrote one observer, ‘his style of treating his
instrument’ was ‘so different from that usually adopted,
that it impresses one with the idea that by a path of his
own discovery he has attained the height of excellence
whereon he now stands’.
Just five years later Beethoven was himself a
celebrated pianist, and he wrote to the Viennese piano
maker J.A. Streicher: ‘There is no doubt that so far as
the manner of playing it is concerned, the pianoforte is
still the least studied and developed of all instruments;
one often thinks that one is merely listening to a harp.
And I am delighted that you are one of the few who
realise and perceive that provided one can feel the
music, one can also make the pianoforte sing.’
Beethoven sought a more powerful but also a more
singing sound than was available on the pianos of his
day. And in Beethoven’s case it remained a frustrating
and fruitless search: even as pianos developed during
his lifetime (partly in response to the composer’s
demands) and new actions and styles of construction
emerged, his ability to hear and judge them deteriorated.
In 1826 – as far as Beethoven was concerned – the
piano was and remained ‘an inadequate instrument’.
17 | Sydney Symphony
His style of treating his
instrument is so different
from that usually adopted,
that it impresses one with
the idea that by a path of his
own discovery he has
attained that height of
excellence whereon he now
stands.
CARL LUDWIG JUNKER,
COMPOSER AND WRITER
QUOTED IN THAYER’S LIFE OF
BEETHOVEN
(The double-escapement mechanism and iron frames
of modern pianos were invented only towards the end
of Beethoven’s life – the cast frame was patented in
America in 1825 – and he wouldn’t have known them.)
The descriptions of Beethoven’s playing as harsh and
overly vigorous (Cherubini called it ‘rough’ and Clementi
thought it ‘unpolished’) stand alongside other
contemporary descriptions of a singing style with no
tossing of the hands to and fro, but ‘gliding left and
right over the keys, the fingers alone doing the work’.
Beethoven’s student, Carl Czerny, captured the apparent
incongruities of his highly distinctive style:
No one could equal him in the dexterity of his playing of
scales, his double trills or his leaps; not even Hummel. His
deportment while playing was exemplary: quiet, noble and
beautiful. Nor did he indulge in any form of grimace. As his
deafness increased, he tended to stoop. His fingers were very
strong, not long, and the finger-tips were broadly shaped from
much playing.…Since both his playing and his compositions
were in advance of his time, so also were the pianofortes of
the time (up to 1810) often unequal to carrying his gigantic
interpretations, being, as they were, still weak and imperfect.
Because of this it came about that Hummel’s pearly playing,
with its brilliance calculated to a nicety, was far more
comprehensible and attractive to the general public.
Nevertheless, Beethoven’s interpretation of adagios and his
lyrical legato style exercised an almost magic spell on everyone
who heard him and, to the best of my knowledge, has never
been surpassed by anyone.
Beethoven…drew entirely new and daring passages from
the fortepiano by the use of the pedal, by an exceptionally
characteristic way of playing, particularly distinguished by
a strict legato of the chords, and thus created a new type
of singing tone and many hitherto unimagined effects.
His playing did not possess that clean and brilliant elegance
of certain other pianists. On the other hand, it was spirited,
grandiose and, especially in adagio, very full of feeling and
romantic. His performance, like his compositions, was a tonepainting of a very high order and conceived only for a total
effect.
In short, Beethoven’s piano style combined
‘characteristic and passionate strength’ with ‘all the
charms of a smooth cantabile’. In certain passages he
aspired to join notes in such a way that the separate
finger strokes would not be heard, instead creating the
18 | Sydney Symphony
Beethoven’s interpretation
of adagios and his lyrical
legato style exercised an
almost magic spell on
everyone who heard him…
CARL CZERNY
effect of slurring with a violin bow. But he also
demanded power, projection and intensity of expression,
and – later on – sheer volume.
On these grounds it might be expected that he
would prefer the sturdy new London pianos, which
were known for their singing and resonant tone, to the
subtlety and flexibility of the Viennese instruments.
But resonance came at a price. When Beethoven did
receive an English-action piano (a gift from the French
maker Érard in 1803), it was found that, despite him
being a ‘strong pianist’, he was not able ‘properly to
manage’ its heavy action. He couldn’t wait to give it away,
eventually sending it to his brother after several failed
attempts to modify it. The Broadwood that he received
15 years later fared better, although even it was apparently
valued more for the international recognition that it
represented. Ultimately it seems that Beethoven
continued to value the Viennese pianos that had given
voice to the spirit and impetuosity of his playing.
Even so, none of the pianos known to Beethoven,
Viennese or English, was ever deemed ‘adequate’.
Furthermore, although Beethoven was a prolific and
extraordinary improviser, he rarely composed at the
piano. To a large extent, then, the piano sonatas must
reflect an internalised stylistic ideal, irrespective of the
instruments Beethoven had to hand. This is not to
suggest that the sonatas are in any way unidiomatic.
As early as 1802 Beethoven was praised for the
understanding of the instrument revealed in his piano
writing, but that same review (of Op.27 No.2) offers a
very telling caution: that several movements ‘require
a very good piano if the playing of them is to be a
pleasure’. Beethoven, through circumstance, never found
the ‘very good piano’ that was his ideal, but such was
his imagination as pianist and composer, that his sonatas
today cannot fail to be a pleasure.
YVONNE FRINDLE
SYDNEY SYMPHONY ©2007
19 | Sydney Symphony
Beethoven is certainly a
strong pianist, yet up to now
he still is not able properly
to manage his fortepiano
received from Érard in Paris,
and has already had it
changed twice without
making it the least bit
better…
J.A. STREICHER IN A LETTER TO
HIS DEALER, BREITKOPF &
HÄRTEL, 1805
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MORE MUSIC
Selected Discography
Broadcast Diary
GERHARD OPPITZ
Complete Beethoven Sonatas
Six volumes currently available, the most recent
release features the Appassionata and Waldstein
sonatas.
JUNE – JULY
HÄNSSLER CLASSIC 98201 – 98206
BEETHOVEN SYMPHONIES 1 & 9
Brahms: Complete Piano Music
5-CD set
RCA VICTOR RED SEAL 67887
Tue 19 June 8pm
Gianluigi Gelmetti conductor
Papatanasiu, Humble, MacAllister, Carbó
vocal soloists
Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, Cantillation
Final broadcast from the 2007 Beethoven Festival
Beethoven Choral Fantasy (DVD)
with Gianluigi Gelmetti and the Stuttgart Radio
Symphony Orchestra and Choir; a Region 1 (USA &
Canada) release
GENEON (DVD) 10535
Wed 27 June 1.05pm
TOUR DE FORCE (2006)
Charles Dutoit conductor
Jean-Yves Thibaudet piano
Mozart, Ravel, Liszt, Rachmaninov
Mozart Violin Sonatas (DVD)
with Gottfried Schneider, violin; a Region 1 (USA &
Canada) release
GENEON (DVD) 11633
Fri 6 July
MAHLER 6
Yannick Nézet-Séguin conductor
Sun 15 July 10am
BRAHMS SYMPHONY NO.2
Gianluigi Gelmetti conductor
SYDNEY SYMPHONY: LIVE RECORDINGS
Thu 19 July 8pm
Strauss and Schubert
R. Strauss Four Last Songs; Schubert Symphony No.8
(Unfinished); J. Strauss II Blue Danube Waltz
Gianluigi Gelmetti (conductor), Ricarda Merbeth
(soprano)
SSO1
Glazunov and Shostakovich
Glazunov The Seasons; Shostakovich Symphony No.9
Alexander Lazarev (conductor)
MORRISON PLAYS SCHIFRIN
Lalo Schifrin conductor
James Morrison trumpet
Ambre Hammond piano
2MBS-FM 102.5
SYDNEY SYMPHONY 2007
Tue 10 July 6pm
What’s on in concerts, with interviews and musical
samples.
SSO2
Webcast Diary
In 2006 selected Sydney Symphony concerts
were recorded for webcast by Telstra BigPond.
These can be viewed at:
http://sydneysymphony.bigpondmusic.com.
sydneysymphony.com
Visit the Sydney Symphony online for concert
information, podcasts, and to read your program book in
advance of the concert.
21 | Sydney Symphony
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Gerhard Oppitz piano
Gerhard Oppitz gives about 80 recitals and concerto
performances a year, appearing with the world’s leading
orchestras including the Berlin, Vienna, London, Israel
and Royal Philharmonic Orchestras, the Philadelphia
and Cleveland Orchestras, the Boston, Pittsburgh, and
London Symphony Orchestras, and the Bavarian Radio
Symphony Orchestra, with conductors such as Carlo
Maria Giulini, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Riccardo Muti,
Lorin Maazel, Dmitrij Kitajenko, Zubin Mehta, Herbert
Blomstedt, Kent Nagano, Kurt Masur, Sir Neville
Marriner and Gianluigi Gelmetti.
He frequently programs performances of complete
piano cycles, including Schubert’s solo piano music,
Beethoven and Mozart sonatas, Bach’s Well-Tempered
Clavier, and Grieg’s solo works, as well as Brahms cycles
in most of the major cities of Europe and in Tokyo.
He has recorded the Beethoven piano concertos with
the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and Marek Janowski,
and his extensive discography also includes the
complete solo piano works of Brahms and the two
Brahms concertos with Sir Colin Davis. He has also
recorded the complete solo piano works of Grieg, the
concertante works of Carl Maria von Weber, and most
recently the 32 Beethoven sonatas.
Gerhard Oppitz was born in Frauenau (Bavaria) in
1953 and began playing the piano at the age of five. He
gave his first public concert at 11, performing Mozart’s
Concerto in D minor. In 1973 he met Wilhelm Kempff,
who soon became his guide and mentor. In 1977 he
became the first, and to date the only, German to win
the coveted First Prize of the Artur Rubinstein
Competition in Tel Aviv. This achievement and quasipolitical event led to concert tours across Europe, Asia
and the USA.
In addition to his busy performing and recording
schedule, Gerhard Oppitz has a broad spectrum of
interests: he is a qualified professional air pilot and
frequently flies himself to concert engagements across
Europe; he is an informed gourmet and a connoisseur
of fine wines; and he speaks seven languages.
His most recent appearances for the Sydney Symphony
were in 2006, when he played Brahms’ Second Piano
Concerto and a recital of Beethoven and Schubert.
23 | Sydney Symphony
THE SYDNEY SYMPHONY
Her Excellency Professor Marie Bashir AC CBO, Governor of New South Wales
JOHN MARMARAS
PATRON
Founded in 1932, the Sydney Symphony
has evolved into one of the world’s finest
orchestras as Sydney has become one of
the world’s great cities. Resident at the
iconic Sydney Opera House where the
Sydney Symphony gives more than 100
performances each year, the Orchestra also
performs concerts in a variety of venues
around Sydney and regional New South
Wales. International tours to Europe, Asia
and the USA have earned the Orchestra
world-wide recognition for artistic
excellence.
Critical to the success of the Sydney
Symphony has been the leadership given
by its former Chief Conductors including:
Sir Eugene Goossens, Nikolai Malko,
Dean Dixon, Willem van Otterloo, Louis
Frémaux, Sir Charles Mackerras, Stuart
25 | Sydney Symphony
Challender and Edo de Waart. Also
contributing to the outstanding success
of the Orchestra have been collaborations
with legendary figures such as George
Szell, Sir Thomas Beecham, Otto
Klemperer and Igor Stravinsky.
Maestro Gianluigi Gelmetti, whose
appointment followed a ten-year
relationship with the Orchestra as Guest
Conductor, is now in his fourth year as
Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of
the Sydney Symphony, a position he holds
in tandem with that of Music Director
at the prestigious Rome Opera.
The Sydney Symphony is reaping the
rewards of Maestro Gelmetti’s directorship
through the quality of sound, intensity
of playing and flexibility between styles.
His particularly strong rapport with
French and German repertoire is
complemented by his innovative
programming in the Shock of the
New concerts and performances of
contemporary Australian music.
The Sydney Symphony’s award-winning
Education Program is central to the
Orchestra’s commitment to the future
of live symphonic music, developing
audiences and engaging the participation
of young people. The Sydney Symphony
maintains an active commissioning
program promoting the work of Australian
composers and in 2005 Liza Lim was
appointed Composer-in-Residence for
three years.
In 2007, the Orchestra celebrates its
75th anniversary and the milestone
achievements during its distinguished
history.
SALUTE
PRINCIPAL PARTNER
GOVERNMENT PARTNERS
The Company is assisted by the
NSW Government through Arts NSW
PLATINUM PARTNER
GOLD PARTNERS
26 | Sydney Symphony
MAJOR PARTNERS
SILVER PARTNERS
REGIONAL TOUR PARTNERS
BRONZE PARTNERS
MARKETING PARTNERS
PATRONS
Australia Post
Avant Card
Beyond Technology Consulting
Blue Arc Group
Bimbadgen Estate Wines
Lindsay Yates and Partners
The Sydney Symphony gratefully
acknowledges the many music
lovers who contribute to the
Orchestra by becoming Symphony
Patrons. Every donation plays an
important part in the success of the
Sydney Symphony’s wide ranging
programs.
J. Boag & Son
2MBS 102.5 –
Vittoria Coffee
Sydney’s Fine Music Station
The Sydney Symphony applauds the leadership role
our Partners play and their commitment to excellence,
innovation and creativity.
27 | Sydney Symphony
DIRECTORS’ CHAIRS
A leadership program which links
Australia’s top performers in the
executive and musical worlds.
For information about the Directors’
Chairs program, please contact
Corporate Relations on (02) 8215 4614.
01
02
03
04
05
07
08
09
10
11
01
Mulpha Australia Chair of
Principal Harp, Louise Johnson
02
Mr Harcourt Gough Chair of
Associate Principal Flute,
Emma Sholl
03
Sandra and Paul Salteri Chair of
Artistic Director Education,
Richard Gill OAM
04
Jonathan Sweeney,
Managing Director Trust with
Trust Foundation Chair of
Principal Bass Trombone,
Christopher Harris
28 | Sydney Symphony
05
NSW Department of State
and Regional Development
Chair of Principal Trombone,
Ronald Prussing
09
Stuart O’Brien, Managing
Director Moon Design with
Moon Design Chair of Violin,
Alexandra Mitchell
06
Brian and Rosemary White
Chair of Principal Double Bass,
Kees Boersma
10
Ian and Jennifer Burton Chair
of Assistant Concertmaster,
Fiona Ziegler
07
Board and Council of the
Sydney Symphony supports
Chairs of Concertmaster
Michael Dauth and Dene Olding
11
Andrew Kaldor and
Renata Kaldor AO Chair of
Principal Oboe, Diana Doherty
08
Gerald Tapper, Managing
Director Rogen International with
Rogen International
Chair of Trombone, Nick Byrne
06
PLAYING YOUR PART
The Sydney Symphony gratefully acknowledges the music lovers who donate
to the Orchestra each year. Every gift plays an important part in ensuring our
continued artistic excellence and helping to sustain important education and
regional touring programs. Because we are now offering free programs and
space is limited we are unable to list donors who give between $100 and $499 –
please visit sydneysymphony.com for a list of all our patrons.
Patron Annual
Donations Levels
Maestri $10,000 and above
Virtuosi $5000 to $9999
Soli $2500 to $4999
Tutti $1000 to $2499
Supporters $500 to $999
To discuss giving
opportunities, please call
Caroline Mark on
(02) 8215 4619.
Maestri
Brian Abel & the late Ben
Gannon AO °
Geoff & Vicki Ainsworth *
Mr Robert O Albert AO * ‡
Alan & Christine Bishop ° §
Sandra & Neil Burns *
Mr Ian & Mrs Jennifer Burton °
The Clitheroe Foundation *
Patricia M. Dixson *
Penny Edwards ° *
Mr J O Fairfax AO *
Dr Bruno & Mrs Rhonda
Giuffre *
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Mrs Deirdre Greatorex §
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Mrs Renata Kaldor AO §
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Cooke
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Anonymous (1) *
Virtuosi
Mrs Antoinette Albert §
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Mr John C Conde AO §
Mr John Curtis §
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Herta Imhof ° ‡
Mr Stephen Johns §
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Helen Lynch AM °
Mr E J Merewether & Mrs T
Merewether OAM *
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John Roarty in memory of
June Roarty
29 | Sydney Symphony
Rodney Rosenblum AM & Sylvia
Rosenblum §
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Dr James Smith §
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Soli
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Mr C R Adamson ° §
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Mrs F M Buckle °
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Libby Christie & Peter James
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Mr John Cunningham SCM
Mr & Mrs J B Fairfax AM §
Mr Ian Fenwicke & Prof
Neville Wills §
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Franken ° §
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Galstaun §
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Dr Paul Hutchins &
Ms Margaret Moore °
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Mr John W Kaldor AM §
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Ms Susan Pearson §
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Mr Lloyd Martin AM §
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Singleman
Gordon & Jacqueline Samuels °§
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Teitler §
Mr Stephen Thatcher
Mr Ken Tribe AC & Mrs Joan
Tribe °
Mr John E Tuckey °
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Ms Mary Vallentine AO §
Henry & Ruth Weinberg §
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Jill Wran §
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Anonymous (10) §
Supporters over $500
Mr Roger Allen & Ms Maggie
Gray
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John Augustus °
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Mr G D Bolton °
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Hon. Justice J C & Mrs
Campbell *
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Borgelt
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Cornberg §
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Lisa & Miro Davis *
Mrs Patricia Davis §
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Rev H & Mrs M Herbert ° *
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Lazar §
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Love
Mr Matthew McInnes §
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Moon Design
Mrs R H O’Conor
Ms Patricia Payn §
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Pilton
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Dr K D Reeve AM *
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Dr Jane & Mr Neville Rowden §
Mrs Margaret Sammut
In memory of H St P Scarlett ° *
Blue Mountain Concert
Society Inc °
Mr Ezekiel Solomon
Mr Andrew & Mrs Isolde Tornya
Miss Amelia Trott
Mrs Merle Turkington °
The Hon M. Turnbull MP &
Mrs L. Hughes Turnbull
Mr & Mrs Franc Vaccher
Ronald Walledge °
Louise Walsh & David Jordan
Mr Geoff Wood and
Ms Melissa Waites
Miss Jenny Wu
Mr Michael Skinner &
Ms Sandra Yates AO
Anonymous (12)
°
*
‡
§
Allegro Program supporter
Emerging Artist Fund supporter
Stuart Challender Fund supporter
Orchestra Fund supporter
BEHIND THE SCENES
Sydney Symphony Board
CHAIRMAN
John Conde AO
Libby Christie
John Curtis
Stephen Johns
Andrew Kaldor
Goetz Richter
David Smithers AM
Gabrielle Trainor
What’s on the cover?
During the 2007 season Sydney Symphony program covers will
feature photos that celebrate the Orchestra’s history over the
past 75 years. The photographs on the covers will change
approximately once a month, and if you subscribe to one of
our concert series you will be able to collect a set over the
course of the year.
COVER PHOTOGRAPHS (clockwise from top left):
Couple looking at an SSO Youth Concerts brochure, 1960s; Gianluigi Gelmetti;
Edo de Waart’s farewell gala concert, November 2003; Proms audience playing
penny whistles in McCabe’s Mini Concerto for organ, orchestra and 485 penny
whistles (17 February 1968); Cliff Goodchild, former Principal Tuba, early 1960s;
75 Years of Inspiring Music; Dene Olding, Co-Concertmaster; Diana Doherty,
Principal Oboe
30 | Sydney Symphony
Sydney Symphony Staff
MARKETING AND
CUSTOMER RELATIONS
ORCHESTRA MANAGEMENT
Libby Christie
EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT
DIRECTOR OF MARKETING AND
MANAGEMENT
Deborah Byers
CUSTOMER RELATIONS
Aernout Kerbert
Julian Boram
ACTING DEPUTY ORCHESTRA
MANAGING DIRECTOR
ARTISTIC OPERATIONS
DIRECTOR OF ARTISTIC OPERATIONS
Wolfgang Fink
Publicity
PUBLIC RELATIONS MANAGER
Imogen Corlette
DIRECTOR OF ORCHESTRA
MANAGER
Greg Low
ORCHESTRAL ASSISTANT
Angela Chilcott
Artistic Administration
PUBLICIST
OPERATIONS MANAGER
ARTISTIC ADMINISTRATION MANAGER
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John Glenn
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PROGRAMMING
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Alan Watt
Wendy Augustine
Matthew D’Silva
Michael Dowling
Teresa Cahill
EXECUTIVE PROJECT MANAGER
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Samuel Li
OFFICE ADMINISTRATOR
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Tim Graham
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PAYABLE OFFICER
PHILANTHROPY MANAGER
Caroline Hall
Caroline Mark
PATRONS & EVENTS MANAGER
HUMAN RESOURCES
Georgina Andrews
Ian Arnold
31 | Sydney Symphony
Level 9, 35 Pitt Street, Sydney NSW 2000
GPO Box 4972, Sydney NSW 2001
Telephone (02) 8215 4644
Facsimile (02) 8215 4646
Customer Services:
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Telephone (02) 8215 4600
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