the Carmina Burana program book (21, 22, 23 Mar) PDF
Transcription
the Carmina Burana program book (21, 22, 23 Mar) PDF
2013 SEASON SPECIAL EVENT 21 n 23 March | 8pm WELCOME On behalf of Credit Suisse, Premier Partner of the Sydney Symphony, I am delighted to welcome you to this performance of Carl Orff’s choral extravaganza, Carmina Burana. Carl Orff combines the forces of a full orchestra with symphonic choir, children’s voices and vocal soloists to create an exciting sound. Perhaps fittingly, given the orchestra’s recent tour of China, these concerts bring a Chinese connection. One of the soloists is baritone Chanyong Liao, and Long Yu is conducting the orchestra for the first time in the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall. He has chosen to begin the concert with a magical piece by Chen Qigang, Enchantements oubliés. Credit Suisse is proud to play a part in bringing this exciting concert program to Sydney audiences. We’re especially aware that music such as Carmina Burana, which has found its way into popular culture through film and advertising, can also be a powerful introduction to the concert hall for a new generation of audiences. Whether you’re a longstanding lover of classical music or just putting your toe in the water, we hope you find this special concert thrilling and uplifting, and we hope to welcome you to many more concerts in the future. Rob Stewart Chief Executive Officer Credit Suisse Australia 2013 season special event premier partner credit suisse Thursday 21 March | 8pm Friday 22 March | 8pm Saturday 23 March | 8pm Sydney Opera House Concert Hall Carmina Burana Long Yu CONDUCTOR Milica Ilic SOPRANO Paul McMahon TENOR Changyong Liao BARITONE Sydney Philharmonia Choirs Elizabeth Scott, Acting Musical Director Sydney Children’s Choir Lyn Williams, Artistic Director Chen Qigang (born 1951) Enchantements oubliés (Forgotten Enchantments) INTERVAL Carl Orff (1895–1982) Carmina Burana Fortuna, Imperatrix mundi (Fortune, Empress of the World) Part I. Primo vere (In Springtime) Uf dem anger (On the Lawn) Part II. In Taberna (In the Tavern) Part III. Cour d’amours (The Court of Love) Blanziflor et Helena (Blanziflor and Helena) Fortuna, Imperatrix mundi Friday night’s performance will be recorded for later broadcast on ABC Classic FM. Pre-concert talk by Genevieve Lang Huppert at 7.15pm in the Northern Foyer. Visit bit.ly/SSOspeakerbios for speaker biographies. Estimated durations: 23 minutes, 20-minute interval, 65 minutes The concert will conclude at approximately 10pm DE AGOSTINI PICTURE LIBRARY / A DAGLI ORTI / THE BRIDGEMAN ART LIBRARY BIBLIOTHEQUE MUNICIPALE, ROUEN / GIRAUDON / THE BRIDGEMAN ART LIBRARY Carl Orff conceived Carmina Burana as a staged work, following a principle he termed ‘theatrum mundi’. This set design (top) by Ludwig Sievert, places nuns, monks and nobility as observers around a kind of circus ring; the centrepiece is Fortune and her wheel. The manuscript source for the Carmina Burana texts, the Codex Buranus, depicted Fortune’s wheel on the first page. In the mediæval tradition, blind Fortune turns the wheel and so the experience of those who ride it changes: I rule (top), I have ruled (tumbling down the side), I am without rule (naked at the bottom) and I will rule (climbing on the left). This example is from a 14th-century manuscript. 6 sydney symphony INTRODUCTION Carmina Burana ‘O Fortuna!’ These are the words – and sounds – that come to mind when we think of Carmina Burana. Thrilling music that begins with the ominous thump of a drum and the fullthroated entry of more than two hundred voices. ‘O fickle Fortune,’ they sing, ‘vain’ and ‘monstrous’ they call her – now in our favour, now not. At the end of his exhilarating creation, Carl Orff returns to the theme with a reprise of the opening chorus. Blind Fortune’s wheel has turned full circle. Chen Qigang, whose music begins tonight’s concert, has had his own brush with fortune. Or rather, he had the misfortune to grow up during the era of the Cultural Revolution in China, which saw his father – a calligrapher, painter and teacher – sent to a labour camp and Qigang himself subjected to ‘ideological re-education’. But he was then fortunate, in the late 1970s, to be among the first of a selected elite to enter the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing and later to be granted the opportunity to study in Paris. You’ll hear the influence of French composers, including his teacher Olivier Messiaen, in his music tonight. Enchantements oubliés (Forgotten Enchantments) is full of rich and subtle colours and magical effects. Carmina Burana is not subtle. It’s vigorous, rhythmic, vital and stimulating. And it’s loud! From the strings, percussion, harp and celesta of Chen’s piece, the orchestra grows to full size. After interval you’ll also see pianos and half a dozen percussionists at the back with their vast array of instruments. Then there are the voices: symphonic choir, children’s chorus and three soloists. But don’t think Carmina Burana is without contrast or variety. If ‘O Fortuna!’ is the extent of your knowledge coming into the concert hall, you’re in for an evening of discovery. Carl Orff’s music encompasses moments of meditation, humour, joyful dancing, down-to-earth philosophy and teasing eroticism. And do follow the words – the 13th-century monks who compiled the Carmina Burana texts appear to have been more worldly than you’d expect. The texts and English translations for Carmina Burana begin on page 14. Turn to page 42 to read Bravo! – musician profiles, articles and news from the orchestra, including the popular ‘Ask a Musician’ spot. There are nine issues through the year, also available at sydneysymphony.com/bravo sydney symphony 7 ABOUT THE MUSIC Chen Qigang Enchantements oubliés (Forgotten Enchantments) The opening of Enchantements oubliés seems to hover as if suspended in space and time. To a palette of delicate strings is added the slightest dashes of colour from harp, celesta and percussion. (There are no woodwind or brass.) Soaring violin lines reach for the magical and ethereal. It is, however, a simpler forgotten enchantment that inspired Chinese-French composer Qigang Chen. He writes: LIU HUI All fundamental pleasures in life are actually very simple: spending time with your family, having a real break when you’re tired from work or a nice meal when you’re hungry, being able to keep warm when it gets cold and having some down time to yourself. But most of the time people are not content with these simple pleasures. You can say that this piece seeks to express human emotion in its simplest, most direct forms. Keynotes CHEN QIGANG Born Shanghai, 1951 French citizen since 1992 Chen Qigang (Chen is the family name) was born into an artistic family. When the Cultural Revolution broke out in China, he was a middle school student in the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. His father – administrator of the Beijing Academy of Fine Arts – was sent to a labour camp, while the young Qigang was subjected to ‘ideological re-education’. When the Central Conservatory was restructured in the late 1970s, he was one of 26 students chosen from 2000 applicants, studying composition with Luo Zhonghong. In 1983 he had the opportunity to study abroad and he spent four years in Paris studying with Olivier Messiaen. Chen explains that the ‘detail and nuance in French music’ were very similar to his own. He had already discovered Debussy and Ravel; Messiaen proved to be a major influence. In 2008 Chen was the Music Director of the Olympic opening ceremony in Beijing. Among his major works is the four-act ballet Épouses et concubines, based on Raise the Red Lantern. 8 sydney symphony This is music at once simple and complex; floating melodies are supported by many layers of interweaving lines. There is a constant shifting of focus as a part that serves as colour one moment will suddenly spring forward with a fragment of melody, only to recede into the background again a moment later. This space and contemplation is a constant reference point, but it is juxtaposed with a brisker triplet idea introduced by vibraphone and marimba. This line is tossed between parts with a constant feeling of upward motion. Though often interrupted by the return of the opening theme, the energetic melody keeps resurfacing to bubble along. It increasingly seems that the music cannot help itself. Ultimately, the two themes achieve a jovial union as each comes to complement the other. Low strings and percussion take up the rising triplet figure, over which soars the oriental-sounding melody of the violins. Enchantements oubliés was commissioned by the French Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Kurt Masur in 2005, and premiered by that orchestra in 2008 under the baton of Alan Gilbert. Chen’s musical relationship with Radio France began in the 1980s when he was studying with Olivier Messiaen. …at once simple and complex… NAOMI JOHNSON © 2013 Enchantements oubliés calls for string orchestra with timpani and percussion, harp and celesta. This is the Sydney Symphony’s first performance of the work. sydney symphony 9 ABOUT THE MUSIC Carl Orff Carmina Burana Fortuna, Imperatrix mundi (Fortune, Empress of the World) Part I. Primo vere (In Springtime) Uf dem anger (On the Lawn) Part II. In Taberna (In the Tavern) Part III. Cour d’amours (The Court of Love) Blanziflor et Helena (Blanziflor and Helena) Fortuna, Imperatrix mundi Milica Ilic soprano Paul McMahon tenor Changyong Liao baritone Sydney Philharmonia Choirs Sydney Children’s Choir In 1803 a large collection of mediæval poetry was discovered in the abbey of Benediktbeuern in Bavaria. Its 320 poems, written on parchment and illustrated with illuminated capital letters, represent an anthology of styles and languages including mediæval Latin, Old French and Middle High German. It seems that the collection was compiled for the Bishop of Seckau in 13th-century Austria. The Bishop must have been quite worldly as the collection includes songs of springtime and love as well as drinking songs. In the mid-1930s the collection came to the attention of Carl Orff who later remarked: Fortune smiled on me when she put into my hands a Würzburg secondhand books catalogue, in which I found a title that exercised on me an attraction of magical force: Carmina Burana: Latin and German songs and poems of a 13th-century manuscript from Benediktbeuern, edited by J.A. Schmeller. Orff spoke more truly than he knew: certainly Carmina Burana (‘Songs of Beuern’) would make his fortune, at least artistically. But its success put much of his subsequent achievement in the shade. Orff was born in 1895 into a military family with intellectual and artistic interests and studied music from an early age including, significantly, research into nonEuropean music. His early opera Gisei for instance is based on Japanese Nōh drama. In 1917 he enlisted in the German army, but was wounded and invalided out. The 1920s saw the gradual development of the music education theories for which, apart from Carmina Burana, he is best remembered today. 10 sydney symphony Keynotes ORFF Born Munich, 1895 Died Munich, 1982 Carl Orff is famous today for two reasons: Carmina Burana and his work as a music educator, which lives on in the performance-oriented Orff-Schulwerk method, taught all over the world. Although unsympathetic to the Nazis, he has been maligned for promoting his works too assiduously under the regime, a fact compounded by the way his radiant and vigorous music represents many of the musical features most praised by Hitler. Orff’s influences included folk music as well as ancient Greek tragedy, and his themes encompassed Bavarian peasant life and Christian mystery. CARMINA BURANA As with Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, Carmina Burana’s popular recognition is dependent on exactly four notes: ‘O Fortuna!’ There is so much more to be heard in a performance of the complete work. But even tonight we don’t get the full picture. Orff conceived it as a ‘scenic cantata’ and gave it a subtitle: ‘Profane poems to be sung with singers and dancers’. This is a stage work and it’s sometimes performed that way (most recently in Sydney by The Australian Ballet). Its appeal lies partly in the visceral rhythms and simple melodies, but also in the ‘freshness and bite’ and lyrical beauty of the mediæval texts that give it meaning. Orff ’s own compositions during the 1920s show an increasing interest in the use of percussion often with piano (influenced partly by Stravinsky’s Les Noces), harmony which is essentially diatonic but avoids the goal-directed feel of traditional tonal music, and rhythm characterised by the ‘Stravinsky-like’ use of repeated figurations. These musical techniques reached their first realisation in 1931’s Catulli Carmina, settings of one of the great Roman poets. Carmina Burana followed a few years later, and was first performed in Frankfurt in 1937. 1937 was, of course, a time when Hitler and the Nazis were doing their utmost to win the hearts and minds of Germany. Carmina Burana comes perilously close to the kind of music favoured by the regime; the cheerfully hedonistic poetry (‘I am the Abbot of Cockaigne’) similarly reflects the growing anti-clericalism in 1930s Germany. For this reason we need to take with a grain of salt Orff’s assertion that the work never got a good review in Nazi Germany. Generally critics praised the work in language redolent of much Nazi propaganda, noting its ‘radiant strength-filled life-joy’. …cheerfully hedonistic poetry… sydney symphony 11 Music for Everyone In the early 20th century many musicians felt that European music had become overlaid with concert hall and drawing room formality, overrefined, or commercialised. It had evolved too far from the roots of music in rhythm, gesture, singing and dancing. One attempt to take music back to fresh springs was the revival of authentic folk singing and dancing, promoted in England by Cecil Sharp, Vaughan Williams, and Holst, among others; in Hungary by Bartók and Kodály, in Moravia by Janáček, and, in a particularly original way, by the Australian eccentric of genius Percy Grainger. A related movement was mass choral singing, especially in Eastern Europe, where it was associated with gymnastics. Many of the composers involved in these movements aimed at popular education, with a ‘democratic’ purpose. An especially interesting manifestation of this tendency was Eurhythmics, the creation of the Swiss educator Emile Jacques-Dalcroze, who made his pupils ‘feel’ music through movement in time. This is where Carl Orff comes in. He began his professional career as a conductor and choral trainer, and, influenced by Dalcroze, he evolved a method of music education which brought together performance through instruments and voice, ear training, movement and improvisation. In 1924 Orff founded, with Dorothea Guenther, a school for gymnastics, dance and music, and began to develop a range of musical materials and percussion instruments. His aim was music for everyone, and the inspiration of his composition ‘to revive the natural unity of music and movement… which arises from a single source’. This background is essential for understanding Orff’s Carmina Burana, the first work in which he felt he had found his true voice as a composer. DAVID GARRETT 12 sydney symphony Fortune Goes to the Movies The ‘O Fortuna’ music from Carmina Burana has been used in countless advertisements, television shows and feature films. It has also become the subject of a YouTube spoof that turns its Latin text into an illustrated mondegreen, beginning with ‘O four tuna’ and continuing in the same vein. To name just a few of the movies in which this rousing and forboding music turns up: Excalibur (1981), Hunt for Red October (1990), The Doors (1991), Natural Born Killers (1994), The Bachelor (1999), Cheaper by the Dozen (2003), and Epic Movie (2007). Wherever it has been performed, Carmina Burana retains its ability to evoke what Alex Ross calls ‘primitive, unreflective enthusiasm’. And that’s partly because of the texts. Orff described the reading of the collection: On opening it I immediately found, on the front page, the long-famous picture of ‘Fortune and her wheel’ and under it the lines O fortuna/velut luna/statu variabilis… Picture and words seized hold of me…a new work, a stage work with singing and dancing choruses, simply following the illustrations and texts, at once came into my mind. The ‘O Fortuna’ chorus bookends the whole work with its mighty choral and orchestral forces and implacable rhythms. The body of the work, which uses 23 of the published poems, is divided into three main sections. The first, ‘Springtime’ and ‘On the Meadow’ uses the conventional genres of pastoral poetry: spring returns, the sun warms the earth, forests awaken, and a young person’s thoughts turn to love. But not before a brief spell ‘In the Tavern’, a male-dominated environment in which Orff creates a number of memorable characters. None more so, if only musically, than the Roasting Swan, a high tenor whose lament is for the loss of his whiteness as much as for his imminent consumption. Finally ‘The Courts of Love’ take up the erotic threads of ‘Spring’ contrasting delicacy and robust humour before the soaring soprano solo of ‘Dulcissime’ and ecstatic chorus to ‘Blanziflor and Helena’. The ecstasy will, of course, be swept away by Fate, so the music returns to ‘O Fortuna’. As Michael Steinberg has noted, one wouldn’t guess from the music that the last line of the poetry is ‘mecum omnes plangite’ (come, weep with me). Fortune’s wheel GORDON KERRY ©2006 In addition to the three soloists, chorus and children’s choir, Carmina Burana calls for three flutes (two doubling piccolo), three oboes (one doubling cor anglais), three clarinets (one doubling bass clarinet and one doubling E flat clarinet), two bassoons and contrabassoon; four horns, three trumpets, three trombones and tuba; timpani and a large percussion section; celesta and two pianos; and strings. The Sydney Symphony gave the first Australian performance of Carmina Burana in 1956, conducted by Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt with the Hurlstone Choral Society (now Sydney Philharmonia Choirs), the boys of the St Andrew’s Cathedral Choir and soloists Stewart Harvey, Betty Prentice, Florence Taylor and Harry Bond. The most recent performance was in 2009, conducted by Arvo Volmer, with soloists Amelia Farrugia, Paul McMahon and William Dazeley, and Sydney Philharmonia Choirs and Sydney Children’s Choir. sydney symphony 13 CARMINA BURANA FORTUNA, IMPERATRIX MUNDI FORTUNE, EMPRESS OF THE WORLD 1. Chorus 1. Chorus O Fortuna, velut Luna statu variabilis, semper crescis aut decrescis; vita detestabilis nunc obdurat et tunc curat ludo mentis aciem, egestatem, potestatem dissolvit ut glaciem. O Fortune, changeable as the moon, you are always either waxing or waning. Detestable life at one moment thwarts and at another mockingly indulges the mind’s desire, melting away both poverty and power, like ice. Sors immanis et inanis, rota tu volubilis, status malus, vana salus semper dissolubilis, obumbrata et velata michi quoque niteris; nunc per ludum dorsum nudum fero tui sceleris. Vain, monstrous Fate, you turning wheel, you can, when you will, destroy bad circumstances and delusive success alike. Veiled and shadowy, you attack me too; now at your whim I bare my back under your assault. Sors salutis et virtutis michi nunc contraria, est affectus et defectus semper in angaria. Hac in hora sine mora corde pulsum tangite; quod per sortem sternit fortem, mecum omnes plangite! You, Fate, who dispose health and strength, are now against me; my desires and my weakness are in constant slavery. At this hour without delay let all pluck the string; since Fate crushes the strong man everyone weep with me! 14 sydney symphony 2. Chorus 2. Chorus Fortune plango vulnera stillantibus ocellis, quod sua michi munera subtrahit rebellis. Verum est, quod legitur fronte capillata, sed plerumque sequitur Occasio calvata. I lament Fortune’s blows with weeping eyes, for she aggressively extorts tribute from me; it is written in truth, that she has a fine head of hair, but, when it comes to seizing an opportunity she is bald. In Fortune solio sederam elatus, prosperitatis vario flore coronatus; Quicquid enim florui felix et beatus, nunc a summo corrui gloria privatus. Once I sat high up on Fortune’s throne, garlanded with all the blooms of prosperity; indeed I was in the bloom of blessed happiness, but now I have tumbled from my eminence, robbed of my glory. Fortune rota volvitur: descendo minoratus; alter in altum tollitur; nimis exaltatus rex sedet in vertice caveat ruinam! nam sub axe legimus Hecubam reginam. Fortune’s wheel turns: I am cut down and fall; another is raised to the heights; the king sits at the peak, too much exalted – let him beware of ruin, for under the axle we read the name of Queen Hecuba. PRIMO VERE SPRINGTIME 3. Semichorus Veris leta facies mundo propinatur, hiemalis acies victa iam fugatur, in vestitu vario Phebus principatur, nemorum dulcisono que cantu celebratur. The smiling face of spring is granted to the world, keen winter is now defeated and chased away. Phoebus reigns in colourful robes, honoured in the sweet-sounding song of the woods. sydney symphony 15 Flore fusus gremio Phebus novo more risum dat, hoc vario iam stipata flore. Zephyrus nectareo spirans in odore; certatim pro bravio curramus in amore. Lying once more in Flora’s lap, Phoebus laughs; surrounded by many-coloured flowers Zephyrus breathes the fragrance of their nectar; let us hasten to love and compete for its price. Cytharizat cantico dulcis Philomena, flore rident vario prata iam serena, salit cetus avium silve per amena, chorus promit virginum iam gaudia millena. The sweet nightingale strikes up her song, the radiant meadows smile with many-coloured flowers, the birds dart about the pleasant woods, the chorus of dancing maidens now brings delights in thousands. 4. Baritone solo Omnia sol temperat purus et subtilis, nova mundo reserat facies Aprilis, ad Amorem properat animus herilis, et iocundis imperat deus puerilis. The bright, keen sun tempers everything; returning April discloses her face to the world; men’s hearts hasten to love, and the boyish god rules over the amiable. Rerum tanta novitas in solemni vere et veris auctoritas iubet nos gaudere, vias prebet solitas, et in tuo vere fides est et probitas tuum retinere. This great renewal and the power of festive spring bid us rejoice; spring brings back the well-known ways, and in spring it is good and loyal to hold fast to your lover. Ama me fideliter! fidem meam nota: de corde totaliter et ex mente tota Love me faithfully, see the faithfulness of my whole heart and my whole mind. 16 sydney symphony sum presentialiter absens in remota, quisquis amat taliter, volvitur in rota. I am with you even when I am far away. Whoever loves like that is tortured on the wheel. 5. Chorus Ecce gratum et optatum Ver reducit gaudia; purpuratum floret pratum, Sol serenat omnia. Iamiam cedant tristia! Estas redit, nunc recedit Hyemis sevitia. Behold, welcome and longed-for spring brings delight back, the meadows glow with rich flowers, the sun makes all things bright. Now sorrow flees! Summer returns, and harsh winter withdraws. Iam liquescit et decrescit grando nix et cetera; bruma fugit, et iam sugit Ver Estatis ubera; illi mens est misera qui nec vivit, nec lascivit sub Estatis dextera. Now hail, snow, and the rest melt away; winter flees, and now spring sucks the breast of summer; sad is the heart of him who neither enjoys life nor frolics under the hand of summer. Gloriantur et letantur in melle dulcedinis. Qui conantur, ut utantur premio Cupidinis; simus iussu Cypridis gloriantes et letantes pares esse Paridis. They glory and rejoice in sweetest honey, who seek to enjoy Cupid’s prize let us, at the command of Cyprian Venus, glory and rejoice to be the equals of Paris. sydney symphony 17 UF DEM ANGER ON THE MEADOW 6. Dance (orchestra) 7. Chorus Floret silva nobilis, floribus et foliis. Ubi est antiquus meus amicus? Hinc equitavit, eia, quis me amabit? Floret silva undique, nah mime gesellen ist mir wê. Gruonet der walt allenthalben, wâ ist min geselle alse lange? Der ist geriten hinnen, o wî, wer sol mich minnen? The noble forest blooms with flowers and leaves. Where is he who was my lover? He has ridden away. Alas, who will love me? Everywhere the forest blooms, I am longing for my lover. The wood is green all over, where is my lover this long time? He has ridden away. Alas, who will love me? 8. Soprano solo and chorus Chramer, gip die varwe mir, die min wengel roete, da mit ich die jungen man an ir dank der minnenliebe noete. Seht mich an, jungen man! lat mich iu gevallen. Hawker, give me the rouge to make my cheeks red, so that I can invite the young men to welcome love. Look at me, young men! Let me please you! Minnet, tugentliche man, minnecliche frouwen! minne tuot iu hoch gemuot unde lat iuch in hohen eren schouwen. Seht mich an… Gallant men, love lovely women! Love puts you in high spirits and does you great credit. Look at me... Wol dir, Werlt, daz du bist also freudenriche! ich will dir sin undertan durch din liebe immer sicherliche. Seht mich an… Hail, world, so rich in joys! I will always be subject to you through love of you. Look at me... 18 sydney symphony 9a. Reie [Round Dance] (orchestra) 9b. Chorus Swaz hie gat umbe, daz sint allez megede, die wellent an man alle disen sumer gan! Here, all in a circle, are maidens who are all after a man this summer. 9c. Semichorus Chume, chum, geselle min, ih enbite harte din. Come, come, my love, I implore you. Suzer rosenvarwer munt, chum uñ mache mich gesunt. Sweet rosy mouth, come and make me whole. Swaz hie gat umbe… Here, all in a circle... 10. Chorus Were diu werlt alle min von deme mere unze an den Rin, des wolt ih mih darben, daz diu chünegin von Engellant lege an minen armen. Hei! If all the world were mine from the sea to the Rhine, I would give it up to have the Queen of England lying in my arms. Hey! IN TABERNA IN THE TAVERN 11. Baritone solo Estuans interius ira vehementi in amaritudine loquor mee menti: factus de materia, cinis elementi, similis sum folio, de quo ludunt venti. Boiling inside with violent rage, I talk bitterly to myself; made of matter, ash of the elements, I am like a leaf that the winds play with. sydney symphony 19 Cum sit enim proprium viro sapienti supra petram ponere sedem fundamenti, stultus ego comparor fluvio labenti, sub eodem tramite nunquam permanenti. For, while it is the mark of the wise man to build his foundation on rock, I, a fool, am like a gliding river, which never keeps to the same course. Feror ego veluti sine nauta navis, ut per vias aeris vaga fertur avis, non me tenent vincula, non me tenet clavis, quero mihi similes et adiungor pravis. I am carried along like a ship without a helmsman, as a bird is carried aimlessly through the ways of the air; No fetters hold me, no key holds me; I seek others like myself, and I join up with the wicked. Mihi cordis gravitas res videtur gravis; iocus est amabilis dulciorque favis; quicquid Venus imperat, labor est suavis, que nunquam in cordibus habitat ignavis. Heaviness of heart Seems to me a grievous thing; merriment is delightful and sweeter than honeycombs; whatever Venus commands is sweet labour, and never dwells in spiritless hearts. Via lata gradior more iuventutis, implicor et vitiis immemor virtutis, voluptatis avidus magis quam salutis, mortuus in anima curam gero cutis. I travel the broad path In manner of youth, I am entangled in vice And forgetful of virtue. Greedier for pleasure Than for welfare, Dead in soul, I look after my body. 12. Tenor solo and male chorus Olim lacus colueram, olim pulcher extiteram, dum cignus ego fueram. Once I lived in the lakes, once I was beautiful, when I was a swan. Miser, miser! modo niger et ustus fortiter! Woe, woe is me! Now I am black and roasted through! 20 sydney symphony Girat, regirat garcifer; me rogus urit fortiter; propinat me nunc dapifer. The cook turns me about on the spit; the fire roasts me through; now the waiter prepares me. Miser, miser… Woe, woe is me... Nunc in scutella iaceo et volitare nequeo, dentes frendentes video: Now I lie on the salver, and I cannot fly; I see gnashing teeth. Miser, miser… Woe, woe is me... 13. Baritone solo and male chorus Ego sum abbas Cucaniensis, et consilium meum est cum bibulis, et in secta Decii voluntas mea est et qui mane me quesierit in taberna, post vesperam nudus egredietur, et sic denudatus veste clamabit: I am the Abbot of Cucany, and my associates are drinkers, and my adherence is to the sect of Decius, and whoever meets me in the tavern over dice in the morning will go out naked by the end of the evening, and stripped of his clothes will cry: Wafna, wafna! quid fecisti sors turpissima? Nostre vite gaudia abstulisti omnia! Wafna, wafna! what have you done, evil fate? You have stolen away all the joys of my life! 14. Male chorus In taberna quando sumus, non curamus quid sit humus, sed ad ludum properamus, cui semper insudamus. Quid agatur in taberna, ubi nummus est pincerna, hoc est opus ut queratur, si quid loquar, audiatur. When we are in the tavern we take no thought for the grave, but rush to the gaming-tables, over which we always sweat. If you want to know what happens in the tavern, where it is money that brings the wine, then listen to what I say. Quidam ludunt, quidam bibunt, quidam indiscrete vivunt. Sed in ludo qui morantur, ex his quidam denudantur, quidam ibi vestiuntur, quidam saccis induuntur. Ibi nullus timet mortem sed pro Baccho mittunt sortem. Some gamble, some drink, some just let themselves go. Of those who spend their time gambling, some lose their clothes, others gain them, others put on sackcloth. There no one fears death: they throw the dice for Bacchus. sydney symphony 21 Primo pro nummata vini, ex hac bibunt libertini; semel bibunt pro captivis post hec bibunt ter pro vivis, quater pro Christianis cunctis, quinquies pro fidelibus defunctis, sexies pro sororibus vanis, septies pro militibus silvanis. First they throw for the wine bill, from which the libertines drink. Once more they drink to prisoners, then three times to the living, four times for all Christians, five times for the faithful departed, six times for the boastful sisters, seven times for forest soldiers. Octies pro fratribus perversis, nonies pro monachis dispersis, decies pro navigantibus, undecies pro discordantibus, duodecies pro penitentibus, tredecies pro iter agentibus. Tam pro papa quam pro rege bibunt omnes sine lege. Eight times for sinful brothers, nine times for scattered monks, ten times for the seafaring, eleven times for the quarrelling, twelve times for the penitent, thirteen times for travellers. They all drink without restraint for the Pope just as for the King. Bibit hera, bibit herus, Bibit miles, bibit clerus, bibit ille, bibit illa, bibit servus cum ancilla, bibit velox, bibit piger, bibit albus, bibit niger, bibit constans, bibit vagus, bibit rudis, bibit magus. The mistress drinks, the master drinks, the soldier drinks, the cleric drinks, this man drinks, that woman drinks, the servant drinks with the maid, the active man drinks, the lazy man drinks the white man drinks, the black man drinks, the settled man drinks, the wanderer drinks, the ignorant man drinks, the scholar drinks. Bibit pauper et egrotus, bibit exul et ignotus, bibit puer, bibit canus, bibt presul et decanus, bibit soror, bibit frater, bibit anus, bibit mater, bibit iste, bibit ille, bibunt centum, bibunt mille. The poor man and the sick man drink, the unknown man and the exile drink, the boy drinks, the old man drinks, the leader and the deacon drink, the sister drinks, the brother drinks, the old woman drinks, the mother drinks, this woman drinks, that man drinks, hundreds drink, thousands drink. Parum sexcente nummate durant, cum immoderate bibunt omnes sine meta, quamvis bibit mente leta; sic nos rodunt omnes gentes, et sic erimus egentes. Qui nos rodunt confundantur et cum iustis non scribantur. Io io! Six hundred coins do not last long enough, where all drink without limit of restraint, though they may drink with happy hearts; thus everyone disparages us, and thus we shall be destitute. Let those who disparage us be confounded, and their names be not inscribed with the just. Io io! 22 sydney symphony COUR D’AMOURS THE COURT OF LOVE 15. Soprano solo and children’s chorus Amor volat undique; captus est libidine. Iuvenes, iuvencule coniunguntur merito. Love flies everywhere, seized by desire. Young men and girls are rightly joined together. Siqua sine socio, caret omni gaudio, tenet noctis infima sub intimo cordis in custodia: fit res amarissima. A girl without a man lacks all delight; deepest night holds her inmost heart enchained: such a thing is indeed bitter. 16. Baritone solo Dies, nox et omnia michi sunt contraria, virginum colloquia me fay planszer, oy suvenz suspirer, plu me fay temer. Day, night, and all things are against me, and the sound of girls’ voices makes me weep, and, alas, makes me often sigh, and even makes me fear. O sodales, ludite, vos qui scitis dicite, michi mesto parcite, grand ey dolur, attamen consulite per voster honur. O friends, amuse yourselves; you who know, speak on. spare me in my grief; great is my sorrow. But yet reflect, by your honour. Tua pulchra facies me fay planszer milies, pectus habet glacies a remender, statim vivus fierem per un baser. Your lovely face and my heart make me weep a thousand tears; I should be cured and brought to life again by one kiss. sydney symphony 23 17. Soprano solo Stetit puella rufa tunica: si quis eam tetigit, tunica crepuit. Eia. There stood a girl in a red tunic; if anyone touched the tunic it rustled. Eia. Stetit puella tamquam rosula; facie splenduit, os eius floruit. Eia. There stood a girl like a little rose; her face was radiant, and her mouth bloomed. Eia. 18. Baritone solo and chorus Circa mea pectora multa sunt suspiria de tua pulchritudine, que me ledunt misere. Manda liet, manda liet, min geselle chumet niet! My heart is filled with many sighs which give me grievous pain because of your beauty. Manda liet, manda liet, my love does not come. Tui lucent oculi sicut solis radii, sicut splendor fulguris lucem donat tenebris. Manda liet… Your eyes shine like rays of the sun, as the brilliance of lightning gives light to the dark night. Manda liet... Vellet deus, vellent dii, quod mente proposui: ut eius virginea reserassem vincula. Manda liet… May the gods approve my resolve to undo the bonds of her virginity. Manda liet... 19. Male semichorus 19. Male semichorus Si puer cum puellula moraretur in cellula, felix coniunctio. Amore suscrescente, pariter e medio avulso procul tedio, fit ludus ineffabilis membris, lacertis, labiis. If a boy is with a young girl in a little room, that is a happy union. Love wells up as restraint is banished far from them, and inexpressible pleasure comes over their limbs, their arms, their lips. 24 sydney symphony 20. Double chorus Veni, veni, veni venias, ne me mori facias, hyrca, hyrce, nazaza, trillirivos… Come, come, come, do not make me die, hyrca, hyrce, nazaza, trillirivos… Pulchra tibi facies, oculorum acies, capillorum series, o quam clara species! Your beautiful face, the look of your eyes, the braids of your hair, O how glorious you look! Rosa rubicundior, lilio candidior, omnibus formosior, semper in te glorior! Redder than the rose, whiter than the lily, more beautiful than all the rest, I glory in you unceasingly! 21. Soprano solo In trutina mentis dubia fluctuant contraria lascivus amor et pudicitia. Sed eligo quod video, collum iugo prebeo; ad iugum tamen suave transeo. Opposite courses hang in the balance of my wavering mind; wanton love and chastity. But I choose what I see and bend my neck to the yoke – to the sweet yoke I submit. 22. Soprano and Baritone solos Chorus and children’s chorus Tempus est iocundum o virgines, modo congaudete vos iuvenes. Oh, oh, oh, totus floreo! Iam amore virginali totus ardeo, novus amor est quo pereo! The season is pleasant, O maidens; rejoice together, you young men. O, o, o, I bloom all over with love for a maiden; it is a new, new love that I die of. sydney symphony 25 Mea me confortat promissio, mea me deportat negatio. Oh, oh, oh… Complying soothes me, refusing casts me down. O, o, o, I bloom all over... Tempore brumali vir patiens, animo vernali lasciviens. Oh, oh, oh… In winter time a man is passive, the breath of spring arouses his desires. O, o, o, I bloom all over... Mea mecum ludit virginitas, mea me detrudit simplicitas. Oh, oh, oh… My virginity teases me, my innocence defeats me. O, o, o, I bloom all over, etc. Veni, domicella, cum gaudio, veni, veni, pulchra iam pereo. Oh, oh, oh… Come with joy, my mistress, come, come, my beautiful one, for I am dying. O, o, o, I bloom all over... 23. Soprano solo 23. Soprano solo Dulcissime, ah, totam tibi subdo me! Sweetest one, I give myself to you utterly. BLANZIFLOR ET HELENA BLANZIFLOR AND HELENA 24. Chorus Ave formosissima gemma pretiosa, ave decus virginum, virgo gloriosa, ave mundi luminar, ave mundi rosa, Blanziflor et Helena, Venus generosa! 26 sydney symphony Hail, most beautiful one, precious jewel; hail, pride of maidens, glorious maiden; hail, light of the world; hail, rose of the world, Blanziflor and Helena, noble Venus. FORTUNA, IMPERATRIX MUNDI FORTUNE, EMPRESS OF THE WORLD 25. Chorus 25. Chorus O Fortuna, velut Luna statu variabilis, semper crescis aut decrescis; vita detestabilis nunc obdurat et tunc curat ludo mentis aciem, egestatem, potestatem dissolvit ut glaciem. O Fortune, changeable as the moon, you are always either improving or deteriorating. Detestable life at one moment thwarts and at another mockingly indulges the mind’s desire, melting away both poverty and power, like ice. Sors immanis et inanis, rota tu volubilis, status malus, vana salus semper dissolubilis, obumbrata et velata michi quoque niteris; nunc per ludum dorsum nudum fero tui sceleris. Vain, monstrous Fate, you turning wheel, you can, when you will, destroy bad circumstances and delusive success alike. Veiled and shadowy, you attack me too; now at your whim I bare my back under your assault. Sors salutis et virtutis michi nunc contraria, est affectus et defectus semper in angaria. Hac in hora sine mora corde pulsum tangite; quod per sortem sternit fortem, mecum omnes plangite! You, Fate, who dispose health and strength, are now against me; my desires and my weakness are in constant slavery. At this hour without delay let all pluck the string; let all lament with me how the brave man is crushed by Fate. The text by Carl Orff from Carmina Burana is reproduced by permission of Hal Leonard Australia, exclusive agent for Schott Music Ltd of Mainz sydney symphony 27 MORE MUSIC CHEN QIGANG Unfortunately Enchantements oubliés has not been recorded for commercial release, but other music by Chen Qigang is available on CD and online. Worth seeking out (and available as a download) is Extase, with the title work a concerto for oboe and orchestra from 1995. The disc also includes music for traditional Chinese instruments and two works for orchestra including L’Eloignement from 2004. The French Radio Philharmonic Orchestra is conducted by Leonard Slatkin and Yves Prin. The Hua Xia Chamber Ensemble conducted by Tsung Yeh provides the traditional element, and Jean-Louis Capezzali is the oboe soloist. Among recent recordings is one conducted by Kristjan Järvi, who appeared with the Sydney Symphony earlier this month. Kiera Duffy, Marco Panuccio and Daniel Schmutzhard are the soloists, with the Middle German Radio Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. SONY 544 621 Broadcast Diary April VIRGIN CLASSICS 44693 abc.net.au/classic More recently Chen completed the soundtrack for the film Flowers of War (2011), directed by Zhang Yimou and starring Christian Bale. Violinist Joshua Bell is among the soloists on the recording. Tuesday 9 April, 1.05pm SONY 99256 Short excerpts of Chen’s work are available for download from the ‘Auditorium’ section of his website: www.qigangchen.com/FE/english.htm CARMINA BURANA Eugen Jochum’s recording of Carmina Burana for Deutsche Grammophon was made in 1967 under the supervision of the composer and is generally considered definitive. Jochum is joined by soloists Gundula Janowitz, Gerhard Stolze, Dietrich FischerDieskau, and the Schöneberg Boys’ Choir and Berlin German Opera Orchestra and Chorus. DG THE ORIGINALS 447437 Berlin Classics’ budget line, Basics, reissues some fine German performances and its Carmina Burana is given a precise and rhythmically springy interpretation by Herbert Kegel with the Leipzig Radio and Children’s Radio Choirs, Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra, and soloists Jutta Vulpius, Hans-Joachim Rotzsch, Kurt Rehm and Kurt Hübenthal, in a recording from 1960. BERLIN CLASSICS 0185572BC And if you’re wondering what there is beyond the eclipsing fame of Carmina Burana, look for the recording of Orff’s choral trilogy: Carmina Burana, Catulli Carmina and Trionfi di Afrodite. Again, Herbert Kegel conducts the Leipzig orchestra and its muchpraised chorus, but with a different line-up of soloists and the Dresden Children’s Choir. BERLIN CLASSICS 300066 28 sydney symphony totally tchaikovsky (2012) Vladimir Ashkenazy conductor Garrick Ohlsson piano Piano Concerto No.2 (original version), Symphony No.4 Saturday 20 April, 1pm resurrection symphony (2011) Vladimir Ashkenazy conductor Emma Matthews soprano Michelle DeYoung mezzo-soprano Sydney Philharmonia Choirs Mahler Fine Music 102.5 sydney symphony 2013 Tuesday 9 April, 6pm Musicians, staff and guest artists discuss what’s in store in our forthcoming concerts. Webcasts Selected Sydney Symphony concerts are webcast live on BigPond and Telstra T-box and made available for later viewing On Demand. Our latest webcast: jazz trumpet meets the orchestra Visit: bigpondmusic.com/sydneysymphony ABOUT THE ARTISTS Long Yu CONDUCTOR Born in 1964 into a musical family in Shanghai, Long Yu received his early musical education from his grandfather Ding Shande, a composer of great renown, and went on to study at the Shanghai Conservatory and the Hochschule der Kunst in Berlin. Since then, his career has included both artistic and administrative appointments. He is currently Artistic Director of the Beijing Music Festival (in which he played a founding role in 1998) and the China Philharmonic Orchestra; Music Director of the Shanghai and Guangzhou symphony orchestras; and co-director of the MISA Shanghai Summer Festival, which he established in 2010. Under Long Yu’s leadership, the Beijing Music Festival has come to be regarded as one of the world’s most important music festivals, and his vision and efforts continue to make it the hub of musical life in China’s capital. He also regularly tours with his orchestras throughout China and to major international centres, and as a guest conductor he has appeared with leading orchestras and opera companies worldwide. These include Orchestre de Paris, Hamburg State Opera, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Munich Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Tokyo Philharmonic and the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. Forthcoming debuts include appearances with the NDR Symphony Orchestra Hamburg, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra and Montreal Symphony Orchestra. In 1992 he was appointed Principal Conductor of the Central Opera Theatre in Beijing, and was involved in the planning of the Chinese New Year concert series later that year, serving as its conductor for three consecutive years. He created opera productions for the Urban Council of Hong Kong for five seasons. In 2005, with the provincial government’s support, he built up the Canton International Summer Music Academy and was its Chairman for three years, and in 2010 he established the Canton Asian Music Festival. His awards include the 2002 Arts Patronage Award of the Montblanc Cultural Foundation and the Chevalier dans L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (2003), and in 2005 President Berlusconi granted him the title ‘L’onorificenza di commendatore’ for his outstanding contribution in the field of music and culture. In 2010, Long Yu was named an Honorary Academician of the Central Conservatory of Beijing for his great dedication to cultural exchange and music development in China. In 2002 Long Yu conducted the orchestra in Symphony Under the Sails on the Sydney Opera House Forecourt. This is his first concert hall appearance with the Sydney Symphony. sydney symphony 29 Milica Ilic SOPRANO In 1996, Serbian-born Milica Ilic migrated to New Zealand, where she began studying singing with David Griffiths. As a member of the Young Friends of Opera New Zealand, she performed as a oloist and in the chorus, and a television appearance on Dreams Come True led to her participation in a workshop hosted by Dame Kiri Te Kanawa. Milica Ilic holds a music degree from the Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University, where her roles included Papagena (The Magic Flute), Cupid (Semele) and Nannetta (Falstaff). She also studied German at the Berlin Goethe-Institut and voice with Leandra Overmann (Academy of Music, Würzburg). Affiliated with Opera Queensland as a Young Artist, she created the role of Emma in the youth opera Dirty Apple, and appeared in La Traviata and their touring production of The Merry Widow. She has also sung Barbarina (The Marriage of Figaro) for the Macau International Music Festival and given a private recital in the Sydney Opera House Utzon Room. Last year she appeared for Opera Australia as the Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute and covered the title role in Lucia di Lammermoor. She also released an EP, Lakmé, with mezzo-soprano Victoria Lambourn. In 2010 she performed in the Queensland Symphony Orchestra’s Opera Gala and has since appeared as a soloist with the QSO on several occasions. This is her Sydney Symphony debut. Paul McMahon TENOR Tenor Paul McMahon is one of Australia’s leading singers of baroque and classical repertoire. He performs regularly as a soloist with orchestras, chamber music groups and choirs throughout Australia, New Zealand and Asia, and is in special demand for the part of the Evangelist in the Passions of JS Bach. Performance highlights include the St John Passion (Australian Chamber Orchestra, Richard Tognetti), St Matthew Passion (Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, Roy Goodman); Haydn’s Creation (Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra, Richard Hickox) and Stravinsky’s Pulcinella (Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Markus Stenz). His recordings include the solo album A Painted Tale – English, French and Italian lute songs, Messiah, Handel’s Semele, Monteverdi’s Orfeo, Purcell’s Fairy Queen, Mozart’s Requiem and Idomeneo, Fauré’s Naissance de Venus and Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana. In 2011 he sang the Evangelist in both Bach Passions (Orpheus Choir Wellington, Sydney Philharmonia Choirs and St George’s Cathedral, Perth), Bach’s Magnificat (Adelaide Symphony Orchestra), Mozart’s Mass in C Minor (Melbourne and West Australian Symphony Orchestras) and Carmina Burana (Melbourne Symphony Orchestra). Last year he performed with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, Australia Ensemble, Auckland Choral Society, Melbourne Bach Choir and St George’s Cathedral, Perth. His appearances with the Sydney Symphony include Carmina Burana (2009) and most recently Mozart’s Requiem under David Zinman. 30 sydney symphony Changyong Liao BARITONE Changyong Liao is a leading Chinese vocalist and opera performer who occupies a notable position on the international stage. As an administrator, he is also director of the Chinese Musicians Association, vice chairman of the Shanghai Musicians Association and director of the Vocal Performance Department at the Shanghai Conservatory. He studied with distinguished tenor Wei Luo and soprano Xiaoyan Zhou, graduating from the Shanghai Conservatory in 1995 with a master’s degree. Soon after, he won three major international competitions within the space of twelve months: Placido Domingo’s Operalia – The World Opera Competition, the Queen Sonja International Music Competition in Norway, and the 41st International Singing Competition of Toulouse. Since then, he has performed with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Opera Orchestra, Toulouse National Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, Osaka Philharmonic Orchestra, Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra and Norwegian National Opera, among others. His operatic roles include Valentin (Faust) with OpéraComique, Morales (Carmen) with the LSO, Escamillo (Carmen) at Shanghai Opera House and Nancy Opera House, Germont (La Traviata) with the Taipei National Symphony Orchestra, Danilo (The Merry Widow) at Shanghai Opera House and Alfio (Cavalleria rusticana) at Shanghai Grand Theatre. He has also sung Rigoletto, Rinaldo (A Masked Ball) and Marcello (La bohème) for the Zhou Xiaoyan International Opera Centre of the Shanghai Conservatory. This is Changyong Liao’s Sydney Symphony debut. %HWKHŹUVWWRNQRZ 6LJQXSWRRXUIUHHHQHZVOHWWHU www.sydneysymphony.com/staytuned sydney symphony 31 Sydney Philharmonia Choirs Formed in 1920, Sydney Philharmonia Choirs is Australia’s largest choral organisation. The three principal choirs – the Chamber Singers, Symphony Chorus and the young adult choir VOX – perform a diverse repertoire each year, ranging from early a cappella works to challenging contemporary music. Sydney Philharmonia Choirs presents an annual concert series of choral masterpieces, and has premiered several commissioned works, most recently Andrew Ford’s Waiting for the Barbarians and Rautavaara’s Missa a Cappella. In 2002, Sydney Philharmonia was the first Australian choir to sing at the BBC Proms (Mahler’s Eighth Symphony under Simon Rattle), returning again in 2010. Other highlights have included Britten’s War Requiem at the 2007 Perth Festival and Semele Walk at the 2013 Sydney Festival. Appearances with the Sydney Symphony have included Mahler’s Eighth for the Olympic Arts Festival (2000), Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex and Symphony of Psalms, ‘Midsummer Shakespeare’ and 2001: A Space Odyssey (Sydney Festival), the choral symphonies in Vladimir Ashkenazy’s Mahler Odyssey (2010–11), Sibelius’s Kullervo, the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and concert performances of Tchaikovsky’s Queen of Spades, conducted by Ashkenazy. Elizabeth Scott acting music director Elizabeth Scott graduated from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music in 1995 as a flute major and completed postgraduate studies in choral conducting, vocal performance and aural training in Hungary and Germany. Before her appointment as Musical Director of VOX, she was the Sydney Philharmonia Assistant Chorusmaster (2006–2008). She is also Associate Conductor of Sydney Chamber Choir and a guest choral director for Gondwana Choirs, Coro Innominata, Macquarie University Singers and Orpheus Choral Music. She is Music Performance Projects Officer at The Arts Unit, a specialist branch of the Department of Education and Training, and is the Director of Vocal and Choral Studies at the Conservatorium High School. Since 2007, she has participated in the Symphony Australia Conductor Development Program, and in 2008 was awarded the Sydney Choral Symposium Foundation Choral Conducting Scholarship. Elizabeth Scott sings with Cantillation and has performed and recorded with Pinchgut Opera and The Song Company. 32 sydney symphony Brett Weymark Music Director Elizabeth Scott Acting Music Director | Music Director – VOX Atul Joshi General Manager Anthony Pasquill Assistant Chorusmaster Rehearsal pianists Josephine Allan, Luke Byrne, Chris Cartner, Michael Curtain SOPRANOS Ria Andriani Olivia BandlerLlewellyn Ruth Beecher Sandi Bell Amy Bentley Jacqui Binetsky Georgina Bitcon Anne Blake Megan Boundey Anita Burkart Victoria Campbell Charlotte Campbell Jeongyoon (Ashley) Choi Meta Cohen Anne Cooke Pam Cunningham Charmaine Cusack Rouna Daley Catherine De Luca Shamistha De Soysa* Vanessa Downing Vanessa Ede Soline EpainMarzac Rachel Evans Joanna Forbes Judith Gorry Vicky Gray Belinda Griffiths Emi Haskell Ellen Hopper Genevra Howard Rebecca Howard Rychelle Kiely Yi-Hsia Koh Karolina Kulczynska Yvette Leonard Alexandra Little Carolyn Lowry Lyanne Macfarlane Claire Maynard Georgia Melville Bernadette Mitchell Amelia Myers Sarah Parker Dympna Paterson Quan Quan Phua Amanda Ramos Clare Richards Allison Rowlands Elna Schonfeldt Maya Schwenke Kaila Sercombe Meg Shaw Rachel Sibley Alex Siegers Kimberley Stuart Sarah Thompson Simone Toldi Jessica Veliscek Carolan Sara Watts Jacqui Wilkins ALTOS Amanda Baird Mallika Bender Katie Blake Jan Borrie Gae Bristow Heather Burnett Caitlin Campbell Maddy Carr Michelle (NienHung) Chou Misha Christian Kate Clowes Isabel Colman Pip Davies Alison Dutton Ruth Edenborough Helen Esmond Jan Fawke Phoebe Ferguson Kerry Francis Nadia Fried Linda Gerryts Jennifer Gillman Emma Hancock Kathryn Harwood Margaret Hofman Edwina Howes Judy Huang Sanne Hulst Johanna Knoechel Pia Kostiainen Rachel Maiden Sarah McGrath Donna McIntosh Janice McKeand Maggie McKelvey Tijana Miljovska Penelope Morris Susie North Helen Pedersen Christine Polec Clodagh Reid Olivia Robinson Johanna Segall Hannah Shanks Jan Shaw Suzanne Sherrington Vanessa South* Alexandra StuartWatt Natasja Stul Melvin Tan Robyn Tupman Sheli Wallach Chela Weitzel Lia Weitzel Brigitte Wirfler Jaimie Wolbers Noriko Yamanaka Priscilla Yuen BASSES Timothy Bennett Dominic Blake Simon Boileau Julian Coghlan Daryl Colquhoun TENORS Philip Crenigan* Matthew Allchurch Robert Cunningham Xander Bird Graham Dick Paul Boswell Simon Cadwallader Gabe Fischer Isaias Sirur Flores Lanhowe Chen Daniel Comarmond Tom ForresterPaton Blade Fuller Jack Garner Shaun Gessler Zac Gough Denys Gillespie* Eric Hansen Andrew Guy David Jacobs Steven Hankey Timothy Jenkins Todd Hawken Adrian Kenny Jude Holdsworth Alex Li-Kim-Mui Ben Hurley Mark McGoldrick Fenn Idle Samuel Merrick Michael Kertesz Sean Moloney Neil Lazo Michael Nolan Vincent Lo Ian Pettener Paul Mai Peter Poole Frank Maio Michael Ryan Juan Martin Theo Small Marangoni Tim Storer Jarred Mattes Jannie Van Mark Meehan Deventer Dimitry Moraitis Ryan Wiblin George Panaretos Robert Williams Jack Pengelly Arthur Winckler Martin Stebbings David Wood Michael Wallach Stephen Young Ben Wirfler Ken Zhang Shaun Young Chamberlain Zhang * Section Leaders To find out about Sydney Philharmonia concerts or joining one of the choirs, visit www.sydneyphilharmonia.com.au sydney symphony 33 Sydney Children’s Choir The Sydney Children’s Choir has built a worldwide reputation for choral excellence, inspiring audiences with a distinctly Australian choral sound. Under the direction of founder Lyn Williams oam, the choir has commissioned over a hundred works from leading Australian composers and has toured extensively, performing this Australian choral repertoire to great acclaim throughout Australia as well as in Indonesia, Singapore, Finland, Estonia, Denmark, France, the United Kingdom, Japan and China. Closer to home, the Sydney Children’s Choir has performed at major events including the Papal Welcome at World Youth Day 2008, APEC Leaders’ Week at the Sydney Opera House, the Australia Day Spectacular at Darling Harbour and the Opening Ceremony of the Sydney Olympic Games. The choir is also frequently invited to perform with some of the world’s most acclaimed orchestras and conductors including Michael Tilson Thomas and the YouTube Symphony Orchestra, Zubin Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, and with the Sydney Symphony under Edo de Waart, Charles Dutoit and Vladimir Ashkenazy. The choir’s many performances with the Sydney Symphony in recent years have included Mahler symphonies (No.8 and No.3), The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers (with The Return of the King scheduled for 2013), and Tchaikovsky’s Queen of Spades. The choir appears on the soundtracks of Moulin Rouge, Happy Feet and Australia, and on their most recent recording, Voices of Angels. Lyn Williams OAM artistic director & founder, gondwana choirs Lyn Williams is Australia’s leading director of choirs for young people, having founded the internationally renowned Gondwana Choirs. Since 1989, Gondwana Choirs has grown to include the Sydney Children’s Choir, Gondwana National Choirs and Gondwana National Indigenous Children’s Choir. Her exceptional skill in working with young people is recognised for its high artistic quality and groundbreaking innovation. She frequently directs and conducts for major events, tours internationally with her choirs, and has conducted the Sydney, Adelaide, Melbourne symphony orchestras, Australian Chamber Orchestra and Australian Youth Orchestra. In 2004 she was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia in recognition of her services to the Arts, and in 2006 the NSW State Award (Classical Music Awards) for her contribution to the advancement of Australian music. Lyn Williams is a Churchill Fellow and also a composer. 34 sydney symphony STAFF Lyn Williams oam Artistic Director & Founder Dan Walker Associate Artistic Director Sally Whitwell Pianist Karynne Courts General Manager John Nolan Artistic Operations Manager Clare Kenny Choir Manager Emma Barnett Assistant Choir Manager Rob Hansen Artistic Administration Assistant CHORISTERS Madeleine Aarons Guian Balan Neil Baker Ariel Bonnell Alison Campbell Ihnteck Chung Stella Davy Timothy Dutton Marianna Ebersoll Oliver Golding Annelise Hall Beth Harper-King Chloe Hart Abel Hofflin Victoria Hofflin Miranda Ilchef Rebecca Johnson Maeve Kelaher Helena Kertesz Emma Korrell Eleanor Kozak Reuben Langbein Tabitha Lee Eloise Loewy Jemima Lorenz Stephanie Macindoe Owen MacNamara Anna Marsh Lachlan Massey Eve McEwen Rebecca O’Hanlon Madeleine Picard Sebastian Pini Gabi Powell-Thomas Emma Renaud Ariana Ricci Timothy Sampson Mackenzie Shaw Amelia Smiles Isabella Suckling Zoe Taylor Jill Termaat James Thomson Adam Travis Beatrice Tucker Vanilla Tupu Olivia Wei Imogen Williams Juliet Wittenoom Louw Yilan Yu www.sydneychildrenschoir.com.au sydney symphony 35 MUSICIANS Vladimir Ashkenazy Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor supported by Emirates Dene Olding Concertmaster Jessica Cottis Assistant Conductor supported by Premier Partner Credit Suisse FIRST VIOLINS VIOLAS FLUTES TRUMPETS Dene Olding Tobias Breider Anne-Louise Comerford Robyn Brookfield Jane Hazelwood Graham Hennings Stuart Johnson Justine Marsden Felicity Tsai Leonid Volovelsky Rosemary Curtin* Roger Benedict Justin Williams Emma Sholl Rosamund Plummer David Elton Anthony Heinrichs Matthew Dempsey* Paul Goodchild John Foster Concertmaster Sun Yi Associate Concertmaster Roy Theaker* Jennifer Booth Brielle Clapson Sophie Cole Georges Lentz Nicola Lewis Alexander Norton Elizabeth Jones* Claire Herrick° Emily Qin° Kelly Tang† Lucy Warren* Kirsten Williams Associate Concertmaster Fiona Ziegler Assistant Concertmaster Julie Batty Marianne Broadfoot Amber Davis Jennifer Hoy Alexandra Mitchell Léone Ziegler SECOND VIOLINS Marina Marsden Kirsty Hilton Alexander Read Emily Long Nicole Masters Maja Verunica Susan Dobbie Principal Emeritus Benjamin Li Shuti Huang Biyana Rozenblit Philippa Paige Stan W Kornel Maria Durek Emma Jezek Principal Piccolo Katie Zagorski* Janet Webb Carolyn Harris TROMBONES Diana Doherty Alexandre Oguey Ronald Prussing Nick Byrne Christopher Harris Principal Cor Anglais Principal Bass Trombone Scott Kinmont Sandro Costantino Stephanie Cooper* Shefali Pryor David Papp CELLOS CLARINETS Michael Stirling* Catherine Hewgill Kristy Conrau Fenella Gill Timothy Nankervis Adrian Wallis David Wickham Rowena Macneish° Leah Lynn Lawrence Dobell Christopher Tingay Craig Wernicke TIMPANI Principal Bass Clarinet Richard Miller Assistant Principal Jack Schiller† Melissa Woodroffe* Matthew Wilkie Roger Brooke Fiona McNamara Assistant Principal OBOES Steve Rossé Elizabeth Neville Christopher Pidcock DOUBLE BASSES Alex Henery David Campbell Steven Larson David Murray Benjamin Ward Josef Bisits Kees Boersma Neil Brawley Principal Emeritus Richard Lynn Mark Robinson Assistant Principal Francesco Celata PERCUSSION BASSOONS Noriko Shimada Principal Contrabassoon HORNS Ben Jacks Marnie Sebire Sebastian Dunn* Rachel Shaw° Robert Johnson Geoffrey O’Reilly Rebecca Lagos Colin Piper Timothy Constable* Kevin Man* Chiron Meller* Philip South* HARP Louise Johnson KEYBOARDS Catherine Davis* Susanne Powell* Sally Whitwell* Principal 3rd Euan Harvey Assistant Principal Emma Hayes To see photographs of the full roster of permanent musicians and find out more about the orchestra, visit our website: www.sydneysymphony.com/SSO_musicians If you don’t have access to the internet, ask one of our customer service representatives for a copy of our Musicians flyer. 36 sydney symphony TUBA Bold = Principal Italics = Associate Principal ° = Contract Musician * = Guest Musician † = Sydney Symphony Fellow Grey = Permanent member of the Sydney Symphony not appearing in this concert The men of the Sydney Symphony are proudly outfitted by Van Heusen. SYDNEY SYMPHONY JOHN MARMARAS Vladimir Ashkenazy, Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor PATRON Her Excellency Professor Marie Bashir AC CVO Founded in 1932 by the Australian Broadcasting Commission, 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 it gives more than 100 performances each year, the Sydney Symphony also performs in venues throughout Sydney and regional New South Wales. International tours to Europe, Asia and the USA have earned the orchestra worldwide recognition for artistic excellence, most recently in the 2012 tour to China. The Sydney Symphony’s first Chief Conductor was Sir Eugene Goossens, appointed in 1947; he was followed by Nicolai Malko, Dean Dixon, Moshe Atzmon, Willem van Otterloo, Louis Frémaux, Sir Charles Mackerras, Zdeněk Mácal, Stuart Challender, Edo de Waart and Gianluigi Gelmetti. David Robertson will take up the post of Chief Conductor in 2014. The orchestra’s history also boasts collaborations with legendary figures such as George Szell, Sir Thomas Beecham, Otto Klemperer and Igor Stravinsky. The Sydney Symphony’s award-winning education program is central to its commitment to the future of live symphonic music, developing audiences and engaging the participation of young people. The orchestra promotes the work of Australian composers through performances, recordings and its commissioning program. Recent premieres have included major works by Ross Edwards, Liza Lim, Lee Bracegirdle, Gordon Kerry and Georges Lentz, and the orchestra’s recording of works by Brett Dean was released on both the BIS and Sydney Symphony Live labels. Other releases on the Sydney Symphony Live label, established in 2006, include performances with Alexander Lazarev, Gianluigi Gelmetti, Sir Charles Mackerras and Vladimir Ashkenazy. In 2010–11 the orchestra made concert recordings of the complete Mahler symphonies with Ashkenazy, and has also released recordings of Rachmaninoff and Elgar orchestral works on the Exton/Triton labels, as well as numerous recordings on the ABC Classics label. This is the fifth year of Ashkenazy’s tenure as Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor. sydney symphony 37 BEHIND THE SCENES Sydney Symphony Board Sydney Symphony Staff S EXECUTIVE TEAM ASSISTANT EX GRAPHIC DESIGNER John C Conde ao Chairman Terrey Arcus am Ewen Crouch am Ross Grant Jennifer Hoy Rory Jeffes Andrew Kaldor am Irene Lee David Livingstone Goetz Richter Lisa Davies-Galli Li Lucy McCullough ARTISTIC OPERATIONS A Nathanael van der Reyden MANAGING DIRECTOR M DATA ANALYST Rory Jeffes R Varsha Karnik CREATIVE ARTWORKER DIRECTOR OF ARTISTIC PLANNING D MARKETING COORDINATOR Peter Czornyj Pe Jonathon Symonds Artistic Administration Ar ARTISTIC ADMINISTRATION MANAGER AR Eleasha Mah El ARTIST LIAISON MANAGER AR MANAGER OF BOX OFFICE SALES & OPERATIONS RECORDING ENTERPRISE MANAGER RE Lynn McLaughlin Education Programs Ed E HEAD OF EDUCATION H Kim Waldock K EMERGING ARTISTS PROGRAM MANAGER EM Mark Lawrenson M EDUCATION COORDINATOR ED Rachel McLarin R Geoff Ainsworth am Andrew Andersons ao Michael Baume ao Christine Bishop Ita Buttrose ao obe Peter Cudlipp John Curtis am Greg Daniel am John Della Bosca Alan Fang Erin Flaherty Dr Stephen Freiberg Donald Hazelwood ao obe Dr Michael Joel am Simon Johnson Yvonne Kenny am Gary Linnane Amanda Love Helen Lynch am David Maloney David Malouf ao Julie Manfredi-Hughes Deborah Marr The Hon. Justice Jane Mathews ao Danny May Wendy McCarthy ao Jane Morschel Greg Paramor Dr Timothy Pascoe am Prof. Ron Penny ao Jerome Rowley Paul Salteri Sandra Salteri Juliana Schaeffer Leo Schofield am Fred Stein oam Gabrielle Trainor Ivan Ungar John van Ogtrop Peter Weiss ao HonDLitt Mary Whelan Rosemary White 38 sydney symphony Box Office Ilmar Leetberg Il Philip Powers Ph Sydney Symphony Council ONLINE MARKETING COORDINATOR Jenny Sargant CUSTOMER SERVICE OFFICER C Derek Reed D Library Li LIBRARIAN LI BOX OFFICE SYSTEMS SUPERVISOR Jacqueline Tooley CUSTOMER SERVICE REPRESENTATIVES Steve Clarke – Senior CSR Michael Dowling John Robertson Bec Sheedy Amy Walsh COMMUNICATIONS HEAD OF COMMUNICATIONS & SPONSOR RELATIONS Yvonne Zammit Anna Cernik An PUBLIC RELATIONS MANAGER LIBRARY ASSISTANT LI Katherine Stevenson Victoria Grant Vi COMMUNICATIONS COORDINATOR LIBRARY ASSISTANT LI Janine Harris Mary-Ann Mead M FELLOWSHIP SOCIAL MEDIA OFFICER Caitlin Benetatos ORCHESTRA MANAGEMENT O DIRECTOR OF ORCHESTRA MANAGEMENT D Publications Aernout Kerbert Ae PUBLICATIONS EDITOR & MUSIC PRESENTATION MANAGER ORCHESTRA MANAGER O Yvonne Frindle Chris Lewis C ORCHESTRA COORDINATOR O Georgia Stamatopoulos G OPERATIONS MANAGER O Kerry-Anne Cook K PRODUCTION MANAGER PR Laura Daniel La PRODUCTION COORDINATOR PR Tim Dayman T PRODUCTION COORDINATOR PR Ian Spence Ia STAGE MANAGER ST Elise Beggs El DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT Caroline Sharpen EXTERNAL RELATIONS MANAGER Stephen Attfield PHILANTHROPY, PATRONS PROGRAM Ivana Jirasek DEVELOPMENT MANAGER Amelia Morgan-Hunn BUSINESS SERVICES DIRECTOR OF FINANCE John Horn SALES AND MARKETING SA FINANCE MANAGER DIRECTOR OF SALES & MARKETING D Ruth Tolentino Mark J Elliott M ACCOUNTANT SENIOR SALES & MARKETING MANAGER SE Minerva Prescott Penny Evans Pe ACCOUNTS ASSISTANT MARKETING MANAGER, SUBSCRIPTION SALES M Simon Crossley-Meates Si MARKETING MANAGER, CLASSICAL SALES M Matthew Rive M MARKETING MANAGER, WEB & DIGITAL MEDIA M Eve Le Gall Ev MARKETING MANAGER, DATABASE & CRM M Matthew Hodge M Emma Ferrer PAYROLL OFFICER Laura Soutter HUMAN RESOURCES HEAD OF HUMAN RESOURCES Michel Maree Hryce SYDNEY SYMPHONY PATRONS Maestro’s Circle Peter William Weiss ao – Founding President & Doris Weiss John C Conde ao – Chairman Geoff Ainsworth am & Vicki Ainsworth Tom Breen & Rachael Kohn In memory of Hetty & Egon Gordon Andrew Kaldor am & Renata Kaldor ao Roslyn Packer ao Penelope Seidler am Mr Fred Street am & Mrs Dorothy Street Westfield Group Brian & Rosemary White Ray Wilson oam in memory of the late James Agapitos oam Sydney Symphony Leadership Ensemble Lynn Kraus, Sydney Office Managing Partner, Ernst & Young Shell Australia Pty Ltd James Stevens, CEO, Roses Only Stephen Johns, Chairman, Leighton Holdings, and Michele Johns Alan Fang, Chairman, Tianda Group Tony Grierson, Braithwaite Steiner Pretty Insurance Australia Group Macquarie Group Foundation John Morschel, Chairman, ANZ Andrew Kaldor am, Chairman, Pelikan Artline Directors’ Chairs 01 02 06 07 01 Roger Benedict Principal Viola Kim Williams am & Catherine Dovey Chair 02 Lawrence Dobell Principal Clarinet Anne Arcus & Terrey Arcus am Chair 03 Diana Doherty Principal Oboe Andrew Kaldor am & Renata Kaldor ao Chair 03 04 08 09 05 04 Richard Gill oam Artistic Director Education Sandra & Paul Salteri Chair 07 Elizabeth Neville Cello Ruth & Bob Magid Chair 05 Catherine Hewgill Principal Cello The Hon. Justice AJ & Mrs Fran Meagher Chair 08 Colin Piper Percussion Justice Jane Mathews ao Chair 06 Robert Johnson Principal Horn James & Leonie Furber Chair 09 Emma Sholl Associate Principal Flute Robert & Janet Constable Chair For information about the Directors’ Chairs program, please call (02) 8215 4619. Sydney Symphony Vanguard Vanguard Collective Members Justin Di Lollo – Chair Kees Boersma Marina Go David McKean Amelia Morgan-Hunn Jonathan Pease Seamus R Quick Matti Alakargas Nikki Andrews James Armstrong Stephen Attfield Andrew Baxter Mar Beltran Kees Boersma Peter Braithwaite Andrea Brown Ian Burton Jennifer Burton Hahn Chau Ron Christianson Matthew Clark Benoît Cocheteux George Condous Michael Cook Paul Cousins Justin Di Lollo Rose Gallo Sam Giddings Marina Go Derek Hand Rose Herceg Jennifer Hoy Damian Kassagbi Chris Keher Elizabeth Lee Antony Lighten Gary Linnane Paul Macdonald David McKean Hayden McLean Amelia Morgan-Hunn Taine Moufarrige Hugh Munro Fiona Osler Peter Outridge Archie Paffas Jonathan Pease Seamus R Quick Michael Reede Jacqueline Rowlands Bernard Ryan Adam Wand Jon Wilkie Jonathan Watkinson Darren Woolley Misha Zelinsky sydney symphony 39 PLAYING YOUR PART The Sydney Symphony gratefully acknowledges the music lovers who donate to the orchestra each year. Each gift plays an important part in ensuring our continued artistic excellence and helping to sustain important education and regional touring programs. Donations of $50 and above are acknowledged on our website at www.sydneysymphony.com/patrons Platinum Patrons $20,000+ Silver Patrons $5000–$9,999 Bronze Patrons $1,000–$2,499 Brian Abel Geoff Ainsworth am & Vicki Ainsworth Robert Albert ao & Elizabeth Albert Terrey Arcus am & Anne Arcus Tom Breen & Rachael Kohn Sandra & Neil Burns Mr John C Conde ao Robert & Janet Constable Michael Crouch ao & Shanny Crouch James & Leonie Furber Dr Bruno & Mrs Rhonda Giuffre In memory of Hetty & Egon Gordon Ms Rose Herceg Mr Andrew Kaldor am & Mrs Renata Kaldor ao D & I Kallinikos James N Kirby Foundation Joan MacKenzie Violin Scholarship, Sinfonia Justice Jane Mathews ao Mrs Roslyn Packer ao Paul & Sandra Salteri Mrs Penelope Seidler am G & C Solomon in memory of Joan MacKenzie Mrs W Stening Mr Fred Street am & Mrs Dorothy Street Peter William Weiss ao & Doris Weiss Westfield Group Mr Brian & Mrs Rosemary White Kim Williams am & Catherine Dovey Ray Wilson oam in memory of James Agapitos oam Doug & Alison Battersby Mr Robert Brakspear Mr David & Mrs Halina Brett Mr Robert & Mrs L Alison Carr Bob & Julie Clampett Ewen Crouch am & Catherine Crouch Ian Dickson & Reg Holloway Penny Edwards Dr C Goldschmidt The Greatorex Foundation Mr Rory Jeffes Judges of the Supreme Court of NSW Mr Ervin Katz The Estate of the late Patricia Lance Timothy & Eva Pascoe William McIlrath Charitable Foundation Rodney Rosenblum am & Sylvia Rosenblum Manfred & Linda Salamon Michael & Mary Whelan Trust Caroline Wilkinson Jill Wran Mrs Antoinette Albert Andrew Andersons ao Mr Henri W Aram oam Dr Francis J Augustus Richard and Christine Banks David Barnes Nicole Berger Allan & Julie Bligh Dr & Mrs Hannes Boshoff Lenore P Buckle M Bulmer In memory of RW Burley Ita Buttrose ao obe Joan Connery oam & Maxwell Connery oam Constable Estate Vineyards Debby Cramer & Bill Caukill Mr John Cunningham SCM & Mrs Margaret Cunningham Greta Davis Lisa & Miro Davis Matthew Delasey Mr & Mrs Grant Dixon Colin Draper & Mary Jane Brodribb Mrs Margaret Epps Mr Ian Fenwicke & Prof. Neville Wills Mr James Graham am & Mrs Helen Graham Warren Green Anthony Gregg & Deanne Whittleston Akiko Gregory Tony Grierson Edward & Deborah Griffin Richard Griffin am In memory of Dora & Oscar Grynberg Janette Hamilton Michelle Hilton The Hon. David Hunt ao qc & Mrs Margaret Hunt Dr & Mrs Michael Hunter In memory of Bernard M H Khaw Mr Justin Lam Mr Peter Lazar am Irene Lee Associate Professor Winston Liauw Dr David Luis Carolyn & Peter Lowry oam Deirdre & Kevin McCann Ian & Pam McGaw Macquarie Group Foundation Ms Jackie O’Brien Mr Robert Orrell Mr & Mrs Ortis Mr Andrew C Patterson Gold Patrons $10,000–$19,999 Stephen J Bell Alan & Christine Bishop Ian & Jennifer Burton Howard Connors Copyright Agency Cutlural Fund Edward Federman Nora Goodridge Mr Ross Grant The Estate of the late Ida Gugger Helen Lynch am & Helen Bauer Ruth & Bob Magid The Hon. Justice AJ Meagher & Mrs Fran Meagher Mrs T Merewether oam Mr B G O’Conor Mrs Joyce Sproat & Mrs Janet Cooke Henry & Ruth Weinberg June & Alan Woods Family Bequest 40 sydney symphony Bronze Patrons $2,500–$4,999 Jan Bowen The Hon. Ashley Dawson-Damer Firehold Pty Ltd Stephen Freiberg & Donald Campbell Vic & Katie French Mrs Jennifer Hershon Michael & Anna Joel Gary Linnane Matthew McInnes J A McKernan R & S Maple-Brown Renee Markovic Mora Maxwell James & Elsie Moore Drs Keith & Eileen Ong In memory of Sandra Paul Pottinger Dr John Roarty oam in memory of Mrs June Roarty In memory of H St P Scarlett Julianna Schaeffer David & Isabel Smithers Marliese & Georges Teitler JF & A van Ogtrop Mr & Mrs T & D Yim Anonymous (1) Piatti Holdings Pty Ltd Andy & Deirdre Plummer Robin Potter Ernest & Judith Rapee Kenneth R Reed Patricia H Reid Endowment Pty Ltd Caroline Sharpen Dr Agnes E Sinclair Catherine Stephen John & Alix Sullivan The Hon. Brian Sully qc Mildred Teitler John E Tuckey Mrs M Turkington In memory of Joan & Rupert Vallentine Dr Alla Waldman Mr Robert & Mrs Rosemary Walsh The Hon. Justice A G Whealy Ann & Brooks Wilson am Dr Richard Wing Mr R R Woodward In memory of Lorna Wright Dr John Yu Anonymous (14) Bronze Patrons $500–$999 Mrs Lenore Adamson Mr & Mrs Garry S Ash Barlow Cleaning Pty Ltd Beauty Point Retirement Resort Mrs Margaret Bell Minnie Biggs Mrs Jan Biber Dr Anthony Bookallil R D & L M Broadfoot Arnaldo Buch Ann & Miles Burgess Pat & Jenny Burnett The Hon. Justice JC & Mrs Campbell Dr Rebecca Chin Mrs Sarah Chissick Mrs Catherine J Clark R A & M J Clarke Mr & Mrs Coates Coffs Airport Security Car Park Mr B & Mrs M Coles Mrs Joan Connery oam Jen Cornish Mr David Cross Phil Diment am & Bill Zafiropoulos Elizabeth Donati The Dowe Family John Favaloro Dr Nita & Dr James Durham Malcolm Ellis & Erin O’Neill In memory of Peter Everett Mr & Mrs Farrell Mr Tom Francis Mr John Gaden Vivienne Goldschmidt Clive & Jenny Goodwin Ian R L Harper Ken Hawkings Mr Roger Henning Harry & Meg Herbert Sue Hewitt Dorothy Hoddinott ao Mr Joerg Hofmann Mrs Kimberley Holden Mr Gregory Hosking Bill & Pam Hughes Niki Kallenberger Mrs W G Keighley Mrs Margaret Keogh Dr Henry Kilham Chris J Kitching Anna-Lisa Klettenberg Mr & Mrs Gilles T Kryger Sonia Lal Mr Luigi Lamprati Dr & Mrs Leo Leader Margaret Lederman Erna & Gerry Levy am Sydney & Airdrie Lloyd Mrs A Lohan Mrs Panee Low Dr David Luis Philip & Catherine McClelland Melvyn Madigan Alan & Joy Martin Mrs Helen Meddings Mrs Toshiko Meric Ms Irene Miller & Ms Kim Harding P J Miller David Mills Kenneth N Mitchell Ms Margaret Moore oam & Dr Paul Hutchins am Chris Morgan-Hunn Mrs Milja Morris A Nhan D O Y O U H AV E A STORY TO TELL? Learn how, with the people who know books and writing best. Mr Graham North Dr Mike O’Connor am Mr R A Oppen Origin Foundation Dr A J Palmer Justice George Palmer am Dr Kevin Pedemont Dr Natalie E Pelham Michael Quailey Lois & Ken Rae Renaissance Tours Anna Ro Pamela Rogers Lesley & Andrew Rosenberg Agnes Ross Mrs Pamela Sayers Garry Scarf & Morgie Blaxill Peter & Virginia Shaw Mrs Diane Shteinman am Ms Stephanie Smee Ms Tatiana Sokolova Doug & Judy Sotheren Mrs Judith Southam Margaret Suthers Mr Lindsay & Mrs Suzanne Stone Norman & Lydia Taylor Dr Heng Tey & Mrs Cilla Tey Mrs Alma Toohey & Mr Edward Spicer Kevin Troy Gillian Turner & Rob Bishop Prof Gordon E Wall Mrs Margaret Wallis Ronald Walledge Mr Palmer Wang Ms Elizabeth Wilkinson Audrey & Michael Wilson A Willmers & R Pal Dr Peter Wong & Mrs Emmy K Wong Geoff Wood & Melissa Waites Mr Robert Woods Glen & Everly Wyss Mrs Robin Yabsley Anonymous (22) To find out more about becoming a Sydney Symphony Patron, please contact the Philanthropy Office on (02) 8215 4625 or email [email protected] Faber Academy at ALLEN & UNWIN T (02) 8425 0171 W allenandunwin.com/faberacademy sydney symphony 41 SALUTE PRINCIPAL PARTNER GOVERNMENT PARTNERS The Sydney Symphony is assisted by the Commonwealth Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body The Sydney Symphony is assisted by the NSW Government through Arts NSW PREMIER PARTNER PLATINUM PARTNERS EDUCATION PARTNER MAJOR PARTNERS GOLD PARTNERS SILVER PARTNERS executive search REGIONAL TOUR PARTNERS MARKETING PARTNER Fine Music 102.5 42 sydney symphony Photo: Keith Saunders ORCHESTRA NEWS | MARCH–APRIL 2013 ` …our section needs to play louder than the first violins a POCKET ROCKET Diminutive in stature but with towering international orchestral experience, for second violin principal Kirsty Hilton, it’s all about location, location, location. Kirsty Hilton loves where she lives. Nicknamed the ‘Rose Bay Hilton’ by friends, her apartment allows her – and her guests! – to live near the harbour. ‘I really missed not being by the water all those years I was in Europe,’ she says. ‘All those years’ included a period of study in London with David Takeno, followed by admission into the prestigious Karajan Academy in Berlin. ‘That was my most intense study time,’ says Kirsty. ‘We had to play almost every week with the Berlin Philharmonic, and four times a year we’d give a big chamber music concert in the Berliner Philharmonie.’ Kirsty was soon appointed to the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. ‘[Mariss] Jansons is my favourite conductor from my time in Munich. He always had time for you personally, even though he could seem quite shy and distant. And he would always give 100 per cent in rehearsal and in concert.’ A touch homesick, Kirsty returned to Sydney in 2007. These days, however, she still divides her time between Australia and Europe: ‘I have a 50 per cent position with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, which means that I go back to work with them four times a year.’ Combined with her job in the Sydney Symphony, that means almost no time for holidays! ‘It doesn’t matter, because I’m so restless – the change feels like a holiday.’ Though initially appointed Associate Concertmaster with the Sydney Symphony, Kirsty soon made the switch to leading the second violins. ‘I like playing the inner parts, and sitting in the middle of the orchestra. I don’t like being stuck physically on the edge of the stage.’ Ironically, the challenges for the second violins are inherent in where that section sits, and the musical material they have to play. ‘Really, our section needs to play louder than the first violins,’ explains Kirsty. Depending on the string section’s configuration, the Seconds are either tucked in behind the first violins, or seated antiphonally (on the opposite side of the conductor’s podium), with their instruments facing away from the audience. Either way, they need to ‘beef it up’. ‘The firsts often rely on us because we’ll be playing the motor semiquavers,’ explains Kirsty. Occasionally, there might be disagreement within the ensemble about where to play. ‘It’s tricky because we don’t often have the melody. We have to decide in a split second about whether to follow the cellos, or the firsts.’ Artistic Highlight Ask a Musician Introducing S. Katy Tucker Every concert we see the ‘men in black’ busily preparing the stage for the performance and shifting instruments and gear around between pieces. But what do they do behind the scenes? Come July, Chief Conductor designate David Robertson will embark on his annual opera-inconcert series, with a semi-staged performance of Wagner’s Flying Dutchman. For this project, there will be a new face in the house with a very important role to play. ‘I don’t have any musical talent,’ says S. Katy Tucker. ‘But I do have a deep, deep love of music that I can connect with in an unconventional way through video projections.’ Katy has been engaged to create a dramatic environment for the orchestra and soloists for our performances of Wagner’s first great opera. She’ll do this through the projection of images and abstractions on a large screen, cut to resemble the sails of a square-rigger. ‘We want to make the performance of Dutchman more “splashy”.’ Touché. Katy describes her projections as holistic. ‘It’s up to me to balance the attention and focus of the audience. I don’t want my visuals to compete with, or detract from, the music.’ skatytucker.com Production preparations begin the moment the orchestra’s roster is released, which can be 6 to 16 months before a concert. The stage manager, who is responsible for all the ‘men-and-women in black’, will identify all the extra technical requirements. In the case of a concert like The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, that might include a screen, projector and speakers, and sconce lights for the music stands. All these need to be communicated to the venue well in advance to ensure everything’s in place for the first rehearsal. Once rehearsals are underway, the stage manager monitors everything that happens on stage, through a window at side of stage and via a ‘spy mike’ near the conductor. The SM needs to react to a variety of situations, from replacing a chair (easy!) to attending to a medical emergency (scary!). He or she also times the length of movements for every piece, building a better picture of a concert’s duration, and then shares that information with the ABC for broadcast planning. Key to the position of stage manager is an ability to multi-task and to communicate with a broad range of personalities. From orchestral musicians, soloists and conductors to technical crew, and even the pre-concert speaker in the foyer, everyone involved has their own needs (and occasionally demands!), which need to be met in a calm, coolheaded and friendly way. Have a question about the music, instruments, or inner workings of the orchestra? ‘Ask a Musician’ at [email protected] or by writing to Bravo! Reply Paid 4338, Sydney NSW 2001. Great Orchestras of Europe with Damien Beaumont Vienna – Dresden – Berlin – Cologne – Paris 24 May– 9 June 2013 (17 days) Experience the great orchestras of Europe on this wonderful musical odyssey from Vienna to Paris, including the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonics, and Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw! Sir Simon Rattle with the Berlin Philharmonic © Monika Rittershaus For detailed information call 1300 727 095 visit www.renaissancetours.com.au or contact your travel agent Education Focus The Score TRUE GRIT Playing Favourites Photo: Ben Symons Eight young musicians on the cusp of musical careers have secured a place in the Sydney Symphony’s hotly contested Fellowship program. From left: Brendan Parravicini, Nicole Greentree, Som Howie, James sang-oh Yoo, Rebecca Gill, Laura van Rijn, Kelly Tang, Jack Schiller Hundreds of graduate musicians across the country dream of performing in professional orchestras. Despite this, full-time orchestral positions are rare and competition is fierce. But for the eight young musicians selected for this year’s Sydney Symphony Fellowship program, that dream is much closer to becoming reality. ‘I was so excited when I heard I’d been accepted into the 2013 Fellowship!’ said viola Fellow Nicole Greentree, at their first get-together this year. ‘I keep thinking about how much I’m going to learn from working with the Sydney Symphony.’ Chosen from nearly 300 applicants nation-wide, the Fellows represent the most talented emerging musicians of their generation. But in order to develop into wellrounded professionals, these young musicians require skills and experiences that cannot be taught in an academic environment. The purpose of the Fellowship program is to provide these musicians with the training and mentoring they need to bridge the divide between student and professional. For horn Fellow Brendan Parravicini, originally from Perth, it’s the diversity of the program that makes it so valuable. ‘We’ll perform chamber music together on a regular basis, benefit from individual mentoring and have the opportunity of working with a professional orchestra. This combination ensures that we’ll all come out of the program as musically balanced, experienced and inspired individuals.’ The continued support from premier partner Credit Suisse, as well as from individual donors, has ensured the quality of training our Fellows receive, and helped the Fellowship program reach its 12th year. Testament to the program’s success are the achievements of its alumni, with well over half employed in full-time orchestral positions, including seven past Fellows who are now members of the Sydney Symphony itself. Previous Fellows also include violinist Jane Piper, who is now a full-time member of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, which is touring Australia later this year. For violinist Kelly Tang, earning a place in the Fellowship program has been her confirmation that her career in music is on the right track. ‘I’ve known that I’ve wanted to be a musician from the age of five. Achieving a place in the Fellowship has made me even more determined and now I can’t imagine doing anything else that I love this much!’ CB Follow the Fellows on their journey this year: blog.ssofellowship.com Ask Vladimir Ashkenazy outright about his favourite composers or musical works and the response is usually tactfully non-committal: ‘How could I possibly name one? – they are all so great!’ Genuinely awed by the wonder of musical creation, he comes across like an unswervingly fair parent – refusing to play favourites. But, of course, there are composers and pieces that are close to his heart, that make his eyes light up, that prompt him to enthusiastic discussion and wonderful anecdotes. And he has chosen three such works for the second of his programs in May. There’s Russian romanticism in Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet – the heartfelt storytelling that Ashkenazy does so well. And there’s elegant neoclassicism in the form of Richard Strauss’s late oboe concerto, with soloist Hansjörg Schellenberger. But the real highlight is Walton’s First Symphony. The choice of an English symphony might seem unexpected, until you remember Ashkenazy’s Elgar festival in 2008, when Russian and English sensibilities met to powerful effect. ‘I love Walton’s First,’ says Ashkenazy, ‘it’s an absolute favourite.’ The appeal is in its ‘tremendous energy’ and Walton’s distinctive style – nostalgic sometimes, but spirited and colourful. And the anecdote? Stay tuned for the story of the trumpet solo… Ashkenazy’s Favourites Master Series 15, 17, 18 May | 8pm HAPPY BIRTHDAY VANGUARD CODA APP-TASTIC! Our Sydney Symphony app has hit 9,000 downloads across 51 countries. If you haven’t tried it yet, why not download to watch videos, listen to music and watch live webstreams – all free, and all on your mobile! Visit the iTunes store, or Google Play to download for Android. PROGRAM BOOKS ON THE RUN You can pick up a free program book at nearly every concert we give. But did you know you can also download our programs in advance? For onestop downloading, bookmark sydney symphony.com/program_library and read the program on your desktop computer or mobile device. HONOURED In February our principal conductor, Vladimir Ashkenazy, was awarded the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Music by the University of Leicester. He is in good company: other recipients include Benjamin Britten, Michael Tippett, Malcolm Arnold, John Barbirolli and Colin Davis. Bravo maestro! The Sydney Symphony Vanguard – our membership program for Gen X/Y philanthropists – celebrates its first birthday in March. The program has paired hip-hop dancer Nacho Pop with classical musicians, created a percussion-only performance zone in a Kings Cross car park, and more, and it has attracted 75 members so far. Sound interesting? Contact Amelia Morgan-Hunn on 02 8215 4663 for more info. WOLGAN WONDERS Those in search of a special weekend destination might be interested to hear about the Sydney Symphony’s new involvement with Emirates Wolgan Valley Resort and Spa. The first weekend in March saw several of our musicians travel off the beaten track, past the upper Blue Mountains, for the inaugural Sydney Symphony chamber music weekend at Australia’s only six-star resort. Guests were treated to four concerts, including one by the Sydney Symphony Brass Ensemble in which the audience – armed with balloons, paper bags, pots and pans – accompanied a quintet arrangement of Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, to great delight! We hope this new mini festival of music will become a regular feature of the Wolgan Valley calendar. ON THE ROAD The Sydney Symphony hits the road in May for two residencies in Canberra and Albury. Associate Conductor Jessica Cottis will lead our merry band of musicians in a series of schools concerts and outreach activities, as well as evening performances. The repertoire will delight young and old, with music from Handel’s Water Music suites, selections from Stravinsky’s Pulcinella and Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony. CANBERRA Llewellyn Hall, ANU School of Music Wed 22 May – 7.30pm concert Thu 23 May – Primary and secondary schools concerts ALBURY Albury Entertainment Centre Fri 24 May – Primary and secondary schools concerts Sat 25 May – 8pm concert BRAVO EDITOR Genevieve Lang CONTRIBUTOR Caitlin Benetatos sydneysymphony.com/bravo SYMPHONY SERVICES INTERNATIONAL Clocktower Square, Argyle Street, The Rocks NSW 2000 GPO Box 4972, Sydney NSW 2001 Telephone (02) 8215 4644 Box Office (02) 8215 4600 Facsimile (02) 8215 4646 www.sydneysymphony.com All rights reserved, no part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing. The opinions expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the beliefs of the editor, publisher or any distributor of the programs. 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