MATINEE 3 MASTERPIECES OF THE PRESENT, Viva SURROUNDED BY THE PAST. España

SATURDAY 17 SEPTEMBER 2.30PM FEDERATION CONCERT HALL HOBART

Richard Mills conductor RAVEL Sue-Ellen Paulsen cello Don Quichotte à Dulcinée Nathan Lay baritone Chanson romanesque DELIBES Chanson épique Sylvia – Suite Chanson à boire Prelude – Les Chasseresses Duration 7 mins Intermezzo et Escarpolette (Valse lente) FALLA Pizzicato The Three-Cornered Hat, Suites 1 and 2 Marche et Cortège de Bacchus Suite No 1 Duration 17 mins Introduction Afternoon LALO Dance of the Miller’s Wife Cello Concerto The Magistrate Prelude (Lento – Allegro maestoso) The Grapes Intermezzo (Andantino con moto – Suite No 2 Allegro presto) 28120 The Neighbours’ Dance Introduction (Andante) – Allegro vivace The Miller’s Dance Duration 24 mins Final Dance Imaginative art in historic spaces. Duration 24 mins INTERVAL Unforgettable waterfront wining and dining. Duration 20 mins This concert will end at approximately 4.30pm. A gateway to southern ’s finest experiences. thehenryjones.com Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra concerts are broadcast and streamed throughout Only at The Henry Jones Art Hotel. and around the world by ABC Classic FM. We would appreciate your cooperation in keeping coughing to a minimum. Please ensure that your mobile phone is switched off.

25 Hunter St Hobart Tasmania. (03) 6210 7700 STEPH HOUSTEIN 18 19

28120 HJAH_TSO_Ad_A5.indd 1 11/04/2016 4:52 pm RICHARD MILLS SUE-ELLEN PAULSEN NATHAN LAY

Richard Mills has pursued a diverse career Sue-Ellen Paulsen studied at the Nathan Lay has recently been named the as a composer, conductor and artistic Conservatorium of Music where she had 2016 recipient of the Australian International director which has seen him working lessons with Richard Dedecius. As an Award. Since graduating from the Melba Conservatorium of Music, he has with almost all of the nation’s music undergraduate she appeared as soloist established his career in the organisations. Currently Artistic Director with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, of Victorian Opera, he has been Artistic opera and oratorio scene. He has won Queensland Conservatorium Orchestra Director of the West Australian Opera and the National Liederfest, Australian Music and Queensland Youth Orchestra. In 1980 Director of the Australian Music Program Events’ Opera Scholar of the Year, the she won the ABC Concerto Competition for the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. Royal Melbourne Philharmonic Aria, and (now the Young Performers Award) and He has received Helpmann Awards for was placed 3rd in the Herald-Sun Aria. was awarded a scholarship enabling her to his work as a composer (Batavia) and During his time at Melba Conservatorium, he was awarded the Melba Conservatorium conductor ( and The Love pursue postgraduate study in Vienna with Scholarship and was awarded the Robert of the Nightingale). Other awards include André Navarra. Her professional career Salzer Scholarship a number of times. the Sir Award, Don Banks began in Armidale with the New England With a Gertrude Johnson Scholarship he Fellowship and the Ian Potter Foundation String Quartet. She assumed her current attended The Opera Studio Melbourne in Award for Established Composers. He was position with the Tasmanian Symphony 2010, where he performed Polypheme in Musica Viva’s Composer of the Year in 2008. Orchestra in 1986. Since then she has been Acis and Galatea, Masetto in Don Giovanni, In 2009 he conducted the world première guest principal with the Symphony, Peter in Hansel and Gretel, Pluto in Orpheus of his Passion According to St Mark with Symphony and Australian Chamber in the Underworld and Don Parmenione in the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and Orchestra. An experienced soloist, she L’occasione fa il ladro. He has performed TSO Chorus, and in 2010 his song cycle has performed concertos by Shostakovich, with (A Masked Ball, Songlines of the Heart’s Desire received Walton, Mills and Ligeti among many others Aida, Falstaff, ), Melbourne Opera its European première at the Edinburgh and is featured as soloist on several of the (Schaunard in La bohème and Guglielmo Festival. Many of his works have been TSO’s Australian Composer Series CDs. in Così fan tutte), and has just completed recorded and released on ABC Classics and A strong advocate for contemporary music, the Developing Artist Program at Victorian other labels, and he has made a significant Opera, having performed The Baker/Billy she has commissioned and premièred many contribution as a composer and conductor Webster in Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park new Australian works including one written of recordings in the TSO’s Australian Music with George, The King in Puss in Boots, especially for her by Andrew Ford. She has Series, including Concertos for Strings Barone Douphol in La traviata, Peter in (featuring his own music), Quamby (Peter recently recorded the Schumann piano Hansel and Gretel, Bunyip Bluegum in Sculthorpe) and Etruscan Concerto (Peggy trios with the Kingfisher Trio (ABC Classics). The Magic Pudding – The Opera, and Glanville-Hicks). He was made a Member She is lecturer in cello at the Tasmanian Young Recruit in Richard Mills’ of the Order of Australia in 1999. Conservatorium of Music. Remembrance.

20 21 LÉO DELIBES (1836–1891) EDOUARD LALO (1823-1892)

Sylvia – Suite Cello Concerto in D minor explores a kind of Romantic neo-classicism, Prelude – Les Chasseresses Prelude (Lento – Allegro maestoso) as did colleagues like César Franck and Intermezzo et Escarpolette (Valse lente) Intermezzo (Andantino con moto – Allegro Camille Saint-Saëns, or even Brahms (whose music Lalo detested). Pizzicato presto) Marche et Cortège de Bacchus Introduction (Andante) – Allegro vivace The concerto is in three substantial movements. The first begins with a slowish The ballet Sylvia counts among those staged Writing in 1903, Claude Debussy looked introduction with a mildly louring orchestral works that have survived only in the exquisite back on an incident in his youth when, at a theme in unison that is illuminated by music that accompanied them. (The play performance of music by Lalo, he “showed terse flashes of brass and wind colour. Rosamunde, with music by Schubert, is a noisy but forgivable enthusiasm” and was (A feature of Lalo’s orchestration is that it another.) Even then, it is probably only the escorted out of the theatre. Debussy loved never overwhelms the cello: the soloist famous Pizzicato that would prompt a smile to remember the incident, explaining that speaks against quiet backgrounds, with of instant recognition. time had not diminished his admiration for powerful tutti effects used as punctuation.) Lalo at all. Sadly, posterity has not been so The plot – after Tasso’s pastoral drama LÉO DELIBES The soloist enters soon after, offering kind to Lalo, who these days is most often Aminta – dredges up a world in which the ruminative glimpses of the themes to come; represented on concert programs by his the subsequent Allegro pits a strongly nymphs and shepherds of Greek mythology The score for Sylvia is a mix of music to Symphonie espagnole and sometimes the profiled first theme against a more lyrical cavort in woodland glades and indulge in accompany dramatic mime – the most overture to his opera Le Roi d’Ys that tells second subject, which is often accompanied riotous bacchanals. The principal characters emotional and musically adventurous of the submerged city of Breton legend. by winds in simple hymn-like harmony. are chaste Sylvia and courting Amyntas, while sections – and diverting dances suited to the During Lalo’s lifetime the opera was his Diana, Eros, the Black Hunter Orion, and stylised plot. The Prelude introduces the first The second movement continues the use of greatest, if belated, success, but he was also Bacchus each play their parts. of the three acts, warning us with a simple structural contrast, with alternating episodes highly respected for his instrumental music, horn motif of the huntress Diana’s presence of traditional lyrical slow-movement and The ballet was conceived on a grander scale especially with the premières of several in the story. More elaborate hunting music faster, dance-like scherzo material. It is in than perhaps its banal libretto could support, concertos in the 1870s. and in the end only Delibes’ “charming and from the horns signals the entry of Sylvia – the lyrical section that the music reaches supple” music was deemed a success. a nymph of Diana and vowed to chastity – Lalo, who was born in Lille, was descended a majestic climax, but the movement “M Léo Delibes has written a score which and her companions as they dance in honour from a Spanish family that settled in the concludes with a diaphanous reprise of the reveals the hand of a master symphonist,” of the chase (Les Chasseresses). in the 16th century. He studied faster music. Like the first movement, the finale begins with a ruminative introduction, declared L’Opinion after the première in 1876. A wistful Intermezzo leads to a slow waltz, violin and cello, first at the Lille Conservatoire for solo cello, before a rondo whose main “The picturesque choice of themes, the highly- whose melody captures the typically French and then, despite his military father’s strong material gives ample opportunity for the coloured orchestration make this ballet to my characteristics of aristocratic distinction opposition, in Paris, where he supported soloist to shine. Again, there are powerful mind an exquisite work, perhaps too refined and popular appeal. Imagine, if you will, himself by teaching and as a freelance player. full-orchestral effects but these throw the and delicate for the glare of the footlights.” Sylvia swinging in the vines above a cooling In the 1850s he was founding member (as sparsely accompanied cello episodes into stream, dipping her toes in the water. In violist) of the Armingaud Quartet, which Today, we might consider this music more had been formed to popularise the music high relief. pleasantly tuneful than symphonic; but it Act III, Eros, disguised as a pirate, presents a number of veiled slaves to Amyntas. The of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, then © Gordon Kerry 2016 was certainly superior to ballet music of little known in Paris. Not surprisingly, Lalo’s the time, a genre then considered beneath last of these is Sylvia, who dances to the delicate Pizzicato, where the plucking of practical knowledge of string instruments The Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra first the notice of any serious composer (the the strings is interspersed with a sweet flute makes his concertos for violin (Symphonie performed this work with conductor Lamberto “master symphonist”). Delibes, a student Gardelli and soloist Kurt Hess in Hobart on melody. Concluding the suite is the opening espagnole and one other, both for the great of Adolphe Adam, had already attracted 5 September 1979 and, most recently, with to Act III – an extended and brilliant march virtuoso Sarasate) and cello (composed in Vladimir Verbitsky and Sue-Ellen Paulsen in much attention with his first complete ballet in celebration of the vintage festival and the 1877 for Adolphe Fischer) idiomatic works Hobart on 30 October 1992. Coppélia, composed six years earlier, which god of wine. of great mastery. “succeeded in avoiding the commonplace where it has every right to succeed”. Yvonne Frindle © 1999 Lalo was once accused of trying to write In bringing artistry, taste and style to ballet like Wagner (and protested that it was hard music, Delibes became the musical “father The Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra performed enough writing like himself!), but Debussy of modern ballet”, paving the way for the excerpts from the Sylvia – Suite with conductor would probably not have maintained his Joseph Post in 1951 and last performed the suite work of Tchaikovsky (who admired Sylvia), in its entirety with David Porcelijn in Hobart on affection for the music had that been true. and ultimately Stravinsky and Ravel. 3 July 1999. In the Cello Concerto, in particular, Lalo

22 23 MAURICE RAVEL (1875-1937) MANUEL DE FALLA (1876-1946)

Don Quichotte à Dulcinée The Three-Cornered Hat Chanson romanesque Suite No 1 Chanson épique Introduction Chanson à boire Afternoon European composers of the late 19th and Dance of the Miller’s Wife early 20th centuries – and especially French The Magistrate composers – had a particular fascination with The Grapes Spain. It existed, if only in the imagination, as a place of exotic architecture and fiery Suite No 2 passions, and Spain’s musical traditions The Neighbours’ Dance maintained certain attractively non-European The Miller’s Dance elements, such as the ornate singing of Final Dance flamenco which recalls Islamic cantillation. In addition, Spanish music was enlivened by In 1907 Falla left his native Spain for Paris the rhythmic buoyancy of an estimated 1000 where, among other people, he came into different dance forms. MAURICE RAVEL contact with Sergei Diaghilev, impresario of MANUEL DE FALLA the Ballets Russes. Diaghilev was keen to add Unlike Bizet, Chabrier or Debussy, Ravel was from insomnia, and in 1932 was involved Falla to a stable of composers that included Act II, from which the second suite is drawn, actually of Spanish – or, to be more specific – in a traffic accident which exacerbated Stravinsky and Ravel, and suggested a ballet begins with the miller, his wife and their Basque heritage: his mother was Basque and his condition and gradually led to the of El corregidor y la molinera (The Magistrate neighbours dancing the seguidillas, in his father Swiss, though Ravel spent his entire development of aphasia and ataxia – and the Miller’s Wife), a novel by Pedro de celebration of St John’s Night. The miller life in Paris. But Hispanic music was of great a devastating loss of competence in Alarcón. The war (and the Russian Revolution, then dances a vibrant farruca before being importance to him, especially in works like language and movement. These songs are which meant that Diaghilev was forbidden arrested by the magistrate’s bodyguard. the opera L’heure espagnole (The Spanish the last works that Ravel composed before to enter Spain) intervened, but by way of a The magistrate returns and chases the miller’s Hour, which with its ticking-clock music he was rendered incapable of realising the “dry run” Falla produced a pantomime of wife; she takes advantage of his falling into might have satisfied his Swiss side as well!), music he still had in his imagination. the story for performance in Madrid. When the millstream to disappear into the night. several pieces “en forme de habanera”, the Diaghilev finally saw the pantomime he In the first song (“Romanesque Song”), The magistrate gets out of those wet things, Rapsodie espagnole and, of course, Bolero. suggested several major revisions out of the Don offers to stop the turning earth and leaves them to dry while he takes shelter which the “ballet with songs”, El sombrero In 1932 Ravel was commissioned to write or even die for Dulcinea if she wished. in the miller’s empty hut. The miller escapes de tres picos (The Three-Cornered Hat), was three songs to texts of Paul Morand for She is of course unseen (and unreal), so from the bodyguards and returns, puts on born. The new work, which was premièred in the score of Georg Wilhelm Pabst’s Don the deliberately high-flown language is the magistrate’s clothes (including his three- London in 1919, had sets by Pablo Picasso Quixote – one of the earliest films with good-humouredly sent-up by a dance cornered hat, a symbol of authority) and and choreography by Léonide Massine. sound. The Don, such a mixture of innocent rhythm which lurches gently from compound goes off vowing to seduce the magistrate’s pure-heartedness and comic delusion, was (6/8) to simple (3/4) metre in alternating Alarcón’s story tells of an ugly miller and his wife; the magistrate puts on the miller’s played by the great Russian bass, Feodor bars. In the second (“Epic Song”), he prays beautiful wife who are devoted to each other. clothes. The miller’s wife returns, as do the Chaliapin, who according to a 1933 review to St Michael, St George and “the Madonna In Act I, which more or less corresponds to townsfolk (with an effigy of the magistrate in the New York Times “with the certainty of of the blue robe” to descend to the altar. the first of the suites, a distant song warns they propose to burn). Predictably enough, genius…grasped just those qualities which In a ravishing climax, he prays that with a that all women should lock their doors. confusion and remonstrances ensue but, have made Don Quixote de la Mancha beam from heaven they will bless both his The suite itself begins with an evocation of finally, the magistrate is tossed in a blanket and the townsfolk launch into an energetic eternal, and has conveyed them to us from sword and Dulcinea, “the equal in purity” afternoon with its shrill bird calls. The local and triumphant final jota – complete with the screen”. Sadly, the score and songs used of the Blessed Virgin. In the final “Drinking magistrate passes in a procession past the castanets. in the film were ultimately composed not by Song”, he drinks to love and joy and wine mill, and returns shortly thereafter to try Ravel but by Jacques Ibert. Ravel, always a (in defiance of “the bastard” that says and seduce the miller’s wife. She dances a © Gordon Kerry 2005 slow and painstaking composer, was unable otherwise) in the dance rhythm of the jota. provocative fandango, colluding with her The Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra first to complete them in time: in addition to his Gordon Kerry © 2008 husband to lead the magistrate on and fastidiousness, Ravel was by now a sick man. humiliate him, and then teases him with a performed dances from The Three-Cornered Hat with conductor Thomas Matthews in 1967 and last Since World War I, in which he had served This is the first performance of this work by the bunch of grapes. The magistrate realises performed the Suite No 1 with Edmon Colomer in as an ambulance driver, he had suffered Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. that he is being set up and leaves angrily. Hobart on 4 June 1993.

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