NATIONAL TOUR PARTNER For almost 100 years, the Commonwealth Bank has been part of the life of communities across Australia, with programs covering everything from fi nancial literacy to health, the arts, sport and social welfare.

And of course we are proud to have partnered with the Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO) for more than 20 years.

Throughout our relationship we have been fortunate to witness this unique and modern Orchestra grow into a group that continues to push creative boundaries through its performances.

The Commonwealth Bank Group’s support for the ACO reaches beyond our National Tour Partnership. We are also very pleased that a signifi cant part of our art collection, a 1759 Guadagnini violin, is entrusted to the ACO. Tonight you will hear it played by Satu Vänskä, the ACO’s Assistant Leader.

On behalf of the Commonwealth Bank Group, I hope you enjoy the very fi nest that the ACO has to offer with this Kreutzer vs Kreutzer concert.

NATIONAL TOUR PARTNER RALPH NORRIS CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER COMMONWEALTH BANK GROUP TOUR SEVEN KREUTZER VS KREUTZER

SPEED READ LAURA WADE This concert gives an oblique Kreutzer vs Kreutzer nod to a signifi cant anniversary: Original script inspired by Tolstoy) the great Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy died a century ago, November 20, 1910. One BEETHOVEN (arr. Tognetti) wonders whether his novella The Kreutzer Sonata would still be Violin Sonata No.9 in A major, Op.47, ‘Kreutzer’ so widely known had its working title — The Man Who Murdered Adagio sostenuto – Presto His Wife — prevailed. But the Andante con Variazioni connection with another great Finale: Presto work, Beethoven’s 9th violin sonata, is more than peripheral: indeed, it allowed Tolstoy to make some remarkable and memorable JANÁČEK (arr. Tognetti) claims on behalf of music. String Quartet No.1, In Tolstoy’s novella, the chief ‘After Tolstoy’s Th e Kreutzer Sonata’ protagonist murders his wife and the man with whom he suspects Adagio – Con moto her of having an affair, their Con moto passion supposedly infl amed over Con moto – Vivo – Andante a performance of Beethoven’s ‘Kreutzer’. Janáˇcek, however, Con moto (Adagio) – Più mosso sides with the murdered woman, his quartet giving voice to “the Th e concert will last approximately two hours including suffering of a passive, enslaved a 20-minute interval between the Beethoven and Janáček woman, beaten and tortured to death.” Beethoven begets performances. Tolstoy, begets Janáˇcek. This concert marries these ADELAIDE MELBOURNE SYDNEY threads with a script by Laura Town Hall Town Hall Angel Place Wade which delves into the Tue 16 Nov 8pm Sun 14 Nov 2.30pm Sat 20 Nov 8pm gaps in Tolstoy’s story, and Mon 15 Nov 8pm Tue 23 Nov 8pm with performances of Richard BRISBANE Wed 24 Nov 7pm Tognetti’s arrangements for QPAC NEWCASTLE string orchestra of Beethoven’s Mon 22 Nov 8pm City Hall SYDNEY sonata and Janáˇcek’s quartet. Th u 11 Nov 7.30pm Opera House Beethoven imagined no such CANBERRA Sun 21 Nov 2.30pm dramas, still his sonata has also Llewellyn Hall PERTH come to be associated with Sat 13 Nov 8pm Concert Hall jealous intrigue, notably because Wed 17 Nov 8pm he feuded with the work’s original dedicatee, George Bridgetower. In fact the only name missing from Th e Melbourne performances of this tour will be fi lmed for the drama surrounding these works archival and promotional purposes and audio recordings of the is that of Kreutzer himself — a City Recital Hall Angel Place performances will be made for French violinist to whom future release. Beethoven eventually dedicated the work, perhaps to curry favour with French audiences. Kreutzer declared the sonata unplayable, Th e Australian Chamber Orchestra reserves the right to alter scheduled and never performed it. programs or artists as necessary.

AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA 3 PASSION  MUSIC  MURDER Laura Wade on writing scenes for Kreutzer vs Kreutzer

Photo Tolstoy’s novella, Th e Kreutzer Sonata, which took its title

© from the Beethoven sonata played during the story, itself Philip Hollis inspired Janáček’s piece of the same name. I was asked to create a dramatic thread to link them together. Where to start?

Th e Tolstoy is provocative: a single, uncontested voice (the murderer Pozdnyshev) discusses the dangers of women, sex and music; his wife and her lover (the violinist Trukachevsky) are never really given the chance to defend themselves. For a dramatist, unheard voices are an invitation. Two characters, then – a woman and a man – and a world of possibilities.

Did she or didn’t she? Did the infi delity take place, or was everything the product of Pozdnyshev’s jealous imagination? Some may think Pozdnyshev is right to trust Further Reading his instincts, that there’s no smoke without fi re. Others might be incensed that he can’t understand the diff erence Laura Wade’s published plays between a musical partnership and a sexual one. include Breathing Corpses (Oberon, 2005), Colder Than What did Janáček think? He was a man in love – and with Here (Oberon, 2005), Other a married woman careful of her honour. We know from Hands (Oberon, 2006), Posh (Oberon, 2010) and Alice — a his letters that he sympathised with Pozdnyshev’s wife. stage adaptation of Lewis Perhaps he saw himself in the character of the musician Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in and considered them both victims of circumstance. Wonderland (Oberon, 2010). Th ese scenes propose two diff erent versions of what happened – one, as imagined by Pozdnyshev/Tolstoy, the other, as seen through Janáček’s eyes. Two parallel universes, the product of diff erent choices made by the same two people. Th e truth may lie at either pole – or at any point in between.

© LAURA WADE 2010

AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA 7 BEETHOVEN Violin Sonata No.9 in A major, Op.47, ‘Kreutzer’ Composed 1802–1803 Arranged for violin and string orchestra by Richard Tognetti Adagio sostenuto – Presto Andante con Variazioni Finale: Presto

JANÁČEK String Quartet No.1, ‘After Tolstoy’s Th e Kreutzer Sonata’ Composed 1923 Arranged for string orchestra by Richard Tognetti Adagio – Con moto Con moto Con moto – Vivo – Andante Con moto (Adagio) – Più mosso

AFTER TOLSTOY What is it about Th e Kreutzer Sonata? Th e story at the heart of this performance is a hall of mirrors: a distorted fi ctional refl ection of a life (Tolstoy’s), containing the picture of a famous sonata (Beethoven’s – which has its own history of jealousy and anger). Both are fi nally mirrored by Janáček’s string quartet which reveals more about Janáček’s sympathies than it does about Tolstoy’s story. To add a further metafi ctional level, our concert adds its own gloss on the works: two dialogues which fi ll in a signifi cant ellipsis in Tolstoy’s novella, one of which adheres to Tolstoy’s original, the other which sees the events in a Ludwig diff erent light. One story, two powerful works of chamber van Beethoven music, and as many interpretations as there are people in (b. Bonn, 1770 — d. , this audience. 1827) In the spring of 1803, violinist George August Polgreen Beethoven is the archetypal Bridgetower (1780–1860) travelled to Vienna and met troubled genius, a composer , who dedicated a violin sonata – whose nine symphonies remain his penultimate – to the young musician. Th is sonata in at the pinnacle of what can be achieved in that form. In 1810 A major, Op.47, is the one we know as the ‘Kreutzer’, but it the critic E.T.A. Hoffman named wasn’t always so. him as “one of the three great Romantic composers”. Now, Bridgetower is perhaps the most famous musician you’ve most critics would hail him the never heard of, though in his prime he was renowned in greatest. and the Continent. In addition to his talent he

8 AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA had another point of diff erence which excited audiences: he was black (actually, ‘mulatto’ – of mixed ancestry – in the parlance of the time). Th e exoticism of his background appealed to the fad for ‘Turkish’ and other non-European things, as if ‘Turkey’ was a region that extended from to Africa. Bridgetower, who styled himself ‘Th e ACO Performance History Abyssinian Prince’, was the son of a Polish woman, Marie Beethoven’s ‘Kreutzer’ Sonata, Ann Sovinki, and John Frederick Bridgetower, a valet in in this arrangement, was the service of the Esterházy family, who was perhaps an played in the ACO’s 2000 escaped slave from . George Bridgetower was a Subscription Series and has also been played on several child prodigy, making his concert debut at age nine in , international tours. then in the following year, where he was fêted by impresarios and the Prince of Wales, later George IV, who became his patron. He was in the violin section of the concert-presenter Salomon’s premieres of Haydn’s ‘London’ Symphonies in 1791 – he was 11 years old.

So, it was with an established career that Bridgetower left England for the Continent in 1802. Th e encounter with Beethoven happened in May of 1803, when the two gave the premiere of Beethoven’s sonata. As the cliché goes, the ink was barely dry on the manuscript when it was performed at 8am on 24 May at the Augarten Th eatre. Beethoven nearly missed his deadline, and had woken his copyist at 4.30 that morning to make Bridgetower’s part. Th e copyist was one Ferdinand Ries, though the manuscript, now in the collection of the Juilliard School, shows four distinct hands and Beethoven’s corrections. Th at the labour was shared among so many copyists points to the immense hurry with which the score was prepared. Even so, by the time of performance some of the piece was unfi nished and needed to be improvised; what’s more, there had been no time for rehearsal. Th e story goes that one of ‘Brischdauer’s’ ad lib runs (a powerful glissando in response to a big scalic passage in the part) caused Beethoven to jump up from the keyboard and exclaim, “Once more, dear fellow!” Beethoven entitled the work Sonata mulattica composta per il mulatto Brischdauer, gran pazzo e conpositore mulattico (‘Sonata mulattica composed for the mulatto Bridgetower, big wild [or lunatic] mulatto composer). But this jokey, amiable relationship was short-lived: when the two were drinking after the concert, Bridgetower impugned the dignity of a woman with whom Beethoven was enamoured. Beethoven, never the most laid-back fellow, withdrew the dedication in anger. In some versions of the story, the musicians are both in love with the same mystery woman. It is almost a premonition of the scarlet thread of sexual jealousy and obsession that runs through this program.

AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA 9 Further Reading Online you can stream a program from America’s public radio which includes a brief but accessible introduction to Beethoven’s sonata — npr. org/templates/story/story. php?storyId=113764595. Also online, the hosts an exhibition about the life of George Bridgetower at bl.uk/onlinegallery/ Th e sonata, now dedicated to another violinist, Rodolphe features/blackeuro/ Kreutzer, was also described in Beethoven’s sketchbook bridgetowerbackground.html. as Sonata per il Pianoforte ed uno violino obligato in uno The City of London Festival hosts a fascinating digital stile molto concertante come d’un concerto (Sonata for educational resource about pianoforte and obbligato violin, in a very concerted style the relationship between brilliant [Beethoven crossed this out], like a concerto). Beethoven and Bridgetower at For a work completed in such haste (or perhaps because it bridgetower.lgfl .org.uk. was rushed), it is radical, a reimagining of the possibilities Pulitzer-prize-winning poet of the violin sonata. ‘Concerto-like’ is right – it’s very Rita Dove takes, and elaborates diffi cult for both performers, it’s in three movements on, the friendship and rivalry (instead of the textbook four)…but who is the soloist? between Beethoven and Bridgetower as the subject Th e piano (or in our case, the orchestra) and the violin vie of her verse novel, Sonata for dominance in a fl uid, emotionally volatile dialogue. Mulattica: Poems (Norton, Th e violin begins the conversation with a chorale 2009). introduction, a series of widely-spaced double-stopped Several recordings of the chords, Adagio sostenuto, in A major, which darkens full set of 10 violin sonatas into the minor when the piano enters with its peremptory by Beethoven exist, which chord. In fact, most of this movement is in A minor after allow the listener to hear the “Kreutzer” in the context of the chorale accelerates into the powerful Presto that forms this extraordinary 15-year body its bulk. Some of the raw material of the movement is of work. Options include Isaac provided by the fall (or rise) of a half-step (semitone) – Stern with Eugene Istomin derived from the main theme of three repeated notes and (Sony 64524), Itzhak Perlman the resolving half-step fall. Th e second theme is a series with Vladimir Ashkenazy (Decca 421453-2) and Arthur of skipping, rising semitones. It’s a typically Beethovian Grimiaux with Clara Haskill tactic to take tiny motivic ‘bricks’ and build them into a (Brilliant 93329). magnifi cent structure.

10 AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA Th e conversation in the fi rst movement is not quite fl uent – the instruments interrupt each other, the dialogue falls into lulls, or moments of lessened tension, since there’s nothing ever quite like calm here. Th is movement has been called “a collaboration in search for a connection” – a moment of resolution and harmony which seems to come as the adagio music returns and cadences briefl y into the major, only to be swept away by a furious minor key coda.

If the musicians are opponents in the fi rst movement, they are partners in the sparkling set of variations of the second movement: the chamber-like distribution of labour is restored, with the piano in the role of accompanist. In F major (for Beethoven a relaxed, lighthearted key – think of the Pastoral and Eighth Symphonies), it’s comprised of a naïve Andante theme and fi ve variations. Beethoven rings the changes on his theme with sly wit: it’s full of little off -beat surprises, and fl orid runs, designed to challenge and amuse the performers. While it doesn’t quite approach the transcendental qualities of some of Beethoven’s later variation sets, the movement is full of delightful contrast – the way the introverted minor-key third variation gives way to the airy delicacy of the fourth with its pizzicatos and high trills. Th e solemn fi fth variation brings the series to a radiant close.

Tarantella is a fast Italian Beethoven repurposed the third movement from an folkdance form usually in triple earlier Sonata in A major, Op.30. Th e whirling tarantella metre (6/8, 12/8). The whirling is instigated by the violin after the piano’s resonant A major dance was supposedly a cure for (and perhaps a symptom chord. Th e interplay of the protagonists is as playful as it of) the bite of a spider (Lycosa is virtuosic and the fi nal eff ect is a marked contrast to the tarantula) endemic to those fast, angry music of the fi rst movement. Th e sonata ends parts. By association, the with a dance. tarantella in classical music has connotations of madness or As for Rodolphe Kreutzer: he never performed the sonata abandon. dedicated to him, fi nding it “outrageously unintelligible”. He’s now notorious among violinists for a set of exercises and remembered for his bit part in the rift between Beethoven and Bridgetower. Bridgetower died in South London and is buried in Kensal Green cemetery.

AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA 11 Leo Tolstoy’s children presented a recital in 1888 where Tolstoy’s son Sergey played the piano in Beethoven’s ‘Kreutzer’ Sonata with their music teacher, Yuli Lyasota on the violin. Among the friends present at the little concert was the actor Vasily Andreyev-Burlak, who the previous year had related to the Tolstoys a story about meeting a stranger on a train. Th is man had unburdened himself of the tale of his wife’s infi delity. Th rough the alchemical processes of the unconscious, it seems that Andreyev- Burlak’s anecdote became associated in Tolstoy’s mind with the ‘Kreutzer’ Sonata and to hasten the germinal idea’s growth into art, there was Tolstoy’s unfi nished short story, working title: Th e Man Who Murdered His Wife. Tolstoy decided to incorporate some of this material into a dramatic monologue for Andreyev-Burlak to perform. Th e actor died in May, 1888, but the monologue remains, framed by the exposition of a fi rst-person narrator, taking form defi nitively in 1889 as Th e Kreutzer Sonata. Leo Tolstoy (b. Yasnaya Polyana, 1828 — Th e premise of the story is simple: our narrator is on a long d. Astapovo Station, 1910) train journey and falls into conversation with his carriage- mates, an unusually frank and deep one, as sometimes Tolstoy is one of Russia’s happens in the accidental intimacy of travel at close- greatest writers, and one of quarters. Our narrator’s new friend Pozdnyshev mentions, the world’s foremost novelists. very early in their brief acquaintanceship, that he is a He is particularly famous murderer. We, like the traveller, lean forwards in our seats. for writing the vast War and It soon emerges however that Pozdnyshev, while lucid and Peace (1863—69) and Anna Karenina (1875—77). Later in apparently rational (we’re told also that he has a “pleasant” life he turned to moral reform voice), is obsessive, self-lacerating and haunted. based on an austere personal theology. Th e fi rst-person narrator is our observational surrogate. ‘I’ makes remarks about the trip, the other passengers and then sets down verbatim Pozdnyshev’s anecdote, one which, it must be said, strains credibility slightly, or perhaps it’s just Pozdnyshev’s eagerness to ‘over-share’ that seems a bit odd. After all, would you confess to a total stranger that you’d killed your spouse (even if you were eventually acquitted)? Th e reason for the murder is a kind of perversely triumphant QED for Pozdnyshev’s theories about sex, morality and marriage. Th e latter makes for diffi cult reading today. Tolstoy’s biographer A.N. Wilson notes that the writer has “an abiding capacity to irritate his reader” and Tolstoy’s views on sex are disturbing to today’s liberal minds. In this later phase of his life, Tolstoy had adopted severely austere views about sex, inside and outside of marriage (he was against both). Tolstoy’s innate Puritanism was aroused (if that’s the right word) by texts such as Tokology: A Complete Guide for Every Woman which recommended celibacy, and by the Shaker sect of America, where men and women shunned sexual intercourse and

12 AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA lived together as brother and sister. To place Tolstoy’s convictions into context though, 19th-century Russia was a place of extraordinarily relaxed sexual standards (the very opposite of Victorian England). Daily newspapers were fi lled with advertisements for patent cures for venereal diseases. In the countryside, infection and its terrible consequences were rife. So Pozdnyshev’s railing against the sordid state of aff airs is understandable, if extreme.

But it’s not just sex that Pozdnyshev objects to: his primary target is marriage. “Marriages in our day are mere deception!” In the long build-up to the terrible event, Pozdnyshev prosecutes his case against marriage. He had married, had children, and grown to despise his wife. Th e rot really starts to set in though with the visit of a violinist named Trukachevsky. A Frenchifi ed dandy with a large bottom, Trukachevsky almost immediately inspires Pozdnyshev’s suspicion, but it’s only really with Trukachevsky and Mrs Pozdnyshev’s performance of Beethoven’s ‘Kreutzer’ Sonata that the story fi nally clicks into gear (she must have been a formidable amateur pianist).

“Th ey played Beethoven’s ‘Kreutzer’ Sonata. Do you know its fi rst movement, the Presto? You know it?” He burst out. “Ah! It’s a fearful thing, that sonata. Especially that movement. And music in general’s a fearful thing. What is it? I don’t know. And why does it do to us what it does?...Music carries me instantly and directly into the state of consciousness experienced by its composer. My soul merges with his, and together with him I’m transported from one state of consciousness into another...”

He goes on to explain that music’s power is almost like being hypnotised by an “unscrupulous individual”. Music is dangerous:

“Take that ‘Kreutzer’ Sonata, for example, take its fi rst movement, the Presto: can one really allow it to be played in a drawing-room full of women in low-cut dresses? To be played and then followed by light applause and the eating of ice-cream and talk about the latest society gossip?”

Pozdnyshev is an acute critic and recognises the demonic energy of the fi rst movement, one that evokes new emotions – everyone in the room appears, he says, in a completely new light. He goes on to dismiss the “attractive but unoriginal” second movement and the fi nale, which is “really weak”. His wife looks radiant. Elated by the performance, Pozdnyshev says goodbye to Trukachevsky,

AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA 13 thinking that he will not see him again. Days later, while on a business trip, his wife’s casual mention of the musician in a letter fi res his jealousy. He becomes convinced the two are having an aff air, and in the fi nal exhilaratingly horrible chapters of the novella, returns to his home early, encounters his wife and Trukachevsky in the parlour (suggesting that perhaps his suspicions were not completely unfounded, though they are fully clothed and decorous) and stabs his wife. After the long and somewhat didactic build-up, the graphic violence of this scene comes as an explosive release of tension. Tolstoy’s last ingenious twist is to stage a bizarre interview between the dying wife and her husband where she upbraids him from her deathbed and tells him that her sister will have custody of the children. He gets no forgiveness, “only cold animal hatred”. And though acquitted of the murder, Pozdnyshev is still begging for forgiveness from whoever will listen.

Critics of Tolstoy’s day – and our own – are quick to excavate the autobiographical foundations of Th e Kreutzer Sonata, but this is a misinterpretation of Tolstoy’s intentions. Tolstoy’s style of dry reportage is a snare for the reader in search of Tolstoy’s real thoughts about sex. Pozdnyshev is not a mere mouthpiece for Tolstoy’s Puritanism: he is a fully-fl edged character in what is essentially a thriller, who shares, perhaps, some of Tolstoy’s opinions. Tolstoy is describing a particular case – this man, this set of circumstances that led to this event – not describing a universal truth. Th e story was a sensation and set tongues wagging about the nature of Tolstoy’s relationship with his wife, Sofya. Even Sofya Further Reading misinterpreted the story, thinking that it was an attack on her and on women (but she was also quick to let it There are many translations be known that she still enjoyed sexual relations with her and editions of Tolstoy’s novella available. One of the husband). On the defensive, but also hurt, she composed most widely available (and that her own riposte in the form of an unpublished short story quoted in these notes) is that which takes the woman’s point of view. Later, in the face of by David McDuff: Leo Tolstoy, offi cial censorship, she contrived (and indeed lied) to keep The Kreutzer Sonata and Other the story in print, to preserve her husband’s reputation Stories (Penguin, 2004). The (and her own – she didn’t want to be made a fool of by her leading Tolstoy biography is that by A.N. Wilson (Norton, now ‘saintly’ husband’s ostentatious and false celibacy). 2001); Alexandra Popoff’s Th is touching, paradoxical impulse to keep up appearances Sophia Tolstoy: A Biography was evidence she was perhaps still fond of him in spite of (Simon & Schuster, 2010) tells it all. his wife’s story. Of the many available critical works on Tolstoy, a good starting place is The Cambridge Companion to Tolstoy edited by Donna Tussing Orwin (Cambridge UP, 2002).

14 AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA Th e last decades of Leoš Janáček’s life were an incredibly creative Indian summer. In a sense, Janáček really matured as a composer in his 60s, starting from the time he fell in love with a woman 38 years his junior. Despite being a married man, Janáček was completely enamoured with Kamila Stösslová, the wife of an antiques dealer. Photos of her show an attractive enough woman when young – high cheekbones and almond eyes. She grew a bit dumpy. Pleasant, but certainly no Helen of Troy. After meeting at the spa town of Luhačovice in 1917, Janáček and Stösslová embarked on a passionate platonic aff air – largely a one- sided one, and perhaps even obsessive on Janáček’s part. Th eir extant correspondence runs to over 700 letters. Stösslová, muse-like, was the secret ‘heroine’ of several of Janáček’s best operas: Kátya Kabanová, Th e Cunning Little Vixen and Th e Makropoulos Case. Janáček’s second string quartet is a series of intimate letters to her. It’s as Leoš Janáˇcek if this distant, almost unreal person, Janáček’s idealised creation, became the engine of Janáček’s creativity. Her (b. Hukvaldy, 1854 — d. Ostrava, 1928) absence fuelled the furnace. He described (in one letter) their correspondence as “a conversation without which I couldn’t exist”. With Smetana and Dvoˇrák, Janáˇcek is one of the giants As one of the apexes of this triangle, it’s perhaps not of Czech music and, like them, surprising that Janáček was drawn to Tolstoy’s story is a composer particularly (he had started and abandoned a piano trio based on it concerned with the exploration of nationality through music. in 1908). Composed for the Bohemian String Quartet, Fame was a long time coming, Janáček completed his String Quartet No.1 “After Tolstoy’s although his works — which run Kreutzer Sonata” in eight days in October 1923: “note after the gamut from intimate solo note fell smouldering from my pen”, he wrote. piano miniatures to opera — are now a fi rm part of the Janáček’s transcription of it is ‘told’ from the woman’s repertory, not least through the point of view: “I was imagining a poor woman, tormented advocacy of champions such as the late Sir Charles Mackerras. and run down, just like the one the Russian writer Tolstoy describes in his Kreutzer Sonata”. Where Tolstoy lets us see the world only through the obsessively jealous ACO Performance History eyes of Pozdnyshev, Janáček sympathises with the wife, trapped in her loveless marriage. Th e novella’s tension Janáˇcek’s Kreutzer Sonata was fi rst played by the ACO in 1991 and vivid depiction of violence might also have captured and was part of the ACO’s 1995 the imagination of the composer of the shocking kitchen- and 2001 Subscription Series. sink drama Jenůfa (which features a face-slashing and The Orchestra also recorded infanticide). Certainly, the fi nal chapters of the book are the piece for Sony in 1991, operatic in their intensity. which received an ARIA Award, and for Chandos in 2000. But how to translate this into a string quartet? Rather than a programmatic depiction of the story, Janáček chooses to work with atmosphere making a constantly evolving series Programmatic music, broadly speaking, is illustrative music of tableaux, knit together by motives which surface in designed to tell a story or each of the movements, a more ambiguous, psychological suggest pictorial scenes. approach.

AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA 15 Th ere are four scenes: the fi rst depicts the marriage and evokes our compassion for the woman. Th e second introduces the violinist character (voiced, tremulously by the fi rst violin) and the burgeoning love (an expansive, ardent melody over arpeggio – harp-like – chords) ending with an intimation of tragedy (a soft chord). Janáček’s striking use of the speech melodies of the Czech language (which had permeated even his instrumental music by now) means that this music is always on the verge of speaking to us. Th e third movement, the most powerful, contains an actual reference to Beethoven’s Sonata. You can hear a melody derived from the second theme of the fi rst movement of the Beethoven in the canon for violin and cello, but any notion of lyricism is scrubbed away by Sul ponticello played as near the frantic sul ponticello scrubbing of the other strings. to the bridge of a stringed Th is scene is the crisis, as the woman’s love for the violinist instrument as possible to invokes the furious jealousy of her husband. Th e fourth create a slightly distorted, mysterious effect. movement begins with a lament but reaches a kind of ecstatic catharsis and presents fragments and allusions to all three other movements – life fl ashing before our ears. Finally the vaulting music subsides into quietly resolved chords. As Pozdnyshev looks upon his wife’s battered, dying body he sees her fi nally as a human being:

“And so insignifi cant did all that had hurt me and made me jealous appear, and so signifi cant what I’d done, that I wanted to press my face to her hand and say: ‘Forgive me’ – but I didn’t dare to.”

In spite of the darkness of all that has happened before, Further Reading here is hope, resolution, or even absolution: Janáček gives John Tyrell’s Intimate Letters: Pozdnyshev the forgiveness that he was denied in Tolstoy’s Leoš Janáˇcek to Kamila version. Stösslová (Faber, 2005) uncovers a decade’s worth of letters between composer and muse, while his biography of PROGRAM NOTES BY ROBERT WESLEY MURRAY Janáˇcek runs to two exhaustive © ACO 2010 volumes (Faber, 2006—7). Redressing the balance, John Tyrell also edited the memoirs of Janáˇcek’s wife, Zdenka Janáˇcková: My Life with Janáˇcek (Faber, 1998). An ACO recording of Richard Tognetti’s arrangement of Janáˇcek’s string quartet “After Tolstoy’s Kreutzer Sonata” is available on CD — with arrangements of quartets by Haas and Szymanowski — on Chandos (CHAN10016), available from aco.com.au/shop.

16 AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA RICHARD TOGNETTI AO ARTISTIC DIRECTOR AND LEADER AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA

Australian violinist and conductor Richard Tognetti has established an international reputation for his compelling performances and artistic individualism. He studied at the Sydney Conservatorium with Alice Waten and in his home town of Wollongong with William Primrose, and at the Bern Conservatory (Switzerland) with Igor Ozim, where he was awarded the Tschumi Prize as the top graduate soloist in 1989. Later that year he led several performances of the ACO, and was appointed Leader. He was subsequently appointed Artistic Director of the Orchestra. Tognetti performs on period, modern and electric instruments. His numerous arrangements, compositions and transcriptions have expanded the chamber orchestra repertoire and have been ‘Richard Tognetti is one performed throughout the world. of the most characterful, incisive and impassioned Highlights of his career as director, soloist or chamber music partner include the Sydney Festival (as conductor of Mozart’s violinists to be heard today.’ Mitridate); and appearances with the Handel & Haydn Society THE DAILY TELEGRAPH (UK) (Boston), Hong Kong Philharmonic, Camerata Salzburg, Tapiola Sinfonietta, Irish Chamber Orchestra and the Nordic Chamber Orchestra. He is Artistic Director of the Maribor Festival in Slovenia. As soloist Richard Tognetti has appeared with the ACO and the major Australian symphonies, including the Australian premiere Select Discography of Ligeti’s Violin Concerto with the Sydney Symphony. He has As soloist: collaborated with colleagues from various art forms, including BACH Sonatas for Violin and Keyboard Joseph Tawadros, Dawn Upshaw, James Crabb, Emmanuel ABC Classics 476 5942 Pahud, , Tim Freedman, Paul Capsis, Bill Henson and 2008 ARIA Award Winner Michael Leunig. In 2003, Richard was co-composer of the score BACH Violin Concertos for Peter Weir’s Master and Commander: Th e Far Side of the ABC Classics 476 5691 World; violin tutor for its star, Russell Crowe; and can be heard 2007 ARIA Award Winner performing on the award-winning soundtrack. In 2005, with BACH Solo Violin Sonatas and Partitas Michael Yezerski, he co-composed the soundtrack to Tom ABC Classics 476 8051 Carroll’s surf fi lm Horrorscopes and, in 2008, created Th e Red Tree. 2006 ARIA Award Winner (All three releases available as Richard Tognetti co-created and starred in the 2008 documentary a 5CD Box set: fi lm Musica Surfi ca, which has won best fi lm awards at surf fi lm ABC Classics 476 6168) festivals in the USA, Brazil, France and South Africa. Musica Surfi ca (DVD) Best Feature, New York Surf Film Alongside numerous recordings with the ACO, Richard Festival Tognetti has recorded Bach’s solo violin repertoire, winning As director: three consecutive ARIA Awards for Best Classical VIVALDI Flute Concertos, Op.10 (2006–8) and the Dvoˇrák Violin Concerto. Emmanuel Pahud, Flute EMI Classics 0946 3 47212 2 6 Richard Tognetti holds honorary doctorates from three Australian Grammy Nominee universities and, was made a National Living Treasure in 1999 PIAZZOLLA Song of the Angel and in 2010 was awarded an Order of Australia. He performs on Chandos CHAN 10163 a 1743 Guarneri del Gesù, made available exclusively to him by All available from aco.com.au/shop. an anonymous Australian private benefactor.

AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA 17 Photo SAMUEL WEST ©

Nina Large ACTOR Samuel West is an actor and director. He has appeared with all the major British orchestras, in works including Stravinsky’s Th e Soldier’s Tale and Oedipus Rex, Schoenberg’s Ode To Napoleon, Saint-Saëns’ Carnival of the Animals, Bernstein’s Kaddish and Walton’s Façade and Henry V. He was soloist in Henry V at the 2002 Last Night of the Proms, performed Night Mail and Th e Way to the Sea by Britten and Auden at the 2008 Proms and made his New York recital debut in the premiere of Little Red Violin (Anne Dudley and Steven Isserlis) at the 92nd Street Y. Other world premieres include Concrete by Judith Weir and Howard Goodall’s Jason and the Argonauts. Last year Samuel narrated Stravinsky’s Th e Flood to close the CBSO’s Igorfest. He has also appeared with the Hong Kong Philharmonic, Dallas Symphony and the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington DC. In chamber music, Sam has appeared with Th e Nash Ensemble, Th e Raphael Ensemble, Ensemble 360° and Th e Lindsay, Dante and Endellion Quartets at London’s Wigmore Hall. Th is year he toured the UK with pianist Lucy Parham in Nocturne, a program about Chopin and George Sand. Acting work includes title roles in Hamlet and Richard II for the Royal Shakespeare Company, Enron in the West End and the fi lms Howards End, Notting Hill and Van Helsing. Sam directed Così fan tutte for English National Opera and Th e Magic Flute for the Palestine Mozart Festival. ROBIN McLEAVY ACTOR Robin McLeavy graduated from NIDA in 2004. Her screen debut in the adaptation of Nick Earls’ book 48 Shades premiered at the 2006 Brisbane International Film Festival and screened at the Montreal World Film Festival, the Hollywood and Fort Lauderdale Film Festivals and the London Festival of Australian Films. In 2006 Robin played seven characters in Tom Murphy’s play Holding the Man, directed by David Berthold, performed at Griffi n Th eatre and encored at the Sydney Opera House and Belvoir St Th eatre. In 2007 Robin was nominated for Best Supporting Actress in the Sydney Th eatre Awards for her performance in Company B’s production Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, directed by Benedict Andrews. 2008 saw Robin in the title role of Sydney Th eatre Company’s Th e Great, directed by Peter Evans. Robin starred alongside Cate Blanchett and Joel Edgerton in Sydney Th eatre Company’s 2009 A Streetcar Named Desire, directed by Liv Ullmann. Th e production premiered in Sydney to rave reviews and a sell-out season and later toured to the Kennedy Center, Washington DC and the Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York. She starred in Company B’s 2010 production of Shakespeare’s Measure For Measure, directed by Benedict Andrews.

18 AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA Photo LAURA WADE ©

Philip Hollis PLAYWRIGHT Laura Wade’s fi rst play Limbo was produced at the Crucible Th eatre, Sheffi eld, when she was 18. She later trained with the Royal Court Th eatre’s Young Writers Program in London, and was a Writer on Attachment at Soho Th eatre. Plays include Posh (Royal Court Th eatre), Alice (Crucible Th eatre, Sheffi eld), Other Hands (Soho Th eatre), Colder Th an Here (Soho Th eatre and MCC Th eatre New York), Breathing Corpses (Royal Court Th eatre), Catch (Royal Court Th eatre, collectively written with four other playwrights), Young Emma (Finborough Th eatre), and 16 Winters ( Old Vic Basement). Laura has also written plays for young people, including Th e Wild Swans, Twelve Machine and Th e Last Child, a trilogy of fairy tale reworkings for Playbox Th eatre at the Dream Factory, Warwick. Awards include the Critics’ Circle Award for Most Promising Playwright, the Pearson Best Play Award and the George Devine Award. Laura’s plays have also been performed in the USA, Australia, Ireland, Sweden, Germany and the Netherlands, and are published by Oberon Books in the UK and Dramatists Play Service in the USA. Laura has written plays for broadcast on BBC Radio, including Good Times Roll, Otherkin, Hum and Coughs and Sneezes. She is currently developing a feature fi lm version of Posh, with the support of the UK Film Council and Blueprint Pictures. SARAH GILES DIRECTOR Sarah Giles studied at the University of Melbourne where she completed her Bachelor of Arts with a double major in Italian and History. She completed post-graduate studies at the National Institute of Dramatic Art where she specialised in directing. Sarah’s work as a director includes classic and contemporary texts, as well as directing and developing new work. New Australian work includes Home Economics, Foot, Cut and K.I.J.E. Classical and contemporary texts include Th e Real Inspector Hound, Black Comedy, Th e Maids, Th e Bald Soprano, Fewer Emergencies: Face to the Wall, Th e Stronger, Th e Universal Language, Th e Herbal Bed, Th e Bear, Th at Face and Th e Pigeons. As Assistant Director Sarah has worked on the Melbourne Th eatre Company’s production of Th e History Boys, director Peter Evans; Malthouse Th eatre and Sydney Th eatre Company’s co-production of Optimism, director Michael Kantor; and Sydney Th eatre Company’s productions of TOT MOM, director Steven Soderbergh and Long Day’s Journey Into Night, director Andrew Upton. Sarah was the Affi liate Director in residence at Griffi n Th eatre Company in 2009 and has been appointed the Richard Wherrett Fellow at Sydney Th eatre Company for 2011.

AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA 19 AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA RICHARD TOGNETTI AO ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

‘You’d have to scour the Australia’s national orchestra is a product of its country’s universe hard to fi nd vibrant, adventurous and enquiring spirit. In performances another band like the ACO.’ around Australia, around the world and on many recordings, the ACO moves hearts and stimulates minds with repertoire THE TIMES, UK spanning six centuries and a vitality and energy unmatched by ‘The energy and vibe other ensembles. of a rock band with the Th e ACO was founded in 1975. Every year, this ensemble ability of a crack classical presents performances of the highest standard to audiences chamber group.’ around the world, including 10,000 subscribers across Australia. WASHINGTON POST Th e ACO’s unique artistic style encompasses not only the masterworks of the classical repertoire, but innovative cross- artform projects and a vigorous commissioning program. Under Richard Tognetti’s inspiring leadership, the ACO has performed as a fl exible and versatile ‘ensemble of soloists’, on modern and period instruments, as a small chamber group, a Select Discography small symphony orchestra, and as an electro-acoustic collective. In a nod to past traditions, only the cellists are seated – the Bach Violin Concertos ABC 476 5691 resulting sense of energy and individuality is one of the most Vivaldi Flute Concertos commented-upon elements of an ACO concert experience. with Emmanuel Pahud EMI 3 47212 2 Several of the ACO’s principal musicians perform with Bach Keyboard Concertos spectacularly fi ne instruments. Tognetti performs on a priceless with Angela Hewitt 1743 Guarneri del Gesù, on loan to him from an anonymous Hyperion SACDA 67307/08 Australian benefactor. Principal Cello Timo-Veikko Valve plays Tango Jam on a 1729 Giuseppe Guarneri fi lius Andreæ cello, also on loan with James Crabb Mulberry Hill MHR C001 from an anonymous benefactor, and Assistant Leader Satu Song of the Angel Vänskä plays a 1759 J.B. Guadagnini violin on loan from the Music of Astor Piazzolla Commonwealth Bank Group. with James Crabb Chandos CHAN 10163 Forty international tours have drawn outstanding reviews at Sculthorpe: works for string many of the world’s most prestigious concert halls, including orchestra including Irkanda I, Djilile Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, London’s Wigmore Hall, New and Cello Dreaming York’s Carnegie Hall and Vienna’s Musikverein. Chandos CHAN 10063 Giuliani Guitar Concerto Th e ACO has made acclaimed recordings for labels including with John Williams ABC Classics, Sony, Channel Classics, Hyperion, EMI, Sony SK 63385 Chandos and Orfeo and currently has a recording contract These and more ACO recordings with BIS. A full list of available recordings can be found at are available from our online shop: aco.com.au/shop or by calling aco.com.au/shop. Highlights include the three-time ARIA 1800 444 444. Award-winning Bach recordings and Vivaldi Concertos with Emmanuel Pahud. Th e ACO appears in the television series Classical Destinations II and the award-winning fi lm Musica Surfi ca, both available on DVD and CD.

To be kept up to date with ACO In 2005, the ACO inaugurated an ambitious national education tours and recordings, register program, which includes outreach activities and mentoring of for the free e-newsletter at outstanding young musicians, including the formation of ACO2, aco.com.au. an elite training orchestra which tours regional centres.

20 AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA MUSICIANS Photos: Tanja Ahola, Helen White

RICHARD TOGNETTI AO SATU VÄNSKÄ* MADELEINE BOUD ALICE EVANS Artistic Director and Lead Violin Assistant Leader Violin Violin Chair sponsored by Michael Ball AM Violin Chair sponsored by Terry Chair sponsored by Jan Bowen, & Daria Ball, Joan Clemenger, Wendy Chair sponsored by Robert & Campbell AO & Christine Campbell Th e Davies and Th e Sandgropers Edwards, and Prudence MacLeod Kay Bryan

AIKO GOTO MARK INGWERSEN CHRISTOPHER MOORE NICOLE DIVALL Violin Violin Principal Viola Viola Chair sponsored by Andrew & Chair sponsored by Runge Chair sponsored by Tony Shepherd Chair sponsored by Ian & Nina Hiroko Gwinnett Lansdown

STEPHEN KING TIMOVEIKKO VALVE MELISSA BARNARD JULIAN THOMPSON Viola Principal Cello Cello Cello Chair sponsored by Philip Bacon AM Chair Ssonsored by Mr Peter Chair sponsored by Th e Bruce & Chair sponsored by the Clayton Weiss AM Joy Reid Foundation Family

MEESUN HONG# ALICE BABBAGE Players dressed by Guest Principal 2nd Violin Costume Designer AKIRA ISOGAWA REBECCA CHAN LUIZ PAMPOLHA Violin Lighting Designer DANIEL ROEHN NED MATTHEWS Violin Stage Manager KAREN SEGAL SIMON LEAR Violin Sound Engineer

# Courtesy of the Merel Quartet

MAXIME BIBEAU Principal Bass Chair sponsored by John Taberner & Grant Lang * Satu Vänskä plays a 1759 J.B. Guadagnini violin on loan from the Commonwealth Bank Group.

AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA 21 ACO PARTNERS

Th e ACO receives around 50% of its income from the box offi ce, 35% from the business community and private donors and less than 15% from government sources. Th e private sector plays a key role in the continued growth and artistic development of the Orchestra. We are proud of the relationships we have developed with each of our partners and would like to acknowledge their generous support.

C FOUNDING PARTNER A O2 PRINCIPAL PARTNER

OFFICIAL AIRLINE

NATIONAL TOUR PARTNERS

PRINCIPAL INNOVATION PARTNER

OFFICIAL PARTNERS

PERTH SERIES AND WA REGIONAL TOUR PARTNER

QLD/NSW REGIONAL TOUR PARTNER

CONCERT AND SERIES PARTNERS

PREFERRED TRAVEL PARTNER

GOVERNMENT SUPPORT ACCOMMODATION AND EVENT SUPPORT

ACO is supported by the NSW Government through Arts NSW

BAR CUPOLA SWEENEY RESEARCH

AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA 33 STACCATO: ACO NEWS

EDUCATION NEWS

Th e last few months have been very busy for the Rachel Scott, a teacher with the Australian ACO’s Education Program. September featured Children’s Music Foundation, guided the the fi nal concert of the ACO’s youth chamber students through an interactive concert which orchestra, the Parramatta String Players, and included a performance of the March from the ACO’s last 2010 visit to Matraville’s Soldiers’ Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite with some of the C Settlement School. In October, A O2 performed Year 4 students. and conducted education programs throughout C A O2’s tour of regional NSW and Queensland, regional NSW and Queensland. led by guest director and lead violin Kristian Th e Parramatta String Players’ performance Winther, and featuring Genevieve Lacey on at Riverside Th eatres in September was the recorder, received fantastic reviews from culmination of a three-year sustained program audiences and critics. Th e ACO gratefully for young string players in Western Sydney. Th e acknowledges the support of APN News and fi nal concert was a fantastic success and featured Media and the Queensland Government for the premiere performance of Th inking about making this tour possible and also acknowledges Forever..., a new work by Matthew Hindson and the support of the Linnaeus Estate, the Sidney choreographer Kay Armstrong. Th is work was Myer Fund and the Ross Trust. written using musical themes workshopped by Of course, none of the ACO’s education activities the students themselves, which Kay used as a are possible without the generous support of basis for her choreography. Th e opportunity to our Patrons and the ACO is truly grateful for collaborate with dance students and to work with the support of all our Patrons in 2010. Matthew and Kay was a wonderful experience for the Parramatta String Players. Th e ACO is enormously grateful to the Limb Family Foundation and Parramatta City Council for their support of the Parramatta String Players Project. We are pleased to announce that Th inking about Forever… will be performed again in Parramatta and Penrith during the 2011 Sydney Festival. Th e third visit by an ACO Quartet to the Matraville Soldiers’ Settlement School was a great Nicole Divall with children from the Matraville Soldiers’ Settlement experience for the children and musicians. School.

ACO, Parramatta String Players and youMove Dance Company performing Thinking about Forever…

34 AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA STACCATO: ACO NEWS

BRISBANE EVENT  ACO BY THE RIVER

On Saturday 18 September the ACO staged its and Piazzolla’s Oblivion. Brisbane chefs Russell 2010 Brisbane Event, ACO by the River, at the Armstrong, Javier Codina and David Pugh stunning riverside residence of Richard and cooked up a storm, treating guests to a medley Kate Bell. Richard and Kate generously opened of their signature dishes. their home to 150 ACO supporters for an Th e ACO is pleased to announce that $55,000 evening of mouth-watering culinary treats and was raised at ACO by the River in support of a thrilling performance by the Orchestra. the ACO’s Education Program. We would like Having just stepped off a plane from their to thank ACO by the River Presenting Partner month-long Trans-Atlantic Tour, an inspired Maserati, and event sponsors Tiff any & Co., ACO performed beautiful repertoire for their Peter Lehmann and Cellarmasters for their Brisbane guests, including Vivaldi’s Winter invaluable support of the Orchestra. TIFFANY & CO. PRIVATE PERFORMANCE On Th ursday 9 September, Tiff any & Co. invited a quartet of ACO Qantas Emerging Artists to perform at a special event at their Sydney boutique. Tiff any & Co. were taking part in the Vogue initiative Fashion’s Night Out, and the quartet was featured in a performance for Tiff any & Co. guests and the glamorous patrons of Vogue’s Fashion’s Night Out.

ABOVE: The Tiffany & Co. boutique was buzzing with shoppers who gathered in the courtyard of its Castlereagh Street store to enjoy the superb sounds of the ACO’s talented young musicians.

LEFT: ACO Qantas Emerging Artists (from left): Michael Brooks- Reid, Christina Katsimbardis (obscured), Michael Dahlenburg and Christopher Cartlidge. UPCOMING EVENT  VASSE FELIX FESTIVAL

On 3–5 December, the ACO performs three For further information and booking, concerts at Vasse Felix winery in Margaret River, phone 08 9756 5016 or email accompanied by superb food and wine. Th ere [email protected]. are still tickets available for the performances on Friday and Sunday.

AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA 35 STACCATO: ACO NEWS MERCHANDISE Mozart Violin Concertos 3 and 5 and Sinfonia Concertante Nominated for a 2010 ARIA Award Th e fi rst disc of Richard Tognetti and the Australian Chamber Orchestra’s complete recordings of the Mozart Violin Concertos is out now, featuring Violin Concertos No. 3 and 5 and the Sinfonia Concertante with Christopher Moore. “It is simply breathtaking. Th e ACO rides a wave of inspiration, putting in performances that sound live but were studio recorded...Th e result brims with vivacity and captures fully Mozart’s smiling, mercurial wit and the secret depth of his personality. Other performances, even the most illustrious in the catalogue, sound staid and stodgy after hearing this…It’s a stunning disc.” Th e Australian

Janáˇcek String Quartet No.1, ‘Kreutzer Sonata’ Th e ACO has recorded Janáček’s Kreutzer Sonata, performed in this concert, on a CD of string quartets arranged for string orchestra. Also featuring Haas’ String Quartet No.2, Op. 7 ‘From the Monkey Mountains’ and Szymanowski’s String Quartet No.2.

Available in the foyer, at aco.com.au/shop or by phoning 02 8274 3800. GIFT CERTIFICATES Why not give the music-lover in your life their choice of ACO concerts or recordings? Gift certifi cates can be purchased and redeemed at aco.com.au/gift-certifi cates or by calling 1800 444 444. PARTNER PROFILE Th e Trust Company community. As trustee for over 350 charitable is delighted to be trusts, Th e Trust Company shares the ACO’s supporting the ACO’s vision to preserve and enhance the arts and National Education culture in Australia. Given our own long history Program in 2010 which nurtures and creates and tradition of supporting the Australian opportunities for the young talented musicians community, we are delighted to be associated in regional Australia. Th is exceptional program with the ACO’s world class ensemble, known works towards developing emerging talent, and to perform dynamic and vibrant music with an contributes to the future of our arts and cultural energy that is unmatched.

36 AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA