MASTER 7 & LAUNCESTON 4

FRIDAY SATURDAY 31 JULY 7.30PM 1 AUGUST 7.30PM FEDERATION CONCERT HALL ALBERT HALL

Marko Letonja conductor INTERVAL Isabelle Faust violin Duration 20 mins

DEBUSSY arr ZENDER DVORˇ ÁK Five Preludes Symphony No 9, From the New World Voiles Adagio – Allegro molto La danse de Puck Largo Général Lavine – eccentric Scherzo (Molto vivace) Des pas sur la neige Allegro con fuoco Les collines d’Anacapri Duration 40 mins Duration 13 mins This concert will end at approximately MENDELSSOHN 9.30pm. Violin Concerto Allegro molto appassionato – Andante – Allegro non troppo – Allegro molto vivace

Duration 28 mins LAUNCESTON SEASON MAJOR MEDIA PARTNER

Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra concerts are broadcast and streamed throughout 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. 58 59 CLAUDE DEBUSSY (1862-1918) ARR HANS ZENDER (BORN 1936)

Five Preludes clarinets, single bassoon, horn, trumpet, Voiles (Book 1, No 2) trombone, timpani, percussion, harp, two violins, two violas, cello and double bass La danse de Puck (Book 1, No 11) (though a larger string body may be used). Général Lavine – eccentric (Book 2, No 6) MARKO LETONJA ISABELLE FAUST “Voiles” can mean “sails” or “veils” and is Des pas sur la neige (Book 1, No 6) musically as ambiguous, with its extensive Les collines d’Anacapri (Book 1, No 5) use of the whole-tone and pentatonic scales Marko Letonja is Chief Conductor At an early age Isabelle Faust won the that erases any conventional sense of key. and Artistic Director of the Tasmanian prestigious Leopold Mozart and Paganini If there was one thing Debussy hated, it Zender presents the opening arabesque in was hearing his music described as “what Symphony Orchestra, and Music Director competitions, and was soon invited to pairs of woodwinds set off by glints of high imbeciles call impressionism, just about the string sound, with the pentatonic central of the Orchestre Philharmonique de appear with the world’s leading orchestras, least appropriate term possible”. Those section introduced by sweeping harp Strasbourg. Born in Slovenia, he studied at including the Berlin Philharmonic, Orchestra painters with whom Debussy associated, glissandos. the Academy of Music in Ljubljana and the of the Age of Enlightenment, Boston and from whom he absorbed much that Shakespeare’s sometimes malevolent Vienna Academy of Music. He was Music Symphony Orchestra and NHK Symphony was useful to his own art, were of a much hobgoblin, Puck, is depicted by suggestively Director of the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra. She is equally at home as a younger generation than that of Monet, and clumsy dotted rhythms, often treated as of a different aesthetic orientation. Debussy Orchestra from 1991 to 2003 and Music chamber musician and soloist, and in ostinatos, and occasional quiet moments preferred his work to be compared with that suggest the magic of which he is Director and Chief Conductor of both the addition to her mastery of the great violin literature rather than visual arts, especially capable. Symphony Orchestra and the Opera in concertos, she also performs works such Symbolist poetry. Significantly, Debussy put From Book 2, Zender selects Debussy’s Basel from 2003 to 2006. He was Principal as György Kurtág’s Kafka Fragments with the titles of his piano preludes at the end of portrait of Général Lavine, a music-hall star Guest Conductor of Orchestra in soprano Christine Schäfer, and the Brahms each piece, in brackets, as if to forestall too “visual” an interpretation. The two books of of the time who has been described as “a 2008 and made his debut with the TSO and Mozart clarinet quintets on historical Preludes for piano were composed in 1910 comic juggler, half tramp and half warrior”. the following year. He took up the post instruments. Over the course of her career and 1913, respectively. They each contain Here Zender takes his greatest liberties with of Chief Conductor and Artistic Director she has worked with renowned conductors works that adhere to certain recurrent ideas Debussy’s score, including some frankly cartoonish effects. of the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra including Frans Brüggen, , in Debussy’s work – ancient mythology and at the start of 2012. Marko Letonja has Giovanni Antonini, Philippe Herreweghe, “the mysterious correspondences between Returning to Book 1, Debussy’s intensely Nature and Imagination” which Debussy private vision of “Footsteps in the Snow”, worked with many orchestras in Europe Daniel Harding and . In recent found in Symbolist poetry. with its repeated dragging rhythm, is including the Munich Philharmonic, Vienna years she developed a close relationship with embodied in a mournful cor anglais solo Debussy on occasion had assistants, Symphony and the Orchestra Filarmonica the late . Their recording of that is joined by a distant trumpet – a notably the composer and conductor André pairing reminiscent of Copland’s Quiet City. della Scala, Milan; and in many renowned the Beethoven and Berg violin concertos with Caplet, orchestrate his piano music, and opera houses, such as the Vienna State the Orchestra Mozart received a Diapason those works nearly always try to replicate A glittering evocation of the Mediterranean Opera, Berlin State Opera, La Scala, Milan, d’or, , Gramophone Award Debussy’s own sound. The contemporary light and the vibrant and louche Neapolitan and the Semper Oper, Dresden. He has and a Record Academy Award (Japan). She German composer Hans Zender has made dance rhythms of “The Hills of Anacapri”, what he calls “composed interpretations” of takes the orchestra into its highest collective also conducted at the Arena di Verona. His has made over a dozen critically acclaimed earlier music, notably a stunning orchestral register for a thrilling, if shrill, finale. engagements in Australia have included recordings, including Bach’s sonatas and version of Schubert’s Winterreise, and © Gordon Kerry 2015 the West Australian Symphony Orchestra partitas for solo violin, which was awarded argues that “each note in a manuscript is and productions for a Diapason d’Or de l’Annee. She also won primarily a challenge to action and not an This is the first performance of this work by the and the West Australian Opera. Future a Diapason d’Or and a Gramophone Award explicit description of sound.” Believing that Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. engagements include the Grand Théâtre de for her recording of the Beethoven sonatas “the sensitivity formed by the aesthetics of [an artist’s] own time is necessary to create Genève, Mozarteum Orchestra, Salzburg, for piano and violin with recital partner a lively and exciting performance”, his is a Berlin Radio Orchestra and a return Alexander Melnikov. She plays the “Sleeping creative response to the music. Zender uses appearance at the Vienna State Opera. Beauty” Stradivarius (1704). a small orchestra of double flutes, oboes,

60 61 FELIX MENDELSSOHN (1809-1847) ANTONÍN DVORˇ ÁK (1841-1904)

Violin Concerto in E minor, Op 64 many years, he was able to return to the Symphony No 9 in E minor, Op 95, From the Its first performance occurred on Allegro molto appassionato – Violin Concerto, which was completed in New World 16 December that year, Anton Seidl September 1844. David performed it under conducting the New York Philharmonic Andante – Adagio – Allegro molto the baton of Niels Gade (Mendelssohn was Society in Carnegie Hall. The response was Largo Allegro non troppo – Allegro molto vivace ill) in March 1845. Joachim played it soon rapturous. Dvorˇák wrote to his publisher after, and the rest is history. Scherzo (Molto vivace) that “newspapers say no composer has ever In 1836 violinist Ferdinand David accepted Allegro con fuoco before had such a triumph…I had to thank Mendelssohn’s invitation to become leader Mendelssohn was averse to virtuosity for its own sake, likening such effects to “juggler’s [the audience] from the box like a king!” of the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig. Czech composer Antonín Dvorˇák arrived tricks”. Part of his diffidence may have The debate over the work’s “American” There he also performed frequently with in New York with his wife and two of his been a response to the challenge of writing credentials began almost immediately. Mendelssohn in chamber concerts, and six children on 26 September 1892. At a genuine concerto that was not emptily when the Leipzig Conservatorium opened the invitation of the wealthy and visionary Dvorˇák was at pains to repeat to his friends showy. He was no doubt helped by David’s in 1843, David established its violin philanthropist Mrs Jeanette Thurber, Dvorˇák that the New World was “essentially technical artistry and personality, and department, with 14-year-old Joseph had come to the New World to become different from my earlier things – perhaps there seems little doubt that David wrote Joachim among his first pupils. (With David, Director of the National Conservatory of a little American – and it would never have the first movement’s cadenza. But it was Mendelssohn and Schumann on staff, it Music in Manhattan. been written just ‘so’ had I never seen Mendelssohn’s genius to place the cadenza must have been quite an institution.) America.” He dismissed as “nonsense” before the recapitulation, thus making it At the Conservatory, Dvorˇák struck up a the notion that he had introduced Native In 1838 Mendelssohn remarked in a letter part of the dramatic structure of sonata friendship with a young African American American or Negro melodies. Even so, to David that form, rather than an “add-on”, as in many singing major from Pennsylvania, Harry many commentators hear echoes of the other concertos. T Burleigh. Although not far enough I would like to compose a violin concerto spiritual Swing Low, Sweet Chariot in the advanced to be a member of Dvorˇák’s for next winter. One in E minor keeps A long bassoon note at the end of the main theme of the first movement; others classes, Burleigh was invited on many running through my head, and the opening first movement briefly holds the music in hear snippets of Yankee Doodle in the occasions to sing the spirituals and work- gives me no peace. suspense before it moves, without a break, finale. songs of his people, music that caused But for various reasons Mendelssohn was into a classically Mendelssohnian song. The Dvorˇák to write: The haunting melody in the second slow movement is in simple ABA form, with unable to complete the work that winter movement poses many problems of a contrasting central section. It too passes In these Negro melodies, I have or the next, despite David’s constant identity. Miss Alice Fletcher, a prominent into the finale without a pause; here the discovered all that is needed for a great reminders. In 1839 he wrote politely to the collector of Native American music, said music has all the lightness and grace of the and noble school of music. They are violinist: that in 1893 Dvorˇák told her it sprang from great Mendelssohn scherzos. pathetic, tender, passionate, melancholy, It is nice of you to press me for a violin an Osage Indian song he had heard during solemn, religious, bold, merry, gay, or concerto! I have the liveliest desire to write Abridged from a note by Gordon Kerry the several summer weeks he spent in the what you will…There is nothing in the one for you and, if I have a few propitious © 2009 Bohemian village of Spillville, in north-east whole range of composition that cannot days, I’ll bring you something. But the task Iowa. (The argument was further muddied be supplied with themes from this source. is not an easy one. The Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra first some years later, when William Arms Fisher, performed this work with conductor Rudolf By early January 1893, Dvorˇák began to one of his Conservatory students, penned It was made less easy by the sheer amount Pekarek and soloist Ricardo Odnoposoff in Hobart jot down sketches for a new symphony. a text to the melody. From that moment, of work Mendelssohn had at this time. and Launceston on 19 and 21 September 1951 and, most recently, with Sebastian Lang-Lessing By 24 May, it was complete. (Confusingly, Goin’ Home became a favourite “spiritual” As well as duties with the Gewandhaus, and Kolja Blacher in Launceston and on he called this E minor symphony his on Paul Robeson’s recitals and in the 1941 he directed music festivals in Germany 27 September and 4 October 2008. “eighth”, but crossed that out, calling it movie It Started with Eve, sung by Deanna and England, devoted himself to reviving his “seventh”. Initially published as his Durbin. Thus a melody possibly inspired by historical music from Bach to Schubert “fifth”, today we recognise it in its rightful spirituals itself became a “spiritual”.) It was and, in 1843, was appointed Kapellmeister chronological place as his “ninth” – a also quoted by Charles Ives in his Second to King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia. fateful number for symphonic composers, Symphony, written between 1896 and 1902. Additionally, with the establishment of post-Beethoven!) As the score was rushed the new Cathedral choir in Leipzig, and Harry T Burleigh, who had helped copy out of the house, Dvorˇák hastily scrawled with various composing and conducting parts for the new symphony, had no doubts the famous moniker on its title page: From engagements in Germany and abroad, about its origin. “It was my privilege to the New World. With this New World Mendelssohn was kept frantically busy sing repeatedly some of the old plantation Symphony, Dvorˇák sent greetings to his until the summer of 1844. Finally, after songs for Dvorˇák in his house,” he recalled. friends and colleagues in the Old World. “One in particular, Swing Low, Sweet

62 63 Chariot, greatly pleased him, and part of Dvorˇák and his wife set sail from New York this old spiritual will be found in the second on 16 April 1895. He was due to return theme of the first movement.” Indeed, but decided to remain in his comfort-zone Dvorˇák changed his orchestration of the of Bohemia for the sake of his family and Largo; he felt that the cor anglais, not the close-knit circle of friends. On 17 August, clarinet he originally used, “most closely he sent his letter of resignation to Mrs resembled the quality of Burleigh’s voice.” Thurber. Other aspects of Dvorˇák’s so-called In inviting Dvorˇák to New York, Mrs Thurber “American identity” need to be mentioned. had hoped he would not only help reverse the brain-drain to Europe but sow the Dvorˇák arrived in America at the outset of a seeds of a national school of composition welter of celebrations commemorating the in America. A decade later, Gustav Mahler 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’ was to arrive in New York to conduct. But so-called “discovery of the New World”. no other European symphonic work was to For the Columbus Celebration Concert in imprint its American outlook and origins in Carnegie Hall on 21 October 1892, Dvorˇák the history of music as Dvorˇák’s New World. conducted his new Te Deum, Op 103. For Forty “Czech Day” at the Chicago Columbian Indirectly, Mrs Thurber got her wish and her Exhibition, 12 August 1893, he conducted memorial to boot. some Slavonic Dances and his Symphony Abridged from a note by Vincent Plush No 8, for an audience which included © 2002 years on 30,000 Czechs and Moravians. For that same Exhibition he was also commissioned The Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra first You might think that after playing in the TSO But Rob’s recollections are not confined to compose music for a pageant performed this work with conductor Joseph Post in for more than forty years, memories of specific to the big names on the podium. He celebrating Columbus; the project was Hobart on 11 April 1951 and, most recently, with conductors, concerts and events would start remembers fondly the musicians who have scrapped, but the ever-resourceful Dvorˇák Sebastian Lang-Lessing in Hobart and Launceston on 29 and 30 November 2010. to blur, but for Robert Clark, Principal Bass passed through the ranks of the orchestra. “I may have recycled some of its music in his Trombone, they remain crystal clear. joined the TSO at a time when the orchestra new symphony. One can almost envisage Rob, who was born and raised in country started to recruit conservatory-trained the “heroic” Columbus in the fanfare musicians. It was a time when the TSO was outbursts of the first and last movements. Victoria, joined the TSO in 1974 and can recall in detail his four-decade career with serious about lifting the quality of its music- In the tiny, desolate village of Spillville, the orchestra. “When I arrived the Chief making.” He cites, for example, Michael where he composed his String Quartet, Conductor was Vanco Cavdarski, whose Mulcahy, who was appointed Principal Op 97 (The American) and the piano areas of interest were Slavic composers Trombone in the 1970s and has gone on miniatures Humoresques, Dvorˇák saw and Tchaikovsky.” He remembers Barry to join the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. several performances of Buffalo Bill’s Wild Tuckwell for his “relentless quest for Another former colleague, Tim Dowling, West Show in which the “Kickapoo Indians” perfection”, Dobbs Franks for a very has been with the Residentie Orchestra in danced and sang. He read Theodore memorable Spartacus performed with Holland for the past 25 years. Rob likewise Baker’s dissertation on the music of the at the foot of the speaks highly of Don Bate, who resigned North American Indian. On a side trip to Acropolis in Athens, and recently as Principal Trombone to take up a Minnesota, he stood in awe at the beautiful for his passion for contemporary music. position with the ABC, and the orchestra’s Horseshoe Falls of Minnehaha in St Paul. Having seen many chief conductors come current trombonists, Jonathon Ramsay and Without any paper, he wrote on his sleeve and go, Rob praises the current incumbent, David Robins. cuff the theme of the Larghetto movement Marko Letonja, for taking the orchestra to Among the highlights of Rob’s forty years of his Violin Sonatina, Op 100. another level in a natural, unforced way. with the TSO have been the various Perhaps the oddest of Dvorˇák’s manifold “Marko puts his personal stamp on the tours, both national and international. Americanisms is his arrangement of orchestra while at the same time allows us “Touring really puts us on our mettle. It’s Stephen Foster’s song Old Folks at Home, the freedom to play instinctively; we’re not very important for the TSO to play before written for a benefit concert sponsored by straightjacketed.” Of the various visiting different audiences in different halls. We the New York Herald in 1894, in which Harry conductors who have come and gone over really develop as musicians when we tour.” Burleigh sang one of the vocal solo parts. the years, he speaks highly of Chinese-born Rob is pleased that the TSO is once again maestro En Shao and old-school German, exploring new and challenging repertoire in Kurt Sanderling. He praises the former for its collaborations with MONA. “These are his interpretation of Tchaikovsky and the the things that make my job exciting.” latter for his extraordinary way with Brahms. 64 65