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Thursday RAMEAU 17 August 7.30pm Pigmalion – Suite Federation Concert Hall Ouverture Hobart Les différents caractères de la danse HOBART BAROQUE 3 Sarabande pour la Statue; Tambourin Matthew Halls conductor & harpsichord Marche Emma McGrath violin Air gracieux et gai et contredanse Douglas Mackie flute Duration 16 mins MILLS Chorale Meditation on Heut’ JS BACH triumphieret Gottes Sohn by JS Bach* Orchestral Suite No 4 Duration 8 mins Ouverture Bourrée I – II – I J-F-REBEL Gavotte Les élémens – Suite Menuet I – II – I Le cahos Loure: La terre et l’eau Réjouissance Chaconne: Le feu Duration 18 mins Ramage: L’air This concert will end at approximately Rossignols 9.30pm. Tambourin I Tambourin II *World première. This work was commissioned Duration 10 mins by the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra with the PHOTO OF generous support of Peter Stanton. Expert advice Emma McGrath JS BACH Concertmaster Brandenburg Concerto No 5 and solutions. [Allegro] Affettuoso Allegro Duration 21 mins

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52 53 Matthew Halls Emma McGrath Douglas Mackie

This season marks Matthew Halls’ fourth Heralded as a “first-magnitude star New Zealand-born Douglas Mackie has as Artistic Director of the Oregon Bach in the making” by the Seattle Times, been Principal Flute with the Tasmanian Festival, succeeding founding director British violinist Emma McGrath became Symphony Orchestra since 1981. Having Helmuth Rilling. Halls opened the Concertmaster of the Tasmanian Symphony completed a science degree at the 2016 festival with Bach’s Mass in B Minor. Orchestra at the start of 2016. She made University of Auckland, he was awarded He also conducted the world première of her London debut aged ten in the Purcell a scholarship to undertake postgraduate Sir James MacMillan’s A European Requiem. Room at the Southbank Centre and at study at the Royal College of Music in The Berwick Academy for Historically age 14 performed Bruch’s Violin Concerto London, where he was based for four years. Informed Performance, now an integral No 1 in the Queen Elizabeth Hall with the Returning to New Zealand, he took up the part of the festival, was launched under his London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted position of Principal Flute with the Auckland leadership in 2015. Halls’ 2016-17 season has included his New York debut at the by Howard Shelley. Emma has performed Philharmonia and later crossed the Tasman Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival as a soloist throughout the UK, Europe, to join the TSO. He has appeared as a in a performance with Joshua Bell, and South-East Asia, Russia, Israel and the soloist with the TSO on numerous occasions his return later in the season leading the USA. From 2009 to 2016 she was Associate including in the two flute concertos by Mozarteum Orchestra as part of their Concertmaster of the Seattle Symphony Mozart, Mozart’s Concerto for Flute and United States tour. Other appearances Orchestra and Seattle Orchestra, Harp, Khachaturian’s Flute Concerto (a have included the Cleveland Orchestra, and was Concertmaster for Seattle’s 2012 transcription of the Violin Concerto), Ibert’s North German Radio Philharmonic, Vienna production of Wagner’s Der Ring des Flute Concerto and the B-minor Suite by Symphony, Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Nibelungen. She was previously Assistant JS Bach. In 2016 he appeared as soloist in and Royal Philharmonic debut. In the opera Concertmaster of the Colorado Symphony the TSO’s first Live Sessions at the Hobart house, Halls’ repertoire covers Renaissance, Orchestra and has also performed with Brewing Company. He has recorded the Baroque and Classical works, but also the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Rodrigo Flute Concerto with the TSO for extends to later works, with a particular Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the broadcast on ABC Classic FM. Douglas focus on Britten. His associations with Australian Chamber Orchestra. She has Mackie has appeared with other Australian both the Netherlands Opera and Bavarian also been a Guest Concertmaster for orchestras including Guest Principal of State Opera have included productions of the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and Verdi’s Luisa Miller, Britten’s BBC Philharmonic Orchestra. Emma is a the Queensland Symphony Orchestra. He and Bellini’s Norma. Halls is represented on disc with Handel’s Parnasso in Festa, graduate of the Royal College of Music in also toured extensively with the Tasmanian a set of four Bach harpsichord concertos London and Carnegie Mellon University Symphony Chamber Players under the conducted from the keyboard, Bach’s in Pittsburgh in the USA. In addition to auspices of Musica Viva. He is Lecturer in Easter and Ascension oratorios, and her orchestral career, she is a professional Flute at the Tasmanian Conservatorium of award-winning discs of Purcell’s Sonatas singer, folk musician, and a published and Music where he also completed a Master of in Three and Four Parts. recorded composer. Music degree.

54 55 (born 1949) Jean-Fery Rebel (1666-1747)

Chorale Meditation on Heut’ triumphieret Heut’triumphiret Gottes Sohn, Les elémens – Suite Royale de Musique in Paris, where, according Gottes Sohn by JS Bach der von dem Tod erstanden schon, Le cahos to the Mercure de France, it was received Hallelujah, Hallelujah with great applause. Richard Mills has pursued a diverse career as Loure: La terre et l’eau Mit grosser Pracht und Herrlichkeit, The “Chaos” introduction does more than a composer, conductor and artistic director Chaconne: Le feu des dank’n wir Ihm in Ewigkeit. Ramage: L’air set a scene: it introduces musical motifs which has seen him working with almost Hallelujah, Hallelujah. associated with the four classical elements all of the nation’s music organisations. Rossignols of earth, water, air and fire, and these are [Today, the Son of God triumphs, Currently Artistic Director of Victorian Tambourin I alluded to in the following suite of dances already risen from the dead. With great Opera, he has been Artistic Director of Tambourin II that constitute this “new symphony”. splendour and masculine authority, so we the West Australian Opera and Director French music has a long tradition of The Loure, for instance, begins low in the thank him forever.] of the Australian Music Program for the celebrating the natural world in sound. band’s compass to depict the earth and Composers elsewhere have done so too, largely remains there, but with liquid higher Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. He has Jesus is risen and ascends glorified after of course, but less wholeheartedly: Haydn passages to suggest water. The Chaconne received Helpmann Awards for his work as his earthly suffering, he is an exemplar for humanity, the suffering of our lives if offered referred to such things in his own works like that follows uses its recurrent theme as a composer (Batavia) and conductor (Tristan The Creation as “Frenchified trash”. It is a the basis for flickering figures that gain as prayer, makes us part of the redemptive und Isolde and The Love of the Nightingale). tradition that reaches to composers of the and lose energy like fire. The Ramage and economy, joining us to the past and present Other awards include the Sir Bernard Heinze present and recent past, like Messiaen, and Rossignols (nightingales) celebrate the air, and future, outside time in the eternal world, Award, Don Banks Fellowship and the Ian stretches back through the work of Debussy and specifically birdsong. The Tambourin, where “all shall be well, all manner of thing and Berlioz, to name but two, all the way to of which Rebel gives us two, is derived from Potter Foundation Award for Established shall be well”, to quote Juilana of Norwich. Clément Janequin. Provençal folk music. Composers. He was Musica Viva’s Composer The ascending and energetic figurations of Jean-Fery Rebel was at various times a player There is no single source for this music – of the Year in 2008. In 2009 he conducted Bach, quoted in full at the beginning, are and batteur de mesure in the 24 Violons du editor Stefan Fuchs has shown that Rebel the world première of his Passion According the springboard for my meditation on the Roi, and chamber composer to the French drafted three versions: for the Grand Choeur, to St Mark with the TSO and TSO Chorus, the very large orchestra, of the Académie Ascension, but also on suffering and death as court, but was most successful as a composer and in 2010 his song cycle Songlines of for dance. Le cahos (Chaos) and Les elémens Royal; a chamber version for flutes, violins a precursor of the life we hope is to come. the Heart’s Desire received its European – it was originally conceived and performed and thoroughbass; and a version for A composer tries to lift souls, and what better harpsichord. première at the Edinburgh Festival. Many of as two independent ballets – was composed place to start than the utterances of Bach, late in his life and seeks to depict the creation his works have been recorded and released Gordon Kerry © 2017 music for all time which, as Vaughan Williams of the world itself. In his own note, Rebel on ABC Classics and other labels, and he says, manages to be serious, profound and wrote that Chaos is: This is the first performance of this work by the has made a significant contribution as a Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. simultaneously joyful. Vaughan Williams adds that confusion which reigned among composer and conductor of recordings in the that “most of us can be mildly dismal with the elements before the moment, when TSO’s Australian Music Series. He was made success”. Well, this is my attempt at joy; how subjected to invariable laws, they took a Member of the Order of Australia in 1999. serious and profound is for you to judge. their ordained places in the order of nature…I dared to undertake to link the The composer writes: This is the world première of this work, which was idea of the confusion of the elements This short work takes its inspiration both from commissioned by the TSO with the generous with that of confusion in harmony. I support of Peter Stanton. the chorale which forms the material for the hazarded to make heard first all sound together or rather all of the notes of the chorale prelude in JS Bach’s Little Organ octave united as a single sound. Book and Bach’s chorale prelude itself. In doing so Rebel creates a sound unlike The text of the chorale indicates the joyful, any that would be heard until the early transcendent nature of the subject matter, 20th century when composers began an Ascension chorale which encapsulates experimenting with “cluster harmony”. the both the joy of Easter and the notion of Les elémens was first performed (without Christ triumphant over death, an image of the Chaos introduction) by a stellar cast of hope, possibility and joy for all humanity: dancers in September 1737 at the Académie

56 57 Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764)

Brandenburg Concerto No 5 in D, concertato”, fully written out, begins to Pigmalion – Suite Aphrodite (or Venus), prays that he may have BWV 1050 assert itself early in the movement, and then Ouverture a living likeness of the statue as his bride. [Allegro] after increasingly elaborate passages (during Les différents caractères de la danse When he returns home, the statue comes which the flute and violin are, conversely, to life. Affettuoso Sarabande pour la Statue; Tambourin gradually reduced to short punctuating Allegro Marche Rameau’s work is described as an acte de phrases), Bach adds the famous extended ballet, that is, an opera but with the extensive Johann Sebastian Bach assembled his six cadenza. This piece of ecstatic virtuosity, Air gracieux et gai et contredanse ballet element demanded by Parisian “Concerts avec plusieurs instruments” which Taruskin points out takes up a third In May 1751 the Mercure de France carried a convention. Here Pygmalion is a high and dedicated them to Christian Ludwig, of the movement and rightly compares to story that described how who prays to “L’Amour” (a ) to bring Margrave of Brandenburg, in 1721. If it was the violin caprices of Locatelli, gives us a the statue to life. The statue is played by a M Rameau, who had only just recovered a job application, it failed – the Margrave hint of Bach’s brilliance as an improviser. dancing soprano. from a long and dangerous illness, never acknowledged receipt and there is Many, including the great conductor no evidence that he heard the pieces – but, appeared at the Opéra in one of the rear The buoyant Ouverture’s two sections Nikolaus Harnoncourt, regard “Brandenburg contrast simple and compound metre, and while none of the concertos is written for boxes. His presence aroused a murmur Five” as the first harpsichord concerto, its insistent rhythmic motifs have been any kind of “standard” ensemble, they were that began in the stalls and spread and the disruptions it wreaks on the musical likened to the action of the sculptor’s chisel. more appropriate for the Calvinist court rapidly throughout the whole audience. conventions of the time have led to variously When the statue is brought to life she must, of Cöthen, where liturgical music was not Then suddenly there broke out a general coherent theories about how it might like Eliza Doolittle, learn the social graces. required, but secular music much enjoyed. applause and – something that had represent Bach’s political views, religious Luckily L’Amour and the actual Graces are Some of the music predates Bach’s Cöthen never been seen before – the assembled beliefs, or state of mind. Harnoncourt on hand to run through the fashionable years, and the Fifth Concerto “for transverse orchestra added their rapturous cheers to perhaps hits the mark saying that as Bach dances in the second movement. This flute, violin principale, violin and viola in those of the parterre. played this part himself, he “must truly have links a Gavotte, Menuet, another Gavotte, ripieno, cello, violone and harpsichord The unusual sight of an orchestra cheering a felt like an emperor of music, whose stature Chaconne, Loure, Passepied and Rigaudon. concertato” may have been composed for composer shows just how revered Rameau could be questioned by no one”. There follows a Sarabande for the statue, a visit to Dresden in 1717, but it was for a had become since arriving, completely indicating her relatively slowness, and a performance at Cöthen in 1719 to put a The slow movement, for the concertino unknown, in Paris around 1722 from his contrasting Tambourin when she finds new harpsichord through its paces that group of soloists, is marked affettuoso native Dijon via a posting at the cathedral in her feet. Bach probably made the final version. (affectionate), bringing us back to a more Clermont. While we tend to think of him as a common form of Baroque rhetoric, though composer for the stage, his ambitions in Paris The Marche represents the local people There are several striking features to the arriving to see the awakened statue. the harpsichord’s right-hand part is treated as were to be composer of keyboard music work, not least its then unique mixture of The finale is an air for the Graces followed equal to the melody instruments. But in the and a music theorist. In the latter capacity he wind, string and keyboard soloists (especially by a celebratory contredanse. in the slow movement, where they play finale Bach again blends aspects of different completed numerous treatises and prefaces without the ripieno, or accompanying genres – concerto-style virtuosity meets that deal with aspects of performance on It was Pigmalion that Rameau attended that orchestral forces), but equally for the sheer moments of contrapuntal, even fugal writing, composition. It was only at the age of 50 day in 1751. The Mercure praised fact of including the harpsichord as soloist at but all borne along by a spirited gigue that he began composing opera, quickly an excellent performance. That night it all. Richard Taruskin has noted other oddities: rhythm and metre. becoming the doyen of the art form despite seemed that all the actors were striving opposition from the partisans of Jean- the opening ritornello – an orchestral Gordon Kerry © 2017 to excel themselves. passage restated at structurally important Baptiste Lully. Gordon Kerry © 2017 points throughout the movement – includes The Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra first Classical mythology played a crucial role in the whole ensemble except the flute, setting performed this work with conductor Kenneth Rameau’s work, in solo cantatas composed This is the first performance of this work by the it up as a protagonist; when the music Murison Bourn in Hobart on 1 June 1960 and, in his days at Clermont, and even furnishing Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. modulates to the minor key, Bach, unusually, most recently, with Thomas Matthews in Hobart on titles for didactic solo keyboard pieces. 22 November 1965. introduces a theme unheard before or after; Pigmalion premièred in 1748 and was a the movement is almost twice as long as the huge success. It treats the Greek legend best standard Baroque first movement. known from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, in which And then there’s the harpsichord, an a lonely Cypriot sculptor fashions what he instrument that usually served to articulate considers the perfect woman from ivory. He the line and improvise the harmony falls in love with the statue, and at a festival as required. In this piece the “harpsichord in honour of Cyprus’s tutelary goddess,

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