PLAYS MOZART

4 JUNE 2017

CONCERT PROGRAM ARTISTS Thomas Hutchinson oboe David Thomas basset clarinet Saul Lewis horn Freya Franzen violin Matthew Tomkins violin Lauren Brigden viola Elizabeth Woolnough viola Michelle Wood cello Rachael Tobin cello Mairi Nicolson host

REPERTOIRE Mozart Mozart

INTERVAL Mozart Clarinet Quintet

Running time: 1 hour 30 minutes including 20-minute interval

In consideration of your fellow patrons, the MSO thanks you for dimming the mso.com.au lighting on your mobile phone. (03) 9929 9600 THOMAS HUTCHINSON DAVID THOMAS OBOE BASSET CLARINET New Zealand-born oboist Thomas David joined the Melbourne Symphony Hutchinson studied in Auckland with Orchestra as Principal Clarinet in Martin Lee and Alison Jepson before 2000, having studied clarinet at moving to Melbourne to study at the University of Melbourne with the Australian National Academy of Phillip Miechel and the Vienna Music with Jeffrey Crellin, during Conservatorium with Roger Salander, which time he won the concerto and been a member of the West competition and the most outstanding Australian Symphony Orchestra for recital prize. two years. Following the advice of his teachers, As well as taking part in over 17 he then moved to Paris to study at seasons of the MSO’s concerts with the Conservatoire National Supérieur countless musical highlights ranging de Musique de Paris with Jacques from Mahler with Sir Andrew Davis Tys, David Walter and Frédéric Tardy, to Beethoven with Douglas Boyd, where he graduated with mention Shostakovich with Oleg Caetani, très bien à l’unanimité, avec les Gurrelieder with Markus Stenz felicitations du jury. and contemporary repertoire with Thomas Adés, David has also regularly As soloist he has made numerous appeared as concerto soloist with the appearances including concerti with MSO and other Australian orchestras, the Auckland Symphony Orchestra, performing central repertoire such Auckland Youth Orchestra, Bach as Mozart, Copland and Rossini, plus Musica NZ, Orchestra Victoria, new solo works by Ross Edwards, Brett Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and Dean and other Australian composers. the Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra. David was a driving force behind the In 2015 he successfully auditioned establishment of the MSO’s Chamber as Associate Principal Oboe of the Players series in 2002, and performed Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. in the first seasons of the Australian World Orchestra. David’s other great musical interest is the education of the next generation of classical performers at the Australian National Academy of Music, where he teaches clarinet and co-ordinates the woodwind department.

3 SAUL LEWIS FREYA FRANZEN HORN VIOLIN Saul Lewis has been a member of Freya Franzen began violin studies in the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Canberra at the age of six with Gillian Horn section since 2009 and holds Bailey-Graham, later continuing as a the position of Principal Third Horn. pre-tertiary student at the Canberra After completing his A.S.C.M. at the School of Music. In her final year of Sydney Conservatorium, Saul was school, she was the recipient of the awarded a Big Brother Scholarship ACT Board of Secondary Studies and studied with many pre-eminent Recognition of Excellence Award for horn players in London and Germany. Performing Arts (Music). Studying He later completed his Master of under Associate Professor Goetz Music Performance in Sydney under Richter and Mr Christopher Kimber, Tony Buddle and became Principal Freya completed a Bachelor of Third Horn with the Australian Opera Music (Performance) at the Sydney and Ballet Orchestra in 1994. Conservatorium of Music, graduating with First Class Honours in 2008. Saul has performed with the Sydney, Queensland, Adelaide and Tasmanian 2014 saw Freya win her current Symphony Orchestras, Australian position as a member of the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra, and also Symphony’s Second Violin section, performs as a freelance musician for which she loves being a part of. film music and recording projects. Besides orchestral life, she regularly engages in chamber music and is a Saul was a founding member of the founding member of the upcoming Sydney wind quintet Enigma Five. Melbourne Ensemble. He currently teaches at Monash University and at the University of Outside the music scene Freya Melbourne, and when not performing loves cooking, travel, spending time or teaching, Saul enjoys playing golf. outdoors, and exploring Melbourne’s endless selection of great bars and restaurants.

4 MATTHEW TOMKINS LAUREN BRIGDEN VIOLIN VIOLA Matthew Tomkins has been a Lauren Brigden has been a member member of the Melbourne Symphony of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra since 2000, and in Orchestra’s viola section since 2010 was appointed to The Gross 2006, and is a founding member Foundation Principal Second Violin of the Fidelio Quartet. chair. She was awarded numerous Matthew began violin studies at the prizes and scholarships, including age of five; his teachers included the John Curro Viola Prize while Marco van Pagee, Spiros Rantos and studying with Patricia Pollett at the Mark Mogilevski. Queensland Conservatorium of Music. Lauren returned to Sydney Matthew was a founding member of receiving a scholarship to complete the Flinders Quartet and performed her Bachelor of Music at the Sydney with them over 13 years with artists Conservatorium of Music with including Menahem Pressler, Geoff Winifred Durie. Nuttall, Genevieve Lacey, Karin Schaupp and Paul Dean. The Quartet Lauren has studied and performed featured at festivals including the extensively throughout Europe and Melbourne, Bangalow, Port Fairy, North America, including at the Aspen Castlemaine, Huntington, Tyalgum, Music Festival. She received an Ian Ballarat Goldfields, Camden Haven, Potter Cultural Trust Scholarship and Macedon and Woodend festivals. an Emerging Artist Grant from the Australia Council for study in Vienna Matthew has performed regularly in with Gertrude Rossbacher. the MSO’s Chamber Players Series and with the Melbourne Chamber Lauren is the proud mother of two Orchestra, tutors for the Australian beautiful boys, and is passionate about Youth Orchestra and has taught violin the Tour de France, drinks copious and chamber music at the University amounts of tea and once moonlighted of Melbourne. with the YouTube Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall.

5 ELIZABETH WOOLNOUGH MICHELLE WOOD VIOLA CELLO Violist Elizabeth Woolnough Michelle is a member of the Melbourne completed her studies at the Sydney Symphony Orchestra cello section, Conservatorium with Roger Benedict, having joined the orchestra in late receiving a High Distinction. In 2014, 2009. She began her cello studies the Conservatorium awarded her the at the age of seven, completing her Helen Bainton Prize. both Bachelor and Masters of Music degrees at the University of Melbourne As a member of the Hillel String under the tuition of Arturs Ezergailis, Quartet, she performed in the String and then Christian Wojtowicz in Quartet Biennial at the Philharmonie Tasmania. de Paris and received lessons from members of the Cleveland, Michelle is a passionate chamber Brodsky, Doric, Jerusalem and musician, touring extensively during Haagen Quartets. The Hillel quartet her time at university with the Young was the inaugural winners of the Piano Trio of Melbourne, and then Sydney Conservatorium Westheimer subsequently becoming the founding Scholarship 2015. cellist of the Tinalley String Quartet. Performances with the Quartet have Elizabeth was also a Fellow with the led to both national and international Sydney Symphony Orchestra and acclaim, and tours to some of the has since then frequently performed finest concert halls in the world. with the Orchestra. In 2015 she was invited to play in the Australian Michelle is also sought after as a World Orchestra’s Chamber Music chamber music coach and cello Festival in the Southern Highlands. tutor and adjudicator, having worked The following year Elizabeth was an with ensembles from the University Emerging Artist with the Australian of Melbourne, Australian National Chamber Orchestra’s Collective Academy of Music, Melbourne program and has been re-invited to Youth Orchestra programs and at the tour with the ensemble. She currently Australian Youth Orchestra’s National performs as guest violist with the Music Camp and Fellowship Programs Enigma Quartet. with the Melbourne Symphony.

6 RACHAEL TOBIN MAIRI NICOLSON CELLO HOST Rachael was appointed Associate Mairi Nicolson can be heard Monday- Principal Cellist of the Melbourne Thursday afternoons on ABC Classic Symphony Orchestra in 2014. FM and The Opera Show, Saturdays She moved to London at 18 for at 4pm. undergraduate study at the Royal Mairi's love affair with radio began Academy of Music, and subsequently after she graduated from the Sydney completed a Masters’ degree at Conservatorium of Music, majoring in Mannes College of Music, New York. piano and singing. She spent the first Performance highlights include decade of her ABC career reading solo performances at the Park Lane radio news in Sydney, presenting Group's New Year Series (Southbank Behind the News with John Hall, Centre, London), and concertos broadcasting the Sydney Symphony with The London Soloists’ Chamber Orchestra concerts, hosting In Tempo Orchestra and the Mannes Symphony (also known as The Music Show) Orchestra. on Radio National and the Sydney International Piano Competitions. Prior to her appointment with the MSO, Rachael was a member Now, Mairi regularly presents pre- of the Estonian National Opera concert artist talks, and hosts live Orchestra. She has also worked with broadcasts from Melbourne for the Philharmonia (UK), Juilliard Opera Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra, the Sydney Symphony Opera Australia, Musica Viva Orchestra, Australian Opera and and the Melbourne International Ballet Orchestra and the Tasmanian Chamber Music Competition. Symphony Orchestra. She has toured to Europe twice as broadcaster with the MSO. Mairi continues to coach musicians and singers in media skills and combining her twin loves of music and travel by taking music tours to America and Europe, with Romania's Enescu Festival the destination in 2017.

7 PROGRAM NOTES

WOLFGANG AMADAEUS MOZART The work puts all players through (1756-1791) their paces. The first movement’s genial opening tune soon gives way Oboe Quartet in F, K370 to concerto-like rapid figurations, Allegro which pass sequentially from the oboe Adagio through the string parts, before a more Rondeau: Allegro lyrical second subject appears. Thomas Hutchinson oboe An extended song-like Adagio in D Matthew Tomkins violin minor follows, with the melody at Elizabeth Woolnough viola first given to the violin as the oboe Rachael Tobin cello hangs weightlessly above before dissolving into ornate decoration. Mozart spent much of the latter 1770s With its upbeat of a perfect fourth, travelling to cities and principalities the finale briefly recalls the opening in the German-speaking world in the of the first movement, though here hope of finding employment with we are in a world of lilting pastoral a more congenial and prominent music, with the kind of populist tune employer than the Prince-Archbishop with which Mozart often concludes of Salzburg. He was unsuccessful in his piano concertos. The oboe gives that, but made numerous musical it out first, but in the intervening friends and contributed to his growing episodes is involved in some extremely reputation. A city in which he was able demanding bravura playing, so the first to survive freelance for a time was violin tends to restate the theme on its Mannheim, seat of the Elector who, reappearances. inheriting the Electorate of Bavaria © Gordon Kerry 2013 in 1778, moved his court to Munich. The only previous performance of this quartet by the Mannheim had long been home to one Melbourne Symphony Orchestra took place in August 2010. of the greatest orchestras in Europe; an 18th-century English writer, Charles Burney, described it as ‘an army of generals’. One musician, who was to remain a friend of Mozart’s for many years, was Friedrich Ramm, an oboist of dazzling technique to whom Mozart dedicated a concerto (probably K314, often heard as the D major Flute Concerto) and for whom, in Munich in 1781, Mozart wrote the Quartet K370. Ramm also figures in Beethoven’s early years in Vienna.

8 WOLFGANG AMADAEUS MOZART as a mini-concerto, and certainly the (1756-1791) fast outer movements are written in what might be called a concertante Quintet for horn, violin, two violas style; Mozart, does, however, give and cello, K407 the strings some wonderful quartet- Allegro style writing in the slow movement Andante – quartet-style because even though Rondeau (Allegro) there are four string instruments, the work has two violas rather than violins Saul Lewis horn as in the conventional string quartet. Freya Franzen violin Mozart, of course, was a violist as well Lauren Brigden viola as many other things, and particularly Elizabeth Woolnough viola enjoyed playing viola in chamber music Rachael Tobin cello as it gave him a sense of being inside With friends like Mozart, maybe the texture. (In his string quintets, you can’t blame for too, Mozart uses two violas to enrich giving up his career as a horn player the middle strata of the texture.) and opening a cheese shop. Leutgeb The work was completed in late 1782, and Mozart knew each other from the time of his early successes in Salzburg days, when Leutgeb played Vienna (notably the German opera The in the Archbishop’s orchestra, but Abduction from the Seraglio) and his moved to Vienna around the time that marriage to Constanze Weber. After Mozart established himself there. Mozart’s death, it was Leutgeb, ‘ass, The composer constantly abused ox and fool’, who helped Constanze his friend: often Leutgeb would find collect and order the composer’s ‘messages’ scrawled on his music by scores, thus doing us all a great the composer: ‘Go it, Signor Asino’ favour. And he did open a cheese shop [little ass] – ‘Take a little breath’ – (though kept playing professionally) ‘Wretched pig’ – ‘Thank God, here’s with money he had borrowed the end’. And Mozart’s dedication of from Mozart’s father, Leopold. one of the horn concertos notes that Gordon Kerry © 2004 he ‘has taken pity on Leutgeb, ass, ox and fool, at Vienna, 27 May 1783’. The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra first performed this quintet in August 2004, and most recently in May 2011. Whether or not he was ass, ox or fool, long-suffering Leutgeb was clearly a player of the highest quality, and it was for him that Mozart wrote his four concertos, a rondo and, perhaps most challenging of all, the Quintet K407. This work has been described

9 PROGRAM NOTES

WOLFGANG AMADAEUS MOZART particular ‘flowing, smooth’ associations (1756-1791) for Mozart. The serenity of the clarinet masterpieces, which often breathes an Clarinet Quintet in A, K581 otherworldly atmosphere, is also to be Allegro heard in other works of the last years Larghetto of Mozart’s life. Mozart called Stadler Menuetto ‘red-currant face’ and evidently found Allegretto con variazioni him a good companion, forgiving him for not paying back money and for selling David Thomas basset clarinet Mozart’s pawn tickets behind his back. Freya Franzen violin The jolt from that world to the music of Matthew Tomkins violin the quintet is a reminder not to make Lauren Brigden viola glib connections between art and life! cello Michelle Wood The opening bars of the Quintet define The clarinet was still a relatively new the piece – the rich conjunct harmony invention when Mozart fell in love with of the strings’ descending phrase, the it, resulting in three works featuring soaring and plunging arpeggios of the this instrument as soloist. These works clarinet. Yet in the development and ever since have defined in music- recapitulation the scoring is reversed; lovers’ minds the expressive character as clarinettist Alan Hacker points out, and range of the clarinet. Just as most the musical material suits the clarinet of Mozart’s arias were tailored to a and strings equally. particular singer’s voice, his clarinet As though to balance the static serenity works were inspired by Anton Stadler, of the Larghetto, the Menuetto is for whom Mozart wrote this Quintet forthright at first, not without subtleties (1789), the K498 (1786), in the part-writing, and related and the Concerto K622 (1791). Stadler thematically to the Quintet’s opening was also a virtuoso on the related bars; the first trio is for the strings alone, instrument, the basset horn. Stadler the second presents the clarinet as a and Mozart were both Freemasons, rustic dance instrument, in a ländler, and it is probable that the clarinet and ancestor of the waltz, here etherealised particularly the basset horn (also used by its surroundings. The wonderful in the and ) transmutation of folk measures which had a particular ritual and symbolic is an achievement of the Viennese significance for them. Classical style marks the Allegretto Although Stadler was a remarkable with variations, too. Its innermost technician, the parts Mozart wrote for moments are entrusted to the viola, him in the Quintet and Concerto are the instrument Mozart himself more expressive than brilliant. Both preferred to play in chamber music. works are in the key of A which had David Garrett © 2002 The only previous performance of this work by the Melbourne 10 Symphony Orchestra took place in November 2006. SUPPORTERS Principal Partner

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