Grieg Gillham

Photograph by Alastair Bett Gillham Griegplays

Thursday MASTER 3 & LAUNCESTON 2 12 April 7.30pm Federation Concert Hall Hobart Friday 13 April 7.30pm Albert Hall A treasure for Launceston Eivind Aadland conductor Jayson Gillham piano

NICOLAI SCHUMANN all Tasmanians The Merry Wives of Windsor, Overture Symphony No 3, Rhenish Duration 8 mins Lebhaft [Lively] GRIEG Scherzo (Sehr mässig [Very moderately]) Nicht schnell [Not fast] Piano Concerto Feierlich [Ceremonially] Allegro molto moderato Lebhaft [Lively] A live symphony orchestra can transport us Adagio – Duration 32 mins to a world that’s enchanting and uplifting. Allegro moderato molto e marcato Duration 30 mins This concert will end at approximately 9.30 pm. We want all Tasmanians to be able to share that joy, so we’re helping to make that happen. INTERVAL Duration 20 mins Through the AccessTix program, Hydro Tasmania provides free tickets for Tasmanians who, because of disadvantage or disability, Sponsored by couldn’t otherwise attend a TSO concert.

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39 Otto Nicolai (1810-1849)

The Merry Wives of Windsor, Overture the same name, it is regarded as the finest early Romantic German comic Otto Nicolai was a remarkable all-round opera, but has had the misfortune musician: not just a composer but a of being almost eclipsed by Verdi’s singer good enough to take the part wonderful opera on the same subject, of Jesus in Bach’s St Matthew Passion. Falstaff (1893). From 2004 to 2010, Eivind Aadland was Winner of the 2014 Montreal International He was also a fine conductor and Chief Conductor and Artistic Leader of the Musical Competition, London-based orchestral trainer, who founded one The overture to The Merry Wives of Windsor remains very popular as a Trondheim Symphony Orchestra, during Australian pianist Jayson Gillham performs of the world’s leading orchestras, the Vienna Philharmonic. concert piece. Its deft, light-hearted, which time he conducted complete cycles of with the world’s leading orchestras and gracefully proportioned and brilliantly The son of a composer, Nicolai was the Beethoven and Mahler symphonies. conductors. Recent concerts have included orchestrated music can be appreciated groomed for a musical career by his He has been Principal Guest Conductor of without any reference to the opera itself. a recital of Bach on modern piano as part ambitious father but he felt stifled by An extra significance and enjoyment the Queensland Symphony Orchestra. of London’s Bloomsbury Festival, and a his father’s controlling attitude and ran is added to the overture’s themes and Within Scandinavia he has conducted away from home at age 15, eking out Wagner concert with Stuart Skelton and episodes when they are related to the the major orchestras as well as Den Norske an existence as an itinerant pianist. plot. The fat knight Sir John Falstaff has fellow pianist Richard Pierson in which he Opera, Oslo, in productions of Don Giovanni, He was rescued from borderline poverty made preposterous and conceited offers performed Liszt transcriptions. He appeared through the intervention of prominent The Marriage of Figaro, The Magic Flute of love to two of the wives at once; his at the Australian Festival of Chamber Music Berlin musician Carl Friedrich Zelter, advances, and the husbands’ jealous and Die Fledermaus. He has toured China who arranged for formal tuition in suspicions, are foiled by the plotting of in 2017. Future appearances include concerts with the Trondheim orchestra, recorded composition, piano and voice. Original the wives. These merry ladies complete with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, and with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra works followed, among them songs, Falstaff’s punishment and their revenge choral works and operas. worked with orchestras such as the Orchestre and Victor Aviat and the Royal Philharmonic in Windsor Park by moonlight, where children dressed as fairies pinch the national du Capitole de Toulouse, Royal Orchestra and Alexander Shelley. In May Nicolai left his north German orbit for further study in Italy in the mid-1830s, fat man and frighten him until he begs 2015 Jayson Gillham signed a three-album Flemish Philharmonic, Scottish Chamber before taking up a minor position in for mercy. Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Seoul recording deal with ABC Classics. 2016 Vienna. His second opera, Il templario The opening of the overture represents Philhamonic, Berlin Radio Symphony saw the release of his debut recital album (based upon Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe), the moonrise over Windsor Forest, with which was staged in Turin in 1840, was Orchestra and Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony featuring works by Bach, Schubert and shimmering high violins and a mysterious tremendously successful and proved to Orchestra. Recent appearances have melody rising from the depths of the Chopin. 2017 saw the release of a pairing be a career turning point. Following the orchestra. The fast music which follows included concerts with the Belgium National of Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No 2 with success of Il templario, Nicolai was able is that of the make-believe fairies and Orchestra, Bergen Philharmonic, Stavanger Medtner’s Piano Concerto No 1. A graduate to leverage a far better position in Vienna the wives, dancing and plotting Falstaff’s Symphony and Choir, West German Radio and was appointed principal conductor of punishment. The most memorable tune of the Queensland Conservatorium of Music, the court opera at the Kärtnertortheater Symphony Orchestra (Cologne) and Monte in the overture, surprisingly, is not to be where he studied with Leah Horwitz, Jayson in 1841. Nicolai’s Philharmonic Concerts heard in the opera itself; but its lilt and Carlo Philharmonic. After this Australian relocated to London in 2007 to pursue a in Vienna were notable for their focus on good humour could stand for Falstaff’s visit, he appears with the Oslo Philharmonic ‘Classical’ repertoire (works by Mozart Master’s degree at the Royal Academy of swagger and the wives’ amusement, and Uppsala Chamber Orchestra. Eivind and Beethoven) rather than works by just as the orchestral laughter at the end Music with Christopher Elton. He is grateful living composers, and did much to foster Aadland’s recordings include a March 2017 celebrates the knight’s discomfiture. to the Australian Music Foundation, the Tait the notion of a canon of universal and release of Eyvind Alnaes’s Symphony and timeless works, a notion that persists to Memorial Trust and The Keyboard Trust for Piano Concerto with Håvard Gimse and the this day (for better or worse). Based on a note by David Garrett © 1997 their steadfast support over several years. Oslo Philharmonic. November 2015 saw the Nicolai died aged only 38, of a stroke In 2012 Jayson was named Commonwealth The Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra first final instalment in a five-CD set of Grieg’s suffered after conducting a concert with performed this work with conductor Murison complete orchestral works, recorded with the Musician of the Year and Gold Medallist of the Cathedral Choir of Berlin. His opera Bourn in Hobart and Launceston on 9 and 11 The Merry Wives of Windsor was first March 1949 and, most recently, with Sebastian Cologne orchestra. He is a devoted collector the Royal Over-Seas League 60th Annual produced only two months before his Lang-Lessing in Launceston, Burnie and Hobart on of, and authority on, contemporary art. Music Competition. death. Based on Shakespeare’s play of 18, 19 and 20 November 2004.

40 41 Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) Robert Schumann (1810-1856)

Piano Concerto in A minor, Op 16 genius’. A year later, Grieg met Liszt for Symphony No 3 in E flat, Op 97, Rhenish Still, Robert persevered. The Schumanns Allegro molto moderato the second time. Liszt allegedly sight- Lebhaft [Lively] had not been especially happy in Adagio – read Grieg’s concerto and said ‘you have Scherzo (Sehr mässig [Very moderately]) Dresden and in 1850 embraced their Allegro moderato molto e marcato the real stuff in you. And don’t ever let Nicht schnell [Not fast] move to the Rhineland, delighting in them frighten you!’ Feierlich [Ceremonially] what they found. Late in September After hearing a performance of Grieg’s Lebhaft [Lively] 1850, they took a Sunday boat excursion piano concerto, Arnold Schoenberg is Grieg didn’t let them frighten him, and the Piano Concerto went on to on the Rhine from Düsseldorf (where supposed to have remarked: ‘That’s the As a young composer, Robert Schumann Robert had assumed the position of kind of music I’d really like to write.’ One establish his reputation throughout the wrote music chiefly on an intimate musical world. Audiences responded, Municipal Music Director), to Cologne, a can’t help but feel that there was a wistful scale. His love for Clara Wieck, whom city ‘which enchanted us instantly,’ Clara sincerity buried in the remark. Grieg’s as they still do, to the charm of Grieg’s he married after a bitter legal battle melodies, the balance of, it must be wrote in her diary. The new symphony, concerto is, with good reason, popular with her father (teacher to them both), begun earlier that month, was finished – a fate not enjoyed by Schoenberg’s said, Lisztian virtuosity and Grieg’s greatly nurtured his creative life. Robert own distinctive lyricism, and what by December and received its première music. came forth with an astonishing wealth in Düsseldorf, with the composer Tchaikovsky, who adored the work, of Lieder and song cycles; these, and Grieg composed the concerto at the age described as its ‘fascinating melancholy conducting, the following February. of 25 while relatively inexperienced in his highly imaginative piano works, which seems to reflect in itself all the place him among the most revered The opening movement of Schumann’s orchestral writing and tinkered endlessly beauty of Norwegian scenery’. One of Symphony No 3, marked Lebhaft with the orchestration between the time Romantic composers. The depth of his Grieg’s greatest admirers described lyricism, however, sought larger means of (‘Lively’), is immediately expansive of the work’s (triumphant) première and the ‘concentrated greatness and all- in spirit. Despite the development’s his death in 1907. He had studied at expression. Clara, a celebrated concert lovingness of the little great man. Out pianist and a composer in her own introspective moments, an overriding the Leipzig Conservatory from the age of the toughest Norwegianness, out of exuberance prevails. of 15 with the initial intent of becoming right, earnestly encouraged Robert in the most narrow localness, he spreads this direction, believing ‘his music is all An amiable, rounded melody in the low a concert pianist. Dissatisfied with his out a welcoming and greedy mind for all first teacher, Grieg began lessons with orchestral in feeling.’ strings and bassoons sets the second the world’s wares.’ This was, of course, movement Scherzo (Sehr mässig, ‘very EF Wenzel, a friend and supporter of the Australian-born pianist/composer An early attempt at symphonic Schumann’s; under his tutelage Grieg composition, premiered during Robert’s moderately’) rowing through deep water Percy Grainger who became one of the in triple-metre motion, with a lighter began writing piano music for his own Concerto’s most celebrated exponents student days, led him to lament, ‘I performances and wrote passionate consider this art so difficult that it contrasting second theme of scattered and one of the dearest friends of Grieg’s droplet-figures interwoven above it. articles in defence of Schumann’s music. last years. Not only that – Grainger will take long years’ study to give me certainty and self control.’ Beethoven’s An eloquent, sombre Trio of winds and The influence of Schumann’s Piano spent time with Grieg working on the brass ensues, encouraging the return Concerto, also in A minor, has been concerto before the composer’s death nine symphonies loomed as great models to emulate. Schumann also noted of the initial theme in increasingly remarked on frequently, but apart from at which time Grieg was making the final bolder guises. their similar three-movement design adjustments to the orchestration; with the undeniable originality of Berlioz’s and opening gesture the style of each such ‘inside knowledge’ Grainger was Symphonie fantastique and rejoiced in The third movement, an intermezzo is markedly different. Grieg’s Concerto able to publish his own edition of the Schubert’s C-major Symphony, Great, in A flat, radiates soulful warmth is replete with exquisite tunes. Many of work in later years. Sadly, a proposed whose rediscovery and first performance and contentment as the symphony’s these echo the Norwegian folk music tour with Grieg conducting and Grainger he helped bring about. centrepiece, which Schumann indicated with which Grieg had become familiar in playing the Concerto never transpired. His first completed symphony, the Spring as Nicht schnell (‘not fast’), allowing the 1864. The piano’s opening gesture, for Symphony in B flat, was premièred by woodwind (prominently, the clarinet) to instance, recalls folk music in its use of Mendelssohn in Leipzig in 1841. It served bloom in gentle, graceful passages. As in a ‘gapped’ scale, and the origins of the Gordon Kerry © 2006 as a musical calling card for Robert’s the slow movement of Schumann’s later finale in folk dance are clear. European concert tours with Clara. Piano Concerto, the contrasting theme The Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra performed In performances led by its composer, (initially in the bassoons and divided low Grieg was unable to attend the première this work at its inaugural concert on 25 May strings, joined by the horns) sings from of his concerto in Copenhagen in 1869, 1948 in Hobart City Hall with conductor Joseph the work elicited mixed reactions. Post and soloist Eileen Joyce. The most recent the depths of the heart. but it was an outstanding success Vienna’s especially cold reception to the performance was with Marko Letonja and Javier symphony in November 1846, along with Dark, sustained, contrapuntally and was recognised as a youthful Perianes in Federation Concert Hall on 5 August masterpiece. Anton Rubinstein, for 2016. Leipzig’s tepid response to his Symphony ascending lines, first in the low brass, instance, described it as a ‘work of No 2 that same month, bitterly intone the austere, Feierlich (‘solemn’ or disappointed both Robert and Clara. ‘ceremonial’) fourth movement. Motivic

42 43 repetition over slow-moving minor Schumann’s Fourth Symphony – chords builds sonorities layer upon begun before the Rhenish in 1841 but layer, summoning the awesome majesty withdrawn, and then reintroduced in of Cologne Cathedral, which greatly 1851 – experienced both a longer impressed the Schumanns on their visit. gestation and more assiduous revision. (In the cathedral a few months later, an Its somewhat leaner orchestration and archbishop was elevated to the position greater conciseness contribute to its of cardinal; Schumann ultimately deleted popularity, particularly with conductors, the title he first gave to this movement: among Schumann’s four symphonies. ‘In the character of an accompaniment to Nonetheless, the Rhenish was a critical a solemn ceremony’.) turning point in Schumann’s symphonic evolution, a sincere and masterful ‘THE RHENISH WAS A CRITICAL TURNING expression of his musical spirit. To POINT IN SCHUMANN’S SYMPHONIC Tchaikovsky, there was ‘no mightier EVOLUTION, A SINCERE AND MASTERFUL or deeper manifestation of an artist’s EXPRESSION OF HIS MUSICAL SPIRIT.’ creative power’ than in the fourth movement of the Rhenish. Following its première, Schumann’s Symphony The buoyant fifth movement instantly No 3 quickly received performances in restores the earlier Lebhaft optimism of Germany and the Netherlands. More E flat, gaining energy and momentum, and than a century and a half later, it enjoys accelerating to a triumphant conclusion. lasting success with modern orchestras Schumann’s symphonies have continued and their audiences. to draw their detractors over the years. The German conductor Felix Weingartner (1863-1942) wrote rather Samuel C Dixon © 2001 disparagingly of the Rhenish, judging its themes as essentially pianistic (therefore The Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra first performed this work with conductor Charles inadequately short for symphonic Mackerras in Hobart and Launceston on 25 and 26 development), criticising its orchestration May 1971 and, most recently, with Gérard Korsten as thick and awkward, and prescribing in Hobart on 19 September 2015. Sharing the TSO with ‘corrections’ to the score. Attitudes of this nature lingered through much of the the next generation 20th century. Recent scholarship and the period- instrument movement have encouraged efforts to achieve greater transparency in the performance of early Romantic Support the TSO into the future orchestral works. This has helped to develop a more enlightened Leaving a bequest to the TSO Foundation is If you are interested in learning more about understanding of Schumann’s a simple and rewarding way to support the leaving a bequest to the TSO, please contact orchestration; though to this day, TSO for years to come. Your legacy helps Ed Benyon, Director Development, on conductors occasionally take judicious ensure that the TSO remains a part of the 03 6232 4430 or [email protected]. liberties with the scores, often to lighten lives of future generations of Tasmanians. All enquiries are treated in confidence. textures so that instrumental voices (and Schumann’s ideas) may be heard more clearly.

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