LAST NIGHT OF THE PROMS 25 MARCH 2018 CONCERT PROGRAM Melbourne Symphony Orchestra MELBOURNE SYMPHONY SIR ANDREW DAVIS ORCHESTRA Sir Andrew Davis conductor Measha Brueggergosman soprano David Jones drum kit Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Chorus Warren Trevelyan-Jones chorus master Tasmin Little violin Tianyi Lu conductor Established in 1906, the Melbourne Chief Conductor of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO) is an arts leader Symphony Orchestra, Sir Andrew Davis and Australia’s longest-running professional is also Music Director and Principal Elgar Cockaigne orchestra. Chief Conductor Sir Andrew Conductor of the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Ravel Tzigane Davis has been at the helm of MSO since He is Conductor Laureate of both the BBC 2013. Engaging more than 3 million people Symphony Orchestra and the Toronto Duparc Selection of Orchestral songs each year, the MSO reaches a variety of Symphony, where he has also been named audiences through live performances, interim Artistic Director until 2020. INTERVAL recordings, TV and radio broadcasts and live In a career spanning more than 40 years he streaming. has conducted virtually all the world’s major Vine V Sir Andrew Davis gave his inaugural orchestras and opera companies, and at the Chindamo Concerto for Drums and Orchestra* concerts as the MSO’s Chief Conductor in major festivals. 2013. The MSO also works with Associate * Sir Andrew’s many CDs include a Messiah MSO commission and World Premiere Conductor Benjamin Northey and Assistant nominated for a 2018 Grammy, a recording Conductor Tianyi Lu, as well as with such Elgar Pomp and Circumstance March No.1 of Strauss with the MSO, Bliss’s The eminent recent guest conductors as Tan Beatitudes, and a recording with the Wood Fantasia on British Sea Songs Dun, John Adams, Jakub Hrůša and Jukka- Bergen Philharmonic of Vaughan Williams’ Pekka Saraste. It has also collaborated with Arne Rule, Britannia! Job/Symphony No.9 nominated for a 2018 non-classical musicians including Elton BBC Music Magazine Award. Parry Jerusalem John, Nick Cave and Flight Facilities. With the MSO he has just released a third recording in the ongoing Richard Strauss series, featuring the Alpine Symphony and Till Eulenspiegel. Running time 2 hours 10 minutes, including 20 minute interval In consideration of your fellow patrons, the MSO thanks you for dimming the lighting on your mobile phone. The MSO acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land on which we are performing. We pay our respects to their Elders, past and present, and the Elders from other communities who may be in attendance. mso.com.au 3 MEET THE ARTISTS Courtesy B Ealovega TIANYI LU TASMIN LITTLE DAVID JONES MEASHA BRUEGGERGOSMAN CONDUCTOR VIOLIN DRUM KIT SOPRANO Dynamic young conductor, Tianyi Lu has Tasmin Little has performed in prestigious David Jones is often described as one of Canadian soprano Measha received praise from across the world venues such as Carnegie Hall, the the most innovative and musical drummers Brueggergosman embraces a broad array of for her poetic and dramatic conducting Concertgebouw, Barbican Centre and in the world, renowned for his virtuoso solo performance platforms and musical styles. even with the most challenging of Suntory Hall. Her career encompasses performances. Committed to innovative programming, she repertoire. Joining the MSO in mid-2017 performances, masterclasses, workshops has given song recitals at venues including Over 49 years, David has performed as the Orchestra's Assistant Conductor, and community outreach work. Carnegie Hall, as well as festivals such as and recorded with great Australian and (a position kindly supported by the Cybec Edinburgh, Verbier and Bergen. In concert Already this year she has appeared as International musicians and orchestras. Foundation) Tianyi will continue to further she has worked with such conductors as soloist and in recital around the UK. He is at home in every musical genre, her abilities throughout her two year Daniel Barenboim, Gustavo Dudamel and Recordings include Elgar’s Violin Concerto from complex arranged music to free intensive residency. In 2018, Tianyi will Sir Andrew Davis. Recent opera highlights with Sir Andrew Davis and the Royal improvisation. An enthusiastic educator introduce audiences to world premiere include the Spanish premiere of Jake National Scottish Orchestra (Critic’s Choice he is Honorary Senior Fellow at the works, conducting Mills’ Island Signal Heggie's Dead Man Walking. Award in 2011’s Classic BRIT Awards) and, VCA-MCM. Island Song. recently, Szymanowski and Karłowicz Her recording of Wagner’s Wesendonck- Since 1984, David has integrated his Tianyi is also a Dudamel Fellow with concertos with the BBC Symphony lieder with Franz Welser-Möst and meditation practice into his music-making. the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Principal Orchestra and Edward Gardner. the Cleveland Orchestra earned a With his partner Carmen Warrington, he Conductor of the St. Woolos Players, Grammy nomination. Offstage, Measha Tasmin Little has premiered many has created guided meditation CDs for and regularly guest conducts orchestras Brueggergosman is a leading advocate contemporary works. Her awards include ABC Music. In 2006, Tokyo composer around the United Kingdom and New for music education and has just released a Gramophone Award for Audience Toshi Watanabe composed a piece for Zealand. She will be conducting the her memoir Something is Always on Fire. Innovation for her outreach program, David called Essay for Drumkit and Small Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra later Exploring her African heritage, Songs The Naked Violin. She is an Officer of Orchestra, which premiered in Japan. this year in a conducting masterclass of Freedom, a film, 4-part TV series, the Order of the British Empire (OBE). with Daniele Gatti. In 2010, David was awarded the interactive website and mobile application She plays a 1757 Guadagnini violin. prestigious Melbourne Prize for Music. has also been released. davidjonesdrums.com 4 5 PROGRAM NOTES EDWARD ELGAR And yet for all that, the Cockaigne Overture (1857-1934) remains one of Elgar’s sunniest pieces. He described it in a letter to Hans Richter Cockaigne: Overture, Op.40 as ‘honest, healthy, humorous and strong (In London Town) but not vulgar…extremely cheerful like a miserable unsuccessful man ought to write’; From the turn of the 20th century onwards, and in a letter to Jaeger (‘Nimrod’ of the radical social change began to make Enigma Variations) he called it ‘cheerful and its presence felt in the imaginations of Londony – stout and steaky’. European composers. In Britain, as the British Empire began to crumble and as He said that the idea for a descriptive MELBOURNE SYMPHONY WARREN TREVELYAN-JONES political developments in Europe pointed piece about London occurred to him ‘one ORCHESTRA CHORUS MSO CHORUS MASTER toward the end of an era, composers (who dark day in the Guildhall: looking at the could not rely on television to do it for memorials of the city’s great past and them) set out to document the sights and knowing well the history of its unending For more than 50 years the Melbourne Warren Trevelyan-Jones is the Head of sounds of their national capital as they charity, I seemed to hear far away in Symphony Orchestra Chorus has been Music at St James’, King Street in Sydney had known it. Elgar began the trend with the dim roof a theme, an echo of some the unstinting voice of the Orchestra’s and is regarded as one of the leading choral his Cockaigne Overture in 1901, and in the noble melody’. That ‘noble melody’ now choral repertoire. The MSO Chorus sings conductors and choir trainers in Australia. decades which followed, Vaughan Williams forms the second theme of the Cockaigne with the finest conductors including Sir Warren has had an extensive singing wrote his London Symphony, Gustav Holst Overture, with its characteristic marking of Andrew Davis, Edward Gardner, Mark career as a soloist and ensemble singer in composed Hammersmith, John Ireland ‘nobilmente’ (nobly) above it in the score. Wigglesworth, Bernard Labadie, Vladimir Europe, including nine years in the Choir of offered his London Overture and Eric Ashkenazy and Westminster Abbey, and regular work with ‘Cockaigne’ is an archaic, humorous Coates completed two London Suites. the Gabrieli Consort, Collegium Vocale term for London – the modern word Manfred Honeck, and is committed to (Ghent), the Taverner Consort, The Kings In Elgar’s case, the composition of the ‘cockney’ derives from it – but so as to developing and performing new Australian Consort, Dunedin Consort, The Sixteen Cockaigne Overture (which is not an avoid any confusion Elgar provided the and international choral repertoire. and the Tallis Scholars. ‘overture’ as such, but a freestanding tone subtitle ‘In London Town’. While not being Commissions include Brett Dean’s Katz poem) was written not just in response to programmatic in the strict Straussian sense, Warren is also Director of the Parsons und Spatz, Ross Edwards’ Mountain Chant, the passing of an era, but also, in some the overture nevertheless conjures up the Affayre, Founder and Co-Director of The and Paul Stanhope’s Exile Lamentations. sense, the passing of Elgar’s career! sights and sounds of turn-of-the-century Consort of Melbourne and, in 2001 with Recordings by the MSO Chorus have Written in February and March of 1901 London, including the quiet squares, the Dr Michael Noone, founded the Gramophone received critical acclaim. The Chorus after the notorious failure of The Dream chirpy street-vendors and the processions award-winning group Ensemble Plus Ultra. has performed across Brazil and at the of Gerontius premiere, Elgar at the time of military and brass bands. Warren is also a qualified music therapist. Cultura Inglese Festival in Sao Paolo, with of its composition professed himself Each passage is marked by its distinctive The Australian Ballet, Sydney Symphony to be suicidal. orchestration, with passages where bells Orchestra, at the AFL Grand Final and at While his contemporaries attested that chime, woodwinds snatch pointillistic Anzac Day commemorative ceremonies.