MATINEE 4 Seeking peace of mind about your estate and family?

FRIDAY 25 NOVEMBER 2.30PM FEDERATION CONCERT HALL HOBART

Marko Letonja conductor GERSHWIN Andrew Seymour Catfish Row: Symphonic Suite from ADAMS and Bess Catfish Row Duration 12 mins Porgy Sings Fugue COPLAND Hurricane Clarinet Concerto Good Morning, Sistuh Slowly and expressively – Duration 24 mins Cadenza – Rather fast This concert will end at approximately 4.30pm. Duration 17 mins

INTERVAL Expert advice Duration 20 mins

and solutions. MUNRO Blue Rags Bad Girl Rag Tromba Blues Sponsored by China Rag Duration 12 mins

Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra concerts are broadcast and streamed throughout Australia 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.

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The Chairman Dances – Foxtrot for In the surreal final scene of the , Orchestra she interrupts the tired formalities of a state banquet, disrupts the slow moving American John Adams is one of the most protocol and invites the Chairman, who successful composers working today. He first is present only as a gigantic 40-foot came to prominence in the early 1980s with portrait on the wall, to “come down, works such as , Grand Pianola MARKO LETONJA ANDREW SEYMOUR old man, and dance”. The music takes Music and , and achieved full cognisance of her past as a movie even greater success with the opera Nixon actress. Themes, sometimes slinky and in China, which he wrote in collaboration Marko Letonja is Chief Conductor Principal Clarinet with the Tasmanian sentimental, at other times bravura and with poet Alice Goodman and stage director and Artistic Director of the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra since 2012, Andrew bounding, ride above in bustling fabric Peter Sellars. It was premièred by Houston of energised motives. Some of these Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Seymour studied with Robert Schubert at Grand Opera in 1987 and received its first themes make a dreamy reappearance of the Orchestre Philharmonique de the Victorian College of the Arts where he Australian performance at the 1992 Adelaide in Act III of the actual opera, as both the Festival. Since then, Adams has consolidated Strasbourg. Born in Slovenia, he studied at completed a Bachelor of Music Performance Nixons and Maos reminisce over their his reputation as a composer for the stage, the Academy of Music in Ljubljana and the in 2001. His early orchestral training was with distant pasts. A scenario by Peter Sellars with works such as , and Alice Goodman, somewhat altered Academy of Music. He was Music the VCA Symphony Orchestra, Melbourne El Niño and . from the final one in , is as Director of the Slovenian Philharmonic Youth Orchestra and Geminiani Chamber Early in his career, Adams was frequently follows: Orchestra from 1991 to 2003 and Music Orchestra. He is also a former member of labelled a “Minimalist composer” as his Chiang Ch’ing, aka Madame Mao, Director and Chief Conductor of both the the Australian Youth Orchestra and first music typically involves the extensive has gatecrashed the Presidential Symphony Orchestra and the Opera in repetition of small-scale motifs and, performed with the TSO as part of the Banquet. She is first seen standing superficially, bore a stylistic resemblance to Basel from 2003 to 2006. He was Principal TSO-AYO Orchestral Development Program where she is most in the way of the the music of fellow Americans Philip Glass Guest Conductor of Orchestra Victoria in waiters. After a few minutes, she in 2005. He was active as a freelance and , also labelled “Minimalists”. brings out a box of paper lanterns 2008 and made his debut with the TSO musician in Melbourne, having performed But in more recent years, the label as tended and hangs them around the hall, then the following year. He took up the post to fall out of use, possibly because Adams’s with the Royal Melbourne Philharmonic strips down to a cheongsam, skin- of Chief Conductor and Artistic Director music has become so recognisable in its own Orchestra, Australian Classical Players and tight from neck to ankle and slit up right and is able to be appreciated without of the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra the hip. She signals the orchestra to the Lyric Opera of Melbourne, as well as recourse to categorization. at the start of 2012. He has worked with play and begins dancing by herself. The Phantom of the Opera and Dr Zhivago. many orchestras in Europe including the The composer writes: Mao is becoming excited. He steps He has also performed with the Adelaide Munich Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony, The Chairman Dances was an “out-take” down from his portrait on the wall, Symphony Orchestra. Between 2009 and and they begin to foxtrot together. Berlin Radio Orchestra, Mozarteum of Act III of Nixon in China. Neither an 2011 he toured nationally as a member of “excerpt” nor a “fantasy on themes They are back in Yenan, dancing to Orchestra and the Orchestra Filarmonica the gramophone… the orchestra for OzOpera, Opera Australia’s from”, it was in fact a kind of warm-up della Scala, Milan. He has also worked in for embarking on the creation of the full touring company. In 2010 he performed John Adams © 1999, reprinted with many renowned opera houses such as the opera. At the time, 1985, I was obliged to permission. Vienna State Opera, Berlin State Opera, Schubert’s The Shepherd on the Rock fulfil a long-delayed commission for the La Scala Milan, Semper Oper Dresden, with Sara Macliver and Amir Farid at the Milwaukee Symphony, but having already The Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra has seen the scenario to Act III of Nixon in performed this work once before, with conductor and the Grand Théâtre de Genève. Melbourne Recital Centre. In 2014 Andrew Luke Dollman in Hobart on 15 May 2004. China, I couldn’t wait to begin work on was featured in recital on ABC Classic FM’s Additionally, he has conducted at the Arena that piece. So The Chairman Dances di Verona. Future engagements include Sunday Live program and was also a featured began as a “foxtrot” for Chairman Mao the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, Berlin performer at MONA’s Synaesthsesia+. and his bride, Chiang Ch’ing, the fabled Radio Orchestra, Bavarian State Opera Recently, Andrew has performed as guest “Madame Mao”, firebrand, revolutionary executioner, architect of China’s in Munich and Wagner’s Der Ring des principal Clarinet with the Australian calamitous Cultural Revolution, and (a Nibelungen for the Royal Swedish Opera Chamber Orchestra and the Auckland fact not universally realised) a former with Nina Stemme as Brünnhilde. Philharmonia Orchestra. Shanghai movie actress.

50 51 AARON COPLAND (1900-1990) IAN MUNRO (born 1963)

Concerto for Clarinet and String waters, restless for new collaborations, new Blue Rags . Orchestra, with Harp and ways to communicate. Now Goodman Bad Girl Rag My own rags began as a contribution to Slowly and expressively – plays with great ensembles and conductors, Tromba Blues Russell Gilmour’s Whitlam Rags project, which Cadenza – premières major new works. His current aimed to follow up on the Keating Tangos commission, for a clarinet concerto from a China Rag Rather fast with a musical tribute to former Prime Minister gawky, earnest New Yorker, will become his The syncopated, pre-jazz march-like style Gough Whitlam. China Rag is a comment on A sweetly rocking lullaby wafts as if from lasting gift to the classical world. known as “ragtime” was well on its way to Whitlam’s diplomatic forays into China, for an open window. Floating, the solo clarinet The fast second movement begins with a becoming a big international piano fad by which he was lambasted by critics at the time. sighs serenely. In his sketches for this prickly apparition in the orchestra, marked the turn of the 20th century. Introduced peaceful opening, Copland writes, “night to New York by the dance-hall pianist Ben Bad Girl is the only true ragtime number in “wraith-like”. It terrifies the clarinettist into the set and pays homage to , music…lonely”. Nostalgia fills the evening silence, setting the scene for an unpredictable Harney in 1896, it was probably born in the air, gentle music originally written for a US southern states of the USA and was perfected the American composer whose piano rags soloist/ensemble relationship: sometimes of the late 1960s and early 70s are easily the Government film made to build pride and tentative, occasionally supportive, usually in St Louis by the gifted, self-taught African- hope in new migrants. American composer Scott Joplin, whose most beautiful and fascinating in the entire adversarial. Seesawing unpredictably, the music literature. Tromba Blues was written after In 1947 two artists, seeking new directions, veers from spiky to suave, crude to vigorous, Maple Leaf Rag of 1899 secured both his livelihood and his reputation. Sadly, the returning home from a tour to Italy with the stumble upon one another. Both second- good-humoured to wild, an entertainingly Sydney Youth Orchestra in 2004. During that generation Americans, the children of poor rollercoaster ride held together by the fights, failure of his opera Treemonisha to receive a performance precipitated his mental collapse tour, Respighi’s arrangements of Rossini were immigrants from Eastern Europe. Both games and dances of antagonists. played as encores and the tarantella was a reserved, uncommunicative, physically 18 years later. The phenomenon of ragtime Goodman and Copland had reason to seemed to have burned itself out, like the favourite with everyone. In it, the tromba stiff. Both outsiders, one a gay man expect a stimulating creative relationship. () plays a typical reveille call and is with communist sympathies, the other a Romantic tradition, by midway through the They respected one another, and Copland First World War. Rumours of its death were answered by the rest of the orchestra. Unlikely perfectionist whose demands isolate him from imagined that working with a jazz musician material for a rag, perhaps, but it is this call others. Both Jewish men in a Christian country. premature, however. The 1973 film, The would spur a “fresh point of view”. Sting, starring Robert Redford and Paul that forms the basis for Tromba Blues, a lazy The clarinet, an alien in a band of strings, But evidence suggests that these reserved, Newman, with a score by Marvin Hamlisch improvisation by the solo trumpet over a harp and piano, withdraws to reflect, exacting and uncompromising musicians based on Joplin’s most characteristic rags, meandering harmonic sequence. alone. This solo cadenza bridges two did not enjoy an easy or joyful collaboration. was credited with reviving the style (at least Abridged from a note © Ian Munro 2005 movements, two worlds. Beginning in calm The two would remain aloof with one another for a year or two). The truth is that ragtime contemplation, the clarinet explores a simple for the rest of their lives. had never really died, of course. The Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra performed a musical idea, turning anxious, then impatient, Goodman’s fingerprints coat Copland’s pithy, version of Blue Rags arranged for Wind and Brass then insistent. Copland’s sketches reveal In Australia, Elena Kats-Chernin has played with conductor Jean-Louis Forestier in April 2005. eventful concerto, full of jerky syncopations, the greatest part in re-inventing the style, This is the first orchestral performance. his battle to perfect this straightforward yet written-out swing solos, arching boogie crucially important moment, of a too-human although a number of colleagues have woogie lines, sliding strings, and sultry strayed into the medium from time to time struggle with communication. slap-bass. The composer’s contemporaneous (Mary Mageau, Stephen Cronin, Mark Isaacs, travels through Brazil are strongly felt in Aaron Copland, lanky with a toothy smile, is Russell Gilmour and others). In typically quirky, seductive folk tunes, full-throated outbursts boyish at 47. He has helped create a canon effervescent style, her twenty-odd rags for and earthy dances. This grab-bag of of “recognisably American” compositions, piano and small ensembles have redefined influences is transformed by Copland, who notably with the New Deal-era Americana ragtime as a mixture of Russian, klezmer, sharpens angles, polishes aspects, magnifies of Appalachian Spring and the Third tango and Chopin, with a goodly dose of the details and shaves fat. It remains a glorious Symphony. Now Copland looks further afield, Australian vernacular. Her first Russian Rag patchwork, a musical testament to the experimenting with musical modernism, was long used as the prelude and envoi to creative curiosity of two restlessly searching inhaling the “overpowering, exhilarating” Phillip Adams’ topical ABC Radio National musical minds. music of Central and South America, and program Late Night Live. It was Elena’s drawing on the sounds and spirit of jazz. Tim Munro © 2016 music that sparked a renewed interest for At 38, clarinettist Benny Goodman, the “King me in the delightful repertoire of ragtime of Swing”, is stocky, bespectacled. Swing The Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra first and the associated style known as “novelty performed this work with conductor Morton is no longer mainstream, overshadowed by Gould and soloist Gregory Blackman in Hobart on piano”, resulting in the discovery of gems by crooner pop and bebop. Ten years prior, this 9 March 1977 and, most recently, with Paul Mann composers as diverse as William Bolcom, Zez teen idol stuck a toe into ’s and Richard Haynes in Hobart on 14 May 2005. Confrey, Billy Mayerl, Raffaele Marcellino and

52 53 (1898-1937)

Catfish Row: Symphonic Suite from Heyward. “As you know, they are keen about the opera, but slightly afraid on account of the Catfish Row colour question.” (In 1959, Otto Preminger Porgy Sings made a film version for MGM, a disastrous Fugue misreading of Tennessee Williams-esque Southern dysfunctionalism that has mercifully Hurricane disappeared from circulation.) Good Morning, Sistuh One year earlier, in 1936, Gershwin had After a week of tryouts in Boston in late launched a similar strategy on the East Coast. September 1935, Porgy and Bess was ready For a five-city concert tour, he prepared a for Broadway. It opened at the Alvin Theatre suite of five numbers from Porgy and Bess. on 10 October and ran for 124 performances. The first performance of this suite was given A pretty good run for an American “folk- by Alexander Smallens conducting the opera” with its virtually all-black cast, one Philadelphia Orchestra on 21 January 1936. might think, but for George Gershwin and his GEORGE GERSHWIN lyricist brother Ira and their librettists DuBose But even Gershwin’s suite was jinxed. It and , Porgy and Bess was disappeared from view until Lawrence D a financial disaster. They lost their entire Stewart, ’s secretary, stumbled The site was originally known as “Cabbage investment of $40,000, a tidy sum that today upon it 1958. By then, Robert Russell Row”. At the turn of the 20th century, over one would translate into about $540,000. Bennett’s famous Symphonic Portrait of hundred black people lived in twin tenement buildings there. They grew cabbages in a little “Porgy and Bess” (1943), commissioned Gershwin promoted various schemes which back courtyard and sold them to passers-by by Fritz Reiner for the Pittsburgh Symphony, might recoup their investment. He asked through the front windows. One of the people was firmly lodged in the orchestral repertory. his publisher and long-time supporter Max who lived in Cabbage Row was Sammy Smalls, Dreyfus to arrange an international tour of the To avoid confusion, Ira Gershwin retitled a crippled black man who would ride around opera. “It might prove to be a sensation all his brother’s “scissors-and-paste” suite Charleston in his goat-driven cart, selling through Europe,” Gershwin exuded. Nothing Catfish Row. vegetables and stealing anything he could lay came of this. It would take another decade Porgy and Bess would not reach Charleston, his hands on. “Swear to God,” declared a local before the US State Department saw the the city in which it is set, until 1970, the year old-timer several years ago, “you could never goodwill propaganda kudos that could be of the 300th anniversary of the founding of tell which one smelled the worse, the goat or gained from promoting a tour of an all-black the State of South Carolina. By then it had Sammy Smalls!” In March 1924, Sammy was American opera. In the immediate post- appeared almost everywhere on the planet, hauled before court and charged for attempting War years, Porgy and Bess toured Eastern even in Australia in a touring production by to shoot a girlfriend. DuBose Heyward read the Europe and Latin America. In May 1954, with report in the local newspaper and created the the New Zealand Opera Company in 1965-66. making her operatic debut as figure who would provide the operatic world Bess, it played for a week at La Scala, Milan, Today, Charleston’s most famous tourist with the central character of Porgy and Bess. the first American opera to be performed in attraction is a pair of adjoining terrace houses Some years back, “Cabbage Row” was that temple of grand opera. at numbers 87 and 89 Church Street, the renovated into a pair of chintzy tourist By January 1937, the brothers Gershwin site of “Catfish Row”. The name is actually boutiques, one called “Porgy”, the other were in Los Angeles, writing musicals for a fictional creation of the Charleston author “Bess”. Today, the site is a series of bedroom Hollywood. At two all-Gershwin concerts DuBose Heyward derived from his 1924 apartments, “Catfish Row Suites” designed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in short story Porgy. The word “porgy” itself as “exclusive accommodations for those mid-February that year, Gershwin imported refers to the local catfish, a seafood delicacy desiring to live for an extended visit on a quiet his prized Porgy, Todd Duncan, a modest for the black inhabitants of South Carolina’s residential street that is the legendary home of singing teacher from Washington DC. Lowcountry. Had “Catfish Row” actually Porgy and Bess”. existed, it would have been situated about They performed excerpts from the opera in Vincent Plush © 2003 the hope that they “might whip up some a mile away, nearer the fishing wharves, the enthusiasm for picture possibilities on the part setting for the famous Trevor Nunn production This is the first performance of this work by the of the studios,” Gershwin wrote to DuBose for the Glyndebourne Opera in 1985. Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra.

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