HARP LEGENDS Simone Young Conducts THURSDAY AFTERNOON SYMPHONY Thursday 24 July 2014 EMIRATES METRO SERIES Friday 25 July 2014 MONDAYS @ 7 Monday 28 July 2014 concert diary CLASSICAL Jandamarra Meet the Music Wed 16 Jul 6.30pm HOLST A Fugal Overture Thu 17 Jul 6.30pm VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Oboe Concerto ^Tea & Symphony STANHOPE & HAWKE^ Fri 18 Jul 11am premiere Jandamarra – Sing for the Country complimentary morning tea from 10am Brett Weymark conductor Major Partner Kimberley Diamond Diana Doherty oboe Pre-concert talk Simon Lobelson baritone by Vincent Plush Yilimbirri Ensemble – singers and dancers (Wed, Thu only) Members of Gondwana Choirs Thursday Afternoon Symphony Harp Legends Thu 24 Jul 1.30pm LISZT Orpheus Emirates Metro Series RODRIGO Concierto serenata for harp Fri 25 Jul 8pm BRACEGIRDLE Legends of the Old Castle – Mondays @ 7 Harp Concertino AUSTrALiAN premiere Mon 28 Jul 7pm ZEMLINSKY The Mermaid Pre-concert talk Simone Young conductor by Yvonne Frindle Louise Johnson harp (Bracegirdle) Sivan Magen harp (Rodrigo) Harpists of the World Harp Congress Special Event Pepe Romero Premier Partner Credit Suisse ROSSINI The Barber of Seville: Overture Fri 1 Aug 8pm RODRIGO Concierto de Aranjuez Sat 2 Aug 8pm VIVALDI Concerto in D, RV 93 Pre-concert talk BEETHOVEN Symphony No.8 45 minutes before Tito Muñoz conductor each performance Pepe Romero guitar APT Master Series Four Last Songs Wed 13 Aug 8pm GLANERT Frenesia AUSTrALiAN premiere Fri 15 Aug 8pm R STRAUSS Four Last Songs Sat 16 Aug 8pm BRAHMS Symphony No.2 Pre-concert talk David Robertson conductor by David Larkin Christine Brewer soprano Meet the Music Hear it, Feel it Wed 20 Aug 6:30pm MOZART Symphony No.25: 1st movement Thu 21 Aug 6:30pm LIGETI Piano Concerto^ ^Tea & Symphony SCRIABIN The Poem of Ecstasy^ Fri 22 Aug 11am complimentary morning tea from 10am David Robertson conductor Pre-concert talk Nicolas Hodges piano by Scott Davie (Wed, Thu only) FOR COMPLETE DETAILS OF THE 2014 SEASON VISIT TICKETS FROM $39* Tickets also available at SYDNEYSYMPHONY.COM sydneyoperahouse.com NO FEES WHEN YOU BOOK THESE CONCERTS ONLINE WITH THE SSO 9250 7777 Mon-Sat 9am-8.30pm CALL 8215 4600 MON-FRI 9AM-5PM Sun 10am-6pm *Selected performances. Booking fees of $7.50 – $8.95 may apply. WELCOME TO THE EMIRATES METRO SERIES 2014 marks the 12th anniversary of Emirates’ partnership with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. We’re proud to continue one of the longest running partnerships for the SSO and remain the naming sponsor of the orchestra’s Emirates Metro Series. Emirates connects travellers around the globe, bringing people together to discover, enjoy, and share experiences. Our partnership with the SSO is about connecting with you – our customers. The Emirates Metro Series showcases a wonderful array of highly regarded compositions, including many key European composers. We hope that tonight’s performance prompts you to consider a future trip to Europe, where we fly to more than 35 destinations with the recent addition of Oslo, or internationally to more than 140 destinations in 80 countries. Like the SSO, Emirates specialises in first-class entertainment, taking out the award for best inflight entertainment for the ninth consecutive year at the international Skytrax Awards in 2013. With up to 1,600 channels to choose from, on 28 flights per week to New Zealand and 84 flights per week to Dubai, including a double daily A380 from Sydney, those flying on Emirates will now be able to watch SSO concerts onboard. We are dedicated to the growth of arts and culture in Australia and we’re delighted to continue our support of the SSO. We encourage you to enjoy as many performances as possible in 2014. Bryan Banston Emirates’ Vice President Australasia 2014 concert season THURSDAY AFTERNOON SYMPHONY THURSDAY 24 JULY, 1.30PM EMIRATES METRO SERIES FRIDAY 25 JULY, 8PM MONDAYS @ 7 MONDAY, 28 JULY, 7PM SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE CONCERT HALL HARP LEGENDS Monday’s performance will be Simone Young conductor broadcast live across Australia by Louise Johnson harp ABC Classic FM. Sivan Magen harp Pre-concert talk by Yvonne Frindle FRANZ LISZT (1811–1886) in the Northern Foyer, 45 minutes before each performance. Orpheus – Symphonic Poem Estimated durations: JOAQUÍN RODRIGO (1901–1999) 14 minutes, 24 minutes, Concierto serenata 20-minute interval, Estudiantina (Allegro ma non troppo) 17 minutes, 42 minutes Intermezzo con Aria (Adagio) The concert will conclude at approximately 3.45pm (Thu), Sarao (Allegro deciso) 10.15pm (Fri), 9.15pm (Mon). Sivan Magen, harp INTERVAL LEE BRACEGIRDLE (born 1952) Legends of the Old Castle – Harp Concertino PREMIERE Louise Johnson, harp ALEXANDER ZEMLINSKY (1871–1942) The Mermaid – Fantasy after Hans Christian Andersen Sehr mäßig bewegt (At a very moderate tempo) Sehr bewegt, rauschend (Very agitated, roaring) Sehr gedehnt, mit schmerzvollem Ausdruck (Very drawn-out, full of pain) HANS-PETER SCHOLZ The Hohenbaden ‘Old Castle’ has been home to Aeolian harps since the 1850s, when there were several celebrated instruments set into the windows of the towering ruins of the Rittersaal, or Knights’ Hall. These appear to have gone by 1920. The current Aeolian harp was installed by Baden-Baden musician Rüdiger Oppermann in 1999. It’s over four metres tall and has 120 strings, and Oppermann has declared it the largest such harp in Europe. The nylon strings are tuned to C and G. 6 INTRODUCTION Harp Legends This concert begins with two horn notes, the simplest of announcements, ushering in the harps. And the harp is the star of the program. You’ll see six harpists in the orchestra and two harp soloists. You’ll hear not one but two concertante works for harp: Rodrigo’s ‘Serenade concerto’ and a brand new piece by Lee Bracegirdle, Legends of the Old Castle. And on Friday night, there’s every chance you’ll be sitting near a harpist as we warmly welcome more than 200 delegates from the World Harp Congress. (The Sherlocks among us can look PLEASE SHARE for the tell-tale callused finger tips.) Programs grow on trees – Together with the flute, the harp is the first musical help us be environmentally instrument to be mentioned in Genesis; perhaps more responsible and keep ticket important, it’s the instrument David plays to soothe the prices down by sharing your troubled Saul. That theme is echoed in the Greek legend of program with your companion. Orpheus – with the lyre given to him by Apollo, god of music, he can charm all things: men, wild beasts, gods of the underworld, even stones. READ IN ADVANCE This was the vision that inspired Liszt when he wrote in You can also read SSO program books on your computer or the preface to his Orpheus tone poem: ‘…Humanity, now as mobile device by visiting our formerly and ever, has within itself these instincts of ferocity, online program library in the brutality and sensuality, which it is the mission of Art to week leading up to the concert: soften, to mitigate, to ennoble. Now as formerly and ever, sydneysymphony.com/ Orpheus, that is to say Art, should pour forth his melodious program_library waves, their chords vibrating like a soft and irresistible light over the conflicting elements…’ The mermaids of legend also charm with music – like the sirens they possess alluring voices –and in Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale, the Little Mermaid must give up her voice if she is to leave the sea and find her Prince. This is a bargain with a twist and it cannot end well; Zemlinsky’s music, based on the story, ends on a subdued note. The orchestral harps ripple nearly to the end, but at the final notes they slip away with the Little Mermaid as she dissolves into foam and becomes a spirit of the air. Turn to page 31 to read Bravo! – musician profiles, articles COVER IMAGE: Detail of a gold mosaic floor (c.1881), designed by Walter Crane for the Arab Hall in Leighton House, near Holland Park in London. (Leighton and news from the orchestra. House Museum, Kensington & Chelsea / Bridgeman Images) It’s not There are nine issues through uncommon to see mermaids portrayed accompanying themselves with the year, also available at harps – as impractical as that might seem in a watery environment! sydneysymphony.com/bravo 7 ABOUT THE MUSIC Franz Liszt Keynotes Orpheus – Symphonic Poem LISZT In keeping with his Romantic inclinations, Liszt brought an Born Doborján, Hungary, 1811 element of drama – and implicit autobiography – to his Died Bayreuth, Germany, 1886 programmatic orchestral works through the employment of Liszt’s father, also a musician, a ‘protagonist’. The subjects he chose for these bold knew Haydn and Beethoven; experiments in orchestral form represent a veritable gallery of Liszt himself became Richard Classical and Romantic heroes – Hamlet, Faust, Prometheus, Wagner’s father-in-law. He was Tasso, Mazeppa and, in the case of this particular work, the greatest concert pianist Orpheus. of the 1840s and the word ‘Lisztomania’ was coined to As Byron, Goethe and Shelley had discovered before him, describe his enormous appeal. it was through identification with these particular tragic From 1848, he and his lover (a figures that Liszt was able to dramatise his own ‘Romantic princess) led a quieter life at agony’ (as Mario Praz so aptly describes it), with all its Weimar, where he conducted the suffering, struggle, and occasional triumphs. Just as the court opera and orchestra, and poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge could boast ‘I have a smack invented the term ‘symphonic of Hamlet in myself’, so too Liszt could justifiably claim to poem’ for his own descriptive be of the ‘Orphic’ persuasion. Indeed, of all the leading orchestral compositions. In the 19th-century virtuosos, Liszt’s claim to the kind of musical 1860s he was living in semi- supremacy embodied in the mythical figure of Orpheus was seclusion in a Franciscan rivalled only by the violinist Paganini.