Symphonic Mozart
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
ANAM ORCHESTRA ANAM The Australian National Academy of Music Violin Cello (ANAM) is dedicated to the artistic and Jasmine Baric (N.S.W.) Jeremy Garside (W.A.) professional development of the most exceptional young classical musicians from Australia and New Liam Meany (N.S.W.) principal Laura Barton (N.Z.) Zealand. Renowned for its innovation and energy, ANAM is committed Brett Dean Meg Cohen (N.S.W.) to pushing the boundaries of how music is presented and performed. 2018 Caleb Murray (N.S.W.) Contributing to the vibrancy of the local music culture, ANAM aims Natasha Hanna (VIC) Georgia Ostenfeld (N.S.W.) to inspire future music leaders encouraging audiences to share the William Huxtable (W.A.) MOS journey. Visit anam.com.au for more information. Eliza Sdraulig (VIC) Sunkyoung Kim (QLD) Caleb Wong (N.S.W.) principal Hana King (N.S.W.) principal 2nd Masonic Funeral Music & SUBSCRIPTIONS NOW OPEN FOR Phoebe Masel (QLD) Sinfonia Concertante Vicky Zhang (N.S.W.) Liam Oborne (VIC) Elliott Plumpton (QLD) Double Bass TLY Johnny van Gend (QLD) David Barlow (N.S.W.) principal concertmaster Giovanni Vinci (W.A.) 2019 Harry Ward (N.S.W.) Oboe The popular series returns to celebrate music’s most loved genius Viola Owen Jackson (QLD) principal with five new concerts featuring ANAM Faculty, Eunise Cheng (W.A.) Masonic Funeral Music musicians and guests. Mozart & Mendelssohn Molly Collier-O’Boyle (QLD) Edward Wang (VIC) principal Tuesday 7 May 11am MOZ Sinfonia Concertante Cora Fabbri (N.S.W.) Mozart’s French Horn Alexander MacDonald (N.Z.) Clarinet Tuesday 11 June 11am principal Brett Dean Thomas d’Ath guest Mozart & Bernstein Mariette Reefman (N.S.W.) Thursday 22 August 11am Basset Horn principal Sinfonia Mozart & Bach Concertante Andrew Fong (QLD) Thursday 19 September 11am Mitchell Jones (QLD) ARTSymphonic Mozart Ruby Shirres (VIC) principal Mozart & Haydn 11am Tuesday 13 November 2018 Masonic Funeral Music Cameron Smith (VIC) Wednesday 20 November 11am Elisabeth Murdoch Hall, Melbourne Recital Centre Jared Yapp (W.A.) Contrabassoon Brett Dean viola/director SUBSCRIBE TODAY by visiting the Box Office Kyla Matsuura-Miller violin (QLD) Matthew Ventura (N.S.W.) or at melbournerecital.com.au | 9699 3333 ANAM Orchestra Horn PROGRAM Maraika Smit (TAS) principal Melbourne Recital Centre acknowledges the people of the Kulin Nation on whose land this concert is being presented. Sinfonia Concertante Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart William Tanner (QLD) principal Masonic Funeral Music, K.477 Sinfonia Concertante in E-flat, K.364 Cnr Southbank Blvd & Sturt St Allegro maestoso Masonic Funeral Music Southbank, Victoria Brett Dean (1961–) Between the spaces in the sky Andante melbournerecital.com.au | 9699 3333 Presto #MelbRecital PRINCIPAL GOVERNMENT PARTNER ABOUT THE MUSIC MASONIC FUNERAL MUSIC, K.477 BETWEEN THE SPACES IN THE SKY The first movement, marked ‘majestically’, includes a lengthy orchestral build-up of the kind then being made famous by the Mannheim Orchestra. One of the more far-fetched theories about Mozart’s last days, and the Between the spaces in the sky is the fifth movement from Brett Dean’sEpitaphs This is preceded by a marvellous passage where horns and oboes indulge supposed neglect that followed his death, is that he had offended the Masonic for string quartet and viola, which the Australian String Quartet premiered at in dialogue with pizzicato strings. A magical moment is the emergence of brotherhood in Vienna by revealing secrets of their ritual in his opera The the 2010 Cheltenham Festival (U.K.). Co-commissioned by the Australian String the two solo instruments from the orchestral mass, and their interplay Magic Flute. Actually there was no secret about the membership of Vienna’s Quartet, La Jolla Music Society and Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Epitaphs affectionately and songfully explores the characteristic sound registers Masonic lodges, which included some of the most prominent of noble families pays homage to friends and colleagues of the composer who passed away, of violin and viola in turn. – in fact, this Funeral Music of Mozart’s was composed for a service of memorial painting engrossing musical portraits in their memory. Between the spaces in to two such men. the sky, the final and most valedictory movement of the work, is dedicated to As in several of Mozart’s great piano concertos in E-flat, the slow movement British conductor and music director Richard Hickox (1948–2008), who was to is in the relative minor key, C minor, for Mozart a key of brooding and Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute should be regarded as the work where he reveals have conducted the premiere of Dean’s first opera, Bliss. profound pathos. Here the dialogue of the instruments reaches accents most fully what attracted him to Freemasonry. Its librettist, Schikaneder, was of deep feeling, even pain, yet ever songfully. a Mason too. Here obscurantism and irrationally exercised power are rejected, The movement gets its name from lines of the libretto for Bliss by Amanda Holden: while an Enlightened morality, and human brotherhood, are celebrated in The finale is lighter, in the rhythm of a contredanse, and its high spirits Ecstasy touched me…I slid between the spaces in the sky hymn-like music almost as simple as the songs of the Masonic ritual. include many unexpected touches. The two soloists bid farewell in turn And smelt things living and dying in the valleys of the forest. in a rising passage of considerable virtuosity. Mozart himself wrote the Masonic symbolism appears not only in Mozart’s ‘Masonic’ works, but also in eloquent cadenzas for this greatest of his string concertos. compositions having no apparent connection with Freemasonry. The figure SINFONIA CONCERTANTE IN E-FLAT, K.364 ‘three’ played a large part in the symbols. According to one expert, the number Allegro maestoso © David Garrett of flats in the music’s key signature corresponded to the degree of initiation Reprinted by permission of Symphony Services International Andante into the Masonic order. The three flats of theMasonic Funeral Music (C minor) Presto would therefore correspond to the third degree, of Master Mason. Mozart was an accomplished violinist, good enough to play his own concertos In 1783 Mozart was initiated into the lodge Zur Wohltätigkeit (Beneficence). in public, but it was mainly pressure from his father, a famous violin teacher, ABOUT THE ARTISTS In 1785 he was passed to a larger lodge, Zur wahren Eintracht (True Concord), which led him to write the concertos and to keep up his practising. His main where he was made a Master Mason on 13 January. In August 1785 a piece with instrument was the piano, and in string quartets, like many a string-playing BRETT DEAN male chorus, called Master Music, was performed there on the occasion of composer, he preferred to play the viola. If his violin concertos were a duty, this a member’s elevation to the Third Degree. This seems to have been an early Brett Dean studied in Brisbane before moving to Germany in 1984 where ‘Concertante Symphony’ for violin with viola was obviously a labour of love. It is version of today’s piece. On 17 November, at the lodge Zur gekrönten Hoffnung he was a member of the Berlin Philharmonic for 14 years, during which one of a sheaf of masterpieces written in 1778–79, including the opera Idomeneo. (Crowned Hope), the Maurerische Trauermusik (Masonic Funeral Music), a time he began composing. His music is championed by many of the leading new version of the same music, but without chorus, was played at a Lodge of The sinfonia concertante was a form enormously popular at the time, showing conductors and orchestras worldwide, including Sir Simon Rattle, Vladimir Sorrows (Memorial Service) for Count Franz Esterházy von Galántha and Duke off the skills of a group of instrumentalists from within the fine orchestras Jurowski, David Robertson, Andris Nelsons, Marin Alsop and Sakari Oramo. Georg August von Mecklenburg-Strelitz. On 7 December, the Masonic Funeral which were developing for public concerts. Mozart had recently been in Paris, Much of Dean’s work draws from literary, political, environmental or visual Music was performed at another lodge, Zu den drey Adlern (The Three Eagles) where the sinfonia concertante craze was at its height, and had composed for stimuli, including a number of compositions inspired by artwork by his with added wind parts, including three basset horns and a contrabassoon. Two performance there a work of this kind featuring his new friends, the wind soloists wife Heather Betts. additional basset horn players, Anton David and Vinzent Springer, were ‘foreign’ of the Mannheim Orchestra (possibly what survives as the Sinfonia Concertante, Masonic Brothers who happened to be in Vienna at the time. The final scoring K297b). Usually such works were less tightly written than a symphony, and KYLA MATSUURA-MILLER of the music reflects the availability of what Mozart authority H.C. Robbins made more concessions to virtuosity, but Mozart’s K364 is an exception. It Emerging young violinist Kyla Matsuura-Miller studied with Phillip Taylor Landon calls ‘an extraordinary and fortuitous collection of musicians’. This is reveals elements of the Baroque concerto grosso in the close interplay between and then Michele Walsh at the Queensland Conservatorium where she was the most impressive of Mozart’s specifically Masonic pieces. The effect of the soloists and the band, but the writing is on the scale of a symphony. an advanced performance student and was concertmaster of the Symphony the sombre minor key is reinforced by the choice of wind instruments and Combining violin and viola as soloists was a risky procedure, and especially Orchestra on many occasions. Kyla was also the recipient of the Matilda writing which exploits their lower registers.