ROMANTIC SYMPHONY — 2010 NATIONAL CONCERT SEASON

ASSOCIATE TOUR PARTNER ASSOCIATE TOUR PARTNER Transfi eld began life over half a century ago and although its activities were in the realm of construction, its founder, my father Franco, saw no distinction between the creative process of artists and engineers. The company began supporting the arts when it founded the Transfi eld Art Prize in 1960. This initiative quickly established itself as the premier contemporary prize for art in . In 1973 the company founded the Biennale of and remains its founding partner. Continuing our history of supporting cutting-edge, contemporary culture, Transfi eld celebrates over a decade of support for the ACO. This year we are proud to announce a new vehicle, the Transfi eld Foundation, which will continue this patronage. As Chairman of the ACO, few activities have given me more pleasure and a greater sense of pride than seeing this home-grown orchestra reach and capture the imagination of local and international audiences. Under the direction of Richard Tognetti the orchestra continues to demonstrate breathtaking creativity and the performance of Romantic Symphony you are about to experience will be no exception.

ASSOCIATE TOUR PARTNER

GUIDO BELGIORNO-NETTIS AM JOINT MANAGING DIRECTOR, TRANSFIELD HOLDINGS TOUR FOUR ROMANTIC SYMPHONY RICHARD TOGNETTI Artistic Director

SPEED READ GREENWOOD Jonny Greenwood leads a Popcorn Superhet Receiver double life as rock guitarist (with [Australian premiere] Radiohead) and burgeoning classical , with awards both for his concert works and fi lm soundtracks. Popcorn SCHUBERT Superhet Receiver distils his Symphony No.8, “Unfi nished” many infl uences, particularly Messiaen and Penderecki, into what Alex Ross dubs “avant-garde INTERVAL Romanticism”: a luxuriantly sonorous — but thoroughly modern — take on both the lush and jagged potentialities of BRAHMS massed strings. Symphony No.1 Schubert’s Eighth Symphony, even though incomplete (we have only two of a projected four movements) Approximate durations (minutes): has been described by Donald Tovey as “the most perfect of 18 • 25 • INTERVAL • 45 his large instrumental works”. Th e concert will last approximately two hours including interval. As radical a departure from Schubert’s previous orchestral works as was Beethoven’s “Eroica” from his, the “Unfi nished” — even as a frustrating torso — remains SYDNEY one of Schubert’s best-loved Angel Place compositions. (Interestingly, Sat 29 May 8pm, Tue 1 Jun 8pm, Wed 2 Jun 7pm Tovey thought that the Rondo Brilliante — which the ACO is playing around the country in SYDNEY September and October — would Opera House be perfect material for the never- Sun 30 May 2.30pm written fi nale.) Meet Richard Tognetti, signing his new CD Borges likened Brahms’ music Richard Tognetti will sign copies of his new recording of Dvoˇrák’s to “fi re and crystal”, and as Concerto (BISCD1708) in the Sydney Opera House foyer after a description of the radiant, the concert on Sunday 30 May. To listen to excerpts and watch footage dramatic First Symphony it is from the recording session, visit savd.com.au/ecards/tognetti. completely apt. Schumann had hailed the young Brahms a genius and urged him to assume the mantle of Beethoven, but as a Hamer Hall symphonist Brahms was slow to Sun 6 Jun 2.30pm, Mon 7 Jun 8pm mature. His perfectionism and his struggle with the example of Beethoven proved hard to overcome. For its troubled genesis, however, the First is a hugely ambitious and dignifi ed work, and a four-movement Th e Australian Chamber Orchestra reserves the right to alter scheduled journey from tragedy to triumph. programs or artists as necessary.

AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA 3 MESSAGE FROM THE GENERAL MANAGER

FREE PROGRAMS Spreading our wings to encompass the full symphonic C To save trees and money, we sweep of Brahms, the ACO combines forces with A O2 ask that you share one program in our year’s biggest orchestral concert – Romantic between two people where possible. Symphony. Richard Tognetti and the musicians of the ACO have scaled the heights of several Beethoven symphonies in past seasons, but now the border between PREPARE IN ADVANCE Classical and Romantic is decisively crossed and we get Read the program before the the chance to hear Schubert and Brahms brought to life concert. A PDF version of the program will be available at with the verve and vigour which has illuminated the aco.com.au one week before ACO’s performances of earlier symphonies. each tour begins, together with music clips and podcasts. For a chamber orchestra, such a huge undertaking would be impossible to imagine without the generous and ACO COMMUNITY sustained support of Th e Transfi eld Foundation, our Become a Facebook fan or visit Associate Tour Partner for these concerts in Sydney and aco.com.au/blog to read ACO Melbourne. Richard and I sincerely thank Th e Transfi eld news and chat to other fans, Foundation for supporting the ACO’s vision and enabling listen to music and see behind- the-scenes videos and photos. us to turn it into reality. Final are being made for the ACO’s Trans- HAVE YOUR SAY Atlantic tour in August and September. An impressive We invite your feedback series of invitations has formed into a wonderful series of about this concert at concerts in both North America and Europe, including aco.com.au/yoursay or by email to [email protected]. the prestigious Tanglewood Festival, the summer home of the Boston Symphony, and Aldeburgh’s Snape Proms in the UK. Th e tour will culminate in two concerts in the FREE MONTHLY enchanting city of Maribor in where Richard is E-NEWSLETTER the Artistic Director of Festival Maribor. While we’re on For news, special offers and to be sent background information tour, you can track the Orchestra’s progress on aco.com.au about the concerts, sign up or our Facebook page. for the ACO’s free monthly e-newsletter at aco.com.au. TIMOTHY CALNIN GENERAL MANAGER, ACO ACO ON THE RADIO 2MBS FM Wed 7 July 12pm CONCERT Interview with a musician from the Barefoot Fiddler tour. Please let friends in London know that the ACO will perform at Cadogan Hall on Tuesday 31 August at 7pm. Th e program includes Beethoven’s Symphony No.5 and NEXT TOUR Piano Concerto No.4 with soloist and the UK BAREFOOT FIDDLER premiere of Vasks’ Vox Amoris with Richard Tognetti as 8—22 July soloist. Tickets may be booked at the Cadogan Hall Box Offi ce at cadoganhall.com or +44 020 7730 4500.

AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA 5 ABOUT THE MUSIC

GREENWOOD Popcorn Superhet Receiver (Composed 2005, revised 2007)

About the composer:

Jonny Greenwood is no stranger to classical music. His early musical interests included Messiaen and Ligeti and he started out as a viola player. He plays several other instruments too, including piano, organ, banjo, glockenspiel and harmonica, and he has a particular Jonny Greenwood love for the ondes martenot. His fi rst published classical (born Oxford, England, 1971) composition was smear (for two ondes martenots and Jonny Greenwood is lead ensemble), which was commissioned by the FuseLeeds guitarist of the band Radiohead. Festival and premiered there in 2004 by the London Alongside their phenomenal Sinfonietta. In 2005 Greenwood was Featured Composer success over the past decade — at the South Bank Centre’s cutting-edge Ether Festival, multi-platinum album sales and where the revised version of smear was performed by the an ever-growing international fanbase — Greenwood has London Sinfonietta in the , one of its been building a career as an two sell-out concerts there. Piano for Children, a new orchestral composer, both in commission for John Constable and the London fi lm soundtracks (Bodysong, Sinfonietta, was also in the program, which included Norwegian Wood, There Will Be music by Dutilleux, Penderecki, Ligeti, Messiaen and Blood) and through an ongoing Mohammed Abdel Wahab. smear was later released association with the BBC Concert Orchestra. on CD on the London Sinfonietta Label as part of their Jerwood Series.

ACO Performance History In 2004 Greenwood was made Composer in Residence Unlike the symphonies of with the BBC Concert Orchestra. Th e fi rst fruit of Schubert, the ACO has never this association was Popcorn Superhet Receiver, a BBC played any of Brahms’ four commission, premiered by the BBC Concert Orchestra symphonies. So, along with Jonny Greenwood’s Popcorn in 2005. Th e piece was inspired by radio static and Superhet Receiver, which is an the extended, dissonant chords of Polish composer Australian premiere, Brahms’ Penderecki’s Th renody for the Victims of Hiroshima. First Symphony is an ACO Popcorn Superhet Receiver won the BBC Radio 3 Listeners’ premiere! Award at the 2006 British Composer Awards and, as Schubert’s music fi ts well with part of the award, Greenwood received funding from a chamber orchestra and his the PRS Foundation towards the commission of a new early symphonies 2, 5 & 6 have orchestral work, Doghouse, which was premiered in been played in a number of ACO concerts. The “Unfi nished” February this year. has also been performed previously, in 1986 and again in 2002.

AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA 7 About the music:

A superhet (superheterodyne) receiver generates a fi xed tone as a result of the frequency diff erence between two carrier waves – in the early days of wireless transmission, this was a frequency equivalent to a note at the very top of glissando to move from one the violin’s range. Popcorn is a low-fat, high-fi bre, maize note to another by sliding (best foodstuff . achieved by a string player dragging a fi nger up the string, When Jonny Greenwood was a child, he listened to or by a trombonist extending cassettes of music in the family car. When the cassettes or contracting the slide, while came to an end, Greenwood writes that he “used to listen playing a continuous note). to the engine noise, and found that if I concentrated hard tremolo trembling or shaky. enough I could hear the music from the cassettes still transient an acoustical term, playing somewhere in the background”. Popcorn Superhet used here to describe a note Receiver promotes precisely that kind of listening. Th e which consists of more attack than follow-through; for denser string textures obscure fragments of tunes and example, the sound of a bow their implied harmonies, while other clearly audible hitting the string but releasing melodic strands combine (in superhet fashion) to create before a fi xed tone has started further eerie melodies. Th e score is a maze (or maybe to vibrate. maize) of glissandos and tremolos, punctuated by slapped, plucked, and bowed syncopated transients, with a distinctly rock-infl uenced section that prefaces the work’s recapitulation.

Although he has achieved international fame as the guitarist of the British pop band Radiohead, Greenwood’s musical education was a formal one. Upon leaving Abingdon School in Oxfordshire, Greenwood studied at Oxford Brookes University before a tour with his band lured him into the commercial marketplace. As a teenager, Jonny was mesmerised by the music of Olivier Messiaen and Krzysztof Penderecki, and since a period as Further Reading and Composer in Residence for the BBC Concert Orchestra in Listening 2005, Greenwood has reinvented himself as a distinctive A feature article on Jonny (if partially derivative) voice in the landscape of classical Greenwood by Alex Ross of music. The New Yorker can be read at tinyurl.com/ross-greenwood, Popcorn Superhet Receiver grew out of workshops with while several of Greenwood’s the BBC Concert Orchestra – a certain amount of trial key compositional infl uences and error was inherent in the work’s genesis – and in 2006 are discussed in highly readable form in Andrew Ford’s the piece won the Radio 3 Listeners’ Award at the British Illegal Harmonies: Music in Composer Awards. Th e music was subsequently adapted the 20th Century (ABC Books, for Paul Th omas Anderson’s 2007 fi lm Th ere Will Be Blood, 2002). Those whose listening and the revised version of Popcorn Superhet Receiver lives have gone on so far toured America in 2008 and received its BBC Proms unencumbered by Radiohead could commence the remedy premiere in August 2009. with their 1997 international breakthrough release, OK Th e rhythmic drone of a car engine, the white noise Computer (Parlophone 50999- generated by a pre-digital radio, ephemeral snatches of 6-95462-8). half-remembered tunes, echoes of Messiaen’s Turangalîla-

8 AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA ostinato literally “obstinate”, Symphonie and Penderecki’s Th renody ‘To the Victims relates to a persistently of Hiroshima’, exponential crescendos, Stravinskian repeated musical rhythm or ostinato, Bartók pizzicato, and chromatic, modal, and phrase, usually in the bass line. quasi-pentatonic scales are combined to form a collaged Bartók pizzicato a specifi c but coherent work built around the notes F# and C (the kind of snapped or slapped plucking, where the string is pivotal notes of the opening of Benjamin Britten’s War plucked so hard it rebounds Requiem). Popcorn’s coating is both saline and sugary, and onto the fi ngerboard, causing its superhet reception veers from fi nely-tuned to aleatoric a hard percussive noise. at the twist of a dial. chromatic derived from the Greek work for colour (chromos) the chromatic scale ascends in half-steps (that is, all the black and white notes on a piano). modal authentic modal scales can be recreated by playing the white notes on a piano in an 8-note ascending scale, with a starting point of D, E, F or G (the difference relating not to the starting point but to the different combination of major and minor intervals as the scale ascends). Modal scales form the basis of much early music (ecclesiastical plainchant in particular) and have achieved new prominence in 20th-century composition and in jazz (exemplifi ed by many of the compositions and improvisations on Miles Davis’ classic album Kind of Blue). pentatonic from the Greek for “fi ve” (pente), a scale often found in folk music which uses only fi ve notes, and which can be represented by playing only the black notes on a piano (starting on F sharp) or by a rendition of Auld lang syne. aleatoric music that is essentially unpredictable as it is composed or performed by chance (from the Greek, alea = dice).

AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA 9 SCHUBERT Symphony No. 8 in B minor, D759, “Unfi nished” (Composed 1822)

Allegro moderato Andante con moto

Schubert was fourteen years old when he fi rst attempted to write a symphony. Th at early experiment totalled thirty bars and comprised only a slow introduction followed by a sprightly opening theme, the latter closely resembling the fi rst subject of Beethoven’s Symphony No.2.

Eleven years later, in October 1822, when Schubert began work on his B-minor Symphony, he clearly intended to fi nish the work. Th at said, this was by now the eleventh time that Schubert had set out to compose a symphony, and with only six completed symphonies to his name, (b. , 1797 — d. Vienna, one might conclude that the odds of Schubert fi nishing 1828) the B-minor were 6/4 at best. In the event, a Viennese

Schubert transformed our bookmaker would have breathed a sigh of relief when understanding of the art song, only the fi rst two movements were copied out in full but in life he was considered score – although the third movement (a Scherzo and largely a domestic composer; Trio) survives in a near-complete piano sketch. Why did indeed, he was a master of Schubert stop when he did? Martin Chusid has suggested all forms of . His fame increased after his that the similarity of the Trio’s theme to that of the Trio in premature death, however, Beethoven’s Second Symphony (again, Beethoven No.2) and he is now one of the most caused Schubert to doubt his powers of invention. As it highly-regarded . was, the “Unfi nished” had to wait until 17 December 1865 before being heard in a public (and, by then, distinctly posthumous) performance. Given the musical signifi cance of the two surviving movements, few would now suggest that the work should not be performed because it is incomplete. Indeed, there is something poignant about a piece that so obviously ends prematurely – with a slow movement and in a diff erent key to the one in which the work began – given that Schubert died at so young an age.

Schubert’s symphonies did not excite the same interest in Vienna as did his other music. Salieri, for instance, famously declared Schubert a genius (“he can write anything: songs, masses, string quartets”), without making reference to Schubert’s facility as an orchestral composer. Indeed, no Schubert symphony was published before the “Unfi nished” (as it was by then dubbed) in 1867, by which time Schubert had been dead for approaching forty years. Th is now strikes us as extraordinary and short-sighted. Th e elegance of the Th ird Symphony, the memorability of the

10 AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA Schubert made a stylistic leap that was as groundbreaking as that between Beethoven’s Second Posthumous engraving of Schubert from a lithograph by J. Kriebuber, 1846 and Third (“Eroica”) Symphonies. tuneful Fifth, and the unorthodox nature of the “Tragic” Sixth Symphony would, on their own, be enough to guarantee Schubert a signifi cant mention in any discussion of the symphony. But with the Eighth Symphony, Schubert made a stylistic leap that was as groundbreaking as that between Beethoven’s Second and Th ird (“Eroica”) Symphonies. Maybe he was disappointed when his imagination turned the clock back two decades for his inspiration for the third movement. So Schubert shelved the project, in the hope that his creative genius would resurface. In the event, when the symphonic muse did reappear, it spawned the monumental Ninth Symphony (the “Great” C major), at which point No.8 was destined to remain the truncated essay that we know today.

Th e fi rst movement of the “Unfi nished” opens with the fi rst subject played by the lowest strings; on fi rst hearing this might be mistaken for a slow introduction. Yet this dark thread is fundamental to the unfolding of the sonata-form narrative. Th e chilling material that immediately follows – sinister scrubbing overlaid with a haunting woodwind melody – is so dramatically arresting (Tchaikovsky’s darkest ballet music is no more unsettling) that it is diffi cult to hear it as a secondary theme. Th e second subject (in G major) is much more self- contained and carefree. Th e cellos pass the theme to the

AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA 11 violins, but the theme is interrupted before its fi nal note; the uncomfortable silence that follows is shattered by a powerfully threatening harmony that burgeons, with truly symphonic power, to a passage that fractures the second subject and passes it between the upper and lower strings. Th e mood for the turbulent development section and unconventional recapitulation is set. Th is is a Romantic symphony in both mood and style. Pre-echoes of Sibelius’s bleak landscape and Dvořák’s pastoral soundscape rub shoulders with Beethovenian portent. Because this symphony is so well known to modern audiences, it is easy to forget how original it was for its time, and what a giant step Schubert took with its composition.

Th e scoring of the opening of the symphony’s second movement is soporifi cally comforting – horns and bassoons overlay a descending plucked fi gure played by the double basses (without cellos). For all Schubert’s artistry and passion, he was also a pragmatist. Th e lowest note on the double bass of Schubert’s orchestra was an Further Reading and E, and that dictates the range of this cavernous seven- Listening note fi gure, and hence the key of the whole movement (E major is not the most obvious choice of key for the slow The best overviews of 19th- movement of a B-minor symphony). What happens next century composition (which was, to an extent, bookended is concisely expressed by the pianist Alfred Brendel: “In his by Schubert and Brahms) are larger forms, Schubert is a wanderer. He likes to move at Jim Samson’s measured and the edge of the precipice, and does so with the assurance encyclopaedic The Cambridge of a sleepwalker. To wander is the Romantic condition; History of Nineteenth-Century one yields to it enraptured, or is driven and plagued by the Music (Cambridge UP, 2001) and Richard Taruskin’s more terror of fi nding no escape. More often than not, happiness idiosyncratic Music in the is but the surface of despair.” Nineteenth Century (Oxford UP, 2009). Schubert’s Robert Schumann’s assertion that “in every child there “Unfi nished” is dealt with in is a wondrous depth” is nowhere more true than in broad brush-strokes in D. Kern this symphony. Schubert’s naiveté engenders profound Holoman’s The Nineteenth- utterance. To be sure, the slow movement is conciliatory, Century Symphony (Schirmer, but in a disturbing way. Schubert sleepwalks his way 1997) and in more detailed fashion in Brian Newbould’s backwards to Mozart and forwards to Brahms. Th e Schubert and the Symphony: woodwind melodies are peculiarly remarkable – poised a new perspective (Toccata and admirably concise – and the orchestra’s dynamic range Press, 1992). Among the many (from pianississimo to fortissimo) is wider than in any of available recordings of the Schubert’s previous symphonic movements. Inevitably we “Unfi nished” is one which features Brian Newbould’s feel disappointment that the B-minor Symphony remained completion of the work. unfi nished, but there is a superfi cial serenity at the end of Whatever your opinion of the slow movement that makes this curtailed symphonic that, it’s still a tremendous ending emotionally bearable, if only just. performance, with Sir Charles Mackerras the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (Virgin Veritas 5618062).

12 AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA BRAHMS Symphony No.1 in C minor, Op.68 (Composed 1876) Un poco sostenuto – Allegro Andante sostenuto Un poco Allegretto e grazioso Adagio – Più Andante – Allegro non troppo, ma con brio

What is worth waiting twenty years for? Th e love of one’s life? Emotional security? Or the completion of one’s fi rst symphony? Brahms achieved the last of these, if neither of the former.

Th e 19th century lionised Beethoven – Beethoven’s Johannes Brahms oeuvre set the agenda for a century of Austro-German musical supremacy. Specifi cally, the legacy of Beethoven’s (b. Hamburg, 1833 — d. Vienna, 1897) nine symphonies ensured that Brahms’s fi rst symphonic utterance took two decades to write. Th e oft-repeated One of the great Romantics, description of Brahms’s First Symphony as Beethoven’s Brahms wrote masterpieces Tenth is harsh but, to some extent, fair. Musical life in in every form of composition Germany changed radically in the 1830s. Th e requirement except opera. He was a of audiences to hear new symphonies was replaced by dedicated student of earlier a desire to formulate a symphonic canon, and thereby music, but was a true innovator as well as a nostalgist, and he to ascribe greatness to a small corpus of putative proved highly infl uential well masterpieces. Upon Beethoven’s death, the number of into the 20th century. newly-composed symphonies decreased dramatically. In 1863, an anonymous German critic asked “Has the symphony made ‘progress’ since Beethoven? Has the formal aspect of this genre been expanded? Has the content been made greater, more signifi cant in the sense that we can say Beethoven did in relation to Mozart? All things considered – including everything subjectively new and therefore epoch-making that Schubert, Mendelssohn and Schumann have created – the answer to this question is no.” With the benefi t of hindsight, what was most remarkable about Brahms’s First Symphony was not its long incubation, but the very fact that it was written at all.

Brahms was a lover of the past. His adoration of 16th- century polyphony, of the music of Bach, and of the artistic creations of his 19th-century predecessors was second to none. Consequently, Brahms was branded a musical conservative. Th at term is often misunderstood. Empathy with (and profound understanding of) the past may indeed warrant the label conservatism, but that moniker should neither imply paucity of imagination nor lack of invention.

14 AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA True, there is an antique fl avour to much of Brahms’s Symphony No.1 – the grandiloquent Beethovenian tune of the last movement and the monumental quasi-chorale fragment that prefaces the symphony’s ending are clearly audible examples. But equally, the authoritative, technically assured and aurally arresting opening of the symphony places the work fi rmly at the gateway to the last quarter of the 19th century. As Bayreuth witnessed the 1876 premiere of Wagner’s Ring Cycle – the work with which Wagner attempted to prove that music-drama was the legitimate successor to the choral fi nale of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony – Brahms fi nished his First Symphony and presented it as purely instrumental competition.

Th e opening of the symphony’s fi rst movement is grave and fecund. Everything grows from this potent start, with its rising chromatic line (the “fate motif”) carved by violins and cellos over a three-octave range, while the chromatic see page 9. woodwinds simultaneously descend and the kettledrum pizzicato played with plucked hammers out its insistent rhythm. If ever a composer (rather than bowed) strings. wished to broadcast the revitalisation of a decadent arpeggiation refers to the musical form, then this would be the way. Th e symphony playing of a chord not as a solid lives, and its thoroughly orchestral nature and narrative block of notes but one after the power is unquestionable. Th e introduction progresses other, in a moving line up and via quietly intrusive pizzicato moments and placatory down the notes of the chord (the Italian word arpeggiare swelling phrases, and culminates in an elastic oboe tune means “to play on a harp”). which heralds the end of the introduction. Th e energetic coda (literally ‘tail’) the fi rst subject is announced by a hammer-blow drum beat passage at the end of a and an impatient statement of the fate theme; thereafter, movement. It can be very short the argument oscillates between wide arpeggiations or extremely drawn-out. and unrelenting chromatic fi gures. Th e second subject, even though it is in the relative major, provides little release of tension since it, too, is another incarnation of the fate theme, albeit clothed in lush and verdant orchestration. A stormy end to the exposition heralds the cloudy development section, although there is sunshine of a sort when a new, hymn-like fi gure bursts through the dark skies, thereby providing momentary relief from the aggressive forward momentum. Th e transition from development to recapitulation is so invisibly sewn that (for all its regularity) the recapitulation merely serves to heighten the dramatic tension. Similarly, the coda grows logically out of the preceding material, although the major-key ending does, at last, provide a mollifying end to this genuinely tragic movement.

After the premiere of the First Symphony, Brahms was criticised for the brevity of its two inner movements. While it is true that, taken together, they are roughly the same length as each of the outer movements, they are

AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA 15 in no way insubstantial. Th e second movement begins in a distant key (E major) with apparent appeasement, but within seconds the fate motif makes an appearance. Th e oboe again makes its sinuous presence felt, and is joined at one point by a duplicitous clarinet whose unique contribution supplies the most quietly disconcerting coda see page 15. few bars of the whole symphony – the archetypal wolf in sheep’s clothing. Th e pastoral undercurrent of this Andante is never allowed to dominate; the writing is too urbane for that. But the introduction of a solo violin towards the end of the movement brings some romantic glamour to Brahms’s dark mood.

A Brahms symphony by a Th e clarinet opens the third movement (in the further “chamber” orchestra? distant key of A-fl at major) in a much more candid Brahms lived in a time when manner than on its previous appearance, with a ravishingly orchestral forces were undulating melody that leads to a gently danced section for rapidly changing and were the orchestra, dominated by fl utes. But the clarinet – once not uniformly the same. again in disruptive garb – quickly leads the music into a The orchestra of the Leipzig Gewandhaus, for example, short passage of Eastern burlesque. Th e music grows to a had about 50 players in the climax, underlined by resolute brass timbres, and it falls to 1840s but the number had the clarinet to reintroduce the opening theme, this time in risen to 98 by 1890. Yet in the middle of the texture rather than at the top. Eventually, 1864 the Düsseldorf orchestra the short coda takes the music to a pulsating celestial numbered just 34, and the Meiningen orchestra in 1884 close, yet this brief moment of repose is destined to be had 48 players (while the shattered by the opening of the fi nal movement back in the Vienna Philharmonic at the symphony’s home key of C minor. same period had 90). So, while Brahms was writing the Th e start of the fourth movement is the defi ning moment First Symphony, there was no of the symphony. In the words of Donald Tovey, Brahms consensus on the subject of here composed “the most dramatic introduction that has what actually constituted a been heard since that to the fi nale of Beethoven’s Ninth symphony orchestra. Symphony… he brings all the future materials forth in The premiere of the First a magnifi cent cloudy procession.” Th e skies eventually Symphony was by the Karlsrühe orchestra of only 49 players clear, C major is established, a horn call alerts us to the (with string numbers of 9 fi rst signifi cance of what is to come, a brass chorale reminds violins, 9 second violins, 4 us of the almost ecclesiastical devotion that Brahms felt violas, 4 cellos and 4 double towards his calling as a symphonist, and the ground is basses) — actually fewer than prepared for one of the greatest and most memorable the number of musicians on tunes in the history of the symphony. Th is broad and stage with the ACO for this performance. (By contrast, in majestic song is clearly inspired by Beethoven. Indeed, 1878 Brahms conducted his when it was suggested to Brahms that Beethoven Second Symphony with string was the model for this grand gesture, Brahms testily numbers of 25–22–16-14–10!) responded, “Any ass can see that!” Indeed, any ass can see the historical progression – from Beethoven through Schubert, Mendelssohn, and Schumann – that led to the composition of this 19th-century masterpiece. It is wholly Germanic, wholly Romantic and, ultimately, wholly Brahmsian. Historically-aware yet innovative; tragic yet redemptive. Again, in the words of Tovey, “It is the special

16 AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA Further Reading and privilege of the classical forms of instrumental music Listening that they can thus bring within the compass of a single David Brodbeck’s chapter on work something more than a tragedy; a work that ends Brahms in D. Kern Holoman’s The in triumph, not because the world has been stopped in Nineteenth-Century Symphony its course in order to spare our feelings, but because our (Schirmer, 1997) is a good feelings are carried through and beyond the tragedy to starting point for thinking about something higher.” this symphony. If that goes not far enough, Brodbeck expanded his thoughts in Brahms: Symphony No.1 (Cambridge PROGRAM NOTES BY JEREMY SUMMERLY © 2010 UP, 1997). Two recent, radically different, live recordings of Jeremy Summerly is a conductor and broadcaster, and the Brahms No.1 capture some Sterndale Bennett Lecturer in Music at the Royal Academy of extraordinary music-making on Music, London. disc: John Eliot Gardiner and the Orchestra Révolutionnaire et Romantique on instruments of Brahms’ time (Soli Deo Gloria SDG702) and Vladimir Jurowski and the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s magisterial reading (LPO Live LPO0043). Interestingly, both these recordings are of live performances in London’s Royal Festival Hall (in 2007 and 2008 respectively).

AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA 17 THE ART OF BOWMAKING

Everyone has heard of Stradivari violins and most Australians have heard of Guarneri because of the violin Richard Tognetti plays. We also know about their stratospheric price tags. Th ere are scores of old Italian makers whose instruments beg upwards of half a million dollars. When you buy one of these houses that you place under your chin and string with the gut of a sheep, they come with a bow. Right? Wrong!

Th e bow is a completely separate entity; made by a completely separate person. Generally, violinmakers don’t make bows, and bowmakers don’t make violins. Th e violin world has Stradivari, Guarneri and others – mostly Italian; the bow world has Tourte, Peccatte, Pajeot and others – mostly French.

In the latter half of the 18th century, Francois Xavier Tourte created the modern bow, which to this day is basically unchanged. Th e frog, which holds the hair at the hand end, is made most commonly of ebony, sometimes of ivory, and in the past, sometimes of tortoise shell. Th ere is a gold or silver and ebony adjuster to tighten the horsehair along the length of the stick. Th e stick itself (such an ignominious word for such an important tool) is made of Pernambuco or Pau-Brasil (Caesalpinia ACO Principal Cellist echinata). Timo-Viekko Valve’s Pernambuco cello bow made by Michael Maurushat.

18 AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA Pernambuco is a coastal hardwood that grows in Brazil. In fact, Brazil was named for this wood – not the other way around. Tourte had access to Pernambuco because it was imported into France as a textile dye – though the wood is orange in colour, it produces a rich violet/purple. With the advent of aniline dyes in the mid 19th century the only people left interested in the trees were archetiers, or bowmakers. So why is it listed by CITES (Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species) as illegal to trade?

Pernambuco is endangered not because archetiers are ransacking Brazil and pillaging the forest, but because of its unfortunate predilection for coastal locations. It has been decimated to provide pasture for cattle and razed to make way for coastal highway systems.

Bowmakers around the world have organised to save The violin world has Pernambuco through IPCI (International Pernambuco Conservation Initiative). Th ere are plantations as well Stradivari, Guarneri and as contracts with cacao growers, as cacao plants require others… the bow world shade and the Pernambuco tree provides that shade. Th is has Tourte, Peccatte, is not going to be an immediate solution: Pernambuco Pajeot… trees must be at least 30 years of age before providing usable wood. So we’re left to wait and see. Hopefully the usable stocks of Pernambuco in the hands of modern day archetiers don’t run out before the newly planted trees can provide a new generation of bows. Otherwise we could see the necessity of generous benefactors providing bows as well as instruments.

For further reading visit russrymer.com or ipci-usa.org.

MICHAEL MAURASHAT

Bowmaker Michael Maurashat made Timo-Veikko Valve’s new bow and visits the ACO’s rehearsal studio weekly to maintain the ACO’s bows. Michael will explain more about the art of bowmaking in future programs.

AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA 19 AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA RICHARD TOGNETTI AO ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

“You’d have to scour the Australia’s national orchestra is a product of its country’s universe hard to fi nd vibrant, adventurous and enquiring spirit. In performances another band like the ACO.” around Australia, around the world and on many recordings, THE TIMES, UK the ACO moves hearts and stimulates minds with repertoire spanning four centuries and a vitality and energy unmatched “The energy and vibe by other ensembles. of a rock band with the Th e ACO was founded in 1975. Every year, this ensemble ability of a crack classical presents performances of the highest standard to audiences chamber group.” around the world, including 10,000 subscribers across Australia. WASHINGTON POST Th e ACO’s unique artistic style encompasses not only the masterworks of the classical repertoire, but innovative cross- artform projects and a vigorous commissioning program. Under Richard Tognetti’s inspiring leadership, the ACO has performed as a fl exible and versatile ‘ensemble of soloists’, on modern and period instruments, as a small chamber group, a Select Discography small symphony orchestra, and as an electro-acoustic collective. In a nod to past traditions, only the cellists are seated – the Bach Violin Concertos ABC 476 5691 resulting sense of energy and individuality is one of the most Vivaldi Flute Concertos commented-upon elements of an ACO concert experience. with EMI 3 47212 2 Several of the ACO’s principal musicians perform with Bach Keyboard Concertos spectacularly fi ne instruments. Tognetti performs on a with priceless 1743 Guarneri del Gesù, on loan to him from an Hyperion SACDA 67307/08 anonymous Australian benefactor. Principal Cello Timo- Tango Jam Veikko Valve plays on a 1729 Giuseppe Guarneri Filius with James Crabb Mulberry Hill MHR C001 Andreae cello, also on loan from an anonymous benefactor, Song of the Angel and Assistant Leader Satu Vänskä plays a 1759 J.B. Guadagnini Music of Astor Piazzolla violin on loan from the Commonwealth Bank Group. with James Crabb Chandos Chan 10163 Forty international tours have drawn outstanding reviews at Sculthorpe: works for string many of the world’s most prestigious concert halls, including orchestra including Irkanda I, Djilile ’s , London’s Wigmore Hall, New and Cello Dreaming Chandos Chan 10063 York’s Carnegie Hall and Vienna’s Musikverein. Giuliani Guitar Concerto Th e ACO has made acclaimed recordings for labels including with John Williams ABC Classics, Sony, Channel Classics, Hyperion, EMI, Sony SK 63385 Chandos and Orfeo and currently has a recording contract These and more ACO recordings with BIS. A full list of available recordings can be found at are available from our online shop: aco.com.au/shop or by calling aco.com.au/shop. Highlights include the three-time ARIA 1800 444 444. Award-winning Bach recordings and Vivaldi Concertos with Emmanuel Pahud. Th e ACO appears in the television series Classical Destinations II and the award-winning fi lm Musica Surfi ca, both available on DVD and CD.

To be kept up to date with ACO In 2005, the ACO inaugurated an ambitious national education tours and recordings, register program, which includes outreach activities and mentoring for the free e-newsletter at of outstanding young musicians, including the formation of aco.com.au. ACO2, an elite training orchestra which tours regional centres.

20 AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA RICHARD TOGNETTI AO ARTISTIC DIRECTOR AND LEADER AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA

Australian violinist and conductor Richard Tognetti has established an international reputation for his compelling performances and artistic individualism. He studied at the Sydney Conservatorium with Alice Waten and in his home town of with , and at the Bern Conservatory (Switzerland) with , where he was awarded the Tschumi Prize as the top graduate soloist in 1989. Later that year he led several performances of the ACO, and was appointed Leader. He was subsequently appointed Artistic Director of the Orchestra. Tognetti performs on period, modern and electric instruments. His numerous arrangements, compositions and transcriptions have expanded the chamber orchestra ‘Richard Tognetti is one repertoire and have been performed throughout the world. of the most characterful, Highlights of his career as director, soloist or chamber incisive and impassioned music partner include the Sydney Festival (as conductor of violinists to be heard today.’ Mozart’s Mitridate); and appearances with the Handel & THE DAILY TELEGRAPH (UK) Haydn Society (Boston), Philharmonic, Camerata 2006 Salzburg, Tapiola Sinfonietta, Irish Chamber Orchestra and the Nordic Chamber Orchestra. He is Artistic Director of the Maribor Festival in Slovenia. As soloist Richard Tognetti has appeared with the ACO and the major Australian symphonies, including Select Discography premiere of Ligeti’s Violin Concerto with the Sydney Symphony. As soloist: He has collaborated with colleagues from various art forms, BACH Sonatas for Violin and including Joseph Tawadros, Dawn Upshaw, James Crabb, Keyboard Emmanuel Pahud, Neil Finn, Tim Freedman, Paul Capsis, Bill ABC Classics 476 5942 2008 ARIA Award Winner Henson and . In 2003, Richard was co-composer BACH Violin Concertos of the score for ’s Master and Commander: Th e Far ABC Classics 476 5691 Side of the World; violin tutor for its star, Russell Crowe; and 2007 ARIA Award Winner can be heard performing on the award-winning soundtrack. BACH Solo Violin Sonatas and In 2005, with Michael Yezerski, he co-composed the soundtrack Partitas to Tom Carroll’s surf fi lm Horrorscopes and, in 2008, created ABC Classics 476 8051 2006 ARIA Award Winner Th e Red Tree. (All three releases available as Richard Tognetti co-created and starred in the 2008 documentary a 5CD Box set: fi lm Musica Surfi ca, which has won best fi lm awards at surf ABC Classics 476 6168) fi lm festivals in the USA, Brazil, France and South Africa. Musica Surfi ca (DVD) Best Feature, New York Surf Film Alongside numerous recordings with the ACO, Richard Festival Tognetti has recorded Bach’s solo violin repertoire, winning As director: three consecutive ARIA Awards for Best Classical Album VIVALDI Flute Concertos, Op.10 (2006–8) and the Dvoˇrák Violin Concerto. Emmanuel Pahud, Flute EMI Classics 0946 3 47212 2 6 Richard Tognetti holds honorary doctorates from three Australian Grammy Nominee universities and, was made a National Living Treasure in 1999 PIAZZOLLA Song of the Angel and in 2010 was awarded an Order of Australia. He performs Chandos CHAN 10163 on a 1743 Guarneri del Gesù, made available exclusively to All available from aco.com.au/shop. him by an anonymous Australian private benefactor.

AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA 21 MUSICIANS Photos: Tanja Ahola, Helen White

RICHARD TOGNETTI AO SATU VÄNSKÄ* MADELEINE BOUD ALICE EVANS Artistic Director and Lead Violin Assistant Leader Violin Violin Chair sponsored by Michael Ball AM Violin Chair sponsored by Terry Chair sponsored by Jan Bowen, & Daria Ball, Joan Clemenger, Wendy Chair sponsored by Robert & Campbell AO & Christine Campbell Jo McKenzie & Scott Davies, and Edwards, and Prudence MacLeod Kay Bryan Th e Sandgropers

AIKO GOTO MARK INGWERSEN ILYA ISAKOVICH CHRISTOPHER MOORE Violin Violin Violin Principal Viola Chair sponsored by Andrew & Chair sponsored by Runge Chair sponsored by Melbourne Chair sponsored by Tony Shepherd Hiroko Gwinnett Community Foundation – Connie & Craig Kimberley Fund

NICOLE DIVALL STEPHEN KING TIMOVEIKKO VALVE MELISSA BARNARD Viola Viola Principal Cello Cello Chair sponsored by Ian & Nina Chair sponsored by Philip Bacon AM Chair Sponsored by Mr Peter Chair sponsored by Th e Bruce & Lansdown Weiss AM Joy Reid Foundation

Players dressed by AKIRA ISOGAWA

JULIAN THOMPSON DANIEL YEADON MAXIME BIBEAU Cello Cello Principal Bass Chair sponsored by John Leece OAM Chair sponsored by John Taberner & Anne Leece & Grant Lang * Satu Vänskä plays a 1759 J.B. Guadagnini violin on loan from the Commonwealth Bank Group.

22 AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA MUSICIANS

MAGNUS JOHNSTON ALISSA SMITH ANDREW BARNES^^ BRETT PAGE*** Guest Principal 2nd Violin Viola Principal Bassoon Principal Bass ZOË BLACK MOLLY KADARAUCH ANTHONY GRIMM BRIAN NIXON Violin Cello Bassoon Principal Timpani

REBECCA CHAN EVE SILVER## BROCK IMISON** * Appears courtesy of Scottish Violin Cello Principal Contrabassoon Chamber Orchestra SARAH CURRO** ◊ ^ Appears courtesy of Sydney DAVID CAMPBELL^ LIN JIANG Symphony Violin Bass Principal Horn # Appears courtesy of Australia KATHERINE LUKEY STEPHEN NEWTON** ANTON SCHROEDER Ensemble Violin Bass Principal 3rd Horn ^^ Appears courtesy of Sydney Conservatorium of Music AIRENA NAKAMURA*** ALISON MITCHELL* RACHEL SILVER## ** Appears courtesy of Violin Principal Flute Horn Melbourne Symphony Orchestra HOLLY PICCOLI LAMORNA FRANKIE LO SURDO ## Appears courtesy of Violin NIGHTINGALE Horn West Australian KAREN SEGAL Flute DAVID ELTON## Symphony Orchestra ^^^ Appears courtesy of Violin Principal Trumpet SHEFALI PRYOR^ Orchestra Victoria YI WANG^^^ Principal Oboe GREGORY FLYNN≠ *** Appears courtesy of Violin HUW JONES Trumpet Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra Oboe CHARLOTTE SCOTT KINMONT^ ◊ Appears courtesy of BURBROOK DE VERE CATHERINE McCORKILL# Principal Trombone Malaysian Philharmonic Viola Principal Clarinet Orchestra NIGEL CROCKER ≠ Appears courtesy of ROSEMARY CURTIN MARGERY SMITH Trombone St Gallen Symphony Viola Clarinet Orchestra, Switzerland

C Expanding the orchestra for this program allows us the opportunity to invite A O2 alumni to join the ACO on tour. Th ese include Charlotte Burbrook de Vere, Stephen Newton, Holly Piccoli and Eve Silver, as well as Madeleine Boud (now a full-time member of the ACO) and Rebecca Chan (currently on trial for a full-time position with the Orchestra). Additionally, we acknowledge the following as alumni of the Australian National Academy of Music: Madeleine Boud, Rebecca Chan, Katherine Lukey, Holly Piccoli, Eve Silver and Stephen Newton. BEHIND THE SCENES BOARD Guido Belgiorno-Nettis AM Ken Allen AM Chris Froggatt Tony Shepherd (Chairman) Bill Best Janet Holmes à Court AC John Taberner Angus James Glen Boreham Brendan Hopkins Peter Yates (Deputy Chairman) Liz Cacciottolo MANAGEMENT EXECUTIVE OFFICE FINANCE Helen Margolis Sarah Conolan INFORMATION Timothy Calnin Steve Davidson Grants Program Education and SYSTEMS General Manager Chief Financial Offi cer Manager Operations Assistant Martin Keen Jessica Block Shyleja Paul Liz D’Olier Jennifer Collins Systems and Technology Deputy General Assistant Accountant Development Librarian Manager Manager and Coordinator Emmanuel Espinas Development Manager DEVELOPMENT MARKETING Network Infrastructure OPERATIONS Engineer Michelle Kerr Kate Bilson Georgia Rivers Executive Assistant to Events Manager Damien Low Marketing Manager Artistic Operations Mr Calnin and Tom Carrig Rosie Rothery ARCHIVES Manager Mr Tognetti AO Senior Development Marketing Executive John Harper Executive Gabriel van Aalst Chris Griffi th Archivist ARTISTIC Orchestra Manager Vanessa Jenkins Box Offi ce Manager Richard Tognetti AO Senior Development Erin McNamara Mary Stielow Artistic Director Executive Deputy Orchestra National Publicist Manager Michael Stevens Lillian Armitage Dean Watson Artistic Administrator Patrons Manager Vicki Stanley Customer Relations Education and Manager Emerging Olivia Artigas Artists Manager Offi ce Administrator and Marketing Assistant

AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA ABN 45 001 335 182 Australian Chamber Orchestra Pty Ltd is a not for profi t company registered in NSW. In Person: Opera Quays, 2 East Circular Quay, Sydney NSW 2000 By Mail: PO Box R21, Royal Exchange NSW 1225 Telephone: (02) 8274 3800 Facsimile: (02) 8274 3801 Box Offi ce: 1800 444 444 Email: [email protected] Website: aco.com.au

AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA 23 ACO PARTNERS

Th e ACO receives around 50% of its income from the box offi ce, 35% from the business community and private donors and less than 15% from government sources. Th e private sector plays a key role in the continued growth and artistic development of the Orchestra. We are proud of the relationships we have developed with each of our partners and would like to acknowledge their generous support.

FOUNDING PARTNER

NATIONAL TOUR PARTNERS

PRINCIPAL INNOVATION PARTNER

OFFICIAL PARTNERS

PERTH SERIES AND WA REGIONAL TOUR PARTNER

QLD/NSW REGIONAL TOUR PARTNER

CONCERT AND SERIES PARTNERS

GOVERNMENT SUPPORT ACCOMMODATION AND EVENT SUPPORT

Department of the Arts, Sport and Recreation

BILSON’S RESTAURANT BAR CUPOLA SWEENEY RESEARCH

AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA 33 STACCATO: ACO NEWS DONOR PROFILE: PETER WEISS AM Peter was brought up in a musical Sydney through his support for family and from childhood had a the ACO’s hugely popular Bach passion for playing the cello; he Inspired concerts, and made remembers boarding a ship to possible the ACO’s award winning London aged 21, cello under his recordings of all Bach’s repertoire arm, ready to “ravish the world”. His for solo violin. Peter also passion for musical performance has collaborated with Margaret Olley inspired his generosity towards the to sponsor the reprisal of Luminous, ACO, as a donor, ambassador and one of the most breathtaking loyal friend for over 20 years. concerts in the ACO’s history. In Peter has supported the ACO in so 2006, the ACO Board recognised many ways. From his past service Peter’s extraordinary contribution by on the ACO Board through to his concert honouring him as a Life Patron of the Orchestra. sponsorships, his most generous bequest and Peter says his philanthropy comes from “doing his patronage of our Principal Cello Timo- what something inside me leads me to do”. Veikko Valve’s Medici Chair, he has been and His visionary ideas have been a vital part of the continues to be a passionately dedicated Patron. ACO’s success and we are privileged to have He fostered music performance in churches in his support.

For more information about donating to the ACO, please phone Lillian Armitage on (02) 8274 3835 or email [email protected].

EDUCATION NEWS

Th e Emerging Artists have just completed their second Intensive Period of chamber music workshops and masterclasses. Th e focus was on spontaneity and the musicians worked on improvisation, ensemble playing C and balance. As part of A O2 they performed alongside ACO musicians in concerts for the Blue Mountains Concert Society in Springwood and in the House Music series at Sydney’s Government House. Th e next education event will be a tour to far north Queensland with a quartet of ACO musicians. Th is tour will include performances, Combined Schools Workshops and Schools Concerts in Bundaberg, Cairns and Rockhampton.

Top: Melissa Barnard (right) and Aiko Goto (front) rehearse with Emerging Artist Christopher Cartlidge. Bottom: Caroline Henbest (back left) works with Emerging Artists Michael Brooks-Reid (left) and Eleanor Betts (right).

34 AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA STACCATO: ACO EVENTS ANNUAL ACO CHAIRMAN’S COUNCIL AND MAJOR PATRONS COCKTAIL PARTIES

In March, the ACO hosted its annual Chairman’s to enjoy world-class chamber music in a private Council and Major Patrons Cocktail Parties in and relaxed setting. Sydney and Melbourne. Th e ACO hosts exclusive events of this nature On Wednesday 3 March, a warm Sydney evening to thank Chairman’s Council members, Medici played host to an intimate performance by an Patrons and lead International and Education ACO quartet, followed by drinks and canapés Patrons for their valued contribution to the at the stunning harbour-side home of David Orchestra. and Stephanie Murray. On Tuesday 30 March, Melbourne Chairman’s Council member Simon For more information on the ACO’s Chairman’s Holmes à Court and wife Katrina opened Council, please contact Tom Carrig on their beautiful home to the ACO’s Melbourne 02 8274 3810 or email [email protected]. Chairman’s Council and Major Patrons. For more information about donating to the ACO, Th e ACO’s annual Chairman’s Council and Major please phone Lillian Armitage on 02 8274 3835 Patrons Cocktail Parties are opportunities for or email [email protected]. Chairman’s Council members and Major Patrons

Below: Janet Holmes à Court AC and Satu Vänskä (Sydney).

Above: Katrina Holmes à Court, David McLeish, Peter Cresswell, Carolyn Cresswell and Sue McLeish (Melbourne).

Above: Christopher Moore, Simon Holmes à Court and Timo-Veikko Valve (Melbourne). Left: Michelle Belgiorno-Nettis with Rosie and John Grill (Sydney).

AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA 35