Angela Hewitt
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MUSICA VIVA TASMANIA in association with THE TASMANIAN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA presents — MVT.ORG.AU ANGELA HEWITT Saturday 13 May, 7.30 pm II Federation Concert Hall The Canadian pianist is one of the reliably mesmerising musicians of the day. You sit entranced. The Sunday Times (London) One of the world’s leading pianists, JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH — Angela Hewitt has delighted audiences in Partita no 1 in B-flat major, BWV 825 recitals and with major orchestras Duration 17 minutes throughout Europe, the Americas and Asia. Her ten-year project to record all the major JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH — keyboard works of Bach has been described Partita no 4 in D major, BWV 828 as ‘one of the record glories of our age’. Duration 26 minutes She was named Artist of the Year at the INTERVAL 2006 Gramophone Awards and Instrumentalist of the Year in the 2010 MIDEM Classical Awards. DOMENICO SCARLATTI — Sonatas (a selection) Duration 25 minutes MAURICE RAVEL — Sonatine Duration 11 minutes EMMANUEL CHABRIER — Bourrée fantasque Duration 7 minutes Welcome to the magnificent surrounds of Musica Viva Tasmania’s 2017 Season is Hobart’s Federation Concet Hall for the second an opportunity to experience chamber music in our season of seven intimate performances as it was designed to be heard. by the world’s most celebrated musicians. Program notes... JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685–1750) Partita no 1 in B-flat major, BWV825 (1726) Partita no 4 in D major, BWV828 (1728) It was during his early Leipzig years that Bach decided to publish a work for the first time. His ‘Opus 1’ (as he called it, even though he had already been composing for twenty years) was a set of six Partitas for keyboard, ‘offered to music lovers in order to refresh their spirits’. The first Partita in B flat major appeared alone in 1726, and one followed each year until the six were published together and put on sale at the 1731 Leipzig Fair. Although they were never reprinted during Bach’s lifetime, they were, according to the composer’s first biographer Forkel, a success: ‘This work made in its time a great noise in the musical world. Such excellent compositions for the clavier had not been seen and heard before.’ ‘Partita’ is another name for a suite of dance movements in the same key formed to make a satisfactory whole. Bach’s earlier French Suites are on a smaller scale than the Partitas and begin with the traditional Allemande. The English Suites, the first set of six suites he composed, occupy a middle ground between the two, opening with a concerto-like Prelude. The Partita No 1 in B flat is the most approachable of the six. It continues in the spirit of the French Suites, combining grace, agility, sprightliness, and nobility. The trill at the opening of the Praeludium is the first problem to solve, especially since it has to be played with equal precision later on by the left hand. This is a movement of beautiful proportions with a built-in crescendo at the end (Bach doubling the left hand in octaves). The themes of almost all the subsequent dance movements are grouped around a broken B flat major chord: the Allemande with its unbroken line of semiquavers, the Corrente with triplets, the first Menuet in quavers. The Sarabande unfolds with great dignity and calm despite Bach’s florid melody and trills. To finish, Bach wrote what has surely become one of his ‘greatest hits’: the brilliance of the hand-crossing in the Giga, once mastered, is exciting to both player and audience alike. The Partita No 4 in D major contains both intimacy and grandeur in abundance and, with the sixth Partita, is the longest of the set. MUSICA VIVA TASMANIA 2017 The French Ouverture immediately captures our Kirkpatrick was convinced that many of the sonatas attention with its flourishes, trills and double-dotting. were meant to be paired. I tried making sense Orchestral in nature, it moves on to a fugal section in of this, but often found that one sonata in a pair concerto style that is nevertheless wonderfully dance- was not nearly as interesting as the next and rather like. One of my favourite moments in all of the diminished the effect. Instead I have arranged them Partitas is the D major Allemande with its long singing in groups that make a satisfying whole when phrases and beguiling intimacy. A calm but flowing performed in concert. tempo is needed for the ear to follow the harmonic progressions under the florid melody. After a joyful, MAURICE RAVEL (1875–1937) rhythmically inventive Courante, Bach does the unusual and inserts an Aria before the Sarabande. Sonatine (1903–1905) For me this is a perfect way to prolong the lively I Modéré mood established by the Courante before returning II Mouvement de menuet to intimate feelings with the Sarabande. The opening III Animé motif of this movement, with its ascending flourish, seems to ask a question – which is then answered Ravel’s Sonatine was published in 1905. As it was in the following two bars. The delicate, two-part within his pianistic grasp, the composer played it counterpoint roams about, again like the Allemande frequently on his foreign tours. The diminutive in long, poignant phrases. A brief Menuet, deftly ‘sonatine’ implies a composition reduced in length combining duple and triple rhythms, is followed but not in technical difficulty or expressive content. by a Gigue sharing Bach’s infectious vigour and The piece is noted for its unity of form; the opening zest for life. descending fourth in the first movement reappears in the other movements, as does the initial theme. – The second movement, Mouvement de menuet, DOMENICO SCARLATTI (1685 1757) should neither drag nor hurry; Ravel didn’t want it to Sonata in D major, K491 sound commonplace. The third movement is brilliant Sonata in D major, K492 yet lyrical, giving the opportunity to produce some Sonata in B major, K377 magical sonorities. Sonata in E major K380 EMMANUEL CHABRIER (1841–1894) Sonata in A major, K24 Bourrée fantasque (1891) The keyboard sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti are unique in the history of music. The sheer volume of The Bourrée fantasque is Chabrier’s final work for the them, some 555 in all, is astounding. Largely piano and his most celebrated. It was composed in composed after Scarlatti had reached fifty, most are 1891, following a journey Chabrier made to his native in binary form—two sections, both repeated. It seems Auvergne, the traditional dance of which is the they were intended solely for Scarlatti’s gifted pupil, Bourrée. Chabrier dedicated the work to the eighteen- patron and friend: Princess Maria Barbara of Portugal, year-old pianist Édouard Risler, warning him that each who became Queen of Spain. None exists in the note presented a particular difficulty to be overcome, composer’s hand; they have all been passed and that he had counted 113 different sonorities in down to us thanks to the famous castrato Farinelli, the piece! The first part consists almost entirely of who brought them back to Italy from Spain in motifs of repeated notes (similar to the Andalusian manuscript copies. zapateado) interspersed with tiny ascending phrases played staccato. Once again we encounter Chabrier’s Only the first thirty sonatas, as numbered in the penchant for staccato playing, which gives a Kirkpatrick catalogue, were published during percussive and modern character to his works. Scarlatti’s lifetime. At the end of the preface to these The second section is more lyrical and expressive, ‘Esercizi per il gravicembalo’, presumably written by with sporadic violent episodes and repeats of the the composer, appear words which set the stage for initial zapateado. The end is a veritable firework this music so full of life: ‘Vivi felice’ (‘Live happily’). display in sound. The first complete edition appeared in 1906 published by Ricordi and edited by Longo. The above program notes are extracts from Angela Hewitt’s notes for her recordings for Hyperion Records. Our next concert [Valve’s] tone was so stunningly beautiful that a single note emanating from his instrument communicated more than others can express in a lifetime. Chicago Classical Music [The Flinders Quartet’s] shading, rhythmic pliability and tautness of ensemble are impeccable. Limelight Magazine MUSIC VIVA TASMANIA PARTNERS FLINDERS QUARTET WITH TIMO-VEIKKO VALVE Thursday 15 June, 8.00 pm Hobart Town Hall PRESENTED IN ASSOCIATION WITH PETER SCULTHORPE — String quartet no 18 LUIGI BOCCHERINI — String quintet in D major, Fandango FRANZ SCHUBERT — TSO PRINCIPAL PARTNER String quintet in C major, D 956 This superb concert brings together one of the world’s leading cellists and Australia’s best-loved chamber music ensemble. Now in its second decade, the Flinders Quartet is in great demand for festivals throughout Australia and TSO GOVERNMENT SUPPORT is a warm favourite among Musica Viva audiences. Timo-Veikko ‘Tipi’ Valve is one of the most versatile musicians of his generation. In 2006, he was appointed Principal Cello of the Australian Chamber The Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra is assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body, and through Arts Orchestra, and he curates the ACO’s chamber Tasmania by the Minister for the Arts, and the Tasmanian Icon Program. music series in Sydney. MUSICA VIVA AUSTRALIA COUNTRYWIDE PARTNERS.