RACHMANINOV PIANO CONCERTOS 3&4

WINE PARTNER

Saturday

15 July 7.30pm HOBART SPECIAL 3 Federation Concert Hall Hobart

Alexander Shelley conductor RACHMANINOV Howard Shelley piano Piano Concerto No 4 DEBUSSY Allegro vivace Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune Largo Duration 10 mins Allegro vivace Duration 24 mins RACHMANINOV Piano Concerto No 3 This concert will end at approximately Allegro ma non tanto 9.30pm. Intermezzo (Adagio) – Finale (Alla breve) Duration 39 mins

INTERVAL Duration 20 mins

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5580 TSO Fine Drop Ad for Program 2015.indd 3 17/07/2015 9:47 am Claude Debussy (1862-1918)

Prélude à ‘L’aprés-midi d’un faune’ equally ambiguous interval of the tritone: like the material elsewhere in the work that Published in 1876, Stéphane Mallarmé’s is derived from the whole-tone scale, it is in eclogue L’après-midi d’un faune is a no clearly discernible key, as is shown by the monument of Symbolist poetry, reflecting in varied ways in which it is harmonised on its its sumptuous but fragmentary language the subsequent reappearances. The second half erotic fantasies of a drowsy faun – a mythical Alexander Shelley Howard Shelley of the melody provides more “conventional” half-man, half-goat – on a hot, languid motifs that are taken up from time to time by Sicilian afternoon. Running like a thread the rest of the orchestra. Alexander Shelley is currently Music Since winning the premier prize at the Royal through the imagery of fruit and flowers and naked nymphs are references to music, Mallarmé’s poem rhymes, but otherwise Director of the National Arts Centre College of Music at the end of his first specifically to the syrinx. This instrument, avoids traditional forms or a narrative line; Orchestra, Ottawa (NACO). He has year, giving his recital debut in 1971 and the “pan-pipes”, was fashioned by the god similarly, Debussy’s piece avoids the goal- been Principal Associate Conductor of making a televised Prom appearance the Pan from reeds into which a young nymph, directed development and tonal architecture the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra since same season with the London Symphony desperate to escape his amorous attentions, that informs 19th-century symphonism. As January 2015 and Chief Conductor of the Orchestra, Howard Shelley has enjoyed had been transformed. Pierre Boulez puts it, “What was overthrown Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra. The son was not so much the art of development One such reference to the syrinx’s “sonorous, a distinguished career, regularly touring as the very concept of form itself.” Musical of celebrated concert pianists, Howard airy, monotonous line” would become on all continents including annual trips to events, like the vivid splashes of colour Shelley and Hilary Macnamara, he first the kernel of Debussy’s musical rendering Australia over many decades. As pianist that first answer the flute, are there for the gained attention when he won the 2005 of the poem. (Debussy hated hearing his immediate pleasure they give; climaxes are Leeds Conductors Competition. Since then Howard Shelley has performed with leading music described as “what imbeciles call approached by simple repetition of motifs; he has conducted orchestras around the orchestras and conductors. In 1983 he gave Impressionism” and preferred his work to the most extended melody is a richly scored, be compared to Symbolist poetry.) Inviting work. Recent appearances have included a unique series of five London recitals, Massenet-like tune at the work’s midpoint, Mallarmé to hear the work in 1894, he the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, RTÉ broadcast by the BBC, of Rachmaninov’s accompanied by layered, rocking ostinatos. National Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie- described “the arabesque which…I believe complete solo piano music. Since his to have been dictated by the flute of The faun’s dream is overcome by sleep and orchester Berlin, Bournemouth Symphony conducting debut with the LSO in 1985, your faun”. the “proud silence of noon”, and the piece Orchestra, and a tour with Germany’s ends with flutes, muted horns and the glitter Shelley has conducted all four London In fact the work’s genesis was in a proposal National Youth Orchestra. Operas he has of harp and antique cymbals, fading to symphony orchestras, the Royal Scottish by Mallarmé to present a staged version led include The Merry Widow, Roméo nothingness. National Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra, the of his poem at an avant-garde theatre in et Juliette, La bohème, Iolanta, Così fan RTÉ National Symphony and BBC National 1891. By now he knew and admired some Gordon Kerry © 2017 tutte and The Marriage of Figaro. Among of Debussy’s vocal music, and went so far Symphony of Wales as well as the Hong his recordings is Peter and the Wolf in as to announce in the newspaper that the The Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra first Hollywood, an example of Deutsche Kong Philharmonic, Filarmonica de la performed this work with conductor Thomas staged version would include music by the Matthews in Hobart on 15 February 1962 and, Grammophon’s new interactive digital Ciudad de Mexico, Munich Symphony, young composer “M de Bussy”. The project most recently, with Marko Letonja in Hobart on story-telling, recorded with Alice Cooper St Gallen Symphony, Seattle Symphony, fell through, but Debussy’s imagination 30 November 2013. and the German National Youth Orchestra. Naples Philharmonic and Singapore had been whetted. The orchestral piece that finally appeared made an immediate In 2017 he leads a co-production of Harry Symphony Orchestra. His engagements are Somers’ Louis Riel with the NACO and and positive impact with the audience, often in the dual role of conductor/soloist. if not the critics, and may be said to be Canadian Opera Company. Active in He is Conductor Laureate of the London Debussy’s breakthrough work. In 1910 it several projects designed to inspire future Mozart Players and has been Principal was choreographed and danced by Nijinsky, generations of musicians and audiences Conductor of Sweden’s Uppsala Chamber whose erotic performance caused one of including the Schumann Camerata’s 440Hz those typically Parisian fracas. series, he is artistic director of the Deutsche Orchestra. Television highlights include a documentary on Ravel made in 1998 with The first phrase of the solo flute arabesque Kammerphilharmonie’s Future Lab project with which the piece begins has rightly the ABC. His discography now exceeds 150 – a series which aims to build a lasting been described as a founding moment in relationship between the orchestra and a CDs, including 15 in the Romantic Piano modern music. Its chromatic, rhythmically new generation of concert-goers. Concerto series with the TSO. ambiguous line traces and retraces the

36 37 Sergei Rachmaninov (1873-1943)

Piano Concerto No 3 in D minor, Op 30 new direction and the music builds to a urgent material and the main tempo of Allegro ma non tanto big new theme. This, however, is not the the movement returns, picking up hints Intermezzo (Adagio) – second subject, as we might expect; merely of the second subject of this and the first a “premonition” of future themes, which movement in its momentum. The concerto’s Finale (Alla breve) gradually, building bit by bit, add meaning signature rhythm sounds from the depths Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No 3 was to the work. of the orchestra, and leads us to a coda in which the “mystery” theme planted in the composed at his summer estate at Ivanovka The true second subject soon appears, a first movement finally blooms into a broad in 1909. He wanted a new concerto for his characteristically romantic Rachmaninov romantic statement. forthcoming American tour. Not keen on melody, first introduced very clearly as going to America at first, he was persuaded a variation of the trochaic rhythm of the Much is made of the difficulties of this to go when he realised he would make opening. The piano has become more and concerto. “Oh, the Rach Three!”, gasps enough money in America to buy an more dominant and the culmination of the Sir John Gielgud in Shine; but the greatness automobile. movement is actually to be found in the of the concerto lies not merely in its technical This was a busy period in Rachmaninov’s cadenza. Then, after another straightforward hurdles. It lies in the way the material life, and he was unable to spend much time statement of the simple opening piano organically grows – and in the way the practising prior to departure. It is extraordinary theme, a sudden ending, almost breathless, immense technical challenges never swamp therefore, considering the difficulties in the promises more. the lyrical purposes of the work. solo part (almost mythologised in the 1996 The second movement begins with some Gordon Kalton Williams Symphony Australia movie Shine), that he practised much of the of the saddest music ever to come from a © 1998/2001 piano part on a dumb keyboard aboard ship. composer whose characteristic mood, even The work was first performed in New York at the best of times, was melancholic. When The Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra first the piano enters, it gives two versions of its performed with work with conductor Nicholas City under Walter Damrosch that same Braithwaite and soloist Michael Ponti on 22 April year; followed, not much later, by a second opening theme. The first section builds to an 1983 and, most recently, with Marko Letonja and New York performance under Gustav impassioned climax and then slips smoothly Alexander Gavrylyuk in Hobart and Launceston Mahler, of which Rachmaninov recalled: into the scherzo middle section. This fast on 7 and 8 March 2014. “He touched my composer’s heart straight section provides some relief from the gloom, away by devoting himself to my concerto but the tragic atmosphere soon returns. until the accompaniment, which is rather The Finale breaks in with great urgency. complicated, had been practised to the point The piano’s opening tattoo is derived of perfection…” from the theme of the very opening of the This concerto has been described by concerto, and Culshaw sees in the linking critic John Culshaw as “a masterpiece of the second and third movements further of conciseness”. There are thematic ties evidence of the tight binding of the concerto. between the first and third movements, The “long-short” feel underlies the second which may explain why the second subject, which in its melodic shape recalls movement is labelled “intermezzo”. Much that theme which has not been heard since of the melodic material is derived from the the first movement. The largely episodic opening rhythm (long-short, long-short), nature of the development gives the played by clarinet and bassoon accompanied movement a rhapsodic, formless impression. by strings, though the concerto lacks none of The piano presents two light-hearted Rachmaninov’s typical lyricism. versions of its opening melody which strike the listener as diversions from the main thrust The piano enters with a simple melody of the movement. similar to a chant sung at the Monastery of the Cross at Kiev. The structural subtlety Eventually, however, we are shepherded of the work is soon apparent. After a short back on track with the return of the piano cadenza, a variant of the piano’s opening material from the first movement opening theme is played on bassoons and in the lower strings, joined by a hint of lower strings. The woodwinds lead in a the first movement’s second subject. The

38 39 Sergei Rachmaninov

Piano Concerto No 4 in G minor, Op 40 again failed to find success and eventually the times, the use of melodic material here is notable shift in Rachmaninov’s approach Allegro vivace disappeared from the composer’s repertoire. tightly controlled: in place of a longer, more to piano writing and a revitalisation of his musical rhetoric. It has been suggested that Largo Perhaps disheartened by the lack of success structured melody Rachmaninov presents the tendency of some listeners to have less generated by his return to composition, he a two-bar theme, interest being sustained Allegro vivace enthusiasm for works of the composer’s wrote only a few new (yet significant) works in throughout by its richly varied harmonisation. later maturity follows directly from their love Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No 4 was a the years before the final version of the fourth A sudden fortissimo heralds what seems to of the more overtly romantic earlier works, troubled work: between the earliest sketches concerto. In 1938, following the unexpected be a new section but is, in fact, a chromatic and the musical indulgences that a bygone and its final form, its composition covered success of his Rhapsody on a Theme of transformation of the main theme. A sense age had allowed. Yet along with other later a period of 27 years. While not enjoying Paganini, Rachmaninov again revisited the of calm gradually returns before a new, quite the fame they have today, his previous works, such as the Symphonic Dances, the concerto, but it was not until the summer more expansive melody – borrowed from an compositions for piano and orchestra had Piano Concerto No 4 is testament to the of 1941, when holidaying on Long Island, Étude-tableau held over from inclusion in the all been successful, and the Russian press composer’s refusal to let such attitudes stifle that the final version took shape. Again, opus 33 set of 1913 – acts as an apotheosis had reported the composer at work on a his creativity. the work was shortened: this time a further for the movement, in which the strings are new concerto as early as 1914. However, the 78 bars were removed. The new version was accompanied by repeated piano chords. Scott Davie © 2007 turbulent events of 1917 drove Rachmaninov performed on 17 October in Philadelphia The final movement begins suddenly, with and his young family away from Russia. He with Eugene Ormandy conducting, and a the first subject – closely related to the The Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra has took few things when he left, but included performed this work once before, with soloist recording was made in December, just one among his possessions were sketchbooks leaping motif heard first in the opening Leslie Howard in Hobart on 5 March 1971. and a half years before the composer’s death. containing a substantial amount of material movement – appearing almost immediately. It is this version – the third and final version for the new work. In need of financial stability, The thematic material is presented twice of the concerto – that is being performed in he was fortunate to arrive in the United States before a short, whimsical passage – so typical this concert. The composition of the Piano at a time of immense interest in Russian of Rachmaninov’s later style – leads to the Concerto No 4 had covered more than a culture, and his subsequent phenomenal second subject. Fanfare-like motifs form third of Rachmaninov’s life. success as a concert pianist – a career he saw much of the first part of the theme, while as preferable to conducting – meant there With the soloist playing the soaring opening a more extended second section shows was little time for composition. He also felt theme in double-octave chords, the concerto Rachmaninov in a lyrical vein. A complete an intense sadness on being separated from seems to set out from where the Third Piano state of rest, however, is not reached until a his homeland, alluding to a lack of inspiration Concerto ended. The musical mood soon series of descending thirds (reminiscent of a for writing new works when he said to his changes, however, as the intensely lyrical passage from the Second Piano Sonata) leads friend, Nikolai Medtner, “how can I compose second subject is introduced in the key of the to a quiet cadenza. The development section, without melody?” relative major. As is typical of his large-scale substantially based on the rising minor ninth works, a motif links the various movements, motif, continues amid hints of a recapitulation, More settled and financially secure by the and in the development section this motif – before Rachmaninov – setting on a solution summer of 1925, however, Rachmaninov a leaping minor ninth figure – is first heard. that he believed had evaded him in the earlier dramatically reduced his performance A more substantial build-up ensues, with versions of the work – recalls material from schedule to allow a return to composition, melodic material derived from the opening the climax of the first movement, bringing the producing two new works the following theme sustaining the gradual accelerando. concerto to a thrilling close. year: the Three Russian Songs, for chorus Uniquely for Rachmaninov, the recapitulation and orchestra, and the Fourth Piano states the first and second themes in reverse Concerto. Completed in Dresden, the IN 1938, FOLLOWING THE UNEXPECTED order: the second is heard in the woodwinds concerto was premièred in Philadelphia SUCCESS OF HIS RHAPSODY ON A THEME over an arpeggiated piano accompaniment; in March 1927 with Leopold Stokowski OF PAGANINI, RACHMANINOV AGAIN and the first theme, formerly triumphal and conducting. Reviews of the new work, REVISITED THE CONCERTO, BUT IT exuberant, is treated gently and scored for however, were unkind and Rachmaninov WAS NOT UNTIL THE SUMMER OF 1941, high strings. The music dies to a murmur immediately set about making revisions: WHEN HOLIDAYING ON LONG ISLAND, before ending abruptly. in all, 114 bars were removed, most of THAT THE FINAL VERSION TOOK SHAPE. them from the final movement. A second A short piano introduction begins the version was performed in London in 1928 second movement before the theme, While his other works for piano and orchestra with Sir Henry Wood at the podium, and marked misterioso, is introduced in the may have achieved a greater level of fame, subsequently published. However, it strings. Perhaps as a conscious nod toward the Fourth Piano Concerto heralded a

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