Brahms MASTER 4

Friday Saturday 3 May 7.30pm 4 May 7.30pm Federation Concert Hall Burnie Hobart Town Hall

Andrew Gourlay conductor Allegro – Stefan Jackiw violin Poco meno mosso – Allegro vivace – Andante maestoso – ˇ Allegro molto vivace DVORÁK Duration 15 mins Serenade for Winds Moderato quasi marcia INTERVAL Menuetto (Tempo di minuetto – Presto) Andante con moto Duration 20 mins Finale (Allegro molto) BRAHMS Duration 24 mins KODÁLY Allegro non troppo Dances of Galánta Adagio Lento – Andante maestoso – Allegro giocoso, ma non troppo vivace Allegretto moderato – Andante Duration 38 mins maestoso – Allegro con moto, grazioso – Andante This concert will end at approximately maestoso – 9.30pm.

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41 Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904)

Serenade in , B 77 (Op 44) Figaro-like comings and goings of Moderato quasi marcia The Cunning Peasant and his adoption Menuetto (Tempo di minuetto – of ostensibly Mozartian form for the new Presto) Wind Serenade in D minor, that sustained Andante con moto Dvorˇák through difficult times. While his Finale (Allegro molto) serenade does not precisely emulate any Andrew Gourlay’s contract as Music Director Born in 1985 to physicist parents of Korean of Mozart’s in using ten wind instruments January 1878 was more than the of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León and German descent, Stefan Jackiw began plus cello and double , nor was it beginning of a for Antonín intended for al fresco performance in (OSCyL) has recently been extended until playing the violin at the age of four. Dvorˇák: it was the beginning, in effect, of the manner of 18th-century , His teachers have included Zinaida Gilels, a new life. Now 36, he was a composer summer 2020. He became Music Director nevertheless this is a traditional bottle who had still not fully ‘arrived’; and while in January 2016, having been the OSCyL’s Michèle Auclair and Donald Weilerstein. filled with young, new wine – and hearty his family now got by on an Austrian Bohemian wine at that. Principal Guest Conductor since the 2014- He holds a Bachelor of Arts from Harvard State Grant (for ‘young, poor and 15 season. Other features of the 2019 University as well as an Artist Diploma from talented artists’), that world had recently The rustic-sounding first movement collapsed through the deaths within evokes the march with which serenaders season include his Finnish debut with the the New England Conservatory, and is the weeks of each other of his 11-month- typically announced their arrival (and Tampere Philharmonic last month and his recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant. old daughter Ru° žena and first-born son which returns at the end of the finale for Romanian debut with the Britten Stefan Jackiw made his European debut Otakar. He and his stalwart wife Anna had their self-important exit). The so-called at age 14, playing the Mendelssohn Violin now lost all three of their children in a Menuetto is actually a Czech sousedská in September. There are return visits to the space of two years. or neighbours’ dance, with a furiant Concerto with the Philharmonia Orchestra. London Philharmonic, BBC Philharmonic, (presto) as the central trio section. The In January 1878, thanks to Anna’s He has appeared with such as nocturnal slow movement grows out Bremen Philharmonic, City of Birmingham steadfast support, Dvorˇák was able to of a tender, drawn-out melody shared the Boston Symphony, Russian National press on with his professional life. He Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) and London by and and, like a lover, Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, and New completed a set of choral songs and delays the moment of parting as long as Sinfonietta. The year also sees publication by then, within a fortnight, composed York and Seoul Philharmonics. Stefan possible. There are hints of the polka in Schott of his Parsifal Suite. In Andrew the entire D minor Serenade. Dvorˇák the high-spirited Finale until, with great Jackiw is also a keen recitalist and chamber also made time to visit Vienna to Gourlay has conducted the UK première of hilarity, the return of the opening march musician, having appeared in recital at meet , one of the Francesoni’s Quartett for sends everyone packing. Carnegie Hall and the 92nd Street Y and adjudicators of the Austrian State Grant, House, Covent Garden, and La Tragédie de who had just recommended him warmly Dvorˇák conducted the first performance with partners such as of the serenade to open a concert of Carmen and Dvorˇák’s Rusalka for English to his own publisher in Berlin (which Steven Isserlis, Yo-Yo Ma and Jeremy Denk. proved a passport to international his own compositions on 17 November Touring Opera. In 2016 he conducted a 2018 saw appearances at the Eastman recognition). Though Dvorˇák missed 1878. It was his fifth wedding anniversary. new production of Tippett’s The Ice Break Brahms, who was giving concerts in Can the serenade, with its beguiling Music Festival playing the Brahms concerto, Andante, then have seemed anything for Birmingham Opera Company and the Germany, he left manuscripts for the as well as performances with the National latter’s perusal and had a cordial meeting other (like Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll) than CBSO. Recordings include Wieniawski and Symphony Orchestra Washington DC, with the powerful and much feared music an affirmation of the composer’s love critic Eduard Hanslick. for his Anna, who, but a few months Bruch violin with Charlie Siem Residency Orchestra of The Hague and previously, had borne him the daughter, Back in Prague, Dvorˇák new opera, The and the London Symphony. The music of Helsinki Philharmonic. Possessing a broad Otilka, who would be the beginning of Cunning Peasant, was deep in rehearsal. Edmund Finnis has recently been recorded. their new, and happier, family? repertoire, in March 2014 Stefan Jackiw After previous operatic failures, this Of Russian ancestry, Andrew Gourlay was gave the world première of David Fulmer’s was to give Dvorˇák his first unequivocal Anthony Cane © 2003 born in Jamaica and grew up in the Bahamas, Violin Concerto No 2, Jubilant Arcs, with theatrical success – and, subsequently, his first opera performances abroad. The Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra first Philippines, Japan and England. He was a the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie under performed this work with conductor Verdon Mozart (Dvorˇák would later drum into Williams in June 1969 and, most recently, with professional trombonist until his mid-20s. Matthias Pintscher. Recordings include the his students at the Prague Conservatory) Marko Letonja in Cygnet, Latrobe and George In 2010 he won First Prize in the Cadaques complete Brahms violin sonatas with pianist, was sunshine. Perhaps it was a little Town in March 2012. International Conducting Competition. Max Levinson. reflected Mozartian sunshine, in the

42 43 Zoltán Kodály (1882-1967) Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

Dances of Galanta (Galántai táncok) A solo and piccolo in dotted Violin Concerto in D, Op 77 the four-movement form of the Second Lento – Andante maestoso rhythm accompanied by pizzicato strings Allegro non troppo , demonstrate. Allegretto moderato – Andante introduce the second dance (Allegretto Adagio Yet for all his artistic maturity, Brahms maestoso moderato). There is a decidedly Eastern Allegro giocoso, ma non troppo vivace remained a bit of a masochist when it Allegro con moto, grazioso – Andante flavour to this section. As with several of his greatest works, came to his most recent compositions, maestoso An oboe introduces the third dance Brahms composed the bulk of the Violin usually ridiculing them to his friends and Allegro (Allegro con moto, grazioso). This melody Concerto in the village of Pörtschach hoping that they would do the same in Poco meno mosso is so simple and insubstantial that it on the Wörthersee in . It was a return. As a result he was disappointed Allegro vivace – Andante maestoso seems to need reinforcement from the place, he said, where ‘so many melodies when his colleague, the legendary Allegro molto vivace other woodwinds, brass and strings. It is fly about that one must take care not to violinist , examined the eventually overwhelmed by the return of tread on them.’ He’d proved that point solo part of the new Violin Concerto in the melancholic first theme, which in turn 1878 and announced that, while it was Along with his close contemporary the previous year when he completed the is interrupted just as suddenly by a fierce sometimes difficult to tell how a concerto and friend Béla Bartók, Zoltán Kodály Second Symphony in Pörtschach. Now, in syncopated dance (Allegro) with the would work from the violin part alone, collected over 3,500 folk tunes from the summer of 1878, he returned to the whole orchestra in full cry. it appeared at first glance to be a very throughout , Romania and same place (and the same key signature pleasing and successful work. ‘I wish I Slovakia. These songs influenced both Two dances quickly follow, with melodies of D) to create the work which many could go through it with a violinist less composers’ subsequent works. Kodály reminiscent of Háry János. There are would regard as the finest violin concerto good than you,’ the frustrated Brahms said of this collaboration: ‘The vision of grace-noted , horns swinging in the repertoire. wrote back to Joachim, ‘for I am afraid an educated Hungary, reborn from the across the bar line and a dotted rhythm It was a time of some professional you are not sufficiently blunt and severe.’ people, rose before us. We decided to returning in the clarinet (Poco meno satisfaction for Brahms. He had now devote our lives to its realisation.’ mosso). This mildly comic excursion sets mastered the symphonic form which Seeking greater infuriation, Brahms then up a frantic finale, beginning with the sent the score to another friend, the The Dances of Galanta were written for had given him 20 years of grief, and muted insistence of the (Allegro conductor Hans von Bülow, and also the 80th anniversary of the his reputation was such that he had no vivace). Instead of a triumphant close, the to the composer and violinist Henryk Philharmonic in 1933. Kodály took as his shortage of rehearsal and performance first brooding melody returns in G-sharp Wieniawski – and with them he more than source a compendium of dances from opportunities for anything which he minor. Kodály is perhaps reminding the satisfied his desire for pithy and merciless the early 1800s, ‘the gypsy dances from cared to write. And it cannot have listener that behind all this exuberance abuse. Bülow called it ‘a concerto against Galanta’, where he grew up. This is a escaped Brahms’ notice that he was lies darkness. But such introspection the violin’, while Wieniawski, himself the mature work (Kodály was in his early 50s), composing a violin concerto in , is thrust aside in the final bars (Allegro composer of some fiendishly difficult highly accessible and gently conservative. the same key as his idol Beethoven’s molto vivace) where the dance is at an violin concertos, declared it to be simply Based on the verbunko style (similar to own Violin Concerto. It is almost as if end: exhilarating, exhausting! unplayable. At last Brahms was happy, the csárdás or ‘tavern’ tunes of Hungary Brahms’ concerto, following in the wake declaring the work in general to be and its surrounding regions) these dances Abridged from a note by David Vivian of the successful first two , a ‘failure’ and the slow movement in have two moods: pensively slow and Russell, Symphony Australia © 2000 demonstrated that the ‘heavy tread particular to be ‘feeble’. He immediately fiercely fast. Chiefly linking these two of Beethoven marching behind him’ set about a savage revision, reducing the emotional opposites with broad and The Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra first no longer held any grave fears for the original four movements to three, with impassioned string writing, Kodály also performed this work with conductor Tibor Paul in mature composer. Hobart on 11 October 1951 and, most recently, the intended being dropped allows solo passages to play a significant And crucially, when it came to the with Marko Letonja in Hobart and Melbourne on 1 altogether. But he retained many of the role. and 3 August 2013. composition of concertos, Brahms was tricky bits – the wide melodic leaps, the by 1878 a significant enough creative Throughout the first ‘dance’ (Lento more outrageous double and sometimes figure to be able to write music which – Andante maestoso), and indeed triple-stops, and a notorious passage in satisfied artistic criteria, rather than throughout the suite, the clarinet receives tenths. special attention. Kodály maintains merely providing technical showpieces While Brahms was a great admirer of tension by clever use of rubato and for virtuoso soloists. Indeed, a feature of the violin, he didn’t play the instrument rhythmic variation. The ‘gypsy scale’, all his concertos is their concentration on himself, and as contemporary found in so much of the folk music symphonic-style argument, rather than correspondence demonstrates, he diligently collected by Kodály, is a mere display – as the lengthy opening relied heavily on the advice of Joachim prominent melodic feature. orchestral ritornellos of the First Piano Concerto and the Violin Concerto, and as he completed his revision of the

44 45 concerto. But even after Joachim gave Brahms (not to mention Joachim) loved the première on New Year’s Day in nothing more than the gypsy melodies 1879 with the Leipzig Gewandhaus of neighbouring Hungary, and he closes Orchestra, Brahms refused to have the the Violin Concerto with one of his finest score published, concentrating instead appropriations of this joyous, rhythmically on still further revisions. Joachim himself vital music. The energetic, bouncing got in on the act, suggesting changes theme is instantly memorable and both not just to the solo part but also to the soloist and orchestra give it a thorough orchestration – often as detailed as the working-over, keeping just enough in omission of double-bass notes and the reserve to step up the intensity in the shortening of chords – while continuing coda. Essentially a rondo (the description to perform the work throughout Europe. rondo alla zingarese is applied to similar As in the First Piano Concerto, Brahms movements elsewhere in Brahms’ allows the orchestra to state the main music), there is nevertheless enough thematic material of the first movement contrast provided, in passages such as before the soloist enters. Typically, the brief meditative pause just before there is a wealth of thematic material, the conclusion, to remind us that in this with the opening eight-bar phrase finale, there is a distinctive master at being extended by the oboe and then work – and at play. a surging forte. The melodic second Abridged from a note by Martin subject features suspended chords and Buzacott, Symphony Australia © 1997 elaborate figurations in the violas, before the soloist’s delayed but unforgettable The Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra first entry brings a fiery minor-key variation of performed this work with conductor Nikolai Malko and soloist Carmel Hakendorf in Hobart on 19 the opening theme. The development April 1958 and, most recently, with Andrew Grams section is initiated by the orchestra, with and Simone Lamsma in Hobart on 24 June 2016. the soloist weaving a variety of counter- melodies around it. After a restatement of the main themes, the then leads to a lyrical reworking of the initial theme, and a vigorous coda. As if to demonstrate that the concerto is for solo instrument with orchestra, rather than against it, the magnificent slow movement features the oboe almost as much as it does the violin. After a chord on bassoons and horns, the oboe introduces one of the greatest tunes which Brahms ever composed, and the soloist never really approaches it directly, preferring instead to weave all manner of counter-melodies and variations around it. While some of his contemporaries criticised Brahms for neglecting the soloist in this movement, the fact remains that these prominent passages for wind instruments serve only to highlight the beauty of the solo part, which can take the breath away on each successive entry.

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