L'ENFANCE DU CHRIST 15, 16 AND 18 JUNE 2018 CONCERT PROGRAM Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Sir Andrew Davis conductor Sasha Cooke mezzo-soprano (Maria) Andrew Staples tenor (Le Récitant) Roderick Williams baritone (Joseph) Andrew Goodwin tenor (Centurion) Shane Lowrencev bass (Polydore) Matthew Brook bass (Hérode, Père de famille) Warren Trevelyan-Jones chorus master Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Chorus Berlioz L'Enfance du Christ Pre-Concert Conversation (Friday & Saturday) Join internationally renowned conductor and choral master, Jonathan Grieves-Smith in Hamer Hall from 6.15pm for a pre-concert conversation. Post-Concert Conversation (Monday) Join composer and writer, Andrew Aronowicz, for a post-concert conversation inside the Stalls Foyer of Hamer Hall from 8.30pm. This concert will be recorded for video broadcast on Foxtel Arts. The Monday 18 June performance will be recorded by Chandos for possible CD release Running time: 2 hours, including a 20-minute interval In consideration of your fellow patrons, the MSO thanks you for silencing and dimming the light on your phone. The MSO acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land on which we are performing. We pay our respects to their Elders, past and present, and the Elders from mso.com.au other communities who may be in attendance. (03) 9929 9600 2 MELBOURNE SYMPHONY SIR ANDREW DAVIS ORCHESTRA CONDUCTOR Established in 1906, the Melbourne Chief Conductor of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO) is an Symphony Orchestra, Sir Andrew arts leader and Australia’s longest- Davis is also Music Director and running professional orchestra. Chief Principal Conductor of the Lyric Opera Conductor Sir Andrew Davis has of Chicago. He is Conductor Laureate been at the helm of MSO since 2013. of both the BBC Symphony Orchestra Engaging more than 4 million people and the Toronto Symphony, where he each year, the MSO reaches diverse has also been named interim Artistic audiences through live performances, Director until 2020. recordings, TV and radio broadcasts In a career spanning more than and live streaming. 40 years he has conducted virtually The MSO works with Associate all the world’s major orchestras Conductor Benjamin Northey and and opera companies, and at the Cybec Assistant Conductor Tianyi Lu, major festivals. Recent highlights as well as with such eminent recent have included Die Walküre in a new guest conductors as Tan Dun, John production at Chicago Lyric. Adams, Jakub Hrůša and Jukka-Pekka Sir Andrew’s many CDs include Saraste. It also collaborates with non- Messiah nominated for a 2018 classical musicians such as Elton John, Grammy, Bliss’ The Beatitudes, Nick Cave and Flight Facilities. and a recording with the Bergen Philharmonic of Vaughan Williams’ Job/Symphony No.9 nominated for a 2018 BBC Music Magazine Award. With the MSO he has just released a third recording in the ongoing Richard Strauss series, featuring the Alpine Symphony and Till Eulenspiegel. 3 SASHA COOKE ANDREW STAPLES MEZZO-SOPRANO (MARIA) TENOR (LE RÉCITANT) Grammy Award-winning mezzo- Andrew Staples’ repertoire ranges soprano Sasha Cooke has been called from Handel to Britten. Concert a ‘luminous standout’ (New York appearances have included The Times). Ms. Cooke is sought after Dream of Gerontius, Verdi’s Requiem, by the world’s leading orchestras, and Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde. opera companies, and chamber music He has sung with conductors such ensembles for her versatile repertoire as Sir Simon Rattle, Daniel Harding and commitment to new music. and Yannick Nezet-Seguin, and with orchestras such as the Berlin In the 2017-18 season, Ms. Cooke’s Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, engagements take her to such exciting and London Symphony. He is a regular venues as Carnegie Hall (New York), guest at the Royal Opera House and Royal Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), has appeared in Salzburg, Hamburg, and Barbican Centre (London). She Brussels and Prague. will perform with the San Francisco Symphony, London Symphony As a director, Andrew Staples has Orchestra, Elbphilharmonie in staged operas such as Nozze di Hamburg, Melbourne Symphony, Figaro and La bohème. With Berlin’s and more. Some conductors with Kiez Oper, he created a site-specific whom she is collaborating this season production of Dido and Aeneas at include Michael Tilson Thomas, Sir the techno club Wilde Renate. His Andrew Davis, Jaap van Zweden, production Blessed Cecilia interwove Edo de Waart, and Osmo Vänskä. music of Britten with depositions from Palestinian detainees. Staples is also a portrait photographer. 4 RODERICK WILLIAMS ANDREW GOODWIN BARITONE (JOSEPH) TENOR (CENTURION) Roderick Williams’ repertoire ranges Andrew Goodwin has appeared with from baroque to contemporary music opera companies in Europe, the UK, - from Mozart to world premieres of Asia and Australia, including the operas by Sally Beamish, Michael van Bolshoi Opera, Gran Theatre Liceu der Aa and others. He has appeared Barcelona, Teatro Real Madrid, La with orchestras such as the Philharmonia, Scala Milan, Opera Australia, Pinchgut Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Opera and Sydney Chamber Opera. Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio He has performed with the St France, and Academy of Ancient Music. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Recordings include Vaughan Williams, the Sydney, Melbourne, Queensland Berkeley and Britten operas as well and Adelaide Symphony Orchestras, as a DVD of Peter Sellars’ staging of Moscow and Melbourne Chamber the St. John Passion with the Berlin Orchestras. Andrew regularly gives Philharmonic. recitals with pianist Daniel de Borah. Recent engagements have included Roderick Williams is also a composer appearances with the Melbourne and was Artistic Director of Leeds Symphony Orchestra (Mozart Lieder + in April 2016. He was awarded Requiem), Melbourne Bach Choir (St an OBE for services to music in June John Passion), Sydney Chamber Opera 2017, and was nominated for an Olivier (Biographica and The Rape of Lucretia), Award in 2018 for his performance in Melbourne Chamber Orchestra, and The Royal Opera’s Return of Ulysses. the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra. 5 SHANE LOWRENCEV MATTHEW BROOK BASS (POLYDORE) BASS (HÉRODE, PÈRE DE FAMILLE) Shane Lowrencev’s most recent Matthew Brook came to prominence engagements include the title roles in with a 2007 Gramophone Award- Le nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni, winning recording of Handel’s Messiah Scarpia (Tosca), Escamillo (Carmen) with the Dunedin Consort. Recent and Schaunard (La bohème) for Opera appearances include Dido and Aeneas Australia, Hunding in Die Walküre for with the Dutch Bach Society, a concert the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra with the Llandaff Cathedral Choral and concert appearances with the Society, appearing in Purcell’s The Melbourne, Tasmanian and West Fairy Queen for Boston’s Handel and Australian Symphony Orchestras. Haydn Society, Bach’s St. Matthew In 2018, he sings the title role in Don Passion with the Orchestra of the Quichotte for Opera Australia and Hans Age of Enlightenment on tour, and Sachs in State Opera of SA’s Act 3 playing the King in Ariodante at the presentation of Die Meistersinger von Staatstheater Stuttgart, a role with Nürnberg. which he made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2017. Other repertoire covered Shane has enjoyed a distinguished recently includes Mendelssohn’s career on the concert platform Elijah, Brahms’ Triumphlied, and the having performed the bass solos in Fauré and Verdi Requiems. Matthew Handel’s Messiah and La Resurrezione; Brook’s recordings include also Acis Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Mozart’s and Galatea, Rameau’s Anacréon, and Requiem, Mass in C Minor; Bach’s The Sunlight on the Garden (songs of Mass in B Minor, St John Passion, Stephen Wilkinson). Christmas Oratorio and St Matthew Passion and Haydn’s Creation with Australasia’s leading symphony orchestras and choral organisations. 6 MELBOURNE SYMPHONY WARREN TREVELYAN-JONES ORCHESTRA CHORUS MSO CHORUS MASTER For more than 50 years the Melbourne Warren Trevelyan-Jones is the Head Symphony Orchestra Chorus has been of Music at St James’, King Street the unstinting voice of the Orchestra’s in Sydney and is regarded as one of choral repertoire. The MSO Chorus the leading choral conductors and sings with the finest conductors choir trainers in Australia. Warren has including Sir Andrew Davis, Edward had an extensive singing career as a Gardner, Mark Wigglesworth, Bernard soloist and ensemble singer in Europe, Labadie, Vladimir Ashkenazy and including nine years in the Choir of Manfred Honeck, and is committed Westminster Abbey, and regular work to developing and performing new with the Gabrieli Consort, Collegium Australian and international choral Vocale (Ghent), the Taverner Consort, repertoire. The Kings Consort, Dunedin Consort, The Sixteen and the Tallis Scholars. Commissions include Brett Dean’s Katz und Spatz, Ross Edwards’ Mountain Warren is also Director of the Parsons Chant, and Paul Stanhope’s Exile Affayre, Founder and Co-Director of Lamentations. Recordings by the MSO The Consort of Melbourne and, in 2001 Chorus have received critical acclaim. with Dr Michael Noone, founded the It has performed across Brazil and Gramophone award-winning group at the Cultura Inglese Festival in Sao Ensemble Plus Ultra. Warren is also Paolo, with The Australian Ballet, a qualified music therapist. Sydney Symphony Orchestra, at the AFL Grand Final and at Anzac Day commemorative ceremonies. 7 PROGRAM NOTES joined by two other movements, also conceived (in the composer’s words) ‘in the manner of the old illuminated HECTOR BERLIOZ missals’: an overture on a modal theme (1803-1869) and a piece for solo tenor describing L'Enfance du Christ (The Childhood of the Holy Family arriving at an oasis. Christ) The resulting work, The Flight into Le Songe d’Hérode (Herod’s Dream) Egypt, later to form the central panel La Fuite en Égypte (The Flight into of L'Enfance du Christ, was put to one Egypt) side and apparently forgotten. It was L’arrivée à Saïs (The Arrival at Saïs) not until three years later, in Leipzig, that Berlioz performed it in full.