TCHAIKOVSKY 5 13, 14 & 16 APRIL 2018 CONCERT PROGRAM MELBOURNE SYMPHONY MUHAI TANG ORCHESTRA CONDUCTOR Established in 1906, the Melbourne Muhai Tang is currently Chief Conductor Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Symphony Orchestra (MSO) is an arts and Artistic Director of the Tianjin Opera leader and Australia’s longest-running and Orchestra, and Artistic Director of Muhai Tang conductor professional orchestra. Chief Conductor the Shanghai Philharmonic and Zhenjiang James Ehnes violin Sir Andrew Davis has been at the helm Symphony Orchestras in China. of MSO since 2013. Engaging more than He has held Principal Conductor positions 3 million people each year, the MSO with orchestras such as the Royal Brahms Tragic Overture reaches a variety of audiences through live Philharmonic Orchestra of Flanders and performances, recordings, TV and radio China National Symphony Orchestra. Kernis Violin Concerto* broadcasts and live streaming. He was Chief Conductor of the Finnish *MSO co-commission and Australian premiere The MSO also works with Associate National Opera. While Principal Conductor Conductor Benjamin Northey and Assistant of the Gulbenkian Orchestra he won a Conductor Tianyi Lu, as well as with such Grammy for his recording with them and INTERVAL eminent recent guest conductors as Sharon Isbin of the guitar concertos of Tan Dun, John Adams, Jakub Hrůša Tan Dun and Christopher Rouse. and Jukka-Pekka Saraste. It has also Muahi was Principal Conductor of Tchaikovsky Symphony No.5 collaborated with non-classical musicians the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, including Elton John, Nick Cave and 1991 to 2001. Other orchestras he has Flight Facilities. conducted since include the Berlin Philharmonic, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, and San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. Running time 2 hours, including 20 minute interval In consideration of your fellow patrons, the MSO thanks you for dimming the lighting on your mobile phone. The MSO acknowledges 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 other communities who may be in attendance. mso.com.au 3 MEET THE ARTIST PROGRAM NOTES JOHANNES BRAHMS In a loose sonata form, with three main In 2007 I unexpectedly heard from the (1833-1897) subjects, the Overture justifies its ‘Tragic’ BBC in London asking me to write a recital title from the outset with its arresting piece for a violinist whose playing I wasn't Tragic Overture, Op.81 opening chords, strident main theme, familiar with. Once supplied with some and continued use throughout of hammer recordings it was clear he was a great In 1880, Brahms spent the summer in the blows to underscore the drama. Some have (young) master at the instrument, and I resort town of Ischl, where Vienna’s rich likened it to a mini-symphony, particularly unhesitatingly agreed. Out of that came my and famous usually repaired in the warmer in a middle passage where the horns play first collaboration with James Ehnes, Two months to enjoy the rural scenery, the local a distinctively Brahmsian call of longing Movements (with Bells), a piece that he has spa, and the opportunity to rub shoulders over shimmering string chords, and in its now played many times and recorded, and with holidaying royalty. But Brahms had characteristically turbulent returns of the from him followed the enthusiastic request JAMES EHNES work to do, needing to write an orchestral VIOLIN main themes and emphatic coda. to write a concerto. Making (playing, piece, the light-hearted Academic Festival writing, and listening to) music is indeed One of Brahms’ very few purely orchestral James Ehnes has appeared with orchestras Overture based on student songs, as thanks a journey, often coming when you least works outside his four symphonies, it was such as the Boston Symphony, London for an Honorary Doctorate soon to be expect it, and this one leads directly to now premiered by the Vienna Philharmonic Symphony, Deutsches Symphonie- conferred on him by Breslau University. and this big new Violin Concerto. Orchester Berlin and NHK Symphony under Hans Richter in December 1880. But during the same summer he also In several performances early in the The back story - I played the violin (not Orchestra, Tokyo, and with conductors composed a very different companion such as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Marin Alsop, following year – some conducted by so well) from the time I was 10-15 but gave it piece, some of it based on sketches Brahms himself – it appears to have baffled up to focus on the piano and composing. Sir Andrew Davis, and David Robertson. dating back to the 1860s, and which he its audiences and didn’t gain immediate But I’ve retained a great love of writing for James maintains a busy recital schedule. had trouble naming. ‘You may include a acceptance. But Brahms enjoyed it enough strings and their singing quality, and many of In 2016, he undertook a cross-Canada dramatic or tragic or Tragedy Overture in to make various piano transcriptions of my major pieces over the years are for strings. recital tour for his 40th birthday. He is your program for January 6,’ he wrote to it that he played with Clara Schumann Since 2009 I’ve had the good fortune currently Artistic Director of the Seattle the Breslau concert organisers. ‘I cannot and other friends, another indication to write a whole batch of concertos Chamber Music Society. His recordings find a proper title for it.’ that this avowedly ‘tragic’ work had been for various wonderful players and reflect a repertoire ranging from Adams Eventually he settled on Tragic Overture, composed, as he himself to Bach. Recent live performances combinations – cello, viola, flute, trumpet, but no one could say exactly what, if any, Martin Buzacott © 2012 have included the World and American chamber orchestra, piano, with one for the ‘tragic’ programmatic elements were. The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra first performed horn upcoming. I’ve tried to make them all Premieres of Aaron Jay Kernis’s Violin Some thought it might bear hallmarks Brahms’ Tragic Overture on 10 and 12 November 1945 Concerto. He is the Concerto’s exclusive conducted by Joseph Post, and most recently on different, and keep their forms, content and of incidental music originally intended 5-7 June 2014 with Olari Elts. expression fresh for me and for listeners. soloist until 2021. for an abandoned stage production of James made his orchestral solo debut with Goethe’s Faust. Others pointed toward This newest work for James Ehnes is the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal Brahms’ fascination with Shakespeare, still formed out of the essential three movement at 13. He plays the ‘Marsick’ Stradivarius others suggested that the juxtaposition of AARON JAY KERNIS form that many bedrock concertos of the (born 1960) of 1715. comedy and tragedy in the Greek theatre past are built: 1) the largest, most searching arguments first, followed by the 2) shorter, tradition had inspired a ‘Tragic Overture’ Violin Concerto slower lyrical utterance, and ending with to accompany a ‘Festival’ one. For his part, Chaconne the even shorter 3) fast, zippy, often all Brahms would say was that ‘I could not Ballad hairraisingly difficult closer. refuse my melancholy nature the pleasure Toccatini of writing a Tragic Overture as well [as the MSO co-commission and Australian premiere But here there is much that differs from Academic Festival Overture]. One laughs, the past. the other weeps.’ James Ehnes violin 4 5 The first movement is Chaconne, and Zweden; and the Melbourne Symphony 1888 symphony, the Fifth’s main theme passionate intensity. It may well be comes distantly from the Baroque form of and Sir Andrew Davis. does lend itself to a musical personification significant that he crafted the tune out a set of variations over a repeated series © Aaron Jay Kernis 2017 of grim fate (in its minor form) and of of snippets of a Tuscan folksong, called of chords. This is the most dramatically beneficent providence (in its major form), La Pimpinella, that he heard in Florence charged and changeable movement, with and a journey from the first to the second is in 1877, sung by (as he noted) a ‘positively the opening downward melody/chord a plausible program, if not for the opening beautiful’ young (male) street-singer. progression in the violin being the basis of PETER ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY movement (which ends in the minor), then Certainly significant, the waltz tune also all that follows. This theme is constantly (1840-1893) for the whole work. audibly echoes the rhythm of the preceding varied in character and colour over the movement’s soulful horn theme, of which Symphony No.5 in E minor, Op.64 The main theme (played at the outset entire movement, and returns in its original, it is essentially a faster, lighter reworking. by solo clarinet) also pays homage to most dramatic statement at its end. Andante – Allegro con anima The same rhythm also reappears in the the man Tchaikovsky called ‘the father Andante cantabile, con alcuna licenza sinuously exotic subsidiary tune introduced Ballad is the songful, jazz/French-tinged of Russian music’, Mikhail Glinka. He Valse (Allegro moderato) by the bassoon. But only once does the lyrical middle movement, with an angular, borrowed the germinal first eight-note Andante maestoso – Allegro vivace motto itself intrude on this pleasant reverie, wrenching center. The language of Two phrase from Glinka’s opera A Life for the from clarinets and bassoons, right at the Movements (with Bells) returns here with Czar, where it opens the second half of After completing his Fourth Symphony movement’s close. hints of the blues and the influence of the a melody sung in succession by all three (1877), Tchaikovsky wrote to his former harmony of composer Olivier Messiaen, principal characters in the first act trio.