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RAY CHEN RETURNS QUEENSLAND’S OWN VIOLIN MASTER 11 + 12 OCT 2019 CONCERT HALL, QPAC PROGRAM | RAY CHEN RETURNS I WELCOME I am delighted to welcome you to this concert. Ray Chen is one of the most charismatic and exciting violinists performing on the world stage. I first heard Ray in 2013, performing Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto with Queensland Symphony Orchestra, prior to starting my career with the Orchestra. What struck me most was Ray’s animated performance, engaging the audience with such vigour whilst making the music dance with emotion – I was inspired! In this concert, Ray is performing a personal favourite of mine, Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor. This concerto is full of passionate, soaring melodies and glorious orchestral textures. In the evening performance, you will also hear Ray perform J.S Bach’s powerful and virtuosic Chaconne in D Minor. As a fellow violinist, I understand the exciting challenge of playing this complex music. After hearing this masterpiece, I think you will realise why so many violinists aspire to play this work. For all the Baroque music fans out there, the talented Erin Helyard will be expertly directing from the harpsichord – it will be a real treat. For me, I find Bach and Handel’s music very soothing for the soul. It is exceptionally uplifting to play and its compositional purity is especially grounding. I hope you enjoy this part of the program as much as I will playing it. Thank you for being here. Your support allows all of us at Queensland Symphony Orchestra to keep sharing our love of music with you. Welcome home, Ray! Nicholas Thin This concert is proudly presented CONTENTS Second Violin by National Australia Bank. IN THIS CONCERT PROGRAM WELCOME 1 Conductor Erin Helyard FRI 11 OCT Violin Ray Chen J.S. Bach Suite No.4 in D for Orchestra, BWV 1069 19’ Mendelssohn Sinfonia No.10 in B minor 11’ IF YOU'RE NEW TO THE ORCHESTRA 2 Mendelssohn Concerto in E minor for Violin 26' This concert will be broadcast and Orchestra, Op.64 live on ABC Classic. It will also DEFINITION OF TERMS 4 be broadcast on Thursday 5 SAT 11 OCT December at 12pm (AEDT). Mendelssohn Sinfonia No.10 in B minor 11’ J.S. Bach Suite No.4 in D for Orchestra, BWV 1069 19’ LISTENING GUIDE Handel Double Orchestral Concerto No.2 16’ 6 in F, HWV 333 INTERVAL 20’ ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES J.S. Bach Chaconne in D minor, BWV 1004 15’ 12 Mendelssohn Concerto in E minor for Violin 26’ and Orchestra, Op.64 SUPPORTING YOUR ORCHESTRA 16 Queensland Symphony Orchestra acknowledges the traditional custodians of Australia. We acknowledge the cultural diversity of Elders, both past and recent, and the significant contributions that Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islander peoples have made to Queensland and Australia. © Peter Wallis MUSICIANS AND MANAGEMENT 22 To ensure an enjoyable concert experience for everyone, please remember to turn off your mobile phones II PROGRAM | RAY CHEN RETURNS and all other electronic devices. Please muffle coughs and refrain from talking during the performance. 1 IF YOU'RE NEW TO THE ORCHESTRA WHO SITS WHERE Orchestras sit in sections based on types of instruments. There are four main sections in the symphony orchestra (strings, woodwinds, brass, and percussion) and sometimes a keyboard section. STRINGS BRASS Brass players create sound by vibrating their WOODWIND/BRASS These instruments produce sound by bowing or DOUBLE DOUBLE plucking stretched strings. lips. When this vibration is pushed through large BASS BASS First and Second Violins brass tubes, it can create significant noise. Viola French Horn Cello Trumpet BASSOON BASSOON Double Bass Trombone / Bass Trombone Theorbo PERCUSSION WOODWIND These instruments create sound by being Wind instruments produce sound by being struck or, for the harp, plucked or strummed. blown into. Some instruments just make a sound; others play particular notes. Flute / Piccolo Clarinet / Bass Clarinet Timpani HARPSICHORD Oboe / Cor Anglais Bassoon / Contrabassoon Diagram based on orchestra layout for Mendelssohn Sinfonia, Bach Suite, and Handel Concerto KEYBOARD Keyboard instruments are played by pressing keys. Harpsichord Diagram based on orchestra layout for Mendelssohn Violin Concerto 2 PROGRAM | RAY CHEN RETURNS © Josh Woning PROGRAM | RAY CHEN RETURNS 3 DEFINITION OF TERMS The following terms appear in bold the first time they appear. Overture a piece of music usually performed at the beginning of an opera or play. Antiphonal music played by two separate groups of musicians which is often performed in alternate musical phrases. Partita a term used by Baroque composers to mean a ‘suite’. Arpeggio a chord which is broken up and played in a rising or falling order. Polonaise a slow dance originating from Poland which has three beats to a bar. Baroque a term applied to Western classical music and art from the seventeenth to the mid-eighteenth century. Recapitulation a re-statement of a musical subject or theme. Cadenza an ornamental passage either improvised or written out, Romantic a term applied to Western classical music and art from the late usually played by a soloist or group of soloists and often eighteenth to the early nineteenth century. displaying virtuosity. Scherzo a short composition or sometimes a movement in a larger work. Concerti grossi Baroque musical works for a group of solo instruments It is usually fast-paced and playful and sometimes contains accompanied by orchestra. elements of surprise. Continuo an accompanying part that is typically performed on a Sonata/sonata form a work or form which consists of three main sections: an keyboard instrument like the harpsichord and sometimes with exposition (a statement of the main musical themes), a other instruments like the theorbo. development (where the themes are explored or expanded), and a recapitulation (a restatement of the themes). It also Contrapuntal music that contains multiple melodies that occur at the same time. sometimes contains an introduction and a coda (a section heard at the end of a movement or work). Cross-rhythms a rhythm which occurs at the same time as another rhythm or rhythms. Suite a set of instrumental or orchestral works. Double stopping a technique whereby two strings are played at the same time. Symphony an extended musical composition most commonly written for symphony orchestra and containing around three Fugue/fugal a musical composition or part of a composition where a main or more movements. theme is imitated in different melodic lines. Syncopation syncopated music has a variety of rhythms which disrupts Harpsichord a keyboard instrument used in Renaissance and Baroque a regular beat. music which produces noise through plucked strings which are triggered by pressing its keys. Theorbo a string instrument belonging to the lute family (a lute is a plucked string instrument with a neck and a hollow body). Kapellmeister translates from German as chapel or choir master. The term is used today to refer to the director or conductor of an Trill a rapid alternation between two notes. orchestra, a choir, or an opera. Meter a regular pattern of beats in music. Motif a short, recurring musical idea, the basic building block of a piece of music. Movement a self-contained section of a work. Oratorio a vocal work based on a sacred or secular text, usually religious in nature. 4 PROGRAM | RAY CHEN RETURNS PROGRAM | RAY CHEN RETURNS 5 LISTENING GUIDE Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847) Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) Sinfonia No.10 in B minor Suite No.4 in D, BWV1069 Mendelssohn wrote 13 string symphonies between 1821 and 1823. They are modelled on I. Overture the famous set of string symphonies composed by C.P.E. Bach in 1773. Mendelssohn’s composition tutor and director of the Berlin Singakademie, Carl Zelter, motivated II. Bourrée I & II Mendelssohn to write these works as an exercise in composition. The first five favour III. Gavotte solidly contrapuntal, Baroque-style textures in four, but Mendelssohn soon begins to IV. Minuet experiment in structure and texture. The later string symphonies explore more unusual V. Rejouissance groupings of instruments and show a fine understanding of the possibilities of drama inherent in sonata form. Sinfonia No.10 consists of a single movement with a slow Bach’s orchestral suites were thought to have dated from his time at Cöthen (1717- introduction, but this single span of music is equivalent in scale to all three movements 1723), however recent studies suggest that they were actually written in Leipzig, or at of one of the earlier string symphonies. least heavily revised there. The four suites appear to have been written at different times, and were not intended as a set. Performing parts indicate that they were presented by Like most of Mendelssohn’s early works, the string symphonies remained unpublished the Collegium Musicum, a voluntary association of professional musicians and university during his lifetime and were only ‘rediscovered’ in the late 1950s. They offer remarkable students which gave weekly public concerts in Leipzig. insights into the development of the composer, and in a sense humanise for us what formerly we could only understand as the miracle of the 16-year-old youth’s Octet Bach called the suites ‘Ouvertüren’ after the first movement which in each case is springing fully formed out of nowhere. But more than this, they grace our concert halls an Overture in the French style. The form was quite regular: a majestic first section with more fine works by a musical genius. featuring dotted rhythms followed by a fast fugal section. In the French suite, the overture would be followed by a series of dances. Bach gives his French dances a hint of Adapted from a note by Natalie Shea Italian flavour, especially in his use of instruments.

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