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THE GLIDE RICHARD TOGNETTI Artistic Director and Lead Violin JON FRANK Photographic Images and Footage JOSEPH TAWADROS Oud JAMES TAWADROS Percussion DANNY SPOONER Voice SPEED READ TOGNETTI TAWADROS Deviance (orchestrated TOGNETTI) A program which shows off some of the ACO’s multiple VIVALDI Alamein personalities: Richard Concerto for Oasis Tognetti’s individualistic take four violins, RV580 Remember Baghdad on the madness of Paganini’s 24th Caprice for solo violin; (Richard Tognetti, Satu Vänskä, Dahab four of the ACO’s musicians Madeleine Boud, Rebecca Chan, shining in a classic Vivaldi violins) concerto; the next step in a genre-breaking collaboration INTERVAL with Egyptian music and another ancient string instrument, the oud; and The THE GLIDE Glide, an innovative multimedia Created by Jon Frank and Richard Tognetti partnership blending Jon Frank’s awe-inspiring ocean Music as follows: photography and footage choreographed to the live TOGNETTI TOGNETTI performance of the ACO. Underwater Th e Dream SHOSTAKOVICH TRAD. String Quartet No.15 Th e Seal Song MEDIA PARTNERS (excerpts) BRYARS TOGNETTI Jesus’ Blood Never Iceland/Somewhere Failed Me Yet ELGAR PÄRT Sospiri Fratres TOGNETTI The original commission of Derek and the Far Field The Glide for Festival Maribor 2009 was proudly supported Th eory by Janet Holmes à Court AC and Jan Minchin. Th e concert will last approximately two hours including a 20-minute interval. YOUR SAY We invite your feedback about this concert at aco.com.au/ MELBOURNE SYDNEY yoursay or by email to the Arts Centre, Playhouse City Recital Hall Angel Place [email protected]. Mon 4 April, 8pm Th u 7 April, 7pm Fri 8 April, 7pm BEHIND THE SCENES For news and offers, request the free monthly enewsletter at aco.com.au or follow us on Th e Australian Chamber Orchestra reserves the right to alter scheduled Facebook or Twitter. programs or artists as necessary. 2 AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA ABOUT THE MUSIC Joseph Tawadros writes: Th ese pieces are original compositions based on the Maqam tradition. Repetition is a very large part of Arabic music, and many of my compositions make a feature of it, either as underlying ostinati (repeated patterns) or as themes which I then use as the basis for improvised variations. For these performances, I wrote down the melodies in Western notation and worked with Richard Tognetti on the arrangements and orchestrations. I believe Richard and I have managed to create a new, modern sound for the oud. We believe this combination of oud and string orchestra has not been done before, and this collaboration – now fi ve years old – has presented a great exploration of the diff erent textures and possibilities available in this combination. James’ percussion adds another dimension: his style is unique, and his ability to play complex polyrhythms on skin and cymbals is a big advantage. Th e improvisational side of these pieces makes each concert very unpredictable! Richard Tognetti writes about Th e Glide: Underwater is the last of these pieces to be written, originally for Th e Crowd, another collaboration between Jon Frank and me premiered at the 2010 Maribor Festival. It seems to have a natural place here, though, introducing Th e Glide. Th en two short excerpts from Shostakovich, a precursor of what is to come. To capture an essence of somewhere remote, and to use surfi ng as the inspiration and to view it in a concert hall, away from the sea, seems like an implausible dialogue with nature. Jon’s trip to Iceland is an improbable journey. Gravity pulls us down to earth but we insist on climbing mountains. We cannot release oxygen in H2O to sustain us but still we seek the watery depths. Is it really just because they are there? Perhaps it’s more an affi rmation that we are, and continue to be, here. Humans to this point in time haven’t really bothered to explore the combination of classical music and surfi ng, leaving it as a rich vein of enterprise for us to survey. Sometimes we struggled to fi nd the “right” music that sang to the images and yet was not overly cloying and obvious. Sometimes things just click the fi rst go. Elgar’s Sospiri was one such union with Jon’s touching and radiant footage of the awesome power of Waimea Bay, Hawaii. In the surfi ng world it is the original legend – the wave is the fi rst celebrated big wave to be conquered. Th e beauty of this footage lies in the way Jon brings a lightness of being to a wave glorifi ed for its awesome deathly power. Th e images belie this intensity. Th e wave is the subject. Th e humans appear mere in their existence upon it. Although on the other hand, what they are doing is exceptional. Jesus only walked on water… Derek and the Far Field Theory: Th is is the only segment really to focus on the surfer. Few surfers transcend their sport to turn it into art. Derek Hynd is a life artist. Hard to categorise and even harder to pin down… especially on a surfboard. Jack McCoy has spent a long time fi lming this elusive character whose quirky quotient runs as high as a bird fl ies. He has been pioneering the idea of friction-free surfi ng – looking forward, looking back, spinning. For The Dream we wrote music that hopefully gently sings to the images without trying to convey a story. The Seal Song, or “the call of the seals”, speaks for itself. And then Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet and Arvo Pärt’s Fratres, a conclusion and a coda. Th e power of hypnosis lies in the belief of the patient. Welcome to THE GLIDE. Images created by Jon Frank (Derek Hynd and Jose Angel surfi ng sequence courtesy of Jack McCoy). AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA 3 JON FRANK Photographic Images and Footage Jon Frank writes: My name is Jon Frank. I am 40 years old and live in Victoria, Australia. Life is quiet this near to the bottom of the world, which suits me fi ne. Th e sea down here is gin clear; the colour of a green bottle fi lled with white spirits and held to the sun. After being on the road for a while, often travelling in the close company of others, there is a refreshing brand of solitude to be found on my return home. It usually takes me a day or two to get used to the quivering verses of westerly cloud ripping past my kitchen window or the chorus of a passing shower strumming on my tin roof. I began photographing at age 20. Th e moment I held the camera up to my left eye the world looked better, like it had been waiting to be framed inside a rectangle. I had no real ambition to become a photographer but with my chosen career as a bass player heading resolutely downhill I began shooting pictures of what I knew, which was surfi ng and the ocean and waves. I realised that here lay a possibility to record how I saw my world, and to do so in a unique voice. For most of my career I have shot video and motion picture fi lm as well as still photographs. I don’t think there is too much diff erence in my approach to photographing in these formats, maybe some slightly diff erent positioning while shooting in the water. My primary objective is always to try and capture the world as naturally as possible. Th e greatest pleasure for me is to just go about making pictures quietly and unnoticed. I prefer to swim out and shoot alone. Th ere have been times when the phone may not ring for a few months so it pays to be diverse. I have colleagues who work day jobs or night jobs or shoot fashion, weddings or advertising to get by. I have been fortunate enough to be able to get through within the surfi ng world. Weeks can pass without me picking up a camera but I am usually thinking about photographs or seeing them fl utter by as I go about day-to-day life. Most opportunities slip quickly away, but occasionally I will be able to trap one inside my little black box to keep. Surfi ng is not my only mistress, but she doesn’t get jealous; perhaps because she knows that if I ever stray, I will always come back. I am enjoying introducing my two children to the surfi ng life. It is the greatest joy I could think of giving them. Now they are giving back to me by getting me out there on days when I would normally just head home and drink a beer. Th e entire surfi ng experience is circular. Surfi ng is so simple and perfect and at its core has nothing to do with wealth or status or appearances or ego. Of course this is idealistic but I believe it to be true. Anything in the 21st century involving mankind will contain all of the above, but somehow there are still those days when you can experience a quiet session with the sea where nothing else exists. If I had to describe my work I would say that I just look at the world and then wait for something to happen that makes some kind of sense. jonfrank.carbonmade.com RICHARD TOGNETTI Artistic Director and Lead Violin, Australian Chamber Orchestra Australian violinist, conductor and composer, Richard Tognetti has established an international reputation for compelling performances and artistic individualism.