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Master Series Marko Letonja’s Season 2012 SATURDAY 18 AUGUST 7.30PM AccessTix is a partnership Federation Concert Hall, Hobart Blitz between Hydro Tasmania and the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra that gives the gift of Marko Letonja conductor music to the Tasmanian Tasmin Little violin community. TSO Chorus The TSO works with STRAVINSKY community organisations Chorale-Variations on ‘Vom like Reclink Australia, Himmel hoch da komm’ ich her’ Colony 47, Lifeline and many more to ensure that Duration 18 mins all Tasmanians can enjoy their symphony orchestra BRUCH live in the concert hall. Violin Concerto No 1 Vorspiel [Prelude] (Allegro moderato) For more information call Adagio the TSO Box Office on Finale (Allegro energico) 1800 001 190 or email [email protected] Duration 24 mins INTERVAL The gift of music Duration 20 mins Tasmin Little will be signing CDs and VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Andrew Ford will be signing copies of his latest book, Try Whistling This: Writings on The Lark Ascending Music, in the foyer after this concert. Duration 13 mins FORD Blitz* Duration 28 mins ABC Classic FM will be recording this concert for broadcast. We would *World première. Commissioned by the appreciate your cooperation in keeping Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra with the coughing to a minimum. Please ensure support of the Sidney Myer Fund. that your mobile phone is switched off. This concert will end at approximately 9.30 pm. * Eligibility conditions apply. Subject to availability. 1 5378 TSO AcessTix Ad.indd 1 6/08/12 1:14 PM Artist profiles About the music Marko Letonja Tasmin Little June Tyzack Igor Stravinsky Marko Letonja is Chief Conductor and Artistic In addition to performing as soloist with many June Tyzack is a graduate of the Tasmanian and (1882-1971) Director of the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra of the world’s greatest orchestras, Tasmin Little Sydney conservatoriums and London’s Trinity Chorale-Variations on ‘Vom (TSO). Born in Slovenia, he studied at the Academy has play/directed orchestras such as the Royal College of Music. Her career with singers emanated Himmel hoch da komm’ ich her’ of Music in Ljubljana and the Vienna Academy of Philharmonic, Seattle Symphony, the English, from her work with the Tasmanian Opera Company Music. He was Music Director of the Slovenian Norwegian and European Union chamber in the 1970s under Vanco Cavdarski. Subsequently Stravinsky’s love affair with baroque music dates Philharmonic Orchestra from 1991 to 2003 and orchestras, Britten Sinfonia, and the London in Sydney she worked with Opera Australia and from at least 1919, the year when impresario Serge Music Director and Chief Conductor of both the Mozart Players, with whom she recently gave the Opera Studio of the Sydney Conservatorium, Diaghilev handed him a collection of miscellaneous Symphony Orchestra and the Opera in Basel from the première of Roxanna Panufnik’s Four World Belvoir Street Theatre and the inaugural NIDA 18th-century Italian music with a view to having it 2003 to 2006. He was Principal Guest Conductor Seasons. She has made 17 appearances at the Music Theatre course, Sydney Philharmonia arranged for orchestra. Stravinsky was captivated, of Orchestra Victoria in 2008 and made his debut BBC Proms, and highlights include her 2003 Massed Choirs and Pacific Opera. In 2001 she and the result was the score for the ballet Pulcinella. with the TSO the following year. His many opera international tour with the Berlin Philharmonic was engaged as chorusmaster of the Tasmanian Nearly four decades and many neoclassical works later, Stravinsky turned to J S Bach’s engagements have included Pique Dame at the and Sir Simon Rattle and her ‘Delius Inspired’ Symphony Orchestra Chorus, and in addition to Chorale- Variations on the Christmas Song ‘Vom Himmel Grand Théâtre de Genève, Roméo et Juliette festival in 2006. Her ground-breaking media notable performances in Hobart and regional hoch da komm’ ich her’ BWV769 when looking for at the Teatro dell’Opera of Rome, Nabucco at project ‘The Naked Violin’, offering free digital Tasmania, under her direction, the TSO Chorus a companion piece for his recently completed work the Semperoper Dresden, Il dissoluto assolto/ downloads of recordings with accompanying has performed with Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, for choir, soloists and orchestra, Canticum Sacrum. Sancta Susanna and The Makropulos Case at audio guides, earned her a Gramophone Classic FM the Adelaide Festival Chorus and West Australian La Scala Milan, La cenerentola at the Opéra Award for Audience Innovation. Her most recent Symphony Orchestra Chorus. As chorusmaster of Before turning to Stravinsky’s Chorale-Variations, National de Montpellier, La traviata at Opera CD, a recording of the Elgar Concerto with the the Australian International Summer Orchestra it is instructive to consider the work on which Australia, Rigoletto at the West Australian Opera, Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Sir Andrew Institute (AISOI) she has prepared Mahler’s 2nd it is based. Written for organ in 1747 or 1748 Madama Butterfly at the Staatsoper Berlin, Die Davis, won the Critics’ Award at the 2011 Classic and 3rd Symphonies, and in 2009 she was the (i.e. towards the end of Bach’s life), the Chorale- Walküre at the Opéra du Rhin, and Die Walküre, BRIT Awards. She is a Fellow of the Guildhall chorusmaster and conductor for the Australian Variations on the Christmas Song ‘Vom Himmel hoch Siegfried and Götterdämmerung at the Teatro School of Music and the recipient of several Intervarsity Choral Festival. She walked the Camino da komm’ ich her’ takes as its starting point the São Carlos in Lisbon. He returned to La Scala this honorary degrees and a Gold Badge Award from de Santiago de Compostela in 2010 returning with chorale ‘Vom Himmel hoch da komm’ ich her’ (From heaven above I come), which may have been written January for a season of Les contes d’Hoffmann. the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers a program of Spanish choral music for the Festival by Martin Luther (the words are certainly Luther’s). Forthcoming engagements include concerts with and Authors. In June 2012 she was appointed an of Voices, and earlier this year undertook a period Bach, in other words, bases his set of variations on the Basel Symphony Orchestra and the Munich OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list. She of professional development visiting iconic British a pre-existing chorale tune. Rundfunkorchester. In addition to his position plays a 1757 Guadagnini violin and has, on loan symphony choruses and the Tanglewood Festival at the TSO, he is Music Director of the Orchestre from the Royal Academy of Music, the ‘Regent’ Chorus in Boston, USA. Chorales were intended for congregational singing Philharmonique de Strasbourg. Stradivarius of 1708. so they tend to keep within a narrow range (usually no more than an octave), move mainly by step and unfold in a simple, steady rhythm. That is to say, they pose no particular challenges vocally. What Bach does in the Chorale-Variations on the Christmas Song ‘Vom Himmel hoch da komm’ ich her’ is use the Lutheran chorale as a cantus firmus (fixed voice) and weave around it newly written – and far more complex – countermelodies based upon motifs from the chorale. Bach’s skill in writing counterpoint (i.e. different melodies sounding together at the one time) was unparalleled, and he took the technique to extraordinary levels of complexity in his later years. 2 3 About the music The Chorale-Variations, for example, use canons With the main theme launched by the solo violin of different structural type, each variation more Max Bruch and a contrasting descending second subject a complex than the last. (1838-1920) conventional sonata form seems to be under way. But where the recapitulation would begin, Bruch Whereas Bach’s Chorale-Variations were written Violin Concerto No 1 in G minor, uses the opening chords and flourishes to prepare for organ, Stravinsky’s transcription returns ‘Vom a soft subsiding into the slow movement where Himmel hoch’ to its vocal origins but uses only Op 26 the songful character of the violin is to the fore. the first stanza of Luther’s 15-stanza poem: Vorspiel [Prelude] (Allegro moderato) – The songful character of the violin is to the fore Vom Himmel hoch da komm’ ich her, Adagio in the Adagio, where two beautiful themes are Ich bring euch gute neue Mär. Finale (Allegro energico) linked by a memorable transitional idea featuring Der guten Mär bring ich so viel a rising scale. davon ich sing’n und sagen will. Max Bruch’s First Violin Concerto is one of the The Hungarian or Gypsy dance flavour of the Ralph Vaughan Williams greatest success stories in the history of music. last movement’s first theme must be a tribute to (1872-1958) From heaven above I come The violinist Joseph Joachim, who gave the first and bring you good new tidings. the native land of Joachim, who had composed performance of the definitive version in 1868 a ‘Hungarian’ concerto. Bruch’s writing for the The Lark Ascending – Romance Of glad tidings I bring so many, and had a strong advisory role in its creation, whereof I want to sing and say. solo violin scales new heights of virtuosity. Of the for Violin and Orchestra compared it with the other famous 19th-century second subject, Tovey observes that Bruch’s work Luther’s poem is based upon a passage from the German violin concertos, those of Beethoven, ‘shows one of its noblest features just where some Vaughan Williams was a late developer as a Gospel of St Luke, which details the birth of Jesus Mendelssohn and Brahms. Bruch’s, said Joachim, of its most formidable rivals become vulgar.’ In this composer.