MASTER 7 • LAUNCESTON 4
Friday Saturday 2 August 7.30pm 3 August 7.30pm Federation Concert Hall Hobart Albert Hall Launceston
There is an art to selling fine homes Tung-Chieh Chuang conductor INTERVAL Andrew Seymour clarinet Duration 20 mins Just as an artist plays the perfect note, we position your property in the finest light to showcase its true value. DEBUSSY arr BÜSSER HONEGGER Petite suite Pastorale d’été To those who value the unique, Sotheby’s International Realty is the local real estate agency that offers unrivalled Duration 7 mins access to qualified buyers and distinctive properties around Tasmania & the world. En bateau Cortège BIZET For a complimentary appraisal or any information regarding the Sotheby’s Realty difference on showcasing your Menuet Symphony in C property to the world, contact our Hobart office on: 6234 2400 or sothebysrealtytasmania.com Ballet Allegro vivo Duration 14 mins Adagio MOZART Allegro GLOBAL REACH. LOCAL EXPERTISE. Clarinet Concerto Vivace Allegro Duration 30 mins Adagio This concert will end at approximately Rondo (Allegro) 9.30pm. Duration 30 mins
Tasmania Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra concerts are broadcast and streamed throughout Australia and around the world by ABC Classic. We would appreciate your cooperation in keeping coughing to a minimum. Please ensure that your mobile phone is switched off. Sotheby’s International Realty and the Sotheby’s International Realty logo are registered (or unregistered) service marks used with permission. Each office is independently owned and operated. 15 Hunter Street, Hobart. 13 Claude Debussy (1862-1918), orchestrated by Henri Büsser (1872-1973)
Petite suite Pelléas et Mélisande in 1902, and was En bateau entrusted with the orchestrations of ‘La Cortège soirée dans Grenade’, ‘La Puerta del Vino’ and ‘La cathédrale engloutie’ in Winner of the 2015 Nicolai Malko Principal Clarinet with the Tasmanian Menuet 1917. Competition in Copenhagen, Tung-Chieh Ballet Symphony Orchestra, Andrew Seymour The first piece, En bateau, is a barcarolle Chuang subsequently received invitations completed a Bachelor of Music Performance Debussy wrote the Petite suite in 1889 in 6/8, an early example of the from orchestras such as the Munich at the Victorian College of the Arts. Freelance as a work for piano four hands. The Prix fascination with water Debussy shared de Rome winner had returned from two Philharmonic, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, engagements in Melbourne included with the Impressionist painters. It is a Oslo Philharmonic, Helsinki Philharmonic and years’ residence in Rome in February wistful, tender piece in simple ternary performing with the Royal Melbourne Vienna Philharmonic. Other awards include 1887, and visited the Wagner centre form in which the main theme returns Philharmonic Orchestra, Australian Classical of Bayreuth in mid-1888, where he had in decorated form after a more forcible Second Prize (no first prize was given) as Players and Lyric Opera of Melbourne, as heard The Mastersingers of Nuremberg middle section. Features of the budding well as Audience Award in the International and Parsifal. Wagner, he later decided, Debussy style are the arabesques in well as The Phantom of the Opera and Dr Solti Competition, and prize-winner in the had not written the ‘music of the future’ the accompaniment (harp), the short Gustav Mahler Competition (Bamberg) and Zhivago. Between 2009 and 2011 he toured (which was Wagner’s claim); this was whole-tone melody towards the end of Jeunesse Musicales, Bucharest. Recent nationally as a member of the orchestra a sunset mistaking itself for a sunrise. the middle section, and the absence of appearances have included the Shanghai for OzOpera, Opera Australia’s travelling Certainly, a work like the Petite suite up-beat rhythms. seems to affirm the values of the French Symphony Orchestra, Taiwan Philharmonic, company. He was singled out by The West The influence of Delibes, traced in musical tradition. Though its gentle Debussy’s earlier Deux arabesques, may Taipei Symphony Orchestra, Lapland Australian review of OzOpera’s production of charm and harmonic restraint mark it Chamber Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony, be less prominent in the Petite suite than La traviata: ‘his every note was meaningful’. off from Debussy’s much later great the influence of other French composers. Odense Symphony, National Youth In 2014 he was featured in recital on ABC piano music, the suite possesses an easy Cortège (Procession), for example, Orchestra of Ireland, and his debut with the disposition and much colour realised Classic FM’s Sunday Live program, his reflects the influence of the Bizet of Jeux Dresden Philharmonic. Other orchestras in pianistic terms. More importantly, d'enfants. There is a deft piquancy to the performance praised by Limelight magazine the fingerprints of the future harmonic with which he has appeared include the procession, rather than pomp. as ‘soaring and colourful’ and the Hobart and melodic innovator are already in Bamberg Symphony, Middle-Germany Radio evidence. This work was first performed Geoffrey Crankshaw describes the Mercury as ‘an astonishing display of Symphony Orchestra Leipzig and Deutsche by Debussy and Jacques Durand on 1 Menuet as having ‘a period fragrance’. Kammerphilharmonie Bremen. In 2012, he instrumental virtuosity’. He has performed March 1889. Later that summer in Paris, The flavour is perhaps of the ‘ancient’ organised the first-ever orchestral flashmob as guest principal clarinet with the Australian Debussy heard a Javanese gamelan at music of the rococo. It is delicate music, poised and touched with the wistfulness performance in Taiwan, leading the National Chamber Orchestra, Auckland Philharmonia the World Exposition and one could say the future direction of his music was of En bateau. Taiwan University Symphony Orchestra. Orchestra, West Australian and Canberra firmly set. Finally, Ballet invokes the spirit of dance, Tung-Chieh Chuang was born into a family symphony orchestras. In 2016 he made and the influence of Chabrier. of musicians. He learnt piano and horn and About Debussy’s own pianism there are his solo debut with the TSO performing varied opinions but there is agreement had his first concerto appearance at the age © Symphony Australia Copland’s Clarinet Concerto under the on two points: that it was like nobody of 11. He studied at Philadelphia’s Curtis baton of Chief Conductor Marko Letonja. His else’s, and that it had a certain orchestral The Tasmanian Symphony first performed this Institute and at the Musikhochschule Weimar. work with conductor Charles Groves on 5 August performance was described by the Mercury quality. The treatment of the Petite His mentors include Mark Gibson, Gustav suite in orchestral form could be said, 1950 and, most recently, with Howard Shelley on 9 as ‘sensitive and beautifully shaded’ and September 2000. Meier, Otto-Werner Mueller and Nicolás therefore, to be simply a matter of Pasquet. Before 2007, when he changed ‘gloriously vibrant’. Other solo appearances bringing out the colour implicit in the original. Henri Büsser, who orchestrated course to pursue a musical career, he Chuang with the TSO have included Richard Strauss’ the work in 1907, was a trusted colleague Duet-Concertino and Maria Grenfell’s received a bachelor degree in applied of Debussy. He took over the conducting statistics from Purdue University (USA). Concerto for Clarinet and Bassoon, the latter from André Messager for the fourth and Currently he resides in Berlin. being a world première. subsequent performances of the opera
14 15 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) Arthur Honegger (1892-1955)
Clarinet Concerto in A, K622 sounds. And the smooth carriage from Pastorale d’été inspiration came from outside music, Allegro one sound to another – as smooth as a It hardly comes as a surprise that from Arthur Rimbaud’s poem ‘Aube’ Adagio singer gliding from one note to the next the Swiss-French composer Arthur (Dawn). Honegger inscribed the first line – is one of the instrument’s specialties. of the poem on the score: ‘J’ai embrassé Rondo (Allegro) Honegger, composer of works such as ‘Never should I have thought that a Pacific 231 (named after a train) and l’aube d’été’ (I have kissed the summer The clarinet was an exotic instrument clarinet could be capable of imitating Rugby (his favourite sport), should have dawn). The poem continues: in Mozart’s day. Writing to his father a human voice so deceptively as it was been a member of Les Six. This group Nothing was moving yet...the camps from the German city of Mannheim, imitated by you,’ wrote a critic of Anton of musical enfants terribles (the others of shadows had not left the woodland 22-year-old Mozart exclaimed: ‘If only Stadler’s playing. were Francis Poulenc, Darius Milhaud, road. I walked, awakening warm, living we had clarinets! You cannot imagine Judging from the opening movement of Georges Auric, Germaine Tailleferre and breath, and the precious stones looked the glorious effect of a symphony with the Clarinet Concerto, Allegro, Mozart Louis Durey), inspired by the eccentric on, and wings were lifted soundlessly. flutes, oboes and clarinets.’ The famed relished putting Stadler through his and iconoclastic composer Erik Satie The first undertaking was, in the path Mannheim orchestra had no less than paces, while simultaneously exhibiting and radical film-maker and designer two clarinets; the Salzburg orchestra – in already filled with pale, fresh flashes, a the instrument’s kaleidoscopic range. Jean Cocteau, were fired with rebellion flower which told me its name. which Mozart father and son played – Of particular note is Mozart’s tendency against the old musical guard, and had none. Years later, when Mozart was to commence a phrase in one register enthusiastic in embracing everyday life I laughed at the blonde waterfall making a career for himself in Vienna, (either high or low) and abruptly jump as the stimulus for their art. New music, tousled among the fir trees... he became acquainted with the Stadler to another for its continuation. There’s Cocteau had declared, was to embrace There is a clear debt in this early work brothers, Anton and Johann, skilled something marvellous about the the modern world and its forms of clarinettists who performed in various (1920) to Debussy in the textures and apparent ease with which the clarinet popular entertainment, the music hall, harmonic language; for all Honegger’s ensembles in the imperial capital. It was is able to carry this out. The second circus and jazz. With life moving so much for Anton, the elder of the two, that rejection of the Les Six agenda, there movement, Adagio, is a soulful aria faster, there was no time for Wagner: are also clear elements of jazz, though Mozart composed the Clarinet Concerto, for clarinet and orchestra. What is music needed to be short and blunt, with in September-October 1791. it is more the kind of ‘jazz’ transmitted remarkable is the way in which Mozart a sense of humour. through Debussy than the raw original. Among the features of the clarinet that creates such beautiful, song-like But Les Six didn’t last long as a group. The piece is in three sections: an almost must have appealed to Mozart are melodies from such plain and simple After only a couple of years, differences lazy opening, with sinuous, long- the strongly differentiated colours of means: the rising notes of a chord and in political and aesthetic agendas had breathed melodic lines and occasional the instrument’s various registers. The the falling notes of a scale. Here, the caused the ‘members’ to drift apart. flourishes like birdsong over a gently clarinet’s tonal variety is astonishing. building blocks of music open a portal And even in the group’s heyday, Arthur rocking ostinato in the low strings; a The low register is dark and resonant, to the sublime. By contrast, the jaunty Honegger had never really been in more sprightly, almost rustic middle the middle is warm and melodious, and finale in 6/8 exhibits the clarinet’s playful sympathy with their flippant attitude. section with tumbling folk-like motifs over the top is clear and bright. No other side. As before, the music leaps between ‘I have no taste for the fairground,’ he a drone; and a return to the calm of the woodwind instrument has such a broad registers. Mozart also has the soloist wrote in 1920 (the year the group was opening, this time blended with elements range of sounds from top to bottom. perform dazzling acrobatics, proving just first named Les Six), ‘nor for the music from the ‘lively and gay’ central passage. how agile this novel instrument is. Curiously, no other woodwind instrument hall, but, on the contrary, a taste for The work is scored for a chamber has such a powerful ‘break’ in the middle Robert Gibson © 2019 chamber music and symphonic music orchestra of strings with only one of each of its range. Like the break in the singing in its most serious and austere form.’ woodwind instrument and a single horn. voice, the clarinet break is something that The Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra first Honegger may have enjoyed the Natalie Shea, Symphony Australia © 2003 performed this work with conductor Dalia stimulation of his companionship with the players have to work hard at controlling. Atlas and soloist Phillip Miechel in Hobart on Playing above or below the break poses 11 September 1979 and, most recently, with rest of Les Six, but he consistently denied This is the first performance of this work by the no special challenges but travelling Jun Yi Ma and Francesco Celata in Burnie and any aesthetic alignment. His Pacific 231 Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. across it can be hazardous. Hobart on 9 and 11 August 2012. and Rugby were not intended as quirky pieces of musical onomatopoeia, but as And this is probably another reason why serious ‘Symphonic Movements’: extra- Mozart so loved the clarinet: its strong musical experiences translated into pure affinity with the human voice. The clarinet musical forms. has a chest voice, a head voice and a break in-between. It is powered by air In Pastorale d’été, Honegger is in lyrical passing from the lungs through the lips. It mood. As for many of his works, the sings not with words but with pure open
16 17 Georges Bizet (1838-1875)
Symphony in C Winton Dean, for a symphony showing sonata form gives Bizet’s symphony Allegro vivo not only sure technical ability, ‘but signs an emotionally affecting harmonic and Adagio of a natural genius never exceeded by colouristic tinge – as in Schubert, the a composer of Bizet’s years, Mozart, romantic impulse gives the classical Allegro Schubert, and Mendelssohn not language a different accent. Vivace excepted’. The verve, tunefulness, Romantic touches include the horn All sorts of interesting facts have come elegance and orchestral felicity of this calls evoking, in Bizet’s first movement, to light, long after his premature death, music raises the question why it remained distance and woodland; there are also about Georges Bizet: his illegitimate unknown for so long. The answer surely some details prophesying the composer son by his parents’ live-in servant, his is that if Bizet’s Symphony had been of Carmen, and especially of L’Arlésienne. – possibly intimate – relationship with performed when it was new, listeners The symphony’s most obvious exotic the demimondaine and entertainer would have spotted in it similarities to a touch is the orientalist tinge of the Céleste Mogador, who redeemed herself symphony by a much more established intervals in the oboe melody of the through marriage to an aristocrat (who composer, Charles Gounod, composed slow movement. Academically correct, became French envoy to Australia); and performed in the same year. In the fugato which forms the centre Bizet’s problematic relationship with his Bizet’s first movement, in particular, there of the slow movement neatly avoids wife, and her career, after his death, as are ideas also appearing almost note for going on too long. Bizet ingeniously the salon hostess who provided one note in Gounod, and half way through derives the fugal subject from the very of the models for Marcel Proust’s great the second movement, each composer opening of this movement, an upward novel Remembrance of Things Past. The resorts to a fugato. octave interval beginning the oboe fascination with Bizet is, of course, a These were not unconscious theme and the fugato as well. In some desire to know more about the man who reminiscences. Gounod had helped ways the third movement is the most composed Carmen and L’Arlésienne. his young admirer Bizet by getting him original achievement of all, Schubert- One thing which was thought to be the job of making a reduction of his like perhaps, but with an on-its-toes established about Bizet was that, short symphony for piano four hands. Bizet’s rhythmic verve which is spiritedly French, though his composing career was, he debt to Gounod was great, but worried a captivatingly sweeping second subject, was not a precocious genius. But for a him. A few years later he wrote ‘Gounod and a drone musette trio bringing just long time we didn’t know the extent of is an entirely original composer, and as a whiff of the farmyard dance floor. his early talent. His widow gave away his long as one imitates him one remains on Some writers on Bizet have imagined, unpublished music. Some of it came into the level of a pupil’. in the lively, moto perpetuo elements the hands of Reynaldo Hahn (another Gounod’s Symphony in D (No 1) is an of the last movement, an anticipation of Proust’s friends), who seems to have attractive piece, though Bizet’s now- of the final scene of Carmen, outside shown little interest in it. He deposited famous imitation outbids it in tunefulness the bullring; and it is true that the the music including Bizet’s Symphony in and charm. Neither symphony sounds springy march to which they lead C in the Bibliothèque Nationale, where it much like each composer’s best-known sounds like the ‘real’ Bizet. What is most languished until unearthed by a French work, the operas Faust and Carmen striking, though, in this symphony is musicologist, Jean Chantavoine, whose respectively. Writing for the orchestra in its spontaneity, free of any pretension enthusiastic writing about it, however, concert, both men extend into 19th- getting in the way of talent. It’s sad, in a aroused little interest. It took Bizet’s first century France a Classical style based way, that Bizet censored himself, though English biographer, DC Parker, to get on Haydn and Mozart. Resemblances understandable. Perhaps if he’d lived, after Carmen, he’d have got over his this Symphony known; he showed the to Mendelssohn, whose star was in Gounod hang-up. We have – and we can manuscript to the leading conductor the ascendant, are understandable. enjoy this Symphony in C, unalloyed. Felix Weingartner, who gave its first Likewise, in the crescendos of Bizet’s performance, in Basel, in 1935. first movement, to Rossini. A little more David Garrett © 2007 surprising are Bizet’s echoes of Schubert Bizet began to compose the Symphony – surprising because Schubert’s then The Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra first on October 29, 1855, four days before unpublished symphonies were unknown performed this work with conductor Joseph his 17th birthday. What was heard, Post in Hobart, Launceston, Burnie and Devonport in France, or indeed anywhere. The 80 years later, made many share the in November 1951 and, most recently, with handling of key relationships within Michael Collins in Launceston and Hobart on enthusiasm of another Bizet biographer, 4 and 6 October 2012. Georges Bizet 18