LISTENING GUIDE 6 the Artist-In-Residence Program Is Supported by the University of Queensland
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
TIMELESS ALONDRA’S SEASON FINALE 15 + 16 NOV 2019 CONCERT HALL, QPAC PROGRAM | TIMELESS I WELCOME Welcome to Timeless. This is a very special concert as it is the final occasion that Alondra de la Parra will conduct Queensland Symphony Orchestra in her role as Music Director. I am enormously grateful for the energy, creativity, and passion that Alondra has brought to the Orchestra, and we wish her all the very best for her future musical adventures. This concert is also the final performance for Paul Lewis in the role of Artist-in-Residence for 2019. Paul has astounded us this year with his talent and musicality, and I can’t wait to hear his interpretation of Grieg’s Piano Concerto in this concert. I’m also looking forward to hearing the Orchestra perform Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 with its rousing and uplifting finale, a very fitting end to this momentous occasion. I wish to thank each and every one of you for your support of the Orchestra and I look forward to seeing you all again in 2020 for what promises to be another year of breathtaking music! Chris Freeman AM Chair IN THIS CONCERT PROGRAM Conductor Alondra de la Parra FRI 15 NOV CONTENTS Piano Paul Lewis Grieg Piano Concerto in A minor 30’ Tchaikovsky Symphony No.5 in E minor 50’ WELCOME 1 Relive this concert on ABC SAT 16 NOV Classic on 1 December 2019 Ravel Rapsodie espagnol 16’ at 1pm (AEDT). Grieg Piano Concerto in A minor 30’ IF YOU'RE NEW TO THE ORCHESTRA 4 INTERVAL 20’ Tchaikovsky Symphony No.5 in E minor 50’ DEFINITION OF TERMS 5 Queensland Symphony Orchestra Music Director is proudly supported by Tim Fairfax AC. LISTENING GUIDE 6 The Artist-in-Residence program is supported by The University of Queensland. Timeless is presented in association with QPAC. ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES 10 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 | TIMELESS and all other electronic devices. Please muffle coughs and refrain from talking during the performance. 1 WELCOME FROM QPAC Timeless: the perfect title for Queensland Symphony Orchestra’s 2019 Season Finale. Though much of the spectacular music in this concert was composed well over a century ago, it remains as relevant and engaging as ever. QPAC is honoured to co-present the work of our acclaimed state orchestra, which for the past three years has gone from strength to strength with superstar Alondra de la Parra at the helm. We celebrate the remarkable and lasting contribution that Alondra has made to our cultural landscape and the boundless creative energy she has brought to her last season as Music Director. This is also Paul Lewis’ farewell as the Orchestra’s 2019 Artist in Residence, and we are delighted that Brisbane audiences have been the beneficiaries of his prodigious musical talents. Regional Queensland too will have the opportunity to swept away by this program of masterpieces, with a performance livestreamed to ten locations throughout the state. Both QPAC and Queensland Symphony Orchestra believe that, for the arts to continue thriving, our performances must reach beyond the walls of the theatre to benefit the wider community. From the rich depth of Grieg’s Piano Concerto through to Tchaikovsky’s much-loved Symphony No.5, Queensland Symphony Orchestra’s 2019 season culminates in yet another program of classical music that endures. John Kotzas Chief Executive Timeless is presented in association with QPAC. 2 PROGRAM | TIMELESS © Peter Wallis PROGRAM | TIMELESS 3 IF YOU'RE NEW TO THE ORCHESTRA DEFINITION OF TERMS The following terms appear in bold the first time they appear in the listening guide. Allegro con anima a tempo direction indicating lively and fast with spirit. Arabesque a style of music based on Arabic architecture, often highly embellished. Concerto an orchestral work which features a solo instrumentalist. Exposition a statement of a main musical subject. Habanera a slow dance originating from Cuba which has a similar rhythm to the tango. Liszt a Hungarian composer and virtuoso pianist who lived from 1811–1886. Motif a short, recurring musical idea, the basic building block of a piece of music. Movement a self-contained section of a work. Diagram based on orchestra layout for Grieg. Programmatic music that tells a story or paints a picture of a particular WHO SITS WHERE environment or scene. Recapitulation a re-statement of a main musical subject. Orchestras sit in sections based on types of instruments. There are four main sections Suite a set of instrumental or orchestral works. in the symphony orchestra (strings, woodwinds, brass, and percussion) and sometimes a keyboard section. Symphony an extended musical composition most commonly written for symphony orchestra and containing around three or more movements. STRINGS BRASS Theme a subject, usually melodic, of a work. These instruments produce sound by bowing or Brass players create sound by vibrating their plucking stretched strings. lips. When this vibration is pushed through large Time-signature an indication of how musical beats are to be counted. First and Second Violin brass tubes, it can create significant noise. French Horn Viola Waltz an elegant dance which has groups of three beats, with the first Cello Trumpet Double Bass Trombone / Bass Trombone beat receiving the most emphasis. Tuba WOODWIND Wind instruments produce sound by being PERCUSSION blown into. These instruments create sound by being Flute / Piccolo struck or, for the harp, plucked or strummed. Some instruments just make a sound; others Clarinet / Bass Clarinet play particular notes. Oboe / Cor Anglais Bassoon / Contrabassoon Timpani, Harp, Bass Drum, Castanets, Cymbals (Pair), Snare Drum, Tam Tam, Tambourine, Triangle, Xylophone KEYBOARD Keyboard instruments are played by pressing keys. Piano Celeste 4 PROGRAM | TIMELESS PROGRAM | TIMELESS 5 LISTENING GUIDE Maurice Ravel (1875–1937) Not featured in Friday concert. Edvard Grieg (1843–1907) Rapsodie espagnol Piano Concerto in A minor, Op.16 I. Prélude à la nuit I. Allegro molto moderato II. Malagueña II. Adagio III. Habanera III. Allegro moderato molto e marcato IV. Feria After hearing a performance of Grieg’s Piano Concerto, Arnold Schoenberg is supposed Though born only a short distance from the Spanish border, in France’s Basque to have remarked: ‘That’s the kind of music I’d really like to write.’ It wouldn’t have been territory, Ravel lived almost all of his life in Paris and only visited Spain two or three the first time that Schoenberg’s facetious humour was apparent, but one can’t help but times. His ability to sound ‘more Spanish than the Spanish’ astonished even so feel that there was a wistful sincerity buried in the remark. Grieg’s concerto is, with good Spanish a composer as Manuel de Falla, who ascribed Ravel’s ability to an ‘ideal Spain’ reason, popular – a fate not enjoyed by Schoenberg’s music. represented by his mother. Marie Ravel’s singing of Spanish folksongs had been among Grieg himself was not so sure, however. He composed the concerto at the age of 25 while Ravel’s earliest memories. on holiday in Denmark with his wife and young child, and he was at that stage relatively The movement headings of Rapsodie espagnol (1908) promise a suite of Spanish dances. inexperienced in orchestral writing. He tinkered endlessly with the orchestration of his The first movement, Prélude à la nuit (Prelude to the Night), sets a static nocturnal concerto between the time of the work’s (triumphant) premiere and his death in 1907. mood, with a descending four-note motif, which recurs throughout the work, set against Grieg had studied at the Leipzig Conservatory from the age of 15 with the initial intent a three-in-a-bar time-signature. In the Malagueña, subtle similarities in tone-colour of becoming a concert pianist. Dissatisfied with his first teacher, he began lessons with and rhythm echo the preceding movement. The lively opening tempo slows down as E.F. Wenzel, a friend and supporter of Schumann’s; under his tutelage Grieg began the cor anglais enters for a brief solo, more an arabesque than a fully stated melody. composing piano music for his own performances and wrote passionate articles in There is the briefest glimpse of the four-note descending figure and the short movement defence of Schumann’s music. ends, almost by sleight of hand, with an upward flourish. The Habanera is virtually a transcription of a piano piece of Ravel’s from 1895. The Hispanic was in Ravel’s blood, and The influence of Schumann’s Piano Concerto, also in A minor, has been remarked on habaneras were an early passion. The finalFeria (Festival), with its carnival associations, frequently, but apart from their similar three-movement design and opening gesture the is the longest and most festive movement. style of each is markedly different. Both composers were, however, primarily lyricists, and Grieg’s concerto is certainly replete with exquisite tunes, many of which echo the shapes © Symphony Australia of Norwegian folk music. The piano’s opening gesture, for instance, recalls folk music in its use of a ‘gapped’ scale, and the origins of the finale in folk dance are clear. Grieg was unable to attend the premiere of his concerto in Copenhagen in 1869, but it was an outstanding success and was recognised as a youthful masterpiece. The work went on to establish his reputation throughout the musical world.