WINE PARTNER

Saturday 2 June 7.30pm WALTON Federation Concert Hall Two Pieces for Strings, from Henry V Hobart Passacaglia (The Death of ) Touch Her Soft Lips and Part MASTER 6 Duration 4 mins Sir Andrew Davis conductor ELGAR VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Variations on an Original Theme, Enigma Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis I (CAE) Duration 15 mins II (HDS-P) III (RBT) BRITTEN IV (WMB) Four Sea Interludes and Passacaglia, V (RPA) from Peter Grimes VI (Ysobel) Dawn VII (Troyte) Sunday Morning VIII (WN) Moonlight IX (Nimrod) Passacaglia X (Dorabella) Intermezzo Storm XI (GRS) Duration 23 mins XII (BGN) XIII (***) Romanza XIV (EDU) Finale INTERVAL Duration 30 mins

Duration 20 mins This concert will end at approximately 9.30 pm.

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5580 TSO Fine Drop Ad for Program 2015.indd 3 17/07/2015 9:47 am Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)

Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis a far smoother work. He was probably also inspired by the fantasias for string ensembles popular in Tallis’ time (such Vaughan Williams decided at an early as the In nomines of John Taverner). age that the prevailing state of English The form is somewhat similar to such music was not his ideal. Like his near- works, being a series of related themes Chief Conductor of the Melbourne Sir Andrew’s many CDs include a Messiah contemporaries Bela Bartók and Zoltan developed in relatively independent Symphony Orchestra since 2012, Sir Andrew nominated for a 2018 Grammy, Berlioz’s Kodály, he reasoned that a new yet sections. Davis is also music director and principal Roméo et Juliette, Ives’ Orchestral Works, truly national music must derive from conductor of the Lyric Opera of Chicago. vol 2 with the Melbourne Symphony, British Other references to the period are tradition and the past. He looked for He is conductor laureate of both the BBC Violin Concertos with Tamsin Little and the manifest in this fantasia. It is scored these origins not only in folksongs (of Symphony Orchestra and the Toronto BBC Symphony (Coleridge-Taylor and Wood, for three groups: a , a which he collected and arranged a Symphony, where he has also been named plus Delius’s Suite), a recently-released large string orchestra and a small string great many), but in other places where interim artistic director until 2020. He was recording of Bliss’s The Beatitudes, music of orchestra. This allows for antiphonal communal music-making occurred, such music director of the Glyndebourne Festival York Bowen (nominated for a 2012 Grammy effects such as Tallis regularly used with as churches. He also turned to previous Opera from 1988 to 2000 and holds the for Best Orchestral Performance) and a choirs. It also promotes the echo effects honorary title of conductor emeritus from the recording with the Bergen Philharmonic of Golden Ages of British composition, achieved in the acoustic of a great Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. Vaughan Williams’ Job/Symphony No 9 notably the Elizabethan and Jacobean cathedral, including Gloucester, where nominated for a 2018 BBC Music Magazine times. the work was premièred, in 1910. Tallis’ In a career spanning more than 40 years, he Award. original setting places the melody in the has conducted virtually all the world’s major Thomas Tallis (c1505-1585) was one tenor part, a common practice. Vaughan orchestras and opera companies, and at Sir Andrew Davis was born in Hertfordshire such ‘Golden’ composer. He served Williams, himself a violist, frequently the major festivals. Recent highlights have and was an organ scholar at King’s College, four monarchs: Henry VIII, Edward VI, assigns the tune to the violas or the inner included Die Walküre in a new production at Cambridge, before studying in Rome Mary I and Elizabeth I. Presumably, parts. His famously distinctive parallel Lyric Opera of Chicago. In the Lyric’s 2018-19 with Franco Ferrara. He became associate he adapted to the various religious chords recall the fauxbourdon technique season he conducts Idomeneo, Siegfried, conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony requirements of all of these, serving as as used by Tudor composers. and Cendrillon. Orchestra and made his debut with the BBC a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal for Symphony Orchestra in 1970. In 1992, he many years. Tallis worked within the Despite these references to past times, In the concert hall, 2018 has seen Sir Andrew was created a Commander of the British musical customs of his day including here the composer gives Tallis’ theme conduct the Toronto Symphony Orchestra Empire, and in 1999 was designated a Knight using the eight ‘Ecclesiastical’ or ‘Church’ a thoroughly 20th-century treatment. in programs including soloist Ray Chen in Bachelor in the New Year Honours List. modes. Around 1567, Tallis wrote a Vaughan Williams clearly enjoyed Bruch’s , and harpist Heidi He has an honorary doctorate from Knox series of eight hymn tunes, one in assisting his compositional alter ego, and Van Hoesen Gorton in Glière’s Harp Concerto College in Galesburg, Illinois. each of the church modes, for a psalter not just in the solo passages that suggest (a program that also included Sir Andrew commissioned by Matthew Parker, the the forthcoming The Lark Ascending. Davis’s own suite from Prokofiev’s Romeo and first Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury. The love of strings shows even in simple Juliet), and the BBC Symphony Orchestra in things like the final chord, whose already Finzi’s (with Paul Watkins) and The theme taken up by Vaughan Williams rich resonances would be amplified by a Shostakovich’s Tenth Symphony. In January was the third of these, based on the cathedral acoustic, reminding listeners of he conducted the Cincinnati Symphony Phrygian mode (corresponding to the the Fantasia’s historical as well as literal Orchestra in a program that included the white notes of the piano beginning on E: echoes. seldom-heard Second Symphony of former e f g a b c d e). Most folksongs are also Cincinnati Symphony music director, Eugene based on modes rather than chromatic scales, so it’s small wonder that much of Goossens (who also played a major role in Adapted from Katherine Kemp, the development of Australian music). In Vaughan Williams’ work sounds modal. Symphony Australia © 1998 December 2017, Sir Andrew conducted Tallis’ original setting of his ‘Third both Puccini’s Turandot and Bizet’s The Pearl Tune’ was for Psalm 2, one version of The Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra first Fishers at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. In which is now best known as ‘Why do performed this work with conductor Thomas Matthews in Hobart on 23 November 1967 and, August 2017, he conducted the Philharmonia the nations so furiously rage together’. at the Edinburgh Festival in Elgar’s cantata, most recently, with Howard Shelley in Hobart and Vaughan Williams instead seized on the Launceston on 23 and 24 May 2014. King Olaf. unusual beauty of Tallis’ harmony and well-balanced melodic form to create

4 5 Benjamin Britten (1913-1976)

Four Sea Interludes (Op 33a) and The Four Sea Interludes and Passacaglia The highly effective Storm, from Act I, Passacaglia (Op 33b), from Peter are drawn from various episodes in the is both a natural tempest and a mental Grimes opera. Dawn appears in Act I, the storm – a musical postscript to Peter’s Dawn Prologue’s coronial inquest, which has outpouring of anguish and lonely established that Peter Grimes cannot be confusion to a sympathetic interlocutor. Sunday Morning held culpable for the death by drowning A minute or so of respite is granted by Moonlight of his young apprentice. The music links the violins’ recollection of the melody Passacaglia this interior scene to a street by the which in the opera accompanied Peter’s Storm sea where townspeople and fisherman words: ‘What harbour shelters peace?... begin their daily work. The high flutes What harbour can embrace terrors and violins suggest, almost uncannily, and tragedies?’ But the return of the It was Peter Grimes which first made the cold glassy greyness of the sea, or storm snuffs out any hope of peace or Britten’s name as a musical dramatist of of a deserted beach; the swirl of harp, happiness. the highest order. In this, his first full- clarinets and violas an encroaching wave, scale opera, the composer in his late 20s while a brass chorale suggests, perhaps, turned out a masterpiece. the swell, with even, at one point, a note Abridged from a note by GK Williams, of menace. Symphony Australia © 1997 Britten was fascinated by the sea, particularly the coast of his native East The tolling of Sunday morning church The Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra first Anglia. He once wrote: ‘My parents’ bells is rendered most effectively performed the Four Sea Interludes with conductor house in Lowestoft directly faced the sea, by the overlapping clashing pairs of Joseph Post in Hobart on 9 June 1962 and, most French horns in Sunday Morning. Violas recently, with Marko Letonja in Hobart on 23 and my life as a child was coloured by March 2013. the fierce storms that sometimes drove and cellos sing the melody which ships on our coast and ate away whole accompanies the words of Peter’s friend stretches of neighbouring cliffs.’ Peter Ellen Orford (‘Glitter of waves and glitter Pears, Britten’s partner, bought a copy of sunlight...’) as the curtain rises, and of the works of poet George Crabbe the interlude extends into what is the (1754-1832) to Britten’s attention in 1941, beginning of Act II in the opera. and the pair were immediately drawn Moonlight is from the start of Act III. to Crabbe’s poem The Borough, which Another of Grimes’ apprentices has forms the basis of Peter Grimes, the story died by misadventure, and already the of an outsider fisherman in conflict with a audience senses that Grimes is steering small-minded seaside community. Britten unavoidably towards tragedy. As a piece began composing the opera, to a libretto of orchestral writing, considered on its Montagu Slater, in early 1944, and the own, it is, in the words of Arnold Whittall, work was unveiled to acclaim in London ‘one of Britten’s most subtle nature on 7 June 1945. scenes, a night-piece shot through with luminous shafts of moonlight.’ Peter Grimes provided Britten with opportunities for the musical portrayal The Passacaglia forms the interlude of the forces of nature in addition to the between the two scenes of Act II: the tortured inner life of the title character. suspicious townsfolk have formed Indeed, there was an autobiographical themselves into a band of vigilantes element in the struggle between the and marched off to confront Grimes in central character’s desire to be accepted his hut. The Passacaglia is essentially a by his highly judgemental fishing portrait of Grimes himself: his loneliness, community and his own determination his desperate need for affection, and his violence. to be accepted for who he is. In Grimes, Britten and Pears found someone to sympathise with.

Benjamin Britten 6 7 William Walton (1902-1983) (1857-1934)

Two Pieces for Strings, from Henry V the early scenes include Nym, Pistol, Variations on an Original Theme, and even the modest Renaissance of Passacaglia (The Death of Falstaff) Bardolf and Sir John Falstaff, drinking Op 36, Enigma English music sparked by the efforts Touch Her Soft Lips and Part companions of the young Henry (known I (CAE) – Caroline Alice Elgar, of the Brahmsians Stanford and Parry then as Prince Hal) before he put away the composer’s wife involved styles and personalities which ‘childish things’. were a world away from Elgar’s Roman Henry V was the first of three II (HDS-P) – Hew David Steuart-Powell, Catholic sentiments and pro-Wagnerian In the Passacaglia, the period song pianist in Elgar’s trio Shakespeare films made by Laurence ‘Watkin’s Ale’ becomes a sombre aesthetics. Olivier (the others being Hamlet and passacaglia whose slow, repetitive III (RBT) – Richard Baxter Townshend, And so by 1898, as the 41-year-old Elgar Richard III) for which Walton provided inexorability marvellously represents the author languished in the Malvern Hills, dressed the scores. Olivier’s films are considered oncoming of death. Falstaff, delirious, in tweed and with a trademark handlebar classics of Shakespeare in the cinema. IV (WMB) – William Meath Baker, remembers his last encounter with Prince nicknamed ‘the Squire’ moustache, he must have realised that He found new solutions to the problems Hal, who, on ascending to the throne, time was passing him by. By the same of transferring Shakespeare’s richly verbal brutally repudiated him. He sinks back V (RPA) – Richard Penrose Arnold, age, his idol Mozart had already been texts to a visual medium. It was Walton’s on his pillow, fumbling convulsively with son of Matthew Arnold dead for five years. Elsewhere, the glory achievement in working with Olivier to the sheets. In Touch Her Soft Lips and VI (Ysobel) – Isabel Fitton, viola player days of the British Empire – which meant create some of the first truly great film Part, after Falstaff’s death, Pistol and more to the politically conservative VII (Troyte) – Arthur Troyte Griffith, scores. his companions bid farewell to Mistress Elgar than to many of his musical architect Henry V was released in November 1944. Quickly in front of the Boar’s Head tavern contemporaries – were beginning to In the closing months of World War II, as they prepare to head off to war on the VIII (WN) – Winifred Norbury fade. when victory had yet to be clinched, Continent with Henry’s army. In 1944, IX (Nimrod) – August Johannes Jaeger, But one evening in October 1898, Elgar the film fulfilled a propaganda role, just Pistol’s words before embarkation (‘Touch reader for the publisher Novello & Co began to doodle away at the piano. as the original play had done in 1600. her soft lips and part’) would have had Chancing upon a brief theme that Henry’s speeches, rousing his troops, had particular poignancy, a quality captured X (Dorabella) Intermezzo – Dora Penny, later Mrs Richard Powell pleased him, he started imagining his always been stirring, but in the 1940s, as by Walton’s music for strings. friends confronting the same theme, Christopher Palmer points out, the film’s XI (GRS) – Dr GR Sinclair, commenting to his wife, ‘This is how so- opening shot travelling upstream along organist of Hereford Cathedral Symphony Australia © 2002/2010 and-so would have done it.’ Or he would the Thames from the Tower over London try to catch another friend’s character in Bridge to the South Bank would have XII (BGN) – Basil G Nevinson, cellist in Elgar’s trio a variation. This harmless bit of fun grew evoked thoughts of the defence of that into one of England’s greatest orchestral city against the Luftwaffe. XIII (***) Romanza – Lady Mary Lygon, masterpieces, Elgar’s Variations on an Olivier subsequently described Walton as later Trefusis Original Theme. one of the finest Shakespearean scholars XIV (EDU) Finale – Elgar himself Where the word ‘Theme’ should have of all time, meaning that Walton’s music (‘Edu’ being his nickname) appeared in the score, however, Elgar was rich in the warmth, nobility and wrote ‘Enigma’. He stated that the splendour attained by Shakespearean theme was a variation on a well-known In middle-age, Edward Elgar found English. Walton had no need to move tune which he refused to identify. It’s himself in his native Malvern region, outside his normal stylistic language a conundrum which has occupied eking out a living as a humble rural music for this assignment, but the score does concertgoers and scholars alike ever teacher. He took in students, made incorporate some outside sources for since. Elgar himself rejected suggestions instrumental arrangements, gave an purposes of period colour. of ‘God Save the King’ and ‘Auld Lang occasional performance and continually In Henry V Shakespeare compressed the Syne’. Other suggestions have included threatened to give away music early events of Henry’s reign (1387-1422) ‘Rule, Britannia’, an extract from Wagner’s altogether. and made Agincourt the climax of his Parsifal, and even ‘Ta-ra-ra-boom-de- structure, concluding with the marriage. Elgar’s disappointment – indeed ay’. Another suggestion is that it’s a The play is a presentation of the ideals downright bitterness – during the simple scale, while Michael Kennedy has of kingly virtue, with the emphasis on 1890s was understandable. For ‘serious’ proposed that the unheard theme could Henry’s ability to rouse his soldiers to composers England had produced no be Elgar himself, with the famous two- greater efforts in the face of danger. But role models since the days of Purcell, quaver two-crotchet motif on which the

8 9 entire work is based capturing the natural artist, he simply poured his frustrations speech rhythm of the name ‘Edward into still more beautiful compositions. In Elgar’. Elgar went to his grave without memory of that conversation, Elgar made revealing the truth and no one has come those opening bars of Nimrod quote up with the definitive answer. the slow movement from Beethoven’s The second enigma was the identity Pathétique Sonata. of the characters depicted within each Variation 10 depicts a young woman variation, who were identified at first only called Dora Penny, whose soubriquet by their initials in the score. This enigma ‘Dorabella’ comes from Mozart’s Così has proved much easier to solve. fan tutte. And then Variation 11 goes Deepen your relationship with the TSO Variation 1, which simply elaborates the beyond the human species, depicting Come to know musicians main violin theme with prominent wind the organist GR Sinclair’s bulldog, Dan, playing, depicts Elgar’s wife, Caroline falling down the steep bank of the river Attend exclusive events and rehearsals Alice (‘Carice’). The second variation Wye, paddling upstream, coming to land Share your love of music with like-minded friends brings the first hint of actual imitation. and then barking. Pianist HD Steuart-Powell was one of The cello features prominently in Elgar’s chamber music collaborators, Variation 12 – a tribute to cellist Basil who characteristically played a diatonic Nevinson. Mendelssohn’s Calm Sea and run over the keyboard as a warm-up. Prosperous Voyage is quoted in Variation Variation 3 depicts the ham actor RB 13, said to depict Lady Mary Lygon’s Townshend whose drastic variation in departure by ship to Australia. Finally we vocal pitch is mocked here. hear ‘EDU’ where the composer depicts The Cotswold squire W Meath Baker himself (his wife’s nickname for him was is the subject of Variation 4 while the Edoo) cocking a snook at all those who mixture of seriousness and wit displayed said he’d never make it as a composer. by the poet Matthew Arnold’s son Abridged from a note by Martin Buzacott Richard is captured in the fifth variation. © 2000 The next two variations parody the technical inadequacies of Elgar’s The Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra first chamber music acquaintances. Violist performed this work with conductor Murison Bourn in Hobart on 11 November 1954 and, most Isabel Fitton (Variation 6) had trouble recently, with Garry Walker in Hobart on 27 March performing music where the strings had 2015. to be crossed while Arthur Troyte Griffith (Variation 7) was a pianist whose vigorous style sounded more like drumming! Poor Winifred Norbury is actually represented in Variation 8 by a musical depiction of her country house, ‘Sherridge’. The most famous variation is Nimrod (No 9). Nimrod (the ‘mighty hunter before the Lord’ of Genesis, Chapter 10) was Elgar’s publisher AJ Jaeger (German for ‘hunter’). Apparently the idea for this particular variation came when Elgar was going through one of his regular slumps. Jaeger took Elgar on a long walk during which he said that whenever Beethoven was troubled by the turbulent life of a creative tsofriends.com.au

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