Howard’s MASTER 3 & Way LAUNCESTON 2

FRIDAY SATURDAY 1 MAY 7.30PM 2 MAY 7.30PM FEDERATION CONCERT HALL PRINCESS THEATRE

Howard Shelley conductor & piano FAURÉ arr RABAUD Dolly DVORˇ ÁK Berceuse (Lullaby) Legends Mi-a-ou 1 Allegretto Jardin de Dolly (Dolly’s garden) 2 Molto moderato Kitty valse (Kitty waltz) 6 Allegro con moto Tendresse 7 Allegretto grazioso Le pas espagnol (Spanish step) 3 Allegro giusto Duration 17 mins Duration 22 mins

DVORˇ ÁK MENDELSSOHN Symphonic Variations Piano Concerto No 1 Molto allegro con fuoco Duration 21 mins Andante Presto – Molto allegro e vivace – Tempo I This concert will end at approximately 9.30pm. Duration 21 mins

INTERVAL Duration 20 mins

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Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra concerts are broadcast and streamed throughout Australia and around the world by ABC Classic FM. We would appreciate your cooperation in keeping coughing to a minimum. Please ensure that your mobile phone is switched off. 3 ANTONÍN DVORˇ ÁK (1841-1904)

Legends, Op 59 B122 material and rhythmic character always 1 Allegretto contain the flavour of folk music. Themes come and go, seldom developed in any 2 Molto moderato classical sense, and often having the feel of 6 Allegro con moto something half-remembered; occasionally 7 Allegretto grazioso the Legends seem like Mahler in miniature, world, including the Orchestra di Padova e HOWARD SHELLEY and suggest rich and complex narrative. del Veneto in Italy, Orchestra della Svizzera 3 Allegro giusto In No 1, for instance, a brisk, fully-scored italiana in Switzerland, Poland’s Sinfonia Late in life, Dvorˇák famously described opening in polka rhythm gives way to a Howard Shelley has enjoyed a distinguished himself as a “plain Czech musician”, but Varsovia and the Tasmanian Symphony series of melodic ideas, often painted in he was, of course, a far more sophisticated career, regularly touring on all continents Orchestra. He has held the positions of the bucolic colours of horn and woodwinds, artist than that folksy description suggests. including 30 consecutive years to Australia. and ending with a rather Brahmsian texture Associate and Principal Guest Conductor Moreover, the degree to which his work of high, soft woodwind chords. His first Australian appearance was at with the and was overtly nationalist varied considerably the Perth Festival in 1984. Since then Principal Conductor of Sweden’s Uppsala at different times of his career. Like many In No 2, lilting triple-time material is he has returned annually and worked Chamber Orchestra. a young composer of his generation, given out by the strings, but this is soon Dvorˇák was taken with the “New German” enlivened by faster tempos, fuller scoring, with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra Television highlights include the 100th aesthetics of Liszt and Wagner, though and insistent triplet rhythms. These as piano soloist, and with the Adelaide, anniversary of the BBC Proms, a concert would, in the late 1870s, become a impassioned, often waltz-like passages are Melbourne, West Australian, Queensland broadcast on Swiss-Italian television of protégé of Brahms and the anti-Wagnerian interspersed with more reflective delicate Viennese critic Eduard Hanslick, to whom episodes, before a serene close. and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras as Vaughan Williams’ A London Symphony he dedicated his set of ten Legends. Those soloist and conductor/soloist. He has made and a documentary on Ravel by the ABC In No 6 the harp provides rippling figures tone poems such as The Noonday Witch under a sinuous main melody that gains thirteen acclaimed CDs with the Tasmanian which won the Gold Medal for the best and The Golden Spinning-wheel that are tension from its use of triplets and Symphony Orchestra for Hyperion’s arts biography of the year at the New York based on Slavic legends are rather later, emphatically duple dotted rhythms. Romantic Piano series. Festivals Awards. dating from the 1890s, when he was well established internationally. No 7 has some of the character of No 1, As pianist he has performed with leading Howard Shelley’s discography, which has with regular eight-bar “dance” periods It is true, though, that he made a forming the main material. orchestras and conductors, with highlights now reached 150 recordings, includes the breakthrough in terms of profile (and including a unique series of five London complete Rachmaninov solo piano music finances) with his Slavonic Dances. These No 3 provides a fitting close to this and concertos; a series of Mozart, Hummel were originally for piano, four hands, aimed selection, being in a sense the most recitals – broadcast by the BBC – of Brahmsian (in Hungarian mode) of the set, and Mendelssohn concertos; and selected squarely at the domestic market, and later Rachmaninov’s complete solo piano music. orchestrated. The Legends, too, were with energetic, fully-upholstered 2/4 dance Gershwin works for piano and orchestra. Since his conducting debut with the London composed as piano duos in 1880-81 and rhythms contrasting with a central lyrical His contributions to Hyperion’s Romantic Symphony Orchestra in 1985, he has exquisitely orchestrated later in 1881 for a introspective section in 4/4. Piano series, mostly with the TSO, include band of double woodwinds, four horns, two made extensive conducting appearances © Gordon Kerry 2015 concertos by Moscheles, Herz, Hiller, trumpets, timpani, percussion and harp, in the UK, as well as with the Hong Kong Kalkbrenner, Pixis, Thalberg, Godard and and strings. Dvorˇák is sparing with the use Philharmonic Orchestra, Mexico City of harp, timpani and percussion, as with the many others. Recent issues include boxed Philharmonic Orchestra, Munich Symphony brass, though the four horns add richness. sets of Haydn’s “London” symphonies and a Dvorˇák left no hint of a program, or story, Orchestra, St Gallen Symphony Orchestra, 14-CD survey of Clementi and Beethoven’s Seattle Symphony, Naples Philharmonic and that might “explain” any of the Legends, complete works for piano and orchestra. but it is fair to describe each one as a Singapore Symphony Orchestra. Howard Shelley is married to Hilary miniature symphonic poem. They mostly conform to no pre-existent musical form, His engagements are now mostly in the Macnamara and they have two sons. An but rely on sharp contrasts of material and a dual role of conductor/soloist, and he Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of fluid movement between major and minor maintains particularly close relationships Music, he was awarded an OBE for services keys, that might suggest sudden events with a number of orchestras around the to classical music in 2009. in a fantastic story, and their thematic

4 5 (1809-1847) GABRIEL FAURÉ (1845-1924) ARR HENRI RABAUD (1873-1949) Piano Concerto No 1 in G minor, Op 25 motto interrupts, and the piano’s musing reply leads directly into the second Molto allegro con fuoco Dolly – Suite, Op 56 movement, a warm, tenderly scored Andante Andante. Mendelssohn as pianist liked to Berceuse (Lullaby) Presto – Molto allegro e vivace – Tempo I play the final movement (Presto) “as fast as Mi-a-ou possible, providing that the notes can be Jardin de Dolly (Dolly’s Garden) Some time in the summer of 1828, heard”. The movement contains passing Mendelssohn’s parents decided that their references to the first movement in order to Kitty valse (Kitty Waltz) young man needed travel to broaden his clinch the concerto’s unity. Tendresse mind. He left Berlin on 10 April 1829 bound Le pas espagnol (Spanish Step) for England, Scotland and Wales. There Some writers have claimed that this work in the British Isles he was enthusiastically is more virtuosic than profound. As an English witness, John Edmund Cox, wrote, Throughout the nineteenth century, the received as a concert and salon pianist, piano duet was a very popular genre. Mendelssohn’s own playing was certainly and visited the famous Fingal’s Cave and Many masters including Weber, Schubert, sketched the Hebrides Overture. Scotland impressive: “Whilst in all the delicate Mendelssohn and Brahms wrote music nuances his fingers seemed to be like also inspired him to begin the Reformation four hands, but it was French composers GABRIEL FAURÉ Symphony. feathers, in those of more forcible and in the second half of the century who impetuous character there was a grasp most enriched this particular form of Mendelssohn returned briefly to Berlin Spanish Step is, as Marguerite Long writes, and an élan which almost took away composition. Chabrier, Ravel, Debussy before setting off on another journey. “the transposition in music of the bronze one’s breath.” and Fauré produced a number of beautiful In Weimar he paid what was to be the equestrian statue by Frémiet, Fauré’s father- This concerto became one of Mendelssohn’s scores, each reflecting the manner and in-law, which stood on the mantle-piece last of his visits to Goethe. In Munich musical ideas of the composer. Mendelssohn met Delphine von Schauroth most popular pieces. Berlioz tells the story in Madame Bardac’s house and which was who was to be the inspiration for his first of an Erard piano at the Paris Conservatoire Fauré wrote the Dolly Suite between 1894 much admired by young Dolly”. piano concerto. Mendelssohn, who was in which began to play the piece of its own and 1897 for Dolly, the daughter of Emma Dolly was later orchestrated by Henri demand at soirées, records that he followed accord after 29 contestants in a row had Bardac, Debussy’s second wife: Dolly later Rabaud (Fauré’s successor as director of the became a musician herself. The suite was Delphine around “like a pet lamb”. He played it in a competition. Erard, the maker, Paris Conservatoire) for a ballet which was was hastily summoned and sprinkled holy meant to suggest the games of a little premièred in January 1913. persuaded her to play Hummel’s Sonata for girl, and childhood in general. Although four hands with him and gallantly held an A water on the piano to no avail. Nor did © Jacques Delaruelle dismantling the piano or chopping it up the program is roughly similar to that of flat for her because her tiny hands could not Debussy’s Children’s Corner suite, the have any effect; the only thing that worked reach it. “We flirted dreadfully,” he wrote difference between the two works mirrors was burning it. to his sister Fanny, “but there is no danger the difference between the two composers. because I am already in love with a young Abridged from a note by G K Williams, Fauré sings the charms of childhood with Scottish girl whose name I don’t know.” Symphony Australia © 1997 an emotional voice, the melodies evoking The Concerto in G minor was actually Dolly’s sweet innocence, whereas Debussy treats his Children’s Corner with more wit committed to paper in the space of three The Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra first performed this work with conductor Thomas and a slightly ironic tone, suggesting a days during Mendelssohn’s return journey Mayer and soloist Roslyn Langlois in Hobart man amused rather than moved by what to Munich the following year. It was first on 24 November 1972 and, most recently, with he imagines. performed in Munich on 17 October 1831, Sebastian Lang-Lessing and Kirill Gerstein in with Mendelssohn as soloist, before the Hobart and Sydney on 20 September and Each of the movements of the Dolly Suite 2 October 2008. King and Queen of Bavaria. The concerto’s reflects a short scene or biographical first movement immediately dispenses with detail in Dolly’s childhood. In Berceuse the child sings her doll to sleep; Mi-a-ou was the extended orchestral opening of Classical Dolly’s attempt to pronounce the name of tradition. Its turbulent G minor calls to mind her brother Raoul; Dolly’s Garden evokes Carl Zelter’s question when the 12-year-old the wonder of an enchanted garden in a Mendelssohn had improvised for Goethe: dream; Kitty Waltz illustrates the leaps of a “What goblins and dragons have you been favorite dog (Raoul had a pet named Kitty); dreaming about to drive you along so Tendresse is an eloquent expression of wildly?” The movement’s biggest surprise Fauré’s own nostalgia, with a sentimental comes at the end where, after a compressed air as touching as it is old fashioned; and development and recapitulation, a trumpet

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Symphonic Variations, B 70 (Op 78) roughly quashing cheeky interjections from the sideline. A short, fast, vigorous The Romantic Variations on a musical theme seem an variation arrives, like a coda, to round off unlikely academic exercise and are, indeed, proceedings to this point. uncommon for the spontaneously melodic Variation 17 establishes a new time- Piano Concerto Dvorˇák. Yet when, in 1877, the 36-year- old composer tackled a set of orchestral signature, duple time being replaced variations, based on a choral part-song by triple time in a chirpy, lightly-scored he had written earlier in the year, the scherzo. And with the ensuing limpid horn Howard Shelley and the TSO have recorded variation we begin exploring new tonalities effort paid impressive dividends in 13 discs in this ground-breaking series. consolidating his mastery of musical – first D major and then, beginning with a form and orchestral writing. surprising piece in waltz time, a series of six variations centred around B flat (mostly, Dvorˇák’s canny choice of a tripartite theme except for the waltz, in the minor). What the critics are saying… (from his chorus The Fiddler, B66/3) may betray grateful familiarity with the Variations A return to the major brings warm lyricism in Variation 25, and the next makes further “...the performances by the indefatigable Howard Shelley on a theme of Haydn which his soon-to-be and the Tasmanian orchestra cannot be faulted.” friend and mentor Johannes Brahms had sprightly progress back towards the home published three years earlier. There are key of C major, which is reached in Variation —Gramophone structural and rhythmic similarities and, 27. In this curious latter variation, the string although Dvorˇák’s opening phrase is more and wind groups toy with echoed snatches “ I strongly recommend this issue… [Shelley’s] elegance austere and angular than Brahms’, its very of the melody until, eventually, a cascade of of phrasing and comprehensively musical technique are angularity, making much of a modal upward strings sweeps downwards into the finale. truly exceptional: cleverly, his dynamic range is judged leap characteristic of Slovak mountain song, As if to justify his disarmingly tongue- to a nicety and the orchestral playing is remarkably fine offers rich harmonic possibilities. in-cheek inscription on this “academic” throughout.” After a simple statement of the theme score, “Symphonic Variations...composed —International Record Review and three initial variations of variegated and entangled [!] by Antonín Dvorˇák”, the contrapuntal embellishment, Dvorˇák composer, straight-faced, now presents his “ Directing the Tasmanian Symphony from the keyboard, theme in the ultimate academic guise of a settles down in Variation 4 to the serious Howard Shelley gives us fine performances.” fugue, followed at the other extreme by an enjoyment, and dissection, of his theme. —The Guardian Now he submerges the melody beneath entrancingly characteristic polka, all of this sweeping, sometimes sighing, strings. on the way to a jubilant coda in which we Then, in Variations 5-10, his youthful energy may even hear an impression of bells. and playfulness come to the fore, save only Abridged from a note by Anthony Cane in Variation 8, in which sustained woodwind © 2002 chords create a dreamlike interlude. The tenth variation, virtually a speeded-up The Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra first variant of the carefree Variation 9, ends performed this work with conductor Charles Mackerras in Hobart on 25 May 1971 and, this blissful sequence. most recently, with Richard Mills in Hobart Now emotional content deepens; contrasts on 3 May 2008. become more abrupt and dramatic. Variation 11 has a pensive, momentarily agitated, dialogue between cello and oboe. A richly expressive violin solo in the twelfth is swept aside by a brief burst of exuberance in Variation 13. A sudden hush brings a contemplative, ethereal variation, marked Lento, which is brusquely trumped Available at the TSO Box Office and tso.com.au. in Variation 15 by brassy pomposity, RRP $30. Special subscriber price $27.

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