Virtuosi Tasmania 2018 Season Harp Plus! Impressionists

irtuosi Tasmania is bringing the harp with flute, clarinet and strings to venues across the state with a V great selection of chamber music from the impressionists Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel tempered with baroque foundations from J. S. Bach and more.

Harp Plus! Impressionists Thursday 2pm Sept 6 City Baptist Church, Launceston Friday 2pm Sept 7 Burnie Arts and Function Centre Sunday 11am Sept 9 Home Hill Winery, Ranelagh Sunday 3pm Sept 9 Riversdale Estate, Cambridge

If staying to enjoy the hospitality of the venue, please make a booking Home Hill Winery Restaurant 6264 1200 Riversdale Estate 6248 5555 Performers Meriel Owen harp, Lloyd Hudson flute, Andrew Seymour clarinet, Jennifer Owen violin, Edwina George violin, William Newbery viola, Jonathan Békés cello. Bookings Please contact the TSO Box Office on 1800 001 190 or go to www.tso.com.au $30/$25. Tickets also available at the door. Tickets for the Burnie Arts and Function Centre concert from the Centre on (03) 6430 5786.

Information Pieter Buining on 0409 655 024, email:[email protected] or visit www.virtuositas.org.au Mailing list We would like to send you our concert details by email or post. To join our contact list, please provide your details to a Virtuosi volunteer or email the secretary. Membership to Virtuosi Tasmania Membership of Virtuosi Tasmania Inc. is $25 for a financial year. For inquiries please contact the Membership Secretary Francesca Farrugia on 0411 465 478 or email [email protected].

Next Concert Our next concert, Much Ado About Contrasts will be performed at four venues over 6-7 October. If you are on our mailing list you will be given all the details well in advance. Details will also be available on our website www.virtuositas.org.au .

Virtuosi Tasmania - performing chamber music across Tasmania for over 25 years Program Notes

Debussy Danses Sacrée et Profane for harp and string quartet

Debussy composed this popular piece on a commission from the musical instrument manufacturer Pleyel to showcase Pleyel’s newly developed chromatic scale harp. The invention proved too complex and impractical and fell out of favour after a few years, but Debussy’s music lives on as a popular and frequently performed part of the harp repertoire. The work delivers flavours of antiquity which some attribute to Debussy’s homage to the ancient origin of the instrument and others to direct inspiration from Erik Satie’s Gymnopedies which Debussy much admired. Bach Chaconne arr. for clarinet and harp by Julian Yu

J. S. Bach’s celebrated chaconne has been arranged for a variety of ensembles since it was first performed circa 1718. One unusual arrangement, for clarinet and harp, is by award winning Chinese born Australian composer and music teacher Julian Yu. The original chaconne is part of Bach’s sonatas and partitas for solo violin. In this incredible set, Bach creates polyphonic music on a single essentially monophonic instrument. The “implied” polyphony of the work becomes more explicit and obvious in this arrangement.

Ravel Duo, Très vif, for violin and cello

After Debussy’s death in 1918, all important composers of the time received commissions to compose musical tributes to his memory. Ravel composed a musical conversation between violin and cello in the form of a sonata. Très vif is the second movement of this work. Ravel considered this work as a “turning point” of his career in which “The music is stripped to the bone; harmonic charm is renounced, and there is a return to melody”.

Ravel Introduction and Allegro for harp, flute, clarinet and string quartet

The Erard company, a competitor of Pleyel in manufacturing pianos and harps approached Ravel to compose a work that would display the capabilities of its harps against those of Pleyel harps of a unique design. Earlie, Claude Debussy had composed “Danses Sacrée et Profane” to display the “virtues” of Pleyel’s chromatic harp design. While this work has not enjoyed the general popularity of Debussy’s work, it remains a favourite of harpists and harp enthusiasts around the world and a pleasing work within harp repertoire.

Debussy Syrinx for solo flute

It took one hundred and fifty years since C. P. E. Bach composed the famous A minor sonata for solo flute until a significant solo work for this instrument appeared on the scene. Debussy composed the very short “Syrinx” for the modern “Böhm flute”. The simplicity of the score on paper belies the level of virtuosity required to deliver the essence of French Impressionism. Students of flute usually find it challenging to avoid producing a shrill sound and underestimate the amount of practice required to project the tonal dynamism and warmth that the piece demands and deserves.

Virtuosi Tasmania - performing chamber music across Tasmania for over 25 years