JULIEN VAN MELLAERTS & JAMES BAILLIEU 2 Chamber Music New Zealand Touring NZ 15 – 25 June www.northernmigrations.co.nz Kia ora tātou I first heard baritone Julien Van Mellaerts sing in 2012 when he appeared as Bartolo in Opera Otago’s production of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro. I was immediately impressed by both his voice and vivacious stage presence. In 2020, Julien will be performing the title role from the same opera, in concert, as part of Mozart2020, an internationally renowned festival hosted by Mozarteum Foundation Salzburg. Sir András Schiff invited Julien to sing the role of Figaro after hearing him sing at an award ceremony at the Royal College of Music, London. Here, Julien was awarded the prestigious Tagore Gold Medal, one of many awards this exceptional young singer has won. With such an impressive trajectory thus far, I’m sure that Julien’s musical career is set to be a fine one. Coincidentally, I have also had the pleasure of hearing the remarkable collaborative pianist James Baillieu in concert at Wigmore Hall – performing with our friends from the CMNZ 2018 Season, the Heath Quartet. I am so looking forward to hearing these outstanding young musicians perform together in a programme aptly titled Songs of Travel. The programme is beautifully crafted and includes a new Gareth Farr work of settings of new poems by Bill Manhire about four New Zealand birds. Julien commissioned this work with support from CMNZ, along with the Festival of Colour, Wanaka, Jane Kominik and the Dame Malvina Major Foundation – we thank them for their generosity. We would also like to acknowledge the Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation for generously supporting Julien and James with their international travel. Julien and James will be performing for our subscription audiences in Hamilton, New Plymouth and Napier, the Festival of Colour, Wanaka and as part of our Regional Series. Ngā mihi nui, Catherine Gibson Chief Executive Chamber Music New Zealand “…the baritone Julien Van Mellaerts brings the songs to life with warmth and wit.” – The Times SONGS OF TRAVEL Hamilton, New Plymouth, Napier FRANZ SCHUBERT (1797-1828) Page 8 Lieder: settings of poems by Geothe MAURICE RAVEL (1875-1937) Page 9 From Histoires naturelles GARETH FARR (b. 1968) Page 10 Ornithological Anecdotes INTERVAL RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS (1872-1958) Page 11 Songs of Travel BALLADS AND LEGENDS Page 12 Jean Sibelius, George Gershwin, Manning Sherwin, Cole Porter DURATION: 110 minutes including an interval *The Artists reserve the right to make changes to the programme. The Hamilton concert is being recorded for later broadcast by RNZ Concert. Please respect the music, the musicians, and your fellow audience members, by switching off all cellphones, pagers and watches. Taking photographs, or sound or video recordings during the concert is strictly prohibited unless with the prior approval of Chamber Music New Zealand. “James Baillieu is in a class of his own… a remarkable pianist.” – The Daily Telegraph Julien Van Mellaerts & James Baillieu 7 James Julien Van Baillieu Mellaerts Piano Baritone An accomplished chamber musician, soloist Julien Van Mellaerts has recently graduated from and accompanist, James’ partnerships include the Royal College of Music International Opera Lawrence Power, the Heath Quartet, Mark School, where he was a Fishmongers Scholar Padmore, Sir Thomas Allen, Dame Kiri te Kanawa studying with Russell Smythe. On graduation, he and Ian Bostridge. Venues include Wigmore Hall, was awarded the Tagore Gold Medal. Before Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Berlin Konzerthaus, moving to London, Julien studied music and Vienna Musikverein; and the Bergen, Spitalfields, languages at the University of Otago. Winner of Aldeburgh, Cheltenham, Bath, St Magnus, the 2016 Joan Chissell Schumann Song Prize, 2016 Norfolk & Norwich, Brighton, Verbier and Aix-en- Brooks-Van Der Pump English Song Competition, Provence Festivals. As a soloist, he has appeared and the 2015 Maureen Lehane Vocal Awards. with the Ulster Orchestra, the English Chamber Orchestra and the Wiener Kammersymphonie. Recent operatic roles include: second soldier and second Nazarene in Salome at the Verbier James has presented his own series at the Festival with Charles Dutoit; Dandini in La Wigmore Hall. This series was shortlisted for Cenerentola with Diva Opera; Schaunard in La the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Chamber Bohème as a Christine Collins Young Artist at Music and Song Award for an outstanding Opera Holland Park; . contribution to the performance of chamber music and song in the UK during 2016. Recent Highlights this season include baritone soloist collaborations include Benjamin Appl, Kathryn with the Royal Ballet in their production of Elizabeth Rudge, Jamie Barton and Lise Davidsen. This , with performances at the Barbican season’s engagements include appearances at and on tour, the world premiere of ‘Christmas Wigmore Hall in London, Park Avenue Armory Carol’ by Will Todd with Opera Holland Park, La Bohème in New York, Phillips Collection in Washington, Schaunard in with New Zealand Eugene Onegin Art Song Festval in Cleveland and performances Opera, the title role in with the Mozart at the Heidelberger Frühling and Konzerthaus Cambridge Philharmonic, the Referee in vs the Machine Dortmund. for Mahogany Opera Group, recitals with Julius Drake in Madrid, performances Born in South Africa, James studied in Cape at Wigmore and Cadogan Hall, baritone soloist Town and London. He was a Borletti-Buitoni in Fauré Requiem at the Royal Albert Hall, and Trust and Young Classical Artist Trust artist. James recitals at the London Song, Leeds Lieder and enjoys working with young musicians and is Oxford Lieder Festivals. a Professor at the Royal Academy of Music, a coach at the Royal Opera House, a course leader This year Julien will be singing Papageno in for the Samling Foundation, and head of the Mozart’s Magic Flute at Verbier as well as in Song Programme of the Atelier Lyrique at the Strauss Die Frau ohne Schatten with Gergiev, also Verbier Festival Academy. at Verbier. Julien is set to star in The Marriage of Figaro at Salzburg’s Mozart Week 2020. Julien’s tour to New Zealand is made possible with ongoing support from the Dame Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation. 8 Chamber Music New Zealand Franz Schubert (1797-1828) Lieder: settings of poems by Geothe Ganymed 1817 Rastlose Liebe 1815 Erster Verlust 1815 An den Mond 1816 Erlkönig 1815 Auf dem See 1817 Wanderers Nachtlied II (Über allen Gipfeln ist Ruh) 1824 Der Musensohn 1822 Long before the advent of email, Johann songs are ultimately about emotional turmoil. In Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) complained ‘Ganymed’ piano and voice together evoke the to a friend that he received so much unsolicited erotic excitement of the beautiful young boy for correspondence that he no longer bothered Zeus. In the ‘Wanderers Nachtlied’ (‘Wanderer’s replying. One writer thus neglected was Franz Nightsong’), it is the piano the creates the sense Schubert who, in 1817, had sent him some of nature at peace before the singer so magically settings of his poems. These, including some describes it. of the songs we hear tonight, were returned unopened. Goethe was interested in music and Schubert’s treatment of Goethe’s poetry is surrounded by musicians eager to set his poetry always utterly responsive to its meaning. The – but Schubert never made it on to his radar piano accompaniment in ‘Auf dem See’ (‘On (despite an eventual total of 71 Goethe songs). the Lake’) evokes changing weather and rising winds. A poem like ‘An den Mond’ (‘To the The Schubert Lied (plural Lieder) is Moon’) has four stanzas. Instead of a strophic quintessentially music-up-close – intimate setting (the same music for each stanza), the music written for drawing room performance. wonderful repose of the outer sections frame What became known as Schubertiads were a more animated central section where the private concerts to a select number of invited singer remembers his lover sitting surrounded by guests in the house of one of Schubert’s bushes rustling in the wind and a burbling brook. admirers. Schubert, who is often referred to (not quite accurately) as the ‘father’ of the Lied, This beautiful selection of Lieder traverses an championed this genre. Lied simply means emotional range from the calm of ‘An den Mond’ ‘song’, but in this context it is a setting in which and ‘Erster Verlust’ (‘First Loss’, but also about first the piano is an equal partner with the voice. In love) through to the jubilation of Der Musensohn ‘Erlkönig’ (‘The Elf-king’) the father’s desperate (‘The Muses’ Son’). ride through the night is dramatized in the virtuosic piano accompaniment. ‘Rastlose Liebe’ (‘Restless Love’) is similarly turbulent. Both Duration: 22 minutes Julien Van Mellaerts & James Baillieu 9 Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) From Histoires naturelles i. Le paon iii. Le cygne v. La pintade Ravel’s Histoires naturelles, composed in 1906, French rather than sounded separately are settings of five prose poems by Jules shocked his colleagues – even Debussy. Renard. Renard’s complete Histoires had been Throughout these settings are lots of mixed published just six years earlier with illustrations rhythms (the use of triplets, quintuplets etc.) by Toulouse Lautrec. These ironic vignettes that create the natural fluid profile of the of human and animal behavior sit delightfully spoken word. alongside the Farr/Manhire Ornithological Anecdotes. ‘Le paon’ (the peacock) is – needless to say – a vain creature whose dignity must Maurice Ravel stands alongside Claude be maintained even after his fiancée fails Debussy (1862-1918) as a giant of early 20th to show up for the wedding. The piano century French music. While he has sometimes accompaniment, with its dotted groups been accused of imitating his mentor and reminiscent of that most royal of forms, the friend’s revolutionary style (one that uses a French Overture, underlines the peacock’s familiar harmonic vocabulary of the late 19th sense of self-importance.