Issue 2, 2015: April AE NEWS newsletter of the Ensemble @UNSW

Never Stand Still Music Performance Unit April Events Playing the last century It is no secret to the other members Australia Ensemble @UNSW of the Australia Ensemble that Free lunch hour concert Geoffrey Collins is very pleased Tuesday April 14, 2015 to be performing Martin Bresnick’s 1.10 - 2.00pm My Twentieth Century in the April Leighton Hall, Scientia Building subscription concert. Geoffrey last Haydn: Flute quartet Op.5 no.3 performed it in 2004 at the Australian Sculthorpe: String quartet no.8 Youth Orchestra’s National Music Ravel: Mother Goose suite arr. Camp in Canberra where Bresnick was composer-in-residence, and he Munro found it to be a very engaging piece. “It is much more transparent than Australia Ensemble @UNSW Bresnick’s previous works,” Geoffrey offered. “There is a trajectory that Free lunch hour workshop carries the listener through; it builds Thursday April 16, 2015 up and intensifi es over the course 1.10 - 2.00pm of the piece”. My Twentieth Century Leighton Hall, Scientia Building (2002) is scored for fl ute, clarinet, Violinist Dene Olding in a public piano, violin, and cello, but also masterclass with musicians from requires each of the instrumentalists UNSW to narrate passages from a text by Free, all welcome Bresnick’s friend and colleague Tom Andrews. Sadly, the poet died between Geoffrey Collins, fl ute Australia Ensemble @UNSW completing the work and its fi rst performance in 2002, due to complications from haemophilia, a condition Subscription Concert 2, 2015 which affected him from his teenage years and coloured the perspective of Saturday April 18, 2015 much of his poetry. An American critic, Guy Davenport, said “They [the poems] 8.00pm are about the dominion of the spirit when it is rich in imagination and courage”. Sir John Clancy Auditorium Some of the associations in the text illustrate very personal elements of the Bresnick: My Twentieth Century poet’s experience, including his thrill-seeking nature and love of motocross (‘I Sculthorpe: Irkanda IV loved Kawasaki in the twentieth century’) and his haemophilia (‘I shed pints Ravel: Duo for violin & cello of blood in the twentieth century’) giving the work a very literal as well as a broader fi gurative meaning. The poem was written specifi cally as a component Carter: Esprit rude, esprit doux of the composition, and was completed in July 2001, shortly before Andrews’ Elgar: Piano quintet unexpected death at age 40. The composer dedicated the work to Andrews’ [email protected] memory. Geoffrey Collins recalled that Bresnick was quite particular about the delivery of the text, aiming to ensure that the Australian speech patterns managed to capture the wistful character of Andrews’ poem, which the composer describes “as if in a heightened conversation”. The text itself is not complicated or intense; rather, comprising refl ective and quite intimate musings on twentieth century life. Perhaps Geoffrey shouldn’t have been too concerned about his skills of public speaking. The composer generously refl ected “I always love to hear the text Australian-accented. There was a wonderful performance at an AYO camp in Canberra in 2004 that I will always treasure - with musicians we will hear – Geoffrey Collins Geoffrey Collins, fl ute; Peter Handsworth, clarinet; Lisa (fl ute) will be joined by Associate Moore, piano; Peter Exton, violin; Brett Dean, viola; and Artist David Griffi ths (clarinet), Sarah Morse, cello.” Bresnick has strong connections with Dene Olding (violin), Irina Morozova Australia, including a recent period of residency with the (viola), Julian Smiles (cello) and Ian University of Western Australia on an Institute of Advanced Munro (piano). Refl ecting on her Studies Fellowship, as well as two residencies with the own twentieth century, violist Irina Australian Youth Orchestra. Morozova remembers herself as Bresnick is a well-established composer in the USA, having an opinionated young violinist, but written for fi lms, orchestras, chamber ensembles, voice, “puberty certainly brought a stop solo instruments, and in 2013 delved into opera with the to such overt behaviour”. Although production of My Friend’s Story, based on a story by Anton obviously a confi dent violist, public Chekhov. Since taking on a Fulbright Fellowship in 1969, speaking took greater personal he has published an extensive catalogue of works, and courage for Irina, but she has always been recipient of an extremely lengthy list of awards for aquitted herself adequately. “If I both composition and teaching. Among his own teachers have to act, raising my voice a tone of composition was the revered composer György Ligeti, or two makes it easier to ‘become’ a who was clearly a strong infl uence in his earlier work. different persona. With that in mind, Bresnick is presently the Professor of Composition and the prospect of speaking in the next Martin Bresnick Coordinator of the Composition Department at the Yale subscription concert does not hold School of Music. too many problems. However, negotiating my way from stand to stand, and in particular, not to lose my place in My Twentieth Century is, however, the fi rst of Bresnick’s the process could be a problem. It remains to be seen how works to be performed by the Australia Ensemble @ I do - why don’t you come and see?” UNSW. On this occasion, it will be the core members of the Ensemble whose sounds, both instrumental and vocal, Sonia Maddock Ravel’s pas de deux The death of France’s leading composer, Claude of Daphnis & Chloe or the uniquely Gallic neo-Classical Debussy, in 1918, inspired a commemorative issue of chic of Le Tombeau de Couperin. The average listener La Revue Musicale, which commissioned works in his would be hard put to identify the fi rst movement as memory. It spawned a spate of compositions from a fi eld of being by Ravel - it is not until the pizzicati of the second thoroughbreds: Béla Bartók, Paul Dukas, Manuel de Falla, movement, reminiscent of the scherzo of the String Eugene Goossens, Albert Roussel, Igor Stravinsky, Eric Quartet, that there is a similarity to his more familiar style. Satie and Maurice Ravel. Other major features are the intricate alternations of major/ Ravel, who was universally minor keys and Eastern European considered to have assumed folk song infl uences in the fi nal two Debussy’s mantle, offered a single movements. movement work for violin and cello. The violinist at the work’s premiere, He subsequently regarded it as Helene Jourdan-Morhange, felt unfi nished business and, during pushed to the limit by Ravel’s the summer of 1921, revisited perfectionist approach to ensemble. the score. The expansion of the “It’s complicated,” she said. “In movement into a full-scale sonata order to keep my end up, the cello did not progress smoothly. “This has to sound like a fl ute and the devil of a duo makes me extremely violin like a drum. It must be fun ill,” the normally inscrutable writing such diffi cult stuff, but no composer revealed. He eventually one except virtuosos are going to completed the four movement work play it.” in February 1922. Never lost for an acerbic retort, Ravel achieved a new idiom, which, Ravel replied, “Good! Then it won’t consciously or otherwise, refl ected be assassinated by amateurs!” the style of Debussy’s own late The Australia Ensemble’s husband masterpieces: terse, hauntingly Maurice Ravel and wife members Julian Smiles spare and emotionally restrained to and Dimity Hall are the very much the point of elusiveness. professional soloists on this occasion. What do they make He wrote, “I believe this sonata marks a turning point in my of the work? Some of their comments seem to echo those career. In it, thinness of texture is pushed to the extreme. above. Harmonic charm is renounced with an increasingly “We’ve played it before. It’s amazingly spare and tightly conspicuous reaction in favour of melody.” interwoven yet with intermittent explosions and lyrical The idiom is very different from the luxuriant impressionism interludes,” Dimity said. Julian added that there were Scientifi c research on identical twins notwithstanding, taxing passages for both players no other human association seems to attract as much in unusual registers which created creative speculation about psychological dynamics as unique effects and others where the string quartets. Witness the recent art house hit A Late melody was divided between both Quartet (released in Australia as Performance) which instruments. starred Philip Seymour Hoffman and Christopher Walken. Both Dimity and Julian have been “String quartet repertoire, by defi nition, generates intensity long-standing core members of the but it’s sometimes easy to dramatise 35 year old Australia Ensemble. differences in approach as confl ict. 2015 is shaping up as a year of Whereas the AE repertoire is anniversaries for them and two much more diverse and allows for other AE members, Dene Olding, more permutations,” Dimity said. co-concertmaster of the Sydney “Incidentally, we are always looking Symphony and his violist wife Irina for new or unexplored repertoire.” Morozova, who also happen to be Julian commented that initially the other half of the Goldner String potentially polarizing approaches Quartet. in string quartet repertoire – not One common element of both the necessarily along marital fault lines Dimity Hall Australia Ensemble and the Goldner either - are ultimately resolved into a Quartet is the extraordinary stability of their personnel. harmonious whole. The Goldners (named after , the founder Who can blame them for wanting to of Musica Viva) are 20 years old and a national tour looms maintain an element of mystique? this year to celebrate both this milestone and Musica Viva’s 70th birthday. Their program includes a specially Greg Keane composed work by Paul Stanhope to celebrate both these occasions and the 25th anniversary of the Huntington Festival. Julian Smiles Celebrating greatness Peter Sculthorpe was in many ways the quintessential Australian composer. His uniquely melodic and meditative music draws inspiration from our environment, our stories and our history. Especially in the realms of orchestral and chamber music, Peter was an innovator, forging a style of music that was unmistakably Australian. Ahead of performances of two of Peter’s works in April with the Australia Ensemble, I sat down with violinist Dene Olding to talk about Peter, his music and his long history with the group.

When did you fi rst become aware of and truly complete string quartet, but Peter’s music? that string sonority was present all My fi rst memory is being taken to a through his life. In fact, his fi rst piece concert in , and it was Sun for quartet is one of his most poignant Music I. I was about seven years old – the melody follows the contours and I remember these guys on stage of a poem taken from a gravestone. bouncing huge beach balls. Of course, It’s really quite heartfelt, and even at I was a bit young to grasp what it was 14 years old he had this affi nity for really all about, but it made an impact. melodic instruments. When in your career did you fi rst Peter is known for having distinctive perform one of Peter’s compositions? sounds in his writing for strings. Are there any extended techniques from t was after I came back to Australia, to the quartets that have stuck with you take up my position with the Ensemble as being particularly unique? in 1982. It may have been his sixth Dene Olding string quartet, which always held a I think just those sonorities. He likes that open string sound on cello, which the didgeridoo. Much of his music has special place in his heart being that a chant-like quality, which implies a it was written for someone he knew you can build harmonies over the top of. One of his signatures became the low pedal drone, which with Peter’s [Bonnie Drysdale]. Peter often used blessing we later added to quartets to mention it when he talked about bird sounds in the quartets, especially seagulls. In later quartets, he used which weren’t even written with his quartets. It was his fi rst mature didgeridoo in mind. Describe Peter’s relationship with the I didn’t know him until later on, Australia Ensemble. but my father and he were exact We’ve played plenty of his music over contemporaries in Launceston. the years, including the quartet version They were considered two of the of Earth Cry [arguably Sculthorpe’s talented youngsters around, and most famous piece, originally an they competed against each other in orchestral work]. Peter was like that – eisteddfods. So I always felt an affi nity he often rearranged orchestral works. with Peter, and in fact he used to joke He made a version of Irkanda IV that he became a composer because especially for us – given the line-up and my father used to beat him in all the the nature of the Ensemble, the fl ute piano competitions. He decided that often doesn’t have enough repertoire maybe a solo piano career was not for to play with the strings. We’ve found it him! (laughs) an extremely useful piece. What was Peter like on a personal How is Irkanda IV representative of level? Peter’s style as a whole? He was a gentle person, fi rst of all, It was written upon the death of his and that’s refl ected in his music. I father and it’s representative of that sometimes wish he’d have written plaintive, plangent style, very refl ective something like the Rite of Spring, and soliloquy-like. He does that very something a bit more violent, just to well, that soulful sound with minor- show that side! ninth harmonies. Did he have that side? And of course there’s that real Peter Sculthorpe I haven’t heard it. It was always Australian focus in his music. [photo: Bridget Elliott] tempered. When he got loud and The Aboriginal element is very much front and centre in his intense and impassioned, it was music. One quartet we play a lot [No. 11 - Jabiru Dreaming] always with that slower approach. He wasn’t upfront, and used as a source Baudin’s expedition around Australia. you can hear that in his music. He had a social conscience Parts of a chant he transcribed in 1802 are quoted in the about the world, hence his use of Aboriginal themes, quartet, sort of a descending scalic tune. environmental themes and so on. As a musician, what appeals to you about Peter’s music? What is Peter Sculthorpe’s legacy? What did he leave to composition and to chamber music in Australia? You know what you’re going to get when you open a piece of Sculthorpe, like it or not. He has a distinctive sound, and He’s shown Australian composers a different path. Prior to that’s really the measure of any composer. If you divide his Peter there were certainly some fi ne composers around, life into segments, you fi nd that much of his earlier work is but he tried to tread a different path, fi nd a different way pastoral, quasi-English in style before he found his voice from the mainstream American and European composers as a distinctly Australian composer. A lot of people give of the time. Even contemporaries like Alfred Hill were very him credit for creating an Australian sound, drawn from the much in the mould of European composers. He taught a landscape, from the infl uence of Asia and so on. generation of composers like John Peterson and that music doesn’t have to be extremely avant What challenges are associated with rehearsing and garde to be accepted – the melodic and emotional content performing Peter’s music? can still be there, but with a somehow ‘different’ sound. Sometimes the rhythms are not always so clear, even That’s why he’s fascinated people overseas – it was such if they appear relatively simple on the page. Often it’s a unique voice. Of course he’s had his critics, people who repetitive, so you know what’s coming, but there’s also a don’t think it’s ‘substantial’ enough, but the proof is in the displacement of the pulse which can throw you if you’re pudding from people who’ve played his music – his music not familiar with the work. He avoids the strong pulse is instantly recognisable, and that’s not something that’s on the beat, with ties across bar lines, but we’ve played easy to do. so much Sculthorpe now that we can sort of go with the Luke Iredale fl ow! It also helps, in playing Peter’s work, actually being Australian and heaving heard the bird sounds, and having seen what the landscape is like. We were once at a workshop in Paris, and students were working on some of Dene Olding will also present the quartets. The ‘bird sounds’ they produced were ‘tweet, a free public masterclass with student violinists tweet’, nightingale-like, very gentle and European. They of UNSW had no idea of the sound of the dawn chorus. We had to Thursday April 16, 2015 explain, “No, be much more violent!” (laughs). 1.10 - 2.00pm What’s the background to the personal relationship Leighton Hall, Scientia Building between yourself and Peter? All welcome

Music Performance Unit p: +61 2 9385 4874 UNSW Sydney NSW 2052 f: +61 2 9313 7326 AUSTRALIA e: [email protected]