ARABIAN NIGHTS MUSIC OF LOVE AND INTRIGUE 19 + 20 FEB 2021 CONCERT HALL, QPAC PROGRAM | ARABIAN NIGHTS I CONTENTS WELCOME 1 IF YOU'RE NEW TO THE ORCHESTRA 2 DEFINITION OF TERMS 4 LISTENING GUIDE 6 ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES 8 SUPPORTING YOUR ORCHESTRA 16 MUSICIANS AND MANAGEMENT 18 II PROGRAM | ARABIAN NIGHTS WELCOME Welcome to our first Maestro concert for 2021, a concert of exotic sounds and diverse influences. I can’t tell you how happy I am to be able to join my fellow musicians in welcoming you back to our wonderful QPAC Concert Hall – we are so delighted to be back on stage and performing for you once again. This concert will see us perform Rimsky-Korsakov’s inimitable Scheherazade – a symphonic suite composed in 1888 and inspired by One Thousand and One Nights, a collection of Middle Eastern folk tales. In the tales, the beautiful Scheherazade marries a sultan (who has vowed to put each of his wives to death after the first night) and tells him stories night after night – each left without an ending – so that the sultan will have to wait until the following night to hear how the story ends, and so delay her execution by another day. I’ve been lucky enough to perform this work a number of times, but I am still in awe of the imagery Rimsky-Korsakov’s music evokes and the way he uses the solo violin to depict Scheherazade and her beautiful, story-weaving magic. The other work being performed is Ravel’s La Valse, a choreographic poem for orchestra which has been described as a tribute to the waltz. Leading us into the fray once more is our much-loved and respected Conductor Laureate Johannes Fritzsch. I hope you enjoy the concert and that you will join us as often as you can throughout our 2021 season. Rebecca Seymour First Violin IN THIS CONCERT PROGRAM Conductor Johannes Fritzsch FRI 19 FEB & SAT 20 FEB Rimsky-Korsakov Scheherazade 42' Relive this concert on ABC Classic Ravel La valse 12' on Saturday 13 March, 12noon. Queensland Symphony Orchestra acknowledges the traditional custodians of Australia. We acknowledge the cultural diversity of Elders, both past and recent, and the significant contributions that Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islander peoples have made to Queensland and Australia. To ensure an enjoyable concert experience for everyone, please remember to turn off your mobile phones and all other electronic devices. Please muffle coughs and refrain from talking during the performance. 1 IF YOU'RE NEW TO THE ORCHESTRA WHO SITS WHERE Orchestras sit in sections based on types of instruments. There are four main sections in the symphony orchestra (strings, woodwinds, brass, and percussion) and sometimes a keyboard section. STRINGS BRASS These instruments produce sound by bowing or Brass players create sound by vibrating their plucking stretched strings. lips. When this vibration is pushed through large First / Second Violin brass tubes, it can create significant noise. Viola French Horn Cello Trumpet Double Bass Trombone / Bass Trombone Harp Tuba WOODWIND PERCUSSION Wind instruments produce sound by being These instruments create sound by being blown into. struck or, for the harp, plucked or strummed. Flute / Piccolo Some instruments just make a sound; others play particular notes. Clarinet / E-flat Clarinet / Bass Clarinet Oboe / Cor Anglais Timpani, Bass drum, Snare drum, Cymbals, Bassoon / Contrabassoon Glockenspiel, Xylophone, Vibraphone, Tam-tam, Triangle, Sleigh Bells. 2 PROGRAM | ARABIAN NIGHTS WHO’S ON STAGE TODAY CONCERTMASTER VIOLA PICCOLO TROMBONE Warwick Adeney Imants Larsens ~ Kate Lawson * Jason Redman ~ Yoko Okayasu >> Ashley Carter >> CO-CONCERTMASTER Martin Alexander OBOE Natsuko Yoshimoto Huw Jones ~ BASS TROMBONE Charlotte Burbrook de Vere Sarah Meagher >> Matthew McGeachin ^ Gregory Daniel ASSOCIATE Alexa Murray CONCERTMASTER Nicole Greentree TUBA Alan Smith Bernard Hoey COR ANGLAIS Thomas Allely * Kirsten Hulin-Bobart Vivienne Brooke * VIOLIN 1 Li-Ping Kuo TIMPANI Rebecca Seymour * Graham Simpson CLARINET Tim Corkeron * Shane Chen Nicholas Tomkin Brian Catchlove = Lynn Cole Kate Travers PERCUSSION David Montgomery ~ Ann Holtzapffel CELLO BASS CLARINET Josh DeMarchi >> Joan Shih Matthew Kinmont = Nicholas Harmsen * Zach Brankovich Brenda Sullivan Matthew Jones + Jacob Enoka Jason Tong Tim Byrne BASSOON Fraser Matthew Stephen Tooke Kathryn Close Nicole Tait ~ Angus Wilson Claire Tyrell Deborah Davis David Mitchell >> Brynley White Andre Duthoit Evan Lewis HARP Sonia Wilson Kaja Skorka Jill Atkinson * Min Jin Sung CONTRABASSOON Lucy Reeves VIOLIN 2 Craig Allister Young Claire Ramuscak * Gail Aitken ~ Wayne Brennan ~ DOUBLE BASS FRENCH HORN Jane Burroughs ^ Phoebe Russell ~ Nicholas Mooney = Katie Betts Dušan Walkowicz >> Ian O’Brien * Faina Dobrenko Anne Buchanan Vivienne Collier-Vickers Simon Dobrenko Justin Bullock Ryan Humphrey Matthew Hesse Paul O’Brien Lauren Manuel Ken Poggioli Delia Kinmont TRUMPET Chloe Williamson Natalie Low Richard Madden = Tim Marchmont FLUTE Mark Bremner Neridah Oostenbroek Alison Mitchell ~ Richard Fomison Nicholas Thin Hayley Radke >> Helen Travers Stephanie Vici Harold Wilson ~ Section Principal = Acting Section Principal >> Associate Principal + Acting Associate Principal * Principal ^ Acting Principal PROGRAM | ARABIAN NIGHTS 3 DEFINITION OF TERMS The following terms appear in bold the first time they appear. Joie de vivre literally translated from French means “joy of living.” In music, this is used to describe music that is cheerful and upbeat. Lilting rhythm something that is ‘lilting’ is musical or rhythmic. When using ‘lilting’ to describe music, it is happy and sweet, and swings musically along. Synaesthesic a person who experiences a perceptual phenomenon, whereby as they experience the stimulation of one sensory pathway, an additional pathway is activated. In composer Rimsky-Korsakov's case, it is believed he saw different colours when hearing different notes or keys. Theme the melodic subject or idea of a musical composition. A theme is usually a succession of notes forming a distinctive sequence. As an example, think of the ‘da da da dunnn’ that appears throughout Beethoven’s famous Symphony No.5. Movement a symphony is often divided up into different sections, called movements. Each section may be played at a different speed to the previous, but each carry an overall theme of the symphony throughout. 4 PROGRAM | ARABIAN NIGHTS Pictured: Dušan Walkowicz & Phoebe Russell PROGRAM | ARABIAN NIGHTS 5 LISTENING GUIDE Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844–1908) Scheherazade – Symphonic Suite, Op.35 I. Largo e maestoso – Lento – Allegro non troppo (The Sea and Sinbad’s Ship) II. Lento (The Story of the Kalender Prince) III. Andantino quasi allegretto (The Young Prince and the Young Princess) IV. Allegro molto – Vivo – Allegro non troppo e maestoso – Lento (Festival at Baghdad – The Sea – The Ship Goes to Pieces on a Rock Surmounted by a Bronze Warrior – Conclusion) Scheherazade is one of Rimsky-Korsakov’s most brilliant orchestral works – ‘a kaleidoscope of fairytale images and designs’ in which, with surprisingly modest forces (adding to the traditional orchestra only piccolo, cor anglais, harp and a generous complement of percussion instruments) the composer convinces us of the exotic colour of the Orient. The work’s unifying thread is the intricate violin solo supported only by the harp, which represents Scheherazade telling tales for 1001 nights to stave off her execution by the Sultan who, convinced of the infidelity of all women, had vowed to slay each of his wives after the first night. The theme soothes the suite’s thunderous opening and embarks upon the tale of the Sea and Sinbad’s Ship. For Rimsky-Korsakov, a synaesthesic, the choice of E major for the billowing cello figures can have been no accident: to his ears it represented dark blue. A cajoling melody played by solo bassoon represents the Kalender (or ‘beggar’) Prince in the second movement. The affinity of the two themes in the third movement (for violin, then flute and clarinet) suggest a Young Prince and Princess perfectly matched in temperament. The fourth movement is a curious elision of the Festival in Bagdad and the tale of the shipwreck: triangle and tambourines accompany the lively carnival cross- rhythms, and the mood builds in intensity before all is swamped by the return of the sea theme. But it is Scheherazade who has the last word, her theme emerging in gentle triumph over her bloodthirsty husband. Adapted from a note by Yvonne Frindle © 1998 6 PROGRAM | ARABIAN NIGHTS Maurice Ravel (1875–1937) La valse Just as Milhaud’s La Création du monde could be looked on as a French composer’s snapshot of American jazz, La Valse is a peculiarly French retrospective view of the Viennese waltz. Ravel had a great love for the Viennese waltz, and in particular its lilting rhythm and joie de vivre. In 1906, he had begun a homage to Johann Strauss II, at one stage entitled Wien (Vienna). This was never completed, and in 1911, following Schubert’s precedent (and Schubert’s use of a French title) he composed his Valses nobles et sentimentales. After service in the First World War, Ravel wished to renew the successes he had enjoyed with Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes before the war. He rewrote Wien under the title La Valse, completing it in the summer of 1920, by which time he was living outside Paris, at Montfort l’Amaury in a house called Le Belvédere. He subtitled La Valse ‘a choreographic poem’. Diaghilev did not take the hint, and the work was first performed as an orchestral piece at the Concerts Lamoureux in December 1920. It was eventually established in the ballet repertoire by Ida Rubinstein’s troupe, with a series of productions in 1928, 1931 and 1934. La Valse has been criticised by some as a ‘pastiche’, but Ravel’s own comments on the work suggest that he was trying to do something subtler than simply apeing the Strauss family: ‘I had intended this as a kind of apotheosis of the Viennese waltz, linked in my mind with the impression of a fantastic and fatal whirling.’ The score bears the following preface: Through rifts in eddying clouds waltzing couples can be glimpsed.