Beethoven’s Quintet 2:30pm | Sunday | 08 Oct 2017 Utzon Room, Sydney Opera House 2018 Season Subscribe and save up to 30% Book your 2018 subscription before 12 December for your chance to win a Bang and Olufsen Beosound 2 speaker, worth $2,475. Book now at omegaensemble.com.au Proudly supported by Competition closes 12 December 2017. See website for full terms and conditions. Beethoven’s Quintet Sunday 8 October 2017 Program 2:30pm Utzon Room, Sydney Opera House Carl Nielsen Wind Quintet, Op. 43 Presented as part of the 2017 Master Series Paul Hindemith Kleine Kammermusik for Wind Quintet, Op. 24, No. 2 Interval Jean Françaix Quartet for Winds Ludwig van Beethoven Quintet in E-flat major for Piano and Winds, Op. 16 Approximate durations (minutes): 23 – 14 - Interval – 10 – 27 The concert will last approximately one hour and 35 minutes, including a 20-minute interval. Please ensure your mobile devices are turned to silent and switched off for the full duration of this performance. Please note that unauthorised recording or photography of this performance is not permitted. Omega Ensemble reserves the right to alter scheduled artists and programs as necessary. Listen to our 2018 Season Spotify playlist. Scan the code with your Spotify app or search for ‘Omega Ensemble’ in Spotify. Cover Image: Bruce Terry What’s On 2017 Season The Clarinet - David Rowden Lunch Series 12:30pm | Wed | 18 Oct Stravinsky Three Pieces for Clarinet Solo City Recital Hall Brahms Sonata for Clarinet and Piano, Op. 120, No. 2 cityrecitalhall.com Messager Solo de Concours 02 8256 2222 Anderson Miniatures [World Premiere] The Cello - Teije Hylkema Lunch Series 12:30pm | Wed | 15 Nov Bach Cello Suite No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1008 City Recital Hall Beethoven Trio in B flat major, Op. 11, ‘Gassenhauer’ cityrecitalhall.com Hogarth Trio for Clarinet, Piano and Cello 02 8256 2222 [World Premiere] Ravel Impressions Virtuoso Series 7:30pm | Thu | 16 Nov Mozart Trio in E flat major ‘Kegelstatt’, K. City Recital Hall 498 Fauré Piano Trio in D minor, Op. 120 cityrecitalhall.com Arensky Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor, Op. 32 02 8256 2222 Ravel String Quartet in F major 2018 Season Summer Winds: Master Series From Beethoven to Ravel 2:30pm | Sun | 25 Feb Utzon Room, Sydney Debussy “Syrinx”, for Solo Flute Opera House Taffanel Wind Quintet in G minor Beethoven Duo for Bassoon and Clarinet sydneyoperahouse.com Ravel Le Tombeau de Couperin 02 9250 7777 Arnold Three Shanties for Wind Quintet Eternal Quartets: Virtuoso Series Messiaen and Schubert 7:30pm | Wed | 11 Apr City Recital Hall Barber Adagio for Strings, Op.11 Messiaen Quatuor pour la fin du temps cityrecitalhall.com (Quartet for the End of Time) 02 8256 2222 Schubert String Quartet No. 14 in D minor, D.810 “Death and the Maiden” 4 About the Music Carl Nielsen (1865–1931) concerto (1926) and the clarinet concerto (1928) Wind Quintet are character studies cunningly made to suit the individuality of the soloist. Opus 43, Composed in 1922 Nielsen’s musical style is one filled with lushness I. Allegro ben moderato of the Romantic era, encapsulating the same II. Menuet aesthetics of beauty, emotion, and the inner III. Prelude — Adagio — Theme & Variations — Un poco andantino thoughts of the artist and above all the profound nature of his writing. Oxford University music In Nielsen’s biography, the author writes: ‘Nielsen’s professor Daniel Grimley qualifies Nielsen as “one fondness of wind instruments is closely related to his of the most playful, life-affirming, and awkward love of nature, his fascination for living, breathing voices in twentieth-century music” thanks to the things. He was also intensely interested in human “melodic richness and harmonic vitality” of his work. character, and the Wind Quintet, composed Anne-Marie Reynolds, author of Carl Nielsen’s deliberately for five friends, is cunningly made Voice: His Songs in Context, cites Robert Simpson’s to suit the individuality of each player.’ Since view that “all of his music is vocal in origin”, its premiere in 1922 Nielsen’s Wind Quintet has maintaining that song-writing strongly influenced remained one of the most popular and beloved Nielsen’s development as a composer. pieces in the woodwind repertoire. 1922 was a pivotal year in Carl Nielsen’s life: he was diagnosed with a severe heart condition, he Paul Hindemith (1895-1963) reconciled with his wife after close to seven years’ Kleine Kammermusik for Wind separation, he learned to drive, he conducted the premiere of his Fifth Symphony, and he completed Quintet, No.2 a work for the Copenhagen Wind Quintet. The new Opus 24, Composed in 1922 woodwind quintet was an attempt “to present the I. Lustig. Mäßig schnell Viertel characteristics of the various instruments,” and II. Walzer: Durchweg sehr leise in the process of working with the performers he III. Ruhig und einfach came to know them extremely well. IV. Schnelle Viertel V. Sehr lebhaft From this experience, he decided to write a concerto for each of the five players of the wind In his series of works entitled Kammermusik quintet in such a way that the music would be a (chamber music) - composed between 1922 and kind of musical portrait. Although he only completed 1927, Paul Hindemith developed a new musical style two of the projected five wind concerti, the flute that rejected the expressionist aesthetics that were 5 Harmonic fluctuation is what Hindemith calls the differences in quality and tension that result from a sequence of chords. prevailing in the early years of the 20th century. His language. This is music that, while invoking the musical style, often described as ‘neoclassical’, was outdoor wind divertimentos of the 18th century, developed during this period in which he found his sneers at the late 19th century’s sonorous and musical voice - subsequently departing from his emotional indulgence.” For audiences hearing this early late-Romantic language. It is important to work for the first time it was, musically, a departure discuss Hindemith’s musical system here in order to from everything they had known. best understand the harmonic and melodic palette found in this work. One of the key features of his system is that he ranks Jean Françaix (1912-1997) all musical intervals of the 12-note equally tempered Quartet for Winds scale from the most consonant to the most Composed in 1933 dissonant. He classifies chords in six categories, on the basis of how dissonant they are, whether or I. Allegro not they contain a tritone, and whether or not they II. Andante clearly suggest a root or tonal centre. Hindemith’s III. Allegro molto IV. Allegro vivo philosophy also encompassed melody - he strove for melodies that do not clearly outline major or Ravel said to a young Françaix’s parents: “Among minor triads. the child’s gifts I observe above all the most fruitful an artist can possess, that of curiosity: you must Hindemith’s Kleine Kammermusik for Wind Quintet not stifle these precious gifts now or ever, or risk was composed in 1922 and was the second in his letting this young sensibility wither.” His parents took series of small chamber pieces. The first work, this advice and by the age of five Françaix was composed in the same year, features an accordion considered a child prodigy who was later sent to and a siren, and it would seem that he was keen study with acclaimed composition teacher Nadia on jolting his audience, if nothing else. With this Boulanger. experimental phase out of his system, Hindemith turned to a more pleasing aesthetic in his quintet Françaix’s style is marked by lightness and wit (a for winds. stated goal of his was to “give pleasure”), as well as a conversational style of interplay between the Orrin Howard writes that : “The dry, caustic timbre musical lines. It changed little throughout his career; of the winds is matched perfectly to the lean, chic, while he was influenced by composers he admired and impersonal materials that speak clearly the (such as Emmanuel Chabrier, Igor Stravinsky, Stravinskian neo-classic tongue, as translated into Maurice Ravel and Francis Poulenc), he integrated what was to become Hindemith’s characteristic 6 what he picked up into his own distinct aesthetic, symphonies that we know him by today, the young which was already evident in his early works. 27 year old pianist composed a Quintet for Piano and Winds - a rather unusual combination for At the age of 21 Françaix composed his Quartet for its time. At the time of composing this early work Winds for staff at Le Mans Conservatoire, where his Beethoven was only beginning to make his mark on father was the Director. With the arrogance of the the Viennese public as a composer. young he explained his choice of instrumentation as follows: “As the horn tutor who was there at the time The quintet was first performed at a benefit concert was never quite sure what sound would emerge on 6 April 1797 given by Ignaz Schuppanzigh - one from his instrument – his fame was as a specialist in of the leading exponents of chamber music in the art of playing several notes at the same time – I Vienna - who quickly made a strong friendship had decided not to ‘rouse the volcano,’ and wrote with Beethoven and played an important role a quartet without horn which would be less likely to in introducing the young composer to Viennese produce “disconcerting surprises.” audiences. An 1803, a review of Beethoven’s quintet described it as a “brilliant and serious work, full of This was Françaix’s first chamber work for winds deep expression and character, but sometimes too and it exhibits the joie de vivre that was to become bold.” one of the defining characteristics of his music.