A S T R A C O N C E R T S 2 0 1 2 in association with THE ELEVENTH HOUR THEATRE 3X2X60 THREE AUTUMN WEEKENDS OF THEATRE WITH MUSIC I. 4 pm, Saturday 24 March and 4 pm, Sunday 25 March THE ELEVENTH HOUR THEATRE Fitzroy, Melbourne SAMUEL BECKETT JOHANNES BRAHMS CARLO GESUALDO MAURICIO KAGEL ERKKI VELTHEIM Richard Bligh, Evelyn Krape, Jane Nolan, David Tredinnick, Erkki Veltheim, Kim Bastin, The Astra Improvising Choir, The Astra Choir & solo ensembles actors (Beckett) Evelyn Krape, Jane Nolan ( Footfalls ), Richard Bligh, David Tredinnick ( Stirrings Still ) William Henderson director , Meredith Rogers associate director /designer players Erkki Veltheim viola, Kim Bastin piano vocal quintet (Gesualdo) Louisa Billeter, Laila Engle, Ben Owen, Evan Lawson, Steven Hodgson walking quintet (Kagel) Laila Engle, Gloria Gamboz, Steven Hodgson, Evan Lawson, Chris Rechner The Astra Improvising Choir Joan Pollock director , Jenny Barnes, Louisa Billeter, Laila Engle, Evan Lawson, Susannah Provan, Chris Rechner, Katie Richardson, Sarah Whitteron The Astra Choir soprano Jenny Barnes, Kristy de la Rambelya, Susanah Polya, Yvonne Turner, Louisa Billeter, Jean Evans, Emma Gardner, Maree Macmillan, Susannah Provan alto Laila Engle, Anna Gifford, Gloria Gamboz, Katie Richardson, Beverley Bencina, Jane Cousens, Pixie Lieu, Joan Pollock tenor Stephen Creese, Greg Deakin, Simon Johnson, Ben Owen, Richard Webb bass Alex Connelly, Evan Lawson, Bradley Posselt, Stephen Whateley Steven Hodgson, Andrew Rostas, Chris Rechner, Chris Smith, John Terrell John McCaughey conductor The idea of a succession of multi-form weekend events at The Eleventh Hour Theatre from William Henderson, its director with Anne Thompson for a decade, has led to these three jointly-curated programs, in which theatre and music might be experienced in wider definitions by relation to each other – rather than as composite ‘multi-media art’, which has been done so frequently and well in recent years. The Eleventh Hour has been noted for explorative larger productions, which included Shakespeare’s King John at the Adelaide Festival, but also its Melbourne Festival Endgame by Samuel Beckett, in which the live solo violin of Miwako Abe played an integral role. The later play of Beckett and his final prose piece form the hub of today’s event, around which a diverse array of musical performers – and modes of presentation – are gathered. Beckett’s elemental notions, footfalls, stirrings, and his compositional play at the boundaries of verbal and dramatic syntax, resonate in music of different kinds and historical styles. The impatient lover pacing through the forest night of Johannes Brahms’s choral quartet is set in melodic phrases that continually escape from the perimeters of the one before. Towards the end, the pacer invokes birds and breezes as a sonic force, to prevent his arrival being too late. In the Rückert poem of the other Brahms song, originally for alto voice with viola and piano, the same two natural elements of birds and winds are again in a state of acoustic animation, a whispering of the end inside Nature, captured by a network of poly- rhythmic life within the musical fabric. The Argentine-born Mauricio Kagel (1931-2008), a generation younger than Beckett (1906-1989), overlaps in preoccupations of their shared era, with a multitude of works taking musical processes into theatrical domains. His ‘walking scene’ Pas de cinq precedes the two Beckett works by one and two decades respectively. The five actants are set on a network of paths between the five points of a pentagram, with rhythmic phrases articulated by their two feet and a walking stick. The madrigals of the late-Renaissance prince Carlo Gesualdo remained unrecognized until the 20th century, with their maybe Beckett-like qualities of extremeness of the expressive present. The five voices are placed into a pressurized environment of dissonant and unexpected ‘vertical’ combinations, as well as startling ‘horizontal’ unfolding of the reiterated fragments of the poem. But if there is movement outward from Beckett’s verbal and dramatic qualities into a resonating environment, the reverse path is equally valid. As William Henderson has written: Beckett's works have often been set to music, but the essential musicality of the language across his entire oeuvre, and particularly his late work, has often been overlooked. He himself remarked: "My work is a matter of fundamental sounds…" - and as director he was heard to plead with an actor: “Don’t play that line realistically – there is music there, you know!” The combination with improvised music thus explores a given dimension and a new terrain. The Astra Improvising Choir was re-instituted in 2010 for a solo violin recital by Erkki Veltheim, himself a leading exponent of free-form playing in many styles. Today he is heard on his other instrument of viola, extending from the Brahms song to the interplay with the male actors’ voices. – JMcC 3X2X60 Autumn Weekends at The Eleventh Hour I. FOOTFALLS Johannes Brahms, PACING TO THE LOVER Op.31/3 (1864) from 3 quartets for choir with piano Samuel Beckett, FOOTFALLS (1975) Jane Nolan (May), Evelyn Krape (Voice), with improvising choir Entr’acte Mauricio Kagel, phrases from PAS DE CINQ, Walking Scene (1965) five walkers Carlo Gesualdo, MORO LASSO, Sixth Book of Madrigals (1611) five voices STIRRINGS STILL Johannes Brahms, YEARNING STILLED Op.91/1 (1884) from 2 songs for alto, viola and piano, arr. JMcC for choir Samuel Beckett, STIRRINGS STILL (1989) Richard Bligh and David Tredinnick with Erkki Veltheim, improvising viola Johannes Brahms, PACING TO THE LOVER Op.31/3 (1864) from 3 quartets for choir with piano Johannes Brahms , DER GANG ZUM LIEBCHEN – PACING TO THE LOVER Es glänzt der Mond nieder, The moon gleams down, Ich sollte doch wieder I must make my way Zu meinem Liebchen, once more to my sweet one, Wie mag es ihr gehn? how may she be faring? Ach weh, sie verzaget Alas, she’ll be fainting Und klaget und klaget, and crying and crying Dass sie mich nimmer that she’ll never see me Im Leben wird sehn. in this life again. Es ging der Mond unter, The moon went down, Ich eilte doch munter, yet I stepped on briskly, Und eilte, dass keiner and hurried, that no-one Mein Liebchen entführt. steals off with my sweet one. Ihr Täubchen, O girret, You wood-doves, keep cooing! Ihr Lüftchen, O schwirret, You breezes, keep whirring! Dass keiner mein Liebchen that none with my sweet one, Mein Liebchen entführt! my sweet one, steals off! – trad. Bohemian adapted by Josef Wenzig Carlo Gesualdo , MORO LASSO – I DIE WRETCHED Moro, lasso, al mio duolo I die, wretched, from my grief E chi mi può dar vita, and the one one who could give me life Ahi, che m'ancide Ah! murders me e non vuol darmi aita! and does not wish to give me help! O dolorosa sorte, O dolorous fate, Chi dar vita i può, the one who can give life, ahi, mi dà morte! Ah! gives me death! Johannes Brahms, GESTILLTE SEHNSUCHT – YEARNING STILLED In gold'nen Abendschein getauchet, Dipped into the golden evening glow, Wie feierlich die Wälder stehn! how solemnly the forests stand! In leise Stimmen der Vöglein hauchet Into the birds’ soft voices breathes Des Abendwindes leises Weh'n. the evening wind’s soft fluttering. Was lispeln die Winde, die Vögelein? What do they whisper, the winds, the birds? Sie lispeln die Welt in Schlummer ein. They whisper the world into sleep. Ihr Wünsche, die ihr stets euch reget You, my desires, that are always stirring Im Herzen sonder Rast und Ruh! within my heart without rest or peace! Du Sehnen, das die Brust beweget, Oh yearning that agitates my breast Wann ruhest du, wann schlummerst du? When will you rest, when will you sleep? Beim Lispeln der Winde, der Vögelein, By the whispering of the winds and birds, Ihr sehnenden Wünsche, wann schlaft ihr ein? you yearning desires, when will you fall asleep? Ach, wenn nicht mehr in gold'ne Fernen But when no more into the golden distance Mein Geist auf Traumgefieder eilt, my spirit hastens on its wings of dreams, Nicht mehr an ewig fernen Sternen no more my eyes with gaze of yearning Mit sehnendem Blick mein Auge weilt; are fixed on eternally distant stars, Dann lispeln die Winde, die Vögelein then they will whisper, the winds, the birds, Mit meinem Sehnen mein Leben ein. to still my longing, together with my life. – Friedrich Rückert 1816 translations JMcC Autumn Weekends Curators: William Henderson, John McCaughey next weekend (31 March / 1 April): Monique diMattina (piano and composition) -– Sun Signs and π.ο. performance poet) – 24 Hours , a poem of Fitzroy with Martin Friedel (composer) and Peter Dumsday (improvising piano) Concert Manager: Margaret Lloyd Astra Manager: Gabrielle Baker Theatre Manager: Vanessa Rowell Sound Engineer: Michael Hewes Front of House: Stiabhna Baker-Holland, George Baker-Holland Astra concerts receive support in 2012 from numerous private donors; The William Angliss Trust; Diana Gibson; The Ian Potter Foundation; The Salzer Foundation. ASTRA CHAMBER MUSIC SOCIETY Chair: Graeme Leak Manager: Gabrielle Baker Musical Director: John McCaughey PO Box 365, North Melbourne, Victoria 3051, Australia ABN 41 255 197 577 Tel: +61 (3) 9326 5424 email: [email protected] web: www.astramusic.org.au .