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Fri 24 & Sat 25 Jun 2016 ADELAIDE TOWN HALL Season
Dazzling Prokofiev
2 ADELAIDE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA - MASTER SERIES 2016
3ADELAIDE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA - MASTER SERIES 2016
Nicholas Carter Conductor Konstantin Shamray Piano
Adelaide Town Hall Fri 24 & Sat 25 Jun 2016
Dukas The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
Prokofiev Piano Concerto No 3 in C major, Op 26
Andante – Allegro
Andantino (with variations)
Allegro non troppo
Konstantin Shamray Piano
Ross Edwards White Ghost Dancing
Stravinsky Petrushka (1947 version)
Dazzling Prokofiev Master Series 4
Interval
Classical Conversation Free for ticket holders. One hour prior to the performances in the Adelaide Town Hall auditorium. ASO musician Belinda Kendall-Smith and Marketing Coordinator Annika Stennert explore the music of Dukas, Prokofiev, Edwards and Stravinsky.
This concert runs for approximately 100 minutes including interval. Saturday’s performance will be recorded by ABC Classic FM for broadcast on Monday 27 June at 8pm.
4 ADELAIDE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA - MASTER SERIES 2016
5ADELAIDE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA - MASTER SERIES 2016
Nicholas Carter Conductor
The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra’s Principal Conductor Nicholas Carter is fast establishing a career as a conductor of exceptional versatility, equally at home in the concert hall and the opera house, and fluent in a diverse repertoire.
He is currently Kapellmeister and musical assistant to Donald Runnicles at the Deutsche Oper Berlin where, in the 2015/16 season his conducting engagements include La bohème, Die Entführung aus dem Serail, and Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet with the Staatsballet Berlin.
From 2011 to mid-2014 he was Kapellmeister at the Hamburg State Opera, as well as serving as musical assistant to Music Director Simone Young. This engagement followed a three-year association with the Sydney Symphony, first as Assistant Conductor, working closely with Vladimir Ashkenazy and a number of the orchestra’s guest conductors, and subsequently as Associate Conductor.
In Hamburg, Nicholas conducted performances of Il barbiere di Siviglia, Die Zauberflöte, Cosi fan tutte, Lucia di Lammermoor, Hänsel und Gretel, Cleopatra by Johan Mattheson and Orontea by Antonio Cesti.
Furthermore, as Musical Assistant, he was heavily involved in the preparation of a vast repertoire, including in the presentation of ten Wagner operas, from Rienzi to Parsifal as well as a complete Ring cycle.
As guest conductor, Nicholas has conducted the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the Staatsorchester Braunschweig, the Louisiana Philharmonic, the Dalasinfoniettan, Sweden and the Hamburg Philharmonic Orchestra in a Gala with Diana Damrau as soloist.
At the invitation of Donald Runnicles, Nicholas served as Associate Conductor of the Grand Teton Music Festival in Wyoming from 2010-2013.
In Australia, Nicholas enjoys collaborating regularly with many of the country’s finest orchestras and ensembles, such as the Sydney, West Australian, Melbourne, Adelaide and Queensland Symphony Orchestras, the State Opera of South Australia, Victorian Opera, Orchestra Victoria, Melbourne Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM) and the Australian Youth Orchestra. In 2011, Nicholas led a Gala concert with the Sydney Symphony and Anne Sofie von Otter.
6 ADELAIDE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA - MASTER SERIES 2016
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ACCESSALL AREAS
7ADELAIDE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA - MASTER SERIES 2016
Konstantin Shamray Piano
Konstantin Shamray was born into a musical family in 1985 in Novosibirsk, Russia, thus his passion for piano and classical music began early. At six, he embarked on formal studies at Kemerovo Music School with Natalia Knobloch, and aged eleven he relocated to Moscow to study at the Gnessin Special Music School, progressing to the Russian Gnessin Academy of Music with Prof Tatiana Zelikman, then postgraduate studies with Vladimir Tropp, and post-masters-equivalent advanced courses at Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg, Germany with Professor Tibor Szasz.
In 2008, he won the Sydney International Piano Competition – and he is is the first and only musician in the 30-plus year history of the competition to win both First and People’s Choice Prize, in addition to six other prizes. He has toured Australia, partnered with the Australian String Quartet, and recorded CDs for the labels Naxos, ABC Classics and Fonoforum. International performances include solo recitals and collaborations with orchestras and distinguished conductors in Russia, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and China. He has performed with the Russian National Philharmonic, the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, Moscow Virtuosi, Orchestre
National de Lyon, Prague Philharmonia, Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra and the Sydney Symphony, and performed with distinguished conductors including Vladimir Spivakov, Dmitry Liss, Tugan Sokhiev, Nicholas Milton and Alexandr Vedernikov. He has collaborated with with Johannes Moser, Kristof Barati, Boris Brovtsyn, Alban Gerhardt, Feng Ning. He has received critical acclaim at the Klavier-Festival Ruhr, the Bochum Festival in Germany, the White Nights Festival with the Maryinsky Theatre Orchestra in St Petersburg and the Adelaide Festival.
10 ADELAIDE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA - MASTER SERIES 2016
Adelaide Symphony OrchestraPrincipal ConductorNicholas Carter \
Principal Guest Conductor and Artistic AdviserJeffrey Tate \
Artist-in-AssociationPinchas Zukerman \
VIOLINS
Natsuko Yoshimoto** (Concertmaster)
Cameron Hill** (Associate Concertmaster)
Shirin Lim* (Principal 1st Violin)
Michael Milton** (Principal 2nd Violin)Lachlan Bramble~ (Associate Principal 2nd Violin)Janet AndersonAnn AxelbyMinas Berberyan Gillian Braithwaite Julia BrittainHilary Bruer Elizabeth CollinsJane CollinsJudith CoombeAlison HeikeAlexis MiltonJennifer NewmanJulie Newman Emma Perkins Alexander PermezelMarie-Louise SlaytorKemeri Spurr
VIOLAS Juris Ezergailis** Imants Larsens~ Martin ButlerLesley CockramLinda GarrettAnna HansenRosemary McGowranMichael Robertson
CELLOS Simon Cobcroft**
Ewen Bramble~ Sarah DenbighChristopher Handley Sherrilyn Handley David Sharp Cameron Waters
DOUBLE BASSES David Schilling** Robert Nairn~ (Guest Associate Principal)Jacky ChangHarley Gray Belinda Kendall-SmithDavid Phillips
FLUTES Geoffrey Collins** Lisa GillJulia Grenfell
PICCOLO Julia Grenfell*
OBOES
Celia Craig** Renae Stavely
COR ANGLAIS
Peter Duggan*
CLARINETS
Dean Newcomb** Darren Skelton Mitchell Berick
E FLAT CLARINETDarren Skelton*
BASS CLARINETMitchell Berick*
BASSOONS Mark Gaydon** Leah Stephenson Kristina Phillipson
CONTRA BASSOONJackie Hansen*
HORNSAdrian Uren**Sarah Barrett~ Alex MillerPhilip Paine* Emma Gregan
TRUMPETSOwen Morris**Martin Phillipson~ Gregory FrickTimothy Keenihan
TROMBONECameron Malouf ** Ian Denbigh
BASS TROMBONEHoward Parkinson*
TUBAPeter Whish-Wilson*
TIMPANIRobert Hutcheson** Andrew Penrose
PERCUSSIONSteven Peterka** Gregory RushAmanada GriggAndrew Penrose
HARPSuzanne Handel*
PIANOMichael Ierace* (Guest Principal)
CELESTEKatrina Reynolds* (Guest Principal)
** denotes Section Leader~ denotes Associate Principal
* denotes Principal Player
denotes Musical Chair Support (see pp 12-14 for list)
\ denotes Conductors’ Circle Support (see pg 12 for list)
Correct at time of print
11ADELAIDE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA - MASTER SERIES 2016
ASO BOARD MEMBERSColin Dunsford AM (Chair)Vincent CiccarelloGeoffrey CollinsCol EardleyByron GregoryDavid LeonChris MichelmoreAndrew Robertson
ASO MANAGEMENT
EXECUTIVEVincent Ciccarello - Managing DirectorGuy Ross - Chief Operating OfficerAshlyn Cooper - Executive Administrator
ARTISTICSimon Lord - Director, Artistic PlanningStevan Pavlovic - Artistic AdministratorEmily Gann - Learning & Community Engagement Coordinator
MARKETING AND DEVELOPMENTPaola Niscioli - Director, Marketing & DevelopmentFiona Whittenbury - Corporate Partnerships ManagerAlexandra Bassett - Donor Relations ManagerDani Lupoi - Development AssistantTom Bastians - Customer Service ManagerKate Lees - PublicistKane Moroney - Audience Development CoordinatorMichelle Robins - Publications & Communications CoordinatorAnnika Stennert - Marketing Coordinator
FINANCE AND HRLouise Williams - Manager, People & Culture Katherine Zhang - AccountantKarin Juhl - Accounts Coordinator Sarah McBride - Payroll CoordinatorEmma Wight - Administrative Assistant
OPERATIONSKaren Frost - Orchestra ManagerDavid Khafagi - Orchestra CoordinatorNaomi Gordon - Production & Venue CoordinatorBruce Stewart - Orchestral LibrarianRyan Maloney - Production & Venue Assistant
FRIENDS OF THE ASO EXECUTIVE COMMITTEEAlison Campbell - PresidentLiz Bowen - Immediate Past PresidentAlyson Morrison and John Pike - Vice PresidentsJudy Birze - Treasurer/SecretaryJohn Gell - Assistant Secretary/Membership
Correct at time of print
Flowers supplied by
Concertmaster Natsuko Yoshimoto
Supported by ASO Chair of the Board Colin Dunsford AM & Lib Dunsford
Associate Principal CelloEwen Bramble
Supported byBarbara Mellor
Principal ViolaJuris Ezergailis
Supported in the memory of Mrs JJ Holden
Principal 2nd Violin Michael Milton
Supported by The Friends of the ASO in the memory of Ann Belmont OAM
Associate Principal 2nd Violin Lachlan Bramble
Supported in the memory of Deborah Pontifex
Associate ConcertmasterCameron Hill
Supported by The Baska Family
Principal 1st ViolinShirin Lim
Supported in the memory of Dr Nandor Ballai and Dr Georgette Straznicky
Violin Hilary Bruer
Supported by Marion Wells
Violin Julie Newman
Supported by Graeme & Susan Bethune
Violin Emma Perkins
Supported byPeter & Pamela McKee
Violin Kemeri Spurr
Supported byProfessor Junia V. Melo
ViolinMinas Berberyan
Supported byMerry Wickes
Associate Principal Viola Imants Larsens
Supported bySimon & Sue Hatcher
Principal CelloSimon Cobcroft
Supported byAndrew & Gayle Robertson
Cello Chris Handley
Supported byJohanna and Terry McGuirk
CelloDavid Sharp
Supported byDr Aileen F Connon AM
CelloCameron Waters
Supported byPeter & Pamela McKee
CelloSherrilyn Handley
Supported byJohanna and Terry McGuirk
Principal BassDavid Shilling
Supported by Mrs Maureen Akkermans
Conductors’ Circle and donors
Musical chair players and donors
CelloGemma PhillipsSupported by R & P Cheesman
ViolinGillian Braithwaite
Supported byMary Dawes BEM
Established in 2015 to directly support the ASO’s new Artistic Leadership Team, the Conductors’ Circle is a small group of extraordinary benefactors. Special thanks go to our founding Conductors’ Circle donors:
• The Friends of the ASO• The Richard Wagner Society of South Australia• Two anonymous donors• Joan Lyons & Diana McLaurin• Robert Pontifex AM, in the memory of
Deborah Pontifex, as a tribute “to our enduring friendship with Jeffrey Tate”
and supported by Creative Partnerships Australia through Plus1.
Principal Conductor Nicholas Carter
Principal Guest Conductorand Artistic AdviserJeffrey Tate
Artist-in-AssociationPinchas Zukerman
BassHarley Gray
Supported byBob Croser
BassDavid Phillips
Supported for‘a great bass player with lots of spirit - love Betsy’
Principal Flute Geoffrey Collins
Supported by Pauline Menz
Principal PiccoloJulia Grenfell
Supported by Chris & Julie Michelmore
Principal OboeCelia Craig
Supported in the memory of Geoffrey Hackett-Jones
Concertmaster Natsuko Yoshimoto
Supported by ASO Chair of the Board Colin Dunsford AM & Lib Dunsford
Associate Principal CelloEwen Bramble
Supported byBarbara Mellor
Principal ViolaJuris Ezergailis
Supported in the memory of Mrs JJ Holden
Principal 2nd Violin Michael Milton
Supported by The Friends of the ASO in the memory of Ann Belmont OAM
Associate Principal 2nd Violin Lachlan Bramble
Supported in the memory of Deborah Pontifex
Associate ConcertmasterCameron Hill
Supported by The Baska Family
Principal 1st ViolinShirin Lim
Supported in the memory of Dr Nandor Ballai and Dr Georgette Straznicky
Violin Hilary Bruer
Supported by Marion Wells
Violin Julie Newman
Supported by Graeme & Susan Bethune
Violin Emma Perkins
Supported byPeter & Pamela McKee
Violin Kemeri Spurr
Supported byProfessor Junia V. Melo
ViolinMinas Berberyan
Supported byMerry Wickes
Associate Principal Viola Imants Larsens
Supported bySimon & Sue Hatcher
Principal CelloSimon Cobcroft
Supported byAndrew & Gayle Robertson
Cello Chris Handley
Supported byJohanna and Terry McGuirk
CelloDavid Sharp
Supported byDr Aileen F Connon AM
CelloCameron Waters
Supported byPeter & Pamela McKee
CelloSherrilyn Handley
Supported byJohanna and Terry McGuirk
Principal BassDavid Shilling
Supported by Mrs Maureen Akkermans
Conductors’ Circle and donors
Musical chair players and donors
CelloGemma PhillipsSupported by R & P Cheesman
ViolinGillian Braithwaite
Supported byMary Dawes BEM
Established in 2015 to directly support the ASO’s new Artistic Leadership Team, the Conductors’ Circle is a small group of extraordinary benefactors. Special thanks go to our founding Conductors’ Circle donors:
• The Friends of the ASO• The Richard Wagner Society of South Australia• Two anonymous donors• Joan Lyons & Diana McLaurin• Robert Pontifex AM, in the memory of
Deborah Pontifex, as a tribute “to our enduring friendship with Jeffrey Tate”
and supported by Creative Partnerships Australia through Plus1.
Principal Conductor Nicholas Carter
Principal Guest Conductorand Artistic AdviserJeffrey Tate
Artist-in-AssociationPinchas Zukerman
BassHarley Gray
Supported byBob Croser
BassDavid Phillips
Supported for‘a great bass player with lots of spirit - love Betsy’
Principal Flute Geoffrey Collins
Supported by Pauline Menz
Principal PiccoloJulia Grenfell
Supported by Chris & Julie Michelmore
Principal OboeCelia Craig
Supported in the memory of Geoffrey Hackett-Jones
Principal Bass ClarinetMitchell Berick
Supported by Nigel Stevenson & Glenn Ball
Principal TubaPeter Whish-Wilson
Supported by Ollie Clark AM & Joan Clark
Principal TimpaniRobert Hutcheson
Drs Kristine Gebbie and Lester Wight
Principal ClarinetDean Newcomb
Supported byRoyal Over-Seas League SA Inc
Principal Cor Anglais Peter Duggan
Supported by Dr Ben Robinson
Principal Contra BassoonJackie Hansen
Supported by Norman Etherington AM & Peggy Brock
ClarinetDarren Skelton
Supported in the memory of Keith Langley
Associate Principal TrumpetMartin Phillipson
Supported byRichard Hugh Allert AO
Principal PercussionSteven Peterka
Supported by The Friends of the ASO
Principal HarpSuzanne Handel
Supported byShane Le Plastrier
Principal TromboneCameron Malouf
Supported by Virginia Weckert & Charles Melton of Charles Melton Wines
Associate Principal HornSarah Barrett
Supported byMargaret Lehmann
Principal Third HornPhilip Paine
Supported byAn anonymous donor
For more information please contact Alexandra Bassett, Donor Relations Manager on (08) 8233 6221 or bassetta@aso.com.au
Principal BassoonMark Gaydon
Supported byPamela Yule
BassoonLeah Stephenson
Supported byLiz Ampt
Simone Young & MahlerSat 23 Jul FESTIVAL THEATRE
“For a virtuoso display of what
conducting is all about, you need look no further”
San Francisco Chroni-
Schubert Unfi nished Symphony | Mahler Symphony No 6
Nicholas Carter ConductorJames Ehnes ViolinMichelle de Young Sieglinde/Mezzo SopranoSimon O’Neill Siegmund/TenorShane Lowrencev Hunding/Bass
BOOK AT BASS
Season
Oboe Renae Stavely
Supported by Roderick Shire & Judy Hargrave
Principal Bass ClarinetMitchell Berick
Supported by Nigel Stevenson & Glenn Ball
Principal TubaPeter Whish-Wilson
Supported by Ollie Clark AM & Joan Clark
Principal TimpaniRobert Hutcheson
Drs Kristine Gebbie and Lester Wight
Principal ClarinetDean Newcomb
Supported byRoyal Over-Seas League SA Inc
Principal Cor Anglais Peter Duggan
Supported by Dr Ben Robinson
Principal Contra BassoonJackie Hansen
Supported by Norman Etherington AM & Peggy Brock
ClarinetDarren Skelton
Supported in the memory of Keith Langley
Associate Principal TrumpetMartin Phillipson
Supported byRichard Hugh Allert AO
Principal PercussionSteven Peterka
Supported by The Friends of the ASO
Principal HarpSuzanne Handel
Supported byShane Le Plastrier
Principal TromboneCameron Malouf
Supported by Virginia Weckert & Charles Melton of Charles Melton Wines
Associate Principal HornSarah Barrett
Supported byMargaret Lehmann
Principal Third HornPhilip Paine
Supported byAn anonymous donor
For more information please contact Alexandra Bassett, Donor Relations Manager on (08) 8233 6221 or bassetta@aso.com.au
Principal BassoonMark Gaydon
Supported byPamela Yule
BassoonLeah Stephenson
Supported byLiz Ampt
Simone Young & MahlerSat 23 Jul FESTIVAL THEATRE
“For a virtuoso display of what
conducting is all about, you need look no further”
San Francisco Chroni-
Schubert Unfi nished Symphony | Mahler Symphony No 6
Nicholas Carter ConductorJames Ehnes ViolinMichelle de Young Sieglinde/Mezzo SopranoSimon O’Neill Siegmund/TenorShane Lowrencev Hunding/Bass
BOOK AT BASS
Season
Oboe Renae Stavely
Supported by Roderick Shire & Judy Hargrave
16 ADELAIDE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA - MASTER SERIES 2016
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
A critic and teacher as well as a composer, Dukas saved his harshest criticism for his own work, destroying up to 80 per cent of his music. On his death only seven major works of a once large output remained: a three-movement symphony; the opera Ariane and Bluebeard; a piano sonata of epic intentions and proportions (it plays for some 50 minutes); the Variations, Interlude and Finale on a theme of Rameau, also for piano; the ‘poème dansé’ La Péri; the overture to Corneille’s tragedy Polyeucte; and the one piece which established his name outside France, the scherzo The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. It is ironic that a composer of such high seriousness should be known for his one overtly comic work.
Written in 1897, Dukas’ scherzo is based on Goethe’s ballad of the same name (in German, Der Zauberlehrling), which in turn is derived from a work of the ancient Greek satirist Lucian, The Lie Fancier, in which the character Eucrates relates some of his experiences as an apprentice to the magician Pancrates, who has lived in a cave for 23 years, all the while taking instructions in magic from the goddess Isis.
A précis of Goethe’s version of the tale prefaces some editions of the score:
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice tells of a magician who can transform a broomstick into an animate being and have it perform all his menial tasks for him. The magician’s apprentice one day overhears the magic formula with which the broomstick becomes alive and tries to apply it himself in his master’s absence. The broom is ordered to bring water from the well. It performs this routine mechanically and efficiently. When the apprentice tires of this game, he wants to transform the water carrier back into a broomstick, but finds that he does not know the necessary formula. The enchanted stick continues to bring in bucket upon bucket of water until the room overflows. The apprentice passes from annoyance to despair. Fortunately, the sorcerer comes home, pronounces the magic words, the broom becomes inanimate, and all is quiet again.
In all his music Dukas is a composer who cares deeply about the integrity of structure, and in The Sorcerer’s Apprentice he manages to write a formal scherzo and still, with exactness, follow the story of Goethe’s narrative. With the first theme we hear – announced softly by the violins – we seem to be present as the apprentice utters his incantations, while
Paul Dukas (1865-1935)
17ADELAIDE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA - MASTER SERIES 2016
Paul Dukas (1865-1935)
with the second (given to the clarinet, then oboe, then flute) we meet the dormant broom, before it begins its spooky activity. These two themes dominate the work, and in various ingenious guises chart our progress through the story. The true musical climax appears at the point where the desperate apprentice believes he has transformed the broom back to its inactive state once again, after which the ‘broom’ theme scampers about in an even more feverish manner than it has previously, until the sorcerer returns and summons an imperious calm.
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice was already quite well known in the concert hall before Leopold Stokowski conducted it in Walt Disney’s animated film Fantasia (1940), and after this it attained a popularity that could not (it seems) be divorced from the image of Mickey Mouse as the apprentice the Disney team had created. The work responded so well to such treatment because of its lucidity and thematic memorability. For all their many beauties, none of Dukas’ other pieces seek the immediacy of appeal The Sorcerer’s Apprentice attains, and in none does Dukas seek to be illustrative in so open-hearted a fashion.
© Phillip Sametz
The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra first performed this work on 16-18 May 1957 under conductor Enrique Jordá, and most recently on 3 October 2014 under Michael Stern.
Duration: 12 minutes
18 ADELAIDE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA - MASTER SERIES 2016
Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953)
Piano Concerto No 3 in C major, Op 26
Andante – Allegro
Andantino (with variations)
Allegro non troppo
Konstantin Shamray Piano
Prokofiev was a virtuoso pianist, who made an authoritative recording of his own Third Concerto. One of his most successful and popular concert works, the concerto shows the most typical aspects of his mature musical style in ideal balance: a mixture of rather Romantic passages with incisive, humorous, sometimes even grotesque episodes. This is obvious right at the start: the opening Andante melody for clarinet is lyrical, almost wistful, and Russian-sounding. But immediately the piano comes in, the music becomes very busy, incisive, almost icy. The lyricism of the opening will return in place of a ‘development’ section in the middle of the first movement.
Prokofiev conceived musical materials for his first three concertos in the years before he left Russia at the time of the 1917 Revolution. The first two concertos, in their driving rhythms and crunching
discords, illustrate Prokofiev’s not altogether unwelcome casting as the enfant terrible of Russian music, and evoked a corresponding critical reaction (‘cats on a roof make better music,’ wrote one Russian critic of Concerto No 2). No 3, on the other hand, shows much more of the tunefulness and accessibility which it is wrong to regard as having entered Prokofiev’s music only after he returned to Russia in the early 1930s. The lyrical opening of this piano concerto, completed in 1921, recalls that of the First Violin Concerto of 1916-17. Even earlier, the great Russian impresario Diaghilev had perceived Prokofiev’s true musical nature: ‘Few composers today have Prokofiev’s gift of inventing personal melodies, and even fewer have a genuine flair for a fresh use of simple tonal harmonies … he doesn’t need to hide behind inane theories and absurd noises.’
The Third Piano Concerto reflects Prokofiev’s world-travelling existence around the time of its creation. He had been collecting its themes for over ten years by the time he put them together in 1921. Prokofiev rarely threw away anything that might come in handy later on. He began the concerto in Russia in 1917, completed it in France in 1921, and gave the premiere later that year in Chicago, where his opera The Love
19ADELAIDE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA - MASTER SERIES 2016
of Three Oranges was premiered. An American critic wrote of the concerto, ‘It is greatly a matter of slewed harmony, neither adventurous enough to win the affection nor modernist enough to be annoying.’ You can’t win! A New York critic was wrong, but more perceptive, when he wrote, ‘It is hard to imagine any other pianist than Mr Prokofiev playing it.’ Prokofiev’s own playing pioneered a new kind of piano virtuosity. A rewarding piece for any virtuoso, this concerto is formally clear and satisfying, full of memorable tunes harmonised and orchestrated with a peculiarly personal piquancy, and sufficiently of our time to be bracing and refreshing.
The second movement is a set of five variations on a theme Prokofiev had composed in 1913, intending it even then for variation treatment. This theme has an old-world, rather gavotte-like character, which in the first variation is treated solo by the piano in what Prokofiev describes as ‘quasi-sentimental fashion’. Then the tempo changes to a furious allegro, one of the abrupt contrasts in which the concerto abounds. After a quiet, meditative fourth variation, and an energetic fifth one, the theme returns on flutes and clarinets in its original form and at its old speed, while the piano continues at top speed but more quietly. This has been compared to a sprinter viewed from the window of a train.
Prokofiev’s own program note describes the finale as beginning with a staccato theme for bassoons and pizzicato strings, interrupted by the blustering entry of the piano:
“The orchestra holds its own with the opening theme, however, and there is
a good deal of argument, with frequent differences of opinion as regards key. Eventually the piano takes up the first theme and develops it to a climax. With a reduction of tone and slackening of tempo, an alternative theme is introduced in the woodwinds. The piano replies with a theme that is more in keeping with the caustic humour of the work.”
The unabashedly Romantic ‘alternative theme’ is worked up to an emotional pitch that shows Prokofiev as having more in common with Rachmaninov than is usually suspected, and both as owing much to Tchaikovsky. Then the opening returns in a brilliant coda.
David Garrett © 2003
The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra first performed Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No 3 on 17-19 September 1953 with conductor Joseph Post and soloist William Kapell, and most recently on 7-8 June 2013 with Arvo Volmer and Denis Kozhukhin.
Duration: 27 minutes
20 ADELAIDE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA - MASTER SERIES 2016
Ross Edwards (born 1943)
White Ghost Dancing
One of Australia’s best-known and most performed composers, Ross Edwards has created a distinctive sound world which reflects his interest in ecology and his belief in the need to reconnect music with elemental forces, as well as restore its traditional association with ritual and dance. His music, universal in that it is concerned with age-old mysteries surrounding humanity, is at the same time connected to its roots in Australia, whose cultural diversity it celebrates, and from whose natural environment it draws inspiration, especially birdsong and the mysterious patterns and drones of insects. As a composer living and working on the Pacific Rim, he is conscious of the exciting potential of this vast region.
Ross Edwards’ compositions include five symphonies, concertos, choral, chamber and vocal music, children’s music, film scores, a chamber opera and music for dance. His Dawn Mantras greeted the dawning of the new millennium from the sails of the Sydney Opera House in a worldwide telecast. His compositions often require special lighting, movement and costume. A recipient of the Order of Australia, he lives in Sydney and is married with two adult children.
Recent commissions include Sacred Kingfisher Psalms for The Song Company, Ars Nova Copenhagen and the Edinburgh Festival; a Piano Sonata for Bernadette Harvey commissioned by the Sydney Conservatorium; Full Moon Dances, a saxophone concerto for Amy Dickson, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and the Australian symphony orchestras; Five Senses, a song cycle to poems of Judith Wright; The Laughing Moon for the New Sydney Wind Quintet; Zodiac, an orchestral ballet score commissioned for Stanton Welch by the Houston Ballet; String Quartet No. 3, Summer Dances, commissioned by Kim Williams for Musica Viva Australia; and Animisms, for the Australia Ensemble. Frog and Star Cycle, a double concerto commissioned for saxophonist Amy Dickson, percussionist Colin Currie and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, will have its premiere in the Sydney Opera House in July 2016. Bright Birds and Sorrows, a major work for saxophone and string quartet, will be premiered in May 2017 at the Musica Viva Festival in Sydney. He is currently working on a commission from the Australian Chamber Orchestra.
21ADELAIDE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA - MASTER SERIES 2016
The composer writes:
There are recorded instances of Aboriginal people mistaking early Europeans in Australia for the ghosts of their ancestors, since ghosts were believed to be light-coloured. As I composed White Ghost Dancing (1999), the concept of a white ghost came to symbolise non-Indigenous Australia’s innate aboriginality – its capacity to transform and heal itself through spiritual connectedness with the earth.
I believe that music, which has enormous therapeutic properties and, for me, a close relationship with ritual – and especially dance – is destined to make an important contribution to this transformation and healing; hence the title.
Typical of my maninya (dance/chant) pieces, White Ghost Dancing is a compact mosaic of unconsciously processed shapes and patterns from the natural world: fragments of birdsong, insect and frog rhythms, as well as fleeting references to other works of mine, and fusions of Aboriginal and Gregorian chant.
Ross Edwards © 1999
The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra first performed White Ghost Dancing on 26-28 July 2001 under conductor Miguel Harth-Bedoya, and most recently in April 2015 under conductor Iain Grandage in the Adelaide Town Hall, as part of the World Premiere of Towards First Light: Gallipoli at 100.
Duration: 10 minutes
22 ADELAIDE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA - MASTER SERIES 2016
Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)
Petrushka: Burlesque in four tableaux (1947 version)
The Shrovetide Fair – Legerdemain scene – Russian Dance
Petrushka’s Room
The Blackamoor’s Room – Dance of the Ballerina – Valse – Petrushka
The Shrovetide Fair – Dance of the Wet-nurses – The Peasant and the Bear – The Jovial Merchant with Two Gypsy Girls – Dance of the Grooms – The Maskers – The Fight, and Death of Petrushka
Petrushka, the second of Stravinsky’s ballets for Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, began life as a ‘burlesque’ for piano and orchestra called Petrushka’s Cry. Stravinsky later wrote:
I had wanted to refresh myself by composing an orchestral piece in which the piano would play the most important part … In composing the music, I had in mind the distinct picture of a puppet, suddenly endowed with life, exasperating the patience of the orchestra with diabolical cascades of arpeggios.
Stravinsky, writing in later life, no doubt used the term ‘diabolical’, with its suggestion of ‘doubleness’, advisedly: much of Petrushka’s harmony, notably in
the inner tableaux, makes use of parallel black- and white-note figures to create a spiky bitonality.
‘As a piece of musical architecture, Petrushka’s Cry is,’ according to Stephen Walsh, ‘unremarkable’, but Diaghilev saw its balletic potential and asked artist Alexandre Benois to draft a scenario based on the Russian version of the puppet known in English as Mr Punch. There is no Judy, however, as the story is in fact derived from the commedia dell’arte tradition with its masked, stock characters: Petrushka, a puppet with human emotions, is in love with the Ballerina, who is more attracted to the Moor. What transpired was a work in four tableaux (articulated by circus-ring drum rolls) of which the second is the original Petrushka’s Cry.
The first presents the Shrovetide Fair in music that immediately announces how much its composer has matured in the short time since The Firebird. In a gesture that looks forward to works as different as The Rite of Spring and Dumbarton Oaks, Stravinsky creates scintillating, active textures that are nonetheless harmonically static, and cuts seemingly randomly between them to depict the bustle of the fair. Some of the music is derived from street cries and songs of St Petersburg: two organ-grinders in the first tableau
23ADELAIDE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA - MASTER SERIES 2016
‘duel’ with songs sent to Stravinsky by his friend, Andrey Rimsky-Korsakov. After establishing this busy scene, Stravinsky focuses on the figure of the Charlatan, or Showman, who brings his puppets to life with the sound of the flute. Their ‘Russian Dance’ was taken from sketches for the work that would become The Rite of Spring.
The second tableau is set in Petrushka’s darkly furnished cell, into which the puppet falls as if kicked. After his characteristic black and white motif for clarinets, swarming figurations featuring the piano indicate Petrushka’s helplessness and fury at the Ballerina’s preference for the dashing Moor. She enters the room and is frightened by his manic attempts to win her over and leaves.
Things comes to a head in the third tableau, where the Moor seduces the Ballerina, who has come to his lavish room, in an agile waltz featuring flute and trumpet. Petrushka appears and attacks the Moor but is overpowered and flees.
The final tableau returns us to the Shrovetide Fair, and another charming mosaic of character dances, including that of the Wet-Nurses, based on a further St Petersburg street-song, and an appearance by a peasant with a bear. This is suddenly interrupted as Petrushka, still fleeing the Moor, appears and runs across the stage with the Moor chasing him, and the Ballerina following. The Moor kills Petrushka with his blade. In the appalled silence the Charlatan shakes the body to show the crowd that it is a puppet, but Petrushka’s ghost appears above the stage.
In moving to the USA, Stravinsky found that copyright law gave no protection to his European works, so in 1947 he revised several scores to republish and copyright them, and took the opportunity in Petrushka to produce a work for slightly smaller forces than the 1911 original.
Gordon Kerry © 2013
Choreographed by Mikhail Fokine, Petrushka was first performed by the Ballets Russes at the Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris on 13 June 1911 in a performance conducted by Pierre Monteux. The title roles were taken by Vaslav Nijinsky (Petrushka), Tamara Karsavina (the Ballerina) and Alexander Orlov (the Moor). The work was first heard in concert on 1 March 1914, again conducted by Monteux, and with Alfredo Casella at the piano.
The first performance by the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra was on 22-23 March 1972 conducted by John Hopkins, with the most recent performance taking place on 27-28 April 2012 under Arvo Volmer.
Duration: 34 minutes
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