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THURSDAY AFTERNOON SYMPHONY
Thursday 5 December 2013
EMIRATES METRO SERIES
Friday 6 December 2013
GREAT CLASSICS
Saturday 7 December 2013
MONDAYS @ 7
Monday 9 December 2013
JAZZ INSPIRATIONS Thibaudet plays Gershwin
Thibaudet plays GershwinJazz Inspirations
SHOSTAKOVICH Jazz Suite No.1 GERSHWIN Piano Concerto in F PROKOFIEV Symphony No.5
James Gaffigan conductor Jean-Yves Thibaudet piano
THURSDAY AFTERNOON SYMPHONY
Thu 5 Dec 1.30pm
EMIRATES METRO SERIES
Fri 6 Dec 8pm
GREAT CL ASSICS
Sat 7 Dec 2pm
MONDAYS @ 7
Mon 9 Dec 7pm
Pre-concert talk by Yvonne Frindle
Variations on an English ThemeHAYDN Symphony No.92 (Oxford) BRITTEN The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra BRITTEN Violin Concerto BRAHMS Variations on a Theme of Haydn
James Gaffigan conductor Vilde Frang violin
MASTER SERIES
Wed 11 Dec 8pmFri 13 Dec 8pmSat 14 Dec 8pm
Pre-concert talk by David Garrett
Symphony in the DomainSpread your blanket under the stars and enjoy the sounds of the orchestra with your family and friends in the Domain.
HOLST The Planets TCHAIKOVSKY 1812 Overture
Simone Young conductor John Bell actor-narrator Sydney Philharmonia Choirs
Free event PRESENTED bY THE SYDNEY FESTIvAL
Sun 26 Jan 8pmSydney Domain
Anne-Sophie Mutter plays MozartMOZART Violin Concerto No.2 in D, K211 Violin Concerto No.3 in G, K216 (Strassburger) Violin Concerto No.5 in A, K219 (Turkish)
Anne-Sophie Mutter violin-director
Tickets for these concerts on sale from Monday 2 December
SPECIAL EvENT PREMIER PARTNER CREDIT SUISSE
Fri 31 Jan 8pm Sat 1 Feb 8pm Sun 2 Feb 2pm
Pre-concert talk 45 minutes before each performance
DECEMBER – JANuARY
* booking fees of $7.50 – $8.95 may apply.
BOOK NOW!
SYDNeYSYmPHONY.COm or call 8215 4600 mon-Fri 9am-5pm
Tickets also available at sydneyoperahouse.com 9250 7777 mon-Sat 9am-8.30pm Sun 10am-6pm
CLASSICALMagnificent Mozart!BRITTEN Simple Symphony MOZART Piano Concerto No.19 in F, K459† SHOSTAKOVICH arr. Barshai Chamber Symphony, Op.83a†
Dene Olding conductor Avan Yu Piano
MOZART IN THE CIT Y
Thu 17 Oct 7pm†
City Recital Hall Angel Place
Fri 18 Oct 7pm^The Concourse, Chatswood
Pre-concert talk by David Garrett (17 Oct only)
Labèque Sisters in RecitalRAVEL Rapsodie espagnole GLASS Four Movements for two pianos Australian Premiere BERNSTEIN arr. Kostal West Side Story
Katia & Marielle Labèque piano duo Gonzalo Grau percussion Raphaël Séguinier drums
INTERNATIONAL PIANISTS IN RECITAL PRESENTED BY THEME & VARIATIONS
Mon 21 Oct 7pmCity Recital Hall Angel Place
Pre-concert talk by Stephanie McCallum
Discover Britten with Katie NoonanBRITTEN Les Illuminations BRITTEN Suite on English Folk Tunes
Richard Gill conductor Katie Noonan soprano
TENIX DISCOVERY
Tue 22 Oct 6.30pmCity Recital Hall Angel Place
Latin FeverMÁRQUEZ Danzón No.2 GOLIJOV arr. Grau Nazareno VILLA-LOBOS Bachianas brasileiras No.4: Preludio and Danza PIAZZOLLA Tangazo LÓPEZ Fiesta! – 4 pop dances
Miguel Harth-Bedoya conductor Katia & Marielle Labèque piano duo Gonzalo Grau percussion Raphaël Séguinier drums
K ALEIDOSCOPE
Fri 25 Oct 8pmSat 26 Oct 8pm
MONDAYS @7
Mon 28 Oct 7pm
Pre-concert talk at 7.15pm (6.15pm on Monday 28 Oct)
Dvorák’s New WorldExplorations in Sound
BRITTEN Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes ZHAO JIPING Pipa Concerto† Premiere DVOŘÁK Symphony No.9, New World†
Joana Carneiro conductorWu Man pipa (Chinese lute)
MEET THE MUSIC PRESENTED BY AIM
Wed 30 Oct 6.30pmThu 31 Oct 6.30pm
TEA & SYMPHONY
Fri 1 Nov 11am†
Pre-concert talk by Kim Waldock (30, 31 Oct only)
OCTOBER
* Booking fees of $7.50 – $8.95 may apply. #Additional fees may apply. ^Tickets can also be booked through Ticketek 1300 795 012 or the Concourse box office Chatswood.
BOOK NOW!
SYDNEYSYMPHONY.COM or call 8215 4600 Mon-Fri 9am-5pm
Tickets also available at sydneyoperahouse.com 9250 7777 Mon-Sat 9am-8.30pm Sun 10am-6pm cityrecitalhall.com# 8256 2222 Mon-Fri 9am-5pm
CLASSICAL
Giasone
pinchGutopera.com.auSupported by Heroes of Pinchgut
5, 7, 8 & 9 DecemberCity ReCital Hall angel PlaCe, Sydney
bookinGs & enquiries
02 8256 2222 CityReCitalHall.Com
Photo Andrew Goldie
francesco cavalliOne mAn. TwO wOmen. Three Times The TrOuble.
29S S76-78 French Liaisons.indd 2 4/10/13 11:45 AM
Welco me to the Em i rates Metro Ser i es
Bryan Ban sto nEm i rates’ V ice Pres ident Austra la s i a
Emirates is proud to continue its decade-long partnership with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra into 2014, following the announcement of the three-year renewal of its Principal Partner relationship from next year. As part of this agreement we will continue as naming sponsor of the SSO’s Emirates Metro concert series.
Like the SSO, Emirates specialises in world-class entertainment, with the airline’s inflight entertainment system, ice, recently taking out the award for best inflight entertainment for the ninth consecutive year at the international Skytrax Awards.
With up to 1,600 channels to choose from, on 84 flights per week to Dubai, including daily A380 flights from Brisbane, Melbourne and a double daily A380 from Sydney, those flying on Emirates will be able to watch SSO concerts onboard.
Our partnership with the SSO is about connecting with you – our customers. We are dedicated to the growth of arts and culture in Australia, and the SSO allows us to showcase the Emirates brand to music lovers around the country, and the world, from its home at the Sydney Opera House.
The airline strives to evolve so that our customers enjoy a first-class flying experience, which is evident through our global network now featuring services to 137 destinations in 77 countries. In 2013, Emirates increased its European network to 34 destinations. Warsaw joined the network in February and Stockholm in September. In January 2014, Kiev will become Emirates’ 35th European destination.
Renewing the partnership with the SSO is an integral part of our long-term commitment to Sydney, and Australia. We’re delighted to continue our support of the Orchestra and encourage you to enjoy all the performances you can in 2014.
Jazz InspirationsJames Gaffigan CONDUCTOR Jean-Yves Thibaudet PIANO
Dmitri Shostakovich (1906–1975) Suite for Jazz Orchestra No.1
Waltz Polka Foxtrot (Blues)
George Gershwin (1898–1937) Piano Concerto in F
Allegro Andante con moto Allegro agitato
INTERVAL
Sergei Prokofiev (1891–1953) Symphony No.5 in B flat, Op.100
Andante Allegro marcato Adagio Allegro giocoso
2013 seasonthursday afternoon symphonyThursday 5 December | 1.30pmemirates metro seriesFriday 6 December | 8pmgreat classicsSaturday 7 December | 2pmmondays @ 7Monday 9 December | 7pm
Sydney Opera House Concert Hall
Friday’s performance will be recorded for later broadcast by ABC Classic FM.
Pre-concert talk by Yvonne Frindle in the Northern Foyer, 45 minutes before each performance. Visit bit.ly/SSOspeakerbios for speaker biographies.
Estimated durations: 8 minutes, 35 minutes, 20-minute interval, 47 minutesThe concert will conclude at approximately 3.30pm (Thu), 10pm (Fri), 4pm (Sat), 9pm (Mon).
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LEB
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Turn to page 27 to read Bravo! – musician profiles, articles and news from the orchestra. There are nine issues through the year, also available at sydneysymphony.com/bravo
COVER IMAGE: Air+Man+Space (1912) by Lyubov Sergeyevna Popova (1889–1924)
Jazz Inspirations
In 1929, a Moscow Conservatoire professor, Aleksandr Weprik, observed that ‘the only kind of music to find success across the whole of Europe is jazz’. Weprik saw it as a reaction to atonality, which had led to a ‘dead end’ and ‘stopped influencing people’. Jazz, he went on, ‘is the only kind of post-war music that is truly infectious.’ Disapprovingly, he points to its social significance and its origins in places of entertainment – by which he means the bar and the brothel, not the concert hall.
Shostakovich didn’t disapprove of jazz – he admired its practitioners and embraced its sounds (if not its musical style) in small orchestral suites and some of his theatre and film scores. The first suite for jazz orchestra from 1934 shows him in a lively mood, unashamedly entertaining us – in the concert hall.
Shostakovich composed his suite with the aim of raising the level of Soviet ‘jazz’ to a professional status. Gershwin’s piano concerto, composed in New York in 1925, was part of a similar project: bringing the jazz idiom into the concert hall.
In his quest to be recognised as a ‘serious’ composer, Gershwin travelled to Paris, where jazz was enthusiastically embraced by classical composers of the 1920s. And Paris is where Prokofiev discovered jazz in all its variations, including ragtime and blues. He also heard Gershwin’s concerto at the Paris Opéra in 1928 (he didn’t think much of its structure, but he loved the tunes).
Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony was a kind of ‘war effort’ and had to live up to high expectations – it’s an epic work in comparison with Shostakovich’s tiny suite. Even so, American composer and critic Virgil Thomson heard in its skittish second movement a ‘sort of Soviet-style blues or Muscovite one-step’. Is it jazz? No more than Shostakovich’s three 1920s dances, but the pervasive influence is there. In that respect Weprik was right: jazz is truly infectious.
INTRODUCTION
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ABOUT THE MUSIC
Dmitri Shostakovich Suite for Jazz Orchestra No.1Waltz Polka Foxtrot (Blues)
Dmitri Shostakovich had no time for musical snobs. Under the influence of his friend Ivan Sollertinsky (a critic), he’d cultivated an interest in music ‘from Bach to Offenbach’ and discovered Mahler, whose own popular stylistic allusions were important influences.
Shostakovich’s innate curiosity also drew him to the new ‘dzhaz-band’ music. The ‘jazz’ that reached the ears of Soviet musicians was a mixed bag and some regarded it with hostility. It wasn’t until 1926 that Nicolai Malko could report, in impressed tones, on the first authentic jazz band to visit the Soviet Union: ‘The genuine article, no need for inverted commas, since everything we’ve had up to now…was only an experiment in cultivating a foreign plant on our soil.’ That experiment had led to bands such as Leonid Utyosov’s Tea Jazz, whose repertoire was closer to light music of the palm court orchestra than what we would regard as jazz.
Which is why it’s better to think of this suite as a ‘Suite for Jazz Orchestra’ than a ‘Jazz Suite’ – it’s the ensemble, with its saxophones, brass and percussion and just two string players, rather than the style that makes the connection.
The suite was composed in 1934 as part of an effort to raise the status of the jazz idiom in the Soviet Union and provide an exemplar to younger composers. It’s not jazz, but it shows Shostakovich in a brilliant, witty mode – drawing on his experience in theatre and film. The three dance movements, although composed at the peak of the Stalinist terror years, evoke the carefree, whimsical spirit of the 1920s.
The dances are true to form and the waltz with its muted trumpet and melancholy soprano saxophone was later pressed into service for the ballet The Bright Stream. (If it seems familiar it’s because it bears a resemblance to another Shostakovich ‘jazz’ waltz, adopted by Stanley Kubrick for Eyes Wide Shut.) The polka creates a circus mood reminiscent of the first piano concerto. The bluesy foxtrot comes closest to the biting irony so often associated with Shostakovich.
YVONNE FRINDLE SYDNEY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA © 2013
The suite calls for a small orchestra of three saxophones, two trumpets, trombone, percussion, piano, banjo (doubling Hawaiian guitar), violin and double bass.
This is our first complete concert performance of the suite.
Keynotes
SHOSTAKOVICH
Born St Petersburg, 1906 Died Moscow, 1975
One of the great symphonic composers of the 20th century, Shostakovich was also a controversial and enigmatic personality who lived through the Bolshevik Revolution, the Stalinist purges and World War II. His music is often searched for cryptic messages: criticism of the Stalinist regime disguised in music that, it was hoped, would be found acceptable by authorities. But Shostakovich’s compromises only went so far and his music was nonetheless subject to censure, usually on stylistic or ‘moral’ grounds.
This is the serious side of Shostakovich. There is another side: the composer who had supported himself by playing piano for silent films, the composer with a sense of humour who shows up in music such as the first piano concerto or his ballet score The Bright Stream, and the composer with an ear for popular taste who could easily turn his hand to so-called light music.
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George Gershwin Piano Concerto in FAllegro Andante con moto Allegro agitato
Jean-Yves Thibaudet piano
Rhapsody in Blue, the music in which Gershwin first crossed the tracks from jazz and popular music to ‘serious’ music, caused a sensation and a controversy. When all the dust had settled, the pungent, memorable tunes and rhythms were still there: the Rhapsody is likely to remain Gershwin’s most popular piece of instrumental music. But Gershwin composed it for Paul Whiteman’s big band, which played what Whiteman, at least, called jazz. Rhapsody in Blue comes off best, many believe [including Jean-Yves Thibaudet, who has recorded it this way], in its original scoring for band rather than in the inflated orchestral version.
Actually, the neophyte composer made neither scoring himself – he and Whiteman called in the services of the band’s arranger, Ferde Grofé. That was in 1924. Meanwhile, the jazz craze was sweeping America, and the quite venerable but still enterprising conductor of the New York Symphony Society, Walter Damrosch, had an idea which would, at one stroke, further his aim of encouraging American composers and bring some jazz flavour into the concert hall. In the spring of 1925 his Society commissioned Gershwin to compose a piano concerto and to appear as soloist in seven concerts with the New York Symphony beginning in December of that year.
It is said that the brashly self-confident Gershwin, after accepting the commission, had to find out what a ‘concerto’ was. Be that as it may, Gershwin was determined to orchestrate the work himself, and bought a textbook of orchestration. His original title for the work was New York Concerto, and he began to write it in the Gershwin family home at 103rd Street; or, when that became too crowded with distracting friends and relatives, in the seclusion of a room at the nearby Whitehall Hotel. The Australian-born pianist Ernest Hutcheson, then a staff member and later president of the Juilliard School, made available to Gershwin a studio at out-of-town Chautauqua, where he conducted masterclasses in the summer months. Some of the concerto was composed there.
Keynotes
GERSHWIN
Born Brooklyn, New York, 1898 Died Hollywood, California, 1937
The all-too-brief life and career of George Gershwin reads like a metaphor for the American Dream. The Brooklyn boy born Jacob Gershovitz to Russian Jewish parents started out as a Tin Pan Alley song plugger before conquering Broadway and Hollywood. His songwriting partnership with older brother Ira produced a string of hit shows and songs that defined an era. Lauded by composers such as Ravel and Schoenberg, he strove to be recognised as a ‘serious’ composer and to develop an American contribution to the classical tradition with concert works such as Rhapsody in Blue and his Piano Concerto in F.
Vain, competitive, demanding, but always generous to a fault, Gershwin lived life with a frantic energy as incandescent as the New York skyline that his music still so powerfully evokes. His last major work, the folk-opera Porgy and Bess, hinted at the yet-to-be-fulfilled promise of a soaring artistic trajectory cut short by his untimely death of a brain tumour at 38. At his funeral service on 15 July 1937 at Temple Emanu-El on New York’s Fifth Avenue, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise described Gershwin as ‘the singer of the songs of America’s soul’. Even Ira couldn’t have put it better.
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Gershwin’s original plan for the concerto was expressed in his typically laconic style. The three movements were to be:
1. Rhythm 2. Melody 3. More RhythmBecause of the title ‘concerto’, much attention has
focussed on how Gershwin met conventional demands of form. Critics were quick to point out supposed ‘structural deficiencies’, although some have countered with the claim that Gershwin adopted sonata form in the first movement and rondo form in the third. It is doubtful whether this approach to the concerto is much to the point. Gershwin biographer Charles Schwartz surely has it right: ‘Doing what came naturally to him, Gershwin created his own personal version of a concerto, though hardly one that would conform to textbook models.’ After all, what popular 20th-century concerto do those models fit? Certainly not Rachmaninoff’s.
The Concerto in F is in fact a string of highly effective melodies, involving a certain amount of repetition (including reminiscences of the first movement in the third), not much development, and some quasi-symphonic linking passages between the big tunes. The anxious care Gershwin gave to this work was surely due to his sense that the music would have to stand the test of durability and repetition, not the ephemeral success of a Broadway show. By that test he succeeded: the Concerto in F is certainly the most often played American concerto and one of the most frequently heard concertos of the 20th century.
Among the Carnegie Hall premiere’s mixed audience of jazz buffs, classical elite and Damrosch’s worshipful following of Society ladies, there were those who were shocked, those who were puzzled, and those who were disappointed – because the concerto was not as musically raffish as Rhapsody in Blue. Critic Samuel Chotzinoff caught the reaction which has endured: ‘Of all those writing the music of today…Gershwin alone expresses us.’ The original title, New York Concerto, is an apt indication of its character: ‘a mixture of New York musical vernacular and the concert hall’ (Schwartz). Gershwin’s own program note makes no claims about the form of the piece, but gives a good description of its contents:
The first movement employs the Charleston rhythm. It is quick and pulsating, representing the young enthusiastic spirit of American life. It begins with a rhythmic motif given out by
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the kettledrums, supported by other percussion instruments, and with a Charleston motif…The principal theme is announced by the bassoon. Later, a second theme is introduced by the piano.The second movement has a poetic nocturnal atmosphere which has come to be referred to as the American blues, but in a purer form than that in which they are usually treated.The final movement reverts to the style of the first. It is an orgy of rhythms, starting violently and keeping to the same pace throughout.
DAVID GARRETT © 1987/2003
Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F in its symphonic scoring calls for an orchestra of two flutes, piccolo, two oboes, cor anglais, two clarinets, bass clarinet and two bassoons; four horns, three trumpets, three trombones and tuba; timpani and percussion; and strings.
The first ABC orchestra to perform the concerto was the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, in 1951 with conductor John Farnsworth Hall and pianist Una Murray. The SSO first performed it in 1976 in a special concert for the America Bicentennial conducted by Elyakum Shapirra with soloist Isador Goodman. Our most recent performance of the concerto was in 1995 with Sir William Southgate and pianist Geoffrey Tozer.
When George Gershwin (right) sought out established ‘serious’ composers for advice and tuition, Ravel (seated) supposedly advised him to remain a first-rate Gershwin, not seek to be a second-rate Ravel. Photo taken at a party in honour of Ravel in 1928.
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If you’d like to explore other Prokofiev symphonies, look for Valery Gergiev’s impassioned performances in live concert recordings with the London Symphony Orchestra – released in a 4-CD set with substantial liner notes by Prokofiev scholar, David Nice.PHILIPS 475 7655
JAMES GAFFIGAN
James Gaffigan’s first recording with the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra was an acclaimed performance of Wolfgang Rihm’s Symphony, Nähe Fern (Near Far). Hans Christoph Begemann is the bass soloist.HARMONIA MUNDI 902153
He is currently preparing a second Harmonia Mundi recording with the Lucerne orchestra, featuring Dvorák’s Sixth Symphony and American Suite, and is also recording the Beethoven symphonies with the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra for Naxos.
If you enjoyed Gaffigan’s interpretation of Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony, stay tuned: he is recording the complete Prokofiev symphonies with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic.
Broadcast Diary
December
abc.net.au/classic
Saturday 14 December, 8pmvariations on an english themeJames Gaffigan conductor Vilde Frang violinHaydn, Britten, Brahms
Webcasts
Selected Sydney Symphony Orchestra concerts are webcast live on BigPond and Telstra T-box and made available for later viewing On Demand. Our current webcast:ashkenazy and zukerman: mahler and bruchVisit: bigpondmusic.com/sydneysymphony
We recommend our free mobile app, now optimised for the iPad, if you want to watch SSO live webcasts on your mobile device.
MORE MUSIC
SHOSTAKOVICH JAZZ SUITES
To hear more of Shostakovich in jazz-inspired mode, look for Shostakovich: The Jazz Album with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Riccardo Chailly. In addition to the first jazz suite, the disc includes the so-called Jazz Suite No.2 (the eight-movement Suite for Variety Orchestra), the lively first piano concerto with pianist Ronald Brautigam and trumpeter Peter Masseurs, and Tahiti Trot (Shostakovich’s take on ‘Tea for Two’).DECCA 475 9983
THIBAUDET PLAYS GERSHWIN
For his CD Gershwin, Jean-Yves Thibaudet made the daring choice to record the jazz band orchestrations of Rhapsody in Blue, Variations on ‘I Got Rhythm’ and the Piano Concerto in F. These arrangements were made by Ferde Grofé (of Grand Canyon suite fame) for the Paul Whiteman Orchestra and give an entirely fresh sound to these popular pieces. In these live concert recordings, Thibaudet is accompanied by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and fellow Gershwin fan, Marin Alsop.DECCA 478 2189
MORE THIBAUDET
Jean-Yves Thibaudet plays the solo piano part in Messiaen’s Turangalîla-Symphonie, recorded by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Riccardo Chailly in 1992 and re-released last year on Decca. Takashi Harada plays the ethereal ondes martenot.DECCA 478 4578
Also released last year, in Decca’s Virtuoso series, is his recording of Rachmaninoff’s first and third piano concertos with Vladimir Ashkenazy conducting the Cleveland Orchestra.DECCA 478 3611
Jean-Yves Thibaudet records for Decca, visit www.deccaclassics.com for a full discography.
PROKOFIEV SYMPHONIES
After the Classical Symphony, Prokofiev’s Fifth is his most frequently recorded symphony, which means there’s a lot to choose from, beginning with our own recording of both these popular symphonies, conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy. The SSO performances have been praised as idiomatic and insightful, and capturing the dramatic contrasts of both works. ‘The sound of the orchestra is full, warm, and immediate, yet details of orchestration pop with breathtaking clarity,’ wrote one reviewer. ‘Highly recommended, for both stunning performances and stunning sound.’EXTON 42
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Keynotes
PROKOFIEV
Born Sontsovka (Ukraine), 1891 Died Moscow, 1953
In 1936, after nearly two decades in the West, Prokofiev returned to Russia. His Fifth Symphony was completed in 1945, following such successes as Peter and the Wolf, the ballet Romeo and Juliet and his film music, later a cantata, for Eisenstein’s Alexander Nevsky. The symphony was composed over the summer of 1944, during which Prokofiev and other composers enjoyed the seclusion and relative comfort of a government-run artists’ colony.
FIFTH SYMPHONY
In some ways the Fifth Symphony has a classical character, at least in its outlines. It is in the traditional four movements, but the first is expansive rather than fast and energetic, and the slow movement sits in third spot rather than second. Prokofiev indulges in some recycling in the second movement: taking up impulsive and colourful music that he’d discarded while writing Romeo and Juliet. The third movement shows him in lyrical mode, with broad woodwind themes at the beginning and an intensely felt middle section. The finale offers a surprise by bringing back a theme from the first movement before giving us the ‘expected’ triumphant conclusion.
Sergei Prokofiev Symphony No.5 in B flat, Op.100Andante Allegro marcato Adagio Allegro giocoso
As Prokofiev raised his baton to conduct the premiere of his Fifth Symphony, Moscow shook with the sound of cannon-fire. It was January 1945, and the fusillade announced to the citizens that the Red Army had crossed the Vistula River in its rout of the invading Germans. Pianist Sviatoslav Richter, who was there, remembered the symbolism of the moment well: ‘a common borderline had come for everyone.’ If the cannon-fire was announcing the turn of the war’s tide, the symphony announced a new beginning. Its epic scale and optimistic trajectory perfectly reflected the mood of the time. Prokofiev later wrote that in this work ‘I wanted to sing of the free, happy man, his mighty power, his chivalry and his purity of spirit…I wrote the kind of music that grew ripe within me and finally filled up my soul.’
We need, of course, to understand the deliberate ambiguity of such remarks: Prokofiev, like anyone else, was well aware of the lack of freedom and happiness under Joseph Stalin; his description might sound like that of the new ‘Soviet man’, but can equally be read as a subtle denunciation of the regime. The composer, moreover, had first-hand experience of the precariousness of favour in the Soviet Union. Perhaps expecting to profit from Shostakovich’s recent fall from grace, Prokofiev had permanently returned to Russia in 1936 after living mainly in Paris since 1918. He soon found that when he tried to compose in the officially sanctioned way he would be accused of writing music that was ‘pale and lacking in individuality’; if he continued on the course he had begun in Western Europe he was derided as a ‘formalist’.
With works like Peter and the Wolf and Romeo and Juliet, Prokofiev’s stocks revived, and during the early 1940s he received the Stalin Prize several times and was evacuated to safety when the Soviet Union entered World War II in 1942. He spent the summer of 1944 with composers Khachaturian, Shostakovich and Miaskovsky in the relative luxury of a government-run artists’ colony and in a mere two months (and with a little recycling) had composed and orchestrated his Fifth Symphony.
The Fourth Symphony, composed some 14 years earlier,
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A House of Rest and Creativity
In 1943 the Union of Soviet Composers opened a House of Rest and Creativity at Ivanovo, west of Moscow. On this rundown country estate, the Union offered the families of prominent composers – weary of wartime constraints – a modest summer vacation, leaving the composers themselves to work in relative peace.
Aram Khachaturian recalled: ‘It is a remarkable fact, but while we were at Ivanovo our work seemed to progress without any hitches. Were we influenced by nature and our surroundings? Or was it the feeling of victory round the corner? Or simply that we were getting properly fed?’
In return, Union composers were expected to produce their own special type of ‘war work’, like Khachaturian with his spectacular war-inspired Second Symphony, and Reinhold Glière with his War Overture. There was, however, one notable failure: Shostakovich’s Eighth Symphony proved fatalistic rather than galvanising in tone and was received coldly by the Party’s artistic accountants.
Prokofiev had been away working with Sergei Eisenstein’s film crew in east Kazakhstan during most of 1943, and so had missed out on the first Ivanovo summer. In 1944, however, he was back in Moscow and able to join his colleagues for the second summer.
was a not entirely successful cobbling together of off-cuts from the Prodigal Son ballet. In the Fifth, Prokofiev produced a much more ‘classical’ work, of four movements, but one in which his material is superbly integrated and tightly argued. Like Shostakovich in a number of works, Prokofiev composed a first movement whose tempo is broad and stately rather than traditionally fast. (Significantly, in his Piano Sonata No.8 – also in B flat – which dates from this time, he adopts the same strategy.) This enables an epic treatment of the material. Beginning with a simple theme on flute and bassoon, the movement unfolds gradually but inexorably, with passages of characteristic wit, high lyricism and overpowering full scoring until, in its final cadence, a radiant B flat chord emerges from tense dissonance.
The second movement provides the first really fast music, its balletic quality partly explained by the use of material discarded during the composition of Romeo and Juliet. This recalls the Prokofiev of The Love for Three Oranges – fast, incisive, colourful – and provides a foil to the extended and beautiful slow movement which follows.
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Before emigrating to America, Nicolas Slonimsky had been a fellow student of Prokofiev’s at the St Petersburg Conservatory. He describes, in his inimitable style, the climactic moments of the Fifth Symphony:
“…an apotheosis, marked by an ovation of trumpets, an irresistible advance of trombones, and the brandished oriflamme of horns reinforced by a cotillion of drums, and nailed down by a triumphant beat of the bass drum.”
What musicologist Arnold Whittall calls the ‘obsessive ticking’ rhythms of the second movement give place to a gently pulsating accompaniment over an arching main theme, which contrasts with an emotive central section.
In the finale, Prokofiev initially defies expectations by quoting the melody from the first movement, this time scored for the rarified sound of divided cellos. Whether or not this represents what Prokofiev’s ‘official’ biographer Israel Nestyev calls the ‘theme of man’s grandeur and heroic strength’, it is dramatically effective of the composer not to plunge immediately into the expected triumphal finale. As Whittall remarks, the movement avoids the ‘naively life-enhancing’ clichés of Soviet music but the subtle use of dissonance, and the uneasy sense right at the end, suggest that the energy of the music has outlived its meaning.
The timing of the symphony was, however, perfect, seeming to sing of Soviet victory. Sadly, it would not be long before Prokofiev would feel the weight of disfavour once more; moreover, concussion sustained in a fall shortly after the premiere meant that the Fifth Symphony would be the last work he would ever conduct.
GORDON KERRY © 2003
‘A House of Rest and Creativity’ adapted from a note by GRAEME SKINNER © 1997
Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony calls for two flutes, piccolo, two oboes, cor anglais, two clarinets, bass clarinet, E flat clarinet, two bassoons and contrabassoon; four horns, three trumpets, three trombones and tuba; timpani and a large percussion section; harp, piano and strings.
Prokofiev himself conducted the USSR State Symphony Orchestra for the premiere of his Fifth Symphony, in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory on 13 January 1945. The SSO and conductor Eugene Goossens gave the first Australian performance on 5 August 1948. The SSO’s most recent performance of the symphony was in 2009 in Vladimir Ashkenazy’s Prokofiev festival, The Prodigal Russian.
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James Gaffigan CONDUCTOR
James Gaffigan is considered by many to be the most outstanding young American conductor working today and continues to attract international attention. He is Chief Conductor of the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra and Principal Guest Conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, and in 2012 was named Guest Conductor of the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne.
In North America he has conducted the Cleveland, Philadelphia and Minnesota orchestras, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the orchestras of Chicago, St Louis, Detroit, Cincinnati, Atlanta, Houston, Baltimore, Vancouver and Milwaukee, as well as the National Symphony Orchestra and New World Symphony. His festival appearances include Blossom, Aspen, Grand Teton, Grant Park and the Music Academy of the West, and he has twice conducted the Juilliard Orchestra at the Lincoln Center. In August he made his Hollywood Bowl debut.
Born in New York City in 1979, he studied at the New England Conservatory of Music and the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, Houston. He participated in the inaugural American Academy of Conducting in Aspen (2000) and was a conducting fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center. From 2006 to 2009 he was Associate Conductor of the San Francisco Symphony and Artistic Director of the SFS Summer in the City festival. Previously he was Assistant Conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra.
His international career was launched when he won the 2004 Sir Georg Solti International Conducting Competition in Frankfurt. Since then his European engagements have included the Munich, Rotterdam, London and Czech philharmonic orchestras, Dresden Staatskapelle, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Camerata Salzburg and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. In the 2013–14 season he makes debut appearances with the London Symphony Orchestra, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Konzerthaus Orchester Berlin and Orchestre de Paris.
He made his professional opera debut with La Bohème at the Zurich Opera in 2005, and more recently has conducted productions for the Aspen Music Festival, Glyndebourne, Houston Grand Opera and Vienna State Opera.
James Gaffigan made his Australian debut conducting the SSO in 2011.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
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Jean-Yves Thibaudet PIANO
Jean-Yves Thibaudet has the rare ability to combine poetic musical sensibilities with dazzling technical prowess. He has performed around the world for more than 30 years and recorded more than 50 albums, and has a musical depth and natural charisma that have underlined his career.
Highlights of recent seasons include a tour of Europe with Kammerorchester Basel, a recital tour performing an all-Debussy program at the Lincoln Center, in Cincinnati, La Jolla, San Francisco and Houston, and an appearance at the Lucerne Festival with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. Recent North American appearances include concerts with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Colorado Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra, and the Nashville, Atlanta and Indianapolis symphony orchestras, as well as the Philadelphia Orchestra at their home and in Carnegie Hall.
Jean-Yves Thibaudet’s extensive discography has earned him the Schallplattenpreis, the Diapason d’Or, Choc de la Musique, a Gramophone Award, two Echo awards and the Edison Prize. In 2010 he released Gershwin, featuring the jazz band orchestrations of Rhapsody in Blue, Variations on “I Got Rhythm” and the Piano Concerto in F with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Marin Alsop. In 2011 he was the featured soloist on Alexandre Desplat’s score for the film Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close.
Jean-Yves Thibaudet was born in Lyon, France, and at age 12, he entered the Paris Conservatoire where he studied with Aldo Ciccolini and Lucette Descaves, a friend and collaborator of Ravel. At 15 he gained a premier prix from the Conservatoire, and three years later won the Young Concert Artists Auditions in New York. In 2001 the Republic of France named him Chevalier and in 2012 Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. He was inducted into the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame in 2010.
Jean-Yves Thibaudet’s most recent appearance with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra was in 2010 when he performed Saint-Saëns’ Piano Concerto No.5 (Egyptian).
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www.jeanyvesthibaudet.com
Jean-Yves Thibaudet is represented worldwide by IMG Artists, LLC, and in Australia and New Zealand by Arts Management Pty. Ltd.
Jean-Yves Thibaudet records exclusively for Decca Records.
20 sydney symphony
MUSICIANS
Vladimir AshkenazyPrincipal Conductor and Artistic Advisor supported by Emirates
Dene OldingConcertmaster
Jessica CottisAssistant Conductor supported by Premier Partner Credit Suisse
Andrew HaveronConcertmaster
To see photographs of the full roster of permanent musicians and find out more about the orchestra, visit our website: www.sydneysymphony.com/SSO_musiciansIf you don’t have access to the internet, ask one of our customer service representatives for a copy of our Musicians flyer.
The men of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra are proudly outfitted by Van Heusen.
FIRST VIOLINS
Dene Olding Concertmaster
Sun YiAssociate Concertmaster
Kirsten WilliamsAssociate Concertmaster
Lerida Delbridge Assistant Concertmaster
Fiona ZieglerAssistant Concertmaster
Julie BattyJenny Booth Marianne Broadfoot Brielle Clapson Sophie Cole Amber Davis Nicola Lewis Alexander Norton Léone Ziegler Elizabeth Jones* Emily Qin°Andrew Haveron Concertmaster
Jennifer Hoy Georges Lentz Alexandra Mitchell
SECOND VIOLINS
Kirsty Hilton Marina Marsden Inkeri Vänskä*Associate Principal
Emma Jezek Assistant Principal
Emma Hayes Shuti Huang Stan W Kornel Benjamin Li Emily Long Nicole Masters Philippa Paige Biyana Rozenblit Maja Verunica Vivien Jeffery*Maria Durek
VIOLAS
Anne-Louise Comerford Justin Williams Assistant Principal
Robyn BrookfieldSandro Costantino Jane Hazelwood Graham Hennings Stuart Johnson Justine Marsden Felicity Tsai Amanda Verner Leonid Volovelsky Jacqueline Cronin*Roger Benedict Tobias Breider
CELLOS
Catherine Hewgill Leah Lynn Assistant Principal
Kristy ConrauFenella Gill Timothy Nankervis Elizabeth Neville Christopher Pidcock David Wickham Eleanor Betts*Paul Stender*Adrian Wallis
DOUBLE BASSES
Kees Boersma Alex Henery Neil Brawley Principal Emeritus
David CampbellSteven Larson Richard Lynn Benjamin Ward James Menzies* David Murray
FLUTES
Emma Sholl Carolyn HarrisRosamund Plummer Principal Piccolo
Janet Webb
OBOES
Diana Doherty Alexandre Oguey Principal Cor Anglais
Stephanie CooperShefali Pryor David Papp
CLARINETS
Lawrence Dobell Christopher TingayCraig Wernicke Principal Bass Clarinet
Evan Guy*Francesco Celata
BASSOONS
Andrew Barnes*Fiona McNamaraNoriko Shimada Principal Contrabassoon
Matthew Wilkie
SAXOPHONES
Nathan Henshaw* James Nightingale* Nicholas Russoniello* Andrew Smith*
HORNS
Ben Jacks Geoffrey O’Reilly Principal 3rd
Rachel SilverEuan Harvey Sebastian Dunn*Robert Johnson Marnie Sebire
TRUMPETS
David Elton Anthony HeinrichsRainer Saville*Paul Goodchild
TROMBONES
Nick ByrneChristopher Harris Principal Bass Trombone
Iain FaragherRonald PrussingScott Kinmont
TUBA
Steve Rossé
TIMPANI
Richard Miller
PERCUSSION
Rebecca Lagos Colin PiperMark Robinson Ian Cleworth* Philip South*
HARP
Louise Johnson
PIANO
Susanne Powell*
GUITAR
Stephen Lalor*
Bold = PrincipalItalics = Associate Principal° = Contract Musician* = Guest MusicianGrey = Permanent member of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra not appearing in this concert
sydney symphony 21
SYDNEY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRAVladimir Ashkenazy Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor patron Her Excellency Professor Marie Bashir ac cvo
Founded in 1932 by the Australian Broadcasting Commission, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra has evolved into one of the world’s finest orchestras as Sydney has become one of the world’s great cities.
Resident at the iconic Sydney Opera House, where it gives more than 100 performances each year, the SSO also performs in venues throughout Sydney and regional New South Wales. International tours to Europe, Asia and the USA have earned the orchestra worldwide recognition for artistic excellence, most recently in the 2012 tour to China.
The Sydney Symphony Orchestra’s first Chief Conductor was Sir Eugene Goossens, appointed in 1947; he was followed by Nicolai Malko, Dean Dixon, Moshe Atzmon, Willem van Otterloo, Louis Frémaux, Sir Charles Mackerras, Zdenek Mácal, Stuart Challender, Edo de Waart and Gianluigi Gelmetti. David Robertson will take up the post of Chief Conductor in 2014. The orchestra’s history also boasts collaborations with legendary figures such as George Szell, Sir Thomas Beecham, Otto Klemperer and Igor Stravinsky.
The Sydney Symphony Orchestra’s award-winning education program is central to its commitment to the future of live symphonic music, developing audiences and engaging the participation of young people. The orchestra promotes the work of Australian composers through performances, recordings and its commissioning program. Recent premieres have included major works by Ross Edwards, Liza Lim, Lee Bracegirdle, Gordon Kerry and Georges Lentz, and the orchestra’s recordings of works by Brett Dean have been released on both BIS and Sydney Symphony Live.
Other releases on the Sydney Symphony Live label, established in 2006, include performances with Alexander Lazarev, Gianluigi Gelmetti, Sir Charles Mackerras and Vladimir Ashkenazy. In 2010–11 the orchestra made concert recordings of the complete Mahler symphonies with Ashkenazy, and has also released recordings of Rachmaninoff and Elgar orchestral works on the Exton/Triton labels, as well as numerous recordings on the ABC Classics label.
This is the fifth year of Ashkenazy’s tenure as Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor.
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22 sydney symphony
BEHIND THE SCENES
MANAGING DIRECTOR
Rory JeffesEXECUTIVE TEAM ASSISTANT
Lisa Davies-Galli
ARTISTIC OPERATIONS
DIRECTOR OF ARTISTIC PLANNING
Peter Czornyj
Artistic AdministrationARTISTIC ADMINISTRATION MANAGER
Eleasha MahARTIST LIAISON MANAGER
Ilmar LeetbergRECORDING ENTERPRISE MANAGER
Philip Powers
Education ProgramsHEAD OF EDUCATION
Kim WaldockEMERGING ARTISTS PROGRAM MANAGER
Mark LawrensonEDUCATION COORDINATOR
Rachel McLarinCUSTOMER SERVICE OFFICER
Amy Walsh
LibraryAnna CernikVictoria GrantMary-Ann Mead
ORCHESTRA MANAGEMENT
DIRECTOR OF ORCHESTRA MANAGEMENT
Aernout KerbertORCHESTRA MANAGER
Chris LewisORCHESTRA COORDINATOR
Georgia StamatopoulosOPERATIONS MANAGER
Kerry-Anne CookPRODUCTION MANAGER
Laura DanielPRODUCTION COORDINATOR
Tim DaymanPRODUCTION COORDINATOR
Ian Spence
SALES AND MARKETING
DIRECTOR OF SALES & MARKETING
Mark J ElliottSENIOR SALES & MARKETING MANAGER
Penny EvansMARKETING MANAGER, SUBSCRIPTION SALES
Simon Crossley-MeatesMARKETING MANAGER, CLASSICAL SALES
Matthew RiveMARKETING MANAGER, WEB & DIGITAL MEDIA
Eve Le GallMARKETING MANAGER, DATABASE & CRM
Matthew HodgeGRAPHIC DESIGNER
Lucy McCulloughCREATIVE ARTWORKER
Nathanael van der Reyden
Sydney Symphony Orchestra Staff
MARKETING COORDINATOR
Jonathon SymondsONLINE MARKETING COORDINATOR
Jenny Sargant
Box OfficeMANAGER OF BOX OFFICE SALES &OPERATIONS
Lynn McLaughlinBOX OFFICE SYSTEMS SUPERVISOR
Jacqueline TooleyBOX OFFICE BUSINESS ADMINISTRATOR
John Robertson CUSTOMER SERVICE REPRESENTATIVES
Karen Wagg – Senior CSR Michael DowlingKatarzyna OstafijczukTim Walsh
COMMUNICATIONS
HEAD OF COMMUNICATIONS & SPONSOR RELATIONS
Yvonne ZammitPUBLIC RELATIONS MANAGER
Katherine StevensonCOMMUNICATIONS COORDINATOR
Janine HarrisDIGITAL CONTENT PRODUCER
Kai RaisbeckFELLOWSHIP SOCIAL MEDIA OFFICER
Caitlin Benetatos
PublicationsPUBLICATIONS EDITOR & MUSIC PRESENTATION MANAGER
Yvonne Frindle
DEVELOPMENT
DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT
Caroline SharpenHEAD OF CORPORATE RELATIONS
Jeremy GoffHEAD OF MAJOR GIFTS
Luke Andrew GayDEVELOPMENT MANAGER
Amelia Morgan-HunnDEVELOPMENT COORDINATOR
Sarah Morrisby
BUSINESS SERVICES
DIRECTOR OF FINANCE
John HornFINANCE MANAGER
Ruth TolentinoACCOUNTANT
Minerva PrescottACCOUNTS ASSISTANT
Emma FerrerPAYROLL OFFICER
Laura Soutter
HUMAN RESOURCES
HEAD OF HUMAN RESOURCES
Michel Maree Hryce
John C Conde ao ChairmanTerrey Arcus amEwen Crouch amRoss GrantJennifer HoyRory JeffesAndrew Kaldor amDavid LivingstoneGoetz Richter
Sydney Symphony Orchestra Board
Sydney Symphony Orchestra Council
Geoff Ainsworth amAndrew Andersons aoMichael Baume aoChristine BishopIta Buttrose ao obePeter CudlippJohn Curtis amGreg Daniel amJohn Della BoscaAlan FangErin FlahertyDr Stephen FreibergDonald Hazelwood ao obeDr Michael Joel amSimon JohnsonYvonne Kenny amGary LinnaneAmanda LoveHelen Lynch amDavid MaloneyDavid Malouf aoJulie Manfredi-HughesDeborah MarrThe Hon. Justice Jane Mathews aoDanny MayWendy McCarthy aoJane MorschelGreg ParamorDr Timothy Pascoe amProf. Ron Penny aoJerome RowleyPaul SalteriSandra SalteriJuliana SchaefferLeo Schofield amFred Stein oamGabrielle TrainorIvan UngarJohn van OgtropPeter Weiss ao HonDLittMary WhelanRosemary White
sydney symphony 23
06 Kirsty Hilton Principal Second Violin Corrs Chambers Westgarth Chair
07 Robert Johnson Principal Horn James & Leonie Furber Chair
08 Elizabeth Neville Cello Ruth & Bob Magid Chair
09 Colin Piper Percussion Justice Jane Mathews ao Chair
10 Emma Sholl Associate Principal Flute Robert & Janet Constable Chair
11 Janet Webb Principal Flute Helen Lynch am & Helen Bauer Chair
SYDNEY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA PATRONS
Maestro’s CirclePeter Weiss ao – Founding President & Doris WeissJohn C Conde ao – ChairmanGeoff Ainsworth am Tom Breen & Rachael KohnIn memory of Hetty & Egon GordonAndrew Kaldor am & Renata Kaldor aoVicki OlssonRoslyn Packer ao
Penelope Seidler amMr Fred Street am & Mrs Dorothy StreetWestfield GroupBrian & Rosemary WhiteRay Wilson oam in memory of the late James Agapitos oam
Sydney Symphony Orchestra Corporate AllianceTony Grierson, Braithwaite Steiner PrettyInsurance Australia GroupJohn Morschel, Chairman, ANZ
01 Roger Benedict Principal Viola Kim Williams am & Catherine Dovey Chair
02 Lawrence Dobell Principal Clarinet Terrey Arcus am & Anne Arcus Chair
03 Diana Doherty Principal Oboe Andrew Kaldor am & Renata Kaldor ao Chair
04 Richard Gill oam Artistic Director, Education Sandra & Paul Salteri Chair
05 Catherine Hewgill Principal Cello The Hon. Justice AJ & Mrs Fran Meagher Chair
Chair Patrons
01 02 03
04 05 06
07 08 09
10 11 For information about the Chair Patrons program, please call (02) 8215 4619.
David BluffKees Boersma Andrew Bragg Peter Braithwaite Blake Briggs Andrea Brown Helen CaldwellHilary CaldwellHahn Chau Alistair Clark Matthew Clark Benoît Cocheteux Paul Colgan George Condous Juliet CurtinJustin Di Lollo
Alistair FurnivalAlistair Gibson Sam Giddings Marina Go Sebastian Goldspink Tony Grierson Louise HaggertyRose Herceg Philip HeuzenroederPaolo Hooke Peter Howard Jennifer Hoy Scott Jackson Justin Jameson Aernout Kerbert Tristan Landers
Gary Linnane Paul Macdonald Kylie McCaigRebecca MacFarlingDavid McKean Hayden McLean Amelia Morgan-Hunn Phoebe Morgan-Hunn Taine Moufarrige Nick Nichles Tom O’Donnell Kate O’ReillyFiona Osler Archie Paffas Jonathan Pease Jingmin Qian
Seamus R Quick Leah Ranie Michael Reede Paul Reidy Chris Robertson Benjamin RobinsonEmma Rodigari Jacqueline Rowlands Katherine Shaw Randal Tame Sandra TangAdam Wand Jon Wilkie Jonathan Watkinson Darren Woolley Misha Zelinsky
Justin Di Lollo – ChairKees Boersma Marina Go David McKean Amelia Morgan-Hunn Jonathan Pease Seamus R Quick
MembersCentric Wealth Matti Alakargas Stephen Attfield Damien Bailey Mar Beltran Evonne BennettNicole Billet
Sydney Symphony Orchestra VanguardVanguard Collective
24 sydney symphony
PLAYING YOUR PART
The Sydney Symphony Orchestra gratefully acknowledges the music lovers who donate to the orchestra each year. Each gift plays an important part in ensuring our continued artistic excellence and helping to sustain important education and regional touring programs. Donations of $50 and above are acknowledged on our website at www.sydneysymphony.com/patrons
Platinum Patrons: $20,000+Brian AbelRobert Albert ao & Elizabeth Albert Geoff Ainsworth Terrey Arcus am & Anne Arcus Tom Breen & Rachael Kohn Sandra & Neil Burns Mr John C Conde ao Robert & Janet Constable James & Leonie Furber Dr Bruno & Mrs Rhonda Giuffre In memory of Hetty & Egon Gordon Mr Andrew Kaldor am & Mrs Renata Kaldor ao D & I Kallinikos Helen Lynch am & Helen Bauer Vicki Olsson Mrs Roslyn Packer ao Paul & Sandra Salteri Mrs Penelope Seidler am G & C Solomon in memory of Joan MacKenzie Mrs W Stening Mr Fred Street am & Mrs Dorothy Street Peter Weiss ao & Doris Weiss Westfield Group Mr Brian & Mrs Rosemary White Kim Williams am & Catherine Dovey Ray Wilson oam in memory of James Agapitos oam
Gold Patrons: $10,000–$19,999Doug & Alison Battersby Alan & Christine Bishop Ian & Jennifer Burton Michael Crouch ao & Shanny Crouch Copyright Agency Cultural Fund Edward & Diane Federman Nora GoodridgeMr Ross GrantMr Ervin KatzJames N Kirby FoundationMs Irene LeeRuth & Bob MagidThe Hon. Justice AJ Meagher & Mrs Fran Meagher Mrs T Merewether oam Mr John MorschelMr John SymondAndy & Deirdre Plummer Caroline Wilkinson Anonymous (1)
Silver Patrons: $5000–$9,999Stephen J BellMr Alexander & Mrs Vera BoyarskyMr Robert Brakspear Mr David & Mrs Halina Brett Mr Robert & Mrs L Alison Carr Bob & Julie Clampett Ewen Crouch am & Catherine Crouch Ian Dickson & Reg Holloway
Dr Colin Goldschmidt The Greatorex Foundation Mr Rory Jeffes Judges of the Supreme Court of NSW J A McKernan R & S Maple-BrownJustice Jane Mathews aoMora Maxwell Mrs Barbara MurphyDrs Keith & Eileen Ong Timothy & Eva Pascoe William McIlrath Charitable Foundation Mr B G O’Conor Rodney Rosenblum am & Sylvia RosenblumEstate of the late Greta C Ryan Manfred & Linda SalamonSimpsons SolicitorsMrs Joyce Sproat & Mrs Janet Cooke Michael & Mary Whelan Trust June & Alan Woods Family BequestAnonymous (2)
Bronze Patrons: Presto $2,500–$4,999Mr Henri W Aram oamThe Berg Family Foundation in memory of Hetty GordonMr B & Mrs M ColesMr Howard Connors Greta Davis The Hon. Ashley Dawson-Damer Firehold Pty Ltd Stephen Freiberg & Donald Campbell Vic & Katie French Mrs Jennifer Hershon Gary Linnane Robert McDougall Renee Markovic James & Elsie Moore Ms Jackie O’Brien J F & A van Ogtrop In memory of Sandra Paul Pottinger In memory of H St P Scarlett David & Isabel Smithers Marliese & Georges Teitler Mr Robert & Mrs Rosemary Walsh Mr & Mrs T & D Yim Anonymous (1)
Bronze Patrons: Vivace $1,000–$2,499Mrs Antoinette Albert Andrew Andersons ao Mr & Mrs Garry S AshDr Francis J Augustus Sibilla BaerRichard and Christine Banks David Barnes Mark Bethwaite am & Carolyn Bethwaite
Allan & Julie Bligh Dr & Mrs Hannes Boshoff Jan Bowen Lenore P Buckle M Bulmer In memory of RW Burley Ita Buttrose ao obe Mr JC Campbell qc & Mrs Campbell Dr Rebecca ChinDr Diana Choquette & Mr Robert MillinerMr Peter ClarkeConstable Estate Vineyards Debby Cramer & Bill Caukill Mr John Cunningham SCM & Mrs Margaret Cunningham Lisa & Miro Davis Matthew Delasey Mr & Mrs Grant Dixon Colin Draper & Mary Jane Brodribb Malcolm Ellis & Erin O’NeillMrs Margaret EppsPaul R EspieProfessor Michael Field AMMr Tom FrancisMr James Graham am & Mrs Helen Graham Warren Green Anthony GreggAkiko Gregory Tony Grierson Edward & Deborah Griffin Richard Griffin am In memory of Dora & Oscar GrynbergJanette Hamilton Mrs & Mr HolmesThe Hon. David Hunt ao qc & Mrs Margaret Hunt Dr & Mrs Michael Hunter Irwin Imhof in memory of Herta ImhofMichael & Anna Joel In memory of Bernard M H Khaw Mr Justin LamMr Luigi LampratiMr Peter Lazar amProfessor Winston LiauwDr David Luis Peter Lowry oam & Dr Carolyn Lowry oamDr David LuisDeirdre & Kevin McCannIan & Pam McGaw Matthew McInnes Macquarie Group Foundation Mrs Toshiko MericHenry & Ursula MooserMilja & David MorrisMrs J MulveneyOrigin FoundationMr & Mrs OrtisDr A J PalmerMr Andrew C Patterson
sydney symphony 25
Learn how, with the people who know books
and writing best.
Faber Academyat ALLEN & UNWIN
T (02) 8425 0171
W allenandunwin.com/faberacademy
D o y o u h a v e a s t o r y t o
t e l l ?
To find out more about becominga Sydney Symphony Patron, pleasecontact the Philanthropy Officeon (02) 8215 4625 or [email protected]
Dr Natalie E PelhamAlmut PiattiRobin PotterTA & MT Murray-PriorDr Raffi QasabianMichael QuaileyErnest & Judith RapeeKenneth R Reed Patricia H Reid Endowment Pty Ltd Dr John Roarty oam in memory of Mrs June Roarty Robin RodgersLesley & Andrew RosenbergJulianna SchaefferCaroline SharpenDr Agnes E SinclairMrs Judith SouthamMrs Karen Spiegal-KeighleyCatherine Stephen John & Alix Sullivan The Hon. Brian Sully qc Mildred Teitler Kevin Troy John E Tuckey In memory of Joan & Rupert VallentineDr Alla WaldmanMiss Sherry WangHenry & Ruth WeinbergThe Hon. Justice A G WhealyMs Kathy White in memory of Mr Geoff WhiteA Willmers & R Pal Mr & Mrs B C WilsonDr Richard Wing Mr Robert WoodsIn memory of Lorna WrightDr John YuAnonymous (12)
Bronze Patrons: Allegro $500–$999Mrs Lenore Adamson David & Rae AllenMichael Baume ao & Toni BaumeBeauty Point Retirement Resort Richard & Margaret BellMrs Jan Biber Minnie Biggs Mrs Elizabeth BoonMr Colin G BoothDr Margaret BoothMr Peter BraithwaiteMr Harry H BrianR D & L M BroadfootDr Miles Burgess
Pat & Jenny BurnettEric & Rosemary CampbellBarrie CarterMr Jonathan Chissick Mrs Sandra ClarkMichael & Natalie CoatesCoffs Airport Security Car Park Jen CornishDom Cottam & Kanako ImamuraDegabriele KitchensPhil Diment am & Bill ZafiropoulosDr David DixonElizabeth DonatiThe Dowe FamilyMrs Jane DrexlerDr Nita Durham & Dr James DurhamJohn Favaloro Ms Julie Flynn & Mr Trevor CookMrs Lesley FinnMr John GadenVivienne GoldschmidtClive & Jenny Goodwin Ms Fay GrearIn Memory of Angelica GreenMr Robert GreenMr & Mrs Harold & Althea HallidayMr Robert HavardRoger HenningSue HewittIn memory of Emil HiltonDorothy Hoddinott ao Mr Joerg Hofmann Mr Angus Holden Mr Kevin HollandBill & Pam HughesDr Esther JanssenNiki Kallenberger Mrs Margaret Keogh Dr Henry Kilham Chris J Kitching Aron KleinlehrerAnna-Lisa KlettenbergMr & Mrs Giles T KrygerThe Laing FamilySonia LalDr Leo & Mrs Shirley LeaderMargaret LedermanMrs Erna Levy Sydney & Airdrie LloydMrs A LohanMrs Panee LowMelvyn MadiganBarbara MaidmentHelen & Phil MeddingsDavid Mills
Kenneth Newton MitchellMs Margaret Moore oam & Dr Paul Hutchins amHelen MorganChris Morgan-HunnMr Darrol NormanMr Graham NorthDr Margaret ParkerDr Kevin PedemontDr John PittMrs Greeba PritchardMr Patrick Quinn-GrahamMiss Julie RadosavljevicRenaissance Tours Dr Marilyn RichardsonAnna RoMr Kenneth RyanMrs Pamela SayersGarry Scarf & Morgie BlaxillPeter & Virginia ShawMr & Mrs ShoreMrs Diane Shteinman amVictoria SmythDoug & Judy SotherenRuth StaplesMr & Mrs Ashley StephensonMargaret SuthersThe Taplin FamilyDr & Mrs H K TeyMrs Alma Toohey & Mr Edward SpicerJudge Robyn TupmanMrs M TurkingtonGillian Turner & Rob BishopMr & Mrs Franc VaccherProf Gordon E WallRonald WalledgeIn memory of Denis WallisThe Wilkinson FamilyEvan Williams am & Janet WilliamsAudrey & Michael Wilson Dr Richard WingateDr Peter Wong & Mrs Emmy K Wong Geoff Wood & Melissa WaitesMrs Robin YabsleyAnonymous (24)
List correct as of 1 October 2013
26 sydney symphony
SALUTE
PREMIER PARTNER
Fine Music 102.5
MARKETING PARTNER
SILVER PARTNERS
THE LEADING SCHOOL FOR TODAY’S MUSIC INDUSTRY
PLATINUM PARTNERS
PRINCIPAL PARTNER GOVERNMENT PARTNERS
The Sydney Symphony Orchestra is assisted by the Commonwealth Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body
The Sydney Symphony Orchestra is assisted by the NSW Government through Arts NSW
EDUCATION PARTNER MAJOR PARTNERS
GOLD PARTNERS
REGIONAL TOUR PARTNERS
Salute revised_08Nov13.indd 1 8/11/13 12:48 PM
❝On the front desk there’s a sense of chamber music…
❞instance, has a way of listening so intently that encourages you to listen in the same way. He brings a sense of chamber music to the orchestra.’ Revisiting repertoire allows for further refinement. ‘Take a Mahler symphony; there are lots of notes to learn, but once that’s done, and we play it several times, I find myself listening more profoundly. I learn new things each time.’
Emma’s job requires her to rotate through the first two desks of the Second Violins on a regular basis. ‘It’s amazing the difference between sitting in the front desk and anywhere further back. On the front desk there’s a sense of chamber music, and you don’t have to strain to hear the conductor in rehearsals.’ When the Australian World Orchestra blew into town recently – the ‘Who’s Who’ of Australian musicians from at home and around the world – Emma found herself sitting a little further back in the section. ‘I discovered you have to know the music really well: it’s harder to hear, and you’ve got to keep an eye on the conductor all the time!’
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Emma West was, for many years, the Assistant Principal Second Violin with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Then she got married. Changing her name was a no-brainer: ‘I wanted us [husband Andrew and daughter Lila] to have the same name as a family. But West-Jezek sounds like a suburb, so that wasn’t an option. So does Jezek-West, come to think of it.’ It’s an interesting dilemma for a performer: the decision to give up their ‘stage name’. Emma Jezek now finds she sometimes has to remind people of who she ‘was’, and that she’s still the same violinist, just with a new name.
Always an active chamber musician, Emma recently
performed with her SSO colleagues in a chamber music series at Turramurra Uniting church. ‘I think playing chamber music is really important. The Haydn [we played] was so difficult it kept me on my toes for months. Playing chamber music I have more energy, and I’m listening more intently.’ Emma says those skills translate to more intimate listening in the orchestra. ‘I think it takes years to learn to play the violin, so learning my instrument was all about technique, facility, intonation, and not so much listening. I’ve learned more about that by watching my colleagues. Andrew Haveron [SSO co-concertmaster], for
LISTENING INTENTLYAssistant Principal Second Violin, Emma Jezek, takes an intimate view of listening to the orchestra.
ORCHESTRA NEWS | DECEMBER 2013
SSO Bravo! #9 Insert.indd 1 29/11/13 11:27 AM
In celebration of a formidable 11-year partnership, the SSO’s training ensemble Sinfonia presented an encore performance of their Discover Britten program for Leighton Holdings’ guests in October. Conducted by Richard Gill, the Sinfonia was joined by singer Katie Noonan (pictured here with Leighton Holdings Chairman Bob Humphris, left, and Richard Gill). With the support of Leighton Holdings, more than 550 tertiary music students have had the opportunity to play in Sinfonia, and 29 of those participants have gained either permanent or contract positions with the orchestra.
Introducing JandamarraOne freedom fighter. A fight for ancestral lands. Forbidden love and banishment.
Jandamarra: Sing for the Country, Ngalanyba Muwayi has the makings of a Wagnerian opera. This new choral cantata by Paul Stanhope with a libretto by Steve Hawke (son of former Prime Minister Bob Hawke) will centre on Jandamarra, the 19th-century Indigenous Australian rebel from Bunuba Country. Jandamarra was reputed to have magical powers; he survived mortal wounds and regularly escaped certain capture by police. And he led one of the few organised armed uprisings against European settlement in Australia – a three-year guerrilla war in the Kimberley region of Western Australia.
The Kimberley Diamond Company is the major partner for the new commission, with help from SSO donors, Vicki Olsson and Geoff Ainsworth. KDC recognises the Bunuba People as the traditional owners of the Ellendale Mine Site near the town of Fitzroy Crossing. Leaving a positive legacy for the community is vital and KDC sees this project as an important educational and historical initiative to support the Bunuba People.
After success as a book and theatre piece, a cantata is the logical next step for this story. ‘A major theme of the play is the power of song,’ says June Oscar ao, the Bunuba language coach and cultural adviser for the project. ‘Its central role in the life of the community; its role in celebrating and remembering country; and Jandamarra’s quest to “sing home” the rainbow snake Yilimbirri Unggud in order to heal the land, made the notion of a choral work…seem especially appropriate and exciting to the Bunuba Community.’
The performances in July 2014 will feature the Yilimbirri Ensemble from Fitzroy Crossing, with 400 children and youth performers of Gondwana Choirs.
For more information about supporting the creation of new orchestral works, contact the Philanthropy team at [email protected] or call (02) 8215 4625.
Commissioning Highlight
‘Be silent and dance!’ – not what you’d expect an opera character to sing, but those are Elektra’s final words. For chief conductor David Robertson and artistic planner Peter Czornyj, it seemed an obvious cue to place a bold and unexpected emphasis on dance in our production of Richard Strauss’s Elektra in February 2014.
Staging an opera with dancers in a concert hall brings constraints – fortunately for Melbourne-based choreographer Stephanie Lake, that’s her favourite way to work. ‘A concert version of an opera opens up more space in the imagination of the audience,’ she says, ‘and allows the choreographic world to inhabit an abstract place rather than having to describe the narrative in a literal sense.’
Eight members of the Sydney Dance Company will spend around five weeks with Stephanie developing the dance. She employs a number of specific movements to display the energy in Elektra, particularly gravity and force with ‘dancers stomping in unison, hitting the floor with force, being blown in a storm, push and pull, as well as highly detailed choreography, speed, manipulation of time and interplay between bodies’. Her unique movement style combines recklessness and precision, marrying abstraction and emotion.
Stephanie plans for the dancers to come and go throughout the opera. ‘I approached it as a choreographed embodiment of the emotion of the music.’ And there may be elements of a Greek chorus in the dance ‘inspired by the ferocity and delicacy of the sound’.
Artistic HighlightBe silent and dance!
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Absolutely Beethoven with David RobertsonA concert season can’t stand in isolation from its community or from what’s come before. Creators are the same: we shouldn’t forget that every creative person works in the shadow of those who’ve come before. And this stands out in our first program for 2014: Absolutely Beethoven. It begins with music by Stravinsky, picking up on the use of rhetorical gestures that Beethoven trademarked in the 19th century.
Then there’s Absolute Jest by John Adams. The influences in this piece include both Stravinsky and Beethoven. Stravinsky, because he liked to take the music of other composers and make it his own – as he did in Pulcinella – and also because, like Adams, he uses that texture of string chamber music against a larger orchestra. Beethoven, because Adams’s inspiration (and even some of his musical ideas!) come from the late Beethoven string quartets. Adams says it’s like ‘Beethoven that’s been passed through a hall of mirrors’ and the result is a turbo-charged showpiece for string quartet and orchestra.
In the second half there’s the sheer dancing energy of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony. And the whole thing hangs together with these wonderful parallel worlds.
Absolutely Beethoven Master Series 12, 14, 15 February | 8pm
And join us for David Robertson’s pre-concert talk at 7.15pm in the Northern Foyer.
The Score
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has raised over $25,000 through their social club to support this wonderful program. Tenix employees will not only continue to raise money for the program, but will also help deliver the instruments to each nominated school.
‘Tenix have a found a practical way to do something that’s small but has a really big impact,’ says Kim Waldock. ‘It will be a great legacy. It is such a simple thing but accessing instruments opens up so many more ways of learning.’
Plunkett Street Public School is one of 10 disadvantaged primary schools in the greater Sydney area chosen to be part of the Music for Schools program and receive instruments as well as teacher training and support. The other schools are: Shalvey, Bourke Street, Glebe, Lurnea, The Meadows, Punchbowl, Bankstown and Warwick Farm.
Watching the students enjoy their new instruments, SSO Principal Timpani Richard Miller said: ‘When we look at these children enjoying it in the most innocent, wonderful way it’s just great for an old percussion player like me.’
For information about the SSO Education Program, email [email protected]
‘We don’t get gifts like this every day and it feels like Christmas,’ said Elizabeth McGlynn, Principal of Plunkett Street Public School. The gift was a specialised kit of percussion instruments, and it arrived in October when we launched our Music for Schools program at the school.
This program, funded by SSO Education Partner Tenix and managed by the SSO, aims to provide musical instruments to NSW schools that can’t afford them, and Elizabeth McGlynn is thrilled to be a participant: ‘This gives kids variety [and] a chance to communicate and cooperate through the use of music.’
SSO Head of Education Kim Waldock agrees: ‘Participating in musical activities can help with maths; it develops problem solving, creative thinking, motor skills and social skills. Learning can be so much more significant and fun when you do it with music.’ And, she adds, ‘learning through music is great for the squirmers!’
For as little as $1200 per school, an entry-level musical package can make all the difference to a disadvantaged school that wants to participate in the SSO’s Education Program. So we’re especially grateful to be working with the Tenix Foundation, which
Students from Plunkett Street Public School perform for their parents and school community, accompanied by SSO musicians Richard Miller and Rebecca Lagos.
SSO Bravo! #9 Insert.indd 3 29/11/13 11:28 AM
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Chairman Brian Nebenzahl OAM RFD
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SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE TRUSTMr John Symond am [Chair]Mr Wayne Blair, Ms Catherine Brenner, The Hon Helen Coonan, Ms Renata Kaldor ao, Mr Chris Knoblanche, Mr Robert Leece am rfd, Mr Peter Mason am, Mr Leo Schofield am, Mr Robert Wannan
EXECUTIVE MANAGEMENTChief Executive Officer Louise Herron am
Chief Operating Officer Claire SpencerDirector, Programming Jonathan BielskiDirector, Theatre and Events David ClaringboldDirector, Building Development and Maintenance Greg McTaggartDirector, External Affairs Brook TurnerDirector, Commercial David Watson
SYDNEY OPERA HOUSEBennelong Point GPO Box 4274, Sydney NSW 2001Administration (02) 9250 7111 Box Office (02) 9250 7777Facsimile (02) 9250 7666 Website www.sydneyoperahouse.com
Clocktower Square, Argyle Street, The Rocks NSW 2000GPO Box 4972, Sydney NSW 2001Telephone (02) 8215 4644Box Office (02) 8215 4600Facsimile (02) 8215 4646www.sydneysymphony.com
All rights reserved, no part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing. The opinions expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the beliefs of the editor, publisher or any distributor of the programs. While every effort has been made to ensure accuracy of statements in this publication, we cannot accept responsibility for any errors or omissions, or for matters arising from clerical or printers’ errors. Every effort has been made to secure permission for copyright material prior to printing.
Please address all correspondence to the Publications Editor: Email [email protected]
PAPER PARTNER
All enquiries for advertising space in this publication should be directed to the above company and address. Entire concept copyright. Reproduction without permission in whole or in part of any material contained herein is prohibited. Title ‘Playbill’ is the registered title of Playbill Proprietary Limited. Title ‘Showbill’ is the registered title of Showbill Proprietary Limited.
By arrangement with the Sydney Symphony, this publication is offered free of charge to its patrons subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s consent in writing. It is a further condition that this publication shall not be circulated in any form of binding or cover than that in which it was published, or distributed at any other event than specified on the title page of this publication 17206— 1/051213 — 36TH/E/G/MO S95/98
This is a PLAYBILL / SHOWBILL publication. Playbill Proprietary Limited / Showbill Proprietary Limited ACN 003 311 064 ABN 27 003 311 064
Head Office: Suite A, Level 1, Building 16, Fox Studios Australia, Park Road North, Moore Park NSW 2021PO Box 410, Paddington NSW 2021Telephone: +61 2 9921 5353 Fax: +61 2 9449 6053 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.playbill.com.au
Chairman Brian Nebenzahl OAM RFD
Managing Director Michael Nebenzahl Editorial Director Jocelyn Nebenzahl Manager—Production—Classical Music Alan Ziegler
Operating in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Hobart & Darwin
GUEST EDITOR Jacqui Smith CONTRIBUTOR Genevieve Lang Huppert sydneysymphony.com/bravo
MUSIC4HEALTHMusicians from the SSO presented an interactive Halloween-themed performance for adults living with disabilities, and their carers, at the Powerhouse Museum on 31 October as part of the NSW Government campaign Don’t DIS my ABILITY. Thinkspace’s Special Access Kit participants from the museum performed alongside the musicians using brand new toy instruments and paraded their incredible Halloween costumes to the sounds of Michael Jackson’s Thriller.
EDUCATION TUNE-UPThis January, 20 non-specialist primary school teachers will have the chance to tune up their music teaching skills in TunEd-UP, an inspiring five-day residency with SSO staff and musicians. SSO patrons Mr Fred Street AM and Mrs Dorothy Street have generously
supported the 20 scholarships for the residency. TunEd-UP 2014 is now full, but if you or someone you know is interested in participating in 2015, email [email protected]
NO ONLINE BOOKING FEES FOR 2014!That’s right! As of 2014 SSO concert-goers can say goodbye to booking fees when buying tickets for classical season performances via our website. So visit us at www.sydneysymphony.com, choose your concerts, and pay only for the cost of your tickets. Only online.
QUEEN AND VIDEO GAMESYou’re in for a treat in February and March with two entertaining concerts: Queen and the Symphony (7 and 8 February) featuring the hits of Freddie Mercury, and rePLAY, a video game symphony (7 and 8 March). Both concerts are at the Sydney Opera House and are on sale now!
DISCOUNTED TRAVELMake 2014 your year to travel the world in pursuit of fine music. As a principal partner of the SSO, Emirates offers our patrons an exclusive 10 per cent online discount on all Emirates flights. Read more about the partnership at sydneysymphony.com/emirates and make sure you’ve signed up to our Stay Tuned e-newsletter to receive the special booking code.
PATRONS IN REHEARSALOur Platinum, Gold and Silver Patrons attended a special open rehearsal of Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem, conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy in November. Before the rehearsal, patrons enjoyed a reception where they mingled with members of the orchestra and listened to a talk by Robert Gay about the music. For more information on the SSO Patrons Program email [email protected]
CODA
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