TempestaPROGRAM TWO 30 JUNE – 11 JULY 2016

National Season 2016

Australian String Quartet

2427

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The Elder Conservatorium of Music is Australia’s oldest and most distinguished tertiary music school. For more than a century, staff at the Conservatorium have educated and inspired generations of performers, composers, teachers and leaders in the arts.

Home to the Australian String Quartet - our quartet in residence, the Conservatorium hosts a vibrant community of talented musicians and provides a supportive environment that encourages creativity, independence and excellence in music.

Staff and students of the Conservatorium are committed to the artistic, educational and community experience of music, and they share their passion and expression with the public through regular performances and concerts.

Visit our website to learn more about the program of events, and comprehensive range of undergraduate and postgraduate degrees available in a wide variety of specialisations.

music.adelaide.edu.au

Elder Conservatorium of Music

Delivering over 130 years of music excellence

Welcome to the Australian String Quartet’s second national tour of 2016. We are delighted to officially welcome Clayton Utz who have recently joined us as our tour partner in New South Wales and Victoria. We are excited to share with you this beautiful program of Webern, Haydn, Chindamo and Mendelssohn.

Opening with Webern is both exciting and risky. In just twelve minutes, Fünf Sätze ingeniously explores not only melody, but texture, rhythm and silence to create a unique gestural sound world. Here is an example of the Second Viennese School at its best, where the quartet really becomes one instrument working with the acoustics of the hall and you as listener.

As groundbreaking as Webern was over a hundred years ago, Joseph Haydn, over a century before that, was equally inventive. Acknowledged as the father of the string quartet, one can hear him experimenting in the opus 20 works with a more democratic sharing of lines between the four players – in fact in the very opening of the quartet it is the cello that has the melody. The clarity and purity of the work, and recognition of the nature of how a string quartet can be experienced as one voice, is why it relates so well to Webern’s Fünf Sätze.

Many Australian music lovers will know of Joe Chindamo as a brilliant pianist, now equally regarded as a composer with a fresh voice. We are excited to present Tempesta, his first string quartet. In four contrasting movements, one hears the influence of jazz harmony, particularly in the slow opening of the second movement, giving way to a cheeky yet elegant waltz-like scherzo.

Welcome

The outer movements and fiery pizzicato third movement are a great foil to this, following motivic threads in an exploratory manner.

It is the final work on our program that brings us to the extreme tempest of the concert. Here, in his F minor quartet, we are faced with Felix Mendelssohn’s grief-stricken disbelief and often frantic grappling with the shock of his beloved sister Fanny’s death. There are only brief moments of reprieve - such as the beautiful sincerity and sorrow contained in the falling minor sixth haunting the third movement - but the tempest always returns. Felix never really recovered following Fanny’s untimely death. There is heartfelt grief to this work, and a dumbfounded darkness that burdened him for the remaining six months of his own life. This quartet is both terrifying and deeply moving.

Thank you for joining us for our second tour of 2016. We were thrilled by the response to our first tour, our festivals in Dunkeld and the Margaret River regions, and our educational projects. The rest of 2016 continues to be full of exciting projects for ASQ – our third national tour, a commissioning project made possible through the generous patronage of the Klein Family Foundation and Ngeringa Arts for a premiere at the Port Fairy Spring Music Festival, the recording of a CD of Guitar Quintets, and our continued education activities at the University of Adelaide and beyond. Keep your eyes and ears open for our new series Close Quarters – coming soon to a bar, pub, gallery, or distillery near you!

Program Dates

Webern Fünf Sätze for String Quartet op 5

Haydn String Quartet in C major op 20 no 2

INTERVAL

Joe Chindamo Tempesta for String Quartet

Mendelssohn String Quartet in F minor op 80

Sydney City Recital Hall 7.00pm Thu 30 June

Canberra Gandel Hall, National Gallery of Australia 2.00pm Sun 3 July

Melbourne* Melbourne Recital Centre 7.00pm Mon 4 July

Brisbane Conservatorium Theatre, South Bank 7.00pm Wed 6 July

Adelaide Adelaide Town Hall 7.00pm Thu 7 July

Perth Government House Ballroom 7.00pm Mon 11 July

* This concert will be broadcast on ABC Classic FM on Sunday 7 August at 5pm

Don’t miss our next National tour

Metamorphoses 13 – 24 October 2016

With an active focus on recording, the ASQ will embark on a range of recording initiatives in 2016, including a project to record an anthology of Australian string quartets. The Quartet’s commitment to secondary and tertiary education programs will expand as regional residencies also become a regular event for the ASQ.

The members of the ASQ are privileged to perform on a matched set of Guadagnini instruments. Hand crafted by Giovanni Battista Guadagnini between c.1743-1784 in Turin and Piacenza, Italy, these exquisite instruments were brought together through the vision of Ulrike Klein. The instruments are on loan to the ASQ for their exclusive use through the generosity of Ulrike Klein and Ngeringa Arts.

Dale Barltrop plays a 1784 Guadagnini Violin, Turin.

Francesca Hiew plays a 1748-49 Guadagnini Violin, Piacenza.

Stephen King plays a 1783 Guadagnini Viola, Turin.

Sharon Draper plays a c.1743 Guadagnini Violoncello, Piacenza, ‘Ngeringa’.

Pictured from left, Dale Barltrop, Sharon Draper, Stephen King and Francesca Hiew.

With a rich history spanning over 30 years, the Australian String Quartet (ASQ) has a strong national profile as an Australian chamber music group of excellence, performing at the highest international level. From its home base at the University of Adelaide, Elder Conservatorium of Music, the ASQ delivers a vibrant annual artistic program encompassing performances, workshops, commissions and education projects across Australia and abroad.

One of Australia’s finest music exports, the ASQ has appeared at international music festivals and toured extensively throughout the United Kingdom, Europe, New Zealand and Asia in recent years.

The Quartet frequently performs with leading guest artists and in recent years has appeared with internationally acclaimed artists including pianists Angela Hewitt and Piers Lane, mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter, clarinettist Michael Collins, violist Brett Dean and cellist Pieter Wispelwey.

The Quartet’s performance calendar for 2016 comprises a National Season featuring three unique concert programs presented in Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney; its own flagship festivals in the Southern Grampians and Margaret River; and regional touring.

AustralianStringQuartet

The members of the Australian String Quartet are privileged to have access to a matched set of Guadagnini instruments. Hand crafted by Giovanni Battista Guadagnini between c.1743-1784 in Turin and Piacenza, Italy, these exquisite instruments were brought together through the vision of Ulrike Klein, founder of Ngeringa Arts.

In order to secure the instruments for future generations, Ngeringa Arts has launched the Guadagnini Quartet Project. Its aim is to acquire all four instruments for future generations of Australian musicians and music lovers. Once complete it will be the only matched set of Guadagnini instruments in the world and Ngeringa Arts will hold it in perpetuity.

Already through the generosity of the Klein Family and other donors, Ngeringa Arts has acquired the viola and in 2015 it acquired the violin crafted in 1784 through the generosity of Allan J Myers AC, Maria J Myers AC and the Klein Family. In June this year Ngeringa Arts acquired the cello which was made possible by the generosity of the James and Diana Ramsay Foundation, Ulrike Klein and a group of committed donors.

The Board of Ngeringa Arts recognizes and thanks the following patrons who have each made a significant contribution to this project.

Klein Family FoundationAllan J Myers ACMaria J Myers AC James and Diana Ramsay FoundationDiana McLaurinJoan LyonsMrs F.T. MacLachlan OAMMr H.G. MacLachlanHartley HigginsDavid and Pam McKeeIan and Pamela WallMary Louise SimpsonJanet and Michael HayesRichard HarveyJill RussellLyndsey and Peter HawkinsJari and Bobbie HryckowJanet and Gary TilsleyLang FoundationAnonymous (1)

The second violin crafted in 1748 is the last instrument Ngeringa Arts must acquire to complete the set. History making endeavours like this are born from passion. To succeed, Ngeringa Arts needs the involvement of visionaries who understand the significant cultural value in a collection of this calibre. Please join Ngeringa Arts in building this extraordinary musical legacy. To donate go to www.ngeringaarts.com

For more information contact

Alison BeareGeneral Manager, Ngeringa ArtsP (08) 8227 1277E Alison@ngeringaarts.com

Guadagnini Quartet Project

Anton vonWebern(1883-1945)

Fünf Sätze for String Quartet op 5

Heftig bewegt Sehr langsam Sehr bewegt Sehr langsam In zarter Bewegung

In one of the great ‘what if…?’ scenarios of music history, Anton Webern approached Hans Pfitzner in Berlin for composition lessons in 1904. Pfitzner (best known for his opera Palestrina) held reactionary views on the music of Richard Strauss and Mahler. This gave Webern pause, and he returned to Vienna where he began his association with Arnold Schoenberg. Schoenberg was a great lover of the canon and traditions of Western art music but in the first decade of the 20th century became convinced that the traditional tonal system of Western harmony, based on major and minor chords and scales, was moribund, and that it was inevitable that composers would begin to use all available twelve notes of the chromatic scale more or less equally. Thus was ‘atonal’ music discovered; in 1921 Schoenberg attempted to rein in the chaos of atonality by inventing the twelve-note serial method, where each of the twelve notes occurs in a predetermined order.

After World War II Webern’s incredibly crystalline aphoristic style provided the beginnings of the avant-garde styles pioneered by composers like Boulez and Stockhausen. Sadly the composer did not live to see the influence his music would have: one night in 1945 he went outside to light a cigar, and an occupying American soldier shot at the flame, killing Webern.

The op 5 pieces are striking in their economy and brevity, while at the same time exploring a huge range of colour and emotional territory. This is clear in the first movement. While exploring atonality, Webern’s music retains traces of the emotive language of late Romantic music. Similarly, in the second and fifth pieces in the set there is a sense of the music’s wanting to create longer lines rather than terse gestures. Not that these are absent, however: the tiny third movement has a pithy, assertive and perhaps ironic quality; the fourth – whose ‘mystical opiated quality’ reminded Glenn Gould of the paintings of Kandinsky - introduces a number of new colours which, as we have heard, Webern would go on to exploit further in later works.

Gould went on to argue that the sensuality of these pieces reflects ‘the very essence of the romantic ideal of emotional intensity in art...Almost more than any other music this work symbolizes, for me, the instability of its period, the close of an epoch, and the over-lapping of ideals from a new era.’ What would Pfitzner have thought?

Gordon Kerry © 2004

Joseph Haydn(1732-1809)

It’s an old, and not strictly true, cliché that Haydn was the ‘father of the string quartet’. Alessandro Scarlatti wrote the first piece for four strings specifically ‘without continuo’ – that is, without keyboard reinforcement. But it was Haydn who, in his opus 33 set, hit on a way of writing that gave all four players a piece of the thematic action and laid the foundation for the Viennese tradition which reached its apogee in the works of Beethoven and Schubert. As the director of music in a remote palace in Hungary he had ample time to develop his own style: as he said, ‘isolation forced me to be original’.

It was also Haydn who set the common pattern for the string quartet, usually producing them in sets of six. From the 1760s on, his consist of four independent movements, where the outer movements are substantial, and the two central movements form a contrasting pair (a song-like slow movement and a dance-like fast one). Donald Tovey once said that in opus 20 Haydn’s quartet writing ‘reaches its goal’; we are still aware of him experimenting with various aspects of composition, notably in how to ‘democratise’ the ensemble, yet the works have a marvellous poise.

The C major quartet displays the democratic tendency throughout, but most notably in the work’s opening bars where the cello states the first theme above, but in close harmony with, the second violin and viola. Only after this warmly dark-textured opening is the theme passed to the first violin. Darker, indeed sombre, textures dominate the C minor Capriccio which, relatively usually for Haydn, is a true adagio. As in the slow movement of Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto, the music alternates imperious, almost Baroque gestures stated in unison with contrasting passages in harmony. In the first of these harmonic passages, it is again the cello that states the thematic material under repeated chords. Haydn’s normally genial disposition returns in the minuet with its hint of rustic drones (though the cello, once again, is featured in the central trio section).

A problem that Haydn solved in op 33 was how to create a finale that balanced the intricacy and weight of the ever-evolving ‘sonata form’ first movement. The solution in op 20 was to write fugues and risk sounding ‘learned’. Here the fugue is in a boisterous 6/8 with just enough chromaticism to make it interesting when the texture gets busy.

Gordon Kerry © 2016

String Quartet in C major op 20 no 2 Hob.III.32

Moderato Capriccio: adagio Menuet: allegretto Fuga a 4 soggetti: allegro

To be sure, the only way forward as a creative artist is to respectfully bury one’s heroes (at least during the creative process) and as such, consciously drew from my own cognitive resources and wrote from an innate sense of exploration, adventure and profound desire to translate my world outlook, life experiences and their accompanying emotions into musical language.

Although new for me in a sense, this (ad)venture, proved to be amongst the most rewarding musical experiences of my life, and after spending many years performing and composing in myriad genres, particularly jazz, felt as though I had finally found my true voice as a composer. It really did feel like the most natural thing in the world - I had finally found my soul - home.

Consequently, Tempesta is a musical autobiography of sorts because it takes stock of all that came before and points assuredly to what is in store. Regarding the actual music, as author Kate Grenville once pointed out, “Writing your own memoir is like drinking your own bath water”, so to this end, I will gracefully step aside and allow the exquisite Australian String Quartet to tell the rest of the story.

Joe Chindamo © 2016

Composing for string quartet represents a defining moment for any serious composer. The realm is so appealing and challenging because it is at once intimate and expansive. It is also an idiom where there is nowhere to hide for the composer - it is exactly here where his/her craft either appears in full glory or reveals its shortcomings.

First commissioned and premiered by Sydney based quartet ACACIA in June 2013, Tempesta was my first foray into composing for the string quartet. In many ways though, it was an undertaking I had been preparing for many years. As a teenager, Ravel’s String Quartet in F major had a profound effect on me, particularly its sensuality, and the work undoubtedly informed much of my music-making since, whether subliminally or by design. Bartók’s string quartets, replete with wild rhythms, angular melodic contours and dissonant harmonies, also provided immense inspiration.

Of course, there were other masters whose work I devoured but ultimately they all served to stir a desire within me to want to compose such a work myself one day. And I kept my ears open until that day arrived.

Joe Chindamo (born 1961)

Tempesta for String Quartet

I TempestaII Lament/ SeductionIII FrenzyIV Flight

Tempesta for String Quartet

I TempestaII Lament/ SeductionIII FrenzyIV Flight

Together We ResonateAs Australia’s string quartet, we aspire to resonate with the community by engaging people at the heart and nurturing opportunities to champion the sounds of Australia.

With your support we create opportunities for meaningful engagement with people of all ages by breaking down barriers, broadening our channels for connection, deepening our commitment to regional engagement and delivering compelling programs which challenge and inspire.

As champions of Australian music, we strive to ensure that music remains a vital and evolving part of Australian culture by growing the profile of Australian music, investing in the next generation of Australian music makers, celebrating our Australian musicians and composers and fostering opportunities for international cultural exchange.

Our heartfelt thanks and appreciation to all of our friends who have so very generously supported our aspirations for the future with a donation to our 2016 Annual Appeal. Your support is the bridge to our success.

For information on how to support the Australian String Quartet through a tax deductible gift, visit asq.com.au/support or phone 1800 040 444.

Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)

Mendelssohn’s last major work is a world away in its language and temperament from almost everything else he wrote, especially his other string quartets. Those of op 41 date from a time of personal happiness - namely that of his marriage - by which time he had evolved a flawless compositional technique. Op 80, by contrast, was composed in the wake of the death of Mendelssohn’s sister, Fanny, herself a gifted composer and performer without whom Felix’s career would have been vastly different.

In April and early May of 1847 Felix had undertaken a tour of England with a fairly punishing schedule of concerts; Fanny had died while he was uncontactable, en route back to Germany, so he was not present at her funeral. On hearing the news he collapsed, and was inconsolable, never really recovering before his own death so soon after. To comfort Felix, his brother Paul organised a trip to Switzerland where Felix consoled himself by painting watercolours, and by drafting the Three Motets and the F minor String Quartet.

Mendelssohn had mastered string writing as a young teenager, composing for the concerts given by professional musicians in the family home and gaining an effortless control of technique and sonority.

As a keen student of the music of the past, he assimilated everything from Bachian counterpoint to the structural innovations of Beethoven. In the op 80 quartet he brings together this supreme musicianship and a frank, deeply human expression of emotion. Despite its apparent disjunctions, the piece is in fact tightly unified.

The first movement begins with open fifths sounded by cello and viola that support a melody played tremolando; once a means of evoking elfin lightness, here it has a profound urgency. The second subject has a ‘song without words’- like melody in A flat major, though played over a throbbing E flat that makes it seem all the more transitory. After a highly worked development the movement reaches its conclusion in an ever-faster coda.

The scherzo, in a fast 3/4 is full of driving rhythms and melodies that strain against the triple metre. There is the obligatory, lyrical trio before the driving scherzo returns, ending in quiet disintegration.

The adagio is one of those pieces that manages to convey immense pathos in a major key (a legacy - here A flat, though with a highly chromatic diversion, after emphatic dotted rhythms from the whole quartet, into C major).

Gordon Kerry © 2015

String Quartet in F minor op 80

Allegro vivace assai Allegro assai Adagio Finale: Allegro molto

Donors

Principals ($50,001+)Klein Family FoundationAllan Myers AC & Maria Myers AC Mr Philip Bacon Nicholas Callinan AO & Libby CallinanClitheroe Foundation Thyne Reid Foundation Richard Harvey AM & the Late Tess Harvey Lyndsey & Peter Hawkins Janet & Michael Hayes Hunt Family Foundation Norma Leslie Michael Lishman Macquarie Group FoundationDavid & Pam McKee Ian Potter Foundation Wright Burt Foundation Anonymous (1)

Champions ($25,001 - $50,000)Peter & Pamela McKee Mrs Diana McLaurin Anonymous (1)

Guardians ($10,001 - $25,000)Don & Veronica Aldridge John Clayton Angela Flannery Andrew & Fiona Johnston Mr Robert Kenrick Lang Foundation Joan Lyons P M Menz Brenda Shanahan Charitable Fund Ian Wallace & Kay Freedman

Classic Partners ($5,001 - $10,000)John & Mary Barlow Berg Family Foundation Josephine Dundon

Keith Holt & Anne Fuller Neil & June Jens Rod & Elizabeth King So LaidlawSkye McGregor Mrs Frances Morrell Lady Potter AC Susan M Renouf Robert Salzer Foundation Jeanette Sandford-Morgan OAM Drs Paul Schneider & Margarita Silva Andrew Sisson Nigel Steele Scott Gary & Janet Tilsley Lyn Williams AM

Friends ($1,000 - $5,000)David & Liz Adams Peter Allan Michael & Susan Armitage Charles & Catherine Bagot Bernard & Jackie Barnwell Philip Barron Dianne Barron-Davis David & Caroline Bartolo Alison Beare Ms Baiba Berzins Bernard & Sharon Booth Stephen & Caroline Brain Thomas Breen Ric Chaney & Chris Hair John & Libby Clapp Geoff Clark Peter Clemenger AO & Joan Clemenger Caroline & Robert Clemente Dr Peter Clifton Ian & Rosana Cochrane David Cooke Colin & Robyn Cowan Maurice & Tess Crotti

The Australian String Quartet would like to acknowledge and sincerely thank the following donors for their ongoing support along with those donors whose very important contributions either remain anonymous or are less than $1000.

The following donations reflect cumulative donations made from 2011 onwards and the Australian String Quartet is extremely grateful for all the support received from all its donors.

The ASQ is registered as a tax deductible recipient. Donations can be made by phoning the ASQ on 1800 040 444 or by downloading a donation form at asq.com.au

Marie Dalziel Mr James Darling AM & Ms Lesley Forwood Geoff & Anne DayDillons Norwood BookshopMichael J Drew Pamela Fiala in memory of JiriMargaret Flatman John Funder & Val DiamondJohn & Carole Grace Philip Griffiths Architects Professor Keith HancockDr Penny Herbert in memory of Dunstan Herbert Hartley Higgins Hilmer Family Foundation Dr E H & Mrs A Hirsch Anita Poddar & Peter Hoffmann Janet Holmes à Court AC Jim & Freda Irenic Barbara Jarry Lynette & Gregory Jaunay Mr S Johns Barry Jones & Rachel FaggetterBrian L Jones OAMKevin & Barbara Kane Andy & Jim Katsaros M & F Katz Family Foundation Stephen & Kylie King Hon Diana Laidlaw AM Dr David Leece PSM RFD ED The Hon Christopher Legoe QC & Jenny Legoe Kevin Long Megan Lowe Dr Robert Marin Simon Marks-Isaacs HE & RJ McGlashan Janet McLachlan Helen & Phil Meddings Mrs Inese Medianik

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Board Alexandra Burt Nicholas Callinan AO (Chair) Janet Hayes Marisa Mandile Paul Murnane Maria Myers AC Susan Renouf Jeanette Sandford-Morgan OAM Ian Wallace Angelina Zucco, Chief Executive