Programme for Paganini’s grand concert at the King’s Theatre, London, 15 July 18311

PROGRAMME IN BRIEF.

This evening, you’ll be treated to the chamber arrangements of three distinct composers. Their lives span almost 200 years and were lived out across most of Europe and the Americas. Our programme commences with an arrangement of two dances by Enrique Granados, who left a legacy of nationalism in Spanish music that was originally established by his teacher, Felipe Pedrell. His early settings of Spanish inspired dances for piano and chamber ensemble would pave the way for a boastful international career of a dozen operatic premieres and numerous orchestral works. We’ll then be treated to music by violin virtuoso Niccolò Paganini, who stunned European audiences with his technical prowess during a six-and-a-half-year tour spanning Vienna to Paris in 1828. His 24 Capricci for Unaccompanied Violin, the sonatas for guitar and violin and his own performances left a lasting impact on the technical skill we hear in concert music today. Tonight’s featured composer [appropriately for the title of this concert] is none other than Astor Piazzolla. It’s not often that a musical genre (in this case, tango) can transcend time and place so seamlessly, from the bordellos of South America to the great concert halls of Europe and North America. Under the tutelage of Nadia Boulanger, Piazzolla found his unique compositional voice that we enjoy as a rare concert hall treat today.

“Astor, this is beautiful. I like it a lot. Here is the true Piazzolla – do not ever leave him.”2

– Nadia Boulanger to Astor Piazzolla upon first hearing his work as a student.

The time of this concert falls at an interesting time for both of our artists. Anna Da Silva Chen (ABC Young Performer Awards finalist, SSO Soloist) is relocating to Cologne, Germany in a matter of days for postgraduate study at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln. For her, these two concerts are a weekend of celebration of both her studies at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and of her upbringing in her hometown of Wollongong. Sako Dermenjian (Sydney Eisteddfod 1st Prize Winner, Official TEDx Speaker) has recently been a finalist of the Sydney Eisteddfod NSW Doctor’s Instrumental Scholarship and is currently a finalist in the Fine Music Virtuoso Prize. It also coincides with the release of his debut album (with Anna Da Silva Chen) of the works featuring in this concert. Born in Syria with Armenian heritage, Sako has made a successful new life with his family in his beloved new hometown of Wollongong. This evening is a celebration of the composers that were, the artists that are (and will be), and of the music that still impacts us today. Well ‘after the singer is dead and the maker buried’3 (Robert Louis Stevenson). © Jeremy Boulton 2019.

1Oxford Music Online – Grove Music Online 2 Piazzolla, Astor., Gorin, Natalio., and Gonzalez, Fernando. Astor Piazzolla : a Memoir Portland, Ore: Amadeus Press, 2001. 3 Stevenson, Robert Louis., Songs of Travel and Other Verses.

THE ARTISTS. ANNA DA SILVA CHEN | Violin Anna Da Silva Chen is recognised as one of Australia’s finest emerging violinists. She has appeared as soloist with the Sydney, Adelaide, Tasmanian, Canberra and Willoughby symphony orchestras. Her performances have been broadcast frequently on ABC Classic FM as a string and grand finalist in the ABC Symphony Australia Young Performers Awards, performing Säens‘ Violin Concerto No. 3 with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra at the age of fourteen and Elgar’s Concerto with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra the following year. Other concert highlights include Beethoven’s Concerto with Steel City Strings in 2019, Brahms’ Concerto with the North Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Shostakovich’s Concerto No. 1 with Ensemble Apex in 2017, performances with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in 2013, and several performances of Sibelius’ and Tchaikovsky’s concertos with the Adelaide Symphony, Metropolitan, NSWYO and SCM symphony orchestras. In July 2019, she toured Spain as a soloist with the SCM Wind Symphony Orchestra conducted by John Lynch, culminating in a performance at the Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona. She has also been featured at the Canberra International and Newcastle Music Festivals. Anna is currently a graduate student at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln in Germany, studying with Prof Mihaela Martin. Born in Sydney in 1996, Anna began learning the violin and piano with Sarah Hindson and Susan Robinson, followed by several years studying with Dr Robin Wilson in the Open Academy Rising Stars program and completion of a Bachelor of Music degree studying under Associate Prof Alice Waten at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. She was a full-scholarship student and won University of Sydney Academic Merit Prizes in 2017 & 2018 as well as the Corrina Taylor Memorial Prize. An avid chamber musician, Anna has performed as guest violinist of Australia’s Omega Ensemble, Ensemble Q, toured with Selby & Friends, and worked with the Australia Piano Quartet as their Artist-in-residence throughout 2018 and 2019. Anna founded the Pietra Quartet, who won the 2017 Gerald Westheimer String Quartet Fellowship, studied in Italy under Eberhard Feltz, Johannes Meissl and Niklas Schmidt at the 2017 Estivo European Chamber Music Summer School and participated in lessons with members of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Borodin, Takács, Artis, Maggini and Doric Quartets. She has been concertmaster on Australian Youth Orchestra programs, with Ensemble Apex, the Australian International Symphony Orchestra Institute, and the Sydney Conservatorium of Music's Chamber and Symphony Orchestras. Anna was a prize-winner at the 2019 Vienna International Music Competition, multiple prize-winner in the Gisborne International Music Competition and was selected as a junior semi-finalist at the 2012 Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition. She was the winner of the 2011 Kendall National Violin Competition, 2011 National Fine Music Young Virtuoso Award and 2010 Australian National Youth Concerto Competition. Anna was selected as an active participant at the 2017 Kronberg Academy Violin Masterclasses in Germany, studying with Professor Boris Kuschnir. She has also played in classes for Maxim Vengerov, Barnabás Kelemen, Johannes Meissl and Pinchas Zukerman.

SAKO DERMENJIAN | Guitar Sako Dermenjian is an Armenian classical guitarist, born and raised in Syria, now based in Australia. He was given his first guitar at the age of 7 as a gift from his grandmother and it hasn’t left him since. And when he left Syria at the age of 17, the guitar became one of the few constants over the next few years of Sako’s life. After studying with the great Mazen Al-Saleh for 9 years in Damascus, Sako was already on the path of achieving his dream to become a world-renowned classical guitarist and teacher. Then war broke out and changed his plans. On arrival in Australia a few years later Sako was forced to re-think the direction of his music. The intensity of war had left him with a sense of urgency to make the most of his life. He was eager to start a-new at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, but again plans were delayed when he learned he needed an extra qualification in order to gain admission. He would have to call on all those years of patience and dedication that made him the guitarist he is today. Studying a Diploma of Music at TAFE Illawarra with teacher Michael Barkl turned out to be a year full of exploration and growth for Sako. It allowed him to discover different parts of himself musically and take his playing in new directions. His music gave him a way to participate more in the community and it wasn’t long before people started to notice him. One gig led to another and in 2016 he was invited to perform for the Lord Mayor at the Wollongong Australia Day awards dinner. Later that year he was invited to play in front of a global audience at TEDx Wollongong and talk about his journey under the theme It’s about time. In 2018 Sako won the first prize of Sydney Eisteddfod and the duet section with Anna da Silva Chen. He is completing his Bachelor of Performance in classical guitar at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music with his teacher Dr.Vladimir Gorbach. Sako plays a Jayson Elazzi Cedar top classical guitar.

PROGRAMME. Enrique Granados (1867–1916) Las doce danzas españolas, Op. 37 II. Oriental V. Andaluza

Niccolò Paganini (1782–1840) Cantabile Sonata Op.3, No. 6 in E minor

Astor Piazzolla (1921–1992) Histoire du Tango I. Bordello 1900 II. Café 1930 III. Nightclub 1960 IV. Concert d'Aujourd'hui

THE COMPOSERS. Enrique Granados (1867–1916) Granados’ legacy is in his musical leadership towards nationalism in 19th century Spanish music. This shift came to the fore after studying composition with the movement’s ‘father’4, Felipe Pedrell in his teens. The devastating result of the Napoleonic Wars, various civil wars, revolutions and the ‘reactionary’ government of Ferdinand VII5 led to an ‘intellectual crisis’6 among musicians in his homeland in prior decades which eroded the state of musical performance and formal music education. As a result, Granados performed in flamenco bars and cafés and was required to pursue his virtuosity at the piano in Paris when he was 20. He would later become a foremost composer of piano music in Spain. The work you will hear tonight (originally written for solo piano) is an early work was composed mostly in 1883. (Las doce danzas españolas, Op. 37). Though Granados composed a dozen operas and numerous orchestral and chamber works, this [comparatively] simple piano work would remain one of his most popular published works. Granados, notably drowned at sea in the English Channel en route to Sussex after returning from the performance of Goyescas at the Metropolitan Opera in 1916. The passenger ferry which he and his wife were aboard was sunk by a German U-boat.7

4 “Explore Encyclopedia Britannica.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., July 29, 2019. https://www.britannica.com/ 5 Stevenson, Robert, and Louise K. Stein. “Oxford Music.” Oxford Music. Grove Music Online, January 20, 2001. https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.40115. 6 Ibid 7 Española, Acción Cultural. “Centenary of the Death of Enrique Granados 1916 2016.” Centenary of the Death of Enrique Granados 1916 2016. Accessed September 19, 2019. https://www.accioncultural.es/en/centenary_of_the_death_of_enrique_granados_1916_2016

Niccolò Paganini (1782–1840) Paganini leaves behind a lasting memory of ‘devilish’8 skill at the violin in his time and virtuosic compositions including the 24 Capricci for Unaccompanied Violin and two sets of six sonatas for violin and guitar. He indulged in high stakes gambling and affairs with women after successful tours as a solo virtuoso – notably in a six-and-a-half year tour from 1828 to 1834 beginning in Vienna and ending in Paris9. He achieved notoriety and his financial success on English stages. Paganini would suffer a similar fate to composer, Franz Schubert, dying from ingesting mercury to treat his syphilis in 1840. It is widely accepted that Niccoló Paganini was one of the greatest violinists of all time. Astor Piazzolla (1921–1992) Piazzolla’s music has become something of an exotic treat of symphony orchestra programming in recent times. From his take on ‘The Seasons’ in Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas (Four Seasons of Buenos Aires) to the Histoire du Tango (History of the Tango), to the most suggestive of his works the Libertango, (the title track of his 1974 hit album) Piazzolla has become one of the most recognizable composers of his time, on and off the concert hall stage. He reflected harshly on his own work as mere “Symphonic trash”10 referring to himself as one who “wanted to be Stravinsky”, yet simultaneously ‘enraged the tango traditionalists’11. After spending 14 years of his childhood in New York, Piazzolla later moved to Buenos Aires and formed his own orchestra, Orquesta Típica (also, ‘The 1946 Orchestra)12. He disbanded it after failing to achieve his desired sound a few years later and in 1951 won a composers’ prize to move to Paris to study with Nadia Boulanger (once a classmate of Maurice Ravel, later teacher of Aaron Copland)13. Unable to afford private lessons with Boulanger initially (sometimes eating only one meal every two days), Boulanger would soon discover his talents at the bandoneon and tango and encourage his musical originality. Piazzolla’s works would later be widely regarded and wholeheartedly embraced and performed by music greats from Daniel Barenboim to Yo-Yo Ma. © Jeremy Boulton 2019.

Piazzolla with Nadia Boulanger in her Paris apartment. Granados at the piano.

8 Oxford Music. Grove Music Online 9 “Niccolò Paganini.” The Strad. Accessed September 19, 2019. https://www.thestrad.com/niccolò-paganini/4105.article 10 Op. cit. Gorin, Natalio., and Gonzalez, Fernando. 11 Ibid 12 Ibid 13 Ibid

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.

Dr. Vladimir Gorbach

Nicholas Comensoli and Marcel Leon Sydney Conservatorium of Music (University of Sydney)

Consulate General of Uruguay in Sydney Consulate General of Argentina in Sydney

ABC Classic / ABC Illawarra Limelight Magazine / Fine Music 102.5FM

Vox FM 106.9FM South Coast Tickets

John B Chen Art Music Stream Jeremy Boulton

Catalina Dermenjian Nicolas Serray

Fernando Ramirez

“Hello, my dear Astor.

Congratulations, now you are very famous.”

– Nadia Boulanger to Astor Piazzolla, reunited 20 years after teaching him at the Fontainebleau Conservatoire.

CDs available after the performance! $20