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TRANSCRIPT
AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA 3
SPEED READIs Mozart’s Eine kleine Nachtmusik the most instantly recognisable piece of classical music? If not, it’s high on the list. One wonders what Mozart would make of its fame, given that he left no record of why or for whom it was written. Still, since its re-discovery in the 1820s it has given near-ceaseless pleasure to generations of listeners.
Hillborg’s clarinet concerto, Peacock Tales, was written with the charismatic and dynamic fi gure of Martin Fröst in mind, and the piece has become so closely associated with Fröst it’s diffi cult to imagine it being played by anyone else. Involving dance, mime, masks and lighting, it’s the very model of a modern clarinet concerto.
Brahms wrote his Hungarian Dances for the piano, but they’ve proved infi nitely versatile, being arranged and rearranged through the years for many combinations of instruments. Indeed these lively dance tunes have been credited with directly infl uencing the development of ragtime.
Copland wrote his clarinet concerto for the virtuoso (and Swing-era bandleader) Benny Goodman, so it’s no surprise that it’s rife with jazz-infl uenced riffs and rhythms. It’s not just showy, though, being imbued with a sanguine lyricism equally perfect for the clarinet’s distinct characteristics.
Ravel’s String Quartet is one of the fi rst major chamber compositions of the 20th century, although initially it baffl ed listeners (and its dedicatee, Fauré, who described the last movement ‘a failure’). Time has redeemed it, though, and it is now regarded as an essential chamber work, and key to an understanding of Ravel’s innovative personal idiom.
TOUR THREEGLITTERING FRÖSTRICHARD TOGNETTI Artistic Director and Lead Violin
MARTIN FRÖST Clarinet
Th e Australian Chamber Orchestra reserves the right to alter scheduled
programs or artists as necessary.
Approximate duration (minutes):
16 – 21 – 8 – INTERVAL – 17 – 28
Th e concert will last approximately 2 hours including interval.
NEWCASTLE
Town Hall
Th u 12 May 7.30pm
CANBERRA
Llewellyn Hall
Sat 14 May 8pm
MELBOURNE
Town Hall
Sun 15 May 2.30pm
Mon 16 May 8pm
ADELAIDE
Town Hall
Tue 17 May 8pm
PERTH
Concert Hall
Wed 18 May 7.30pm
SYDNEY
Opera House
Sun 22 May 2pm
SYDNEY
City Recital Hall
Angel Place
Tue 24 May 8pm
Wed 25 May 7pm
Sat 28 May 7pm
WOLLONGONG
IPAC
Th u 26 May 7.30pm
MOZART
Eine kleine Nachtmusik
HILLBORG
Peacock Tales
(Australian premiere)
BRAHMS (arr. Fröst)
Hungarian Dances
INTERVAL
COPLAND
Clarinet Concerto
RAVEL (arr. Tognetti)
String Quartet
Cover photo: Aiko Goto © Gary Heery
AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA 5
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ACO ON THE RADIOABC Classic FM:
Sat 7 May 1.05pm
Richard Tognetti & the ACO: Schubert’s Unfi nished Symphony, Brahms’ Symphony No.1 & Jonny Greenwood’s Popcorn Superhet Receiver.
Thu 2 Jun 1.05pm
Richard Tognetti, Martin Fröst and the ACO: Mozart, Brahms, Ravel, Copland & Hillborg.
NEXT TOURBAROQUE VIRTUOSI3 — 14 July
MESSAGE FROM THE GENERAL MANAGER
We are thrilled to present the superb Swedish clarinettist
Martin Fröst in a program of music which reveals so many
characteristics of this fascinating musician. As well as his
performances all over the country, Martin is also making
a CD with the ACO while he’s here in Australia, on the
BIS label.
Apart from welcoming a very special guest soloist to the
ACO, this tour sees the very welcome return of Principal
Second Violin Helena Rathbone after the birth of her son
Jack. It’s wonderful to have Helena back with us and I
know that audiences around the country will be delighted
to see her rejoin her colleagues in the Orchestra.
Th is national tour has been made possible thanks to the
generous support of our National Tour Partner Vanguard
Investments. Vanguard fi rst supported the ACO in 2008
for our tour of Japan and have since become annual
sponsors of our national tours. We are very grateful to
have such wonderful partners to work with, enabling the
ACO to reach the whole country through our extensive
national touring network.
As soon as the last chord of Ravel’s String Quartet recedes
into the distance at the end of this national tour, Richard
Tognetti and the ACO will embark on a short but highly
prestigious tour to California. Our great friend and
musical collaborator Dawn Upshaw, Music Director of the
famous Ojai Festival, has invited the ACO to be this year’s
orchestra in residence at Ojai and our concerts there will
take place in the newly inaugurated Libbey Bowl – the
specially-constructed outdoor music bowl in the idyllic
garden setting of Ventura County – over the weekend of
10–12 June. Th is will be the ACO’s fi rst international tour
for 2011, with further concerts later in the year in Seoul,
Tokyo, London, Vienna and Amsterdam. For our European
Tour in November-December, our friends at Alumni
Travel are putting together an accompanying tour for
ACO supporters, so why not join us? Further details on
page 35.
TIMOTHY CALNIN
GENERAL MANAGER
AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA 7
MOZART
Serenade No.13 in G major, K.525,
“Eine kleine Nachtmusik”
(Composed 1787)
I Allegro
II Romanze: Andante
III Menuetto: Allegretto
IV Rondo: Allegro
Mozart’s “little serenade” hardly requires introduction
or special pleading. It is simply one of the most famous
and best-loved works by the most famous and best-
loved of composers. Mozart himself apparently didn’t
consider it worth publishing: it was sold as a mixed bag
of papers by his widow Constanze in 1799 and only
published in 1827. We can thank Constanze Mozart’s
tireless eff orts in promoting her husband’s music for
Wolfgang’s “canonisation”; it also got her out of hock after
he died.
Mozart had, however, bothered to enter the piece (dated
August 10, 1787) in a catalogue he’d prepared for his
own reference where he gave it the Germanised title
we know and love. Th e lilt of the phrase “Eine kleine
Nachtmusik” defi nitely adds something to the appeal of
the work, and a touch of nocturnal mystery, but it would
have been quite ordinary to Mozart: a short serenade, in
contrast to some of his other serenades like the famous
one for winds (the Gran Partita in B fl at, K.361) which
lasts about an hour. For the 18th-century listener, the
serenade had connotations of evening time (in Italian,
sera) frivolity. Mozart probably would be surprised to
learn that we were sitting down politely and seriously
listening to his serenades in the formal environment of
a concert hall. We should be in the salon, drink in hand,
enjoying it as background music at an aristocratic party.
Like Mozart’s other serenades, Eine kleine Nachtmusik
is “occasional” music, composed on commission for a
particular event, the nature of which is lost to history.
Most of Mozart’s serenades are intimate and call for
a relatively modest number of instruments but Eine
kleine Nachtmusik is especially minimal and, unusually,
scored for strings only, just two violins, viola and cello
with optional double bass, so it can be played by a string
quartet, quintet or orchestra. Th e other serenades are
for winds, better suited to outdoor playing. To thicken
what might be an otherwise wiry sonority, Mozart uses
Mozart was the single greatest composer of the Classical period and remains one of music’s foremost geniuses. A master both of the highbrow and the common touch, he has delighted audiences and inspired performers from his time until now.
Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART(born Salzburg, 1756 — died Vienna, 1791)
ACO Performance History
Mozart’s Eine kleine Nachtmusik has been played in ACO subscription concerts in only one year — 1991 — and for only 3 performances.
8 AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
techniques like double and triple stopping, busy textures,
and the whole group in unison in the rising arpeggio
fanfares that open the piece, which also uses an attention-
grabbing virtuoso gesture known as the premier coup
d’archet.
Th e fi rst movement unfolds in a textbook sonata form: an
exposition of two contrasting themes, a tension-building
move to a related key in the development (where one
of the themes undergoes transformation and variation)
and fi nally the recapitulation where both themes return
and fi nd a rapprochement. As academic as it sounds on
paper, this movement is anything but in performance
where its bustle and energy carry us eff ortlessly through
the argument. Th e slower Romanze features one of
Mozart’s most beguiling tunes, and one of the few true
intimations of night comes in its central C-minor passage,
where a scrap of an ornamental fi gure is developed
with a slightly obsessive quality. Th e courtly Frenchifi ed
Menuet uses a trick called a hemiola for a rhythmic
twist, undermining the prevailing three-pulses-in-a-bar
(like a waltz) with accents that make it feel like there are
sometimes two pulses. In the Rondo fi nale, a recurring
fi gure is interspersed with episodes of contrasting material.
Mozart ties a bow around the entire serenade by using a
theme derived from those arpeggios we heard right at the
beginning of the fi rst movement.
Mozart’s catalogue entry specifi es fi ve movements for
Eine kleine Nachtmusik, but the second menuet is lost
now. Th is, however, is a happy accident, for what remains
is a perfect Classical symphony in miniature. Th ough
designed to be listened to with only half our attention, it
doesn’t succeed very well as wallpaper music: it’s far too
captivating.
double stopping means playing two notes on one violin at the same time. Modern violins can play chords of up to three notes. Chords of four notes tend to be artfully “faked”.
arpeggio, from the Italian for “harp” (arpa), is a chord which is “broken” with one note played after the other in a harp-like fashion.
The premier coup d’archet was one of the techniques of the virtuoso orchestra at Mannheim and the school of composers that wrote for it. Powerful rhetorical gestures like the “rocket”, the “steam roller” and the “grand pause” add great excitement when executed perfectly. The premier coup d’archet — the fi rst strike of the bow — is a resounding unison attack at the opening of a piece which demonstrates the orchestra’s ensemble skills.
Further listening
It’s diffi cult to mention Mozart without noting that the second volume of Mozart Violin Concertos, recorded by Richard Tognetti and the ACO, is now available from aco.com.au/shop (BIS SACD 1755). This CD includes Violin Concertos Nos 1, 2 and 4 as well as the Rondo in C, K.371, and the Adagio in E, K.261.
The fi rst disc, including Violin Concerto 3 and 5 and the Sinfonia Concertante, is also available.
AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA 9
Anders HILLBORG (b. 1954, Stockholm, Sweden)
One of the most important of living Swedish composers, Hillborg is a master of instrumental and orchestral colour, creating evocative soundworlds. In his fl amboyant concerto writing in particular Hillborg is famed for requiring the utmost virtuosity from performers.
HILLBORG
Clarinet Concerto Peacock Tales
(Composed 1998; version with strings and piano
composed 2003)
Th e unabashedly maximalist music of Anders Hillborg
is a celebration of the sheer power of sound. Flamboyant
orchestral colours, vivid sonic “imagery” and theatrical
deployment of instruments and their players are just
some of the techniques in Hillborg’s arsenal. It is music
that fl oats like a butterfl y but stings like a bee. His friend
and colleague Esa-Pekka Salonen says: “the static and the
hyperactive, the mechanical and the human, the nobly
beautiful and the banally brutal, the comic and the moving.
Almost never sentimental, but surreal in a way – like
Dalí’s melting watches. And when something familiar does
return, it is in a ritardando and distorted so far from its
original guise that it becomes something quite diff erent…”
In one of his orchestral works, Eleven Gates, listeners are
ushered through sound-worlds with tantalising names like
“Toy Pianos on the Surface of the Sea”, and the music lives
up to this promise of sonic magic.
Hillborg gained his fi rst musical experience singing
in choirs and he was also involved in various forms
of improvised music. From 1976 to 1982 he studied
counterpoint, composition and electronic music at the
Royal College of Music in Stockholm. Brian Ferneyhough,
who was a guest lecturer at the College of Music on several
occasions, was also an important source of inspiration.
While Hillborg’s music rarely aspires towards the fearsome
complexity of Ferneyhough’s music, they do share a
preoccupation with gesture, sonority and theatre. For
example, the very act of performing one of Ferneyhough’s
scores (for the curious, the archetypal piece is a solo fl ute
work called Unity Capsule; search for it on YouTube)
creates a kind of miniature drama as the instrumentalist
tries (and probably to some extent fails) to perfectly realise
the impossibly dense thickets of notation. Th e struggle
between a musician, his instrument and the composer
can be surprisingly gripping, though obviously much is
lost without the visual element. Th is music attunes us to
the idea that in fact all public performance is a species
of theatre, even if it is “just” a pianist and her instrument
on a bare stage playing Chopin. Th e rituals of entering
the room, adjusting seats and stands, tuning, and fl icking
through musical scores are potentially all grist for the mill
in contemporary music.
10 AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
Peacock Tales, as performed by Martin Fröst, is overtly
and boldly theatrical. Using masks, mime and sometimes
lighting, Fröst matches the drama inherent in the bold
gestures of Hillborg’s music with his own in a fl amboyant
narrative: a peacock-like display of virtuosity.
Th e concerto begins with a prelude in the form of a
clarinet solo that demonstrates the instrument’s huge
range and fl exibility and hinting at some of the motives
that will appear in other guises later in the work. Th e fi rst
two notes, a large upward leap, are a kind of motto, or a
signal which reappears at transitional moments. Hillborg
calls for the soloist to improvise over a huge string cluster
chord before the tension eases and the clarinet launches
into a semi-minimalist three-note riff . By alternating
rapidly between the dark low register and the piercing
upper register, Hillborg sometimes creates the illusion that
there are two clarinets playing. Other mysterious sounds
will come from the strings. More troubled and angular
rhythmic elements intrude – imagine Stravinsky crossed
with funk – until a fi nal crisis, wind-down and ethereal
fade out. Th is is music that audiences can readily absorb
on the fi rst hearing, but it’s not naïve or simple. With
its blend of old and new, theatre and concert it’s good
evidence that, as Hillborg says, “...experimentation and
tradition are not separate, but are constantly intertwined
in the process of composing.”
Further listening and reading
To explore Hillborg’s music further, try the CD Clang and Fury (PSCD52) which features works including Lamento and Celestial Mechanics, or the more recent album on Ondine Records (ODE 10062) which collects the Violin Concerto, the orchestral piece Liquid Marble, and the original full-orchestra version of Peacock Tales. (The string orchestra version will be recorded by Martin Fröst and the ACO after this tour, and released on BIS in 2012.) Hillborg maintains an informative personal website at hillborg.com.
AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA 11
BRAHMS
Hungarian Dances, WoO Nos. 1, 12, 13 & 21
(Published 1869–1880)
Arranged for clarinet and strings by Göran Fröst
No.1 in G minor: Allegro molto
No.12 in D minor: Presto
No.13 in D major: Andantino grazioso – Vivace
No.21 in E minor: Vivace
Brahms is not a composer generally known for his
lightness of spirit, yet the two books of Hungarian Dances
are a rare outburst of good humour. Consequently,
these are some of Brahms’s most popular and frequently
performed pieces in their various iterations for piano four-
hands, solo piano, piano and violin and fi nally orchestra.
He didn’t bestow them with an opus (work) number
(hence their designation WoO – Werke ohne Opuszahl)
so to some extent they stand outside the main corpus of
Brahms’s prodigious output for the piano, but they bear
all the hallmarks of his intimate understanding of the
instrument and his compositional prowess.
Th ese books of dances are not an exercise in
ethnomusicology – that would come later with composers
like Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály who conducted
rigorous fi eldwork, recording songs all over Eastern
Europe. Instead, this is inspired by the music of the
Roma – or Gypsies – whose music had been popular
throughout the Austro-Hungarian Empire since the
18th century. Bartók and his colleagues would argue that
this cigányzene (Gypsy music) is quite distinct from the
Magyar folk songs they studied. “Authentically” Hungarian
or not (and what else would music played in Hungary be
except Hungarian?), the Roma folk forms that crept into
classical music (including works by Mozart, Beethoven,
Berlioz, Bizet and especially Liszt) became instrumental
in the resurgence of national pride that eventually led
to Hungary’s independence. In any case, Roma music
is gloriously eclectic and polyglot – just like Europe: in
addition to its Hungarian base, it contains elements of
Slavic and even Italian music.
For his “Hungarian” dances, Brahms uses the archetypal
Roma dance, the csárdás, which has a two-part structure
that supposedly symbolises the contrasting moods of
the Hungarian soul – the melancholy or stately lassú
and fast, wildly joyous friss. Roma music was brought to
Brahms’s ears when he was a young man in Hamburg and
Johannes BRAHMS(born Hamburg, 1833 — died Vienna, 1897)
One of the great Romantics, Brahms wrote masterpieces in every form of composition except opera. He was a dedicated student of earlier music, but was a true innovator as well as a nostalgist, and he proved highly influential well into the 20th century.
12 AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
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a fl ood of Hungarian refugees passed through the city en
route to America to escape a crackdown by the Austrian
and Russian authorities in the late 1840s. Brahms would
amuse friends with stormy gypsy-style piano pieces and
eventually got around to writing them down for piano
duet, premiering 10 pieces with Clara Schumann in 1868.
Th ey were well-received and Brahms expanded the set
over the next 12 years. Th ere’s some dispute over how
many of the 21 dances are originally by Brahms and how
many he “borrowed” from the virtuoso Gypsy violinist Ede
Reményi. Whatever the case may be, Brahms expanded the
musical and emotional scope of these vivid sketches of the
Hungarian spirit far beyond their origins.
And this arrangement? It is in fact quite authentic – to
use that dangerous word again – to play these works with
clarinet and strings: the Roma bands that Brahms would
have known were string ensembles and the clarinet’s
timbre contains a distant echo of the peasant pipes of
Hungary that started it all.
Further listening
For the most full-blown orchestration of the Dances, try the Wiener Philharmoniker under Claudio Abbado (Deutsche Grammophon 4106152). They are rarely heard in their original version (for piano four-hands), but an excellent recording is that by Katia and Marielle Labeque on the box-set Piano Fantasy (Philips 122102).
AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA 13
COPLAND
Clarinet Concerto
(Composed 1947–1948, premiered 1950)
It’s one of music’s enduring ironies that a left-leaning,
gay, Jewish, modernist from Brooklyn invented the big-
sky prairie sound that has become indelibly associated
with America. Th ose resonant open fi fths and octaves,
the transparent orchestration, noble brass chorales
and the heartfelt simplicity were a response to Franklin
Roosevelt’s New Deal, a series of social and economic
reforms designed to pull the US out of the Great
Depression in the mid-1930s. Th is was a good time for
artists, especially those willing to bend their skills towards
the celebration of labour and the common man, and
Copland pragmatically decided that he needed to stop
writing music that was “diffi cult to perform and diffi cult
for an audience to comprehend”. Th at he managed to do
this and compose works that resonate powerfully today
is a testament to his daring and skill. It took courage
to abandon the intellectual trappings of contemporary
music, but Copland’s boldly simple style typifi ed by
Appalachian Spring are every bit as great as more
complex, modernist pieces of the time.
Perhaps none of this would have been possible without
his teacher, Nadia Boulanger (1887-1979). Th e brilliant
“Mademoiselle’s” pupils included almost every American
composer of note including several who are still active
(such as Philip Glass and Elliott Carter), who fl ocked to
Paris to study with her. Boulanger’s classes stressed craft,
technique and analysis of works from the middle ages
to the present. More importantly, she drew out of her
pupils their fundamental musical “voice” and encouraged
them to listen to it, no matter what. Needless to say, that
profound grounding in counterpoint and harmony is
present in Copland’s simplest pieces: when everything is
so pared back all the musical gears must mesh perfectly.
Boulanger’s particular concern at the time she taught
Copland was the development of la grande ligne – the
long line – melody with a vocal quality. Th is principle was
surely present when he composed his Clarinet Concerto
in 1948 for the great jazz/classical clarinettist Benny
Goodman, the “King of Swing”. It is one of Copland’s most
urbane and “French” works.
Th e Clarinet Concerto opens with a Boulangerian long
line in the clarinet over a gently waltzing accompaniment
that recalls the gymnopedies of the Dadaist composer Erik
Aaron COPLAND(born Brooklyn, New York, 1900 — died Tarrytown, New York, 1990)
Copland almost singlehandedly created the school of American composition, his infl uential, populist works from the 1930s and 1940s (such as Appalachian Spring and Fanfare for the Common Man) instantly providing a country with its eloquent and beautiful musical vocabulary.
14 AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
Satie (one commentator has described this moment as
“Satie arrives in Brooklyn”, but it’s actually more like an
American arriving in Paris). Th e orchestration also has
the monochromatic purity of some neoclassical works
from the 20s and 30s: just strings, with harp and piano as
a kind of baroque “continuo”. Th e absence of winds and
percussion also allows the clarinet to project more vividly.
In his usual plainspoken manner, Copland described his
Clarinet Concerto like this:
“Th e Clarinet Concerto is cast in a two-movement form,
played without pause, and connected by a cadenza
for the solo instrument. Th e fi rst movement is simple
in structure, based upon the usual A-B-A song form.
Th e general character of this movement is lyric and
expressive. Th e cadenza that follows provides the soloist
with considerable opportunity to demonstrate technical
prowess, at the same time introducing fragments of the
melodic material to be heard in the second movement.
Some of this material represents an unconscious fusion
of elements obviously related to North and South
American popular music. (For example, a phrase from
a currently popular Brazilian tune, which I heard in
Rio, became embedded in the secondary material in F
major.) Th e overall form of the fi nal movement is that of
a free rondo, with several side issues developed at some
length. Th e work ends with a fairly elaborate coda in C
major.”
Th is is an accurate, if prosaic, description of one the most
appealing concertos in the repertoire, and one which is
a kind of summa of Copland’s musical infl uences from
France to Brazil and, of course, jazz. In addition to the
Brazilian tune, there are pizzicato walking bass lines,
syncopations and complex metre changes and, to fi nish,
a jazzy clarinet smear straight out of Gershwin. We seem
to cover a lot of musical and geographic territory in a very
short space and, Tardis-like, the piece seems bigger than its
exterior dimensions.
Further listening and reading
Immediately after this tour, Martin Fröst and the ACO will be recording the Copland Concerto for BIS Records, for release in 2012. You can hear Benny Goodman’s recording of the concerto on The Copland Collection (1936–1948) box-set (Sony SM3K 46559). Of the many excellent collections of Copland’s enlightening essays about music, his What to Listen for in Music has just been reissued with an introduction by Leonard Slatkin (Penguin, 2011).
AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA 15
RAVEL
String Quartet in F major
(Composed 1902-1903)
Arranged for string orchestra by Richard Tognetti
I Allegro moderato: très doux
II Assez vif: très rythmé
III Très lent
IV Vif et agité
Ravel was never an especially good student, at least, not
by the exacting and hidebound standards of the Paris
Conservatoire, and the institution did nothing to disguise
its displeasure. In 1899, the Société Nationale presented
the premiere of Ravel’s Shéhérazade “fairytale overture”, a
mildly oriental orchestral work with touches of Rimsky-
Korsakov and Debussy. One critic delivered the cruel
assessment that the “mediocrely gifted Ravel will perhaps
become something if not someone in about 10 years, if he
works hard”.
Th e Conservatoire never recovered from the shock of the
aff ront of Ravel’s apparent attitude, and although from
1900 Ravel tried numerous times to win the coveted
Prix de Rome, he was always denied the prize by the
conservative “gentlemen of the Institute”. After a while,
he didn’t even try very hard at the academic counterpoint
exercises and banal cantata setting that contestants had
to submit – committing atrocities like parallel octaves or
rushing his orchestration. In 1900 he was also expelled
from Gabriel Fauré’s composition class, but was permitted
to audit it (Fauré was fond of Ravel, whom he described as
hardworking and sincere).
Expulsion hardly seemed to stunt Ravel’s development as
a composer or pianist: in 1901, he spoiled his academic
chances once again when his post-Lisztian piano solo,
Jeux d’eaux (Fountains) was published and denounced
as “total cacophony” by Camille Saint-Saëns. Ravel again
fl unked the Prix. Ravel’s string quartet of 1902-03 was the
last straw however. In January 1903, Ravel submitted the
fi rst movement for the composition prize. It was judged
laborious and lacking in “simplicity”. Ravel was expelled
completely from the Conservatoire in accordance with the
rules of the school. And while the music of the winners of
the Prix de Rome is generally unplayed these days, Ravel’s
String Quartet has established itself in the repertoire. It is
dedicated to Gabriel Fauré.
Maurice RAVEL(born Ciboure, France, 1875 — died Paris, 1937)
One of the leading proponents of musical Impressionism, Ravel is especially famed for his works for piano and his chamber music. Most often compared to Debussy, the pair are the best-known French composers of the 20th century, although Ravel’s sheer technical ability was perhaps superior to Debussy’s.
ACO Performance History
Ravel’s String Quartet in this arrangement by Richard Tognetti was included in the 2003 Subscription season for 8 performances.
16 AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
It’s traditional to point out that Debussy’s String Quartet
in G minor (1893) was very much the model for Ravel’s
(true), but its ancestors also include Cesar Franck’s
Quartet in D Major (1889). Franck’s, Debussy’s and Ravel’s
quartets are cast in four movements, Fast – Faster – Slow
– Fast, and all use Franck’s technique of sharing thematic
material between movements. What Franck, Debussy
and Ravel did was to write quartets that seem to ignore
the complications and profundities of Beethoven’s late
quartets, but instead look back to the Classical balance and
restraint of Haydn, Mozart and even Brahms. Although
it was no use in winning over judges, Ravel’s rigorous
training in counterpoint is profoundly evident in the
Quartet, which might be surprising in music by a so-called
“impressionist”. Claude Debussy too had “been through
the mill” of Conservatoire counterpoint classes, and if he
chose not to write in a fugal style it was because he knew it
and could be free of it.
In the fi rst movement, marked “very gently”, Ravel lays
out a radiant theme in the fi rst violin which arcs up and
up supported by a rising scale in the other instruments.
Th e whole movement is pervaded with ascending and
descending scale motifs, sometimes they sound serene
and relaxed, at other times they scurry up and down in
agitation. Th e movement unfolds in classic sonata form
(see Eine kleine Nachtmusik), with subtle manipulation of
thematic material – transformations that will also occur
on the larger scale of the whole quartet because the main
theme will return in the third and fi nal movements with
very diff erent characters.
Th e scherzo, “rather fast – very rhythmic”, is, like
Debussy’s, a dazzling exercise in pizzicato writing with
a distinctly antique quality. Ravel uses an archaic kind
of scale called a mode, in this case “Aeolian”: built on
the white notes of the piano starting on A, it’s a near
neighbour of A minor. Th e dry sonority of the pizzicati
could be in imitation of a harpsichord. Ravel had a life-
long interest in Baroque music and wrote several works
which explicitly evoke this period wit hout ever resorting
to pastiche. Th e brisk modal plucked material and ecstatic
fi rst violin song are interrupted by a mournful episode full
of delicate impressionistic textures and recollections of
the pizzicato material before accelerating into the home
straight.
Th e third movement, “very slow”, off ers the most intimate
and authentically Ravellian moments of the whole work,
a dreamlike collage of themes from the fi rst movement
Further reading
The recent fi rst volume of Intimate Voices: the Twentieth-Century String Quartet (edited by Evan Jones) includes an important comparative essay on the string quartets of Debussy and Ravel by Marianne Wheeldon (U of Rochester Press, 2009). The Cambridge Companion to Ravel, edited by Deborah Mawer, is an excellent source of further investigation into the life and work of this great composer (Cambridge UP, 2000).
AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA 17
in a nocturnal atmosphere. Where the other movements’
forms are strongly defi ned, this movement is rhapsodic,
glued together by memory, its mood changeable but
predominantly mournful.
Th e “fast and agitated” fi nale is set mostly in an irregular
5-beats-in-a-bar metre, the powerful moto perpetuo
scrubbing of the initial theme returns throughout the
movement to punctuate contrasting material derived, again,
from the fi rst movement, bringing the work full circle.
Often, Ravel’s quartet writing verges on the orchestral with
its brilliant handling of timbre and texture. Transcribing it
for string orchestra allows us to enjoy Ravel’s masterpiece
on a broader canvas. While it’s true that Debussy said to
Ravel, “In the name of the gods of music, and in mine, do
not touch a single note of what you have written in your
quartet”, perhaps a little tinkering is not completely out of
the question?
PROGRAM NOTES © 2011 ROBERT WESLEY MURRAY
AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA 19
MARTIN FRÖSTCLARINET
Martin Fröst is internationally recognized as one of the most
exciting wind players performing today. Concert highlights
in the 2010/2011 season include debuts with the Minnesota
Orchestra and Los Angeles Philharmonic with Osmo Vänskä
(performing Kalevi Aho’s Concerto, which was commissioned
for him by the Borletti-Buitoni Trust), Cincinnati Symphony
Orchestra with Paavo Järvi, NHK Symphony Orchestra
with Sir Neville Marriner, and both the Netherlands Radio
Philharmonic Orchestra and Radio Chamber Orchestra at
the Amsterdam Concertgebouw. He returns to the Göteborg
Symfoniker with Gustavo Dudamel, Oslo Philharmonic
Orchestra with Gianandrea Noseda, Wiener Symphoniker
with Kirill Petrenko at the 2011 Bregenzer Festspiele, and
the Academy of Saint Martin in the Fields. He directs
projects with the Oslo Philharmonic and Swedish Chamber
orchestras, Zürcher Kammerorchester and Die Deutsche
Kammerphilharmonie Bremen.
Martin Fröst gave fi ve concerts as part of a residency at
the Kölner Philharmonie during the 2010/11 season. Th e
residency included a performance of Double Points with
violinist Janine Jansen, choreographed by Emio Greco
and Pieter C. Scholten, which premiered the Amsterdam
Concertgebouw. He has also been artist in residence with
the Hamburger Symphoniker, Göteborg Symfoniker, Iceland
Symphony Orchestra and the Konzerthaus Dortmund.
Highlights during the 2009/10 season included performances
with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and Frans
Brüggen and the Wiener Symphoniker at the Vienna
Konzerthaus, as well as a return to the Salzburg and Verbier
Festivals. He performed the world premiere of Victoria
Borisova-Ollas’ Golden Dances of Pharaohs with the Royal
Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and Sakari Oramo,
and was the only classical instrumentalist in a televised
gala concert from Stockholm Concert Hall celebrating the
marriage of Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden and Prince
Daniel Westling.
Martin Fröst is the Artistic Director of the Vinterfest in Mora,
Sweden and Artistic Director of the International Chamber
Music Festival in Stavanger, Norway. He records exclusively
for BIS.
www.martinfrost.se
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oto
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ats
Bac
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20 AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
RICHARD TOGNETTI AOARTISTIC DIRECTOR AND LEADERAUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
Australian violinist, conductor and composer, Richard Tognetti
has established an international reputation for his compelling
performances and artistic individualism. He studied at the
Sydney Conservatorium with Alice Waten, in his home town of
Wollongong with William Primrose, and at the Berne Conservatory
(Switzerland) with Igor Ozim, where he was awarded the
Tschumi Prize as the top graduate soloist in 1989. Later that year
he was appointed Leader of the Australian Chamber Orchestra
(ACO) and subsequently became Artistic Director. He is also
Artistic Director of the Maribor Festival in Slovenia.
Tognetti performs on period, modern and electric instruments.
His numerous arrangements, compositions and transcriptions
have expanded the chamber orchestra repertoire and been
performed throughout the world.
As director or soloist, Tognetti has appeared with the Handel &
Haydn Society (Boston), Hong Kong Philharmonic, Camerata
Salzburg, Tapiola Sinfonietta, Irish Chamber Orchestra,
Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, Nordic Chamber
Orchestra, YouTube Symphony Orchestra and the Australian
symphony orchestras. He conducted Mozart’s Mitridate for
the Sydney Festival and gave the Australian premiere of Ligeti’s
Violin Concerto with the Sydney Symphony.
Tognetti has collaborated with colleagues from across various art
forms and artistic styles, including Joseph Tawadros, Dawn Upshaw,
James Crabb, Emmanuel Pahud, Jack Th ompson, Katie Noonan, Neil
Finn,Tim Freedman, Paul Capsis, Bill Henson and Michael Leunig.
In 2003, Tognetti was co-composer of the score for Peter Weir’s
Master and Commander: Th e Far Side of the World; violin tutor
for its star, Russell Crowe; and can also be heard performing on
the award-winning soundtrack. In 2005, he co-composed the
soundtrack to Tom Carroll’s surf fi lm Horrorscopes and, in 2008,
co-created Th e Red Tree, inspired by illustrator Shaun Tan’s book.
He co-created and starred in the 2008 documentary fi lm Musica
Surfi ca, which has won best fi lm awards at surf fi lm festivals in
the USA, Brazil, France and South Africa.
As well as directing numerous recordings by the ACO, Tognetti
has recorded Bach’s solo violin repertoire for ABC Classics,
winning three consecutive ARIA awards, and the Dvořák and
Mozart Violin Concertos for BIS.
A passionate advocate for music education, Tognetti established
the ACO’s Education and Emerging Artists programs in 2005.
Richard Tognetti was appointed an Offi cer of the Order of
Australia in 2010. He holds honorary doctorates from three
Australian universities and was made a National Living Treasure
in 1999. He performs on a 1743 Guarneri del Gesù violin, lent
to him by an anonymous Australian private benefactor.
‘Richard Tognetti is one of the most characterful, incisive and impassioned violinists to be heard today.’THE DAILY TELEGRAPH (UK), 2006
Select DiscographyAs soloist:
BACH Sonatas for Violin and KeyboardABC Classics 476 59422008 ARIA Award Winner
BACH Violin ConcertosABC Classics 476 56912007 ARIA Award Winner
BACH Solo Violin Sonatas and PartitasABC Classics 476 80512006 ARIA Award Winner
(All three releases available as a 5CD Box set: ABC Classics 476 6168)
Musica Surfi ca (DVD)Best Feature, New York Surf Film Festival
As director:
VIVALDI Flute Concertos, Op.10Emmanuel Pahud, FluteEMI Classics 0946 3 47212 2 6Grammy Nominee
PIAZZOLLA Song of the AngelChandos CHAN 10163
All available from aco.com.au/shop.
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oto
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en
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elly
AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA 21
‘You’d have to scour the universe hard to fi nd another band like the ACO.’ THE TIMES, UK
‘The energy and vibe of a rock band with the ability of a crack classical chamber group.’WASHINGTON POST
To be kept up to date with ACO tours and recordings, register for the free e-newsletter at aco.com.au.
Select Discography
Bach Violin ConcertosABC 476 5691
Vivaldi Flute Concertoswith Emmanuel PahudEMI 3 47212 2
Bach Keyboard Concertoswith Angela HewittHyperion SACDA 67307/08
Tango Jamwith James CrabbMulberry Hill MHR C001
Song of the AngelMusic of Astor Piazzollawith James CrabbChandos CHAN 10163
Sculthorpe: works for string orchestra including Irkanda I, Djilile and Cello DreamingChandos CHAN 10063
Giuliani Guitar Concertowith John WilliamsSony SK 63385
These and more ACO recordings are available from our online shop: aco.com.au/shop or by calling 1800 444 444.
AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRARICHARD TOGNETTI AO ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Australia’s national orchestra is a product of its country’s
vibrant, adventurous and enquiring spirit. In performances
around Australia, around the world and on many recordings,
the ACO moves hearts and stimulates minds with repertoire
spanning six centuries and a vitality and energy unmatched by
other ensembles.
Th e ACO was founded in 1975. Every year, this ensemble
presents performances of the highest standard to audiences
around the world, including 10,000 subscribers across Australia.
Th e ACO’s unique artistic style encompasses not only the
masterworks of the classical repertoire, but innovative cross-
artform projects and a vigorous commissioning program.
Under Richard Tognetti’s inspiring leadership, the ACO has
performed as a fl exible and versatile ‘ensemble of soloists’, on
modern and period instruments, as a small chamber group, a
small symphony orchestra, and as an electro-acoustic collective.
In a nod to past traditions, only the cellists are seated – the
resulting sense of energy and individuality is one of the most
commented-upon elements of an ACO concert experience.
Several of the ACO’s principal musicians perform with
spectacularly fi ne instruments. Tognetti performs on a priceless
1743 Guarneri del Gesù, on loan to him from an anonymous
Australian benefactor. Principal Cello Timo-Veikko Valve plays
on a 1729 Giuseppe Guarneri fi lius Andreæ cello, also on loan
from an anonymous benefactor, and Assistant Leader Satu
Vänskä plays a 1759 J.B. Guadagnini violin on loan from the
Commonwealth Bank Group.
Forty international tours have drawn outstanding reviews at
many of the world’s most prestigious concert halls, including
Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, London’s Wigmore Hall, New
York’s Carnegie Hall and Vienna’s Musikverein. Th is year, the
ACO tours to the USA, Japan and Europe.
Th e ACO has made acclaimed recordings for labels including
ABC Classics, Sony, Channel Classics, Hyperion, EMI,
Chandos and Orfeo and currently has a recording contract
with BIS. A full list of available recordings can be found at
aco.com.au/shop. Highlights include the three-time ARIA
Award-winning Bach recordings and Vivaldi Concertos with
Emmanuel Pahud. Th e ACO appears in the television series
Classical Destinations II and the award-winning fi lm Musica
Surfi ca, both available on DVD and CD.
In 2005, the ACO inaugurated an ambitious national education
program, which includes outreach activities and mentoring of
outstanding young musicians, including the formation of ACO2,
an elite training orchestra which tours regional centres.
22 AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
* Helena Rathbone plays a 1759 J.B. Guadagnini violin on loan from the Commonwealth Bank Group.
SATU VÄNSKÄAssistant LeaderViolinChair sponsored by Robert &
Kay Bryan
MADELEINE BOUDViolinChair sponsored by Terry
Campbell AO & Christine Campbell
RICHARD TOGNETTI AOArtistic Director and Lead ViolinChair sponsored by Michael Ball AM
& Daria Ball, Joan Clemenger, Wendy
Edwards, and Prudence MacLeod
HELENA RATHBONE*Principal 2nd ViolinChair sponsored by Hunter Hall
Investment Management Limited
MELISSA BARNARDCelloChair sponsored by Th e Bruce &
Joy Reid Foundation
JULIAN THOMPSONCello Chair sponsored by the Clayton
Family
TIMOVEIKKO VALVEPrincipal CelloChair Ssonsored by Mr Peter
Weiss AM
STEPHEN KINGViolaChair sponsored by Philip
Bacon AM
AIKO GOTOViolinChair sponsored by Andrew &
Hiroko Gwinnett
MARK INGWERSENViolinChair sponsored by Runge
REBECCA CHANViolin
ALICE EVANSViolinChair sponsored by Jan Bowen,
Th e Davies and Th e Sandgropers
ILYA ISAKOVICHViolinChair sponsored by Melbourne
Community Foundation – Connie
& Craig Kimberley Fund
NICOLE DIVALLViolaChair sponsored by Ian & Nina
Lansdown
CHRISTOPHER MOOREPrincipal ViolaChair sponsored by Tony
Shepherd
VERONIQUE SERRETViolin
Photos: Tanja Ahola, Helen WhiteMUSICIANS
AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA 23
LUCY REEVESHarp
BENJAMIN MARTINPiano
Players dressed by
AKIRA ISOGAWA
MAXIME BIBEAUPrincipal BassChair sponsored by John Taberner
& Grant Lang
BEHIND THE SCENES
EXECUTIVE OFFICE
Timothy Calnin
General Manager
Jessica Block
Deputy General Manager
and Development Manager
Michelle Kerr
Executive Assistant to
Mr Calnin and
Mr Tognetti AO
ARTISTIC &
OPERATIONS
Richard Tognetti AO
Artistic Director
Michael Stevens
Head of Artistic Planning
& Operations
Gabriel van Aalst
Orchestra Manager
Erin McNamara
Tour Manager
Jennifer Collins
Librarian
EDUCATION
Vicki Stanley
Education and Emerging
Artists Manager
Sarah Conolan
Education Assistant
FINANCE
Steve Davidson
Chief Financial Offi cer
Shyleja Paul
Assistant Accountant
DEVELOPMENT
Kate Bilson
Events Manager
Tom Carrig
Senior Development
Executive
Lillian Armitage
Philanthropy Manager
Kylie Anania
Patrons Manager
Liz D’Olier
Development
Coordinator
MARKETING
Georgia Rivers
Marketing Manager
Rosie Rothery
Marketing Executive
Chris Griffi th
Box Offi ce Manager
Mary Stielow
National Publicist
Dean Watson
Customer Relations
Manager
Lachlan Wright
Offi ce Administrator &
Marketing Assistant
INFORMATION
SYSTEMS
Ken McSwain
Systems & Technology
Manager
Emmanuel Espinas
Network Infrastructure
Engineer
ARCHIVES
John Harper
Archivist
AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA ABN 45 001 335 182
Australian Chamber
Orchestra Pty Ltd is a
not for profi t company
registered in NSW.
In Person: Opera Quays,
2 East Circular Quay,
Sydney NSW 2000
By Mail: PO Box R21,
Royal Exchange NSW 1225
Telephone: (02) 8274 3800
Facsimile: (02) 8274 3801
Box Offi ce: 1800 444 444
Email: [email protected]
Website: aco.com.au
BOARD
Guido Belgiorno-Nettis AM (Chairman)
Angus James (Deputy Chairman)
Bill Best
Liz Cacciottolo
Chris Froggatt
Janet Holmes à Court AC
Brendan Hopkins
Tony Shepherd
Andrew Stevens
John Taberner
Peter Yates
AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA 33
ACO PARTNERS
Th e ACO receives around 45% of its income from the box offi ce, 35% from the business
community and private donors and less than 20% from government sources. Th e private
sector plays a key role in the continued growth and artistic development of the Orchestra.
We are proud of the relationships we have developed with each of our partners and would like
to acknowledge their generous support.
CONCERT AND SERIES PARTNERS
PREFERRED TRAVEL PARTNER
FOUNDING PARTNER ACO2 PRINCIPAL PARTNER
PERTH SERIES PARTNER
QLD/NSW REGIONAL TOUR PARTNER
OFFICIAL PARTNERS
GOVERNMENT SUPPORT ACCOMMODATION AND EVENT SUPPORT
ACO is supported by the NSW Government through
Arts NSW
BAR CUPOLA SWEENEY RESEARCH
NATIONAL TOUR PARTNERS
34 AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
STACCATO: ACO NEWS STACCATO: ACO NEWS
EDUCATION NEWS
ACO2 reportACO2 has just returned from their fi rst 2011
tour, which travelled through 7 regional centres
in Victoria and South Australia. Th e Orchestra
toured to Warrnambool (VIC), Mt. Gambier
(SA), Horsham (VIC), Castlemaine (VIC),
Mildura (VIC), Renmark (SA), Noarlunga
(SA) and fi nished at the Australian National
Academy of Music in Melbourne. Th is last
performance was recorded by ABC Classic
FM. Th e Orchestra received a standing
ovation at the sell-out performance in
Castlemaine and received glowing audience
feedback: “A program full of diverse sounds,
fl avours and emotions – excellent discipline
& ensemble playing – what sumptuous string
tone” – R. Strickland (Mt. Gambier). “Words
cannot explain how wonderful it was… I’m
looking forward to ACO2 coming back” –
C. Linke (Horsham).
Th e education events held during the tour
provided local students with an opportunity
to play alongside ACO2 musicians in string
workshops in Horsham and Mildura, ask
questions and hear the whole Orchestra at a
schools concert in Mt Gambier.
Parramatta String PlayersFollowing their triumph at the Sydney Festival,
the Parramatta String Players were back in
rehearsal last month, in a workshop with ACO
musicians. Th is group is expanding to become the
new Parramatta Youth Orchestra and wind, brass
and percussion will be added in 2012 and 2013.
Schools EventsDuring May, Combined Schools Workshops will
be held in Melbourne, Perth and Sydney; members
of the Orchestra will again visit Matraville Soldiers
Settlement School; and the Picton Strings will
have their second workshop accompanied by a
performance by ACO musicians.
ABOVE: Emerging Artist Paul Zabrowarny works with students in Mildura.
BELOW: Lara St. John leads ACO2 at the Castlemaine State Festival.
AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA 35
STACCATO: ACO NEWS
2011 OPENING NIGHT PARTIES
ABOVE: Jeff Simpson, Beau Neilson, Todd Buncombe and Paris Neilson
LEFT: Satu Vänskä and Judy Anne Edwards
BELOW: Jim Burke, Lynne Kilgour, Teddy Tahu Rhodes, Sharon Wybrow and partner
During the ACO’s fi rst National Tour of 2011,
Richard Tognetti and the ACO hosted Opening
Night Parties at concert venues across Australia.
Special guests, ACO sponsors and patrons,
media personalities and Orchestra members
came together to launch the ACO’s 2011
National Concert Season, and celebrate a stellar
start to the year.
From 27 November to 8 December this year the
ACO tour Europe, performing in prestigious
venues such as Symphony Hall Birmingham,
London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, Vienna’s
Musikverein and Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw.
Len Amadio AO hosts a fully escorted two week
tour of Europe including these ACO performances.
A brochure with full tour details is now available
from Alumni Travel.
P: 1300 799 887 E: [email protected]
JOIN THE ACO ON THEIR EUROPEAN TOUR