PROGRAMINSPIRING WAGNER Wednesday 6 September 2017, 7.30pmPerth Concert Hall

WAGNER’S WORLD Saturday 9 September 2017, 7.30pmPerth Concert Hall

WAGNER & BEYOND

Frankie Lo Surdo, French Horn

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“Musical nonsense” is how the great Tchaikovsky described Wagner’s opera Das Rheingold after hearing it for the first time in Bayreuth. Tchaikovsky admitted that he found some “beautiful, even captivating moments”, but his first reaction reflects the general sentiment shared especially by musicians towards Wagner’s music. To our ears the music of Wagner sounds, well, “normal”, highly romantic, engaging, captivating, even mesmerizing. Having heard so much music which was composed after Wagner it is hard for us to fully comprehend the shocking effect his operas had on contemporary listeners. Wagner was a true revolutionary and he challenged all the conventions of the art of composing which prevailed until he came on to the central European music scene. He obliterated form, reinvented orchestral colour and vocal lines, expanded the rhythmic palette and even redefined the role of aesthetics in music by proving that music does not have to sound beautiful if the drama at hand demands it to sound otherwise.

In “Wagner and Beyond” WASO and I are attempting to take you, our audience, through a time journey back to the middle of the 19th Century. We shall start by setting up the musical background to which the young Wagner was introduced, and with the help of sound bites and full performance of his orchestral music try to analyse the makings of the Wagner revolution. We will concentrate on music from his Ring Cycle in the first concert and from his later operas in the second evening.

It is safe to proclaim that hardly any music composed after Wagner’s death was not by some way influenced by his music and that the developments in classical music in the early 20th Century would not have been possible without breakthroughs in harmony and form. We therefore will conclude our mini-series with performances of three works which reference three different ways in which his music shaped the future of composition.

Thanks to WASO’s Excellence Circle leading the support of our two-year WASO & Wagner campaign, next year we present concert performances of Tristan und Isolde with a first-rate international cast. We hope that “Wagner and Beyond” will serve as a suitable introduction to both those who know and love his music as to first time listeners who wish to better equip themselves before they first encounter this great Opera.

Asher Fisch Principal Conductor and Artistic Adviser

Asher Fisch appears courtesy of Wesfarmers Arts.

WELCOME

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Frankie Lo Surdo, French Horn

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Wednesday 6 September 7.30PM Perth Concert Hall

MARSCHNER The Vampire: Overture

SCHUMANN Scenes from Goethe’s Faust: Overture

LISZT Mazeppa (Symphonic Poem No.6)

Interval (20 mins)

WAGNER Das Rheingold: Entrance of the Gods

WAGNER Siegfried: Forest Murmurs

WAGNER Götterdämmerung: Siegfried’s Rhine Journey

WAGNER Götterdämmerung: Siegfried’s Funeral

WAGNER Die Walküre: Ride of the Valkyries

Asher Fisch conductorThis concert will be filmed and broadcast by Foxtel Arts.

Wesfarmers Arts Pre-concert TalksFind out more about Wagner and the music in the concert with guest speaker Dr Sally Kester. Pre-concert talks take place at 6.30pm in the Terrace Level foyer.

INSPIRING WAGNER

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Saturday 9 September 7.30PM Perth Concert Hall

WAGNER Tristan und Isolde: Prelude

WAGNER Die Meistersinger: Wahn! Wahn!

WAGNER Parsifal: Good Friday Spell

WAGNER Die Walküre: Wotan’s Farewell

Interval (20 mins)

CHABRIER Gwendoline: Overture

BRUCKNER Symphony No.7 (second movement)

STRAUSS, R. Don Juan

Asher Fisch conductor Shane Lowrencev bass-baritoneThis concert will be filmed and broadcast by Foxtel Arts.

Wesfarmers Arts Pre-concert TalksFind out more about Wagner and the music in the concert with guest speaker Dr Sally Kester. Pre-concert talks take place at 6.30pm in the Terrace Level foyer.

WAGNER'S WORLD

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RICHARD WAGNER

1856 – Wagner starts work on Tristan und Isolde. He writes to Liszt: ‘As I have never in life felt the real bliss of love, I must erect a monument to the most beautiful of all my dreams…. I have in my head Tristan und Isolde, the simplest but most full-blooded musical conception’.

1833 – Wagner goes to Würzburg, Bavaria where he becomes a chorus master and where he composes his first complete opera, Die Feen (The Fairies).

1848 – Wagner begins the creation of the Ring cycle when he first sketches out a scenario about the Germanic hero Siegfried, which later becomes the material used for Götterdämmerung the final opera in the Ring.

1834 – Wagner takes the position of music director of a travelling company. He then marries the company’s leading lady Christine Wilhelmine ‘Minna’ Planer. 

1849 - Wagner flees Dresden to Switzerland after being involved in the Dresden Uprising, an event in the Revolutions of 1848 across Europe. Wagner consequently lives in exile until 1860.

1813 – Richard Wagner born 22 May in Leipzig, Germany (Died: 13 February 1883, Cannaregio, Venice, Italy).

1850 – Wagner’s Lohengrin is premiered in Weimar, but Wagner is not able to attend as he is still in exile. Friend and mentor Franz Liszt conducts the performance in Wagner’s absence. Wagner joins the debate in the press about the creative ability of Jewish composers by writing articles in Schumann’s magazine Neue Zeitschrift für Musik.

1843 – Premiere of Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman where early forms of signature composition devices such as the leitmotif are seen.

1810 1815 1820 1825 1830 1835 1840 1845 1850 1855

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1870 - Wagner marries Cosima von Bülow (née Liszt), the wife of Hans von Bülow and illegitimate daughter of Franz Liszt.

1900 – Wagner’s Tannhäuser and The Flying Dutchman were given their first Australian premieres. In this year 70 performances of Wagner’s works were given in Australia.

1862 - Wagner and Planer separate after 26 years of marriage.

1873 – Bruckner approaches Wagner to discuss dedicating his Third Symphony to him as the ‘Master of all masters’. Wagner accepts the dedication.

1883 – Bruckner is working on his Seventh Symphony, he later remarked, ‘One day I came home and felt very sad. It occurred to me that the Master would soon die, and at that moment the C sharp minor theme of the Adagio came to me.’ And, indeed, during the composition of the slow movement, Bruckner heard the news of Wagner’s death.

1864 – After Wagner publishes the Ring librettos in a bid to find funding, the 18 year old King Ludwig II of Bavaria decides to pay off Wagner’s debts and gives him a ministerial salary.

1876 – The Ring premieres as a complete cycle at a custom made theatre in Bayreuth.

1865 – Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde premiers in Munich.

1877 – The production of Wagner’s Lohengrin at the Prince of Wales Theatre, Melbourne is one of the first Wagner operas to be performed in Australia. Local resident Mr Emil Sander writes to Wagner to inform him of the event. Wagner replies ‘I was delighted to receive your news, and cannot refrain from thanking you for it. I hope you will see to it that my works are performed in ‘English’: only in this way can they be intimately understood by an English-speaking audience’.

1867 – Wagner completes Die Meistersinger, the only comic opera of his career. It is first performed in Munich under the direction of Hans von Bülow on 21 June 1868.

1882 – Bruckner attends the premiere of Wagner’s final opera Parsifal.

1860 1865 1870 1875 1880 1885 1890 1895 1900 1905

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2017 UPCOMING CONCERTS

BOOK NOW CALL 9326 0000 VISIT WASO.COM.AUAsher Fisch appears courtesy of Wesfarmers Arts.

*A one-off handling fee of $5.50 per transaction applies to all purchases on our website. A fee of $6.60 applies to phone and mail bookings. A fee of $3.85 applies to all over the counter bookings.An additional fee of $4.40 per transaction applies for delivery via Registered Post.

TICKETS FROM $32*

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MACA LIMITED CLASSICS SERIES

KARIN SCHAUPP PLAYS RODRIGOFRI 6 & SAT 7 OCTOBER 7.30PM Perth Concert Hall

Former WASO Assistant Conductor Christopher Dragon is joined by acclaimed Australian guitarist Karin Schaupp in this enchanting concert. Ravel’s Pavane evokes the courtly world of Renaissance Spain with as much perfumed nostalgia as Rodrigo’s popular guitar concerto does. Rodrigo described his glorious concerto as capturing “the fragrance of magnolias, the singing of birds, and the gushing of fountains.”

RAVEL Pavane pour une infante défunte RODRIGO Concierto de Aranjuez RIMSKY-KORSAKOV Scheherazade

Christopher Dragon conductor Karin Schaupp guitar (pictured)

MORNING SYMPHONY SERIES

ASHER FISCH CONDUCTS SCHUMANNTHURS 16 NOVEMBER 11AM Perth Concert Hall

Asher Fisch has a rare affinity for Schumann’s symphonies, and each performance under his baton is a very special event. This performance of Schumann’s compact and powerful Fourth Symphony will be no exception. Szymanowski’s Concert Overture is lush, radiant and positively Straussian in its luxuriant orchestration and soaring melodies.

SZYMANOWSKI Concert OvertureSCHUMANN Symphony No.4

Asher Fisch conductor (pictured)

MACA LIMITED CLASSICS SERIES

ASHER FISCH CONDUCTS SCHUMANNFRI 17 & SAT 18 NOVEMBER 7.30PM Perth Concert Hall

Schumann’s compact and powerful Forth Symphony is conducted by the exceptional Asher Fisch. WASO’s Principal Trombone Joshua Davis premieres acclaimed Australian composer Paul Stanhope’s Trombone Concerto.

SZYMANOWSKI Concert Overture PAUL STANHOPE Trombone Concerto WORLD PREMIERE SCHUMANN Symphony No.4

Asher Fisch conductor Joshua Davis trombone (pictured)

TICKETS FROM $29*

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WASO, Community Engagement and Education Program 2016 Finalist, Award for “Excellence in Music Education by an Organisation” 2017 APRA AMCOS Art Music Awards

International studies highlight the positive effect that engagement in the arts can have on one’s emotional and social wellbeing. At WASO we wholeheartedly believe in our mission to touch souls and enrich lives through music, and with this in mind, our Community Engagement and Education programs reach thousands of Western Australians each year in diverse locations and a variety of settings, that utilise a number of ensembles from within the orchestra and promote multi-arts collaborations.

Many of our programs are the only ones of their kind in Western Australia and Australia. For example, WASO deliver WA’s only El Sistema inspired Music Education Program Crescendo, we are the only Arts organisation in WA delivering real time and regular masterclasses and performances to students in the Pilbara Education Region using the Department of Education’s video-conferencing network at the School of Isolated and Distance Education (SIDE), and we are the only orchestra in Australia to deliver an ongoing multi-faceted program in a Healthcare setting, as we do through Hospital Orchestra Project (HOP).

In 2016, our Community Engagement Department delivered more than 420 classes, workshops, performances and presentations. In recognition of our work in this field, we are extremely proud to be a finalist in the 2017 Art Music Awards. We congratulate the other finalists in this category for their passion and inspiration.

We wish to take this opportunity to thank those who take time to generously share their personal experiences of how WASO programs have benefited their health and wellbeing.

“I live with a severe mental illness and I can’t work or socialise. I’m very isolated and lonely. This opportunity to play in Rusty is so special for me and as a result my health has improved. I have a reason and purpose each day as I prepare for this concert…. when I got into Rusty I got a new lease of life. I’m playing and practising again. I wanted to share this with you as an example of how important music is and that WASO’s work in community engagement is so important. I thank you so very much.” Rusty Participant (after the Sectional Rehearsal)

For more information about WASOs extensive Community Engagement program visit waso.com.au/education

These programs are supported by Crown Resorts Foundation and Packer Family Foundation, Lotterywest, Woodside, Healthway, Mitsubishi Corporation, Department of Education, Tianqi Lithium Australia, Water Corporation, Hale School, Crescendo Giving Circle and The James Galvin Foundation.

WASO IN THE COMMUNITY

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The West Australian Symphony Orchestra (WASO) is Western Australia’s largest and busiest performing arts organisation. With a reputation for excellence, engagement and innovation, WASO’s resident company of full-time, professional musicians plays a central role in creating a culturally vibrant Western Australia. WASO is a not for profit company, funded through government, ticket revenue and the generous support of the community through corporate and philanthropic partnerships.

WASO’s mission is to touch souls and enrich lives through music. Each year the Orchestra entertains and inspires the people of Western Australia through its concert performances, regional tours, innovative education and community programs, and its artistic partnerships with West Australian Opera and West Australian Ballet.

The Orchestra is led by Principal Conductor and Artistic Adviser Asher Fisch. The Israeli-born conductor is widely acclaimed for his command of the Romantic German repertoire and is a frequent guest at the world’s great opera houses.

Each year the Orchestra performs over 175 concerts with some of the world’s most talented conductors and soloists to an audience in excess of 190,000. An integral part of the Orchestra is the WASO Chorus, a highly skilled ensemble of auditioned singers who volunteer their time and talent.

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VIOLINLaurence JacksonConcertmasterVivien Jeffrey^Assoc ConcertmasterSemra Lee-Smith A/Assoc ConcertmasterGraeme NorrisA/Assistant Concertmaster Rebecca GlorieA/Principal 1st ViolinZak Rowntree*Principal 2nd ViolinKylie Liang Assoc Principal 2nd ViolinSarah BlackmanFleur ChallenStephanie DeanAdeline Fong^John Ford^Ewan Foster^Jane Johnston°Sunmi JungChristina KatsimbardisAndrea Mendham^Monica Naselow^Lucas O’Brien°Jasmin Parkinson-Stewart^Melanie PearnKen PeelerLouise SandercockJane SerrangeliKathryn Shinnick°Kate SullivanBao Di TangCerys ToobyTeresa Vinci^Susannah Williams°

VIOLAAlex BroganA/Principal ViolaKierstan ArkleysmithNik BabicChair partnered by Lesley & Peter DaviesBenjamin CaddyNicole Greentree^Alison HallRachael KirkAllan McLeanElliot O’BrienKatherine Potter^Helen Tuckey

CELLORod McGrath Chair partnered by Tokyo Gas

Louise McKayChair partnered by Penrhos College Shigeru KomatsuOliver McAslan Nicholas MetcalfeEve Silver*Fotis SkordasTim SouthXiaole Wu

DOUBLE BASSAndrew Sinclair*Joan Wright Elizabeth Browning^Louise ElaertsChristine ReitzensteinAndrew TaitMark Tooby

FLUTEMary-Anne Blades Andrew Freeman^Georgia Lane^Diane Riddell^

PICCOLOMichael Waye

OBOEPeter FacerLiz CheeStephanie Nicholls^

COR ANGLAISLeanne Glover

CLARINETAllan Meyer Lorna CookCatherine Cahill^

BASS CLARINETAlexander Millier

BASSOONAdam MikuliczChair partnered by Sue & Ron Wooller

Colin Forbes-Abrams°Peter Moore^

CONTRABASSOONChloe Turner

HORNDavid EvansJulian LeslieRobert Gladstones Principal 3rd HornJessica Armstrong^Julia BrookeRiley Byfield^Deborah Hart^Francesco Lo Surdo

TRUMPETBrent GrapesEvan CromieMatthew Dempsey^Peter Miller

TROMBONEJoshua Davis Liam O’MalleyBruce Thompson^Matthew Walker^

BASS TROMBONEPhilip HoldsworthColin Burrows^

TUBACameron Brook

TIMPANIAlex Timcke

PERCUSSIONBrian MaloneyChair partnered by Stott Hoare

Chiron Meller°Assoc Principal Percussion and TimpaniAmanda Dean^Robyn Gray^Paul Tanner^

HARPSarah Bowman Marie-Chantal Bertinazzo^Bronwyn Wallis^

ON STAGE

*Instruments used by these musicians are on loan from Janet Holmes à Court AC.

PrincipalAssociate PrincipalGuest Musician^Contract Playerº

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Asher FischPrincipal Conductor & Artistic Adviser

A renowned conductor in both the operatic and symphonic worlds, Asher Fisch is especially celebrated for his interpretative command of core German and Italian repertoire of the Romantic and post-Romantic era. He conducts a wide variety of repertoire from Gluck to contemporary works by living composers. In 2014, Fisch became the Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the West Australian Symphony Orchestra (WASO). His former posts include Principal Guest Conductor of the Seattle Opera (2007-2013), Music Director of the New Israeli Opera (1998-2008), and Music Director of the Wiener Volksoper (1995-2000).

Highlights of the 2016-17 season include debuts with the Sydney Symphony and the New Japan Philharmonic, and a tour to China with WASO. In addition, Fisch returns to the Stuttgart Philharmonic, Milwaukee Symphony, and Kansas City Symphony. Guest opera engagements include Tristan und Isolde at the Metropolitan Opera, Die Zauberflöte at Teatro Regio di Torino, and five titles including La forza del destino and Falstaff at the Bayerische Staatsoper where he has long maintained enduring ties.

Born in Israel, Fisch began his conducting career as Daniel Barenboim’s assistant and kappellmeister at the Berlin Staatsoper. He has built his versatile repertoire at the major opera houses such as the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, Teatro alla Scala, Royal Opera House at Covent Garden, and Semperoper Dresden.

Fisch is also a regular guest conductor at leading American symphony orchestras including those of Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, New York, and Philadelphia. In Europe he has appeared at the Berlin Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, and the Orchestre National de France, among others.

Asher Fisch recently recorded the complete Brahms symphonies with WASO, released in September 2016 on ABC Classics. Last year, his 2013 recording of Wagner’s Ring Cycle with the Seattle Opera was released on the Avie label. His first Ring Cycle recording, with the State Opera of South Australia, won ten Helpmann Awards, including best opera and best music direction. Fisch is also an accomplished pianist and has a solo disc of Wagner piano transcriptions on the Melba label.

Asher Fisch appears courtesy of Wesfarmers Arts

ABOUT THE ARTIST

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Shane Lowrencev Bass Baritone

In 2017, Shane Lowrencev appears as Scarpia (Tosca), Escamillo (Carmen) and Shaunard (La bohème) for Opera Australia, and is soloist with the Melbourne, Tasmanian and West Australian Symphony Orchestras.

Shane is a full-time principal artist with Opera Australia. His roles have included title roles in Le nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni and principal bass roles in over sixty operas.

Shane has enjoyed a distinguished career on the concert platform having performed the bass solos in Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus, Messiah, La Resurrezione; Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Mozart’s Requiem, Mass in C Minor, Coronation Mass and Missa Brevis; Bach’s B

Minor Mass, Sleepers Wake Cantata No.140, St John Passion, Magnificat, Christmas Oratorio and St Matthew Passion; Haydn’s Creation; Schubert’s Missa Brevis.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

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Richard Wagner (1813-1883)

In 1842 Wagner saw the Rhine for the first time and, ‘with tears in my eyes I, a poor artist, swore eternal faith to my German fatherland’. The Rhine would soon embody ‘the world’s beginning and its end’ in Wagner’s great cycle of operas, Der Ring des Nibelungen; but now, it symbolised the end of several precarious and impecunious years.

After his father’s death, when Richard was six months old, the family moved with his new stepfather Ludwig Geyer, an actor and playwright, from Leipzig to Dresden. Wagner claims to have been a poor student of music, but did, however, recognise Carl Maria von Weber as the latter walked past the family home to and from the theatre, and gazed at the composer with ‘holy reverence’. Especially taken with Weber’s Der Freischütz, he made his own papier-mâché model of the demon-haunted Wolf’s Glen scene.

But really wanting to be a playwright, Wagner set his hand to a tragedy ‘like Hamlet and King Lear rolled into one’, with 47 deaths on stage before interval. Only when he heard Beethoven’s music for Goethe’s Egmont did Wagner understand that his vision could only be realised in music as powerful as Beethoven’s – and that only he could compose it. His early attempts at composition were orchestral, including one ‘overture’ whose use of a timpani motif every three bars caused the audience to laugh uncontrollably. Meanwhile, another aspect of the mature Wagner emerged: inspired by the July Revolution in Paris in 1830 he declared that ‘any tolerably resolute man should concern himself exclusively with politics’.

ABOUT WAGNER

He began and abandoned an opera of Gothic gruesomeness, Die Hochzeit (The Wedding). In 1833 he went to Würzburg, where his brother sang, and directed the chorus there while composing his first completed opera, Die Feen (The Fairies) after a Gozzi comedy. His failure to have Die Feen produced in Leipzig led to the first of many tirades against ‘foreign’ music, yet in his next opera, Das Liebesverbot (‘The Ban on Love’, based on Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure) it is clear that conducting the work of Auber had been as important, for now, as that of Weber.

He joined a travelling company as music director in 1834 (and married its leading lady, Minna Planer) and had Das Liebesverbot produced in an inadequate ten days of rehearsal. In 1837 Wagner accepted a music-directorship in Riga (now in present-day Latvia, but then a German-dominated city under Russian rule). Inspired by Bulwer-Lytton’s Rienzi, the Last of the Roman Tribunes, he began work on his next opera. Hopelessly in debt (not for the last time) and having had their passports confiscated, he and Minna had to smuggle themselves and a Newfoundland dog into Prussian territory and onto a cargo vessel to London.

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A violent storm obliged the ship to take refuge in a Norwegian fjord; Wagner claims to have heard the story of the Flying Dutchman from the sailors at that time. From London they travelled to Boulogne where he was met by the hugely successful German-Jewish composer Giacomo Meyerbeer, who provided Wagner with letters of introduction to influential Parisians. Wagner hated it: ‘Fame,’ he wrote, ‘is everything in Paris…everyone in a mad rush on their own behalf.’ And he hated the French and Italian operatic fare on offer, saying that orchestral concerts at the Conservatoire were ‘like an oasis; all the rest is desert’. In 1842 he returned to Germany, and saw the Rhine.

Thanks to Meyerbeer, the Dresdner Hoftheater premiered Rienzi in 1842. After a year or so in Vienna (which Wagner had to leave – in debt), he lived in Dresden until early 1849, when his support of the republican cause in the 1848 revolution meant that he and Minna had to flee the country. The 1840s saw the first of Wagner’s mature operas, Der fliegende Holländer, Tannhäuser and Lohengrin, a ‘biblical scene’, Das Liebesmahl der Apostel (The Love-feast of the Apostles), and a sketched libretto for Jesus of Nazareth. Binary themes of sacred and erotic, power and renunciation, tradition and innovation emerge in these works and remain crucial to Wagner’s output. But, during his enforced exile in Switzerland, Wagner elaborated these themes in some of his most important theoretical essays and in the librettos of the Ring cycle, which he had begun with a poem called Siegfried’s Death in 1848. The most important of these treatises was Opera and Drama, which argues that the music should be seamless, and able to ‘completely stir, and also to completely

satisfy, feeling’; vocal lines should in a sense be a kind of heightened speech, so as to render the libretto intelligible. Together with the stage picture, these elements in Wagner’s view fuse to form the ‘total work of art’ (Gesamtkunstwerk) where no single element draws attention to itself. He largely achieved this in the first act of Die Walküre: the cross-referencing effect of leitmotifs (themes introduced in association with specific ideas in the text) gives the music an intense unity, and the vocal writing responds sensitively to the words. But, in fact, Wagner moved away from this position soon after, owing to his reading the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860), which had momentous consequences. Schopenhauer proposed that the key to ending suffering was ‘the denial of the will to live’; he thus approved of Buddhism’s teaching about the ultimately illusory nature of reality and endorsed Christianity’s teaching on renunciation, and all of Wagner’s great heroes, such as Brünnhilde, renounce their own existence. He also persuaded Wagner that music was the only medium by which one can experience the unseen, noumenal world, hence the dramatic stasis of Tristan or the short libretto of Parsifal. Bernard Williams has noted that Wagner is ‘Ibsen inside out’, using myth as a cover for examination of individual psychology; Wagner’s insight was that music was the perfect language for that.

In 1860, Wagner received permission to return to Germany, though he was not yet welcome in Saxony. In 1862 he lived for a while near Mainz, and, after a tempestuous marriage, he and Minna finally separated and she returned to Dresden where she died in 1866.

ABOUT WAGNER

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Wagner was a notorious womaniser, with numerous documented affairs including one (probably not consummated) with Mathilde Wesendonck, wife of a Zürich merchant who housed the Wagners on his own property. Wagner set Mathilde’s poetry in the songs that bear her name; they, in turn, fed into Tristan und Isolde which he interrupted work on the Ring cycle to compose.

In desperation, Wagner published the four Ring librettos with a plea for financial support in 1863. This was answered in 1864 when 18-year-old Ludwig became King of Bavaria, paid Wagner’s debts and gave him a ministerial salary. Ludwig’s support enabled Wagner to work and plan festivals of his music; initially these were to take place in a newly designed theatre in Munich. The King’s generosity, though, created enmity among his courtiers and people, and Wagner’s cohabitation with Liszt’s married daughter, Cosima, caused scandal, so they withdrew to the luxury of the villa, ‘Triebchen’, on the shores of Lake Lucerne.

But Wagner retained the King’s ear, offering him his views on the greatness of German-ness in person and polemics. It was also the subject of his only comedy, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, of 1868.

With Munich no longer an option, Wagner chose the Franconian town of Bayreuth as the site for his festival. The foundation stone of the theatre was laid in 1872, the first festival was staged in 1874, and the first full Ring in 1876. Parsifal, in which Wagner revisits the Arthurian world of Lohengrin and Tristan as a vehicle for his own take on Schopenhauer and the Christian notion of grace, appeared in 1882. His health was failing, and having settled for a time in Venice, he died there in 1883.

Wagner’s ‘eternal faith to my German fatherland’ led to a toxic, though sadly not atypical, anti-Semitism, partly directed, in resentment and ingratitude, against people like Mendelssohn or Meyerbeer, without whom his career would not have been possible. And of course well after Wagner’s death, Hitler – ignoring the pervasive motif of self-renunciation that lifts curses and breaks the destructive cycle of power – was a fan and a welcome guest at Bayreuth. But, discussing Parsifal, director Stefan Herheim notes that Wagner ‘actually did not serve as propaganda for Hitler and Nazi racial theory, simply because the work’s core deals with a concept that in no way correlates with Fascism: pity!’

© Gordon Kerry 2017

Richard and Cosima Wagner

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CONCERT 1 - INSPIRING WAGNER

In any account of the 19th century, Richard Wagner is a major figure, influential both socially and artistically. He certainly rewrote the history of music - revolutionising the repertoire with his massive music dramas, increasing the expressive capabilities of harmony (the prime motivator of Western classical music) far beyond Western music’s limits at the time.

Wagner’s Gesamtkunstwerk (or ‘total work of art’) aimed to involve, manipulate and maybe even convert an audience (certainly his countrymen to nationalistic goals) through the combined impact of music, poetry, theatrical effects and scenic design. His conception was so all-encompassing and huge that he wrote his own librettos and ended up having his own theatre built. Significant thinkers of the 19th century thought about him; even Marx. And Wagner was a player in the politics of the time, living in exile for a period for his part in the 1849 Dresden Uprising.

But a concert necessarily focuses on Wagner’s music. Where did he come from musically and what did he lead to?

Conducting in regional 19th-century opera houses, Wagner gained an insider’s view of opera. When you consider the orchestral weight of Wagner’s mature work it is hard to believe that Bellini’s bel canto was, briefly, an ideal for the budding composer who saw his ‘Music Drama’ ultimately going one better than Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in the elevation (as he saw it) of music into the realm of words and action.

Among other influences were German Romantics who composed supernatural operas, such as Weber whose use of leitmotif (musical themes to represent certain characters) might be considered a precursor of Wagner’s more sophisticated leitmotif system, and Marschner, represented in tonight’s concert.

The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians describes Marschner (1795-1861) as ‘the most important exponent of German Romantic opera in the generation between Weber and Wagner.’ The supernatural vein that Wagner milked in early operas like Die Feen owed much to his example. And there was a psychological depth to Marschner’s operas that moved Wagner.

Der Vampyr (1828) is still occasionally performed. Aubry and Malwina are in love. Malwina’s father, Lord Davenaut, wants her to marry Lord Marsden instead. But Aubry knows that Lord Marsden is actually the vampire, Ruthven, and that Malwina is in danger of becoming Ruthven’s victim before midnight. Though Aubry has obliged himself to keep Ruthven’s identity a secret for 24 hours, Ruthven is prevented from arriving at the wedding on time and the clock strikes one. Aubry can honourably reveal Ruthven’s secret and consign him to hell.

In places, Der Vampyr may presage Wagner, but the three-part overture is more likely to remind the listener of Weber. The lyrical second subject, representing the heroine Malwina, may recall the secondary theme in Der Freischütz’s overture which represents Weber’s heroine, Agathe.

ABOUT THE MUSIC

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Wagner and Schumann had some convergent interests. Schumann had a penchant for literature; Wagner wrote for Schumann’s magazine, the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik.

Musically Schumann leads to Wagner in his gradual enrichment of tonal harmony. Song-cycles, such as A Woman’s Life and Love, can be seen as part of the 19th century’s aim, capped by Wagner’s operas, to make music tell narratives. In the opera Genoveva (1848), the ‘extent of [Schumann’s] motivic transformation and development in accordance with dramatic or psychological context’ (to quote The Wagner Compendium) foreshadowed Wagner’s use of leitmotif. But Genoveva is not Schumann’s most successful foray into dramatic music. That distinction lies with the eight Scenes he chose to dramatise from Goethe’s Faust, the Romantic poet’s take on the tale of Mephistopheles’ bet with Faust that he could give him experiences surpassing book knowledge, and which ended, in Goethe’s version, with Faust carried into heaven by the Virgin, ‘Mater gloriosa’.

Though Schumann’s work is episodic, critics commend Schumann for taking on both parts of Goethe’s original – the earthly tragedy and the heavenly apotheosis. The selected scenes fall into three parts: the innocent Gretchen’s betrayal; Faust’s death; and Faust’s redemption through the ‘Eternal Feminine’ (a model surely for the redeeming heroine in Wagner operas such as Götterdämmerung).

Schumann’s creation of his Faust coincided with Wagner’s first thoughts about his great Ring drama. It was written intermittently throughout the 1840s. The Overture was completed in 1853. Though individualistically proportioned it is probably the closest to a traditional symphonic movement you’ll hear in these concerts.

Faust was a favourite subject of many German Romantics. Liszt wrote a Faust Symphony. Schumann was not pleased, however, when Liszt sandwiched Wagner’s Faust Overture between the two halves of Manfred at the world premiere of Schumann’s work in 1852. But Schumann knew by then that Liszt was strenuously promoting Wagner’s music. Liszt had premiered the exiled composer’s Lohengrin at Weimar in 1850. In 1853 Schumann threw in his lot with more traditional composers who wanted to continue mining the instrumental potential of symphony and concerto, when he wrote the article New Paths heralding the arrival of Johannes Brahms.

Robert Schumann

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But Wagner and Liszt considered the traditional forms outmoded. They belonged to what critic Franz Brendel described as ‘the New German School’: composers who had in common attempts to increase music’s referential power beyond the mere structuring of sound (to put it crudely); harmonic and instrumental innovation to enlarge emotional expressivity; the creation of new large-scale form (controlled however by cyclic recycling of themes and motivic transformation). Wagner’s realm was theatre and opera; Liszt’s invention was the symphonic poem (he wrote 13). The greatest piano virtuoso of his age, Liszt possibly created symphonic poems inspired by the way he paraphrased whole operas in his piano recitals. Incidentally, Liszt was to end up in a rather personal relationship to the slightly younger Wagner – father-in-law, when Wagner married Cosima, Liszt’s daughter, who had been married to conductor Hans von Bülow. Arguably, this romantic scandal eclipsed Schumann’s court battles with Friedrich Wieck for the hand of Wieck’s young daughter, Clara.

Liszt’s symphonic poems were single-movement works (albeit often replicating the tempo-divisions of a traditional symphony) but based on a non-musical source of inspiration, be it poem, painting, theme or concept. Mazeppa (1851) may have been among the works Liszt played for Wagner when he visited him in his Zurich exile in 1853. The historical Mazeppa was a Polish-Lithuanian nobleman who later became a leader of the Ukrainian Cossacks and eventually fought for the Swedes against the tsar. In the Mazeppa legend, Mazeppa is discovered having an affair with a Polish noblewoman and, for punishment, is

strapped naked to the back of a horse which is driven into the country of the Cossacks who make him a ‘hetman’; in which capacity he rises to glory. Mazeppa’s wild ride is clearly apparent in the galloping strings of the opening of Liszt’s orchestral work. There is much sequential repetition (a little Wagnerian- sounding) until Mazeppa’s ‘fall’ (listen for the triplet timpani strokes). String tremolos and fanfares signal Mazeppa’s rescue by the Cossacks and then there is a victorious march. According to Liszt biographer Humphrey Searle, ‘The middle section…contains an “oriental theme”, accompanied by triangle and cymbals, which refers, of course, to Mazeppa’s new position as leader of the Cossacks.’

Lohengrin, Faust, even Marschner’s Aubry…the Romantics were fascinated by conflicted heroes. Wagner had long considered an opera on the German mythic hero, Siegfried. Though the entire Ring was eventually premiered as a complete cycle at Wagner’s specially built indoor amphitheatre in Bayreuth in 1876, Wagner’s research had begun in the 1840s when he came up with the idea for an opera on the subject of Siegfried’s murder at the

ABOUT THE MUSIC

Franz Liszt

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hands of his in-laws, the Gibichungs. At first, he thought he would base his opera on the 12th-century Burgundian epic, the Nibelungenlied (basically an account of the hunting-down of Siegfried’s killers). But in the end Wagner’s opera swelled in the other direction telling of events that led up to Siegfried’s death. For this, Wagner reached back into other Nordic myths to come up with a four-opera story (Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Siegfried, and Götterdämmerung containing Siegfried’s death) of how Wotan the god-king created a situation where humans had to be conceived to extricate the corrupted gods from destructive behaviour he had indulged in, when building a temple to his own vanity, Valhalla. In the process of creating a back-story, the significance of Siegfried’s death was changed into a means by which Brünnhilde restored balance to the world. Wagner also radically reformed opera along lines he had espoused in theoretical texts such as 1851’s Oper und Drama, advocating alliterative texts that would better impinge on the listener’s consciousness; musical modulations that followed the beats of the text; motifs identified with characters, themes or concepts, whose transformation would plot dramatic progress and at the same time integrate the music; and an increased commentating role for the orchestra (effectively, another actor).

In general terms, Wagner’s Ring tells how a source of world-power – the gold that had lain forever on the bed of the Rhine – was stolen by the dwarf-king Alberich when he was denied love. Alberich focused much of that power in a ring, which Wotan stole when looking for payment for the god-citadel. But Alberich cursed the ring so that whoever wore it was doomed. So began a quest to retrieve the ring, with the curse

undoing everybody who possessed it until Brünnhilde, Siegfried’s wife, allowed herself to die so that the ring (she’d been wed with) could be returned to the Rhine. Was Wagner trying to say something to the German volk about the source and course of world history? The art-forms of his time were inadequate to match his grandiose aims.

No wonder he came up with the Gesamtkunstwerk, bringing to the project everything he had learnt about music to that time, plus lessons from Greek tragedy and Shakespeare. No wonder he revolutionised theatre architecture, using money from King Ludwig II of Bavaria to construct a theatre for The Ring where everybody in the audience had a sightline and could focus on the stage because the orchestra was sunk beneath it. Will we get all this in a concert performance? Tonight’s extracts form a kind of five-movement Ring Symphony.

The ‘Entry of the Gods into Valhalla’ is a bold opening. In Das Rheingold, the giants Fasolt and Fafner have finished building Valhalla and taken Freia the goddess of youth as payment. Wotan must get her back but in doing so pays with gold stolen from the bed of the Rhine. Musically, the ‘Entry of the Gods’ sounds like pure victory. Story-wise, it’s ironic: Wotan has set in motion a train of destruction.

He must try to regain godly power, but needs a species not compromised by his own criminality to achieve this, so he fathers humans. Two generations down, enter Siegfried, the child of an incestuous union between Siegmund and Sieglinde. But Siegfried has been brought up by a dwarf, Mime. And in the forest he contemplates his origins before meeting a woodbird who will give him the clue to the rest of his adventures. The tone-

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painting ‘Forest Murmurs’ is a reminder, after the bombastic ‘Entry of the Gods’, that Wagner could create music of great tenderness.

After killing Fafner who had changed himself into a dragon to hoard the Rhinegold and ring, Siegfried tastes dragon blood and develops the capacity to understand birdsong. The woodbird leads Siegfried to the valkyrie Brünnhilde, asleep on a fire-ringed rock, having been turned mortal by her father, Wotan. After a night of love, Siegfried gives Brünnhilde the ring most recently possessed by Fafner, and sets forth down the Rhine. A vivid scherzo portrays Siegfried’s journey, complete with billowing wave-like themes and brightening touches of glockenspiel and triangle. Siegfried arrives at the home of the Gibichungs who trick him into retrieving the ring from Brünnhilde and then murder him so they can get hold of it for themselves. Siegfried’s ‘Sword motif’ blazing out amid the darkness of the funeral march is among the repertoire of Ring motifs passing in review here.

In Götterdämmerung, Wagner engineers events so that Brünnhilde, once again possessor of the ring, rides into Siegfried’s funeral pyre, from which the Rhinemaidens will retrieve what had once, in pure form, lain on the bed of the Rhine. But Asher Fisch ends this symphonic digest with the ‘Ride of the Valkyries’. This final allegro works narratively as well as symphonically, since Valkyries in German mythology took heroes who had fallen in battle back to Valhalla riding horses through the air. Siegfried ends this concert dead, but transported. And we get a sense of how richly Wagner enhanced music in the quest to make it serve opera.

CONCERT 2 - WAGNER’S WORLD

Three of tonight’s Wagner excerpts come from stand-alone operas. Tristan und Isolde and The Mastersingers of Nuremberg were composed while Wagner was taking a 12-year break from the Ring cycle (having gotten midway through Act II of Siegfried). Parsifal (1882) was Wagner’s last opera. If you think about it, it had, in fact, a longer gestation period than the 26 years it took to complete the Ring. Wagner had read the source-book, Eschenbach’s Parzival, in 1845.

The previous concert presented musical precursors of Wagner. There were also philosophical influencers. Ludwig Feuerbach (1804-1872) inspired Wagner to adjust the Ring in the direction of a ‘Love conquers all’ point of view. In 1854, in the midst of a passion for Mathilde Wesendonck, the wife of a Zurich silk merchant, Wagner read the theories of Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) who kind of proposed music as the will-of-the-world in itself.

Such a philosophy had huge consequences for a composer who had espoused the equality of words and music. Might opera not be the ideal form? One Wagner solution was to consider opera ‘acts of music made visible’. Such a description fits Tristan und Isolde (premiered 1865).

The opera, based on a 13th-century poem by Gottfried von Strassburg, tells of Tristan bringing Isolde to Cornwall to marry his sovereign, King Marke. Grief-stricken Isolde determines to kill them both with poison but her maidservant, Brangäne, swaps the death potion for a love potion and Tristan and Isolde fall in love, with tragic consequences. The action is spare but music fills out this canvas. It barely matters that the opera begins on a ship outward bound from Ireland or ends in Brittany.

ABOUT THE MUSIC

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And this was music that changed Western harmony forever. For what Wagner did was extend dissonance (the device that keeps classical listeners leaning in) so that it prevented the resolution of the opera until the lovers’ deaths had finally fulfilled their longing. You can hear how this is done (in miniature) in the opening bars of Tristan’s Prelude.

Four notes of cello in a yearning arc culminate in the famous ‘Tristan’ chord, a tensely knotted harmony, which unfurls to a merely less-dissonant chord. This is the pattern of tension and not-quite release for the next five hours (yes, even these stand-alone operas are long). In concert, the Prelude is often paired with the opera’s very end, the ‘Liebestod’ or ‘Love-Death’, Isolde’s final monologue. This is less dissonant though constantly modulating and unsettled until the final release as Isolde sings of tasting Tristan’s respiration ‘in the ringing sound of the world’s breath’. By the way, Wagner’s orchestra is now so informative that extracts can be presented without voices.

‘Wotan’s Farewell’ from The Valkyrie (1870) concerns emotional upheaval of a different sort. Brünnhilde has saved Siegmund in defiance of Wotan’s lawful order. Wotan determines to strip her of immortality and put her to sleep on a rock. She begs not to be left prey to just anyone who happens along, so Wotan rings the rock with fire that none but the bravest hero can penetrate. Wotan’s Farewell (‘Farewell, you bold, wonderful child…’) is one of the most powerful moments in the Ring; its musical eruption makes sound dramatic sense as well, as godly father farewells daughter from the pantheon of immortals. This number is the only one in this bracket to come from a Ring opera where Wagner was strictly maintaining his word-music

balance. You can hear this, perhaps, in the declarative vocal line and clear use of motifs such as ‘Magic Fire’, whose glinting significance can easily be guessed.

The ‘Good Friday Spell’ from Parsifal occurs just before the last scene of the opera. Parsifal has returned to the Grail Castle Montsalvat from his journeys in the outside world, having become possessed, at the moment of the temptress Kundry’s kiss, with a sense of the pain of Amfortas’ suffering. He can now heal Amfortas and become leader of the Grail knights. As Gurnemanz crowns him king, a fanfare based on his theme bursts forth followed by a restatement of the sure tread of the ‘faith theme’. The oboe then introduces an entrancing melody which will recur like the verses of a strophic song until the final radiant climax. The music represents the miracle of Spring, a reblooming of the earth at Easter-time.

But how simple is Wagner’s meaning? Parsifal re-traversed themes that had intrigued Wagner throughout his career – the conflicts of maddening desire; redemption through understanding and renunciation… Schopenhauer had convinced Wagner of Renunciation as

Richard Wagner

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a means of escaping suffering, and the chromatic style which served in Tristan as vehicle for expressing unquenchable desire, here expresses Parsifal’s annihilation of his Will.

Another possible theme is the maturing of an individual and the way a broader community is benefited by this process. But which community? Critic Robert Gutman saw in Parsifal a proto-Nazi racism (note, the outcast Kundry is subjugated and redeemed in death). And yet Parsifal is clothed in what Barry Millington describes as ‘a diaphanous score of unearthly beauty and refinement’.

The popular image of Wagnerian opera is of one peopled with gods and valkyries, river spirits, giants and elf-kings. But 1868’s Mastersingers of Nuremberg was set in a historical time and place – medieval Nuremberg. Wagner’s point in this opera was to compare inspiration with mere workmanship, in a sense criticising German composers who persisted in writing symphonies.

In love with Eva Pogner, the young knight Walther von Stolzing must win her hand in a song-contest. But he’s disdainful of the Mastersingers’ rules of composition. The cobbler-composer Hans Sachs teaches him to marshall his inspiration to come up with a prize-winning meistergesang and win Eva’s hand. But we are not concerned with Walther in this concert; the ‘Wahn’ monologue is Sachs’ number. And Sachs, like Wotan, is the opera’s most complex character. For the older man is also in love with Eva, and must deny his own interest to advance Walther’s. The Mastersingers of Nuremberg is a comedy (Wagner’s only one) but the ‘Wahn’ monologue expresses a philosophical slant. It takes place after a riot in Act II and causes Sachs to ponder

the ‘Madness! Madness everywhere’ that torments people to the point of bloodshed. Sachs’ solution is to rise above it. Even he has been influenced by Schopenhauer.

Ironically, The Mastersingers is Wagner’s tribute to old values: in places, the opera reverts to operatic set-pieces, in contrast to Tristan’s through-composition. Action is once again music’s partner.

‘[N]either the music of his own day nor that of succeeding generations…is conceivable without him,’ said Richard Taruskin of Wagner in The Oxford History of Music.

Whereas Wagner saw the world redeemed by Feuerbachian or Schopenhauerian philosophy, Anton Bruckner was a devout Christian. Parsifal may have sparked controversy with its theatrical spectacle borrowed from the catholic mass; Bruckner dedicated his Symphony No.9, un-ironically, to the glory of God.

Bruckner’s symphonies remind us of Wagner partly by the breadth of their conception and massive climaxes. Detailed examination of his secondary themes reveals a chromaticism (though not an eroticism) that resembles the music of

ABOUT THE MUSIC

Anton Bruckner

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Tristan. Other than that, it’s possible to hear the habits of a lifelong improvising organist and, in the strophic structure of Bruckner’s music, the songwriter, Schubert.

Bruckner first met Wagner in Munich in 1865 at the premiere of Tristan und Isolde. He later visited Wagner in Bayreuth and asked if he could dedicate to him his Third Symphony. It was the Seventh Symphony that first garnered Bruckner international fame at age 60.

The Seventh is perhaps Bruckner’s most fluent work. Its slow movement is his most heartfelt tribute to Wagner. It is a very dark and sombre piece, made more so at the outset by the playing of a quartet of Wagner tubas, that hybrid instrument between trombone and French horn that Wagner had invented to evoke the nobility of Valhalla. One of the biggest questions for interpreters is whether to have the single cymbal crash that is optional at the climax. The colour stands out. But its use may be appropriate: legend has it that while composing these bars Bruckner heard of Wagner’s death.

But Wagner’s influence spread beyond the German-speaking world. Chabrier is thought to have given up his day job at France’s Ministry of the Interior after hearing Tristan in Munich in 1880. And many of Chabrier’s cohorts shared this passion for Wagner. Catulle Mendès, librettist for Gwendoline, was an editor of La Revue wagnérienne.

Chabrier is most famous for the orchestral rhapsody España, another of those French orchestral tributes to the Iberian Peninsula. Many of Chabrier’s stage works are comic. Gwendoline (1886), however, has a rather serious forbidden love theme. Gwendoline is the daughter of the Saxon leader, Armel. He has given the Danish invader, Harald,

permission to marry her but plans, with his men, to kill the Danes. Gwendoline dies with Harald when she tries to warn Harald of her father’s plan.

Much of the music for Gwendoline is ‘Tristanesque’. Anybody listening to this overture doesn’t need much more proof. The overture pulses. Its over-heatedness is not blatantly apparent in the main themes: but the feverish texture provided by accompanying instruments keeps up the heat.

It’s worth remembering that Chabrier had a humorous side (possibly a saving grace in the era of Wagner idolatry). His Tristan ‘epiphany’ was memorialised in his piano 4-hands piece, Souvenirs de Munich, which parodies the themes of Tristan in a quadrille.

Richard Wagner raised the bar for succeeding generations of composers. Many steered clear of Wagnerian terrain in order to retain their own voices. Verdi could continue to mine the grammar of the Italian number-opera with its language of recitative, aria, choruses. Mahler was a great opera conductor – and conducted Wagner – but he avoided writing operas and devoted his composing months to creating symphonies (albeit Wagner-sized and sometimes using voices).

Richard Strauss (who conducted the world premiere of Chabrier’s Briséïs) was the next great German opera composer and in his first successes – Salome (1905) and Elektra (1909) – ‘out-Tristaned Tristan’ in the chromatic enrichment of his harmony and piling-up of dissonance. But these devices suited those operas’ violent subject matter. Even Strauss felt that he had gone too far and made his next (comic) opera, Der Rosenkavalier, ‘Mozartean’. Ariadne auf Naxos (1912) reverted to a chamber-size orchestra.

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Prior to writing operas, however, Strauss had honed his ability to increase the illustrative specificity of music through a series of symphonic poems in the Lisztian vein. Like Liszt, Strauss based his symphonic poems on a range of sources. He even tried to depict a philosophy when, in 1896, he composed Thus spake Zarathustra, based on the book by Friedrich Nietzsche (one-time Wagner acolyte).

Thirty-eight years after Lohengrin, Don Juan was premiered in Weimar. Don Juan’s story had been around since the Renaissance, but the young Strauss’s symphonic poem is based on a dramatic poem by Nicolas Lenau (1802-1850) in which the Don’s sexual appetite is fed by a desire to find the perfect woman, he becomes disenchanted, and allows himself to be killed. It’s difficult not to read a corruption of some key 19th-century themes here – the eternal feminine, the renunciation of the will.

Strauss’s symphonic poem clearly depicts the broad outlines. A vaunting theme over fluttering winds at the opening depicts the Don’s ardour. In contrasting episodes we can hear the objects of Don Juan’s amorous attention personified in violin and oboe solos. The opening theme periodically returns as the Don pursues further conquests. A bold theme on the horns clearly expresses sexual pride, but in the end the Don allows himself to be run through and the piece ends quietly.

Does the piece express some ambivalence about the proud future Wagner promised German music, or the fate of youthful confidence after the elderly Wagner’s advocacy of renunciation? Perhaps, but Strauss dying in 1949 brought the Wagnerian influence quite some way into the 20th century.

The history of music continued on. Frenchman Debussy may have dismissed Wagner as a sunset which was mistaken for a sunrise, but music had to change dramatically to keep developing and Debussy revivified old modes and non-European musical materials to create a new world outside the Wagnerian empire. Then, in 1913, Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring turned to rhythm rather than harmony to provide the great engine of orchestral music and in 1921, Schoenberg codified the amorphous chromaticism that Wagner had unleashed in Tristan with his 12-tone technique. Such music sounds worlds away from Wagner but Wagner’s influence continues. As Hans Zimmer joked after composing for the 2000 movie Gladiator: ‘I wanted to be Little Richard Wagner.’

Gordon Kalton Williams © 2017

Richard Strauss

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Wotan’s Farewell Die Walküre, Act 3: Wotan

Leb’ wohl, du kühnes, herrliches Kind! Du meines Herzens heiligster Stolz! Leb’ wohl! Leb’ wohl! Leb’ wohl!

Muss ich dich meiden, und darf nicht minnig mein Gruss dich mehr grüssen; sollst du nun nicht mehr neben mir reiten, noch Met beim Mahl mir reichen; muss ich verlieren dich, die ich liebe, du lachende Lust meines Auges: ein bräutliches Feuer soll dir nun brennen, wie nie einer Braut es`gebrannt! Flammende Glut umglühe den Fels; mit zehrenden Schrecken scheuch’ es den Zagen; der Feige fliehe Brünnhildes Fels! Denn einer nur freie die Braut, der freier als ich, der Gott!

Der Augen leuchtendes Paar, das oft ich lächelnd gekost, wenn Kampfeslust ein Kuss dir lohnte, wenn kindisch lallend der Helden Lob von holden Lippen dir floss: dieser Augen strahlendes Paar, das oft im Sturm mir geglänzt, wenn Hoffnungssehnen das Herz mir sengte, nach Weltenwonne mein Wunsch verlangte aus wild webendem Bangen: zum letztenmal letz’ es mich heut’ mit des Lebewohles letztem Kuss! Dem glüklichern Manne glänze sein Stern: dem unseligen Ew’gen muss es scheidend sich schliessen! Denn so kehrt der Gott sich dir ab: so küsst er die Gottheit von dir!

Loge, hör’! Lausche hieher! Wie zuerst ich dich fand, als feurige Glut, wie dann einst du mir schwandest

Farewell, my bold, wonderful child! You, my heart’s holiest pride! Farewell! Farewell! Farewell!

If I must reject you and not lovingly greet you once more with my greetings; if you may no longer ride with me, nor bring me mead at table; if I must lose you, whom I love, you, laughing joy of my eyes: a bridal fire shall burn around you that never yet surrounded a bride. Flaming gleams shall girdle the rock, with terrible scorches scaring the timid. The fearful will flee Brünnhilde’s rock! Only one shall free the bride, one freer than I, the god!

That bright pair of eyes that often I fondled with smiles, when your lust for battle won you a kiss, when childish chatter in praise of heroes flowed from your lips; Those radiant eyes that often, in storms, blazed at me when hopeful longing burned in my heart; when I longed for worldly joy amid wild turbulent fear; for the last time let them delight me again with farewell’s last kiss! On a luckier man may they now gleam. The bereft immortal may no longer behold them. Thus does the God now leave you. Thus does he kiss your godhood away!

Loge, hear! Listen and heed! As I first found you, a fiery gleam, when you then fled from me,

TEXTS & TRANSLATIONS

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als schweifende Lohe; wie ich dich band, bann’ ich dich heut’! Herauf, wabernde Lohe, umlodre mir feurig den Fels!

Loge! Loge! Hieher!

Wer meines Speeres Spitze fürchtet, durchschreite das Feuer nie!

Wahn! Wahn! Überall Wahn! Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Act 3, scene 1: Hans Sachs

Wahn! Wahn! Überall Wahn! Wohin ich forschend blick in Stadt- und Weltchronik, den Grund mir aufzufinden, warum gar bis aufs Blut die Leut sich quälen und schinden in unnütz toller Wut? Hat keiner Lohn noch Dank davon; in Flucht geschlagen wähnt er zu jagen; hört nicht sein eigen Schmerzgekreisch, wenn er sich wühlt ins eigne Fleisch, wähnt Lust sich zu erzeigen! –

Wer gibt den Namen an? – ‘s ist halt der alte Wahn, ohn’ den nichts mag geschehen, ‘s mag gehen oder stehen! Steht’s wo im Lauf, er schläft nur neue Kraft sich an: gleich wacht er auf; – dann schaut, wer ihn bemeistern kann! … Wie friedsam treuer Sitten, getrost in Tat und Werk, liegt nicht in Deutschlands Mitten mein liebes Nürenberg! –

a hovering glow; as I bound you then, I bind you now. Appear, fiery spirit, Surround this rock with fire!

Loge, appear!

He who fears my spear, Let him never penetrate this fire!

Translation © ABC

Madness! Madness! Everywhere madness! Wherever I look keenly Into the chronicles of cities and the world, To discover the reason Why, until blood is drawn, People torment and ill-treat each other In useless, mad rage! Nobody gains any benefit Or gratitude from this; Forced to flee, He imagines that he is hunting; He does not hear his own cry of pain, When he digs into his own flesh, He imagines that he is causing himself pleasure! –

Who will speak its name? – It is just the old madness, Without which nothing can take place, One way or the other! If it rests on its path, That is only to gain new strength through sleep: Soon it wakes up; – See, then, who can master it!… How peacefully, true to its old ways, Contented in its deeds and actions, Lies, in the middle of Germany, My beloved Nuremberg!

TEXTS & TRANSLATIONS

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Doch eines Abends spat, ein Unglück zu verhüten bei jugendheissen Gemüten, ein Mann weiss sich nicht Rat; ein Schuster in seinem Laden zieht an des Wahnes Faden; wie bald auf Gassen und Strassen fängt der dort an zu rasen! Mann, Weib, Gesell und Kind fällt sich da an wie toll und blind; und will’s der Wahn gesegnen, nun muss es Prügel regnen, mit Hieben, Stoss und Dreschen den Wutesbrand zu löschen. – Gott weiss, wie das geschah?

Ein Kobold half wohl da: ein Glühwurm fand sein Weibchen nicht, der hat den Schaden angericht’t. – Der Flieder war’s: Johannisnacht! Nun aber kam Johannistag! Jetzt schaun wir, wie Hans Sachs es macht, dass er den Wahn fein lenken kann, ein edler Werk zu tun: denn lässt er uns nicht ruhn, selbst hier in Nürenberg, so sei’s um solche Werk’, die selten vor gemeinen Dingen und nie ohn’ ein’gen Wahn gelingen.

And yet late one evening, To forestall a misfortune Among ardent young spirits, A man does not know how to proceed; A cobbler in his shop Pulls on the strings of madness; How soon, in the alleyways and streets, It will begin to rage! Man, woman, apprentice and child Fall on each other as if they were mad and blind; And, if madness holds sway, Beatings will rain down, With blows, jabs and thrashings To extinguish the fire of rage. God knows how that happened!

An elf may have helped: A glow-worm could not find its mate, That’s what started the trouble. It was the lilac: Midsummer’s Eve! But now Midsummer’s Day has come! Now let us see how Hans Sachs proceeds, To manage this madness skilfully, To accompany a nobler goal: Because, if madness allows us no rest, Even here in Nuremberg, Then let it be to such a goal That is rarely achieved ordinarily And never succeeds without some madness.

English translation by Horst A. Scholz BIS Records © 2014

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FOR THE ENJOYMENT OF ALLWhen to applaud? Musicians love applause. Audience members normally applaud:• When the concertmaster (violin) walks onto

the stage • When the conductor walks onto the stage • After the completion of each piece and at

the end of the performance

When you need to cough, try to muffle or bury your cough in a handkerchief or during a louder section of the music. Cough lozenges are available from the WASO Ticket Collection Desk before each performance and at the interval.

Hearing aids that are incorrectly adjusted may disturb other patrons, please be mindful of those around you.

Mobile phones and other electronic devices need to be switched off throughout the performance.

Photography, sound and video recordings are permitted prior to the start of the performance.

Latecomers and patrons who leave the auditorium will be seated only after the completion of a work.

Moving to empty seats. Please do not move to empty seats prior to the performance as this may affect seating for latecomers when they are admitted during a suitable break.

LISTEN TO WASOThis performance is being recorded for broadcast on ABC Classic FM. For further details visit abc.net.au/classic

720 ABC PERTHTune in to 720 ABC Perth on Friday morning at 6.15am when Peter Bell provides the latest on classical music and WASO’s upcoming concerts.

FOOD & BEVERAGESVisit perthconcerthall.com.au for information on food and beverage offerings at the venue.Foyer bars are open for drinks and coffee two hours before, during interval and after the concert. To save time we recommend you pre-order your interval drinks.

FREE WATER STATIONS• Level 1 Ground Floor across from box office• Wardle Room – western side of bar• Terrace Level Corner Bar – one water

station on either side of the bar• Lower & Upper Gallery level

FIRST AIDThere are St John Ambulance officers present at every concert so please speak to them if you require any first aid assistance

ACCESSIBILITY • A universal accessible toilet is available on

the ground floor (Level 1)• The Sennheiser MobileConnect Personal

Hearing Assistance system is available for every seat in the auditorium. Visit perthconcerthall.com.au/your-visit/accessibility/ for further information.

WASO BOX OFFICEBuy your WASO tickets and subscriptions, exchange tickets, or make a donation at the Box Office on the ground floor (Level 1) prior to each performance and at interval. Tickets for other performances at Perth Concert Hall will be available for purchase only at interval.

The Box Office is open Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, and contactable on 9326 0000.

DONATE YOUR TICKETCan’t attend a concert? Contact the WASO Box Office on 9326 0000 to donate your ticket for re-sale and you will receive a tax deductible receipt.

YOUR CONCERT EXPERIENCE

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WASO & Wagner Campaign WASO & Wagner presents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for West Australians to join a thrilling journey of discovery through Wagner’s music, as well as the composers Wagner influenced and those who inspired him. This two-year project across the 2017 and 2018 WASO orchestral seasons explores how Wagner’s work transformed the art form of classical music forever. We invite you to also be transformed!

This year’s Wagner & Beyond concerts form the prelude to two concert performances of Wagner’s ground-breaking opera Tristan und Isolde that will form the centrepiece of WASO’s 90th anniversary celebrations in 2018. This production will bring together a stunning cast of the world’s finest Wagner singers, including internationally-acclaimed Australian tenor Stuart Skelton, who has established himself as the leading exponent for the role of Tristan, and acclaimed Dutch Wagner soprano Eva-Maria Westbroek in the role of Isolde. This will be a rare opportunity for Perth audiences to overcome geographical distance with the world’s best artists coming to them to perform one of music history’s most outstanding works in their very own concert hall.

Your support is vital

WASO & Wagner is an expensive undertaking for the company as the scale of Wagner productions incur significant costs, and we are seeking philanthropic support to help fund this bold artistic project. Ticket sales will not cover the full cost of Tristan und Isolde, and we invite our Patrons to be a part of getting this unique project to the stage.

WASO PHILANTHROPY

We ask you to join us on this extraordinary musical journey through a two-year donation plan. Your donation will support an exquisite cast of singers and we will be saving the very best seats in the house for you. You will also get to enjoy exclusive behind-the-scenes experiences and exclusive events specially designed for our supporters and be acknowledged in all campaign collateral. For a full list of campaign benefits, please see waso.com.au/supportus

For further details or to arrange your gift, please contact Sarah Tompkin on (08) 9326 0017 or tompkins@waso.com.au.

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WASO & WAGNER SUPPORTERS

We thank the below Patrons proudly supporting our two-year Wagner project.

Excellence Circle - $20,000 & above p.a.Our Excellence Circle members proudly lead the support of our WASO & Wagner campaign during 2017 and 2018.

Jean ArkleyBob & Gay BranchiJanet Holmes à Court ACDr Patricia KailisTorsten & Mona KetelsenRod & Margaret MarstonMichael UtslerLeanne & Sam Walsh

Gold Circle - $5,000 & above p.a.

John OvertonJoyce Westrip OAM

Silver Circle - $2,500 & above p.a.

Stephen Davis & Linda SavageThe Richard Wagner Society of Western Australia (Inc)

Bronze Circle - $1,000 & above p.a.

Constance ChapmanGwenyth GreenwoodMr M HawkinsDr Penny Herbert in memory of Dunstan Herbert Dr John MeyerJoshua and Pamela Pitt Anonymous (2)

Wagner Friends

Lorraine EllardJane & Allan GreenRosemary Grigg & Peter FlaniganJoseph KelleherRae MetcalfAdrienne & Max Walters AMAnonymous (2)

If you are interested in becoming a Patron or learning more about WASO Philanthropy please contact Sarah Tompkin, Planned Giving Manager, Philanthropy, on (08) 9326 0017 or email tompkins@waso.com.au

WASO Philanthropy brochures are available from the WASO Programs and Information Desk located in the main foyer of Perth Concert Hall, or you can visit waso.com.au

All donations over $2 are fully tax deductible.

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2017 CORPORATE PARTNERS2017 CORPORATE PARTNERS

SONATA PARTNERS

PARTNER OF EXCELLENCE

COLL EGEAQUINAS

CONCERTO PARTNERS

OVERTURE PARTNERS

KEYNOTE PARTNERS

PLATINUM PARTNERS

ORCHESTRA SUPPORTERS

MEDIA PARTNERS

FUNDING PARTNERS

The West Australian Symphony Orchestra is assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.

We encourage you to support these partners for generously supporting your Orchestra

To share in our vision and discuss the many opportunities available through corporate partnerships please contact Corporate Development on 08 9326 0004

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SONATA PARTNERS

PARTNER OF EXCELLENCE

COLL EGEAQUINAS

CONCERTO PARTNERS

OVERTURE PARTNERS

KEYNOTE PARTNERS

PLATINUM PARTNERS

ORCHESTRA SUPPORTERS

MEDIA PARTNERS

FUNDING PARTNERS

The West Australian Symphony Orchestra is assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.

We encourage you to support these partners for generously supporting your Orchestra

To share in our vision and discuss the many opportunities available through corporate partnerships please contact Corporate Development on 08 9326 0004

WASO’s 90th Anniversary Gala

Tristan und IsoldePrincipal Conductor Asher Fisch conducts Wagner’s groundbreaking

opera with the finest cast ever assembled in Australia.

WAGNER Tristan und Isolde

Asher Fisch conductor Stuart Skelton Tristan Eva-Maria Westbroek Isolde Ekaterina Gubanova Brangäne Boaz Daniel Kurwenal Kwangchul Youn King Marke

Thursday 16 August 6pm - 11pmSunday 19 August 2pm - 7pmPerth Concert Hall

MatineeM

Asher Fisch appears courtesy of Wesfarmers Arts.

Book Now – 08 9326 0000 – waso.com.au or at Perth Concert Hall Box Office

2018 SEASON

Angus Wood Melot Paul O'Neill Young Sailor/Shepherd Adrian Tamburini Steersman

WASO Chorus St George’s Cathedral Consort