C O N C E R T P R O G R A M

Friday 29 July at 7:30pm Saturday 30 July at 7:30pm

Melbourne Town Hall

Beethoven’s Fifth

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WHAT’S ON AUGUST – SEPTEMBER 2016

BEETHOVEN’S MISSA SOLEMNIS Friday 26 August Saturday 27 August

This performance marks a milestone in MSO Chief Conductor Sir Andrew Davis’ long and illustrious career: the first time he will conduct Beethoven’s Missa solemnis. To do it justice are four outstanding international soloists and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Chorus.

ELGAR, BACH, PUCCINI AND DVOŘÁK Thursday 4 August Friday 5 August Saturday 6 August

James Ehnes returns to the MSO as director and soloist in famous pieces for strings by Elgar, J.S. Bach and Dvořák. The program also includes a rare Puccini work, his brief and beautiful Crisantemi (Chrysanthemums) for string orchestra.

HRŮŠA CONDUCTS SUK’S ASRAEL SYMPHONY Thursday 1 September Friday 2 September

Jakub Hrůša continues his close partnership with the MSO, with a too-rarely performed masterwork by his compatriot – Josef Suk’s powerful, passionate Symphony No.2 Asrael. It is preceded by Mozart’s dramatic Symphony No.25, featured so powerfully in the film Amadeus.

MENDELSSOHN'S ITALIAN SYMPHONY Thursday 11 August Friday 12 August Saturday 13 August

Viva Italia! The voices and sounds of Italy as interpreted by two non Italian composers: Elgar’s sun-drenched In the South (Alassio) and Mendelssohn’s gloriously enthusiastic Symphony No.4 Italian. In the middle, Richard Strauss’ early Violin Concerto, with soloist James Ehnes.

BEETHOVEN FESTIVAL Wednesday 7 September Saturday 10 September Wednesday 14 September Saturday 17 September

Beethoven’s five Piano Concertos, as with his nine Symphonies, represent classical music’s greatest monuments. Given their formidable technical requirements, the concertos are rarely performed as a series, but English virtuoso Paul Lewis will tackle the challenge in this series of four unforgettable concerts.

TOGNETTI AND THE LARK ASCENDING Friday 19 August Saturday 20 August Monday 22 August

Richard Tognetti returns to the MSO, under Chief Conductor Sir Andrew Davis, to perform two very different works: the Partita for Violin and Orchestra, by Lutosławski, and Vaughan Williams’ soaring, summery The Lark Ascending.

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ARTISTS

Melbourne Symphony Orchestra

Benjamin Northey conductor Grace Clifford violin

REPERTOIRE

Weber Der Freischütz: Overture

Bruch Violin Concerto No.1

— Interval —Beethoven

Symphony No.5This concert has a duration of approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes, including a 20 minute interval.

This performance will be recorded for future broadcast on ABC Classic FM.

Visit mso.com.au/broadcast for more information about upcoming concert broadcasts.

Pre-Concert Recital 6:30pm Friday 29 July, Melbourne Town Hall

Ticket-holders are invited to attend a free pre-concert recital by Dr Calvin Bowman, on the Melbourne Town Hall grand organ.

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MELBOURNE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO) was established in 1906 and is Australia’s oldest orchestra. It currently performs live to more than 250,000 people annually, in concerts ranging from subscription performances at its home, Hamer Hall at Arts Centre Melbourne, to its annual free concerts at Melbourne’s largest outdoor venue, the Sidney Myer Music Bowl. The Orchestra also delivers innovative and engaging programs to audiences of all ages through its Education and Outreach initiatives.

Sir Andrew Davis gave his inaugural concerts as the MSO’s Chief Conductor in 2013, having made his debut with the Orchestra in 2009. Highlights of his tenure have included collaborations with artists such as Bryn Terfel, Emanuel Ax, Truls Mørk and Renée Fleming, and the Orchestra’s European Tour in 2014 which included appearances at the Edinburgh Festival, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival and Copenhagen’s Tivoli Concert Hall. Further current and future highlights with Sir Andrew Davis include a complete cycle of the Mahler symphonies. Sir Andrew will maintain the role of Chief Conductor until the end of 2019.

The MSO also works with Associate Conductor Benjamin Northey and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Chorus, as well as with such eminent recent guest conductors as Thomas Adès, John Adams, Tan Dun, Charles Dutoit, Jakub Hrůša, Mark Wigglesworth, Markus Stenz and Simone Young. It has also collaborated with non-classical musicians including Burt Bacharach, Nick Cave, Sting, Tim Minchin, Ben Folds, DJ Jeff Mills and Flight Facilities.

The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra reaches a wider audience through regular radio broadcasts, recordings and CD releases, including a Strauss cycle on ABC Classics which includes Four Last Songs, Don Juan and Also sprach Zarathustra, as well as Ein Heldenleben and Four Symphonic Interludes from Intermezzo, both led by Sir Andrew Davis. On the Chandos label the MSO has recently released Berlioz’ Harold en Italie with James Ehnes and music by Charles Ives which includes Symphonies Nos. 1 and 2, as well as a range of orchestral works including Three Places in New England, again led by Sir Andrew Davis.

The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra is funded principally by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body, and is generously supported by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria, Department of Economic Development, Jobs, Transport and Resources. The MSO is also funded by the City of Melbourne, its Principal Partner, Emirates, corporate sponsors and individual donors, trusts and foundations.

The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land on which we perform – The Kulin Nation – and would like to pay our respects to their Elders and Community both past and present.

WELCOME

Welcome to Melbourne Town Hall for this glorious program of three classic masterpieces.

Tonight’s concert opens with Weber’s dark and mystical overture to his opera Der Freischütz, a work that is credited with initiating the German Romantic movement.

The Orchestra is then joined by Grace Clifford, who recently won the 2014 Young Performer’s Award at just 16 years of age. In her MSO debut tonight, she will perform as soloist in Bruch’s glorious evergreen Violin Concerto.

The final masterpiece of the evening would have to be the most recognisable and famous theme of all. Beethoven’s Symphony No.5, with those four instantly identifiable notes, is the epitome of popular classical repertoire, so I hope you enjoy this performance.

Benjamin Northey Patricia Riordan Associate Conductor Chair

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GRACE CLIFFORD VIOLIN

Grace Clifford’s recent appearances include performing Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in this year’s Symphony in the Domain. In 2014, Grace Clifford was named ABC Symphony Australia Young Performer of the Year. She also won Best Recital, Best Chamber Music Performance and the People’s Choice Award.

In 2013, Grace won the Kendall National Violin Competition, where she also received the Bach prize, Sonata prize and Audience prize. She was awarded the prize for Best Performance of an Australian Piece in the 2013 ABC Symphony Australia Young Performers Award, and won the 2013 Australian Concerto and Vocal Competition playing Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto. She won both the 2013 National MBSFM and the Fine Music 102.5 (NSW) Young Performer Awards.

Grace Clifford began learning the violin with Katie Betts at the age of 4, completing the final Suzuki level at age ten. From 2009 to August 2014, she studied with Dr Robin Wilson in the Sydney Conservatorium of Music Pre-College program. In June 2013, she was one of 10 students chosen to study with Professor Ana Chumachenco at the Kronberg Academy Masterclasses in Germany. She is currently studying with Ida Kavafian and Joseph Silverstein at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.

Since returning to Australia from Europe in 2006, Benjamin Northey has rapidly emerged as one of the nation’s leading musical figures. Since 2011, he has held the position of Associate Conductor of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. In 2015, he became Chief Conductor of the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra.

Engagements in 2015 included returns to all the major Australian orchestras, the Hong Kong Philharmonic, the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, and Turandot for Opera Australia. In 2016, he will lead both the MSO and Christchurch Symphony on several occasions – as well as appear with Hong Kong Philharmonic, the Adelaide and West Australian Symphony Orchestras, and throughout New Zealand.

Benjamin studied with John Hopkins at the University of Melbourne Conservatorium of Music and then with Jorma Panula and Leif Segerstam at Finland’s prestigious Sibelius Academy where he was accepted as the highest placed applicant in 2002. He has appeared with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, Hong Kong Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra of Colombia, New Zealand and Christchurch Symphony Orchestras, Auckland Philharmonia and the Southbank Sinfonia of London.

In Australia, Benjamin has made his mark through his many critically acclaimed appearances as a guest conductor with all the Australian state symphony orchestras as well as opera productions including L’elisir d’amore, The Tales of Hoffmann and La sonnambula for State Opera of South Australia, and Don Giovanni and Così fan tutte for Opera Australia.

BENJAMIN NORTHEY CONDUCTOR

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It probably is not the best idea to help build a planter box the day before a big concert with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. It turns out 50mm Australian hardwood is unbelievably heavy. A two-person lift, for sure. It is at a hardware store in inner-city Melbourne that I learn this valuable lesson. And I am genuinely surprised at just how much it hurts when I gracelessly drop the plank on my finger, immediately blackening the nail. The pain does, however, provide me with two great moments of clarity. Firstly, I am reminded that I am a complete idiot for being in that particular store lifting a particularly heavy hardwood the day before a particularly important concert. But the second reminder is far more poignant: a moment in the first movement of Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony springs to my mind with a new emotional intensity. The second theme (or tune) of that movement is exquisitely beautiful. It provides a kind of oasis from the surrounding B-minor turbulence and angst the Austrian composer was clearly feeling at the time he sat at the piano to compose it.

But the relative happiness of this second theme is elusive; it quickly becomes softer and further away before disappearing without a hint of resolution. After a brief silence, the orchestra plays a full-voiced fortissimo sforzando minor chord. The impact is immense. It’s like someone slamming their fist on a table in absolute frustration or even, as it so happens, like dropping a heavy piece of wood on your finger. It is the sound of pain.

It is these relationships between the abstract art of music and the reality of human existence that consumes the minds of conductors. Music is the ultimate metaphor and the best conductors are leading emotional expression rather than simply unifying

sound. In a rehearsal I could use 100 words to describe in great technical detail the kind of sound I am after for the aforementioned fortissimo minor chord. Or I could simply say ‘This chord should be played as if you have just dropped something heavy on your finger’, and get a much better result.

I’m that guy you might see walking down the street waving my hands around while I silently imagine the possibilities of a particular piece of music. I imagine this looks pretty strange at times. Yet the bringing to life of great music, working with talented and intelligent musicians and the highs and lows of concert performing bring great intensity, meaning and richness to life.

This ‘imagining’ component of the study process comes after many weeks and months (sometimes years, depending on the piece) of intensive study of the musical score (all of the orchestral and choral parts in one printed document). Only once you have fully absorbed the deep analysis of a piece are you ready to think it through.

Unless I am travelling, which takes up about half the year, I am working when I can from my studio at home. It’s a small single room space housing my collection of orchestral and operatic scores as well as a piano and desk. I am a husband and the father of two young children — Eva, 4, and Leo, 2. We recently moved into this house and the studio was meant to be somewhere I could focus undistracted on study. At this very moment, my daughter is banging at the glass sliding door demanding to be let in. It‘s a stand-off from which she will emerge victorious.

The study process is much easier when I am on the road. But the life of a conductor can be a lonely

Let The Music BeginFrom building planter boxes and doing kinder drop offs,

to conducting Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony, Benjamin Northey reveals a week in the life of a conductor

(all with a severely sore finger)!

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existence. Unlike travelling with a band or a larger cast, we are usually a one-person touring party. It’s much less entertaining. And the time away from the family is very difficult on everyone. When I’m home in Melbourne it’s usually a working period with the MSO, where I am the associate conductor. I usually conduct the orchestra about 7-10 weeks a year. I admit this work/family balance is something I am still working at managing better. It’s complicated by the reality that music, and conducting more specifically, is much, much more than just an obligation.

The responsibility for the interpretations and for creating an optimal artistic environment for the musicians involved is immense. The build-up is best described as a spring being gradually wound tighter. That spring is released at the first rehearsal.

The kids are young, and sleeping is not their forte. My wife Joanne and I have many interrupted nights. The combination of the lack of sleep combined with the stress levels leading up to the first rehearsals is a potentially toxic one. There is, of course, a time to be ruthlessly protective of one’s physical and mental state, but it is always an appalling look in marital terms. Proclaiming ‘I’m an artist! I can’t work under these conditions!’ at 3.30am after your partner has settled your teething child for the fourth time that evening is probably the most sure-fire marriage ender imaginable. So, while the thought briefly crosses my mind, I choose not to utter that immortal phrase.

Full rehearsals begin a week out from the MSO’s featured program, which includes singers — the MSO Chorus (an eighty voice choir) and two soloists, soprano Jacqueline Porter and bass James Clayton. The works are the exquisitely beautiful Requiem of French composer Gabriel Fauré as well as a Schubert song for male choir and low strings, and the aforementioned Unfinished Symphony. We rehearse day and night: afternoon with the orchestra and evening with the chorus; most of its numbers have day jobs.

A week of evening rehearsals, however, makes for long days. I am wound up after late rehearsals and don’t go to bed until well after midnight. Fortunately Leo is sleeping better. The extra time is useful and I am glad to be able to drop Eva at kinder in the morning and do some work around the house. The kinder teachers have requested I come in and teach the kids some new songs. I locked it in for next week. Talk about pressure. Fatefully, I head into the hardware store. Finger injury complete, I try to get some rest.

Concert day arrives. I didn’t sleep much last night. Fortunately Joanne, herself a musician, gets the kids up which gives me a slight but important lie-in. I am up at 8am, just in time to see Eva before she goes to kinder. Our recent move was a downsize and a week earlier I had stupidly put eight items on eBay. Six of them sold on Thursday. I spend the morning getting things packed and ready for collection (the last thing I want to be doing, really).

I have lunch and get my suit ready to go. It strikes me that working in an orchestra has to be one of the last remaining professions to involve the donning of white tie and tails as standard workwear. There is actually a lot to carry, cummerbund, patent leather shoes, cufflinks as well as my scores and batons. I usually take dark chocolate and bananas with me too.

We have an hour-long balance call in the venue from 5pm-6pm and then a 90-minute dinner break before the concert’s 7.30pm start time. Seemingly, this is a reasonable amount of time to prepare, but there is a regular hiccup: I have recently started to wrangle with my own bowtie. This remains one of life’s most exacting challenges; in my case, it usually ends in tears. After at least 20-30 minutes I give up and head off seeking help.

Mike, the orchestra manager, is right on to it, and has a pretty close approximation ready for me in only two attempts. I eat the sushi I bought earlier on Swanston Street, scoff down some chocolate and guzzle water. My scores are taken to the podium. Ten minutes.

It’s a sold-out concert so I expect it will take people a bit of time to be seated. I try to relax. I sit and go through some deep-breathing relaxation exercises, visualising the opening of the first piece, listening to the music in my head. There’s a knock on the dressing room door. Stephen, the artist liaison, leads me to the side of stage where I wait for the orchestra to tune.

Then, silence. I walk up seven squeaky stairs on to the Melbourne Town Hall stage, shake hands with the concertmaster, greet the orchestra and audience, turn around, settle.

I glance at the baton in my hand. My blackened fingernail stands in stark contrast to the baton’s white, lightweight carbon fibre, a world away from the hardwood my digits encountered yesterday. There’s a brief tingle of pain, of beauty, of excitement. The very moment its own fortissimo sforzando minor chord. I wait for focused listening, and, together, we let the music begin.

This article first appeared in The Weekend Australian Review.

‘It strikes me that working in an orchestra has to be one of the last remaining professions to involve the donning of white tie and tails as standard workwear.’

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Weber’s great opera Der Freischütz (The Freeshooter) was conceived in that same early 19th century atmosphere in which the Brothers Grimm wrote their tales. It is a typical märchen, as the Germans call these stories, exploring the link between the natural and supernatural which so enthralled other German Romantic composers of the period (Spohr’s Faust, E.T.A. Hoffmann’s Undine and Marschner’s Der Vampyr are other, if less well-known, examples).

Der Freischütz marked the culmination of an important phase in Weber’s conception of opera. His pre-Wagnerian idea of combining drama, music and visual aspects in a unified art work was only partially successful here, but importantly, in this opera he moved beyond the confines of singspiel (comic opera with spoken dialogue) as practised by the majority of contemporary German composers, employing the musical devices of tonality, orchestration and structure tellingly in the service of the drama. The overture also testifies to the accessibility and simple effectiveness of Weber’s music, important reasons why the opera still holds the stage. The overture is a mini-tone poem prefiguring the opera and introducing us to the forest setting with its spirits, huntsmen, magic bullets, lovers and heroine.

The opening suggests the dark forest, with sunlight filtering through breaks in the canopy to the root-knotted floor. The hunt and huntsmen are evoked by a chorus of horns which play a glowing melody. Dark tremolos and the ominous beat of the timpani represent

Zamiel, an agent of the devil who tempts huntsmen’s souls with seven magic bullets. Next comes the melody from Max’s aria which accompanies the words: ‘But dark forces are ensnaring me’. Then a turbulent C minor changes to E flat major for the second subject, the melody to which the heroine Agathe, anticipating reunion with her beloved Max in the aria ‘Leise, leise’, sings of the beating pulse which interrupts her evening prayer. The ups and downs of a development section for once explicitly represent the clash of Good and Evil, but then, after a silence, Agathe’s theme blazes forth in triumphant C major.

Der Freischütz was premiered in Berlin on 18 June 1821. It became one of the major successes of German opera. By 1850 it had been performed as far afield as Rio de Janeiro, Capetown and Sydney.

G.K. Williams © Symphony Australia

The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra first performed Weber’s Der Freischütz Overture under conductor Edwin McArthur on 1 August 1938, and most recently in July 2010 under Stanley Dodds.

CARL MARIA VON WEBER (1786–1826)

Der Freischütz: Overture

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Max Bruch’s First Violin Concerto is one of the greatest success stories in the history of music. The violinist Joseph Joachim, who gave the first performance of the definitive version in 1868 and had a strong advisory role in its creation, compared it with the other famous 19th century German violin concertos, those of Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Brahms. Bruch’s, said Joachim, is ‘the richest, the most seductive’. (Joachim was closely associated as performer with all four of these concertos, and with the creation of Brahms’ concerto, which he premiered in 1879.) Soon Bruch was able to report that his concerto was ‘beginning a fabulous career’. In addition to Joachim, the most famous violinists of the day took it into their repertoire: Leopold Auer, Ferdinand David, Pablo de Sarasate. With his first important large-scale orchestral work, the 30-year-old Bruch had a winner.

The success of this concerto was to be a mixed blessing for Bruch. Few composers so long-lived and prolific are so nearly forgotten except for a single work. (Kol nidrei for cello and orchestra is Bruch’s only other frequently performed piece, its use of Jewish melodies having erroneously led many to assume that Bruch himself was Jewish.) Bruch followed up this violin concerto with two more, and another six pieces for violin and orchestra. But although he constantly encouraged violinists to play his other concertos, he had to concede that none of them matched his first. This must have been especially frustrating considering that Bruch had sold full rights in it to a publisher for the paltry sum of 250 thalers.

In 1911, an American friend, Arthur Abell, asked Bruch why he, a pianist, had taken such an interest in the violin. He replied, ‘Because the violin can sing a melody better than the piano can, and melody is the soul of music.’ It was the composer’s association with Johann Naret-Koning, concertmaster of the Mainz orchestra, which first set Bruch on the path of composing for the violin. He did not feel sure of himself, regarding it as ‘very audacious’ to write a violin concerto, and reported that between 1864 and 1868 ‘I rewrote my concerto at least half a dozen times, and conferred with x violinists’. The most important of these was Joachim. Many years later, Bruch had reservations about the publication of his correspondence with Joachim about the concerto, worrying that ‘the public would virtually believe when it read all this that Joachim composed the concerto, and not I’.

Like Mendelssohn in his E minor Violin Concerto, Bruch brings the solo violin in right from the start, after a drum roll and a motto-like figure for the winds. The alternation of solo and orchestral flourishes suggests to

Michael Steinberg a dreamy variant of the opening of Beethoven’s Fifth Piano Concerto.

With the main theme launched by the solo violin in sonorous double-stopping, and a contrasting descending second subject, a conventional opening movement in sonata form seems to be under way. The rhythmic figure heard in the plucked bass strings plays an important part. But at the point where the recapitulation would begin, Bruch, having brought back the opening chords and flourishes, uses them instead to prepare a soft subsiding into the slow movement, which begins without a pause. The songful character of the violin is to the fore in Bruch’s Adagio, where two beautiful themes are linked by a memorable transitional idea featuring a rising scale.

The Hungarian or gypsy dance flavour of the last movement’s lively first theme must be a tribute to the native land of Joachim, who had composed a ‘Hungarian’ Concerto for violin. Bruch’s theme was surely in Brahms’ mind at the same place in the concerto he composed for Joachim. Bruch’s writing for the solo violin here scales new heights of virtuosity. Of the bold and grand second subject, Tovey observes that Bruch’s work ‘shows one of its noblest features just where some of its most formidable rivals become vulgar’. In this concerto for once Bruch was emotional enough to balance his admirable skill and tastefulness. The G minor Violin Concerto is just right, and its success shows no sign of wearing out.

Abridged from a note by David Garrett © 2004

The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra first performed this concerto on 12 March 1948 with conductor Bernard Heinze and soloist Bertha Jorgensen. The MSO’s most recent performance took place in April 2015 with Sir Andrew Davis and Sarah Chang.

MAX BRUCH (1838–1920)

Violin Concerto No.1 in G minor, Op.26 Vorspiel [Prelude] (Allegro moderato) –

Adagio

Finale (Allegro energico)

Grace Clifford violin

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‘Blazing shafts of light shoot through the deep night of this realm, and we become aware of giant shadows which surge and heave, closing in on us and destroying everything in us except the pain of unending longing.’ Thus, in 1810, critic E.T.A. Hoffmann described Beethoven’s music in his review of the Symphony No.5.

A little more than a century later, a young German student writing from the front lines of World War I described the work more pragmatically as ‘truly the symphony of war. The introductory measures in fortissimo are the mobilisation orders. Then the measures in piano: anxiousness before the tremendous events ahead. Then the crescendo and again fortissimo: the overcoming of all terror and fear and the summoning of courage and unity, rising to a unified will to victory…’

Two radically different visions, but the message is the same: Symphony No.5 is founded on an essential dynamic of struggle. It is the work of a Beethoven preoccupied with the heroic ideal and the triumph of the inner will.

The first sketches for the work were made in early 1804, only a few months after completing Symphony No.3, which Beethoven had dedicated to Napoleon in admiration of his republican ideals. (In disgust at the news that Napoleon had declared himself emperor, Beethoven tore up the dedication and the work was renamed ‘Sinfonia Eroica: in celebration of the memory of a great man’.) The opera Leonore (later, in much revised form, to achieve enormous success as Fidelio), which was composed in 1804-05, draws its strength from the heroism of Leonore herself, her astounding devotion and physical courage.

Symphony No.5, however, presents a different kind of heroism, and has often been interpreted in the context of Beethoven’s struggle to live with his worsening deafness. Faced with the humiliation and misery of being unable to hear the sound of a flute playing in the woods, Beethoven sought to overcome his despair through personal disciplines of patience, resignation and determination, recommending virtue as the only source of happiness.

Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony has no text or program, unlike the Sixth (Pastoral), written at the same time, in which each movement bears a description of the scene it ‘portrays’. The music itself, however, plays out its struggle on many levels. The opening bars – that famous motto, used as a signal of victory in World War II – refuse to establish clearly either key or metre: it is not until the seventh bar that we hear the bass C, on which the whole chord of C minor relies, or have

a clear sense of the rhythmic framework of the music. The opening motif, thrown down like a gauntlet, is transformed in the ghostly third movement into an ominous march that returns as a sinister echo in the midst of the confident finale. Extremes of pianissimo particularly in the second movement are shattered by militant fortissimo interjections, and the fourth movement itself bursts in on the third as it holds us in suspense (the celebrated passage of violins winding their way into increased dissonance against a persistent tapping timpani).

The heroic victory wrought from this struggle is revealed perhaps dramatically in the choice of key. C minor and its relationship with C major had become something of an obsession for Beethoven around this time, with the four large-scale vocal works composed between 1802 and 1808 (Leonore, the Choral Fantasy, the oratorio Christus am Oelberge and the Mass in C, especially the Agnus Dei) all making a feature of the tension between these two parallel keys. In Symphony No.5, however, the triumphant fourth movement in C major ultimately sweeps away the turmoil of the opening movement in C minor in a blaze of sound which, as Beethoven wrote, makes ‘more noise than 6 timpani, and a better noise at that’.

Natalie Shea © 2001

The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra first performed Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony on 9 May 1939 with conductor George Szell, and most recently in May 2015 under Diego Matheuz.

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770–1827)

Symphony No.5 in C minor, Op.67 Allegro con brio

Andante con moto

Scherzo and Trio (Allegro) –

Finale (Allegretto)

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SUPPORTERS

Artist Chair BenefactorsHarold Mitchell AC Chief Conductor Chair

Patricia Riordan Associate Conductor Chair

Joy Selby Smith Orchestral Leadership Chair

The Gross Foundation Principal Second Violin Chair

Sophie Rowell, The Ullmer Family Foundation Associate Concertmaster Chair

MS Newman Family Principal Cello Chair

Principal Flute Chair – Anonymous

Program BenefactorsMeet The Orchestra Made possible by The Ullmer Family Foundation

East meets West Supported by the Li Family Trust

The Pizzicato Effect (Anonymous)

MSO Education Supported by Mrs Margaret Ross AM and Dr Ian Ross

MSO UPBEAT Supported by Betty Amsden AO DSJ

MSO CONNECT Supported by Jason Yeap OAM

Benefactor Patrons $50,000+Betty Amsden AO DSJPhilip Bacon AM Marc Besen AC and Eva Besen AO John and Jenny Brukner Rachel and the Hon. Alan Goldberg AO QC The Gross FoundationDavid and Angela LiHarold Mitchell ACMS Newman FamilyJoy Selby SmithUllmer Family Foundation Anonymous (1)

Impresario Patrons $20,000+Michael AquilinaPerri Cutten and Jo DaniellMargaret Jackson AC Mimie MacLaren John McKay and Lois McKay

Maestro Patrons $10,000+John and Mary BarlowKaye and David BirksPaul and Wendy Carter Mitchell ChipmanJan and Peter ClarkSir Andrew and Lady Davis Future Kids Pty Ltd Gandel PhilanthropyRobert & Jan GreenIn memory of Wilma CollieDavid Krasnostein and Pat Stragalinos Mr Greig Gailey and Dr Geraldine LazarusThe Cuming BequestIan and Jeannie Paterson Onbass FoundationElizabeth Proust AORae Rothfield Glenn Sedgwick Maria Solà, in memory of Malcolm Douglas Drs G & G Stephenson. In honour of the great Romanian musicians George Enescu and Dinu LipattiLyn Williams AMKee Wong and Wai TangAnonymous (1)

Principal Patrons $5,000+Linda BrittenDavid and Emma CapponiTim and Lyn EdwardJohn and Diana Frew Susan Fry and Don Fry AODanny Gorog and Lindy Susskind Lou Hamon OAMNereda Hanlon and Michael Hanlon AMHans and Petra HenkellHartmut and Ruth HofmannHMA FoundationJenny and Peter HordernJenkins Family FoundationSuzanne Kirkham

Vivien and Graham KnowlesDr Elizabeth A Lewis AM Peter LovellAnnette MaluishMatsarol FoundationMr and Mrs D R MeagherWayne and Penny MorganMarie Morton FRSA Dr Paul Nisselle AM James and Frances PfeifferLady Potter ACStephen Shanasy Gai and David TaylorThe Hon. Michael Watt QC and Cecilie Hall Jason Yeap OAMAnonymous (6)

Associate Patrons $2,500+Dandolo PartnersWill and Dorothy Bailey BequestBarbara Bell in memory of Elsa BellMrs S BignellBill BownessStephen and Caroline BrainLeith and Mike Brooke Bill and Sandra BurdettOliver CartonJohn and Lyn CoppockMiss Ann Darby in memory of Leslie J. Darby Mary and Frederick Davidson AMNatasha DaviesPeter and Leila DoyleLisa Dwyer and Dr Ian DicksonJane Edmanson OAMDr Helen M FergusonMr Bill FlemingMr Peter Gallagher and Dr Karen MorleyColin Golvan QC and Dr Deborah GolvanCharles and Cornelia GoodeSusan and Gary HearstColin Heggen in memory of Marjorie HeggenGillian and Michael HundRosemary and James Jacoby John and Joan Jones Kloeden Foundation Sylvia LavelleH E McKenzieAllan and Evelyn McLarenDon and Anne MeadowsAndrew and Sarah Newbold

Ann Peacock with Andrew and Woody KrogerSue and Barry Peake Mrs W Peart Pzena Investment Charitable FundRuth and Ralph Renard S M Richards AM and M R RichardsTom and Elizabeth RomanowskiMax and Jill SchultzJeffrey Sher Diana and Brian Snape AMGeoff and Judy Steinicke Mr Tam Vu and Dr Cherilyn TillmanWilliam and Jenny UllmerBert and Ila VanrenenKate and Blaise VinotBarbara and Donald WeirBrian and Helena WorsfoldAnonymous (12)

Player Patrons $1,000+Anita and Graham Anderson, Christine and Mark Armour, Arnold Bloch Leibler, Marlyn and Peter Bancroft OAM, Adrienne Basser, Prof Weston Bate and Janice Bate, Dr Julianne Bayliss, Timothy and Margaret Best, David and Helen Blackwell, Michael F Boyt, Philip and Vivien Brass Charitable Foundation, M Ward Breheny, Lino and Di Bresciani OAM, Mr John Brockman OAM and Mrs Pat Brockman, Suzie Brown, Jill and Christopher Buckley, Lynne Burgess, Dr Lynda Campbell, Andrew and Pamela Crockett, Jennifer Cunich, Pat and Bruce Davis, Merrowyn Deacon, Sandra Dent, Dominic and Natalie Dirupo, Marie Dowling, John and Anne Duncan, Kay Ehrenberg, Gabrielle Eisen, Vivien and Jack Fajgenbaum, Grant Fisher and Helen Bird, Barry Fradkin OAM and Dr Pam Fradkin, Applebay Pty Ltd, David Frenkiel and Esther Frenkiel OAM, Carrillo and Ziyin Gantner, David Gibbs and Susie O’Neill, Merwyn and Greta Goldblatt, Dina and Ron Goldschlager, George Golvan QC and Naomi Golvan,

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SUPPORTERS

Dr Marged Goode, Philip and Raie Goodwach, Louise Gourlay OAM, Ginette and André Gremillet, Max Gulbin, Dr Sandra Hacker AO and Mr Ian Kennedy AM, Jean Hadges, Paula Hansky OAM, Tilda and Brian Haughney, Julian and Gisela Heinze, Penelope Hughes, Dr Alastair Jackson, Basil and Rita Jenkins, Stuart Jennings, George and Grace Kass, Irene Kearsey, Brett Kelly and Cindy Watkin, Ilma Kelson Music Foundation, Dr Anne Kennedy, George and Patricia Kline, Bryan Lawrence, William and Magdalena Leadston, Norman Lewis in memory of Dr Phyllis Lewis, Dr Anne Lierse, Ann and George Littlewood, Violet and Jeff Loewenstein, The Hon Ian Macphee AO and Mrs Julie Macphee, Elizabeth H Loftus, Vivienne Hadj and Rosemary Madden, In memory of Leigh Masel, John and Margaret Mason, In honour of Norma and Lloyd Rees, Ruth Maxwell, Trevor and Moyra McAllister, David Menzies, Ian Morrey, Laurence O’Keefe and Christopher James, Graham and Christine Peirson, Margaret Plant, Kerryn Pratchett, Peter Priest, Eli Raskin, Bobbie Renard, Peter and Carolyn Rendit, Dr Rosemary Ayton and Dr Sam Ricketson, Joan P Robinson, Zelda Rosenbaum OAM, Antler Ltd, Doug and Elisabeth Scott, Dr Sam Smorgon AO and Mrs Minnie Smorgon, John So, Dr Norman and Dr Sue Sonenberg, Dr Michael Soon, Pauline Speedy, State Music Camp, Dr Peter Strickland, Mrs Suzy and Dr Mark Suss, Pamela Swansson, Tennis Cares - Tennis Australia, Frank Tisher OAM and Dr Miriam Tisher, Margaret Tritsch, Judy Turner and Neil Adam, P & E Turner, Mary Vallentine AO, The Hon. Rosemary Varty, Leon and Sandra Velik, Elizabeth Wagner, Sue Walker AM, Elaine Walters OAM and Gregory Walters,

Edward and Paddy White, Janet Whiting and Phil Lukies, Nic and Ann Willcock, Marian and Terry Wills Cooke, Pamela F Wilson, Joanne Wolff, Peter and Susan Yates, Mark Young, Panch Das and Laurel Young-Das, YMF Australia, Anonymous (17)

The Mahler SyndicateDavid and Kaye Birks, John and Jenny Brukner, Mary and Frederick Davidson AM, Tim and Lyn Edward, John and Diana Frew, Francis and Robyn Hofmann, The Hon Dr Barry Jones AC, Dr Paul Nisselle AM, Maria Solà in memory of Malcolm Douglas, The Hon Michael Watt QC and Cecilie Hall, Anonymous (1)

MSO RosesFounding RoseJenny Brukner

RosesMary Barlow, Linda Britten, Wendy Carter, Annette Maluish, Lois McKay, Pat Stragalinos, Jenny Ullmer

RosebudsMaggie Best, Penny Barlow, Leith Brooke, Lynne Damman, Francie Doolan, Lyn Edward, Penny Hutchinson, Elizabeth A Lewis AM, Sophie Rowell, Dr Cherilyn Tillman

Foundations and TrustsCreative Partnerships AustraliaCrown Resorts Foundation and the Packer Family FoundationThe Cybec FoundationThe Harold Mitchell FoundationIvor Ronald Evans Foundation, managed by Equity Trustees LimitedThe Marian and EH Flack TrustThe Perpetual Foundation – Alan (AGL) Shaw Endowment, managed by PerpetualThe Pratt FoundationThe Robert Salzer FoundationThe Schapper Family FoundationThe Scobie and Claire Mackinnon Trust

Conductor’s CircleCurrent Conductor’s Circle MembersJenny Anderson, David Angelovich, G C Bawden and L de Kievit, Lesley Bawden, Joyce Bown, Mrs Jenny Brukner and the late Mr John Brukner, Ken Bullen, Luci and Ron Chambers, Sandra Dent, Lyn Edward, Alan Egan JP, Gunta Eglite, Louis Hamon OAM, Carol Hay, Tony Howe, Audrey M Jenkins, John and Joan Jones, George and Grace Kass, Mrs Sylvia Lavelle, Pauline and David Lawton, Lorraine Meldrum, Cameron Mowat, Laurence O’Keefe and Christopher James, Rosia Pasteur, Elizabeth Proust AO, Penny Rawlins, Joan P Robinson, Neil Roussac, Anne Roussac-Hoyne, Jennifer Shepherd, Drs Gabriela and George Stephenson, Pamela Swansson, Lillian Tarry, Dr Cherilyn Tillman, Mr and Mrs R P Trebilcock, Michael Ullmer, Ila Vanrenen, Mr Tam Vu, Marian and Terry Wills Cooke, Mark Young, Anonymous (23)

The MSO gratefully acknowledges the support received from the Estates of:Angela Beagley, Gwen Hunt, Pauline Marie Johnston, C P Kemp, Peter Forbes MacLaren, Prof Andrew McCredie, Miss Sheila Scotter AM MBE, Molly Stephens, Jean Tweedie, Herta and Fred B Vogel, Dorothy Wood

Honorary AppointmentsMrs Elizabeth Chernov Education and Community Engagement Patron

Sir Elton John CBE Life Member

The Honourable Alan Goldberg AO QC Life Member

Geoffrey Rush AC Ambassador

John Brockman AO Life Member

The MSO relies on your ongoing philanthropic support to sustain access, artists, education, community engagement and more. We invite our supporters to get close to the MSO through a range of special events and supporter newsletter The Full Score.

The MSO welcomes your support at any level. Donations of $2 and over are tax deductible, and supporters are recognised as follows: $1,000 (Player), $2,500 (Associate), $5,000 (Principal), $10,000 (Maestro), $20,000 (Impresario), $50,000 (Benefactor).

The MSO Conductor’s Circle is our bequest program for members who have notified of a planned gift in their Will.

Enquiries: Ph: +61 (3) 9626 1248

Email: philanthropy@mso.com.au

14

ORCHESTRA

First ViolinsDale Barltrop Concertmaster

Eoin Andersen Concertmaster

Sophie Rowell The Ullmer Family Foundation Associate Concertmaster Chair

Peter Edwards Assistant Principal

Kirsty Bremner Sarah Curro Peter Fellin Deborah Goodall Lorraine Hook Kirstin Kenny Ji Won Kim Eleanor Mancini Mark Mogilevski Michelle Ruffolo Kathryn Taylor Robert John* Oksana Thompson*

Second ViolinsMatthew Tomkins The Gross Foundation Principal Second Violin Chair

Robert Macindoe Associate Principal

Monica Curro Assistant Principal

Mary AllisonIsin CakmakciogluFreya FranzenCong GuAndrew HallFrancesca HiewRachel Homburg Christine JohnsonIsy WassermanPhilippa WestPatrick WongRoger Young

ViolasChristopher Moore Principal

Fiona Sargeant Associate Principal

Lauren BrigdenKatharine BrockmanChristopher CartlidgeGabrielle HalloranTrevor Jones Cindy WatkinCaleb Wright

CellosDavid Berlin MS Newman Family Principal Cello Chair

Rachael Tobin Associate Principal

Nicholas Bochner Assistant Principal

Miranda BrockmanRohan de KorteKeith JohnsonSarah MorseAngela SargeantMichelle Wood

Double BassesSteve Reeves Principal

Andrew Moon Associate Principal

Sylvia Hosking Assistant Principal

Damien EckersleyBenjamin HanlonSuzanne LeeStephen Newton

FlutesPrudence Davis Principal Flute Chair – Anonymous

Wendy Clarke Associate Principal

Sarah BeggsTaryn Richards*

PiccoloAndrew Macleod Principal

OboesJeffrey Crellin Principal

Thomas Hutchinson Associate Principal

Ann BlackburnRachel Curkpatrick*

Cor AnglaisMichael Pisani Principal

ClarinetsDavid Thomas Principal

Philip Arkinstall Associate Principal

Craig Hill

Bass ClarinetJon Craven Principal

BassoonsJack Schiller Principal

Elise Millman Associate Principal

Natasha Thomas Colin Forbes-Abrams*

ContrabassoonBrock Imison Principal

Horns Ben Jacks*† Guest Principal

Geoff Lierse Associate Principal

Saul Lewis Principal Third

Jenna BreenAbbey EdlinTrinette McClimont Robert Shirley*

TrumpetsGeoffrey Payne Principal

Shane Hooton Associate Principal

William EvansJulie Payne

TrombonesBrett Kelly Principal

Iain Faragher*

Bass TromboneMike Szabo Principal

TubaTimothy Buzbee Principal

TimpaniChristine Turpin Principal

PercussionRobert Clarke Principal

John ArcaroRobert Cossom

HarpYinuo Mu Principal

* Guest Musician† Courtesy of Sydney Symphony Orchestra

BOARD

ChairmanMichael Ullmer

Board MembersAndrew DyerDanny GorogMargaret Jackson ACBrett Kelly

David Krasnostein David LiHelen Silver AOKee Wong

Company SecretaryOliver Carton

15

SUPPORTERS

GOVERNMENT PARTNERS

ASSOCIATE PARTNERS

MAESTRO PARTNERS

Linda Britten Naomi Milgrom Foundation

Hardy Amies

Fitzroys Alpha Feature Investment

Red Emperor

OFFICIAL CAR PARTNER

MEDIA PARTNERS

SUPPORTING PARTNERS

B e a u t i f u l F l o w e r s

Beethoven Festival

Find out more at mso.com.au

PIANO CONCERTO NO.1

7 September

PIANO CONCERTOS NOS.2 & 3

10 September

PIANO CONCERTO NO.4

14 September

PIANO CONCERTO NO.5

17 September

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Principal Partner of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

Master the art of me-time

*Complimentary Chauffeur-drive service available for First Class and Business Class, excluding Trans-Tasman services and codeshare flights operated by Qantas to Southeast Asia. Mileage restrictions apply. For full terms and conditions visit emirates.com/au. For more information visit emirates.com/au, call 1300 303 777, or contact your local travel agent.

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