FRENCH CLASSICS

CONCERT PROGRAM

23–26 NOVEMBER 2018Arts Centre Melbourne, Hamer Hall

Melbourne Symphony OrchestraFabien Gabel conductor

Beatrice Rana piano

Fiona Campbell mezzo-soprano

Melbourne Symphony Orchestra ChorusWarren Trevelyan-Jones chorus master

Debussy Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune

Prokofiev Piano Concerto No.3

INTERVAL

Debussy/Dean Ariettes Oubliées

Ravel Daphnis et Chloé, Suite No.2

Running time: One hour and 45 minutes, including a 20-minute interval

In consideration of your fellow patrons, the MSO thanks you for silencing and dimming the light on your phone.

The MSO acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the land on which it is performing. MSO pays its respects to their Elders, past and present, and the Elders from other communities who may be in attendance.

mso.com.au (03) 9929 9600

Pre-concert talk (Friday & Saturday) Join Megan Stellar, founder and editor of Rehearsal Magazine, for a pre-concert conversation on-stage at Hamer Hall from 6.15pm.

Post-concert conversation (Monday) Join composer and ABC Classic FM producer, Andrew Aronowicz, for a post-concert conversation inside the Stalls Foyer of Hamer Hall from 8.30pm.

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MELBOURNE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Established in 1906, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO) is an arts leader and Australia’s oldest professional orchestra. Chief Conductor Sir Andrew Davis has been at the helm of MSO since 2013. Engaging more than 4 million people each year, the MSO reaches diverse audiences through live performances, recordings, TV and radio broadcasts and live streaming. Its international audiences include China, where MSO has performed in 2012, 2016 and most recently in May 2018, Europe (2014) and Indonesia, where in 2017 it performed at the UNESCO World Heritage Site, Prambanan Temple.

The MSO performs a variety of concerts ranging from symphonic 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 MSO also delivers innovative and engaging programs and digital tools to audiences of all ages through its Education and Outreach initiatives.

FABIEN GABEL CONDUCTOR

Fabien Gabel is music director of the Quebec Symphony Orchestra, and was appointed music director of the French Youth Orchestra in 2017.

His 2017–18 schedule saw guest appearances with the Cleveland Orchestra at their Blossom Festival, the Royal Flemish Philharmonic, Hessian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Staatskapelle Weimar, Houston Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra (Washington DC), Helsinki Philharmonic, San Diego Symphony, and Orchestre de Paris.

Fabien Gabel has worked with soloists such as Emmanuel Ax and Jean-Yves Thibaudet, and singers such as Natalie Dessay. Recordings include Saint-Saëns’ Piano Concertos Nos. 2 and 5 with Louis Schwizgebel and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Fabien Gabel made his professional conducting debut in 2003 with the Orchestre National de France.

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Beatrice Rana came to public attention in 2011 after winning First Prize and all special jury prizes at the Montreal International Competition. In 2013 she won the Silver Medal and Audience Award at the 14th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.

Beatrice Rana has performed at the world’s most prestigious venues and with conductors such as Riccardo Chailly, Yuri Temirkanov and Zubin Mehta. Among orchestras she has appeared with the London Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, NHK Symphony, and Orchestre National de France.

Recent appearances have included concerts with the Tonkünstler Orchestra at the Vienna Musikverein and Chopin with Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Recent recordings include Bernstein’s Age of Anxiety with Antonio Pappano and the Academy of Saint Cecilia and Bach’s Goldberg Variations.

Proclaimed “outstanding” and “best mezzo-soprano in Australia” by The Australian, multi award-winning performer Fiona Campbell is one of Australia’s most versatile and beloved singers. A mother, producer and ABC presenter, accomplished international performer, recitalist and recording artist, Fiona has consistently entranced audiences and received wide critical acclaim for her powerful performances and exquisite musicianship.

Much in demand as a principal artist with all the finest orchestras and ensembles in Australia, Fiona is a fierce advocate for the arts and gaining national prominence through her involvement in music education, artistic direction and her media presence.

BEATRICE RANA PIANO

FIONA CAMPBELL MEZZO-SOPRANO

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MELBOURNE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA CHORUS

For more than 50 years the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Chorus has been the unstinting voice of the Orchestra’s choral repertoire. The MSO Chorus sings with the finest conductors including Sir Andrew Davis, Edward Gardner, Mark Wigglesworth, Bernard Labadie, Vladimir Ashkenazy and Manfred Honeck, and is committed to developing and performing new Australian and international choral repertoire.

Commissions include Brett Dean’s Katz und Spatz, Ross Edwards’ Mountain Chant, and Paul Stanhope’s Exile Lamentations. Recordings by the MSO Chorus have received critical acclaim. It has performed across Brazil and at the Cultura Inglese Festival in Sao Paolo, with The Australian Ballet, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, at the AFL Grand Final and at Anzac Day commemorative ceremonies.

WARREN TREVELYAN-JONES MSO CHORUS MASTER

Warren Trevelyan-Jones is the Head of Music at St James’, King Street in Sydney and is regarded as one of the leading choral conductors and choir trainers in Australia. Warren has had an extensive singing career as a soloist and ensemble singer in Europe, including nine years in the Choir of Westminster Abbey, and regular work with the Gabrieli Consort, Collegium Vocale (Ghent), the Taverner Consort, The Kings Consort, Dunedin Consort, The Sixteen and the Tallis Scholars.

Warren is also Director of the Parsons Affayre, Founder and Co-Director of The Consort of Melbourne and, in 2001 with Dr Michael Noone, founded the Gramophone award-winning group Ensemble Plus Ultra. Warren is also a qualified music therapist.

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PROGRAM NOTES

CLAUDE DEBUSSY (1862–1918)

Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune (Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun)

Published in 1876, Stéphane Mallarmé’s eclogue l’après-midi d’un faune is a monument of symbolist poetry, reflecting in its sumptuous but fragmentary language the erotic fantasies of a drowsy faun – a mythical half-man, half-goat – on a hot, languid Sicilian afternoon. Running like a thread through the imagery of fruit and flowers and naked nymphs are references to music, specifically to the syrinx. This instrument, the ‘pan-pipes’, was fashioned by the god Pan from reeds into which a young nymph, desperate to escape his amorous attentions, had been transformed.

One such reference, to the syrinx’s ‘sonorous, airy, monotonous line’, would become the kernel of Debussy’s musical rendering of the poem. (Debussy hated hearing his music described as ‘what imbeciles call impressionism’ and preferred his work to be compared to Symbolist poetry.) Inviting Mallarmé to hear the work in 1894, he described ‘the arabesque which…I believe to have been dictated by the flute of your faun’.

In fact the work’s genesis was in a proposal by Mallarmé to present a staged version of his poem at an avant-garde theatre in 1891. By now he knew and admired some of Debussy’s vocal music, and went so far as to announce in the newspaper that the staged version would include music by the young composer ‘M de Bussy’.

The project fell through, but Debussy’s imagination had been whetted. The orchestral piece that finally appeared made an immediate and positive impact with the audience, if not the critics, and may be said to be Debussy’s breakthrough work. In 1912 it was choreographed and danced by Nijinsky, whose erotic performance caused one of those typically Parisian fracas.

The first phrase of the solo flute arabesque with which the piece begins has rightly been described as a founding moment in modern music. Its chromatic, rhythmically ambiguous line traces and retraces the equally ambiguous interval of the tritone: like the material elsewhere in the work that is derived from the whole-tone scale, it is in no clearly discernible key, as is shown by the varied ways in which it is harmonised on its subsequent reappearances. The second half of the melody provides more ‘conventional’ motifs that are taken up from time to time by the rest of the orchestra.

Mallarmé’s poem rhymes, but otherwise avoids traditional forms or a narrative line; similarly, Debussy’s piece avoids the goal-directed development and tonal architecture that informs 19th-century symphonism. As Pierre Boulez puts it, ‘What was overthrown was not so much the art of development as the very concept of form itself.’ Musical events, like the vivid splashes of colour that first answer the flute, are there for the immediate pleasure they give; climaxes are approached by simple repetition of motifs; the most extended melody is a richly scored, Massenet-like tune at the work’s midpoint, accompanied by layered, rocking ostinatos.

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The faun’s dream is overcome by sleep and the ‘proud silence of noon’, and the piece ends with flutes, muted horns and the glitter of harp and antique cymbals, fading to nothingness.

© Gordon Kerry 2017

The Melbourne Symphony first performed this work on 12 September 1940 under conductor Sir Bernard Heinze, and most recently in October 2014 with Benjamin Northey.

SERGEI PROKOFIEV (1891–1953)

Piano Concerto No.3

Andante – Allegro

Andantino (with variations)

Allegro non troppo

Prokofiev was a virtuoso pianist, who made an authoritative recording of his own Third Concerto. One of his most successful and popular concert works, the concerto shows the most typical aspects of his mature musical style in ideal balance: a mixture of rather Romantic passages with incisive, humorous, sometimes even grotesque episodes. This is obvious right at the start: the opening Andante melody for clarinet is lyrical, almost wistful, and Russian-sounding. But immediately the piano comes in, the music becomes very busy, incisive, almost icy. The lyricism of the opening will return in place of a ‘development’ section in the middle of the first movement.

Prokofiev conceived musical materials for his first three concertos in the years before he left Russia at the time of the 1917 Revolution. The first two concertos, in their driving rhythms and crunching discords, illustrate Prokofiev’s not altogether

unwelcome casting as the ‘enfant terrible’ of Russian music, and evoked a corresponding critical reaction (‘cats on a roof make better music,’ wrote one Russian critic of Concerto No.2). No.3, on the other hand, shows much more of the tunefulness and accessibility which it is wrong to regard as having entered Prokofiev’s music only after he returned to Russia in the early 1930s. The lyrical opening of this piano concerto, completed in 1921, recalls that of the First Violin Concerto of 1916–17. Even earlier, the great Russian impresario Sergei Diaghilev had perceived Prokofiev’s true musical nature: ‘Few composers today have Prokofiev’s gift of inventing personal melodies, and even fewer have a genuine flair for a fresh use of simple tonal harmonies…he doesn’t need to hide behind inane theories and absurd noises.’

The Third Piano Concerto reflects Prokofiev’s world-travelling existence around the time of its creation. He had been collecting its themes for over ten years by the time he put them together in 1921. Prokofiev rarely threw away anything that might come in handy later on. He began the concerto in Russia in 1917, completed it in France in 1921, and gave the premiere later that year in Chicago, where his opera The Love for Three Oranges was premiered. An American critic wrote of the concerto, ‘It is greatly a matter of slewed harmony, neither adventurous enough to win the affection nor modernist enough to be annoying.’ You can’t win! A New York critic was wrong, but more perceptive, when he wrote, ‘It is hard to imagine any other pianist than Mr Prokofiev playing it.’ Prokofiev’s own playing pioneered a new kind of piano

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The unabashedly Romantic ‘alternative theme’ is worked up to an emotional pitch that shows Prokofiev as having more in common with Rachmaninov than is usually suspected, and both as owing much to Tchaikovsky. Then the opening returns in a brilliant coda.

David Garrett © 2003

The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra first performed this concerto in September 1941 with conductor Sir Bernard Heinze and pianist Raymond Lambert, and most recently in November 2010 with Tadaaki Otaka and Philippe Bianconi.

CLAUDE DEBUSSY (1862–1918)

Orch. by Brett Dean(born 1961)

Ariettes oubliées (Forgotten Songs)for mezzo-soprano and orchestra

Brett Dean remembers the idea of orchestrating Debussy’s Ariettes oubliées coming up in a conversation with mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kožená and Sir Simon Rattle. The program for the Australian World Orchestra concerts in 2015 was to begin with Debussy’s Prelude to The Afternoon of a Faun (as does the program for tonight’s concert by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra). They became excited at the idea of making the first half all-Debussy, and Kožená mentioned how she loved singing his Ariettes oubliées. The trouble was, no one knew of orchestrations of these songs, let alone orchestrations by Debussy himself. All agreed, though, that the songs’ accompaniments seemed to invite orchestral realisation. Dean thought so, and it was to him all were turning to be the orchestrator.

Dean, for practical and artistic reasons, took his lead for the makeup of his

virtuosity. A rewarding piece for any virtuoso, this concerto is formally clear and satisfying, full of memorable tunes harmonised and orchestrated with a peculiarly personal piquancy, and sufficiently of our time to be bracing and refreshing.

The second movement is a set of five variations on a theme Prokofiev had composed in 1913, intending it even then for variation treatment. This theme has an old-world, rather gavotte-like character, which in the first variation is treated solo by the piano in what Prokofiev describes as ‘quasi-sentimental fashion’. Then the tempo changes to a furious allegro, one of the abrupt contrasts in which the concerto abounds. After a quiet, meditative fourth variation, and an energetic fifth one, the theme returns on flutes and clarinets in its original form and at its old speed, while the piano continues at top speed but more quietly. This has been compared to a sprinter viewed from the window of a train.

Prokofiev’s own program note describes the finale as beginning with a staccato theme for bassoons and pizzicato strings, interrupted by the blustering entry of the piano:

The orchestra holds its own with the opening theme, however, and there is a good deal of argument, with frequent differences of opinion as regards key. Eventually the piano takes up the first theme and develops it to a climax. With a reduction of tone and slackening of tempo, an alternative theme is introduced in the woodwinds. The piano replies with a theme that is more in keeping with the caustic humour of the work.

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orchestra from Debussy’s Faun. Only a few instruments have been added.

Debussy himself had not orchestrated these songs. The challenge for Dean was not necessarily to orchestrate as Debussy would have but, in Dean’s words, ‘to honour Debussy’s sound world’ and to help the singer make the listener realise, as Dean exclaims, ‘what remarkable songs these are!’. Although Dean has played a lot of Debussy, in orchestras and as a chamber musician, he came to these songs fresh – by and large they were a discovery for him. He did look at how at least one other composer had gone about it: Colin Matthews in his orchestrations of Debussy’s piano preludes (for a bigger orchestra).

Dean’s orchestrations reveal some of the orchestral style of his own compositions. One thing he recognises as typical is how he sometimes suggests the effect of Debussy’s held piano chords, by allowing all but three solo violins to drop out. Many of Dean’s additions seek to achieve the often shimmering surface of Debussy’s orchestral sound, and this requires additional figuration. There is reduction, too: some of the writing for piano in the fast Chevaux de bois would be simply impractical in the very short note values possible on the piano, so semiquaver triplets in the strings replace Debussy’s demisemiquavers. The lower keys and especially the more richly coloured sonorities of the orchestra seemed to ask at times for a broader, more sustained musical pace, so Dean more than once extends phrases with extra bars, in the orchestral codas.

Kožená’s mezzo-soprano voice invited a downward transposition from

Debussy’s soprano keys, bringing an enhanced need to keep textures airy and transparent. This suits Debussy’s take on Verlaine’s poems, but Dean finds a partial exception in the final song, Spleen, where Debussy’s ideas seem to him, like the poem, heavier in feeling, even a little Wagnerian – Dean’s cue for some Tristan und Isolde-like orchestration, with prominent cor anglais.

Dean feels that the aesthetic challenge was to avoid ‘reinventing the Debussyan wheel’. The songs of Ariettes oubliées are full of word-painting. But their immensely sophisticated composer was far from a simplistic impressionist. So Debussy might well have done what Dean does, where at the very moment in Chevaux de bois where the poem mentions ‘the sound of oboes’, the oboes stop playing. But the same song’s festivities (and reference to the ‘triumphant cornet’) couldn’t be denied a trumpet, and once added to the orchestra it seemed right in other places too.

David Garrett © 2015

This is the first performance of Brett Dean’s orchestration of Debussy’s Ariettes oubliées by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

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Debussy’s Ariettes oubliées

An ‘ariette’ is a pleasant little song, found in the lighter forms of French lyric theatre, so the title refers to ‘Forgotten songs’, or more literally ‘Forgotten ariettas’.

Why ‘forgotten’? The title is Debussy’s, as is this selection of poems by Verlaine. Three are from Romances sans paroles (where they are called Ariettes), one from Paysages belges, Green and Spleen are from Aquarelles. Debussy’s settings were published separately by Girod in 1888, then gathered and republished as Ariettes oubliées in 1903. The songs were not neglected, or forgotten by Debussy – the oblivion of the title is merely poetically suggestive (songs I’d forgotten). Debussy dedicated the revised and republished songs to Mary Garden, in 1902 the first Mélisande in his opera.

Debussy had already set three Verlaine poems, including Clair de lune, and the popular Mandoline. But in the Ariettes, as that matchless guide to French song Pierre Bernac has written: ‘Debussy’s personality suddenly breaks out with all its rarest and most precious qualities – his first great masterpieces.’ Debussy not only captures each poem’s mood, but follows the meaning of each phrase, almost each word, ‘and magically expresses it musically’.

Verlaine’s poetry has a musical quality, and titles like Songs (Romances) without words show his own musical awareness. Much of his visual imagery is impressionist, and the words suggest the painterly analogue of softly shaded water colour. Fauré and Debussy as young men were drawn to the poems inspired by Verlaine’s own youthful love. Some iron entered the poet’s soul when he became fascinated by the stronger personality of his fellow poet Rimbaud. Verlaine spent time in a Belgian jail for shooting Rimbaud when they quarrelled. This is the Verlaine of the boredom of Il pleure dans mon coeur, the weariness and anxiety of Spleen.

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MAURICE RAVEL (1875–1937)

Daphnis et Chloé: Suite 2

Daybreak

Pantomime

General Dance (Bacchanale)

The Russian impresario Sergei Diaghilev commissioned many of the orchestral scores that have become modern classics. In 1909, he brought his Ballets Russes to Paris, and commissioned Ravel to write a ballet to a scenario by Michel Fokine based on the tale of Daphnis and Chloe, a pastoral romance attributed to the Greek writer Longus, who lived in the 2nd/3rd century CE.

Ravel lingered over this, arguably his greatest score. In it, he sought to depict the Greece of his dreams which, he said, ‘is very similar to that imagined and painted by French artists at the end of the 18th century’. He constructed the work symphonically according to a strict plan of key sequences and out of a small number of themes, subtitling it ‘a choreographic symphony in three parts’.

First presented as a ballet at the Théâtre du Châtelet on 8 June 1912, Daphnis has since become a staple of the concert hall, where it is usually heard in the form of two suites, or ‘fragments symphoniques’. Tonight you will hear Suite 2, comprising the last 20 minutes or so of the original ballet.

The ballet begins with the idyll in which Daphnis and Chloé fall in love. Chloé is abducted by pirates, and three nymphs invoke the god Pan to come to Daphnis’ aid. As Fokine’s scenario goes: ‘All flee in bewilderment. The scenery seems to melt away…’

Now ‘Suite 2’ begins, one of the most graphic portrayals of sunrise in the orchestral literature. Imitation birdsong and the piping of shepherds unite Daphnis with Chloé. In tribute to Pan, Daphnis and Chloé mime Pan’s courtship of Syrinx, accompanied by a florid solo flute (Pantomime). The General Dance represents the joyful celebration of the lovers and shepherds. Composed in 5/4 (a time signature with five beats to the bar), this metre initially posed some difficulty for Diaghilev’s dancers – until they found a way of using their boss’s name as a mnemonic (DIA-ghi-lev, SER-gei DIA-ghi-lev…).

Gordon Kalton WilliamsSymphony Australia © 1997/2008

The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra first performed Suite 2 from Daphnis et Chloé on 4 May 1940 under conductor Antal Dorati, and most recently in April 2017 with Long Yu.

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TEXT

CLAUDE DEBUSSY Ariettes oubliées

Fiona Campbell mezzo-sopranoMelbourne Symphony Orchestra Chorus

C’est l’extase langoureuseC’est l’extase langoureuse,C’est la fatigue amoureuse,C’est tous les frissons des boisParmi l’étreinte des brises,C’est, vers les ramures grises,Le choeur des petites voix.

Ô le frêle et frais murmure!Cela gazouille et susurre,Cela ressemble au cri douxQue l’herbe agitée expire…Tu dirais, sous l’eau qui vire,Le roulis sourd des cailloux.

Cette âme qui se lamenteEn cette plainte dormanteC’est la nôtre, n’est-ce pas?La mienne, dis, et la tienne,Dont s’exhale l’humble antiennePar ce tiède soir, tout bas?

Il pleure dans mon coeurIl pleure dans mon cœurComme il pleut sur la ville;Quelle est cette langueurQui pénètre mon cœur?

Ô bruit doux de la pluie,Par terre et sur les toits!Pour un cœur qui s’ennuie,Ô le bruit de la pluie!

Il pleure sans raisonDans ce cœur qui s’écœure.Quoi! nulle trahison?…Ce deuil est sans raison.

It is ecstasyThis is languorous ecstasy,this is the lassitude of love,this is all the shiverings of the woodsamidst the embrace of the breezes,this, near the grey boughs,is the choir of tiny voices.

Oh, the frail and fresh murmuring!It twitters and whispers.It sounds like the gentle crybreathed out by the ruffled grass…You would say, beneath the swirling water,the muffled rolling of the pebbles.

This soul lamentingin this slumbering complaint,it is ours, is it not?Mine, say, and yours,breathing out the humble anthemin this warm evening, so quietly?

Tears fall in my heartTears fall in my heartas it rains on the town.What is this languorthat penetrates my heart?

Oh, soft sound of the rainon the ground and on the roofs!For a listless heart,oh, the sound of the rain!

Tears fall for no reasonin this sickened heart.What! No treason?For this mourning there is no reason.

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C’est bien la pire peine,De ne savoir pourquoiSans amour et sans haineMon cœur a tant de peine!

L’ombre des arbresL’ombre des arbres dans la rivière embrumée

Meurt comme de la fumée,Tandis qu’en l'air, parmi les ramures réelles,

Se plaignent les tourterelles.

Combien, ô voyageur, ce paysage blême

Te mira blême toi-même,Et que tristes pleuraient dans les hautes feuillées

Tes espérances noyées!

Chevaux de boisTournez, tournez, bons chevaux de bois,Tournez cent tours, tournez mille tours,Tournez souvent et tournez toujours,Tournez, tournez au son des hautbois.

L’enfant tout rouge et la mère blanche,Le gars en noir et la fille en rose,L’une à la chose et l’autre à la pose,Chacun se paie un sou de dimanche.

Tournez, tournez, chevaux de leur cœur,Tandis qu’autour de tous vos tournoisClignote l’œil du filou sournois,Tournez au son du piston vainqueur.

It is indeed the worst tormentnot to know why,without love and without hate,my heart has so much pain!

The shadow of the treesThe shadow of the trees, in the misty river,

dies like smoke,whereas up there, amidst the real branches,

the doves sing their plaint.

How much, o traveller, this wan landscape

reflected you, wan yourself,And how sadly, in the high foliage,

your drowned hopes wept!

Merry-go-roundTurn, turn, good wooden horses,turn one hundred, one thousand turns;turn often and go on turning,turn, turn to the sound of the oboes.

The child all red and the mother white,the lad in black and the girl in pink,one down-to-earth and the other showing off,each treating himself to a Sunday penny’s worth.

Turn, turn, horses of their heartwhilst around all your whirlings,squints the eye of the crafty pickpocket,turn to the sound of the triumphant cornet.

Please turn your page quietly

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C’est étonnant comme ça vous soûleD’aller ainsi dans ce cirque bête,Rien dans le ventre et mal dans la tête,Du mal en masse et du bien en foule.

Tournez, dadas, sans qu’il soit besoinD’user jamais de nuls éperonsPour commander à vos galops ronds,Tournez, tournez, sans espoir de foin.

Et dépêchez, chevaux de leur âmeDéjà voici que sonne à la soupeLa nuit qui tombe et chasse la troupeDe gais buveurs que leur soif affame.

Tournez, tournez! Le ciel en veloursD’astres en or se vêt lentement.L’église tinte un glas tristement.Tournez au son joyeux des tambours!

GreenVoici des fruits, des fleurs, des feuilles et des branchesEt puis voici mon cœur qui ne bat que pour vous.Ne le déchirez pas avec vos deux mains blanchesEt qu’à vos yeux si beaux l’humble présent soit doux.

J’arrive tout couvert encore de roséeQue le vent du matin vient glacer à mon front.Souffrez que ma fatigue à vos pieds reposéeRêve des chers instants qui la délasseront.

It is amazing how intoxicating it isgoing round like this in this stupid circle,nothing in the tummy and aching in the head,heaps of pain and loads of fun.

Turn, geegees, without ever needingpointless spursto drive you on your circular gallops,turn, turn, without hope of hay.

And hurry, horses of their soul,here already is nightfall,ringing for supper and chasing away the throngof happy drinkers famished by their thirst.

Turn, turn! The sky in velvetadorns itself slowly with stars of gold.The church sadly tolls a knell.Turn to the merry beating of the drums.

GreenHere are fruits, flowers, leaves and branches,and here too is my heart, which beats for you alone.Do not tear it with your two white hands,and may the humble gift seem sweet to your so lovely eyes.

I arrive still covered in dewwhich the morning wind comes to freeze to my brow.Suffer my weariness, rested at your feet,to dream of the dear moments which will bring repose.

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Sur votre jeune sein laissez rouler ma têteToute sonore encore de vos derniers baisers;Laissez-la s’apaiser de la bonne tempête,Et que je dorme un peu puisque vous reposez.

SpleenLes roses étaient toutes rougesEt les lierres étaient tout noirs.

Chère, pour peu que tu te bouges,Renaissent tous mes désespoirs.

Le ciel était trop bleu, trop tendre,La mer trop verte et l’air trop doux.

Je crains toujours, – ce qu’est d’attendre! – Quelque fuite atroce de vous.

Du houx à la feuille vernieEt du luisant buis je suis las,

Et de la campagne infinieEt de tout, fors de vous, hélas !

On your young breast let me rest my headstill ringing with your last kisses;let it grow calm again after the good storm,and let me sleep a little, since you are resting.

SpleenThe roses were all red,and the ivy was black.

Dearest, if you so much as move,all my despair returns.

The sky was too blue, too tender,the sea too green and the air too soft.

I always fear – what it is to wait! – some dreadful abandonment by you.

I am weary of the holly with its varnished leaf, and of the gleaming box tree,

and of the boundless countryside,and of everything but you, alas!

Paul Verlaine (1844–1896) English translations © David Garrett

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MELBOURNE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Sir Andrew Davis Chief Conductor

Benjamin Northey Associate Conductor Anthony Pratt#

Tianyi Lu Cybec Assistant Conductor

Hiroyuki Iwaki Conductor Laureate (1974–2006)

FIRST VIOLINS

Dale Barltrop Concertmaster

Sophie Rowell Concertmaster The Ullmer Family Foundation#

Peter Edwards Assistant Principal John McKay and Lois McKay#

Kirsty BremnerSarah Curro Michael Aquilina#

Peter FellinDeborah GoodallLorraine HookAnne-Marie JohnsonKirstin KennyJi Won KimEleanor Mancini Chisholm & Gamon#

Mark Mogilevski Michelle RuffoloKathryn Taylor Michael Aquilina#

Jacqueline Edwards*Susannah Ng*Nicholas Waters*

SECOND VIOLINS

Matthew Tomkins Principal The Gross Foundation#

Robert Macindoe Associate Principal

Monica Curro Assistant Principal Danny Gorog and Lindy Susskind#

Mary AllisonIsin CakmakciogluTiffany ChengFreya FranzenCong GuAndrew HallIsy WassermanPhilippa WestPatrick WongRoger YoungMichael Loftus-Hill*

VIOLAS

Christopher Moore Principal Di Jameson#

Lauren Brigden Mr Tam Vu and Dr Cherilyn Tillman#

Katharine BrockmanChristopher Cartlidge Michael Aquilina#

Anthony Chataway Dr Elizabeth E Lewis AM#

Gabrielle Halloran Maria Solà#

Trevor Jones Fiona Sargeant Cindy WatkinElizabeth WoolnoughWilliam Clark*Helen Ireland* Isabel Morse*

CELLOS

David Berlin Principal MS Newman Family#

Rachael Tobin Associate Principal

Nicholas Bochner Assistant Principal

Miranda Brockman Geelong Friends of the MSO#

Rohan de Korte Andrew Dudgeon#

Keith JohnsonSarah MorseAngela Sargeant Maria Solà#

Michelle Wood Andrew and Theresa Dyer#

DOUBLE BASSES

Steve Reeves Principal

Andrew Moon Associate Principal

Sylvia Hosking Assistant Principal

Damien EckersleyBenjamin HanlonSuzanne LeeStephen Newton Sophie Galaise and Clarence Fraser#

Axel Ruge*Esther Toh*

FLUTES

Prudence Davis Principal Anonymous#

Wendy Clarke Associate Principal

Sarah Beggs

PICCOLO

Andrew Macleod Principal

OBOES

Jeffrey Crellin Principal

Thomas Hutchinson Associate Principal

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MSO BOARD

ChairmanMichael Ullmer

Managing DirectorSophie Galaise

Board DirectorsDanny GorogMargaret Jackson ACDi JamesonDavid KrasnosteinDavid LiHyon-Ju NewmanGlenn SedgwickHelen Silver AO

Company SecretaryOliver Carton

Ann Blackburn The Rosemary Norman Foundation#

Emmanuel Cassimatis*

COR ANGLAIS

Michael Pisani Principal

CLARINETS

David Thomas Principal

Philip Arkinstall Associate Principal

Craig HillRobin Henry*

BASS CLARINET

Jon Craven Principal

BASSOONS

Jack Schiller Principal

Elise Millman Associate Principal

Natasha ThomasColin Forbes-Abrams*

CONTRABASSOON

Brock Imison Principal

Matthew Ventura*

HORNS

Stefan Bernhardsson* Guest Principal

Saul Lewis Acting Associate Principal

Abbey Edlin Nereda Hanlon and Michael Hanlon AM#

Trinette McClimontAlexander Morton*

TRUMPETS

Shane Hooton Associate Principal

Tristan Rebien* Guest Associate Principal

William EvansRosie Turner John and Diana Frew#

TROMBONES

Brett Kelly Principal

Richard Shirley Tim and Lyn Edward#

Mike Szabo Principal Bass Trombone

TUBA

Timothy Buzbee Principal

TIMPANI**

Christopher Lane Principal

PERCUSSION

Robert Clarke Principal

John Arcaro Tim and Lyn Edward#

Robert CossomTimothy Hook*Evan Pritchard*Leah Scholes*Lara Wilson*

HARP

Yinuo Mu Principal

Bronwyn Wallis*

CELESTE

Louisa Breen*

# Position supported by

* Guest Musician

** Timpani Chair position supported by Lady Potter AC CMRI

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MELBOURNE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA CHORUS

CHORUS MASTER

Warren Trevelyan-Jones

REPETITEUR

Tom Griffiths

SOPRANO

Aviva BarazaniAnne-Marie BrownhillEva ButcherIsabela CalderonAlice ColeElla Dann-LimonLaura FaheyCatherine FolleyCarolyn FrancisCamilla GormanJuliana HassettPenny HuggettGwen KennellyAnna KidmanNatasha LambieMaggie LiangClancye MilneCatriona Nguyen-RobertsonTian NieCaitlin NobleKarin OttoTiffany PangNatalie ReidBeth RichardsonJanelle RichardsonMhairi RiddetElizabeth Rusli

Natalia SalazarJillian SamuelsLydia SherrenFreja SoininenElizabeth TindallFabienne VandenburieTara Zamin

ALTO

Satu AhoRuth AndersonCecilia BjörkegrenJane BrodieElize BrozgulSerena CarmelYoung-Hee ChanNicola EveleighLisa FaulksJill GieseNatasha GodfreyJillian GrahamRos HarbisonSue HawleyKristine HenselJudy LongbottomJoy LukmanHelen MacLeanRosemary McKelvieStephanie MitchellAlison RalphMaya RodingenLisa SavigeJulienne SealLibby Timcke

TENOR

Alexandra AmeridesMatthew CastleJohn CleghornKeaton ClohertyGeoffrey CollinsSimon GaitesDavid HenleyLyndon HorsburghWayne KinradeMichael MobachNathan Guan Kiat Teo

BASS

Maurice AmorAlexandras BartaskaRichard BolithoRoger DargavilleTed DaviesAndrew HamJoseph HieJordan JanssenEvan LawsonGary LevyDouglas McQueen-ThomsonVern O’HaraLiam StraughanTom TurnbullFoon WongNed Wright-SmithMaciek Zielinski

18

SATURDAY 15 DECEMBER | 7pmSUNDAY 16 DECEMBER | 5pm

Arts Centre Melbourne, Hamer Hall

Handel’s Messiah

Book nowmso.com.au(03) 9929 9600

Jan Willem de Vriend conductor Jeanine De Bique soprano | Nicholas Tolputt countertenor

Andrew Goodwin tenor | Stephan Loges bass | MSO Chorus

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MSO PATRON The Honourable Linda Dessau AC, Governor of Victoria

CHAIRMAN’S CIRCLEMarc Besen AC and Eva Besen AO Gandel PhilanthropyThe Gross Foundation Harold Mitchell FoundationDavid and Angela LiHarold Mitchell ACMS Newman Family FoundationLady Potter AC CMRIThe Cybec FoundationThe Pratt FoundationThe Ullmer Family FoundationAnonymous (2)

ARTIST CHAIR BENEFACTORSAssociate Conductor Chair Benjamin Northey Anthony Pratt Orchestral Leadership Joy Selby SmithCybec Assistant Conductor Chair Tianyi Lu The Cybec FoundationAssociate Concertmaster Chair Sophie Rowell The Ullmer Family Foundation2018 Soloist in Residence Chair Anne-Sophie Mutter Marc Besen AC and Eva Besen AOYoung Composer in Residence Ade Vincent The Cybec Foundation

PROGRAM BENEFACTORS Cybec 21st Century Australian Composers Program The Cybec FoundationEast Meets West Supported by the Li Family TrustMeet The Orchestra Made possible by The Ullmer Family FoundationMSO Audience Access Crown Resorts Foundation, Packer Family FoundationMSO Building Capacity Gandel Philanthropy (Director of Philanthropy)

MSO Education Supported by Mrs Margaret Ross AM and Dr Ian RossMSO International Touring Supported by Harold Mitchell ACMSO Regional Touring Creative Victoria, Freemasons Foundation Victoria, The Robert Salzer Foundation, AnonymousThe Pizzicato Effect (Anonymous), Collier Charitable Fund, The Marian and E.H. Flack Trust, Scobie and Claire Mackinnon Trust, Supported by the Hume City Council’s Community Grants ProgramSidney Myer Free Concerts Supported by the Myer Foundation and the University of Melbourne

PLATINUM PATRONS $100,000+Marc Besen AC and Eva Besen AO John Gandel AC and Pauline Gandel The Gross Foundation David and Angela LiMS Newman Family Foundation Anthony Pratt The Pratt FoundationLady Potter AC CMRIUllmer Family Foundation Anonymous (2)

VIRTUOSO PATRONS $50,000+

Di Jameson David Krasnostein and Pat StragalinosHarold Mitchell ACKim Williams AM

IMPRESARIO PATRONS $20,000+ Michael Aquilina The John and Jennifer Brukner FoundationMary and Frederick Davidson AMMargaret Jackson ACAndrew JohnstonMimie MacLarenJohn and Lois McKay Maria SolàAnonymous (1)

Supporters

MAESTRO PATRONS $10,000+ Kaye and David BirksMitchell ChipmanTim and Lyn EdwardDanny Gorog and Lindy Susskind Robert & Jan GreenHilary Hall, in memory of Wilma CollieThe Hogan Family Foundation Peter Hunt AM and Tania de Jong AMInternational Music and Arts FoundationSuzanne KirkhamThe Cuming BequestGordan Moffat AMIan and Jeannie PatersonElizabeth Proust AOXijian Ren and Qian LiGlenn SedgwickHelen Silver AO and Harrison YoungGai and David TaylorJuliet TootellAlice VaughanHarry and Michelle WongJason Yeap OAM – Mering Management Corporation

PRINCIPAL PATRONS $5,000+

Christine and Mark ArmourJohn and Mary BarlowBarbara Bell, in memory of Elsa BellStephen and Caroline BrainProf Ian BrighthopeDavid Capponi and Fiona McNeilMay and James ChenChisholm & GamonJohn and Lyn CoppockWendy DimmickAndrew Dudgeon AM Andrew and Theresa Dyer Mr Bill FlemingJohn and Diana FrewSusan Fry and Don Fry AOSophie Galaise and Clarence Fraser Geelong Friends of the MSO R Goldberg and Family

Leon GoldmanJennifer GorogHMA FoundationLouis Hamon OAMNereda Hanlon and Michael Hanlon AMHans and Petra HenkellHartmut and Ruth HofmannDoug HooleyJenny and Peter HordernDr Alastair Jackson AMRosemary and James JacobyDr Elizabeth A Lewis AMNorman Lewis, in memory of Dr Phyllis LewisPeter LovellLesley McMullin FoundationMr Douglas and Mrs Rosemary MeagherMarie Morton FRSADr Paul Nisselle AMThe Rosemary Norman Foundation Ken Ong, in memory of Lin OngBruce Parncutt AO Jim and Fran PfeifferPzena Investment Charitable FundAndrew and Judy RogersRae RothfieldMax and Jill SchultzJeffrey Sher QC and Diana Sher OAMDiana and Brian Snape AMProfs. G & G Stephenson, in honour of the great Romanian musicians George Enescu and Dinu LipattiTasco PetroleumMr Tam Vu and Dr Cherilyn Tillman The Hon. Michael Watt QC and Cecilie HallLyn Williams AMAnonymous (5)

ASSOCIATE PATRONS $2,500+ Dandolo PartnersWill and Dorothy Bailey BequestDavid Blackwell OAMAnne BowdenBill BownessJulia and Jim BreenLynne BurgessOliver Carton

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Ann Darby, in memory of Leslie J. DarbyNatasha Davies, for the Trikojus Education FundMerrowyn DeaconSandra DentPeter and Leila DoyleDuxton VineyardsLisa Dwyer and Dr Ian DicksonJaan EndenDr Helen M FergusonElizabeth FosterMr Peter Gallagher and Dr Karen MorleyDina and Ron GoldschlagerColin Golvan AM QC and Dr Deborah GolvanLouise Gourlay OAMSusan and Gary HearstColin Heggen, in memory of Marjorie Drysdale HeggenJenkins Family FoundationJohn JonesGeorge and Grace KassIrene Kearsey and M J RidleyThe Ilma Kelson Music FoundationBryan LawrenceJohn and Margaret MasonH E McKenzieAllan and Evelyn McLarenAlan and Dorothy PattisonSue and Barry PeakeMrs W PeartGraham and Christine PeirsonJulie and Ian ReidRalph and Ruth RenardPeter and Carolyn RenditS M Richards AM and M R RichardsTom and Elizabeth RomanowskiDr Michael SoonPeter J StirlingJenny TatchellFrank Tisher OAM and Dr Miriam TisherAnonymous (5)

PLAYER PATRONS $1,000+ David and Cindy AbbeyChrista AbdallahDr Sally AdamsMary ArmourAustralian Decorative and Fine Arts SocietyDr Rosemary Ayton and Dr Sam Ricketson

Marlyn and Peter Bancroft OAMAdrienne BasserJanice Bate and the Late Prof Weston BateJanet H BellJohn and Sally BourneMichael F BoytPatricia BrockmanDr John BrookesStuart BrownSuzie Brown OAM and Harvey BrownRoger and Col BuckleJill and Christopher BuckleyShane BuggleDr Lynda CampbellJohn CarrollAndrew Crockett AM and Pamela CrockettPanch Das and Laurel Young-DasBeryl DeanRick and Sue DeeringDominic and Natalie DirupoJohn and Anne DuncanJane Edmanson OAMValerie Falconer and the Rayner Family in memory of Keith FalconerGrant Fisher and Helen BirdBarry Fradkin OAM and Dr Pam FradkinApplebay Pty LtdDavid Frenkiel and Esther Frenkiel OAMDavid Gibbs and Susie O’NeillJanette GillGreta Goldblatt and the late Merwyn GoldblattGeorge Golvan QC and Naomi GolvanDr Marged GoodeProf Denise Grocke AOMax GulbinDr Sandra Hacker AO and Mr Ian Kennedy AMJean HadgesMichael and Susie HamsonPaula Hansky OAMMerv Keehn and Sue HarlowTilda and Brian HaughneyAnna and John HoldsworthPenelope HughesBasil and Rita JenkinsChristian and Jinah JohnstonDorothy KarpinBrett Kelly and Cindy WatkinDr Anne Kennedy

22

Julie and Simon KesselKerry LandmanDiedrie LazarusWilliam and Magdalena LeadstonDr Anne LierseGaelle LindreaDr Susan LintonAndrew LockwoodElizabeth H LoftusChris and Anna LongThe Hon Ian Macphee AO and Mrs Julie MacpheeEleanor & Phillip ManciniAnnette MaluishIn memory of Leigh MaselWayne McDonaldRuth MaxwellDon and Anne MeadowsIan Morrey and Geoffrey Minternew U MilduraWayne and Penny MorganAnne NeilPatricia NilssonLaurence O’Keefe and Christopher JamesKerryn PratchettPeter PriestTreena QuarinEli RaskinRaspin Family TrustJoan P RobinsonCathy and Peter RogersPeter Rose and Christopher MenzLiliane RusekMartin and Susan ShirleyPenny ShoreDr Sam Smorgon AO and Mrs Minnie SmorgonDr Norman and Dr Sue SonenbergLady Southey ACGeoff and Judy SteinickeJennifer SteinickeDr Peter StricklandPamela SwanssonAnn and Larry TurnerDavid ValentineMary Valentine AOThe Hon. Rosemary VartyLeon and Sandra VelikDavid and Yazni VennerSue Walker AM

Elaine Walters OAM and Gregory WaltersEdward and Paddy WhiteNic and Ann WillcockMarian and Terry Wills CookeLorraine WoolleyRichard YeAnonymous (16)

THE MAHLER SYNDICATE David and Kaye BirksMary and Frederick Davidson AMTim and Lyn EdwardJohn and Diana FrewFrancis and Robyn HofmannThe Hon Dr Barry Jones ACDr Paul Nisselle AMMaria Solà The Hon Michael Watt QC and Cecilie Hall

MSO PATRON COMMISSIONSAll the World’s a Stage Iain Grandage Commissioned by Mary DavidsonClarinet Concerto Paul Dean Commissioned by Andrew JohnstonMissed Tales III – The Lost Mary Finsterer Commissioned by Kim Williams AMSnare Drum Award test piece 2018 Commissioned by Tim and Lyn Edward

23

CONDUCTOR’S CIRCLE Current Conductor’s Circle MembersJenny AndersonDavid AngelovichG C Bawden and L de KievitLesley BawdenJoyce BownMrs Jenny Brukner and the late Mr John BruknerKen BullenPeter A CaldwellLuci and Ron ChambersBeryl DeanSandra DentLyn EdwardAlan Egan JPGunta EgliteMr Derek GranthamMarguerite Garnon-WilliamsDrs Clem Gruen and Rhyl WadeLouis Hamon OAMCarol HayTony HoweLaurence O’Keefe and Christopher JamesAudrey M JenkinsJohn JonesGeorge and Grace KassMrs Sylvia LavellePauline and David LawtonCameron MowatDavid OrrRosia PasteurElizabeth Proust AOPenny RawlinsJoan P RobinsonNeil RoussacAnne Roussac-HoyneSuzette SherazeeMichael Ryan and Wendy MeadAnne Kieni-Serpell and Andrew SerpellJennifer ShepherdProfs. Gabriela and George StephensonPamela SwanssonLillian TarryDr Cherilyn TillmanMr and Mrs R P TrebilcockMichael UllmerIla Vanrenen

The Hon. Rosemary VartyMr Tam VuMarian and Terry Wills CookeMark YoungAnonymous (27)

The MSO gratefully acknowledges the support of the following Estates:Angela BeagleyNeilma GantnerThe Hon Dr Alan Goldberg AO QCGwen HuntAudrey JenkinsJoan JonesPauline Marie JohnstonJoan JonesC P KempPeter Forbes MacLarenJoan Winsome MaslenLorraine Maxine MeldrumProf Andrew McCredieMiss Sheila Scotter AM MBEMarion A I H M SpenceMolly StephensJennifer May TeagueJean TweedieHerta and Fred B VogelDorothy Wood

TRUSTS AND FOUNDATIONS Collier Charitable FundCrown Resorts Foundation and the Packer Family FoundationThe Cybec FoundationThe Marian and E.H. Flack TrustFreemasons Foundation VictoriaGandel PhilanthropyThe International Music and Arts FoundationThe Scobie and Claire Mackinnon TrustThe Harold Mitchell FoundationThe Sidney Myer MSO Trust FundThe Pratt FoundationThe Robert Salzer FoundationTelematics TrustAnonymous

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Marc Besen AC and Eva Besen AO Life Members

John Gandel AC and Pauline Gandel Life Members

Sir Elton John CBE Life Member

Lady Potter AC CMRI Life Member

Mrs Jeanne Pratt AC Life Member

Geoffrey Rush AC Ambassador

THE MSO HONOURS THE MEMORY OF

John Brockman OAM Life Member

The Honourable Alan Goldberg AO QC Life Member

Ila Vanrenen Life Member

Honorary Appointments

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

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+ (Virtuoso)

$100,000+ (Platinum)

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

Enquiries P (03) 8646 1551 E philanthropy@mso.com.au

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Come dream with us by adopting your own MSO musician!Support the music and the orchestra you love while getting to know your favourite player. Honour their talent, artistry and life-long commitment to music, and become part of the MSO family.

Adopt Principal Harp, Yinuo Mu, or any of our wonderful musicians today.

– Arthur O’Shaughnessy

‘ We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams.'

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Media and Broadcast Partners

Principal Partner

Government Partners

Premier Partners Major Partners

Venue Partner Education Partners

Supporting Partners

The CEO InstituteQuest Southbank Bows for StringsErnst & Young

Trusts and Foundations

Sidney Myer MSO Trust Fund, The Gross Foundation, MS Newman Family Foundation, The Ullmer Family Foundation, Erica Foundation Pty Ltd

The Observership Program