2 012 S E A S O N

Thu 19 April 1.30pmFri 20 April 8pm Mon 23 April 7pm

Tchaikovsky at the Ballet

Thursday Afternoon Symphony

Emirates Metro Series

Mondays @ 7

Nutcracker and Swan Lake

Welco me to the Em i rates Metro Ser i es

HH She i kh Ahmed B i n Saeed Al-Ma kto um

Cha i rman and Chi e f Executive

Em i rates Ai r l i ne a nd Gro up

The Sydney Symphony is a first-class orchestra in one of the world’s most beautiful cities, and Emirates, as a world-class airline, is proud to be Principal Partner for another year. 2012 is a particularly special year – a cause for double celebration as the Sydney Symphony celebrates its 80th anniversary and we share our 10-year partnership.

A First Class experience is always a memorable one. Whether it be exiting your personal Emirates chauffeur-driven car at the airport, ready to be whisked away to the Emirates lounge, or entering a concert hall for an unforgettable night of music, the feeling of luxury and pleasure is the same.

Emirates in Australia has gone from strength to strength. Our growing network now features 29 exciting European destinations to be explored, including Geneva, Copenhagen and St Petersburg, launched in 2011; and most recently Dublin in January this year.

In 2012 we are proud to offer 70 flights per week from Australia to our hub in Dubai, as well as an additional 28 flights per week trans-Tasman. Flying from Sydney to Auckland with Emirates is a unique experience. We operate our state-of-the-art Airbus A380 superjumbo on this route, which offers all the luxuries that you have come to expect from Emirates – from chauffeur-driven transfers and priority check-in and world-class lounges for our Business and First Class customers, to a gourmet food and wine experience once on board, plus over 1000 channels of entertainment.

We are delighted to continue our support of the Sydney Symphony and Sydney as a whole, through sponsorships such as the Emirates Australian Open. We look forward to working with the orchestra throughout this special celebratory year, to showcase the best of the best when it comes to both music and luxury travel.

2012 seasonthursday afternoon symphonyThursday 19 April, 1.30pmemirates metro seriesFriday 20 April, 8pmmondays @ 7Monday 23 April, 7pm

Sydney Opera House Concert Hall

Tchaikovsky at the BalletAndrew Grams CONDUCTOR

Steven Osborne PIANO

Osvaldo Golijov (born 1960)Last Round I Movido, urgente. Macho, cool and dangerousII Lentissimo. Muertes de Angel

Manuel de Falla (1876–1946)Nights in the Gardens of SpainEn el Generalife (In the Generalife)Danza lejana (Dance in the Distance) –En los jardines de la Sierra de Cordoba (In the Gardens of the Sierra of Cordoba)

Steven Osborne PIANO

INTERVAL

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840–1893)Nutcracker: Highlights from Act IIScène (Clara and the Nutcracker Prince)Divertissement (Dances from the Kingdom of the Sweets)Waltz of the Flowers

Swan Lake: HighlightsScène. Moderato (Act II)Valse (Act I) Pas d’action (Act II) Scène – Scène fi nale (Act IV)

Friday’s performance will be broadcast live across Australia on ABC Classic FM.

Pre-concert talk by Yvonne Frindle in the Northern Foyer, 45 minutes before each performance. Visit sydneysymphony.com/talk-bios for speaker biographies.

Estimated durations: 14 minutes, 23 minutes, 20-minute interval, 23 minutes, 26 minutes. The concert will conclude at approximately 3.30pm (Thu), 10pm (Fri), 9pm (Mon).

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Stage design from 1914 for Tchaikovsky’s ballet Swan Lake by Sergei Yurievich Sudeikin (1882–1946).

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INTRODUCTION

Tchaikovsky at the Ballet

If there’s one kind of music that’s become synonymous with Tchaikovsky, it’s ballet music. There’s plenty of reason to love the concertos and the symphonies, but it’s in ballet that he made some of his greatest and most distinctive achievements and left his most powerful legacy. ‘Tchaikovsky at the ballet’ is enough reason to be excited about any concert.

But this program is more than Tchaikovsky. The fi rst half gives us ‘Golijov at the milonga’ (the tango dance hall) or perhaps, if you take the Last Round title literally, ‘Golijov at the boxing ring’. And, in a rare treat, we have ‘Falla in the Spanish gardens’.

Our records indicate that the Sydney Symphony hasn’t performed Nights in the Gardens of Spain since the 1970s (please do tell us if we’re missing information!). One of the reasons the work is so seldom performed, despite being so attractive, is that it’s a strange and unique creation which doesn’t quite fi t the categories. Falla’s orchestration includes a prominent piano part – and usually a guest soloist is engaged to play this – but it isn’t a traditional piano concerto by any stretch of the imagination.

So this is a program without a concerto in the strict sense. It’s also a program without a symphony. Instead, highlights from Nutcracker and Swan Lake make up the second half, demonstrating along the way the symphonic and dramatic sophistication of Tchaikovsky’s ballet music. And even though we’re ‘at the ballet’, there are no dancers. Except in one sense: in Golijov’s vision for Last Round he imagines standing violinists and the fl ying of bows in a visual echo of the tango.

Historical Timeline

We are developing an interactive historical timeline, presenting images, documents, audio and video from our past and into the future. It will feature landmark Sydney Symphony events and performances and some of the personalities associated with the orchestra.

The timeline will be launched with our new website later this year, and you can play a part in building it into a rich and valuable resource. If you know of any events, images or stories that belong in the timeline visit sydneysymphony.com/80years/timeline_contributi ons

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Keynotes

GOLIJOVBorn La Plata, Argentina, 1960

Osvaldo Golijov grew up in an Eastern European Jewish household in La Plata, Argentina. He was raised surrounded by classical chamber music, Jewish liturgical and klezmer music, and the new tango of Astor Piazzolla. These traditions combine in a distinctive hybrid style that has won favour with both musicians and audiences.

LAST ROUND

Last Round (1996) was inspired by Astor Piazzolla – the ‘King of Tango’ and a composer associated with the bandonéon, a kind of accordion. The first movement (Macho, cool and dangerous) was completed after Piazzolla’s death in 1992, followed by the second movement (Angel of Death). Golijov compares the whole piece to the action of a bandonéon: the first movement is the violent compression of the bellows, the second is like an ‘endless opening sigh’. The spirit of Tango dominates throughout in the musical gestures and in the use of the nine-part string ensemble. Finally the title: this comes from a short story about boxing and is a ‘metaphor for an imaginary chance for Piazzolla’s spirit to fight one more time’.

ABOUT THE MUSIC

Osvaldo GolijovLast Round I Movido, urgente. Macho, cool and dangerousII Lentissimo. Muertes de Angel

The composer writes…

Astor Piazzolla, the last great Tango composer, was at the peak of his creativity when a stroke killed him in 1992. He left us, in the words of the old tango, ‘without saying good-bye’, and that day the musical face of Buenos Aires was abruptly frozen. The creation of that face had started a hundred years earlier from the unlikely combination of African rhythms underlying gauchos’ couplets, sung in the style of Sicilian canzonettas over an accompanying Andalusian guitar. As the years passed all converged towards the bandonéon: a small accordion-like instrument without keyboard that was invented in Germany in the 19th century to serve as a portable church organ and which, after fi nding its true home in the bordellos of Buenos Aires’ slums in the 1920s, went back to Europe to conquer Paris high society in the 1930s. Since then it reigned as the essential instrument for any Tango ensemble.

Piazzolla’s bandonéon was able to condense all the symbols of tango. The eroticism of legs and torsos in the dance was reduced to the intricate patterns of his virtuoso fi ngers (a simple C major scale in the bandonéon zigzags so much as to leave an inexperienced player’s fi ngers tangled). The melancholy of the singer’s voice was transposed to the breathing of the bandonéon’s continuous opening and closing. The macho attitude of the tangueros was refl ected in his pose on stage: standing upright, chest forward, right leg on a stool, the bandonéon on top of it, being by turns raised, battered, caressed.

I composed Last Round in 1996, prompted by Geoff Nuttall and Barry Shiff man. They heard a sketch of the second movement, which I had written in 1991 upon hearing the news of Piazzolla’s stroke, and encouraged me to fi nish it and write another movement to complement it. The title is borrowed from a short story on boxing by Julio Cortázar, the metaphor for an imaginary chance for Piazzolla’s spirit to fi ght one more time (he used to get into fi stfi ghts throughout his life). The piece is conceived as an idealised bandonéon. The fi rst movement represents the act of a violent compression of the instrument and the second a fi nal, seemingly endless opening sigh (it is actually a fantasy over the refrain of the song ‘My Beloved Buenos Aires’, composed by the legendary Carlos Gardel in the 1930s). But Last Round is also a sublimated tango dance.

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Two quartets confront each other, separated by the focal bass, with violins and violas standing up as in the traditional tango orchestras. The bows fl y in the air as inverted legs in crisscrossed choreography, always attracting and repelling each other, always in danger of clashing, always avoiding it with the immutability that can only be acquired by transforming hot passion into pure pattern.

About the composer…

Osvaldo Golijov’s mother was a piano teacher and his father a physician. His heritage was Eastern European and Jewish, but growing up in Argentina, he was deeply infl uenced by the New Tango of Astor Piazzolla in addition to classical chamber music and Jewish liturgical and klezmer music. After studying piano at the local conservatory in La Plata and composition with Gerardo Gandini, he moved to Israel in 1983, where he studied with Mark Kopytman at the Jerusalem Rubin Academy and immersed himself in the colliding musical traditions of that city. Upon moving to the United States in 1986, Golijov earned his Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied with George Crumb, and was a fellow at Tanglewood, studying with Oliver Knussen.

Osvaldo Golijov

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…bows fly in the air as inverted legs in crisscrossed choreography…

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In the early 1990s, Golijov began to work closely with two string quartets, the St Lawrence and Kronos quartets. Both ensembles were the earliest to project Golijov’s volatile and category-defying style in its true, full form. Yiddishbbuk (2002), a Grammy-nominated CD of Golijov’s chamber music, celebrated ten years of collaboration with the St Lawrence String Quartet. The Kronos Quartet has released three recordings featuring collaborations with Golijov: The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind, Caravan and Nuevo. Kronos also expanded Golijov’s musical family through collaborations with artists such as the Romanian Gypsy band Taraf de Haidouks, Mexican rock group Café Tacuba, tablas virtuoso Zakir Hussain, and legendary Argentine composer, guitarist and producer Gustavo Santaolalla. And for the past decade Golijov has been inspired by the voice of Dawn Upshaw, for whom he has composed several works, including the Three Songs for Soprano and Orchestra, the opera Ainadamar, song cycles Ayre and She Was Here, and a number of arrangements.

Osvaldo Golijov has received numerous commissions from major ensembles and institutions in the United States and Europe and is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship. Recently he has collaborated with Francis Ford Coppola, for whom he has written two fi lm scores, and his orchestral work Sidereus (2010) has attracted much attention. He is working on a commission for the Metropolitan Opera, a violin concerto for Leonidas Kavakos (commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic and London Symphony Orchestra) and a new work for the St Lawrence String Quartet. He has been composer-in-residence at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Merkin Hall in New York, the Spoleto USA Festival, the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Music Alive series, Marlboro Music, Ravinia, and several other festivals. Golijov is Loyola Professor of Music at College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA, where he has taught since 1991.

Program note © OSVALDO GOLIJOV

About the Composer adapted from biographies © BOOSEY & HAWKES

Last Round calls for an ensemble of string instruments, with four violin parts, two viola parts, two cello parts and a part for double bass. It may be played by a string orchestra (with more than one instrument per part) as in this concert, or by string nonet (one instrument per part). Either way, it is conceived as two string ‘quartets’ (two violins, two violas and cello) each facing each other, separated by the double bass(es).

This is the Sydney Symphony’s first performance of Last Round. Sydney concertgoers may recall the Australian Chamber Orchestra and Anthony Marwood’s performance of the first movement in 2009.

Astor Piazzolla playing the bandonéon in Amsterdam (1985).

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Manuel de Falla Nights in the Gardens of Spain – Symphonic impressions for piano and orchestraEn el Generalife (In the Generalife)Danza lejana (Dance in the Distance) –En los jardines de la Sierra de Cordoba (In the Gardens of the Sierra of Cordoba)

Steven Osborne piano

There’s truth in the claim that Falla had to go to Paris to complete his discovery of truly Spanish music, of which he became the greatest creator in the 20th century. The leading French musicians with whom Falla became as friendly as his reserved nature would allow included Debussy, Ravel and Dukas. This was the age of musical impressionism, and great impressionist works about Spain had already been composed, by French composers: Debussy’s Ibéria and Ravel’s Rapsodie espagnole. Both are night pieces, as though Spain comes most fully to life after sundown. Falla fi rst conceived what became Nights in the Gardens of Spain in Paris in 1909; it was to be for solo piano, and the title was simply Nocturnes (echoing Debussy and Chopin). It was at the suggestion of the great Catalan pianist living in Paris, Ricardo Viñes, that Falla eventually changed his Nocturnes into an orchestral work with an important piano part, and he dedicated it to Viñes.

The title probably owes something to the fact that Falla completed the work while staying at Sitges, near Barcelona, in the house of the painter Rusiñol, famous for his impressions of Spanish gardens. Falla’s subtitle is ‘Symphonic impressions for piano and orchestra, in three parts’, but as is usually the case with ‘impressionist’ music, painting and literature played a larger part in the conception than the observation of nature. A poem by Francis Jammes and three from the Songs of Life and Hope by the Nicaraguan poet Rubén Dario seem to have infl uenced Falla. Dario’s poems concerned night sounds heard in the distance, melancholy night thoughts about the passing of youth and the diff erence between what was and what might have been. This is the atmosphere breathed by Nights in the Gardens of Spain, ‘headily subjective’, as English Falla expert Ronald Crichton observes, and inevitably reminding the listener of this vein in Debussy’s music.

The picturesque evocations of Falla’s titles are thus somewhat misleading, except that two of them clearly ‘locate’ the music in the Moorish-infl uenced south of Spain, in Andalusia. The Moorish tracery and the play of fountains

Keynotes

FALLABorn Cadiz, 1876 Died Alta Gracia, Argentina, 1946

Manuel de Falla (pronounced ‘fire’) was one of the leading Spanish composers of the first part of the 20th century. He studied in Paris, where he was influenced by the colouristic and harmonic techniques of Debussy and Dukas, and the emerging trend for reviving classical forms from the past. His reputation was made by Nights in the Gardens of Spain, originally conceived for solo piano. In addition to his two ballets (The Three-Cornered Hat and Love, the Magician), he composed an opera, La vida breve. The Spanish Civil War prompted him to leave Granada for Argentina in 1939.

NIGHTS IN THE GARDENS OF SPAIN

The main title of this unique work suggests pictorial approach – atmospheric and nocturnal – and three scenes are suggested by the movement headings. But there’s a subtitle too: Symphonic impressions for piano and orchestra. This is symphonic music, for orchestra but with a solo piano. It isn’t a piano concerto, however – the piano part is intimately integrated with the orchestral fabric.

In the first movement listen for the simple tune introduced by the violas. The piano becomes more prominent in the second movement, and carries the music straight into the third movement, which adds a tinge of violence to Falla’s impressions.

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in the Generalife, the leafy summer palace on the hill opposite the Alhambra of Granada, are a setting in which Falla could have heard the typically Andalusian music which inspires his own; although it was not until a few years later that Falla was to settle in Granada, he was born in Andalusia (in Cadiz), and had already composed that masterpiece of Andalusian music, El amor brujo (Love, the magician). Jaime Pahissa, author of Manuel de Falla: His Life and Works, fi nds in Nights in the Gardens of Spain two characteristic aspects of Andalusian music ‘for they alternate between a vague nostalgic quality and a brisk, exciting rhythm.’ The work was originally to have included an extra movement based on the Cadiz form of the tango, and its exclusion may explain why the nostalgic, refl ective quality now predominates.

As in Debussy’s ‘symphonic sketches’ La Mer, so in Falla’s ‘symphonic impressions’: the underlying structural mastery of the composer makes the music far more than a sequence of moods or a disjointed travelogue. The fi rst movement, or example, is virtually a set of continuous variations on the theme in small intervals stated by the violas playing near the bridge, and sounds like an accompaniment, prompting

…melancholy night thoughts about the passing of youth…

Manuel de Falla and dancer and choreographer Leonide Massine, in the ‘Patio de los leones’ of the Alhambra in Granada (1916).

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one commentator to say, misleadingly, that the piece is ‘pure atmosphere’. The last movement, with evocations of gypsy cante jondo (deep song), can be considered formally either as a rondo or as couplets with a refrain. Shortly after composing this movement, Falla was in a Cordoba clinic, recovering from an illness brought on, some say, by a hopeless passion for Pastora Imperio, the gypsy dancer of El amor brujo (Love, the Magician).

Nights in the Gardens of Spain is not a concert piece for soloist and orchestra, but an orchestral piece in which the piano has an elaborate but still discreet solo part. It is going too far to say that the piano is merely an additional orchestral instrument, though that gets the emphasis right. If there were models for Falla’s originality of treatment, they lie not in the Romantic piano concerto but in works such as Vincent d’Indy’s Symphony on a French Mountain Song (Symphonie cévenole), with its piano fi rst among equals and its cyclical treatment derived from Franck’s Symphonic Variations. Some have heard hints, too, in Falla’s work, of Stravinsky’s Petrushka, which Falla would have heard when it was new, and which bears in its piano part the traces of being conceived as a concert piece for piano and orchestra. Best, though, to enjoy Nights in the Gardens of Spain as the only work of its kind.

© DAVID GARRETT

Nights in the Gardens of Spain calls for solo piano, with three flutes (one doubling piccolo), two oboes, cor anglais, two clarinets and two bassoons; four horns, two trumpets, three trombones and tuba; timpani and percussion; harp, celesta and strings.

The Sydney Symphony gave the first Australian performance of Nights in the Gardens of Spain, in 1947 with Valda Aveling as soloist and Rafael Kubelik conducting. And according to our records, our most recent performance was in 1976 with Hiroyuki Iwaki conducting and Aveling again performing the piano part.

…its piano first among equals…

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Pyotr Ilyich TchaikovskyHighlights from Nutcracker and Swan Lake

It may seem strange to be listening to ballet music without the dancing, but truly great ballet music loses nothing when transferred to the concert hall. Indeed, some of the most famous ballets in the repertoire owe their enduring popularity to the magnifi cent music that has been composed for them: Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty and Prokofi ev’s Romeo and Juliet are just a few.

Great ballet music shouldn’t be taken for granted, however. After a golden era during the French baroque period (Louis XIV, the Sun King, liked to dance and looked rather fi ne in tights), ballet music slumped in reputation and quality. It took a 19th-century Frenchman, Léo Delibes, to lift ballet from its musical doldrums with his music for Sylvia and the more famous Coppélia. And it was a Russian Francophile, Tchaikovsky, who followed his lead and became one of the fi rst composers to write ballet music that had the refi nement and substance of symphonic music.

Tchaikovsky’s ballets were initially criticised as being ‘too symphonic’. Inventiveness of themes and subtlety in the use of the orchestra may have been commonplace in the romantic symphony, but they were novelties in the romantic ballet and not entirely welcome. Perversely, Tchaikovsky’s symphonies were criticised as being too balletic!

Today we recognise the symphonic qualities – together with his sublime melodic gift and directness of expression – as the strengths of Tchaikovsky’s ballet scores. It seems right, therefore, that in this concert highlights from two of Tchaikovsky’s great ballets fi ll the role of the symphony on the program.

Nutcracker: Highlights from Act II – Kingdom of SweetsScene: Clara and the Nutcracker PrinceCharacter Dances (Divertissement): Chocolate (Spanish Dance) Coffee (Arabian Dance) Tea (Chinese Dance) Trépak (Russian Dance) Dance of the Mirlitons Mother Gigogne and the Clowns Waltz of the Flowers

Nutcracker is loosely based on a dark ‘fairytale’ for grownups by E.T.A. Hoff mann. The ballet itself is a lopsided aff air – the fi rst act carries virtually all the dramatic action of the

Keynotes

TCHAIKOVSKYBorn Kamsko-Votkinsk, 1840 Died St Petersburg, 1893

Tchaikovsky represented a new direction for Russian music in the late 19th century: fully professional and cosmopolitan in outlook. He embraced the genres and forms of Western European tradition – symphonies, concertos and overtures – bringing to them an unrivalled gift for melody and an extraordinary dramatic sense.

BALLET MUSIC

Tchaikovsky composed three full ballet scores: Swan Lake (1877), The Sleeping Beauty (1889) and Nutcracker (1892). At the time, ballet music as a genre was looked down on by serious composers, but Tchaikovsky took ballet very seriously (he loved to dance too). His inspiration and models came from the French composer Delibes, and he went so far as to say that Swan Lake was ‘poor stuff’ compared to Delibes’ Sylvia. The ballet scores of both men were remarkable for bringing new musical refinement and power to the ballet stage. Tchaikovsky’s ballets reveal the profound love he felt for his task – the scores are infused with sophisticated and expressive symphonic elements without ever losing sight of the practical and stylistic demands of dancers and choreographers. No wonder that Tchaikovsky’s ballet music is as effective in the concert hall as it is in the theatre.

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The Nutcracker music was first presented to the public in 1892 in an orchestral concert – effectively a 19th-century ‘trailer’ for the ballet in preparation. The suite of highlights was so successful that most of the numbers were encored.

Christmas Eve party and Clara’s dream (in which the Nutcracker Prince does battle with oversized rats and mice), while the second is a pure confection with no real plot development.

Tchaikovsky himself felt unhappy with the libretto and of all his ballets it is the one that has responded best to new interpretations of its themes. Among the most interesting of these has been Graeme Murphy’s inspired interpretation for the Australian Ballet, the tender and dramatic reverie of a former Russian ballerina with a Hills hoist in her backyard.

But regardless of the production, Tchaikovsky’s music shines. He skilfully evokes a world of childlike wonder and shimmering fantasy, and it is in Act II, in the Kingdom of Sweets, that his genius for national colour and jewel-like divertissements emerges.

A fl imsy scenario is suffi cient pretext for glorious music – the Sugar Plum Fairy, queen of the kingdom, celebrates the bravery of 12-year-old Clara and her Nutcracker Prince with a festival in the Magic Castle. After the Prince tells how Clara saved his life – accompanied by themes from the dramatic battle in Act I – the party begins with a sequence of characterful divertissements.

For these, Tchaikovsky’s choreographer Marius Petipa imagined the confections of the day, each associated with a diff erent country. Chocolate is given a Spanish dance with a brilliant solo for the trumpet. The Coff ee is evidently Arabian (‘Café mocca’, to quote Petipa’s instructions), although its convincingly Oriental music with droning accompaniment is actually based on a Georgian lullaby. Chinese Tea makes a fl eeting appearance, a jogging number with jingling bells and an acrobatic fl ute.

The Trépak, a Russian Dance, begins ‘molto vivace’ (very lively) and accelerates from there. The music then assumes a deft and dainty character for the Dance of the Mirlitons. (The mirliton is a reed pipe, or, more familiarly, a kazoo.) A trio of fl utes play perfectly coordinated arabesques while the cor anglais off ers its poignant view of aff airs. Mother Gigogne is better known to English speakers as the Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe, and her French fairytale origins inspired the use of sprightly French nursery tunes.

The Waltz of Flowers is perhaps Tchaikovsky’s most famous waltz of all and in its traditional choreography it fi lls the stage with a cast of thousands, including children carrying garlands. An eff usion of melody and impetuous grace reveal Tchaikovsky in his element.

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Swan Lake: HighlightsScène (Moderato)

Act II. In a mountain landscape at dusk, a lake is shimmering in the moonlight.

Valse (Tempo di Valse)Act I. A magnifi cent park with a castle in the distance. Prince Siegfried and his friends are seated at tables drinking. A crowd of peasants comes to congratulate the prince on his birthday.

Pas d’Action (Andante – Andante non troppo – Tempo I – Allegro)

Act II. Odette and the Prince.Scène (Allegro agitato – Molto meno mosso – Allegro vivace) –

Act IV. Odette, heartbroken, rushes into the arms of her companions. A storm rises, and Siegfried struggles through it to fi nd her.

Scène fi nale (Andante – Allegro agitato – Alla breve. Moderato e mæstoso)

The Prince begs Odette’s forgiveness, but she dies of grief in his arms. He casts her coronet on the waters, which rise and engulf the lovers. As the scene calms, the swans are seen gliding across the calm surface of the lake.

At the premiere of Swan Lake, the theatre was full – ‘explained solely,’ off ered one review, ‘by the interest of the public in hearing the new musical creation of one of the distinguished and quite popular Russian composers.’ This was Tchaikovsky’s fi rst foray into a genre that was normally considered the province of minor composers, and it attracted considerable attention. He admitted to agreeing to the Swan Lake commission because he needed the money, but also revealed that he had long wished to try his hand at this kind of music. Ballet audiences accustomed to routine and shallow accompaniments must have been astonished, and perplexed, by the refi nement and ambition of Tchaikovsky’s music.

Tchaikovsky’s favourite act in the ballet was the second. It provides the fi rst glimpse of the lake, enclosed by mountains and wild forests, that is the abode of the princess Odette and her maidens – transformed by day into swans by the evil Baron von Rothbart. Choreographically this is the pivotal act – a challenge and a vehicle for great ballerinas. Musically it develops a theme that Tchaikovsky had devised much earlier for a tiny children’s ballet on the same subject. The theme is a haunting idea for oboe and harp, and as the curtain lifts on the fi rst Scène of Act II, the swans – frequently arranged on the stage in a striking wedge formation suggesting both fl ight and repose – fl utter and fl oat, assuming their true guise at midnight.

A grand waltz returns us briefl y to the royal court of Act I. Siegfried is fl eeing the pomp and expectations of court life in Act II when he comes across the swan maidens. They tell him

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the story of their enchantment, and as Siegfried casts away his gun Odette declares him a friend.

The Pas d’action follows, featuring solos from the harp, violin, and cello, in music rescued from Tchaikovsky’s ill-fated opera Undine: the violin takes the soprano line of the original duet, the cello the baritone. This is not a dance for mere diversion or display but for plot development: Siegfried invites Odette to attend the ball at which he must choose his bride, imploring her not to reject his love.

Their plans are ill-fated. Rothbart brings his daughter Odile (the ‘Black Swan’) to the court ball and Siegfried, thinking she is his beloved, claims her as his bride. Odette’s heartbreak at this betrayal is accompanied by stormy and agitated music in the fi nal scenes of Act IV.

In the complete ballet, the oboe’s ‘swan theme’ ties the music together and often carries the drama. When it returns for the last time in the Scène fi nale, it moves from its original B minor to an apparently triumphant B major, a gesture sometimes compared to the forced mood of triumph in the fi nale of Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony. But as John Warrack observes, for Tchaikovsky the truer ending is the enigmatic close on a long-held B: neither major nor minor, neither victory nor loss.

Swan Lake is the quintessential ballet. Its scenario has all the right ingredients: a handsome if melancholy prince, a tragic heroine, an evil sorcerer, a glittering royal court, a dash of international fl avour in the foreign princesses… and enchanted swans. Its score – written by a composer armed not with experience but with an unerring natural instinct – is luminous and deeply emotional.

Adapted from notes by YVONNE FRINDLE © 2000 (Nutcracker); © 1999, 2003 (Swan Lake)

The ballet suites in this concert call for a core orchestra of three flutes (including piccolo), two oboes, two clarinets and two bassoons; four horns, two trumpets, three trombones and tuba; timpani and percussion; harp and strings. In addition, Nutcracker calls for cor anglais and bass clarinet in the woodwinds, two cornets in the brass, an extra harp, and the signature ‘Sugar Plum Fair y’ sound of the celesta.

The Sydney Symphony first performed music from the Nutcracker and Swan Lake ballets in concerts in 1938, both conducted by Percy Code. In a 1990 Family Concert, we performed excerpts from Nutcracker, accompanying dancers of the Langshaw Ballet, and most recently we presented highlights from Nutcracker in the 2010 Meet the Music series, conducted by Thomas Adès. Swan Lake has been absent from our concert programming for some years: in 1999, the Pas d’action from Act II was included in a Summer Concert conducted by Yaron Traub, and the most recent performance of a suite of highlights was in the 43rd Gala Benefit in 1989, conducted by Stuart Challender.

Tchaikovsky had long wished to try his hand at ballet music.

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MORE MUSIC

GOLIJOV

Perhaps the best recording of Last Round can be found on a disc of Golijov’s music released by the St Lawrence String Quartet in 2002. It appears with Yiddishbbuk, Lullaby and Doina (for which the quartet is joined by fl ute, clarinet and double bass), and The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind (with clarinet). In Last Round the second quartet is the Ying String Quartet, and Mark Dresser plays double bass.EMI CLASSICS 57356

To hear some of Golijov’s orchestral music, look for Oceana, a 2007 release recorded by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Robert Spano, with Dawn Upshaw and the Kronos Quartet among the featured artists.DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 477 6426

FALLA

One of the most admired performers of Nights in the Gardens of Spain has been Alicia de Larrocha. Her recording with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos can be found on ‘Double Decca’ 2CD release, The Essential Falla. And all the essentials are accounted for: Love, the Magician, the Harpsichord Concerto, the ‘Homenaje’ Le tombeau de Debussy for guitar, Psyche, the seven popular Spanish songs (with Marilyn Horne), four Spanish pieces (again featuring Alicia de Larrocha), and The Three-Cornered Hat (with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra conducted by Charles Dutoit).DECCA 466 1282

TCHAIKOVSKY BALLETS

There’s an abundance of recordings of Tchaikovsky’s ballet music, whether suites and highlights or complete recordings. For Nutcracker you can’t go past the exhilarating performance by Valery Gergiev with the Kirov Theatre Orchestra (the orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg, where the ballet was premiered). The eye-catching production is also available on video.PHILIPS 462 1142DECCA 074 3217 (DVD); 074 3301 (BLU-RAY)

A more recent recording of the complete ballet, by the Berlin Philharmonic and Simon Rattle, comes in an ‘Experience Edition’ with lavish digital extras on EMI Classics. Available in physical format or as a download through iTunes.EMI CLASSICS 31621

Also highly recommended is Graeme Murphy’s brilliant re-imagining of Nutcracker from an Australian perspective. Nutcracker: The Story of Clara takes its inspiration from the visits to Australia of touring companies such as the Ballets Russes in the 1940s. Available on DVD through ABC Shops and The Australian Ballet.ABC DVD

Swan Lake also off ers an embarrassment of choice, including a Gergiev/Kirov option on DVD or Blu-ray (Decca). But among the CD recordings, look for Mikhail Pletnev and the Russian National Orchestra.ONDINE 1167-2

Sleeping Beauty is Tchaikovsky’s other great ballet, and you can have all three complete scores, together with his Pathétique Symphony and selected orchestral works, in a bargain-priced 6CD set from Brilliant Classics, with performances by the Suisse Romande Orchestra and Ernest Ansermet.BRILLIANT CLASSICS 94031

STEVEN OSBORNE

Steven Osborne’s most recent release on the Hyperion label is a 2CD recording of the complete solo piano music of Ravel (2011).HYPERION 67731

Other releases on Hyperion include Schubert piano duets, recorded with Paul Lewis, and award-winning recordings of the Rachmaninoff 24 Preludes (2010) and Britten’s complete works for piano and orchestra (2008). Visit the Hyperion website for a complete catalogue and details of forthcoming releases.www.hyperion-records.co.uk

Broadcast DiaryMay

Saturday 12 May, 8pmmozart’s requiem: choral contrastsDavid Zinman conductorWelch-Babidge, Campbell, McMahon, Whelan vocal soloistsSydney Philharmonia ChoirsPoulenc, MozartPlease note change of broadcast time.

Monday 21 May, 7pma gershwin tributeBramwell Tovey piano-conductorTracy Dahl soprano

Friday 25 May, 8pmcarnevaleDavid Zinman conductorAndreas Haefl iger pianoBerlioz, Beethoven, Elgar

2MBS-FM 102.5sydney symphony 2012 Tuesday 8 May, 6pmMusicians, staff and guest artists discuss what’s in store in our forthcoming concerts.

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Webcasts

Selected Sydney Symphony concerts are webcast live on BigPond and Telstra T-box and made available for later viewing On Demand.Coming up next:a gershwin tributeMonday 21 May at 7pm

Visit: bigpondmusic.com/sydneysymphonyLive webcasts can also be viewed via our mobile app.

Glazunov & ShostakovichAlexander Lazarev conducts a thrilling performance of Shostakovich 9 and Glazunov’s Seasons. SSO 2

Strauss & SchubertGianluigi Gelmetti conducts Schubert’s Unfi nished and R Strauss’s Four Last Songs with Ricarda Merbeth. SSO 200803

Sir Charles MackerrasA 2CD set featuring Sir Charles’s fi nal performances with the orchestra, in October 2007. SSO 200705

Brett DeanBrett Dean performs his own viola concerto, conducted by Simone Young, in this all-Dean release. SSO 200702

RavelGelmetti conducts music by one of his favourite composers: Maurice Ravel. Includes Bolero. SSO 200801

Rare Rachmaninoff Rachmaninoff chamber music with Dene Olding, the Goldner Quartet, soprano Joan Rodgers and Vladimir Ashkenazy at the piano. SSO 200901

Sydney Symphony Live

The Sydney Symphony Live label was founded in 2006 and we’ve since released more than a dozen recordings featuring the orchestra in live concert performances with our titled conductors and leading guest artists, including the Mahler Odyssey cycle, begun in 2010. To purchase, visit sydneysymphony.com/shop

Sydney Symphony Online

Join us on Facebookfacebook.com/sydneysymphony

Follow us on Twittertwitter.com/sydsymph

Watch us on YouTubewww.youtube.com/SydneySymphony

Visit sydneysymphony.com for concert information, podcasts, and to read the program book in the week of the concert.

Stay tuned. Sign up to receive our fortnightly e-newslettersydneysymphony.com/staytuned

Download our free mobile app for iPhone or Androidsydneysymphony.com/mobile_app

MAHLER ODYSSEY ON CDDuring the 2010 and 2011 concert seasons, the Sydney Symphony and Vladimir Ashkenazy set out to perform all the Mahler symphonies, together with some of the song cycles. These concerts were recorded for CD, with nine releases so far and more to come.

Mahler 9 OUT NOW

In March, Mahler’s Ninth, his last completed symphony, was released. SSO 201201

ALSO CURRENTLY AVAILABLE

Mahler 1 & Songs of a WayfarerSSO 201001

Mahler 8 (Symphony of a Thousand)SSO 201002

Mahler 5 SSO 201003

Song of the Earth SSO 201004

Mahler 3 SSO 201101

Mahler 4 SSO 201102

Mahler 6 SSO 201103

Mahler 7 SSO 201104

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ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Andrew Grams CONDUCTOR

One of America’s most promising and talented young conductors, Andrew Grams has already appeared with many of the great American orchestras, including the Cleveland Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra and Chicago Symphony Orchestra, as well as leading orchestras in Europe and Canada, and with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in Australia.

Andrew Grams began conducting at the age of 17, when he directed the World Youth Symphony Orchestra at Interlochen Arts Camp in Michigan. In 1999 he received a degree in violin performance from the Juilliard School, and in 2003 he received a conducting degree from the Curtis Institute of Music, where he worked with Otto-Werner Mueller. That same year he was selected to study with David Zinman, Murry Sidlin and Michael Stern at the American Academy of Conducting at the Aspen Music Festival, returning in 2004. During his student years he also played violin as a member of the New York City Ballet Orchestra.

As a protégé of Franz Welser-Möst, Andrew Grams served as Assistant Conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra from 2004 to 2007, appearing in subscription concerts and conducting at Blossom, the orchestra’s outdoor summer venue.

In the 2011–12 season he has made debut appearances with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic, Bergen Philharmonic, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Netherlands Philharmonic (Amsterdam) and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, among others. He also made three appearances with the Residentie Orchestra in The Hague, following concerts with that orchestra in 2010–11.

Recent highlights have included concerts with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic and an appearance at the Grand Park Festival in Chicago, as well as return visits to the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra and the Malmö Symphony. Andrew Grams has also conducted the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra and the National Arts Centre Orchestra of Ottawa; the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales and National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland (RTE); and the Seoul Philharmonic and the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony.

This is Andrew Grams’ Sydney Symphony debut. On this tour he also conducts the Adelaide and Tasmanian symphony orchestras.

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Steven Osborne PIANO

Steven Osborne is renowned for his idiomatic approach to repertoire ranging from Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms to the rarefi ed worlds of Messiaen, Tippett and Britten. Born in Scotland in 1971, he studied with Richard Beauchamp in Edinburgh and Renna Kellaway at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. After graduating, he won the 1991 Clara Haskil Competition, and he has since won numerous awards and prizes including a 2009 Gramophone Award for his recording of Britten’s works for piano and orchestra.

He has performed with orchestras throughout Europe as well as the NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and orchestras in Australia, and he works regularly with the major British orchestras, especially the Philharmonia Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and BBC Philharmonic. He has collaborated with conductors such as Christoph von Dohnányi, Alan Gilbert, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Ludovic Morlot, Leif Segerstam, Andrew Litton, Ingo Metzmacher, Vladimir Jurowski and Jukka-Pekka Saraste.

Steven Osborne began the 2011–12 concert season with a recital in the International Piano Series at the South Bank Centre in London, and has performed concertos with the London Philharmonic and Jurowski (Prokofi ev), Vienna Symphony Orchestra and Adám Fischer (Stravinsky), Royal Flemish Philharmonic and Edo de Waart (Britten), among others. Following his acclaimed recording of Ravel’s complete solo piano music, he is touring a two-concert program, including performances at Wigmore Hall and De Singel (Antwerp).

He has been praised for his carefully crafted solo recitals and his regular chamber music partners include cellist Alban Gerhardt, pianist Paul Lewis, bass-baritone Dietrich Henschel and violinist Alina Ibragimova. He has performed in many of the world’s leading venues including the Konzerthaus Vienna, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Philharmonie Berlin, Palais des Beaux Arts Brussels, Suntory Hall Tokyo, Kennedy Center Washington and Carnegie Hall.

In addition to his recent Ravel recording, his extensive discography includes Rachmaninoff Preludes, Debussy’s Préludes, Beethoven Bagatelles, Tippett’s piano sonatas and Piano Concerto and Messiaen’s Vingt regards sur l’enfant-Jésus.

Steven Osborne’s most recent appearance with the Sydney Symphony was in 2010, when he performed Mozart’s Piano Concerto No.13 in C, K415 with Vladimir Ashkenazy conducting. He returns later this year to perform with the Australian Chamber Orchestra.

Louis Lortie, our originally scheduled soloist, has had to cancel his engagements with the Sydney Symphony because of a longer-than-expected healing period following a fracture in his left arm late last year.

We are grateful to Steven Osborne for agreeing to perform with us at short notice, and to the Australian Chamber Orchestra for releasing him to appear in these additional Sydney concerts in 2012.

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MUSICIANS

Vladimir AshkenazyPrincipal Conductor and Artistic Advisor supported by Emirates

Dene OldingConcertmaster

Nicholas CarterAssociate Conductor supported by Premier Partner Credit Suisse

FIRST VIOLINS Sun Yi Associate Concertmaster

Katherine Lukey Assistant Concertmaster

Fiona Ziegler Assistant Concertmaster

Julie Batty Jennifer Booth Marianne BroadfootBrielle ClapsonAmber Davis Jennifer Hoy Nicola Lewis Alexander NortonElizabeth Jones*Martin Silverton*Tereza Singer*Dene Olding Concertmaster

Kirsten Williams Associate Concertmaster

Sophie Cole Alexandra MitchellLéone Ziegler

SECOND VIOLINS Kirsty Hilton Marina Marsden Susan Dobbie Principal Emeritus

Shuti Huang Stan W Kornel Benjamin Li Nicole Masters Philippa Paige Biyana Rozenblit Maja Verunica Alexandra D’Elia°Emily Qin°Emma West Assistant Principal

Emily LongA/Assistant Principal

Maria Durek Emma Hayes

VIOLASTobias Breider Anne-Louise Comerford Justine Marsden Jane Hazelwood Robyn Brookfield Graham Hennings Leonid Volovelsky Tara Houghton°Shelley Sorensen*David Wicks*Roger Benedict Sandro Costantino Stuart Johnson Felicity Tsai

CELLOSCatherine Hewgill Leah Lynn Assistant Principal

Timothy NankervisChristopher Pidcock Adrian Wallis David Wickham Rowena Macneish°Adam Szabo°Rachael Tobin°Kristy ConrauFenella Gill Elizabeth Neville

DOUBLE BASSESKees Boersma Neil Brawley Principal Emeritus

David Campbell Steven Larson Richard Lynn David Murray Benjamin Ward Alex Henery

FLUTES Janet Webb Carolyn HarrisRosamund Plummer Principal Piccolo

Emma Sholl

OBOESShefali Pryor David Papp Alexandre Oguey Principal Cor Anglais

Diana Doherty

CLARINETSLawrence Dobell Christopher Tingay Craig Wernicke Principal Bass Clarinet

Francesco Celata

BASSOONSNicole Tait°Fiona McNamara Matthew Wilkie Noriko Shimada Principal Contrabassoon

HORNSRobert Johnson Geoffrey O’ReillyPrincipal 3rd

Marnie Sebire Jenny McLeod-Sneyd°Ben Jacks Euan Harvey

TRUMPETSDavid Elton John FosterAnthony Heinrichs Andrew Evans*Paul Goodchild

TROMBONESRonald Prussing Nick Byrne Brett Page*Scott Kinmont Christopher Harris Principal Bass Trombone

TUBASteve Rossé

TIMPANIMark Robinson Assistant Principal

Richard Miller

PERCUSSIONRebecca Lagos Colin Piper John Douglas*Brian Nixon* HARP Louise Johnson Natalie Wong*

CELESTAJosephine Allan*

Bold = PrincipalItalics = Associate Principal* = Guest Musician° = Contract Musician† = Sydney Symphony FellowGrey = Permanent member of the Sydney Symphony not appearing in this concert

To see photographs of the full roster of permanent musicians and find out more about the orchestra, visit our website: www.sydneysymphony.com/SSO_musiciansIf you don’t have access to the internet, ask one of our customer service representatives for a copy of our Musicians flyer.

The men of the Sydney Symphony are proudly outfitted by Van Heusen.

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THE SYDNEY SYMPHONY

Founded in 1932 by the Australian Broadcasting Commission, the Sydney Symphony has evolved into one of the world’s fi nest orchestras as Sydney has become one of the world’s great cities.

Resident at the iconic Sydney Opera House, where it gives more than 100 performances each year, the Sydney Symphony also performs in venues throughout Sydney and regional New South Wales. International tours to Europe, Asia and the USA have earned the orchestra worldwide recognition for artistic excellence, most recently in the 2011 tour of Japan and Korea.

The Sydney Symphony’s fi rst Chief Conductor was Sir Eugene Goossens, appointed in 1947; he was followed by Nicolai Malko, Dean Dixon, Moshe Atzmon, Willem van Otterloo, Louis Frémaux, Sir Charles Mackerras, Zdenek Mácal, Stuart Challender, Edo de Waart and, most recently, Gianluigi Gelmetti. The orchestra’s history also boasts collaborations with legendary fi gures such as George Szell, Sir Thomas Beecham, Otto Klemperer and Igor Stravinsky.

The Sydney Symphony’s award-winning education program is central to its commitment to the future of live symphonic music, developing audiences and engaging the participation of young people. The Sydney Symphony promotes the work of Australian composers through performances, recordings and its commissioning program. Recent premieres have included major works by Ross Edwards, Liza Lim, Lee Bracegirdle, Gordon Kerry and Georges Lentz, and a recording of works by Brett Dean was released on both the BIS and Sydney Symphony Live labels.

Other releases on the Sydney Symphony Live label, established in 2006, include performances with Alexander Lazarev, Gianluigi Gelmetti, Sir Charles Mackerras and Vladimir Ashkenazy. The orchestra has recently completed recording the Mahler symphonies, and has also released recordings with Ashkenazy of Rachmaninoff and Elgar orchestral works on the Exton/Triton labels, as well as numerous recordings on the ABC Classics label.

This is the fourth year of Ashkenazy’s tenure as Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor.

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BEHIND THE SCENES

MANAGING DIRECTOR

Rory JeffesEXECUTIVE TEAM ASSISTANT

Lisa Davies-Galli

ARTISTIC OPERATIONS

DIRECTOR OF ARTISTIC PLANNING

Peter Czornyj

Artistic AdministrationARTISTIC ADMINISTRATION MANAGER

Elaine ArmstrongARTIST LIAISON MANAGER

Ilmar LeetbergRECORDING ENTERPRISE MANAGER

Philip Powers

Education ProgramsHEAD OF EDUCATION

Kim WaldockEMERGING ARTISTS PROGRAM MANAGER

Mark LawrensonEDUCATION COORDINATOR

Rachel McLarin

LibraryLIBRARIAN

Anna CernikLIBRARY ASSISTANT

Victoria GrantLIBRARY ASSISTANT

Mary-Ann Mead

ORCHESTRA MANAGEMENT

DIRECTOR OF ORCHESTRA MANAGEMENT

Aernout KerbertORCHESTRA MANAGER

Christopher Lewis-ToddORCHESTRA COORDINATOR

Georgia StamatopoulosOPERATIONS MANAGER

Kerry-Anne CookTECHNICAL MANAGER

Derek CouttsPRODUCTION COORDINATOR

Tim DaymanPRODUCTION COORDINATOR

Ian SpenceSTAGE MANAGER

Peter Gahan

SALES AND MARKETING

DIRECTOR OF SALES & MARKETING

Mark J ElliottMARKETING MANAGER, SUBSCRIPTION SALES

Simon Crossley-MeatesA/SENIOR MARKETING MANAGER, SALES

Matthew RiveMARKETING MANAGER, BUSINESS RESOURCES

Katrina RiddleONLINE MARKETING MANAGER

Eve Le Gall

John C Conde ao ChairmanTerrey Arcus amEwen CrouchRoss GrantJennifer HoyRory JeffesAndrew KaldorIrene LeeDavid LivingstoneGoetz RichterDavid Smithers am

Sydney Symphony Board

Sydney Symphony Council

Sydney Symphony StaffMARKETING & ONLINE COORDINATOR

Kaisa HeinoGRAPHIC DESIGNER

Lucy McCulloughDATA ANALYST

Varsha KarnikMARKETING ASSISTANT

Jonathon Symonds

Box OfficeMANAGER OF BOX OFFICE SALES & OPERATIONS

Lynn McLaughlinMANAGER OF BOX OFFICE OPERATIONS

Tom DowneyCUSTOMER SERVICE REPRESENTATIVES

Steve Clarke – Senior CSRMichael DowlingDerek ReedJohn RobertsonBec Sheedy

COMMUNICATIONS

HEAD OF COMMUNICATIONS

Yvonne ZammitPUBLICIST

Katherine StevensonDIGITAL CONTENT PRODUCER

Ben Draisma

PublicationsPUBLICATIONS EDITOR & MUSIC PRESENTATION MANAGER

Yvonne Frindle

DEVELOPMENT

DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT

Caroline SharpenCORPORATE RELATIONS

Julia OwensCORPORATE RELATIONS

Stephen AttfieldPHILANTHROPY, PATRONS PROGRAM

Ivana JirasekPHILANTHROPY, EVENTS & ENGAGEMENT

Amelia Morgan-Hunn

BUSINESS SERVICES

DIRECTOR OF FINANCE

John HornFINANCE MANAGER

Ruth TolentinoACCOUNTANT

Minerva PrescottACCOUNTS ASSISTANT

Emma FerrerPAYROLL OFFICER

Geoff Ravenhill

HUMAN RESOURCES

HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGER

Anna Kearsley

Geoff Ainsworth amAndrew Andersons aoMichael Baume aoChristine BishopIta Buttrose ao obePeter CudlippJohn Curtis amGreg Daniel amJohn Della BoscaAlan FangErin FlahertyDr Stephen FreibergDonald Hazelwood ao obeDr Michael Joel amSimon JohnsonYvonne Kenny amGary LinnaneAmanda LoveHelen Lynch amJoan MacKenzieDavid MaloneyDavid Malouf aoJulie Manfredi-HughesDeborah MarrThe Hon. Justice Jane Mathews aoDanny MayWendy McCarthy aoJane MorschelGreg ParamorDr Timothy Pascoe amProf. Ron Penny aoJerome RowleyPaul SalteriSandra SalteriJuliana SchaefferLeo Schofield amFred Stein oamGabrielle TrainorIvan UngarJohn van OgtropPeter Weiss amMary WhelanRosemary White

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SYDNEY SYMPHONY PATRONS

Maestro’s CirclePeter Weiss am – Founding President & Doris WeissJohn C Conde ao – ChairmanGeoff Ainsworth am & Vicki Ainsworth Tom Breen & Rachael KohnIn memory of Hetty & Egon GordonAndrew Kaldor & Renata Kaldor aoRoslyn Packer aoPenelope Seidler amMr Fred Street am & Mrs Dorothy StreetWestfield GroupBrian & Rosemary WhiteRay Wilson oam in memory of the late James Agapitos oam

Sydney Symphony Leadership EnsembleDavid Livingstone, CEO, Credit Suisse, AustraliaAlan Fang, Chairman, Tianda GroupMacquarie Group FoundationJohn Morschel, Chairman, ANZAndrew Kaldor, Chairman, Pelikan Artline

Lynn Kraus, Sydney Office Managing Partner, Ernst & YoungShell Australia Pty LtdJames Stevens, CEO, Roses OnlyStephen Johns, Chairman, Leighton Holdings,and Michele Johns

01 Roger Benedict Principal Viola Kim Williams am & Catherine Dovey Chair

02 Lawrence Dobell Principal Clarinet Anne Arcus & Terrey Arcus am Chair

03 Diana Doherty Principal Oboe Andrew Kaldor & Renata Kaldor ao Chair

04 Richard Gill oam Artistic Director Education Sandra & Paul Salteri Chair

05 Jane Hazelwood Viola Veolia Environmental Services Chair

06 Catherine Hewgill Principal Cello Tony & Fran Meagher Chair

07 Elizabeth Neville Cello Ruth & Bob Magid Chair

08 Colin Piper Percussion Justice Jane Mathews ao Chair

09 Shefali Pryor Associate Principal Oboe Rose Herceg Chair

10 Emma Sholl Associate Principal Flute Robert & Janet Constable Chair

For information about the Directors’ Chairs program, please call (02) 8215 4619.

Directors’ Chairs

01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

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28 sydney symphony

PLAYING YOUR PART

Platinum Patrons$20,000+Brian AbelGeoff Ainsworth am & Vicki Ainsworth Robert Albert ao & Elizabeth AlbertTerrey Arcus am & Anne ArcusTom Breen & Rachael KohnSandra & Neil BurnsMr John C Conde aoRobert & Janet ConstableDr Bruno & Mrs Rhonda GiuffreIn memory of Hetty & Egon GordonMs Rose HercegMrs E HerrmanMr Andrew Kaldor & Mrs Renata Kaldor ao

D & I KallinikosJames N Kirby FoundationJustice Jane Mathews aoMrs Roslyn Packer aoDr John Roarty oam in memory of Mrs June Roarty

Paul & Sandra SalteriMrs Penelope Seidler amMrs W SteningMr Fred Street am & Mrs Dorothy Street

Mr Peter Weiss am & Mrs Doris Weiss

Westfield Group Mr Brian & Mrs Rosemary WhiteRay Wilson oam in memory of James Agapitos oam

Kim Williams am & Catherine DoveyJune & Alan Woods Family BequestAnonymous (1)

Gold Patrons$10,000–$19,999Alan & Christine BishopIan & Jennifer BurtonMr C R AdamsonThe Estate of Ruth M DavidsonThe Hon. Ashley Dawson-DamerPaul R EspieFerris Family FoundationJames & Leonie FurberMr Ross GrantHelen Lynch am & Helen BauerMrs Joan MacKenzieRuth & Bob MagidMrs T Merewether oamTony & Fran MeagherMr B G O’ConorMrs Joyce Sproat & Mrs Janet CookeMs Caroline WilkinsonAnonymous (2)

The Sydney Symphony gratefully acknowledges the music lovers who donate to the orchestra each year. Each gift plays an important part in ensuring our continued artistic excellence and helping to sustain important education and regional touring programs. Donations of $50 and above are acknowledged on our website at sydneysymphony.com/patrons

Silver Patrons$5,000–$9,999Mark Bethwaite am & Carolyn BethwaiteJan BowenMr Alexander & Mrs Vera BoyarskyMr Robert BrakspearMr Robert & Mrs L Alison CarrBob & Julie ClampettIan Dickson & Reg HollowayMr Colin Draper & Mary Jane Brodribb Penny EdwardsMichael & Gabrielle FieldMr James Graham am & Mrs Helen Graham

Mrs Jennifer HershonMichelle Hilton Stephen Johns & Michele BenderJudges of the Supreme Court of NSW Mr Ervin KatzThe Estate of the late Patricia LanceGary LinnaneMr David LivingstoneWilliam McIlrath Charitable FoundationDavid Maloney & Erin FlahertyEva & Timothy PascoeRodney Rosenblum am & Sylvia Rosenblum

Manfred & Linda SalamonThe Sherry Hogan FoundationDavid & Isabel SmithersIan & Wendy ThompsonMichael & Mary Whelan TrustDr Richard WingateJill WranAnonymous (1)

Bronze Patrons$2,500 – $4,999Dr Lilon BandlerStephen J BellMarc Besen ao & Eva Besen aoMr David & Mrs Halina BrettLenore P BuckleHoward ConnorsEwen & Catherine CrouchVic & Katie FrenchMr Erich GockelMs Kylie GreenAnthony Gregg & Deanne WhittlestonAnn HobanIrwin Imhof in memory of Herta ImhofJ A McKernanR & S Maple-BrownGreg & Susan MarieMora MaxwellJames & Elsie MooreJustice George Palmer amBruce & Joy Reid Foundation

Mary Rossi TravelMrs Hedy SwitzerMarliese & Georges TeitlerMs Gabrielle TrainorJ F & A van OgtropAnonymous (3)

Bronze Patrons$1,000-$2,499Charles & Renee AbramsAndrew Andersons aoMr Henri W Aram oamDr Francis J AugustusRichard BanksDavid BarnesDoug & Alison BattersbyMichael Baume ao & Toni BaumePhil & Elese BennettNicole BergerMrs Jan BiberJulie BlighM BulmerIn memory of R W BurleyEric & Rosemary CampbellDr John H CaseyDebby Cramer & Bill CaukillDr Diana Choquette & Mr Robert Milliner

Joan Connery oam & Maxwell Connery oam

Mr John Cunningham scm & Mrs Margaret Cunningham

Lisa & Miro DavisMatthew DelaseyJohn FavaloroMr Edward FedermanMr Ian Fenwicke & Prof. N R WillsFirehold Pty LtdDr & Mrs C GoldschmidtAkiko GregoryIn memory of the late Dora & Oscar Grynberg

Janette HamiltonDorothy Hoddinott aoPaul & Susan HotzThe Hon. David Hunt ao qc & Mrs Margaret Hunt

Dr & Mrs Michael HunterMr Peter HutchisonMichael & Anna JoelThe Hon. Paul KeatingIn Memory of Bernard MH KhawAnna-Lisa KlettenbergMr Justin Lam Wendy LapointeMs Jan Lee Martin & Mr Peter LazarKevin & Deidre McCannRobert McDougall

sydney symphony 29

To find out more about becominga Sydney Symphony Patron, pleasecontact the Philanthropy Officeon (02) 8215 4625 or emailphilanthropy@sydneysymphony.com

Ian & Pam McGawMatthew McInnesMacquarie Group FoundationMr Robert & Mrs Renee MarkovicAlan & Joy MartinHarry M Miller, Lauren Miller Cilento & Josh Cilento

Miss An NhanMrs Rachel O’ConorDrs Keith & Eileen OngMr R A OppenMr Robert OrrellMr & Mrs OrtisMaria PagePiatti Holdings Pty LtdAdrian & Dairneen PiltonDr Raffi QasabianErnest & Judith RapeeKenneth R Reed Patricia H Reid Endowment Pty LtdJohn SaundersIn memory of H St P ScarlettJuliana SchaefferMr & Mrs Jean-Marie SimartCatherine StephenJohn & Alix SullivanThe Hon Brian Sully qcMildred TeitlerAndrew & Isolde TornyaGerry & Carolyn TraversJohn E TuckeyMrs M TurkingtonIn memory of Dr Reg WalkerHenry & Ruth WeinbergThe Hon. Justice A G WhealyGeoff Wood & Melissa WaitesWarren GreenMr R R WoodwardDr John Yu & Dr George SoutterAnonymous (12)

Bronze Patrons$500–$999Mr Peter J ArmstrongMr & Mrs Garry S AshMrs Baiba B Berzins & Dr Peter Loveday Dr & Mrs Hannes BoshoffMinnie BriggsDr Miles BurgessPat & Jenny Burnett

Ita Buttrose ao obeStephen Bryne & Susie GleesonThe Hon. Justice J C & Mrs CampbellMr Percy ChissickMrs Catherine J ClarkJen CornishGreta DavisElizabeth DonatiDr Nita & Dr James DurhamGreg Earl & Debbie CameronMr & Mrs FarrellRobert GellingVivienne GoldschmidtMr Robert GreenMr Richard Griffin amJules & Tanya HallMr Hugh HallardMr Ken HawkingsMrs A HaywardDr Heng & Mrs Cilla TeyMr Roger HenningRev Harry & Mrs Meg HerbertSue HewittMr Joerg HofmannMs Dominique Hogan-DoranMr Brian HorsfieldAlex HoughtonBill & Pam HughesSusie & Geoff IsraelMrs W G KeighleyMr & Mrs Gilles T KrygerMrs M J LawrenceDr & Mrs Leo LeaderMargaret LedermanMrs Yolanda LeeMartine LettsAnita & Chris LevyErna & Gerry Levy amDr Winston LiauwMrs Helen LittleSydney & Airdrie LloydMrs A LohanMrs Panee LowCarolyn & Peter Lowry oamDr David LuisMelvyn MadiganDr Jean MalcolmMrs Silvana MantellatoMr K J MartinGeoff & Jane McClellan

Mrs Flora MacDonaldMrs Helen MeddingsDavid & Andree MilmanKenneth N MitchellChris Morgan-HunnNola NettheimMrs Margaret NewtonMr Graham NorthDr M C O’Connor amA Willmers & R PalDr A J PalmerMr Andrew C PattersonDr Kevin PedemontDr Natalie E PelhamMr Allan PidgeonRobin PotterLois & Ken RaeMr Donald RichardsonPamela RogersAgnes RossDr Mark & Mrs Gillian SelikowitzCaroline SharpenMrs Diane Shteinman amDr Agnes E SinclairDoug & Judy SotherenMrs Elsie StaffordMr Lindsay & Mrs Suzanne StoneMr D M SwanMr Norman TaylorMs Wendy ThompsonKevin TroyJudge Robyn TupmanGillian Turner & Rob BishopProf. Gordon E WallRonald WalledgeMr Robert & Mrs Rosemary WalshMr Palmer WangDavid & Katrina WilliamsAudrey & Michael WilsonDr Richard WingMr Robert WoodsMr & Mrs Glenn WyssMrs Robin YabsleyAnonymous (18)

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SALUTE

PRINCIPAL PARTNER

The Sydney Symphony is assisted by the Commonwealth Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body

The Sydney Symphony is assisted by the NSW Government through Arts NSW

GOVERNMENT PARTNERS

PREMIER PARTNER

COMMUNITY PARTNER MAJOR PARTNERS

2MBS 102.5 Sydney’s Fine Music Station

PLATINUM PARTNER

SILVER PARTNERS

REGIONAL TOUR PARTNERS

MARKETING PARTNER

GOLD PARTNERS

ORCHESTRA NEWS |APRIL 2012

Anne-Louise Comerford and her viola have been partners for almost as long as she’s been a member of the Sydney Symphony. ‘I joined the orchestra in ’87. I had been looking for an instru-ment for years – in Europe and all over the States. When the SSO was on tour there in ’88, a friend who was playing in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra was getting her instrument cleaned, so I tagged along to the dealer’s. The fi rst instrument I tried, I fell in love with.’ It w as a Domenico Degani viola made in Montag-nana in 1860. ‘It was the beautiful

big sound on the C string that I loved. It was exactly the sound I wanted for myself. So I bor-rowed the viola for two concerts, rang my jazz trumpeter husband who was on tour in Europe and he wired me the entire fee from his tour for the deposit. That viola has made every single day of my working life a pleasure ever since.’

One of three professional viola-playing sisters, Anne-Louise credits viola legend Robert Pikler with fi ring their passion for the instrument: ‘I still carry the sound of his playing with me today. I don’t think I’ve ever

heard anything like it since.’ She’s also grateful for the perspec-tive she gained in the States and Europe during her studies. ‘I felt very comfortable in Germany, because there was a single-mind-edness in their approach to music. It was also a real melting-pot of cultures. You could learn as much from your peers as from your teachers.’

‘In Australia I think there’s a broader sense of musicianship. I don’t feel like a “card-carrying” viola player. I feel like a musician. I feel like everyone in the orches-tra would think of themselves fi rst as musicians.’

That said, the climate here is sometimes at odds with the pursuit of high art and culture: ‘There was one time I was playing Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk next door [as a guest musician with the opera orches-tra]. That music is so dark, and murderous, and grim. But it was a matinee! I walked out of the Opera House and into this bril-liant blue afternoon, like a Brett Whitely painting! It was so at odds with the opera I remember thinking “you couldn’t write that piece in Australia”.’

❝I don’t feel like a ‘card-carrying’ viola player.

❞

PARTNERS IN TIMEAssociate Principal Viola Anne-Louise Comerford on buying an instrument, international perspectives, and the climate.

Ask a MusicianI’m curious to know how the rehearsals happen when the orchestra performs with a chorus? Don’t all those singers have day jobs?

You’re quite right in thinking that daytime rehearsals are an impossibility when the orchestra works with Sydney Philharmonia Choirs. While a handful of chorus members do make their living as musicians – and therefore can work fl exible hours – the majority are talented amateur singers who work in ‘9 to 5’ jobs. So when the

program incorporates choir – as in Beethoven’s Ninth, or the forthcoming Mozart Requiem and Poulenc Gloria program (in May) – the orchestra adjusts its schedule to a pattern of afternoon and evening rehearsals.

But before the two ensembles even meet, the chorus will have been rehearsing once a week for

months beforehand, working with a language coach, memorising their parts and perfecting th eir intonation.

Cantillation, a chamber choir which also regularly appears with the orchestra, comprises profes-sional singers who can thus attend daytime rehearsals. They prefer to work in the afternoons though, when their voices have warmed up!

Have a question about the music, instruments or inner workings of the orchestra? Write to yoursay@sydneysymphony.com.au or Bravo! Reply Paid 4338, Sydney NSW 2001.

Your SayI so enjoyed seeing the Opera House and the Beethoven concert. I was impressed that the entire 100-plus members of the choir had memorised their entire parts to sing. Very rare!Kay Bruns, Michigan USA

Deidre Sim wrote to express her uplifting experience of Beethoven’s Ninth, and to share a touching tale of serendipity involving Tim Minchin.Wow! What can I say? That was such beautiful music. [Beethoven 9: Ode to Joy] The choir, the double basses, the wind, the soloists… what voices! Awesome. I felt like swinging over the balcony and dancing… on a safety harness of course. Such glorious music.You really deserved that standing ovation. That was truly glorious.

I also loved hearing Tim Minchin at the Opera House a year ago. The night I heard Tim Minchin play was the same day I was told I was going blind and needed urgent surgery. I was feeling pretty sad. I simply walked down from the specialist’s rooms to the Opera House for the concert.

Knowing nothing about the type of work Tim performed, I was beside myself with delight when he sang the song about Sam’s mum having her sight saved because a group of people got together in Dandenong and prayed for this miracle. It was really funny, very naughty, and I just loved it. He is so deliciously naughty, prescient, politically incorrect and brave.

Deidre Sim

We like to hear from you. Write to yoursay@sydneysymphony.com or Bravo! Reply Paid 4338, Sydney NSW 2001.

Anniversary EventBRASS ON THE BRIDGE

Good things happen in threes, and 1932 saw the opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge as well as the founding of the ABC and the beginnings of the Sydney Symphony. Monday 19 March was the anniversary of the opening of the Bridge, and early that morning an intrepid band of eleven Sydney Symphony brass players climbed the ‘coathanger’ to wish this Sydney icon a happy 80th birthday. High above the harbour, they played the theme from Chariots of Fire and Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man. Fittingly, ABC Radio played its part in the event, broadcasting its sounds to all those who couldn’t join us 134 metres above sea level.

Proud sponsor of theSydney Symphonyin their 80th yearof timeless entertainment

Falstaff – a noble rascalElgar’s Falstaff is a mass of con tra-dictions. Elgar didn’t regard it as program music and he was careful not to call it a ‘tone poem’. Instead it was a ‘symphonic study’ and he insisted that rather than providing a series of incidents à la Strauss’s Alpine Symphony, he’d painted a musical portrait, a sketch of a character.

But if that’s true, why is Falstaff so eventful? This might be a portrait, but it’s a vivid narrative as well. Falstaff is so rich in dramatic detail that it almost calls for surtitles, with captions to highlight the myriad of images and happenings as the music progresses.

Falstaff himself was, in Elgar’s mind, made up wholly of incon-gruities. He is a ‘goodly, portly man, of a cheerful look, a pleasing eye and a most noble carriage’. But he’s also a bumptious liber-tine, with a chaotic zest for life. Elgar reconciles the two. His Falstaff can fall into a drunken sleep (snoring courtesy of the contrabassoon) only to fi nd himself in a delicate ‘dream picture’ that takes him back to boyhood innocence.

The Sydney Symphony hasn’t played Falstaff in more than 20 years, so this May seize the oppor-tunity to hear the music that Elgar considered his best work and which he ‘enjoyed writing more than any other music’.

CarnevaleBeethoven, Berlioz & ElgarThursday Afternoon SymphonyThu 10 May | 1.30pmEmirates Metro SeriesFri 11 May | 8pmGreat ClassicsSat 12 May | 2pm

The ScoreEducation Focus

Richard Gill works with young composer Anthony Appino on his work Der Zauberlehrling (The Sorcerer’s Apprentice) in the 2010 Sinfonietta Project.

MUSICAL OFFERINGSTeenage composers tackle an 18th-century challenge

When JS Bach was challenged in 1747 by the King of Prussia to improvise a three-voice fugue on a long and complex theme, Bach managed it without any trouble. Was it Frederick II’s petulance, or perhaps the spirit of competition that then led him to raise the stakes and demand a six-voice fugue on the same subject? It’s hard to say. In any case, the remarkable result was Bach’s landmark composition, The Musical Offering.

This year, the Sydney Sym-phony Sinfonietta Project chal-lenges students from across Australia to take Bach’s Offering as a starting point for their own compositions, with a focus on the art of counterpoint.

The Sinfonietta, now in its sixth year and recently broadened to reach out at a national level, is a program designed to encour-age creativity in young people. Richard Gill, artistic director of the Sydney Symphony’s Edu-cation Program, believes the creation of new music, rather than the performance of existing repertoire, represents a pinnacle in the study of music. ‘It enriches

the entire art-form.’ His vision in creating Sinfonietta was to enrich and develop the music-writing skills of Australian high school students – opening to them new career pathways in the classical and contemporary music, fi lm and media industries.

The competition doesn’t have a single winner. Instead, the national fi nalists will be fl own to Sydney in November for workshops with Richard and the 2012 Sydney Symphony Fellows. Giving life to brand new music was part of the appeal of the Fel-lowship program for oboist Rachel Cashmore: ‘Playing contemporary music is something I’ve grown increasingly interested in. I’m really looking forward to helping bring these works to life.’

This year we welcome Leighton Holdings as Presenting Partner for Sinfonietta. The project was launched with a four-year seed gift from Geoff Ainsworth AM and Vicki Ainsworth, and also received support from the James N. Kirby Foundation in 2011.

If you or someone you know is interested in entering the Sinfonietta Project, see Coda at the end of this newsletter for more information.

To fi nd out more about supporting the Sinfonietta project and to attend the public performance on 15 November, email philanthropy@sydneysymphony.com or phone (02) 8215 4661.

SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE TRUSTMr Kim Williams AM (Chair)Ms Catherine Brenner, Ms Helen Coonan, Mr Wesley Enoch,Ms Renata Kaldor AO, Mr Robert Leece AM RFD, Mr Peter Mason AM,Dr Thomas (Tom) Parry AM, Mr Leo Schofi eld AM, Mr John Symond AM

EXECUTIVE MANAGEMENTChief Executive Officer Richard Evans Chief Operating Officer David Antaw Chief Financial Officer Claire Spencer Director, Building Development & Maintenance Greg McTaggart Director, Marketing Communications & Customer Services Victoria Doidge Director, Venue Partners & Safety Julia Pucci Executive Producer, SOH Presents Jonathan Bielski

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STRAVINSKY AT THE SSO

As part of our 80th anniversary celebrations, we recently doffed our collective party hat to the landmark visit in 1961 of composer Igor Stravinsky with a pair of concerts, ‘Stravinsky Remembered’. Donald Hazelwood, former Sydney Symphony concertmaster, recalls the original concert: ‘It was a momentous occasion because of the greatness of this man. He was a towering fi gure in the musical world, just like Ashkenazy, and the orchestra had tremendous respect for him.’

Retired music critic Roger Covell reviewed the 1961 concert. He remembers: ‘the orchestra had a habit of rising to the occasion. They played quite well.’ Having heard our recent performance of the 1945 Firebird suite, Roger says that to draw comparisons with the Sydney Symphony of today would be unfair. ‘At that time, the Sydney orchestra was continuing a development [of standards] that began after the war with the arrival of Eugene Goossens. For

this orchestra, any comparison with today represents a process of development that is quite splendid.’

CONCERT HALL ACOUSTIC PROJECTRegular concert-goers will be aware of the acoustic testing the Sydney Opera House has been conducting in the Concert Hall over the past few years. Now, based on these tests and the recommendation of consultant Larry Kirkegaard, the SOH has begun replacing the ‘sawtooth walls’ in the stalls with fl at panels. As of mid-March, four of the six sections had been replaced. Once the stalls are fi nished, the same work will be carried out on the stage. At that point, Kirkegaard will return to do more testing and to adjust the angles of the panels accordingly. The SOH hopes this work will be completed over the next couple of months.

EDUCATION ONLINE

In February our Education team presented their fi rst online Professional Learning seminar in partnership with the Sydney Opera House. About 400 teachers and students from Sydney came to the

Concert Hall to work through the Australian repertoire in this year’s Meet the Music series. They were joined live online by 60 staff and students from the Orange Regional Conservatorium. Composers Barry Conyngham and Jim Coyle spoke and several musicians from the orchestra addressed the question of best practise when writing for orchestral instruments. It was the fi rst of two seminars we will be trialling this year and by all accounts, a great success!

SINFONIETTA PROJECT: TAKE THE CHALLENGE

The Sinfonietta Project (see Education Focus) is open to high school composers throughout Australia. Visit sydneysymphony.com/sinfonietta to register your interest and to receive the resource kit, designed for composers and their teachers. Entries close Friday 21 September and the workshop takes place 13–15 November, with an Open Workshop at 1.30pm on 15 November at the ABC Ultimo Centre. (In March, Professional Learning seminars for teachers were held in Brisbane, Hobart, Melbourne and Sydney.)

CODA

BRAVO EDITOR Genevieve Lang sydneysymphony.com/bravo