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Elgar's CelloConcerto
Monday 5 September | 7:30pmCity Recital Hall
Virtuoso Series
Three PartsMozart
Haydn Symphony No. 6 in D majorMozart Bassoon Concerto in B flat majorMozart Clarinet Concerto in A majorMozart Symphony No. 40 in G minor
Thursday 3 November, 7:30pm
Guest Artists, Paul Meyer and Ben Hoadley
City Recital HallBookings 02 8256 2222 or cityrecitalhall.com
Major SponsorPrincipal Sponsor Media Partner
Monday 5 September, 7:30pmCity Recital Hall
Wolfgang Amadeus MozartFantasia in F minor
(12 mins)
Mark GrandisonRiffraction
(14 mins)
Guillaume ConnessonSextet
(13 mins)
- interval (20 mins) -
Benjamin BrittenSinfonietta
(16 mins)
Edward ElgarCello Concerto in E minor
(30 mins)
Elgar's CelloConcerto
This evening’s performance will be recorded by ABC Classic FM for future broadcast. Recording Engineer, Andre Shrimski
Pre Concert Talk, Eva Frey 6:45pm-7:15pm
Elgar's Cello Concerto - Monday 5 September 2016
The items on display at Count Joseph Deym von Střítež' once famous Viennese art gallery included plaster copies of famous objets d’art, original bronze and ivory statues, and life-like wax figures of real and mythical beings. Bespoke musical soundscapes, brought to life by mechanical instruments, accompanied the exhibitions.
In 1790, asked by the Count to write a piece for one such instrument – a clockwork organ – Mozart agreed, if only because he needed the money. Although he moaned about the task in a letter to a friend, Mozart must have decided it was worth the effort, for a few months after fulfilling the commission he registered another ‘machine composition’; the Fantasia we hear today.
The Fantasia fuses multiple movements into a single work.
The opening prelude, in the style of a French overture, leads into a dignified fugue. An andante aria provides contrast before the fugue returns in a more complex form.
One of Mozart’s last works, the Fantasia looks to both the past and the future: while drawing on the contrapuntal techniques of Mozart’s predecessors, it is more emotionally charged than most of the composer’s creations, hinting at the romantic era to come.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Fantasia in F minorK. 608 (1791)
I. AdagioII. AllegroIII. Adagio
Ense
mbl
e:Li
sa O
smia
low
ski (
flute
), M
atth
ew B
ubb
(obo
e), D
avid
Row
den
(cla
rinet
),
Ben
Hoa
dley
(bas
soon
), M
icha
el D
ixon
(hor
n), N
atsu
ko Y
oshi
mot
o (v
iolin
),
Aire
na N
akam
ura
(vio
lin),
Nei
l Tho
mps
on (v
iola
), Pa
ul S
tend
er (c
ello
),
Alex
Hen
ery
(dou
ble
bass
), M
aria
Ras
popo
va (p
iano
)
Omega Ensemble Virtuoso Series
Riffraction is a triple pun: the work is based on riffs with pop/funk-inspired rhythmic inflections; these riffs are progressively distorted by processes analogous to the way light is refracted when it travels through a medium of differing densities, like glass or water; and all this leads to plenty of musical action.
In spirit, Riffraction is a scherzo, though one who’s form and temperament is twice interrupted. Three brisk riff-based sections are separated by two hovering interludes, darker in character and offering temporary respite from the otherwise manic surface energy. The clarinet is often featured as a virtuoso soloist, with the piano and string quartet at times purely accompanimental, as though converging into a multi-limbed single instrument. At other times all six instruments
are equal partners in polyrhythmic and contrapuntal textures.
A driving factor in composing this piece was squeezing more out of less - for example, with the exception of parts of the interludes, the work is based on the same scale throughout. And often one riff will have derived from an earlier one, rather than presenting entirely new material. For each section, the incessant repetition and gradual metamorphosis of each riff offers a kaleidoscopic viewing of a persistent musical object, fundamentally the same and yet apparently ever different.
- Notes by the composer
Mark Grandison (1965-)
Riffraction(2011)
Ense
mbl
e:D
avid
Row
den
(cla
rinet
), N
atsu
ko Y
oshi
mot
o (v
iolin
), Ai
rena
Nak
amur
a (v
iolin
),
Nei
l Tho
mps
on (v
iola
), Pa
ul S
tend
er (c
ello
), M
aria
Ras
popo
va (p
iano
)
Elgar's Cello Concerto - Monday 5 September 2016
Guillaume Connesson is a French composer whose music borrows freely from wherever he finds colour and interest – from disco to techno, from the concert hall to film, from the Viennese masters to his fellow countrymen. Cosmopolitan in source and style, it is the product of a curious, well-listened and well-trained ear.
Connesson has won numerous important awards, including the Nadia and Lili Boulanger Prize in 1999 and the Grand Prix Lycéen des Compositeurs, and has received commissions from orchestras and chamber ensembles across Europe and the United States. Currently a Professor of orchestration at the Conservatoire National d'Aubervilliers-la Courneuve, Connesson’s instrumental casting is always superb and often surprising.
Of this Sextet, the composer writes:
“Composed for my friends, Eric Le Sage and Paul Meyer for a New Year concert, this Sextet was written with festivities and entertainment in mind. The first movement “Dynamic” is a series of variations, which multiply the rhythmic processes inherited from repetitive American music. The central “Nocturnal” section is a soft and painful confidence sung by the clarinet amid a harmonic backdrop of strings and piano. Finally, “Festivities” creates a sense of joy and excitement (with an allusion to Schubert's “Trout”). The score ends with a “cadential” joke.”
Guillaume Connesson (1970-)
Sextet(1998)
Ense
mbl
e:N
atsu
ko Y
oshi
mot
o (v
iolin
), N
eil T
hom
pson
(vio
la),
Alex
Hen
ery
(dou
ble
bass
),
Dav
id R
owde
n (c
larin
et),
Mat
thew
Bub
b (o
boe)
, Mar
ia R
aspo
pova
(pia
no)
Omega Ensemble Virtuoso Series
Sinfonietta Op 1. was composed in just three weeks when Benjamin Britten was just 18. He was at the time a student at London’s Royal College of Music, and dedicated the work to his teacher Frank Bridge.
The Sinfonietta is a remarkably assured work for such a young composer. Prior to entering the College he had, however, already produced such a volume of works, and paid such attention to detail in his scoring and presentation, that the much-in-demand Frank Bridge had been convinced to take him on.
The Royal College of Music was then dominated by conservative musicians such as Vaughan Williams. Bridge was more open to new ideas such as those emerging from the Second Viennese School, and the Sinfonietta shows that Britten’s mentor has already
begun to influence the young composer.
The first movement is in sonata form and the opening bars contain the intervallic structures that form the basis of the work’s melodic and harmonic themes. The rhapsodic second movement is a loose set of variations while the energetic Tarantella is one of Britten’s first forays into the music of dance that would continue to fascinate him throughout his career.
Benjamin Britten (1912-1976)
SinfoniettaOp. 1 (1932)
I. Poco presto ed agitatoII. Variations, andante lentoIII. Tarantella
Ense
mbl
e:Li
sa O
smia
low
ski (
flute
), M
atth
ew B
ubb
(obo
e), D
avid
Row
den
(cla
rinet
),
Ben
Hoa
dley
(bas
soon
), M
icha
el D
ixon
(hor
n), N
atsu
ko Y
oshi
mot
o (v
iolin
),
Aire
na N
akam
ura
(vio
lin),
Nei
l Tho
mps
on (v
iola
), Pa
ul S
tend
er (c
ello
),
Alex
Hen
ery
(dou
ble
bass
)
Elgar's Cello Concerto - Monday 5 September 2016
“My idea is that there is music in the air, music all around us,” Elgar once said: “The world is full of it and you simply take as much as you require.”
Music had always been part of Elgar’s world: his father owned a music shop, and Elgar taught himself the craft of composition by diligently studying the great Masters. Through music, Elgar worked to make sense of the world and his place in it. As music fed his life, so too, his life fed into his music.
Yet during the Great War, music as a form of expression failed the composer; he was unable to do any real work, he said, under the cloud of such an awful shadow. Yet on occasion he still experienced a flicker of creativity. Much is made of
the fact that one morning, still recovering from the effects of anaesthesia after having his tonsils removed, Elgar asked for a pen and paper in order to transcribe what would later become the Cello Concerto’s main theme.
It was not until the War had ended, however, that Elgar reapplied himself to the practice of composing, producing four significant works in the space of only 12 months, this cello concerto amongst them. These works all possess a new restraint that only serves to intensify their effect.
The Cello Concerto can be heard as a haunting lament for a lost world. And for Elgar, whose health was failing and reputation dwindling, this theme resonated
Edward Elgar (1857-1934)
Cello Concerto in E minorOp. 85 (1919) arr. Iain Farringdon
I. Adagio; ModeratoII. Lento; Allegro moltoIII. AdagioIV. Allegro; Moderato; Allegro, ma non troppo; Poco più lento; Adagio
Ense
mbl
e:Li
sa O
smia
low
ski (
flute
), M
atth
ew B
ubb
(obo
e), D
avid
Row
den
(cla
rinet
),
Ben
Hoa
dley
(bas
soon
), M
icha
el D
ixon
(hor
n), N
atsu
ko Y
oshi
mot
o (v
iolin
),
Aire
na N
akam
ura
(vio
lin),
Nei
l Tho
mps
on (v
iola
), Pa
ul S
tend
er (c
ello
),
Alex
Hen
ery
(dou
ble
bass
), M
aria
Ras
popo
va (p
iano
), O
wen
Mor
ris (T
rum
pet)
, N
igel
Cro
cker
(tro
mbo
ne),
Mar
k Ro
bins
on (T
impa
ni)
Cello Solo, Teije Hylkema
Omega Ensemble Virtuoso Series
at a personal level as well as the universal. At times heroic, but at others touched with loneliness and self-doubt and regret, the work maintains a very human connection.
It is a sign of Elgar’s genius that such emotional complexity emerges from such simple musical brushstrokes. In just the opening few moments, the dramatic opening arrests the listener’s attention before a reflective cello solo gives way to the main theme’s lilting melody whose contours reflect the rolling Malvern hills. In another context this melody may sound merely pastoral; but set amongst
Elgar’s finely crafted musical backdrop it here becomes heartbreakingly poignant.
Elgar is said to have hummed this melody to a friend as he lay dying almost 15 years after the Concerto was completed. Perhaps he felt he was in some way returning the music back to the air around us, warning his friend that: "If ever after I'm dead you hear someone whistling this tune on the Malvern Hills, don't be alarmed. It's only me".
Teije Hylkema
Teije Hylkema is the Principal Cellist of the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra.
He moved from The Netherlands to Australia in 2012 and has worked as a guest principal with various orchestras including the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra before attaining the Principal position at AOBO.
He has also performed in close collaborations with violinist Andrew Haveron, accordionist James Crabb, didgeridoo player William Barton and with major art companies such as Opera Queensland, Opera Victoria, Australian Chamber Orchestra and Dance North.
In the Netherlands, Teije was the co-principal cellist at the Radio Kamer Filharmonie, an orchestra that specialized in baroque and modern repertoire with chief conductors Jaap van Zweden and Frans Brüggen.
He was also a regular guest in the Mahler Chamber Orchestra
conducted by Daniel Harding and Claudio Abbado.
Teije graduated from Amsterdam Conservatorium under the guidance of Dmitri Ferschtman and Maarten Mostert in 2000.
He was the cellist of the Dutch Romeo Quartet for several years. They won numerous prizes and were primarily tutored by Valentin Berlinsky, Isaac Stern, the Amadeus Quartet, and the Tacacs Quartet.
Teije is a dedicated chamber music player, both on modern and baroque cello.
He has performed in many chamber music festivals in Europe and in Australia, he was a guest artist at the Tyalgum Music festival, The Sydney Chamber Music Festival and the “Organs of the Ballarat Goldfields” festival. He performs throughout the year with his pianist wife Grace Kim, the Omega Ensemble and the Sydney Cello Collective.
Teije plays a cello by Camillo Mandelli da Calco (1916).
Cello
Mark Grandison
Mark Grandison was born in Adelaide in 1965. He entered the Elder Conservatorium at Adelaide University in 1983 and studied with Richard Meale. His first orchestral works were written for the National Orchestral Composers’ Schools of 1987 and 1988. In 1990 a Masters Degree in Composition was completed and a Graduate Diploma in Education. In 1991 Grandison began secondary music teaching, becoming Co-ordinator at Marryatville High Special Interest Music Centre in 1993, whilst continuing to write chiefly instrumental works.
Grandison moved to Sydney in 1994 to become Director of Music at Kambala, a leading Girls’ School in Rose Bay. This involvement in music education initiated a series of orchestral and band pieces for youth and community groups. In these works, the composer sought both to challenge and engage young and non-professional players by combining some of the idioms associated with contemporary art music with an accessibility and
rhythmic energy found in traditional scores. Grandison has balanced this output by continuing to write more complex and technically demanding music for professional-level ensembles. The orchestral works Freefall and Fanfare Emergent won the 2001 and 2003 3MBS National Orchestral Composition Awards. In 2006 his Suite Bacchanal reached the final six in the international symphonic band composition contest ‘Coups de Vent’, which has since led to European performances and publishing. Grandison has recently completed a Violin Concerto for the Queensland Symphony Orchestra.
Grandison’s works have received numerous broadcasts on ABC-FM, the MBS-FM national network and Radio National. A wide range of professional and community ensembles have commissioned and performed his works, which have been performed in Australia, New Zealand, South-East Asia, United States and Europe.
Composer
The Ensemble
Founded in 2005, Omega Ensemble initially performed in churches and fast became one of Australia's finest and most lauded chamber groups. Omega Ensemble’s mission is to showcase outstanding artists who captivate and excite audiences through a revelatory program of chamber music. With a dedication to engage the finest Australian musicians, as well as international guest artists, Omega presents outstanding musicians in an intimate and stimulating chamber setting.
Omega Ensemble are unique in the sense that they vary the combination of musicians for each concert. Ranging from full chamber orchestra to duos they constantly provide a fresh and invigorating musical experience, captivating their audiences. Omega pride themselves on performing a diverse range of repertoire; whether it is an iconic gem, a neglected beauty or a brand new work, their passion and commitment to the highest level of craft is still deployed. For audiences, a performance by Omega touches their mind, heart and spirit.
To date, they have commissioned and performed over twenty new works that demonstrate a roster of who’s who of Australian composers
including Daniel Rojas (Hard Boiled Overture), Mark Isaacs (Chamber Symphony No.2), Cyrus Meraunt (Eventide Visions), George Palmer, Elena Kats-Chernin, Anne Boyd, Matthew Hindson, John Peterson, Margery Smith, Stuart Greenbaum, Paul Stanhope, Ben Hoadley, and their latest world premiere Contradance by acclaimed composer, author and music journalist, Andrew Ford.
As well as performing a diverse range of well-known and loved repertoire, Omega Ensemble’s programming includes works that have been lost to time. Their ability to find these pieces and bring them to life spells their deep love and passion not only for well-known chamber music, but also for exploring gems that delight, entertain and enrich their audiences.
Their innovative approach to concert repertoire and programming is further enhanced by their Online Concert Hall in which audiences can relive the magic of a live performance. Beyond these videos, Omega Ensembles’ performances are now included as part of QANTAS airlines in-flight entertainment. Omega regularly perform in the iconic Utzon Room, City Recital Hall and tour to country towns including
Orange and Bathurst, bringing their passion and joy of chamber music to audiences near and far.
In late 2016 Omega Ensemble are recording and releasing their first ABC
Classics CD which includes Mozart's Clarinet Quintet as well as George Palmer's double clarinet concerto It Takes Two, where they will be joined by acclaimed clarinetist Dimitri Ashkenazy. The CD will also include Ian Munro's Songs from the Bush.
Elgar's Cello Concerto - Monday 5 September 2016
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