WELCOME TO THE Books... · MAHLER 7: NIGHT MUSIC Vladimir Ashkenazy conductor Sayaka Shoji violin FELIX MENDELSSOHN (1809–1847) Violin Concerto in E minor, Op.64 Adagio molto appassionato

WELCOME TO THE AUSGRID MASTER SERIES

Welcome to this fi rst Ausgrid Master Series concert. As you will see, the EnergyAustralia Master Series has a new name. EnergyAustralia’s electricity network business is moving to a new name – Ausgrid. We’re still the same company, with over 100 years of heritage.

The network includes the poles, wires and substations that deliver electricity to more than 1.6 million homes and businesses in New South Wales. Ausgrid is transforming the traditional electricity network into a grid that is smarter, greener, more reliable and more interactive – something we are very proud of.

We’re also extremely proud of our partnership with the Sydney Symphony, and to once again sponsor the orchestra’s fl agship Master Series.

In this concert we welcome Vladimir Ashkenazy back to the stage. After the fantasy and theatre of Peer Gynt just last month, tonight he conducts the symphony which Mahler described as his ‘best work’. We’re also delighted to make the acquaintance of a soloist new to Australian shores, the young Japanese violinist Sayaka Shoji, in possibly the most beautiful violin concerto ever written.

We trust that you will enjoy tonight’s performance and we look forward to seeing you at the Ausgrid Master Series concerts throughout 2011.

George MaltabarowManaging Director

2011 SEASON

AUSGRID MASTER SERIESWednesday 9 March | 8pmFriday 11 March | 8pmSaturday 12 March | 8pm

Sydney Opera House Concert Hall

MAHLER 7:NIGHT MUSICVladimir Ashkenazy conductorSayaka Shoji violin

FELIX MENDELSSOHN (1809–1847)Violin Concerto in E minor, Op.64

Adagio molto appassionato –Andante –Allegro non troppo – Alegro molto vivace

(The three movements of the concerto are played without pause)

INTERVAL

GUSTAV MAHLER (1860–1911)Symphony No.7

Langsam [slowly] – Allegro risoluto, ma non troppo Nachtmusik I [Night Music]. Allegro moderatoScherzo. Schattenhaft [shadowy]Nachtmusik II. Andante amorosoRondo-Finale. Allegro ordinario

MAHLER ODYSSEY SUPPORTING PARTNER

Wednesday’s performance will be recorded by ABC Classic FM for broadcast across Australia on Saturday 23 April at 8pm.

Pre-concert talk by Peter Czornyj at 7.15pm in the Northern Foyer.Visit sydneysymphony.com/talk-bios for speaker biographies.

Approximate duration: 26 minutes, 20-minute interval,80 minutes

The performance will conclude at approximately 10.15pm.

PRESENTING PARTNER

Rembrandt (1606–1669): The Company of Frans Banning Cocq and Willem van Ruytenburch, known as the ‘Night Watch’ (1642). Now housed in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, this painting depicts a group of

City Guardsman awaiting their call to march. Famous for its brilliant use of colour, movement, and light and shadow, and with a drummer poised over his instrument and a dog barking, it embraces a strangely ‘musical’

quality, just as Mahler’s music embraces an almost palpable sense of colour. Mahler is known to have ompared the painting, with its ‘night patrol’ theme and dramatic chiaroscuro, to the fi rst Nachtmusik in his

Seventh Symphony.

ERIC

H-L

ESS

ING

PH

OTO

AR

CH

IVE

7 | Sydney Symphony

INTRODUCTION

Mahler7: Night Music

The intriguing, nocturnal atmosphere of this concert begins with the fi rst piece: Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto. Its elegance and its jewel-like beauty come together in a fi nale that brings to mind the ‘fairy-scherzo’ world of Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream – here the magic spells are cast by a fl eet-fi ngered violinist.

In Mahler’s Seventh Symphony the nocturnal atmosphere continues. The central movement in this symmetrically imagined symphony is a ‘shadowy’ scherzo – Mendelssohn fairies meet Queen Mab. The scurrying muted strings of Mahler’s elfi n dance give it a feeling of disquiet and a hint of grotesquery. The music becomes a waltz for a while but, as the great Mahler scholar Henry-Louis de La Grange describes it, the initial gracefulness soon degenerates into wild and popular merrymaking – Berlioz’s Witches’ Sabbath is not far away.

Night music becomes literal in the frame for this scherzo: two movements that Mahler designated ‘Nachtmusik’. He was drawing on a musical heritage from the age of Mozart – the tradition of playing music outdoors during the balmy summer evenings of Austria and Southern Germany. It’s hardly surprising that Mahler – an indefatigable champion of Mozart – should nod to the 18th-century serenade in his own night music movements. The fi rst Nachtmusik, for example, begins with a quartet of winds: oboe, clarinet and two horns (one muted as if playing in the distance), and its march rhythm is true to the serenade form.

In addition to the orchestral serenade of Mozart, there is the serenade of popular imagination: a lover singing below his lady’s window, accompanying himself on the guitar or perhaps the mandolin. There’s a hint of this in Mahler’s second Nachtmusik, where both instruments are featured, and even in the fi rst, where plucked strings play the same role.

These three central movements of Mahler’s Seventh give the symphony its distinctive character, even as the two great movements that frame them shape the larger drama. They give a powerful suggestion of the night world – its dreams and shadows as well as its amusements.

Please share yourprogramTo conserve costs and reduce our environmental footprint, we ask that you share your program with your companions, one between two. You are welcome to take an additional copy at the end of the concert if there are programs left over, but please share during the performance so that no one is left without a program.

If you don’t wish to take your program home with you, please leave it in the foyer (not in the auditorium) at the end of the concert so it can be reused at the next performance.

All our free programs can be downloaded from: www.sydneysymphony.com/program_library

Mahler Odyssey program covers

The covers for our Mahler Odyssey program books have been designed by Christie Brewster. They feature a stylised typeface characteristic of early 20th-century Viennese posters and publications, and sumptuous patterns inspired by the art of Gustav Klimt (1862–1918).

8 | Sydney Symphony

ABOUT THE MUSIC

Keynotes

MENDELSSOHN

Born Hamburg, 1809Died Leipzig, 1847

Felix Mendelssohn is often called the 19th-century Mozart: he was a child prodigy, composing masterpieces such the Octet and the Midsummer Night’s Dream Overture when he was 16 and 17; his music has a classical sensibility; and he died in his 30s, his tremendous activity as composer, pianist, conductor and administrator having taken its toll on a fragile constitution. Some have said that he never quite recaptured the genius of the two teenage masterworks, but the Violin Concerto proves them wrong.

VIOLIN CONCERTO

This is not Mendelssohn’s only violin concerto (he wrote one for violin and strings when he was 13) but it’s his best-known: the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto as far as most music-lovers are concerned. He began thinking about it in 1838 and fi nished work in 1844, consulting the violinist Ferdinand David about technical matters along the way. It is an exquisite, song-like concerto, and Mendelssohn brings the soloist and the orchestra together in an intimate dialogue instead of competitive relationship. Listen for the way the soloist enters almost at the very beginning and the way Mendelssohn delicately links the three movements together, leaving no room for the applause that he personally disliked.

Felix Mendelssohn

Violin Concerto in E minor, Op.64Allegro molto appassionato –Andante –Allegro non troppo – Allegro molto vivace

Sayaka Shoji violin

The late Hans Keller, one of the most stimulating and opinionated of writers on music, used to say that the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto was the greatest concerto ever written for the instrument. Many violinists share this view, and Jascha Heifetz said: ‘If it is conceivable that the music of Mendelssohn can die, then all music can die.’

This concerto is one of the best-loved of all Mendelssohn’s works. Its main rival for top ranking among violin concertos is probably Beethoven’s, and even in Mendelssohn’s day the comparison was already being made. The English pianist-composer William Sterndale Bennett wrote of this E minor Violin Concerto: ‘There seems to me to be something essentially and exquisitely feminine about it, just as there is something essentially and heroically masculine in the Beethoven Violin Concerto.’

Mendelssohn has a reputation in some quarters for facility, even for unthinking note-spinning. The Violin Concerto gives the impression of spontaneous invention, but only through the art which conceals art. Ferdinand David, the leader of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra under Mendelssohn, helped the composer with the technicalities of the solo part of his concerto, and gave the premiere in 1845. As early as 1838 Mendelssohn wrote to David: ‘I should also like to write a violin concerto for you next winter. One in E minor runs in my head, the beginning of which gives me no peace.’ Over the next six years Mendelssohn peppered David with questions about technical diffi culties, and fi nished, ‘“Thank God this fellow is through with his Concerto,” you will say. Excuse my bothering you, but what can I do?’

Mendelssohn’s thoughtful approach to the challenge of writing this concerto produced a number of structural innovations. The fi rst was his solution to the problem of the opening orchestral tutti in the fi rst movement (already tackled by Beethoven in his last two piano concertos). Mendelssohn abolishes it completely: the violin soars in with the impassioned and lyrical fi rst subject after just a bar and a half of orchestral accompaniment. Another happy fi nd is the single open G-string note which the

9 | Sydney Symphony

soloist sustains as a bass to the beautifully contrasted second subject. The next formal innovation shows how the virtuosity of the writing for violin is subordinated to the overall musical purpose: the cadenza, fully written out, occurs in the middle of the movement, and concludes with the recapitulation – a magical moment, as the orchestra states the main theme while the violin continues with fi guration from the cadenza.

The bassoon note sustained from the last chord of the fi rst movement, linking it with the second movement (Andante), is usually explained as Mendelssohn’s attempt to persuade the audience not to applaud at this point. But it is such a subtle device that he can scarcely have expected it to succeed in that purpose. What it does do is make the music continuous, and emphasise the change of key to C major for the songful slow movement, with its more agitated middle section. Mendelssohn again shows his concern for overall unity in writing an introduction to the last movement, with a theme for violin and strings a little reminiscent of the fi rst movement – the soloist leads the listener in a typically Romantic manner through the unfolding ‘story’ of the concerto.

The last movement has many affi nities with Mendelssohn’s ‘fairy-scherzo’ vein, fi rst proclaimed in his teenage masterpieces, the Octet and the Midsummer Night’s Dream Overture. It is a movement of entrancing contrasts: between the opening call-to-attention, the substantial second subject, and the violin’s curving lyrical theme while the orchestra plays with scraps of the main theme. The whole concerto reveals how completely Mendelssohn, contrary to received opinion, could recapture the fresh inspiration of his youth in his full musical maturity.

DAVID GARRETT © 1998

Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto calls for a modest orchestra with pairs of fl utes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns and trumpets; timpani and strings.

This concerto was fi rst performed in Leipzig in 1845. The Sydney Symphony fi rst performed the concerto in its entirety in a 1940 War Funds Concert with soloist Yehudi Menuhin and conductor Georg Schnéevoigt, and most recently in 2009 with soloist Isabelle Faust and Hugh Wolff conducting.

The bassoon note sustained from the last chord of the fi rst movement, linking it with the second, is usually explained as Mendelssohn’s attempt to persuade the audience not to applaud at this point.

Felix Mendelssohn

WWW.VIENNA.INFO

For further information please contact the Vienna Tourist Board:Phone: +43-1-24 555E-Mail: [email protected]

Today, you’ll be taken away to Vienna by Gustav Mahler. Have you packed your bags?

11 | Sydney Symphony

What can explain this dramatic turnaround in Mahler’s posthumous reputation?

INTERLUDE

Embracing the World

We walk into the concert hall, leaving our daily lives behind us, about to listen to a symphony that may occupy the entire program, or may dominate whatever shares the program with it. The music will be concerned with the great riddles of existence. There will not be much in the way of classical purity, of Beethoven’s ruthless exclusion of superfl uities. We might hear two musics played on- and off -stage simultaneously, the sound of band marches and Austrian country dances – this is a regional voice – mixed in with tunes of the most ecstatic sentimentality. Other melodies will be pulled out of shape and re-harmonised, screaming anger and defi ance. It will be music that seeks to envelop its audience, that asks us to forget its grand timescale, that fl ourishes on its own rituals and epiphanies.

Gustav Mahler’s symphonies contain music of the greatest complexity and sophistication, and of the greatest naïveté and simplicity. They proclaim the triumphal certainty of life after death and the weariness and pain of earthly disappointment. And they do so in a manner that does not seem likely to appeal to an age such as ours, in which public discourse is dominated by the lure of the eternal present: the 24-hour news cycle, the shock jock with a ready-to-wear opinion on every subject, indispensable devices starting with a small ‘i’ and the depthless wisdom possible in 140 characters – such things draw us ever closer to the surface of observed life.

Yet Mahler’s symphonies, all of which are lengthy and discursive, are staples of musical life all over the world, and new recordings of them seem to appear every month. Of the Resurrection symphony alone, 100 diff erent recorded performances are available. Only 40 years ago, Mahler’s music was still a rarity. It was hardly played at all in Vienna; in Britain, the fi rst performance of Mahler’s third symphony (1896) was not given until 1961; while in Australia the Mahler revival began, fi tfully, in 1949, with performances of the Fourth Symphony, with Otto Klemperer conducting the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. (Although these were not the fi rst performances of Mahler here.) Due to the advocacy of the Concertgebouw Orchestra’s chief conductor, Willem Mengelberg, whom Mahler had known well, Amsterdam remained the only major centre for Mahler performance.

What can explain this dramatic turnaround in Mahler’s posthumous reputation? Many people have nominated the arrival of the stereo long-playing record as the deciding


event. Mahler’s spatial experiments, his music’s many subtle instrumental colours and huge range of dynamics, could not be captured adequately on the fallible shellac of the 78rpm record. The length of the pieces was also problematic: when the recording of Bruno Walter’s 1938 concert performance of the Ninth Symphony was fi rst published, it took up 20 record sides. When it was transferred to LP it took three. This same recording now occupies one CD.

The stereo breakthrough occurred at a time when an increasing number of conductors were taking up Mahler’s music. Led by Klemperer, Walter, Jascha Horenstein and the infl uential conducting teacher Hans Swarowsky, the next two generations of conductors – Solti, Karajan, Bernstein, Claudio Abbado, Zubin Mehta – began to perform his music with growing frequency.

But these things do not explain the appeal of Mahler’s music to a broad public all over the world. It did not take multiple recordings of Gorecki’s third symphony for that work to be sought out by many millions of people – it took only one (and a large marketing budget). Riccardo Muti’s advocacy on behalf of Scriabin in the 1990s did not lead to a fl ood of subsequent performances. The essence of the Mahler revival lies in the way the music speaks to us of experiences we recognise as our own.

This manifests itself in ways large and small, but overridingly in Mahler’s emotional honesty. As Donald Tovey put it, Mahler had no inhibitions. The possibility of experiencing the trivial and the tragic at once, so much a part of the fabric of Mahler’s music, is after all a fundamental modern experience, but a rare one to have been captured in music in Mahler’s day. Novelists, though, were beginning to build it into the structure of their work. When Thomas Mann, discussing Conrad’s novel The Secret Agent, wrote that modern art ceases to recognise the categories of tragic and comic, and that ‘modern artists see life as a tragi-comedy,’ he might have been writing of Mahler’s entire output.

Mahler’s use of the march rhythm as a metaphor for human activity is his most frequent recurring device of this kind; the fi rst movements of the Second, Third, Fifth and Sixth symphonies, all basically in march time, draw on a great range of musical idioms and convey a vast range of feeling. This vastness, unconcerned with the niceties of style, was, for the most part, out of favour between the two world wars, a time when Stravinsky questioned the ability of music to express anything, and when the construction of musical systems – neoclassicism, the tone row – was the


dominant feature of the age. There was also the tragic reality of the Nazis’ ban on performances of Mahler’s music in Central and then Eastern Europe from 1933. As a born Jew, all his music, like that of Mendelssohn, was automatically forbidden. In fact it was included in the famous Degenerate Music exhibition held in Düsseldorf in 1938.

Mahler’s most succinct statement about his desire to depict the breadth of life experience in his music has been left to us in the record of his meeting with Sibelius, which took place while Mahler was conducting concerts in Helsinki in 1907. As Sibelius recalled the encounter:

When we came to speak of the nature of the symphony, I used to emphasise my admiration for strictness and style...and the deep logic which unites all the themes by an inner bond. This was in accordance with my own creative experience. Mahler took a completely opposite view: ‘No, the symphony must be like the world. It must embrace everything.

…Mahler had no inhibitions.


In attempting this embrace Mahler embraces his audience also, but in doing so might be seeking solace, reconciliation or recognition. We feel this in the last movement of the Sixth, when exultant optimism is turned repeatedly to despair; in the blissful Andante of the Resurrection, a reminiscence of a moment when, in Colin Wilson’s description, ‘the world has temporarily established a truce’; and in the mad exultation of the Third Symphony’s long fi rst movement, in which Mahler’s orchestral virtuosity is, for once, exuberantly affi rmative.

Now that critics and audiences are less concerned about musical style, Mahler’s all-inclusiveness is anything but dubious. In fact, despite its profoundly personal voice, his music has become emblematic of our era in a way Mahler could not have predicted. He said, it is true, ‘my time will come,’ but that so much of our century’s destruction, alienation and sheer human suff ering seems to speak to us from his music was for us to fi nd, and we have found much about these things in Mahler that is poignant and true.

In fact it could be argued that Mahler is the fi rst composer of our global village. In his famous book Music Ho! (1934), Constant Lambert discusses the universality of modern urban experience. He observes that, unlike the barrel-organ songs of the 1820s (which were often celebrations of specifi c localities), popular songs such as Noel Coward’s Twentieth Century Blues (1932) could ‘hit off the atmosphere of post-war life in any venue’. Is Mahler not the fi rst ‘modern’ composer to have done this also? If Coward, in his own way, laments that ‘in this hurly-burly of insanity our dreams cannot last long…In this strange illusion…people seem to lose their way’ does not Mahler tell us of this also? Is it any wonder that we have taken him with us into our millennium?

PHILLIP SAMETZ ©1995/2011

This photo of Mahler was taken in the loggia of the Vienna Court Opera in 1907.


Gustav Mahler Symphony No.7

Langsam [slowly] – Allegro risoluto, ma non troppoNachtmusik I [Night Music]. Allegro moderatoScherzo. Schattenhaft [shadowy]Nachtmusik II. Andante amorosoRondo–Finale. Allegro ordinario

In 1904, within weeks of completing the Sixth Symphony, which concludes with the cataclysmic strokes of an axe and music of anguished disintegration, Mahler was busily sketching his new symphony, and had soon made what he called ‘architectural drawings’ of the two Nachtmusik (night music) movements. Given his heavy conducting schedule in Vienna, Mahler had, as ever, to wait until the following summer’s vacation before he could return to serious composition. He then experienced a composer’s block that he tried to exorcise through vigorous physical activity such as hiking in the Dolomite mountains. As so often happens in the creative process, Mahler found that once he ceased concentrating on the work, the ideas started to fl ow: Mahler got into a boat on the lake near his holiday retreat at Maiernigg and, as he wrote to his wife, Alma:

at the fi rst stroke of the oars, the theme (or rather the rhythm and character) of the introduction to the fi rst movement came into my head – and in four weeks the fi rst, third and fi fth movements were written.The even numbered movements had to wait until the

following summer, but, once they were complete, Mahler turned to orchestrating his longest and most detailed score. The instrumentation requires an expansion of the conventional orchestra, particularly the wind and percussion sections which require a huge increase in personnel, and two very unusual instrumental visitors.

Some critics have treated the work with suspicion, suggesting that the long gap between the composition of the two groups of movements have compromised the work’s unity. Moreover, after the existential bleakness of the Sixth, the Seventh seems to represent a retreat into a more conventional, and therefore unconvincing, optimism and, in doing so, resorts to gimmickry such as the inclusion of guitar and mandolin in the orchestra. But it could equally be seen as representing a spiritual recovery, a bridge from the pessimism and despair of the Sixth to the joyful paean to divine, and human, creativity in the Eighth. (Or it could just be music.)

ABOUT THE MUSIC

Keynotes

MAHLER

Born Kalischt, 1860Died Vienna, 1911

Mahler is now regarded as one of the greatest symphonists of the late 19th century. But during his life his major career was as a conductor – he was effectively a ‘summer composer’. Mahler believed that a symphony must ‘embrace the world’. His are large-scale, requiring huge orchestras and often lasting more than an hour; they cover a tremendous emotional range; and they have sometimes been described as ‘Janus-like’ in the way they blend romantic and modern values, self-obsession and universal expression, idealism and irony.

SEVENTH SYMPHONY

The Seventh Symphony is vast, colourful and intriguing. The music is organised symmetrically in fi ve movements, with a scurrying ‘shadowy’ scherzo movement in the middle. Two ‘Night Music’ movements frame the scherzo, introducing a nocturnal landscape in the fi rst Nachtmusik and an otherworldly serenade (with guitar and mandolin) in the second Nachtmusik. The fi rst movement of the symphony begins with a slow introduction, featuring Mahler’s characteristic funeral march tread, and ends turbulently. The fi nale breaks the nocturnal mood of the preceding movements with a bravura spirit – fanfares and festivity. Its rondo structure sees the main theme return seven times, interspersed by vibrant and varied episodes.


The symphony contains material that recalls the anguished mood of the Sixth, but its trajectory passes through various nocturnal worlds, fi nally to reach a world of light. And it is signifi cant that Mahler’s description of that opening theme was ‘Here Nature roars!’ In that respect, the Seventh Symphony forms one of two symmetrically placed pillars in Mahler’s completed symphonic output, the other being the Third Symphony (to which this symphony makes thematic allusion) with its sense of Pan, the nature God, awakening.

Listening Guide

The Seventh Symphony is in fi ve movements (like the Fifth) and has a symmetrical design, with two massive outer movements, and the two Nachtmusik movements fl anking a scherzo.

Nature’s ‘roar’ is given to solo tenor horn, which establishes a sense of expectation in the key of B minor. (The symphony is an example of progressive tonality, its movements being in B minor, C minor, D minor, F major and C major respectively.) The body of the movement is familiar Mahler, with its mixture of march rhythms and impassioned, ‘Romantic’ themes, and a massive climax undermined by a descent into darkness. The use of a slow introduction to generate suspense before a sonata-allegro is a practice perfected by Haydn; here, however, Mahler follows Beethoven’s lead in reintroducing the introductory music of the work at a structurally signifi cant moment. The eff ect, as in the Pathétique Sonata, for instance, is to bring about the collapse of the tremendous momentum that the music has gained from its implacable march rhythms, and those contrasting fl ights of breathtaking lyricism. The rupture brings it back to earth and signals the beginning of the recapitulation of the movement’s thematic material. The movement has, after all – for all its extremity of manner – a sonata-allegro design.

British musicologist Deryck Cooke noted that the three central movements are:

superbly poetic stylisations of romantic genre pieces, which draw continually on the style of the period’s popular music in the most subtly creative way...opening magical windows on imagined worlds behind the visible world.Michael Kennedy compares the fi rst Nachtmusik to the

‘moonlit Romanticism of Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Marriage of Figaro’ and notes the use of a distinctly Spanish rhythm. But what is also striking is that way in which Mahler deploys small groups of instruments, rather than marshalling the full

…a massive climax undermined by a descent into darkness.


force of his huge orchestra. The opening of this movement contains magical textures for solo winds, including the brilliant stroke of muted and un-muted horns for echo eff ect.Thanks to the over-interpretation of a remark of Mahler’s by Dutch conductor Willem Mengelberg, the movement is sometimes said to represent Rembrandt’s masterpiece, The Night Watch, of which Mahler was certainly fond; the horn calls and cow bells, however, suggest, if anything, a more rustic scene.

The ‘shadowy’ scherzo has been described variously as ‘horrifi c’ or an image of ‘a child’s fear of the dark’; there is certainly something slightly unnerving about its mechanical, and occasionally distorted dance rhythms (notably those of the waltz) that might suggest unnerving dreams or fairy-tales. There is, however, some comfort in the slow waltz that forms the trio. This section occurs only once, a departure from Mahler’s usual practice of returning to the trio after an intervening statement of the thematic material.

The second Nachtmusik – marked amoroso – overtly channels Mozart (specifi cally Don Giovanni, which the great philosopher Kierkegaard regarded as the most erotic music ever written) with the use of guitar and mandolin, backed up by a pair of harps, prominent lyrical solos from violin and horn, and what Theodor Adorno simply called its ‘Viennese tenderness’.

However tender was the night, the fi nal movement represents, in Mahler’s words, ‘broad daylight’. In rondo form, it breaks the nocturnal spell right away with a cannonade of timpani answered by artfully confused alarms from the brass. It then elaborates a series of eight episodes notable for their noisy extroversion and wide excursions through possible keys. The movement makes light-hearted references to Wagner’s Mastersingers of Nuremberg, Lehár’s Merry Widow, a venerable Lutheran chorale, and, as if to underline the eternal return of night and day, a march theme from the fi rst movement.

Several innovations balance the pastiche: the orchestration, as noted, provides a huge palette of new, delicate sounds, as well as moments of glowing splendour, and the harmony explores chords a third apart (a staple eff ect of sci-fi fi lm scores) and chords based on the interval of the fourth, rather than the conventional thirds of diatonic harmony. The latter would inspire Schoenberg’s First Chamber Symphony a year later, and all that followed from it.

GORDON KERRY ©2010

On Saturday Prague witnessed an artistic occasion whose signifi cance goes far beyond the topical. This was an historic event. Gustav Mahler, a master of modern music who is as fervently admired as he is hated and derided, came to us to conduct the fi rst performance of his Seventh…It is a long time since Prague has boasted a premiere of such importance…Nothing could be better than for this remarkable concert to shake us out of our slumber and mark the starting point of a fresh, youthful, truly modern, new lease of life.ZDENEK NEJEDLY’S REVIEW OF THE PRAGUE PREMIERE IN DEN, 22 SEPTEMBER 1908


Mahler’s Orchestra

The Seventh Symphony calls for piccolo and four fl utes (two of these doubling piccolo); three oboes and cor anglais; E fl at clarinet, three clarinets and bass clarinet; three bassoons and contrabassoon; four horns, three trumpets, four trombones; tenor horn; two harps, guitar and mandolin; timpani; percussion (glockenspiel, tam-tam, side drum, triangle, cymbal, bass drum, tambourine, and two sets of cowbells, one off stage); and strings.

Better known in brass and military bands than in orchestras, the TENOR HORN is a valved brass instrument that looks like a smallish euphonium. Mahler uses it prominently in the fi rst movement.

Within Mahler’s spiritual imagination COWBELLS were the last earthly sound one heard when ascending the mountain-top toward heaven. Cowbells play a signifi cant role in his Sixth and Seventh symphonies, and wherever Mahler conducted these works, he travelled with his own personal set of bells.

Mahler’s Seventh Symphony in Australia

Mahler conducted the premiere of his Seventh Symphony in Prague in September 1908. Forty-one years later, in 1949, the symphony received what was probably its fi rst Australian performance, with Eugene Goossens conducting the Sydney Symphony.

But the fi rst Mahler symphony to receive a performance in Australia – at least by an ABC orchestra – was the Fourth, played by the Sydney Symphony under Antal Doráti in 1940. The Fifth (with its popular Adagietto) and the First followed, and in 1950 Otto Klemperer conducted the Sydney Symphony in the Second. It’s these symphonies (1, 4, 5, and 2) that have endured as the most popular of Mahler’s orchestral works in Australia. The Seventh, on the other hand, was for a long time the Cinderella among Mahler symphonies, with only 12 performances noted in the ABC/Symphony Australia records.

The Sydney Symphony’s most recent performance of the Seventh Symphony was in 2006, conducted by Edo de Waart.


GLOSSARY

CADENZA – a virtuoso passage, traditionally inserted towards the end of a sonata-form concerto movement and marking the fi nal ‘cadence’. Originally cadenzas were improvised by the performer, but with Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto composers began writing out the cadenzas. Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto not only writes out the cadenza but introduces the idea that the cadenza could be played at other points in the music.

CHORALE – a hymn tune for congregational singing; or instrumental music with a hymn-like character.

DIATONIC HARMONY– term referring to the system of major and minor keys on which Western tonal music is based.

FAIRY SCHERZO – a style of writing especially associated with the youthful Mendelssohn as heard in the scherzo movement of his Octet for strings and his overture for A Midsummer Night’s Dream. It has the playful characteristics of a scherzo coupled an otherworldly lightness of spirit.

INTERVAL – the distance in pitch between two notes. Intervals are named according to the number of steps of the musical scale that they cover: a third is an interval of three steps, a sixth six steps, and so on. The fi rst two notes of the Australian national anthem cover the interval of a fourth.

NACHTMUSIK – literally ‘night music’; a German term for a serenade.

ORCHESTRATION – the way in which an orchestral work employs the diff erent instruments and sections of the ensemble; also known as ‘scoring’.

PROGRESSIVE TONALITY – a practice in which a large-scale musical work doesn’t end in the key (or tonal centre) in which it began.

SCHERZO – literally, a joke; the scherzo as a genre was a creation of Beethoven. For composers such as Mozart and Haydn the third movement of a symphony had

typically been a minuet. In Beethoven’s hands it acquired a joking and playful mood (sometimes whimsical and startling) as well as a much faster tempo; later composers such as Mahler and Shostakovich often gave the scherzo a cynical, driven, or even diabolical character – less playful and more disturbing.

SONATA-ALLEGRO – another way of referring to fi rst-movement sonata form. The term SONATA FORM was conceived in the 19th century to describe the harmonically based structure most classical composers had adopted for the fi rst movements of their sonatas and symphonies. It involves the EXPOSITION, or presentation of themes and subjects: the fi rst in the tonic or home key, the second in a contrasting key. The tension between the two keys is intensifi ed in the DEVELOPMENT, where the themes are manipulated and varied as the music moves further and further away from the ultimate goal of the home key. Tension is resolved in the RECAPITULATION, where both subjects are restated in the tonic. Sometimes a coda (‘tail’) is added to enhance the sense of fi nality.

In much of the classical repertoire, movement titles are taken from the Italian words that indicate the tempo and mood. A selection of terms from this program is included here.

Allegro moderato – moderately fast Allegro molto appassionato – fast, very impassioned Allegro molto vivace – fast, very lively Allegro non troppo – fast, not too much Allegro ordinario – fast, an ‘ordinary’ allegro Allegro risoluto, ma non troppo – fast, resolutely, but not too much Andante – at a walking pace Andante amoroso – …amorously Langsam – slowly Schattenhaft - shadowy

This glossary is intended only as a quick and easy guide, not as a set of comprehensive and absolute defi nitions. Most of these terms have many subtle shades of meaning which cannot be included for reasons of space.


MORE MUSIC MORE MUSIC

MENDELSSOHN VIOLIN CONCERTO

Sayaka Shoji has recorded the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France conducted by Myung-Whun Chung. On the same disc is her performance of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto. DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON (available through Universal Japan)

MAHLER 7

Naturally, we’d encourage you to build your Mahler symphony collection from our Mahler Odyssey releases as they are released. But if you simply can’t wait for your Mahler symphonies, the Rafael Kubelik set with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra is recommended. DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 463 738-2

Among individual releases, try David Zinman’s recording with the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra, which fi nds the humour as well as the mysterious melancholy in this music. RCA VICTOR RED SEAL 750 650

And Bernstein’s landmark 1965 recording with the New York Philharmonic is defi nitely worth checking out. SONY 60564

ASHKENAZY WITH THE SYDNEY SYMPHONY

Vladimir Ashkenazy’s recordings with the Sydney Symphony now include performances of Elgar symphonies and Prokofi ev symphonies and piano concertos, as well as the Mahler symphonies and selected song cycles, which are being recorded during the course of the Mahler Odyssey (2010–2011). These recordings, issued on Exton/Triton or on the Sydney Symphony’s own label, are available from our website, in record shops and in the foyer at interval.

SAYAKA SHOJI

In addition to her Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky concerto disc, Sayaka Shoji has recorded two recital discs, Beethoven and Prokofi ev violin sonatas, and a disc with the fi rst Paganini violin concerto, Milstein’s Paganiniana and other concert pieces, accompanied by Zubin Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. Sayaka Shoji records for DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON. Her discs are available through Universal Japan (www.hmv.co.jp)

Selected Discography

Selected Sydney Symphony concerts are webcast live on BigPond and made available for later viewing On Demand. Visit: bigpondmusic.com/sydneysymphony

Webcasts

2MBS-FM 102.5SYDNEY SYMPHONY 2010

Tuesday 12 April, 6pm Musicians, staff and guest artists discuss what’s in store in our forthcoming concerts.

Broadcast Diary

MARCH–APRIL

Monday 21 March, 8pmLOVERS & ENIGMAS (2010)

Vladimir Ashkenazy conductorRichard Strauss, Sibelius, Elgar

Thursday 24 March, 1.05pmVIVA ESPAÑA (2010)

Miguel Harth-Bedoya conductorSlava Grigoryan guitarTurina, Rodrigo, Lovelady, Benzecry, Falla

Saturday 9 April, 1pmROMANTIC RAPTURE (2010)

Simone Young conductorBaiba Skride violinWagner, Szymanowski, Bruckner 7

Monday 11 April, 7pmTHE LAST ROMANTIC

Ed de Waart conductorJoyce Yang pianoRautavaara, Rachmaninoff

Saturday 23 April, 8pmMAHLER 7: NIGHT MUSIC

See this program for details.

Sydney Symphony Online

Stay Tuned

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

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

Tell us what you thought of the concertsydneysymphony.com/yoursayor email: [email protected]

Join us on Facebook facebook.com/sydneysymphony

Follow us on Twitter twitter.com/sydsymph


ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Vladimir Ashkenazy conductor

In the years since Vladimir Ashkenazy fi rst came to prominence on the world stage in the 1955 Chopin Competition in Warsaw he has built an extraordinary career, not only as one of the most renowned and revered pianists of our times, but as an inspiring artist whose creative life encompasses a vast range of activities.

Conducting has formed the largest part of his music-making for the past 20 years. He has been Chief Conductor of the Czech Philharmonic (1998–2003), and Music Director of the NHK Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo (2004–2007). Since 2009 he has held the position of Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the Sydney Symphony.

Alongside these roles, Vladimir Ashkenazy is also Conductor Laureate of the Philharmonia Orchestra, with whom he has developed landmark projects such as Prokofi ev and Shostakovich Under Stalin (a project which he toured and later developed into a TV documentary) and Rachmaninoff Revisited at the Lincoln Center, New York.

He also holds the positions of Music Director of the European Union Youth Orchestra and Conductor Laureate of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. He maintains strong links with a number of other major orchestras, including the Cleveland Orchestra (where he was formerly Principal Guest Conductor), San Francisco Symphony, and Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin (Chief Conductor and Music Director, 1988–96), as well as making guest appearances with orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic.

Vladimir Ashkenazy continues to devote himself to the piano, building his comprehensive recording catalogue with releases such as the 1999 Grammy award-winning Shostakovich Preludes and Fugues, Rautavaara’s Piano Concerto No.3 (which he commissioned), Rachmaninoff transcriptions, Bach’s Wohltemperierte Klavier and Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations. His most recent release is a recording of Bach’s six partitas for keyboard.

A regular visitor to Sydney over many years, he has conducted subscription concerts and composer festivals for the Sydney Symphony, with his fi ve-program Rachmaninoff festival forming a highlight of the 75th Anniversary Season in 2007. Vladimir Ashkenazy’s artistic role with the Sydney Symphony includes collaborations on composer festivals, recording projects and international touring.

© K

EITH

SA

UN

DER

S


Sayaka Shoji violin

Since winning the 1999 Paganini Competition – the fi rst Japanese and youngest artist ever to do so – Sayaka Shoji has performed with the world’s leading conductors including Vladimir Ashkenazy, Sir Colin Davis, Charles Dutoit, Mariss Jansons, Lorin Maazel and Zubin Mehta.

Recent highlights have included concerts with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Tokyo Symphony, Philharmonia Orchestra and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, as well as the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France.

This season she has given Beethoven-focused recitals in Europe and Japan with pianist Gianluca Cascioli, and her forthcoming orchestral appearances will include concertos with the Philharmonia Orchestra and Susanna Mälkki, a tour of Japan with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and Myung-Whun Chung, and a return visit to the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra with Eliahu Inbal.

She appears regularly as a recitalist and chamber musician alongside colleagues such as Vadim Repin, Lang Lang, Itamar Golan, Yefi m Bronfman and Steven Isserlis, and her festival appearances have included Verbier, Schleswig-Holstein, Evian, Annecy, the Estate Musicale del Garda, Fêtes Musicales en Touraine, and Folles Journées in Nantes and Tokyo.

Her debut CD with Zubin Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra featured works by Paganini, Chausson and Waxman, and was quickly followed by a live recording of her debut recital at the Auditorium du Louvre and a further album dedicated to works by Prokofi ev and Shostakovich (accompanied on both occasions by Itamar Golan). Her recent releases include the Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky concertos, accompanied by the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and Myung-Whun Chung, and a selection of Beethoven violin sonatas with Gianluca Cascioli.

Sayaka Shoji’s teachers have included Zakhar Bron, Sashko Gawriloff , Shlomo Mintz, Uto Ughi and Riccardo Brengola (for chamber music). She graduated from the Hochschule für Musik Köln in 2004 and has since made Europe her permanent base.

Sayaka performs on the 1729 Récamier Stradivarius – kindly loaned by Dr Ryuzo Ueno, Honorary Chairman, Ueno Fine Chemicals Industry.

JULI

EN M

IGN

OT


MUSICIANS

Vladimir AshkenazyPrincipal Conductor and Artistic Advisor

© K

EITH

SA

UN

DER

S

Michael DauthConcertmaster

© K

EITH

SA

UN

DER

S

Dene OldingConcertmaster

© K

EITH

SA

UN

DER

S

Performing in this concert…

FIRST VIOLINS Dene OldingConcertmaster

Sun YiAssociate Concertmaster

Kirsten WilliamsAssociate Concertmaster

Fiona ZieglerAssistant Concertmaster

Julie Batty Jennifer Booth Marianne BroadfootBrielle ClapsonSophie Cole Amber Davis Georges LentzNicola LewisNicole MastersAlexandra MitchellLéone Ziegler Emily Qin#

SECOND VIOLINS Kirsty Hilton Marina Marsden Jennifer Hoy Assistant Principal

Susan DobbiePrincipal Emeritus

Maria Durek Shuti Huang Stan W Kornel Benjamin LiEmily Long Philippa Paige Biyana Rozenblit Alexandra D’Elia#

Freya Franzen†

Katherine Lukey#

VIOLASRoger Benedict Tobias Breider Anne-Louise Comerford Robyn Brookfi eld Sandro CostantinoJane Hazelwood Graham Hennings Stuart Johnson Justine Marsden Jacqueline Cronin#

Tara Houghton†

David Wicks#

CELLOSCatherine Hewgill Jesper Svedberg*Leah Lynn Assistant Principal

Kristy ConrauFenella Gill Timothy NankervisElizabeth NevilleAdrian Wallis David Wickham Rowena Crouch#

DOUBLE BASSESKees Boersma Alex Henery Neil Brawley Principal Emeritus

David Campbell Steven Larson David Murray Benjamin Ward Hugh Kluger†

FLUTES Janet Webb Emma Sholl Carolyn HarrisRosamund PlummerPrincipal Piccolo

Katie Zagorski†

OBOESDiana Doherty Shefali Pryor David Papp Alexandre Oguey Principal Cor Anglais

CLARINETSLawrence Dobell Francesco Celata Christopher Tingay Craig Wernicke Principal Bass Clarinet

John Lewis*

BASSOONSMatthew Wilkie Roger Brooke Fiona McNamara Noriko Shimada Principal Contrabassoon

HORNSRobert Johnson Geoffrey O’Reilly Principal 3rd

Lee BracegirdleEuan HarveyMarnie Sebire

TRUMPETSDaniel Mendelow John FosterAnthony Heinrichs

TROMBONESRonald Prussing Scott Kinmont Nick Byrne Christopher Harris Principal Bass Trombone

TUBASteve Rossé

TIMPANIRichard Miller

PERCUSSIONRebecca Lagos Colin Piper Mark RobinsonKevin Man*Brian Nixon*

HARP Louise Johnson Genevieve Lang*

MANDOLINStephen Lalor*

GUITARGregory Pikler*

Bold = PrincipalItalic= Associate Principal* = Guest Musician # = Contract Musician† = Sydney Symphony Fellow

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


© K

EITH

SA

UN

DER

S

THE SYDNEY SYMPHONYVladimir Ashkenazy PRINCIPAL CONDUCTOR AND ARTISTIC ADVISOR

PATRON Her Excellency Professor Marie Bashir AC CVO

Founded in 1932 by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 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 a tour of European summer festivals, including the BBC Proms and the Edinburgh Festival.

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 and Georges Lentz, and the orchestra’s 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. Currently the orchestra is recording the complete Mahler symphonies. The Sydney Symphony has also released recordings with Ashkenazy of Rachmaninoff and Elgar orchestral works on the Exton/Triton labels, and numerous recordings on the ABC Classics label.

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


SALUTE

SILVER PARTNERS

REGIONAL TOUR PARTNERS

PRINCIPAL PARTNER GOVERNMENT PARTNERS

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

The Sydney Symphony is assisted by the Commonwealth Government through the

Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body

PLATINUM PARTNERS MAJOR PARTNERS

PREMIER PARTNER

BRONZE PARTNER MARKETING PARTNER

Emanate 2MBS 102.5 Sydney’s Fine Music Station

GOLD PARTNERS


PLAYING YOUR PART

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. Please visit sydneysymphony.com/patrons for a list of all our donors, including those who give between $100 and $499.

PLATINUM PATRONS $20,000+Brian AbelGeoff & Vicki AinsworthRobert Albert AO & Elizabeth AlbertTom Breen & Rachael KohnSandra & Neil BurnsIan & Jennifer BurtonMr John C Conde AO

Robert & Janet ConstableThe Hon. Ashley Dawson-DamerIn memory of Hetty & Egon GordonThe Hansen FamilyMs Rose HercegJames N. Kirby FoundationMr Andrew Kaldor & Mrs Renata Kaldor AO

D & I KallinikosJustice Jane Mathews AO

Mrs Roslyn Packer AO

Greg & Kerry Paramor & Equity Real Estate PartnersDr John Roarty in memory of Mrs June RoartyPaul & Sandra SalteriMrs Penelope Seidler AM

Mrs W SteningMr Fred Street AM & Mrs Dorothy StreetIn memory of D M ThewMr Peter Weiss AM & Mrs Doris WeissWestfi eld GroupRay Wilson OAM in memory of James Agapitos OAM

Mr Brian and Mrs Rosemary WhiteJune & Alan Woods Family BequestAnonymous (1)

GOLD PATRONS $10,000–$19,999Alan & Christine BishopBob & Julie ClampettThe Estate of Ruth M DavidsonPenny EdwardsPaul R. EspieDr Bruno & Mrs Rhonda GiuffreMr David Greatorex AO & Mrs Deirdre GreatorexMrs Joan MacKenzieRuth & Bob MagidTony & Fran MeagherMrs T Merewether oamMr B G O’ConorMrs Joyce Sproat & Mrs Janet CookeMs Caroline WilkinsonAnonymous (1)

SILVER PATRONS $5,000–$9,999Mr and Mrs Mark BethwaiteJan BowenMr Donald Campbell & Dr Stephen FreibergMr Robert & Mrs L Alison CarrMrs Gretchen M Dechert

Ian Dickson & Reg HollowayJames & Leonie FurberMr James Graham AM & Mrs Helen GrahamStephen Johns & Michele BenderJudges of the Supreme Court of NSWMr Ervin KatzGary LinnaneWilliam McIlrath Charitable FoundationEva & Timothy PascoeDavid & Isabel SmithersMrs Hedy SwitzerIan & Wendy ThompsonMichael & Mary Whelan TrustJill WranAnonymous (1)

BRONZE PATRONS $2,500–$4,999Stephen J BellMr David & Mrs Halina BrettLenore P BuckleKylie GreenJanette HamiltonAnn HobanPaul & Susan HotzIrwin Imhof in memory of Herta ImhofMr Justin LamR & S Maple-BrownMora MaxwellJudith McKernanJustice Geoffrey PalmerJames & Elsie MooreBruce & Joy Reid FoundationMary Rossi TravelGeorges & Marliese TeitlerGabrielle TrainorJ F & A van OgtropGeoff Wood & Melissa WaitesAnonymous (1)

BRONZE PATRONS $1,000–$2,499Charles & Renee AbramsMr Henri W Aram OAM

Terrey Arcus am & Anne ArcusClaire Armstrong & John SharpeDr Francis J AugustusRichard BanksDoug & Alison BattersbyDavid BarnesPhil & Elese BennettColin Draper & Mary Jane BrodribbM BulmerPat & Jenny BurnettDebby Cramer & Bill CaukillEwen & Catherine CrouchMr John Cunningham SCM & Mrs Margaret CunninghamLisa & Miro DavisJohn FavaloroMr Ian Fenwicke & Prof Neville Wills

Firehold Pty LtdAnthony Gregg & Deanne WhittlestonAkiko GregoryIn memory of Oscar GrynbergMrs E HerrmanMrs Jennifer HershonBarbara & John HirstBill & Pam HughesThe Hon. David Hunt AO QC & Mrs Margaret HuntDr & Mrs Michael HunterThe Hon. Paul KeatingAnna-Lisa KlettenbergIn Memory of Bernard M H KhawJeannette KingWendy LapointeMacquarie Group FoundationMelvyn MadiganMr Robert & Mrs Renee MarkovicKevin & Deidre McCannMatthew McInnesMrs Barbara McNulty OBE

Harry M. Miller, Lauren Miller Cilento & Josh CilentoNola NettheimMr R A OppenMr Robert Orrell Mr & Mrs OrtisMaria PagePiatti Holdings Pty LtdAdrian & Dairneen PiltonRobin PotterMr & Ms Stephen ProudMiss Rosemary PryorDr Raffi QasabianErnest & Judith RapeePatricia H ReidMr M D SalamonJohn SaundersJuliana SchaefferCaroline SharpenMr & Mrs Jean-Marie SimartCatherine StephenMildred TeitlerAndrew & Isolde TornyaGerry & Carolyn TraversJohn E TuckeyMrs M TurkingtonThe Hon. Justice A G WhealyDr Richard WingateMr R R WoodwardAnonymous (12)

BRONZE PATRONS $500–$999Mr C R AdamsonMs Baiba B. Berzins & Dr Peter LovedayMrs Jan BiberDr & Mrs Hannes Boshoff Dr Miles BurgessIta Buttrose AO OBE

Stephen Byrne & Susie GleesonHon. Justice J C & Mrs CampbellMrs Catherine J Clark

Joan Connery OAM & Maxwell Connery OAM

Mr Charles Curran AC & Mrs Eva CurranMatthew DelaseyGreg Earl & Debbie CameronRobert GellingDr & Mrs C GoldschmidtMr Robert GreenMr Richard Griffi n amJules & Tanya HallMr Hugh HallardDr Heng & Mrs Cilla TeyRoger HenningRev Harry & Mrs Meg HerbertMichelle Hilton-VernonMr Joerg HofmannDominique Hogan-DoranMr Brian Horsfi eldGreta JamesIven & Sylvia KlinebergDr & Mrs Leo LeaderMargaret LedermanMartine LettsErna & Gerry Levy AM

Dr Winston LiauwSydney & Airdrie LloydCarolyn & Peter Lowry OAM

Dr David LuisMrs M MacRae OAM

Mrs Silvana MantellatoGeoff & Jane McClellanIan & Pam McGrawMrs Inara MerrickKenneth N MitchellHelen MorganMrs Margaret NewtonSandy NightingaleMr Graham NorthDr M C O’Connor AM

Mrs Rachel O’ConorA Willmers & R PalDr A J PalmerMr Andrew C. PattersonDr Kevin PedemontLois & Ken RaePamela RogersDr Mark & Mrs Gillian SelikowitzMrs Diane Shteinman AM

Robyn SmilesRev Doug & Mrs Judith SotherenJohn & Alix SullivanMr D M SwanMs Wendy ThompsonProf Gordon E WallRonald WalledgeDavid & Katrina WilliamsAudrey & Michael WilsonMr Robert WoodsMr & Mrs Glenn WyssAnonymous (11)

To fi nd out more about becoming a Sydney Symphony Patron please contact the Philanthropy Offi ce on (02) 8215 4625 or email [email protected]


MAESTRO’S CIRCLE

Peter Weiss AM – Founding President & Doris Weiss John C Conde AO – ChairmanGeoff & Vicki AinsworthTom Breen & Rachael KohnThe Hon. Ashley Dawson-DamerIn memory of Hetty & Egon Gordon

Andrew Kaldor & Renata Kaldor AO

Roslyn Packer AO

Penelope Seidler AM

Mr Fred Street AM & Mrs Dorothy StreetWestfi eld GroupRay Wilson OAM

in memory of the late James Agapitos OAM

SYDNEY SYMPHONY LEADERSHIP ENSEMBLE David Livingstone, CEO Credit Suisse, AustraliaAlan Fang, Chairman, Tianda Group

Macquarie Group FoundationJohn Morschel, Chairman, ANZ

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

01Richard Gill OAM

Artistic Director Education Sandra and Paul Salteri Chair

02Ronald PrussingPrincipal TromboneIndustry & Investment NSW Chair

03Jane HazelwoodViolaVeolia Environmental Services Chair

04Nick ByrneTromboneRogenSi Chair

05Diana DohertyPrincipal Oboe Andrew Kaldor and Renata Kaldor AO Chair

06Shefali Pryor Associate Principal OboeRose Herceg & Neil LawrenceChair

07Paul Goodchild Associate Principal TrumpetThe Hansen Family Chair

08Catherine Hewgill Principal CelloTony and Fran Meagher Chair

09Emma Sholl Associate Principal FluteRobert and Janet ConstableChair

04 05 01

© J

EFF

BU

SB

Y

02

© K

EITH

SA

UN

DER

S

03

© K

EITH

SA

UN

DER

S

07

© K

EITH

SA

UN

DER

S

09

© K

EITH

SA

UN

DER

S

0806

© K

EITH

SA

UN

DER

S

DIRECTORS’ CHAIRS

BEHIND THE SCENES

Sydney Symphony Board

CHAIRMANJohn C Conde AO

Terrey Arcus AM

Ewen CrouchRoss GrantJennifer HoyRory JeffesAndrew KaldorIrene LeeDavid LivingstoneGoetz RichterDavid Smithers AM

Gabrielle Trainor

Geoff AinsworthAndrew Andersons AO

Michael Baume AO*Christine BishopIta Buttrose AO OBE

Peter CudlippJohn Curtis AM

Greg Daniel AM

John Della BoscaAlan FangErin FlahertyDr Stephen FreibergDonald Hazelwood AO OBE*Dr Michael Joel AM

Simon Johnson

Yvonne Kenny AM

Gary LinnaneAmanda LoveHelen Lynch AM

Ian Macdonald*Joan MacKenzieDavid MaloneyDavid Malouf AO

Julie Manfredi-HughesDeborah MarrThe Hon. Justice Jane Mathews AO*Danny MayWendy McCarthy AO

Jane Morschel

Greg ParamorDr Timothy Pascoe AM

Prof. Ron Penny AO

Jerome RowleyPaul SalteriSandra SalteriJuliana SchaefferLeo Schofi eld AM

Fred Stein OAM

Ivan UngarJohn van Ogtrop*Peter Weiss AM

Anthony Whelan MBE

Rosemary White

Sydney Symphony Council

* Regional Touring Committee member

EVERYONE HAS A STORY

FAB19523_Bio Landscape Strip Ad_FA.indd 1 1/02/11 5:02 PM

Clocktower Square, Argyle Street, The Rocks NSW 2000GPO Box 4972, Sydney NSW 2001Telephone (02) 8215 4644Box Offi ce (02) 8215 4600Facsimile (02) 8215 4646www.sydneysymphony.com

All rights reserved, no part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing. The opinions expressed in this publication do not necessarily refl ect the beliefs of the editor, publisher or any distributor of the programs. While every effort has been made to ensure accuracy of statements in this publication, we cannot accept responsibility for any errors or omissions, or for matters arising from clerical or printers’ errors. Every effort has been made to secure permission for copyright material prior to printing.

Please address all correspondence to the Publications Editor: Email [email protected]

SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE TRUSTMr Kim Williams AM (Chair)Ms Catherine Brenner, Rev Dr Arthur Bridge AM, Mr Wesley Enoch, Ms Renata Kaldor AO, Mr Robert Leece AM RFD, Ms Sue Nattrass AO, Dr Thomas Parry AM, Mr Leo Schofi eld AM, Mr Evan Williams AM

EXECUTIVE MANAGEMENTMr Richard Evans Chief Executive Offi cerMr David Antaw Chief Operating Offi cerMr Jonathan Bielski Executive Producer, SOH PresentsMs Victoria Doidge Director, Marketing Communications & Customer ServicesMr Greg McTaggart Director, Building Development & MaintenanceMs Julia Pucci Director, Venue Partners & SafetyMs Claire Spencer Chief Financial Offi cer

SYDNEY OPERA HOUSEBennelong Point GPO Box 4274, Sydney NSW 2001Administration (02) 9250 7111 Box Offi ce (02) 9250 7777Facsimile (02) 9250 7666 Website sydneyoperahouse.com

SYMPHONY SERVICES INTERNATIONALSuite 2, Level 5, 1 Oxford Street, Darlinghurst NSW 2010PO Box 1145, Darlinghurst NSW 1300Telephone (02) 8622 9400 Facsimile (02) 8622 9422www.symphonyinternational.net

PAPER PARTNER

All enquiries for advertising space in this publication should be directed to the above company and address. Entire concept copyright. Reproduction without permission in whole or in part of any material contained herein is prohibited. Title ‘Playbill’ is the registered title of Playbill Proprietary Limited. Title ‘Showbill’ is the registered title of Showbill Proprietary Limited. By arrangement with the Sydney Symphony, this publication is offered free of charge to its patrons subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s consent in writing. It is a further condition that this publication shall not be circulated in any form of binding or cover than that in which it was published, or distributed at any other event than specifi ed on the title page of this publication 16347 — 1/090311 — 7 S18/19

This is a PLAYBILL / SHOWBILL publication. Playbill Proprietary Limited / Showbill Proprietary Limited ACN 003 311 064 ABN 27 003 311 064Head Office: Suite A, Level 1, Building 16, Fox Studios Australia, Park Road North, Moore Park NSW 2021PO Box 410, Paddington NSW 2021Telephone: +61 2 9921 5353 Fax: +61 2 9449 6053 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.playbill.com.auChairman Brian Nebenzahl OAM, RFD Managing Director Michael Nebenzahl Editorial Director Jocelyn Nebenzahl Manager—Production & Graphic Design Debbie ClarkeManager—Production—Classical Music Alan ZieglerOperating in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Hobart & Darwin

MANAGING DIRECTOR

Rory JeffesEXECUTIVE TEAM ASSISTANT

Lisa Davies-Galli

ARTISTIC OPERATIONSDIRECTOR OF ARTISTIC PLANNING

Peter Czornyj

Artistic AdministrationARTISTIC ADMINISTRATION MANAGER

Elaine ArmstrongARTIST LIAISON MANAGER

Ilmar LeetbergRECORDING ENTERPRISE MANAGER

Philip Powers

Education ProgramsEDUCATION MANAGER

Kim WaldockARTIST DEVELOPMENT MANAGER

Bernie HeardEDUCATION ASSISTANT

Rachel McLarin

LibraryLIBRARIAN

Anna CernikLIBRARY ASSISTANT

Victoria GrantLIBRARY ASSISTANT

Mary-Ann Mead

DEVELOPMENTHEAD OF CORPORATE RELATIONS

Leann MeiersCORPORATE RELATIONS EXECUTIVE

Julia OwensCORPORATE RELATIONS EXECUTIVE

Stephen Attfi eldHEAD OF PHILANTHROPY & PUBLIC AFFAIRS

Caroline SharpenPHILANTHROPY & PUBLIC AFFAIRS EXECUTIVE

Kylie AnaniaDEVELOPMENT COORDINATOR

Amelia Morgan-Hunn

SALES AND MARKETINGDIRECTOR OF SALES & MARKETING

Mark J ElliottSENIOR MARKETING MANAGER,SINGLE SALES

Penny EvansMARKETING MANAGER, SUBSCRIPTION SALES

Simon Crossley-MeatesMARKETING MANAGER, CLASSICAL SALES

Matthew RiveMARKETING MANAGER, BUSINESS RESOURCES

Katrina Riddle

ONLINE MANAGER

Eve Le GallMARKETING & MEDIA SERVICES COORDINATOR

Alison Martin GRAPHIC DESIGNER

Christie BrewsterDATA ANALYST

Varsha Karnik

Box Offi ceMANAGER OF BOX OFFICE SALES & OPERATIONS

Lynn McLaughlinMANAGER OF BOX OFFICE OPERATIONS

Natasha PurkissMANAGER OF SALES & SERVICE

Mark BarnesCUSTOMER SERVICE REPRESENTATIVES

Steve ClarkeMichael DowlingErich GockelJohn Robertson

COMMUNICATIONSHEAD OF COMMUNICATIONS

Yvonne ZammitPUBLICIST

Katherine Stevenson

PublicationsPUBLICATIONS EDITOR & MUSIC PRESENTATION MANAGER

Yvonne Frindle

ORCHESTRA MANAGEMENTDIRECTOR OF ORCHESTRA MANAGEMENT

Aernout KerbertDEPUTY ORCHESTRA MANAGER

Lisa MullineuxORCHESTRAL COORDINATOR

Georgia StamatopoulosOPERATIONS MANAGER

Kerry-Anne CookTECHNICAL MANAGER

Derek CouttsPRODUCTION COORDINATOR

Tim DaymanPRODUCTION COORDINATOR

Ian SpenceSTAGE MANAGER

Peter Gahan

BUSINESS SERVICESDIRECTOR OF FINANCE

John HornFINANCE MANAGER

Ruth TolentinoASSISTANT ACCOUNTANT

Minerva PrescottACCOUNTS ASSISTANT

Li LiPAYROLL OFFICER

Usef Hoosney

HUMAN RESOURCESHUMAN RESOURCES MANAGER

Anna Kearsley

Sydney Symphony Staff

Documents

WELCOME TO THE Books... · MAHLER 7: NIGHT MUSIC Vladimir Ashkenazy conductor Sayaka Shoji violin FELIX MENDELSSOHN (1809–1847) Violin Concerto in E minor, Op.64 Adagio molto appassionato