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Britten’s War RequiemMaster Series Thursday

Thursday 11 June at 8pmArts Centre Melbourne

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Master Series FridayFriday 12 June at 8pmArts Centre Melbourne

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MOZART’S PIANO CONCERTO No.17Friday 28 August Saturday 29 August Monday 31 AugustThe irrepressible overture to Rossini’s La gazza ladra is set alongside works by Mozart and Messiaen, and the lush melodies of Brahms’ Symphony No.3.

MAHLER 4Friday 19 June Saturday 20 June Monday 22 JuneA milestone in MSO’s musical evolution, Sir Andrew Davis’ Mahler Cycle returns for its fourth chapter, with Mahler’s Fourth Symphony alongside Prokofiev’s Sinfonia Concertante.

YUJA WANG PLAYS PROKOFIEVThursday 23 July Friday 24 July Saturday 25 JulyChinese piano superstar Yuja Wang brings her acclaimed virtuosity to Prokofiev’s tempestuous Second Piano Concerto, in a program that includes Tchaikovsky’s Marche Slave and Brahms’ luminous fourth and final symphony.

BABESaturday 11 July Sunday 12 JulyGeorge Miller’s Babe is an icon of Australian cinema. To coincide with its twentieth anniversary, the MSO and original soundtrack composer, Nigel Westlake, join forces to present the world premiere of Babe: The Twentieth Anniversary Concert, an exclusive all-ages screening with the Orchestra performing the film’s score.

RACHMANINOV 3Thursday 20 August Friday 21 August Saturday 22 AugustRussian-American pianist Kirill Gerstein displays his mastery of the formidable ‘Rach 3’, conducted by Sir Andrew Davis, alongside Rimsky-Korsakov’s Dubinushka and Strauss’ autobiographical tone poem, Ein Heldenleben.

TCHAIKOVSKY’S PIANO CONCERTO No.1 Friday 7 August Saturday 8 August Monday 10 AugustThe very epitome of Romantic music, Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No.1 is performed by Simon Trpčeski, appearing alongside Rimsky-Korsakov’s Capriccio espagnol and Scriabin’s Third Symphony.

3BRITTEN’S WAR REQUIEM

As Australia continues to commemorate the centenary of the Great War, the intense realities of Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem continue to speak just as meaningfully to modern audiences. The effect of Wilfred Owen’s verses will never lose their power:

My subject is War, and the pity of War.

The Poetry is in the pity …

All a poet can do today is warn.

Welcome to tonight’s performance of War Requiem, under one of its most distinguished interpreters, MSO Chief Conductor Sir Andrew Davis. In keeping with the intentions of the composer, the soloists – Russian soprano Tatiana Pavlovskaya, English tenor Ian Bostridge, and German bass-baritone Dietrich Henschel – represent the three nationalities that were once bitter enemies.

War Requiem is preceded by the brief and plangent Elegy in memoriam Rupert Brooke, by Frederick Septimus Kelly (1881–1916), an Australian composer who served at Gallipoli and was killed in action at the Battle of the Somme.

I hope you will be moved by this concert.

André Gremillet Managing Director

With a reputation for excellence, versatility and innovation, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra is Australia’s oldest orchestra, established in 1906. The Orchestra currently performs live to more than 200,000 people annually, in concerts ranging from subscription performances at its home, Hamer Hall at Arts Centre Melbourne, to its annual free concerts at Melbourne’s largest outdoor venue, the Sidney Myer Music Bowl.

Sir Andrew Davis gave his inaugural concerts as Chief Conductor of the MSO in April 2013, having made his debut with the Orchestra in 2009. Highlights of his tenure have included collaborations with artists including Bryn Terfel, Emanuel Ax and Truls Mørk, the release of recordings of music by Percy Grainger and Eugene Goossens, a 2014 European Festivals tour, and a multi-year cycle of Mahler’s Symphonies.

The MSO also works each season with Principal Guest Conductor Diego Matheuz, Associate Conductor Benjamin Northey and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Chorus. Recent guest conductors to the MSO have included Thomas Adès, John Adams, Tan Dun, Charles Dutoit, Jakub Hrůša,

Mark Wigglesworth, Markus Stenz and Simone Young. The Orchestra has also collaborated with non-classical musicians including Burt Bacharach, Ben Folds, Nick Cave, Sting and Tim Minchin.

The MSO reaches an even larger audience through its regular concert broadcasts on ABC Classic FM, also streamed online, and through recordings on Chandos and ABC Classics. The MSO’s Education and Community Engagement initiatives deliver innovative and engaging programs to audiences of all ages, including MSO Learn, an educational iPhone and iPad app designed to teach children about the inner workings of an orchestra.

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

Welcome to Britten’s War Requiem

MELBOURNE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

4 MELBOURNE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA IN CONCERT

Sir Andrew Davis conductor

Sir Andrew Davis is Music Director and Principal Conductor of the Lyric Opera of Chicago and Chief Conductor of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. In a career spanning over 40 years, he has been the musical and artistic leader at several of the world’s most distinguished opera and symphonic institutions, including the BBC Symphony Orchestra (1991–2004), Glyndebourne Festival Opera (1988–2000), and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (1975–1988). He recently received the honorary title of Conductor Emeritus from the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.

One of today’s most recognised and acclaimed conductors, Sir Andrew has conducted virtually all the world’s major orchestras, opera companies, and festivals. This year he celebrates his 40-year association with the Toronto Symphony, and aside from performances with the Melbourne Symphony, he will conduct the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Proms, Philharmonia Orchestra at the Three Choirs Festival, and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra at the Edinburgh International Festival.

Born in 1944 in Hertfordshire, England, Sir Andrew studied at King’s College, Cambridge, where he was an organ scholar before taking up conducting. His wide-ranging repertoire encompasses the Baroque to contemporary, and his vast conducting credits span the symphonic, operatic and choral worlds.

Sir Andrew was made a Commander of the British Empire in 1992, and a Knight Bachelor in 1999.

Tatiana Pavlovskaya soprano

Tatiana Pavlovskaya studied at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. After graduating, she joined the Mariinsky Theatre, where she had great success in her debut as Tatiana in Eugene Onegin.

She has appeared with orchestras and opera companies throughout the world. Recent engagements include appearances at the Glyndebourne Festival, Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona and Monte Carlo Opera. She has performed War Requiem with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National de Lyon, and at the Beijing Music Festival and Tonhalle Zürich. This season and beyond she sings War Requiem with the Gulbenkian Orchestra, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

Tatiana Pavlovskaya’s recordings include Prokofiev’s Semyon Kotko (nominated for a Grammy Award) and Dvořák’s Rusalka (nominated for BBC Music Magazine’s disc of the year).

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Melbourne Symphony Orchestra

Sir Andrew Davis conductor

Tatiana Pavlovskaya soprano

Ian Bostridge tenor

Dietrich Henschel bass-baritone

Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Chorus

Michael Black guest chorus master

National Boys Choir of Australia

Philip Carmody co-artistic director—KELLYElegy

BRITTENWar Requiem, Op.66—This concert has a duration of approximately 90 minutes with no interval.

Friday night’s concert will be broadcast and streamed live around Australia on ABC Classic FM.

Pre-Concert Talks

7pm Thursday 11 June Stalls Foyer, Hamer Hall

7pm Friday 12 June Stalls Foyer, Hamer Hall

MSO Orchestra Librarian Alastair McKean will present a talk on the artists and works featured in the program.


Ian Bostridge tenor

Ian Bostridge’s international recital career has taken him to the Salzburg, Edinburgh, Vienna and Aldeburgh Festivals and to the main stages of Carnegie Hall and La Scala, Milan. He has worked with the Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, New York Philharmonic and Los Angeles Philharmonic. Performances during the 2013 Britten anniversary celebrations included War Requiem with the London Philharmonic Orchestra; Les Illuminations with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra; and Madwoman (Curlew River) for the Barbican.

His operatic appearances have included Lysander (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) for Opera Australia at the Edinburgh Festival, and Tamino (The Magic Flute) and Jupiter (Semele) for English National Opera.

Ian Bostridge was made a CBE in the 2004 New Year Honours. This season he is Humanitas Professor of Classical Music at the University of Oxford.

Dietrich Henschel bass-baritone

Dietrich Henschel’s repertoire extends from the beginning of the baroque opera to the avant-garde. His international career began with Busoni’s Doktor Faust in Lyon and Henze’s Der Prinz von Homburg at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. Invitations followed from the important opera houses in Europe – his roles have included Figaro (The Barber of Seville), Wolfram (Tannhäuser), Beckmesser (The Mastersingers of Nuremberg), Dr. Schön (Lulu), Golaud (Pelléas et Mélisande) and Nick Shadow (The Rake’s Progress).

Dietrich Henschel’s acclaimed recordings involve collaborations with conductors such as Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Philippe Herreweghe and Sir Colin Davis.

His most recent project – WUNDERHORN – is a feature film for live concert performance of Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn. It will be premiered this season, with production partners including De Doelen (Rotterdam), BBC Symphony Orchestra (London) and La Monnaie (Brussels).


The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Chorus has an international reputation for the highest standards and for bold artistic planning.

With the finest conductors, including Sir Andrew Davis, Edward Gardner, Mark Wigglesworth, Bernard Labadie, Stephen Layton, Masaaki Suzuki and Manfred Honeck, the Chorus sings a broad range of repertoire from Bach’s Mass in B minor to Brett Dean’s The Last Days of Socrates, from Kancheli’s Styx to Rachmaninov’s The Bells.

The Chorus commissions and performs new Australian and international choral repertoire, including music by Gabriel Jackson, Brett Dean, Paul Stanhope, James MacMillan, Arvo Pärt, Hans Werner Henze, and Pēteris Vasks.

In 2015, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Chorus celebrates its 50th anniversary.



SOPRANO Philippa AllenNaomi AngelicoCarolyn ArchibaldAviva BarazaniEva ButcherJessica ChanThea ChristieVeryan CroggonSamantha DaviesCatherine FolleySusan FoneCamilla GormanKarina GoughJillian GrahamKarling HamilJuliana HassettPenny HuggettJasmine HulmeGwen KennellyJudith McFarlaneLynne MuirCaitlin NobleSusannah PolyaNatalie ReidJo RobinLynda SmerdonElizabeth StephensElizabeth TindallBeth YlvisakerTara Zamin

ALTO Aleksandra AckerRuth AndersonCatherine BickellCecilia BjörkegrenKate BramleyJane BrodieElize BrozgulElin-Maria EvangelistaJill GieseAlexandra HadjiRos HarbisonSue HawleyJennifer HenryKristine HenselChristina McCowanRosemary McKelvieSiobhan OrmandyAlison RalphKerry RoulstonAnnie RunnellsRosemary SaundersHelen StaindlLibby TimckeJenny VallinsEmma Warburton

TENOR James AllenTony BarnettSteve BurnettPeter CampbellDenny ChandraTimothy DanksJames DipnallMichael EdwardsMarcel FavillaJackson HarnwellLyndon HorsburghWayne KinradeDominic McKennaSimon MiltonMichael MobachDaniel RileyMalcolm SinclairTim Wright

BASS Maurice AmorRichard BolithoDavid BrownRoger DargavillePhil ElphinstoneGerard EvansMichael GoughAndrew HamJohn HowardDaniel HouseJemly KalangieBenjamin LeskeGary LevyAlastair McKeanAndrew MurrellVern O’HaraEdward OunapuuDouglas ProctorMatthew ToulminAllan YapMaciek Zielinski REPETITEURS Leigh HarroldTom Griffiths

Michael Black guest chorus master, MSOC

A recipient of the prestigious Churchill Fellowship and a graduate from the Universities of Sydney and New South Wales with degrees in Education, Performance and Musicology, Michael Black has been chorus master on four continents for over 100 operas and 30 symphonic works at Lyric Opera of Chicago, Opera Australia, Western Australia Opera, Holland Park Opera (UK), Edinburgh Festival, and Sydney and Melbourne Symphony Orchestras.

Michael has worked with conductors such as Sir Andrew Davis, Sir Mark Elder, Richard Hickox, Vladimir Ashkenazy and Marco Armiliato. His work has been recorded and released on many labels including Chandos, ABC Classics and Melba Records, and broadcast on radio and in cinemas around the world.

Originally from Sydney, Michael now resides in Chicago where he has just completed his third season as Chorus Master at Lyric Opera of Chicago.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS



Oscar AllenTom AllenJustin ChuaCallum CorballyCallum DaviesJohnny De SimoneMatthew DeaytonDeclan EdwardsCallyn Fenwick-KearnsBrock HeavysideOscar Jenkins-WingAlexander KarathanassisItsuki KashimaStanley LiauVictor LiewMichael MaherHayden MakmurHenry MakmurJames NewtonBen PhillipsJoseph RakoLucas RakoXavier RakoLuke Rodrigues-JonesHenry SmithMatthew StevensonOliver Thomson

Philip Carmody co-artistic director, NBCA

Philip is Director of Music at Melbourne Grammar School where he directs the Chapel Choir, whose repertoire is drawn principally from the cathedral tradition. In recent years the Chapel Choir has performed on ABCTV with Russell Watson, and at Hamer Hall with Orchestra Victoria under the baton of Graham Abbott. At the Melbourne Recital Centre, the choir has been featured in Bach’s St Matthew Passion, directed by Jeremy Summerly, and in three concerts with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra and Paul Dyer in Vivaldi’s Gloria and Dixit Dominus, and Handel’s Coronation Anthems. Philip has also directed the Choir on the soundtracks of Showtime’s television adaptation of Tim Winton’s Cloudstreet and Chris Lilley’s Angry Boys and Ja’mie Private School Girl.

Philip has twice been awarded the Music Theatre Guild’s Musical Director of the Year; firstly for Whitehorse Music Theatre’s Man of La Mancha in 1998, and CLOC’s A Little Night Music in 2000. In 1999 he was musical director for Whitehorse’s The Secret Garden, in 2004 Lés Miserables and in 2007 their season of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. Philip composed the score to the pantomime Aladdin, commissioned by The Catchment Players, which has been performed professionally.

In 2010 Philip was guest conductor of the Melbourne Chamber Choir in a program of sacred a cappella works and the Duruflé Requiem.


The National Boys Choir of Australia, founded in 1964 and based in Melbourne, has established itself as one of Australia’s finest treble choirs with a performance schedule that includes major concerts, interstate and overseas tours, events of national significance and regular television appearances.

The Choir has toured internationally on fifteen occasions with destinations including UK, France, Italy, Germany, Austria, Japan, United States, New Zealand, Taiwan, China and the Philippines, giving performances in venues ranging from Disneyland in three countries to St Peter’s in Rome.

When the boys are not traveling overseas, they tour their own vast country, from far north Queensland to Albany in southwest Australia.

The Choir regularly performs with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Opera Australia and Victorian Opera. Apart from these more ‘classical’ performances, the boys have entertained crowds at the Sydney Olympic Games, Melbourne’s Commonwealth Games, the Grand Prix, Rugby Union’s Bledisloe Cup, and Carols by Candlelight.

Choristers of the National Boys Choir of Australia were honoured to represent both Qantas and their country in the acclaimed ‘I Still Call Australia Home’ advertising campaigns.


Frederick Septimus Kelly (1881–1916)

Elegy for String Orchestra ‘In memoriam Rupert Brooke’—Frederick Septimus Kelly, though Australian, won rowing gold for Britain at the 1908 Olympics. He fought and died a decorated Empire loyalist and British hero for all that his father was Irish.

Born in Sydney, Kelly attended Sydney Grammar School before studying at Eton and then Oxford, where he was mentored by Sir Donald Francis Tovey. Between 1903 and 1908 he studied piano under Ernst Engesser and composition with Iwan Knorr at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt. He was to leave a small but substantial legacy: mostly songs and works for piano, chamber groupings and orchestra.

He made his public debut as a pianist in Sydney in 1911, and the following year in London, after years as a grand amateur heard only in the stately homes of his well-connected friends, he turned professional. He performed recitals at the Aeolian Hall and concertos under Sir George Henschel and Sir Henry Wood, as well as conducting concerts by Pablo Casals and violinist Jelly d’Arányi. Kelly seemed about to launch a new career as a patron when he became chairman of the influential Classical Concert

Society, sponsoring Maurice Ravel in 1913 and appearing with him at Bechstein Hall (now Wigmore Hall). War intervened. Kelly enlisted in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve’s Hood Battalion, fighting at Gallipoli and on the Somme where he was shot in the head whilst leading a successful attack on a German machine gun post. He is buried in the Martinsart British Cemetery in France, the only Australian there.

Kelly’s Elegy in memoriam Rupert Brooke originated in the poet’s tragic death and the composer’s participation in his burial on the Greek island of Skyros on 23 April 1915 as their battalion prepared to land at Gallipoli. With the nine-minute work for string orchestra and (later) harp still not committed to paper, he wrote on 21 May: ‘The modal character of the music seems to be suggested by the Greek surroundings as well as Rupert’s character, some passage work by the rustling of the olive tree which bends over his grave.’

Wounded at Gallipoli, Kelly completed the work on 27 June 1915 whilst recuperating in Alexandria, and wrote: ‘It is so entirely bound up with Rupert Brooke and the circumstances of his burial that in a sense I feel myself the chronicler of its ideas rather than the composer

… The work is a true portrayal of my feelings on that night – the passionless simplicity of the surroundings with occasionally a note of personal anguish.’

On leave in London, Kelly played the Elegy as a piano short score on 7 March 1916 at 10 Downing Street and later before the Gallipoli commander, General Sir Ian Hamilton. Some months later he added the harp part at the suggestion of his friend, pianist Leonard Borwick. The Elegy had its first orchestrally-realised performance in the Rugby School Speech Room on 28 March 1919, with Frank Bridge conducting, at a memorial concert for Rupert Brooke.

Therese Radic © 2015

This is the first performance of this work by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

ABOUT THE MUSIC


Benjamin Britten (1913–1976)

War Requiem, Op.66

Requiem aeternamDies iraeOffertoriumSanctusAgnus DeiLibera meincorporating texts of Wilfred Owen (1893–1918)

Tatiana Pavlovskaya sopranoIan Bostridge tenorDietrich Henschel bass-baritoneMelbourne Symphony Orchestra ChorusNational Boys Choir of Australia—

The whole of my life has been devoted to acts of creation (being by profession a composer) and I cannot take part in acts of destruction. I do not believe in the Divinity of Christ, but I think his teaching is sound and his example should be followed.

Benjamin Britten wrote these words in 1942, as part of a statement to the War Board in his application for conscientious objector status. Together with his lifelong partner, Peter Pears, Britten had left the UK for New York in early 1939. They returned three years later, but ran the risk of being branded criminals and facing incarceration if their application was rejected.

Britten had been committed to the pacifist cause from a very early age, even refusing to serve in his school’s cadet force at 13. He had begun thinking about a large-scale choral work to serve as a ‘call for peace’ when Gandhi was assassinated in 1948. He was therefore keen to accept a commission from the Coventry Arts Committee, who approached him in October 1958 about the composition of a work to mark the consecration of Coventry Cathedral. The Cathedral had been destroyed by Luftwaffe bombs on 14 November 1940, in a raid nicknamed ‘Operation Moonlight Sonata’, and the Committee had ambitious plans with which to mark its reopening.

In 1961, Britten wrote to the great German baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau:

I am writing what I think will be one of my most important works. It is a full-scale Requiem Mass for chorus and orchestra (in memory of those nations who died in the last war), and I am interspersing the Latin text with many poems of a great English poet, Wilfred Owen, who was killed in the First World War. These magnificent poems, full of the hate of destruction, are a kind of commentary on the Mass; they are, of course, in English. These poems will be set for tenor and baritone, with an accompaniment of chamber orchestra, placed in

the middle of the other forces. They will need singing with the utmost beauty, intensity and sincerity. Peter Pears has agreed to sing the tenor part, and with great temerity, I am asking you whether you would sing the baritone.

Fischer-Dieskau accepted and Britten added a further solo part for soprano Galina Vishnevskaya, wife of his great friend and collaborator Mstislav Rostropovich.

The huge forces for the War Requiem are divided into three distinct groups, who do not perform concurrently until the final pages of the work. They are:

i. The boys’ choir, accompanied by chamber organ or harmonium, usually positioned offstage. They sing the text of the Requiem Mass in Latin and are heard as voices from heaven.

ii. The main orchestra, main chorus and soprano soloist, who also sing in Latin and represent the celebration of the mass on earth.

iii. The two male soloists, accompanied by a chamber orchestra of string quintet, flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, French horn, harp and percussion. The two soloists are soldiers and their text is the poetry of Wilfred Owen.


ABOUT THE MUSIC

Although Wilfred Owen was killed in action at the Battle of the Sambre – only days before the Armistice – when Britten was barely a year old, the two make curiously kindred spirits. Both were committed pacifists, both fell under the spell of a charismatic older colleague (Siegfried Sassoon in Owen’s case and W.H. Auden in Britten’s), both were discreetly gay, both challenged the Church’s role in the condoning of war and both men wrote in gritty realities, contrary to the heroic spirit of the times. In many ways, Owen’s influence legitimises Britten’s writing of the War Requiem: Owen is Britten’s soldier at the front, providing a first-hand account of life in the trenches. Unlike Britten, Owen was never accused of cowardice or desertion.

The Requiem aeternam opens with a dark and foreboding atmosphere. Church bells intone an F sharp and C natural, the interval of a tritone that Britten uses throughout the score. Disjointed phrases gradually grow longer before the boys’ chorus is heard in the distance. As the scene shifts to the battlefield, Britten mocks the sound of church bells with text from Owen’s Anthem for Doomed Youth, sung by the solo tenor (‘What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?’).

In the Dies irae, Britten connects the prophecies of the last trumpet from the Requiem text with the military bugles from Owen’s Voices. Later in the movement, the words of Owen’s The Next War (‘Out there, we’ve

walked quite friendly up to Death;/ Sat down and eaten with him, cool and bland’) are sung by the two male soloists in a section marked ‘Fast and gay’. With the horrors that they face on a daily basis, the biblical Day of Judgment holds no fears for these soldiers.

The central crux of the War Requiem can be found in the Offertorium. The Latin text centres on the ancient promise of blessing that God made to Abraham and his descendants; the main chorus initially sings the text in fugal rejoicing. Britten then interpolates Owen’s The Parable of the Old Man and the Young, which tells the biblical story of Abraham and Isaac, sung by the baritone soloist. When God instructs Abraham to spare Isaac and sacrifice the ram instead, the story departs from the traditional. The baritone sings, ‘But the old man would not so, but slew his son,/ And half the seed of Europe, one by one’. When the main chorus returns, their earlier material fragments and disintegrates, just as Abraham’s promise has.

The Sanctus is composed of stark contrasts. It opens with music of great splendour, as the solo soprano leads the main chorus in worship praising the glory of God. The section culminates in magnificent brass fanfares before the pity of War is heard against the opulence of the Church. The baritone sings from Owen’s The End, words of profound despair accompanied by bare orchestral writing.

The Agnus Dei is a dialogue between tenor soloist and the main chorus, with the verses from Owen’s At a Calvary Near the Ancre being answered with the text of Requiem Mass. It is a deeply unsettling combination of words concerning the divine sacrifice of Christ and the sacrifice of young soldiers. At the end of the movement, the tenor sings ‘dona nobis pacem’ in an upwards scale, the only time either of the male soloists sings in Latin throughout the work.

The Libera me opens with the sound of military drums and the uneven march of soldiers, perhaps wounded, perhaps spectres. The chorus’ cries for deliverance become more impassioned and each utterance of the word ‘ignem’ (fire) is accompanied by the sound of the whip in the percussion section, as if to stress its potential double-meaning as ‘gunfire’. From the rubble of the battlefield, we hear the text of Owen’s Strange Meeting, a conversation between two soldiers from opposing sides. It later becomes clear that this is a meeting between the killer and the killed and that both soldiers are already dead. As they duet on the words ‘Let us sleep now’, Britten finally unites his entire forces in music of hope and reconciliation. However just as a resolution sounds possible, the tritone bells sound again in warning. The dissonance leaves the listener musically and emotionally unsettled, as if to emphasise the perpetual threat of war.

Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears, 1940s


War Requiem

I. REQUIEM AETERNAM

ChorusRequiem aeternam dona eis Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis.

BoysTe decet hymnus, Deus in Sion;et tibi reddetur votum in Jerusalem;exaudi orationem meam, ad te omnis caro veneit.

TenorWhat passing-bells for these who die as cattle?Only the monstrous anger of the guns,Only the stuttering rifles’ rapid rattleCan patter out their hasty orisons.No mockeries for them from prayers or bells,Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs, –The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;And bugles calling for them from sad shires.What candles may be held to speed them all?Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyesShall shine the holy glimmers of good-byes.The pallor of girls’ brows shall be their pall;Their flowers the tenderness of silent minds,And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.

ChorusKyrie eleison.Christe eleison.Kyrie eleison.

ChorusEternal rest grant unto them O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them.

BoysThou, O God, art praised in Sion;and unto Thee shall the vow be performed in Jerusalem;Thou who hearest the prayer, unto Thee shall all flesh come.

ChorusLord have mercy upon us.Christ have mercy upon us.Lord have mercy upon us.

War Requiem was premiered on 30 May 1962 in difficult circumstances. The Soviet Minister for Culture, Ekaterina Furtseva, had prevented Galina Vishnevskaya from leaving Russia, asking, ‘How can you, a Soviet woman, stand next to a German and an Englishman and perform a political work?’; British soprano Heather Harper was therefore given only ten days to learn the work. Britten himself was suffering from what he described as ‘a rotten arm’ and so decided to split the conducting duties with Meredith Davies, who had been preparing the choruses; Britten would conduct the chamber orchestra and male soloists while Davies would direct the main orchestra, chorus and soprano soloist. The problems continued however: the composer described the acoustics as ‘lunatic’, the cathedral authorities would not allow any staging to be erected, performing space was cramped and the entire audience was ushered in through one tiny door.

Despite all this, the premiere was a triumph. Reviewing the performance, playwright Peter Shaffer declared, ‘I believe it to be the most impressive and moving piece of sacred music ever to be composed in this country … the most profound and moving thing which this most committed of geniuses has so far achieved. It makes criticism impertinent.’

Further performances abounded and Decca released a recording of the work the following year, with Vishnevskaya finally in place as the solo soprano; it sold an unprecedented 200,000 copies in the first five months alone. Britten had clearly tapped into the contemporary zeitgeist and written a work that people needed to hear. Its continued popularity is evidence of the piece’s lasting resonance and relevance. As Owen wrote, and as Britten quoted on the front page of the score, ‘My subject is War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity … All a poet can do today is warn.’

Huw Humphreys © 2010

The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra’s first performance of Britten’s War Requiem took place on 6 April 1968 with conductor Bernard Heinze and the Royal Melbourne Philharmonic Society, Monash University Choral Society, Kenneth Taylor Singers, and St Paul’s Cathedral Boys’ Choir. The soloists were Nance Grant, David Galliver and Brian Hansford. The MSO’s most recent performance was in 2010 with Tadaaki Otaka conducting. The soloists were Elena Zelenskaya, Timothy Robinson, Stephan Loges, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Chorus and the National Boys Choir of Australia.

These performances of the War Requiem, Op.66 by Benjamin Britten are given by permission of Hal Leonard Australia Pty. Ltd. exclusive agent for Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers Ltd. of London.


II. DIES IRAEChorusDies irae, dies illa,Solvet saeclum in favilla,Teste David cum Sibylla.Quantus tremor est futurus,Quando Judex est venturus,Cuncta stricte discussurus!Tuba mirum spargens sonumPer sepulcra regionum,Coget omnes ante thronum,Mors stupebit et natura,Cum resurget creatura,Judicanti responsura.

BaritoneBugles sang, saddening the evening air,And bugles answered, sorrowful to hear.Voices of boys were by the river-side.Sleep mothered them, and left the twilight sad.The shadow of the morrow weighed on men.Voices of old despondency resigned,Bowed by the shadow of the morrow, slept.

Soprano and ChorusLiber scriptus proferetur,In quo totum continetur,Unde mundus judicetur.Judex ergo cum sedebit,Quidquid latet, apparebit:Nil inultum remanebit.Quid sum miser tunc dicturus?Quem patronum rogaturus,Cum vix justus sit securus?Rex tremendae majestatis,Qui salvandos salvas gratis,Salva me, fons pietatis.

Tenor and BaritoneOut there, we’ve walked quite friendly up to Death;Sat down and eaten with him, cool and bland, –Pardoned his spilling mess-tins in our hand.We’ve sniffed the green thick odour of his breath, –Our eyes wept, but our courage didn’t writhe.He’s spat at us with bullets and he’s coughedShrapnel. We chorussed when he sang aloft;We whistled while he shaved us with his scythe.Oh, Death was never enemy of ours!We laughed at him, we leagued with him, old chum.No soldier’s paid to kick against his powers.We laughed, knowing that better men would come,And greater wars; when each proud fighter bragsHe wars on Death – for Life; not men – for flags.

ChorusRecordare Jesu pie,Quod sum causa tuae viae:Ne me perdas illa die.Quaerens me, sedisti lassus:Redemisti crucem passus:Tantus labor non sit cassus.Ingemisco, tamquam reus:Culpa rubet vultus meus:Supplicanti parce Deus.Qui Mariam absolvisti,Et latronem exaudisti,Mihi quoque spem dedisti.Inter oves locum praesta,Et ab haedis me sequestra,Statuens in parte dextra.Confutatis maledictis,Flammis acribus addictis,Voca me cum benedictis.Oro supplex et acclinis,Cor contritum quasi cinis:Gere curam mei finis.

ABOUT THE MUSIC

ChorusThink, kind Jesus – my salvationcaused Thy wondrous incarnation;leave me not to reprobation.Faint and weary Thou has sought me;on the cross of suffering brought me;shall such grace be vainly brought me?Guilty, now I pour my moaningall my shame with anguish owning;spare, O God, Thy suppliant groaning!Through the sinful Mary shriven,through the dying thief forgiven,Thou to me a hope hast given.With Thy sheep a place provide me,from the goat afar divide me,to Thy right hand do Thou guide me.When the wicked are confounded,doomed to flames of woe unbounded,call me, with Thy saints surrounded.Low I kneel with heart-submission;see, like ashes, my contrition!Help me in my last condition!

ChorusDay of wrath and doom impending,Heaven and earth in ashes ending:David’s words with Sybil’s blending.Oh, what fear man’s bosom rendethwhen from heaven the judge descendethon whose sentence all dependeth!Wondrous sound the trumpet flingeththrough earth’s sepulchres it ringethall before the throne it bringeth.Death is struck and nature quaking,all creation is awaking,to its judge an answer making.

Soprano and ChorusLo! the book exactly worded,wherein all hath been recorded;thence shall judgment be awarded.When the judge his seat attaineth,and each hidden deed arraigneth,nothing unavenged remaineth.What shall I, frail man, be pleading?Who for me be interceding,when the just are mercy needing?King of majesty tremendous,who dost free salvation send us,Fount of pity, then befriend us!


BaritoneBe slowly lifted up, thou long black arm,Great gun towering toward Heaven, about to curse;Reach at that arrogance which needs thy harm,And beat it down before its sins grow worse;But when thy spell be cast complete and whole,May God curse thee, and cut thee from our soul!

Soprano and ChorusDies irae, dies illa,Solvet saeclum in favilla,Teste David cum Sibylla.Quantus tremor est futurus,Quando Judex est venturus,Cuncta stricte discussurus!Lacrimosa dies illa,Qua resurget ex favillaJudicandus homo reus,Huic ergo parce Deus.

TenorMove him into the sun –Gently its touch awoke him once,At home, whispering of fields unsown.Always it woke him, even in France,Until this morning and this snow.If anything might rouse him nowThe kind old sun will know.Think how it wakes the seeds, –Woke, once, the clays of a cold star.Are limbs, so dear-achieved, are sides,Full-nerved – still warm – too hard to stir?Was it for this the clay grew tall? –O what made fatuous sunbeams toilTo break earth’s sleep at all?

ChorusPie Jesu Domine, dona eis requiem. Amen.

III. OFFERTORIUM

BoysDomine Jesu Christe, Rex gloriae, libera animas omnium fideliumdefunctorum de poenis inferni, et de profundo lacu:libera eas de ore leonis, ne absorbeat eas tartarus, ne cadant in obscurum.

ChorusSed signifer sanctus Michaelrepraesentet eas in lucem sanctam:quam olim Abrahae promisisti,et semini ejus.

Tenor and BaritoneSo Abram rose, and clave the wood, and went,And took the fire with him, and a knife,And as they sojourned both of them together,Isaac the first-born spake and said, My Father,Behold the preparations, fire and iron,But where the lamb for this burnt-offering?Then Abram bound the youth with belts and straps,And builded parapets and trenches there,And stretched forth the knife to slay his son.When lo! an angel called him out of heaven,Saying, Lay not thy hand upon the lad,Neither do anything to him. Behold,A ram, caught in a thicket by its horns;Offer the Ram of Pride instead of him.But the old man would not so, but slew his son, –And half the seed of Europe, one by one.

Soprano and ChorusDay of wrath and doom impending,Heaven and earth in ashes ending:David’s words with Sybil’s blending.Oh, what fear man’s bosom rendethwhen from heaven the judge descendethon whose sentence all dependeth!Ah, that day of tears and mourning!From the dust of earth returning,man for judgement must prepare him:Spare, O God, in mercy spare him!

ChorusLord, all-pitying, Jesu blest, grant them rest. Amen.

BoysO Lord Jesus Christ, King of Glory,deliver the souls of all the faithful departed from the pains of helland from the depths of the pit:deliver them from the lion’s mouth,that hell may devour them not,that they fall not into darkness.

ChorusBut let the standard-bearer Saint Michaelbring them into the holy light:which of old Thou didst promiseunto Abraham and his seed.


BoysHostias et preces tibi Dominelaudis offerimus:tu suscipe pro animabus illis, quarum hodie memoriam facimus: face eas, Domine,de morte transire ad vitam.quam olim Abrahae promisisti,et semini ejus.

IV. SANCTUS

Soprano and ChorusSanctus, sanctus, sanctusDominus Deus Sabaoth.Pleni sunt coeli et terragloria tua,Hosanna in excelsis.Sanctus …Benedictus qui venit innomine Domini.Hosanna in excelsis.Sanctus …

BaritoneAfter the blast of lightning from the East,The flourish of loud clouds, the Chariot Throne;After the drums of Time have rolled and ceased,And by the bronze west long retreat is blown,Shall life renew these bodies? Of a truthAll death will He annul, all tears assuage? –Fill the void veins to Life again with youth,And wash, with an immortal water, Age?When I do ask white Age he saith not so:‘My head hangs weighed with snow.’And when I hearken to the Earth, she saith:‘My fiery heart shrinks, aching. It is death.Mine ancient scars shall not be glorified,Nor my titanic tears, the sea, be dried.’

V. AGNUS DEI

TenorOne ever hangs where shelled roads part. In this war He too lost a limb,But His disciples hide apart;And now the Soldiers bear with Him.Near Golgotha strolls many a priest,And in their faces there is prideThat they were flesh-marked by the BeastBy whom the gentle Christ’s denied.The scribes on all the people shoveAnd bawl allegiance to the state,But they who love the greater loveLay down their life; they do not hate.

ChorusAgnus Dei, qui tollispeccata mundi,dona eis requiem.Agnus Dei, qui tollispeccata mundi,dona eis requiem.Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccatamundi: dona eis requiem sempiternam.

TenorDona nobis pacem.

ABOUT THE MUSIC

ChorusO Lamb of God, who takest awaythe sins of the world,grant them rest. O Lamb of God, who takest awaythe sins of the world,grant them rest.O Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, grant them eternal rest.

TenorGrant us peace.

BoysWe offer unto Thee, O Lord,sacrifices of prayer and praise:do Thou receive them for the soulsof those whose memory we this day recall: make them, O Lord,to pass from death to life.which of old Thou didst promiseunto Abraham and his seed.

Soprano and ChorusHoly, Holy, HolyLord God of Sabaoth.Heaven and earth are full of Thy glory,Glory be to Thee, O Lord most High.Holy …Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.Glory be to Thee, O Lord most High.Holy …


VI. LIBERA ME

Soprano and ChorusLibera me, Domine, de morte aeterna, in die illa tremenda:Quando coeli movendi sunt et terra,Dum veneris judicaresaeculum per ignem.

Tremens factus sum ego, et timeo, dum discussio venerit,atque ventura ira.Quando coeli movendi sunt et terra.Dies illa, dies irae,calamitatis et miseriae,dies magna et amara valde.Libera me, Domine …

TenorIt seemed that out of battle I escapedDown some profound dull tunnel, long since scoopedThrough granites which titanic wars had groined.Yet also there encumbered sleepers groaned,Too fast in thought or death to be bestirred.Then, as I probed them, one sprang up, and staredWith piteous recognition in fixed eyes,Lifting distressful hands as if to bless.And no guns thumped, or down the flues made moan,‘Strange friend,’ I said, ‘here is no cause to mourn.’

Baritone‘None,’ said the other, ‘save the undone years,The hopelessness. Whatever hope is yours,Was my life also; I went hunting wildAfter the wildest beauty in the world.For by my glee might many men have laughed,And of my weeping something had been left,Which must die now. I mean the truth untold,The pity of war, the pity war distilled.Now men will go content with what we spoiled.Or, discontent, boil bloody, and be spilled.They will be swift with swiftness of the tigress,None will break ranks, though nations trek from progress.Miss we the march of this retreating worldInto vain citadels that are not walled.Then, when much blood had clogged their chariot-wheelsI would go up and wash them from sweet wells,Even from wells we sunk too deep for war,Even the sweetest wells that ever were.I am the enemy you killed, my friend.I knew you in this dark; for so you frownedYesterday through me as you jabbed and killed.I parried; but my hands were loath and cold.Let us sleep now …’

Boys, Chorus and SopranoIn paradisum deducant te Angeli:in tuo adventu suscipiant te Martyres, et perducant te in civitatem sanctam Jerusalem.Chorus Angelorum te suscipiat,et cum Lazaro quondam paupereaeternam habeas requiem.

BoysRequiem aeternam dona eis, Domine; et lux perpetua luceat eis.

ChorusRequiescant in pace. Amen.

Soprano and ChorusDeliver me, O Lord, from deatheternal on that fearful day:when the heavens and earth shall be shaken,when Thou shalt come to judgethe world by fire.

I am in fear and tremblingtill the sifting be upon us,and the wrath to come,when the heavens and earth shall be shaken,O that day, that day of wrath,of calamity and misery,day of great and exceeding bitterness.Deliver me, O Lord …

Boys, Chorus and SopranoInto paradise may the Angels lead thee:at thy coming may the Martyrs receive thee, and bring thee into the holy city Jerusalem,May the Choir of Angels receive thee,and with Lazarus, once poor,mayest thou have eternal rest.

BoysRest eternal grant unto them, O Lord: and let perpetual light shine upon them.

ChorusMay they rest in peace. Amen.

Text from the Missa pro defunctis and the poems of Wilfred Owen.

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17

Sir Andrew Davis Harold Mitchell AC Chief Conductor Chair Diego Matheuz Principal Guest Conductor Benjamin Northey Patricia Riordan Associate Conductor Chair

FIRST VIOLINSDale BarltropConcertmasterEoin AndersenConcertmasterSophie Rowell AssociateConcertmasterPeter Edwards Assistant PrincipalKirsty Bremner MSO Friends ChairSarah CurroPeter FellinDeborah GoodallLorraine HookKirstin KennyJi Won KimEleanor ManciniMark Mogilevski Michelle RuffoloKathryn TaylorJacqueline Edwards*Robert John*

SECOND VIOLINSMatthew Tomkins The Gross Foundation Principal Second Violin ChairRobert MacindoeAssociate PrincipalMonica Curro Assistant PrincipalMary AllisonIsin CakmakciogluFreya FranzenCong GuAndrew HallFrancesca Hiew

Rachel Homburg Christine JohnsonIsy WassermanPhilippa WestPatrick WongRoger Young

VIOLASChristopher MoorePrincipalChristopher CartlidgeActing Associate PrincipalLauren BrigdenKatharine BrockmanSimon CollinsGabrielle HalloranTrevor Jones Fiona Sargeant Cindy WatkinCaleb WrightCeridwen Davies*Helen Ireland*Isabel Morse*

CELLOSDavid Berlin MS Newman Family Principal Cello ChairRachael Tobin Associate PrincipalNicholas BochnerAssistant PrincipalMiranda BrockmanRohan de KorteKeith JohnsonSarah MorseAngela SargeantMichelle Wood

DOUBLE BASSESSteve Reeves PrincipalAndrew Moon Associate PrincipalSylvia Hosking Assistant PrincipalDamien EckersleyBenjamin HanlonSuzanne LeeStephen NewtonYoung-Hee Chan*

FLUTESPrudence Davis Principal Flute Chair – AnonymousWendy Clarke Associate PrincipalSarah Beggs

PICCOLOAndrew MacleodPrincipal

OBOESJeffrey Crellin PrincipalAnn Blackburn

COR ANGLAISMichael Pisani Principal

CLARINETSDavid Thomas PrincipalPhilip Arkinstall Associate PrincipalCraig Hill

BASS CLARINETJon Craven Principal

BASSOONSJack Schiller PrincipalLyndon Watts*Guest Principal Elise Millman Associate PrincipalJasen Atanasov* Guest Associate Principal Natasha Thomas

CONTRABASSOONBrock Imison Principal

HORNS Zora Slokar PrincipalGeoff Lierse Associate PrincipalSaul Lewis Principal Third Jenna BreenAbbey EdlinTrinette McClimontRobert Shirley*

TRUMPETSGeoffrey Payne PrincipalShane Hooton Associate PrincipalWilliam EvansJulie Payne

TROMBONESBrett Kelly PrincipalJessica Buzbee*

BASS TROMBONEMike Szabo Principal

TUBATimothy Buzbee Principal

TIMPANIChristine Turpin Principal

PERCUSSIONRobert Clarke PrincipalJohn ArcaroRobert CossomJon Fox*Timothy Hook*Shaun Trubiano*

HARPYinuo Mu Principal

PIANOLeigh Harrold*

ORGANDonald Nicolson*

*Guest musician

MELBOURNE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA


BOARDHarold Mitchell ACChairmanAndré GremilletManaging DirectorMichael UllmerDeputy ChairAndrew DyerDanny GorogBrett KellyDavid Krasnostein David LiAnn PeacockHelen SilverKee Wong

COMPANY SECRETARYOliver Carton

EXECUTIVEAndré GremilletManaging Director Catrin HarrisExecutive Assistant

HUMAN RESOURCESMiranda CrawleyDirector of Human Resources

BUSINESSFrancie DoolanChief Financial OfficerRaelene KingPersonnel ManagerLeonie WoolnoughFinancial ControllerPhil NooneAccountantNathalia Andries Finance OfficerSuzanne Dembo Strategic Communications and Business Processes Manager

ARTISTICRonald VermeulenDirector of Artistic Planning Andrew Pogson Special Projects ManagerLaura HolianArtistic CoordinatorHelena BalazsChorus Coordinator

EDUCATION AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENTBronwyn LobbDirector of Education and Community EngagementLucy BardoelEducation and Community Engagement CoordinatorLucy RashPizzicato Effect Coordinator

OPERATIONSGabrielle Waters Director of OperationsAngela BristowOrchestra ManagerJames FosterOperations ManagerJames PooleProduction CoordinatorAlastair McKeanOrchestra LibrarianKathryn O’BrienAssistant LibrarianMichael StevensAssistant Orchestra ManagerStephen McAllanArtist LiaisonLucy RashOperations Coordinator

MARKETINGAlice WilkinsonDirector of MarketingJennifer PollerMarketing ManagerMegan Sloley Marketing ManagerAli Webb PR ManagerKate EichlerPublicity and Online Engagement CoordinatorKieran Clarke Digital ManagerNina DubeckiFront of House SupervisorJames Rewell Graphic Designer Chloe SchnellMarketing Coordinator Claire HayesTicket and Database ManagerPaul CongdonBox Office SupervisorJennifer BroadhurstTicketing CoordinatorAngela LangCustomer Service CoordinatorChelsie JonesCustomer Service Officer

DEVELOPMENTLeith Brooke Director of DevelopmentArturs EzergailisDonor and Patron CoordinatorJessica Frean MSO Foundation ManagerJustine KnappMajor Gifts CoordinatorBen LeeDonor and Government Relations ManagerMichelle MonaghanCorporate Development ManagerJames RalstonCorporate Development and Events CoordinatorJudy TurnerMajor Gifts Manager

MANAGEMENT


THANKS TO OUR WONDERFUL MSO SUPPORTERS

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

The MSO welcomes your support at any level. Donations of $2 and over are tax deductible, and supporters are recognised as follows: $100 (Friend), $1,000 (Player), $2,500 (Associate), $5,000 (Principal), $10,000 (Maestro), $20,000 (Impresario), $50,000 (Benefactor)

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

Enquiries: Ph +61 (03) 9626 1248 Email: [email protected] honour roll is correct at time of printing.

ARTIST CHAIR BENEFACTORSHarold Mitchell AC Chief Conductor ChairPatricia Riordan Associate Conductor ChairJoy Selby Smith Orchestral Leadership ChairMarc Besen AC and Eva Besen AO International Guest ChairMSO Friends ChairThe Gross Foundation Principal Second Violin ChairMS Newman Family Principal Cello Chair Principal Flute Chair – Anonymous

PROGRAM BENEFACTORSMeet The Music Made possible by The Ullmer Family FoundationEast meets West Supported by the Li Family TrustThe Pizzicato Effect (Anonymous)MSO UPBEAT Supported by Betty Amsden AO DSJMSO CONNECT Supported by Jason Yeap OAM

BENEFACTOR PATRONS $50,000+Betty Amsden AO DSJPhillip Bacon AM Marc Besen AC and Eva Besen AO Jennifer Brukner Rachel and Hon. Alan Goldberg AO QC The Gross FoundationDavid and Angela LiAnnette MaluishHarold Mitchell ACMS Newman FamilyRoslyn Packer AOMrs Margaret S Ross AM and Dr Ian Ross Joy Selby SmithUllmer Family Foundation

IMPRESARIO PATRONS $20,000+Perri Cutten and Jo DaniellSusan Fry and Don Fry AO John McKay and Lois McKayElizabeth Proust AO Rae Rothfield Inés Scotland

MAESTRO PATRONS $10,000+Michael AquilinaKaye and David Birks Mitchell ChipmanJan and Peter ClarkAndrew and Theresa DyerFuture Kids Pty Ltd Robert & Jan Green

Lou Hamon OAMKonfir Kabo and Monica Lim Norman and Betty LeesMimie MacLarenIan and Jeannie Paterson Onbass FoundationPeter and Natalie Schiavello Glenn Sedgwick Maria Solà, in memory of Malcolm Douglas The Gabriela and George Stephenson Gift, in tribute to the great Romanian pianist Dinu LipatiLyn Williams AMKee Wong and Wai TangJason Yeap OAMAnonymous (1)

PRINCIPAL PATRONS $5,000+John and Mary Barlow Lino and Di Bresciani OAM David and Emma CapponiPaul Carter and Jennifer BinghamTim and Lyn EdwardJohn and Diana Frew Jill and Robert GroganNereda Hanlon and Michael Hanlon AMHartmut and Ruth HofmannJenny and Peter HordernMargaret Jackson AC Jenkins Family Foundation Vivien and Graham KnowlesDavid Krasnostein and Pat Stragalinos Elizabeth Kraus in memory of Bryan Hobbs Dr Geraldine Lazarus and Mr Greg GaileyDr Elizabeth A Lewis AM Mr Greig Gailey and Dr Geraldine LazarusPeter LovellThe Cuming BequestMr and Mrs D R MeagherWayne and Penny MorganMarie Morton FRSA Dr Paul Nisselle AM Lady Potter ACStephen Shanasy Gai and David Taylorthe Hon. Michael Watt QC and Cecilie Hall Barbara and Donald WeirAnonymous (4)

ASSOCIATE PATRONS $2,500+Dr Bronte AdamsPierce Armstrong Foundation Will and Dorothy Bailey BequestBarbara Bell in memory of Elsa BellPeter Biggs CNZM and Mary BiggsMrs S BignellStephen and Caroline Brain

Mr John Brockman OAM and Mrs Pat Brockman Leith Brooke Rhonda Burchmore Bill and Sandra BurdettPhillip and Susan Carthew and children Oliver CartonJohn and Lyn CoppockMiss Ann Darby in memory of Leslie J. Darby Mary and Frederick Davidson AMLauraine Diggins and Michael BlanchePeter and Leila DoyleLisa Dwyer and Dr Ian DicksonDr Helen M FergusonMr Bill FlemingColin Golvan QC and Dr Deborah GolvanMichael and Susie HamsonSusan and Gary HearstGillian and Michael HundRosemary and James Jacoby John and Joan Jones Connie and Craig Kimberley Sylvia LavelleAnn and George Littlewood Allan and Evelyn McLarenDon and Anne MeadowsBruce Parncutt and Robin CampbellAnn Peacock with Andrew and Woody KrogerSue and Barry Peake Mrs W Peart Ruth and Ralph Renard Max and Jill Schultz Diana and Brian Snape AMMr Tam Vu and Dr Cherilyn TillmanWilliam and Jenny UllmerBert and Ila VanrenenBrian and Helena WorsfoldAnonymous (11)

PLAYER PATRONS $1,000+Anita and Graham Anderson, Christine and Mark Armour, Arnold Bloch Leibler, David and Beverlie Asprey, Marlyn and Peter Bancroft OAM, Adrienne Basser, Prof Weston Bate and Janice Bate, David and Helen Blackwell, Bill Bowness, Michael F Boyt, M Ward Breheny, Susie Brown, Jill and Christopher Buckley, Dr Lynda Campbell, Sir Roderick Carnegie AC, Andrew and Pamela Crockett, Natasha Davies, Pat and Bruce Davis, Merrowyn Deacon, Sandra Dent, Dominic and Natalie Dirupo, John and Anne Duncan, Jane Edmanson OAM, Kay Ehrenberg, Gabrielle Eisen, Vivien and Jack Fajgenbaum, Grant Fisher and Helen Bird, Mr William J Forrest AM, Barry Fradkin OAM and Dr Pam Fradkin, David Gibbs and Susie O’Neill, Merwyn and Greta Goldblatt,

THANKS TO OUR WONDERFUL MSO SUPPORTERS

PRINCIPAL PARTNER

MAESTRO PARTNERS

MEDIA PARTNERGOVERNMENT PARTNERS

SUPPORTING PARTNERS

ASSOCIATE PARTNERS

Golden Age Group Kabo Lawyers Linda Britten

Naomi Milgrom Foundation PwC

UAG + SJB Universal

Feature Alpha Investment (a unit of the Tong Eng Group)

Future Kids

3L Alliance Elenberg Fraser

Fed Square Flowers Vasette

George Golvan QC and Naomi Golvan, Charles and Cornelia Goode, Dr Marged Goode, Danny Gorog and Lindy Susskind, Louise Gourlay OAM, Ginette and André Gremillet, Dr Sandra Hacker AO and Mr Ian Kennedy AM, Jean Hadges, Paula Hansky OAM and Jack Hansky AM, Tilda and Brian Haughney, Henkell Family Fund, Penelope Hughes, Dr Alastair Jackson, Stuart Jennings, George and Grace Kass, Irene Kearsey, Ilma Kelson Music Foundation, Dr Anne Kennedy, Lew Foundation, Norman Lewis in memory of Dr Phyllis Lewis, Dr Anne Lierse, Violet and Jeff Loewenstein, The Hon Ian Macphee AO and Mrs Julie Mcphee, Elizabeth H Loftus, Vivienne Hadj and Rosemary Madden, In memory of Leigh Masel, John and Margaret Mason, In honour of Norma and Lloyd Rees, Trevor and Moyra McAllister, H E McKenzie David Menzies, John and Isobel MorganIan Morrey, The Novy Family, Laurence O’Keefe and Christopher James, Graham and Christine Peirson, Andrew Penn and Kallie Blauhorn, Kerryn Pratchett, Peter Priest, Jiaxing Qin, Eli Raskin, Peter and Carolyn Rendit, S M Richards AM and M R Richards, Dr Rosemary Ayton and Dr Sam Ricketson, Joan P Robinson, Tom and Elizabeth Romanowski, Delina Schembri-Hardy, Jeffrey Sher, Dr Sam Smorgon AO and Mrs Minnie Smorgon, Dr Norman and Dr Sue Sonenberg, Dr Michael Soon, Pauline Speedy, State Music camp, Geoff and Judy Steinicke, Mrs Suzy and Dr Mark Suss, Pamela Swansson, Dr Adrian Thomas, Frank and Miriam Tisher, Margaret Tritsch, P & E Turner, Mary Vallentine AO, The Hon. Rosemary Varty, Leon and Sandra Velik, Sue Walker AM,

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

THE MAHLER SYNDICATEDavid and Kaye Birks, Jennifer Brukner, Mary and Frederick Davidson AM, Tim and Lyn Edward, John and Diana Frew, Louis Hamon OAM, The Hon Dr Barry Jones AC, Dr Paul Nisselle AM, Maria Solà in memory of Malcolm Douglas, The Hon Michael Watt QC and Cecilie Hall, Anonymous (1)

FOUNDATIONS AND TRUSTSThe Annie Danks TrustCollier Charitable FundCreative Partnerships AustraliaThe Cybec FoundationThe Harold Mitchell FoundationHelen Macpherson Smith TrustIvor Ronald Evans Foundation, managed by Equity Trustees Limited and Mr Russell BrownKen & Asle Chilton Trust, managed by PerpetualLinnell/Hughes Trust, managed by PerpetualThe Marian and EH Flack TrustThe Perpetual Foundation – Alan (AGL) Shaw Endowment, managed by PerpetualThe Pratt FoundationThe Robert Salzer FoundationThe Schapper Family FoundationThe Scobie and Claire Mackinnon Trust

CONDUCTOR’S CIRCLEJenny Anderson, Lesley BawdenJoyce Bown, Mrs Jenny Brukner and the late Mr John Brukner, Ken Bullen, Luci and Ron Chambers, Sandra Dent, Lyn Edward, Alan Egan JP, Louis Hamon OAM, Tony Howe, John and Joan Jones, Mrs Sylvia Lavelle, Cameron Mowat, Laurence O’Keefe and Christopher James, Elizabeth Proust AO, Penny Rawlins, Joan P Robinson, Neil Roussac, Anne Roussac-Hoyne, Jennifer Shepherd, Drs Gabriela and George Stephenson, Pamela Swansson, Lillian Tarry, Dr Cherilyn Tillman, Mr and Mrs R P Trebilcock, Michael Ullmer, Ila Vanrenen, Mr Tam Vu, Marian and Terry Wills Cooke, Mark Young, Anonymous (19)

THE MSO GRATEFULLY ACKNOWLEDGES THE SUPPORT RECEIVED FROM THE ESTATES OF:Angela Beagley, Gwen Hunt, Pauline Marie Johnston, C P Kemp, Peter Forbes MacLaren, Prof Andrew McCredie, Miss Sheila Scotter AM MBE, Molly Stephens, Jean Tweedie, Herta and Fred B Vogel, Dorothy Wood

HONORARY APPOINTMENTSMrs Elizabeth Chernov Education and Community Engagement PatronSir Elton John CBE Life MemberThe Honourable Alan Goldberg AO QC Life MemberGeoffrey Rush AC Ambassador

A rare opportunity to witness renowned British tenor and distinguished academic Ian Bostridge — hailed by The Guardian for his ‘expressive ability to inhabit character and emotion’ — performing the great Lieder of Schubert and Vaughan Williams’ nostalgic song cycle On Wenlock Edge.

Monday 15 June at 7.30pm Elisabeth Murdoch Hall, Melbourne Recital Centre

BOOK NOW MSO.COM.AU | (03) 9929 9600

SOLOIST IN THE SPOTLIGHT

IAN BOSTRIDGE

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