ENIGMA VARIATIONS Zimmermann plays Sibelius

APT MASTER SERIES

Wednesday 3 December 2014 Friday 5 December 2014 Saturday 6 December 2014

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Brahms & Mahler Symphonic FirstsBRAHMS Piano Concerto No.1 MAHLER Symphony No.1

Donald Runnicles conductor Yefim Bronfman piano

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Thu 27 Nov 1.30pmEmirates Metro Series

Fri 28 Nov 8pmGreat Classics

Sat 29 Nov 2pmMonday @ 7

Mon 1 Dec 7pmPre-concert talk by Martin Buzacott

Enigma Variations Zimmermann plays SibeliusBRITTEN Sinfonia da requiem SIBELIUS Violin Concerto ELGAR Enigma Variations

Donald Runnicles conductor Frank Peter Zimmermann violin

APT Master Series

Wed 3 Dec 8pm Fri 5 Dec 8pm Sat 6 Dec 8pmPre-concert talk at 7.15pm

Symphony in the DomainBARTON Birdsong at Dusk SCULTHORPE Beethoven Variations BEETHOVEN Symphony No.5 TCHAIKOVSKY 1812 Overture

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Arias and overtures from The Marriage of Figaro, Lucio Silla, Idomeneo, La finta giardiniera and La clemenza di Tito.

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WELCOME

We’re delighted to welcome you to this final concert in the APT Master Series for 2014. Tonight the SSO has brought together great artists and great music for a powerful experience – the perfect reminder of why we all, as music-lovers, make the concert hall a regular destination in our lives.

The genius of classical music is the way composers and

performers bring fresh insights and visions to tried-and-

true musical genres. Tonight, Benjamin Britten takes the

idea of the Christian mass for the dead and gives its

heartfelt emotions to instruments. Jean Sibelius takes the

tradition of the Romantic virtuoso concerto and colours it

with his distinctive, Finnish voice. Edward Elgar writes a

grand, orchestral showpiece that’s filled with intimate,

fond reflections on his friends.

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afresh – the great cities and the awe-inspiring landscapes.

Whether you’re a tourist or a musical ‘traveller’, authenticity

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We hope you enjoy this evening’s performance and look

forward to welcoming you back next year for the 2015

APT Master Series.

Geoff McGeary oam APT Company Owner

2014 concert season

APT MASTER SERIES

WEDNESDAY 3 DECEMBER, 8PM

FRIDAY 5 DECEMBER, 8PM

SATURDAY 6 DECEMBER, 8PM

SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE CONCERT HALL

ENIGMA VARIATIONSDonald Runnicles conductor Frank Peter Zimmermann violin

BENJAMIN BRITTEN (1913–1976) Sinfonia da Requiem, Op.20

Lacrymosa – Dies irae – Requiem aeternam

JEAN SIBELIUS (1865–1957) Violin Concerto in D minor, Op.47

Allegro moderato – Allegro molto Adagio di molto Allegro ma non tanto

INTERVAL

EDWARD ELGAR (1857–1934) Variations on an original theme, Op.36 (Enigma)

See page 15 for a list of the variations.

Friday night’s performance will be recorded for broadcast by ABC Classic FM on Wednesday 31 December at 8pm.

Pre-concert talk by Yvonne Frindle at 7.15pm in the Northern Foyer. Visit sydneysymphony.com/speaker-bios for more information.

Estimated durations: 21 minutes, 35 minutes, 20-minute interval, 30 minutes The concert will conclude at approximately 10pm.

COVER IMAGE: The Malvern Hills as viewed approaching the British Camp on Herefordshire Beacon. Photo by W Lloyd MacKenzie via flickr.com/saffron_blaze

PRESENTED BY

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Turn to page 27 to read Bravo! – musician profiles, articles and news from the orchestra. There are nine issues through the year, also available at sydneysymphony.com/bravo

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INTRODUCTION

Perhaps the most mysterious power of music is its ability to express feelings that are not always adequately served by words. Music can stir memories, convey rage or hope, evoke images and paint affectionate portraits. Tonight’s program does all these things.

The concert begins with Benjamin Britten’s ‘requiem symphony’. The music is dedicated to the memory of his parents, and has in it a spirit of mourning, but Britten also used it to express his feelings about war (it was 1940). ‘I’m making it just as anti-war as possible,’ he said. ‘I don’t believe you can express social or political or economic theories in music, but by coupling new music with well-known musical phrases, I think it’s possible to get over certain ideas…all I’m sure of is my own anti-war conviction as I write it.’ And so the tears and the prayers of the outer movements frame the fierce emotions of a ‘dance of death’.

In the second half, Edward Elgar pays tribute to friends still living with the musical portraits that form the Enigma Variations. Even when he is poking fun at his friends’ foibles, the music is full of tenderness and affection. Isabel Fitton’s variation, for example, begins with the violas playing an exercise that she, as an amateur player, evidently struggled with. But Elgar uses it as the basis for a beautifully pensive and at times romantic variation. There is also tremendous nobility in the variations, especially in ‘Nimrod’, the portrait of Elgar’s dear friend, valued adviser and stern critic, A.J. Jaeger.

Between these two English works stands the violin concerto of Jean Sibelius. This is music that combines the tradition of the Romantic virtuoso concerto with Sibelius’s own distinctive style, and which does so with astonishing success. If it contains a portrait in its brilliant and heartfelt expression, it is perhaps an image of the violin virtuoso Sibelius had so badly wanted to be.

Expressions and Enigmas

FACING PAGE: Norman Perryman’s ‘Enigma’ – a painting inspired by Elgar’s music – over the first page of the Enigma Variations score.

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9

Benjamin Britten Sinfonia da Requiem, Op.20Lacrymosa – Dies irae – Requiem aeternam

The timing wasn’t great. It was 1940, and Britten was in the United States, having followed the path beaten by such English literati as the poet W.H. Auden and novelist Christopher Isherwood. The ‘official’ (and retrospective) explanation for Britten’s expatriation was that, as a pacifist and conscientious objector, it seemed prudent for him and his partner Peter Pears to travel to a country uninvolved in the inevitable war in Europe, rather than face possible imprisonment, like Britten’s fellow composer Michael Tippett.

In fact, Britten and Pears left England in May 1939, having planned a recital tour of Canada some time before, and the decision to visit the USA was made almost on the spur of the moment; Humphrey Carpenter’s biography of the composer suggests that their extended stay was influenced as much by complications in Britten’s love-life at home as by global politics. The British Government’s declaration of war in September 1939, however, made the decision to stay in North America an almost foregone conclusion.

Despite his initial nervousness, Britten soon found a ready supply of work, playing his own Piano Concerto in Chicago, giving recitals with Pears and receiving commissions for a

KeynotesBRITTEN

Born Lowestoft, 1913 Died Aldeburgh, 1976

Benjamin Britten was born on St Cecilia’s Day (22 November), and whether the connection with the patron saint of music was an omen or not, he showed great promise and talent as a performer and composer. He studied piano and viola, and by the age of 14 had 100 opus numbers to his credit! As a mature composer, Britten was hailed as ‘the greatest English composer since Purcell’.

Britten spent the years from May 1939 until April 1942 in America, where he composed his violin concerto as well as the Sinfonia da Requiem. And it was in America that he first encountered the work of 18th-century Suffolk poet George Crabbe. The result was the opera Peter Grimes (1945), which made his name as a musical dramatist. But for many music-lovers, the first and vividly remembered encounter with Benjamin Britten has been his Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra.

SINFONIA DA REQUIEM

The Sinfonia da Requiem (1941) takes the Latin Mass for the Dead as its starting point, but this is a requiem without voices – the instruments of the orchestra must take on the responsibility of conveying the themes of sorrow, dread and the peace that comes from faith. The work is in three main sections, which are played without pause.

ABOUT THE MUSIC

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number of important works such as the Violin Concerto, the orchestral song cycle Les Illuminations and the operetta Paul Bunyan. Towards the end of 1939, Britten’s publisher told him that the Japanese Government was offering lucrative commissions for orchestral works to celebrate the 2,600th anniversary of the Chrysanthemum Throne. With characteristic naïveté, Britten decided to write ‘a short Symphony – or Symphonic Poem. Called Sinfonia da Requiem (rather topical, but not mentioning dates or places!) which sounds rather like what they would like’. In a newspaper interview, Britten said the piece would be dedicated to the memory of his parents, and would express ‘all my anti-war feeling’.

Needless to say, accepting a commission from Japan in the then current climate didn’t go down well with public opinion in England, where Britten had cultivated a reputation for his leftist political views. And when the score arrived in Tokyo, it was considered an inappropriate insult: not only did it fail to ‘express felicitations’ for the occasion, it was deemed ‘purely a religious music of Christian nature’. The piece was not performed in Tokyo – the punters there, obliged to give the Nazi salute during the Japanese national anthem, had to make

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do with works by Richard Strauss and Jacques Ibert (which have since sunk without trace). But Britten was sanguine. The work was performed by Koussevitsky in 1942, and, as Britten said: ‘After all, I have had the money and spent it [and] the publicity of having a work rejected by the Japanese Consulate for being Christian is a wow.’

The work is not, strictly speaking, ‘religious music’ but its program is clearly derived from three sections of the Mass for the Dead. The first movement, Lacrymosa (‘That day is one of weeping’ in liturgical text), begins with an ominous series of timpani strokes over a growling sustained D – the central tonality of all the work’s three movements. We can hear the influence of Mahler in this section; Donald Mitchell’s view is that the opening of Mahler’s Ninth provided Britten with a model. The music unfolds gradually, obsessively and almost painfully through the repetition and subtle modification of a short rhythmic motif. With only brief moments of repose, the movement trudges on, gaining intensity through the pervasive use of opposing major and minor thirds, and after a return to the timpani strokes the movement reaches a shattering climax on a chord which we might describe as D major/minor.

The Dies irae (Day of wrath) follows without a break, and might also be seen as Mahlerian, this time in its frankly parodic character. The three-note flute motive, which opens the movement with its sardonic flutter-tonguing, assumes greater importance as a braying of brass. An athletic tarantella theme is introduced by a Prokofievian trumpet and taken up by a battalion of horns and massed woodwinds before the braying motive interrupts. An E flat saxophone wails out a short motive related to the first movement’s main theme (interestingly prefiguring Vaughan Williams’ use of the instrument in his Sixth Symphony of a few years later) but the music brushes it aside with a more energetic and, as Christopher Palmer notes, seemingly anarchic development until, in a bizarre gesture, the music fragments completely into isolated sounds from different parts of the orchestra.

Out of this ruin, however, Britten imperceptibly builds an ostinato figure which quietly supports the melody of the final prayer for eternal rest, Requiem aeternam. There are perhaps echoes of The Firebird here in the flute’s placid diatonic melody, but the residual harmonic clashes of the earlier movements are still to be felt even at the radiant climax of the movement, reminding us that peace has not yet been granted. Britten leaves us with a soft two note chord, which hangs expectantly in the air.

GORDON KERRY © 2002

The Sinfonia da Requiem calls for

three flutes (doubling piccolo and

alto flute), two oboes, cor anglais,

clarinet, E flat clarinet, bass clarinet,

two bassoons, contrabassoon and

alto saxophone; six horns, three

trumpets, three trombones, tuba;

timpani and percussion, two harps,

piano, and strings

The SSO first performed the

Sinfonia da Requiem in 1946 with

Walter Susskind, and most recently

in 2009, conducted by Mark

Wigglesworth in a program in

memory of Richard Hickox.

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Jean Sibelius Violin Concerto in D minor, Op.47Allegro moderato – Allegro molto Adagio di molto Allegro ma non tanto

Frank Peter Zimmermann violin

By his very nature, Sibelius was not the sort of composer one would expect to compose a concerto. The conception of a concerto as a show-off work for the soloist was anathema to Sibelius, who increasingly throughout his compositional career sought to employ the purest, most unselfconscious forms of musical expression, eventually resulting in the astonishing economy of utterance and organic structure of his last two symphonies (Nos 6 and 7).

And yet for all that reluctance to indulge in merely ‘gestural’ instrumental effects, throughout his musical career Sibelius maintained a love of the violin. As a young man he had harboured ambitions of becoming a virtuoso violinist himself, but a comparatively late start to his training, together with a shoulder injury and severe stage fright, meant that this career option was not viable in the longer term.

Instead, Sibelius had to content himself with his famous improvisation sessions as he sat high on a rock overlooking a lake, and occasional appearances as a second violinist in a string quartet at the Helsinki Conservatory. But his frustrated ambitions must have been compensated at least in part by his composition in 1903 of his only concerto of any kind, the Violin Concerto, which is now acknowledged alongside the Beethoven, Brahms, Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky concertos as indisputably one of the greatest works ever written in the form.

Written between the second and third symphonies, the Violin Concerto demonstrates just how successfully Sibelius managed to adapt the virtuoso vehicle to his own expressive needs. For the listener, the concerto is not so much a demonstration of fiendish virtuosity, but rather an organic musical whole in which every note – even the most fleeting – contributes to the overall expressive intent. In other words, its technical demands emerge from its artistic purpose.

The concerto had been inspired by Willy Burmester, former leader of the Helsinki Orchestra, a disciple of the great violinist Joseph Joachim and a long-time admirer of Sibelius’s music. As early as 1902 Burmester had been enquiring by letter as to the concerto’s progress, and he made various offers of technical assistance and advice. In September 1903 Sibelius sent Burmester a short score, to which Burmester replied:

KeynotesSIBELIUS

Born Hämeenlinna, 1865 Died Järvenpää, 1957

Sibelius was a force in the creation of a distinctive Finnish voice at the turn of the 20th century, and much of his music was based on themes from the Finnish folk epic, the Kalevala. He made his name with the stirringly patriotic Finlandia. His symphonies and his only concerto (for violin, his own instrument) represent more ‘abstract’ works. Stylistically, Sibelius takes the language of Tchaikovsky and the Romantic nationalists and puts his distinctive stamp on it.

VIOLIN CONCERTO

Sibelius’s Violin Concerto was premiered in 1904. It received mixed reactions at first, but eventually, in the 1930s, Jascha Heifetz became an advocate and it has since found an undisputed place in the concert repertoire.

The concerto fulfils nearly all expectations: it is a virtuosic showcase for a brilliant soloist, its rhythms energise and its melodies soar to powerful effect. The music is also organised in the usual three movements, following the pattern of fast – slow – fast. The first movement is by far the longest and the most muscular in character. It is followed by the tenderness of the poignant, almost regretful, slow movement, and a dazzling finale.

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‘I can only say one thing: wonderful! Masterly! Only once before have I spoken in such terms to a composer, and that was when Tchaikovsky showed me his concerto.’

But when Sibelius finished the work, his anxiety to arrange a first performance as soon as possible and Burmester’s unavailability in the short term, meant that he offered the first performance to Viktor Nováček, an unexceptional Helsinki musician who was so slow to learn it that the concert had to be delayed. When on 8 February 1904 the flushed and perspiring Nováček premiered the concerto with Sibelius conducting, it was not a success, despite some favourable reviews. ‘The public here is shallow and full of bile,’ wrote Sibelius soon afterwards, and he threatened to withdraw the work.

Burmester had heard of the critical reactions, but was still offering to perform the concerto, promising the composer: ‘I shall play the Concerto in Helsinki in such a way that the city will be at your feet.’ Sibelius set about revising it, completely reworking the first movement and pruning many of the more ornamental and virtuosic elements.

The new version was completed in June 1905, just in time to be included in Richard Strauss’s concert series in Berlin. But again Burmester’s schedule was already fully booked and he was once more passed over, with the solo part going to Karl Haliř, leader of the Berlin Orchestra.

Amidst the general wrangling and bitterness, Burmester vowed never to perform the concerto, while Joachim, on hearing the Berlin premiere, damned it. ‘Joachim seems no longer in tune with the spirit of our time,’ wrote Sibelius in response. Fortunately the Berlin press was rather more enthusiastic, but even so, the work didn’t really establish itself in the repertoire until the 1930s, when Jascha Heifetz began to perform it. Since that time it has been regarded as a yardstick by which violinists are measured.

The opening of the first movement is one of the most unmistakable in all music. Over the murmur of muted violins, the soloist enters immediately with an unforgettable, intense and brooding first subject, soon echoed and developed in the woodwind. This Allegro moderato theme is set against a series of fragmentary figures which form a kind of second subject emerging out of the depths of the cellos and bassoons. The movement itself doesn’t sit well with standard sonata principles, however. The traditional development and recapitulation sections are combined, and the cadenza precedes them both, effectively taking the place of the development. And yet there is a clear organic structure within the movement, with the soloist dominating and the rhythm driving on through a series of orchestral climaxes.

‘I can only say one thing: wonderful! Masterly! Only once before have I spoken in such terms to a composer, and that was when Tchaikovsky showed me his concerto.’

WILLY BURMESTER, THE CONCERTO’S DEDICATEE

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The mood of the Adagio is more restrained, but the characteristic intensity remains, as does the poignancy and sense of regret. The soloist’s entry is prefaced by the woodwinds weaving a series of instrumental lines in thirds, and the strongly accented second subject also derives from this opening idea. After a more agitated middle section, the movement ends with a return of the main thematic material, intensified now and with an apparent reluctance to conclude the proceedings.

The finale is a polonaise in all but name. (We owe to the great annotator Donald Tovey the unbeatable description: a polonaise for polar bears!) It’s a bravura showpiece for the soloist and Sibelius noted: ‘It must be played with absolute mastery. Fast, of course, but no faster than it can be played perfectly.’

It begins with a stamping figure low down in the timpani and strings and the solo part then shoots up heavenwards, with amazingly difficult passages of thirds, harmonics, arpeggios, double-stops – indeed all the pyrotechnics available to the soloist, but at the same time without any sense of self-indulgence or self-conscious display. The wild dance gathers momentum until a series of majestic flourishes from the violin leads to the final, sharp decisive chords from the full orchestra.

ADAPTED FROM A NOTE BY MARTIN BUZACOTT

SYMPHONY AUSTRALIA © 1998

The orchestra for Sibelius’s Violin Concerto calls for pairs of flutes, oboes,

clarinets and bassoons; four horns, two trumpets and three trombones;

timpani and strings.

The SSO first performed the concerto in 1938, with soloist Guila Bustabo,

conducted by Joseph Post, and most recently in 2011 with soloist Sergey

Khachatryan, conducted by James Gaffigan.

At one point Sibelius was advertising his services as a teacher of violin and music theory.

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Edward Elgar Variations on an Original Theme, Op.36 (Enigma)Dedicated to my friends pictured within…

Theme I (C.A.E.) Caroline Alice Elgar, ‘a romantic and delicate inspiration’ II (H.D.S.-P) Hew David Steuart-Powell, amateur pianist in Elgar’s trio, ‘humorously travestied’ in the semiquavers III (R.B.T.) Richard Baxter Townshend, author, ‘low voice flying off occasionally into “soprano” timbre’ IV (W.M.B.) William Meath Baker, nicknamed ‘the Squire’, hurriedly leaving with ‘an inadvertent bang of the door’ V (R.P.A.) Richard Penrose Arnold, son of Matthew Arnold, ‘serious conversation…broken up by whimsical and witty remarks’ VI (Ysobel) Isabel Fitton, amateur viola player, an ‘exercise for crossing the strings’ VII (Troyte) Arthur Troyte Griffith, architect, the ‘boisterous mood is mere banter’ VIII (W.N.) Winifred Norbury, ‘a characteristic laugh’ IX (Nimrod) August Johannes Jaeger, reader for the publisher Novello & Co., the record of a talk when he ‘discoursed eloquently’ on Beethoven X (Dorabella) Intermezzo. Dora Penny, ‘a dance-like lightness’ XI (G.R.S.) Dr George Robertson Sinclair, organist of Hereford Cathedral, and Bulldog Dan, ‘paddling up’ the river Wye, and barking XII (B.G.N.) Basil G. Nevison, amateur cellist in Elgar’s trio, ‘serious and devoted friend’ XIII (***) Romanza. Lady Mary Lygon, ‘the name of a lady…on a sea voyage’ XIV (E.D.U.) Finale. Elgar himself (‘Edu’ being his nickname), to show what the composer intended to do

One evening in October 1898 Elgar, exhausted by a day of teaching, sat down at the piano as he often did and began to fashion the tune later known as ‘Enigma’. It is an oddly hesitant theme; in its first and last parts each bar begins with a rest, and the melody is typically angular and full of melancholy which is only partly dispelled by the warm feeling of the middle four bars. It is indeed an enigma that such a gloomy theme should give rise to a succession of such brilliant and for the most part cheerful portraits – Elgar’s portrait of himself being the most festive and

KeynotesELGAR

Born Broadheath, 1857 Died Worcester, 1934

Edward Elgar was arguably the first major British composer after Henry Purcell in the 17th century. His masterpieces include the oratorio The Dream of Gerontius as well as the cello and violin concertos. These, along with his two completed symphonies, are powerful and inventive works that combine a very personal outlook on life with the technique and musical vision of his European peers. But he was 42 years old before he achieved deserved fame with the Enigma Variations.

ENIGMA VARIATIONS

The phenomenal success of the Enigma Variations in 1899 followed years of frustration, disappointment and compromise as Elgar pursued his ambitions as a symphonic composer. The spark was purely musical: a good tune that caught the ear of his wife, Alice. This became his theme, and in a spirit of fun – urged on by Alice – he began playing it in the ‘manner’ of his friends, capturing the quirks of their personalities. From this light-hearted beginning the work continued ‘in deep seriousness’, emerging as 14 affectionate variations, sympathetic and sincere in their humour.

At first Elgar identified his friends only by initials and nicknames, but these ‘mysteries’ were quickly and easily revealed. The enigma of the title refers to the theme itself and remains unsolved.

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magnificent of all! The Enigma theme seems to represent the composer in a mood of the deepest depression which his friends, coming in one after another, do their utmost to dispel – and succeed in doing so.

Having worked out his theme, Elgar then began to imagine what various acquaintances of his might have done with it ‘if they were asses enough to compose’ (a typical piece of self-deprecation). Jotting down the names, a set of variations took shape, each in some way revealing the personality of a friend. This was a congenial task, and less than four months later the score was completed. Elgar’s friends are identified only by their initials, and the composer said that their identity should not matter to the audience member who ‘nose nuffin’ (a typical piece of Elgarian humorous spelling), but it is enjoyable for modern audiences to think of how Elgar has portrayed them.

Listening Guide

The first variation leads straight out of the theme, and reveals the gracious personality of the future Lady Elgar. No.2 attempts the almost impossible – an orchestral rendering of a light scampering piano scherzo, as well as revealing how Steuart-Powell would warm up with a scale pattern over the keboard. No.3 is a caricature of an amiable eccentric, cycling around Oxford on his tricycle. No.4 is noisy and assertive. No.5 is a person of two different moods – introspective and distinctly gloomy (string melody), but also given to somewhat inconsequential chattering and laughter (woodwind phrases). ‘Ysobel’ is as elegant and refined as ‘Troyte’ is brusque and argumentative. But we also hear that Isabel Fitton, a viola player, had trouble performing music in which the strings had to be crossed.

‘W.N.’ (No.8) lived in a fine half-timbered house, standing in its own spacious garden at the foot of the Malvern Hills. We get a feeling of the glorious expanse of the countryside. Elgar also preserves for us W.N.’s ‘little trilly laugh’, which is heard on the oboe.

‘Nimrod’ (‘the mighty hunter before the Lord’) is a play on the name of Jaeger – German for ‘hunter’. It is a wise composer who so honours his publisher, and the music is a noble tribute to the man who more than any other was responsible for Elgar’s success. During one of Elgar’s regular slumps in morale, Jaeger had taken him for a walk and reminded him that whenever Beethoven was troubled he poured his frustrations into still more beautiful compositions. He and Elgar agreed that Beethoven’s slow movements were incomparable and in the opening bars of Nimrod, Elgar quoted the slow movement from Beethoven’s Pathétique Sonata.

Alice Elgar

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Jaeger of ‘Nimrod’ fame

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The Intermezzo, ‘Dorabella’, alias Dora Penny, was a very close friend of Elgar, and so she has the central place among the Variations. It was perhaps rather cruel of Elgar to include in this dainty, fluttering and decidedly sentimental portrait Dora’s slight stammer, which is somewhat more noticeable than the soulful viola solo. As Mrs Richard Powell, ‘Dorabella’ wrote charmingly and informatively of the ‘friends within’ in her Edward Elgar: Memories of a variation (1937).

No. 11 (G.R.S.) shows Elgar rather more interested in Dr Sinclair’s bulldog than in his organ-playing. Elgar had a great affection for dogs, and on one occasion at least was heard to address his dog at the conclusion of a broadcast talk: ‘Good night, everyone… good night, Marco!’ In this variation, the organist is represented by his dog Dan falling down the steep bank into the river Wye, paddling upstream to a landing-place and barking joyously on landing.

No. 12 is self-explanatory in its tribute to the man who would later inspire Elgar’s Cello Concerto.

No. 13, Romanza, has a quotation from Mendelssohn’s Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage, heard twice on the clarinet and once on the trumpets and trombones, as well as a distinctive timpani sound, suggestive of a ship’s engines – alluding to a ‘lady on a sea voyage’. It is the only variation without initials and it’s traditionally thought that Elgar was referring discreetly to Lady Mary Lygon, later Trefusis, whose permission he could not ask because she was on a sea voyage. (Lady Mary journeyed to Australia, where her brother, Earl Beauchamp, had been appointed Governor of NSW.) But Lady Mary took tea with the Elgars on the day he finished the full score, and Diana McVeagh suggests that perhaps this heartfelt variation might be a tribute to an early love of Elgar’s, Helen Weaver, who had emigrated to New Zealand.

Lastly, the Finale – one could guess the composer was a violinist and a conductor, and also an organist. The Enigma theme now rises to its full stature; Elgar does not hesitate to give the music a strong flavour of Pomp and Circumstance. A mysterious quiet episode in the middle shows another side of his character, and the rich, sonorous peroration makes a truly Elgarian conclusion.

Altogether, the Enigma Variations are remarkably successful as portraits, and they are equally good as pure music. Elgar’s gift for melody-writing of all sorts, his command of the orchestra, and his resourcefulness in devising variations make this a memorable work quite apart from considerations of portraiture.

ADAPTED FROM PROGRAM NOTES BY DONALD PEART (1909–1981) AND GORDON KALTON WILLIAMS © 2013

Descriptive variation headings extracted by Diana McVeagh from My Friends

Pictured Within (Novello, 1940s) and Elgar’s notes for the pianola rolls (1929).

Elgar’s Enigma Variations calls for

two flutes (one doubling piccolo),

two oboes, two clarinets, two

bassoons and contrabassoon;

four horns, three trumpets, three

trombones and tuba; timpani and

percussion; organ and strings.

The work was premiered at

St James’s Hall, London on

19 June 1899 under the influential

conductor Hans Richter. The SSO

first performed the Enigma

Variations in 1939 under Malcolm

Sargent, and most recently in the

2008 Elgar festival and again in

2010, both with Vladimir Ashkenazy

conducting.

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Elgar’s Enigma

For more than a century the ‘enigma’ of Elgar’s Variations has kept musicians and music-lovers intrigued. Julian Rushton, in his Cambridge Music Handbook on the Enigma Variations (1999), devoted a whole chapter to the many ingenious solutions that have been proposed, while observing, ‘since interest in the question shows no signs of abating, I expect to be out of date on publication’. He was right. Rarely has a musical work prompted so much speculation. But first, the facts:

‘The Enigma I will not explain – its ‘dark saying’ must be left unguessed, and I warn you that the connexion between the Variations and the Theme is often of the slightest texture; further, through and over the whole set another and larger theme ‘goes’, but is not played…’ (From the program note for the first performance)

From Elgar’s comments Rushton concludes that any solution must both unveil the ‘dark saying’ and find ‘another and larger theme’ that goes ‘through and over’ the whole set.

In the 1930s Dora Powell, Dorabella of the Variations, wrote that ‘the notion that it could be anything other than a tune is relatively modern…Elgar made it perfectly clear to us when the work was being written that the Enigma was concerned with a tune.’ This would seem to rule out non-musical ‘themes’ such as the ‘theme of friendship’, even though for many musicians this is a plausible and satisfying option for a ‘larger theme’ that goes ‘through and over’ the whole set. Elgar had also told her, ‘It is so well known that it is extraordinary no-one has spotted it’, and that he thought she ‘of all people’ would guess it.

This gives Rushton two additional criteria: that any solution must involve well-known music, ‘or at least something well known’, and that it must be evident why Dora ‘of all people’ should guess it. As he points out, very few solutions even try to meet all these criteria.

Those who interpret the ‘enigma’ as a tune that will ‘go’ with the Theme (if not the individual variations) have precedent on their side. Elgar enjoyed challenges of this type, and had even superimposed the National Anthem on the 5/4 waltz from Tchaikovsky’s Pathétique Symphony.

Troyte Griffith (Var. VII) offered God Save the King only to be told by the composer ‘Of course not’. Rule Britannia has supporters – until 1970 Britannia appeared on the tail-side of the British penny and Dora’s maiden name was Penny. The first published solution, within a few months of Elgar’s death, was Auld lang syne. It has also been suggested that the Theme is an inversion of a simple five-finger exercise. Those looking

19

for more sophisticated solutions have suggested themes from Bach’s St Matthew Passion, Beethoven’s Pathétique Sonata and Mozart’s Prague Symphony.

More recently Leeds music academic Dr Clive McClelland claimed ‘Now the day is over’ as the hidden theme, pointing out that Dora, as the daughter of a rector, would surely have known this popular hymn. And a Google search will quickly land you on the site of Robert W Padgett, who proposes the hymn ‘Ein feste Burg’.

Others have drawn on Elgar’s fondness for musical ciphers and note-spelling, including conductor Christopher Seaman, who, by including the bass notes when the violins are resting, reads the Theme as a dedication to Elgar’s daughter, A. Carice. In Melbourne, the late Professor Kevin Hunt, engineer and clarinettist, endorsed the idea that BACH in musical notes (B flat, A, C, B natural) was the solution. Michael Kennedy made a connection between the rhythm and phrasing of the Theme and the composer’s name: Ed-ward Ehhhl’gaaar; its melodic shape has been likened to the contours of the Malvern Hills near where Elgar lived.

There is no artistic need for a solution to be found, but clearly Elgar’s enigma touches a psychological nerve. Indeed, it is tempting to stop and ask whether Elgar was simply playing a tremendous joke, just as one of Tom Stoppard’s characters responds to Fermat’s last theorem: ‘There is no proof…The thing that is perfectly obvious is that the note in the margin was a joke to make you all mad.’ (Arcadia)

We can go mad trying to solve Elgar’s ‘enigma’ – he has taken its secret to the grave – but we do know that Elgar believed the Variations ‘should stand simply as a “piece” of music’. And it does stand – as one of the best-loved pieces in the orchestral repertoire.

YVONNE FRINDLE SYDNEY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA © 2006/2014

TCHAIKOVSKY’S PIANO CONCERTO NO.2 ORIGINAL VERSION GARRICK OHLSSONRecorded live, leading pianist Garrick Ohlsson performs the original version of Tchaikovsky’s second piano concerto.

SYDNEYSYMPHONY.COM CALL (02) 8215 4600 MON–FRI 9AM–5PM

RRP $25 AVAILABLE IN THE CONCERT HALL FOYER AND OTHER RETAILERS

There is no artistic need for a solution to be found, but clearly Elgar’s enigma touches a psychological nerve.

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MORE MUSIC

BRITTEN

The SSO’s most recent performance of the Sinfonia da Requiem (in 2009 with conductor Mark Wigglesworth) was recorded for release on the local Melba label in the album Arcadia Lost. The same disc includes three works by Vaughan Williams: On Wenlock Edge (with tenor Steve Davislim), The Lark Ascending (with former concertmaster Michael Dauth), and Flos campi (with SSO Principal Viola Roger Benedict and Cantillation).

MELBA 301131

Benjamin Britten himself conducts the Sinfonia da Requiem with the National Philharmonic Orchestra in a thrilling recording that also includes the Cello Symphony (Mstislav Rostropovich and the English Chamber Orchestra) and Cantata misericordium with Peter Pears and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.

DECCA 4251002

ZIMMERMANN PLAYS SIBELIUS

Frank Peter Zimmermann has recorded the Sibelius concerto with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor John Storgårds in a performance that’s been praised as ‘a fresh and exciting view…less sentimental than some, with swift tempos and a dazzlingly swift finale’. The album is completed by two of Sibelius’s lesser-known orchestral works: The Wood Nymph and The Bard.

ONDINE 1147–2

Or look for his earlier recording of the concerto, with Mariss Jansons and the Philharmonia Orchestra, available in a 3-CD set presenting seven of the great Romantic violin concertos as performed by a variety of leading artists and orchestras. A treat!

EMI CLASSICS 00899

ELGAR’S ENIGMA

For a definitive performance of the Enigma Variations – and a wealth of Elgar’s music – look for the 5-CD set of recordings by John Barbirolli and the Philharmonia Orchestra, Elgar: Orchestral Works.

EMI 67198

Or, if you’re historically inclined, look for the recording of Elgar himself conducting the Enigma Variations on an EMI Great Recordings of the Century release in a pairing with Elgar’s Violin Concerto played by Yehudi Menuhin. Elgar conducts the Royal Albert Hall Orchestra in the variations (recorded 1926) and the London Symphony Orchestra in the concerto (1932).EMI 66994

Broadcast Diary

December

Saturday 6 December, 8pm JEAN-EFFLAM BAVOUZET IN RECITALBeethoven, B Mantovani, Ravel

(Recorded at the Melbourne Recital Centre in November)

Saturday 13 December, 8pm VARIATIONS ON AN ENGLISH THEME (2013)James Gaffigan conductor Vilde Frang violin

Haydn, Britten, Brahms

Wednesday 17 December, 8pm ANNE-SOPHIE MUTTER PLAYS MOZARTAnne-Sophie Mutter playing and directing Mozart violin concertos

Saturday 20 December, 1pm VÄNSKÄ CONDUCTS BRAHMSOsmo Vänskä conductor Colin Currie percussion

Beethoven, Aho, Brahms

Wednesday 31 December, 8pm ENIGMA VARIATIONSDonald Runnicles conductor Frank Peter Zimmermann violin

Britten, Sibelius, Elgar

SYDNEY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA HOUR

Tuesday 9 December, 6pm

Principal Cello Umberto Clerici talks about the life of the orchestra and forthcoming concerts. Hosted by Andrew Bukenya.

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SSO Live RecordingsThe Sydney Symphony Orchestra Live label was founded in 2006 and we’ve since released more than two dozen recordings featuring the orchestra in live concert performances with our titled conductors and leading guest artists. To buy, visit sydneysymphony.com/shop

LOOK OUT FOR…

Our recording of Holst’s Planets with David Robertson. Due for release later in 2014.

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SSO Online

Mahler 1 & Songs of a Wayfarer SSO 201001

Mahler 2 SSO 201203

Mahler 3 SSO 201101

Mahler 4 SSO 201102

Mahler 5 SSO 201003 Mahler 6 SSO 201103

Mahler 7 SSO 201104

Mahler 8 (Symphony of a Thousand) SSO 201002

Mahler 9 SSO 201201

Mahler 10 (Barshai completion) SSO 201202

Song of the Earth SSO 201004

From the archives: Rückert-Lieder, Kindertotenlieder, Das Lied von der Erde SSO 201204

MAHLER ODYSSEY

The complete Mahler symphonies (including the Barshai completion of No.10) together with some of the song cycles. Recorded in concert with Vladimir Ashkenazy during the 2010 and 2011 seasons. As a bonus: recordings from our archives of Rückert-Lieder, Kindertotenlieder and Das Lied von der Erde. Available in a handsome boxed set of 12 discs or individually.

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

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

Brett DeanTwo discs featuring the music of Brett Dean, including his award-winning violin concerto, The Lost Art of Letter Writing. SSO 200702, SSO 201302

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

SSO 200801

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

Prokofiev’s Romeo and JulietVladimir Ashkenazy conducts the complete Romeo and Juliet ballet music of Prokofiev – a fiery and impassioned performance. SSO 201205

Tchaikovsky Violin ConcertoIn 2013 this recording with James Ehnes and Ashkenazy was awarded a Juno (the Canadian Grammy). Lyrical miniatures fill out the disc. SSO 201206

Tchaikovsky Second Piano ConcertoGarrick Ohlsson is the soloist in one of the few recordings of the original version of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No.2. Ashkenazy conducts. SSO 201301

Stravinsky’s FirebirdDavid Robertson conducts Stravinsky’s brilliant and colourful Firebird ballet, recorded with the SSO in concert in 2008. SSO 201402

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Donald Runnicles is currently the General Music Director of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Chief Conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Music Director of the Grand Teton Music Festival in Jackson, Wyoming. He is also Principal Guest Conductor of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.

He enjoys close and enduring relationships with several of the world’s most significant opera companies and orchestras, and is especially celebrated for his interpretations of the Romantic and post-Romantic symphonic and opera repertoire which is central to his musical identity.

Engagement highlights of the 2014–15 season include a new production at San Francisco Opera of Les Troyens by Berlioz; new productions in Berlin of Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk and Berlioz’s Roméo et Juliette, together with eight revivals; and guest conducting engagements with the Berlin Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra and Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich.

Previous posts have included San Francisco Opera, where he was Music Director from 1992 to 2008, during which time he conducted world premieres of John Adams’ Doctor Atomic,

Conrad Susa’s Liaisons Dangereuses, and the United States premiere of Messiaen’s Saint François d’Assise. He was also Chief Conductor of the Orchestra of St Luke’s, New York, and General Music Director of the Freiburg theatre and orchestra (1989–1993).

Donald Runnicles’ most recent recording – Wagner arias with Jonas Kaufmann and the Deutsche Oper Berlin orchestra – won the 2013 Gramophone prize for best vocal recording, and his extensive discography includes complete recordings of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, Mozart’s Requiem, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Britten’s Billy Budd, Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel and Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi.

Donald Runnicles was awarded an OBE in 2004 and holds honorary degrees from the University of Edinburgh, Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, and San Francisco Conservatory of Music. His most recent appearance with the SSO was in 2009, when he conducted a program of Brahms and Richard Strauss.

Donald Runniclesconductor

THE ARTISTS

SIM

ON

PA

ULY

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Born in Duisburg, Germany, Frank Peter Zimmermann began playing the violin when he was five years old, giving his first concert with orchestra at the age of ten. Since finishing his studies with Valery Gradov, Saschko Gawriloff and Herman Krebbers in 1983, he has performed with the world’s leading orchestras and conductors. His many concert engagements have taken him to all the important concert venues and international music festivals throughout Europe, the United States, Japan and South America as well as Australia, including, since the 1980s, regular visits to the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.

Highlights of the 2014–15 season include performances with the Berlin Philharmonic and Mariss Jansons, Boston Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic and Sakari Oramo, the Philharmonia Orchestra and Vladimir Ashkenazy, and the Gewandhaus Orchestra and Herbert Blomstedt.

Frank Peter Zimmermann is an advocate for contemporary music and has given premieres of three violin concertos: Juggler in Paradise by Augusta Read (2009), The Lost Art of Letter Writing by Brett Dean (2007) and en sourdine by Matthias Pintscher (2003).

He is also an avid chamber musician and his regular recital partners are pianists Piotr Anderzewski, Enrico Pace and Emanuel Ax. Together with violist Antoine Tamestit and cellist Christian Poltéra he forms the Trio Zimmermann.

His numerous recordings cover a diverse repertoire, including all the major violin concertos, ranging from Bach to Ligeti, as well as many works from the chamber and recital repertoire, and his award-winning discography also includes lesser-known works by Busoni, Honegger, Ligeti and Pintscher. Last year he released a highly praised recording of Hindemith’s violin concerto and four sonatas, as well as his recording of The Lost Art of Letter Writing, made with conductor Jonathan Nott on his most recent visit to the SSO, in 2011.

His many awards include the Prize of the Accademia Musicale Chigiana, Siena in 1990, the Rhine Culture Prize in 1994 and the Music Prize of the city of Duisburg in 2002. In 2008 he received the Federal Cross of Merit (1st class) of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Frank Peter Zimmermann plays a Stradivarius from 1711, which once belonged to Fritz Kreisler. It is kindly sponsored by Portigon AG.

Frank Peter Zimmermannviolin

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SYDNEY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Founded in 1932 by the Australian Broadcasting Commission, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra has evolved into one of the world’s finest 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 SSO also performs in venues throughout Sydney and regional New South Wales. International tours to Europe, Asia and the USA – including three visits to China – have earned the orchestra worldwide recognition for artistic excellence.

The orchestra’s first 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, Zdenĕk Mácal, Stuart Challender, Edo de Waart and Gianluigi Gelmetti. Vladimir Ashkenazy was Principal Conductor from 2009 to 2013. The orchestra’s history also boasts collaborations with legendary figures

such as George Szell, Sir Thomas Beecham, Otto Klemperer and Igor Stravinsky.

The SSO’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 orchestra promotes the work of Australian composers through performances, recordings and its commissioning program. Recent premieres have included major works by Ross Edwards, Lee Bracegirdle, Gordon Kerry, Mary Finsterer, Nigel Westlake and Georges Lentz, and the orchestra’s recordings of music by Brett Dean have been released on both the BIS and SSO Live labels.

Other releases on the SSO Live label, established in 2006, include performances with Alexander Lazarev, Gianluigi Gelmetti, Sir Charles Mackerras, Vladimir Ashkenazy and David Robertson. In 2010–11 the orchestra made concert recordings of the complete Mahler symphonies with Ashkenazy, and has also released recordings of Rachmaninoff and Elgar orchestral works on the Exton/Triton labels, as well as numerous recordings on ABC Classics.

This is the first year of David Robertson’s tenure as Chief Conductor and Artistic Director.

DAVID ROBERTSON Chief Conductor and Artistic Director

PATRON Professor The Hon. Dame Marie Bashir ad cvo

25

FIRST VIOLINS Andrew Haveron CONCERTMASTER

Kirsten Williams ASSOCIATE CONCERTMASTER

Lerida Delbridge ASSISTANT CONCERTMASTER

Fiona Ziegler ASSISTANT CONCERTMASTER

Sophie ColeClaire HerrickGeorges LentzNicola LewisEmily LongAlexandra MitchellAlexander NortonLéone ZieglerRebecca Gill*Elizabeth Jones*Liisa Pallandi*Emily Qin*Dene Olding CONCERTMASTER

Sun Yi ASSOCIATE CONCERTMASTER

Jenny BoothBrielle ClapsonAmber Davis

SECOND VIOLINS Kirsty Hilton Marina Marsden Marianne Broadfoot Emma Jezek ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL

Emma HayesShuti HuangStan W KornelNicole MastersPhilippa PaigeBiyana RozenblitMaja VerunicaMonique Irik*Belinda Jezek*Vivien Jeffery°Maria DurekBenjamin Li

VIOLASRoger Benedict Tobias Breider Justin Williams ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL

Sandro CostantinoRosemary CurtinJane HazelwoodGraham HenningsStuart JohnsonJustine MarsdenFelicity TsaiAmanda VernerLeonid VolovelskyAnne-Louise Comerford

CELLOSUmberto ClericiCatherine Hewgill Leah Lynn ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL

Kristy ConrauFenella GillTimothy NankervisElizabeth NevilleChristopher PidcockAdrian WallisDavid WickhamHenry David Varema

DOUBLE BASSESKees Boersma Alex Henery Steven LarsonNeil Brawley PRINCIPAL EMERITUS

David CampbellRichard LynnBenjamin WardHugh Kluger*David Murray

FLUTES Emma Sholl Carolyn HarrisRosamund Plummer PRINCIPAL PICCOLO

Janet Webb

OBOESShefali Pryor David PappAlexandre Oguey PRINCIPAL COR ANGLAIS

Diana Doherty

CLARINETSChristopher TingayCraig Wernicke PRINCIPAL BASS CLARINET

Rowena Watts*Lawrence Dobell Francesco Celata

BASSOONSMark Gaydon*Fiona McNamaraNoriko Shimada PRINCIPAL CONTRABASSOON

Matthew Wilkie

SAXOPHONEMichael Duke*

HORNSBen Jacks Lauren Manuel* ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL

Geoffrey O’Reilly PRINCIPAL 3RD

Euan HarveyRachel SilverMalcolm Stewart* Robert Johnson Marnie Sebire

TRUMPETSPaul Goodchild Anthony HeinrichsColin Grisdale* David Elton

TROMBONESRonald Prussing Nick ByrneChristopher Harris PRINCIPAL BASS TROMBONE

Scott Kinmont

TUBASteve Rossé

TIMPANIRichard Miller PERCUSSIONRebecca Lagos Mark Robinson ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL

Timothy ConstableIan Cleworth*Joshua Hill*

HARP Louise Johnson Verna Lee*

KEYBOARDSDavid Drury* ORGAN

Susanne Powell* PIANO

BOLD = PRINCIPALITALICS = ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL

° = CONTRACT MUSICIAN

* = GUEST MUSICIANGREY = PERMANENT MEMBER OF THE SYDNEY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA NOT APPEARING IN THIS CONCERT

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

To see photographs of the full roster of permanent musicians and find 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 flyer.

MUSICIANS

David RobertsonCHIEF CONDUCTOR AND ARTISTIC DIRECTOR SUPPORTED BY EMIRATES

Dene OldingCONCERTMASTER

Jessica CottisASSISTANT CONDUCTOR SUPPORTED BY PREMIER PARTNER CREDIT SUISSE

Andrew HaveronCONCERTMASTER

26

BEHIND THE SCENES

MANAGING DIRECTOR

Rory Jeffes

EXECUTIVE TEAM ASSISTANT

Lisa Davies-Galli

ARTISTIC OPERATIONSDIRECTOR OF ARTISTIC PLANNING

Benjamin Schwartz

ARTISTIC ADMINISTRATION MANAGER

Eleasha Mah

ARTIST LIAISON MANAGER

Ilmar Leetberg

RECORDING ENTERPRISE MANAGER

Philip Powers

LibraryAnna CernikVictoria GrantMary-Ann Mead

LEARNING AND ENGAGEMENTDIRECTOR OF LEARNING AND ENGAGEMENT

Kim Waldock

EMERGING ARTISTS PROGRAM MANAGER

Mark Lawrenson

EDUCATION MANAGER

Rachel McLarin

EDUCATION OFFICER

Amy Walsh

ORCHESTRA MANAGEMENTDIRECTOR OF ORCHESTRA MANAGEMENT

Aernout Kerbert

ORCHESTRA MANAGER

Rachel Whealy

ORCHESTRA COORDINATOR

Georgia Fryer

OPERATIONS MANAGER

Kerry-Anne Cook

PRODUCTION MANAGER

Laura Daniel

STAGE MANAGER

Courtney Wilson

PRODUCTION COORDINATORS

Tim DaymanDave Stabback

SALES AND MARKETINGDIRECTOR OF SALES & MARKETING

Mark J Elliott

MARKETING MANAGER, SUBSCRIPTION SALES

Simon Crossley-Meates

A/ SENIOR SALES & MARKETING MANAGER

Matthew Rive

MARKETING MANAGER, WEB & DIGITAL MEDIA

Eve Le Gall

MARKETING MANAGER, CRM & DATABASE

Matthew Hodge

A/ SALES & MARKETING MANAGER,SINGLE TICKET CAMPAIGNS

Jonathon Symonds

DATABASE ANALYST

David Patrick

SENIOR GRAPHIC DESIGNER

Christie Brewster

GRAPHIC DESIGNER

Tessa Conn

SENIOR ONLINE MARKETING COORDINATOR

Jenny Sargant

MARKETING ASSISTANT

Theres Mayer

Box OfficeMANAGER OF BOX OFFICE SALES & OPERATIONS

Lynn McLaughlin

BOX OFFICE SYSTEMS SUPERVISOR

Jennifer Laing

BOX OFFICE BUSINESS ADMINISTRATOR

John Robertson

CUSTOMER SERVICE REPRESENTATIVES

Karen Wagg – Senior CSR Michael DowlingTim Walsh

PublicationsPUBLICATIONS EDITOR & MUSIC PRESENTATION MANAGER

Yvonne Frindle

EXTERNAL RELATIONSDIRECTOR OF EXTERNAL RELATIONS

Yvonne Zammit

PhilanthropyHEAD OF PHILANTHROPY

Luke Andrew Gay

PHILANTHROPY COORDINATOR

Sarah Morrisby

Corporate RelationsBUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER

Belinda Besson

CORPORATE RELATIONS MANAGER

Janine Harris

CommunicationsPUBLIC RELATIONS MANAGER

Katherine Stevenson

COMMUNICATIONS & MEDIA MANAGER

Bridget Cormack

DIGITAL CONTENT PRODUCER

Kai Raisbeck

SOCIAL MEDIA AND PUBLICITY OFFICER

Caitlin Benetatos

BUSINESS SERVICESDIRECTOR OF FINANCE

John Horn

FINANCE MANAGER

Ruth Tolentino

ACCOUNTANT

Minerva Prescott

ACCOUNTS ASSISTANT

Emma Ferrer

PAYROLL OFFICER

Laura Soutter

PEOPLE AND CULTURE IN-HOUSE COUNSEL

Michel Maree Hryce

SYDNEY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA STAFF

John C Conde ao ChairmanTerrey Arcus am

Ewen Crouch am

Ross GrantCatherine HewgillJennifer HoyRory JeffesAndrew Kaldor am

David LivingstoneThe Hon. Justice AJ MeagherGoetz Richter

SYDNEY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA BOARD

SYDNEY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA COUNCILGeoff Ainsworth am Doug Battersby Christine Bishop The Hon John Della Bosca mlc Michael J Crouch ao Alan Fang Erin Flaherty Dr Stephen Freiberg Simon Johnson Gary Linnane Helen Lynch am David Maloney am Justice Jane Mathews ao Danny May Jane Morschel Andy Plummer Deirdre Plummer Seamus Robert Quick Paul Salteri am Sandra Salteri Juliana Schaeffer Fred Stein oam Gabrielle Trainor John van Ogtrop Brian White Rosemary White

HONORARY COUNCIL MEMBERS

Ita Buttrose ao obe Donald Hazelwood ao obe The Hon. Paul Keating Yvonne Kenny am David Malouf ao Wendy McCarthy ao Leo Schofield am Peter Weiss ao

27

Through their inspired financial support, Patrons ensure the SSO’s continued success, resilience and growth. Join the SSO Patrons Program today and make a difference.

sydneysymphony.com/patrons (02) 8215 4674 • philanthropy@sydneysymphony.com

MAKE A DIFFERENCE

SYDNEY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA PATRONS

MAESTRO’S CIRCLESUPPORTING THE ARTISTIC VISION OF DAVID ROBERTSON, CHIEF CONDUCTOR AND ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

Peter Weiss ao Founding President & Doris WeissJohn C Conde ao ChairmanBrian AbelGeoff Ainsworth am Tom Breen & Rachael KohnThe Berg Family FoundationAndrew Kaldor am & Renata Kaldor aoVicki Olsson

Roslyn Packer aoDavid RobertsonPenelope Seidler amMr Fred Street am & Mrs Dorothy StreetMr Frank Lowy ac & Mrs Shirley Lowy oam

Brian & Rosemary WhiteRay Wilson oam in memory of the late James Agapitos oam

CHAIR PATRONS

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

02 Umberto Clerici Principal Cello Garry & Shiva Rich Chair

03 Lerida Delbridge Assistant Concertmaster Simon Johnson Chair

04 Lawrence Dobell Principal Clarinet Anne & Terrey Arcus am Chair

05 Diana Doherty Principal Oboe Andrew Kaldor am & Renata Kaldor ao Chair

06 Richard Gill oam Artistic Director, Education Paul Salteri am & Sandra Salteri Chair

07 Jane Hazelwood, Viola Bob & Julie Clampett Chair in memory of Carolyn Clampett

08 Catherine Hewgill Principal Cello The Hon. Justice AJ & Mrs Fran Meagher Chair

09 Robert Johnson Principal Horn James & Leonie Furber Chair

10 Elizabeth Neville Cello Ruth & Bob Magid Chair

11 Shefali Pryor Associate Principal Oboe Mrs Barbara Murphy Chair

12 Emma Sholl Associate Principal Flute Robert & Janet Constable Chair

13 Janet Webb Principal Flute Helen Lynch am & Helen Bauer Chair

14 Kirsten Williams, Associate Concertmaster I Kallinikos Chair

FOR INFORMATION ABOUT THE CHAIR PATRONS PROGRAM,

CALL (02) 8215 4619.

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PLAYING YOUR PART

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

DIAMOND PATRONS: $30,000+Geoff Ainsworth am

Anne & Terrey Arcus am

Doug & Alison BattersbyThe Berg Family FoundationTom Breen & Rachael KohnMr John C Conde ao

Robert & Janet ConstableThe Estate of Dr Lynn JosephMr Andrew Kaldor am &

Mrs Renata Kaldor ao

In Memory of Matthew KrelMrs Roslyn Packer ao

Ian Potter FoundationPaul Salteri am & Sandra SalteriScully FoundationMrs W SteningMr Fred Street am &

Mrs Dorothy StreetPeter Weiss ao & Doris WeissMr Brian & Mrs Rosemary WhiteKim Williams am & Catherine

Dovey

PLATINUM PATRONS: $20,000–$29,999Brian AbelRobert Albert ao & Elizabeth

AlbertAlan & Christine BishopSandra & Neil Burns

James & Leonie FurberI KallinikosHelen Lynch am & Helen BauerMrs T Merewether oam

Mrs Barbara MurphyMr B G O’ConorVicki OlssonAndy & Deirdre PlummerDavid RobertsonMrs Penelope Seidler am

G & C Solomon in memory of Joan MacKenzie

Geoff StearnRay Wilson oam in memory of

James Agapitos oam

Anonymous (1)

GOLD PATRONS: $10,000–$19,999Bailey Family FoundationAudrey BlundenMr Robert BrakspearIan & Jennifer BurtonMr Robert & Mrs L Alison CarrBob & Julie ClampettMichael Crouch ao & Shanny

CrouchThe Hon. Mrs Ashley

Dawson-Damer am

Ian Dickson & Reg HollowayPaul EspieEdward & Diane Federman

Nora GoodridgeMr Ross GrantMr Ervin KatzJames N Kirby FoundationRuth & Bob MagidThe Hon. Justice AJ Meagher &

Mrs Fran MeagherMr John MorschelDrs Keith & Eileen OngGarry & Shiva RichCaroline WilkinsonAnonymous (2)

SILVER PATRONS: $5000–$9,999John Augustus & Kim RyrieStephen J BellDr Hannes & Mrs Barbara

BoshoffMr Alexander & Mrs Vera

BoyarskyPeter Braithwaite & Gary

LinnaneMr David & Mrs Halina BrettEwen Crouch am & Catherine

CrouchIn memory of Dr Lee

MacCormick EdwardsDr Stephen Freiberg & Donald

CampbellDr Colin GoldschmidtThe Greatorex Foundation

Rory & Jane JeffesThe late Mrs Isabelle JosephFrank Lowy am & Shirley

Lowy oam

J A McKernanDavid Maloney am & Erin

FlahertyR & S Maple-BrownJustice Jane Mathews ao

Mora MaxwellWilliam McIlrath Charitable

FoundationJohn & Akky van OgtropSeamus Robert QuickRodney Rosenblum am &

Sylvia RosenblumDr Evelyn RoyalThe late Greta C RyanManfred & Linda SalamonMrs Joyce Sproat &

Mrs Janet CookeMr John Symond am

David Tudehope & Liz DibbsMr Robert & Mrs Rosemary

WalshWestpac GroupMichael & Mary Whelan TrustIn memory of Geoff WhiteJune & Alan Woods Family

BequestAnonymous (2)

PRESTO PATRONS: $2,500–$4,999Mr Henri W Aram oam

Ian BradyMr Mark BryantIta Buttrose ao obe

Dr Rebecca ChinDr Diana Choquette &

Mr Robert MillinerMr B & Mrs M ColesMr Howard ConnorsGreta DavisFirehold Pty LtdWarren GreenAnthony GreggAnn HobanIrwin Imhof in memory of

Herta ImhofMr John Lam-Po-TangJames & Elsie MooreDarrol Norman & Sandra HortonMs Jackie O’BrienJuliana SchaefferDr Agnes E SinclairEzekiel SolomonTony StrachanMr Ervin Vidor am &

Mrs Charlotte VidorMr Lang & Mrs Sue WalkerYim Family Foundation

VIVACE PATRONS: $1,000–$2,499Mrs Lenore AdamsonMrs Antoinette AlbertRae & David AllenAndrew Andersons ao

Mr Matthew AndrewsThe Hon Justice Michael BallDavid BarnesMr Garry BessonAllan & Julie BlighJan BowenLenore P BuckleMargaret BulmerIn memory of RW BurleyMrs Rhonda CaddyMrs Stella ChenMs Suzanne CollinsJoan Connery oam &

Maxwell Connery oam

Debby Cramer & Bill CaukillMr John Cunningham scm &

Mrs Margaret CunninghamLisa & Miro DavisElizabeth DonatiColin Draper & Mary Jane

BrodribbProf. & Mrs John EdmondsMalcolm Ellis & Erin O’NeillMrs Margaret Epps

Professor Michael Field am

Mr Tom FrancisMr Matt GarrettVivienne Goldschmidt &

Owen JonesMrs Fay GrearIn Memory of Angelica GreenAkiko GregoryMr & Mrs Harold & Althea

HallidayJanette HamiltonAngus HoldenDr & Mrs Michael HunterMichael & Anna JoelMrs W G KeighleyDr Andrew KennedyAron KleinlehrerProf. Andrew Korda am &

Ms Susan PearsonMr Justin LamMr Peter Lazar am

Professor Winston LiauwAirdrie LloydPeter Lowry oam & Dr Carolyn

Lowry oam

Kevin & Deirdre McCannIan & Pam McGawMacquarie Group FoundationBarbara MaidmentJohn Mar

Renee MarkovicHenry & Ursula MooserMilja & David MorrisMrs J MulveneyDr Mike O’Connor am

Mr & Mrs OrtisMr Andrew C PattersonDr Natalie E PelhamAlmut PiattiIn memory of Sandra Paul

PottingerDr Raffi QasabianMichael QuaileyMr Patrick Quinn-GrahamErnest & Judith RapeeKenneth R ReedPatricia H Reid Endowment

Pty LtdDr Marilyn RichardsonLesley & Andrew RosenbergIn memory of H St P ScarlettMr Samuel F ShefferDavid & Alison ShilligtonDavid Smithers am & Isabel

SmithersDr Judy SoperMrs Judith SouthamMs Barbara SpencerMrs Elizabeth SquairCatherine Stephen

29

PLAYING YOUR PART

TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT BECOMING A

SYDNEY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA PATRON, PLEASE

CONTACT THE PHILANTHROPY OFFICE ON (02) 8215 4674

OR EMAIL PHILANTHROPY@SYDNEYSYMPHONY.COM

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The Hon. Brian Sully qc

Mrs Margaret SwansonThe Taplin FamilyKevin TroyJohn E TuckeyJudge Robyn TupmanDr Alla WaldmanMiss Sherry WangWestpac Banking CorporationHenry & Ruth WeinbergThe Hon. Justice A G WhealyDr Richard T WhiteMrs Leonore WhyteBetty WilkenfieldA Willmers & R PalDr Edward J WillsProf. Neville Wills &

Ian FenwickeAnn & Brooks C Wilson am

Dr Richard WingDr Peter Wong &

Mrs Emmy K WongGeoff Wood & Melissa WaitesSir Robert WoodsMr & Mrs Lindsay WoolveridgeIn memory of Lorna WrightDr John YuAnonymous (15)

ALLEGRO PATRONS: $500–$999Ms Jenny AllumMr Peter J ArmstrongGarry & Tricia AshMr & Mrs George BallDr Lilon BandlerBarlow Cleaning Pty LtdMichael Baume ao & Toni BaumeBeauty Point Retirement ResortMr Michael BeckDr Andrew BellRichard & Margaret BellMrs Jan BiberMinnie BiggsG D BoltonMr Colin G Booth

Dr Margaret BoothIn memory of Jillian BowersMrs R D Bridges obe

R D & L M BroadfootDr Peter BroughtonDr David BryantArnaldo BuchDr Miles BurgessPat & Jenny BurnettEric & Rosemary CampbellMr JC Campbell qc &

Mrs CampbellBarrie CarterMr Jonathan ChissickMrs Sandra ClarkIn memory of Beth HarpleyMr Phillip CornwellDom Cottam & Kanako

ImamuraDr Peter CraswellMr David CrossPhil Diment am &

Bill ZafiropoulosDr David DixonSusan DoenauMrs Jane DrexlerDr Nita DurhamJohn FavaloroMrs Lesley FinnMs Julie Flynn & Mr Trevor

CookMrs Paula FlynnMr John GadenClive & Jenny GoodwinRuth GrahameMr Robert GreenRichard Griffin am

Dr Jan GroseBenjamin Hasic &

Belinda DavieMr Robert HavardMrs Joan HenleyRoger HenningSue HewittIn memory of Emil HiltonDorothy Hoddinott ao

Mr Kevin Holland & Mrs Roslyn Andrews

Bill & Pam HughesMs Cynthia KayeMrs Margaret KeoghDr Henry KilhamDr Joyce KirkChris J KitchingMrs Patricia KleinhansAnna-Lisa KlettenbergSonia LalL M B LampratiElaine M LangshawDr Leo & Mrs Shirley LeaderMargaret LedermanMrs Erna LevyMrs A LohanMr Gabriel LopataPanee LowDr David LuisMelvyn MadiganMs Jolanta MasojadaHelen & Phil MeddingsI MerrickLouise MillerPatricia MillerKenneth Newton MitchellHelen MorganChris Morgan-HunnMr Graham NorthE J NuffieldMr Sead NurkicDr A J PalmerDr Kevin PedemontDr John PittMrs Greeba PritchardThe Hon. Dr Rodney Purvis am

& Mrs Marian Purvis

Miss Julie RadosavljevicRenaissance Tours Anna RoMr David RobinsonAgnes RossMrs Christine Rowell-Miller Mr Kenneth RyanGarry Scarf & Morgie BlaxillPeter & Virginia ShawV ShoreMrs Diane Shteinman am

Victoria SmythDoug & Judy SotherenColin SpencerJames & Alice SpigelmanAshley & Aveen StephensonMargaret & William SuthersDr & Mrs H K TeyDr Jenepher ThomasMr Michael ThompsonMs Rhonda TingAlma TooheyMrs M TurkingtonGillian Turner & Rob BishopMr Robert VeelRonald WalledgeIn memory of Denis WallisIn memoriam JBL WattMiss Roslyn WheelerThe Wilkinson FamilyAudrey & Michael WilsonYetty WindtDr Richard WingateMr Evan WongMrs Robin YabsleyAnonymous (45)

SYDNEY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA VANGUARDA MEMBERSHIP PROGRAM FOR A DYNAMIC GROUP OF GEN X & Y SSO FANS AND FUTURE PHILANTHROPISTS

COLLECTIVEMr Justin Di Lollo ChairOscar McMahonTaine MoufarrigeSeamus Robert QuickShefali PryorCamille Thioulouse

FOUNDING PATRONSSeamus Robert QuickTaine Moufarrige

MEMBERSJames ArmstrongJoan BallantineJames BaudzusAndrew BaxterAnthony BeresfordDavid BluffPeter BraithwaiteBlake Briggs

Andrea BrownMelanie BrownProf. Attila BrungsIan BurtonJennifer BurtonPaul ColganRobbie CranfieldJuliet CurtinRosalind DesaillyAlastair FurnivalAlexandra GibsonSam GiddingsMarina GoJeremy GoffHilary GoodsonTony GriersonLouise HaggertyRose HercegFrancis HicksPeter Howard

Jennifer HoyKatie HryceThe Hon. Virginia JudgeJonathan KennedyAernout KerbertPatrick KokAlisa LaiTristan LandersJessye LinGary LinnaneGabriel LopataRobert McGroryDavid McKeanNick NichlesKate O’ReillyPeter O’SullivanLaurisa PoulosMichael RadovnikovicSudeep RaoMichael Reede

Paul ReidyChris RobertsonDr Benjamin RobinsonAlvaro Rodas FernandezJacqueline RowlandsProf. Anthony Michael

SchembriBenjamin SchwartzCaroline SharpenKatherine ShawCeclilia StornioloRandal TameSandra TangIan TaylorMichael TidballMark TimminsMichael TuffyKim WaldockJon WilkieYvonne Zammit

30

SALUTE

The Sydney Symphony Orchestra is assisted by the

Commonwealth Government through the Australia Council,

its arts funding and advisory body

GOVERNMENT PARTNERS

The Sydney Symphony Orchestra is

assisted by the NSW Government

through Arts NSW

PRINCIPAL PARTNER

EDUCATION PARTNERPLATINUM PARTNER

MAJOR PARTNERS

GOLD PARTNERS

REGIONAL TOUR PARTNER MARKETING PARTNERVANGUARD PARTNER

PREMIER PARTNER

SILVER PARTNERS

s i n f i n i m u s i c . c o m

UNIVERSAL MUSIC AUSTRALIA

Salute 2014_FOUR-3_20Nov.indd 1 20/11/14 9:50 AM

❝There’s much less of the artistic temperament these days.

❞with marketing, in ways they weren’t before. Bernstein was one of the first to embrace the medium of television, and it’s really grown from there.’

Despite the wealth of information available now via the internet about each artist, Ilmar maintains a professional but personable approach. ‘It’s important for an artist to feel comfortable with the person that they’re going to be with for the week. While it’s good to know the bare bones about someone, it’s not in anyone’s interest to know too much about them before you meet in real life; that’s very artificial.’

The very model of discretion, Ilmar isn’t one to tell tales out of school of artists’ embarrassing moments. ‘You’ll have to wait for my memoirs,’ he jokes. ‘There are a lot of nervous artists out there – I have to fund my retirement somehow!’

A riddle for you: You’ll only ever see him on stage when the orchestra is silent. He neither plays nor conducts a single note, but without him, the music would never sound. Who is he?

Amongst the staff of any orchestra, there is one key role that acts as the touchpoint for every visiting performer or conductor; that of artist liaison manager. Ilmar Leetberg has fulfilled that role with the SSO for 17 years. His occasional appearances on the platform of the concert hall, carefully ensuring scores, batons, glasses of water and the like are all in place before a performance, are just a tiny part of his wide-ranging job. ‘Ultimately my goal is to make sure that the only thing the artists have to worry about are the rehearsals

and performance.’ Ilmar is required to be at almost every performance – that’s over 100 nights per year. His responsibilities start long before any artist arrives in Sydney, with travel arrangements, contracts and special requirements all confirmed well in advance.

From early days as Bernstein’s London-based PA – ‘despite every attempt, I could never beat him into the office, he was so driven!’ – through working with conducting greats like Hiroyuki Iwaki, and, more recently, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Ilmar has seen many changes in the industry. ‘There’s much less of the artistic temperament these days. That’s been replaced by business acumen. Artists are being savvy with social media, savvy with patrons and savvy

TOUCHPOINTThere are many unsung heroes of the SSO – Ilmar Leetberg is one!

ORCHESTRA NEWS | NOVEMBER–DECEMBER 2014

SSO Bravo! #9 2014 Insert.indd 1 11/11/14 10:31 AM

and Berlioz’ Symphonie fantastique. ‘The music had an important role to play in expressing what words could not. It was inspiring, emotionally profound and incredibly uplifting.’

CommemorationGough Whitlam Memorial ServiceWe were extremely honoured to perform at the State Memorial Service for Edward Gough Whitlam, Australia’s 21st Prime Minister. Conductor Benjamin Northey moved heaven and earth to come back from Albany, WA to join us in time for rehearsals for this special commemoration. ‘It was an extraordinary experience and a great honour for all of us,’ says Benjamin. ‘On the day, despite the magnitude of the occasion, I was almost totally free of nerves. I felt as if the performers and the audience were somehow a single entity throughout, all unified in the task of honouring this great

Paul

Wilc

ock Last month the historic 19th-century

Mortuary Station near Central played host to a performance by an ensemble of SSO musicians for our Vanguard guests, a dynamic group of Sydney’s next generation of philanthropists. Before the heavens erupted on that stormy October evening, we were treated to a program that included New Orleans jazz funeral number ‘Just a Closer Walk With Thee’ and Irving Berlin’s ‘Cheek to Cheek’, sung by Philanthropy Coordinator Sarah Morrisby. The Gothic-style station, which saw mourners departing for Rookwood Cemetery until the early 1940s, proved an evocative setting for our final Vanguard event for 2014. Join the conversation on Instagram and Twitter at #ssovanguard

I’m sure I saw one of your musicians performing in a completely different context the other week – Fiona Ziegler playing the viol? It got me thinking about SSO musicians making ‘extra-curricular’ music. Is it very common? Adam, via email

Many youngsters who later join the ranks of a professional orchestra either start out on a completely different instrument, or seek out challenges later in life by taking up additional instruments. Assistant Concertmaster Fiona Ziegler falls

into the latter category: as well as playing tenor viol (a string instrument from the Renaissance and Baroque periods that is held between the knees), she has also picked up mandolin and mandola (the viola of the mandolin family) for fresh challenges and a different palette of sounds.

Bassist David Murray strayed into less traditional territory growing up. Originally from the Twin Cities in the States, Dave met a lot of jazz musicians, and fell in love with the genre. ‘The difference [from classical music] is in the style of learning: the tools are the same – like scales

and arpeggios – but with jazz you learn how to use them for your own purposes; you get creative with an arpeggio, maybe even turn it into a melody.’ The similarities with classical music are in the listening. ‘You’re actively listening to the harmony, to what everyone else is doing. In many respects it isn’t that different [to playing in the orchestra].’

Have a question about music, instruments or the inner workings of an orchestra? ‘Ask a Musician’ at yoursay@sydneysymphony.com or by writing to Bravo! Reply Paid 4338, Sydney NSW 2001.

Ask a Musician

Ilmar

Lee

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Australian leader. Even the anthem took on a new depth of meaning.’

Gough’s wish list for the service at the Sydney Town Hall included music from Bach’s St Matthew Passion, Verdi’s Nabucco

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Rai

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SSO Bravo! #9 2014 Insert.indd 2 11/11/14 10:35 AM

and Berlioz’ Symphonie fantastique. ‘The music had an important role to play in expressing what words could not. It was inspiring, emotionally profound and incredibly uplifting.’

CommemorationGough Whitlam Memorial ServiceWe were extremely honoured to perform at the State Memorial Service for Edward Gough Whitlam, Australia’s 21st Prime Minister. Conductor Benjamin Northey moved heaven and earth to come back from Albany, WA to join us in time for rehearsals for this special commemoration. ‘It was an extraordinary experience and a great honour for all of us,’ says Benjamin. ‘On the day, despite the magnitude of the occasion, I was almost totally free of nerves. I felt as if the performers and the audience were somehow a single entity throughout, all unified in the task of honouring this great

Paul

Wilc

ock Last month the historic 19th-century

Mortuary Station near Central played host to a performance by an ensemble of SSO musicians for our Vanguard guests, a dynamic group of Sydney’s next generation of philanthropists. Before the heavens erupted on that stormy October evening, we were treated to a program that included New Orleans jazz funeral number ‘Just a Closer Walk With Thee’ and Irving Berlin’s ‘Cheek to Cheek’, sung by Philanthropy Coordinator Sarah Morrisby. The Gothic-style station, which saw mourners departing for Rookwood Cemetery until the early 1940s, proved an evocative setting for our final Vanguard event for 2014. Join the conversation on Instagram and Twitter at #ssovanguard

I’m sure I saw one of your musicians performing in a completely different context the other week – Fiona Ziegler playing the viol? It got me thinking about SSO musicians making ‘extra-curricular’ music. Is it very common? Adam, via email

Many youngsters who later join the ranks of a professional orchestra either start out on a completely different instrument, or seek out challenges later in life by taking up additional instruments. Assistant Concertmaster Fiona Ziegler falls

into the latter category: as well as playing tenor viol (a string instrument from the Renaissance and Baroque periods that is held between the knees), she has also picked up mandolin and mandola (the viola of the mandolin family) for fresh challenges and a different palette of sounds.

Bassist David Murray strayed into less traditional territory growing up. Originally from the Twin Cities in the States, Dave met a lot of jazz musicians, and fell in love with the genre. ‘The difference [from classical music] is in the style of learning: the tools are the same – like scales

and arpeggios – but with jazz you learn how to use them for your own purposes; you get creative with an arpeggio, maybe even turn it into a melody.’ The similarities with classical music are in the listening. ‘You’re actively listening to the harmony, to what everyone else is doing. In many respects it isn’t that different [to playing in the orchestra].’

Have a question about music, instruments or the inner workings of an orchestra? ‘Ask a Musician’ at yoursay@sydneysymphony.com or by writing to Bravo! Reply Paid 4338, Sydney NSW 2001.

Ask a Musician

Ilmar

Lee

tber

g

Australian leader. Even the anthem took on a new depth of meaning.’

Gough’s wish list for the service at the Sydney Town Hall included music from Bach’s St Matthew Passion, Verdi’s Nabucco

Kai

Rai

sbec

k

SSO Bravo! #9 2014 Insert.indd 2 11/11/14 10:35 AM

Ilmar

Lee

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Schumann Symphony CycleNext year, our Sydney Opera House season opens with a cycle of symphonies from one of the great Romantics, Robert Schumann. Until his marriage to Clara Wieck in 1839, Schumann had focused solely on piano music. But Clara believed he should be writing for orchestra: ‘his imagination cannot find sufficient scope on the piano…His compositions are all orchestral in feeling.’

Her influence must have worked on him: in a fit of inspiration in 1841 he composed his enlivening Spring Symphony; soon after, he drafted what was to become his Fourth Symphony in 1851. The Second was composed in 1845–46, during a period when he was suffering from ‘nervous prostration’ – its energy-filled finale suggests triumph over troubled exhaustion and deep melancholy. The majestic Rhenish Symphony was written over a month in 1850, after he’d taken up a conducting post in Düsseldorf.

But the tragedy of mental illness led to Schumann’s premature death at the age of 46. There would be no more symphonies. Even so, the four symphonies he did compose reveal a marvellous imagination and capacity for musical feeling. And in 2015 you have the chance to hear them all in close succession, and to experience the emotional highs and lows and powerful drama of this rich symphonic cycle.

Schumann Symphonies with David RobertsonPerformed over a fortnight in programs with violin concertos by Mendelssohn and Widmann, and a new work by Georges Lentz.11, 13, 14, 16, 20, 21 February 2015Visit sydneysymphony.com for details.

The Score

the opportunity to do that sort of stuff very much, and even if we do, the cost is often so great, that we can’t really enjoy it.’ One young charge Alex, who is blind, was particularly taken by the timpani. Says Sue, ‘Alex likes to rock when he gets excited. He was so enthusiastic he nearly rocked himself off his seat!’ The program ranged from Mozart to Martinu°, and was performed by the SSO Sinfonia, conducted by Anthony Pasquill at the Eugene Goossens Hall in the ABC Ultimo Centre.

Across the other side of Sydney, Associate Concertmaster Kirsten Williams has been weaving gentle skeins of magic with her instrument to help sooth and stabilise the tiny newborns at Westmead NICU. ‘The violin sounds very similar to the female voice in tone quality and emotional depth,’ she says, ‘much like a mother singing a lullaby.’ Staff in the NICU have reported that the babies become more settled and stable when Kirsten plays. ‘It’s a huge privilege, to be allowed into such a special place where healing is taking place’ says Kirsten.

There are many in our community who, for one reason or another, aren’t able to come along to a conventional symphony orchestra concert. People with physical and intellectual special needs rarely experience live orchestral music. Another audience unlikely to experience the soothing magic of live music is premature or very sick newborn babies. And yet who could argue about the transportative and transformative power of listening to live music? Certainly not the nearly 140 people of all ages who attended our recent Come and Be Yourself concert, nor the tiny inpatients at Westmead’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).

Come and Be Yourself was a concert designed for people with physical or intellectual disabilities that might normally keep them from going to a concert, and was attended by almost 140 people from various services and schools throughout Sydney.

Sue Popplewell, a support worker from Sylvanvale Disability Services, said the benefits of a concert like this were enormous. ‘We don’t get

Education Focus

MUSIC FOR EVERYONEAll ages and abilities were catered to in some very special recent SSO performances

Alex with SSO Sinfonia timpanist Mathew at Come and Be Yourself.

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EDITOR Genevieve Huppert sydneysymphony.com/bravo

DIGITAL MASTERCLASSES

Have you checked out our new series of SSO Audition Masterclasses on YouTube? Concertmaster Andrew Haveron and Principal Double Bass Kees Boersma put two of our Fellows, Nicholas Waters and Aurora Henrich, through their paces in some key orchestral excerpts, exploring matters of interpretation, technique and audition strategy.

Kees was working with Aurora on the double bass ‘recitative’ from the finale of Beethoven’s Ninth – music in which the instrument has to ‘speak’ with rhetorical power. And Andrew took the first movement of Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances as a starting point for his masterclass with Nicholas, posing important – but often neglected – questions such as: ‘Who supplied the bowings on this part?’ (In the case of the Symphonic Dances, Rachmaninoff asked none other

than Fritz Kreisler to edit and bow his violin parts!)

These tutorials are designed to help other budding orchestral musicians with their own audition preparations. Visit www.youtube.com/sydneysymphony and stay tuned for more instalments.

INVALUABLE EXPERIENCE

Our Education Partner DownerTenix will host their annual SSO Experience Day on 28 November. Four lucky music students will fly in from around the country to spend time with musical mentors from the SSO, see behind-the-scenes at a rehearsal, and attend a concert. An invaluable experience, to be sure!

ADIEU

We recently farewelled Development Manager Amelia Morgan-Hunn, who was responsible for the birth of our fantastic Vanguard program. Thank you Amelia, et bonne chance à Paris and beyond!

EDUCATION IN 2015

In early October, our Learning and Engagement team launched their comprehensive 2015 program for schools and teachers. Next year, we’ll present 32 schools concerts for all ages in central and western Sydney, and regional NSW, as well as 12 subscription concerts at the Sydney Opera House and City Recital Hall for senior music students. To support teachers, we’re running ten professional learning workshops, including TunED-Up! – two five-day residential workshops. And next year Playerlink will be held in Bellingen. Phew! That should keep the Education team out of trouble for the next little while…

DESTINATION VIENNA

Penelope Seidler, in association with the Vienna Tourist Board, will be hosting a traditional Viennese salon on 18 November to celebrate this magical musical heart of Old Europe. A string quartet drawn from our string players will entertain the guests with the music of Schubert.

CODA

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Please address all correspondence to the Publications Editor: Email program.editor@sydneysymphony.com

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