Spring Cyber Symphonies Concert 2

Ravel Pavane Pour Une Infante Défunte Korngold Violin Concerto in D, Opus 35

Ravel Ma Mère L’Oye, “Mother Goose Suite” Conductor Jeremy Silver Soloist Jordan Brooks Concertmaster Philip Martens Recorded at the Cape Town City Hall on August 26, 2021 Streaming September 23 – 27, 2021

JEREMY SILVER Conductor Jeremy Silver is Director of the Opera School at the University of Cape Town, and has worked extensively in South Africa with the country’s major symphony orchestras, as well as conducting La bohème and Le nozze di Figaro for Cape Town Opera and Lucia di Lammermoor with Gauteng Opera. As principal conductor of Opera Africa (2004-2007), he conducted productions of I Capuleti e i Montecchi, La traviata and Rigoletto at the State Theatre, Pretoria, as well as the South African opera Princess Magogo at Het Muziektheater, Amsterdam. A selection of other productions includes Rinaldo, Serse, Alcina, Orfeo ed Euridice, L’incoronazione di Poppea and the Mozart Da Ponte operas (Longborough Festival Opera); Pelléas et Mélisande (Glyndebourne Touring Opera); Madama Butterfly (English National Opera); Ariadne auf Naxos (English

Touring Opera); Aida, Carmen (Royal Albert Hall); La Rondine, Lucia di Lammermoor, Le Nozze di Figaro (Opera Holland Park); Les Huguenots, Tosca (Opéra-Théâtre de Metz), Turandot (National Theatre, Malaysia) and Die Fledermaus (Yale Opera). For English Touring Opera he also conducted two exciting Donizetti rediscoveries, L’assedio di Calais and Il furioso all’isola di San Domingo in performing editions resulting from his considerable editorial work on both scores. Jeremy served on the resident music staffs of English National Opera and Scottish Opera, as well as working with Glyndebourne Festival Opera and Opera North. He has also given concerts with many UK orchestras and Sinfonia Varsovia.

JORDAN BROOKS Soloist

Jordan Brooks, born in 2003, started violin lessons at the age of seven under the tuition of Anne Marie Swanepoel at the Beau Soleil Music Centre. From the age of 11, he has performed as a soloist with the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra (CPO), the Cape Town Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, the Hugo Lambrechts Symphony Orchestra and with Beau Soleil Strings. As the former concertmaster of the Cape Town Philharmonic Youth Orchestra from the time he was 13 until he left last year, Jordan has performed in numerous concert venues in Cape Town and collaborated with

national and international artists. He has also played as an ad hoc musician in many CPO symphony concerts. In 2018, Jordan was a member of the MIAGI Orchestra which toured Europe for six weeks, performing in concert venues such as the Elbphiharmonie and the Concertgebouw. In October 2019, he was the grand prize winner of the prestigious SA National Youth Music Competition, culminating in a sterling performance of the first movement of the Sibelius Violin Concerto with the CPO. In 2020, he was awarded a full scholarship to continue his studies at the prestigious Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester, studying with Jan Repko. Jordan is a very active chamber musician. He has been a regular participant at the Franschhoek Chamber Music Festival, as well as the Stellenbosch International Chamber Music Festival. In Manchester, he has been involved with many collaborative chamber music projects with the Manchester Collective, The Barret Duo School in Norway, masterclasses with the Emerson Quartet, and many other projects. He has received masterclasses from strings musicians such as Marc Bouchkov, Alexander Gilman, Philippe Graffin, Christina Brabetz and André Swanepoel.

MAURICE RAVEL (1875-1937)

PAVANE POUR UNE INFANTE DÉFUNTE

This delicate and fanciful little stately elegy on the death of an Infanta was not written to mark the death of any specific princess, but rather as a tribute to Spanish courtly customs and how the princesses may have danced. The Pavane, a slow and popular dance across Europe during the Renaissance, may have originated in Padua, also known as Paduana. Originally written for the piano in 1899 and performed the following year without attracting attention, Ravel orchestrated it in 1910, lightly, even airily, for two flutes, one oboe, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, a harp and strings. A slow processional, it describes the restrained mourning of the court.

ERICH WOLFGANG KORNGOLD 1897 – 1957

VIOLIN CONCERTO IN D, OP. 35

Moderato mobile * Romanza: Andante * Finale: Allegro assai vivace

The music of Erich Wolfgang Korngold deserves wider recognition and it is very much thanks to a flurry of activity during his centenary in 1997 that we now know more about this gifted composer. There are also a number of relatively new recordings of his more famous works, such as his Symphony, this Violin Concerto and much of his impressive film music. After all, the young Korngold was hailed as a “new Mozart” by musical luminaries such as Mahler, Puccini, Richard Strauss, as well as Bruno Walter, Kreisler and Schnabel. Korngold was the son of a famous Viennese music critic, Julius Korngold, and he was brought up in a home steeped in music. By the age of five he could play the piano extremely well and he had written some fairly large scale works before he was ten! His Opus 1 turned out to be an imposing piano trio which was premiered with Bruno Walter at the piano and Schnabel played Korngold’s Piano Sonata, Opus 2. This particular sonata was inspired by a visit to Mahler, whom the Korngolds visited often and who exclaimed that the young Erich was a genius. Two operas were composed by the time he was sixteen and were presented in Munich, and his big success, the opera Die Tote Stadt, was written when he was in his early twenties. He was in every respect an extraordinary talent. Shortly after the huge success of Die Tote Stadt in Hamburg and Cologne, he added to his considerable talents the role of a fine orchestral conductor and pianist. Korngold’s decision to move to Hollywood in 1934 proved to be both a blessing and a curse. He worked with Max Reinhardt and was invited to work on the music for a film version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The war prevented him from moving back to Austria and he threw himself into writing film music of tremendous power, variety and originality. He won two Oscars for his scores for the films Anthony Adverse (1936) and Robin Hood (1938). Academy Award nominations followed for The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex and The Sea Hawk. All in all, he composed for some 15 Warner Brothers films. His writing is vivid, colourful and dramatic and clearly influenced more recent film composers such as John Williams. However, his Hollywood success was to colour his reputation as a Viennese composer of serious music and his popularity among the concert hall audiences and critics waned rapidly. Yet his return to Austria in 1945 initially seemed more promising, with the composition of his Violin Concerto. It was dedicated to Alma Mahler and premiered by Jascha Heifetz in 1947.

Although the Violin Concerto is constructed as a typical romantic concerto in three movements with contrasting themes, much of the principal thematic material comes from those Hollywood years. The result is a concerto of considerable charm, beauty and accessibility, with a soaring, lyrical violin part for the soloist. The violin establishes its presence at once, with a rising theme that was taken from the soundtrack of the film Another Dawn. A second idea arrives after some livelier music. This lyrical theme can be traced back to a film called Juarez. The central Romanza is the beautiful heart of the concerto and uses some fragments of the score to the film Anthony Adverse. The finale is based on a typical rondo structure. After an energetic opening, the lyrical second subject turns out to be the title music of the film The Prince and the Pauper. But despite all these film score references, the concerto holds together superbly as a work rich in thematic contrast and beauty.

MAURICE RAVEL (1875-1937)

MA MÈRE L’OYE, “MOTHER GOOSE SUITE”

1) Pavane of the Sleeping Beauty 2) Hop-o”-My Thumb 3) Little Ugly – Empress of the Pagodas 4) Conversation between Beauty and the Beast 5) The Fairy Garden

One does not immediately associate the rather austere French composer Maurice Ravel with being a children’s man. Yet, although he never had an intimate relationship and became even more distant after the death of his mother, he had a tender and gentle love of children, which is vividly illustrated in his Mother Goose Suite, which he wrote for piano four hands. He had become quite friendly with the two children of one of his close friends, Godebskis. Their names were Mimi and Jean. However, they were not to premiere the work. That was left to six-year-old Christine Verger and ten-year-old Germaine Duramy some years later. In 1908 Ravel decided to write a suite of five piano pieces inspired by the fairy tales of Charles Perrault. He commented at the time, “The idea of conjuring up the poetry of childhood in these pieces has naturally led me to simplify my style and clarify my writing.” Only three years later, in 1911, he was asked by a friend to orchestrate the suite and to think about fashioning it into a ballet. Ravel liked the idea and saw its potential, so he added a prelude and a few links between the movements and used the story of the Sleeping Beauty as a framework for his fairy tales. In this form, the ballet was premiered in Paris in 1912 and the original four-hand piano version had to wait for its premiere until 1920. The orchestral suite opens with a short but sad stately dance and for the second section it is worth quoting what Ravel wrote to describe the music. “He believed that he would easily find his path by means of his bread crumbs, which he had scattered wherever he had passed. But he was very much surprised when he could not find a single crumb; the birds had eaten them all.” The third section tells the story of Laideronnette who was the daughter of the king but who was cursed by a wicked princess and became terribly ugly. Her beauty is restored through the love of a prince. The Conversation between Beauty and the Beast consists of a little waltz melody depicting beauty and a brusquer theme in the lower register of the orchestra for the beast. The Fairy Garden begins with a delightful string theme and the celeste depicts the princess opening her eyes. Later on, fanfares and a general sense of rejoicing take the music to a close. Throughout, Ravel’s orchestration is a marvel of delicacy and airy textures.

CAPE TOWN PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

Principal Guest Conductor: Bernhard Gueller Resident Conductor: Brandon Phillips supported by RMB Starlight Classics Guest Concertmasters: Farida Bacharova; Suzanne Martens Deputy Concertmaster: Philip Martens In alphabetical order

First Violins Piet de Beer ^ Bonolo Kgaile # Elina Koytcheva ^ Joshua Louis ^ Emina Lukin * Philip Martens Refiloe Olifant Maretha Uys Second Violins Shannon Cook ^ Miroslawa Domagala Samantha Durrant * Tomasz Kita # Sisa Mgauli ^ Matthew Stead Milena Toma Violas Rory Africa ^ Petrus Coetzee * Karin Gaertner ^ Azra Isaacs # David Snaith ^ Renette Swart Maja van Dyk Cellos Theresa Burger Mills ^ Dane Coetzee Peter Martens * Edward McLean # Dorette Roos ^ Double Basses Zanelle Britz Frances Levenderis ^ Donat Pellei # Roxane Steffen * Flutes Louisa Theart ^

Gabriele von Dürckheim *

Oboes Carin Bam # Lisa White * Clarinet David Cyster ^ Ferrol-Jon Davids ^ Carla Ferreira (bass clarinet) ^ Bassoons Simon Ball ** Brandon Phillips * Horns Emil Bruwer ^ Mark Osman Shannon Thebus ^ Conrad van der Westhuizen Trumpets Paul Chandler Pierre Schuster # David Thompson * Trombones Slavomir Mrazik * Ryan van der Rheede Bass Trombone David Langford # Tuba Shaun Williams * Timpani Christoph Müller * Percussion Stephan Galvin ^ Eugene Trofimsczyk * Harp Jana van der Walt ^ Celesta Stephan Lombard ^

Principal * / Associate Principal ** / Sub Principal # / Ad hoc ^ / On leave ■

Orchestra Attendants Rudi Makwana^ Lucien Faro ^ Rudi Makwana^ Drivers Craig Wildeman ^ Derrick Wildeman ^

CPO MANAGEMENT

Chief executive officer Louis Heyneman

General manager Ivan Christian

Business development and fundraising executive Suzanne Aucamp

Marketing and communications executive Shirley de Kock Gueller

Fundraising / office administrator Mary MacGregor Frew

Youth development and education co-ordinator Marvin Weavers

Education manager: Masidlale and CP Music Academy Odile Burden

Librarian Neil Robertson

Assistant orchestra manager and Covid officer Milena Toma

CPO PATRONS Wendy Ackerman; Ton Vosloo

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Wendy Ackerman; Derek Auret (chair); Dennis Davis; Elita de Klerk; Louis Heyneman; Edmund Jeneker; Felicia Lesch; Nisaar Pangarker; Christoff Pauw; Christo van der Rheede

ADVISORY BOARD

Ruth Allen; Ton Vosloo