EnergyAustralia is one of Australia s leading energy companies, George Maltabarow Managing Director

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1 It is my great pleasure to welcome you to the Sydney Opera House for the inaugural concert of the EnergyAustralia Master Series for This evening, Chief Conductor and Artistic Director, Maestro Gianluigi Gelmetti brings the harmony and warmth of Brahms symphonic music alive as the Sydney Symphony commences its 75th anniversary season with a tribute to Johannes Brahms. With the compelling and finely crafted Symphonies No.2 and 4, we will hear the Orchestra perform music that composer Leonard Bernstein said enriched and ennobled the world. With one of the most recognised brands in the energy industry, we are proud to be associated with the Sydney Symphony, and we re very excited to be linked to the Symphony s flagship Master Series, a showcase for great music performed by the world s finest soloists and conductors. EnergyAustralia is one of Australia s leading energy companies, with more than 1.8 million customers in New South Wales, Victoria, the ACT, South Australia, and Queensland. I hope you enjoy the Brahms Festival and hope you also have a chance to experience future concerts within the EnergyAustralia Master Series program. George Maltabarow Managing Director

2 SEASON 2007 BRAHMS FESTIVAL ENERGY AUSTRALIA MASTER SERIES BRAHMS SYMPHONIES 2 & 4 Wednesday 28 February 8pm Friday 2 March 8pm Saturday 3 March 8pm Sydney Opera House Concert Hall Gianluigi Gelmetti conductor JOHANNES BRAHMS ( ) Symphony No.4 in E minor, Op.98 Allegro non troppo Andante moderato Allegro giocoso Poco meno presto Allegro energico e passionato Più allegro INTERVAL Symphony No.2 in D, Op.73 Allegro non troppo Adagio non troppo Allegretto grazioso (Quasi andantino) Presto ma non assai Allegro con spirito This concert will be broadcast live across Australia on ABC Classic FM 92.9 on Wednesday 28 February. Pre-concert talk by David Garrett at 7.15pm in the Northern Foyer. Estimated timings: 42 minutes, 20 minute interval, 43 minutes The performance will conclude at approximately 9.55pm. Cover images: see page 30 for captions Program notes begin on page 5 Artist biographies begin on page 21 PRESENTING PARTNER

3 FREE PROGRAMS AT SYDNEY SYMPHONY CONCERTS Welcome to tonight s concert and to our first year of free programs. Following the enthusiastic response to our free concert flyers in 2006, the Sydney Symphony is delighted to be able to offer free program books at all our subscription and gala concerts. If you ve purchased programs in the past you ll find familiar features and the same high quality music journalism from some of Australia s leading writers on music. If you re new to programs we hope they ll give you a deeper insight into the music we play as well as providing a convenient guide to what s happening on the stage. Free programs are our gift to you. We do ask that you help us a little in return. Over a single season, printed programs could devour half a million sheets of paper. So, in a bid to be environmentally responsible, we ask patrons who are attending in couples or groups to share programs, one between two. Please help the ushers and fellow concertgoers by not taking additional programs. And if you normally don t keep your program after the concert, we invite you to return it to one of the boxes in the foyer as you leave. We can reuse the programs for subsequent performances or arrange for them to be recycled. NEW FEATURES KEYNOTES A brief introduction to read while the orchestra tunes up; look for Keynotes in the margin at the beginning of each program note. HISTORICAL SNAPSHOTS Celebrating our 75th anniversary season, a series of illustrated articles by historian and concert programmer David Garrett. EXPANDED CONCERT INTRODUCTION This popular overview of the concert hasn t gone, we ve simply moved it off the title page to the beginning of the program notes. If you d like to read the program in advance of the concert, you ll be able to find it on our website as a downloadable pdf file, available in the week of the concert. Visit for more information. And if you have comments or questions about the programs, please write to program.editor@sydneysymphony.com Programs grow on trees please share them with your companion If you normally don t keep your program after the concert, please leave it in one of the boxes in the foyer You can read programs online beforehand at sydneysymphony.com

4 INTRODUCTION The Brahms Symphonies: Stars and Sunshine The Sydney Symphony s Brahms Festival concludes with a contrasting pair: Brahms brainiest symphony and his most melodic. The Fourth Symphony highlights Brahms the scholar as well as Brahms the composer and suggests that these two aspects of his creative instincts were intimately linked. It begins with a compact gesture of just a few notes almost a musical abstraction that provides the essence for the whole symphony. It was the kind of thing that a modernist composer like Schoenberg would admire in Schoenberg was in sympathy with Brahms in another way: he, too, believed there were essentials to be learned from the masters and that those lessons could be applied without loss of personality. One of the masters Brahms most revered was Johann Sebastian Bach, a fact emerging in the Fourth Symphony with its grand finale in the Baroque tradition. What Brahms contemporaries heard in the symphony and what we can admire today was the marriage of apparent opposites: the Classical and the Romantic spirit, scholarship and creativity. Its demands are also its rewards, and the 19th-century critic Hanslick concluded that it was like a dark well: the longer we look into it, the more brightly the stars shine back. If Brahms Fourth Symphony was admired, his Second Symphony was loved. There was a time at the turn of the 20th century when the Second Symphony was the most popular of Brahms symphonies. And this is hardly surprising. The First Symphony had been music that invited close inspection ( with a magnifying glass said Hanslick) and was full of intricacies for serious music lovers. Brahms immediately followed this with a lyrical symphony that, even in its darker moments, radiates like the sun, warming connoisseurs and amateurs; it belongs to all who long for good music, whether they understand its most difficult aspects or not. 5 Sydney Symphony

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6 ABOUT THE MUSIC Johannes Brahms Symphony No.4 in E minor, Op.98 Allegro non troppo Andante moderato Allegro giocoso Poco meno presto Allegro energico e passionato Più allegro Brahms spent years skirting around the symphonic genre, and when he did begin to write symphonies he agonised over them, apologetically circulating drafts to his musical friends. To his publisher, Simrock, Brahms wrote: Some honourable colleagues (Bach, Mozart, Schubert) have mischievously overindulged the world. But if we are not able to write as beautifully as they could, then we must surely in addition protect ourselves from trying to write as quickly as they did But the real culprit in Brahms s struggle with the symphony was Beethoven. I shall never compose a symphony! wrote Brahms. You don t have any idea how it feels if one always hears such a giant marching behind one. Brahms needed to preserve his own identity against the expectations and precedents set by Beethoven. At the same time, more than any of his contemporaries, he had a deep reverence for the past, and his highly personal solutions to musical problems are often founded on the formal strength of Classical structures. After the long and difficult gestation of his first symphony, Brahms gathered momentum, and the Fourth Symphony appeared only two years after the Third (in 1885) following two summers work at his mountain retreat in Mürzzuschlag in Austria. It can be heard as a summing-up of Brahms s aims: the marriage of past techniques with contemporary idioms and the close-knit integration of material. Especially in its weighty final movement, the symphony unleashes a certain cumulative power, even at the first rehearsal conductor Hans von Bülow recognised it as gigantic, altogether a law unto itself, quite new, steely individuality. Exudes unparalleled energy from first note to last. Listening Guide The first movement opens not with a slow introduction (which Brahms discarded from his early draft), nor with a theme, but with a mighty gesture of falling thirds and rising sixths. It is a motto that Schoenberg later admired Keynotes BRAHMS German composer born 1833, Hamburg died 1897, Vienna Brahms completed his final symphony in He had spent the summers of 1884 and 1885 working on it in an Austrian mountain retreat, Mürzzuschlag, but the inspiration seems to have come less from nature unlike the pastoral Second Symphony and more from his musical and intellectual enthusiasms, in particular the old masters such as J.S. Bach. FOURTH SYMPHONY The Fourth Symphony has been described as the brainiest of Brahms symphonies. This is a response to the opening movement ( two tremendously witty people ) and to the finale a monumental movement based on the Baroque technique of a repeating bass, above which Brahms spins an elaborate set of 30 variations. The inner movements bring beauty, serenity and good humour. The glowing Andante begins with a gently moving theme featuring Brahms favourite instrument, the horn. The playful scherzo Brahms first brings extremes: the high-pitched piccolo and the lowest woodwind, the contrabassoon. And watch out for the triangle, heard only in the third movement. Brahms conducted the premiere of his Fourth Symphony with the tiny Meiningen Orchestra (49 players) on 25 October Sydney Symphony

7 for its economy and almost abstract value as a pattern, and its fundamental significance lies in the way it hints at tonal relationships and provides the germ of melodic material for the whole symphony. Later, in the development, the alternation of the two intervals takes on a conversational tone. When the critic Eduard Hanslick heard Brahms and Ignaz Brüll play through a two-piano version of the draft symphony he commented: During the whole first movement I felt as if I were being beaten soundly by two tremendously witty people. The duo piano arrangement may have contributed to this impression, and in performances such as this one where the first and second violins sit either side of the conductor s podium there is a vivid sense of the dialectic that Brahms wrote into the music. The Andante opens with a horn melody apparently in C major to prelude a movement in E major. The 21-yearold Richard Strauss heard this movement as a funeral procession moving in silence across moonlit heights. The cellos introduce the second subject, a sympathetically glowing and tender theme. The third movement represents the first appearance of a scherzo in a Brahms symphony. Rather than adopting the usual three-part scherzo and trio structure, Brahms s Allegro giocoso is a boisterous sonata movement. Its exultant playfulness emerges in orchestral extremes both piccolo and contrabassoon appear in the texture for the first time, and a triangle solo provides the only percussion moment in the symphony. The previous year Brahms had received his copy of the 30th issue of the Bach Complete Edition, including Cantata No.150 Nach dir Gott verlanget mich (Unto thee, O Lord, will I lift up my soul). Brahms was drawn to its concluding choral passacaglia, and contemplated the symphonic use of its ground bass, asking von Bülow: What would you think if someone were to write a symphony movement on the same theme? But it is too bulky, too straightforward; one must change it somehow. And change it he did: chromatically altering just one note (the fifth in the sequence) and elevating it from ground bass to melody line, with newly implied chords. This theme is stated at the beginning of the finale by brass and wind, establishing from the outset a sombre and dramatic atmosphere. Its austerity is further strengthened by the introduction of the trombones, which Brahms has During the whole first movement I felt as if I were being beaten soundly by two tremendously witty people. EDUARD HANSLICK, AFTER HEARING A DRAFT OF THE SYMPHONY 8 Sydney Symphony

8 Hans von Bülow and Brahms (1889). The conductor recognised Brahms Fourth Symphony as gigantic, altogether a law unto itself, quite new, steely individuality. held in reserve for this magnificent finale. Thirty variations follow, demonstrating a huge range of colour and emotion, concluded by a long, elaborate coda. At first the passacaglia finale was thought an inappropriate conclusion for a symphony. The grand closing passacaglia or chaconne was a Baroque theatrical convention; and while Brahms editor of Couperin and collector of Bach would have appreciated this, few of his listeners did. But one critic at the Leipzig premiere in 1886 understood the gesture: The [finale] is not only constructed on the form displayed in Bach s Chaconne for violin, but it is filled with Bach s spirit. It is built up with such astounding mastery...and in such a manner that its contrapuntal learning remains subordinate to its poetic contents...it can be compared with no former work of Brahms and stands alone in the symphonic literature of the present and the past. As this anonymous critic recognised, Brahms had created the perfect marriage of learning and poetry, of past and present, and the Classical and Romantic spirit. It can be compared with no former work of Brahms and stands alone in the symphonic literature of the present and the past. FROM AN 1886 REVIEW YVONNE FRINDLE 2006 The orchestra for Brahms Fourth Symphony comprises two flutes, one doubling piccolo, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons and contrabassoon; four horns, two trumpets, and three trombones (in the fourth movement only); timpani and triangle (third movement only); and strings. The first Sydney Symphony performance on record of Brahms Fourth Symphony took place in 1938 under Malcolm Sargent. The most recent performance was in 2005 with conductor Simone Young. 9 Sydney Symphony

9 Back to Bach: Brahms and the Past Brahms awe for the legacy of Beethoven is well-documented. His respect for Classical forms is evident in his music. And in the Fourth Symphony there is Brahms admiration for Bach, as he builds a Baroque-style passacaglia for the finale. This healthy respect for the past reflected a 19th-century trend still strong today in which old music assumed a central role in the concert halls. If you ve ever compared a contemporary work unfavourably with music of an earlier period you are not alone: Brahms frequently did this too. Brahms was not the only composer to be interested in old music. Mozart made arrangements of Bach and Handel admittedly on commission; Mendelssohn stimulated the 19th-century Bach revival with performances of the Matthew Passion. But, as Michael Musgrave points out, for a major composer of his period, the range of [Brahms ] interest was unique. Brahms had a vast collection of original manuscripts and early editions representing composers well-known and obscure. He could quote the bass line of a Bach cantata in his Fourth Symphony precisely because he had been avidly following the release of the Bach Complete Edition. He also collected each new volume from the Handel and Schütz editions, he conducted the music of Giovanni Gabrieli in concerts, and was the co-editor of Augener s edition of Couperin s keyboard works (still available in a Dover reprint). It was Brahms who, in editing Mozart s Requiem for the first Collected Edition, scrutinised the autograph, establishing what was original Mozart and what was Süssmayr. This wasn t simply an antiquarian hobby for Brahms or an expression of his affinity with past styles. Brahms believed in the value of music of the past these were exalted models in his eyes and found an intense creative stimulus in his studies of old music, stimulus that emerged in often highly complex counterpoint, conservative forms, and borrowings in tribute to composers such as Haydn and Bach. It s been said that one of the reasons Brahms sits at the heart of the orchestral repertoire is that with Brahms we have a sense of all the other music that we love so much: Schubert and Mendelssohn (who, in dying young, had already entered Brahms past), Beethoven, Haydn, Mozart. And Bach. Brahms admired Bach and eagerly awaited each new issue of the Bach Complete Edition. YVONNE FRINDLE Sydney Symphony

10 Johannes Brahms Symphony No.2 in D, Op.73 Allegro non troppo Adagio non troppo Allegretto grazioso (Quasi andantino) Presto ma non assai Allegro con spirito Composed in the summer of 1877 at his favourite resort village of Pörtschach, on the edge of Lake Worth in the Austrian Alps, the Second Symphony is the sunniest of Brahms symphonies. There, in solitude and in between dawn swims and long daily walks Brahms was always a keen trekker he composed this bucolically joyous work with rare swiftness. Four months is all it took, nothing like the tortuous, two decades struggle of the First Symphony. A personal tone and easy lyrical warmth immediately set the Second Symphony apart from the First. Brahms seems at last able to put the weighty symphonic inheritance of Beethoven behind him and arrive at a more individual position. Clara Schumann was one of the first to cast comment: on hearing Brahms play parts of the score on piano, she remarked that the new symphony was more original than its predecessor, and she predicted correctly that the public would prefer it. The premiere by the Vienna Philharmonic under conductor Hans Richter on 30 December was a resounding success, critics praising the work as attractive, understandable and refreshingly un- Beethovenian. Paradoxically, the Second s originality lies partly in its mild, backward-looking stance. Gentle pastoral imagery and a compressed, Haydnesque expressive scale seem to evoke a past world. The work s character is genial: all four movements are like companions, not dramatically set against one another and all are in major keys. More than anything else, it is a melodic symphony. Brahms wrote to Eduard Hanslick about how inspired he was finding Pörtschach: The melodies fly so thick here that you have to be careful not to step on one. Indeed each movement abounds with lyricism. In the first movement a leisurely, lilting waltz serves as the main subject, followed by an equally lilting lullaby second subject in the cellos. No doubt the birdsong later Keynotes BRAHMS German composer born 1833, Hamburg died 1897, Vienna Having finally completed his first symphony after a 14-year struggle, Brahms almost immediately began work on a second, completing it the following year, in He did much of the work in a lakeside resort in Austria s Carinthia region, where the melodies fly so thick that you have to be careful not to step on one. SECOND SYMPHONY Brahms First Symphony was dubbed the Tenth and his Third Brahms Eroica both references to Beethoven. In another reference, his Second Symphony came to be known as Brahms Pastoral. This annoyed Brahms, but it is hardly surprising: the Second is the most melodic of Brahms symphonies, and its lyrical and radiant character assured its place as the most popular during his lifetime. But it has a darker side as well, which Brahms half-joked about, saying that the music should be printed with a black border. We can hear that, for example, in the way he introduces the sombre sounds of timpani and trombones very early in the first movement. Hans Richter conducted the premiere of the Second Symphony with the Vienna Philharmonic on 30 December Sydney Symphony

11 in the flute, decorating the main subject s return, helped this to become Brahms Pastoral Symphony which label greatly annoyed the composer. The flowing melodic vein continues in a noble, expansively romantic Adagio, one of Brahms finest symphonic movements. Tuneful in a different way is the diminutive third movement, which consists of a suite of elegant Baroque-sounding dances. The finale is the only outrightly dramatic movement: it bursts out with resplendent melody as if proclaiming victory. But a victory over what? If one listens with different ears to the Second Symphony, its radiantly lit landscape seems continually threatened. A brooding quality seems to grow out of the first movement s initial three-note motif, heard in the cellos, and it is emphasised by this motif s numerous reappearances not only in this movement but in the second as well. Even the third and fourth movements with their lighter mood have a shadowy side, in wistful major-minor inflections and moments of muted introspection. So maybe all is not so sunny after all. One perceptive listener of the time, Vincenz Lachner, questioned Brahms about his intent in the symphony, in particular on why he introduces the gloomy sounds of tremolo timpani and low trombones so early in the first movement just one minute in. Brahms reply is extraordinary for what it reveals about himself and the work: I would have to confess that I am a severely melancholic person, that black wings are constantly flapping above us, and that in my output perhaps not entirely by chance this symphony is followed by a little essay about the great Why. If you don t know this [motet, Warum] I will send it to you. It casts the necessary shadow on the serene symphony and perhaps accounts for those timpani and trombones. Thus it is a Janus-faced Brahms who found his idyll in the mountainous retreat of Pörtschach: the sombre sounding motet he mentions, Warum ist das Licht gegeben, Op.74, dates from his same summer there. All of which has led Malcolm MacDonald to suggest that the Second is one of the darkest of major-key symphonies. Not to be overlooked either is Brahms own wryly exaggerated comment to the publisher Fritz Simrock: The new symphony is so melancholy that you can t stand it. I have never written anything so sad, so minorish: the score must appear with a black border. Paradoxically, the Second s originality lies partly in its mild, backward-looking stance. Brahms in the 1870s The melodies fly so thick here that you have to be careful not to step on one. BRAHMS WRITING FROM THE ALPINE VILLAGE OF PÖRTSCHACH 12 Sydney Symphony

12 The Second does not easily disclose itself but is like the man himself, wrapped in ambiguity and internal contradictions. Friends loved him yet found him insufferable, fearing that, as Hermann Levi put it to Clara, the demon of abruptness, of coldness and of heartlessness would finally snatch his better self away. That cold-warmth, or warmth at a distance, is felt particularly in this work; but with granite-like creative strength Brahms turns his own frailties into human universalities. The Second is too amiable to be revolutionary. But in its tone-painting without glory, its fatalism and its taint of the real, Brahms points the way toward the symphonies of Mahler. Reinhold Brinkmann calls the Second an emphatic questioning of the pastoral world, a firm denial of the possibility of pure serenity. Its revelation is of a composer, a nature lover, for whom there was no joy without sadness, and no sadness without joy. The new symphony is so melancholy that you can t stand it. I have never written anything so sad, so minorish: the score must appear with a black border. BRAHMS TO HIS PUBLISHER SIMROCK GRAHAM STRAHLE 2004 The orchestra for Brahms Second Symphony comprises pairs of flutes, oboes, clarinets and bassoons (it is the only Brahms symphony not to use the contrabassoon); four horns, two trumpets, three trombones and tuba; timpani and strings. The first Sydney Symphony performance on record of Brahms Second Symphony took place in 1938 under Joseph Post; the most recent performance was in 2004 under Gianluigi Gelmetti. 13 Sydney Symphony

13 INTERLUDE Brahms Worldly Freedom Goetz Richter examines the background to Brahms development as a symphonic composer. Brahms was already 44 years old when his first symphony appeared in print in 1877 after its first performance in Further symphonies followed, interestingly, in relatively quick succession in 1878, 1884 and Given that Brahms had a precocious musical imagination, his hesitation to write symphonies has inspired much speculation. We are inclined to settle the question of why Brahms, like Bruckner, wrote symphonies so relatively late in his life, with a ready answer, which is indeed widely advocated and garrulously supported in the literature about Brahms: the delay to turn to the symphonic genre is simply a result of the composer s initial difficulties in coping with the aspects of orchestration. This view fits neatly with early criticisms of Brahms orchestration as being thick, muddy and generally unsophisticated, which already greeted his first orchestral work, the Piano Concerto, Op.15. Not surprisingly, commentators do not find it difficult to underpin this view of a technically untrained composer with an assembly of ready-made judgements about Brahms earlier orchestral works up to The two Serenades (Opp 11 and 16) are dismissed as apprentice works in orchestration. The first Piano concerto (Op.15) is viewed as an abortion of a twopiano version of a symphony, whose orchestration did not proceed successfully under the untrained hand (Geiringer) of the composer, and the Requiem (Op.45) becomes a further experience in orchestration (Latham) for the composer, who has finally, we are relieved to note, attained mastery in the Variations on a Theme of Haydn (1873), which empowers him to tackle a symphony. If we accept this representation as adequate, we fail to see three important aspects characterising the relationship between the composer and his work. First, we ignore the subtle difference between the activities of production and creation. We can be certain that Brahms did not compose like a retired school teacher who churns out symphonies in his spare time after attending a series of evening classes in which he acquired the technical prerequisites for the task. As late-comers rather than creators, we tend to assume that the creative process is sufficiently explained and demystified by a reflective analysis which reveals to us a production, a producer and a technique. Authentic musical For Wagner, Beethoven represented the progressive, the innovator of new musical devices For Brahms, Beethoven was mainly a supreme master of his craft in regard to symphonic form and content. 14 Sydney Symphony

14 creativity knows no such divisions and essentially preserves the unity of means and ends in the making of music. We will accordingly not really understand the activity of composition by reference to compositional technique. Second, we forget that the young Brahms already had a considerable grasp of symphonic form and orchestral sound-texture and could have acquired any musical technique whenever necessary. The most powerful witness for this may be Robert Schumann, whose admiration for Brahms as one of the elect did not only extend to the pianist who transformed the piano into an orchestra of wailing and jubilant voices, but also to the composer who promised to be an outstanding symphonist. After seeing his earliest compositions in 1853 Schumann was certain that if Brahms will now lift his magic wand over the massed forces of chorus and orchestra, even more wonderful glimpses into the depths of the spirit world will emerge before us. Finally, we forget Brahms own artistic background within the historical situation of the time. Like Wagner, Brahms could not escape the all-pervasive influence of Beethoven. We know that, as late as 1870, Brahms expressed his dilemma of being the subject of a Hegelian tragedy of consciousness to the conductor Hermann Levi: I shall never compose a symphony! You have no idea how one of our craft feels when he hears a giant like Beethoven striding behind him. The shadow of Beethoven, the musical herald of the end of art, loomed large over the 19th century. For Wagner, Beethoven represented the progressive, the innovator of new musical devices, in conjunction with the ever-restless search of dramatic composers such as Weber, Berlioz and Liszt for new orchestral effects and colours. Wagner found in Beethoven s revolutionary symphonic creations the legitimation for his own new musical mythology. For Brahms, Beethoven was mainly a supreme master of his craft in regard to symphonic form and content. Brahms was not progressive (despite Schoenberg s view), and neither was he conservative, because he never accepted a notion of progress based on the independent evolution of technical devices. He was forever concerned to explore musical unity of content and form. The musical directions emanating from Beethoven are also not adequately grasped by the overvalued label that Brahms was an absolute and Wagner a programmatic musician. Brahms has ultimately to be placed within the wider context of Romanticism and Brahms could not escape the allpervasive influence of Beethoven Brahms was not progressive (despite Schoenberg s view), and neither was he conservative, because he never accepted a notion of progress based on the independent evolution of technical devices. 15 Sydney Symphony

15 its desire to reconcile the finite and the infinite, necessity and freedom. If this is done, we recognise in Brahms symphonies the traces of the struggle of the Romantic who overcomes the homelessness of man and his yearning for reconciliation in an acceptance of freedom within limits of necessity. Obvious examples are the final movement of the first Symphony, opening with a confused, tragic Adagio and ending in a chorale-like affirmation of a musical equivalent to the categorical imperative, and the third symphony which, despite its exultant tone (especially of the first and last movements), ends in a mood of calm acceptance. The listener who has not been desensitised by musical effects of all kinds will appreciate Elgar s observation, how curious it is that all the movements of this work end piano or pianissimo. On a purely musical level this acceptance expresses itself in Brahms return to the pre-classical roots of polyphonic music, the contrapuntal art of Bach (most compellingly in the passacaglia of the Fourth Symphony) and the symphonic creations of Haydn and Beethoven. Brahms does not significantly deviate in his approach to orchestration from Beethoven unlike Wagner, Liszt or Berlioz and his music does not invoke colourful, often illustrative orchestral effects (it features neither the sensuous sound of the cor anglais, nor luscious harp glissandos nor vivid percussion effects). Nor does it contain virtuosic gestures for their own sake. But this is not an indication of a technically unsophisticated orchestral technique. Rather it is an indication that Brahms eschewed the search for independent sound effects and concentrated instead on a synthesis between harmonic design and colour. Ultimately, Brahms attainment of a stoic acceptance and affirmation of a freedom within the limitations of necessity (which Friedrich Nietzsche mistook for the melancholy of impotence ) permeates his being and work. The symphonies are grounded in this existential mood of an artist who did not aim to propagate a process of technical progress, but who had fought long and hard to (in the words of the Romantic poet Novalis) be at home in the world. Ultimately, Brahms attainment of a stoic acceptance and affirmation of a freedom within the limitations of necessity (which Friedrich Nietzsche mistook for the melancholy of impotence ) permeates his being and work. GOETZ RICHTER 2007 Goetz Richter was the Sydney Symphony s Associate Concertmaster from 1987 until 2002 and has recently been appointed to the Board of the Orchestra. He is currently Associate Professor for Violin and chair of strings at the Sydney Conservatorium. 16 Sydney Symphony

16 GLOSSARY CONTRAPUNTAL a style of music in which two or more different musical lines or melodies are played at the same time (counterpoint). Historically, contrapuntal technique has been considered a learned or academic approach to composing music. At the same time, simple forms of counterpoint can be found in traditional music, e.g. childhood rounds. GROUND BASS a melody that is repeated many times as a support for continuous melodic variations. Usually heard in the bass, it can be as simple as a melody, or it can include the chord pattern implied by that melody as well. The technique emerged in the 16th century and was very popular through the Baroque period. (See passacaglia.) INTERVAL the distance in pitch between two notes. If the first note is lower in pitch than the second, the interval is said to be rising ; if the first note is higher in pitch then the interval is falling. Intervals are named according to the number of steps of the musical scale that they cover: a third is an interval of three steps, a sixth six steps, and so on. MAJOR / MINOR in Western music there are two main categories of scale, major and minor, which are differentiated by the patterns of intervals between the notes. Aurally, a major scale will sound brighter or more cheerful, while a minor scale will sound sombre or mournful ( Happy Birthday is in a major key, funeral marches are in minor keys). The keynote or main note of a scale gives it its name (e.g. E minor, a minor scale beginning on the note E, or D major, a major scale beginning on D). PASSACAGLIA a musical form with Baroque origins, sometimes used interchangeably with the term chaconne. Since its revival in the 19th century it has been characterised by its recurring ground bass, providing support for an extended set of variations, and its serious tone. Many composers have taken inspiration from the impressive but atypical passacaglias of Bach and Handel, including Brahms in the finale of his Fourth Symphony. SCHERZO literally, a joke; the term generally refers to a movement in a fast, light triple time, which may involve whimsical, startling or playful elements. Most scherzo movements in symphonies include a contrasting central section called a trio. BRAHMS TEMPO MARKINGS As in most music of his time, Brahms heads the individual movements of his symphonies with the Italian terms that indicate tempo. Characteristically for Brahms, several of tonight s tempo instructions are lengthy, with subtle qualifications and provisos: Adagio non troppo slow, not too much Allegro non troppo fast, not too much Allegro con spirito with spirit Allegro energico e passionato energetic and impassioned Allegro giocoso playfully Allegro grazioso (Quasi andantino) gracefully (in the character of a gentle walking pace) Andante moderato at a walking pace, moderately Più allegro faster Poco meno presto a little less presto (as fast as possible) Presto ma non assai not quite as fast as possible; literally as fast as possible but not very This glossary is intended only as a quick and easy guide, not as a set of comprehensive and absolute definitions. Most of these terms have many subtle shades of meaning which cannot be included for reasons of space. 17 Sydney Symphony

17 75 YEARS: HISTORICAL SNAPSHOT Accident or inevitability? Look at the picture of a forerunner of today s Sydney Symphony, and contrast it with what you see on the stage in front of you. Then use your aural imagination: could that small group of players have sounded anything like what we think of as an orchestra? Probably not. But an anniversary stimulates the historical imagination. Celebrating 75 years of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra stresses continuity. It s arbitrary, in a way. The name goes back further, to the group that rehearsed over a fish shop in George St, between 1908 and One of its organisers was George Plummer, and it was not until 1937 that the name Sydney Symphony Orchestra was bought from him, by Charles Moses, General Manager of the Australian Broadcasting Commission. The real history of the Sydney Symphony might be said to begin when the ABC committed itself to providing Sydney with a permanent orchestra of a size adequate for the symphonic repertoire. That was later in the 1930s. So our historical photo really belongs to the prehistory of Sydney s symphony orchestra. Nevertheless, the establishment of the Australian Broadcasting Commission, in 1932, is a milestone. As Phillip Sametz writes in his 1992 history of the orchestra, Play On!, There is no story of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra that is not a story of the ABC. When that photo was taken, the new medium of radio had a voracious appetite for live music. Symphonic music? Some, but not much. In 1932 the new ABC enlarged the studio ensembles it had taken over in Sydney and Melbourne from 15 to 24 players. Was this the beginning of a commitment to an ABC Sydney Symphony Orchestra? Only hindsight gives a sense of inevitability to the story. Some saw in broadcasting a possibility of raising public taste and awareness of the best, including music. And they longed for Sydney to have a permanent orchestra that could represent that best. It was an accident, in many ways, that these aspirations combined to make public concerts, as well as broadcast music, a dominant activity of the ABC. So the story of the Sydney Symphony begins David Garrett, a historian and former programmer for Australia s symphony orchestras, is studying the history of the ABC as a musical organisation. This is the first of a series of glimpses of the Sydney Symphony s history to appear in concert programs through The Australian Broadcasting Commission s first studio orchestra, dressed formally for an evening broadcast the done thing in the early days of radio 18 Sydney Symphony

18 MORE MUSIC Selected Discography BRAHMS THE FOUR SYMPHONIES Amongst Brahms best interpreters, writes Maestro Gelmetti, we find Furtwängler, Bruno Walter and Karajan, but also other extraordinary conductors such as Beecham, Toscanini, Bernstein; and my Maestro, Celibidache, whom everyone recognised as a superlative Brahmsian interpreter. Wilhelm Furtwängler, Vienna Philharmonic Symphony No.1, with the Haydn Variations TESTAMENT 1142 Bruno Walter, Columbia Symphony Orchestra Symphonies No.2 and 3 SONY SMK64471 Herbert von Karajan, Berlin Philharmonic Symphonies No.3 and 4 DG GALLERIA OR DG Complete symphonies: DG Thomas Beecham, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Symphony No.2 (live concert, 1956) BBC LEGENDS 4099 Arturo Toscanini, NBC Symphony Orchestra Symphonies No.1 and 2 RCA VICTOR RED SEAL Sergiu Celibidache, SWR Stuttgart Radio Symphony Complete symphonies DG Sergiu Celibidache, Munich Philharmonic Orchestra A German Requiem and Symphony No.1 EMI CLASSICS Symphonies No.2 4 EMI CLASSICS SYDNEY SYMPHONY: LIVE RECORDINGS FROM THE SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE Strauss and Schubert R. Strauss Four Last Songs; Schubert Symphony No.8 (Unfinished); J. Strauss II Blue Danube Waltz Gianluigi Gelmetti (conductor), Ricarda Merbeth (soprano) SSO1 Glazunov and Shostakovich Glazunov The Seasons; Shostakovich Symphony No.9 Alexander Lazarev (conductor) SSO2 GIANLUIGI GELMETTI SELECTED DISCOGRAPHY Nino Rota Film Music Monte Carlo Philharmonic EMI ENCORE Rossini Thieving Magpie Live recording with the RAI Torino (3CDs) SONY S3K Rossini The Barber of Seville (DVD) Teatro Real Madrid production DECCA DH2 Rossini Overtures and highlights from The Barber of Seville Thomas Hampson, Susanne Mentzer; Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, Toscana Orchestra EMI Broadcast Diary ABC CLASSIC FM 92.9 Mon 19 March 1pm BERLIOZ: HAROLD IN ITALY (2005) Richard Gill conductor Roger Benedict viola Thu 22 March 8pm NORTHERN LIGHTS Osmo Vänskä conductor Jaakko Kuussisto violin Mozart, Rautavaara, Sibelius Webcast Diary In 2006 selected Sydney Symphony concerts were recorded for webcast by Telstra BigPond. These can be viewed at: sydneysymphony.com Visit the Sydney Symphony online for concert information, podcasts, and to read your program book in advance of the concert. 19 Sydney Symphony

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20 THE ARTISTS Gianluigi Gelmetti CHIEF CONDUCTOR AND ARTISTIC DIRECTOR Gianluigi Gelmetti, Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Sydney Symphony, studied with Sergiu Celibidache, Franco Ferrara and Hans Swarowsky. For ten years he conducted the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra; he has conducted many of the leading orchestras in the world and appears regularly at international festivals. Since 2000 he has been Music Director of the Teatro dell Opera di Roma. Highlights of past seasons include engagements in France, Germany, Great Britain, America, Australia, Japan, Switzerland and Italy, where he conducted Mascagni s Iris and Respighi s La fiamma at the Teatro dell Opera di Roma and William Tell at the Rossini Opera Festival. In 1999 he was awarded the Rossini d Oro Prize. Gianluigi Gelmetti has also worked regularly at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. His interpretation of Mozart s The Marriage of Figaro earned him the title Best Conductor of the Year from the German magazine Opernwelt, and in 1997 he won the Tokyo critics prize for the best performance of the year of Beethoven s Symphony No.9. He has been honoured as Chevalier de l Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in France and Grande Ufficiale della Repubblica Italiana in Italy. Gianluigi Gelmetti s recording catalogue includes operas by Salieri, Rossini, Puccini and Mozart, the complete orchestral music of Ravel, the late symphonies of Mozart and works by many 20th-century composers, including Stravinsky, Berg, Webern, Varèse and Rota. Among his latest recordings are William Tell, Iris, La fiamma, Bruckner s Symphony No.6 and Rossini s Stabat mater. Gianluigi Gelmetti is also a composer; his recent works include In Paradisum Deducant Te Angeli, written to commemorate the tenth anniversary of Franco Ferrara s death, Algos, and Prasanta Atma, in memory of Sergiu Celibidache. Since summer 1997 he has been teaching at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena. KEITH SAUNDERS 21 Sydney Symphony

21 THE SYDNEY SYMPHONY PATRON Her Excellency Professor Marie Bashir AO, Governor of New South Wales JOHN MARMARAS Founded in 1932, the Sydney Symphony 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 the Sydney Symphony gives more than 100 performances each year, the Orchestra also performs concerts in a variety of venues around Sydney and regional New South Wales. International tours to Europe, Asia and the USA have earned the Orchestra world-wide recognition for artistic excellence. Critical to the success of the Sydney Symphony has been the leadership given by its former Chief Conductors including: Sir Eugene Goossens, Nikolai Malko, Dean Dixon, Willem van Otterloo, Louis Frémaux, Sir Charles Mackerras, Stuart Challender and Edo de Waart. Also contributing to the outstanding success of the Orchestra have been collaborations with legendary figures such as George Szell, Sir Thomas Beecham, Otto Klemperer and Igor Stravinsky. Maestro Gianluigi Gelmetti, whose appointment followed a ten year relationship with the Orchestra as Guest Conductor, is now in his fourth year as Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Sydney Symphony, a position he holds in tandem with that of Music Director at the prestigious Rome Opera. The Sydney Symphony is reaping the rewards of Maestro Gelmetti s directorship through the quality of sound, intensity of playing and flexibility between styles. His particularly strong rapport with French and German repertoire is complemented by his innovative programming in the Shock of the New concerts and performances of contemporary Australian music. The Sydney Symphony s award-winning Education Program is central to the Orchestra s commitment to the future of live symphonic music, developing audiences and engaging the participation of young people. The Sydney Symphony maintains an active commissioning program promoting the work of Australian composers and in 2005 Liza Lim was appointed Composer-in-Residence for three years. In 2007, the Orchestra celebrates its 75th anniversary and the milestone achievements during its distinguished history. 22 Sydney Symphony

22 MUSICIANS Gianluigi Gelmetti Chief Conductor and Artistic Director Michael Dauth Chair of Concertmaster supported by the Sydney Symphony Board and Council Dene Olding Chair of Concertmaster supported by the Sydney Symphony Board and Council First Violins Second Violins First Violins 01 Kirsten Williams Associate Concertmaster 02 Fiona Ziegler Ian & Jennifer Burton Chair of Assistant Concertmaster 03 Julie Batty 04 Gu Chen 05 Amber Davis 06 Rosalind Horton 07 Jennifer Hoy 08 Jennifer Johnson 09 Georges Lentz 10 Nicola Lewis 11 Alexandra Mitchell Moon Design Chair of Violin 12 Léone Ziegler Sophie Cole Second Violins 01 Marina Marsden 02 Susan Dobbie Associate 03 Emma West Assistant 04 Pieter Bersée 05 Maria Durek 06 Emma Hayes 07 Shuti Huang 08 Stan Kornel 09 Benjamin Li 10 Nicole Masters 11 Philippa Paige 12 Biyana Rozenblit 13 Maja Verunica Guest Musicians Emily Qin First Violin # Victoria Jacono First Violin Emily Long Second Violin # Thomas Dethlefs Second Violin # Jennifer Curl Viola # Jacqueline Cronin Viola # Joanna Tobin Viola Nicholas Metcalf Cello Janine Ryan Cello Josephine Constantino Cello Jonathan Webb Cello Sally Maer Cello Jennifer Druery Double Bass # Lauren Brandon Double Bass Maxime Bibeau Double Bass* Lamorna Nightingale Flute James Kortum Flute Ngaire de Korte Oboe Huw Jones Oboe Jodie Upton Clarinet Tamasin Meller Bassoon Anton Schroeder Horn Lisa Wynne-Allen Horn # Contract musician Fellowship holder * Courtesy of Australian Chamber Orchestra 23 Sydney Symphony

23 MUSICIANS Violas Cellos Double Basses Harp Flutes Piccolo Violas 01 Roger Benedict 02 Anne Louise Comerford Associate 03 Yvette Goodchild Assistant 04 Robyn Brookfield 05 Sandro Costantino 06 Jane Hazelwood 07 Graham Hennings 08 Mary McVarish 09 Justine Marsden 10 Leonid Volovelsky 11 Felicity Wyithe Cellos 01 Catherine Hewgill 02 Nathan Waks 03 Kristy Conrau 04 Fenella Gill 05 Leah Lynn 06 Timothy Nankervis 07 Elizabeth Neville 08 Adrian Wallis 09 David Wickham Double Basses 01 Kees Boersma Brian and Rosemary White Chair of Double Bass 02 Alex Henery 03 Andrew Raciti Associate 04 Neil Brawley Emeritus 05 David Campbell 06 Steven Larson 07 Richard Lynn 08 David Murray Harp Louise Johnson Mulpha Australia Chair of Harp Flutes 01 Janet Webb 02 Emma Sholl Mr Harcourt Gough Chair of Associate Flute 03 Carolyn Harris Piccolo Rosamund Plummer 24 Sydney Symphony

24 MUSICIANS Oboes 01 Cor Anglais Clarinets Bass Clarinet Bassoons Contrabassoon Horns Trumpets Trombones Bass Trombone Tuba Timpani Percussion Piano Oboes 01 Diana Doherty Andrew Kaldor and Renata Kaldor AO Chair of Oboe 02 Shefali Pryor Associate Cor Anglais Alexandre Oguey Clarinets 01 Lawrence Dobell 02 Francesco Celata Associate 03 Christopher Tingay Bass Clarinet Craig Wernicke Bassoons 01 Matthew Wilkie 02 Roger Brooke Associate 03 Fiona McNamara Contrabassoon 01 Noriko Shimada Horns 01 Robert Johnson 02 Ben Jacks 03 Geoff O Reilly 3rd 04 Lee Bracegirdle 05 Marnie Sebire Trumpets 01 Daniel Mendelow 02 Paul Goodchild Associate 03 John Foster 04 Anthony Heinrichs Trombone 01 Ronald Prussing NSW Department of State and Regional Development Chair of Trombone 02 Scott Kinmont Associate 03 Nick Byrne Rogen International Chair of Trombone Bass Trombone Christopher Harris Trust Foundation Chair of Bass Trombone Tuba Steve Rossé Timpani 01 Richard Miller 02 Brian Nixon Assistant Timpani (contract) Percussion 01 Rebecca Lagos 02 Colin Piper Piano Josephine Allan (contract) 25 Sydney Symphony

25 SALUTE PRINCIPAL PARTNER GOVERNMENT PARTNERS The Company is assisted by the NSW Government through Arts NSW PLATINUM PARTNER MAJOR PARTNERS GOLD PARTNERS 26 Sydney Symphony

26 SILVER PARTNERS REGIONAL TOUR PARTNERS Mt Arthur Coal Illawarra Coal BRONZE PARTNERS MARKETING PARTNERS PATRONS Australia Post Beyond Technology Bimbadgen Estate Wines Goldman Sachs JBWere J. Boag & Son Q-Med (Sweden) Australia Pty Ltd. Vittoria Coffee Avant Card Blue Arc Group Digital Eskimo Lindsay Yates and Partners 2MBS Sydney s Fine Music Station The Sydney Symphony gratefully acknowledges the many music lovers who contribute to the Orchestra by becoming Symphony Patrons. Every donation plays an important part in the success of the Sydney Symphony s wide ranging programs. The Sydney Symphony applauds the leadership role our Partners play and their commitment to excellence, innovation and creativity. 27 Sydney Symphony

27 DIRECTORS CHAIRS A leadership program which links Australia s top performers in the executive and musical worlds. For information about the Directors Chairs program, please contact Corporate Relations on (02) Alan Jones, Managing Director Mulpha Australia with Mulpha Australia Chair of Harp, Louise Johnson 02 Mr Harcourt Gough Chair of Associate Flute, Emma Sholl 03 Sandra and Paul Salteri Chair of Artistic Director Education, Richard Gill OAM 04 Jonathan Sweeney, Managing Director Trust with Trust Foundation Chair of Bass Trombone, Christopher Harris 05 NSW Department of State and Regional Development Chair of Trombone, Ronald Prussing 06 Brian and Rosemary White Chair of Double Bass, Kees Boersma 07 Board and Council of the Sydney Symphony supports Chairs of Concertmaster Michael Dauth and Dene Olding 08 Gerald Tapper, Managing Director Rogen International with Rogen International Chair of Trombone, Nick Byrne 09 Stuart O Brien, Managing Director Moon Design with Moon Design Chair of Violin, Alexandra Mitchell 10 Ian and Jennifer Burton Chair of Assistant Concertmaster, Fiona Ziegler 11 Andrew Kaldor and Renata Kaldor AO Chair of Oboe, Diana Doherty 28 Sydney Symphony