GOLDNER STRING QUARTET CARL VINE STRING QUARTETS

Transcription

1 GOLDNER STRING QUARTET CARL VINE STRING QUARTETS

2 CARL VINE b String Quartet No String Quartet No String Quartet No Knips Suite selections 4 IV. Deco Knips (a tango) VI. Knips del Fuego (a finale) String Quartet No Total Playing Time Goldner String Quartet Dene Olding violin Dimity Hall violin Irina Morozova viola Julian Smiles cello 2

3 Carl Vine s music for string quartet spans nearly three decades, so acts as an album of snapshots that document the development of his musical language. His earliest mat ure works date from the 1970s, when he first came to prominence as a composer f or dance, particularly in collaboration with Graeme Murphy and the Sydney Dance Company on works such as the legendary 1978 tribute to Jean Cocteau, Poppy. The following year Vine and trombonist Simone de Haan founded the now equally legendary contemporary music ensemble Flederman. Vine wrote a number of chamber works for this mixed-instrument ensemble over Flederman s ten-year existence; he also composed for the varied groupings afforded by the Seymour Group and the Australia Ensemble@UNSW, writing such works as Café Concertino (1984) and Miniature IV (1988) for the latter. With his MicroSymphony of 1986, Vine inaugurated his substantial collection of major orchestral works, which now includes seven symphonies and nine concertos. String Quartet No. 3 was composed in 1994 and consists of a single movement in three linked sections. The first section alternates two quite different musical ideas. The initial one, says Vine, uses the ensemble as a single, large instrument There are seldom more than two independent lines, but these are spread across the ensemble so that a single pla yer rarely completes a single line. The effect is one of mercurial movement, as short, rapidly-bowed motifs and brief pizzicato figures flare and disappear in rapid succession. The second idea is a complete contrast: instead of the highly democratic polyphony of the first, this section is simple melody and accompaniment, and in place of the diaphanous texture is a more earth-bound pattern of heavy repeated chords, that support an almost Slavic solo line for first violin. As Vine notes, the central section focuses on monody, where each instrument other than the first violin has a rhapsodic solo moment over a simple homophonic accompaniment. Vine describes the final section as a demonic moto perpetuo. Its energy derives largely from emphatic repeated-chord ostinatos, its texture enlivened by fragmentary pizzicato motifs and an ascending five-note scale in the first violin. Here again, the ensemble is of ten used as a single, large instrument. The piece was commissioned by (and is dedicated to) the London-based Smith Quartet with financial assistance from the Brighton Arts Festival and the Performing Arts Board of the Australia Council. String Quartet No. 2 dates from 1984 ten years before the Third Quartet. Like the Third it has a tripartite structure, and offers rich contrasts in the use of the ensemble. As in other works Vine 3

4 composed at the time, notably Café Concertino for the Australia and MicroSymphony for Sydney Youth Orchestra, there is particular emphasis placed on rhythmic and metrical relationships. In the first of the three sections, a simple pulse is est ablished and then assailed by an overlay of counter-rhythms. In a technique known as metrical modulation, Vine accents certain notes in cross-rhythms to create a new speed. Much of the first section of the Quartet is dominated b y this technique, where speed changes by something like gear-shift, rather than gradual acceleration or slowing down. By contrast the second section is rhythmically stable, based on an ostinato in the cello. Vine explains that this is overlaid with other repetitive rhythmic figures similar to the rhythmic organisation of certain African musics. Where this metrical organisation provides textural complexity, the harmony is relatively simple, though inflected by sudden changes of voicing (the placing of notes within a chord) and the addition of accidentals. The closing section of this work recalls material from earlier in the piece, and mak es play with a mosaic of textures based on ostinatos but finally est ablishing an unambiguous C major as the work s goal. Many of Vine s works up until the late 1990s ended in an upbeat way the demonic energy of the Third Quartet s finale and the opulent radiance of the Third Symphony s coda being just two examples of what Vine calls a journey from darkness to light; from uncert ainty to affirmation. Written in 1993, his Fourth Symphony (later revised as Symphony 4.2) broke that pattern most notably: the first version of the work dramatised the precarious nature of its own form; it was not seamless, and did not come to an unambiguously affirmative conclusion. His String Quartet No. 4, of 2004, is comparable, depicting ideas such as dissent and aggression, and conflict without resolution. The work is in two, rather than three, sections and ends with an only provisional cessation of hostilities. Vine doesn t deny the validity of optimism, but remarks that it need not be blind. The opening of the work suggests a fragile calm, with a t wo-note motif, at first outlining the minor third, passed from instrument to instrument until a murmuring exchange signals the first signs of dissent. The central part of the first section is, in Vine s words, a reflective violin solo that is overtaken by antagonism, but returns unperturbed to close the first half. 4

5 The second section, like the opening of the Third Quartet, plays two markedly contrasting ideas off against each other: a relentlessly rhythmic passage and a quiet chorale. The rhythmic material becomes progressively more aggressive, and gathers elements heard earlier in the piece, but this is no recapitulation in the classical sense of reconciling material and rounding of f the development. The distant chorale closes the work only because the aggression, for the moment, has ceased. String Quartet No. 4 was commissioned for Musica Viva Australia by Geoff and Vicki Ainsworth in honour of Carl Vine s fiftieth birthday, with support from the Ian Potter Music Commissions. The first performance was given by the Takács String Quartet in November A number of Vine s dance scores, such as his Piano Sonata No. 1, have become staples of concert repertoire, and it was for dance that he wrote his first w ork for string quartet, the Knips Suite. This was composed for the Australian choreographer Ian Spink and the Basic Space company in Edinburgh, and was premiered at the Edinburgh Festival in Its six movements each involve some form of parody or pun, either literary, musical or both. Two movements have been selected for this recording: Deco Knips (a tango), whose languor is briefly dispelled by a more spirited tango section in the movement s centre, and Knips del Fuego (a finale) which is fast and rhythmic or, as Vine says, Your basic modern dance music, really. String Quartet No. 5 was commissioned for the Goldner String Quartet and Musica Viva Australia by the late Kenneth W Tribe AC, and first performed at the Huntington Estate Music Festival in It, too, is a single movement made up of six, clearly defined sections e voking, perhaps, the radical designs of Beethoven s late quartets. Vine s quartet opens with material of extreme simplicity: in a rhythm dominated by even crotchets, the strings softly outline a theme which uses 11 of the available 12 notes of the tonal system (the missing C sharp occurs in the ric h eight-note chord that punctuates the theme) but whose reiterations of certain pitches anchor it in G minor. The theme is gradually elaborated by doubling (the first violin s whistling harmonics, miles above the cello), heterophony (the second violin s delicate tracery) and a growing melodic and rhythmic independence of the instruments that produces an active texture. The pervasive chromaticism continues in succeeding sections: a gently flo wing passage in 3/4 that contrasts with an angular 7/8 section in which all instruments play pizzicato. A more lyrical ternary section follows where harmonics from the first violin etch out the viola s melody two and half octaves 5

6 higher (recalling the use Vine often makes of piccolo in his orchestral scores), with a central paragraph dominated by wave-like scale passages. Pizzicato figures accompany a high cello line, leading to a darkly energetic episode that ends abruptly at its peak. In a new, slower section, the violins take turns with improvisatory flourishes over a static and sombre C minor harmony. This work has a happy ending (though while Vine admits there might be a narrative hidden within the music I m cert ain there is no story ); here it is built on an inf ectious little dance rhythm repeated as the first violin s solo line becomes increasingly ornate and extravagant, issuing in joyful hammering for the whole ensemble. Gordon Kerry

7 Goldner String Quartet Launched in 1995, and still retaining all founding members, the Goldner String Quartet is named af ter Richard Goldner, founder of the original Musica Viva Australia. The players are all well known to Australian and international audiences through solo performances, recordings and their concurrent membership of the Australia All members have occupied principal positions in organisations such as the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Australian Chamber Orchestra. The Goldner String Quartet made its UK debut in at London s Wigmore Hall, and its US debut in 2001 with concerts at the prestigious 92nd St Y in New York, and in Washington DC. Its appearances in the 2011 City of London Festival drew capacity audiences and unanimous praise from UK critics. Closer to home, the Quartet has performed in Korea, Singapore and Brunei and has undertaken several extensive tours of New Zealand. In addition to national tours for Musica Viva, the Goldner String Quartet regularly appears at major music festivals around Australia, including the Huntington Estate, Coriole and Aurora Festivals and Music in the Hunter. Its members have been a mainstay of the Australian Festival of Chamber Music in Townsville since In 2000, the Goldner String Quartet performed a major retrospective of 20thcentury string quartets at the Adelaide Festival. It performed its first complete Beethoven cycle in Sydney in 2004, for Musica Viva. The Quartet also has a commitment to teaching the next generation of string quartets, and has an ongoing association with the Australian Youth Orchestra s Chamber Music program. New works have been regularly commissioned for the Goldner String Quartet from Australia s leading composers. The Goldner String Quartet s live recordings of the complete Beethoven String Quartets, released on ABC Classics, won the 2009 Limelight Award for Best Classical Recording. The Quartet has several recent recordings with pianist Piers Lane on Hyperion, eac h presenting string quartets and piano quintets of a different composer (Bloch, Bridge, Dvořák, Elgar and Harty to date). Also released are the complete quartets of Szymanowski and Stravinsky on Naxos, and on the Tall Poppies label, three volumes of string quartets by Peter Sculthorpe. 7

8 Dene Olding trained at the Juilliard School in New York. Winner of a Churchill Fellowship for advanced studies and one of Australia s best-known instrumentalists, he has won many awards including the Bronze Medal of the Queen Elisabeth of Belgium International Violin Competition. He has had a distinguished career as a soloist in Australia, New Zealand and the USA, performing over forty concertos, including many world premieres. His recording of Ross Edwards Maninyas won the 1994 ARIA Award for Best Classical Recording and a Cannes Classical Award. He joined the Australia Ensemble@UNSW in 1982 and was also at that time leader of the Australian Chamber Orchestra. He is Concertmaster of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and often directs SSO s Mozart concert series at City Recital Hall Angel Place. Dene Olding is Artistic Advisor to the Michael Hill International Violin Competition and has served as a juror on other international competitions. He is also in demand as soloist and director with other Australian orchestras, with a busy schedule of performing, touring and recording. In 2010 he was soloist with the Sydney Symphony and Vladimir Ashkenazy at the Edinburgh Festival and in 2011, he gave the world premiere of Carl Vine s Violin Concerto with the Australian Youth Orchestra. He plays a Joseph Guarnerius violin made in Dimity Hall is privileged to enjoy an exciting career centred on her love of chamber music. As a founding member of the Goldner String Quartet and of the Australia Ensemble@UNSW since 1992, she has participated in many highly acclaimed recordings, festival appearances and international tours. In 2002, she made her solo debut with the S ydney Symphony, performing Vaughan Williams The Lark Ascending, a work she went on to record for ABC Classics. She has since appeared as soloist in the Sydney Symphony s Master Series, with the Canberra Symphony Orchestra and with the Camerata of St John s in Brisbane. Dimity Hall studied in Sydney with Alice Waten before completing postgraduate study with Herman Krebbers in Amsterdam. She performed as a casual member of the R oyal Concertgebouw Orchestra under major conductors and appeared in recit al in the Concertgebouw Kleine Zaal as prizewinner of the Zilveren Vriendenkrans Award. She returned to Australia as Principal Second Violin with the Australian Chamber Orchestra and has been that orchestra s Guest Concertmaster and soloist on several occasions. 8

9 Dimity Hall was a member of the jur y for the 2003 Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition. In recent years she has appeared as Guest Concertmaster with the Melbourne and Adelaide Symphony Orchestras and with the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra. Dimity Hall plays a Nicolò Gagliano violin. Irina Morozova has been Principal Viola in the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Guest Principal of the Sydney Symphony and Principal Viola of the Elizabethan Trust Orchestra. She is a foundation member of the Australia Ensemble@UNSW and the Goldner String Quartet; with these t wo groups she has performed in nearly 30 countries around the w orld and has recorded extensively, particularly for the Hyperion Label in the UK and for Tall Poppies and ABC Classics in Australia. After studies with Richard Goldner and Robert Pikler at the NSW State Conservatorium of Music, Irina Morozova undertook advanced studies and work in Europe and the USA before returning to Australia. She has regularly appeared as a soloist with major Australian and New Zealand orchestras. She has presided on such distinguished chamber music juries as the Shostakovich International String Quartet Competition in St Petersburg in Russia and the Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition, and was invited to perform and adjudicate at the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition on the Isle of Man. In recent y ears, Irina has been a frequent guest principal with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra. Irina Morozova plays a viola made in 1947 for Richard Goldner by A.E. Smith of Sydney. Julian Smiles studied with Nelson Cooke at the Canberra School of Music and with János Starker at Indiana University, rapidly establishing a position of prominence with successes in v arious major competitions and concerto appearances with youth and symphony orchestras around Australia. By the age of 20 he had performed as soloist in the Dvořak, Elgar and Shostakovich Cello Concertos, the Brahms Double Concerto, and the Tchaikovsky Rococo Variations. He has held the position of Principal Cello with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, and appeared frequently as Guest Principal with the Sydney Symphony. In 1991 he was invited to join the Australia Ensemble@UNSW. In recent years Julian has enjoyed an increasing profile as a soloist, perf orming concertos with several orchestras in Sydney, the Canberra Symphony Orchestra and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. 9

10 He is also in demand as a teacher, and has tutored gifted young musicians at the Australian National Academy of Music in Melbourne, and for the Australian Youth Orchestra. He has also held teaching positions at the Canberra School of Music and Sydney Conservatorium. Julian Smiles plays an 1827 Lorenzo Ventapane cello. Carl Vine Carl Vine first came to prominence in Australia as a composer of music for dance, with 25 dance scores to his credit. His cat alogue includes seven symphonies, nine concertos, music for film, television and theatre, electronic music and numerous chamber works. His piano music is played frequently around the world. Although primarily a composer of modern classical music he has undertaken tasks as diverse as arranging the Australian National Anthem and writing music for the Olympic Games (1996 Atlanta Olympics). Born in Perth, he studied piano with Stephen Dornan and composition with John Exton at the University of Western Australia. Moving to Sydney in 1975, he worked as a freelance pianist and composer with a wide range of ensembles, theatre and dance companies over the following decades. Amongst his most acclaimed compositions are Mythologia (2000), Piano Sonata (1990) and Poppy (1978) for the Sydney Dance Company and Choral Symphony (Symphony No. 6, 1996) for the West Australian Symphony Orchestra. Since 2000 Carl Vine has been the Artistic Director of Musica Viva Australia, the world s largest entrepreneur of chamber music, and since 2006 he has also been the Artistic Director of the Huntington Estate Music Festival. His most recent compositions include Piano Concerto No. 2 f or the Sydney Symphony and London Philharmonic Orchestra, a Violin Concerto for the Australian Youth Orchestra, and Symphony No. 7 for the West Australian Symphony Orchestra. 10

11 Executive Producers Robert Patterson, Laura Bell Recording Producer and Engineer Virginia Read Editing and Mastering Virginia Read Publications Editor Natalie Shea Booklet Design Imagecorp Pty Ltd Photo p10 Karen Steains 2008 Cover Image Joel Rea: Moment of Truth, 2011 (122 x 122cm, oil on canvas) Joel Rea is an Australian artist who lives and works on the Gold Coast in Queensland. In 2011 he was the Highly Commended Runner Up in the Metro Galler y Art Award in Victoria, and a finalist in both the P rometheus and Clayton Utz Art Awards in Queensland. He was also a finalist in the 2010 Redland Gallery Biennial Contemporary Painting Award in Queensland, and, for the second year running, the 2012 Clayton Utz Art Award. In 2012 Joel Rea held his fifth solo exhibition in Brisbane; the major painting from the e xhibition was curated into Art on Art at the Gold Coast Cit y Art Gallery. Joel was the winner of the 2011 Gold Coast Rotary Young Achiever in Vocational Excellence and holds a Bachelor of Fine Art degree from the Queensland College of Art (2003). Recorded 30 November and 2-4 December 2009 in the Eugene Goossens Hall of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation s Ultimo Centre, Sydney. Carl Vine s Knips Suite is published by the Australian Music Centre. His String Quartet No. 2 is published b y Chester Music and his String Quartets Nos 3, 4 and 5 are published b y Faber Music. ABC Classics thanks Andrew Delaney, Dux Newton, Jonathan Villanueva and Virginia Read Australian Broadcasting Corporation Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Distributed in Australia and New Zealand by Universal Music Group, under exclusive licence. Made in Australia. All rights of the owner of copyright reserved. Any copying, renting, lending, diffusion, public performance or broadcast of this record without the authorit y of the copyright owner is prohibited. 11

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