ANDREW SCHULTZ. orchestral works TASMANIAN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Transcription

1 ANDREW SCHULTZ orchestral works TASMANIAN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

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3 Andrew Schultz b Endling, Op. 72 (2007) Violin Concerto, Op. 55 (1996) [33 58] 2 I. Chorale: Expansive II. Dances: Fast and vibrant Jennifer Pike violin 4 Once upon a time, Op. 70 (2006) Total Playing Time Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra Richard Mills conductor 3

4 Endling For some time I have been trying to find ways to reduce and clarify what I do, preferring the embarrassment of a nakedness of idea to a superficial modernity. Better a single clean line than a messy and obscuring profusion. My aim has been to find a poverty of means that is both elemental and communicative. An ideal musical world for me is one in which to change a single note alters the balance and meaning of a piece. The scoring of Endling is a mixture of browns and greys intermingled and dappled blended colours provided by restricting the orchestra to two horns, timpani and strings. The work falls into three broad sections, each built in different ways around an oscillating melodic figure of a fourth or a fifth and step-wise seconds. Harmonically, the work falls and rises over thirds. Rhythmically, the work is in 3/2 with its ambiguities of stillness and dance, light and dark. Nature has defined the endling as the last surviving individual of a species or plant. This piece flows from a feeling of immense regret and sorrow about all that has been lost from the face of the earth. Beautifully adapted plants, animals and societies that are no more and have been replaced by what? A world of ugliness, material obsession, perpetual and pointless change, and the hideous marketing of everything from a symphony to a child s smile. And we are all utterly caught up in it, in the post- God world, where even repudiation is another category fit for commercial exploitation. There is only a stoic solitude the resignation of the endling and the pure core of human experience to sustain us. Endling was commissioned by Symphony Australia for the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. The first performance was given by the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Arvo Volmer, at the Federation Concert Hall, Hobart, on 14 November Violin Concerto Had I the heavens embroidered cloths, Enwrought with golden and silver light, The blue and the dim and the dark cloths Of night and light and the half light, I would spread the cloths under your feet: But I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams. William Butler Yeats ( ): Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven My Violin Concerto was written in 1996 but was unperformed for many years. The work was commissioned by The Hunter Orchestra (based in Newcastle, Australia) and the commission was funded by the Australia Council for the Arts. The work was drafted at the Banff Centre for the 4

5 Arts in Alberta, Canada, in the northern summer of 1996 the superb natural setting and the sounds of echoed music and voices across lakes, forests and mountains certainly played their part in stimulating my imagination. But having dreamed big and completed the composition, and prior to its first scheduled performance, the orchestra fell bankrupt and ceased operations. The work was written, the commission paid, the parts copied but the orchestra had literally disappeared, and with it, my piece. Any work sitting unperformed is a terrible thing for a composer. The more so for me in this case because the work was of such large scale and high ambition that it had stretched my creativity and technique to compose. Although I approached them, other Australian orchestras showed indifference to the work, preferring to dwell safely on the tried and tested rather than risk something new. And so frustrated by perpetual Australian timidity I moved in 1997, with my young family, to take up a post as Head of Composition and Music Studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London: a move without which the piece may not have reached the public ear at all. David Takeno, Head of Strings at Guildhall, and I became close friends and his support and encouragement helped me to sustain interest in the work. Partly through David s influence, the piece eventually reached the notice of the brilliant young virtuoso and Takeno student, Jennifer Pike. The Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra took up the challenge and, prior to this recording in 2008, Jenny and I worked closely on the piece and made some revisions and enhancements. The Concerto is in two movements and is a work imagined on a large canvas by turns dramatic, virtuosic, tender and lyrical. The first movement, Chorale, is slow and expansive and oscillates simply between a monolithic chordal passage in hymn style and a long, widely spaced melodic line. The line is shared by the solo violin and the offstage horn and then freely embellished by the soloist and echoed in the orchestra. The hymn-like passages are block-like in their architecture and focused on combined sonorities of plucked strings, harp and percussion until they are later taken up by forceful, muted brass against low percussive bass anchors. By contrast to the gentle but inexorable pace of the first movement, the second movement, Dances, is fast, rhythmic, joyous and exuberant. The movement opens with a jubilant and brassy leaping chordal-melodic passage an idea, and a group of notes, that I had been carrying around in my head for many years before it finally found its way out in this piece. The idea reappears throughout the large-scale movement as a kind 5

6 of refrain between the dances (some ironic, some visceral, some sweet) that soloist and orchestra lay out. The violin writing throughout makes use of many double-stopping and drone techniques and is possibly influenced by the rich world of folk-style violin playing with its heterophony and its sheer rhythmic energy. Once upon a time Opening a door on an orchestra playing is, to me, a step into a magical realm. A world in which fantastic and endless possibilities are at work just as much as in the enchanted forests of fairy tales. Stories abstract or simple, familiar or unknown are told in this space. Dreams unfold and are crushed, characters ridiculous and sublime strut the stage, the tragic and the bizarre are juxtaposed, and the heroic and the desolate stand together. And all of this in a language that is ineffable and mysterious yet absolutely powerful and direct. Meaningful and meaningless at once. Amazingly, the story is different for every pair of ears that hears. The work was composed in 2006 for The Queensland Orchestra in response to a commission from Symphony Australia. The Queensland Orchestra, conducted by Richard Mills, gave the work its premiere in Brisbane at the QPAC Concert Hall in June It was composed in part during a residency at the Leighton Studios, Banff Centre for the Arts the fourth period, over the last ten years, that I have spent in Banff. The northern landscape and the evanescent alpine light have crept more and more into my music as a result. For this recording the work was revised to suit the smaller wind and brass forces of the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, so the piece now exists in two versions the original version, for triple wind orchestra, and the current version for double wind orchestra. Andrew Schultz So in this piece the spirit of musical storytelling informs all parts of the work. Individual wind and brass parts play very prominent roles in the piece and, at times, almost take on narrative and character roles. On a personal note, the work was written at the time that my two sons (both wind players) were entering their teenage years and leaving behind the childhood world of fantasy and innocent imagination. 6

7 Andrew Schultz Andrew Schultz was born in Adelaide in 1960 and grew up in regional NSW and Victoria before his family moved to Brisbane, where he completed his secondary schooling. His teachers and mentors included Colin Brumby, George Crumb, David Lumsdaine and Luciano Berio and he studied at the Universities of Queensland, Pennsylvania and King s College London. He has been the recipient of various awards in Australia and overseas, including Australia Council Fellowships, Fulbright Award, Commonwealth Scholarship, Paul Lowin Prize, Schueler Composition Award, Maggs Award and the APRA Music Award for Contemporary Classical Composition of the Year. Andrew Schultz has been especially engaged in a series of large-scale dramatic works, several of which incorporate parts for Indigenous singers. His three operas have been presented live and on film internationally: Black River (1988, libretto by Julianne Schultz) was awarded the Australian National Composer Opera Award and, in its film version, the Grand-Prix, Opera Screen at Opéra-Bastille in Paris; Going into Shadows (2000, libretto by Julianne Schultz) was commissioned by the Guildhall School of Music and Drama; The Children s Bach (2007, based on a novel by Helen Garner with libretto by Glenn Perry), was premiered by Chamber Made Opera in Melbourne. The cantata Journey to Horseshoe Bend ( , libretto by Gordon Kalton Williams) draws upon the experiences of anthropologist TGH Strehlow then a boy of 14, accompanying his dying father Carl on a desperate journey through the desert to seek help and his relationship with the Aranda people of Central Australia, among whom Carl had worked as a missionary. A CD recording of the work is available on ABC Classics. Another large-scale work is a version of the Song of Songs (2004), a setting of Barry Hill s modern recrafting of the biblical text, commissioned by ABC Radio and The Song Company. Other works for The Song Company include Ekstasis (1990) and Wild flower (2006); more recently, he has written for Sydney Philharmonia Choirs (Beach Burial) and Sydney Chamber Choir (Magnificat), and completed two song cycles, To the Evening Star and Stille Sprache (all 2009). Chamber works have also been acclaimed, including Barren Grounds (1988), Dead Songs (1991), 12 Variations (1997), Tonic Continent (2000) and Clarinet Quintet (2010). His Symphony 7

8 No. 2 Ghosts of Reason (2008) was premiered by the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra under Arvo Volmer. Earlier orchestral works include The Devil s Music (1992) and Diver s Lament (1996), commissioned by the Sydney Symphony. CD releases include two volumes of chamber music on the Tall Poppies label, and a disc of vocal music with The Song Company. Andrew Schultz has held posts and residencies including Head of Composition and Music Studies at the Guildhall School of Music (London) and Professor of Composition and Dean of Creative Arts at the University of Wollongong (Australia). He is currently Professor of Music at the University of New South Wales, Sydney. He has also served as Chair of the Arts NSW Music Committee, Chair of the Australian Music Centre Board and Editor of the Biographical Directory of Australian Composers. Jennifer Pike In 2002, at the age of twelve, Jennifer Pike became the youngest ever winner of the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition. She joined the prestigious BBC New Generation Artists scheme in 2008 and the following year she was presented with the first international London Music Masters award. Jennifer Pike made her BBC Proms debut in the Royal Albert Hall at the age of fifteen, followed by critically acclaimed debut recitals in London s Wigmore Hall and Purcell Room and in the Musée d Orsay in Paris. Recent highlights have included radio recordings with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Auckland Philharmonia and Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as performances of the Mendelssohn, Brahms and Sibelius Violin Concertos with the Philharmonia Orchestra, Hallé Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg and the Nagoya, London and Tampere Philharmonic Orchestras. Jennifer Pike is recording the Rózsa Violin Concerto with the BBC Philharmonic on the Chandos label, having recently released a disc of French violin sonatas by Debussy, Franck and Ravel. Jennifer Pike studied with David Takeno at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama before continuing her studies at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University. She plays a 1708 violin by Matteo Goffriller made available by the Stradivari Trust. 8

9 Richard Mills Richard Mills is one of Australia s most soughtafter composers and music directors. He has pursued a diverse career as a composer, conductor and artistic director which has seen him working with almost all of the nation s music organisations. He is currently Artistic Director of the West Australian Opera, a position he has held since From 2002 to 2008 he was also Director of the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra s Australian Music Program. At the podium, Richard Mills has a reputation for conducting contemporary opera and his own compositions, as well as the standard operatic repertoire. Recent engagements have included the inaugural concert at the Melbourne Recital Centre; Aida, The Magic Flute, Peter Grimes and La Sonnambula for West Australian Opera; concerts and recordings with the West Australian, Melbourne and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras and with Orchestra Victoria; and a concert performance of Wagner s Tristan und Isolde for the Queensland Music Festival (2006 Helpmann Award for Best Classical Concert Presentation). Current and future engagements include Die Fledermaus with West Australian Opera, Love of the Nightingale with Opera Australia in Sydney, Elektra with West Australian Opera / Perth Festival, and Wagner s Ring cycle with Opera Australia. Richard Mills was Musica Viva s Featured Composer of the Year in 2008 and recipient of an Ian Potter Foundation Fellowship in 2007/08. His most recent compositions include Interplay, for The Australian Ballet, and his Passion According to St Mark, which premiered around Australia in His song cycle Songlines of the Heart s Desires received its European premiere at the 2010 Edinburgh Festival. He is one of the few Australian composers who have been commissioned to write operas for mainstage performances in Australia (Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, Batavia and the Helpmann Award-winning The Love of the Nightingale). Richard Mills discography is extensive. Highlights include his best-selling ABC Classics album Richard Mills: Orchestral Works with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra; his 3CD recording of the film music of Franz Waxman with the same orchestra, on the Varèse Sarabande label, was awarded the German Record Critics Award. Richard Mills is a Senior Fellow in the Faculty of Music of the University of Melbourne and Adjunct Professor of Music at the University of Queensland. 9

10 Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra For more than six decades the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra (TSO) has been at the forefront of concert life in Tasmania. Established in 1948 and declared a Tasmanian Icon in 1998, the TSO gives more than 40 concerts annually including seasons in Hobart and Launceston, and appearances in Tasmanian regional centres. In recent years the TSO has performed at City Recital Hall Angel Place in Sydney and at the Adelaide Festival, and makes its debut at Melbourne Recital Centre in September International touring has taken the orchestra to North and South America, Greece, Israel, South Korea, China, Indonesia and Japan. Resident in Hobart s purpose-built Federation Concert Hall, the TSO has a full complement of 47 musicians. German-born Sebastian Lang-Lessing has been the orchestra s Chief Conductor and Artistic Director since Australian music is one of the TSO s focal points. The Australian Music Program, which was founded in 2003, champions music by Australian composers through recordings, performances and commissions, and nurtures promising careers through the annual Australian Composers School. Mindful of its mission to be a source of pride for all Tasmanians, the TSO performs a wide variety of music. Vladimir Ashkenazy, Daniel Barenboim, Alfred Brendel, Lisa Gasteen, Nigel Kennedy, Sara Macliver, Howard Shelley, Teddy Tahu Rhodes and Richard Tognetti are among the soloists who have appeared with the orchestra. Popular and jazz artists who have performed with the orchestra include Rhonda Burchmore, Kate Ceberano, Roberta Flack, James Morrison, Anthony Warlow, Human Nature and The Whitlams. 10

11 Executive Producers Martin Buzacott, Robert Patterson Recording Producer Brooke Green Recording Engineers Brooke Green, Veronika Vincze Editing and Mastering Veronika Vincze Editorial and Production Manager Hilary Shrubb Publications Editor Natalie Shea Booklet Design Imagecorp Pty Ltd Cover Photograph Cradle Mountain and Cradle Plateau at dusk, Cradle Mountain National Park, Tasmania Ted Mead / Photolibrary Photo p7 Robert Fretwell Recorded 2-5 December 2008 in the Federation Concert Hall, Hobart. ABC Classics thanks Laura Bell, Jonathan Villanueva and Virginia Read. For Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra Managing Director Nicholas Heyward Manager, Artistic Planning Simon Rogers Australian Music Program Director Lyndon Terracini Australian Music Program Director Emeritus Richard Mills Orchestra Manager Greg Low Orchestra Coordinator Evan Woodroffe 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 authority of the copyright owner is prohibited. 11

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