2012 SEASON. Majestic Brahms. Brahms and Shostakovich. Wed 6 June 8pm Fri 8 June 8pm Sat 9 June 8pm. Ausgrid Master Series

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1 2012 SEASON Majestic Brahms Brahms and Shostakovich Wed 6 June 8pm Fri 8 June 8pm Sat 9 June 8pm Ausgrid Master Series

2 WELCOME TO THE AUSGRID MASTER SERIES Welcome to tonight s concert at the Sydney Opera House a concert that reveals how powerful orchestral music can be. Performing with the Sydney Symphony this evening are two artists who are both making return visits to this stage: conductor Oleg Caetani and pianist Philippe Bianconi. The program they have prepared for us begins with an impressive and Olympian piano concerto by Johannes Brahms and ends with a deeply emotional symphony by Dmitri Shostakovich. With this pairing we are able to experience the majesty and warmth of the German romantic style the heart of the symphony orchestra tradition and music by one of the great symphonists of the 20th century, a composer whose music was a mirror to the troubling world in which he lived and worked. The contrasts in style and emotion will be dramatic. Not only does this promise to be a powerful concert but a profoundly moving one. The Ausgrid network includes the poles, wires and substations that deliver electricity to more than 1.6 million homes and businesses in New South Wales. Ausgrid is transforming the traditional electricity network into a grid that is smarter, more reliable and more interactive something we are very proud of. We re also extremely proud of our partnership with the Sydney Symphony and our support of the orchestra s flagship Master Series. We are supporting the orchestra as a Community Partner, with the goal of bringing great music and exciting performances to an even wider audience. We trust that you will enjoy tonight s performance and we look forward to seeing you again at Ausgrid Master Series concerts throughout the season. GEORGE MALTABAROW Managing Director

3 2012 season ausgrid master series Wednesday 6 June 8pm Friday 8 June 8pm Saturday 9 June 8pm Sydney Opera House Concert Hall Brahms and Shostakovich Oleg Caetani CONDUCTOR Philippe Bianconi PIANO Johannes Brahms ( ) Piano Concerto No.2 in B flat, Op.83 Allegro non troppo Allegro appassionato Andante Allegretto grazioso Un poco più presto INTERVAL Wednesday night s performance will be broadcast live across Australia on ABC Classic FM. Pre-concert talk by Oleg Caetani at 7.15pm in the Northern Foyer. Estimated durations: 48 minutes, 20-minute interval, 32 minutes The concert will conclude at approximately 9.50pm. Dmitri Shostakovich ( ) Symphony No.6 in B minor, Op.54 Largo Allegro Presto PRESENTING PARTNER

4 LEBRECHT MUSIC & ARTS 6 sydney symphony

5 INTRODUCTION Brahms and Shostakovich Johannes Brahms and Dmitri Shostakovich occupied vastly different worlds: they lived in different centuries, in different cultures and under different political conditions. Their music can t help but reflect this, and as with our recent combination of Poulenc s Gloria and Mozart s Requiem any program that brings them together becomes an exercise in musical contrast. What they share is symphonic ambition and the power of musical expression. Often when Brahms s Second Piano Concerto is programmed it s placed after interval, in the spot normally occupied by the symphony. And if it weren t for the piano at the front of the stage, you d be forgiven for thinking that it was a symphony: it s long (the best part of 50 minutes), it s in four movements rather than the usual three, and it s magnificent in character. The solo part is one of the most challenging in the piano repertoire Olympian sums it up perfectly. Tonight, Brahms s powerful and brilliant concerto is played in the first half. Shostakovich s Sixth Symphony has such a range of emotion and its musical message is so unusual that it begs to sit last. In many ways it invites contemplation. Shostakovich s motivation was lyrical: he said he wanted to communicate the moods of spring, of joy and youthfulness. But the symphony s expressive range is much wider than those words might suggest, and it s the source of its unusual structure. Just as Brahms gives us a concerto in the four movements of a symphony, so Shostakovich gives us a symphony in the three movements of a concerto. He sidesteps convention even further by beginning slowly with mournful, almost hypnotic music, and gradually increasing the tempo through a playful but weird second movement, and on to a brilliant, almost intoxicating finale. In the Sixth Symphony, Shostakovich brings together vastly different and apparently irreconcilable aspects of existence, and the result, says one Shostakovich scholar, is the revelation of an inexplicable inner unity. Perhaps in this concert, too, we can experience a revelation in hearing these two completely different but powerful musical creations in juxtaposition. Historical Timeline We are developing an interactive historical timeline, presenting images, documents, audio and video from our past and into the future. It will feature landmark Sydney Symphony events and performances and some of the personalities associated with the orchestra. The timeline will be launched with our new website later this year, and you can play a part in building it into into a rich and valuable resource. If you know of any events, images or stories that belong in the timeline visit sydneysymphony.com/ 80years/timeline_ contributi ons sydney symphony 7

6 DAVID ROBERTSON Your chance to witness him in action. The Sydney Symphony s Chief Conductor and Artistic Director designate conducts two great programs in KALKADUNGU DIDJERIDU MEETS ORCHESTRA After sold-out concerts in 2008, William Barton returns with his didjeridu to play Kalkadungu. MOZART Symphony No.31 (Paris) MACKEY Stumble to Grace Piano Concerto AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE BARTON & HINDSON Kalkadungu PROKOFIEV Classical Symphony David Robertson conductor William Barton didjeridu (pictured right) Orli Shaham piano MEET THE MUSIC PRESENTED BY AUSGRID 27 & 28 Jun 6.30pm Pre-concert talk at 5.45pm Orli Shaham in conversation TCHAIKOVSKY S PATHÉTIQUE IMPASSIONED MASTERPIECE VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis ADÈS Violin Concerto Concentric Paths TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No.6, Pathétique David Robertson conductor Anthony Marwood violin (right) AUSGRID MASTER SERIES 4, 6 & 7 Jul 8pm Pre-concert talk by David Robertson at 7.15pm BOOK NOW! Tickets available from $35* SYDNEYSYMPHONY.COM or call Mon-Fri 9am-5pm Tickets also available at sydneyoperahouse.com Mon-Sat 9am-8.30pm Sun 10am-6pm *Booking fees of $7.50 $8.95 may apply

7 ABOUT THE MUSIC Johannes Brahms Piano Concerto No.2 in B flat, Op.83 Allegro non troppo Allegro appassionato Andante Allegretto grazioso Un poco più presto Philippe Bianconi piano Brahms wrote the bulk of his Second Piano Concerto while on holiday in Italy in 1878 and then completed it during and shortly after another such visit to Italy in While there is nothing essentially Italian or even festive about this most monumental and generously-dimensioned of piano concertos, there is no doubt that when Brahms returned to Vienna with the completed score, he was still very much in his holiday humour. To Elisabet von Herzogenberg he described it with deliberately wild inaccuracy as a little piano concerto with a teeny-weeny wisp of a scherzo. To his long-time supporter Theodor Billroth he announced the completion of a few small piano pieces. But to the public at large he presented the work as it truly was: an immense, quasi-symphonic, four-movement concerto filled with massive chords and wide stretches in the piano part (Brahms was famous for the size of his own hands) and an orchestration filled with richness and variety. The contrasts between this Second Concerto and the First Piano Concerto written 20 years earlier could not be stronger. The earlier work was in a minor key while this one is major. The first began with a lengthy orchestral ritornello before the soloist entered, whereas here the soloist begins in the second bar. The first was impassioned and youthful, while this one tends more toward reflection, nostalgia and lyricism. Additionally, the First Concerto had been a resounding failure at its premiere in Leipzig, prompting Brahms to note that a second will sound quite different. Twenty years later, and at the height of his creative powers, he proved the point. But the two very different Brahms piano concertos are nevertheless united by their symphonic conception and the undeniable mastery of their piano writing and orchestration, not to mention the sheer force of their musical impact. Given the comparative lack of success of the First Concerto, Brahms might have felt some trepidation in writing a second. But by the time he turned his attention to the second he had finally conquered the two major instrumental forms which had always given him the most trouble: the string quartet and the symphony. Now, with the magnificent Violin Concerto and the German Requiem also Keynotes BRAHMS Born Hamburg, 1833 Died Vienna, 1897 In 1858, aged 25, Brahms admitted that his first full-scale orchestral work, the First Piano Concerto, was a brilliant and decisive failure! The audience hissed him, and reviewers panned it as a monstrosity, grotesque. Wisely keeping his head down, and immersing himself mostly in piano and chamber music and songs, Brahms effectively avoided symphony orchestras for two decades. Then, in his mid forties, he staged a spectacular second bid for orchestral acclaim, introducing his first two symphonies (1876 and 77), his Violin Concerto (1879), and his Academic Festival Overture (1881). PIANO CONCERTO NO.2 When the Second Piano Concerto appeared in 1881, it was instantly recognised as the most substantial and adventurous work of its kind since Beethoven. Moreover, Brahms though considered by many to be a traditionalist conservative decisively broke with convention. Had he wanted merely to emulate Beethoven, his new concerto would have consisted of just the first, third and final movements. But, thinking out of the box, Brahms went on to insert a symphonylike scherzo in second position. Hey presto, as one of his smart-aleck friends put it, a symphony, with piano accompaniment! sydney symphony 9

8 Brahms a pianist with symphonic instincts. The composer and critic Robert Schumann once described his piano sonatas as veiled symphonies. behind him, it was time to revisit the piano concerto form with newfound confidence and a proven virtuoso compositional technique. Indeed the Second Concerto seems to employ the style of these other forms from time to time. The four-movement form, without a concerto s usual cadenzas, is clearly symphonic, as is much of the blending of the soloist with the orchestra, Meanwhile the scherzo second movement is actually based on a movement intended originally for the Violin Concerto. Other instrumental textures sometimes have a chamber music feel to them, with ideas tossed back and forth in an intimate manner between soloist and orchestra. The Second Concerto was written at the time when Brahms was forming an association with Hans von Bülow, who conducted the Meiningen Court Orchestra. Brahms had a standing invitation to rehearse his music and perform as soloist with the orchestra. But before approaching Bülow with the new score, Brahms put it 10 sydney symphony

9 through its paces in the usual way. First he played it for Clara Schumann in Frankfurt. Then he and Ignaz Brüll performed the long terror (his nickname for the concerto) for the victims (Brahms-speak for private audience, Billroth and critic Eduard Hanslick). When it passed muster (Hanslick called it a symphony with piano obbligato ), it was let loose on Bülow who, doubting his orchestra s ability to do it justice, warned Brahms to pack all his goodwill and patience in his trunk and come to Meiningen to rehearse it. The expansive and stirring first movement begins romantically with a horn call reminiscent of that in Weber s Oberon Overture. The piano enters immediately, embroidering the melody almost before it has begun and soon indulging in the closest thing to a cadenza to be found in the concerto. From here an orchestral tutti introduces the main thematic material. Rather than restating these main themes (as so often in Brahms, there is a multitude of main ideas), the piano enters into a free, organically developing dialogue with the orchestra, often becoming impassioned and occasionally visiting distant keys like B minor. There is a particularly elaborate preparation for the recapitulation with one of the main themes being played by the orchestra while the piano weaves a series of arpeggio figures around it: one of the more majestic moments in a memorable opening movement. As self-deprecating as ever, Brahms described the dramatic first movement as innocuous, which is why, he said, he took the bold step of inserting the fiery, scherzolike Allegro appassionato as second of four movements. Here the drama is increased still further in D minor (in fact, the only movement of the four not in the home key of B flat, a key Brahms called an udder which has always given good milk before ). The central section is in D major, featuring sotto voce octaves in the piano, and in typical Brahmsian fashion it serves more as a development section than a simple contrasting episode. The return of the main theme again varies rather than repeats all that has gone before. The tonic B flat is re-established at the beginning of the slow movement, when a solo cello introduces one of Brahms most sublime melodies. The soloist enters in an improvisatory style, leading into a passionate middle section where tremolo figures on the strings accompany virtuoso trills and fanfares on the piano. Towards the recapitulation, the key of F sharp is established as the melody takes wide leaps, before the original key returns and the cello and piano lead the movement into a final duet. Throughout this Andante, the textures are intimate, almost like chamber music, and the soloist and orchestra a little piano concerto with a teeny-weeny wisp of a scherzo BRAHMS sydney symphony 11

10 participate as equal partners in one of Brahms most glorious slow movements. The mood lightens in the final movement, where the spirit of Mozart is invoked. As usual, there is more thematic material in this single movement than is contained in most complete symphonies. At the opening, the tripping Hungarian-style tune sets the prevailing mood, then in quick succession new ideas emerge: a more restrained melody on woodwinds and then strings, a stately theme for piano followed by clarinets, and a cheeky one for piano with plucked strings. There are no trumpets and drums in this movement, and the soloist is left to shine through some extraordinarily difficult and surprisingly elaborate passages, even, at the transition to the coda in a section marked Un poco più presto, pre-empting the kind of metrical modulation which was to become synonymous with much avant-garde 20th-century music. But nothing can hold back the sway of the gypsy dance rhythms and the music drives on to its emphatic conclusion. MARTIN BUZACOTT SYMPHONY AUSTRALIA 2001 The concerto calls for an orchestra of two flutes (one doubling piccolo), pairs of oboes, clarinets and bassoons; four horns and two trumpets; timpani and strings. The Sydney Symphony first performed this concerto on 26 July 1939 with conductor Georg Szell and pianist Artur Schnabel. The orchestra s most recent performances were in 2006, with pianist Gerhard Oppitz and Gianluigi Gelmetti conducting. Join in the conversation twitter.com/sydsymph facebook.com/sydneysymphony 12 sydney symphony

11 Dmitri Shostakovich Symphony No.6 in B minor, Op.54 Largo Allegro Presto Like Beethoven s Fourth, Shostakovich s Sixth Symphony is flanked by more famous siblings. Consequently, both works are often undervalued. Neither appears, at face value, to carry the same extra-musical freight as those either side no response to just criticism, no funeral march for a hero, no apocalyptic triumph of light over darkness. Having run foul of Stalin over his opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, Shostakovich produced the Fifth Symphony in While he himself may not have tagged it a response to just criticism, it won him his rehabilitation. His return to favour, however, needs to be viewed in a broader context. In 1934 Stalin had unleashed the five-year Great Terror. Like all of the intelligentsia, Shostakovich saw friends and colleagues disappear; and he must have known of the vigil kept outside the Leningrad prison by women such as Anna Akhmatova. There are stories that for a time he, like many, kept a packed suitcase ready in the hall so as not to disturb his family should he be taken away. Rehabilitated was still a most fragile state. The effect of the purges was to rob the USSR of millions of its citizens, especially leading intellects in most fields, so that by the end of the 1930s the country s infrastructure was almost fatally weakened. The non-aggression pact between the USSR and Nazi Germany bought a little time for Stalin, and as Ian McDonald has noted, the public sphere continued to resound with optimistic propaganda a contrast perhaps encoded in Shostakovich s Sixth Symphony. Begun in April 1938, the symphony certainly pays lip service to some of the central tenets of Socialist Realism eventually. It ends, for instance, in a riot of high-spirited major tonality that is both absurd and genuinely thrilling. The movement which precedes it is likewise full of a wild energy which never flags and which moves with effortless liquidity through the whole orchestral palette. But each of these two movements lasts around six minutes; the slow movement with which the piece begins lasts for eighteen. Structurally, the opening movement does the work of two movements in a Classical (or neo-classical) design: it develops a musical argument on a large scale, but also explores the tragic regions frequently visited by the standard internal slow movement. The drama of the movement overall might be described as one of disappearance. It begins with a long Keynotes SHOSTAKOVICH Born St Petersburg, 1906 Died Moscow, 1975 By the time he completed studies at Leningrad Conservatory in the mid- 1920s, Mitya Shostakovich s colleagues were already characterising him as determined and difficult. While he composed his graduation test piece, he supported himself by playing piano for silent films at the Piccadilly Cinema. Tubercular and nervy, like other Russians often not eating properly, belligerent toward his unsympathetic college authorities, and subjected to the jealousy of fellow students, he developed a touchy and demanding musical persona, increasingly reflected in sardonic and provocative scores that both he and his critics dubbed grotesque. SIXTH SYMPHONY Coming two years after his great patriotic and muchlauded Fifth Symphony, this curious successor was premiered by the Leningrad Philharmonic in Having secured a non-aggression pact with Hitler, Stalin had begun the month by invading eastern Poland, and would end it by launching the so-called Winter War in Finland. In his first patriotic wartime symphony, so Shostakovich claimed: music of a contemplative and lyrical order predominates. I wanted to convey in it the moods of spring, joy, youth. But, as the symphony begins, any hope of spring is a very long way off. That slow beginning (Largo) is followed by two increasingly faster movements, ending with a fast-as-possible Presto. sydney symphony 13

12 There are stories that Shostakovich kept a packed suitcase ready in the hall so as not to disturb his family should he be taken away. and beautifully articulated melody given by the same mellow combination of low winds and strings in unison which is such a feature of Wagner s Parsifal. The first chord struck in the piece is a false dawn in C major, but it isn t long before the gears clash and the harmony is wrenched away to form a new theme, characterised by three short notes plunging to a sardonic trill in the woodwind and strings. In an act of purely artistic courage, Shostakovich concentrates his use of the full orchestra in the first part of this first movement. These occasions are usually moments of great passion or anguish, as, for instance, where a brief passage of serenity is swept away by more of those sardonic trills, now distributed throughout the orchestra at full volume. Increasingly, and in a sense more chillingly, the focus of the music moves to smaller ensembles within the band. Shostakovich s career as a composer of chamber music dates from this time with his First String Quartet and the Piano Quintet, but the chamber-like textures in the symphony are often derived from oddly collected groups. Piccolo and harp join one rank of violins. The cor anglais, which turns the first theme into something reminiscent of the shepherd s bleak melody in Wagner s opera Tristan and Isolde, is heard in counterpoint with violas and cellos, while timpani tread softly in the background. Two flutes create something like the bird of death solo from Mahler s Second Symphony over an immobile texture of string trills. And a 14 sydney symphony

13 horn, seemingly unable to play more than one note, is finally frozen in a chain of trills from the celesta before the strings return with a now exhausted version of the opening material. It is almost too easy to see a musical analogue for the contemporary events in this movement, especially in its progressive dismantling of the orchestra into smaller and more fragile alliances, where individual voices are more and more exposed. Discussing the works of this period in an interview, Vladimir Ashkenazy said: I don t find self-pity in Shostakovich. Although it is his torture, it becomes sublimated, totally transcended Along with his grotesque satire and disdain for the trivia around him, this is the strongest point of his greatest output. It is the tragedy and the darkness of the life of an individual within totalitarian oppression. The remaining two movements have their share of grotesque satire, and like the first they dramatically balance episodes of overwhelming orchestral sound against chamber music textures and extended solos for instruments such as the piccolo, the xylophone and the E flat clarinet which begins the second movement. The pace is breathtaking, moving from passages of Mendelssohnian lightness to the brutal grind of the full orchestra in unison; from acrobatic melodies to breathless three-note motifs. Finally, the third movement gallops along with a short Rossini-like melody, constantly changing key and register to avoid capture. The empire strikes back, of course. In an elephantine waltz section the music moves imperceptibly from the satirical to the sinister; in big, brassy marches tinged with a slightly corny dance-band harmony, all hell threatens to break loose. Shostakovich once claimed the work was about spring, joy and life, but in its own way it echoes the words of Anna Akhmatova s Requiem: I stand as witness to the common lot, survivor of that time, that place. I stand as witness to the common lot, survivor of that time, that place. GORDON KERRY 2001 Shostakovich s Sixth Symphony calls for three flutes (one doubling piccolo), three oboes (one doubling cor anglais), four clarinets (one doubling E flat clarinet, another doubling bass clarinet) and three bassoons (one doubling contrabassoon); four horns, three trumpets, three trombones and tuba; timpani and percussion (snare drum, bass drum, cymbals, triangle, tambourine, tam-tam, xylophone); harp, celesta and strings. The symphony was first performed by the Leningrad Philharmonic and Yevgeny Mravinsky on 21 November The Sydney Symphony gave the Australian premiere 27 March 1952 under its then chief conductor Eugene Goossens. The orchestra s most recent performances took place in 2002, Mark Elder conducting. sydney symphony 15

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15 INTERLUDE Shostakovich: Witness to a Century By Gordon Kerry 1905 began in St Petersburg with a massive strike of over 100,000 workers. The government reacted with a number of repressive measures, among them banning the right to organised marches. When the workers in turn responded by organising a march, led by an Orthodox priest, to petition the Tsar directly; many were gunned down in the snow in front of the Winter Palace. The populace was outraged, strikes spread across the country, and finally the Tsar was forced to accept the institution of a constitutional monarchy with elected parliament. The experiment failed but slowly. Economic reforms were not followed through, and with Russia s entry into the First World War the privations of the populace grew ever more extreme. In 1917 the Bolsheviks, led by Lenin, successfully fomented a second revolution. The first Soviet state was founded, the Tsar and his family executed. Born in St Petersburg a year after the events of 1905, Shostakovich was an adolescent at the time of the 1917 revolution. In 1928, the 21-year-old s First Symphony was premiered in his home town, by then renamed Leningrad. Its introduction in the West by conductor Bruno Walter assured Shostakovich of world celebrity, but was also an announcement of the optimistic, outward-looking Russia of the immediate post-revolutionary period. That Shostakovich was broadly in sympathy with the ideals of early revolutionary Russia is suggested by his Second and Third Symphonies, subtitled respectively To October (referring to the 1917 October Revolution) and The First of May (the day Lenin set aside to celebrate workers rights). The political backdrop to Shostakovich s early career was the power struggle between Trotsky and Stalin that began with the death of Lenin in By the early 1930s, Stalin s ascendancy was complete, and in 1934 the purges or Great Terror began. In two particularly bloody years, Yezhov, chief of the NKVD (later the KGB) oversaw the imprisonment and murder of Stalin s principal remaining Party rivals as well as leading scientists, writers and musicians. Despite having enjoyed during these same troubled years a spectacularly successful two-year run, Shostakovich s opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk was attacked in the pages of Pravda in 1936 as chaos instead of music and the composer was warned this could all end very badly. Shostakovich, or the orchestral management in Leningrad, immediately withdrew his demanding Fourth Symphony, a powerfully disturbing behemoth of dissonance and irony. The composer, Shostakovich s opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk was attacked in the pages of Pravda as chaos instead of music sydney symphony 17

16 A sketch by Nikolai Sokolov of Shostakovich playing cards. like many of his generation, slept for a time in the hallway of his apartment so that his seemingly inevitable arrest wouldn t traumatise his young family. Then in his Fifth Symphony Shostakovich produced just what the Party ordered though he claimed it was a journalist who gave it the subtitle an artist s response to just criticism. The work was a huge success: people wept openly in the slow movement and stood cheering before the finale had concluded. But there were further reversals of fortune: in 1948 Shostakovich was denounced a second time, despite having been awarded the Stalin Prize in 1940, and the Order of Lenin in His Ninth Symphony displeased Stalin in its refusal to use Beethoven s Ninth as a model to glorify the Soviet victory over the Nazis. By the late fifties, with Stalin dead, Shostakovich was back in favour, even presiding over the Union of Soviet Composers from He became a member of the Communist Party the same year, ironically, as Richard Taruskin points out, when the dissident movement was finally emerging. His last works routinely explore notions of mortality. The nature of Shostakovich s relations with the Soviet state is a vexed question. In 1979, four years after Shostakovich s death, Testimony: Memoirs of Dmitri Shostakovich as related to and edited by Solomon Volkov, appeared in English, in which 18 sydney symphony

17 the composer is presented as a secret dissident, encoding specific messages of protest against Stalin s regime in his music. Testimony remains, even 30 years later, a nub of fierce controversy at least among English-language writers. Richard Taruskin and Laurel Fay (author of Shostakovich: A Life) regard it as a complete fraud, noting that Volkov has declined to publish the original Russian version. Whereas journalist Norman Lebrecht and the late Ian MacDonald (author of The New Shostakovich) regard Testimony as completely reliable. MacDonald even marshalled a number of people who claim to have seen pages of the Russian original endorsed by Shostakovich s signature. The aging composer may well have tacitly approved a version of his life which was largely massaged but would reflect well on him. But some things just don t add up. Why, if the composer really had been a dissident, did he not show the same courage as, say, Alexander Solzhenitsyn? Why did he finally join the Communist Party at the very time that some measure of liberalism was being introduced? Why (though this is disputed by the pro-testimony lobby) did he sign the denunciation of Andrei Zakharov in 1973? The reality, as Alex Ross has suggested, may be that Shostakovich was a man who strived at all costs to create conditions in which he could work in peace. And work he did, not only for the concert stage, but for film and theatre and, in the aftermath of the success of the Fifth Symphony, on chamber music. Many of his 15 string quartets are obviously personal and disturbing. The intimate medium provided him with a small scale laboratory in which he could experiment, away from public and official scrutiny, on his musical technique and emotional armoury. Whether or not Shostakovich s behaviour in the face of a brutal and irrational regime was less than heroic, his musical output contains some of the greatest works of the 20th century. a man who strived at all costs to create conditions in which he could work in peace. ALEX ROSS GORDON KERRY 2006 sydney symphony 19

18 MORE MUSIC BRAHMS AT THE PIANO Almost unbelievably, there is an 1889 recording made on Edison Wax Cylinder of Brahms himself playing his Hungarian Dance No.1. Despite sounding like a dozen un-tuned transistor radios playing all at once in a hurricane, the master is still just audible enough in a few fleeting snippets to make it well worth experiencing. Try the various enhanced listening options on Stanford University s excellent Brahms Sonic Archeology webpage: bit.ly/stanfordbrahms SHOSTAKOVICH SYMPHONIES Below, of course, we re going to recommend Maestro Caetani s Shostakovich symphony cycle. However, there s something to be said also for going back to the source, and no one was closer to Shostakovich s Fifth and Sixth Symphonies than the conductor of their premieres, Yevgeny Mravinsky. You can watch him conducting some of the Fifth on Youtube, as ever with his Leningrad Philharmonic. Mravinsky did not premiere the Seventh Shostakovich s next wartime symphony but his historic 1953 recording is truly revelatory. NAXOS CLASSICAL ARCHIVES And every Shostakovich fan should know the dedicated website: dschjournal.com Broadcast Diary June Saturday 16 June, 1pm anne sofie von otter & friends (2011) Anne Sofie von Otter mezzo-soprano Nicholas Carter conductor Bengt Forsberg piano Svante Henryson cello Canteloube, Henryson, Abba, Gershwin, Milhaud, Weill Thursday 28 June, 8pm kalkadungu David Robertson conductor William Barton didjeridu Orli Shaham piano Mozart, Barton & Hindson, Mackey, Prokofiev 2MBS-FM sydney symphony 2012 Tuesday 12 June, 6pm Musicians, staff and guest artists discuss what s in store in our forthcoming concerts. OLEG CAETANI Maestro Caetani s own website is a good place to begin exploring his recorded repertoire. On the Multimedia page, he even offers some basic video tips on conducting! His complete set of Shostakovich symphonies, recorded with the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano G. Verdi (and its chorus as required), is on ten discs. If you prefer, the Fifth and Sixth (recorded ) can be had paired on a single disc. ARTS MUSIC SA-CD (COMPLETE) ARTS MUSIC SA-CD (5 AND 6) PHILIPPE BIANCONI You ll find several videos of Philippe Bianconi performing in recital on YouTube, including Debussy s Poissons d or (Goldfish), and the Toccata from Ravel s Tombeau de Couperin. But if you d like a permanent souvenir, look for his Debussy solo recital album, featuring Estampes, Masques, L isle joyeuse and Images. LYRINX CD LYR sydney symphony

19 Webcasts Selected Sydney Symphony concerts are webcast live on BigPond and Telstra T-box and made available for later viewing On Demand. Coming up next: kalkadungu Thursday 28 June at 6.30pm Visit: bigpondmusic.com/sydneysymphony Live webcasts can also be viewed via our mobile app. Sydney Symphony Live The Sydney Symphony Live label was founded in 2006 and we ve since released more than a dozen recordings featuring the orchestra in live concert performances with our titled conductors and leading guest artists, including the Mahler Odyssey cycle, begun in To purchase, visit sydneysymphony.com/shop Glazunov & Shostakovich Alexander Lazarev conducts a thrilling performance of Shostakovich 9 and Glazunov s Seasons. SSO 2 Strauss & Schubert Gianluigi Gelmetti conducts Schubert s Unfi nished and R Strauss s Four Last Songs with Ricarda Merbeth. SSO Sir Charles Mackerras A 2CD set featuring Sir Charles s fi nal performances with the orchestra, in October SSO Brett Dean Brett Dean performs his own viola concerto, conducted by Simone Young, in this all-dean release. SSO Ravel Gelmetti conducts music by one of his favourite composers: Maurice Ravel. Includes Bolero. SSO Rare Rachmaninoff Rachmaninoff chamber music with Dene Olding, the Goldner Quartet, soprano Joan Rodgers and Vladimir Ashkenazy at the piano. SSO MAHLER ODYSSEY ON CD During the 2010 and 2011 concert seasons, the Sydney Symphony and Vladimir Ashkenazy set out to perform all the Mahler symphonies, together with some of the song cycles. These concerts were recorded for CD, with nine releases so far and more to come. Mahler 9 OUT NOW In March, Mahler s Ninth, his last completed symphony, was released. SSO ALSO CURRENTLY AVAILABLE Mahler 1 & Songs of a Wayfarer SSO Mahler 8 (Symphony of a Thousand) SSO Mahler 5 SSO Song of the Earth SSO Mahler 3 SSO Mahler 4 SSO Mahler 6 SSO Mahler 7 SSO Sydney Symphony Online Join us on Facebook facebook.com/sydneysymphony Follow us on Twitter twitter.com/sydsymph Watch us on YouTube Visit sydneysymphony.com for concert information, podcasts, and to read the program book in the week of the concert. Stay tuned. Sign up to receive our fortnightly e-newsletter sydneysymphony.com/staytuned Download our free mobile app for iphone or Android sydneysymphony.com/mobile_app sydney symphony 21

20 ABOUT THE ARTISTS Oleg Caetani CONDUCTOR The great teacher Nadia Boulanger discovered Oleg Caetani s talent and initiated him into music. At Rome s Conservatory of Santa Cecilia he attended Franco Ferrara s conducting class, and at 17 made his theatre debut with Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda by Monteverdi. Later, he studied conducting at the Moscow Conservatory with Kirill Kondrashin, and at the St Petersburg Conservatory with Ilya Musin. He first conducted the acclaimed Staatskapelle Dresden at age 20, and his close relationship with that orchestra now spans three decades. He made his Australian debut in 2001, and his most recent appearance with the Sydney Symphony was in 2010 conducting Bruch, Beethoven and Schoenberg. Oleg Caetani made his debut at La Scala, Milan in 2001 with Puccini s Turandot, returning in 2005 for Verdi s Otello. Recent engagements have included Vaughan Williams Sir John In Love (English National Opera), Verdi s Requiem (Accademia di Santa Cecilia) and Ravel s L enfant et les sortilèges (Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Paris), as well as Puccini s Girl of the Golden West in Seattle and Melbourne, Wagner s Flying Dutchman in Rome, Poulenc s La voix humaine coupled with Bluebeard s Castle (Bartók), and Verdi s Don Carlos in Cologne. Shostakovich s music has a central place in his repertoire. He has conducted Shostakovich all over the world as well as recording a complete cycle of the 15 symphonies with the Verdi Orchestra in Milan. He has also recorded an acclaimed cycle of Tchaikovsky s six symphonies. His pioneering series of recordings of the symphonies of Alexandre Tansman ( ) has won three Diapasons d Or. The music of Romanian composer George Enescu has been another of Caetani s specialities. Following his performances of the opera Oedipe to open the 2009 Enescu Festival, he was awarded the legion of honour of the Romanian Republic in recognition for his performances of Enescu s music around the world. He conducted Oedipe again in 2011 in Bucharest. Forthcoming engagements include Puccini s Madama Butterfly in London and concerts with the Verdi Orchestra, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Metropolitan Orchestra Tokyo, and the National Orchestra of Spain. 22 sydney symphony

21 Philippe Bianconi PIANO Philippe Bianconi commenced his studies at the Conservatory in Nice where he was a pupil of Simone Delbert-Février. Later in Paris he studied with Gaby Casadesus and in Freiburg-in-Breisgau with Vitalij Margulis. He won the Casadesus International Competition in Cleveland and the Jeunesse Musicales International Competition in Belgrade, as well as the Silver Medal of the Seventh Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth. He made an acclaimed recital debut at New York s Carnegie Hall in 1987, and since then has enthralled audiences and reviewers throughout the world. In North America he has appeared regularly with the orchestras in Cleveland, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, Saint Louis, Dallas, Buffalo, Montreal and Vancouver, and at the Ravinia Festival with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under James Conlon. He has also collaborated with such distinguished conductors as Lorin Maazel, Christoph von Dohnányi, Kurt Masur, David Zinman, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Edo de Waart and Yoav Talmi. In Europe, his performance of Rachmaninoff s Second Piano Concerto with James Conlon and the Orchestre de l Opéra de Paris sold out the Paris Garnier Opera House. He has also been soloist with the Orchestre National de France, Orchestre de Paris, Berlin Radio Symphony, Netherlands Philharmonic, Warsaw Philharmonic, Prague Symphony, Orchester der Beethovenhalle in Bonn, and the Strasbourg Philharmonic. Also an active and acclaimed recital artist, he has appeared in Sydney, San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, Washington DC, Wigmore Hall in London, at the Berlin Philharmonie, as well as in Hamburg, Milan, Madrid, Tokyo, Beijing, and Shanghai. After his recent recital in the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées a reviewer acclaimed him premier pianist of France. He has recorded the complete solo piano music of Ravel, and solo albums of Schumann, Schubert, and Debussy for Lyrinx. He has also recorded Shostakovitch and Prokofiev with cellist Gary Hoffman, and three Schubert lieder cycles with Hermann Prey. Philippe Bianconi has performed with the Melbourne, West Australian, and Sydney symphony orchestras, and his most recent appearance in Sydney was in 1998, when he played Mozart s Piano Concerto K467 and an all-chopin recital. sydney symphony 23

22 MUSICIANS Vladimir Ashkenazy Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor supported by Emirates Dene Olding Concertmaster Nicholas Carter Associate Conductor supported by Premier Partner Credit Suisse FIRST VIOLINS Dene Olding Concertmaster Kirsten Williams Associate Concertmaster Katherine Lukey Assistant Concertmaster Fiona Ziegler Assistant Concertmaster Julie Batty Jennifer Booth Marianne Broadfoot Brielle Clapson Sophie Cole Amber Davis Jennifer Hoy Nicola Lewis Léone Ziegler Elizabeth Jones Martin Silverton* Tereza Singer* Sun Yi Associate Concertmaster Alexander Norton SECOND VIOLINS Kirsty Hilton Marina Marsden Emily Long A/Assistant Principal Susan Dobbie Principal Emeritus Maria Durek Shuti Huang Stan W Kornel Benjamin Li Nicole Masters Biyana Rozenblit Alexandra D Elia Monique Irik* Emily Qin Lucy Warren Emma West Assistant Principal Emma Hayes Philippa Paige Maja Verunica VIOLAS Tobias Breider Roger Benedict Robyn Brookfield Sandro Costantino Jane Hazelwood Graham Hennings Stuart Johnson Justine Marsden Leonid Volovelsky Rosemary Curtin* Tara Houghton David Wicks* Anne-Louise Comerford Felicity Tsai CELLOS Catherine Hewgill Julian Smiles* Timothy Nankervis Elizabeth Neville Christopher Pidcock Adrian Wallis David Wickham Rowena Macneish Adam Szabo Rachael Tobin Leah Lynn Assistant Principal Fenella Gill DOUBLE BASSES Kees Boersma Alex Henery Neil Brawley Principal Emeritus David Campbell Steven Larson Richard Lynn David Murray Benjamin Ward FLUTES Janet Webb Carolyn Harris Rosamund Plummer Principal Piccolo Emma Sholl OBOES Diana Doherty David Papp Alexandre Oguey Principal Cor Anglais Shefali Pryor CLARINETS Francesco Celata Christopher Tingay Craig Wernicke Principal Bass Clarinet Peter Jenkin* Lawrence Dobell BASSOONS Matthew Wilkie Fiona McNamara Noriko Shimada Principal Contrabassoon HORNS Robert Johnson Geoffrey O Reilly Principal 3rd Marnie Sebire Euan Harvey Ben Jacks TRUMPETS David Elton Anthony Heinrichs Peter Miller* Paul Goodchild John Foster TROMBONES Ronald Prussing Scott Kinmont Christopher Harris Principal Bass Trombone Nick Byrne TUBA Steve Rossé TIMPANI Richard Miller PERCUSSION Rebecca Lagos Colin Piper Mark Robinson Brian Nixon* Philip South* HARP Louise Johnson PIANO Josephine Allan* Bold = Principal Italics = Associate Principal * = Guest Musician = Contract Musician = Sydney Symphony Fellow Grey = Permanent member of the Sydney Symphony not appearing in this concert To see photographs of the full roster of permanent musicians and find out more about the orchestra, visit our website: If you don t have access to the internet, ask one of our customer service representatives for a copy of our Musicians flyer. The men of the Sydney Symphony are proudly outfitted by Van Heusen. 24 sydney symphony

23 SYDNEY SYMPHONY Vladimir Ashkenazy, Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor PATRON Her Excellency Professor Marie Bashir AC CVO JOHN MARMARAS Founded in 1932 by the Australian Broadcasting Commission, 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 it gives more than 100 performances each year, the Sydney Symphony also performs in venues throughout Sydney and regional New South Wales. International tours to Europe, Asia and the USA have earned the orchestra worldwide recognition for artistic excellence, most recently in the 2011 tour of Japan and Korea. The Sydney Symphony s first Chief Conductor was Sir Eugene Goossens, appointed in 1947; he was followed by Nicolai Malko, Dean Dixon, Moshe Atzmon, Willem van Otterloo, Louis Frémaux, Sir Charles Mackerras, Zdeněk Mácal, Stuart Challender, Edo de Waart and Gianluigi Gelmetti. David Robertson will take up the post of Chief Conductor in The orchestra s history also boasts collaborations with legendary figures such as George Szell, Sir Thomas Beecham, Otto Klemperer and Igor Stravinsky. The Sydney Symphony s award-winning education program is central to its commitment to the future of live symphonic music, developing audiences and engaging the participation of young people. The orchestra promotes the work of Australian composers through performances, recordings and its commissioning program. Recent premieres have included major works by Ross Edwards, Liza Lim, Lee Bracegirdle, Gordon Kerry and Georges Lentz, and the orchestra s recording of works by Brett Dean was released on both the BIS and Sydney Symphony Live labels. Other releases on the Sydney Symphony Live label, established in 2006, include performances with Alexander Lazarev, Gianluigi Gelmetti, Sir Charles Mackerras and Vladimir Ashkenazy. The orchestra has recently completed recording the Mahler symphonies, and has also released recordings with Ashkenazy of Rachmaninoff and Elgar orchestral works on the Exton/Triton labels, as well as numerous recordings on the ABC Classics label. This is the fourth year of Ashkenazy s tenure as Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor. sydney symphony 25

24 BEHIND THE SCENES Sydney Symphony Board John C Conde ao Chairman Terrey Arcus am Ewen Crouch Ross Grant Jennifer Hoy Rory Jeffes Andrew Kaldor Irene Lee David Livingstone Goetz Richter David Smithers am Sydney Symphony Council Geoff Ainsworth am Andrew Andersons ao Michael Baume ao Christine Bishop Ita Buttrose ao obe Peter Cudlipp John Curtis am Greg Daniel am John Della Bosca Alan Fang Erin Flaherty Dr Stephen Freiberg Donald Hazelwood ao obe Dr Michael Joel am Simon Johnson Yvonne Kenny am Gary Linnane Amanda Love Helen Lynch am Joan MacKenzie David Maloney David Malouf ao Julie Manfredi-Hughes Deborah Marr The Hon. Justice Jane Mathews ao Danny May Wendy McCarthy ao Jane Morschel Greg Paramor Dr Timothy Pascoe am Prof. Ron Penny ao Jerome Rowley Paul Salteri Sandra Salteri Juliana Schaeffer Leo Schofield am Fred Stein oam Gabrielle Trainor Ivan Ungar John van Ogtrop Peter Weiss am Mary Whelan Rosemary White Sydney Symphony Staff MANAGING DIRECTOR Rory Jeffes EXECUTIVE TEAM ASSISTANT Lisa Davies-Galli ARTISTIC OPERATIONS DIRECTOR OF ARTISTIC PLANNING Peter Czornyj Artistic Administration ARTISTIC ADMINISTRATION MANAGER Elaine Armstrong ARTIST LIAISON MANAGER Ilmar Leetberg RECORDING ENTERPRISE MANAGER Philip Powers Education Programs HEAD OF EDUCATION Kim Waldock EMERGING ARTISTS PROGRAM MANAGER Mark Lawrenson EDUCATION COORDINATOR Rachel McLarin Library LIBRARIAN Anna Cernik LIBRARY ASSISTANT Victoria Grant LIBRARY ASSISTANT Mary-Ann Mead ORCHESTRA MANAGEMENT DIRECTOR OF ORCHESTRA MANAGEMENT Aernout Kerbert ORCHESTRA MANAGER Chris Lewis ORCHESTRA COORDINATOR Georgia Stamatopoulos OPERATIONS MANAGER Kerry-Anne Cook TECHNICAL MANAGER Derek Coutts PRODUCTION COORDINATOR Tim Dayman PRODUCTION COORDINATOR Ian Spence STAGE MANAGER Peter Gahan SALES AND MARKETING DIRECTOR OF SALES & MARKETING Mark J Elliott MARKETING MANAGER, SUBSCRIPTION SALES Simon Crossley-Meates A/SENIOR MARKETING MANAGER, SALES Matthew Rive MARKETING MANAGER, BUSINESS RESOURCES Katrina Riddle ONLINE MARKETING MANAGER Eve Le Gall MARKETING & ONLINE COORDINATOR Kaisa Heino GRAPHIC DESIGNER Lucy McCullough DATA ANALYST Varsha Karnik MARKETING ASSISTANT Jonathon Symonds Box Office MANAGER OF BOX OFFICE SALES & OPERATIONS Lynn McLaughlin MANAGER OF BOX OFFICE OPERATIONS Tom Downey CUSTOMER SERVICE REPRESENTATIVES Steve Clarke Senior CSR Michael Dowling Derek Reed John Robertson Bec Sheedy COMMUNICATIONS HEAD OF COMMUNICATIONS Yvonne Zammit PUBLICIST Katherine Stevenson DIGITAL CONTENT PRODUCER Ben Draisma Publications PUBLICATIONS EDITOR & MUSIC PRESENTATION MANAGER Yvonne Frindle DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT Caroline Sharpen CORPORATE RELATIONS Julia Owens CORPORATE RELATIONS Stephen Attfield PHILANTHROPY, PATRONS PROGRAM Ivana Jirasek PHILANTHROPY, EVENTS & ENGAGEMENT Amelia Morgan-Hunn BUSINESS SERVICES DIRECTOR OF FINANCE John Horn FINANCE MANAGER Ruth Tolentino ACCOUNTANT Minerva Prescott ACCOUNTS ASSISTANT Emma Ferrer PAYROLL OFFICER Geoff Ravenhill HUMAN RESOURCES HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGER Anna Kearsley 26 sydney symphony

25 SYDNEY SYMPHONY PATRONS Maestro s Circle Peter Weiss am Founding President & Doris Weiss John C Conde ao Chairman Geoff Ainsworth am & Vicki Ainsworth Tom Breen & Rachael Kohn In memory of Hetty & Egon Gordon Andrew Kaldor & Renata Kaldor ao Roslyn Packer ao Penelope Seidler am Mr Fred Street am & Mrs Dorothy Street Westfield Group Brian & Rosemary White Ray Wilson oam in memory of the late James Agapitos oam Sydney Symphony Leadership Ensemble David Livingstone, CEO, Credit Suisse, Australia Alan Fang, Chairman, Tianda Group Macquarie Group Foundation John Morschel, Chairman, ANZ Andrew Kaldor, Chairman, Pelikan Artline Lynn Kraus, Sydney Office Managing Partner, Ernst & Young Shell Australia Pty Ltd James Stevens, CEO, Roses Only Stephen Johns, Chairman, Leighton Holdings, and Michele Johns Directors Chairs Roger Benedict Principal Viola Kim Williams am & Catherine Dovey Chair 02 Lawrence Dobell Principal Clarinet Anne Arcus & Terrey Arcus am Chair 03 Diana Doherty Principal Oboe Andrew Kaldor & Renata Kaldor ao Chair 04 Richard Gill oam Artistic Director Education Sandra & Paul Salteri Chair 05 Jane Hazelwood Viola Veolia Environmental Services Chair 06 Catherine Hewgill Principal Cello Tony & Fran Meagher Chair 07 Elizabeth Neville Cello Ruth & Bob Magid Chair 08 Colin Piper Percussion Justice Jane Mathews ao Chair 09 Shefali Pryor Associate Principal Oboe Rose Herceg Chair 10 Emma Sholl Associate Principal Flute Robert & Janet Constable Chair For information about the Directors Chairs program, please call (02) sydney symphony 27

26 PLAYING YOUR PART The Sydney Symphony gratefully acknowledges the music lovers who donate to the orchestra each year. Each gift plays an important part in ensuring our continued artistic excellence and helping to sustain important education and regional touring programs. Donations of $50 and above are acknowledged on our website at sydneysymphony.com/patrons Platinum Patrons $20,000+ Brian Abel Geoff Ainsworth am & Vicki Ainsworth Robert Albert ao & Elizabeth Albert Terrey Arcus am & Anne Arcus Tom Breen & Rachael Kohn Sandra & Neil Burns Mr John C Conde ao Robert & Janet Constable Dr Bruno & Mrs Rhonda Giuffre In memory of Hetty & Egon Gordon Ms Rose Herceg Mrs E Herrman Mr Andrew Kaldor & Mrs Renata Kaldor ao D & I Kallinikos James N Kirby Foundation Justice Jane Mathews ao Mrs Roslyn Packer ao Dr John Roarty oam in memory of Mrs June Roarty Paul & Sandra Salteri Mrs Penelope Seidler am Mrs W Stening Mr Fred Street am & Mrs Dorothy Street Mr Peter Weiss am & Mrs Doris Weiss Westfield Group Mr Brian & Mrs Rosemary White Ray Wilson oam in memory of James Agapitos oam Kim Williams am & Catherine Dovey June & Alan Woods Family Bequest Anonymous (1) Gold Patrons $10,000 $19,999 Mr C R Adamson Alan & Christine Bishop Ian & Jennifer Burton Copyright Agency Limited The Estate of Ruth M Davidson The Hon. Ashley Dawson-Damer Paul R Espie Ferris Family Foundation James & Leonie Furber Mr Ross Grant The Estate of the l ate Ida Gugger Helen Lynch am & Helen Bauer Mrs Joan MacKenzie Ruth & Bob Magid Mrs T Merewether oam Tony & Fran Meagher Mr B G O Conor Mrs Joyce Sproat & Mrs Janet Cooke Ms Caroline Wilkinson Anonymous (2) Silver Patrons $5,000 $9,999 Mark Bethwaite am & Carolyn Bethwaite Jan Bowen Mr Alexander & Mrs Vera Boyarsky Mr Robert Brakspear Mr Robert & Mrs L Alison Carr Bob & Julie Clampett Ian Dickson & Reg Holloway Mr Colin Draper & Mary Jane Brodribb Penny Edwards Michael & Gabrielle Field Mr James Graham am & Mrs Helen Graham Mrs Jennifer Hershon Michelle Hilton Stephen Johns & Michele Bender Judges of the Supreme Court of NSW Mr Ervin Katz The Estate of the late Patricia Lance Gary Linnane Mr David Livingstone William McIlrath Charitable Foundation David Maloney & Erin Flaherty Eva & Timothy Pascoe Rodney Rosenblum am & Sylvia Rosenblum Manfred & Linda Salamon The Sherry Hogan Foundation David & Isabel Smithers Ian & Wendy Thompson Michael & Mary Whelan Trust Dr Richard Wingate Jill Wran Anonymous (1) Bronze Patrons $2,500 $4,999 Dr Lilon Bandler Stephen J Bell Marc Besen ao & Eva Besen ao Mr David & Mrs Halina Brett Lenore P Buckle Howard Connors Ewen & Catherine Crouch Firehold Pty Ltd Vic & Katie French Mr Erich Gockel Ms Kylie Green Anthony Gregg & Deanne Whittleston Ann Hoban Irwin Imhof in memory of Herta Imhof J A McKernan R & S Maple-Brown Greg & Susan Marie Mora Maxwell James & Elsie Moore Justice George Palmer am Bruce & Joy Reid Foundation Mary Rossi Travel Mrs Hedy Switzer Marliese & Georges Teitler Ms Gabrielle Trainor J F & A van Ogtrop Anonymous (3) Bronze Patrons $1,000-$2,499 Charles & Renee Abrams Andrew Andersons ao Mr Henri W Aram oam Dr Francis J Augustus Richard Banks David Barnes Doug & Alison Battersby Michael Baume ao & Toni Baume Phil & Elese Bennett Nicole Berger Mrs Jan Biber Julie Bligh M Bulmer In memory of R W Burley Eric & Rosemary Campbell Dr John H Casey Debby Cramer & Bill Caukill Dr Diana Choquette & Mr Robert Milliner Joan Connery oam & Maxwell Connery oam Mr John Cunningham scm & Mrs Margaret Cunningham Lisa & Miro Davis Matthew Delasey John Favaloro Mr Edward Federman Mr Ian Fenwicke & Prof. N R Wills Dr & Mrs C Goldschmidt Warren Green Akiko Gregory In memory of the late Dora & Oscar Grynberg Janette Hamilton Dorothy Hoddinott ao Paul & Susan Hotz The Hon. David Hunt ao qc & Mrs Margaret Hunt Dr & Mrs Michael Hunter Mr Peter Hutchison Michael & Anna Joel The Hon. Paul Keating In Memory of Bernard MH Khaw Anna-Lisa Klettenberg Mr Justin Lam Wendy Lapointe Ms Jan Lee Martin & Mr Peter Lazar Kevin & Deidre McCann Robert McDougall Ian & Pam McGaw 28 sydney symphony

27 Matthew McInnes Macquarie Group Foundation Mr Robert & Mrs Renee Markovic Alan & Joy Martin Harry M Miller, Lauren Miller Cilento & Josh Cilento Miss An Nhan Mrs Rachel O Conor Drs Keith & Eileen Ong Mr R A Oppen Mr Robert Orrell Mr & Mrs Ortis Maria Page Piatti Holdings Pty Ltd Adrian & Dairneen Pilton Robin Potter Dr Raffi Qasabian Ernest & Judith Rapee Kenneth R Reed Patricia H Reid Endowment Pty Ltd Robin Rodgers John Saunders In memory of H St P Scarlett Juliana Schaeffer Mr & Mrs Jean-Marie Simart Catherine Stephen John & Alix Sullivan The Hon Brian Sully qc Mildred Teitler Andrew & Isolde Tornya Gerry & Carolyn Travers John E Tuckey Mrs M Turkington In memory of Joan & Rupert Vallentine In memory of Dr Reg Walker Henry & Ruth Weinberg The Hon. Justice A G Whealy Geoff Wood & Melissa Waites Mr R R Woodward Dr John Yu & Dr George Soutter Anonymous (12) Bronze Patrons $500 $999 Mr Peter J Armstrong Mr & Mrs Garry S Ash Mrs Baiba B Berzins & Dr Peter Loveday Dr & Mrs Hannes Boshoff Minnie Briggs Dr Miles Burgess Pat & Jenny Burnett Ita Buttrose ao obe Stephen Bryne & Susie Gleeson The Hon. Justice J C & Mrs Campbell Mr Percy Chissick Mrs Catherine J Clark Jen Cornish Greta Davis Elizabeth Donati Dr Nita & Dr James Durham Greg Earl & Debbie Cameron Mr & Mrs Farrell Robert Gelling Vivienne Goldschmidt Mr Robert Green Mr Richard Griffin am Jules & Tanya Hall Mr Hugh Hallard Mr Ken Hawkings Mrs A Hayward Dr Heng & Mrs Cilla Tey Mr Roger Henning Rev Harry & Mrs Meg Herbert Sue Hewitt Mr Joerg Hofmann Ms Dominique Hogan-Doran Mr Brian Horsfield Alex Houghton Bill & Pam Hughes Susie & Geoff Israel Mrs W G Keighley Mr & Mrs Gilles T Kryger Mrs M J Lawrence Dr & Mrs Leo Leader Margaret Lederman Mrs Yolanda Lee Martine Letts Anita & Chris Levy Erna & Gerry Levy am Dr Winston Liauw Mrs Helen Little Sydney & Airdrie Lloyd Mrs A Lohan Mrs Panee Low Carolyn & Peter Lowry oam Dr David Luis Melvyn Madigan Dr Jean Malcolm Mrs Silvana Mantellato Mr K J Martin Geoff & Jane McClellan Mrs Flora MacDonald Mrs Helen Meddings David & Andree Milman Kenneth N Mitchell Chris Morgan-Hunn Nola Nettheim Mrs Margaret Newton Mr Graham North Dr M C O Connor am A Willmers & R Pal Dr A J Palmer Mr Andrew C Patterson Dr Kevin Pedemont Dr Natalie E Pelham Mr Allan Pidgeon Robin Potter Lois & Ken Rae Mr Donald Richardson Pamela Rogers Agnes Ross Dr Mark & Mrs Gillian Selikowitz Caroline Sharpen Mrs Diane Shteinman am Dr Agnes E Sinclair Doug & Judy Sotheren Mrs Elsie Stafford Mr Lindsay & Mrs Suzanne Stone Margaret Suthers Mr D M Swan Mr Norman Taylor Ms Wendy Thompson Kevin Troy Judge Robyn Tupman Gillian Turner & Rob Bishop Prof. Gordon E Wall Ronald Walledge Mr Robert & Mrs Rosemary Walsh Mr Palmer Wang David & Katrina Williams Audrey & Michael Wilson Dr Richard Wing Mr Robert Woods Mr & Mrs Glenn Wyss Mrs Robin Yabsley Anonymous (18) To find out more about becoming a Sydney Symphony Patron, please contact the Philanthropy Office on (02) or philanthropy@sydneysymphony.com sydney symphony 29

28 SALUTE PRINCIPAL PARTNER GOVERNMENT PARTNERS The Sydney Symphony is assisted by the Commonwealth Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body PREMIER PARTNER The Sydney Symphony is assisted by the NSW Government through Arts NSW COMMUNITY PARTNER PLATINUM PARTNER MAJOR PARTNERS GOLD PARTNERS SILVER PARTNERS REGIONAL TOUR PARTNERS MARKETING PARTNER 2MBS Sydney s Fine Music Station 30 sydney symphony

29 ORCHESTRA NEWS JUNE JULY 2012 Nick Mayo I ll be able to do normal things like a normal person! LUCKY BREAK In 2001 Principal Cello Catherine Hewgill suffered a potentially career-ending injury. She talks about what it s like to come through a period of such turmoil. Catherine Hewgill is an elegantly poised presence on stage. Whether it s the tranquil cello solo from the slow movement of Brahms s Second Piano Concerto, or fearlessly leading her troops into the fray of a mighty Bruckner symphony, she takes it all in her stride. Principal Cello with the Sydney Symphony for 22 years, Catherine even managed to overcome a potentially career-ending injury when she slipped over after a concert and crushed all the bones in her wrist. The surgeon thought I would never play again. Lying in her hospital bed, Catherine initially welcomed the thought of being able to take time off. Wow! For the next couple of months, I ll be able to do normal things like a normal person! Those feelings quickly wore off. I didn t feel at all fulfilled. I felt really strongly that I d lost my raison d être. It was a difficult, frustrating time. My husband said I was horrible to live with, that I wasn t the same. He used to say that I needed to be clapped at about four times a week! I really lost all my selfconfidence. I ll never forget, after 14 months, when I came back to work, it was like the first day back at school. I was petrified! But after about 30 minutes of rehearsal, it was like I d never left. It was really like getting straight back on the bike. Was the accident a blessing in disguise? A lot of people say this after they ve had some kind of interruption in their career it felt like a rebirth. I felt as though I played much better than before, I thought about things better, and I didn t take anything for granted any more. In a way, so long as my wrist holds out, it wasn t such a bad thing after all. So does Catherine take any extra precautions now? No! I m always shocking my husband with the way I chop onions. I love cooking. That s my favourite place to be in the kitchen. And he takes one look at me, and then has to look away. But I never really think about it. I m not precious at all. The Principal Cello Chair is supported by Fran & Tony Meagher. Through this support, the Meaghers enjoy a close relationship with Catherine and the orchestra. For more information on Directors Chai rs call

30 Dan Boud Education News Meeting Steve Reich In May four members of the Sydney Symphony s emerging artists program Freya Franzen, Liisa Pallandi (violin), Tara Houghton (viola) and Adam Szabo (cello) took part in a marathon concert celebrating the works of American minimalist composer Steve Reich. The Sydney Opera House hosted Steve s residency, which included performances of many of his seminal works. Our musicians gave the Australian premiere of Variations for Vibes, Pianos and Strings, alongside members of Synergy Percussion, and other young string players, conducted by Roland Peelman. Right: Violinist Freya Franzen, rehearsing Reich s Variations for Vibes, Pianos and Strings. Below: Wearing his trademark baseball cap, the composer looks on in rehearsal. Ask a Musician One concert-goer was intrigued by the ophicleide, which recently appeared in Berlioz s Harold in Italy. What are they, and why would a composer choose to include them? he asked. Our resident ophicleidian Nick Byrne was more than happy to respond. The ophicleide was invented in 1817 by Frenchman Jean Hilaire Asté. It s a lower-pitched extension of the keyed bugle family and came into being at a time when composers were searching for a lower voice to supplement the sound of the trombone. Piston Dan Boud Your Say Our post-concert surveys always bring a variety of views. The one for Tchaikovsky at the Ballet in April was no exception: We can t say that we have enjoyed the first half of the concert because of the choice of the music pieces. [Golijov s Last Round] was poorly composed and poorly rehearsed. The second piece Spanish Garden [sic] was something resembling the sound of a graveyard. However, we thoroughly enjoyed the second half of the concert! The brilliant music, the fine direction of the conductor and the passion of the orchestra were absolutely heavenly! Conductor Andrew Grams was a joy to watch he should have had a whip to conduct with, not to hit the musicians of course, but to swish it above their heads. He was on fire! The music selection was very interesting [the Golijov] valves were still in an early (some would say primitive!) stage of their development, but composers like Berlioz (Symphonie fantastique, Harold in Italy), Mendelssohn (Overture to A Midsummer Night s Dream, Elijah) and Wagner (Rienzi, The Flying Dutchman, was like watching a tennis game left right left right! A marvellous questionand-answer piece. A big thank you to all musicians of the SSO as well as to the pianist and the conductor. And from a star-struck subscriber earlier in the year: Wow! What a night it was! Quite stupendous! Anne Sophie Mutter [March] was just unbelievable and so worth waiting for all these years. The orchestra were wonderful and really shone in the Shostakovich, where Ashkenazy just came alive How privileged I felt being able to attend this wonderful concert. To many more concerts of this class, and look forward to having Evgeny Kissin and Behzod Abduraimov and Sophie Mutter here again soon!! We like to hear from you. Write to yoursay@ sydneysymphony.com or Bravo! Reply Paid 4338, Sydney NSW Lohengrin) all took advantage of the ophicleide s special sound. Sweet and versatile in the upper register, open and gruff in its lower tones, the ophicleide is wholly individual in character and temperament compared with its modern generic replacements. Tragically, by the ophicleide had been superseded by the bass tuba and euphonium. Nick Byrne, Second T rombone Have a question about the music, instruments or inner workings of the orchestra? Write to us using the Your Say addresses above. Proud sponsor of the Sydney Symphony in their 80th year of timeless entertainment

31 Wendell Teodoro Artistic Focus The wonders of technology allowed David Robertson to join us by live video feed from New York for the announcement on 15 May. From left: Peter Czornyj, Simon Crean, John Conde, Catherine Hewgill and Rory Jeffes. DAVID ROBERTSON We announce David Robertson as Chief Conductor and Artistic Director designate. The story goes that at a performance of Szymanowski s Fourth Symphony by a North American orchestra, the end of the thrilling first movement drew applause from a handful of eager audience members. It was short-lived when exuberance turned to embarrassment at clapping in the wrong place. But the conductor for that occasion quickly turned around with words of reassurance: It s okay. We re excited too! The conductor was David Robertson, the recently announced Chief Conductor designate of the Sydney Symphony. And this delightful concert vignette illustrates the importance he places on honest and open communication. He s not afraid to communicate with audiences, introduce new ideas and be a dynamic advocate for the music of our time. At the announcement of his appointment on 15 May, Principal Cello Catherine Hewgill recalled Robertson s first visit to the Sydney Symphony in 2003: I had what can only be described as an out-of-body experience during a performance of John Adams Harmonielehre. Having David direct us through this incredibly harmonically complex music just took me somewhere else completely. Current Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor Vladimir Ashkenazy will continue to return annually to the Sydney Symphony. That the orchestra is able to continue its relationship with Ashkenazy, at the same time as building a new partnership with David Robertson is testament to the mutual respect and admiration the musicians share for both men, and the conductors for each other. Critic Peter McCallum from The Sydney Morning Herald, summed up Ashkenazy s time with the orchestra beautifully: He has built supportive audiences and international networks and will depart much loved for his deep musical understanding, humility, warmth and charm, and the abiding memory of many insightful performances. For the incoming Chief Conductor, Concertmaster Dene Olding is full of praise: He is an exceptional musician highly intelligent, articulate and a wonderful communicator. His four previous appearances with the orchestra have shown the breadth of his repertoire and the sophistication of his musical interpretations. David Robertson s plans from 2014 include a series of innovative projects with the orchestra. These include an annual opera-in-concert, commissioning partnerships with other orchestras such as the Royal Concertgebouw, and annual international touring. There s much to look forward to. As Catherine Hewgill says, This marriage will be a good one! David Robertson s tenure as Chief Conductor will begin in 2014, with a five-year contract. The Score Crossover Classics The blurring of genres is nothing new. These days we tend to associate the term crossover with performers think Katherine Jenkins or Aled Jones but crossover might also describe composers experimentations with form and genre. Take Brahms s First Piano Concerto. This ambitious work began life as a fledgling attempt at a symphony. But the figure of Beethoven loomed large for young Brahms, who lost confidence: You ve no idea what it s like to hear the footsteps of a giant like that behind you. He re-worked the material, first into a sonata for two pianos and eventually his First Piano Concerto. Grand in scope, it s almost a symphony for piano and orchestra. Rachmaninoff s Symphonic Dances also borrows from other genres. As the title suggests, each of the three movements is based in dance. Similarly symphonic in scope, the work began life as a prospective ballet score waltzes and energetic rhythms abound, orchestral colours (including Rachmaninoff s only inclusion of the alto saxophone) surround the listener. In the majestic final movement, Rachmaninoff recycles the Dies Irae, the funereal plain chant used to such great effect in his Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. Far from being dirge-like, the Dies Irae brings the music to a brilliant climax that quotes thrilling Allelujahs from Rachmaninoff s Vespers, sounding a final, powerful affirmation of faith. Symphonic Dances Brahms, Dvořák, Rachmaninoff Ausgrid Master Series Wed 1 Aug 8pm Fri 3 Aug 8pm Sat 4 Aug 8pm Tugan Sokhiev returns to Sydney to conduct Symphonic Dances. Marco Borggreve