TROMBONE CONCERTOS JACOB BRAČANIN CURRIE WAGENSEIL. Tyrrell Adelaide Symphony Orchestra

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1 TROMBONE CONCERTOS JACOB BRAČANIN CURRIE WAGENSEIL Tyrrell Adelaide Symphony Orchestra

TROMBONE CONCERTOS GORDON JACOB 1895-1984 Trombone Concerto [19 59] 1 I. Andante maestoso 7 05 2 II. Adagio molto 7 05 3 III. Vivace alla marcia 5 49 PHILIP BRAČANIN b.

2 TROMBONE CONCERTOS GORDON JACOB Trombone Concerto [19 59] 1 I. Andante maestoso II. Adagio molto III. Vivace alla marcia 5 49 PHILIP BRAČANIN b Trombone Concerto [17 41] 4 I. Allegro assai II. Lento doloroso III. Allegro vivace IV. Adagio affettuoso V. Allegro molto 3 17 NEIL CURRIE b Tumbling Strain [23 24] 9 Agitato Dolce 3 00! Risoluto 2 Più mosso 2 13 Allegro

3 $ A tempo 1 35 % Meno mosso 3 12 ^ A tempo 4 45 & Poco più mosso 0 40 * Allegro moderato 1 47 GEORG CHRISTOPH WAGENSEIL Trombone Concerto in E-flat major [9 35] ( I. Quasi andante 4 49 ) II. Allegro assai 4 46 Total Playing Time Warwick Tyrrell trombone Adelaide Symphony Orchestra Nicholas Braithwaite 1-3, (-); Patrick Thomas 4-* conductors 3

4 Gordon Jacob is one of that breed of composers who value craftsmanship and practicality above all other virtues. During a long and distinguished life of teaching and composing, he provided many needy instruments with compositions to fill a void in their repertoire. Jacob studied at the Royal College of Music in London with Stanford and Howells, and from 1926 taught at this institute himself. His pupils included many of the most prominent English musicians of the day. He was a leading authority on orchestration and his books, Orchestral Techniques and How to Read a Score have become standard texts. The Trombone Concerto was written in 1955 for the Principal player of the Birmingham Orchestra, Denis Wick, who went on to be Principal Trombonist of the London Symphony Orchestra. He led a change away from the traditional English small bore and bright-sounding trombones, to larger-bore American instruments, which were in turn a technically superior copy of traditional German instruments. The result was the darker, smoother, more Germanic sound we hear from English orchestral brass today. The first movement of Jacob s concerto opens with a dramatic quasi-recitative, almost like a soliloquy, with supporting comments from the orchestra. The quicksilver shifts of emotion in this introduction are soon swept away by a boisterous allegro. The musical material is direct and angular, and passes through several contrasting interludes before making a symmetrical return to the opening recitative. Jacob captures a magical stillness in the Adagio, with solo trombone etching an elegant theme over pianissimo string chords. The dramatic climax is followed by a middle section featuring mysterious dialogue between muted trombone and bassoon. The finale is an unabashed march with clear influences of Elgar and Vaughan Williams. Exploiting the instrument s impressive dynamic range, the soloist moves freely between declamatory vigour and tender lyricism. An extended cadenza brilliantly explores the full four octaves available to a virtuoso player, before the combined forces burst forth with an energetic tag. Philip Bračanin is an Australian of Dalmatian parentage. He received piano lessons from the age of six, and subsequently studied music and mathematics at the University of Western Australia, where he was awarded MA and PhD degrees for analytical studies of contemporary music. Bračanin is Emeritus Professor of Music at The University of Queensland, where he was the Dean of the Faculty of Music for nine years, and later Head of the School of Music. 4

5 Included amongst his works are numerous chamber pieces (including three string quartets), solo song cycles with both piano and orchestral accompaniments, choral works, concertos for piano, violin, viola, cello, oboe, clarinet, trombone, guitar and orchestra, and three symphonies. In 1995 his Guitar Concerto won the APRA Award for Australia s Most Performed Contemporary Classical Composition. The Trombone Concerto was written in 1976 for Ian Hankey. It was a set work for the 1988 International Trombone Competition held in Brisbane, won by this recording s soloist. The five movements alternate fast and slow tempos, calling on the trombone s agility as well as breadth of line. The orchestration often presents an opaque texture, a mosaic of sound allowing the trombone to stand out in relief, and provide the central thread tying the music together. Canadian-born Neil Currie graduated in piano performance from the Royal Conservatory in Toronto. After completing Bachelor s and Master s degrees in Psychology, he began studying composition with Elliot Weisgarber at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. Moving to Sydney, he studied with Peter Sculthorpe in Since that time he has pursued interests in World Music as material for contemporary art music, computer sound synthesis and computer printing of scores. He was composer-in-residence with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra for 1990 and 1991, and during that time was Artistic Director of the orchestra s 20th-century series of concerts. Tumbling Strain was one of the works composed as part of Neil Currie s residency in a program jointly funded by ABC Concert Music and the Australia Council. The composer assures us that Tumbling Strain is not a gymnastic injury; it s a generic colloquialism for describing the tendency of Australian Aboriginal song to commence on some relatively high pitch, then to descend in a stepwise manner toward the end of the phrase, which is invariably the lowest point in the song. Currie s piece is divided into seven continuous sections containing farranging variations on the main thematic material, which is itself based on the song Transport to Derby. (Further sectional divisions may be found, and for convenience of access the piece has been provided with ten tracks, coinciding with the changes of tempo marking.) The soloist is supported by a sub-group of solo winds within the orchestra. The players of these instruments, oboe, bassoon, E-flat alto saxophone, trumpet and another trombone, sit closely around the soloist, interacting as a kind of corroboree group. At times they support the solo line in varying octaves, while at other times they echo the soloist s material at a short distance. The final 5

6 section eventually opens out into a full-scale orchestral corroboree, but before this comes an extended cadenza. Using multiphonic techniques (singing and playing simultaneously) the soloist mimics various didgeridoo sounds in a crescendo of rising energy. Currie s trombone writing throughout the work is richly idiomatic, not only realising the trombone s possibilities for virtuosity, but also finding the thread of melancholy which seems inherent in trombone sonority. Tumbling Strain is dedicated to Warwick Tyrrell. Georg Christoph Wagenseil, relatively obscure today, was one of the most prominent musicians of his time. He was the favourite student of Fux, and in 1739 was appointed composer to the Imperial Court in Vienna, a position he filled until his death. Wagenseil was also a leading keyboard virtuoso, and music teacher to the Empress Maria Theresa and her daughters. Represented nowadays mainly by his concertos for harp and trombone, Wagenseil began composing in the late Baroque style of his teacher Fux, contributed to the transitional galant style, and eventually approached the full-blow Classicism of Haydn and Mozart. The Trombone Concerto was written some time between 1751 and 1763 and exhibits this newer Classical style. Probably the first work for solo trombone explicitly labelled Concerto, it is a two-movement composition with an orchestral accompaniment for flutes, horns and strings. The alto clef notation and the key of E-flat both imply that the composer envisaged the alto instrument for the solo part. But despite the high range and tessitura, it still lies within the reach of the tenor trombone. Marked con discretione, the first movement is based on a stately theme, the dignity of which is reinforced by accompanying figures in dotted rhythms. Throughout the work the composer requires considerable agility of his soloist, freely lacing the solo line with elegant ornamentation, including trills. A cadenza, not by the composer, gives the soloist further opportunity for tasteful display, before the orchestra moves quickly to round out the movement. The Allegro assai second movement, also in E-flat, is more vigorous, but still retains a certain reserve, as if the composer was working under the shadow of the trombone s past, steeped as it is in ritual and spiritual associations. Brett Kelly 6

7 Recording Producer Kevin Roper Recording Engineers David Long, Graham Milne Cover and Booklet Design Imagecorp Pty Ltd ABC Classics Robert Patterson, Martin Buzacott, Hilary Shrubb, Natalie Shea, Laura Bell 1992 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. 7

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