21 31 August Perth Concert Hall

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1 21 31 August Perth Concert Hall

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3 3 Why Beethoven? Many music lovers have a corner in their heart dedicated to Beethoven s symphonies. We never challenge our admiration of what is arguably the most important collection of orchestral works in the history of the art form. We hear them throughout our lives they are on the menu of all orchestras, large and small, young and old, in all corners of the world. Some symphonies are more popular than others the epic Third with its groundbreaking dramatic vein, the tragic Fifth of which the first four notes have become the best known musical quotation, the fabulous Seventh with its breathtakingly beautiful slow movement, and of course the Ninth, which took the symphonic form to a whole new realm with the introduction of chorus and soloists in the last movement, the Ode to Joy. There is one experience which can give us a whole new look at these symphonies, a new understanding of what the significance of each new symphony was for their creator and his listeners: hearing all nine symphonies in a cycle. This cannot be done in one concert, and typically such cycles are presented over four or even five evenings. It takes a certain effort to commit to such a series of performances, but the joy of taking this journey and discovering the inner arch which spans and connects these works from First to Ninth is well worth the effort. This journey is not only of great value for you, our audience, it is also very meaningful for the musicians and myself it gives us new insights and sheds new light on the way we interpret and play these great works. WASO has never before presented such a cycle and this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to share in this experience. Thank you for joining us on the Beethoven journey. Asher Fisch Principal Conductor & Artistic Adviser Asher Fisch appears courtesy of Wesfarmers Arts. Photo: Chris Gonz

4 4 Welcome From the Minister I am pleased to welcome you to the West Australian Symphony Orchestra s Beethoven Festival. The first of its kind in Western Australia, the Festival will feature Beethoven s nine symphonies over two weekends of performances. The Festival will give audiences the chance to experience some of the most influential and recognisable orchestral works in history. With internationally renowned Principal Conductor Asher Fisch at the helm, I am confident this Festival will be an unforgettable experience. From the Lord Mayor The City of Perth is a truly proud supporter of the West Australian Symphony Orchestra. Perth is home to the Orchestra who proudly present a rich and vibrant year round program of fine music at our much loved Perth Concert Hall. The Beethoven Festival will be as inspirational and influential as the composer himself was with nine symphonies over two weeks and an opportunity to engage in a range of supported activities, workshops, talks and conversations. Beethoven said to play without passion is inexcusable and I would rather write 10,000 notes than one letter of the alphabet. Enjoy this special festival as a great symphony is a treasure for the ears. Hon. John Day MLA Minister for Planning; Culture and the Arts Ms Lisa-M Scaffidi The Right Honourable the Lord Mayor

5 5 From the WASO Chairman It is my great pleasure to welcome you to WASO s Beethoven Festival, the first of its kind in Western Australia. With internationally renowned Principal Conductor Asher Fisch at the helm of our state s wonderful Orchestra, I know this Festival will be an unforgettable experience for everyone. Over these two weekends, I invite you to sit back and enjoy all of Beethoven s nine symphonies from the elegant classicism of the First to the mighty Ninth, with its rousing chorus celebrating the universal brotherhood of man. Beethoven s legacy is one of the most significant in musical history, with his nine symphonies towering over all others in their innovation and influence. Music was never the same after these nine symphonies. Beethoven s symphonies are some of the best-loved in the whole repertoire, and each concert in this Festival features one of his best known and most popular. We ve created a Festival for both lovers of Beethoven, and those who are new to his music. The music will be enriched by a number of talks and events that give you the chance to learn more about the man behind the music. The calibre of talented speakers will ensure that everyone will walk away having learnt something new about the genius of Beethoven. Under the baton of Maestro Fisch, the Orchestra is sounding better than ever and this festival will showcase our talented musicians at their finest. Thank you all who have supported our first Beethoven Festival, including our Principal Partner Wesfarmers Arts and our funding partners, the Department of Culture and the Arts and the Australia Council. A special thanks must go to our Beethoven Circle patrons, whose generous support allows us to create these unique cultural events for Western Australia. Enjoy the festival! Janet Holmes à Court AC Chairman, West Australian Symphony Orchestra

6 6 Beethoven s Fifth Fri 22 August 7.30pm & Sun 24 August 3pm Perth Concert Hall BEETHOVEN Symphony No.1 (25 mins) Adagio molto Allegro con brio Andante cantabile con moto Menuetto (Allegro molto e vivace) Trio Menuetto Finale (Adagio Allegro molto e vivace) BEETHOVEN Symphony No.2 (34 mins) Adagio molto Allegro con brio Larghetto Scherzo (Allegro) Trio Scherzo Allegro molto Interval (20 mins) BEETHOVEN Symphony No.5 (36 mins) Allegro con brio Andante con moto Scherzo (Allegro) Allegro Asher Fisch conductor Asher Fisch appears courtesy of Wesfarmers Arts. Pre-concert Talks Find out more about the music in the concert with speaker James Ledger. Pre-concert talks take place at 6.45pm on Friday night and 2.15pm on Sunday afternoon in the Terrace Level foyer. Pre-concert Talks are supported by Wesfarmers Arts. Post-concert Chamber Music Enjoy a selection of Beethoven s chamber music after the Friday night concert and before the Sunday afternoon concert performed by musicians from The University of Western Australia School of Music in the Perth Concert Hall Wardle Room. Post-concert Conversation Enjoy a post-concert conversation on Friday night with ABC Classic FM s Graham Abbott and Principal Conductor Asher Fisch or on Sunday afternoon with Alan Dodge AM, Principal Second Violin Zak Rowntree and Principal Trombone Joshua Davis in the Terrace Level foyer.

7 7 Beethoven s Eroica Sat 23 August 7.30pm Perth Concert Hall BEETHOVEN Symphony No.4 (32 mins) Adagio Allegro vivace Adagio Menuetto (Allegro vivace) Trio (Un poco meno allegro) Allegro ma non troppo Interval (25 mins) BEETHOVEN Symphony No.3 Eroica (47 mins) Allegro con brio Marcia funebre (Adagio assai) Scherzo (Allegro vivace) Trio Scherzo Finale (Allegro molto Presto) Asher Fisch conductor Asher Fisch appears courtesy of Wesfarmers Arts. Pre-concert Talks Find out more about the music in the concert with speaker Professor Margaret Seares AO. The pre-concert talk takes place at 6.45pm in the Terrace Level. Pre-concert Talks are supported by Wesfarmers Arts. Post-concert Chamber Music Enjoy a selection of Beethoven s chamber music after the concert performed by musicians from The University of Western Australia School of Music in the Perth Concert Hall Wardle Room. Post-concert Conversation Enjoy a post-concert conversation with WASO s Executive Manager of Artistic Planning Evan Kennea, Principal Cello Rod McGrath and Principal Clarinet Allan Meyer in the Terrace Level foyer.

8 8 Beethoven s Pastoral Fri 29 August 7.30pm Perth Concert Hall BEETHOVEN Symphony No.6 Pastoral (40 mins) Awakening of pleasant feelings upon arriving in the country (Allegro ma non troppo) Scene at the brook (Andante molto mosso) Peasants merrymaking (Allegro) The storm (Allegro) Shepherds hymn of joy and thanksgiving after the storm (Allegretto) Interval (25 mins) BEETHOVEN Symphony No.7 (36 mins) Poco sostenuto Vivace Allegretto Presto Trio Presto Trio Presto Allegro con brio Asher Fisch conductor Asher Fisch appears courtesy of Wesfarmers Arts Pre-concert Talks Find out more about the music in the concert with speaker Dr John Shepherd. The pre-concert talk takes place at 6.45pm in the Terrace Level foyer. Pre-concert Talks are supported by Wesfarmers Arts. Post-concert Chamber Music Enjoy a selection of Beethoven s chamber music after the concert performed by musicians from The University of Western Australia School of Music in the Perth Concert Hall Wardle Room. Post-concert Conversation Enjoy a post-concert conversation with WASO Board Member Mark Coughlan, Associate Principal Double Bass Joan Wright and Principal Bass Clarinet Alexander Millier in the Terrace Level foyer. Principal Bass Clarinet Chair partnered by Altegra Property Group.

9 9 Beethoven s Ninth Sat 30 August 7.30pm & Sun 31 August 3pm Perth Concert Hall BEETHOVEN Symphony No.8 (27 mins) Allegro vivace e con brio Allegretto scherzando Tempo di menuetto Allegro vivace Interval (20 mins) BEETHOVEN Symphony No.9 Choral (1hr 07mins) Allegro ma non troppo, un poco maestoso Scherzo (Molto vivace Presto) Adagio molto e cantabile Andante moderato Presto Allegro molto assai (Alla marcia) Presto Asher Fisch conductor Marcy Stonikas soprano Fiona Campbell mezzo soprano Steve Davislim tenor James Clayton baritone WASO Chorus Asher Fisch appears courtesy of Wesfarmers Arts The WASO Chorus is supported by Lotterywest Pre-concert Talks Find out more about the music in the concert with speaker Prue Ashurst. Pre-concert talks take place at 6.45pm on Saturday night or 2.15pm on Sunday afternoon in the Terrace Level foyer on Friday night. Pre-concert Talks are supported by Wesfarmers Arts. Pre & Post-concert Chamber Music Enjoy a selection of Beethoven s chamber music after the Saturday night and before the Sunday afternoon concert performed by musicians from The University of Western Australia School of Music in the Perth Concert Hall Wardle Room. Why Beethoven? Panel Discussion Saturday 9.30pm 10.10pm, Auditorium Enjoy a post-concert panel discussion on Saturday night with host Alan Dodge AM joined by Principal Conductor Asher Fisch, Principal Cor Anglais Leanne Glover and tenor Steve Davislim. Journey through Beethoven s symphonies and discover how this iconic composer shaped their lives and careers. Why Beethoven? Panel Discussion Sunday 1.00pm 1.40pm, Auditorium Enjoy a pre-concert panel discussion on Sunday afternoon with host Alan Dodge AM joined by Principal Conductor Asher Fisch, Principal Double Bass Andrew Rootes and soprano Marcy Stonikas. Journey through Beethoven s symphonies and discover how this iconic composer shaped their lives and careers.

10 10 About Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven b. Bonn, probably 16 December 1770 d. Vienna, 26 March 1827 If the remains of a medieval fortress wall encircling Beethoven s home town of Bonn, close by the border with France, represented a psychological barrier to be transcended, so, too, did the Beethoven family s penurious dependence on the city s ecclesiastical prince, the Archbishop and Holy Roman Empire Elector. Ludwig van Beethoven would live to break both those bonds. His compositions would become a cornerstone of Western music. Yet he would live to hear his late masterworks not with his ears but only, through a void of total deafness, in his imagination. Young Ludwig learnt music from his father, Johann, a tenor in the service of the Electoral court, whose own father, also a singer, had been the Elector s Kapellmeister or musicdirector. Ludwig s first important teacher was the kindly court organist, Christian Gottlieb Neefe, to whom he became assistant orchestral harpsichordist (unpaid) at age 13. Already, probably at Neefe s instigation, the musical press had hailed him as a youthful genius in the mould of the young Mozart. The Elector, Maximilian Franz, son of Maria Theresia and brother of Marie Antoinette, also a devoted music-lover, allowed the 16-yearold Beethoven a brief visit to Vienna in 1787, where he is said to have extemporised at the keyboard for an amazed Mozart and possibly had a few lessons as well. By now earning a small income as music teacher to aristocratic families in Bonn, Beethoven so impressed Haydn with a cantata he had composed when the latter visited Bonn on his journeys to and from London in 1790 and 1792 that the Elector agreed to let him study with Haydn in Vienna. Ludwig van Beethoven 1802 His admiring friend the young Count Waldstein, later the dedicatee of one of Beethoven s best-loved piano sonatas, famously farewelled him with the wish that he receive the spirit of Mozart, so recently deceased, from the hands of Haydn. The music lessons in Vienna were no great sensation. It was probably less that the celebrated Haydn lacked time for correcting detail in Beethoven s routine exercises than differences of temperament not least the student s impatience and ambition, mistrustful even of the teacher s very international renown and celebrity. The more methodical Albrechtsberger also found Beethoven a difficult pupil. Although Beethoven claimed that he never learnt anything from Haydn, he would nevertheless appreciate in later life that, far more than mundane counterpoint, his time with the great man had shown him what it meant to be original. It had shown him that musical form could liberate the creative spirit: that he could explore in music the range of human experience all its passion and turbulence, the love and, above all, hope. This would be Beethoven s mission.

11 11 Beethoven would never see his home town of Bonn again. Home, for the rest of his life, would be Vienna. And he would never again be a servant in the employ of an aristocratic court. In Vienna, he could freelance between any number of wealthy patrons aristocrats from around the Austro-Hungarian Empire who kept palaces or townhouses in the imperial capital, among them the princes Lichnowsky and Lobkowitz, to whom Beethoven had introductions from Count Waldstein. Ferdinand Walstein Not only was Vienna the heart of empire, it was also the musical centre of Europe. The nobility and aristocracy lavishly displayed their devotion to music by hosting glittering musical soirées, some with their own orchestras or wind bands. Thus, an outstanding young virtuoso known to have been court organist and pianist to the Emperor Franz s uncle in Bonn, as well as a pupil of Haydn, was welcome everywhere. Beethoven s success was immediate and unchallenged. In due course he would be chosen as piano teacher by none other than the Emperor s youngest brother, the 16-yearold Archduke Rudolph, soon to become his most devoted patron. Beethoven compositions began appearing in print as early as 1793 initially variations for piano, then in 1795 his official Opus 1, a set of three piano trios dedicated to Prince Lichnowsky. Publication provided both income and protection against rivals his enemies who heard his celebrated improvisations and attempted to pass off his style as their own. Publishers soon competed for his works. Emulating Mozart, Beethoven by 1795 was appearing in public concerts as both composer and his own concerto-soloist. In March he premiered probably his Concerto No.2 in B flat, then in December, in a grand concert given by Haydn, played what may have been the first performance of his Concerto No.1 in C. Concert appearances in Bohemia and Germany in 1796 affirmed his growing prosperity. A prized souvenir from Berlin was a gold snuffbox presented to him by the King of Prussia. Giving his first public concert for his own benefit, in Vienna s Royal and Imperial Court Theatre (Burgtheater) on 2 April 1800, Beethoven the composer laid his musical cards on the table in the premiere of his First Symphony. As an earnest sign of the unsettling path he intended his symphonic career to pursue, he began a symphony in the purest key of C major with a discord. It was a beginning pregnant with promise. Ominously, however, the young Beethoven, not yet 30, was already experiencing symptoms he would keep secret from even his closest friends for another year, symptoms of encroaching deafness which would end his career as a concerto virtuoso by Christmas week, 1808, when he gave the first public performance of his Concerto No.4.

12 12 Though still able to accompany singers as late as 1815, Beethoven was stone deaf by Oblivious to thunderous applause for the scherzo at the premiere of the Ninth Symphony in 1824, he had to be turned towards the audience to acknowledge the acclamation. In his final years, visitors were forced to write to him in conversationbooks. His last piano, preserved in the Beethoven House museum in Bonn, movingly testifies to the agony of his deafness in deep grooves worn by constant pounding on the keys for greater volume. Despairing of his condition and its damaging effect on both his professional and social life, Beethoven admitted in a moving valedictory document known as the Heiligenstadt Testament, written in 1802 and found only after his death, that he would have contemplated suicide but for the supreme demands of his art. Heiligenstadt Testament He wished to be remembered not as a misanthrope but as one whose deepest feelings were love of humankind and the desire to do good. Beethoven s love attached in particular to women, usually aristocratic, often pupils. If not actually rejected by them, he always expected to be. Social barriers were an implacable obstacle. Perhaps only one woman reciprocated his passion and accepted him without reservation, one he addressed in a famous letter of 1812 as his immortal beloved. If this never conclusively identified love was, as modern scholarship suggests, Antonie Brentano, and if she was prepared to leave her husband to live with Beethoven in Vienna, the hitherto remote prospect of a life of domestic bliss must suddenly have become more than he could personally or honourably contemplate. Beethoven never married. Beethoven delivered heroically on the promise of his early symphonies and concertos in 1804 and 1805 with the dramatic C minor Piano Concerto No.3, and a symphony of breathtaking magnitude and force, the Eroica. His only opera, Fidelio, dealing with tyranny and liberation, appeared unluckily just as French forces occupied Vienna in November Surviving only three poorly attended performances, it underwent extensive revision before finally making its mark in 1814 as the tide of war turned. Premieres of both Fifth and Sixth symphonies as well as the first public performance of the Fourth Piano Concerto, plus other works besides, challenged musicians and audience alike in an enormous concert Beethoven managed to mount for his own benefit in the bitter chill of Christmas week But soon Napoleon s army was again invading Vienna and Beethoven found himself hiding in his brother s cellar, pillows shielding his fragile hearing from the bombardment.

13 13 Already, however, he had been offered appointment as Kapellmeister to Napoleon s youngest brother, Jerome Bonaparte, styling himself King of Westphalia. Needing a reliable income in such difficult times, and prepared to commit himself to staying in Vienna, Beethoven secured his future through an annuity guaranteed by the Archduke Rudolph together with the princes Kinsky and Lobkowitz. The Mass stretched Beethoven s musical and spiritual imagination beyond any possibility of its being completed, as intended, for the Archduke Rudolph s installation as Archbishop of Olmütz (Olomouc) in Moravia. Beethoven devoted his last years to a unique series of six string quartets which explore and extend the possibilities of the medium beyond all previous imagining. They include the extraordinary Grosse Fuge (Great Fugue), which would be the composer s last dedication to the Archduke Rudolph. Anthony Cane 2011 Karl van Beethoven Beethoven s later life was disrupted by a four-year legal battle to win custody of his nephew Karl from his brother s widow. The victory allowed him a sense of the parenthood he had never enjoyed in his own right but was clouded by constant domestic upheaval and shattered when Karl attempted suicide. His composing pursued an ever loftier course: the enormous Hammerklavier Sonata; the Ninth (Choral) Symphony, which affirms through Schiller s text his deep-seated belief in the brotherhood of mankind under a loving God; and, in a rare resort to conventional Christian usage, direct supplication to that loving God by means of the Latin Mass, the epic Missa Solemnis in D. Vienna 1781 Heiligenstadt

14 14 Beethoven is born in Bonn, Germany Beethoven has music published for the first time a set of keyboard variations. The French Revolution begins. Beethoven proposes to Magdalena Willmann, but she refuses him. Premiere of Symphony No.1 in Vienna on 2 April. Beethoven writes a letter to his brothers Carl and Johann while in Heiligenstadt, explaining his despair and suicidal thoughts prompted by his increasing deafness. This came to be known as the 'Heiligenstadt Testament'. Napoleon is proclaimed Emperor and Beethoven tears up the front page of the Eroica, which was dedicated to him. Beethoven begins a relationship with the young widow, Josephine von Brunsvik. Composition of Symphony No Beethoven's first known public performance, in Cologne, on 26 March. Beethoven travels to Vienna and meets Mozart who agrees to teach him, but returns to Bonn on hearing that his mother is dying of consumption. Beethoven returns to Vienna and begins studying with Haydn. Mozart died the previous year. Beethoven starts working on Symphony No.1. The French Revolution comes to an end. Beethoven writes of his deafness for the first time in a letter to a friend, describing difficulties in professional and social situations. He falls in love with his pupil, 17-year-old Countess Giulietta Guicciardi, and dedicates his Piano Sonata No.14 (the Moonlight Sonata ) to her. He starts working on Symphony No.2. Premiere of Symphony No.2 in Vienna on 5 April. Composition of Symphony No.3 Eroica. Premiere of Symphony No.3 Eroica in Vienna on 7 April.

15 15 Composition of Symphony No.6 Pastoral. After much delay, Beethoven's benefit concert at the Theater an der Wien, Vienna, is held 22 December, including the premieres of Symphony No.5 and Symphony No.6 Pastoral. Josephine von Brunsvik leaves Vienna and enters her second marriage. Composition of Symphony No.8. Beethoven writes a passionate letter to an un-named woman on 6 and 7 July speculated to be Antonie Brentano who he refers to as the immortal beloved'. He had had a brief love affair with the married woman just days earlier. Premiere of Symphony No.8 in Vienna on 27 February. The Congress of Vienna took place from September to June of 1815 with the objective to provide a long-term peace for Europe by settling critical issues from the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. Beethoven wins sole custody of Karl. Napoleon dies. Premiere of Symphony No.9 Choral in Vienna on 7 May, along with three parts of Missa Solemnis. Beethoven dies on 26 March in Vienna, Austria, at the age of Premiere of Symphony No.4 in Vienna in March. Beethoven starts working on Symphony No.5. Austria declares war on France. Beethoven starts working on Symphony No.7. Premiere of Piano Concerto No.5 Emperor in November. Premiere of Symphony No.7 in Vienna on 8 December. Wellington defeated the French in Spain, inspiring Beethoven to write the Battle Symphony (Op.91). Beethoven's brother, Caspar, dies and Beethoven begins a legal battle to win sole custody of his nephew Karl. Beethoven becomes completely deaf and starts using his conversation books to communicate with other people. The Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle takes place, in which the European powers agree to withdraw their armies occupying France. Beethoven starts working on Symphony No.9 Choral. Beethoven writes what are to be his last string quartets; his last major completed compositions. His nephew, Karl, attempts to commit suicide.

16 16 Program Notes Symphony No.1 in C, Op.21 Adagio molto Allegro con brio Andante cantabile con moto Menuetto (Allegro molto e vivace) Trio Menuetto Finale (Adagio Allegro molto e vivace) Beethoven himself organised the concert at the Imperial Court Theatre, Vienna, on 2 April 1800, at which he introduced his first Grand Symphony. He also played one of his (so far) two piano concertos, improvised reportedly in a masterly style, and paid tribute to his two great precursors by programing a symphony by the late Mozart, and excerpts from Haydn s new oratorio, The Creation. Gottfried van Swieten, who wrote the words for Haydn s oratorio, was also one of Beethoven s most enlightened supporters. Swieten had encouraged first Mozart, and more recently Beethoven to explore the music of Bach and Handel, whose fugues Beethoven went on to use as models during his intensive counterpoint studies with Haydn and Salieri. Beethoven duly dedicated the first printed edition of this symphony to Swieten, and its second movement begins in quasi-fugal form. The sole critic to review the premiere thought the only flaw was that the wind instruments were used too much, so that the symphony sounded more like it was being played by a military band than an orchestra. Actually Beethoven s band of 13 (woodwinds, brass, and drums) was no larger numerically than that for Haydn s last symphony. But whereas Haydn usually let the strings predominate, Beethoven continually pushes the winds forward. The sustained wind chords that open the short Adagio are the first occasion for the strings to be reduced to a supportive pizzicato. As the genial Allegro gets under way, other novelties include recurring episodes in which Beethoven gives the impetus to the orchestral basses, and, at the very end, his unusually insistent reiteration of the closing C. In characteristically egalitarian fashion, Beethoven passes over the first violins, and lets the seconds start the Andante. He also smuggles in trumpets and kettledrums (hitherto usually silent in slow movements), though their rumblings do little to disturb the prevailing serenity. The surging minuet is perhaps more reminiscent of the dancing horses of Vienna s Spanish Riding School, than the Redoutensaal for which Beethoven also composed ballroom dances. The military band shifts the scene decisively to the parade ground in the Trio. Berlioz called the finale, with its curious Adagio upbeat from the violins, a genuine instance of musical childishness. But Beethoven s Viennese audience would have been charmed: bright, energetic music from the same mould as Mozart s and Haydn s popular finales, proof that the brash newcomer (Haydn dubbed him the Grand Mogul ) was cut out for success. Graeme Skinner 2014 The West Australian Symphony Orchestra first performed Beethoven s Symphony No.1 on 18 April 1942 under conductor E.J. Roberts. Glossary Oratorio A substantial work for singers and orchestra based on a religious text. An unstaged drama or narrative of Biblical events composed for voices (alternating aria, narrator, recitative, full chorus, etc.) and accompanied by instruments. Counterpoint Two or more lines of music or melodies that are played at the same time.

17 17 Symphony No.2 in D, Op.36 Adagio molto Allegro con brio Larghetto Scherzo (Allegro) Trio Scherzo Allegro molto Beethoven introduced his Second Symphony at the Theater an der Wien on 5 April Also on the program were premieres of his Third Piano Concerto and oratorio Christ on the Mount of Olives, plus a repeat of the First Symphony. One reviewer thought the First better, because lighter and less forced, whereas the Second strives too much for surprising effects. Later, for exactly the same reasons, critics hailed the Second as better. According to Berlioz, the First was not true Beethoven at all; only in the Second do we really discover him. Beethoven began sketching it in summer 1801, while revising the First for publication. It is even possible he revised the First to make it more like (or, perhaps, more unlike) the new symphony, though the disappearance of his original scores for both symphonies means we can never know for sure. Earlier sketches do show how assiduously he honed his themes from rough drafts. Mozart and Haydn both composed quickly and easily. Beethoven only got the effects he wanted by taking pains, and now his determined wrangling with unruly ideas begins to generate extraordinary outcomes. From the first movement s introduction onward, the winds become individually and collectively more prominent more windy, more brassy while the violins, orchestral aristocrats in Haydn s and Mozart s day, are relegated to scrubbing away in the background, and the violas and cellos are promoted to announce the main theme. It s not much of a theme, melodically speaking (despite distantly echoing Mozart s Figaro overture), but its enormous rhythmic and contrapuntal potential drive the movement inexorably forward until, with sheer orchestral brute force, Beethoven delivers the sting in its tail. The Larghetto lets in a little more melody, making do without trumpets and kettledrums. The Scherzo (displacing the conventional minuet) is generated out of powerful contrasts in the opening dialogue between strings and winds. The Trio begins with oboes and bassoons alone, answered by a counter-phrase for strings. Another early reviewer, with the finale in mind, likened the Second to a wounded dragon that refuses to expire. A concerted burst of energy sets the violins off on the main theme. After a tutti climax, a new melody rises from the cellos, gradually infecting the rest of the orchestra. The woodwinds again play important roles, not least the bassoon which twice indulges in an idiosyncratic duet with the violins, leading back each time into a reprise of the main tune. Graeme Skinner 2014 The West Australian Symphony Orchestra first performed Beethoven s Symphony No.2 on 21 August 1943 under conductor William Cade. Glossary Contrapuntal Of, relating to, or incorporating counterpoint. Tutti All the instruments of the orchestra playing at the same time.

18 18 Program Notes Symphony No.3 in E flat, Op.55 Eroica Allegro con brio Marcia funebre (Adagio assai) Scherzo (Allegro vivace) Trio Scherzo Finale (Allegro molto Presto) As is the case with the First and Second, Beethoven s composing score for the Third Symphony has disappeared. However, circumstantial evidence suggests he finished it during the Vienna winter of , at around the same time he was working on his massive Waldstein Piano Sonata, Op.53, whose opening Allegro shares with the Third s the added direction con brio (with vigour). In size and scale, the Third epitomised the major advances he had made since even his recent Second Symphony, audibly obvious in the enhanced listening span he sets his audience, in his deployment of such attention-commanding themes, and in his pursuit of a more distinctive and sonorous orchestral mix. And in the summer of 1804, one of his patrons, Prince Joseph Lobkowitz, allowed him the almost unheard of luxury of being able to trial the score while he was still revising it, in a series of private rehearsals, with an orchestra of some 27 or 28 players, in Lobkowitz s Vienna palace. Later the Prince also paid Beethoven a hefty gratuity for the honour of having the name Lobkowitz appear as dedicatee on the title-page of the printed edition. In this respect at least, Joseph Lobkowitz was ultimately the Third s hero. In early 1804, however, Beethoven was still intending to dedicate it to Napoleon Bonaparte, the great political reformer and egalitarian. But when, late that year, Napoleon renounced democracy and proclaimed himself emperor of France, Beethoven reportedly flew into a rage, and correctly predicted his former idol would trample on human rights, and become a tyrant. Even in disappointment, Beethoven still wanted to call it the Bonaparte Symphony, though by the time he corrected a new fair copy to send to his publisher in 1806 he had settled on Sinfonia Eroica (Heroic), with the regretful subtitle: to the memory of a great man. In November 1805 Napoleon s army had marched into Vienna largely uncontested, but unwelcome enough to make locals stay away from the premiere season of the first version of Beethoven s opera Fidelio, leaving mainly French officers to make up his small audience.

19 19 During Napoleon s second occupation of the city in 1809 the noise of bombardment so affected the hearing-impaired Beethoven that he retreated to a basement to protect his ears. Before the Battle of Waterloo brought the warlord s reign of terror to an end in 1815, Beethoven celebrated the Napoleonic armies defeat in Spain in 1813 with his short battle symphony, Wellington s Victory, and organised the patriotic concert at which it and his Seventh Symphony were premiered to raise funds for Austrian soldiers wounded expelling the French from Germany. But time again altered his perceptions; Beethoven later told Carl Czerny, I used to detest Napoleon, now I think quite differently. And on hearing of Napoleon s death in 1821, Beethoven remarked he had already composed the music for the sad event in this symphony s Funeral March. According to his self-appointed secretary Anton Schindler, Beethoven intended the Symphony No.3 to portray the workings of Napoleon s extraordinary mind. In the opening Allegro, the titanic main theme has been interpreted as representing Napoleon s determined, questing character. In the funeral march, though the shadow of Death temporarily encompasses him, in the midst of mourning, a new majorkey theme signifies a rising star of hope, before the music returns to the graveside, muffled drumrolls, and a farewell volley faintly echoed. In stark contrast, the motoric Scherzo overflows with an abundance of energy. The finale consists of a simple country dance tune with variations that build strategically in intensity and complexity toward a blazing orchestral rout that forget Napoleon no one but Beethoven could have imagined! Graeme Skinner 2014 The West Australian Symphony Orchestra first performed Beethoven s Symphony No.3 on 23 July 1949 under conductor Henry Krips. Glossary Allegro Fast and lively.

20 20 Program Notes Symphony No.4 in B flat, Op.60 Adagio Allegro vivace Adagio Menuetto (Allegro vivace) Trio (Un poco meno allegro) Allegro ma non troppo Almost three years after trialling the Third Symphony there in 1804, Beethoven returned to the Lobkowitz palace in March 1807 to conduct his Coriolan Overture, Op.62, and the Fourth Symphony, both for the first time, in a private concert with the Prince s orchestra. He had begun composing the Fourth, and possibly completed most of it, during the summer of 1806, while also working on his Fourth Piano Concerto and revisions of his opera Fidelio. Beethoven had been staying (near the modern Czech-Polish border) at the summer residence of another one of his princes, Karl Lichnowsky, when he and his host came almost to blows over the Prince s insistence that Beethoven (to whom he paid a handsome annual retainer) play for some visiting Napoleonic army officers. Whether in republican high-dudgeon (as some suppose) or simply to accept a welcome invitation, Beethoven then left for the nearby castle of Lichnowksy s cousin, Franz Oppersdorff, whose private orchestra welcomed him with a performance of his Second Symphony. Oppersdorff also commissioned him to compose two new symphonies, and Beethoven duly received full payment for dedicating the Fourth to Oppersdorff in 1807, and part payment toward the Fifth a year later. He must have started work on the Fourth immediately. Responding to Oppersdorff s enthusiasm for the Second, it retreats from the gravity and length of the Third. But its orchestral brilliance, tonal energy, and thematic focus also prepare for the Fifth. Instead of launching directly into the Allegro main theme, Beethoven begins with a dramatic Adagio introduction. This in itself was nothing unusual: the First and Second have slow introductions; but here Beethoven was experimenting as he went. Insignificant as it may seem in retrospect, the novelty of beginning an introduction (indeed, a symphony) with a single pizzicato note for the strings, is sure to have registered with his original audience. And, to 18th-century ears only recently graduated to the 19th, the meandering harmonies and Beethoven s disinclination to find definite cadences must have seemed wilfully perverse. But there is nothing perverse or obfuscating about the way the main Allegro breaks. Sudden fortissimo chords accelerate toward it almost like a cavalry division being spurred into action. As this ebullient movement proceeds there are some especially beautiful solos, notably for the flute and bassoon, and unexpectedly too for the kettle drums.

21 21 The Adagio encompasses a typically Beethovenian dove and crocodile mix of moods: serene and sentimental one moment, heroic and even bellicose the next. The orchestral textures vary accordingly, from a standard Classical slow movement s soft strings, winds and a pair of horns, to full fanfares for trumpets and drums, instruments which Beethoven had previously used to such dramatic effect in the Third Symphony s funeral march. The third movement looks backward again to the minuet (still so-called in the first edition), of which it is a somewhat hyper-activated example; and forward to the scherzo of the Fifth Symphony. An innovation is its fivesection form, built out of two components: the minuet proper (A), and a contrasting slightly slower Trio (B) from the winds, with a little help from the violins. These are played in order: A-B-A-B-A. Berlioz called the finale an animated swarm of sparkling notes, a continual babble; interrupted only by occasional rough and uncouth chords. That about sums it up, except to add that it also teems with unexpected sounds. There are short solo appearances for bassoon, clarinets (who also contribute a babbling brook accompaniment), oboes, and flute. At the very end, the music stops short, there is a coy exchange between violins, bassoons, violas and cellos, and a rush to the end. Graeme Skinner 2014 The West Australian Symphony was the first of the Australian state symphony orchestras to perform this symphony, on 8 August 1939 under conductor E.J. Roberts. Glossary Pizzicato Plucking, rather than bowing, the strings. Fortissimo Very loud.

22 22 Program Notes Symphony No.5 in C minor, Op.67 Allegro con brio Andante con moto Scherzo (Allegro) Allegro Five-and-a-half years after the premiere of the Second, the Fifth Symphony was first heard on 22 December 1808, again at the Theater an der Wien, in a concert showcasing Beethoven s new work of the previous two years. Also premiered was the just completed Sixth Symphony, and there were performances of the Fourth Piano Concerto, and excerpts from the Mass in C. The concert was too long, the orchestra reportedly under-rehearsed, and Beethoven s piano playing and conducting was erratic due to his failing hearing not a propitious introduction to Beethoven s most important symphony. By comparison with the enormous Third (half as long again), the descriptive Sixth (with added fifth movement), and the Ninth (with voices, and longest of all), the Fifth seems deceptively conventional. Its modest length, tight construction, and Classical layout marks it out as natural successor to the First, Second, and Fourth. So too, for the first three movements, does its orchestration. Beethoven does save surprising new additions three trombones and a contrabassoon for the finale. But by then he has already carried out a far more important symphonic coup, almost by stealth. The first four notes have become a code for Beethoven, indeed for all classical music. Allied (and Nazi) radio broadcasts during World War 2 turned them into a patriotic symbol of the titanic struggle for victory. Two different explanations of the opening notes are supposedly traceable to Beethoven himself. One, Fate knocks at the door, sounds convincing, but is probably not authentic. The other, according to Czerny, is that Beethoven copied it from a bird-call. Beethoven s real revolution is achieved through what he does with this motto. Almost the whole of the unsettling first movement is focused on the first four notes, even quietly underpinning occasional attempts to loosen the minor key s grip with the alternative major-key melody. Some will hear the knocking return (with added upbeats) in the fanfare-like second tune of the suave major-key Andante. And if others are not so sure, the horns certainly reintroduce the motto (now all on one pitch) in the third movement. Too grand to count as one at first, true scherzo spirit takes over in the furious fugal trio. Some experts claim not to hear the four-note rhythm persisting into the magnificent finale. Others disagree. For Beethoven s contemporary, E.T.A. Hoffmann, it simply crowns a symphony full of wonders climbing ever on and on, leading listeners into the infinite!. Graeme Skinner 2014 The West Australian Symphony Orchestra first performed Beethoven s Symphony No.5 on 27 July 1938 under conductor Georg Szell. Glossary Andante At a walking pace, moving along, flowing, faster than adagio but slower than allegretto.

23 23 The audience was held spellbound by Collins superb solo work Classical Voice of North Carolina CLARINET CONCERTO Thur 9 Oct, 11am Fri 10 & Sat 11 Oct, 7.30pm Perth Concert Hall MOZART Clarinet Concerto RACHMANINOV Symphonic Dances Michael Stern conductor Michael Collins clarinet BOOK NOW Tickets from $30 * Call quoting 1086 Visit waso.com.au or ticketek.com.au *Transaction fees may apply.

24 24 Program Notes Symphony No.6 in F, Op.68 Pastoral Awakening of pleasant feelings upon arriving in the country (Allegro ma non troppo) Scene at the brook (Andante molto mosso) Peasants merrymaking (Allegro) The storm (Allegro) Shepherds hymn of joy and thanksgiving after the storm (Allegretto) In October 1808, Beethoven was offered 3,400 florins a year to leave Vienna and move to Kassel, in Germany, to become musical director to Napoleon s brother, Jerome, newly created King of Westphalia. Though he had no intention of going, he let it be known that he was seriously considering the offer. Then he set out to demonstrate how indispensable he was to Vienna and its musical life by arranging a pre-christmas concert, on 22 December, that included two yet unperformed symphonies, the Fifth and the recently completely Sixth. As a bargaining tool, the concert his last at the financially troubled Theater an der Wien perhaps fell short of making the perfect impression. It was very long, also including the Fourth Piano Concerto, bits of the Mass in C, and, to give the chorus something else to do, the purpose-composed Choral Fantasy as a last-minute addition. As usual, the orchestra was under-rehearsed, and Beethoven s own piano playing was, by this time, often erratic, due to his failing hearing. Nevertheless, his ploy seems to have worked. Three of his most long-suffering supporters, Archduke Rudolph and Princes Kinsky and Lobkowitz, clubbed together to pay him an annuity of 4,000 florins on condition he stay in Vienna. Perhaps, in a different way, the Sixth Symphony was another positive attempt on Beethoven s part to come to terms with the dissatisfactions of his life in urban Vienna. What better panacea than an escape to the country? The idea of a symphony depicting country life had been forming in his mind since as early as 1803, while working on the Third Symphony, when he sketched a version of the quirky dance at the centre of the Peasants merrymaking, and a short passage ultimately for the second movement that he marked the murmuring of the brook ( the larger the stream the deeper the note ). His only full-scale program symphony, he subtitled it Recollections of country life, and also devised descriptive titles for each movement, though he warned that these were more indications of feeling than scene-painting.

25 25 The composer s Awakening of pleasant feelings on arriving in the country is immediately audible in the refreshingly simple opening tune with its rustic bagpipe-like drone (on violas and cellos) as accompaniment. But apart from being more relaxed and expansive than the openings of the Third or Fifth Symphonies, the movement follows the traditional symphonic pattern, as well as fulfilling Beethoven s pictorial intentions. Likewise, the Scene at the brook is a formally conventional slow movement; at least until the coda, with its unaccompanied bird calls (marked as such in the score): a flute as nightingale, oboe as quail, and clarinet as cuckoo. For the rest of the work, Beethoven does modify conventional symphonic layout, with three more movements (instead of two) but run together without a break. Peasants merrymaking is the obvious pretext for a scherzo. The dancing is brought to a stop, literally, by The storm for which Beethoven introduces a piccolo and a pair of trombones, instruments then still more usually used for opera and other staged spectacles than in concert symphonies. They add a suitably portentous colouring. Finally, the storm passes as the shepherds sing their Hymn of thanksgiving. Beethoven himself also said: Anyone who has an idea of life in the country can divine for himself the composer s intentions without a lot of titles. But it was precisely because of the genial titles and the simple story they plot that this accessible symphony remained his most generally popular well into the recording era, and until as late as the Second World War, when it was finally overtaken by the Fifth. Graeme Skinner 2014 The West Australian Symphony Orchestra first performed Beethoven s Symphony No.6 on 1 January 1949 under conductor Henry Krips. Glossary Coda A concluding section added to the basic structure of a piece or movement to emphasise the sense of finality.

26 26 Program Notes Symphony No.7 in A, Op.92 Poco sostenuto Vivace Allegretto Presto Trio Presto Trio Presto Allegro con brio Five years after the premieres of the Fifth and Sixth Symphonies, Beethoven introduced the Seventh, together with battle symphony Wellington s Victory, Op.91, on 8 December The occasion was a concert in Vienna s University Hall to raise money for Austrian soldiers recently wounded helping to expel Napoleon s army from Germany. Beethoven wrote an open letter of thanks to eminent colleagues who generously condescended to play under his direction, including Hummel, Meyerbeer, Spohr, and Salieri: It was a rare assembly of first-class musicians, each impelled not only by craft but also patriotic fervor to benefit the Fatherland, without concern for rank or precedence Had I not composed the music myself, I would have been as happy as Mr. Hummel to take my place at the drum! The third last symphony is a kind of mirror image of the Third. The Napoleonic Third is spacious and heroic (in E flat, a minor third above C), the Seventh (in A major, a minor third below C) all energy and bluster, animated by sheer rhythmic propulsion. Wagner labelled it the apotheosis of the dance, though so intense is Beethoven s focus on distinctive rhythms that it often leaves conventional dance far behind. That Beethoven might have been drunk, deaf, or daft when he composed it were all possibilities reportedly considered by his colleagues. Weber is supposed to have said ripe for the madhouse, and another wondered later whether in the last period, he succumbed to a kind of insanity, that his assertive contrasts, vehement expressiveness, and sheer insistence, rankle so?. Beethoven composed the Seventh during two high summers sketching it in 1811 and finishing it in 1812 while, on doctors orders, visiting a succession of picturesque Czech health resorts. In August 1812, he reported to his pupil, Archduke Rudolph: In Teplitz I heard the military band play four times a day the only musical report to offer you. Otherwise, I spent a good deal of time with Goethe.

27 27 Goethe wrote to his wife that he had seldom met a more focused, fervent artist, though to a musical friend he added: But he is completely uncontrollable although because of his loss of hearing he can be excused, and pitied. As it is, he is naturally laconic, doubly so because of his misfortune. Meanwhile, Beethoven boasted he gave his senior a lesson in egalitarianism. Strolling through the spa gardens, they saw a crowd form as the imperial family walked by. Goethe, by far the more eminent of the pair and a seasoned courtier, removed his hat and was ignored. But Beethoven, hat firmly on my head pushed through the crowd, Archduke Rudolph doffed his hat, and the Empress herself came to greet me. Resonances of an idealised Teplitz military band and Beethoven s egalitarian spirit can be heard especially in the minor-key Allegretto, whose simple, solemn tune and straightforward treatment struck such a popular chord that it was regularly excerpted by real bands for use as a funeral march. He introduces another disarmingly simple tune in the middle of the scherzo s trio, according to one of Beethoven s clerical friends, borrowed from a hymn traditionally sung by pilgrims to the shrine at Mariazell. When this Orchestra, under Bernard Heinze, gave its first performance of the Seventh during a Beethoven mini-festival in 1944, the West Australian s Fidelio recalled: Even the desolate anti-climax of a late bus and frigid lower extremities was mitigated by the persistence in one s pulse and brain of the finale. Professor Heinze had whirled his forces up-to-time through these tremendous Olympian transports, ending the first of our two Beethoven concerts on a note of high exhilaration. Graeme Skinner 2014 The West Australian Symphony Orchestra first performed Beethoven s Symphony No.7 on 8 July 1944 under conductor Bernard Heinze. Glossary Allegretto Moderately fast.

28 28 Program Notes Symphony No.8 in F, Op.93 Allegro vivace e con brio Allegretto scherzando Tempo di menuetto Allegro vivace In 1811, a witty columnist observed that Beethoven s music often harboured both doves and crocodiles. His music can seem happy and healthful one moment, bizarre and bellicose the next. But other comparisons might also come to mind. Up to then, the obvious crocodiles among Beethoven s symphonies were the Third, Fifth, and Sixth, all radical, revolutionary works that, in one way or another, effectively broke the Classical mould that he had inherited from Haydn and Mozart. The doves might be identified as the First, Second and Fourth symphonies, works that still conform to Classical outlines, but are filled with new, distinctively Beethovenian materials. These early doves have their successors in the Seventh and Eighth, a pair of accessible and popular late symphonies, still conventional in pattern, premiered just two months apart. Beethoven began composing the Eighth (while finishing the Seventh) on a recuperative visit to the Czech spa resort of Teplitz in summer While there, he also met for the first time a fellow invalid, Goethe, whose initial impression of the composer was vivid and disturbing: His talent astounded me. But he is completely uncontrollable. He is not entirely wrong in believing the world to be detestable, but he does not make it any easier for himself or others by his attitude. Although because of his loss of hearing he can be excused as it is, he is naturally laconic, doubly so because of his misfortune. Goethe s view might seem to fit uncomfortably with the creator of so amiable a work as the Eighth. But it is a reminder that the Beethoven Goethe saw matching closely the popular image of the turbulent personality responsible for the Fifth and Ninth symphonies was still capable of, still actually wanted to write, music that simply entertained and pleased. Some said that, in doing so here, Beethoven regressed to the style of his earliest symphonies; that, from an increasingly uncertain mid-career, he took a nostalgic backward step to recapture a lost world. Others saw the Eighth as a sort of takingof-stock, a necessary comfort stop on the road to the apocalyptic Ninth.

29 29 Haydn had died only three years earlier in But his spirit, and Mozart s not least their sense of humour comes alive again, perhaps authentically for the last time, in the Eighth Symphony. All four movements are in major keys, perfectly proportioned music, untouched by any distorting influence of melancholy. Distortion, where it occurs, comes in the form of musical teases, such as in the syncopations of the first movement s second theme, and toward the end the quirky echo of an orchestral climax by a single bassoon. A more direct musical joke can be found in the clockwork repeated wind chords in the second movement which, according to Beethoven s self-appointed secretary Schindler, mimicked the metronome, recently invented by Johann Nepomuk Maelzel, who also made Beethoven s ear trumpets. Beethoven reverts in the third movement, if not all the way back to an old-fashioned ballroom minuet as such, then to music he described as being in the tempo of a minuet and that adds an almost carnivalesque note. Another constant tease is the intrusive fortissimo wrong note that continually interrupts the last movement s main theme. This was also one of the first Beethoven symphonies to appeal to Western Australian musicians. The very earliest performance in the state, of the first movement alone, was in March 1904 by the amateurs of the Fremantle Orchestral Society according to the West Australian a flawed but commendable effort. Graeme Skinner 2014 The West Australian Symphony Orchestra first performed Beethoven s Symphony No.8 on 24 May 1941 under conductor William Cade. Glossary Syncopations Accents where you don t expect them, especially as against the prevailing beat.

30 30 Program Notes Symphony No.9 in D minor, Op.125 Choral Allegro ma non troppo, un poco maestoso Scherzo (Molto vivace Presto) Adagio molto e cantabile Andante moderato Presto Allegro molto assai (Alla marcia) Presto On 7 May 1824, Beethoven summoned Vienna s leading musicians in the Kärnthnerthor Theatre to give the premiere of the Ninth Symphony. Profoundly deaf, Beethoven was long past being able to conduct, but stood beside the leaders, indicating the speeds. At the end, he was unaware of the applause, so that the contralto soloist had to turn him around, producing a volcanic explosion of sympathy and admiration that seemed it would never end. The applause was probably more for the composer than the performance. Two rehearsals were insufficient to prepare the most difficult orchestral piece the musicians had ever encountered. Nevertheless, one reviewer found the opening Allegro bold and defiant, executed with truly athletic energy. Punctuating its enormous 15-minute design, strategically placed returns of its colossal opening idea underpin the almost fissile energy generated by the sheer mass of scraping, blowing and drumming. Never before had sounds of such sustained violence been imagined, let alone produced by instruments. Wagner later pictured the second movement as a Bacchanalian spree of worldly pleasures. But while its motoric force is compulsive, Beethoven hardly thought of his big scherzo as mindless. Far from it; he keeps its overflowing energy meticulously controlled and channelled, not least when the predominant four-bar triple beat is dramatically jerked into three-bar phrases. Berlioz imagined the slow movement might better be thought as two distinct pieces, the first melody in B flat, four-in-a-bar, followed by an absolutely different one, in tripletime in D. Yet, in Beethoven s interweaving of this unlikely pair, Berlioz heard such melancholy tenderness, passionate sadness, and religious meditation as to be beyond words to describe.

31 31 Everyone in the first Vienna audience in May 1824 must have known that something extraordinary was about to take place. Certainly, the London press intimated in advance of the British premiere a year later: In the last movement is introduced a song! Schiller s famous Ode to Joy which forms a most extraordinary contrast with the whole, and is calculated to excite surprise, certainly, and perhaps admiration. But why did Beethoven take the unprecedented step of fitting out an instrumental symphony with a vocal finale? He had toyed with two distinct plans for a symphony with added chorus. In 1818, he made very preliminary notes for a symphony in ancient modes on ancient Greek religious themes, including a choral adagio. But by 1822, he was sketching a German symphony, with chorus singing Schiller s Ode To Joy, though to an entirely different tune. To Adolph Bernhard Marx the early 19thcentury music historian whose writings helped enshrine Beethoven as supreme master and Germany as centre of the cult of music Beethoven s earlier symphonies had suggested that instrumental music could be even more eloquent than words. Yet finally, Marx believed, Beethoven showed that this was not so: Having devoted his life to instrumental sounds, he once again summons his forces for his boldest, most gigantic effort. But behold! unreal instrumental voices no longer satisfy him, and he is drawn irresistibly back to the human voice. As the orchestra introduces brief flashbacks to each of the first three movements, the cellos and basses attempt an unlikely recitative: but when the string basses painfully attempt their ungainly imitation of human speech; and when they begin to hum timidly the simple human tune, and hand it over to the rest of the orchestra, we see that, after all, the needs of humanity reach beyond the enchanted world of instruments, so that, in the end, Beethoven only finds satisfaction in the chorus of humanity itself. Despairing of instruments feeble efforts, the solo baritone announces (the introductory lines are Beethoven s own, not Schiller s): O friends! No more these sounds! Instead let us sing out more pleasingly, with joy abundant! Graeme Skinner 2014 The West Australian Symphony Orchestra first performed Beethoven s Symphony No.9 on 19 and 20 August 1960 under conductor John Farnsworth Hall. The soloists were Molly McGurk, Marion Mendelsohn, Raymond McDonald, Noel Melvin and the University of Western Australia Choral Society. Glossary Recitative Music in which the singer follows speech-like rhythms rather than having a sense of a regular metre. A declamatory style of vocal delivery designed to approximate the natural rhythms and inflections of speech. The recitative was first employed in opera, later in oratorios, passions, and cantatas.

32 32 Text & Translation Ode An die Freude (To Joy) after Friedrich Schiller ( ) O Freunde, nicht diese Töne! Sondern lasst uns angenehmere anstimmen, und freudenvollere. 1 Freude, schöner Götterfunken, Tochter aus Elysium, wir betreten feuertrunken, Himmlische, dein Heiligtum! Deine Zauber binden wieder was die Mode streng geteilt: alle Menschen werden Brüder wo dein sanfter Flügel weilt. Wem der grosse Wurf gelungen eines Freundes Freund zu sein, wer ein holdes Weib errungen, mische seinen Jubel ein! Ja, wer auch nur eine Seele sein nennt auf dem Erdenrund! Und wer s nie gekonnt, der stehle weinend sich aus diesem Bund! Freude trinken alle Wesen an den Brüsten der Natur, alle Guten, alle Bösen, folgen ihrer Rosenspur. Küsse gab sie uns und Reben, einen Freund, geprüft im Tod; Wollust ward dem Wurm gegeben, und der Cherub steht vor Gott. Oh friends, no more these sounds! Instead let us sing out more pleasingly, with joy abundant. Oh joy, pure spark of God, daughter from Elysium, with hearts afire, divine one, we come to your sanctuary. Your heavenly powers reunite what custom sternly keeps apart: all mankind become brothers beneath your sheltering wing. Whoever has known the blessing of being friend to a friend, whoever has won a fine woman, whoever, indeed, calls even one soul on this earth his own, let their joy be joined with ours. But let the one who knows none of this steal, weeping, from our midst. All beings drink in joy at Nature s bosom, the virtuous and the wicked alike follow her rosy path. Kisses she gave to us, and wine, and a friend loyal to the death; bliss to the lowest worm she gave, and the cherub stands before God.

33 33 Froh, wie seine Sonnen fliegen Durch des Himmels prächtgen Plan, laufet, Brüder, eure Bahn, freudig, wie ein Held zum Siegen! Freude, schöner Götterfunken, Tochter aus Elysium, wir betreten feuertrunken, Himmlische, dein Heiligtum! Deine Zauber binden wieder was die Mode streng geteilt: alle Menschen werden Brüder wo dein sanfter Flügel weilt. Seid umschlungen, Millionen, diesen Kuss der ganzen Welt! Brüder, über m Sternenzelt muss ein lieber Vater wohnen. Ihr stürzt nieder, Millionen? Ahnest du den Schöpfer, Welt? Such ihn über m Sternenzelt! Über Sternen muss er wohnen. Freude, schöner Götterfunken Joyously, as His dazzling suns traverse the heavens, so, brothers, run your course, exultant, as a hero claims victory. Oh joy, pure spark of God, daughter from Elysium, with hearts afire, divine one, we come to your sanctuary. Your heavenly powers reunite what custom sternly keeps apart: all mankind become brothers beneath your sheltering wing. Be enfolded, all ye millions, in this kiss of the whole world! Brothers, above the canopy of stars must dwell a loving Father. Do you fall down, ye millions? In awe of your Creator, world? Go seek Him beyond the stars! For there assuredly he dwells. O joy, pure spark of God, etc. Text by Friedrich von Schiller English translation Anthony Cane The initial three lines were added by Beethoven in 1823.

34 34 Making The Most Of Your Beethoven Festival First Aid There are St John Ambulance officers present at every concert so please speak to them if you require any first aid assistance. WASO Recordings Continue to experience WASO in your own home! A variety of WASO CDs are available for purchase at the Encore gift shop in the foyer at interval and post-concert. Concert Etiquette Tips WHEN TO APPLAUD? At most classical concerts audience members refrain from clapping between movements of a piece, but we encourage you to show your appreciation as you wish and if you are unsure, simply follow your fellow audience members. WHAT IF I NEED TO COUGH? If you need to cough, try to muffle or bury your cough in a handkerchief or during a louder section of the music. Cough lozenges are available from the WASO Customer Service Desk before each performance and at the interval. Connect with WASO LISTEN Tune in to 720 ABC Perth for Breakfast on Friday mornings when Prue Ashurst joins Eoin Cameron to provide the latest on classical music and WASO s upcoming concerts. These performances are being recorded for delayed broadcast on ABC Classic FM from 29 August to 31 August For further details please refer to abc.net.au/classic CONCERT PLAYLISTS Listen to music featured in 2014 concerts at waso.com.au WASO WEBCASTS WASO will be streaming four concerts live and on demand in 2014, thanks to iinet. For more details visit waso.com.au E-NEWS Stay up to date with the activities of your Orchestra by subscribing to SymphonE-news. Go to waso.com.au to join our mailing list. SOCIAL MEDIA FEEDBACK We would love to hear from you! Please send your feedback to PO Box 3041, East Perth WA 6892, send an to waso@waso.com.au, call , or leave us a message on Facebook or Twitter.

35 35 Dining Offers Make the most of your Beethoven Festival experience by enjoying the dining options available in and around the Perth Concert Hall before or after a concert. Duxton Hotel 1 St Georges Tce, Perth Perth Concert Hall 5 St Georges Tce, Perth A pre-concert menu is available in the Duxton Hotel s Firewater Grille restaurant. The menu is subject to availability and bookings are essential. Please contact the restaurant directly on or visit firewatergrille.com.au for more information. Public House Kitchen & Bar 2/263 Adelaide Tce, Perth Public House is located on Adelaide Terrace, only a short walk from Perth Concert Hall. The menu is designed to encourage interactive shared dining and highlights some of the best West Australian produce and pays homage to South American cooking techniques and flavours. Special offer for WASO ticket holders: Receive a 10% discount* off the total bill when $35 or more has been spent. * Present your ticket when ordering. Only one discount per booking. Not valid in conjunction with any other offer or promotion. Dining at Perth Concert Hall has never been this impressive! The Perth Concert Hall s talented chefs have created specially designed Beethoven Festival menus to suit all tastes and budgets. Enjoy a relaxing start to your evening with quality food and excellent service in the a-la-carte Café on Friday and Saturday nights, where the menu will change over both weekends. Alternatively, indulge in a German-inspired buffet dinner from the foyer, changing each week. If you feel like a lighter meal, ready-to-eat hot snacks will be available for only $10. Or you may prefer a wine and cheese plate available from the Wardle Bar. On Sundays, enjoy a traditional Sunday Roast Carvery in the foyer at the very special price of $19.90 per person. The Café will also be open from 12 noon for a leisurely a-la-carte dining experience. Experience our Tapas Menu in the Wardle Bar during Friday s and Saturday s Post-concert & Sunday s Pre-concert Chamber Music. To book a table at the Perth Concert Hall Café, contact

36 36 Biographies Asher Fisch Conductor A seasoned conductor in both the operatic and symphonic worlds, Asher Fisch is known best for his interpretative command of German and Italian repertoire of the Romantic and post-romantic era, in particular Wagner, Brahms, Strauss and Verdi. He is currently Principal Guest Conductor of the Seattle Opera, where he conducted its quadrennial Wagner Ring cycle in 2013, and his former posts include Music Director of the New Israeli Opera ( ) and the Vienna Volksoper ( ). He first worked with WASO in He has long maintained strong ties to the Bavarian State Opera, and in the season conducts a new production by Martin Kušej of The Force of Destiny, plus revival performances of Parsifal, Salome, Ariadne auf Naxos, La bohème and Turandot. Other highlights of the season include concerts with the Munich Philharmonic; Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra; National Orchestra of Belgium; Aarhus Symphony Orchestra (Denmark); a tour in Italy with the Orchestra della Toscana; and a visit to the Melbourne Festival in October 2013, where he conducted an all-wagner program with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. He conducted the State Opera of South Australia s Wagner Ring cycle in 2005, which won ten Helpmann Awards. Asher Fisch began his conducting career as Daniel Barenboim s assistant and kapellmeister at the Berlin State Opera. He is an accomplished pianist and released his first solo disc of Wagner piano transcriptions in Asher Fisch appears courtesy of Wesfarmers Arts. Photo: Chris Gonz

37 37 Photo: Steven Godbee Marcy Stonikas Soprano Marcy Stonikas was a winner of the 2013 George London Foundation Vocal Competition; First Prize winner in the Wagnerian Division of the 2013 Gerda Lissner International Vocal Competition; and is one of eight finalists in Seattle Opera s 2014 International Wagner Competition. Highlights of the season include a return to the Volksoper Vienna as Leonore in Fidelio and the title role in Turandot with Cincinnati Opera. In recent seasons she has appeared with Wolf Trap Opera Company, Utah Opera and The Cleveland Orchestra. Marcy Stonikas is a graduate of Roosevelt University s Chicago College of Performing Arts and Oberlin College Conservatory of Music. She is a graduate of the Young Artists Program at Seattle Opera, where she performed the roles of Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte, and the title role in Ariadne auf Naxos. This is her debut with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra. Fiona Campbell Mezzo Soprano Fiona Campbell is one of Australia s most versatile and beloved classical singers - an ABC guest presenter, accomplished international performer, recitalist and recording artist. She won the Limelight Award for Best Solo Performance in 2011, was ABC Young Performer of the Year Award and winner of the ASC Opera Awards. Fiona sings regularly as a principal artist with all of the major ensembles and orchestras in Australia and her international collaborators include the Brodsky Quartet, Tokyo Philharmonic, Soloists of Royal Opera House Orchestra, Manchester Camerata, Prague Chamber Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Grange Park Opera and Opera North. Career highlights include singing several concerts with the legendary tenor José Carreras in Japan and Korea and as his special guest artist in Australia. Fiona s schedule in 2014 includes St Matthew Passion with St Georges Cathedral and principal appearances with West Australian Opera.

38 38 Biographies Steve Davislim Tenor Twice awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee award, Australian tenor Steve Davislim began his musical training as a horn player, then studied voice at the VCA under Dame Joan Hammond. After attending Zurich Opera s Opernstudio, he started his career as an ensemble member of the Zurich Opera. Now engaged at the most prestigious opera theatres and concert venues worldwide, recent appearances include Tamino at Semperoper Dresden, a Handel Opernpasticcio Armida e Rinaldo with the Balthasar-Neumann-Ensemble, Richard Strauss Orchestral Songs with the Hallé Orchestra and Sir Mark Elder, Mozart s Requiem with Thielemann in Salzburg, and Dvořák s Stabat Mater at the Basilique Cathedrale de Saint-Denis, Paris. His wide-ranging discography includes Bach cantatas with Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Martinu s Giulietta with Sir Charles Mackerras, Tippett s A Child of Our Time with Sir Colin Davis and the London Symphony Orchestra, Winterreise, Saint-Saëns Hélène, and Britten s Folksongs. James Clayton Baritone James Clayton made his Opera Australia debut as Baron Douphol in La traviata in Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour and his Japanese debut as Don Alfonso in Cosi fan tutte for Biwako Hall. His concert appearances have included Haydn s Mass in Time of War and Puccini s Messa di Gloria (Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra), Fauré s Requiem (Collegum Symphonic Choir), Mozart s Mass in C Minor and Orff s Carmina Burana (West Australian Symphony Orchestra) and Messiah (UWA Choral Society). In 2013, James Clayton sang Escamillo in Carmen for Opera Australia and the title role in Rigoletto, Leporello in Don Giovanni and Schaunard in La bohème for West Australian Opera; concert engagements included those with the West Australian and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras. In 2014, he sings Papageno, Iago in Otello and Conte di Luna in Il trovatore for West Australian Opera and appears with the Auckland Philharmonia and the Wellington Orchestra.

39 39 CLASSIC AFTERNOONS The best classical music every afternoon with Damien Beaumont and Mairi Nicolson. Each day you ll enjoy the best selections from ABC Classic FM s exclusive collection of Australian concert recordings. And there s a special daily focus, including early music on Mondays, chamber music on Wednesdays, and the great performances of the past on Fridays. The perfect soundtrack to your afternoon. Afternoons 1 4pm Damien Beaumont Sunday Wednesday Mairi Nicolson Thursday Sunday

40 40 Speakers and Hosts Graham Abbott Graham Abbott has been Conductor-in- Residence at the Elder Conservatorium of Music Adelaide, Musical Director of Adelaide Chorus (now Adelaide Philharmonia Chorus), Associate Conductor of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Musical Director of Melbourne Chorale, and in 1997 was the acting Chorus Master of the Chorus of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. Graham is a frequent guest conductor with all of the major Australian orchestras and opera companies, leading choral societies and numerous new and early music ensembles. He is also a respected teacher and speaker on music and has been producer and presenter of the highly successful Keys To Music program on ABC Classic FM since Prue Ashurst Prue is a graduate from the University of Western Australia (UWA) with a Masters in Music Performance (Choral Conducting) and Bachelor degrees of Music Education and Performance. Prue s school choirs have sung in Geneva, London, Singapore and Wales and she is in demand as a choral conductor, educator, adjudicator and music director in Perth and the east coast. She has conducted for the Perth International Arts Festival, WA Opera, the Gilbert & Sullivan Society, UWA Choral Society, WASO Chorus and the Gondwana Choirs. For 12 years Prue has been a regular music presenter on ABC 720 with Eoin Cameron.

41 41 Mark Coughlan For many years Mark Coughlan has held leadership roles in the performing arts and higher education sectors. He is Artistic Director of the Government House Ballroom concert series and is engaged in a range of arts activities as a pianist, musical director, lecturer and music critic for The Australian newspaper. Mark is the former Head of Music at the University of Western Australia (UWA) and is currently a Board member of the West Australian Symphony Orchestra and the West Australian Youth Orchestra as well as Chairman of Lost and Found Opera and the Government House Foundation. Mark has a long association with the music of Beethoven, performing in the Sydney Festival s Beethoven piano cycle in In October he will present, for the first time in Perth, all 32 Beethoven piano sonatas in one day; a feat requiring 23 pianists and taking nearly 14 hours. Alan Dodge AM Alan Dodge served in the art museum world for over 40 years. 21 years were devoted to the National Gallery of Australia where he held a number of positions culminating in the role of Senior Advisor, Special Exhibitions and Development. Subsequently, Alan was appointed Director of the Art Gallery of Western Australia, a position he held from the beginning of 1997 until the end of Currently he is on the boards of the National Portrait Gallery, John Curtin Art Gallery, the Cultural Collections Board of The University of Western Australia (UWA) and is Chairman of the Murdoch University Art Board. Alan is an author and contributor to a wide range of publications and projects.

42 42 Speakers and Hosts Evan Kennea Evan Kennea has enjoyed a multi-faceted musical career in Perth, the UK and the Netherlands. In 2011 he was appointed to the position of Executive Manager, Artistic Planning at the West Australian Symphony Orchestra. From he held the position of Program Manager of Music at the Perth International Arts Festival where he was responsible for programming the festival s classical music and jazz programs. Prior to the Festival he was Concerts and Music Outreach Manager at the University of Western Australia (UWA) School of Music, during which time he was Co-Artistic Director of its hearnow! New Music Festival. A graduate of UWA, Evan majored in composition, studying with Roger Smalley. He furthered his composition studies in London with Anthony Payne and at the Royal Conservatorium in The Hague with Louis Andriessen and Martijn Padding. James Ledger James Ledger s orchestral music is well known to Australian concertgoers. His first work for orchestra, Indian Pacific from 1996, is still regularly performed around the country. Ledger has been resident with the Adelaide and West Australian Symphony Orchestras and the Australian National Academy of Music. He has received commissions from Australia s leading ensembles including the Australian Chamber Orchestra and Australian String Quartet. Ledger co-composed the ARIA award-winning song-cycle Conversations with Ghosts with singer-songwriter Paul Kelly sees the premiere of a new work for the Sydney Symphony Orchestra for the ANZAC centenary commemorations.

43 43 Margaret Seares AO Margaret Seares AO has a PhD in Music, and played the harpsichord professionally during her earlier academic career. She has extensive experience in arts administration, having been Head of The University of Western Australia (UWA) School of Music from , CEO of the WA Department for the Arts from , and Chair of the Australia Council, the Australian Government s arts funding and advisory board, from She was also Senior Deputy Vice Chancellor at UWA from She has been a member of a wide range of boards and is currently Chair of the Perth International Arts Festival, and a director of Synergy, and Bond University. She is a former director of WASO. Dr John Shepherd Dr John Shepherd, formerly Dean of Perth at St George s Cathedral, has degrees in Arts (History and Philosophy), and Theology from The University of Melbourne at Trinity College, and the degree of Master of Sacred Music from Union Theological Seminary in New York. In New York he studied musicology with Denis Stevens, and composition, both including serial and electronic at Columbia University with Vladimir Ussachevsky and Mario Davidovsky. He taught electronic composition at Hofstra University, New York. As the John Stewart of Rannoch scholar, he completed a Doctorate of Philosophy at St Catharine s College, Cambridge on the relationship between the theology and music of the English Reformation. As Chaplain of Christ Church Oxford from , he taught Reformation Theology and Renaissance Music History. From , Dr Shepherd was Chaplain at The University of Western Australia, where he also taught in the Faculty of Music. He is a regular contributor to the London Times and the Expository Times on contemporary theological issues. Dr Shepherd was Dean of Perth from

44 44 West Australian Symphony Orchestra VIOLIN Semra Lee-Smith Assistant Concertmaster Graham Pyatt Principal 1st Violin Zak Rowntree Principal 2nd Violin Kylie Liang Assistant Principal 2nd Violin Sarah Blackman Fleur Challen Erin Chen Stephanie Dean Rebecca Glorie Beth Hebert Alexandra Isted Sunmi Jung Shaun Lee-Chen* Akiko Miyazawa Lucas O Brien Anna O Hagan Melanie Pearn Ken Peeler Louise Sandercock Jolanta Schenk Jane Serrangeli Ellie Shalley Jacek Slawomirski Bao Di Tang Cerys Tooby Teresa Vinci David Yeh VIOLA Caleb Wright Principal Kierstan Arkleysmith Nik Babic Alex Brogan Katherine Drake Alison Hall Rachael Kirk Allan McLean Helen Tuckey CELLO Rod McGrath Principal Louise McKay Assoc Principal Shigeru Komatsu Oliver McAslan Nicholas Metcalfe Eve Silver* Fotis Skordas Tim South Xiao Le Wu DOUBLE BASS Andrew Rootes* Principal Joan Wright Assoc Principal Christine Reitzenstein Louise Ross Andrew Tait Mark Tooby *Instruments used by these musicians are on loan from Janet Holmes à Court AC. ASSISTANT CONDUCTOR Christopher Dragon Principal Conductor Asher Fisch Partnered by Wesfarmers Arts CHORUS DIRECTOR Christopher van Tuinen FLUTE Andrew Nicholson Principal Chair partnered by Apache Mary-Anne Blades Assoc Principal PICCOLO Michael Waye Principal OBOE Peter Facer Principal Elizabeth Chee Assoc Principal COR ANGLAIS Leanne Glover Principal CLARINET Allan Meyer Principal Lorna Cook BASS CLARINET Alexander Millier Principal Chair partnered by Altegra Property Group BASSOON Jane Kircher-Lindner Principal Chair partnered by Ron & Sue Wooller Adam Mikulicz Assoc Principal Colin Forbes-Abrams CONTRABASSOON Chloe Turner Principal CHORUS VOCAL COACH Andrew Foote Conductor Laureate Vladimir Verbitsky HORN David Evans Principal Sharn McIver Assoc Principal Robert Gladstones Principal 3rd Julia Brooke Francesco Lo Surdo TRUMPET Brent Grapes Principal Evan Cromie Assoc Principal Peter Miller TROMBONE Joshua Davis Principal Liam O Malley Assoc Principal BASS TROMBONE Philip Holdsworth Principal TUBA Cameron Brook Principal TIMPANI Alex Timcke Principal PERCUSSION Robyn Gray Principal Troy Greatz Assoc Principal HARP Sarah Bowman Principal

45 45 Board of Directors Janet Holmes à Court AC Chairman Mark Coughlan Keith Kessell Barrie Lepley Deputy Chairman Anne Nolan Paul Shannon Julian Sher Michael Utsler Executive Craig Whitehead Chief Executive Claire Burlinson Executive Assistant Ellen Wisdom Executive Manager, Human Resources Rachel Taylor Human Resources Assistant Artistic Planning Evan Kennea Executive Manager, Artistic Planning Maya Kraj-Krajewski Artist Liaison/Chorus Administrator Claire Stokes Program Manager Alan Tyrrell Program Manager Community Engagement Cassandra Lake Executive Manager, Community Engagement Fiona Taylor Education Coordinator Gemma McDonald Community Development Coordinator Orchestral Management Keith McGowan Executive Manager, Orchestral Management Richie Burton Orchestral Operations Manager David Cotgreave Production & Technical Manager Alistair Cox Orchestra Manager Breanna Evangelista Orchestral Management Assistant Wee Ming Khoo Music Librarian Noel Rhind Orchestral Operations Coordinator Business Services Peter Freemantle Chief Financial Officer Andrew Chew Systems Administrator Angela Miller Accountant Svetlana Williams Payroll Officer Sushila Bhudia Accounts Officer Corporate Development Marina Woodhouse Executive Manager, Corporate Development Simon Lodge Executive Manager, Corporate Development Sharmini Poulsen Corporate Partnerships Manager Luci Steinhardt Corporate Partnerships Executive Ginny Luff Events Coordinator PHILANTHROPY Alecia Benzie Executive Manager, Philanthropy Josie Aitchison Customer Service & Philanthropy Coordinator Jane Clare Fundraising & Philanthropy Coordinator Marketing Kelli Carnachan Executive Manager, Marketing Kirsty Chisholm Marketing Coordinator Nancy Hackett Marketing Manager Gina Beers Graphic Designer Marc Missiaen Relationship Marketing Manager Paula Schibeci Public Relations Manager Amanda Lim Marketing Assistant Courtney Walsh Marketing Intern Sava Papos Customer Service Manager Josie Aitchison Customer Service & Philanthropy Coordinator Beverley Trolio Customer Service Coordinator Alana Arnold Margaret Daws Vicki Prince Debbie Silvester Robyn Westbrook Customer Service Officers Perth Concert Hall AEG Ogden (Perth) Pty Ltd Perth Concert Hall is managed by AEG Ogden (Perth) Pty Ltd Venue Manager for the Perth Theatre Trust Venues. Andrew Bolt General Manager Helen Stewart Deputy General Manager Peter Robins Technical Manager Paul Richardson Assistant Technical Manager Penelope Briffa Event Coordinator AEG Ogden (Perth) Pty Ltd Rodney M Phillips Chief Executive The Perth Theatre Trust The Hon. Mr Peter Blaxell Chairman WASO programs are printed by Pilpel Print who are proud to be Green Stamp Accredited. This certification acknowledges Pilpel Print s commitment to minimising environmental impacts associated with producing printed material. All rights reserved, no part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Whilst every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of statements in this publication we cannot accept responsibility for errors or omissions, or for matters arising from clerical or printers error. Every effort has been made to secure permission for copyright material prior to printing. Please address all correspondence to the Executive Manager, Marketing, West Australian Symphony Orchestra, PO Box 3041, East Perth. WA waso@waso.com.au

46 46 WASO Chorus Christopher van Tuinen Chorus Director Andrew Foote Vocal Coach Lea Hayward Accompanist Maya Kraj-Krajewski Chorus Administrator SOPRANO Marian Agombar Valerie Bannan Catherine Bapty Lisa Barrett Anna Börner Kathryn Buselich Alinta Carroll Sophie Chapman Penelope Colgan Clara Connor Cate Creedon Lisa Daffen Sian Dhu Ceridwen Dumergue Bronwyn Elliott Fay Farah Davina Farinola Joanna Fawcett Mandy Fimmel Lindsay Foster Louise Gillett Kath Goodman Lesley Goodwin Pauline Handford Diane Hawkins Ruth Henderson Blanche Holzman Michelle John Ginny Luff Ciara McCaughey Brooke McKnight Hayley Mitchelmore Stephanie Parkinson Rochelle Rabel Natalia Robayo Fiona Robson Sarah Shneier Magdalena Todea Margo Warburton Veronique Willing Nicole Zago ALTO Jo Bennett Daniela Birch Patsy Brown Sue Coleson Catherine Dunn Julie Durant Carissa Dyall Kaye Fairbairn Jenny Fay Susanna Fleck Di Graves Kelsey Gray Victoria Hogg Jill Jones Serena Kay Gaylene Kelso Shew-Lee Lee Diana MacCallum Chrissie Mavrofridis Sarah McLellan Lyn Mills Margot Morgan Elysia Murphy Lynne Naylor Deborah Pearson Deborah Piesse Liz Rombawa Gabrielle Ruttico Neb Ryland Claire Taylor Olga Ward Moira Westmore Audrey Wong Jacquie Wright TENOR Ian Gordon Allan Griffiths Peter Handford David Lancaster Don Moore John Moreton John Murphy Andrew Paterson Rey Rombawa, JR Chris Ryland Malcolm Vernon Ted Yan BASS Justin Audcent Michael Berkeley-Hill Roger Blazey Cohen Bourgoult Jonty Coy Allan Davies James Devenish Hubert Durand Jake Gardner Ken Gasmier Stephen Hastings Brian Kent Tony King Benjamin Lee Tony Marrion Benjamin Martis Peter Ormond Jim Rhoads Lee Rhodes Steve Sherwood Chris Smith Tim Strahan Geoff Suttie Ray Thorneloe Mark Wiklund Donald Wilson Andrew Wong WASO CHORUS A passionate and dedicated ensemble of auditioned volunteer singers, the WASO Chorus is a vital part of Perth s musical community. The Chorus regularly features in WASO s annual concert season and has performed with some of the world s greatest conductors including Asher Fisch, Simone Young, Vladimir Ashkenazy and Richard Hickox. In addition to experiencing the joy of making music at the highest level, members of the Chorus are also increasingly involved in WASO s Community Engagement activities, including the Hospital Orchestra Project and Harmony Music. For more information on the Chorus and how to join, visit waso.com.au/about/chorus The WASO Chorus is supported by Lotterywest.

47 47 Biographies Christopher van Tuinen Chorus Director Christopher graduated with a Bachelor of Music from the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) in In 2005 he completed a Masters in Conducting at the VCA. Experienced in both vocal and instrumental music he was awarded the John Williams Conducting Scholarship for He also holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Queensland, a Bachelor of Laws from Queensland University of Technology and an Associate Diploma in Music from the Australian Music Examinations Board. In 2006 he received a Green Room Award nomination in the Best Conductor category. During 2008 and 2009 he was a member of the Young Artists program as a Conductor with Opera Australia and in 2007 he was appointed as the inaugural Conducting Fellow at the Australian Ballet. He has worked with WASO, Orchestra Victoria, Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra and the Queensland Symphony Orchestra. In addition to his work as Chorus Director for WASO, Christopher is also Conductor of The University of Western Australia Choral Society, Musical Director of Fremantle Chamber Orchestra and Artistic Director of Lost and Found Opera. Andrew Foote Chorus Vocal Coach Helpmann Award-winner Andrew Foote is one of the most experienced singers and teachers of voice in Australia. For more than 30 years he has been a regular guest artist for Western Australian arts companies, a national broadcast artist for ABC Classic FM, a freelance opera principal artist performing throughout Australia with Opera Australia, OzOpera and West Australian Opera, a regular recitalist and oratorio soloist, and more recently as an opera director. In his professional concert and operatic career, Andrew has performed more than 30 operatic roles for professional companies throughout Australia - including his acclaimed Ned Keene in Peter Grimes for which he received a 2010 Helpmann Award. His soloist and concert repertoire, including recordings for ABC Classic FM, have consistently drawn superb accolades. After an 11 year break from teaching, Andrew Foote has been appointed Head of Voice at the University of Western Australia School of Music. He re-joins UWA with a renewed enthusiasm and commitment to educating the next generation in the art of concert repertoire and ensemble singing.

48 48 WASO Philanthropy Philanthropy Partner This Beethoven Festival exemplifies the heart of WASO s vision to touch souls and enrich lives through music. We consistently strive to achieve the highest levels of excellence. WASO is an Orchestra playing better than ever that has a superb Principal Conductor, Asher Fisch, and alongside him, a company dedicated to supporting his bold vision. This musical journey is for you, our audience in the Perth Concert Hall, and for as many Western Australians as possible. There are many free events as part of the Beethoven Festival and we are delighted that the full Orchestra has travelled to Albany for the first time in 15 years. WASO is a charitable organisation that increasingly depends on the inspiring generosity of its Patrons to be at the cultural heart of Western Australia. We thank all our Annual Giving Patrons for their invaluable ongoing support. We gratefully acknowledge our Beethoven Circle Patrons who are generously supporting this Beethoven Festival: Jean Arkley in memory of Tom Arkley Bob & Gay Branchi Janet Holmes à Court AC in memory of her mother Torsten & Mona Ketelsen Tony & Gwenyth Lennon Joshua & Pamela Pitt To learn more about supporting WASO please contact Alecia Benzie, Executive Manager, Philanthropy, on or benziea@waso.com.au.

49 49 Don t miss one of the most cherished chamber works, Brahms heartwarming Clarinet Quintet, in a stunning one-hour concert! IAIN GRANDAGE After Silence SCHUBERT Quartettsatz BRAHMS Clarinet Quintet Fri 19 Sept 2pm Government House Ballroom Sun 21 Sept 2pm Fremantle Town Hall Rebecca Glorie violin Cerys Tooby violin Rachael Kirk viola Fotis Skordas cello Allan Meyer clarinet (pictured) Shaun Lee-Chen violin (pictured) Akiko Miyazawa violin (pictured) Alex Brogan viola (pictured) Louise McKay cello (pictured) BOOK NOW Tickets $42 * Call quoting 1086 Visit waso.com.au *Transaction fees may apply.

50 50 UWA SCHOOL OF MUSIC Proud Tertiary Education Partner of the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, UWA School of Music is at the heart of Western Australia s music education and research fostering Western Australia s finest emerging artists. With strong ties to the community, UWA is proudly WA s only Top 100 University, and offers a wide range study options including Undergraduate and Postgraduate music degrees, music for non musicians, a Junior Music School for children aged 18 months 12 years, and a wide range of programs for secondary-age students. For more information visit music.uwa.edu.au UniPrint CRICOS Provider Code: 00126G

51 Corporate Partners PLATINUM PARTNERS CONCERTO PARTNERS OVERTURE PARTNERS SONATA PARTNERS EDUCATION PARTNERS School of Music Tertiary Education Partner KEYNOTE PARTNERS ORCHESTRA SUPPORTERS MARGARET RIVER WINE PARTNERS Aravina Estate, Edwards Wines, Howard Park Wines, Leeuwin Estate, Moss Wood, Pierro Margaret River Vineyards, Vasse Felix. MEDIA PARTNERS FUNDING PARTNERS The West Australian Symphony Orchestra is assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.

52 52 ALCOHOL.THINK AGAIN MASTERS SERIES Fri 26 & Sat 27 Sept 7.30pm Perth Concert Hall BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No.5 Emperor DEBUSSY Images RAVEL La valse Baldur Brönnimann conductor Stephen Hough piano STEPHEN HOUGH PLAYS BEETHOVEN MIGHTY, MAJESTIC AND HEROIC VOTED NO.1 ON ABC CLASSIC FM S TOP 100 CONCERTOS BOOK NOW Tickets from $30 * Call Visit waso.com.au or ticketek.com.au *Transaction fees may apply.