narrated by christopher lawrence emma ayres marian arnold

Transcription

1 narrated by christopher lawrence emma ayres marian arnold

2 The Young Person s Guide to the Orchestra [18 53] Music by Benjamin Britten Original script for film by Eric Crozier Narrated by Christopher Lawrence. Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Benjamin Northey conductor 1 Introduction Theme (Allegro maestoso e largamente): Tutti Theme: Woodwinds Theme: Brass Theme: Strings Theme: Percussion Theme: Tutti Variation A (Presto): Piccolo and Flute Variation B (Lento): Oboes Variation C (Moderato): Clarinets 0 46! Variation D (Allegro alla marcia): Bassoons 0 Variation E (Brillante alla polacca): Violins 0 48 Variation F (Meno mosso): Violas 0 55 $ Variation G: Cellos 1 13 % Variation H (Cominciando lento ma poco a poco accelerando al Allegro): Double Basses 1 05 ^ Variation I (Maestoso): Harp 0 52 & Variation J (L'istesso tempo): Horns 0 56 * Variation K (Vivace): Trumpets 0 28 ( Variation L (Allegro pomposo): Trombones and tuba 1 05 ) Variation M (Moderato): Percussion 1 51 Fugue (Allegro molto): Tutti

3 Mother Goose Suite [24 53] Music by Maurice Ravel Original fairytales by Charles Perrault , Marie-Catherine d Aulnoy c and Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont Narrated and adapted by Marian Arnold. Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Benjamin Northey conductor I Pavane of the Sleeping Beauty in the Woods 2 54 # II Hop-o -my-thumb 5 05 III Laideronnette, Empress of the Pagodas 5 34 IV Conversations of Beauty and the Beast 6 10 V The Enchanted Garden 5 10 Tubby the Tuba [13 55] Music by George Kleinsinger Words by Paul Tripp Narrated by Emma Ayres. Timothy Jones solo tuba Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Marc Taddei conductor Once upon a time, there was an orchestra 1 57 Rehearsal begins 3 10 ª Tubby walks home 1 58 º The bullfrog 3 04 Next day at the rehearsal 1 29 Tubby plays for Signor Pizzicato 1 16 And they all played!

4 Once upon a time, there was an orchestra. A very large, impressive, colourful orchestra, filled with instruments of all shapes and sizes... The common thread among all three of the works on this album is the use of the orchestra to tell a story very beautiful but quite different stories. Benjamin Britten s The Young Person s Guide to the Orchestra began its life as a short film, commissioned by the British Education Ministry. They wanted something serious yet accessible, to help younger audiences become familiar with the instruments of the orchestra, and they charged the 33-year-old Britten with this task. The young composer was an ardent admirer of the music of Henry Purcell, regularly performing his songs in recital with his partner, tenor Peter Pears. In 1945, England celebrated the 250th anniversary of Purcell s death. Britten s contribution to the occasion was his String Quartet No. 2. The following year when the commission came from the Education Ministry, Britten again turned to Purcell for inspiration. He settled on the Hornpipe from music composed to accompany a play set in exotic Spain the bloodthirsty Abdelazer, or The Moor s Revenge. This tune serves as the theme to introduce each section of the orchestra. Britten explores each group of instruments in turn: woodwinds, strings, the harp, brass and finally percussion, treating the melody in a way which is perfectly idiomatic to the instrument or group each time compare the harp s variation with the trombones, for instance. He then puts the orchestra back together in that most integrated of forms, the fugue, with 4

5 each group re-entering the texture one by one, gradually building to a powerful climax. Meanwhile in the USA, composer George Kleinsinger and lyricist Paul Tripp were preparing for celebrity status with the release of Danny Kaye s performance of Tubby the Tuba. Tubby was actually conceived some five years prior, when, as the story has it, Tripp and Kleinsinger performed their first musical piece and the tuba player taking part quipped: You know, tubas can sing, too. It took until 1946 for the musical adventures of Tubby to become a reality but they proved an overnight sensation. According to the official Tubby the Tuba website, Tubby has been translated into more than 30 languages, played by every major orchestra in the world, used as a clue in the New York Times crosswords, made into two films, narrated by a galaxy of stars... and enshrined in the Library of Congress National Recording Registry as one of the landmarks in American audio history. The story is a simple one it is about feeling left out and not being very special. Tubby plays all the lowest notes in the orchestra and only ever goes oom-pah, while everyone else seems to have more fun and certainly gets more attention. Tubby goes on a journey of exploration and self-realisation. While learning about all the instruments of the orchestra, he finds out that it is exactly what he thinks is dull and uninteresting that makes him so special and unique after all. Thirty-five years before either of these pieces burst onto the scene, French composer and orchestrator-extraordinaire Maurice Ravel was working on his Mother Goose Suite. This collection of five pieces began its life as a suite for four hands on the piano. Ravel wrote and dedicated the work to...my young friends Mimi and Jean Godebski. My intention of evoking the poetry of 5

6 childhood in these pieces naturally led me to simplify my style and thin out my writing. In 1911, Ravel orchestrated the suite. The following year he turned the orchestrated suite into a ballet by adding a prelude, a new opening scene, interludes to connect the movements and so on. The title and three of the stories were taken from Charles Perrault s Contes de ma mère l Oye (Tales of Mother Goose), published in Ravel included some quotations from the stories at the beginnings of three of the movements. But in this recording, additional parts of the original fairytales have been included to give these magnificent stories even more colour, excitement and joie de vivre! 6

7 What exactly is an orchestra? An orchestra is an ensemble consisting of four sections: woodwind, brass, percussion and strings. The word itself is Greek in origin. It refers to the circular space in front of the stage which in Classical Greek drama was reserved for the chorus. While there are sometimes additional instruments required, the standard instrumentation for a modern symphony orchestra is: Woodwinds Piccolo 2 Flutes 2 Oboes Cor anglais (English horn) 2 Clarinets Bass Clarinet 2 Bassoons Contrabassoon Brass 4 French horns 3 Trumpets 3 Trombones (2 tenor, 1 bass) Tuba Percussion Timpani Snare drum Tenor drum Bass drum Cymbals Tam-tam Triangle Wood block Tambourine Glockenspiel Xylophone Vibraphone Tubular bells Celesta Piano Strings Harp Violins I Violins II Violas Cellos Double basses Conductor 7

8 Random facts about the composers According to the French Society for Songwriters, Composers and Music Publishers, Maurice Ravel s estate earns more than any other French composer. Ravel wanted to be a pilot in the First World War but because of his small stature and poor health he instead became a truck driver on the front at Verdun. In 1932, Ravel suffered a major blow to the head in a taxi accident, which is most likely the cause of his death just two years later. Benjamin Britten worked on two documentary films with poet WH Auden Coal Face and Night Mail. Britten was an active member of the Peace Pledge Union, a pacifist non-government organisation. Even though he had previously turned down a knighthood, Britten accepted a life peerage as Baron Britten of Aldeburgh in the County of Suffolk. For the last 25 years of his life, George Kleinsinger was a resident at New York s famous Chelsea Hotel. During World War II, Kleinsinger was music supervisor with the 2nd Service Command, Army Service Forces. Kleinsinger held a Bachelor of Science degree from New York University. 8

9 Marian Arnold Marian Arnold regularly arrives at the ABC studios, where she presents Your Requests, with a violin slung over her shoulder. Recent successes in music exams have made a smile of delight hard to erase. It was the accidental discovery, when moving house, of a ½-size instrument which led Marian to take up the violin seriously as an adult. After earlier studies in singing and music criticism both in Australia and London, the sound of the violin is so close to the singing voice, it just felt like the right fit. She is a graduate of the University of Sydney and began her career as a high school music teacher. But the performing streak proved rather seductive, and she spent most of her 20s as a singer. These days Marian s major performing outlet is radio presentation. She has worked for ABC Classic FM in the dual roles of producer and presenter since 1981 and has worked in almost every timeslot, including being the first regular weekday morning presenter. She thoroughly enjoys her Your Requests program, one of the highest rating shows on the network, which she has hosted for almost two decades. Marian also regularly presents broadcasts of live music-making, including performances by the Sydney Symphony and Sunday Live, and has presented every SIPCA (Sydney International Piano Competition of Australia) since Marian says, Radio is a craft, and you have to want to learn it. Presenting music on radio has taught me to listen to listen fast, and to listen slow. What does that mean? It means never to let the music pass by unnoticed; to hear every note, whatever the tempo and however complex or simple. I had 9

10 one correspondent who wrote in to me to say that Bach sounded like a jumble of notes. My advice was to start by listening to slow movements, accustom the ear to listening to harmonic progression and melodic direction, and then build the understanding and speed from there. Of course, that s just one way of approaching great and complex music. The other thing presenting music has taught me is to listen for its import and impact; to listen emotionally. One way or another, I just can t imagine a day going by without music. Emma Ayres Emma Ayres, presenter of Classic Breakfast, is a graduate of the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, the Berlin Hochschule der Kunste and London s Royal Academy. She credits her desire to break down the barriers surrounding classical music to the period she spent studying with William Pleeth, Milan Škampa and members of the Amadeus Quartet. Following her studies, Emma worked with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra for many years as a violist. A seminal moment came when Emma was cycling from Shropshire in England to Hong Kong for charity. The nine-month solo trip allowed for a lot of thinking-time and led Emma to decide two things: learn the cello, and try her hand at radio. She arrived in Australia in 2003 and after the classic new-immigrant job of dishwasher, began working for ABC Classic FM in Her work hours have gradually become earlier and earlier and she has been hosting Classic Breakfast since the beginning of

11 The alarm goes off at 5am every day. I cycle to work, try not to drink too much coffee and by the time the music starts, things are pretty chipper. How could they not be, being in a small room with Mozart, the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Jordi Savall and the best musicians in the world? I ve learnt a lot about Australia and experienced an incredibly warm welcome here. Radio is such an intimate form of communication you can be a friend for a lot of people and the power of music is hard to overstate. It can be cathartic to forget about the visual, and music allows us space. Emma teaches the cello to people of all ages; her oldest student is 72 and she firmly believes in our ability to learn an instrument at any age. It s simply the challenges which change! These days Emma still cycles most places, often with a cello or viola strapped to her back. I ve recently started learning the ukulele it s a fun sound, very versatile and cheap. Oh, and light! Christopher Lawrence Christopher Lawrence s career spans more than 25 years of broadcasting. He has written and produced documentaries (ranging from the love life of the French composer Hector Berlioz to a history of the songs and stories of Australian waterfront workers), presented an interview series for the Ovation television cable channel, and conducted most of Australia s capital city symphony orchestras. As a producer of orchestral and opera recordings he has been awarded an International Emmy for Performing Arts, three ARIA 11

12 (Australian Record Industry Association) Awards, a Churchill Fellowship, and the Editors Choice Award at the 1992 Cannes Classical Awards in France. Christopher worked extensively in the studio with the late Stuart Challender and the Sydney Symphony on a series of breakthrough recordings of Australian music. He also accompanied them on their historic Bicentennial Tour of the USA in 1988, producing recordings with Dame Joan Sutherland in the Kennedy Center and the United Nations General Assembly Hall. Christopher was the first presenter of Radio National s The Music Show on Saturday mornings, discussing recording techniques with kd lang, and the art of singing while running uphill with Julie Andrews (along with hundreds of other interviews). He is best known for his work with ABC Classic FM, presenting the network s Breakfast and Drive programs between 1994 and The three Swoon collection CDs that evolved out of his Breakfast program broke sales records in the Australian classical music industry, each achieving Platinum status. He has also worked extensively on ABC Local Radio, presenting Evenings and Breakfast on 702 ABC Sydney, Afternoons on 936 ABC Hobart, and the series Bakelite Express on Networked Local Radio across the country. While based in the UK, he was a regular guest commentator for the live-to-air BBC Proms telecasts. In 1999 Christopher was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Communications by the University of Central Queensland for his career in broadcasting. Christopher has written three best-selling books: Swooning A Classical Music Guide to Life, Love, Lust and Other Follies; Hymns of the Forefathers, based on his documentary series about the history of hymns seen on ABC TV; and Swing Symphony. 12

13 Judy Horacek Judy Horacek loves the idea of conducting an orchestra, but sadly has no skills in that area whatsoever. Instead she draws cartoons, which have been widely published in newspapers and magazines and can be found on fridges and toilet doors all over the world. Judy has published seven cartoon collections for grown-ups, the most recent of which is If You Can t Stand the Heat (Scribe, 2010). Her first book for children, Where is the Green Sheep?, created with Mem Fox, (Penguin, 2004) quickly became a children s classic. Since then she has published four picture books of her own, including The Story of Growl (Penguin, 2007) and Yellow Is My Favourite Colour (Penguin, 2010). 13

14 Executive Producers Martin Buzacott, Robert Patterson Recording Producer, Editing and Mastering Virginia Read Recording Engineers Virginia Read 1-, Veronika Vincze - Narration Recording, Editing and Mastering Virginia Read Editorial and Production Manager Hilary Shrubb Publications Editor Natalie Shea Cover Illustration Judy Horacek Booklet Design Imagecorp Pty Ltd Music recorded December 2009 in the Eugene Goossens Hall, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Ultimo 1- and 12 May 2010 in Federation Concert Hall, Hobart -. Narrations recorded 30 September 1-, 1 October - and 5 October in the Eugene Goossens Hall, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Ultimo. ABC Classics thanks Judy Horacek; Donica Bettanin (Jenny Darling and Associates); Amanda Harris; Richard Buckham and John Crawford (ABC Classic FM); Christine Chan (Hal Leonard Australia); Claudia Crosariol (narrative text preparation), Laura Bell and Katherine Kemp. For the Sydney Symphony Orchestra Managing Director Rory Jeffes Director of Artistic Planning Peter Czornyj Artistic Administration Manager Raff Wilson Recording Enterprises Executive Philip Powers Director of Orchestra Management Aernout Kerbert The Young Person s Guide to the Orchestra by Benjamin Britten is published by Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers Ltd of London. Ma Mère L Oye, Five Children s Pieces by Maurice Ravel, is published by Editions Durand-Salabert-Eschig of Paris. Tubby The Tuba by George Kleinsinger, lyrics by Paul Tripp, is published by Music Theatre International of New York 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. 14 For the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra Managing Director Nicholas Heyward Manager, Artistic Planning Simon Rogers Concertmaster Jun Yi Ma Orchestra Manager Greg Low Orchestral Coordinator Evan Woodroffe

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18 ABC THE YOUNG PERSON S GUIDE TO THE ORCHESTRA CHRISTOPHER LAWRENCE MARIAN ARNOLD EMMA AYRES With dazzling illustrations by one of Australia s finest cartoonists, Judy Horacek, this album of children s classics will make your imagination take flight! Join ABC Classic FM personalities Christopher Lawrence, Marian Arnold and Emma Ayres as they take you on a journey of musical discovery from Britten to Ravel to Kleinsinger with the Sydney and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras. 1- BRITTEN The Young Person s Guide to the Orchestra Narrated by Christopher Lawrence. Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Benjamin Northey conductor - RAVEL Mother Goose Suite Narrated by Marian Arnold. Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Benjamin Northey conductor - KLEINSINGER Tubby the Tuba Narrated by Emma Ayres. Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Marc Taddei conductor 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. THE YOUNG PERSON S GUIDE TO THE ORCHESTRA CHRISTOPHER LAWRENCE MARIAN ARNOLD EMMA AYRES ABC