Elgar. Essentially. Local knowledge. National experience pm Federation Concert Hall

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MASTER 2 Essentially Elgar Local knowledge. National experience.

For Page Seager it is about delivering premium legal services to our clients, whilst for the TSO it is about performing world class music.

their legal and business issues. Page Seager is a proud supporter and partner of the TSO. FRIDAY 27 March 7.

molto Adagio Allegro Moderato Allegro, ma non troppo Duration 30 mins Duration 20 mins INTERVAL KELLY Elegy for Strings In Memoriam Rupert Brooke Duration 8 mins ELGAR

Townshend, author IV (W M B) William Meath Baker, nicknamed the Squire V (R P A) Richard Penrose Arnold, son of Matthew Arnold VI (Ysobel) Isabel Fitton, viola player

Intermezzo Dora Penny, later Mrs Richard Powell XI (G R S) Dr G R Sinclair, organist of Hereford Cathedral XII (B G N) Basil G Nevinson, cellist in Elgar s trio XIII

1 MASTER 2 Essentially Elgar Local knowledge. National experience. Just like the TSO, Page Seager brings together a group of talented individuals who have a common objective. For Page Seager it is about delivering premium legal services to our clients, whilst for the TSO it is about performing world class music. As Tasmania s largest group of specialist lawyers, Page Seager builds long term relationships with its clients by working closely with them to develop solutions to their legal and business issues. Page Seager is a proud supporter and partner of the TSO. FRIDAY 27 March 7.30pm Federation Concert Hall Garry Walker conductor Nicolas Altstaedt cello SCHULTZ August Offensive Duration 8 mins ELGAR Cello Concerto Adagio Moderato Lento Allegro molto Adagio Allegro Moderato Allegro, ma non troppo Duration 30 mins Duration 20 mins INTERVAL KELLY Elegy for Strings In Memoriam Rupert Brooke Duration 8 mins ELGAR Enigma Variations I (C A E) Caroline Alice Elgar, the composer s wife II (H D S-P) Hew David Steuart-Powell, pianist in Elgar s trio III (R B T) Richard Baxter Townshend, author IV (W M B) William Meath Baker, nicknamed the Squire V (R P A) Richard Penrose Arnold, son of Matthew Arnold VI (Ysobel) Isabel Fitton, viola player VII (Troyte) Arthur Troyte Griffith, architect VIII (W N) Winifred Norbury IX (Nimrod) August Johannes Jaeger, reader for the publisher Novello & Co X (Dorabella) Intermezzo Dora Penny, later Mrs Richard Powell XI (G R S) Dr G R Sinclair, organist of Hereford Cathedral XII (B G N) Basil G Nevinson, cellist in Elgar s trio XIII (***) Romanza Lady Mary Lygon, later Trefusis XIV (E D U) Finale Elgar himself ( Edu being his nickname) Duration 29 mins This concert will end at approximately 9.30pm. Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra concerts are broadcast and streamed throughout Australia and around the world by ABC Classic FM. We would appreciate your cooperation in keeping coughing to a minimum. Please ensure that your mobile phone is switched off. 39

Andrew Schultz (born 1960) August Offensive, Op 92 August Offensive had its premiere at the Anzac Day dawn service at Gallipoli, Turkey, on 25 April 2013.

and Turkish composers to eventually form a ten-movement symphony for performance in 2015 the centenary of the Anzac landing.

But Andrew Schultz s August Offensive takes its subject matter from events later that year.

2 Andrew Schultz (born 1960) August Offensive, Op 92 August Offensive had its premiere at the Anzac Day dawn service at Gallipoli, Turkey, on 25 April It was commissioned by the Australian Government s Department of Veterans Affairs as part of the Gallipoli Symphony project, which has entailed the commissioning of works by Australian, New Zealand and Turkish composers to eventually form a ten-movement symphony for performance in 2015 the centenary of the Anzac landing. In terms of Australia s First World War observances, the date that stands out is 25 April, the day on which Australian and New Zealand troops first landed on Turkey s Gallipoli Peninsula in But Andrew Schultz s August Offensive takes its subject matter from events later that year. By August, Anzacs and other British imperial troops remained dug-in to the cliff sides at Gallipoli, whilst British and French troops had a toe-hold on Helles Point on the southern tip of the peninsula. The Turkish Offensive of 19 May had failed to push the Anzacs back into the sea, and it was decided that the Allies should hazard another push inland. The plan included diversions at Lone Pine and Helles Point and an attack at The Nek (the climax of Peter Weir s film, Gallipoli). The main force was to take Chunuk Bair (Çonk Bayırı) and Hill 971 and secure the Turkish heights while the British landed reinforcements and began climbing up from Suvla Bay. The plan failed dismally. The attacks became uncoordinated; some troops even got lost in the ravines leading up to the heights. At the Nek within half an hour on 7 August, 234 men lay dead and 138 wounded in an area no longer than a tennis court. While New Zealanders, with British units, captured Chunuk Bair, the Turks forced the Allies off. Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty, had predicted a military episode not inferior in glory to any that the history of war records. By 17 August, General Hamilton had to admit that this offensive had failed. Later in the month there were Garry Walker Scottish-born Garry Walker studied cello and conducting at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester and won the Leeds Conductors Competition in Previous appointments include Permanent Guest Conductor with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Principal Guest Conductor of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Principal Conductor of the Paragon Ensemble. He is now Visiting Professor of Conducting at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and has a close association with Scottish-based contemporary music group Red Note Ensemble. He has collaborated with soloists including Maxim Vengerov, Truls Mørk, Mischa Maisky, James Ehnes, David Geringas and Branford Marsalis. He has worked with all the BBC orchestras, the Hallé, Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, English Northern Philharmonia and the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland. He regularly appears at the Edinburgh Festival and has performed with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra at the St Magnus Festival; with the English Chamber Orchestra in Lisbon and at the City of London Festival; and with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields at the Barbican s Mostly Mozart Festival. Elsewhere he has appeared with the Nieuw Ensemble, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Luxembourg Philharmonic, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Collegium Musicum in Denmark, Musikkollegium Winterthur, Utah Symphony Orchestra, and the Melbourne and Adelaide Symphony Orchestras. Nicolas Altstaedt Nicolas Altstaedt is the winner of the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship (2009) and the Credit Suisse Young Artist Award (2010). As a BBC New Generation Artist ( ) he has performed at the Proms and Wigmore Hall, and with all of the BBC Orchestras. Highlights from previous seasons include concerts with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra; Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich; Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra; Tapiola Sinfonietta; Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra; the Berlin, Stuttgart, Frankfurt and Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestras; Melbourne Symphony Orchestra; New Zealand Symphony Orchestra; Auckland Philharmonia; Bamberg Symphony; the Munich, Zurich and Stuttgart Chamber Orchestras; Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra; Czech Philharmonic; Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana; Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra; and Orchestre symphonique de Québec. He feels a deep commitment towards contemporary music, having given the Swiss première of Georg Friedrich Haas Concerto for Cello, the UK première of Wolfgang Rihm s cello concerto Versuchung, and the world première of Fazil Say s cello sonata Dört Sehir at the Kronberg Cello Festival. In addition, he premièred pieces from Thomas Larcher and Raphael Merlin for violin and cello at the Concertgebouw. Nicolas Altstaedt was one of Boris Pergamenschikow s last students in Berlin, where he continued his studies with Eberhard Feltz. In 2012 he succeeded Gidon Kremer as the new artistic director of the Lockenhaus Chamber Music Festival. Andrew Schultz costly and ultimately fruitless attempts to break out of Suvla, and these were the last major battles of the Gallipoli campaign. Adelaide-born composer Andrew Schultz has written a number of works expressing horror at war and violence. His 2001 opera Going into Shadows deals with terrorism. Beach Burial is a choral setting of Kenneth Slessor s great World War II poem about the makeshift burial of bodies washed ashore after a great sea battle. A lot is wound into August Offensive s unremitting eight minutes. You might note the sound of the suspended cymbal dry and crisp like the sound of diggers digging on hard, dry ground. Having read the military history of the events, Schultz was struck by the constant digging that went on during the months on Gallipoli. The piece also begins and ends with a whistle blast an idea taken from the trench whistles used to signal attack. So the piece is in some ways the battle scene. The technically minded may hear polymetres, but there is violence as well as lament for those events in August 1915 that cost so many young lives. Gordon Kalton Williams 2015 This is the first performance of this work by the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra 40 41

Edward Elgar (1857-1934) Cello Concerto in E minor, Op 85 Adagio Moderato Lento Allegro molto Adagio Allegro Moderato Allegro, ma non troppo Elgar s career reached its last zenith with his Violin

3 Edward Elgar ( ) Cello Concerto in E minor, Op 85 Adagio Moderato Lento Allegro molto Adagio Allegro Moderato Allegro, ma non troppo Elgar s career reached its last zenith with his Violin Concerto in 1910, and Second Symphony in 1911, works into which he claimed I have written out my soul shewn myself. Between them and this 1919 Cello Concerto, his last major work, Elgar faced down worsening prospects in almost every aspect of his life, from the personal challenges of age, ill-health and bereavement, to the professional affront of being elbowed aside by younger colleagues. There was also the war. While Britain s youth marched into France in August 1914 singing It s a long way to Tipperary, Elgar s Land of Hope and Glory, composed during the Boer War as trio of his first Pomp and Circumstance March (1901), was remobilised at home as a patriotic anthem. Rendered semi-superfluous by his own old tune, the 57-year old composer struggled to find a new wartime voice in works like Carillon, a musically slight but eloquent response to the tragedy in Belgium, recorded for gramophone in 1915, that here in Australia became his next-mostpopular contribution to the war effort. His more substantial choral score, The Spirit of England, setting war poems by Laurence Binyon, was introduced to Britons in 1916 and 1917, when the nation was deep in the hostilities, but reached almost celebratory first performances in Melbourne and Sydney in July-August 1918, just as Allied victory seemed assured. Still, it was Binyon s lines commemorating the millions fallen They shall grow not old Age shall not weary them and not Elgar s music for them, that everyone remembered. Edward Elgar Binyon, by day, was a curator at the British Museum under Elgar s close friend, Sidney Colvin, the keeper of prints and drawings, and Colvin first suggested Elgar turn them into the wonderful Requiem for the slain that The Spirit of England became. Binyon himself approached Elgar again immediately the Armistice was declared with a request to set his new ode Peace. But by letter on 18 November 1918, Elgar demurred: I do not feel drawn to write peace music somehow the whole atmosphere is too full of complexities for me to feel music to it. He had anyway, as his wife Alice recorded in her diary, already conceived another lament which should be in a war symphony, music that evolved over the spring and summer of 1919 into a real large work & I think good and alive, as he described the nearly completed concerto in a letter to Colvin and his wife Frances on 26 June, asking permission to dedicate it to them. I do not feel drawn to write peace music somehow the whole atmosphere is too full of complexities for me to feel music to it. The score is laid out in four movements, though listeners tend to hear the first and second movements, played without break, as a single span. Whereas his Violin Concerto opened into a conventionally spacious orchestral introduction, pending the princely arrival of its soloist, Elgar sets his cello in a more intimate frame. Denied welcoming brass or upper strings, the brief opening cello recitative (Adagio) sets its own unusually paredback terms hereinafter will be lyricism, light orchestration, simple layouts. The violas, eerily unaccompanied, announce the dreamy, modal, much-loved main theme (Moderato), its rocking rhythm Elgar s characteristic pastoral lilt. The winds introduce the airy, major-tending contrasting theme, which the cello then sets about varying, before the main theme simply returns. A longer, second cello recitative (Lento) inducts into faster, lighter scherzo-like Allegro molto, the cello driving the music forward with its scrubbing semiquavers. Elgar anticipated that the Adagio, despite its anticipatory half-close, would often be played without the rest of the concerto, and scored it with just strings and wind sextet. The cello melody gives the uncanny impression of being an internal dialogue between two separate voices, higher and lower, each merging in and out of the countermelodies of the supporting strings. The finale opens, exceptionally, announcing its fragmentary theme (Allegro) without the cello. The cello then reworks it in a parenthetic recitative and short cadenza (Moderato), before it takes over fully (Allegro, ma non troppo). The soloist sweetly but firmly pulls the music up, introducing its arcing subsidiary idea, then carried on by flowing semiquavers into the extensive development. There s a heady reprise of the fast theme, echoes of earlier quiet asides, and a penultimate throwback to the concerto s opening gesture, caught up into a rapid, surging close. Graeme Skinner 2014 The Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra first performed this work with conductor Joseph Post and soloist John Kennedy in Hobart on 9 June 1962 and, most recently, with Marko Letonja and Sue-Ellen Paulsen in Hobart and Launceston on 23 and 24 November

Frederick Septimus Kelly (1881-1916) Edward Elgar Elegy for Strings In Memoriam Rupert Brooke Frederick Septimus Kelly, though Australian, won rowing gold for Britain at the 1908 Olympics.

4 Frederick Septimus Kelly ( ) Edward Elgar Elegy for Strings In Memoriam Rupert Brooke Frederick Septimus Kelly, though Australian, won rowing gold for Britain at the 1908 Olympics. He fought and died a decorated Empire loyalist and British hero for all that his father was Irish. Born in Sydney, Kelly attended Sydney Grammar School before studying at Eton and then Oxford, where he was mentored by Sir Donald Francis Tovey. Between 1903 and 1908 he studied piano under Ernst Engesser and composition with Iwan Knorr at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt. He was to leave a small but substantial legacy: mostly songs and works for piano, chamber groupings and orchestra. He made his public debut as a pianist in Sydney in 1911, and the following year in London, after years as a grand amateur heard only in the stately homes of his wellconnected friends, he turned professional. He performed recitals at the Aeolian Hall and concertos under Sir George Henschel and Sir Henry Wood, as well as conducting concerts by Pablo Casals and violinist Jelly d Arányi. Kelly seemed about to launch a new career as a patron when he became chairman of the influential Classical Concert Society, sponsoring Maurice Ravel in 1913 and appearing with him at Bechstein Hall (now Wigmore Hall). War intervened. Kelly enlisted in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve s Hood Battalion, fighting at Gallipoli and on the Somme where he was shot in the head leading a successful attack on a German machine gun post. He is buried in the Martinsart British Cemetery in France, the only Australian there. Kelly s Elegy in Memoriam Rupert Brooke originated in the poet s tragic death and the composer s participation in his burial on the Greek island of Skyros on 23 April 1915 as their battalion prepared to land at Gallipoli. With the nine-minute work for string orchestra and (later) harp still not committed to paper, he wrote on 21 May: The modal character of the music seems Frederick Septimus Kelly to be suggested by the Greek surroundings as well as Rupert s character, some passage work by the rustling of the olive tree which bends over his grave. Wounded at Gallipoli, Kelly completed the work on 27 June 1915 whilst recuperating in Alexandria, and wrote: It is so entirely bound up with Rupert Brooke and the circumstances of his burial that in a sense I feel myself the chronicler of its ideas rather than the composer The work is a true portrayal of my feelings on that night the passionless simplicity of the surroundings with occasionally a note of personal anguish. On leave in London, Kelly played the Elegy as a piano short score on 7 March 1916 at 10 Downing Street and later before the Gallipoli commander, General Sir Ian Hamilton. Some months later he added the harp part at the suggestion of his friend, pianist Leonard Borwick. The Elegy had its first orchestrally realised performance in the Rugby School Speech Room on 28 March 1919, with Frank Bridge conducting, at a memorial concert for Rupert Brooke. Therese Radic 2015 This is the first performance of this work by the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. Variations on an Original Theme, Op 36 Enigma I (C A E) Caroline Alice Elgar, the composer s wife II (H D S-P) Hew David Steuart-Powell, pianist in Elgar s trio III (R B T) Richard Baxter Townshend, author IV (W M B) William Meath Baker, nicknamed the Squire V (R P A) Richard Penrose Arnold, son of Matthew Arnold VI (Ysobel) Isabel Fitton, viola player VII (Troyte) Arthur Troyte Griffith, architect VIII (W N) Winifred Norbury IX (Nimrod) August Johannes Jaeger, reader for the publisher Novello & Co X (Dorabella) Intermezzo Dora Penny, later Mrs Richard Powell XI (G R S) Dr G R Sinclair, organist of Hereford Cathedral XII (B G N) Basil G Nevinson, cellist in Elgar s trio XIII (***) Romanza Lady Mary Lygon, later Trefusis XIV (E D U) Finale Elgar himself ( Edu being his nickname) The Enigma Variations was a timely success. Elgar had sought recognition in London in the late 1880s but there were few performances of his works, and he and his wife, Caroline Alice, had returned to Worcestershire. Elgar felt defeated. Selfconscious of his social status and provincial origins, he bitterly toyed with taking up a trade. But things began to look up with performances of his cantatas in the 1890s. One night in October, 1898, Elgar started doodling at the piano and chanced upon a brief theme. It was in G minor, the key of Mozart s Symphony No 40 which Elgar had once reworked bar-for-bar into an original composition. In its almost arbitrary contour and halting mix of crotchets and quavers, the melody had great potential for wide-ranging development. Elgar started imagining how certain friends might have varied it. This work, when completed, would single-handedly turn around the composer s career. It was premièred at St James s Hall, London, on 19 June 1899 under the influential conductor, Hans Richter. One night in October, 1898, Elgar started doodling at the piano and chanced upon a brief theme the melody had great potential for wide-ranging development. In the variations, Elgar s friends are identified only by their initials. Elgar said that their identity should not matter to the audience-member who nose nuffin (a typical piece of Elgarian humorous spelling), but it is enjoyable for modernday audiences to think how Elgar has portrayed them. Elgar biographer Michael Kennedy says Elgar chose friends whose idiosyncrasies suggested music to him. Dora Penny, for example, had a stammer. Pianist H D Steuart-Powell would warm up with a diatonic scale pattern over the keyboard. Variation VII depicts Arthur Troyte Griffith s drumming fortes. Viola player, Isabel Fitton, Ysobel, had trouble performing music where the strings had to be crossed. The Hereford Cathedral organist, Dr G R Sinclair, was actually represented by his dog Dan falling down the steep bank into the river Wye, paddling upstream to a landing-place and barking joyously on landing. The cello features prominently in Variation 12 a tribute to Basil Nevinson who would later inspire Elgar s Cello Concerto. Mendelssohn s Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage is quoted in Variation 13, said to depict Lady Mary Lygon s departure for Australia where her brother, Earl Beauchamp, had been appointed Governor of New South Wales. The most famous variation, Nimrod, has perhaps the most interesting musical association. It is a musical portrait of 44 45

During one of Elgar s regular slumps in morale, Jaeger had taken Edu (from Edoo, Alice Elgar s name for him) for a walk and reminded him that whenever Beethoven was troubled he poured his

5 Elgar s publisher, A E Jaeger, and is called Nimrod ( the mighty hunter before the Lord ) because Jaeger means hunter in German. This work, when completed, would single-handedly turn around the composer s career. During one of Elgar s regular slumps in morale, Jaeger had taken Edu (from Edoo, Alice Elgar s name for him) for a walk and reminded him that whenever Beethoven was troubled he poured his frustrations into still more beautiful compositions. He and Elgar agreed that Beethoven s slow movements were incomparable and in the opening bars of Nimrod, Elgar quoted the slow movement from Beethoven s Pathétique Sonata. The final variation is Elgar himself. As for the enigma, the word written-in later over the theme, Elgar said its dark saying must be left unguessed In his book on the Variations, Julian Rushton says that it s undoubtedly Elgar himself. He used the theme as signature in letters to Dora Penny. Elgar also hinted that you could play another more familiar tune over the top. Many have tried to guess this implied theme s identity, but knowing or not knowing doesn t affect enjoyment of the work. The Enigma Variations, Elgar s tribute to his friends, was the first work in which Elgar was wholly himself he had written nothing of sustained originality when he first went to London and it spawned success. Great works such as the Sea Pictures and The Dream of Gerontius quickly followed. Gordon Kalton Williams 2013 The Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra first performed this work with conductor Kenneth Murison Bourn in Hobart on 11 November 1954 and, most recently, with Howard Shelley in Hobart and Launceston on 6 and 7 May When it comes time to do our wills, we of course take care of our closest loved ones and family. Once they are provided for why not consider a bequest to the TSO? Nicholas Heyward TSO Foundation Bequest Appeal Few things can touch us the way music can and live orchestral music offers an experience like no other. The enjoyment of live music is one of life s great collective experiences. Supporting the TSO through making a bequest will ensure future generations will experience the thrill, joy and emotional richness of live orchestral music. Marko Letonja When you make the decision to leave a bequest to the TSO Foundation Trust, you should seek assistance from your solicitor or estate planner to draft this intention in your will. Most of our supporters express their wishes in one of the following ways: A Pecuniary Bequest is a gift of a nominated sum of money to a named beneficiary such as the TSO Foundation. A Specific Bequest is the gift of real property, such as a house or shares. A Residuary Bequest refers to the remainder of an estate after all debts and costs have paid and all other specifically named beneficiaries have received their legacies. A Stated Purpose Bequest. It is possible to leave a bequest to the TSO Foundation Trust to enable the capital to be used for a stated purpose. When you make a bequest to the TSO Foundation Trust and advise us of your intended gift, you become a member of the Sculthorpe Society. You ll join a group of donors who have committed to leaving a bequest and who come together to share their special involvement with the orchestra; to stay connected to the TSO family; to learn about its achievements; and to celebrate its important cultural work in the community

Local knowledge. National experience.

Local knowledge. National experience. Just like the TSO, Page Seager brings together a group of talented individuals who have a common objective. For Page Seager it is about delivering premium legal services