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AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA 3

SPEED READIs Mozart’s Eine kleine Nachtmusik the most instantly recognisable piece of classical music? If not, it’s high on the list. One wonders what Mozart would make of its fame, given that he left no record of why or for whom it was written. Still, since its re-discovery in the 1820s it has given near-ceaseless pleasure to generations of listeners.

Hillborg’s clarinet concerto, Peacock Tales, was written with the charismatic and dynamic fi gure of Martin Fröst in mind, and the piece has become so closely associated with Fröst it’s diffi cult to imagine it being played by anyone else. Involving dance, mime, masks and lighting, it’s the very model of a modern clarinet concerto.

Brahms wrote his Hungarian Dances for the piano, but they’ve proved infi nitely versatile, being arranged and rearranged through the years for many combinations of instruments. Indeed these lively dance tunes have been credited with directly infl uencing the development of ragtime.

Copland wrote his clarinet concerto for the virtuoso (and Swing-era bandleader) Benny Goodman, so it’s no surprise that it’s rife with jazz-infl uenced riffs and rhythms. It’s not just showy, though, being imbued with a sanguine lyricism equally perfect for the clarinet’s distinct characteristics.

Ravel’s String Quartet is one of the fi rst major chamber compositions of the 20th century, although initially it baffl ed listeners (and its dedicatee, Fauré, who described the last movement ‘a failure’). Time has redeemed it, though, and it is now regarded as an essential chamber work, and key to an understanding of Ravel’s innovative personal idiom.

TOUR THREEGLITTERING FRÖSTRICHARD TOGNETTI Artistic Director and Lead Violin

MARTIN FRÖST Clarinet

Th e Australian Chamber Orchestra reserves the right to alter scheduled

programs or artists as necessary.

Approximate duration (minutes):

16 – 21 – 8 – INTERVAL – 17 – 28

Th e concert will last approximately 2 hours including interval.

NEWCASTLE

Town Hall

Th u 12 May 7.30pm

CANBERRA

Llewellyn Hall

Sat 14 May 8pm

MELBOURNE

Town Hall

Sun 15 May 2.30pm

Mon 16 May 8pm

ADELAIDE

Town Hall

Tue 17 May 8pm

PERTH

Concert Hall

Wed 18 May 7.30pm

SYDNEY

Opera House

Sun 22 May 2pm

SYDNEY

City Recital Hall

Angel Place

Tue 24 May 8pm

Wed 25 May 7pm

Sat 28 May 7pm

WOLLONGONG

IPAC

Th u 26 May 7.30pm

MOZART

Eine kleine Nachtmusik

HILLBORG

Peacock Tales

(Australian premiere)

BRAHMS (arr. Fröst)

Hungarian Dances

INTERVAL

COPLAND

Clarinet Concerto

RAVEL (arr. Tognetti)

String Quartet

Cover photo: Aiko Goto © Gary Heery


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ACO ON THE RADIOABC Classic FM:

Sat 7 May 1.05pm

Richard Tognetti & the ACO: Schubert’s Unfi nished Symphony, Brahms’ Symphony No.1 & Jonny Greenwood’s Popcorn Superhet Receiver.

Thu 2 Jun 1.05pm

Richard Tognetti, Martin Fröst and the ACO: Mozart, Brahms, Ravel, Copland & Hillborg.

NEXT TOURBAROQUE VIRTUOSI3 — 14 July

MESSAGE FROM THE GENERAL MANAGER

We are thrilled to present the superb Swedish clarinettist

Martin Fröst in a program of music which reveals so many

characteristics of this fascinating musician. As well as his

performances all over the country, Martin is also making

a CD with the ACO while he’s here in Australia, on the

BIS label.

Apart from welcoming a very special guest soloist to the

ACO, this tour sees the very welcome return of Principal

Second Violin Helena Rathbone after the birth of her son

Jack. It’s wonderful to have Helena back with us and I

know that audiences around the country will be delighted

to see her rejoin her colleagues in the Orchestra.

Th is national tour has been made possible thanks to the

generous support of our National Tour Partner Vanguard

Investments. Vanguard fi rst supported the ACO in 2008

for our tour of Japan and have since become annual

sponsors of our national tours. We are very grateful to

have such wonderful partners to work with, enabling the

ACO to reach the whole country through our extensive

national touring network.

As soon as the last chord of Ravel’s String Quartet recedes

into the distance at the end of this national tour, Richard

Tognetti and the ACO will embark on a short but highly

prestigious tour to California. Our great friend and

musical collaborator Dawn Upshaw, Music Director of the

famous Ojai Festival, has invited the ACO to be this year’s

orchestra in residence at Ojai and our concerts there will

take place in the newly inaugurated Libbey Bowl – the

specially-constructed outdoor music bowl in the idyllic

garden setting of Ventura County – over the weekend of

10–12 June. Th is will be the ACO’s fi rst international tour

for 2011, with further concerts later in the year in Seoul,

Tokyo, London, Vienna and Amsterdam. For our European

Tour in November-December, our friends at Alumni

Travel are putting together an accompanying tour for

ACO supporters, so why not join us? Further details on

page 35.

TIMOTHY CALNIN

GENERAL MANAGER

AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA


MOZART

Serenade No.13 in G major, K.525,

“Eine kleine Nachtmusik”

(Composed 1787)

I Allegro

II Romanze: Andante

III Menuetto: Allegretto

IV Rondo: Allegro

Mozart’s “little serenade” hardly requires introduction

or special pleading. It is simply one of the most famous

and best-loved works by the most famous and best-

loved of composers. Mozart himself apparently didn’t

consider it worth publishing: it was sold as a mixed bag

of papers by his widow Constanze in 1799 and only

published in 1827. We can thank Constanze Mozart’s

tireless eff orts in promoting her husband’s music for

Wolfgang’s “canonisation”; it also got her out of hock after

he died.

Mozart had, however, bothered to enter the piece (dated

August 10, 1787) in a catalogue he’d prepared for his

own reference where he gave it the Germanised title

we know and love. Th e lilt of the phrase “Eine kleine

Nachtmusik” defi nitely adds something to the appeal of

the work, and a touch of nocturnal mystery, but it would

have been quite ordinary to Mozart: a short serenade, in

contrast to some of his other serenades like the famous

one for winds (the Gran Partita in B fl at, K.361) which

lasts about an hour. For the 18th-century listener, the

serenade had connotations of evening time (in Italian,

sera) frivolity. Mozart probably would be surprised to

learn that we were sitting down politely and seriously

listening to his serenades in the formal environment of

a concert hall. We should be in the salon, drink in hand,

enjoying it as background music at an aristocratic party.

Like Mozart’s other serenades, Eine kleine Nachtmusik

is “occasional” music, composed on commission for a

particular event, the nature of which is lost to history.

Most of Mozart’s serenades are intimate and call for

a relatively modest number of instruments but Eine

kleine Nachtmusik is especially minimal and, unusually,

scored for strings only, just two violins, viola and cello

with optional double bass, so it can be played by a string

quartet, quintet or orchestra. Th e other serenades are

for winds, better suited to outdoor playing. To thicken

what might be an otherwise wiry sonority, Mozart uses

Mozart was the single greatest composer of the Classical period and remains one of music’s foremost geniuses. A master both of the highbrow and the common touch, he has delighted audiences and inspired performers from his time until now.

Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART(born Salzburg, 1756 — died Vienna, 1791)

ACO Performance History

Mozart’s Eine kleine Nachtmusik has been played in ACO subscription concerts in only one year — 1991 — and for only 3 performances.

8 AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA

techniques like double and triple stopping, busy textures,

and the whole group in unison in the rising arpeggio

fanfares that open the piece, which also uses an attention-

grabbing virtuoso gesture known as the premier coup

d’archet.

Th e fi rst movement unfolds in a textbook sonata form: an

exposition of two contrasting themes, a tension-building

move to a related key in the development (where one

of the themes undergoes transformation and variation)

and fi nally the recapitulation where both themes return

and fi nd a rapprochement. As academic as it sounds on

paper, this movement is anything but in performance

where its bustle and energy carry us eff ortlessly through

the argument. Th e slower Romanze features one of

Mozart’s most beguiling tunes, and one of the few true

intimations of night comes in its central C-minor passage,

where a scrap of an ornamental fi gure is developed

with a slightly obsessive quality. Th e courtly Frenchifi ed

Menuet uses a trick called a hemiola for a rhythmic

twist, undermining the prevailing three-pulses-in-a-bar

(like a waltz) with accents that make it feel like there are

sometimes two pulses. In the Rondo fi nale, a recurring

fi gure is interspersed with episodes of contrasting material.

Mozart ties a bow around the entire serenade by using a

theme derived from those arpeggios we heard right at the

beginning of the fi rst movement.

Mozart’s catalogue entry specifi es fi ve movements for

Eine kleine Nachtmusik, but the second menuet is lost

now. Th is, however, is a happy accident, for what remains

is a perfect Classical symphony in miniature. Th ough

designed to be listened to with only half our attention, it

doesn’t succeed very well as wallpaper music: it’s far too

captivating.

double stopping means playing two notes on one violin at the same time. Modern violins can play chords of up to three notes. Chords of four notes tend to be artfully “faked”.

arpeggio, from the Italian for “harp” (arpa), is a chord which is “broken” with one note played after the other in a harp-like fashion.

The premier coup d’archet was one of the techniques of the virtuoso orchestra at Mannheim and the school of composers that wrote for it. Powerful rhetorical gestures like the “rocket”, the “steam roller” and the “grand pause” add great excitement when executed perfectly. The premier coup d’archet — the fi rst strike of the bow — is a resounding unison attack at the opening of a piece which demonstrates the orchestra’s ensemble skills.

Further listening

It’s diffi cult to mention Mozart without noting that the second volume of Mozart Violin Concertos, recorded by Richard Tognetti and the ACO, is now available from aco.com.au/shop (BIS SACD 1755). This CD includes Violin Concertos Nos 1, 2 and 4 as well as the Rondo in C, K.371, and the Adagio in E, K.261.

The fi rst disc, including Violin Concerto 3 and 5 and the Sinfonia Concertante, is also available.


Anders HILLBORG (b. 1954, Stockholm, Sweden)

One of the most important of living Swedish composers, Hillborg is a master of instrumental and orchestral colour, creating evocative soundworlds. In his fl amboyant concerto writing in particular Hillborg is famed for requiring the utmost virtuosity from performers.

HILLBORG

Clarinet Concerto Peacock Tales

(Composed 1998; version with strings and piano

composed 2003)

Th e unabashedly maximalist music of Anders Hillborg

is a celebration of the sheer power of sound. Flamboyant

orchestral colours, vivid sonic “imagery” and theatrical

deployment of instruments and their players are just

some of the techniques in Hillborg’s arsenal. It is music

that fl oats like a butterfl y but stings like a bee. His friend

and colleague Esa-Pekka Salonen says: “the static and the

hyperactive, the mechanical and the human, the nobly

beautiful and the banally brutal, the comic and the moving.

Almost never sentimental, but surreal in a way – like

Dalí’s melting watches. And when something familiar does

return, it is in a ritardando and distorted so far from its

original guise that it becomes something quite diff erent…”

In one of his orchestral works, Eleven Gates, listeners are

ushered through sound-worlds with tantalising names like

“Toy Pianos on the Surface of the Sea”, and the music lives

up to this promise of sonic magic.

Hillborg gained his fi rst musical experience singing

in choirs and he was also involved in various forms

of improvised music. From 1976 to 1982 he studied

counterpoint, composition and electronic music at the

Royal College of Music in Stockholm. Brian Ferneyhough,

who was a guest lecturer at the College of Music on several

occasions, was also an important source of inspiration.

While Hillborg’s music rarely aspires towards the fearsome

complexity of Ferneyhough’s music, they do share a

preoccupation with gesture, sonority and theatre. For

example, the very act of performing one of Ferneyhough’s

scores (for the curious, the archetypal piece is a solo fl ute

work called Unity Capsule; search for it on YouTube)

creates a kind of miniature drama as the instrumentalist

tries (and probably to some extent fails) to perfectly realise

the impossibly dense thickets of notation. Th e struggle

between a musician, his instrument and the composer

can be surprisingly gripping, though obviously much is

lost without the visual element. Th is music attunes us to

the idea that in fact all public performance is a species

of theatre, even if it is “just” a pianist and her instrument

on a bare stage playing Chopin. Th e rituals of entering

the room, adjusting seats and stands, tuning, and fl icking

through musical scores are potentially all grist for the mill

in contemporary music.


Peacock Tales, as performed by Martin Fröst, is overtly

and boldly theatrical. Using masks, mime and sometimes

lighting, Fröst matches the drama inherent in the bold

gestures of Hillborg’s music with his own in a fl amboyant

narrative: a peacock-like display of virtuosity.

Th e concerto begins with a prelude in the form of a

clarinet solo that demonstrates the instrument’s huge

range and fl exibility and hinting at some of the motives

that will appear in other guises later in the work. Th e fi rst

two notes, a large upward leap, are a kind of motto, or a

signal which reappears at transitional moments. Hillborg

calls for the soloist to improvise over a huge string cluster

chord before the tension eases and the clarinet launches

into a semi-minimalist three-note riff . By alternating

rapidly between the dark low register and the piercing

upper register, Hillborg sometimes creates the illusion that

there are two clarinets playing. Other mysterious sounds

will come from the strings. More troubled and angular

rhythmic elements intrude – imagine Stravinsky crossed

with funk – until a fi nal crisis, wind-down and ethereal

fade out. Th is is music that audiences can readily absorb

on the fi rst hearing, but it’s not naïve or simple. With

its blend of old and new, theatre and concert it’s good

evidence that, as Hillborg says, “...experimentation and

tradition are not separate, but are constantly intertwined

in the process of composing.”

Further listening and reading

To explore Hillborg’s music further, try the CD Clang and Fury (PSCD52) which features works including Lamento and Celestial Mechanics, or the more recent album on Ondine Records (ODE 10062) which collects the Violin Concerto, the orchestral piece Liquid Marble, and the original full-orchestra version of Peacock Tales. (The string orchestra version will be recorded by Martin Fröst and the ACO after this tour, and released on BIS in 2012.) Hillborg maintains an informative personal website at hillborg.com.


BRAHMS

Hungarian Dances, WoO Nos. 1, 12, 13 & 21

(Published 1869–1880)

Arranged for clarinet and strings by Göran Fröst

No.1 in G minor: Allegro molto

No.12 in D minor: Presto

No.13 in D major: Andantino grazioso – Vivace

No.21 in E minor: Vivace

Brahms is not a composer generally known for his

lightness of spirit, yet the two books of Hungarian Dances

are a rare outburst of good humour. Consequently,

these are some of Brahms’s most popular and frequently

performed pieces in their various iterations for piano four-

hands, solo piano, piano and violin and fi nally orchestra.

He didn’t bestow them with an opus (work) number

(hence their designation WoO – Werke ohne Opuszahl)

so to some extent they stand outside the main corpus of

Brahms’s prodigious output for the piano, but they bear

all the hallmarks of his intimate understanding of the

instrument and his compositional prowess.

Th ese books of dances are not an exercise in

ethnomusicology – that would come later with composers

like Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály who conducted

rigorous fi eldwork, recording songs all over Eastern

Europe. Instead, this is inspired by the music of the

Roma – or Gypsies – whose music had been popular

throughout the Austro-Hungarian Empire since the

18th century. Bartók and his colleagues would argue that

this cigányzene (Gypsy music) is quite distinct from the

Magyar folk songs they studied. “Authentically” Hungarian

or not (and what else would music played in Hungary be

except Hungarian?), the Roma folk forms that crept into

classical music (including works by Mozart, Beethoven,

Berlioz, Bizet and especially Liszt) became instrumental

in the resurgence of national pride that eventually led

to Hungary’s independence. In any case, Roma music

is gloriously eclectic and polyglot – just like Europe: in

addition to its Hungarian base, it contains elements of

Slavic and even Italian music.

For his “Hungarian” dances, Brahms uses the archetypal

Roma dance, the csárdás, which has a two-part structure

that supposedly symbolises the contrasting moods of

the Hungarian soul – the melancholy or stately lassú

and fast, wildly joyous friss. Roma music was brought to

Brahms’s ears when he was a young man in Hamburg and

Johannes BRAHMS(born Hamburg, 1833 — died Vienna, 1897)

One of the great Romantics, Brahms wrote masterpieces in every form of composition except opera. He was a dedicated student of earlier music, but was a true innovator as well as a nostalgist, and he proved highly influential well into the 20th century.


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a fl ood of Hungarian refugees passed through the city en

route to America to escape a crackdown by the Austrian

and Russian authorities in the late 1840s. Brahms would

amuse friends with stormy gypsy-style piano pieces and

eventually got around to writing them down for piano

duet, premiering 10 pieces with Clara Schumann in 1868.

Th ey were well-received and Brahms expanded the set

over the next 12 years. Th ere’s some dispute over how

many of the 21 dances are originally by Brahms and how

many he “borrowed” from the virtuoso Gypsy violinist Ede

Reményi. Whatever the case may be, Brahms expanded the

musical and emotional scope of these vivid sketches of the

Hungarian spirit far beyond their origins.

And this arrangement? It is in fact quite authentic – to

use that dangerous word again – to play these works with

clarinet and strings: the Roma bands that Brahms would

have known were string ensembles and the clarinet’s

timbre contains a distant echo of the peasant pipes of

Hungary that started it all.

Further listening

For the most full-blown orchestration of the Dances, try the Wiener Philharmoniker under Claudio Abbado (Deutsche Grammophon 4106152). They are rarely heard in their original version (for piano four-hands), but an excellent recording is that by Katia and Marielle Labeque on the box-set Piano Fantasy (Philips 122102).


COPLAND

Clarinet Concerto

(Composed 1947–1948, premiered 1950)

It’s one of music’s enduring ironies that a left-leaning,

gay, Jewish, modernist from Brooklyn invented the big-

sky prairie sound that has become indelibly associated

with America. Th ose resonant open fi fths and octaves,

the transparent orchestration, noble brass chorales

and the heartfelt simplicity were a response to Franklin

Roosevelt’s New Deal, a series of social and economic

reforms designed to pull the US out of the Great

Depression in the mid-1930s. Th is was a good time for

artists, especially those willing to bend their skills towards

the celebration of labour and the common man, and

Copland pragmatically decided that he needed to stop

writing music that was “diffi cult to perform and diffi cult

for an audience to comprehend”. Th at he managed to do

this and compose works that resonate powerfully today

is a testament to his daring and skill. It took courage

to abandon the intellectual trappings of contemporary

music, but Copland’s boldly simple style typifi ed by

Appalachian Spring are every bit as great as more

complex, modernist pieces of the time.

Perhaps none of this would have been possible without

his teacher, Nadia Boulanger (1887-1979). Th e brilliant

“Mademoiselle’s” pupils included almost every American

composer of note including several who are still active

(such as Philip Glass and Elliott Carter), who fl ocked to

Paris to study with her. Boulanger’s classes stressed craft,

technique and analysis of works from the middle ages

to the present. More importantly, she drew out of her

pupils their fundamental musical “voice” and encouraged

them to listen to it, no matter what. Needless to say, that

profound grounding in counterpoint and harmony is

present in Copland’s simplest pieces: when everything is

so pared back all the musical gears must mesh perfectly.

Boulanger’s particular concern at the time she taught

Copland was the development of la grande ligne – the

long line – melody with a vocal quality. Th is principle was

surely present when he composed his Clarinet Concerto

in 1948 for the great jazz/classical clarinettist Benny

Goodman, the “King of Swing”. It is one of Copland’s most

urbane and “French” works.

Th e Clarinet Concerto opens with a Boulangerian long

line in the clarinet over a gently waltzing accompaniment

that recalls the gymnopedies of the Dadaist composer Erik

Aaron COPLAND(born Brooklyn, New York, 1900 — died Tarrytown, New York, 1990)

Copland almost singlehandedly created the school of American composition, his infl uential, populist works from the 1930s and 1940s (such as Appalachian Spring and Fanfare for the Common Man) instantly providing a country with its eloquent and beautiful musical vocabulary.


Satie (one commentator has described this moment as

“Satie arrives in Brooklyn”, but it’s actually more like an

American arriving in Paris). Th e orchestration also has

the monochromatic purity of some neoclassical works

from the 20s and 30s: just strings, with harp and piano as

a kind of baroque “continuo”. Th e absence of winds and

percussion also allows the clarinet to project more vividly.

In his usual plainspoken manner, Copland described his

Clarinet Concerto like this:

“Th e Clarinet Concerto is cast in a two-movement form,

played without pause, and connected by a cadenza

for the solo instrument. Th e fi rst movement is simple

in structure, based upon the usual A-B-A song form.

Th e general character of this movement is lyric and

expressive. Th e cadenza that follows provides the soloist

with considerable opportunity to demonstrate technical

prowess, at the same time introducing fragments of the

melodic material to be heard in the second movement.

Some of this material represents an unconscious fusion

of elements obviously related to North and South

American popular music. (For example, a phrase from

a currently popular Brazilian tune, which I heard in

Rio, became embedded in the secondary material in F

major.) Th e overall form of the fi nal movement is that of

a free rondo, with several side issues developed at some

length. Th e work ends with a fairly elaborate coda in C

major.”

Th is is an accurate, if prosaic, description of one the most

appealing concertos in the repertoire, and one which is

a kind of summa of Copland’s musical infl uences from

France to Brazil and, of course, jazz. In addition to the

Brazilian tune, there are pizzicato walking bass lines,

syncopations and complex metre changes and, to fi nish,

a jazzy clarinet smear straight out of Gershwin. We seem

to cover a lot of musical and geographic territory in a very

short space and, Tardis-like, the piece seems bigger than its

exterior dimensions.

Further listening and reading

Immediately after this tour, Martin Fröst and the ACO will be recording the Copland Concerto for BIS Records, for release in 2012. You can hear Benny Goodman’s recording of the concerto on The Copland Collection (1936–1948) box-set (Sony SM3K 46559). Of the many excellent collections of Copland’s enlightening essays about music, his What to Listen for in Music has just been reissued with an introduction by Leonard Slatkin (Penguin, 2011).


RAVEL

String Quartet in F major

(Composed 1902-1903)

Arranged for string orchestra by Richard Tognetti

I Allegro moderato: très doux

II Assez vif: très rythmé

III Très lent

IV Vif et agité

Ravel was never an especially good student, at least, not

by the exacting and hidebound standards of the Paris

Conservatoire, and the institution did nothing to disguise

its displeasure. In 1899, the Société Nationale presented

the premiere of Ravel’s Shéhérazade “fairytale overture”, a

mildly oriental orchestral work with touches of Rimsky-

Korsakov and Debussy. One critic delivered the cruel

assessment that the “mediocrely gifted Ravel will perhaps

become something if not someone in about 10 years, if he

works hard”.

Th e Conservatoire never recovered from the shock of the

aff ront of Ravel’s apparent attitude, and although from

1900 Ravel tried numerous times to win the coveted

Prix de Rome, he was always denied the prize by the

conservative “gentlemen of the Institute”. After a while,

he didn’t even try very hard at the academic counterpoint

exercises and banal cantata setting that contestants had

to submit – committing atrocities like parallel octaves or

rushing his orchestration. In 1900 he was also expelled

from Gabriel Fauré’s composition class, but was permitted

to audit it (Fauré was fond of Ravel, whom he described as

hardworking and sincere).

Expulsion hardly seemed to stunt Ravel’s development as

a composer or pianist: in 1901, he spoiled his academic

chances once again when his post-Lisztian piano solo,

Jeux d’eaux (Fountains) was published and denounced

as “total cacophony” by Camille Saint-Saëns. Ravel again

fl unked the Prix. Ravel’s string quartet of 1902-03 was the

last straw however. In January 1903, Ravel submitted the

fi rst movement for the composition prize. It was judged

laborious and lacking in “simplicity”. Ravel was expelled

completely from the Conservatoire in accordance with the

rules of the school. And while the music of the winners of

the Prix de Rome is generally unplayed these days, Ravel’s

String Quartet has established itself in the repertoire. It is

dedicated to Gabriel Fauré.

Maurice RAVEL(born Ciboure, France, 1875 — died Paris, 1937)

One of the leading proponents of musical Impressionism, Ravel is especially famed for his works for piano and his chamber music. Most often compared to Debussy, the pair are the best-known French composers of the 20th century, although Ravel’s sheer technical ability was perhaps superior to Debussy’s.

ACO Performance History

Ravel’s String Quartet in this arrangement by Richard Tognetti was included in the 2003 Subscription season for 8 performances.


It’s traditional to point out that Debussy’s String Quartet

in G minor (1893) was very much the model for Ravel’s

(true), but its ancestors also include Cesar Franck’s

Quartet in D Major (1889). Franck’s, Debussy’s and Ravel’s

quartets are cast in four movements, Fast – Faster – Slow

– Fast, and all use Franck’s technique of sharing thematic

material between movements. What Franck, Debussy

and Ravel did was to write quartets that seem to ignore

the complications and profundities of Beethoven’s late

quartets, but instead look back to the Classical balance and

restraint of Haydn, Mozart and even Brahms. Although

it was no use in winning over judges, Ravel’s rigorous

training in counterpoint is profoundly evident in the

Quartet, which might be surprising in music by a so-called

“impressionist”. Claude Debussy too had “been through

the mill” of Conservatoire counterpoint classes, and if he

chose not to write in a fugal style it was because he knew it

and could be free of it.

In the fi rst movement, marked “very gently”, Ravel lays

out a radiant theme in the fi rst violin which arcs up and

up supported by a rising scale in the other instruments.

Th e whole movement is pervaded with ascending and

descending scale motifs, sometimes they sound serene

and relaxed, at other times they scurry up and down in

agitation. Th e movement unfolds in classic sonata form

(see Eine kleine Nachtmusik), with subtle manipulation of

thematic material – transformations that will also occur

on the larger scale of the whole quartet because the main

theme will return in the third and fi nal movements with

very diff erent characters.

Th e scherzo, “rather fast – very rhythmic”, is, like

Debussy’s, a dazzling exercise in pizzicato writing with

a distinctly antique quality. Ravel uses an archaic kind

of scale called a mode, in this case “Aeolian”: built on

the white notes of the piano starting on A, it’s a near

neighbour of A minor. Th e dry sonority of the pizzicati

could be in imitation of a harpsichord. Ravel had a life-

long interest in Baroque music and wrote several works

which explicitly evoke this period wit hout ever resorting

to pastiche. Th e brisk modal plucked material and ecstatic

fi rst violin song are interrupted by a mournful episode full

of delicate impressionistic textures and recollections of

the pizzicato material before accelerating into the home

straight.

Th e third movement, “very slow”, off ers the most intimate

and authentically Ravellian moments of the whole work,

a dreamlike collage of themes from the fi rst movement

Further reading

The recent fi rst volume of Intimate Voices: the Twentieth-Century String Quartet (edited by Evan Jones) includes an important comparative essay on the string quartets of Debussy and Ravel by Marianne Wheeldon (U of Rochester Press, 2009). The Cambridge Companion to Ravel, edited by Deborah Mawer, is an excellent source of further investigation into the life and work of this great composer (Cambridge UP, 2000).


in a nocturnal atmosphere. Where the other movements’

forms are strongly defi ned, this movement is rhapsodic,

glued together by memory, its mood changeable but

predominantly mournful.

Th e “fast and agitated” fi nale is set mostly in an irregular

5-beats-in-a-bar metre, the powerful moto perpetuo

scrubbing of the initial theme returns throughout the

movement to punctuate contrasting material derived, again,

from the fi rst movement, bringing the work full circle.

Often, Ravel’s quartet writing verges on the orchestral with

its brilliant handling of timbre and texture. Transcribing it

for string orchestra allows us to enjoy Ravel’s masterpiece

on a broader canvas. While it’s true that Debussy said to

Ravel, “In the name of the gods of music, and in mine, do

not touch a single note of what you have written in your

quartet”, perhaps a little tinkering is not completely out of

the question?

PROGRAM NOTES © 2011 ROBERT WESLEY MURRAY


MARTIN FRÖSTCLARINET

Martin Fröst is internationally recognized as one of the most

exciting wind players performing today. Concert highlights

in the 2010/2011 season include debuts with the Minnesota

Orchestra and Los Angeles Philharmonic with Osmo Vänskä

(performing Kalevi Aho’s Concerto, which was commissioned

for him by the Borletti-Buitoni Trust), Cincinnati Symphony

Orchestra with Paavo Järvi, NHK Symphony Orchestra

with Sir Neville Marriner, and both the Netherlands Radio

Philharmonic Orchestra and Radio Chamber Orchestra at

the Amsterdam Concertgebouw. He returns to the Göteborg

Symfoniker with Gustavo Dudamel, Oslo Philharmonic

Orchestra with Gianandrea Noseda, Wiener Symphoniker

with Kirill Petrenko at the 2011 Bregenzer Festspiele, and

the Academy of Saint Martin in the Fields. He directs

projects with the Oslo Philharmonic and Swedish Chamber

orchestras, Zürcher Kammerorchester and Die Deutsche

Kammerphilharmonie Bremen.

Martin Fröst gave fi ve concerts as part of a residency at

the Kölner Philharmonie during the 2010/11 season. Th e

residency included a performance of Double Points with

violinist Janine Jansen, choreographed by Emio Greco

and Pieter C. Scholten, which premiered the Amsterdam

Concertgebouw. He has also been artist in residence with

the Hamburger Symphoniker, Göteborg Symfoniker, Iceland

Symphony Orchestra and the Konzerthaus Dortmund.

Highlights during the 2009/10 season included performances

with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and Frans

Brüggen and the Wiener Symphoniker at the Vienna

Konzerthaus, as well as a return to the Salzburg and Verbier

Festivals. He performed the world premiere of Victoria

Borisova-Ollas’ Golden Dances of Pharaohs with the Royal

Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and Sakari Oramo,

and was the only classical instrumentalist in a televised

gala concert from Stockholm Concert Hall celebrating the

marriage of Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden and Prince

Daniel Westling.

Martin Fröst is the Artistic Director of the Vinterfest in Mora,

Sweden and Artistic Director of the International Chamber

Music Festival in Stavanger, Norway. He records exclusively

for BIS.

www.martinfrost.se

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RICHARD TOGNETTI AOARTISTIC DIRECTOR AND LEADERAUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA

Australian violinist, conductor and composer, Richard Tognetti

has established an international reputation for his compelling

performances and artistic individualism. He studied at the

Sydney Conservatorium with Alice Waten, in his home town of

Wollongong with William Primrose, and at the Berne Conservatory

(Switzerland) with Igor Ozim, where he was awarded the

Tschumi Prize as the top graduate soloist in 1989. Later that year

he was appointed Leader of the Australian Chamber Orchestra

(ACO) and subsequently became Artistic Director. He is also

Artistic Director of the Maribor Festival in Slovenia.

Tognetti performs on period, modern and electric instruments.

His numerous arrangements, compositions and transcriptions

have expanded the chamber orchestra repertoire and been

performed throughout the world.

As director or soloist, Tognetti has appeared with the Handel &

Haydn Society (Boston), Hong Kong Philharmonic, Camerata

Salzburg, Tapiola Sinfonietta, Irish Chamber Orchestra,

Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, Nordic Chamber

Orchestra, YouTube Symphony Orchestra and the Australian

symphony orchestras. He conducted Mozart’s Mitridate for

the Sydney Festival and gave the Australian premiere of Ligeti’s

Violin Concerto with the Sydney Symphony.

Tognetti has collaborated with colleagues from across various art

forms and artistic styles, including Joseph Tawadros, Dawn Upshaw,

James Crabb, Emmanuel Pahud, Jack Th ompson, Katie Noonan, Neil

Finn,Tim Freedman, Paul Capsis, Bill Henson and Michael Leunig.

In 2003, Tognetti was co-composer of the score for Peter Weir’s

Master and Commander: Th e Far Side of the World; violin tutor

for its star, Russell Crowe; and can also be heard performing on

the award-winning soundtrack. In 2005, he co-composed the

soundtrack to Tom Carroll’s surf fi lm Horrorscopes and, in 2008,

co-created Th e Red Tree, inspired by illustrator Shaun Tan’s book.

He co-created and starred in the 2008 documentary fi lm Musica

Surfi ca, which has won best fi lm awards at surf fi lm festivals in

the USA, Brazil, France and South Africa.

As well as directing numerous recordings by the ACO, Tognetti

has recorded Bach’s solo violin repertoire for ABC Classics,

winning three consecutive ARIA awards, and the Dvořák and

Mozart Violin Concertos for BIS.

A passionate advocate for music education, Tognetti established

the ACO’s Education and Emerging Artists programs in 2005.

Richard Tognetti was appointed an Offi cer of the Order of

Australia in 2010. He holds honorary doctorates from three

Australian universities and was made a National Living Treasure

in 1999. He performs on a 1743 Guarneri del Gesù violin, lent

to him by an anonymous Australian private benefactor.

‘Richard Tognetti is one of the most characterful, incisive and impassioned violinists to be heard today.’THE DAILY TELEGRAPH (UK), 2006

Select DiscographyAs soloist:

BACH Sonatas for Violin and KeyboardABC Classics 476 59422008 ARIA Award Winner

BACH Violin ConcertosABC Classics 476 56912007 ARIA Award Winner

BACH Solo Violin Sonatas and PartitasABC Classics 476 80512006 ARIA Award Winner

(All three releases available as a 5CD Box set: ABC Classics 476 6168)

Musica Surfi ca (DVD)Best Feature, New York Surf Film Festival

As director:

VIVALDI Flute Concertos, Op.10Emmanuel Pahud, FluteEMI Classics 0946 3 47212 2 6Grammy Nominee

PIAZZOLLA Song of the AngelChandos CHAN 10163

All available from aco.com.au/shop.

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‘You’d have to scour the universe hard to fi nd another band like the ACO.’ THE TIMES, UK

‘The energy and vibe of a rock band with the ability of a crack classical chamber group.’WASHINGTON POST

To be kept up to date with ACO tours and recordings, register for the free e-newsletter at aco.com.au.

Select Discography

Bach Violin ConcertosABC 476 5691

Vivaldi Flute Concertoswith Emmanuel PahudEMI 3 47212 2

Bach Keyboard Concertoswith Angela HewittHyperion SACDA 67307/08

Tango Jamwith James CrabbMulberry Hill MHR C001

Song of the AngelMusic of Astor Piazzollawith James CrabbChandos CHAN 10163

Sculthorpe: works for string orchestra including Irkanda I, Djilile and Cello DreamingChandos CHAN 10063

Giuliani Guitar Concertowith John WilliamsSony SK 63385

These and more ACO recordings are available from our online shop: aco.com.au/shop or by calling 1800 444 444.

AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRARICHARD TOGNETTI AO ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

Australia’s national orchestra is a product of its country’s

vibrant, adventurous and enquiring spirit. In performances

around Australia, around the world and on many recordings,

the ACO moves hearts and stimulates minds with repertoire

spanning six centuries and a vitality and energy unmatched by

other ensembles.

Th e ACO was founded in 1975. Every year, this ensemble

presents performances of the highest standard to audiences

around the world, including 10,000 subscribers across Australia.

Th e ACO’s unique artistic style encompasses not only the

masterworks of the classical repertoire, but innovative cross-

artform projects and a vigorous commissioning program.

Under Richard Tognetti’s inspiring leadership, the ACO has

performed as a fl exible and versatile ‘ensemble of soloists’, on

modern and period instruments, as a small chamber group, a

small symphony orchestra, and as an electro-acoustic collective.

In a nod to past traditions, only the cellists are seated – the

resulting sense of energy and individuality is one of the most

commented-upon elements of an ACO concert experience.

Several of the ACO’s principal musicians perform with

spectacularly fi ne instruments. Tognetti performs on a priceless

1743 Guarneri del Gesù, on loan to him from an anonymous

Australian benefactor. Principal Cello Timo-Veikko Valve plays

on a 1729 Giuseppe Guarneri fi lius Andreæ cello, also on loan

from an anonymous benefactor, and Assistant Leader Satu

Vänskä plays a 1759 J.B. Guadagnini violin on loan from the

Commonwealth Bank Group.

Forty international tours have drawn outstanding reviews at

many of the world’s most prestigious concert halls, including

Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, London’s Wigmore Hall, New

York’s Carnegie Hall and Vienna’s Musikverein. Th is year, the

ACO tours to the USA, Japan and Europe.

Th e ACO has made acclaimed recordings for labels including

ABC Classics, Sony, Channel Classics, Hyperion, EMI,

Chandos and Orfeo and currently has a recording contract

with BIS. A full list of available recordings can be found at

aco.com.au/shop. Highlights include the three-time ARIA

Award-winning Bach recordings and Vivaldi Concertos with

Emmanuel Pahud. Th e ACO appears in the television series

Classical Destinations II and the award-winning fi lm Musica

Surfi ca, both available on DVD and CD.

In 2005, the ACO inaugurated an ambitious national education

program, which includes outreach activities and mentoring of

outstanding young musicians, including the formation of ACO2,

an elite training orchestra which tours regional centres.


* Helena Rathbone plays a 1759 J.B. Guadagnini violin on loan from the Commonwealth Bank Group.

SATU VÄNSKÄAssistant LeaderViolinChair sponsored by Robert &

Kay Bryan

MADELEINE BOUDViolinChair sponsored by Terry

Campbell AO & Christine Campbell

RICHARD TOGNETTI AOArtistic Director and Lead ViolinChair sponsored by Michael Ball AM

& Daria Ball, Joan Clemenger, Wendy

Edwards, and Prudence MacLeod

HELENA RATHBONE*Principal 2nd ViolinChair sponsored by Hunter Hall

Investment Management Limited

MELISSA BARNARDCelloChair sponsored by Th e Bruce &

Joy Reid Foundation

JULIAN THOMPSONCello Chair sponsored by the Clayton

Family

TIMOVEIKKO VALVEPrincipal CelloChair Ssonsored by Mr Peter

Weiss AM

STEPHEN KINGViolaChair sponsored by Philip

Bacon AM

AIKO GOTOViolinChair sponsored by Andrew &

Hiroko Gwinnett

MARK INGWERSENViolinChair sponsored by Runge

REBECCA CHANViolin

ALICE EVANSViolinChair sponsored by Jan Bowen,

Th e Davies and Th e Sandgropers

ILYA ISAKOVICHViolinChair sponsored by Melbourne

Community Foundation – Connie

& Craig Kimberley Fund

NICOLE DIVALLViolaChair sponsored by Ian & Nina

Lansdown

CHRISTOPHER MOOREPrincipal ViolaChair sponsored by Tony

Shepherd

VERONIQUE SERRETViolin

Photos: Tanja Ahola, Helen WhiteMUSICIANS


LUCY REEVESHarp

BENJAMIN MARTINPiano

Players dressed by

AKIRA ISOGAWA

MAXIME BIBEAUPrincipal BassChair sponsored by John Taberner

& Grant Lang

BEHIND THE SCENES

EXECUTIVE OFFICE

Timothy Calnin

General Manager

Jessica Block

Deputy General Manager

and Development Manager

Michelle Kerr

Executive Assistant to

Mr Calnin and

Mr Tognetti AO

ARTISTIC &

OPERATIONS

Richard Tognetti AO

Artistic Director

Michael Stevens

Head of Artistic Planning

& Operations

Gabriel van Aalst

Orchestra Manager

Erin McNamara

Tour Manager

Jennifer Collins

Librarian

EDUCATION

Vicki Stanley

Education and Emerging

Artists Manager

Sarah Conolan

Education Assistant

FINANCE

Steve Davidson

Chief Financial Offi cer

Shyleja Paul

Assistant Accountant

DEVELOPMENT

Kate Bilson

Events Manager

Tom Carrig

Senior Development

Executive

Lillian Armitage

Philanthropy Manager

Kylie Anania

Patrons Manager

Liz D’Olier

Development

Coordinator

MARKETING

Georgia Rivers

Marketing Manager

Rosie Rothery

Marketing Executive

Chris Griffi th

Box Offi ce Manager

Mary Stielow

National Publicist

Dean Watson

Customer Relations

Manager

Lachlan Wright

Offi ce Administrator &

Marketing Assistant

INFORMATION

SYSTEMS

Ken McSwain

Systems & Technology

Manager

Emmanuel Espinas

Network Infrastructure

Engineer

ARCHIVES

John Harper

Archivist

AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA ABN 45 001 335 182

Australian Chamber

Orchestra Pty Ltd is a

not for profi t company

registered in NSW.

In Person: Opera Quays,

2 East Circular Quay,

Sydney NSW 2000

By Mail: PO Box R21,

Royal Exchange NSW 1225

Telephone: (02) 8274 3800

Facsimile: (02) 8274 3801

Box Offi ce: 1800 444 444

Email: [email protected]

Website: aco.com.au

BOARD

Guido Belgiorno-Nettis AM (Chairman)

Angus James (Deputy Chairman)

Bill Best

Liz Cacciottolo

Chris Froggatt

Janet Holmes à Court AC

Brendan Hopkins

Tony Shepherd

Andrew Stevens

John Taberner

Peter Yates


ACO PARTNERS

Th e ACO receives around 45% of its income from the box offi ce, 35% from the business

community and private donors and less than 20% from government sources. Th e private

sector plays a key role in the continued growth and artistic development of the Orchestra.

We are proud of the relationships we have developed with each of our partners and would like

to acknowledge their generous support.

CONCERT AND SERIES PARTNERS

PREFERRED TRAVEL PARTNER

FOUNDING PARTNER ACO2 PRINCIPAL PARTNER

PERTH SERIES PARTNER

QLD/NSW REGIONAL TOUR PARTNER

OFFICIAL PARTNERS

GOVERNMENT SUPPORT ACCOMMODATION AND EVENT SUPPORT

ACO is supported by the NSW Government through

Arts NSW

BAR CUPOLA SWEENEY RESEARCH

NATIONAL TOUR PARTNERS


STACCATO: ACO NEWS STACCATO: ACO NEWS

EDUCATION NEWS

ACO2 reportACO2 has just returned from their fi rst 2011

tour, which travelled through 7 regional centres

in Victoria and South Australia. Th e Orchestra

toured to Warrnambool (VIC), Mt. Gambier

(SA), Horsham (VIC), Castlemaine (VIC),

Mildura (VIC), Renmark (SA), Noarlunga

(SA) and fi nished at the Australian National

Academy of Music in Melbourne. Th is last

performance was recorded by ABC Classic

FM. Th e Orchestra received a standing

ovation at the sell-out performance in

Castlemaine and received glowing audience

feedback: “A program full of diverse sounds,

fl avours and emotions – excellent discipline

& ensemble playing – what sumptuous string

tone” – R. Strickland (Mt. Gambier). “Words

cannot explain how wonderful it was… I’m

looking forward to ACO2 coming back” –

C. Linke (Horsham).

Th e education events held during the tour

provided local students with an opportunity

to play alongside ACO2 musicians in string

workshops in Horsham and Mildura, ask

questions and hear the whole Orchestra at a

schools concert in Mt Gambier.

Parramatta String PlayersFollowing their triumph at the Sydney Festival,

the Parramatta String Players were back in

rehearsal last month, in a workshop with ACO

musicians. Th is group is expanding to become the

new Parramatta Youth Orchestra and wind, brass

and percussion will be added in 2012 and 2013.

Schools EventsDuring May, Combined Schools Workshops will

be held in Melbourne, Perth and Sydney; members

of the Orchestra will again visit Matraville Soldiers

Settlement School; and the Picton Strings will

have their second workshop accompanied by a

performance by ACO musicians.

ABOVE: Emerging Artist Paul Zabrowarny works with students in Mildura.

BELOW: Lara St. John leads ACO2 at the Castlemaine State Festival.


STACCATO: ACO NEWS

2011 OPENING NIGHT PARTIES

ABOVE: Jeff Simpson, Beau Neilson, Todd Buncombe and Paris Neilson

LEFT: Satu Vänskä and Judy Anne Edwards

BELOW: Jim Burke, Lynne Kilgour, Teddy Tahu Rhodes, Sharon Wybrow and partner

During the ACO’s fi rst National Tour of 2011,

Richard Tognetti and the ACO hosted Opening

Night Parties at concert venues across Australia.

Special guests, ACO sponsors and patrons,

media personalities and Orchestra members

came together to launch the ACO’s 2011

National Concert Season, and celebrate a stellar

start to the year.

From 27 November to 8 December this year the

ACO tour Europe, performing in prestigious

venues such as Symphony Hall Birmingham,

London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, Vienna’s

Musikverein and Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw.

Len Amadio AO hosts a fully escorted two week

tour of Europe including these ACO performances.

A brochure with full tour details is now available

from Alumni Travel.

P: 1300 799 887 E: [email protected]

JOIN THE ACO ON THEIR EUROPEAN TOUR

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